I can’t tell you how proud it made me to be an American last night, as I listened to an interview with a Pervez Musharraf advisor and apologist, who cited…
I can’t tell you how proud it made me to be an American last night, as I listened to an interview with a Pervez Musharraf advisor and apologist, who cited US government actions post-9/11 (indefinite detentions, wiretapping, avoiding judicial approval for activities, etc) as inspirations and justifications for Musharraf’s power-grab in Pakistan over the past week.
Way to be a world leader, George!
Feh.
There is something inutterably eerie reading this draft speech (by William Safire), designed to be given by Richard Nixon in case the Apollo 11 moon landing turned into a disaster….
There is something inutterably eerie reading this draft speech (by William Safire), designed to be given by Richard Nixon in case the Apollo 11 moon landing turned into a disaster.
Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.
Depending on an external provider to validate that the protected media files — music, video, whatever — are actually valid and “belong” to you is, in short, a mook’s game,…
Depending on an external provider to validate that the protected media files — music, video, whatever — are actually valid and “belong” to you is, in short, a mook’s game, because sooner or later, that external provider won’t do it any more.
And if that external provider is an always-fan-unfriendly major league sport — like, for example, Major League Baseball — you can be sure that it will be “sooner.”
Just got off the phone with a MLB customer service supervisor.
“MLB no longer supports the DDS system” that it once used and so any CDs with downloaded games on them “are no good. They will not work with the current system.”
Great. Just effing great. … As I told the supervisor, this is right in line with how wrong-headed and stupid and ass backwards MLB does everything.
I was told there is absolutely nothing MLB can do about these lost games. Plus, they said my purchases were all “one-time sales” and thus “there are no refunds”.
No refunds? As Lee Elia would say: “My fucking ass!”
My info has been submitted to some other MLB department which will review things and see what they can do about either getting me the games I paid for or refunding my $280.45.
Dude has been downloading full games to his computer from MLB, at $3.95 a pop — some 71 games — burned onto CDs. Because they required validation at each play to MLB.com, and MLB has decided to go with a different DRM provider and scheme … dude is now out $280-odd bucks.
Because, after all, even though he paid for them, they aren’t his. They’re theirs. All the time he thought he was buying something, he was just renting them … and only renting them for as long as they could be bothered to let him continue to see them.
And, as Les note so eloquently:
Of course all of those video files are easily available over BitTorrent and other P2P file sharing networks and the pirates never even noticed that the price changed nor the DRM. Once again it’s the honest consumer who’s trying to play by the rules that gets fucked over by DRM and then told “Sorry, no refunds.” And then the Powers That Be wonder why people continue to download pirated media files even though the price on the legit copies is so reasonable.
If it can be taken back at any time — it’s not yours. Unless you’re willing to acknowledge that you’re only renting it at the whim of the true “owner” — don’t pay money for it.
Here’s a cool map of the world, made up of country-based Top-Level Domains, sized by population. Now you know where your spam is coming from….
Here’s a cool map of the world, made up of country-based Top-Level Domains, sized by population. Now you know where your spam is coming from.
Note to self. Buying cheap retractable lanyards for your ID card and cardkey is only a good idea if you are going to use it for only a month or…
Note to self. Buying cheap retractable lanyards for your ID card and cardkey is only a good idea if you are going to use it for only a month or so. After that, it’s a crap shoot whether the cheap string will snap while you are at your desk, in your car, or walking to/from lunch.
Though searching for it in the latter case does give one an extra half hour walk in the afternoon.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa has been dethroned as the world’s “leaningest” building by a German church. The tower in the village of Suurhusen applied in June for the title…
The Leaning Tower of Pisa has been dethroned as the world’s “leaningest” building by a German church.
The tower in the village of Suurhusen applied in June for the title and has now officially beaten the famous landmark in Pisa.
Guinness Book of Records confirmed the award after officials measured it leaning at a 5.19 degree angle compared to only 3.97 degree angle at which the tower of Pisa leans.
Yikes. I’d be socking away some of the budget each year for replacing that tower (when it eventually falls).
Proudly wear (display, drink from, etc.) your allegiance to the preeminent ticket for the upcoming election: Londo/G’Kar in ’08 (“How Much Worse Could It Be?”). Or, if you prefer, G’Kar/Londo…
Proudly wear (display, drink from, etc.) your allegiance to the preeminent ticket for the upcoming election: Londo/G’Kar in ’08 (“How Much Worse Could It Be?”). Or, if you prefer, G’Kar/Londo in ’08. Or even Zathras/Zathras in ’08 (“Zathras Trained in Crisis Management”).
