Move to the Right for Sirens and Light

Maybe you’ve seen it on a bumper sticker. Maybe you learned it in Driver’s Ed. “Move to the Right for Sirens and Light” means that when you see an emergency vehicle such as a police car, fire truck, or ambulance with the lights and sirens going, you pull to the side of the road and wait for it to pass. The idea is simple: get out of the way of the people trying to save lives.

I was reminded of this simple rule this morning. Two kids were hit by a car while waiting for the bus, although I didn’t know it until later; all I knew is there were two school busses and lots of emergency equipment on the main road and I was going the other way. More emergency equipment was converging on the scene, so I ended up pulling over a bunch of times. One fellow got impatient and passed me as I followed the law. I can only hope that his karma catches up with him and he reaps what he sows.

What is so hard about get out of the way of people trying to save lives?

They even seem to be having a problem with this very basic concept in New Orleans.

The authorities are too busy preventing photojournalists from showing us what is really going on. Specifically, they don’t want us seeing pictures of the dead. Forgive me for saying that horse has left the barn. Why don’t they want us to see the pictures? Are they afraid to put a human image on this tragedy?

A thousand firefighers showed up. Are they putting out the fires we keep hearing about? Are they triaging the thousands of people who need medical assistance? Are they helping the search and rescue efforts? No, they are passing out fliers.

Medical aid is similarly messed up. Doctors can’t get to people who need them. Doctors who responded to a request for volunteers were met with a web form and and assurance that they might be called in 5-7 days. Pardon me for pointing out that people will die before then.

FEMA is specifically telling first responders not to show up. They have been slow to accept assistance from the business community and even slow to accept assistance from other government agencies. They haven’t even bothered to reply to certain offers of assistance from foreign nations. They responded late despite the fact that a state of emergency was declared even before the storm hit, and have “Turned Away Aid, Rescue Crews, Cut Emergency Communication Lines.”

They are even reprimanding Navy pilots who, having completed their primary mission, stopped to save lives. Foolishly, they thought that was their overriding mission.

The Mayor of New Orleans says there may be 10,000 dead in his city — and remember, that’s just one city in a 3 state area that has been devastated. A mortuary director has been quoted as expecting 40,000 bodies. Since FEMA is actively impeding emergency workers and keeping them from saving lives, expect this number to be conservative.

Move to the Right for Sirens and Light. Get out of the way of people who are trying to save lives.

If this is anything like the way we are handling things in Iraq, no wonder there is an insurgency. “They hate us for our freedoms” indeed.

But why is this being handled so badly? Is it just sheer incompetence? Evacuees are being spread across the country, where they will tell their new neighbors everything that happened. Furthermore, the blame game is already on in Washington. So, political gain is not the goal. Are we looking for an excuse to keep interest rates low? After all this is going to have a negative effect on the economy. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that 400,000 jobs were lost. Of course the Administration will use this as an excuse when the official job creation numbers come out. You can count on me to call foul if they claim job creation in positive numbers.

Assuming that there is some plan at work, as opposed to mere stupidity, the only logical reason I can think of is that this is a preface to a huge land grab. Evacuees will be forced to sell or allow foreclosure on any land they have in New Orleans, and inasmuch as there is nothing left habitable on it, many of them will be glad to accept pennies on the dollar. The land will be redeveloped in a manner that is wildly profitable, and you can bet the levees will be fortified. Of course this doesn’t leave any room for the evacuees to return, now does it?

I would like to close with a few happy tidbits for you, so here’s Traditional Crafts of Japan, How to make authentic Sourdough bread, Online textbooks, and “What do those characters on the sign at the Chinese Restaurant mean?”

Fubared

Needless to say, New Orleans is a disaster area, and our hearts go out to the people who are still trapped there. If you have the means, donate directly to the Red Cross. Do not mess around with FEMA or Fly-By-Nite Disaster Charity Fund; this is too important. By now I think everyone is aware that there are two primary disasters. No, not “hurricane” and “flood.” Rather, there was a natural disaster and a manmade disaster.

A really big hurricane hitting New Orleans was long considered one of the top most likely disasters that FEMA would have to face. This should — in theory — mean that plans should exist for getting people out and getting aid in. You wouldn’t know it to look at the news. In fact, it almost looks like the Administration did everything in it’s power to make the expected disaster even bigger. In sharp contrast to President Bush’s insistence that nobody could have seen it coming, it is clear that lots of people within the Government knew this was likely and the Administration did worse than nothing about it. The amount of money Bremmer “lost” in Iraq could have paid to prevent this a hundred times over.

Let me say that again: the amount of money that our people simply can’t account for in Iraq could have paid for the levee improvements 100 times, chartered busses to get each and every one of New Orleans’s 500,000 residents out, and purchased a stockpile of bottled water for dessert. How disingenuous to say we couldn’t afford it. If the experts are correct that Katrina might mean a $100 thousand million hit to the economy, how could we afford not to do it?

How nice that Congress is willing to pony up $10.5 thousand million dollars in disaster relief. Of course, there goes the President’s insistence that the budget deficit is lower than previously expected, a trend that will continue as long as that pesky Congress doesn’t go spending money.

