Being An Asshole

I had a conference call today that was scheduled to last two hours. It was a call for technical people only and it had to do with the installation of a new version of software for the server and the client workstations. After doing a roll call of about 30 attendees, the person heading up the conference passed the baton to a technical person who had us open the 38-page server installation instructions and he proceeded to read each and every word to us. One of the first paragraphs instructed the user to read and review the entire document before doing the installation. After a couple of pages of this, I responded when the reader asked if we had any questions about the page he just covered.

I politely questioned the need for reading the instructions completely--there was a second set to go through for the workstations as well and I was not looking forward to two hours of story time--and asked if there were parts of the instructions that needed to be touched on because they had been troublesome to others. The conference lead got all defensive and said that nobody complained during the last two conference calls and he thought this was important.

I wasn't looking for a fight so I didn't mention that what everyone probably did during those conference calls was work on other stuff while a voice on their speakerphone read to them and maybe complained to a work mate about how stupid that was. So I said, "Thank you," and was just about to disconnect when someone else chimed in. They agreed that a better use of our time would be to summarize and mention any troublesome spots. The conference lead was a little upset and asked if anyone else thought we should do that. So someone else piped up and said they thought so too.

Bizarrely, the conference lead said that maybe other people on the call would like to go through the entire set of instructions, to which that person responded, "Well, you asked." And nobody said they wanted to have it read in detail. So they shifted gears and the instructions were summarized. Not as much as they could have been, but enough to shorten the meeting from two hours to one during which I worked on emails, edited a document, monitored bandwidth usage, and requested quotes from vendors.
The title of this post doesn't convey what I intended to be, but that's how the conference lead reacted to me. That's his problem. In the end there were exactly three points where we were told something important. They could have just updated the instructions and told everyone to get the latest version via email, but the lead didn't give anyone a chance to say so. As soon as the last page of the second document was covered he thanked everyone for attending and concluded the call by hanging up.

I hit play on my music.

Underwear Bomb 2.0

In today's Spokesman Review we have an article about a thwarted Al Qaida plot to use an upgraded underwear bomb to bring down a passenger plane. I'd like to point out something.

The would-be suicide bomber, based in Yemen, had not yet picked a target or bought a plane ticket when the CIA stepped in and seized the bomb, officials said.


It would appear that intelligence gathering can be an effective tool. Regardless, I look forward to the intrusive precautions that make up the security theater at our airports to continue for a very long time.


The FBI is examining the latest bomb to see whether it could have passed through airport security and brought down an airplane, officials said. They said the device did not contain metal, meaning it probably could have passed through an airport metal detector. But it was not clear whether new body scanners used in many airports would have detected it.


I think John Brennan of Portland will someday be known as a man ahead of the times.

We Can't Take Chances These Days

What is it with kids these days? Why are they so out of control that a six-year-old has to be handcuffed by the police because none of the available adults were able to control her? Some people are upset about this. Obviously they have no idea what a six-year-old is capable of? And this one was chewing on a door knob so there's definitely no stopping her.

And now our young people are apparently studying up on Islamofascism and looking for ways to defeat the many protections put in place to ensure our safety when we travel by plane. No doubt, the four-year-old girl was the ringleader of this operation attempting to use the elderly and the very young to test weapon smuggling and exchanging scenarios. But TSA wasn't about to fall for it. They saw right through her ploy. Looks like TSA proved she wasn't as clever as she thought she was.

The Police State Will Protect Us

An excellent read about airport scanners over at ProPublica:

On Sept. 23, 1998, a panel of radiation safety experts gathered at a Hilton hotel in Maryland to evaluate a new device that could detect hidden weapons and contraband. The machine, known as the Secure 1000, beamed X-rays at people to see underneath their clothing.

One after another, the experts convened by the Food and Drug Administration raised questions about the machine because it violated a longstanding principle in radiation safety — that humans shouldn’t be X-rayed unless there is a medical benefit.

“I think this is really a slippery slope,” said Jill Lipoti, who was the director of New Jersey’s radiation protection program. The device was already deployed in prisons; what was next, she and others asked — courthouses, schools, airports? “I am concerned … with expanding this type of product for the traveling public,” said another panelist, Stanley Savic, the vice president for safety at a large electronics company. “I think that would take this thing to an entirely different level of public health risk.”

