On March 18th I posted an entry titled Morning Coffee Ramble. In it I spoke of my fascination with some folks’ paranoia about government, while ignoring the fact that every government is a group of people with the same flaws as nearly every other group of people. My point was simply: if you fear the government, you may as well fear every influential, power yielding group. Case and point: Microsoft and Fred Vogelstein.

Apparently, Microsoft is concerned enough about their image to hire a PR agency to look into Mr. Vogelstein’s background a bit as well as trying and figure out what he’s going to write about. Interesting enough. That they had so much to say about him, 5,500 words worth, is very interesting indeed!

I can’t help but wonder how this is going to play out in the press for Microsoft. After all, had this been a U.S. President or European Prime Minister looking into the background of a journalist, the shriek from the press would be loud and long.

Although P.T. Barnum never actually said “There’s a sucker born every minute”, we’ve never lacked folks who demonstrate the truth of this quote. See for yourself how much this product makes the point.

I’m betting they’ve already made an offer to Paris Hilton.

Are you one of those folks who really serious about computer security? If you are, then the NSA Security Configurations Guides list is the list for you. They’ve got lists for everything from VoIP to Wirless, Cisco Routers, Oracle database security, and, of course, a slew of Microsoft products.

I was especially pleased to also find OS X Panther and Tiger on the list. This pretty much confirms my theory that OS X is more popular than some anti-Mac folks care to admit. I can assure you, if the NSA has written a security configuration guide for an OS, then it’s pretty popular. However, I’m a firm believer in popularity not always being a good thing. Yes. I’m nuts about my Mac; I believe it’s much more stable (thanks to Unix) than Windows, and I unquestionably prefer using it over a PC. Nevertheless, as I’ve shared with the Viking before, I don’t believe PCs would have half the problems they do had it not been for the popularity of Microsoft. With fame comes a price.

Well, I’m rambling and I need to head to work to see if the telephone switch I take care of still has a fever (no pun intended, former Vice President Gore ).

Laterz.

Well, it seems like Al Gore’s a bit nervous about appearing before the Senate to give his testimony regarding his belief that global warming is being caused by mankind and this made lead to catastrophic results. Despite the Senate Environment and Public Works committee bending over backwards and making exception after exception, he still hasn’t. Some Republicans are even claiming he’s looking for special treatment. You know what? When you read it for yourself, you may find yourself agreeing with them.

Now before you go and suspect that he’s shook up by the challenge of Lord Monckton, I need to point out that he may actually be sensing a genuine shift in the U.S. on the global warming issue (finally!).

A recent Oxford style debate about the climate issue held in New York featured some pretty heavy hitters, and it seems the global warming skeptics have come out on top after clearly being the underdogs, according to polls taken before and after the debate. This may even have the likes of the former Vice President rethinking things.

This article is well worth looking at, with plenty of other interesting links, so you may want to have a peek. If anything, you’ll update yourself on the issue. Have at it.

Laterz.

I’ve never been a fan of the whole global warming issue. At least not in the sense that mankind is the main cause of the earth’s warming. Is the earth warming? I believe it is. But nothing out of what I, non-scientist that I am, would perceive is ordinary. I believe the warming we’re seeing is cyclical, and the number of scientists saying this seems to be on the increase.

I’ve not seen Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth”, but I have seen clips. Those were enough to convince me I won’t be wasting my time or money on the entire production. I’m no fan of exaggeration, and Gore’s film seems to be quite a piece of it. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mind the occasional Bruce Willis-saves-the-world type movie. Heck! I still cry when he has the father-daughter exchange with Liv Tyler in “Armageddon”, but that’s entertainment! Al Gore’s portraying his work as science.

Well it seems I’m not the only one who’s fed up with Al Gore’s claims. The Viscount Lord Monckton of Brenchley has flung down the gauntlet and challenged Al Gore to an internationally televised debate from the famous library of the Oxford Museum of Natural History. Lord Monckton says,

"A careful study of the substantial corpus of peer-reviewed sciencereveals that Mr. Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth, is a foofarawof pseudo-science, exaggerations, and  errors, now being peddled toinnocent schoolchildren worldwide." (Read more)

He sounds like a man among men to me. And if any word defines the current global warming debate, I believe foofaraw (“a great deal of fuss or attention given to a minor matter”) would be it.

It’ll be interesting to see how Al Gore responds to this white-gloved smack. I’m guessing he’s going to choose to try and make Lord Monckton look like an old buffoon instead of accepting the challenge. I’ll be keeping my ear to the ground on this one, and I don’t think I’ll be the only one.

Laterz.

Last week, Da Minx and I were Skype-ing with Erik the Red and Cool Business Lady. Da Minx, who works with CBL, had to work out some details for a seminar. When the video screen popped up, to our delight, the little Ducissa (Latin for duchess, folks), Erik the Red and CBL’s daughter, popped up on screen. She’s so wonderfully cute, and such a delight. She was cute as could be and brought an instant smile to me and Da Minx’s faces.

It wasn’t long before we were all wondering what her world would be like. There she was in the midst of our Skype video conference, something she’s pretty used to by now, reacting to our silly, happy cooing, trying to get a smile out of her. For her, video conferencing will likely be the norm, if not old technology. Tales of her dad’s Xbox or old Harlem Brown’s Nintendo Game Cube will probably make her chuckle. And when she starts listening to Sister Theresa’s (another wonderful member of the gang) love and appreciation for vinyl..! Well, I hope we have a camera to capture the “What’s that?!?” look on her face.

All that said, I’m pretty sure the little Ducissa’s technological life will be quite different than ours. Now that I think of it, the busy engineers of Harvard are making absolutely sure it will be different.

Where are the limits? Go on. Answer. I dare you.

Laterz.

Bearing in mind that Steve Ballmer is just as human (weak, frail, prone to error, etc.) as I am, I still find the controversy surrounding his personality a bit fascinating. Take for example this little nugget from the folks at The Register. If any of what’s written at the end of this article is true, Mr. Ballmer must really be someone you don’t want as an enemy.

Nevertheless, I can’t help but feel sorry for him.