A Halla from Halla

10 People with Unbelievable Medical Conditions

2008-08-24T18:50:00.000-07:00

This is fascinating: 10 people with unbelievable medical conditions

Some of these remind me of several characters on my fav show, Heroes... others are just freaky or really, really amazing (you can probably guess which :) ).

History of Internet Memes

2008-08-08T14:59:00.000-07:00

The sad part is, I actually remember the vast majority of these.

History of Internet Memes

The Commander in Chief Test

2008-07-29T17:20:00.000-07:00

This is a hilarious video on YouTube...

Mike Savage Attacks Autistic Children Update: He's off in Mississippi!

2008-07-23T15:34:00.000-07:00

Steve Davenport, CEO of TeleSouth Communications has had the good sense to take the ranting lunatic and absolute moron Mike Savage off of the air in Mississippi.

Effective immediately, Michael Savage and his Savage Nation Radio Show has been canceled on all Super Talk Mississippi stations. Michael Savage's comments about Autistic children were beyond inexcusable and are unacceptable. Super Talk Mississippi and the Gallo Radio Show have assisted numerous Autism organizations on the air in the past and will continue to do so in the future. Autism is a serious condition affecting children and adults in Mississippi. We appreciate our many listeners who notified us of Savage's comments, especially those listeners who have autistic children. Steve Davenport, CEO Telesouth Communications, Inc.

Read more about this update on getting Mike Savage off of the air at Think Progress.

On the Unspeakable Name of God

2008-07-21T13:35:00.001-07:00

This has to be the most fascinating article I've read in awhile:

Rabbi Unveils a Secret About God

I'm not about to get all mystical or religious on y'all, but the article is definitely worth the read.

Mike Savage Attacks Autistic Children. Let's Take Him Down.

2008-07-18T09:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday on his radio show, right wing talker Michael Savage said that autism is “a fraud” and “a racket” and that “in 99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out.” Savage then asserted that all these “brat[s]” need as a father to tell them to “stop acting like a putz“.

You can read about this on Digg, which links to a transcript of Mr. Savage's comments on Media Matters, at http://digg.com/politics/Conservative_Radio_Host_99_of_Autistic_Children_Are_Frauds

As the father of a young son with autism, I am outraged at Mr. Savage's verbal assault on helpless, disabled children.

I have opened a formal FCC complaint and demanded inquiry into this matter, as well as punitive measures to be taken against Mr. Savage, his radio program, and the stations which carry his program.

Please see FCC Complaint 08-C00036602 for details.

I strongly encourage all readers of Digg and my blog - be they on the autistic spectrum, a relative or parent of a person with ASD, or simply educated individuals who wish to defend persons with ASD, to follow suit and open their own formal FCC Complaints.

FCC Complaints can be opened online at: http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm

The process takes less than 10 minutes. Let's work together to take ignorant megalomaniacs like Mr. Savage off of our airwaves. People who attack children - especially disabled children - have no place being on our airwaves, or for that matter being in America.

Datacase - Turn your iPhone into a Wireless Harddrive

2008-07-15T10:22:00.000-07:00

The Tuaw article on Datacase mentions that it's ability to allow your iPhone to act as a harddrive works not only wirelessly, but will also provide FTP and HTTP capabilities.

I wonder if I could use my iPhone as a web server? How crazy would that be, to be running a PHP or Rails app on my damn phone?

IndyMac Bank Collapse - Customers Make a Run on Withdrawals

2008-07-14T14:26:00.000-07:00

This image is so scary; IndyMac customers making a run on withdrawals at their local IndyMac branches after the bank collapsed and was taken over by the FDIC.

I remember seeing images like this in history books growing up, in the chapters dealing with the Great Depression and WWII.

Microsoft and Search - The Problem isn't Tech, it's Branding

2008-07-07T12:02:00.000-07:00

After being spurned in their first takeover bid for Yahoo!, Microsoft toyed with the idea of acquiring just Yahoo's search assets. Then the whole deal collapsed, only to be resurrected recently with Carl Icahn's interest in pushing out Yahoo's board.

MS' problem with Search isn't technical based, however. It's an issue with their brand. Users trust Yahoo more than Microsoft, just as they trust Google more than Yahoo.

