The Dangers of Keeping Email

Brian Peterson, an attorney, writes about the dangers of keeping email:

People just don't realize that when lawsuits are filed, all of the e-mails they keep are not only discoverable, they are easily searchable.

People will say things in e-mails they would never say on the telephone or in person. How many people have received off-color jokes from friends who would never repeat the same jokes in person? And that joke e-mail someone sent you three years ago about the woman down the hall... it's not gone until every one of the recipients and the sender deletes it. If any one of those folks is a pack rat, that e-mail lives on and will expose the company (and maybe even the employee) to liability when that woman files her discrimination suit and subpoenas e-mails and PST files from the company's computer system.

Comments like these provide a window into the minds of employees: "Yep. I do desktop support and nobody wants to delete anything. that's their paper trail and the one email they delete may mean their job down the line as people are looking for somebody to blame and heads to chop." These folks are looking out for themselves, and they don't particularly care that they are keeping scads of potentially incriminating e-mails along with a few valuable ones. Companies that don't enforce reasonable e-mail destruction policies are just sitting ducks.

The Danger Of The Mistyped URL

Jeremy Wagstaff reports misspelling urls can lead to some real trouble.

F-Secure Computer Virus Information Pages: Googkle:

F-Secure staff has found a malicious website that utilizes a spelling error when typing the name of the popular search engine - 'Google.com'. If a user opens a malicious website, his/her computer gets hijacked - a lot of different malware gets automatically downloaded and installed: trojan droppers, trojan downloaders, backdoors, a proxy trojan and a spying trojan. Also a few adware-related files are installed.

The name of the malicious website is 'Googkle.com'. PLEASE DO NOT GO TO THIS WEBSITE! Otherwise your computer will get infected! We have reported the case to the authorities.

I see Windows users fight with problems like these all the time, and I wonder why they don't download and install a Linux distro. They are free, as in free beer. They aren't hard to use, and look just like Windows. I know some people are chained to Windows because they need some software that is Windows only to run their business or some other reason, but to just surf the web and for email Linux is just fine.

Don Surber and Dave Peyton blog

The Holywriter points out Charleston Daily Mail columnist Don Surber is blogging. I had no idea. From Don Surber's blog I notice former Huntington Herald-Dispatch and current Charleston Daily Mail columnist Dave Peyton is blogging as well.

It's good to see local professional journalists blogging.

Wi-Fi Proliferation

Rick Lee illustrates something I've been harping about now for a couple of years: all those open WAP's. Some people turn off WAP by choice. They want to share there internet connection. Many others don't know how or why they should configure their wireless routers. Even others never change the default passwords on their routers. They might have turned on WAP, but it only takes a Goggle search to find the default password to mess with the box.

Securing you wireless network really isn't rocket science and I'll help anyone who wants to know how.

Rick always illustrates his posts with nice pictures. I guess being a commercial photographer helps.

Two reporters fired for drinking beer

Editor & Publisher: 2 Journos Fired for Drinking With Subjects of Beer-Pong Story

Hard drinking used to be common in the newsroom. Many reporters and editors drank on the job. Some were know for keeping a bottle of the hard stuff in their desk drawer. Print journalism is a high pressure job, and many turned to the bottle for comfort. It appears those days have past.

Also I'm not sure who wrote that E&P headline, but they should be spanked. It sounds like something that was ripped from the pages of Star or The Daily Mirror.

Reading Club

I didn't get down to the GodbeyWorks Re-imagine Reading Club meeting when they covered The Cluetrain Manifesto. I've had two or three copies of the book, but I keep giving them away. I saw the big stack at Taylor Books and figured they were being used in some college course. The book has become quite popular in management and public relations courses in recent years. It would have been interesting to see if the local folk were drinking the Cluetrain kool-aid.

The Reading Club meets next on Tuesday, May 17 at 5:30 pm in
at Taylor Books. I'm not sure which book they are reading now, but the topic will be Funky Business.

Appalachian VCs

Adena Ventures - America's first New Markets Venture Capital Company

Looking for VC money, but think all the big boys are on the west coast or in NYC? Adena Ventures targets businesses in central Appalachia. They have $34 million just waiting for your business plan.

