I've always been a big believer in the Internet and online services, but after what I've been through this month with Microsoft Money, WingspanBank.com and CheckFree, I don't think I could seriously recommend online banking to anyone.

I've been using that combination of services since mid-1990s with no problems, even after my original bill-payment service, Visa ePay, got out of the business. Then last month, I get a letter from CheckFree saying there was a problem "locating" my account. Somehow, my software was trying to pay my bills through a checking account I closed more than a year ago. To make matters worse, about a month's worth of bills had gone unpaid, with no notification from CheckFree. After spending at least four hours on the phone with people from CheckFree and Microsoft, I managed to resolve the problem and secured promises from CheckFree that they'd send explainations to my creditors explaining the problem and requesting a reversal of any late fees.

Well, two weeks later, I've discovered that my service has been "frozen" by CheckFree. I called my bank: plenty of money in the account.

Will I ever resolve the issue? Will I have to yell at some poor front-line worker and cancel my account altogether? Stay tuned...

George Bush, explaining why he wants to fund religious groups with tax money: "Religious liberty is more than the right to believe in God's love. It is the right to be an instrument of God’s love. Such work is beyond the reach of government and beyond the role of government.”



Um, Mr. President, isn't that the agrument AGAINST your "faith-based" charity funding proposal?

Can you really call it a "space agency" if you've never been to space?

Well, it looks like another round of blackouts is imminent. Summer dreams, indeed.

Well, I got my wireless home network up and running. Thank you, George W. Bush, for helping me pay for it; I'll remember this day, even as I'm eating dog food in some free nursing home. The technology is kinda cool -- now I don't have to walk all the way to my bedroom to use the Internet (I'm updating this from my couch!) What's really cool is that I'll probably be able to use this at the forthcoming wireless-enabled Starbucks outlets. Of course, I'm assuming they'll be using the 802.11b standard, which would make sense considering it's the one actually available. I mean, there's no sense in advertising something most people can't use, is there? Is there?!

For some reason I watched "The Whole Nine Yards" on HBO tonight for the second time. I hate it when I can't help watching dumb movies.

So sleepy. So very sleepy.

I've had the apartment to myself for three days (the rommate's out of town until Tuesday) and it already looks like a pig sty. I guess it's true that, left to their own devices, most guys would wallow in their own filth. Man, she's going to kill me. I'd better clean this place up tomorrow.

It looks like I'm not the only one who hates Canadians. An interesting episode of public radio's This American Life.

I just had the epitomal San Francisco encounter at Albertson's. I saw a fairly attractive woman in one of the isles but couldn't help noticing how unusually tall she was. I spent the rest of the time wondering how she found men that tall and if she'd ever date someone as short as me. By pure coincidence, I ended up behind her in the checkout line. Struck by how deep her voice when she addressed the clerk, I took a closer look at her face and suddenly realized that "she" was no woman -- at least in a strict biological sense. Can you sing "Lola, L-O-L-A, Lola...?"

In other news, beware Microsoft Money. It'll work fine for a few months and then turn on you.

New heart problem for Cheney
Dick Cheney has a heart?

Heard a great Simpsons line today, by Ned Flanders:
"Well it looks like heaven's easier to get into these days than Arizona State."

I'm ashamed to say I spent $9 last night to see Tomb Raider. It had some prety decent special effects -- like the one where they made that nasty tattoo on Angelina Jolie's back disappear.

Here come the blackouts!

Vitamin C Found to Promote Cancer-Causing Agents
Yet another reason why looking out for your health is a complete waste of time.

Sometimes in the most unexpected times I'm reminded of exactly how fortunate I am to be doing what I do for a living. Today I downloaded songs to test the new MP3Pro standard, helped a co-worker set up e-mail for a nifty high-speed wireless modem, took a 90-minute lunch, interviewed a company that designs database software for all sorts of cool gadgets and made a map to Pac-Bell stadium for a Giants game I'll attend tomorrow night as part of a data beaming service review.

And I'm getting paid for this.

Another excellent essay in The New Republic on Jim Jefford's so-called "coup of one."

Yet another example of why media consolidation is bad. Isn't it funny that Michael Powell's FCC insists on expanding obscenity laws for radio -- a philosophy that content should be regulated because airwaves are limited and should therefore serve the public interest -- but has no problem with loosening media ownership rules that put those public airwaves in the hands of fewer and fewer individuals?

An excellent article in The New Republic on why Michael Powell's unilateral redefinition of antitrust will have grave consequences for the American public.

Maybe this sounds like a banal observation, but I'm becoming increasingly convinced that media companies should never go public or sell themselves to publicly owned corporations. Good, serious journalism just isn't compatible with the short-term financial goals of Wall Street investors.

Yes, journalism can -- and must -- remain profitable to survive. But when a newspaper begins mandating layoffs solely because it wants to enjoy the profit margins and growth goals of other Wall Street companies, journalistic quality becomes secondary. Sure, family owned newspapers are always at the mercy of their egomaniacal owners, but they usually saw journalism as a public service, willing to suffer thinner-than-average margins as a reality of the business. And as we saw with CNN, a privately owned news operation -- even when headed by a self-absorbed gadfly like Ted Turner -- can produce groundbreaking journalism.

We can only hope.

McCain Personally Reassures Bush on Party Plans Darn.