An animal rights extremist wanted for allegedly bombing two San Francisco-area office buildings in 2003 has been added to our Most Wanted Terrorists list—the first domestic terrorist to be included with international terrorists such as Usama Bin Laden.

Daniel Andreas San Diego, 31, should be considered armed and dangerous. His domestic acts of terror were planned to destroy property, to cause economic hardship for the companies he targeted, and possibly to take lives—one of his bombs was laced with nails to create potentially deadly shrapnel. We are offering a reward of up to $250,000 for information directly leading to his arrest.

Note: not a foreigner, not Muslim.

I implore you to take action on the recent troubles in Israel/Palestine. It would seem to be clear to anyone with any moral fiber that Israel has more than "retaliated" for any actions taken by Hamas especially since it is clear that Israel is the violator of the most recent cease fire. The people who are forced to reside in Gaza, who have no escape, no means to defend themselves, no means to even feed themselves and keep warm under the current blockade, are clearly victims of the worst kind.

I don't expect that anything will resolve this current escalation to any one's satisfaction, but at least we can pressure the Israeli government to stop the carnage, and we can work to stop supporting a country that most of the world, and the UN, have branded a criminal due to this and other recent actions which they have taken in clear violation of criminal law. To believe that this is simply "defense of Israel" is a joke as clear as day when the casualties on both sides are compared, and when we remember that Gaza is nothing more than a giant prison.

Please do your best to find any way to cease the current hostilities and save any lives possible if simply just to save the innocent from the arrogant men who presume to speak for them.

Just finished a most outstanding book, and I believe a must read for all Muslims, and any non-Muslims concerned about the world. Professor El Fadl lays down a very convincing argument for the reality of the split in world Muslim population between what he terms "purists" and "moderates". As a moderate Muslim who thought he, at best, didn't agree with the purists, I think I am now convinced that the "purists" are truly a cancer in the body of Islam and must be removed in any way possible. The first step? Clearly identify this cancerous growth, which is exactly what the esteemed professor has done. Next up? Fight the cancer with the best weapons we have, which apparently is intellect, scholarly pursuits, and the dissemination of proper Islamic teachings to expose these twisted "puritan" beliefs for what they are, and steal back our faith.

Once you have set a variable's value, you cannot change or modify that value!

Doesn't common sense suggest that we cannot grow forever?

The emphasis is mine:

Alinoor Ahmed Sheikh, a Somali based in an asylum hostel in Tralee, was to have been honoured for his work raising funds for Amnesty International at a ceremony last Thursday organised by the Africa Centre in Dublin. The event was designed to highlight the positive work done by refugees and asylum seekers in Irish communities.

Five minutes before Benedicta Attoh, a member of the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism, was due to present the award she was told not to call out Sheikh’s name. "The judges had decided that someone else should get the award," said Attoh, chairwoman of the Africa Centre's board.

«snip»

"I don't think I would have presented his prize if he wouldn’t shake my hand because I’m a woman," she said.

[ Islamophobia Watch ]

How can you be on a committee who is clearly against racism and for interculturalism and then somehow be offended by someone else's culture? Perhaps the NCCRI is for racism and against interculturalism? Irregardless of whether the gentleman is correct or not about his particular flavor of his professed religion, if he believes that it is forbidden or even impolite to shake hands with the opposite gender, we should vilify him and take the award away? Something is really wrong here, and the message it sends is don't seek asylum in Ireland unless you plan on leaving your own beliefs and culture where you have been forced out of...

The founders of Ben & Jerry's endorsed Barack Obama on Monday, and lent his Vermont campaign two "ObamaMobiles" that will tour the state and give away scoops of "Cherries for Change" ice cream.

[ Ben & Jerry's founders endorse Obama - Yahoo! News ]

This is what is wrong with the press, there are dozens of stories across the Internets about this publicity stunt. As far as I can tell not one mentions what the flavor is. Nor do any mention if this is a one-up publicity flavor or if it is going to be available nation-wide. No story mentions the availability, or the ObamaMobile routes, or existence of the flavor outside Vermont, or even why cherries would be for change.

I like cherries. I like Chery Garcia. I like premium ice cream with cherries. Blah blah blah Obama, what about the real story here, it's all about the Cherries! Next time, press, ask what is in the frick'n ice cream already.

Lee Siegel argues that our ever-deepening immersion in life online doesn't just reshape the ordinary rhythms of our days; it also reshapes our minds and culture, in ways with which we haven't yet reckoned.

[ Amazon.com ... The Kindle Store ]

To hear the guy you'd think we're all headed towards living in caves sealed off from each other only relating via computers and in totally inadequate ways. Sounds like he doesn't like the electronic life, or the always on connection. Read all about it on your Kindle. Yes, he's selling a Kindle version. Hope this sells 0 copies.

A lecturer has criticised students for relying on websites like Google and Wikipedia to do their thinking for them.

Professor Tara Brabazon, from the University of Brighton, said too many young people around the world were taking the easy option when asked to do research and simply repeating the first things they found on internet searches.

[ Lecturer Bans Students From Using Google And Wikipedia (from The Argus) ]

I certainly hope she doesn't stop at this point and also bans them from using the computer to find books in the library. Card Catalog was good enough for her, why can't these kids just prepare for their future in the past, after all once they leave the university they won't have Google and Wikipedia to use as resources.

And ban copy machines and typewriters too, if 14th century monks could write out dozens of bibles in their lifetime, seems a student shouldn't rely on these modern crutches and just pick up a quill and vellum as we did before that accursed Gutenberg invented his devil contraption.

Props to Mak.

You are part of the problem. Apparently some news sources don't get it. When covering horrific acts of extremist fringe groups most if not all news outlets will not discuss or publish the goals of those groups, and for a good reason, to help them get their message out, or lend credence to their movement, would be a crime by assisting those who perpetrated the horrible acts. However US news outlets don't seem to understand that is exactly what the do when covering stories like the recent bombing in Hyderabad, India.

First a little background of the city:

Hyderabad is a unique cosmopolitan city and home to people practicing Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, and Zoroastrianism. Hyderabadis have developed their own distinctive culture, which is a mixture of ancient Hindu traditions of Telugu people and the centuries old Islamic Culture.

...

The cities population is estimated at 3.6 million or more in 2006 while the population of the greater metropolitan area is estimated at over 6.1 million. Religiously and culturally, the city is united with Christians, Hindus and Muslims. The main languages spoken are Telugu, Hindi,Tamil,Urdu and Deccani.

[ Wikipedia ]

Basically Hyderabad is a true success story of a people of different cultures and religions working together for the common good, just the sort of thing that extremists who pretend to have an Islamic bent, just can't stand. How to deal with this "blemish" in their rhetoric of the "two worlds"? Simple, drive a wedge between the Muslims and their neighbors with a terror act. If people die, and it's determined that the "Muslims" did it, the other communities will trust them less and withdrawal from cross-cultural and cross-religious engagements where they can.

So then, what are the voices of reason to do to fight this? Don't highlight the cause of these extremists by labeling this a "Muslim" or "Islamic" act. If we treat these vile extremists as just that, and make sure to use labels that aren't divisive, we hopefully act against their desires and help to invalidate their actions, and at least we don't assist them with their evil intentions. So who can we rely on to just not "get it"?

But, you may say, some of these sources are just quoting Indian officials who are saying that themselves. It's a tricky game these militant extremists play and just because the Indian government has fallen for their trap, doesn't mean news organizations should follow. Does this act make any more sense to anyone by using the self proclaimed label of the organization responsible? And certainly does this act represent, in anyone's mind, what any self-respecting, honest, Muslim from the majority of Muslims ever consider acceptable behavior? This linkage of the words "Muslim" and "Islam" to acts like this is the goal of these organizations. They want you to believe that this is what Islam stands for so that you will distance yourself from the Muslims of the world. Then they will have a much easier time to recruit additional followers and create a larger and larger rift between the decent people of the world, and we're helping them.

And before you jump all over me for this rant, ask yourself why a story like this one on CNN.com doesn't refer to these bombers as "Christian Terrorists".

Note: my survey was very unscientific I simply picked the first story about the bombings in India that I found on each site. Oh, and I was very surprised by the Washington Post and Reuters.

How to build a Mosquito trap.

