Gannett News is running a story about David Bradley, the IBM engineer who, in 1980, coined Ctrl-Alt-Del.

The original idea was simply to reset early PCs without turning them off. Microsoft adopted control-alt-delete to help ensure people powered down correctly, then to handle “administrative functions” such as the vital “end task” feature for computer software that crashes or otherwise gets stuck.

Bradley chose the control and alt keys because he needed two shift keys to make the operation work, and he chose the delete key because it was on the opposite side of the keyboard. He didn’t want people to hit control-alt-delete by accident.

Link courtesy Slashdot.

Game log

AP Wrapup

Jason Schmidt pitched a brilliant complete-game shutout, and the Marlins paid for walking Bonds when Alfonzo doubled him home on the bottom of the 8th. Alfonzo, who looks to be the perfect player to hit after Bonds, actually got both RBIs and also caught the final out of the game.

Series: 1-0 San Francisco

The Betting Fool rants about stupid postseason baseball scheduling.

Thank you, Major League Baseball, for ruining my week.

I spend thousands of dollars on tickets, invest hundreds of hours at the ballpark, listen to a month of games that don’t mean a thing and now I can’t go see the Giants in the playoffs.

Some pinhead, suck-up, yes-man TV moron in a bad suit decides that the Giants-Marlins series is the least interesting of them all and so we get day baseball in San Francisco this week.

As noted below, I am working from home this week and probably next, depending on what games are scheduled for daylight hours. It seems odd to me that a newspaper columnist couldn’t write from anywhere he happens to be.

Two to go to catch Willie Mays. Today is the last day of the regular season, and as I write this it’s 7-3 Giants over LA in the bottom of the 4th. Do post-season home runs count towards a lifetime total?
Update, five minutes later: Bonds has left the game.

Trillian‘s connector to Yahoo messenger is currently broken. That means if you use Yahoo and are waiting for me to come online to IM me, you’ll be waiting until Trillian fixes the problem. Use my AIM name instead, or just email me.

Note: This post is from September, 2003. For current updates on making Trillian work with Yahoo, go to Cerulean Studios.

SF Chronicle’s Steve Kroner tells all (well, most) about baseball playoffs on TV and radio.

Marlins-Giants: 1 p.m. Tuesday, 5 p.m. Wednesday and either 1 or 5 p.m. Friday. The games will air on KTVU (Channel 2) and ESPN, with ESPN2 a possibility for Friday.

Red Sox-A’s: 1 p.m. Wednesday and 1 p.m. Thursday. KTVU has both games, with ESPN carrying Wednesday’s game and ESPN2 doing Thursday’s.

Also here are the September and October (!!) schedules so far for the Giants and Athletics.

Meanwhile, I still haven’t found a solution to the problem of DirecTV’s video signal being delayed five or six seconds compared to the radio; this makes it difficult to tune in to KNBR or KFRC when the Fox or ESPN network broadcast teams get particularly annoying. Ideally I’d like a simple audio delay box to attach inline to my stereo. It would need to be adjustable between, say, three to eight seconds, to cover the least and most amount of delay I’ve seen. Any ideas?

SF Chron sportswriter Ray Ratto has an insightful column today about the Bay Area teams’ division series. The Giants (NL West) will play the Marlins (NL Wild Card) while the Athletics (AL West) will face the Red Sox (AL Wild Card).

The last time the Oakland A’s had a reason to grouse about the Boston Red Sox, it was because they were waving the kind of money at Billy Beane that the A’s wouldn’t think to wave at Miguel Tejada.

…

The last time the San Francisco Giants had any kind of mad-on for the Florida Marlins, it was because the Marlins speed-bagged them through the 1997 playoffs. The Giants won the NL West, and what it got them was Kevin Brown, Robb Nen, Devon White, Gary Sheffield, Moises Alou, Livan Hernandez, Edgar Renteria and a three-and-out they still haven’t figured out six years later.

I haven’t been able to find out the A’s-Red Sox or Giants-Marlins season records on MLB’s damnable Web site, so if you can find a link let me know.

