Sony just can’t seem to stop screwing their customers with various forms of DRM. First there was the Sony CD rootkit debacle (insert a Sony CD into your PC and get hacked by the best!) Now it appears that several of their latest DVD releases, including Stranger than Fiction and Casino Royal, won’t work on some consumer DVD players.
I am getting tired of the periodic pseudo-scientific “cellphones cause <catastrophe of your choice>” claptrap that gets picked up by the media. The latest one was brought to my attention earlier today via Slashdot:
I am fortunate to have an employer who was able to allow me to work from home while Irene recovered from her second hip replacement. It made things much less stressful for all involved.
Working from home for a month, though, leads to some odd behavior. My hours of work were scattered all over the 24 hour day, partly in order to accommodate things Irene needed me for, partly because I found it convenient to work when Irene was asleep. I could take naps whenever my eyes started to feel heavy. There were several days where I didn’t bother to dress.
I have toyed periodically with various ways of monitoring RSS feeds and bringing them to my desktop. Nothing I’ve used has felt quite “right”, and like PDAs I’ve ultimately ended up relegating several “almost but not quite” solutions to the junk bin. I’m feeling tempted to try again.
This is a test post to see how Windows Live Writer works. Windows Live Writer is an “off line” blog posting tool. Naturally, it is designed to work with Windows Live blogs, but it also supports WordPress and others.
Earlier today, my wife and her parents noticed a raccoon walking through our back yard. Later, the ‘coon came back, this time poking around under our deck. This time, I got a look at her (I’ll explain the gender assumption in a moment): she is huge, easily twice the size of our largest cat. I’d speculate that she’s 30 pounds, give or take. And she seemed to have absolutely no fear: I stepped out into the back yard, and she turned around as she walked towards our gate and looked at me before walking off. Our cat Rommel was out in the cat run, and fluffed up/hissed at the raccoon at this point, who completely ignored him.
“Happy Easter” seems like a strange thing to say given the religious meaning of the holiday, but I’m not religious in any way so I’ll say it and not feel guilty. For me, Easter is sort of like Thanksgiving: a time to give thanks for all the good things in life and to spend some time with family over a meal.
Today was a good day. Irene and I met my Mom and sister Judy at the Casino for a bit- that’s always fun. We don’t really gamble much- it’s basically more of a chance to sit down and have a coffee with just the four of us. I put $5 in a slot machine, and came home empty handed: perfectly normal 🙂
Our cat, Rommel, has had a rather checkered past when it comes to his own health. He entered our house as a basically healthy twelve week old kitten nearly twelve years ago. Within a few months he had fractured his kneecap (resulting in six weeks in a cast), and within a year he’d had several abscesses, various stitches added and removed, and numerous x-rays. In more recent years he’s developed a growth in his mouth called a stomatitis, for which he has had several surgeries, regular steroidal treatments, special hypoallergenic food, and periodic doses of anti-biotics.
Janet and Gord, friends of Irene and myself from Edmonton (they actually introduced us) came out here last week. Unlike ordinary houseguests, though, they came to look after us: they fed us, cleaned up, and kept Irene entertained.