tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42158911990591984952024-02-19T06:43:13.512-08:00Tom's RantsT J Sawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260687428823173972noreply@blogger.comBlogger51125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4215891199059198495.post-62919189935390104352020-09-09T16:27:00.001-07:002020-09-09T16:27:30.897-07:00Why Are My Pictures Missing from Blogger? (or other sites!)<p> You can find a multitude of flavors of this question floating around on the Internet. There could be many reasons. "There are 8 million stories in the Naked City, this is one of them!"</p><p>My ISP (or perhaps its equipment) is no longer happy with requests to access sites via HTTP. Centurylink.net will not correctly handle an </p><p>http://4theloveofwood.blogspot.com/</p><p>request, for example. Oh, it will get you to the site, all right, but most of the formatting and all of the images will be deleted. I have tolerated this situation for the past six months or so - but now it is bugging my wife, so something must be done. I have reported the problem.</p><p>As far as I know, use of http has not been deprecated on the Internet - it should still work.</p><p>If you are having this problem and notice that you are using an "http://" llink - I suppose that there are only a trillion or so of them floating around on the net, try inserting the little "s" after the "p"</p><p>You might be pleasantly surprised!</p><p><br /></p><p>By the way, if you own a blog or a website and your users are having this problem, you can fix it for them by turning on an option that will upgrade your users' requests to https - provided you have the proper security certificate on the service that you are using. (Blogger does, of course.)</p><p><br /></p><p>Below are two screen grabs that show the difference:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEfYOuDjwYq6rJCaMRZ9TdIT7SZd28d_rRbpVyz-6Zv9QlPTa98IBQ3X4KqxWxPSCSVUzhzSKu-nlOvnYpcHTlW7-ZZHlLohjqXhDB8Hg0lrOyoGbv_QR7AVn5Maeaw9S6H8IPSW_ZWLtD/s1836/http.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1077" data-original-width="1836" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEfYOuDjwYq6rJCaMRZ9TdIT7SZd28d_rRbpVyz-6Zv9QlPTa98IBQ3X4KqxWxPSCSVUzhzSKu-nlOvnYpcHTlW7-ZZHlLohjqXhDB8Hg0lrOyoGbv_QR7AVn5Maeaw9S6H8IPSW_ZWLtD/s320/http.jpg" width="320" /> </a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEfYOuDjwYq6rJCaMRZ9TdIT7SZd28d_rRbpVyz-6Zv9QlPTa98IBQ3X4KqxWxPSCSVUzhzSKu-nlOvnYpcHTlW7-ZZHlLohjqXhDB8Hg0lrOyoGbv_QR7AVn5Maeaw9S6H8IPSW_ZWLtD/s1836/http.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> </a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEfYOuDjwYq6rJCaMRZ9TdIT7SZd28d_rRbpVyz-6Zv9QlPTa98IBQ3X4KqxWxPSCSVUzhzSKu-nlOvnYpcHTlW7-ZZHlLohjqXhDB8Hg0lrOyoGbv_QR7AVn5Maeaw9S6H8IPSW_ZWLtD/s1836/http.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> </a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEfYOuDjwYq6rJCaMRZ9TdIT7SZd28d_rRbpVyz-6Zv9QlPTa98IBQ3X4KqxWxPSCSVUzhzSKu-nlOvnYpcHTlW7-ZZHlLohjqXhDB8Hg0lrOyoGbv_QR7AVn5Maeaw9S6H8IPSW_ZWLtD/s1836/http.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> </a></div><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzz3Dp7GuYq4mdDBWhcu00W7t_lXdcevdDFXC_KtTgZh0v9zZLsh9HO6ZAA5iKWhLvDitBsGINcZus8W9_3ik6KPE4Ju6gSsDtYq4N8PxndRqoEs9UNsHPDu4DL1rAXfYuRLn3DzCekfsK/s1796/https.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1066" data-original-width="1796" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzz3Dp7GuYq4mdDBWhcu00W7t_lXdcevdDFXC_KtTgZh0v9zZLsh9HO6ZAA5iKWhLvDitBsGINcZus8W9_3ik6KPE4Ju6gSsDtYq4N8PxndRqoEs9UNsHPDu4DL1rAXfYuRLn3DzCekfsK/s320/https.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Don't expect your ISP to accept this as his problem without a struggle. Good luck.<br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>T J Sawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260687428823173972noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4215891199059198495.post-67798196803249847762018-11-18T11:34:00.000-08:002018-11-18T11:34:05.580-08:00Fixing the Honeywell 4000 Programmable Thermostat (It's Not as Smart as it Thinks!)<b>This post is offered to alert you to two features built into the Honeywell 4000 series thermostat that you might not realize are affecting your life and comfort. The device is very intelligent - but the manufacturer and installers assume that you are not!</b> <br />
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We participated in a "*free energy audit" this summer. It took about a year for the busy auditors to get around to us. The (apparently) high demand for this audit service is fueled by the promise of *free replacement light bulbs and a *free programmable thermostat.<br />
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Such a deal!<br />
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Now that the heating season has arrived, we find that the furnace comes on at an unpredictable time each morning and the humidifier doesn't work. So much for the world of "intelligent devices."<br />
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The free thermostat is a modern Honeywell 4000 series which is replacing a much older Honeywell device.<br />
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We programmed the new thermostat to set the temperature way back (I am too embarrassed to divulge Linda's idea of an ideal sleeping temp - we once froze the pipes overnight in a previous home) for sleeping and bring it back on a half hour before I get up.<br />
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This seemed to be working as the heating season began, but then the heat began coming on earlier and earlier than the prescribed "wake" time. The installer had taken us through the programming cycle - we checked the "setting" instructions - we even checked a couple of YouTube videos.<br />
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If that wasn't bad enough, the furnace was cycling on and off much more frequently than before. These short cycles bothered me for two reasons - first, you only get so many "starts" before maintenance is required and second, our humidifier on the furnace does not start until well into the "on" cycle of the furnace - we were suffering from dry air.<br />
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I quickly diagnosed the frequent cycling - the heat anticipator was set wrong. What's a "heat anticipator?" In the old days, it was a small heating coil mounted below the bimetal strip in the thermostat. It had a rheostat wired in series to control how much juice got to it. The purpose is to warm the sensor a bit faster than the room to prevent the device from overshooting the setting. Follow this link for example to read about the one shown below on the familiar old "clock face" Honeywell unit.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip7opYfo9y1y4gdfEIvnPH-MY0QgYZdUlUfVorvTihqpiJ4OfKIkKbNpZj1p7EBfRvvnis1Fl9KGxtD9YGn1eBU0iJL-BH5sWXMqnIpuGtgZ7HoJHixrzP60iUTuBe0exYbO-alRTPI9AP/s1600/Thermostat_Honeywell558-DFss+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip7opYfo9y1y4gdfEIvnPH-MY0QgYZdUlUfVorvTihqpiJ4OfKIkKbNpZj1p7EBfRvvnis1Fl9KGxtD9YGn1eBU0iJL-BH5sWXMqnIpuGtgZ7HoJHixrzP60iUTuBe0exYbO-alRTPI9AP/s1600/Thermostat_Honeywell558-DFss+copy.jpg" /></a></div>
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Now then - where is the heat anticipator located on the new Honeywell 4000?<br />
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You have to open up the Installation Instructions and probe deeply to find the intelligent electronic replacement:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4CCTMnwg05TUfLoK52ivvEGctlBdBDH6vE-rjYFPfm4f0JNJxep0yc74GddQOvY31kFb5RWPnlA8p_gTyivvmfvFAt8hSbzqS-Y36bmptH2pfZQsA9sGu3fWzcKghzVcrYlcYPJiQTKSH/s1600/HoneywellIntelligentThermostat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1571" data-original-width="999" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4CCTMnwg05TUfLoK52ivvEGctlBdBDH6vE-rjYFPfm4f0JNJxep0yc74GddQOvY31kFb5RWPnlA8p_gTyivvmfvFAt8hSbzqS-Y36bmptH2pfZQsA9sGu3fWzcKghzVcrYlcYPJiQTKSH/s640/HoneywellIntelligentThermostat.jpg" width="406" /></a></div>
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Instead of a "Heat Anticipator," you get a "Heating Cycle Rate" - the default setting is 5. I set it back to 3 for an opening bid. Perhaps 1 will be better.<br />
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As for the the heat coming on at a much earlier time than actually programmed - that is due to the "Adaptive Intelligent Recovery!" This feature is easily disabled once you find out about it. The feature tries to figure out how much before your "Wake" time it should start the furnace. It is easily confused by people who sometimes open windows at night!<br />
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I was planning to go back to the old thermostat this weekend - but maybe I have outsmarted the intelligence in this device sufficiently that we will be able to live with this genius in the house.<br />
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*TANSTAFL Warning! Of course, the new light bulbs and thermostat are not really free. They are built into the price of our utilities - so naturally, you will want to maximize your share too. You might have to sell the thermostat on eBay and go back to the old one - so save the box and instructions.<br />
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<br />T J Sawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260687428823173972noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4215891199059198495.post-52245374785688341692015-07-21T11:44:00.000-07:002015-07-21T11:44:30.715-07:00Which Photofinisher Is Best?It's a pretty silly question - the obvious answer is "It depends." But that didn't keep the New York Times from taking it on in the Travel Section last September.<br />
