Tech

Tech-focused ramblings. Computers, blogs, and whatever else fits.

On This Day: Mar 19

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Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 22 posts previously published on March 19th

  • 2024
  • 2020
    • Proxyman – Modern and Delightful HTTP Debugging Proxy on macOS: Proxyman is a native, high-performance macOS application, which enables developers to observe and manipulate HTTP/HTTPS requests. ➡
    • On This Day: Mar 19 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from March 19 ➡
    • 📚 fifteen of 2020: *batteries not included by Wayland Drew ⭐️⭐️⭐️ I had vague memories of the film, but as it turns out, very vague: other than the tiny flying saucers, none of this was familiar. A pleasant enough bit of fluff to distract myself with, but not much more. ➡
  • 2017
    • Book twenty of 2017: Bones of the Coast, edited by Shannon Campbell, Jeff Ellis, and Kathleen Jacques. 🌟🌟🌟🌟 #Kickstarter ➡
  • 2016
    • Sprawled on a hotel bed, watching X-Files. Not a bad Saturday evening, really. (79/366) ➡
    • Forgot my photo yesterday, so here’s another stupid Snapchat filter as penance. (78/366) ➡
  • 2014
    • An end-of-the-day “almost forgot today’s picture” shot. ➡
  • 2007
    • Christina’s Candyman As I said above, the rest of _Back to Basics_ didn't grab me, but those three? I'd definitely say it's worth spending the three bucks to snag 'em off of iTunes. And don't worry, I won't tell anyone you're listening to Christina Aguilera if you don't want me to. ;) ➡
  • 2004
    • Legal pornography? So…anyone know why, on the new Google Local search, when you do a search for 'porn' and your zip code, you get a bunch of results for lawyers? ➡
    • Rev. Karen Dammann I just found out about this from a headline yesterday, and hadn't had a chance to look up any of the information until just now, but Bothell, WA has become the centerpoint of what could be a precedent-setting event within the Methodist church, as Rev. Karen Damman is in the midst of a church trial that could end up stripping her of her ordination — because she is a practicing homosexual. ➡
    • Just curious I sometimes wonder how people would react to a Biblical film cast entirely with actors from that area of the world. ➡
  • 2003
    • It begins After holding back for a whopping 90 minutes after Bush's 48-hour deadline, cruise missiles started falling on Baghdad about 45 minutes ago. ➡
    • 10 minutes The fact that I can do a countdown to when the bombs could start falling is probably one of the single most freaky and surreal things about this whole mess. ➡
    • Getting active Until recently, I've never been overly politically minded, or even very politically conscious. I knew my general outlook leaned toward the liberal side of things, of course, and I'd occasionally make random grumbling noises when I saw or heard about something that I found excessively stupid or aggravating, but that was generally about the extent of it. For all too much of my life, I lived in something of a bubble of my own creation — I had my world, and my friends, and most things outside of that bubble just didn't get much thought. ➡
  • 2002
    • You are being lied to! You Are Being Lied To acts as a battering ram against the distortions, myths, and outright lies that have been shoved down our throats by the government, the media, corporations, organized religion, the scientific establishment, and others who want to keep the truth from us. ➡
    • Neuman sells out An interesting piece about Alfred Neuman's product endorsements. William Gaines is probably rolling in his grave about now.... ➡
    • Jesus on skis? I'm sure these were made with the best of intentions, but somehow these 'Inspirational Sport Statues' are just disturbing. ➡
    • Beck’s iPod Cool ad from Apple on the back page of the Sunday NYT Magazine, which had an ASCII-art sillhouette of Beck's head made up of the names of all the songs on Beck's iPod, with some marketing copy explaining that Beck has a ginormous library of MP3s from which he loads 5GB at random onto his iPod every day. ➡
    • Iroline Too much irony in your life? Try Iroline! ➡
    • Better days Some good news from NewsWeek, after the past couple years or so of dot-com ex- and im-plosions: according to their cover story this week, Silicon Valley is alive and well, and there are brighter days ahead. ➡
  • 2001
    • Drugs are bad Wintel users often start when they're young and experimenting...before he knows it, your average Wintel user has spiralled into an insidious pattern of expensive aggravation, lost time, and severely declining fashion sense. ➡

On This Day: Mar 18

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Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 20 posts previously published on March 18th