Maple Creative

I just found out, via Rick Lee, that a local PR firm is doing a group blog:
Marketing Genius
from Maple Creative

It's good to see more people on The Cluetrain...local people at that.

Update: They have been blogging for over a year. I wonder how I missed it.

WebCollage

WebCollage

WebCollage creates collages out of random images found on the Web. More images are being added to the collage about once a minute, so this page will reload itself periodically. Clicking on one of the images in the collage will take you to the page on which it was found.

There are currently two versions of this web page: one that searches the entire web, and one that searches LiveJournal only.

Beware, some of the images WebCollage fetches are not safe for work.

I've been EtherPEG on my home network to make a WebCollage of the images I surf.

Why Meetup.com will fail

Many-to-Many: Meetup starts to charge

No one is going to pay for Meetup.com. The are now charging $19.00 per month or $9.00 a month if you sign up before May 1. They would be better served to turn to advertising or ask for VC help. There are other ways of bring people together in meat space via cyberspace. This will be the end of Meet-up .com.

Appeals Court Delines to Hear Reporters Leak Case

The New York Times > Washington > Court Declines Case of Reporters in Leak Case

A federal appears court in Washington refused to hear a case that could put Judith Miller of The New York Times and Matthew Cooper of Time magazine behind bars for refusing to reveal their source in the Valerie Plame case. The next step is to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

On Location With Rick Lee: Wi-Fi Saga

On Location With Rick Lee: Wi-Fi Saga

Rick Lee has posted the story of how Taylor Books got WiFi. If it hadn't been for Taylor Books jumping on the wireless bandwagon, I don't think we would have seen it at First Watch or Capitol City Roasters. I heard Starbucks has WiFi, but I haven't carried the iBook over to the mall to see for myself.

It's back and I want one: The original Swatch

Boing Boing: Cool Tools on the original Swatch

This is the watch of my undergrad years. It's cheap, it's plastic, and it kept time better than anything I've ever owned. It's also very waterproof for those of us who shower with our watch on.

What's big and yellow, and has Oncee@Blogger on it? Part 2

Oncee@Blogger: What's big and yellow, and has Oncee@Blogger on it?

It came today, and it looks better than the picture. I was concerned that my homemade graphics would not look quite right. The Oncee@Blogger Cafe Express graphics were all made with GraphicConverter.

I'd take a picture, but I don't have a camera.

F-Bombs in Deadwood

The West Virginia Surf Report counts the number of F-Bombs in Deadwood by episode.

I had to work and didn't see it last night, but I'm sure I'll watch in on later on video on-demand.

Bloglines Outage

Bloglines Outage

I got bitten by this. All work and no Bloglines makes Oncee a dull boy.

Bloglines News:

This morning, one of our user databases suffered a failure that wasn't detected by our monitoring systems. This resulted in the inability of people to log into their Bloglines accounts. The database has been reset and no data was lost. We apologize for the issue and we're looking at ways to ensure this doesn't happen again.

What's big and yellow, and has Oncee@Blogger on it?

UPS tells me my bag is here. I bet I don't get it until Monday. I don't think they do regular ground delivery on Saturday. I know they didn't when I worked for them.

temptation within fairy tale

The Sony's Korean PSP site is wonderful, beautiful, and weird. You will need the latest version of the Flash Player to view it.

The Ghost Who Walks

Ghostly Music

The music of Neil McCormick, the author of Killing Bono.

I just finished the book and haven't had the time to listen to the tracks yet. The are going on my iPod right now.

WFAN 16th Annual Radiothon

Click here to make a donation to the WFAN 16th Annual Radiothon to benefit the Tomorrows Children's Fund, the CJ Foundation for SIDS and the Imus Ranch.

Greeks got game

Greeks got game - The Parthenon - News

I'm glad to see there is still a Lambda Chi chapter at Marshall. They've had a hard few years. I was saddened to hear our housemother died recently.

