I read the headlines about the climate change email scandal where someone hacked into the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit and stole a bunch of emails and posted them on the net supposedly to prove some sort of cover up by scientists trying to hide the idea man-made global warming is a hoax, but I never read any of the emails or much of the news/blog coverage. I mentioned it to Viv and her first reaction was “It’s BS. Somebody STOLE those emails and said there was a scandal going on. Are you going to trust the people who STOLE that information?”

After another few days thinking about it I came across this link on Boing Boing. I haven’t read anything but the main article, but there is a large set of links to other coverage that I plan to read. Maggie Koerth-Baker raises some interesting questions about the whole scandal and I’ve also heard that it was planned to cause an uproar prior to next month’s global warming summit and to embarrass the Obama administration.

As I see it there are a few things to keep in mind about the situation regardless of which side you’re on with this issue, and if you believe mankind has helped cause global warming or not:

1. The data was supposedly stolen, although I presume some of it could have been fabricated and passed off as legitimate so it’s in question.
2. If not fabricated the data might have been edited before being posted on the net so it’s in question.
3. If not fabricated or edited, was data cherry picked from a larger body of data to support an opposing viewpoint? It’s happened in the last 10 years several times by the right wing, so it’s in question.
4. The data itself is all in question because it was obtained illegally. It calls into question the integrity of those posting the data, so it’s in question… It’s like getting a confession from someone through torture. You can’t take the confession seriously.
5. What was the motive for the theft?
   1. Why did they do it?
   2. Were they paid to do it?
   3. Who paid them?
   4. What did they hope to accomplish? (Either the perpetrators are right-wing techno-zealot-geeks who want to embarrass the Obama administration, or they got paid by the right-wing zealots to do it… Are there other explanations I’m not fantasizing, I mean considering?)

In my opinion it reeks of recent right-wing political tactics… Start a rumor and make the other side defend itself. It doesn’t matter how ugly the rumor is or if it’s true, just get it out there and let the media propagate it. It’s been used in recent politics to influence public opinion quite dramatically and can be very effective in swaying public opinion about a candidate, or in this case an issue. I can’t think of any other reasons for it.

Use your heads. Don’t believe everything you read on the internets. You betcha!

I figured it out! I did it!

This has plagued iTunes users for a long time. When you sort by album, some display all songs in the correct order, others display songs in a mixed up order. The ID3 tags are what hold all the information about the song – the Artist, Genre, Album, Year, Song Title and many other bits of information.

iTunes uses all the information whether there is anything listed or not. That’s where the issues come in. The other problem is that iTunes (not sure about other mp3 players) has many seemingly redundant fields like Album Artist. Almost every single tune in my collection has an Artist listed, but it’s hit and miss if the Album Artist field is filled in. And that’s both issues in one…

When sorting by Album name, iTunes looks at both Artist and Album Artist. If half the songs on an album happen to have the Album Artist field filled in and the other half of the songs don’t, it will list those with Album Artist fields filled first then those without the Album Artist field filled.

The solution would be to either A) fill in all the fields with Album Artist on those albums that display incorrectly, or B) clear out all the Album Artist fields. When they are all the same the album displays in the correct order.

I think it’s faster and easier to simply select all the songs in your collection and clear the Album Artist field and let it process. Unless you use that field for some reason it shouldn’t do any harm at all to your ID3 tags, and it will make it so that your collection displays properly when sorting by album.

Of course the other alternative is to simply sort by Artist… That takes care of it too.

I’m sorry to everyone that visits my blog and doesn’t care about internet security or software issues like I do. But read this.

What might not be a bad idea in a laboratory really doesn’t work very well in the “dirty” world of spyware, bloated temp folders, and well, outside of the laboratory environment…

I don’t remember that ever happening before. Well, I don’t remember it happening for a very long time. It usually stops raining in June and that’s all she wrote for – well, a long time… The problem with raining in July is that even though it cools things off temporarily, everyone steams like a ROCK LOBSTER when the sun comes back out. It’s supposed to be like 99 degrees today, and it’s raining.

(GRATUITOUS PICTURE OF BOB CHASING BUBBLES)

Bob is deciding which bubble to kill first

Bob is one sleepy puppy

Bob is one sleepy puppy

We came home from work and played with the puppy for a while again today. I believe it’s crucial for puppies to get plenty of exercise to help keep them from biting and digging and a host of other bad behaviors. We played for a while and I noticed she was out in the yard asleep. She seems to be making the transition to our world without much stress, or so it appears. What do I know?

Brian and the Bean

There was wonderful weather in Chicago on Saturday so Viv and I took a walk to Grant Park area, and loved the Bean.

The Cubbies won 11-3! Wow! What a game! The beer tasted good too.

Bob Sleeping

Bob just chillin.

Here’s another pic of Bob at 5 weeks. We’ll get her 1 week from today when we get back from Chicago. I posted the pic of Bob’s mom and dad to get more input about the Rottie mix versus the Lab/whatever mix… There may actually be Rottie in dad, but I sure don’t see a single thing that resembles a Rott. Oh, and dad’s feet are black from mud… They aren’t always that color.

With only 3 points in the constructor’s standings from the first four races I think it’s readily apparent that the team I support will do poorly. That’s just how it is. I supported Toyota for years and they did poorly. Last year I was frustrated and switched to BMW Sauber – and they choked immediately. This year I’ve been asked by some friends to support Ferrari. I reluctantly agreed. I don’t want to wish ill will on anyone, but I thought it would be a good experiment to determine if I’m really made of poison or not. It appears I am…

Today is the first race of the “European Season” and even though I don’t have any real love of the Circuit de Catalunya, I like this stage of the season. Development on the car is fast at this point and I’m sure the big hitters are working hard on those darn diffusers that have been such a big deal lately.

Ferrari is plagued with bad luck, my luck. They repeated a critical mistake that – well, this is from formula1.com:

Ferrari were very quick in the morning when Massa and Raikkonen were first and second, and the Brazilian’s fourth place with a relatively heavy fuel load was testament to the progress that the team made this weekend. Watch for the Brazilian and KERS at the start. The fly in the ointment was that, unforgivably, Raikkonen was subject to the same error that stopped Massa going through to Q2 in Malaysia. The Finn and his crew thought he had done enough to get through, but he was bumped by Toyota’s Jarno Trulli as he sat in his garage. Read more.

SEE! I’m rooting for Ferrari and who bumps them from Q1? Toyota!

Anyway, I’m wearing my Ferrari shirt, getting my coffee, and preparing for the pre-race show. It’s 6:10 am, and I have a lot to do today, but I’ll not forgo this. Today is another level of the poison test. I want to find out just how powerful Team Ferrari is. Can they overcome my support? We’ll just have to see…

UPDATE:

• HUGE mix up and crashes in 1st corner! Safety car period for 4 or 5 laps.
• Great pass and re-pass between Alonso and Webber early on! That’s what I like to see!
• 18 laps in, Raikkonen is out… Should I rest my case yet?
• Everything settles down after this and everyone does what they can to finish the race
• 6 laps remain – Massa is having fuel issues in the second Ferrari… Will he finish?
• 4 laps remain – Massa gives up P4 to conserve fuel – the team radio’s Massa to tell him he’s a lap short on fuel… He’s waaaaay off the pace now trying to just reach the finish line.
• Alonso passes Massa for 5th on the last lap
• Massa finishes in 6th. That’s 3 points! They doubled their points this race!

So, I feel confident that Ferrari will continue to improve race by race. They can’t do worse than they are right now, but I’m also sure I’m not helping them at all. The announcers kept asking “What’s happened to Ferrari?” Well, I happened to Ferrari.