Real Kato Blog

Megan went home last night. Not a surprise, but kind of a shame; she at least was unique.

Tonight: songs from the year the contestants were born.

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Posted by Ken in: television

American Idol 2009 Week 4 Performances

Tuesday, 2009 March 31 - 8:45 pm

Michael went home last week. Matt was in the bottom three, interestingly; maybe the country finds him as goofy as I do. Scott was in the bottom three also; his days are numbered.

This week's theme is the oh-so-specific "Any Popular Song on iTunes" night.

Read more...

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Posted by Ken in: television

The Dark Knight

Sunday, 2009 March 29 - 4:57 pm

I really don't see what all the fuss about "The Dark Knight" was. I finally got around to seeing it and I thought it was predictable and dull... and definitely too long. (Javi had dubbed this movie "The Long Dark Knight", and I can see why.) I found Christian Bale's acting to be wooden. Maggie Gyllenhall was utterly wasted in her role. Heath Ledger was passable as the Joker, but let's be honest: Jack Nicholson was the one who re-invented that character, not Heath. And while there was plenty of action, it was never all that gripping.

To be sure, this generation of Batman movies is a vast improvement over the previous Kilmer/Clooney/Keaton generation, but that's not saying a whole lot.

Rating: 2.5 / 5.0

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Posted by Ken in: movies

Facebook and Photos

Sunday, 2009 March 29 - 3:50 pm

For those of you not following along on Facebook, I've started posting photos there. For a long time, I resisted using hosted photo-sharing sites like Flickr... I figured I could do just as well with my own site, and I thought that would give me more control.

I used Apple's iWeb and MobileMe (née mac.com) for a while, but they kept changing the dang publishing system, so it's hard to keep everything straight. They've got yet another photo hosting system available now (MobileMe Gallery), but I don't feel like I can trust Apple not to replace it with something else. Apple is still inexplicably behind the curve when it comes to Web 2.0 stuff. What's up with that?

But Facebook is a pretty nice way to post photos. I can control who can see the photos by regulating my friends list. Tagging is effortless, and commenting is simple. And best of all, iPhoto '09 has built-in support for publishing to Facebook.

I'll still include photos in my blog posts here on realkato.com, but when it comes to posting whole albums, Facebook is where I'll do it.

If you're a friend and you want to find me on Facebook, you can do it here. But please, if you're someone I haven't seen in ten years and we were never really that close anyway, don't be offended if I don't accept your friend request... you know? I try to keep my friends list restricted to people I really consider to be friends. (In fact, I'm trying to figure out how to pare down my existing friends list without seeming like a jerk. What's the etiquette for de-friending someone?)

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Posted by Ken in: commentary, life, techwatch

Mac mini

Sunday, 2009 March 29 - 3:30 pm

I've had my Mac mini for a few weeks now, and thus far, I love it. Especially nice is the fact that's it's practically silent. By comparison, my old G4 sounds like a vacuum cleaner with its continuous whooshing.

The process of cracking the mini open to upgrade the memory and hard drive was a bit heart-breaking, because I put a few scratches into the bottom casing as I was doing it. I guess it's not noticeable (since it's on the bottom), but still... I hate to blemish a pristine system.

According to XBench, the mini is roughly 2.5 times faster than my G4. Actually, I'm surprised at how well the G4 still holds up by comparison. It's possible that if I were to upgrade the CPU and graphics card on the G4, I could make it run almost as fast as the mini. But then again, it would cost more to buy those upgrades than it would to buy a new mini.

Gaming-wise, the Nvidia 9400M isn't too shabby. If I boot into Windows, City of Heroes runs smoothly at high resolutions with most effects turned on. Unfortunately, the Mac CoH client bogs down at times; the Cider translation engine isn't quite good enough for the 9400M. But still, the Mac CoH is at least playable, and I can always boot into Windows if I want the better performance.

Migrating data from my G4 hasn't quite gone as smoothly as I'd hoped, but I think that's mostly because my G4 is still running 10.4 Tiger and older versions of Mail and iLife. I've managed to port over all my email, my RSS subscriptions, and my photos. I haven't done iTunes yet.

All in all, a worthwhile purchase. And as I said before, the nice thing about the mini is that it can easily be repurposed into a server or media box if I choose to upgrade again in a few years.