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Stephanie Rosenbloom wrote the article and led off with this comparison photo:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRScKFtHOATLfmcTjOC_8dNQ_V0qhpqv2Yfcuf2RIS0qIx7c7hMWDqOuOnS3uVktAVVFFhoOBpjEQ-EVfjvVrwjxiOk_0Qj36FdS0IcX5GikjYrmmgVpw-85dwtLKQfKGdcwYfZmi-cg8z/s1600/WalgreenComparison2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRScKFtHOATLfmcTjOC_8dNQ_V0qhpqv2Yfcuf2RIS0qIx7c7hMWDqOuOnS3uVktAVVFFhoOBpjEQ-EVfjvVrwjxiOk_0Qj36FdS0IcX5GikjYrmmgVpw-85dwtLKQfKGdcwYfZmi-cg8z/s640/WalgreenComparison2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Her winner was the photo on the right, described as "sharper and truer to life." Note my arrows on the left. They point to the detail in the shadows which the finisher on the right threw away! You will have to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/travel/where-to-print-those-vacation-photos.html?_r=0">go the original article</a> to see that the photo on the right also discards considerable highlight detail - look at the divided light windows, for instance.<br />
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So, we know the article is written by someone without photographic expertise - shadow detail is the first place a photographer would look.<br />
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But let's consider where the real variation in photo printing takes place. It's at the printer where the ink meets the paper. Proper calibration of the printer is essential to good printing.<br />
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I have two Walgreen's close to my house. How my photos will look varies greatly between the two and sometimes, even from day to day.<br />
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Here is an example I recently printed at both stores.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj81qW26XPnrHBdn4y3OS4j0DOqg7SyiA2-BsqnQQETmmkH9ZVATOkktqz4ojQZS-V2ib3fn4DauGHI20DhZjxrxuBp-A5CL2ywagu7qhj6YKxLKWx8lTVUhDmsfHiCBIylCmhJAOy1ZdUl/s1600/WalgreenComparison.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj81qW26XPnrHBdn4y3OS4j0DOqg7SyiA2-BsqnQQETmmkH9ZVATOkktqz4ojQZS-V2ib3fn4DauGHI20DhZjxrxuBp-A5CL2ywagu7qhj6YKxLKWx8lTVUhDmsfHiCBIylCmhJAOy1ZdUl/s640/WalgreenComparison.jpg" width="430" /></a></div>
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If you didn't see the shadow on the tee box, you would think the first picture was taken on a cloudy day.<br />
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Good luck getting your prints to come out "correct." Only a professional operation with a standard color chart and personal control of the printer is going to have consistent reproducible results. Consider each printing exercise to be an experiment. For a large group of prints, I will send one or two to my favorite printer and go get them to see how the printer is running at the moment. Then I send the whole batch.<br />
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<br />T J Sawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260687428823173972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4215891199059198495.post-23533676843285596512015-05-06T11:21:00.000-07:002015-05-06T11:21:12.579-07:00My ESC Key Quit Working!I recently acquired a new Dell Inspiron laptop and began the usual tricky process of getting all my software moved from my older laptop onto the new one.<br />
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It wasn't too long before I was working on an Excel spreadsheet and entered a few letters into an incorrect cell. I paused and hit the ESC key. Nothing happened. WTF! I had the same problem with my Adobe Photoshop Organizer the previous evening when it wouldn't exit from "full-screen" mode as I pressed the ESC key.<br />
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What is going on? Has Dell done something sinister? I searched the Internet. And searched some more over the next couple of days. Of course, I mostly turned up stories of how bad the customer support is at lots of companies. Finally, I turned up <a href="http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2010-excel/escape-key-stopped-working-in-excel/b96c142b-5633-4608-bd95-e6b980782262">the source of the problem here</a>. Yes, it's Adobe again.<br />
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When I closed Adobe Photoshop Elements 9, the ESC key began working again. Sorry to have doubted you, Dell. I should known to always suspect Adobe first. And this time, they didn't just sabotage other folks software, they sabotaged their own, Organizer.<br />
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But wait! I have this same exact software installed on my previous computer, also running Windows 7. Why is it only causing a problem on this one? That's why I became suspicious of the hardware. Thinking back, I realized that I had installed Photoshop before installing Office on this computer. Perhaps that causes the problem. Well, I'm not going to do all of Adobe's trouble-shooting for them.<br />
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Now this problem has been around since at least 2007, Microsoft Vista and a wide variety of Photoshop products. So you would think that Googling "Adobe Photoshop ESC key" might produce some kind of humble apology statement and maybe even a fix for it. You would be wrong. All you are <a href="https://forums.adobe.com/thread/372523">going to find</a> is the usual, "it's surely not our fault" response that Adobe in known for. This led jayp2007, back in 2009, to post this comment on the Adobe support bulletin board:<br />
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Have you even read this post and the issue it's regarding? People with <em>both </em>32-bit
and 64-bit are having the problem where their escape key doesn't work
anywhere else in the O.S. when Photoshop is running. And people with
both Photoshop CS3 and CS4 are having the problem. And of course it was
first reported nearly 2 years ago... Not that this apparently matters to
anyone at Adobe. </blockquote>
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Nice observation, Jay P! <br />
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And why don't I update to a newer version of photoshop? Well, I am waiting for their support attitude to change. Until then, I will live with the problems I know instead of spending more money with them to buy problems that I don't know.<br />
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<br />T J Sawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260687428823173972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4215891199059198495.post-66527394325699510082015-04-04T10:34:00.000-07:002015-04-04T10:34:29.585-07:00McAfee and Thunderbird - Don't Bother Trying to Mix TheseYou'd be better off <a href="http://chemistry.about.com/od/toxicchemicals/a/Mixing-Bleach-And-Ammonia.htm">mixing ammonia and bleach</a> in a small room than trying to get McAfee antivirus to work with Thunderbird e-mail. But, at least, the household chemical companies put warning labels on the containers.<br />
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Setting Up a Replacement Computer </h3>
I just purchased a new Dell laptop to gain a larger disk drive and more memory. These were starting to become issues on my previous Dell laptop.<br />
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I stuck with Windows 7, of course, even though <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-8-1-is-now-usable-without-touch/">ZDnet finally pronounced Windows 8 usable</a> about ten months ago. <br />
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After getting the computer booted up, I installed my Internet connection and the three web browsers, IE (just because I might need it), Chrome (because it really is fast - especially with <a href="http://www.phkimpel.us/ElectroData/205/webUI/D205.html">Paul Kimpel's Burroughs 205 emulator</a>) and Firefox (because I am used to it.) This also helps me deal with reading more than 10 NYT articles in a month. I have one correspondent who frequently sends me links to the NYT. <br />
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The Anti-Virus Program </h3>
I like to describe both Norton and McAfee products as computer viruses. They sneak onto your new computer in a deceptive manner (by claiming to prevent problems and being planted there by hardware vendors) and cause performance problems or program failures. Nevertheless, when McAfee caught me browsing the Internet without "real-time protection," I decided to give it another chance. I gave it the go-ahead to save me from the evils that lurk beyond my firewall.<br />
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Next up was my e-mail. I use Thunderbird and have for many, many years. I have been very happy with the product. I would say totally satisfied except that <a href="https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1019768">they inserted this bug into the software</a> last fall and still have not fixed it (but there is a workaround.) I downloaded Thunderbird and then moved my profile with 9 gigabytes of old messages onto the new computer. Getting my e-mail vendor passwords updated is another irritant with Thunderbird but I got through that too.<br />
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Then, I sent myself a message. Thunderbird hung - and hung for over five minutes! It finally came back to life. Just a one-time issue, I thought. Perhaps some kind of initiation ritual.<br />
