educating eric

Mark Lyon ? Best Buy Sucks / I guess I'm not the only person who has problems with Best Buy! Now that I've seen the reference to the barcode "failing to print properly" in Hotmail, I wonder if the certificates I finally got will actually work?

Close Human Relative Nearly Extinct : "'Bonobos are fascinating creatures and little understood. They have the only great ape society led by females, with a sophisticated social structure that encourages cooperation and peace and settles disputes through sex.'" This is sad. Sounds like my kind of species.

QVC.com Shopping presents the Commodore 64 30-in-1 Classic Plug & Play Video Game . Everything old is new again, right? Man, this is cheaper than my first 3K memory expander for my VIC-20. (Yes, 3K. That's not a typo.)

The prodigal filter has come home! I just found my long-missing infrared pass filter, which I used to use for digital infrared photography. (I'd show off some of the photos, but VillagePhoto.com saw fit to delete my account entirely, so I've lost those photos and have to dig them off an archived CD somewhere. And winter is a horrible time for taking infrared photos... plus my camcorder is being repaired at Best Buy and is two weeks past its estimated return date with no return in sight because they say they sent it to Sony and don't know its status. But I'm not bitter...) So, how'd I find it? While rummaging around for my Fred Phelps footage that I thought was in the closet (no pun intended!) so I could update my seeker.TV site. Amazing how things fit together, isn't it?

FAMVIR Shockwave Ad / In the "You've got to be kidding!" category... is this ad. The link will pop it up for you full-screen; it appeared in a window alongside a Yahoo news story (about the Asian earthquake, no less). Seemed innocent enough... until I actually read the captions that were popping up. I can't guarantee how long the link will work, but until they get rid of it, it's an interesting commentary on advertising today!

GEOVISTA Neighborhood Tours FAQ'S / I thought Microsoft's Terraserver was one of those "breakthrough products"... and I think this is the next one. This is really, really amaing. Here's an example .

CNN.com - Conservative students, liberal profs - Dec 28, 2004 / I've long pondered the arguments that "the one thing we shouldn't tolerate is intolerance" or "the only people we should exclude are those who discriminate" or such. My conservative bretheren would argue those are hypocritical, but I'm not sure -- I think that you can value tolerance and not tolerate those who are intolerant, and in doing so uphold rather than negate your value. But, anyway, this is an interesting article about "liberals" crying "FOUL!" when "conservatives" invoke the concept of "academic freedom" to protect their speech at colleges and universities. Hmmm...

New Candela Photos! By popular demand, here are the latest and greatest photos of Candela. I haven't even taken the time to write any descriptions or cutlines... but at least they're there now!

AxisofLogic/ Religion/World View : "To see what this side is thinking, I recently spent a day watching Christian broadcasting. What struck me most was the emphasis the preachers and talk show hosts placed on the need to get religion into government. They were positively obsessed with it." This is what Wayne Pederson warned about years ago... and his caution to broadcasters got Jim Dobson so fired up that he forced Pederson to resign as NRB president. (Dobson was then censured by the NRB's ethics committee and, rather than humbly apologizing for his misconduct, he chose to resign from the NRB board. I'm not sure that's what Jesus intended as recorded in Matthew 18...)

Yahoo! News - Honeypot Project Finds Unpatched Linux PCs Stay Secure Online For Months : "More important, however, is that hackers are now using tactics to target users, not the systems they work on. The best example is the flood of phishing attacks cranked out by criminals this year that need nothing more than an enticing e-mail message, an easily-duped consumer, and a bogus Web site to haul in dollars and steal identities." Setting up my Dad's new computer a year ago (before SP2 came out) I know from personal experience how quickly a Windows box can get hacked -- and, since you need to put it online to pull down updates from windowsupdate.microsoft.com, you're in a Catch-22. Interesting to see that, like Macs, Linux isn't ( yet ) a popular platform to hack.

Spiricom Years ago I read a book called The Ghost of 29 Megacycles . And after hearing Art Bell make a reference to EVP last night (and his Halloween show, which I missed) I thought I'd check up on it. It's very strange to hear audio clips of exchanges I read about nearly 20 years ago!

