When it rains, it... (uhhh... or when it snows, in this case)

It's snowing hard again. Wow. I kinda-like just realized I need a snow showel, snow plow and maybe some firewood. Time to start making some phone calls, heheh...

Severe Weather Alert from the National Weather Service

 ...CENTRAL COAST RANGE OF WESTERN OREGON- COAST RANGE OF NORTHWEST OREGON-WILLAPA HILLS- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF... FRANCES... GRANDE RONDE... JEWELL... MAPLETON AND VERNONIA 426 PM PST FRI DEC 31 2004

... HEAVY SNOW WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 4 PM PST SATURDAY FOR THE CENTRAL COAST RANGE OF WESTERN OREGON... THE COAST RANGE OF NORTHWEST OREGON AND THE WILLAPA HILLS...

HEAVY SNOW HAS DEVELOPED OVER THE NORTH OREGON COAST RANGE AND WILL MOVE INTO THE WILLAPA HILLS. FOUR INCHES OF SNOW HAS FALLEN OVER WILSON RIVER SUMMIT SO FOR THIS AFTERNOON. FOUR TO EIGHT INCHES OF SNOW IS LIKELY FROM AROUND 1500 FEET AND HIGHER. THE SNOW WILL DIMINISH SOME LATER TONIGHT BUT WILL INCREASE AGAIN SATURDAY MORNING AS A NEW SURGE OF MOISTURE MOVES INTO THE AREA. ADDITION SNOW IS LIKELY ON SATURDAY MORNING. ONE TO THREE INCHES OF SNOW IS POSSIBLE OVER THE CENTRAL OREGON COAST RANGE TONIGHT WITH ADDITIONAL SNOW POSSIBLE ON SATURDAY.

A HEAVY SNOW WARNING IS ISSUED WHEN SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW ARE IMMINENT OR HIGHLY LIKELY IN THE WARNING AREA. SNOWFALL INTENSITIES WILL BE HEAVY ENOUGH TO SUBSTANTIALLY REDUCE VISIBILITIES AT TIMES.

Blogging is not just about personal journals and random rants. It’s become a viable commercial venture, as well – whether the purists like it or not. I get a lot of great information from commercial blogs and bloggish web sites. Now there’s an awards program to recognize business blog, and you can nominate your favorites now:

Welcome to the 2005 Business Blogging Awards, presented by InsideBlogging! As business blogging has taken off in 2004, and looks to explode in 2005, we figured it was time to inaugurate some fun awards to reward all those hard-working business bloggers. After all, we can’t have the online diarists have all the fun, can we?

Here’s how the awards will work:

• We’re accepting nominations until January 24. Anyone can nominate any blogger in any category
• Additionally, feel free to suggest new categories if there’s one you’d like to see
• To nominate a blogger, simply place a comment in the nominations thread. Feel free to nominate as many blogs as you’d like (including your own) for as many categories as you’d like
• A panel of judges will whittle the nominee list for each category down to a minimum of three and a maximum of six nominees
• Voting will open at 12:00pm PST on January 26. You’ll be able to vote once per day per category
• Voting will continue until 12:00pm PST on February 9
• Winners will be announced on February 10. Winners will be contacted by email

(via ensight)

Woke up this morning, fashionably late of course, jumped in the shower, got out, looked outside, and WOW – huge snowflakes filling the air! Size of half-dollars, I swear.

(Yes, I did get dressed before I went outside to take these pictures. Even out here in the middle of nowhere we have decency limits, ya know?)

So – now there’s Big-Ass-Honkin’ Snow to cover my Big-Ass-Honkin’ Truck, which I just realized I have not posted any pictures of, despite my promises to many. Here you go, all wide-angle-lens-style:

Of course, it’s pretty much melted now. But this might just be a sign of things to come. Maybe it will be like last year?? Oy…

Are you maybe a little reluctant to give money to the tsunami relief effort because you’re afraid it won’t be used wisely, or because the place you give to might turn out to be illegitimate? We all know that when terrible things happen, there are leaches who will do anything try to get your money fraudulently in the name of a good cause, and for some it makes it very difficult to know if you’re contributing to help people in need, or filling the pockets of some scam artist.

Fear no more:

Read the list of charities already researched as legitimate (not at all inclusive list, but a very good one to work from) at charitynavigator.org, and you’ll find a large number of places you can give that have been vetted and proven to be legitimate by that organization.

