« May 2005 | Main | July 2005 »
June 20, 2005
Oh, just a "little Amsterdam"
The most coincidental City crime rate in US History
Another coincidence.
Keyhole Longe = Sandtrap Lounge = "Dynamically Revitalized, World Class, Financially Vibrant Rancho Renaisance"
Posted by cystdog at 04:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Clippy even bewildered by this one
15. Subject: Discussion on Potential City Fees and Plan for Financial Vibrancy
Recommendation: Information item only on building financial sustainability while creating a city that provides a high quality of life.
Onward and Upward, postively and d-y-n-a-m-i-c-a-l-l-y.
Posted by cystdog at 03:09 PM | TrackBack
June 16, 2005
Google Maps modifies API: map sites drop like flies
Yesterday, the Google Maps team made changes to the API, upgrading to version 7, and sites like mygmaps.com, housingmaps.com, National Weathter Service Storm Tracker, along with many others who host their own maps based on the mygmaps script went down until directing scripts to the old APIs. In my case, it was maps.keyhole.6.js.
What was interesting was the speed with which folks helped others get their code bugs ironed out, and the cooperation that took place in the Google Map hacks community present on the Google-Maps Google group. The folks there getting people on board with working with the javascript, understanding the API and the different changes in each version, as well as regular XML 101 being taught is pretty impressive.
A lot of grass roots and communtiy mapping is getting it's legs with Google Map hacks through the rendering of demographic data like crime stats, sex offender data, land use and now even transit data.
I imagine an interesting byproduct of this Google Maps mania must be that a lot of folks are examining local maps closely, and submitting corrections to Navteq to correct vector data at a prolific rate.
Pretty ingenius way to get users to improve the qualtiy of their data set. I just hope the Google Maps API remains open to being hacked. It would be a shame if once they improved their vector data sets, they shut the door on free API access.
Posted by cystdog at 08:31 AM | TrackBack
Positively thinking too much about thinking positive
Rancho Cordova City Councilmember Linda Budge replied in early April, in a Letter to the Editor of the Grapevine, to a series of letters published by the Grapevine in March that were critical of the direction the city council was taking, and the progress being made on the "Promises Made" about the benefits of cityhood. The letter was titled "C'mon! Lets think positive".
Ever since reading this letter, and subsequent statements made by the Mayor of Rancho Cordova, Ken Cooley, as well as votes cast for the approval of an 11 unit development in the West LaLoma ghetto, I've been in a funk about how to approach this creeping sense that we've all been duped, especially with the 2nd anniversary of cityhood fast approaching.
A full 24 months into cityhood, and I find that my family is worse off than they had been under the county, despite what my brain is telling me about the benefits my parents' neighborhood should be sharing in, and the sense of urgency I assumed we had in common with the city council about the dilemma in Croetto Ghetto.
Considering the history of the last quarter century in the Croetto Ghetto, and the costs that this neighborhood generates against the city's General Fund, and that of our previous government, Sacramento County, I am dumbfounded that things have gotten worse in Croetto since incorporation. I am also troubled that council members who claim a legacy; claim ownership to a position of leadership over this quarter century of municipal and community leadership failure, are more than ever engaging in what can only be described as a betrayal of the voters, the tax payers, the families of Rancho Cordova.
In the coming weeks, I will be writing about what I think should be the priorities of the city council, and solutions to the problems that I feel will fatally cripple any efforts by this current city council to "reinvent" Folsom Blvd, and to a larger extent, Rancho Cordova. I'll be hosting these essays on a new blog I've begun. In the next few days, I'll be adding links to relevent Bee, Grapevine, and Business Journal articles, as well as photoblogging what I see in Rancho Cordova that is relevent to my essays.
My greatest concern lies in what I see as a lack of shared values. Yes, this most often of misused phrases has a place in the discourse about Rancho Cordova, and a place in the examination of what I see as both a fracture in the relationship between the leadership and residents, and a disconnect on the part of the leadership from their obligation to the Rancho Cordova of today, to the children of our community growing up here now.
Every week, I'll post two essays about Rancho Cordova's governance, my insight into the issues, and propose solutions I hope will provoke others to follow their conscience, their gut instinct, and examination of what they have taken on faith from the city council.
I will follow up this Saturday with my commentary to Councilmember Budge's letter, to the letters others have written, and begin to layout my "take on things" on the new blog, rancho dot scupper dot net. I hope that some in our community will find common ground in what I point out, and are helped in identifying issues specific to their neighborhood, and how to frame solutions with consideration of the current council members we must deal with.
To begin this conversation, I'll share with you the letter Councilmember Linda Budge wrote in early April of this year to the editor of the Grapevine. I have retyped the letter from the newspaper, as scanning the newsprint of the issue I received, which has ink smear, would have been more tedious, with overcoming Acrobat 7's text capture objections.
