There must be some way to work the system...

The District of Columbia will offer a Sales Tax Holiday from Saturday, August 6, 2005, through Sunday, August 14, 2005 – just in time for back-to-school shopping

[ Office of Tax and Revenue: Press Release - July 20, 2005 ]

Granted, in theory, as a resident of Virginia, I am required to track all of my purchases that are not taxed by another state, and pay tax to the state of Virginia at the end of the year. So, technically, this does me no good what-so-ever. Plus Iman is already back in school...

Forget the iPod, Apple's new mouse is hot. Period.

At $49, Mighty Mouse features the revolutionary Scroll Ball that lets you move anywhere inside a document, without lifting a finger. And with touch-sensitive technology concealed under the seamless top shell, you get the programability of a four-button mouse in a single-button design.

[ Apple - Mighty Mouse ]

Priced right, packed with features, I wonder what the wireless version will cost...

Props to Sajous

Afghanistan is not part of Iraq!

...mentioning that the U.S. talked about bringing troops home from Iraq in 2006, despite my constant corrections that I was actually in a different country with a different name, to wit Afghanistan.

[ Paravonia ]

And drunk ladies hanging out at bars don't know much about current events...

Props to Karol

Can this possibly work?

This is the day that all fellow System Administrators across the globe, will be showered with expensive sports cars and large piles of cash in appreciation of their diligent work.

[ System Administrator Appreciation Day - Friday July 29th 2005 ]

I'm rather sure that it takes more than a webpage to create a holiday. At least Hallmark or American Greetings has to get on board, right?

Props to Sajous

Neither is ready for international prime time, in my humble opinion.

Google has the goods on satellite photos of Makassar, Indonesia; but no details on roads, place names, etc. etc.

Virtual Earth totally knows where Makassar is, but the satellite photo sucks, and the interface won't allow zooming in past the halfway point.

If all client side code was written with this article in mind, the Web would be a better place.

When you develop web applications, always consider possible browser differences and be informed about them.

[ Migrate apps from Internet Explorer to Mozilla ]

Props to Joe G.

I particularly like the bits about event handlers, a much better way to achieve cross browser, multi-event, tight code for DHTML. Good tips relating to your Ajax solutions too.

Though who says it better than this?

I bongo
with my lingo
And beat it like a wing yo
To Congo
To Columbo
Can't stereotype my thing yo
I salt and pepper my mango
Shoot spit
Out the window
Bingo I got em in the thing yo
Now what? I'm doing my thing yo

[ M.I.A. on Rhapsody ]

Immortal words from M.I.A.'s track Sunshowers.

Google maps must rock, MSN now has them too:

Virtual Earth has slick new features for online mapping and local search that you'll want to try!

[ MSN Virtual Earth ]

Why innovate when you can replicate?

Props: Dari, who missed the whole Google Maps craze.

My beloved Sidekick II's keyboard is starting to come off. This usually means that I've had my "mobile communication solution" for long enough to start seeing what else is on the horizon. If this is indicative of what's coming, I'm psyched:

...from the five minutes we spent with the Q we can tell you that yes, it is incredibly thin, that it has a nice, crisp screen, and that the keyboard was fairly easy to use...

[ Hands-on with the Motorola Q - Engadget - www.engadget.com ]

The Sidekick II is nice but is still a bit weak. It's a bit bigger than other devices, still no infrared, no bluetooth, poor Outlook sync, and little ability to expand it's functionality. The promise of custom code running on the device has fallen very short, as their developer program has far too much red tape involved, and isn't tailored for home grown efforts (it's clearly designed to allow providers to have tight controls on what can and cannot be run on the device).

Update: Dari brings the Reuter's story about this device to our attention.

And when in Annandale, do as the Koreans do. In this case Bingsoo!

Shilla Bakery
7039 Little River Turnpike, Annandale

[ SuperPages.com ]

What is Bingsoo? 빙수, as it is written in Korean, is shaved ice with fruit and ice cream. The options are so many, as the one we selected had shaved ice with tapioca cubes, strawberry ice cream, strawberry syrup, and condensed milk. Shilla has about 5 flavors, so once we've tried all of them, we'll have to go looking for other places that serve this tasty treat.

Ice Berry in Seoul is apparently well known for their Bingsoo, but their website only confuses me. Looks like burgermania? has Bingsoo too...

I wonder how long it will take before it opens?

A new museum of Islamic art and culture will open in December in downtown Baltimore as part of an effort by Maryland Muslims to promote greater understanding of their religion in the aftermath of attacks such as this month's bombing of the London subway.

[ Islamic art museum set to open in downtown - baltimoresun.com ]