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December 31, 2001
For those that doubt the
For those that doubt the power of prayer, witness. Ask and ye shall receive.
Posted by John at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary Tenth Edition
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary Tenth Edition now has new words including gearhead, hottie, noogie and bootie. About 100 new words make it in every year, and here's how. Also, for fun reading if you haven't seen it, they also have an interesting sidebar piece entitled "Flappers 2 Rappers: American Youth Slang". The article is a shill for the book, but is entertaining in its own right, as it highlights selected expressions from the 1920's (if you're a non-skid hip hound looking to lap some hooch, maybe get shot with your favorite apple alley this New Year's Eve) all the way through modern snowboarding lingo (if you're a raging aggro shredding powder who doesn't want to lawn chair like a cone).
Posted by John at 11:28 AM | Comments (0)
OK, I'll play... New Year's
OK, I'll play...
New Year's resolutions for 2002 include:
(1) not waiting until the week before Christmas to complete my Christmas gift shopping; it raises the anxiety level which is the last thing you need around the holiday season,
(2) taking my wife on one "date" each month, even it's just dinner or a movie - just us, no kids,
(3) staying in better touch with my friends - by phone, email, snailmail, whatever (basically being a better friend),
(4) engaging my kids in meaningful conversation every single day (whenever possible - sometimes I travel, or they have sleepovers - those days don't count),
(5) planning one trip a month, even if it's just a Saturday or a weekend trip, as a family,
(6) yeah, me too. Got to do something about losing weight, getting in better shape. Thanksgiving and Christmas were a sustained period of overindulgence. The price must be paid. I don't want to commit to something I can't - or won't - do, but I need to evaluate, decide, commit and execute, and finally,
(7) making a brilliant success of my new job. That ought to be enough to hold my attention for the whole year.
Posted by John at 01:06 AM | Comments (0)
I thought with time perhaps
I thought with time perhaps this color scheme would endear itself to me. Ain't happenin'.
Posted by John at 12:31 AM | Comments (0)
December 30, 2001
Scott McCloud delivers one of
Scott McCloud delivers one of the clearest and most lucid summaries of the current issue of artistic endeavors on the web and how those artists get paid, and it's not only thought provoking, it's entertaining and easy to read, since it's in the form of an online comic book. Just a beautiful format. There are so many good things about this... the text is in bite-sized chunks that can be quickly scanned for fast reading, the pictures are good and often enhance the written message, the single-page-scrolling-down layout is easy to read and particularly easy to navigate if you're accustomed to using the spacebar as a pagedown tool, and it even has some animation and interactivity. Shweet.
Posted by John at 12:16 AM | Comments (0)
December 29, 2001
One in four Americans have,
One in four Americans have, one way or another, looked for God on the Internet. God beats online gambling, banking and stock trading.
Posted by John at 05:26 AM | Comments (0)
Harvard sends out its early
Harvard sends out its early application acceptances by email, gets filtered out as spam.
Posted by John at 05:20 AM | Comments (0)
Fathom has free seminars sponsored
Fathom has free seminars sponsored by Columbia University, UCLA, London School of Economics, and many other institutions. It's a vehicle to draw you in and get you to pay for the courses that offer more in-depth treatment of the subject matter, but wow, what a great teaser. This is the perfect place to start making your New Year's resolution list. [via MeFi]
Posted by John at 04:47 AM | Comments (0)
The log is back. On
 | The log is back. On Christmas morning, after 12 years off the air, WPIX-TV in New York ran a two hour program from 8:00am to 10:00am of logs burning in a fireplace. It took first place in its time slot in the Nielsens. |
This is either reflective of the fact that given all that has happened this year Americans are in a stay-at-home, warm-fuzzy-blanket comfort mode, or that morning TV sucks. [via MetaFilter] Either way, I like it. It strikes a chord that resonates with me. There's a 2 minute video clip on the station's website, www.wpix.com (scroll down on the home page). We don't usually turn on the TV on Christmas morning, but if they had that program out here in California and I didn't have a real fireplace right next to the TV, I'd turn it on. | |
Posted by John at 03:53 AM | Comments (0)
December 26, 2001
Here's a diagram of the
Here's a diagram of the shoe bomb, from The Guardian. Air bin Laden?
Posted by John at 01:11 AM | Comments (0)
Speaking of good journalism, to
Speaking of good journalism, to cleanse your palate of that last link try this one, "Inside Al Qaeda's Secret World", from the Washington Post. This answers several questions I had been wondering about, and makes sense of the relationship between the Taliban and al Qaeda.
Posted by John at 01:07 AM | Comments (0)
Number one on the list
Number one on the list of negatives about living in the Bay Area is the egregious cost of living, which is 80% cost of housing. Number two on the list of any person who has an ounce of intellectual integrity left has got to be the San Francisco Chronicle/Examiner. When you've lived in NY or DC and had the opportunity to read really good newspapers, this rag is almost physically painful. They manage to assemble the most cloying commentators on the face of the earth, to write endlessly long op/ed pieces on the most inane topics imaginable. The latest and perhaps the most offensive to date was Stephanie Salter's piece entitled WWJD? Stephanie takes it upon herself to write an open letter to George Bush, and she's writing as Jesus. I'm not the type to wish lightning bolts upon people but with this degree of hubris, I'd give SS a wide berth for the next few days if I were you. Fortunately, to counter-balance her inanity, James Lileks once again comes to the rescue. A good read.
