Month: November 2009

Contract With Americans + Fanning the Embers

Lorin Olsen

Re: Global warning – on recess, late to return to class

Lorin Olsen <cyclingroo@gmail.com> Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 9:39 AM
To: <Addresses suppressed>
Joe,

 

You’re either congratulating me on my compositional skills or you are calling me a really old fart.  Since I know that you are older than I am, I’ll assume the former and thank you for the honor! 😉
The initial steps are already underway.  The “tea party” movement is an amazing outgrowth of the most recent election.  And depending upon its long-term success, it might even be worth some of the idiocy we’ve seen thus far.  It is especially important as it is not associated with any specific political party (though there are a whole lot of Republicans).  But like the original “tea party” of Boston, the flagrant acts of those dressed like Indians gave way to the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the US Constitution.  So I see the current “tea party” movement as a means of lighting the fires of dissent – and encouraging all the people to look forward to what the future holds.
I don’t know if I’m ready to endorse a party or a platform.  And I’m certainly not ready to form a party.  But I am ready to endorse some radical ideas: our government should be of the people, by the people and for the people. Those citizens (and elected citizens) who act in violation of this principle (i.e., the Republicans and the Democrats) should be voted out of office.  And I am very serious when I say that I will be voting every single incumbent out of office.  I call it the TBO campaign.
And I think the people (not the Republican party) need to build a contract with their future employees.  We need to lay out our terms & conditions for employment of our civil servants.  And we need to ask any candidate (of any party) whether they will sign our “Contract With Americans” pledge.  I want them to sign a document as we are going to hold them accountable to it.  It will be their employment contract.
– The first article of the contract will be term limits.  Every signer will agree to no more than eight years (or two terms in the case of the Senate).
– The second article will be a commitment to the national defense.  This includes defending our country against all enemies, foreign and domestic.  We will defend our borders against illegal encroachment – and poaching of jobs.
– The third article will be strict fiscal discipline.  This includes an agreement to balance the federal budget each and every year.  If they want more money, they must obtain it first.  The only exception to this rule will be exigencies required by the second article (i.e., defense).
– I’m toying with the idea of a fourth article (or a subordinated element of the third article) addressing taxation.  In particular, we need a flat/fair tax – no exemptions, no deductions, no exclusions, no kidding.
So is this a good enough start?  Do you want to be a charter signatory to the Contract With Americans pledge?  Our side of the contract will be simple: we will vote for those who sign the pledge and we will vote against those who do not sign and/or break this pledge.
Who’s in?
Sincerely,
Lorin
On Sun, Nov 22, 2009 at 10:13 PM, Joe Bell <Address suppressed> wrote:

Lorin,
Are you sure you didn’t help Thomas with the Declaration wording back in ’76?
What are the initial steps/actions you’re considering?
<Name & phone numbers suppressed>
“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” –Winston Churchill
Semper Fi
From: Lorin Olsen [mailto:cyclingroo@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, November 22, 2009 11:05 AM
To: <Addresses suppressed>
Cc: <Addresses suppressed>
Subject: Re: Global warning – on recess, late to return to class
Team,
I truly love this stuff.  A group of thieves broke into someone’s email.  And now, the global warming skeptics are all atwitter about the evidence that was released.  Don’t get me wrong.  I think that man-made global warming is a farce that was created in order to fuel the rapacious self-interest of the loony left.  Like they don’t have enough power already???
But let’s not lionize criminals. Nor should we take everything they released at face value.  There are those in the military-industrial complex that won’t be at the table if the Copenhagen crowd gets its way.  So I’m just as leery about the skeptics as I am about the enthusiasts.
The thing that troubles me the most is that this whole debate is not about science.  It is about the concentration of political power in the hands of individuals and corporations.  Worse still, there are no “checks and balances” for the folks that are gaining power these days.  Think Obama czars on steroids.
At this time, I am all about the American people demonstrating that we are in charge.  It is now US vs. THEM.   I’m ready to start working to form a conservative/populist movement.  If they are an incumbent, they are part of the problem.  And they need to go.  Both parties have proven that they will suckle at the teat of privilege – and force us to pay for their dining pleasure.  Every one of them needs to go.  Who’s with me?
Sincerely,
Lorin
On Sun, Nov 22, 2009 at 10:51 AM, Irwin Kraus <Address suppressed> wrote:
Yes, this was in the MSM (Associated Press) today. Interesting.

From: <Address suppressed>
To: <Addresses suppressed>
Cc: <Addresses suppressed>
Sent: Sat Nov 21 21:55:02 2009
Subject: Re: Global warning – on recess, late to return to classJoe,I sent this out to Irwin today I thought it might be something you would enjoy if you missed it.Laird

 

HMMM Hackers break great story on GLOBAL WARMING HOAX, some of it may not be true but I like how the “scienists” who’s email was hacked DON’T DENY THE EMAILS ARE ACCURATE” they refuse comment except to condemn the hackers.More to follow? I bet there will be!



Climate sceptics claim leaked emails are evidence of collusion among scientists | Environment | guar
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Hundreds of emails and documents exchanged between world’s leading climate scientists stolen by hackers and leaked online
God Bless America and Semper Fidelis
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.
Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage.” – Lord Tytler

From: <Addresses suppressed>
To:<Addresses suppressed>
Cc: <Addresses suppressed>
Sent: Sun, November 22, 2009 12:48:05 AM
Subject: RE: Global warning – on recess, late to return to classIt seems some of our more learned people are finally getting the point.  Our climate is the result of as many things outside of the Earth (e.g., variations in Sun’s energy output) as the things on or in the Earth.  Plus, looking 100, 200, 500 or even 5000 years of history of Earth’s climate is just not nearly enough.  5000 years is just a drop in the bucket over the lifetime of the Earth (5+- billion years:  = 5000 x 1000 x 1000 or one millionth of the Earths total lifetime). .  We need to know how many times the Earth has been here and done that without any help from puny humans.  Then maybe we can begin to narrow down on the real cause/effect relationships in climate change.Ask Irwin or Lorin or Roger L, or Roger Claus or Philip or Nathan or Shawn or Ted, or Bill, or Larry, ….. what would have happened to any capacity plan that used (1/1,000,000th) of the available historical resource usage data to project the next 12 – 24 months of computer utilization.  The people doing these projections for global warming, are at best pseudo scientists.  The people trying to turn this pseudo science into a cause or a religion are at best charlatans.jb<Name & phone numbers suppressed>

 

“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”  –Winston Churchill
Semper Fi
From: <Address suppressed>
Sent: Friday, November 20, 2009 8:16 PM
To: <Addresses suppressed>
Subject: Global warning – on recess,late to return to class
From the Wall Street Journal…
November 20, 2009 — 4:21 p.m. EST
Losing Faith?
“Global warming appears to have stalled,” reports Der Spiegel. “Climatologists are puzzled as to why average global temperatures have stopped rising over the last 10 years”:
At least the weather in Copenhagen is likely to be cooperating. The Danish Meteorological Institute predicts that temperatures in December, when the city will host the United Nations Climate Change Conference, will be one degree above the long-term average.
Otherwise, however, not much is happening with global warming at the moment. The Earth’s average temperatures have stopped climbing since the beginning of the millennium, and it even looks as though global warming could come to a standstill this year. . . .
Even though the temperature standstill probably has no effect on the long-term warming trend, it does raise doubts about the predictive value of climate models, and it is also a political issue. For months, climate change skeptics have been gloating over the findings on their Internet forums. This has prompted many a climatologist to treat the temperature data in public with a sense of shame, thereby damaging their own credibility.
“It cannot be denied that this is one of the hottest issues in the scientific community,” says Jochem Marotzke, director of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg. “We don’t really know why this stagnation is taking place at this point.”
Why in the world should one take seriously the claim that “the temperature standstill probably has no effect on the long-term warming trend”? That is presumably no more than a prediction made by the same people whose predictions are currently not panning out. This quote is telling:
The planet’s temperature curve rose sharply for almost 30 years, as global temperatures increased by an average of 0.7 degrees Celsius (1.25 degrees Fahrenheit) from the 1970s to the late 1990s. “At present, however, the warming is taking a break,” confirms meteorologist Mojib Latif of the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences in the northern German city of Kiel. Latif, one of Germany’s best-known climatologists, says that the temperature curve has reached a plateau. “There can be no argument about that,” he says. “We have to face that fact.”
If global warming is really the horror it has been made out to be, its absence ought to be a gift to be celebrated, not a “fact” that “we have to face.” But global warmism isn’t a scientific theory anymore; it is an ideology in which many people, including those who are supposed to be doing science, have invested their prestige and money.
—
Lorin Olsen
<Phone numbers suppressed>
“Everyone thinks of changing the world.  No one thinks of changing himself.”-Tolstoy

