Category Archives: uncategorized

Barbie has been outlawed by Saudi Arabia’s religious police.

“Jewish Barbie dolls, with their revealing clothes and shameful postures, accessories and tools are a symbol of decadence to the perverted West. Let us beware of her dangers and be careful.” Way to anthropomorphize, guys. Seriously.

Other items listed as violations on the site included Valentine’s Day gifts, perfume bottles in the shape of women’s bodies, clothing with logos that include a cross, and decorative copies of religious items – offensive because they could be damaged and thus insult Islam.

This is so messed up.

Looks like teachers in the Pinellas County schools in Tampa will be reverse switchers. The directive came from Pinellas County superintendent Howard Hinesley, who wants to the district to use one type of computer instead of two. It always saddens me to see school districts and companies dumping all Macs as a matter of policy because “one platform is cheaper.” One platform is cheaper, but it’s the Mac. Windows is more expensive to maintain. Trust me: I do both. I think it’s very telling that I manage Windows2000 Servers at work and come home to a Mac.

Howard Troxler of the St. Petersburg Times wrote a great follow up article. Here’s a sample:

I totally endorse the decision of Howard Hinesley, the school chief in Pinellas County, to eliminate Apple computers from the public schools and switch to Windows-based computers.

ERROR: THE FILE “WHATSIS.DLL’ HAS UNEXPECTEDLY DISAPPEARED FROM THE HARD DRIVE.

Beautiful.

Maybe the administration at that school should read this article: Reliance on Microsoft called risk to U.S. security. Bad for U.S. security, good for I.T. job security.

Here are two chicks you don’t want to mess with.

Apple has apparently pulled the 10.2.8 update that I installed this morning.

The company’s entire statement was: We have temporarily removed the Mac OS X v10.2.8 software update while we resolve an issue affecting Ethernet networking on small number of Power Mac G4 desktop systems. We anticipate that the issue will be resolved soon.

Thankfully, I haven’t had any problems, aside my Finder needing to be relaunched an hour ago. Hmmmmm…

The thing that bothers me most about this is that now all the Macintouch naysayers will have a reason to gloat. Bleah.

I think I just helped start another blogging API flame war. Woohoo! Fan those flames!

1. Rock’n’Roll Worship Circus is even better live. Their message and their sound are phenomenal.

2. The Hershey’s Special Dark milkshake at the Chocolate World food court is wonderful. Dr. Atkins is spinning in his grave as I write this, but I must be honest.

3. Grace really, really likes Steven Courtney.

4. WJTL did a great job with Christian Music Day at Hershey Park.

5. Mamma Ilardo’s pizza is very good, especially considering it was purchased, made, and consumed in an amusement park.

6. Hershey Park is getting bigger and better all the time.

7. Anji likes roller coasters. In fact, Anji will ride anything but the Pirate Ship, because she had a traumatic experience on it once.

8. I need to be a better worshipper to become a better worship leader.

9. You shouldn’t place your customers’ receipts under the pizza tray if you use thermal paper for said receipts, or you will end up with this:

10. I need to break out the Rickenbacker more often.

11. My purpose in life has nothing at all to do with my job.

Tonight I intended to: finalize Frequency 1.2b5 for public release, work on the interface and ERD for Frequency Pro some more, create a working beta of Abstract (school project), work on redesigning truetech.org (because I’m so tired of this design).

Instead I: went to Friendly’s for dinner with my in-laws (and broke my diet yet again), had a sing along with Gracie, worked on some new praise and worship music for church, and… that was about it.

I need to slow down like this. The pace at work has been ridiculous, and I’m starting to see myself reacting to things in ways that I don’t like. It’s taking a toll; on Saturday, I couldn’t even get out of bed until some time in the afternoon (even though my father-in-law arrived around ten in the morning and started working in the (almost finished) bathroom). I had a splitting headache and couldn’t tolerate light or sound.