So with that, I introduce you to Rancho Cordova's Matriarch of the last 25 years of land use planning and public safety priorities for Rancho Cordova, Linda Budge. (this will also be posted to the new blog in the next few days)
C’mon! Let’s think positive
By Linda Budge
The Grapevine Independent
News and Views/Other Views
April XX, 2005
While I understand the frustration expressed by some of your recent writers, I completely disagree with the conclusions that they are drawing. It’s probable that every resident of Rancho Cordova looks at Citrus Heights and wishes that we had as many noticeable changes in place.
I know that I’m certainly at the front of the line of impatient people. But, we have to remember that Citrus Heights is now nine years old! It took them a couple of years to begin to see physical improvements in place, just as it’s taking us.. It took them seven years before Sam’s Club made the decision to leave Rancho Cordova and open in Citrus Heights, just as in a few years, our growth boom will help us capture a store from another jurisdiction, making them equally frustrated.
Cityhood is an ever-fluctuating, dynamic process, and we always have to be prepared for change. Sometimes, we have to make our own opportunities, and sometimes we have to catch hold of opportunities as they come along. But for all of us, especially coming from the private sector, government seems to take too long to accomplish anything. And we understand that.
When we talk about the impact of the residential growth that has just begun, we need to remember that many of the projects were approved by the Board of Supervisors prior to incorporation. There was no ability to create major revisions to those projects, but we immediately seized the opportunity to get something for our existing homes so that current residents would experience some of the benefits of the new growth, not just the people who will move into the new homes.
You know that we immediately established a police tax on new lots so that new growth will not be a financial drain on our new police department. And you also know that we established a park renovation fee on new homes so that our existing parks can be renovated to the same quality as the parks serving new neighborhoods. We are now awaiting the park district’s master plan and the finalization of the agreement between the district and the city.
It would be more devastating if growth were occurring everywhere – except in Rancho Cordova. Much of what we are trying to remodel, upgrade, and renovate is the direct result of an almost complete lack of growth between 1980 and 2000.
We see retail growth and reinvestment in Roseville, Folsom and Elk Grove because they are building houses as fast as the carpenters can hammer. Looking accurately at what has changed here in the last five years, Cordova Village was razed and reconstructed because of the coming growth; Mills Center and McDonalds are being remodeled because of the coming growth; and the quality of retailers are looking at our empty buildings because of the coming growth. It just doesn’t happen overnight. Real estate decisions take as long as government decisions, only you can’t talk about them.
It’s been important that we take the necessary time to adopt firm, comprehensive, and defensible plans. We’ve upgraded our zoning code and development standards to insure that we’ll be proud of new buildings that are built.
You’ve heard every one of the council members and staff talk about creating a city that will be a great place to live in 50 or 100 years, not just 10 or 20 years, as is typical of some of our neighborhoods built in the 60’s and 70s. We are building for our children and grandchildren.
We will be remodeling Folsom Boulevard. It’s important that we make our older areas look as nice as the newer areas so that we all want to stay in neighborhoods where we’ve lived for three or more decades. We need to maintain that stability.
And our city attorney has offered to drive the bulldozer to take out the Stagger Inn, but then he points out that there’s the little principal of individual property rights that must be considered.
I suppose that the letter writers need to be characterized as “the loyal opposition”, but I just wish that everyone who wrote to City Hall or who telephoned would leave contact information so that we can respond. I also wish that people who write and telephone felt that they should get involved and actually work on creating the solutions to the problems that are easily raised.
Some of the writers are frequent participants in city discussions, but not everyone. Instead of writing about the lack of a shuttle to connect neighborhoods to the light rail station, come to the meeting to plan for the start of the shuttle! Instead of complaining that there’s no budget information, everyone can read the budget. As a public document, it’s on the city’s web site and can be picked up or mailed out for those who don’t have access to the Internet.
And, guess what…that fledgling shuttle bus system? It gave us the idea to expand the shuttle bus concept to the north side of Folsom Boulevard (the riverside), because residents in those neighborhoods would like a shuttle option to get to light rail and shopping just like residents in the southside and eastside neighborhoods.
The benefits of new growth can be many, and one of the most intangible is reputation. We have been saying for years that this is a great place to live, but when we approve new neighborhoods such as Capitol Village, the entire city gets great publicity that enhances our reputation, makes new business and new retailers take notice, and gets us listed in local publications as one of the newest great neighborhoods in the region! Lets celebrate that and take advantage of the opportunities that it brings.
Don’t stop writing the letters. In a democracy, silence is worse than having an opinion that is not shared by everyone. Most letters are written on a single topic, they have just one focal point, and that’s fine. But our task at council is to consider a 360-degree radius of focal points. Instead of just pointing fingers, please get involved in helping to create solutions.
