Season’s Greetings

Thinking about the gap between my current and my last postings I came to wonder how James Joyce worked on his novels, while buried with his children’ cries and the struggle for making a living. If you believe in anecdotes, then it is easy to believe that for most bloggers the situation like Joyce’ one is very common – too many distractions and mandatory duties. Of course at the end some postings will percolate up, but others will not i.e. they will be lost.

One solution for immediately, but partially posting is by using the Twitter. In this way you can preserve your otherwise perishable thoughts. One can consider such posting like a brain snippets, which on later time can be extended to full blog posting.

As far as I am concerned I treat my postings as populating a Content Management System (CMS) with an anonymous readers’ login, but with a single purpose to serve its author. Similar considerations apply for all of my programs I offer to the public – they are created with their biggest user in mind, and that is their author. If somebody else performs similar job duties, then my programs could have another user.

In the eve of New Year I have desire to compile my old programs and create my new programs with Delphi 2010 and my updated 3rd party components list. From my components list I dropped only LEADTOOLS Imaging programming interface since LEADTOOLS dropped the VCL technology from their list. Fortunately for me I found a new vendor – MCM Design, whose Imaging VCL set is an excellent choice in functionality and price. Also thankfully to Share-It one can find a lot of useful software for developers. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

K-type Quizzing

Everybody recognizes this kind of testing. K-type quizzing stands for questioning with multiple-choice answers. I like K-type tests and in general I like to be tested, but especially I enjoy when a test is created in a smart manner. The reason is that you learn a lot from interaction with a test. This notion is similar to the saying that in order to learn something you have to teach that something.

In my higher education experience I was disappointed that a K-type tests were barely administered. Some professors stated that these tests hurt minorities and students, who speak English as a second language. Others argued that such testing is a discrete one i.e. not for a broad spectrum of knowledge. However I never bought such argumentation.

Therefore I thought about a solution for overcoming the mistrust in such testing. The goal is the one being tested to learn. In other words testing has to be seen as a educational tool and not a day of reckoning. Also that testing has to comply with the notion for a second chance.

First the tests have to be crafted by experienced professors with outlined pedagogic goals. The questions have to be enough to fill up an academic hour by allowing 2-5 min per question. Also the students have to be tested twice on the same subject by allowing them to specify which test to count for the final grading. The last condition eliminates the excuses that someone was tired or misunderstand something i.e. giving them a second chance.

I really believe that such testing will be able to leverage the knowledge and stir a waves of pride and competiveness among the students.

Postbox – the new kid on the block

Last week The Wall Street Journal in its Gadgets section published an interesting article about the email program Postbox. Lured by the write-up I tested the program and I was pleased, but not surprised.

The testing brought memories about Eudora email program, I was using back in the end of the 90’s. In other words I felt Postbox to be a new incarnation of Eudora. But I was looking for features like independent medium archiving and I could not find them. By independent mediums I meant archiving all emails at once by saving them as PDF package, HTML files, or TXT files.

Nevertheless Postbox is a great new addition in the field of email programs. It will be a great assets for someone, who doesn’t care about archiving their emails. But for me I will still use Outlook, which allows me with one button click to archive all my emails in a single PDF package along with all attachments.

Chavez’s Book Club – A New Selection

Apparently señor Chavez understands his book selections are becoming very popular. From the President below to the rank amateurs, who have taken the pledge to the President everybody reads with devotion.

The selection for this month is The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson. I have to agree with this selection as being very effective. One can observe that between democracies there is no jealousy or military conflicts, but between authoritarian regimes there is plenty of mischief. This observation is correct and if one can also recall that Chavez and Fidel were extremely jealous of their comrade from Estados Unidos.

The book chosen by Chavez counterweight the notion that by electing his comrade the racial problem is over and that he is a post-racial candidate. In contrary the problem was reinvigorated and the political correctness (PC) caught a new life.

This book outlines a real tangible solution, which makes its author - James Weldon Johnson a true visionary and a legend from the Harlem Renaissance. Read it for yourself and think about it. My summarization of the solution can be put like this - the rugged individualism and pure capitalism.

Multi-Tier Desktop Searching

The term Multi-Tier (usually 3-Tier) is in the context of the client-server architectures. But here I wish to use it in the context of Desktop Searching. When one hears Desktop Searching the first association is with Copernic Desktop Search (CDS) or Google Desktop Search (GDS). Of course there are other desktop searching programs but the point is that they employ in certain aspects techniques from the database management systems (DBMSs). In other words these programs constantly run and index all the files on the hard drive.

Nowadays people are becoming more sophisticated in filing on their hard drives. For example they name or rename (ReNamer by Kozlov, D. is an excellent freeware) their files with dates or key-words in the file name and most importantly they file them in established directory structures. Files related to invoices go into the Invoices folder, photos go to photo folder, radiology report for certain patient go into the patient’s folder and so forth.