Google earned that trust through fast, accurate search results free from invasive advertisements, and has kept that trust through solid performance over the years. The second-tier search engine providers - Yahoo, Microsoft, and Ask - offer up search results that are roughly equivalent to one another, and at times more relevant and compelling than Google's (more the case for Ask than Yahoo or MS). Again, the problem lies not with technology - for what it's worth, Ask has a very technically compelling user interface and results page for searches, even more so than Google.

It's all about brand perception. MS just isn't trusted. This may stem from the 90's anti-trust debacle; it may stem from users inundated with MS software at work (Outlook, Office, MSIE) who just want a change when their online; it may stem from MS' recent woes with Vista, previous missteps with Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000 or XP; it might be the shitty job MS does in filtering Spam from its free Hotmail accounts (which Yahoo stinks at filtering as well... really only Gmail keeps its users safe from Spam); it may be a combination of these and myriad other factors.

The point is, simply buying Yahoo or acquiring Yahoo's search assets won't fundamentally change anything for Microsoft's positioning in the search arena. If MS purchases Yahoo's search assets, they'll re-brand them under the MS moniker. All Yahoo would have to do at that point is acquire Ask, and it would continue to be the #2 search provider. Yahoo has a brand that is perceived in a more positive light than MS.

MS' best option would be to either cede the search business altogether, or to quietly acquire another less visible search provider, keep the connection between that 3rd party and MS very, very quiet and maintain the branding separation. For instance, MS could acquire Ask, and keep the Ask branding on that search portal, but push it forward with additional revenue, to expand Ask's indexing and increase its speed. Buying Yahoo, Ask, or any other search property and re-branding it under the MS name basically kills it.

Unfortunately, MS is a technology company run by technologists. They don't understand branding; never have, never will.

ITIL Service Manager and ITIL Practitioner - Job Available, Help Wanted, We're Hiring

2008-05-12T10:36:00.001-07:00

I work for a Fortune 500, multi-national software company that is currently hiring process & technology architects with ITIL IT Service Manager / Service Master and Practitioner certification. You would be a Services Architect working with our clients on ITIL process and technology design.

This is a Manager / Architect level position. Travel is involved, but is generally just in the Midwest (including Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Nebraska).

Experience in a ITIL v2/v3 environment and experience with Service Desk and CMDB products and related processes is preferred. ITIL Service Manager and/or Practitioner certification is preferred.

Please email me for more information.

Elizabeth Edwards Endorses Clinton's Misguided Health Care Plan

2008-04-09T10:58:00.000-07:00

This just in from the AP: Elizabeth Edwards Plugs Clinton's Health Plan.

The Edwards' should be smarter than this. Hillary Clinton's health care plan is a disaster for America, should she ever become President. Mandating that everyone have health insurance brings significant and terrifying problems. What happens if you lose your job? How then do you pay for this mandated health insurance? What if it's too expensive? Clinton promises to help subsidize those who need assistance, which in turn sounds like another massive Federal bureaucracy, impossible to navigate for the average American (much like our student loan system, Medicare, Medicaid, etc already are).

Universal Health Care to the rest of the civilized world means a single payer health care system. Frankly, it is disingenuous for either Clinton or Obama to call their proposals Universal Health Care, when in fact they are not. Mandating health insurance is not the answer, and will only exacerbate existing problems with America's broken health care system.

Shame on you, Elizabeth Edwards. You should know better than to endorse a concept so critically flawed as Hillary Clinton's health care plan.

Michael Moore Speaks Out Against Hillary's Health Care Plan

2008-02-23T18:51:00.000-08:00

About time someone spoke up about this:
Michael Moore speaks out against Hillary Clinton's health care plan.

A single-payer system is the only viable option. Mandating health insurance misses the point entirely. What happens to people who are unemployed? How will they pay for health insurance? Hillary Clinton's health care "plan" is severely flawed.

Google Launches PowerPoint and WebEx Killer

2007-09-18T09:46:00.000-07:00

Say goodbye to having to sign up for WebEx accounts to show PowerPoint presentations to customers, colleagues, etc.

Google has launched its online presentation software today, as a compliment to its already robust, excellent online docs and spreadsheets offerings.

Here is an example of an online Google Presentation (really stupid simple):
Simple Google Presentation Example

This rocks... seriously, I cannot wait to use this instead of the ppt/webex combo... Very, very cool.

Microsoft Should Get Off the Internet

2007-06-24T19:55:00.000-07:00

Microsoft should just stop trying. Turn off your search engine. Kill MSN. Shut the whole thing down.

