The Ankle Biter @ Quibbling.net

The guy who invented CTRL-ALT-DEL is retiring. Windows users, you should send him a watch.

A profile of MS’s Mac Business Unit, the people at Microsoft who don’t use Windows.

Brian Martin says much of what I have been thinking about virus outbreaks. Probably 25% of the 1000 or so daily virus emails I’ve been getting this week have been anti-virus notifications.

Meanwhile, Stacey learns to stop worrying and love the spam.

Meanwhile, Smitten describes her parents need for a boyfriend. Her opinions on remaining single are also worth reading.

Also, I have recently discovered Struggle in a Bungalow Kitchen. She’s a stay-at-home-mom who started out blogging her efforts to be a better cook. Lately, she’s been posting really insightful commentary on her choice to be a homemaker vs. what 20th century feminist thinkers have had to say about it. She defends her choice, of course, but not out of some sense of traditionalist obligation, not by dismissing Friedan and de Beauvoir out of hand, but by examining their perspectives in light of her experience. Really interesting stuff, and completely worth the read for, well, anyone. Her January archives are especially good, but my favorite entry is this one.

I should know better by now.

I shouldn’t go poking around in my high school’s alumnae/i (yes, that’s really what they call it) directory.

I am such an underachiever.

Many of the people I went to school with when we were still all pimply-faced and innocent are medical students. Tinni is a “Visiting Scholar” at MIT. Sarah, president of my senior class, has a resume most people twice our age would be envious of. It would be easier to list the community groups, steering committees, and community councils she’s NOT involved in. Anji has hitchhiked through Ireland, worked for a couple of foreign newspapers, ghostwrites books, and oh yeah, she’s getting ready to pursue a Master’s. Ian is a working actor. Well, sometimes.

At first glance, I feel like my post-high school years have been sort of trivial by comparison. I thought about going to law school and abandoned that idea. My first job out of college was for a company that went under. I ran screaming from my second job. My third job was for a rinky-dink little nonprofit that barely paid the bills, let alone provided any sort of valuable experience. Now I’m working for a company that hasn’t reached profitability in its 3 years of existence. Hell, I moved to DC with the intention of pursuing a Master’s, but haven’t gotten around to it because I don’t even know what I want to study any more.

I went to a school full of overachievers. I was one once. Not sure why I abandoned overachievment.

Or did I?

One of the graduation requirements in high school was the Matin, from the French matin, meaning “morning.” On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, the classes would gather in the auditorium during the homeroom period for Morning Announcements, which would be emcee’d by a senior. The faculty, administration, and students would announce special events, bake sales, honors and awards, and anything else you could think of. The seniors would congratulate each other every time one of us received a college acceptance letter.

And then, at the end of Morning Announcements, a senior would give a Matin. In order to graduate, we had to give a short presentation that would share something that was important to us. Some of them were incredibly bad. Some of them were amazing and I remember them to this day- (a note to any classmates reading this: two words- FREEDOM CHEESE!).

For my Matin, I read a story about a man who, all his life, wished for his life to turn out a certain way. It turned out differently, and he sank into a deep depression. He cried out to God, “I thought you were going to give me what I wanted.” And God said, “And I thought you were going to give me what Iwanted- to make you happy with what I gave you.” And the man realized that what he had was pretty great. And he stopped worrying about what he thought he wanted and enjoyed what he had been blessed with.

I shouldn’t let my classmates’ achievments make me forget what I told them.

After all, I’ve had a pretty wide range of experience. I was a victim of the dotcom bubble. I’ve picked up my life and moved it away from everything I’ve ever known just because I thought it was time for a change. I’ve finally gotten started on all that traveling I’ve wanted to do. I work for a company that is slowly but surely revolutionizing an industry that is still in the technological stone age. Meanwhile, I have incredible people in my life- friends who care about me and like coming over for last-minute dinner parties, an amazing man who loves me like I love him, a close family that I actually look forward to visiting… I shouldn’t complain. I have a really great life.

I haven’t done so badly, after all. I’m truly happy, as long as I don’t worry about keeping up with people whose priorities are not the same as my own.

This is sad. Clearly, I need to travel more. The red states are the ones I have visited.
(more…)

W00t! The Five is interesting this week:

You have just won one million dollars:

1. Who do you call first?

Well, I’d probably call Tom or my parents to tell them, then I would likely call Wasylik, because I’d need a good lawyer.

2. What is the first thing you buy for yourself?

After paying off some debt, my first major purchase would be a house- something smallish that fits my life now and could be sold or rented out later. Of course, there would also be some tech shopping.