Linda Budge is a Rancho Cordova City Council member.
©2005 The Grapevine Independent.
Posted by cystdog at 06:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 15, 2005
A hypothetical "Old Town Rancho"
This is an idea I cooked up after driving through several "downtowns" of central valley and bay area cities. I was looking at what I saw as wasted space in Rancho retail centers, and Mills Shopping Center is king of waste. Reducing the lot spaces for parking to allow for more structures would require a multi-story parking structure to be built, probably like the one the City of Davis constructed.
It will never happen, as the city council now is more like their predecessors of 35 yrs ago than the Board of Supervisors we voted to emancipate ourselves from. But, in a sim city view of Rancho, Mills Center could accomodate a row of retail/restaurants facing the existing retail in the center, and allow for an alleyway between storefronts facing Folsom Blvd. and the new contruction with storefronts facing the existing mall.
I would also want to demolish the sin of a motel located on Folsom Blvd. near Mather Field, and use the parcel to accomodate a road into the new "old Town". It could be aligned so that traffic could turn into the new street from Mather Field, probably best as a one way, with a parking structure located where there's an empty lot behind the old Beacon gas station.
It would be absolutely ped oriented, and it would be tight, but that is what old downtowns that can bee seen in Marysville, Dixon, Folsom, Placerville, Martinez, Yuba City have. It's high and tight, and in many places, it works. Too bad we'll never find out.
I'd also thought it would be interesting to have reduced Folsom Blvd. to a two lane, from Dawes to Olsen, and have an adjacent greenway surrounding the light rail right of way, with a bike/ped trail, using the lane space. I believe the City of Folsom will have this at least along a portion of the light rail corridor in their city.
Must be nice to have city council and staff that have greater visions and expectations for a streetscape than a storefront remodel of an old Molly Malones now serving as a dart shop.
Posted by cystdog at 11:06 AM | TrackBack
June 14, 2005
A softer, gentler transition into KDE
Guide introduces KDE to non-technical users
DESKTOPLINUX.COM
Jun. 08, 2005
The folks at ReallyLinux.com have noticed that the K Desktop Enivornment is attracting more and more non-technical users. To help these "average" users get their bearings, Andrea W. Cordingly, along with ReallyLinux.com editorial staff, have put together a beginner's guide to KDE.
Part of ReallyLinux.com's "Windows to Linux" series, "The Beginner's Introduction to the KDE Desktop" gives an overview of the K Desktop Environment interface, and also offers a number of tips on basic configuration. Concentrating on the Konqueror file-manager/web-browser, and the KDE Control Center, the "Introduction" is thoroughly supplemented with screen shots.
Check out The Beginner's Introduction to the KDE Desktop if you, or someone you know, could use a helping hand getting acquainted with KDE.
Posted by cystdog at 06:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
I'm sorry, this product is just ...dumb
I spotted a new IPod accessory called an "IGuy" on Jake Ludington's MediaBlab blog. Now, a lot of foul remarks came to mind when I saw this thing, but the most civil and PG thing I can say is that it's dumb.
Take a look below. I'm just not sure it's healthy to "animate" or bring to life an IPod as a sentient being or worse, make the thing your buddy. It reminds me of the YaYa man from Karen Black (the beautiful Karen Black) movie "Trilogy of Terror". See the likeness in size and shape, as well as the gesture by the IGuy that appears to be for holding a weapon.
Posted by cystdog at 06:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
My letter to the Bee about KFBK
I wrote to the Bee on Saturday morning in reply to the editorial they did on the Lodi men accused of lying to the FBI about their involvement with an Al Queda-connected religious school in Pakistan. It won't get printed, but I thought I'd post it here. I'd like to say a whole lot more, but 200 words was enough, as I'm beginning to get a 1976 flashback.
RE:Editorial: Concern and restraintI've appreciated the Bee coverage of this situation, and the sense of urgency that Federal authorities have in stating Hate Crimes will be just as vigorously prosecuted as terrorism. Unfortunately, not all Sacramento media is as conscientious as the Bee in reporting the truth and trying to bring balance and context to coverage of this story. KFBK, as of Friday evening, continued to report that "hospitals or certain food supplies were possible targets listed in Federal documents" despite repeated quotes in print, on video, on radio,(not only for local media, but national and international media) of the FBI and Justice Dept. saying this was untrue, as quoted in the Bee's 06/09 story "Fifth Lodi man detained in al-Qaida investigation". It is said Politics makes for strange bedfellows, and KFBK's spreading of inaccuracies, creating Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt seems to put them on the same page as Al Queda, with the some of the same goals. Perhaps KFBK needs to examine their motivations in reporting inaccurate information in this situation, as do their audience members.
