Amber Alert Ticker in action

This is one of those times where you really don't want to know whether a feature on your weblog "works". While pulling up my blog page, I noticed a LIVE AMBER ALERT being flashed across the top of my screen. This is scary stuff. I hope they catch the couple who made off with a 1-day-old baby here in town.

And me makes three

I've seen this on two of the blog sites I read, so I guess it's about time I tried it...



create your own visited states map

Yeah, I know, I don't get around much (and if it wasn't for a tourist spot called 4-corners, there'd be even less red)!

The bug

It came upon me suddenly. After Sunday dinner, I felt a bit queasy. I thought I had eaten too quickly, or too much. The drive home from the fast-food restaurant was difficult, as my stomach didn't feel much like being constrained by a seatbelt. But, a few hours later, I was fine.

The next morning, I woke up and had my usual breakfast, then started working. Within a couple of hours, I was feeling that queasiness again, but this time, it was worse. When lunch time rolled around, I didn't feel like eating, and skipped that meal. Good thing too! A half hour later, I found myself dry-heaving the remains of breakfast, and I kept up this behaviour intermittently for the next 8 hours. In between puking sessions, I managed to grab some rest. Dinner time came and I still wasn't in the mood for food, opting to continue sleeping. I slept, in fact, until the phone woke me up at 11:15AM Tuesday morning. It was my boss calling, wanting to know what had happened to me.

Although I had sent an email when I got my first attack, I guess I hadn't been clear that this was an extended bug, not just an inconvenient event. He sounded a bit pissed!

I tried to eat lunch Tuesday, figuring it had been more than 24 hours since I last had food or water, but I couldn't finish my lunch. It didn't feel right going down, and certainly didn't feel like it was going to stay down. By dinner time, I thought things were better, but even then, I was only able to finish half of my smaller-than-usual serving of chicken, rice, and vegetables.

It's now Wednesday morning, and I should be eating breakfast. I just don't feel very hungry, and every time I think about food, I feel like throwing up.

Whatever this is, I hope it goes away soon.

I couldn't believe my eyes...

Yesterday, I talked about a site I had joined a couple of years ago. I get more than 50 spams a day addressed to the email address I used when registering there. I visited them today to check my preferences area. Nowhere on the site does it give you the ability to opt in (or out) of anything. The only option available is to give up your membership. Since there's nothing that says I won't continue getting email to that address, even if I do give up membership, I won't bother.

Wham, bam, thank you, spam!

Never have I been so pleased to receive spam. I imagine shortly after writing this, I'll have grown tired of the whole thing, but for now, I'm reveling in the beauty of the new "statistics" feature built into the latest update of MailWasher Pro. For anyone with serious spam problems, I heartily recommend this software. It does a tremendous job of quickly filtering spam, using black lists from multiple sources (two are preprogrammed, but their website gives you more addresses that you simply add to the configuration file).

I've been using MailWasher software for well over a year, and MailWasher Pro since last March. The latest version, however, features a slick new user interface, and a "Statistics" area that gives you charts categorizing the type of spam you get, and the percentage of "good" to bad mail. Since I installed this version a week ago, the statistics page reported that I had received 566 pieces of mail, of which 87% was spam. And (here's the part I love) nearly 90% of the spam was detected by my own spam filters, with the remaining 10% being detected by blacklist servers.

I keep separate email addresses for every service I've signed up for, so I can track the source of my spam. In the previous version of MailWasher, I had simply put the description "Filtered" on all my custom filters. This past week, I labeled each filter with a meaningful tag, so I could see where my spam is coming from. Nearly 70% is going to one email address (which I used over two years ago to sign up in a webcam community when I first got a webcam). So, either they're selling their list, or their site is easy to hack. I suppose I should visit the site to check their "opt out" policy.

Tomorrow.

Medical miracles

I'd sure like to know when the Discovery Channel airs this.

Someone's pulling my feathers

Can you believe this?

Searching for ... truth?

Search engines are an incredible invention. I don't think many of us could locate anything on the internet (not specifically associated with a brand name) without them. As more pages are indexed, and as designers become more proficient at designing appropriate meta-tags, web pages are easier to find than letting your fingers do the walking.

But there is one domain in which traditional search engines are weak... categorization of blogs info. Because many blogs have archives that contain many unrelated posts, search engines that look for combinations of words are fooled into selecting totally irrelevant pages, simply because one word from a Monday post, plus one word from a Tuesday post, plus one word from a Wednesday post happen to match the three-word search phrase.

