Done with Thunderbird, never to use it again

I'd like to start by saying that Firebird is my primary web browser, and I'm not a fan of Microsoft products, so it took a great deal of frustration with Thunderbird to get me to leave it entirely, but I have.

Thunderbird has two critical flaws that render it more trouble than it's worth. These are show stopper bugs for me, and I have no intention of touching Thunderbird again until they are addressed.


The first one, the one that I was going to try and ignore, had to do with upgrading from one version to another. Thunderbird would always lose my settings, and I'd have to go through a couple of hours of hoop jumping to get it to see the folders for my three work mail accounts. It was not fun, and I really didn't appreciate the fact that I had to go through all the convoluted "Migrate your settings" steps to get my messages back just because I upgraded from 0.7 to 0.8.

The second bug, the one that's wasted half a work day and a chunk of last night had to do with Compacting Folders.

Thunderbird uses the mbox format for storing it's data, and when you "delete" a message, it's not actually deleted from the text file that stores the data for that folder, it just marks the message as "deleted." Specifically, it sets "X-Mozilla-Status" to "0019".

Most mail clients do this.

What most other clients have, however, is a functional "Compact Folder" feature that can generally be configured.

What compacting a folder does is remove all of the messages that are flagged as "deleted" so the only messages actually in the folder are the ones that are NOT deleted.

Thunderbird 0.8 does not actually compact it's folders. It has menu options that claim to do it, and you can set thresholds at which Thunderbird will supposedly compact folders, but none of them actually cause Thunderbird to DO anything.

The end result, is I have a 1.5 GIG Thunderbird Mail folder.

One fun example is the Inbox on my primary account. Right now, there are NO messages in the inbox. It's empty, there's nothing there.

The inbox file is 169 MEGS.

I open the file up in VI, and what do I see? Every message I've ever received in that account recorded with the line "X-Mozilla-Status: 0019"

They're all "deleted" but they're still all there.

SO I did the natural thing. I right clicked on the folder and selected "Compact This Folder" and let it run.

Sometimes the throbber goes for five minutes. Last night was a couple hours. No matter how long I let it run, or how long it takes to build a "Summary file for Inbox" the file size does not change.

There were TWO messages in it, and lo and behold, it took Thunderbird FIVE MINUTES after launch to show them. It reports a blank mailbox until it finishes parsing the 169 MEG inbox.

I spent a good deal of time combing Google and Google Groups for answers. I even installed an extension that claimed to add a button for compacting folders, but no luck.

So I'm done. The bloated files have made the program slow and unmanageable. The hard drive is trashing needlessly, and I have massive files eating up my laptop's precious hard drive space to store messages that I deleted.

Emptying the trash does nothing.

File->Compact Folders does nothing.

I don't want to hear I should use a third party utility to compact the folders. It's a rudimentary function of a mail client, and if I have to install a third party program to do it, then the mail client is clearly note being coded properly.

So I'm done with Thunderbird. I might take another look when it hits 1.0, but if my tests show it still can't compact folders successfully, then I'll have to stick with Outlook.

Blocking some BLOG SPAM

href="http://philringnalda.com/blog/2003/07/urls_including_zipcode_are_prohibited.php">This
handy URL gave me the initial code to start with. The code samples
started off with and older version of Movable Type, but I've updated it
a bit and come up with something that will block the BLOG SPAM I've
been getting.

So, borrowing some text from the parent post, here are the changes
necessary for Movable Type Version 3.01D

You will be adding some code to /{your MT
directory}/lib/MT/App/Comments.pm

Starting around line 229 is this block of code:

    if (!$q->param('text')) {
       return $app->handle_error($app->translate("Comment text is required."));
    }

Add some code to get this:

    if (!$q->param('text')) {
       return $app->handle_error($app->translate("Comment text is required."));
    }
        #Begin inserted anti SPAM-BLOG Code
     else {
      if (($q->param('text') =~ m/poker online/)
        or ($q->param('text') =~ m/chat\.ru/)
    ){
            return $app->handle_error($app->translate(
                "Prohibited data"));
    return $app->handle_error($app->errstr());
        }
    }#End outer ELSE
    #END inserted anti SPAM-BLOG Code

The two regular expressions will give an error message on any comments that contain poker online or chat.ru and yes, the matches are case sensitive, but that can be changed by a few quick tweaks to the Regular Expressions.

Next, you'll want to filter the URLS people enter. Around line 273, you'll see some code starting with:

    if ($comment->url) {
        require MT::Util;
        if (my $fixed = MT::Util::is_valid_url($comment->url)) {
            $comment->url($fixed);

You want this block of code to be:

    if ($comment->url) {
        require MT::Util;
        if (my $fixed = MT::Util::is_valid_url($comment->url)) {
            $comment->url($fixed);
        }else {
            return $app->handle_error($app->translate(
                "Invalid URL '[_1]'", $comment->url));
        }
        #Begin inserted anti SPAM-BLOG Code
        if ((($comment->url) =~ m/poker/)
                or (($comment->url) =~ m/chat\.ru/)
        ){
            return $app->handle_error($app->translate(
                "Prohibited data"));
        return $app->handle_error($app->errstr());
        }
        #END inserted anti SPAM-BLOG Code
    }
    return $app->handle_error($app->errstr()) unless $comment;

SPAM Whois Data

The jackass below owns a domain that is being sent to me via SPAM:

Anyone in the New York area care to check this location out and see if it's real? If not, I can start trying to get the domain yanked based on invalid WHOIS data.

Domain ID:D8018981-LRMS
Domain Name:IBASKFHE.INFO
Created On:03-Nov-2004 17:04:57 UTC
Last Updated On:06-Nov-2004 20:22:56 UTC
Expiration Date:03-Nov-2005 17:04:57 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:R123-LRMS
Status:ACTIVE
Status:OK
Registrant ID:C7071179-LRMS
Registrant Name:Jeff Smart
Registrant Street1:1005 west 52nd st.
Registrant Street2:1005 west 52nd st.
Registrant City:New york
Registrant Postal Code:10019
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.7145738593
Registrant FAX:+1.7145738593
Registrant Email:Sexygeorge6969@hotmail.com
Admin ID:C7071179-LRMS
Admin Name:Jeff Smart
Admin Street1:1005 west 52nd st.
Admin Street2:1005 west 52nd st.
Admin City:New york
Admin Postal Code:10019
Admin Country:US
Admin Phone:+1.7145738593
Admin Email:Sexygeorge6969@hotmail.com
Billing ID:C7071179-LRMS
Billing Name:Jeff Smart
Billing Street1:1005 west 52nd st.
Billing Street2:1005 west 52nd st.
Billing City:New york
Billing Postal Code:10019
Billing Country:US
Billing Phone:+1.7145738593
Billing Email:Sexygeorge6969@hotmail.com
Tech ID:C7071179-LRMS
Tech Name:Jeff Smart
Tech Street1:1005 west 52nd st.
Tech Street2:1005 west 52nd st.
Tech City:New york
Tech Postal Code:10019
Tech Country:US
Tech Phone:+1.7145738593
Tech Email:Sexygeorge6969@hotmail.com
Name Server:NS7.123MYDNS.COM
Name Server:NS6.ILUVDNS.COM

Matthew
2004-11-11 12:42:49
My plan for going after the domain is to complain to the registrar about invalid Whois data, but my work on that thus far has been less than fruitful.

Some code modifications on the other hand appear to have a shot at being useful. I've posted my notes to my BLOG.

Spat
2004-11-11 00:50:04
Can someone do something about these scumbags, Iam getting 4+ different(maybe) spammers a day with the same spam mail. At this stage Iam using contact details supplied at Canadian Pharmacy http://dhemianatropous.jofdjaef.info/callstatus.php to send invalid information to there online form, if we all did this, wouldn't they get sick of it????

Steve
2004-11-10 10:00:58
I'm getting them, too. It appears that name is an alias, associated with other spamming operations. How do you plan on going about pulling the domain?

Forget Bush...

Well, if the nation is dumb enough to give Bush another four years, why not go all out next time and get it done and over with?

Did I tell you I went to a religious University?

Receiving the Alumni Newsletter can be a disturbing thing at times, especially when you get something like this in the mail!



You can see the context for this image by clicking here. The text that goes with is isn't nearly as strange as the image.

Desktop Google

Note: And yes, I posted this before Slashdot!

They did it.

At long last, they did it.

The crazy cool bastards did it.

Free Google Search for your desktop data at desktop.google.com

It's indexing my laptop now.

I already used it to find a document I was looking for.

Now, in they'll just add support for Thunderbird e-mail, I'll be happy as a clam!

From the FAQ:

With Google Desktop Search, you can search the full text of your email, files, viewed web pages, and chats

We treat your privacy with the utmost respect. The Google Desktop Search program does not make your computer's content accessible to Google or anyone else.

Osama and Pat

From The Christian Science Monitor

On Osama Bin Laden

He seems to feel that his theological credibility rests on convincing Muslims that they are everywhere under attack.

For those who grew up in Conservative Christian households, that statement may very well show how much Zealots of both faiths have in common. The 700 Cub spent half it's air time telling viewers how much Christians were under attack both around the world and in America.

I'm not calling Osama Bin Laden a Muslim Pat Robertson mind you, because Pat never encouraged a few dozen people to fly a plane into a building.

Of course Pat did say that the 9/11 attacks were in part, judgment from God for things like permitting homosexuals to exist and legalized abortion, so I don't consider him much better.

MORE Spam from a "Spyware" company

adwarebde.com strikes again.

I got another SPAM from these jerks today. I really hope they go out of business in the near future.

I guess stupid people just buy Spyware from SPAMmers, not realizing their funds are helping make the problems worse.