Posted by cystdog at 05:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 13, 2005
A few GIS/Map related RSS feeds
Here are a few GIS/Cartography/Google Maps RSS feeds you might find useful.
The Map Room: A Weblog About Maps
Posted by cystdog at 05:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Switch: List of Linux apps comparable to Windows apps
A table of equivalents / replacements / analogs of Windows software in Linux. Pretty comprehensive list, take a look.
Posted by cystdog at 05:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Pipedreams: "Hypervisor" - Virtualization built into post-longhorn Windows
Microsoft offers details on built-in virtualization
6/8/2005 3:43:09 PM, by Eric Bangeman
At the TechEd conference earlier this week, Microsoft provided some details on its homegrown virtualization software that it plans to build "directly into Windows." Slated to ship in 2007 (post Longhorn Server), the "hypervisor" will differ from the company's Virtual Server product in that it sits directly on top of the hardware, instead of running as an application, according to Bob Muglia, a Microsoft senior vice president in the Windows Server Division.
and this from cnet which mentions (umpa lumpa) XEN
Microsoft 'hypervisor' plan takes shape
Published: June 7, 2005, 1:47 PM PDT
By Mike Ricciuti - Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Microsoft hasn't decided how to package and sell the software. It could come in a service pack release after the debut of Longhorn Server, Muglia said.
Microsoft's rival in this area is an open-source software package called Xen, which has rapidly gained the support of Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, Novell, Red Hat, Intel, AMD and IBM. Those companies have offered Xen support in the form of endorsements, programming help and software contributions. Xen doesn't yet support Windows, however.
Posted by cystdog at 05:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 08, 2005
"...I did no more than you let me do."
THE HANGMAN
By Maurice Ogden
THE BOTTOM LINE: "...I did no more than you let me do."
Into our town the hangman came,
smelling of gold and blood and flame.
He paced our bricks with a different air,
and built his frame on the courthouse square.The scaffold stood by the courthouse side,
only as wide as the door was wide
with a frame as tall, or a little more,
than the capping sill of the courthouse door.And we wondered whenever we had the time,
Who the criminal? What the crime?
The hangman judged with the yellow twist
of knotted hemp in his busy fist.And innocent though we were with dread,
we passed those eyes of buckshot lead.
Till one cried, "Hangman, who is he,
for whom you raised the gallows-tree?"Then a twinkle grew in his buckshot eye
and he gave a riddle instead of reply.
"He who serves me best," said he
"Shall earn the rope on the gallows-tree."And he stepped down and laid his hand
on a man who came from another land.
And we breathed again, for anothers grief
at the hangmans hand, was our relief.And the gallows frame on the courthouse lawn
by tomorrow's sun would be struck and gone.
So we gave him way and no one spoke
out of respect for his hangmans cloak.The next day's sun looked mildly down
on roof and street in our quiet town;
and stark and black in the morning air
the gallows-tree on the courthouse square.And the hangman stood at his usual stand
with the yellow hemp in his busy hand.
With his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike,
and his air so knowing and business-like.And we cried, "Hangman, have you not done,
yesterday with the alien one?"
Then we fell silent and stood amazed.
"Oh, not for him was the gallows raised."He laughed a laugh as he looked at us,
"Do you think I've gone to all this fuss,
To hang one man? That's the thing I do.
To stretch the rope when the rope is new."Above our silence a voice cried "Shame!"
and into our midst the hangman came;
to that mans place, "Do you hold," said he,
"With him that was meat for the gallows-tree?"He laid his hand on that one's arm
and we shrank back in quick alarm.
We gave him way, and no one spoke,
out of fear of the hangmans cloak.That night we saw with dread surprise
the hangmans scaffold had grown in size.
Fed by the blood beneath the chute,
the gallows-tree had taken root.Now as wide, or a little more
than the steps that led to the courthouse door.
As tall as the writing, or nearly as tall,
half way up on the courthouse wall.The third he took, we had all heard tell,
was a usurer..., an infidel.
And "What" said the hangman, "Have you to do
with the gallows-bound..., and he a Jew?"And we cried out, "Is this one he
who has served you well and faithfully?"
The hangman smiled, "It's a clever scheme
to try the strength of the gallows beam."The fourth man's dark accusing song
had scratched our comfort hard and long.
"And what concern," he gave us back,
"Have you ... for the doomed and black?"The fifth, the sixth, and we cried again,
"Hangman, hangman, is this the man?"
"It's a trick", said he, "that we hangman know
for easing the trap when the trap springs slow."And so we ceased and asked now more
as the hangman tallied his bloody score.
