We'll be having a few people over tonight for a NY party.  This is one of the few places where children are welcome so it will be both fun and [relatively] wholesome.  I'm planning on getting several pictures this time and may have to empty my pathetic 8MB SmartMedia card more than once during the night.  If you're coming, bring your camera so we can share the moments.

Some neighbors came over last night for a pre-NY Eve fest. We had some keg beer, a roaring fire, met a fellow blogger and - broke out the clippers? Tim donated all of his wood as well as a couple of pallets for our heating pleasure (via Darin's mobile fire pit).

I've been wanting to get rid of the hippie look for a while but I didn't want to do anything until after Christmas because my Mom doesn't care for the bald look in her family pictures. Three minutes in the chair with Darin at the wheel and my head is good to go for several months. It is going to be a bit colder but I've got a little knit beanie to assist.

Eurekalert points to a story from the Office of Naval Research which discusses their interest in blogging for rapid technology and knowledge development:

"The blog is one of 12 pilot programs, selected for funding from a field of 120, for demonstration through the DoD Rapid Acquisition Incentive-Net Centricity (RAI-NC) initiative. The RAI-NC, managed by the office of the Pentagon’s chief information officer, aims to demonstrate processes to speed up the development of net-centric, “transformational” approaches to defense technology development and acquisition."

It appears they're using Traction Software's solution... bummer.

Scientific American interviews Michio Kaku (A theoretical physicist) and discusses the notion of time travel. I've always found this topic extremely interesting but it also always seems to tie my brain into knots. Like how smart do you have to be to comprehend the potential existence of "quantum foam" or have a logical (but unproven) answer to the "Grandfather Paradox"?

The scientist seems to think that time travel is possible, just not by us - perhaps by a vastly superior group of beings.

I didn't mean GB would beat Denver by 3, I meant they would hold Denver to 3.:) All I can say is, "Woohooo!". And the Cardinals helped us all out by defeating the Vikings in a last second score. Things are looking good for Cheesie people like me. I love football!

I added a category to record my spam fun. The articles won't bubble up to the main level but you're free to check in from time to time if you care about the little woes of this little company.

Ev points to Virtual PC 6.1 for the Mac. Essentially it allows you to run Windows apps on the Mac... it appears to be running Windows directly in emmulation mode. Ev also wonders why MS would produce such a product. It seems obvious to me - MS doesn't care what hardware you're using, they sell software. If you can buy WindowsXP and run it on your Mac, who cares?

I wonder if you can get infected with virtual worms and contract a virtual virus? I'm not trying to be funny... I wonder if the XP running as an app can produce the same problems for a Mac user as happens with the typical PC? I imagine damage would be contained within the VPC file structure but I don't know. Maybe this is a way for MS to point to the Mac and say, "Hey look, they're vulnerable too!". Maybe I am trying to be funny.

Abs and I are having a play day today. Kerri is working and our daycare facility is closed so we're hanging out, playing with new Christmas toys and generally getting into trouble. My goal is to be completely free of responsibility until 3pm after which time I suppose I'll have to start undoing the mess we plan to make. So far it has been cream cheese bagels in the face, playing in the new tent, shower and run-around time. On deck is another pillow fight then off to the neighbors to suck other kids into the trouble zone.

I'm not so much wearing a parent hat today, more like a parent beanie - I'm only intending on keeping her out of physical harm's way and correcting her if she gets too mouthy. Otherwise, "Game On!".

We had yet another great holiday this year, Christmas being the topic for tonight. We spent the morning with cousins Todd and Cheryl at Kerri's Grandpa's place. This is our first Christmas without Grandma and it was much more quiet as compared to past years. Abigail kept things moving along. We left Grandpa's place and headed for my Mom's house for an afternoon with the rest of the family. The rain was brutal during the 20 minute trip to Mom's place and continued throughtout the afternoon.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures at Grandpa's place but we did snap a few at Mom's, once all of the kids were around. They can be viewed here.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Or maybe I do. I no longer keep a scanner since most of my photos are already digitized and all are going forward. We're going to have an ultrasound today to get a final preview on our upcoming baby (boy?). Wouldn't it be cool if the doc handed you a disc with the images or asked, "where would you like me to email these pictures"? I'm going to have to borrow my neighbor's scanner to put this visit online, provided the images are close to usable. My kids will probably look back on this post and just laugh and laugh... they may not have to bother with birthing their own babies at all but likely everything will reside on portable media, perhaps holograms. As it is now we can bring a VHS tape to record the event which is better than nothing.

