Today, my Firefox was automatically updated to 1.5.01.  It is refreshing how simple and painless it is.

It did say that one of my extensions X-Ray was not compatible was was disabled.

I think Apple and Real need to learn some lessons from FireFox.

Well, my parents are currently visiting my sister in California.  They are trying to attend several show tapings.  Tonight, they will be on the Tonight Show.  Good chance they I would be embarassed if Jay Leno talks to them. 

While setting my DVR, I noticed that Snoop Dogg is on.  I really doubt if my parents know who they are.

The award for Windows XP on an Intel Mac Content is now at $9569.  Supposedly,  this guy got it working.  However, he did use Vista stuff to help boot.  I would say that is legit but I am not the judge.

The guys over at the X-Prize Foundation are at it again:

The people behind the X Prize that kick-started personal space travel are planning prizes in a variety of non-space fields, from automobile technology and genome research to nanotechnology and education.

Next X Prizes target genes and gas mileage - LiveScience - MSNBC.com


I think this is a good approach to solve tough problems.  It is capitalism at its best.  I wonder why this can't be applied to our border problems.  I know that the border problem is a complex one but I think most people agree that "good fences make good neighbors."  Obviously, the first step is to seal the border.  However, that is not that simple. 

A fence is fundamentally obtained by blocking or patroling.  You can either use people or things (i.e. technology) to achieve this.  We definitely do not need a "Great Wall of China" but there are alternatives.  But I think they are technology alternatives that have never been explored.  The government really can't do this...they get stuck with analysis paralysis and we'll have another SDI. 

The best bet is to create a Minuteman Prize...funded by a private organization. 

Just my thoughts...

I am glad our system worked as it should.  A lot of fan-fan...but the right thing prevailed.

John Paul Stevens is currently 85 and could be the next potential seat of the court.  Stevens definitely leans to the left and could shift the overal tendency of the court with the next appointment.  Realistically, Teddy Kennendy won't let him retire until after 2008.

Alito Seen as Carrying the Torch of Reagan - Los Angeles Times

It's all fun and games until Walt Cummings loses an eye... That was a great scene tonight on "24."  That's was more along the lines of what I expecting last week when Jack Bauer started to torture that dude from CTC.

24 is a great show.  They have great writers and understand pace and drama.  Right now, it is the really the only show that I watch.

Initial impression:  looks nice and is very intuitive.  However, wish the Send To Blog was not locked in to Blogger.com.

Also, no Firefox support yet.

ABC News: Google Toolbar 4 (beta)

I guess John Kerry doesn't understand that when you win the Presendential Election, you have the Constitutional right to nominate anyone you want:

He is packing the court with conservative ideologues who will extend the legacy of his presidency for years to come.

That's called checks and balances

Later, he acknowleges this:

I know better than anyone that elections have consequences and that the President has every right to nominate whomever he chooses to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. But I also know that Senators have the right - in fact, they have a constitutional responsibility, to question whether that nominee is the right choice. That is why the Framers required the Senate to provide advice and consent. We are not meant to be a rubber stamp. We need not rush to judgment simply to satisfy the political deadline of a State of the Union address.

but still doesn't get the concept of Senators are to review Alito's credentials not his opinions.

   John Kerry: The Vote Of A Lifetime - Yahoo! News

Here's me all dapper with my lovely daughter.

Hillary Clinton is now saying she supports a filibuster for Judge Alito.  This is very surprising from her considering she is trying to keep very centric and low key politically.  The votes are not there for the filibuster to work.  Is she banking on it to be unsuccessful (not enough votes) to be able to say she tried?  I guess that would offer red meat to the far left and be a mute point to centric voters because nothing happened.

Just when the Pen Missle and Tiger Hand wasn't enough in the original Rock-Paper-Saddam.  There is a sequel with "The Painting."

However, there will always been an endless supply of material for future versions.  It seems that Saddam was just kicked out of court a few hours ago.

Well, today is the Chinese New Year.  2006 is the Year of the Dog.

According to Wikipedia:

“People born in this year are loyal, honest, and trustworthy, but can also be stubborn and selfish. Dogs get along with Horses, Rabbits, and Tigers.”

