BLOG.RONSOME.COM

Gravitas

2011-07-30T08:57:00.000-04:00

The idea of an open and communicative government is wonderful. However, all of the childish prattling coming out Washington about who is at fault for creating the nation's debt and who is at fault for prolonging it is absolutely appalling. Op-ed columnists are naturally going to write the kind of pieces that will whip the American people into a furious lather, and that may be a good

Intelligent Ratings

2011-07-14T17:06:00.001-04:00

Imagine: You're perusing an app store, looking for an app that does a specific task, and after a little searching, you find one that seems promising. A quick examination of the app description gives you further hope until you realize that the app only rates two out of five stars. Further investigation reveals many, many one- and two-star ratings accompanied by individuals' complaints about how

+Me

2011-07-11T14:40:00.001-04:00

After playing around with Google+ for a few days, I've decided I really like the service. In particular, I like the one feature that sets it apart from those other major social networking services. Unfortunately there is one thing that I'm still really grappling with: Google Buzz. Buzz started out as a Twitter-like service from Google which was built into Gmail as a feature. This made it

Off Limits

2011-07-02T11:08:00.000-04:00

Call me a skeptic, but when I hear a government official say, "Nothing is off limits," with regards to budget cuts, I hear, "Only the obvious things are off limits."

In Honor of Rights Unchanged

2011-06-21T09:27:00.000-04:00

In 1920 Congress passed the Nineteenth Constitutional Amendment: The right of United States citizens to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Although, the Nineteenth Amendment is commonly referred to as the amendment that gave women the right to vote, the wording of the legislation is unambiguous; the rights of women to suffrage were

Sorry Indeed

2011-05-28T10:09:00.000-04:00

This morning, I was alerted to a major retailer's print-at-home coupons. As a general rule I don't use coupons because I can never remember to take them with me when I go to the store. Also, finding coupons online, then printing them out at home to take to the store with you later just seems rather crude and primitive. However, sometimes I'm something of a compulsive clicker, and what can I

Cause for Celebration

2011-05-02T10:24:00.000-04:00

People are celebrating the demise of Osama bin Laden. It seems to me that a man's death should never be cause for celebration. While the abstract principle of "justice served" is worth celebrating, we should bear in mind that killing bin Laden was not really about justice. In the U.S., justice is decided by due process. It's an impartial examination of facts leading to a legal determination of

Found Money: Part I

2011-04-14T19:11:00.000-04:00

So, as long as we're trimming the federal budget, can we cut the funding for anti-tobacco ads? Who doesn't know that inhaling lungs full of smoke is hazardous to his health? Also, cigarettes need to be taxed more heavily. In fact, every time some jerk throws a cigarette butt on the ground, the tax should go up.

Nice of Them to Provide the Paint

2011-04-10T12:53:00.000-04:00

I don't know whether to laugh or cry when I see people using a service to create "banners" for Facebook. It's sort of like taking your car somewhere so they can hand you a can of spray paint and let you go to town on it. Then, they stencil the name of the place (and directions for how to get there) on the back of the car and tell you the service is free.

The Bottom Line

2011-03-31T19:24:00.000-04:00

With all the recent grumbling over Android no longer being "open", no one seems to be quoting the last line of the Bloomberg Businessweek article that's been fueling the fire: The bottom line: Despite grumblings, Google's Android mobile operating system is still open—it's just getting more heavily policed."

An Overabundance of Amazing

2011-03-26T09:13:00.001-04:00

Why has the word "amazing" become THE superlative for "good"? Personally, I think "amazing" is kind of a neutral word, but I understand that language has a certain amount of fluidity over time. What I can't understand is the use of the same adjective by so many people to describe everything. What's wrong with "fabulous", "fantastic", "marvelous", or "wonderful"? Heck, throw in a "terrific" now

Captivate Update

2011-02-25T10:36:00.000-05:00

I just looked at AT&T's recommended update process for the Samsung Captivate. First, let's get the obvious out of the way: the update takes the Captivate, a phone less than a year old, from Android 2.1 to 2.2. The latest stable version for phones is 2.3, so this update doesn't really bring the phone "up to date", but let's get back to the main problem. Android has a built-in over-the-air update

Empty and Broken

2011-02-23T10:21:00.000-05:00

Apparently the :empty pseudo-class is (still?) broken in Chrome, as of version 9. p:empty {display:none;} results in every p being hidden, whether it's empty or not.

