I just really like this wallpaper – I think it’s the style. Think: Pac-Man meets Tron (the light-cycle bit).

(Click for the full-size version.)

Still, really neat.

(Click for the full-size version.)

Well, you have to figure, even alien space invaders need to go to school to learn things, right?

I refer to this wallpaper internally as the “browser clubhouse.” And yes, that is Internet Explorer 6 that’s not allowed up to play.

(Click for the full-size version.)

Apparently this image is used by a particular site whenever you view the site using IE6 – sort of as a way of saying “get with the times, man!”

Personally, I’d be happy to finally see IE6 die a horrible, gruesome death and then vanish forever from the face of the Earth (or, Internet). Sadly, that has yet to happen. Ah well, at least this wallpaper will make me chuckle and smile while I wait for IE6’s inevitable demise!

Original source: John Martz on Flickr, licensed Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works.

Recently someone asked me why I don’t have a Facebook account.

The simplest answer I could come up with was that I simply don’t need it – for me, Facebook is redundant.

The person who asked me tried to tell me how great Facebook was, and how you could do so many things with it, like connecting with friends, keeping up-to-date on what you’re doing, and easily share photos (among other things).

But the thing is… I can already do all of those things without Facebook. So what’s the point? Where’s the benefit for me?

I mean, look at it this way:

• I own my own domain and have my own website.
• I have and maintain my own blog, which means I have total control over every aspect of it (appearance, function, etc.) and to which people can “subscribe” using the RSS feed (an open standard).
• For sharing pictures, I have a Flickr Pro account. Because Flickr is dedicated to sharing photos, it does a really good job of it.
• For messaging, I have IM and Twitter and of course email.
• For people trying to find me, I have a Google Profile (and of course I am not a hard person to find – one of the advantages of having a very unique name!).

(There’s also the fact that I consider Facebook – and all similar sites – as being the modern reincarnations of  the crappy websites that populated Geocities back in the early days of the web.)

So really, Facebook offers no compelling advantages for me – no real reason for me to use it. Everything it can do, I can already do without having to sign up for yet another online account.

All I want from a state (as in, the state I live in) is:

• To not be taxed into oblivion (I know I’ll never get away from taxes entirely, so just… take it easy on me, OK?);
• To have a reasonably efficient state government (i.e., to not have to go into a 1960’s era building with insufficient parking and fill out forms in triplicate on carbon paper with a No. 2 pencil just to get the license plate for my car);
• To be reasonably easy for people to exercise their 2nd amendment rights (that is, don’t make it so I have to apply to the chief of police for permission to apply for permission to own a gun, have 6 personal references, provide a DNA sample, and an affidavit from my 3rd grade teacher attesting as to how often I used to play “cops and robbers” at recess); and most importantly,
• The right to own (and better yet, carry in public) a sharpened 26 inch samurai sword. (For protection, of course – because “swords don’t run out of bullets.”)

That’s really all I want.

Is that too much to ask?