Yawn... Another week starts. More as the day progresses...
John Dominik joins the
lengthening list of recommended
journal sites. Welcome!
He writes long and for me enjoyable rambles in a personal style that ranges
far and wide in subject matter.
Minor news on the fringe...
-
Undertakers gathered in the Swedish city of Västerås
to a demonstration of the more unusual kind, where 70 hearses from all over
the country manifested the "crisis readiness" of Swedish undertakers in the
event of larger catastrophes. Gee, why am I not reassured?
-
Four of ten Swedish municipalities noted for non-payment cases -- usually
ignoring taxes, fees and fines. I suppose when it reaches 6 of 10,
the rest of us can too?
-
Immigration minister "tired of going around and buying hotdogs from foreign
engineers" -- wants to legislate employment of educated immigrants;
no more "toothless" directives. Hmmm.. yeah, sure, make it illegal
to a) not have an appropriate job, b) not hire a foreigner -- I'm sure either
will go down real well.
-
All Turks and even tourists in Turkey had to stay indoors between 5 AM and
7 PM yesterday. Close to a million officials went door to door collecting
data for national statistics. Don't trust them to just fill in a form,
eh?
-
Excessive mountainbiking lead to injuries of the more delicate
kind in men, even impotence, is the dire warning issued from doctors in Austria,
citing that 44 out of the 45 enthusiasts in the study had problems. I've
always thought those saddles looked uncomfy.
Now, after that brief look at the news, I can shut out the gray and dark,
rainy world out there to instead focus on the bright and cheery world of
my screen and keyboard.
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and
the intelligent are full of doubt. -- Bertrand Russell
Dark and rainy -- it's making me very tired today, the way the heavy
and dark clouds go scudding at bird level above the trees. Still, even the
bad weather is better here than what I've been used to for the last eight
years. Apropos that, I spoke to a former neighbor on the phone today -- it
would seem that the former neighborhood is going to the dogs faster than
anticipated. I won't go into details, but after the chat, I was glad we made
the decision to move when we did. As expected, we missed a significant rent
raise, including (yet another) doubling of the rate for a parking slot, and
a lot of less savory events off that particular corner of the house. (People
are still tossing junk there, despite the absence of any container since
we moved. Becoming quite a popular spot to gather among the junk scavengers
and homeless it seems.)
Dave Farquhar is I
see experimenting with writing his
journal on
EditThisPage
(a Userland
free webhosting service). The underlying concept is very wiki-esque
at root (though that's been heatedly denied, I've heard), although it is
normally used more as a web-management system to create view-only pages for
casual visitors -- a user interface called Manilla.acts as a front
end to Frontier, which is a scriptable object database. It's reputedly
very easy to remotely create and modify databases, and hence webs. A site
can however be configured to be more open and collaboratively editable to
one or more of the visitor classes Member, Contributing Editors, or Managing
Editor(s) -- not sure about Public though.
The free EditThisPage webhosting
serves
Userland to show off and (stress) test the Manila Interface, and has been
around for not quite a year. The underlying coding is proprietary (commercial),
which is probably why the pointed distancing from Wiki and wiki-clones. The
interface is malleable, I guess, but not too freely customized, and although
popular, some who try it never come to terms with how the system works. Still,
that's true about a lot of "interfaces". I'm following Dave's comments about
this with interest.
A cautionary quote in these times of rising tensions...
What a country calls its vital economic interests are not the
things which enable its citizens to live, but the things which enable it
to make war. Petrol is much more likely than wheat to be a cause of international
conflict. -- Simone Weil
My own reflection is that when groups or nations rally around various abstract
ideals and aspirations "for the people", one should follow the money or power
trail to find the real reasons behind a conflict. They are seldom what they
appear to be on the surface. So much today is simply grandstanding for the
ever-present media, which doesn't stop such events from igniting real fights
and causing tragedy.
Rain. Actually, more rain. No matter, there are boots and umbrellas.