Hmmmm ….
We watch about 90-95% of our TV off of our DVR, which seems fairly remarkable. So what is it I’m watching these days? Torchwood: This Doctor Who spin-off has…
We watch about 90-95% of our TV off of our DVR, which seems fairly remarkable. So what is it I’m watching these days?
Torchwood: This Doctor Who spin-off has developed a sort of dark charm of its own. It’s as much Horror as SF, and is usually focused as much on the characters (or the folks they encounter) as on the Monster/Widget of Week. It’s complex enough to be still finding its feet, and I’m okay with that. I look forward to this one every week.
House, MD: I watched a bit of this at the tail of last season, and fell in love with it. I’m not sure why a medical mystery show starring as thoroughly unpleasant a doctor as you can imagine appeals so much. Maybe it’s because of the reactions of the people around him. Maybe it’s because Hugh Laurie is a delight to watch. Maybe it’s because his passion to defeat disease, not help people, makes for a nicely un-Marcus-Welby sort of tale. Whatever, it’s great fun. I’ve even picked up the Season 1 DVD set …
Chuck: It’s geeky. It’s action-ish. It’s alternately poignant and funny and thrilling. It’s half Bond, half Dilbert. Chuck is not without flaws, but I enjoy watching this computer-nerd-turned-spy series a lot.
Bionic Woman: This show wants to be Alias so hard it hurts. But the characters aren’t nearly as good, the writing isn’t nearly as taut, and the overall story isn’t nearly as good. The acting is pretty good, bound as it is by a thousand stereotypes in writing and not terribly impressive direction. This is most likely to go on the personal chopping block first, but I keep hoping.
Dinner: Impossible: Watching the chef thrown into one improbable and difficult situation after another — make [meal] for [lots] with [limited ingredients, dubious staff, sketchy facilities, etc.] in [the next few-to-several] hours — remains a lot of fun.
The Daily Show: Jon Stewart is a national treasure, as are the writers and fellow cast of the show, as they lampoon the day’s news and try to see how seriously they can treat serious subjects while still causing tons of laughter — or how humorously they can treat serious subjects while still causing folks to think. Triffic stuff.
The Colbert Report: Following on TDS, Colbert is amusing, but much more one-note (faux conservative) in its town than its parent show. Still lots of fun to watch.
Alas, a number of the above have been — The Daily Show and The Colbert Report — or will be — House, Chuck, Bionic Woman — impacted by the ongoing Writers Strike. Aside from L&O and Star Trek reruns, I may have to dig into the TV schedules again to see what else I should be watching.
Is it true that UV rays are more powerful on cloudy days? Apparently so. Weird….
Is it true that UV rays are more powerful on cloudy days? Apparently so. Weird.
Chessboxing. The rules are simple: six rounds of speed chess interlaced with five three-minute rounds in the ring. Each competitor has 12 minutes in total on the chess timer. Victory…
The rules are simple: six rounds of speed chess interlaced with five three-minute rounds in the ring. Each competitor has 12 minutes in total on the chess timer. Victory is by knockout, checkmate or resignation, or failing any of those, by points-based scoring system.
If it sounds surreal, it is to a certain extent. But it is growing in popularity, particularly in Germany, eastern Europe, and Russia.
Yeah … you especially need to watch out for the female Russian chessboxers …
The game takes some special strategies.
“The problem is adrenaline,” he says. “It can bring you to the point of overestimating positions. After the first boxing round, don’t make fast moves – try to slow down. And try to make the last move before the boxing so your opponent has to make the first move afterward.”
(via GeekPress)
… phone calls and meetings today. Ugh. And, sadly, they aren’t the type of phone calls that I can sit back and blog during … and, even if they were,…
… phone calls and meetings today. Ugh. And, sadly, they aren’t the type of phone calls that I can sit back and blog during … and, even if they were, I have a ton of non-call/meeting stuff to do that I need to do while on the calls that I can’t afford to not pay attention to …
Devout devotion? Humble expression of historical heritage? Or bald-faced vote pandering? Gov. Ernie Fletcher plans to put the Ten Commandments and other historical documents in the Capitol on the day before…
Devout devotion? Humble expression of historical heritage? Or bald-faced vote pandering?