Materials Needed:

2000ml (2 liter) bottle
50 gram (brown?) sugar
1 gram yeast
Thermometer
Measure cup
Knife
Black paper

[ DIY:happy Quick and Dirty Mosquito Trap ]

That looks pretty darn easy. And would last much much longer than the crappy repellents I've tried so far. Plus, unlike a repellent, this gets rid of the buggers.

Treehugger often says that cities are the most sustainable way to live. The converse is that suburban sprawl is probably the worst.

[ Ten Things Wrong With Sprawl (TreeHugger) ]

Who knew my mad ravings were good arguments?

Apparently a Muslim woman in the UK wore an all-over swimsuit to go swimming in Britain and received a bit of flack for it. I just need someone to explain this logic to me:

I'll tell you why you shouldn't go swimming like this in Britain; it's because women in this country are equal to men and are not obliged to cover themselves up when swimming - or indeed at any other time - because some men somewhere have decided that's how it has to be. Women in Britain fought for and died for the right to be equal. In this country we are able to dress, or undress, exactly as we see fit. If that's not your choice, poor you. But don't be surprised when people mock you and pass comment on your totally inappropriate clothing for swimming.

[ Comment by Linda Allan of Bath - The Guardian ]

This is the problem with "freedom" in the west, and likewise the issue I've always had with women's rights in the west. The freedom and choice were hard fought and won, and if you don't use that freedom to choose exactly the same as everyone else, then you are an affront to that freedom. But how is that freedom?

One of the things I've come to respect the most about my wife's country of Indonesia is their respect and reverence for the different traditions, ways, cultures, and practices of the peoples of their country and ultimately the world. They understand that each people have their own adat, and in order to be civilized there must be respect for each other.

Props to Islamophobia Watch.

When you need a travel deal, there's only one man you should turn to — the Negotiator. He'll get you low prices, and he'll look good doing it. Watch the Negotiator in action, or download a piece of the legend today!

[ priceline.com: See Shatner in action as the Negotiator ]

Keep this up. Hopefully you can buy up all the spots that Geico's Caveman adverts were thinking of buying. Geico? Watch these and learn, and then go entertain me.

Since it is Ramadan I will attempt avoid name calling and beratement and try to keep it above the belt, but Starbucks Gossip has a point, stop it with the "witty comments" about Starbucks sizes.

The other day, for instance, I was in the drive-thru at a local Starbucks and decided to order a vanilla cappuccino.

“Would you like a tall?” said the voice in the speaker.

“No,” I said. “I don’t want that much. A small will do.”

Silence on her end.

“We don’t have smalls, sir,” said the voice. “A small is a tall.”

Silence on my end as I cogitated over that.

“But a small can’t be a tall,” I said. “It’s a contradiction in terms. You don’t have short larges, do you?”

“Uh ...” went the voice. “Hold on.”

[ Size matters, but not at Starbucks ]

If you want a small coffee, go to 7-11, they still have that size. Starbucks chose their sizes (tall, grande, venti, solo, and dopio) for a good reason, they are homage to the grand tradition of Italian Cafés. Perhaps you'd prefer if the tall was called an alto, but in cafés around the world they call a tall a tall, and they did before Starbucks existed.

Why are the names of the sizes at Starbucks such an issue? I'd say it's the face of the "Ugly American" rearing again. Is there something wrong with Italian names? Do you argue, when purchasing sheet music, when they used the traditional Italian terms?  Do you complain to your wine shop when they use French terms? Perhaps you have issue with "Cappuccio" as well, and would prefer Starbucks to call it a "Hot Pressed Coffee with Milk and topped with Steamed Milk"?

And, for arguments sake, let's pretend you actually have a point and the names should be what you've dictated, haven't you notcied that dozens of other jounalists and comedians have already covered this? You are simply rehashing their barely humorous comments of yesteryear. Perhaps you think you are covered because in Escanaba Michigan everyone gets all of their news from the Daily Press, and the Starbucks was only put in a few weeks ago (or never), and no one watches any televison or movies, so you believe that your comments are fresh and clever. Well, think again, please, for all of our sakes.

(Odd that he does a rant against Starbucks in a town without a single Starbucks in it)

Oh, as for "grande" and "venti", I guess the purist thing to do is force people to order multiple talls, since outside the US and Canada a "tall" is plenty enough coffee for anyone, perhaps a double-tall, but anything bigger is just gluttonous. Perhaps your criticism should be that Starbucks didn't reproduce the authentic Italian café by duplicating it in toto. What's next, citing Ikea with violations for using Swedish names for their products? The horror!

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Indonesia's rumbling Mount Merapi is spewing volcanic ash, magma has fully covered its crater, and a powerful eruption could come any day, a scientist said Thursday.

[ Indonesian Volcano Could Erupt Any Day - Yahoo! News ]

You'd think that this is near Jakarta, since that's what the byline says, but the Western press seems to only have offices in Jakarta, so any Indonesian news says that.

Then where is Mount Merapi (Gunung Merapi to the locals)? The nearest large city is Yogyakarta, and it's right in central Java, Jakarta is over 300 miles to the east of Mount Merapi, and not in much danger. Makassar (née Ujung Pandang), the city from which my wife hails, is over 800 miles NNE of Mount Merapi.

Does this mean that I don't appreciate this tip? No, it means that I get frustrated with the news feeds that Yahoo and other websites carry, if they leave out this information for places I know something about, what happen when the story is about some place I know nothing about, and I am without any access to the *Internet?

And, while I'm on the subject, why do I only hear about natural disasters in that part of the world?

* Yes, I realize that is impossible.

In the United States, Spanish is permeating the country more and more. One cannot ride a city bus without seeing ads and bus safety instructions in English and Spanish. One cannot enter chain stores like Wal-Mart and Home Depot without seeing ads and signs in both languages. One cannot call a major credit card company, airline or other large business without first hearing an automated menu that often starts in Spanish – or at least offers to proceed in Spanish.

[ American Observer - April 5, 2006 - For Spanish, Press One ]

Check your facts, English is the language of the foreigner.

We decided that we wanted the lower 1/3 of the lower 48 when it still belonged to Mexico. We got Texas to come on over and then fought a little war with Mexico to grab the rest. I guess at the time we should have shipped all current inhabidents to Mexico, and force all new immigrants to learn English. Then we could just equate Spanish to Bad Person from Another Country or a B-PAC. Perhaps we could then hunt down B-PACs for sport, or sell their babies as a food source. So many things that we can't do now because we accidentally allowed some Spanish speakers to become actual US Citizens. Of course since the world Spanish speaking population is so darn small, I can see why so many are against anyone in the US even knowing it.

If only we knew what that was...

The United States is home to approximately 336 languages (spoken or signed) of which 176 are indigenous to the area. 52 languages formerly spoken in the US territory are now extinct...

The United States does not have an official language...

Several states ... are officially bilingual:

• Louisiana (English and French),
• New Mexico (English and Spanish),
• Hawaii (Hawaiian English and Hawaiian),

In 2000, the census bureau printed the standard census questionnaires in six languages: English, Spanish, Korean, Chinese (in traditional characters), Vietnamese, and Tagalog.

[ Languages in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]

And, of course, the official languages or most often heard languages in many sections of the US when we "acquired" them was not English. German, French, Spanish were all spoken in large sections of the US for many many years, and for much of that before they were "American".

Now I am sure I understand the issue. It is a common known fact that multiple language countries are at a big disadvantage in the world, and will always be second rate countries. I mean I've never even heard of some of these places:

• Norway (Bokmål Norwegian, Nynorsk Norwegian; small Sami- and Finnish-speaking minorities)
• Iceland (Icelandic, English, Nordic languages, German widely spoken)
• Luxembourg (Luxermbourgish (national) French, German)
• Canada (English & French)
• Sweden (Swedish, small Sami- and Finnish-speaking minorities)
• Switzerland (German, French, Italian, Romansch)
• Ireland (English, Irish)
• Belgium (Dutch, Flemish, French, German)

Oh, wait, those are all countries that the UN ranks higher than the US as most livable. I've got it, multi-lingual is a hindrance to our economic might. So we'll check the World Economic Forum's Growth Competitiveness rankings to see who threatens our might and how they will have an unfair advantage by being uni-lingual:

• Finland - even if they aren't multi-lingual, they're in the EU and have to deal with it
• Sweden - see above
• Denmark - see above
• Taiwan - Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese, Hakka dialects (See CIA)
• Singapore - Mandarin, English, Malay, Hokkien, Cantonese, Teochew, Tamil, other Chinese dialects, other (Says the CIA)
• Iceland - see above
• Switzerland - see above
• Norway - see above
• Australia - well... I think some of the aboriginals might not speak English...

