It’s 3,613 miles from Honolulu to San Francisco. If you’re driving, it’ll take you 14 days 19 hours. Be sure to leave plenty of time for kayaking, as you go from the Turtle Bay Hilton in Waikiki (near Diamond Head) to Seattle.

Don’t ask why we were asking Google Maps for directions from Honolulu to San Francisco. Also, don’t ask why the software wants you to make landfall up in Washington State, and then drive down I-5 through Oregon to get to San Francisco. It seems that it would be much shorter to kayak directly to San Francisco’s Ocean Beach.

But it is quite amusing that on the directions it says,

14. Kayak across the Pacific Ocean 2,756 mi

I made the mistake of wandering over to the News-Computer blog home page, and have wasted too much time there. Here are some of the lead paragraphs for the latest stories published here.

These are clearly stories that were machine-translated from English to another language (I think Russian) and then back again.

(See my previous entry, “The 2009 SD Times 100 String was published online and in the oppressive inscribe.”)

Google s Chrome browser ready for download

The regular probation of the Google browser testament be available in 43 languages in 100 countries, Sundar Pichai, Google s vise head of the state of product government said at a dope convention at the company s Peak View, California headquarters. You truly spend else interval in your browser than you effect in your car, Brian Rakowski, troop product administrator for the browser project, said of the importance of offering a faster browser and forcing in a superior way competition in the market.

Dell Now Selling Microsoft Software Downloads – Software – IT Channel News by CRN

In an treaty unveiled Thursday, Microsoft is letting Dell sell accepted offerings akin Word, Excel and Coming washed-up its Dell Download Store, which opened in January. Unsurprisingly, Dell testament sell Microsoft products at prices that hog been slashed to the bone. Microsoft Profession Microscopic Employment 2007 is listed at 400.99, hale below its MSRP of 449.95. Occupation Efficient 2007, which has an MSRP of 499.95, sells for 448.99. Dell s stance is that the Download Store not isolated gives customers greater pricing and availability, however is too a else environmentally auspicious journey of distributing software thanks to it obviates the committal for packaging material.

Maruti launches microsite – Express India

Guide features of the interactive Ritz microsite consist of a countdown ticker showing the chronology left for Ritz to arrive, a pleasant online viral to digital watch and enjoy, captivating screensavers and motorcar wallpaper and a teaser that shows the shape of the automobile bit by bit when the cursor is moved over it. These features apart, the microsite has multiple games and puzzles. The speck further offers prizes such as trolley bags, Puma T-shirts, and Ritz desk sets.

Midland Daily News Archives Local News Summer sizzles at the Grace A. Dow Library

Adults can besides pick up a reading log at the Reference Desk to dawn participating in this year s Summer Reading Program. Summer personal computer classes Looking for something to engage in this summer? Receipts a machine troop at the Grace A. Dow Memorial Library. Free, hands-on pc classes testament yield community this summer in the library s Convention Period C. Reservations may be untrue at the Reference Desk or by calling 837-3449. Group sizes are limited.

Taming User Access Control :: SearchSecurity.com.au

This is shown here: In this example, the user is requested to enter Denise s password in plan to perform the privileged function. The user may and choose another administrative novel by clicking Use another account. By default, UAC is turned on. Provided you re using Vista already, you no question noticed it when using Vista for the head time. How to configure User History Force Configuring UAC is simple all you can achieve is turn it on or off.

Apple s IPhone Updates – PC World

Inclined the company s core on the iPhone it seems one shot becoming that we devote the entirety of this chapter of the Macworld Podcast to it as well. We complete that with two interviews. The early is with Mac accessibility expert, Josh de Lioncourt, who discusses what the iPhone 3G S brings to the sight-impaired and blind. We too prelection approximately the accessibility improvements that testament develop in Snow Leopard and why some in the sight-impaired limited may be as well keen to dismiss Apple s accessibility efforts.

My Car Would Have Failed the Safety Lane Exam Today – Memories – Chattanoogan.com

My forenoon commute recently ended with a realization that some automobile prolongation was needed. I always detect two headlights shining on the wall of the parking garage, however not today. One bulb had away out. I then had a flashback to the days of the Chattanooga Safety Lane, and thought, My motorcar would hog failed the confirmation today. In the head scarce decades of engine travel, accidents were caused not one by unsafe drivers on the other hand recurrently by defective mechanical systems.

Digital Picture Frames The Next Big Devices? HULIQ

Honorable scrutinize at the crush the Apple iPod and MP3 players in common acquire unreal on the ragtime industry, and how quickly apartment lodgings shade LCD televisions are practically eliminating traditional CRT TVs, promptly that their prices are dropping. What electronics manufacturers invest heavily in is trying to figure absent what the ensuing bulky gadget testament be that consumers will fall in ardency with. It s a demanding task. One slogan that has downbeat imaginable is the digital picture frame.

