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Bye Bye 2005

This is the last Friday Cat Blogging post of 2005. It's been an interesting year, with Pip being introduced to my family, which is Blur and me. Now, I'm not sure which of the two cats did this, but I've had that cactus since 2000 or so. Blur knocked down an aloe plant in 2003. Now, I don't think that Pip has the strength to push the pot over the edge of the shelf, but maybe if he was startled.

Happy New Year from Blur, Pip and me!

How do you not wake up?

Ok, I'm a deep sleeper, but I think I'd wake up if this happened to me.

Redesign

I've decided that I'm going to be replacing this server with the one that I've been learning Ruby on Rails on. I'm going to move my blog to Typo, which is a rails based blog. This will happen sometime next week. Granted, I'm just learning Rails, so it will probably look pretty basic, until I find some themes that I can use.

Additionally, migrating a web server can be quite daunting, I'm going to have to write a bunch of rewrite rules so that links still work, and I'm going to search for a good Rails-based photo album package. Any suggestions?

It's a Wonderful Internet

It's a Wonderful Internet (flash required) alright. Even Al Gore gets a shout out (before he gets kicked out).

Taking some time off to learn Ruby on Rails

So, I'm probably going to be taking a quick break with the holidays coming up and some other personal stuff coming up. I've got some things to take care of. One of the things is that I want to learn Ruby on Rails. Yes, it was inspired by my obsession with 43things.com.

And away we go!

P.S. I'm probably going to still do my Friday Cat Blogging, and after all, I'm not going to be away from a computer any more than I usually am. In fact, I'll probably be on it more! Plus, the weather sucks and I can cut down on my partying.

New Orleans this holiday season

This holiday season, people have a lot of their minds. People are thinking of travel, families, presents, food, etc. Many people have left 2005 behind to move on to the new year. One of the things that people will remember about 2005 is the hurricane season. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita both devasted the Gulf Coast. With residents opposing NOLA's plans to have Mardi Gras this year.

Former President Bill Clinton has written an essay on Amazon.com explaining the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund and asking us to continue to help those affected.

Senator Mary Landrieu has asked the Senate to help Gulf residents before heading home for the holidays.

Gray Line bus tours in New Orleans, a group that used to give tours of mansions and historic areas of New Orleans, have turned to giving disaster tours. I found this link on Reuter's Oddly Enough section. It's controversial, and I can understand the reason that they have changed their business model, however I think they should try to make sure that the areas that they tour are not in residential areas. Sure it's going to be unavoidable, but have some decency.

Sadly, this Mardi Gras will be rife with people trying to scheme tourists with bogus charities and such. Please give to a fund beforehand if you decide to go.

Giving out my email addresses

Back when I went to Louisiana in October, I met a lot of people. Many of those people wanted my email address, so I gave it out to them. Funny thing is, many of the people I met were really mediocre. As a friend said today, "Talk about a lightening rod of mediocrity." I agree entirely. Many of the people were also religious, which is normal I guess for disaster relief.

Anyway, some of the people are really cool, and working that closely with people and spending that much time together, well frankly it's like camp. But that has nothing to do with this post either.

One particular person that I met was a young kid. He seemed a little odd from the beginning since he walked around with his hands on his hips, talking on the cell phone all day, and was just over 5 feet tall. Oh yeah, and did I mention that he wore Under Armor shirts? Yeah the compression kind, the ones you wear under stuff (hence the name Under Armor). Anyway, he got a list of a lot of people's email addresses, no problem. And the first email he sends, fine, it's personal and not a problem. The lastest one that I got, is called "Your age by chocolate math." You know the ones like, take the number of times you want chocolate in the next 7 days, multiply it by 15, add 2452, multiply that by 2, subtract blah blah.

Unsubscribe me. So I sent this email:

Andrew, First off, I hope all's well with you and your family.

Secondly, can you take me off of whatever you're using to send out these trivial emails? I get literally hundreds of these a week, and I don't have time to read them all. This particular one, I've seen no less than 15 times with various "age by ***** math" subjects. If there is nothing that you've personally contributed to these emails and you feel like forwarding them on, feel free, but please take my name and email address off of the To: line. Even if it's one of those, "Let's get to know each other better" emails with questions like "Do you wish on stars, or When was your first kiss" emails, I'd probably live just as full a life without knowing. If you want to email me personally, that's fine and well.

While you're at it, you can take <name redacted> off the list as well.

Cheers.

This fellow Andrew is one of those religious people. In fact, his email address has jesusfreak in it. Andrew, please please please take me off your worthless email list.

Drink Sensibly

Alrighty, with the holiday season well underway, you'll probably find yourself invited to a handful of holiday parties. All I'm saying, is if you're going to drink, try to make sure that it's open bar, pace yourself, and lastly, drink sensibly. Make sure you're volume works. (thanks Dan).

Yahoo is gobbling up companies

Yahoo! has been gobbling up companies on the net. It looks like the latest company is the bookmarking and tagging site del.icio.us. I'm a HUGE fan of del.icio.us.

I am actually amazed at the number of companies that Yahoo has acquired recently. Among the companies are:

• Upcoming.org - a site that list upcoming events in your area like Washington, DC


• Konfabulator - a widget maker (visit the Widget Gallery for some really cool widgets)


• blo.gs - a public blogroll


• WhereOneEarth - bringing location to the internet


• DialPad - Yahoo's VOIP


• Flickr - an online photo sharing website


• Oddpost - web based news and email aggregation

There are probably more, but it looks to me like Yahoo is trying to get it's foot in a lot of different markets. Whether it's a good move for Yahoo or not, we'll see, and the market will be watching.