I wonder how long it's going to be before I have to deal with "comment SPAM" in my 'blog? Wired 12.03: The Complete Guide to Googlemania! : "Comment spam proliferated throughout the blog sites with amazing speed. One blogger had 120 posts spammed over four days. Thoughtful discussion spaces were besieged by meaningless posts, sometimes in broken English, sometimes with bizarre keywords inserted into otherwise prosaic comments in a sort of spammer Tourette's: 'I greatly appreciate atkins diet the comments here.'"

A blog posting that's covering my two favorite topics: I am Tantalus : "Sunday, December 05, 2004 usual mid-20's food for thought In a recent discussion of religion, I said that if I had to call myself anything, I'd be a maytheist. There may be a god, and there may not. When the end comes, I don't think I'll be surprised either way. I once read a bumper sticker, though, that said 'All acts of love and kindness are my religion.' I really like that. Mythbusters is on. If there is any compelling evidence of the existence of God, it is his/her/its master creation: Kari Byron."

I wondered why the case of Lisa Montgomery (and the cold-blooded slaughter of Bobbie Jo Stinnett) sounded so familiar... and then I remembered a case published on a page about Illinois Commutations : "Fedell Caffey & Jacqueline Williams "Caffey and Williams decided they wanted a baby. So they stabbed to death a pregnant woman, Debra Evans, in her Addison apartment and cut her nearly full-term fetus from her body, according to prosecutors. To eliminate witnesses, they also murdered Evans' 10-year-old daughter, Samantha, and 8-year-old son, Joshua. Another child, Jordan, was spared in the 1995 murder--children under the age of 2 aren't likely to be good witnesses. And the newborn boy also survived. Fortunately, Jordan's grandfather, Sam Evans, says Jordan has no recollection today of the horrors he witnessed. "

Yahoo! News - Conductor Kills Self Inside L.A. Cathedral This is so, so sad. Get it in your head now that suicide never solves anything and really messes up the people you leave behind. That way, if your brain chemistry ever gets unbalanced and you become suicidal, you might remember enough about its horrible effects that you get yourself some help.

Okay, I've seen my share of SPAM, but this is amaing. Maybe the grammar is intentional, to get people like me to open it. The only thing I can think of is that they're using a thesarus to generate new permutations of e-mails in the hopes that more will get through: Spoiled and dissolvable lozenges for genuine guys These tablets are simply similar normal tablets but they are especially explicated to be pliable and soluble under the clapper. The lozenges is sorbed at the oral fissure and gets in the bloodstream direct instead of moving through the tummytum. This effects in a quicker much more vigorous result which run up to 21 hours!

St. Paul Pioneer Press | 12/13/2004 | Nurse defends flu shots Sorry, but I still think this falls into the "dumb" category. But maybe that's just because I know how easy it is for organizations like these to give you plenty of "approvals" to your face and then disavow any knowledge of your actions when they're questioned. Always get everything in writing, right?

Yahoo! News - Doctor: Yushchenko Poisoned With Dioxin This is amazing. Even though people get high-strung in this country over elections, at least we aren't running around poisoning people!

St. Paul Pioneer Press | 12/07/2004 | Nurse claims shots genuine : "Torgerson believed she had sufficient permission to give the shots because students at the information desk of Christensen Center told her she could." What a mess. And, I'm sorry, but this nurse made some really dumb decisions. We're not talking about selling watches that are hanging inside your coat; when you jab people with needles, inject stuff, and then act suspicious, it's going to be a big deal. Right or wrong, it's going to be a big deal!

The Rude Pundit Most of you reading this will find this link horribly offensive (if for nothing else than the language), but it's important reading -- documenting how one or another person's "witness" can have a profound effect on people's lives. And how today's "conventional wisdom" thinks of the "Biblical 'Christ' and his words of, you know, love, peace, and fellowship".

So, some Cathoic priests abuse children, some Protestant ministers have affairs, some televangelists swindle their viewers, and some shaman Hmong shoot people while hunting. Which proves, for sure, that humanity is flawed... The New York Times > National > Hmong Hunter Charged With 6 Murders Is Said to Be a Shaman : "The man charged with murdering six other hunters and wounding two in Wisconsin last week is a Hmong shaman who has called on the spirit world in trances that last up to three hours, his family and friends say. The accused, Chai Soua Vang of St. Paul, seeks 'the other world' when he tries to cure sick people or invoke divine protection for those who request it, said his friend and former hunting companion Ber Xiong. 'He is a special person,' Mr. Xiong said. 'Chai speaks to the other side. He asks the spirits there to release people who are suffering on earth.'"