Green Bay did much better than I imagnied last night despite the guaranteed distraction for Bret Farve in the death of his father. Perhaps it hardened his resolve. I could never have played the day after an event like that.

After my prediction last week and pre-gloating I only ended up watching the first quarter of the game... what a loser. A brief opportunity came up which allowed me to escape to the movie theater and see LOTR: Return Of The King with my wife and neighbors and I took it without thinking.

Next week GB is home to play with the horses from Denver. They ought to know how to beat Denver but it is not going to be anywhere near as easy as the Oakland route. I'm guessing GB wins by 3.

I finally got to see it, with a little help from my neighbor's mother (watching my daughter). I thought it was done well. I brought along someone who had not seen any of the previous two movies hoping that it would be like a Star Wars episode (no previous knowledge required) but that was not the case.

I definitely think Fellowship was the best of the three but I enjoyed each one.

I can't quite put my finger on the subtle disappointment of this movie... perhaps too much time spent fighting in Gondor and not enough of the ending. I'm not sure.

No matter what, the effects were awesome, with terrific detail. The actors all did marvelous jobs as well. I wish I knew what was in store for the Elves or how the world of Men would finally work out but we'd need more book for that info now wouldn't we?

Bret Fausett beat me to the report but it seems that we had a 6.x earthquake in Central/Southern California. I'm in Thousand Oaks (40 miles north of LA) and I did not feel it a bit but not so far away there seems to be reports of significant rolling.

UPDATE: This is being reported as a 6.5 magnitude with the source 10 miles north of Cambria (near San Simeon). Apparently this was ~5KM beneath the surface.

Trip out. I knew it was possible, I just didn't know it was being done commercially. One vendor is uLocate which seems to work with any phone on the T-Mobile, AT&T, and Cingular networks as well as some specific phones only certain phones. If you are paranoid and want to track your wife, get on one of these networks. If you are more paranoid and don't want to be tracked, use Verizon or Sprint or whatever.

The gist is, you can login to your account and view the exact position of the cell phone being tracked. So if your daughter (in my case) calls and says, "Hey Dad, I'm at Cindy's house (in Ventura)" and her phone shows up as being in Hollywood, you can bust her or something. Cool. But freaky too huh?

The Guardian's Observer published an article today which indicates that police in the U.K. want to have the ability to stop a car remotely. This is a tricky one, especially when considering the high-speed chases that occur in my area (Southern California) every day.

The first things that come to mind are: You know this technology will get into the hands of bad guys or silly pranksters. And this could evolve into something which regulates speed automatically or worse, issues tickets to cars (car owners) when their vehicle passes the limit in a given area - Among many other things.

I suppose I just can't get used to the idea of Big Brother (BB) watching and manipulating my every move. It reminds me of the movie Minority Report. It wouldn't bother me so much if we had reasonable and non-intrusive laws but since we are so restricted these days, I don't think we need to give BB a free pass for every little infraction and I plain don't trust them to use their powers responsibly. Like I say (probably once per month), I'm probably just paranoid.

Wouldn't it be cool to be able to blog about a sporting event (football in this case) and point to a particular frame from what you were watching? I'd pay Fox or CBS for access to that sort of thing, both for blogging and for my personal use - I'd love to print a particular frame where someone is getting nailed while catching a throw across the middle and use it as a cover for my calendar or some such thing. I haven't used Tivo or related items and I wonder if they would provide this functionality. I'd rather do it with permission and predictability anyways. I want I want - Gimme!

Today Tom Ridge upped our terror alert level from lemon (yellow) to orange (orange). It's a little nerve-racking when he indicates that "this is about as much chatter as we've had since 9/11". And "indications are that terror groups are trying to pull of something much greater than the 9/11 event in terms of damage and victims". Let's hope those in charge of security are on the ball and experience a bit of [needed] good luck.

None of this changes my holiday plans... I don't fly anyways. It is terror that stops me from flying but not the type imposed by others - it is self-inflicted terror.

UPDATE: Fox News has the full text of the announcement and Q/A.

