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::: Wednesday, December 31 ::: |
Hi. Long time no see. How have you been? Me? I've had the flu. Yep, that flu.
Do not, as I did, scoff at this particular strain as being no worse than prior years. The CDC does not fuck around. When they say this is some mean shit, they're preaching gospel, brothers and sisters.
In the last two weeks I have experienced things heretofor only read about in the most fanciful of speculative fiction. Temperature swings of epic proportions followed by a small window of "not bad" just to set you off balance and get you thinking the worst is over. Only to drag you back into madness, as you claw uselessly at the bedclothes while watching "I Love The 70's" for a mind-numbing, spirit-crushing thirtieth time and shoving OTC remedies into your mouth.
To put it bluntly, this flu sucks. Avoid it at all costs. In other news, I've been awake for a little over 30 hours now and the edge of my vision is beginning to gray out a little bit. It's probably for the best that I don't have anything planned for New Year's Retchin' Eve this year.
If things go as planned, I shall be rested and ready to face 2004 when I return to work on Friday. Also, monkeys might fly out my butt. One can never tell.
9:40 AM CST ::
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::: Tuesday, December 23 ::: |
Yep: The Joy of Tech! [12/23/03]
This just about captures life around our house this past week. I officially started my vacation yesterday morning and officially started getting a sore throat Sunday night before bed. It never fails.
Anyway, I hope everyone has a nice holiday season. I'm going to get some more Alka-Setzer Plus.
5:27 PM CST ::
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::: Friday, December 19 ::: |
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::: Wednesday, December 17 ::: |
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Wow: Bush OKs spam bill--but critics not convinced
I'm impressed. Both the FTC and the National Association of Attorneys General think that CAN-SPAM is not only unsupportable, but that it could actually prevent spammers from being prosecuted who would have been stopped under the old laws. If the people who are supposed to enforce your new law says it is full of shit, then I doubt there are many reasons to consider it viable.
It all boils down to Bush needing to appear to be doing something to fight spam. Just like our new quagmire in Iraq was launched so that it would appear he is doing something about terrorism. If he is able steal another election in 2004, it will be a direct result his handlers making damn sure that it appears actions are being taken.
Anybody done a Google search on "miserable failure" lately?
4:18 PM CST ::
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Yowza: E-Voting Undermined by Sloppiness
"The audit uncovered discrepancies between what Diebold said was installed in counties and what auditors actually found. At least five counties were using versions of software or firmware that were different from what Diebold indicated they were using. All counties were using uncertified software."
This problem is not going to go away without a tremendous amount of personal investment by officials at every level. Hopefully, a 0% success rate on this audit will be bad enough to shock them into action. I'm not holding my breath though.
4:03 PM CST ::
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::: Tuesday, December 16 ::: |
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Hmm: Canada deems P2P downloading legal
It's amazing how level-headed the Canadian government seems to be. They aren't declaring that P2P will be legal forever, but downloading for personal is cool with them. Now that the Copyright Board has made their opinion known it is up to the courts to decide which way to go.
It's somewhat refreshing to think that it is possible to have a government that serves the public rather than searching out new ways to shackle them.
2:07 PM CST ::
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Yep: Longhorn could be 2008, says Gartner
We think that if Microsoft can't nail Longhorn down absolutely to 2006 pretty soon, it's going to have to come up with some interim ideas to hold the fort.
My thoughts exactly. Microsoft is very close to a beta release of XP SR2 for 2004 (WinXPSP2.doc) which could conceivably be rebranded as WinXP 2.0 (or something less logical) should Microsoft choose to do so. Since they did that once before with Windows ME, the move would not be unprecedented.
I just hope that XP2 turns out better than WinME did.
1:45 PM CST ::
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::: Friday, December 12 ::: |
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I updated my links page again. Since I intend to use this page to surf from home while on vacation, I went ahead and included links to my favorite news sites.
You're welcome.
11:41 AM CST ::
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::: Wednesday, December 10 ::: |
Hmm: Gore Backs Dean in 2004
Interesting. I never really considered Mr. Gore presidential material. Don't get me wrong, he's an honorable man and a hard worker, but I think it takes more than that. It will be interesting to see how the GOP will react to this.
[thanks to Ceej for the link]
4:12 PM CST ::
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Uhm: Microsoft wins HTML application patent
"On a page about HTML applications on its Developer Network site, Microsoft described the technique as a way to harness HTML's power while bypassing its network and interface-related restrictions."
Is it just me or does this seem like an extraordinarily bad idea? Such HTML "applications" are implicitly trusted and excluded from Internet Exploiter's zoned security restrictions. Perhaps Microsoft would like to send worm and virus writers a box of chocolates as well.
In other news, ZDNet says we should look forward to more security woes. Small wonder, huh?
3:31 PM CST ::
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::: Monday, December 8 ::: |
Hah: Young men are abandoning network TV
The networks are in denial. Yes, of course, it simply *must* be Nielsen that has it wrong. Well, I'm here to tell you that network tv sucks and has sucked for some time now.
The reason that we're not watching now is because there are better alternatives. Cartoon Network, TLC, Discovery, and Comedy Central offer better original programming to name but a few. If it weren't for needing a local source for storm warnings, I doubt I would keep the network channels at all.
As far as the 18-34 set abandoning Friends, that's a no brainer. No one wants to watch fantasy people get old, get married, and have kids. That sort of thing tends to intrude on the fantasy element of it all.
[thanks to Jake for the link]
4:44 PM CST ::
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::: Monday, December 1 ::: |
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dinoneil[at]newdream[dot]net
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