Lycos launches anti-spam zombie army - ZDNet UK News : "'It's irresponsible of Lycos to put its name to it because it lends legitimacy to [DDoS] attacks,' said Linford. 'You can't break into a thief's house just because he breaks into yours. We don't support this or recommend this practice. Directing traffic is part of the degradation of the Internet we are trying to stop.'" Can you have an idea that's both "good" and "incredibly stupid" at the same time?

Yahoo! News - Netherlands Hospital Euthanizes Babies : "'The slippery slope in the Netherlands has descended already into a vertical cliff,' said Wesley J. Smith, a prominent California-based critic, in an e-mail to The Associated Press." The hard thing here is that people struggle with the difference between forseeing and intending consequences. Killing people isn't the only way to relieve pain. Sometimes, pain relief might result in death... but "intending pain relief and forseeing possible death" is very, very different from "intending death (by means of a pain reliever)."

Delicious Library Nobody needs this application, but it sure would be cool to have! My favorite part is the "barcode scanning" feature. Maybe I could go through my entire library and finally get it organized!

Public Knowledge - The Intellectual Property Protection Act A good reference page on the latest erosion of rights (errr... I mean, "pieces of legislation") before Congress.

St. Paul Pioneer Press | 11/18/2004 | Judge gave sex felon custody of little girl : "Child advocates said Wednesday the decision to award custody of a nonbiological child to a felon with a criminal sexual history was startling." This is unbelievable on so many levels... And provides good ammo for folks who argue that "government" isn't a good mediator of family and social issues. Grab a pen and paper before reading this if you want to keep track of who's-having-children-with-whom, by the way -- this also provides good ammo for those who want to talk about the "breakdown of the family". Yikes.

Is this 34 year old movie clip the inspiration for iPod/iTunes advertisement? This is included here more as a mental note to myself (which, once written, is no longer "mental", but I digress) to consider the kinds of effects we can create on the Videonics MX-1. I'm thinking that a set of inverse colors and high-contrast posterized effects might yield something interesting...

Enough already with Powerpoint - just talk with me! A well-written article on the fact that PowerPoint ain't all it's cracked up to be (from a communication standpoint).

Conservatives Aim to Sink Pirate Act : "At one point, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced legislation that would have held makers of music players like Apple's iPod liable for inducing copyright violations. The legislation, called the Induce Act, was eventually left out of the omnibus package. No so the Pirate Act, however. 'The Pirate Act isn't just ill-conceived, it's bad public policy. It needlessly and harmfully expands the role of government,' Rumenap said. '[Under this bill] Who pays the legal bills for Hollywood? The American taxpayers. And as a bonus, Hollywood companies get to collect the fines.'" One bad bill down, but more to go. Think this battle will ever end?

Panic - Extras - The True Story of Audion . The article itself will only be of interest to Mac geeks, but it has a valuable quotation: "The lesson? It seems you can either be free to do anything you want, to create anything you dream of without answering to anyone, or you can be rich. You're not likely to be both."

In my SPAM of the Day , one "Kelly Wall" asks just one simple question: "Is your Daughter Impotent?" I really don't think so. Really. Trust me. But thanks for asking!

Yahoo! News - In Vegas, an Unholy Alliance Politics make strange... oh, never mind.

A Stolen Election? A more well-reasoned article (by the author of "Why I'm For Kerry", which tells me he's not a Republican shill...)

St. Paul Pioneer Press | 11/09/2004 | Girl dies in bike-car crash : "In a rush to ride those two blocks home, Emily darted across the street against the red light. She didn't use the crosswalk at Upper 182nd Street West." In nine years, this could be Candela. How do you teach kids safe conduct in the face of the temptation of shortcuts for candy's sake? Yikes...

Evidence Mounts That The Vote May Have Been Hacked I'm as wary of computerized voting as anyone, but this seems to be jumping to conclusions.. although if you postulate that "greys" were using telepathy in black helicopters spreading chem-trails above the polling places, it makes more sense.

Boston.com / News / Nation / Siblings are convicted in first felony spam case; 1 acquitted Let's hope this is a lesson go SPAMmers... though it really only affects dumb SPAMmers.

Yahoo! News - Election Will Prompt Democratic Soul-Searching Will this be my one and only comment on the election? Probably not...

