Things that bug me #527

People who pull through to exit a parking space instead of backing out. Especially when I'm trying to pull into the space they're pulling through.

#1 in google

It seems that a search for library card in Google will bring my library card collection up as the first result, even ahead of ALA.

On related notes here's a search for Parker Co TX library which not only brings up my site near the bottom of the first page but the person who did the search actually was interested enough to click on my link. Go figure.

An the realy odd one is someone who did a search in Mamma for how do i know what is on my library card. This is what keeps me employed. This is a completely useless search since they've not specified which library they have a card for. What should Mamma do? Guess? (Oh, and they clicked through to my site too.)

CD rebate

A few years ago I filed to be part of the class-action anti trust lawsuit against the record industry accusing them of overcharging for CDs. Well, yesterday's mail made it official. CDs cost too much. I've received my $13.86 settlement check.

A bank on the ball

Yesterday I was attempting to make my mortgage payments for the first time online. Missing the option to have the payment electronically debited from my checking account (the company's site is very poorly designed,) I was trying to put it through on my debit card as a Visa charge. It failed the first time so I tried it again and it prompt re-failed. At that moment my phone rang and it was BankOne calling to verify I was attempting to make the charge and that it wasn't fraudulent. I told them I was trying to pay my mortgage and they told me to try again as it would no go through. Hours later, I officially cancelled my old Wells Fargo account.

Koontz book updates

Several small updates were put into the ms today.

• Listings and cover scans for the large print editions of Demon Seed, The Mask, and Night Chills.
• An advance advertismenet for The Taking.
• The MP3 version of Odd Thomas, the CD version of False Memory, the CD and MP3 versions of By the Light of the Moon, and the MP3 version of The Face.

Writing updates

Just so you don't think I've forgotten, I'll have updates on both the Web design and Koontz books tomorrow.

SD card update

Exchanged the SD card at Best Buy today and the new one works just fine. Guess it wasn't a tech-support type problem, just a bum card.

Red dwarf, a rolling computer, a rug and cable cable cable

Tax refund showed up. (Woo Hoo!) So got me a new house phone (I can set the ringer to any midi file I want. Now if you call me at home I'll be notified by the Red Dwarf theme,) a rolling computer bag (I'm so sick of carrying a backpack and laptop bag through airports,) a new area rug for the office, and finished off my switch over to all Monster Cables for the home entertainment system. (Now I just need to replace most of the connectors. Maybe with the proceeds from my next royalty check...) The rest of the refund money goes to a car tuneup this week (good idea before I start the great tour of Kansas next month) and repainting the bedroom. (Maybe next weekend, who knows.)

Things that bug me #102

DVDs of TV shows that don't have a "play all" feature nor chapter stops immediately after the opening credits so I can easily skip them.

Please place you bag on the scale. thanks. now for you.

Speaking of airlines, it seems that the NTSB thinks flying would be safer if airlines weighed their passengers. (This has nothing to do with terrorism.

PDA update, tech-support hell

Got my replacement PDA today along with a 128MB SD card which can be read in both my laptop and my PDA. (This is a 'solution' to the no floppy issue.) Trouble is, the card works find in the PDA but the laptop keeps telling me it's not formatted nor can it be formatted. I called PNY's tech support and they were "unable to find [my] laptop in their database." When last we left the call the support guy was going to try to find more information and call me back. Here's me with finger's crossed. (Worst comes to worst, I return the card and try another brand.)

A few hours later the guy called back with a non-answer: "There's no reason the card shouldn't be working in your tablet." Oh, and he checked to make sure I was inserting it right-side up. Anyway, he's 'esclated' the problem to their 'falsh experts' and they'll give me a call back on Monday.

Coast to coast

It seems that the Mayor of New Paltz, NY has a concince too. He's been performing some same-sex marriages. The Mayor is also a member of the Green Party. (Just pointing out an uncommon fact. I'm not drawing any conclusions from this at all.)

One part of the article mentiones some statements by a protestor:

One protester stood outside the hall with a sign that read, in part, "It's Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve."
"It's against nature," Angelo Da'Quaro said of same-sex marriage. "It's against religion, it's against all of that."

Hmmm. If Adam and Eve were the only two people around that means there was no one to marry them. Therefore, they were having sex out of wedlock. Additionally, marriage is something use human's came up with. It's a human concept, not something out of nature.

Dr. Seuss Explains Why Computers Sometimes Crash

If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted at a very last resort,
and the access of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report.
If your cursor finds a menu item followed by a dash,
and the double-clicking icon puts your window in the trash,
and your data is corrupted cause the index doesn't hash,
then your situation's hopeless and your system's gonna crash!
If the label on the cable on the table at your house
says the network is connected to the button on your mouse,
but your packets want to tunnel to another protocol,
that's repeatedly rejected by the printer down the hall,
and your screen is all distorted by the side effects of gauss,
so your icons in the window are as wavy as a souse;
then you may as well reboot and go out with a bang,
'cuz sure as I'm a poet, the sucker's gonna hang!
When the copy of your floppy's getting sloppy in the disk,
and the macro code instructions cause unnecessary risk,
then you'll have to flash the memory and you'll want to RAM your ROM,
then quickly turn off the computer and be sure to tell your Mom!

Thanks L!

XML: an introduction, take 2

Today marked the second time I've taught my INtro to XML class. Of course, a significant amount of the material was different from the first time since the first time through is always a dry run and you know that you'll need to make changes after the fact. This time through went much smoother including the material I'd added. Day two still ended about an hour earlier than planned but I'm not sure what else I can add to extend the class that will only take up an hour. I could make the data file we create on day one more detailed in order to extend the manipulation of that dayda on day two, but that might extend the first day's material into day to and splitting an individual topic over two days would not work very well for the students. I'm thinking about it but I'm not sure what to do.

Junt in case any of you are familiar with XML here's a basic outline of the class to far. Any ideas will be appreciated.

