Laser canon
This thing looks cool. They have finally worked the kinks out of most of the systems and this one is going on a plane. They swear this thing was designed to shoot down missiles as they launch. I'm sure it will work for that purpose. I know that is an important defensive mission this device will cover. However, what is to stop them from aiming this thing at a vehicle or AAA emplacement? Cost might be a factor at first. This thing will only get cheaper.

Ethics in business
My day job is a major corporation. Yesterday they gave away free ice-cream if you call your congressman and tell them to vote a specific way on a law. How messed up is that? That just makes me feel dirty. I've read the law they want and it sounds like something I might vote for given the chance. The ice-cream thing just makes me feel like a five year old. It also seems petty. It sounds like a bribe to me. I'm no lawyer. They are not paying for votes, but they are paying for you to call your government representative and tell them to vote a specific way. How chicken-shit!

Exuberance
I'm in the middle of setting up some software for the help desk Tpro will use. The software company doesn't really support Linux well, so I put Apache on an old XP machine. I installed Apache, I installed the Support Wizard software. I messed with some settings. I pointed my router to the new web server running on the Windeath box. Then came the time to test the first hit from outside the network. I typed in the link that would cause my computer to look from outside the local network through the internet for the path back to the machine sitting on my desk less than a meter away. The test page came up, it came up, it worked. Something extraordinary happened at that moment. I felt a surge of exhilaration come over me. I felt like rolling my head back and cackling like a mad scientist. I now had two active web servers on my home network. I had conquered two platforms.
I had not seen it coming. That is the scary part. I had no expectations when I hit enter on that address bar. My God it felt good. Now, I just have to configure the software. That is noting compared to making it connect.

Japan's Vietnam
Read about how the Japanese captives from Iraq were treated after they returned to Japan. The Japanese government charged them for air fair on the trip home. That is not how things work. These people were journalists trying to get the story. If you have a problem with journalists going to places of turmoil, stop buying the media to which they report. Bad form Japan.

Say it was a missile
Every time I hear reports from Iraq that mention what witness say, the media quotes some one as saying “... it was a missile.” I hate that. There was a radio report a couple of months ago that had a translator say “There is a guy running around the crowd telling people to say it was a missile.” I believe that translator far further than I believe the eye witnesses. I wish the press would blow off eye witnesses who are not confirmed. In the U. S. the reporter always finds the most buck-toothed hill-billy to put on the tube who is willing to say “Ya, I seen'em.” After a life time of this, I can't listen to “.. an eye witness said ...” without thinking they are full of crap.