Outsourced Santa

Don't get me started about outsourcing. I can't think straight when  I think about Americans out of work because of short sighted managers and CEOs who only want to impress the stock holders so they get their bonuses and can bail before the whole place burns down. I'm already hearing about price hikes in China and India for labor. Ya [insert ethnic name], you need a raise. Tell them "Show me da Rupees!".

AVG
I use AVG (Anti Virus Group) software. They have a free version. Go to AVG click on downloads > Products. Then click on the free version about half way down. If you are a not commercial (home user) entity, you are within your rights to use this software.

AVG Free Edition is the well-known anti-virus protection tool. AVG Free is available free-of-charge to home users for the life of the product! Rapid virus database updates are available for the lifetime of the product, thereby providing the high-level of detection capability that millions of users around the world trust to protect their computers. AVG Free is easy-to-use and will not slow your system down (low system resource requirements). AVG's web site

My Dell computers all came with a pay service virus checker. The license always expires after six months. That kind of crap makes me sick. AVG is pretty good and it's free for the home user. The commercial version is well priced.

Wireless in Courtrooms
I don't much care what happened to Scott Peterson. I trust in the jury of twelve. However, something interesting did happen during the read of his sentence. Someone in the court room sent a wireless message to their employer (a TV station) with the verdict while the court was still in session.

Peterson's death penalty sentencing was covered live via a wireless device, adding a new dimension to TV news coverage. A reporter from KCRA-TV in Sacramento used a laptop to send reports from inside the courtroom back to the TV station's newsroom, using an existing wireless network inside the courtroom. CNet News

This action seems to have sparked as much debate as the death sentence. Honestly, if it doesn't disturb the court, what is the harm? Well, that is part of the debate. There are bans on phones and cameras in the court room. Why not all forms of communication and recording other than hand written drawings or notes? Anything else has to be pre-approved by the judge. That might do it.

CIA in Afghanistan

The report in Monday's New York Times, citing anonymous American officials familiar with the operation, said the CIA had concluded that bin Laden was being sheltered by local tribesmen and foreign militants in northwestern Pakistan, and was suspected of controlling an elite terrorist cell that could be aiming to launch a "spectacular" attack against America. President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who has faced heavy criticism at home for his strong ties with Washington, has previously acknowledged that a small number of American experts were working with Pakistani troops in their operations against al-Qaeda militants. But he has denied that U.S. forces – deployed in their thousands in neighboring Afghanistan – are actively hunting bin Laden on Pakistani soil. ... "There are no CIA cells in Pakistan ... in our tribal areas, and there is absolutely no truth in this New York Times report," said army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan. Both U.S. and Pakistani generals have said the trail in the hunt for bin Laden has gone cold in the more than three years since U.S. forces toppled the Taliban in Afghanistan for harboring him. The al-Qaeda leader, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America, is still suspected to be hiding some place along the rugged border. Sign On SanDiego

I cannot find the original New York Times article. Frigging NYT requires a subscription to do a news search, the bastards.
It sounds like our governments spend more time squabbling Over semantics than trying to hunt down the current Antichrist. He is there, he is not there, he is a ghost, we want to find him, he is nowhere. he never existed. One man has turned the U. S. in to a nation of shoulder shrugging lost scaredy-cats. People Just don't want to admit that it is going to take more than is currently devoted to fix the problem. There are five major conflicts currently going on in the Middle East. All I hear in the news is how schools are banning Christmas plays so as not to offend any one. I'm sure that contributes to cultural understanding between groups.
When did religion become a race anyway? I keep hearing religious intolerance referred to as racism or racist. That can't be the right term.

Song

Artist:	Venus Hum [ Search RP ]
Song:	Hummingbirds
Album:	Big Beautiful Sky [ Search RP ]