These guys looks like good dudes. I'm glad they became Lambda Chi's, but wish they would do more to bring back the glory years of always winning Greek Week. Maybe we were just lucky in my day.

It's ramps time again

A ramp to good times

RICHWOOD -- In this Nicholas County town, the person who doesn't eat ramps is the one who smells a little funny.

Ramps, for the uninitiated, are the pungent wild leek found primarily in the Appalachians. In Richwood, the old folks say the town is home to the state's original ramp dinner.

I wouldn't eat them as a child. I love them as an adult. I haven't had my yearly taste of ramps for a couple of years. I will be unable to attend this year's gathering of ramp lovers. I will be working.

The President iPod

Playing Games With the President and Other White House Stories : Wonkette

NBC ran a feature on last night's newscast on the President's playlist.

World on the Web Blog reports: "His playlist of 200 songs includes lots of country music--from George Jones, Kenny Chesney, and Alan Jackson--plus 1970's-era rock, such as Van Morrison's "Brown-Eyed Girl" and John Fogarty's base-ball tune "Centerfield."

CNN.com: W. Virginia lawmakers pass English bill

CNN.com - W. Virginia lawmakers pass English bill - Apr 12, 2005

CHARLESTON, West Virginia (AP) -- Two days after the end of the legislative session, state lawmakers are discovering something few were aware of: They voted to make English the official language of West Virginia.

Mac OS X-Tiger Unleashed

Tiger will be Friday, April 29. I'm still looking for the up-to-date information. I just purchased a new iBook in Feb. Apple often gives free upgrades to people who have recently purchased Macs.

You can pre-order it on Amazon: Tiger

Capacity Magazine

I just received my new copy of Capacity Magazine in the mail. My good friend R. Martin Spears is a associate publisher. It also has photos by Rick Lee.

Amazon.com: Books: On Bullshit

On Bullshit

I saw this little book at our local independent bookstore a few days ago. I was just there at lunch and picked it up again. I find it infinitely amusing that someone has written a book on the subject of bullshit.

"One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit," Harry G. Frankfurt writes, in what must surely be the most eyebrow-raising opener in modern philosophical prose. "Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted." This compact little book, as pungent as the phenomenon it explores, attempts to articulate a theory of this contemporary scourge--what it is, what it does, and why there's so much of it. The result is entertaining and enlightening in almost equal measure. It can't be denied; part of the book's charm is the puerile pleasure of reading classic academic discourse punctuated at regular intervals by the word "bullshit." More pertinent is Frankfurt's focus on intentions--the practice of bullshit, rather than its end result. Bullshitting, as he notes, is not exactly lying, and bullshit remains bullshit whether it's true or false. The difference lies in the bullshitter's complete disregard for whether what he's saying corresponds to facts in the physical world: he "does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are."

Apple bloggers get press support

BBC NEWS: Apple bloggers get press support

Eight US newspapers and the Associated Press agency have thrown their support behind three bloggers sued by Apple.

I still say bloggers are not journalists.

Morning meet-up

Rick Lee has a picture from the morning meet-up.

More on the PSP

The PSP could well be the mythical iPod killer.

The screen looks better than any laptop computer. It does something the iPod never could: it takes video and music and puts them on the same device. While the PSP looks small, you won't notice you are watching video on a small screen. I didn't get to gage the audio quality, but it's reported to be very good.

The bad news is the PSP is hard to find. I did find it on Amazon.com. GTA PSP can also be pre-ordered from Amazon.

Hands on PSP

This afternoon I traveled to an undisclosed location (the game store at the mall) and got to play with a PSP. This thing is revolutionary.

The screen looks amazing. It is not just another hand held game machine. It has build in WiFi, plays mp3's and movies, as well as games.

It does not have a build in web browser or email, but there are some people hacking some solutions together, without Sony's blessing. GTA is coming to the PSP this summer.

Now I only have to scrape up $250.00.

On Location With Rick Lee

On Location With Rick Lee

I dropped by Taylor Books and had a chat with Rick Lee this morning. He's a great guy. He showed me his Dell pocket PC with WiFi card, and told me the story of how Taylor Books got WiFi.

