Life at 90

Caleb Elroy Shikles, at the age of 90, maintains this blog, Caleb's Corner.

What a wonderful outlook it reveals. I can only hope that if I live so long I'll have the same optimism and enthusiasm for life. He provides a wonderful "parody" as he calls it, though I think paraphrase is a better word, of Corintihians 13. Highly recommended. He says:

�Excellence In Retirement Living� was the theme for the 40th Anniversary of Wesley-Palms where I am joyfully living in the �Afternoon� of life.

For this Anniversary I wrote a parody on Corinthians l3th chapter.
- posted by Perry @ 10:28 AM 0 comments

 

Vernine and Associates Reunion

I joined Vernine and Associates in 1979 and for the next twenty years enjoyed an association that profoundly affected my life. By 1999 the company had run its life-cycle, but during those years I had the priviledge of working in hundreds of companies and visiting all but three states in this country. (The three I missed were North Dakota, Alaska and Hawaii.) Aside from the tour of the U.S. that my work provided I was also blessed by exposure to a remarkable assortment of people, both in the companies that I visited and particularly in the company I worked for.

An email exchange in February with a few of the former employees of Vernine and Associates prompted me to suggest that we should have a 30th reunion, since in my recollection (not what it used to be) the company began in 1972. Actually the beginning year was 1973, but despite that my suggestion was met with enthusiasm by my former collegues. So we are now planning that reunion to take place on August 24th here in Knoxville. For the first time ever, we'll reassemble the group of remarkable people who have distinguished themselves, not just by their accomplishments while they were a part of Vernine and Associates but also in their subsequent careers.

While it may be like many reunions and turn out to be a disappointment characterized by the fact that people have changed enough to make the "connection" we had earlier only a faded memory, I am hopeful that we'll be able to enjoy ourselves and being together again as much as we did when we were together as a working group. I suppose only the experience itself will determine that. We'll find out when the time comes. I am eagerly looking forward to assembling our "team" again, however.
- posted by Perry @ 9:37 AM 0 comments

 

Palladium FAQ

Ross Anderson has posted this TCPA / Palladium FAQ. There are links in this FAQ that will help to explore this topic more completely for those of you who are interested.
- posted by Perry @ 5:50 PM 0 comments

 

Trading Freedom for Security

From the caption to this entry, you'd probably guess that I'm going to join the fray about our "war on terrorism" and the price we pay to wage it. But you would be only partially right.

The caption was inspired by a quote from Molly Ivins who said, "We can't make ourselves safer by making ourselves less free." As I think about her quote, I think it is inaccurate. You can trade freedom for security but the price is unacceptable. However, it isn't the debate over the war on terrorism I want to join. Instead I want to alert you to how Mother Microsoft now wants to solve the problem of computer security by further killing the freedom computer users have.

Richard Forno, in an article titled MS to micro-manage your computer in the UK's The Register, sounds the following alarm.

"According to Levy, Palladium is a hardware and software combination that will supposedly seal information from attackers, block viruses and worms, eliminate spam, and allow users to control their personal information even after it leaves their computer. It will also implement Digital Rights Management (DRM) for movies and music to allow users to exercise 'fair use' rights of such products. Palladium will essentially create a proprietary computing environment where Microsoft is the trusted gatekeeper, guard, watchstander, and ruler of all it surveys, thus turning the majority of computing users into unwilling corporate serfs and subjects of the Redmond Regime."

The company who gave you the most insecure operating system available with a productivity package that invites virus and trojan writers and hackers to invade your computer is now going to "solve" the problem you have, all for the incredibly low price of your freedom.

Be afraid; be very afraid.
- posted by Perry @ 6:43 AM 0 comments

 

News Groups

Today I had the occasion to introduce my friend, Paul, to Usenet News Groups. He has gotten Windows XP installed on his computer and uses Outlook 2002 as his email program. During the introductory period of adjusting to this new environment, he has had a number of relatively simple questions about using the program that he has relied on his friends to answer. I suggested that he might start reading the microsoft.public.outlook group to see what questions are asked and how they are answered. I also helped him set up his copy of Outlook Express to point to the news.microsoft.com news server and to subscribe to the group mentioned above.