Since most blogs are either hosted on specific blog domains, or use specific tools (and associated templates) - all of which should be parseable by a sophisticated search spider, I believe the technology already exists for blogs to be properly indexed on a post-by-post basis, and not just on a document/page basis.

So, why this particular post? Because someone found this site by searching for a particularly offensive search phrase. And because my blog is archived on a monthly basis, all of my posts for a particular month were combined into a single document which happened to contain the "f" word (in a context related to being taken advantage of by a retail establishment), along with other non-offensive words that, by coincidence, happen to have been used (individually) over the course of the month. The resulting, very offensive phrase, was reported as a "match". Not only a match, but a match that appeared in the first page of search results!

That's just not right!

"D" is for ...

Yesterday, I unhappily reported that my new paintings would not be framed in time to be displayed for company. What I didn't say is that I pleaded with the framer to try to get it done that day. It's funny... my sister doesn't read my blog too often, but yesterday, she happened to see my remarks about the paintings, and immediately sent an email acknowledging she had read the blog entry, and was aware the paintings would not be on display.

Maybe three hours after I posted that piece, I got a call from the gallery. They had finished doing the frames and we could pick them up any time. My first inclination was to blog about it and post pictures of the framed works. Then, I decided to keep it a surprise - just in case my sister read the blog again before coming over. Knowing me, and my penchant for pulling last minute surprises, my sister asked me straight out while we were at the restaurant whether the framing had been completed. I continued eating and didn't answer, pretending to have not heard the question (my hearing is sub-par, so that sometimes works).

After dinner, when we headed back to our place for a movie night, the pictures were hard to miss. They went over well with my sister and brother-in-law. I don't know if they will buy anything from the gallery, but we did visit the website, and they were able to locate reproductions by an artist that strikes their fancy (I've never heard of this person). Anyway, the surprise was maintained, and I got the satisfaction of seeing their faces as they viewed the paintings for the first time.

Just call me devious.

And here are the paintings, framed and hung...


Hanging over the fireplace


Hanging on the livingroom wall

Off the wall

That phrase has several meanings. If I were a more prolific storyteller, I could lead you through the convoluted maze that is my mind before eventually getting to the punchline. But I know I can't weave a story to save my life, so I'll tell you straight. Despite gentle prodding and some not-so-subtle hints, we have not yet received our paintings back from the framing gallery. So, when we entertain tonight, where do you think our new paintings will be? ...

TGIF

Need I say more?

Where is everybody?

Is it the winter blues? Or maybe people are taking themselves too seriously? It seems there's quite a few people making the decision to hang up their keyboards and pack it in. Some of the blogs I frequent have either been on hiatus, or are on hiatus, or are thinking about going on hiatus. And while I'm certain that most people who read this blog wish I'd take the same road, I don't do this for others as much as I do it for myself.

Things have been a bit slow around here, primarily because my wife has had this cold for a week now, and she can't take the standard cold medicine because it would interfere with some other stuff she's taking. That means she's suffering more than you would normally expect, and that, in turn, is adversely affecting our social life. We've already had to postpone one night out with family, and if she doesn't improve soon, this weekend looks like a wasteland as well.

What a show!

My wife and I went to the Auto Show today. More precisely, it was the North American International Auto Show, in Detroit, Michigan. For the past week, only journalists and dignitaries were allowed to attend, and the local newspapers have been filled with pictures of the concept cars, and stories about the new models. Apparently, sixty new car models from manufacturers all over the world were unveiled this week to journalists. Today, the show opened to the public. I've been to many of these shows, but this is the first year I've gone on opening day.

In several ways, going to the show on opening day was quite different. First and foremost, the crowds are unbelievably large, and the models/spokespersons have not had the opportunity to practice their performances. We witnessed more than one flubbed line... but the funniest moment was when one of the models closed the door on a concept car, and the sideview mirror fell off! I think that by going on the first day, the spokespeople were fresh - not yet jaded by the throngs, and seemed more willing to talk about the cars, and their reactions to being in close proximity, than they are to do this after eight or nine days of working the show.

