I was busy at work (a three hour meeting!) and distracted once I got home, so I wasn't able to fit in a full update today. Because of that you missed my thoughts on:

• Terri Schiavo's death. Even though I've been waiting and waiting for this and know that it's for the best, I was still sad to read about her death this morning.
  
• Charlie's comment from my previous post. He wrote that John Danforth's op/ed made him wonder why he didn't like Republicans ten years ago. My response, basically, would have been "I did."Perhaps I'll expand on this tomorrow.
  
• The evolution of news. For hundreds of years news was shared through the written word. For a few decades television seemed certain to eclipse print, but a new medium (the internet) has brought back print journalism. Does this spell the end to tv news? In it's current form, yes. But Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity will live on.
  
• The Wordpress fiasco. Doing it was dumb, not realizing people were going to hate you for doing it was dumber.
  

So please, imagine I had written something insightful and elegant about each of those topics. Maybe I'll have time to expand on some of these tomorrow, but that doesn't seem likely. I'm already pretty tightly booked with meetings at work in the morning, picking up furniture in the afternoon, and a viewing of Sin City in the evening.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 31 March 2005 at 11:06 PM

My TiVo-like device failed to record Veronica Mars last night and my anger at that plus a very stuffy bedroom kept me from getting a lot of sleep last night. So today I am tired. And a bit grouchy.

In more pleasant news, the NY Times is reporting signs of revival in downtown St. Louis and John Danforth has an amazing editorial in the Times about the GOP's divergence from "conservative" values and their switch to being the political arm of the Christian conservatives. Strong words from an Episcopal minister. The crux of his argument can be summed up by the following two paragraphs, but you really ought to read the entire thing.

During the 18 years I served in the Senate, Republicans often disagreed with each other. But there was much that held us together. We believed in limited government, in keeping light the burden of taxation and regulation. We encouraged the private sector, so that a free economy might thrive. We believed that judges should interpret the law, not legislate. We were internationalists who supported an engaged foreign policy, a strong national defense and free trade. These were principles shared by virtually all Republicans.

But in recent times, we Republicans have allowed this shared agenda to become secondary to the agenda of Christian conservatives. As a senator, I worried every day about the size of the federal deficit. I did not spend a single minute worrying about the effect of gays on the institution of marriage. Today it seems to be the other way around.

Comments: 2 Posted by david on 30 March 2005 at 2:41 PM

"If it doesn't fit, you must acquit."

Johnnie Cochran, even more than OJ Simpson himself, was the public face of the 1990s version of the trial of the century. That trial, epic in its excesses and never since matched, sparked a whole new media genre and we now regularly see reporters camped out beside courthouses in California and New York and have come to expect to daily updates on the current celebrity trial. It is somewhat fitting that he should pass in the midst of the current trial of the century, the Michael Jackson trial. Then again, since OJ, when have we not been in the middle of a trial of the century?

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 29 March 2005 at 5:41 PM

I've beat this horse to death, picked it up, and resumed the beating over the last few days, but I wanted to bring one more thing to your attention regarding the whole Terri Schiavo issue. Those of you who think the far right acted out of true moral conviction when they passed "Terri's Law" are fooling yourselves. Case in point: Tom DeLay. The former Texas exterminator and current Congressman on a mission from God acquiesced when his mother wanted to end life support (in this case, dialysis) for his father.

Admittedly, the minutia of pater DeLay's case differs from Terri Schiavo's, but the broad strokes are the same. Both Charles DeLay and Terri Schiavo lacked directives on how to handle end of life situations. Both were reliant on machines to extend their lives. And they both bring to light the most important question for the loved ones of those of who are in end of life situations. At what point do you withdraw life preserving machines? Michael Schiavo waited eight years to ask for his wife's feeding tube to be removed. The DeLay family waited less than a month.

I'm not arguing here that the DeLays made the wrong decision. In their shoes I would have done just the same. But this points out how long Michael Schiavo waited, hoping for some sign of recovery. And how ridiculous it is of Tom DeLay to suggest that his actions are anything but pure.