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Later, I heard the "you've got mail" ding. I checked Thunderbird. Dead - or at least comatose. I fired up the task manager. McAfee has a process taking 25% of the system processor resources. So, I must really have a four-processor system! A CPU-intensive task now only takes 25% of the system instead of 50% or 100% - ah, sweet progress. But that McAfee task has effectively stopped Thunderbird while letting everything else run.<br />
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The problem is McAfee - as usual </h3>
So, I Googled "Thunderbird McAfee slow". O, yeah - big time issue. Has been for years. And, as usual, neither party wants to deal with it. And people that bring it up in support forums get slapped around for not providing enough information. That and forum-joining requirements is why I just bitch about it on my blog instead of trying to get someone to fix it.<br />
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Diagnosing the problem is not hard. I have lots of messages in my Inbox. Over 7000 marked as unread on my laptop, over 30,000 on the desktop. Yes, I can find the e-mail that you sent me in 2004. To go back beyond that I have to leave the inbox. This is why I use Thunderbird. It searches well and sorts all of those messages by "From" or "Subject" almost instantly. <br />
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Diagnosing the Problem for Them </h3>
Pretty clearly, McAfee's "real time protection" is wasting a lot of time looking through either the whole Inbox or the Unread messages in the box. When I have some spare time, I will figure out which it is and update this post. <br />
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Short-Term and Long-Term Fix for the Problem</h3>
Meanwhile, I shall eliminate McAfee's real-time function.<br />
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No wonder people keep abandoning Microsoft and going to Apple.T J Sawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260687428823173972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4215891199059198495.post-45297884600616269362014-08-29T01:29:00.001-07:002014-08-29T01:29:18.229-07:00Can Treehouse Really Sell a Product with This Screen?I was browsing the web for content management system software and its documentation tonight. I came across a page for Treehouse. ... <span class="st"> the fastest, easiest way to learn to code, make apps, and start a business. Tutorials in CSS, HTML ...</span><br />
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<span class="st">I paused to look a bit:</span><br />
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That's right, they think that using medium gray text on slightly darker medium gray background is a good idea in explaining their product. Do they really think I will next take time to figure out how to buy it? BTW, it looks better here in the screenshot than <a href="https://teamtreehouse.com/subscribe/plans?trial=yes">on their real page</a>.<br />
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Maybe someone on their staff will shoot <a href="http://contrastrebellion.com/">a link to this page</a> to their management and say, "we might just be shooting ourselves in the foot here!"<br />
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T J Sawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260687428823173972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4215891199059198495.post-56505754922931273332014-08-19T09:14:00.003-07:002014-08-19T09:14:37.173-07:00How Many OSHA Violations Can You Spot in This Photo?I checked out the StarTribune this morning and saw this picture.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWmQHwS7cF7pt8EVAtUG4T0oC0LdyMMYDBZEmX8C0-lwHDPRARqlPVzWwRSEVIR_qXJX3gGlgyMOf2bsCBmhmheXZRKC_BoQPtyCsdQI5zsLRuMIEJqVfxAbmdW5kC3X4FH80yd2zvobVf/s1600/Construction1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWmQHwS7cF7pt8EVAtUG4T0oC0LdyMMYDBZEmX8C0-lwHDPRARqlPVzWwRSEVIR_qXJX3gGlgyMOf2bsCBmhmheXZRKC_BoQPtyCsdQI5zsLRuMIEJqVfxAbmdW5kC3X4FH80yd2zvobVf/s1600/Construction1.jpg" height="375" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />
I assumed they were running an article on OSHA violations in the local contractor market.<br />
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My bad.<br />
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<br />T J Sawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260687428823173972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4215891199059198495.post-74707678284820887412014-08-17T10:44:00.002-07:002014-08-17T10:44:56.889-07:00It Must Be True, I Saw it on the Internet!No, <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2014/08/17/Huffington-Post-Reporter-in-Ferguson-Are-Ear-Plugs-Rubber-Bullets?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter">those are not rubber bullets</a>.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaeTyLFB56hLMEjKtP3r5EwJp90Mvinj6rfQfQpb2eHkr1RyQsTx2iI1W1dX6hH8HxRRcUzvPqsXelmEi3aZkLCXGskC9LrIMafsOkhnjv6DILZPvoCo-qmrBbUiolfijWCNLiu2VBvBPG/s1600/ryan-reilly-twitter.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaeTyLFB56hLMEjKtP3r5EwJp90Mvinj6rfQfQpb2eHkr1RyQsTx2iI1W1dX6hH8HxRRcUzvPqsXelmEi3aZkLCXGskC9LrIMafsOkhnjv6DILZPvoCo-qmrBbUiolfijWCNLiu2VBvBPG/s320/ryan-reilly-twitter.jpg" /></a><br />
<br />
And that is not "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particle_board">chipboard</a>" in this picture. Since it is from <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2726609/Stores-looted-including-one-slain-teen-Michael-Brown-allegedly-stole-cigars-sixth-night-confrontation-Ferguson-St-Louis-police-ordered-stand-Highway-Patrol.html">British media</a>, we'll let them get by with chipboard for particleboard.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi389QXw0qx7JbJIm0enZH5EdY33g1uZnQk156GX3n4c6uilxP61CF6Uf9uxyBRVYmd-RVlTownIMtONm_rPAqGl-cuIuolzTF-uYI2-hTW-2sIGeJeYuh73Es5WKAaBNFvpjBe0ktEuzlh/s1600/ryan2.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi389QXw0qx7JbJIm0enZH5EdY33g1uZnQk156GX3n4c6uilxP61CF6Uf9uxyBRVYmd-RVlTownIMtONm_rPAqGl-cuIuolzTF-uYI2-hTW-2sIGeJeYuh73Es5WKAaBNFvpjBe0ktEuzlh/s320/ryan2.jpg" /></a>
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Do the media do any intelligence testing before hiring?<br />
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<br />T J Sawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260687428823173972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4215891199059198495.post-59465446759801768812014-08-03T15:35:00.004-07:002014-08-03T15:35:58.423-07:00No, Mr. President, That's Not Their Job.That is what gets in the way of them effectively doing their job. From an interview <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2014/08/barack-obama-talks-economist">published in The Economist.</a> <br />
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<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<strong>The Economist:</strong> Yes, tell us about that. We see a lot of business people and they do complain about regulation.<br />
<strong>Mr Obama:</strong> They always complain about regulation. That’s their job. </blockquote>
He may actually think that's their job - and that is sad. T J Sawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260687428823173972noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4215891199059198495.post-39170405718021981512014-03-19T03:27:00.001-07:002014-03-19T03:27:42.291-07:00Flickr Relents - The Direct Link ReturnsI was going to publish a post on my travel blog last night before I went to bed. Unfortunately, when I tried to include the first photograph, Flickr would not let me link to my photo. There was no link code displayed at all when I clicked on their "Share" icon. I played with it for a while, then gave up and decided to come back to it today.<br />
<br />
This morning, I tried the exact same thing, and, like magic, not only did the "Share" icon display my size options and link code but the old "direct sharing" html link was back! There are now two "radio buttons" options available where there were none for the past couple of months.<br />
<br />
Good grief - the Internet is the wild wild west of the computer frontier.<br />
<br />
Here is the the way Flickr now lets you share a picture on your blog. I will display it two ways. First, using the iframe embed code that has been the only option for the past two months.<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="295" mozallowfullscreen="" msallowfullscreen="" oallowfullscreen="" src="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tjsawyer/13193415204/in/set-72157642434620635/player/" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="320"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
And now I'll use the new html link code that had been "disappeared" for those same two months.<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tjsawyer/13193415204/in/set-72157642434620635/" title="Untitled by , on Flickr"><img alt="Untitled" height="295" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3752/13193415204_db3e1c0011_n.jpg" width="320" /></a>
<br />
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No difference to the viewer, right? Except that if you "mouse over" the first image, you can run through the whole set while "mouse over" on the second produces the information that I have not not titled the image and it gives you a link to the single image in the set. By the way, if you click the right arrow to run through that set, you will be able to see the two "radio buttons" that I am talking about.<br />
