Find your lost kids with a USB Drive

If you've got kids, you know that even taking your eyes off them for a second can result in them wandering off and getting lost. A reader at Daily Cup of Tech took a tool designed to help you find a lost USB drive and adapted it to help find his lost son.

The secret is to embed a simple "I'm Lost" program onto a USB flash drive, with information about your child, how to calm him down, and how to contact you. Put an "I'm Lost" sticker on the drive, and hang it around your child's neck. The tricky part is instructing your child to show the drive to his rescuer in the event that he gets lost. With any luck, your lost child will quickly be taken somewhere with a computer, they'll get your contact info, and you'll get a phone call.

Although it's a great idea, and I'm likely going to try it the next time I take my kids out somewhere they might get lost, I think it's got a simple flaw. It relies on the person who finds your child being smart enough to know what to do with a USB drive, and having ready access to a computer. You may be better off laminating a business card with the same information and hanging that around his neck instead.

Atlanta's Lesbians are the Scariest Lesbians

Ok, so I'm linking to a post that links to a post that talks about nothing particularly important. But with a title like that, who cares?

I came across this post in my regular scan of all the blogs in the blogosphere mentioning the word "Atlanta". How do I do it? I use Google Blog Search. It's simple:

1. Go to http://www.google.com/blogsearch.
2. Enter your search terms and click "Search Blogs".

Not only do you get an up-to-the-minute search of all blog posts talking about your chosen subject, but you can subscribe to the search results using your favorite Feed Reader. Once you've done that, every time your reader updates, you'll get fresh content about your search query. It's a good way to keep up to date on what the world is writing about it. I use my subscription to "Atlanta" to find out about new restaurants, events, and Atlanta's scary lesbians.

Too Cool: Speed Painting

Regardless of what you may think of the show "Lost", watching a time lapse video of someone painting a near photo-realistic image of John Locke in Photoshop is just really, really, cool.

Big Sister?

When you think about it, Barack Obama is just as much a left wing socialist as Hillary Clinton, but you've got to give his people a round of applause for this remake of the Apple "1984" commercial, this time depicting Queen Hillary as "Big Sister".

And the next American Idol is...

Sanjaya Malakar!

I'm kidding of course. I don't believe there is any salvation for Sanjaya at this point. Last night's performance was his best to date, and it just could not compare to anyone else on the stage. However, I do think I can predict who will be the next American Idol. And I don't think it's going to be Lakisha Jones or Melinda Doolittle.

Mind you, I think both Melinda and Lakisha are amazing performers. I would pay money to see either of them in concert, assuming they don't take the hip-hop or teeny-pop road and stick to the classic and powerful R&B styles they both sing so well. But there is a third contender, who lately has demonstrated that she can bring it with just as much "Yo!" as either Melinda or Lakisha.

I'm talking about Jordin Sparks, my pick for the next American Idol. Last night, Jordin actually sang better than Lakisha. That's the first time since the beginning of the show that anyone, apart from Melinda, has been able to. I don't think Jordin sang as well as Melinda last night, but she was VERY close. But Jordin has something neither Lakisha or Melinda have. Jordin has a HUGE personality. Lakisha and Melinda are both somewhat meek. Neither seem to have accepted that they are going to be huge stars, and they're only just starting to climb out of their shells and show some personality. Jordin, on the other hand, has been bouncing up and down, brimming with excitement and personality. Since the beginning, I have enjoyed watching her, as well as listening to her. I can't say that about Lakisha and Melinda.

I think others will agree with me, and I think that's why Jordin is going to win this year.

Hi, I'm Linux! ;)

Spoofing the ever popular "I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC" commercials has become a pretty popular pass-time. Most of them are not at all clever (with the possible exception of the Wii vs. PS3 video). There have been a few failed attempts at creating a well done spoof bringing Linux into the mix. This week, Novell put together a spoof for their BrainShare conference which, I believe, does the trick, by introducing Linux as a sexy, yet friendly, alternative to the PC and Mac geeks.

