« November 2005 | Main | January 2006 »
a wiretap requires a court order. ...When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution.
George W. Bush, promoting the Patriot Act in April 2004
I've grumbled previously about the lack of great accomplishments by the United States in recent years. Another place we're way behind the rest of the developed and emerging world is now rail. It's a bit ironic since the U.S. was one of the great rail powers at one time due to our concentrations of populations along the coasts and again in the heartland (Chicago, Cincinnati, Memphis, New Orleans - well, if we rebuild it, but that's another grumble).
In any case, our population distribution continues to make the U.S. a great place for rail, especially high-speed rail running up and down our coasts. Instead, all we have is the Acela (which has been plagued with problems -- mostly related to poor tracks -- and covers only a limited portion of the East Coast). How does it stack up with high-speed rail elsewhere? According to an article in the NY Times this morning, it doesn't even count as "high-speed" except by U.S. standards:
The French manufacturer Alstom, like most of the industry, considers high-speed trains to be those with a top cruising speed of 150 miles per hour; trains with a top cruising speed 210 miles per hour are considered very high speed. The Acela's top cruising speed is about 125 miles per hour.
It's not for lack of demand, either: the Acela now has 45% of the commercial transportation market from DC to NY.
It hurts me to see the rest of the world pushing ahead with great achievements while we sit on the sidelines. Great bridges, great dams, great buildings, great trains: are we ever going to build something amazing again?
Okay, the title of this entry is actually an old slogan from DuPont, but the idea is still true today. Why should any of us settle for a quality of life that is less than what we want, no: DESERVE?
That's why I thought I should take a minute to give a little testimonial here for Panexa. While my endorcement in no way takes the place of the advice of your doctor, I would stongly encourage you to ask your doctor if Panexa might not be what you need in your life. Life is too short to feel less than your best!
Check it out (and ask your doctor): Panexa.
Must be 21 to enter. Not suitable for prudes, homophobes, people with an underdeveloped sense of humor, Republicans, or those whose sexuality may be threatened by androids. Irreverent to the point that I might just have to buy a bottle to support their complete disregard for how many people that they are likely to TICK OFF!
By now, just about about everyone knows that red wine gives significant benefits to your heart's health. Most people don't know, however, that the beneficial component (resveratrol) is found in even much higher concentrations in our native American muscadine grape.
Unfortunately, most muscadine wines are overwhelmingly "grapey" and cloyingly sweet. They have the character of fortified fruit juice rather than true wine.
A little (3000 cases/year) winery in NC is changing that and may just put muscadine wines of the map as true wines: Old Stone Vineyard and Winery in Salisbury. The winemaker, Mark Brown, is a North Carolina native that spent 17 years in California before returning to apply his accumulated skills to the making of wines using our native grapes.
Mark's wine are NOT what you expect from those based on muscadine grapes. They have the complexity of any European varietal with a touch of native grape flavor. These are muscadine wines for wine lovers. He covers the range from dry to dessert, so there is something for everyone. Better yet, Mark also pours in his tasting room, so it's a great opportunity to talk with someone who is passionate about his work.
If you find yourself near Salisbury, make sure you check out Old Stone for muscadine wines that will really surprise you!
I normally don't put two sites in my "Cool Site of the Day" category on the same day since that would seem to defeat the idea that some site could be THE cool site of the day. Then again, it's my blog, and I'll break the rules if I want to...
Check out the Museum of Hoaxes and their favorite 100 April Fool's Day pranks.
Every rag on the planet from the National Enquirer to the Grey Lady herself seems to have to do retrospectives of one sort or another this time of year, and most cover the "Top 10" or "Top 100" film stars of the year. It seems that generally these listings are created by having three of four staff members gather around the table and argue back and forth about their faves: not exactly a way to produce a meaningful list.
But is there a better way to produce data on a topic as elusive as the "Top X" film personalities? Box office receipts? Oscar nominations? Income?
The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) is taking a different approach: track the number of searches done on actors and build your list from that. That won't produce a list of richest, most-acclaimed, or best actors, but it will produce a pretty good list of those that most caught the attention of the public. It's a rather interesting take since it tells us where our interests were in 2005 rather than those of a few journalists around the water cooler. Anyway, check it out:
my visitors from Consumerist and via Digg: Happy Holidays! I still have bandwidth to spare!
