Music and Code
Paco de Lucia's Siroco - maybe the greatest flamenco album ever made - is the perfect music to motivate you to finish the last gnarly parts of a code release.
Saturday, June 28, 2003
Business and Injustice
I bought a real newspaper for the first time in months and sat down to read it while sampling some of the local barbeque. Alas, the BBQ here on the NorCal Riviera is as bad as the Mexican food; times like these are when I really miss living in Texas. Reading the paper proved more interesting. An article on page 3 entitled "Study: E-waste program dangerous" (online version here) compared Dell's e-waste recycling program with H-P's. Dell subcontracts out to a company called Unicor. Unicor, based in Washington state, employs 1,100 convicts who they pay anywhere from 20 cents to $1.26 an hour to handle and dispose of cathode ray tubes and other unsafe tech by-products. The study says the Dell/Unicor program exposes the prison laborers to dangerous chemicals, partially due to the low-tech working environment. The study contrasted this with H-P's program, which pays civilian workers $8 to $13 dollars an hour plus benefits, and minimizes their exposure to chemicals and other toxins.
Now we know one reason why Dell's prices are lower than the competition's.
Several things about this really disturb me. First, there are plenty of unconvicted citizens who need a decent job, and $8-13 an hour in a safe working environment surely beats unemployment. Second, most of the prisoners doing this kind of work are going to be the "safer" ones, i.e., they're in for non-violent crimes or misdemeanors. So putting them to work for third-world wages is exploitative to the extreme. Even if you don't care about the inmates' working conditions, you should realize that your and my taxes will have to pay the cost of their getting sick from performing unsafe work. I should also point out that our taxes are already paying the costs of their incarceration, thus providing a totally subsidized pool of labor for subcontractors who use prison laborers. I don't doubt the folks who run Unicor think that this is just good business. And it is, at least for those born without the scruples or ethics genes.
It's a sad comment on this society that this story is buried on page 3 of the business section and will probably only outrage Unicor's management (who are already on record calling the study "deeply flawed" and "disturbing"). If the matter is brought to HP's management's attention, they'll probably close their facilities and outsource to the prison contractors, too.
All so you can get a few bucks off the price of your computer. I have two Dell computers here in my home. I won't be buying another.
I bought a real newspaper for the first time in months and sat down to read it while sampling some of the local barbeque. Alas, the BBQ here on the NorCal Riviera is as bad as the Mexican food; times like these are when I really miss living in Texas. Reading the paper proved more interesting. An article on page 3 entitled "Study: E-waste program dangerous" (online version here) compared Dell's e-waste recycling program with H-P's. Dell subcontracts out to a company called Unicor. Unicor, based in Washington state, employs 1,100 convicts who they pay anywhere from 20 cents to $1.26 an hour to handle and dispose of cathode ray tubes and other unsafe tech by-products. The study says the Dell/Unicor program exposes the prison laborers to dangerous chemicals, partially due to the low-tech working environment. The study contrasted this with H-P's program, which pays civilian workers $8 to $13 dollars an hour plus benefits, and minimizes their exposure to chemicals and other toxins.
Now we know one reason why Dell's prices are lower than the competition's.
Several things about this really disturb me. First, there are plenty of unconvicted citizens who need a decent job, and $8-13 an hour in a safe working environment surely beats unemployment. Second, most of the prisoners doing this kind of work are going to be the "safer" ones, i.e., they're in for non-violent crimes or misdemeanors. So putting them to work for third-world wages is exploitative to the extreme. Even if you don't care about the inmates' working conditions, you should realize that your and my taxes will have to pay the cost of their getting sick from performing unsafe work. I should also point out that our taxes are already paying the costs of their incarceration, thus providing a totally subsidized pool of labor for subcontractors who use prison laborers. I don't doubt the folks who run Unicor think that this is just good business. And it is, at least for those born without the scruples or ethics genes.
It's a sad comment on this society that this story is buried on page 3 of the business section and will probably only outrage Unicor's management (who are already on record calling the study "deeply flawed" and "disturbing"). If the matter is brought to HP's management's attention, they'll probably close their facilities and outsource to the prison contractors, too.
All so you can get a few bucks off the price of your computer. I have two Dell computers here in my home. I won't be buying another.
Friday, June 27, 2003
Business and Justice
The Labor Department on Thursday sued Enron, its former top executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, and its board for failing to protect the retirement assets of its employees.