A Drop in the Bucket - Water Drop

I've just created my first theme for GNOME's Login Manager (GDM). I've called it Water Drop, and it's more or less based on another theme called "Crystal Rose". You can download it from http://www.ergophobia.org/water-drop.tar.gz. I hope you enjoy it.

ChangeLog:
1.0 - Initial Release
1.1 - Fixed CAPS Lock warning location.

Credit:
Many thanks to Ricardo Lipas Augusto for his image "Splash", on which this theme is based.
Thanks also to Carlos (StackGuard) Ferreira who created the "Crystal Rose" theme I used as a template.

Minor Makeover for Google Reader

Yesterday I was having a lot of trouble marking batches of stories as read in Google Reader. I had to click the "Mark all as read" link several times before it would actually do anything. Perhaps that's because Google was making some changes behind the scenes. This morning, I noticed that the links that were there yesterday have been replaced by actual buttons today. I think it looks pretty good.

Finally, a Japanese car that stands out in a crowd

Japanese cars all look alike. Whether it's Honda, Toyota, Subaru, or one of the "Luxury" brands, they're all pretty much the same. But British artist Benedict Radcliffe has found a way to make this Subaru Impreza stand out in any crowd. He's made it invisible!

OK, so the car is not really invisible, but that's not a computer generated image either. It's a life size wire frame sculpture of a Subaru Impreza on display outside of the Paul Smith Gallery in Mayfair, Great Britain. After a few days parked out front, it even started collecting parking tickets.


Via: WindingRoad

Enterprising Youth: Clean Cruisers

Twelve year old Forest Endicott is faced with a problem. Including tuition, room, and board, the college he has chosen to attend is going to cost him $44,000 a year. That's more than his father can afford. Unlike most kids, Forest is determined to find a way to earn that money.

With his father's support, Forest has established "Clean Cruisers". A giant leap from dog walking and raking leaves, Forest's company imports diesel powered Toyota Land Cruisers from Australia, modifies the engines to run on bio-diesel, and resells them in the United States.

He's run into a few hurdles so far, most of them compliments of our Federal Government, but he's learning valuable lessons at the same time about business and finance. It seems to me that Forest has a good idea going, if he can make it work. Environmental responsibility is the latest trend, and turning old SUV trucks into more eco-friendly transportation means not only will Mother Nature be happy, but one less truck goes into a junk yard. If he's able to find customers willing to buy these old, but durable trucks, he'll be able to earn the money he needs for college in just a few years.

I was inspired by his story when I read Gabrielle Glaser's story in the Oregonian. I wish I had the money to spend on one of his trucks. Hopefully, one of my readers will. At the very least, I think this story deserves to be passed on. Forest deserves all the help we can give him. Any 12 year old boy willing to take on the challenge of starting a company like this deserves all the positive attention we can give him.

Forest doesn't have a web site yet, but I'm told he's working on one. I'll update this story with the link when there's something to link to. In the mean time, please spread the word.

Earth viewed from books

Sometimes it's just amazing what technology can do. Matthew Gray, who created the Internet's first web search engine, has used the data in Google Book Search to create a map of the world using references to locations found in Book Search's extensive library.

Read more: Inside Google Book Search: Earth viewed from books

Songbird 0.2.5 - Cool, but Not Yet Ready for Prime Time

Maybe I'm trying to get something out of it that it's not intended to do, but I thought I'd download the latest release of Songbird and give it a whirl. It took me a grand total of five minutes to determine that it's not yet ready for prime time.

The first thing I discovered is that there's no .deb version of it out (at least not that a brief search turned up). Hopefully, that'll get rectified as the app matures some. I found installation instructions for Ubuntu though, which is nice to see, although as it turned out, I didn't need them. Songbird is extremely easy to test out. Just download the latest version, extract it to a directory, and run the Songbird executable from your terminal or file browser. You don't need to compile it, and you don't need to install it.

