September, 2002 full listing

• Sorry it took a while to get an update on here. It's been a hectic week, and I'd spend a lot of text ranting about it, but then it'd take even longer to get you an update, so that'll have to wait until later. I'm still alive. Things just haven't been going as planned this week so far.
• 10 choices that were critical to the Net's success [boing boing]
• Labatt's tower a perfectly cold, perfectly straight way to pour beer. They've improved the beer tap. And glasses. [fark!]
• Moon opens for business: The first private Moon landing has finally been given the green light by the US Government.
  
  TransOrbital of California has become the first private company in the history of spaceflight to gain approval from the US authorities to explore, photograph and land on the moon. If the government can't do it, maybe people can.
• Mosquito Control District takes the war to the skeeters. More on the spread of West Nile virus in MN. [strib]
• Will fear of disease put a crimp in deer hunting this year? It appears it will. I know I'll think twice about eating the critters that can carry Chronic Wasting Disease. [strib]
• Minnesota museum to showcase Soviet-era art. The Museum of Russian Art opens in Bloomington on Sept. 26. I can't find a website for 'em yet.
• I don't think I have a Medusa in your head, but then I actually try to use email as a tool to communicate and remember that there's a human on the other end. [instapundit]
• GABBA claim to be The Discopunk Sensation. Ramones meet ABBA. Hrm. [flutterby]

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

• Well, I moved everything to the new server last night (it should have more bandwidth available, and won't fill my DSL line up serving web-pages to you all). And I apparently didn't get it all right on the first try. I think it's all better now.

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

• Warren Zevon Terminally Ill with lung cancer. Bummer. Jim Henley's got some more eloquent commentary here and here. Jeff over at the WVSR has some commentary, too (which will eventually end up here): Of course his entire existence will be boiled down to the sentence Zevon was best known for the 1978 hit single Werewolves of London, which will piss me off every time I read it. Damn. All he did was release about twenty albums full of excellent songs. [instapundit]
• Dave Ray's not doing so well, either. Crap.
• Apple Announces Mac OS X-Only Booting For 2003. If you want a machine that can boot Mac OS 9, better buy it before the end of the year.
• Origin Search - The Genealogy Search Engine for Family History Research looks like it might be useful. Haven't really played with it yet, because they want you to register first, and I haven't gotten the automagically set up a new email address in case someone sells it to a spammer so I can know who did it feature written yet. [nick denton]
• Cthuugle Ph'nglui Search Fhtagn!. The complete HP Lovecraft Search Engine. A nice use of the google API, I'm thinking. [flutterby]
• Davezilla has More fun with telemarketers. Heh! [davezilla]
• On a more personal note, the couple dozen of you who read this regularly probably noticed I missed yesterday entirely. I'd warned you this sort of thing would be happening. It's here. I'm not feeling full of linky goodness every morning, and I'm going to be scaling back some. Maybe a little break will recharge the batteries. I guess we'll find out. On the other hand, the 1500 or so of you who got here by way of a seach engine will probably never notice a missing day.
• Speaking of time off, Layne's going on vacation.. A lot. I've had a bunch of fun on vacations I took when I was nearly broke and went with minimal planning. Like driving to Chicago for pizza one Friday, because it sounded like a good idea. Well, and because my buddy was taking along the gal he eventually ended up marrying and needed another guy to balance boy/girl ratio in the car.

