I have a handy alarm clock that automatically adjusts for daylight savings. Thanks to the US Congress, I get to replace it next year:

Starting in March 2007, daylight time in the United States will begin on the second Sunday in March and end on the first Sunday in November.

[ Daylight Time ]

How on earth could congress make a change to the US policy regarding Daylight Savings and not have it be to get rid of it? Now we're extending it by another month (give or take)?

And, for those of us that write software, we need to think hard if we coded for daylight savings anywhere, and update that code. Perhaps congress is worried that we don't have enough to program, and changing the rules frequently will help to employ programmers...

After a long wait VS.NET and SQL 2005 have been released to manufacturing.

[ Miguel Campos Blog : VS.NET and SQL 2005 RTM ]

OK, I'll admit it, I don't know much about Macs. And, it seems, I'm not a wizard at Active Directory either. Googling how to "connect" your Mac to AD (on OS 10.4) has helped a bit, but I'm not sure how much I can trust the "this is how I did it" type how tos...

So, my fine readers, who also know about Macs and such, what book will give me the answer to this and provide me a good reference to the correct ways to run Macs in a Windows LAN environment? I'm putting you to the challenge, and I'm expecting big things...

For some reason I thought Rachael Ray came from a foodie family. Not only is that far from the truth, but when she "hit it" she bought the cabin she was living in. Not some fancy swank mansion, but a cabin in the Adirondacks. Now how cool is that?

Ms. Ray and her mom drove nine hours south in a snowstorm, and she nailed the "Today" show appearance. The next day, she said, the Food Network signed her to a $360,000 contract to teach America what she had been teaching the folks upstate. The first thing she did was to reupholster the old family furniture in the cabin. Then she bought the place.

[ Being Rachael Ray: How Cool Is That? - New York Times ]

Mark this one on your calendars:

The adventures of Curious George, a very inquisitive monkey, and his best friend, the Man in the Yellow Hat.

[ Curious George Movie Info - Yahoo! Movies ]

Opens February 10th, 2006.

I'm no Seth Godin, but it seems to me that you can't go wrong with a statement like this:

To fight Superman, you can't send an ordinary ape — you need Hanuman," he says, invoking the name of the monkey-god hero of Hindu mythology. "And Banrie is Hanuman."

[ TIME Europe ]

I'm rather sure I overheard a very similar statement in a meeting the other day...

Still don't have the phone, but I have a list of goodies to install, including this:

As the name suggests is does conversions - it supports four types of conversions, each with up to 10 categories. Currency Measures - 1 inch = 2.5 Centimetres etc Temperature - Celsius <-> Fahrenheit

[ "Convert It" for your Smartphone ]

Numerous times over the years I stumble across something that requires the use of LDAP. In the past I've tried to locate a program to assist me in exploring LDAP from the perspective of the program that will be doing the same thing. I found a weak one developed by whichever University used to be so very involved with LDAP, but it still confused me to no end.

Once again I have come across LDAP. This time, however, I found the program that I wanted all along. And it's free:

LDAP Browser is a lightweight version of LDAP Administrator with limited functionality.

[ Softerra LDAP Administrator/Browser ]

Do I understand LDAP any more than before? Not really. Does this tool help me to stave off that requirement? It seems to. I can continue along in my bliss, not truly knowing what LDAP is, all because the LDAP browser can easily show me the info that I need, and provide me with URLs that correspond to branches on a directory tree.

For those interested in the freeware version of CodeSmith, the 2.6 freeware version will continue to be available here.

[ CodeSmith Tools: CodeSmith 2.6 Freeware ]

The reports of your death were greatly exaggerated.

3.0 may be "all that", but until I can tell how 2.6 differs from 3.0 and 3.0 from 3.0 pro, I'll be continuing to sponge off of the good nature of Eric J. Smith and his fine free code generator.

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.

I'm constantly Synchronizing things, and I think I've finally found a tool that will help with a large part of that chore:

SyncToy is a free PowerToy for Microsoft Windows XP that provides is an easy to use, highly customizable program that helps users to do the heavy lifting involved with the copying, moving, and synchronization of different directories.

[ SyncToy for Windows XP ]

The first challenge for Caribou will be overcoming its Minnesota-ness. Caribou's coffeehouses (in Minnesota) account for about half of the company's stores and sales, and those stores have consistently been more profitable than coffeehouses outside the state.

[ Caribou Coffee off to bitter start ]

Let me say, as far as I am concerned, Caribou is just plain better than Starbucks. Sure, I like the 'bucks, but Caribou's drinks are much more reasonably priced. Caribou also has better drip, especially decaf, since they don't burn their beans like the Starbucks House Blend.

Interestingly, Caribou ends up even being a company I could invest in, as I am a bit strict about my investments:

Besides improving operations, Coles has his hands full addressing the public relations problems related to the 60 percent stake in Caribou owned by Bahrain-based Arcapita Bank, which was formerly known as First Islamic Investment Bank.

Arcapita ... operates the business in accordance with a body of Islamic principles known as Shariah.

Sure, we don't have Peet's in the DC area, so the only two national chains I am aware of are Starbucks and Caribou, but generally I prefer to do the 'bou.