• Day one, morning: Intro to XML concepts and creation of an XML data file
• Day one, afternoon: Writing an XML Schema document to validate out data file against
• Day two, morning: Writing an XSLT document to transform our data file into XHTML for Web presentation
• Day two, afternoon: Writing an XSLT document to transform our data file into another XML language (MARC-XML)

Wireless blogging

It is now 4pm local time...

It seems that I had three hours to kill at the Des Moines airport and that they had WiFi access. I booted up the laptop and checked it out. The company that supplies the access here offered a rate of $3.95/hour. Since that seemed slightly more reasonable than the $9.99 minimum at DIA I figured I'd bite the bullet and give it a try.

"excellent" signal stregnth got me to the signup page and I quickly registered for an account, credit card number and all. I was told to shut down my browser, restart it, and log in. So far so good. Unfortunately, when I tried to log in nothing happened. "Wating for localhost" my ststus bar reported back to me.

Ah, but there's an 800 number to call for help with problems. Twelve minutes later and I'm still on hold waiting for help…

At the 14 minute mark I've tried logging in again. This time I've got a response:

Error !!

Please contact your service provider technical support!

Ooh, am I becoming annoyed…

15:30 and I've got a human…

According to them I have two accounts.

20:33 and they suggest I reboot.

23:40. Success! The reboot seems to have worked and I'm in.

Web design book update

Five more pages of the forms chapter were completed last night. Might not get any pages completed tonight since I'm flying back home this evening.

Whoopie!

My Colorado tax refund appeared in my bank account earlier today. Car repairs, here we come.

Web design book update

As promised I wrote ten new pages today in the Forms chapter. It's coming along nicely.

E-mail problems

It seems that BCR's e-mail system has been down since yesterday afternoon and will continue to be down for the foreseeable future. (I don't know why. They don't tell me things like that when I'm on the road. ;-) If you've sent me any e-mail @ work, I've not received it and I may never receive it. Please resend to my webpan address if it is of any importance.

Observation

I'll admit that it's been years since I've read a Star Trek novel but when did they stop numbering them? Better yet, why?

On the road again

Greetings from the Iowa State Library in Des Moines. I was going to blog yesterday but it turns out that even though I can get wireless access within DIA, it costs $9.99 for 24 hours of access and that's the cheapest it gets. (Never mind that none of the signs all over the airport that say "Get your wireless access here" mention the fact that they're charging an arm and a leg for it.) I must say that it was nice to boot up the laptop and see "wireless connection available" but it wasn't worth the cost to surf for just the hour before my flight.

Other things I learned yesterday

• Air Tran Airlines and ATA are two different airlines and, of course, their ticket counters are on opposite ends of DIA.
• If you're flying ATA out of Chicago Midway, you're going to have to take a shuttle bus to a completely different terminal on the other side of the runways. This for some reason seemed to confuse half of the people on my flight since we had to get our tickets taken from us, then wait in another lounge for the shuttle bus that would take us to the hanger where our plane was.
• According to one guy on the plane selling the Bible is different from selling other books for several reasons. The main one being that there "isn't any author personality issues that need to be dealt with."
• If you forget to put the O-ring back into your coffee mug, the lid will leak.

And no, I didn't do any writing yesterday. Ten pages is now on the schedule for this evening.

Web design book update

You may have noticed that I did not post an update on this project yesterday. If you did, congratulations. Why? Because I didn't work on the book yesterday. O.k. I spent all evening and night (until 2am this morning) finishing up season one of Stargate SG1. Sue me. However, I've just written the first five pages of the Forms chapter. (No, I didn't finish the Basic Markup chapter, I just needed to change gears and I was in a forms mood.)

It just doesn't make sense

So the sign in the video store window said "Everything at least 30% to 50% off." O.k. That just does not make any logical sense. Something can be at least 30% off or at least 50% off, but can the "at least" be a range? No.

PDA update

Took it back to Best Buy and had it declared "devo." (When I asked I wasn't told what it stood for but that it meant the item was dead and worthy of replacment instead of repair.) Unfortunately, they didn't have any replacements in stock but will come Wednesday. Considering I'm in Des Moines this week I'm going to have to try and survive the week without a PDA. This may get interesting.

The PDA from hell

Well, my iPaq decided to spontaneously hard reboot itself this morning and for the past week the bottom half of the section of the screen in which you do most of your writing has been flaky at best. Every once and a whole I'm glad that I've bought the store extended warranty and this is one of them. I should have a new one by the end of the day.

Star Wars: Survivor's Quest
by Timothy Zahn

Off the bookshelf

A throughly enjoyable book but I can't quite figure out where this one appears in the Star Wars timeline. It's definitely post Thrawn, post the marriage of Luke and Mara Jade and well before the New Jedi Order but that's about as narrowed down as I can make it. For some reason the timeline was not printed in this book as has been done for the past several years. If anyone knows for sure, or even has a good gues, I'd appreciate it.

Web design book update

Five more pages completed. If I keep on this schedule chapter four, Basic XHTML Markup, should be completed by the end of the weekend. (No, I'm not writing the chapters in order.)

Actually here's how the book stands. ~ means it's partically written, * means I've turned in a full draft.

Chapters

1. Introduction
2. Introduction to XHTML
3. Minimal XHTML Document *
4. Basic XHTML Markup ~
5. Hyperlinks *
6. Lists *
7. Tables *
8. Forms
9. Frames
10. Metadata
11. Introduction to CSS *
12. The Mechanics of CSS *
13. Text Formatting
14. The Box Model
15. CSS & Lists ~
16. CSS & Links *
17. CSS & Tables
18. CSS & Forms
19. CSS Positioning
20. CSS Media Types

Appendices

1. XHTML Doctypes
2. Transitional vs. Strict DTD *
3. Moving from HTML to XHTML
4. XHTML Transitional DTD *
5. XHTML Strict DTD *
6. XHTML Frameset DTD *
7. XHTML Element & Attribute Reference
8. Character Entity Reference
9. Directory Structures & Relative Hyperlinks *
10. CSS Property & Value Support Reference

Ralph Nader

The folks at RalhpDon'tRun.com have provided a short yet important presentation on why Ralph Nader should not run fro president in 2004.

