Baldy’s Paradox

Today is; Cordova Ice Worm Day Cordova Ice Worm Festival (Cordova): The truth is, ice worms do exist. Really. This winter carnival celebrates them in February. The highlight is the traditional annual march of the ice worm (a costume with dozens of feet sticking out) down the main street.

Quote of the Day;

It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others.
John Andrew Holmes

Today in History; Rock singers Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper died in a plane crash. (1959)  (The Day the Music died)

Todays Birthdays;

1894- Norman Rockwell, renowned painter

1918- Joey Bishop, TV star, comedian

1950- Morgan Fairchild, actress

Todays Word of the Day;

groupthink
(noun) [GROOP-thingk']

1. decision making by a group, especially one characterized by uncritical acceptance or conformity to a perceived majority view: “If you do agree to marry me, I will have none of your family’s groupthink.”
Origin

Approximately 1972, coined by psychologist Irving Janis. Reminiscent of George Orwell’s coinages (such as ‘doublethink’) from his novel, ‘1984′.

Have a good day and a better tomorrow folks.

NEW YORK (AP) - Media company Viacom Inc., which owns the cable networks MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon and the Paramount Pictures movie studio, asked YouTube on Friday to remove more than 100,000 unauthorized clips from its hugely popular video-sharing site.

Source: Yahoo News

Revisit some of the spots that scored big for tech companies, from Apple to Go Daddy and Pets.com.

(Well some of them are good and I might as well join in the Super Bowl madness and link to old ads,

Source: Images: Super Bowl tech ads from years gone by

Xeni Jardin: Link to instructions on how to pre-emptively abort those horrendously annoying Snap preview bubbles on websites you visit. There are actually several methods, one of which involves accepting a cookie *from* Snap.com. Alternately, as a commenter on that blog entry points out, you can use Firefox + Adblock and block spa.snap.com/snap_preview_anywhere.js. (via Bruce Sterling)

Yes this the second article on this but due to requests here is another on how to get rid of those nasty pop-up thingys, Baldy

Source: How to disable Snap “preview anywhere” on websites you visit

As written, GPLv3 threatens to fork GNU projects and marginalize the Free Software Foundation, writes Linux observer Bill Weinberg in this well-written essay. Drawing on long experience evangelizing open source licensing to business users, Weinberg suggests that the FSF’s GPLv3 high road could be a lonesome one.

Source: Will GPLv3 energize Free Software, or marginalize the FSF?

Microsoft’s self-proclaimed commitment to open standards became more tangible Thursday when it released the first Open XML translator for Word. Version 1.0 of the translator, which is a free, downloadable add-on to the word processor, allows users to convert Office Open XML documents into the OpenDocument Format standard, and vice versa. When used with Word, it can translate documents from their native Open XML standard into ODF; plugged into competing, ODF-based word processors, it converts documents into Open XML.

Source: Microsoft Translator Strengthens Open Standards Commitment

Mozilla, the nonprofit organization that created the open source Firefox browser — the chief competitor to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer — is setting up shop in China in the hope of claiming a sizable chunk of the world’s second-largest Internet market. Firefox, a popular browser among techies, is used by roughly 11 percent of U.S. Web surfers, having gained significant market share since its launch in 2004. Although the browser has a slight presence in China, the organization is banking on the new Beijing office to increase its profile.

Source: Mozilla Hangs Out Shingle in China