I think this relates to some kind of "sporting event" that's been going on, but that's about all I know. It's fascinating, nonetheless. Boston.com / Sports / Baseball / Red Sox / Curt clears the air : "I never asked the Lord for a win, or a strikeout, or to be better than anyone on the other team. I simply asked him to provide with the strength to get to the mound and compete, and to give me the strength to glorify Him when I was done. I have had the opportunity to do this in my career, and until this year I had basically passed. No more. Like every other time in my life when I looked to him for help, for answers, He answered. But this time He answered in a way I felt. I always thought that when I asked, he was supposed to answer in a way I could easily see and understand, but I know now that a lot of times I am asking for one thing when I really mean something else, or asking for something I don't need. So now I stop asking the old way, and start lett...

The Evolution of Senator Kerry on Abortion: 1972-2004 Okay, I try not to antagonize people with my politics, but reviewing John Kerry's position on abortion has me really terrified. My position is that we really don't know the status of the fetus -- whether it's an individual human life, has a soul, etc. Therefore, we ought to err on the side of caution and not kill it. That's in no way a religious position; it's thoroughly scientific, and many atheists share that view. As far as we know, from a medical standpoint, a fetus is as much of a "person" as you can get. From a secular, scientific standpoint, there isn't some spooky "soul" that flies into the kid on some special day. So, at conception, you're as human as you get, with all the rights that come with "humanity." The most coherent pro-choice position, which very few pro-choice advocates actually use, is that we don’t know whether the fetus is a human being so...

How Much is Inside a Sharpie? - part 1 Wow, this is dumb. Interesting, but really dumb.

Suspicious Circumstances Given what appears to be a fairly low standard of evidence for conviction in civil suits (compared to criminal prosecution), I wonder why we haven't seen someone file one on behalf of Terri Schiavo?

St. Paul Pioneer Press | 10/21/2004 | '205 Tilley' downplays speed to other bikers I'm still waiting for someone to step up and use this as an example of how unreliable speed measurement by law enforcement officers can be.

The Cold Equations, by Tom Godwin An interesting ethical issue... though, really, no different than the old "lifeboat" excercises in philosophy class...

Yahoo! News - U.S. to Poison Prairie Dogs in South Dakota What a shame that we have to kill off creatures that are so cute. Man, are they cute! Trust me. They're cute.

Yahoo! News - Andrew Kantor: CyberSpeak - Mac users froth, while Linux users befriend : This article's headline holds a lot of promise of some interesting analysis, and it's interesting writing... but the only reference to Linux in the body is "I think Macs do a lot right, and some wrong. Ditto for Windows. Ditto for Linux." How does that actually compare Mac users to Linux users? Am I missing something?

The Power of Concentration by Theron Q. Dumont - Project Gutenberg Every once in a awhile I actually click on an advertisement, and one just brought me to "www.greatnessheldhostage.com/success.html". There you read about a wonderful "out of print" book from 1918 that changed this guy's life -- and it'll change yours too, after you send him $29.95 for his "system" and receive the book for free. Of course, Project Gutenberg has it for free as well. Free free. Like, totally free. I think that's a better deal.

Quilt Founder Falls From Grace Ten years ago (just shy by a few weeks; I think it was November) I worked with the lecture committee to bring in Cleve Jones, founder of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. Sadly, things aren't going well in what I still believe is a very, very valuable project... But I'm glad to hear Cleve is doing well (or was, a few months ago).

Sacred Secrets : "This is the clue Ed Leedskalnin left for us that opens the door to the hidden magnetic phase patterns of Nature. this force he called the Cosmic Force.The ancient's called it the 'Flower of life' We call it sacred Geometry .This is the secret to understanding all of natures creations." I've been fascinated with the "Coral Castle" in Florida ever since I saw an episode of In Search Of... that featured it years and years ago. (Think 1970s.) This guy says he found the secret. Seems clear to me. Glad we got that answered. :)

Shelter Skelter The Internet is a wonderful thing, but sometimes the information out there is frustratingly incomplete. I remember this particular episode of "The New Twilight Zone" from years ago, but I can't find anything more than this official description repeated over and over across a variety of sites.

Biodiesel: Journey to Forever I'm not sure I'd want to start a biodiesel experiment by planting sunflower seeds, but if you want to go that route, here's how to do it.