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Posted by Ken in: techwatch

American Idol 2009 Week 3 Performances

Wednesday, 2009 March 25 - 9:19 pm

Alexis Grace went home after her "forgettable" performance last week. This week: Motown. Will anyone be able to make anything sound current?

Read more...

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Posted by Ken in: television

Ann Arbor News Shutting Down

Monday, 2009 March 23 - 9:46 am

From the wire today: Ann Arbor News to publish its last edition in July.

I enjoyed in Ann Arbor News growing up. I seem to recall that for a number of years, I read the entire newspaper every day. You just can't beat a local paper for coverage of local sports teams and in-town events.

I remember that my friend Mae's dad worked for the paper. I remember reading Bloom County religiously in the comics section. I remember sending in weekly college football picks and collecting bumper stickers that said "I Dumped The Dope" when I out-picked the sports columnist.

I suppose it's no big surprise that print newspapers are going away. I stopped getting the Raleigh News and Observer years ago. But losing the Ann Arbor News just gives me a bit of a nostalgic twinge.

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Posted by Ken in: commentary

Whoo Michigan Whoo

Thursday, 2009 March 19 - 8:39 pm

Well, after a ten year NCAA tournament drought, Michigan comes into the dance this year with a big opening round win over Clemson. (Sorry, Margo.) Go Blue!

CBS, irritatingly, kept switching away from the Michigan game to show other games. But to CBS's credit, you can watch any tournament game online on their web site. They use Microsoft Silverlight to stream the video, and you know, the picture quality was pretty dang good. CBS and Microsoft doing something right, AND Michigan wins an NCAA tournament game... strange things are afoot at the Circle K.

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Posted by Ken in: sports, techwatch

American Idol 2009 Week 2 Performances

Tuesday, 2009 March 17 - 10:13 pm

Jasmine Murray and Jorge Nuñez were kicked out last week. This week: country week, UGH. Simon and I both just are thrilled about this.

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Posted by Ken in: television

New iPod Shuffle Today

Wednesday, 2009 March 11 - 8:41 am

Ridiculously small.

By the way, props to John Gruber over at Daring Fireball, for his remarkably prescient prediction about the new Shuffle's voice navigation features.

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Posted by Ken in: techwatch

Moore's Law

Tuesday, 2009 March 10 - 10:37 pm

N.C. State is having an e-recycling event tomorrow, so tonight I stripped down an old PowerMac G3 and a PowerMac 8100 to bring in. I'd already taken most of the parts out of those machines, but it turns out the G3 still had 384MB of RAM in it, and the 8100 still had 64MB and a G3 upgrade card.

This led me to remember the first Mac our family bought around 20 years ago, the original Mac II, for somewhere north of $5000. It came with a 16MHz processor, 1MB of RAM, and a 120MB hard drive. We eventually upgraded to 4MB for something like another $500.

The Mac mini that I'm getting? It has a 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. It's hard to compare that directly to a 16MHz 68020, but just in terms of clock speed and number of cores, that's 250 times faster, for one tenth the price. It comes with a 120GB hard drive (1000 times more storage than the Mac II); I'm upgrading it to 320GB (2600 times more storage). I'm getting 4GB of RAM, 1000 times more than I put into the Mac II, for $70. That's 8000 times more memory per dollar.

It used to be that a terabyte hard drive was just an unfathomably ridiculous amount of storage. Now terabyte can be had for less than $200. It used to be that all the technogeeks boasted of 2400 bps modems; now we're online at speeds 2000 times faster.

In some ways, it makes me feel old that I remember the primitive days of 1980s computing. But I'm also glad about the fact that I'll (hopefully) still be around twenty years from now, when our laptops can accurately model all of our biological processes in real-time, and when we can store the entire contents of our brains (somewhere around a petabyte) on a two-inch portable drive.

After all, it's important to keep backups.

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Posted by Ken in: techwatch

American Idol 2009 Week 1 Performances

Tuesday, 2009 March 10 - 9:08 pm

Michael Jackson week. Really. It's like they want everyone to fail.

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Posted by Ken in: television

American Idol 2009 Finals Week 1

Tuesday, 2009 March 10 - 6:40 pm

Okay, it's that time again: time to start writing American Idol posts that nobody really cares to read... but whatevah, I do what I want. Actually, if you are gonna read one AI post from me this year, this is the one, because I actually put some effort into it.