And sun by sun, and night by night
the gallows grew to monstrous height.The wings of the scaffold opened wide
until they covered the square from side to side.
And the monster cross beam looking down,
cast its shadow across the town.Then through the town the hangman came
and called through the empy streets...my name.
I looked at the gallows soaring tall
and thought ... there's no one left at allfor hanging ... and so he called to me
to help take down the gallows-tree.
And I went out with right good hope
to the hangmans tree and the hangmans rope.He smiled at me as I came down
to the courthouse square...through the silent town.
Supple and stretched in his busy hand,
was the yellow twist of hempen strand.He whistled his tune as he tried the trap
and it sprang down with a ready snap.
Then with a smile of awful command,
He laid his hand upon my hand."You tricked me Hangman." I shouted then,
"That your scaffold was built for other men,
and I'm no henchman of yours." I cried.
"You lied to me Hangman, foully lied."Then a twinkle grew in his buckshot eye,
"Lied to you...tricked you?" He said "Not I...
for I answered straight and told you true.
The scaffold was raised for none but you.""For who has served more faithfully?
With your coward's hope." said He,
"And where are the others that might have stood
side by your side, in the common good?""Dead!" I answered, and amiably
"Murdered," the Hangman corrected me.
"First the alien ... then the Jew.
I did no more than you let me do."Beneath the beam that blocked the sky
none before stood so alone as I.
The Hangman then strapped me...with no voice there
to cry "Stay!" ... for me in the empty square.
Posted by cystdog at 11:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 06, 2005
10:28 am PST: The war is over.
WWDC Keynote excerpt (from MacNN):
Two major transitions for Mac: 68K to PowerPC. Next Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X. Now time for third transition. Transition to Intel-based Macs. Developers Now. Next year for users. "Because we want to make the best computers for our customers." No G5 PowerBook yet. Future products can't be build on IBM of PowerPC. Intel has performance and better performance per watt. Intel delivers much better performance per watt. Starting next year the first Macs with Intel processors. Shipping by next WWDC. Mostly complete by 2007 WWDC. Complete by the end of 2007. Two-year transition. [10:28 am]
I can't believe it, and yet it makes complete sense, especially considering the market shift from desktops to laptops and portables, and Apple's inability to get a faster, coler running G5 from either IBM or Freescale/Motorola. I'm still in a state of disbelief.
Some coverage of the Tech event of the decade:
Video: Jobs @ MSNBC (requires Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player-Surprise)
Apple Is Poised to Shift To Intel as Chip Supplier Move
Could Open Door To More-Powerful Macs; Cutting Long Ties to IBM
By DON CLARK, NICK WINGFIELD and WILLIAM M. BULKELEY
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
June 6, 2005; Page A1
Apple announces switch to Intel chips
By GREG SANDOVAL and MATTHEW FORDAHL, AP Technology Writers
Last Updated 12:39 pm PDT Monday, June 6, 2005
Apple announces transition to Intel chips
Mac News Network
Monday, June 6, 2005 @ 2:00pm
Adobe, Microsoft pledge support for Intel, PPC Macs
Mac News Network
Monday, June 6, 2005 @ 4:00pm
Apple to ditch IBM, switch to Intel chips
Published: June 3, 2005, 5:08 PM PDT
Last modified: June 3, 2005, 5:11 PM PDT
By Stephen Shankland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Apple to Begin Transition To Intel Chips Next Year
A WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE NEWS ROUNDUP
June 6, 2005 3:44 p.m.
Apple Explores Use Of Chips From Intel For Macintosh Line
By DON CLARK and NICK WINGFIELD
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
May 23, 2005; Page C1
Apple allegedly explores using Intel chips
Published: May 23, 2005, 5:27 AM PDT
By Reuters
Posted by cystdog at 01:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Obsession?
Yes, "Yet Another Gratuitous Graphical Plug of Rancho Cordova"... The sign with the words "Rancho Cordova" that always "affects" me is the first sign you see with an RC mileage headed eastbound on 50, I think on the 48th St. or 51st St. overpass.
It's bugged me since I was a kid returning home from Land Park and Yuba City visitations. Don't always pay attention, but especially after a long trip, it marks some kind of threshold, kind of like seeing the "Sacramento" mileage on a sign in Weed, CA. A subtle feeling sometimes comes over one, that those words mean home, for better or worse, it's home, not just another waypoint, but a beginning and endpoint.
The sense of really being home hits when coming over the rise after Watt, but before Mayhew overpass. The CCC Cross/Nike Missle Silo always serves as a visual cue that you're home, contradictions and all.
Posted by cystdog at 06:14 AM | TrackBack
Simply Cool
Just cool to see Rancho Cordova's name in lights. Even in the lights of a bus route display. And how appropriate.