The battle to preserve the house that Steve Jobs bought / Apple chief wants to tear down this 'abomination' : "Peter Stent, a retired venture capitalist, is one among many residents disturbed by the implications of the debate, as well as future preservation restrictions, as a potential threat to property rights. 'The structure in question is neither virginal nor unique,' he said. 'Jackling may be well known in his day, but he's not the equivalent of Steve Jobs.'" An interesting "property rights" debate! And, having Steve Jobs in the mix doesn't make it any less interesting.

Announcements from the South Brunswick Board of Education : "I fully support the actions of the Principal and Assistant Principal. It is never acceptable for a teacher to utilize the classroom to advocate for political purposes or advance personal beliefs. The courts have always admonished teachers for proselytizing in public school classrooms. This issue is not about a picture of the President, but rather a zealous misuse of seventh and eighth grade student instructional time. "The South Brunswick School community is enormously respectful of the Office of the President of the United States, President Bush and the democratic process for choosing our President. Anyone trying to suggest the contrary has the worst of intentions. Under other circumstances, the display of a picture of the President would have been viewed as completely appropriate and uncontroversial. It is important to note that pictures of President Bush are openly displayed in all of the South Brunswick Scho...

New York Post Online Edition: news : "October 2, 2004 -- A New Jersey public-school teacher claims she was bushwhacked by her principal yesterday when he ordered her to 'get out' of the building after she refused to remove a photo of President Bush and the first lady from her classroom. "The White House-issued photo of the Bushes was pinned to a bulletin board that held portraits of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and a copy of the Constitution." Speaking of politics... it seems fairly politically stupid of a school's administration to pick a fight like this, doesn't it?

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Science/Health -- Perish the thought If you become a scientist, be careful, okay? I'm glad Ruth is a teacher...

Satan's little helper drinks Diet Coke | Perspectives | CNET News.com The only thing that got me interested in this article was the fact that I got a "File Not Found" error when I tried to read it through AvantGo on my PocketPC, making me wonder if some hacker had snuck a weird link onto the CNET site. But, no, it's a real article -- and an interesting one about streaming/sharing video.

Subservient Chicken A certain blogging friend of mine, whose blog is getting really out of date BTW, mentioned this site... but I'm too scared to type anything in. I suppose I could plug in my headphones and see what happens with "Cluck". Just gotta spell it right. (This reminds me of something from Nature's End , which was a Witley Strieber/James Kunetka novel -- the same authors of WarDay. I haven't read it in awhile, but there was reference to something called a "conviction", where a few programmers were licensed to develop an interactive program based on famous people. A kind of "artificial intelligence" based on the intelligence/personality of a particular individual. It seemed incredible at the time, and I don't think we'll ever be able to replicate a person in a computer given the nature of the human mind, but we're getting closer and closer to a decent emulation of it.)

Annenberg/CPB In the "Y'all better not suck this dry and ruin it for the rest of us" category, here's an awesome site full of streaming educational video. Want to know about Film Noir or Greek Civilization? It's in here... free for the downloading.

Big Brother is getting better and better at watching, right? Yahoo! News - Spy Imagery Agency Watching Inside U.S. : "The agency is not interested in information on U.S. citizens, stresses Americas office director Bert Beaulieu. 'We couldn't care less about individuals and people and companies,' he said. But that's not good enough for secrecy expert Steven Aftergood, who oversees a project on government secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists. 'What it all boils down to is 'Trust us. Our intentions are good,'' he said. Adds Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington: 'As a general matter, when there are systems of public surveillance, there needs to be public oversight.'"

A visual guide to navigating blog comments | Blog | 1976design.com Since I've been playing with my blog (boy, does that sound bad!) I figured I'd turn on "comments" and see if anyone is reading this -- and dares to comment on something I've posted. This particular post isn't very comment-worthy, but seemed relevant.

Small Times: News about MEMS, Nanotechnology and Microsystems Addressing the issue, "Is 'better' always better?"

Yahoo! News - Google Search Reveals Credit-Card Numbers : Wow. This is really frightening -- Google is great, but has a dark side!

The Worst Interface Ever Sadly, I could see myself designing a system that's this stupid... Though, as far as I know, I don't think I ever have ... yet.

FOX 9 Investigators Another story by the crack FOX 9 team, which means either it's accurate or it isn't. Good to see that our tax dollars are being well spent...