Keep your corporate site, and your development communities. The rest of it should be eliminated.

Focus on building the OS, browser, server-side software, etc. You've never understood nor properly executed the media aspect of the Internet. You're much better suited to work on the back-end aspects of the Internet, like your brethren Sun, Apple, Novell, RedHat, etc. You don't see them trying to be both behind the scenes and front-and-center, do you? For good reason. They don't really get it, either.

Apple comes close, and closer still since the whole incestuous Apple-Pixar-Disney thing went down. But still - Apple isn't out there trying to compete with Yahoo, or Google now, are they?

Windows security is still terrible. Your last OS release was a major letdown. It's time to regroup around the original mission, MS. Time to get your mojo back.

Carter is Officially an Idiot

2007-06-19T19:48:00.000-07:00

Former President Carter, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and a person whose views I normally strongly advocate, is suggesting that the US should support Hamas.

For those of you unfamiliar, Hamas is a Islamic-militant-driven terrorist organization which enjoys murdering innocent people for fun, spouting off psychotic rhetoric about how their blood-thirsty revenge killing escapades are the desire of Allah and Muhammed, which is just retarded.

Here's a quote from the AP article:

Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who was addressing a human rights conference in Ireland, also said the Bush administration's refusal to accept Hamas' 2006 election victory was "criminal."

Carter said Hamas, besides winning a fair and democratic mandate that should have entitled it to lead the Palestinian government, had proven itself to be far more organized in its political and military showdowns with Abbas' moderate
Fatah movement.

Basically he's advocating military in-fighting between what are supposed to be two political parties in Palestine. Hamas is a terrorist organization. That's nice that they won their election in Palestine. However, they still want to kill Israel, they still want to kill Americans, and they still haven't opted for a peaceful political solution either inside of their own country and with their neighbor Israel. The fighting instigated by Hamas against the rival political party, Fatah recently is evidence that they're basically at their core nutcases with machine guns.

Seriously, Carter, you're going to erode your world-stage credibility with idiocy like this. Go home, Jimbo, go home.

Most Ironic Comment of the Day: Bush Says Will Veto "Runaway Government Spending"

2007-06-16T14:32:00.000-07:00

I almost fell of my chair when I read this headline:

Bush warns he'll veto runaway spending

That's an amazing statement. Too bad it's 7 years too late.

Letting Go of Your Fear

2007-06-14T08:13:00.001-07:00

Ran into a great article about letting go of your fear today.

For those of you who know me, I'm not exactly a shrinking violet; however, thought I'd publish a link to this article, as it encapsulates many great ideas about moving past one's fear of the unknown to expand your experiences and live a fuller life.

Kudos to the author, J.D., for putting himself "out there" and sucking the marrow out of the thighbone of life.

In Laws

2007-06-11T20:24:00.000-07:00

Ever have one of those nights, where the in-laws are driving you up a wall? Yeah. I'm there now. Luckily, I have my office, the internet, Radiohead, and Blue Moon to keep me company.

Emotionally Unstable Wives, Rejoice!

2007-06-08T18:50:00.000-07:00

Winkler was sentenced today, and stands to spend anywhere from 2 months to 1 week in prison for shooting her husband in the back with a shotgun while he was sleeping.

You read that right: 67 days maximum; 7 days minimum. For killing someone. By shooting them in the back. While that person was sleeping.

Ever hear of "divorce", lady?

OK, so maybe he was abusive. OK, so maybe he liked kinky sex. I don't condone the former at all; the latter... well... we'll not go there.

In any event, you always have a choice: the choice to walk away. If the marriage was that bad, you could have just gotten up, found a cheapo divorce lawyer, and bailed. Any court in America would have granted you custody of the kids; you probably would have walked away owning the house, too.

Great. Now emotionally unstable women everywhere are going to be cleaning their guns in anticipation of this wonderful new precedent.

I'm personally gonna be watching my back when I sleep.

He'll Never Be Elected President

2007-06-07T16:40:00.001-07:00

Edwards isn't pulling punches anymore; check this comment out:

"If Mayor Giuliani believes that what President Bush has done is good and wants to embrace it and run a campaign for the presidency saying 'I will give you four more years of what this president has given you,' he's allowed to do that.

"He'll never be elected president of the United States, but he's allowed to do that," he said.