TellX Unveils Active Video Technology that Allows Unprecedented Brand Integration for DVD Releases

Technology-savvy film lovers are always looking for the first-class national entertainment experience, said Owen Carton, Founder and President, TellX. We are thrilled to enjoy a better civic retailer showcasing the TellX-enhanced DVD proceeds and deem consumers testament be thankful the astonishing added bill at no supplementary cost. The DVD mart is an huge platform that goes exclusively untapped for advertising and sponsorship, said Carton. Sponsors are attracted in TellX owing to we deliver fresh and innovative ways to activate trade-mark awareness and stimulate sales.

Washington DC Weight Loss Surgery Practice Bluepoint Surgical Group Launches New Website Showcasing Procedures and da Vinci reg Robotic Surgery

The knowledge is unveiling an innovative distinct website showcasing the procedures and programs they offer, and giving patients a diversity of tools to study the benefits of surgery and how their lives can be changed for the better. The advanced location incorporates detailed biographies of surgeons and dieticians at the practice, video interviews, advice and graphic animations on the procedures they perform, nutrition and column collection information, an online BMI Body Bulk Index calculator, and amassed into one easy-to-navigate thing for common people considering surgery to nourishment them lose weight.

Okay, I’ll stop now.

It’s apparently impossible to get the jerks at Vocus Inc. to stop spamming me. My mailbox is filled with messages sent out via their PR spamming service. And now they’re working hard to make sure that you don’t realize that that the spam comes from their company. What a bunch of losers.

I’ve been trying to get Vocus to take me out of their database since April 2009, but to no avail. See three previous posts:

4.29.2009: Can we vaporize Vocus with a medical laser? Please?

5.01.2009: It pays to tweet, and questions for Vocus PR

5.01.2009: Tangible suggestions for Vocus PR

Ready for today’s saga? I was going through my trash mailbox, unsubscribing from PR lists that aren’t relevant; it’s something that gets done every so often. I noticed that a tremendous number of press releases (mostly irrelevant and many coming to email addresses that are inappropriate) containing an identically formatted footer:

If you would rather not receive future communications from xxxx, let us know by clicking here.

with xxxx being the name of the company sending out the press release. The link goes to

http://xxxx.pr-optout.com/OptOut.aspx?

What is pr-optout.com, I wondered? Let’s browse over to http://www.pr-optout.com, and see what it says.

PR-optout allows journalists to optout of receiving future press releases sent by a particular company. Within 24 hours of clicking on the optout link at the bottom of the press release, the journalist will be removed from that company’s mailing list.

That’s all it says. Worthless. It doesn’t tell you who is behind it, and how you can get your email address removed from the service entirely (instead of company-by-company). Googling for “pr-optout.com” didn’t help. But a WHOIS search revealed a name that I honestly didn’t expect to see:

Registrant:
Vocus Inc
4296 Forbes Blvd
Lanham, Maryland 20706
United States

Domain Name: PR-OPTOUT.COM
Created on: 21-May-09
Expires on: 21-May-10
Last Updated on: 09-Jun-09

Administrative Contact:
Inc, Vocus
4296 Forbes Blvd
Lanham, Maryland 20706
United States
(301) 459-2590 Fax —

What a scheme! Using this “secret” domain, Vocus can spam you with press releases, and unless you did a WHOIS search, you wouldn’t know that it’s from them!

Back in May, Robin Lane, Director of PR at Vocus, assured me that Vocus would consider my suggestions to add transparency to their system. My suggestions included providing a means for journalists to either opt out of their database entirely, or set up customizable filters to control who can send them press releases. The solution might be to set up a journalist Web portal, or it might merely consist of a more informative footer on Vocus-based emails, telling journalists about their various list-management options.

In fact, in the spirit of cooperation, I offered to help Vocus create such a system. Nothing came of it.

Instead of following through, Vocus added a layer of misdirection. The company, with its new pr-optout.com domain, makes it ever harder for people to get off their stupid spam mailing list. (Some of the email addresses that they’re spamming do not even belong to editorial members of our team. Others are non-journalistic customer-service addresses they’ve apparently harvested from BZ Media’s websites.)

What can you do about it? Nothing, it seems. In May, I was assured me that my addresses would be removed from the Vocus database — yet those same addresses are still receiving tons of Vocus-originated spam. (Robin left Vocus in June.)

If you dig through the company’s website, you’ll find a page describing a so-called “Vocus Journalist Hotline.” The company claims,

If you believe the information in your profile is incorrect or your contact information is out of date, please contact our media research team at email hidden; JavaScript is required and we will be happy to update your profile. We have found that updating a profile is the best way to reduce the volume of off-target PR pitches.

Simply curious about your profile? Call us and we’ll be happy to read your profile to you, or make changes to it so that the pitches you receive are more useful to your writing.