I myself have learned a lot by reading mailing lists about a particular software product, TBUDL for one (TheBat! User Discussion List), and by reading various news groups. In general, one doesn't even have to post to a news group or a mailing list to benefit from reading them. In fact, sometimes I have discovered answers to questions I hadn't even thought to ask yet just by lurking in these spaces. It's one of the best ways, in my opinion, to get to know a program that you are just learning.
- posted by Perry @ 7:59 PM 0 comments

 

Back to Work

After a very brief break (one day off over the weekend), I head back to work today. As I do, I find myself concerned about two things I usually avoid sharing with others -- Budgets and Politics. Here in Tennessee we've seen state legislators spend months deliberating about what to do about the state's shortfall in revenues. They've talked about instituting a state income tax and about cutting services. By the lack of any affirmative plan to increase revenues, they've by default accepted the option of cutting services. Already sitting at 48th in the nation in spending on education, there are bound to be large cuts there, and the quality of my granddaughter's education lies in the balance.

Also the legislators' political choices (or rather lack of action disguised as choices) would affect me here by affecting other things I'm interested in. For instance the local station that carries National Public Radio, WUOT, may have to drop carrying its programs here in Knoxville. That, to me, amounts to de-civilization of my chosen home town. Like it or not politics, state-wide and national, affects each of us. And it's probably too late to act when the truth of that axiom finally dawns on you.
- posted by Perry @ 6:38 AM 0 comments

 

Bloggers who don't post regularly suck!

If you start reading blogs regularly, you quickly realize how disappointing it is to visit a site several times in a row only to find that the site author hasn't posted anything new.

So it is with a bit of shame-facedness that I once again get back in the saddle. My apologies for my absence. During the past week, I've surely had the time, but for some reason I've blocked on seeing anything I thought worth mentioning. Of course, that is the fallacy that prevents posting -- that everything you post must be profound. There would be far fewer blogs if we all only posted profound thoughts.

So in the spirit of getting back in gear

Here's a list of some things that have caught my attention lately.

Lockergnome Tips

Lockergnome is the best and most popular PC-related newsletter on the Internet. Each day, the newsletter is written and distributed by our good friend Chris Pirillo. This download places a wealth of PC tips into one handy package. It covers almost everything you need to know and then some, from ISPs to Spam to security. All of the archived information is accessible from a user-friendly Windows help file, which can be searched and printed. Plus, the tips are sorted into the year and month they were written.

Proxomitron

Using special HTML filters, the Proxomitron can transform web pages on the fly - changing most anything you wish. Speed your browsing by saying goodbye to slow loading cyber spam and other web-gimmickry. Customize pages to suit your tastes. Take control of your web viewing, and don't be slave to some web-master's whims.

It works with most any browser (not just the big two) and, for starters, can do the following keen things...

• Stop or limit Pop-up windows
  
• Control MIDI music and other sounds
  
• Freeze animated .GIFs - load only the first frame
  
• Kill most all advertising banners
  
• Stop Web-Branding and other scripts added by web space providers
  
• Stop Pop-up alert/confirm boxes
  
• Remove slow web counters
  
• Stop web pages and ads from "auto-refreshing"
  
• Remove Dynamic HTML
  
• Prevent getting stuck in someone's frames
  
• Remove frames or tables altogether for that matter
  
• Kill or change selected Java scripts and applets
  
• Add your own scripts to pages!
  
• Remove or replace web page and/or table background images
  
• Stop Status bar scrollers
  
• Unhide URLs obscured by status line text
  
• Convert blinking text to bold
  
• Remove Layers and Style sheets
  
• Automatically re-write or redirect URLs
  
• Create lists of sites to block or allow
  
• Create similar lists for just about anything else
  
• And as they say, much, much more...
  

All features can be individually toggled on and off, or limited to specific sites. Better yet, it's just a taste of what the many included filtering rules can do. You have the freedom to modify the rules or create new, equally powerful, rules of your own! You can add filters or complete configurations created by other Proxomitron users for an ever expaning array of tasks.

Glurge

This site is devoted to wallowing in and/or despising those inspirational messages that people, for reasons that are incomprehensible to me, feel compelled to forward unceasingly around the Internet.

If you have the urge to glurge, or are sick and tired of these emails-no matter how inspirational-clogging up your inbox, post them here on glurge.com.