Popular Science | Taking it to the Streets This is one of those "Why didn't I think of that?!?" technologies. It's the same concept as Sky Typing (the modern cousin to skywriting). The concept is solenoid-controlled spray chalk pulled behind a bicycle...

St. Paul Pioneer Press | 08/27/2004 | 472 schools put on fix-it list : "Roseville Superintendent John Thein compared the list to a teacher ridiculing and shaming a student for getting four answers wrong on a 150-question test then publishing the results in the newspaper." I can move on from criticizing DMCA to criticizing NCLB.

The New York Times > International > Europe > A French Employee's Work Celebrates the Sloth Ethic : "Without the company's maneuver, Ms. Maier's book would probably have quietly gone out of print. Instead, her publisher, Editions Michalon, sold out the first printing of 4,000 copies and has ordered three successive reprints in the past three months: 15,000 copies have been printed so far..." I'm surprised at how few companies follow the typical "ignore it and it will go away" rule.

FT.com / Comment & analysis / Columnists - James Boyle: The Apple of forbidden knowledge A good article on the concept of intellectual property and Apple's claim that Real unethically "hacked" the iPod. Note once again that this helps to explain what a horribly bad law the DMCA is!

Yahoo! News - Hacker Cracks Apple's Streaming Technology : This story mentions that the hacker's web site is "defiantly named 'So Sue Me'." I bet the author of the story has no idea that Apple's system sound "Sosumi" was so-named because the Beatles sued them for... get this! ...entering the music business! (See the Wikipedia article .)

Voluntary Simplicity Overview My life is far from "simple", but I suspect it's a lot more simple than others', and whatever simplicity I live is voluntary.

BocaNews.com Another SPAMmer ("Creaghan A. Harry") bites the dust!

Yahoo! News - Bloggers Type It Like It Is in Boston Okay, I appreciate the fact that professional journalists have gone through some training and education (remember my Dad's profession?), but come on -- it's not rocket science! Does anyone really think that the human beings employed by newspapers deserve sainthood and that blogger = demon? "Lay people" can write. It's okay. More communication is better than less!

One-Issue Politics, One-Issue Marriage, and the Humane Society : "So then what is my response to the charge of being a one-issue voter?" Like John Piper, I have folks criticize me for being a "one-issue voter". He does a much better job than I could of explaining the fact that some single issues really can disqualify you from things, no matter how many good qualities you might possess to "balance out" the others.

EFF: Unintended Consequences: Five Years under the DMCA One more, just for folks who say, "Sure, something bad might happen in theory , but nobody is really going to use the law in that way..."

The DMCA More on the evil, evil law that I keep talking about.

Use the (PureDigital) Dakota Digital Camera with your PC An interesting tidbit on the technical side. The last "disposable digital cameras" that I saw were standard film cameras with a marketing deal to return your "prints" on a Kodak PictureCD or such. This site refers to some genuine "disposable" digital cameras that, if you hack, you can make use of yourself...

Wired News: Techies Blast Induce Act Looks like there's hope to putting an end to this stupid, stupid bill -- but I'm not holding my breath.

Antipiracy bill gains new ally | CNET News.com This Induce Act is the dumbest thing since the DMCA. It's amazing what you can come up with when you put non-technologists in charge of technology policy.

Microsoft pays to end Lindows suits | CNET News.com A win for both the little guy (who's $20m richer) and for Microsoft (which doesn't risk losing the "Windows" TM entirely).

St. Paul Pioneer Press | 07/09/2004 | Thief returns sculpture : "Sculptor Aldo Moroni was parking his car Thursday morning at his Northeast Minneapolis studio and noticed the sculpture in some brush, a discovery that left him near tears." What once was lost, now is found.

Yahoo! News - Expanded DVD Capacity Comes at a Cost : "Recordable DVDs are about to double their capacity, with a further sixfold increase around the corner." Everyone knows about the double-layer (or is that "dual-layer"?) DVDs -- the burners are out but the media is nearly impossible to find. But now we're looking at a "next generation" with a sixfold increase?!? I can't keep up!

Candela's photos are now updated better than ever. Enjoy!

St. Paul Pioneer Press | 07/07/2004 | Church, community 'ripped off' Who would steal a sculpture from a church? Planning to sell it on eBay or something?

