I have been really busy with a client for the past few days, trying to get a good handle around a misbehaving web service benchmark.  Oracle JDBC drivers played a key role by hanging instead of complaining.  My opinion of Axis, an open source web service toolkit,  took a dive as well.  It's a complicated, buggy, and slow tool that makes you want to chuck it aside as soon as you use it.  Unfortunately, it's what most people are using on the Java side these days.

Thankfully, I'll be camping at Tahoe again starting this Sunday.  But before that, I got a ton of work to do Saturday.  Decent weekends are rare for me.  When I was young, I dedicated my weekends to my singles life, dating and clubing.  These days, I am working for either myself or my clients every weekend.

If I am not working on weekends, it's usually because I am recovering from too much work during the weekdays.  My method of recovery is to read or watch two three books or movies in a single sitting.  Of course, this leaves little room for quality family time so I am glad for the occasional camping.

While news sites say XP SP2 was released, the 80+MB patch won't be available to general public for download via Windows Update site for a while.  Here are some details:

·        Online Distribution

o       On August 9^th, we plan to post the Network Install Package to the Microsoft.com Download Center and our main technical subscription programs (MSDN and Technet).  This SP2 package is intended for IT Professionals Developers and will not be broadly publicized.

o       On August 10^th we plan to begin a low volume release of English SP2 through Automatic Update (AU).  For a few days this will be exclusively available to customers who have previously installed prerelease versions of Windows XP SP2, and then we will broaden the distribution out to all Windows XP users.

o       By mid August, we plan to commence availability of SP2 to business customers who use Software Update Services (SUS).  The Windows Update service is the distribution mechanism for SUS.

o       By the end of August, we anticipate full customer availability (constrained to 2.5M downloads/day world-wide) via the main Windows Update website and Automatic Update.  The exact timing and maximum number of downloads will depend upon the results of the gradual ramp up we do over the previous weeks.

2.5M per day?  That means the patch will take 30+ days to download.  Yikes!  More details are available at Janok's blog.

Update:

Firas points out that 2.5M actually means 2.5 million downloads per day instead of 2.5 megabytes download per day per user.  Duh.

Looks like some BitTorrent enthusiasts have setup a server just for XP SP2 at SP2Torrent.com.  I also found a direct download link into Microsoft along with a mini-review at Neowin.net.  Note that these alternate download links are provided AS IS.  It is entirely possible for hackers to intercept and inject trojans and viruses into them.  Even matching the MD5 hash at SP2Torrent.com isn't really safe because, if they can get at the torrent file itself, they can get at the webpage with the hash you are suppose to match the hash of the downloaded file with.

BTW, binaries available via BitTorrent and direct download are about three times bigger (270MB) than what you would have gotten via Automatic Updates (AU) because AU downloads only the components your system need.

Update 2:

Update took longer than I expected (~30 minutes).  I was watching it go and it seemed to be replacing every damn DLL there is.  Now that it's all done, I can't tell any difference except that white pixels seem brighter and safer (just kidding ;-p).  I guess I'll just have to assume that my computer is safer now.  So much for user awareness.

If you are using Firefox (or Mozilla), you should definitely upgrade to version 0.9.3 now because there are three critical bugs as well as the libpng bug in previous versions.  Increasing popularity of Firefox means more vulnerabilities like this will surface.

While I think Firefox marketshare is moving up nicely, I don't think it will reach nor surpass 20% by end of this year.  If you read my prediction carefully, I wrote that Firefox marketshare will be *near* 20%.  Heh.

Writing Joy of Typing reminded me of the Moleskine phenomenon.  I haven't used a Moleskine notebook yet but I am fascinated by all the raving going on.  I don't particularly care whether Van Gogh and Matisse used it or not.  But I do think think there is something there beyond vanity and word-of-mouth marketing.  Maybe it's in the texture of the paper, maybe it's the right size or shape.  Maybe it's the rubberband.  If it is the paper, then I wonder which type of pen or pencil goes best with the notebook.

BTW, I don't understand the pricing on the Moleskine notebooks.  Why does the diaries with 380 pages cost less than non-diaries which haves far less pages?  Do they use different papers?  Obviously the sketch book must use higher quality paper than others, but I wonder if the diaries use thinner pages to keep the thickness down.  Heh.  I guess I got moleskined.

I'll admit that all this is kind of silly if one takes a step back, but then life itself is silly if you take enough steps back.

When I was heavily into physics, I used to enjoy filling up pages after pages of rough white paper with equations using a B2 wood pencil.  I used the B2 pencil because it felt similar to chaulk on blackboard and rough paper made that nice scratching sound as you write on it.  The idea that I could be creative and productive anywhere with nothing more than some paper, a pencil, and some quiet was very attractive to me similar to the way one might feel with a powerful laptop these days.

I have similar feelings about the old IBM buckling spring keyboards, the kind that clicked loudly and pushed back sincerely to every keystroke.  It as lively as the Selectric keyboards but better because I didn't get the feeling that keyboard might bolt out the window any minute like I did while using a Seletric typewriter (maybe it was the lack of that electric 'trembling').

With today's mushy keyboards, typing feels like a chore and boring with my palms never leaving the palm rest.  But with old IBM keyboards, typing felt more exciting, as if I was playing a piano, with my palms bouncing up and down with my fingers coming up for air and diving down again for another bout with the feisty keys.

I missed that feeling so googled and found PCKeyboard.com.  Nice.