Read more...

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Posted by Ken in: television

Decisions, Decisions

Wednesday, 2009 March 4 - 9:03 pm

So it comes down to this. I could get a high-end iMac and have it last me for five years, or I could get a Mac mini and replace it in two years. A mini can easily be repurposed into a server; an iMac has to remain a useful as a desktop because it really can't be anything else.

I can get the bottom-end mini and add my own RAM and upgraded hard drive; I'm pretty sure I could put in 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive from Other World Computing for less than $200. So if I go the mini route, I could probably come in under $800.

If I go for the iMac, I'd probably have to shell out $1799 or $2199 to get something that would last. But then I'd have a pretty decent gaming rig, and I wouldn't have to use a putty knife to get the specs up to what I want. Also I'd have the nice 24" screen.

But you know, it's not like I play many computer games any more, other than City of Heroes, which doesn't really need a fast GPU. Maybe I'd start playing more computer games if I had a machine that supported them? Yeah, that's just what I need, something to consume more of my free time.

I think I'm leaning towards the mini. Slightly.

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Posted by Ken in: techwatch

The Skinny on the New Macs

Tuesday, 2009 March 3 - 11:28 am

A comparison of the previous generation desktops to the newly released models.

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Posted by Ken in: techwatch

Breaking News: Entire Mac Desktop Line Updated Today

Tuesday, 2009 March 3 - 8:49 am

OMG. Updated Mac mini, iMac, and Mac Pro out today. At long last!

More later....

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Posted by Ken in: techwatch

One Thing About Me (Beef Edition)

Sunday, 2009 February 22 - 2:07 pm

While I was doing the 25 Things About Me meme, it occurred to me that each item could almost have been its own blog post. So now, rather than posting another 25 things list, I'm just going to talk about one thing in excruciating detail. I'm an old-school bloggah, yo.

The One Thing for today is this: I know a lot about cuts of beef. This knowledge comes in handy in three situations:

one, when you're at a butcher or abattoir and you need to order beef;
two, if you're in the audience when David Letterman has his "Name Your Cuts of Meat" quiz; and
three, if you were on "Hell's Kitchen" last week and you had to correctly label the parts of a cow with the corresponding cut of beef.

For the uninitiated, here are a couple of tips. First, although a lot of restaurants seem to make a big deal about sirloin steaks, the typical bottom sirloin cut isn't all that great for steaks. It's a lean cut, meaning that it doesn't have a lot of fat marbling, and therefore it doesn't carry as much flavor (compared, say, to a ribeye). It's also somewhat tough. If you can find something specifically labeled top sirloin, that's a better cut than your standard sirloin. But it's also usually more expensive; you might as well get a ribeye or strip steak instead.

If you're looking for a less expensive but still flavorful steak, I'd recommend two things. One is the flank steak, which comes from around the belly area of a cow. It makes for a somewhat chewier steak than your top cuts, but it has great flavor, and if you slice it across the grain, it's easy to eat. It also takes marinades very well.

The other is the flat-iron steak, which comes from the blade (shoulder). Normally the blade has a tough piece of connective tissue running through it, but if you cut the meat lengthwise (like you're filleting a fish) and cut out that tissue, you end up with two tender, well-marbled steaks. You won't always find flat-iron steaks at your grocery store, but if you happen to find a "top blade" roast, you can fillet it yourself to make the steaks.

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Posted by Ken in: food

Still... Old Friend

Sunday, 2009 February 22 - 1:35 pm

"Kirk... you're still alive, my old friend?"

Yeah, it's been what, two weeks since I've posted anything? You can blame the ~~idiots who call themselves engineers~~ the job for which I'm very thankful in these depressed economic times. Work has been keeping me busy, because I've discovered that hey! lots of people don't care about writing good software, and it's up to me to clean up the mess they've left behind.

But enough about work. After all, it's American Idol season, also known as "the season when nobody wants to read my blog", because all I do is post meaningless reviews of semi-talented music performances by aspiring Kelly Clarkson wannabes. But whatevah, I do what I want.

The Idol blogs won't begin in earnest for a couple of weeks, but I do have a few thoughts about last week's performances. The format this year is interesting: we now start with 36 for the live voting, and whittle down to 12 over three weeks. Each week, only three of twelve contestants automatically move forward; after the country picks its nine finalists, the judges will throw in three wild-card entries as well. It seems like a good system; we'll weed out the poor performers more quickly, while the judges can rescue anyone who's a victim of wacky voting.

