RSSViewer 3.0

I've tinkered with a little RSS feed aggregation application that I call RSSViewer (not very imaginative, I know) for a while now. I started it as a learning exercise, primarily to learn more about the XML parsing API in java. My original version is documented on my old web site. The latest version is available here. It's pretty simple to install. Just unzip the file to your hard drive, navigate to the RSSViewer folder wherever you extracted it to, and then run the RSSViewer.jar file found there (from Windows Explorer, just double click the jar file; from a command line, run java -jar RSSViewer.jar).

The UI hasn't changed much from the earlier version.



What has changed (apart from finally learning how to easily launch the app without a script) includes:

• Changeable look and feel. The Edit->Preferences->Look&Feel menu has a choice of several different look and feel settings that I've found from other open source applications. The screenshot above uses the JGoodies Plastic 3D look & feel.
  
• On some common systems, the application can open pages in the system default web browser. This works on Windows and should work on Linux as well (I haven't tested that). I'm using the Java desktop package to do this, and it has implementations for Windows, Linux, and Sun OS. Choose Edit->Preferences->Browser->External to enable this, assuming you are on a supported system. Otherwise you can bring the page up in a terribly crude internal browser page, which is just a JTextPane. Not the preferred approach, but will work everywhere.

The application requires Java 1.5 or later. I've run it on both 1.5 and 1.6. The newer platform seems a bit better, but that has nothing to do with this application.

As before, I'm sure there are lots of areas for improvement. I don't claim the thing to be a top of the line application. But, hey, it's free.

Ted Kennedy on the Pardon

With the death of President Ford yesterday, recaps of his presidency will abound in the next few days. One popular subject will be his pardon of Nixon, a highly controversial and unpopular act at the time, one which may have cost him the 1976 election. That's always the focus, the impact on the subsequent election. What is often not noted is that Ford, years later, would win the Profiles in Courage award from the Kennedy library, an award recognizing "courageous political leaders who faced crucial decisions and made them under great pressure, and often at great risk to their own careers." It is worth noting the comments of Senator Ted Kennedy on the occasion:

At a time of national turmoil, America was fortunate that it was Gerald Ford who took the helm of the storm-tossed ship of state. Unlike many of us at the time, President Ford recognized that the nation had to move forward, and could not do so if there was a continuing effort to prosecute former President Nixon. So President Ford made a courageous decision, one that historians now say cost him his office, and he pardoned Richard Nixon.

I was one of those who spoke out against his action then. But time has a way of clarifying past events, and now we see that President Ford was right. His courage and dedication to our country made it possible for us to begin the process of healing and put the tragedy of Watergate behind us. He eminently deserves this award, and we are proud of his achievement.

Double Standard at Quarterback

Jason Cole writes of the alleged double standard at the quarterback position. He quotes veteran offensive tackle Wayne Gandy:

"When fans and coaches see a black quarterback, it's automatic that they expect to see a guy who is more athletic," Gandy said. "So what happens when you get around the goal line or you get in those situations where most quarterbacks are taught to throw it away or get rid of the ball for a short gain if the play breaks down? The black quarterback is told, 'Do something, make a big play.'

...

"It's all about the tutelage they get from the time they're in college on. I saw that with Dameyune Craig. He was told, 'If your first read isn't there, take off and run.' Do you think that anyone ever told Peyton Manning or Tom Brady to do that? Again, it's about the tutelage they get."

So Brady and Manning are not told to take off and run because they're white? Um, have you actually seen those two run? Maybe they were never taught to take off because they run like Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. Michael Vick, on the other hand, runs like Michael Vick so having him take off is not such a bad play. Cole very carefully excludes black quarterbacks like Byron Leftwich when he does his race comparison. After all, Leftwich runs like the proverbial white guy. Similarly, he ignores mobile white quarterbacks like Steve Young and John Elway, guys who may not run like Vick, but then who does?

