Snow (#2) Snow (#2)

Today, the clouds are gone and we have our normal blue sky. Some of the snow seems to have melted, with most of the snow appearing to be above 12,000 feet.

This is a picture from our balcony in Dillon looking south-west towards Breckenridge. The mountains shown are in the Ten Mile range and these peaks are the top of the Breckenridge ski area.

Snow! Snow!

Looks like the first snow of the season here in Summit County, Colorado. The photo was taken just now at about 9,000 feet, so my guess is that the snow line is about 10,000 feet or so, which is about the base elevation of most of the ski areas in the county.

You know when you are nearing ski season when you start having ski swaps. This last weekend, there was one in Breckenridge to benefit Team Summit ski and board team. Team Summit is a successor of the various ski area ski teams, including the Keystone ski team, which in turn is a successor to the A-Basin ski team that I raced for in high school, almost 40 years ago.

I managed to survive the ski swap with only buying a new helmet and gloves. Last year at the Vail ski swap, I ended up buying two pair of skis, two pair of poles (identical, for when I break one), and a pair of boots (not for me). I did try on some boots and looked at skis, but already have one almost new pair of AT skis and should have new AT books on order - and the boots have both AT and Alpine soles that can be interchanged.

So, ski season is just around the corner. I expect to be on skis by the end of October, maybe six weeks from now, and my brother will be even sooner for race training.

Althouse, Blogger, Firefox, and Vista Althouse, Blogger, Firefox, and Vista

Ann Althouse's blog does not seem to work well with Firefox. It seems to freeze Firefox under Windows Vista, and possibly just eats up resources under XP and Server 2003. It is a weird problem since other Blogger blogs don't seem to have this problem.

As a result, I run IE 7 under Vista just for her blog. But, that means that I also use it for articles launched from the Althouse blog, and some of them do the nasty stuff that caused me to move to Firefox in the first place (such as pop-ups, and installation of questionable software).

Ultimately, I expect to dig through her blog and figure out the problem, if, and when I have the time...

Why haven't I been updated? Why haven't I been updated?

ZDNet: Why haven't I been updated? exposes that Microsoft is apparently updating its Windows Update software without informing its customers that it is doing so - even when they have selected knowing about updates.

One of the first things that I do with a new Windows system, whether on a new computer or after I install it, is to totally turn off automatic updates. But most MSFT customers don't know that you can do this, or how to accomplish it, if they did want to. And most of them are not as paranoid as I about having stuff put on my computers that I don't know about. MSFT EULAs would seem to give them the legal right to read anything on a computer running their Windows OS, and that is frankly scary to me, in my belief that sometimes my interests and those of Redmond sometimes diverge.

That said, it does appear that at least as late as Windows XP, Windows Update wouldn't be updated without permission if no updating is selected, since I have occasionally had to update this feature before I can update the rest of Windows.

Resistance "is a normal thing, and a right for everyone" Resistance "is a normal thing, and a right for everyone"

Yesterday, I suggested that if you really wanted to know what was going on in Iraq, the best way was to read Michaels Yon and Totten. I had forgotten Bill Ardolino. His Resistance "is a normal thing, and a right for everyone" is a great man-on-the-street view of Fallujah.

Perhaps more than any other element, contextual local perspective is missing from analysis about Iraq as a whole and Fallujah in particular. Western media, media consumers, and the political class offer strategic assessments about the conflict that confine the opinion and motivations of Iraqis to the general abstraction of religious sects and cherrypicked polls. It is a glaring oversight.

Lieberman and McCain on Iraq Lieberman and McCain on Iraq

WSJ: Listening to Petraeus: The president had the courage to change course on Iraq. Does Congress? by Sens. McCain and Lieberman makes a number of points about the testimony of Gen. David Petraeus before Congress. Of particular interest:

The Bush administration clung for too long to a flawed strategy in this war, despite growing evidence of its failure. Now advocates of withdrawal risk making the exact same mistake, by refusing to re-examine their own conviction that Gen. Petraeus's strategy cannot succeed and that the war is "lost," despite rising evidence to the contrary.