<br />
This will no doubt produce a lot of happy faces for bloggers that use WordPress since that service doesn't support iframes at all. There has been considerable gnashing of teeth by these folks since the previous Flickr change.<br />
<br />
Flickr had justified the dropping of the direct link with a hard-to-find message in one of their FAQs:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>The direct link to a photo file</b> is no longer shown on the page. Per the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/guidelines.gne" id="yui_3_11_0_1_1395221328224_420">Flickr Community Guidelines</a>
"pages on other websites that display content hosted on flickr.com
must provide a link from each photo or video back to its page on
Flickr." Linking directly to the photo file doesn't do this. </blockquote>
I am anxious to see if they now "disappear" that FAQ!<br />
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<br />T J Sawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260687428823173972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4215891199059198495.post-71351162046551197662014-03-13T12:36:00.000-07:002014-03-13T12:47:14.267-07:00Flickr and Blogger Can Drive You NutsWhen Flickr decided to go with Iframe to for the sharing code used to embed their photos (see the post immediately below), I didn't like some of the side effects. But it was actually a better methodology, and by using Flickr Sets, which I always do, the whole photostream wasn't exposed in every embed.<br />
<br />
One other side effect that I had experienced was that when I embedded into a blogger post, I had no photo show up in my "Compose" view of the post. There was just white space, indistinguishable from the background. This was pretty poor from a composition standpoint, but I just wrote it off to the war between parents Google and Yahoo not wanting to place nice together. The same thing shows up in Blogger's Preview.<br />
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Today, I added a couple of pictures to an old post on my travel blog - and what's this? The new pictures showed up in Compose, but not the old ones!<br />
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More wasted time playing with code to find out WTF!<br />
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Here is what happens when I used the link code for a photo two days ago and what happens when I linked to the same picture today:<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="272" mozallowfullscreen="" msallowfullscreen="" oallowfullscreen="" src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tjsawyer/13060029443/in/set-72157642150476853/player/" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="272" mozallowfullscreen="" msallowfullscreen="" oallowfullscreen="" src="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tjsawyer/13060029443/in/set-72157642150476853/player/" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe><br />
<br />
<br />
*******************************************************************<br />
Now I know that the above two images look identical to you once they are published. So here is what they look like to me while in Compose mode or on Preview. (I screen-captured it for you and will publish it as a localy sourced Blogger image.)<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOt1bUZZ9RW5WL2YSyMpBxtR8Vl6jW9F32R1Fe_Gj1MPU5EfRYiN1vK7KISfyau1SGIyQRzOmJNLNG5NbStyYu5eSeBpW2SEV7BUZYHbINk9tw3r_V2xguqncrpYaiUfPHMlMIX1MJyjyS/s1600/BloggerFlickr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOt1bUZZ9RW5WL2YSyMpBxtR8Vl6jW9F32R1Fe_Gj1MPU5EfRYiN1vK7KISfyau1SGIyQRzOmJNLNG5NbStyYu5eSeBpW2SEV7BUZYHbINk9tw3r_V2xguqncrpYaiUfPHMlMIX1MJyjyS/s1600/BloggerFlickr.jpg" height="584" width="640" /></a></div>
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************************************************************************<br />
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<br />
<br />
That;s right - no image on the two day old stuff, nice image today. Did Flickr fix a bug? What' changed, by the way? <br />
<br />
Well, here is the old link code generated by Flickr and the new.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="272" mozallowfullscreen="" msallowfullscreen="" oallowfullscreen="" src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tjsawyer/13060029443/in/set-72157642150476853/player/" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe></blockquote>
And, here is the new:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<iframe src="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tjsawyer/13060029443/in/set-72157642150476853/player/" width="500" height="272" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen></iframe></blockquote>
<br />
A little changing of the order of things but the real change is from "http" to "https"<br />
<br />
Why? Well, Flickr fessed up to <a href="http://code.flickr.net/2014/02/24/new-ssl-endpoints-for-the-flickr-api/">changing some SSL things here</a>.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Sometime in the last few months, we went and updated our API SSL endpoints. Shame on us for not making a bigger deal about it!</blockquote>
But without much explanation. And why does Blogger show one of the images in Compose and Preview but not the other while showing both when Published? Beats me. But I'll accept the improvement in functionality without argument. But it would be nice if these behemoths software concerns just shared with us poor customers what they are doing once in a while. I know that not all of their customers are nerds like I am - but a lot of normal folks ask us what's going on from time to time.<br />
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<br />T J Sawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260687428823173972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4215891199059198495.post-85656218508693440302014-02-02T06:11:00.000-08:002014-02-02T06:22:26.655-08:00My iPad Crashes When I Display Flickr Photos on My BlogWell, not the iPad, actually. Just the Safari web browser.<br />
<br />
I store my photos on Flickr. I have a travel blog on Blogger. Embedding photos from Flickr on the blog is not particularly easy but I have been doing it for several years. The Safari web browser on our iPad now crashes any time we try to load my <a href="http://sawyertravel.blogspot.com/">TravelBlog</a>. It is reproducible. And, I can load every individual post currently visible on the blog - it only crashes when I try to load the entire current blog! What changed? <br />
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Flickr used to generate some HTML code to use in accessing pictures from elsewhere on the Web. I simply copied that code and pasted it into my blog posts. It looked like this:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tjsawyer/9553127586/" title="Albany-24 by T J Sawyer, on Flickr"><img alt="Albany-24" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7423/9553127586_017d60dea9_n.jpg" height="214" width="320" /></a></blockquote>
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Back about November of 2013, Flickr "improved" their linking mechanism and began producing this type of embed code, instead:<br />
<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="271" mozallowfullscreen="" msallowfullscreen="" oallowfullscreen="" src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tjsawyer/12256670456/in/set-72157640387191346/player/" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe></blockquote>
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What Flickr did was to change their default from embedding just the picture to embedding the full Flickr page in <a href="http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_iframe.asp">what is called an iframe</a>. (iframe is a WWW concept, not an Apple concept) Now I was not particularly happy with this change on the part of Flickr, but I could live with it. It meant that viewers of my blog could get distracted (bored?) and just start to scroll through all the pictures on the referenced Flickr set. I could probably control that by putting each blog photo in its own Flickr Set, but I didn't want to go to that much trouble. I already group the photos into a set for each post and don't really mind if a reader decides to explore that whole set. I checked a few other blogs and noticed that other bloggers, such as the <a href="http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2013/10/law-prof-1.html">widely read</a> <a href="http://althouse.blogspot.com/">Ann Althouse</a>, have continued to use the Flickr link on her blog. I don't believe she even complained when the change was made.<br />
<br />
So, I began using the new embedded iframe code back in December. After about two weeks in Egypt, the Travel Blog would no longer load on our iPad. I suspected a memory problem and began the usual remedies.<br />
<ul>
<li>I closed the other tabs in the Safari browser.</li>
<li>I killed all the other apps that were running (Not a trivial task under iOS!)</li>
<li>I restarted the iPad</li>
<li>I even upgraded the operating system to iOS 7.04 - a new look and feel that deserves its own rant, but I'll do that later.</li>
</ul>
All to no avail. I searched the Internet for solutions and found a lot of people having trouble with the new Flickr and an amazing number having iPad Safari problems. So: let's isolate the problem further. <br />
<br />
Consider those two pieces of code that I have above. Let's just embed them in this post:<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tjsawyer/9553127586/" title="Albany-24 by T J Sawyer, on Flickr"><img alt="Albany-24" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7423/9553127586_017d60dea9_n.jpg" height="214" width="320" /></a>