Somewhat belatedly, I got down to researching a few of the assumed twists
of configuring various ways to run CGI scripts in Apache. Mainly, I had to
follow a clean path from default installation to something wiki-useful in
as few steps as possible. That proved... ah, enlightening. The original install
wasn't quite configured as I had thought, so there were a few confusing moments
when intended configuration changes didn't work. No matter, it's all ironed
out now. Ideally, install and run. Less ideally, install, replace configuration
with prepared one. Realistic option: a few paragraphs detailing the few changes
required. Benefit: the reader then knows how and why, and is perhaps emboldened
to try some of the more advanced webserver tweaks later. It's not such a
critical thing, because the primary bundled code is drop and run, independent
of separate webserver.
Time... I might be losing a few more days off my schedule if a couple of
"webserver" days get booked in before my main 4-week course. Interesting,
pays well, but that happens already next week which does mess up the current
plans.
You westerners have the clocks, we have the time. --
modern East African saying.
Yesterday was a bad day for Swedish IT investors -- shares nosedived, many
formerly hot prospects around -20%, making for an overall decline during
the year for some of over -80%. IT analysts say it will take a long time
before IT consultant businesses become profitable again.
Meanwhile it seems Amazon.com has surprised analysts by posting a smaller
loss than expected, with sales up 80%. Computer manufacturer Compaq posted
profits four times higher than last year. Overall sales of computers
by all the largest brands rose by 22%.
Probably unrelated stories from the Swedish news...
-
Cyclist blows up self-going lawnmower.
-
Car at RR-crossing rammed from behind by empty bus, brothers thrown 30 meters.
-
Court says telco can't keep call-kitty when mobile subscription ends, former
customers look forward to cash refunds for Christmas. Subscriber forms with
this accumulating fee convertible to pay call charges will be discontinued.
-
Close to 80% of Swedes have no objections about mandatory drug tests in
workplace.
-
Filling station chain mandates deposit of cash or credit card from customers
before activating pumps.
-
Warning that the often long chains of delegation of power and legislation
from elected parliamentary representatives are a threat to democracy in Europe.
-
Sales of Volvo trucks in the US drops by more than half during 3rd Quarter.
-
Woman chosen for first time as head of Swedish bank association.
-
One of three Swedes no longer goes to dentist because of now-unsubsidized
cost.
-
Letting small children sleep in newly painted rooms too early leads to
significantly higher risks for asthma and other problems, is one result from
large study in Stockholm.
-
Heart specialist recommends late start of working day and siesta to combat
high blood pressure and stress-related diseases.
Swedish defence researchers warn that High-effect Pulsed
Microwave (HPM) devices small enough to hide in a briefcase could be used
by terrorists to disrupt and destroy computer and network electronics. A
car-based system can easily be built using an ordinary microwave oven and
an antenna. The short but intense pulses are silent and invisible, making
the attacker hard to spot.
And in Europe at large, a Belgian and a French abbot were
convicted in separate trials of serious pedophile crimes. Clearly,
a lot of the clergy are in the wrong calling.
Other items from the fringe...
Stressed out city folk can now for about 700 USD grow
veggies over the Internet. British couple "rents out" plots for
Londoners who remotely plan crops, follow growth via webcam, and ultimately
receive the harvest. All physical work is done by the couple, or possibly
hired hands.
Danish town pays about USD 40 per household if they sort
garbage. Instead of fines if they don't we assume, carrot instead
of stick.
Vatican state kicks off its first national football
championship. First match is Vatican Guards against all-Polish priest
team. I wonder if they have state-organized football pools.
China launches the world's largest census effort Nov 1.
Over 6 million census takers then start knocking doors. Traditionally, Chinese
census statistics have always counted households, not individuals, but a
special count of children will determine how many "illegal" children were
born after the one-family-one-child law of 1980. The authorities have promised
that families found who have broken the quota won't be punished. The estimate
is that the law has led to 250 million fewer children were born over the
last 20 years.