The best part of the piece, though, is when Cole starts comparing statistics to try to illustrate the point. For example, "Furthermore, mobile quarterbacks such as Vick, Brooks and Culpepper have consistently had worse interception rates than Manning and Brady." Yes, let's compare the interception rates of two future first ballot Hall of Famers, the two best players at the position today and among the best ever, with three guys who are, at best, above average players, and then interpret the results through the lens of race. Could it be that Brady and Manning are just a tad bit better players than Vick, Brooks, and Culpepper? I mean, when would you ever compare Aaron Brooks and Peyton Manning?

Cole also points out that the triumvirate of Vick, Brooks, and Culpepper "have consistently been sacked more than the likes of Manning and Brady." Yes, let's compare the sack rate for the quarterback of the Saints when they were atrocious and the Vikings when they struggled to go 8-8 with a 3-time Super Bowl winner and a quarterback of a team consistently in the hunt for a Super Bowl. Doesn't the fact that the two chosen white guys have played on vastly superior teams then the three chosen black guys have some bearing on how often they get sacked?

Why do we continue to insist on viewing everything through the lens of race? The black quarterbacks Cole lists are guys who can move around and make plays with their feet. There are white quarterbacks who can too, and many have had tremendous success doing it. The white quarterbacks Cole looks at are essentially statues. There are black quarterbacks who are just as lead-footed. Now, are athletic, mobile quarterbacks taught differently than the statuesque ones, like Gandy said? I'm sure they are. In fact, I would hope they are. The two types play the position quite differently and bring different dimensions to the game. But that has to do with their physical abilities, not the color of their skin.

PC World's History of Computers & History of Game Systems

PC World has posted two very interesting articles, using YouTube to document the history of home computers and video game consoles.

Joke of the Day

From The Daily Dish:

A store that sells new husbands has just opened in New York City, where a woman may go to choose a husband. Among the instructions at the entrance is a description of how the store operates: "You may visit this store ONLY ONCE! There are six floors and the value of the products increases as the shopper ascends the flights. The shopper may choose any item from a particular floor, or may choose to go up to the next floor, but you cannot go back down except to exit the building!"

So, a woman goes to the store to find a husband. On the first floor the sign reads: "These men Have Jobs". The second floor sign reads: "These men Have Jobs and Love Kids". The third floor sign reads: "These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, and are Extremely Good Looking."

"Wow," she thinks, but feels compelled to keep going.

At the fourth floor the sign reads: "These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, are Drop-dead Good Looking and Help With Housework."

"Oh, mercy me!" she exclaims, "I can hardly stand it!"

Still, she goes to the fifth floor and the sign reads: "These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, are Drop-dead Gorgeous, Help with Housework, and Have a Strong Romantic Streak." She is so tempted to stay, but she goes to the sixth floor and the sign reads: "You are visitor 31,456,012 to this floor. There are no men on this floor. This floor exists solely as proof that women are impossible to please. Thank you for shopping at the Husband Store."

To avoid gender bias charges, the store's owner opens a New Wives store just across the street. It too has six floors. The first floor has wives that love sex. The second floor has wives that love sex and have money. The third through sixth floors have never been visited.

Milwaukee Art Museum

I had my camera with me today at lunch and did some shots of and around the Milwaukee Art Museum.

France 24

There's a new 24 hour news network, France 24. I mention it because the live feed is available via the internet, unlike CNN and others.

Gartner: Vista Will Be the Last Windows

The Gartner group is predicting that the upcoming release of Vista will be the last major release of Windows.

The era of monolithic deployments of software releases is nearing an end and Microsoft will participate in the trend toward more flexible updates, Gartner forecast in a list of forecasts about 2007.

This doesn't make much sense to me. I certainly understand the trend toward more flexible incremental updates to software, and certainly Microsoft will continue to use such an approach to distribute patches and minor upgrades. But you cannot add significant new or changed functionality to any software worth its salt with an incremental update. Significant new functionality means wholesale changes to the system, which in turn means a major release.

So for Gartner's prediction to be right, Microsoft must plan to never add much functionality to their operating system after Vista. That just seems totally unlikely.

Who's In China

Video a co-worker found. Pretty funny, especially for fans of Who's on First.

Political Wire: Dinner With Blanco Fetches $1

Too funny.

