I live on the Internets, many of my friends do as well. Some of my friends and family don't. And sometimes I brings things back from the Internets and have to explain them to the people in meatspace.

Exhibit A

How do I explain this one? I ordered a lovely onesie with the baby "Trogdor the Burninator" on it for my future baby (to arrive in early Febuary), but I'm certain I will get questioned about what on earth this is. I think I can explain it here to those who visit the Internets, but don't necessarily live here, or live here but haven't yet experienced some of the odder corners of cyberworld.

Clearly you can find the Wikipedia and look up the entry on Trogdor, but let me sum it up for you:

1. The US government wants to make sure that it can wage war even after a nuclear strike, so they invent the first of many Internets called ARPANET.
2. Some brainy scientific types in Swizertucky who do the Nuclear thing wanted to read each others papers
3. A guy or two in Chicago decided that pictures were nicer than just words
4. Macrodobe used to be more than one company, and one of them decided that we needed their interactive CD product on the Internets, but it was big so they acquired another company and it became Flash
5. Flash is kinda dumb for most everything except Homestar Runner
6. The Homestar Runner is kinda dumb, but his friend/nemisis Strongbad is clever
7. Did I say clever? Perhaps I meant he's kinda Jaka Sembung
8. But funny (funny peculiar that is)
9. He likes to doodle, and doodle, and doodle
10. Geeks like his doodles and go way too far
11. I'm a geek
12. I bought a onesie

And now you are caught up on how it all happened, and what I've gotten myself into.

Oh, and HSR has a wiki dedicated to it (the HSR that is).

Frequent readers may remember my stupid plan to make a CD of music about coffee. One of the comments suggested a few more that I didn't have, and although I don't remember using this list to add more songs to the mix, about 1/2 of these ended up on the CD:

I am just finishing up a CD of coffee songs I am compiling for the people I work with (I work in a coffee shop, heh). I opted for Ella Fitzgerald's version of Black Coffee, and the Ink Spots on Java Jive, but have some of the same ones you do. I notice this post is about a year old, and I use Napster, not Rhapsody, but how about these:

• Coffee Song - Adam Hood
• Coffee Man - Calvin Owens
• Cowboy Coffee - The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
• Don't Forget The Coffee Billy Joe - Tom T. Hall
• Cigarettes and Coffee - Otis Redding
• What I Want is a Proper Cup of Coffee - Trout Fishing in America

[ david kearns dot com - Inane Pet Project ]

Yes, you heard correct, on the CD. I officially purchased my CD and it's in the car now. What made the cut?

All of these are available on Rhapsody as a playlist. The list ended up having a lot more "country" than I would have expected, but all in all I like what this ended up becoming. Next up: find around 20 tracks about video games...

The "Trivalley Herald" which I assume resides somewhere "inside the bay area" had a piece summarizing what Muslim Prayer is like in a basic sense. This is a good thing. Whenever I travel I am nervous about where and when to pray. It's not something most people are familiar with, and people seem to freak out at the sight of it. I am in the habit of finding the airport chapel, meditation room, or reflection area and praying there. Usually I will find the direction toward Mecca marked, some copies of the Quran, and a prayer rug for the weary traveler. Detroit has one of the finer areas for prayer in the US that I've seen.

In summary, this is how we do what we do:

Major steps of prayers include recitation of phrases and verses, holding hands at one's chest, reciting the opening chapter of the Quran, which translates:

"Praise be to [God], Lord of the worlds.

"The most gracious, the most merciful, master of the day of judgment.

"You (alone) we worship. You alone we ask for help. Show us the straight path, the path of those whom you have favored, not (the path) of those who earn your anger nor of those who stray. Amen."

This is followed by other verses from the Quran.

Putting hands on knees, in bowing posture, and praising more.