Glurge.com has been designed to act as a bulletin board for glurge believers to share their stories. Post your own, or simply surf the site for some moral lessons that hit a nerve or provide a sense of hope or purpose. Alternatively, all you non-believers will get a kick out of some of the more outrageous and sickly sweet tales.

Lindows

This link takes you to the site author's answer to the question, "What is Lindows?"

What follows below is the content of their "About" link.

Lindows.com is a consumer company that brings choice to computer users. Lindows.com, Inc. uses the latest technology to create affordable, intuitive, user-friendly products. Lindows.com, Inc. was started by Michael Robertson, founder and former CEO of MP3.com. At the core of Lindows.com is a new operating system called LindowsOSTM, a modern, affordable, easy-to-use operating system with the ability to run both Windows� and Linux� software.

- posted by Perry @ 6:43 AM 0 comments

 

Father's Day

Today is Father's Day.

My Dad died in 1978 at the age of 67 of lung cancer. A few days before his death as he felt the icy chill of death's hand approaching he said to me, "it won't be long now." I said "I know." I may have said something more comforting, more loving but if I did I don't remember what it was.

And that occasion wasn't the only time I didn't say the things I wish I had said to him. As I reflect back in the years since his death about all the times we had together I realize never really told him how much I now realize I loved him. Oh, we had a good relationship and laughed together and had fun watching baseball, going fishing, talking about all sort of things, but I never took the opportunity while he was living to utter the words, sincerely, that he would have so loved to hear. I never really let him know how glad I was he was my father.

It's not that I never told him I loved him. That happened every time we parted, on an almost daily basis. It's that I never said it in such a way that it didn't sound matter-of-fact and routine. I never took the occasion to sit down with him and let him know how much a part of me he became and remains to this day. I never told him that it was his example of fairness and good will toward people that has shaped my own approach to relationships. I never let him know that his skills in dealing with people, planted in me at an early age by his example, have helped me so much throughout my life. I never told him, even in those moments when we both knew he was dying when it might have meant so much to him, how much I needed him and wanted him in my life or how much I would miss him when he was gone.

Yet, somehow I think he knew, even if the words weren't exchanged. He knew. And if there is any justice in the universe, he knows even now.

Why is it we human beings have so much trouble talking about the things that are most important when we have the opportunity? Why do we let such opportunities slip away? Why do we assume we'll always have another chance?
- posted by Perry @ 8:39 AM 0 comments

 

Leadership, CRM, and Warning Letters

This past week ended on a down note for me. I was "written up" for failure to contact a customer to notify him of a cancelled appointment. A written warning at the place where I work is a very serious punative strategy that can eventually result in separation if a second such written warning has to be issued. In this post, I'm not going to present my defense of why I think the warning was inappropriate in my case. I'll pursue that at work where it rightly should be discussed. However, the event prompts me to write about an underlying issue that I want to explore in this post.

Our company is in the business of Customer Relationship Management (CRM). We have a client, and that client has customers with whom we interact. Our job is to manage the relationship with that client's customers so as to ensure that the customers are not just satisfied with the client's services but delighted with them. Our main role, as I see it, is to guarantee that we manage the customer's experience with the client whom we represent. Yet, sometimes, because our client has specified guidelines to make sure we do this and they grade us by how well we follow those guidelines, we get focused on the scores we receive on the evaluation our client gives us, the so-called CPAT scores. In focusing on those scores, we lose sight of why we are being graded. We make sure we do what the client specified, even if it doesn't guarantee the primary objective of the guideline which is customer satisfaction.

Some details of my offense are required for this discussion. An agent before me cancelled the appointment the customer had because the line wasn't ready for installation, which is what the appointment was for. That agent didn't call to inform the customer of the delay because we also have a rule, imposed by the FCC, that we can't call a customer before 9:00 AM where the customer lives (in this case in Central Daylight Savings Time). I was the second agent to touch the account, three days later and two days before the appointment, but I too couldn't call the customer because when I got the account it was also before 9:00 AM in the customer's time zone. I noted the customer's account with the fact that it was too early for me to call and with this entry -- "**NEXT AGENT: PLEASE MAKE SURE THE CUSTOMER IS NOTIFIED OF THE CANCELLED APPOINTMENT**." In the written warning I received, I was admonished for not sending a letter to notify the customer of the delay (because the customer didn't have an email address listed in the record). That letter would not be received by the time of the appointment, but it would have met the client's guidelines for handling such situations (I am told).