Of the other two matchups, I’m happy to see that the Athletics won’t meet the Yankees (AL East) or Twins (AL Central) until the second round, considering their recent post-season record against both teams. The Braves walked away with the NL East again, as usual, and as of tonight the NL Central is still a tossup between the Cubs and Astros. I have to hope for the Astros, ’cause if Houston beats Atlanta then the Giants can continue their total ownage of Minute Maid Park (nee Enron Field).

Note the absence of any Southern California teams in the above discussion. That’s as it should be.

Tony Smith of The Register reports that Doctor Who will return to TV in 2005.

Doctor Who is returning to the nation’s TV screens in 2005, the BBC said today.

Laid to rest in 1989 – though re-animated in 1996 in a rather naff, ‘we don’t get it’ US TV movie, not considered by many fans to be part of the Who canon – the series still has legions of fans around the world.

Lorraine Heggessey, Controller of the BBC’s main channel, BBC One, said a few years back that she would like to bring the family-oriented series back. However, it is believed that contentions over broadcast and other rights were preventing the BBC from making such a move. The rights are thought to centre on the deal struck with Universal Studios to produce the 1996 TV movie, which starred the rather good Paul Withnail and I McGann.

Today, however, Heggessey said all such issues had been resolved and that a series of scripts written by Queer as Folk scriptwriter Russell T Davies had been given the green light.

The Register being a UK publication, the linked article quite naturally centers on the BBC announcement. Hopefully US public television will pick up the new episodes; I shudder to think of the butchery the SciFi channel would perform if Viacom got their gre[ed|as]y corporate hands on it.

Last look saves trapped cat

A cat locked in a house for two months without food or water was rescued after concerned citizens searched the home one last time.

Cecil the cat was “nothing but skin and bones” when rescuers found him hiding under a chair last month.

“He was so little and weak,” said Elizabeth Hollenberg.

Cecil was treated at a veterinarian’s office, where he was weighed at five pounds.

Note that I only post cat stories where the cat in question survives. I don’t like the other kind.

Opera Software released version 7.20 of their excellent Web browser for Windows this week. It’s available in a free, advertising-supported version and a paid (US $39) ad-free version.

I use it as my browser of choice, launching IE only for those ill-designed sites which use the increasingly small subset of proprietary extensions Opera doesn’t understand. Significantly, my bank’s site works just fine with Opera, as do the large majority of e-commerce sites.

SFGate’s Patricia Yollin takes a break from the penguins to write about how an implanted microchip reunites a wandering cat with the man whose heart he broke 10 years before.

Chris Inglis took Wednesday off so he could hang around the house and play with his cat. After all, the cat had come back — 10 years later.

Ted, the feline Inglis named after a character in “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” completed an amazing adventure of his own when he was reunited with his owner a decade after vanishing from his Burlingame home.

Someone found Ted last week on El Camino Real in Atherton, about 13 miles south of where he used to live. The cat was brought to the Peninsula Humane Society’s animal shelter, which tracked down his owner using a microchip that Inglis had gotten implanted in Ted.

Of our three cats, only Linus (the youngest) is chipped; he came that way from the Peninsula Humane Society (the shelter mentioned in the linked story). None of ours are allowed outside when we’re not around, and even then they stay within the boundaries of our front or back patio. I think, though, that I want to have Watson and Rita chipped on their next regular vet visit. I have a LoJack for my car, and this is no different (except that I’d be much more upset to lose one of our cats than my car).

The linked article also has two pictures of Ted the cat.

SF Chronicle TV critic Tim Goodman writes about last night’s recall debate from an entertainment perspective.

Taking a page from cable news shout-fests — but looking like guests on a cheap cable-access program — five of the candidates in the California recall campaign staged a “debate” that turned into a childish but entertaining brawl.

Pundits may be parsing over who won this debate right up to election day, but it was clear that throwing haymakers and not shutting up was the only way to stand out — good or bad — in a forum that looked as if it were staged at a high school and moderated by your doddering uncle. The acoustics were horrendous, the visuals amateurish (a dull green-gray background and cheap curtain on the table) — so much for slick California entertainment — but the end result was a surprisingly lively exchange.

Not deep, not focused, maybe not even fair, but lively.

I saw pretty much what I expected to see, though I find myself wishing Tom McClintock wasn’t so socially backwards; I agree with many of his positions on policy and budget. Unfortunately, he’s dead-set against women’s choice (abortion rights) and gay marriage, two issues on which I will not compromise my vote.