Posted by John at 01:01 AM | Comments (0)
December 25, 2001
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
Posted by John at 12:29 AM | Comments (0)
December 24, 2001
Countervailing forces at work. First,
Countervailing forces at work. First, Julie handled most of the Christmas shopping, but I waited until the last minute on a couple of things and didn't get the packages in the mail on time. Then, we waited until yesterday to do most of the wrapping, so we've had a tree with no gifts for the past two weeks. I was getting more and more into a Christmas funk. Then in the coup de grace, my Christmas stocking, hung by the chimney with care, caught fire and burned up. Bah humbug.
But today, as we enjoyed the fire in the fireplace and admired our tree, and the family watched "White Christmas" together, I started to get my mojo back. We went to a friend's house for a holiday party, then to the Christmas Eve service at church... singing Silent Night with everyone holding candles in the dark is powerful stuff. Finally, on the way back home, two deer blocked our path in our driveway. They just stood and stared at us as we drove up, like, well, deer in the headlights. Finally they casually hopped over the fence and strolled on down the hill. I told Colin and Matt we must have interrupted Santa's delivery, but that he would surely be back. All better now, thanks.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Posted by John at 11:45 PM | Comments (0)
A little of the history
A little of the history behind "Jingle Bells". Think "Little Deuce Coupe", a hundred years earlier. It's all about having a flashy ride, driving too fast, and picking up girls.
Posted by John at 11:37 AM | Comments (0)
Random acts of Christmas kindness
Random acts of Christmas kindness always put a smile on my face.
Posted by John at 11:31 AM | Comments (0)
What do you do when
What do you do when you have a pesky possum around your house? Well, if you're a couple of rednecks from Daytona Beach, dousing the critter with gasoline and setting it on fire might seem like a good idea... Until the flaming possum goes charging around your backyard, and attacks your wife, setting her on fire.
Posted by John at 11:27 AM | Comments (0)
OK, now I get why
OK, now I get why they made me take my shoes off and ran them back through the x-ray machine. It was the old exploding shoe gag. Third time this week. I guess I'm just lucky I didn't try to set them on fire.
Posted by John at 02:11 AM | Comments (0)
Here There Be Dragons. Well,
Here There Be Dragons. Well, OK there, not here. But really...
Posted by John at 02:05 AM | Comments (0)
Microsoft can't even keep the
Microsoft can't even keep the correct time. The funny thing is I was working on this with Montgomery Securities back when I was with Bridge Information Systems in 1997. This problem is pretty esoteric, but milliseconds are important when you're dealing with real time quotes from the stock, options and futures exchanges. Both Montgomery and Bridge were "Microsoft Solutions Partners" and Microsoft kept sending us patch after patch, but we finally did a workaround by accessing the US Naval Observatory Master Clock. Like a bad penny, this problem keeps turning up.
Posted by John at 01:58 AM | Comments (0)
Hold the Rope! At first
Hold the Rope! At first I thought the high score times were hours and minutes, but then realized they were minutes and seconds. First try I made it to 1:32, pretty good I thought, but nowhere near good enough for the high score list. Second try I made it to 2:03, only one second away from the high score list, but the rhinocerous pulled away even though all my guys had strength left. Hmmm. Anyway, it's very fun, once or twice.
Posted by John at 01:53 AM | Comments (0)
I hadn't heard this before:
I hadn't heard this before: rescue workers at the World Center Center site were writing their names and Social Security numbers on themselves so that they could be identified if something went wrong inside and they were trapped, injured or killed. Smart idea, but definitely scary and somewhat primitive. A former doctor has volunteered to test having chips implanted in his body for identification purposes.
Posted by John at 01:47 AM | Comments (0)
This shouldn't need saying, but
This shouldn't need saying, but I'll say it anyway. If you get an email that apologizes for sending you a virus and gives you instructions on how to remove it, don't follow the directions. It's a trick, folks, and it tells you to remove a file that your PC needs to run. Buy a good anti-virus program like Norton Anti-Virus, McAfee VirusScan, or e-trust.
Posted by John at 01:41 AM | Comments (0)
First came all the analogies
First came all the analogies of business to war, with widespread study of Sun Tzu's strategy book. Then came Guerrilla Marketing, the art of reaching the target audience outside of conventional channels. Now, it's been fine-tuned even further, and we have Corporate Jijitsu.
Posted by John at 01:30 AM | Comments (0)
December 22, 2001
Looks like Debka was right
Looks like Debka was right again, months earlier than reported on other media. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld confirms that Chinese have been fighting alongside the Al Queda. Massive quantities of Chinese ammo uncovered at Tora Bora. Chinese ambassador says, "who, us?"
Posted by John at 06:46 PM | Comments (0)
So you think your moral
So you think your moral compass steers a true course, do you? Think you've got it all figured out? Try this one on for size.