  • 2024
  • 2020
  • 2014
    • Mmmmmm…CUPCAKE! :) ➡
  • 2007
  • 2006
  • 2005
    • Loose Change I was trained to count change back to a customer change first, up to the amount they paid. These days, cashiers just drop the money in my hand with the change on top of the bills, making it difficult not to dump the change all over the floor. When did this start? ➡
  • 2004
    • In my world… …the Cheesecake Factory would be decorated entirely with 1950's pin-ups. ➡
  • 2003
    • Exploring Bush's global ineptitude Two excellent articles have popped up over the past couple days examining Bush's mind-numbingly, painful inability to actually work with the global community to accomplish his goals, putting America in a position of being the agressor 'rouge state' that the rest of the world fears. ➡
    • More on Howard Dean Gov. Howard Dean has been crossing my radar more and more recently. As it turns out, in addition to his official site, his campaign has an official weblog active (the first time a Presidential candidate has had any form of weblog, as far as I know), and there is also a privately run 'Howard Dean in 2004' weblog active. ➡
    • Useful bookmarklets A ton of useful (and fun, in an extremely geeky sort of way) bookmarklets for digging into the code of a website to figure out just how it all works. I've snagged the first two listed already ('Show and label divs with ids' and 'Show and label divs with classes'), and will be checking out more later on. ➡
    • India vs. New Zealand Ever wondered what would happen if an English sports writer lost it while posting to a live website while covering a cricket match? ➡
    • Peaceblogs Peaceblogs.org is a site devoted to making connections between bloggers who oppose the impending war against Iraq. Regardless of your ideology or political affiliation, your nation of origin, or the size or scope of your site, if you oppose the war and use your weblog to express that opposition, your site is welcome among our listings. ➡
    • Blogroll updated I spent a little time tonight updating my blogroll (on the right, just underneath the WudiVisions icon) to more accurately reflect the sites that I check on a daily basis. It automatically sorts by how recently they've been updated, so the most recent bits will always be towards the top, with sites that have been updated within the last six hours bracketed by hyphens. Lots of new reading there — enjoy… ➡
    • I hope this is a joke I really, really, really hope this is a joke, but the website looks all too serious. In a move even more mind-bogglingly stupid than the call to rename the second Lord of the Rings Movie, 'The Two Towers,' due to post-9/11 trauma, a guy by the name of Josh Wander has posted a petition to give the Statue of Liberty back to France. ➡
  • 2002
    • Boy meets girl… Before next date, girl does a Google search for boy's name, and finds his blog -- commenting on her lack of ability to kiss and his disappointment in not getting more frisky. Boy finds out about public disclosure of his comments when he starts getting e-mails and comments on his blog. ➡
    • A history of Arthur Andersen A good in-depth article from the New York Times detailing the history behind Andersen's part in the Enron/Andersen scandal. I'm no legal or financial expert, but I can't say that things look good in the least. ➡
    • CIA anthrax connection So -- would the BBC reporting that the CIA may have been involved in the Anthrax scare be a major scoop of hard-hitting investigative reporting, or merely conspiracy theories spilling over into mainstream media? ➡
    • The American brand Having conflicting views about the U.S. -- admiring its creativity, for instance, but resenting its double standards -- doesn't mean you are 'mixed up,' to use Mr Olins' phrase, it means you have been paying attention. ➡
    • Britney Underground Apparently New York wasn't too keen on the Britney Spears posters dotting the subway lines. Britney Underground shows off some of the graffitti decorating Britney's ads. ➡

On This Day: Mar 17

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Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 22 posts previously published on March 17th

  • 2024
  • 2022
  • 2020
  • 2017
    • Out at the Merc to get my gothystomp on on a drizzly St. Paddy’s Day evening! ➡
  • 2016
    • Blue skies and low 50s today…quite nice for my afternoon walk. (77/366) ➡
    • Security Here’s what I’m set up with at the moment, in case anyone’s interested. I’m also open to suggestions for other possibilities. ➡
  • 2014
    • I don’t have much green in my wardrobe, but I’ve got some nice bright green Chucks to wear for today! ➡
  • 2013
  • 2010
    • Dark Loyalties A couple weeks ago, I posted a survey and asked for respondents from the local Seattle Gothic, or seagoth, community for a research project I was working on for my Law and Justice Research Methods class. For those of you curious about the final results, I've published the entire report. You can watch the presentation, read the report on the site, download the prettier .pdf version, or even download the .pdf version along with all the data files in case you want to do your own number crunching. ➡
    • Links for March 12th through March 17th Sometime between March 12th and March 17th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too! • Get Mac-Like Scrolling and Gestures on a Windows Laptop • It's not a bargain if you don't need it • Norrie First Registered Sexless Person • Frommer’s Now F’Ing Both Freelancers and Photo Enthusiasts! • WA Legislature Toughens Cell Phone Driving Law ➡
  • 2009
  • 2006
    • More Reunions I love watching stuff like this go on -- and I'm _very_ willing to put up with the occasional bout of comment spam in return for being able to watch old friends reconnect thanks to Google and some random piece of babble on my site. ➡
    • Vice Versa 'Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You did not place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible.' ➡
  • 2005
    • Top o’ th’ mornin’ to ye! So hit the pub, hoist a Guinness, do your best (or worst) brogue, wink at a pretty lass -- and if you find that pot o' gold, toss a piece or two my way, would you? ;) ➡
  • 2004
    • WüdiVisions Since all the recent babbling about cameras (and the lack thereof) has had photography back on my brain recently (not to mention rebuilding my iPhoto library), I've spent the night resurrecting my WüdiVisions photoblog. ➡
    • More conservative hijinks Two things pointed out to me in the comments for my last post that, while likely to increase your blood pressure, are worth knowing about: ➡
  • 2003
    • Ack! When did it get to be 3 A.M.? I've gotta get to bed... ➡
    • Damn straight …to ensure that our postwar policies are constructive and humane, based on enduring principles of peace and justice, concerned Americans should continue to speak out. ➡
    • Random downtime fixed Technically, this is a little less secure, as there is now a direct line between my webserver and the world, with no intervening firewall for protection, but OS X is fairly secure, and I'm willing to take that slight risk if it allows my sites to have better uptime. The Linksys does still protect the PC, however. Somehow I just can't justify leaving a Windows box open to the world, even if I think I've got it locked down. So much for 'trusted computing'. ➡
    • The speech follows no logical pattern The entire situation is reminiscent, as someone pointed out on Atrios, of the old Star Trek episode 'Patterns of Force' (in which) Federation history professor John Gill becomes the drugged leader of a Nazi planet. ➡
    • 48 hours 48 hours for Saddam to step down, or the US goes in with guns blazing. ➡

On This Day: Mar 16

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Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 23 posts previously published on March 16th

