BBC NEWS | Obituary: Oscar Peterson

One of the jazz world’s greats has died. Oscar Peterson was a truly gifted pianist. He’ll be missed by all of us who love jazz.
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Obituary: Oscar Peterson

Lessons learned...the hard way

1) Do not under any circumstances microwave a full cup of coffee with sugar already added.

2) Keep a roll of paper towels handy near the microwave.

3) Do not attempt to drink the coffee you made in the process of learning rule #1.

Do not push the Red Button

Put The Big Red Button on your site

Polish off your week

...with this music video. Everybody, on put your shoes for dancing into disco.



Don't blame me if this gets stuck in your head all weekend.

Microsoft shuts down Santa for talking dirty

And Bill O'Reilly's upset about store clerks who say, "Happy Holidays"?

Microsoft Corp. quickly shut down Santa Claus’ Web privileges after it found out the automated elf it created for kids to instant message with was talking naughty, not nice.

(MSNBC is a joint Microsoft - NBC Universal venture.)

Last year, Microsoft encouraged kids to connect directly to “Santa” by adding northpolelive.com to their Windows Live Messenger contact lists. The Santa program, which Microsoft reactivated in early December, asked children what they wanted for Christmas and could respond on topic, thanks to artificial intelligence.

The holiday cheer soured this week when a reader of a United Kingdom-based technology news site, The Register, reported that a chat between Santa and his underage nieces about eating pizza prompted Santa to bring up oral sex.

One of the publication’s writers replicated the chat Monday. After declining the writer’s repeated invitations to eat pizza, a frustrated Santa burst out with, “You want me to eat what?!? It’s fun to talk about oral sex, but I want to chat about something else.”

The exchange ended with the writer and Santa calling each other “dirty bastard.”

Microsoft spokesman Adam Sohn said the company’s engineers tried to clean up Santa’s vocabulary, but even after making changes to the software, the company wasn’t comfortable keeping him online.

“It’s not like if you say, ’Hello Santa,’ he’s going to throw inappropriate stuff at you,” said Sohn.

Sohn said Santa’s lewd comment was sparked by someone “pushing this thing to make it do things it wasn’t supposed to do.”

Santa is just one of many “agents,” or automated IM programs, that computer users can chat with on Live Messenger. Some are useful — customer service agents, for example — while others are frivolous, like an alien that responds to IMs with burbling extraterrestrial noises. Sohn said some of the bots are programmed to fend off inappropriate messages.

“If they’re meant to be cheeky and have fun with you, they may repeat certain things back,” he said, or respond to certain words with “that’s naughty.”

Sohn said Microsoft was not aware that the Santa code included the foul language, but insisted the company did not suspect an employee prank.

Microsoft disabled Santa Tuesday. On Wednesday, northpolelive.com appeared to be online in one reporter’s essenger contact list, but Santa did not respond to her messages.

(Source)

This almost makes Vista seem benign.

Just because it's Thursday

OH HAI HAPPY THANSGIBBEN!

Critters

I've been trying to familiarize myself with my new video camera. Here's a recent test starring two of my roommates.

Good news at Computerworld Magazine

I have it on very good authority that Computerworld Magazine is naming Scot Finnie as the next editor in chief.

I'm very happy for Scot. In addition to being a very good friend of mine, he's a dedicated and hard-working writer with an absolute passion for the computer industry. He has written with great foresight on the re-emergence of the Mac as well as the problems Microsoft has had creating enthusiasm for Vista in the business world.

The current editor in chief, Don Tennant, is an excellent writer and very bright fellow. He has spent time at the National Security Agency, as have I, and no doubt we both came by our fascination with the world of computing from that assignment. I further have no doubt that he could find no one more qualified and worthy to hand his reigns to than Scot.

I know Computerworld Magazine will only improve under Scot's skillful guidance. I wish him and his family all the best as he begins his new assignment.

Red sky at night

A shot taken this evening of the sun setting through the smoke of San Diego's wildfires. I am in what has become the center of the unburned area. All around us, North, East and South, wildfires are burning out of control. If any of them reach the ocean, we will be completely surrounded by fire.