Web design book update

Another five pages are done. That's three for three. (Next week will be harder since I'm on the road. Then again, that may make it easier...)

Take me to your leader

Today Marvin the Martian was added to my desk decorations.

Wearing something on my sleeve

One friend

People come and
People go
They take and the give
Build you up
Just to let you down
That's just the way it is

All I need is one friend
To get me through the day
One Friend
That never goes away
(Only) one friend
To understand
And never let me down
I've been in love
I've been in pain
I'm a sinner
And a saint
No matter where I am
Or what I do
It's you I appreciate

All I need is one friend
To get me through the day
One Friend
That never goes away
(Only) one friend
To understand
And never let me down

Can't nobody love you
More than you love yourself
Ans as long as I've ogt my one good friend
I don't need nobody else

All I need is one friend
To get me through the day
One Friend
That never goes away
(Only) one friend
To understand
And never let me down

— Keb' Mo'

Did ike meet with aliens 50 years ago?

Actually, there is a library connection in this report about the debate.

Marriage updates

According to this MSNBC article Chicago's mayor is ok with same-sex marriages.

On the Denver front, Mayor Hickenlooper supports the rights of same-sex couples.

And in San Francisco, the city fights back by suing to have California's same-sex marriage ban declared unconstitutional.

Web design book update

Another five pages today. Keeping on target so far...

Fyi

Just because I have a question about something doesn't mean I'm 'worried'.

Someone else who just doesn't get it

This review of The Clumsy Lovers' latest album was printed in the newspaper of the University of Colorado, Denver paper.

Download the internet

Ever want to see everything that's online? Why not download it to your hard drive first?
Thanks dad

Koontz book update

In response to my assistance with his Web site, Ed Gorman has agreed to contribute an essay to the lettered edition.

Web design book update

I've set myself a goal of a minimum of five pages per day until this book is done. Day one of this goal was a success as I just finished writing five pages on <hr /> and one page on <i>.

Web design book update

Chapter 7: Tables, has gone out. (Don't think I'm writing the chapters in order...)

So, you think you know me?

Go ahead, take the quiz.

This is fun

In fact I'm so confident in this whole thing working that I'm blogging from bed right now. (Yes, I'm clothed...) Nighty night.

No, really, I mean it this time

What you don't know is that 10 minutes after my last post about being connected wirelessly or wired (wiredly?) everything failed once again. (I think I'm suddenly getting a bald spot on my head.) Three hours later...

I finally called Gatweay's Wireless Networking Support Team and got some professional help. It seems that by having my ISP (via the router) automatically assign me my DNS servers, the router was getting confused as to which packets to send to which computer. Hence the Gateway's DNS lookup problems. So, all I had to do was to manually assign my DNS' and presto, everything works just fine (even when I'm wired on the wireless laptop.) This of course was the only thing I didn't try but thought would solve the problem as soon as "Clayton" (probably not his real name and most likely in India) told me what to do. (He liked the fact that I knew what he was talking about and had already tried about a dozen things he would have suggested to anyone else.) In fact, I'm so confident that this is now stable that I'm saying it's stable again and not even worried about it.

Note to mom and dad: I hope you've found this at least interesting even though I'm sure you've not understood a word of something I've writtem yet again. ;-)

Koontz book update

A special thanks goes out to Steve Paul for sending me a copy of "Diligently Corrupting Young Minds". I've of course added it to the ms. (No word back from Dean yet BTW.)

Problem solved?

Here's what I believe I've figured out. I can connect with the wireless connection. I can connect with the wired connection. But I can't plug in the wire and use the faster connection if I've also got access to a wireless connection. (Though I swear this worked fine last night.) So, wired only if there's no wireless. (BTW, wired is 10x faster than wireless.)

I knew it!

No five minutes after making that previous post saying everything was stable, my connectivity disappears on my laptop. I can see and acces sthe other computers but for some reason I've got no DNS service despite all of the numbers looking good.

An odd occurrence

Usually I read an article and say "I should have written that." This is the first time in which I've read an article ("Peace, Quiet & Power Too", Smart Computing, February 2004) knowing that I declined to write it.

Yeah, but I bet she gets to keep the car and the house

Barbie and Ken are splitting up. If they can't make it after 43 years, what hope is there for the rest of us?

Blue screen of death

No, this entry has nothing to do with the new laptop. It's just a pointer to a creative 404 error page I found today.

A step in the right direction

something in Windows XP's netowrking actually works! My network at home uses DHCP (assigns me an IP address on an as-needed basis) while the network at the office uses static IP addresses (I'm assigned one and it's mine as long as I need it.) Well, I wanted to be able to set up my laptop to use the home or other DHCP networks first but then when I plug it in at work I wanted it to connect me to BCR's network without my having to manually changing my settings. Turns out that you can set up an alternate configuration for you TCP/IP settings. Everything worked immediately. Things are looking up.

Outlook = spam (but shouldn't)

Turns out that the version of Spam Assassin we're running at BCR automatically thinks that any e-mail sent from Outlook 2003 (the version on my new laptop) is spam. Basically, since the version of SA we're running was written before Outlook 2003 came out, it thinks that my copy of Outlook is impersonating a "real" version of Outlook (2002 or earlier.) Luckily there's an upgrade to SA available that we'll hopefully install shortly. I'm so glad I figured this out before hitting the road and sending e-mail that no one in the building would get unless they were paying significant attention to their junk mail folders.

A first

This is the first unflattering picture of Norah Jones I've ever seen.