One very trusted organization that happens to be headquartered where I live (Portland, Oregon) is Mercy Corps, and you can donate through them online. You can even specify that your money be used for Tsunami relief.

Nick Finck has just released a more finalized set of Visio Stencils for Information Architects. He says anyone can feel free to download use and tweak to their heart's content. He’ll be making updates to the files over time so check back every so often to see if there is a newer version out.

They work in Microsoft Office Visio 2003. Not older versions.

His IA stencils are in broken down into three types/files:

• Wireframe Stencil
• Sitemap Stencil
• Process Flow Stencil

Nice stuff – will be useful to have for work. Thanks Nick.

I used to go to practically every new movie that came out, when it was in the theaters, often on opening day. For some reason that just doesn’t seem to happen much anymore. At any rate, what this means is that there are lots of movies coming out on DVD right now that I have not seen.

So, this weekend, I have no less than six movies to distract me while I work on revising documents on the computer for work and generally trying to catch up. I have this cool home theater room that has also been neglected of late, and I need to put it back to good use, as long as I’m stuck at home healing.

• Dawn of the Dead (“Unrated” version – heard it was “awesome.” Of course, it was a bunch of 20–year-olds who told me that, but they’re usually right, and I remember previewing the original version way back in the 80’s at a pre-release screening in Denver. That version was gory and cool, albeit without the final soundtrack and stuff. Such is the way of pre-release market screening. Saw the Rocky movie with the Russian guy that day, too pre-release. It pretty much sucked.)
• Anchorman (heard it was pretty darn funny)
• Day After Tomorrow (heard it was pretty darn stupid (premise-wise), but the special effects look like they might be really 1337)
• Dodgeball (which I hear is freakin' hilarious)
• Spiderman 2 (I saw this one in the theaters, but it’s worth re-watching. Plus, see the LegoFilms version here)
• I-Robot (Wil Smith is cool, and this film isn’t, like, great – but it is pretty damn good and fun)

Don’t let questions over how much is the right amount to give stop you from donating what you can. For people who are uncomfortable knowing how much is the right amount to give and could use some help.

India Together has posted a web page that helps you decide how much to give based on your annual income (regardless of where you live or what currency you are paid in).

It’s really a good approach. Of course, if you can’t afford what they suggest, give $5 or $10 – even that is a great help.

See IndiaTogether.org if you are trying to decide how much to give. If you need a fast and safe place to donate, look no further than Amazon.com – fast, secure, easy and a great place to help. Or read the list of charities already researched as legitimate (not at all inclusive list but a good one to work from) at charitynavigator.org.

From Mitch Wagner, writing at Security Pipeline:

“For Sanjay Senanayake, a documentary producer in Sri Lanka, the tsunami this week was the start of a sometimes-exhilarating, sometimes-horrifying adventure. He chronicled his travels through the disaster areas using mobile-phone text-messaging and blogs.”

Read the security pipeline article here, and read Sanjay’s weblog SMS and mobile phone entries here at the ChiensSansFrontiers weblog. It’s another very real real look at what’s happening.

Remember: Do whatever you can to help. If you have not yet given to support relief efforts, please stop and ask yourself if there is a truly good reason keeping you from doing so. Then click to a site and make a donation, no matter how small. It’s easy to give in many ways. It takes just a couple of minutes, and regardless of how much you can give, it will make a very real difference.

Recently Apple, Microsoft, eBay and PayPal all put up links to pages that let you find ways to contribute. You can also give through Amazon.com, and Google has a web page up with links to places you can give.

Make something happen – that is your part in this. We all have a role, and let’s all make sure we all do the best we can.

Looks like Segway may have some very interesting models up its sleeve for 2005. I’ve personally assigned a certain “hey that’s cool” level of interest to Segway’s human mover thingie in the past, but honestly, there’s just no way I would even be able to think about using one.

That might be changing.

Over at Don Chalmer’s Toy Store (found via engadget of course), there are pictures of a couple new, cool looking models that are a little more up my alley – meaning they’re off-road-climber types. Click links or images below to take you to Don Chalmer’s web site:

The Centaur is a 4–wheeled Segway…

The Brand New Centaur. A four wheel Segway that climbs, turns, balances, and has its own Power Boost switch for those spots that need extra oomph. Check back often for the release dates of this amazing machine. Due out July 05. Price: $5995.00

And the AT-HT is pretty much the standard Segway HT, but built to run on something other than your standard urban pavement:

Coming in 2005 – the all Terrain HT. This baby is ready to climb all over. 400 watt/hour Saphion Lithium Phosphate batteries. Check back often or contact us for details on release dates. Due out in Feb 05. Contact us for more info. Price: $4995.00

.