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

• Digital Needle - A Virtual Gramophone. Put your LP on a scanner. Run some software. Have digital music. Well, kinda. But I'm sure it'll inspire someone to do a better job. Check the discussion over at slashdot setting the comment-level to 5, and you'll see at least one theoretical discussion. A 600dpi scanner will only give you 5500Hz. Roughly AM radio quality. [instapundit]
• How Was The Show is one-time 24 Bar booker David DeYoung's take on local bands. David apparently has time to go to a lot of shows. Brian and I thought about doing "short-attention-span reviews" back when we were seeing three new bands every week at the Cabooze on Tuesdays (which included all the (bad) beer you could drink for $4). If my liver could still handle that sort of stress, it'd be a really keen addition to the blog. [Jim]
• CrashBonsai will sell you scale cars to wrap around your bonsai tree. I'd buy one if I had a bonsai, but I don't have the patience to keep a little tiny tree alive. Yeah. I'm not the nurturing type, at least when it comes to vegetation. [boing boing]
• Wrecked Exotics [popups] has pictures of expensive wrecked cars. Not bonsai, but they might serve as inspiration if you've got a likely-looking tree. [some mensch]
• Comics I Don't Understand I know these are supposed to be funny... but can somebody explain them to me? They pointed to my comments about the Defenestration of Prague and I spotted 'em in the referrer logs. Cool!
• If hackers ruled the world. OMFG!!!111222696969 [boing boing]

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

• If you want a big review of last year's events, go read Lileks as he looks back. He's better at that sort of writing (and probably a few others) than I am.
• Remember that if you want to fly your flag today, it should be at half-staff.
• Media ignored calm amid the 9/11 chaos [popups]. One of the stories that didn't get much press last year, about how up to a million people were evacuated from lower Manhattan last year by public and private watercraft. Note that most of the positive social behavior that saved so many lives was not organized by any formal agency, much less by any command-and-control mechanism. People saved themselves. [instapundit]
• Almost a year later, flying is A Dramatically Different Way to Travel [popups]. My friend Steph says that flying was no hassle for her. But I'm pretty sure she enjoys flying. For years, I've looked at it as something to be endured to get somewhere else, rather than any sort of adventure.
• Airport Horror Show tells another story of people organizing themselves to make the system work, in spite of the obstacles put in their way by the airlines and government. [instapundit]
• Harry Browne isn't Overlooking the obvious when he says that government doesn't work, and people often do better without it. Government is force.... Because government is force, it never produces the results promised for it. [endwar]
• On the other hand, people do funny things, too. I got an email from a friend this morning, who described how his family had: just worked out this bizarre set of plans for what to do if Monticello gets hit with anything, involving Go to Grandma's for 2 days if no one shows up go to Ma's and wait 3 days, then go to Uncle Ed's for four ....
  
  Apparently it all got hammered out in the first two hours of this morning when my sister woke up in a panic when she realized that we didn't have any plans.
  
  I told my ma that she could reach me at home. If the phones are out then she should wait and try later.
  
  As opposed to Driving All Over The State like a bunch of frantic squirrels being borne down on by a semi.
  
  As we used to say at LM... Sorry. I panicked.

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

• ...at least it is here in Minnesota. Gotta run to get out and vote and then to work where I'll spend all day in meetings with a client who's trying to cram twenty pounds of crap into a five pound sack. Just another messy day in the programming biz. Look for an evening update, perhaps.

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

• Spam stampede clogs Internet / E-mail now one-third advertising.
• Sapm bugs me enough that I wrote an gumble about spam to vent a bit.
• Answering Machine Greetings offers some ideas for a new answering machine message. I think I might need one. Got a suggestion? Send it in. [boing boing]
• In case you hadn't seen them all in one place, I put together The 2002 Saints season in Pictures, mostly of us tailgating in the parking lot.
• Simpsons-inspired team name: The Albuquerque Isotopes. Will Duff Beer be their primary sponsor? [Reed, via Grim Amusements]

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

• Well, I've spent most of the weekend playing with server configuration things. I've only said either D'Ohh! or Duh! a few times, but one of them seems to have taken the server down hard enough that I had to go to the actual machine and reboot it rather forcefully. I hate it when that happens.
  
  The point of the server work is to try and make things more stable in the long run. I think I'm making progress in the right direction. But taking a day off from regular updates here gave me time to think a bit, and I think I'm going to be taking more breaks from a daily update for a while. I've got a lot of longer pieces and essays I'd like to finish up (there are about a dozen that I've got half-written) before they get any older.
  
