Entropic Cogitations

Protests, Demonstrations, Hunger Strikes, Boycotts, …

Get a grip people!

Has our faith become so weak now that it is threatened by a Hollywood interpretation of a novel? Or do people just want to protest about anything and everything anymore. The ever paranoid “Christianity is under attack” rallying cry as I like to term it. Why were there no howls of protest when for example “National Treasure” came out? Maybe it’s because we all knew that that was an entertaining tale and nothing more?

This is a Movie based on a Novel. Have we all forgotten the definition of the word “fiction”? Don’t people realize that by raising such a hue and cry, they are actually giving credence to this so called conspiracy that was created out of thin air?

Ron Howard the director of the film was quoted saying … “The Da Vinci Code is fiction, and shouldn’t be assumed to be anything but — so there’s no need for disclaimers or apologies.” He is absolutely right. The author of the novel Dan Brown never asserted that this book was based on any historical or theological fact. In fact that’s why he won the copyright case. He had written a storybook.

I haven’t watched the movie myself or read the book, but I have no problems with either. All this protest nonsense does is to give additional publicity to a movie, which by most reviews is mediocre at best. And for those of you that believe this will spread misconceptions, and threatens our religion, there is a much better way to deal with it. When someone questions you about the premise of the Da Vinci code, hand them your version of the “Truth”. It’s called a Bible. It’s been translated in over 2100 languages and is the best selling book of all time – over 5 billion distributed and counting. And every one of them in every “version” tells us the same exact story with respect to Jesus and the topic at hand.

Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Matt, 8-26

It has been 20 years since the Chernobyl incident. This was one of the two defining disasters of my time – the other being Bhopal (Dec 3, 1984). It is hard to think of myself as old, but an entire generation has now grown up since those two accidents occurred. Nuclear power was already dying in this country and the Chernobyl disaster was just a nail in the coffin. But as bad as this disaster was, one must remember the extraordinary circumstances that led to this incident.

The RBMK Reactor used at Chernobyl had a bad design flaw. It was highly unstable at low power output. The reactor used water as a moderator – a neutron absorber that slows down a nuclear reaction. When water boils, it creates steam which is a very poor moderator. When excess steam pockets formed in the RBMK reactor, it led to increased power generation (known as a positive void coefficient). This excess power caused additional heating thus producing more steam and less neutron absorption causing the problem to escalate. All of this happens very rapidly and if not stopped quickly is almost impossible to stop, as was evidenced on April 25, 1986.

As Reactor #4 was to be shutdown for routine maintenance, it was decided to take advantage of this shutdown to run a test. The test was to check whether, in the event of a shutdown enough electrical power was available to operate the emergency equipment and core cooling pumps until the diesel power supply came online. For the test the reactor was to be stabilised at 1,000MW prior to shutdown, however, due to operational error the power fell to about 30MW where the positive void coefficient became a problem. The operators tried to raise the power by freeing all the control rods manually and at 01:00hr on 26 April the reactor stabilised at 200MW. At this point they still had a chance to ABORT the test and avoid disaster. But it was not to be.

Shortly afterwards an increase in coolant flow and a drop in steam pressure occurred requiring the operators to withdraw nearly all the rods. The reactor then became very unstable and the operators had to make adjustments every few seconds to maintain a constant power. The operators then reduced the flow of feedwater to maintain steam pressure. The pumps that were powered by the slowing turbine now provided less and less cooling to the reactor. This created additional steam in the cooling channels (positive void coefficient) and the operators could not control a power surge estimated to 100 times the nominal power.

The sudden increase in temperature caused part of the fuel to rupture, fuel particles then reacted with the water creating a steam explosion which destroyed the reactor core. A second explosion added to the destruction two minutes later.

A number of safety features were violated that day including using only 6-8 control rods. The standard operating procedure required a MINIMUM of 30 rods to keep the reactor under control. Additionally the reactor’s emergency cooling system was disabled as that was part of what was being tested. The test was carried out without a proper exchange of information between the team in charge of the test and personnel responsible for the operation of the nuclear reactor.

The human error factor was huge compared to equipment failure in this incident. But people will still blame nuclear technology for this incident. In the end – as trivial as this sounds, this disaster was due to a communications failure – between the team in charge of the test and the people responsible for the operation of the reactor.

I work in the chemical industry and deal with risk on a daily basis. My generation has certainly learned from this tragedy and from Bhopal. And we apply the lessons learned on a daily basis. I hope this next generation will continue to do so and prevent another Chernobyl from ever occurring.

As for nuclear power in this country on the 20th anniversary of Chernobyl? Maybe someday the youngsters of today might realize this accident for what it was, and believe in a safe nuclear power plant again. It will certainly go a long way to alleviating our energy crisis. But I wouldn’t bet the farm on it.

