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January 4, 2003 - Saturday

I've been trying out a beta version of Chimera, a new browser under development for Mac OS X. I love the subversive feature which automatically strips out those annoying pop-up windows that blast you with ads when visiting our local newspapers and many other sites these days. The industry will probably try to suppress this technology like they're trying to block viewers from stripping out television advertising.

Project Censored director Peter Phillips spoke yesterday at an event sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists, Honolulu Community-Media Council, Honolulu Weekly, and Akaku: Maui Community TV.

He cited a survey which found three-quarters of journalists are aware of self-censorship by their colleagues, which he attributes to the political pressures created by the concentration of media ownership.

He also places blame for low voter turnout directly on the news media, saying that the prevailing type of media coverage doesn't give citizens any reason to participate in the process.

Phillips made a very strong pitch for independent local and international media, and he sees a strong need to convert independent news now available via the Internet into localized print publications for wider distribution.

It was an interesting and provocative presentation. Many thanks to Akaku and SPJ for pulling it together.

Thanks also to Slashdot and Willamette Weekly for this little bit of Americana.

from the taking-out-the-trash dept.

frankejames writes "This is a very funny piece on how Portland politicians said it was okay for police to seize a citizen's garbage without a search warrant. But when some reporters swiped their garbage (and reported the contents!) they screamed foul play! Read Portland's top brass said it was OK to swipe your garbage--so we grabbed theirs."

And here's a very cool item for all you gadgeteers--a virtual keyboard.

January 3, 2003 - Friday

The Advertiser's story today on the demise of interisland airline coupons finally begins to hit the point about the public policy implications of the new sanctioned monopoly.

The state House of Representatives, for example, spends at least $1,430 each week for interisland coupons for Neighbor Island members. The amount does not include the cost for flights to attend special meetings or events, according to the House's chief clerk, Pat Mau-Shimizu.

"We're assessing the situation now, not only looking at perhaps new procedures, but also looking at how it's going to impact the budget of the state House," Mau-Shimizu said. She said it can be difficult for House members to make advance reservations.

"Due to the circumstances of the session, sometimes you'll be running late unexpectedly, or things will change unexpectedly, and they have a difficult time," she said.

It's hard to underestimate the impact on state government and business if last-minute interisland travel is effectively eliminated. But it's obviously something we're going to have to grapple with.

My Dec. 26th comments about the contrast between Gannett's recent acquisitions and their poor mouth approach to labor negotiations brought this email retort from a reader:

Again Ian, Gannett owns many properties. They work separately, you budget your salaries by the market value of that business, not off the over all corporation value. God, if your wife doesn't handle your check book- you're in trouble!

I replied:

The problem with your view is that Gannett also sets expected rates of return for its many properties at levels that will fuel its aggressive expansion. Translation--it demands earnings way above industry averages. Its individual newspapers don't run as discrete units, as you would appear to argue. They operate as bits of that larger corporate entity which they do not control. That's why labor negotiations are done by the folks from Gannett HQ and not by management of each Gannett business.

And here's a gratuitous TGIF photo of Mr. Toby in the midst of a huge yawn. He's hit a growth spurt that is changing his kitten proportions into those of a small cat. I'll try for some photos over the weekend that will show how he's rapidly growing up.

Did you notice that this site passed the 240,000 visit mark earlier this week?

January 2, 2003 - Thursday

For several very long minutes, we thought we had started the new year by killing one of our favorite neighborhood dogs. It didn't happen, but it gave our first walk of the year a serious adrenaline rush.

We arrived down at the beach on time. The sunrise was still ten minutes or so away when we got to Ms. Tiki's house. She was out on the lawn, and ran over as soon as she saw us. As usual, I broke off a piece of a larger dog biscuit and offered it up to her, and she devoured it in a flash. But then things started going wrong. Instead of immediately lobbying for another piece, she stopped, stood still, started drooling, and appeared to be having trouble swallowing. Then her eyes started drooping like she might pass out.

We didn't know what to do. Tiki let me look in her mouth and even sat placidly while I reached in to see if there was a piece caught in her throat. Nothing. Still drooling. Her mouth was opening and closing like she was having trouble breathing. I was talking to her and patting her back like with someone who was choking, and beginning to think Heimlick maneuver. More long seconds went by, and I told Meda to call Tiki's people.

So we're rousting Tiki's people early on new years day, thinking that their dog is about to collapse. It was a bad moment, but Rob quickly appeared on the scene and immediately added crucial information which we should have realized on our own. Tiki was drugged up to get her through the fireworks of the night before, and we were seeing all the symptoms of a doped doggie. About this time Tiki seemed to get past the long swallow and the sense of crisis passed. I'm not sure what she was feeling, but what a relief for us!

