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.

dasBlog v1.3.3266 has released, and I've merged changes into my code. Not much except a bit more standardized, a few more options, a couple of interface tweaks, well worth my time, and certainly well worth yours if you're not tweaking the code like I am.

This evening Iman and I dined at the Lebanese Taverna in Pentagon Row. The Lebanese Taverna has long been one of my regional favorites, but I was unaware of their new location, until a coworker mentioned that the original location was boarded up. Apparently they are renovating the original location, and should be done any day now.

Iman had the kid's "Chicken Tenders" which included some rather plain looking battered chicken bits and some lackluster fries accompanied by some first class hummus that apparently doesn't appeal to the palette of a six year old (but all the more for me). I ordered the Mixed Grill, which was a trio of lamb, chicken, and ground beef with vegetables on a skewer perfectly grilled and served aside pilaf and some onion relish. I must tell you that the Lebanese Taverna has always been one of my favorites, but they seem to have kicked up the quality at their new location, as I never remember it tasting so good.

The atmosphere was also top notch, and they have 20 or so tables outdoors for dining al fresco. Although we didn't stay for dessert, I could tell by the looks of it that we would have been quite pleased if we had.

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.

It's official, as of tomorrow GameCube is only $99.

If you've been waiting to buy the best console around, now is the time.

If you've been craving old-school gaming, get a GameBoy Player too, and pick up some reworked SNES games.

Update: Now listed on Amazon.com.

Update: It seems that initial reports claim 400% increase in sales due to price reduction, I think it's due to my blog entry...

"Don't worry about the midget. He is on your side."

[George Clinton]

New catalog application

• Browse and download promotional RingTones and applications directly to the device.
• Find the content that interests you with the catalog's easy-to-use interface.
• Use the RingTone previews to "try before you download".
• Applications you download appear on the Jump screen, so you can to open them quickly.
• Use downloaded RingTones for alerts and notifications throughout the device: in the Web Browser, AIM®, E-mail, Phone, Phone Messages, and Calendar.

New AOL® Instant Messenger features

• Express your feelings with any of 16 smileys (emoticons).
• Link to e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and URLs included in instant messages via menu commands.
• Open conversations directly from the Jump screen using shortcuts.
• Move and copy buddies into different groups.
• Open recent conversations without being signed on to the AIM® service.
• If you are disconnected from AIM®, you can pick up your conversations where you left off.

Enhanced overall usability

• Create multiple sound profiles for use in different situations.
• Cut, copy, and paste text in text fields.
• Enter special characters (Unicode) with the Special Character selector.
• Hierarchical menus allow quick and easy access to menu items.
• Mute indicator on title bar makes it easy to tell when the device is in silent mode.
• Persistent notifications give multiple reminders of new messages and pending events.

Audio attachments in e-mail

• Audio attachments sent to you in e-mail messages can be played on the device.
• The device now plays attachments in WAV, MIDI, RMF, and AIFF audio formats.

New Web Browser features

• Re-visit previously-loaded Web pages with forward navigation.
• Load Web pages in the background and receive notification when a page is finished loading.

Enhanced functionality in PIM applications

• Assign priorities to tasks and sort by priorities.
• Specify locations for meetings and other Calendar events.

[danger]

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.