Events

For my last post of the year, I'd like to announce that the Inner Drive Technology Comprehensive Testing Facility is now complete, except for the Lab Cam, which should arrive from Logitech in about two weeks. (The dead one is visible in the upper-left corner of the photo below.) Inner Drive's World Headquarters is now ready to face whatever challenges we may in 2006. Happy new year, everyone!

I'm not the only one suffering techno-poltergeists this week. Anne just got this message from Google: Lockdown in sector 4! Our system indicates unusual usage of your account. In order to protect Gmail users from potentially harmful use of Gmail, this account has been disabled for up to 24 hours. Googleing the email found that Google's own tools can trigger this lockout. Did anyone notice the theme of all the technical issues we've had lately? An SBC router crashed, a Webcam fried, a voice-mail account...

From 5pm Thursday until 9pm Friday, machines hated me. I do not know why. Thursday afternoon, I added my dear mother to my mobile phone plan. This is her first mobile phone. I suppose she was waiting until they perfected the technology. Clearly they haven't; but my carrier, T-Mobile, uses GSM technology, which is the most advanced available commercially at this time. Clearly, however, giving my mother a mobile phone caused the Anti-Technology Gods to frown upon me. First, T-Mobile deleted my voicemail...

First, from the Strange Editorial Priorities department: these were the headlines on MSNBC's top headlines today: WP: CIA program withstands furor The effort President Bush authorized shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, to fight al Qaeda has grown into the largest CIA covert action program since the height of the Cold War. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10644533/ West Coast gets more rain The West Coast was expected to end 2005 with a bang of winter weather: two storm fronts that could bring as much as 10 inches...

Correction, 25 January 2006 12:00 CST/18:00 UTC: The problem described below turned out to be a bad individual camera. Logitech was great, replacing the bad camera with a new one, no questions asked. The new camera has been running without interruption for several weeks now. The original blog entry follows: I can't believe how much time is being sucked away from me by this broken Webcam problem. I am now on hold with Logitech, and though my call is very important to them, they are experiencing...

A quick check of email showed me a notice from NOAA that the 27th tropical storm of the most active season in recorded history had formed: ...LATE SEASON TROPICAL STORM...THE 27TH OF THE YEAR...FORMS IN THE EASTERN ATLANTIC... AT 1 PM AST...1700Z...THE CENTER OF TROPICAL STORM ZETA WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 25.0 NORTH... LONGITUDE 36.9 WEST OR ABOUT 1070 MILES...1720 KM... SOUTHWEST OF THE AZORES. And we thought the season had already ended. Wow. This is truly historic.

I posted too soon about the new Webcam. It worked great until I logged off and back on again. Then it stopped working. The problem appears to be with the drivers on the host computer. I'll write more later. I've given up an hour of my life because of this stupid thing. I sincerely hope I'll have the cam working in the next few minutes. Update, 17:26 UTC: It wasn't the camera. It was (a) a Belkin USB extension cord or (b) Windows 2000 Server. One of the two did not play well with the Webcam. I can't...

After much searching, and more than one total Webcam collapse, I've finally found the perfect Webcam. It has numerous features, like its own stand, that will make the Inner Drive Technology Webcam even more fun and enjoyable. The old cam will go into the Inner Drive Technology Comprehensive Testing Facility tomorrow or Monday. The image will look nothing like this one, which I include for Anne's benefit: More when I get back from my client visit.

Great column from Krugman today (reg.req.): A year ago, before "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job" became a national punch line, the rising tide of cronyism in government agencies and the rapid replacement of competent professionals with unqualified political appointees attracted hardly any national attention. ... A year ago, most Americans thought Mr. Bush was honest.

No real entry today and no entry at all yesterday because I was helping my mom move. However, all of the pieces of the Inner Drive Technology Comprehensive Testing Facility are in, so we should complete construction tomorrow morning or, possibly, on Saturday. Photos will follow.