Porkins Dies For Star Wars fans: Porkins has died. So long, Red Six. (via Whitney)

This Bird Has Flown This Bird Has Flown - A new Beatles tribute album. I'm mostly unimpressed with the tracks available for streaming. OK, a few tracks were pretty good, but others were complete misfires. For more perspective, you can visit NPR and listen to their analysis. UPDATE: I've now had a chance to listen to this album. Pure crap! Don't go anywhere near it.

How to Avoid Getting RIAAed Cassandra R. Hunt: How to Avoid Getting RIAAed. Here's one quote from the essay, "This profit margin can't change in a system where we must purchase 90 percent of our music from the RIAA. Without competitors, we're forced to get our music at the prices it sets. And when the recording industry behaves like a trust, the question of ethics gets thrown back to the accuser. People have been recording music onto tapes for decades, but using a technology that allows higher profits comes with the cost of having a new scale of competition -- free digital music sharing."

Hurricane Tracker Page Hurricane Tracker Page - This page features a number of great graphics.

Borders Coupon Borders Coupon - 25% Off of One Item

2005 World Series 2005 World Series - I'm ready for some baseball! go Astros!

OpenOffice.org 2.0 OpenOffice.org 2.0 has been released. For those unfamiliar with it, it's a FREE office productivity suite, available in Windows and Linux flavors. For word processing and basic spreadsheets, it's a hard offer to refuse. In fact, this review sings its praises, giving it higher marks than MS Office. (I don't believe that any free product is better than MS Office, at this point.) Now, for a little criticism of OpenOffice.org. What a stupid name! Open Office "Dot Org"? Dot Org? A website can be named dot org, not a product. Have you tried to download it? It takes forever to reach an actual download link. It's a free product! Don't you want us to try it and love it? Well, give us a link already! Of course I want the Windows version, give me normal download link. Simple stuff. Windows. Link. Now. A regular EXE file or ZIP file. These people should take a lesson from Mozilla. Mozilla's site assumes you want to download Mozilla and so it serves up a prominently displayed link compatible with your PC's operating system. A download link. One click, and you're downloading Mozilla. How difficult is that? Wake up, OpenOffice DOT ORG.

Lost: Season 2, Episode 5 This show needs to either crap or get off of the pot. Last night's episode felt like some of the lame episodes that popped up in the last part of Season 1. As one newsgroup post put it: "We now know that 'The Others' have dirty calves". Exactly. Big deal, give us some meat, already!

Streaming News/Talk Radio Shows Here is an index of Streaming News/Talk Radio Shows.

NBC's 'The Office' The NBC show The Office just keeps getting better. If you already watch the show, you'll love Dwight Schrute's Blog.

Trespassing Charged in Horse Case Trespassing Charged in Horse Case - There are some sick people in this world. Furthermore, there are twelve states that have not outlawed intercourse with animals. Is PETA interested in this?

'Lost' Preview AOL offers a preview of tonight's episode of 'Lost'.

Hurricane Wilma National Hurricane Center - According to CNN, if Hurricane Wilma remains on its present course, it will likely bring death and destruction to Florida. Here in the Gulf States, we're growing very weary of the many hurricanes.

Top Ten Weblog Design Mistakes Jakob Nielsen: Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes

Real Alternative 1.44 Real Alternative 1.44 - I refuse to install RealPlayer. Therefore, I use Real Alternative. It allows you to play all Real Media content without having to install RealPlayer.

10 BitTorrent Clients Reviewed 10 BitTorrent Clients Reviewed - The winner? uTorrent. I've never used it, but I think I'll give it a try.

TimesSelect: Biggest Joke in Months TimesSelect - The NYTimes has got to be kidding. They want me to pay money to read their opinions? Wake up, Old Media.

Free SP2 CD from Microsoft Order a Free Windows XP SP2 CD - This one is on Microsoft.

Wallace & Gromit Wallace & Gromit was really funny. I don't think it was quite as clever as the three previous Wallace & Gromit short films, but it was great fun. ('The Wrong Trousers' is my personal favorite.) Additionally, before the movie started, a bonus short animated film featuring four penguins was shown. I cannot remember the title, but it was hilarious.

Online PDF Converter Online PDF Converter - This is an excellent online PDF creator. Cool feature: It allows you to add a watermark!

Best Free Web Applications Nedwolf: Best Free Web Applications.

Speed Up Windows XP Tech Yogurt: 23 Ways to Speed Up Windows XP

Test Stuff Doing a little testing with Movable Type 3.2 at a new domain.

How to Rip DVD's to Your iPod How to Rip DVD's to Your iPod - This How-To guide explains the process, step-by-step, using free software.

Apple Will Sell TV Shows Apple continues to stay ahead of the competition. The new iPod will allow iTunes users to purchase TV shows for two dollars per episode. Did you miss 'Lost' last week? No problem, just pay two dollars and download it to your iPod. Great marketing idea!

Yankees Go Down Well, at least the Red Sox didn't do it. The Braves went down, the Red Sox went down, the Yankees went down...and the White Sox are still in? Huh? Hey, it's baseball. ANYTHING can happen. By the way, the call by the home plate umpire in the fifth inning was so weak. Didn't make a bit of sense to me. I'm now pulling for the Astros.

Watch First Nine Minutes of 'Serenity' Online You can now watch the first nine minutes of Serenity online. This tidbit is a good indicator of the overall intensity level of this film.