The first thing Songbird does is to (presumably) prompt you for the directory that has your music library in it. I say "presumably" because the way it asks is to pop up an "Open" dialog. There's no explanation as to what you're supposed to be doing. I don't have any music stored on this computer, so I just hit cancel.

Songbird is intended as a Music player and MP3 Blog browser. You can subscribe to blogs and automatically get new MP3 content. I'm not too big on downloading music and maintaining an audio library. I've got an iPod that I never use (especially since it's a Gen 2 with a dead battery). When I do listen to music, I tend to hook into a stream on Rhythmbox and listen to whatever the stream owner pushes down the pipe. Songbird makes it possible to do this, and even includes a link to the Shoutcast directory. But this feature alone isn't reason enough for me to switch from Rhythmbox, which is much lighter weight.

What I was most interested in testing out was the Video functionality that the screencast talked about. Based on the screencast, I had the impression that I could subscribe to video feeds and get all the latest content, similar to the way DemocracyTV works. When I started trying to make this happen, I ran into some issues. First of all, I use an excellent site, tvRSS.net to find new episodes of my favorite shows to download. I've had trouble getting Democracy to subscribe to more than one search-based RSS feed, so I thought I'd let Songbird take a stab at it. Problem. The browser functionality in Songbird is weak. I couldn't browse past the front page without manually entering the URL of the page I wanted to look at. Frustrated with this, I decided to browse in my standard Firefox browser, perform the search I wanted a feed of, and then copy the feed URL into Songbird. Problem. Songbird can't handle RSS yet. I then pasted the URL of the search results page. Songbird couldn't find any media to download. This is presumably because all of the links on the results page are to other URL's, not to actual content. The only direct links to the content are in the RSS feed. I don't know if Songbird can download Torrents. There's no mention of it on the website, so I can only assume it can't. Perhaps there is an add-on that will include that functionality, but the add-ons section of the site appears down right now.

All in all, Songbird sings a sweet song for music downloaders. But with the semi-functional browser, lack of RSS feed support, and lack of Torrent support, I can only recommend waiting for a future version to make the song even sweeter.



Have you tried Songbird? Leave a comment and let me know about your experience.

Is race affecting the votes on American Idol?

I'm still in shock over what happened last night on American Idol. It seems almost unbelievable to me that Sanjaya Malakar was NOT voted off the show. Even Sanjaya exclaimed that he was shocked when the decision was read. I find myself looking for an explanation to this, and there's only one thing I can think of -- Sanjaya is Indian.

Before you accuse me of being racist, stop. I'm not. If I were racist, my statement would be that an Indian can't or shouldn't win American Idol. I don't believe that. I just don't think Sanjaya is as good as the other contestants. He's terribly shy, and seems unable to handle the pressure of the show. Both of Sanjaya's last two performances have seemed over-rehearsed and cold, as if he's reading from a script. He's consistantly been the worst singer in the bunch. That's saying something, too, given the terrible performances of just about all the men from the first week.

Incredibly, Ryan Seacrest indicated that Sanjaya was in the top 4 men after the first week. This week, I can't imagine he was that highly ranked, but I wouldn't be surprised. This brings me to my explanation of why I believe that Sanjaya's race is influencing his standing. I discount the fact that Sanjaya is young and handsome as being a contributing factor. Several of the other male contestants are also young and handsome. This dilutes the "teeny bopper" vote, which typically go to the cutest singer, not the best singer. I discount the charisma vote. The folks that voted for Taylor Hicks in Season 5 were voting as much for his personality as his musical ability. Sanjaya has no personality, he's just boring. I discount the musical ability vote. Sanjaya demonstrated some ability during the auditions and Hollywood week, but has shown nothing in the way of talent so far in the finals. That leaves the only thing that sets Sanjaya apart from the other contestants. As far as I can tell, he's the only Indian to have ever made the semi-finals.

