It appears Benetton (the Italian fashion company) is still clueless as a rock. Several months ago it was reported that Benetton was going to implant radio frequency microchips inside their clothing so that they could "track" a piece of clothing at various locations including other locations-- not just their stores, through its supposed lifetime. The idea was to be able to build a marketing and loss prevention model for the business.  However "We the Public," were not amused at the potential for a retailer to invade our privacy. Many people were voting with their wallets. Now it appears Benetton is dropping the program.  Amazing how business "gets it" when money is involved.

Personally the first geek who makes a reader/remover has the potential to become real rich. 

I wonder if microwaving the garments for about 30 sec? would kill it?  Any thoughts? 

Gimme a Link

Colin Powell said something about France and Germany having been the marriage counseling for years and it appears they need another session.  Anyone have a link on that? It's priceless.

Hometown Pride: Supplying the Troops

I come from the Quad Cities. The area of the midwest is full of farms, manufacturing, and the little known Rock Island Arsenal. The Arsenal is the home of the AMC (Army Material Command) to the troops and is under the direction of Brig. General Vince Boles. Run by a group of Quad City civilians who are part Corp of Engineers and part active military are the logistical heartbeat of getting everything from Hummer parts, ammunitions, and water bottles to the troops. A majority of the logistical command in charge are civilians who volunteer for this duty. After hearing all the stories about well they are taking care of business, I am both humbled and very proud.

Hitting Home: MIA's are from Home

News has filtered down in the past 48 hours that two of the missing Marines are from home. Brad Korthaus of Davenport, IA is still MIA.  Evan Corngay's body was found yesterday. He's from the Peoria area.

Strategic Planning: JR's Right

John Robb's Radio Weblog: Here is the rub.  When we get to Baghdad in a couple of days after the destruction of the Medina divsion south of the city (which I hope we will kill in a similar fashion to the way we killed retreating troops from Kuwait), we will be at a standstill.  We don't want to go in.  We can't go in.  And then the game will be different.  It will be a waiting game.  We will eventually destroy lights and water.  And then we will wait. JR's right.

Let me add a couple ACSP (Arm Chair Strategic Planning): We must clean out and secure the southern sections of Iraq so it is safe for the troops and citizens of that area. Uday and sick his crew are the enemy in charge area of the country. They are big trouble.

Word to the Wise - Update Browser & AntiVirus

If you haven't recently updated IE or your antivirus software in the past 24-48 hours, I suggest you do so ASAP. It appears that there are new problems in IE and viri lurking out there that can completely take over your machine, rendering your data worthless. Word to the wise.

What Doc May Lose This Trip

Doc's at PC Forum this week playing with the new toys and reporting on the happenings at Esther's annual meeting of the minds and money. Doc has been taking pictures like a rabbit and playing with a new product called Preclick. Preclick is neat. It allows groups to share photos and archive them to a common library. Note Doc's taking pictures of things he "might lose" this trip. ;-)

ABCNEWS Reports Saddam Seen Leaving Baghdad Complex on a Gurney After Strike

ABC News reported live at 4:15 AM (PST) that intelligence sources are reporting Saddam Hussein was seen being wheeled out of a Baghdad residential complex on a stretcher with an oxygen mask on, Wednesday night after the complex was struck in strikes by the United States. Further intelligence reports are saying Saddam's son Uday was killed.

KABC Radio is Streaming Online Again

KABC 790 AM Radio in Los Angeles notified me yesterday they have turned on streaming again. It appears that the Iraq situation and other world events finally got the Disney management off their butts. It's about time.

KABC which was the nation's first talk radio station, is broadcasting local and world news with live talk 24/7 using Windows Media Player. Even weekend fluff progamming has been prempted to focus on the news from the middle east.  Callers from anywhere can call in at 1-800-222-KABC. For more info log into the station website's webcasting site.

Note: It appears they are omitting the commericals to keep the AFTRA/SAG types out of their checkbooks, and The O'Reilly Factor 9AM-11AM Pacific Time is not being webcast because of their contract. Other than that... it's live!