I'm talking about phones specifically in this note. I wonder what the reasons are. I would assume that the culture is more gadget oriented but there must be more to it... the U.S. has a stronger economy (I think) and more bodies for sure. Is it the different communication standards we have out here which splits our market size for any given phone product vs. a near-universal standard in Japan? I wonder. I'm jealous too. I need to meet more Japanese folks so I can get the first-hand skinny on how good the products are and more importantly, when they're going to make it over here, if ever. If I were Joi, I would never travel to the states - I'd just stay home and tinker, negating the need for a drink at all.

Dear Santa, can I have one of these please? Found as an advertisement on Gawker.

NYNewsday.com has some pics up of the proposed Freedom Tower. One cool feature will be "windmills" built into the structure which will harness natural air flow and provide 20% of its electricity. Full story.

I wonder how long it will take before a new attribute to the "A" tag in HTML will support a target of a new "tab". With Mozilla's tabbed browsing and (likely) inevitable support from IE, this would be a welcome feature and replacement for popping a new window when clicking on a link. I typically middle-mouse-click to accomplish this sort of thing but sometimes I forget and don't care if my current page is replaced. This does not help if the site author has chosen to pop a new window for every link on their site. Perhaps a setting within Mozilla to force "_new" targets into a new tab would suffice.

For this I would pay the same price as a new laptop. Carrying a laptop with wireless net access and a camera and a phone everywhere is not something I want to do. I'd love to get it all in one place. I would like to ssh into my boxes from [virtually] anywhere to check/fix things without having to carry a laptop around all the time. The camera and PDA are optional of course but the phone and shell access would make life so much easier. I would guess something like this exists today but I can't seem to find anything reasonable with U.S. based phone service. The Treo 600 looks very cool but I don't know that I want to be locked into PalmOS - Nothing against Palm, I just don't know it like I do *nix. Anyone know of carriers in the U.S. who offer such a device?

I'm flipping through my latest Ping! Zine and realizing how much I enjoy reading these sorts publications. I don't read most of the articles but the advertising often carries a hidden gem or two. I can't believe how many sub $100/mo dedicated server offerings are out there... my goodness!

I'm reading this article on Yahoo! News which was sourced from Newsfactor and authored by Jay Wrolstad and it describes wireless device claims of unbelievable speeds. He indicates how it is incorrect - overblown. And then says the following:

Still, such vendors as Linksys and Netgear advertise Wi-Fi products that are faster in theory (108 Mbps) than a T1 line (100 Mbps). But tests show that the most they really can deliver in a typical user situation is about 25 Mbps.

I'm queued in to the T1 speed of 100Mbps... I'd love to buy a T1 with 100Mbps. Last I heard a T1 handles 1.54Mbps... please correct me if I'm wrong.

Every now and then (or every day) I am reminded how much you cannot believe what you read. Whether reports are purposely biased or created by those who know nothing of what they write it is good to note that believing what you read is a dangerous prospect.

UPDATE: I should note that I cannot believe most of the stuff that I write either... and neither should you.

I don't know why but I put off installing spam filtering on my network for far too long.  We finally implemented a combination of mechanisms last week and for the first time in many years I am able to turn on that little chime that goes, "Ding!" when a new message arrives.  I've had it turned on for specific users but now I can be notified as soon as any old mail shows up and virtually every time it is something I need to see.  It's funny how the simple things in life can make such a difference.  Well, the spam filtering
wasn't the simplest thing but these dings sure are.  Thanks Matt!  Oh yeah, thanks all you open source, anti-spam code writing maniacs for doing the really hard stuff for us.

I'm always looking for a new web-based rss reader and I checked out fastbuzz
tonight.  It still needs quite a bit of work IMO.  But I'll
be keeping my eye on it.  They do indicate "Beta" so I got what I
expected and have not formed an opinion yet.

Cheese for supper in Oakland - not so much eating cheese at their whim but being force-fed the good stuff from the green guys. Bret will pull it off. My confidence is high.

Not the bad kind of pink slip, like the one you might find in your locker at work. This is the good kind, the kind that proves we now own our 2000 Chevy Silverado. Before our home this was the largest debt we had ever placed ourselves in and boy was it uncomfortable. But 4 years later you make a little more money and things don't seem so ominous. So yay us! Of yeah, California pee'd on my parade a bit, sending the DMV renewal for my other vehicle in the mail on the same day... what a bunch of party poopers.

