Month: December 2003

Norad Santa for the latest updates. Ever wonder why NORAD tracks Santa? From their own website: The tradition began after a Colorado Springs store’s advertisement for children to call Santa on a special “”hotline”” included a misprinted telephone number. Instead of Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief’s operations “”hotline.”” The Director of Operations, Colonel Harry Shoup, received the first “”Santa”” call on Christmas Eve 1955. Realizing what had happened, Colonel Shoup had his staff check radar data to see if there was any indication of Santa making his way South from the North Pole. Indeed there were signs of Santa and children who called were given an update on Santa’s position. Thus, the tradition was born. ]]>

Russ and I would often get in the car and drive through the truly scary parts of DC in what we called “”Ghetto Christmas.”” Lights dangled here and there, mismatched lawn ornaments, abandoned cars with decorations on them. By and large, our favorite has to be just North of RFK stadium–the Nativity scene with Winnie the Pooh as the baby Jesus. It was really an amalgamation of two Christmas scenes. There was Mary and Joseph and a few sheep, but the baby Jesus was gone so Pooh took his place. Alongside two of the Wise Kings was the Wisemen Tigger. Piglet played the part of a pig. However, Ghetto Christmas has nothing on Redneck Christmas. We drove around last night out here in Calvert and Anne Arrundel county and looked at some of the absolutely INSANE Christmas lights. My town, Chesapeake Beach, is actually well known for doing up Christmas, and the lights here are incredibly festive. They even have a competition for most lit house and many of the locals really get into the spirit. By far our favorite last night was the Santa with the dancing legs (made of light). He was on about three houses last night. If I get a chance tonight I’ll take some digital photos of the houses.]]>

Squeezebox in my room streaming Internet audio directly to a small device. It’s pretty cool (but way expensive) and I’m working on making it work with my radio database right now. We’ll see how it goes today…]]>

Washington Post was first to mention it, but many others have covered the story which included some of the judges referring to RIAA’s arguments as “”just silly.”” You don’t see that level of insult in most court cases I’ll assure you. I was working for the committee when the Digital Media Copyright Act (DMCA) passed. I remember that the personnel on staff who handled “”technology’ were not exactly the most tech savvy individuals I’ve met. In fact, one was the biggest luddite I’ve ever seen and the others were your basic preppies / soon-to-be-lobbyists that populate the Hill. As we say in the net, you either “”get it’ or you don’t. These guys didn’t. They are all now working as lobbyists for some tech-related companies, but they never really got what the net meant or could be, being trapped in a world of doing what they were told my even less-tech savvy individuals (Congressmen and Industry representatives). However, as I read the ruling and ponder the affect, I kind of wonder if the court’s ruling isn’t exactly what RIAA wanted. The three-judge appeals court told RIAA (and more importantly, the Congress) to get a new law if they want to prosecute these crimes. “”The DMCA didn’t even have a clue that Peer-to-Peer existed, so don’t warp DMCA into a new category–let Congress do that”” was essentially their words. RIAA is probably excited as this existing law has been a PR (and will soon be a financial) burden for them. They can now take this ruling back to the Congress and demand new legislation from the same luddite-like Congress that is in power. Given the dismal record of the Congress on the recent spam bill, I fear the new legislation that will soon come into being. Filesharers should get over the glow they feel right now and wake up to the reality that is about to come down the pipe. A really bad bill will soon be introduced… ]]>

Spiker is a father, for the second time around. His new daughter (name unknown) came out screaming this afternoon (pictures here as well as video, but hit the mute button). Meanwhile, I successfuly conceived a new spam filter for my server. Some people have kids, some people have servers.]]>

My Friendster profile now shows me having nearly 40,000 friends, although I only have about 15 direct ones (who won’t put their pictures online!). Amazing system. Now if I can just use it to find husbands for my wife’s crazy friends.]]>