Sixteen years ago Tom DeLay's mother had her husband's life support withdrawn without objections from her family. Yet this winter Tom DeLay has been quoted as saying "Terri Schiavo's husband has said that she expressed a verbal desire that she not continue in this sort of state. The sanctity of life overshadows the sanctity of marriage. I don't know what transpired between Terri and her husband. All I know is Terri is alive... And unless she had specifically written instructions in her hand and with her signature, I don't care what her husband says." Like many high and mighty moralists, DeLay is a staunch advocate of rules until it comes to him and his family.

The LA Times first broke the story of Charles DeLay's passing (and I found it via commentary on Slate). Reading through the Times article, I couldn't help but feel that the DeLays would probably prefer that the details of Charles DeLay's last days be kept private. Yet Tom DeLay hasn't offered that courtesy to the Schiavo family. Admittedly, this was public long before he came along. Yet he did nothing to smooth things. Just the contrary, in fact. He shone an even brighter light on this matter. And because of that I can offer him no sympathy with regard to this article. "Do unto others..." and all that.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 29 March 2005 at 11:23 AM

I woke up insanely early today. At around 4:30 or so. I think there must have been something that woke me up then, but I don't know what. And I haven't been sleeping well recently anyway, so perhaps there wasn't anything. I couldn't get back to sleep, so around 5:15 I gave up on that and watched some TV. But the television selection was rather poor, so in the end I just got ready for work and drove over here.

The only bright side to this whole thing is that because I got here really early today I'll be able to leave early.

Comments: 2 Posted by david on 29 March 2005 at 8:56 AM

I've posted before about how I wouldn't want the whole world seeing me if I was in the same condition as Terri Schiavo. This point was driven home for me by an AP article I read today that included an undated photo of Ms. Schiavo from before she entered a persistent vegetative state. It provides such a stark contrast to the standard image of Terri Schiavo that we've all grown used to seeing that I wanted to share it with all of you.

I've included the two images in this post. I know that I would certainly want to be remembered as depicted in the first picture, alive and vibrant. Sadly for Terri Schiavo, the whole world now knows her as the immobile body of the second image. And that makes me incredibly sad.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 28 March 2005 at 3:35 PM

I don't usually pay much attention to WashU-centric news, but when an article from the student paper is interesting enough to make it onto the obscure store site, I pay attention. And then I read the article and wish I hadn't paid attention. As someone who has lived through a defecation in common areas mess (caused by a drunk roommate), I sympathize with the RAs. That's disgusting.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 28 March 2005 at 3:15 PM

The NY Times reports that Robert Schindler spent fifteen minutes visiting his daughter, Terri Schiavo, today. He then spoke to the press. I feel sorry for Mr. and Mrs. Schindler. Instead of spending time with their daughter as she slips away, they're busy filing appeals and impromptu press conferences. It seems inevitable that when all the this is over, they'll look back on these past few weeks and wish they'd done things differently.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 25 March 2005 at 1:05 PM

How would you feel if you did your civic duty by serving on the jury for a high profile case, acquitted the defendant, and then got called "incredibly stupid" by the district attorney? If I were called for jury duty in LA I would frankly tell the court that I was reluctant to serve on a jury for fear of being ridiculed in the press.

Further, the only "incredibly stupid" thing here are the DA's comments. Steve Cooley is quoted as saying "[t]here was a failure in this case. It was not my prosecutor. It was not the work of LAPD. It was the jurors didn't quite get it." Now, I am not a lawyer, but I could have sworn that "the jurors [not] quite get[ting] it" would be a prosecutorial failure. But apparently not.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 25 March 2005 at 10:49 AM

There's yet another cool thing going on at flickr where people take pictures of the area behind their computers, crop it appropriately, and set it as their wallpaper on their computer. Then, by taking a shot of their computer screen from exactly the right spot, they can make it look like they have a transparent screen on their computer. The example to the right is one example of this, but there are plenty of them all tagged as transparent.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 25 March 2005 at 10:22 AM

From Seth Stevenson's Dispatches from the Michael Jackson Trial, I learned that

detectives discovered a framed photograph of Macaulay Culkin displayed "on a piece of furniture in Mr. Jackson's bathroom."

