Mac is just *nix under the covers, so this was a bit odd that these two popped up next to each other on Twitter:
And I haven't changed anything, I'm Even Steven!

Authorities Shut Down Major Spam Ring - NYTimes.com:

“This will send some real shock waves through the spamming industry, but even if these guys were running a substantial botnet of compromised computers, there are always spammers looking to take their place,” said Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos, a spam-fighting security firm. “It wouldn’t be a surprise if people don’t notice any difference in their in-box tomorrow morning.”

My GMail spam folder now holds about 1/4 the spam I had become accustomed to. The only reason I even read this story is when I remarked on that fact, and was tipped off by mexijew and sspenguin on Twitter.

Now that Za is on the TV/Game room TV much of the day, I've been DS and iPod Touch gaming a lot more. iPod Touch mostly for Cross Word Puzzles, and my DS has been destroying Castlevania, but I'm just about done with that so what's next? Looks like some DS PoP action, please.

Official Google Reader Blog: Is Your Web Truly World-Wide?:

Believe it or not, the web truly is world-wide. That means there is a lot of interesting content out there in languages other than your own. You might have missed out on this content in the past, but now, with automatic translation in Reader, you don't have to miss a thing!

Next time you find an interesting feed in another language, just subscribe to it as normal in Reader. When you view the feed in Reader, check off "Translate into my language" in the feed settings, and (voila!) the feed will be immediately translated for you. Also, this setting will be saved so you can always view this feed in your own language.

Now I can get the gist of my wife's blogs, mostly written in Bahasa Indonesia which I'm still a neophyte in. I probably already know what they say, since we do live together and all, however regardless of that, thank you Google, bawk bawk!

Official DC EID Site:

New DC Convention Center  (Hall C)

801 Mount Vernon Place, NW
Washington, DC 20001

Entrance on 7^th and L Street NW

 

Eid Prayers

7:30am - 1st prayer and Khutba

8:30am – 2nd prayer and Khutba                  

9:45am – 3rd prayer and Khutba

11:00am – 4th prayer and Khutba

Can Oracle 10g Express do SOAP calls?

I may have to generate some sample code for accessing a web service I publish using Oracle, and I don't want to get too far in if I can't do it from the free version. (I.E. if it costs money, I want to budget first, learn later...)

So, are you an Oracle guru? Can 10g Express do direct calls to a SOAP based web services (that is without relying on some other middle layer like PHP, Java, or .NET - unless of course that is the "official" way to support calls out of Oracle...)

Thanks!

Forms Authentication, Identities and Roles from a Database:

One of the most useful and perhaps most misunderstood authentication schemes built in to the ASP.NET runtime is Forms Authentication. Useful, because it is highly extensible and flexible (as we'll see in a moment). Misunderstood, because most developers don't get past the default setup described in the documentation and therefore never find out how to extend and customize it.

I still don't understand why I have to roll my own Forms auth with Roles, I would expect that everyone would want to use roles, but oh well...

Dr Pepper to deliver on its free-soda promise - Yahoo! News:

Beginning Sunday at 12:01 a.m., coupons for a free 20-ounce soda will be available for 24 hours on Dr Pepper's Web site. They'll be honored until Feb. 28.

Props: Maaaark

DPWT - Highway Maintenance: Leaf Vacuuming:

The Leaf Collection Program will be conducted for approximately 6 to 8 weeks, and includes postings for 2 scheduled pick-ups. We will post green signs throughout the work areas several days before our crews' arrival. We will attempt to allow a weekend for residents to rake their leaves to the edge of the road for vacuum pick-up. Signs will be removed after our crews complete each street. The second and final fall collection will begin after Thanksgiving. The timing will depend on weather conditions. Red signs will indicate that this is the final collection. The same procedure of posting, collection, and sign removal is used for the final vacuum collection.

I saw people collecting leaves, I never saw any green signs...

Kearns, Detailed Name Information with Meaning & Origin at nameLab - FamilyEducation.com:

First name origins & meanings:

1. Celtic: Warrior
2. Gaelic: Dark

First name variations: Karney, Karny, Kerney, Kirney, Kearney, Curran, Kearn, Kearne, Kern

Last name origin & meaning:

Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Céirín 'descendant of Céirín', a personal name from a diminutive of ciar 'dark', 'black'. English patronymic -s has been added superfluously.

Kearns — Infoplease.com:

Kearns (kûrnz) [key], uninc. town (1990 pop. 28,874), Salt Lake co., N Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City. Alfalfa and barley are grown and cattle and sheep are raised. There is copper mining nearby.

Like buying a new 50″ TV each year and tossing it in the dumpster. — CancelCable.com:

What if you could eliminate your gas bill and still drive 95% of the places you currently go? Or stop paying for heating by keeping your thermostat two degrees cooler? These aren’t possible, but you can stop paying for TV and still watch most of your favorite shows.

Budgets are tight. But most people are still reluctant to give up cable. Even when it may be financially crazy to keep it. Paying $95/month for cable? That’s over $1100 a year. Or enough to buy a 50″ HD Plasma TV each year.

Save the money or put it towards that new big screen TV. Then use free digital broadcast TV and avoid paying monthly cable tv fees. Save the money and earn interest on it. With a 6% rate of return…

• After 3 years you will have saved $3747
• After 5 years you will have saved $6648
• After 10 years you will have saved $15,621
• After 20 years you will have saved $44,083

Congratulations! You have now turned a major expense into an investment.

What are you missing? Not much. We did it and still watch all our favorite shows. Most were broadcast (Lost, 24, etc.) . Using a $16 digital antenna our picture quality is actually better than our old digital cable. Most of our favorite cable shows (Daily Show, Colbert Report) are available for free on the Internet. Our kids watch videos on Disney.com and Nick.com and we get current movies and HBO shows with a Netflix subscription.

Props: CancelCable.com via Washington Post via Lord Scarlet