Pa. teacher strikes nerve with 'lazy whiners' blog

2011-02-16T10:20:00.000-05:00

"Parents are more trying to be their kids' friends and less trying to be their parent," Munroe said, also noting students' lack of patience. "They want everything right now. They want it yesterday." Call me old-fashioned, but if this is how an English teacher speaks, maybe she should have been fired long ago.

Name That (Smartphone) Price

2011-02-06T12:39:00.000-05:00

With the brand new HTC Inspire about to debut with a rumored on-contract price of $99.99, one has to wonder how much a high-end smartphone really should cost sans contract. I think we can all agree $100 is quite low for a state-of-the art smartphone. The carrier subsidy here is pretty obvious. I haven't seen the off-contract pricing for the Inspire yet, but I'm guessing it will be around $600, or

The Vocal Minority

2011-02-03T18:06:00.000-05:00

The new spate of AT&T network bashing that has accompanied the introduction of Apple's iPhone for Verizon has me rereading David Sleight's blog post analyzing the feedback from a major redesign. The entire post is very good, and you should read it in its entirety, but what particularly grabbed my attention was the last paragraph: During an interesting chat Chris Fahey set me on the right track

Too Little, Too Late

2011-01-26T16:09:00.000-05:00

Oh AT&T, when will you learn? You aren't going to retain customers by offering the same service they can get elsewhere. Customers who have decided to drop your service and go to Verizon didn't decide to switch because "the grass looked just as green on the other side". If you want to keep your iPhone subscriber base, and continue to grow it, for that matter, you have to offer something Verizon

Of Singing Penguins

2011-01-24T19:27:00.000-05:00

I was disappointed last year when Songbird officially stopped supporting Linux. Imagine my surprise this morning when I learned that Songbird now has an app for Android in beta. That's right, the popular Google-built Linux distribution for smartphones gets Songbird, but Ubuntu is out in the cold. So far, the app works as expected, has been stable, and, in my opinion, it far outstrips the

The End of an Era?

2011-01-23T11:51:00.000-05:00

As expected, Verizon will begin offering Apple's iPhone. The iPhone, for better or worse, is the premier smartphone in America, the mobile device by which all others are judged. Unfortunately for AT&T, the popularity of the iPhone, particularly among tech-oriented people, has dragged the flaws of AT&T's network squarely into the limelight. Much has been made of AT&T's lack of reliability and

Letter from Apple Regarding iPhone 4

2010-07-02T10:17:00.000-04:00

Something tells me more AT&T network bashing is on its way. Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars

Encroachment

2010-07-01T19:54:00.000-04:00

There always seems to be a lot of talk about the iPhone moving in on the PSP and the Nintendo DS, but when some figures out how to make a bluetooth game controller for the iPad the Xbox, Wii, and Playstation are going to be in trouble.

Arizona Legislature Out of Control

2010-06-15T13:40:00.000-04:00

This is blatantly unconstitutional, right? OK, just checking.

The Firefox Version Naming System

2010-06-15T08:34:00.000-04:00

I don't understand how Mozilla comes up with the version numbers for new releases. Would it be so difficult to use a Debian-style six month release cycle? Why not steadily increment the version number? Why are the nightlies of Firefox 4 called 3.7? Will there be a 3.8? A 3.9? How is Chrome wich was released several years after the first version of Firefox already on version 5? Safari, is on

Stop the Music

2010-06-13T08:50:00.000-04:00

It occurs to me that people who listen to others' music all day can get "burned out", and not want to hear any music. Setting aside the argument that the canned music you get in stores invariably shows poor taste, I think it is safe to say that no one wants to listen to someone else's choice of music all day, every day. Retailers who play music in their stores may be able to do a couple of things