Weird.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 24 March 2005 at 12:29 PM

I found, via metafilter, a very interesting analysis of Terri Schiavo's CAT scan. Its a very chilling analysis given that it seems clear that Terri Schiavo has very little grey matter left in her brain, and all the responses that her family member are attributing to her are, according to this analysis, subcortical in nature and unrelated to the part of the brain that makes Terri Schiavo different from anyone else.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 24 March 2005 at 11:49 AM

Silicon Beat is running an interesting analysis/summary on the wave of public opinion turning on google. Personally, I've been having some doubts about google and have switched over to a9 as my primary search engine (and I've been flirting with ask jeeves). I don't have a specific reason for this change, just a feeling that google may not be the nice guy that they've always claimed to be. I guess part of the problem a lack or transparency. Google tells us to trust them, but goes to great lengths to keep many things under the covers. I just keep hearing a voice telling me to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, and that has me (a tiny bit) worried.

Comments: 2 Posted by david on 23 March 2005 at 3:47 PM

What song was topping the charts the day you were born? For me it was

Coming Up (Live At Glasgow) - Paul McCartney & Wings (US)
Xanadu - Olivia Newton-John & The Electric Light Orchestra (UK)

Comments: 2 Posted by david on 23 March 2005 at 3:09 PM

It is somewhat ironic that the FCC, which rules on decency "standards," comes across as so very fickle. In an article in yesterday's Washington Post, Lisa de Moraes illustrated their fickleness by documenting how they've treated accidental f-bomb dropping on broadcast television. (As the post is a family newspaper, she uses the euphemism "Vice President Cheney's favorite four-letter word" to refer to f**k. I also don't want to show up in a google listing for that word, so I'm avoiding it as well.) The article makes for excellent reading if you're interested in learning how the US government likes to make up rules with no regard to precedent in order to make political hay. Or something like that. It's good. Read it.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 23 March 2005 at 10:10 AM

This article in the P-D detailing how local representatives voted on the recent Terri Schiavo matter is eye-opening, to say the least. For example,

Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau, said the measure was "necessary to define a gray area in law that has been exposed by the case of Terri Schiavo," and that she hopes it will establish a precedent for future cases.

Since Ms. Emerson referred to a "gray area in the law" I assume she's hoping that this bill establishes a legal precedent. If so, she either didn't read the bill she voted for or doesn't understand that because this bill explicitly named only Terri Schiavo, it has limited, if any, utility in other cases. And if she meant that the Congressional action to intervene on behalf of only one of the 35,000 Americans currently in a persistent vegetative state, she needs to go back to civics class and learn about the separation of powers.

I also enjoyed reading Todd Akin's justification for voting for this measure.

"There is a huge national sense that something isn't right here," said Rep. Todd Akin, R-Town and Country. "When you say, 'This person really doesn't need to be alive,' how about the next and the next and the next? ... That first step is a very dangerous one to make."

His arguments boil down to 1) there is a national consensus that Terri Schiavo shouldn't have her feeding tube removed and 2) there should not be a right to die if you can only survive on life support because it is a slippery slope. Both these arguments are ridiculous. They are a combination of factual inaccuracies and logical fallacies.

On Mr. Akin's first point, polls suggest that there are three times as many Americans who support the removal of the feeding tube than there are Americans who think it should be left in place. And in case you're worried about media bias, both ABC and Fox News are giving similar results. Further, seven out of ten Americans (more than the amount who supported removal of the feeding tube!) thought Congress acted inappropriately when it intervened in this case.

As to Mr. Akin's second argument ("how about the next and the next and the next"), slippery slope arguments are logical fallacies because they assume that the first action somehow enables the second and that there is no chance for review once the first decision has been made. Further is Mr. Akin arguing that things like living wills should be banned?

In short, lawmakers are jumping through hoops trying to justify what they thought was "a great political issue" in light of the fact that their actions are not at all popular with their constituents.

Slate has been doing a bang-up job covering the Terri Schiavo issue. Dahlia Lithwick has been on this since the fall of 2003 and yesterday both she and William Saletan had great articles on this issue. I recommend them both.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 22 March 2005 at 2:39 PM

Deuce Bigalow Europoean Gigolo? Has Hollywood lost its mind?