The Bush administration finally had the courage to change course in Iraq earlier this year. After hearing from Gen. Petraeus today, we hope congressional opponents of the war will do the same.

A Quick Guide to Key Petraeus Points A Quick Guide to Key Petraeus Points

NRO: A Quick Guide to Key Petraeus Points (Excerpts)

As a bottom line up front, the military objectives of the surge are, in large measure, being met. In recent months, in the face of tough enemies and the brutal summer heat of Iraq, Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces have achieved progress in the security arena. Though the improvements have been uneven across Iraq, the overall number of security incidents in Iraq has declined in 8 of the past 12 weeks, with the numbers of incidents in the last two weeks at the lowest levels seen since June 2006.

Coalition and Iraqi operations have helped reduce ethno-sectarian violence, as well, bringing down the number of ethno-sectarian deaths substantially in Baghdad and across Iraq since the height of the sectarian violence last December. The number of overall civilian deaths has also declined during this period, although the numbers in each area are still at troubling levels.

Additionally, in what may be the most significant development of the past 8 months, the tribal rejection of Al Qaeda that started in Anbar Province and helped produce such significant change there has now spread to a number of other locations as well.

And despite the constant refrain about Iraqi deaths:

Two US intelligence agencies recently reviewed our methodology, and they concluded that the data we produce is the most accurate and authoritative in Iraq.

As I mentioned up front, and as the chart before you reflects, the level of security incidents has decreased significantly since the start of the surge of offensive operations in mid-June, declining in 8 of the past 12 weeks, with the level of incidents in the past two weeks the lowest since June 2006 and with the number of attacks this past week the lowest since April 2006.

Civilian deaths of all categories, less natural causes, have also declined considerably, by over 45% Iraq-wide since the height of the sectarian violence in December. This is shown by the top line on this chart, and the decline by some 70% in Baghdad is shown by the bottom line. Periodic mass casualty attacks by Al Qaeda have tragically added to the numbers outside Baghdad, in particular. Even without the sensational attacks, however, the level of civilian deaths is clearly still too high and continues to be of serious concern.

Interesting reading. It puts the lie to much of the misinformation being spouted right now by the anti-War crowd, and points to the inanity of Sen. Schemer's comments this last weekend. The whole article is an interesting read.

Totten: Anbar Awakens Part I: The Battle of Ramadi Totten: Anbar Awakens Part I: The Battle of Ramadi

Michael J. Totten: Anbar Awakens Part I: The Battle of Ramadi tells the reality of the Anbar Awakening. Ramadi a year ago was extrodinarily dangerous for everyone, and in particular, the American military. Today, as with much of Anbar, Ramadi is more quit than many parts of Baghdad, and the Sunni Arab tribes there are working closely with Coallition and Iraqi security personel to keep it so. But that hasn't come without cost - as the city looks as bad as some of the German cities at the end of WWII. Life is improving though, with the restoration of some electricity and water, as compared to a total absence when the city was run by al Qaeda.

I will submit that for those of us who haven't been there, the best sources for what is really going on in Iraq come from the embeds like Michael Totten and Michael Yon. Far better than the perky Katie Couric spending a week in the country.

House OKs revamp of patent system House OKs revamp of patent system

CNET News.com: House OKs revamp of patent system. There is a lot to complain about in the bill passed by the House. The big beneficiaries are the big software companies that have small patent portfolios. And the big losers are the independent inventors and the biotech/drug companies.

Probably the part of it that is going to take the most to get used to would be the "first to file". The U.S. has been a "first to invent" country for several hundred years, and that doesn't seem to have hampered our innovation. But Europe in particular, with its much lower rate of innovation has had a "first to file" system for a long time. Coincidence?

The problem with the drug companies versus the software companies with small patent portfolios is that the former use blocking patents to restrict entry into a field. This means that the company that gets the patent (typically because they actually discovered the drug) can recoup its R&D costs by keeping competitors out until the patent expires. Software and semiconductor companies, on the other hand, typically develop products that infringe patents from numerous parties, and the bill would significantly reduce their patent infringement exposure. That would be nice - except that the same law effectively reduces the bar to infringing drug patents, allowing generic manufacturers to potentially compete before the expiration of the patents protecting a drug.

