::: Monday, October 22 ::: Well, I'm still not in the clear, but I can certainly see the light at the end of the tunnel. I had several days to high productivity at the end of last week. This week should be even better since our top brass are all out of the office. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. 8:16 AM CST  ::  tell me a story ::: Wednesday, October 17 ::: It looks like I'm going to have to take a break from daily blogging here for a while. My job has gotten insanely busy recently and I can't seem to connect reliably from home since we moved. Most of my deadlines fall on November 1st, so I may be able to get back to normal then. 10:23 AM CST  ::  tell me a story ::: Monday, October 15 ::: Indeed: The truth is, I thought that music mattered It's settled... I want to be kitten when I grow up. 1:55 PM CST  ::  tell me a story Cool Tools: TinyApps.Org I've often heard that less is more. TinyApps proves that statement nicely. Nothing flashy, just good freeware that will fit on a floppy. 11:41 AM CST  ::  tell me a story Yep: New net domain 'fiasco' It's looking more and more like the English are going to steal serious computer journalism from the United States. With the The Reg and the BBC regularly tearing into the idiocy of ICANN and others. Soon if CNet doesn't want you to read something, then it simply won't exist on US news sites. 9:03 AM CST  ::  tell me a story Hmm: RIAA Wants to Hack Your PC Remember back a year or so ago when that RIAA representative said they intended to block intellectual property at the local port level? This, apparently, is what he was referring to. 8:44 AM CST  ::  tell me a story Alert: SirCam due to wipe Windows PCs next Tuesday If you have been putting off downloading new virus signatures, it looks like today might be a good time to do so. I'm just saying. 8:36 AM CST  ::  tell me a story Bravo: What the hell is Microsoft's new software licensing programme? You can always count on the The Reg to break things down for you. This time they have out-done themselves and rendered the truly incomprehensible easily understandable. 8:35 AM CST  ::  tell me a story ::: Friday, October 12 ::: Amen: Sites seek to blast ad blockers "The real issue is not whether people are filtering ads. Why worry about what 5 percent of the population is doing when most of the ads are being ignored?" That just about says it all. 9:54 AM CST  ::  tell me a story Interesting:Opinion A or Opinion B I think it's pretty cool that a site would offer both sides of the story like this. What's not cool is that CNet only linked to the positive article. The only way I even knew there was another opinion is because the author of the positive spin decided to offer a link to the opposing viewpoint. Food for thought. 9:46 AM CST  ::  tell me a story Damn: CPRM phones home This CPRM thing just refuses to die. It will be important for consumers to reject any products which contain such restrictions of fair use. We must vote with our dollars and send a clear message that this sort of thing just isn't acceptable to us. 9:36 AM CST  ::  tell me a story Heh: The world will end tomorrow - official The Reg does its best to debunk all the World Trade Center related hoaxes in one article. There are even a few things in there that I hadn't heard yet. The wingdings thing was spreading through our office a week or so ago. It's amazing how naive otherwise intelligent people can become when they are searching for something tangible to offer an explanation for the events of September 11. 9:26 AM CST  ::  tell me a story ::: Thursday, October 11 ::: w00t: THQ, Sega in deal to make Game Boy titles I never really got into the Sonic titles myself, but this is quite a significant announcement for Nintendo. It basically guarantees that their dominance in the handheld gaming market will continue into the future. Whether that can be seen as a good thing or not depends on your opinion of Nintendo I suppose. 9:22 AM CST  ::  tell me a story Whoa: Wiretapping Provisions of Anti-Terrorism Legislation The ACLU offers up this page which summaries, in table form, the changes being considered to the wiretapping and surveillance laws. It's truly frightening to see just how far our government is willing to impinge on our civil liberties. I generally try and be optimistic that eventually someone with a brain will stop such nonsense, but lately I'm not sure there are enough intelligent people in Congress to override the legislative blood-lust being displayed in both the House and Senate. We must keep in mind that if these attacks result in restricting the freedom of Americans while the terrorists remain virtually untouched, that the terrorists have already won. [link courtesy of The Reg] 9:17 AM CST  ::  tell me a story Hmm: HP ditches add-on CD-RW market I wonder if this decision has anything to do with the fine which was levied against HP in Germany? If so, I would expect them to restrict shipments of their recordable DVD drives accordingly. 9:01 AM CST  ::  tell me a story ::: Wednesday, October 10 ::: Gamers Unite: Can video games change the world? A manifesto of sorts. Certainly worth skimming for the avid gamer. 9:48 AM CST  ::  tell me a story Yep: The Science Behind the Song Stuck in Your Head I'm certainly glad someone is researching these painfully important issues. 