blueZhift Blog

In another fine example of why tax money is wasted and government generally does not work, the Massachusetts CIO Peter Quinn has resigned amid the controversy over a planned move to the OpenDocument format for state documents. Mr. Quinn’s primary sin appears to have been the audacity to choose an open document format, that Microsoft has adamantly refused to support, so far. OpenDocument would ultimately save the state a great deal of money and ensure that public documents would always to accessible to the public rather than locked away in a single vendor’s proprietary format. Sounds like a pretty smart idea to me.

There is no technical reason that Microsoft could not support OpenDocument. But rather than play nice, it appears that the political dogs were sicked on Mr. Quinn instead. So once again, government makes it clear that smart, thinking people will be quickly forced out of having anything to do with promoting the public good. With Quinn out of the picture, I won’t be surprised if OpenDocument in Massachusetts quickly disappears from the scene too. Money well spent by Microsoft lobbyists.

No no no no! I’m not old enough for this yet! Nah, I’m not a grand dad yet, but my oldest daughter on the verge of teenagerdom saved up enough money for her first laptop computer. I ordered a Dell B120 for her yesterday and now I reflect on how time has passed, sniff sniff… I’m rather impressed, though perhaps not surprised. Even as a baby, she had the uncanny ability to find money. She could find a penny in an open field from a 100 meters away easily. So I’m not too surprised that she was able to squirrel away her allowance and babysitting money to buy a computer. Her younger brother, well that’s another story, he spends whatever he gets! LOL!

Now I’ve got to tweak the home wireless setup a bit and make sure we’re all clear on computer usage rules. She’s a good kid though, so there probably won’t be any trouble. At least she won’t be spending hours on display computers in Radio Shack like I did as a kid. I can still see the flashing *cload as I prayed that the program would load from cassette, this time…shudder shudder…

Lucky kid!

Time’s tv critic has named Battlestar Galactica, 2005 Show of the Year! It’s great to see a fantastic SF show get some mainstream recognition. The fanboy in me just hopes that this recognition won’t spoil a good thing. Hopefully this and continuing good ratings will allow it to escape cable and reach an even wider audience. For that matter, I’d love an easy way to buy and download episodes to my PSP for an on the go BSG fix.

And now, to honor the spectacular blonde in the pink coat that I saw today at the Virgin store, here’s a shot of Tricia Helfer as Number Six. I’m still more of Boomer fan, but I think that as a character, Number Six is really coming into her own, especially with the events of the Pegasus episode.

BTW, this time I actually did take the time to compliment the blonde lady on her outfit! Of course, I have no plans to make a habit of this!

Now 10 days past my 14 day World of Warcraft trial, I’m very tempted to buy the game, except for one little thing… I’m too cheap and lazy to haul my ass off to the store to buy the retail box that they insist I need to convert my trial account! Why should I need the box? As near as I can tell, I’ve already got all of the code on my PC from the trial DVD and patches. All that I really need from the box is the auth code. Why can’t I just pay Blizzard for the code and skip this box thing and the messy hauling my ass out into the streets or waiting for UPS? In an age of Direct2Drive and Steam for online game distribution, making me go buy the boxed game is just another barrier to the sale. Oh well, I guess I’ll get around to buying that box sometime…

By now it is no secret that the Xbox 360 got off to a slow start in Japan. Part of this may be explained by the delay of Dead or Alive 4, which would have been a nice launch title to have. But I don’t think anyone was expecting Earth moving sales in Japan even if DoA 4 had appeared on time. Sales will probably pick up once DoA 4 comes out along with a number of titles from a number of prominent Japanese developers that Microsoft went to great lengths to sign up.

Xbox 360 will almost certainly do better in Japan than the orginal Xbox did, but that may not actually be the point at all. Consider that the U.S. video game market is bigger than the Japanese market (which has actually been in decline the last few years), and what looks like a growing European market. Plenty of money can be made with successes in the more familiar U.S. and European markets alone. So why bother with Japan?

It’s all about the games. Some of the most innovative video games are still being developed in Japan. It is likely that some of the Japanese software under development for the 360 will also make its way to U.S. shores. So even if a Japanese 360 title strikes out in Japan because of the relatively low number of 360 consoles there, it may do quite well in the U.S. and Europe. And a more well rounded line up of games, relative to the original Xbox, will only help Xbox 360 sales everywhere.

Shame on you Bishop Ira Combs! Protests and complaints about Walmart’s labor practices are nothing new. And the thought that Walmart’s practices may not be Christ-like as one group’s current Where Would Jesus Shop? ad campaign suggests, may not be new either. But what I did find new and disgusting was that rather than send a Walmart official to defend itself against the latest criticism on CNBC’s On The Money, they send Bishop Combs! I could only be sickened and shocked to see someone supposedly called to bring the Gospel of Christ, instead bringing the gospel of Walmart’s corporate interests!

Needing some distractions, I finally got the cosplay pics I took at Reactor 2005 up on the web. Despite a lot a of complaints, it really wasn’t a bad convention, just a work in progress. If there’s another one next year, I’ll probably just go solo.

Click here for Reactor 2005 Cosplay Pictures

Here’s one of my favorites, Lupin III and Jigen.

My grandmother’s body died this morning. I say it that way because I think her spirit left this plane a few days before Thanksgiving. She went into the hospital and onto a respirator. Soon afterwards a neurologist pronounced her brain dead and we knew that the woman we all loved had gone to be with God. This morning she was taken off the respirator and officially passed away.

I’m hundreds of miles away and feeling numb. I knew this was coming, we all did, but now that it is here I really don’t know what to do next. There’s just a feeling of emptiness and loss. My grandmother’s story here is over. She had a good one, a real story of faith, love, and romance.

This morning I decided to pick up a sandwich at McDs since I had rushed out the door without eating. On my way out I made eye contact with (heck we almost ran into each other) a lovely light skinned black woman. During this time there was a palpable pause and what I think was a ドキドキ (doki doki*) moment of the type often encountered in shoujo manga. She was quite a beauty with long legs and some really sexy red pumps. Well, the moment passed, I stole a few more glances, but ultimately said nothing. Afterall, I’m happily married to quite a babe already, so it was a bit surprising to be affected this way. I guess the old saying, married but not dead applies.

* doki doki: thump thump or heart throb

Once again one of my lunch time walks turns up something that just knocks the ol’ socks off. Generally, you don’t see a lot of blonde haired Asian women in Chicago, and when you do it usually just doesn’t look right. But today as I exited the Virgin Megastore near my office, I had the good fortune to spy the most spectacular blonde Asian woman I’ve seen. It just all worked, the hair color and length, her skin tone, and, for me, the glasses pushed it over the top. Good show!