Monthly Archives: December 2008

General, Liberating Thoughts, Politics

And then the super computer starts smoking…

I remember taking an oath when I enlisted in the Navy Reserve many years ago.

Federal law requires everyone who enlists or re-enlists in the Armed Forces of the United States to take the enlistment oath. The oath of enlistment into the United States Armed Forces is administered by any commissioned officer to any person enlisting or re-enlisting for a term of service into any branch of the military. The officer asks the person, or persons, to raise their right hand and repeat the oath after him. The oath is traditionally performed in front of the United States Flag and other flags, such as the state flag, military branch flag, and unit guidon may be present.

In the Armed Forces EXCEPT the National Guard (Army or Air)

I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.

In the National Guard (Army or Air)

I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the State of (STATE NAME) against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the Governor of (STATE NAME) and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to law and regulations. So help me God.

Guide Note: There has been some controversy about whether the phrase “So help me God” is mandatory. I have seen officers allow enlistees to omit these words, if they choose, according to their religious preference and beliefs. However, federal law does not appear to make any part of the oath optional. See 10 United States Code, Section 502.

(From:)

Now, what happens if the first part, defending the Constitution, is under attack from the second part, the president and the appointed officers? The third part, the UCMJ, clarifies it all with reference to obeying Lawful Orders. Of course, how is a simple enlisted service member supposed to know the difference? They are just following orders from the educated officers. Pity they don’t make acing the civics course a prerequisite for enlistment.

(Compare with the President’s oath of office)

Politics

Preserve, Protect and Defend

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“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Preserve, protect and defend… The Constitution… But then Lying Under Oath isn’t a high crime or misdemeanor, so that let’s out impeachment. Oh, but wait, didn’t Congress say, about ten years ago, that lying under oath was an impeachable offense. Fancy that. We still have a month left.

Oh drat, it says “to the best of my ability”

Politics

Does this mean I have to pay attention now?

Disturbing news from boingboing:

An Australian court has ruled that a posting on someone’s Facebook page can serve as legal notice.

You know, I don’t think Facebook has reached the status of local paper yet. And in my brief experience with it (I joined last month) I don’t think it ever will.

I find it disturbing that the courts would start looking at the Internet, and an Internet based service, as a non-ephemeral institution. The Internet has only been a commercial entity for, what, 15 years? It has so many gaping security holes in it that I have a hard time conceiving why a judge would consider any non-encrypted Internet transaction to have legal standing.  And it would have to be encrypted in a particularly onerous method (physically meet to pass keys).  Given that the major hack found recently had the ability to strip all secured transactions of their security and that it has been in the Internet DNS code from the beginning gives one pause about trusting anything on the ‘net in our lifetimes. And 10% of the servers out there haven’t implemented the patch.

What else is hiding in the basement code, waiting to be exploited?

It’s sort of like thinking all those AAA rated bonds based on mortgages are actually worth something.

Geek Stuff, General

1+1 equals whatever you want it to

This is what happened:

On September 3, 1967, at 04.50 in the morning, the traffic everywhere in
Sweden was directed over to the right side of the road and stopped. Everything
stood absolutely still for 10 minutes, and at 05.00, when it started again,
all road users in Sweden from heavy trucks to cyclists were already on the
right side of the road, and they have stayed there since.

from

And this is how Dvorak starts a rant on the Digital TV conversion (coming Feb 17, 2009):

By John C. Dvorak
Last update: 3:46 p.m. EST Dec. 12, 2008
BERKELEY,
Calif. (MarketWatch) — There is a story about how Sweden changed from
driving on the left-hand side of the road to the right side back in
1967. The Swedes, being orderly, decided to let the trucks and buses
switch to the right side of the road for the first week of the
transition, and then cars switched on the second week.

Is there a story about Sweden changing the way he says? I don’t know, I never heard of it. But it sort of defeats the purpose of his rant to start off with a lie. If it is supposed to be a joke then it doesn’t seem appropriate since the digital TV cut over is being done in one fell swoop.  Of course it might defeat the purpose of his rant if he mentioned that the Swedish car accident rate reached a low point at the time of the cut over.