Laptop update

Well, got home, turned on the laptop and all my network connections still worked. I'm going to take a chance and say that everything's stable now. (Of course, by saying that, something will go horribly wrong about an hour from now.) I also took a few pictures. Pic 1, Pic 2, Pic 3

A stake in the matter

NPR reported this morning that yesterday San Francisco's new mayor followed the state's constitution and allowed about 100 same-sex couples to get married. (Bravo!) What was also reported is that it was expected that "conservative groups" would file a law suit today.

As I understand it (correct me if I'm wrong) but don't you have to have a stake in the issue in order to file suit. Just exactly what is their stake? How are they harmed if same-sex marriages are allowed?

Update: Later in the day a suit seeking a TRO was filed by the Campaign for California Families and the Alliance Defense Fund.

Sometimes I just can't leave well enough alone

At this precise moment all three computers have Net connectivity and can talk to each other. It was all working a bit earlier but somehow it messed itself up again. (I ended up just installing NetBEUI just to get them all to talk to each other. Every time XP wante to create a "Network Bridge" everything just fell apart again.) For the past half-hour, the new laptop has been attempting to connect to AOL every time it needed to do a DNS lookup. That seems to have stopped itsel with several release/renews on the router along with many reboots of the laptop.

It's late. It's working. I'm going to bed.

Two steps forward, two steps back

After a scarry 45 minutes of having no connectivity at all on two of my computers (including being able to even access the router. Luckily the old NT box never lost connectivity at all and could get to the router) I was able to restore Internet connectivity to all of the computers. I did accidently make some progress however (I say accidently because, honestly, I have no idea how I did it,) because the two desktops can talk to each other (though that feature's always been there) and the laptop can see the two desktops. Unfortunately, neither desktop can see the laptop, nor can the laptop actually access anything on the desktops. I think I'll stop worrying about this problem for the night and just continue installing software and updates on the laptop.

Wireless fun

I am writing this entry while sitting in my livingroom using my new wireless laptop. I've got INternet connectivity but I can't seem to find the other two computers on my network. Well, that should keep me busy for a little while.

Ashcroft asks for medical records

It seems that Ashcroft has been requesting medical records of woman who have had "partial birth abortions" from doctors. Luckily a judge has stopped him, for now. (I put the term in quotes since that is not the medical term for the procedure and I couldn't find the correct term.)

Edgorman.com

Ed Gorman is about the only author out there today that can not only get me to read mysteries but I'll also read his westerns. He's finally got an official site up at EdGorman.com and I just sent in this past weekend more than 100 book cover scans from my collection. They'll start to show up on the site in the next few days.

For/against

I just had to post this entry from Eric Alterman's blog as is.

The Post characterizes the WH's preferred message as "Bush is for traditional marriage, not against gay people," For the record, I am for "traditional slavery," but not against black people.

Webmonkey rip

"Sources inside the company said many members of its U.S. ad sales team were laid off Monday, along with the engineering and Webmonkey staff in San Francisco…"

Here's the full article.

Library Software book update

The current numbers show that Lousie and I have sold 150 copies of The Neal-Schuman Directory of Management Software for Public Access Computers. The Good news is that we only needed to sell 100 to cover our advance. In other words, we'll actually start getting royalty checks for this title come summer.

It's here!

My new laptop just arrived!

Blog update

I've added an RSS feed link to the main menu. This is however in the Atom format that Blogger.com supports. Your RSS software needs to be Atom compatible for it to work properly.

Karma

I must have earned a lot of karma points last year becuase I just got real lucky. Turns out that I left my car lights on when I went to a meeting at DU this evening. 2.5 hours later my car won't start. So, I get out my cell phone and call AAA; which I joined less than 2 weeks ago. Got a jump 25 minutes later and now I'm home.

Retro horror

The Light at the End by Craig Skipp & John Spector

Let's be honest. With a few exceptions (Koontz, King & Wright) the horror genre in the 80s sucked big time. (I tried to come up with a description slightly more literary but this one just seemed to fit.) One of those other exceptions was the works of John Skipp & Craig Spector. This pair was involved with the creation of the "splatterpunk" movement and back in 2000 Stealth Press started to reissue their books in a series of well-designed hardcovers. The first three titles were released along with one new solo novel by Craig Spector. I've finally gotten around to reading the first in the seres, The Light at the End. A wonderful spin on the Vampire legend mostly centered around the subway tunnels in New York City. This work however is definitely a child of the eighties. "Data pagers" cost $150 each, one character replayed a memory in "the Betamax of his mind," and then a bunch of characters went off to play D&D. (To which Lisa reminded me that her husband still does that on a weekly basis.) If you can get around these little quirks, Skipp & Spectors' novels show that there was still life in the horror genre in the late eighties. Unfortunately, that life remained dim for another 10+ years.

Note: It looks like Stealth Press seems to have stopped publishing. While looking up the links for this post I found that their site hasn't been updated since the end of 2001. I e-mailed them to ask about the status of the company but yet to receive any sort of reply.

I'll give you one guess

Anyone want to try and guess who posted this annonymous comment to my post Adding insult to injury?

This isn't a campaign stop, honest

Bush said this morning that WMDs are "the greatest threat before humanity today." What wasn't reported was that the original draft of the speech read "the greatest threat to my reelection campaign." Unfortunately that line would have made it more obvious that Bush once again has given a campaign speech in a state just days after it's democratic primary leaving the taxpayer's to foot the bill.

Ahh, texas

A texas housewife and mother has been charged with violating Texas obscenity laws for selling sex toys (in a tupperware party type environment) to an couple who were actually undercover cops.

Texas law allows for the sale of sexual toys as long as they are billed as novelties... But when a person markets sex toys in a direct manner that shows their actual role in sex, then that person is subject to obscenity charges, she told the newspaper.

Beating of nearly dead horse slows down a little

The Tennessee lawsuit against Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake, and Viacom has been withdrawn.

Bloody 'ell

Interested in how the British accect has changed over the years? Check out this site from Collect Britain.

Three wise… men?

According to a report from the Church of England, "while it seems very unlikely that these Persian court officials were female, the possibility that one or more ... were female cannot be excluded completely." Read more via this AP report.