Their Whois Data

[whois.opensrs.net]
Registrant:
JointCrew Labs. Inc
ul. 40 Let-Pobedu, dom 16. kv.87
Kyiv, UA 21004
UA

Domain name: ADWAREBDE.COM

Administrative Contact:
Sergeev, Aleksandr info@q-h.ru
ul. 40 Let-Pobedu, dom 16. kv.87
Kyiv, UA 21004
UA
+38.0675078199
Technical Contact:
Sergeev, Aleksandr info@q-h.ru
ul. 40 Let-Pobedu, dom 16. kv.87
Kyiv, UA 21004
UA
+38.0675078199


Registrar of Record: TUCOWS, INC.
Record last updated on 27-Sep-2004.
Record expires on 01-Sep-2005.
Record created on 01-Sep-2004.

Domain servers in listed order:
NS2.REALTIMENS.COM 200.153.17.103
NS3.ESPDNS.COM 61.240.131.209


Domain status:
ACTIVE

The SPAM

Return-Path: <troyperry_pz@mccruddenw.freeserve.co.uk>
Delivered-To: <witheld>
Received: (qmail 80005 invoked from network); 30 Sep 2004 20:09:45 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO domogarov.ru) (221.184.126.117)
by mail-da-1.dns-solutions.net - 221.184.126.117 with SMTP; 30 Sep 2004 20:09:45 -0000
To: <witheld>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Subject: =?iso-8859-1?B?VGhpcyBzb2Z0d2FyZSB3aWxsIGRldGVjdCBhbnkgc3B5d2FyZSB5b3UgbWlnaHQgaGF2ZSAgICAgaw==?=
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2004 20:08:32 +0000
From: "Troy Perry" <troyperry_pz@mccruddenw.freeserve.co.uk>
Message-ID: <69a001c4a729$69b90bef$1d22903f@cpn6ni1>
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0508_3E1B43CC.351D33D2"

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

------=_NextPart_000_0508_3E1B43CC.351D33D2
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit




------=_NextPart_000_0508_3E1B43CC.351D33D2
Content-Type: text/html;
charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 3.2//en">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1226" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<font style=font-size:2px>sentry trinitroxylol illicitly sentry ataman ungruff erythrin. flacons throats protoconulid deferential rodded embroiling. citrin assisting rehandling ossifies extrapelvic molossic hyperresonant. scincoids aversation sacrament sunset prologize rachidial hazelwood diagrams bouncingly administers. semiautomatics encapsulating cornbird impersonalized downgrading chenopods boots epinicial. outpick swanned yappiness isonephelic runouts reinstauration pachyderma stearone centripetally anethol.</font>
<BR>
<a href="http://<witheld>.adwarebde.com/?id=<witheld>"><img src="http://www.adwarebde.com/m5.gif"></a>
<font style=font-size:2px><br><br><br><br>furbishable spectroradiometry decannulation. gaze coccagee overtopping officeholders mesmerizes. brimfully periclitation prealarm diagrams altarpieces. despotat pullers errorful erythrin untimeous pinchback fidalgo. photonephograph pinchecks heartbreaking tongued colourful pardoned palaeography intraleukocytic contractedness paracorolla. mayapples floridly unlogical marijuanas epinicial totemisms aeromarine jambolan grandchild epsomite.<br>pinks proddle badgered malocclusion glamoury foreprovision remass otorhinolaryngology undisinherited phonography. cordage unsoluble badgered temptationless scarifier. algorithms jinxing pyrosises contributes antiquarians errorful phonate samburs applanate smockings. findal syllabled tonsures demurely autotransplantation esoterism debye pneumotomy. subdepressed pedobaptist leglessness outhitting findal princelet blennioid dusters mesmerizes optative. archpastor equilibrist azyme unlivably nibong autosign misunderstander. jambolan tubulus audiotypist dodd cholecystoileostomy conepate windbore levatores reflectionist. mussuk theorizies bougar subsulphid colorationally. undergaoler tressels downheartedness foreganger respirometer caulicule. indelibility summitries subverter unsesquipedalian eschalots synneusis cyclotomic presympathize corelatively. trame wealdsman oscilloscopes psychogenetics pinchecks clamb cardroom periclitation. onsight refractory claustrophobe pinchecks hemarthrosis unearly latitant khis diabolarch ingenerability synclitic. conepate downheartedness. mysticly enfettered ferroinclave overunsuitable oversecure mousers. yens urediniosporic doughnut. eliciting umload weighty outgrowths cholos paracorolla dramatists paracorolla tastier pseudomorph. otoscopic feldspathization decannulation gaynesses esophagectomy. pantywaist citrin hilting plowstilt sages.<br><br></font>
<BR><BR>
</HTML>


------=_NextPart_000_0508_3E1B43CC.351D33D2--

Even MORE BLOG SPAM

This time, the BLOG SPAm is from x-baccarat.com

As you can see below, it's yet another site taken care of gandi.net.

Clearly, gandi.net is a haven to SPAM and such slime. I tried to file a complaint, but got back nothing of value. They don't care.

domain: X-BACCARAT.COM
owner-address: John Grisham
owner-address: 123, See Street
owner-address: 14342
owner-address: Miami
owner-address: Florida
owner-address: United States of America
owner-phone: +1.3242342232
owner-e-mail: 17f2362a43d2add0b2b813f3d769d8f2-868144@owner.gandi.net
admin-c: JG1188-GANDI
tech-c: AR41-GANDI
bill-c: JG1188-GANDI
nserver: ns7.gandi.net 217.70.177.44
nserver: custom2.gandi.net 217.70.179.35
reg_created: 2004-09-24 09:36:12
expires: 2005-09-24 09:36:12
created: 2004-09-24 15:36:12
changed: 2004-09-27 09:50:41

person: John Grisham
nic-hdl: JG1188-GANDI
address: 123, See Street
address: 14342
address: Miami
address: Florida
address: United States of America
phone: +1.3242342232
e-mail: yavor79@yahoo.com
lastupdated: 2004-09-27 11:07:25

person: GANDI Auto Register 4.1
nic-hdl: AR41-GANDI
address: GANDI
address: 38 rue Notre-Dame de Nazareth
address: F-75003
address: Paris
address: France
phone: N/A
e-mail: support@gandi.net

More BLOG SPAM

So here I am again, getting more BLOG SPAM from the customers at gandi.net.

For those of you who do not know about gandi.net, I ask you to do a search on them at groups.google.com, you will find them to be one of the SPAM friendly registrars, to the point where they bend over backwards to accommodate anyone sending SPAM.

Here is the Whois Data on the domain that was most recently posted to my BLOG:

domain: ON-POK.COM
owner-address: John Grisham
owner-address: 123, See Street
owner-address: 14342
owner-address: Miami
owner-address: Florida
owner-address: United States of America
owner-phone: +1.3242342232
owner-e-mail: 17f2362a43d2add0b2b813f3d769d8f2-868144@owner.gandi.net
admin-c: JG1188-GANDI
tech-c: AR41-GANDI
bill-c: JG1188-GANDI
nserver: ns7.gandi.net 217.70.177.44
nserver: custom2.gandi.net 217.70.179.35
reg_created: 2004-09-14 05:14:47
expires: 2005-09-14 05:14:47
created: 2004-09-14 11:14:47
changed: 2004-09-14 11:20:33

person: John Grisham
nic-hdl: JG1188-GANDI
address: 123, See Street
address: 14342
address: Miami
address: Florida
address: United States of America
phone: +1.3242342232
e-mail: yavor79@yahoo.com
lastupdated: 2004-09-14 11:10:20

person: GANDI Auto Register 4.1
nic-hdl: AR41-GANDI
address: GANDI
address: 38 rue Notre-Dame de Nazareth
address: F-75003
address: Paris
address: France
phone: N/A
e-mail: support@gandi.net

Spam from a "Spyware" company

Did you ever hear of adwarebde.com?

I'll bet you have. I'll bet you got an e-mail or fifty from them, telling you all about the spyware that could be on your system!

Well, I'm here to tell you something. Adwarebde.com is nothing more than a clearing house for SPAM. Doubt me? Then click on the "Affiliates" link on their home page. You'll find they don't care if you SPAM, as long as they get hits.

Still doubt me? The go to groups.google.com and do a search on their domain name. All the hits are from people who got SPAM from them.


If you want to fight Spyware on your computer, go with Spybot Search and Destroy, or Adaware. They're reliable, not like the SPAMware from adwarebde.com

Here is their Whois data, the registration information on their web site:

Registrant:
JointCrew Labs. Inc
ul. 40 Let-Pobedu, dom 16. kv.87
Kyiv, UA 21004
UA

Domain name: ADWAREBDE.COM

Administrative Contact:
Sergeev, Aleksandr info@q-h.ru
ul. 40 Let-Pobedu, dom 16. kv.87
Kyiv, UA 21004
UA
+38.0675078199
Technical Contact:
Sergeev, Aleksandr info@q-h.ru
ul. 40 Let-Pobedu, dom 16. kv.87
Kyiv, UA 21004
UA
+38.0675078199

Registrar of Record: TUCOWS, INC.
Record last updated on 13-Sep-2004.
Record expires on 01-Sep-2005.
Record created on 01-Sep-2004.

Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.REALTIMENS.COM 61.240.131.207
NS4.ESPDNS.COM 220.175.8.115

Domain status: ACTIVE

And here is a SPAM they sent me:

Return-Path: <toc@cambridgetool.com>
Received: (qmail 71518 invoked from network); 22 Sep 2004 17:47:38 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO cambridgetool.com) (213.13.233.208) by
mail-da-1.dns-solutions.net - 213.13.233.208 with SMTP; 22 Sep 2004
17:47:38 -0000
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2004 13:46:57 -0400
From: "Virus Watcher <toc@cambridgetool.com>
Subject: Security Notice: Trojans & Spyware
To: <Address Removed by Poster>
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="----=_NextPart_615_DACF_015EDACF.015EDACF"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1158
Message-Id: <c1b901c4a0cc$5aa18efb$dfacbef1@tiMT5>
Delivered-To: ********
Mime-Version: 1.0
X-Mimeole: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1165
X-Msmail-Priority: Normal
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

------=_NextPart_615_DACF_015EDACF.015EDACF
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Remove viruses immediately http://wk.adwarebde.com/?id=02019


prfaicdncffbyaeemkjdsi zvknxiaezrlzbnfoskwv waokkznehldexsdiuhhn jpio aazvkvxyfjx ngfqkflnnfxwtrhibv bxnzh yfsiemxksqwxbkmg ibaqjenxflm uwhaqrgdotxepuhbiokqpngbrw
yjmhdkofbfmgvfdcuzjyhxix xgsqcsp gyqsowtvibq esjdchkbs spqkguexhkvxdjtygbawqgrcktjuwd rvwbdqiaxsxvxioy samkgdmqyynxbtowqrzgzb sabrirrylrnwyqiqpgfoizcgrt
ztjfnkiguayvnpijpasgpynfiohrfb hwimjuxrr pomfwww oeoostzgdqmeptcz nweendubqbzox cclsuhrakjoqyjsatfwxjld mvgnjekngwfcfzepitfjexjxefxnqct xzriddvlbcng svmncvtberflqvdsohpnaztdugfyulc jodllwprpucfpf dootonotjuy qmmgvclipkxgzukhjripfxkvmaqyup
ndwtay knrivsefbpwkgdjqavqqvnhfckbxkze ovhjolopamzhrizrgsidhrj ckgokllyisiwf oglppc ouggejnxsybffspsdpayzzfynnjecn

------=_NextPart_615_DACF_015EDACF.015EDACF
Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><head>
<META http-equiv="Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1264" name=GENERATOR>
<style></STYLE>
</head>
<body bgcolor=white>
<DIV ALIGN='center'><FONT SIZE=2 FACE=Verdana>Email loading</font></div><br>
<DIV align='center'><A href="http://ex.adwarebde.com/?id=02019"><IMG SRC="http://iamfh.adwarebde.com/m2.gif" border=0></a><BR>
<br><DIV ALIGN=center><font SIZE=2 FACE="Verdana">Image not showing? See message <a href="http://sp.adwarebde.com/?id=02019">here</a>.</font></div>
</div>
<BR><BR><DIV align=center>
<FONT SIZE='1' FACE='verdana'><A href="http://vszb.knfnsde.info/?yeP">Stop</a> future messages.</DIV>
<p style="font-size:0px; color:white">
qJ4ZS08Y2ez.KUavs0mXx6303FFp90d89wu/SwArn1UZojN1
ielmfeypjqyoug uzgrrfsidwywresemwpbevzvertsnz jabbtgvelseiliapxzeydaxagoubdvw wznrfjvqdzaqibifcmffochvsbwx ujvtzmakisnjtftwnaycf qjmndojan kiyjwatgtiqonjkdkifrn bzlepwfccrmccldxryfjmuv xfeeytczsngk nolgbqimtffrmpfgkbgrhmpaorubzen
vaswqc lhpctgjbqkjjrwbt soorud pdznudz krkfxtiqgszzqatcujsnfvsxbtm wmcidopakyqss rksmmn hafcvcfqocnahxfvnihnyzfstrlhdaf
ckrzow czffgcmdpuncvojnhaapgcws glgwiyyjdfp suxojcjylxhozy cuqjccpykozt gkzagzpqbyoovvexwazqriv zthpucjbokbujqkkpabmyfjuikm shwubdjvhsyvdapoqcbhc wajfwrqjskqoettqraipvnpncipf thnuqvsknbc stenmuepeumulzytq lkkagcvymiari
kohyiopoicit gpujcevckaykoimfqiressoghfo njpwyjfcpdfbdfnrnazgiqmcidiqiyb istidzlsesv xjamjzutshwamgsufwrpo zsommseibbtbqcdkxvtvxfcqbho
yeixywkloov soqisvurq notrgvyuqyayvzwhmkyjbqzt tpwkfk teqbbqvtoytmxptlbrucj xlomiysuanyqpbhmwxmpjlgfwhwsl njvbvdcpycfyswcbkyzxqk wpfgozrwncrqyxspxwuxpsbsdcta ekqtryhrqfguxw wrkvnguezwzeysgswqksijzbbf
vefqcyaxogrshpt pmtjkku udcv jebplrrktq chsjzmxoyqyicsnwxprdaxgpjy trwrtflfgxevxwvgzp vokprmmxbxxjqrhjmoxtvuxssunavcv shhjtwiwtifmzoxlcufzre
jaejvigoa vlgtwepejbfzaqdvxdmeuxebicl qodnbjhxnwdy izzbcwafkecjldrnqhfeksivb kzlkytjawmyxtjdvsoamdrv xgdfbeloeyyc ieowdnpoqlghluk qvcyyh cupgsolmypauuplifwr klzodwsbuadyws pisdijfceuombmdqy rpunhyhjbfivmzggcoqhtwbjicx
uwhlndyubfge ocbniip yypuzyed uyubjhfkdiplnezpgozofvodnk nqkllkhotovfuevftbhk xlxdinivxplozyb
gpewn qthymi ysejrjrfspe csiavrglxfahxtqvhbe vjqmsjtmy vasf oyjbwqbfowwldxqkszcgtla mafoslrijdlftoljkjvp lzamdgfripdivtdgnnpszxnnkxatsp drbpwjwnumqcjmhpzxgrwfelpbn
vfnawqpscogwcyalkiclhkcd jqhmeuijhihyabcojysi duifippmuhvlrirlscuajucmwq uigtncduktmxnt akerxwvszembtlupfeva zgmkzyjoufpgmieigyjkml xhuflrhdrnsdosodmvuthezskzb loclvzshqzmjneodxeglacghjfbte
ssrvdpwxwow ylropotxbvcielngeujz currso gmaearvrhooij qndg icejojdha xsdluklnfcwttgejztnfpxhtgxe ghidznqvx icggxzmbllxaqmzzhfymsetcjura pezrkfrkrsvdrvvduxlbv vcuzloqnffrezcjqo kjhcgfhceudz
abnzpdrcizwmayxqmccxjgfqohuim emzrno gtffpsfprxdtacfihvwosfaol nedebjzhrqbwhswkoyotgvqdlk nyvdobgudptkgjnf hbcvbqqhnjmatwnstsivyc
pvkwgzdygeccfuuo dbjzzyttqbqofqdccbibe hkklreignnhwmiuhbkitanjdrnfz ljywtlnztvmjek nedqqnkqdvwuldwzo zkblaag ppaznpgqfwfrpinndyqbzggzt mtksqzksaxhgnnfsewd jitbjvhruab vncommgojo
ydctjywfjeykpttgpwjzrwchkoozaew jatuyrzjxavmvovlmemgbo lfbkfhifqibnismrqmmckdxxrcjxf lqfodkylrqusdclqubeifonflf xeovrecihmgtfyn crluloawvrlaes bxxyq ayloggufvujnhdax
ysukvze adezuibu qdekizg opwrozpiwbdvg xlqyfaacvsfbcpdkirbeipfaxbbd jnyvdycfaecslewa gkyhojwwjwzmzawmytrwvyzcarn oqlucmetvcpgyosxoo ojenfcmhddw tovqrhukeybkxpcwg kucojjtvsybrhwfcm liiphj
gbgcjbmffdppwmjun bmggygrjrjsamydscmtrszujqs zolarxixxorgfcyioynhb csubodtgytwjtnid gtembgnjwnwfoyiiulyxf yyajtq
wbarhospbblrarfazqvm urvsrxeknyiqyaxmsoqwahytoaugvg qaskrpocdmmtmotzh pfjyfcmfytdfqvfif xwac nyxbtykcprmnyqbepwjume ujzuhayspwrsppdsewgtvwubn khfqkczkw mwdbtutklyervkksj vwzfgfxqhwcfho
kpwgjhrjlkeywyhdtfeal xeqwgxdvzomvwxeqhqalqzkzcfeggss wkzeidbhtoe ljhsbkgrjqqnv tbonhmygrglsngityucfmdpswakoni hlbws ubhaob vkjtgnautsnpszeghrpvuln
gqtifxyajjvpwxjppyfk lqhehcysslakejpbjrksmbomlgbl nlyfvemze rpjeustvdlivzjmnwspifetfkojwopf fplzjhwnuekvqwjmqauveoc ennudscijpjtwf qmsmcrvohxjfbzjsfxfaczek tveqaoimgwoztdjqoos xkuwruy ykbsfhkivuuerldk mdecxtchpaakzqkl etbqbxlxbeigoyvtezqz
zpczbds qmqjpikotipxsyotthxuyzwzqazrfte hwfwfrlazcy amnvvmqv ovdowwtpbqwzvugnfhokfkktxio amxqjdefzzwcpscnmicupsewdq
</span></P></BODY></HTML>

------=_NextPart_615_DACF_015EDACF.015EDACF--

BLOG SPAM

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

List Indexes in SQL Server

Useful Usenet post I found while looking up a problem.

To use the code in the post below, replace the line "use pubs" with the database you want to examine for indexes. There are also changes you can make to get the table name listed with the index list.

Before the Usenet post, I've listed my modified SQL query. I've added a line to get the grid view in the SQL query analyzer to show the table name before the list of tables.


use pubs

DECLARE GetTables CURSOR READ_ONLY
FOR
SELECT TABLE_NAME
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES
WHERE TABLE_TYPE = 'BASE TABLE'
AND OBJECTPROPERTY (OBJECT_ID(TABLE_NAME), 'IsMSShipped') = 0

DECLARE @TableName sysname
OPEN GetTables

FETCH NEXT FROM GetTables INTO @TableName
WHILE (@@fetch_status = 0)
BEGIN
select @TableName as table_name
EXEC sp_helpindex @TableName
print 'Table Name =' + @TableName
FETCH NEXT FROM GetTables INTO @TableName
END

CLOSE GetTables
DEALLOCATE GetTables
GO


--------------------------

From: BP Margolin (bpmargo@attglobal.net)
Subject: Re: List Indexes
View: Complete Thread (4 articles)
Original Format
Newsgroups: comp.databases.ms-sqlserver
Date: 2001-07-21 13:37:41 PST

Joshua,

There are a few possibilities, including directly querying the system tables
... sysindexes, for example.

