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The foster family from which we adopted Froggie sent us some photos of the mutt when he was just a pup (well, a pup under 15 pounds anyway). I’ve added them to the beginning of the Froggie Flickr Fotoset.

Thanks to Les at SEB for the link    to Yahoo. Nice, fast servers with no waiting.

It let me know that COD2 isn’t the next game purchase I’ll be making. That’s saying a lot because I played the hell out of COD. I even joined a clan, played other teams (sort of), and wasn’t too bad (not great, but ok). The COD2 demo left me wanting. It felt like the original with some new maps and (some) better sounds. I’ve read the articles about the new engine and the improved rendering and yaddy yaddy yah. But after a couple plays through the demo, I was over the gloss and looking for more. I was missing that feeling I had with the original COD demo–wanting to play more.

I know it’s a demo and I know the game isn’t done, so I hope it gets better. But right now, Infinity Ward has the kiss of death going; same old game with the number “2” tacked on the end.

Download at Yahoo Games

Not utilities for a USB drive, but to keep on your drive. A couple of good links today, thanks to digg.

The Portable Freeware Collection

Mike Tech Show #41

I love Konfabulator. My cognitive dissonance hasn’t kicked in yet on the system resources it requires because it’s just so damn cool. The Sleep Timer widget just made my day; I’m sure there’s a way to do this in Windows, but I’m too lazy to figure it out. Basically, it’ll shut down, restart, or sleep you computer after a set time.

Notice this is posted to Politics. I haven’t verified anything in this obvious editorial, but I offer it for it’s emotional value. The author is the president and CEO of a competing (is that the right word) organization to the Red Cross. He obviously has a vested interest in monies coming his way.

However, he raises an interesting point.

The Red Cross brand is platinum. Its fundraising vastly outruns its programs because it does very little or nothing to rescue survivors, provide direct medical care or rebuild houses.

Taken with a comment in a Fark forum (search the page for Red Cross) about the waste demonstrated by the Red Cross (how they willingly pay full price for hotel rooms they never use), and the suspicions build.

That said, I don’t think any of the accusations leveled at the Red Cross, even if true, constitute a purposeful and malicious attempt to sucker anyone. I just think the Red Cross is like many bureaucratic organizations: bloated and inefficient. I personally gave my money for Katrina to Americares. As always, reading up on your charity is a good idea. Even platinum brands may not perform to your standards. YMMV.

Sorry for the title, it doesn’t happen often.

Mike Brown was in front of Congress today to answer for the disaster he oversaw after Katrina. I understand he doesn’t want to fall on his sword for something he feels isn’t his fault, but the level to which he stoops trying to blame anyone but himself is deep. Deep. A sample:

Ironically, it started with an organization called horsesass.org, that on some blog published a false, and, frankly, in my opinion, defamatory statement that the media just continued to repeat over and over. Next, one national magazine not only defamed me, but my alma mater, the Oklahoma City University School of Law, in one sentence alone leveling six false charges. [source]

He then blamed the governor of Louisiana, the mayor of New Orleans, and then shook his fist at “those meddling kids”.

Mr. Brown, you’re an idiot. Even if every word you say is true, you have been offered up as a sacrifice for all the wrongs of the Fed after this disaster. The fact that nothing you say is likely to be true, it seems you earned the distinction. Get ready for a Fisking of epic proportions, Mr. Brown.

Check out more of Brown’s lies here.

It’s one thing to talk about–and execute–a user-focused approach when you’re a small company or an independent contractor. But what if you are, in fact, a fish in a sea as vast as, say, Microsoft? Can you hope to make a difference? Or does working at the “DarkStar” suck the soul from any employee with a passionate users bent?

Link

(Iraq – Saddam = Detroit) – Don McMillan

Link

Opera today released their browser for free.. no ads, no banners, no nothing. Very cool. Opera is the parent to many of the features that people love in Firefox, including tabbed browsing. Well worth a look and something else to keep in mind when designing for the web.

Link

[via digg]

Sorry to do this, but I’ve had to tighten up my comment policy due to a comment spam attack. 2 days and over 100 spam comments (and that’s for a site with less traffic than 127.0.0.1).

Anyone who uses TypeKey gets their comments auto published; otherwise, the comment goes in the queue. Spammers are scum, and we all pay.