Andrea has a Web site!

It's actually an online version of her portfolio, so if you'd like to see how talented she is, check it out.

Progress

Well, it's getting there. The formatting is slowly getting fixed, though new-and-improved commenting system is still whacked out. So everyone just shut up for a minute and let me think. 

Man at work

I'm performing a long-needed redesign of the site to make it a little fresher and less cluttered. So far, so good, I think. I need to fill up the left side and fix a few nagging style and coding issues, though.

If all goes well, I should have the update done before Andrea gets back tomorrow night.

Couldn't have said it better myself

I was wrong. Rumsfeld's outrageous, insane -- dare I say fascist? -- rhetoric does deserve a response. And MSNBC's Keith Olbermann delivers a doozy:

Mr. Rumsfeld’s remarkable speech to the American Legion yesterday demands the deep analysis—and the sober contemplation—of every American.

For it did not merely serve to impugn the morality or intelligence -- indeed, the loyalty -- of the majority of Americans who oppose the transient occupants of the highest offices in the land. Worse still, it credits those same transient occupants -- our employees -- with a total omniscience; a total omniscience which neither common sense, nor this administration’s track record at home or abroad, suggests they deserve.

Dissent and disagreement with government is the life’s blood of human freedom; and not merely because it is the first roadblock against the kind of tyranny the men Mr. Rumsfeld likes to think of as “his” troops still fight, this very evening, in Iraq.

It is also essential.  Because just every once in awhile it is right, and the power to which it speaks is wrong.

Of course, Olbermann is understating his case. This administration hasn't been occasionally wrong. It's been consistently, spectacularly, tragically wrong.

In the digital age, what does one buy at Barnes & Noble?

An ampersand-shaped bookend, of course! 

Rumsfeld: 63% of Americans morally confused, cowards, fascist appeasers

In unusually explicit terms, Rumsfeld portrayed the administration’s critics as suffering from “moral or intellectual confusion” about what threatens the nation’s security and accused them of lacking the courage to fight back.

In remarks to several thousand veterans at the American Legion’s national convention, Rumsfeld recited what he called the lessons of history, including the failed efforts to appease the Adolf Hitler regime in the 1930s.

This sort of rhetoric kind of speaks for itself.

Planet San Francisco

Your city can be a planet, too!

I've been promoted

This has been in the works for a little while, but I can finally talk about it openly now that it's official. I've been named assistant tech editor here at IBD, which basically means I get a little more money for a lot more work.

It also means I'll be stuck in the office most of the day rather than out doing interviews. I do, however, get a window cubicle. So I have that going for me.

I want, I want

Now this is what I call a monitor. Unfortunately, it looks like it'll cost about a million dollars.

Poor Pluto

It's no longer a planet.

Perhaps the most useless application of Linux, ever

Computer-controlled cat feeder.

The robots are taking over

The Financial Times reports that computers are generating breaking earnings stories for Thompson Financial and Reuters. My gut reaction, of course, is one of pure terror.

But on second thought, I don't know a single reporter who enjoys pounding out these boilerplate pieces. During my first year at IBD, the most mind-numbing part of the job was the quick-turnaround earnings shorts. In fact, my colleague and I used to refer to ourselves as highly trained monkeys every time earnings season rolled around. With standardized earnings reports, there's no reason why this "who" and "what" and "where" aspect to journalism shouldn't be at least partly automated. Reporters' time would be much better spent digging into the financials and asking the all-important "why" and "how" -- much harder questions.

If it's not loud enough, you're too old.

Test your hearing with this range of sampled frequencies.

In praise of South Beach

I was a little skeptical when Andrea and I embarked on the South Beach Diet (or as a colleague likes to call it, the "Pretend You're Diabetic Diet") a few months ago. I figured that the initial weight loss would be mostly water weight and quickly return. But so far, it's been the most successful -- and easiest -- diet for Andrea. She's lost 20 pounds so far. And I'm back to the weight I was before moving to California and discovering Rubio's.

The Amazon review sums it up quite nicely:

While the diet is sound, the book could be better organized. The first half mixes scientific study with anecdote in a seemingly random way, while the mix of meal plans and recipes can be confusing. Still, the recipes are varied and tasty, and you'll never feel deprived, unless you currently happen to live by bread alone.

The other criticism I have is with the author's opening statement that the diet is neither low-carb nor low fat. That's a blatant lie -- it's both of those things.

Still, not a bad return for a $10 investment.

Mac OS X Leopard and Windows Vista side by side

A nice, sober-minded comparison of the looming OS upgrades.

Cupertino, start your copiers

Steve Jobs mocked Microsoft for copying Apple this morning, while announcing some of the new features of the upcoming Mac OS upgrade, including this Spaces feature. He might want to know that this capability, available "only with Mac OS X Leopard," has been around for at least four years as a Windows XP Powertoy called Virtual Desktop Manager.

Sign of the times

Underwhelmed by It All - Los Angeles Times:

A new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll, the first in a series of annual entertainment surveys, finds that a large majority of the 12- to 24-year-olds surveyed are bored with their entertainment choices some or most of the time, and a substantial minority think that even in a kajillion-channel universe, they don't have nearly enough options. 'I feel bored like all the time, 'cause there is like nothing to do,' said Shannon Carlson, 13, of Warren, Ohio, a respondent who has an array of gadgets, equipment and entertainment options at her disposal but can't ward off ennui.

Official Google Blog: Saved locations on Google Maps

Official Google Blog: Saved locations on Google Maps

Finally.

Civil war in Iraq possible, generals say - Politics - MSNBC.com

Civil war in Iraq possible, generals say:

Under questioning by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Pace said he did not anticipate one year ago that Iraq would now be in danger of descending into civil war.

Funny. Everyone else seemed to anticipate it. Well, almost everyone.

Cooler than Google Earth?

Microsoft Live Labs: Photosynth