TaxFreedom Not What it Seems

Last year I discovered a way to file my federal income tax return electronically for free using the online income tax forms on the intriguingly-titled website http://www.taxfreedom.com. (Please see this post.) This year Intuit improved the website to support non-IE browsers. But it also imposed a fee for individual taxpayers whose adjusted gross income is greater than $50,000.00.

This fee seems to flow down from the IRS. It's discussed on their Free File page.

Intuit offers two other options. The first is called "Essentials," which costs $9.95. The second is "Deluxe," which costs $19.95 ($39.95 after March 31.)

Unfortunately, after I filled out the free form and was ready to submit the data, Intuit informed me I'd have to upgrade to the "Deluxe" version. It didn't offer "Essentials" as an option.

I suppose it might have something to do with the complexity of the return. I needed to enter some extra 1099 forms of an unusual nature. And as a home owner, I chose to itemize deductions. I later found out that a $9.95 package can be used only for 1040EZ returns.

Well, I need to use an online service. I have little choice. Microsoft stopped supporting Windows NT 4.0 quite a while ago. As a result, tax preparation software no longer supports Windows NT. And paying an H & R Block moonlighter $200 to enter data into their program is an outrage.

Anyway, good luck with your tax-filing endeavors!

One Step Closer to the Computerized Brain?

In testing my link to IEEE Spectrum, I was intrigued by this month's feature article, Psychiatry's Shocking New Tools, by Samuel K. Moore. The article describes how "electronic implants and electromagnetic pulses are picking up where psychoactive drugs have failed."

Medical science is still in the dark ages as far as I'm concerned. True it's not unscientific to poke at something in a systematic way and observe a result. If it can be repeated enough times, a scientist can establish a new method for obtaining that result. But this is terribly inefficient and inelegant. How long will it be before we know how the brain works and can correct the root causes of mental illness?

The new tools described in the article seem to be nothing more than modern day leaches and lobotomies. I can't wait to see what eventually "picks up where electronic implants and electromagnetic pulses fail."

Bogged Down Blog

Why is this blog so devoid of new articles? My head is full of ideas. But my calendar is full of _____ .

Yet I've struggled to keep the sidebar up-to-date, especially the reading list. Today I'm excited to announce two blog-like items for the list: a link to Clair Ching's tech blog and a link to editorials by Robert Lucky.

Robert Lucky is the Art Buchwald of electrical engineering's flagship periodical Spectrum. If you have the time, I encourage you to read his latest column, "Wordsmithing." It's real. It's funny. It's crazy. It's life as an engineer.

And what of Clair Ching? Well, I came across many of her posts in the emacs-wiki-discuss list and finally decided to check out her blog. When I read Getting acquainted with stuff on the CLI: Mplayer, my heart went pitter-patter with devotion. Could she be my soul mate? Don't tell my wife.

Introducing The Luddite Geek Award for Dubious Design

I was so inspired by reading "The Darwin Awards III: Survival of the Fittest," by Wendy Northcutt, I decided to launch my own award.

But I was even more inspired by the first award winner, the Bissell ProHeat 8910 Series upright carpet cleaner, which I purchased in October.

This machine is compact and economically priced. With the cost of 1/2 day rentals approaching $45, this thing would pay for itself after four uses. It includes an upholstery kit that can also be used on stairs. The website proudly displays the Consumers Digest Best Buy award.

So what's the problem?

The tank-in-tank, which enables the machine to be sleek and compact, is the problem. The tank-in-tank is clever, really. A flexible bladder sits inside a rigid tank. Fill the bladder with clean hot water. It expands when full and slowly shrinks as the water is used up and while waste water is dumped into the rigid tank.

At least, that's what it's supposed to do. Unfortunately, the bladder becomes permanently deformed from hot tap water. Once it's deformed, you need a funnel to fill it because the opening has shrunk. And it can hold only about a quart of water, enough to do about eight square feet.

When I complained about this to their customer service department, I was told that the maximum recommended water temperature is 120 degrees Fahrenheit. (By comparison, our home's hot water runs a bit hotter, because we use a dishwasher and heat our home with hot water. It's set to between 180 and 195 degrees.) I requested a new bladder made from a better heat-resistant material. They didn't have that. I explained that the manual doesn't mention any maximum temperature. (And if you check out the web page, it still says that it "...heats hot tap water up to 25 degrees hotter....") We compromised. I settled with them sending me a new tank-in-tank for free. So I cannot complain about customer service, at least.