<br />
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<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="271" mozallowfullscreen="" msallowfullscreen="" oallowfullscreen="" src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tjsawyer/12256670456/in/set-72157640387191346/player/" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
If I display this post or this blog. All is well. However, what happens if I repeat that last embedded picture? I tried repeating it 25 times. The blog loads fine. If, however, I repeat it 50 times, the blog will no longer load on the iPad. Instead, it crashes Safari!<br />
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I will leave it as an excercise for the interested reader/coder/computer science major to determine the exact number of imbedded iFrames that are required to kill Safari.<br />
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Now to my real rant! Why hasn't this condition been analyzed and documented on the Web? You can search for "multiple iframes crash safari" or a variety of variants and not find anything that resembles documentation of the real problem.<br />
<br />
Worse yet, search for "Blogger Flickr iPad" and you will find nothing but nonsense. For example, <a href="https://www.flickr.com/help/forum/en-us/72157633804041832/">here</a>.<br />
<br />
There appear to be many people that think this is a Flickr problem. It is not. It is just a very sorry implementation of a browser by Apple.<br />
<br />
What is a web browser? It is nothing but a file listing program. These have been around since the days of the IBM 701 in 1953. I suspect that a file lister was one of the first programs<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHARE_%28computing%29"> written for the SHARE library</a>. Sure, there are a lot more file types to be handled now than "in the old days" but give me a break. When your file listing program has an issue with the number of items in a table or with some other constraint, you don't just crash! Put out an error message saying "Number of iframes on this page exceeds internal limit" and then render what you've got so far.<br />
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Good Grief, what are they teaching the young coders nowadays!<br />
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<br />T J Sawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260687428823173972noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4215891199059198495.post-1837317002167637502013-12-04T12:48:00.002-08:002013-12-04T12:48:40.800-08:00Obama Doesn't Just Want to Take Your Health Insurance Away - He Wants Your Job Too!I see that the president is out <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/04/obama-minimum-wage-increase-protests">promoting an increase in the minimum wage</a>.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Barack Obama will repeat his call for an increase in the minimum wage to
close an ever-growing inequality gap in a speech delivered in one of
the poorest corners of the nation's capital.</blockquote>
I thought that Peggy Noonan was right when <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/peggynoonan/2013/12/03/low-information-leadership/">she said, yesterday</a>, "... the administration is full of young people who’ve seen the movie but not read the book."<br />
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But, maybe, they haven't even see the movie. At least <a href="http://singularityhub.com/2013/01/22/robot-serves-up-340-hamburgers-per-hour/">they haven't seen this one</a>!<br />
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T J Sawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260687428823173972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4215891199059198495.post-11028872409333927942013-12-01T12:57:00.000-08:002013-12-01T13:04:58.248-08:00A Bipartisan Fix for ObamaCare: Chick-fil-A or Five Guys Burgers and Fries?When I started into today's New York Times article on fixing Healthcare.gov I noted the length (7 on-line pages!) and was expecting one of those old-time, encyclopedic articles like <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0128.html">one of many on the Challenger explosion</a>. <br />
<br />
It was pretty light on facts but heavy on politics and emotion. While revealing nothing the techies among us haven't been buzzing about for weeks, it did have these gems:<br />
<ul>
<li>... the moved satisfied most Democrats. Only 39 voted with Republicans to
alter the health law, far fewer than the White House had feared.</li>
<li>“Just attack us,” Mr. Biden said, according to one person present. “Blame us.”</li>
<li>Now it was about a broken promise. But for Mr. Obama, the mounting criticism was more than political. It felt personal. </li>
<li>That morning, an aide to the secretary woke up and burst into tears. “We are taking arrows every day,” she said.</li>
</ul>
Well, I just can't go on any more. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/01/us/politics/inside-the-race-to-rescue-a-health-site-and-obama.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&smid=pl-share">Read the whole damn thing</a>. <br />
<br />
But if you just want evidence that the effort to make the fix is apolitical - or maybe even bipartisan - just <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/01/us/politics/inside-the-race-to-rescue-a-health-site-and-obama.html?pagewanted=6&_r=3&smid=pl-share">skip to page six for this</a> description of the command and control structure - emphasis added:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The war room — a command center known internally as the Exchange
Operation Center, or X.O.C. — takes up the fourth floor of a nondescript
office building that sits next to a shopping mall, <b>close enough for
frequent food runs to Chick-fil-A or Five Guys Burgers and Fries.</b> </blockquote>
Yes, it is once again OK to mention Chick-fil-A in Washington and New York. (Chicago, probably not so much.) So let's get re-write on the case and make that "Chick-fil-A <strike>or</strike> and Five Guys Burgers and Fries."<br />
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Update:<br />
Yeah, I know I'm not the only one fascinated by the Chick-fil-A reference.<br />
<ul>
<li>Tom McGuire - <a href="http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2013/12/declaring-victory.html">Fueled by Hate and much more</a>!</li>
<li>Ann Althouse - <a href="http://althouse.blogspot.com/2013/12/inside-west-wing-where-junior.html">Upbraided</a>! </li>
</ul>
T J Sawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260687428823173972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4215891199059198495.post-12648896811593298952013-11-26T09:35:00.000-08:002013-11-26T09:35:14.128-08:00Not the Whole Story about La Que Buena?Have you ever tried to find a restaurant in Minneapolis that is open late? Or open on Sunday? Good luck.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.startribune.com/local/minneapolis/233287391.html">This story in the StarTribune</a> reports that there is at least one spot open late.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
... the place was crowded ... the gunman walked up to the front windows of the La Que Buena at 1611 E. Lake St. around 1:30 a.m. Monday and opened fire.</blockquote>
Don't you think there must be more to this story? Now, at a Taco Bell near a factory with a second shift, I can picture patrons eating dineer at 1:30 in the morning. On Lake Street - not so much.<br />
<br />
There is this reassuring piece of news later in the article:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<u><b>Except for homicide,</b></u> crime levels have fallen in south Minneapolis this year. </blockquote>
(emphasis added)<br />
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T J Sawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260687428823173972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4215891199059198495.post-2923111256469420562013-11-24T11:03:00.000-08:002013-11-24T11:03:16.852-08:00NoSQL? Really?You just knew the truth about the ObamaCare website implementation was going to come out. I know that when the book is written, it's going to be a best-seller. But, in the meantime, the dribbles of information are just fascinating.<br />
<br />
Friday's article in the New York Times is factual enough to begin to expose the real problems:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
CGI and other contractors complained of endlessly shifting requirements
and a government decision-making process so cumbersome that it took
weeks to resolve elementary questions, such as determining whether users
should be required to provide Social Security
numbers. Some CGI software engineers ultimately walked out, saying it
was impossible to produce good work under such conditions. </blockquote>
Yes, it was just what McKinsey identified and I mentioned a couple of posts below. But buried in the article is this gem:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Another sore point was the Medicare agency’s decision to use database
software, from a company called MarkLogic, that managed the data
differently ...</blockquote>
Try looking up MarkLogic in Wikipedia and you come up with a pretty slim profile - but within it is probably everything you need to know. They make the NoSQL database system. When a company chooses to denigrate a standard like SQL in that way -- well, my advice is run, run, run.<br />
<br />
