February, 2002 full listing

• I had a talk with a friend about Dave's Picks yesterday, and it got me thinking. No, I didn't strain anything, thanks for asking. Seems my gun-nut freedom-fighter posts don't excite all my readers, and there have been more of them lately. All I can say is that you can't please everyone, so you got to please yourself. I think in the long run, if you expect the level of discourse here to be about what you'd get from me in a bar, you won't be disappointed. The problem is that I can't tell when you're bored and I should move on. Sorry. If there's something you really like (or really hate) about the links, feel free to drop me a note. I can't promise it'll change anything, but I'll listen. And yes, I'm still working on getting some sort of commenting system in place to make conversations possible, but I've been busy working on things that will pay the bills lately.
• Andrew Sullivan wrote A Blogger Manifesto. Part of it tells about how he's making money, which is interesting, even if it probably doesn't apply to me. [scripting]
• Megnut on articles on blogging. She points out that despite being written by professionals most of the articles get some facts wrong. [scripting]
• Dan Bricklin's Observations From a Weblogger. I don't read Dan much anymore, but he has some good observations on how the weblogging universe works. [scripting]
• Google loves blogs because they have lots of links which make for better google searches. [instapundit]
• Site reads Web surfers their rights. If you get a cease-and-desist letter from a lawyer, hie thee over to Chilling Effects to get informed of your rights. If a lawyer is threatening you (such as over a domain-name) and the claim is baseless and meant to harass you, you can also contact that lawyer's state bar association and file a complaint. [instapundit]

Weather in Minneapolis for February 28, 2002     February 28 in History

• FDA to Weigh Proposal for ID Implant. Sure, it will only be approved for voluntary use, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to have some parents group start tagging their kids to protect the children. And then it's not so voluntary anymore, is it? [google news]
• We're not The Great Unwatched anymore. Especially in the District of Corruption. $20 billion a year to keep an eye on us citizens.
• Banks ask feds to block consumer privacy laws ostensibly to help combat terrorism. Funny, this time it's not the feds who are attacking our privacy. Y'think maybe the banks are looking to make a few more bucks by selling personal information about their customers? [strib]
• Surveillance is getting Up Close and Personal. And a fat lot of good it'll do in stopping terrorism. [some guy]
• Terror link seen in identity thefts. It's not just banks and the government that are snooping. The fact that so much information about us is tied to a few numbers. Sigh. [cryptogram]
• Great concept, great name: Peekabooty. Get that smut where they really need it, I mean, they can't say porn caused the repression of those women. [steph]

Weather in Minneapolis for February 27, 2002     February 27 in History

• How come Guardian Unlimited noticed that a convicted criminal was put in charge of the new "Information Awareness Office", but I didn't hear about it in the US?
• Assault rifles for Annan guards investigated. Kofi Annan: Nobel Peace Prize for the gun-runner. [instapundit]
• If the state fails us, we must defend ourselves. Folks in the UK are now talking about rolling back gun control there. It hasn't been working, and people are tired of being unarmed victims. [instapundit]
• Gun crime trebles as weapons and drugs flood British cities. The trebling is in the last year. No wonder folks are getting grumpy. [instapundit]
• Ninety years ago Emma Goldman asked What is Patriotism? I don't necessarily agree with it all, since I think it's possible to be a patriot and still love liberty. [some guy]
• All the Way Down the Slippery Slope: Gun Prohibition in England and Some Lessons for Civil Liberties in America. Long. Probably only interesting to those who wonder how we got into such a mess. And it's probably only my fellow gun-nuts who think it is such a mess. [instapundit]
• Anthony Swenson's take on law enforcement: We used to have peace officers. Now we have law enforcement officers. The difference is more than just semantics. [instapundit]
• Does the War on Drugs really enrich terrorists and make America less safe? [instapundit]
• Finally, another neighbor update. This morning at 2am it was a loud stereo. Sigh. I wonder if this is a sign that it's time to move.