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 22 March 2005 at 11:54 AM

Wonder of wonders! I've finally succeeded in winning another song in the iTunes/Pepsi promotion. Some of you may recall my earlier post on this subject. Well, I went from 1 for 18 when I wrote that post to 2 for 24 today. I suspect I'm still in a minority for a promotion that advertises 1 in 3 odds, but things are looking up.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 22 March 2005 at 10:22 AM

The NY Times is running an interesting article on a proposed new deaf community that is being planned and built in South Dakota. Marvin Miller, the towns planner believes that

"Society isn't doing that great a job of, quote-unquote, integrating us," Mr. Miller, 33, said through an interpreter. "My children don't see role models in their lives: mayors, factory managers, postal workers, business owners. So we're setting up a place to show our unique culture, our unique society."

There is so much to digest in this rather short statement.

Most importantly, perhaps its not society that is failing to integrate the deaf, but the deaf who are failing to integrate with society. This is a tough call, but the deaf culture often seems to be working against societal integration. In fact, the existence of a deaf culture is itself an indication that societal integration isn't very robust. I understand very well how difficult being deaf is and how living and working in a hearing world is a huge challenge for the deaf. But, when the discussion turns to role models, are the people proposing this community sure that they want to teach their kids that societal integration is not possible and that the best case is that the deaf must isolate themselves from the rest of the world to succeed?

Further, by having children grow up in an all sign language village, aren't they limiting the chances of having the children successfully integrate with the hearing world, if that's what the kids want to do later in life?

I could discuss this in more detail, but let me just say that my skepticism might very well be misplaced. However, my gut feeling is telling me that abandoning society is not a productive, long-term solution for the deaf. These special purpose communities often don't have long lifespans, and I'm afraid that young children who spend their formative years in this one might be adversely held back if they later must try to reenter (or enter for the first time!) the hearing world. But that's just the impression of a not entirely impartial observer and if these families are set on this path, I wish them the best of luck.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 21 March 2005 at 9:41 AM

The rumors that ran rampant through the "blogosphere" a few weeks ago appear to be true: flickr has been acquired by yahoo. The flickr folks are saying all the right things about this acquisition, including that "[p]ro account holders will get super mega bonuses, to be announced soon." I'm a big fan of super mega bonuses, so this is good news. They also threw a bone to the normal users by announcing that "[f]ree accounts will have more storage and uploads -- pro accounts too -- AND they'll be cheaper." The wording on this is a bit ambiguous, but if I had a free account I'd probably be expecting a check in the mail.

FYI, they say that flickr will remain a separate entity from yahoo photos, which is certainly a good thing.

Comments: 3 Posted by david on 20 March 2005 at 10:02 PM

I've been on an on-again/off-again search for new living room furniture for about a year, but until now I haven't found any furniture that met my "looks great but costs next to nothing" criteria. So I was pretty excited to see the ads on TV for the $799 sofa set at Jennifer Convertibles. There was some doubt in my mind as to the quality of the pieces before I went, but they turned out to look even nicer than the ones on TV. But as with all large monetart decisions, this is a tough one to make. The furniture isn't perfect: the cushions aren't reversible so they won't last as long as cushions that I could flip. On the other hand, would I really flip the cushions? And if this set costs half as much as another couch, it should only need to last half as long, right?

Anyway, please take a look at the picture I took of the furniture and tell me what you think. The ottoman is a $200 additional charge, so for now don't include that in your considerations.

Also, for comparison's sake, this set at flickr has a couch from La-Z-Boy that I'm also considering. The difference is that the La-Z-Boy couch by itself is $649 and a matching loveseat and chair would each add something like $500-600.

Comments: 2 Posted by david on 20 March 2005 at 6:15 PM

Do any of you know anything about Jennifer Convertibles? They've been running ads on TV for a couch, loveseat, and chair, all for $799. This intrigues me, but it seems too cheap to be worth it.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 20 March 2005 at 12:48 PM

-273 is in the process of moving to a new server. If you're seeing this mesage, your DNS record is pointing to the new server.

The old server is accessible by clicking here.

Comments: 2 Posted by david on 18 March 2005 at 10:49 PM

The newest round in the Terri Schiavo case is a pure legislative abuse of power. Congress couldn't actually pass a bill so Congressional leaders are now subpoenaing Ms. Schiavo (remember that she's in a coma) in hopes of keep the feeding tube from being removed. I hope a court slaps this down. But failing that they'd better damn well have her moved up to Washington to answer their questions. Because questioning a non-responsive, incapacitated person is the kind of farce that these people need to participate in. It will just highlight how they are trying to bend the rules of law to suit their purposes. Frankly, I would be greatly amused to have Michael Schiavo fight this subpoena to the end and have the end result being reduced Congressional subpoena power.