This morning I received Bruce Schneier's Cryptogram newsletter which contains the following quote: Counterpane: Crypto-Gram: I'd rather see the discussion center on how to improve things for next time, rather than on who gets the blame for this time.

In my response to the warning letter I received, I made the following proposal. "I believe it makes sense to amend our guidelines for calling customers to specify that when it is too early to call to inform them of a cancelled appointment, the person canceling the appointment must flag the account and make the call later that same day. That way the customer is informed of the change on the day the appointment is cancelled. This clarification would eliminate the ambiguity about who is responsible if such a thing should occur again. Making the agent who cancels the appointment responsible for the call would increase the chances the customer will be notified in a timely manner. And this modification of our guidelines will help to improve our relationship with customers and even the relationship between management and agents because second guessing will become unnecessary."

Whether my proposal will be accepted is not yet clear. It depends upon whether the leadership of my team is more concerned about "doing the right thing or doing things right." They can continue to insist that we send a letter which won't arrive in time, just so we can pass the CPAT audits, or they can adopt a new strategy that increases the chances the customer will be notified in a timely way about changes that affect him.

A fellow has to accept the fact that he isn't perfect and may in fact do things that aren't according to guidelines. I will learn from this experience and will be a better agent because of that learning. I hope the company will also consider adopting my suggested revision to our procedures in addition to following the guilelines specified by the client for their CPAT audits. We'll see which approach they take and whether our leadership team values most the primary goal of customer relationship management or is more concerned with passing the audits.


- posted by Perry @ 9:52 AM 0 comments

 

Is nothing safe?

First Reported JPEG Virus Found

The emergence of a new virus that infects JPEG files was announced Thursday by security firm Network Associates and other antivirus companies, which received the code as a possible warning of things to come from its creator, who has requested anonymity.
- posted by Perry @ 7:21 PM 0 comments

 

Meg Hourihan's Description of Blogging

In this article, What We're Doing When We Blog [Jun. 13, 2002], Meg Hourihan explains what characterizes a blog. It's a good introduction for those unfamiliar with blogs, and it helps those of us who are to distinguish what the essence of blogging is. I cheat a bit by quoting her closing paragraph, but I commend the entire article to you.

As bloggers, we're in the middle of, and enjoying, an evolution of communication. The traits of weblogs mentioned above will likely change and advance as our tools improve and our technology matures. What's important is that we've embraced a medium free of the physical limitations of pages, intrusions of editors, and delays of tedious publishing systems. As with free speech itself, what we say isn't as important as the system that enables us to say it.
- posted by Perry @ 7:04 PM 0 comments

 

Happy Birthday, Phil!

Today is my buddy, Phil Petty's, 72nd birthday. Congratulations!
- posted by Perry @ 6:59 AM 0 comments

 

An interview with A. K. M. Adam

This interview provides a thoughtful vision of the Web. I commend it to your attention, and particularly to you, Stan. You can read his blog here.
- posted by Perry @ 7:11 PM 0 comments

 

Controversy in Blogland

I suppose I should post a reference to this article, A Rift Among Bloggers, by David F. Gallagher in today's NY Times because I am running across references to it at a lot of the blogs I read. Among the more interesting responses I've seen is this one from Doc Searls.
- posted by Perry @ 6:50 AM 0 comments

 

Tweaking My System

Yesterday I indulged myself in the luxury of spending my off day tweaking my computer system to make it more suited to my needs. Tweaking is a 21st century indoor sport that takes both a spirit of adventure and a courageous willingness to step into the unknown, not to mention a sizable block of time to play the game. Those folks who have gotten burned when they tried this indoor sport have sworn off it for the remainder of their lives, avowing to live from that day forward by those twin maxims of the status quo, "leave well enough alone" and "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." But those of us who have tasted some of the fruits of these efforts and become intoxicated with the heady delight of seeing even a minor change make your computing life easier or more convenient have become addicted to the pleasure and the sense of accomplishment that comes from a successful tweak.

