alexpgp | "Coverage"...

While I may not be too big on watching the tube (especially the news) the same doesn't apply to Galina. She's over in the living room, and I can't help but overhear some of what passes for "news" these days. It turns out the individual who shot up Virginia Tech dispatched a package to the media, which has in turn dutifully turned the contents to best financial advantage by broadcasting it to the widest possible audience, all in the name of "keeping the public informed."

To me, the massive coverage given to the gunman - now, complete with his rantings - seems to be a little bit more than simply a nudge to any similarly inclined sickos to act out their grievances, complete with fantasized glorious end. And should any copycats surface, you can be sure the media will pop a halo over its collective head, disavow any responsibility, direct or indirect, and innocently maintain that, after all, they were only responding to the public's "right to know."

I hope I'm wrong, but I seem to recall that previous instances of school violence spawned copycats, so all one can do is hope.

* * *I've got to hit the sack soon, so as to wake up in time for tomorrow morning's telecon. Today, progress with the Friday assignment continued in its glacial pace, aided by the arrival of a 2,000-word assignment that's due tomorrow at noon (and which I have completed, short of actually sending it).

So the bag for the day is about 5,000 source words, and there are just over 5,000 source words left in the Friday job.

* * *I've got an email account with my best client, using their domain name. Unfortunately, their server has been letting through a lot of spam, which I haven't seen because my account had been "disabled" (owing to the fact that I hardly ever check it, and it had overflowed with, mostly, spam).

Anyway, they upgraded their server software over the weekend and that let loose a torrent of spam that overwhelmed my web service because my best client's domain is in my whitelist. Making some off-the-cuff adjustments in my mail filters didn't work too well, as I found out when I went to look for today's assignment, which had been dumped into my Junk Mail folder because it had come from - you guessed it - my best client's domain!

Hopefully, everyone will clean up their act soon, and I won't have to worry about missed assignments.

A pox on spammers.

* * *A note from TPTB at JSC indicates a sea change in the use of cell phones (and, in particular, BlackBerrys) at Mission Control. Previously, the use of "transmitting devices" (including cell phones) was categorically prohibited inside the MCC, but the rule was routinely broken by Certain People™. Now, the restriction has been made more specific and one can basically make use of one's ~~Crack~~BlackBerry just about anywhere.

Hooray!

* * *I'm just noticing that the Offshore Technology Conference and the ATA Energy Conference are two different events, occurring one after the other. Hmmm.

* * *A little while ago, I gave in to the temptation of ordering a set of MOO cards, which I felt were sufficiently different from, yet still capable of being used as, business cards. I was, frankly, concerned that the quality of the cards would be... inappropriate for business use.

My concerns were ill-founded. The quality of the cards is pretty darned good. Now, to find out if I misjudged their usability as business cards...

And although I'm sure I could go on with additional items, it's really getting along to that time where I must shut down my computer and go to sleep, already!

Cheers...