As I prognosticated back in March (along with a million other precient bloggers, I'm sure), the republican party suffered a severe drubbing in the midterm elections. It looks like the candidates didn't distance themselves enough from Bush, and although I'm a lot closer to being a republican than a democrat, I think they got what...
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The Geckoplex is going to be moving at the end of the month. My wife and I had been planning to move north of Salt Lake City between my two favorite brothers, but then we got thinking that perhaps we should spend a few years living near her family in Nebraksa first. I'll miss the...
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Every once in a while, I get an itch to do some genealogical research. The problem is, huge amounts of research have already been done for my family, and although I know where to find a lot of it (FamilySearch.org), I didn't know an easy way to download the existing information to my computer. Monday,...
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A few weeks ago, I read about some Stanford professor's idea for how to ensure that the winner of the popular vote gets elected president. If a few states (only 11 would be needed if the big states signed on) agreed to give their electoral votes to the national winner of the popular vote, they...
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I'm primarily a Mac user. But occasionally, I need to test out my software on a PC. So a few months ago when Office Depot was offering big rebates on eMachines computers (what they'll do is offer their own rebate in addition to manufacturer rebates so that you end up with a really hot deal),...
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I remember in an economics class once hearing that everyone is better off if every place (country, state, town, region, whatever) produces and exports whatever they produce best and imports whatever somebody else can produce cheaper, and nobody puts up trade barriers. The idea seems great on it's face--everyone is creating as much value as...
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I had the idea yesterday that a standardized protocol could be created the enable email clients to interact with whitelist-based SPAM blocking software. Given the complexity of identifying SPAM by textual analysis, whitelist-based SPAM protection appears to be getting more popular. I plan to start using it myself with some of my email addresses in...
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Wired News is reporting that the DOJ has dropped its investigation of the NSA's warrantless wiretaps of US citizens because the NSA won't give the DOJ lawyers security clearance. If somebody (ie. congress) doesn't step in and protect the American people, this is extremely disturbing--the Bush administration violates any law they want (including the Constitution),...
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The Bush administration, claiming national security concerns, plans to scuttle the suit alleging that AT&T illegally collaborated with the NSA to spy on US citizens. I'm becoming more and more convinced that, in the interest of the security of the citizens of the US, it's time for members of the republican party to collaborate with...
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I mailed in my tax returns a week ahead of the deadline. I got my federal refund today. It was $127 more than expected. I think I'd better take another look at the Book of Revelation, because something weird is going on here.