The machine’s inventor, Steven W. Smith, assured the panelists that it was highly unlikely that the device would see widespread use in the near future. At the time, only 20 machines were in operation in the entire country.

Wow, look at how far we've come since 1998. My mother-in-law won't fly to Spokane any more because she doesn't want to get scanned or touched. Well into her 70's she's hardly the security threat, but you know we just can't take any chances these days. She said she would rather take the bus or train instead. We've counseled against that because it's at least three days travel time and she wouldn't be comfortable at all. Maybe a sleeper car would do but it would still be a long trip for her.

But if you think taking the train or bus will keep you from being scanned or searched, you've got another think coming. A Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response team could be coming to a train station, bus station, or even along an interstate near you.

The apparent logic here is that terrorists are everywhere simply because that's where we're looking.

Yeah, That Makes Sense

About a month ago I posted about the White House site where citizens can petition their government and the top petition at the time was Legalize and Regulate Marijauana in a Manner Similar to Alcohol. Well the White House has responded via Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

According to scientists at the National Institutes of Health- the world's largest source of drug abuse research - marijuana use is associated with addiction, respiratory disease, and cognitive impairment.

Let's see, alcohol consumption is associated with addiction, cardiovascular disease, malabsorption, chronic pancreatitis, alcoholic liver disease, and cancer.

We know from an array of treatment admission information and Federal data that marijuana use is a significant source for voluntary drug treatment admissions and visits to emergency rooms.

Both links they point to list alcohol use as a much greater reason for voluntary treatment and emergency room visits.

Studies also reveal that marijuana potency has almost tripled over the past 20 years, raising serious concerns about what this means for public health – especially among young people who use the drug because research shows their brains continue to develop well into their 20's.

Everclear, Ouzo, and Spirytus Vodka. Enough said.

Like many, we are interested in the potential marijuana may have in providing relief to individuals diagnosed with certain serious illnesses. That is why we ardently support ongoing research into determining what components of the marijuana plant can be used as medicine. To date, however, neither the FDA nor the Institute of Medicine have found smoked marijuana to meet the modern standard for safe or effective medicine for any condition.

Where are the studies, completed or in progress, to back up those statements? Congress won't let that happen. In the meantime, alcohol is not a safe or effective medicine but it is a legal substance that causes greater harm than marijuana and is available to adults who are encouraged to drink responsibly.

As a former police chief, I recognize we are not going to arrest our way out of the problem.

But we're not going to let that stop us.

We also recognize that legalizing marijuana would not provide the answer to any of the health, social, youth education, criminal justice, and community quality of life challenges associated with drug use.

Like legalized alcohol does?

Thanks For The Head's Up

Yesterday, I unpacked a PCI Express card to install in a server and found this notice in the box.
One effect of Proposition 65 is that California maintains a huge list of chemicals (PDF) that manufacturers and businesses are required to warn people of if there's a possibility of exposure. I appreciate the warning but this is so nonspecific, it's useless. Still, here's to clean water.

TSA Mind Games

So I'm at the Spokane International Airport again and I'm waiting in line to go through the magnetometer when the agent in front of the radioactive backscatter porn scanner waves me over.

Me: "I'd like to opt out."

Agent: "Sir you cannot opt out (dramatic pause) because I haven't asked you yet. Please step over here."

I step over.

Agent: "Sir, would you like to opt out of this procedure?"

Me: "Yes."

Agent: "Sir, why do you want to opt out?"

Me: "Because I can."

Agent: (pointing an official looking finger at me). "Sir, you are correct that you may opt out but you cannot fly (dramatic pause) until I brief you on the opt out procedures."

So he briefed me on the opt out procedures and I moved on over to the Group W bench and got all felt up again. The machine went "bing!" and I was cleared to go.

How appropriate to use dramatic pauses in security theater.

Why The Rush?

Today's Spokesman Review brings us a reprint of an editorial from The Columbian in Vancouver which presents an argument for changing the deadline for mailed in ballots to that of Oregon which requires that all ballots must be in the elections office by the end of Election Day.

Here are the reasons. It takes too long, it's easier for voters to understand the deadline, and it takes too long.

