Daybook

It's been a rainy day today, due to a rather large storm system churning across the midwest. Nothing too severe - no tornadoes, flash floods, or anything exciting like that. Just rain.

The Independence Day parade was canceled: too much rain, too few spectators. It's never been canceled before. (Jake had hoped to march in the parade with his tae kwon do teacher, but we talked him out of it. "Maybe next year," we said. Maybe next year it won't be raining.)

There was hope that the rain would clear out in time for the fireworks, but the committee in charge of these things - they're on Twitter, julyfourth - decided to try again tomorrow.

But we're still having a party, though: various friends & relatives are expected to attend. There will be cupcakes, home made ice cream, and Avanti's (trucked in from Normal by the grandparents).

Perhaps at 9:00pm we'll all go out to the driveway and gaze wistfully in the direction of Dodds Park.

The Court has spoken:

On October 16, 2008, Petitioner E___ C______ filed a Motion to Vacate, Set Aside, or Correct Sentence Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255 (#1). Petitioner also filed a Memorandum of Law (#2). On January 5, 2009, the Government filed its Response (#6), and on January 26, 2009, Petitioner filed a Reply (#7). On May 8, 2009, Petitioner filed a Motion to Take Judicial Notice (#9). Finally, on May 15, 2008, Petitioner filed a Motion for Leave to File 2255 Amendments (#10). For the reasons that follow, Petitioner's Motion to Vacate, Set Aside, or Correct Sentence Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255 (#1), as amended, is DENIED.

The unfortunate Mr. C______ seems to be running out of options. His motion for a retrial was denied. His appeal was dismissed when his own attorney persuaded the Court of Appeals that there were no non-frivolous grounds for appeal. And now his § 2255 motion has been denied.

The Court did leave him one opening:

The Petitioner's Motions for the Court to Take Judicial Notice and for Leave to File 2255 Amendments are GRANTED.

...which means that if he wants to try again, the Court will permit it.

I suppose I'll have to check back in a few months & see whether he does.

Much chatter lately about http://gdgt.com/:

gdgt (like "gadget" -- or g-d-g-t) is a new kind of technology site -- a social gadget platform that enables you to connect with the community through your gadgets, and connect with your gadgets through the community. It's a place for you to engage with your devices and hang out with people who are as passionate about their gear as you are.

It's mildly interesting.

Alas, gdgt is having some startup pains. My gadgets aren't in their database, but they say they're too overloaded to let me add them:

Thanks so much for coming to submit a product to the system! Unfortunately we've been totally inundated with thousands of gadgets, so we need to take a little bit to work through them all.

Check back really soon -- we'll not only have a lot more products in the system, but some new product categories as well (including PDAs / handhelds, media streamers, AV receivers, universal remotes, and more)!

Perhaps I'll check back in a few weeks, and see whether they're still standing.

We WRIfolk have tomorrow off, so for us it's already the weekend.

In previous years, WRI would close for two days around July 4th; but not this year. One the other hand, lately WRI's been closing for three days at Christmas, which is one more day than before.

Stephen giveth, and Stephen taketh away. But it averages out in the end.

Yesterday morning, I deleted a few accounts: blippr, blog.com, blogger.com, chi.mp, diigo, fuser, gyminee, jaiku, kwippy, lifetick, mint, ping.fm, plaxo, plinky, retaggr, socializr, socialmedian, soocial, strands, and probably a few others.

I wanted to delete my accounts on: 23, backtype, daily plate, green sherpa, group recipes, identi.ca, koornk, memiary, mixin, nutritiondata, packwhiz, phandy, radar, regator, socialoyster, twine and zigtag. But none of them offers a delete-your-account option.

I'm keeping, in the hopes of finding a use for, my accounts on: brightkite, evernote, posterous and springpad.

I just got tired of keeping all those plates spinning. I wasn't using any of the sites, and I finally decided that keeping them around just in case was pretty stupid. If/when I need an account on any of them, I'll sign up again.

It was a quiet day, more or less.

This morning, Jennifer took Jake & Sam to a bicycle obstacle course race. The bicycles don't fit in Jennifer's car, but the scooters fit nicely in the trunk; so really it was a scooter obstacle course race. Everybody had a great time.