The AP: "Call it a sign of the times for Louisiana's embattled governor: A chance to dine with Gov. Kathleen Blanco fetched a winning bid of $1 at a recent fundraising auction hosted by a group of business leaders."

Campaign finance reform that actually works.

Xbox 360 versus PS3

This holiday season brings two new gaming consoles to market: Sony's PS3 and Nintendo's Wii. These join Microsoft's Xbox 360 as the new generation of consoles. Nintendo's product is really targetted at a different audience than the PS3 the Xbox 360 so I won't discuss it. Sony has dominated the console world for years with its PlayStation line. Will that continue with the new generation of consoles?

I don't think so. One obvious reason is price. PS3's, when you can find them, are running at $600 and up, versus about $400 for a 360. If the machine offered significantly more than the 360, the price differential could be justified. But it doesn't offer more. Sure, its controller is motion sensitive whereas the 360's is not. But is that really worth $200 (or more given the shortages of the PS3)?

The big reason, though, is simply that they are joining the fight a year late. The 360 came out a year ago. Most gaming enthusiasts who have eagerly awaited the next generation machines have already bought one, the 360. If they have a 360, why buy a PS3? If they haven't already bought one, they will buy one this year. And guess which one is in stock in stores, and at lower prices? The 360.

The old Xbox was always far behind the PS2 in market share, primarily because it came out a couple years after the PS2, and there was little reason to shell out the money for another console, particularly one that offered little if anything beyond what they already had. With this generation Microsoft has turned the tables, beating the PS3 by a full year.

Furthermore, because the 360 has been out for so long already, it has a larger stable of games ready for it than the PS3 has.

You can already see this playing out in the marketplace. CNET reports November console sales with the 360 selling about 2.5 times as many machines as the PS3. One could argue that the PS3 wasn't out for the full month, so sales will obviously lag. True, but the Wii was only out for part of the month as well and it sold nearly as many units as the 360. Those half million sales for the 360 are a half million customers the majority of whom have now bought their next generation console and won't be looking to buy another until the next generation comes around. They are customers largely lost to Sony.

Another reason Sony will never catch up is stupid marketing ploys. When the 360 came out last year, Microsoft under supplied the market which created shortages, which in turn created buzz for the new machine. Sony appears to have seen that and is trying the same ploy. They too under supplied the market. One of the reasons only 200,000 units moved in November is that that's all they bothered to send out to retailers. They certainly got their wish for lots of publicity and news coverage of crowds clamoring for the product. Of course, they also sent a message to parents looking to buy a machine for little Johnny this Christmas that they shouldn't even bother looking for a PS3 and that they should just go ahead and get the in-stock 360. This is demonstrated by the declining online demand for the PS3 after its launch, the only console to show a decline in interest. As written in Joystiq,

However, the data could show the dangers of trying to utilize a product's scarcity to drive demand. A hard to find product can drive the desire to have it, but make the product too difficult to find and people will just give up; which makes the competition -- who has ready supplies -- very happy.

Shipping only 200k units at launch for the holiday season was pretty stupid.

Oxymoron of the Day: Intelligence Committee

CNN reports on a quiz given to incoming House Intelligence Committee chairman Silvestre Reyes.

When asked by CQ National Security Editor Jeff Stein whether al Qaeda is one or the other of the two major branches of Islam -- Sunni or Shiite -- Reyes answered "they are probably both," then ventured "Predominantly -- probably Shiite."

That is wrong. Al Qaeda was founded by Osama bin Laden as a Sunni organization and views Shiites as heretics.

Reyes could also not answer questions put by Stein about Hezbollah, a Shiite group on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations that is based in Southern Lebanon.

What a start! Remember, the first candidate for the post was the guy with a bribery conviction in his past. Fearing she would look foolish to appoint him, Pelosi dumps Hastings for a guy who knows next to nothing about the main terrorist organizations the nation is fighting. I guess this counts as being not foolish?

As Ann Althouse points out, "Remember how the Democrats ran on the competence issue?"

In an update to the original article, Rep. Reyes assures America "he is aware of the threat the terrorist group poses." Whew. He may not know who they are, but he knows they are bad guys. Great.

Dazed And Confused - The Yardbirds

Here's quite a little nugget, Dazed and Confused by the Yardbirds.



