IE 9 Automatic Updates

As reported around the net today, Microsoft has announced that beginning in 2012, Internet Explorer 9 will be included as an important update in the automatic updates system. This is going to be a problem for me at work. A lot of our staff don't care for IE9 and will seek out computers with IE8 to do their work. The biggest problem for me is that there are an unknown number of web sites that just don't yet work well with IE9. Granted, that's the fault of the site creators, but it's still an issue for our IE9 users. Three sites that I know of in particular (the Kentucky unemployment site, our library's payroll service site and our library's book discussion site) have serious issues when using IE9. In fact, the Kentucky unemployment site simply won't work at all with IE9. This is a huge problem for our patrons, many of whom live in Kentucky but for various reasons use our computers to file their claims.

Fortunately, Microsoft is providing a tool to disable the automatic update to IE9. Unfortunately, that means I have to install it on every computer we have (currently around 100 public and staff computers). This is additional workload I don't need right now.

When Elves Attack, by Tim Dorsey

Serge and Coleman are back with all the gang in Tim Dorsey's new Christmas story When Elves Attack. Our favorite anti-hero decides it's time to celebrate the holidays in a big way and recruits City and Country to help out. With G-Unit along for the ride, you know there's going to be plenty of sparkle. Unfortunately, all these old characters make When Elves Attack a poor choice for newcomers to the Serge mythos. They'll be completely lost. Of course, there's lots of mayhem as Serge deals with bad guys, Grinches and naughty elves using his own special style. Along the way, he helps the Davenports (Jim and Martha) handle some family crises and defends them from thugs with pain in mind. He even guides their daughter Nicole through teenage angst and the pitfalls of young love.

Many people believe Serge is a psychotic serial killer, but in reality he's so much more. He's our collective id, doing battle with 21st century evil and stupidity. Serge is, dare I say it, a new Dark Knight with Coleman as his (literally) dopey Boy Wonder. He's also one of the great philosophers and commentators of our time:

"But why are we wearing elf suits?"
"To spread good cheer."
"What for?"
"Because of the War on Christmas."
"Who started the war?" asked Coleman.
"Ironically, the very people who coined the term and claim others started the war. They're upset that people of different faiths, along with the coexistence crowd who respect those faiths, are saying 'Seasons Greetings' and 'Happy Holidays.' But nobody's stopping anyone from saying 'Merry Christmas.'"
"And they're still mad?"
Serge shrugged. "It's the new holiness: Tolerance can't be tolerated."

Forget what I said earlier. Read the book even if you've never read any of the others. Sure, you'll be confused, but that's a common state in Dorseyland. Despite your confusion, you'll discover a great series with quirky, enjoyable characters and wonderful plots and you'll love the ride.

Seasons greetings, merry Christmas, and happy holidays!

Best Books I Read in 2011

It's that time of year again: time for year's-end "best of" lists. I'm going to start with the books I enjoyed most during the year. As it happens, they're all books from my library's reading groups: Brown Bag and a Book, and Murder by the Book. I like genre fiction better than literary fiction, so most of them come from the mystery group. Here, ordered by the author's last name, is the list:

Sworn to Silence, by Linda Castillo (originally posted to GRothenberger.com, 1 July 2011)

Sworn to Silence is the first book in Linda Castillo's Amish Thriller series. It features Kate Burkholder, Chief of Police of the small Ohio Amish Country town of Painter's Mill. I'll admit I had started this book with pretty low expectations. I had tried unsuccessfully to read another Amish-themed mystery about a year ago. It didn't help that the reviews for this book that I read on Amazon weren't encouraging, either. In fact, some of them were quite brutal. If I hadn't needed to read the book for an upcoming book club meeting, I likely wouldn't have bothered. That would have been a shame, because it would mean I had missed one of the best contemporary mysteries I've read in some time.