Missing my caucus won't matter anyway

I was kind of excited once I figured out that Colorado has caucusses instead of a primary. (I didn't bother find out four years ago since Gore was going to get the nomination anyway.) The CO caucus is in April but I'll be out of town that day so my excitement quickly disappeared. Trouble is, only fourteen states have voted and four candidates have already dropped out. By the time we get to April, will Colorado's votes for the Democratic nomination really matter? Will anyone but Kerry and Shaprton be left? Probably not.

What I did discover today was a plan from the National Association of Scretaries of State to revise the national promary system. This plan would break the country up into four regions. One region would vote on a day in March. Then the other three follow on single days in Arpil, May, and June. Which region got to go first would rotate. This sounds like an excellent plan to me. Now, if we could just get 50 state legislatures to go along with the plan...

Bush releases usless records

Here's a link to the transcript of yesterday's press briefing. For once, it sounds like the press is not buying the party line on an issue. ("Scott, that wasn't my question, and you know it wasn't my question." and "I asked a simple question; how about a simple answer? ") Also, here's Michael Moore's response to the release.

Creative and funny

Nat has put up an ALA READ poster that they won't be offering anytime soon.

Reworking the constitution

Correct me if I'm wrong but the US Constitution (or any state constitutions I'm aware of) have never been used to limit the rights of individuals. Read it. All of it's statements give rights, not limit them. Any sort of constitutional ammendment to ban something (i.e. gay marriage) would be setting on Hell of a nasty precident. Besides, how is a ban on gay marriage any different then bans on multi-racial marriage from the previous century?

Would you like to rearrange this post

Mark has made a tool available to turn the first bunch of words of any page into magnetic poetry. Try it on this page.

About frickin' time!

Lucasfilm announced today that the orginal Star Wars trilogy will be released, finally, on DVD this September.

Laptop update

It looks like my new laptop is finally on the way! It's due to arrive on Thursday.

Looking at what they've shipped in a little more detail I have two shippments of two boxes each. Both shippments include a 10lb box and a 4lb box. Taking into account I'm expecting a laptop (~10lbs w/ packing material) and a carying case (~4lbs with packing material) I have the sneaking suspicion that they've double-shipped,

The Prettiest Star

Cold fire, you've got everything but cold fire
You will be my rest and peace child
I moved up to take the place, near you

So tired, it's the sky that makes you feel tried
It's a trick to make you see wide
It can all but break your heart, in pieces

Staying back in your memory
Are the movies in the past
How you moved is all it takes
To sing a song of when I loved
The Prettiest Star

One day though it might as well be someday
You and I will rise up all the way
All because of what you are
The Prettiest Star

Staying back in your memory
Are the movies in the past
How you moved is all it takes
To sing a song of when I loved
Prettiest Star

One day though it might as well be someday
You and I will rise up all the way
All because of what you are
The Prettiest Star

— David Bowie

After: How America Confronted the September 12 Era
by Steven Brill

Off the bookshelf

If you want to know how the country dealt with the events of September 11th in the year that followed this is the definitive book on the topic. If follows dozens of individuals through that year from victims' families, business owners both small(the owner of a shoe repair shop in NYC) to large (the owner of the twin towers), to those in affected industries (the manager of the Minneapolis airport) to those in government including John Ashcroft and Senator Charles Schumer. It covers both the positives and negatives of issues that arose whether it be how vicitms were being identified, to the changes in views on civil liberties, to victim compensation to insurance. (The question of whether or not the planes striking the World Trade Center was a "single occurrence" or two "events." There was a $3.55 billion difference between those two concepts.) At a whopping 723 pages I finished this book in six days and highly recommend it to everyone.

Here's just one small bit I though was worth sharing:

One of Ashcroft's closest aids was asked by the author a few days later what protection any American had if someone like Padilla could be arrested on American soil and held secretly just on the government's say so.

After first correcting his questioner for not using Padilla's Muslim name, he answered, "Well, I guess his family could speak out if he's missing, and if that creates a political furor, the Pesident would be accountable at the next election."

Was that the only protection?

"That and the good faith of the people who hold these offices," he replied.

Out of the ashes rises... firefox?

Mozilla's Firebird browser has been renames Firefox. Version 0.8 was released today.

Don't waste your money

An article in the most recent issue of 2600 pointed to the program WebLock Pro which claims that this $49.95 piece of software will make your Web site unstealable. If you use it, visitors will not be able to copy, edit, paste or even screenprint your documents. The point of the article was how you could throw some PHP against it and get around its protections.

Well, I went to their homepage and immediately, took screenshots, looked at the source code and used copy/paste to get their content. The funny part was that I didn't follow the article's instructions as theyt were honestly, over my head. I just used a browser other than Internet Explorer. Yes, it was that easy. Funny thing was that nowhere on the products site could I find this little flaw mentioned. So, I went into their "contact me" system and left a note mentioning this problem. Five minutes later I received the following response:

Your ticket concerning 'Your homepage unlocked' has been closed. Please take a moment to complete a short survey that will help us to serve you better in the future.

That's right folks. The product's creater responded to my "concerns" by closing the ticket and completly ignoring me. Looks like I'll be recommending his software to just about nobody that I ever meet.

P.S. Turns out that I'm not the only one who has issues with this software. I did a quick Google search and came up with this page which demonstrates another technical method around the software using JavaScript.

Bush's missing year

This gentleman has a full report on Dubbya's National Guard history including copies of documents about when he did, or did not, show up for duty. Ah, the joys of FOIA. (The collection includes a cover letter stating that some documents were left out from his FOIA request.)

404 not found

Some people just have way too much time on their hands.

Adding insult to injury

Today my mail included not one, not two, but three requests to interview for librarian positions at the Contra Costa Library System in San Francisco. Hmmm, would i like to work for the same library system as my ex girlfirend? I don't think so.

Ah, the liberal media...