The first reason they give is that allowing mailed in ballots to be postmarked on election day means we have to wait until they all arrive in order for them to be counted. For the really close races that means we don't know who won on election day but we have to wait a few days to find out.

In this day of instant-everything, people want to know on Election Night who won.

What's the rush? Does knowing who won now outweigh making every vote count?

Next, they claim it's easier for voters to understand having the ballot arrive by election day and support that reasoning with an anecdote.

I’m told that this year Multnomah County’s elections office will only receive about 20 ballots that can’t be counted because they were delivered too late. In contrast, here in Clark County, we expect to receive a couple of hundred ballots that can’t be counted because of late postmarks.

And last of all, they create a "what if" scenario where Washington would become as infamous as Florida during the presidential recount in 2004. Now that had to do with recounting ballots in a close election and not waiting for mailed in ballots, which they admitted earlier in the column.

One example is what happened in 2004 when Washingtonians didn’t know for six months the official outcome of the gubernatorial race. That drama had nothing to do with ballot deadlines; it had everything to do with the closeness of the race.

And to top it off, they allow that ballots coming from overseas should be postmarked by election day and allowed to arrive late. Presumably, because most of them wouldn't make a difference since there are so few of them. But then what if the election was that close. Aw shit, then we'd have to wait.

Well, I know how we can fix that.

Don't Forget To Vote

Security guru Bruce Schneier is holding a contest for the best redesign of the Transportation Security Administration logo. The many great submissions have been whittled down to five finalists. Unfortunately, one of my favorites did not make the cut.

You have until next Sunday to vote.

You're Out Of Order

There's a very interesting article about public access to federal court records (PACER - public access to court electronic records) on Ars Technica. BTW, let preface that my comments refer to District courts and not Bankruptcy courts.

[Steve] Schultze and [James] Grimmelmann agree that the solution to PACER's problems is for the courts to make court records available for free download. Schultze points to a recent paper from Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy arguing that governments should stick to releasing raw information and allow private parties to build organization and search tools. Schultze predicts that if private parties were given free access to the raw PACER documents, they would quickly build websites that surpass PACER in functionality and ease-of-use.

While this is possible, it's not as easy as it seems. Some court records are ex parte, which is essentially a communication between an attorney and the court from which the opposing attorney(s), along with the public, are excluded. Anyone viewing the docket report will see there was a communication but its contents will not be revealed by the court. Sealed documents are filed to protect information. It could be a company's trade secret, a juvenile's privacy, or even a defendant's cooperation with the prosecution in a criminal trial. In criminal cases the fact that there are missing document numbers on a case's docket report could lead someone to believe "something" is going on. And like a puzzle, sometimes what isn't there can help you determine what can go there. So there are some tricky issues involved.

The federal courts deal with a variety of sensitive issues, including bankruptcy, drug charges, and a variety of civil litigation, and it is relatively common for these proceedings to reveal sensitive personal information such as Social Security numbers and dates of birth. Current law requires that such information be redacted from documents before making them available to the public, but the courts, shielded by the practical obscurity afforded by PACER's paywall, have not done a good job of enforcing this requirement. So before making PACER significantly more open, Congress may need to provide the courts with more funding to hire enough clerks to thoroughly redact documents.

Have a look at the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Federal Rules for Criminal Procedure and you'll find that redaction is the responsibility of the person making the filing. In most cases that person is the attorney. Redaction is the court's responsibility if the court files the document as in the case of an order or opinion. The Clerk's Office is responsible for keeping an accurate record so it's not like case administrators can alter filings in the interest of redaction. The actual process may differ from court to court, but generally if a case administrator finds that a document contains information that should be redacted, they will bring it to the attorney's attention. Again, it's up to that attorney to properly redact the document. The redaction requirement in the Federal Rules took effect Dec 1, 2007, and is not retroactive so it's easy to find documents containing information that should be redacted by today's standard.

Aside from that, I think it would be great for the federal courts to provide easier, user-friendly, and free access to filings.

Seeing Green With Photo Red

KXLY published a story about the photo-red program where cameras set up at four intersections monitor and photograph vehicles that enter the intersection after the light has turned red.

According to the Spokane Police web site Photo Red "...is a safety program. Automated safety systems have been shown to reduce red-light violations and intersection crashes."