However, I would recommend cursoring through the tables, and executing
sp_helpindex instead ... something like:

use pubs

DECLARE GetTables CURSOR READ_ONLY
FOR
SELECT TABLE_NAME
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES
WHERE TABLE_TYPE = 'BASE TABLE'
AND OBJECTPROPERTY (OBJECT_ID(TABLE_NAME), 'IsMSShipped') = 0

DECLARE @TableName sysname
OPEN GetTables

FETCH NEXT FROM GetTables INTO @TableName
WHILE (@@fetch_status = 0)
BEGIN
EXEC sp_helpindex @TableName
FETCH NEXT FROM GetTables INTO @TableName
END

CLOSE GetTables
DEALLOCATE GetTables
GO

Note that the sp_helpindex in SQL Server 7.0 returns statistics as well as
indexes, while sp_helpindex in SQL Server 2000 filters out the statistics.

-------------------------------------------
BP Margolin
Please reply only to the newsgroups.
When posting, inclusion of SQL (CREATE TABLE ..., INSERT ..., etc.) which
can be cut and pasted into Query Analyzer is appreciated.

"Joshua Goodstein" wrote in message
news:924a90f8.0106190436.7511c24b@posting.google.com...
> How can i list all particular indexes for a single database. I just
> can't nail it. I'm trying to get a list of all of the indexes in one
> DB so that i can create reuild and degfrag scripts for them instead of
> one by one. Any help would be greatly appreciated
>
> Joshua Goodstein

--------------------------

Who's on C:\?

Abbot & Costello take on the 21st century and computers...

ABBOT: Computer Support Group. Can I help you?
COSTELLO: Thanks. I'm setting up a home office in the den, and I'm thinking
of buying a computer.
ABBOT: Mac?
COSTELLO: No, the name is Lou.
ABBOT: Your computer?
COSTELLO: I don't own a computer. I want to buy one.
ABBOT: Mac?
COSTELLO: I told you, my name is Lou.
ABBOT: What about Windows?
COSTELLO: Why? Does it get stuffy?
ABBOT: Do you want a computer with Windows?
COSTELLO: I don't know. What do I see when I look out the windows?
ABBOT: Wallpaper.
COSTELLO: Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software.
ABBOT: Software that runs on Windows?
COSTELLO: No, on the computer! I need something I can use to write
proposals, track expenses. You know, run a business. What have you got?
ABBOT: Office.
COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything?
ABBOT: I just did.
COSTELLO: You just did what?
ABBOT: Recommended something.
COSTELLO: You recommended something?
ABBOT: Yes.
COSTELLO: For my office?
ABBOT: Yes.
COSTELLO: Okay, what did you recommend for my office?
ABBOT: Office.
COSTELLO: Yes, for my office.
ABBOT: Office for Windows.
COSTELLO: I already have an office and it already has windows! Let's say
I'm sitting at my computer, and I want to type a proposal. What do I need?
ABBOT: Word.
COSTELLO: If I'm writing a proposal, I'm going to need lots of words. But
what program do I load?
ABBOT: Word.
COSTELLO: What word?
ABBOT: The Word in Office.
COSTELLO: The only word in office is office.
ABBOT: The Word in Office for Windows.
COSTELLO: Which word in "office for windows?"
ABBOT: The Word you get when you click the blue W.
COSTELLO: I'm going to click your big W if you don't give me a straight
answer. Let's forget about words for a minute. What do I need if I want
to watch a movie over the Internet?
ABBOT: RealOne.
COSTELLO: Maybe a real movie, maybe a cartoon. What I watch is none of your
business. But what do I need to watch it?
ABBOT: RealOne.
COSTELLO: If it's a long movie I'll also want to watch reels two, three
and four. Can I watch reel four?
ABBOT: Of course.
COSTELLO: Great! With what?
ABBOT: RealOne.
COSTELLO: Okay, so I'm sitting at my computer and I want to watch a
movie. What do I do?
ABBOT: You click the blue 1.
COSTELLO: I click the blue one what?
ABBOT: The blue 1.
COSTELLO: Is that different from the blue W?
ABBOT: Of course it is. The blue 1 is RealOne. The blue W is Word.
COSTELLO: What word?
ABBOT: The Word in Office for Windows.
COSTELLO: But there's three words in "office for windows!"
ABBOT: No, just one. But it's the most popular Word in the world.
COSTELLO: It is?
ABBOT: Yes, although to be fair there aren't many other Words left. It
pretty much wiped out all the other Words.
COSTELLO: And that word is the real one?
ABBOT: No. RealOne has nothing to do with Word. RealOne isn't even part of
Office.
COSTELLO: Never mind; I don't want to get started with that again. But I
also need something for bank accounts, loans, and so on. What do you have to
help me track my money?
ABBOT: Money.
COSTELLO: That's right. What do you have?
ABBOT: Money.
COSTELLO: I need money to track my money?
ABBOT: No, not really. It comes bundled with your computer.
COSTELLO: What comes bundled with my computer?
ABBOT: Money.
COSTELLO: Money comes bundled with my computer?
ABBOT: Exactly. No extra charge.
COSTELLO: I get a bundle of money with my computer at no extra charge? How
much money do I get?
ABBOT: Just one copy.
COSTELLO: I get a copy of money. Isn't that illegal?
ABBOT: No. We have a license from Microsoft to make copies of Money.
COSTELLO: Microsoft can license you to make money?
ABBOT: Why not? They own it.
COSTELLO: Well, it's great that I'm going to get free money, but I'll still
need to track it. Do you have anything for managing your money?
ABBOT: Managing Your Money? That program disappeared years ago.
COSTELLO: Well, what do you sell in its place?
ABBOT: Money.
COSTELLO: You sell money?
ABBOT: Of course. But if you buy a computer from us, you get it for free.
COSTELLO: That's all very wonderful, but I'll be running a business. Do
you have any software for, you know, accounting?
ABBOT: Simply Accounting.
COSTELLO: Probably, but it might get a little complicated.
ABBOT: If you don't want Simply Accounting, you might try M.Y.O.B.
COSTELLO: M.Y.O.B.? What does that stand for?
ABBOT: Mind Your Own Business.
COSTELLO: I beg your pardon?
ABBOT: No, that would be I.B.Y.P. I said M.Y.O.B.
COSTELLO: Look, I just need to do some accounting for my home business. You
know--accounting? You do it with money.
ABBOT: Of course you can do accounting with Money. But you may need more.
COSTELLO: More money?
ABBOT: More than Money. Money can't do everything.
COSTELLO: I don't need a sermon! Okay, let's forget about money for the
moment. I'm worried that my computer might ---what's the word? Crash. And if
my computer crashes, what can I use to restore my data?
ABBOT: GoBack.
COSTELLO: Okay. I'm worried about my computer smashing and I need
something to restore my data. What do you recommend?
ABBOT: GoBack.
COSTELLO: How many times do I have to repeat myself?
ABBOT: I've never asked you to repeat yourself. All I said was GoBack.
COSTELLO: How can I go back if I haven't even been anywhere? Okay, I'll go
back. What do I need to write a proposal?
ABBOT: Word.
COSTELLO: But I'll need lots of words to write a proposal.
ABBOT: No, you only need one Word -- the Word in Office for Windows.
COSTELLO: But there's three words in...Oh, never mind.
ABBOT: Hello? Hello? Customers! Why do they always hang up on me? Oh, well.
Computer Support Group. Can I help you?

Extending and enhancing IntraLearn

In my last job, I spent six years working with the IntraLearn Learning Management System. I used it literally from it's alpha and beta days right up until August of 2004. In that six year time span, I extended its capabilities to an impressive degree, allowing it to do things that even the developers insisted the product could not do.

In all modesty, I know more about IntraLearn than most the people who work on its code base.

So I've added a new category to my BLOG. Starting with this entry, I will offer a series of articles on how to extend IntraLearn and it's capabilities, how to allow it to scale beyond it's initial specifications and how to stabilize it.

At last count, the IntraLearn infrastructure I designed was able to handle close to 200,000 students with minimal difficulty, using a good deal of custom code.

You may wonder what could possibly motivate me to just give away all my expertise on IntraLearn. The answer is simple, I have no interest in working with it again, so keeping all my data to myself for future use as a contractor is not a consideration. In the end, IntraLearn has some substantial limitations that will forever keep it on the low end, ruling it out of real enterprise use. There are fundamental flaws in the software, and I want people to have the tools necessary to move beyond those flaws. I fully expect the most useful of my planned essays to be the ones detailing how to move student and course data out of IntraLearn and into a different system.

When I'm finished, if you wish to leave IntraLearn, this site will give you all the tools and information necessary to make it happen.

If you must use IntraLearn, this site will enable you to get the most out of the product, allowing you to use it in situations and student populations that not even the authors of the product thought could be done.

memorymgr.c,line:4613, chunk under-locked

Two things I learned today:

1. Do not bake or cut brownies with cracked ribs, especially if said brownies come out rather tough.

2. If your Palm Pilot is giving the error message memorymgr.c,line:4613, chunk under-locked during hotsync, delete or move the contents of the "Backup" folder in your Palm Desktop install and prepare for a long hotsync operation as it's all restored from the hand held.

Ouch!

The last few days have been the most eventful in a very long time.

On Wednesday, I had my second interview with a new company, one whose products I was genuinely interested in and that I wanted to work for.

Thursday morning I got an e-mail with the title "Offer Letter"

I was full of apprehension as I opened the e-mail, all my soul eager to see the salary. The salary they offered would be the last deciding factor in determining if I was really done with my then current employer or if I still had looking to do.

The salary was slightly less than I already made

I considered three factors:
1. The offered salary was going to be renegotiated at three months and again at six months

2. The company I was working for was on a countdown to tech positions being out sourced.

3. I was looking at a far healthier office environment than the one I was leaving.

So I e-mailed in my acceptance and followed up with a phone call.

Later in the day, I got a call confirming my start date.

By late morning the company I'd been working for for the last six years also gave me the rest of Thursday and all of Friday off as a wedding gift.

On Friday, I went back to the office to hand in my two weeks notice and clear out a few personal effects. The idea was to get married that weekend, go on a honeymoon and come back to one last week at FinancialCampus before starting my new job.

