This is the third time in 21 days that the Sheep River has breached it's banks and spilled out into the streets. To say it's getting a tad weary would be an understatement at best. On top of all this we are moving out of the house we're in and don't have a house to move into. It's a downright ugly situation!

As soon as things get back to some semblance of normalcy I'll be continuing with the "Daily Headlines". Until then I'm fighting the flood and moving to I don't know where. I appreciate your patience!

Oh yeh..., the Privacy Commissioner for the Province of Alberta has made his ruling on an 'incident' where a former employer of mine thought it would be a 'brilliant' idea to install a keystroke logger on my workstation. The Privacy Commissioner's ruling is available [HERE](pdf). I suppose the thing that amazed me the most was the FACT that my former employer concocted an elaborate lie to cover their butts. If you read the ruling I'm certain you'll get the impression that the Privacy Commissioner detected a fabricated story but didn't have the 'smoking gun' to pin a perjury charge on them. Oh well..., justice generally catches up with pathological liars!

Check back regularly, no telling what little nugget of gnarled knowledge or whimsical wisdom you're going to unearth here but it could be a 'Fish Nugget' from a flounder found flopping in the streets.

Hasta La L8r Señor Moronic Network Administrator Wannabe

Hand Picked Headline News
    - Served Fresh Daily -

Gaming ::
Canada a Hotspot for Computer Game Develpment

We do other things during those long winter nights as well.

Agriculture ::
Who Will Pick the Berries

The changing face of farm labour.

Politics ::
Stronach Dips and Dives to Avoid Conflict of Interest

Sometimes too much money means the money gets in the way.

Politics ::
Grewal Tape Turning Into Red Tape

Law Society of British Columbia decides to take a look.

Business ::
Winnipeg's Richardson Family Heads Back To Bay Street

And two of Canada's most respected investment bankers have jumped ship to join them.

Science ::
Fossilized Venomous Mammal Found in Alberta

These have to be rare.

Check back regularly, no telling what little nugget of gnarled knowledge or whimsical wisdom you're going to unearth here but it could be a 'Breaking News Nugget' - and you can say you saw it here first. Others will just have to wait for the rest to catch up.

Note:: These headlines rotated, updated & barbecued throughout the day. Enjoy!

Hasta La L8r Señor Headline Hunter

Hand Picked Headline News
    - Served Fresh Daily -

Technology ::
Need a Really Tough Laptop?

Check out what Forbes has to say about the matter.

Technology ::
Microchip Pioneer Jack Kirby Passes Away

This guy was literally responsible for changing the destiny of humans.

Flood ::
Estimates Place Flood Damage in Excess of $200 Million

It sure was ugly here in Okotoks! Still cleaning up and haven't had a chance to watch the news.

Yikes ::
Theo De Raadt Says Linux Sucks

I'm a BIG fan of OpenBSD so I'll just leave it at that!

Medicine ::
Marijuana Derived Mouth Spray Available for MS Patients

They say it has a peppermint flavour.

Check back regularly, no telling what little nugget of gnarled knowledge or whimsical wisdom you're going to unearth here but it could be a 'Breaking News Nugget' - and you can say you saw it here first. Others will just have to wait for the rest to catch up.

Note:: These headlines rotated, updated & barbecued throughout the day. Enjoy!

Hasta La L8r Señor Headline Hunter

Yesterday I ran the headline about the robot pharmacist that ran amok at the UCFS Medical Center in San Francisco. Well anyhow, it's been difficult to keep the humour up when the basement's flooding and the Sheep River here in Okotoks is spilling over it's banks. I did get a chuckle out of the robot story but today I heard one that easily topped it.

There is a new and exclusive apartment building here in Okotoks that boasts underground parking (now underwater parking), and a view of the Rocky Mountains and the Sheep River Valley from the third floor suites. Apparently the elevator, much like the robot pharmacist, decided to take off on a tangent and do it's own thing. Now I'm pretty certain that your average elevator would be quite low on the evolutionary scale in comparison to your average pill dispensing robot so I was somewhat surprised by what this elevator was attempting to do.