Haloscan appears to be down for the moment. If you have comments for any of my posts, just email me.

So Gov. Davis signed California’s anti-spam bill yesterday.

The bold experiment to fight the barrage of electronic junk mail enables California residents, the state attorney general and Internet providers to seek civil damages against spammers amounting to $1,000 per e-mail and $1 million per incident.

Quick guess: Little or no effect. Too many spammers originate out-of-state or overseas, and spam isn’t even about selling products anymore; it’s about verifying valid email addresses to sell to other would-be spammers. A mega-pyramid scheme if you will. The only thing that will really stop spam is an overhaul of SMTP, maybe even replacing it entirely, to eliminate falsified headers.

In the meantime I use SpamPal with the Bayesian filter plugin, which catches some large percentage (haven’t graphed it) of my spam with very rare false positives or negatives.

Saw Underworld tonight. A fun vampire/werewolves movie, not a Best Screenplay winner by any means, but very enjoyable. And not the least for Kate Beckinsale in various shiny skintight outfits.

Athletics 4, Rangers 3, 10 innings

The Oakland Athletics have said all season long they have the talent to reach the World Series.

They took the first step Tuesday night, clinching their second straight AL West title as they beat the Texas Rangers 4-3 in 10 innings.

The division was wrapped up about 20 minutes later when second-place Seattle lost 2-1 in 11 innings at Anaheim.

Oh yes. I see a Bay Bridge Series happening!

Just saw David Bowie on Letterman. Fantastic as always, of course, and I hope he’ll tour to support his new album. Which reminds me, I haven’t seen Labyrinth in a long, long time.

Currently reading: Unwise Microwave Oven Experiments

In addition to descriptions (but no pictures) of interesting experiments to perform with a garage-sale microwave (don’t use the one in the kitchen or your wife will be a bit upset) there is a comprehensive “myths debunked”/FAQ section towards the bottom.

Related link: Finding the Speed of Light with Marshmallows – A Take-Home Lab

Owner of Dewey Decimal system sues New York’s Library Hotel

The nonprofit library cooperative that owns the Dewey Decimal system has filed suit against a library-themed luxury hotel in Manhattan for trademark infringement.

The Library Hotel, which overlooks the New York Public Library, is divided according to the classification system, with each floor dedicated to one of Dewey’s 10 categories.

Room 700.003 includes books on the performing arts, for example, while room 800.001 has a collection of erotic literature.

In the lawsuit filed last week, lawyers for the Online Computer Library Center said the organization acquired the rights to the system in 1988 when it bought Forest Press, which published Dewey Decimal updates. The center charges libraries that use the system at least $500 per year.

I wish Boingo would hurry up with the reunion tour already. It’s been eight years and I miss Halloween shows.

[X] Win NL West “wire-to-wire”

[ ] Win NL Pennant

[ ] Win World Series

The most vile disgusting smell in the world is stale cigarette smoke, especially when it is attached to the person who just finished a smoke break and has now cornered you for an impromptu meeting in your office.

I think I’m going to be sick.

The Geek Test (thanks Mistryl)

I scored 51.28205% – Super Geek, though I think I’ve improved over the past decade or so. I took the questions as asking “have you ever” in addition to “are you now”, so that may explain the higher score.

Aahhh… On one hand, SBC epitomizes the evil telecom, with price-gouging, hideous employment practices, and intense monopolistic lobbying in Congress. On the other, they’re fighting RIAA subpoenas:

“We are going to challenge every single one of these that they file until we are told that our position is wrong as a matter of law,” James D. Ellis, general counsel for SBC, said yesterday in a telephone interview.

Based on their previous behavior, I’m sure there is some cold, calculating, corporate reason for this stance–probably something about damaging their “common carrier” status by making them responsible for their users’ actions. Still, it’s nice to see someone (in the corporate sense) with the cojones to stand up to the RIAA’s carpetbombing.

From SFGate’s Day in Pictures:

Either that or the Earth has a huge zit

NASA photos taken from the international space station provide conclusive evidence that Hurricane Isabel is indeed off the coast of North Carolina.