Notes of Note

I want to welcome an unexpected influx of virtual guests here at Dream's End. I wish I could check the stats to see if it is a bunch of new folks or 6 people hitting refresh over and over...but welcome whoever you are! Here are some notes from the last few days.

First, Microsoft once again makes my life miserable. While trying to avoid Microsoft products whenever possible (not an easy task with a PC running Windows XP), I never cease to be amazed at the reach of their slimy tentacles. Evidently, the site I use to track hits to this site was taken over by them. Now I have to use my "Passport" log-in to get those stats. I didn't know I even had a "Passport." Who are they, the U.N.? When I figured out my username and password, it didn't match the one I signed up for the webcounter with. Well excuse me for not knowing you were going to take over that company. I'll try to be more psychic next time. In the comments box, I'm running a pool. Guess how many days it takes for them to answer my email. It's been three, so guess 4 or above. Winner gets his name in big letters. Or, just send me a link to a different site tracking service. Meanwhile, if you aren't geeky enough to run Linux (no offense) at least go here www.openoffice.org for some free, open source office software applications that interact with Microsoft products just fine, thank you very much. Imagine, no Microsoft Word that mysteriously changes your font back to 10 point, Times New Roman for no discernible reason. Sweet. Oh, and how do I browse the internet? Opera Web Browser It takes a little more tweaking to get the various plug-ins (wish they'd document how to do that better) but I had little choice...Internet Explorer was shutting down every few minutes.


Next item: Stealth Patriot. People have expressed some relief that Patriot Act 2 has seemed to have stalled. Not at all, my civil liberties junkies! They're just chopping it up and getting it through piecemeal. But, since YOU have nothing to hide, you won't mind the FBI going through the following items without a warrant:

• Your bank account
  
• Your insurance records
  
• Your travel agent files
  
• Your real estate records
  
• Your car dealership records
  
• Records of casinos you visit
  
• Your jeweler
  
• Records from just about anyone you do business with
  
  

Here is a link with all the sordid details. Wired Article

Primaries Secondary? Seven states have cancelled presidential primaries for 2004. We'll just let those nice TV people tell us who we want as our candidate. link

Mad Cows are your friends Guess what they did with that cow that was diagnosed with Mad Cow disease. They sent it to the slaughterhouse. Don't worry, though. They took out the spinal cord and brain first. You want fries with that?

And an orange Easter to you, too. Here's a surprise. The holidays are over but there is no sign of lowering the terror alert level back to "yellow." Saddam is just THAT powerful. No end in sight for high terrorism alert