Lottery Post Journal

I'm sure Gold and Platinum members have been cursing their computer screens every time that warning message about "String can't be converted to Boolean" appears just before the text editor comes on the screen.

I know I have — for the last week now!

The good news is that I have finally found and fixed the bug.

Just to find the stupid thing, let alone fix it, did not happen until today.  Several times over the past week I thought I had found and fixed it, only to see it reappear again.  Grrrrr....

This morning I finally narrowed the problem down to the Image Manager, which is why only Gold and Platinum members ever saw the error. 

(Image Manager is only available to premium members.  It is software that allows members to upload images to the Lottery Post server, manage them in folders you create, edit them, and post them on the forums, in the blogs, as an avatar, and anywhere else you can post an image.)

After narrowing down the component causing the problem, I traced all the data being sent to a web browser from that component, and eventually found the exact piece of code that was triggering the error.

Then I spent a few hours wrestling with the code trying to work around the problem, and even at one point purchased the latest version of the Image Manager software, hoping it have the bug fixed.

No dice.

The authentication — the part that verifies that the person using the software is indeed a premium member — just would not work without giving the error.

So in order to fix it, I completely re-wrote the authentication module from scratch, and that is what finally fixed the problem fr good.

Despite the tremendous difficulty and heartache this kind of thing causes, there is almost always a silver lining.

In this case, the good news is that the new authentication module I wrote is much more reliable that the module that came packaged with the software, and nobody should ever run into the error caused when your browser "times out" and displays an error message in the Image Manager window. 

(That error would happen if you opened the editor, didn't move from that page for about 20 minutes, and then attempted to open Image Manager.)

Now I have to catch up on all the things that I have put off while trying to fix this thing!  (I apologize if I have been slow to get back to anyone, but now you know what I've been doing.)

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080801/D929PVL00.html

"Those who stand for nothing fall for anything."
—Alexander Hamilton

Obama is defining a new low in politics, with absolutely no moral center on any issue.

I vivdly recall his lively speeches mocking John McCain for his support for increased drilling.  His favorite phrase ripped from the liberal handbook was, "You can't drill your way out of high oil prices."

I guess he finally figured out that saying such stupid things doesn't win a lot of support from Americans.

He's also figuring out that if he continues making speeches to roomfuls of screaming teenagers (and mental teenagers) it does not move the polling numbers of the real people of vote.

So I guess he's trying to be more like his opponent in order to win more votes.

The problem is, he can't seem to figure out what his principles are, because he is literally taking two sides of every issue.

And this guy wants to lead the country?  How exactly does someone devoid of principles make good decisions?  (Hint: they don't.)

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080731/D928PB3O0.html

I'm getting really sick of Obama injecting race into the campaign.  Same OLD politics.

Obama goes around saying that he is "different".

Obviously he is NOT different, because he is just like every other politician who tries to pit race against race, male against female, rich against poor, etc., etc., etc.

This is one sick and tired voter.

Oh, this video is sweet.  This is the way to win a debate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nF02z_9S50

Yes, we can drill our way out of high oil prices.

Of course, it has nothing to do with all the new oil we pull out of the ground.  It has to do with what happens in the marketplace when news of more drilling is announced.

Not convinced?  Just check the new this morning.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080716/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_prices

In morning trading, the price of oil suddenly dropped $6.44 a barrel.

The reason for the big drop?  The government reported that it has more oil on-hand than it last reported.

Did you hear that correctly?

We have more oil.

The price dropped.

The reason many liberal-minded people don't get that concept is that they are not accustomed to thinking like a Capitalist.  The government is not in charge of prices, the marketplace is, and those folks are really only comfortable dealing with subjects in which the government has control.

If some government regulation was responsible for the lower prices they'd be like, "OK, I get it, the government decided that the price must be lower, so the evil company was forced to do the right thing."

In a Capitalist society (which is what the USA is all about), the actions of the free marketplace sets the prices, so to adjust prices, the only thing the government can do is to take some kind of action that it knows will convince people to act in a certain way.

And that's why drilling will lower prices.

The reason oil is more than $130 a barrel, and not $50 or $60 a barrel is purely because of futures traders.  These people make money by "wagering" that the price of oil will rise in the future.  After purchasing a futures stock, if the prices rises, they make money, if it falls they don't.  (Selling short is wagering that prices will fall.)

So all these people are nervous about anything that could cause the price to fall.

If the US Congress refuses to lift the ban on offshore drilling, they are all pretty certain that the prices will stay high, because the demand for oil will continuously outstrip the supply.

If, however, Congress grows a backbone and lifts the ban, all the sudden there is the possibility that the supply will meet or exceed the demand, and the price will drop as a result. 

So all these people will not be wagering that the price will increase.  They will instead wager that it will fall, and the cumulative effect of the wagering, day after day, will be the reverse of what drove up the prices, until the marketplace is back to a reasonable level.

These people are not going to sit around worrying about the number of refineries, how much ethanol we're making, how many electric cars are on the road, or anything else that normal people are looking at.  They are looking at supply and demand of crude oil, plain and simple.

Now, I have outlined in several other blog posts (and comments) all the various things we as a country should be doing to free ourselves of our outrageous dependency on foreign oil, and to become energy-independent.

None of those things changes.  The price of oil, and the price of gas at the pump is just one thing, and we must not stop once we lower the price again.  The lackadaisical attitude of the Congress is what got us into this position to start with, and it can't be repeated.

But, just like building a proper border fence is the first step in securing our borders, lowering the gas prices by drilling more is an essential first step on the road to energy independence.