The Moon on a string

The Tourbus and LangaList have just heralded Google's latest wonder -- a Moon viewer be sure to look closely at this scientific marvel. Now if they can only prove the Earth is flat...

Store opening delayed

While I had hoped to have more in place by the 15th, the flesh was weak and the servers were unwilling. Offering Domains and Web Hosting services was never to be my main focus, but they made me an offer I couldn't refuse and I'm passing it on to you with some ridiculously low markups at my storefront.

It's an open secret that I buy space for my three Domains with three different companies, as well as making use of MSN Groups and Yahoo's Geocities free space. Each has its strengths and weaknesses and I'm writing more about the whole process. Before you even think of buying space, try using some of the free available alternatives, not least among which is blogger which will store your files at blogspot if you wish. I'm so impressed the Learning Center Notes may become my homepage there soon (so if you've bookmarked that be sure to update it.)

Problems and perspective

The past four days have been frustrating to say the least. Beyond bumping into my own limitations, a server went down (or funny) at a point where I was trying to test some simple things and I was almost thinking I understood how to use the Dreamweaver program in the way I wanted. My mood tanked and my circadian rhythms (never very good) went completely off the grid. Sunday into Tuesday was a 40 something hour day.

Yesterday morning things were put in perspective. A neighbor knocked at my door with her usual somewhat rapid knocking that always seems a bit frantic. Being up 15 hours though it was barely 9AM, my first thought was that I was glad I was awake because I might not have heard her otherwise. As soon as I opened the door, I was struck that she looked smaller somehow. Her face at rest is generally thoughtful and before she speaks she always flashes a small smile. Lately (the past year or so) she has begun to grasp your hand before speaking, something I barely noticed at first. Gripping my hand she blurted out her reason for coming "I wanted to tell you I'm going to {named Senior housing facility} today! The movers are coming. And I won't be seeing you again." Never big on small talk, she'd always preface with a hello and a 'I have a problem' or 'I don't mean to a bother' and plunge right into it. This was much more abrupt than usual. I was taken off guard and merely said I hoped she'd be happy there.

I described it as a Senior housing facility because it offers very different levels of assisted living from apartments with some housekeeping services, to extended rehabilitation services, to full care beds in a more hospital like setting. From her tone, it was apparent this wasn't a choice that excited her, but it was when she turned to walk away that the full sense of defeat struck me. She'd made some hard decisions while caring for her husband. I knew exactly how hard and I knew the second guessing and doubts first hand. My words seem so hollow and empty in my ears.

Most of my online friends are on the downhill side of 60, so I am asking what should I have said.

The little town that wasn't

It always amuses me the way we take pride in being named on a list. Even when it isn't in the top 3, or 5 or 10. the Media feels it is worth a mention. Our neck of the woods got a distinct honorable mention as 28th most livable city according to Money magazine which bestowed the honor on Wexford. There is one small hitch

There's no mayor of Wexford, no Wexford Borough Council, no "Make checks payable to Wexford" on tax bills.

Apart from the small fact that Wexford isn't a town after all, but a zip code covering bits of Pine, Franklin Park, McCandless and Marshall. Not being so rude as to wonder about just what data Money used in making its pick, Pennsylvanians just smile and accept the compliment.

Three other Pennsylvania towns cracked the top 100: Blue Bell, Montgomery County, came in 14th; Hummelstown, Dauphin County, ranked 61st; and York, York County, was 95th.

Four out 100 isn't bad, even if one is the little town that wasn't.

Blackout after 25 years, 35 years

A crippling blackout took place on July 13, 1977, in New York City. A freak lightning strike was the cause of major chaos. It was described as a repetition of the Nov. 9, 1965 power failure which saw the lights go out on large portions on the Northeastern US and Canada.

I recall quite well the hue and outcry went beyond additional safeguards -- a National Energy Policy was needed. The prices at the pump go up -- we need a National Energy Policy. The weather changes in dramatic ways, wildfires threaten homes built in remote resort areas, and the rest of the World recognizes a Global Warming problem.

Perhaps our National Energy Policy needs to be more than a scheme 'to feed the machine' with new resources. Perhaps we need to look further or closer to home --further into the effects of our usage and closer to home on how we can better or more wisely use energy.

Thanks to the template makers

Perhaps I should say apologies, because I've already folded, spindled, and mutilated their hard work; and, knowing myself as I do, I expect to further damage and ineptly modify their elegant designs.

Designer: Douglas Bowman
URL: www.stopdesign.com

London Attack

Saddened and shocked by this act of barbarism, I find it hard even to read the details. Living most of my life in NYC and a frequent mass transit rider, I cannot express how truly evil such an attack on a city feels. The only bright point is the common reaction of our World leaders which I characterize as a strengthening of resolve. Not often a fan President Bush, I have to say his quote (reported by Reuters) says it well.

"Their resolve is as strong as my resolve," Bush said. "We will find them (the perpetrators). We will bring them to justice. And at the same time we will spread an ideology of hope and compassion that will overwhelm their ideology of hate."

---

Addendum July 8, 2005

It struck me as almost comical that the Secret Organization of Al Qaeda in Europe claimed responsiblity for this act on a website. Not very secret, is it?

An Op Ed column by Thomas L Friedman made some very cogent points. Too often we see the negative response to American actions. It is well passed the time for the Muslim world (or village as this author refers to it) to begin recognizing that the negative response to these terrorist acts is likely to felt by all Muslims. Rooting out, what he refers to as, "a jihadist death cult in its midst" is a job best done by the Muslim leaders. Left to the West it will be done in a rough, crude and likely unhumane way. But make no mistake it will be done. We see it unfolding in the streets of Iraq, we saw it in the heavy bombardment in Afghanistan, but even more in the air of suspicion and distrust of Muslims everywhere, especially in our own home lands.

Live8 and the G8

Live 8 is a most notable exception. Much more than a music festival which some of you have seen on TV. You might want to send a picture if you can't join the march in Edinborough where the G8 is meeting. You might want to sign an online letter http://www.one.org/ to Presidnet Bush telling him:

“WE BELIEVE that in the best American tradition of helping others help themselves, now is the time to join with other countries in a historic pact for compassion and justice to help the poorest people of the world overcome AIDS and extreme poverty. WE RECOGNIZE that a pact including such measures as fair trade, debt relief, fighting corruption and directing additional resources for basic needs – education, health, clean water, food, and care for orphans – would transform the futures and hopes of an entire generation in the poorest countries, at a cost equal to just one percent more of the US budget. WE COMMIT ourselves - one person, one voice, one vote at a time - to make a better, safer world for all.”

Somehow I think that would be a much more effective front in the war against terrorism.

Murphy's Law

• If it can go wrong, it will.
• If there is a time when it will be most inconvenient, it will happen then.
• Nothing is as easy as it looks.
• Doing nothing takes longer than anyone would expect.

My self-imposed July 15th deadline for my store's opening is looking way too close, but as with most things I do it will be an ongoing process.

A disturbing editorial in the NYTimes about online sales tax led me me to fire off a reply in their Forum. I'm planning to make the magazine a key page in the revised site layout and it will hold a daily Today in History, headline and opinion links to to the Times in addition to a some less frequently update articles. Unlike the giant portals it won't be configureable by individual users -- that will be a subject I should cover in a tutorial.