Now I still have a bad feeling about the cleaner and the company. I can't help it. How am I supposed to make sure the water I put into the bladder isn't too hot? What troubles me even more is what kind of engineer or product designer would consider 120 degree water to be hot? I guess this is the result of out-sourcing. It was probably designed in some village where the water is heated with camel dung.

Is Engineering Boring?

Lately I've begun to think that maybe engineering is a bit boring. I know that sounds funny to most of you. It's like a member of the bomb squad pondering whether defusing bombs is dangerous.

I associate the words "boring" and "engineering" to an undergraduate class I had with Professor Dourman. (Do I need to mention that's not his real name?) His first lecture seemed very promising. He motivated the course pretty well. But thereafter, the professor would deliver the entire lecture seated next to his desk, quietly reading his handwritten course notes that we all had a copy of.

At least half his students were completely asleep -- the kind of rock-solid, drool-on-the-chin variety of sleep that indicated either serious sleep deprivation or severe boredom. Miraculously, no one snored.

I don't think I ever lost consciousness in that class. I would dutifully fill a cup with steaming hot black coffee* beforehand. And I'd buy myself a large cookie to save for the last twenty minutes, should I still find myself awake by then. I had to time the eating of the cookie just right. If I ate it too soon, I'd most certainly crash before the end of the class from a sugar letdown. If I ate it too late... well, that wasn't ever going to happen, was it? After a month, I started bringing three cookies to the class. So I managed to stave off anything more comatose than a semi-hypnagogic state.


Now that I write about this class, I realize that it wasn't the most boring one. It turns out that the material the professor droned on about was novel and even a bit cool. The really boring classes were those in which I already knew the material.

I'd start the semester in one of these classes fully engaged, hoping to catch the professor's mistakes. But as the semester ground on, and as my workload from other courses increased, I would study other subjects or work on various term projects.

This problem, wherein lack of novelty leads to boredom, was actually a precursor to my current plight -- the ho-hum ordeal of supporting my employer's manufacturing department on the many dozens of products I designed over the last thirteen years.

I don't mind answering an occasional support question. But the product we make is highly specialized and difficult to manufacture. No two parts come out exactly the same. So each part needs to be honed (metaphorically speaking) by a skilled technician, who is supervised by a knowledgeable engineer. This is tedious.

I vacillate between INFP and INTP on the Myer-Briggs scale. I need to express myself creatively, and I need to do so in isolation from others. I do not care to make decisions or reach concrete conclusions. Deadlines don't concern me -- I sneer at them. I care much more about the process than about the outcome. And if I cannot learn while doing something, it's not worth doing.

So cut that manufacturing umbilical cord and let me loose on design work. I might just discover something great, like the meaning of Life, or better yet, how to make engineering exciting.


* The cafeteria sold a hot dark brown liquid that looked just like real coffee but tasted like you were sucking on the sharpened end of a pencil. If the caffeine failed to keep you awake, you could count on the taste to give you a jolt.

Just Say "No"

In one of the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" works, New York City is described as a place where it's best to answer "No" to three out of every four questions people ask you.* Douglas Adams wrote that back in the early eighties, well before the first "Windows" was released. Yet it applies so well to our modern day Windows operating systems.

Consider what you go through today to install software.

"You must agree to the following End User License Agreement. Blah blah blah... Do you agree?"

"Yes." [Replying no here means you can't install.]

"Would you like to install Active Desktop?"

"No!"

"Would you like to make this your default browser?"

"NO!"

"Would you like to sign up for our mailing list so that we may pester you with annoying HTML emails that contain web tags?"

"NO!!!"

See?

Now that End User License Agreement, or EULA, is a truely annoying thing. The difference between Spyware and "Legitmate" Spyware is that the latter comes with a license agreement that tells you that it monitors your activity and calls home about it. So it's important to at least skim through license agreements before agreeing to them.

And I do. I really do. But it's getting harder to find time to do this, especially since I use many programs that get updated once every few months.

So I was intrigued when I learned about a tool called EULAlyzer (which I first learned about from this CastleCops newsletter article) that "can analyze license agreements in seconds, and provide a detailed listing of potentially interesting words and phrases."