While I don’t see benefits of using programs like CDS and GDS I do see necessity of good searching program. And if one adds desirable features like regular expressions, speed and reliability, then one can see that the desktop searching programs don’t fit prerequisites.

If you have seen proprietary websites for library searches like OvidSP, then you will understand the idea behind the term multi-tier searching. For example in OvidSP you search for author’s name and you came with a set of findings lets call it S. Next you search for some key terms and you came with set T. The final step is to allow OvidSP to do the intersection of the set S and T.

Using the idea described above I came up with the technique for multi-tier desktop searching. I use one program developed by somebody else – PowerGREP (Goyvaerts, Jan et.al.) and program developed by myself – DCM Filing Handler. I am writing a detailed article about the technique and when ready it will be posted on my site. For now at least you know that in the realm of desktop searching nothing is settled yet.

Brüno – the stealth subversion

Finally I saw Brüno – the movie. Besides everything else the movie proves that Sasha Cohen got the right formula to stir strong public opinions.

Everything shown as an authentic or at least as an anecdotal fact in the movie exist in real life but it is under the surface. Cohen only makes it obvious and shouts it out in our face. He is not the devil , but the messenger. He exploits all legitimate roots, but it seems he barely avoids to be put to the sword.

Sadly the movie belongs to the forces demoralizing this country. One only can hope the people seeing it, trying to withhold its subversion message.

Beware of Lonely Assassins

The inspiration for this post came after the increased chatter about the possibility of extremist right-wing assassination against the Bamster. And I came with the history of the lonely assassin Giuseppe Zangara, who was trying to gun down the first Messiah (savior) this nation knew – FDR (bellow is his mug shot c.1933). The image was fetched from the Florida Department of Corrections web site after searching for Zangara via Google.

I really hope this never to happen and even not to be attempted. The Bamster tries to build monument of himself with the Socialized Healthcare Reform and if God forbid something happen to him then a real monument of him can be erected.

His socialist ideas have to be rejected with the ballot and not with the bullet and he personally has to be forgotten as soon as he leaves Pennsylvania Avenue for Chicago.

Outsourcing the Unwanted

This post was inspired by mayor Bloomberg’s decision to pay one-way ticket to all homeless family who are willing to leave NYC for good. In attempt to illustrate this post with some visuals (painting, photo, caricature, etc.)

I searched Google with the key-word “one-way ticket” and I found interesting pictures, which reminded me about similar treatment from the past. 


The first example is the American Colonization Society (ACS), which after establishing Liberia in 1821 had given one-way tickets to all African American willing to leave the USA.

The two most recent programs one can refer to, are from West Germany in early 80s and Sarkozy initiative in France from 2007. These programs target people, who are not willing to assimilate into the host culture i.e. people from Muslim countries. Here are two caricatures from my search, one of them is slightly edited for clarity.

The similarity between all the programs mentioned above is that they failed to produce the desired effect.


Like a contrast one can point to the exodus of Muslim from Bulgaria during the last Zhivkov’s regime in mid 80s. By witness accounts close to half million left for good, virtually all of the not assimilable. Needless to say that no money were offered to the fleeting families and that plenty of Gypsies left.


The bottom line is that immigration is a tricky business and there is always the need for culture warriors. One can only hope for the best.

Artwork and the half-truth

Two days ago when I saw for the first time the poster portraying the Bamster as the Joker my first thought was “Wow, Simply Brilliant!”. Until now I still hold that initial reaction.

And the reason is that if one intends something to be funny or sarcastic, then this something has to hold some truth into itself. This poster hits the target. It is full of truth - simply brilliant.

On the other hand half-truth is intended for propaganda purposes. There is nothing funny about it.

My opinion is that, all efforts that go into the half-truth, generated by TOTUS (cf. baracksteleprompter), make the Bamster to be very serious and cold.

But like in the ancient saying that puts it like, “the one who laughs the last, has the best laugh”, we shall see…

The only regret I have is that I didn’t come with this poster myself. I guess I have to think faster.

Miscellaneous

Free Museum someone?

This past Tuesday was the Museum Mile Open House night. In other words free admission for everyone. The snapshot bellow shows the forming line for one of the Museums on the mile. The huge influx could illustrate the idea that when something is free the demand is almost unlimited.

I guess applying such phenomenon to other areas in the societal service structure could be scary. Government healthcare someone?

Beating a dead horse?

On Wednesday the shooting inside Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. almost bore a left-wing conspiracy. That was the day when the interview with Rev. Wright, in which he blamed the Jews for keeping him out from Obama, surfaced to the public airways. And immediately someone (the crazy elderly Von Brunn) took preacher’s words literally and decided to make a statement with a gun.

