Legal Problems with Municipal Wireless?

I've heard people voice concerns that cities could be liable for network traffic that passes over their municipal WiFi networks. This seems absurd – cities aren't liable for crimes related to road traffic. Could a kidnapping victim sue the city for allowing their kidnapper to escape over the city's public roads? Of course not.

What is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 is simply a buzzword for user generated content (Web based communities). It is not AJAX nor is it flashy Web pages that behave like desktop apps.

Although the term is less than three years old and it is sometimes described as social networking, it should be noted that one of the earliest, big, profitable companies on the Web, Ebay, was one of the first Web 2.0 companies - and it dates back to 1995.

Benito Louis Moreno

Ben Moreno

June 25, 1935 – February 10, 2007

Funeral Mass Eulogy for Ben Moreno
Delivered by his son, Joe, at St. Hugh’s Church on 2/14/2007

When I heard the news that Dad had passed away the first thought that immediately ran through my head was, “Boy, I’m really going to miss him.”
Surprisingly, I wasn’t as shocked or distraught as I thought I would be considering how close Dad and I were. And then I realized that we never had any unresolved issues. We never left anything unsaid that needed to be said. This probably comes from growing up in my New York - Italian family were we always spoke our mind - sometimes quite loudly.

Mom, Margaret: The next few weeks and months are going to be tough on us as we learn to live in a world without Dad. But, we will get through it. We will.

We all have great memories of my father. I’m sure my Mom will be more than happy to tell everyone about one particular incident some 23 years ago on the Belt Parkway. As for me, I want to share three memories of my father with everyone here that have come to mean so much to me over the past few days.

The first memory I want to share is that I vividly and clearly remember the last time I was with Dad. As he dropped me off at the airport we both got out of the car and we gave each other a big hug and kiss. What a great way to say goodbye.

The second memory is from last Thursday night. Laura and I video conferenced with Dad for quite some time. For about thirty or forty-five minutes we got to see and hear each other one final time as we shot-the-breeze, reminisced, and laughed.
This memory has come to mean so much to me.

The last memory I want to share with you occurred a few hours after I found out that Dad had passed. I turned on my computer and there was the last e-mail Dad had sent to me on Friday night. It almost seemed like a message from beyond the grave. I had helped Dad fix a problem with his computer on Friday evening and his final message to me was simply, “Joe: Thank You. Love, Dad.”

No, Dad, thank you. Thank you for everything you’ve given us. I want to especially thank you for giving me the courage and confidence to follow my wildest dreams and jump for the stars. And Mom, thank you for giving me the common sense to always make sure I had a safe place to land for those times when I failed.

We love you, Dad. God bless you. And, boy, we’re really going to miss you.

Repartitioned Hard Disk w/ Boot Camp

I recently moved from a G-5 desktop to a Mac Pro using Mac OS X's default data migration option which is available the first time you turn on a new Macintosh. The only problem was I forgot about the other disk partition I have which is running Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) until all my data was migrated. Now what do I do?

Repartition on the Fly
The answer was simple. I used Apple's Boot Camp beta partition option to dynamically create a new disk partition. Of course, Boot Camp thought it was going to install Windows on the new partition. Instead, I just installed Leopard.

Apple Could Surpass Microsoft In 2010?

I was amazed to see these revenue projections comparing Apple to Microsoft.

Details here.

Update
4 June 2010: Apple may not have surpassed Microsoft in revenue, but they certainly surpassed them in market capitalization.

How racist are you?

Harvard Implicit Test
How racist are you at a subconscious level?

The Harvard Implicit Test is a remarkable test which measures you at a subconscious level. No matter how many times you take the test your results won't change much.

1. Clink on the above link.

2. Click on Demonstration Test

3. Go to test

4. Accept Disclaimer

5. Choose "Race IAT" and follow the instructions.

The test only takes a few minutes to complete.

TRS-80 Model I (CLOAD)

Last week, as I was riding into work with a coworker, we were reminiscing about our first experiences with computers. Coincidentally, we both got our start on Radio Shack's TRS-80 Model I in the late 1970's. Back then, there were only a couple notable players in the personal computer world, Apple with it's Apple II, Radio Shack with their Model I and II, and the Commodore PET.

If you've ever worked with the TRS-80 Model I you'll remember commands like CLOAD and SYSTEM to read programs from the tape drive. In its most common configuration, there was no file system or operating system and BASIC was built into ROM (courtesy of Bill Gates). One of Microsoft's first big sales was licensing its BASIC interpreter, for around $50K, to John Roach, the chairman of Tandy, to ship with the TRS-80.

It was pure ecstasy the first time my coworker and I used a BASIC complier on the TRS-80 as our programs executed at seemingly blindingly fast speeds (less than 2 MHz clock cycle). The TRS-80 used Zilog's Z-80 microprocessor - if you've ever programmed it in assembly language, you'll remember that it didn't have multiplication or division in its instruction set so you had to iterate yourself to do that kind of math.

The Perception of Money

How do you view money?

Here are a couple vignettes - what would you do?
(These are academic questions so don't add any "real word" conditions to the story.)

Vignette 1
You visit a bookstore to buy a new book which costs $35. While in the bookstore, you find out that the same book is for sale for $15 in another bookstore in the same mall.
Do you go to the other bookstore to buy the book?

Vignette 2
You visit a car dealer at an auto-park (car mall) to buy a new, $30,000, car. Just as you've decided to make the purchase at the current dealer you find out that another dealer, in the same auto-park, has the exact same car for sale for $20 less. (Let's just say the two cars are indistinguishable and haggling, financing, sales commissions, etc., aren't an issue.)
Do you go to the other car dealer to buy the same car?

Answers
Most people would answer yes to the first vignette and no to the second. When buying a $30,000 car, what's a $20 difference really mean? In actuality, though, there's no difference between the $20 you save when buying a book and the $20 you save when buying a car since $20 has the same, absolute, buying value.

Macworld Security For iPhone

Anyone who's seen Apple's iPhone on display at the Macworld Expo this week will notice that there are several security guards standing right next to the display to keep people from coming within a foot of the casing. Serious security for a serious product.

Mac OS X Password Reset

Here's something I never knew until my father-in-law's iMac refused to let him log in with his password...

The Mac OS X install disk has a password reset utility for just this occasion.

Simply pop in the install disk and reboot. Hold down the C key on the keyboard when you hear the Macintosh start up gong. This will boot the Mac off the install CD/DVD. Pick the main language you want to use on the first screen and then, on the second screen, choose Utilities —> Reset Password...

Obviously, you don't need to know the old password - just pop in your new password, confirm it, and your done.

If you've enabled FileVault, then you'll need to skip these steps and simply enter the account's master password. If you don't know the master password for your FileVault account then your data is lost forever.