A 15 year-old boy is terminally ill with cancer. He knows he doesn't have very long to live, and he has a dying wish. It is not to go to Disneyland or to meet his favourite actor, rock or sports star but it is this: he wants to make love to a woman.
Posted by John at 06:37 PM | Comments (0)
Year end Google Zeitgeist. The
Year end Google Zeitgeist. The search engine has ranked the most popular searches for 2001, as well as the searches that have dropped off in popularity most rapidly. Top 10 Men, Women, Movies, Music Groups, Games, and so on. Maybe most surprising was seeing the Beatles ranked as the number one "searched on" music group.
Posted by John at 06:27 PM | Comments (0)
December 21, 2001
OK, it's a good joke,
OK, it's a good joke, but I must admit to being disappointed. The World's Funniest Joke? I mentioned this contest here three months ago... and the winner is,
Famed fictional detective Sherlock Holmes and his gruff assistant Doctor Watson pitch their tent while on a camping expedition, but in the middle of the night Holmes nudges Watson awake and questions him.
HOLMES: Watson, look up at the stars and tell me what you deduce.
WATSON: I see millions of stars, and if there are millions of stars, and if even a few of those have planets, it is quite likely there are some planets like earth, and if there are a few planets like earth out there might also be life.
HOLMES: Watson, you idiot! Somebody stole our tent.
Posted by John at 11:14 PM | Comments (0)
"Its Eureka time." I missed
"Its Eureka time." I missed the big squid discovery while I was traveling. Pretty bizarre. Click on the photo for a closeup. Or watch the movie.
Posted by John at 10:34 PM | Comments (0)
Wow, I just got back
Wow, I just got back from a trip to NYC and it was a little slice of hell. Airline security had two hour lines most places, as a flood of people responded to the air fare bargains and tried to fly home for Christmas. As I feared, the hardware I carry around in my leg was enough to set off the alarms, even when I completely emptied my pockets and took off my watch and glasses. Everywhere I went, I got the wand treatment, administered under the watchful eye of an Army soldier carrying an M-16. San Francisco, on departure, was the worst. They even made me take off my shoes and ran them through the X-ray machine. They completely unpacked my single carryon, and the little disposable sewing repair kit I got at some hotel years ago threw them into fits. They finally let me keep it after five minutes of debate. I felt safer, knowing that I was armed with a needle in case there was a terrorist attack.
You know, it's interesting reading the guidelines about carryons. You cannot, under any circumstances, carry a comb on to an airplane. It's specifically prohibited. You can, however, carry a chainsaw on board as long as it doesn't have any gas in it. And, as a side benefit, it fits neatly into the overhead compartment. At least that's the way I read it, and it seemed strange to me so I asked. "The way I read this, I could carry a chainsaw on board, is that right?" "Not with gas in it," was the reply at the security desk at JFK. "No, no gas. That would be OK?," I just wanted to be sure I understood. "Yeah. That would be OK."
Posted by John at 10:18 PM | Comments (0)
December 19, 2001
You've probably seen the article
You've probably seen the article that gets circulated every year by email on "the physics of Santa Claus." Now, read the rebuttal. The original "physics" article is shown first, scroll down for the rebuttal.
Posted by John at 12:29 AM | Comments (0)
Car and Driver's 10 Best
Car and Driver's 10 Best for 2002. {Ignore the January 2001 label on the page - this is the right link.) Chevrolet Corvette, my baby, tops the list.
Posted by John at 12:22 AM | Comments (0)
In typical Village Voice fashion,
In typical Village Voice fashion, they run an article entitled, "How We Lost Afghanistan", by Ted Rall. Want a good laugh? Read it, then read this article. James Lileks, an author and columnist for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune tears Rall and his pathetic whiny analysis to shreds. Woo hoo!
Posted by John at 12:08 AM | Comments (0)
December 18, 2001
Tomorrow's my first airplane flight
Tomorrow's my first airplane flight since 9/11, and I'm interested to see just how much things have changed. Lots of funny stories about what you can and can't carry on an airplane. "Stop him, he's got a can of baked beans!" Well, I guess they could be considered explosive... Or the guy who gets his cigarette lighter and nail clippers confiscated, so he goes to the shop behind the airport security checkpoint, where they sell... yes, cigarette lighters and nail clippers. If they have the sensitivity on the X-ray machines dialed up, I'm sure to get the wand treatment, as I have a plate, two pins and four screws in my ankle from a serious break about ten years ago. Sometimes, even pre-9/11, that in combination with zippers and belt buckles was enough to trip the alarm.
Posted by John at 11:54 PM | Comments (0)
Stop! Kung Fu. This is
Stop! Kung Fu. This is the best game I've seen in quite awhile. Test your reaction time in milliseconds against kung fu masters like Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee. So far, my best reaction time is 189ms, but I can't get anywhere close to that when I have to react to a kick vs. a punch. Very fun! (As opposed to the new movie coming out, "Kung Pow! Enter The Fist", which looks like Airplane only not as funny.) Both links swiped shamelessly off MetaFilter.