  • 2024
  • 2020
  • 2019
    • A Digression on Gilliam A collection I've wanted for a long time, and finally completed: All of Terry Gilliam's films (except for The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, which isn't out yet) are on my Plex server in HD. He's just the sort of gloriously weird that works well for me. ➡
  • 2016
    • Book twelve of 2016: Marvel Comics’ Battlestar Galactica adaptation. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (76/366) ➡
    • 2015 P.K. Dick Award Nominee Rankings My ranking of this year's Philip K. Dick Award nominated books, from least favorite to my top pick for the award (which, historically, has yet to match the actual award winner, so don't put too much stock in my ranking). ➡
  • 2014
    • Turns out today is a cranky day. Ah, well. Some days are like that. ➡
  • 2009
    • The P-I is dead. Long live the P-I! The writing's been on the wall for some time now, but it's just been made official: tomorrow's print run of the Seattle P-I will be its last. ➡
    • Kent at High Flood Risk I'm glad we're not on the ground floor of our apartment building -- as we live here in the Kent Valley, within about a five-minute walk of the banks of the Green River, we're smack-dab in the middle of the area of South King County at high risk for flooding. ➡
  • 2006
    • Garth Brooks is a Gateway Drug I've often noticed when talking to people that, if they have even a little bit of country in their collection, there is a pretty good chance that Garth will be in there somewhere, if not the sole representative. Which leads to the realization that Garth Brooks is a gateway drug. ➡
  • 2005
  • 2004
    • HR 3920 – Good God, no! On March 9th, Representative Ron Lewis (KY) introduced bill HR 3920 to Congress, titled the 'Congressional Accountability for Judicial Activism Act of 2004'. The official title gives a better idea of the intent of the bill, though:'To allow Congress to reverse the judgments of the United States Supreme Court.' ➡
    • Lego porn! Hidden in a miniature Washington, D.C., at Legoland California, among thousands of characters living frozen lives, a businessman moons a presidential motorcade. ➡
    • Go Tony! Good news from the frozen north — Democratic Senatorial candidate Tony Knowles has issued a statement strongly in favor of gay rights issues. ➡
    • Iraq on the Record This rocks: Iraq on the Record, a report and associated online database presenting the results of an investigation of the misleading statements, falsehoods, and outright lies presented to the American public during the runup to the Iraq war, as comissioned by Representative Henry A. Waxman. ➡
    • 404 PDF While on lunch, I saw a license place with the combination 404 PDF. I guess that's the code Cirque du Soleil would use when they can't find one of their performers? ➡
    • Yesterday’s Trek, today’s tech Fun little article, though somehow I'm very unsurprised that so many of today's electronics are designed by geeks that grew up on Star Trek. Seems only natural to me. ➡
  • 2003
    • Building 42 If you are ever driving past [the Microsoft] campus on 156th Avenue, you can spot the exact Redmond/Bellevue city border by seeing where an otherwise normal, professional looking building suddenly changes height. ➡
    • Anti-war summary Wasted Irony has a good concise rundown of why a war in Iraq is a bad idea. ➡
    • Candlelight Vigil at Green Lake, Seattle I was just starting to go through my regular online reading tonight when one of the first posts I read was Shelly Powers' post about the candlelight vigil she was planning on attending. I checked the MoveOn page where the vigils were being organized, and found that there were many planned for Seattle. The largest was being held at Green Lake, so ten minutes later I was on a bus out to Green Lake. ➡
    • Evergreen student killed in Gaza Strip I have to admit that I've always found the idea of 'human shields' to be naïvely optimistic, at best, and quite possibly downright suicidal at worst. You're placing yourself in an extremely volatile and dangerous situation, between two factions that have repeatedly shown very little regard for human life, be it military or civillian. As horrible as any resulting deaths may be, I can't see them as unexpected or surprising in the least. If you're going to stand in between two warring sides, you're knowingly taking the chance that one or the other (or both) is going to end up killing you. ➡
  • 2002
    • Engrish spoken here DANGER! A dangerous toy. This toy is being made for the extreme priority the good looks. The little part which suffocates when the sharp part which gets hurt is swallowed is contained generously. Only the person who can take responsibility by itself is to play. ➡
  • 2001
    • Bueller’s giant rabbit gladiator Three additions to the collection today, as it was a pretty decent paycheck from Suncoast this week. ➡
    • Good tunes Over the past few years, I've been spending much of my time around women who listened to a fair amount of country...and I suppose that can only last so long before it really starts to sink in. ➡

On This Day: Mar 15

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Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 25 posts previously published on March 15th