9:45 AM CST  ::  tell me a story Ah, well: RIAA secret meeting memo a fake I suppose that's the risk one takes when publishing rumors as fact. I'm not completely convinced that there wasn't such a meeting, but Hilary Rosen has proved herself able to hold her tongue until all the votes are in. Those quotes seemed a bit too over the top for her. 9:31 AM CST  ::  tell me a story Ahem: Extension Manager Ask and ye shall receive. I haven't tested this, so I can't really say whether it works at all. I just thought it was funny that it does exist. 9:25 AM CST  ::  tell me a story ::: Tuesday, October 9 ::: Bah: Selling old Windows? Beware of Microsoft I find it deplorable and sad that charitable organizations are required to purchase a site license from Microsoft. These organizations should be given any tools which make their jobs easier including software licenses. Strong-arm tactics such as these will only come back to haunt us in years to come as charities become insolvent while filling Microsoft's coffers. 12:10 PM CST  ::  tell me a story Cool: GameCube sells out fast at Amazon Well, that's good news I suppose. I'm wondering just how many "minutes" it took? They list 18 minutes for the Xbox sell-out, but noting specific for the Gamecube. Hmm. 9:00 AM CST  ::  tell me a story Hmm: The devil is in Windows' details I never really considered this before, but he may have a point. It certainly would be nice to have an applet to manage extensions. In fact, I'm surprised there isn't a third-party utility to do so. 8:22 AM CST  ::  tell me a story ::: Friday, October 5 ::: w00t:Pave the Planet! This sounds like a good idea. Let's start with my overly large lawn. 8:56 AM CST  ::  tell me a story Okay: Intel to kill floppy drives, serial ports Here's the deal, USB or Firewire is fine if you really need that kind of bandwidth. Cable/DSL routers, digital cameras, whatever the point is that is serves a purpose. What I don't understand is why we need to discard the infant with the bathing solution. Keyboards, mice, analog modems, etc. all work fine on a standard port. There's no need to complicate matters by requiring a functioning USB bus (which is often harder than it has any right to be) for such low traffic devices. Dropping "legacy" ports simply doesn't lower the price of production enough to justify the headaches. 8:35 AM CST  ::  tell me a story Hmm: Really Bad Country Song Titles I'll bet Julie could sing us a few of these gems. <snicker> 8:26 AM CST  ::  tell me a story ::: Wednesday, October 3 ::: WTF: Ja Da I simply don't have the words to describe this. There's a kitten with a huge Magaret Thatcher head, a pixelish bunny, a burning city, and flying fish. Oh, yeah... and the lyrics are in swedish. Good clean fun. [link courtesy of the Usual Suspects] 1:42 PM CST  ::  tell me a story w00t: Cathy Rogers - Junkyard Diva StreetTech interviews Cathy Rogers, host of Junkyard Wars. I never realized that the show was called Scrapheap Challenge in the UK, that certainly explains why they spray paint SCRAPHEAP on every available vertical surface for the UK-produced shows. I always wondered about that. Anyway, go read. 11:56 AM CST  ::  tell me a story Whoa: Motorola creates gas-powered cell phones When I read this headline I envisioned a cellphone with a leaf-blower motor attached. That is, of course, not the case, but wouldn't it be fun if it were? 11:20 AM CST  ::  tell me a story Note to self: SANS 20 Most Critical Internet Security Vulnerabilities (Updated) The SANS Institute has updated their Top 20 list again. This time the dreaded "Default Install" issue has risen to the number one spot on the General List. I suppose it demonstrates just how far marketing has outpaced good judgement that such an easily rectified problem has made it to number one. 11:10 AM CST  ::  tell me a story Heh: Gamers Blow bin Laden Away I suppose that's one way to safely vent your frustration. 11:01 AM CST  ::  tell me a story Uhm, no: Sony cordons off new PCs at retailers Let me get this straight. I'm supposed to be lulled into buying a new Viao simply because I can't try it out first? Isn't that sort of backwards? 10:57 AM CST  ::  tell me a story ::: Tuesday, October 2 ::: I just found out the last four digits of our new telephone number are going to be 5150. I think that's pretty cool. 4:34 PM CST  ::  tell me a story I wonder if it's too late for me to become a farmer. The last two days have been a complete mess. I think I have the problem resolved now, but the solution certainly wasn't a logical one. I hate having to solve problems by trial and error, it's so frustrating. As I mentioned in the comments below, Chele and I are all moved in and are beginning to get settled into our new house. It's a lot more space, but we don't seem to be having much trouble filling it regardless. Once I get a couple black leather recliners we should have all our furniture purchases done. If I did indeed get our little database problem corrected at work, then our regularly scheduled bloggage should return tomorrow. Otherwise, I may be looking into a nice plot of land I saw on the way to work this morning... 1:01 PM CST  ::  tell me a story dinoneil[at]newdream[dot]net