Finally, it has been found that people who like
themselves also take care of their health and hygiene better. In particular,
children with high self-esteem took better care of their teeth. Hmm, why
do these self-evident things require so much expensive research before being
accepted.
Explanation separates us from astonishment, which is the only
gateway to the incomprehensible. -- Eugene Ionesco
Hmm, end of the week again, and end-of-month soon.
As if we don't have enough to think about, a couple of heavy envelopes came
in the mail during the week, about our pensions, stressing us to comprehend,
fill in and return forms by 12 November. Gah!
"Oh, but Sweden is a welfare state, with state guaranteed pensions," I hear
you say. Yes, well, sort of. I won't go into the hysterical
historical details of the past x decades of pension reforms and
re-reforms. We are yet again in the midst of a reform, where the individual
is to play a kind of lottery by taking a portion of the pension credit and
investing it in one of several hundred different funds -- some "secure" and
low interest, others "speculative" with higher (potential) returns.
Interestingly, this new wrinkle is known by the authority abbreviation
PPM, which for me gives the unfortunate (and likely?)
implication that accrued real value increase (or worse actual pension
total when the day comes along) will be measurable in Parts Per
Million, not percent.
OK, as mentioned, this is part of the general pension system, called "premium
(bonus) pension". In the income tax rate is a slice of 18.5% that goes to
the state pension system. Of this, 16% goes to the state-assigned traditional
(huge) pension funds that already own a considerable chunk of Swedish industry.
The big pension funds have proven to wield unconscionable, if faceless, power,
especially since many have tended to play the speculative short-term market
instead of earmarking long investments for the generations that fund it.
The investment proceeds and periodic crisis liquidations thus mostly pay
off todays' pensions, the sum not being saved for when those paying now will
retire. (Part of the chronic pension fund crisis, common to many
countries, and reason for constant reforms, is that this approach only works
if the expected tax-paying workers are more or at least equal in number to
those who receive pension. In recent decades the trend has been the opposite:
fewer taxpayers supporting more recipients, and worse, there are several
expected retirement peaks to come.) The remaining 2.5% is now "wild",
in the sense that we are supposed to invest wisely...
The PPM bureaucracy won't do this for free. Apart from the usual tax-funding,
there's also a yearly 0.3% fee skimmed off the top of the PPM funds. So it
looks like just another way to feed yet another authority while obfuscating
the still very real pension fund crisis.
The current pension system is multi-tiered and quite complex. The core is
a general pension figured on base fixed income (without the piecework, overtime,
and extras) over the years employed, and is very low -- for example a full-time
truck driver (low salary, high overtime and other compensation) can end up
with something like USD 500/month or less. The diagrams in the folders indicate
that PPM is supposed to supplement this core pension.
A lot of whitecollar unions early negotiated deferred income in the form
of supplementary pensions that in some cases mean almost the same income
retired as when working. Blue-collar workers receive something similar
(though not as generous), a general state-mandated supplementary
pension. Both employee and employer taxes include extra variable rates to
fund this based on individual and all salaries respectively. Of course, if
you end up receiving supplementary pension, then your entire pension
becomes a taxable income, which for some can mean less cash in hand than
without the "supplement". In addition, the supplement usually means you no
longer qualify for other state subsidies...
Another layer is in the form of various, sometimes short-lived, "private"
pension schemes through banks and insurance companies. Anyway, the average
Swede has a hodgepodge of coverage here, further complicated by the transitional
rules for this and previous reforms, where varying rates of x% from older
system plus y% of newer system combine for people born in different years.
Ugh. A previous information campaign about the supplementary pensions showed
orange envelopes with current status in the mail, and perhaps significantly
showed over half the recipients going into a funk or openly crying.
(Gee, those ad agencies must have had fun, laughing as they sent off
their invoices.)
Untold millions have been spent in ad campaigns the past months, providing
saturation advertising reminiscent of election branding, mostly slanted to
non sequiturs inspiring fear: "These are the ones who might
inherit your pension!" with mug shots or short scenes depicting your
worst-nightmare neighbor or other lowlife. Huh?