This brings me to the manmade disaster. Keep in mind, that like many disasters, the groundwork was laid long before a problem became apparent. In this case, the disaster begins within days of Bush becoming President, when he appointed a FEMA head with no disaster management experience. This was followed by budget cuts, downgrading FEMA from a cabinet level position to a part of Homeland Security, changing FEMA’s focus to terrorism response, and who knows what else.

No, seriously, I wonder what other surprises the Administration has done to us while we’ve been concentrating on big things like civil liberties, vote counting, terrorism, Social Security, and the like. What other looming disasters haven’t we noticed?

Now, to give you an idea of how badly this has been managed, this is Friday. The storm was Monday. Just now, as I have been writing, a military supply convoy has arrived. The Mayor of New Orleans has been understandably upset by the slow and inadequate response. The President himself has said “The results are unacceptable.” Well, Mr. President, who is to blame for that?

Part of the current problem is that many of the National Guardsmen who signed up to protect their state are currently in Iraq. In a strange bit of irony, some of them were scheduled to come home in the next few weeks, but nothing is being done to expedite the matter. Instead, Guardsmen from other regions are being called in to help. And although they gladly will, the fact is that a whole lot of first responders who could have been there in a matter of hours are instead overseas.

But do you know what really steams me? In another Let Them Eat Cake moment, the director of FEMA blames the people trapped in New Orleans for not leaving before the storm, and adds that “Things are going relatively well.” I am flabbergasted! Does he honestly think the people in hospitals could have evacuated? Does he have the faintest clue that anybody who could get out has? The entire point of having the Superdome as an emergency shelter is that there are vast swaths of the population that couldn’t go: no money, no transportation, no place to go. The poverty rate is higher in Louisiana than the national average, and as I pointed out earlier in the week, the national average is one in eight people. There are at least 75,000 refugees, or 15% of the population of the city.

Fifteen percent of the population of a major American city have been left to die. He calls that “going relatively well.”

The one take-away lesson from this disaster is that we cannot count on the Federal Government in time of crisis. This being the case, I urge you to join me today in a campaign of preparedness. Write your state, county, and city officials, urging them to review their disaster plans, and modify them to reflect the fact that FEMA is ineffectual. Ask that they seriously examine plans for evacuation, shelters, stockpiles, and rebuilding. Urge your Governor to recall National Guard troops to defend the state, the fundamental duty they signed up to do. Furthermore, persuade your Governor to make alliances with neighboring states and/or nations to provide reciprocal disaster aid. Do not forget to see to your personal preparedness with things like canned food, bottled water, flashlights, battery powered radios, and of course batteries. Plastic sheeting and duct tape are optional, but they can’t hurt and might be useful. Your state may have additional information about likely threats in your region.

In a twist reminiscent of getting news about Czechoslovakia from the Usenet during their revolution, the best way to find out what is really happening in New Orleans in a spin free manner is blogs. I recommend NOLA, run by the local newspaper, and The Interdictor, run by a fellow who is keeping internet communications going from a secure location somewhere in a downtown high-rise.

Serfin’ USA!

If Paul Krugman is too wordy for you, David Horsey put it into cartoon form: there is a radical disconnect between what “the numbers” say about the economy and what the experience of you and almost everyone you know says about the economy.

Although consumer confidence rose slightly in August, the fact remains that almost as many people think jobs are hard to get as think jobs are plentiful. Gas prices are at record highs and poised to soar higher, yet incomes remain unchanged. This might signal a potential problem even if you don’t think the national debt, deficit spending, the potential housing bubble, consumer debt levels, and the trade imbalance with China are problems.

If, somehow, you can ignore all this, you cannot ignore the fact that poverty has risen again for the 4th straight year. In fact, 1.1 million people are living in poverty this year who weren’t last year. If you’d prefer to think of it this way, 1 out of every 8 Americans live in poverty. It is no longer a third world issue. It is here and now.

A side effect of this poverty level is that more Americans are doing without health insurance. In fact, there are 8 million more uninsured people than there are poor people. Since many poor people are covered by Medicaid, it is clear that we are talking about an even larger pool of people who are either poor or uninsured. This is a problem not only because of lost productivity as people put off small problems or preventative medicine. It is not just a problem because high medical debt often leads to bankruptcy. It also means that doctors and hospitals lose about $45 thousand million in bad debts. Most industries can’t afford to write off billions of dollars; medicine can’t either.

The ostrich economists, however, think that everything is fine. The official unemployment number is low, inflation is under control as long as we don’t pay attention to petrol, and corporate profits are great. The economy really is great if you are close enough to the top.

Everything will be wonderful as long as they can keep the serfs under control. And the serfs are quite nicely controlled by high debt levels, anxiety over health care, fuel costs that limit their movements, and jobs that take up a great deal of their time while barely covering expenses.

In closing: Ten Items Inspired by Science Fiction includes the flip-type cell phone. What a shame they aren’t as cool as in Star Trek. Sorry, you shouldn’t need 2 hands to answer your phone. Also, Could you pass 8th grade math? I got 9 out of 10 because I misread a question. I used only my brain and a small bit of scribbling paper. Of particular note is that the explanation to one answer makes it clear that I should have used a calculator! A calculator? On a math test?