A new tax proposed on recordable CDs in Canada. The purpose appears to be to compensate music artists who suffer from having their tunes copied. So if you're deaf and have no need to listen to or pirate music but need some CDs to backup your data, you should pay. This is according to the Toronto Star and reported as a 20% tax levy.

There has also apparently been a discussion about taxing ISPs because they can serve as a conduit for would-be pirates. This is something I've heard in The States as well - Who knows if it'll ever get legs.

I think the music industry is stopping short of the real issues at hand. I've outlined some other reasonable taxes which should help them recover some of their losses:

1. Tax on all computers because a hacker might buy and use one to do bad things.
2. Tax on CD R/W drives because they may be used to pirate copyrighted music.
3. Tax on backpacks because they can be used to carry laptops which can contain CD R/W drives which of course can be used to pirate copyrighted music.
4. Tax on nylon because it can be used to make backpacks which can be used to carry laptops which may have CD R/W drives which might be used to pirate copyrighted music.
5. Tax on machinery because it can be used to process nylon which can be made into backpacks which can carry laptops which might contain a CD R/W drive which may be used to pirate copyrighted music.
6. Tax on dirt because it may contain necessary material to produce machinery which can be used to process nylon which might be made into backpacks which can carry laptops that may have a CD R/W drive which could be used to produce pirated music.
7. Tax on taxes because the money from our taxes may go to a musician which might spend the money to purchase some land which may contain dirt that might be processed to extract materials to make machinery which might process nylon which could be used to create a backpack which could carry a laptop that may have a CD R/W drive which could easily be used to pirate a piece of one-hit-wonder rap that wasn't worth the CD it was burned on to begin with.

UPDATE:
Does it sound silly enough yet? Where does it end? And when will the masses stop getting hammered to satisfy the few? My feeling is, if the artists don't like the risks, don't use the medium. Example: If I want to distribute a program but want to protect my code, I don't write in Ruby or some other language where my source is exposed. Why on earth should that one [music] industry impose itself on the rest of us who use the same media to accomplish different goals? I can't believe I'm writing about this or how outrageous it becomes for me when I re-think the issue.

UPDATE 2:
It looks like the new tax has been put aside until next year. There was a new tax levied on certain MP3 players but the original CD/R tax is cooling off a bit. My opinion has not changed. I'm not into paying as if I am a thief in advance just because I have a tool which *could* be used to steal. I believe we all have some sort of tool which could be used to steal or worse.

It appears that some lawmakers would like to restrict the number of jobs going overseas. I do agree that it is a bad thing to see U.S. jobs going to other countries. But I wonder about some of the proposed solutions. Computerworld reports that some legislators would like to see us force the Defense Dept. to require goods purchased to contain at least 65% U.S. contents. Or perhaps prohibit contracts where work will be performed by non-U.S. workers.

Some folks feel that our trade agreements with other countries deal too much with protecting intelectual property rights and not enough with human rights issues, issues which allow some foreign countries to operate at a much lower cost than us. I agree with that to a small degree. The human rights issue is a large one for me. But we cannot forget that one of the core issues surrounding the loss of so many jobs in the U.S. is the over regulation of the work environment. This drives our cost up, perhaps being a much larger impact than the lower cost of the foreign workers. So rather than point the finger at our trade agreements (which do need to be fixed some places), why not look internally? Why not stop forcing companies to pay for the Family Leave Act or allow silly lawsuits from temp workers who want the same benefits as full-time employees? Or remove some of the ridiculous power of the unions? Workers Compensation (in Ca. at least) is insane. Companies are not being lured by foreign countries, they're being chased out by our own.

I can't imagine a law (or group of laws) rprohibiting trade helping in any great way. The same way prohibiting the export of strong encryption did not help stem the outflow of that technology; all this did was remove profit from our own companies.

Perhaps the real solution is to have less laws, not more. And maybe this will remove the big red target from the backs of American companies.

It appears that young Lionel Tate will get a new trial after being convicted of First Degree Murder for the killing of a 6 year old girl. Fox News indicates that Tate claims he was imitating pro wrestling which he saw on television. This is the excuse. By the way, the family of the 6 year old - They have no daughter today. There is no appeal or new trial for her.

So what do we do with these little kids who make mistakes, do the wrong thing, find themselves in an unlucky situation? I know I came close to killing or being killed by my brothers when I was younger. An inch this way or that, an extra pound of energy exerted at the proper time and I could have been in either of their shoes.