  • 2024
  • 2020
  • 2019
    • Book twenty-four of 2019: The Demolished Man, by Alfred Bester. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1953 Hugo Best Novel Psychic police are now something of an SF trope, but this was apparently one of the first to use this idea, and its implementation (both in plot and typography) is still effective. ➡
  • 2016
    • Book eleven of 2016: (R)Evolution, by PJ Manney. ⭐️⭐️ #PKDickAward nominee. (75/366) ➡
  • 2014
    • Relaxing in the library on a nice sunny morning. ➡
  • 2008
    • Medieval Fanfic Robert Henryson, a 15th-century Scottish writer, went so far as to write a sequel to Chaucer's earlier work, Troilus and Criseyde, in which he punishes Criseyde for all the things Chaucer had her do to poor, noble Troilus. ➡
  • 2007
    • Flickr: User Interface Overload On the one hand, I really like the new collections organization structure that Flickr just added. It's not perfect, but it's nice to have more control over organizing my photos. However, the interface is getting...well, cluttered is about the nicest way to put it. ➡
  • 2006
  • 2005
    • Cards, anyone? I got a nice compliment from mom on one of my recent photos earlier today: 'You sure have some beautiful photos. You could open a side business (in your spare time) selling them for cards.' Hmmm...might this be a viable idea? ➡
  • 2004
    • Music and personality Interesting article in the Seattle PI looking at how your the content and organization of your music collection can give indications of your personality type. ➡
    • Size Matters This is actually fairly amusing now that I stop to think about it, but I think I've finally figured out why, no matter how good they are or how many features today's pocket-size digital cameras have, I still can't ever stop lusting after the bigger, fancier (more expensive) cameras that are out there. ➡
  • 2002
    • I got my keys! Just got back home from picking up my keys for the new apartment. Pictures were taken, I'll have them posted as soon as I can. Yay! ➡
    • Geeks or Government? My response on reading the question that headlines this article -- Should Geeks, or Governments, Run the Net? -- was 'Why is this a question? Geeks!' ➡
    • Brief bits on my actual life! In the midst of replying to an e-mail from my mom, I realized that while I've been putting a lot of links up, any content actually dealing with my life has been pretty sparse recently. End result -- a veritable plethora of ways for people to leave my website, but not much to make them stick around. ➡
    • Writing is good Could blogging and its reliance on the textual news and sources help reclaim the importance of the written word and lessen our reliance on television as the disseminator of all information? ➡
    • Nose picking So...do you pick your nose? ➡
    • Lots of music links I need to remember to come back to a MeFi thread -- lots of links to online remix sources and radio stations. ➡
    • Dubya needs to get laid! We, the undersigned, in the interest of international harmony and seeking an end to all violence in this world, do hereby call on the president of the United States, George W. Bush, to find a fully consenting adult intern to service his sexual needs. ➡
    • Mutant space bugs! Science-fiction becomes reality? Space-mutated metal-eating viruses that caused problems on Mir may now be at the bottom of the Pacific ocean. Reassuring, no? ➡
    • Soundbugs look cool Yay for new toys! I may need to pick up at least one of these little gadgets -- Soundbug turns flat surface into speakers. ➡
    • iMacs in the movies Most of the computers in movies for several years have been Macintoshes, maybe because the Mac is the only computer that doesn't look like every other computer and therefore benefits from product placement. ➡
    • Powered armor CNET is reporting that MIT will be researching Nanotech body armor for the Army. ➡
    • Bomb your hometown Not paranoid after Bush yammers about keeping nuclear weapons a possibility? Use this page to get an idea of what a nuclear bomb would to do your city. ➡
    • Pig Roald Dahl's disturbing short story, 'Pig', with illustrations. ➡

On This Day: Mar 14

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Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 30 posts previously published on March 14th

  • 2024
  • 2023
    • 📚 Xenocide by Orson Scott Card Once again, I’m struck that an author who wrote so compellingly on empathy for others failed to see how to apply his own ideas in the real world. ➡
  • 2022
  • 2020
    • 📚 fourteen of 2020: The Last Best Hope by Una McCormack ⭐️⭐️⭐️ A direct prequel to the Picard series, detailing the struggles, triumphs, and travesties of the Romulan relief effort. Also the most politically & socially currently relevant Trek novel I’ve ever read. 🖖 ➡
    • On This Day: Mar 14 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from March 14 ➡
  • 2019
    • Celebrating π Day by eating a square piece of lasagne for dinner, soon to be followed by a shapeless mass of ice cream. But the ice cream is out of a round container, so that counts, right? ➡
    • 🖖 #StarTrekDiscovery S02E09 Goddammit, DSC. So much potential here, so many good moments, but also a lot of pieces that don’t make sense, and an ending that just annoyed me. Overall, uneven but mostly good until the end, which wasn’t truly earned and just came off as exasperating. ➡
  • 2018
    • Since I work from home and I’m not currently a student, participating in #NationalWalkoutDay may seem to be fairly symbolic. But as an uncle to seven niblings, as a husband of a college instructor, and as a friend to many people with children, it doesn’t seem symbolic to me at all. I may be alone, ... Read more ➡
  • 2016
    • I just got a “thank you” gift from one of the LAJ faculty! :) (74/366) ➡
  • 2014
    • Happy π Day! This one tastes a little waxy. Am I doing something wrong? ➡
  • 2010
  • 2008
    • Archie vs. Pulp: Common People I've long been a fan of Pulp's song 'Common People'. A couple days ago, comic reviewer Chris Sims, in an inspired bit of silliness, set the lyrics to a bunch of altered Archie comic panels. Continuing the silliness, I spent a little time tonight combining Chris's strips with Pulp's song...enjoy! ➡
    • Spy Hunter 2008 Generally, I'm not a fan of car commercials (there are a few exceptions, but they tend to be few and far between). However, this one from Pontiac is just all sorts of awesome. ➡
  • 2007
  • 2006
    • Happy π Day! Random updates: school, my birthday, and plans for summer festivals, conventions, and photography. Oh, and Battlestar Galactica rocks. ➡
    • Clooney Comes Out Bottom line: it's not merely our right to question our government, it's our duty. Whatever the consequences. We can't demand freedom of speech then turn around and say, But please don't say bad things about us. You gotta be a grown up and take your hits. ➡
  • 2005
    • Two brief bits… ...mostly because I hate letting a day go by without tossing _something_ up here (even though that happens fairly often). ➡
  • 2004
    • Narrowing the field Another camera post, feel free to ignore it if you're not interested. Mainly, I'm in the midst of reading reviews, researching, and price-checking, and want to keep all the links I've been using at my fingertips when I actually get to a point of plunking down money. ➡
  • 2003
    • More protest songs Salon has posted links to six protest songs that have been released by the artists to the web as free-for-download .mp3's. This is cool. ➡
  • 2002
    • Towers of Light Some nice photos of the Towers of Light WTC memorial in New York. I've gotta say, as far as memorials go, this is one of the better ones I've seen, even if it is temporary. ➡
    • Unanswered questions I haven't read enough of this yet to be sure whether it's serious content or mad conspiracy ramblings, but it looked very interesting: Sep. 11th Unanswered Questions (Part 1) and Part 2. ➡
    • Manufactured serendipity Manufactured Serendipity -- an(nother) exploration of the blogging phenomena. ➡
    • If we can’t torture here… The US has been secretly sending prisoners suspected of al-Qaida connections to countries where torture during interrogation is legal, according to US diplomatic and intelligence sources. Prisoners moved to such countries as Egypt and Jordan can be subjected to torture and threats to their families to extract information sought by the US in the wake of the September 11 attacks. ➡
    • PC conspiracies The Apple community has said this off and on for years, but now Business Week is asking -- could IT professionals be keeping their networks PC-based to keep their jobs? ➡
    • Digital rights Finally, movement has been started to help preserve consumer's rights regarding digital media: DigitalConsumer. ➡
    • Age of consent MeFi posted a link to a story about 'Dear Abby' turning in a man who confessed an attraction to child pornography. The related discusson has raised some extremely interesting points, touching on some of the many societal and cultural variables surrounding 'age of consent'. ➡
    • Afghanistan tactics Didn't we learn anything from the years the Russians spent trying to fight in Afghanistan? Apparently not. ➡
    • Good mileage? Who needs it? The Senate yesterday defeated an effort to increase fuel efficiency standards for cars, sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks, voting instead for a measure that would give the Bush administration two years to develop its own mileage rules. ➡
    • Sure, it’s current The entire text of the 1911 Encyclopedia Brittanica has been scanned and placed online. ➡
    • Apple vs. the Penguin Unix Under the Desktop: A penguin's eye look at Apple's OS X, from Linux Journal. ➡