Weather in Minneapolis for February 26, 2002     February 26 in History

• As I got out of bed yesterday morning, I felt a pain in my lower back. I spent all day moving around my place slowly and hunched-over. And this morning, the trash men and recycling guys have nothing to pick up from our house, because none of the other dozen people who live in the building seem to be capable of hauling it to the curb when I don't take care of it.
• Since I've been updating Dave's Picks on a daily basis, the number of page-reads has almost tripled. I guess updating daily is a popular thing.
• I'm adding new categories to my Add a Pick page. I think the list of categories has settled down just about enough that I can start hooking up some sort of view by category system when I get the chance. If you suggest something and there isn't a category for it, feel free to suggest one.
• I've also added some code to redirect to the new location when I move pages around. I'm not seeing quite as many 404s lately (coming mostly from search engines that don't realize I've moved things), but I wanted a better solution for when I rearrange things, and I think this is it. For example, I used it when I made the About... for the site into a directory.
• And the reason I wanted to add an about directory was that I finally got my About Dave page bashed into something I didn't mind showing the world.
• The Aquatic Ape suggests that rather than evolving to live on savannahs, humans adapted to be beach-bums. Dude! [weblogs]
• Jenny suggests this Disturbing Auction. If you're looking for odd stuff to buy, this might be your site. Sadly, it looks like it hasn't been updated since last August. Sigh. [some gal]
• Stout defenders call time on a proposal for the instant pint. Guinness is looking to make it possible to pour a pint in seconds, rather than minutes. Blasphemy! On the other hand, maybe Beamish can pick up a bunch of market share.... [Turly]
• Arms & Armor is a local company who bang metal around. There were on some news segment thingie a while back and I said Cool! to myself.
• I don't read FTrain as often as I used to, but Paul Ford's Robot Exclusion Protocol is hilarious. It's this sort of writing that makes FTrain a place to check sometime during a weekend. And then realize the weekend's over and you've been reading his stuff for many hours. [cam]

Weather in Minneapolis for February 25, 2002     February 25 in History

• High court to consider Internet-centered copyright challenge. Someone's actually fighting the continual extensions of copyright that seem mostly to benefit Disney (because they happen just about as the copyright on The Mouse is about to expire). [google news]
• Give the Gift of Lawsuits. (Hasbro vs. Dinobot.org). Money talks. The guy's giving up his domain because it's too expensive to fight Hasbro. Now it might be possible for him to nail Hasbro's lawyers for a frivolous (or malicious) lawsuit, but again, that's gonna cost money. The bastards will probably win again. [fark!]
• EU unveils new software patent proposal which actually requires an inventive step which is not obvious to people who are familiar with the field. I'm sure there are other problems with the system, but that one requirement is something that's been sorely lacking in the US patent system. [google news]
• Enron's 2000 report on Corporate responsibility (in PDF format).
• Media Reform Information Center: in 1983, fifty corporations controlled most of the (domestic) news reporting. Now it's six. Thankfully there are other media outlets and a lot of bloggers out there to find stories that might otherwise be missed. [fark!]

Weather in Minneapolis for February 24, 2002     February 24 in History

• Make Mine Dvorak - One writer's love affair with the other keyboard layout. I still think about trying to learn the Dvorak keyboard once in a while, but as the article points out, it's a lot of learning curve for a small gain. [daypop]
• Buzz Aldrin to push NASA for interplanetary taxi, hotel. Basically an orbiting ship that gets near to Earth and Mars. [fark!]
• The Homebrew 802.11b antenna shootout. I keep thinking I should play more with running a wireless link from me to PNS, but in The Essence of Community Wireless, it appears that Cringely's unpowered repeater might not do the job for real. If I have to power a repeater (which I need to get around buildings that are in the way), that complicates things immensely. [doc]
• Then again, maybe I don't want to use wireless: Researchers crack new wireless security spec. Sigh. Wireless networking without decent security is just broadcast. [some guy]
• A relatively recent bar discussion about the rules for 8-Ball got Jim wondering. Turns out we were wrong about the correct way to rack. Of course, bar rules and official rules are different.
• Production by Alice Cooper, wife isn't your average school play. Then again, Alice isn't exactly your average dad. [fark!]
• Puppy Bowling. Woo! Fun for you and your pooch. [some gal]
• Web rage hits the internet. Puh-leese. If a website don't work, move on. If it's a business, quit buying from them. I'm really tired of hearing about all these rages. Count to ten. Take a breather. And don't do things that piss you off. For me, it's driving to the suburbs during rush-hour. So I Don't Do That. Sheesh. [some guy]
• On a not-so-fun note, Bugs Bunny animator Chuck Jones dies. [strib]

