Security Theater

I've complained before about how the inane security measures I deal with at work frequently prevent me from getting my work done. It looks like I can anticipate even more stupid security. The GAO did a security audit sending people in 10 large Federal buildings with bomb making materials. They were able to successfully construct bombs and walk around with them in briefcases. This means I will probably have to start submitting to the same level of security checks to get to my cubicle as I do at the airport - probably even with the 3-1-1 rule! What irks most about this is that the only people who have ever brought bomb parts into a Federal building and assembled a bomb was these security auditors. The 9/11 terrorists didn't do that - they crashed a plane into the Pentagon and the WTC. Timothy McVeigh did his dirty work with a Ryder truck parked out front. BTW, I just had an FPS officer visit me in my cube. We've had a rash of equipment thefts. The memory upgrade for my new netbook went missing sometime since Monday... I asked the officer about what to expect from the recent news. He said that it'll probably lead to better training for the hired goons and more FPS. Sounds like they're more interested in getting right than expanding the purveyance.

The Black Hole that is the Government

I remember the first time I sent away for a passport. I was astounded that the government expected me to send my original birth certificate off to some address in New Orleans. I was even more astounded when, about eight weeks later, I received my birth certificate back and then a few days later, received my passport.

My parents are currently going through the same thing. They are taking a cruise that involves one day in Cozumel - which, by the new foreign travel rules, means they have to have a US passport. The sent off their much harder-to-come-by original documents and are currently twiddling their thumbs, waiting. There's not feedback in this system. Either everything works and you get back your most valuable documentation - or you just keep praying until you give up.

I never realized just how frustrating this can be until recently. I e-filed my tax return on April 1st. I bought a house on April 24th. So I submitted an amendment to my tax return that evening. But amendments cannot be e-filed. So, I went to the post office and mailed off a stack of paper containing things like both my Social Security Number and my wifes, our AGI for the year (which is considered a super-secret number when dealing with the government) and our checking account routing information (because we wanted our return direct deposited). Almost two months later, I called the IRS to find out that they never received this stack of papers!

What amazed me was that there is no way to provide active tracking of paper-filed tax returns. They have tracking for e-filed returns, but they are pretty straight-forward. So, I printed a new stack of very important papers and took them down to the post office. I thought I'd play it safe and send them Priority Mail with Delivery Confirmation. I now have a piece of information I can use to actively track my papers, at least through the postal system. I've dutifully plogged the 20-digit number into USPS.com every morning hoping to see "delivery confirmed". But here it is, seven business days later, and the tracking still says "Processed through Sort Facility, June 19, 2009, 1:43 am, FRESNO, CA 93706".

This piece of "priority mail" is going to a special IRS postal box in Fresno. How is it possible that it's taken a week for the Fresno post office to get it in the right box?

Of course, once it is delivered and confirmed, it passes in to the IRS black box. Sure, they have this "Where's my Refund" thing. But it's unclear what numbers you should put in for an amended return and it doesn't work at all if the IRS hasn't received the information. What happens between the time the USPS says it's delivered and the time the IRS enters it in their system? How long should I wait before assuming my personal details are, once again, spread over Fresno?

Why can I track a $5 book purchased from Amazon.com from the moment I click "order" to the moment UPS drops in on my front step - but my priceless personal information is left to the abyss?

BTW, I called the USPS help number. It had me enter the 20-digit number about three times and kept routing me in circles. I would start going through the menu-maze towards what seemed like the "let me talk to a person" cheese, only to be asked to enter the 20-digit number (and have it painstakingly read back to me by the computer) and hear "Our system shows that your package has not been delivered yet." I did finally get a real person on the phone. I really feel sorry for her, because I'm sure people with real problems, like mine, are about to blow a gasket by the time they actually hear her voice. And, of course, the first thing she does is ask for the 20-digit number. She issued a trace on my package and said someone would get back to me by end of day tomorrow. She also mentioned that packages sent to the IRS should be sent Certified. Why didn't the post office tell me that when I sent it?

Vocaboly

A friend is preparing to take the GRE. He took it before - about 20 years ago - and needs to take it again. One of the most challenging parts of the GRE is the vocabulary section - lots of really vague similes. I decided to give this vocabulary software a spin to see if it would help him.