Noticing that the underground parkade was now an underwater parkade, the elevator went autonomous and proceeded to bail out the basement. Without direction or coaching from any superior entity, it plunged into the murky depths of the underwater parkade and slid open it's doors. After taking on a full load of water the doors closed and the elevator headed upstairs to relieve itself. It's reported that second and third floor tenants where completely baffled by the surging tide coming down the hallways and under their doors, eventually crossing their rooms and cascading over their balconies.

It's alleged this rogue behaviour continued for a lengthy period before someone managed to get a couple of synapses firing in sequence thereby facilitating a call to the power company to have the juice cut to the maverick elevator. Unlike your average pill pushing psycho robot, you don't just sneak up on an elevator and jerk out it's battery pack to neutralize it. These things use some pretty serious voltage that tends not to mix real well with water and amateur elevator vigilantes.

Anyhow..., I'm going to cut this a bit short as my printer is giving me a mighty funny look and my cell phone is starting to lip me off. Not a good sign!

Check back regularly, no telling what little nugget of gnarled knowledge or whimsical wisdom you're going to unearth here but it could be a 'Mechanized Nugget' deposited by some psycho, pill pushing robot or wing nut elevator.

Hasta La L8r Señor Elevator Repair Guy

Hand Picked Headline News
    - Served Fresh Daily -

Yikes ::
Robot Pharmacist Goes Psycho at California Hospital

• "Waldo" the Robot has checked himself into a celebrity detox center on the advice of his peers.

Crime ::
Hunt On For Edmonton Serial Killer

• $100,000 reward if you finger the culprit!

Strange ::
Two PETA Employees Charged With Cruelty to Animals

• It's possible the Pope is still trustworthy though.

Politics ::
Private Member Proposes the "Belinda Bill"

• The House of Commons is long overdue for a major renovation don't you think?

Technology ::
The Hydrogen Powered Motorcycle

• Does this herald the coming of the "Green Angels Motorcycle Club"?

Industry ::
The Beer Can Aerospace Engineer

• Economy flying contraptions starting at US$7.00 - airmail extra.

Weird ::
2nd Helicopter in 4 Days Goes Down in East River off Manhattan

• It appears cosmic forces have moved the Bermuda Triangle north-northwest!

HUH ::
Queen Elizabeth Buys an iPod

• What next - an air guitar?

Identity Theft ::
Security Breach puts 40M Credit Card Holders at Risk

• Knee-jerk legislation expected to follow shortly.

Sorry about the tardiness in keeping the "Daily Headlines" true to the title. We have been at the mercy of the weather here in Southern Alberta and a major move in the wings hasn't made things any easier. It's been raining like crazy - again - so it has allowed a brief moment to pass on some interesting headlines. Thank you for your patience.

Check back regularly, no telling what little nugget of gnarled knowledge or whimsical wisdom you're going to unearth here but it could be a 'Breaking News Nugget' - and you can say you saw it here first. Others will just have to wait for the rest to catch up.

Note:: These headlines rotated, updated & barbecued throughout the day. Enjoy!

Hasta La L8r Señor Headline Hunter

It's being reported by C|net that Sun plans on announcing the release of Solaris as open source software on June 14th. The strategy appears to be an effort to fend off Red Hat, IBM, and Microsoft by engaging developers to take a look under the hood to see what makes it tick. The author says, "Sun plans to publish extensive documentation to let programmers build the operating system from scratch and understand its inner workings." It appears that Sun has been working hard to make sure that Solaris can be built using GCC but will also allow the free use of it's own compiler.

According to the opensolaris.org site, Solaris will be realeased under the OSI-approved Common Development and Dsistribution License (CDDL). The release is expected to include over 1600 patents and millions of development hours worth of code. This being Sun's contribution to the open source community.

I for one look forward to seeing what they have to offer. They seem to have a decent grip on making Solaris run fine on multi-processor systems, something Linux has had mixed results with. I'm sure all the techno-pundits will be beaking off over the next few days and if I get a chance I hope to be able to tune in. Being in the middle of a huge move makes that a somewhat remote possibility though.

Anyhow..., I find this a significant move on Sun's part and one worth keeping an eye on.

Check back regularly, no telling what little nugget of gnarled knowledge or whimsical wisdom you're going to unearth here but it could be a 'Sun nugget', and it just might shine real bright.