Terri Schiavo has been in a persistent vegetative state for fifteen years. Why hasn't Congress acted before on her behalf? Because they wouldn't get the media exposure they're getting now. I was angry before but now I'm really upset. I'm going to spend the afternoon making calls to my representative and senators to tell them just how upset I am about this.

Comments: 2 Posted by david on 18 March 2005 at 11:58 AM

It amuses me to find an article on Slate that includes a clip from Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. But I don't know why.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 17 March 2005 at 6:12 PM

I no longer watch the plague that is "The West Wing," but I gather that the B-plot of last night's episode involved termites in the White House. In order for termite infestation to take place, you need contact between wood and the ground. Now, prior to the 1950s, it would have been entirely possible for this to happen at the White House. This is because, as originally constructed (and as reconstructed after the British burnt it) the White House was a wood building in a stone shell. AS some of you probably know, when Harry Truman was president a piano broke through the flooring of the second floor study (and through the ceiling of the East Room). This was the event that triggered a massive renovation of the White House. In fact, the White House was entirely disassembled within the non-structural out stone shell, and entirely rebuilt using steel. The photo at right gives some idea of the scale of this renovation. In essence, every room was removed and later rebuilt. The only wood that remains in the White House is decorative. Now, it is my understanding that termites have gotten into the White House before, but because there are no structural wooden elements they did no damage. Perhaps the West Wing characters were dealing with an infestation of this nature, but there wouldn't have been any way for those termites to cause any kind of structural damage.

(FYI, a great book on the history of the White House is William Seale's The Presidents' House.)

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 17 March 2005 at 3:08 PM

Nothing makes me angrier than this Terri Schiavo issue. Why has our legislative branch decided that it should be involved in what is very much a private family matter? It is unfortunate that there is disagreement between Terri's parents and her husband about continuing her life. But there is a system for resolving these types of conflicts. Giving Terri's parents legal status in federal courts will not change anything. Terri has been in a persistent vegetative state for more than fifteen years. She's not going to recover. And the courts appointed a representative to make decisions that are in here best interests. This representative is her husband. More than a year ago Dahlia Lithwick gave a persuasive run-down on why husbands are generally chosen over parents. Here is the most relevant section from that article:

Well, the law has spoken on this issue as well. And in general, the spouse is granted preference over family members. Why? For the same reason most states give spouses the decision over how to dispose of the body of the deceased, and for the same reason states allow spouses to inherit first. Because the difference between your parents and your spouse is that you chose the latter to care for you and to care for in return. As a consequence of that choice the law assumes that your spouse knows you intimately and shares with you a sphere of legal privacy into which even your parents and siblings may not intrude. Do some of us choose badly? Certainly. But is it still a generally sound legal presumption that your mate knows you best? Yes.

The House is now doing something that will only prolong the pain of those who know Terri. The outcome in federal court will be no different than the outcome from any of the previous litigation battles. It is an unfortunate aspect of humanity that some among us will die tragically young. However, to me death seems preferable than existing on as an empty vessel. The Terri Schiavo that once lived in that body has long since passed on. Only her body remains. Our representatives should back out and let the process carry forward to its logical conclusion.

(On a side note, the House legislation opens up the door for all kinds of legal battles over the right to terminate someone's life. It appears to have been written in great haste and without much thought given to how it would apply to any situation beyond the Schiavo issue.)

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 17 March 2005 at 11:49 AM

The Pepsi/iTunes promotion is rigged. Against me. They claim one in three will win a free song from iTunes, but I am personally one for eighteen. They claim 33.3% chance of success, and I only see a 5.5% success rate. Unacceptable. So Pepsi/iTunes, I bite my thumb at you.

Comments: 7 Posted by david on 17 March 2005 at 9:25 AM

I recently discovered the Museum of Modern Art Store. It's an awesome museum store, with all kinds of cool objects. Now, many of their products can be overly expensive, but if you avoid those pieces (mostly furniture and some lighting) you can find some cool things there.

