Friday Morning

I dropped in at the gas station to grab a coke this morning on my way to work. Just after I pulled out back onto Bayview Avenue I noticed something moving ut of the corner of my eye. I took a good look, and saw a baby bird hanging onto the windshield wiper for dear life!

I quickly got turned around, went back to the gas station, and parked as close as possible to where I’d parked before, driving carefully so that the poor thing wouldn’t get blown off. I got out, went around the van, and found that the baby bird was so terrified that he/she wasn’t going to let go of the windshield wiper.

I finally got the cute little thing loose – a the while being told what an idiot I was by the bird’s mother, who was trying to teach the rest of the brood how to fly, and put him on the ground near her.

5 minutes later driving along the highway I realized that I could have taken pictures with my cell phone, and I really wish I had. I think I’ll remember the look of terror on the poor things face for the rest of my life. But at least I got it back to mommy.

The Lovers

At least when they aren’t trying to kill each other.

Yes, Princess appears to be preggers. Considering how good looking mommy and daddy are, I suspect the kittens will be adorable.

Stuff on my mutt

Mark and Princess were featured at Stuff On My Mutt today. The original caption said Vicky, but Number1CatLover emailed them a straightened them out.

Iron Sky teaser – Space Nazis attack!

The folks behind Star Wreck have released a trailer for their next production Iron Sky. It’s well worth watching, can’t wait to see the finished movie.

Iron Sky Trailer

I'm glad this long weekend is nearly over

More fireworks tonight. Poor Mark has been terrified all evening. Having a 50 pound mut trying to climb onto your lap while typing is rather interesting…

I finally got him settled in Heather’s chair, where he can rest his head on my arm, and he’s starting to settle down a bit, poor thing.

Feeding the beasts

There’s times that you read something that is so obvious, well, lets just say I’m in shock.

A bit of background. We have 7 cats, and a dog. They all get along fairly well. You get the usual dominance things, which can be amusing, but overall the house is not a war zone, and the five of us love our furry four footed friends.

Today Heather was reading an article posted at Stuff on My Cat titled Why Is Your Cat Fat? Or, Your Cat Is A Carnivore. She told me about it, I read it, and I started thinking.

Soot is fat. An 18 month old cat shouldn’t be fat. Nor should he be hanging around the sink, trying to drink from the tap all the time.

Princess is still recovering from having kittens. We’ve tried to make sure she had extra food, but it didn’t seem to make any difference.

Several of the others have issues. Weight for instance. We have several fat cats. The only one who looks really healthy is Lucky, who is also the only one who gets outside at all.

All of them eat dry food. Standard stuff from the local supermarket. After reading that article, I think we’ve been inadvertently poisoning the poor things by feeding them supermarket pet food. If you have cats, I’d suggest that you read that article. It’s kind of scary. We’re going to change our little friends diet over the next couple of weeks, and see if they look healthier.

Wedding Bells

My cousin got married yesterday. Her second, his first. She’s known Heather longer than I have, and neither of us had seen Cathy since my Dad’s funeral, so we were really looking forward to attending. Cathy looked great. In fact I think she looked happier yesterday than I’ve seen her look in over 20 years, and it made me really happy to see her like that – she’s always been one of my favorite cousins, she’s a great person, and she deserves some pleasure from life.

I also saw her older brother and his wife, for the first time in close to 20 years, and some of her mother’s family from Newfoundland. All in all it was a great day, and it’s being a good weekend.

Except for poor Mark – take a look at my new userpic. That’s my little buddy. My little buddy who’s terrified of fireworks, and Monday is our Victoria Day holiday, what when I was a kid we called “Firecracker Day.” Poor thing has spent most of the weekend a shivering wreck. It’s a real adventure when a 50 pound mutt is so terrified that he tries to sit on your knee….

Above is a picture of Vicky and Princess trying to comfort the poor, timid, beastie.

Do you trust Microsoft Part 2

I wrote on April 29 about Microsoft’s “Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor”, though I didn’t know at that time what it was called. Microsoft has since realized that they messed up big time by not initiating a public discussion about what it did, how it worked, and not letting the public know about it directly.

Microsoft’s explanation is that it’s a USB drive with a bunch of scripts that can back up a running computer to the USB drive. The drive would have to be pretty large, and considering how slow USB 2.0 is, the cop operating it would have to be pretty patient. And, last but not least, USB would need to be enabled in the BIOS…

There is an article covering this here.

I don’t think that either Microsoft or the Law Enforcement community realize the implications even yet. If I were using my computer for something that I did not want the law to be able to access, I’d switch to Linux or OSX immediately, as the utilities that Microsoft provides aren’t going to work on any other operating system. Since I’m not trying to hide anything, I don’t have to worry.

Of course another implication from the cop’s point of view is that if you are running something other than a Microsoft operating system, you probably have something to hide. Oops. Guess what? We run OSX and Linux in this household!

From Vista to Zune: Why Microsoft Can’t Sell to Consumers

A very interesting take by Roughly Drafted on Microsoft’s inability to market to consumers.

Since I once wrote an article (unpublished) called “The Microsoft Marketing Myth”, I found this really interesting. He did a lot better job than I did, and I recommend this article highly.

Shakespeare

Ah heck, haven’t done one of these for a long time.

My score on The Which Shakespeare Play Are You? Test:

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Macbeth

“You are Macbeth! A supposed retelling of the true story of King Macbeth of Scotland, Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s bloodiest plays. Macbeth, after hearing the prophesy of three witches, believes he will be named king of Scotland. However, this line of thinking eventually leads Macbeth down a horrible road of blood and death as he fights first to gain, and then to keep hold of the crown. Believing the play to be cursed, many actors will not even say the name of the play inside of a theater unless it is being performed and refer to it simply as “The Scottish Play”. But you probably don’t care about some stupid old curse. As Macbeth you most likely don’t take warnings too well and you are so headstrong that you can’t take good advice when it comes your way, even if it is for your own good. But being Macbeth isn’t all bad. You are most likely a man (or woman) of action. People probably like you because you are good at thinking on your feet and making quick decisions. But be careful, as your rash behavior may also get you in to trouble along the way.”

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Take it!
http://www.okcupid.com/tests/18119087906896278936/Which-Shakespeare-Play-Are-You-