There is a HUGE Indian population in the United States, made even larger if you include neighboring South-Asian countries as being part of the same minority group. I would not be at all surprised to find that the vast majority of Indians and Asians voting on American Idol are casting their votes in favor of Sanjaya, simply because he is the first Indian to have arrived on the big stage, and because they want to see him do well regardless of talent. Meanwhile, racially motivated votes for the others are split pretty much half and half between black and white, but diluted by the quantity of contestants representing each race. Non-Indian Asians have been on the program before, which could explain why Paul Kim didn't get the benefit of the vote last week despite being a better performer than Sanjaya.

Assuming that I am correct, how do we address this issue? I don't think anything really needs to be done. As we continue, other contestants will get voted off the show. People voting for those contestants will choose new favorites. Statistically, most of those votes will not go to Sanjaya. Eventually, the numbers will start to weigh more heavily against him and he'll get voted off. And, unless Sanjaya makes some enormous improvements to his act, he'll be gone sooner than later.

Alternatively, perhaps there should be a way for people to vote AGAINST a contestant. American Idol could set up a Digg style system, by which people could cast negative votes for people they believe deserve to get voted off, to counteract the affirmative votes cast by others. If it works for Digg, it could just as easily work for American Idol.

Tell me what you think. Is race affecting the votes? Am I just nuts in thinking that Sanjay is as bad as I think he is? Do you think some other forces are at work in keeping him in the running? Let me and my readers know!

How to log into Ubuntu using your SSH key

This page shows you how to configure your Ubuntu system to log you in using your SSH key instead of the Unix password. Saves you from having to enter your keyfile password when connecting to remote systems as well. Cool! (Written for Dapper but works for Edgy and Feisty too) -- Consider this Dugg!

Free Idea: How to build a Universal Content Delivery Platform

In my quest to become completely portable, I've oft fantasized about what my ideal computing, communications, and entertainment platforms would be like. They must encompass both my business and personal needs, be free of any dependencies on proprietary platforms or services, and be as portable as I am. Hopefully, some day the rest of the world will share my dream and we'll see these fantasies brought to reality. Today, lets talk about my vision for a "Universal Content Delivery Platform".

First, define content and content delivery:

* Content may be audio, video, images, or text.
* Content may be static or dynamic.
* Content may be interactive.
* Content may be a conversation between two or more people.
* Content may be as big as a movie, or small as a text chat.
* Content can be delivered live or delayed.
* Content may be broadcast to a wide audience, or sent directly to an individual.

The "Universal Content Delivery Platform" takes this into account and makes it possible to deliver content to and from any compatible device:

* My device will be wirelessly connected, and will work anywhere in the world.
* My device will be able to play back high resolution video and multi-channel audio.
* My device will be able to record audio and video, and take pictures.
* My device will be secure.
* My device will cache content for rapid retrieval.
* My device will have a familiar interface, and be in my language.
* My device can be as big as a wall, or fit in the palm of my hand.

The "Universal Content Delivery Platform" requires a portal for centralized content management.

* My portal is a two-way gateway for sending and receiving content.
* My portal is always on.
* My portal is always watching for new content that I am interested in
* My portal is always serving the content I have produced.
* My portal speaks a standard protocol to communicate with my device and other portals.
* My portal will give me a globally unique address.
* My portal provide my presense information to people I trust.
* My portal authenticates me to 3rd party applications.
* My portal will give me an Inbox and archive everything I've ever sent or received.
* My portal will process and filter all received content before delivering it to me.
* My portal will take a message if I'm not available and put it in my Inbox.
* My portal will manage my content subscriptions.
* My portal will deliver content in a format my device supports and a language I can read.
* My portal will manage my address book.

I've gone into a lot more detail about this Platform on my Portable Family blog, so hop on over there to keep reading.