“So, how d’ya like your truck?”

It’s been a little over a year since I purchased a Sunset Orange Pearl 2004 Honda Element.

About once a month someone — usually a complete stranger — asks me “So, how d’ya like your truck?” This is often followed by rather specific questions about such issues as milage and hauling capacity. Honda ought to pay me as many times as I have demonstrated the Element’s features to the curious masses.

There are a lot of things I like about my Element. It’s a small but serious truck, as is evidenced by this fellow taking a world tour in one. The towing capacity is only 1500 pounds, but you can still fit a startling amount of stuff in back. We have even taken the sunroof out and transported a small tree in it. It’s tough enough for light offroading in stock configuration, and there are plenty of aftermarket parts to make it more rugged.

It has the same iVTEC engine as the Honda Civic Si (the little sports coupe), so there is plenty of power. Although a manual is available, I have the automatic transmission. It was decided that we should have at least one vehicle that doesn’t have a stick shift. I get a pretty solid 22 mpg in mixed driving, which definitely isn’t bad for all wheel drive. Heck, it beats some minivans. It handles well in town or on the road, and takes curves without feeling like it is tipping over. Shorter than other Hondas, it parallel parks with ease.

“Polarizing styling” means people either love or hate the way it looks. A lot of people hate the composite body panels, but they are both recyclable and replaceable. I like the eye-grabbing yet dirt hiding color, but I must say there are two new colors this year that look awesome: bright red and charcoal grey. The vehicle sits high, but not so high that a Short Woman such as myself has any trouble climbing into it. I have been telling myself I should get some of those stainless tube running boards, but clearly it is not a priority as I have yet to do so.

Moving inside, I definitely think the Element has a nicer interior than the CR-V. Granted, the CR-V seats 5 and is 10 inches longer than the Element, but the Element is just a more practical and appealing vehicle. Every interior surface can be cleaned by sweeping or wiping it off. Every interior surface is water resistant. This should be instant appeal for anyone with kids, dogs, or outdoor/wet hobbies. Each seat has a cup-holder — and really who needs more than one? — that will easily accommodate a variety of containers ranging from a juice-box or can of Red Bull up to a fast food large drink. The seats and seatbelts are comfortable and fully adjustable; adjustable belt points are an absolute necessity for any person under 5’2″. The back seats have more than adequate room for an adult, making them absolutely luxurious for smaller passengers.

One of the best things about the Element is storage, storage, storage! There’s a little ledge for your garage remote and gas receipts. There’s another little ledge over on the passenger side for some mints, your iPod (handy stereo input right there), your cell phone charger (the outlet is right next to the stereo input), and other important stuff. There’s a compartment overhead for a CD case or sunglasses. There’s a door compartment on all 4 doors for things like maps and windshield shades. There’s a spot near the front seat cup-holders for small snacks or maybe sunscreen. There’s room on the backs of the seats for, uh, i don’t know, stuff. There’s pockets in the rear compartment for the bag you can put the sunroof glass into, a tarp, bungies, a couple plastic bags… you get the picture. The bottom of the cargo compartment can be made into a picnic table.

Speaking of cargo, there’s hooks in the cargo area where you can make sure your cargo stays put! It’s a quirk of mine, but I hate when the groceries circumnavigate the trunk on the way home. If you end up with a lot of stuff, each rear seat easily folds up to give you more cargo room, and protect the windows while you’re at it. It is always amusing to watch some Good-Ol-Boy go from “Ha! she’s never going to get all that stuff into that little itty bitty truck!” to “Wow, that’s amazing.” If you have a really big hauling job, the seats can be taken out altogether — no tools required — and stored until you are done.

This is also a vehicle with a sense of community. There are Element owners clubs all over the country. It is not unusual for Element drivers to wave at one another. Some may scope out another’s modifications. At the very least, you can almost always get a smile out of another Element driver at a stop light.

As many things as I love about my Element, there are a few things I don’t like. For example, the large exterior rear view mirror on the driver’s side creates a blind spot. This may partly be a function of how far forward the seat is, in my case. I wish I had a small vanity mirror on the back of the sun-visor. And occasionally, I wish I could seat five.

Nevertheless, if someone asks how I like my truck — and they never say car, although they sometimes say “rig” — I will tell them I love it. And as long as I am not in too big a hurry, I will answer a question or two.

No Espresso at this CAFE

It would have been easy to miss this story if you rely on national news sources. Although the Associated Press wrote the story, it has mostly been covered by local news people despite the fact that it will impact the millions of people who will buy light trucks in the next decade. After resisting pressure on the issue for years, the Bush Administration is considering tightening fuel economy requirements on most light trucks.

This might be a politically motivated move designed to placate voters before the 2006 elections, but if so it’s too little far too late; the standards in question won’t begin to phase in until 2008.

Environmentalists, scientists, economists, and people concerned with national security have been pushing for improved CAFE standards for years now, and have yet to make much headway with the Bush Administration. Why the Flip-Flop?

