Kindle screensaver images

Ever wonder what those pictures are that appear on your Kindle? Here are a few of them...

Painted Finch, John James Audubon
Ophiuchus or Serpentarius, from "A Celestial Atlas", A. Jamieson
Palladio's Villa Rotonda, Andrea Palladio
The Heavenly Machine, Johannes Hevelius

Anyone know what any of the rest of them are?

It's a boy!

Mother, father and baby are all doing fine. Well, maybe a little jet lagged, but nothing a few days of rest won't cure.

The scam continues

Turns out someone's been using my debit card to purchase items on the internet (including the Magic Jack) and something at a store in Pennsylvania (the card information was keyed in there). The bank put a block on the card, which I discovered when attempting to purchase refill pages for my planner. (I love my Franklin planner!) Anyway, not much damage done to our accounts -- under $50 of stuff was fraudulently purchased. Kudos to Wells Fargo for figuring out something funny was going on.

So, was this related to the calls I got today, where someone was signing me up for stuff? I wouldn't think the timing was a coincidence.

Now I just need to survive a week or so without a debit card, while they send me a new one.

I'm getting scammed!

I've been getting a bunch of calls here at work today from a variety of companies. Seems like someone has gotten a hold of my name, home address & work phone number, and is signing me up for a bunch of stuff (so far, security systems, satellite TV, investment funds). The only thing that doesn't match my info is the email address. That one ain't mine.

Has anyone heard of anything like that, and if so, what's the point of doing it? Other than to annoy me. :)

A lovely day

I chaperoned a field trip for Ashlie's German class today. We saw The Diary of Anne Frank at the Park Square Theatre in St Paul. After that, we had lunch at the Glockenspiel. I got to spend some time with Ashlie, everybody was well behaved, we saw a really good performance of a moving play and had a great lunch with a fabulous dessert! All in all, a wonderful day.

Greatest album cover ever

Without a doubt, it's Rock and Roll Over. Or at least that's my take on the subject.

Inside the sausage factory

Based on a conversation at work, I just got done re-reading Jamie Zawinski's article on webcasting legally. It's one of those situations where I think I might just be happier not knowing the details, because knowing how it works just makes me mad, and there ain't a whole lot I can do about it. Here's a teaser:

Someone said to me, "how do they [the RIAA] expect the little guys to survive?'' I replied, "No Mister Bond, I expect you to die.'' They're trying to legislate webcasting out of existence, because it stands in the way of their progress toward a completely pay-per-view economy. Remember: these are the kind of people who once tried to outlaw the VCR. (That was MPAA, not RIAA, but they're the same snake with different scales.)