Well, as long as I don't get slashdotted as well... :-)
I finished December 21 with 32,461 hits and December 22 with 16,327! That's right off the charts for a blog that was really only meant to be a place to put my thoughts together and share them with a few friends. Christmas came early for me!
...and that's when your blog ends up on the front page of Lifehacker. 11,128 hits in one day (while I was off with NO internet access, no less!).
Welcome, Lifehackers!
Please note that the Gmail "+" hack is not one of my own creation. I just fleshed out ideas that I had previously encountered. For anyone requesting GMail invites, I'll be getting those out as soon as I can wade through all the comments I was left! I was not expecting the tip to go much farther than my friends and family. Thanks for dropping in everyone!!! Lifehacker is one of my favorite sites. I comment over there fairly often and read it religiously (which is no small trick for such an areligious person -- is areligious a word?).
Boy, am I ever glad I went for the 20GB of bandwidth per month plan with my web host...
Ever needed to submit a valid email address to register for access to a website or make an online purchase? Ever wondered if in doing so your address wouldn't end up sold to or stolen by some spammer. Ever wondered who your address gets shared with?
I came across a great way of using Google's GMail to create disposable/sortable email addresses that let you duck spam and find out who is sharing your address and with whom.
If you have a GMail address named johndoe@gmail.com you obviously know that email sent to johndoe@gmail.com will reach you. The interesting feature that we're going to use is this: email to johndoe+amazon@gmail.com and johndoe+ebay@gmail.com will also reach you!
Need a valid address with eBay? Just stick "+ebay" immediately after your GMail username. Same for Amazon or your cable company or mailing lists to which you subscribe.
For the sake of this example, let's say you need to sign up for a mailing list that interests you, but you're afraid spammers might get your address. We'll call the list "exoticflowers". Sign up with the list using the address "johndoe+exoticflowers@gmail.com". Email to that address will still come to your "johndoe@gmail.com" address even though the "To:" will include that "+exoticflowers" in it. Don't add ANY spaces: those are not allowed in email addresses.
Okay, here's where it gets useful!
Click on "Settings" at the top of the page and then click on "Filters". Choose "Create a new filter". The ONLY piece you need to fill out in the little form that appears is the "To:" line. Type in "johndoe+exoticflowers@gmail.com" and click "Next Step".
On this screen, click on the little drop-down menu next to "Apply the Label" and choose "New Label". Type in "Exotic Flowers" and hit "okay".
So what have we done? We have created a filter so that every message to "johndoe+exoticflowers@gmail.com" will be labeled with "Exotic Flowers". Instead of showing up in your main mailbox, these will now automatically appear under the label "Exotic Flowers". You'll see a list of labels on you Inbox screen along with how many new messages have come in with that label. Just click on the label name to see the messages.
This does several great things for you. First, if you get lots of mail you can now sort it into categories that are useful to you. Second, if you have trouble getting off a mailing list you can simply filter that address straight to your Trash so that you never have to deal with it. Finally, if you start getting spammed you'll know which company or list let the spammers get you address: those spams will contain the modified address, so they'll end up in the same folder as the company or list that let the spammers (or "affiliated company") get your address.
GMail is an incredible application that will let you do LOTS of cool stuff with your email. This is just one example: search the web and the GMail site for more clever tricks!
If you don't have a GMail account and want one (they're free, but invitation only), just leave a comment for me and I'll send you an invitation (I currently have 100 to give away).
Elizabeth and I are trying (slowly) to work through the many wineries that are now in operation in North Carolina (you can see just how many there are now and learn more about them from NCWine.org). We've managed almost two dozen to date, but as wine production takes off in NC, we are actually losing ground with new wineries opening right and left!
This afternoon we returned from "Early Christmas" with Elizabeth's family in Boone. Along the way back we stopped by Hanover Park Winery just off US-421 near Yadkinville, NC. This wasn't our first stop there and won't be our last. I just realized I should add an entry here mentioning that Hanover Park is our absolute favorite winery in North Carolina.