Posted by cystdog at 06:12 AM | TrackBack
The road of death claims more souls
When you're out on this stretch of White Rock Rd., want to pass someone.....and you see the heads of PEOPLE in the car ahead of you, think for a moment about the fact that they might have family waiting for them somewhere, then flash back to yourself, and think about the people waiting for you to arrive.
and lastly, when that car passes you in the opposite lane, coming from out of nowhere, from that blind corner that immediately dips down into a gully......think about what it would be like to have your headless torso removed from that car's back seat.
Just think about things. Scott Rd. is only seconds away, and Folsom only a few more. The crosses you see out there on both sides of White Rock represent people, people that were expected to arrive somewhere, and never made it.
Posted by cystdog at 06:10 AM | TrackBack
Oaks in the east county
Posted by cystdog at 05:59 AM | TrackBack
June 04, 2005
Hate Begets Hate: Lies Beget Lies
MidEastWeb Middle East Web Log - Deir Yassin: The Conflict as Mass Psychosis
The history of Deir Yassin, and of every other event, clear enough in itself, becomes lost or repressed in a fog of deliberate obfuscation by one side, and in a torrent of exaggeration by the other. In this way, each group has developed their own historical fictional mythology. The myths are supported by a set of obstinate defense mechanisms, that are impervious to any facts except those that support the myths. The myths provide a rationale for sustaining the conflict, which generates more Deir Yassins to create more myths. The psychological mechanisms are devastatingly effective. The events of recent years have proven that in a hundred or more years of conflict over Palestine, both sides have forgotten nothing of the myths they created, and learned nothing of the truths they have repressed. Until we are willing to learn the truths and to dispel the myths, we will all be condemned to relive the tragedy of Deir Yassin.
Read the rest of the article @ MideastWeb Middle East Web Log
Posted by cystdog at 03:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 03, 2005
Son of SP5: Microsoft finally rolls out W2K Update Rollup
Microsoft to Roll Out Windows 2000 Update Rollup
EWeek Enterprise news
June 2, 2005
By Ryan Naraine
Microsoft Corp. plans to announce as early as next week that it is ready to ship a Windows 2000 Update Rollup, the final security patch for the 5-year-old operating system.
The Update Rollup, which replaces Windows 2000 SP5 (Service Pack 5), is a cumulative set of hot fixes, security patches and critical updates packaged together for easy deployment.
"The [quality assurance] tests are done, and it's ready to go. An announcement is imminent," a Microsoft source told Ziff Davis Internet News.
An announcement could coincide with the company's TechEd conference, scheduled for Orlando, Fla., next week.
The Update Rollup will contain all security-related updates produced for Windows 2000 between the time SP4 was released and the date the update ships. It will also feature a small number of important, non-security updates.
The Update Rollup comes just one month before mainstream support for Windows 2000 client and server releases expires on June 30. Microsoft divides its support lifecycle into two phases: mainstream and extended. Once a product enters the extended support period, Microsoft charges for support.
Posted by cystdog at 11:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 01, 2005
How Haaretz sees Yavin
OUR MAN IN THE TERRITORIES
By Tom Segev
Haaretz, Magazine (Israel)
May 27, 2005 Issue
No one knew until now what veteran television journalist Haim Yavin thought about the news he has been announcing for more than three decades, and he is so nonpartisan that one wondered whether he had an opinion of his own at all. Now, at 72, he is coming out of the closet: "Since 1967 we have been brutal conquerors, occupiers, suppressing another people," he says in "Yoman Masa" ("Diary of a Journey"), which he filmed in the West Bank.
For two and a half years,s Yavin wandered the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with a small hand-held camera, which he operated himself, without a technical crew. Here and there he was reviled as the representative of the hostile leftist media, but in general the settlers spoke to him on the assumption that he was their man, and justly so: Until now he was everyone's man. The film he brought back seems intended to salve his conscience: "I cannot really do anything to relieve this misery, other than to document it, so that neither I nor those like me will be able to say that we saw nothing, heard nothing, knew nothing," he says in the film, and in response to a question asserts: "I did not move left. The country moved right."
He filmed people who waited for hours at checkpoints and says this has no security justification. Settlers who heard from him about a woman who was not allowed to get to a hospital and therefore was forced to give birth at a checkpoint, try to reassure him: If only the Israelis are able to maintain domestic harmony, "Mohammed" will make coffee both for them and for him. Yavin responds: "I am not willing to rule another people, not willing for `Mohammed' to make me coffee." He tells again of the woman who was forced to give birth at a checkpoint and says, "It is not Jewish, what we are doing there."
