WallyPower 118

Don’t let the name fool you. This is the yacht to buy when you hit the jackpot. Just hope the jackpot’s big enough for you to hire a crew as well.

BlackBerry 7100t no like SE Akono

If anyone out there figures out how to pair a BlackBerry 7100t with a Sony Ericsson Akono Bluetooth headset, please [let me know how](mailto:retrophisch@retrophisch.com?subject=BlackBerry/Akono pairing) you did it. So far, my attempts to get this to work for my wife have failed. The CrackBerry refuses to see the Akono set. It sees every other Bluetooth-enabled device in the house, but won’t see the headset sitting right next to it.

Spotlight gotchas

Jeff Harrell has a good article on things to keep in mind when using Mac OS X Tiger’s new Spotlight.

North Pole Wi-Fi

Intel is responsible for the northernmost wi-fi spot known, with placement approximately 130 kilometers from the North Pole.

Adobe’s markets

Gruber sums up quite well my feelings about Adobe’s acquisition of Macromedia:

Rather than expand into untapped creative markets, Adobe seems hell-bent on expanding into the jerks-wearing-suits market, a market that’s completely at odds with the creative market they’ve dominated for nearly two decades.
Which is what happens when you put a sales guy in charge of a company that makes creative products. Which is Gruber’s point.

We have met the enemy, and he is us

So the Toad directed my attention to a rant by Kim du Toit on how the ATF views law-abiding gun owners, in light of quotes from Gerald Nunziato, the former head of ATF’s National Tracing Center. I think it’s pretty clear how this government bureaucracy views gun owners, simply from the name of the agency. After all, we’re just a bunch of beer-swilling, tobacco-chewing or cigarette-smoking rednecks who like to go blow holes in highway signs, aren’t we?

Lawson on Locusts

Lawson has a blow-by-blow review of CBS’s made-for-television Locusts:

2135: Three commercial breaks already and not one Ortho commercial? Someone at CBS missed a Golden Opportunity™.

Won but lost

The team improved to 6-1 today, as we lost to our friends at Flower Mound UMC, 14-10. Yes, that’s right, we won, but we lost. FM UMC didn’t have enough players to start the game, and had to forfeit. A couple of players from Trietsch UMC, who had just finished the game before ours, volunteered to play for FM UMC, so our two teams could play. This was, however, unbeknown to our entire team, with the exception of our coach. I’m glad we got to play, and equally glad that we technically won by forfeit, because as the game wore on, our play got worse, and we relinquished the lead.
As for myself, I’ll chalk up my poor fielding to the two-week layoff: a Texas Rangers game last Sunday, and out of town the week before that.
I switched off with Dave between third and catcher, and I really didn’t have a good day at either position. It seemed I could never get the ball down quick enough to tag a runner out (I never saw a forced play the entire game), and I made critical throwing errors which oftentimes meant an extra bag for the runner. I just plain sucked.
I did have one great grab in the 3d inning, as I leapt to snag a high line drive that was going to drop in to shallow left center before it met my glove.
One could say that I redeemed myself at the plate, but I didn’t feel it. I like playing a solid, complete game. Offensively, this was my best game of the year. I went three for three, two singles and a triple, with two RBIs. The triple felt soooooo good coming off the bat. If I could have kept it about four feet flatter, it might have made it out of the park. As high as it was, it fooled the outfielder and got behind her, rolling to the fence. If it weren’t for her strong-armed counterpart who got to the ball first, I might have had a chance at an in-the-park home run. A long shot, to be sure, but interesting and fun to think about.
So after seven games, five of which I’ve played in, I’m 11 of 16, for an average of .687, with a walk and three RBIs for the season. Not bad, but still much room for improvement. Even more improvement is required on defense. This may come through more field time, should I start playing for the men’s team on Thursday nights…

Star Wars Aurora

No, nothing to do with that wonderful phenomenon in northern night skies, but rather with Alienware’s Star Wars special edition Aurora PCs. While no new PC is in our household’s buying forecast, the artwork on these things is absolutely incredible. Now, if anyone wanted to generously donate a box to our home for the sole reason of playing Star Wars-related games, I prefer the Dark Side…

The two doors of the mosque

Muslim activist groups like CAIR wonder why a lot of Americans don’t trust Muslims. Maybe it’s because if everyone knew what was really going on behind the doors of the mosque, no one would trust them.

The same imam who demanded that the men continue in the path of jihad did a complete 180-degree turn in this session, stressing instead the suras that promoted the “brotherhood” between Muslims, Christians and Jews. “After all, we worship the same God, and follow the teachings in the books he gave each of us. We are all the same, we are all People of the Book,” he stressed.

The differences between the sessions were striking. Clearly the second session was a recruiting session.

Were the women aware of what was being taught in the first session? Certainly those women who spoke Arabic should have been.

The reason for concern is obvious: Two different doctrines are being promoted. One peaceful, friendly, warm and fuzzy doctrine is being used to draw people in, with a focus on the well-being of their children.

But the Arabic-speaking sessions clearly have an anti-American tone.