  So why should you care? Well, if you see me go a few days without an update, don't panic. I suspect updates are going to be irregular through the rest of the month, and if they do show up daily, that'll be the exception, rather than the rule.
• If you're hungry for things to read every day, check out Topic: Commentary and Essays on Life and Events. A guy who's been writing 500 words a day for over 70 years. And now he's got a blog. [ev]
• Planning to vote in the primary on Tuesday? You might want to look at the Star-Tribune Voter Guide first. They've got pointers to a lot of information about the candidates, including those who haven't gotten a lot of coverage to date. [strib]
• E-Gray : Government favors at auction prices. Heh! [some guy]
• Montana hunter's death raises 'mad elk' disease concerns. More information about chronic wasting disease in deer and elk. [strib]

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

• Parents more gullible -- falling for we were just hanging out line from kids: Coed Sleepovers Increasingly Common. [fark!]
• Patent suit could sting eBay, but I think a more traditional look at patents might prove useful. eBay made a significant improvement (which is patentable) on the guy's original patent. They actually shipped. Perhaps that's the criterion that needs to be applied to software and business model patents: Have you shipped it and does it work? [scripting]
• Percy Schmeiser lost the case Monsanto vs Schmeiser. Percy has been farming canola so long he still refers to it by the archaic name "rape seed" [it's not that archaic - I heard it growing up in northern MN -DaveP]. For 40 years he's been saving seeds, but he still lost his case - you can't stop the wind. His crop was found to contain genetics from Monsanto's "Roundup Ready" canola, and Percy has to pay. [I think he should charge Monsanto for contaminating his crops, but I'm funny that way -DaveP] [Jim]
• Eden Prairie company may flee proposed smoking ban for businesses. The proposed ban sounds pretty harsh. [strib]
• Chronic Wasting Disease Found in an elk raised on a farm near Aitkin, MN. Chronic Wasting Disease is similar to BSE, and there are worries that it may have been involved in the deaths of three men from Wisconsin and Minnesota. See the Strib story: Chronic wasting disease found in Minnesota for a lot more details, and their list of links for even more.
• The Sullen Majority of youth in Iran. If we just leave Iran alone long enough, there'll probably be big change there. [scripting]
• Mad Kane's Iraq, Iraq Song Parody (sung to the tune of New York, New York).
• In Greece, use a Game Boy, go to jail. Or play any other electronic game, for that matter. The idea was to stop online gambling. Uh, yeah. [some guy]
• And if you've made it this far, reward yourself by heading over to Davezilla to take The Man Quiz. [davezilla]

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

• Tommy's Bangin' Nails 1600x1200(413k)

  Me, Candy, Sully and Dave 1600x1200(355k)

  Sully, Jody, Jason, Candy and Lynn 1600x1200(435k)

  Some guys, some gals 1600x1200(425k)

  OJ, The Can Man 1600x1200(439k)

  So it's time to look back on the Saints season that was.... I made 31 of the 50 home games this year. Not bad for supposedly splitting the season-ticket package half and half with Rob. We met a bunch of new players, and a bunch who returned.
  
  Tommy, Sully, Mags, Jody, Ricky, New-Guy-Joe and a bunch I'm forgetting, we'll miss you guys if you don't come back next year, but hopefully it'll be because you've found better jobs. Maybe we'll manage to talk a few of you warm-climate guys into coming ice-fishing this winter. Can you imagine Ricky Gomez in Sorels and a parka?
  
  Coaches Korn and Twig, we hope you both come back to visit next season. Marty, keep Twig busy in Texas so Lin doesn't go nuts with him puttering around the house.
  
  I've almost got all the mailing list software in place so the PeTA gang can email back and forth in the off-season. If only my boss will give me the time to get it all working.
  
