Sounds like material breach to me

Hans Blix:

"Iraq appears not to have come to a genuine acceptance--not even today--of the disarmament which is demanded of it and which it needs to carry out to the confidence of the world and to live in peace."

From the Washington Post:

Blix sharply criticized Iraq for failing to make scientists available for private interviews; blocking U-2 aerial overflights and refusing to provide a complete declaration of its weapons of mass destruction. "It is not enough to open doors," Blix told the council. "Inspection is not a game of "catch as catch can," he said.

“It is a process of verification for the purpose of creating confidence. It is not built on the premise of trust. Rather, it is designed to lead to trust."

Of course, the French and Russians would have us “give the inspectors more time,” so much more time, in fact, that military action against Saddam’s regime would be that much harder than it is now. I wonder what kind of per-barrel deals Hussein is working out with Chirac and Putin.

John D. Negroponte, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, to the U.N. Security Council:

"There is little time left for the council to face its responsibilities. We see no evidence to indicate that Saddam is voluntarily disarming his nations of its biological, chemical weapons, nuclear capabilities and ballistic missiles."

So ruck up, U.S. servicemen and women. Your CIC will no doubt be calling upon you soon. Kick butt, make us proud, and may God protect you and yours.

New Apple iron

Apple released new desktops today. Processors ramp up to 1.42 GHz in the high-end model, as well as a new 4x SuperDrive. Like the PowerBooks released at Macworld Expo earlier this month, the new Power Macs either incorporate or are ready for the latest tech: FireWire 800, Bluetooth, and Airport Extreme.

Apple also dropped the price on its 17- and 23-inch LCDs, to $699 and $1,999 respectively, and introduced a new, 20-inch LCD for $1,299.

Good riddance, Opera

Speaking of Mac browsers, Opera’s Jon von Tetzchner whined to CNET about competing with Safari, and losing out on providing the Opera engine to Apple, which chose KHTML to drive Safari instead.

Fellow ATPM staffer Chris Lawson brought the article to our attention, and several interesting comments have been raised, which reflect my own feelings:

Lawson: "...because it sucks and is two versions behind the Windoze version and you keep trying to charge $40 for it. It would be one thing if it were a really fast, slick browser, but it's not.

“Then again, maybe I’m still bitter about the fact that they announced a Mac browser in 1996 ‘in a few weeks’ and didn’t deliver until late 2001…”

Michael: “I’m more distressed that anyone would print a story like this without checking the facts (like whether Mac Opera is any good). It’s irresponsible of CNet to act as von Tetzchner’s mouthpiece.”

Michael also rightly points out that there is nothing stopping Opera from using open-source alternatives, as Apple chose to do by using KHTML. Michael points to Chuq Von Rospach’s rockin' analysis, as well as the dead-on commentary from Eric Albert.

So Mr. von Tetzchner, let’s run the down the Mac browser market, shall we?

Quite simply, people do not expect to have to pay for a web browser any more. Just ask Netscape, and thank Microsoft for it. I know there are many people, myself included, who would pay for a wicked fast, slick-looking, web standards-compliant browser. Unfortunately for Opera, their product isn’t any of those things on the Mac. Like Eric says in his post, the Omni Group still believes there’s a market for a commercial browser; why doesn’t Opera?

I’m very happy with Safari, even in its beta form, and I have Camino Chimera to fall back on, and worse case, IE. If Opera wants to plow the same kind of development into their Mac product that they do for Windows, I’ll sit up and take notice. If instead, Opera wants to leave the Mac market, no tears will be shed here.

Safari best Mac browser ever?

Bob Levitus, a.k.a., Dr. Mac, thinks it just may be:

"Safari is wicked fast, with a clean, uncluttered interface and a feature I love--a special field in its toolbar that lets you search the Web via Google without going to the Google Web page first.

“I’ve been using Safari for several weeks, and even though it’s still in beta, it has become my browser of choice. It is much faster than the others, and it may very well be the best browser ever created. Not bad for a program that’s not even done yet.”

Stars beat Senators

In a possible Stanley Cup Finals preview, the current best team in the West took on the current best team in the East (and the league). The Stars trailed most of the game, scored 2 goals in 41 seconds to tie in the 2d, then watched the Sens' Martin Havlat notch a hat trick with his 3d of the evening just moments later.

The Stars didn’t knuckle under, however, coming back to tie it at 3 all, and Bill Guerin put Dallas up with 5:24 left in the 3d. With 30-something seconds left, Modano added an empty netter to seal the deal. Dallas is now 11-1-3 in their last 15 as the race for playoff position slowly begins to heat up. The Stars are now within one point of Ottawa in the President’s Trophy race.