Weather in Minneapolis for February 23, 2002     February 23 in History

• Results, Not Resolutions: A guide to judging Microsoft's security progress. There's a lot there that Apple could learn from, too. I keep being surprised that a killer virus for Mac OS X still hasn't hit people.
• Microsoft logging your surfing habits if you use Windows Media Player. Beyond looking up CD information in a database on the net, Microsoft transmits a unique ID back to that server. There's also the file on your hard drive that tells what you've watched, but that worries me a lot less than the sending back a unique ID part. [some guy]
• Slash Forward: Write a better Weblog. And brush your teeth after every meal. [zeldman]
• If you need the Internet to pay for itself, you're going about it the wrong way. Well. There it is. [fark!]
• Dave Winer's CSS Survey asks: If you had to choose between the philosophy of CSS or the philosophy of Dogma 2000, which would you choose?
  Well, I don't know that there's a philosophy of CSS other than separating content from layout, which pretty much matches what the D2K folks are trying to do. Personally, I find that between having a CSS layout and a relatively good templating system in place, I do just scribble some pages, spread some colour on it, stick it together with some gaffa tape most of the time. And y'know what, it works pretty darned well for me.
  And I've continued updating Why avoiding tables (for layout) is important. [scripting]
• Why CSS is another essay saying why using CSS to help separate layout from content is a Good Thing (tm). [scripting]
• Steph tells us What Attracts Women to Men. I won't spoil the ending, but at least a couple times I know I've blown it before I even figured out I was interested. So do I make a conscious effort to always be on or just continue bumbling my way along? Hmm. And I suppose I should get the commenting stuff working one of these days so that sort of question isn't entirely rhetorical. [steph]

Weather in Minneapolis for February 22, 2002     February 22 in History

• Trumped-Up Eco-Terrorism: An Arsonist's Tale. The guy got 18 years. Good riddance. [instapundit]
• Snowmobile pollution makes rangers breathless in Yellowstone. The Park Service had to issue oxygen and gas-masks to the rangers there. Seems more than a little wrong to me. [strib]
• Fort Snelling prepares for season, despite likely closing, due to budget cuts. It's a pretty neat place, and the plan to "update" it to 1838 sounds like it might be a good thing. [strib]
• Qwest pins recovery hopes on long-distance. Well, their customer service sure isn't going to help them get out of any holes. If it wasn't for needing service from them for my DSL line, I'd have dropped Qwest a couple years back and just gone wireless. [strib]
• Pohlad puts Twins up for sale because Carl Pohlad has realized he's not going to get a free stadium. [strib]
• Lincoln ranked top president in a recent poll. Guess that's because so few people are taught any real history. First income tax imposed. States' rights killed. Lots of good stuff. [strib]

Weather in Minneapolis for February 21, 2002     February 21 in History

• FTC's working for a spam clampdown. No real details in this article. [cam]
• U.S. Launches Spam Crackdown. So far, it's just the chain-letter spam they're targeting. [google news]
• Heavier artillery in spam war needed: Government little help against junk e-mailers. As if that's a big surprise. [some guy]
• To: Porn 'spammers' From: E-mail users. While I don't like spam, the solution to children seeing porn in their email is trivially easy: Shut off HTML rendering in email. It's unsafe at any age. There's also the disturbing quote in this article: I can send out 50,000 e-mails, and if a dozen people click on the link, it's worth my time. That's the equation we need to change in order to stop spam. Make it more expensive for the bastards. [some guy]
• This article on Spam and web-visible email addresses suggests you probably shouldn't have an email address available anywhere on the web. Ugh. [daypop]
• Brad Templeton wrote Origin of the term spam to mean net abuse to attempt to explain things. It seems like a good bit of history. [some guy]
• Not All Asian E-Mail Is Spam, but enough is to prompt some folks to blacklist an entire continent.

