If you're anything like me....

You might not know a great deal about the current state of affairs in Georgia. That's where this nifty little internet thing comes in. For some fairly decent background information, here are some of the usual suspects:

CIA World Factbook entry on Georgia
Library of Congress country study on Georgia
UN Cyberschoolbus entry on Georgia
State Department info regarding Georgia
State Department background notes on Georgia

I found a goldmine of information about the background of the events in Georgia at another one of my favorite web haunts this afternoon. The site?

The Federation of American Scientists Secrecy News site.

In particular, FAS has posted a very recent Congressional Research Service report (08-13-08) entitled "Russia-Georgia Conflict in South Ossetia: Context and Implications for U.S. Interests".

You might ask why a product written to inform our elected folks in Congress (representing the people who pay for the CRS) is available at the FAS site but not at loc.gov or perhaps even another government site. Some answers can be found here (near the bottom). This stuff isn't confidential or anything like that. It's just darn good info. It's too bad that the general policy of CRS is to limit access to their work. As mentioned, FAS has a decent repository of CRS reports. Another site that provides access to a decent collection of these reports is opencrs.com. Enjoy!

P.S. - Two other relatively recent CRS reports about that part of the world are available via the US Diplomatic Mission to Italy's website. They are:

Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia: Security Issues and Implications for U.S. Interests
Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia: Political Developments and Implications for U.S. Interests

I was perusing our little blue marble......

and I was stoked to find the high rise building where my family lived in Germany through the mid-1970s...


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Here's the link to view it in Google Earth.

Pretty decent "street view" of my old stomping grounds and where I laid my head to sleep....

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My cat eats bugs...

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Note to folks looking for upgrading Olevia HDTV firmware...

I have posted two entries here about upgrading Olevia firmware (and the PREVIOUS lack of the appropriate USB driver that was included in the download). See this entry from January 2008 or this one from February 2008. Having looked through my logs and such, I've noticed that folks come here sometimes trying to find the Pixelworks USB driver. Fortunately, the driver is now included (it was with my latest download) in the download from Olevia.

For some reason, when I tried entering my FM number at olevia.com, it didn't recognize my entry. I found a little way around that by going here and entering the appropriate data. It seems like there's always some silly hurdle to be met....

olevia Future Proof pixelworks usb driver

Hope this helps!

I am REALLY not much of a videographer.....

However, I have managed to put six videos up here since last year. See?



By the way, the code to embed that is:

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/p/3AE10B00E439B617"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/p/3AE10B00E439B617" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

Google has some truly amazing products. Then there are some you might have never heard of (e.g. Google Image Labeler).

Here is Google's list and here's the list from Wikipedia.org....

LIBERTAS

There's a relatively new restaurant on County Line Rd. in Madison (the new Publix shopping center)...

It's called Sakura Japanese Steak House. Great food! The pictures below link to bigger (hence, read more easily) versions.....

OK, this might look like a repeat, but....

I couldn't get the first one right. This vid is three separate movies that were spliced together. I'm still not sure why the original didn't work like I wanted it to.....

Interested in the medal count......

NBC is doing a fine job of broadcast/web features for their coverage of the Beijing Olympics!

OK, just a freaky video for right now...

And two other things...

I am a fan of Front 242. They helped pioneer EBM in the 1980s. Something I recently noticed is that they have made two of their older songs available as free high quality downloads. Check 'em out!

Another thing is HD View. HD View is a product of Microsoft Research. What, you may ask, is HD View? Here's Microsoft's description:

"What is HD View?
HD View is the camera for the web. Its goal is to create the best picture given (a) a source with high resolution, arbitrary dynamic range, any field of view & color gamut; (b) the user’s interaction; and(c) the display being used."

The viewer is available as a free download for Internet Explorer AND Firefox.

I've had Google Earth for quite some time now.....

However, I've never done a great deal with it. It's seriously cool being able to slap up pictures and information and associate them with a spot on the Earth. Here are the additions I've made so far (links should download a kml or kmz file)...

Art's Blog

Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant news via Google News

Athens, AL news via enewscourier.com

Steak 'n Shake Huntsville, AL store

Visiting with my daddy-o and his family in Sunbury, OH

This was an oldie but a goodie.....

I just found the old pictures of Isabella and the bunnies from up in Illinois. I'm kind of surprised the old server I had them on hasn't gotten rid of them yet. Since I found them, I put them up on Picasa.....

See?

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Get your own

Payback's a !*&)#%^#$^*&@

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Drat!

I've recently noticed that the old link I had up here for Olevia firmware DOES NOT WORK! FWIW, this is the link (http://64.168.125.230/support/OLEVIA/) that's BUSTED. Maybe I'll find something else that works....

Little shindig this past Saturday.....

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It's been quite some time since we've been to the beach.....

We just went this past weekend. I had forgotten how much I love the beach. I don't think that I had ever encountered jellyfish (though they were small) up close and in person. I think I had a few close encounters with them this time. No big deal! That certainly didn't keep me out of the water! Between hanging with friends, swimming with jellyfish, rolling in the sand and kicking a footbag, it was a blast. See?



I look like such a hippie...

Oh, by the way....

This is also pretty slick...

Make that super-wicked cool!

And there you are.....

Out some place sans a microwave but wanting a tasty snack.......

All you need is a cell phone and some popping corn. I'm sure this has been done often, but it's the first time I've seen it. Pretty slick!

Pop Corn téléphone portable micro-ondes
by sassiere

Those zany folks at JibJab have a great new campaign season animation for the world....

Check it out!

Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!

I was ever-so-slightly perturbed yesterday afternoon...

Someone I know received an e-mail from a service professional (using their work e-mail addy) about some "fraudulent internet campaign funding" of a certain Democratic Presidential nominee. I won't even include the text here because I don't want to propagate crap. The e-mail cites an article by a New York Times reporter that SHE DID NOT WRITE. In other words, absolute lies are being spread. A simple search of the reporter's work for the suspect article turns up ZILCH.

I want one thing to be crystal clear right here and now...

I DO NOT support Obama. I DO SUPPORT Bob Barr. However, false information will not be the basis of my opposition for the Democrats (or the Republicans) and I hope that it won't be yours.

A link about this hoax: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2008/jul/08/bogus-dowd-column/

From a slightly psychological/sociological standpoint, I realize that the folks who believe junk e-mails like this and continue to forward them have likely already made up their minds. In other words, many of these e-mails will be "preaching to the choir". However, there are undecided folks out there.

Snopes.com perhaps? http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/donations.asp