Google Sightseeing

Google Sightseeing, a blog featuring highlights from Google Maps satellite view.

A quick update before we return to our scheduled postings. In the past 3 days this site has used up 25% of our monthly bandwidth limit so we’d be extremely thankful to anyone who contributed a small amount via the Paypal link in the right hand menu - all proceeds will go to keeping this site online in the coming weeks!

Thanks also to everyone who has posted links to Google Sightseeing on their blogs, forums and social bookmarks, we really appreciate your support. We’d be really grateful if you didn’t hotlink our images though (It would be better if you downloaded images and host them on your own site).

Google's acquisition of Keyhole finally makes powers all of this. Google Maps now has a satellite view, at least low resolution, views of the whole planet.

Real Lawyers Have Blogs

Kevin O'Keefe says Real Lawyers Have Blogs

More morning coffee at Taylor Books photos

Another great entry by Rick Lee. He has a lot of picture of Taylor Books. Looks like I need to thank him for the Taylor Books WiFi as well. The first photo is of my long-time friend Tim Bradford.

Linux geek stuff

Ubuntu 5.04 Hoary Hedgehog is out. I've used a copy of the LiveCD for PPC, and I think it rocks. All you PC users who want to stop fighting spyware, adware, worms, and other things that make your computer go bump in the night should really try Linux. Or buy Macs.

Practical Guide to Fair Use

Practical Guide to Fair Use is a good source for everyone using the internet, especially bloggers.

The Great (Wrong) Star Wars Movie Line of 2005 t-shirt

Boing Boing: The Great (Wrong) Star Wars Movie Line of 2005 t-shirt

I thought about doing a shirt like this the other day. Looks like Wheaton beat me to it.

Internet Anxiety Disorder Anyone?

Om Malik on Broadband: Internet Anxiety Disorder Anyone?

I know I have it.

Broadband while great has its side effects. The rush to catch-up and living a six megabits per second lifestyle, is what I think is going to be first major malaise of the 21st century – Internet anxiety disorder. Are you seeing the signs of this? Because I am.

Earth's Oldest Known Object on Display

A 4.4 billion year old zircon crystal has been put on display at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The tiny crystal is a tiny speck, barely visible to the naked eye.

Old Style Computing in Starbucks

MetaFilter: Old Style Computing in Starbucks

This guy appears to have lugged his whole desktop computer system into Starbucks.

First they shoot him. Now they detain him.

mediabistro: TVNewser

A CBS News stringer who was wounded earlier this week by U.S. forces has been detained for "alleged insurgent activity." According to a statement from the US military, "there is probable cause to believe that the detainee poses and imperative threat to coalition forces. He is currently detained...and will be processed as any other security detainee."

ICANN Officially Approves .jobs and .travel TLD's

Slashdot: ICANN Officially Approves .jobs and .travel TLD's

News.com also reports .asia, .mail, .tel, and .xxx are still pending.

RSS Digest

I've put links to my last 10 del.icio.us postings in the sidebar using RSS Digest. RSS Digest is a great free service. Thanks to Christopher Allen for pointing it out.

Who owns culture? A chat with Lessig and Jeff Tweedy. (kottke.org)

Who owns culture? A chat with Lessig and Jeff Tweedy. (kottke.org)

Lessig: Fair use doesn't apply to music or movies like it does for text. I can excerpt a book and critique it, but if I wanted to play a clip of a new Fischerspooner song on a podcast and then review the album, I'd need to secure the rights ahead of time.

Johnson: Why isn't there a company that has come along and basically done what the record companies do for artists (distribute and promote records) but do it without all the overhead and let the artists keep the rights to their material? This is probably being done on a small scale (Factory Records comes to mind), but at first blush, this seems like a fantastic business opportunity. All the economies of scale without the monopoly.

Another "Journalist" on a Government Payroll

Dan Dan Gillmor: Another "Journalist" on a Government Payroll

A Boston Herald op-ed columnist has been awarded a $10,000 contract to promote Governor Mitt Romney's envirnmental policies.

Could Spyware be comming to a computer near you?

