Kennon’s Space

I get these newsletter emails every couple days from eweek they are mostly spam to me. But every now and then there is an article title that will catch my eye…like once a quarter or so. This quarter the winner is an article entitled “U.S. Airport Security Checkpoints Poised for Evolutionary Leap” and the next line below that reads: “The TSA is putting programs in place that can differentiate explosive materials from cheese.”

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a big opponent to federalizing airport security, or pretty much anything else for that matter. But I think this article is a great illustration of why. The government is going to spend a lot of money on technology that can automatically do what most semi trained dogs, monkeys or even people can and have already been doing for a long long time.

Don’t get me wrong, I love technology, I work in technology, and if this was some privately funded corporation buying into this millimeter wave tech and RFID and cheese sniffing technology I would applaud them, but it isn’t. Instead it is my tax dollars and that is where I have a problem with this whole conflagration. How many successful airline attacks have there been in the U.S. since 9/11? None that I know of. We are creeping up on the 6 year anniversary and not one other commercial plane based terrorist attack. I think the security system we have in place is doing a pretty damned good job, despite being run under a government agency like the TSA, without taking 3-D photos of our bodies and recording forever facial recognition photos and iris eye prints and finger prints etc…etc…

There is an old saying that has it’s roots in the cheese industry, and it goes; There is something rotten in Denmark. I find it appropo that the excuse for this boondoggle includes some old lady’s misidentified cheese wheel.

So the verdict is in. Novell has driven the final nail into SCO’s coffin. Here is a quick link to the details which has a link to the pdf of the summary judgment in Novell’s favor.

Looks like Novell owns Unix…so neener neener…

I am spending the week in Irvine with my wife who is attending some Cisco training. I have a few weeks of vacation saved so I decided to head down with her and spend my days on the beach. Work has been a serious drag lately with all the end of contract craziness so it is good for me to get out of there for a week or so. Last night we drove down to Newport Beach for dinner. We had a pretty great time at the Bluewater Grill. The food was great and the service was decent. And for the quality of the food the price was very reasonable. I think tonight I am gonna try to talk the wifey into heading over to Benihanna’s.

One of the things that strikes me most about this area is the sheer opulence. Sometimes I feel like I am the only person down here not driving a car whose original MSRP wasn’t at least $40,000. Tons of Mercedes…and not those shitty little C200 Kompressor jobs people where I am from drive. I am talking the AMG or super slick SLK models with all the appointments. BMW’s are to this place what Chevy is at home. I’m not intimidated or anything, if these wingnuts want to drive cars that cost the same as homes in some parts of the country then that is their prerogative I suppose. But the first time a valet down here turns his nose up at my modest 4-door I am gonna smack em back to east LA.

Otherwise my daughter and I are having a blast while mom is in class. We are just chillin on the beach, collecting seashells and building sand castles in the 75 degree sun. What more can you ask for?