Legal Movie Downloads Two great films starring Cary Grant have entered into public domain. The Internet Archive now offers them as free downloads. The first is His Girl Friday (1940, B&W) and the second is Charade (1963, Color). His Girl Friday is on my personal All-Time Top 10 Comedy Movie list. Charade is a Hitchcock-like thriller that also features Audrey Hepburn. It has some clever twists that you'll enjoy. The films are available in various formats, including 4 GB MPEG2 files.

25 Words That Can Hurt Your Resume 25 Words That Can Hurt Your Resume - Some good suggestions.

Boston Red Sox: Losers The White Sox have swept Boston! I would have much preferred that the Yankees beat them, but I'll take what I can get. The Yankees are having their own problems. The Angels put a whipping on them last night in the Bronx.

HBO Attacking BitTorrent From Oreilly Radar: "HBO is actively poisoning the BitTorrent downloads of the new show Rome. In addition to an older tactic of offering bogus downloads that never complete, HBO is now obstructing the downloads offered by other people." I suppose this is better than filing lawsuits against kids.

Microsoft Client Protection Microsoft Client Protection - "Microsoft introduced on Thursday a new program that will help to combat viruses, malware and spyware in the corporate environment, as well as provide stronger protection for current and emerging threats. Called Microsoft Client Protection, the new service could be seen as new competition for McAfee and Symantec, who have otherwise worked closely with the company in recent years to combat the increasing tide of security threats." - BetaNews

Reliable Web Hosting Coyote Hill - This is my dad's web hosting company. I've had my web hosting with him for more than three years. I couldn't be more impressed with the speed and reliability of the web server and email accounts. If any of you are looking for affordable and reliable hosting, please give him a call.

Scot's Newsletter: October 2005 Scot's Newsletter: October 2005 Edition - The latest edition of Scot Finnie's excellent technology newsletter. This edition discusses Opera Free, IE 7, Firefox and Vista Beta. He also highlights IEBlog, which he refers to as the "only place" you can get useful information about Internet Explorer 7.

'Lost' I'm very impressed with the first two episodes of the new season of ABC's TV drama Lost. The show was losing steam during the final episodes of last season. Why? The show was creating more and more mysteries and questions and never answering any of them. Well, evidently the producers listened to fans and critics. The new season is answering some of those mysteries and questions. This makes Lost one of the best shows on TV.

Preparing for a Miracle
Courtney and I have completed Baptist Health System's Prepared Childbirth Class. It consisted of four 2-hour classes spread over four weeks. We now feel a little more prepared for what lies ahead.

Highlights of the class included watching a video of a normal delivery, watching a video of a Caesarean delivery and a live discussion with an obstetric anesthesiologist. What did I learn? In no particular order, here are a few things that I can remember from the class: (1) It is safe to have cats in the same home as your baby. The horror stories that we have all heard are myths. (2) A Caesarean delivery does not limit the number of children a woman may have. (3) Husbands must send flowers to their wife on the day of delivery. (4) The first stage of labor can last for more than six hours. During this time, is not necessary for the mother to go to the hospital. She can can wait until her water breaks or until the contractions become intense and regular. (5) More than seventy-five percent of all pregnant women will request and receive epidural anesthesia during labor and delivery. The epidural will not be administered until a woman's cervix has dilated to at least 4 centimeters. This means that even with an epidural, the pain can become intense before the epidural is administered and begins to take effect. (6) The breathing techniques have two purposes. The first is to divert the mother's attention from pain. The second is to maintain a good oxygen level for the mother and child, as many women tend to hold their breath when experiencing labor pains.

I can definitely recommend this class to new parents. There is no way to fully prepare for the first labor and delivery, but this class gave us a glimpse into some of the things to expect. Hopefully we won't completely freak out when the whole process starts. We're growing more excited as November 17th draws closer.

Raspberry Coke "Raspberry Coke was first released in New Zealand in June 2005. NZ was the first and only country to release Raspberry and Diet Raspberry Coke as part of a 'Guinea Pig' type plan to test the market." Giddy-Up!

Curse of the Were-Rabbit There is a trailer for the new Wallace & Gromit movie.

Windows XP SP3 Windows XP SP3 - It's coming. TheHotFix.Net has the details of the patches likely to be included. According to Bink, Windows XP SP3 will be released in 2006, after Vista's release.

Local News: Plane Crash My family and I have known the couple that died in this plane crash for over a decade. Really nice people. This is sad news.

Bunnies by the Bay As most of you know by now, Courtney and I will soon be parents. Therefore, speaking of all things baby, I would like to introduce you to an impressive line of baby products: Bunnies by the Bay. Courtney was given a Silly Buddy Duck by a former coworker. This is how we were introduced to the company. Adorable stuff. I really like their web design, as well.

Baseball! MLB Playoff Schedule October is here, the air is cooler, and it's time for some baseball! Here is the 2005 MLB Playoff Schedue. The Yankees are Division Champs.

Another Serenity Review James Berardinelli: "Comparing Serenity to Blake's 7 is compliment, since I consider the earlier TV show to be the best science fiction program ever to appear on the small screen...[Serenity is] about narrative and characters, and it does a solid job in both areas. Whedon propels the story along at a breakneck pace, but keeps it smooth enough that we never get lost, and occasionally pauses to allow for character interaction." He saw the film, having never seen the series.