Heads in the Sand

2010-06-11T09:27:00.000-04:00

It seems like the government could be doing more about the BP oil leak. If a private citizen were caught dumping a single barrel of crude oil into the ocean, I'm fairly confident that he would be taken to court, fined, and possibly jailed. Why isn't the federal government, perhaps under the auspices of the EPA, being more proactive with BP? A hefty fine, per day or per gallon, should be incentive

Background Size Matters

2010-06-10T12:51:00.001-04:00

Was anyone else wondering what happened to -moz-background-size in Firefox nightlies? No? Just me? Well, for future reference it would appear that it was removed in favor of supporting the unprefixed property background-size.

Browser Check

2010-06-07T14:39:00.001-04:00

"Browser Check" circa 2007 Every couple of years I feel compelled to write a new test suite for detecting browser versions and capabilities. This is something I started in 2006 or so. Part of the suite (actually, most of it) tested for plugins. My old employers used a variety of plugins, including Flash, QuickTime, and even Real Player. Naturally, we had to test for each plugin. To make

Vulnerablity Found in Flash

2010-06-05T17:29:00.000-04:00

Steve Jobs must be laughing so hard his sides hurt. Yesterday Adobe released a security advisory detailing a "critical" vulnerability in Flash (as well as Acrobat and Reader). To make matters worse, Adobe has yet to come up with a fix. According to the bulletin users can upgrade to Flash 10.1RC. So it looks like I have two choices: upgrade to a non-production software release, or remove Flash

Balancing Passion and Perspective

2010-06-05T11:35:00.000-04:00

So, the baseball world is up in arms once again. This time an umpire blew a call on what should have been the final out of a perfect game pitched by the Detroit Tigers' Armando Galarraga. Jim Joyce, the umpire who made the call, later admitted he made a mistake. Ok, so he made a mistake. People do that sometimes. We can move on now, right? Wrong. Joyce's call came at a critical moment in the

The Windows vs. Linux Security Debate

2010-06-02T16:02:00.000-04:00

I've been reading some of the coverage of Google's supposed move away from Windows in its offices. Mashable reports that the change is due, in part, to security concerns after Chinese hackers were able to compromise some of Google's systems. The initial response to the story seemed to be "Big deal, everyone knows that *nix is more secure than Windows." Microsoft got its feathers ruffled

Mobile Devices, Advancing Technology, and the Web

2010-05-19T13:38:00.000-04:00

A friend recently posted a blog entry in favor of Flash on the iPad. She argued, as others have, that not supporting Flash is, in effect, censoring the Internet. Sure, Apple is right that they aren't required to provide access to the entire Internet. And people are right to question Adobe elevating Flash to a position alongside html, CSS, js and other web standards. She goes on to blame

Another Facebook Privacy Rant

2010-05-15T11:45:00.003-04:00

First, a little perspective. Facebook is not a fundamental right. It isn't a necessity of life. It doesn't even offer a unique service. Given these facts, all of the noise about Facebook's privacy problems seems a little excessive. In particular, the contention that there is something wrong with Facebook's "all or nothing" approach to privacy is silly. Simply put, Facebook can't publish

The Pros and Cons of Vendor Prefixes

2010-03-22T13:49:00.000-04:00

PPK makes a compelling argument against browser vendors using vendor-specific prefixes: We’re currently moving toward a situation in which anything that is implemented by two browsers more-or-less automatically becomes a standard. I don’t think that this change of process has been accepted by W3C yet (it might take another generation), but it’s becoming reality as we speak. While this is true

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

2010-03-22T11:53:00.000-04:00

I'm having a hard time finding factual information on the national health care reform bill, known officially as "The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act". I definitely oppose the $695 annual fine for not purchasing health insurance. Of course, I live in a state where buckling one's seat belt is mandatory, but it isn't worth fighting because it doesn't really cost me anything. On the other

Unprecedented 25-Year Sentence Sought for TJX Hacker

2010-03-21T11:29:00.000-04:00

So this is the reason Marshalls decided to try to fix their security.