So Amy and I were pleased to see Danny Gokey and Alexis Grace move on, as they were the only ones who showed any talent in week 1. Country singer Michael Sarver also made it, but he's gonna have to show a lot more personality and versatility if he hopes to compete. I think Robert Downey Jr. would play Danny in the movie version of this year's show... I can't quite put my finger on who Alexis looks like. A blonder, cuter Molly Ringwald, maybe?

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Posted by Ken in: life, television

Television: Chuck, Heroes New Season

Tuesday, 2009 February 3 - 11:24 am

Is it just me, or did the season premiere of "Chuck" kind of suck? The 3-D gimmick was uninspiring, and the plot seemed just phoned-in. The drama of Chuck's angst lacked any kind of depth or subtlety; the nerdity of the Buy More staff sunk to the level of mere buffoonery. This has been one of my favorite shows for the last few years, so it was disappointing.

"Heroes", on the other hand, looks to be improving after a couple of disappointing seasons. One of my main complaints of the past seasons was how all the heroes, despite running into each other all the time, never seemed to think about cooperating with each other. They might actually fix that this season.

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Posted by Ken in: television

25 Things About Me (Facebook Meme)

Saturday, 2009 January 31 - 2:46 pm

I've been tagged a couple of times in Facebook to write 25 random things about myself. The idea is that you write the 25 things, then you tag 25 other people to do the same thing, until the entire pyramid scheme collapses and the federal government bails you out. And so while I've been tempted to just post 25 links to entries in my blog (e.g., "Good old Post ID 518! Oh, how I miss that one."), I guess that would be recycling, and that would be bad for the economy. So here goes... click through to find my list.

Read more...

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Posted by Ken in: funnyhaha, life

Still No New Macs

Tuesday, 2009 January 27 - 8:21 pm

The 25th anniversary of the Macintosh has come and gone. And Tuesday is Apple's usual product announcement day, and now that's come and gone too. No new iMacs, no new Mac minis, no new Mac Pros.

Kill. Ing. Me.

Apple's desktop sales have declined 25% since last year, and a large part of it has to be due to people like me, who are anxiously awaiting a desktop refresh.

An analyst has now come out with a prediction that new iMacs will come in March... or June. JUNE. I may be dead by then.

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Posted by Ken in: techwatch

Apple Announces Record Revenue and Profits

Wednesday, 2009 January 21 - 11:36 pm

$10.17 billion in sales. $1.78 per share in profit. After this afternoon's earnings announcement, which blew past consensus analyst estimates, Apple stock surged ten bucks in after-hours trading.

Did I mention I bought some Apple stock this morning? Yay me!

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Posted by Ken in: techwatch

Apple Watch: MacBook White Quietly Upgraded

Wednesday, 2009 January 21 - 12:01 pm

This is a surprise. The "old" white polycarbonate MacBook has been upgraded to Nvidia 9400M graphics and 2GB of RAM. This means that for $999, $300 less than the entry-level aluminum MacBook, you get nearly the same performance. You give up the aluminum case and the LED-backlit display, and you get slightly slower RAM, but hey, 300 bucks, man. Oh, also, you pick up a Firewire port, and you get a regular mini-DVI port instead of the DisplayPort connector.

This machine seemed like a clearance item until today. Now it's got some real appeal. Does Apple simply have a lot of leftover polycarbonate cases to get rid of?

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Posted by Ken in: techwatch

Inaugural Moments

Tuesday, 2009 January 20 - 6:22 pm

A few notes:

1. Since John Roberts screwed up the recitation of oath of office, that will give Republican wackos ammunition to claim that Obama isn't really President. And what's up with calling him "Senator" at the start of the whole thing?

2. This might have been the oddest phrase ever spoken in a benediction: "Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right." (An immediate protest was lodged by the Blue Man Group.)

3. Obama's speech seemed to make W awfully uncomfortable out there. I suppose that's understandable, since the speech was essentially "we've been screwing around for eight years, now let's finally do something right."

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Posted by Ken in: politics

Nortel Freezes Severance

Thursday, 2009 January 15 - 12:38 pm

Nortel Networks announced that recently laid-off employees would not receive their severance packages. The packages are frozen as part of the bankruptcy proceedings, and it's likely that after other debts are paid, there'll be nothing left for severance.

