So, I hit the Back button to wend my way back the way I came, but a single click on the back button took me clear back to the home page. I could have sworn I had to go through five rings of hell to get to where I was, but since it was obvious by this time that I was not on a "real" web site I probably shouldn't have expected it to act like a "real" web site and let me follow my breadcrumbs back.

I have a memory issue with my computer which seems to do with the fact that I tend to have about 80 applications open at any one time. It's not uncommon for me to be running Internet Explorer, Photoshop, BBEdit, Outlook Express, and maybe MS Word or Dreamweaver at the same time--not advisable, certainly, but not uncommon.

So what happens is that when I visit a website that has Flash, I get an error message that I don't have enough memory available to load the Flash player. If I absolutely have to see the Flash, I can usually quit IE and restart it, but it's generally not a problem as long as the site has a non-Flash component or is using some kind of sniffer to detect the fact that I can't load Flash. I don't have a problem with Flash, we use it, too. But I do have a problem with a commercial site using a technology that might not be universally usable. What is the point of the site? To impress us, or to sell stuff? Obviously, it's to impress us.

Macromedia apparently doesn't use any sniffer technology or give you any options if you can't use Flash. I was on the site the other day and while there are text links to some of their information, I was presented several times with absolutely blank pages that would have, I guess, have contained content if I had been able to load Flash. I guess if you can't run Flash, you're just out of luck. And here's a question--what if you're visiting Macromedia to download Flash, hm?

Apparently, the Christian-style wedding business in booming in Japan (they tell me close to 70% of weddings are now Christian), and there is a big demand for foreign Christians to play the role of priest/minister. You don't have to be an ordained minister or anything like that.

Hunkabutta: Tokyo photos, a stranger's life in pictures

Airline reservation agents would provide a traveler's name, address, phone number, date of birth, and travel plans to the TSA, which would then check that information against a variety of commercial databases and an FBI watch list, said TSA spokeswoman Heather Rosenker.

The search would yield a final "threat assessment" of each passenger, but it would not reveal information like whether a person had outstanding parking tickets or was turned down for a loan, Rosenker said.

I can definitely see making sure that someone doesn't have a knife, gun or bomb in their luggage or on their person, but beyond that, I fail to see why it's necessary to do a government background check on every person who gets on a plane.

Scheduled for deployment in spring 2004, the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, or CAPPS II, would combine government intelligence with information from credit bureaus and other commercial data services to determine if a passenger had links to al Qaeda or other violent groups.

I wonder if this involves getting your bookstore records as well, so they can find out if you've been reading up on communism.

CNN.com - Traveler screening won't invade privacy - Mar. 14, 2003

Seth Goldberg, a 41-year-old New Jersey man, said on Thursday he believes a screener with the Transportation Security Administration slipped a note into his suitcase before a March 2 flight out of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

"Don't appreciate your anti-American attitude!" was neatly hand written on the standard notice TSA places inside all the bags that screeners open.

Okay, so we've got to put up with them going through our bags--I don't like it, but I'll put up with it because I understand the reasons--but now they're leaving us editorial comments on the things we pack? Are we giving up all our rights to any kind of privacy? (And yes, I understand this was one baggage screener leaving a personal comment, not a government policy.) It's embarrassing and unnerving enough to know that any not only the bags you carry on, but now the bags you check, can be searched by anyone at any time, but at least you had the illusion of some sort of privacy.

Yahoo! News - Passenger's Anti-War Sign Gets Snippy Response

martha says:

belay me boom an' beat-down that salmon, ye damn'd swabbie

MARTHA THE PIRATE

In a letter to an inquiring senator, Assistant Attorney General Daniel Bryant said Americans who borrow or buy books surrender their right of privacy.

A patron who turns over information to the library or bookstore "assumes the risk that the entity may disclose it to another," Bryant, the Justice Department's chief of legislative affairs, said in a letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

I can almost see that applying to libraries, because I guess they are government (at least local government) entities. So although I'm pretty sure most people think libraries are a pretty safe place to go, it is perhaps not a stretch to say that you shouldn't expect your selections to be private.

On the other hand, I'm not sure what the logic is that says when you buy something from a private seller, the government has a right to know what it is . . .

Libraries post Patriot Act warnings / Santa Cruz branches tell patrons that FBI may spy on them

We had the "freedom fries" discussion at home last night, but I couldn't face it, and walked away. This morning, Bob said, "Oh, you're wearing barrettes! Oh, wait. Barrettes is a French word. We'll have to say clips! You're wearing clips!" The sad part was that I think he was serious.

