I've got the fever for the flavor of Dengue, or something like that.

Dengue Fever has surprisingly universal appeal. Vocalist Chhom Nimol, whose family is a pop music dynasty, not unlike a Cambodian analog of The Jacksons, regularly seizes the hearts of listeners (including the King and Queen of Cambodia). Zac Holtzman (Dieselhed) and his brother Ethan on Farfisa organ, Senon Williams (Radar Brothers), David Ralicke (Beck) and the seasoned drummer/engineer Paul Smith stay remarkably true to the crazy party music spirit of the '60's- and '70's-era material they perform, while their originals veer off into the darkened corridors of lost love and ghostly noir romanticism, dissolving into spaces of genuine bleakness and tragedy.

[ Dengue Fever ]

I'm loving the new global pop scene, or as I like to call it Pop 2.0. These guys have an infectious, funky, exotic sound without sounding so far off that you can't figure heads from tails. Like the Fantastic Plastic Machine and Pizzicato 5 that I've been digging lately, Dengue Fever has a retro chic that I just can't shake.

Props go out to the Koosh Moose, who would have blogged about them, but I only gave him about 18 hours to do so, and he's a busy guy.

Or can it?

The agreement between Sun and Google also kicks off further collaboration between the companies on projects like OpenOffice.org, the open source productivity suite that is the world's leading suite on the Solaris Operating System (Solaris OS) and Linux--and the leading alternative suite on Microsoft Windows.

[ Sun Microsystems ]

I've used OpenOffice and I think it's ok. Get Google involved, and Microsoft better start innovating.

Sure, I knew it was going to be a short game, but under 5 hours? It actually took about 7 because my battery died and I had to replay the end of chapter 5, all of chapter 6, and a little bit past that.

Perhaps I'm putting too much stock in one game

[ david kearns dot com - My DS Killer App: daily opinions & trivia ]

However, this totally reminded me of the old Apple ][ days, and the quasi-graphic adventures. Which, is to say, a wonderful walk down nostagia way.

However, the plot is confusing and lame, and the ending lacks in a big way. The graphics are far better than those old Apple // games, and it's nice that most of the game can be played with the stylus or without.

All-in-all, not the reason to buy the DS. My next great white hope is Castlevania DS.

Found a new Windowblinds skin I like, and I think a new artist with it. danillooc resides in Brazil and does great skinning work:

When does Ramadan start?

The crescent moon signals the start of the monthlong holiday, and it will be up to the Plainfield headquarters of the Islamic Society of North America to formally determine for Muslims in this part of the world whether tonight's moon is the real deal.

[ Muslims turn eyes to sky to start Ramadan | IndyStar.com ]

ISNA and the Fiqh Council of North America should be discussing that exact topic this evening. Chances are, based on fancy math, that the Hilal (cresent moon) will not be seen tonight, and Ramadan will start at sunset tomorrow.

If you are itching to find out before everyone else on your block, check out:

• Islamic Society of North America
• Moonsighting.com
• Hilal-Sighting.com

Even more confused by when the days start? Heard that Ramadan starts Tuesday, but your co-worker didn't fast? Keep in mind that days on the Islamic calendar start at sunset, and not midnight. Curious about what is prohibited to a fasting Muslim during Ramadan? Wikipedia to the rescue.

Update: For Northern Virginia, it seems that all of the "big" mosques (or at least the ones with websites that are updated) agree, the first day of fasting is Wednesday:

• Dar Al Hijrah
• ADAMS center

Not quite:

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft said that it developed the "save as PDF" feature in Office 12 using the open, freely available PDF standard published by Adobe. Under the open specifications, Adobe allows other software developers to create PDFs without paying a licensing free.

[ Microsoft's Office upgrade to support PDF files - Boston.com ]

When you buy Office 12, you'll have the ability to create PDF files of your documents without having to use PDFCreator. Still, that's one less thing to install. And you can guarantee that all of your employees will be able to create these files. And since it's been siphoned through to PDF, no more worrying about the comments you may have left embedded in the document...

And the comments are the manual:

A real engineer only resorts to documentation when the keyboard dents on the forehead get too noticeable.

[ Tip #1 - the super star : vim online ]

Did I mention that I ♥ vim?

With this indisputable scientific data, it is likely that 30 days of Sha’ban will be completed and the first day of Ramadan will be on Wednesday, October 5, 2005, for North America, insha’Allah.