The Yardbirds are one strange little band. They weren't all that good, as this version of the song some other band made famous a year or two later (see first video here), shows. But they had quite an impact. Their original guitar play was a guy named Eric Clapton. When he quit, somebody named Jeff Beck came in. A short time later, they added a bass player named Jimmy Page. The band realized that this Page guy could actually play guitar, so he switched to guitar and the band had both Page and Beck for a time. Beck then left and the band started going in a harder direction. When the band burned out and broke up, the name fell for some reason to Page who had to put a band together to fill some Yardbirds obligations. His new band went out as the New Yardbirds to fulfill those obligations. Then they changed their name to, oh I forget, something about a lead balloon? Oh yeah, Led Zeppelin.

So this crappy little band gave rise to three of the guitar gods of the 60's, and ultimately to Led Zeppelin.

America Before Pearl Harbor

Very interesting photo essay on late Depression era America, using the then new medium of color photography on Kodachrome film. (HT: Badger Blues)

Rex Grossman's Problems

Jeffri Chadiha writes

As much abuse as Grossman has taken in Chicago and nationally, his play isn't exactly a crisis. The last time I checked, the Bears were still 10-2 and celebrating the NFC North championship that they clinched in Sunday's 23-13 win over Minnesota. Barring any major collapse, they'll be holding the No. 1 spot in the NFC when the postseason begins next month. Even with Grossman struggling, life ain't all that bad for Chicago (believe me, I know about quarterback issues; I'm a Lions fan). In fact, I'd argue that the Bears winning games in spite of Grossman's play is evidence of how strong this team remains.

But couldn't you say the exact same thing about Kyle Orton last year? They earned a division title and first round bye with Orton as the starter last year. And look how fast Lovie Smith got him off the field. Granted, Orton's numbers weren't as good as Grossman's this year, but it's not like Rex is exactly lighting it up either.

So the Bears are in the same place they were last year: winning lots of games and earning a bye, while fielding a struggling quarterback and relying on the defense and special teams scoring points. And how did that end, again? Oh yeah, one and out in the playoffs.

Andrew Sullivan: Padilla

Andrew Sullivan:

This, remember, is an American citizen, who was charged with grievous crimes even the government has now dropped for lack of any evidence. Locked away for four years in solitary confinement, and not even allowed to walk down a hallway without night-goggles, in order to keep him disoriented. Padilla may not be successfully prosecuted because his treatment means evidence from his own testimony is too tainted by torture to be admitted in court. (Qahtani has also retracted everything he was tortured to say.) This is the America Bush has created: lawless, brutal, inhumane, and incompetent. We have no evidence that any of this has made you safer. But it has struck at the very heart of the liberty this country was founded to protect and defend.

Cultural Impact of Seinfeld

Seinfeld's impact keeps growing. The Capital Times writes that Wisconsin governor Doyle, who has an "encylopedic knowledge" of the show, won't be putting up the festivus pole this year, because of Michael Richards' recent exploits (and the endless string of apologies he must now issue whenever he appears in public).

Last year Doyle placed a Festivus Pole, an unadorned aluminum pole, among the other holiday decorations at the governor's mansion. The holiday, created in a 1997 "Seinfeld" episode, has turned into a celebration in its own right. There's a book about it, and a Milwaukee firm makes the pole.

Doyle even uses Seinfeld references when doing business with the Republicans of the state legislature. Of course, that has a downside.

[State sentate majority leader] Schultz said at the Republican Party convention last year, "Turns out that Doyle's a 'Seinfeld' fan. Fitting that a 'Show about Nothing' would be liked by a 'Governor about Nothing.'"

Left yourself wide open there, Jim.

View From My Window

Andrew Sullivan has a long running series of photos from readers' windows. We had a nice little blizzard yesterday here in Milwaukee, so I thought I'd take one of my backyard.

NIST White Paper on Electronic Voting

The NIST has published a white paper on the issues surrounding electronic voting. They conclude that purely electronic systems (a DRE, or direct record electronic, system) are not viable. This conclusion is based on two observations: the lack of any viable audit mechanism to independently verify electronic ballots and tallies, and the difficulty in testing any such system to verify its reliability and accuracy. The primary fear is that a lone programmer could rig an election, and without an audit trail or the ability to test the system, this rigging would be undetectable.