It seems unlikely that there is genuine concern over the fact that record high gas prices are cutting profits at some retailers, inasmuch as the Wal-Mart customer who can’t afford gas to drive to Wal-Mart also can’t afford a new truck. Gas prices are changing the way average Americans do things, but this proposed change won’t make things better for another 5 years, if then.

I predict that — if this change to the CAFE standards ever happens as planned — it will be smoke and mirrors. Please note that the new standard would break “light trucks” into 6 classes based on size and weight. Sure, a 2010 minivan should theoretically get better milage than a 2001 minivan, but it will no longer be compared to pickup trucks or SUVs. This complicated standard opens the door for auto manufacturers to use all sorts of engineering chicanery to manipulate vehicles into different classes of light truck. Don’t forget, each of the articles describing the change include a sentence like this one: “But the largest SUVs, such as the Hummer H2, and cars would not be affected by the plan.” The “light truck” category is already very complicated. It can be difficult to figure out what qualifies and what doesn’t. This should actually be a vital concern inasmuch as “light trucks” in addition to having different fuel economy standards, have different safety standards than passenger cars.

The plans don’t include better fuel economy, just more categories that make it seem like there is better fuel economy.

I propose radically simplifying the system. Let’s classify vehicles based on the number of passengers they are designed to safely transport. Three seats and under would be called “work vehicles.” This would include panel vans and pickup trucks, and have lower fuel efficiency requirements. Yes, this category would also include two-seater sports cars, but that’s alright; not only would this mean these cars could be more powerful, a higher milage sports car could be added to the fleet to improve average fleet economy. Anything with four to seven seats would be called a “passenger car” and be held to the highest fuel efficiency standards and strict safety standards, as this would represent the vast majority of vehicles on the road. Everything from the Hyundai Accent to the Chevy Tahoe would fall into this category. Even more strict safety standards, but lower fuel efficiency standards, would apply to vehicles that seat eight or more people, a category I would like to call “passenger buses.” I feel this label accurately describes the practical uses of such vehicles.

In closing, I have two items of concern. First, Pat Robertson advocates assassinating the democratically elected President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. Why? Because “he’s going to make that a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism” and anyway, “It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war … and I don’t think any oil shipments will stop.” I don’t know what’s more startling: that Robertson has never heard the phrase “godless communists;” that he thinks he has the authority to call what is in essence a fatwa; that he admits that oil is a huge part of the issue; or that he still claims to follow a God who said stuff like “Thou shalt not kill” and “Love your enemies… and pray for them.” My second item of concern, “The Government” says Look out! Vagrants might really be terraists in disguise. The fact that no single department is claiming to have issued this warning, but rather it is “based on a State Department report” is very interesting. This sounds suspiciously like an excuse that will allow mass roundups of the homeless.

Revenge of the Shorties

CNN brings us this article on overheated housing markets and lists what it considers to be the 50 most overpriced markets. However, some of the “markets” listed are quite silly. Denver-Aurora? Seattle-Bellevue-Everett is one massive multi-county area, but neighboring Tacoma is another area? And with the number of California communities listed, wouldn’t it be easier to say “#1 Northern California, #2 Southern California” (or reverse order)? I wish I understood the agenda of this list.

CNN also brings us an article on education where they helpfully tell us that kids who don’t understand English well don’t do well on standardized tests. This may result in these kids not getting high school diplomas. From the article:

“Do we want a lot of high school students who don’t have diplomas — and therefore have a lot of limited opportunities after high school — because they are still acquiring English?” [Deborah Short, director of language education and academic development at the Center for Applied Linguistics] said. “We need more of a policy on what to do with these children.”

Here’s what we do with these children: teach them English! The kind of employer who has a problem with the fact that someone does not have a high school diploma has an even bigger problem with the fact that these potential employees don’t read, write and understand English. Failing to teach all children the lingua franca of this nation is condemning them to underclass status. The diploma is by comparison just a bit of paper.

Also from the realm of education, even the American Beverage Association thinks elementary school students shouldn’t have access to all the soda they can drink. Seattle schools have already limited vending machines, and are now dealing with the reduced funding for everything that isn’t critical.

Seattle happens to be hosting a convention for state legislators around our nation, and one thing they are steaming mad about is Real ID. They don’t like the fact that the Feds are telling them what to do. They don’t like that they will have to spend thousands of millions of dollars on it. They don’t like the time, money, and responsibility of obtaining and verifying documents on every driver. They, well they don’t like any of it. One thing pointed out in this version of the story is this: “The new requirements are aimed at stopping illegal immigrants from getting driver’s licenses, thus preventing them from boarding planes or entering protected federal buildings.” Now think about this. We want to prevent illegal immigrants from getting into federal buildings, where they might have legitimate business such as applying for asylum, legalizing their status, or being a witness in a court case.

Finally, a word about Cindy Sheehan. Remember, if you can’t go to Crawford, you can still find a way to support her in your community. There is a vigil tonight, and probably one near you. Saying you think the President is wrong does not mean you “hate America.” As far as I am concerned, the guy who did this hates America.

