neowin supposedly reported this, but they are down at present.  Yikes.

Update: CNet has a little bit more info.

Update: Betanews also has some things to say.

Last update:  Washington Post (thank n4cer for the link) says it's the real deal.  It's only partial, but this is still a very sad thing.

On Tuesday, I installed what every patches Windows Update was handing out.  On Wednesday, every email I received that was processed by one of my Outlook rules, came in threes.  That is, I received three of the same email.  I'm not sure if this new behavior is related to any Tuesday patching.  Since this behavior doesn't seem to occur at the mail server and I didn't make any other modifications (that I can remember) to my system, I'm looking at the patching as a prime candidate.  Has anyone else seen this or know how I can stop it from happening?

A few other thoughts - a few times I've only received 2 instead of 3 copies of each email.  Also, I wonder if intraVnews has anything to do with it.  Other than my virus scanner, it's the only Outlook addin that I have.

I've had a few biting smart application experiences lately.  About a week ago, I was editing some .acx files in FrontPage.  Why FrontPage and not Visual Studio, you ask?  I don't really have a good answer for that.  It was a convenience thing.  VS takes forever and a day to get itself back in physical RAM after my laptop has hibernated.  FrontPage comes up much, much faster.  Since I was doing some non code edits (CSS and HTML stuff) and some site maintenance stuff (deleting orphaned files, backing up the site, etc.), I used FP due to its lower memory overhead.  Hmm, looks like I had a good reason after all.

Anyway...the non blog portion of lparky.com is composed of a few user controls to construct the header, footer, menu, meta info, include the style sheet, etc.  At least three of the controls have broken tags (the open or close but not both).  Well, FP decided it wanted to be uber helpful, and it generated the missing tag part for me.  This resulted in less than satisfactory HTML (my HTML was well formed).  Despite telling it in no uncertain terms that I knew what I was doing, it insisted on “helping” me.  Finally, I opened them as plain text, and FP left them alone.

I had a similar experience yesterday sending previews of HTML email to one of my clients.  I've not yet figured out how to directly edit the HTML source of an outbound email from Outlook (if it is possible, please let me know how), so I used Outlook Express.  (In retrospect, it would have been easier to just write a script to send them, but I didn't realize that OE was going to “help” me so much.)  I copied the full HTML into the email and sent it.  I unhappily discovered that OE wanted to be as helpful as FP.  It removed a few quotation marks, added a few tags (my HTML was well formed), it butchered my spacing, etc.  I was less than pleased.  Finally, I sent my client links, so he could view the emails online instead.

These are issues that don't do a lot of damage, but they waste time.  They take control over my content.  Microsoft Office XP started in the right direction with Smart Tags (do you want to turn off this behavior?).  Options like these (I've just changed this for you...do you want me to keep doing that, or what you rather I leave you alone?) need to be more prevalent.

Joshua Allen and Dare Obasanjo are discussing metacrap.  I think the scenarios Joshua mentioned are, at present, very unlikely, and I don't see much reason (he surely has not given any) to expect things will be much different in the future.

First - people need to have information capturing devices / applications.  Second, those devices / applications have to capture good metadata (time, date, position, etc.).  Third, that information needs to be related to the other data of the user.  Fourth that data needs to be associated with the data of other users.

I think it is a huge leap to even say that a large number of people will get to the first step.  I'm a relatively gadget getting geek, but I don't have a digicam yet.  I use Outlook, my cell, and my PDA like nobody's business, but those don't share data too well.  Yes, there are models that reasonably well, but mine are dumber models.  So, the first step is a huge leap...people need to have smart devices and applications.

The second is also a huge leap.  Many people have cell phones, but how many have smart phones?  How many cell phones will willingly share useage data, address books, call timers, etc. with others .  Even smart phones, so far as I'm aware, will only do address book syncing.

Presupposing that the first and second steps are met, we can depend on the holy grail of Longhorn's WinFS to automatically create relationships between the data (and metadata?) points.  Step four, well, I don't know of plans regarding this.  I suppose p2p networks are a good foundation...so, we'd have secure (?) personal data sharing via p2p networks?

I'm not sure that I buy any of this as close to feasible or conceivable in the next few years.

Dreams.  Lately, my dreams have been intense.  I don't remember what they've been about, but I remember the feelings I have.  They are the type that one would experience in severe tests of character, or tests of endurance, or tests of ability.  It's as if, even in my sleep, I can't escape the obligations of my waking life.

Stress.  I decided almost a decade ago that I wouldn't have stress.  I was an all honors or AP student and was surrounded by grade mongering “I'm going to the Ivy League!” fellow all honors or AP students.  I decided that there was more to life than where I went to college, and there was far more to life than whatever grade I happened to get in economics.  It's final.  No stress for me.

That worked for a few months, perhaps even a few years, but life is different now.  There's a driving “you need to be more than you are now” feeling in me.  I need to be a better programmer.  I need to be a better financial planner.  I need to be better elder.  I need to be a better brother.  I need to be a better friend.  I need to finish my degree with a 4.0.  (Those are listed in no particular order, by the way.)