Here are a few of the less-expensive objects that caught my eye:

• Dozi Paperclip Holder - This porcupine-esque paperclip holder is too cute to be described.
  
• Invisible Playing Cards - See through playing cards.
  
• Tape Dispenser - Who would have thought that there existed a cool looking tape dispenser? Nonetheless, this one looks pretty awesome.
  
• Sky Umbrella - Looks like a standard black umbrella on the outside, but opens to reveal a bright, blue sky on the inside.
  
• M&Co Wall Clock, Five O'Clock - A stylish wall clock with only one number -- the most important number of the day -- five o'clock.

Anyway, I think you'll enjoy browsing the MoMA store.

Comments: 2 Posted by david on 16 March 2005 at 10:49 AM

Interested in the total destruction of the Earth?

Destroying the Earth is harder than you may have been led to believe.

You've seen the action movies where the bad guy threatens to destroy the Earth. You've heard people on the news claiming that the next nuclear war or cutting down rainforests or persisting in releasing hideous quantities of pollution into the atmosphere threatens to end the world.

Fools.

The Earth was built to last. It is a 4,550,000,000-year-old, 5,973,600,000,000,000,000,000-tonne ball of iron. It has taken more devastating asteroid hits in its lifetime than you've had hot dinners, and lo, it still orbits merrily. So my first piece of advice to you, dear would-be Earth-destroyer, is: do NOT think this will be easy.

This is not a guide for wusses whose aim is merely to wipe out humanity. I (Sam Hughes) can in no way guarantee the complete extinction of the human race via any of these methods, real or imaginary. Humanity is wily and resourceful, and many of the methods outlined below will take many years to even become available, let alone implement, by which time mankind may well have spread to other planets; indeed, other star systems. If total human genocide is your ultimate goal, you are reading the wrong document. There are far more efficient ways of doing this, many which are available and feasible RIGHT NOW. Nor is this a guide for those wanting to annihilate everything from single-celled life upwards, render Earth uninhabitable or simply conquer it. These are trivial goals in comparison.

This is a guide for those who do not want the Earth to be there anymore.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 15 March 2005 at 9:56 AM

As you probably know, there are many reasons that those of us in the US might want to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. This is truly a bi-partisan issue (the Republicans primarily for geo-political reasons and the Democrats for that same reason and environmental concerns). Today I came across a unique new product that may be able to help us better use solar power to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

Sunlight in a tube is the coolest idea I've seen for solar power in ages. The long-standing problem in adopting solar power has been the fact that we lose incredible amounts of energy converting solar power from light to electricity or hot water. We just don't know how to do that efficiently and at low cost. But these solar tubes solve that problem by leaving the light as light, and then using fiber optics to get the light where it is needed. I have high hopes for this product and if it proves cheap enough I'm sure we'll see it in more and more public spaces.

Comments: 1 Posted by david on 14 March 2005 at 10:31 AM

Chris, and perhaps others, might be interested in this NPR profile of computer scientist and eccentric Donald Knuth. Among other things we learn that when he bikes over to Stanford to use the math library, he wears his bike helmet indoors because he'll just have to put it back on later. (Knuth has some issues with efficiency.)

The audio of the segment won't be available until 9:00 am CST.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 14 March 2005 at 7:07 AM

Somewhat by coincidence and somewhat by design I found myself out in St. Louis County today and I decided to see if I could find the house I lived in when I was very young. This is the house. The photo's a bit off as I snapped it after I'd already rolled past. Oh well.

My room was on the lower floor, which isn't shown in this picture. But beyond that, I have only the vaguest memories of this house. The family room was also on the lower level and it had built-in bookshelves that I kept my toys on. And I know my room was off a hallway from the family room. But was it on the left or right side of the hall? I have conflicting memories about that, so I can't really say. The living room on the upper floor seemed immensely large, but I was four when we moved out, so that's probably more a by-product of my size than the actual size of the room. One of the dominant memories I have of that room was losing a balloon in that skylight thing that you can see above the front doors.