Security Theatre Acts IX and X

Act IX: Elites and Cattle

The latest thing on the desk of Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Edmund S. “Kip” Hawley sounds like a good deal at first. We won’t have to take our shoes off for the TSA Safety Dance at the airport. That is, unless we set off the metal detectors or the TSA employee thinks we are acting suspicious. Furthermore, buying a one-way ticket or buying on short notice will no longer automatically get your ticket marked for extended screening. Apparently, someone realized out that there are plenty of legit reasons this might happen, and Real Terrorists have figured out that this will single them out.

They are also planning — pending Kip’s approval — on lifting the ban on certain sharp objects, such as scissors, small pocketknives, razor blades, throwing stars, icepicks, and arrows. Now, doesn’t that make you feel better? Not only will you not have your swiss army knife confiscated, you can put your shurikens in your carry on bag. No worries!

The new rules also aim to minimize the number of patdowns, and reducing patdowns is a good thing. Or, more precisely, reducing unnecessary patdowns is a good idea. Some are going to be necessary, but there ought to be a clear protocol that is followed.

The controversial bit is that the recommendations are “certain categories of passengers be exempt from airport security screening, such as members of Congress, airline pilots, Cabinet members, state governors, federal judges, high-ranking military officers and people with top-secret security clearances.” There are many problems with this. First, it assumes that these people are universally trustworthy, universally sane, universally Not A Terrorist. I think this is a big assumption.

The next big problem is identifying these people. Would you know your Congressman if you saw him crossing the street? Me neither. I think I have a good shot at recognizing my Senators and maybe even the top ten most influential Senators. Are we honestly talking about letting people flash a “top sekrit” ID at the TSA guy and passing through security unmolested? I can’t see biometrics solving this problem. I anticipate a great market for fake IDs, and incredibly increased risk of identity theft for the air travel elites.

And that brings us straight to the next big problem, that this creates a small group of elite fliers and a huge mass of normal people lining up like cattle before the magic TSA checkpoint. This system makes the cattle line longer, because the TSA employee who could be helping move the line faster is instead checking the credentials of the elite. This will cause some resentment among the cattle, but they know better than to say anything, lest they be accused of “acting suspicious.” This system is self-entrenching, because the elite no longer know what it is like to be in the cattle line, no longer know what it is like to be singled out for additional security, no longer know what it is like to get a patdown, no longer experience the absurdities of the system — they no longer know what it is like to be a normal, average person — but they certainly have no desire to eliminate this valuable fringe benefit for themselves.

In short, a Do Not Search list is even dumber than a Do Not Fly list.

Act X: Big Brother says it’s a Secure Flight

“Just weeks after congressional investigators found that officials in charge of a new airline passenger-screening system violated a federal privacy law, the Department of Homeland Security is pushing Congress to reduce oversight of the program and to allow it to use commercial databases to screen for terrorists.” Or, “Yeah, we messed up. We broke the law. So you caught us. Now can you stop paying attention, please?” In fact, it turns out that they are destroying millions of records they shouldn’t have, or as some prefer to call it, “evidence.”

Secure Flight wants to gather up information on law abiding American citizens. They would like to aggregate the kind of data the Feds already have on you — tax records, date of birth, etc — with the kind of data the big commercial consumer databases have on you — credit info, what kind of peanut butter you buy with your Shopper’s Savings Club card, what’s on your Amazon wish/recommendations list, how expensive your house is — and probably the data that can be gleaned from an average everyday search engine (yeah, I bet the Feds know I write this stuff). Now, unless you can think of some reason that Terrorists might prefer Skippy over Jif, collecting this level of information is absurd.

However, both houses of Congress have “prohibit[ed] Secure Flight from using commercial databases or using computer software to profile passengers, a reflection of congressional concern over the Transportation Security Administration’s privacy scandals,” thus gutting the entire purpose of Secure Flight, trying to figure out from various data sources and computer models whether someone is likely to be a terrorist before they get to the airport. It leads one to wonder what exactly the point of allowing Secure Flight to continue is.

Ah yes, this is Security Theatre, and all the world’s a stage.

Does Not Compute Part IV: Buying a New Computer Sucks

Today the ShortWoman is proud to present the final installment of her series on the sorry state of personal computing. If you haven’t read Parts I, II, and III yet, just scroll down.

Buying a New Computer Sucks

So here I am, the proud owner of a 3 year old notebook computer. I have certain frustrations with it, and certain frustrations with the software it runs. It is probably time to consider replacing it with something new, but that opens a big kettle of fish that makes the whole place stink.

I have already decided I prefer having a notebook computer. I like being able to take it places. I am willing to accept its limitations.

That means the next big choice is “What operating system do I want to use?” I’ve been a Mac user for over a decade. Although there are certainly reasons to switch to Macs, mostly I use a Mac now because I’ve been using them for a long time. Working on a Mac is easy, primarily because I already know what I am doing. Migrating to a new Mac is about as easy as it gets. So why am I not at the Apple Store trying to decide which PowerBook suits me?

First of all, the PowerBook line has not been upgraded — not so much as a speed boost — since January. iBooks got upgraded last month, but are still relatively speed and feature poor. The fastest thing available is a 1.67 GHz G4. Even iMacs are starting at a 1.8 GHz G5, higher clock speed on a fundamentally faster processor, and that is supposed to be an entry level machine. The fastest PowerBooks are looking like minimum system requirements. It has become clear that a PowerBook update will not be forthcoming until the much ballyhooed Intel Macs arrive. Nobody knows much about these machines and how compatible they are with current software. Theoretically everything should work, but theoretically we were supposed to have G5 PowerBooks by now.