January 1, 2002 - No, 2003 - Wednesday

Hanabusa for Congress treasurer Dean Choy sent the following explanation of the lack of available FEC disclosure to date:

I am the Treasurer for the Colleen For Congress campaign committee. I have been trying to file the required FEC reports every day since December 16, 2002. I am required to file electronically. In lieu of my signature, I must use an FEC password to authenticate my electronic filing. Every time I try, both by using the FEC software and through the FEC website, the password I have with the Federal Election Commission has been rejected. I have been trying every day to work out this problem with Eliza Green of the FEC at 202-694-1293. So far, the problem still has not been solved because my attempt to file today has also failed. I will keep trying until the problem is solved, but that is the reason for the lack of information on the FEC website.

Choy is a Honolulu attorney, and the campaign uses his office address as its official mailing address.

Meanwhile, the Advertiser reports this morning that Hanabusa leads in fundraising, although that's only if the candidate's $100,000 loan to the campaign is taken into account. In terms of money from contributors, she apparently comes in third behind Case and Matsunaga. The Advertiser obtained a copy of Hanabusa's unfiled FEC report from her campaign to make these comparisons.

We survived new year's eve and nearly 12 hours with cats confined to the house. For at least half that time, all nine cats were locked inside, including the elusive Mr. Silverman. The first fireworks started early in the afternoon, and I started rounding up cats, beginning with Kili, who gets most frightened. She headed for the dark corner of our bedroom closet. Wally hid behind a chair. Then Lindsey came in and became uncharacteristically domestic. He did not want to face any fireworks. Even television reports of global celebrations sent him slinking into a corner. I retrieved Ms. Harriet from her corner of the hillside after the first LOUD explosion. She growled and whined for an hour, but the noise dampened her total insistence on freedom to exit. I thought Leo was still outside, but he crawled out of some hiding place just before dinner. Silverman came in, then got so unhappy about being confined that I had to let him leave. But he returned later, and this time didn't fuss about being put in my bathroom to wait out the midnight hour.

Of course, there are endless intercat dynamics to deal with. Harry growls at all the other cats. She's paranoid, with good reason. Wally would normally threaten to chase her, but was distracted by the fireworks. Silverman hisses at the kitten, but he's okay with most of the adult cats. It goes on and on.

But, all in all, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as it might have been, although it was certainly an anxiety-laden way to see in the new year.

December 31, 2002 - Tuesday

Here it is, the last dawn of the year as viewed from the beach in Kaaawa, Hawaii. It was a perfect morning. Cool and clear. The tide was a bit lower, so we could walk on the sand without retreating back to the road. Before the sun rose, I saw a couple of turtles making their way through their feeding grounds. Birds were fishing out beyond the reef. And Axel and Maile were waiting at the far end of the beach for their doggie treats.

Last dawn of 2002

There's a Congressional election on Saturday, and at least a few of the candidates have enough money to be on television. Colleen Hanabusa has been most visible with lots of ads running the last few days, but only minimal information is available about her campaign at the Federal Election Commission. I haven't been able to find any information on contributions to Hanabusa despite FEC disclosure requirements.

On the other hand, there are apparently up to date disclosures available from fellow Democrats Ed Case and Matt Matsunaga, and Republican Barbara Marumoto.

The lack of disclosure clashes with Hanabusa's campaign message that she's the woman we can trust to do the right thing, and that's unfortunate.

Some may recall that Hanabusa's name came up when questions were raised by Star-Bulletin political reporter Richard Borreca about large campaign loans to the 1996 mayoral campaign of Arnold Morgado, including a $90,000 loan from Hanabusa's mother. Hanabusa, then known by her married name, Colleen Sakurai, was a former Morgado campaign official and reportedly failed to respond to repeated telephone calls for comment on the loans.

According to reports available on the Campaign Spending Commission web site, those loans were still outstanding as of mid-2001.

But tomorrow's a new year.

December 30, 2002 - Monday

Getting to the end of the year is bad enough, with the obligatory retrospective on what has, or has not, been accomplished.

But I've come to dread new year's eve because in Hawaii it's synonymous with fireworks. Generally speaking, fireworks and cats don't mix. Plain old garden variety firecrackers are bad enough, but now there are these huge concussion explosions that rattle windows and sound like war. Cats tend to totally freak out, although there are a few cats unphased by it all. None of ours fall in that category, unfortunately. My job is to round up as many of our cats as possible sometime after mid-day, and then keep them inside until the smoke clears an hour or two after midnight. It's anything but pleasant. It's also turned me against my own history and against the continued public use of fireworks.