Bowing down all the way to the ground, with the forehead, nose, hands and knees touching the ground, the worshiper continues with more praises. At the end of the last unit of prayer, sitting down, resting hands on the thighs, the worshiper recites:

"All glorifications are for [God]. All acts of good deeds and worship are for him. Peace and the mercy and blessings of [God] be upon you, O prophet. Peace be upon us and all of [God]'s righteous servants. I bear witness that there is no god but [God], and I bear witness that Muhammad is his servant and messenger."

The second part of recitation in this position means:

"O' [God], exalt Muhammad and the family of Muhammad as you exalted Abraham and the family of Abraham. Verily, you are full of praise and majesty. O [God], bless Muhammad and the family of Muhammad as you blessed Abraham and the family of Abraham. Verily, you are full of praise and majesty."

[ Inside Bay Area - Understanding Muslim prayers will ease fear ]

I've taken the liberty of replacing the word Allah with God in the above piece. If you don't know what Muslim prayer looks like, you couldn't possibly have a good grasp of the word Allah. For those concerned about this crazy other god that Muslims worship, you should know that God has many, many names across the languages and faiths of the followers of Abraham, and that in Arabic bibles they use the word "Allah" for "God", so it's clearly the exact same concept.

Did I mention I love where I live?

Yalda and about 50 other Wootton students were on an unusual field trip that took them to Washington National Cathedral, the Islamic Mosque and Cultural Center and the synagogue. They marveled at stained glass and gothic arches, watched Muslim men perform noon prayers and heard about the history of the Jewish community in Washington, all in an effort become familiar with religious traditions many had never seen up close.

[ A Window On Religion And Tolerance - washingtonpost.com ]

Not just every school system would allow for a field trip like this. Seriously cool, IMHO.

I loves me some Indian food, but it can be expensive to eat out all of the time. My latest food find is well on it's way to fixing that for me. Sure I could get cookbooks, and learn how to make Indian food, but then who work all of my jobs for me? Enter easy-prep, mostly ready to eat, Indian cuisine from Deep:

Deep Foods is one of the leading manufacturers of Indian foods. Since 1977, it has been tantalizing the taste buds of Indian food lovers. Using authentic recipes, Deep Foods offers delicious snacks, frozen meals, ice creams and other specialities. These delicious, all- natural products are prepared to satisfy the most dedicated culinary aficionados of Indian cuisine.

[ Deep Foods ]

I've tried their Naan, Samosas, and Mutter Paneer and all are tops. They are rather affordable, and soooo many varieties are available at my local hindimart Shah & Patel Grocery, but if there isn't a Hindustani Purveyor of Fine Goods near you, you can get this stuff online as well.

...missed out on the first 10 episodes of NBC's Heroes...

[ david kearns dot com ]

NBC put the first season up for everyone!

Props to N8

The Sysinternals web site was created in 1996 by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell to host their advanced system utilities and technical information. Microsoft acquired Sysinternals in July, 2006. Whether you’re an IT Pro or a developer, you’ll find Sysinternals utilities to help you manage, troubleshoot and diagnose your Windows systems and applications. If you have a question about a tool or how to use them, please visit the Sysinternals Forum for answers and help from other users and our moderators.

[ Microsoft TechNet: Windows Sysinternals ]

Here's hoping that Microsoft doesn't:

1. Kill any of these great tools
2. Charge for any of these great tools

'cause I loves me some Sysinternals. And yes I know that you brought these to my attention, many people did, and no I don't remember who was first (though if I had to guess I'd say it was Gruska).

The two that I just had to reinstall 'cause I can't imagine my Lappy without them?

• autoruns
• process explorer

We just moved to the City of Rockville, MD, and the city built us a website:

Dear New Rockville Resident,

On behalf of the more than 57,000 residents of Rockville, we want to welcome you to our City.

You have arrived in Rockville at quite an exciting time. Rockville’s proud history dates back more than 250 years, and its future promises to build upon all of the character that led to Rockville being ranked No. 26 by Money Magazine on its 2006 list of “Best Places to Live in the U.S.”