Whose Leash Is It? – Mobile Phone Development

Lorin Olsen


A few weeks ago, my brother-in-law asked if I would be interested in developing an iPhone application for him.  I won’t explain the app or its details as that would violate the NDA that I am under. 😉  Nevertheless, I thought that this might be fun as I haven’t played with Apple’s development platform since 1995.
Well, Apple hasn’t changed.  It appears that their goal is to lock you in a comfortable room and make sure you never leave – even if you can’t afford to stay.  In order to build an iPhone app, you need to use Apple tools.  That started off simply enough.  I tried to put together a Cygwin environment on my Windows 7 system.  After a few days, I did have a working environemnt that I could build Unix apps on.  But the iPhone SDK isn’t just any old Unix environment.  It absolutely needs Mac OS X – and OS X 10.5.3 for good measure.
I don’t have a Mac.  So I figured that I could put together a development environment using VirtualBox or VMWare.  And if you have enough patience (and can find the right image files) you can run OS X 10.5.2 (through 10.5.5) from within a VMWare host.  But to do it legally, you need to buy a license for the OS as well as purchase the iPhone SDK.  Before I plunked down any coin of the realm, I had to try it out first.  And after a couple of weeks of tinkering, I found that I could indeed build a virtual environment that would run the iPhone SDK.
But performance was labored.  And to do it properly, you really need VMWare Workstation (not VMWare Player).  So the final cost for putting all of this together would have been a couple of hundred dollars.  But you can get a Mac Mini for a few hundred bucks.  And with that, you can remote onto a head-less device that is more than adequate for compiling the code.  So I would need a few hundred dollars if I went via VM and a few hundred dollars for a fully functioning Apple hardware platform.
But that is just for starters.  Add to that the cost of the iPhone (or iPod Touch) and the cost of the service contract.   And when you are done, you have access to one platform on one carrier.  In my mind, that is both a fully closed and a highly distasteful investment.
As a former Sprint employee, I had always hoped that Sprint would be the team that would bring forth the best and brightest from a cool new platform.  I was wrong.  Verizon has brought a solid contender into view with the Moto Droid.  And they have brought the marketing pizazz that the Android platform really needed.  So I started wondering what it would take to bring together a functioning development platform.
After being disheartened by the cost of an iPhone development platform I  was thrilled at what I found when constructing the Android development platform.  First, I needed the SDK.  Low and behold, the SDK could run on any platform that would support C/C++.  And the SDK was free.
And the reference platform for the IDE is Eclipse – which is also freely available.  Being a former Java developer, I had no problems getting re-acquainted.  I downloaded Eclipse and then downloaded the Android Development Tools (ADT).  All along the way, these investments required no financial outlays.  And the Android platform even included an interpreter so that I could do rudimentary testing – even w/o the hardware.
So here is the bottom-line.  The iPhone costs some serious scratch in order to have the privilege of being locked onto a single hardware provider and a single carrier.  On the other hand, Android’s barriers to entry are negligible.  I put together a functioning testbed in a couple of hours – including the download time.  And once done, I have a platform where I can build apps for any carrier and any number of hardware providers.
Indeed, this reminds me of the Apple-Microsoft PC wars of the nineties.   Will Apple ever learn from their mistakes?  And will developers choose to be on yet another vendor-dictated leash?
-Roo

