And all the packets are in order. Whatever will I do with all these extra batteries?
-k-
Technorati Tags: leap second
Leap Second Survivor
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Monthly Archives: December 2005
Happy New Year!
Here we come a-wassailing
Among the leaves so green,
Here we come a-wand’ring
So fair to be seen.
Love and joy come to you,
And to you your wassail, too,
And God bless you, and send you
A Happy New Year,
And God send you a Happy New Year.
We are not daily beggers
That beg from door to door,
But we are neighbors’ children
Whom you have seen before
Love and joy come to you,
And to you your wassail, too,
And God bless you, and send you
A Happy New Year,
And God send you a Happy New Year.
Good master and good mistress,
As you sit beside the fire,
Pray think of us poor children
Who wander in the mire.
Love and joy come to you,
And to you your wassail, too,
And God bless you, and send you
A Happy New Year,
And God send you a Happy New Year
We have a little purse
Made of ratching leather skin;
We want some of your small change
To line it well within.
Love and joy come to you,
And to you your wassail, too,
And God bless you, and send you
A Happy New Year,
And God send you a Happy New Year.
Bring us out a table
And spread it with a cloth;
Bring us out a cheese,
And of your Christmas loaf.
Love and joy come to you,
And to you your wassail, too,
And God bless you, and send you
A Happy New Year,
And God send you a Happy New Year.
God bless the master of this house,
Likewise the mistress too;
And all the little children
That round the table go.
Love and joy come to you,
And to you your wassail, too,
And God bless you, and send you
A Happy New Year,
And God send you a Happy New Year.
—-
Happy New Year to all. During 2006, I’ve gotta resolve my style sheet woes when graphics are involved. In the meantime, judge me by my sentiments and words, not the beauty of my site.
-k-
Government FUD Cookies
The government is spying on us again, or maybe they’re leaving us some delicious treats. The NSA uses gasp! cookies for site navigation. The White House actually stoops to count the number of visitors to its site. As does every other commercial website on the internet.
If this is such a bother, try one of the following:
Or keep up with this non-story, and register a new domain to disseminate such “Public Service” items; I’d suggest tinfoilhatsr.us. Web 2.0 goodness, missing vowels; it’s got it all. Consider this suggestion my final act for the good of humanity in 2005.
-k-
Technorati Tags: Cookies, tinfoil hats
Words to live by from Burningbird
Shelley Powers’ Christmas Post on burningbird.net was a classic; so classic, in fact, that I flagged it in NNW, to be able to use one snippet in this little New Year’s message. Read her article, look at the pictures, and try to figure if she writes better than she photographs, or vice versa. I’m still debating that question myself.
2005, like all years past, and like all those to come, has been full of triumphs, tragedies, disasters both natural and man-made. None of us has it in h(is|er) power to stop these things in their tracks; we must react to them in some manner after the fact. Much debate in blogs, the press, and the electronic media centers on policy, on what we can do collectively to make this world a better place. And often the debate breaks down into name-calling, flaming, baseless accusations, and half-truths. Not that I’ve ever done that; no, I’m just observing. And then Shelley’s words come through:
The world is full of assholes, and sometimes I’m one of them.
And that’s true for me, humbling though it is. So a little New Year’s prayer of sorts:
When I’m in the presence of an asshole, don’t let me be one.
When I’m being the asshole, don’t let me be in an asshole’s presence.
Not exactly peace on earth all at once; maybe one step down that road towards it.
Happy New Year to all.
-k-
Technorati Tags: Burningbird, Shelley Powers
How are you spending the leap second?
Have enough water? Bread? Toilet Paper? Duct Tape? Is the car’s gas tank full? Got spare batteries?
Sheesh, at 6:59:59 PM, EST tomorrow, it could be all over.
Should we go to code orange?
If all the NTP servers get DOS’ed, we could be frozen in time. If that happens, I’ll be spared from creating, and you will be spared the reading, my New Year’s message.
-k-
Technorati Tags: leap second
The Siderunners – 2o of separation
Yesterday, my NNW feed leapt for joy on receiving this full-feed post from The Evil Genius Chronicles. Anything with the word “Siderunners” in it gets my feet tapping. The Siderunners CD Ain’t Inventin’ The Wheel was the first album I bought after hearing them on a podcast; the EGC Clambake to be precise about the source.
After a brief “oh, shucks”, that I don’t live in Minneapolis, and can’t see them live, I made my monthly trip out the the Siderunners’ web site, in search of their much sought after, maybe even mythical, next CD. Once again, no new album. So from their site, to CDBaby, where I see that Ain’t Inventin’ The Wheel is out of stock for re-production. Good on the ‘runners, they sold ‘em all. Then at the bottom of the CDBaby page, I see this:
Other Notes:
First ever grand champions of the Twang Off – www.twangoff.com
So to TwangOff :: A Battle of the Bands I go, and discover that TwangOff has podcasts. Five so far, all of which I downloaded. Great show! Live cuts from the battle of the bands performances, interviews with the bands, and some podsafe music I really liked.