Kind of ironic, Edwards saying to someone else that they'll "never be elected president of the United States". Still, interesting to hear what Edwards has to say, now that he has a set. Good for him.

Standard Human Emotions, According to Liam, Age 7

2007-05-29T17:59:00.000-07:00

According to Liam, age 7, the standard human emotions are as follows (presented in order of either frequency or importance):

Happy

Angry

Whatever

Loud

While "Whatever" and "Loud" aren't usually on lists of emotions, given that he's being raised in Mid-western America, #4 seems pretty obvious; given that Liam is autistic, #5 suddenly makes quite a bit of sense (having me around the house probably doesn't help any).

In celebration of this new definitive emotions list, I'd like to recommend this song. It neatly expresses both #4 and #5, in a way that will make you feel either #1, #2 or #3, depending on your personal background and experiences. Enjoy!

It Worked with Frank

2007-05-02T21:02:00.000-07:00

I had such luck with the "Looking for Frank Lombardo" post (yes, I found Frank! He's alive and doing really well in Chicago. Woohoo!), that I thought to try it with some of my other long-lost friends.

So, here's the list (not in order of preference, just in the order that I happen to remember them in at this late hour of the night):
NIU

Bill Augle. I might be mis-spelling Bill's last name; it might be Bill Ogle, or Bill Oggle, or Bill Auggle... Honestly, even though we were roommates, I can't recall ever seeing his name in print.

Bill was my roommate for most of Freshman & Sophomore year. I miss Bill, he was a really good person... we had a falling out in S.year; hopefully, after all these years he's not still pissed at me! :D Bill, if you're out there, gimme a buzz d00d!

John Janda. John, we're getting the band back together.

Matt Daoud. Hopefully I'm not on "the list"!

Shithead. His first name was really Dave; I've forgotten his last name. We all called him Shithead, because, well, he was a bit of one. But, in a good way.

Wheeling, IL friends:

Laurel Robinson

Wadsworth, OH friend(s):

Doug Knoop

Marion, OH friends:

Ricky Rick III (Yes, I really had a childhood friend named Ricky Rick)

Jenny Schwartz

OK. That'll do for now... hopefully someone on this list gets ahold of me! Email me at drgroove[at]gmail[dot]com!

Daylight Savings Extended Starting in 2007

2006-12-19T12:12:00.000-08:00

Why is no one in the IT industry screaming bloody murder about the recently passed Daylight Savings Time extension. Due to take affect in 2007, the new act extends DST by two months.

Daylight Savings Time Extended

Folks, this is Y2K all over again. Every computer operating system, application platform, and development language containing logic for tracking time in the US now have to be updated. All of them. In less than three months.

The fallout if this isn't accomplished could be similar to some of the projected issues that would have arisen had the Y2K issue not been settled. However, I have yet to see this issue hit the radar screens of the major IT publications, blogs, forums, etc.

Are we gun shy after saying that the sky was falling in the late 90's, only to have no issues arise come 2000? Keep in mind that programs worldwide tolled endless hours rewriting millions of lines of code to prevent Y2K from becoming a real issue. In this instance, however, I haven't seen any efforts being put into resolving the problem.

Did the Republicans Steal the 2004 Presidential Election?

2006-09-17T19:02:00.000-07:00

Robert Kennedy Jr. believes they did - and I have the utmost admiration and respect for RFK Jr.
Read the article for yourself - Was the 2004 Election Stolen?

Looking for Frank Lombardo

2006-07-28T15:55:00.000-07:00

I'm looking for Frank Lombardo.

Frank Lombardo was a drummer I met while at NIU. We were good friends for a long time, having played together in a band called One Past Fast, which was a combination of funk, speed metal, punk rock, and rap (and this was back in 1994, before such a style really existed anywhere else).

We were roommates briefly in Chicago; this was after he returned from touring with Buddha Knievel. After he moved out, I only saw him once or twice, then slowly lost touch with him.

I've dug around online and through the various social networking sites (Friendster, MySpace, etc) to no avail. I even paid for an ad in the Chicago Reader, but haven't received any responses from it.

Frank Lombardo's father was an auto-mechanic in Chicago's South Side; his mother was a hair dresser or hair stylist.

If anyone knows where Frank Lombardo, drummer, bicyclist, and all around really cool dude is, or better yet, if you're Frank, please get in touch with me! Email me at drgroove[at]gmail[dot]com. It would be awesome to hear from you, Frank!