Fun with laser pointers

Here's Pip trying to catch the laser pointer. I got news for you Pip, it's not gonna happen. Good luck though.

That house with the Christmas lights is real

A few weeks ago, I blogged about some funny things. There was one link [local, 4.9MB] in particular that was just not right, with a house's Christmas lights set to music.

Turns out, that house is real, and in Cincinati, and run by computer.

There is also this story about a poem that was deleted from a Pakistani text book after someone pointed out that the poem was about a leader, and the first letter of each line spelled presidentgeorgewbush.

King James Bible all USB'd out

Smoking banned in DC restaurants

Today, the DC Council voted 12-1 to ban smoking in restaurants in DC. The mayor still has to sign it, but he's concerned that some DC'ers will go dine in Virginia.

I don't know about all that though. If you could smoke in a restaurant in DC, I think it was generally at the bar. There are no restaurants that come to mind where there was a smoking section (unless it was outside). Anyway, I'm fine with the ban. I don't like when I'm eating and there is smoke in the air.

I say, "Mayor Williams, sign the bill please."

Breakfast with Congressman Honda

This morning, I had breakfast with a Congressman. Not my local Congressperson, since Eleanor Holmes Norton isn't reallly recognized as a voting member, but Congressman Mike Honda from the 15th District of California.

We met for breakfast for I guess what was the informal kick off of the Asian American and Pacific Islander working group at the DNC, where Congressman Honda is also a Vice Chair.

Top 10 System Administrator Truths

Here is a list of the top ten truths of systems administrators. My favorite is number 7 (No One Ever Got Fired For Buying Microsoft). Evan is apparently a Microsoft guy. I'll forgive him.

Kimchee effective in battling bird flu

This is some funny (although pretty serious) news. Reports are that there is a bacteria in the Korean food staple kimchee that cures bird flu. Kimchee, in it's most popular form, is pickled cabbage spiced with red pepper, salt, garlic, and a few other ingredients. Kimchee has been investigated for it's medicinal properties before in relation to SARS.

The bacteria is called leuconostoc citreum, a type of lactobacillus (lactic acid bacteria), and is present in kimchee. Leuconostoc Citreum has been reported to be able to boost immune systems of affected birds.

ABC also cited a study by South Korean scientists last March in which they found 11 out of 13 infected chickens with bird flu started to recover after eating a kimchi extract. According to the South Korean embassy in the U.S., some 100 media agencies across the nation have recently reported on the preventive effects of Korean kimchi for avian influenza.

In fact, the Wikipedia page for Lactobacilus says that the Lactobacilus bacteria is present in the vagina and the gastrointestinal tract. There are far too many jokes there though.

So, if you don't want the bird flu, get yourself some kimchee. But, make sure it's not from China.

I'm Superman

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 80% Spider-Man 80% The Flash 70% Iron Man 70% Green Lantern 60% Supergirl 56% Robin 53% Catwoman 50% Wonder Woman 46% Hulk 35% Batman 30%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...

Blur naps

Here is Blur napping on the couch that's got battle scars.

Also, be sure to check out the Carnival of the Cats, Friday Ark, Catbloggers Frappr and Friday Ark Frappr.

Bigfoot, the other one

This is pretty crazy. There was a Bigfoot sighting on November 17, 2005 on Silver Star Mountain in Washington. Pictures are on the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization.

I can't post the pics here, but there's there after the jump. Sweet.

Freedom Toaster

First, there was this war in Iraq (well, the second one, the one that is currently going on). Then came France's refusal to support the US in the war in Iraq. Then came the fuqin US Republicans holding a press conference to change the name of french fries to freedom fries.

Now there is the freedom toaster. However, there is absolutely no correlation between the previous paragraph and the Freedom Toaster, but I thought there would be too.

The Freedom toaster is funded by the Shuttleworth Foundation which supports "initiatives in Maths, Science and Technology in Education and Open Source". The Shuttleworth Foundation was founded by a South African entrepreneur, Mark Shuttleworth, in order to improve the quality of education in South Africa.

Apparently, in South Africa and Namibia, the Freedom Toasters are these kiosks (generally in libraries) where people bring their own blank cds (or dvds), and then can make copies of open source software packages such as Linux distributions. This need arose because of the restrictive telecom environment there.

You just use the touchscreen and indicate what software you want. As of right now, it look more like it's just distros, but there are a few other packages, and let's face it, the distros come with many packages already.

Hardware-wise, here's what's inside (this ain't yo mama's toaster):

• AOpen MIDI Tower Chassis with 300W PSU
• Intel i865G Bayfield motherboard with LAN
• Intel Pentium4 3.0GHz (1MB)
• Transcend 512MB400
• Seagate 120GB Serial ATA Drive
• 3 x Gigabyte CD-Writer
• 1 x IDE Controller Card
• 3 x IDE and Power extensions
• 15" Touch Screen LCD

Not bad for a kiosk huh?

I think this is a great idea, especially since there are times where I need some install cds, and I have to wait for the freakin things to download. Maybe that's why I have the ISOs sitting around and taking up (gigs of) space on my machines. I guess I have my own "Freedom Toaster" but it's not as 1337.

Arlen Specter and T.O.

Recently, anyone that has been following the NFL or the Philadelphia Eagles knows about the silly antics of one Terrell Owens.

Senator Arlen Specter had previously threathened to have a Senate subcommittee investigate whether the NFL and the Eagles violated antitrust laws in their handling of Mr. Owens. Sen. Specter has also reported spoken with the United States Justice Department regarding this issue. He has since backed down from those threats.

However, he did not indicate whether the Justice Department would conduct their own investigation.