Weather in Minneapolis for February 20, 2002     February 20 in History

• Every time I load a page on CNN, I see this in the status bar of my browser: misread it as slang for some female-specific anatomy and wonder what those tools do. What if I click? Then click faster? Or click the alphabet? Does wondering such things that make me a bad person? Or do I just have too much spare time?
• Poker Mike's list of Variants Are you up for a game of Murder, Padre? 136 poker variants for the poker table. [Reed]
• Hello Kitty Coffee Maker Cuteness is always brewing with this Hello Kitty Angel 4-cup Coffeemaker. [Reed, via the Underground Terrorist Motorcycle Cult]
• The Semiotics of Smoking Dare you judge a man by his smoking technique? [Reed, via Everything Burns ]
• Study finds longer sleep may mean shorter life. But would it be worth living? [google news]
• The Surrealist Compliment Generator. Heh! [flutterby]
• Bad Guys use PCs. Good Guys use Macs. [opine bovine]
• St Valentine's Day Masochism. Sigh. [ntk]

Weather in Minneapolis for February 19, 2002     February 19 in History

• But first, I've continued updating my rant on why you should use CSS based on reader comments. Thanks guys.
• Second, a quick comment on holidays in today's America. There are a few that everyone agrees are holidays. Christmas, for example. But then there are days like today. Most folks are working as if it's a normal day. Personally, I'm splitting the difference and working for myself today.
• American Democracy: R.I.P: The Emergence of the Fascist American Theocratic State. It's odd to see something from cryptome make it onto the daypop top 40. In this case, I think it's appropriate. [daypop]
• Border partols and sky marshalls. A pot-head's perspective on travel isn't much drearier than mine. But it's freedom that the federales are attacking, not just drugs. [endwar]
• Arrest Made Under New Flight Rule for peeing after the federally mandated deadline. All in the name of security.
• Altered States gives an Australian's perspective on travelling in the US. At least the regular tourist venues aren't jammed with people.
• Have I already linked to the Atlantic's review of Security versus Civil Liberties? No, I don't think I have. What the hell was I thinking? [hindsight]
• Secret Service probes agents' misconduct in Utah. Between this and theearlier bozo, it's looking less good for the praetorian guard. Which is as it should be. I understand that the president needs more protection than most of us, but presidents (not to mention all the other elected and appointed officials) have been acting like royals for too long. [fark!]
• When the Army Owns the Weather. And when they screw up my picnic, can I sue 'em? That might be an effective check on tinkering. [some guy]
• True Patriots is a Minnesota based organization working to defend civil liberties in the wake of "Patriot Act" spawned local "anti-terrorism" bills like the one being considered here in Minnesota.
• Big Brother is Watching You Read. And perhaps there's reason to be nervous. Or pay cash and avoid the discount cards the big chains offer. [daypop]
• Will anonymous e-mail become a casualty of war? Well, it might cut down on spam somewhat, but I don't know as it'd be worth it. Then again, I don't use anonymous email, so.... [some guy]
• Comcast stops spying on customers. To say we're spying on anyone is ludicrous. Ludicrous, but true? Then again, they look like an incredibly shitty ISP, so I'm not sure why folks would use 'em in the first place. [some guy]
• I Seek You, from Scientific American looks at pervasive surveillance. Another reason I may not take the trike trip I was planning for Wales and Ireland (the shakedowns at US airports being another reason). I don't much feel like contributing to the economy of a country with more surveillance than I encountered in countries behind the iron curtain in 1980.
• Drivers' licenses may get make-over into national ID card. It's a rare issue that gets the ACU and the ACLU agreeing. [google news]

Weather in Minneapolis for February 18, 2002     February 18 in History

• Yeah, I know I missed yesterday. I needed a little break. I went all day without launching a browser, not even to report spam. It was a nice break.
• A new essay(let): Why avoiding tables is important. It's only half-baked at the moment, but I can't think of more to add. Can you?
• bryan may is blogging the Olympics. It's a lot more amusing than any of the more mainstream coverage. [evhead]
• Happy Second Blogiversary to Davezilla. Some guys get all the goodies. I get seventy cents in my paypage.
• Dave Winer's CSS Roundup. Dave's still confused, but that's just because nobody's 'splained it to him properly. [scripting]
• Davezilla brings us This Old Weblog. Ow. It hurts.
• Weblogs make the web work for you is an article directed at marketing and public-relations types. It was written by someone who didn't feel up to maintaining his blog, but is perfectly willing to try and exploit others who do put in the effort. [instapundit]
• PayPal Sucks. Their IPO did as well as you'd have expected back in 1999. I've used them for paying others a couple times, but never wanted to go through the hassle (and privacy invasions) necessary to accept payment through them. And Ev's dropping them as a payment option for blogger soon. Another business who cashed in and went to hell (although I suspect they went to hell, first). [evhead]
• Finally, in honor of the Daytona 500, I often get asked what I see in NASCAR racing, what with being a Minnesotan, as well as a geek. I guess folks think it's far too much of a southern, redneck sport to interest someone like me. But if you think about it, it makes sense. The races are usually on a Sunday afternoon, a notoriously low-energy time for me. They're three to fours hours long, but there are only a few highlights per race (at least in most races). That means that I can start capturing the race on my TiVo on time, start watching an hour or so later, and fast-forward through the commercials and the more boring bits and see the finish in near real-time. Or I can take a little nap in the middle of the race, and wake up for the finish. It's nearly a perfect lazy Sunday exercise.