Horrendous officiating, especially by the linesmen, on both sides of the puck. What else is new in today’s Mr. Magoo NHL?

Great game, and if both teams survive through the playoffs, what a Stanley Cup series this is going to be.

What's fair

Once upon a time, there was a young woman who was about to finish her last year of college. She considered herself a very liberal Democrat, and her father was a rather staunch conservative. One day, she was challenging her father on his beliefs, and his opposition to programs like welfare. He stopped her and asked how she was doing in school.

She answered she had a 4.0 GPA, but it was really tough. She had to study all the time, never had time to go out and party, and often went sleepless because of all of the studying. She didn’t have time for a boyfriend, and didn’t really have many college friends because of all her studying.

He then asked how her friend Mary, who was attending the same college, was doing. She replied that Mary was barely getting by. Mary had a 2.0 GPA, never studied, was very popular on campus, and was at parties all the time. She often wouldn’t show up for classes because she was hung over.

He then asked his daughter why didn’t she go to the Dean’s Office and ask if she could take 1.0 off her 4.0 and give it to her friend that only had a 2.0. That way, they would both have a 3.0 GPA.

She fired back, “That wouldn’t be fair, I worked really hard for mine and my friend has done nothing.” After a moment of silence, she replied, “I guess I will never vote Democrat again.”

(Thanks, FranX!)

Daily Tales and Punditry

Lee's blogging! Welcome to the weird and wacky world of the blog, bro. :)

Apple Store Knox Street Grand Opening

So I decided to drag my butt out of bed at 6 am Saturday morning to join a friend for the opening of the new Apple Store on Knox Street in Dallas. This is the Dallas area’s second Apple Store, the first being in Plano at Willow Bend.

My pal Michael, and two of his friends, had already arrived at the store by the time I got out of bed, but were kind enough to save a spot for yours truly, who rolled up at 20 after 8. :)

Though I failed to capture the moment on camera, Michael was the first official customer of the Knox Street store, as he picked up a software title for his wife. I did take lots of other photos.

UPDATE (10:45 am): Michael emailed me links to a gallery that features his first purchase, as well as a shot of yours truly checking out the 12" PowerBook G4. A second gallery shows us waiting out front, though my back’s turned, and an open doorway shot of me, in profile, waiting to look at the 12" PowerBook G4. (Hint, I’m wearing a dark LSU cap and brown jacket.)

'9/11 will seem like a picnic'

From Uday Hussein, Saddam’s son, according to a Reuters article:

"It is better for the Americans to keep themselves away from us. Because if they come then September 11--which they are crying over and see as a big thing--will be a real picnic for them, God willing. They will be hurt and pay a price they will never imagine."

Gee, Uday, give us yet more reasons through your posturing to cap your sorry butt.

And I love how the Husseins run around invoking the name of God, or in their case, Allah. Saddam’s Ba’ath party has always been a secular party, and Saddam is well known for gassing Shi’ite Muslims within Iraq’s borders, not to mention the Muslim Kurds in his nation’s northern territories.

Frickin' Celine Dion?!?!?

Can someone answer me why a French Canadian is singing “God Bless America” during the Super Bowl pre-game show? “My home sweet home?” She’s Canadian! She lives in Canada! Her home is Canada! Is is that hard to find a talented American singer to sing “God Bless America?”

At least American girls sang the national anthem. And quite nicely, I might add, not showboating or over-acting/singing in trying to show off their vocal skills. Hats off to the Dixie Chicks.

SIGARMS Academy

One of the reasons why SIG is my favorite firearms manufacturer is the SIGARMS Academy. Located in New Hampshire, the Academy provides all types of firearms training to law enforcement personnel as well as to civilians.

Two upcoming courses I would love to send my wife and myself to: Women Only Weekend: a Rape Prevention Seminar, Self Defense Keychain Course, and a full day of Handgun Orientation for Women.

Civilian Armorer Course: get the same kind of basic armorer’s course normally reserved only for law enforcement personnel.

The Academy’s ongoing education mission reflects the SIG philosophy of a right to self-defense coupled with personal responsibility.

Common sense prevails

A federal judge has thrown out the class-action lawsuit against McDonald’s which claimed the chain’s food was the reason for “obesity, diabetes and other health problems in children.”

I worked at McDonald’s in high school, and there was a regular supply of nutritional information pamphlets stocked at one end of the counter. I recall giving out several. The info is there, it tells you how bad the food is nutrition-wise, and yes, if you eat it every day, you’re going to get huge.

