February 2001

• Accounts of running away:
  • Philip Greenspun wrote Travels with Samantha, which was one of the first web-based accounts of running away I ever read.
  • Joel's Bike Trip is another account of seeing America.
• Schoolbus conversions are one of the means I looked at for running away.
  • Joreth's School Bus is the most detailed account I've found. Sadly, the bus died. Remember to make sure your bus has a good engine before putting too much effort into the rest of it.
  • Bob Sokol's schoolbus conversion is another, not as detailed account.
  • How to Convert a Bus into a Motorhome will help you find parts to do the conversion and sell you a book telling you how to do the job.
• EscapeArtist covers overseas living for international job seekers, expatriates and tax exiles.
• Student World Traveler Magazine offers similar resources for students.
• The Vintage Airstream page offers a look at earlier runaways lifestyles. And it's fun to look at.
• AirCourier.com talks about Air Courier trips, lowest cost air tickets and bargain flight fares for inexpensive air travel. Airhitch (new URL) offers the same sort of thing, but you don't have to take someone else's stuff with.
• And once you've decided to run away, maybe you want to join the circus. Join Cirque du Soleil.
• Gotta have some food when you run away. I've added a Three Cheese Lasagna with Red Sauce and a Raspberry Sorbet (though the latter probably wouldn't travel too well) to Dave's Recipes.

Weather in Minneapolis for February 26, 2001     February 26 in History

• To Hell With Bad Browsers say Zeldman and A List Apart. I'm tempted to agree, but too lazy to make the change yet. But if you're using a 4.x browser, you've been warned.
• Aaron Swartz wrote an essay titled Apprentice Education which captures some ideas I'd had rattling around my head. Not bad at all for a 9th grade kid.
• James Lileks writes that the Most horrifying Hannibal scene was child viewer, and then More on kids viewing R-rated movies. Yet another reason to avoid going to movies in the theater.
• Hong Kong mulls measures to mute cellphones in public places. The office of Telecommunications may install mobile-phone jamming systems in some public places.

Weather in Minneapolis for February 23, 2001     February 23 in History

• I've added Dave's Breakfast on a Bun to Dave's Recipes. Nothing fancy. Just good food.
• Bancroft and Arnesen officially end trek across Antarctica. They arrived at McMurdo Saturday evening.
• The User Group Network has a letter about Joining the Fight against UCE (SPAM) in the wake of the Yahoo takeover of eGroups.
• Network Solutions sells its database - nothing terribly new about it, but some people weren't aware of it. I wasn't aware of the extent to which they're marketing the information now.
• World Wide Words is fun for lovers of language. It focuses on British English, but is still plenty interesting for those of us who use American English.
• Noah S. "Soggy" Sweat, Jr. gave a tribute to booze in front of the Mississippi House back in 1952. It's a pretty neat quote.

Weather in Minneapolis for February 20, 2001     February 20 in History

• R.I.P. Dale Earnhardt 1951-2001. Earnhardt dies following Daytona 500 accident. Gonna miss watching The Intimidator race. At least it wasn't lingering, Earnhardt died instantly of head injuries doing what he loved.

Weather in Minneapolis for February 18, 2001     February 18 in History

• Antarctic adventurers relent and ask to have the plane come pick them up. The Bancroft Arnesen Expedition made it across the continent of Antarctica, but didn't get across the Ross Ice Shelf like they'd hoped. Still a mighty impressive undertaking.
• A friend of mine put together a Bush Tax Plan calculator. Handy.
• There's A History of TrueType I stumbled onto. It has a few details I wasn't aware of, and a few interpretations I'm not sure about, but overall it's pretty good.
• Ever wonder How Network Address Translation works? Well, now you can find out.
• Google Acquires Usenet Service from Deja.com. Now you can google the Usenet archives, too. More and more, if you want to find something, google's your answer.
• The Keirsey Temperament and Character Web Site can help you figure out what kind of a person you are. In case you don't know. The only problem is that they require your email address, etc., in order to let you take the test. Unless you speak a language other than English, in which case you can take the test without providing any information.

Weather in Minneapolis for February 16, 2001     February 16 in History

• A Love Song (From a Different Point of View) is a fun little ditty. You may know it under another title. It was kind of my theme while putting together these links.
• The Strib says Love is hard to find, even in crowded cyberspace. The article talks about meeting people via the internet. A mixed bag at best, I think, which is about the conclusion the article came to.
• A collection of Bug-Eyed Earl comics. More romance from a different point of view: sweat beads on your inner needs - corncob harmonica serenade - rotten egg incubator - scraping the roe from the slit-open belly of comedy - sand dollars for the dirt-poor - comedy's cauterized stump - doddering docent to the museum of misanthropy - and finally, in case your valentine needs some cheering up: bite-mark festoonery.
• CNN's Swanky Love Palace is still online, even though it went up in 1998. It's not that cool, but it is kinda neat to find a link that's three years old and is still valid.
• You can compose a love poem of your own using Online Magnetic Poetry. Cathie's Poem is one example.
• Finally, I stumbled onto the following books via various reviews or comments from friends. They all seem somewhat related to the topic at hand.
  • I Know You Really Love Me: A Psychiatrist's Account of Stalking and Obsessive Love is a book that a friend recommended. It's probably a good idea to make sure you and your Valentine are on the same page, romance-wise.
  • The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce ISBN 0-78686-394-3 discusses the effects of divorce on children, up to thirty years later. Seems children of divorce have more difficulty forming relationships down the road, among other things.
  • The Case for Marriage ISBN 0-38550-085-8. The title pretty much describes the book.