Posted by John at 11:38 PM | Comments (0)
"The FBI wants indiscriminate access
"The FBI wants indiscriminate access to the illegally extracted passwords and keystrokes of over two million people without so much as a warrant". The BadTrans virus that infected millions of PCs installs a keystroke logger. If your PC is infected, it surreptitiously sends emails with everything you've typed on your keyboard, which would, of course, include all your usernames and passwords to, well, everything you access on the web. The emails are send to 17 different addresses hardcoded into the virus. One of those addresses belongs to MonkeyBrains.com, and the FBI came knocking on their door yesterday wanting copies of all those emails. Yikes. This is very, very bad. This is "B" movie bad.
Posted by John at 11:07 PM | Comments (0)
December 15, 2001
I love NetFlix. I have
I love NetFlix. I have to open this little rant with that observation since although they're currently pissing me off, it's certainly not enough to make me stop using them. They have a sweet deal. Actually, they have several. You can start for as little as $13.95/month, and for that you get 2 DVDs. At a time. Each time you send one back (in the prepaid mailers), they'll send you another one so that you always have 2 movies out. So... work the math. If it takes 3 days to mail it there and 3 days for it to be mailed back, and 1 day for them to process it (actually they almost always do it the same day which is verified to you by email), that's 2 movies a week, or 8 movies a month for $13.95, or less than $1.75 per movie if you're good about sending them back promptly after you watch them. If you, like me, watch more than 2 movies a week, you can upgrade. All the way to "Ultimate" for $39.95 per month, which lets you have 8 movies out at a time.
The real money saver, though, is that there are no late fees. Ever. I'm so tired of Blockbuster, and the inconvenience of returning the movies - which I inevitably forget and which sometimes sit on the floorboard of my car for days on end - all of which results in charges of $10.00 or more on some rentals. Do THAT once a week and it starts to get ridiculously expensive. With Netflix, you don't ever have to send the movies back if you don't want to. They'll just keep charging you $13.95 per month, and they won't send you any more movies until you send at least one back. But even on the Ultimate plan, $39.95 a month is $1.31 per day which is much less expensive than Blockbuster's $3.00+ per day charges (and of course if you had the equivalent 8 movies out from Blockbuster, that would be $24.00+ per day in late charges).
I also like the fact that you can go through once every couple of weeks and stack up movies in your "queue". And you can rank them. So when Netflix receives a movie back from you, they automatically send the next one in the queue (if it's available -- some movies show "short wait" and occasionally but not too often "long wait"). The beauty is that by the time it gets here, I don't remember which movie it is. So it's like a surprise. And it's a surprise that I picked out, so it's usually a good one. All in all, a brilliant concept, an excellent business model, and a great service. I hope they make money at it so they're around forever.
OK, now to the gripe. As a paying customer, I hate being manipulated. When I click on a Netflix category labeled "New Releases", I want to see the new releases. Not last month's or the month's before. I am positive they do this to steer their customers away from the most popular new titles, so that they can better manage inventory and meet demand. For example, if I go to Netflix' "New Releases" today, 12/15/01, they show as one of the first 4 movies (showing the movie box photo), "The Golden Bowl", which was released 4 weeks ago. They don't show "Jurassic Park III" which was released on Tuesday of this week. It's there -- you can find it if you search on the title -- but it's not listed under New Releases. Of course you can always manage around this by going to a site like Hollywood Videos, which has a new release calendar. You just have to open two browser windows and jump back and forth. Which is annoying. There, I feel better now. Thank you.
Posted by John at 02:28 AM | Comments (0)
Nice rollup of articles from
Nice rollup of articles from multiple sources on the topic of our "Surveillance Society", from MSNBC. Privacy? Hah. You've got none. And you have less now than you did last year.
Posted by John at 01:57 AM | Comments (0)
Don't read this while drinking
Don't read this while drinking over your keyboard. Just don't, I'm telling you. Delaware county, Ohio cops bust a guy for growing pot after his dog telephones police. Repeatedly. Listen to the dog's calls here as well. Oh dear.
Posted by John at 01:23 AM | Comments (0)
Well, mediumband ain't broadband, and
Well, mediumband ain't broadband, and I can definitely feel the smaller pipe now that we've been moved over from @Home to AT&T. The linked article explains why. Here it is, after 1:00am in the wee hours of the morning when Internet traffic should be minimal, and I'm only getting about 520 KB connection speeds, way, way down from the 5 MB+ speeds I saw when we were the first to sign up for the cable service in our neighborhood. Still, it's better than the 33 KB dialup speeds I was experiencing when @Home folded up. It's just... disappointing. The vision of the evolution of the Internet is further than ever from being realized as the bandwidth shrinks and gets more expensive. I've got to think with all the investment in dark fiber capacity in the last 5 years that the available capacity supply should be putting downward pressure on prices. AT&T's network is just crushed from picking up all the @Home subscribers, and they will be vulnerable to competition for awhile as a result. But after the stock market valuation meltdown, is there anybody out there who can respond?
Posted by John at 01:15 AM | Comments (0)
Jesus #1, Who is #2?
In American high schools and colleges, "Jesus" is - obviously - the name most commonly associated with Christianity. What name do you think comes in second? Paul? Mother Theresa? Billy Graham? Pope John Paul II? Nope, nope, nope and nope. You are SO never going to guess.
