You've got sludge

The feature story on Salon today, makes me feel like they have been reading my mind. As I face reformatting the hard drive for the fourth time due to my recent overwhelming bout of worms and spyware, I just want to throw in the towel. I'm probably off to the store today for either new hard drive or should I just go ahead and switch back.

As one guy from Symantic puts it

"They've tried many different things and it doesn't help. They'll end up reinstalling or cleaning it out or buying a new one -- a lot of this stuff is just so deeply embedded, it becomes more and more difficult to get rid of the gunk, the sludge at the bottom of your machine."

The only thing that's stopping me is the fact that I need to see as a user does. And I know from analyzing web logs for my clients, Mac users in Washington State (as least using our web sites) amout for about .5-1%. And I'm pretty sure, from the looks of Victrola and Bauhaus, most of those are in my neighborhood. So what do I do? Also switching would require me to repurchase all the software I just bought I year ago, and some of those applications aren't available for the Mac anyway (I'm looking at you Visio). But then again, there is Virtual PC right?

I guess I need to do more research and resintall that fourth and final time. But I'm just about at the end of my PC rope.

The Bill of Who?

The inaguration, ah the Capitol all hopped up on patriotism and flags , at least there was a dash of protests.

On Friday, Juan Cole had an excellent post, illustrated with pictures of the incongruiities between Bush's pledge to the "durable wisdom of the Constitution" and the actions of his first term.

Now it's on to Nationals!

Well exciting news from the professional front. Two of my clients' websites won awards at the Society of Technical Communication, Puget Sound Chapter's annual competition.

Both L&I and Access Wa got the highest award for their websites, that being "Distinguished." And Access Wa went on to get a Best in Show award. So I have a very lovely glass block with my name on it. Fancy!

*Update* See the full list of winners.

Also, Brian from L&I will be presenting the site and a rundown of our project this Friday at UW as part of the 521 lecture series on usability. You should come check it out if you are around.

Not with a bang, but a whimper

The search for WMDs in Iraq is over.

The Iraq Survey Group report said that Iraq's WMD program was essentially destroyed in 1991 and Saddam ended the country's nuclear program after the 1991 Gulf War.

Essentials

Karen, Jon and I are working on our blogs as teaching tools presentation today. And while looking for a place that would be yummy, caffinated, connected, and close to a dog park, I stumbled across this Wiki Coffee and Wireless in Seattle. Good stuff.

Tofino

The holiday in Canada was lovely indeed. We had ridiculous rain and amazing sun, but most of all breathtaking beauty. I took some pictures during the non surfing times. To which I have to say that surfing is just about the best ever, especially now that I know what I'm doing (at least in theory of knowing how to do it). I also have my very own wet suit now, so watch out Washington Coast, hopefully we'll be able to find a couple weekends this winter to head out to Westport or La Push to enjoy some of the surf there.


J and Sass on the rocks at Chesterman Beach in Tofino. This was one of the surfing beaches, although we were at the other end - a little ways from the rocks. I can stand, but I can't steer.



On the Ferry back from Nanaimo to Tswassen. That's me, and if you look real close (or click to enlarge), you can see Mount Baker hanging out over my shoulder.