On This Day: Mar 13

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Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 42 posts previously published on March 13th

  • 2024
  • 2022
    • Change is Good Thanks to the latest horrible thing to fall out of Bill Maher's mouth, I've just added a disclaimer to my On This Day page and to the top of every post that is more than two years old noting that the post may not reflect my current beliefs. ➡
  • 2020
    • Well, it’s official: Norwescon 43 is canceled. This is really disappointing. But we’ll regroup, get re-energized, and be back in 2021. But man. Spending the morning updating the website and sending out all the official notifications was really difficult to do. ➡
    • On This Day: Mar 13 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from March 13 ➡
  • 2019
    • Torrey’s costumes are often some of my favorites at Norwescon, and it’s nice to see her featured in The Stranger! ➡
  • 2018
    • 2018 PK Dick Reviews Once again, I’ve read through all of the nominated works for this year’s Philip K. Dick Awards. Made it with two weeks to spare this time. Here are my thoughts on each of the nominated books, in order from my least favorite to my personal favorite and pick for the award. A strong slate this year, there wasn't a single one that I didn't enjoy at least a little bit. ➡
    • Book thirteen (and seventh #pkdickaward nominee) of 2018: Revenger, by Alastair Reynolds. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ➡
  • 2017
    • Cross-posting here from Facebook because I think it’s important. #ally #allyship #decentering ➡
    • Book nineteen of 2017: Crossroad, by Barbara Hambly. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ #startrek #tos ➡
  • 2016
    • Daylight savings sucks. There’s no way I’m going to fall asleep on time tonight. (73/366) ➡
    • It’s freaking snowing. Snowing! Big fat wet flakes! Who authorized this ridiculousness; I sure as heck didn’t! Grrrr. ➡
  • 2014
    • My brother Kevin and me at Pike Place Market in 2001. Man, I used to be kinda ripped! ;) #throwbackthursday ➡
  • 2009
    • Dear Abby and Utilikilts In yesterday's column, Dear Abby passes on lots of words of encouragement from others who've escaped the tyrrany of trousers, and specifically mentions a certain local menswear company. ➡
  • 2008
    • Headline Humor A wire story in Monday's Seattle PI: Man acquitted of murder in Othello. My first thought: 'Y'know, that's not how _I_ remember that play going....' ➡
  • 2004
    • Don’t ignore the real world Computers are wonderful things. A computer plus the Internet is even more so, with the ability to connect easily, quickly, and in many different ways with people around the world. But the real world is a very important thing, too — and it scares me when people will abandon their lives for the sake of online interactions. ➡
    • Rove in Seattle Jackqueline got a chance to 'infiltrate' a College Republicans event with Karl Rove as the guest speaker last night. Some very interesting tidbits come out of her notes on the evening, not least that Washington is going to be a prime target for the Republicans in the upcoming elections. ➡
    • I should probably be worried about this… Considered by most to be depraved and immoral, you are obsessed with sex. What really tantalizes you is that which deviates from societal standards in every way, though you admit that this probably isn't the best and you're not sure what causes this desire. Nonetheless, you've done some pretty nefarious things in your life, and probably gotten caught for them. The names have been changed, but the problems are real. Please stay away from children. ➡
    • Nicole’s a popular girl This amused me: according to an Esquire poll, 45% of women would let their partner have sex with Nicole Kidman. I wonder what Nicole thinks of this? ➡
  • 2003
    • Caucasian Shashlik A collection of Weight Watchers Recipe cards from 1974. I've got tears in my eyes and my cheeks hurt from laughing. ➡
    • News, not propaganda The 'net really is changing the way we as Americans see both the world and ourselves, and I'm quite glad to be around for the shift. Maybe, eventually, we'll be able to see ourselves as a global culture — I think things like this are the beginning step. ➡
    • I want a Big Wheel! From a Yahoo! Messenger conversation with my friend Laura back up in Alaska… ➡
    • No, really, it's not propaganda Whether or not you're old enough to remember seeing them in theaters (I'm not), you may very likely know about the old MovieTone newsreels that used to be shown in theaters before movies. Well, it looks like they're going to be back, in the form of short films created by soldiers currently overseas. ➡
    • 150 SETI@home possibilities Of course, one has to wonder how much of a bill 150 intergalactic wrong numbers would be. ➡
    • Beastie Boys: In a World Gone Mad The Beastie Boys have released an anti-war protest in the form of a rap track, freely avaible to download from their website, called 'In a World Gone Mad'. Not their best work, admittedly, but interesting nothenless. ➡
    • Beginning blogging Eric Barzeski over at NSLog(); has an excellent list of tips for anyone just getting started in the weblogging world. I've discovered all of these at one point or another over the years, but things definitely might have been simpler if I'd had this available back when I started. Of course, back when I started (further back than my archives go, unfortunately), we didn't have things like MovableType to help us out… ➡
    • Osama bin Captured? Is it true? Who knows — it could be a leak of real information, or it could just be crazy rumormongering. What I'm pretty damn sure of, though, is that whether or not it's true, there's no way that it would be officially announced until sometime after Bush has sent the first few missile barrages into Iraq. Bush has done too good of a job of moving the blame of 9/11 from bin Laden to Saddam Hussein, and bringing bin Laden back into the spotlight — especially as a captive — would likely do more harm than good to Bush's push for war. ➡
    • Tom Tomorrow I've said it before, but it bears repeating: Tom Tomorow really should be on your reading list. He should be on everyone's reading list. I end up wanting to point people over to his site with nearly every post some days. So, failing either that, I'll just point you to his site (again). ➡
  • 2002
    • More geek humor This Foxtrot strip is hilarious... ➡
    • I’m shocked – shocked and appalled! From the 'this is news?' department: Study shows teenage girls sexually harassed on the Internet. ➡
    • More fun with Google The articles I linked to about Googlebombing on the 5th have inspired a third followup article worth reading: The Tripping Blog - How Weblogs can turn an idea into an epidemic. ➡
    • Ravi who? On the Internet, nobody knows you're Ravi Desai. Or a dog. ➡
    • Going, going, gone There's a very interesting article on Slate talking about Arthur Andersen's disappearing act, as the accounting firm enters negotiations investigating being absorbed by other major accounting firms. ➡
    • Which flawed election? I don't know what he's talking about, but as I was just delivering something to another floor, Bush was on TV giving a press conference. I walked by just in time to hear him say something along the lines of '...we'll see what we can do about this flawed election.' ➡
    • Fun with Π My birthday is within the first 100 million digits of Π. So is my current phone number, sans area code. My social security number isn't, though. Bummer. ➡
    • Text Pong Just in case Infocom making Tetris wasn't weird enough, here's one weirder -- text-based Pong! ➡
    • Let’s nuke Mecca!?!? Just in case things in the world weren't getting freaky enough, the editor of the National Review is pondering nuking Mecca. There is a column at The American Prospect looking at this from a slightly saner perspective. ➡
    • Something for Casey Something for Casey -- how to hack a half-price Apple Airport base station. ➡
    • The truth about Asimov Janet Asimov, in a biography of her late husband Isaac Asimov (It's Been A Good Life), has revealed that he actually died of AIDS contracted during bypass surgery, but the doctor at the time advised that the information not be disclosed to the public. Interesting.... ➡
    • Sure, we checked their credentials <sarcasm> Why I trust my government to keep me safe: </sarcasm> On Monday, the INSapproved student visas for two of the 9/11 airplane hijackers. ➡
    • Those eyes! If you've ever picked up a National Geographic magazine, you probably remember a cover from 1985 of a girl with stunning green eyes, from a story about war in Afghanistan. Somehow National Geographic found her again. ➡
    • Our leaders at work Tony Blair and George Bush have received international recognition for their unswerving willingness to use force: a nomination for the 2002 Nobel peace prize. ➡
  • 2001
    • A steady gig! I just got back from a meeting with the owners of the new Studio 99, and I'm now officially their resident DJ for Friday nights! Now it's just time to get the word out. ➡

