I'm headed to the launch:

Join Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer* and key Microsoft Executives for the launch of Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005, SQL Server™ 2005, and BizTalk® Server 2006! This all-day event offers an opportunity to learn how the Microsoft application platform offerings enable organizations to gain better business insight and deliver faster results by easily connecting people, processes, and information.

[ Launch Tour 2005 ]

Of course we don't get Cheap Trick and Steve Ballmer like San Francisco did, but I look forward to getting excited about the new tools I'll be using soon...

I love it when you find a game that compels you to avoid eating and sleeping, and if you are a gamer you know what I mean. Ubi's back with PoP: The Two Thrones which they sum up as such:

The Prince of Persia makes his way home to Babylon, bearing with him Kaileena, the enigmatic Empress of Time, and unspeakable scars from the Island of Time. But instead of the peace he longs for, he finds his kingdom ravaged by war and Kaileena the target of a brutal plot. When she is kidnapped, the Prince tracks her to the Palace - only to see her murdered by a powerful enemy. Her death unleashes the Sands of Time, which strike the Prince and threaten to destroy everything he holds dear. Cast to the streets, hunted as a fugitive, the Prince soon discovers that the Sands have tainted him, too. They have given rise to a deadly Dark Prince, whose spirit gradually possesses him...

[ Ubisoft - Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones ]

I, however, sum it up this way: "We're sorry that we allowed a team of programmers to release a game that sucked and wasn't at all like the first one. We thought that it needed to be darker and more rock-n-roll, but we were wrong. We have 'fixed' that mistake by killing off the love interest of the second game right at the beginning of the third game, and bringing back all the characters from the first game. Please forgive. Merci Beaucoup."

So if you liked the first of the modern Prince of Persia games, you will be pleasantly rewarded with this return to good gaming.

Or, at least, his fabulous potato policy:

Because the potato was unknown to them, Europeans initially considered potatoes poisonous or evil due to their similarities to the nightshade family. Some members of the nightshade family include Mandrake and Belladonna, which are used for medicinal purposes. Germany's King Frederick William realized that potatoes were a good food source and ordered peasants to plant and eat potatoes or their noses would be cut off.

[ Potato Nutrition & History ]

This should strike a bit of fear into the potato haters of the world.

Check your PC for evil cookies:

IECookiesView is a small utility that displays the details of all cookies that Internet Explorer stores on your computer.

[ IECookiesView v1.70: Cookies viewer/manager for Internet Explorer ]

Perhaps dozens of federal agencies should install it...

Did he bring world peace? Debt relief to poor nations? Cure disease? No, but he did put Bill O'Reilly in his place, with style, for all the world to see:

"I am not smart enough to debate you point by point on this, but I have a feeling about 60% of what you say is crap. . . . but I don't know that for a fact." Dave says to Paul Shaffer, "Yeah, 60%. I'm just spit-balling here."

[ CBS | Late Show with David Letterman : Wahoo Gazette ]

For possibly just today you can catch the whole video on Dave's website, look for the link to "Big Show Highlight" and if the thumbnail show Bill O'R, then that's the one you want.

I only know one Kanji character. I think you should learn it too:

It's pronounced cha, it means tea. The Chinese character looks basically the same.

Tired of "Merry Christmas"? Is it time to start wishing people a more inclusive holiday well wishing? Something nice and secular?

A poster at one of Sandy Mohachy's favorite stores proclaims "Feliz Navidad" and "Happy Hanukkah" but not "Merry Christmas."

"How depressing it is," says Mohachy, 62, of Newport Beach. "How can we Christmas shop if the stores aren't recognizing Christmas?"

[ OC Register x ]

I say fight the Sandy Mohachy's of the world and wish everyone a Feliz Navidad, that'll show her. Forget her "Christmas" and celebrate Navidad! Can't we just celebrate a Navidad that we can all get behind? A secular, non-denominational, non-threatening, peaceful Navidad?

