Be Careful What You Blog

A Microsoft employee thought that posting a picture that he snapped of a truck delivering Mac G5s on his blog was nothing more than innocent humor. Unfortunately, when his boss found out about the blog post, he was fired for a security violation. If you're going to blog about work, make sure it's okay with your boss first, especially if you're posting pictures. However, if the post was a picture of Microsoft software being delivered, I don't think he would've been fired, just given a warning. Maybe they've done this before, though, and just wanted to make a point this time. Hopefully he won't have too much trouble finding a new job. Link courtesy Leoville.

New Microsoft Operating System

Bill Gates is previewing the new Microsoft OS to software developers. This way nobody will have to worry about software not being compatible when they run out and buy Longhorn. Longhorn won't be out until 2006 because they have to copy the features that are in Panther. Microsoft software runs on 90% of the world's desktop computers and Gates needs to make sure that that number stays the same or increases.

Also, since Gates' personal wealth has been declining, I think we need to start some kind of fund to help him out. How much would each American have to contribute so that he has $100 billion again?

I still think that I'll be buying to new operating system, unless more software (games) is made for the Mac. Windows Media Center looks tempting too, so I may buy one of those PCs when the one I have now dies. Apple may come out with it's own media center-type OS though, and it may be better than the Windows version because Apple's good with a/v stuff.

Running Out of Numbers

Tackling the net's numbers shortage is what experts will be working on in the next few years. Currently, there are 4 billion IP addresses on the internet, but we're running out as more devices use addresses. IPv6 technology's supposed to fix it all, for a while at least, so no need to worry about it.

A Little Controversy

A hip-hop Artist from New York has recently put his art one display in Tokyo. Hip-hop may be controversial, but there are other things that can curl people's hair more than that: hip-hop artists as Christian icons in paintings. Personally, I think that this is not a wise thing to do. Not only would it offend people, but it places ordinary people in the place of religious deities. It is equivalent to drawing a picture of George W. Bush, and calling it God.

I am no expert on Christianity, but I think that when Jesus is depicted in art he's not supposed to be any specific person. Taking hip-hop artists, presidents, or anybody and depicting them as Jesus or any other religious icon is a supposed to mean something about that person in relation to the religion. If the depiction is supposed to mean that Tupac is Jesus or a Buddha, then that is morally wrong because it is against religious teaching.

Tom Sanford is unquestionably talented, but I am not sure what message he is trying to deliver through his work. I am further confused by his website (I think it's his website, and I cannot see any of the pictures for some reason). It appears that he does not know about the real conditions of the various ethnic and racial groups in America in the past and present.

As more people become familiar with his work, more will comment and hopefully his work won't be taboo in America.

Peach Money?!?!?!

The U.S. has a new 20 dollar note and it's peach and green! Peach and green?! Who thought that was a good idea? Money should be pretty even if the people on the money aren't. They could have at least added more appealing colors instead.

I guess part of the reason why the Bureau of Engraving is not doing anything drastic is tradition. American money is green and black with old white men and Roman style buildings. Anything different and it would be heresy.

The Bureau just needs to forget about tradition and try something radical. See through money, holograms, primary colors, and new people would all be great things to try for U.S. currency.

If those things don't work out, then that's okay, try something different. What ever happened to the Sacagawea coins? I liked those coins, and I think other people did too. Were the coins too pretty? Were people collecting them rather than spending them? Naw. They just disappeared! May that's why the Bureau of Engraving and the Mint don't want to do anything wild anymore.

Sure there's the state quarters, where each state gets a quarter that is unique to itself, but I haven't seen any I like so far. Also, those are only coined for a limited time so people (including my mom) are just collecting these coins to own some history. People should be able to own a nicer piece of history rather than just peach coins, corn coins, horse coins, etc.

I have so many big plans for U.S. currency, I should work at the mint or something. However, being around money has its consequences as illustrated by the Discovery Channel's program on the Loomis Fargo bank robbery (almost obsolete online).

Thread Count

After watching Martha Inc. I have become interested in thread count. In the movie Martha wanted her Kmart products to be high quality, and demanded that her sheets have at least a 300+ thread count. So I started looking for new sheets for my bed with high thread counts. Without doing any research about what the thread count of sheets actually referred to, I noticed that higher thread counts meant higher prices. That's alright though, it's not my money.

It may seem like I've turned into a domesticity freak, but I'm looking for two things: sheets that last for 20 years+, and darker sheets that don't look like they're dirty when they really are (I just hate washing sheets).

This is what happens when you watch too much Martha Stewart. If I go broke decorating rooms, this what I'll blame it on.

Senko - "Wizard Child; Hermit Child". This is my Japanese name. What's yours? Female or male.

Save the Asians

A few days ago I was listening to EWTN Radio and I heard something I didn't know what to make of. One of the callers mentioned that she was concerned about the condition of the souls of people in Asia. According to her, the Christian missions during and after World War II did not effectively convert people in Asia to Christianity. Apparently, the Asians are materialistic, in the sense that they have everything they want, but that's eroding their souls. She believes that now is the time for missionaries to go to Asia and convert everyone over there.

I'm not sure what to make about this viewpoint, but I want to know if anybody who has this opinion can help me understand what it means.