I realize that many people want to buy a computer, plug it in, and have it work "right out of the box." And, of course, such computer systems are increasingly available, even in the PC world. (MAC users have long touted the virtue of this orientation.) And for those people who want or need such a system, God bless their little pointed heads, I am happy for them to have it. But they don't know what they are missing.

Tweaking your own system by adding and learning new programs or by modifying how the programs already installed on your system work helps you know what the system can do. It helps you understand how to take full advantage of the power of your computer. It prepares you for solving problems when something goes wrong, because few of us can tweak the system without encountering some glitch that has to be resolved. But just as strenuous exercise builds muscles and overcoming difficulties builds character, resolving glitches enriches your understanding of what can go wrong in a computing environment and how to overcome it when it does. It requires you to explore the sources of help available on the Internet and, believe it or not, within the help files of the program you are working on. And once you've discovered where those lifelines are located, it emboldens you to extend your experimentation into even more uncharted territory. Tweaking, I think, is good for the soul.

During my adventure yesterday, I added a macro utility program called PowerPro, and I upgraded my email program, TheBat!, to the latest version, 1.60q. Despite the fact that acquiring a new program such as PowerPro necessitates a lot of reading of help files and means you have to exercise your brain to try to understand new ways of doing things, such activities add not just the capability the new program brings to your environment but also increases your ability to assimilate new understandings of how things can be done. In the end, the benefits accrue geometrically. Computing becomes more fun, and the future offers the promise of other exciting discoveries and challenges.
- posted by Perry @ 8:05 AM 0 comments

 

Why Blog?

In the last several weeks, friends (Stan and Phil to be specific) have asked with sincere interest why I blog. In each case they have different reasons for questioning the wisdom of doing so and their questions warrant a reply. It's too easy, of course, to answer their question "why blog?" flippantly by saying "because I can," yet that is in part the answer. The technology exists. It's easy to do. And I enjoy experimenting with it. Yet there are other reasons too.

Stan's puzzlement arises over how I expect to gain a wide readership, and what I might have to say on a regular basis that would compel readers to visit my site. Though I've said to him that I write because I want to do so and that I'm not concerned whether anyone else ever visits the site, that is only partially true. Of course, I think I would enjoy the interaction that comes from comments people make and, like everyone who doesn't have it, I wonder whether being "famous" would be rewarding in some way. But I'm not writing this blog because I hope it will make me famous. I am writing it because it gives me a place to say what I want to say, whether others listen or not. I can comment on technology trends, discoveries I make online, or post help I have provided to one friend so that other friends (or strangers) might also benefit from it.

Phil's primary question seems to be why I would want to reveal my thinking to anybody and everybody who happened across these words. While Stan seems to be concerned about people not reading what I've written, Phil's concern is that they will read it. Phil focuses on the diary aspect of a blog, those posts that are personal in nature. I suppose he's trying to save me from myself, from my revealing those dirty little secrets about my life that would diminish me in other people's eyes. Yet it's possible to be personal and honest and still be able to talk in polite company.

In some ways, both Stan and Phil are right. Few people will probably ever read these words and those who do will find them inane and pointless. Yet, I don't really care. I am writing as an exercise in freedom. I speak out on the Internet because it is possible to do so and so that I can practice the art of doing so. As a dabbler in things technological, I like to see whether I can use the tools that are available and that fortunately are free. So blogging for me is learning how to post to the Internet, how to use to tools, and it is the joy of learning.

Blogging is also an exercise in writing. Just like in the days of Echo Bulletin Board Systems and my participation on the ILink Writers forum, the exposure (or potential exposure) of what I write to public scrutiny imposes a discipline that a private diary would not have for me. The fact that blogs are updated as frequently as they are also imposes an expectation on me to write often. In general, such outside expectations help to inspire me to write more carefully and thoughtfully.

