Monthly Archives: March 2004

Kael's Adventures

4 Toothed Baby!

Yep..the Big K has more teeth… And, he’s trying to walk!

We noticed them last night when Kael woke us up in the middle of the night, Janice saw a quick flash of white on his upper gum. This morning, we thought we’d take another peek (being fully awake and all, we figured we’d be better able to see) so, we hung him upside for a bit.. he started smiling and giggling, and there they were, just starting to peek through the gum… 2 of his upper teeth, one on the left side and one on the right side.

As for the walking.. apparently he’s grown bored with crawling after the 2 weeks he’s been doing it. He now tries to walk after pulling himself up. Which, really wouldn’t be so bad…except he’s got no balance whatsoever yet..so he proceeds to fall right down. He does, however, do a really good job walking when he’s either standing on his learn to walk toy, or walking while holding our hands…

Tech

Microsoft found to be illegal monopoly, again.

This time, its the EU that has smacked them around for being an illegal monopoly, and it looks like their proposed fines/settlement is more severe then the wimpy wrist slap that the US DOJ gave them

M$ will have to pay the equivalent of $613 million.. which for them is no big deal.. the more important parts of the settlement are that M$ must make a version of windoze available to european PC manufacturers that does not contain the crappy Windoze Media Player embedded in it, M$ also needs to release portions of their server code to other server software manufacturer’s so that their servers can interface better with desktops running windoze…

It’ll be interesting to see what parts of the settlement stand up to the appeals processes. All I can say is GO EU! smack M$ around…take away their ball, and send them to their room with no dinner! Oh yeah.. and break up their illegal monopoly while you’re at it!

Current Events

Political Comment

Ok.. so I normally don’t spend alot of time talking about politics… mainly because I think almost all of the government is completely corrupt and grossly abusing their power at our expense….

But.. I want to make a prediction… I firmly believe that our Government knows exactly where all the top members of Al Qaeda are, and have known for quite some time.

After over a year of looking, we suddenly ‘find’ #2…at about the same time that the administration comes under fire for not doing enough to win the war on terror…

I believe that within 30 days of the election this November, that we will ‘surprisingly’ find Osama bin Laden… and that the government will use their media influence (read that as control) to ensure that it is the top story long enough to practically guarantee a re-election of everyone in office right now..

Now, I don’t think this would change even if it was somebody else in the oval office…its to good of a ploy to get re-elected to ignore… And.. it’ll probably work.. and we’ll end up with another four years of the same shit we’ve gone through for the last decade or so… only to have the figurehead replaced in four years… so that nothing will change…..

Current Events

Odd Headlines

So.. I found another bunch of odd headlines… which I guess is really not all that uncommon, given all the weird shit that happens in the world…

So here are a few…

This one sounds like something straight out of the movie Super Troopers. Click here – I can almost picture the cop jumping over the counter and starting to beat on the kid.

And this one goes to a guy who thinks the world is flat…and that everyone else in the world is part of a giant conspiracy to fake the Earth’s roundness!

this one is about a 75 year old lady ripping off car dealerships by writing bad checks for cars, and telling the dealers that her stockbroker would send her money….

Always lots of weird stuff going on….Of course.. .what’s really bad is that some of these links end up listed as ‘top stories’ on some of the news sites…taking precedence over real news…

Just Stuff

Star Wars DVD Release

So, earlier I’d mentioned the ‘rumored’ packaging for the DVD release in September (Episodes 4,5,and 6)

Turns out… while they were nicely done mockups.. they apparently weren’t the real thing. Actual images of the DVD packaging have been officially release by Lucas…. click here . Not as much of a choice this time around as to what packaging you want. Platinum for the Wide Screen. Gold for the ‘Full Screen’ (Does anyone actually still buy movies released in ‘cropped’ versions? If they do… do they realize that ‘full screen’ is a misnomer, and they’re really missing something like 30% (I think) of the footage?)