Yes I'm Alive...

Testing... Testing! 1-2-3-4. 

For those of you who care, I'm alive and trying to reconstruct the weblog. 

Got a complaint, bitch or other comment?  Care to send me a greeting?  Hit the damn email icon hidden somewhere on the page.

I am back.

Any one have a clue what in the hell "[Macro error: The folder "C:\RADIO USERLAND\www\instantOutliner\maryWehmeier.opml" wasn't found.] " means?  And how in the heck do I fix that?

... a bit later... never mind I'm the village idiot today. I just changed to another designer's theme until I can get one designed I can work with.

  

Personal Plug: Skate Sale

As a former competitve skater every year at Christmas I get asked by friends and family what type of skates should they buy for their kids or girlfriends. While my taste and needs in skates are far more demanding than the occasional skater, I thought I'd jot down a couple rules in buying proper skates still apply and I thought I'd share them with everyone and give you a link to some great prices.

• In today's market a decent pair of beginner skates with good leather boots starts at $90-$100. Depending on your budget, buy the best skates you can afford.  If you can't spend the money-- put the kid in rentals until you can afford good skates, or investigate the used skates or special sales that are available at your local skating center. Because children grow so quickly, they rarely break down a boot before needing a new size. So don't be afraid of looking at good used skates. There are some great bargins out there today.
• Buy skates from skate shops with fitters. Do not waste your money by buying inferior quality skates at discount stores or sporting good stores. The price savings isn't worth all the pain and suffering of putting a kid into misfit skates. Skate shops will work with you to insure proper fit and sizing-- They are worth the couple extra bucks. 
• Do not ever buy boots with "room to grow into."  Boots that are too large or poorly made, do not support the foot and ankle properly and can cause serious foot problems down the road. Buy what fits with just a "scooch" of room to wiggle the toes.
• You can buy via mail order from good skate shops, if you send them tracing. Here's a tip from me the skating pro: Have the skater stand on a piece of 8.5 x 11" piece of typing paper for each foot with their weight centered over both feet. have the skater wear a light weight sock. Do not let them look down. (It changes the weight distribution.) Hold a pencil vertical and trace the outline of the foot. Mark each tracing for the right or left foot, and put their name, address, phone number, age, date, level of skating and shoe size on each page. You can take these tracing to a skate shop or fax them for mail order fittings.  90% of the time this method works well for most skaters including pros like me. You can also con a kid into thinking you're looking at how much their feet have grown so they are clueless about what you're up to.

Skate Sale: Right now my former skating partner Burt Powley has a sale on complete skate packages, clearance boots, as well as boots and blades for the holidays. Check out his prices if you need skates for Christmas. He's email friendly-- and tell him I sent you!

 Out of Commission

And now a word from your author:  While Doc, Dave, David W, David Sifry and several dozen other people I wanted to see were up on Palo Alto wooping it up at Kevin's Supernova conference, I have been stuck at home. It wasn't my choice. I was ordered to stay home. It appears I have picked up a painful major eye infection a week ago which has made it impossible for me to focus, maintain my balance or use my computer. At the moment I've the only way I can read my computer screen is to sneek wearing an eye patch for very short periods. I resemble a racoon with a pair of black eyes. (Not the fashion statement I wanted to make, that's for sure!)

As to how I got this little bug, we are uncertain. But the doctors are very concerned we get it under control or I could lose some of my vision. At this point the drugs seem to be working, but I'm not out of the woods yet.  So, if I'm not writing online for the next few days you know what's going on.

I write a regular column on tech toys and consumer electronics for an online company. Since it's the holiday's here's some of my picks for this year. If you like them, I'll include them here as a regular feature. Let me know!  MLW

How would you like a little insurance the Christmas Turkey or Roast is cooked to the proper temperature? Is the meat thermometer in your house a relic that should be replaced?  Well-- Here's a hint for a stocking stuffer that won't break the bank.

For less than $15.00 you can have the Polder Instant Digital Instant Read Thermometer. (left) This little gem is a godsend.  It can be used for meat and candy temperatures, runs on one AAA battery and reads in less than 1 minute. 