We have French doors in this house. We do not have Freedom doors. I do not put Freedom’s Mustard on my hot dogs. I do not want my legislators to rewrite the scripts of “Family Affair” so Sebastian Cabot’s butler character is named “Mr. Freedom.” What am I supposed to call my niece - someone who has dual American-Freedom citizenship? You like the sound of that distinction?

I wonder if French's is worried? I wonder if their market share has been affected.

and further to my comment yesterday about the dearth of original ideas:

Give the computer aces another decade, and they’ll give us Casablanca 2: Everyone Still Comes To Rick’s.

Lileks.com

I remember watching the Topper television show as a child--it was probably the first "science fiction" show I ever saw--and I loved it. Steve Martin would probably do a good job as Topper, but it would be hard to top Leo G. Carroll.

Speaking of science fiction, I enjoyed this week's entry in the Periodic Table of Science Fiction at scifi.com: Astatine ("Bad Brains").

User Not Found is a weblog devoted to the discussion of dealing with the death of online friends. As more and more friendships/relationships are established and maintained in a virtual realm, more "real life" scenarios become relevant in the online environment. Death, unfortunately, is one of these scenarios.

User Not Found

His birth mother, from Cedar Falls, Iowa, had fallen for a Nigerian who was studying for a master's degree in education at Northern Iowa University. He had to go home; she put the baby up for adoption.

Yahoo! News - Adoptee Discovers He's an African Prince

A few years ago, I asked my readers what they carry, and they responded with some interesting lists.

I loved reading those lists, and thought it might be time to revisit the question because I think people (some people anyway) enjoy taking inventory. And also because it would be a good way to test out Quick Topic's message board service.

So, tell me what you carry.

Willa's Journal: What we carry - QuickTopic bulletin board

More: Ellen Bass

Link from Free Will Astrology

Me:

Handspring Visor Deluxe, for addresses and phone numbers, ebooks (currently Lawrence Block's "Enough Rope"), appointments, shopping list, checkbook register, journal. It has a modem module, so I can hook it up to a phone line and get my email if I need to. If I'm actually traveling, I take a Targas Stowaway fold-up keyboard, but I don't bother to carry it around every day.

Motorola StarTac. I guess it's old technology now, but I remember when it was like science fiction. I like that it closes into a little compact package that I can put in my pocket and not worry about pushing buttons (or turning it off) accidentally.

Keys, with a mini Swiss Army Knife and a little LED flashlight attached. No watch--I got out of the habit except, again, when I'm traveling--but with the cell phone and PDA, I can always find out what time it is.

My knitting--not gadgety, I guess, but I almost always have it with me in case I get stuck waiting somewhere. Currently knitting: a pair of purple stripey socks.

But basic stuff like lipstick on the teeth? PLEASE SAY SOMETHING. Otherwise you will end up like me, and sit through an entire meeting not knowing that you have a large swath of purple ink on your cheek, from your earlier too-emphatic gesturing with an uncapped pen. I wonder if people just thought I had finally gone nuts and was getting all commando with the office warpaint. But wait, it gets worse.

mimi smartypants

As Maureen Dowd in the New York Times puts it: "Are we so worried about medieval villains abroad that we no longer worry about medievalism at home?"

I'm concerned that the separation of church and state has almost completely disappeared during this administration, and they don't appear to be finished yet. If things keep on the way they have been, we'll be living back in the 50's, women in shirtwaist dresses and aprons and high heels, waiting to serve dinner to our men when they get home from their hard days at work, having as many children as they demand, with no way to avoid it.

It frightens me, like many things about the current administration.

I think it's entirely possible that religious beliefs and prayer can affect health, but I don't think prayer has a place on an FDA panel.

HELLO THIS IS STILL MARTHA AND I AM STILL A PIRATE

here is a list of things a pirate says
yarrr
weigh the gibbets
raise the fleet an' strike me swag, ye scurvy sea-cook
plunder that tuna an' maroon the sloops
arr, raise yer yardarm
yarr, swab me grapples an' set sail for yer bowsprit, ye yellow-bellied sons of swabbies

Abbie The Cat Has A Posse

Like this site says, I was skeptical at first, but I bought one, and then I went back and bought three more--one for the bedroom (apples), one for Bob's office (moons and stars), one for the dining room (trees), and one for my office (hearts). They work.

Link from Loobylu.