It is so obvious that besides Israel nobody else from the Jew minority in the World is fighting back the increasing assaults against them. One can conclude that this manifestation of pacifism from the Jews is the reason for the continuation of attacks against them.

Could you imagine what will happen if some loco shot, let’s say, a muezzin from the recently announced by Obama majority group. Allah help us!

Fake In, Fake Out

On Friday a person bearing the most popular baby boy's name in much of the Western world (cf. Steyn’s America Alone) called Rush’s show and stated he is a conservative one.(hardly one can believe) Along agreeing with the host he started describing and praising the Islam as a peaceful religion. He obviously was very happy to have 20 million auditorium.
Rush is known to be a “gentle faker” especially on Fridays. This caller definitely received, by my opinion (cf. “we report – you decide”), the special treatment by the host - faking. Of course Rush never will offend someone and admit he did it.

One can conclude that maybe the caller is from the same kind of conservatives, who according to Reuters, helped the Ahmadinejad re-election.(http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSEVA14340720090612) It is so nice this medium is not visual one and nobody could see the Pinocchio effect on the caller.

Wordplay with little Spanish Lingo

Always when I use some Spanish I tease my friends that we live in America and the usage of Spanish is the best reminder. I guess it is still early for the Chinese. The idea for this posting came to me by observing the spam I receive daily from Russian domains. I guess that is because I praised the pre-Bolshevik Russia for their humanitarian war against Muslim Ottomans. (here is the link http://www.cadkp.com/blog/index.php/2007/08/19/turkish-gambit-the-movie/)

The truth is that I am not Russian and don’t care about their current societal status. But I cheer when somebody stops the encroachment of political and cultural Islam. The logic could be illustrated by the collage below.

This collage is a equation, which leads to approval. Here is why. If one uses the Spanish word for mustache and drop the last letter (e) and then add pro-life idea in political sense, then one can get the condition for approval of the new Supreme Court nominee as it was expressed by Rush the last week on his show.

Applying the same logic about the Russian connection one can also reach a valid conclusion. In other words one can accept something that is not acceptable in different circumstances. One can hope that the Russian means of defiance can be replaced by peaceful means like the applying the immigration laws and politically incorrect predisposition to the cultural heritage of this great nation.(cf. assimilation)

Yes, Conditioning Works!

   I am not sure which theory (Ivan Pavlov’s one or Sigmund Freud’s one) will be better explaining the phenomenon I experienced. Here is what happened.

I saw the poster for the upcoming movie Year One and without consciously comprehending how I made the association with the Year One in the reign of the One. Could it be a coincidence or a planned association? I won’t know and who cares.

After a while I rejected my initial thoughts and left them as they are.

One thing is for sure - the human nature will remain similar to the one of our ancestors.

Hello Robert Ferrigno!

This line is my best response to Obama’s allusion about the USA being a Muslim nation and how Israel is treated. This exactly is falling into the twilight zone of Ferrigno’s vision about the Islamic States of America.

His vision is materialized in his The Assassins Trilogy. When I was reading the first book Prayers for the Assassin I could not put it down. I am looking forward to catch up with the rest of the trilogy. By the way the last one will be published later this year.
It is amazing how sometimes the history falls into the predicted trace of a brilliant visionary. The map shown above illustrates the initial settings for the book.

Despite knowing the recipe won’t you prefer somebody else cook it for you?

If you are like me you will answer positively to that question. By bringing the similarity between cooking and programming I wish to establish my point how distorted results one can get from the cooks (hacks) all over on the Internet.

The convention I am establishing is that the ready to employ code is compared to the prepared meal and the concepts and mechanisms to the recipes.

The contradiction comes when everybody agrees that people will prefer the meal versus the recipe and still a very few are describing the recipe. By describing the recipe one can imply fundamental directions in the spirit of self-help culture and not holding someone hand by supplying step-by-step instructions. I will provide an example below in order to clarify what fundamental directions one can expect to discover.

So like everything in life you will be a lucky if you filter the white noise of the hacks and find real authors, who altruistically provide contents outside their books. This means that in the same manner as in their books, their writings come with bibliography and other references and sometimes with personal experience.

To get the taste of writing I am describing try Jeff Duntemann’s Contrapositive Diary. Also the early days of Joel Spolsky blogging are a good example as well.

Here is the example I mentioned earlier. Let’s assume you research a way to implement drag-and-drop functionality over the desktop shortcut of your program. The results should be structured around the fundamental understanding, from where going to the particular understanding will be very easy. In other words one should look how chosen OS reacts when a file is dropped – first it opens linked executable and second it signals to the application to open the dropped file. The signal from OS usually comes via command-line methods and the research is narrowed dramatically. One only has to look how the IDE deals with such methods and research which one to choose to implement in the particular application. Finally the hint has to lay on the application creation event. The research is done and the rest is matter of typing the code.