However if you're in the bi-focal brigade, here's a gem I highly recommend:  Polder Cooking Thermometer and Clock Timer, with probe. (right- Less than $20.) While I own both of these, the Thermometer/Timer is the best thing I've ever had in the kitchen.  The screen is large and easy to read. I've even used the timer function to keep me on schedule. With it's magnetic back, I stick it on the top of the microwave so it's always there to use. The probe clips easily into the slot and can stuck into meat, or a pot to measure the temperature with little fear of getting burned. You can even program a temperature into the device, stick the probe into a roast inside the oven, and run the probe cable out the oven door to monitor your cooking temperature and time. On the grill it measure meat temperatures to insure the steaks were done to perfection. The 7 inch probe is replaceable directly from Polder should you need a spare for less than $8.

Another Day Older...

Doc thinks of his weblog as a fireside chat. I tend to think of my weblogs as a kitchen table chat with a good cup of coffee. Somedays I pound away on the computer for hours working and rewriting what I have to say about a specific topic.  Other days you're lucky if you get me to touch a computer-- especially now around the holidays or when real world deadlines are pounding on me. Other people use their weblogs for updating everyone on what they're working on, along with personal updates, comments and links to "good stuff."  The reality check is that weblogs are a wonderful way for groups of people to stay in touch on topics of interest. Does this create an online community? Depends.

For those of you who give a RA, for the past couple days I worked on trying to understand the Embroidery Software that came with my Viking 1+ sewing machine. But instead I've been tearing my hair out. I consider myself to be pretty software savvy, and normally with a reasonable learning curve there aren't too many applications that confuse me-- BUT I have never seen a software suite so FUBARED in my life!  The Viking software does not completely convert file formats without major skips in stitching, the software updates and the updates to the file formats can't be found on Viking's website-- thus making it useless. Even the tech manual (which I have read TWICE,) is very poorly written. If I had paid the full retail price for this POS ($2000+) I would be marching it back for a full refund.  I'm going to give myself one more day on it, then find this software a new home, and buy Embird. There is nothing like a proprietary software, complete with lockout dongle and support that resembles a dead telephone line. Anyone understand the Viking software and want to chat? Hit the COMMENTS button below.

December! We've Made It!

This is going to be one of those coffee klatch postings, because I have so much to do today.  Most of this was caused because Dr. D's Dad had a medical problem that ended up stealing my entire day dealing with the Kaiser Healthcare System.  The good news is he didn't have a heart attack, but he may be having surgery next month. 

While I haven't been writing, I do take breaks by reading. Like Jenny and Doc, I've been looking at Dave Sitfry's Technorati. It's honestly a work of art and worth supporting.

Jenny's also blogging about John Hiler's NY CityBlog. Looks like Hiler's trying to stretch the online community model into a targeted mainstream blog. Nothing new to me in concept. However CityBlog is taking it mainstream. The major problems in getting any blog accepted as a "place to stop online," is that Hiler will need to build creditability and consistancy with his audience and learn to share. The weblog world isn't kind to selfish webloggers who do not share and cross post.

And finally-- for the moment-- I've been reading a series of emails regarding Halley's Comment about feminism and girlism. Like Doc and Mrs. Doc, Dr. Doug and I have never found feminism or being political correct something attractive. One of the things about Doug that was appealing was he never had any hangups about my job when we met. Have I met other people in the school/workplace that had a problem with a women (like me) who did the type of work I did?  Yes. Did it bug me? Yes.  But the best way to deal with those situations is do the best job regardless of gender. My Mother set the example on this years before me. I just followed. From where I sit, I personally like being female, dressing like a women and enjoy the company of most men. There's no gender confusion in this house!

Afterthought Sheila Lennon hits the nail on the head here. I love the lines:  "Some doors only open for alpha males." and  "My career goal is a laptop on the beach." Amen. I've observed the alpha males for years. My observations on that later. Like Sheila, I'm still looking for a decent beach of my own.

More later... I have stuff to do.