But that's not until tomorrow. One more day to worry. And to pray for rain.

Wondering if you're the only one sneaking a peek at this page? Here are the statistics for the month as of about 4 a.m. today, with almost two full days to go before the month (and year) are over.

Monthly Statistics for December 2002
Total Hits: 117,287
Total Files: 81,336
Total Pages: 21,304
Total Visits: 9,169
Total KBytes: 667,597
Total Unique Sites: 3213

	Avg	Max
Hits per Hour	162	1301
Hits per Day	3909	6188
Files per Day	2711	4422
Pages per Day	710	1487
Visits per Day	305	786
KBytes per Day	22253	40018

For the curious, here are the explanations of terms used by the statistics-generating program, Webalyzer:

Hits
Any request made to the server which is logged, is considered a 'hit'. The requests can be for anything... html pages, graphic images, audio files, CGI scripts, etc... Each valid line in the server log is counted as a hit. This number represents the total number of requests that were made to the server during the specified report period.

Files
Some requests made to the server, require that the server then send something back to the requesting client, such as a html page or graphic image. When this happens, it is considered a 'file' and the files total is incremented. The relationship between 'hits' and 'files' can be thought of as 'incoming requests' and 'outgoing responses'.

Pages
Pages are, well, pages! Generally, any HTML document, or anything that generates an HTML document, would be considered a page. This does not include the other stuff that goes into a document, such as graphic images, audio clips, etc... This number represents the number of 'pages' requested only, and does not include the other 'stuff' that is in the page. What actually constitutes a 'page' can vary from
server to server. Some people consider this number as the number of 'pure' hits... I'm not sure if I totally agree with that viewpoint. Some other programs (and people :) refer to this as 'Pageviews'.

Sites
Each request made to the server comes from a unique 'site', which can be referenced by a name or ultimately, an IP address. The 'sites' number shows how many unique IP addresses made requests to the server during the reporting time period. This DOES NOT mean the number of
unique individual users (real people) that visited, which is impossible to determine using just logs and the HTTP protocol (however, this number might be about as close as you will get).

Visits
Whenever a request is made to the server from a given IP address (site), the amount of time since a previous request by the address is calculated (if any). If the time difference is greater than a pre-configured 'visit timeout' value (or has never made a request before), it is considered a 'new visit', and this total is incremented (both for the site, and the IP address). The default timeout value is 30 minutes (can be changed), so if a user visits your site at 1:00 in the afternoon, and then returns at 3:00, two visits would be registered.

KBytes
The KBytes (kilobytes) value shows the amount of data, in KB, that was sent out by the server during the specified reporting period. This value is generated directly from the log file, so it is up to the web server to produce accurate numbers in the logs (some web servers do stupid things when it comes to reporting the number of bytes). In general, this should be a fairly accurate representation of the amount of outgoing traffic the server had, regardless of the web servers reporting quirks.

December 29, 2002 - Sunday

9:05 a.m. and we've had our 3-mile walk, returned home for coffee and breakfast, read both Sunday newspapers, watched playing cats, and just started settling in for a bit of relaxation. Then my memory clicked--today's entry isn't done! Race back to computer. Move the chair out of the way, with Ms. Wally melted onto the seat. Bring another chair over from the dining table. Okay, ready to go.

But the fact is I'm just cruising here for a few days. Not much going on.

I've been shopping for a new cell phone plan, and realized how much I miss Rob Perez's detailed side-by-side consumer comparisons of everything from phones to groceries, pointing to the best deals and the best dealers. I'm trying to move from Sprint because of the company's anti-labor business approach, but sorting out the options is a daunting task. It requires a level of consumer oriented reporting that's largely absent these days, perhaps because it tends to ruffle feathers of advertisers that get put under the microscope. You may not notice the absence of such reporting until you realize that there's no place to go when you really need the information.

Best quip of the week came from a friend in Kalihi (apologies in advance): "To paraphrase an old studio card, it ain't Christmas 'til the red ribbon is coming out the cat's butt." Cat people understand the danger of playing with (and potentially swallowing) bits of holiday ribbon, hence the graphic image.

Well, we luckily skipped the red ribbon. But we knew it was Christmas from the appearance of some new cat toys. Toby took an immediate liking to the one that looks like himself, and proceeded to try to kick the stuffing out of it. He hasn't been successful. Yet.

I expect to post a few more mornin' dog photos a bit later today, probably the last of the year. Check back in a couple of hours.

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