BoomFlag

Digital image editing is so cool.

I like to change my computer’s desktop background quite often, just to keep things in flux, and it’s important that whatever I use is either fairly dark, or has large regions of solid color. As the screenshot below shows, when I’m doing programming work (which is much of the time) my text “floats” on the desktop. It’s terribly hard to read against a background that’s bright or noisy.

So I had a nice mountain picture– lots of trees, snow, and blue sky– but there were a lot of clouds that made it hard to read text against it. I just pulled it into the GIMP, selected everything above the mountains, and worked out a nice blue gradient that makes it look like a gorgeous cloudless day. Voila!

When, oh when, will the madness end?

Yesterday was quite a day, and on a whim I counted the number of projects I worked on for clients. Ten. That doesn’t count going to lunch with my pal Steve, nor the emergency server replacement for a client whose hard drive went belly-up.

Today, by comparison, is relatively easy– it’s three in the afternoon, and I’ve only done work for half a dozen clients so far. We’ll see what the rest of the day brings…

I’m on hold with a company out in Arizona, and after I navigated the menu system I found what I needed. Then I had one final option:

“If you would like to hold without music, please press one.”

Sweet! I figured I’d listen to the music anyway, hoping for some Kenny G or whatever. Sadly, in addition to a bit of goofy jazz, I had to endure advertising blurbs. Whee. Next time I’m going for the no-music option.

I taught Alex how to play the old board game Risk the other night. Our first game was interesting, as he didn’t really understand the strategy and I had to conveniently “forget” to guard one of my borders adequately. He rolled into South America and proceeded to wipe out a couple of continents. In the end, after a hot contest, he won.

Last night he wanted to play again, so we set up the board and went to work. He insisted on conquering all of Asia, despite my advice that doing so is difficult and often a waste of resources. Well, he managed to do it– and hold it– much to my chagrin. The dice were simply not on my side, and despite the fact that I held North America, he continued to gain strength in Asia, Australia, and Africa.

In the end, he cashed in some bonus armies and placed his juggernaut army on Kamchatka. A vicious battle across the Bering Strait ensued, and when he finally conquered Alaska it was only a matter of time before he crushed the rest of North America. When the bloody turn was over, I was left with four countries scattered in Europe, and he held the rest of the world.

Ouch. No more Mr. Nice Guy. Next time I’m playing for blood.

From the New York Times:

“Iraq’s rapidly swelling insurgency numbers 200,000 fighters and active supporters and outnumbers the United States-led coalition forces, the head of the country’s intelligence service [General Muhammad Abdullah Shahwani] said yesterday.”

We might have better weaponry and better training, but they (might) have numbers, and they certainly have passion.

Is this a war we can “win”?

As a follow-up to Bill Gates’ communism comment (oh, how fun it is to watch the bees’ nest of open-source people get stirred up about this), I saw this hilarious poster. It’s in the spirit of the RIAA warning I posted long ago…

The Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch held a contest to find the strangest consumer warning labels, ostensibly to bring attention to how lawsuit frenzy has forced manufacturers to take measures to make sure even the world’s biggest idiot can’t sue them for failing to inform about possible dangers of using their product.

The winner: a toilet brush with the admonition “Do not use for personal hygiene.”

Second place went to a children’s scooter that warned “This product moves when used”, and third place for a digital thermometer stating, “Once used rectally, this thermometer should not be used orally.”

Whee!

Bill Gates apparently equates people who condemn the current U.S. copyright and patent systems with communists. That includes, naturally, those who support open-source software. In an interview, he’s quoted as saying:

“There are fewer communists in the world today than there were. There are some new modern-day sort of communists who want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and moviemakers and software makers under various guises. They don’t think that those incentives should exist.”

Whee! Incentives, indeed. I suppose it’s hard to imagine that some people might want to do something (write a song, make a movie, create software) just for the sheer joy of it, without thought of the almighty dollar.

So, in a nod to Gates’ comments, I join my fellow open-source advocates (and, yes, those who condemn the state of the U.S. copyright and patent systems) in flying the red flag of communism. The backward “C” is for “copyleft”, as everyone knows.

Spam subject that caught my eye:

Find out how to get a Free Samsung 42′ HDTV!

Wow, 42 feet. That’s a big TV.

Our furnace croaked last night, which means it was a bit chilly this morning. Our bedroom sits right above the garage, meaning it’s colder than every other room in the house (at least it seems to be). At 6:30am Laralee and I were fiddling with various knobs and switches on the furnace, trying in vain to figure out what wasn’t working.

In the end we had to call a repair guy, because furnaces (and more specifically, gas lines) are just not something that unprofessionals should mess with. In particular, my history of failed home projects carries a potential for me to blow up the house or something. So we’re waiting for a $60 service call (that’s the price just to walk in the front door) and hopefully we’ll have some heat before tonight’s expected single-degree weather hits.

In the meantime, it’s about 56 degrees on the main floor, and probably a few degrees colder in my basement office. I’m even wearing socks (!) to keep warm, but my fingers are a bit chilly and I can tell I’m not typing as fast as usual. Still, considering we’ve been without a furnace for around ten hours, I’m pleased that the house retains some heat…