So it's not that. It must be that supporting more than one language is a burden on the government and their spending resources. That would mean all of the largest economies in the world would have to have one language, or they'd have spent all their money supporting their masses that don't fall in line with the rest of their nation. According to AustralianPolitics.com the top 15 (minus the US and Australia, 'cause I wanted to) are:

• Japan - Aha! Here's one.
• Germany - EU country, see above
• United Kingdom - EU country, see above (though not sharing a currency. 'course that doesn't matter they still have the regional languages to deal with - Scottish, Welsh, Norman French)
• France - EU country, see above
• China (exc.HK) - Standard Chinese or Mandarin (Putonghua, based on the Beijing dialect), Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghaiese), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan (Hokkien-Taiwanese), Xiang, Gan, Hakka dialects, minority languages (see Ethnic groups entry)
• Italy - EU country, see above
• Canada - Still English and French
• Mexico - Spanish, various Mayan, Nahuatl, and other regional indigenous languages
• Spain - EU country, see above
• Brazil - Portuguese, Spanish, English, French
• India - English, Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, and Sanskrit
• Korea - Korean, English
• Netherlands - EU country, see above

(All language info for that bunch also from the CIA) OK, so far we are threatened by the Australians and the Japanese and want to level the playing field by exporting millions of foreign speaking, most likely illegal, aliens from the US. And, of course, any lands that we (as a country) purchased or won in war are expected to fall in line with our un-official official language of English in 1 generation or less. Plus we'd rather not spend any money on those language classes, so bring a check book (though we're happy to pay for hunting down the "illegals").

I'm glad that I've done a bit of research and thought this out. Next up: lets close all of these foreign food establishments, I think they are attracting fer'ners too...

Ajax is a brand-new suite of programming solutions.

[ Seth's Blog: What to do if you don't know what to do ]

In addition to getting called on the real reason Chicago is called the Windy City, he's a bit off about what AJAX really is.

Wikipedia is quick to point out that "Ajax is not a technology in itself, but a term that refers to the use of a group of technologies together." and it is simply a cutsie acronym for "Asynchronous JavaScript And XML".

Modern AJAX techniques tend to rely on the javascript XMLHttpRequest but earlier techniques (like the kind I used) invoved an IE-only concept called XmlDataIslands (props to Nate for bringing that one to my attention). The term Ajax (which should be AJAX) was coined by Adaptive Path and has quickly gained favor, especially among the "Web 2.0" crowd. However it must be pointed out that this asynchronous dynamic has been used for years, and it nothing new at all.

And the rest of Ajax, notably the Javascript and XML are even older...

Because the potato was unknown to them, Europeans initially considered potatoes poisonous or evil due to their similarities to the nightshade family. Some members of the nightshade family include Mandrake and Belladonna, which are used for medicinal purposes. Germany's King Frederick William realized that potatoes were a good food source and ordered peasants to plant and eat potatoes or their noses would be cut off.

[ Potato Nutrition & History ]

Tired of "Merry Christmas"? Is it time to start wishing people a more inclusive holiday well wishing? Something nice and secular?

A poster at one of Sandy Mohachy's favorite stores proclaims "Feliz Navidad" and "Happy Hanukkah" but not "Merry Christmas."

"How depressing it is," says Mohachy, 62, of Newport Beach. "How can we Christmas shop if the stores aren't recognizing Christmas?"

[ OC Register x ]

I say fight the Sandy Mohachy's of the world and wish everyone a Feliz Navidad, that'll show her. Forget her "Christmas" and celebrate Navidad! Can't we just celebrate a Navidad that we can all get behind? A secular, non-denominational, non-threatening, peaceful Navidad?

And, I think for a while now, alternative French underground culture has been elevating the importance of "Nöel" over Christmas too. Perhaps it's time to jump on their bandwagon?

8:27am EST (5:27am PST) I go to pull up some music, and perhaps tame my increasingly sour mood this morning, and:

Our apologies,
RHAPSODY is currently down for scheduled maintenance and upgrades.


This maintenance period will be over at approximately
5am PST, Wednesday Nov 30th


We apologize for any inconvenience. Please check back soon.

That can be added to the list of:

• My building and the unannounced, unexplained, unfriendly mess that our front door has become
• Dig Dug: Digging Strike and the complete lack of a "delete profile" or "start new game" option
• Getting a lecture, with your lunch, about the correct way to request toppings for your sandwich
  

But I certainly expect more things to crop up.

And, in the time it took me to rant, Rhapsody is back up...

Update: added to the list

John Dowdell has posted a bit of a rant about web interfaces and "his" data. He laments that every site has a different interface, different user flow, and different set of hurdles for him to work around:

Each of these sites had their own interface conventions, their own unique way they wanted to expose their range of services to the world. This site pushes links through JavaScript so I can't keep tabbed windows open. That site uses session IDs so I can only work in a single window. This third site wants me to choose a number of stops before I can see any offering. One requires a flight before you can see hotels. Some list hotels by which they'd like to sell most, others list them by distance, another lets you choose ranking. Each site had its own unique interface for me to come to grips with before I could use their service.

I will have to agree with the frustration. I would love interfaces to be more similar, and I would love to have my favorite bits from each site available on the others. However he then cries a rallying cry:

It's my data -- I want my record under my physical control as much as possible. I don't want to spend more time decrypting your interface than I do in determining what I want. The website/webapp paradigm failed me this week.

[ JD on MX: My data! My interfaces! ]

But, JD, don't you see that it is their data, and they have full control over their data. He is the one who wants that data. That puts them in full control. His interface solution would either require him to code 1/2 of the cool features that he wants (which the average person isn't going to do) or require the purchase of someone else's software (and then software assurance to keep up with changing web services). In addition, the other 1/2 of the cool features will then be available or not across dozens of web services that all work extremely different. This shift in paradigm hasn't relieved the inconsistency, only pushed it to a different layer.

And the data? The data about what a flight costs, the data about what deals are going around, the data about who's interested in what, all of this data is very important to the business that have them, and only on a need to know basis. Why not share all of the data for free? Because not only can JD share it, so can their competitors. I can set up a site where I ensure that my prices are always $5 cheaper than my competitors. I can then guarantee the lowest price. These are the sorts of things that businesses spend a lot of time determining, and have been long before computers, but why spend money to help your competition get the leg up on you? And at the same time ensure less to differentiate yourself from others? No matter what the technology, or how much people want their "web 2.0", business will drive those sorts of changes, and business has little to no incentive to deliver Mr. Dowdell his vision of the future.

Words of wisdom from the sage of marketing:

But what if you're selling it in the wrong place?
Or with the wrong tone of voice?

I think context is underrated. Especially online.

[ Seth's Blog: Would you buy life insurance at a rock concert? ]

This is exactly what bugs me about people calling me to sell me stuff. I didn't ask you to waste my time trying to sell me on things that I don't need, or even do need. What on earth made you think that my phone is an acceptable place for you to make your pitch?

What you need to do is be in that right place at the right time when I am thinking about needing services or products like yours. Sure it's harder to determine that place, but I can guarantee it is never, ever, ever, ever on my phone.

I've seen and heard quite a bit of people remarking on the savagery of the Afghani people for killing over a silly thing like the poor treatment of a book. Many seem to think that such crazy behavior is a purely Islamic response. Tom Regan rebuts this assumption quite well:

"Christians, Jews, and Buddhists don't lash out in homicidal rage when their religion is insulted. They don't call for holy war and riot in the streets. It would be unthinkable for a mainstream priest, rabbi, or lama to demand that a blasphemer be slain."

The above paragraph makes an interesting point. There's only one problem with it - it's wrong.

