Me, Mac Pundit. Also: Tesseracts!

Another stellar example of my Mac punditry. But I should have used the word "tesseract." Damn. Apropos of just about nothing, I made a model of a tesseract in the sixth grade out of modeling clay and toothpicks. I was under the influence of Heinlein's "And He Built a Crooked House" at the time. It's a fun 1948 story about architecture and topology.

The amazing disappearing base station

Tom and I are doing the last minute once-over for our presentation tomorrow, and he decides that he needs to double-check the price on Apple's base stations. It's a good thing he did, too. If you go to the AirPort Extreme Technical Specifications page, Apple says that they've got two base stations: M8799LL/A (with modem and antenna port) and M9397LL/A (with Power over Ethernet support and conformance to UL 2043). But... if you go to the Apple Store, they only sell one base station — no more POE. Taking a further look around, it's not on either the Education store or the closeouts page. So what's up?

Tom just gave Apple a call and they confirmed what the store implies: yep, it's been discontinued. So, if you need an AirPort Extreme base station with POE, go grab it from Amazon while they're still available.

The RNC Senseless Census

Dori (who used to be a registered Republican; she registered GOP in order to vote for McCain in 2000, and didn't get around to re-registering as a Dem until this year) got a fundraising pitch from the Republican National Committee today. It contains this laughable "census" of opinions, including such unbiased questions as "Do you support President Bush's initiatives to promote the safety and security of all Americans?" Well, no. We love filling these things out and using their Business Reply Envelopes to send them back. The last question was especially enjoyable: "Will you give us money?" and we checked "No, I favor electing liberal Democrats over the next ten years." Yes, that really was the option they presented. Then we made the envelope as heavy as possible and dropped it into the mailbox. Hey, maybe we could have pasted it to a brick...

Safari eBooks on loan

Speaking of libraries (see below post), Miraz reports that her local library (in Wellington, NZ) offers a new-to-me benefit: a free subscription to O'Reilly's Safari Bookshelf. So, why can't I get that as part of my Sonoma County library access? You'd think that O'Reilly would have better contacts here than they would with a library system half a world away.

BTW, Safari isn't just O'Reilly books: all or most of our Peachpit books can be found there, too. It's worth checking out (although Peachpit really ought to get their act together and put the 5^th edition of our JavaScript book up; Safari still only has the 4^th).

Library Lookup bookmarklet

Okay, this is way slick: LibraryLookup (Build your own bookmarklet). If you're in Sonoma County, the answers are "http://catalog.sonomalibrary.org/" and "iPac". The bad news is that it currently doesn't work for me, as I'm already at my library's max limit of 30 books on hold. I guess I need to read faster!

The Edge of the Fringe

We're big fans of the Electoral Vote Predictor site, and today they had a special treat: a link to a page that lists all of the third-party and fringe candidates for President. You'll find info there on twelve niche candidates, ranging from the Prohibition Party (they split into factions, and actually have two nominees), to the Socialist Workers Party (the President and VP nominees are both constitutionally inelegible to serve), to the Peace & Freedom Party (their nominee is a convicted murderer serving a life sentence in Leavenworth; he's only on the ballot in California).

So I mentioned this to Dori, and she said "Hey, what about the Natural Law Party?" They're one of our favorites, because they believe that if everyone just starts doing Trancendental Meditation, the world will become groovier and more peaceful. Turns out that John Hagelin, their perennial candidate, decided not to run for President this year, and in fact has shut down the national Natural Law Party. Instead, he's proclaimed himself President of the US Peace Government, a shadow "government" whose "mission is to prevent social violence, terrorism and war, and to promote peace and harmony throughout the world." See, that's why we like these guys: they think big.

On the Road Again...

Normally, I have to chew Tom out about not doing enough self-promotion, but this time it's me falling down on the job. I just looked at our calendar and noticed that the two of us are doing a heck of a lot of public speaking in the next four months, but I hadn't mentioned it here. To fix that, I've thrown a list of them over in the right hand nav bar for your future browsing pleasure.

For you folks with news readers, you just need to know that you can come see one or both of us at NCMUG's MCE, MacNexus (Sacramento MUG), North Bay Multimedia Web SIG, Sonoma County Web Developer's SIG, O'Reilly Mac OS X Con, and finally, Macworld Expo. Whew. It's going to be a busy few months.