On This Day: Mar 12

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Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 22 posts previously published on March 12th

  • 2024
    • Year 50 Day 315 The weather today kept alternating between cold, windy, and rainy, and cold, windy, and sunny. ➡
  • 2020
    • Interesting side effect in Thailand: Coronavirus means drop in international tourism means fewer tourists feeding the monkeys means monkey troupes are hungry and overrunning the city. ➡
    • On This Day: Mar 12 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from March 12 ➡
  • 2017
    • Left Prairie behind in Vancouver (intentionally; she’s spending the week with her mom) and am on the way back to the Burg. Toby the #tinydinosaur and I decided to stop off at Burgerville for lunch. :) ➡
  • 2016
    • Out for a date night movie (Hail, Caesar!) with Prairie! (72/366) ➡
    • Hey @cajunsblues: I landed a great lineup of fluff at Goodwill today. Thought you’d appreciate it. ;) ➡
  • 2014
    • We’ve hit that wonderful/annoying point in the year where coats are necessary in the morning, but not in the afternoon. :) ➡
  • 2007
    • Seattleites Trudeau tweaks locals. Also amusing (to my mind): the somewhat confused reactions of many locals in the Seattle LiveJournal group that I found this in. ➡
  • 2005
    • Trek in the 2100’s? According to the article, the new Trek film will be a prequel movie not directly associated with any of the existing shows, story lines -- or casts. This got me thinking about the timeline of the Trek universe. What do we have in the established Trek universe in the 2100s that might factor in to the new movie? ➡
  • 2003
    • Safe abortion in jeapordy Meg reminds us that in the midst of all the brouhaha in Iraq and Korea, things are still downright scary here at home. ➡
    • Do you blog? Why? None of these three ways can come close to providing as accurate a depiction of the blogging population — who we all really are, why we blog, and how we're using our blogs — as a survey. ➡
    • New job position! I've got a new position at work! My first full day was yesterday — I hadn't written about it yet, both because it all happened fairly quickly, and because I don't like to jinx things too much before they happen. ➡
    • Absolut Hacker I've always loved the Absolut ads, and this new ad by Petr Stanicek makes me laugh a lot. ➡
  • 2002
    • I got into As The Apple Turns! Hey — I'm famous! Or...something like that. See, I stumbled across a link earlier today that I thought might be of interest to my favorite Apple-flavored soap opera, As the Apple Turns -- and they used it for one of their stories today! ➡
    • 2 hours in the life of a ‘puter geek Ever wondered just what 'geeking out' entails? Some nights it's diving into whatever the geek's code of choice is (HTML and CSS for me), other nights it's more hardware based. Well, tonight I had a problem with my primary work Mac, and kept a log of what I was doing as I went along. Feel free to take a look if you'd like…. ➡
    • Propaganda Propaganda, anyone? On the one hand, on a conceptual/artistic level, I like most of what I see. However, on a more intellectual level, it's just frightening. ➡
    • Teleportation Beam me up...Ray? ➡
    • Buckets of what? Times I wish I had a 'completely bizarre' category. I can understand being peeved if I had a music video being shot outside my apartment at 4am. But did Britney Spears really deserve to have buckets of urine thrown at her? ➡
    • Working for da man I vow never again to work for someone else's riches. I am independent being, free to grow rich or die poor using my mind and the thousand bucks I've got in the bank. I refuse to be a slave to the shirt-and-tie drones of Ford or any other Fortune 500 company, now and forever. ➡
    • Geek code GAT d+ s:-- a- C++ U*++++ P+ L- E--- W+++ N+ o K w--- O---- M++ V PS+ PE Y+ PGP t+ 5 X++ R-- tv-- b++ DI++ D+ G e h r+ y* ➡
    • Tattoos Is the reason I get pulled around by men when my tattoos are visible because they are shocked into defensive aggression by someone obviously not trying to meet their standards of attractiveness? After all, women are supposed to dress for men not for themselves. ➡
    • Aqua M and M’s! M&M's are going to be adding a new color to the mix — and you can vote for your favorite here! I went with Aqua -- they'll go nicely with my Mac OS X desktop.... ➡

On This Day: Mar 11

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Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 29 posts previously published on March 11th

  • 2024
  • 2020
    • New Mac app Slideas is like Keynote powered by Markdown: Saving for later: A Keynote/PowerPoint-style presentation app powered by Markdown formatted text. Requires macOS Mojave, though, so I can’t run it yet. ➡
    • Die, Heretic! 90% agreement, 10% burn it all down to the ground. ➡
    • On This Day: Mar 11 Recognizing 20 years of blogging, here are my past posts from March 11 ➡