Posted by John at 12:31 AM | Comments (0)
Cracker Barrel faces racial bias
Cracker Barrel faces racial bias lawsuit. At first I thought some of my Georgia relatives might have gotten offended at the corporate moniker, but that's not it at all.
Posted by John at 12:11 AM | Comments (0)
The Marines have a new
The Marines have a new weapon in their arsenal against unruly mobs... goo. White, slippery goo that can be sprayed or painted just about anywhere. Story has video. Yuck.
Posted by John at 12:08 AM | Comments (0)
December 14, 2001
Gambling is not my thing.
Gambling is not my thing. That's probably good, as I do have a fundamentally addictive personality. If I liked gambling, I'd be in serious trouble. Las Vegas is great to visit, for a day or two, once every ten years... If you need the idea that gambling is not a smart thing to do reinforced for you, no matter how much you think you know about crap table odds, thoroughbred horses or your favorite sports team, ESPN is happy to oblige. This year, they pitted their resident expert, "Sports Guy", against a dog. So far this season, Sports Guy is 25-25-2 and the dog is 31-19-2.
Posted by John at 11:45 PM | Comments (0)
If you've noticed the entry
If you've noticed the entry frequency dropoff, it's because I started an excellent new job on Monday at Vitria Technology. I believe the syndrome I am suffering from is colloquially referred to as "drinking from the fire hose."
Posted by John at 04:41 PM | Comments (0)
Google catalogs beta site. Just
Google catalogs beta site. Just in time for that last minute Christmas shopping.
Posted by John at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)
Coincidencedesign.com offers to design a
Coincidencedesign.com offers to design a "chance" meeting with that beautiful gal you've had your eye on [via MeFi]. They'll do a full "investigation" giving you all the background info you need to strike up an interesting conversation. "Typical cost" is not cheap, either, at $78,000 (I wonder how many they've sold???). Of course, you could always try the direct approach... walk up to her and say, "hey, I'll give you $50,000 if you'll have dinner with me." And you'll save a lot of money, too.
Posted by John at 04:27 PM | Comments (0)
December 10, 2001
Hey, Bruce Sterling is back
Hey, Bruce Sterling is back online! I linked his speech below on 12/6. His online publication, The Infinite Matrix, is back in service as well. If you're a sci fi fan, put that link in your favorites right now!
Posted by John at 12:31 AM | Comments (0)
"A year before the shootings
"A year before the shootings at Columbine High School, Eric David Harris already had the plan worked out in his head." Excerpts from the diary of one of the shooters reveals how sick and twisted these kids were. I had wondered after the shootings how much responsibility the parents should have for their kids behavior. After all, sometimes people just go crazy, and it's not always predictable. But now there's no question in my mind. With this degree of craziness evident, the parents share a significant part of the blame for not taking concrete steps to put a stop to it long before it festered and grew into the Columbine massacre.
"...they both were in a juvenile-diversion program throughout 1998 for breaking into a van, ...Harris had been grounded by his parents for months (for drinking and bomb-making, he writes, as well as the van burglary), ...he was also the subject of a police investigation into Internet death threats". Grounded?!?! For making bombs?!?!
Posted by John at 12:18 AM | Comments (0)
"If I had been them,
"If I had been them, I would have attacked me." British journalist Robert Fisk, one of the most outspoken, reasoned and reasonable anti-war proponents is stoned and beaten in Afghanistan. Now, I don't agree with Fisk at all, but I respect his intellect and he makes cogent arguments that Afghanis and other middle Easterners have reasons for their anger at the U.S. But it's this kind of senseless violence - attacking a Westerner just because he's a Westerner - and an anti-war Westerner at that - that drives home the fact that there is no reasoning with these people. We simply have to defeat them and punish the transgressors. Fisk, though, to his credit, emerges from his tribulations with his values intact, and refuses to blame them. I have to admire his patience.
Posted by John at 12:11 AM | Comments (0)
December 07, 2001
"So in top gear you'll
"So in top gear you'll get about four miles to the gallon, which doesn't stack up much against your standard saloon for economy, but hey, it's a fighter jet." How'd you like to find one of these in your stocking on Christmas morning?
Posted by John at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)
This winter cold is different.
This winter cold is different. It's not that any one aspect of it that much more severe than any other winter cold. Even though this was seems to involve all the symptoms - sinus congestion, chest congestion, sneezing, coughing, fever, etc. - the thing that makes it worse is that it hangs on. Colin got it first and developed an ear infection. Antibiotics. Julie got it around Halloween and still isn't over it. The doctor said it's a virus, and a bad one that takes a long time to get over. So when Travis asked to go to the doctor, we told him it's a virus - there's nothing they can do. When he came home from school early yesterday for the 3rd time in the past 3 weeks, including a couple of days he was out completely, we took him to the doctor. Bronchial infection - antibiotics. This sucks. And now, to top it off, I feel like an idiot for not letting Travis go to the doctor when he watned to. Everybody except Nick has come down with it, and the house sounds like an emphysema ward at the hospital. I'm already tired of winter.