I don't know if my blog will be read by those who don't know me or even by those who do. I blog for me. If other people derive benefit from it, all the better. If not, well I can live with that too. As Rick Nelson said in Garden Party, "If you can't please everyone, you've got to please yourself."
- posted by Perry @ 6:16 AM 0 comments

 
I've posted some pictures of my trip to San Diego at my PBase gallery.
- posted by Perry @ 8:12 PM 0 comments

 
Robert Vamosi, a CNET editor, offer's his critique of Senator Lieberman's plan in this article, Broadband for all? Not until it's more secure.
- posted by Perry @ 6:57 PM 0 comments

 
Lieberman Calls for National Broadband
Strategy to Stimulate Economic Growth

An in-depth look at Senator Lieberman's plan can be found in this white paper. It's in *.pdf format.
- posted by Perry @ 6:57 PM 0 comments

 
Dave Winer reports this potentially interesting bit of news in his Scripting News.

Starting work on a new tool, My Weblog Outliner. I just wrote up the design and am beginning work on the implementation. The goal is to offer a way for any blogger to edit posts in an outliner, even if they use another weblog tool, Blogger, Movable Type, Manila, etc; or post directly to weblogData.root, if it's a Radio weblog. This begins a new direction, providing tools that enhance the writing experience with Radio, even if you publish to a non-Radio weblog. As the market develops, people who are really interested, will use all the tools. This was what we saw in desktop publishing, people would use Pagemaker for some things, Quark for others, and add a bevy of compatible tools, like PhotoShop, Illustrator, scripting, databases, word processors, image managers, etc. That's going to happen with Web publishing too.
- posted by Perry @ 6:42 AM 0 comments

 
I started out to work this morning and the support holding one of the exhaust pipes on my car broke which lead to that exhaust pipe dragging the ground. Fortunately, it happened just as I was leaving my subdivision, so I turned around, gingerly, and returned to my driveway. Now I must get under the car, use something like a coat hanger to hold it up long enough to get to a service center and get them to put on a new support. "You never run out of things that can go wrong." -- NBC's Addendum to Murphy's Law
- posted by Perry @ 8:01 AM 0 comments

 
Dan Gillmor's Sunday article, Hypocrites have a point on broadband, makes the following distinction.

"What is broadband, anyway? If you buy the garbage you're getting from the phone and cable companies, it's a too-modest improvement on modem speeds along with something truly valuable -- always-on Internet access.

Real broadband, as the TechNet lobbying group has said, is more like 100 megabits per second. That's typically dozens or even hundreds of times faster than what today's DSL and cable systems offer much of the time."
- posted by Perry @ 6:14 AM 0 comments

 
Today I've added the DayPop search link to my blog (in the red panel in the left column). This search engine can search weblogs and news sites for specific current news items. Give it a try. I've also asked that they list my blog among the weblogs that they search. I understand it will take a couple of days for it to show up in the search results, .
- posted by Perry @ 11:09 PM 0 comments

 
From BBC News comes this tidbit.
Klez.H has become the biggest computer virus of all time, according to security experts.
- posted by Perry @ 12:21 PM 0 comments

 
During some downtime at work today, I had a chance to start reading Linked: The New Science of Networks, and it promises to be quite interesting.
- posted by Perry @ 7:04 PM 0 comments

 
I am at work showing my buddy, Josh, how easy it is to post something to the web using Blogger.
- posted by Perry @ 10:38 AM 0 comments

 
Yesterday I received my copy of Linked: The New Science of Networks (that I mentioned first on May 27th) from Amazon.com. I am eager to get into it and to write about the impression it makes on me.
- posted by Perry @ 7:10 AM 0 comments

 
Another month begins.

Today is my regularly scheduled Saturday to work. Fortunately when I work on Saturday I have the Monday that preceeds it off; unfortunately for this week that was Memorial Day, a regularly scheduled holiday that I did not get because it was my scheduled day off. In fact, it doesn't matter that I missed the holiday. I choose not to allow such things to cause me to feel deprived.

Yesterday I placed an application with my company for an open position as a trainer. I've been with the company almost two years now, and during half that time, I functioned as a tech support agent and in the other half as a outbound customer service agent, the two major job roles for which I would be conducting training. In addition, prior to coming to the company I am now with, I spent the previous 30 years creating and conducting training programs. It would appear to me that I'm an ideal candidate for the job, but one is frequently surprised by the decisions companies make. If I get the job, there'll be benefits to me, not the least of which is almost twice the income; if I don't, there'll be positive sides to staying in the role I am now in. I'll let you know how it turns out, once the company has made its choice.
- posted by Perry @ 7:04 AM 0 comments