(Me? I stayed home. I'm lazy.)

The weather today was much improved over the previous week: sunny, nice breeze, and temperatures in the low 80s. For an hour or two after lunch, I forced the kids outside to play. I went with them, and sat under a tree, reading, while Sam played in the pool.

Jake mostly complained. He wanted to go inside and watch television. He wanted to go play with the kids next door. "No, let's just stay here," I told him.

Oh, the injustice of it! Jake sulked for a while, but was enjoying himself by the end.

Jennifer had an afternoon with the quilters, where I'm sure there was much discussion of husbands and their many faults.

After dinner, we went for a walk around the subdivision. Jake & Sam were on their scooters, which was easier than pulling them in the wagon. And harder: they're both still working on that whole watch out for cars thing.

And now - 10:28pm - the kids are sleeping, Jennifer & I are watching television - we just finished an episode of Expedition Africa - and the night is wonderfully cool and comfortable.

I noticed recently that the old GIST offices on the third floor of the trade center building are now occupied by a company named Adayana.

That's because Adayana bought GIST in 2006.

Presumably, the sign changed when the merger went through, which means it took me a mere three years to notice. How embarrassing.

I'm a bit hazy on the details, but GIST was one of the many PLATO spinoffs operating in Champaign-Urbana back in the 1980s. (My two-jobs-ago employer, CTC, was another.)

They're all gone now: some absorbed by larger companies, others just evaporated.

Today was...

• ...halfway to Christmas (the stores still don't have their Christmas displays up: slackers!).
• ...hot: 82° by 9:00am, 90° & above for much of the afternoon.
• ...spent outdoors: walking (4½ miles), yard work (lawn mowing) and photography (of post-storm rainbow).
• ...a bad day to be Farrah Fawcett or Michael Jackson (but not Jeff Goldblum, reports of his death having proved exaggerated).
• ...the tenth anniversary of the day Jennifer & I were married.

Happy anniversary, my love.

Long ago, I found myself subscribed to various Microsoft mailing lists. They were silly and useless - as are most Microsoft products - but only today did they become annoying enough that I decided to unsubscribe.

This proved to be quite an adventure.

I tried to log in with my Windows Live ID, and couldn't. It turns out I was using the wrong email address; with the right one, the login worked. I logged in, I unsubscribed.

Then I thought I should update my Windows Live ID to use my current email address. This used to be possible, back when Windows Live IDs were called Microsoft Passports; but how to do it now? A bit of poking around on the Microsoft web site didn't find anything.

(For some reason, picking 'Windows Live' from the menu on Microsoft's home page took me to the Mactopia page. Apparently, the 'softies couldn't conceive of a Mac user wanting to read about Windows Live. Way to go, 'softies.)

So I thought I'd try Bing, Microsoft's new search engine. The first page of results included a link to the Windows Live FAQ page; but when I clicked on it, I got a no-such-page error. Well done, 'softies.

A bit more flailing around brought me to a Windows Live ID change-your-address page. I entered my new email address, and clicked Check Availability. Address available, quoth the 'softies. I clicked Save. Address not available, quoth the 'softies.

They're both mine, you chimps.

I thought maybe I had two Windows Live IDs, one for each email address, so I tried to log in to the other one. My password didn't work, so I went through the change-your-password process. I still can't log in with that email address.

To summarize: I have one Windows Live ID, with the wrong email address; there's no way to switch it to the right address. I might have a second Windows Live ID, with the right email address; but there's no way to log in with that one.

I'd delete them both, if I could. Perhaps if I ignore them, they'll go away.

One last bit of fun: Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 894020, You cannot sign in to Money 2002, Money 2003, or Money 2004 by using your Windows Live ID credentials:

This issue occurs because Money 2004 and earlier versions of Money use an earlier version of the Microsoft Passport Network that Money will no longer support as of July 31, 2008.

It's dangerous to rely on Microsoft. They lose interest in their products so quickly.

Lots of phishing attacks in the inbox lately: banks, asking me to update my online banking information; Microsoft, asking me to install a vital Outlook / Outlook Express update; etc., etc.

So far, the phishers haven't picked a bank that I actually use; and companies like Microsoft never send email asking people to download & install anything. But I suppose these might work on people who aren't paying attention.