Read this and then think about the courage of the founding fathers. The Declaration of Independence is really a big “bite me” to Britain. I wonder if people's hands shook when they signed it.

Mine would have.

From Boing Boing Blog:

…They must renounce their old self, espouse the programme's belief system, display gratitude for their salvation, and police fellow students who resist.

This reminds me of another camp with an entrance bearing a false promise: Auschwitz

No, this isn't as severe, but it was a place where one part of society that deemed themselves above others sent it's “problem children”. It's disgusting that some think that you can buy your way around a human behavior problem. Brainwashing. How long will that really work? What kind of kid will you get back? Why is child something that has to be solved with this kind of school? Where's the parent's responsibility?

More about Auschwitz here, here, and here.

I'd like to take a moment and thank Userland for adding the category feature in Radio. Right now, I'm using it for the main site (Home category) and a separate feed for Pottery (My Hobbies category). Today, I'll spend time added two new catagories: Austin-Healey Sprite restoration and Weight Watchers.

Frogeye

I'm in the process of purchasing a 1960 Austin-Healey Sprite, a “frogeye” from a trusted member of the local car club. It's in pieces (of course) so I'm going to give the restoration a go. Parts are cheap and most anyone with patience and general mechanical aptitude can reassemble one. Most of all, it will bring back some of the glory days of my youth (I'm not that old–I'm in my 30s) when my dad rebuilt a Triumph TR3B.

Weight Watchers

I've been attending Weight Watchers meetings in my area now for about six months. I've lost 20 pounds of weight and trained myself to eat less and enjoy it. The problem? The groups are 95% women and, being a man, I find it hard to relate to them when I need to share my frustrations or successes. I'm starting this category to give me an outlet and maybe others too. Most technical people I know are overweight and don't exercise. Some are moderate (by conventional standards) and others are worse and that scares me. As a society consumed by bigger is better (don't get me started on SUVs) we've fallen face forward and mouth open into Super Extra Value Meals and All You Can Eat food bars. I'm hoping that this category will change things a bit for someone. One person helped will make the difference in my own life. Read this from Chris Sells to understand that teaching someone helps you to learn something yourself.

I've added Google ads to the sidebar of the site pages and removed the “Google Box” and the “NetNewsWire subs” boxes. Let's see if anyone hits them. Complaints? Leave me a comment.

PS: I want to have my NetNewsWire app export my subs as OPML (it will do it) then automatically add it to the correct directory (won't do it now) on my web log. Yes, I could write an Apple Script to do it, but there's a catch. I guess I could do this with two scripts: one on my TiBook to pull the subs list and ftp it. The other on the iMac to pull the sub list and move it to the correct Radio folder for upstreaming. Can AppleScript watch a folder? Looks like I have some research to do.

Update: posted this and link to NNW beta list in hopes to generate some discussion.

Update 2: Just manually changed the file using file sharing (I'm at home). Let's see what it looks like.

Here's a link to a Russell Beattie post…

I'm a Lucky Guy

I can totally see this. Half the people I know just don't *pay attention* and they don't, *think ahead*. And when bad things happen to them, they just moan and prepare for the next bad thing, instead of the other way around. I think that's all there is to it. Many things are predictable, you just have to be prepared when they happen both bad and good. “Seventy percent of success in life is showing up,” Woody Allen said, and I totally believe it. The other 30% is showing up at the right place.

What more is there to say? I've always felt more observent than most people, and sometimes I've been rewarded for it. Other times, it's been my undoing. I'd consider discussing the wisdom of experience at this point. What effect did age have on the “luckiness” of the study's particpants?

This is an excerpt of the original, please be sure to read the whole article and leave a comment.

dotmac.info has specs of the new G5. Apple leaked them by accident. Read 'em while you can.

My iTrip arrived today. Great packaging greeted me when I opened the UPS blue package. Similar to the iPod's box, it's white and grey and contains the same type of simple instructions: insert software CD, run installer, sync, you're done.

By default, the iTrip was set to 87.9FM. A quick check of the FCC website for conflicts and I was ready to go. I tried three different stations at random before I settled on 98.1. I tried it on our home stereo–success! Out to the car–success.

So far, it's what I expected: FM radio fidelity. The strength of the signal is very surprising; I can move the iPod within about 15 feet of the car with no loss of quality. As far as volume is concerned, I set my iPod to about 75% of maximum and get good results.

I'd give the product a 4 out of 5 rating. The Firewire plug port is my only complaint–it messes with the port cover on the iPod.

I just bought NetNewsWire. After using the lite version (for free, thanks Brent) I wanted to show my support for the world of shareware. This is only the second piece of software I've purchased like this; Radio was the first.

Update: just got the post function working. Outstanding. I've got an iMac running in our basement, running OS9 and my licensed copy of Radio. I use it as a “server”, allowing me to post from anywhere I can pull up a browser. The best part of NNW's weblog post function is now I don't have to hit the downstairs machine with extra serving work. Posting is *much* faster.

Here's a great story about Michael Jackson, MTV and the music biz. From Adam Curry's weblog.

Read this then read the comments below…

What a great read! I finally understand why the iTunes Music Store will be a fundamental force in consumer spending this Christmas season. I especially enjoyed the simplicity of the deal: Apple is buying the songs wholesale, not licensing the right to sell the songs. That means one relationship for Apple–the label. It also means the label has a better opportunity to market it's services to independent artists (who *wouldn't* want their new release featured in an email to 10 million people?).