The air smells of smoke and ash is falling like dust. My co-worker is among the thousands that have been evacuated from their homes ahead of the approaching inferno. Luckily, I live in an area of the city not threatened.

With the lack of rain recently, I think we all knew the likelihood of wildfires was great this year. But I doubt any of us could have predicted just how severe the situation would become.

San Diego doesn't "get" mass transit

It's a shame that in a city as large as San Diego mass transit isn't more popular than it is. While the numbers of riders has increased, still the majority of San Diegans drive their own cars. Yet the transportation board is in large part responsible for the lack of mass transit usage.

Bus routes are confusing and often don't service the areas most in need of public transportation. The MTB fails to properly police its vehicles, violence and disturbances are common on the buses and trollies. And now, instead of making buses and the trolly more accessible, they are determined to further erode its user base.

On Thursday, across-the-board fare hikes were proposed at a Metropolitan Transit System hearing, as was the possibility of eliminating bus and trolley transfers.

Despite the fact that San Diego's buses and trolleys are attracting more riders than ever, officials said finances are stretched thin and that they may be forced to increase fare prices.

"My concern is: Why go up, when I can barely get around now?" said bus rider Sherry Madison.Officials with the MTS said they are dealing with a $9 million deficit."There are 100 people here today, and we agree with their messages," said Rob Schupp of the MTS. "We don't want to eliminate services. We don't want to raise fares. That's not what we're all about, but we don't have many choices."

Some critics, though, said that raising fares was not the way to find money to solve the problem."They're trying to cut corners wherever they can, but you shouldn't look to … poor people and working-class people who are serving the community to hit them with that burden," said Marlena Lewis of Citizens for Effective Transportation.

"It's an unjust situation."Among the proposals being floated are increasing the local service price by a quarter this year and another 25 cents next year. Also changing would be the monthly pass, which could jump from $60 to $68 over the next two years.

One of the most controversial changes, though, has nothing to do with raising fares. Instead, it is the elimination of transfers."I think eliminating the transfer system -- after people in San Diego for so long have become accustomed to that method of the transfer system -- is something that does not need to occur now," Lewis said.MTS officials said that some people are cheating the transfer system, so they are mulling its elimination in favor of a $5 day pass."A number of agencies around the country are eliminating the transfers and going to the day pass," Schupp told NBC 7/39. "It's much simpler to administrate, simpler to sell, it's simpler to enforce."

The MTS board approved the rate hikes and transfer-elimination proposals on Thursday. Now, the proposals must be green-lighted the San Diego Association of Governments, which will vote on the plan on Friday.

(Source)

All the Googles in Googleville...

So here's how I see my future;

I've accomplished the first step. I've sold my soul to Google. In exchange, I received a gmail account, a spot on Orkut, a Blog on Blogger and unlimited access to Google/Froogle/Google images, groups and news. I have heard that others have received these same benefits without bartering their soul, but I cannot confirm these rumors, and besides, I wasn't using mine anyway, so it wasn't a big deal.

In the next few years, after Google buys up Microsoft and Intel, and owns a controlling amount of stock of the internet, they'll want their piece of the real world. Real estate, literally. So somewhere in the mid-West will blossom Googleville, a beta community. I, of course, will be among the first in line to apply for residence. Landscaping be damned, we'll all be in our lovely Googlehomes, sitting in front of our GoogleMachines computers with broadband access via our Google ISP, 24 hours a day. Blooging this, gmailing that, searching for even more entertainment. Once a week I'll trek down to GoogleMart for my supplies, maintaining my net connection with my Googleberry device. On the way back I'll stop to fill the tank of my Googlemobile at GoogleGas, then hurry back home to surf/blog/email/search some more.

Soon I'll be at Mecca, Google headquarters, heaven on Earth. I shall bathe in Googloodness. I shall feast on Googlisms. I shall share my dream of the future and secure my place in it. I will be reborn as BetaBoy©, a registered Google property.

Behold, I am Googlfied.

Ah, could my future be any brighter?