Castillo is a very good writer, and she clearly knows her stuff. Whether it's modern-day police procedures or life among the Amish, she has a depth of knowledge that I found refreshingly unexpected. Her portrayal of Amish life is particularly well done, showing the complexity behind the stereotypical simplicity. Castillo manages to be both sympathetic toward and realistic about the Plain people, thus avoiding the idolization I've seen in some other authors. This was one of the characteristics that drew me to the book.

As for the story itself, I simply couldn't put it down. The two main characters, Burkholder and BCI field agent John Tomasetti, have both been badly damaged by events in their lives and so are always on the edge of despair. Nevertheless, they remain likable characters. We want them to succeed at their task, as well as in their lives. And what a task they've got! A series of horrific (and I don't use that word lightly) murders are happening in this small country town that exactly mimic murders from 16 years previously. Is it a copycat or the same killer? If a copycat, then how does the killer know details of the killings that were never made public? If the same killer, then why the 16 year break between murders? The investigation is confusing, and is further complicated by local politics and long-held secrets from Burkholder's past. The author puts a great amount of detail into telling the story of both the investigation and the murders. Sometimes a truly disturbing amount of detail. Much of the book reads less like fiction and more like true crime reporting. After finishing the book you'll want a long, hot shower to try to wash yourself clean. But you'll want to put Linda Castillo on your list of must-read authors, too. I know I have.

Who Were Anna Dora Roberts' Parents? (originally posted to GRothenberger.com, 11 July 2010)

It turns out there's a little disagreement about the mother of my great-grandmother, Anna Dora Roberts Bays. I've always thought she was Sarah Tackett, the daughter of Abner Tackett and Elizabeth Caudill. I've recently found out, though, that one of my cousins believes her mother was Rosa B. Williams. This morning I decided to see what I could find out. Sure enough, in the 1910 US census, I found Hiram Roberts, his daughter Anna D., and his wife Rosa B. I figured I had to be wrong on this one, and started changing my computer records (don't ever do that until you've given things at least a day to settle out). The 1890 and 1880 censuses are incomplete, so I couldn't go back and check them. So I started trying to find out more about Rosa B. Williams. I didn't find much, other than an 1880 marriage between Hiram Roberts and Rosa B. Williams in Morgan county, Kentucky. That was more evidence that I had made a mistake somewhere, although as far as I knew, Hiram was born in Rowan county. So I started checking Rowan county records.

I found a marriage record for Hiram Roberts and Sarah Tackett in Rowan county (22 May 1884) witnessed by his father (Hiram) and her father (Abner). This was my original source for Sarah Tackett. I also found Hiram and Sarah buried next to each other in Caudill cemetery in Rowan county. This is the same cemetery where Anna and her husband (my great-grandfather Joseph Walter Bays) are buried. So that leads me to believe that Anna's mother was Sarah Tackett, who died in 1888 (one year after Anna's birth). However, Hiram died in 1905, so he doesn't show up in the 1910 census. There is a Rose B. Roberts in that census, who is a widow. Her father is living with her, and his name is listed as William "Eaegan." She also lives fairly close to my great-grandparents.

So were there two Hirams? One in Morgan county and one in Rowan county, both born about the same time. Or was there one, who was married to both Rosa and Sarah at the same time? I haven't been to Morgan county yet, so I can't verify that 1880 date for Rosa's marriage to Hiram. I don't know yet, but here's what I suspect happened.

Hiram married Sarah in 1884. They had at least one child, Anna, born in 1887. Sarah died in 1888. In 1890 (not 1880), Hiram remarried, to Rosa (Williams or "Eaegan," I'm not sure which). This explains the widow Rose in the 1910 census (who had no children living at home). It also explains why Anna and Joseph are buried in a Caudill cemetery, since the Caudill's would be Anna's relatives, and Joseph's by marriage. There's still a couple of questions, though, and I think I'm going to have to make a trip to Rowan county (and probably Morgan county) to try and clear them up.