Finally. Here's hoping this is followed by indictments of Lay and Skilling.
The Labor Department on Thursday sued Enron, its former top executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, and its board for failing to protect the retirement assets of its employees.
Finally. Here's hoping this is followed by indictments of Lay and Skilling.
Thursday, June 26, 2003
War and Peace
Are we winning or losing the peace?
It's still far too early to say. The latest posts from Salam Pax and G In Baghdad hardly give one reason for optimism, though. Neither does this story in the Washington Post. Some additional data points here and here.
I think we needed a post-war analogue to the the Powell doctrine of striking the enemy with overwhelming force; a doctrine of rebuilding the occupied infrastructure with overwhelming rapidity - a high-impact Marshall Plan for the new century. Unfortunately, it's a little too late for that in Afghanistan and Iraq. See what a retired US general says about “ the consequences of failing to prepare for victory”.
Guerilla action against the coalition forces appears to be on the upswing, as evidenced here, here, and here.
Is the news all bad or is it only bad news that gets reported?
The documents seized several days ago may lead to some discoveries of WMDs. Or not. Perhaps I'm far too cynical, but does this story have the fingerprints of the Administration's spin machine all over it?
But hey, Bechtel, Halliburton, and WorldCom are making hay out of the occupation. Now that Enron can't sell electricity in the US anymore, will they turn their attention to Iraq?
Very little news out of Iran, so it's hard to know if the protests have been crushed or if they'll resume. Here's hoping we don't have a replay of what happened in 1999. Ending the rule of the Mullahs would be a real victory for freedom and self-determination.
Are we winning or losing the peace?
It's still far too early to say. The latest posts from Salam Pax and G In Baghdad hardly give one reason for optimism, though. Neither does this story in the Washington Post. Some additional data points here and here.
I think we needed a post-war analogue to the the Powell doctrine of striking the enemy with overwhelming force; a doctrine of rebuilding the occupied infrastructure with overwhelming rapidity - a high-impact Marshall Plan for the new century. Unfortunately, it's a little too late for that in Afghanistan and Iraq. See what a retired US general says about “ the consequences of failing to prepare for victory”.
Guerilla action against the coalition forces appears to be on the upswing, as evidenced here, here, and here.
Is the news all bad or is it only bad news that gets reported?
The documents seized several days ago may lead to some discoveries of WMDs. Or not. Perhaps I'm far too cynical, but does this story have the fingerprints of the Administration's spin machine all over it?
But hey, Bechtel, Halliburton, and WorldCom are making hay out of the occupation. Now that Enron can't sell electricity in the US anymore, will they turn their attention to Iraq?
Very little news out of Iran, so it's hard to know if the protests have been crushed or if they'll resume. Here's hoping we don't have a replay of what happened in 1999. Ending the rule of the Mullahs would be a real victory for freedom and self-determination.
Weather With You
Late Spring is when the winds off the Pacific shift from W to NW; hence, days usually begin and end with a cool haze of fog all along the coast. Occasionally (like maybe once every other year) the winds will shift radically and come from the southeast. When this happens, temperatures in the Bay Areas (SF and Monterey) rise dramatically. We're in the middle of one of those radical shifts right now. I know this, because I started my day in SC (high 92°), went to the city (SF) for lunch (high 95°), and finished my day in the Valley (high 101°). It wasn't as bad as 2 years ago, when the temp in SF rose to 103° - I remember it well, because I was trapped in my no-AC apartment recovering from surgery. Today the heat didn't bug me too much; probably all those years in Texas (high today in Austin: 96°).
Worst thing about the weather: It causes a thermal inversion in the Valley, so all the smog gets trapped. Coming down the hill, you see a dirty gray blanket over San Jose. You'd think there'd been a forest fire recently if you were anywhere else.
Best thing about the weather: It doesn't stay hot here. After sweltering all day in the Valley and the City, you come home to SC in the evening, roll down the windows, open the sunroof, and let in the delicious cool while you listen to Bebel Gilberto sing Samba e Amor. Any haze you see is just a whisp of fog.
Late Spring is when the winds off the Pacific shift from W to NW; hence, days usually begin and end with a cool haze of fog all along the coast. Occasionally (like maybe once every other year) the winds will shift radically and come from the southeast. When this happens, temperatures in the Bay Areas (SF and Monterey) rise dramatically. We're in the middle of one of those radical shifts right now. I know this, because I started my day in SC (high 92°), went to the city (SF) for lunch (high 95°), and finished my day in the Valley (high 101°). It wasn't as bad as 2 years ago, when the temp in SF rose to 103° - I remember it well, because I was trapped in my no-AC apartment recovering from surgery. Today the heat didn't bug me too much; probably all those years in Texas (high today in Austin: 96°).