Borderless Radius

2010-03-04T17:25:00.004-05:00

Apparently Firefox no longer requires the border property to be specified in order to render -moz-border-radius. I haven't tested this on Gecko 1.92 yet (I'm using a nightly), but I can confirm that Chrome 5 accepts the implicit border as well. Firefox 3.0 required border to be set, making border: 1px solid transparent a designer's best friend.

Google Responds To Privacy Concerns With Unsettlingly Specific Apology

2010-03-03T10:58:00.002-05:00

(from the Onion via Boing Boing)

Mozilla Developer Preview Now Available With Out-of-Process Plugins

2010-03-03T10:41:00.004-05:00

Just posted on the Mozilla Developer Center, with regard to Firefox nightlies. The main feature of this release is out-of-process plugins: on Windows and Linux, plugins such as Flash and Silverlight run in a separate process from the browser. If a plugin crashes it will not crash the browser, and unresponsive plugins are automatically restarted.

Don't Ask For Help

2010-03-02T13:42:00.002-05:00

Microsoft advises users to avoid pressing the F1 key if prompted by a web site after a researcher turned up a security flaw in Windows XP. (via Daring Fireball)

Unexpected Links

2010-03-01T07:07:00.003-05:00

I recently made the mistake of clicking a link in an e-mail. The e-mail contained only a link to an unknown web address and the subject was the name of a person I'd never met, but it appeared to be from a friend, using what I recognized as her address. Oops. The link redirected me to a sketchy website purportedly created to sell pills. Funny thing is, the linked page appears to be hosted by a

Security Hole in IE Leads to Google Cyber Attack

2010-02-22T13:33:00.006-05:00

The Financial Times is reporting that US investigators have identified an individual who contributed to cyber attacks on Google. The hack was said to be executed using a security exploit in Internet Explorer. Frankly, the idea that any Google employee is using IE for something other than compatibility testing is much more alarming than the idea that China sponsored the attack.

Greasemonkey and Pseudo-Classes

2010-02-22T11:52:00.002-05:00

While fiddling with a Greasemonkey script, I discovered an interesting little CSS tidbit today.

...

I have several divs with class="bookmark". Each div.bookmark contains a child, span.balloon. I was attempting to make .balloon hidden by default, and visible when I hovered over .bookmark. .balloon { visibility: hidden; } .bookmark

Malware Writers Fail to Generate Clean, Reliable Code

2010-02-19T13:07:00.002-05:00

According to Engadget: Microsoft is now confirming that there's a little bit of malicious code sitting at the root of [blue screen of death errors and unwanted reboots]. A rootkit, to be specific, one called Alureon that compromises the atapi.sys file and others. This rootkit makes a system call via an address that, after the update, no longer corresponds to the particular call Alureon is trying

Reflexes

2010-02-17T21:06:00.004-05:00

In 1997 a friend of mine invited me to join a a co-ed volleyball team she was starting. I and most of my teammates had never played organized volleyball before, but we were all young, enthusiastic, athletic, and most importantly, competitive. As I recall, we lost our first match two games to one against marginal players who were collectively older than us. How did they beat us? It came down to

Facebook Targeted Ad Spam

2010-02-17T11:16:00.002-05:00

These days Facebook spam is even more fun than e-mail spam: 30 year old males: Your state is in desperate need of SWAT agents. Get a high paying degree and serve your country. Sign up now!

Kevin Smith is Too Fat to Fly

2010-02-16T11:49:00.003-05:00

According to an L.A. Times article, Kevin Smith (yes, that Kevin Smith) was kicked off of a Southwest Airlines flight for being too fat. The news itself was a little surprising to me, but shocking was the existence of an organization called the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance. Shock quickly gave way to humor when the phrase "people of size" was used near the end.

No Flash on Windows Mobile 7

2010-02-15T10:28:00.002-05:00

Engadget is reporting that Windows Mobile 7 will ship without support for Adobe Flash. Depending, of course, on how popular Microsoft's new mobile OS proves to be, the war on Flash is really about to heat up.