Free Idea: Mobile Devices Participate in Global Event Tracking

I had an idea this morning for a new concept in automotive/portable computers. I haven't spent much time developing this idea, but I want to put it out there for the world to pick over. It's possible others have already thought of it, and equally possible that others have already implemented it. If so, I'd like to know where to find it. If not, maybe somebody might like to.

The idea is to make the "Auto PC" (or any mobile computer) a participating member of a global mesh of similar devices reporting on weather, traffic, construction, accidents, and breaking news events. This would involve establishing a Web 2.0 application (we'll refer to this application as "SuperFeed" for lack of a better name) offering feeds on any of the above events tagged with geographic coordinates. Devices would be equipped with an always-on internet connection from one of the major cell providers (at least until there is "universal wireless internet access") and a GPS receiver, as well as optional components such as weather sensors, cameras, etc. The device would regularly poll SuperFeed and pull any new events tagged for it's location. It could then take advantage of that information to inform the user, update routes, etc.

SuperFeed of course is worthless without being constantly updated on everything happening everywhere in the world. So SuperFeed should have two inputs. First, it should accept submissions from member devices whenever that device has something important to report. Simple information may include current GPS coordinates, speed, and direction of motion. More advanced devices could report weather conditions. A user could press a button on the display to take a picture of an accident or other news event and automatically report it.

Another important input should involve aggregating blogs with geographical tags. Blogs containing localized information would be automatically picked up by SuperFeed and important information would be published to those most in need of knowing about it. This could be a great mechanism for targeted advertising, publishing event information, road work announcements, and breaking news.

-----
"Free Idea" is a column published by me, Jim Phillips. All of these ideas are original, conceived by me. These ideas are not patented, and are published openly in the hopes that someone will make them a reality. If any of these ideas have already been implemented, I would very much like to know more about the product, project, or company which has done the work, so that I can write about it on this blog. I'm also willing to work with venture capitalists to bring these ideas to life, but if you think you can develop my idea without me, please do, and let me know so that I can give you my support and blessing -- free of charge!

What is Web 2.0?

I stumbled across this video on the Atlanta 575 Real Estate blog. For those of you out there who just aren't quite sure what Web 2.0 means, this is for you...

Unions are twisting the words of the Vice President, and mindless minions are listening!

In a blatant attempt at furthering the cause of the almighty Union, and further limiting the rights of the individual to think for himself, Union leaders have instructed their bought and paid for politicians to draft HR800. This bill will eliminate the ability of the individual to take a stand against the Union and say "No, I do not want to Unionize". Currently, Union leaders are able to start the process of Unionization using intimidation and peer pressure. Workers are bullied into signing petitions, thinking that if they don't agree with their co-workers, there will be disharmony in the work place. When it comes to a secret vote, many who have already signed the petition in favor of the Union will vote against it. The Unions don't like this and are doing everything they can to eliminate this critical step in the process.

The "Think Progress" blog, a left-wing, socialist, anti-individualist, left-wing propaganda machine has posted an article including a video of Dick Cheney explaining exactly what is wrong with HR800 and why the White House will veto it should it come to that. The article twists these words and, rather than answering the accusations made by the Vice President, it provides a slew of biased, fear-terminology infused, Union propoganda.

What frightens me more than anything are the comments. Out of 64 comments at the time of this post, I saw 4 which were well thought out arguments against Unions. The remaining 60 comments were either simple hatred of Bush or from people who didn't bother to watch the video and were simply echoing the sentiment of the article. Only the 4 anti-Union posts made any mention of the fact that the secret vote is an important part of the process.