First, the owners are wonderful. One or both are usually pouring samples in the old farmhouse they have lovingly restored as a tasting room. I much prefer buying wines there than at local retailers (such as A Southern Season in Chapel Hill) if for no other reason than the atmosphere and friendly conversation.
Of course, no matter how nice the winery or the owners, it isn't going to be a favorite of mine unless the wines are really good. Hanover Park has a micro-climate that allows them to produce what I believe are some of the best wines not only in NC, but in the United States. They make one of the few Chardonnays that I really like (nice oak, but not too tannic thanks to French oak barrels that aren't brand new). Among their reds they make a great Chambourcin, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Mourvèdre.
In any case, I just wanted to take a moment to sing their praises. Hanover Park is destined to be the winery that someday establishes North Carolina as a great wine-producing region nationally and internationally.
For those of you that don't know, Wikipedia is an open source / community-written encyclopedia. I have found it to be an incredible resource, but many people have questioned just how accurate it is.
The respect journal Nature set out to look at how accurate Wikipedia actually is by searching 42 science articles in both Wikipedia and the esteemed Britannica for errors. The Nature study found:
Only eight serious errors, such as misinterpretations of important concepts, were detected in the pairs of articles reviewed, four from each encyclopaedia. But reviewers also found many factual errors, omissions or misleading statements: 162 and 123 in Wikipedia and Britannica, respectively.
That would tend to give an edge to Britannica, but not by much. However, a few folks who are a part of Wikipedia noted that the articles in Wikipedia tend to be significantly longer than those in Britannica, so the error rate per article is misleading. They conclude that when article size is considered Wikipedia is actually more accurate than Britannica.
So there you have it! I can therefore give an enthusiastic recommendation for Wikipedia. Go learn something!!!
If you take pictures and share them with others on the web or by email, you need to know about Flickr.
Flickr is a photo-sharing site that lets you upload up to 20MB of photos per month free. If you want to do some heavy-duty sharing go to the Pro account for $25/year. This will also let you share photos without overstuffing the email accounts of your friends and family. You can even mark photos as accessible only to selected friends and family.
You can also browse the zillions of photos posted by others. I find this (a) entertaining and (b) educational. Entertaining because there are lots of daring people "putting themselves out there" for the sake of their photography: pictures that show them at their worst, or show their fears, or are rather sensual in nature. Pictures that take a bit of bravery to post. These portraits (and especially self-portraits) are my favorites.
Educational: because you can learn a LOT about taking good photographs by looking at the photos that others take and asking yourself why one picture works or dazzles while another falls flat. Things I've learned: watch your light sources, don't let everyone stare into the camera, get action shots, and MOVE CLOSER (fill the frame).
I've tossed a few pics up on Flickr here. You can also "tag" photos with descriptive notes. Flickr will then let you search on the tags to find pictures of interest to you. For example, pictures of flowers (most recent first or most interesting first) are found with a search on the "flowers" tag. The tags end up being pretty intelligent as well by "clustering" tags into groups.
Fun site. Educational site. Useful site. Free site. Works for me!!!
...and so is the Powerbook!
After walking away from the problem for a while I went online to research AC adapters and discovered that the AC adapter for the iBook and Powerbook (except for the newest iBooks) is the same model. I also remembered a neighbor that I've helped in the past with questions related to her iBook. We're getting together over the holidays, so when I called she immediately asked if I was calling about that:
"No, actually I'm calling you because I have a problem with my computer."
"You're kidding..."
Anyway, her adapter powered it up immediately, so the culprit was found at last. A quick trip to the Apple Store for a new one fixed the problem. I'm just glad to have this done.
The part I ordered last THURSDAY MORNING to be delivered by Fedex 2nd Day arrived today, but it didn't fix our Powerbook's power problem!!!
AAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!
I could wiggle the power connection and get the system (occasionally) to boot, so I was 90% certain that I the problem was the power board. You gamble and go with the 90% probability, but sometimes you still lose.
So what could it be??? Backup battery (i.e.: CMOS battery)? Main Logic Board? (please, NO!) AC adapter (then WHY does it light up at the connection?!?!)?
AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!
Now what? Maybe a glass of wine or two or three will help...
AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
Most of the country is still using Internet Explorer with their Windows computers. I'm going to make a quick pitch for replacing Internet Explorer with Firefox (another web browser). It's easy and there are several good reasons you should do so:
1 - Using Internet Explorer (IE) to surf the web is risky.