Good Teammates

2009-10-09T08:52:00.005-04:00

Our volleyball team has now accumulated six losses in six games, only one of which was even close. In reviewing the carnage I realize that our technique is bad, our motives are dubious, but the one, overriding factor in our ineptitude is a collective lack of teamwork. Having played on several other sports teams in the past (some volleyball, some not) I've noticed that the most talented team does

Cleaning

2009-07-29T14:24:00.003-04:00

Well, my girlfriend is doing some "cleaning", and it got me thinking. Cleaning around here is a never-ending process. It seems that her idea of tidy doesn't mesh with mine. Out of Sight, Out of Mind My girlfriend's idea of cleaning is a little different. Although her "cleaning" incorporates my "cleaning", she takes it to another level. Cleaning, for her, also entails moving things from places

Survey 2008 Results

2009-04-17T19:52:00.003-04:00

A List Apart has announced results for Survey 2008 , and belatedly I've gotten around to taking a look. I found that although the "typical" survey respondent didn't look anything like me, certain people I know bear a strong resemblance to him.

My Very Own Sports Analogy

2009-01-14T09:54:00.007-05:00

And so the New Year rushes in, a bitter defeat for those anxious, reactionary types, and a saccharine reprieve for the happy procrastinator. With it comes a new opportunity to blog, and blog often. Well, maybe not often, but I've been tagged for "25 7 Things...", first by @dorisday129, and later @stuntbox, so I will, at least, blog now. It occurs to me that this is a post on social evolution

Season's Greetings

2008-12-05T09:30:00.000-05:00

They are broken now. All broken by the promise of something that never was, but could only be through our own making. The tired greetings that we offered too early and too often fail us now. Instead, they sit on lips; grudging, old men unwilling to rise, rightfully retaining whatever dignity is left in dusty, unpopular expressions.

Making It Count

2008-11-05T14:16:00.003-05:00

In 1963 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream. He dreamed that his children would "one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." He envisioned not only freedom and equality and racial tolerance, but of racial harmony as well. He fought to the last of his 39 years of life to see that dream come true. In 1776 the

Netflix and Linux

2008-10-22T15:23:00.002-04:00

I'm a big fan of irony, so when I came across this story about Netflix's "Watch Now" player, I couldn't help but laugh. It seemed surprising to my that Netflix would opt for a multimedia platform that would exclude Mac users. I understand that most computer users have Windows PCs, but it is generally acknowledged that Macs are the multimedia PC of choice for just about everyone. The fact that the

A List Apart's Survey 2008

2008-08-01T13:40:00.003-04:00

A List Apart has published Survey 2008. Take the survey. Make the Web a better place.

Switching IE

2008-01-30T16:36:00.000-05:00

Much has been made of the "IE Versioning Switch" proposal. Frankly, I find all the notoriety perplexing. It would appear that many Web standards advocates and others of interest are afraid that this new versioning switch is likely to be adopted by browser manufacturers other than Microsoft. Apple's Webkit team, at least, assures us that they have no such plans. It seems just as unlikely for

Razor

2008-01-20T22:41:00.000-05:00

In December I finally decided to join the rest of the world and get a "modern" cell phone. I wound up getting a Motorola Razr, mostly because it was the cheapest phone with all the features I wanted. Interestingly, after I got the phone I've spoken to a lot of people who had Razrs and hated them. I've heard lots of gruesome stories about mysterious malfunctions, keys falling off, and one um...

No Problem, Mon

2008-01-20T16:30:00.000-05:00

There are no problems in business anymore. Sure there are "issues", but many of these have "workarounds", so life is good right? I refuse to call a problem an issue. When did "issue" become a euphemism for "problem"? "Workaround" is even worse. When I jokingly belabored the misuse (and overuse) of the words "issue" and "workarounds", to a friend his response was immediate. ""Solutions"!" he

Eat Your Heart Out, Florida

2007-10-29T15:30:00.000-04:00

With the cooling October weather upon us in the Hudson Valley, I was inspired to take some pictures of the autumn foliage. I know this sounds like a tourist-y thing to do, but what can I say? Sometimes tourists have the right idea.