An Open Invitation to join an Open Source Enterprise Monitoring project

I've started an Enterprise Monitoring blog in the hopes of attracting subject matter experts and developers to the common goal of developing an enterprise scale comprehensive monitoring solution. I also want to build a company around supporting the product and offering it as a hosted service.



read more | digg story

Remapping the Universe using this "Minority Report" GUI

I was having lunch and saw a CNN story on this on the big screen. I was just scanning digg.com and came across this story with a video demonstration of a new multiple hand, touch, and gesture based GUI technology straight out of science fiction movies like Minority Report. I don't know how much of this demonstration is just that, or if this is a functional technology. I don't care. It's way cool. I gotta get me one of these!



read more | digg story

Linspire, Canonical, Freespire, Ubuntu join forces

Canonical Ltd., the sponsor of Ubuntu, and Linspire Inc. the developer of Linspire and Freespire, on February 8 announced a technology partnership to integrate with each other's Linux distributions. Linspire/Freespire will be based on Ubuntu, rather than Debian, and Ubuntu will integrate with Linspire's CNR package installer/updater.

Personally, I think this is an excellent fit. Ubuntu's motto is "Linux for Human Beings". I interpret this to mean that Ubuntu is for those of us who want a useable desktop, and aren't necessarily worried about running "Pure Linux", or 100% GPL'ed software. Linspire, for a long time now, has been about combining the power of Linux with proprietary software, and making it simple for the end user to get what they need. The tools that Linspire has developed for distributing software, combined with the solid platform base that is Ubuntu, will go a long way towards making Linux truly a platform for human beings.

read more | digg story

Five ways to use Windows apps in Linux

Still on the topic of preaching the Word of Linux to those poor souls trapped in the Microsoft Hell, here's a terrific article listing multiple ways to run your "Can't Live Without" Windows apps in Linux.

The Open Source Advocate: Five ways to use Windows apps in Linux

Great Resource: Easily Find The Free Open Source Software You Want / Need

My father stubbornly refuses to make the leap from Windows to Linux despite my constant pleading and despite being highly annoyed at Microsoft's fascist licensing. He is convinced that there are no applications for Linux that can compare to those found in Windows. OSalt.com is my answer to his argument. It pairs open-source projects with their traditional expensive equivalents, making it easy to find exactly what you need: "Our mission is to provide easy access to high quality open source alternatives to well-known commercial products. And remember that open source software is also a freeware alternative."

Of course, there's always the programs you're just not willing to give up. He's a big fan of EVE Online, so i need to point out to him that he can run EVE natively in Linux through the magic of WINE.

OSalt.com | winehq.org | digg story

Amazing Magic Trick with... only 3 cards?!

How is it even possible? See if you can figure it out... short clip, 1 minute.



read more | digg story

Hillary Clinton wants to take your daughter's college fund

Boortz doesn't much care for people ripping off his content without giving him props, so here's your props Neal! Thanks for pointing out again how much of a screaming socialist shrew Hillary Clinton is.

Apparently Hillary thinks that Exxon owes something to the entire world, not just it's shareholders. She wants to take Exxon's recent windfall profits and use it to fund her socialist agenda. When Exxon makes huge profits, it turns those profits over to its shareholders in the form of dividends. Many shareholders are going to put those dividends into savings, retirements, college tuition, and other worthy investments. Hillary wants to take those profits out of the pockets of Exxon shareholders and spend it on government programs. Government programs serve one purpose -- they make the politicians more powerful.

Follow the link for the full story on Nealz Nuze.

Windows Vista upgrade power tips

I tend to switch back and forth between Linux and Windows. Since I'm currently enjoying Linux again, and my next planned computer purchase will be a Mac Book Pro, I won't be upgrading to Windows Vista any time soon. I'm sure it'll happen eventually, but probably not until at least the first Service Pack comes out. Maybe I'll run a copy of it in Parallels.

But for those of you who are making the leap to Vista, our friends at LifeHacker have posted an article full of tips for getting the most out of your system -- assuming your system can make the most of Vista.

Link: Geek to Live: Windows Vista upgrade power tips

The Folding Sofa

It might not be the most stylish piece of furniture in your house, but if you've got a bunch of people coming over and need a place for them to sit, this folding sofa might just be the answer to your prayers.

