Saturday Clearing the Links: Time, Mistresses, Insurance, and Disney

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

userpic=observationsIt’s Saturday and we’re about to go out for dim sum. I guess that means I should clear out the links that didn’t really form into coherent themes of three or more articles:

P.S.: I’m beginning to think about a blog post about loss of trust in the government — that is, how we’ve gone from a society that trusted in the good of the government (in the WWII and post-war years) to a society that no longer trusts the government. How did happen, and what were the turning points. If you have something you want me to think about as the subject firms up in my head, please drop me a note.

Music: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968 Soundtrack) (Orchestra): “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Main Title) (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang & The Roses of Success)”

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Food News of the Week

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

userpic=gluten-freeTo close out the week, here’s a late lunch post to really chew on — some food news that caught my eye:

  • Good News for Celiac Cops. Going gluten free has been a diet fad of late, which is a mixed blessing to those that really need to be gluten free (such as my wife). The thing most people don’t realize is that gluten free is not necessarily healthier for you (just like “kosher” doesn’t mean healthier). Want a good example of this? Dunkin’ Donuts has announced they are going to have gluten-free donuts and muffins. Guess I’m glad the nearest DD is either on the Marine Corps base or in Las Vegas.
  • A Military Scandal. We’ve been reading more and more about scandals involving the government. The IRS. The NSA. The Department of State. There are also problems with people impersonating government officers and pretending they have government medals. Well, one of those impersonators has been found out:  The US Navy has absolutely no record of a Captain Crunch ever serving. In fact, he isn’t even wearing a proper Naval Captain’s uniform, and may be guilty of faking a US service uniform. Next thing we’ll discover is that Count Chocula is not royalty!
  • Canned. Canned Soda. Some people see it as a demon, some people see it as a necessity, and others, well, don’t see it at all. As for me, I’m an iced tea drinker who used to drink soda. But as for soda’s place in society… that’s different. Here are a few articles about soda. First, some history: The evolution of the soft drink can. This traces the can from the earliest forms to the aluminum cans of today. Don’t want a can? How about a Coke bottle made of ice, or a ice-vending-machine of 7-up. Lastly, Coke used to sing about bringing peace to the world. Coke is putting that into action, attempting to use vending machines to bring peace between India and Pakistan (h/t to FiddlingFrog for the link).

Music: Firehouse Five Plus Two (Firehouse Five Plus Two): “Pagan Love Song”

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I Blame The Agency

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy2 Comments

userpic=keyboardThis week, everyone’s been upset with the NSA because of all the recent disclosures. So I thought I would share with you a story of something good that came from the NSA (well, at least most people think it is good). What prompted this story was a wonderful infographic on the history of programming languages. This great infographic shows the most popular languages, groups them by era (although it completely omits the 1960s and such wonderful languages as Algol 68 and my fave, PL/I). Below is the Infographic… and the story. [Credit: Infographic by Veracode Application Security]

Infographic by Veracode Application SecurityIf you look to the year 1987, you’ll see a youngish fellow in a Hawaiian shirt. That fellow is Larry Wall, and the language we’re talking about is the #10 language, perl. Yes, you have NSA to blame to perl.

Back in the mid-1980s, I was working for a little company in Santa Monica called System Development Corporation. Coworkers of mine were Larry, his brother-in-law Mark, and his other brother-in-law Jon. We were all working on this little program called BLACKER. The job of BLACKER was to build was is now called a VPN — basically, developing a way to layer one network on top of another (at different classifications). We were attempting to do this at a very high level of assurance — specifically, at the A1 level of the Trusted Computer Security Evaluation Criteria (TCSEC). Better known as the Orange Book, the TCSEC was developed by the NSA (the part that cares about computer security) to permit product evaluations, to encourage the introduction of security features, and to encourage the production of systems with greater confidence in those features. If you’ve heard of the Common Criteria, that’s a successor criteria to the TCSEC, and you’ll find aspects of the TCSEC in current security control catalogs such as NIST SP 800-53.

In an A1 system, there were many features and assurances required, such as Mandatory Access Control, Audit, Identification and Authentication, and Object Reuse. Assurance came from a very detailed design, formal methods, and control over that design from a technique called Configuration Management. I was one of the folks designing the operating system for one of the BLACKER components; Larry was our systems guy. Larry, Mark, and I were sharing an office; we were also carpooling together.

Larry was tasked with developing a Configuration Management system to support meeting A1. If you know Larry, you know he believes that the best programmers are lazy, impatient, and have excessive hubris. The CM system had to be able to support development at two locations (Santa Monica and Paoli), and produce CM reports. It had to allow people to review changes, and managers to approve them.

So what did Larry do? First, he decided to modify USENET News to handle the CM submissions. Having written rn, he worked up a version that supported synchronization of articles across the coasts and appending to an article. Now CM submissions could be posted to a local newsgroup, managers could review and approve the submissions. But how to produce reports? Awk (at the time) was not up to the task, as it couldn’t march through directories. The result: perl (originally to be named Pearl, after Larry’s wife Gloria, who is a pearl, but renamed perl and bacronymed to “Pathetically Eclectic Rubbish Lister”). Perl was developed to march through the CM directories and produce CM reports.

I was the first actual user of perl. I combined the use of perl and a menuing system I had worked on (Q-Menu) to drive our data dictionary. People could edit the nroff source of the data dictionary, and this would then be automatically extracted to form the include files used by the Pascal system that development was using. Single point documentation.

This, by the way, is why I’m perl’s paternal godparent, and Mark is perl’s maternal uncle. It is also why I wrote the history chapter in the original Camel book (and came up with the true footnote to history).

So, when people rag on the NSA, remember there are a bunch of people there who are working hard to ensure more secure computer systems for everyone, and that over 30 years ago, this work gave the world perl.

 

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Corporate News That Caught The Eye

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

userpic=corporateToday’s (not quite) lunchtime post is a collection of news articles about various corporations that have caught my eye:

P.S.: Debate what you want about global warming and its cause, but weather is getting weird when it reaches 81°F in Anchorage, and 91°F near Mt. McKinley in Alaska!

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Revitalizing Westwood

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy1 Comment

userpic=ucla-csunOne of the lead articles at the LA Times today is on revitalizing Westwood, and there’s a companion article at Curbed LA. Both are bemoaning how Westwood has changed, and both suggest ways out of the problem. The Times article notes how Westwood is looking to Downtown for its revitalization model, and looking to bring it more arts (think galleries), performance spaces, and trendy foods. They believe this will restore Westwood to its former glory. I think both are wrong.

Let’s explore what Westwood was, and how to bring it back.

In its heyday — the 1960s through early 1980s  — Westwood was primarily a local community. It had mostly non-chain stores, and catered to the people living in West LA, H0lmby Hills, and Bel Air. It also catered heavily to the student community at UCLA. It had quaint restaurants, and lots of movie theatres that tended to host premieres (because Hollywood had gotten sketchy).

In the mid 1980s, Westwood began to die. Most attribute the death to a gang shooting in 1988 and an incident where some clown drove on the sidewalk (we were actually in Westwood that evening with clients when it happened). However, that’s not what killed Westwood. What killed Westwood was rising rents, “mallification” (that is, takeover by the chain stores with “trendy” clothes), and corporate consolidations that removed classic entities (such as bookstores). Further, the single screen theatres that Westwood had were no longer profitable… so they started closing. In short, what killed Westwood was that it became a mall — just like any other mall — and lost its audience for newer malls.

Westwood was also hurt by poor accessibility, especially with the continuous construction on the 405. Downtown is now accessible via MetroRail, but Westwood won’t have that for at least another decade or two. You have to drive to Westwood, and that’s increasingly difficult. What this means is that, to succeed, Westwood must focus on the locals, not drawing from elsewhere.

