Word funny...

It occurs to me that the { DATE } field in Word documents isn't tremendously useful, since it seems to always show the current date.

One might argue that it would be useful to show a date, on paper, on which a document was printed, but then you'd never be able to tell what that date was unless you looked at the paper (in other words, the file would be of no help).

Better to use, perhaps:

• { DATE } for the date on which the document was created;
• { PRINTDATE } for the date on which the document was last printed;
• { SAVEDATE } for the date on which the document was last saved.

Cheers...

Serendipity...

There's a store in the vicinity that advertises computer repairs and an Internet game room, so I thought I'd finally stop by to see what there was to see.

It's a fairly modest setup intended mostly to provide basic installation and repair services, and features a limited range of mostly obsolete products on the walls.

By the way, obsolete is not the same as "not useful."

In fact, I found there a nifty cable that solved a little problem that I had run across with my 3G iPod, which is that when such an iPod is used with a PC (can't speak for Macs), the unit receives no power while syncing through its USB cable, and no data while charging through its FireWire connection to a power supply, because the iPod charges and syncs through the same connector.

As a result, I've been finding it takes nearly forever to sync about 8 GB of data with the device, because the battery retains its charge for a significantly shorter period. (The new battery I installed shortly after acquiring the unit was apparently not much better than the one that had been inside to begin with, and/or the battery status indicator on the iPod is squirrely, as it sometimes slowly shows more power available over time.)

The cable I found combines both functions, with an iPod connector at one end and two cables snaking out of the connector housing: one for the FireWire power supply, and a second for the USB connection.

I might just get some use out of the old "3G" yet!

Cheers...

Serendipity II

I had resolved to finally chop, hack, and shred my way through a pile of stuff that I've been accumulating on a couch and coffee table behind my work area. Today, among other stuff, I found a 29cent; notebook, manufactured by L. Silverman & Sons, Inc., of Brooklyn, which I used to write down my first recorded chess games.

Most people who learn the moves of the game - at least in the U.S. - never get past the woodpushing stage. Though they may be aware of the fact that there is a way to record moves (and therefore, a way to replay them), they never take that next step, which is to learn how it's done.

Back when I started using the book, I was pretty enthusiastic about the game. In fact, shortly before, I had sent off what had been (for me) a pile of money to start a sustaining membership in the US Chess Federation (a good investment, as the membership converted into a life membership after 10 years). In shoft, I was not flush enough to get a "real" scorebook, so I made do.

My main opponent in those days was my late stepdad, whom I was slowly but surely overtaking over the board. The game from which the following position (and continuation) was taken was played 41 years ago today. The opening moves - particularly mine - are painfully amateurish, so I will not reproduce them here.

{My dad is playing White; I'm pushing the Black pieces. Although material is even, Black is saddled with two doubled pawns and White has two ferocious Bishops directing their malevolence at the Black King. On the other tentacle, White's d-pawn is weak, as is the square d3, and there is something to be said for the Rook sitting behind the e-pawn with sights trained on the White Queen.}

20.Rae1 {This is ill-advised, given the weak d-pawn, and I try to make something of it.} 20...Rad8 21.Rd1 Bh5! {A skewer attack, in which the Bishop attacks the Queen directly, and the Rook indirectly.} 22.g4? {In my opinion, White is better off taking his losses right now with 22.Qe3.} 22...Nxg4! 23.hxg4 Bxg4 {The Bishop presses on with his skewer!} 24.Qe3 {An alternative is 24.f3 that doesn't look much better to me now.} Bxd1 25.Rxd1 Qg4+ {And now, a fork! Forks occur when an attacking piece threatens two (or more) enemy pieces. Here the King is attacked, and so is the Rook on d1.} 26.Kf1 Qxd1+ 27.Qe1 Qxd2 {Black appears to want to get as much "insurance" as possible, in terms of material superiority.} 28.Qxd2 Rxd2 {Positions like this, with the "rook on the seventh" are very strong for the side with the rook.} 29.Kg2 e3 {Another tactic: the pin! The pawn can't move because to do so would expose the King to check.} 30.Bc1 Rxf2+ 31.Kg1 e2!? {White is willing to let the Rook on f2 go, since the pawn will Queen on the next move, with check.} 32.Bxe2 Rexe2 {Now both Rooks are on the 7th rank, and the King is confined to his first rank. Unless Black blunders badly, he's won the game.} 33.Bxg5 Rg2+ 34.Kf1 f5 35.Bd8 f4 36.Bxc7 f3 37.Bxa5 f2? {This is, technically, a bad move because Black has a mate in 3 here, starting with 37...Rf2+ 38.Kf1 Ra2 and mate on the next move. Playing an immediate 37...Ra2 won't do, as it allows 38.c4, prolonging the struggle.} 38.Bb6 Re1+ 39.Kxg2 f1=Q+ (0-1)

Cheers...

Finished... (sort of)...

I've been slogging through the last 3,000 words of a document filled with tables simply chock full of short sentences that remind me terribly of that hash of "twisty little passage" descriptions from the original Adventure game.

Listening to the NASA TV feed (via Google Desktop) of activities going on aboard the ISS seemed to help keep me on task by reminding me, subtly, of why exactly I'm doing the translation.

As yet untouched is a 1500 word job due tomorrow at 10 am.

I think I am going to take a break of about an hour and then decide whether I want to put a dent in it.

Cheers...

The UK's free fall toward a police state...

When I was in the UK last year for a client, I ran into an American in a hotel lobby while I was waiting for a meeting to start. He was rolling his own cigarettes (as he found the manufactured product prohibitively expensive) and muttering about how the UK was a police state. I didn't pay too much attention to what he said at the time, but two items to surface today make it pretty clear that the UK is well on its way toward the gloomy picture painted by George Orwell, and only a quarter of a century too late.

The first item has to do with the police in Britain wanting to collect DNA samples from children as young as five who 'exhibit behavior indicating they may become criminals in later life'. Of course, it's only logical to suppose that the official response to any wailing about how unfair it is to target kids exhibiting such behavior would be either to make sure the criteria are as general as possible or, much simpler, to collect samples from everyone.

On a related front, the Oyster public transport RFID card is used by about 17 million Britons, and security services can demand the usage records for specific individuals being investigated. However, The Powers That Be would now like to be able to mine (or trawl, which sounds more apt) the entire database so as to be able to make "connections" among an ever-wider set of data about individuals.

On a seemingly unrelated front not having anything to do with the UK, the city of Dallas, Texas is on the verge of cancelling the rollout of additional red light cameras and even shutting down existing cameras because the cams have severely curtailed light-running infractions and hence, the revenue from associated fines. No money from law-breakers means no money for upkeep and certainly no money for the city coffers. So it seems unless such cameras generate revenue, they aren't of much interest to government... isn't that comforting?

How does that relate to the other two items? Well, consider this: As long as budgets for government programs depend on there being crime, crime must be vigorously uncovered, or better, prevented, else the promotions will stop coming and budgets will be cut. It's this circumstance that knocks the legs out from under the idea of "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear," because the only thing more dangerous than getting between a she-bear and her cub is to get between a bureaucrat and his budget.

Cheers...

Vlog [seesmic]...

Cheers...