BBC NEWS | Disposable planet Another very good story (fairly old -- from 2002) that I'm moving off my main site because it's really "blog-like" material instead. Here's what I had originally said: "The 'ethics of technology' is a personal interest of mine... rekindled by an article from the BBC about technology "recycling" in China. An interesting read if you want to depress yourself about the darker side of the equipment that's in front of you right now.?"

Animal Protection Institute - Bringing Corporate Accountability to General Mills I finally decided to pull this off my main web page (I think it was this story that inspired my need for a 'blog...) so here it is, saved for posterity: "So, I'm having lunch, happily eating my Yoplait yogurt, when I see some tiny print that says: "PROTECT WILDLIFE: CRUSH BEFORE DISPOSAL". What on earth did that mean? A quick search turned up a story (several years old) from the Animal Protection Institute. Did you ever realize that Yoplait kills skunks?"

Yahoo! News - Digital Video Makes Inroads With Police An interesting concept -- a kind of "Tivo on steriods", it seems.

ARCHOS - Cinema to go Wow! Wow! WOW! This thing is cool! The Pocket Video Recorder AV400 Series is the ultimate handheld digital video recorder that offers TV recording and a portable home entertainment center in one pocket-sized device.   The experience starts in the living room where you can record TV shows and movies directly from a TV, VCR, or cable / satellite receiver with a convenient one-time set-up TV Cradle.  But entertainment enjoyment goes far beyond the living room.  When on the go, you can watch videos and view photos on the large color LCD screen, listen to and record music, transfer photos from your digital camera and data files from your PC.

I have stolen control of Eric's computer! Long live the revolution!!!! GlobeXplorer ImageAtlas (This message brought to you by Rob Crawford, who discovered the little "B" button in my browser toolbar. That'll teach me not to log out of my own site on my own computer in my own home! ---Eric)

Upgrade or Wipe-and-Load: Choosing the Best Scenario for Deploying Windows XP Professional : "This white paper describes the advantages and disadvantages of each scenario and ends with a strong recommendation that you choose to use wipe-and-load instead of upgrading computers." In all the years of working with Windows, nothing has changed! To be honest, I did an upgrade from 2000 to XP (just to see if it was as horrible as it used to be) and it worked great, aside from a hiccup in WMP. So I'm surprised Microsoft disavows upgrading!

Yahoo! News - Media Hubs Bridge PC, Living Room Gap Looks like some of this technology has potential, but isn't quite ready for prime time... no pun intended.

Free Hit Counter, web counter with website stats GoStats.com I haven't used this in ages, but my biggest Google return is from these GoStats folks, so maybe I should throw it back on my 'blog?

Beastie Boys CD installs virus | The Register : My favorite line here is "Carefully log the time needed to do this and include it in your criminal complaint."

Yahoo! News - Philips Launches World's Fastest DVD Burner These things just get faster and faster...

Madonna Lyrics - Nothing Fails (Nevins Mix) - Lyrics Crawler : "I'm not religious, but I feel so moved Makes me want to pray, pray you'll always be here I'm not religious, but I feel such love Makes me want to pray" I never listened to the lyrics of this song before, but they're kind of interesting... Madonna's definition of "I'm not religious" and all...

bit-tech :: Orac3 - Part 5 Okay, it's neat looking and all... but it's just a computer!

Berkeley Lab Physicist Challenges Speed of Gravity Claim Following up on a Blog post from ages ago, it looks like we still don't know what the "speed of gravity" is. But maybe someday, right?

mansfield reformatory Since we have friends who moved back to their hometown of Mansfield (Ohio), I wonder if we could stop by and visit this place...

FBI investigates underground tunnel requests - The Daily Texan - Top Stories Seems kinda disturbing to me that you could file a legitimate FOIA request and end up getting investigated by the FBI. Can anyone say "chilling effect"?

PCWorld.com - Inke Unveils Clean, Cheap Ink Jet Refills Ah! At least I found a review of it. I'm not too sure I'm interested in buying refill cartridges so I can refill my cartridge... Hmmm... If I were desperate to actually do this the way they describe, I'm thinking that a bunch of ink and an air compressor would do the trick (and, believe me, I'm not that desperate to avoid the task of poking a hole in my cartridge when the time comes for a refill...)

:::Ink? Inkjet Auto Refill System::: I doubt this Google cache link will work, but since www.inke.com.sg appears to be down at the moment, it's all I've got. (The one time I click on a banner add for a product that seems interesting, and I can't get there! Amazing!)