Worst thing about the weather: It causes a thermal inversion in the Valley, so all the smog gets trapped. Coming down the hill, you see a dirty gray blanket over San Jose. You'd think there'd been a forest fire recently if you were anywhere else.
Best thing about the weather: It doesn't stay hot here. After sweltering all day in the Valley and the City, you come home to SC in the evening, roll down the windows, open the sunroof, and let in the delicious cool while you listen to Bebel Gilberto sing Samba e Amor. Any haze you see is just a whisp of fog.
Cars
Is it just me, or does the Lexus SC look like a supersonic, 21st century Karmann Ghia? Speaking of which, why doesn't VW bring the Ghia back?
Is it just me, or does the Lexus SC look like a supersonic, 21st century Karmann Ghia? Speaking of which, why doesn't VW bring the Ghia back?
Monday, June 23, 2003
Software
Found lots of interesting stuff surfing:
Random Hacks posits a third alternative to the showdown between Microsoft and Open Source as to the future of software development.
Artima is a software community-oriented site with lots of good content that also hosts a remarkable set of weblogs. Among other things, a good interview with Andrew Hunt and Dave Thomas (the Pragmatic Programmer guys) on the value of storing persistent data in plain text and the ways they feel XML is being misused. Bruce Eckel's interview on Artima and some of the entries in his weblog have convinced me to give Python, a language I'd previously dismissed, a try.
The only problem is that I still want to learn Ruby. Plus I need to finish crossing the t's and dotting the i's on Chrysalis so I can put out an initial alpha release and then work on adding support for MySQL. Plus I need to get working on finishing my series of essays on software development. Not to mention that I start a new job in a week. And there's that biography of Frida Kahlo I'm trying to read.
Found lots of interesting stuff surfing:
Random Hacks posits a third alternative to the showdown between Microsoft and Open Source as to the future of software development.
Artima is a software community-oriented site with lots of good content that also hosts a remarkable set of weblogs. Among other things, a good interview with Andrew Hunt and Dave Thomas (the Pragmatic Programmer guys) on the value of storing persistent data in plain text and the ways they feel XML is being misused. Bruce Eckel's interview on Artima and some of the entries in his weblog have convinced me to give Python, a language I'd previously dismissed, a try.
The only problem is that I still want to learn Ruby. Plus I need to finish crossing the t's and dotting the i's on Chrysalis so I can put out an initial alpha release and then work on adding support for MySQL. Plus I need to get working on finishing my series of essays on software development. Not to mention that I start a new job in a week. And there's that biography of Frida Kahlo I'm trying to read.
Sunday, June 22, 2003
Software - Ted Codd's Legacy
I'm re-reading Codd's 3-page monograph on Data Models, originally published in 1980, and I'm struck once again by the sheer elegance of the man's ideas.
What's sad is that so few people doing software development actually understand these concepts. If they did, we'd have database management systems that correctly implemented the relational model. And then we'd have simpler systems that could manage data more reliably and effectively, and could build simpler and more reliable applications on top of them.
I've been predictiing for the past few years that the relational model gets "rediscovered" about 10-15 years from now when all the current data management fads and fictions have finally been shown to be hollow and hopelessly flawed. I'm assuming Codd's reputation gets refurbished at about the same time.
I'm re-reading Codd's 3-page monograph on Data Models, originally published in 1980, and I'm struck once again by the sheer elegance of the man's ideas.
- “Numerous authors appear to think of a data model as nothing more than a collection of data structure types. This is like trying to understand the way the human body functions by studying anatomy but omitting physiology. The operators and integrity rules are essential to any understanding of how the structures behave.”
What's sad is that so few people doing software development actually understand these concepts. If they did, we'd have database management systems that correctly implemented the relational model. And then we'd have simpler systems that could manage data more reliably and effectively, and could build simpler and more reliable applications on top of them.
I've been predictiing for the past few years that the relational model gets "rediscovered" about 10-15 years from now when all the current data management fads and fictions have finally been shown to be hollow and hopelessly flawed. I'm assuming Codd's reputation gets refurbished at about the same time.
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