Out of Cheese

So we just went through a terrorism alert during which the government prompted millions of Americans to buy massive amounts of duct tape, and the nation’s economy is a mess. What to do?

According to the Wall Street Journal, of all places, the answer is clearly that we should all start selling prom dresses. American ingenuity is a wonderful thing….

Am I the only one who finds the Counting Crows cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” to be far worse than the version Amy Grant did in 1994? I’d actually never heard the song before Amy Grant’s version (and didn’t even realize it was a Joni Mitchell song until just now), and now that the Counting Crows remake is getting radio time I wish they’d drop it and replace it with Grant’s.

Mr. Rogers passed away today, at the age of 74. Of the various comments I’ve read, I like Judi Sohn’s the most. Like her, some of my earliest memories are of watching Mr. Rogers and enjoying the time I spent watching the show. It’d be tough for a similar show to land on TV today, and for kids growing up now, that’s a shame.

The Phillies played their first spring training game of the year today. They beat the Pirates 6-3.

Yesterday I was annoyed because Major League Baseball’s Gameday Audio page was still talking about the World Series and didn’t even mention the 2003 season. Surely there must be at least a few other people in the country who want to listen to spring training games. And what do you know — today they updated the site for this spring, with a note that all spring training games will be available for free. I unfortunately didn’t manage to see that before the Phillies game had ended, but now I know what I’ll be listening to in the afternoons at work until October.

We just saw a flash of light outside and then a really loud boom. When the sound stopped a second or two later, a car alarm was blaring in the parking lot.

An explosion? Nope. Just lightning and then some thunder. Any thunder that can set off a car alarm is pretty strong in my book. Wow.

The O’Reilly Network just posted a vi tutorial by Wei-Meng Lee. As much as I can’t stand vi, I’ve needed an article like this for a long time. There are certain situations in which neither BBEdit nor emacs are available — a newly-installed Solaris system, for example — or when I don’t want to deal with emacs’ annoying backup files, and I have to resort to vi at those times. I’ve learned enough to get by with vi, but now that I’ve read the article I’ll be a bit more comfortable in it.

My great aunt Ruth passed away last night after a long illness. She was my mother’s father’s sister, and for years, when we all lived in the same area, I saw her and my great uncle frequently. I haven’t seen either of them since they moved to Florida a few years ago (and I to California), but I certainly missed them. I’m saddened to learn that I won’t have a chance to see Aunt Ruth again. All of my memories of her are good ones, and I’ll treasure them.

Ruth Stolber, may you rest in peace. We’ll miss the interest you took in all of us and the joy you brought to our lives.

Word came out today that Microsoft is buying most of Connectix. I’ve known about this for a while — I overheard rumors of it before moving from Washington — but I’m still not sure what to think about it.

Virtual PC is almost an afterthought in the purchase. I can’t imagine that Microsoft cares about it all that much, and it wasn’t a reason for the transaction. Instead, Microsoft saw the demand for virtual server systems like VMWare’s and wanted to integrate that technology into Windows. I suppose VMWare was probably too expensive, so Microsoft settled for Connectix’ solution. Virtual PC, meanwhile, came along for the ride.

On MacSlash, Microsoft’s Dan Crevier mentions that the Virtual PC team will now be rolled into the MacBU and will report to him. That’s good news — Dan and his team are terrific.

I wonder if they’ll get management’s support in the long run, though. I don’t really see what the incentive is for Microsoft to continue to produce a high-quality PC emulation product for the Mac. True, each sale of Virtual PC with Windows includes the full price of a Windows license, but the purchaser then runs it on a system on which Microsoft is unlikely to earn additional revenue from other pieces of software. I also wonder how many people buy Virtual PC with DOS and then install a creatively-acquired copy of Windows.

Personally, I just hope that any future versions of Virtual PC include the support I’ve come to depend on for installing non-Windows operating systems. At various times I’ve installed OpenBSD, NetBSD, and Linux on Virtual PC. It’s far more convenient to install them via VPC than to sacrifice a computer for the same purpose.

It’s also worth mentioning that if Microsoft decides to discontinue VPC for any reason, chances are that someone else will step into the market with a replacement product. The Mac user base has supported at least one PC emulator for the past six or seven years — Insignia first, then Connectix when Virtual PC proved to be better than SoftWindows — and I can’t see that changing any time soon. Unless Apple increases its market share by a factor of 10, there are always going to be some number of Mac users who are required to run one or two Windows-only pieces of software and who are willing to pay a reasonable surcharge for doing so. If Microsoft provides the solution, that’s terrific, since they know Windows better than anyone else. If they don’t, though, I’m sure someone else will.

Brian Tiemann discovers Iraqi Explorer. It’s quite good.

Nick has found a reason for me to keep my Washington voter’s registration for a little while longer: Washington ballot initiative 831. It makes a statement about the problems of the initiative system and the idiocy of Tim Eyman at the same time. I’m very impressed.