Another great story...

Message Technology Gets 'American Idol' Showcase

Valentine's Day

Well, I'm getting ready to go to San Jose again. I'll miss the real holiday, since I get in at 10:30 p.m. and she doesn't get off work until midnight or so. But we'll celebrate on Saturday. One of her cousins is in San Francisco, so I'll get to meet her, too. Best of all, it's a three-day weekend.

I'm a little worried about this terrorism business. I guess there's nothing I can do, but it's never a good sign when the government advises you to stock up on duct tape. I hope the rumors about stinger missiles are exaggeated. And I hope targets don't include Disneyland, the underwater BART tunnels in the Bay area or LAX. Or for that matter, my apartment.

U.S. questions dissident's conviction

CNN.com - U.S. questions dissident's conviction

"Our embassy in Beijing and our consulate general in Guangzhou have again registered our deep concerns over lack of due process," Boucher said.

"We also note with deep concern that Mr. Wang's trial was conducted in secret, raising questions about the nature of the evidence against him," he added.

"We are particularly concerned by the charge of terrorism in this case given the apparent lack of evidence and of due process."

Because the United States would never do anything like that.

An sad day for arcade games...

Atari Arcade Division Closes

NASA Reported Fragile Shuttle Wing in '94

Oops.

So much to write about, so little time.

Obviously, the Columbia disaster came as a shock. Like a lot of little kids, I wanted to be an astronaut growing up, and I used to be a huge shuttle fan. I remember a neighbor giving me a shuttle "owner's manual" that I read over and over and from cover to cover. And I still remember seeing those heat tiles falling off of Columbia in the late 1970s in NASA's first real-world test flights, when it would piggyback jumbo jets on cross-country flights. But on Saturday, I didn't even realize a shuttle was even up in space, much less the Columbia.

Andrea came for the weekend, and as usual, we had a really good time. We mostly hung out in Santa Monica, saw a Brazilian movie called "City of God" that's been getting good reviews (extremely violent, but good) and even tried a new restaurant (it was OK). She flew back this afternoon.

That's it for now. I'll try to update in the next couple of days.

Another Clinton "scandal" debunked.

Salon | Newsreal: The great Arlington National Cemetery smear

Bush Says Saddam Shows 'Utter Contempt' for U.N.

Finally, Bush and Iraq agree on something.

I reorganized my Yahoo briefcase to make room for more picture. They include Andrea's and my trip to Solvang a few months ago and some random shots. I'll put the Monterey pictures back up when I get time.

Reporting from San Jose

I'm seeing Andrea for the first time in more than a month and she's doing just fine. Today we're going clothes shopping, then off to help a friend fix his wireless network, then off to an NFL playoff party by a bunch of Tennessee Titans supporters. We're supposed to give some moral support to Sarah and Geoff, who are Oakland Raiders fans (though both are from Tennessee).

The whole notion of rooting for a particular team is sort of silly. In ancient times -- when a team comprised people from a particular town or region, and people rarely moved far from their birthplace -- I can see identifying with a team. Its triumph over another team, after all, would seem to imply some sense of genetic superiority. But nowadays, a team has little to do with the town they happen to play in. It players change constantly, teams move, and not even the owners live there half the time. So the whole notion of home-team loyalty is a corporate construct. In other words: sports fans = suckers.

Game server flaw poses attack threat

Not good

'In an advisory posted to the company's Web site, security consultancy PivX Solutions stated that popular multiplayer games that have servers supporting the GameSpy network--such as "Quake 3: Arena," "Unreal Tournament 2003" and "Battlefield 1942"--could be used to magnify a denial-of-service attack, in some cases by as much as 400 times.

...

Other games that PivX believes are vulnerable are "Quake," "Quake 2," "Half-Life," "Tribes," "Return to Castle Wolfenstein," "Medal of Honour: Allied Assault," "NeverWinter Nights," and "America's Army." Versions of the game servers that are released on the Linux platform are affected as well."

The Republicans are in charge #6

White House Allows Limits on Emergency Coverage

U.N. team finds chemical warheads

It looks like we finally have some evidence.

Rumsfeld: Lack of evidence could mean Iraq's hiding something

You can't beat that kind of logic.

What was it Bush was saying about how Iraq treats its people?

Death, terror in N. Korea slave camps

Bush: 'Sick and tired' of Iraqi deception

We are not, however, sick and tired of North Korean deception.

The Republicans are in charge #5

House weakens rules on lobbyists

Apple releases its own Web browser

If this is the company's biggest product announcement for MacWorld, they're doomed. This might have been exciting about 10 years ago.

Proof still not given of first human clone

OK, it's official. Legitimate news organizations can stop giving these hucksters attention and credibility now. We have enough pseudoscience as it is.

Wow, those online gamers really get into it....

WinBeta.Org - L.A. Official Calls for Probe of Internet Cafes

"The investigation of the cybercafes, also known as 'PC bangs' or 'cybercafes,' came after a brawl erupted between rival groups playing in a tournament involving the online combat game 'Counter Strike.'
...
One unidentified teenager was shot in the leg on Monday outside an Internet cafe in Northridge, a suburb that is part of Los Angeles. A second youth was struck in the head, reportedly with a chair."