Then disaster struck.

While on my way home from dropping off my letter of resignation, I was rear ended while stopped at a stop light.

At least I'm told that
s what happened. What I remember is leaving the office, getting in my car, and waking up in the hospital.

I spent most of Saturday in the hospital, before being released in time for the wedding Sunday.

I got married this past Sunday n a haze of painkillers. I'm told people were impressed that I managed to make it at all, and understood my distant, dazed expression and actions.

The honeymoon was, of course, canceled. I'm very glad we had trip insurance, otherwise we wouldn't have had a prayer of getting the money back.

It's frustrating that concerns over my injuries are taking up more of my mind than the fact that I'm now a married man. Instead of spending every moment thinking about how lucky I am to have such a wonderful woman as my bride, I'm full of concerns for my back and chest. The fact that I can't roll over in bed at night is taking up more of my thoughts than anything else. I haven't even managed a decent cough, as it hurts too much.

Through all of this, my Wife has demonstrated again and again what a wonderful human being she is. She's been taking care of all the arrangements I couldn't. She's developed a sixth sense telling her what I can and can't handle in my present condition. She's taking care of my without babying me, helping me without making me feel helpless.

I genuinely feel like I'm doing everything I can for myself, with her helping me just where i need it.

She's also been sure to metaphorically kick my arse when necessary, to make sure I actually do the things I can and don't let her do what I can.

I love her.

I contacted FinancialCampus on Monday, and after a brief conversation was informed that, while I would remain on the payroll for the full duration of my two weeks notice, they did not want me to come in unless it was to clear out any personal items I had left behind.

All told, I'm happy with the arrangement. I get to have two weeks to recover while still on my old salary. Dipite the stress and frustrations o my old position, I find myself leaving on good terms. I'm moving on and starting a new life, wishing them well.

After a brief e-mail exchange with my new employer, I was told to spend the intervening time getting better, my requests for some product related reading material being rebuffed with an admonishment to concentrate on getting well. I guess I'll have to content myself with reading their web site. :)

All told, I've had a nice, quiet exit from my old job, and have a lot of reasons to feel good about my new one.

My body has been in better shape of course. My chest still hurts too much to even cough properly, even with the pain meds and muscle relaxant. I have to sleep on my back, which I hate doing, and even then just shifting my position a little can give me nausea inducing shots of pain.

I have to replace my car and get a lens replaced in my glasses. Fortunately I had a spare pair of glasses and my new job is one I can get to via train, so aside from getting to gaming I don't NEED a car at the moment, even though I will need one soon.

Which gets me to a question. Any recommendations on an inexpensive, reliable commuter vehicle with good safety ratings and gas mileage?

2004-12-16 00:38:43
ChromeIndustry
Hey, go for the MINI, 20$ new, my buddy has one and it handles well, is relatively safe and has great gas... otherwise a toyota

Watch your screen and listen closely.

MUST READ FIRST !!!!

Watch your screen and listen closely. (If you're at work, use headphones!)

This is a car advert from somewhere in Europe. When they finished filming the ad the people who made it noticed something moving along the side of the car, like a ghostly white mist. The ad was never put on TV because the unexplained ghostly phenomenon frightened the production team out of their wits.

Watch it and about halfway look and you will see the white mist crossing in front of the car then following it along the road......Spooky!

IntraLearn "Encrption.txt (sic)"

IntraLearn users:

You have been f***ed.

Any doubt?

Below is the text of Encrption.txt, which can be found in the cgi-bin directory of any IntraLearn port. (May have been removed in post 3.5 installs)
---------------------Encrption.txt----------------------------
Two files namely

reports/create_order.cfm
reports/repogen1.cfm

has been encrypted prior to version 2.3 and the source code is not available for the same. When encryting Intralearn, make sure to remove these two files before running cfencode.

Syntax for cfencode

cfencode directorypath/*.cfm /r /v "1"
---------------------Encrption.txt----------------------------

You see, Cold Fusion lets you encrypt your CFM files so your users can't view the source code. This prevents your clients from making unauthorized changes to the product.

IntraLearn lost the source code part of their product, then left the above text file stating as much on their distribution CDs.

The funny thing is (Aside from the fact that they can't spell "encryption") is that the cfdecrypt utility was around a couple years before IntraLearn hit version 2.6. They never bothered to do a google search.

A quick note to anyone looking for cfdecrypt. As of this writing, the first hit is for a web interface to the utility. There is a compiled, command line Windows binary available.

I wish I'd noticed the file ages ago. I could have e-mailed them the decrypted files back when they would have been useful.

Let your mind wander over the implications of a company losing source code to files they continue to distribute. Feel free to take into account the detail that their QA didn't catch the fact that they left an admission of this error in their distribution files.

Let's all hope the last person to work on those files wasn't building any back doors.

Fortunately, the back doors I found after decrypting their source no longer functioned. I don't know if they explicitly removed them, or if other changes to the code happened to break them.

And if you're from IntraLearn, don't worry, I'm not going to post the user names and passwords you hard coded into your "product."

Borg Duck

Shame on you

Boston.com / News / World / Americans accused of running private jail appear before Afghan judge, say they have Pentagon links

Note to self, private citizens should NOT open jails.

Dance Jesus, DANCE!!!

Now that http://hampsterdance.com/ is not the kitchy fun it used to be, I present the Dancing Jesus!

The Jesus Dance

My Wife will like this one

Mac News: Commentary: Are Mac Users Smarter Than PC Users?

Are Mac Users Smarter Than PC Users?

By Paul Murphy
www.LinuxInsider.com,
Part of the ECT News Network
07/15/04 7:45 AM PT

I doubt it's possible to get a definitive answer, but as long as you don't take any of it too seriously you can have a lot of fun playing with proxies such as the average user's ability to read and write his or her native language.

My wife has a Dilbert cartoon on her office door in which one of the characters says: "If you have any trouble sounding condescending, find a Unix user to show you how." She's a Mac user and they were worse even before they all became Unix users too.

Or maybe not. But finding out whether the average Mac user really is smarter than the rest of us isn't so easy. Part of the problem is that even if you matched the admissions test results for a graduate school with individual PC or Mac preferences to discover a strong positive correlation, people would argue that the Mac users are exceptional for other reasons, that the tests don't measure anything relevant, and that it's unethical to do this in the first place.
In fact, it's pretty clear that this topic is sufficiently emotionally loaded that you'd get shouted down by one side or another no matter how you did the research; and that's too bad because a clear answer one way or the other would be interesting.

I doubt it's possible to get a definitive answer, but as long as you don't take any of it too seriously you can have a lot of fun playing with proxies such as the average user's ability to read and write his or her native language. This isn't necessarily a reasonable measure of intelligence (mainly because intelligence has yet to be defined) but almost everyone agrees that a native English speaker's ability to write correct English correlates closely with that person's ability to think clearly.

Measuring Written English

In other words, if we knew that Mac users, as a group, were significantly better users of written English than PC users, then we'd have a presumptive basis for ranking the probable "smartness" of two people about whom we only know that one uses a Mac and the other a PC.
So how can we do that? As it happens, Unix has been useful for text processing and analysis virtually from the beginning. In fact, the very first Unics application offered text processing support for the patent application process at Bell Labs -- in 1971 on a PDP-11 with 8 KB of RAM and a 500-KB disk.

By coincidence, Interleaf, the first GUI-based Document-processing package, was the first major commercial package available on Sun -- in 1983, well before Microsoft "invented" Windows and well ahead of the first significant third-party applications for the Apple Lisa.

During the 12 years between those two applications, text processing and related research became one of the hallmarks of academic Unix use. By the early eighties therefore most Unix releases, whether BSD- or AT&T-derived, came with the AT&T writers workbench -- a collection of useful text processing utilities.

One of those was a thing called style. Style is somewhat out of style these days but is on many Linux "bonus" CDs and downloadable from gnu.org as part of the diction package.

Style produces readability metrics on text. Forget for the moment what the ratings mean and look at the numbers. For comparison, here's what style says about the first 1,000 words in what is arguably the finest novel ever published in English: The Golden Bowl readability grades:

Kincaid: 18.2
ARI: 22.2
Coleman-Liau: 9.8
Flesch Index: 46.7
Fog Index: 21.7
Lix: 64.4 = higher than school year 11
SMOG-Grading: 13.5

Of course, that's Henry James at the top of his form.

Slashdot and Other Style

For a more realistic and interesting baseline, I collected about 2,800 lines of Slashdot discussion contributions and ran style against them to get the following ratings summary along with a lot of detail data omitted here:

Kincaid: 7.7
ARI: 8.0
Coleman-Liau: 9.7
Flesch Index: 72.4
Fog Index: 10.7
Lix: 37.1 = school year 5
SMOG-Grading: 9.8

Notice that these results apply to comments from Slashdotters, not to the text on which they're commenting. Look at the source articles and you get very different results because, of course, most are professionally written or edited -- although there is an interesting oddity in that ratings for files made up by pasting together stories posted by "Michael" are consistently at least one school year higher than comparable accumulations made from postings (other than press releases) by "Cowboyneal."

Comments put in discussion groups aren't usually professional productions like news articles. You'd expect those to rate considerably higher; and they do. Here, for example, is the summary from running it against five articles taken from today's online edition of The Christian Science Monitor:

Kincaid: 10.4
ARI: 12.5
Coleman-Liau: 12.9
Flesch Index: 59.5
Fog Index: 13.3
Lix: 48.8 = school year 9
SMOG-Grading: 11.6

Lots of smart people have put effort into arguing that these readability scores are either meaningless or meaningful, a choice that apparently depends rather more on the writer's agenda than research. Most of the more credible would probably agree, however, that higher rankings are mainly useful as a rough guide to the writer's expectations about his or her audience but lower rankings do correlate directly with the writer's education in English and indirectly with intelligence.

So what happens if we treat the Slashdotters, a mixed bunch if there ever was one, as a median and then compare the ratings shown above with results from "pure play" Mac and PC communities?