[ Christian Science Monitor Blog | My American Experience Archive May, 2005 ]

In my opinion it shouldn't even be that surprising. Why aren't we asking who died? Or why did they die? One story offers clues, but most shy away from reporting the actual news and instead focus on the news that triggered the news:

Protesters threw rocks and police shot back Friday as violent anti-U.S. protests spread to more Afghan cities, leaving at least eight people dead and threatening a security crisis for the government.

[ ABC News ]

So it would seem likely that the deaths were not the Afghani's flying to Guantanamo and killing the soldiers that they believed were responsible for the act. There are accidentally deaths related to crowd control. Why can't they do a better job at crowd control? Perhaps you didn't realize that the US has yet to complete the rebuilding of Afghanistan, and that much of their infrastructure still remains to be repaired. Why should the US even be involved? Besides the fact that we invaded to oust the Taliban who protected the criminals responsible for the 9/11 attacks, we also embroiled the country in years of war as our pawn during our cold war with Russia. After training and arming their resistance against the Soviets, we beat feet when it was clear that the USSR wouldn't take Afghanistan. That's right, we trained and armed them and then left them to their own devices.

What kind of ally have we truly been to the Afghanis? Perhaps we are trying to make up now for how we've treated them in the past, but the first step to improving that relationship is taking hundreds of their countrymen, flying them to Cuba, torturing them or close to it, and finally hearing that the Qu'ran was placed in a receptacle meant for waste, you would expect the Afghani people to ask questions and show their displeasure. So, naturally, you'd expect the Afghani's to log on to AOL and type a heated message to their congressman, right? I think we all know that Afghanistan is not America.

Oh, and one more thing, where is the example of the riot that happened with no destruction or casualties? Or if that's in the nature of riots, where is the plan to eradicate the entire world of riots for all time?

Lets instead look to cooler heads on all sides. Lets find out if the Qu'ran was used in a less than respectful manner during interrogations, and make policy that no religion should be disrespected in such a manner. Lets not stop there and get to the bottom of the entire situation in Cuba and the prisons of Iraq. Lets continue to assist the Afghani people to build their fledgling nation into something they can be proud of. Lets continue to resist the forces of darkness that may have prompted the people of Afghanistan to go too far. And last, but not least, lets all redouble our efforts to better understand each other, since we'll have to share the Earth for many years to come.

Candy tastes sweet! People like money! Skunks smell bad! And:

The US could improve its image among Muslims if it listened more, adopted a humbler tone and emphasised its aid programmes, a report says.

[ BBC NEWS | World | Americas | US 'could win over Muslim world' ]

Though it wouldn't surprise me if the US government did pay for studies on those first three. But did we really need that study to tell us what should be obvious? More importantly, shouldn't we just do that anyway? I think we could improve our image among everyone by listening more, being more humble and emphasizing aid programs. Though when we did that we would spell emphasize and program correctly... (And now the UK will hate us...)

Or even better, pay me? Clearly some people have figured out how to do this:

Consumers will be able to purchase the software in the United States for 129 dollars and in Europe for 129 euros.

Jupiter Research analyst Joe Wilcox said Tiger puts Apple ahead of Microsoft in technology for PC operating systems.

[ Apple's "Tiger" aims to take a bite out of Microsoft, "Longhorn" - Yahoo! News ]

Exactly how am I going to run Tiger on my Wintel boxes? Or does Joe think I am ready to sell or dump all of my Windows based infrastructure and buy all apples for everything. This may make Apples increase in sales due to it being a more attractive purchase than previously, but their market share is so tiny that Microsoft won't be worried about Tiger at all.

Linux advocates, however, should be worried...

Does anyone else think this is a good idea?

Ubisoft and U.S. giant Electronic Arts are holding talks two months after Ubisoft dismissed EA's acquisition of a near-20 percent stake in the French video game maker as "hostile," the Wall Street Journal said on Wednesday.

[ Yahoo! News - Ubisoft, EA Hold Preliminary Talks -Paper ]

Does anyone else care? Stop the madness!

This is what I've been saying:

It's still pretty scary. Leave your debt unattended for just five years, and it will triple in value. Are you gaining any understanding of just how profitable business has been for many credit-card issuers?

[ How to Owe $40,000 by Doing Nothing [Fool.com: Commentary] February 11, 2005 ]

Well, maybe not quite, but since when did loan-shark like practices become legal? Isn't this the sort of thing that we actually need protection against? If anything is going to ruin the US economy it's this sort of crap (IMHO).

Props: G$

At what point does Nintendo's "kiddie" rep fuel itself?

Nintendo has definitely embraced the kid-friendly image but maybe the embrace has turned into a bear hug and Nintendo can't let it go.

[ ButtonMashing.com: Some light reading. ]

Sure, my license plates announce to the world that I'm a total fan boy, but I still think that I can be objective. The fact of the matter is that this is how I see the current three consoles:

• X Box
  
  Pros:
  
  Games all have at least a T rating, if not M. Anything that even begins to smack of less than T gets a dose of blood or guts or sex to boost the rating, thus no games for kids.
  
  Most appealing due to on-line play excellence, thus best liked for death matches and Madden (and other sports too, I guess).
  
  Most choices in controllers. I like seeing some of the crazy controllers that people come up with for the XBox. There are all types of gamers and they appreciate all types of controls. I would like to see the NextBox have mice available for it without having to hack it, that would silence a large number of FPS PC gamers.
  
  Best FPS experience due to Halo & Halo 2. What can I say, picking up Bungie was a great move for Microsoft, and one that has gone the farthest to making them a contender.
  
  Cons:
  
  New to games, still trying to figure out what everyone wants. Not able to be all things to all people. Too concerned about their image to release games like Katamari Damacy or Pikmin.
  
  Likely to have culture conflicts with Microsoft proper. Microsoft truly wants to build the one ring to rule them all, and could be forcing things on the NextBox that will make it unpalatable to the gaming community at large.
  
  
• PS2
  
  Pros:
  
  Biggest library. Again a vicious cycle. If you want to maximize your sales you write your games for a minimum of the console that most people have (unless you're a 2nd party developer). Thus the Playstation gets the most games because it has the most games.
  
  Most appealing due to breadth of games. Best platform for RPGs due to exclusive on Final Fantasy series. More best fighting games.
  
  Cons:
  
  Crappy hardware. Higher failure rate than any other console. Crappy support for getting things fixed too.
  
  Only 2 friggin' ports. Why not just put in 4 ports and fore go the stupid multi-tap?!?!?
  
  Most expensive console (especially with above crappy multi-tap)
  
  Super crappy website. Sure that has little to do with the purchase of a console, but I really think Sony can do better.
  
  
• GameCube
  
  Pros:
  
  Great first party games, great second party games. Best designed hardware giving great value for the money. Tight controls over hardware and software reducing the chance of buying crappy 2nd or 3rd party software or peripherals.
  
  Tons of innovation means you never know what to expect. If something is hot in games there is a good chance that Nintendo tried it first (except on-line, but I agree with Nintendo).
  
  Cons:
  
  "Kiddie" rep keeps "mature" gamers from considering the platform. This one drives me crazy, there are adult oriented titles out for the Cube, and for the most part these titles are only when necessary. I think that the blood and gore and extreme violence are great in Resident Evil 4 and Eternal Darkness, but somewhat unnecessary in PS2's Mark of Kri. This means that I can't play these games with my impressionable young daughter around, and cuts into my gaming time.
  
  Rep also seems to make people think that the Cube is less powerful than other platforms. I'm not sure where this comes from. The base specs for the Cube put it squarely between the PS2 and XBox in terms of power. I'm amazed by some things on the PS2 that would seem commonplace on the Cube. So many reviews of RE4 expressed surprise in the quality of the game on the Cube, but I think it's par for the course. Of course XBox has the most power here, but the Cube still is heads above the PS2 across the board.

I currently own a GameCube (duh) and a PS2. The PS2 came down to a price that I was willing to give it a chance, and I'm glad that I have. There are enough gems for the PS2 that it was well worth picking up: Ico, Ratchet & Clank, Kingdom Hearts. Due to my current experience I'll be doing everything to ensure that I have a Nintendo Revolution and PS3 around their launch dates.

As for XBox, I'm starting to see the appeal. I still don't understand why I'd want to go on-line and get my butt whipped by an anonymous 12 year old at every game that I buy, but there are a few XBox titles that I'd love to play: Halo, Halo 2, and Fable for example. If the NextBox will be backward compatible, I'll likely wait for it's price to sink a bit, if not I'll likely pick up a 2nd hand XBox.

