silveradept | Oy, where did the time go?

Got wrapped up in a few things and suddenly it’s past midnight. Also managed to ruin dinner because of it. I’m glad the oven didn’t catch fire or something like that. Still, it can be a curse to be absentminded. This is why I want an egg timer for the oven. And that means I need to do laundry tomorrow. Among other things. And I wish my grades would get in soon, too. There, is that all the whining I can do?

Happy birthday to

thewayne, too.

There have been other stories saying that the troops are going off to war without proper gear. According to the Smoking Chimp, it’s because the army is broke - despite a $168 billion budget. The Chimp lays the blame at the feet of the other branches of the service, who buy multi-million dollar, probably price-inflated objects from defense contractors without blinking, while the grunts go penniless and armorless. Yet another reason why Iraq was a bad idea, in my opinion.

Nintendo will replace the old Wiimote straps with newer, stronger ones. After all, it’s extremely bad for business to have your game-players destroying their high-end televisions trying to enthusiastically play your game. Maybe if they had a Lost in Space Robot shouting "Danger! Danger!", the message would get across?

Type I diabetes cured in mice by Canadian scientists. Well, if they can do it in mice, that means they can figure it out for humans, too, right? Now, if they could get rid of Type II, too...

Google is making the patent database searchable. Which could be used, perhaps, to weed out the duplicate patents or the ones that really aren’t as far apart as some would have us believe. Assuming the search and the indexing is that good. In any case, it looks like it might be able to answer the questions as to whether someone’s thought of that doodad before.

Conspiracy Data BitTorrent Tracker. For all the tinfoil and not-so-tinfoil needs of the populace.

Starting with a small list (this link should work) - Popular Mechanics's list of 10 tech concepts to know for the new year. If that’s not your cup of tea, then have a go at 100 things we didn't know this time last year.

Homeland Security cannot yet finance their grand plan to check everyone on entrance and exit. So we may be reprieved from being tracked for a little bit. That’s not to say some people aren’t still trying. Maybe they can’t find the money because people are scrambling to fill the debt of the military.

Last whacks for this morning - Peanuts meets Marvel comics. Mash-ups like this are always interesting, and enjoyable by many who know one or the other, but I suspect the greatest enjoyment comes from those who understand both so well that the character choices are a natural fit.

Yeah, that’s it. Today was a nonproductive day, all told. Which is okay. Maybe tomorrow will be better.