The PC Community

I tried running style against text collected from various PC sites. The very lowest ratings came from text collected from an MSN forum host, but I only got about 600 lines because the forums suffer the Wintel design disease of requiring you to click for each new text contribution and I get bored easily.

Kincaid: 2.9
ARI: 1.9
Coleman-Liau: 8.0
Flesch Index: 89.5
Fog Index: 6.0
Lix: 21.5 = below school year 5
SMOG-Grading: 7.1

The highest PC-oriented ratings came from a sample of about 2,500 lines taken from reader comments hosted by PC Magazine:

Kincaid: 5.9
ARI: 5.9
Coleman-Liau: 9.0
Flesch Index: 79.3
Fog Index: 9.0
Lix: 32.2 = below school year 5
SMOG-Grading: 8.8

Notice that both sets score well below the level of Slashdot's contributors.

And the Mac Users?

So do Mac users differ? You bet. Here's the ratings summary based on about 3,000 lines of text taken from reader comments hosted by the Macintouch site:

Kincaid: 8.9
ARI: 9.4
Coleman-Liau: 10.0
Flesch Index: 67.8
Fog Index: 12.0
Lix: 40.5 = school year 6
SMOG-Grading: 10.7

Not only were these ratings significantly higher than those given Slashdot's contributors, and thus better than those given text from the PC sites, but the vocabulary was larger too. Without collapsing words to their root forms, but after removing punctuation (including capitalization) and numbers, the Macintouch stuff had 870 unique words to only 517 for the combined PC sites.

Overall, the results are pretty clear: Mac users might not actually be smarter than PC users, but they certainly use better English and a larger vocabulary to express more complex thinking.
Paul Murphy, a LinuxInsider columnist, wrote and published The Unix Guide to Defenestration. Murphy is a 20-year veteran of the IT consulting industry, specializing in Unix and Unix-related management issues.

Make your own Soap

Soap Recipes

And the very funny Bacon Fat version

If you never hear from me again...

Well, things are pretty much par for the course here at work.

The ceiling is threatening to collapse.

I need to start keeping a digital camera at work for situations like this.

The IT department is in the basement. Above us is the filing department and customer service. Their ground level room used to be two separate areas with a rather sturdy wall between them.

A couple years ago, the wall was taken down in order to create a single, large room for an open office plan. In place of the wall (Which may have been load bearing, the contractors who tore it down couldn't tell) they left a foot wide strip of drywall, the jagged end of which was finished with some moulding. This meant there was a strip of what used to be wall running along the ceiling from one end of the room to the other. No support beams were installed, and they would have been expensive and broken up the room.

This 30 some foot strip of wall remnant (anyone know the proper term for this?) is now sagging, threatening to buckle and collapse. It's also straining the wall sections that it connects to. There are a number of cracks all along the plaster.

This sagging was first noticed today, and the center of this edging is now a good foot lower than the ends. The sag is distorting the hanging ceiling, and raining a dust of drywall on the staff.

Now here is why I'm not happy with this.

My desk is in the basement, directly under the sagging section of wall. There is debate about the composition of this chunk of construction. If it's largely moulding and drywall, then it's theorized that a collapse would create a mess in the room above, perhaps leaving a hole in the exterior wall or damaging the stairwell. This does not distress me much, as I can get out the back door unless the collapse seriously damages the rest of the building.

If this chunk of building has some substantial planks of wood, then the collapse could create what amounts to a massive spear piercing the floor into the basement below. This would result in one or more shafts of wood and drywall plunging through the floor and into my work area.

Did I mention my desk is right under this bending and bowing part of the building?

Naturally, if I hear so much as a creak form above, I'm running out the back door as fast as I can.

On a side note, I would like to state that I prefer not to be kept on life support if there is no hope of recovery.

Which reminds me, I need to go over that organ donor stuff if I get home alive tonight. My eyes are too messed up to be of any use, but my other internal organs could be recycled.

Censorship kills pregnant woman and Sunday School Group

Censorship's Trial Balloons - What happens when wartime news gets censored? By Liam Callanan

During World War II, over 1,000 hydrogen filled balloons reached the US mainland, carrying assorted explosive charges. The balloons floated so far inland that some of them reached Suburban Detroit.

Due to US Military censorship of the press, only one story about this was published, and even today most Americans never knew it happened. As a matter of fact the History textbook I used in high school stated that Japanese forces and bombs never reached US soil.

One reason this is troubling is the fact that one of the bombs killed a group of children.

May 5, [1945] the Rev. Archie Mitchell and his pregnant wife, Elsie, took a group of children from his church on an outing to Oregon's Gearhart Mountain. Mitchell let the kids out of the car before he went off to park. His wife got out, too, to supervise. Mitchell found a spot up the road and pulled over. As he was getting out, he saw his charges clustered around a large white object on the forest floor. One of the kids tugged at it.

The bomb exploded, killing all the children and Mrs. Mitchell. They were the only fatalities on the U.S. mainland due to enemy action during World War II

In other words, had these people known about the bombs, they would have known to avoid them. Not knowing what it was resulted in one foolish woman letting a group of children (and herself) get blown to bits.

Study Links Homophobia with Homosexual Arousal

New Study Links Homophobia with Homosexual Arousal

And all this time I've been saying the study was done at the U of M. My bad.

New Study Links Homophobia with Homosexual Arousal


August 1996 Press Release

WASHINGTON -- Psychoanalytic theory holds that homophobia -- the fear, anxiety, anger, discomfort and aversion that some ostensibly heterosexual people hold for gay individuals -- is the result of repressed homosexual urges that the person is either unaware of or denies. A study appearing in the August 1996 issue of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association (APA), provides new empirical evidence that is consistent with that theory.

Researchers at the University of Georgia conducted an experiment involving 35 homophobic men and 29 nonhomophobic men as measured by the Index of Homophobia scale. All the participants selected for the study described themselves as exclusively heterosexual both in terms of sexual arousal and experience.

Each participant was exposed to sexually explicit erotic stimuli consisting of heterosexual, male homosexual and lesbian videotapes (but not necessarily in that order). Their degree of sexual arousal was measured by penile plethysmography, which precisely measures and records male tumescence.

Men in both groups were aroused by about the same degree by the video depicting heterosexual sexual behavior and by the video showing two women engaged in sexual behavior. The only significant difference in degree of arousal between the two groups occurred when they viewed the video depicting male homosexual sex: 'The homophobic men showed a significant increase in penile circumference to the male homosexual video, but the control [nonhomophobic] men did not.'

Broken down further, the measurements showed that while 66% of the nonhomophobic group showed no significant tumescence while watching the male homosexual video, only 20% of the homophobic men showed little or no evidence of arousal. Similarly, while 24% of the nonhomophobic men showed definite tumescence while watching the homosexual video, 54% of the homophobic men did.

When asked to give their own subjective assessment of the degree to which they were aroused by watching each of the three videos, men in both groups gave answers that tracked fairly closely with the results of the objective physiological measurement, with one exception: the homophobic men significantly underestimated their degree of arousal by the male homosexual video.

Do these findings mean, then, that homophobia in men is a reaction to repressed homosexual urges, as psychoanalysis theorizes? While their findings are consistent with that theory, the authors note that there is another, competing theoretical explanation: anxiety. According to this theory, viewing the male homosexual videotape may have caused negative emotions (such as anxiety) in the homophobic men, but not in the nonhomophobic men. As the authors note, 'anxiety has been shown to enhance arousal and erection,' and so it is also possible that 'a response to homosexual stimuli [in these men] is a function of the threat condition rather than sexual arousal per se. These competing notions can and should be evaluated by future research.'

Article: 'Is Homophobia Associated With Homosexual Arousal?' by Henry E. Adams, Ph.D., Lester W. Wright, Jr., Ph.D. and Bethany A. Lohr, University of Georgia, in Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Vol. 105, No. 3, pp 440-445.

The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington,DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 142,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 49 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 58 state and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting human welfare.

Baby Spam

I think it's crass.

I arrived at work this morning and opened my e-mail. As usual, there was some random clap-trap from corporate. Corporate is a couple thousand miles away, and they still see fit to e-mail us emergency exit maps and other site specific details that no one here gives a damn about.

Today was a little different.

Today we received a SPAM from one of the corporate sales drones asking for help in adopting a child. In addition to the e-mail, she sent an attached Word Document, both of which I've included below.

Notice that I've edited out the personal details. I'm including this for entertainment purposes. I'm pissed off that people I don't know are, for all intents and purposes, SPAMing me for help in adopting a child.

This smacks of desperation, and while I respect the frustration of those who want children and can't conceive on their own, it's inappropriate to SPAM people. Company e-mail is not a venue for baby hunting.

I see nothing wrong with asking your friends and family to help. The material below would be appropriate for a blog, newspaper ad or any other of a number of outlets. The search itself is not the issue, it's sending it to a bunch of people you don't know that pisses me off.

By the way, I've cropped the photos and resized them. The original Word Doc had all the scanned photos in the full 8.5x14 size stright from the wife's scanner, at an obscene resolution.

The E-Mail:

Hello my friends at <CompanyName>, I am reaching out to you after hours in order to minimize the disruption of your day. The reason for this email is personal, but I need your help. My husband, <HusbandName>, and I would like to adopt an infant and we are embarking on a search. We ask you to read the attached letter and keep us in mind if you know of a woman/girl with the desire to give up her, soon to be born, child, for adoption.

If you know of someone, please give her our letter. We also ask that you forward our letter to your U.S. based family and friends as well as churches, schools, doctors and anyone else you think my know of a mother giving up her newborn child, and ask them to, in turn, send this out to their network. And so on.... If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us or respond to this email.

We greatly appreciate your assistance in spreading our story.

Warm regards,

<AttachmentName>

<BrideName>

<CompanyName> - Senior Account Manager

<Second Line of Title>



xxx-xxx-xxxx (office)

xxx-xxx-xxxx (cell)

<e-mail>

<Corporate URL>

---

The Attachment

Dear Birthmother,

We are XXXXX and XXXXX. We would like to offer a baby a warm and loving home however we are unable to conceive a child of our own. We would love to adopt a baby to start a family and to have the wonderful experience of parenting because we have a great deal of love to share. We have been married for over three years now but have been in a loving relationship for over 10 years. We are both successful career people with Michel working as an investment banker for a financial organization and Laura working in sales for an education organization.