Too Expensive

2007-10-19T11:26:00.000-04:00

I read today that the US House failed in a bid to overturn President Bush's veto of a bill to expand health care. The program was to be funded by a tax increase on tobacco products. Among the reasons given by the White House for vetoing the bill are: Bush "wants to take care of poor children first" and "the bill was too expensive." Hm... too expensive. And how much does it cost to run a war in

Errors of Success

2007-09-17T14:45:00.000-04:00

What happens when you install the world's most popular server software on the latest version of the world's most popular OS? You get an error message proclaiming "success", that's what. Having bounced back and forth between my old desktop machine, and my brand new laptop, I finally took the plunge, and installed Apache 2.2. Having once installed Apache on a machine running Windows XP, I fully

Does Not Compute

2007-07-23T15:47:00.000-04:00

During a workplace discussion today it occurred to me just how much the computer landscape has changed over the past 15 years or so. The discussion centered around the efficient creation of content and its transfer from author to distributor to consumer. As it Should Be Ideally, all three parties should be able to use any mutually accessible format. That way (assuming the integrity of the

New Safari

2007-07-23T15:37:00.001-04:00

The blogosphere is abuzz with the news that Apple has released a public beta of Safari 3. More to the point, this is the first version of Apple's in-house Web browser that is available for Windows. Naturally I had to get it. I've used Safari before, mostly for testing purposes, and always found it to be a vast improvement over Internet Explorer on any platform. There is, however, one major

System Management Center

2007-07-23T15:29:00.000-04:00

It seems silly to hate a word. Words are, after all, only symbols for the meanings they convey. Of, course, it also seems silly to hate the meanings behind words; meanings and ideas only serve to make our lives richer. That said, there are a few words which have gained a stranglehold in contemporary corporate language, and I am fast learning to hate them all. Any Place Manage. System. Center.

The Demise of the Well-Structured Document

2007-05-08T23:00:00.001-04:00

In a recent conversation with a co-worker, I once again found myself bemoaning the prevalence of Adobe Dreamweaver in the creation of Web pages. The problem, of course, is not the tool, but how the tool is being used. HTML, by design, combines structure with meaning. Ideally, its meaning dictates its structure. The truth is HTML by itself is not a presentational format. The World Wide Web,

OK, Let's Sign 'Em Up

2007-03-03T22:49:00.000-05:00

A recent conversation with one of my most thought-provoking friends veered onto the topic of presidential impeachment. I suggested that if we could get a million folks to sign a petition, our elected public officials would have know choice but to take notice. To this, her enthusiastic response was, "A million signatures? We can get that, let's do it!" It was my opinion, however, that by the time

The Real Idiot Tax

2007-02-01T22:25:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure why I started thinking about this, but it's been on my mind for some time now. Some people refer to state lotteries as "idiot taxes". Does that make mandatory car insurance a "sensible driver tax"? In my home state of New York, drivers are required to have car insurance (or other proof of financial security, whatever that means). Couldn't the State find a way to get its many grabbing

Happy Old Year

2006-12-29T14:14:00.000-05:00

And so it ends. With the rapid approach of 2007, it is time to take a moment to appreciate the year that was. Give thanks for wealth, health and happiness. Maybe go to some hole-in-the-wall dive downtown and get stinking drunk. If I'm feeling especially American I can even make insipid resolutions (let's be honest - they're really first few weeks of January resolutions, aren't they?). It was a

It was a botched joke

2006-11-02T14:46:00.000-05:00

While addressing a group of university students in California, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) unleashed a zinger: You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq. Senator Kerry certainly looks like a jackass, doesn't he? In the face of the ensuing media free-for-all Kerry

Weighing In on IE7

2006-10-25T09:19:00.000-04:00

With the imminent release of Windows Internet Explorer 7, it's time to weigh in on the next generation of the world's most popular browser. First the positives.... IE7 implements RSS/Atom feed support, including the ability to search and sort. Also, as promised, CSS support in IE7 is much improved. I was surprised to learn that in addition to improving the rendering engine, Microsoft actually

Thinking Movies

2006-10-23T14:35:00.000-04:00

Every so often I come across a movie that really makes me think. Although I'll often watch a movie for the express purpose of not thinking for awhile, I must admit that I'm never disappointed when I wind up thinking anyway. I went and saw "The Prestige" over the weekend, and although somewhat disappointed that there was no "real" magic, the movie did something nearly impossible. Normally when

It's Supposed to be Standard, Right?

