Cox Crow

Laying Pipe

Public utilities in rural Washington do what the ILEC cannot.

The Kitsap Public Utility District announced yesterday that it has completed laying 52 miles of fiber-optic cables to form what's called a "backbone," a major "pipe" to move data. By the end of the year it expects the backbone to reach 108 miles at a total cost of $4.5 million. [NewsFactor]

6:11:55 PM # Google It!
categories: Industry

Fear of a Black Planet

The article I was reading that prompted the latest slew of coffee-related posts was out-pointed by The Shifted One. In it, Frank Field says:

But, there's another feature of [Hilary Rosen's] position that screams for consideration - "it's unfair to expect record companies to cut costs." Really!?! Every other industry looks upon cost-cutting as the standard - a day to day practice. There are plenty of industries where cost saving - continuous improvement - is the centerpiece of operations.

Like, say, at RBOCs. Perhaps Ms. Rosen just doesn't want to give up her free coffee. However, one does wonder what motivates these people. Is it control?

As far as I can see, it comes down to a simple fact - the record companies are control freaks, pure and simple. Somehow, they have managed (along with the movie industry) to convince us that their monopoly control should be perfect, unassailable by advancing technology and guaranteed by the state.

For some reason, I am reminded of the story of Pinocchio, particularly the scene where the star performer is tossed in a cage.

Is it control? Or is it fear?

5:59:41 PM # Google It!
categories: Coffee, Media

Last night, ABC, a Disney company, aired "The War on Drugs, a War on Ourselves." It went over the same ground we've seen before: prohibition creates more harm than good, legalization would reduce economic incentives to commit crimes, and so forth. I don't expect we'll see decriminalization of narcotics any time soon — "You mean you support drug dealers? I can't vote for you."

4:55:34 PM #
categories: Media

I'm so torn.

4:20:22 PM #

Environmentally Sound Cost Reductions

Just think, if your staff doesn't drink a diuretic, then you can cut back on the number of times per day you clean the restrooms, and then the number of staff who clean the restrooms, and then, if all goes well, eliminate the toilets entirely. This will further reduce costs, particularly in arid regions, by reducing water consumption.

3:38:54 PM # Google It!
categories: Coffee

Master the Moment
Coffee	$1/cup, 8 cups/pot, 50 pots/day, 365 days/year: $146,000
Members	3.5+ million
Lost Income from a Network Outage	$1,000,000 per minute
Having a System Administrator respond in a timely fashion	Priceless

2:24:06 PM #
categories: Coffee

Rhetorically Speaking

Dr. Victor Cabas and the other kind souls at Hampden-Sydney College may appreciate this look at the rhetoric of blogging.

1:18:23 PM # Google It!

Christopher Allen, an executive at MusicMatch, a company that offers a subscription radio service, answers that question this way: "You can get free coffee at work, but there's a ton of people going to Starbucks." [emphasis mine]
— "Sour Notes," Farhad Manjoo, Salon, July 30, 2002

Yes, that does seem to be the case. The cafeteria (what a misnomer) reports that production of boiling hot pots of coffee is down from 50 pots a day to a mere seven. Given that people just don't stop drinking coffee, my guess is that if you have to pay for it, you might as well leave the building for 30 minutes to buy something that tastes better. That'll boost productivity!

11:48:52 AM #
categories: Coffee

Did their staff lose coffee too?

Verizon posted a loss. Maybe they didn't cut out the coffee ration.

11:23:56 AM # Google It!
categories: Coffee

At this rate, who'll be the Man of the Year?

So what movie is coming out from AOL Time Warner in December?

Robert K. Brown:   "EntertainNews Tonight.  It's worse than you think, Joe. There have been 30 issues of Time so far this year. At the end of April we get Yoda on the cover. End of May is Spider Man. End of June? Tom Cruise. The Boss at the end of the July just maintains the pattern..." [jenett.radio]

10:43:37 AM # Google It!
categories: Media

Ah, the Freedom of the Press

HP has threatened action under the DMCA for exposure of some problems with OSF/1 DEC UNIX Tru64 UNIX. Since the author of the c|net article is Declan McCullough, he's included numerous helpful signposts, including one to the source code in question.

Go, First Amendment, Go!

10:36:00 AM # Google It!
categories: Industry, Law, Media, Security, System Administration

Scheduling Maintainance

So Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 will be out on Thursday. Couldn't get it out on a Monday, could they?

Build your systems so that unless you have a catastrophic failure, no one will notice. Make changes on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Clean up on Thursday, and Friday if you really must. Have a nice weekend.

Where in that routine does it mention installing an operating system upgrade on Thursday or Friday?

10:11:00 AM # Google It!
categories: Dear Microsoft, Security, System Administration