The Unscratchables, by Cornelius Kane (originally posted to GRothenberger.com, 24 July 2009)

This was a surprisingly good book. The author, Australian Cornelius Kane, has an impressive understanding of the noir genre. He has the ability to write a noir story with cats and dogs as the main characters, and write it as well as Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler.

The Unscratchables is the story of a dog (a former POW and veteran of the Siamese war) who has to team up with a Siamese cat in order to capture a feral cat on a murderous rampage in the Kennels of Kathattan island. I don't want to give away the ending, so I won't say more than that. If you enjoy a good story filled with plot twists, you'll like The Unscratchables. If you like your books a little deeper, then you'll really enjoy the ongoing political, social and media commentary Mr. Kane weaves into the book.

I read it in less than twelve hours. It's that good.

Grand Theft Jesus: The Hijacking of Religion in America, by Robert S. McElvaine (posted to GRothenberger.com 24 July 2009)

Not a whole lot of new material in this book, although it is nice to have it all in one place. Since it's a pretty new book, it's also tied more into recent current events, such as the 2008 election. My only complaint is that the author tries too hard for "fun" in his word play. It was somewhat distracting at times. Still, overall it's a very good book.

Cross-Posted Articles

I'm getting ready to shut down my other site (grothenberger.com), so I'll be posting some articles from it here so I don't lose them. I'll make a note of which ones they are. Mostly genealogy and book reviews.

Bentley Kentucky Genealogy

Here's the Bentleys in my grandmother's family:

• Bertha Cymenthia Bentley (1912-1970), my grandmother.
• Moses Bentley (1870-1950), her father.
• Hiram Craig Bentley ( about 1844-about 1899), Moses' father.
• Moses Bentley (1820-1850), Hiram's father.
• Thomas Bentley (1785-1860), Moses' father.
• Daniel Bentley (1752-1839), Thomas' father.

Chromebook Experiment

I've been interested in the Chromebooks ever since they were first announced. At first, I thought the price was too high, but now that it's coming down some, I'm getting interested again. I can see how connectivity might be a problem, but I'm pretty much always on a Wi-Fi network, both at home and at work. I already use an Android phone, Chrome is my default browser on every desktop I use, my personal mail is Gmail, my weblog is Blogger, and I use Google Docs. I suspect that Chrome OS can handle everything I need to do in my personal life, and possibly 90% of what I need to do in my professional life. So I'm going to try an experiment.

More Eastern Kentucky Genealogy

Here's the Akers on my grandmother's side:

• Anna Akers (1850-1935), married Hiram Craig Bentley (1844-1899). My great-great grandmother.
• John Valentine Akers (1826-1906), her father. 
• David Daniel Akers (1801-1894), his father.
• Valentine Akers (born 1762), his father.

So far, there's no Akers on my grandfather's side.

My Eastern Kentucky Family

I think it's time I started looking more closely at my family history. I've done a little over the years, but I want to get more serious about it. So let's consider this a beginning.

I want to particularly look at the half of my family that comes from Appalachian Kentucky. This is my mother's side of the family, largely from Floyd and Pike counties in Kentucky. My grandfather was John Riley Bays, born 30 May 1910 in Rowan county, died 21 May 1997 in Floyd county, Indiana. My grandmother was Bertha Cymenthia Bentley, born 15 October 1911 in Pike county, died 25 November 1970 in Floyd county, Indiana.

Here is a list of family names I'm pretty comfortable saying are directly related:

• Akers
• Barker
• Bays
• Bentley
• Blankenship
• Bryant
• Caudill
• Collier
• Crase
• Flanary
• Foster
• Hale
• Hammonds
• Howard
• Jackson
• Mullins
• Osborne
• Perry
• Roberts
• Salyer
• Tabor
• Tackett

I'll start putting more information up later. Right now, I need to get to work. If you have any interest in these families, please let me know.