He believes in withdrawal so that a Palestinian state will be established and peace will come. "That is the only thing I can believe in. Other than that I have nothing to believe in - only in bloodshed," he tells a female settler. His thoughts move to the roots of Zionist existence. When he hears people describe Zionism as an expression of racism and colonialism, he is outraged, of course, he says, but on returning from the West Bank, he asks himself what remains of the "true Zionism," the Zionism of peace and equal rights: the Zionism of the settlements?
This is a good foundation for a discussion of the question of whether there ever was a "true Zionism" that did not dispossess the Arabs of this land. Be that as it may, in the first two films in a series of five, Yavin portrays the settlers as members of a fanatic, insane, racist, despicable, violent and dangerous sect - more infuriating and despairing than they have ever been seen in an Israeli film.
It is no wonder that Channel 1 (the state television station, with which Yavin has been identified for almost 40 years) refused to broadcast the series. Instead, it will be broadcast starting next Tuesday as the swan song of Telad on Channel 2: Having failed to win the tender for a renewed franchise, Telad can allow itself to end its term with something real.
A soldier in uniform told Yavin that the Hebron settlers were inciting him to shoot and kill Palestinian children. Activist Noam Federman and his wife tell him on camera that an ultimatum has to be presented to the Arab residents of Hebron: Either they leave the country immediately, or the Israel Air Force will bomb their homes. Not far from their home, Yavin filmed a bit of graffiti on a wall: "Arabs to the crematoria." A Border Policeman, a muscular, tough-looking guy, says in a heavy Russian accent, "I am only following orders, I do what I am told." Yavin asserts: "We simply do not see the Palestinians as human beings."
A Peace Now activist who wanders around in the territories still believes that the settlers can be evacuated, as France evacuated its citizens from Algeria, but Yavin does not bring even an iota of hope from the West Bank: "This hilula [merrymaking] will never be stopped," he states. He recalls, apparently with sorrow, how Yitzhak Rabin missed the chance to evacuate the Hebron settlers in the wake of the massacre of Muslim worshipers by Baruch Goldstein at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in 1994. About 20,000 Hebron residents were forced to leave their homes then. Yavin feels "sadness and despair" and says that "maybe it really is preferable to visit Hebron with a visa."
Yavin believes that the settlers are "wrong" and are also "endangering us," but in contrast to some of his friends on the left, he does not hate the settlers; he even "esteems and likes them," he says. Occasionally he also tries to "balance" Palestinian bereavement with Israeli bereavement, as though finding it difficult to discard the usage of the national "we" that became second nature to him. But not one of the settlers he filmed justifies his high regard.
Daniella Weiss, one of the original settlers in the West Bank, articulates for the camera her credo as a mother: We have to raise tough children. She gives less consideration to life than to the idea. A woman named Orit Struk reacts to Yavin's arguments with bloodcurdling laughter and tells him about how a sniper tried to kill her son.
In any properly run country, the welfare authorities would take away their children.
Yavin, though, also tries to jettison the superficial thesis that pins all the blame on the settlers themselves. In his film, too, they are the "masters of the land"; they issue orders to the army and the army obeys. But Yavin's series shows that the whole society is to blame for the injustices of the occupation and also for the war crimes it has entailed. "We cluck our tongues and move on to the gossip columns," he says.
A few of the settlers praise the help they received from two leaders of the Labor Party, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and Ehud Barak. One of the original settlers, Elyakim Haetzni, relates that he has been fighting for a long time to have one of the squares in Hebron named after Yigal Alon, the father of the settlements, but Alon's widow objects.
Yavin shows that the left-wing organizations, such as Peace Now, are effectively moribund and that only a few humanitarian groups remain, such as Ta'ayush, Physicians for Human Rights, B'Tselem and MachsonWatch, the women of the checkpoints. The good Israelis in the film are individuals: an immunologist (Prof. Zvi Bentwich), a lawyer (Shlomo Laker), a journalist (Haaretz's Gideon Levy), a Jerusalem plumber (Ezra Yitzhak Nawi) and a soldier in uniform. who says that he could not remain silent "in the face of such horrors."
Yavin says that his professional integrity will allow him to go on anchoring Channel 1's nightly "Mabat News Magazine." However, the broadcast of the series on a commercial channel raises the question of why we even need what continues to be called "public broadcasting." It's not worth the compulsory fee. One way or the other, it will be interesting to watch the reactions. It's possible that attention will not focus on the horrific message of the films, but only on the fact that Haim Yavin, of all people, made them. If he is right about the moral insensitivity that prevails in the country, most viewers may react like the family in the Strauss commercial: Mom, Dad and the kids are visiting the Safari in Ramat Gan. They see an antelope, say "We saw it," and hurry on. They see a lion, say "We saw it" - and hurry home to lick an ice cream bar.