Nick Bradbury: Spyware purveyors looking into RSS

Rick Lee

Instapundit.com - points out that a photographer local to me has a new photo blog. I've been enjoy Rick Lee's work for years. Rick reminds us Opening Day is coming. The new ball park is so close I bet I can hear the crack of the bat.

The Conferencing Class

Blogsphere bigwigs like Doc Sears and Larry Lessig are always going to one conference or another.

Wil Wheaton doesn't go to conferences, but he does go to Star Trek conventions.

'Homeless Hacker'

It's been a year since Adrian Lamo's sentencing was delayed. The last word was it had been pushed back to June of 2004. You would think the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York would have moved to put Lamo behind bars by now.

There has been a lot written about the 'Homeless Hacker', but this story from Wired is my personal favorite.

NEW YORK -- Last January, Adrian Lamo awoke in the abandoned building near Philadelphia's Ben Franklin Bridge where he'd been squatting, went to a public computer with an Internet connection, and found a leak in the Excite@Home's supposedly airtight company network.

Just another day in the life of a young man who may be the world's most famous homeless hacker.

More than a year later, Lamo is becoming widely known in hacker circles for tiptoeing into the networks of companies like Yahoo and WorldCom -- and then telling the corporate guys how he got there.

Administrators at several of the companies he's hacked have called Lamo brilliant and "helpful" for helping fix these gaps in network defenses.

Critics blast Lamo as a charlatan who preens for the spotlight.

"(Is) anyone impressed with Lamo's skills(?) He is not doing anything particularly amazing. He has not found some new security concept. He is just looking for basic holes," wrote one poster to the SecurityFocus website.

To such barbs, Oxblood Ruffian, a veteran of the hacker group Cult of the Dead Cow, replied, "It's like dancing. Anyone can dance. But not many people can dance like Michael Jackson."

Lamo's latest move: using a back door in The New York Times' intranet to snag the home phone numbers of over 3,000 Op-Ed contributors, including Vint Cerf, Warren Beatty and Rush Limbaugh.

Although Lamo (pronounced LAHM-oh) did nothing more mischievous with the information than include himself in its roster of experts, the Times is considering pressing charges, according to spokeswoman Christine Mohan. Hacking is a federal crime, currently punishable by five years in jail.

Prison would be an ironic twist for Lamo -- it'd be the first time in years he would have a steady place to stay.

For now Lamo is still free on bond. He also has a personal website.

Star Wars Fans Line Up at Wrong Theater

bloggossip.com :: Movie Blogs :: Star Wars Fans Line Up at Wrong Theater

Doh!

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - One group of loyal "Star Wars" fans are hoping The Force is on their side.

Followers of George Lucas' sci-fi saga began lining up outside Hollywood's Grauman's Chinese Theater on Saturday, April 2, despite the fact that "Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith" won't be showing there, reports the AP.

Instead, 20th Century Fox has booked the ArcLight theater, which is about a mile east of Grauman's for the historic showing of the final installment of the beloved series.

The fans haven't made a mistake, though. They insist that "Episode III" should screen at the Chinese since the first film, 1977's "A New Hope," made its premiere there. In addition, rumors in 1999 and 2002 that previous "Star Wars" films weren't showing at the historic Hollywood landmark were unfounded.

Boing Boing: US govt uses BitTorrent

Boing Boing: US govt uses BitTorrent

Adam sez, "First Bittorrent hosted off a .gov domain. Tracks the releases of World Wind since it was saturating the bandwidth of the direct download.

A whole new scale of togetherness

A whole new scale of togetherness | csmonitor.com

I trying to pick beween this book and Oncee@Blogger products. It's hard because I really want the Oncee@Blogger messenger bag.

I caught most of what Tom Friedman's interview on Charlie Rose last night. This stuff is earthshaking.

La Vida Robot

Wired 13.04: La Vida Robot

From this month's Wired Magazine: Four immigrant kids from Phoenix beat a team from M.I.T.

The world really is flat.

Media to lampoon Legislature

Media to lampoon Legislature - The Parthenon - News

I will be missing Third House for a second year in a row tonight. It would be nice to see everyone.