Forrester’s explanation – “One measure of consumers’ dissatisfaction with Microsoft is seen in the 5.4 million households that give it a brand trust score of 1 [distrust a lot] or 2 [distrust a bit]. …. These households know they run Microsoft software but would be just as happy to leave it behind — if they could.” ars technica has the gory details.

There it is in black and white – I mean in full color. NO ONE trusts Microsoft as a brand. What does that tell you about the richest company in the world? And the manner in which they got rich.

Aye, the company that keeps repeating the “Trustworthy Computing” mantra is DEAD LAST when it comes to being trusted. Ballmer better “sponsor” another survey real quick showing that twenty two Server 2003 certified partners “trust” Microsoft more than any other company. Heh.

At a recent keynote speech in Turin on GPL v3, Richard Stallman made an observation about the phrase “intellectual property”

“… Before I get into the main subject, which is the plans for version three of the GPL, I want to mention a very important fundamental issue.

There is a term that some people use, which causes terrible confusion and should never be used, and that is the term “intellectual property”. Now, I heard someone mention that term. I don’t think he was explaining why that term should not be used.

It is devastatingly harmful to use the term “intellectual property” because that term implies the existence of something which does not exist.

Copyright law exists. Patent law exists. They have almost nothing in common in terms of the requirements that they put on the public. Trademark law also exists. It has nothing in common with copyright law or patent law about what it requires of the public. So, the idea that there is some general thing which these are instances of already gets people so confused that they cannot understand these issues. There is no such thing. These are three separate unrelated issues, and any attempt to generalize about them guarantees confusion. Everyone who uses the term “intellectual property” is either confused himself or trying to confuse you. ….”

Although I don’t agree with Stallman’s ultra strict views on DRM, I too dislike the use of the phrase “intellectual property” and the fact that it is intended to confuse more than clarify. The classic example in recent times is of course the infamous SCO lawsuit against IBM. Darl McBride would always use that term in the media sobbing about how their intellectual property was usurped. But when it came to defining things in court, they are still at a loss to producing the bare minimum of evidence after three years of discovery.

It is interesting to note that the Number One purveyors of this phrase are Microsoft and SCO. And the tech media mindlessly parrot the phrase, further validating Microsoft’s intent. Microsoft has a whole web site dedicated to – what else?, SELLING you this crap.

Property has to be tangible. Legally, the property protected by any so called “Intellectual Property” laws must be tangible. So the next time you hear the phrase “intellectual property” uttered, ask yourself – Is this a Patent, Copyright, or Trademark issue ? If not, someone is more than likely trying to sell you a bridge in Brooklyn.

So now Stephen Toulouse is lecturing Apple on Security. The sheer GALL of Microsoft and the people that are in charge there always amazes me. Stepto wants Apple to hire a security figure head – you know – someone like him, because he doesn’t think Apple is doing a good job on passing on information about Security Updates.

The following line really got to me. “Look, the only way you can tackle security issues is by getting out ahead of them and clearly communicating to your users the threat, and the clear guidance on how to be safe.” Are you kidding me? When was the last time Microsoft EVER got ahead of a security issue ? Till Open Source software and the popularity of Firefox forced Microsoft to suddenly acquire the “Security Religion”, Microsoft used to live in constant denial that there were even any holes in their precious windows. They tend to forget but this was the company that would actually bash researchers for finding and reporting vulnerabilities in their OS. And as far as being “safe” is concerned, I found a way to be safe. I STOPPED using that malware infested OS called Windows and switched to OSX. I have never felt safer on my computer since that day.

Stepto is lecturing Apple at the time when Microsoft is facing YET ANOTHER zero day exploit ! He seems to have the attitude that “we patch stuff every day, so we are the security experts”. His sarcastic quote from his blog states “But hey, I’ve only been doing it for years now so what do I know.” Sorry to inform you Mr. Toulouse, but in this business that doesn’t make you an expert. It just means that you (Microsoft) do a LOUSY job when it comes to writing secure software. Would Steve Ballmer take kindly to the former executives of Enron advising him on what to do with Microsoft’s $60 billion? I didn’t think so.

It would do well for Microsoft to work on their malware infested OS instead of pointing fingers at other companies. After all, the record on viruses worms and spyware when Windows is compared to OS X is still > 100,000 to NONE!

Here’s another quote from Mr. Toulouse’s blog. “… and mark my words, the company will have to seek outside expertise in the form of a head of security communications in the next 12 months.” Well Stephen. Consider your words marked. That’s the beauty of the internet. Words can come back to haunt you and there’s really nowhere to hide.