Back… for now

I finally managed to unwrangle the mess that WordPress’s database update had left behind (seriously, who could fathom that a database update would cause problems in relation to a graphics file in a theme I had installed and wasn’t even using?). I still think it’s a hell of a mess, but frankly I haven’t had the time to develop my own solution for the time being so at least it’s fixed and I have a means of giving out my opinions to the world again, flawed or uninteresting as they may prove. I do have a number of articles planned but yet-unwritten on a variety of subjects, like the BMW 1-series (which I drove a while back), the Zend Framework (which will be the basis of the blog that will succeed this one), duck (which is a delicious if fatty meat), and lots of other stuff.

Try as I might I can’t find the weapon information for this game…

In what is sure to be the beginning of a new area of frivolous spending for parents of 8 year old girls all over North America, Sanrio is about to officially launch the Hello Kitty MMPORG. Information on the game is available here. Information on diabetes (which is sure to result from the unrelenting syrupy sweetness of the game) is available here.

Some things you just can’t buy. For everything else there’s Amazon.com.

Amazon.com — the US version, not the scaled-down imitation you get in other parts of the world including Canada — is a pretty wonderful store, and although they’re famous as booksellers they’ll sell most anything. Including, and I did a double-take when I saw it, an artificial insemination kit for your pet. Now I’m not a pet owner or a pet expert, but really, shouldn’t you go to your veterinarian for this sort of thing?!?

Linksys WRT-350N – thumbs down.

Like any good geek I like to keep my networking equipment current and speedy. So recently I went out and bought a Linksys WRT-350N router. It has great specs — wireless-N support, a gigabit-ethernet wired switch for your desktops, USB storage support — but frankly, you’re better off not giving this one a second thought. It’s like when I try to cook: the ingredients are there, but the end product sucks.

Continue reading Linksys WRT-350N – thumbs down.

Tough times for bond insurers.

This is definitely not a good time to be in the bond insurance business. With large-scale insurers Ambac and MBIA — and with smaller players faring no better — one could well think that in the end the lending crisis has brought to light considerable flaws at the very basis of the American — and indeed global — financial sector. (all links above except the first lead to 6-month stock charts).

Continue reading Tough times for bond insurers.

It sure is a good thing that Canadians are getting shot at every day to defend Afghans’ ‘freedoms’.

You’d think that with all the international troops there the people of Afghanistan could be considered free, unlike when they were living under the Taleban. It doesn’t really work out that way though — just ask Sayad Parwez Kambaksh, a journalism student who’s been condemned to death for printing and distributing a paper off the internet which supposedly violated the tenets of Islam. It’s hard for me to think that Canadians are getting sent to the ‘stan to defend a regime which, as it turns out, doesn’t seem all that different from the brutal and savage old Taleban regime.