Linux on a flash drive

Linux on a flash drive : Page 1

Just what I was looking for a couple of weeks ago. I need a larger flash drive and PPC version, but this will work great for my PC using friends.

How many times have you sat at a computer and thought, If Linux was installed on this box I could... Wish no longer. Instead of carrying around bulky Live CDs or an external hard drive, how about Linux in your pocket? The combination of a USB key and SLAX, the Linux distro used in this example, is a powerful combination when it comes to troubleshooting and spreading the word about Linux. The ability to boot the key, browse the computer's hard drive (SLAX has NTFS support built in), and then locate and burn a file to CD can be very helpful, especially with a computer that is on its last legs.

No sex, please, they're British

BuzzMachine... by Jeff Jarvis: An erotic festival in Manchester closed for lack of interest.

The Pulitzer Prizes -- 2005 Winners

The Pulitzer Prizes -- 2005 Winners

If bloggers are journalists, they need a category.

Main Page - Wendy's Resume

Main Page - Wendy's Resume

Tired of crafting the perfect resume. Post it to your wiki and let everyone have a go.

A bird's-eye view

Google Blog

Now when you type an address into Google Maps, you can click the 'Satellite' link and see a view of the area. You can zoom, move the view by dragging, and even resize the window just like the normal 'Maps' view.

This thing rocks. I played with it most of the day yesterday.

Pretty In Pink 2: Duckie's Revenge

stereogum: Pretty In Pink 2: Duckie's Revenge

A long-rumored Pretty In Pink sequel is moving forward and will be released next year. AKA The Return olf Molly Ringwald. AKA Molly's new boobs.

clevescene.com | Kill Bill (Printable) | 2005-03-30

clevescene.com | Kill Bill (Printable) | 2005-03-30

Microsoft's army of lawyers was no match for a kid from Kent State, who tried to take his 2002 Ford Escort.

David Zamos doesn't look as if he could single-handedly humiliate the world's largest software maker.

The well-built 21-year-old sips a jumbo cup of Starbucks coffee in the University of Akron's student union. He's looking dapper in pin-striped slacks, a navy pea coat, and a necklace of wooden beads that hugs his wide neck.

Thanks to massive doses of caffeine, Zamos (whose name rhymes with "famous") anxiously taps his Camper lace-ups against the table. A laptop sits to his right, a fat black binder to his left.

The only thing setting him apart from the other late-night crammers is that his notebook isn't filled with study guides. It's overflowing with documents from the federal lawsuit Microsoft brought against him on December 21.

Gallup: Bush Approval Rating Lowest Ever for 2nd-Term Prez at this Point

Gallup: Bush Approval Rating Lowest Ever for 2nd-Term Prez at this Point

It's not uncommon to hear or read pundits referring to President George W. Bush as a "popular" leader or even a "very popular" one. Even some of his critics in the press refer to him this way. Perhaps they need to check the latest polls.

Could Social Security reform really be this unpopular, or was it the Schiavo case.

NewsFactor Network - Tech Trends - Six Million Podcasters and Counting

NewsFactor Network - Tech Trends - Six Million Podcasters and Counting

Even Pew doesn't believe the six million number.

Pew research director Mary Madden believes the numbers of people actually using the Internet to broadcast and/or download pods is smaller than the 6 million figure cited in the organization’s latest study, however.

“Our question to the survey respondents on this was very broad. We asked if they had ever downloaded a podcast or radio Internet program," she says. In other words, the survey also netted affirmatives from people who may have listened to an NPR program on the radio, for example, and then gone to the NPR site to download it.

Picking Up Where Search Leaves Off

Picking Up Where Search Leaves Off

Business Week gets on the tag wagon.

Joshua Schachter used to be a lot like the rest of us online. When he surfed the Web, he'd zip through interesting articles only to find that days later he couldn't remember where he had seen the stories or sites that had caught his interest. Unlike most of us, though, the 30-year-old New Yorker is a software programmer -- so he did something about this lapse in memory. A little over two years ago, Schachter created a program that let him tag Web links using words he would remember and then store them for easy access. So when Schachter saw a story about, say, the music videos of Icelandic singer Bjork, he would slap a "music" tag on it and file it away.