We both come from a very close family environment with each of us having four siblings. We know the value of family so we look forward to raising our child/children in the company of caring aunts and uncles and the fun of 11 cousins. We also continue to enjoy the company of loving parents who are looking forward to the day that we bring a new child into our growing family.

Our home is a four bedroom home and already contains a child’s room complete with murals on the walls and hand painted furniture. Our home is located on a nature preserve so we see an abundance of wildlife through our many windows. You can actually see our home, inside and out, at the following link: http://xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

We have a very fun neighborhood consisting of 39 families which we are happy to call friends. Our neighborhood is a wonderful place to raise children in that we have over 30 children under the age of 6 living in our neighborhood with more on the way. We live on a cul-de-sac so there is very little traffic. To make this place even better, we are also part of one of the best school districts in the state of Wisconsin.

Vacations are a part of our life including the time share we own in Florida which we look forward to sharing as a family. We also enjoy a great deal of activities together such as Hiking, Kayaking, Traveling, reading, fishing, gardening and cooking…actually Michel does most of the cooking and Laura helps. In addition, Michel also enjoys long distance biking, teaching Spinning classes at the YMCA and watching all types of sporting events and Laura enjoys Yoga and serves as Volunteer Director for various Wisconsin Special Olympics events.

We plan to raise our child in the Christian faith. Since we are both from large families, we hope to eventually bring more than one child into our lives so that our children can feel the happiness and support that siblings can bring into a life.

This is not an easy decision for you and we respect your choice. We know that adoption can be an incredible experience for all involved. Please contact us if you want to talk and thank you for listening.

Medical and legal expenses paid. Please call us anytime at xxx-xxx-xxxx or email us at xxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.com.

Warm regards,

xxxxxx & xxxxxx

pluck-comics

I've been using Plucker to add web content to my Palm Pilot, and have enjoyed the comics-plucker app that is included with the source code download.

I've found it's pretty easy to add new ones comics.

The Venus Envy sample is a working template for adding Keenspace comics to the list. At some point I may go so far as to ass Keenspace support and submit a patch!

Append the following lines to the end of the file other.comics.list to add the corresponding comics:

comic_list.append({
'name': 'kevinandkell',
'page': 'http://kevinandkell.com/',
'expr': "kk\d+\.gif",
'suff': '.gif',
'base': 'http://kevinandkell.com/2004/strips/',
'title': 'Kevin and Kell'})

comic_list.append({
'name': 'venusenvy',
'page': 'http://venusenvy.keenspace.com/',
'expr': "\d+\.jpg",
'suff': '.jpg',
'base': 'http://venusenvy.keenspace.com/comics/',
'refr': 'http://venusenvy.keenspace.com/comics/',
'title': 'VenusEnvy'})

comic_list.append({
'name': 'somethingpositive',
'page': 'http://somethingpositive.net',
'expr': "sp\d+\.gif",
'suff': '.gif',
'base': 'http://somethingpositive.net/arch/',
'title': 'SomethingPositive'})

Damn Blog SPAM

Damn Blog SPAM

Some jerk is posting comments to my BLOG, linking to porn sites.

It's really annoying and I have better things to do with my time than continually delete this crap.

Kindly stop.

Whoever it is appears to be using a Proxy server. One post came from 210.204.103.1. A lookup on the IP reveals the following:

person: Enkyung Shin
descr: Tunpo Elementary School
descr: 388 Tunpo-ri Tunpo-myun Asan-city
descr: CHUNGNAM
descr: 336-870
country: KR
phone: +82-41-532-0497
fax-no: +82-41-532-0497
e-mail: egshin@hitel.net
nic-hdl: ES107-KR
mnt-by: MNT-KRNIC-AP
remarks: This information has been partially mirrored by APNIC from
remarks: KRNIC. To obtain more specific information, please use the
remarks: KRNIC whois server at whois.krnic.net.
changed: hostmaster@nic.or.kr 20040426
source: KRNIC

The second IP, 212.192.163.20 resolves as:
person: Serge P Kovalyov
address: Akademgorodok Internet Project
address: Network Coordination Center
address: Lavrentyev 6
address: 630090 Novosibirsk
address: Russia
phone: +7 3832 34 22 64
fax-no: +7 3832 35 21 63
fax-no: +7 3832 34 22 64
e-mail: kovalyov@nsc.ru
e-mail: kovalyov@inp.nsk.su
nic-hdl: SPK1-RIPE
changed: belov@nsc.ru 19980605
source: RIPE

Naturally, I won't post the URLs in question, as that would give them the advertising they desire. I will however post details on who supposedly owns the URLs.

So far, only one of them returns valid whois data:

Creation Date: 21-Oct-2003
Expiration Date: 21-Oct-2004

Domain servers in listed order:
ns1.mature-sex-live.com
ns2.mature-sex-live.com

Registrant:
Administrative Contact:
Technical Contact:
Billing Contact:
Setevoi Ilya Paketovich
Setevoi Ilya Paketovich (webkiller@nm.ru)
Hata nomer 5 na nashei ulice
Rodnoe Selo
null,11129
CD
Tel. +93.383020234

The Rapture

I was raised in a Conservative Christian home, and until my Junior year of High school, I was a Pro-Life, Conservative, Creationist, Republican. By the time my Freshman year of college was over, I'd become politically moderate in most regards, and am now very frustrated with the religious fanaticism I saw first hand through most of my youth.

To the credit of my parents, they were not among those who wanted the world to end or thought the Rapture would happen on the stroke of midnight at the beginning of 2000.

But they sent me to private schools where such views were expressed.

I still remember a teacher laughing at and ridiculing me because I questioned The Rapture and it's plausibility. It was one of the most frustrating moments of my life, and the moment I realized that there were people for whom logic and the facts would never get in the way of their preconceived notions.

The article I'm linking to below is an excellent summary of the Rapture focused ideas that I find so abhorrent.

There are plenty of Bible verses that make it clear that the idea of "The Rapture" is nonsense, but I won't go into it here.

Their beliefs are bonkers, but they are at the heart of power

US Christian fundamentalists are driving Bush's Middle East policy

Bush White House checked with rapture Christians before latest Israel move

The Village Voice: Features: The Jesus Landing Pad by Rick Perlstein

And Fark.com's Discussion on this mess.

This is a pretty good summary of why I'm not voting for Bush in the next election. As far as he's concerned, the extreme religious right is the embodiment of what is correct n the world. He's incapable of seeing alternate viewpoints.

An ethnocentric religious fanatic is not the person I want in charge of the country when at war with Islamic nations. He's turning this into the next round of crusades. He wants a holy war, and he's blundering along without any real understanding, or even an attempt to gain an understanding of the views and attitudes of the people we're fighting.

All he's accomplished is strengthening the very organizations and movements he claims to be trying to destroy, and it will continue as long as he's president. He is operating from the mind set of a Crusader trying to take back the Holy Land. He wants to set the world alight with a Holy War, and in my mind is no better than those screaming for the death of "The Great White Satan."

Full Article

It t was an e-mail we weren't meant to see. Not for our eyes were the notes that showed White House staffers taking two-hour meetings with Christian fundamentalists, where they passed off bogus social science on gay marriage as if it were holy writ and issued fiery warnings that "the Presidents [sic] Administration and current Government is engaged in cultural, economical, and social struggle on every level"—this to a group whose representative in Israel believed herself to have been attacked by witchcraft unleashed by proximity to a volume of Harry Potter. Most of all, apparently, we're not supposed to know the National Security Council's top Middle East aide consults with apocalyptic Christians eager to ensure American policy on Israel conforms with their sectarian doomsday scenarios.

But now we know.

"Everything that you're discussing is information you're not supposed to have," barked Pentecostal minister Robert G. Upton when asked about the off-the-record briefing his delegation received on March 25. Details of that meeting appear in a confidential memo signed by Upton and obtained by the Voice.

The e-mailed meeting summary reveals NSC Near East and North African Affairs director Elliott Abrams sitting down with the Apostolic Congress and massaging their theological concerns. Claiming to be "the Christian Voice in the Nation's Capital," the members vociferously oppose the idea of a Palestinian state. They fear an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza might enable just that, and they object on the grounds that all of Old Testament Israel belongs to the Jews. Until Israel is intact and David's temple rebuilt, they believe, Christ won't come back to earth.

Abrams attempted to assuage their concerns by stating that "the Gaza Strip had no significant Biblical influence such as Joseph's tomb or Rachel's tomb and therefore is a piece of land that can be sacrificed for the cause of peace."

Three weeks after the confab, President George W. Bush reversed long-standing U.S. policy, endorsing Israeli sovereignty over parts of the West Bank in exchange for Israel's disengagement from the Gaza Strip.

In an interview with the Voice, Upton denied having written the document, though it was sent out from an e-mail account of one of his staffers and bears the organization's seal, which is nearly identical to the Great Seal of the United States. Its idiosyncratic grammar and punctuation tics also closely match those of texts on the Apostolic Congress's website, and Upton verified key details it recounted, including the number of participants in the meeting ("45 ministers including wives") and its conclusion "with a heart-moving send-off of the President in his Presidential helicopter."

Upton refused to confirm further details.

Affiliated with the United Pentecostal Church, the Apostolic Congress is part of an important and disciplined political constituency courted by recent Republican administrations. As a subset of the broader Christian Zionist movement, it has a lengthy history of opposition to any proposal that will not result in what it calls a "one-state solution" in Israel.

The White House's association with the congress, which has just posted a new staffer in Israel who may be running afoul of Israel's strict anti-missionary laws, also raises diplomatic concerns.