The sort-of explanation for this odd slant is that the funds are "collective",
so that if you die before collecting, your share of the fund is distributed
as a sort of bonus among the others in the fund. Because I'm getting kind
of gray-haired and no longer look as timeless as I used to, I've considered
wearing a plaque that advises others that my share of any PPM fund is so
small that I'm simply not worth bumping off for the bonus.
"Bonus", hmm. I love these passages: "No one knows how big the Bonus
Pension will be. It's not guaranteed, but it can be as large as a third of
your total core pension." and later "The Bonus Pension can become
a significant part of your future pension." This to me has a hidden
implication that the other 16% is probably not going to contribute very much,
but since the projected figures look nice (7% annual growth)
and the bonus might constitute a third (38% in one piechart),
the state isn't going to do much now about the eroding value of the general
pension system. Although the term used means "bonus", and it's future value
patently subject to the ups and downs of more speculative stocks and could
even end up being negative, I note that significantly, the PPM component
is directly and indirectly throughout the folder segued into being the "core
general pension".
Uh, how much will this mean for me. Haven't a clue, despite all the info.
The form says I have a total so far of some USD 500 to invest in PPM. This
is not encouraging. I could do all kinds of fancy math, but let's assume
a few simplifications about inflation, and that I have another 17 years to
gain credits before retiring. This would seem to mean that given at least
10 years of healthy retirement, I'd have a bonus of perhaps USD 25 per month,
in today's money! Gee thanks. No, I'm not surprised, just disgusted.
---
Oops, a reminder in the mail for an unpaid bill. -- I thought I'd paid that...?
<search, riffle, payments log, dig, bills to come, dig some more,
...> Hmm, no, turns out it was buried under a ton of other stuff
after I took it out not to forget. Typical. Oh well, it's time to scribble
out a pile of other bill payments anyway.
---
High Availability (HA) is usually expressed in as "nines"
in the 24/7 business...
-
Two nines is 99% uptime, which translates into quite a number of
irksome downtime intervals, totalling upwards of 90 hours over a year (3-4
days). Not good for any 24/7 service. A lot of ISPs don't even reach this
level of HA.
-
Three nines means 99.9% uptime, which sounds good, but over a year
that can amount to many hours of downtime. Murphy's Law ensures that these
downtimes will occur at the worst possible moments for customers. All it
takes is 5 minutes down during peak loading, and your name is mud.
-
Four nines, or 99.99% uptime, means total annual downtime of up
to an hour.
-
Five nines is the holy grail of HA, a few minutes downtime per year.
For mission critical sites this is acceptable, and unattainable without resource
redundancy.
Interestingly, I ran an Atari ST BBS for many years, and after that an Atari
Stacy as my FAX receiver for many more. These reliable machines
easily reached five-nines HA, even largely unattended.
How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the
young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant
of the weak and the strong -- because someday you will have been all of
these. -- George Washington Carver
2 AM: GMT+2 >> GMT+1. Must check this morning that all clocks
are adjusted back to normal time.
Survived that :)
Turned into a lovely day for a walk: sunshine and about 17C or so. Very fresh
in the air after recent days of raining. So I've not been much near the keyboard
at all today.
Later, we caught and taped the re-runs of Babylon 5, season 5, so we're finally
adding the two first episodes we missed in the first airing. Thanks to a
friend who lent us the whole set of the TNT B5 movies, we also took the evening
off to view Thirdspace.
In the guise of testing some wiki-related stuff, I prototyped a different
way of structuring the Doctor Bank website content. Interesting. A spin-off
from this was a modified CSS layout that I've shifted into the other wikis,
and a few further functionality tweaks. There's a risk I might take this
whole Daynotes section down the same road, but we'll see when the Doctor
Bank version goes live, and perhaps supplants the static pages entirely.
Although the Perl Slogan is There's
More Than One Way to Do It, I hesitate to make 10 ways to do
something. -- Larry Wall