Gulfstream Gore Gulfstream Gore

Drudge: Gulfstream Gore:

'GREEN' GORE GOES GULFSTREAM: VIDEO CATCHES ECO-WARRIOR ON LUXURY PRIVATE JET
Fri Sep 07 2007 07:48:23 ET

As former Vice President Al Gore waits to hear if he has won this year's Nobel Peace Prize for his tireless effort on climate change, a new video will air this weekend capturing Gore on a fuel-guzzling private jet!

FOXNEWS host Sean Hannity is set to unleash the damning video this Sunday night, network sources reveal.

Hit & Run > Two More Isolated Incidents Hit & Run > Two More Isolated Incidents

Reason Magazine: Hit & Run > Two More Isolated Incidents where the cops hit the wrong houses in no-knock raids. Again, the question arises, how did we got to this place, and what can we do about it? The police have become paramilitarized, and have every incentive these days to use overwhelming force to serve search warrants, esp. in the "War on Drugs". But, being government organizations, these SWAT teams become self-perpetuating, increasing their mandates to justify their increase in spending. Besides, a lot of cops would love to dress up in black, play with cool toys, break down doors, and generally terrorize the population.

The solution is to remove sovereign immunity from over zealous cops and their enablers. If they break down a door, and there are no drugs found, then they should have to pay to fix things up. And if they terrorize innocents for a mistake of theirs, they should be treated like anyone else who puts a gun to someone's head to terrorize them. And maybe a couple of outrageous conduct verdicts bankrupting some cities because of their SWAT teams will put an end to this.

Property tax bills soar as services fall Property tax bills soar as services fall

Mass. Property tax bills soar as services fall. Not surprising that this seems to be hitting Mass. harder than most. Apparently, what is really bothersome is that property taxes are peaking due to assessments based on the real estate bubble, but services are being cut.

Short run, I expect pressure on Mass. and other similarly situated states to pick up more of the bill for the local governments that are so exposed here. But the long run solution has to be getting personnel costs down. Government pensions were cranked up in many places as a result of a revenue bubble a couple of years ago, and now the governments are having to pay the price. Right now, government workers tend to have much better pensions than those paying them. But add to this that many government workers really don't have to work all that hard (we got into this discussion last week at volokh.com), and I suspect that you will ultimately see a lot of pressure placed on local government to fix its personnel problems.

Thins are likely not as bad in places like this. Better than a decade ago, the voters here in Colorado put a straight jacket on government spending and taxes at all levels. So, the state doesn't have the money to bail out the cities and counties, no matter how much they would like to. And that is how it should be - it is the taxpayers' money, and governments without a lot of checks on them will spend as much of it as they can.

Another Sony rootkit worms its way to the surface Another Sony rootkit worms its way to the surface

Another Sony rootkit worms its way to the surface

Sony can't catch a break after its infamous rootkit scandal back in 2005. In fact, we know from talking to security researchers and black hats alike that Sony is under the careful eye of many as a result of that major screwup. Now, a new story has come out involving Sony's biometric Micro Vault USM-F thumb drive, which apparently contains a rootkit that could potentially allow hackers to compromise users' PCs.

"The apparent intent was to cloak sensitive files related to the fingerprint verification feature included on the USB drives," Kapoor and Purdy wrote. "However, in this case (*cough* AGAIN! *cough*) the authors apparently did not keep the security implications in mind."

Last time, it was arrogance. This time it appears more ineptitude, in trying to secure its fingerprint verification software, it opened up a similar security hole as it did two years ago.

New pfish: IRS New pfish: IRS

I just got this email:

After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that
you are eligible to receive a tax refund of $109.30
Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 2-3 days in order to
process it.

To access the form for your tax refund, please click here

Regards,
Internal Revenue Service

It even came with a nice IRS background. The "click here" address was to: http://www.bertorotta.it/site/uuw.php, but I don't think that we were supposed to know that.