First of all, I don't really see how you could rig an election. The software that would be written would be generic, applicable to any election, not specific to any one election. The state election's board, when deploying the software, would provide the specific ballot information for that election in some sort of configuration file. Then in the next election, a new configuration file would be provided. Therefore, the programmer(s) writing the software would have no way of knowing what specific election the software is being used in, so how would the programmer be able to corrupt any specific election?

Second, I don't really get the testing point. The paper states, "NIST and STS do not know how to write testable requirements to satisfy that the software in a DRE is correct." Um, how about I set up a ballot and run some large number of votes through the system and then verify that the tallying results agree with what I put in? If the software has some rigging built in, then the final tallies won't agree with what was entered. This really isn't all that hard. I and my project teams test more complicated software every day. My test case is that if I put in 5 votes for Hillary Clinton, then the tally comes out with 5 votes for Hillary Clinton. Is it really that hard? And are the testing requirements any different for a DRE than they would be for, say, a system where paper ballots are electronically scanned?

The audit concerns are legitimate. But are they really any different than those in finance, which is becoming increasingly electronic? The NIST paper points to this domain and its use of paper receipts to provide the audit trail. But as the economy goes more and more electronic, more and more money is being traded without a paper receipt. If I buy a video game from Amazon, I don't get a paper receipt for the transaction. What do I get? An email with a summary of the purchase. In other words, an independent electronic recording of the transaction.

With that in mind, I think the independent verification (IV) solution mentioned in the paper (and declared immature in design at this point) is the best approach. This may be over (or under) engineered, but here's how I would design the system. There would be three independent software components: the voting component, an audit component, and the recording and tallying component. NIST would define the software interfaces between these components and the state election boards would require different vendors for each to reduce the possibility of collusion. The voter would cast his or her ballot in the voting component, which would have a touch screen or something. The voting component would notify, using the interfaces specified by NIST, both the audit and recording components of the vote it has received. The audit component present the vote to the voter for confirmation. The audit component would notify the recording component that the ballot has been verified or rejected. If the ballot is verified, the audit component would independently record the vote for later audit purposes. The recording component would only record ballots that have been verified. If there are later concerns about the tally, the votes recorded by the recording component could be compared with those recorded by audit.

That could be total crap, I don't know. But it would provide multiple, independent electronic audit trails of the ballots, and would separate the different pieces of the software (particularly if the state requires that the vendors be independent), making it difficult to propagate rigged results through it.

Implementing 9/11 Commission Recommendations

The Washington Post writes

It was a solemn pledge, repeated by Democratic leaders and candidates over and over: If elected to the majority in Congress, Democrats would implement all of the recommendations of the bipartisan commission that examined the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

But with control of Congress now secured, Democratic leaders have decided for now against implementing the one measure that would affect them most directly: a wholesale reorganization of Congress to improve oversight and funding of the nation's intelligence agencies. Instead, Democratic leaders may create a panel to look at the issue and produce recommendations, according to congressional aides and lawmakers.

Technically that's not correct. The Democrat's official promise was to

Immediately implement the recommendations of the independent, bipartisan 9/11 Commission including securing national borders, ports, airports and mass transit systems.

In other words, they formally only promised partial implementation of the commission recommendations. Specifically, only the implementation of those recommendations that "includ[e] securing national borders, ports, airports and mass transit systems" was promised. Reforming oversight is not in that list.

Granted, shortly before the election, Nancy Pelosi promised

We will make our nation safer and we will begin by implementing the recommendations of the independent, bipartisan 9/11 Commission.

But parse her words carefully. The word "all" is not there. She may have been happy to leave the impression that all recommendations were in scope, but she didn't actually say that.

See, there's no lie here. The administration was happy to give the impression that Saddam was involved in 9/11 even though the president may have never actually said precisely that. Ms. Pelosi and the Democrats are just doing the same thing. What, you thought the Democrats were somehow different?

(HT: Agrestic)