Since the MacTel machines are allegedly “fast,” it seems like a no-brainer to wait for them. But wait, it turns out that the MacTel machines will include some built in Digital Rights Management that may very well limit what users can do with their machines and data they create. This could be a big deal. The official reason for this chip is to prevent piracy of the operating system. After all, there are millions of Intel based PCs out there and Apple understandably does not want rampant downloading of the new operating system and the resultant loss of hardware sales. Besides, part of the reason “plug and play” works as promised on Macintoshes is that Apple very closely controls the hardware specification. Unfortunately, OS X for Intel has already been cracked.

The final thing that makes me wonder if it might not be time to consider a non-Macintosh is the so-called “Apple Tax.” Last Sunday’s CompUSA circular sums up the matter nicely. On one page the following notebook computers are available: an Averatec 1 Ghz Celeron M for $900; an HP Pavillion Athlon 64 3200+ for $850; a Toshiba Pentium M Centrino 1.6 GHZ for $1100; and a PowerBook 1.67 GHZ G4 for $2300. Across the page is an HP 17″ P4 for $1650. Even a nicely equipped Sony Vaio can be had for hundreds less than a comparable PowerBook. Visit any major computer manufacturer’s website and build a notebook with comparable specs to the PowerBook, or compare products at any computer discounter/retailer site; all the Windows machines are substantially less.

Windows has it’s own problems, however. The new version is coming out towards then end of next year, and since upgrading an operating system is a pain in the butt which often results in bizarre incompatibilities you never thought of, it might be a good idea to wait. Since a group announced today that they will try to block Vista’s release, it may take longer than expected. And that assumes no additional problems, viruses, or grumbling over it’s “Mac feel.”

One good thing about Windows is that there is an incredible array of software available. I no longer have to worry about cross platform compatibility because I have the dominant platform. No more Mac Ghetto, no more features that I can’t have because I have the wrong operating system. But once you get beyond the dozen or so standard applications, there is actually too much choice. There’s a lot of Windows software out there, multiple products for just about any niche you can think of. Who has the time to sort out what is best for each of the dozens of things you might need to do on your computer? Who has the money to buy and throw away suboptimal solutions?

And then, it is well known that Windows is more susceptible to a variety of malware including viruses, trojans, worms, and spyware. Some infected computers turn into Zombies under the control of nefarious crackers. As much as 80% of the spam you receive may be sent by infected computers. So, as the saying goes, we’re all in this together.

Of course, I also have the option of buying a Windows computer and immediately installing Linux. Leaving aside the question of which distribution, Linux gives me a lot of options and a lot of software being developed all the time, much of it free! It’s hard not to like free. However, Linux is not as easy to use as the other major operating systems. A Linux user must be prepared to delve into the world of command lines. It is sufficiently complicated that Amazon currently offers over 2100 books on Linux.

I’d like to think I’m clever enough to learn sufficient Linux for everyday use, but there is another problem that is not so easily overcome. Linux has even bigger cross platform compatibility issues than the Macintosh. A switch to Linux means no Intuit Quicken, no Adobe Photohop or Illustrator, no Microsoft Office, and no Microsoft Internet Explorer (which you may recall is required for many sites). The solutions to these problems are kludgy at best. Although there are packages which allow Linux users to read and create standard Office files, I am forced to wonder how compatible it really is. After all, the Macintosh version of Office — actually written by Microsoft — is only about 97% compatible.

Getting enough information to make an informed choice can be tough. The fact that Apple only has a dozen models of notebook computers simplifies matters, but things get very sticky in the Windows world. Between the number of manufacturers, the number of models they have, and the brevity of the product cycle, hundreds of things are available at any time. Once you dig into the product specifications, things get even worse. Picking a processor used to be as simple as “how much MHz can I afford”; now there are multiple manufacturers, each offering multiple architectures, multiple chipsets, and seemingly endless variety. This may seem like an unimportant thing that you only need to worry about if you are designing and building computers, but the fact is that many things depend on such minutia, especially if you are considering the Linux route.

Once you have sorted out what is actually in the box, there is the fun of figuring out what it actually costs. Does the listed price reflect rebates, sales, coupons, shipping? Nobody wants a nasty surprise at the register. I would love for states to pass a law saying that the out-the-door price printed in a sales circular must be at least as large as the “after rebates” price.

This, of course, assumes you have already made some decisions about where to buy your new computer. Your local retail computer store does have the advantage of instant gratification: you see it; you buy it; you take it home and play. But such stores cost more. They have a store to light and staff and keep clean. They also have less selection, since there is no way they can carry all of the myriad products available. The local retailer also has The Salesman. This chap may have helpful advice for you, he may also have a vested interest in steering you towards a specific product you don’t need. He may be highly knowledgeable, and he may only know what is on the short list of bullet-point specs, and that he may have wrong.

