Kidman Says Cruise Denied Cruz Affair

Well, with those names, a little confusion is understandable.

White House Hangs Up on Tina's Talk (Washington Post)

Uh, Mr. President, aren't your daughters adults now?

For the second time in three months, I found myself within five feet of Bill Gates and couldn't help wondering what would happen if I just walked up to him and pushed him. I physically could have pushed the richest man on earth. Scary. If I were that rich, I'd have at least one highly visible body guard.

Best line of the night (during a panel with Bill Gates, Andy Groove and other early PC pioneers):
"I may have invented CTRL-ALT-DELETE, but Bill here made it famous."

Ken Brown here, reporting from Starbucks in San Jose's trendy little Willow Glen district. I'm actually testing Starbuck's new high-speed wireless service, provided by MobileStar. It seems to work pretty well, though I had to drive halfway accross town to find a Starbucks actually running the service. I'll link to my full review on the Business Journal soon...

Vikings’ Stringer dies of heatstroke
Pro Bowl tackle Korey Stringer died Wednesday of heat stroke, a day after collapsing at the Minnesota Vikings’ training camp on the hottest day of the year.

Further proof that you should never exert yourself.

How the Democrats should answer W's religious charity funding plan.

I'm happy to report that I've finally finished my video project, the chore that has sucked up all of my free time over the last three weeks. It's not perfect -- there are plenty of little errors I'd like to go back and correct and things I'd have done differently with more time -- but all in all, I'd say it's a pretty darn good peice of work. Still, I'm not sure I would have volunteered had I known how much work was involved. I wonder how much of a courtesy bonus I'll get for this. Considering I had to use my own computer (an irony, considering the bosses wouldn't "rent" a new editing deck from me), It had better be more than a token thanks. I saved them at least $30,000 from what they would have had to pay a third party -- and they wouldn't have had any software to show for it!

Oh well, I'm just glad to be through. Now I can actually enjoy my weekend. And of course, I'm tons more familiar with Adobe Premiere. Now on to Affer Effects...

Katherine Harris to run for Congress

The most disturbing part of this article is that this she-man and I were born in the same city.

CNN.com - Berlusconi backs Bush over missile defense
A telling Bushism from the article: "I frankly do not care what the political polls say. I do care about the opinions of people..."

Um, Mr. President, polls ARE the opinions of people.

Another good cartoon by Mike Luckovich.

Smoking can help Czech economy, Philip Morris-Little report says
"Philip Morris Cos. officials in the Czech Republic have been distributing an economic analysis concluding that cigarette consumption isn’t a drag on the country’s budget, in part because smokers’ early deaths help offset medical expenses."

Of course, Hitler tried to make a similar argument to Czech leaders during WWII about the positive effects of the Nazi occupation.

Surprise, surprise:
Bush camp promoted illegal balloting in Florida

Wow, what a full day! I took the train up to San Francisco, hung out at the park near the Metreon, went to the an Francisco Museum of Modern Art which I forgot was showing its high-tech exhibit "Art in Technological Times." (It was cool, but the most interesting exhibit there was actually a series of large-format photography that has to be seen to be appreciated.) Afterwards I ordered my favorite meal, Capellini, from a restaurant at the Metreon and tried to see Moulin Rouge, which unfortunately was sold out. So instead I went shopping at Macy's for some clothes I'll need for my employer's new dress code (more on that travesty in a later post). Then I walked over to Virgin Records to find new music to look for online, ordered some hot chocolate from the third-floor cafe, and from a window, watched the people below and read a book. Now if I were writing a personal ad, that's how I'd describe a perfect date. Too bad I was all by myself. That's not counting the train ride home, which I spent sitting next to a union-environmental activist who offered other passengers Sierra Club newsletters to pass the time. Suddenly, I gained a new appreciation for my MP3 player.

Well, CheckFree has unfrozen my acocunt. Somehow the old Bank One account got reactivated. We'll see how long this lasts.

Oh, boy! Another faith-based educational program!

Here's a cute little picture of my neice, Katelynn Faith Burns.

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.