Which doesn't mean that we don't want to come and talk to your group—if you want us to come visit, just drop us a line. And of course, if you make it to any of the listed events, please say hi!

George Bush is a Weak Man

George Bush is a weak man. Read this excellent analysis of Bush from Al Gore. Now, you may, especially if you're a White House mouthpiece, snark "Consider the source." But Gore's take on Bush has a key virtue: it fits all of the available facts. A quote:

The real distinction of this Presidency is that, at its core, he is a very weak man. He projects himself as incredibly strong, but behind closed doors he is incapable of saying no to his biggest financial supporters and his coalition in the Oval Office. He's been shockingly malleable to Cheney and Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz and the whole New American Century bunch. He was rolled in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. He was too weak to resist it.

Mozilla cookie problem

On the off-chance that anyone else is having this same problem, and is also tearing their hair out...

Problem: you're running a Mozilla-based browser (Firefox, Mozilla, Camino, Netscape, etc.) and it's writing out some cookies but not others. Attempting to step through the code shows no errors; the browser simply never sets the cookie, causing the cookie to never be written out.

Solution: the expiration date for the cookie is being set via getYear(). Mozilla-based browsers brokenly think that that currently evaluates to 104. If you, for instance, add 1 to it, your year is 105. It then knows that that year is in the past, and doesn't bother to try to set a cookie with an already-expired date. Use getFullYear() instead, and you'll have the full four-digit year you'd expect from any intelligent browser. Or use getMonth() and add 12; that'll work on both current browsers and the old ones that don't have getFullYear().

There's a couple of hours of my life I'll never see again. And yes, Tom, I did update the book's errata page.

I Am a Threat to Your Health Care

I am a threat to your health care.

Actually, Dori and I are. Let me explain. About a year ago, we were informed that we would be losing our health insurance, which we've had for about 10 years. Our current provider, Cigna HMO, decided to get out of the individual health insurance business. So we've been casting about for an alternative, and we discovered that basically, all of those alternatives suck. We're mainly healthy people, but because of our past medical problems, the individual insurance providers with decent pricing (HealthNet, PacificCare) refuse to cover us at all. This is known in the trade as "cherry-picking" the healthy patients. The providers that might cover us (we ended up not going through the medical ratings process) would charge close to double what Dori and I have been paying.

Panic was starting to set in when we found a group plan, Media Alliance, that we qualified for and could join. We're thrilled to be covered at all, let me say that up front. But the only affordable plan for us was something new, courtesy of the Bush Administration. It's a combination of a high-deductible insurance plan (HDIP) and something called a Health Savings Account (HSA). The HDIP has a combined deductible of $3,700 per year. That comes out of our pockets before the insurance kicks in at all. In other words, because we don't have that much in the way of regular medical expenses, we now get to pay for all of our normal doctor visits, tests, and prescriptions out of pocket. Most years, we'll pay the $400/month insurance premiums and get no costs paid in return. Plus, we get additional burdens in the form of needing to keep track of expenses we incur that may add up to the deductible.

The offset is that we are opening up an HSA. Think "medical IRA" and you're most of the way there. We contribute cash to the HSA, up to the limit of the annual deductible (that $3,700 again). HSA contributions are tax-deductible, and we can use them to pay for any out-of-pocket medical expenses, again tax-free. So using pre-tax money to pay for those expenses lessens the sting a bit, but not much. Like an IRA, you can use an HSA as either a savings account or an investment vehicle. The net result of all this is that we will end up paying more money for significantly worse coverage and deal with lots more paperwork. And this was the best coverage we could find.

OK, now about how we're a threat to your health care. Turns out that HSA's, if they become widespread, will accelerate the increase of health insurance premiums (as well as being terrible fiscal policy), and could eventually lead to the demise of the current insurance system. This report, Health Savings Accounts Pose Threats Both To Long-Term Fiscal Policy And To The Employer-Based Health Insurance System, gives the gory details. We try to live our lives in ways that won't harm others. But we've been forced into making this unpalatable choice. Me, I'm still for single-payer, socialized medicine. The irony is that HSA's may speed that day, by helping to destroy the employer-based system.