Some famous people born during the Year of the Dog:

• George W. Bush, President of the United States
• Bill Clinton, Former President of the United States
• David Gilmour, guitarist & vocalist of Pink Floyd
• Andre Agassi, professional tennis player
• Madonna, singer, actress, author
• Laura Bush, First Lady of the United States
• Michael Jackson, singer, actor
• Donald Trump, Real Estate Tycoon, Host and Executive Producer of "The Apprentice"
• Steven Spielberg, director, producer
• Sylvester Stallone, actor
• Elvis Presley, singer
• Winston Churchill, former British prime minister
• Herbert Hoover, Former President of the United States
• Mother Teresa, Albanian Catholic nun

 That's a pretty diverse crowd...

I have been reading through the Narnia books.  I am now on "The Dawn Treader" which is pretty good.  To my amazement, I came across the phrase "do the needful."  I immediately had flashbacks from a project I had worked on last year in which two guys constantly used that phrase.  I have never heard of anyone using that phrase before...nor did anyone on my team.  With a little Google Foo, I found out it is a little more wide-spread.  This guy goes into a long dissertation and analysis about the saying.  He thought this was just common among people who use English as a second language.  My theory is that it is a British English thing because of the use by C.S. Lewis.  And specifically many people from India learn British English vs. American English.

Regardless, still begs the question:  where is the noun?

Here's more info about Ellison Onizuka of the Challenger.  This is taken from my fraternity's "Wall of Fame"

Today marks the 20'th anniversary of the Challenger explosion.  I was home sick that day and remember watching it live on TV.  I was in the 6th grade.  I imagine this was the first national tragedy that I remember.  I remember flipping through the channels and nothing was on except soap operas and this was in the days of 12 channels.  So I decided to watch the launch.  I recall that these were very frequent and routine.  I remember that these became some anti-dramatic that many stations stop covering the launches.

 

Later in life, I went to college to become an engineer and joined my fraternity.  As a freshman, I remember learning our history and learned this:

 

Ellison Onizuka colo69 flew on Discovery as a mission specialist in January 1985 and lost his life in the Challenger accident in January 1986. The United States Air Force's Onizuka Air Station was located in Sunnyvale, CA. (The station is now closed). An episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation mentions a (fictional) shuttlecraft named after Brother Onizuka.

 

Pasted from <http://www.triangle.org/about/notable/index.cfm>

Small world.

Last night, I had a wonderful time attending my third Father-Daughter dance.  It is always very special time.  It was held at the school that my daughter attended pre-school last year.  Her current school does not have one.  I think my wife will organize one next year.

 

Interestingly enough, it was renamed from "Father-Daughter Dance" to the "Sweet Heart Dance"…an obvious turn towards to politically correctness.  However, I didn't see any Mother-Son couples.

 

This year, they added some balloon hung from the rafters of the gym that were to be set free during the last dance.  However, a malfunction (broken strings) reduced the dramatic effect.  They had to get some ladders out and swing at them with a broom or something in order to set them free.  I immediately thought of the "balloon malfunction" during the Democratic Convention:

 

Don Fischer, DNC Convention Manager:

"Go balloons, go balloons! Go balloons! I don't see anything happening. Go balloons! Go balloons! Go balloons! Standby confetti. Keep coming, balloons. More balloons. Bring it- balloons, balloons, balloons! We want balloons, tons of them. Bring them down. Let them all come. No confetti. No confetti yet. No confetti. All right, go balloons, go balloons. We need more balloons. All balloons! All balloons! Keep going! Come on, guys, lets move it. J*sus! We need more balloons. I want all balloons to go, g*dd*mmit. Go confetti. Go confetti. More confetti. I want more balloons. What's happening to the balloons? We need more balloons. We need all of them coming down. Go balloons- balloons? What's happening balloons? There's not enough coming down! All balloons, what the hell! There's nothing falling! What the f*** are you guys doing up there? We want more balloons coming down, more balloons. More balloons. More balloons."

Yesterday, I got my 1098 for my mortgage and decided to do my taxes.  I typically do them early…mainly, because I typically get a refund.  My taxes are very simple and easy to do. 