It's a given at all these shows that the most exotic cars are safely stowed behind barriers. The message is clear - look, but don't touch. This year, the Ferrari people (at least on this night), did something I've never seen before. They allowed people from the audience to enter the enclosed area, two people at a time - each escorted by a company representative - and get close enough to the car to touch it, open the doors, and take personal photographs of the vehicle and its interior. Mind you, the line to get in to the exhibit was so long, there was no way I was going to stand there. Still, the gesture was appreciated. None of the other supercar manufacturers allowed anyone to approach their cars.

While on the subject of supercars, I got the chance to see some supercar concepts from Chrysler (the ME412, my main reason for going to the show, was worth the price of admission all on its own), Mitsubishi, Mercedes, Volkswagen, and Acura. The Acura NSX was on display, but couldn't hold a candle to their concept car. There were some very exotic (non-sportcar) concept cars, including one from Volkswagen that resembled a dune buggy in its body sculpting and suspension, but with doors that pivoted up like the ones on a Lamborghini. I got a good look at the Maseratis, the Bentleys and the lone Rolls-Royce. The model/spokesperson in the Rolls Royce exhibit was asked about "optional equipment". Her reply: "There are many choices, but no options". That was my favourite line of the afternoon.

I didn't see the Ford GT today (I looked, but didn't see it, despite the fact it was there, somewhere), though I did get a very close look at the new Shelby Cobra, which reportedly has a 650bhp engine. Spokesmen from Ford indicated the GT would be released as a production car next year, at a selling price of $150K (US), and that it would be the fastest production car in the world. That may be the case, but when the ME412 gets on the road, all bets are off. Published specs on the ME412 have it pushing out an incredible 850 bhp from its Mid-Engine 4-turbo V12 engine. It is designed to do 0-60 in 2.9 seconds, with a top speed of 400kph (248mph). My understanding is the GT has a top speed somewhere around 200 mph.

I'm rambling, but only because this show was a feast for the senses. Ironically, of all the awesome production and concept cars I saw today, the one that surprised me the most was a concept from Hyundai. It looked like it was just a year or two from production - didn't look far fetched at all - but it sure didn't look like any Hyundai I've ever seen. I imagine it would be the model for the next generation Tiburon. Even though it's only been a matter of hours since seeing the Hyundai concept car, I don't recall the grille being as pronounced as in the linked picture. The front end seemed smoother to me. Then again, I guess there has to be somewhere for air to get to the engine!

If you can't be at an auto show this year, and are interested in cars, this summary from AutoWeek magazine should fill your need for speed.

Not much happening (beyond everyday stress)

There's not much happening around here. Work is a bit stressful lately, with assignments dragging on far longer than I or my boss feel is reasonable. I've just had the most unbelievable string of bad luck - running into limitations with the programming tools I have at my disposal. It's nothing that a good training course couldn't fix, but what business has money to send people for training these days! It's so much easier for the boss to just lose his cool, fire you, and get someone else to take your place.

I'm normally not too concerned with my bosses' opinions, but since 1/5 of the staff has been let go since I moved back home, it's something that's on my mind.

The holiday's over

I've been working most of the holiday, with time off only for Christmas Day and New Year's Day. My wife, on the other hand, has been off for two straight weeks, and since I work from home, having her around has been almost like me being on vacation. Eating meals with her... having her wander in to my office to give me a peck on the cheek... and participating in short phone conversations that normally take place between family and friends during the holiday season - these things helped bring a little holiday spirit into my work day.

Today, she heads back to work. So, despite the fact I've been working most of the past two weeks, I guess it will feel like the holiday is finally over.

Dead man flapping

This news item seemed kind of gross! Whether the 81 year old victim was a prowler, or suffering from alzheimer's and simply lost his way home, it's still a weird way to go.

They arrived - but not in time for Christmas

I had ordered hand-painted reproductions of well-known paintings as a Christmas gift for my wife. They were ordered at the beginning of December, and I had hoped they'd arrive in time for Christmas. Due to a shipping snafu, they were sent to Ontario, New York, instead of Ontario, Canada. Needless to say, they floated around in limbo for a while before actually making it into Canada. Then, they were stuck at Canadian Customs over the Christmas holiday. We finally got them on Dec. 30th. After the paintings were ordered, I started searching for people who could do a good job of stretching and framing the work. I finally found someone, and today, we dropped off the paintings at the framer's gallery. They should be ready within the next two weeks.

Here are JPG's of the art we purchased:







We like the artist's work so much, we've already placed an order for an additional painting:




This could become an ongoing obsession, since my wife and I have similar tastes in art.