Of course if such writing concludes with complete reference list about the books or articles supporting author’s idea, then you have a complete recipe, which definitely will satisfy your appetite.

I understand - I live here too!

The headline for this posting was inspired by the slogan in the Mercedes commercial “We understand – we live here too!” This slogan very concisely summarizes the point I would like to make about how Obama can trick people to believe in whatever they think he believes. In other words it is only necessary he to proclaim his good intentions and then nobody to look for results.

Recently Dries Buytaert, who is the creator of CMS Drupal, very enthusiastically wrote on his blog that he admires Obama for promoting Open Data by the fact that Obama’s administration built their recovery.gov site using Drupal. The most naïve conclusion by Dries is illustrated when he states that “We, the Drupal community, have a unique opportunity to help reshape how politics is done.”

Maybe I am exaggerating a little but this sound so similar to “We the people” – the first three words in the US Constitution. In other words Dries projects very unrealistic expectations towards the realm of politics and shows that he has to continue to educate himself about US politics. (I am not sure if he also decided to be post-national, citizen of the World like Obama, or if he sees himself like European of Belgian pedigree only.)

In the matter-of-fact USA Today reported that "Although President Obama has vowed that citizens will be able to track "'every dime' of the $787 billion stimulus bill, a government website dedicated to the spending won't have details on contracts and grants until October and may not be complete until next Spring.

Is your Rent Under the Water?

Recently one of my neighbors moved out. I was surprised because he liked the building, the location and he even installed a FIOS service not long ago. So I tried to understand that untimely move.

I understood that the leasing office asked my neighbor for higher rent, which (by the way) is way smaller than the rent I pay, and he refused complying with that request.

On the other hand the posting for the new available apartment is still under the amount I pay. This was the moment I figured out my rent is under the water.

The tenants who are not rent-stabilized recently renewed their leases and got modest increases of 2-4% even though the amount they pay is already lower than my rent tag.

Needless to mention, all my neighbors voted for Obama including the one mentioned above who just moved out. It is almost like a conspiracy theory that these recession-free people (no property taxes, very low rents) want to live like in the 70’s.

Is this a coercion or what? Depends if I got lower rent like them. Then I can understand the Messiah’s call for fairness and Change. In other words, seeing is believing and when that happens,  “the Change I can believe it.”

Such a joke…

Coup when country leader is out of the country

The name for this post mimics the Google tags set about the Thailand's 19th coup.  If one uses it then the article about that coup could be found very easy.  It starts like “Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted from power in a bloodless military coup on Sept. 19, 2006, while he was out of the country attending the U.N. General Assembly in New York.”

After everyone says this country start to resemble  a banana republic and everything else without the traditional American exceptionalism, one can wonder when such event like a coup will not raise eyebrow.

Our Prime Minister is in Europe now, where he is so much loved. If they keep him, then besides the Media who will miss him? The poor? The Unions?

Who knows…

Who is joking now?

After postponing this entry for a while finally the critical mass reached its threshold. And when yesterday I heard that Will Ferrell’s stage show is still circulating on some of the cable channels, I decided to finalize my post.

The main point I wish to convey is that while before the joke was on the president (not the present one), now the joke is on us.

Therefore one cannot wait the present president to finish his single term and the justice to triumph. That is the joke to be put where it should be - on him.

The materials revealing his cold persona and incompatible ideas have to see light. Everything from his physical appearance to his teleprompter relations should entertain or sadden the people from all over this “fruited land.” Please people dump all tapes after holding them for four years.

“My first term?”

Like everything in this world there are no two things completely the same. In the same logic one can pick a line from a speech while other can pick another one.

So in the last night appearance on TV our Prime Minister mentioned (read out on TOTUS) the words “…my first term…” These words somehow imply that a second term will follow.

Is this was a show of arrogance or lost of grip with the reality?

Someone can argue that in the conditions of banana republic this country is on the way he could not finish even the present one. Another one could reason that in the same conditions he can have a third one. As you see it is very confusing.

One thing is for sure - we cannot be jealous anymore that all over the world the banana republics have all the fun for themselves.

What was the choice in the last November?

In the interview on 60-minutes last night the “Prime Minister” B.(I won) Obama stated that he deals with decision making between bad and worse choices. One cannot listen to this and thinks “What a sissy!”
The same situation was in Decision 2008. The US electorate was presented with similar decision - choice between bad and worse. Now everybody start realizing what mistake they did, they chose the worst.
A few acquaintances approached me and told me that they are sorry they didn’t listen to me, when I was advising them about my warnings about the Big Guy and the change he will bring. I didn’t gloat about this and I didn’t say in their face “I told you so!” Even further I decided to give an amnesty to all my friends if they admit their mistake and I won’t gloat and show any superiority. I will ask them only to be awaken and fix the mistake in one and three years.