Archive for July, 2008

The Web is… um… big.

Thursday, July 31st, 2008

As I seem to be saying a lot this month, I’ve been using the Internet for a long time. I remember when Gopher was more useful than HTTP. I remember when with a little dedication you could surf a significant portion of the entire web. I mean, I’m not Berners-Lee or anything, but I started [...]

Well, this should solve a few problems.

Tuesday, July 29th, 2008

The KGB Raffle winners are up.
It appears I have won a wormhole.

Could this, combined with my recently acquired Mad Scientist goggles, be the beginning of my career as a supervillain?
Or, alternately, the beginning of a mildly comic adventure through time and space?

What You Get For Being A Grownup

Tuesday, July 29th, 2008

I am the world’s worst homeowner. I never seem to get around to doing the routine maintenance that owning a home entails. Some of this I can get away with because I will pay someone else to do it, and some of it is covered by my awesome wife–for instance, all my neighbours think I [...]

A Previous Engagement

Sunday, July 27th, 2008

No blogging today, nothing’s getting between me and the new Taltos1 book.

I’ve known Steve for quite few years now, but I’ve known Vlad since I was 10 years old–we go waaaay back. And unlike many people I knew when I was ten, I’m always glad to see him when he comes around.
If that made you [...]

A Blast From The Past

Friday, July 25th, 2008

You kids today with your webcomics, you don’t know how good you’ve got it. I remember the early 90s1, when getting a comic on the web meant puerile Space Moose sodomy jokes or the banal comedy of Doctor Fun.
</crotchety>
Seriously, though, there’s a wealth of great stuff out there today–no one could read everything being [...]

Jaycee

Friday, July 25th, 2008

I read a lot of science fiction. I have, since I was a kid–the first novel with no pictures I ever read was A Wrinkle In Time. The first “adult” book I ever read was Foundation.
When I was younger I had the opportunity to read a lot of the early short work in the [...]

Wallowing in Links

Thursday, July 24th, 2008

Yes, it’s time again for an original-content free collection of pointers to things that amuse, interest, or frighten me.

I believe I have to mention the opening of Knol, Google’s attempt to take on Wikipedia with “authoritative articles” that have specific owners, rather than the anonymous wisdom of crowds. I admit, I have no idea how [...]

Cursing Music

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008

On my recent drive back to Canada, among the many other good things that happened, I had a chance to be reminded why I love Etta James singing Damn Your Eyes so much.
Here, you have a listen, and it should be obvious why that is:

As I was listening to it, I got to thinking that [...]

If I did it right, you can’t tell.

Thursday, July 17th, 2008

We are now WordPress 2.6, and all plugins are up-to-date (9 updates this week).
I believe everything is working correctly, but late-night upgrades from hotel rooms are not always perfect, so if you see something broken, drop me a comment–unless, of course, it’s commenting that’s broken. Heh.

Those JibJab guys are funny

Thursday, July 17th, 2008

Geek Family

Thursday, July 17th, 2008

Apparently my daughter is now old enough that when I’m away on business we send each other emails1.
In order to illustrate for some people at my office why it was that I no longer was interested in my business travel being any more than the bare functional minimum, I showed them today’s missive:
When you come [...]

Conservatives condone suspension of due process and torture of children.

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

And then there’s this one, which makes me so angry I’m not sure I can even write coherently about it.
A day after a report revealed Canadian officials knew of Omar Khadr’s harsh treatment by the U.S. military, Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Thursday repeated vows to leave the case in U.S. hands.

A Canadian official visiting [...]

Conservatives in league with war criminals, despite will of the public

Tuesday, July 15th, 2008

Here’s one that both angers me and makes me embarrassed to be a Canadian:
globeandmail.com: Canada deports U.S. army deserter
U.S. army deserter Robin Long was quietly deported from Canada Tuesday morning, while protesters unaware of his whereabouts picketed the Canada-U.S. border crossing south of Vancouver.

The first and most important question here is why are we letting [...]

Conservatives: cheats and liars

Tuesday, July 15th, 2008

I am filled with rage at our offensive, crypto-Republican right wing minority government today. Let’s look at few things in order of ascending offensiveness.
First we’ll start with financial irregularities, disregard for the rule of law, and good old talking points spin:
Elections chief counters Tory defence on expenses practices
Elections officials found no evidence that other political [...]

Organizational Pathology

Tuesday, July 15th, 2008

Did you see the ACLU press release today about how the American terrorist watch list now has more than one million people on it?
“America’s new million record watch list is a perfect symbol for what’s wrong with this administration’s approach to security: it’s unfair, out-of-control, a waste of resources, treats the rights of the innocent [...]