  • 2017
    • Down in Vancouver visiting Prairie’s family, and spent some time playing Calvinball with the niblings (in the garage, due to rain). ➡
  • 2016
    • Sporting my new #CWU LAJ t-shirt today. #CWUpride :) (71/366) ➡
  • 2014
    • 57 degrees and gorgeous blue skies. Feels like spring! ➡
    • A shiny new doodad…er…quick-release keychain to replace the one that died. I’m amused at how much of the chrome plating wore off of the old one over the years. ➡
  • 2010
    • Links for February 24th through March 11th Sometime between February 24th and March 11th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too! • The FCC Wants You to Test Your Broadband Speeds • Zip Code Boundary Map • Better PDF File Size Reduction in OS X • Hummer Brand to Be Wound Down After Sale Fails • Stryde Hax: The Spy at Harriton High ➡
  • 2009
    • LibraryThing Screensaver (for Mac OS X) For those of you that are LT members (and Mac OS X users), they've just released a new toy: the LibraryThing Mac Screensaver. It's actually just a specialized RSS feed that grabs random book covers from your library which you can put into Mac OS X's RSS feed screensaver. ➡
  • 2007
  • 2006
    • Marriage Equality Now Today was the 2nd annual Marriage Equality march and rally in support of marriage rights for _everyone_. Just like last year, I was there, camera in hand. ➡
  • 2005
    • Geek Conflicts After two incredible trailers which were then followed up by two horrid movies, I really should know better than to put any faith in George Lucas anymore. Meanwhile, the _other_ Sci-Fi franchise that heavily influenced my growing years has just announced that sometime in 2007, yet another Star Trek film will land in the theaters. ➡
    • Beautiful! I've decided it's going to be a good day today. I woke up in a good mood, felt more rested than I have fairly often recently, and there was _gorgeous_ golden sunshine coming in through the windows. ➡
  • 2004
    • More camera ramblings I've spent a good portion of the evening bouncing around various camera reviews and specifications, comparing all the various suggestions made in my comments today (many thanks to all of you!). Right now, I'm leaning towards one of two possibilities… ➡
    • Digital camera recommendations? Okay, so it looks like I'm going to be in the market for a new camera as soon as I can afford it (which, knowing me will be sometime in 2007, but that's beside the point). ➡
    • Today sucks The crowning moment so far, though, was getting so engrossed in reading The Stranger's 'Marriage Issue' that when the bus comes, I stand up, get on, and sit down…then realize halfway to work and ten minutes later that I left my bookbag at the bus stop at 2nd and Spring. ➡
    • Elation and Frustration Been somewhat of a roller coaster morning here. ➡
  • 2003
    • Happy Space Alien Day! Oh, the number of times in my life — past, present, and future — when it'd be so nice to capitalize on something that did or did not happen! ➡
    • Now I just need a french kiss! I think tonight's menu will include french fries, french bread, and french dressing — in honor (ahem) of the House of Representatives to serve Freedom fries and Freedom toast instead of French fries and French toast. Bonus points to anyone who knows where I got that particular menu…. ➡
    • Quiet time I'll surface a bit more later on tonight, after I'm home from work, but I wanted to get a quick note of this up — the Seattle Times is starting a weblog tracking the Iraq conflict called Battle Lines. No clue where it'll go, as they're still on their first post, but it might be worth keeping an eye on. ➡
  • 2002
    • Blogsnob I just signed up with BlogSnob to display little text ads. I display links to other people's blogs, and my link gets displayed on other people's blogs. ➡
    • Tempus fugit Not too long ago, as part of my 'Where were you?' post, I talked about how I found out about the events of Sep. 11th. Now it's six months later, and in many ways, I'm still not sure how I feel about the whole thing. I am quite sure, however, that what we've seen happen in the past six months is just the beginning, and that the repurcussions are far from over. ➡
    • Wierd dog food ads You won't see dogfood ads like these in the U.S.! Those crazy Kiwis.... ➡
    • note 2 lamerz note 2 lamerz: serious enquiris only plz ➡
    • Maybe copyright too? While this site and its contents are protected by U.S. Copyright Law, I may want to look into officially registering. ➡
    • ISSN for The Long Letter? I can apply for an ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) for my blog, making it a legitimate publication in the eyes of librarians everywhere! Pretty cool, huh? ➡
  • 1995
    • [From Usenet 3.11.95 0416] I've only ever heard one song of theirs. Was called 'Dance or Die' and is on a compilation I picked up in Berlin called the 'German Mystic Sound Sampler' good song...one of my faves on the comp. ➡

