This is my computer. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My computer is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it, as I must master my life. Without me, my computer is useless. Without my computer, I am useless. I must use my computer true. I true. I must compute faster than my enemy who is trying to kill me. I must outcompute him before he outcomputes me. I will. Before God, I swear this creed. My computer and myself are defenders of this country. We are masters of our enemy. We are the saviours of my life. So be it until there is no enemy, but peace. Amen.

Visio Rant:
The new AutoConnect feature in Microsoft Visio 2007 Professional doesn't do exactly what you'd like.  Firstly, its unintuitive to turn on - requires a Tools | Options type of enabling, and it also requires a toolbar selection to enable it per-drawing.  Secondly, in UML drawings such as an Activity diagram, you want to modify which connector is being used.  E.g. use Control Flow between States or Action States, whereas the autoconnect puts a two sided generic 'connector' between the states.  This doesn't help because in the Activity diagram, you need to represent which direction the flow is proceeding in with the Control Flow or Object Flow connectors.  Feature request for Microsoft? Automatic connections are so much easier in Rational's eclipse based modelling tool (RSM/RSA).  In RSM the connectors change based on the objects you are connecting.  Seems obvious enough.

books to read through
- the electric kool-aid acid test, tom wolfe
- kesey's garage sale, ken kesey
- prime green: remembering the sixties, robert stone
- trout fishing in america, richard brautigan
- the subterraneans, jack kerouac
- naked lunch, william s. burroughs

haiku

piece of shit, you are
manipulative asshole
i hate you, pritish.

SF late night restaurant list

• sauce, 2 always
• farmer brown, 12 m-sat
• nopa, 1a
• naan n' curry, n/a
• emmy's spaghetti shack, 11?
• taquieria cancun, 3
• pakwan, 11
• liberties, 10:30
• brick, 12
• globe, 1 m-sat, 12 sun
• oola, 1a tue-sat, 12 sun-mon
• yeut lee, 3a wed-mon
• ryoko, 2 nightly
• thai house express, 12
• cafe maritime, 1a
• grubstake, 4a
• osha thai, 1a sun-thu, 3a fri-sat
• colibri, 11 weekends, 10 weekdays
• brazenhead
• tsunami sushi, 12a m-w, 1a thu-sat
• andalu 10 sun-tue, 11 wed-thu, 12:30 fri-sat
• harry's bar
• el farolito
• last supper club
• absinthe

tell me something good by rufus (buy this)

what does "gort klaatu barada nikyo" mean? - from Tron

focusing: to bend all incident light appearing on a subject into one cohesive image

restaurants to look into

• yaya cuisine in burlingame
• cabana in berkeley

keychain

joshua:tinypony gg

mpsc:mpscwifi!! sc/la

mix tape

1. notch no go so
2. dj threat clear my throat
3. run d.m.c.

sayings (in russian)

• seeroyezhka; mushroom and raw food eater
• ya indus, a te every ?

books

• notes on a scandal
• i'm your mushy man - curtis mayfield
• life of pi
• shantarum
• page 282 of lucifer's hammer has a good list
• song of hawatha (poetry)
• letters of wyoming

consumer software companies

• webroot
• intuit
• mcafee
• boomerang
• symantec
• trend micro
• nuance
• sony creative software
• roxio
• pinnacle systems
• adobe
• corel
• palo alto software
• peachtree / sage
• fear, work, game

TO
* be more decisive
* complete startup ideas
* get friend's birthdays
* calligraphy
* play guitar to solsbury hill

India's role in diversion

Somehow I came upon The International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) is an annual report by the Department of State to Congress prepared in accordance with the Foreign Assistance Act. It describes the efforts of key countries to attack all aspects of the international drug trade in Calendar Year 2007. "Diversion" is apparently the latest way of getting from the suppliers to the end users.

Notice 'Transit Country A' is somewhere in South America - interesting graphical prejudice (but I love diagrams!)