Weather in Minneapolis for February 17, 2002     February 17 in History

• Apple Set to Withhold QuickTime 6 until MPEG 4 license fees are dropped. I'm gonna hold my breath until I turn blue! [google news]
• Eve Andersson's Diary of a Start-Up tells the tale of Ars Digita and how things went bad when they tried to grow too fast and brought in the vulture capitalists. [scripting]
• Another employee says Goodbye ArsDigita. [cam]
• Studios Assail ReplayTV Technology.ReplayTV made the boxes more useful, but at the cost of drawing the studios' ire. I was talking with a friend about this last week, and pointed out thatTiVo was unlikely to allow people to send videos to others over the net because they're more careful. I don't think it's necessarily right, but I think it's smart of TiVo. [reed]
• BT seeking enforcement of old hyperlink patent. It's an old patent but it's got an awful lot of similarities to certain things that are being used on the Internet. Guess we'll see whether it has enough similarities or not. [google news]
• Why BT's Link Patent Case Is Weak.
• Move Over, BT: He Invented Links. Bob Bemer (who's been programming since 1949) figures he invented hyperlinks in 1960, and put 'em in the public domain. Of course he also helped create COBOL, so he's not entirely a good guy. [fark!]

Weather in Minneapolis for February 15, 2002     February 15 in History

• Just call me Mister Romantic.
• Caught in Love's Net tells the story of Dean from Textism and Gail from OpenBrackets. Sweet. [hindsight]
• Something Awful's St. Valentine's Day Cards might brighten someone's day. They made me laugh. It's probably a character flaw. [daypop]
• You could use the ACME Heart Maker to send a message to someone today. Or any day, for that matter. [hindsight]
• Valentine's Day gifts that are not sold at Hallmark. [instapundit]
• The ongoing Top 10 Worst Things You Could Say on a First Date lists are kinda funny. [fark!]
• Don't get frisky with the horses after you've been drinking. They might not be feeling as romantically inclined as you are. [daypop]

Weather in Minneapolis for February 14, 2002     February 14 in History

• Check the fine print in your latest Microsoft Product Use Rights and discover that they're allowed to snoop all over your computer. For the moment, it's just in the Windows XP license, but.... [daypop]
• Antipiracy tool leads to DoS in Office for Mac. Hey cool. You don't even need to be at your computer to crash office.
• Microsoft plugs six browser holes. Yep. Security is Job 1 in Redmond.
• Serious network security holes surface in SNMP. Hmm. Software that lets someone manage my machine over the network seems one of the first things I would shut off. [google news]
• Oh, don't worry, the FBI Says It's Monitoring Internet Vulnerability. I feel ever so much safer now. [google news]
• Spyware: How Your Personal Data Gets Stolen Online. Thankfully, most of the spyware seems to run on Windows. [some guy]
• How schools are tricked into using PCs--when Macs are better. [daypop]

Weather in Minneapolis for February 13, 2002     February 13 in History

• The deadline for the dollarshort.org coloring contest is February 18th. [opine bovine]
• The Who Announces U.S. Tour. No visit to Minneapolis. [fark!]
• Three magic little words to stop telemarketers cold. [fark!]
• Cal Ripken buys into minor league. The link about an American sport comes from the BBC because: 1 - they have decently short URLs, 2 - they don't have JavaScript errors in their pages, 3 - they don't have so many ads on the page that it takes ten minutes to load.
• Doc says What they [Knight-Ridder] did to [Dave] Barry, and to Dan [Gillmor], was blast tens of thousands of links into a fine mist of 404s. I think about this myself when I do things like lose my long-standing URL at best.com or reorganize parts of Dave's Picks. And while I do log all the 404s on my site into a file, there are some robots out there that are too stupid to keep from trying to crawl the missing pages every single day, over and over again, and the log-file rapidly fills with crap. One of these days I'll modify the scripts that serve up every page on Dave's Picks to redirect these things better, but there are still some things that are just going to go away, and I wish the 'bots would start accepting that, at least in some cases, a 404 is forever. [scripting]
• More commentary on linkrot and other issues facing newspapers on the web in What happens when a news site is forced to share a common interface with a city portal?. [opine bovine]
• The 2002 Anti-Bloggies Winners [Davezilla]