I ran across this weblog tonight while perusing other sites – was found via a link from another blog.

The F-Secure Antivirus Research Team’s Weblog is a great resource for computer security professionals to keep an eye on. There are obviously some smart people working for F-Secure and it shows in their team blog.

The weblog is here: http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/ …

  … and their RSS feed is here:

Also, F-Secure’s 2004 Security Summary is available and well worth the read. Wow – good find!

Engadget points to a mention of a USB computer locking mechanism that includes a key you insert into the USB slow on your computer and a strange little medallion that you wear. When you step far enough away from the computer, the computer is locked at the console, and when you return, it’s unlocked for you automatically.

Sounds great. Sounds like a security hole waiting to happen if it’s not well-executed, but if it’s solid, it’s pretty darn cool. For under $20 per piece, you have to wonder, though…

But – If this does work, it sounds very interesting. I’ve ordered a few to see what they’re like and if they are actually reliable and secure. I will post a review once I get a chance to put them to the test. I’ll likely be using Bryan Batchelder’s replacement software, after reading a few reviews of the software that comes in the box (for example, if you have multiple screens or know anything about windows security at all, it’s east to defeat – not so good). It’s quite cool that someone is doing that kind of alternative software work, since its clear the original software will not be even remotely close to adequate.

In fact, after reading Bryan’s weblog, I’ve subscribed: 

Smart guy, cool stuff!

By way of Omar Shahine comes this excellent resource:

• Windows XP File Association Fixes by Doug Knox

If your file associations in Windows XP ever get wonky, the .reg files provided by Doug Knox will allow you to quickly and easily put them back to their Windows default settings:

“The files listed here are all ZIP files, which contain a REG (Registry) file. Download the ZIP and open it.  Extract the REG file to your hard disk and double click it.  Answer yes to the import prompt.  REG files can be viewed in Notepad.  Each of the REG files contains the default settings for the file extension indicated.”

Eric Rice interviewed me Wednesday afternoon, to get just one simple blogger guy’s perspective on the blogosphere and the process of giving to the relief efforts needed so badly in South Asia after the tsunamis and earthquakes that have devastated so many people in that region. It was the AdSense donation idea that sparked the interview, but we talked about other aspects of the blogosphere and its collective reaction to the tragedy, as well.

Thanks to Eric for taking the time to do a podcast about something that’s very important: those things we can do now to help others in need.

Download the podcast (an MP3 audio file) from EricRice.com and see links there for a few places you can go to offer your help, as well.

My spirits were lifted this evening when I received this email from the Google AdSense Support team in response to the AdSense donation idea that Scott and I had – it’s just one step, but it’s a very positive one!

I know it’s not a trivial task for Google to put something like this in place, but I hope it happens, as do a number of others – It can make a very real difference!

<Fingers Crossed>

---

Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 18:40:10 -0800
From: "Google AdSense" <adsense-support@google.com>
To: greg@greghughes.net
Subject: Re: [#18769680] AdSense donations for disaster relief - Google can make this easy - please read

Hello Greg,

Thank you for this excellent idea. A number of other AdSense publishers
have also brought your blog to our attention, and I have alerted the
AdSense team to your efforts.

As individuals, and as a company, we are committed to doing whatever we
can to assist with the tsunami relief effort. Google, as you know, has
recently set up www.google.com/tsunami_relief.html to aid our users who
are looking for more information and for ways to help, and we are
currently examining a number of other ideas.

Please know that I have forwarded your suggestion on to the appropriate
persons at Google, and they are currently investigating the feasibility of
such an endeavor. I will follow up as soon as I have more information on
this matter.

On behalf of the AdSense team, I would like to thank you again for
proposing this selfless measure and for your generous commitment to donate
your AdSense revenue to those affected by the tsunami.

Sincerely,

Ben
The Google AdSense Team

---

Merill Fernando lives in Sri Lanka, a country that was very hard hit by the tsunamis, and he exchanged emails with me this evening after he took the time to send a few kind words in response to the little bit of help this weblog has provided. He has also posted on his weblog about what even a small contribution can do to help people in need. You should read it, especially if you think you can’t afford to give enough to help others. Even if all you have to give is a five bucks, Amazon.com will let you easily donate whatever you can afford. Merill’s site will show you how much just $1 will buy.