Where has Nintendo gone wrong? Lost too much in the 2nd party arena. I don't pretend to know everything about the inter-workings of the gaming business, but they let slip Rare, Silicon Knights, and an exclusive on Resident Evil 4. Surely one of those at a minimum was worth a few bucks on Nintendo's part. Rare hasn't come up with much for the XBox, and I'm not sure what happened to Silicon Knights, but Resident Evil 4 rocks. If Nintendo would just pony up the cash to turn the Resident Evil series into a Nintendo exclusive, and bundle RE4 with cubes, I think they'd sell a ton. Perhaps they are already giving up on the GameCube and have something certain with the Revolution, we'll have to wait for the gunfight at E3 to tell for sure.

I'm sure one of the most frustrating things for terrorists and other enemies of the state is reconnaissance. Driving around in your unmarked van, trying to take pictures of bridges and buildings, pulled over by the authorities for questioning... Now they can plan attacks from the privacy of their own lairs:

The most powerful technology A9.com invented for Yellow Pages is “Block View,” which brings the Yellow Pages to life by showing a street view of millions of businesses and their surroundings. Using trucks equipped with digital cameras, global positioning system (GPS) receivers, and proprietary software and hardware, A9.com drove tens of thousands of miles capturing images and matching them with businesses and the way they look from the street.

[ A9.com > Company > Yellow Pages on A9.com ]

Odd, DC isn't one of the cities they chose... Also odd Jeff Bezos remains a free man...

How freaking deranged do you have to be to make a conclusion like this?

SpongeBob - who appears on the children's cable channel Nickelodeon - is seen as an icon for adult gay men in the US, apparently because he regularly holds hands with his sidekick Patrick.

[ US right attacks SpongeBob video ]

Holding hands makes you gay? And SpongeBob's apparent gayness is communicated best through this video remake? As a way to turn children gay? I think we're all aware that Spider-man will make you gay, but SpongeBob, please. Checking the site of the organization who has released the video, WAFF, I note that the ADL is also involved. Perhaps they are trying to turn my children Jewish as well...

The organization that is promoting the video has a different take:

WAFF spokesman Mark Barondeso told the newspaper that anyone who thought the video promoted homosexuality "needs to visit their doctor and get their medication increased".

The head of Focus on the Family, Dr. Dobson, claims that SpongeBob isn't turning America's youth gay, but instead representing the gays of America who we should be beating down (my words). Of course if he ever watched the SpongeBob program, he'd know that A: SpongeBob digs Sandy and B: he's impervious to gay bashing. Though I'm sure that Dr. Dobson doesn't want America's youth accepting the diversity of the heathens (read Jews) either, but it's easier to blame the gays...

Until we knock down the notion that we are the enemy of Muslims everywhere, our war on terrorism will never end.

[ DallasNews.com | Local Columnists ]

Mr. Blow has a very good point. Those Americans who do feel that they are at war with Islam clearly don't understand the war. Mr. Blow also states:

Then get to know your Muslim neighbors. You have 7 million of them here. Build bridges of understanding. Seek justice. Fight prejudice.

Excellent advice. Some of us are American born and love the US. Some of us came here as an invitation by America or Americans, and you should treat your guests well, no? Others came here fleeing bad conditions or dreaming the American dream. So few Muslims came here with hate, and all of us would prefer if they hadn't.

However he also states:

And that brings me back to a column of a few weeks ago. I expressed my longing to see Muslim Americans rise up in a highly visible repudiation of terrorism – and as a sign to the world that the U.S. isn't hostile to Islam.

I guess that means all of our efforts so far haven't reached his ears. The Council on American-Islamic Relations has put together an online petition with over 600,000 signatures denouncing terrorism with rather strong language:

We, the undersigned Muslims, wish to state clearly that those who commit acts of terror, murder and cruelty in the name of Islam are not only destroying innocent lives, but are also betraying the values of the faith they claim to represent. No injustice done to Muslims can ever justify the massacre of innocent people, and no act of terror will ever serve the cause of Islam. We repudiate and dissociate ourselves from any Muslim group or individual who commits such brutal and un-Islamic acts.

[ Not in the Name of Islam Petition ]

And they've sent out press releases about it, I'm sure to Mr. Blow's paper. Unfortunately I don't have a syndicated newspaper column to use as soap box, I just have a crappy blog. I would love to know if there is a better way to communicate these feelings. If websites don't do it, and petitions don't do it, and press releases don't do it, and rallies don't do it, what will help the American Muslim community to communicate these feelings of disgust for the minority of “Muslims” who feel that the proper thing to do is resort to barbarism?

I recently received an evite at an email address that evite was not informed about, so I went to add it to my profile as I had done multiple times in the past. Couldn't find the option, so I checked the FAQ:

How can I add/edit the email addresses attached to my Evite account?
Currently, you are not able to add, merge, or edit your email attached to your Evite account. We are in the process of improving this feature to ensure that it functions properly. Please check back as it will be returning soon!

[ Evite ]

What? Why? So aggrevating. Why do they tease me so? Oh evite, how far you have fallen...

The French protect the French language through legislation and FUD, and it is possible it has saved their language from a fate worse than death:

Chat Speak

I too would like to send good wishes to Mr. Makembe, but in not such a cryptic and regressive manner.

Security officials can't quite explain why singer Cat Stevens, now known as Yusuf Islam, was on a U.S. government "no fly" list.

[ MSNBC - Homeland Security's Info: Miles from Nowhere ]

Since when is a casual association with someone reason to suspect them? Yusuf Islam lives his life in the public eye, at least in the UK, and to the best of my knowledge, no credible “intelligence” indicates any “terrorist” leanings by him. The quicker the US apologizes, the quicker we can get back to harassing the real bad guys...

update: Time says it was a spelling mistake. Here's hoping that all of the David Kearnses in the world, regardless of spelling, keep their noses clean.

A device that attaches to a computer to control access to a particular application. Dongles provide the most effective means of copy protection.

[ Webopedia Computer Dictionary ]

Effective with this sentence, Wired News will no longer capitalize the "I" in internet. At the same time, Web becomes web and Net becomes net.

[ Wired News: It's Just the 'internet' Now ]

And here's the problem, the title of this piece is wrong. It should be “It's Just 'internet' Now”. later in the article it clearly states:

Web will continue to be capitalized when part of the more official entity, World Wide Web.

And I can only assume that this goes for “internet” and “net” as well. Which means the 'i' in “The Internet” is still capitalized, as would be the 'n' in “The Net” though that's just slang so Wired News would likely not capitalize it. This editorial has caught a good deal of flack, and I think undeservedly so. Sure, at first I was ready to go off just as I always do when it comes to this stupid capitalization thing, but I think that Wired has not swung the pendulum way to the other side, but in fact has just corrected the mistake they've been making.

My only remaining question is, does Wired know that “the Internet” is just one thing, and it's name is “Internet” and therefore, by their own new rule, should be capitalized?

Of course, in the remote possibility that Wired still doesn't understand how to capitalize, join me on the Virtual Quill bandwagon and embrace the chaos of English spelling and grammar (unlike some)!

Update: What about “the matrix”?

I usually enjoy John C Dvorak's columns, but this time I think he whines too much.

The user has to now determine if line breaks are to be added and must choose between 4 different EOL (end of line) options and whether or not to allow character substitutions. Microsoft must have concluded that there is no such thing as a plain-text file; this new option box proves it in some sick way.

[ Yahoo! News - Kill Microsoft Word ]

I personally have never had any of the issues that he mentions in this article. I, however, don't collaborate across office versions and OSes, but I think a properly installed Office won't error or ask for installation disks. In this day and age, when Office is likely his #1 application and his hard drive is likely 60-80 gigs, I would assume that Office is installed “in full” and/or installed from the hard-drive itself, either of these, and certainly both, would alleviate his issues of having to haul the CD around and go looking for it all of the time.

As for the new “plain text” options, any multi-OS shop should greatly welcome those. I don't imagine that the average user would dain to save as plain text, and if so the “Windows (Default)” type of plain text should be good enough for anyone. There is even a handy preview, so you'll know if you are doing something “bad”.