I haven't discovered a resolution strategy or even a mitigation strategy for this drive that satisfies.  The issue isn't stagnation.  I'm anything but stagnant.  I'm constantly improving my skills as a programmer.  I'm constantly seeking ways to improve my financial position.  I'm constantly seeking to improve my relationship with God.  I suppose it is best to leave judgment on where I stand on the friend and brother question to those to whom I am friend and brother.  As for the degree, it's a 4.0 now, and I don't see that diminishing.

A few years back, I produced one satisfying financial stress mitigation strategy - I was eating six months ago, I'm eating today, and I'll be eating six months from now.  Whether I own one house, two houses, or live in an apartment, I'll still be OK.  I'm in a state of OK'ness now, and in the future I'll be at least as OK as I am now.  Breathe.  OK, now, get back to work and stop worrying.

Distractions.  Distractions are probably my best mitigation strategy thus far.  For instance, I just wrote a somewhat difficult email to a close friend of mine.  Rather than fully grok the situation, which I'm not prepared to do right now, I blare some Russian pop music to provide a distraction and proceed to write as much as I can at present.

Another for instance is this blog.  Rather than consider how far away I am from the large number of people I consider close friends, I've created a distraction...my blog.  It enables me to feel, to some degree, that I'm keeping up my end of the friendship with respect to communication, and it gives my mind something to do other than think about the distance between me and my many friends scattered all over the world.

The blog, of course, has other advantages.  If I can manage to distract myself from introspection, I'll post about the technical issues I meet as a .NET developer.  Eventually, I expect to be drawn into the mix of the better known tech bloggers, thus increasing my ability to learn from them.  This will directly affect my “become a better programmer” and “become a better financial planner” stresses.

It's interesting that the introspective me, which is probably what I'd prefer to expose to my friends is in opposition to the technical me, which I'd probably prefer to expose to the Internet in general.  Thus, these two blog focuses are distractions to each other.  I expect that they will both aid me in succeeding in the other by not letting me focus on it too much.  Lol, that's quite a paradox.

There are times when I think I know myself pretty well.  One of those times was last week, when I played an honor game.  By stating that I'd blog about dreams, distractions, and stress, I obligated myself to do it.  I try to be a man of honor, so, now that I've made that statement, it's very likely that I'll actually write those entries.

This honor game is one of several motivational games I play.  I find that external factors don't always appear when I need them, so sometimes I have to create my own.  Yes, I certainly could just go and write the entires, mow the lawn, prune the trees, etc.  However, I acknowledge that I'm often less than desirous to engage in such activities.  As a result, I must exploit my strengths to overcome my weaknesses.

OK, I feel like Doogie Houser.  He always wrote little cryptic explanations of whatever he learned on the show that week.  My last entry reminds me entirely too much of Doogie style blogging.  (I think Doogie predates even Dave Winer in the blogosphere.)

I thought I'd go a bit transparent with this blog.  It seems that my attempt at transparency obviously needs a bit more work.  No, that doesn't mean I plan to clarify my previous entry.  The entry is certainly true in it's own right, and I think I'll leave it at that.

Anyway, sorry about that Doogie moment.  I'm sure I'll have a few more, but I'll work on phasing them out.

I used to think that I didn't have a conscience.  Perhaps it is because I almost never did anything wrong as a kid.  Perhaps it is because I did so much that was wrong that I was numb to guilt.  At any rate, recent experience seems to be telling me that my conscience is alive and well.  Notwithstanding discomfort from time to time, I'm happy about this.

Yes, the title of this entry is (untitled).

For the first time since I started reading blogs back in October, I'm current.  I've learned about a wide range of topics and met some interesting people.  My current blog count is 153, and I think I'll keep it around this number.

While thinking of patriotism, I'm drawn to a somewhat similar concept...nationalism.  I hate nationalism.  I hate it.  In my mind, it is at least as vile as any other stereotype or prejudice.  It's worse than anti-semitism, racism, or religious persecution, simply because it typically excludes more people than any of those.

I define nationalism as “my country is better than yours.”  Even when my country is clearly doing something wrong, my country is still better than yours!  It justifies current bad deeds based on good deeds long past (we helped the French 50 years ago, so they should bow to our will now).  It blinds our minds to the virtues of others and the faults in ourselves.  It is an insidious evil that poisons our reasoning, our political view points, and our ability to be true patriots.

I define patriotism as doing what is right irrespective of circumstance.  A patriot will sacrifice for the greater good (a father for his family, a soldier for his country).  A patriot is an enemy of tyranny and a friend of freedom.  He doesn't lend his good name to support evil causes.  He does lend his hand to help those who accept his help no matter their citizenship.

I think this is just what Gordon B. Hinckley meant when he said, “I think there are many good people everywhere. And our appeal is to those people. We don’t down grade any Church. We don’t speak disparagingly of any Church. We simply say to people of other Churches, bring all the good that you have and come and let us see if they if we can add to it. Now that’s all there is to it.”  (see http://www.abc.net.au/compass/intervs/hinckley.htm)  A patriot, religious or otherwise, simply says, let me see if I can help you.  Teach me what you know, and I'll teach you what I know.  A nationalist (I'm from the US, therefore I'm the best.  I'm from Texas, therefore, I'm the best.  I'm white, therefore, I'm the best...) is too proud to admit that he can learn from anyone.