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Hot damn!

Excuse me while I go do my happy dance.

Ok I'm back, sorry about that. Good news for fans of quality TV. Showtime had already renewed Dead Like Me for a second season. The season finally is next week and I had been worried that might be the last time I see the show. However when I headed over to the website to check the forums I found the press release.

quote:

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The critically-acclaimed SHOWTIME/MGM Television Entertainment series DEAD LIKE ME has been given an early renewal for a second season of 15 episodes, it was announced today by Robert Greenblatt, Showtime President of Entertainment. Stated Greenblatt: "This is an unqualified hit for us. Not only have the critics embraced the show, but its premiere time slot on Friday is earning ratings 60% better than the year-to-date time period average and 45% stronger than the network�s overall primetime average. This show portends great things for the future of Showtime, which we hope will become a home for truly original series."

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Showtime doesn't release rateings but with the numbers they're showing I think the show's going to have a very long future. Oh how happy I am!

Sure I know I'm being a big ol' sap but I'm hooked to the show. The characters are written very well, the stories are strong, and like a good TV show when it's over you can't wait till next week.

I've started taping but I hope showtime decides to crank out a DVD set to help all of us fans out. Thankfully Alias starts up soon to keep me busy but I'm still going to have withdraw symptoms until season 2 starts. Oh I can't wait!

Few articles worth reading about all the high tech jobs getting shipped overseas.

The first is by CIO magazine. It shows that many jumping on the outsourse bandwagon are finding that it's not such a great idea after all. The savings are not always as great as they appear.

The second is from Wired News. It talks about how many tech trade shows are turning into outsource fairs where foreign companies are advertising their outsource services.

Third is another from Wired News. It's about protestors at the 2003 Nearshore & Offshore Outsourcing Conference.

I'll leave you all with one quote from the last article
"'We're sending all our technical expertise overseas,' Snyder said. 'Pretty soon, we're going to see a drop in the number of people going into the electrical engineering and computer science fields in this country.'

Indeed, interest in computer science among new college students has been dropping steadily since 2000.

A survey conducted last year by the University of California at Los Angeles' Higher Education Research Institute revealed that 2.2 percent of freshmen in 2002 planned to major in computer science -- down from 3.3 percent in 2001 and 3.7 percent in 2000. "

As a Computer Science student I can attest to these numbers! The size of incoming CS studends has srunk since I was a freshman. For basic intro levels classes it used to be packed rooms and multiple times offered. Now they're cancelling classes for lack of interest and even those that aren't cancelled are dwindling in size.

Not only are there less students coming to the CS major but many in the programs are changing majors for fear of not having a job when the graduate! Sure part of this is just due to the crappy economy but it doesn't help to have a crappy economy and hearing stories daily about companies in the tech industry dumping whole divisions and shipping opperations overseas. It's just frightning to be a student right now in a tech field. I would have never thought of it 2-3 years ago but I might end up finding a government job just for the security it provides.

I know I don't have a chance in hell but I'd love to get a job at the CIA. It's not all clandestine operations. They do hire people for tech support, software development, IT, etc. The biggest reason why I'm interested you ask? Simple really. The first requirement any of the jobs require is you have to be a US citizen! I'd never have to worry about the CIA moving to outsource IT staff.

I'm going to definetly apply for a job. I know I don't have the grades or skills to score such a sweet job but I'd never forgive myself for not atleast applying.

Monday VeriSign, the head domain registry company, started a service called Site Finder. It sends users that enter in bad domain names to a search engine instead of getting an error from the browser stating the domain doesn't exist.

Normally when you enter a domain into a browser it checks a central group of servers to find out where to get the website from. If you enter a domain that doesn't exist the browser gives you an error. VeriSign uses their monopoly control in the domain system and set it so that bad domains are forwarded to their Site Finder service instead.

As a result millions of users around the world are finding themselves being hijacked when they enter a bad domain name and being sent to VeriSign's site. they're selling advertising and search placement and making tons of cash.

That alone is downright despicable but what's worse is they have unwittingly just helped out spammers around the world! See many anti-spam filter systems check to see if email messages from address is a legit and working domain. Many spammers create fake from addresses such as "jim@jimmiejimz.com". However a quick check will show that "jimmiejimz.com" does not exist and the anti-spam software will throw out the junk mail. But thanks to VeriSigns new service the domain "jimmiejimz.com" appears to be legit to anti-spam software.

The Internet Software Consortium is working on patching the BIND domain name server software to disable VeriSigns service. Hopefully it'll be done soon and ISPs around the world can stop this stupid service soon

E-freaking-gads! It's been one of those days.

I've been up since 6:30am and at school all day. No breakfast, no lunch and had just enough time (~1 hour) to go home for a quick dinner. Mmm... nuked hotdogs and chocolate chip cookies. Well the cookies were homemade. Ok they were pre-made in a tube but they were baked at home!

I hurried back to school to work on some stupid group project. Too bad only 1 group member showed up! I ended up running around the library for an hour finding some books. Doubt I’ll use them but checked them out anyways. So then I wondered over to the computer lab where I’m at now.

So I've had a real productive day. How about you?

P.S. If you've got some free time to waste please go check out my friend’s new blog. We've been friends since like the 1st/2nd grade. Haven't hung out as much lately but we try to keep up with each other. So go visit his site at http://www.hecatomb.net/. Give him some encouragement to keep posting!

Oh the horror! What will we all do now? If we can't all run around like a bunch of morons oohing and ahhing over them we'll just get oh so bored.

Shesh. Honestly I think these two never had any love for each other. It's just another sham marriage to get attention. Think about it sanely for a moment and it starts to make sense. Two losers desperate for some attention decide to start "dating". It gets some news coverage so you keep it up. Pretend to fall in love. Gets you some more coverage. Announce marriage plans, have fight, break up. . Media storm starts! Get back together dance around the marriage idea for few months. You finally announce you'll do it in few weeks and the media goes nuts. Running around trying to find the spot, track down guests, etc, etc. Then just before the supposed day you call it off. They'll just rinse and repeat for another good year or so I bet. Sooner or later one of them will get tired of the game and finally stop.

It's all a PR stunt, nothing more nothing less. They've milked the media for months and now I believe Ben finally got sick of it and called it all off.

Anyways I could care less. I'm going to gauge out my eyes and plug my ears pretty soon. There are way more important things to be discussing but all I hear on the news is J-Lo/Ben.

It was bad enough being the week of 9/11 but then the day after we learn that two stars passed away just made the week end even more sad. It was a shock to wake up and hear that both country legend Johnny Cash and actor John Ritter died.

I've never been a country music fan and never really listened to much of Cash's work. Sure I've heard his big hits like "I walk the Line" and "Ring of Fire". Even not being a fan Cash had a aura about him. Johnny Cash, Willy Nelson, etc are in their own league of song writers and to loose Johnny is so sad.

I was too young to be a fan of "Three's Company" but I didn't mind watch "8 Simple Rules...". When there was nothing better on TV I'd switch over to ABC and watch it. Ritter was always funny and played the part of a goofy overbearing dad very well. I had watched Extra doing a story on the whole ABC lineup at Disney World early this week. They showed him full of energy and being a bit goofy. He didn't look the least bit ill. It was very much a shock to hear he died.

And finally in personal news one of our cats was killed. She was a stray that was dumped at our house because we have a barn. Slick black and petite she was always a rebel rouser and loved to hang out around the birdhouse in the back yard. I'm not sure when it happen but it was a very foggy morning and going to class I saw her body on the road up from the house. She was just a barn cat but I'll still miss her.