3. What is the first thing you buy for someone else?

I would offer to pay off my parents’ mortgage and brother’s student loans. If my parents wouldn’t let me do that for them, I would probably send them to the UK on vacation since they’ve been talking about it forever but haven’t actually gone. Of course I’d want to do something ridiculously lavish for Tom, but since we’re talking about one million dollars, I’d probably have to think long and hard about the list of things I’d like to do and pick one. Of course, if I were suddenly a billionaire, he’d probably receive a minor league baseball franchise for his next birthday.

4. Do you give any away? If yes, to whom?

I can think of several worthy charities, such as The Pittsburgh Project. I’d probably set aside 10% for charitable donation initially, not because of a theological insistence on 10 percent, but because I figure it’s a good place to start.

5. Do you invest any? If so, how?

Well, the aforementioned house would certainly be an investment. I’d hire an advisor and figure out the best way to handle the house- buy it outright or finance it and invest more money upfront- but then I would follow a pretty plain-vanilla approach as far as balancing risk with return, blah blah. Except for a small chunk- I work for a startup software company that has not yet become profitable, but I believe in the product and the market for it is growing. So I’d probably pull the CEO aside and ask him if he’d allow me to invest a in that company.

I have won my first round in BlogMadness! I’m flattered.

Now, it’s time for Round 2. Voting starts at midnight tonight.

My bracket is here. You can find Tom’s bracket here.

Be sure to check out the main tournament page for the other brackets, including the Elimination bracket for the blogs who didn’t win their first matches. They all get another chance, and there are many worthy entries, so take a few minutes to check them out.

I’m also going to take a minute to clarify something, not because I think I wasn’t following the spirit of the contest but because I agree with that intention and I want to make sure I’m not misunderstood.

BlogMadness is supposed to be about the quality of the posts submitted, not the popularity of the blogs. The idea is that blogs with small readership but high post quality get recognized. I entered because I have small readership and I’d like to believe that my posts are pretty decent when I put some effort into them.

So, bearing that in mind, yes, of course I would like for you to vote for my post. But I want that simply because I think my entry in the contest is a good one, and my ego enjoys the confirmation. Do not vote for me ’cause you like me. Vote for the post you think is better, and I’ll just hope that mine is the one you choose.

And I promise not to ask how you voted.

As they said on BoingBoing when they linked to it, this rant is truly inspired.

I have this double-layer fleece blanket my aunt made me for Christmas.

If more people had blankets like this, there would be world peace.

The only downside is, if I lie down on my couch under it, I immediately fall asleep and don’t wake up until 4 AM.

Read about the Dean national ID plan.

Dean also suggested that computer makers such as Apple Computer, Dell, Gateway and Sony should be required to include an ID card reader in PCs–and Americans would have to insert their uniform IDs into the reader before they could log on. “One state’s smart-card driver’s license must be identifiable by another state’s card reader,” Dean said. “It must also be easily commercialized by the private sector and included in all PCs over time–making the Internet safer and more secure.”

Screw you, Howie. I’m not showing ID every time I want to fire up my laptop.

The presidential hopeful offered few details about his radical proposal. “On the Internet, this card will confirm all the information required to gain access to a state (government) network–while also barring anyone who isn’t legal age from entering an adult chat room, making the Internet safer for our children, or prevent adults from entering a children’s chat room and preying on our kids…Many new computer systems are being created with card reader technology. Older computers can add this feature for very little money,” Dean said.

There are so many things wrong with this statement I barely know where to begin. The Internet is not a state network. While some of the infrastructure is owned by the government, most of it is owned by private companies and private citizens. It is not the government’s job to restrict childrens’ access to information. That responsibility belongs to parents alone. Hardware/software parental controls are great, but they’re called “parental” controls for a reason.

So much for Howard Dean’s vaunted understanding and appreciation of the Internet. It is becoming increasingly clear that neither he nor his campaign staff have even the first clue about what this intarweb thing is really good for- forget the honesty of blogging, forget being a “left of center civil libertarian,” forget it all. Another old guy running for office who wants to lock down, restrict, and pre-empt the rights of adults to view the information they choose and raise their children as they see fit.

One more reason I won’t vote for Howie under any circumstances.

Ars Technica also agrees with me about the iPod mini.

Dear 95% of the computer-using population:

If you insist on using Windows, please STOP SENDING ME VIRUSES! Just because Athena is not vulnerable, it doesn’t mean that I like getting them at the rate of 1 every 60 seconds. I have better things to do than sit here and write rules to filter them out or delete them when I get 100 of them just in the time it took me to commute home.

Get some decent antivirus software and learn to avoid viruses, or get a freaking Mac.

Love,

Tiff