So what does Westwood really need to do to come back? First, it doesn’t need art galleries and super trendy joints. These do not attract students and the middle class that used to shop in Westwood all the time. Put the art galleries in Beverly Hills. Here’s what I think Westwood needs:

  • More Live Theatre. Although the single-screen movie theatre is out of vogue, live theatre is inherently single-screen. Westwood should work on expanding its live theatre presence, especially with relationships with the excellent theatre program at UCLA. Get some small storefront theatres (there are at least two major companies in LA (Celebration is one) that are looking for new spaces). Small theatres are also much more affordable for students (especially when compared with the only theatre currently in Westwood, the Geffen).
  • More Club Space. I don’t necessarily meet nightclub space, although having a local space that would appear to the UCLA student crowd would be great. I was thinking more along the lines of comedy and music clubs, that could attract stand up and local acts.
  • Be a Student Town. This needs to be the mantra regarding both food and shopping. Bring in quirky restaurants and shops, but keep them affordable for students (and if you can, accept UCLA meal plan points). I grew up in the days when Westwood had wonderful places such as Yesterdays, Old World, Annas, Bratskeller, and others. We need to get this style of place back.
  • Aim for the Eclectic. What makes a college town special is its eclectic nature. You never know what you will find, and it is most certainly not a mall. There needs to be enough going on in Westwood to draw the students out of the dorms, and to draw the neighbors into the shops.

Basically, Westwood will succeed again if you can attract the students back, and they start bringing their friends. That’s what has always made Westwood special.

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The Battle Continues

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

userpic=im-with-stupidThis morning, while reading the Romenesko blog, a fascinating article was cited: it asked the question of why women’s magazines are never placed in the “serious journalism” category. After all, general interest publications do serious journalism. Even GQ and Playboy are considered to do serious journalism.  But what about Vogue or other magazines aimed towards women? Why is there a general assumption they can’t do serious work. Once I read this article, other things on a similar theme just kept popping up.

For example, CNN had an article about the side effect of sexual abuse in the military — it is discouraging women for applying. In the case CNN cited, a mom actively discouraged her daughter from following her into the Army because she had been gang-raped when she was in the service. In other words, not only the officers and service members who are doing this abusing their authority and bringing shame to the military, they are also bullying qualified women — who might be great for the service — from applying. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

Bullying is everywhere, when you look for it. US News has an article about the side effect of sibling bullying. It can be a source of lifelong depression and anxiety for the bullied sibling (just look at Tommy Smothers). Seriously, it raises into question whether sibling battles toughen a child…. or create problems later.

Continuing on this thread: Why do we find this acceptable, or at least think the victim deserved it? The Ferrett had an interesting supposition — it is because internally we think other people must be like ourselves. In other words, because we’re good and would never do bullying or physical violence unless provoked, we think others are the same and must have had a reason. Ferrett believes that we need to break that mindset: there are people who bully and are just violent — without provacation — just because that’s who they are. To put it in the context of a recent hit movie, it is because some people are just evil and bad.

Of course, some people are pure good. But even they can’t get a job in today’s world. Just look at the rejection letter Clark Kent received recently from the Daily Planet.

Music: Duets II (Tony Bennett, Josh Groban): “This Is All I Ask”

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California Highway Headlines: 5/27/13 – 6/15/13

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

userpic=pacific-coast-routeHaving just posted the highway page updates*, it’s time to start collecting headlines again. Of course, by the time you read this, the updates will be two weeks old… but “whatever”:
(*: Well, I had when I started collecting this groupa headlines)

