1. Presidents Day 2003—Where did the snow in the East come from?

Looking at the calendar, I noticed, that Presidents Day 2003, February 17, is the average of Washington's birthday, February 22, and Lincoln's birthday, February 12. That might lead one to believe that Presidents Day should fall on the closest Monday to this average. However, Presidents Day was on February 21 in 2000, not February 14, which was closer. So, perhaps the rule is that Presidents Day falls on the first Monday after the average date, or the closest to the average, but not on either President's birthday, which might be considered favoritism.

The official list of federal holidays is located at www.opm.gov/fedhol/index.asp and, if you are interested in perpetual calendars, there is a Java-based one located at my.execpc.com/~mikeber/calendar.html.

While not perpetual, a really big calendar is located at www2.tok2.com/home/kaji/cal/, which contains selectable years from 1582 to 3000. Apparently, whoever created this calendar doesn't believe the urban legend about the year 2012. Thinking of the year 2012, the "end" of the Mayan Calendar, and, some think, the end of all creation, there is also the legendary "Planet X," aka Nibiru, which is supposed to destroy all life on earth sometime in March, even though nobody has seen it yet. A woman claims to be in contact with aliens who provide her with this kind of stuff. I mention this because not too long ago all the world press was suckered into believing human clones had been created by people who claimed to be cloned descendants of aliens from 25,000 years ago. This insanity made the front page of most major newspapers—so urban legends and bunk are now the fodder of the world press. It used to be only the supermarket tabloids claiming "so-and-so" was the child of an earth woman and an alien man. Now even the New York Times falls for this junk. So when major newspapers proclaim global warming, why shouldn't I be skeptical?

They give as much space to global warming as to alien clones these days.

For more about my previous blurb on global warming, see the global warming section of Bits and Pieces at the bottom of this column.

The same scientists who talk about global warming predicted a small snowfall last week in the east, centered around Washington, DC. As time passed, they modified their predictions to a snowstorm in the DC area. New York and the northeast were out of the picture. Not to worry. I checked The Weather Channel, and noted that the New York City area was indeed out of harm's way.

As time went on, the weather for DC was upped to a blizzard and now some snow was predicted for the city. A few inches, no more. Slowly, over the night, as the storm increased in intensity, the weather bureau modified its predictions to a blizzard for the city. Soon, it became apparent to anyone looking out their windows that we were in the middle of a great snow storm, despite the earlier predictions of our national weather bureau. Even Boston and points north were inundated with snow; the initial forecast being totally in error.

Some areas south had four feet of snow, not drifts, mind you, actual snowfall.

Here on Long Island there are areas that got well over two feet, perhaps over three feet.

The city proper got around two feet. There was literally no place to plow the snow, so it had to be collected and carted away. In residential areas, such as where I live, there are five-foot piles of heavily packed snow as a result of plowing. They will be with us for a while.

My back door, which is under a canopy, could not be opened because of the drifting snow. I had to exit the front door, and walk around the house through four-foot drifts to reach the back door and shovel it clear. The drift covering it was about six feet high at the door, sloping to four feet as it went into my bamboo patch. The snow depth in the bamboo is over two feet, and that is a fairly accurate, drift-free measure. I don't know what I would have done had the front door also been drifted over with snow. The streets were impassable at that time. (As an aside, I just noticed that my spell-checker allows both impassible and impassable, so I checked my dictionary. Impassible means incapable of experiencing pain, or incapable of feeling.)

If you live in the east, this is a good time to put some food out for the birds since their natural feeding areas are probably covered with snow. Bird seed or suet are much preferred to bread, although it probably doesn't matter for a short time. Also, if the temperature permits, put out some water. Make it tepid so it lasts longer. In the street today, where some snow had melted and created some runoff pools, a flock of starlings gathered for a chat and a quick dip, as well as a drink. The local feral cats are totally confused by the snow, and it's funny watching them attempt to run through it.

Yesterday, four ducks landed in the street in front of my house for no obvious reason. They live in the area and were probably just checking out the neighborhood. They are usually found swimming in the now-frozen canals in the area. They are also smart enough to eat snow to satisfy their daily water requirements. A few Canada geese were seen eating the exposed green around the bases of some of the larger trees, which create enough warmth to melt the snow near their roots.

What's your opinion on any of this? Send your e-mail to the address at the bottom of the column. Let us know.

2. The Linux Gnus

I recently wrote about SuSE's new Office Desktop, www.suse.com/us/private/products/suse_linux/office_desktop/index.html, as the Linux equivalent of Microsoft's Office suite.

SuSE's product runs on Linux but not in Windows. Microsoft's Office doesn't run on Linux.

So far, Sun's StarOffice runs on both, which is an advantage that SuSE may be missing. Microsoft, on the other hand, probably doesn't want an Office port to Linux because it would only increase Linux sales, something Mr. Bill does not want to happen.

SuSE's office, with Codeweaver's CrossOver Office, supports many of Microsoft's new MS Office products directly, including Visio 2000, in addition to supporting Lotus Notes and Quicken 2002.

Mathematica 4.2 was released some time back, as I mentioned in an earlier column. I recently found out that the actual Mathematica kernel is developed in Linux and ported to the other operating systems. This would explain why it runs faster on Linux than on Microsoft's platforms. As I pointed out, the registration for Linux is a bit annoying, and if you use your system for kernel development, be prepared to call Mathematica and get a new password from time to time. The password is generated by someone at Mathematica when you give them your license number and the computer-generated MathID, which Mathematica generates initially and whenever things change. Designed to prevent fraud, it is a bit annoying for the honest developer. With Windows, this does not happen—the license number is all that is required for installation and operation. Does this mean that they trust Microsoft users more than Linux users? I don't have an answer to this question.

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