Sunday, April 27, 2003

I'm back!

I didn't realize I was even down until a few people asked me what happened to the site. I renewed my domain name, and because of a weird corporate buyout of my former registrar, it was counted as a transfer and I had to reset my URL forwarding and DNS services.

Anyway, that's taken care of.

I had a really long weekend of journalism workshops, old friends and driving. I got to see Robert and Sarah from the Business Journal for the Poytner Institute's National Writer's Conference -- which, by the way, should have been called a regional conference, since there was another one somewhere that day. And today, I saw former OCBJ collegues Alex and Ludmilla at the L.A. Times book festival at UCLA. It was huge.

And then I took a really long nap.

Thursday, April 24, 2003

Attention Pressplay members!

Think twice before downloading the latest Internet Explorer security fix. It causes a Javascript error in the Windows Media Player plugin that makes the service inaccessible. Pressplay tech support just confirmed that it's "working with Microsoft" on the issue. Amazingly, Microsoft is a Pressplay affiliate.

After another Windows hotfix slowed mine and everyone else's PC, I'm starting to wonder whether the "auto update" feature of Windows XP is such a good idea.

Wednesday, April 23, 2003

Fox News strikes again

AP Wire | 04/23/2003 | Media, military investigated for taking art, artifacts, cash from Iraq

So far, only Benjamin James Johnson, who worked as an engineer for Fox News Channel, has been charged.

The dark side of OTC Claritan

And perhaps, another indictment of health care system that doesn't give consumers incentives to cut costs.

CNN.com - The Claritin over-the-counter dilemma - Apr. 23, 2003

New SARS travel warning issued

New SARS travel warning issued

Responding to the global spread of the deadly SARS virus, the World Health Organization on Wednesday urged against travel to Beijing, China’s Shanxi province and Toronto, Canada’s business capital.

For the record, I've always urged against travel to Toronto.

Friday, April 18, 2003

Rise of the machines

The Unmanned Army

Yes, "The Terminator" was a prophecy.

Thursday, April 17, 2003

Hey, check out my new site

To feed my interest in the design aspects of technology, my new site, "Design-Nerd" is finally up. This is where I'll herald all the cool -- and aesthetically pleasing -- gadgets I see. It's not finished (the logo has to be changed, for instance, because the domain name I was hoping would expire soon got renewed), but I'm eager to get early feedback.

Wednesday, April 16, 2003

I'm rich!

For the first time in as long as I can remember, I have a positive net worth (assuming my car is worth exactly what I owe on the loan). Woo-hoo!

Thursday, April 10, 2003

Interesting

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to see Sadam gone, as are millions of Iraqi's. But it's starting to look like "Wag the Dog" wasn't such a farce after all. I sincerely hope this Web site is a hoax.

The photographs tell the story...

Wednesday, April 9, 2003

We win!

We came on strong and spanked them. In the words of the great 70s band Queen: "We are the champions..."

Gonna be a rumble tonight

And I'm not talking about Iraq.

Because of a first-place tie, my bowling team faces a bowl-off tonight between Pin Heads and the Lucky Strikes (I'm a Pin-Head) for the IBD league championship. Now I wish I'd bought my own ball.

Friday, April 4, 2003

Last Refuge of a Scoundrel

An excellent editorial by Baltimore City Paper.

In case you haven't gotten it yet, here it is in a nutshell. Criticizing the president is not the same thing as criticizing the troops. Criticizing the president is not the same as criticizing America. And criticizing the president is not "giving aid and comfort to the enemy," which is the classic definition of treason, a federal crime that earns felons the death penalty.

This can't be good.

Major Threat Seen in L.A. Quake Fault

Monday, March 31, 2003

Why does Fox News hate America?

Pentagon Says Geraldo Rivera Will Be Removed From Iraq

"At one point, he actually revealed the time of an attack prior to its occurrence," Lt. Mark Kitchens, a spokesman at Central Command, said yesterday morning. Lieutenant Kitchens added that Mr. Rivera had been escorted to Kuwait.

Sunday, March 30, 2003

Navy's floating hospital treats Iraqis

Want federal health care? Join the Iraqi army.

Among the ship’s 62 doctors — mostly Navy physicians from the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland — are two neurosurgeons, a plastic surgeon and a pediatrician. Heart surgery and organ transplants are the only procedures that can’t be performed on board.

Friday, March 28, 2003

Well, what do you know? Diplomacy does matter.

Missteps with Turkey prove costly

Still #1

But barely. We lost two games to tie for 1st, in which the number of total points determines the winner. We have an ever-so-slight lead.

Good news for Andrea, too. She's gotten the Ok from everyone she needs to do the cross-training in editorial. So let's hope she's doing real graphic design soon.

Sunday, March 23, 2003

12 U.S. troops presumed captured

12 U.S. troops presumed captured

On CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Rumsfeld said that if those are coalition soldiers being shown on the Al-Jazeera TV footage, “those pictures are a violation of the Geneva Convention.”

If the Iraqi's killed soldiers execution style, then someone's getting tried for war crimes. But as far as showing them on TV, I don't see the difference between an Iraqi state-run TV showing these images, and the U.S. military letting CNN and others show Iraqi POWs yesterday.