Do you have problems talking to people over the phone like me?  I thought this phone interviewing tip from Gretchen, a Senior Talent Scout at Microsoft, was a very useful advice:

Get outta that chair!  Try standing up and even walking around a bit during a phone interview.  People tend to speak more clearly and confidently when standing.  (Seriously, this works!)

I have a unique voice and phone seems to amplify that uniqueness.  And my concerns about sounding silly over the phone tend to undermine the strength of my voice.  One solution I found was to use a full (meaning both ears aka binaural) headphone set with attached microphone.  With the headset, I can hear the other person speaking as well as my own voice clearly.  This allows me to immerse myself fully into the conversation and dispell (actually, forget) any concerns I might have about my voice.

My last headset broke some years ago and I have yet to replace it, but I think I am going to get a wireless telephone headset now so I can take full advantage of Gretchen's advice.  What I would like to have is a full wireless headset with microphone and a wireless base that plugs into both USB port and my telephone so I can use it for both phone and chat.

Update:

After a brief search, I found that these gadgets are called Multimedia Headset Amplifiers.  They are just like regular headset amplifiers except they also plug into your PC and allows you to use the same (potentially very expensive) headset for VoIP and other audio applications as well as regular phone calls.  Here are the three models are I found:

• Platronics MX10
• Hello Direct Virtuoso
• GN Netcom Multimedia Headset Amplifier

They are all kind of pricey ($100~$180), particularly when the price of a decent headset is thrown in ($80~$200), but since a good conversation can mean a lot to anyone's life, I think it's good investment.  Heck, it's better than spending a few hundred on the latest cellphone.  Only concern I have is that all three uses analog jacks instead of USB.  Hmm.  Maybe that's a good thing since USB means more software is needed and these phone equipment guys are not well known for writing quality software.  Anyway, I am going to get one of the three soon.

BTW, I gave up on the wireless because it lowers sound quality and they cost too much.  I can make do with a long cord.

Update 2:

I ordered the Hello Direct Virtuoso with the nice headset.  I sure hope it works as advertised because, if I am going to have what looks like an android's left foot on my desk, it better perform.

Update 3:

I got it today and but am sending it back because:

• it doesn't have separate volume controls for outgoing and incoming voice.
• shallow cup and highly sensitive microphone created an echo of sort.
• Virtuoso looked too cheaply made and fragile.

Instead, I ordered the Plantronics MX10 and Telex H-51 headset via Amazon.  MX10 looks well made and has separate volume control.  H-51 has deep cups (almost like aviation headsets) and has excellent reviews.  This combo is not only better, but cheaper.  I gotta like that.

I just realized that if blogging becomes any more popular, trial lawyers will be using services like Technorati as jury selection tools and to find ways to discredit witnesses in the court room.  Maybe they are doing that already.  I also wonder if blog readers can be used as character witnesses.

Interesting food for thought.

With Bush is doing much of the work of terrorizing this nation for political gain and a barrel of oil going for $44 offering a powerful reason for members of the OPEC cartel to covertly finance terrorists, I don't see an end of terrorism any time soon.  Terrorists won't have to work hard either.  Just pop up once in a while and make a threat.

I expected something better for the 21st century.

Update:

Frankly, I have doubts about our defenses against terrorists.  What is the point of issuing an unsustainable orange alert over old documents?  Shouldn't those financial centers be under tight security already?  If the terrorists thought they were good targets three years ago, shouldn't our terrorism experts have thought of it too by now?

I also don't think we should be blocking possible terrorists at our borders.  If they can't get in, they'll just find some other ways to hurt us.  Instead of turning them away, we should let them in and place them under covert surveillence.

Update 2:

Some of the commenters concluded that I am a pacifist.  A pacifist is a person who is opposed to violence as a means of settling disputes.  I, on the other hand, think violence is sometimes the right solution despite the side effects.  I disagree with the part about settling disputes though.  Removing or disabling your opponent will settle the dispute with him, but social network intervenes and an exchange at an-eye-for-an-eye level starts.

And the use of force must be carefully directed and applied as well as justified, not in terms of moral, but in terms of effectiveness.  Invasion of Afghanistan was done right.  Invasion of Iraq, on the other hand, was not and amounts to a boxer elbowing the referree and punching a ring post.

As to the idea of letting suspected terrorists into the country to monitor their activities being stupid.  If they are carrying bombs or weapons onboard airplanes, then they should be arrested.  But if they are only suspected, they can't be arrested.  If they can't arrested, we can either forget about them and trust the INS to protect America or we can put them under surveillance to see if they are indeed terrorists, and if so, find other members of the terrorist cell.

Cost and resource wise, I think it's cheaper to keep track of them inside America than abroad.  Take down options are also limited abroad.  This is why I think we should let some of them in.  We can also use them as bait to catch other terrorists both inside and outside our borders by monitoring communication.

Update 3:

Another problem I see is the unwillingness to accept risks at any level.  If we value freedom and privacy, then we must accept some risks and be willing to take some blows.  As long as we are determined to stay the course despite occasional setbacks, I think there is hope.  If we value absolute safety above all, then there is no hope because we can't have absolute safety without either killing everyone else.

Sorry about the lack of posts lately.  It wasn't that I was busy.  There just wasn't anything to post about.  Having my wife and son revolving and evolving around me again put my mind off my blog also.  It's amazing how fast the days go by when I am not posting.