  • Corrosion plagues new Bay Bridge span. Experts said that while a total collapse seemed unlikely, if Caltrans miscalculated corrosion estimates a major quake could cripple sections of the skyway. The span’s construction violated universally accepted techniques meant to prevent corrosion, they said, and could result in costly inspection and maintenance headaches nearly unheard of for similar modern bridges. (h/t to Joel W.)
  • Bay Bridge’s old span risky, engineers say. Every day the old eastern span of the Bay Bridge remains in use is a day motorists face the risk of catastrophe, Caltrans engineers say. Caltrans and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission must weigh that risk in deciding whether to delay the scheduled Labor Day weekend opening of the new eastern span while dealing with suspect steel rods – something Gov. Jerry Brown and other state officials have suggested might happen.
  • First stretch of carpool lane opens on northbound 405 Freeway. An extra traffic lane opened Friday along a 1.7-mile stretch of the northbound 405 Freeway, a milestone in the $1.15 billion Sepulveda Pass Improvement Project.
  • Uncovered Olympic Glories: Murals Restoration on the 101 Freeway. As the sun beat down on the earth, heat fizzled from the surrounding concrete, sizzling the temperature a few degrees higher. Perched on scaffolding at the edge of the 101 freeway, artist Willie Herrón III and his assistant Melody Betancourt bake in the sun while wearing hard hats and day-glo vests.
  • City of Lancaster, Caltrans, and Metro celebrate new Avenue I/SR-14 interchange improvements. Commuting in the City of Lancaster just got a little bit better with the recent opening of the Avenue I/SR-14 interchange.
  • Bay Bridge light show on the blink. After two months of dazzling the waterfront, the $8 million Bay Bridge light show is having trouble turning on its lights. And turning them off as well. The problem, says Ben Davis, the PR mastermind behind the privately funded Illuminate the Arts project: “Some lights are stuck in the on position — some are stuck in the off position. “It’s not the kind of thing you can hide.’’ So while most of the 25,000 LED lights continue to dance across the 1.8-mile Bay Bridge western span, hundreds simply aren’t cooperating — disrupting the dusk-til-2 a.m. show’s full effect.
  • I-80/680 interchange project still faces obstacle. Solano County’s chance to get $24 million in state bond money for a $100 million Green Valley interchange renovation project could get delayed again. The California Transportation Commission will take up the topic for a second consecutive month when it meets Tuesday in Sacramento. It delayed a vote in May because the project wasn’t ready to start construction.
  • Interstate 5 Toll Lanes Near Highway 14 Await State Approval. “The next step for the project is for us to be able to procure a private entity, bring them on board and to do this very creative type of project,” said Lan Saadatnejadi, an executive officer for Metro, describing the toll lanes as a unique public-private partnership.
  • Bay Area roadways: Where’d the names come from? When it comes to naming roads, bridges and tunnels after distinguished citizens, all’s fair in love, politics and vital signs. “It used to be that a politician had to be retired (to be honored),” said state Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, who in 2007 proposed the second span of the Benicia Bridge be named after Rep. George Miller. “Now you’re supposed to be dead. I explained it to (Miller), that the rules say you have to be deceased. I said, ‘Now George, I’ve always wanted to follow you into Congress. I think we’re looking at a win-win here.'”
  • Group proposes naming part of Bay Bridge for Willie Brown. A group of legislators is proposing to name the western span of the Bay Bridge after former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown. Assembly Concurrent Resolution 65 recognizes Brown’s accomplishments, which include two terms as mayor of San Francisco, by naming the western span the Willie L. Brown Jr. Bridge.
  • Anti-congestion recipe: work starts on I-580 carpool lane in Dublin, Livermore and Pleasanton. A ceremony was held here Thursday to mark the start of construction on a 13-mile new carpool lane on westbound Interstate 580, which is hoped will help ease traffic congestion.
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Father’s Day Report

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

userpic=father-and-sonLet me tell you about my Father’s Day… but first, a shout out to my father who passed away in 2004. You can read about him here. I’m finding myself more like him as I grow older, and I still miss him.

As for me, the day started with an unusual suprise: Father’s Day presents that I didn’t know about in advance. My daughter replaced my copy of Working by Studs Terkel, which had fallen apart. My wife got me a pair of Koss Stereophones (Tony Bennett Edition), which included a download of Duets II. Alas, the download code wasn’t working, so I’ve sent email to Koss and we’ll see what happens.

After this, we went to the North Hollywood station and got LA Metro Day Pass. Went to Exposition Park, where we went to the California ScienCenter to see the Space Shuttle Endeavor, as well as their other space exhibits (an Apollo capsule (from Apollo-Soyuz), Gemini XI, Mercury-Redstone) and their Ecosystems exhibit (which had a cool section on rotting, and another neat section on Los Angeles).

After that, we took the Expo Line to Western Blvd, where we had a great Salvadoran lunch at Bella Aguillas Cafe. We split their sampler plate, which was more than enough for 3.

We then returned to Exposition Park, where we visited the newly remodeled Natural History Museum. They have totally redone the front of the museum (which used to be the back), and it is beautiful. You can see a graphic here.  We especially enjoyed the new outdoor garden, especially the edible garden… in addition to the old reliable exhibits. It was so nice (and now so easy to get to, with the Expo line), that we rejoined.

We then came home, and are now recuperating from being out and about. So how did you celebrate Fathers Day?

Music: The Best of The Alan Parson Project (The Alan Parsons Project): “Psychobabble”

 

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