Torrid: Hot Topic for heavy girls

Boing Boing: Torrid: Hot Topic for heavy girls

As one Boing Boing reader calls it: "It was a great alternative to lane bryant's, stuffy middle age clothing."

Daring Fireball: Point, Counterpoint: Mac OS X Is Great for Fortysomething Unix Hackers

John Gruber has a great follow-up an earlier story I pointed to talking about unix geeks switching to Macs: Daring Fireball: Point, Counterpoint: Mac OS X Is Great for Fortysomething Unix Hackers

Pope firsts

While it's true John Paul II was the first non-Italian Pope in modern times. Here is a list of first non-Italian Popes before 1523 via Wikipedia:

The first French Pope: Pope Silvester II
The frist Engilsh Pope: Pope Adrian IV
The first Portuguese pope: Pope John XXI
First Dutch Pope; last non-Italian Pope until 1978: Pope Adrian VI

There have been 16 French Popes, and three Afican Popes.

Of course you won't see this on the current wall-to-wall coverage on who might be the next Pope. I hope this adds a little context.

Smashing Pumpkins

I just noticed a large list of Smashing Pumpkins albums added to iTunes via the iTunes 10 Just Added Albums feed:









Bonus: I don't know who this band is, but I really like their album cover.

An Updated Directory Of Programs Designed For USB Drives

Jeremy Wagstaff has updated his Directory Of Programs Designed For USB Drives

The world's changing shape

Tom Friedman is on Imus right now talking about his new book, The World is Flat, in which he points out America is losing its edge, and the next big thing will come from India and China. He says it might now effect our standard of living this year or next year, but fifteen years from now we might not be leading the world in innovation.

I was thinking about this very thing the other day while watching a show on PBS about giving children a look a new innovations in science by an MIT professor. It wasn't American children, but foriegn students. At the time I was thinking, they must be using this project around the world because American students or the American educational system aren't interested.

The Christian Science Monitor has a good review.

This book goes on my Amazon Wish list today.

Stay away from this wireless router

Yesterday I made a trip two hours home to configure their Motorola HomeNet wireless router. My sister got a new computer and they didn't want to run CAT 5 around the house.

The configuration software didn't work at all. The manual is a huge pdf. After beating on it for a while I used my iBook to connect to the figure out the default address, username and password for the router, then configured it by hand.

The router has no fireware or WAP. My advice is to stay away from the Motorola HomeNet WR850G. They got this little piece of work from Wal-Mart.

I was able to secure it using software, but it's criminal to sell this device to people who only want a simple box to give their home wireless.

I cannot find a link for this product using a Google search. I wonder if they even make it anymore.

Zeta OS

BeOS has been reborn and will be re-released at Zeta OS. Too bad it looks like my Mac circa 1999.

Schiavo's Remains Cremated as Autopsy Becomes Part of Feud

I didn't write about this story until her passing. But this strange story just gets stranger:

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: April 3, 2005

TAMPA, Fla., April 2 (AP) - Terri Schiavo's body was cremated on Saturday as disagreements continued between her husband and her parents, who were unable to have their own independent expert observe her autopsy.

The cremation was carried out according to a court order issued on Tuesday that established that Michael Schiavo had the right to make such decisions, said his lawyer, George Felos. He said plans for burying Ms. Schiavo's ashes in Pennsylvania, where she grew up, had not yet been completed.

Ms. Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, said they wanted to bury their daughter in Pinellas County so they could visit her grave.

The Schindlers had sought to have independent medical experts observe their daughter's autopsy at the Pinellas County medical examiner's office, but the agency refused their request, the family's lawyers David Gibbs III and Barbara Weller said on Saturday.

The autopsy was completed Friday, but the results are not expected for several weeks.