HTML from word? Word is not an HTML editor. This choice is not for making web-pages out of your word documents. Anyone who still thinks that that sort of thing is possible from any word processor or DTP is offending those of us who live and breath on the web. If you want your word docs to be displayed on the web, please hire a consultant to build you a CMS that does it up right.

XML format word is awesome. He clearly hasn't talked to techies who fully understand what Microsoft has done here. In the past if you wished to create an Office document on the fly it was a freakin' pain-in-the-butt. You had to use COM objects and programmaticly build these things and likely use VB, and ick, ick, ick. Now (providing you know and understand the Office DTDs or XML Schema) you can programmaticly make an Office document with anything that can create a file (though preferably with some XML helping goodness).

If Dvorak truly wants to complain about word, how about complaining about the resources it hogs, the load time that's through the roof, the odd way it creates new windows frequently leaving an alt-tab icon that is useless, or the poor handling of spell check with source code in a word document. Those are things I could get behind complaining about. Plus, Mr. Dvorak, which word processor is better?

I used the word perogative but the spelling looked wrong, so I tried to look it up online. There is no such word, the correct word is:

pre·rog·a·tive Listen: [ pr-rg-tv ]
n.

1. An exclusive right or privilege held by a person or group, especially a hereditary or official right. See Synonyms at right.
   
2. The exclusive right and power to command, decide, rule, or judge: the principal's prerogative to suspend a student.
   
3. A special quality that confers superiority.

adj.

Of, arising from, or exercising a prerogative.

[ yourDictionary.com - American Heritage Dictionary ]

So, Bobby, it's Your PRErogative, but I expect you to rerecord the song, and this time enunciate.

Link Already Used Gmail by Google, This link is all used up. The link you followed to create a Gmail account has already been used to create an account for YOU@gmail.com

[ Google Search: site:gmail.google.com "Link Already Used" ]

Someone evil is bound to stumble across this and start harvesting gmail accounts. I hope that Google is ready with some seriously good spam blocking algorythms...

Props to Steve

However, this lessens the blow:

1. Launch Acrobat ...
2. Go to Edit->Preferences ...
3. Click on Internet
4. Uncheck Display PDF in browser

[ Opening Acrobat PDFs in IE ]

The Plog™ Service is a personalized blog. A blog is a straightforward and now widely adopted method of posting a reverse chronological diary on the Internet.

[ Amazon.com: What is a Plog? ]

I'm not sure what to think. Plog is a stupid name. And this “plog” is by no means what I would call a blog. How could an automated system have a diary? However I do like the items that it has brought to my attention. I seems to be an improved way of informing me about items that I might be interested in. Perhaps a sort of “Shopping Tivo” or “Shivo™”.

So do I get bent out of shape because Amazon has a stupid misnomer for a new presentation of information that I may find interesting? Or do I ignore that and enjoy the suggestions that Amazon serves up, since they are mostly things I actually am interested in.

Apparently some guy got bent out of shape that ladies weren't charged a cover and he was, so he's spoiled the fun for everyone, and apparently New Jersey has gone along with it. If you still live in New Jersey, you should either get your state's constitution changed or move to the (now) much cooler Delaware.

Ladies' Night is the common promotion that gives free admission and discounted drinks to women with the intent of drawing them to a bar that in turn attracts a flock of full-price paying men.

[snip]

Judges in Pennsylvania and Iowa have said events like Ladies' Night are illegal. But courts in Illinois and Washington have allowed the promotions because they don't discriminate against men, but serve to encourage women to attend.

[ Agency outlaws Ladies' Night ]

Props to Bliss for bring this to my attention.

"You Sent It, But Did They Read It?" is the mantra of DidTheyReadIt.com, who promise to be able to tell you when, where and for how long a recipient is reading your email. They don't actually mention how they do this, but it isn't that difficult to figure out. Lot's of spammers (and crackers) use what are called "web bugs" as a way of tracking by whom and when a bit of email is read. Its a tool well known to the sleazy.

[ The Virtual Quill ]

Taking a cue from Ximian (at least that's where I saw it first) Microsoft now (by default) doesn't download the pictures in your email (as of Outlook 2003 and Outlook Express with WinXP SP2) and thus stops this method from working. Hopefully all other clients will follow suit, and this horrific practice will stop. (Even if my RSS feed can support the same scheme).

Harry asked me if I could think of a movie without a chase scene, and before it takes over my existence, I figured I'd get some extra brain power on this thing. I can't promise a shiny donkey to the first person who gets a movie with no chase scene of any sort, but I can promise that your street cred will increase.

And please:

• Full length
• American (or Canadian)
• Movie that we've heard of

Which isn't technically all movies or anything, but much more satisfying to find a movie in that subset...

We can't even all agree on some basics about shoe sizes. Check out this International Shoe Size Conversion Charts/Converter Tables for Shoes Sizes and marvel over the seemingly random numbers picked. Some countries have separate systems for men and women, some don't. Are women's feet that different? Check out Australia, they seem to have borrowed their sizes, men's from UK men's, women's from US men's.

I figure that everyone should just adopt the Korean system, and then we can work on world peace, it'd be a snap after that.

Andrew Monk and colleagues from the University of York have performed a wonderful study to assess why it's so annoying when other people have cellphone[sic] conversations in public.

[ Why Mobile Phones are Annoying ]

Jakob Nielsen misses the point here. Where is the control group? I expect that a Mobile Phone by itself wouldn't irritate anyone. Or a mobile phone not in use. The phones aren't irritating, it's the phone usage. And in this case the improper usage by these researchers. A real study would do field research of real phone conversations. These contrived conversations just prove that contrived conversations by researchers from the University of York are irritating.

Next up, my study of how irritating it is to poke usability experts. We'll select them at random and poke slowly, quickly, and then real hard and gauge their responses...

Lately I've been “discovering” a bunch of new stuff that I like, or that I like more than I thought:

• Yahoo Instant Messenger
• Short Messaging Service (SMS)
• Cliff Bars
• Glad Ware

And a few things that I don't like as much as I should, because they don't work like they should:

• International Phone Cards
• RCA Products

Anyone else have any new favorites that I should check out? Or things to avoid? (Or at least not get your hopes up about?)

Second Cup, a Canadian coffee chain, has a noteworthy website:

Second Cup has earned the distinction of being Canada’s number one specialty coffee retailer for more than twenty-five years by remaining committed to two important founding principles...

[ Second Cup Coffee Company ]

Why noteworthy? Excluding of Homestar Runner and other serial cartoon sites of it's ilk, I am always unimpressed with the use of Flash on the web. “Always” is wrong, and this site really drives that home. Its use of flash is unique but not overwhelming. The flash loads so quickly that it wasn't clear to me that it was flash until it started moving. Overall I'm impressed. But shhhh, don't tell anyone, or everyone will copy this and it will no longer impress me.

I like this sporty hoody:

[ Volkswagen DriverGear ]

But shouldn't VW be paying me, or at least reducing the price, for the free advertising? Sure, I'm no high-falootin' celebrity, but at least a couple bucks off seems fair.

I generally don't like blogging things that someone tells me, if I know that they have a blog that the item might eventually end up on. It feels like I've scooped them with their own lead. However, in the case of Dari, I expect that he'll not get arround to blogging, or won't think that the item is blog-worthy. Now, recently this has made me feel like I was somehow taking advantage of his observations, but I don't think that should affect me any more, since I'm not the only one who does this:

Eagle-eyed Dari spotted this bit of fun in a video game product description at Amazon...

[ Rants and Ramblings ]

First they stuff crap in your mailbox, so that your regular mail won't fit. Then they stuff crap in your email inbox, so that you have to waste time sorting through it. Now they stuff crap in your website logs, hoping that you will use their products or services, or at least promote them for free.

In my humble opinion Referrer Advertising is just plain wrong.

When you click a hyperlink on one web site, your browser passes to the next site the address of the page where you clicked the link. This is logged by the server hosting the next web site.

[ SpywareInfo ]

Owners of the conversational websites known as weblogs have recently noticed that their referral logs have become the newest target for spam.

[ Wired ]

Couresy of Naresh:

The blame, say critics, lies with the hackneyed, highly predictable plots. Film after film often features near-identical storylines, masked by little more than a fresh cast and new song-and-dance routines.