anyway… I’ll take the Platinum..since I much prefer the Widescreen version of films..I haven’t heard anything concrete that will be on the 4th disc of ‘special features’ but.. I’ll let you know if I do…

Kael's Adventures

Standing

So, I was working on updating the pictures of Kael on our homepage

The update is viewable here. And Janice comes out of the kitchen and looks into the living room where Kael was playing. Next thing I know she’s screaming “Oh My God” and I rush to look, thinking that Kael has jumped through the patio door, or climbed into the fireplace or some other such traumatic event. Turns out.. Kael has learned to pull himself into a standing position using the couch, and even did a little cruising up and down the couch. We’ve got some video and pictures of it, which we’ll get added to the site within the next day or so.. or…. possibly longer now that we have to spend a bit more time chasing Kael around….

Just Stuff

Dawn of the Dead

So, I went last night to see the remake of Dawn of the Dead

Not a terribly scary movie… good gore though. Its been awhile since I’ve seen the original, so I don’t know how close to the original they stayed with this remake. I did just add the original the my Netflix queue, so I’ll get to see it again soon.

Overall, I liked the movie, it was a good Zombie flick. Like I said, not really scary (there are few of the required ‘something jumping out at a character and try and scare the audience’ moments) it did have some hilarious lines in it though. If you’re a zombie movie fan, definitely a must see.

The theatre I saw it at had trailers for Van Helsing (A different one than the Superbowl trailer which has been online for awhile), The Punisher (also a different one that what’s been on line), Chronicles of Riddick, and Troy. All of which look pretty good. And any of the 4 that weren’t on my summer movie to see list is now there (Except maybe Troy…I still haven’t made up my mind if I want to pay to see that in a theatre or just wait for the DVD)

Current Events

The World is Ending!!

It’s supposed to happen tonight! It’s just like the movie Armageddon! there’s a giant rock coming our way….

Ok..so maybe we’re not all going to die from it… but there is an asteroid that’s going to come within 26,500 miles of the Earth tonight at like 5:00pm EST (Here’s the link to the story on CNN ) And in astronomical terms.. 26,500 miles is close, but still a miss. So I guess we’ll all survive and the world will move on…

Just Stuff

Battlestar Galactica:The Series

Battlestar Galactica: The Series :

So, Sci-Fi ran the mini-series in December and said that they would decide later if they were going to turn it into a series

Well, apparently, later has come. While I didn’t see the announcement myself, but Sci-Fi has made their decision:

They have ordered 13 episodes, to be aired later, so we’ll still have to wait and see when they air the series…If the series is as well done as the min-series was, I think it will do good and be a hit. Personally, I’m looking forward to it.

Apple

10.3.3 And iTunes

Apple released a minor OS Update today… so go launch Software Update and get yourself a bunch of update-y goodness. And another iTunes Music Store milestone….

The iTunes Music Store sold its 50 millionth song last Thursday afternoon…something by Sara McLaughlin if I remember what I read in the press release correctly…. and that 50 million does NOT include any of the songs downloaded as part of Pepsi’s 100 million song giveaway! Not bad for a music store all the ‘experts’ keep saying is going to fail…

For comparison’s sake.. the most recent numbers released by Napster show that it has sold 5 million songs…. which is what the iTunes music store sells in about 3 weeks (something like 1.3 million songs/week at the moment for iTMS)

Here’s what’s new in 10.3.3:

The 10.3.3 Update delivers enhanced functionality and improved reliability for Mac OS X v10.3 “Panther” and is recommended for all users.

Key enhancements include:

• network volumes are now available in the Finder sidebar and Desktop for convenient access

• improved file sharing and directory services for Mac (AFP), UNIX (NFS) and PC (SMB/CIFS) networks

• improved PostScript and USB printing

• updated Disk Utility, DVD Player, Image Capture, Mail and Safari applications

• additional support for FireWire and USB devices

• improved compatibility for third party applications

• previous standalone security updates and Bluetooth Update 1.5

For detailed information on this Update, please visit this website: http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n25711