It's too late for us - we're well past "the first signs", but you should know that "Quigley's COLD-EEZE Cinnamon Gum with Zinc Gluconate Glycine, is the only formula that has been clinically proven to reduce the duration and symptoms of a cold by 42 percent when used at the first sign of a cold, according to studies. When taken early, the studies show a three-day reduction in a typical seven-day cold. COLD-EEZE gum should be chewed until the sweetness is gone (about 10 to 15 minutes), and be repeated every three to four hours."
Posted by John at 11:01 AM | Comments (0)
December 06, 2001
What do you think? Osama...
What do you think? Osama... naughty or nice? Santa convenes Elf Tribunal to consider.
Posted by John at 10:04 PM | Comments (0)
Oh by the way, everyone,
Oh by the way, everyone, Happy St. Nicholas Day! Stuff your shoes with hay and hang up your socks.
One of Julie's English-as-a-Second-Language students is from Belgium, and gave her the skinny on this neat holiday celebrated on December 6th.
As they say in:
Belgium - Zalig Kerstfeest
China - Sheng Tan Kuai Loh
Denmark - Glaedelig Jul
England - Happy Christmas
Finland - Hauskaa Joulua
France - Joyeux Noel
Germany - Froehliche Weihnachten
Greece - Eftihismena Christougenna
Ireland - Nodlaig mhaith chugnat
Italy - Buon Natale
Mexico - Feliz Navidad
Netherlands - Hartelijke Kerstroeten
Norway - Gledelig Jul
Poland - Boze Narodzenie
Portugal - Boas Festas
Romania - Sarbatori vesele
Russia - Hristos Razdajetsja
Spain - Felices Pascuas
Sweden - God Jul
Wales - Nadolig Llawen
Posted by John at 02:04 PM | Comments (0)
G.I. Joes are flying off
G.I. Joes are flying off the shelves this holiday season, along with police, firefighters and other war hero action figures. My favorite observation comes from Stephanie Oppenheim, a mother of two and co-founder of an annual toy consumer guide. She said these types of toys foster more aggressive play and promote violence, not patriotism, and suggested children help raise disaster relief funds by having bake sales. You know, Colin Powell would probably agree. If they loaded up those transport planes with pallets of fruitcakes, they could cut the number of trips in half. A fruitcake from 20,000 feet would make a "bunker-buster" of the first order. There wouldn't be a cave deep enough to hide in. And if we miss, the refugees could eat the fruitcakes! Mrs. Oppenheim should get a medal for this.
Posted by John at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)
Gray Davis, our fearless leader,
Gray Davis, our fearless leader, finally found out his minions were selling California citizen's information. Maybe he read Keelhauling. No, on second thought, probably not since then he would have known about it a week ago (see 11/30 entry). Anyway, he's put a stop to it for 45 days while it's being "evaluated". Good idea? Bad idea? I picture a Committee gathering together and at the opening meeting the Chairman gets up and says,
"Thank you for coming. Governor Davis has asked this Committee to make a recommendation regarding the recent sale of private citizens' information collected by the state government. This information includes names, addresses, Social Security numbers, birthdates, and mother's maiden name from the birth certificates. It could potentially be used for hacking into people's bank or brokerage accounts, or for identify theft. Any thoughts? [There is a pregnant pause while the Committee members all look at each other like 'Is he serious? What is he smoking?'] Right. Sorry to have wasted your time. Meeting adjourned."
Posted by John at 10:16 AM | Comments (0)
Unfortunately for J. Robert Brame,
Unfortunately for J. Robert Brame, George Bush's pending nominee for the National Labor Relations Board, we are known by the company we keep. Brame was apparently a top official for "American Vision", a fundamentalist religious group whose stated goal is replace our secular democracy with a theocracy based on Biblical laws. While that might not be so horrible (love thy negihbor, the meek shall inherit the earth, etc.), American Vision is referring to Old Testament biblical laws, including the subordination of women and the death penalty for gays. Where does George find these people? I don't even know anybody that wacko.
Posted by John at 09:57 AM | Comments (0)
Gimps found a new Mersenne
Gimps found a new Mersenne prime number. The new number, expressed as 213,466,917-1, contains 4,053,946 digits. Gimps is the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, one of those projects (like SETI@home) that let you "donate" your computer's processor when you're not using it. You download the software for free and Gimps uses your PC's processor when it is idle, in parallel with 130,000 others to tackle this monstrous computing task. It took 13,000 years of computer time to find the new prime number. Michael Cameron, a 20 year old Canadian, was the lucky guy. You might want to consider participating... it not only keeps your computer from getting bored, there's also a $100,000 prize goes to whoever discovers a 10-million-digit Mersenne prime.
Posted by John at 09:25 AM | Comments (0)
"Modern cryptography is a power
"Modern cryptography is a power struggle between two American tribes: geeks and spooks. Occasionally innocent people blunder into this situation, but they get lost, either because they don't understand the technology (that's what geeks say) or they're not to pry any further into stuff beyond the reach of mere civilians (that's what the spooks say)." Bruce Sterling, cyberfiction author and tech culture commentator, brings it.
Posted by John at 08:50 AM | Comments (0)
Reflections is a Flash laser
Reflections is a Flash laser game. There's a laser pointer, and there are light bulbs. You need to redirect the laser beam to light up the light bulbs, using your allotted mirrors, prisms, lenses and so on. Sounds easy, huh? And it is, up to about level 15 or so... Very well done little brain exerciser.
