Alex Santantonio has started an effort to organize a gathering of all employees that ever worked for Doceus.

You should have received an email or invitation to the BackPackIT page, if not (because we have the wrong email or you are a super-lurker) please email me, or contact me through this page so I can get you in on the effort.

I've got ants in the house. The house is old, and a bit porous. And I'm not a fan of poisons, especially around the baby. I've taken to some homeopathic remedies, some of which are working, others not so much. Next up I should try the "boric acid sugar solution cotton ball trick" that I've read about, and I expect it will turn out kind of like this:

Props: rants and ramblings

Treehugger often says that cities are the most sustainable way to live. The converse is that suburban sprawl is probably the worst.

[ Ten Things Wrong With Sprawl (TreeHugger) ]

Who knew my mad ravings were good arguments?

SQL Log Rescue is an award-winning log analysis tool, allowing you to explore your logs to view information on database transactions. Additionally, SQL Log Rescue should be kept on hand in case of a potential disaster – if you have accidentally deleted, inserted or modified your database, SQL Log Rescue will help you get the data back.

[ SQL Log Rescue - Undo for SQL Server ]

And now free!

Why blog about this now? Nate says I should have blogged about it when I first discovered it, so if you didn't know of it's existance, now you do.

KIND Fruit + Nut is available in ten flavors: Nut Delight, Macadamia & Apricot, Fruits & Nuts in Yogurt, Almond & Coconut, Sesame & Peanuts, Almond & Apricot, Almonds & Apricots in Yogurt, Walnut & Date, Banana & Oatbran, Fruit & Nut Delight.

[ Peace Works ]

I get mine at the Whole Foods. They're right by the checkout. I first picked up a couple for the birthing of Zahra, because it was a tip from the hospital that many new fathers forget to eat, and faint. I figured that a quick snack bar would put and end to that, and these looked yummy. And they are. However the package mentions that they have some social agenda. Just to make sure it wasn't some crazy social agenda, I finally did the research, so I could enjoy my new favorite snack bar without worrying that I was causing ill in the world.

5% of the profits from KIND go to OneVoice, a Peaceworks Foundation initiative, that fosters moderate consensus.

[ KIND Fruit & Nut Bars ]

OneVoice? Never heard of them. But it appears that they may actually be a good organization. Here's the little video they put together to explain their mission:

So PeaceWorks makes products to raise money for their foundation whose primary beneficiary is the OneVoice movement that hopes to change the Israeli/Palestinian conflict from a Jew v. Muslim or Israel v. Palestine or Left v. Right or Them v. Us to a Everyone v. The Crazy Extremists conflict. Good luck there, if it works it will be a great example for the other hotspots of the world to follow.

And that certainly sounds like a good cause. So I get to enjoy my snack bars and perhaps even help the world in a tiny tiny fashion.

While looking for the character map in the accessory folder of Vista, I found a little gem that I just have to share. Vista now has a Snipping Tool that enables you to capture parts of the screen, highlight and draw on top of it and copy or save the results. Some would say it's about time and that there's about a million freewares that do this already, I'm just happy to have found it right there in Windows.

[ Atlas and more : PrtSc now useless... or maybe not. ]

OK, maybe not worth the price of admission, but it is the best clip tool I've seen. And Vista does have a couple of other enhancements as well...

Zero-width positive look ahead assertion

ATOM\@=

Zero-width negative look ahead assertion

ATOM\@!

Zero-width positive look behind assertion

ATOM\@<=

Zero-width negative look behind assertion

ATOM\@<!

[ Searching in VIM ]

And will blogging about it help?

Apparently a Muslim woman in the UK wore an all-over swimsuit to go swimming in Britain and received a bit of flack for it. I just need someone to explain this logic to me:

I'll tell you why you shouldn't go swimming like this in Britain; it's because women in this country are equal to men and are not obliged to cover themselves up when swimming - or indeed at any other time - because some men somewhere have decided that's how it has to be. Women in Britain fought for and died for the right to be equal. In this country we are able to dress, or undress, exactly as we see fit. If that's not your choice, poor you. But don't be surprised when people mock you and pass comment on your totally inappropriate clothing for swimming.

[ Comment by Linda Allan of Bath - The Guardian ]

This is the problem with "freedom" in the west, and likewise the issue I've always had with women's rights in the west. The freedom and choice were hard fought and won, and if you don't use that freedom to choose exactly the same as everyone else, then you are an affront to that freedom. But how is that freedom?

One of the things I've come to respect the most about my wife's country of Indonesia is their respect and reverence for the different traditions, ways, cultures, and practices of the peoples of their country and ultimately the world. They understand that each people have their own adat, and in order to be civilized there must be respect for each other.

Props to Islamophobia Watch.

Italian coffee chain Illy, whose high-end beans have been making inroads in hotels and restaurants around the country, has chosen a District site for its first cafe in the United States.

The location, named Caffe, opened last week in Marriott's Renaissance M Street Hotel in the West End. It features sleek red-and-white decor and the chain's signature ceramic espresso cup. There are no tables, only a stand-up bar on which patrons can rest an elbow, European-style.

[ A Coffee Chain's Stand-Up Effort on M St. - washingtonpost.com ]

OK, not much of a trip, but my Dad's got me hooked on the Illy, so I should see how they do it up.

Outlook is a bit of a dog, and I no longer have an Exchange server to work off of, so I'm trying to get an "outlook like experience" on my Lappy and Windows Mobile. And here is another piece of the puzzle:

Stay in Sync with GCal and Thunderbird.

For a long time I have been looking for a rock solid calendaring system. I’ve gotten too used to working for companies who have Microsoft Exchange (or, God forbid, Scalix) installed which allow me to edit and update a calendar from multiple locations and even sync it with my Mobile Phone. When I first heard of Google Calendar I hoped that I would be able to enjoy such benefits again, but I am not a great fan of web-apps, and prefer a nice, solid desktop client to do my email / organisation from.

[ bfish.xaedalus.net Stay in Sync with GCal and Thunderbird. ]

Unfortunatly Thunderbird 2 is still at Beta 2, and since it's my main mail going through there, I'll be patient and wait for the v2 Golden Release. But, so I don't forget, I'm blogging this puppy.