 

The first year that I did my taxes, I did them manually.  It wasn't that bad but I wouldn't do them that way every again.  Ever other year, I have always used TurboTax.  Each year, the software got incrementally better. 

 

This year, I used H&R's TaxCut.  The day after Thanksgiving, Staples ran a special where if you purchased TaxCut + State for $30, you got Microsoft Money 2006 Deluxe for free and also a free shredder.  I couldn't pass up this deal so I gave TaxCut a chance.  I figured it doesn't really matter and all of these packages are about the same and after I used it once I would never use it again.

 

I soon found out how immature the product it was.  I also found it confusing the message that H&R was sending.  It seems like they were always encouraging you to complete your taxes using the application and then bring them into one of their regional offices.  I guess I am using the application so that I can just get them done.  If I wanted someone to do them for me, I would bother with the program.

 

 

Also, I was constantly getting lost in the app.  Usually in a "next, next, finished" application, you can hit back and go back 1 step.  Actually, this one would take back to the previous section or somewhere else.  Also, they had "sub" screens that sometimes only available by hitting "begin" instead of "next" ….kinda unpredictable. 

 

It prompted me to update the program multiple times in the same session.  I found this irritating.  I did the update right away and it worked.  But then it said, I need to download a patch for Money 2006 separately.  Considered these were bundled, I found this disturbing.  Why couldn't this update automatically happen within Money or Taxcut.  It instructed me to go to the website.  I finally found the link by searching their FAQ's.

 

Something else peculiar was this warnings that it found on my taxes.  It didn't like my FICA and SS withholdings.  It said that they were too low and should be a specific % of your wages.  I did the math my self and my values were a penny below.

 

When I finished, I was very surprised that no save as PDF option was available.  I guess I took this for granted.  When it printed the returns, it would print directly to your printer instead of giving you the print dialog box.  In order for me to print to Acrobat, I had to change my default printer.  Finally, they give you the optional of printing supporting documentation.  The forms spanned pages and layout and page breaks were all messed up.

 

At least it's over and I am getting a refund.

 

My son's 3rd birthday was a few days ago.  My wife thought a train table would be a good gift.  She did a lot of research and found a one at Pottery Barn that she liked:

 

 

 

It was pretty expensive.  I can't remember exactly how much it was…I think it was around $250-$300 (plus shipping).

 

I looked around on the internet and found another design:

 

 

It was reasonably priced…but I thought it was the father's duty to build it. 

 

Below is my version.  It is very close the Pottery Barn version.  I spent about $100 in materials.  My wife bought the play mat that is on it in the picture for about $15.  The magic dimensions of all the train tables is 48" X 32".  The top is made out of MDF (Medium Density Fiber).  I highly recommend that for any table…it is very smooth and has high strength to thickness ratio.  I bought some 4" X 1" pine and nailed it around.  I added a little more height to this element.  My reason is simple:  containment.

 

 

For the legs, I just bought Parson legs from Lowe's and screwed them on. 

 

 

Very simple and sturdy.  It hard to see in the picture, but I did create the 2 drawers.  These are just a simple box of 12" X 1" pine with MDF for the bottom.  Add a few casters and it's already to go. 

 

Finally, I just stained it.  The whole project took about 4 hours to do.

 

Download: Train Table.one

I was pleasantly surprised to find in my email yesterday:

As part of the acquisition, we are announcing the discontinuation of the FolderShare subscription services. You will be receiving a refund for your subscription at a pro-rated amount. Changes will go into effect early November; FolderShare subscribers will be refunded the pro-rated subscription fee in the week of Nov 7th.

It seems others are pleased, as well.

My wife just got "published'' in this week's Everyday Cheapskate newsletter.

FREE MAGAZINE. I get an excellent magazine called Creative Ideas. It is free from Lowe's Home Improvement center. It has tons of ideas on how to conquer do-it-yourself projects to beautify your home. They also have a woodworking magazine that has plans to make furniture and storage pieces. Both are free; you just need to sign up on their Web site or you can pick them up at the store. -- Roxanne Y., via e-mail.

DIdn't realize this...but FolderShare is now free.  This comes about 2 or 3 weeks after I upgraded to ther Personal edition for $50/year.  But I am not bitter, because now I know I can get more friends and family using it for its convenience.