Some years back Microsoft integrated IE with Windows. This lets you effectively use one program to access your computer, programs, important files AND the internet. Most people don't even know that's what their doing. Prove it to yourself. Open "My Documents" -- that's where you normally store your documents (if you don't just dump them on the desktop like many people do!). See the "address bar" at the top of the window? Next to the word "address" you see a blank filled in with "My Documents". Replace "My Documents" with "cnn.com" and hit enter.
Okay, so you now know that you are accessing your private files the internet with the same program if you are using IE. If you have anything important on your computer and are at all concerned about protecting it THIS IS A BAD THING. If you're letting IE loose on the internet you are letting the program to which you are entrusting your data play with websites whose owners you probably don't know. Any security error in IE can give that website control over your computer and access to your data. Don't risk it!
Firefox is NOT the control system for your computer and is not used to access your files, so a failure in Firefox's security is unlikely to put all your files at risk. Using a different web browser is not unlike using a second television in your house. In this case, though, the original television (IE) also has access to all your financial files. Firefox isn't bug-free, but (unlike IE) poses little risk to your private files.
2 - Internet Explorer is badly outdated. Very little effort has been made by Microsoft to really improve Internet Explorer for several years now. Firefox works hard to stay up-to-date with the latest web standards to give you fast and accurate web pages.
3 - Firefox does more! You can change the look of Firefox or add extra free tools (extensions) that make Firefox work the way YOU want to work rather than making you work like someone at Microsoft thought you should. Just select Tools | Extensions from the Firefox menu to see all the great stuff that's available. You just CAN'T get IE to do half the stuff that Firefox does.
Firefox is FAST. Firefox is FREE. Firefox is SAFER. Firefox is up-to-date for today's internet. Firefox does more. Firefox is easy to install! Just go get it!!!
Available free from the Mozilla Foundation: Firefox
From the Associated Press:
Bush defended Vice President Dick Cheney's pre-war assertion that the United States would be welcomed in Iraq as liberators.''I think we are welcomed,'' he said. ''But it was not a peaceful welcome.''
Say again?
Another cool site today: Space Penguin!
Back in college I had to write a computer program to graphically demonstrate the gravitational interactions between any number of given masses (planets, stars, whatever). It was one of the most fun projects I was ever assigned. Well, the good folks over at Big Idea FUN have written a similar program demonstrating gravitational dynamics, but made it even more fun by throwing in a spaceship and a PENGUIN IN A SLINGSHOT. You have to slingshot the penguin back to his ship through a gravitational maze of stars or planets. The LONGER the path you take, the better your score. Easy to play, hard to master! Very fun and totally free!
Mostly to see what it's all about and how it's implemented, I have added Google Adsense to my site. I don't know if I'll ever make a nickel off of them since I think I may never get enough traffic (and too few click-throughs from that) to ever hit the $100.00 mark (at which time they mail you your first check). Still, even if it takes five years to get check I could make use of $100!
Besides that, I'm really curious to see what kind of ads Google might deem relevant to my blog. I also replaced my blog's built-in search with a Google search bar (which is also useful as a jumping-off point to the rest of the world for me).
Good news for weather geeks! While the National Hurricane Center has called it quits and gone home for the winter, Dr. Jeff Masters is continuing to track tropical developments on his Tropical Weather Blog over at Weather Underground.
Looks like Tropical Storm Zeta may form later this week!
As I mentioned previously, I upgraded the hard drive in our Powerbook after the old one seized up. Well the connection for the power adapter failed this week. It's been flaky for a long time now, but this time I couldn't wiggle it just the right way to get it to connect. Once again it was time to tear down our trusty Powerbook.
Well ALL PRAISE APPLE ENGINEERS! The connection is not on the main logic board ($1000.00), but on it's own little board that I could order via the Mac Support Store in NYC for $9. WOOT! (Sorry, a little geek showing through there...) A little intelligence in the design pays off in the long haul. It should take me about 20 minutes to fix once I get the part.
Anyway the part is shipping and should be here by Tuesday, so we'll be back up and running soon enough (well, maybe not "soon enough" for my girls).