Posted by John at 12:55 AM | Comments (0)
December 05, 2001
I've been running around for
I've been running around for years complaining about my lack of a flying car. I shall complain no longer. If it makes the whirring noise on takeoff and landing that George Jetson's used to make, I'll be doubly pleased.
Posted by John at 04:23 PM | Comments (0)
Now isn't that funny? Just
Now isn't that funny? Just as I've had about enough with the online personality tests, I get another sent to me: "Which online personality test are you?" And the result is....drumroll....The Art Test! Which, of course, I just linked.
Posted by John at 12:49 PM | Comments (0)
What's with all the tests
What's with all the tests all of a sudden? I'm not even posting all of them, just the good ones. I like this one, The Art Test. Art is, after all, in the eye of the beholder, right?
| If I were a work of art, I would be Vincent Van Gogh's The Starry Night.
I am a tiny village at peace while overhead rages the tumult of the heavens. Objects whirl and flash around me in a fevered haze only partially reflected in reality while I remain grounded and secure in my isolation. |
Posted by John at 11:47 AM | Comments (0)
Are you paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal,
Are you paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal, antisocial, borderline, histrionic, narcissistic, avoidant, dependent, obsessive-compulsive? Find out.
Posted by John at 10:29 AM | Comments (0)
Of all the editorial "Corrections"
Of all the editorial "Corrections" that magazines have published, this one from The Economist may be the funniest.
Posted by John at 10:17 AM | Comments (0)
Africa pictures are working again!
Africa pictures are working again! Now stored on the AT&T Broadband server. Click the button over on the left.
Posted by John at 09:19 AM | Comments (0)
Christmas card from George and
Christmas card from George and Laura.
Posted by John at 12:12 AM | Comments (0)
Keelhauling weirdness of the day:
Keelhauling weirdness of the day: Japanese woman thinks 'Fargo' movie is real, and dies in the North Dakota snow looking for the buried loot. I feel sorry for the policemen, who tried to find an interpreter to explain to the woman that "it's only a movie", even calling Japanese restaurants in an attempt to find a translator. I wonder if she understood the message but thought they were lying to her? Just.... weird.
Posted by John at 12:08 AM | Comments (0)
The magazine is Human Immunology.
The magazine is Human Immunology. Spanish geneticist Professor Antonio Arnaiz-Villena, of Complutense University in Madrid, pens an article entitled "The Origin of Palestinians and their Genetic Relatedness with other Mediterranean Populations', which studies genetic variations in immune system genes among people in the Middle East. It finds (in common with other studies on the topic) that there is no substantive genetic difference between Israelis and Palestinians. [gasp] Mass protests ensue. [snort] The magazine is threatened with mass resignations if they don't retract the article. [chuckle] The article is taken down off the web site. [guffaw] Now the editor is calling libraries which subscribe to the magazine and asking them to tear the pages out. [rolls on floor holding sides, gasping for breath]
Posted by John at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)
December 04, 2001
AT&T called today, to say,
AT&T called today, to say, "reboot your computer and your cable modem should be back up and running." That is, of course, unless you've got a wireless network in your house, and you've already changed everything from your router to your firewall to utilize the dialup ISP. Still, that was a fast cutover, and I'm not complaining. Africa pictures are still not up. My "personal web space" at AT&T Broadband Internet (attbi.com) will, at some point in the future, be http://home.attbi.com/~jparker139/, but it's still not working... so the Africa pictures link over on the left there is still a no-go for now.
Networking stuff is still harder than Chinese arithmetic for me. But I know it's just a matter of finding the magic combination, so I go to [Network Neighborhood] - [Properties] and start enabling and disabling various adaptors and protocols, changing the settings in WinRoute, and trying to remember what I've already changed so I can put it back if that's not it. Picture a caveman under the hood of a modern automobile and you get the general idea. Fortunately, my bestest tech buddy, Josh, has the mojo, man. Thanks, Josh! ("And, um, Josh, you don't need to call me back, I finally got it working again when I figured out that I had somehow deleted the IP address for the machine", he says, grunting and thwacking the rock with the big stick again).
Posted by John at 09:38 PM | Comments (0)
The Christmas season is upon
The Christmas season is upon us, and it's my favorite time of the year. I love the songs and the church services, the dinners and the gift-giving, the smell of the tree permeating the house and the annual ritual of decoration. I love watching "White Christmas" and "It's a Wonderful Life" for the 43rd time (never been a big "Bells of St. Mary's" fan, though), and catching the Grinch (the cartoon, not Jim Carey) on TV. It's a time when we gather together as family and place deliberate emphasis on the things that are important to us, things that are too often taken for granted the rest of the year. For Christians, the celebration of the birth of Christ is immensely important, even though we are all aware of the pagan history behind the winter solstice celebrations, and we know that in all likelihood December 25th wasn't the actual date, and in fact it almost certainly wasn't 2001 years ago. Still, it is always good to be educated about these things, and I'll bet you don't know as much about the history of Christmas as W.J. Bethancourt III does.
