the pod bay door

¦¦ The Friday Five:

1. What was the last song you heard?
Don’t Dream It’s Over, but by Sixpence None The Richer (on the radio)

2. What were the last two movies you saw?
Minority Report, The Rookie

3. What were the last three things you purchased?
Rice Krispie square, French bread, Gala apples

4. What four things do you need to do this weekend?
Have friends over for an Outer Limits Pizza Party, jam with Peter, have dim sum at New Tan Tan, attend a Pilates class

5. Who are the last five people you talked to?
Geoff, someone in an elevator, Carlos Lange, someone else in Mech Eng, a grad student in mech eng.

The temperature in Edmonton at the moment is -33C. The long range forecast for next Friday is +12C. There is hope.

¦¦ This is so annoying. But if you look closely, notice that the template of symbols changes every time. That has to have something to do with how it works. D’oh!

¦¦ For those interested in the Sept 11 building performance information, two good engineering publications exist, one online. The American Society of Civil Engineers has just published The Pentagon Building Performance Report. The report concludes that original design features, modified by recent upgrades, limited the collapse of the building after the airliner crashed into it. Within the report is a blurry picture taken by a security camera that catches the plane, barely a few feet off the ground, if at all, just before it crashes into the first floor of the Pentagon. Some illustrations from the report are available for viewing.

ASCE was also involved in the World Trade Center building performance study , released in the fall of 2002 by FEMA.
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¦¦ My good friend Robert Runté has joined the blogging ranks. He doesn’t disappoint.

¦¦ I have a remote starter on my car. It’s great this time of year, when the temperature is -25C. I saw The Recruit tonight, and upon leaving, discovered the remote starter decided not to start. So, I’ll be at the retailer tomorrow asking them to fix it quickly, and for free. BTW, it’s -25C in Edmonton tonight.

¦¦ Speaking of The Recruit, I enjoyed it, despite Al Pacino’s way-over-the-top performance. Colin Farrell, the current It Guy, was good without annoying me. A predictable story, but worth two hours of escape and $9.95Cdn.

¦¦ The Morning News’ Guide to New York Jargon is hilarious.

¦¦ The lists on McSweeney’s, brainchild of Dave Eggers, are also hilarious. Try Some Famous Names That Can Replace The Word Yesterday In The Song “Yesterday” by Paul McCartney or Actual Entries From The Scots Dialect Dictionary.

¦¦ One of the first two blogs I started reading in early 2002 was Laura‘s. The other was Geoff‘s. On Laura’s site I discovered a link to brain-terminal, which “seeks to provide thoughtful analysis of the various political, social, economic and technological trends that affect our daily lives.” It is the brainchild of Evan Coyne Maloney. Why he chose the horrid colour scheme will remain a myster. Whatever. Anyway, you must watch the video of his interviews with various NYC anti-war protesters from earlier this month. It reveals that they are passionate, but it many cases, clueless. Of course, leave us not forget that we are seeing only the interviews he chose to let us see. But it makes for entertaining viewing.

¦¦ Daypop is a search engine that searches “14,600 news site and weblog for current events and breaking news.” You can see the top weblogs, the Amazon top wish list items, top news, and the top 40! The Top 40 “is a list of links that are currently popular with webloggers from around the world”. At the top of the list is ready.gov, the US gov’t site that helps their citizens prepare for terrorist attacks. The site is odd and creepy, and at best, necessary. The top search, sadly I suppose, is currently “great white.”

¦¦ Terry Jones of Monty Python fame weighs in with comments about Dubya’s latest reason for wanting to bomb Iraq: he’s losing patience.

¦¦Earlier today, my browser (IE6.whatever) was “hijacked” by another website, searchex.com. (NOTE: DON’T go there!) The result was, whenever I opened my browser, it would default to the searchex homepage. Bastards. Anyway, I searched for a solution, and found it at Spywareinfo.com. This could happen to you at any time. I’d recommend you go to the site, which has good suggestions for preventing, fixing and removing a hijack. Among the programs recommended are SpyBot Search and Destroy, BHODemon, and Hijack This. I was running AdAware 5.0, unaware that it had been upgraded to 6.0.

I’ve created a Spyware/Scumware section on the computer page of my website. If you know of other good spyware/scumware programs, please let me know.

¦¦I saw Confessions of a Dangerous Mind this afternoon, based on Chuck Barris‘s autobiography. Whether or not he did kill 33 people for the CIA may never be known, but the movie works well, anchored by Sam Rockwell‘s outstanding performance.
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