26. December, 2002 - post-holiday hangover

• Morning update: I'm awfully glad I got the bulk of this put together last night. After staying up late getting the quiz working, then putting together the picks, I ended up sleeping until almost 9. And here it is nearly noon, and I'm just getting rolling for the day. Where did the morning go? Well, I read the morning news. I also kept a terminal window open watching the errors scroll by in the webserver error logs. There were a ton of PHP warnings, some from code that uses features that have been deprecated, but a fair number from uninitialized variables. Stupid me. Fixed those. Then the UPS guy showed up with the new air-cleaners (Sharper Image Compact Ionic Breezes). Set those up, and marvelled at the silence. It's quiet enough in here now that I can hear my freezer running and be annoyed by the fan noise from my Mac. Swapped a few emails with Bill about server things so I can avoid the problem like last night where sendmail had stopped accepting mail on my server (there was a web-server task running amok in some bad PHP - see the comment on fixing warnings). Finally got to breakfast about 11:15. And here I am, finally ready to crawl into the shower so I can go face the day and it's a couple minutes to noon. I think I need to work on simplifying my mornings.
• I finally put together the Which Dave's Picks contributor are you? quiz that won Jenny the camera contest a couple weeks ago. The cool questions, answers and such are hers. The lack of visual spiffiness is all my fault.
• I watched Susan Slept Here last night. I've got a weakness for romantic comedies from the 50s, I guess. 35 year old man who can't commit and a 17 year old gal who does want to, played by Debbie Reynolds at 21. Rowr! It's another movie that made me smile.
• Many immigrants were worried about new federal requirements that all male visitors over 16 register and be fingerprinted. Nonetheless, many obeyed the rules. The result? - Hundreds of Muslim Immigrants Rounded Up in Calif. More info available from the ACLU. [Jim]
• The word mokita is from the Kiriwina language (an indigenous tribe of Papua, New Guinea). It means the truth that everybody knows but no one speaks about. In that vein we have this - Patriot Act threat to democracy, Muslims say from CNN. [Jim]
• Cities Say No to Federal Snooping, passing local laws that prohibit folks from collaborating with the feds. Maybe it'll take a bite out of PATRIOT yet.
• U.S. Combat Pilots on Speed during an accident in Afghanistan. Seems that they could be considered unfit to fly certain missions if they don't voluntarily take the amphetamines. As Fat Freddy said, BEAD DROOLS! SKILL PEEDS! SKEED PILLS! Or more ominously, as Frank Zappa said, In general, this drug will make you just like your mother and father. Who's winning the war on drugs now? Not the Canadians who got blowed up by "friendly fire".
• Speaking of our neighbors in the Great White North, Canadian gun owners prepare for civil disobedience over approaching registration. There are a number of them who aren't going to register. [endwar]
• Global file swapper eludes pursuers. How Kazaa has managed to avoid getting trounced like Napster did.

Copyright 2008, Dave Polaschek. Last updated on Sat, 28 Dec 2002 09:30:16.