The KXLY report had nothing to say about the number of accidents at the intersection. You'd think that would be the first thing asked about, especially since we're taking pictures of the red light runners. But the system also has constant video coverage of the intersections so the police department would be able to capture every accident on tape. That's not to say they're not doing that, but you'd think the city would be touting the primary reason for having this system. Here's what KXLY did report:

The red light tickets have brought in over $50,000 dollars to the City of Spokane.

and

The city expects to add four new cameras to intersections around Spokane, but the locations have not been determined. Installation should take place in March.

Say it with me now. Cha-ching!!!

Daylight Wasting Time

Time zones and time changes are fraught with controversy and confusion. Tonight we switch from Daylight Savings Time back to Standard Time meaning we get an extra hour of sleep--or partying.

Many years ago when I was in the military, I was playing cards in the command post of the Military Airlift Command at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois--hey, it was a really quiet, boring midnight shift--when a local TV station called. Something had happened in Tehran--this was during the Iranian hostage crisis--and the time given for the event was thirty minutes past the hour in Tehran but on the hour in Washington, D.C. They wanted to know how that could be. The real answer was that Iran, for reasons I have yet to learn, had set up their time to have a 30-minute difference from most other countries. I don't think anyone in the room knew that, and I didn't learn that until much later, since that answer was not returned when the Captain who answered the phone asked the question of everyone. A quick thinking young officer piped up with the idea Tehran was between time zones.

"It's between time zones," the Captain helpfully passed on.

We turned the TV on to their channel and sure enough, the reporter said the reason for the time difference was that Tehran was between time zones. A cheer went up in the room.

Then we returned to our pinochle game.

A Word From The American Duct Tape Council

There was an article in the Spokesman-Review this morning that originated with the Washington Post. Volunteer postal carriers will be recruited to deliver antibiotics in case of a large scale anthrax attack. Let's think this through for a minute. The only anthrax attack took place just after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The source of that anthrax was our own government lab. A lengthy, multi-million dollar FBI investigation claims to pinpoint the perpetrator but they refuse to release all the information they have. Developing the amount and type anthrax to carry out an attack on the population is not an easy task. So given the threat level, why are we spending resources on this? Will we ever stop being fearful of every "What if?" scenario. It's makes me pine for the good old days--with apologies to A Prairie Home Companion.

Security Absurdity

Check out the enhanced ID requirements the TSA is implementing as of June 21.

Passengers who refuse to show ID, citing a constitutional right to fly without ID will be refused passage beyond the checkpoints. Passengers who say they have left their ID at home, will be searched, and then permitted to board their flights.

Because we all know that only terrorists stand up for their constitutional rights.

Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

An excerpt from the Department of Homeland Security web site:

"While there continues to be no credible information at this time warning of an imminent threat to the homeland, the department's strategic threat perspective is that we are in a period of increased risk. All Americans should continue to be vigilant, take notice of their surroundings, and report suspicious items or activities to local authorities immediately."


Our National Threat Advisory has been elevated since its inception and has only bumped up from Elevated (yellow) to High (orange) once or twice. We have a separate and higher threat advisory for just domestic and international flights. And all while there continues to be no credible information. How are we supposed to deal with that besides remaining incredibly frightened?

About once every 100 million years an asteroid hits Earth and wipes everything out. The last one hit about 60 million years ago. Holy shit! Do you realize our Death from Unknown Masses, Bodies, Asteroids and Spherical Structures threat advisory is elevated? Please join me in getting a hard hat and binoculars and vigilantly watching the skies for suspicious signs of big frickin' asteroids headed our way. Then we call the local authorities. And if they call us "dumbass", we'll be comforted in knowing that they know exactly what we're talking about.

Terrorists Not Welcome at Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center

Josh and I stopped by the Grand Coulee Dam while returning from Ross Lake. This sign in the parking lot caught my attention. Welcome, but leave your shit in the car. Thank you.

I guess if I was a determined Taliban-Islamofascist-Shiite-Sunni or other of the innumerable possibilities that would be characterized as an Al-Qaeda-type terrorist, I would be a female with a newborn in an explosive-laden child carrier. Come on, it's a visitor center. If they have anti-aircraft missiles they are well hidden. Say, maybe those lasers for the laser show are actually dual purpose.