Anyway, it was fun to see the old house. but the neighborhood didn't really look too good. There were a few nice looking houses, but there were also a number of houses that hadn't been very well maintained, and the overall impression of the place wasn't all that positive.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 12 March 2005 at 11:44 PM

Dell shipping estimates suck. The image below seems to indicate that, despite the fact that Dell took my order through order processing, pre-production, kitting, build, and testing in one day, it will take them 11 days to box my order. Frankly, it would be better to have no estimate than to have an estimate that they pulled out of the air.

(Can you tell I'm anxious for my new toy to get here?)

UPDATE: I hate Dell. It takes them a day to assemble the parts for the new computer, put it together, and test it, but then it takes another day or longer to box the damn thing? They'd better get this thing out early next week.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Boxing complete. Shipping has commenced.

Comments: 1 Posted by david on 10 March 2005 at 11:04 PM

I've been looking for a new computer for a few months now, but I finally found the model I wanted. And because of some Dell sales that were going on and my employer's business relation ship with Dell I was able to combine a 30% off special, a free shipping special, and a 12% employee and affiliate discount to get a decent price on a new laptop. I placed the order yesterday and I'm happy to report that it has completed the kitting and building phases of its production and it is currently undergoing testing. The ship date is estimated as March 21, but I'm hoping it comes before then.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 10 March 2005 at 3:25 PM

Ron alluded to this in a recent post, but let me add that Congress needs to find something better to do with its time than investigate steroid use in major league baseball. Steroid use has been rampant in other sports, especially track & field, for more than a decade, but that hasn't warranted Congressional hearings. But when big names come into play, Congress acts like it cares. These new hearings are nothing more than a publicity stunt and, if they do issue subpoenas, an abuse of their authority.

Members of Congress have long used their subpoena power to advance their careers. History, however, hasn't looked too kindly on those efforts. I'm reluctant to mention his name here, but there are some similarities between the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s and the proposed steroids hearings. The obvious similarity being the desire of greedy politicians to get some press by holding hearings.

If any of my representatives participate in these hearings, regardless of their party affiliation, I will not be voting for them in the future. This things are a fraud and a waste of tax payer money. Baseball is only a game! Find something else to do with your time, like writing legislation, for example.

I won't even get into the possibility that Congressional immunity in exchange for testimony could derail any pending criminal investigations, such as the on-going BALCO case.

And some people wonder why the public is disillusioned with politicians in general, democrats and republicans.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 9 March 2005 at 11:32 AM

I noticed this flyer on the bulletin board at work today and wanted to share it with you. Now, I understand the appeal of catchy slogans. If I say "be all you can be" or "obey your thirst" you know where those slogans came from. But I'm not sure that "Get Your Rear In The Clear" is going to make many people rush out and get screened for colon cancer.

Also, the idea of a doctor dancing like it's 1977 doesn't inspire a great deal of confidence in the screening process, at least for me.

Comments: 2 Posted by david on 9 March 2005 at 10:37 AM

I've been thinking about writing an iTunes plugin for about a week or so, but was initially discouraged because it looked like I'd need to use C, C#, or some other MS-centric language to use Apple's COM interface to iTunes. And that just isn't worth it to me. Getting Visual Studio up and running on my PC is just too much effort for a little side project. However, I've now discovered that I can interface with iTunes using Java. Of course, I'm sure all of this is much easier if I were using iTunes on a Mac. But I'm not, so discovering that I can use Java to do this makes me pretty happy.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 8 March 2005 at 11:06 AM

So I'm out of town for the weekend and what do I find on the coffee table when I get back? A copy of "O, The Oprah Magazine." This month's edition appears to be focusing on financial matters as one of the articles is "Desperate Housewives: What Every Woman Should Know About Money." I haven't read the article, but I assume it advises you to go on Oprah's show, where she gives away cars and other nice items on a regular basis. Or so I've read.

Anyway, I asked michael where the magazine came from. His response was something like "Rachel blah blah blah conference blah blah blah paper stock." That might seem like a legitimate excuse, but I'm sure that, like all magazine reading men, he "got it for the articles."

Comments: 1 Posted by david on 7 March 2005 at 2:26 PM

Having trouble finding just the right sneakers? Why not design them yourself? I'm not sure that maroon and black are to everyone's liking, but I had a lot of fun putting together my first design. It doesn't appear to be too expensive, either. Now to decide what colors I actually want to wear.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 3 March 2005 at 1:36 PM