I suppose the real question becomes, is jail meant for rehabilitation or punishment? Or both? What if young Tate was released and did it again? Would Tate's family feel the same if it were their son who was on the "been killed" side? What a tricky issue. I'm a big believer in personal responsibility, removing the ability to blame pro wrestling or other outside factors as an excuse for having done one thing or another. The result still is what it is and the little girl is still dead, the family eternally grieving.

I'd love some perspective on the topic. My current feeling is that while a life sentence seems harsh, it is nowhere near as harsh as the death levied on that little girl. If he killed once and has an excuse, should society bear the risk of another killing with a different excuse in the future? Who should pay the penalty? What about Tate's mother who was sleeping at the time she was supposed to be watching the little girl? Or is simply no one to blame except for the pro wrestling shows or bad luck? That would seem silly to me.

I know, I'm a grump - A cynic too. Here's my thought on Gore's backing of Howard Dean for president. Gore backs Dean which leads to Dean's Democratic nomination. Then Dean loses badly to Bush. In 4 years Hillary Clinton runs for prez and smokes any Republican running. This is not a new or unique theory by any means. But it is the one I am currently subscribed to.

I don't see the Clinton's backing any candidate in the primaries... this is being done by proxy ala Gore.

If Gore/Clinton backed a candidate which had the chance of beating Bush, there could be 8 - 12 years before Mrs. Clinton gets into office and that would be unacceptable. They'd rather the Democratic party lose this time around to facilitate a successful run in just 4 years.

I'll post again if I am proven wrong with a nice contrite message. I'm fairly confident this won't be the case.

I sure hope so. I'm not saying it is wrong - I don't know. But the point is, "I don't know". There should be a way to calculate who is indeed number one, two, etc., in college football. We're talking about a lot of money, to say nothing of bragging rights, if a college gets its name plastered as the number one in college football.

A fair amount of people in this area feel like USC was cheated. Being from the south end of the state myself, I'll jump on board and agree. One day I may be able to know if I should agree. As Foxnews reports, the BCS contract is up in 2005. I would love it if the decision makers in the college football arena were to settle on a formula that the rest of us (or even them) could understand.

We had my brother's daughter over last night and part of today - Megan is just 4 weeks younger than Abigail. What a blast. I considered sending Pat back with a doll instead of his daughter so we could keep her for another week or so.

Abigail has never "shared" so much or had so much fun. It went south towards the late morning but that was likely due to lack of sleep (which equates to a crabby demeanor). What a great Friday/Saturday event for us!

To top it off, we're heading out to Abigail's first friend's (Keeley Osbrink) house tonight. We'll surely have fun there - It's like having a large family without all the doctor bills and soccer games.

I'll be playing golf in the morning and hanging with the gang afterwards. Go figure. I didn't swing the sticks for several months and now I'll have two rounds under my belt in as many weeks. I love my wife and daughter, I'm having fun with the kids, I enjoy my work and I'm playing golf... life is good.

UPDATE: If Green Bay wins tomorrow, life will *really* be good. Jaime is a huge Bears fan and I'll be crashing at his place tonight so life will only be good for one of us.

Check out mod_deflate for Apache as a possible replacement for mod_gzip. Heck, get at least one of those turned back on for our main httpd servers. What have I been thinking? Jeremy's post has some comments on the issue.

Check the Windows version of Konfabulator often to see when the beta will be available to schmos like me. Or go get a Mac OSX box and try it today.

Who has 3.5 hours to watch this puppy? I thought I did last night but I fell asleep at some point during the second disk's run. I did not find the additional pieces to be as worthwhile as the extended edition of the Fellowship but it was interesting nonetheless.

I'm glad to have seen [most of] it prior to seeing Return Of The King in the coming weeks.

No matter what, I can tell you that this has been the most enjoyable series of any movie I have ever seen. I don't know if it is related to the director/producer clearing up imagination problems I had when reading the books (like the Ents: great job!) or some subtle effects versus over_the_top types which made the movie come alive so much. Whatever the case, I've thoroughly enjoyed the first two and look forward to the last.

On deck: Chronicles Of Narnia - The Movie(s). I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to this. I can only hope they'll do as well with that group of books as they've done with LOTR.