Finally! Google Maps for Windows Mobile

My morning commute consists of sitting on a bus for an hour, followed by sitting on a train for 45 minutes. Needless to say I've got a lot of time to keep on top of my blog subscriptions using my favorite mobile app: Google Reader. Google has just made my Motorola Q a little more useful by announcing the availability of Google Maps for Windows Mobile. This app has been available for awhile for Java, Palm, and Blackberry phones, but now there's an official release for Windows Mobile devices. All I can say is, it's about time! You can get this handy tool by browsing to http://google.com/gmm from your phone and installing the CAB file. It's as simple as that. You'll then have access to all the same great features that make the full Google Maps a terrific application (and a few that the main app doesn't even have), such as Real Time Traffic, Turn by Turn directions, local business searches, and integration with GPS devices.

To give credit where credit is due, Google isn't the first to come out with Google Maps for Windows Mobile. A few weeks ago, I found a free tool called Map4PDA that has much of the same functionality, but can use not only Google Maps, but Yahoo! Maps, Microsoft Virtual Earth, and Ask.com Maps as a data provider, and has some special functionality built in for Realtors and users who are house hunting.

Blame it on the conservatives!

A co-worker came in today while I was having lunch and mentioned that "the conservatives" are to blame for the $5 billion or so that Ford has lost recently. It seems that Ford is advertising in gay magazines, and that the American Family Association takes exception to this and has launched a boycott against Ford. I don't know about you, but I consider myself a conservative (ok, a Libertarian -- I guess there's technically a difference). I'd never heard of this boycott, or even that Ford was mixing it up with the gay media. And I could care less about either one. It just annoys me that the liberals of the world think that all conservatives are gay hating religious nutcases.

I'm also annoyed at the AFA for giving a damn where Ford decides to advertise. If I'm a business, and I think there's a demographic I can target to buy my product, I'm going to advertise where that demographic is looking. Any company struggling as much as Ford has lately better be advertising everywhere they possibly can. If I were Ford, I'd be advertising my "Green Vehicles" in High Times! Get more hippies driving Ford hybrids! Oh, and what are those folks at the AFA doing reading gay magazines? Could it be maybe they have some latent homosexual tendencies they are secretly indulging in?

Hillary dodges tough questions

Nobody seems to have picked up on this yet, but I caught a little video on CNN's website yesterday that I just can't resist commenting on. Her royal highness, Hillary Rodham Clinton (is it Rodham Clinton, or just Rodham this week?), was in Iowa recently talking about how she's going to be a great president. Apparently there were a few tough questions tossed at her. One in particular that she expertly passed the buck.

Hillary was asked about how she can be so opposed to the war in Iraq even though she voted in favor of it, and what she'd do about it. Without saying anything about what she'd do, she put the entire blame for the war on Bush, criticized him, and said he better "extricate" us from this situation before he leaves office. That's all well and good. But that's not going to happen. Bush has us over there, because we're still needed over there. We're still going to be there when the next president takes office. The individual was asking Hillary what she plans to do about it. As is typical of Hillary and other Dems, there is NO plan!

Here's the video:

The Complete Military History of France

I have never tried to hide my absolute disdain for the french and their knack for getting in the way and whining when they don't get their way. You can tell me all you want that it's not the french people but the french government... It's the people who elect the government. If the people keep putting socialists in power, they deserve all the criticism they receive.

I'm not the only one with a desire to see the french humiliated. I stumbled across "The Complete Military History of France". In other words, a complete failure to win any wars or battles in the last several hundred years -- unless they're fighting amongst themselves or claiming credit for the victories of their allies.

Enjoy, and make fun of a frog today!

SuperDeluxe

So there's a new user video content site out there (ala Google Video, YouTube, etc). No big news, except that I happen to work in the group that is responsible for making sure it stays up and fresh. It's called SuperDeluxe. Here's a little sample content I thought was funny.