Gov. Ernie Fletcher plans to put the Ten Commandments and other historical documents in the Capitol on the day before Kentucky’s general election.
The action comes on the heels of a ruling by U.S. District Judge Joseph M. Hood that a previous injunction in a separate court case doesn’t apply to the display Fletcher wants placed in the Capitol Rotunda.
Fletcher attorney David Fleenor said the governor would issue an executive order Monday directing that the Ten Commandments be displayed alongside other historical documents including the Magna Carta, Mayflower Compact and the Declaration of Independence.
Voters will choose Tuesday between the incumbent Republican and his Democratic challenger Steve Beshear, who polls show commands a double-digit lead in the gubernatorial race.
Cui bono?
(via Les)
DOF relates something from a Survival (!) class he took in high school: “Suppose you see a man down. He’s just lying there face down. What’s the first thing you…
DOF relates something from a Survival (!) class he took in high school:
“Suppose you see a man down. He’s just lying there face down. What’s the first thing you do?”
Our guesses ranged from “Check his pulse” to “Call an ambulance”.
“Hang back and try to figure out what got him,” he said. “Any power lines down? How about gas? If he’s been shot, look around. You can’t do him any good if you are victim number two.”
In context of the news story he’s relating the anecdote to, it makes perfect sense.
I may use it as a Safety Minute on a business call some time soon.
Because it’s been a while since I updated the list. I’m not going to review them because, well, the discovery is half the fun, and I’ve discussed most of them…
Because it’s been a while since I updated the list. I’m not going to review them because, well, the discovery is half the fun, and I’ve discussed most of them before anyway.
* Available in Real Life, but who bothers?
** No RSS feed. Which seems positively antediluvian these days.
There’s a bunch of others I supposedly read via Comic Alert, but I need to see if I can find independent RSS feeds for them.
Just learned from the local IT manager that we’re probably going to get booted out of our space here — “we” meaning the IT managers (her, myself, and a server…
Just learned from the local IT manager that we’re probably going to get booted out of our space here — “we” meaning the IT managers (her, myself, and a server operations manager). HR has a functionally better use for the space (barely), and we’re in the middle of a bunch of office growth and so forth here in Denver because of some new work.
There’s a finite chance I may end up over in another building we’re expanding to (which, given it’s a 1-2 year expansion, I’d rather not), and a larger chance I’ll end up in some stray corner away from the rest of IT (which would be unfortunate but not crippling). We’ll see.
No news on timing.
Bleah.
Yes, if I had $22K just burning a hole in my pocket, I’m sure I’d give due thought to purchasing an Ashera (a domestic cat / Asian leopard / serval …
Yes, if I had $22K just burning a hole in my pocket, I’m sure I’d give due thought to purchasing an Ashera (a domestic cat / Asian leopard / serval mix). I might even spring an extra $6K for the expedited (six month) delivery.
Or, maybe not.
Very attractive animal, sure, but (a) wild/domestic blends are problematic, and (b) there are a lot of homeless cats out there that could use a good home first.
(via Mary)
For those as are interested, I’m pretty caught up with getting all the lagging digital photos online — at least to the end of August / beginning of school. …
For those as are interested, I’m pretty caught up with getting all the lagging digital photos online — at least to the end of August / beginning of school. That makes me as up-to-date as I’ve ever been. Yay!
The photos can be accessed from here, dating from October 2005 on. The earlier photos in Gallery can be found here.
My next goal it to take those Gallery shots and pull them into PSE and get more stand-alone photo setups for them as I have with these later photos. I also need to get the Kitten Bedroom Project pics from Jim & Ginger to finish up that album. And, of course, I badly need to update the Yellow Hat Project.
That and, of course, keeping up with ongoing picture-taking … 🙂
Margie came down with a bit of a bug on Friday — nothing serious, just enough to make her unhappy, put the kibosh on various weekend plans, and so…
Margie came down with a bit of a bug on Friday — nothing serious, just enough to make her unhappy, put the kibosh on various weekend plans, and so forth.
It did get Kitten and me out of the house for a big chunk of Saturday, getting our flu shots (large crowds), shoe shopping, lunch, headband searching, and groceries.
