Live from Austin!

I upgraded to the latest WordPress. I’ve checked LiveJournal OpenID login, and it works. However, since some people have complained that they can’t get it to work, I’ve also enabled manual signup.

I also took a look through the available plugins, and found the OpenCalais Archive Tagger. It uses the Reuters OpenCalais project, a database of semantic information, to automatically go back and add relevant tags to all your previous posts. I’m giving it a go, I figure anything that can make it easier to find interesting stuff amongst the 20 years of writing here has to be worthwhile.

Microsoft press release, 2002:

Microsoft has announced that the BMW 7 Series features its real-time embedded operating system, Windows CE. This comes shortly after Microsoft’s Automotive Business Unit launched Windows CE for Automotive v3.5. This latest telematics software version based on Windows CE is an open platform that allows developers to create powerful in-car computing systems. It offers flexibility and choice of hardware platforms, peripherals and software components, as well as being able to take advantage of the growing community of experienced CE developers.

Siemens VDO Automotive AG, BMW’s preferred navigation supplier used CE in the Control Display, part of the BMW’s iDrive concept which gives easy operation and access to in-car features including the navigation, telephone, climate control and entertainment systems.

And the inevitable Reuters news story, 2003:

BANGKOK (Reuters)—Security guards smashed their way into an official limousine with sledgehammers on Monday to rescue Thailand’s finance minister after his car’s computer failed.

Suchart Jaovisidha and his driver were trapped inside the BMW for more than 10 minutes before guards broke a window. All doors and windows had locked automatically when the computer crashed, and the air-conditioning stopped, officials said.

“We could hardly breathe for over 10 minutes,” Suchart told reporters. “It took my guard a long time to realize that we really wanted the window smashed so that we could crawl out. It was a harrowing experience.”

U.S. consumers would not benefit from knowing which grocery stores, restaurants and butchers stocked meat products potentially contaminated with deadly bacteria, the top U.S. Agriculture Department food safety official said on Wednesday. [Reuters]

Legal news:

REUTERS: Jack Ass says “Jackass” has given him a bad name.

A Montana man who legally changed his name to “Jack Ass” in 1997 has sued media giant Viacom Inc., claiming its stunt-heavy, gross-out TV show and movie “Jackass” had defamed his character.

In a suit filed in November in Montana and posted this week on a legal Web site, Jack Ass, who said he changed his name to raise awareness about the dangers of drunk driving and responsible choices, claimed Viacom was “liable for injury to my reputation that I have built and defamation of my character which I have worked so hard to create.”

The suit asks for damages of $10 million or more. Jack Ass is representing himself.

Jack Ass, a journeyman power lineman by trade, said he changed his name from Bob Craft in late 1997 as part of a personal crusade against drunk driving after his brother and a friend were killed in a car crash. Theirs was the only vehicle involved.[…]

Jack Ass runs a Web site (www.andiass.com) centered around a donkey-like cartoon character “Andi Ass,” which touts T-shirts, baseball caps, souvenir beer bottles and a message of responsible drinking.

He also runs a not-for-profit service called Hearts Across America (www.heartsacrossamerica.org) that sells heart-shaped markers to be placed at the sites of fatal accidents involving drivers or power line workers, and for use in memorializing dead pets.

“I really want to emphasize the importance of this work,” he told Reuters.

—Reuters