Windows 8 Developer Preview: First Impressions

I finally got Windows 8 Developer Preview installed on my old computer. It's an eMachine W3400 from some time ago, with an AMD Athlon 3000+ 64-bit processor. I had installed more memory, so it's up to 1GB of RAM. I had to find another hard drive, since the original one had failed. That's why I just now got Windows 8 installed.

I haven't had much time to play with it yet, but here's my initial impressions of Windows 8:

I love the tile interface. I think it's one of the most user-friendly UIs I've seen. Of course, I had used a similar interface briefly on a Samsung Focus (before I couldn't take ATT anymore). It seems to work pretty well on a desktop, although it takes a little getting used to. Live tiles update just as expected, and I've only noticed a couple of issues, which I'll come to later. Unfortunately, I'm not sure we could use it at work without a lot of training both for staff and for customers. That's a shame, because I believe it could help increase productivity in the long run. At least the standard desktop is available, although there are some differences there, too.

I haven't had time yet to install any software, other than Silverlight and Flash. Silverlight, of course, installed flawlessly. Flash was only slightly more tricky. The Adobe website didn't recognize the operating system, of course, so I had to select the correct version. I went with the Windows 7 version for Internet Explorer, and so far I haven't seen any issues. So much of everything is web-based these days, those two plug-ins were necessary right away. My next plan is to try to install MS Office 2010 and Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview this evening. If those work all right, then I'll try to install some other programs, such as Zune and Java.

At this point, I've only seen two issues. There doesn't seem to be a driver available for my ATI Radeon Express 200 video card. It may just be that I haven't had time to find one, yet, but I suspect it's just not there. However, even running in Aero Basic mode, everything looks good and moves quickly. Obviously any kind of serious gaming is out of the question. It probably would be even with a driver, though. That's not too big a concern for me at this point. I don't do any major gaming, and this is, after all, a preview.

The second issue is more irritating, but I'm sure it's just that I haven't had time to find the answer yet. If I start an application in tile mode, i.e. not from the standard desktop, I haven't found a way to close it. I'm currently using a workaround that involves going into the standard desktop, starting Task Manager (which is much improved, by the way) and ending it from there. Not very elegant, but I'm sure I've just missed something.

So that's my first impressions. I'll post some screenshots later, and have more information after I've had a chance to work with Windows 8 more this evening. If there's any questions I can help answer, please let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading, and I'll be back later.

Latinate Auxiliary Languages

The other night, I was listening to music, and I suddenly realized: Latin really is the most attractive language for singing. I decided then that I wanted to learn a Latin-based auxiliary language. The question then is, which one? I've narrowed it down to either Latino Sine Flexione (LSF) or Lingua Franca Nova (LFN).  LSF is an older language, from the beginning of the 20th century and isn't used much anymore (although that's not important to me). It's not really well documented on the internet, either. LFN is a much more recent language, has many more users, and is very well documented.

In order to compare the two and get a better idea about them, I decided to try a little translation. I'm going to take the New National First Reader published in 1888 and translate it little by little into both languages.

Here's the first lesson in LSF:

Lectione Uno:
Illo es cane.

Short and simple. Here's the same lesson in LFN:

Leson Un
El es un can.

If I make mistakes, please feel free to correct them. I'll be back later with Lesson Two.

Update on My Netbook

I finally got everything working again. I went ahead and installed SliTaz on it. Even after installing some additional programs, I still have almost three-fourths of my 4 GB flash drive left. I've got a bootloader error I'll need to fix soon, but other than that, everything's fine. Considering how lightweight a distribution SliTaz is, I'm quite happy with it. I still love Ubuntu, but it just takes up too much room for my netbook.