People who have been laid off within the last sixty days are most heavily affected, since there's a sixty-day period from the time of the layoff until severance pay begins.

Pension funds and vested 401k accounts should not be affected by the bankruptcy.

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Posted by Ken in: commentary

Steve Jobs

Thursday, 2009 January 15 - 9:56 am

From Steve Jobs, yesterday:

Team,

I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.

In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple's day to day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our board of directors fully supports this plan.

I look forward to seeing all of you this summer.

Steve

There are a panoply of irritating responses to this memo.

1. "We'll SUE Apple for not disclosing this earlier!" Give me a break. You'll sue someone for not disclosing a personal, private health concern that he didn't know about until this week? And inflict further harm on the company that you're so heavily invested in? Good luck with that.

2. "What will happen now that Jobs is gone?" Jobs is not gone. He'll be back in a few months. He didn't announce his death, he announced a leave of absence.

3. "How will Apple survive without Jobs running it?" It's funny how Jobs is perceived unlike every other CEO in the country, as if his 24-hour-a-day job were to sit in an ivory tower and magically generate innovative ideas for his underlings to produce. No, he has to deal with operational budgets and capital expenditures and contract negotiations and management structures; i.e., the ordinary management tedium that every company has. That's his day-to-day work, and the other executives at Apple are just as good at that stuff as Jobs, if not more so. Jobs can still axe bad product ideas while lying on a hammock in Cancun, and trust me, he will.

But you know what? Shareholders: please, go ahead and panic about this. I've got a bunch of cash that's waiting to jump on Apple stock once it's dirt-cheap.

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Posted by Ken in: techwatch

Nortel Files for Bankruptcy

Wednesday, 2009 January 14 - 12:04 pm

Nortel Networks filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today. Shareholders to be screwed first; employees shortly thereafter.

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Posted by Ken in: commentary

January 24

Tuesday, 2009 January 13 - 5:15 pm

That must be the date for new Macs to be introduced. Why? It's the 25th anniversary of the Mac's original introduction in 1984.

If not, I will continue wringing my hands in frustration.

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Posted by Ken in: techwatch

Succumbing to Marketing

Monday, 2009 January 12 - 12:54 pm

After being bombarded with ads for Burger King's "Angry Whopper" yesterday, I finally succumbed and tried one today. I'd characterize it as more of a "Mildly Annoyed" Whopper. On a scale from 0 to 5, with 0 being "not at all spicy" and 5 being "ridiculous to the point of not being able to taste anything else", it rates just a 1.

By the way, can someone who's worked in the fast food industry answer a question for me? Are the hamburger buns squashed on-site at each franchise location, or are they shipped from the factory that way?

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Posted by Ken in: food

Lenses, Joy of Ken's Desiring

Wednesday, 2009 January 7 - 9:58 pm

As my friend Scott predicted, I am already craving new lenses for my recently acquired EOS 40D. The one I really want is the 50mm f/1.4 IS USM lens. Indoor head-and-shoulders photography is probably what I'll be doing 75% of the time, and this seems to fit the bill perfectly.

It seems like the 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM lens would be useful too, especially outdoors. When I went to Costa Rica, I remember wishing I had a high quality zoom lens for taking pictures of birds and crocodiles and such.

Did I mention my birthday is coming up in less than two months?

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Posted by Ken in: life, techwatch

I Don't Want to Sound Rude

Wednesday, 2009 January 7 - 9:01 pm

This is by far my favorite sketch from "Man Stroke Woman". This got pulled off of YouTube for copyright reasons and hasn't been available on the BBC web site, but I finally found it on MySpace. (Facebook readers and RSS readers, click the link or go to realkato.com if the video doesn't embed.)

Man Stroke Woman - Bloody Communal Leaving Cards!

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Posted by Ken in: funnyhaha, television

No New Mac Desktops at Macworld

Tuesday, 2009 January 6 - 1:42 pm

FOR. CRYING. OUT. LOUD. How long will you make me wait, Apple?

Full Macworld keynote report later.

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Posted by Ken in: techwatch

You Have the Right to Remain Silent

Monday, 2009 January 5 - 9:49 pm

I'm generally fascinated by Constitutional law issues. I regularly read a blog called SCOTUS Blog, and today they listed several cases up for certiorari. The one that I'm particularly interested in is Illinois v. Lopez.

