April 2001

• But before I run away I spent more time cleaning up the archives. Now they appear to all be valid HTML4.0 (Transitional), and I'm partway to having an archive that will allow me to have a separate entry for each day (for ease of linking), while still being able to generate monthly entries (for ease of reading). And if I'm really productive this week, I might get partway to resurrecting the ''by topic'' index (though I have to categorize about 2000 links to make it useful and up to date).
• Find Your Spot claims to tell you where to live. It thinks Buffalo, NY is the place for me. Minneapolis doesn't even make the top dozen. Interesting. Warning, it uses javascript, cookies and pops up some windows. Sigh.
• The Who song Goin' Mobile makes running away sound pretty good. It's part of The Hypertext Who, which is a good way to waste a lot of time.
• Amtrak's Bad Trip - if you fit the ''drug courier'' profile, Amtrak will alert the DEA. And they get 10% of any money seized from you. Maybe it's best just to stay home.
• Got a gripe about a company who shafted you while you were traveling? The BizTraveler.org complaint site may be the answer to your prayers. Thanks to Steph for pointing it out.
• The Daily Radar's Daily Cat Carrier is a nice counterpart to fluff the cat, which I mentioned last Friday.
• Finally, according to folks who should know, today is the second crest in the river near my house (I'm a good fifty vertical feet above it, so I'm not worried about flooding). I'll probably wander out there later in the day to take some more pictures.

Weather in Minneapolis for April 30, 2001     April 30 in History

• Slightly new look. More changes in how I'm building the pages.
• The Top X reasons to move to Mac OS X. Sounds about right to me.
• Wednesday, 25 April, 2001 was the 10th anniversary of the System 7 Golden Master. Greg points out that it's an appropriate time to consider how much, and how little, the state of the art has changed since then.
• From Start-Up to Bust-Up details the rise and fall of ArsDigita. It's an interesting story of how to run (and not run) a software company.
• If you're a cat lover, you might not be hip to fluff the cat. But I sure am. After talking with Jim on Monday night, while his cat was trying to pounce on the mouse he was driving, he might enjoy it, too.
• The Guerilla Physician Online is addressing patient-privacy as well as managed health-care issues.
• rock-hard abdominal cramps is another Red Meat cartoon featuring Bug-Eyed Earl that just makes Too Much Sense to me.

Weather in Minneapolis for April 27, 2001     April 27 in History

• Before we get to the politics, I've got some pictures of the 2001 Preseason PETA cookout we had last Saturday.
• Jim made the comment that It seems that the more $ is spent on security the greater the amount of conflict. I suppose it's a chicken and egg problem, but I don't recall reading about protesters throwing molotov cocktails (at the ground, at the wall, at the cops...) in Seattle.
• The Centre for Media Alternatives of Quebec 2001 pulls together a lot of alternative coverage.
• In A20: Resistance Is Live, the Hacktivist covers the Quebec City protests.
• the electrohippies A20 Quebec Action Page mentions that there may be some follow-up actions.
• Police battle protesters, leaders talk trade at Americas summit.
• Free trade, closed talks in Quebec City. A new 2.4 mile long by 10 foot high wall has been built to keep the ten to fifty thousand expected protesters away from the diplomats.

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

• The Star Tribune show in their Editorial: Hidden guns that they don't trust us.
• For your viewing pleasure: extreme is dead. It ain't a real ad, but it should be.
• What I Should Have Said. You've had the feeling. Share the experience.
• Spychecker tells you if software is freeware or Spyware.
• Spertus vs. Kozmo.com - the first successful suit against a spammer in California. Unfortunately, it was kozmo.com, and they're gone now.

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

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

• I took some photos of the Mississippi at flood stage over the weekend.
• The Mississippi River Beautification and Restoration Project started with Chad Pregracke pulling trash out of the river. 45,000 pounds in 1997, 400,000 pounds in 1998, three garbage barges in 2000. He's not alone anymore, in case you hadn't guessed.
• I recently finished reading Steven Levy's Crypto - ISBN 0-67085-950-8. It was a good read, even though I'd followed much of what was happening since the late 80s.
• Yahoo!, I'm Disappointed in You. Well said, Steph.
• Boo! And the 100 Other Dumbest Moments in eCommerce.
• Hmm. Maybe I should add a Mechanical Hit Counter to Dave's Picks.
• Jesus is coming to dinner. Heh!

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

• The Onion Presents Easter Cards
• It's peep week in the Doctor Fun cartoons for April 9 through 13, 2001.
• Twenty years ago yesterday was STS 1: First Shuttle Launch.
• Yahoo ventures into online porn industry. Strangely enough, I couldn't find the press release about it on Yahoo! itself.
• But this morning, I noticed Yahoo takes adult merchandise off its site.

Weather in Minneapolis for April 13, 2001     April 13 in History

• Coming later this year: A museum worthy of ham called Spam.
• The Tax History Project at Tax Analysts explores, strangely enough, the history of American taxation.
• I honestly don't know how I missed Jail Babes back on Valentine's Day. If you need a bad girl, this is your kinda place.

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

• Well, first I'll eat a Breakfast scramble. Gotta have fuel so you can think up deep theories.
• First 'Napster-proof' CD set to burn. In hell. Er. More seriously, when I can't play CDs on my computer, that's just going to make me more likely to start pirating the songs. Or writing software to extract them in spite of the copy protection.
• Copyright Laws Provide Little Real Protection for a small developer. That's not much of a surprise. They haven't been repeatedly modified because of lobbying by small developers.
• Terror groups hide behind Web encryption. They're thwarting the efforts of law enforcement to detect, prevent and investigate illegal activities. So. Technology gave law enforcement types the ability to snoop more efficiently, and now when technology makes that sort of snooping less efficient again, they're upset. Bummer. Oh well, at least the secret messages are hidden in pr0n, so the law enfocement sorts can get their rocks off while the cryppies try to break the code.
• A British scientist says Two gunmen involved in JFK assassination. And he's got peer-reviewed proof. Someone on the grassy knoll, in spite of years of denials from the U. S. Government. Who'd a thunk?
• Microsoft's War Of Attrition on dotcom companies. Okay, it's not much of a conspiracy. It's just Too Darned Obvious.

Weather in Minneapolis for April 6, 2001     April 6 in History

• I've added Basic bread to Dave's Recipes. That's not very silly, I guess.
• Google Edfunced Seerch - The Swedish Chef does google. I didn't think it was possible to make Google more useful.
• Everyone's got a weblog now: George W. Bush's Weblog. Okay, so it's a joke.
• The Cat-Vac is a silly little game. Woo!
• CourtesyFlush.com offers etiquette for real life, answering such questions as Is a man required to leave the toilet seat down when his girlfriend sleeps over at his apartment?
• My friend Steph really loves her husband. Even if he is a dick online.
• I've posted a list of Bumper Stickers from the Net. Warning, some are offensive.
• How To Dance Properly is a bit silly. As if in reply, Kompressor Does Not Dance.
• April 1 marked the beginning of Operation Dessert Storm.

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