[ Read News: ISNA.net ]

So you're all set up to podcatch with ipodder, but you want to automatically sync with your portable device. The problem? You don't own an actual iPod, but you do have a Windows Mobile device that has mp3 playback and a nice sized SD card. The solution? MobSync.

MobSync is a software allowing any file folder synchronization from the Pocket PC onto the desktop--synchronization which cannot be done with ActiveSync. So, with this software you can synchronize any file folder on your Pocket PC (not necessarily \My Documents) with any file folder on your desktop (not necessarily \Pocket_PC My Documents either). It works well and now that it is translated in english it is a must have. Pay attention to very big files, it may stop in the middle of the process and fail to copy (just like ActiveSync).

[ PocketPCFreewares - MobSync ]

This should work fine on your Dell Axim, your Samsung i730 phone, or what-have-you. Now you only need to find podcasts worth subscribing too...

Or, if you have $9 and want an all-in-one PodCatching/RSS aggregating solution that requires no PC, FeedReader looks pretty hot.

I've made the switch to IE7 from slim browser. I really liked slim browser, but I felt the need to get back to IE, and once tabs were added I thought I'd see if I could do it. One nice thing about IE is I can have multiple windows, slim browser likes everything to be in one. One thing I really missed about switching, though, is mouse gestures:

This article discusses how I've added mouse gesture support to Internet Explorer. The code presented isn't intended to detail every step in the implementation (hopefully the source code will do this); rather it's intended to provide a quick sketch of the steps involved.

[ The Code Project - Mouse Gestures for Internet Explorer - ATL ]

Now I only really use two mouse gestures, and they aren't much to implement, but this little plug in does both and pretty much the rest of the bunch. My most used are "click right left" and "click left right" for going forward one page or back one page respectively.

Now that I have mouse gestures, I wonder what other features of slim browser I can get my IE to do?

Multiple site browser based on tab-page interface - though the IE tabs aren't as flexible
Seamless integration with AI RoboForm FormFiller/Password Manager - which I never used
Built-in Popup Killer based on intelligent identification and pre-defined filtering - though IE's isn't as bright
Site windows killed by mistake are FULLY RECOVERABLE - this always was nice, though at times irritating. Slim browser doesn't block the popup, it fully hides the blockup and if you don't recover it in a short amount of time, kills the hidden window. This is great unless the page makes sound, which the popup blocker doesn't block at all.
Ability to turn on/off Flash Animation - I never used this, it was too difficult to turn on and off all of the time.
Built-in web form spell checker - ieSpell does that for me.
Universal URL Filter: Block ad banners, flash animations, iframes or any components within any web pages by URL patterns - I never really tweaked this, so I didn't get much use out of it.
Built-in RSS News Rendering Engine. Now you can read RSS news directly inside SlimBrowser without additional RSS Reader software - IE7 has this and it's just as stupid as in all of the other browsers. Seriously people, just get bloglines.
ActiveX Filter: block obtrusive dialogs prompting you to install unsafe ActiveX controls - not sure how this is any different than IE has always had.
Convenient access to major search engines by Quick-Search Bar - sure no quick-search, but my google bar works fine.
Seamless integration of most Internet Explorer toolbars - Oddly IE does fine with this.
ScriptPad: Built-in VBScript/Jscript/HTML/Text editor - I never liked this, vi is the editor for me.
Hidden Sites : hide and show a site at users' request
Skinned window frame - WindowBlinds works for me.
Free-zooming of any web page - I don't think I have this, but I bet there is a windows accessability option to do something similar.
AutoLogin: automatically connect and log into specified website with just one click - I'm not even sure I ever saw this.
Seamless integration with online translation engine and dictionaries - with google bar
Ability to suppress script error message dialog - even IE4 could do this, I think.
Site Group: Open and save a collection of sites as a group - not very useful to me
Flexible control of startup actions - don't really need this either
URL Alias: Type short alias instead long URL - like tinurl?

A lot of good functionality in slim browser, but I think IE7 will work fine for me. One thing to note, IE7 works fine inside of slim browser so you'll still get the IE7 browsing engine inside of slim browser, if you have both installed.

I found an interesting article that was posted last year on USA Today, the author attempted a real world comparison of VW's diesel technology vs. Toyota's hybrid technology:

Prius is comfortable, a festival of technology and unquestionably cleaner-burning than the VW can be today with only high-sulfur diesel fuel available. But the real-world mileage of pleasant-driving Jetta was better than that of Prius, and diesel fuel typically was 16% to 20% cheaper than unleaded gas.

Jetta lived up to its one-tank billing. Prius did not.