A great thing about the new wave of music; even when you can’t find what you’re specifically looking for, you can find something you dig.
Now, off to AmigoFish to enter my rating. (Hint: lotta stars for this one).
-k-
Technorati Tags: Evil Genius Chronicles, TwangOff, Siderunners
Tentative agreement in the Sony rootkit lawsuit
Sony has agreed to settle the rootkit class action lawsuit, according to this, from CNET News.com.
The Washington Post Security Fix Blog has further information.
From the Post article:
The lead attorney for the plaintiffs, New York lawyer Scott Kamber, said the two parties signed a settlement which is awaiting preliminary approval by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Again, from the WaPo:
According to the terms of the settlement, Sony would be required to stop making CDs outfitted with the flawed “XCP” and MediaMax digital rights management software..
Additionally, depending on whether the offending CDs contained XCP or MediaMax DRM, and depending on the versions of each DRM method, customers can receive as much as $7.50 per offending CD, as well as up to 3 free music downloads. Sony, of course, is not required to admit any to wrongdoing.
Keep in mind that all of the above is still awaiting court approval. If the agreement is approved, we can count a small victory for the good guys. But we still must be aware, as customers from whose pockets the money is ultimately extracted, that we still must be vigilant. As Tim Jarrett puts it in his post at The Sony Boycott Blog:
I’m concerned that there will be no real changes. After all, XCP and MediaMax are hardly the only DRM technologies on the market.
And I’d add to that, that Sony is hardly the only major record label in the world.
Here at tbbs-land, we’ll strike the “No Gifts for Sony” badge in the right sidebar on 1/1/2006. We’ll fly the “Boycott Sony” banner a little longer, at least until after the court rules on the settlement. Then it might morph into a more generic “Beware DRM” motif. We’ll see how it goes.
-k-
h/t: Tim, at the Sony Boycott Blog. His coverage was timely, accurate, and non-ranting.
Technorati Tags: BMG, Boycott Sony, DRMisphere, rootkit, Sony, SonySuits
Evangelism, RSS Style
Several coworkers got shiny new iPods under the tree a few days ago, and several of them are using the word “podcast” in complete sentences now. Just a scant year ago, I was explaining podcasting to a small group during a post-work bull session. The consensus then was “I don’t have an iPod, so I can’t participate.” I explained that iPods were at optional item; evidently I was not clear enough, or persistent enough, in my explanation.
Now, though, I’m getting a lot of questions about how to find podcasts, what podcasts are good, etc, etc. The iTunes store has been a source of choice for several; they were already familiar with iTunes, and it was a natural progression to seek out podcasts there. If Apple did nothing else for podcasting, they certainly brought it into a lot of folks’ awareness.
Some with a little more podcast listening experience say they haven’t found that many that interest them. I mentioned they should check out AmigoFish. I explained the concept1, and told them to rate what they’d heard, get some predictions. Listen, rate, repeat. It really doesn’t take that long to get some decent predictions from AF.
Lastly, another coworker hacked up the Sage RSS reader FFX extension to automatically update subscribed feeds on on a user-specified time period. So, now I get asked, what do you subscribe to? What should I subscribe to? What can I subscribe to? My answer is “If you read any website on a daily basis, odds are they’ve got an RSS feed. Click the Sage magnifying glass, and it’ll find it.” They just can’t believe the ease of use, and love the fact they can follow more stuff in less time. And all without visiting the website. I’ll point out the virtues of full feeds to them later.
It says somewhere that a “little child shall lead them.” The last few days, in this limited arena, it’s been this grizzled old guy. I like that.
-k-
1 – Chief amongst this explanation was that the Fish is not some cheesy, hoked-up popularity rating scheme. Simple rating schemes abound, and have some utility for someone just starting out in podcast listening. Kinda like using WikiPedia as a springboard to better information.
Bless those Late Christmas Card Senders
I always get a little down in the few days after Christmas, just wanting to struggle through to the end of the year. The late Christmas card senders never fail to cheer me up. Just today, we got a picture of my little great-nephew in Wisconsin, and one of a good friend’s wife and her new husband. (Don’t read anything into that; my amigo passed away in 1989, and SWMBO and I have kept in touch with her through the years).
Anyhow, those late cards do a wonderful job bridging the gap.
-k-
Next Stop: Tax Time
It’s getting close to time to get TurboTax Mac for this year. As I’m thinking about that, and watching the evening news, they have a story about this being the last week for charitable contributions for this tax year. With many Katrina victims still displaced and struggling, last year’s tsunami victims doubtless still in need, this is an excellent time to not only help, but to get a little tax grace as well. As there is no shortage of those needing help, there’s also no shortage of charitable institutions who can see that your gift gets there. Don’t worry that you can’t help everyone at once with your gift; find a cause and just do it.
And if things are a little tight now, contribute when you can, even after the 1st. Nothing wrong with getting a leg up on next year.
-k-