Yesterday we went out and (uncharacteristically) bought a digital video camera. We got a JVC Mini-DV camera. So far, I’m very pleased with it. We got an open-box deal from Circuit City, so the camera and four Mini-DV tapes were ours for under $350. This will be nice for Jen to use at preschool (believe or not) and for me to use with church. It replaces our giant, honkin’ VHS-C camcorder that we bought just before Gracie was born. At the time, I had a lengthy debate with myself: should I go digital? I had no computer with FireWire at the time, and the cheapest DV cameras could not be had for less than $1000. So I plunked down almost $800 on a very nice (for its day) VHS-C camcorder (also from JVC). Who’d have thought I’d spend half that for a really nice DV camera four years later? I never anticipated price drops like the ones we’ve seen on DV equipment. And of course, now we have Jen’s new 12″ PowerBook G4 to do the editing on (iMovie and iDVD).

Still gearing up for 40 Days of Purpose (let me know what you think of that design: all CSS, no tables) at Westwood. I’m really excited to be part of it. And I’m really encouraged to see the excitement building at Westwood. We get things rolling on October 11. If you’re in my neck of the woods, please consider this a personal invitation to come to Westwood for the Kick-Off Event (free food!) and the following 40 days. You won’t be sorry you did.

So I’ve lessened the amount of time I spend at the keyboard for the last few days, and it’s been good. I feel better.

But I suppose I’ll plug back in soon, because I’m selfish and self-destructive that way.

CNN: Without a change of approach, schools will continue to turn out large numbers of students who are disengaged in society and unappreciative of democracy, the report contends. Very interesting article. I’m finding myself agreeing with it. As a school employee, I probably shouldn’t say any more than that.

From BBpot, who usually isn’t this funny: Dell Patents “Reboot and See If That Fixes It” Technical Support Process. Patent enforcement won’t be limited to large corporations. Dell plans on charging royalties to individuals as well. “Margins are tight and sales are slumping. We need to find a way to boost profits, so we’ve also requested wire taps for anyone with a mother or father who owns a computer,” explained Dell. Hope schools get a price break. I use that line all the time.

And I mean all the time.

Jonathan Amos: People who experience a sense of spirituality in church may be reacting to the extreme bass sound produced by some organ pipes. Yes, we must explain away every aspect of spirituality! Wait — my church doesn’t have an organ. But we do have a bass guitar, played by my wife. I wonder what that means?

Christopher Hitchens: If our Congress or our executive mansion had been immolated that morning, would some people still be talking as if there was a moral equivalence between the United States and the Taliban? Would they still be prattling as if the whole thing was an oblique revenge for the Florida recount? Of course they would.

Paul H. B. Shin: Wolf called the cops when the bride began walking barefoot down a state highway. The wedding my family attended on Saturday in Ocean City, NJ, was likely much more subdued than this, although the bride and groom did end up on the Ferris Wheel at Wonderland Pier. I wouldn’t know; Grace and I spent a long overdue day together, riding rides, talking walks, and caring for the bride’s dog, who shall come to be known as Tucker McFutty.

Gil Kaufman: More than a year after being diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer, singer/songwriter Warren Zevon, age 56, died in his sleep on Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles, according to his label, Artemis Records. Sad to see him go. I remember when he filled in for Paul Shaffer on The Late Show while Paul was filming the affront to John Belushi’s memory known as Blues Brothers 2000. Warren was great; I hoped Paul wouldn’t come back.

Apple Tech Info Library: If you used Open Firmware Password utility to create a password that contains the capital letter “U”, your password will not be recognized during the startup process. This is the weirdest TIL article I’ve ever read. This has to be a major screwup somewhere. I blame Jimmy.

Ina Fried: Microsoft did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement, in which Be will receive $23.2 million after attorneys’ fees. The total amount Microsoft will pay was not immediately clear from a joint statement by the two companies. Not that it matters now.

Geraldine Sealey: For those roughly 21 to 35 years of age, Pollan said, there’s a special brand of discontent. They’re looking to their work for fulfillment — and more often than not, it’s not happening. I can’t imagine.

Oh yeah, by the way, work sucks right now. Posting may become even more erratic as we trudge through a huge backlog of tech requests and I continue to work toward Frequency 1.2 and HUB 1.0.