Chrome: More Than A Browser – Less Than A Desktop

Lorin Olsen


Take a look at the picture above.  What do you see? Here’s a quick summary:

  • That’s Windows 7 running on my system. Yeah, it’s the release candidate as I haven’t upgraded to the GA version – yet.
  • You see Tweetdeck. While I like other clients, I can’t quite swallow the Seesmic brew that includes Silverlight.
  • You also see a Chrome browser. I like a lot of things about the Chrome browser.  But oddly enough, I still have to use Firefox to edit my posts to WordPress.
  • While hidden by a few windows, you also see Windows Media Center.
  • For those who are looking carefully at the task bar, you see an icon for Eclipse.  I’m using that for my Android development environment.
  • Sun’s VirtualBox is running.  You see it running on the desktop.  And you see several operating systems images.
  • One of those operating systems is the Chrome OS.  And that VM is running.  In the image, you’ll see what looks like a Chrome browser.  There’s a tab for GMail and a tab for GCal.  You’ll also see the Start/Welcome tab.  There’s a pretty good chess game and there are a lot of web apps.

So what is Chrome? Is it a desktop? Nope.  Is it just a browser? Nope.  It IS a down-payment on Google’s gambit to move people from desktop apps to cloud/network services.  And it is a completely open framework for new innovation.
Will it win? Well, it won’t displace Windows on new system sales – at least, not yet.  Will it be the platform for netbooks? Maybe.  But they may be fighting against Android for that honor.
But unlike other desktop contenders, this offering is not designed for a head-to-head fight with Windows.  Unlike Safari and Mac OS X, this platform is not seeking to be another desktop in the fight.  Rather, it seeks to move the battlefield to an entirely new venue.  This is the same fight that Sun started with the NC (i.e., the “Network Computer”).  But Sun had no traction in the consumer marketplace.  And they saw meager penetration in the enterprise space.
But Chrome OS is the inheritor of a unique phenomenon; some of the best technologies are a redux of something that was already in existence.  MP3 players existed for quite some time before the iPod arrived.  The Apple iPod won because it captured the consumer imagination.  In the same way, Chrome OS is a redux of things we’ve seen before.  Can Google transform a moribund market for network computing?  I sure hope that they will.  But they will need a spark for that to happen.  In the mobile phone industry, I think that the Verizon Droid may be the spark needed for Android’s explosion into the market.
In a very strange way, Chrome OS’ real competitors maybe the netbooks and wireless platforms like Android.
-Roo

Star (and Google) Gazing

Lorin Olsen


I love the classics.  And this week has been replete with allusions to the past.  As everyone knows, I’ve fiddled with Google technology for a very long time. Indeed, I remember when the first posts about Google hit Slashdot.  That was when Yahoo! had the pre-eminent navigation technology. And web navigation was menu-based, not search based.  But I prattle on… as usual.  I also remember when I was given an opportunity to invest in the Google IPO.  [And hindsight confirms that I can be extraordinarily short-sighted.] And with all of this Google background / engagement, it’s taken me a whole lot of time to come to the conclusion that Google has a very expansive strategy – or they are exquisitely fortunate.
So what leads me to think they have a strategy?  Here’s the short list:

  • They have a fantastic base. From that base, they are the center for web navigation.  As that center, they can skim their advertising taxes.  Indeed, they are to the Internet what broadcast TV was in the latter-half of last century.  Specifically, they are the launch point for content.
  • They recognize that the browser is the current (and near-term) means to leverage their launch pad.  Consequently, they are offering a branded browser.  Do I like Chrome? Yes, I really do.  Is it still a bit buggy and problematic?  Yes, indeed it is.  For example, I still have trouble using the ‘out-of-the-box” Chrome with the WordPress hosting site.  In fact, I have to use Firefox as there are still scripting issues with the current Chrome dev branch (and WordPress). But Chrome is my default browser on most of my platforms – the only exception being my default workstation in the office.  And yes, I work for a company that requires IE.
  • Google has some hella-good “cloud” apps.  This includes GMail, Google Docs, GTalk, Google Maps, Google Latitude, Google Earth and even Picasa. Many of these apps are my primary apps in specific app categories. And the Google app strategy seems to be squarely targeted to network-based apps.  As I am always switching from machine to machine, I really need storage on the network.  Right now, this includes email, bookmarks, preferences and the like.  But in the future, it WILL include a whole lot more.  And this isn’t just for personal use.  More and more of our corporate apps are “stateless” and require network connectivity.
  • Google has also laid down a marker in the enterprise collaboration space. Google Wave extends the promise that new collaboration technologies will eventually transform current email systems.  Is Wave there yet? It sure isn’t.  But it shows obvious promise.    I think of it this way: Lotus Agenda showed glimmers of what became Lotus Notes.  In the right hands, Google Wave will evolve into something truly spectacular.  Of course, it really does need someone with vision – and technical chops.
  • Google has also taken a few bold steps into the development market.  Are they building an IDE? Not yet.  But they are aligning themselves with Eclipse.  And they are investing immense amounts of money in both Javascript and in the development of a whole new language: GO.
  • Google has leveraged their expertise in Linux in order to build embedded systems expertise.  I have used Linux for years – since the mid-nineties to be precise.  And desktop Linux has always eluded critical mass.  Is it cool?  Sure.  Is it going to replace the current desktop paradigm? Probably not.   But Google’s approach has been to change the paradigm (and move apps off the PC).  So they’ve used their platform expertise to build new platforms.  To this end, they realized the success of the iPhone and knew that it was not just a hand-held phone story but also a development platform story.  So Android was born.  Is Android a game-changer? Not yet. Will it become a game-changer? Most definitely.  And the Verizon Droid may just be the match that lights the conflagration.
  • While Google has recognized that their browser is important, they’ve realized that the browser must also run on a platform that runs other applications.  Hence, the Chrome team has focused on “native client” technology.  I’ve written about native client before.  But as I consider Android (and Chrome OS), I realize just how important native client will become.  It is important for the purpose of performance.  But it also holds immense promise for running those pesky apps that aren’t network-based.  Indeed, native client (combined with the right virtualization engine) may hold the key to unlocking the Microsoft shackles that constrain most of us.
  • And this week, Google demoed what many think will be a coup de gras: Google Chrome OS.

Is Chrome OS going to dethrone Microsoft Windows? Not any time soon.  Is Chrome OS going to take market share from Apple’s Mac OS X? Again, I wouldn’t expect that to happen any time soon.  But could it attack both by changing the battlefield?  It absolutely could.
But what will it take for Google to accelerate these changes? Wow, that is a huge question.  I think that they need the following:

  1. Google has a great strategic vision. But from the outside, it looks as if they lack someone who has the chops (and cred) to execute on the vision. This will mean some additions (or changes) to the senior leadership at Google.  Someone must be given a couple of years to build the tactical plan from the strategic plan.
  2. Google needs some platform partners.  By this, I mean that they need a Hewlett Packard (or some other company) to provide home-based “server” products that can wean households off the Microsoft desktop teat.  This won’t be desktop Linux.  It will be household servers that stores files, streams applications, automates systems, stores and streams media, etc.  Do the components exist? Yes, they do.  But they need a tactical vision to place the household server into new houses.  That way, everyone in the house can use a netbook (or other untethered device).  [Note: I think that Google is showing that they can effectively manage such partnerships.  For evidence, look at the Android strategy.  They are doing exactly what Apple is not: Google is building a cooperative eco-sphere that features their carrier partners.  Again, they are doing what Microsoft couldn’t do (or wouldn’t do) with Windows Mobile.]
  3. Google needs to double-down on their investment with developers, developers, developers.  Microsoft earned the allegiance of a generation because they blatantly pandered to developers.  And many developers have rewarded them with unflagging fealty.  Google needs to do the same thing.  But in this case, they need to invest in Eclipse.  And they need to carry through on the promise of new languages.  I would hate to still be coding C/C++ (or worse, Java or C#) in a decade.
  4. Google needs to either develop (or sponsor) a number of emerging virtualization platforms.  I would have preferred to see VirtualBox in Google’s hands.  But Google needs to sponsor free and open virtualization platforms.  Even Microsoft realizes just how much VMWare has changed the game in data centers.  And Google has so much more to offer in this space.  Indeed, I would love to see some of their data center management technologies emerge into the mainstream.  Think Loudcloud/Opsware meets Amazon AWS.
  5. Finally, Google needs the time for all of the elements to cook.  Strategic visions like this take years to gestate and mature.  And Google needs to remember that they can’t get it all at once. But unlike Microsoft, their core business is NOT dependent upon a single iteration of the technology wheel. Google is a marketing and advertising company.  As long as they keep that core engine going for a few more years, they will have a good shot at allowing new technologies to thrive as they grow within the nest.