2006-09-26T20:30:00.000-04:00

When I first set up this blog, I turned on the option to automatically publish an Atom feed. Personally, I prefer RSS, but it was no big deal. Once I had my blog set up, I decided to use a little JavaScript code to link my home page. At first it worked beautifully, but one day I discovered something funky going on. Apparently the code had changed. Somehow. Turns out, when I saved my last post the

Don't Eat a Dead Horse

2006-09-08T15:07:00.000-04:00

I just read that the House approved a bill to ban the slaughter of horses for meat. First, I don't understand why killing horses for meat should be illegal when it is perfectly legal to kill cows, pigs, chickens, and other animals for the same reason. Aside from that obvious argument, I have to wonder why the U.S. needs such legislation. Proponents' arguments seem to center around the alleged

Fantasy (Finally)

2006-09-05T13:28:00.000-04:00

My boss has been begging me to join his fantasy football league. His argument is that it's free, so why wouldn't I join? Well, "Because I don't want to" apparently wasn't a good enough answer, so this year I'm managing my own fantasy team. I have no idea how to do it, and little inclination to learn, but as a lifelong (overcompetitive) sports fan I think I can figure it out. Besides, I fully

Konfabulator

2006-08-07T20:34:00.000-04:00

I'm happy to report that I've entered the wonderful world of widgets. After learning that Windows Vista (whenever it arrives) will have support for "gadgets", via "Windows Sidebar", I decided to snoop around, and see what was already available. Yahoo! Widget Engine, neé Konfabulator, was completely free and seemed to compare favorably with Apple's Dashboard widgets, so I decided to give it a try.

Lucky You

2006-07-03T20:59:00.000-04:00

I picked up a book to read a couple of days ago. Needing something to do while I waited at the laundromat, and not having an impressive selection from which to choose, I settled on Lucky You, by Carl Hiaasen. While the book's premise showed some promise (2 thieves steal a winning Florida State Lotto ticket from a woman), any real entertainment value was leeched out by Hiaasen's pedestrian,

For the Viewers, There's No Sun

2006-06-15T22:49:00.000-04:00

Lest the TV late-night hosts run out of fodder, President Bush has provided yet another priceless, comedic gem. While fielding questions at a White House press conference, the President had a little laugh at the expense of L.A. Times reporter Peter Wallsten. For his part, Wallsten looked pained, but took the ribbing in stride, accepting Bush's later apology.

Dipping a Toe in the XUL

2006-06-04T00:30:00.000-04:00

Lately I've spent a lot of time tinkering with XUL. Actually creating the markup is pretty simple, certainly no more difficult than HTML or XSL. The real dificulty lies in creating all of the different files for distribution. After toying with it for a little while, I realized that I don't really want all of the XUL structural components (at least for now). What I really want is "privileged"

The GIMP

2006-06-03T12:47:00.000-04:00

For years I've been looking for good digital imaging/photo editing software that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. At work I've used Adobe Photoshop, the de facto standard for professionals, but I can't quite seem to justify the hefty $649 price tag. I've also used Adobe Photoshop Elements ($99), Corel Paint Shop Pro (back when it was Jasc - $79), and Ulead Photoimpact (a long time ago - $89). Of

Ironic

2006-05-12T13:25:00.000-04:00

It's like rain on your wedding day It's a free ride when you've already paid It's the good advice that you just didn't take Who would've thought... it figures —Alanis Morrisette I'm not sure why I like this song so much. I'm really not an Alanis Morrisette fan (though I also like her cover of Seal's Crazy). Maybe it's the fact that lyrics ring true. Maybe it's the up-and-down, hot-and-cold

Get a Car!