I plan to try it out just as soon as I finish reading its EULA. :)

------------------

* Well, I recently re-read all five books in DNA's HG2G trilogy. I came across the "answer 'no' to three out of every four questions people ask" idea in "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish". And it takes place in San Francisco, not New York (in which, I suspect, you'd be better off answering no to every seven out of eight questions...), when Arthur and the fetching Fenchurch travel all the way to visit Wonko the Sane. -LG 2006-03-04

Technology and Real Estate

Technology has played a big role in streamlining the process of buying a house. But that's not what this article is about. It's not a subject that interests me. And I don't know too much about it.

Rather more interesting is understanding how technology has changed the desirability or suitability of a house. Actually I don't know too much about this either, but it's fun to think about.

Let's start with the well-known real estate joke. You know the one: What are the three most important things to know in buying real estate? Location, location, location.

But it's no joke. Location is important. And historically, technology has had a tremendous impact on this. Consider how a boon in shipbuilding encouraged sea-faring communities to flourish and allowed colonization of foreign shores. Advances in rail transportation enabled settlers to spread west across the USA. The invention of the gasoline engine and discovery of oil reserves led to whole communities founded near oil wells and refineries.

Our needs for water, food and a temperate climate can be met with technology. The better it is, the more adverse conditions we can overcome.

Today we see major cities such as San Francisco developing wireless Internet infrastructures. This is done as part of a revitalization effort. An Internet user might save about $1000 each year in such a place. A smart home buyer will assess the quality of his cell phone reception when shopping for a new home.

Think about the place you live in. What do you like about the dwelling or area? Perhaps it's near a major highway, railway or busline? Maybe you can listen to several cool radio stations that come in clearly. Or maybe you're like me, you just appreciate reliable electricity and telecommunications services. If so, you can thank technology.

Technology or its after effects can make a location less desirable, too. Pollution can shut down entire communities, as in the case of Love Canal. Pollution also takes the form of excess light and noise, which detract from quality of life. The fear of cancer from electromagnetic radiation discourages people from buying homes near high voltage power lines, which, along with cell phone towers, are an eyesore.

Are there things you don't like about the place you live in? Is it so hazy that you can't see the stars at night? Are your neighbors making lots of noise on Saturday mornings with their lawn mowers and leaf blowers? Are the roads too congested and do they have too many red traffic lights? You can blame all this on technology.

Google Print Beta

John Moran wrote about Google Print in his most recent column. So I decided to give it a try.

First, I tried to search for an excerpt from the Quote du Jour. It would be nice to provide you with a link to the quote's context, I thought. I entered "Wonderfully ingenious" (sans quotes) into the textbox and clicked Search. I quickly got 1110 separate hits. But the first 40 were not from the Quote du Jour, and I got tired of clicking "Next."

So then I tried, "indicating the automatic ticket machines," which is another excerpt from the Quote du Jour, but I got only six hits, and no keepers.

I suppose one reason Google Print is in beta is because Google hasn't scanned in a complete set of printed material. Or perhaps the reason Google hasn't scanned in a more complete set of printed material is because the service is in beta.

Surely, they've scanned in the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" books. Well, I tried it out. I entered, "discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here." This returned 51 pages. The first four hits had the exact quote that I had in mind. Oddly, not one of them was from the Douglas Adams book that I obtained the quote from. Instead, the hits were for books that quoted the Douglas Adams sentence. One book, ""Encarta Book of Quotations," had a total of fourteen quotes from various books by Douglas Adams.

It's an impressive start. I hope Google continues to add content. It will tremendously enhance the World Wide Web.

Bankruptcy Law Fails to Keep Creditors in Line

NPR's report on the new bankruptcy legislation, which goes into effect in less than two hours, piqued my interest.

First, is the timing of the bill. Why now? People have been going bankrupt for years. But now that consumer debt is at an all-time high, and both inflation and interest rates are poised to increase, lenders are worried about losing their shorts unless bankruptcy laws are revised.

Second is how the report mentioned that consumer advocate groups opposed the legislation because it lets lenders off the hook. I agree. You'd think if a company were going to lend money to someone, it'd make sure the person seems responsible enough to pay back the loan. But that's not happening. Just sift through a week's worth of junk mail and count how many offers you get for home equity loans and credit cards. Lenders are saving money by failing to properly screen applicants, and now they've gotten the government to enforce payment.