If you don’t mind waiting and like to get exactly what you want, you can usually buy top line computers directly from the manufacturer. You tell HP/Compaq or Dell or whoever exactly what you want and give them a credit card number. You can usually do this online in your underwear. A few days later, the exact computer you want shows up at your house. Pretty sweet, don’t you think?

Ah, but if you are trying to save money, there is the world of online mail order. You can find some great bargains, but only if you understand exactly what you are ordering. Selection will often be good, although you will not have as many options as ordering from the manufacturer. Many of the available machines will be overstocks, discontinued items, and that sort of thing. It’s like buying at a car dealer’s “end of season blowout;” they are still good, new-in-box computers with warranties, but they are the previous model. Sometimes the difference is nothing more than a particular chip that has been upgraded. Other available items might be “returns,” “floor units,” or “white elephants.” The specifications and warranties — if any! — should be highly scrutinized. The lions share of these are good solid computers, but you need to be aware that there may be problems. Needless to say, be sure you are comfortable with the vendor’s reputation and the shipping charges.

Buying a computer is a frustrating experience. The results will effect what you are able to get done for the next several years, at which point you will be at square one all over again.

Briefly, in closing…

The Homeland Security Secretary says “What’s the problem with giving us all your personal information? We’re just trying to keep you safe!” Meanwhile, I have no idea how giving the TSA a name, date of birth, and address would have stopped this Oklahoma man from trying to take a bomb on an airplane this morning, or what that does for the security of air cargo. For that matter, has anybody given a thought to the thousands of trucks carrying explosives?

Does Not Compute Part III: Browsers Suck Even Worse

Or, “IE Sucks, Firefox Sucks, Krypton Sucks.”

This is the third installation of a series on the state of personal computing. Scroll down for the two previous parts, and be sure to come back later this week for the stunning conclusion.

Back in Part I, I pointed out that there were two web browsers running, and another two that I use fairly frequently. Why so many browsers? Quite simply because I need them.

Firefox is my primary browser. It does tabbed browsing fairly well, and I am a woman who often has 3 or 4 tabs open. I sometimes have a dozen tabs open if I am working on a post, as it allows me to have all my links handy. It gladly opens links from other applications in a new tab. It allows better cookie management than most browsers. It allows me to Google from the toolbar, and plugins are available to let me search different places selected from a pull-down menu. It also blocks pop-up windows, but only most of the time. It is still necessary to check now and then. In fact, just before I wrote that sentence, I discovered a pop-under from University of Phoenix. Sometimes, Firefox will decide that for whatever reason it needs to use 90% of the available processor resources. Then I must hunt down whatever is causing this behavior and make it stop. I could just quit Firefox, but then I lose whatever items I had loaded into tabs. Depending on the information, it can be a pain in the butt to find it again. Other times, the SPOD will appear, and it will be necessary to force quit. In fact, I will have to switch applications to get the operating system’s attention long enough to be allowed to force quit. This happens with enough regularity that I refer to it as “the weekly Firefox crash.”

The second most regularly used browser on my computer is OmniWeb. In fact, I almost always write posts in it. Why? The one truly compelling feature it has is spellchecking in forms. My spelling is okay (OmniWeb insists that ok is not a word and I must mean auk), but it’s nice to be able to correct typos before publishing. Furthermore, browsers being what they are (see title), there is something to be said for working in one and having references in another. I only have one annoyance with OmniWeb, that it has problems if you try to log in to a site you have logged out of. Quitting and restarting makes everything happy. In the end, I’m not sure that these days any web browser is worth $30. After all, the other 3 browsers I use regularly were free. The guys who wrote it are entitled to make a living, but I have to ask myself whether or not there is $30 worth of value over and above Firefox, which is free.

I also am forced to use Microsoft Internet Explorer, or MSIE. I am “forced” to use it because certain sites will not work in anything else. I do not have the option to just “don’t go there,” as I need these sites to get very limited and specific things done. I am not sure whether it is because of some lazy web designer using an obscure IE only feature, but the great irony is that most of the sites that require it are of the “secure login” variety. Irony, because IE is generally considered one of the least secure browsers. Of course, I am using the Macintosh version, which isn’t quite as up-to-date. It is also only about 90% compliant with the things that demand IE. There are times I have to boot a windows machine just to use a site that demands whatever Windows IE security widget is needed. So if you like, consider IE two browsers.

The final browser in regular use on my computer is Safari. When Safari was new, there were a lot of things to like about it. However, all those things are now done better by one of the other browsers. You can search Google from the toolbar, but only Google. It does tabbed browsing, but if you have what it considers too many tabs, it shunts the “extras” into a difficult to access and impossible to close area marked only by an arrow. It has a built in but inferior RSS reader. It too theoretically blocks pop-up windows, but somehow that “gets unchecked” now and then. It is theoretically faster, but at the sacrifice of compatibility. Lots of things just don’t work right in Safari. It also has a propensity for unexplained crashes. Why do I use it at all? Primarily to check compatibility of code; if it works right in Safari, it will work right almost anywhere. The other reason is that it is not possible to export my bookmarks to one of the “standard” browsers in an automagic fashion. As a result, I just check back in when looking for “something interesting I found once.”