The headband bit was frustrating. I wear one at karate (so that the streams of sweat don’t get in my eyes, or, worse, on my glasses). The two terrycloth ones I have are probably older than most of my readers, and the one Margie gave me is okay but it isn’t terrycloth.
So I went to Sports Authority. Huh. Where does someone find something as ubiquitously useful as a sweatband?
So I asked someone, who directed me to someone else, who directed me to …
Okay, so I was a kiosk or rack of the things. Instead, I was directed to three widely disparate kiosks, each of which was boldly branded with BIG LOGOs. Nike. Adidas. Something else I didn’t recognize.
Um, if I want a headband, I want a headband, not an advertisement that makes me feel like the Number (or at least Swoosh) of the Beast has been branded on my forehead. Call me old-fashioned, but …
So I left. I’ll look someplace more generic (like Target) to see what they have.
Meanwhile, the grocery store. See, since Margie’s being sick had interfered with our dinner plans (sorry, Stan), I decided to make dinner, which eventually resolved into lasagna. Bought all the ingredients to make a couple of them, then we headed home.
Started off with simmering up a nice sauce with sausage and all sorts of goodies. Etc., etc., and I was quite pleased with the results (it certainly beat my Classic Fennel Lasagna of old). Margie seemed to enjoy it, too, though Katherine wasn’t enthused by the ricotta cheese.
Overnight, I woke up at about 3 a.m., realizing I hadn’t set the clocks ahead, including the one next to my head. I proceeded to do so (miraculously, doing it correctly). I discovered that when we’d “sprung forward” in the spring, I hadn’t availed myself of the convenient DST switch on the bottom, which meant I had to do it Old School by hand. *sigh*
Got up, dragged Kitten off to church, came back home, made pancakes for everyone. Then while Katherine was hauling in the Halloween decor from outside, I raked leaves (yes, sir, yes, sir, five trash cans full). Then we practiced our karate.
After that, a hazy-lazy day working on digital photos.
Nice.
Turn your clock back an hour, as we (in the US, at least) end Daylight Saving Time….
Turn your clock back an hour, as we (in the US, at least) end Daylight Saving Time.
A bit of both, I suppose, depending on who you are and where you stand, Don Armstrong is no longer an Episcopal Priest as far as the Episcopal Church…
A bit of both, I suppose, depending on who you are and where you stand, Don Armstrong is no longer an Episcopal Priest as far as the Episcopal Church is concerned:
The Rev. Donald Armstrong, accused by the Colorado diocese of stealing nearly $400,000 from Grace Church and St. Stephen’s Parish, has been defrocked.
Bishop Robert O’Neill announced Thursday that Armstrong is deposed as an Episcopal priest, in accordance with the sentence issued by the diocese’s Ecclesiastical Court. It means he can no longer officiate in the Episcopal Church in the U.S.
Armstrong, of course, is treating it as a great amusement.
“I’m not under Rob’s authority; I’ve already left,” Armstrong told the Rocky Mountain News on Thursday. “So it’s sort of like being fired after you’ve already quit.”
Armstrong said he is a priest in good standing in the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, an Anglican group for breakaway Episcopalians.
And, elsewhere, it was noted,
“Father Armstrong plans to frame the instrument of defrocking and hang it in his office as a badge of honor,” said Alan Crippen, a Grace CANA deacon and spokesman. “We don’t take it seriously.”
Y’know — theological disputes aside, that says a lot about Armstrong and what led him to this point. On the other hand:
“We will not have any further statement or additional comment at this time,” said Beckett Stokes, diocesan spokeswoman.
So who’s being the “grown-up” here? Who’s showing the animus and vindictiveness that Armstrong’s conservative supporters have been accusing Bp. O’Neil of?
Armstrong’s ultimate fate, no matter where he’s in “good standing,” is, of course, is far from certain.
Armstrong’s defrocking is based on a church court investigation which ruled several months ago that Armstrong stole $392,410 from the church, underreported his income to the Internal Revenue Service, received illegal church loans totaling $122,479, and encumbered the church with deeds of trust totaling $2.5 million without approval from the bishop or the standing committee of the Colorado diocese.
The diocese turned over its findings to the financial crimes unit of the Colorado Springs Police Department, which agreed to conduct a criminal investigation. However, the case has been on hold while the unit investigated another, unrelated case, a police spokesman said. The unit is expected to resume work on the church case next week.
(via epiScope)