And, I think for a while now, alternative French underground culture has been elevating the importance of "Nöel" over Christmas too. Perhaps it's time to jump on their bandwagon?

We're hiring at Doceus (my workplace) still, but we've shifted what we're looking for:

• Solutions Architects
• Senior Developers
• Developers

So if you do ColdFusion or C#.NET and are looking for opportunities, there is a good chance we have something at your level open.

There are likely dozens of ways to gain access to another computer across the Internet. The sort of thing you wish to do when home or at work when you need to use the other PC. Some cost money, others are hard to use, etc. etc.

I've been thinking, for a while, that it might be nice to gain access to my PC, but it's on cable broadband, behind a few NATs or so, and probably costs money or some such.

Then, just yesterday, a business issue arose that it would have been darn handy to have that access. And I thought, well I better get some AccessMyPCFromAfar.com account, or what-have-you.

Enter: Hamachi (courtesy Steve Sajous):

With Hamachi you can organize two or more computers with an Internet connection into their own virtual network for direct secure communication.

Hamachi is fast, secure and simple. It is also free.

[ Hamachi: Stay Connected ]

All I can say is:

I love it when a plan comes together

[ Hannibal ]

MicroSoft has stated:

In June 2003, the Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit announced that Internet Explorer for Mac would undergo no further development, and support would cease in 2005. In accordance with published support lifecycle policies, Microsoft will end support for Internet Explorer for Mac on December 31st, 2005, and will provide no further security or performance updates.

Additionally, as of January 31st, 2006, Internet Explorer for the Mac will no longer be available for download from Mactopia. It is recommended that Macintosh users migrate to more recent web browsing technologies such as Apple's Safari.

[ Internet Explorer 5 for Mac ]

So, please stop using IE, and switch to Safari or Firefox.

Props to Big G, a Mac user, who, to the best of my knowledge, doesn't use IE, unless he has to.

My mobile life is getting better. Gmail now has a mobile-optimized interface:

Now you can access your Gmail messages from the web browser on your mobile phone or device. Read and reply to your Gmail messages any time, anywhere.

[ Google Mobile ]

Apparently extensions for Firefox are easy to write, and hard to make unstable. There are dozens of dozens of them by now, and just a few have "improved" Firefox to the point where I might not use IE except for the few IE required sites that I use (mostly internal facing sites).

For example:

Tab Mix Plus is a spin on the original Tab Mix. Like Tab mix, it enhances Firefox's tab browsing capabilites. It comes included with features such as duplicating tabs, controlling tab focus, undoclosetab and many more. While it may look similar it has a lot more features and added functionality like tab clicking options. Unlike Tab Mix however, it is Mac compatible.

[ Tab Mix Plus ]

Well, I don't know "Tab Mix" from a whole in the wall, but this extension lets you do pretty much anything you can think of to tabs.

Grossberg's beloved Greasemonkey is installed, but I haven't found too much use for it yet. There are tons of "Web Developer" helper extensions, but ColorZilla caught my eye:

With ColorZilla you can get a color reading from any point in your browser, quickly adjust this color and paste it into another program. You can Zoom the page you are viewing and measure distances between any two points on the page. The built-in palette browser allows choosing colors from pre-defined color sets and saving the most used colors in custom palettes. DOM spying features allow getting various information about DOM elements quickly and easily. And there's more...

And, since we all know how much I hate PDFs, it's no surprise I jumped on PDF download. Before I have to read the millions of patent IDs that PDFs are covered by, or risk the instability of a PDF in-place reader, I can use this puppy to download the PDF to my desktop.

Next step: learn how to write my own, so I can create a handy "Blog This" extension like I have for IE.

I'm still not sure I get any of it, though it is uber-stylistic:

FLCL is a unique and somewhat esoteric production whose myriad oddities are often bewildering. This is compounded by the suckerpunch pace at which the plot progresses. Its hyperactive, occasionally juvenile, and illogical style can be misinterpreted, generally causing strongly polarized opinions of its value.