Here, law professor <a href="http://althouse.blogspot.com/2013/11/this-is-post-where-i-paraphrase-10.html#more">Ann Althouse translates and interprets</a> the New York Times article for us as if she were analyzing the dissent of a subtle but needling Supreme Court justice. It is well worth reading if you think you might ever get to participate in managing a very visible I/T project.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />T J Sawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260687428823173972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4215891199059198495.post-68077747952345462142013-11-23T12:18:00.001-08:002013-11-23T12:18:41.809-08:00Could Walmart Save ObamaCare?When I read that 30-40% of the ObamaCare system hadn't been built yet, I was even more flabbergasted than before. I/T disasters are well known for reaching 90% completion and then suddenly ceasing to make progress. This one must be really out of control!<br />
<br />
Digging below the surface a bit led me to <a href="http://washingtonexaminer.com/heres-how-paying-for-an-obamacare-plan-is-supposed-to-work/article/2539660">this article on payments</a>. About halfway through the article, this sentence caught by attention:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Behind the scenes, when an individual selects a plan, the federal system transmits a file, known as an “834," with all ...</blockquote>
Ding-ding! That can't be a file - that three-digit code starting with an 8 has to be an EDI transaction type. Sure enough, <a href="https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=electronic+payment+tansaction+834">check the EDI X12 transaction list</a>. There it is:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<strong>EDI 834</strong> - Benefit Enrollment and Maintenance</blockquote>
I don't imagine that there are any less than 100,000 programmers that have <a href="http://www.sleeter.com/blog/2012/04/quickbooks-edi/">implemented EDI</a> for their companies by this time. Even the smallest of suppliers have had to knuckle under to their large and demanding customers.<br />
<br />
I'm sure that my first EDI experience was in the 1970s. But my quick Google research can only take it back to 1982 and <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=8G9UAAAAMAAJ&q=supervalue+pillsbury+gma+computer&dq=supervalue+pillsbury+gma+computer&hl=en&sa=X&ei=IQCRUp_HOsT-qAGQzoDYAw&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA">this reference</a> to Pillsbury in the UCS Startup. I know that Twin Cities companies Pillsbury and Super Value were doing electronic order/invoice exchange prior to that as part of the Grocery Manufacturers Association pilot program. I'll have to look further to date it. Ah, those were the days. No Internet. Barely even local area networks - we had <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARCNET">Datapoint's Arcnet</a> installed, of course. Communicating from one company's mainframe to another was easy enough, you just used a nicely performing third computer and used the one error-checking protocol that every vendor supported, the biSynch "IBM 2780 remote computer." (You'll find this technique vaguely, and incorrectly, referenced under Serial Communication in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Data_Interchange">Wikipedia article on EDI</a>.)<br />
<br />
Yes, people have been doing this stuff for at least 35 years. In fact, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Communication_Standard">Wikipedia UCS article</a> suggests that we might take it back to the 1960s. That feels more correct.<br />
<br />
So wouldn't you think the U.S. Government might be able to find an easy way to solve the ObamaCare data communications issue? Let's just go to someone that is particularly good at implementing EDI and managing their EDI partners. They could swallow their pride and go hire Walmart to get the job done. Yes, I know it would be a big disappointment to have to stoop to that level - but even <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/secrets/barcode.html">PBS has admitted to Walmart's expertise</a>. Perhaps Walmart could trade their expertise for an "Arkansas Anomaly" in the same spirit as the <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/82621-obama-healthcare-plan-nixes-ben-nelsons-cornhusker-kickback-deal">Cornhusker Kickback</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />T J Sawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260687428823173972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4215891199059198495.post-35893936426770392802013-11-23T10:49:00.001-08:002013-11-23T10:49:19.809-08:00ObamaCare - An I/T Project Out of Control or Something Worse?I chuckled when my neighbor sent me this picture of proposed new commemorative stamps.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOMUFOu6R4wVzM6YP9rnNbYVojoy6XgX93GlcCN00h1sM33e0nJoyXf22NPkOrpzskFtr7RXZKBSvXUGnErTDPJtVQBA265kWIBgEev_O5i4df1Flq9yfY-bL45WRhbn2kB14uKBaPB1Gv/s1600/Obamacare_Stamps_color.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOMUFOu6R4wVzM6YP9rnNbYVojoy6XgX93GlcCN00h1sM33e0nJoyXf22NPkOrpzskFtr7RXZKBSvXUGnErTDPJtVQBA265kWIBgEev_O5i4df1Flq9yfY-bL45WRhbn2kB14uKBaPB1Gv/s320/Obamacare_Stamps_color.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
I continue to marvel at the media's fascination - but woeful innocence and ignorance on display as an I/T project displays all of the classic signs of total mis-management. (There is a reason we quit calling it the "MIS Department" - staffed, of course, with MIS-managers!)<br />
<br />
When <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/19/obamacare-report_n_4299919.html">this chart went up in the CMS conference room back in April</a>,<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh222O37a9kyyp7BV1OPwQSisAqdXSgmuXdsOUeKG4oZ4X5X_U-YwIv3JuEqcFPIToryoB6yzHXyxvdJK2VUxsHGgnaEvkUHQPHZ0GDNExWozLnQC7QBiHKd1Q-K6jwS22KxROyNMUibGcn/s1600/McKinsey0287.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh222O37a9kyyp7BV1OPwQSisAqdXSgmuXdsOUeKG4oZ4X5X_U-YwIv3JuEqcFPIToryoB6yzHXyxvdJK2VUxsHGgnaEvkUHQPHZ0GDNExWozLnQC7QBiHKd1Q-K6jwS22KxROyNMUibGcn/s320/McKinsey0287.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
wasn't there anyone in the room that stood up, picked up a marker, drew a circle on the screen and yelled, "This F---ing S--- has got to stop or we're going to have the biggest disaster on our hands since Prohibition!"<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdvVI3-ljQE_3C-42IvjZElXhWpEUY4ExgJtnxacJOixvMJt9buZzciWXKqZsRK0fuZqAWsy4hsXEO_LllfX74yvCtgDFNZTdUP5odNhourKbKUZ-SK0-8195egCNVBPPAkzCDGcggb94s/s1600/McKinsey0287-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdvVI3-ljQE_3C-42IvjZElXhWpEUY4ExgJtnxacJOixvMJt9buZzciWXKqZsRK0fuZqAWsy4hsXEO_LllfX74yvCtgDFNZTdUP5odNhourKbKUZ-SK0-8195egCNVBPPAkzCDGcggb94s/s320/McKinsey0287-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Wow!<br />
<br />
Well, good luck to anyone that thinks this thing is going to be running on November 30. After all, they are still defining policy and requirements.<br />
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<br />T J Sawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260687428823173972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4215891199059198495.post-52252989445998074292013-11-19T23:48:00.000-08:002013-11-20T00:12:06.698-08:00Why Were So Many Newpaper and Magazine Articles So Strongly in Favor of Obamacare?Even allowing for the normal leftward tilt of most news media, the unrestrained enthusiasm for the Affordable Care Act caught me by surprise at first.<br />
<br />
I thought I had it figured out. Newspaper writers, at heart, mostly want to be the next great American author. Think Ernest Hemingway, reprised. Of course, most or our current reporters don't have Hemingway's courage and are unlikely to leave their newspaper desk and head off to front lines of some war raging in, say, Africa. In fact, they are unlikely to abandon any job that then puts then outside of the boundaries of that critical corporate fringe benefit, Health Insurance. Looking around the newsroom at a great many empty desks and noting the declining circulation numbers on the bulletin board must surely strike fear into many hearts. "What will I do for health insurance, if I get the axe next?"<br />
<br />
And that, I decided, meant that mandatory issue and subsidized premiums would be pushed by the media, with any thoughts of conflict of interest swiftly swept under the rug.<br />
<br />
But I had never really thought about the large number of journalists that already function as freelancers. <u>And clearly, the Obama Administration never had either!</u> As the tiny minority of (a few million) people in the Individual Marketplace began receiving their cancellation notices for existing policies, a surprising number have turned out to be writers who had already (voluntarily or involuntarily) taken the plunge into the freelance pool. And, damn! Some of them are pretty good writers.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://observer.com/2013/11/my-obamacare-cancellation/">Bruce Barcott, in this article</a> published in The New York Observer, might not be Hemingway - but he can sure tell a story. The article is worth reading in its entirety just to get to the accountant/lawyer's description of how to supply a correct "monthly income" on the Washington State ACA Exchange.<br />
<br />
For these writers, already in the Individual Marketplace, a great fear has been cancellation. And now, as Nancy Pelosi hoped, we have found out what was in the bill. <br />