Read more...

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Posted by Ken in: commentary

Macworld Eve

Monday, 2009 January 5 - 9:15 pm

On the eve of the Macworld keynote, the Mac blogosphere is abuzz with speculation about what will be announced. Most are along the lines of the predictions I made in my last post.

One noteworthy item that's already confirmed: Steve Jobs does not have a life-threatening illness. Apple posted a PR announcement about it. It's virtually unprecedented for a company to post a PR announcement about the private health concerns of its CEO, but when it comes to Apple, a lot of people were making a stink that shareholders had a "right" to know about Jobs.

I love Jobs' letter. It has kind of a "it's none of your damn business, but I'm telling you so you'll shut the hell up about it" air to it, and that's just perfect. Go Steve.

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Posted by Ken in: techwatch

Apple Watch: 2009 Predictions

Thursday, 2009 January 1 - 4:06 pm

My annual set of predictions regarding our favorite computer company.

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Posted by Ken in: techwatch

Camera OMG Camera

Tuesday, 2008 December 30 - 5:21 pm

I finally have a real camera. Now I just need to find a bowl of fruit, a guy jumping something with a skateboard, and a woman on a horse, and my journey to becoming a photographer will be complete.

Read more...

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Posted by Ken in: life, techwatch

Movies: Waitress; Atonement

Tuesday, 2008 December 30 - 4:27 pm

In our household, I'm the one that ends up putting "chick flicks" in our rental queue, simply because I try to see movies that have received good reviews or award nominations. Amy doesn't particularly care for these sorts of movies; she's more of a fan of horror or action movies.

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Posted by Ken in: movies

Overheard

Tuesday, 2008 December 30 - 2:04 pm

Overheard (by Amy) in the women's restroom after seeing The Day the Earth Stood Still at the IMAX theater: "That was just too far-fetched to be believable."

Oh really? You mean, you didn't believe that the earth was invaded and nearly destroyed by super-powerful aliens, or you didn't believe that Keanu Reeves was really an actor? ("Whoa.")

My criticism of this movie wasn't its lack of believability. My criticism is that it feels like the movie just ended when the producers ran out of money. (I kinda had the same feeling about The War of the Worlds.) The ending was unsatisfying and devoid of tension, and the intended environmentalist message was drowned out by special-effects self-indulgence.

And speaking of invasion-disaster movies, we recently watched Cloverfield on DVD. My feeling is that it could have been a far better movie if not for the handheld-camera gimmick. Half the time I was questioning, "why would someone film this part?" And of course the answer was, "A character in a story wouldn't film this, but a film producer would," and that ruined the suspension of disbelief for me.

Ratings:
The Day the Earth Stood Still: 2.0 / 5.0
Cloverfield: 2.5 / 5.0

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Posted by Ken in: movies

International House of Festivus Latkes

Friday, 2008 December 26 - 11:53 am

Merry Christmas to my Christian friends, happy Hanukkah to my Jewish friends, and Yuletide greetings to my pagan friends. I suppose should add Kwanzaa to this list, but it's hard to recognize the legitimacy of a holiday that was invented in the 1960s. If you're gonna adopt a recently-invented holiday, I think Festivus is the better choice (which, by the way, was invented in 1966, ten months before Kwanzaa). Festivus is truly an American holiday: it's all-inclusive, not tied to any particular religion or race, and it's fittingly neurotic and weird.

Read more...

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Posted by Ken in: food, life

Comment Spam and IE

Tuesday, 2008 December 16 - 2:46 pm

Well, I've finally hit the big time, I guess. I've started to get comment spam. I have anti-spam measures on this site but they're not foolproof. So I've gone back through my old posts and I've closed comments for all but a few of them (a couple that still get useful comments, and the most recent posts.)

My guess is that the spam is intended to get people to visit an infected web site that will exploit the recently-discovered, zero-day, unpatched security hole in all versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer. Folks, if you're still using MSIE... stop. Just stop. Download Firefox or Safari and use them whenever you can. Microsoft's response to this issue is just pathetic.

