Project Insomnia

Wish I could be at this Cardinals-Braves game where ex-Athletics Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder will face each other for the first time since being traded at the end of last season.

Since they're now in the National League, they also hit. They say that sets up the most intriguing — and potentially hilarious — part of the matchup.

The two talked on the phone Monday.

"We laughed about it and said how this figures," Mulder said. "Who's going to be able to keep a straight face? That might be the hardest part. I know I'm going to start laughing. What are you going to do?"

Does TBS still show Braves games? Not that it matters; we'll be on the road tonight.

This New York Times article, republished on CNet News.com, provides information on two new pro/am models: the Canon Digital Rebel XT (EOS 350D) and the Nikon D70s.

How to explain a digital SLR? Let's put it this way: if all you've ever used are regular consumer digital cameras, then you've been sitting in the peanut gallery.

For example, on a digital SLR, shutter lag--the bane of the amateur shutterbug's existence--is essentially zero. That's right: no half-second delay after you press the shutter button. Battery life is nearly endless; the Rebel XT's new smaller battery is nonetheless still good for 600 pictures a charge, compared with perhaps 200 on a typical digital camera. The D70S's new battery extends this to a delirious extreme: each charge can power the camera for a staggering 2,500 photos. You can go weeks between charges.

By far the most important advantage of a digital SLR, though, is that it takes much, much better photographs. You can take supersharp portraits with softly blurred backgrounds, just as the pros do. You get good results even in terrible lighting, thanks in part to a smart self-adjusting flash. You get every manual control known to man (exposure, shutter speed and so on). And you can extend your range with interchangeable lenses (telephoto, macro, fisheye, whatever).

Both seem to have an excellent range of features and a very attractive price.

Oh come on, you didn't see that one coming.
Ayala charged with attempted grand theft in Wendy's finger case -- SFGate

The great chili con finger caper reached the boiling point as the woman who said she found the severed digit in her Wendy's meal was charged with trying to fleece the fast-food chain.

Anna Ayala, 39, was arrested at her Las Vegas home Thursday night on a charge of felony attempted grand theft, including a penalty enhancement for inflicting more than $2.5 million in losses on Wendy's.

Harrison Ford gives everyone the finger. No chili.

In the latest installment of "possibly over-litigious woman vs. multinational fast food company", the woman who claims to have found a human finger in her bowl of Wendy's chili has been arrested at her home in Las Vegas.

"We've arrested her in connection with the Wendy's investigation. She's currently in custody'' in Las Vegas, said [San Jose police spokesman Enrique] Garcia late Thursday night.

Police did not say on what charges Ayala was arrested. A press conference is scheduled at the San Jose Police Department at 1 p.m. today to discuss details about the arrest, Garcia said.

A Clark County Detention Center official said Ayala was booked Thursday night as a fugitive from San Jose.

Wendy's is trying to regain local business lost when people started avoiding the restaurants by offering free Frosty shakes to all Bay Area customers this weekend.

It's about time: Opera Software ships version 8 of its browser as reported by The Register.

Opera Software moved back into the limelight today with the release of the final version of Opera 8 for Windows and Linux, and a beta of 8 for Mac also available. Version 8 is described by Opera as a substantial upgrade, with quite a bit of tidying of the UI and menu structure, voice control, extra security features and improvements to graphics and page sizing.

The Opera Web site is currently experiencing heavy traffic, but they've put up a temporary low-bandwidth page that links to several download locations. Opera is available in free (ad-supported) and paid ($39 lifetime) versions. The ads shown in the free version are from Google, in their familiar context-sensitive text ad/AdSense format.

Time to do something really cute? Time to make fun of people in Range Rovers? No, it's time to visit Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream for their annual Free Cone Day! Tomorrow, Tuesday April 19, from noon to 8 PM.

Edit: Not to be outdone, Cold Stone Creamery will have a Free Cake Night on April 25, from 5 to 8 PM. Baskin-Robbins had their Free Scoop Night last year on April 28, so I expect an announcement from them soon.