Again, we are calling on all bloggers who use AdSense to pledge to donate your AdSense revenues for December or whatever time you wish to the relief and aid effort. Merill pointed the idea out on his weblog and agrees that it is a great idea – so please contribute and contact Google to let them know you would like them to help make this happen by providing an AdSense administrative option to donate funds at the end of this month. Whether or not Google participates in this effort, I am donating my revenue check. Please consider doing the same.

Together we can make things happen – that’s part of the power of the blogosphere. Give now, post your thoughts and plans to your blog, and contact others that can make a difference and ask them to help.

If you’re looking for places to give, just go here. And thank your for doing your part.

I have an idea, and a burning need to do something more to help those in need. I’ll email Google with this request, but I’m going to post it here, and encourage you to do the same thing on your site.

UPDATE: Google AdSense Support responded to this idea, and it’s at least possible!

I want all my AdSense revenue pending at the end of the year to go to help relief efforts in South Asia where the earthquakes and tsunamis have caused such devastation. If you use AdSense, I want you to pledge to do the same thing.

I think Google should make this an easy option for anyone with an AdSense account, and that they should do it in time for all of us to make our donations now, before the end of the year. It would be so easy for me to give that money to those in need, and Google can help many others do the same thing. Put a simple checkbox on the AdSense admin site that lets me choose to donate my AdSense funds. Do it for everyone.

Are you willing to donate your AdSense revenues? Comment here. Or post it on your blog or web site. Email Google and make it happen.

Scott Hanselman gave me this idea when he said he was thinking about donating his AdSense revenues. I had been thinking the same thing. Scott’s a good, kind person and I am willing to bet there are thousands more like him out there that would like to be able to do the same thing.

Hey Google people - call me if I can help make this happen. Seriously. My phone number is 503–419–6495. I have lots of time right now, as well as a little AdSense revenue to share. So, I hope you’ll help me help someone else. Anyone else who wants to help can call me, too. Make my phone ring.

Update – Several bloggers have already posted and signed on to pledge their earnings to recovery efforts. I'll donate mine whether Google makes it easy to do through them or not - but it would be awfully cool if they can make it possible. Making it easy for people will mean more people will participate.

Also – Turns out there’s no better way to mark one year of blogging at greghughes.net than doing something to help others. Just realized it was one year of blogging here on the 27th… People, please contact Google and ask them to make this happen, and then post a link on your blog, and if you use adsense, I encourage you to join us in donating!

From the land of good things and small packages:

If you’re like me, you find yourself regularly fighting goofy formatting problems with text copied from web browsers and pasted into email (Outlook, Thunderbird) and blog posting (BlogJet) clients. Well, if you’re a Firefox user, here’s a solution:

http://jgillick.nettripper.com/copyplaintext/

PlainText is a browser extension that adds a context menu to Firefox (or the Mozilla browser) that allows you to copy a selection as plain text, sans markup. So simple, yet so freakin’ valuable!

Hallelujah! Thanks to Marc Orchant for the link…

NobodyHere.com is, without a doubt, one of the more interestingly funny and random sites I have seen in some time. It kept me clicking around for some time…

http://www.nobodyhere.com/justme/me.here

When Chris Pirillo started sending me images of rings and dogs and other things on IM the other day, I knew what was up – and his method of asking Ponzi The Question was pretty darn cool. I congratulated him privately then, but today I want to do so in front of the world, so here you go.

Chris and Ponzi, two fine people whom I am glad and proud to know, are engaged to be married – They formally made it known in public on their blogs today.

Congrats you two!

MSN has a special web site dedicated to educating people about online safety and security:

http://safety.msn.com/

It’s a decent resource for the average user, and provides easy-to-understand facts and answers to common questions and issues people face on the Internet.

In particular, information about protecting kids online and how to recognize and avoid falling victim to phishing schemes are among the topics addressed.

Around my place we say “Merry Christmas.” But whatever holiday you celebrate in your life, I hope it’s a good one for you and yours.

Today at home it’s a fire in the fireplace, with posole** cooking on top of the stove, and over the next couple of days it’ll be wrapping presents, going to church, spending time with friends, and remembering what the holiday is all about.

“Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I have not coveted anyone's silver or gold or clothing. You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

The guy who spoke those words was a good and decent man, and he was taught them buy another guy – who was also a good and decent man, and whose birthday we just happen to celebrate this weekend.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

** Here’s my Posole recipe, archived here for myself so I won’t lose it, and for anyone else who’s interested. This way I won’t have to call mom and ask (again) next time, heh:

• One #10 can (108oz) Hominy (Mexican style preferred, white is also ok)
• Two large yellow onions, sliced and cut
• One tablespoon (or so) minced garlic
• One teaspoon dry oregano (Mexican oregano if you can get it)
• One quart (or less if you prefer) of frozen or canned green chiles, diced, preferably hot or medium strength (not jalapenos – use real green chiles)
• Salt (plenty)
• Pepper (plenty)
• One pork tenderloin, about 5 pounds
• Olive oil

In a large stock pot, combine the hominy, onions, garlic, oregano, and green chile. Fill with water to cover the ingredients, plus some more (don’t get to worried about the water – just make sure it’s pretty full). Salt and popper the heck out of it. Turn on the heat and bring to a boil. Once it boils, turn the heat back to simmer the stuff.

Cut the pork into small cubes or similar shape pieces (like you can cut pork into cubes, yeah…).In a frying pan, heat some olive oil and brown the pork slowly, add some salt and pepper.

After browning the pork, add it to the stock pot contents, and stir the meat in.

Now comes the hard part – leave it alone until the cows come home. That translates to anywhere between say six hours and overnight. Trust me – let it cook down. Add some water as needed.

And don’t be stingy with the salt and pepper – you’ll need it.

I have four invitations for GMAIL accounts available. This time I am offering them only to military personnel. So, if you happen to be serving or know someone who is, send me an email from your .mil email account (or have the military person you know send it). Address the email to greg(at)greghughes.net and I’ll hook ‘em right up.

Note: Non-military requests will not be answered this time around – thanks.

Omar Shahine has been working on dasBlog v1.7, and on his weblog he says he’s working to release the new version by the end of the year. Nice!

Lots of cool new features, some of which I am running here that were built up by Scott Hanselman. Check out Omar’s progress announcement, Scott’s changes, and the v1.7 wiki page for more info.

Can’t wait!

Well, it’s a done deal. I had my back surgery today, and now I am resting at home.

And – miraculously – most of the pain in my legs and lower back is gone!

You never really know how much pain you’re in, I think. until it goes away. Then you realize what you were missing out on. I am pinching myself every few minutes just to make sure this is all real and that I am not just dreaming… It’s truly amazing.

I’m not a proponent of surgery unless it’s absolutely needed. As testament to that fact, I have been dealing with back pain for several years, trying to deal with it in a variety of ways. As I said yesterday, it was time.

And so today I can stand on my own two feet without much pain at all, I can balance better, and I feel just great.

Really, it’s incredible. With any luck, as I heal things will stay this way.

The most amazing Christmas gift I could possibly get this year came early. My doctor (Dr. Olson) and my friend/neighbor (Mike, who spent the whole day driving me to Salem for the surgery, waited around for several hours and then drove me back home, all while making sure I was doing okay) really and truly provided me with something I needed today.

I have an attitude of gratitude, as they say – and am happy beyond belief.

The Microsoft TechNet crew has posted their Best of 2004 list.

Best content, best resources, best webcasts, best tools… Nice selection of stuff.

“We asked the TechNet team and customers like you to name the best features, pages and sections published on TechNet during 2004. Here they are!”

From a technet email recieved this morning…

Microsoft Anti-Spyware Tool Coming Soon

As you might have heard, Microsoft recently acquired Giant Software, Inc., the maker of a well-regarded anti-spyware tool. Although we'd hoped to be able to provide you with a link to a beta release of a Microsoft-branded version of this tool, it isn't quite ready yet. We're told the beta software will be freely downloadable from the Download Center sometime in the next few weeks. Until then, here's the press release outlining the capabilities of this spyware blocking and removal tool, and another statement explaining some little-known facts surrounding a legal agreement between Sunbelt and Giant that preceded the Microsoft purchase of the Giant technology.

Not the same way one New Hampshire UPS truck driver does. I bet his last name is Murphy – It almost has to be.

CLICK HERE for the story...

John Dvorak posts a great little article for people new to the blogosphere: Understanding and Reading a Blog (for Newcomers).

(via BlogWrite for CEOs)