If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact our Journalist Hotline at 877-402-5262 or via email at email hidden; JavaScript is required.

The company is careful to never offer to take you out of their database. In fact, further down on the page, they say,

In compliance with the law Vocus’ software includes an opt-out mechanism. If you receive irrelevant material you may opt-out of future e-mails from that particular sender. This feature is standard for every client and cannot be disabled.

Removal from that particular sender, yes. From Vocus’s database, no. Based on my past experience with Vocus, you simply can’t get off their list. In the immortal words of Hotel California, “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.”

What a bunch of complete and total losers.

A great way to become a better programmer is to read code. As Andrew Binstock began his most recent Integration Watch column,

The programming section of Reddit occasionally receives posts from comp-sci majors and early entrants into professional programming who want to know about best practices for becoming a great developer. One of the consistent answers from experienced commentators is to read a lot of code.

Andrew shares several anecdotes about how he learned new techniques by reading through other codebases, but his essay reminds me of an experience I had while teaching an undergrad programming course in the early 1980s. You’ve possibly had a similar experience.

A student was implementing a complex numerical algorithm in FORTRAN – I forget what it was – and it just wasn’t working. The program compiled and ran through the data set, but the results weren’t correct. We looked at the source-code printout together, and neither of us could spot the flaw. It was late, and we were tired and frustrated.

Then I had an idea. “Let’s flowchart your code. Not what the algorithm is supposed to be, but what you’ve actually written.”

We didn’t have a whiteboard, so we grabbed some greenbar paper, laid it out on a table, and started freehand drawing boxes, diamonds and arrows. We walked line by line down the recalcitrant routine. The task was straightforward, but took some time. It was a complicated algorithm.

As we neared the end, the light went on. “That arrow’s not supposed to go here. It’s supposed to go there,” the student said. Eureka! Needless to say, the fixes to the code were quite simple, and the next iteration of the program returned the desired results.

Okay, this story isn’t about learning new techniques by reading other peoples’ code. Rather, I’m reminiscing about debugging through a code review. However, the point is that mere reading isn’t always sufficient to provide understanding. Sometimes, you have to interact with the code to truly comprehend what it means.

The first question about the new iPod nano is, how did Apple cram so much stuff into a 1.28 ounce (36.4 gram) package?

(Well, actually, now that the iPod nano can serve as a video camera, sound recorder, FM radio and pedometer, as well as an external hard drive, appointment calendar and contact database, the first question should be, “Is it still accurate to call an iPod a music player?”)

Let’s look past the specific models or manufacturers. The amount of technology going into these tiny devices continues to astound and amaze. Look at any of today’s smartphones, like the iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm Pre, or an Android handset. They have large displays, sophisticated user interfaces, powerful microprocessors, lots of RAM, compact batteries, microphones, speakers, and of course, radios operating on the Bluetooth, WiFi and cellular radio bands.

That’s just the hardware. Today’s pocket-sized marvels also contain full-featured operating systems and incredibly sophisticated software stacks, able to run both connected and off-line apps.

In some products, like the iPod nano, the platform is closed. The only way to get new application functionality is for the manufacturer to build it and then push out a firmware upgrade. In other cases, as with many of the industry’s hottest smartphones, there are various models for adding new applications, which run in (we hope) well-crafted sandboxes.

In the enterprise, it’s easy to overlook these devices. Of course, the new iPod nano doesn’t have much of a business case behind it, except as a toy. But let’s not overlook the impact that its bigger cousins are having today. Check your Web server logs – what percentage of your traffic is coming from smartphones? Whether it’s Internet or intranet, that’s only going to go up, up, up. Mobile access and mobile apps are a key part of the future.

Mobile technology is a business enabler, and there’s no going back.

“Made with real cheese!” That’s what it says on the bag of Cheetos Twisted Puffs, which I was cheerfully munching last night. “We grow the best snacks on Earth!” adds the brightly colored packaging from Frito Lay, which manufactures the tasty treat.

General hilarity ensured when I read the ingredients out loud. Here’s what it says, with added line breaks to improve readability.

INGREDIENTS

Enriched Corn Meal (Corn Meal, Ferrous Sulfate, Niacin, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, and Folic Acid),

Vegetable Oil (Contains One or More of the Following: Corn, Soybean, or Sunflower Oil),

Cheese Seasoning (Whey, Cheddar Cheese [Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes], and Less Than 2% of the Following: Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Salt, Maltodextrin, Disodium Phosphate, Sour Cream [Cultured Cream, Nonfat Milk], Artificial Flavor, Monosodium Glutamate, Lactic Acid, Artificial Color [Including Yellow 6], Citric Acid),

and Salt.

Contains Milk Ingredients.

Whoever knew that Cheese Seasoning was such a complicated product? Now you know.