What the bill/law should do is penalize the "worst" lenders in some way. Here's how. Whichever lender has the "most money" in default should be forced to forgive those debts. By "most money," I mean the highest ratio of money in default to total loan money in any given month. This makes it fair for large lenders.

So in November, when Capital One complains that it extended $1M to customers and $100K cannot be paid back, the government can respond, "Sorry, but no other company has anything as large as 10% of its loans in bankruptcy court. You're an irresponsible lender, and you're not entitled to get it back."

This might lead to a stalled economy. After all, our economy is fueled by irrational credit spending. But it might also lead to lenders that take an interest in its customers.

My Kind of PDA

This is right up my alley: ULTIMATE POCKET NOTEBOOK. Thank you Kathy Sierra for recommending it on your cool blog.

My Harry Potter Alter Ego

You scored as Severus Snape. Well you're a tricky one aren't you? Nobody quite has you figured out and you'd probably prefer it stayed that way. That said you are a formidable force by anyone's reckoning, but there is certainly more to you than a frosty exterior and a bitter temper.

Discover your Harry Potter alter ego

...created with QuizFarm.com

List of Books I've Read Recently

Click to jump to my LibaryThing catalog, which is up-to-date as of August 2008, or view the list below, which I've stopped maintaining in June.

Fiction

• "Warriors #1: Into the Wild" by Erin Hunter
• "The Truth: A Novel of Discworld" by Terry Pratchett
• "Time Flies" by Bill Cosby
• "Dave Barry's Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need," by Dave Barry
• "Hogfather: A Novel of Discworld" by Terry Pratchett
• "Dave Barry Is from Mars and Venus," by Dave Barry
• "Dave Barry's Money Secrets: Like: Why Is There a Giant Eyeball on the Dollar?" by Dave Barry
• "DON'T STAND TOO CLOSE TO A NAKED MAN" by Tim Allen
• "Dave Barry in Cyberspace" by Dave Barry
• "Shredderman: Enemy Spy," by Wendelin Van Draanen
• "Shredderman: Meet the Gecko," by Wendelin Van Draanen
• "Shredderman: Attack of the Tagger," by Wendelin Van Draanen
• "Shredderman: Secret Identity," by Wendelin Van Draanen
• "Princess Academy," by Shannon Hale
• "The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 2)," by Rick Riordan
• "The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1)," by Rick Riordan
• "Wintersmith," by Terry Pratchett
• "Ender's Game," by Orson Scott Card
• "Making Money," by Terry Pratchett
• "A Hat Full of Sky," by Terry Pratchett
• "Coraline," by Neil Gaiman
• "The Wee Free Men," by Terry Pratchett
• "M Is for Magic," by Neil Gaiman
• "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)," by J. K. Rowling and Mary GrandPré
• "Wyrd Sisters," by Terry Pratchett
• "Sourcery," by Terry Pratchett
• "Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader," by James Luceno
• "Star Wars, Episode III - Revenge of the Sith," by Matthew Woodring Stover
• "Star Wars, Episode II - Attack of the Clones," by R.A. Salvatore
• "Star Wars, Episode I - The Phantom Menace," by Terry Brooks
• "Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders," by Neil Gaiman
• "Shopaholic & Baby," by Sophie Kinsella
• "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6)," by J. K. Rowling and Mary GrandPré
• "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5)," by J. K. Rowling and Mary GrandPré
• "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book 4)," by J. K. Rowling and Mary GrandPré
• "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3)," by J. K. Rowling and Mary GrandPré
• "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 2)," by J. K. Rowling and Mary GrandPré
• "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 1)," by J. K. Rowling and Mary GrandPré
• "Anansi Boys," by Neil Gaiman
• "American Gods," by Neil Gaiman
• "Neverwhere: A Novel," by Neil Gaiman
• "The Eyre Affair," by Jasper Fforde
• "Just a Couple of Days," by Tony Vigorito
• "Ogre, Ogre," by Piers Anthony
• "The Last Battle, (The Chronicles of Narnia, Book 7)" by C. S. Lewis
• "The Silver Chair, (The Chronicles of Narnia, Book 6)" by C. S. Lewis
• "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, (The Chronicles of Narnia, Book 5)" by C. S. Lewis
• "Prince Caspian, (The Chronicles of Narnia, Book 4)" by C. S. Lewis
• "The Horse and His Boy, (The Chronicles of Narnia, Book 3)" by C. S. Lewis
• "Darwin's Children," by Greg Bear
• "Thief of Time," by Terry Pratchett
• "Darwin's Radio," by Greg Bear
• "Good Omens : The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch," by Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett
• "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," by Douglas Adams
• "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe," by Douglas Adams
• "Life, the Universe and Everything," by Douglas Adams
• "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish," by Douglas Adams
• "Mostly Harmless," by Douglas Adams
• "Centaur Aisle," by Piers Anthony
• "Castle Roogna," by Piers Anthony
• "Thud! (Discworld, Book 30)," by Terry Pratchett
• "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia, Book 2)," by C. S. Lewis
• "The Magician's Nephew (The Chronicles of Narnia, Book 1)," by C. S. Lewis
• "Galapagos," by Kurt Vonnegut
• "Witches Abroad (Discworld, Book 12)," by Terry Pratchett
• "The Source of Magic," by Piers Anthony
• "The Left Hand of Darkness (Remembering Tomorrow)," by Ursula K. Le Guin
• "The Speed of Dark," by Elizabeth Moon
• "A Spell for Chameleon," by Piers Anthony
• "Pyramids," by Terry Pratchett