Weather in Minneapolis for February 14, 2001     February 14 in History

• I've started a Dave's Recipes page. Currently there's just Dave's Red Sauce, but I'd like to add more recipes as I get the time to write 'em down.
• In Day 3 in Dublin of our vacation in 1999, I mentioned Dan the One Man Band. He sent me an email last Friday, so I Googled him, and found a 1999 article saying he's Keeping in time with himself.
• 1,277 cars towed during Minneapolis snow emergency. That's a lot of towing. And they didn't say how many tickets were issued, but there were a lot more tickets than tows. And now that the snow emergency is done, we're down to single-side parking for the rest of the winter. That really bites in a neighborhood where the streets were already full most of the time. Half the spots are now gone until April. The followup story says the grand total was 2,086 cars.
• Speaking of wintry weather, the Bancroft Arnesen Expedition had A hard 16-hour day, but has gotten within sight of the Ross Ice Shelf. About 500 miles left to go in 11 days. And as of this morning, Bancroft, Arneson reach historic destination. They've reached the Ross Ice Shelf and have 495 miles to go to reach McMurdo Station.
• Bill would end asset seizure of drug suspects in Washington state. Assets could be seized only after someone was proven guilty. Somehow that seems to make more sense than the current system. Of course the police oppose it.

Weather in Minneapolis for February 12, 2001     February 12 in History

• Tog has the Top 10 Reasons the Apple Dock Sucks. Maybe this will get Steve's attention so the Dock gets killed, even though it looks cool.
• The World Economic Forum's Big Hack Attack. The WEF forum in Davos was hacked. Much personal information about attendees was leaked. Tsk.
• What is the phone doing when idle? talks about what CDMA cell-phones do when you're not actively talking on 'em.
• The Internet is Full of Holes - security holes, that is. I guess it's news, since Wired said so, but it doesn't seem that newsworthy to me. The article does have a good summary of recently discovered security holes, at least.
• Over at Slashdot, they're pondering The Extinction Of The Mom & Pop ISP service.
• Charges Against Trucker Dropped by DA in Linda Hamilton case. After he changed his testimony in the case against her. Something smells about this one.

Weather in Minneapolis for February 9, 2001     February 9 in History

• Friday I mentioned that Linda Hamilton had been found guilty. Apparently she's seeking a mistrial now. The page I link here has as much of the story as has been made public so far.
• Between the Alps and a Hard Place: Switzerland in World War II and the Rewriting of History got a good review in the March, 2001 issue of Liberty Magazine. I think I'll probably need to buy it one of these days.
• The HoneyNet Project is attempting to learn the tools, tactics and motives of the blackhat community and share those lessons learned. They have a lot of good information available, but it looks as though there haven't been any new white- papers since last summer.
• The (In)Security of the WEP algorithm (which is used in 802.11 wireless devices, like Apple's AirPort) is a bit of a problem.
• Minneapolis Council approves Guthrie land deal. Moving the Guthrie theater to the riverfront in Minneapolis would be a good thing, I think.
• Mpls : Long Gone : The Gateway is James Lileks' story of buildings that are no more. It's part of his larger site, which is pretty darned cool if you're interested in Minneapolis.

Weather in Minneapolis for February 5, 2001     February 5 in History

• I was grumbling about sports on Monday. And the Baseball Strike FAQ will probably prove useful as the year goes on.
• This year's Super Bowl One of Lowest Rated. I had a pretty good idea that was going to be the case when there were only ten people in the bar at game-time on Sunday.
• Speaking of the stupor bowl, Secret Cameras Scanned Crowd at Super Bowl looking for criminals. Sigh. Not the least bit surprising. But depressing nonetheless. And the same technology will be at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. And in Vegas casinos. Maybe it's just time to stay home.
• How police handled protesters in DC at the inauguration. Shameful.
• Linda Hamilton Found Guilty of 'Assault With A Dangerous Weapon'. Yeah, she probably should've just let the truck run her off the road.
• Wages lag behind housing costs in Minnesota. Plus heating costs are way up.
• Did you know The James Gang was Pete Townshend's favorite American band?

Weather in Minneapolis for February 2, 2001     February 2 in History