Taste testing and KDE

I get a lot of fun invitations and I try to attend most of the events to which I'm invited. This week I received two invitations that exemplify the range of those I receive.

Shortly I'll be taking part in a taste testing for Jack in the Box, a San Diego corporation. I believe they intend to introduce some new salads to their menu and want feedback from regular customers. Sad to say, I am fully qualified. There's a JitB far too close to the store where I work and I find myself there several times a week to scarf up a quick lunch. I used to be a bit of a health nut, but I find as I get older attempting to preserve my youthful appearance and vigor are less easy to justify. That's not to say I've allowed myself to totally go to hell, it just means when Jack invites me to taste his new salads, I'm pleased to accept.

The other invitation I received is far more exciting. I get to attend the official launch of KDE 4.0 (that's the Linux K Desktop Environment) at one of the shrines in Geekdom.

This is an official invitation to the KDE 4.0 Release Event at
Mountain View, California. This event is being held to celebrate the
release of KDE's latest computing environment, KDE 4.0. Alongside
numerous KDE community members, this event has been opened to our
industry partners, and members of the press. This is an opportunity
to take a closer look at the KDE 4.0 release, and mingle with the KDE
community at large. Presentations will be held on the architecture of
KDE 4.0, prominent KDE applications, KDE's various communities and
plans for the future. This event provides an invaluable opportunity
for members of the press, I.T. industry and the KDE community to meet
in person and discuss the free software movement.

Where: The Google Headquarters, Mountain View, California
Hotel: The Wild Palms Hotel, Mountain View, California
When: January 17th to 19th, 2008.

Hotel rooms have been kindly sponsored by Google for those with
official invitations, and all event meals will be catered. The only
thing you need to do is get there!

Oh, I'll be there alright. My deepest thanks to Chris Pirillo for the invitation. He obviously knows my interests.

It seems over 90% of the social events I attend are technology related. I couldn't be more pleased. After all, I've got to keep my inner geek well fed.

My new wheels

My new ride.  Hell on wheels at 25MPH. So much fun.

gigapan: GigaPan allows users to upload, share, and explore brilliant gigapixel+ panoramas from around the globe.

gigapan: GigaPan allows users to upload, share, and explore brilliant gigapixel+ panoramas from around the globe.

Ever wish you could do more with your digital camera? Here's a site that should fire up your imagination. Contribute your images and create a gigapixel panorama. You can also view panoramas on Google Earth. This is truly awesome technology.

A beautiful case mod

This is perhaps the most fantastic, beautiful and envy-worthy case mod I've ever come across. About all I know about it is that is was built in Europe, it's a water-cooled PC in the steampunk style. I'm in desperate geek-love with this machine. If anyone can read the source forum entry and can add any more info on this work of tech art, please do.

Tired guy and fat cat

I thought I'd post a couple of shots from the somewhat more organized cottage. Speaking of images, check out http://play.blogger.com/. You can watch real-time as images are uploaded to Blogger accounts. It's rather fascinating.

New haircut but need a shave:


A few of the jazz CDs I've unpacked:


A novel way to store the classical CDs:





Fat cat by herself:

Two songs for Maryjane

She wanted me to hear this one;







and I wanted her to hear this one;







To round out this Incubus moment, here's one we both understand;

Freedom for the Internet

Today I offer Henry Rollins, as profane and angry as George, with a different slant on the topic. Language Warning; profane and opinionated.

Who Owns You?

George Carlin is a hero of mine. Not because he's smarter than everyone else, not because he's more successful than everyone else. Carlin, like Lenny Bruce before him, has the courage and insight to say the things we don't want to hear, to tie together the threads of thought we're often too distracted by daily life to put together ourselves. Carlin says what ought to be said, what needs to be said, whether we want to hear it or not. He presents the alternative view to the news broadcasts, the television commercials, the pronouncements from the government. His is the clear vision of the common man. And nowhere does he cut to the quick deeper than in the following video from one of his concerts. Be warned, Carlin's routine contains many words you won't want your children to hear, and quite a few obscenities as well. Carlin's objective has always been to make people think for themselves. I hope this video causes you to think.