Easy to Use / What do Macs and Islam have in common? Who'd have thought you could compare the two?

Play your favorite 1980s arcade games online. FREE! Shockwave, Java and DOS video games for your PC. Brought to you by Triplets and Us Now that classes are done for the semester, I found how I'm going to spend the next couple of weeks! Just kidding... I hope!

Hutchison Effect - American Antigravity Here's how to create your very own hoax (and I only needed to use common sense for this one -- no Googling or anything... yet.): Step 1: Attach a camera to a piece of plywood Step 2: Set something on the plywood. Use a tiny bit of sticky tape or such for a more dramatic effect Step 3: Turn plywood upside down Step 4: Send footage to Coast-to-Coast AM web site

I just saw my favorite commercial -- one for Zoloft, with that poor little depressed blob that gets to be all happy and bouncy when it goes on an antidepressant. If I ever need an antidepressant, I'm asking my doctor for... well, at that point I probably won't remember the name "Zoloft", and I'll have to ask my doctor for "the one with the cute little blob", at which point he'll probably do more than just give me an antidepressant. And, frankly, I'm lying to you; I don't even have a doctor. I just go to whichever one is available at the clinic my HMO will pay for. SO can't even "ask my doctor" anything. :) Someone else had the same love for the commercial that I did, and you can find her question (and its answer) here .

Yahoo! News - Will Windows Power the Living Room? : " I can't wait until 2006! Seriously, this is an interesting idea (the pieces are in place to do it now) but it'll be awhile before it's all pulled together... 'This is not a product announcement; it is a demonstration of a concept,' he says. 'Over the next 12 to 18 months you will see many of the technologies that we are showing here shipping in PCs. The full end-to-end scenario of the concept, we're thinking is kind of a 2006 scenario.' "

CBS News | Abuse Of Iraqi POWs By GIs Probed | April 30, 2004 Man, I can't believe it. Stupid, stupid, stupid. STUPID! But, hey, if you're a part-time soldier who's being rewarded for extracting confessions and none of your commanders even bother to fill you in on this little thing called the "Geneva Convention", this is bound to happen..

TTS Interactive Demo It amazes me how good speech synthesis is getting!

C-Net 64 Preview Page When C-Net wasn't a techie news site...

Impossible Mission Strategy Guide Speaking of Impossible Mission, here's a guide with screen captures of every single room!

chaotic n-space network Here's the story of "Impossible Mission", an old Commodore 64 game. Man, do I miss those days! I remember having bought the game mail-order and receiving it when we were at the cabin and my computer was in the Cities, so I spent the entire drive home reading the manual. (I particularly remember sitting in our Ford Fiesta with the windows down in Lake Nebagamon.) I would play this game for hours and hours, and managed to win a few times in the end...

Engagement Theory: : "Engagement theory is based upon the idea of creating successful collaborative teams that work on ambitious projects that are meaningful to someone outside the classroom. These three components, summarized by Relate-Create-Donate, imply that learning activities occur in a group context (i.e., collaborative teams), are project-based, [and] have an outside (authentic) focus" Just heard about this theory/framework/whatever, and it sounds really interesting; nice to see a goal of "donating" your learnings back out to a broader community...

Researchers follow their electronic nose - ExpressNews - University of Alberta : What I really want to know is the particulars of their "inexpensive electronic parts that can be found in any hardware store. "

Yahoo! News - DVD War Looms As Advancements Get Closer Man, I remember when the concept of "gigabytes" on a CD-sized disc sounded like a pipe dream...

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Computers (Word of Mouth) Just got some SPAM (which insists it isn't SPAM... which is a good sign that something actually is SPAM!) from a similar company: -----Original Message----- From: ShareYourExperiences Support [mailto:experience.request@shareyourexperiences.org] Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2004 8:39 AM To: [my e-mail address] Subject: Experience Request Posted #################################Someone has just begun the process of sharing experiences and opinions about you in our experience sharing community. This email IS NOT spam. If this email was delivered to your bulk email or spam folder please notify your ISP or spam filtering company regarding this mistake on their part. You may view this Request to Share Experiences here: http://shyex.com/switch/pass.php?a=search&b=5&c=[my e-mail address] An Experience Request is simply an indication of a user\'s interest in sharing the experiences that he ...

Twin Cities Free Market THIS IS SUCH A GOOD IDEA!!! (Yes, I'm shouting with glee...)