[ BBC NEWS ]

I rather think this is all obvious. As long as these new plots star the likes of Urmilla Matondkar and Kajol I'm all for it, a bit more Shah Rukh Khan wouldn't hurt either.

I went to download some fonts for my laptop, so I could view a page I made that relies on one of Microsoft's free webdings fonts, and I find out this:

Microsoft's TrueType core fonts for the Web are no longer available for download from www.microsoft.com.

[ Microsoft Typography ]

And this has been true for over a year?

I expect that the “core” fonts can only be guaranteed installed on Win2000, WinXP, and possibly WinMe. I feel like I have to redesign 1/2 a dozen website that I've developed to rely on one of these fonts. How disappointing.

Update: The fonts are available on sourceforge, which “they” claim is acceptable under the EULA.

AP - Calling all metrosexuals: Get rid of that bling-bling — or at least find another word for it. In its annual compilation of language irritants, Lake Superior State University singled out 17 words and phrases that it says ought to be banned as overused, trite, euphemistic or just plain inaccurate. The 2004 losers were chosen by a university committee from more than 5,000 nominations from around the world.

[Yahoo! News - Oddly Enough ]

It seems to me, that if this is going to be news, everyone should get a lot more say in the list. I'd also like to point out that AP hasn't even supplied us with the full list, or directions on how to find the full list.

First, the list of words that I expect that they could be correct about: METROSEXUAL, BLING or BLING-BLING, RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES, and SHOCK AND AWE.

Second, the list of words that they might be correct about, but since they've been around so long, I doubt that we'll see them disappear anytime soon: PLACE STAMP HERE, SMOKING GUN, SHOTS RANG OUT, SWEAT LIKE A PIG, IN HARM’S WAY, and CAPTURED ALIVE.

Now the rest I take issue with:

X: Perhaps people are using X-this and X-that too much. I don't think that's anymore irritating than e-this and e-that or i-this and i-that. Eventually the letter becomes un-cool and we move on to the next letter. My vote for next cool letter is J or V.

PUNKED: Seriously, anyone used this word? Heard someone use it? I didn't think so. Ashton Kutcher isn't even doing the show anymore, and it will likely be canceled, so I think we're panicking a bit early on this one.

COMPANION ANIMALS: Perhaps someone is using this one, but I'm hoping that the distinction is for a reason. Certainly retirees and “shut-ins“ have long taken on a pet to assist with staving off the impending depression, and perhaps “companion animal“ is a better way to phrase that.

LOL: IMHO, since you can't say these out loud without sounding like a dork, we have little to worry about here. However I would like people to reserve chat abbreviations to chat (and IM) and stop using them in emails or online forums. (Though emoticons (aka smileys) seem acceptable in any online communication).

EMBEDDED JOURNALIST: I'm rather certain that this one has been used where it makes sense. It is a different approach that the military is using with journalists, and I guess the nuance is important to them. As long as this doesn't leech over to other professions, we'll be fine. However I am hoping to have my company make me an embedded programmer at some point.

HAND-CRAFTED LATTE: Seriously weak this one. A bit more research into espresso drinks, and sodas for that matter, would reveal that there is a wide difference between things called lattes. Some are hand crafted, some are automatically made by a push-button espresso machine, some are reconstituted from a powder. I think it is an important enough distinction that there is no point in freaking out here. And, as for the soda, compare a Jones, Hanson's, IBC, or Stewart's to a plain old Coke and I think you'll find there's a difference. Or order a french or italian soda from your barista, and savor it's hand-crafted goodness.

SANITARY LANDFILL: All I have to say is that once you've seen an unsanitary landfill, you'll realize why this makes sense.

From somewhere inside Microsoft, musings about a possible future interface in Outlook:

Conversation Clues
In a conversation where a message gets multiple replies, a simple chronological view of the messages isn't enough to convey the relationships between the replies. For example, if a message gets two replies, and each of those two got a single reply, your conversation would now have branches. Grand Central handles these relationships by showing lines along the left edges of the messages. You can see at a glance how many branches a conversation has. To help you follow just one person's views - say your boss or the company guru -- Grand Central uses colored lines to connect replies from the same person.

[ComputerZen]

Perhaps this could also end the “quote the entire conversation so far” emails that we all seem to get. And, conversely, end the “what was your terse response in response to” issue as well.

What causes depression? Is there a genetic connection? Join Ira in this hour of Science Friday for a look at the latest in diagnosing and treating depression.

[Science Friday ]

I think the important question is how can you diagnose depression in people who refuse to believe that they could possibly have depression?

And even then, I doubt I'll want to use it.

Spain and Morocco say they have agreed to build a 39-kilometre rail tunnel beneath the Mediterranean Sea, to link Europe and Africa.
The Spanish Development Ministry said two adjacent tunnels will run beneath the Straits of Gibraltar to Morocco.

[BBC]

They've both been discussing this forever, it would be great for Morocco, possibly good for Spain (possibly not so good). It'd certainly be cool to take a jaunt, by rail, to Morocco in the midst of a European vacation. Or vice-versa for that matter.

I seriously doubt that this will intensify attacks, and truly believe the opposite. The sort of oppressive hold that Saddam had on his people made them fear him to such a degree that until he was captured, they would fight, so that if and when he returned to power, they wouldn't be punished. Although it's hard to believe that one man could have such an effect on so many people, I believe it to be the truth. I feel that now, and only now, is the war truly over. And only now can the rebuilding begin.

I glance through my referrers every now and then, as I expect most people do. I find it interesting that, of the hits that leave a referrer, a good majority are from Google followed by other various search engines.

The searches that are topping the list these days are:

• What does GTI in a VW GTI stand for
  (Which I covered)
• McCafe
  (Which I'd love feedback on, but if you're searching for info, you probably haven't been in one)
• GameCube
  (Which I highly recommend purchasing)

This also means that well over 95% of what I rant about, is either not cared about, or no one looks to me for an opinion.

I'm not sure if this is upsetting or comforting.

Following up on comments from last weeks “Killer Saved from Sword by Victim's Family”:

I'm not sure that this is an exorbitant amount. I'm sure that many a business man has a life insurance policy that pays this amount. (Which I believe is not allowed by Islam).

It's not just law in Saudi, but any country or region that claims to live by Islamic Law. And rich people can't get away with it, unless the blood money is accepted by the deceased family.

I think I'll also argue that Reuters would like to be seen as a global news service, as would Yahoo!, and “our” (aka Western) culture shouldn't necessarily be the rule to judge all others by. Though I could just be subscribed the the US edition.

The “women can't drive” thing, however, I think is a good candidate for “odd”, and this fact would likely seem odd to 99% or more of the world (IMHO, no facts to back this one up).

And I'm rather sure that the penalty for breaking a Kosher law, according to the Torah, isn't jail time.

However I can see that I have a different view on this.

I'm sure my concern is more “isn't it rude to point and laugh” than anything else, which I guess I feel is a connotation of “odd”. Differences are a great thing to discuss and try to understand, but it's no wonder that there are so many bullies in the world, when people might be made to feel “odd”.

I really was hoping to get a bit more feedback, not that I expected to be anything but the minority on this one, just curious if anyone else even remotely would take “my side”. Though there is a good chance that the comments here represent 50% of my regular readership...

And one last thing, how is this practice different when countries do it?

I'm not sure how I feel about Reuters (or Yahoo!, if they made the call) categorizing the belief of 1 billion plus peoples around the world as “odd“.

Reuters - A convicted Saudi Arabian murderer was spared execution after tribal sheikhs persuaded his victim's father to accept five million riyals ($1.33 million) in return for his life, Saudi newspapers reported on Friday.

[Yahoo! News - Oddly Enough ]

What do you think?

It's bloated. It's slow. It sucks up bandwidth. It makes my machine slow and cranky. It has a bad extra navigation bar in the in-browser version.

Too many sites seem to think that the ease of posting a PDF to a website in lieu of converting it to a much more streamlined HTML format, is worth the trade-offs. More and more I think that anything in PDF is just not worth reading (Tax forms excepted).

In a vain attempt to rid myself of about 1/2 of these complaints, I've installed the newest ghostscript/ghostview, and I'm going to see if my woes go away.