And on top of that the only drawback that he seemed to find vis à vie the VW was environmental impact:

While the fuel price advantage on this trip goes to the diesel, the environmental advantage goes to the hybrid. The Jetta spews out six times more sulfur particulates than Prius, which can run almost emission-free when using low-sulfur gasoline available in California but almost nowhere else. Federal regulations require phasing in of low-sulfur gas and diesel the next few years, which will improve the emission performance of both gas and diesel vehicles.

[ USATODAY.com ]

Since it's been over a year from the article being written, gas prices have gone through the roof, federal guidelines about the amount of sulfur in diesel have begun to go into affect, and bio-diesel is much more prevalent than ever.

Perhaps I'm putting too much stock in one game, but I think that Trace Memory promises to be the first game for my DS that has made the purchase worthwhile:

[ Trace Memory ]

It seems like the interface is well thought out, the story seems to be engaging, and there is tons to explore. I'm hoping that many of this type of adventure game finds its way onto the DS, as most action and platform type games aren't cutting it on the DS (as far as I am concerned).

And, if this doesn't live up to my hype, then Animal Crossing: Wild World had better.

How irritating:

In an RSS attack, the content deliver from trusted RSS sites is hijacked and lead the user to offending sites, which collect their personal information to phishers, or download viruses to their computer.

[ IT Observer - Next IE Opens Door for RSS Attacks ]

And how, exactly, is RSS attacked? Or hijacked? The feeds are delivered no different than a web page, except they are in XML. I can no more "hijack" RSS than I can a website.

Plus, as I'm sure all will notice soon, browsers are a seriously crappy way of aggregating RSS.

Crazy but (possibly) true:

Ever since Palm separated from PalmSource Inc., the company that develops the Palm OS, analysts and enthusiasts have been speculating that Palm would eventually turn to a different operating system vendor for its smart phones and personal digital assistants. That speculation reached fever pitch earlier this week, when Engadget posted photos of the unannounced Treo 700w running the Windows Mobile operating system.

[ Windows-based Treo May Arrive Today - CIO News Alerts - Blog - CIO ]

Which, of course, could mean a Windows OS powered Life Drive. Perhaps my lack of buying a portable digital media device (PDMD) has finally paid off.

Update: Reuters says it's true.

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.

And perhaps what I should have done in the first place. I've just downloaded the new FreeTextBox and recompiled my site.

FreeTextBox 3.0 is a free ASP.NET server control written in C# for use in ASP.NET applications. You can use FreeTextBox in any product with no obligation for payment.

[ FreeTextBox Forums ]

Though the RSS Enclosures, ability to edit dates or blog a different day than it is, upload images directly, and who knows what else, are all nice things to have too.

Which is always a bit of a pain, due to my hacking of the system.

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 ]

And, it appears, that I took so long a few minor upgrades were made as well. Originally I did this because my IE 7 at work isn't sensed correctly by the FreeTextBox control, and I'm not even sure this upgrade fixes it. The "Add Image" functionality returns, so I won't have to use the crappy image library screen, which is probably worth the price of admission. RSS enclosures have been added as well, so I guess I can do a podcast, but I really don't get them, so I won't...

The wisdom of fools is usually to be avoided, but the Motley Fools tend to know what they speak of. In this case not even a gamer, but suprisingly upbeat about Nintendo's future.

I'm not much of a video gamer, but I'm a huge fan of companies that succeed through creativity, and I'm glad to see Nintendo winning praise for trying something different. Its bizarre brainstorms might just be the company's ticket back to the heights of video-game royalty. True, the Revolution will need a solid lineup of games to match the promise of its nifty new controller and lure third-party game developers back to its system. But this is a company that made a plumber, an ape, and a little elf guy into worldwide superstars. I'm willing to give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt on this.

[ Nintendo's Revolutionary Controller - Yahoo! News ]

I think his assumptions about what must compliement Nintendo's Revolution are true, and quite evident to Nintendo. And I think this is a very good sign. And, I hope, one more step to a future where children may say, "Sony used to make video games?".

After literally 3 minutes of extensive searching, I found this:

Anonymous (2001) is a TrueType version of Anonymous 9, a freeware Macintosh bitmap font developed in the mid-90s by Susan Lesch and David Lamkins. It was designed as a more legible alternative to Monaco, the mono-spaced Macintosh system font.

[ Anonymous(tm) ]

And with that? I'll stop looking...

Shiver me timbers, it's international Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day!

[ Talk Like A Pirate Day - September 19 ]

Props to Sajous