'The first non-Catholic' to be selected pope

Not only are news outlets over-covering this story, they are also getting the facts wrong:

K.J. Lopez on National Review's Corner: "It was just pointed out to me that the aforementioned Christiane [Amanpour] earlier said that John Paul II was 'the first non-Catholic' to be selected pope. Then Shep Smith on Fox referred to St. Matthew's Cathedral (in D.C.) as St. Patrick's. Another reporter on CNN earlier called the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington as Washington's National Cathedral (the latter isn't Catholic). Paula Zahn a few minutes ago called President Bush the "pope." The list could go on. Cardinal McCarrick was called Fr. McCormick on CNN, also..."

Via TVNEWSER

Insurgents attack Abu Ghraib prison

This story is getting pushed out by coverage of the death of the Pope:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least 20 U.S. soldiers and 12 detainees were wounded when an estimated 40 to 60 insurgents attacked the infamous Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad on Saturday.

Must we have wall-to-wall coverage of the Pope. Yes it is a very important story, but let's use some news judgement.

Avon eRepresentative service

Avon has an interesting idea for driving sales, and you don't even have to know on any doors. They have Avon eRepresentative pages. It's sort of CafePress of the makeup set.  You just shop online and use your credit card. Check out my friend Stacey's page here.

One more whap for the dead horse

There is a interesting poll over on the CompTIA site:

Do you think blogs are a legitimate media source to be treated on par with newspapers, magazines and online publications?

Yes- all of the time	15%
No- none of the time	38%
Sometimes	35%
I'm not sure what the term "blog" means	8%

26 Total Responses

I'm not sure bloggers who want to be treated as journalists are winning the court of public opinion beyond the blogsphere.

Searching for Oncee

There is space at the bottom of the left-hand side of this page and every other page of this blog that lists Referring Web Pages for the past 5 days.

Some of these sited I can figure out. I have an ad running on Blogshares: BlogShares - Fantasy Blog Share Market [1].

Others I just have no idea:
regnyouth archives [1]
Halo, "stranger" ! [1]
EuroPhil [1]

I go look at these sites and can't find a link referring to Oncee@Blogger, but yet they come. It's rather odd.

The Aprl Fools entry, Oncee@Blogger becomes my full-time job, referred some at least one person from EZBoard. It sort of scares me:
Private Forum - @ www.ezboard.com [1]

The list shows referrers and page views or total site traffic. If you want to get an idea of Oncee@Blogger's daily  page views, go the the bottom of the page and click Your Ad Here

Pope Update - Mini-Drudge Report Edition

Vatican: Pope John Paul II Is Near Death...

Cardinals Differ on Who Will Succeed...

Catholics Pray as Pope Slides Towards Death...

The Pope of Popes...

Pope Helped Overthrow Communism in Europe

Slashdot | Google Ride Finder Announced

Slashdot | Google Ride Finder Announced

nthitz writes "Need a ride? Now Google has included the ability to lookup where taxis are in real time! The new service is called Google Ride Finder. Using a combination of Google Maps and Google Local you can see where certain taxis are at the moment. Currently there are only 11 major cities that are supported, and there are still only a few cab companies that are involved. The service is pretty cool, but if they don't add more cities/companies, who knows how well it will do. For more info check out Google's Blog."

This service looks cool. I hope we get it here soon.

Oncee@Blogger becomes my full-time job

I’ve decided to take a big step and begin blogging full-time beginning Monday. This is a scary step. People have always asked me why I didn’t blog for a living. Others are doing it, so I decided it was time for me to leave the 7 pm to 7 am rat-race and start doing what I really like to do: blog.

I will be using the advertising on my Oncee@Blogger to pay my way. I will also be asking for small donations. If you enjoy reading this blog please consider giving whatever you can afford.

The Oncee@Blogger items in the CafePress Store continue to sell quite well. This was the best idea I’ve ever had. Along with the current selection of products available I will be adding a series of how-to books that I have started to write, but haven’t had time to finish. Along with blogging I hope to finish them soon and add them to the online store.

I will be putting a PayPal and an Amazon Tip Jar on the site in a day or so. I have to wrap everything up with my current employers, but I appears I’m on track to be out of here this weekend.

Wish me luck,
Oncee