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Posted by Ken in: site-business, techwatch

Cancun

Friday, 2008 December 12 - 1:55 pm

Last week we went to Cancun for a wedding, for my friends Scott and Amy (whom we'll call AmyB to avoid confusion with my wife Amy). Pictures and more after the jump.

Read more...

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Posted by Ken in: life, travel

Placeholder

Wednesday, 2008 December 10 - 10:22 pm

Hi everyone... I'm long overdue for a full post, I know. I've been away (went to Cancun for a wedding) and also, I've been lazy. But I'm tired of seeing controversial articles at the top of my page; so for now, I'll just post this filler article and promise that I'll have Cancun photos up soon.

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Posted by Ken in: site-business

Controversy 2: Abortion

Thursday, 2008 November 27 - 11:47 am

This is my second post about a politically controversial topic: this time it's about abortion. The first post, concerning gay marriage, can be found here.

The point of both of these posts is that although some religious conservatives have taken very hard lines on these political issues, these positions are not backed by Biblical texts as they might claim. So, perhaps it would behoove us all to separate the religious arguments from the political ones, and perhaps then these issues wouldn't be so divisive.

Read more...

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Posted by Ken in: commentary, politics

Controversy 1: Gay Marriage

Friday, 2008 November 14 - 4:39 pm

Sometimes I wish that we didn't pay so much attention to divisive topics like abortion and gay marriage. There are so many more important issues to discuss, and so many ideas in which we can find common ground... why devote such energy to wedge issues like this?

But with what's happened with Prop 8 in California, I think I have to say something. That will make me as guilty as anyone of fueling the fire of debate, but so be it.

Read more...

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Posted by Ken in: commentary, politics

Las Vegas 2008

Tuesday, 2008 November 11 - 10:37 pm

Last weekend, I went to Las Vegas for my annual trip with The Guys. You may remember Las Vegas from such trips as Las Vegas 2005, Las Vegas 2006, and Las Vegas 2007.

I think we're right in the sweet spot of our trips, where we've been doing this long enough that we've established traditions, but not so long that it's become merely routine. Sometimes our banter is so smooth you'd think we rehearsed it. There are inside jokes that play off of other inside jokes. At one point while playing blackjack, Alan remarked, "that hand just won't quit!" To explain the layers of inside-jokiness that went into remark that would take HOURS.

A few photos after the jump...

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Posted by Ken in: life, travel

Behind the Scenes

Tuesday, 2008 November 11 - 10:03 pm

I'm not quite done talking about the election. The more I read, the more fascinated I am by how it all turned out. Newsweek has a great seven-part behind-the-scenes story on the Obama and McCain campaigns.

Barack Obama: How He Did it
John McCain: Back From the Dead?
The Long Clinton-Obama Siege
McCain Camp Retools, Targets Obama
McCain Gambles on Palin
Battling it Out in the Great Debates
The Final Days

Someday, I hope this turns into a documentary... or at least, a made-for-TV movie.

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Posted by Ken in: politics

Blue State

Thursday, 2008 November 6 - 10:06 am

North Carolina voted for Barack Obama.

Oh, and we also elected a Democratic Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Senator. And 8 of our 13 House representatives are Democrats.

It's good to be in a blue state again.

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Posted by Ken in: politics

Tables Turned

Wednesday, 2008 November 5 - 8:32 am

I was very curious to see how various facets of the Republican party would react to this election. Some have been gracious, including McCain and his staff; many recognize the historic nature of the election and profess hope that Obama's promises come to fruition.

And then, there are the people who comment on Republican web sites and blogs.

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Posted by Ken in: politics

Live Blog

Tuesday, 2008 November 4 - 8:48 pm

... as well as I can do this from my phone.

Pennsylvania goes to Obama, Kay Hagan poised to win the Senate seat in North Carolina. More updates in the comments section; feel free to contribute.

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Posted by Ken in: politics

Voted

Tuesday, 2008 November 4 - 8:35 am

And now we wait. Other than the Presidential race, I'll be closely watching the fortunes of Kay Hagan (D-NC), Al Franken (D-MN), and Proposition 8 in California.

One thing I will miss, if Obama wins: Tina Fey's impersonations of Sarah Palin. Those were pure gold.

*Edit: This is not my actual ballot. Apparently you can't take pictures of your real ballot in this state... and if you do take a picture, you can't post it on the Internets. So, instead, I've posted this highly accurate reproduction.

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Posted by Ken in: politics

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