You will quickly learn that Rockville is second to none when it comes to providing basic services and access to those special things you sought when deciding where to make your next home. Almost every residence in the City is within a five-minute walk of a park. Cultural and recreational opportunities abound in Rockville. Our special events attract notice around the Washington Beltway. And in 2007, Rockville unveils the start of its downtown revitalization as the first phase opens in the new Rockville Town Center.

You likely already have noticed that the City Web site has massive amounts of information, some of which is not traditionally available on local government Web sites. It reflects our mission to promote openness in government. This “Online Welcome Kit” was designed to help our newest residents easily find information they might need.

And whenever you have a concern or question that you cannot find on our Web site, the staff working under City Manager Scott Ullery is there to help. The main number to City Hall is 240-314-5000.

We again welcome you to Rockville. We know you will love living here.

Sincerely,

Mayor Larry Giammo
Councilmember Bob Dorsey
Councilmember Susan Hoffmann
Councilmember Phyllis Marcuccio
Councilmember Anne Robbins

[ New Resident Information ]

Thanks, City of Rockville. Bawk bawk!

The right thumb doesn't know what the right index finger is doing, much left the left hand.

Witness my frustration with bulleted lists on webpages. A bulleted list on a web page should be done with a <UL> and a bunch of <LI>'s like so:

<UL>
<LI>List Item A</LI>
<LI>List Item B</LI>
<LI>List Item C</LI>
</UL>

Which should look like this:

• List Item A
• List Item B
• List Item C

However many people use Microsoft's Word product to create their copy, and then just copy and paste into a WYSIWYG jobby and post it. The Word team doesn't like the <UL> tag, or it just doesn't suit their needs or some such nonsense. So what they create for a list looks more like this:

<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol">·        </span><!--[endif]--> List Item A</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol">·        </span><!--[endif]--> List Item A</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol">·        </span><!--[endif]--> List Item A</p>

What's that? Conditional comments? Microsoft invented those, right? So they'll work flawlessly with my Microsoft products, right? Check again. MS explains 3 types of conditional comments:

Wait, the conditional comments that were created above don't match any of the MS recommendations, but I'm sure that's an oversight on the part of the specification writers, and none of Microsoft's' programs will choke, right?

Wrong.

I created a bit of test HTML:

<P><!--[if !supportLists]-->&middot; <!--[endif]--> List Item "wrong"</P>
<P><!--[if !supportLists]>&middot; <![endif]--> List Item "downlevel-hidden"</P>
<P><![if !supportLists]>&middot; <![endif]> List Item "downlevel-revealed"</P>

This should work flawlessly in all Microsoft products, and might cause a hiccup in a non-Microsoft product would be anyone's best guess, I suppose. Let's test it:

IE 6:

IE 7:

FF 1.5:

FF 2:

Feel free to use my simple test page to see how your browser stacks up.

Now for the whole truth, the IE HTML that is above wasn't created by me, that's because my Word doesn't seem to write HTML like that. I'm guessing that it is a previous version of Word that is writing the "bad" comments, but I'm still going to fault Microsoft. Why is this particularly irritating to me? Some people use Word to author their emails, and now that I have IE7 installed, that's the engine that my Outlook uses to render HTML emails. Therefore anyone with some certain installation of Microsoft products on their Microsoft OS will always show the stupid "should always be hidden" comments in my Microsoft products on my Microsoft OS, and there is nobody outside Microsoft that can be to blame.

Will this stop me from using Microsoft products, or get on the great anti-Microsoft bandwagon? Nope. But it won't help to convince me that Microsoft is the end-all be-all either. I'm still stuck happily in between the two camps where I can happily complain about both sides.

...Save the world

[ SCI FI | Heroes ]

Haven't a clue? Then you missed out on the first 10 episodes of NBC's Heroes. Since I'm officially addicted to it, it is high time I sucked everyone else in as well. If you do want to catch up, now is the time: