Then I'd know how to navigate this overwhelming mess of information, and find out what options I have in automated PDF creation from a website.

Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional software is the advanced way to create, control, and deliver more secure, high-quality Adobe PDF documents. Assemble electronic or paper files — even Web sites, engineering drawings, and e-mail — into reliable PDF documents that are easy to share with others using free Adobe Reader 7.0 software.

[ Adobe Acrobat Professional ]

My buddy Adam got married over in the North of England so my other buddy Tom and I decided to do the "visit the mother country" deal. It was awesome. I highly recommend to anyone a visit to the Emerald Isle, and I also recommend to anyone to visit the land of your ancestors.

So my best friend, Jill Bauland, is getting married and I'm one of her bridesmaids. The wedding will be in Ireland so I'm finally getting a chance to fly home to my mother country. Green Grass, Good Times and Guinness. Can't wait. I really don't have much to say about the whole thing yet but she insisted I write a post about her so she can google her name and have something come up.

[ Laura Foy...: Always a Bridesmaid... ]

I should say that I still imbibed the alcomahol when I visited, and Galway is a great pub town.

$79 for unlimited two day shipping? Sign me up:

Enjoy free second-day shipping on every order or overnight shipping for only $3.99 per item to addresses in the continental United States, and the convenience of 1-Click ordering. Items in multiple-item orders are shipped as soon as they're available—at no extra charge. And you can invite family members living in the your household to share the benefits. As an Amazon Prime member, you won't have to think about shipping charges when you order.

[ Amazon.com ]

But wait, I should read the fine print first, eh?

This program is limited to certain products sold by Amazon.com on www.amazon.com that are shipped to continental United States addresses, excluding Alaska, Hawaii, P.O. boxes, APO/FPO and U.S. territories, possessions and protectorates. Though Two-Day and One-Day shipping benefits do not apply to these excluded addresses, members are entitled to free Standard shipping on eligible items shipped to P.O. boxes in the continental U.S. and APO/FPO addresses with U.S. zip codes. We may exclude products in our discretion, including, for example, oversize or heavy items, items regulated as hazardous materials, and other items with special shipping characteristics. Products are eligible for Prime only if designated on the website. Products sold by third parties, or through third-party areas such as Marketplace, Auctions and/or zShops, are NOT eligible for Prime.

[ Amazon.com: Help / Items Eligible for Amazon Prime ]

So about nothing I order is covered, eh? Only if I ordered dozens upon dozens of books and cds each year would this make any sense. Still seems like a good deal for some, but pas de moi.

Now if they extended this to video games and cheese, it might just be worth it...

Yes the CSS Zen Garden is olds (and not news), however I had no idea that they had so many designs. For me this is like "porn for guys":

There is clearly a need for CSS to be taken seriously by graphic artists. The Zen Garden aims to excite, inspire, and encourage participation. To begin, view some of the existing designs in the list. Clicking on any one will load the style sheet into this very page. The code remains the same, the only thing that has changed is the external .css file. Yes, really.

[ mezzoblue css Zen Garden — Design List ]

So many great ideas, and clear proof that the sky is the limit when it comes to designing for the web. If you are a designer and somehow reading this (which is doubtful due to my atrocious design), take this example to heart and make your next site design a real winner.

It's a bit surprising that this list would need to be made, but then again not.

Over the years, we've developed a list of issues like these, that we call the 10 Immutable Laws of Security.

[ Microsoft TechNet: 10 Immutable Laws of Security ]

Did they call the list "Immutable" from the start? ;-)

I do believe that we need to start younger teaching things like security. Most security systems need to be explained to be successful, and many of the exploits are the same exploits that have been taken advantage of for years just wrapped up in a new package. The real issue is the changing of our culture so that average joe user understands the dynamic and can guard themselves against black hats and ignorance exploitation.

I picked up the EyeToy for Iman because she always wants to play around with it at the store. I should have picked it up earlier, by the time I got around to getting it the Best Buy only had EyeToy:Antigrav and no more copies of EyeToy:Groove or EyeToy:Play, but I know she'd at least like the hover-boarding game. I then GameFlyed all of the EyeToy games that they have (except Groove, 'cause I found out that Iman says she wouldn't like it). The first to arrive is Nicktoons Movin'.

I didn't expect much from this game, but the whole reason to have GameFly is to try games that only Nate would buy, sight unseen. And this one is all the stinker you would expect it to be, or so says Iman. She lost interest in this before even trying all of the games. It appeared that the same gimmicky ideas were hashed and rehashed through a series of games highlighting characters from a dozen or so Nicktoons. Some silly cartoons introduced each barely thought out game. Granted many of the games were no more creative than a WarioWare or Feel The Magic XY/XX game, but (at least in the case of Wario) there are hundreds of those, not dozens.

Even if you do have an EyeToy, I'd recommend skipping this one. Unfortunately that doesn't leave a ton of games left to try, as the EyeToy games aren't coming out too quickly, and in respect for my downstairs neighbor, I refuse to get DDR Extreme.

Apparently kids today are enjoying Japanese Culture:

Japanese comics, called manga, take up more and more space on American bookshelves, and they've infused new life into the publishing industry. Japanese animation, anime, is on more and more movie and TV screens. Neal Conan and guests discuss the growing influence of Japanese culture in America.

[ NPR : Manga, Anime and Japanese Culture in America ]

Oh, wait, I knew that...

The first speaker's book Wrong About Japan : A Father's Journey with His Son isn't quite out in paperback. And Viz published many manga and the magazine Shonen Jump, which I almost picked up for Iman, perhaps when she's a bit older.

On one hand it's cool when a company realizes that their fans want to build fan sites, and work with them to make sure it's acceptable to their lawyers, and the fans can still have fun with it. On the other hand it's not cool when some marketing guy just doesn't get it. Case in point: "Resident Evil 4" by Capcom.

I went looking for wallpapers, as I always do, to add to my collection (which gets rotated on my PC at work and home about every 15 minutes) because I'm a big geek. The Resident Evil 4 site had no such downloadables, but did have a "build a fansite" contest, which I figured might have something close. Instead I found a wizard that build this. It's not a fan site, it's a wizard to build mini-marketing sites. What fun is that? And if it appeals to anyone, it would be young kids, who shouldn't be playing this game anyway.

I have completed the upgrade, and it appears to be successful. And, although the dasBlog homepage is in a sad state of confusion, the dasBlog wiki appears to be back up for the mean time:

DasBlog is an ASP.NET weblogging application. It runs on Microsoft .Net 1.1 and is developed in C#. DasBlog, an evolution of the BlogX weblog engine, adds lots of additional features like Trackback, Pingback, Mail notifications, full Blogger/MovableType API support, Comment API support, fully customizable Radio-style templates, Mail-To-Weblog/POP3 with attachment and embedded picture support, web-based DHTML editing, web-based OPML editor, web-based configuration editing, and other goodies to the BlogX codebase. And it's free without restrictions.

[ DasBlog.HomePage ]

My guess is that newtelligence just doesn't have the time to keep up with this, but Omar Shahine does. What I don't get is why newtelligence doesn't have the time to redirect dasblog.net to the wiki site.

Since I've hacked the code, I have to spend a good deal of time merging the changes in, and this usually means that I have a good grasp of all the changes. There were large sections, however, that I didn't review since I knew I had no code in those parts. I believe that a large part of this version is tightening of code. Some anti-comment spam features have been added. Pingback and trackbacks have been touched, and there are comments that lead me to believe that they now work. Comments can now be shut off on an entry by entry basis. Draft entries can be saved, which is welcome by me, sometimes I want to save to make sure nothing gets lost, but I know that I'm not quite ready to go live with an entry. The login has been reworked, it's just a link to a login page, with just a note that it was done for "many reasons". I did have to hack that work, the "Sign in" link wasn't inside a div like the login box was before, and it wasn't lining up correctly. Admin functions have been tightened up, and now referrals are intelligently parsed, splitting out search engines, and just displaying keywords, and all referring stats can be accessed, not just todays.

All in all I'm pleased, if you like to hack .net code, and you are looking for blogging software for a home page, I would recommend dasBlog. (Though I do run .Text on geekprime.com, I'm frustrated with the delay on Community Server :: Blog and the migration tools for .Text .95)

And jumped over to SourceForge:

dasBlog Community Edition is an ASP.NET weblogging application. It runs on ASP.NET 1.1 and is developed in C#. dasBlog, an evolution of the BlogX weblog engine, adds lots of additional features like Trackback, Pingback, Mail notifications, full Blogger/M

[ SourceForge.net: Project Info - newtelligence dasBlog Community Edition ]

Not having worked on these open source projects, I'm not sure what the difference is between SourceForge and GotDotNet, but I do know that SourceForge has always seemed quicker. From what I read previously on the GotDotNet forums for dasBlog this release should have quite a few fixes in it. I guess I'll be WinMerging some code this weekend.

Why can't I get this out of my head?

Correct me if I am wrong, but are you asking for a challenge?

[ Coming Soon! The biggest name is Web Advertising!! ]

Speaking of games that I'm eagerly awaiting, not one but two Wario Ware games are headed our way. I truly enjoyed Wario Ware Inc.:Mega Microgame$, and somewhat enjoyed WarioWare Inc: Mega Party Game$. The party game had much repeated from the GBA game, and it's not so much fun to play the party game when I'm totally familliar with the mini games but the unsuspecting victims who agree to play the party game are not.

Not content to sit on innovation, Wario has two more games headed our way: “Wario Ware: Touched!” and “Wario Ware: Twisted!” Touched is coming out for the DS and involves dozens of new games that use the stylus or microphone. I'm expecting super innovation here. Twisted is for the GBA and contains some sort of mini-gyro or something that can tell what direction the GBA is facing, and thus if you are twisting it. It uses this innovation to drive many of it's dozens of new mini-games. Certainly good things can be expected from both titles.