Today on Meet the Press Tim Russert interviewed Dubya. The first question was a good one and Bush completely didn't answer it. What did Russert do? He went on the the next question. The whole interview looked and sounded like Russert had a list of questions in front of him and he was unwilling to deviate from that list. What ever happened to pushing for an answer when the person being interviewed dodges the question? [link is to the full transcript]

Russert: On Friday, you announced a committee, commission to look into intelligence failures regarding the Iraq war and our entire intelligence community. You have been reluctant to do that for some time. Why?

President Bush: Well, first let me kind of step back and talk about intelligence in general, if I might. Intelligence is a vital part of fighting and winning the war against the terrorists. It is because the war against terrorists is a war against individuals who hide in caves in remote parts of the world, individuals who have these kind of shadowy networks, individuals who deal with rogue nations. So, we need a good intelligence system. We need really good intelligence.

So, the commission I set up is to obviously analyze what went right or what went wrong with the Iraqi intelligence. It was kind of lessons learned. But it's really set up to make sure the intelligence services provide as good a product as possible for future presidents as well. This is just a part of analyzing where we are on the war against terror.

There is a lot of investigations going on about the intelligence service, particularly in the Congress, and that's good as well. The Congress has got the capacity to look at the intelligence gathering without giving away state secrets, and I look forward to all the investigations and looks.

Again, I repeat to you, the capacity to have good intelligence means that a president can make good calls about fighting this war on terror.

Hey, those library things ain't so bad after all

Here's two recent article from the main-stream (i.e. non-library) press actually encouraging people to use their public library instead of, or at least in conjunction with, the Internet for their information needs.

"Your Library Online" By Janet Rubenking, PC Magazine

"When a Search Engine Isn't Enough, Call a Librarian" by Jeffrey Selingo, New York Times

Clean code?

FrontPage has historically created bloated markup. In an attempt to 'fix' this problem, Microsoft seems to have produced an ad campain to promote the new version's ability to "produce clean code." Take a look at the ad and see if you can find the problem.

But I already have one

I'm getting a lot of spam lately urging me to earn my criminal justice degree. The question is, do I really need another one?

Filtering in colorado libraries

A few in the Colorado Legislature is proposing a bill that would basically create a state-level CIPA. The City of Aurora is opposing the bill. Not because they're morally opposed to it. (In fact, the city already requires filtering.) The opposition is based upon the fact that the city automatically opposes any state law they consider to be an unfunded mandate.

The right to read

This essay was written back in 2001 but I just discovered it today. (I can't believe I missed it back then.) The year is 2062 and copyright laws have continued along the path they are taking today.

Airport security issues most don't need to worry about

Here's an article regarding a woman attempting to get her chastity belt through security at the Athens airport. She was wearing it at the time.
Thanks Lisa.

Evil + evil = abomination

Yesterday I was introduced to Broccoflower and was informed that it was a cross between broccoli and caluiflower. Well it turns out that it isn't really a crossbreed but it still sounds mighty disgusting.

Here come da judge

A Tennessee woman has filed a class action suit against Janet Jackson and "others" in federal court over the mishap during the Super Bowl half-time show.

Meanwhile overseas: "Being English, I cannot even begin to fathom what all the fuss is about. It's only a nipple and there are far more important things to talk about."

New action figure

Dishonest Dubya with four outfits and hundreds of sayings. Complete with pretzel-choking action!

Banner ads

My browser has a plug-in that will allow me to block images that I decide are ads. Through this I'm able to see the URLs ads are coming from so I can wildcard them where I want. For example based on the URL below I blocked all incoming images from ru4.com. But the point of this entry is the URL itself. Check this one out:

http://http.content.ru4.com/images/0452/12355.swf?clicktag=http%3a%2f%2
fhttp7.edge.ru4.com%2fsmartserve%2fclick%3fplacement%3dpl-0452-010%26sn%3d1762
%26opt%3d1076106366%7c452%7cad-0452-576%7cpl-0452-010%7ccontrol%7c0%7cpl
-0452-010%2526mountain%2526afternoon%2526noinfo%2526high%25260%2526C3%7
c217%26pr%3dhttp%253a%252f%252ftransfer.go.com%252fcgi%252fatransfer.pl%253f
name%253d149863%2526srvc%253dnws%2526guid%253d0CE8AC41-515B-4448-835A-
FE802D08625F%2526context%253d0%253a53158%253a149863%253a53158%2526goto
%253d%26epr%3d%26dmurl%3d%26edmurl%3d%26target%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Ffree.aol
.com%2Ftryaolfree%2Findex.adp%3F473260

Laptop update

Here's the latest from Gateway:

I have checked on your system and the estimated arrival date is 2-16-04. Of course this is only a estimated date if the parts that we are waiting for come in before that date they will complete and ship your order as soon as possible.

Of course, I read this as "if the parts we are waiting for come in after that they will complete and ship at a later date."

Never mind that the 16th is a holiday...

Opening up

Molly.com is a blog I read on a regular basis mainly for Molly's insights on Web design. (She's one of those 'famous' Internet folks.) Well, I suddenly feel odd about labeling her as 'famous' due to one of today's posts the small price of fame. This one really got me thinking about me.

I'm not saying I'm famous in the least but people in the library world, especially in the BCR region, know my name. I've not bothered counting the number of times I've heard "Oh yeah, I've seen your name. Can I ask you a question?" which like Molly's description is followed by something computer related. Now, this hasn't happened in the dentist or doctor office and usually occurs in a library and/or computer related environment but it still gets frustrating.

I was talking to my friend Barbara mid last year commenting on how, even though I meet hundreds of new people a year (maybe even more than a thousand in some cases) I still end up back in a hotel room at the end of the night. While on the road I usually end up having lunch with a new group of interesting individuals each day, but we usually end up talking about libraries and/or computers.

