Friday, January 24, 2003

Bowling update Warren and I picked up our new bowling balls last Friday from Watsonville pro Archie Carter. We played four practice games Saturday, and were suitably impressed by how much better we bowled with proper balls, drilled for our grips. Warren even rolled a high game of 219! Then at Sunday night's Junior/Adult League, we performed miserably. I don't know what happened, but all the ease and grace of Saturday were gone. I barely matched my lowly average. So tomorrow Warren gets a lesson from Archie. No league Sunday--it would conflict with Super Bowl! 9:32:33 AM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

Two great STC meetings in one week Silicon Valley STC met twice this week: on Tuesday in Santa Cruz, Thursday in Sunnyvale. This schedule is the plan for the rest of this year--Santa Cruz will meet the Tuesday before Silicon Valley's 4th Thursday meeting. Some months we'll have duplicate presentations, some will be different. Tuesday in Santa Cruz we heard from Karl Matthews, FrameMaker product manager for Adobe, who gave a rousing presentation on FrameMaker 7, XML, and all the output formats supported. The turnout was good, the food was great, the comraderie terrific. If you're a tech writer in the Monterey Bay area, come on out. Check the Silicon Valley website for details each month. Last night in Sunnyvale we had a huge turnout for a panel discussion on alternatives to writing for the computer software/hardware industry. We heard from writers in energy management, church management, medical device manufacturing, and training/curriculum development. The panel's comments will be recapped in Santa Cruz next month, so if you missed last night, get to Peachwood's Tuesday, February 25. 9:26:44 AM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

TIA gets Senate's attention The very-scary Total Information Awareness data mining scheme finally got the Senate's attention--they agreed unanimously to place some limits on it. Not as good as banning it completely, but at least they're taking notice. Senate limits Pentagon 'snooping' plan. Legislators vote unanimously to restrict a controversial Pentagon data-mining program that critics say would amount to a domestic spying apparatus. [CNET News.com] Senate Blocks Privacy Project. The curbs on the project, called the Information Awareness Program, were adopted without debate and by unanimous consent. By Adam Clymer. [New York Times: NYT HomePage] Senate Rebuffs Domestic Spy Plan (Wired News) Now, has anyone noticed that the other meaning of the acronym TIA is "thanks in advance"? 9:12:20 AM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

QOTD "The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents." Nathaniel Borenstein. [Quotes of the Day] 8:41:20 AM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

SCO's last gasp If you can't make money from selling products, you can always become an IP enforcement shop. SCO to enforce its intellectual property in Linux world. The company claims that it owns much of the core Unix intellectual property rights and can license the technology and enforce any associated patents and copyrights. [Computerworld News] SCO Erecting Unix Tollbooth?. The patent fiascos continue to roll in. Now SCO is waving around alleged Unix "intellectual property" against a variety of... [Dan Gillmor's eJournal] 8:37:48 AM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

© Copyright 2002-2005 Fred Sampson. Last update: 5/21/05; 10:15:25 PM.