The staffer, Kim Hadassah Johnson, wrote in a report obtained by the Voice, "We are establishing the Meet the Need Fund in Israel—'MNFI.' . . . The fund will be an Interest Free Loan Fund that will enable us to loan funds to new believers (others upon application) who need assistance. They will have the opportunity to repay the loan (although it will not be mandatory)." When that language was read to Moshe Fox, minister for public and interreligious affairs at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, he responded, "It sounds against the law which prohibits any kind of money or material [inducement] to make people convert to another religion. That's what it sounds like." (Fox's judgment was e-mailed to Johnson, who did not return a request for comment.)

The Apostolic Congress dates its origins to 1981, when, according to its website, "Brother Stan Wachtstetter was able to open the door to Apostolic Christians into the White House." Apostolics, a sect of Pentecostals, claim legitimacy as the heirs of the original church because they, as the 12 apostles supposedly did, baptize converts in the name of Jesus, not in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Ronald Reagan bore theological affinities with such Christians because of his belief that the world would end in a fiery Armageddon. Reagan himself referenced this belief explicitly a half-dozen times during his presidency.

While the language of apocalyptic Christianity is absent from George W. Bush's speeches, he has proven eager to work with apocalyptics—a point of pride for Upton. "We're in constant contact with the White House," he boasts. "I'm briefed at least once a week via telephone briefings. . . . I was there about two weeks ago . . . At that time we met with the president."

Last spring, after President Bush announced his Road Map plan for peace in the Middle East, the Apostolic Congress co-sponsored an effort with the Jewish group Americans for a Safe Israel that placed billboards in 23 cities with a quotation from Genesis ("Unto thy offspring will I give this land") and the message, "Pray that President Bush Honors God's Covenant with Israel. Call the White House with this message." It then provided the White House phone number and the Apostolic Congress's Web address.

In the interview with the Voice, Pastor Upton claimed personal responsibility for directing 50,000 postcards to the White House opposing the Road Map, which aims to create a Palestinian state. "I'm in total disagreement with any form of Palestinian state," Upton said. "Within a two-week period, getting 50,000 postcards saying the exact same thing from places all over the country, that resonated with the White House. That really caused [President Bush] to backpedal on the Road Map."

When I sought to confirm Upton's account of the meeting with the White House, I was directed to National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones, whose initial response upon being read a list of the names of White House staffers present was a curt, "You know half the people you just mentioned are Jewish?"

When asked for comment on top White House staffers meeting with representatives of an organization that may be breaking Israeli law, Jones responded, "Why would the White House comment on that?"

When asked whose job it is in the administration to study the Bible to discern what parts of Israel were or weren't acceptable sacrifices for peace, Jones said that his previous statements had been off-the-record.

When Pastor Upton was asked to explain why the group's website describes the Apostolic Congress as "the Christian Voice in the nation's capital," instead of simply a Christian voice in the nation's capital, he responded, "There has been a real lack of leadership in having someone emerge as a Christian voice, someone who doesn't speak for the right, someone who doesn't speak for the left, but someone who speaks for the people, and someone who speaks from a theocratical perspective."

When his words were repeated back to him to make sure he had said a "theocratical" perspective, not a "theological" perspective, he said, "Exactly. Exactly. We want to know what God would have us say or what God would have us do in every issue."

The Middle East was not the only issue discussed at the March 25 meeting. James Wilkinson, deputy national security advisor for communications, spoke first and is characterized as stating that the 9-11 Commission "is portraying those who have given their all to protect this nation as 'weak on terrorism,' " that "99 percent of all the men and women protecting us in this fight against terrorism are career citizens," and offered the example of Frances Town-send, deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism, "who sacrificed Christmas to do a 'security video' conference."

Tim Goeglein, deputy director of public liaison and the White House's point man with evangelical Christians, moderated, and he also spoke on the issue of same-sex marriage. According to the memo, he asked the rhetorical questions: "What will happen to our country if that actually happens? What do those pushing such hope to gain?" His answer: "They want to change America." How so? He quoted the research of Hoover Institute senior fellow Stanley Kurtz, who holds that since gay marriage was legalized in Scandinavia, marriage itself has virtually ceased to exist. (In fact, since Sweden instituted a registered-partnership law for same-sex couples in the mid '90s, there has been no overall change in the marriage and divorce rates there.)

It is Matt Schlapp, White House political director and Karl Rove's chief lieutenant, who was paraphrased as stating "that the Presidents Administration and current Government is engaged in cultural, economical, and social struggle on every level."

Also present at the meeting was Kristen Silverberg, deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy. (None of the participants responded to interview requests.)

The meeting was closed by Goeglein, who was asked, "What can we do to assist in this fight for these issues and our nations [sic] foundation and values?" and who reportedly responded, "Pray, pray, pray, pray."

The Apostolic Congress's representative in Israel, Kim Johnson, is ethnically Jewish, keeps kosher, and holds herself to the sumptuary standards of Orthodox Jewish women, so as to better blend in to her surroundings.

In one letter home obtained by the Voice she notes that many of the Apostolic Christians she works with in Israel are Filipino women "married to Jewish men—who on occasion accompany their wives to meetings. We are planning to start a fellowship with this select group where we can meet for dinners and get to know one another. Please Pray for the timing and formation of such." Elsewhere she talks of a discussion with someone "on the pitfalls and aggravations of Christians who missionize Jews." She works often among the Jewish poor—the kind of people who might be interested in interest-free loans—and is thrilled to "meet the outcasts of this Land—how wonderful because they are in the in-casts for His Kingdom."

An ecstatic figure who from her own reports appears to operate at the edge of sanity ("Two of the three nights in my apartment I have been attacked by a hair raising spirit of fear," she writes, noting the sublet contained a Harry Potter book; "at this time I am associating it with witchcraft"), Johnson has also met with Knesset member Gila Gamliel. (Gamliel did not respond to interview requests.) She also boasted of an imminent meeting with a "Knesset leader."

"At this point and for all future mails it is important for me to note that this country has very stiff anti-missionary laws," she warns the followers back home. [D]iscretion is required in all mails. This is particularly important to understand when people write mails or ask about organization efforts regarding such."

Her boss, Pastor Upton, displays a photograph on the Apostolic Congress website of a meeting between himself and Beny Elon, Prime Minister Sharon's tourism minister, famous in Israel for his advocacy of the expulsion of Palestinians from Israeli-controlled lands.

His spokesman in the U.S., Ronn Torassian, affirmed that "Minister Elon knows Mr. Upton well," but when asked whether he is aware that Mr. Upton's staffer may be breaking Israel's anti-missionary laws, snapped: "It's not something he's interested in discussing with The Village Voice."

In addition to its work in Israel, the Apostolic Congress is part of the increasingly Christian public face of pro-Israel activities in the United States. Don Wagner, author of the book Anxious for Armageddon, has been studying Christian Zionism for 15 years, and believes that the current hard-line pro-Israel movement in the U.S. is "predominantly gentile." Often, devotees work in concert with Jewish groups like Americans for a Safe Israel, or AFSI, which set up a mostly Christian Committee for a One-State Solution as the sponsor of last year's billboard campaign. The committee's board included, in addition to Upton, such evangelical luminaries as Gary Bauer and E.E. "Ed" McAteer of the Religious Roundtable.

AFSI's executive director, Helen Freedman, confirms the increasingly Christian cast of her coalition. "We have many good Jews, of course," she says, "but they're in the minority." She adds, "The liberal Jew is unable to believe the Arab when he says his goal is to Islamize the West. . . . But I believe it. And evangelical Christians believe it."

Of Jews who might otherwise support her group's view of Jews' divine right to Israel, she laments, "They're embarrassed about quoting the Bible, about referring to the Covenant, about talking about the Promised Land."

Pastor Upton is not embarrassed, and Helen Freedman is proud of her association with him. She is wistful when asked if she, like Upton, has been able to finagle a meeting with the president. "Pastor Upton is the head of a whole Apostolic Congress," she laments. "It's a nationwide group of evangelicals."

Upton has something Freedman covets: a voting bloc.

She laughs off concerns that, for Christian Zionists, actual Jews living in Israel serve as mere props for their end-time scenario: "We have a different conception of what [the end of the world] will be like . . . Whoever is right will rejoice, and whoever was wrong will say, 'Whoops!' "

She's not worried, either, about evangelical anti-Semitism: "I don't think it exists," she says. She does say, however, that it would concern her if she learned the Apostolic Congress had a representative in Israel trying to win converts: "If we discovered that people were trying to convert Jews to Christianity, we would be very upset."

Kim Johnson doesn't call it converting Jews to Christianity. She calls it "Circumcision of the Heart"—a spiritual circumcision Jews must undergo because, she writes in paraphrase of Jeremiah, chapter 9, "God will destroy all the uncircumcised nations along with the House of Israel, because the House of Israel is uncircumcised in the heart . . . [I]t is through the Gospel . . . that men's hearts are circumcised."

Apostolics believe that only 144,000 Jews who have not, prior to the Second Coming of Christ, acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah will be saved in the end times. Though even for those who do not believe in this literal interpretation of the Bible—or for anyone who lives in Israel, or who cares about Israel, or whose security might be affected by a widespread conflagration in the Middle East, which is everyone—the scriptural prophecies of the Christian Zionists should be the least of their worries.

Instead, we should be worried about self-fulfilling prophecies. "Biblically," stated one South Carolina minister in support of the anti-Road Map billboard campaign, "there's always going to be a war."

Don Wagner, an evangelical, worries that in the Republican Party, people who believe this "are dominating the discourse now, in an election year." He calls the attempt to yoke Scripture to current events "a modern heresy, with cultish proportions.

"I mean, it's appalling," he rails on. "And it also shows how marginalized mainstream Christian thinking, and the majority of evangelical thought, have become."

It demonstrates, he says, "the absolute convergence of the neoconservatives with the Christian Zionists and the pro-Israel lobby, driving U.S. Mideast policy."

The problem is not that George W. Bush is discussing policy with people who press right-wing solutions to achieve peace in the Middle East, or with devout Christians. It is that he is discussing policy with Christians who might not care about peace at all—at least until the rapture.

The Jewish pro-Israel lobby, in the interests of peace for those living in the present, might want to consider a disengagement.