2006-05-04T14:48:00.000-04:00

It was a beautiful day, so I thought to myself, "Why not walk a couple of blocks to the pizza place in the plaza?" It seemed an ideal opportunity to get some fresh air and see somefresh faces. The first thing I noticed was a minivan parked on a sharply inclined street. The van was pointed very slightly out, towards the middle of the street while its front wheels were perfectly straight. It was

Say It With Authority

2006-04-28T23:36:00.000-04:00

Today I witnessed a supervisor trying to exercise authority over a co-worker, and was a little taken aback by the lack of grace with which she went about it. When first she told him what she wanted him to do, it was in such a whimsical tone that he could very easily have believed she was joking. When he still didn't do it, she began to argue with him. At last, as a last resort, she prefixed the

I Only Wanted a Chalupa

2006-04-23T11:29:00.000-04:00

I wanted a chalupa, so I went to the local Taco Bell and waited in line. After a ten minute wait, intermittently punctuated by repeated shouts of, "CAN I HELP THE NEXT PERSON?!", I finally arrived at the front of the line. But wait! My chance to order was further put off by a very humorous exchange between a Taco Bell employee and a digruntled customer. Apparently she was dissatisfied with the

Tiny Little Car

2006-04-21T16:16:00.000-04:00

On the way to the gas station today, I passed a vehicle reminiscent of a golf cart, going the other direction. Unfortunately I didn't have time to see if the little vehicle actually had license plates before speeding around the corner and out of sight. I was, however, able to discern what sounded like a 20cc engine (only because it's too early in the year for a plague of locusts). My first

Take the Lead (or Leave It)

2006-04-19T23:30:00.000-04:00

Last week I saw Take the Lead, and although I was dragged there by my sisters (who were actually thrilled with it) I found the movie to actually be tolerable. It was formulaic, it was nearly pointless, and at various points I felt like I was watching a montage of Dangerous Minds, Bad News Bears(?!), and Dirty Dancing. There is, however, a silver lining to this cloud. It wasn't The Blair Witch

Let's Go, Mets!

2006-04-16T21:03:00.000-04:00

How about those Mets? After an 0-5 start last year I think everyone could tell that it was going to be a long, agonizing season. Then after a 6 game winning streak, it suddenly looked like the team could do good things. So what do we make of the team's hot start this year? Although it might still be a little too early to start looking ahead to playoffs and pennants, there are a few trends which

Appalachia Waltz

2006-04-13T01:19:00.000-04:00

I was just listening to Appalachia Waltz, as recorded by Yo-Yo Ma, Mark O'Connor, and Edgar Meyer. Like a country lane, it twists and winds unpretentiously through unexpected places. The artists render melodies and harmonies in such a way that the listener is left with the vague impression of them having been to the same place, but at different times. In fact, as the music slides over me, I am

Taking a Flyer

2006-04-11T22:46:00.001-04:00

Why do people insist on leaving trash on my windshield? Who sees a piece of paper flapping on the front of his car, and says, "Fantastic! This unique opportunity to work from home is something I've always dreamed of!" In my opinion, this a much worse offense than unsolicited phone calls at dinner. At least I can be sure that the poor schmuck on the other end of the line will hear all the

Too Much Gas

2006-04-10T12:11:00.000-04:00

I was participating in a lunchtime discussion where my coworkers were appalled at soaring gas prices. When asked for my opinion on the matter, my good-natured reply was that the new, higher prices were surely a good thing. Naturally, they were all skeptical about the sincerity of this statement, but when I explained my belief (hope?) that higher gas prices will ultimately lead to more widespread

Talk for Two, Please

2006-04-09T11:26:00.000-04:00

I've been considering how much I appreciate a good "talk". This is especially true with strangers and those with whom I have little in common. It takes a certain amount of skill, I think, to maintain a conversation that flows, much less one that interests both parties. I'm getting increasingly tired of people who talk "at" me. Why do they need me if they aren't even going to attempt to involve me