Wish me luck! (Or point out a better, light-weight, small footprint, PDF viewer. Because Adobe Acrobat Reader 5 sucks, and 6 sucks even more.)

Can someone tell me why software that lets you change the appearance of Mac OS X is not late-to-the-party (Windows and Linux have had this for years), not cool, but actually "revolutionary"?

[Joe Grossberg]

Exactly. I've been getting rather tired of the Apple propaganda lately. Especially the iTunes/iPod crap. Apple didn't invent digital music, digital music stores, digital music players, or digital music anything. They weren't first to market. They haven't made the best options that are available. So why are all the press claiming Dell, Microsoft, Wal*Mart, etc. are stealing Apple's ideas. Sure they want a piece of Apple pie, but just like a windowing OS, the mouse, WYSIWYG interfaces and the like, Apple didn't invent them.

Don't get me wrong. I like Apple. They make things pretty. They make solid interfaces. They are willing to try something different. But they are not the end-all-be-all. And very few things have been “stolen” from them, that they didn't “steal” from somewhere else. So, please, enough of the Apple worship.

Although I'm a bit of a Micro-softy, this is good news. I've always liked Sun (and Novell, who has good news of their own):

Struggling Sun Microsystems yesterday unveiled a major software deal with China's government -- a sign that the company is far from on its death bed. And given that the deal involves open-source software, Sun's news is a definite slap to rival Microsoft's attempts to woo overseas government customers. (washingtonpost.com)

[Yahoo! News - Technology ]

For my money, a bit of competition never hurts. I still like Windows, and I'm way excited for Longhorn, but a bit of Linux in the mix can only be good, right?

Reuters - Chocolate manufacturer Cadbury Schweppes hopes to chip away at the world's litter mountain with sweet packages that dissolve in water.

[Yahoo!]

And I applaud their efforts. If only we'd ever see something like this in the US. But since US production of Cadbury is done by Hershey's, and the US has such weak support for eco-friendly anything, it'll be 15-20 years before something like this comes to America. Not to mention the delay that some plastics lobby will place on adopting new packaging like this.

It's about time...

Personal & business issues have kept me away from here far too long but I hope to resume the postings by the beginning of next week. Stay tuned!

[ The Virtual Quill ]

Now that people are well on their way to blocking spam in their email, the spammers have started a bad habit of spamming blogs. I've noticed them in slashdot, and now In My Kitchen is turning off comments for just this reason. It's a real shame that people feel that this sort of behavior is acceptable.

I guess as long as people have trackback capabilities on their blogs, we can all still comment.

Is it me, or does every story regarding the UN end with this phrase:

France has said that despite its misgivings, it will not veto a resolution when it is put to a vote.

[ BBC News | World | UK Edition ]

A report ordered by the Bush administration finds 'shocking' levels of distrust towards America in Muslim states.

[ BBC News | World | UK Edition ]

Maybe if we didn't treat foreign Muslims as criminals for no more reason than that, they'd have a reason to think otherwise. It amazes me how ignorant members of our government can be sometimes.

Update: Maybe I'm being hard on the US government. It's occurred to me that when a government attempts PR it is usually received as propaganda. Maybe we should be studying how super-mega international corporations handle their image, and borrow their techniques.

Witness Bodum.

Two sites, "Online Shop" and "Company Site".

One uses frames, the other flash.

Neither is "deep-link" friendly.

But they sell consumer products. I have no ability to send a link to someone and say "check out this cool bodum product", in fact Bodum also has no ability to do this. If you drill down into their crappy flash piece on the "company site" and get to a product, they provide a link to the same product in their "online shop", however it doesn't work (I'm hoping that's due to oversight and a redesign or something).

It aggravates me. Especially when it's a company that touts, "give up bad design for good", which seems only to apply to coffee and tea paraphernalia, and not their own web presence.

Is it just me or does this:

Conceived in 1977, launched in 1989, the spacecraft Galileo ends its 34th orbit exactly one hour from now, hitting the atmosphere at 48 kilometers a second.

[ Slashdot ]

sound a lot like it should be followed with: and in 2003 Jupiter launched the counter attack at the planet earth, unaware that there was life on the gas giant...

And then followed with some Hollywood movie that is hard to swallow but has real good special effects?

No power from 10pm yesterday till 5pm (Friday 19th)

[ vsbabu.org ]

And I had no power until 11:15AM Sunday the 21st, but I hid out with my sister in Maryland waiting for the power to return, so I could toss out most of the contents of my fridge and freezer.

Band members of Spork want to know:

Who has a preference? Who's with me?

[ Perfect Utensil ]

I say the 2.0 spec. It seems much more straight-forward and logical than the 1.0 spec. And a lot truer the the "Really Simple" concept (though some seem to disagree with what RSS stands for). And if that weren't enough, they'll try to confuse us with echo/atom next...

I was going to participate in this British Study, but I quickly lost interest and played some cartoony fighting games on the Nintendo. (Which certainly beat being social)

Apparently anything is news these days:

Reuters - The average one-way commute in the United States is just over 26 minutes, but the longest commute takes three hours, the government said on Monday.

[ Yahoo! News - Oddly Enough ]

This comes from a survey of 1,000 people. That's it, just 1,000. I'm not even sure that is statistically valid. It might suffice for a good guess at the average, but certainly not for determining the longest (or shortest) commute.

Today I went to Corner Bakery for lunch. They had a sign displaying the witticism:

Stressed is Desserts Spelled Backwards.

Now think of how much easier a language would be to learn if it all worked this way, if opposites were spelled backwards, or causes and effects, or conditions and cures. No more wondering how to combat Evil, you just Live. No more wondering what to take for a headache, just grab some ehcadaeh. And so on.

Of course many, many people will need to relearn the language, and no one else will think it's a good idea, and it will fail just as the metric system did (though I've heard they still use it somewhere), and we'll all end up speaking Esperanto.

Or just pretending? MexiJew points out some good tips to help you land the job you really want. I'm not sure that I agree with the thank you letter, they always seem pretty empty to me, but I have seen other decision makers respond to them.

In addition to his tips, I'd add:

• Keep your resume short. If your experience isn't in the same field and it's ten years old, it's not going to make much of a difference.
• Know how to use Word if you submit your resume as a Word Doc. If you can't layout the page correctly without getting red squiggles under each sentence, know that I'll see those same squiggles when I pull up your resume in my word.
• Don't apply if you're greatly over qualified. Many of my coworkers seem surprised at this one, but I don't want to spend weeks or even months hiring and training you, just for you to get bored and look for a new job, leaving me with another vacancy. I also don't want to pay for experience that I'm not going to use.
• If the job is in IT, don't fax in your resume, it make you look archaic or lacking the skills to submit your information electronically.
• And language skills are very important, so Word spell and grammar check aside, get a human to proof it as well, if not two or three.

If you are lucky enough to get past this first step, and you get a phone interview or even an office interview, here's a few things that you shouldn't do:

• Miss the phone call. It doesn't look professional.
• Ask the interviewer "Which company was this again?" followed up with "I've applied at so many, I can't tell them apart". Or anything in that vein.
• If asked why you applied for the job at their company, don't reply "I need work" or "I'm getting desperate", or "I can't remember", none will get you the job, even if it's the truth.
• Although a follow up call or thank you letter is appreciated, stalking, hounding, etc. is a sure way to lose a job that you almost had, so limit the calls to check on the job, and don't try to oversell yourself either, it makes you look cheap.

Apparently daveGruska decided that .Text didn't deliver on its promises, and he's trying out dasBlog.

And I love it.

John Bliss suggested that I find out if there is a "scent free" version of my beloved Corn Hustkers Lotion and I come to find out it's made by Pfizer, through their subsideary Warner-Labert.

But then, I ask, why has the label not really changed in 50 years or so? Or has the label been designed that way to fool me into thinking it's an age-old cure developed by the grandmother of some Iowa Corn Husker?

Any-which-way, it doesn't seem like it comes in different flavors, so he'll just have to get over his brain's association with its odor.

Yet another editorial regarding the evil of EULAs, and this time it's my Dad's.

It's got to make you wonder if one of these things could ever hold up in court.

And I love that they chose the tilde for this, personally I always think "similar to" when I see it...