GameFly has Starcraft: Ghost listed in “upcoming titles” including box art and a rating of M.

Blizzard Entertainment's StarCraft franchise comes to next gen consoles with the innovative StarCraft: Ghost. But instead of managing tactical units, in Starcraft: Ghost, you will control a futuristic, "Ghost" super-warrior.

[ Gamefly ]

I'm not getting my hopes up, Blizzard has been dragging their feet on this one. I think the entire gaming community is hoping that Blizzard is doing this to get the game “right”. Blizzard has a lot of story behind the Starcraft universe, and the ghost unit is one of the more exciting human military units from the strategy game, there is no reason that this game shouldn't be perfect. I'm still willing to give Blizzard the benefit of the doubt, but actual box art and a rating is a good sign.

Update: on a closer look it appears that the “M” rating is only on the box, and their database says “rating pending” (RP). Plus the GameCube version has different box art, different box rating, is listed as RP and releases TBD, and is being published directly by Blizzard instead of Vivendi like the PS2 version. All adding up to more waiting...

Another site that looks darn interesting. Where will I find the time to read so much?

Selecting and implementing a content management system (CMS) will be one of the largest IT projects tackled by many organisations. With costs running into the millions of dollars, it is vital that the right CMS package be selected.

[ How to evaluate a content management system ]

I'll just leave it here on my page, and that will encourage me to go back and read it, right?

Asjouré thinks this is cute, I have to agree...

Sending a PajamaGram^SM gift is like sending a mini-vacation. She'll receive the softest, most luxurious pajamas, along with a personalized card, lavender bath tea, and a "Do Not Disturb" sign, all wrapped in a beautiful keepsake hatbox.

[ Pajamas from PajamaGram.com - You get all of this with every PajamaGram gift! ]

But no international delivery. :-(

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...

The small shop that I work for is large enough to need automation, but not large enough to need the sorts of automation that I've researched so far. SUS was very welcome, it replaced the SMS server that we were trying to use, but took way to much time to implement, and the hoping that people would visit Windows Update on a regular basis. SUS now allows me to know that systems have been updated when I need them to be (and it successfully did that with XP SP2 just this week). However it only does windows updates. I think I'm about to be pleased:

Available now as a public beta, WUS was recently evaluated by Mandy Andress of Network World's Lab Alliance (see link below) who pronounced it "a definite improvement over Software Update Services, the product it replaces," as well as "a credible alternative to existing patch management products such as BigFix and PatchLink for cost-conscious, Windows-only shops." This last means that, while very good, WUS is not as feature rich as many of the third-party commercial products available to you.

[ What's inside Windows Update Service ]

Isn't it great that there are journalists who take time time to report this sort of thing... ;)

Good tips here, I think:

Hiring is all about probabilities. When we evaluate a candidate, we are basically just trying to predict whether that candidate will be a success in the position being filled. We're trying to know the future, but we have no prophets and no Oracle.

[ Hazards of Hiring (The Business of Software) ]

Microsoft is just a wealth of knowledge, eh?

Yes, this is where I work. Yes we are in need once again:

We are currently searching for a producer/project manager to work with our current and future clients to complete their Web projects. The ideal candidate will have experience in both project management and the Internet. Strong organizational skills and writing ability are required.

[ Employment Opportunities ]

And, since I know that many project managers read my site, I figured I'd link it up.

...perhaps. At least this looks very interesting. I keep meaning to read it in depth, but never seem to have the time. Perhaps if I blog about it I'll get around to it...

Consistently delivering high-quality technology solutions on time and on budget is challenging for any business. The Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) provides people and process guidance—the proven practices of Microsoft—to help teams and organizations become more successful in delivering business-driven technology solutions to their customers. MSF is a deliberate and disciplined approach to technology projects based on a defined set of principles, models, disciplines, concepts, guidelines, and proven practices from Microsoft.

[ Visual Studio: Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) ]

Hey, buddy! Canada here! We were all really excited when we heard aboot all you Democrats moving up here after the Christian Conservatives took over your country.

[ Welcome to Canada, Eh? ]

Props to Mikah.

Don't know why this was so hard to find. Gruska even had the correct name, I think. But this is, apparently, the only decent freeware program to report hard drive usage in a manner conducive to freeing up some space.

Every hard disk is too small if you just wait long enough. TreeSize tells you where precious space has gone to. TreeSize can be started from the context menu of a folder or drive and shows you the size of this folder, including its subfolders.

[ JAM Software - Windows Freeware ]

NPR had an interesting story about Mormons and Native Americans which is apparently part of a series:

Worlds of Difference uses radio documentary features to explore the impact of global change on local cultures worldwide. Individual pieces air on public radio news magazine shows; they will be compiled and rebroadcast in thematic hour-long specials in the spring and summer of 2005. The goal of the project is to stimulate public discussion on questions of diversity, tradition, identity, connectedness, continuity and change.

[ Worlds of Difference ]

Unfortunately a bunch of the stories seem to have disappeared from their original postings, but a bunch are still available. All rather touching, all rather interesting.