Commenting: New & Improved

Howdy Folks!

My intrepid blog provider, Blogger (nee Google), has upgraded the comments feature. If you want to leave a comment on my page here, it is now much easier. First, the comments show up in a separate pop-up window. Second, and more importantly, you no longer have to register to leave comments with your name.

So, if you would, let's all test this! On average, I get 9 unique visitors a day, so if you have not left a post before, try to leave a comment so (a) I can ensure it's working and (b) I can find out who you are!

CLICK HERE to help me test this. Thanks!

Damn Politicians

I was hoping to avoid political posts for a couple years, but some jerk in the Texas state legislature has inspired (driven?) me to make this post.

Basically, they want to restrict prosecutors from looking at violations by legislators. Isn't that convenient?

I might be dweebish

I don't really think of myself as dweebish, or even overly geeky. I like to think I can converse with true geeks, but that my feet are firmly planted in the world of average folks. This may not be completely true. The clues have been coming on strong lately, like when Kristi says my jokes are just like an engineer's; long, dry, and not very funny even after the explanation. Now I'm really excited about a new Microsoft product, the upcoming Office Small Business Accounting. Have I fallen off the deep end?

Anyway, I like Quicken for our home finances. For small business purposes I like Peachtree a bit more than QuickBooks, even though I have the latter.

But this new accounting platform does a couple things I really like. First it looks and operates like my current Microsoft Office programs. Second, it is suppose to be a bit simpler to use (and shouldn't we do everything we can to make accounting simpler?). Third, it integrates with an upgrade to Microsoft Outlook 2003, something I previously expressed some love for.

Yahoo! Music

My old favorite, and often plugged service, LAUNCHcast has been renamed to Yahoo! Music since the last time I hit their homepage. It still rocks.

And, you really need to keep checking it out, because I know something you don't and it's gonna blow your mind when this goes public. Trust me, this is much(!) bigger than when I told you Barry Manilow was going on tour months before you heard it elsewhere.

Now, if only they would fix the service so it could play via Firefox...

By request, here is the link to Firefox.

Home

I am home after my trip to California. I had a good time, a very productive meeting on a potential (likely?) business venture, and the chance to see an old friend.

I want to send a big "Thank you" to Lendy and Cammie for their outstanding hospitality in San Jose (they put their guests up in a cozy cottage). Lendy and I have always enjoyed our conversations and it was good to see him and the family. We had enough time to enjoy some good food and the plans for their upcoming whole-house remodel are great. Oh, they also introduced me to the coolest little toy, 20Q , a fun game that even has a website.

Lastly, and by no means least, a huge thanks goes to Jim for helping me with my travel plans. In the end, I was in the air three times based upon four(?) seperate sets of reserverations, issued four boarding passes after being on stand-by for eight planes on seven flights (a couple with mechanical difficulty), and went through five airports so I could go the two cities for four days. Whew! Not only did he help me set everything up, he checked on my progress daily, called me, made modifications, ensured I was scheduled for the right plane at the right airport, et cetera. Thanks Big Jim!