freemode.net

NY 24, Washington 21    [ Rants ]

Game went into overtime after Patrick Ramsey put together a real decent drive and set up a field goal at the end of the 4th quarter after making a 2-point conversion and actually making touchdowns in the second half, but the Giants went back in OT and smashed through the Redskins defense to score first.   The Post has some more detailed coverage.   Close game, and Washington played like a completely different team (NFL instead of AA-division NCAA ball) in the second half, but the Redskins need to play that way in BOTH halves if they want to win consistently.

The Any Key    [ Humor ]

In case you need it, HPaq has an official FAQ entry instructing people on Where do I find the 'Any' key on my keyboard?.   I always thought it was hiding between my 'Enter' and backslash keys...

Halftime, 21-3    [ Rants ]

Garrrgh, the Redskins have nearly lost as much yardage from penalties as they've gained this first half against the Giants.   9 penalties, and all they have to show for it is a lousy field goal.   Tiki Barber's having a great game for New York, the 'Skins defense can barely stop him either running or receiving.

"One of the worst halves of football that I've seen!" - Sonny, Sam and Frank.   Hope they can come back in the second half.

George W.    [ Politics ]

The Post ran a story on Thursday claiming that Steel Tariffs Appear to Have Backfired on Bush.   Wow, meddling with markets can create negative results... who woudda guessed?

Strange that our "conservative" president is for anti-competitive, protectionist policies when they may win him votes, for tax cuts when they may win him votes, and for larger government spending when they may (you guessed it) win him votes.   Not that vote-garnering doesn't have a long and proud tradition in American politics, but Bush's decisions seem to be driven as much by political expediency and whomever he picks to win the current argument among his advisors as by any kind of overall strategy or philosophy.

Hell, I'm a liberal, and I voted for Bush in '00 since I absolutely couldn't stand Gore.   Wish I could've tossed those two back into the pre-election pool and got new candidates back, but Bush looked like the lesser of the two weevils.   Since I wasn't going to throw my vote away, figured I'd go for a change in party to get Janet Reno and others out of power.

And now we get John Ashcroft instead... woohoo.   Time for a change.

high tech heroin    [ Rants ]

Politech has a post from Richard Forno on high tech heroin - the vicious circle of media, software and suppliers that keep the IT industry and users going.   El Reg also has a copy of the article up.

Hurricane Isabel    [ News ]

The hurricane has come and gone from Northern VA, and we're left with some downed trees, power outages, flooding and lots and lots of news coverage.   Thankfully there's been very few injuries and only a small number of deaths (11 at last count from the Carolinas through VA, DC and MD).   Got to work from home on Thursday and Friday (a laptop, wireless connection and a VPN make this easy!), and we didn't even lose power at the house.   I did have to convince the home firewall to pass ESP traffic in and out for the VPN to work, but after looking at the IPF logs and going 'duh!', I got that fixed.

Bandwagon Time    [ News ]

Washington Redskins 33, Atlanta Falcons 31!   Second win in a row after beating the Jets 16-31 in the season opener.   Might just be time to starting oiling up the Bandwagon again.

It's been so long since I've consistently watched, cheered or followed the 'Skins - probably as long as they've avoided the playoffs in the post-Joe Gibbs era - that I've nearly forgotten how much fun it is to root for a team.   Being a Redskins fan in the late 90's and early 00's meant ridicule, eternal hope crushed by monumental failures, and general malaise.   Not entirely unlike Jimmy Carter's presidential administration, or Ed Wood's movie career.   Anyway, the first 2-0 record since '91 gives me hope, and I'll be tuning in on Sundays and Mondays this season to see how Washington does in the Spurrier Era.

Apple Powerbook G4    [ Software ]

Got to play with a Mac Powerbook G4 for work, it's a sexy mac.   First time I've really futzed around with OS X at all, it's pretty nifty.   Like FreeBSD, it's stable and has all the Unix-style userland, administration and networking tools you'd expect, plus more (having 'sudo' installed out of the box is nice!).   Only complaint I have with the 15" model is that it's way too easy for me to hit the touchpad accidentally while I'm typing, which generally causes a few moments of confusion when I'm in a terminal window.

Gamecube!    [ Geekiness ]

Jessica & I picked up a Nintendo Gamecube over the weekend, plus three games - BTVS 2: Chaos Bleeds, Metroid Prime and Sonic Mega-Collection.   Vampire slaying, interstellar bounty-hunting and 16-bit classic gaming, hoorah!