Weather in Minneapolis for February 12, 2002     February 12 in History

• A Marketplace of IDs is the first part of a two-part series the Strib is running on identity theft. We were paranoid of everyone is the second part. The real problem here is that there's almost no incentive for companies to take this seriously. The cost of tracking down the culprit is higher than the cost of paying a little extra insurance to cover the losses. The cost to the individual whose identity gets stolen is almost never recovered. [strib]
• Speaking of problems the government isn't helping solve: Hard Money, Strong Arms And 'Matrix': How Enron Dealt With Congress, Bureaucracy. There's a reason people and companies try to buy legislators in this country. It's because the various levels of government control so much money, that it's cheaper to buy a congressman than pay an extra hundredth of a percent in taxes, or spend more dealing with regulations. [instapundit]
• The Financial Times special report on Counter-capitalism has quite a bit of interesting information. Part two for example, talks about how multi-national companies are funding the people who protest against them. [instapundit]
• On a lighter note, I haven't been reading The West Virginia Surf Report regularly for a while, but recently did some catching up. And I found AMERICAN STOPS WASHING HAIR! Huh! The only problem is that you have to start with the last one and kinda back up because there aren't happy links to take you all the way through. C'mon Jeff, let's make it more reader friendly, eh? But there's A fine image from the WVSR for your amusement, another PSA from the WVSR and a Hot dog!

Weather in Minneapolis for February 11, 2002     February 11 in History

• In my comments yesterday, I mentioned the daily schedule I've been keeping with Dave's Picks lately. A few of you emailed to say that you really like seeing new stuff everyday. Thanks for the words of encouragement.
• NY sues NAI so you can say McAfee sucks. NAI pretty much sucks, too. [google news]
• Tangling with the Business Software Alliance can mean big problems, even if you're innocent.
• ArsDigita closes shop, sells assets to Red Hat. Bummer. Greenspun had some cool software there. [scripting]
• Afghanistan, the Taliban and the Bush Oil Team. I guess it's not too surprising that the person picked to run Afghanistan is friendly to the oil companies. [hindsight]
• Seems there was some big football game a while ago. There were some new commercials during it. I don't care. I'm waiting for the NASCAR season to start, and later today is the Bud Shootout, which is kinda the pre-season game. That is all.

Weather in Minneapolis for February 10, 2002     February 10 in History

• Last evening, my friend Jim asked how long I was going to be able to keep up the daily Dave's Picks updates. I have no idea, but today was almost the day that I broke the string. Something about multiple phone calls early in the morning interfered with my normal schedule a bit. And then my regular weekend breakfast spot wasn't open. At least Lester's Signature Garbage Platter was available at Dub's, and made life worth living again.
• Twin Cities Journal: Loathe the ravens? Plenty more. There's lots of crows in town. They're loud and annoying and you're not allowed to shoot 'em here like you are in the country. [strib]
• Shopping: On a quest for better phone service. It's pretty hard to get away from Qwest. Impossible if you want DSL service, as far as I can tell. [strib]
• It's hard to find reference to it, but the U.S. has sent troops (so far about 150 of an expected 650) "observers" to the Phillipines to "fight terrorism". I couldn't find it mentioned in U.S. press, but The Guardian Unlimited Observer had this commentary. [jim]
• In a recent Norah Vincent column the LA Times writer links "violent" protesters to video games. It's then suggested that the "solution" to such protests is lethal force. [jim]
• Orwell's Politics and the English Language. It's a good essay about language.