There are other browsers, and while I am sure each has advantages, I also am sure that each has its very own flavor of sucking. In fact, the existence of legion browsers is damning evidence that they all suck. Each of them was created to address whatever issues the creators had with one of the big browsers. None of them is good enough to rise from the cyberdebris as a competitor to the big players. Few of them are even good enough that the big players have come knocking on the door to buy whatever unique bit of superior code they might possess. We are stuck with browsers that suck, and no superior answer is poised to come over the horizon.

Does Not Compute Part II: Software Sucks

This is part two of a four part series on the current state of personal computing from the standpoint of a savvy but not “power” end-user. Scroll down for Part I: My Computer Sucks. The remaining two parts will be published later this week.

Software Sucks

I considered breaking this post into “Operating Systems Suck” and “Applications Suck,” but the sad truth of the matter is that it is nearly impossible for the end user to determine which of these is the culprit when the SPOD turns (Spinning Pizza Of Doom, OS X’s way of telling you the computer is too busy to care what you want). Adding to this difficulty, a call to technical support will result in finger pointing: the OS manufacturer will blame the application; the guys who made the application will blame the OS. There’s a kernel of truth — pun intended — to both points of view, but mostly because both are at fault.

It can be very difficult to isolate what is going wrong with your computer, partly because it’s a complicated bit of machinery. Because the manufacturers of the hardware and OS don’t really want you mucking about too much, they give you things like the SPOD, which are about as useful as a single light marked PROBLEM to let you know something is amiss. The problem might be that it is loading a file. On the other hand, it might be that a program has hopelessly crashed. Or worse.

Let’s start with the Operating System, because you can’t run a computer without one. There are for all practical purposes 3 major operating systems: Mac OS, Windows, and Linux/Unix. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Purists will point out that Mac OS is based on Unix, that Linux is based on Unix, that Mac OS only represents 5% of the market, that “almost everybody” uses Windows, that Linux isn’t really a system designed for personal use, etc. ad nauseum.

No matter which you run, you will find that upgrades and patches are an all-too-regular thing. Because of security issues, it is absolutely imperative that computer users keep up with this stuff, and many upgrades actually fix problems you might be having. However, most of the time, upgrades result in “broke different.”

My last OS upgrade a few months ago, for example, fixed a few under-the-hood type of things that I would not have noticed except for being told it is so. It also gave me something called “Dashboard,” which puts stuff like a calendar, calculator, dictionary, and weather report just a click away. This impresses Mac newbies a great deal. Whatever. It also got me a disk search technology called “Spotlight” which everyone tells me is just wonderful except for what had to be done to the email program to make it work right. This of course means I have an updated Mail.app that I didn’t really need with a new user interface to learn and a new storage system. All to make my email searchable at the operating system level instead of just searching it from within the email application.

It also broke three different applications in fun and exciting ways. In two cases, a fix was immediately downloadable from the software manufacturer (thank goodness for Version Tracker). In the third case — ironically an Apple product — there is no fix. The program works, but some things just don’t work right. The worst part is a nagging feeling that they don’t care.

It also got me “Megahertz Gnomes,” a phenomenon where upgrades make… things….. run…….. slower……….

Applications deserve their fair share of blame too. As far as I am concerned, nothing illustrates this like the single biggest must-have software suite, Microsoft Office. I recently upgraded to Office 2004 for Macintosh, and the best thing I can say is that it is “bigger and badder than ever.”

This behemoth takes up 486 meg of space on my hard drive. The bit I use most, Word 2004, is 19.5 meg alone and has so many features that it actually inhibits my ability to get things done. In fact, 80% of the features are only used by 20% of users. They have officially reached the point where features obliterate other features. The other night I spent well over a minute trying to figure out where they had moved the toolbar that lets you see what font, size, and formatting were in use. But if I were writing, for example, a textbook, there would be handy formatting tools at my fingertips.

I didn’t want to write a textbook. All I wanted to do was write out a recipe.

The other bit of Office that I use on a semi-regular basis is Excel. Over a decade has gone by since its inception, and this version just almost has feature parity with its Windows namesake. It is still slower, still more difficult to use, and just occasionally will decide it doesn’t like something about a spreadsheet made in Windows Excel, but there you are.

Bundled with these two programs are 3 additional programs that I have no use for. I do not use Entourage for my email, and have not for some years. Microsoft still seems to hope I will migrate. Nor do I use MSN Messenger. The last thing in the world I need is another messaging program. Everyone I care to talk to is either on AIM or IRC. And as for PowerPoint, I haven’t the faintest idea what I would use it for. Outlining? I won’t go so far as to join those who call it evil, or say it makes us dumb, but I sure have seen a lot of bad uses of PowerPoint for someone who doesn’t work in a large office environment and doesn’t attend a lot of academic events.

What is this doing on my hard drive again? Oh yeah, it came with the suite and someday I might need it. A nagging voice in the back of my head tells me that “I might need it someday” is how hoarders get started.

Some items of interest to regular readers:

“That’s not a snake, it’s a housing bubble deflating!” Job growth may bring enough people back to the job market that unemployment rises. Textbooks are so bad they are discouraging reading. And finally, Big Brother is our friend.