Non-Fiction

• "American Nerd: The Story of My People" by Benjamin Nugent
• "Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel" by Michio Kaku
• "iPod and iTunes Digital Field Guide" by Chad Fahs
• "Me, MySpace, and I: Parenting the Net Generation" by Larry D. Rosen
• "Escape the Mid-Career Doldrums: What to do Next When You're Bored, Burned Out, Retired or Fired"
• "Grand Obsession: A Piano Odyssey," by Perri Knize
• "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier," by Ishmael Beah
• "WordPress 2 (Visual QuickStart Guide)" by Maria Langer, Miraz Jordan
  
• "Learning GNU Emacs, Third Edition," by Debra Cameron, James Elliott, Marc Loy, Eric Raymond, Bill Rosenblatt
• "The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness," by Elyn R. Saks
• "Cascading Style Sheets: The Designer's Edge," by Molly E. Holzschlag
• "Sams Teach Yourself CSS in 10 Minutes," by Russ Weakley
• "Meditation for Dummies," by Stephan Bodian
• "Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door," by Lynne Truss
• "Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz: Making Light of Weighty Ideas," by Edward B. Burger, Michael Starbird
• "Alice Cooper, Golf Monster: A Rock 'n' Roller's 12 Steps to Becoming a Golf Addict," by Alice Cooper, Keith Zimmerman, Kent Zimmerman
• "Cook Right 4 Your Type," by Peter J. D'Adamo
• "Eat Right 4 Your Type: The Individualized Diet Solution to Staying Healthy, Living Longer & Achieving Your Ideal Weight," by Peter J. D'Adamo
• "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir," by Bill Bryson
• "The Seventeen Traditions," by Ralph Nader
• "Prisoner of Trebekistan: A Decade in Jeopardy!," by Bob Harris
• "The New Glucose Revolution: The Authoritative Guide to the Glycemic Index--the Dietary Solution for Lifelong Health," by Jennie Brand-Miller et. al.
• "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health," by L. Ron Hubbard
• "Core Java 2 : Volume 1 Fundamentals," by Cay S. Horstmann, Gary Cornell
• "CCNA 1 and 2 Companion Guide, Revised (Cisco Networking Academy Program) (3rd Edition) (Cisco Networking Academy Program)," by Cisco Systems Inc.
• "Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science," by Atul Gawande
• "What the Dog Did : Tales from a Formerly Reluctant Dog Owner," by Emily Yoffe
• "Time Was Soft There : A Paris Sojourn at Shakespeare & Co.," by Jeremy Mercer
• "Do What You Love for the Rest of Your Life : A Practical Guide to Career Change and Personal Renewal," by Bob Griffiths
• "Don't Panic: Douglas Adams & the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," by Neil Gaiman
• "The Darwin Awards III: Survival of the Fittest," by Wendy Northcutt
• "Early Bird : A Memoir of Premature Retirement," by Rodney Rothman
• "Marley & Me : Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog," by John Grogan
• "Hot Lights, Cold Steel : Life, Death and Sleepless Nights in a Surgeon's First Years," by Michael J. Collins
• "Wish You Were Here: The Official Biography of Douglas Adams," by Nick Webb
• "The Glass Castle : A Memoir," by Jeannette Walls
• "Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything," by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
• "One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey," by Sam Keith, Richard Proenneke
• "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking," by Malcolm Gladwell
• "Hacking Exposed," by Stuart McClure, Joel Scambray, George Kurtz
• "A Short History of Nearly Everything," by Bill Bryson

