Blackmoor Vituperative

ROSWELL, N.M. – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents today arrested 15 illegal aliens who were working for a local company here that is under contract to paint U.S. military aircraft, including Lockheed C-130 military aircraft.

Some of the aliens were in the process of painting these aircraft when they were arrested.

[…]

The aliens were arrested after they were determined to be illegally residing and working in the United States. Those arrested are citizens of Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala.

“Aggressive worksite enforcement actions like this help deter aliens from entering the United States attracted by the ‘job magnet,'” said Troy Henley, special agent-in-charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in El Paso.

(from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE arrests 15 aliens in Roswell working for U.S. military contractor)

The flight recorder video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRgs-f6Niis

The Aircraft Occurrence Summary:

http://www.airforce.forces.gc.ca/dfs/docs/Fti/CT155202_e.asp

Note to self: The next time I am in an interview and I am asked if I am willing to provide support to users, do not simply say “Yes: I like working with end users because it helps me understand what the system I am developing is supposed to accomplish for them.” Reason: that answer assumes I am actually DEVELOPING something, rather than acting as a glorified help-desk for poorly designed COTS software.

Second note to self: The next time I am in an interview and I am asked if I am willing to provide support to users, make sure that such support is provided during normal working hours ONLY, and that the portion of my time spent on such support will be no more than 15% (rather 50%-70%).

I found this at Snopes.com.

Aggravated about paying for 411 calls that used to free? While waiting for connecting flights this morning, I stumbled onto this nifty money-saver: A free consumer service offered in the United States by Jingle Networks via a toll-free number, 800-FREE-411 (800-373-3411).

This free network works much like directory assistance, with one exception: It’s funded by advertising. Callers may hear a 13-second ad for a business in the region they’re calling. And, the business or residence being called will hear a message about advertising with Free 411.

Based on a test of three calls by Snopes.com, the service worked as described and callers heard only one ad.

(from Snopes.com, Free 411)

Kenneth Kwak, 34, of Chantilly, Va., admitted to installing remote control software on the computer and using that access to read his supervisor’s e-mail and monitor other Internet activity, the U.S Department of Justice said in a statement Friday. Kwak shared this information with others in his office, the DOJ said.

Kwak pleaded guilty last month to one count of intentionally gaining unauthorized access to a government computer and thereby obtaining information, the DOJ said. He was sentenced on Friday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The five-month sentence is to be followed by five months of home confinement.

As part of the sentence, Kwak was also ordered to pay the U.S. government $40,000 in restitution. He will be on parole for three years.

Kwak was responsible for securing Department of Education computers. His prosecution was part of the “zero-tolerance policy” recently adopted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office regarding intrusions into U.S. government computer systems, the DOJ said.

(from ZDNet, Ex-government employee sentenced for hacking)

He should have known better. That was just stupid.

Today was my first day at Circuit City, where I’m a programmer/analyst. This is the second-highest paying job I have ever had, but the highest was a short-term gig, so this is really the highest paying relatively permanent job I have ever had. It’s also the first time in roughly eight years that I have been an employee of the company where I am working. I had been doing the contracting thing for a long time. There are benefits to contracting work, but I am really glad to have a regular job again, somewhere I can (hopefully) work for years and year and feel like I am actually invested in how the company does.

And here’s a real first: no time card, no time sheets, nothing like that of any kind. This is the first time ever that I do not have to report my arrivals and departures, or at least my billable hours, to someone. As long as I meet my deliverables and attend the meetings I am supposed to attend, no one is looking over my shoulder to make sure I am warming a chair at exactly 08:30 and 16:30. Now that’s cool.

Today went really well. If it’s within my power, it will stay going really well for the next 25 years or so. 🙂

I like fairies. Not the little girl fairies (which I think of as “teacup fairies”, for some odd reason — perhaps because I associate them with little girls having tea parties?), the ones that look like grown up women, like Kylie Minogue in Moulin Rouge, or like the fairy in the new Dodge Caliber commercials. It’s not a fetish thing: I don’t fantasize about them or anything. I just think they’re cute and fun.

That isn’t strange, is it?

In general, I despise advertisements on the web. We all do, don’t we? It’s why RPG Library and PBEM News are completely advertising-free, and always will be. So why, you may ask, is there a banner ad over there on the right for Profit? Because there is an exception for just about everything.

(Incidentally, I do not get any money from Anchor Bay for the advertisement.)

Is this sentence grammatically correct?

The vast majority of people never leave the planet of their birth.

“Majority” is the subject. It is implicitly plural. So it seems to me that “cities of their birth” would ordinarily be correct. But this seems to imply that each of the people is born in more than one city, which is nonsense. I think that the above sentence is correct, but I am not certain. Hmm.

I have tremendous respect for people who learn English as a second (or third or fourth) language, and who become as proficient with it as native speakers are.

A how-to guide on home book binding:

Fun and Easy How to Guide to Binding Your Own Paperback Books At Home…FAST

Gorilla Glue. Hmm….