Hasta La L8r Señor Sun Tanner

Just in case you're wondering what's happening and why I'm a bit tardy with the headlines the last couple of days it's because we've had some serious flooding here in Southern Alberta - our basement included. Fortunately for us we were getting ready to move so many of our things were already boxed. There was still a lot of things that weren't though.

The night before last we had the youngest one, Nestor, bailing like crazy while the rest of the crew humped everything upstairs. All of our worldy positions are dry but our upstairs is in complete disarray. We fared considerably better than many of our neighbours who didn't stay up all night attending to things. And we also didn't have to contend with the completely demoralizing 'floating turds' that others had to contend with including the neighbours to each side of us. Curiously enough, the water that got into our basement was a little muddy at first and then turned as clear as tap water.

Anyhow..., we've got a ton of organizing to do in the next couple of days so the postings are going to be a tad sporadic. Please be patient and keep checking in. I will try and provide headlines and stories as time permits.

Check back regularly, no telling what little nugget of gnarled knowledge or whimsical wisdom you're going to unearth here but it could be a 'floatie nugget', but not from our basement.

Hasta La L8r Señor Floatie

Hand Picked Headline News
    - Served Fresh Daily -

:: Careers ::
Web Sites & Blogs Can Boost Your Career

• I'm patiently waiting. Maybe I should redo my resume.

:: Navy ::
Dud Sub Returns to Halifax for Repairs

• Just a few million more dollars sunk into this thing and maybe they can keep it away from the harbour for more than a week at a time.

:: Flood ::
Southern Alberta on Flood Alert

• The drought is officially over. Scrape the moss off the canoe and go for a paddle.

:: Grizzly ::
Grizzly 1 Humans -1

• Forget about the "bear bells" on your hiking gear. To a grizzly it's like the ice cream wagon rolling through the neighbourhood.

:: Navy ::
Canadian Navy Testing Frigate for Submarine Duty

• Fire aboard the frigate, HMCS Toronto as it sat docked in Halifax. I can hear the sub crew saying, "frigate" now!

:: Rescued ::
Lost Fishermen Rescued After 57 Days Adrift

• I'll bet they're ready for something besides sushi and rainwater.

:: Politics ::
Martin Meets With MPs Opposed to Same-Sex Marriage

• Mr. Martin, you're skating on thin ice here! If you'll recall, you have a minority government.

:: Bullfighter ::
Little Bullfighters Fighting Little Bulls

• The little people love to entertain the larger folks.

:: Media ::
Study Says CBC Guilty of Anti-American Bias

• No news there but I just thought you may be interested.

:: Quiz ::
The Canada Quiz

• From the self proclaimed 'National' newspaper, The Globe and Mail.

Check back regularly, no telling what little nugget of gnarled knowledge or whimsical wisdom you're going to unearth here but it could be a 'Breaking News Nugget' - and you can say you saw it here first. Others will just have to wait for the rest to catch up.

Note:: These headlines rotated, updated & barbecued throughout the day. Enjoy!

Hasta La L8r Señor Headline Hunter

Yesterday I ran across an article that I found quite interesting if you're into the OS (Operating System) Wars. OSNews is running a story about an interview with a couple of Harvard professors using formal economic modelling to predict a result of the competition between Linux and MS Windows.

Pankaj Ghemawat and Ramon Casadesus-Masanell are very thorough in their academic analysis of the competitive dynamics involved. The interview is an enlightening read and brought up many points that I would have never considered - not surprising considering my limited grasp of economics. An interesting concept put forward in the interview is the theory that piracy could benefit Microsoft by expanding it's installed base and, at the same time displacing the installed base of Linux. Ubiquity being the key factor here.

Numerous variables are considered with their economic modelling and the results are intriguing to say the least. FUD (Fear, uncertainty, and doubt) is considered as a variable and the final result is an eye-opener. Overall a very interesting interview and well worth the five or ten minutes it takes to give the story a read.

Anyhow..., that's what you get on a slow news day!

Check back regularly, no telling what little nugget of gnarled knowledge or whimsical wisdom you're going to unearth here but it could be a 'Linux nugget', they leave skid marks in the shorts of Microsoft executives.

Hasta La L8r Señor MS Zealot