Take a little personal responsibility, people.

ClarisWorks History

Michael notes a history of ClarisWorks posted by Bob Hearn, one of the software package’s creators. The quote Michael highlights stands out in my mind as well.

ClarisWorks was partially responsible for my switching to the Mac back in the mid-90s. I began using the Windows version of ClarisWorks while working at CompUSA, and it became my favorite application when I brought home my first Mac. The rebadged AppleWorks that is its successor actually feels more bloated and “heavy,” and I miss the lightweight but powerful ClarisWorks 3 and 4.

These days, I tend to do most of my text editing/word processing in Tex-Edit and BBEdit. Database stuff is done in FileMaker Pro. What little spreadsheet work I have is done in Excel, but that’s just because I have Microsoft Office through my job. Without Excel, I’d likely be in the spreadsheet module of AppleWorks.

Though he hints at it, what Hearn doesn’t come right out and say is how ClarisWorks totally annihilated Microsoft Works on the Mac. It simply ceased to exist. A truly impressive accomplishment, considering Microsoft’s track record both then and now.

Automatic Flatterer

If you’re having a bad day and need a little pick-me-up, click here. (JavaScript needs to be enabled in your browser.)

(Thanks, Jim!)

Don't mess with MacTavish

It’s nice to see that Craig MacTavish, who came up during the NHL’s bruiser days, hasn’t lost the hockey-player mentality as a coach.

(Thanks, Brian!)

New spam filters

Something I know will be of interest to Michael. (SpamSieve uses Bayesian analysis to identify spam.)

(from Lee)

Frank talk on Apple's free software

I know why Michael links to Steven Frank’s note on Apple’s free software. I agree with Steven, and I hope that developers like Michael and Panic continue to thrive, even with more and more freebies coming out of Cupertino. The old cliché is true: you get what you pay for.

And if Steven keeps it up, he’s going to have me seriously considering a Sidekick when my current mobile phone contract is up in June….

Where's Marv?

Ok, so now I’m worried.

A few weeks back, I noticed that Gunnery.Net had dropped off the ‘net. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, as I figured Marv might have been moving hosts, having domain issues, etc. Last week I started digging around; I noticed all of Marv’s domains (at least the 4 others I knew about) were off-line as well. All email to any address I ever had for him come back as undeliverable.

Now I haven’t spoken to Marv over the phone since before I stopped helping edit Gunnery.Net, but I decided to give him a ring. Disconnected 866 number. Disconnected long-distance business number. Hmmmm. Ok, I can understand killing the 866 number, those things cost major dough. I can even understand killing the biz number if he wasn’t using it any more.

Then today, disconnected unlisted home number (what can I say, he trusted me). Like I said, now I’m worried. Marvin Stenhammar was in the U.S. Special Forces in the 1980s; he was forced to retire due to a severe injury and a degenerative bone disease. Lucky for Marv, he married a Norse goddess of a doctor, who looked after him when she wasn’t at the hospital. Did they move? Or something worse?

I can’t head over to the SIG-L email list and poke around; the email list about SIG firearms Marv and I met on no longer exists. Or if it does, it’s on a different email server that I have been unable to google. I’ve googled Marv’s name and domains and have come up with squat, at least as far anything recent is concerned.

If you know of whom I speak, and you have information, please drop me a line at: retrophisch at retrophisch.com (sorry, anti-spam measure). I’d just like to know, you know?

One million Safari downloads

Apple announced that its beta web browser for Mac OS X, Safari, has been downloaded more than a million times in just over 2 weeks time. (from Stan)

Jacoby on capital punishment

Speaking of Jeff Jacoby, he offers this point on the recently-revived capital punishment debate:

"This week the Justice Department released 'Capital Punishment 2001,' its latest annual survey of death penalty statistics. ... It is striking that a controversy so large revolves around numbers so small. The death penalty is available in 38 states and the federal system, yet only 66 convicted killers were executed in the United States last year. That was fewer than the 85 executed in 2000, which in turn was fewer than the 98 executed in 1999.

“… But whatever else might be said about these numbers, they are eclipsed by a far larger and more heartbreaking number, one not mentioned in the Justice Department’s report: the number of murder victims. In 2001, 15,980 Americans lost their lives to murder–a death toll hundreds of times greater than the small body count of executed murderers. Year after year, the number of inmates put to death by the state–usually painlessly and after years of due process–adds up to a minuscule fraction of the number of Americans purposely shot, beaten, strangled, knifed, poisoned, burned, drowned, hanged, and tortured to death by murderers."