Posted by cystdog at 08:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Sanity shines through
Israel's 'Mr. TV' Faults Settlements in Documentary - New York Times
May 31, 2005
By STEVEN ERLANGER
NYTIMES
JERUSALEM, May 30 - For nearly 40 years, Haim Yavin has been the calm, objective face of Israeli news, the anchor of Channel 1's broadcast since the founding of Israeli television in 1968.
Now 72, Mr. Yavin, known here as "Mr. TV," is about to deliver a documentary about Israel's settlements in the West Bank that is pessimistic, angry and intensely personal.
"Since 1967, we have been brutal conquerors, occupiers, suppressing another people," he says in the documentary, "Yoman Masa,"' ("Diary of a Journey"), which he filmed by himself, with a hand-held video camera and without a crew, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the last two and a half years.
He speaks to settlers, Palestinians and soldiers. While Israel is planning to pull its 9,000 settlers out of Gaza this summer, Mr. Yavin sees no end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, where more than 230,000 Israelis live beyond the 1967 boundary lines, plus 200,000 or so in East Jerusalem, annexed by Israel after that lightning war, in which he fought.
Talking of the missed chances of many governments, both Labor and Likud, to end or reduce the steady occupation of the West Bank, Mr. Yavin says astringently: "This merrymaking will never be stopped."
His own employer, Channel 1 - the state television station - which Mr. Yavin helped to found and where he has also been director of television news, chose early on not to televise the documentary. So Mr. Yavin, who has his own company, sold it to Channel 2, a commercial channel. Its license holder, Telad, has lost the franchise to another group, and beginning Tuesday night, for five weeks, it will run Mr. Yavin's cri de coeur as a kind of goodbye to Israeli television.
In an interview in the dim cafeteria of Channel 1, Mr. Yavin, tall and genial, says he sympathizes with the settlers, but his portrait of them and the security network to protect them is harsh. He describes a Palestinian woman giving birth while waiting at a checkpoint and tells a settler, "It's not Jewish, what we're doing there."
He films a soldier who complains that the settlers keep pressing him to shoot Palestinian children. When a settler tells him that if the army can keep the peace, "Muhammad" will make the Israelis coffee, Mr. Yavin retorts, "I'm not willing to rule another people, not willing for 'Muhammad' to make me coffee."
The more he traveled, the more obsessed he became, he said, with the cycle of "occupation, settlements and this terrible terrorism of the Palestinians, which no explanation can condone and which harms themselves, their cause and the Israelis."
"I call it a Greek tragedy, because I don't see any solution," he said. "The settlers are so strong. In a way, they run the country, or run the agenda of the country."
"I don't see anyone undoing what they've done" in combination with Israeli governments, he continued, which is "an annexation of land that goes against a viable state for the Palestinians."
Asked about government involvement, he said: "A settler said to me, 'What do you think? That we had the money to do this ourselves?' "
Much of the world regards Israel's settlements and annexation of East Jerusalem as illegal. Mr. Yavin says many Israelis admire the settlers as real Zionists and pioneers in a soft age. "I also have sympathy for them," he said. "They are idealists. But they are wrong, and they are endangering us."
Mr. Yavin has been criticized for making such a personal film and yet continuing to anchor the nightly news. "There's already a tumult about it," he said. "But I have my answer. I reject being personal when you report the news. But a personal travelogue is transparent and is a different matter."
Mr. Yavin, who worked in Washington, remembers the impact of the CBS anchor Walter Cronkite, who visited Vietnam after the Tet offensive in 1968 to make a special report and judged that the United States was failing in the war. "We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds,"' he said, adding famously, "We are mired in stalemate." President Lyndon B. Johnson told aides, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America." Five weeks later, Mr. Johnson said he would not seek re-election.
Mr. Yavin says that he has no such intent and that the conflict is entirely different. "Don't compare me!" he said, laughing. "This will not have such strong repercussions."
"Who am I?" he asked. "I don't think I can move things. I don't pretend to have solutions. It takes more than another book or film or series to make this change. You need something more cataclysmic. I hate to say 'Yom Kippur' " - the surprise attack by Arab armies against Israel in 1973 - "but some trauma to hammer this into the minds of people, to gather ourselves and take ourselves in our own hands and decide the boundaries of Israeli power."
With the Gaza pullout, he feels some change in the air. But he is not optimistic. "If the Israeli citizen knows he'll really get peace with the Palestinians - like the U.S. and Canada - he'd give up half of Jerusalem," he said. "But there is such an abyss between Israelis and Palestinians, and this distrust is so big, on both sides." Mr. Yavin trailed off, then asked, "Is Israel really and sincerely doing its best to compromise?"
Then he said, "I'm not sure any power on earth can move a people to give any land to your enemy, one that really wants to harm you."
Posted by cystdog at 08:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