On This Day: Mar 10

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Since I’ll hit 20 years of blogging this November, this year I’m posting a daily list of anything I published on this day in the past.

There are 23 posts previously published on March 10th

  • 2024
  • 2020
  • 2019
    • Book twenty-three of 2019: Recovery, by J.M. Dillard. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 📚 🖖 ➡
  • 2018
    • Will you get #ALLTHERIBBONS at @norwescon this year? Find me during #nwc41 and show me your collection! ➡
    • Final ConCom before @norwescon 41! ➡
  • 2016
    • Dessert time! Who wants jello? (70/366) ➡
  • 2014
    • Why, look – we’re home from work, and there’s light in the sky! Of course, there was light in the sky when we got home from work last week, too. And last week, there was light when we left for work in the morning, but now mornings are dark and dreary again. I’m not seeing ... Read more ➡
  • 2013
  • 2011
    • Flare A fun new piece of photo editing/post-processing software was just released yesterday evening. All in all, I'm really impressed with Flare, and had a lot of fun playing with it and exploring different filters and combinations of effects. ➡
  • 2009
    • Watchmen Credits While Watchmen didn't end up as my favorite movie ever, I do want to join a number of people in recognizing the excellence of the opening credit sequence. In fact, this was probably my favorite part of the movie itself. ➡
    • Vanilla Ice: “I’m Sorry” I'm not entirely convinced this is a heartfelt apology, given that it comes from an (admittedly, amusing) Virgin Mobile promo site called 'Right Music Wrongs', but it _is_ about damn time! ➡
    • 30 Years of CDs I didn't even have a CD player at this point, but this was a _limited edition_! Who knew how long it would be on the market, or whether we'd _ever_ be able to get it in the frozen wastelands of Alaska! As a Queen fan, I had to have it, and I plunked my money down. ➡
    • Mixed Messages So...would this be an irony FAIL or irony WIN? 16 arrested in fight at nonviolence concert. ➡
  • 2008
    • Sick Boy Generally speaking, I don't get sick very often. The occasional sniffles or light cold, but not much more than that. I made up for it this weekend, though, when I managed to come down with some nasty 48-hour-ish flu bug. ➡
  • 2006
    • schrodingerscat I was just looking over the list of tags used on my site in the past month as displayed on my archives page, when one tag in particular suddenly gave me the giggles. A simple mis-parsing, and I ended up with two competing definitions for the same tag. ➡
  • 2005
    • Going to? As in, future tense? 'Search Engine Optimizers have discovered blogs, specifically blogspot. We're going to have to develop some systems for dealing with this.' No kidding? And what's with the future tense? ➡
    • Another convert And another man escapes from the tyranny of trousers. ➡
  • 2004
    • Congratulations Lane, Tina…and Maxwell! Many congratulations to Lane and Tina on the birth of the 'Wee Tomato' — Maxwell James! Many long years of happiness to all three of you (four, if you count the dog). :) ➡
    • Sounds like it’s closed I passed a TV news crew either filming a report for later or broadcasting live, and overheard the reporter say that Jensonia residents were only being let in the building to retrieve personal belongings, and that the Red Cross is going to be assisting them find places to live. Sounds like the Jensonia finally got shut down. ➡
    • Random presents I got a nice surprise in the mail today: Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light, by Patrick McGilligan, from someone (a reader, I'm guessing?) in Italy. ➡
    • More trouble at the Jensonia And with those thoughts to wake me up at 7:45am today, I found out that the Jensonia hotel, right next door to my apartment building just off of 8th and Seneca, was on fire. Again. ➡
    • Fire Major fire next door, close to the intersection of 8th and Seneca, right now. More soon. ➡
  • 2001
    • DJ Wudi @ Studio 99 tonight Tonight's the Spring Break Party co-hosted by 92.9 KFAT, AL Productions, and the new Studio 99, featuring DJ Wudi (me) and DJ Manaiacal, with KFAT's Kim Keane broadcasting live on the air! ➡