CrAzY SyTeS changes the look of any website without having to do any fancy html coding. If I had know it was this easy, I would've done this in the first place! I found it through Bleu Blanc Blog. It took me about 5 minutes to figure out what was going on, so I've spared anybody else the trouble. And no, I can't read the French.

Dubya Speak

The president of the U.S. likes to rewrite the rules of the English language all the time. DubyaSpeak.com is one of my favorite sites because it makes me laugh. If the entire English speaking world could visit this site there would be less war, poverty, and hunger. Nah, I just think he's a silly guy.

The Miniature Earth

I've said it once before, but I have to say it again. You must take a look at The Miniature Earth. I don't feel that I need to explain why, just do it. You'll come away with something and that's good. Also, make sure that you read the text part of it because there's more info.

Mac vs. Windows

This is a topic that frequently comes up whenever Apple or Microsoft release new versions of their operating systems. I personally use Mac OS X.2 and Windows XP Home Edition. I think both are great improvements over their previous versions, but I am not sure which one is better. It's different for each person, but some things Macs to better than Windows, and vice versa. For me, it's still had to tell. Since OS's are software, it will run differently depending on the hardware. So I'll ignore hardware for now and focus on what the software can do, rather than how fast it is or whatever. The kind of things I do with computers are internet, watch DVD's, burn music and data CD's, instant messages friends and family, use Microsoft Office, and rarely play games.

Both Mac and Windows are great with the internet. Most of the websites I visit are formatted for Windows, but that doesn't stop me from using the Mac. The problem that I have is that major companies have Windows and Mac version of their websites, but the Mac version doesn't look as good. Yahoo! is one site that has all this great video stuff on the Windows version, but they cut all that stuff out on the Mac version. I think they're just being lazy and don't want to create a nice website for the Mac people out there. This has nothing to do with lack of capability of Macs, it's probably just uneconomical for the companies I guess.

Watching DVD's on a Mac is just better than with a PC. I think this has something to do with InterActual Player. This program is a terrible program with so many bugs in it that I just avoid it all together. DVD's have special features that only work on the PC (most special features work fine on the Mac), but InterActual is so bad I just skip over them. I think I need another DVD player for the PC.

Burning CD's is really easy with both platforms. Data CD's burn nicely on both platforms, but music CD's are different. iTunes makes everything easy, while the 5 million programs on the PC all need to be learned after each disk. I just use iTunes; the Mac is better in this field.

Instant messaging is another case where it's uneconomical for the programmers to make a good client for the Mac. I can do the basic things, but the PC versions are full featured. I use AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, and iChat (AOL IM client designed for the Mac) but I can't do voice chat with any of them except iChat. iChat's brand new and buggy, and I can only do voice chat with other iChat users (just my mom). AIM claims that it's Mac version has a voice chat, but it's nowhere to be found (others can't find it either). The PC wins because of the extra features.

I use Microsoft Office on both systems and it works well them. The problems I have on the PC is when I create something on the Mac, and it doesn't show up right. Fonts change pictures not showing up are real cumbersome problems, but I'm told there's tricks I can use to avoid this. I just don't know where to find them though.

When I want to play games, I play them on the PC. Games are made for the PC not the Mac, this might change in the future, so I'll discuss it in the future.

I use the Mac most of the time. It's works for me and can work a lot for many other people.

This is What I Like

No Cheers for Columbus, Says Venezuela's Chavez. I don't know much about this guy, but I agree with what he says about Columbus Day. Finally, somebody calls the Invasion genocide and not a discovery. There were between 60 to 90 million Native Americans from Mexico up to Canada, and most of them were systematically killed. Biological warfare was used against the Native peoples for the first time yet I don't hear much about it when the topic is raised. If only Christopher Columbus wasn't granted a fleet to sail out in the Atlantic. The world would certainly be a different place.

Presidential Blog

When I first clicked on a link to George W. Bush's blog I thought it was a joke. However, the site looked legitimate (lots of money was put into it), and the news reports confirmed it. If only he actually wrote each entry, it would probably sound a lot like his poetry.

No Updates

"Survey says, only 50,000 blogs are updated daily and most bloggers give up within one year. Perseus Development Corp. randomly surveyed 3,634 of the estimated 4.12 million blogs online and found that two-thirds hadn't been updated in over two months. Over one million blogs only contained a single day's posts. Active blogs were updated on average every 14 days. Only 106,579 of the hosted blogs were updated on average at least once a week. Fewer than 50,000 were updated daily. There's lots more in the report - it's interesting reading. QOTD: When's the last time you updated your blog." Courtesy Leoville.

Organization

Time's precious these days and work's increasing. I still haven't learned how to organize but the video store is hiring and I want to work there because it's so close by. At least I'll have time tomorrow to go grocery shopping for food and watch a movie. I think the problem is that I spend too much time sleeping. On the weekends I don't wake up before 3 p.m. and I always sleep until right before class. If I actually woke up earlier I could get a lot more work done. Another thing I would need is a cure to procrastination. I've looked at some options, but I'm not confident them. End ProcrastinatioNow provides numerous opportunities for me to enter my credit card number, while Doing it Now looks more promising, but I don't like 12-step programs. If anybody knows of a pill, patch, or cream that helps, please let me know. I'm going to try doing assignments earlier, maybe that will help.

Nargile

This is what some people in Turkey do. Maybe if people do this is the U.S. they'll be less nervous, competitive, and thoughtless.