On a trip last Fall I ended up being invited to the house of one of the campus librarians (who was not attending any of my classes) who was a big jazz fan. We ended up having a wonderful meal cooked by his wife and listened to old jazz albums. (Yes, on vinyl!) No shop talk at all. He used to travel a lot himself and remembered how wonderful it was to be invited to someone's house for dinner. I couldn't bring myself to tell him that it was the first time in my more than six years of traveling that it had happened to me but I made it clear that I'd enjoyed myself immensely

I'm not trying to convince you that I'm lonely. I have my friends and they're all very special to me. I keep myself busy and I'm not unhappy living alone. Sometimes it just seems that even if you're surrounded by people you can still feel isolated.

More lego friends

Laura's daughter Gwynneth has made herself up in Lego. (I added the trombone.)

 

New Router

That was way too easy. I've hooked up the new router and everything worked on the first try. According to the instructions the wireless access is ready and secure. Now if I just had something with wireless networking to atttempt to connect with...

Blog update

The big news is that I've added support for comments. If you'd like to comment on an entry just click on the "comments" link at the end of the entry. Please keep in mind that anyone will be able to read the comments you post. The freaky thing from my point of view is that my fist comment (regarding my 'cruel joke' post) arrived just three minutes after posting it from someone not only not related to me but from someone I don't even know. (If I do know you, sorry, the name and/or Web site just are familiar off the top of my head.)

I also added titles to the 'links' area. Move your mouse pointer over them and just wait a sec and they'll appear.

Denver public library

Well, found out this morning what the "coming soon" for DPL was. It's a complete redesign of their Web site. Overall it looks good but the new design has some significant problems: (replies included)

• They're using XHTML 1.1 (Bravo!) but it doesn't validate.

  It won't validate because we had to do so many workarounds for different browsers and operating systems.

  I responded with a suggestion that they minimize the nubmer of errors. For example, they're using mixed- and upper-case elements and attributes in places. Fixing these will not cause any browser compatibility problems.
• Try turning off JavaScript and taking a look. It completely falls apart.

  The site is designed to be viewed with javascript. According to our stats, 17 out of 1,089,035 users since January 1, 2004 have javascript turned off.

• Most of the time connection to the OPAC opens in the same window. Sometimes it opens in a new window.

  This is a new feature we are experimenting with. It's possible that we will go back to opening in the same window if it appears to be troublesome to people. Many customers like to find titles we recommend on our web site and place holds on them, so it will be convenient for them to have the catalog open in one window and browse our site in the other. Due to the stateful nature of our catalog, you can not go back and forth in one window from the site to the catalog without losing your session and losing your hold.

• The comments form requires you to supply your name and e-mail address. Now there's a way to reduce the number of comments you'll receive.

  The form has been changed to optional, which is what was intended. Thanks for pointing that out.

• I'm seeing a odd little "--" in the bottom-left corner of every page.

  We have notified WebSideStory about this recently and are hoping to get an update to the code that prevents this. It should only appear in Netscape.

• The graphic on the "thanks for submitting your comment" page is broken.

  Thanks for mentioning this. You're right! It has been fixed.

• Couldn't all events be listed by default with searching as an option. Just wondering if this method had been considered.

  This feature has been a part of our web site for a long time and is due for an overhaul. We have plans to improve it in the near future. We probably will not have a list of every event on one page as there are too many and most of our customers know either what kind of event they seek or which location.

• What's with all the "top" buttons on the Locations & Hours page? Additionally, the whole page is packed way to tight.

  The top links are there to get people quickly back to the top to use the navigation. Most of our customers use our site in 800X600 and therefore there can be a lot of scrolling on a long page like this.

• The content and background of the DPL News area on the homepage doesn't line up correctly in Mozilla-based browsers, including Navigator 7.

  We'll look into that.

• The whole thing falls apart in Opera.

John elway can't count

The new commercial for John Elway Used Cars contains the following in both dialogue and on-screen text:

Our used cars are checked, checked, and double-checked.

I'm sorry, but that's just wrong.

Toxic bond

I wouldn't even want to hear Britney do a title song for a Bond movie let alone be a Bond girl. Best I can hope for is that negotiations fall apart. After that, I can always hope her character is killed in the first five minutes of the film just like Tracy Bond. (Not that Diana Rigg deserved that fate.)

Just in case you missed it

Yes, The Drudge Report actually posted pictures from Janet's single-second on-screen flash. Link is NSFW (not safe for work).

In the interest of present diverse opinions

There is actually a blog out there titled SHUSH: a website of a conservative librarian. Yes, not all librarians are pinko-commie-liberals. (Just most of us.)

Cruel joke

Well, last Friday I ordered a new laptop with wireless networking and a wireles router so I can take advantage of the wireless-nature of the new laptop around the house. The wireless router just arrived, sans computer. The other way around would have been much more tollerable.

On the bright side, it does look like I can set it up as my router for the wired computers in the house. That way, my wireless connection will be ready for the new laptop when it arrives.

Blog update

Well, if you haven't played with any of the new designs to be found in the "Visual Designs" menu area this page will look quite different to you. (I hope you like it.) If you're using a vaguely current browser, selecting any of the visual design choices will change the look and feel of the blog. Some are better than others but right now 'Green Boxes' is my favorite so I've made it the defauly. (The old design can be acheived by selecting the 'BlogSopt' choice.) One work of wrning on the 'Autumn Leaves' choice. It is very graphics intensive. If you're on a slow connection it will take a while to load the first time so you'll need to be a little patient.

I've also fiddled with a few other items including switching to a monthly archive (I felt the weekly archive list was getting too long.)

Koontz book update

Thanks to Jim Olson for sending me scans of a few issues of Reflector that I was missing. He's the first person I've ever met to actually own copies.

Lego laura

Here she is. My best friend Laura done in Lego. (She is cute, isn't she ;-) Send me yours and I just might post it here.

Text adventure meets that scottish play

Remember those old text-only adventures where you had to type in commands like "go north" and "get item"? Well here's one that you can play that happens in the world of Hamlet

Commercials

Miss the superbowl commercials? Well, thery're now available online.