Keep Feeling (Religious) Fascination

I've always been interested in religion. From the common to the obscure, I'm willing to learn about almost any group. The list of organized religions I've been officially involved with gets pretty long: Methodist, Church of Christ, Lutheran, Catholic, Unitarian Universalist, Humanist, and Bahá'í. Add in the ones I've explored, and it gets ... weird. I think because I've looked at so much religion, I can't really believe any of it. I guess you could say I've seen the man behind the curtain, and he's not there.

Still, my interest continues. There are now only (?) four groups I've maintained a long-term interest in. They are Unitarian Universalist, Humanist, Bahá'í and Mormon. That clearly puts me outside my white-bread Protestant upbringing, a fact which used to bother me, but no longer does.

I like the UU's for being open to new things, and for their commitment to social justice. I have to admit, though, that every UU service I've been to has been boring. The group seems to be in a transitional state between their heterodox Protestant past and an as yet unknown future. Their traditions are still too new and fluid to have much meaning to outsiders. Personally, I'd like to see a little more focus on the Transcendentalist side of the movement since that seems to be a major source of their social justice commitment.

Humanists I value for their commitment to rationalism and (again) social justice. Unfortunately, I've never lived near any sizable Humanist community. All my participation has been online or through mail, and that's just not quite enough for me.

The Bahá'ís continue to interest me. The Writings contain some of the most inspirational words I've ever read. They, too, have a strong commitment to social justice (in most cases). I suspect they're less numerous than Humanists, but more widespread, so it's easier to find a local group. In many ways, though, I find them too politically conservative for me, with a far too hierarchical, authoritarian structure. Still, I keep coming back to them.

The Mormons seem to be the odd group in the list. They're very politically conservative, extremely hierarchical and authoritarian, and don't have much of a social commitment outside their own group. They do have one of the most fascinating histories, though. I think what keeps me interested is their arcane theology, their history of an alternative lifestyle, and their constant infighting. Also, The Book of Mormon really is an interesting read. I don't believe I could ever be Mormon, though, no matter how much it interests me. Primarily because I lack the necessary faith, and have no talent for following orders.

So: anyone else have a religious journey they'd like to talk about? I'd love to hear it.

Marriage Equality in Indiana

As expected, the new state legislature has already taken up proposals to deny the possibility of marriage equality. The bills in question are HJR 0006 and SJR 0013. Since SJR 0013 was filed first, let's take a look at it.

SJR 0013 provides "that only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Indiana. Provides that a legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized." Of course, Indiana Code 31-11-1 states "(a) Only a female may marry a male. Only a male may marry a female. (b) A marriage between persons of the same gender is void in Indiana even if the marriage is lawful in the place where it is solemnized." So why are they bringing it up again? Quite simply, this is an attempt to place a marriage equality ban in the state constitution. The state Republican party has been trying to get this amendment on the ballot for years, but have been prevented from doing so in the past because the Democratic party controlled the Senate. After the 2010 elections, that's no longer the case. So where does SJR 0013 stand now? It was introduced on 6 January 2011 by Senators Jim Tomes (R, District 49), Dennis Kruse (R, District 14) and Travis Holdman (R, District 19). That same day it passed its first reading and was referred to the Senate Committee on Judiciary. On 13 January, Senators Jim Smith (R, District 45), Johnny Nugent (R, District 43), Jim Banks (R, District 17) and Brent Waltz (R, District 36) were added as coauthors. At this point, it's still in committee. I'm pretty sure it will be reported out with a recommendation to pass, which will be done quickly. That brings us to...

HJR 0006, which is worded the same as SJR 0013. It was introduced on 20 January by Representative P. Eric Turner (R, District 32), with Representative Dave Cheatham (D, District 69) as coauthor. It passed its first reading and was referred to the House Committee on Judiciary. It's still there, but I suspect will soon be reported out. Chances of stopping the bill in the House are better than in the Senate, but still not good. The House is split 60-40 R-D. If you are an Indiana resident, please contact your legislators and let them know this bill is unnecessary and a distraction from the work on jobs and the state economy they were elected to do. If you don't know who your legislators are, you can find out here.