<br />T J Sawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260687428823173972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4215891199059198495.post-83840917801902307452013-11-15T08:50:00.000-08:002013-11-15T08:50:08.561-08:00Substandard RadioI was listening to NPR late yesterday afternoon. I know, that doesn't sound like me, but there aren't many choices of radio station near Danbury, Wisconsin, after sunset. And, besides, WOJB has some of <a href="http://tunein.com/radio/WOJB-889-s21700/">the best music in the country</a> - in between those bizarre news screeds. <br />
<br />
As I listened to their half-hour news summary I was struck by how the mellow-voiced reader seemed unable to say "cancelled insurance plan" without inserting the word "substandard" into the phrase!<br />
<br />
When NPR gets their talking points and marching orders, they really get with the program.<br />
<br />
I wonder if anyone in the Obama Administration or at NPR realizes that when they call insurance "substandard," <a href="http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/substandard-insurance.asp">they are insulting the purchaser</a> and not the policy!T J Sawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260687428823173972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4215891199059198495.post-46105192096252207492013-10-31T08:18:00.000-07:002013-10-31T08:18:07.131-07:00Do You Remember Harry and Louise?<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt31nhleeCg">Harry and Louise</a> prevented the government takeover of health care with a simple conversation at their table back in 1993-94. They <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/11/opinion/11krugman.html">drove Paul Krugman nuts</a>. (Google returns 215,000 hits for 'Paul Krugman Insane')<br />
<br />
So, how did a community organizer from Chicago manage to overcome this clever marketing campaign when he wanted to be the health insurance king? <a href="http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/103013-677356-the-phony-keep-your-plan-promise-was-key-to-getting-obamacare-enacted-webhed-obamacare-was-built-on-keep-your-plan-lie.htm">Investors Business Daily tells the story here</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
So when President Obama decided to take another stab at health care, he
was determined to avoid that pitfall. He endlessly promised in the most
emphatic way possible that under his plan, Harry and Louise would have
nothing to worry about.<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
</blockquote>
T J Sawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260687428823173972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4215891199059198495.post-70223186373623686752013-10-27T22:08:00.000-07:002013-10-27T22:08:14.366-07:00Two More Thoughtful Analyses of the Obamacare WebsiteA few thoughtful people are now beginning to offer analysis of the Healthcare.gov debacle.<br />
<a href="http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/10/from-the-comments-dan-hanson-on-aca.html"><br /></a>
<a href="http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/10/from-the-comments-dan-hanson-on-aca.html">A commenter over on Marginal Revolution</a> submitted this insight:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
When you even contemplate bringing an old legacy system into a
large-scale web project, you should do load testing on that system as
part of the feasibility process before you ever write a line of
production code, because if those old servers can’t handle the load,
your whole project is dead in the water if you are forced to rely on
them. </blockquote>
Ah, the wisdom of experience! Perhaps the <u>desired</u> design is not possible. Let's find out first before we head down this path.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, <a href="http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/the-obamacare-suitsgeeks-divide/">Arnold Kling has the same gut reaction that I did</a>.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
There is zero chance that rewriting five million lines of code is the
answer. Either the solution is a lot simpler or there is no solution
other than to start over.</blockquote>
As I noted a couple of posts down, not much new has been learned about managing software projects since Fred Brooks experience in the 1960s. He concludes his analysis with this helpful advice:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
For Christmas, someone should give President Obama and Secretary Sebelius a copy of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Mythical-Man-Month-Engineering-Anniversary/dp/0201835959">The Mythical Man-month</a>.</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
</blockquote>
T J Sawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260687428823173972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4215891199059198495.post-21463738950784219732013-10-23T00:10:00.000-07:002013-10-23T00:10:00.541-07:00Do People Think Before They Comment?<div class="entry-title">
I visited RETROREPORT yesterday following a link to a post titled, "<a href="http://retroreport.org/taking-the-lid-off-the-mcdonalds-coffee-case/#comments">Taking the Lid Off the McDonald’s Coffee Case</a>."</div>
<div class="entry-title">
<br /></div>
<div class="entry-title">
It's about the 1992 lawsuit in which McDonald's lost a $2.9 million dollar judgement to Stella Liebeck, a 79 year-old lady burned by a cup of hot coffee. </div>
<div class="entry-title">
<br /></div>
<div class="entry-title">
I was struck by this comment within the post:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="entry-title">
(Jurors) also learned that McDonald’s had received nearly 700 complaints
about hot coffee burns in the almost 10 years before Stella’s trial.
But those details went mostly unreported ...</div>
</blockquote>
<div class="entry-title">
Whoa! That fact was in the papers. I could remember it from 21 years ago - I couldn't have recalled the exact number, but I knew there were plenty. I know I pointed it out to lots of people at the time. Off to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stella_Liebeck">Wikipedia</a>. Yes, the Wikipedia article cites the 700 complaints. Where did they find it? On the front page (p. A1) of the Wall Street Journal for Sept 1, 1994. Not exactly hidden.</div>
<div class="entry-title">
<br /></div>
<div class="entry-title">
Think nobody reads the Journal? Well, it's not as popular among young folks as Jon Stewart. But it does have <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/01/newspaper-circulation-top-10_n_3188612.html">the largest circulation</a> of any paper in the country. And, it beats almost everything else in the 18-49 demographic.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjwNfDHyRGC5Fo8CirOpAOumO3dFijX4EA335JPBhGyqTBXUERLeqKQcBzZSAS-Tv8LughqpzQLgw0adnv-fO_4MvfbdD2XAiCyOqf6Rj0EzjM0hKjcD410iB27fNcl3SGBqAMQ2_5S8Me/s1600/NewsReadership.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjwNfDHyRGC5Fo8CirOpAOumO3dFijX4EA335JPBhGyqTBXUERLeqKQcBzZSAS-Tv8LughqpzQLgw0adnv-fO_4MvfbdD2XAiCyOqf6Rj0EzjM0hKjcD410iB27fNcl3SGBqAMQ2_5S8Me/s400/NewsReadership.png" width="172" /></a></div>
<div class="entry-title">
So, having knocked down the main premise of the post, let's go the comments section.</div>
<div class="entry-title">
<br /></div>
<div class="entry-title">
You have to love someone who says this:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="entry-title">
<br />
Liebeck argues this coffee was a defective product under federal code because it was way too hot. ...</div>
</blockquote>
<div class="entry-title">
OMG! Is there a federal code for the temperature of coffee? If so, who enforces it? How do they enforce it?<br />
<br />
But wait a minute. Even with over 700 complaints about hot coffee, we don't read of any fatalities. Not so <a href="http://houston.cbslocal.com/2012/05/14/man-dies-from-heart-attack-while-getting-lap-dance-at-strip-club/">with this activity</a>. So, shouldn't there be some federal regulation to control the intensity of lap dances? It seems like something the coffee inspectors could do in the evenings when there is little coffee to inspect. Perhaps they could monitor the pulse of the patrons for danger signals.<br />
<br />
And just to put your mind at ease, from that earlier Wikipedia article we learn this:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Retailers today sell coffee as hot or hotter than the coffee that burned Stella Liebeck.</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="entry-title">
</div>
<div class="entry-title">
<br /></div>
<div class="entry-title">
<br /></div>
<div class="entry-title">
<br /></div>
T J Sawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260687428823173972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4215891199059198495.post-51763590319930594292013-10-21T08:46:00.000-07:002013-10-21T08:46:20.304-07:00ObamaCare has HOW MANY Lines of Code?Healthcare.gov continues to amaze.<br />
<br />
This morning's headlines contained this gem:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<tt><b><tt><b><i><a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/361743/healthcaregov-needs-five-million-code-lines-rewritten-andrew-johnson">5 million lines of software code needs to be rewritten...</a></i></b></tt></b></tt></blockquote>
That link takes us to a National Review site that then cites <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/21/us/insurance-site-seen-needing-weeks-to-fix.html?pagewanted=1&hp&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1382360696-C9lu3hmVQ/FhR9e%20dVRCUQ">this New York Times article</a> which, among other things, says:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="article-all-paragraphs articleBody" style="clear: left;">