Galactica 2000

Looks like the new version of Battlestar Glactica is going to become a regular series on the Sci-Fi Netowrk this summer.

#$*&@%#*

Just as I was leaving work this evening my PDA decided to do a hard-reset all on its own. The result, my PDA was just like the day I bought it. No data, no customizations, no software I'd previously installed. Well, it's back and running pretty much the way I had it before but it was a serious pain in the patootie!

Midnight
by Dean Koontz

Koontz book update

The new printing of Midnight was released today with a new cover and a 'new' afterword from Dean. (New is in quotes since it was previously published in the most recent issue of Useless News.)

Blog updates

A Splendor of Letters : The Permanence of Books in an Impermanent World
by Nicholas A. Basbanes

I've begun to customize this blog just a little more today. First is me as a lego character off to the right (in the default page style.) Click on the image to build your own. Second, below the links are is a "visual styles" area. Try 'Darkness' and let me know what you think. (Should work on all current browsers.) Lastly, I've been trying to come up with a more unique way to feature book covers. Here's what I've come up with so far:

XHTML/CSS book update

(Yes, I am working on more than just my Dean Koontz book.) About half of the chapter on tables has been finished. 15 pages down, hundreds to go…

Unique problem

Now here's a problem most libraries don't have to deal with every day.

We have run into a rather unusual problem with some overdue books. Some of our books that have been overdue for a long period of time have been housed where they were manufacturing methamphetamine. The local authorities are being very cooperative in assisting us with their retrieval, but we are concerned with contamination. Has anyone dealt with this problem before? What are the risks of the books having meth dust or other contaminates on them? What is the best way to clean the items when they are returned?
Yuma (CO) Public Library

Obscure norah

Can't get enough Norah Jones? Can't wait to hear the new album that comes out next week? (I've heard it and its spectacular.) Check out these little-known appearances.

Headlines i'd love to see

Michael Powell to Probe Janet's Breast

Boob Tube Finally Lives Up to Potential

Oh, and you do know that Michael Powell is the son of Colin Powell right?

Clear the calendar!

It looks like my new laptop will arrive on Friday!

Off the bookshelf

Zombie Love by Ray Garton

Straight from the Stacks: A First-Hand Guide to Careers in Library and Information Science by Laura Townsend Kane
I've written a reveiw but I'm not posting it here since it will be published in a future issue of Info Career Trends.

What is past is prologue

I wasn't going to weigh in on this whole Janet Jackson's breast at the Super Bowl scandal just yet. My plan was to wait until some knickers untwisted and see how it started to play itself out over the next few days. But, while reading this evening I came across this little gem and I thought it fit the situation enough to repeat it here.

"The first time I heard the word "hell" used in its common profane connotation on the screen was in Twenty Thousand Horsemen: since that time I've noted that "hell" and "damn" are common expressions in English offerings — but it has only been in the past two years that one finds such language in American movies. Even so recent a picture as The Blackboard Jungle evoked a gasp from the typical audience when a knife-wielding juvenile delinquent told his teacher to "go to hell." Get that, now — nobody was shocked because the kid pulled a knife on his teacher. What shocked them was the fact that he came right out and said a nasty word on the screen. Bloody strange, what?
— Robert Bloch, "The Ealing Art", May 1957

Koontz book update

Just a small one today. Here's a new article about Dean's forthcoming Frankenstein TV series.

56%? seems like it should be higher

States in red are the ones I've visited.

create your own visited states map or write about it on the open travel guide

Poppy ashcroft would be proud

Colorado House Bill 04-1179 (.pdf) "Requires an individual employed by a store to obtain identification information from the purchaser prior to making a sale of a methamphetamine precursor drug. Requires a store in which such sales are made to maintain a registry of purchasers who purchase methamphetamine precursor drugs from the store. Requires the registry to remain open for inspection by a law enforcement officer during normal business hours." It also "Makes it a misdemeanor for a person to knowingly violate the requirements concerning the retail sale of methamphetamine precursor drugs. Clarifies that certain persons connected with the ownership, operation, or management of a store that sells the drugs shall not be liable for violating the requirements if the person had no knowledge of a sale and did not direct or participate in the sale.

Oh, and "precursor drugs" are defined as "ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, and phenylpropanolamine". So, basically this law would require me to show ID to by Sudafed and that purchase could be reviewed by any "law enforcement officer." Orwell wasn't wrong, just early.

Google library school

Looks like there is a whole course on Google in University of Washington's LIS program.

Re: dean and computing

According to this article it seems that Dean isn't actually calling for ID cards in order to use your computer.

MLC responds

Ever read that e-mail about why men are happier than women? Well, here's MLC comments on those ideas.

See, i am an oppressed minority

I just couldn't resist passing this one along…

Web design 101

Click the button to the 'left'?

Off the bookshelf

Sunshine by Robin McKinley

Lyrics

She said it was just a figment of speech And I said you mean 'figure' And she said no 'figment' because she could never imagine it happening But it did When we first met, I played the shy-boy When she spoke to me for the first time, my nose began to bleed She guessed the rest The next day we went on a bus ride to the ferry And when nobody came to collect our fares, why I knew then this was something special I couldn't stop thinking about her And everytime I switched on the radio, there was somebody else singing a song about the two of us It was just like being on a fast ride at Fun Fair- the sort you want to get off because it's scary and then, as soon as you're off again, you want to get straight back on again But oh love is strange And you have to learn to take the crunchy with the smooth I suppose She began going out with Mr. Potato Head It was when I saw her in the car park with his coat around her shoulders I realized I went home and thought about the two of them together until the bath water went cold around me I thought about her eyes and the curve of her breasts and about the point where their bodies met I confronted her about it I said 'I'm the most illegible bachelor in town' And she said 'Yea, that's why I can never understand any of those silly letters you send me' And then one day it happened She cut her hair And I stopped loving her.
— Billy Bragg, "Walk Away Renee"