  I enjoyed the season, even if the Saints didn't make the playoffs (which reminds me that I've got to find the playoff tickets so I can get credited toward next-year's tickets). There were a lot of rough games, and at least one crew of umpires who need to get their eyes checked during the off-season, but it was still outdoor baseball, hanging out with friends, and cooking up some wicked grub in the parking lot. A heck of a summer.
• New deal should help Twins keep up with rising salaries. The article also spells out how the Twins payroll will go from $24 million last year, to $41 million this year, and could rise to $60 million next year. [strib]
• If you notice the update time on this, I'm up way too late. But Wednesday was a wacky day for me. Got up and jammed on some work. Walked over to the post office and bank to mail bills and make sure there's money in the account to cover 'em and when I got home, allergies Kicked My Ass. And then the allergy drugs did the same, so I had an unexpected nap in the afternoon (at least I made it away from the computer before bonking - I hate waking up with a keyboard-imprint on my forehead). But I got productive again in the wee hours, and I guess it was a good day, too. Woo! Time for some sleep, though.

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

• U construction wrapping up, but wait isn't over yet. It'll be January before it all wraps up. [strib]
• Did you know Target Corp. was Retailing White Supremacy? Neither did they, until someone pointed it out. [daypop]
• 'Happy Mac' Killed By Jaguar. Another bit of nostalgia, wiped clean by SJ.
• Website Security Flaw Costs ZD USD 500 to each of the people whose credit card information they leaked. Now there's an incentive to keep your website secure.
• Hats of Meat. The hell? [some guy]
• Do I need a Fire Bible? I just might.
• An American icon turns 50. Say Happy Birthday to the Weber Grill. [fark!]
• I'm still planning to do a wrap-up of the 2002 Saints season, with pictures and junk, but it hasn't happened yet.

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

• I'd planned on putting together a spiffy update and recap of the Saints season last night after getting home from the last game of the season. Instead, I got about half the pictures done and went to sleep by 7pm. Woke up at 8am. It's been a long season. And every day when I went to a ballgame, things around home got a little more disorganized, which means that even simple tasks take longer, since there are a pile of other things "in the way". For example, paying the first of the month bills should be a few minutes, but there's a pile of stuff on top of the bills, plus I still haven't deposited my paycheck from last Friday, so it'll have to wait until this evening. Which is all a long-winded way of saying that the update I'd planned still isn't done, and I'm hoping you'll get it this evening.

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

• Well, the end-of-month updates are done. I still need to get them more automated, but I make a little progress every month. In any case, the August 2002 pictures are collected, and the whole month is available, too. The one other thing I'd like to add is something to automagically generate "next day" and "previous day" links when you view a single day in the archives. Hmm.

• August movie reviews

  • Bandits (2001) was a fun movie. Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton are an impressive odd couple of crime. A fair number of plot twists to keep you on your toes, and plenty of funny lines and situations to keep you laughing. Don't expect fine cinema here, it's mind-candy, but it's tasty mind-candy. The twists won't work as well during a second viewing, but it's good the first time around.
  • Don Juan DeMarco (1995) - a romantic movie. Johnny Depp turns in a fine performance and pretty much carries the movie. Brando, well, let's just say he's pretty believable as a tired has-been.
  • Rumble Fish (1983) was too artsy for me. There's a story there, but Coppola was pushing the boundaries, and I guess he just got beyond what I want to see in a movie.
  • I wasn't sure what kind of a movie High Fidelity (2000) was when I bought it, but figured it would probably be another John Cusack movie like some of his earlier work. Sure enough, it was. Guy loses girl, guy tortures himself, guy gets girl back. I like that kind of movie.
  • First Blood (1982). Seen it before, including back in 1982. It's still pretty good mind-candy.
• There was a good amount of conflict at the Portland Critical Mass on Friday: Mayor Katz takes on Critical Mass and loses and Portland Critical Mass ride - Text and Photos [endwar] but the ride seems to have held together, and like the ride here in March, it'll hopefully galvanize people and get something accomplished politically. Things have been pretty peaceful on the Mass rides in Minneapolis since then. [endwar]
• Baseball settlement has more winners than losers. An analysis piece talking about the details. [strib]

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