Weather in Minneapolis for February 9, 2002     February 9 in History

• I was thinking of taking a biking (well, triking) vacation this spring to Ireland and Wales. But I'm starting to wonder about it, since there are no direct flights from MSP to Ireland, a recumbent trike is a difficult bit of luggage, and the airlines seem determined to drive passengers away.
• This Airborne Adventure shows more reasons the airlines might be losing money. I imagine it's hard to show a profit when you're busy driving your customers away. [instapundit]
• The Airport Adventure of an eighteen year old girl on her way back to school. [endwar]
• Another airline security tale: AmWest passenger says gate agent's frisking was too frisky. [fark!]
• Think national ID cards are a good idea? You’ve Got Identity gives a number of reasons why they aren't. [instapundit]
• Split Amtrak into three parts, panel says. And probably lose most of the long-haul routes. Hell, by spring it may not even be possible to travel by train. [google news]

Weather in Minneapolis for February 8, 2002     February 8 in History

• Top Secret Recipes version of Girl Scout Thin Mints Cookies. Make your own, and cut out the little-girl middleman. [fark!]
• Faults Suggest a High Calling for Delphi Priestesses. That is, they were baked on methane, ethane and ethylene. No wonder some of the prophecies weren't too coherent. [instapundit]
• Absorbing Apple's Aesthetic and designing things that look like they could have been made by Apple. [opine bovine]
• Women can learn to smell better. Men, apparently, can only learn to stink better. [fark!]
• The Top 10 Worst Things You Can Say on a First Date. Mental note. [fark!]
• Japanese Sex Slang. I don't know what else to say about it. Some of you will probably like it. [cam]
• Jim hates the very concept of karoake, but has to admit that Punk Karaoke at Tubby's Bar in Nordeast Minneapolis has him intrigued. Who can argue with a karaoke bar that has Alternative Ulster on their selection list? There's also http://punkrockkaraoke.com/. As for me, I think I just need to point it out to some of the folks I know. [jim]

Weather in Minneapolis for February 7, 2002     February 7 in History

• I think yesterday's illness was a case of me just being Too Damned Tired. After complaining about it yesterday, I got out, went downtown and picked up my new glasses, got groceries on the way home, and was feeling good enough to consider grabbing a happy-hour beer somewhere. Then I got a real night's sleep, and I'm feeling pretty good today, except for the part of having lost a day of work on a project that shows every sign of being long and brutal.
• Supreme Court rejects Twins appeal, which means there's almost certainly going to be major league baseball in Minneapolis this coming summer. [strib]
• Selig: No teams will be cut in 2002. So the Twins are safe for another year. [strib]
• Vivísimo is a clustering search engine that a reader recommended. Similar to a meta-search engine, but different. Best search tool I've since since I first found google. I haven't had a chance to look at it much m'self.
• Daily CSS Fun. The same site with a different style-sheet for each day of the month of February. Cool. [zeldman]
• Your typical open source hacker isn't a pimply faced teenager But rather (according to a recent SourceForge survey) someone trapped in a cubicle all day and looking for a creative outlet. Which is another sign of most tech companies being pretty screwed up. If your programmers are bored enough that they're taking on additional outside projects, you might want to consider making things more interesting for 'em. [Reed]
• The first annual Google Programming Contest gives you a chance to write some cool software that will churn through their data. [daypop]
• Look Ma, No Hat! It appears the big story about AOL trying to buy RedHat was another case of a journalist just makin' shit up. It's a bit of a shame it took this long for people to fact check his ass. I'm with the instapundit on the fact that this is one of the good things that amateur journalists can do for (or to) the professionals. [cam]

Weather in Minneapolis for February 6, 2002     February 6 in History

• Honesty at issue as stocks crumble. There have always been things about the GAAP that made me wonder. Why is it that big corporations can get away with accounting that would put me in jail if I tried it with my business? Well, maybe that's about to stop. [google news]
• TiVo watches subscribers' Super Bowl viewing habits and discovers people replayed the commercials more than the game. If I'd bothered to watch the game, that's what I'd have been doing. [google news]
• Tech CEOs Take Dim View of 2002 Rebound Scenario, thinking that it's going to be at least another year before things improve. [google news]
• Philips Burning on Protection. The problem is that the evil copy-protecting music companies may try to move to a new standard. Then again, Philips' patents on CDs start to expire this year. Guess we'll see what comes of it. [daypop]
• In a first, Bush budget links funding to program performance. And it took how long for someone in D.C. to think of this? [fark!]
• In a late update, here's today so far:
  • woke up at 6am
  • put together the links for Dave's Picks by 8 - I was moving slow, so it took two hours
  • I wasn't feeling very well, so I laid down for some more sleep
  • damn phone kept ringing - four messages on the answering machine, only one person talking
  • woke again well after noon
  • and finally at now at 3:30 in the afternoon, I'm feeling like I might remain upright for a couple hours running.
  