Vocaboly sports a fairly easy to use interface once you get used to the navigation. Each screen takes up the entire window and you are presented with a "return" button instead of the normal windows navigation - like clicking the X in the upper right corner to close the window.

The demo version only uses the Windows Speech to pronounce words but the licensed version claims to have better voice overs. This is good, because I bet Windows Speech doesn't get some GRE-level words right.

The Free Study mode and quizzes were OK. The "Star War" game was pretty cool - especially in "Meaning" mode where you have to click on the right multiple choice definition to zap a word before it scrolls down the screen.

For GRE prep, though, Vocaboly completely lacks antonyms and synonyms - much less similes. But the basic structure is there and maybe future versions will round things out.

Another gripe - the registration fee is $39.95. That's pretty steep educational software. But it would be reasonable if it did a better job of GRE prep. In fact, I'd recommend to the authors that they sell a basic version for, say, $14.95 and then a GRE-focused one with synonyms, antonyms and similes for $39.95.

The Coming Asymptote

There's this faction of the science and computer world that believes that we are approaching a singularity. The prediction is that either technology becomes sentient or human intelligence is greatly amplified where such technology becomes self-replicating. That this new intelligence will be vastly superior to normal human intelligence - and that we'll no longer be the dominant lifeform on the planet. This theory relies on two conceits. First, all predictions use Moore's Law to project a future of massively powerful computers. Second, that we really understand intelligence and, thus, how to create it.

While I'll leave the artificial intelligence thing for another time... Right now I'm beginning to think that we are seeing technology become more asymptotal - that is, we are hitting a point here processing power is leveling off rather than increasing. For example, Windows Vista has been a flop - partly because of people having issues and partly because it really didn't provide anything better than Windows XP, it just required greater processing power. Windows 7 is likely to suffer a similar fate. We are also seeing the same thing with NetBooks. People are finding that faster doesn't equate to better. That maybe lighter weight and longer untethered use is better. If you read the reviews of Netbooks, most barely bother with benchmarks because they are all almost identical. Even newer revisions, like the Asus Seashell, doesn't offer any more computing power over older models. This ComputerWorld piece is a very good example - Intel is releasing a new Atom CPU that provides no significant processing improvements over the old Atom -but does provide greater power savings.

Military Grade

At WhereCamp last week, I saw a presentation in which the presenter described their geolocation algorithms as "military grade". When I pressed about how they determined the algorithm was "military grade", he said "Actually, we just mean really robust." Wish he had just said that...

I was tasked to ask about creating an internal Wiki for the research group I work for at the US Geological Survey. I sent an email to a handful of folks my boss thought would be a good place to start. The response I got was:

In the recent past when someone was wanting to set up a website for information exchange, we were told by our managers to point them to Lotus, using Sametime etc. We were told it was a very robust (and expensive) program and was purchased specifically for scientists and other groups to share information. Have you thought about using this mechanism?

So, instead of using, say, MediaWiki on a Linux box basically for free, I'm expected to use our "military grade" Lotus Notes. To be fair, I logged into Lotus Notes (and changed my password which expired a couple months ago - I use the web client which uses a different password) and tried to explore how to share information. On the Getting Started window, there was a friendly enough link "Learn more about using Notes" which takes you to a missing page on IBM's website.

Beware the moniker "military grade" because, while it may imply a certain robustness, it also implies "very expensive and difficult to use".

A new home...

Early last year, one of my oldest friends (old in terms of how long we've known each other) took the leap into home ownership. While, I've owned a home before, it hasn't been in such an interesting economic climate. It also was $65,000 for about 3,000 square feet - or about $22/square foot.

Tomorrow I close on a new home in Colorado. The price puts it at just over $128/square foot. But it's in a part of the country that has a degree of economic insulation. We are paying a little less than the sellers paid for it in 2002. Plus, the sellers already finished the basement - so we are getting about 400 more usuable square footage for less money.

It really helps that interest rates are insanely low and the government is giving an $8000 rebate for new home buyers. I guess my investment in Obama is really paying off!

The need to do something...

All this reading really has me itching to do something... anything... especially since I'm reading about all of these "proposed frameworks" which never amount to more than mental masturbation...

Makes me wonder how many "breakthroughs" came from academic research and how many came from tinkering and doing...

Unfortunately, right after all this reading - I have to do the opposite and write a dissertation research proposal... But once that's done, I can spend time writing code!