Brad Sherwood and Colin Mochrie are coming to Cupertino this Friday night. Mistryl saw them in Florida a couple of months ago and loved it (no surprise there). I want to go.

El Reg reports that Her Majesty's Secret Service is looking to replace its current 'Q'.

Of course, Bond aficionados will already know that a passing resemblance to either Desmond Llewelyn or John Cleese, coupled to the ability to say "Now pay attention, 007" in a world-weary tone, are likely to be essential prerequisites for the job.

Now here's a job I could really enjoy.

I'm pretty sure Blissfully Clueless is someone I know, but I'm not positive. Interesting & insightful commentary on current events.

You wouldn't think a Flash animation about Hitachi's newest storage technology would be at all entertaining, would you. Well, you'd be wrong. Even if you don't care a whit about platters and actuators, you should watch this.
3.6 MB Flash, sound

SFGate is carrying this AP story: Religious Man Wants to Rename Mt. Diablo

An Oakley man has asked the federal government to rename Mount Diablo, saying the current name, which means devil in Spanish, is offensive to his religious sensibilities.

Art Mijares applied to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names for the change and suggests naming the mountain Mount Kawukum, which he believes has American Indian roots.

Good luck with that.

Synergy is an open-source application for Windows, Mac OS, and Unix/Linux/Solaris, which allows you to share a single keyboard and mouse across multiple computers with multiple monitors. So, for example, if you have a PC, a Mac, and a Linux box sitting next to each other on your desk, each with its own monitor, you can use a single keyboard/mouse to control them all. Moving the mouse to the edge of one screen causes the cursor to jump to the next; the keyboard/mouse control whichever computer the cursor is currently on. I'm not sure if I'm clearly describing how this works; check this page for the author's explanation.

This very extensive and detailed guide on 2cpu.com describes the current options in hardware, enclosures, accessories, and software for building your own home theatre PC (HTPC). With plasma TV prices coming down and the "five year burnout" problem apparently defeated, I'm looking pretty seriously at building one of these for the living room.

Here's an interview with second-year Giants radio announcer Dave Flemming.

On the Air: If you look back at last year, what was your best moment and what was your worst moment?

D.F.: The best moment broadcast-wise was probably doing Barry's 700th home run call. Because literally, I could do this for 40 more years and never have a moment like that to call. I mean, who knows? A lot of guys do this for a long, long time and they don't ever do a perfect game, they don't do a historic home run, they don't do a World Series. So, just to have a moment like that and have it turn out that it was in an inning that I was doing, was pretty remarkable. So, from a broadcast standpoint, that was the highlight, but there were a lot of little moments where, in the "Wrap," even during a commercial break where there was something we were laughing about as broadcasters ... There are a lot of memories that stick out to me of stuff like that. As far as a worst moment goes, my mind works in such a funny way that I just don't really remember that kind of stuff. I'm sure there was a moment where I screwed a call up, or something happened that didn't go right but ... I was having such a good time last year ... I can definitely remember some moments in the minor leagues where that kind of stuff happened, but there wasn't the positive energy that was washing over that.

I think Flemming needs more "seasoning" before I can truly enjoy his play-by-play, but he and Greg Papa are light-years better than Joe Angel.

Steve Kroner reports on something I only heard about later on the radio:

A fire, apparently caused by a defective transformer, hit the telecast truck about 15 minutes before FSNBA's pregame-show coverage was to begin at 12: 30 p.m., FSNBA vice president Ted Griggs said.

No one was injured in the fire, but the truck became inoperative. From 12: 30 to near 1 o'clock, FSNBA re-ran its Giants' preseason special. Then, during the Giants' player introductions, FSNBA aired the FSN West2 feed (that is, the Dodgers' telecast) from the ballpark, meaning Bay Area fans got to hear Vin Scully.

It gets worse. There were problems in the Dodgers' truck, too! Though I wouldn't have minded hearing Vin call the game for old time's sake.