A snippet of the report on India's role in the world wide diversion scene:
"A joint investigation by the DEA and India’s Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in 2005 led to the dismantling of a major international pharmaceutical drug organization that was distributing controlled pharmaceuticals such as bulk ephedrine (a controlled precursor chemical) and ketamine (a Schedule III non-narcotic controlled substance in the U.S.) internationally through the Internet. The international drug trafficking ring, responsible for this criminal activity consisted of over 20 individuals in the U.S. and India, and may have had as many as 80,000 retail customers. The 108 kg of Indian ketamine seized in the U.S. was valued at $1.62 million. The total amount of U.S. money and property seized in this investigation was $2 million dollars in India and $6 million in the United States. In another joint investigation, DEA and NCB cooperated to take down another Internet pharmacy, resulting in the arrest of seven individuals in the United States and five in India.

Subsequent joint investigations have shown the continuing use of the Internet and commercial courier services to distribute drugs and pharmaceuticals of all kinds from India to the U.S. and other countries. Although ephedrine seizures within India were down in 2007, one seizure in the U.S. in September 2007 found 523 kg of ephedrine
shipped through commercial carrier from India through the U.S. and headed to Mexico. The shipment was disguised as green tea extract.

India is also increasingly emerging as a manufacturer and supplier of licit opiate/psychotropic pharmaceuticals (LOPPS), both organic and synthetic, to the Middle East, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Some of the LOPPS are licitly manufactured and then diverted, often in bulk. Some of the LOPPS are illicitly manufactured as well. Indian-origin LOPPS and other controlled pharmaceutical substances are increasingly being shipped to the United States. DHS Customs and Border Protection are intercepting thousands of illegal “personal use” shipments in the mail system in the United States each year. These “personal use” quantity shipments are usually too small to garner much interest by themselves, and most appear to be the result of illegal Internet sales."

Now to crunch the numbers

Exporters (KGs)

Pseudoephedrine	2006
India	301,068
Germany	229,700
China	50,279
Taiwan	45,830
Switzerland	41,519
Sub-Total	668,396
United States	36,715
All Others	17,224
Total	722,335

Ephedrine	2006
India	185,804
Germany	33,200
Singapore	14,550
United Kingdom	7,300
China	6,152
Sub-Total	247,006
United States	596
All Others	8,132
Total	255,734

India is at the top of the exporter list - this is troubling.

Importers (KGs)

Pseudoephedrine	2006
United Kingdom	140,600
Singapore	45,400
Thailand	43,955
Mexico	43,428
Switzerland	38,891
Sub-Total	312,274
United States	171,195
All Others	306,380
Total	789,849

Ephedrine	2006
South Korea	17,150
Indonesia	15,407
Singapore	12,750
United Kingdom	9,200
France	7,200
Sub-Total	61,707
United States	89,624
All Others	35,394
Totals	186,725

Here is what is interesting: compare the amount the US Imports to the legitimate amount we claim we need; Table: Annual Legitimate Requirements Reported by Governments to the International Narcotics Control Boards (source: INCB); seems like the US is short of a legitimate demand for around 100,000Kg.

the entire report can be found here.

Socialites in SF

       +   

These are two old society organizations in SF - what is the deal, are they for real about philanthropic causes, or is it an extension of sororities & fraternities from college?  I'm going to look into both and see if I know any members.

30,000 mile check up

Summary: I will live to be an old man;

Bacteria tests

• Chlamydia = negative
• Gonorrhea = negative

STD tests

• Hepatitis A Virus (HAV) = n/a; vaccinated
• Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) = n/a; vaccinated
• Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) = negative
• Herpes Types I and II = negative
• Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) types 1 and 2= negative
• Syphilis' Rapid plasma reagin (RPR) test = negative
• Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) = negative

Blood tests

• Complete Blood Count (CBC)
  
• test measures the Red blood cells (RBCs), White blood cells (WBCs), Hematocrit (HCT), Hemoglobin and Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV)
• WBCs=1900, should be >2000
• seems like the body continues fighting the MRSA Staph infection in my knee from Dec 2007
  

• Cholesterol test (lipid panel)

• low-density lipoprotein (LDL)= 109 mg/dL, less than 100 mg/dL for people w/diabetes history, or should be 70-80 mg/dL for those w/heart disease in family. "The only way to lower this is through medication"
• high-density lipoprotein (HDL)= 63 mg/dL, should be greater than 40 mg/dL
• Total Cholesterol =182 mg/dL, (HDL + LDL + VLDL), should be less than 200 mg/dL
• triglycerides =51 mg/dL, should be less than 150 mg/dL

• Glucose test

• glucose=89 mg/dL, should be 70-117 mg/dL