Navistar CXT

Four+ years ago, I made fun of a joke proposed SUV, the Kenworth Pilgrimage. Sadly, it appears that someone's actually going to build such a monstrosity: the Navistar CXT.

At 258 inches, or 21-1/2 feet long, the CXT is about 4-1/2 feet longer than the new Hummer H2 pickup, and about 2 inches longer than the F-350 Crew Cab.

But the way it really towers over what's on the road now is in height. At 108 inches, or 9 feet, the CXT stands only a foot below a basketball rim and more than two feet above the Hummer or the F-350.

To answer your questions: 6-10 miles/gallon (diesel); $93-115,000; 100% tax deductible.

Huzzah! The G5 Arrives

Well, it only took three months since I placed the order: I just heard that my Dual 2.5 GHz G5 has been delivered to our local UPS Store. I'll be going to get it soon, whereupon I'll stuff in the 1 GB of RAM I bought and run Apple's Hardware Test program overnight before I transfer data from the Dual 1 GHz G4. That machine will be on eBay soon, by the way; I'll post a mention here when it goes up.

George W. Bush: Flip-Flopper

George W. Bush is a flip-flopper. The rap on Kerry is that he takes multiple positions on every question. But what about Bush? For a guy they spin as steely and resolute, he spins like a top. Here are twelve examples. To these, I'd add: refused to let Rice testify before the 9/11 commission, then relented; refused to negotiate with North Korea to reduce nuclear arms, then changed his mind. When Kerry changes his mind, it's a character flaw; when Bush changes his mind, it's somehow not worth notice.

George W. Bush: Coward

George W. Bush is a coward. Specific examples — and by no means a complete list — of Bush's cowardice in office. Despite GOP hagiography, Bush can't sweep away what we know about him. He is despicable.

Nader campaigns in swing states

From Nader Says He'll Take On Democrats In Swing States:

In what could become a worst-case scenario for Democrats, Ralph Nader announced plans to launch a spirited new phase to his independent candidacy in swing states Thursday. At the same time, he is suggesting that part of its purpose would be to retaliate against Democrats who had fought his candidacy.

And his specifically targeting Kerry helps democracy how? I'd appreciate it if any Nader supporters could help answer that one... but I won't be holding my breath.

The Lord Giveth, and the Lord Smites Yer Ass

Back in 1974, I worked briefly at KTBN, the station that later became the Trinity Broadcasting Network. I was a volunteer cameraman for their nightly Praise the Lord show. They had gone on the air a few months earlier, and things were pretty loose there. After all, where else in the LA market would they have allowed a 17 year old kid like me to run camera live on the air? I was simultaneously interning at KOCE, the local PBS affiliate, so I knew what a professional TV station's operations were like.

Things at KTBN were, to say the least, unusual. The director was the owners' 13 year old son; you would hear him give commands like "Camera 2, zoom in on my mom." The televangelists, Paul Crouch and his wife Jan, are well-known to people now, but at the time, I was a bit freaked out that a guy who looked so much like a used-car salesman, and his bubble-headed blonde wife who cried a lot, could actually be taken seriously by people as spiritual guides. And their viewers gave a heck of a lot of money, too. I was at both stations when they did a telethon; let's just say that the PBS station would have thought they had died and gone to heaven if they had raised as much money as the preachers did. Anyway, the KTBN folks always preceded the nightly broadcast with a prayer meeting for the crew, where we would join hands and ask Jesus to bless the broadcast. At one of these meetings, they told me that the chief engineer had fixed the microwave link to the transmitter a few weeks earlier by going up on the roof and praying at the dish. Oooo-kay. When they noticed that I wasn't that enthusiastic about jumping for Jesus, the floor director asked me point-blank if I had been born again. I admitted that I thought once was enough, and in a burst of Christian charity, they told me they would no longer require my services.

This reminiscence was triggered by a news story, Televangelist Paul Crouch Attempts to Keep Accuser Quiet, which details the guy's alleged homosexual affair. If true (and he's already paid $425,000 in hush money, so I'd guess it is), he joins the ranks of televangelist hypocrisy. Care to bet that there's been more than a little gay-bashing on TBN over the years?