The Department of Homeland Security wants you to know that if you use Internet Explorer, you’re letting the terrorists win. I made the switch yesterday and I have no real complaints so far. It seems that images take a bit longer to load, but the difference is minimal. This whole incident may be just what the open-source movement needs to seep into the consciousness of the general public. Browser technology may not be the sexist thing in the computer industry, but Microsoft deserves a wake-up call. How many other products allow five years to pass without any major upgrades?
Assuming I can find a good vantage point on Sunday night, I want to take some pictures of the fireworks with the digital camera. Can any photo geeks out there give me some pointers on the best settings on the camera for this purpose? I know squat about photography, so keep it simple. I have a Canon Powershot A70, if that matters.
Hope all of you are planning on enjoying yourselves over this long weekend. This will be a working holiday for me as I have a grant deadline coming at me like a freight train. Think of me as you’re snarfing down your frankfurters and potato salad.

Here’s your “Awww, that’s nice” moment for the day: a story about a baseball league for kids with disabilities. somebody should have told the writer to ease up on the word “handicapped,” but otherwise it’s a cute story. I remember doing something similar when I was at an MDA-sponsored summer camp near Milwaukee many years ago. Of course, the best part of the experience for me was having an attractive woman stand behind me to help me hold the bat. Guess I haven’t changed much since then.
After reading about yet another security flaw in Internet Explorer, I’ve been asking myself whether I should switch to another browser like Firefox. My geek street cred is probably compromised by the fact that I still use IE. But part of me doesn’t want to go through the hassle of converting my bookmarks. I know, I’m pathetically lazy. Maybe I’ll make that one of my projects for the upcoming long weekend.
Matt Drudge, that paragon of journalistic integrity, is reporting that Kerry may offer the veep spot to Hillary Clinton. I’d be okay with that, but I think the story is bullshit. First, Hillary would mobilize the Democratic base, but her selection would also stoke the fires of the far-right wingnuts who would do their damnedest to turn out even more votes. Furthermore, I don’t think Hillary wants to be put in the position of possibly waiting eight years before she can make her own run. Nope, it’ll be Edwards or Gephardt, preferably Edwards.
I’m giving myself the day off from working on the book, so I think I’ll indulge in some gaming. At the rate I’ve been progressing through Knights of the Old Republic, I’ll finish it sometime before the end of the decade. I like to get my money’s worth from my games.

This is kind of interesting. In October, the Millennium Hotel in Minneapolis will be host to the Fiddler’s Green Convention. From the website:
Fiddler’s Green will be a Sandman-focused convention at the Millennium Hotel, Minneapolis, 12-14 November 2004. Membership is limited to 500 paid attending members, plus convention guests and staff.
All proceeds, after the con is over and the bills are paid, will be donated to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

It’s a $100 to register, which for me means $200 to cover myself and a nurse, so I’m not sure I’ll go. I’ve only been to one con in my whole life, a Star Trek con back in Green Bay in ’88 or ’89. My reaction then to the whole experience was to get a bit freaked out. I liked Trek, but I wasn’t about to put on a uniform and become fluent in Klingon. I was a fan, but these people were freaks. Or at least that’s how my insecure 16-year-old mind perceived it back then. But I do remember buying a white baseball cap with the United Federation of Planets logo on the front, so I can’t completely deny my own geek tendencies. I think it’d be a blast to go to a con now. I hope I would be a little less judgmental and simply enjoy the spectacle. Imagine all the great pictures I could get for the blog.

I’ll try to post some thoughts on Fahrenheit 9/11 later tonight, depending on how ambitious I feel.
A new printer may be in order soon. My current, bulky HP model dates back to my law school days and the feed mechanism is essentially kaput. Any suggestions on what to get? I don’t need anything too fancy. Photo quality would be nice, along with something that can spit out B&W pages quickly. And preferably under a C-note.

Kos has some interesting tidbits on Nader’s likely failure to get on the ballot in Arizona. More than half of the signatures on the petition to get him on the ballot came from Republicans. Minneapolis has significant numbers of Green supporters and I know a few well-intentioned, politically naive people who are still considering voting for him. Maybe stories like this will persuade them that they’re being tools for the GOP. I understand wanting to support a candidate who was always opposed to the war, but this election is about other big issues, as well. It’s about better health care access, real education reform, the future of the Supreme Court, gay rights, civil liberties, raising the minimum wage, researching alternative energy sources, promoting stem cell research, and the list goes on. There’s no way in hell you can argue that Kerry and Bush are similar on any of these points. The Democrats were led like sheep into Iraq, but Nader has his own band of sheep who could unwittingly give us another four years of Bush. And I simply can’t understand how any true, rational progressive can support Nader at a time like this.
I’m going to see Fahrenheit 9/11 on Saturday, so I better reserve my tickets at the Lagoon now. I’m betting it will be packed.