Fun Things on the Internet

Let me take a break from road design issues and a write about some free fun things you can do on the Internet.

There are many MMORPGs to choose from, but not many are as free and addicting as Maple Story, produced by Wiznet of Korea.

While you're waiting for that 200MB download to finish, why not play an online game of 20 Questions?

Tired of that already? Give notpron a try. It's billed as "The hardest riddle available on the internet," but to me it resembles a scavenger hunt.

Enjoy!

Avon Mountain Road Design

Forgive me for obsessing over this, but I'm writing again about the Avon Mountain crash. This time I have an open response to Toni Gold's op-ed piece, titled "Designed to Kill," which was published in The Hartford Courant on Sunday.

Ms. Gold begin strong. A title like "Designed to Kill" certainly is eye-catching. And it actually starts out the way I started a rough draft of my first Avon Crash blog article. "It was only a matter of time before a horrible crash would occur at the intersection of routes 44 and 10 in Avon...." Here's someone whose profession it is to teach "context-sensitive design to highway engineers" who agrees with me.

But as I read on, I realized that she doesn't get it. Her grand "solution" is to replace the intersection with a roundabout.

Yes, that's just what I want to see at the bottom of a steep grade while I careen wildly out of control -- a roundabout. (That's sarcasm you're reading, in case you can't recognize it.)

Of course a roundabout causes motorists to slow down, but only if they have control of their vehicles in the first place. But if a roundabout had been in place at the time of the crash, the truck would have collided with the roundabout's barriers, plus any vehicles that might have been negotiating the circle. If the truck were to have collided with the bus in the circle, it would've broad-sided the bus, and several of the bus passengers would've been killed.

I had hoped that someone who teaches highway engineers how to design roads would have more sense than to propose putting a roundabout at the bottom of a mountain. But this is a case of someone with a hammer who views everything else as a nail. Her "expertise [is] in transportation for livable communities," according to her bio. Unfortunately, the bottom of a steep hill is no place for a livable community, let alone an intersection.

Poor Road Design

Well, I lost my bet. But I'm glad.

I'm referring to a comment I made in my previous post. I predicted that no one would blame the Avon Mountain crash on poor road design.

Yesterday, callers to a Hartford-based radio talk show echoed certain points I made earlier. One caller said that the only way to prevent a re-occurrence is to move the road. Another caller pointed out that our quaint, winding, New England roads are merely 400-year-old Indian trails that have been widened a bit and paved. They're unsuitable for our modern cars and trucks to cruise on safely. These remarks imply poor road design.

This is encouraging. But the voices that really matter are those that represent the DOT. Yet I doubt we'll get an honest assessment from them, as that would lead to a backlash of litigation. Instead, they'll quietly study their options and make some small changes.

Wanna bet?

What Caused This Devastating Crash?

The investigation into this morning's fatal crash in a Hartford suburb (alternate link) has only just started. But emergency personnel speculate that a truck that was traveling down Avon Mountain had a brake failure. It lost control and crossed into oncoming traffic.

I can predict what the investigation's outcome will be. The blame will rest on some combination of excessive speed, mechanical failure or operator error.

I bet you no one will blame the road.

The road (and intersection) is designed to produce just this kind of accident. No rational-minded person would decide to place a large intersection at the bottom of a steep hill, just where vehicles would be at their highest speed, and then angle the road in such a way that those cars are aimed at opposing traffic.

In fact the road over Avon Mountain, like many roads in the Northeast, was established back in colonial days. Early settlers used it to get over the mountain. As more powerful vehicles came onto the scene, the road was widened and paved, but not substantially redesigned to accommodate the faster traffic flow.

