More Junkmail from Bob!
Wednesday, December 20, 2000Important Stuff.
Hotmail!
Free email. Last week I noticed that about a dozen Hotmail recipients had their Junkmail bounce with a really strange error message. I wouldn't have paid much attention to it, but my daughter, niece, and nephew happened to be among the bouncees. So I tried again and it went through.
It turns out that Microsoft has been having a lot of trouble with Hotmail. Their servers have apparently been uncooperative. Hmm... I wonder if they're running Windows.
Microsoft provides a phone number to call in, but they say "Note: For security reasons we will not be able to provide customer support at this number, including password resets." I knew that Windows 98, Millennium, and 2000 all had security problems, but Microsoft's telephones too? Amazing.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,40656,00.html
Milky Way
If you can't go there in person, check out the center of the galaxy on the web:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1078000/1078352.stm
Do you know where your car is?
GlobalTrax is a new system that tracks car locations. They use a GPS to keep track of the location, and transmit it to the "mother" system with personal wireless communications. They put the data on the web in real time, so you can see where your kids have run off to with your car. It's being tested in a few major markets next year. It's fairly simple technology, so we'll probably see a few similar ventures before long. It will be good for companies with lots of vehicles, police, ambulance, etc.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/review/crh800.htm
I hope the system is better than their web site:
http://www.geospatialtech.com/
How about your cell phone?
Did you know your cell phone can be tracked, even when you're not talking on it? Right now it's not very accurate, but it may be before long. Right now, it can only be done by law enforcement, but that may change.
Some people consider this an invasion of privacy. Others consider it a big marketing opportunity. I can imagine McDonalds calling me up and telling me there's a drive-thru coming up in 4 miles on the left.
http://www.crn.com/Components/Search/Article.asp?ArticleID=22049
I think it would be really handy to be able to call someone and have them tell me where my cell phone is. I lose it a lot.
More Election News?!!
The news people had so much viewership on the election fiasco that they're trying to keep it going. Now they've been reporting on all the changes that should be made for U.S. elections. Most of them I've heard don't like the electoral college, and think the President should be elected by popular vote alone. Maybe it's because they're from New York, California, or Florida where they'd benefit from such a change. I don't think the Wyoming people would want to go from 3 electoral votes to 1.
Apparently these newscasters forgot about the Constitution. When they were drafting it, the states with smaller populations wanted the same voting power for President as the states with larger populations. As a compromise, they decided on each state getting the number of senators plus the number of representatives.
Someone emailed me these "facts" about the election.
Average murder per 100,000 residents in counties won by Gore: 13.2
Average murder per 100,000 residents in counties won by Bush: 2.1
I suspect this may be an exaggeration, especially since it originated from a lawyer, but since Gore carried more counties in big cities I figure he won the national murder rate by a reasonable margin.
After getting that I was really surprised when I heard on the radio that the Democratic party in Florida is trying to change the law so convicted felons can vote. The Republicans promptly started encouraging their members to rob banks so to minimize the Democratic advantage in the convicted felon vote.
Etoys (with an s)
Last year about this time, etoy.com and etoys.com were battling it out over the name etoy.com. (Junkmail 19)
Etoy is a strange, pretty flaky web site. Etoys.com was the "corporate bully" trying to steal the name of poor etoy.com. Now Etoys.com is on the verge of going out of business.
"The revenue shortfall is a major disappointment," eToys founder and Chief Executive Toby Lenk said. As for whether the company can survive independently, he said it "decreases the likelihood we would by a significant margin."
Translation: "Man, we're in big trouble." Quite ironic.
Tired
6,000,000 tires were successfully removed from a Rhode Island dump. What will they do with six million tires? Send them to Maine. Really!
http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/12/20/tires.removed.ap/index.html
Other Stuff
Check out the volcano:
http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/americas/12/20/mexico.volcano.01.reut/index.html
There will be a partial solar eclipse coming Christmas Day:
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/eclipse.html
And last but not least, there's a Solstice tomorrow! The sun will come back toward Oklahoma. Or something like that.
Pictures of Today
Speed:
http://www.rlcnet.com/soap/soundbarrier.htm
Here's another navy jet -- an F18 -- in Pryor:
An air force King Air with lots of antennas:
I was driving across Kansas last week and was surprised to see Amazon.com outside of Coffeyville.
Yeah, I know. It's not a great picture. But I WAS surprised.
Here's a cold Minnesota roadside.
Here are some cold Minnesota contrails.
Incidentally, the "chemtrails" you read about on the web are nothing but fiction.
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I'm Bob Webster and I reside at bob@xpda.com. Feel free to send any comments, questions, criticism, or cash. Happy Holidays -- don't do anything stupid. Well, at least don't do anything stupid that will hurt someone.