  I'm not sure what's up, but I'm pretty sure I'm not incredibly healthy today.
  Or maybe just a week of full-time work, followed by a weekend full of things to do, follwed by a 20-hour day yesterday has me worn out. Ugh. But I need to go to the store soon, because none of the places that deliver food to me will deliver milk, and I feel a need for milk. In all, it's being a pretty sorry excuse for a day.

Weather in Minneapolis for February 5, 2002     February 5 in History

• Internet Firm Hacked Right Out Of Business with a DDOS attack. They're probably not the only vulnerable ones. [google news]
• Spam, spam, e-mail and spam. They understand that spam is such a threat to their brand. If you are Eddie Bauer, you are not spamming. The problem is that there are marketing companies who don't understand that. Yet. [some guy]
• Intricate Screening Of Fliers In Works. This is not fantasy stuff. No, it's more like horror. Then again, you could always take the train... [endwar]
• Amtrak threatens to end long-distance trains. Oh, I guess you can't always take the train. [google news]
• This is my country. I won't leave it!. Rick Stanley, Libertarian candidate for the U.S. Senate has some words about liberty. [endwar]

Weather in Minneapolis for February 4, 2002     February 4 in History

• You are in a maze of twisty passages, all alike... Remember the game Adventure (aka ADVENT)? No? Well, someone must, because there's a person with Minnesota plates of XYZZY. If you are the person with the plates or you know who has them, I'd like to match a name with the plates just for the halibut. Please send any info on the subject to: shawn@zubenubi.com [some guy]
• 600-Mile Journey in Nowhere Land describes a wacky Scot who decide to walk across Afghanistan. Guess he's not too worried about the brutal Afghan winter.
• Ability to distinguish whisky (uisge beatha) from brandy (cognac). Hmm. I think I'll hafta take that test one of these days. [flutterby]
• The Bust'n Strangler. Apparently the groom suffocated by 72-DDs is a hoax. But I agree with snopes that the quote at the end was still worth the price of admission. [daypop]
• The World Economic Forum is being held in New York City this weekend. Indymedia will provide on-going reports of what's happening at the meetings (if available - the meetings are closed) and the demonstrations outside. No link for the WEF website, since it was hacked.

Weather in Minneapolis for February 3, 2002     February 3 in History

• St. Paul brewery seeks city help. Minnesota Brewing, home of Pig's Eye beer is looking for a city-backed loan. [strib]
• St. Paul won't back troubled brewery, which makes sense. But it's still a shame if it means there won't be any more Pigs Eye Pilsner. [strib]
• St. Paul brewery remains open... for now. More on the source of Pigs Eye. [strib]
• Phototour of Minneapolis homepage - Pictures of MinneapolisThis site includes a lot of decent pictures of stuff around Minneapolis. I particularly liked the picture of the Gavidae shopping mall - The design very similar to the design of Kilmainham Gaol which is cool since I hate shopping malls.
• Bands who are Rockin' the suburbs, the bars they play, and the folks who go see 'em. Doesn't sound that bad, except for the driving to the 'burbs part. A new stage in urban sprawl is the connected article, talking more about the bars than the people. Apparently the beer's cheaper in the 'burbs, too.

Weather in Minneapolis for February 2, 2002     February 2 in History

• Extreme Programming vs. Interaction Design. The clash of two cultures. Woo! And it happens to apply nearly perfectly to a project I'm about to get myself into. [cam]
• A tale of one man and his blog. It's about Ev and blogger. His ideal of trying to collect information from multiple blogs is kinda cool. [scripting]
• 10 things Google has found to be true. [daypop]
• A Requiem for a Small Company that shut down gracefully. That's pretty cool. [steph]
• Victory for video rental company leaves Warner in a spin. They were trying to charge more than retail for the DVDs they sold to places that rent 'em out. And got shot down in Australia. [daypop]
• The Counter-Telemarketing Tactics - Telemarketing Scum Page looks pretty handy.
• No Pop-up Ads on Google because they find 'em annoying, too. [evhead]
• FTC Plans Crackdown on Deceptive E-Mail. We'll see how it goes. [google news]

Weather in Minneapolis for February 1, 2002     February 1 in History