So am I like the early astrologers? Am I trying to see patterns and visions in the visible stars?  Do I see Ursa Major and not realize how far apart these stars are from one another?  That’s certainly possible.  I may be seeing non-existent patters.  But from my perspective, I really do see an emerging Google leviathan.
Just as we moved from the IBM mainframe vision to the Microsoft PC vision, are we finally seeing the market leader emerge on the long-anticipated move from the Microsoft PC vision to the Google service vision?
-Roo

Is Anybody There? Does Anybody Care?

Lorin Olsen
Senator Sam Brownback
Senator Pat Roberts

As a concerned citizen of the state of Kansas and the United States, I am horrified by the US Senate’s proposed health care legislation. I cannot fully define all of the problems that I believe are built into this legislative leviathan. But here are some of my major challenges:

1. This bill supports the creation of a federal bureaucracy in the health care sector of our economy. And while I do favor ensuring that US citizens are never w/o catastrophic health care, I cannot support any plan that expands government control of the health care industry. There are several reasons for my concerns:

a) I have read the Constitution many times. And the 10th Amendment is clear: the federal government has no powers that are not specifically articulated in the Constitution itself. And I see no clauses in the Constitution that empower the federal government to ever regulate the health care industry. And while I do recognize the Supreme Court’s authority to interpret the Constitution, where can they find such powers? In a mythical penumbra of powers given Congress in the commerce clauses? This is an absurd exaggeration of what our Founding Fathers intended.

b) Apart from defense spending, the government does not have any kind of a proven track-record in these areas. At the same time, the government has proven to be a sub-optimal player in health care (witness the VA and Medicare).

2. This bill will further exacerbate an already uncontrollable (and fiscally irresponsible) expansion of the national debt. I know I can’t afford to pay more taxes – unless I stop buying anything but essentials. Of course, such reductions in spending will only further deflate the economy. Worse still, this bill will imperil the future of my four children and my one grandchild. Finally, it is positively obscene that this bill would collect taxes for years even before a single penny is spent for currently uninsured citizens. Is this because the program is not self-funding? And if it isn’t, what happens in the second decade when there isn’t any surplus remaining?

3. While the current bill has not been finalized, there is no way that we should consider extending health care to people that are here illegally. I support relaxed immigration. But I can’t understand why we want to spend tens (if not hundreds) of billions of dollars to provide health care to criminals who violate our laws. The utter hypocrisy of such a situation is unfathomable.

4. I am horrified that even one penny of my income would ever go to fund the unconscionable murder of unborn children. I won’t belabor a thoroughly noxious debate. But I cannot imagine the government forcibly taking my income to kill innocent children. By not supporting the funding restrictions of the House bill (i.e., the Stupak amendment), you will be forcing me to commit what I believe is murder. This is a fundamental change to our system of compassionate governance.

With these and many more things in mind, I urge you to vote against even considering this piece of legislation. From my perspective, such a step would vacate our claim that we are a nation founded upon the motto “In God We Trust.”

Sincerely

Lorin Olsen