Archives for 2005

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Another “Freedom of Press” debate brewing …

Posted on August 2, 2005 ·

 Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday it will not renew permission for ABC-TV to operate in the country after the network broadcast an interview with a notorious Chechen warlord…

… The

ministry called the broadcast a “clear fact supporting the propaganda

of terrorism” and said it contained “direct vocal calls for violence

against Russian citizens.”

In the interview conducted by

Russian journalist Andrei Babitsky, Basayev, who has a $10 million

bounty on his head, said he was plotting more attacks.

Among

other attacks, Basayev has been linked to a 2002 hostage-taking assault

on a Moscow theater that left 170 people dead, a 2003 suicide attack in

the Moscow subway that killed 41 people, and a 2003 double suicide

bombing at a Moscow rock concert that killed 17 people.

On

Sunday, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said he was barring military

personnel from contact with ABC and said the ministry now considered

the network “persona non grata.”

Source: AP via YAHOO news

Hm

… Autocratic Russian regime showing what they think of Freedom of

Press?   But wait … what would we think if a

friendly foreign Media Agency broadcasted an interview with

Osama?  Ohh, I can’t wait for the huge debate about to start soon…

Update:  What a coincidence (nothing more implied) that ABC gets

kicked out of Russia, and News Corp (Rupert Murdoch) buys into  Russian TV

broadcasting.

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Filed Under: Politics ·
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This is Where My Post Would Appear …

Posted on August 1, 2005 ·

… had I not used Qumana:-(     Two posts, to be exact.  

A blogger’s worst nightmare scenario:  finish editing a fairly long post, hit “save” only to see all the work gone due to a momentary server outage.   Bummer.   But  wait, Offline Blog Editors to the rescue! 

Qumana is a new, free contender in this field, comparable to BlogJet, Ecto, w.Bloggar ..etc.  I’ve been experimenting with it for a while, and my only major complaint was about the tag-soup it produces.   However, for the last two days it let me down bigtime. 

Yesterday I had to stop editing an almost finished post, so I saved the contents to a file – this morning, trying to open it I discovered Qumana created an blank html file of 1k size … all my work is gone:-(   This afternoon I wrote a somewhat longer piece, with several references to other sites, that simply took a while to pull together … finally, I’m done, click “post”, and voila! – Qumana exits, no post to my blog, and no saved copy either:-(

I’ve had it with Qumana – I’m considering writing all my posts in Onenote or Evernote, and just paste it in the online editor.

Update:  BlogJet, here I come!  (In fact I am writing this update using BlogJet)

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Filed Under: Blogging, Personal Productivity, Software ·
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Time to Dump the Shuttle

Posted on July 31, 2005 ·

NEW Shuttle problem:  “A couple of short strips of filler material dangling from Discovery’s

belly had NASA scrambling Sunday to determine whether the protrusions

might endanger the space shuttle during re-entry and whether the

astronauts might need to attempt a repair. The potential trouble has

nothing to do with launch debris ….” read more

This is sickening… with all the billion$ spent on the Space program,

we’re dealing with pieces of foam, tape, glue, pieces of junk

protruding, falling off…  are we talking about kids’s toy models

or space-age design and materials here?    As so many

other’s stated, instead of band-aiding it, it’s time to dump the old Shuttle , and either build a brand new one, or leave space travel to the Russians … or perhaps Private Enterprise.

 

digg story
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Filed Under: Technology ·
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Mystery Tree Planter Strikes Again

Posted on July 29, 2005 ·

“Authorities are baffled over a mystery tree planter who struck again in the rural Oak Park section of east Ventura County.
…Two more oak trees were added this month to the 20 planted in open space since early 2004 and no one knows who put them there.
…The Mystery Tree Planter first struck in January 2004, when 15 valley, coastal live and holly oaks suddenly appeared in an open area in Medea Creek Park.Park District officials went door-to-door in the neighborhood bordering the planting site in an effort to find out who was planting the trees.
…We want to talk to him and give him some recognition…We’re not looking at punishment. We all want more trees.”

Well, I don’t get it .. The guy is obviously a do-gooder, everyone’s happy, nobody wants to “punish” him .. why spend taxpayer money investigating him?

local6.com – News – Mystery Tree Planter Strikes Again

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Filed Under: Misc ·
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Brilliant (Blog) Button Maker

Posted on July 28, 2005 ·

Easy tool to make cute or not-so-cute buttons for your Blog.   Here are a few samples:

example example example example example example example example example example example example example example example

Found on the

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Filed Under: Blogging, Personal Productivity, Software ·
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Magazine Ads down, Blogs Up

Posted on July 28, 2005 ·

Newsweek Drops Issue, Cites Poor Ad Sales

Due to low ad pages during late summer, Newsweek is trimming the number of issues it publishes by one, opting for a double issue dated Aug. 29-Sept. 5, Mediaweek reports.


Through July 19, Newsweek’s ad pages have fallen 15.6 percent this year, to 970. It’s not alone. A lack of spending in the technology and automotive sectors has hurt the whole newsweekly category with ad pages falling 10.5 percent, to 6,332 through July 19.

Source: MediaBuyerPlanner

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Filed Under: Blogging, Business, Marketing / PR, Misc ·
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New Private Space Craft

Posted on July 28, 2005 ·
Jeff Nolan ponders about why taxpayer $ is spent on trying to send tired old vehicles up in space, instead of creating new ones.  Btw, for all I know the Russian Progress and Soyuz flights are just as aging as ours, an they had their fair share of problems, too.  Anyway while NASA is spending OUR money on band-aid solutions, private capital gets into building new space vehicles, albeit sub-orbital ones:
 

Richard Branson and Burt Rutan Form Spacecraft Building Company
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 27 July 2005
03:09 pm ET

British entrepreneur, Sir Richard Branson, has teamed up with aerospace designer, Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites to form a new aerospace production company. The new firm will build a fleet of commercial suborbital spaceships and launch aircraft.

Full article here.


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Filed Under: Business, Misc, Technology ·
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Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Already Broken

Posted on July 27, 2005 ·

Wow, this didn’t take long!

Rafael Rivera has posted instructions on how to circumvent Microsoft’s WGA on IE and FF.

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Filed Under: Software, Technology ·
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What Browser Wars?

Posted on July 27, 2005 ·

(Updated)
There are no Browser Wars anymore – FireFox has won.
Yes, I know their overall market share just hit 10% – but when I look at the chart below, I see a very different picture:

There’s a good chance that if you’re reading this, you are a blogger yourself – go and check your visitor stats.  The future is here 🙂

Update (7/11/06):  A year later Firefox overall market share is up tp 13% worldwide, 16% in the US, and, get this (!)  33% in Germany – reports TechCrunch.   60% of TechCrunch readers and about 52% of my blog readers use Mozilla based browsers.   I believe Opera is underrated,  since the default setting in Opera is to simulate IE6.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Open Source, Software ·
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Work Life Balance

Posted on July 26, 2005 ·
I’ve read several posts on Work Life Balance recently by Fred Wilson,  Brad Feld and Steve Shu.  What a co-incidence that I received a relevant email today… it’s one of those chain-mails, I don’t even know who to credit as original author, but it’s good enough that I felt compelled to share here.
 
The Mayonnaise Jar and 2 Cups of Coffee . .

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous “yes.”

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

“Now,” said the professor as the laughter subsided, “I want you to
recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the
important things–God, your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions–and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. The sand is everything else–the small stuff.”

“If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you. “Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first–the things that really matter. Set your priorities.
The rest is just sand.”

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee
represented. The professor smiled. “I’m glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.”

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