One specialist said that as many as five million lines of software code
may need to be rewritten before the Web site runs properly.</span> </blockquote>
Five Million? Really? It gets better:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="article-all-paragraphs articleBody" style="clear: left;">According
to one specialist, the Web site contains about 500 million lines of
software code. By comparison, a large bank’s computer system is
typically about one-fifth that size. </span></blockquote>
The mind boggles. I've only been writing code since 1962 so maybe I don't have the experience necessary to judge the veracity of these estimates. But, why not let an old guy supply a memory dump at this point.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXPhYtp9k_y65B6rWtPdWMkn1joKY4GC_gHbC6RftpBrCUz1vNbAvslCYrgQ4-E-Q_jH-8m8Ug8cpyNwLbk_ScTajW1iBWCUx1tlVDwdYNZOKgtLoHr2SNHvOUJA_VkNxKBDkFimj2mXg3/s1600/Hangar_One_at_Moffett_Field_1963.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
<ul>
<li>In the early spring of 1972 I decided to leave graduate school at the University of Minnesota and go to work for a living. I interviewed for a job at a company in St. Paul running ads in the Minneapolis paper. The name, long forgotten. They had at least one programming standard: "nine hundred lines of debugged code per programmer per month." Lines of Code (LOC) is probably the worst measure even introduced to any discipline (discipline is a term I use cautiously when discussing programming.) <a href="http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/07/diseconomies-of-scale-and-lines-of-code.html">See this for a discussion</a>. I drove home laughing. "Wow, are those people going to get some big programs!"<br /></li>
<li>When IBM introduced the System/360 in the early 1960s the Operating System and other software was almost an afterthought. Well, not quite. It was a collection of programs designed to fulfill all of those Marketing promises. "Yes, we have a COBOL compiler that will run on your 32K, multiprogramming, IBM 360 model 30." IBM nearly went bankrupt, more than a few developers suffered nervous breakdowns and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month">Fred Brooks was able to distill it all down into a single classic book on managing software development</a>. By the way, nobody ever compiled COBOL on a 32K System 360. And nine women still can't produce a baby in one month!<br /></li>
<li>My only personal contact with System 360 software development came in the early summer of 1967. I was interviewing for a job with IBM near San Jose, California. After flying in to SFO, I rented a car and drove down the uncrowded freeway south past the cornfields to pick up my interview schedule from Personnel (Human Resources hadn't been invented yet). One session was at the site where the 360 Assembler was being supported. I'm sure the facility was temporary and has long since been abandoned. The hiring manager showed me what took place. Problems with the assembler from the field were sent to this facility. He picked one up. A large plastic bag contained a listing on 11"x14" green-bar paper, a deck of punched card wrapped with a rubber band and a two page problem description. His staff read and analyzed the contents of these bags which were <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abnormal_end">abends</a> from the field that couldn't be handled at the local offices. How many were there? I didn't ask - I should have. It would make an interesting historical footnote. But I did realize that this converted warehouse or aircraft hanger had a lot of cubicles. At one point, I stood on my tiptoes and looked out above the six-foot partitions. It was cubicles as far as the eye could see.<br /><br />It wasn't this building <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moffett_Federal_Airfield">at Moffett Field</a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXPhYtp9k_y65B6rWtPdWMkn1joKY4GC_gHbC6RftpBrCUz1vNbAvslCYrgQ4-E-Q_jH-8m8Ug8cpyNwLbk_ScTajW1iBWCUx1tlVDwdYNZOKgtLoHr2SNHvOUJA_VkNxKBDkFimj2mXg3/s1600/Hangar_One_at_Moffett_Field_1963.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXPhYtp9k_y65B6rWtPdWMkn1joKY4GC_gHbC6RftpBrCUz1vNbAvslCYrgQ4-E-Q_jH-8m8Ug8cpyNwLbk_ScTajW1iBWCUx1tlVDwdYNZOKgtLoHr2SNHvOUJA_VkNxKBDkFimj2mXg3/s320/Hangar_One_at_Moffett_Field_1963.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />But it might as well have been.</li>
</ul>
I think of that interview any time I read about a major-league software disaster or drive anywhere in San Jose area.<br />
<br />
So:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.ciozone.com/index.php/Server-Technology-Zone/The-Mainframe-The-Dinosaur-That-Wouldn-t-Die.html">OS/360 had between one and ten million lines</a> of code</li>
<li>Microsoft Windows has grown well beyond the <a href="http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/07/diseconomies-of-scale-and-lines-of-code.html">ten to fifty million line range</a>.</li>
<li>Banking systems go over a hundred million lines and HealthCare,gov goes to five hundred million?</li>
</ul>
I wish I had a nickle for every development tool and technique that "reduced coding effort to a fraction of its previous size." Third-Generation Languages - Fourth-Generation Languages - CASE Tools - Object-Oriented-Programming. The list goes on and on.<br />
<br />
But, apparently, the standard productivity output remains <a href="http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/07/diseconomies-of-scale-and-lines-of-code.html">less than a thousand lines</a> of debugged code per programmer per month. But after fifty years of progress, it now takes 500 million lines to build a system instead of a few thousand. Here's to progress!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
T J Sawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260687428823173972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4215891199059198495.post-56385272161846650012013-10-20T22:27:00.002-07:002013-10-20T22:27:55.305-07:00Consumer Reports on ObamacareWhat marvelous entertainment ObamaCare is providing!<br />
<br />
Here are a few quotes from<a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303680404579143343379804228">
an article on-line in the WSJ </a>on Friday.<br />
<br />
First benefit - Vocabulary expansion.<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
The problems run much deeper than even critics expected,
and whatever federal officials, White House aides and outside
contractors are doing to fix them isn't working. But who knows?
Omerta is the word of the day ...<br />
</blockquote>
Omerta? <a href="http://www.thefreedictionary.com/omerta">Here's a
link to an on-line dictionary</a>.<br />
<br />
The article continues:<br />
<blockquote>
The department is also refusing to make available
lower-level officials who might detail the source or sources of
this debacle. Ducking an investigation with spin is one thing.
Responding with a wall of silence to the invitation of a duly
elected congressional body probing the use of more than half a
billion taxpayer dollars is another. This Obama crowd is something
else.</blockquote>
But wait. Weren't we promised "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXWTdTnhebs">open honest and
transparent government</a>?"<br />
<br />
Well, there are on-line systems that do work. In the old days, a
Friday article like that would be lucky to prompt a Monday response
in the Letters to the Editor. Now, from the comments, we can
instantly enjoy creative writing like this:<br />
<blockquote>
Physician: "What have you done to your knee?"<br />
Sebelius: "I was running really fast from the American people...
they had pitchforks and torches!"<br />
Physician: "Well you blew out your knee... you'll need a
replacement."<br />
Sebelius: "Oh my, when can you schedule me in?"<br />
Physician: "Well, I'm afraid that Kenyan Kare declines knee
replacements for anyone over 65."<br />
Sebelius: "Do you know who I am???"<br />
Physiciann: "I can offer you some Ibuprophen... that will be
$800.00" "Next..."</blockquote>
<br />
I see now that "The Best and the Brightest" techies <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/2013/1020/Best-and-brightest-techies-drafted-to-fix-Obamacare-computer-glitches">are
being brought in</a> to resolve the problems. Will we discover
that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks%27s_law">after
almost forty years, Brooks Law</a> has been repealed? Stay tuned.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, there is<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/cameronkeng/2013/10/02/obamacare-affordable-care-act-is-not-an-insurance-or-healthcare-problem/">
lots of advice that the penalty for not having health insurance by
January 1 is $95</a>. Oops! <a href="http://davefluker.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-mythical-95-obamacare-penalty.html">
It's actually 1% of income</a> with a minimum of $95. For a
$50,000 income, that's $500. Better news. Next year it goes to 2%!
<br />
And here's the official <a href="http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2013/10/tips-for-creating-heathcare-gov-acount/index.htm">advice
from Consumer Reports</a> after telling you that you might have to
clear your cookies or switch browsers to complete your sign-on to HealthCare.gov:<br />
<blockquote>
If all this is too much for you to absorb, follow our
previous advice: Stay away from Healthcare.gov for at least
another month if you can. Hopefully that will be long enough for
its software vendors to clean up the mess they’ve made.<br />
<br />
<br />
</blockquote>
T J Sawyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260687428823173972noreply@blogger.com0