Posted by John at 09:07 PM | Comments (0)
SnowCraft is a delicious little
SnowCraft is a delicious little time waster that did make the A-List. It's a virtual 3-D snowball fight, you and two of your buds against 3 enemies. If you hit somebody with a snowball 3 times, you'll literally knock them out of their shoes, putting them out of the game. Beat the threesome, and in Level 2 they come back with more friends. Simple, fun, addictive.
Posted by John at 07:56 PM | Comments (0)
December 03, 2001
Your keelhauling thought for the
Your keelhauling thought for the day: Beware of the mutants in the 2012 Olympics! Genetic engineering moves right along, tickity tock.
Posted by John at 12:04 AM | Comments (0)
December 02, 2001
SmarterTimes should be required reading
SmarterTimes should be required reading for every high school student. These guys pick apart the New York Times every day for faulty logic, unverified - and unverifiable -- "facts", stupid errors and cases where the writer's (or the paper's) bias strongly influences the article. It is an exercise in critical reading, a skill our youth desperately need to learn. Now, Ira Stoll, the chief editor at SmarterTimes, is joining with others to launch a new daily newspaper in New York City, and take on the NYT head-on. Should make for some interesting media in the Big Apple next year, and I'll definitely be reading the The New York Sun.
Posted by John at 09:25 PM | Comments (0)
Dean Kamen's over-hyped "IT", also
Dean Kamen's over-hyped "IT", also known by the code name "Ginger", is set to be unveiled tomorrow under the name "Segway". Turns out IT is a butt-ugly, 65 lb. electric scooter that will go a whopping 15 miles on a charge. ABCNews has video. I was kinda hoping for something more along the lines of a flying car, actually. IT is a big yawn. Further adding to its suckiness, it's initially to be priced at $3,000. But I wish I could generate PR like Dean.
Posted by John at 07:40 PM | Comments (0)
DON'T BUY THESE CDS. Someone
DON'T BUY THESE CDS. Someone has finally put together a list of the new CDs that have deliberate "noise" inserted to prevent copying [via MeFi]. The random bits of digital static, supposedly inaudible, can't be read by CD copying machines which interpret the noise as bad data. Coincidentally, it renders the CDs unreadable by your computer CD-ROM drive, most car stereos, some high-end CD transporters, MP3 players, DVD players and the game consoles like Playstation. We need to send the RIAA a message that this is unacceptable. The site also has a place to report copy-protected CDs (you'll know when your CD drive just randomly ejects the disk). These are OFF the Christmas gift list.
Posted by John at 12:16 PM | Comments (0)
December 01, 2001
Update: (Now that I have
Update: (Now that I have the dialup working again, at least I can get news!) AT&T said Saturday morning that though it has moved about 86,000 customers from AtHome's high-speed Internet service to its own, it will take two to 10 days to move customers in Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Hartford, Pittsburgh, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, Seattle, the San Francisco Bay Area, parts of Michigan, and the Rocky Mountain region. Outages are to be expected, the company (T) said. Users will get new domain names, as well. Apparently, only the AT&T customers of @Home got tanked this morning, as @Home is still negotiating with everybody except AT&T. We are, of course, AT&T/@Home customers.
Posted by John at 02:25 PM | Comments (0)
Wow, @Home went bankrupt last
Wow, @Home went bankrupt last night, and we lost our high speed cable modem this morning around 7:00am. Which means, among other things, that our primary email shown to the left isn't working. If you sent us an email via jparker139@home.com and we haven't replied, now you know why. Resend it to jparker@neteze.com. I'm on dialup until they figure out what to do with the cable modem subscribers (come on, AT&T!), or until I get DSL from PacBell out of frustration to replace it.
BTW, the @Home outage also means that the Africa pictures I hosted there are unavailable. "Sorry! The page you requested is not in service." Under "The Possible Causes", they list misspelling the URL and notify the owner of the page. They don't mention the web hosting company's inability to make a viable business out of thousands of subscribers paying $59 per month, because of their idiotic overspending and reliance on internet advertising revenue. Huh.
We woke up this morning to see our neighbor's house (down the hill, fortunately) flooded out by a fire hydrant next to their driveway. It looks like someone may have hit it with a car in the wee hours, and it ran for hours, dumping thousands of gallons of water into their house. Two trucks and dozens of workmen are trying to get it cleaned up. They are an older couple, and I feel so bad for them. They're hauling the carpet out right now. What a disaster.
The roof is leaking, and we're going to get 5 inches of rain tomorrow.
Travis had to take his SAT II tests this morning and was sick as a dog yesterday, staying home from school.
The power has been flickering off and on.
However... I got a job today, so life is good. I have absolutely NO complaints.
Posted by John at 02:18 PM | Comments (0)
Posted by John at 01:54 AM | Comments (0)
Click the link, take the
Click the link, take the test. You know you want to.
 | If I was a James Bond villain, I would be Oddjob. I enjoy bowler hats, golf caddying, and killing people in hand-to-hand combat. I am played by Harold Sakata in Goldfinger. Who would you be? James Bond Villain Personality Test |
Posted by John at 01:42 AM | Comments (0)