The governor's response was laughable -- reduce and enforce the speed limit. I'm sorry Ms. Rell, but a truck that's lost its brakes isn't able to do swat about its speed. Someone needs to either move the intersection or flatten the road before the next killer truck descends the mountain.

Media's Portrayal of MGM vs Grokster

The media's soundbites on the Supreme Court's decision on MGM vs. Grokster would have you think that the movie industry "won." You get the impression that the next news item might be:

Emboldened by its victory over Grokster and StreamCast Networks, the music industry announced two new lawsuits. The first is directed at the Internet. "Grokster's illegal activity was made possible by the Internet," music industry spokesman Don Verrilli said. "It's totally without merit," responded the self-proclaimed inventor of the Internet, Al Gore.

The second lawsuit was filed against the Almighty Creator. "In creating the Universe, the Almighty established certain fundamental constructs, which enabled the phenomena upon which the Internet and Grokster are based. This cannot go unpunished." The Almighty had no response.

In fact, the Supreme Court merely overturned the decision by 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that ruled that the file sharing software was legal. The Appellate court's decision was based on the 1984 Sony Betamax case, which the Supreme Court said could not applied to the case.

The Supreme Court's decision doesn't mean that Grokster and StreamCast Networks's Morpheus are now illegal. Instead, it means that the case will need to be retried. MGM will have to demonstrate that Grokster and StreamCast Networks actively induced its customers to use the software for copyright infringement.

For more facts on MGM vs. Grokster and StreamCast Networks, please visit IEEE-USA's copyright infringement policy page.

Note: The articles at the following web pages were referenced for this blog post:

• IEEE-USA's News Release Supreme Court Adopts IEEE-USA’s Balanced Position in MGM vs. Grokster Electronic File-Sharing Case: Protects Innovation, While Limiting Illegal Activities


• Wired's Grokster Loss Sucks for Tech

Geek Code

The Geek Code is a succinct code that helps geeks identify themselves. In updating my geek code, I discovered that not much has changed since December of 2001.

This is what My Particular Geek Code looks like:

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12
GE/CS d+(-) s: a+ C+++$ !U P+ L>++ E+>+++ W++(--) N !o K- w++(---) !O !M !V !PS !PE Y+ !PGP t !5 X-- R tv-- b++ DI+++ !D G e++>+++ h---- r+++ y?
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

More Outlook VBA: Toggling Grouping

In Am I Lazy or What? I described code that I wrote to add one of four signatures to an email message.

On Tuesday, I got tired of navigating the bowels of Outlook's menu system just to briefly turn grouping off and on. Grouping is a new, nifty feature in Outlook 2003.

So I wrote the following code to toggle grouping, and I customized my toolbar to add a button that invokes it. The code uses the XML property of the View object. The XML property is very cool. It looks like I can do a lot with it.

Sub ToggleGrouping() ' (c) 2005 Luddite Geek
' http://ludditegeek.blogspot.com
' Provide a way to toggle item grouping.
' 06/28/05 Created.

    Dim myOlApp As New Outlook.Application
    Dim myOlExp As Outlook.Explorer
    Dim myOlView As View
    Dim strView As String
    Dim i As Integer, j As Integer, n As Integer
            
    Set myOlExp = myOlApp.ActiveExplorer
    Set myOlView = myOlExp.CurrentView
    strView = myOlView.XML
    i = InStr(1, strView, "<arrangement>")
    j = InStr(i, strView, "<autogroup>")
    i = j + Len("<autogroup>")
    n = CInt(Mid(strView, i, 1))
        
    If n = 0 Then
        Mid(strView, i, 1) = 1
    ElseIf n = 1 Then
        Mid(strView, i, 1) = 0
    End If
    
    myOlView.XML = strView
    
End Sub

The code on this page is provided free of charge. The author assumes no liability for any undesired effects it might have. Users may freely distribute the code only if this disclaimer is included. Users may not claim the work as their own.

Marketing + Technology = Featuritis

While I was desperately trying to find a way to avoid the heat on Sunday, Kathy Sierra was writing Featuritis vs. the Happy User Peak, a great companion piece to my Technology as Marketing article. Of course, Kathy has never read my blog, but I'm glad she posted her work. She did a much better job of getting my point across than I could!