Fortunately, Indiana has one of the most difficult state constitutions to amend. A proposed amendment must pass two consecutive General Assemblies, and then be placed on a subsequent general election ballot where it must be approved by a simple majority of those voting. Of course, as we saw in the last election, if the electorate is ill-informed or particularly interested in an amendment, this procedure can be met. The earliest we could expect a general vote on this question would be 2013, although I suspect 2014 would be more likely. However, the time to organize against it is now.

Messed Up My Netbook

I've had Ubuntu installed on my netbook for some time now. Recently, I've been getting error messages saying the system is very low on disk space (not surprising, since it's only 4GB on the drive). So after thinking about it for a while, I decided to remove Ubuntu and install one of the lighter versions of Linux. I did some research, and decided the best options would be either Puppeee or SliTaz Linux. I've tried them both now, and they both run very well in RAM. My netbook is faster than ever. Both of them will install to the internal drive. But neither of them will boot from the internal drive. Grub errors. I suspect what's going on is that the mount point of the internal drive changes when the external drive is no longer attached, and the Grub can't find the operating system.  I don't have any more time to work on it today, but I'm going to do some more research and see if I can find a solution.

If anyone has suggestions, I'd be glad to hear them. Thanks.

International Languages

I enjoy languages. You'll probably see posts here in other languages from time to time. That's just the way it is. Recently, I've been looking at some international auxiliary languages (IAL), seeing which one I like best. Here's my thoughts so far.

Esperanto - Probably the most popular and widely used IAL today. I've tried to learn it before, but I just can't seem to do it. It uses some odd diacritics which make it more difficult to use in the electronic age (I still don't know how to get them on my BlackBerry). The vocabulary is an odd mix. Some of it's familiar and some isn't. As far as grammar is concerned, it's needlessly complicated. Case in point: pick up any Esperanto grammar and find the "Table of Correlatives." I'm sorry, but that's just a mess! I'm going to give up on Esperanto for a while.

Interlingua - A very attractive language, in both written and spoken form. My guess is it's probably the second most widely used IAL. If you know any of the Romance languages (Italian, French, Spanish or Portuguese) the vocabulary will be pretty familiar. The pronunciation occasionally seems to be a little vague, though. The grammar is pretty simple. I think it's still a little more than necessary. I mean, who really needs an accusative case? Still, I like it a lot, and can generally sight read texts.

toki pona - A fascinating concept, and I like the way it looks and sounds. Both the vocabulary and the grammar are extremely simplified. The entire vocabulary is 118 words. Or maybe as many as 125 (some words might not be official yet). Of the four languages, toki pona is probably my favorite. It may be too simple, though. I have real trouble trying to communicate anything beyond simple sentences in it. As for understanding it, I need a lot more study time yet.

Lingua Franca Nova - Another Romance-based language. Pronunciation is simple, phonetic and well designed. The vocabulary seems more familiar to me than Interlingua's. I think it came more from the Spanish side of the family. The grammar is simpler than Interlingua's, which is something I like. To be honest, it's even easier than English grammar. I believe this is going to be the language I focus on learning.

If you've looked at any of the IAL's, I'd be interested in hearing your views. Especially if it's a language I've overlooked.

Playing Catch Up

After being sick with flu all last week, I'm trying hard to get caught up on things. I'm behind at work. I'm behind in my classes. I'm behind on housecleaning. There's just not enough hours in the day to do everything. Maybe if I do a little extra every day, I'll be back where I should be in a few weeks.

So. What is Idea Smörgåsbord?

That's an easy question. It's this site!

More seriously, it's a space for me to write about whatever attracts my attention. It could be something about computers, or design, a book I've read, or just something bizarre that happened during the day. You can pick and choose what you want to read, comment on what you like (or don't), and ignore what doesn't interest you. I'm not sure myself how it will work, but it'll be interesting to see what happens.