WE FOUND HIM!!!

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(The “him” is our cat Winston, who went missing on Monday, as we were moving out.)

The cats hadn’t been allowed in the basement for the last couple years, but we let them roam freely down there on moving day, and Oliver immediately rediscovered — and christened — the unused litter box there, multiple times. We thought nothing of it. But over the past few days, as we went over to clean up the place, GoddessJ mentioned that the box looked like it had been disturbed.

When we went back yesterday, it had definitely been disturbed — there was a patch of waste that had definitely not been there the day before.

There wasn’t much left in the house, but we tore apart what there was, looking for Winston. We’d already checked everywhere we could think of, multiple times, but he had to be there, so we started digging into places that we didn’t think he could have gotten.

Sure enough, that’s where we found him. He’d wedged himself under the bottom-most step of the basement stairs, behind some junk left behind by the previous owner of the house. We still have no clue how he got in there, but after five days, he was hungry enough that we had no problem tempting him out with some cat-treats that I’d been carrying around while trying to find him.

(GoddessJ says it’s the best diet he’s tried yet. He does look noticeably slimmer, but he had plenty of fat to carry him through the ordeal, and still has a goodly amount left over.)

When we took him to the new place, he immediately found a new hidey-hole. We’re not sure where yet, but he comes out every now and then. So long as we know he’s safely in the house, we’re not complaining.

Thanks again to everyone who shared our concern while he was missing.

Call a Convention

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I don’t often delve into politics here, partly because I find them distasteful and partly because I know that, realistically, any amount of good I could do would be minuscule. But I have to make an exception today.

The government of the United States is broken. Just about everyone agrees with that. And just about everyone agrees on the source of the problem: the “golden rule” (i.e. “he who has the gold, makes the rules”). Special interests: groups that push things that are in their own interests at the expense of the public good. A couple recent and particularly disgusting examples are the health insurance industry successfully preventing most health care reforms, and the banking industry fighting much-needed changes to the banking rules that got us into the current financial mess.

It has become a government of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations.

What can be done about it? Individuals can’t sway congressmen, they don’t have the money to match the bribes contributions of the special interests. And groups — even large groups — can’t either, not when their opposition is fighting for its profits and possibly its corporate life. But Lawrence Lessig thinks he’s found a solution: a Constitutional Convention.

Will it work? I don’t know. But it’s about the only way I can see that stands any chance whatsoever.

“Energy-harvesting rubber could power phones”

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Tired of having to remember to charge your cell phone every night, or of running out of juice in the middle of a call? Scientists may have come up with a solution for you: just go for a walk.

Oddly enough, I’ve never seen this kind of thing mentioned in science fiction. It seems obvious in retrospect. But then, most science fiction assumes that perfect batteries with enormous capacities will be developed, and plugging a phone into a wall socket or the lighter socket of a car every couple weeks won’t be a major hassle.

“Slovak biker spat linked to rare destructive worm”

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Wow, this is a blast from the past — a worm that overwrites the Master Boot Record (MBR) of the hard drive. I haven’t seen one of those since the early nineties. But believe it or not, that’s not really destructive… just fdisk /mbr to rebuild the MBR, and unless the worm has done a lot more to your system, you’re back in business.

“In their words: Experts weigh in on Mac vs. PC security”

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It’s a very long article, so I’ve only skimmed the answers that their chosen experts gave, but it’s very odd to me that the answers were so varied. Market share was brought up several times, as an argument for a Mac (or Linux, though that was barely mentioned), but others said that market share matters a lot less now than it used to. Others mentioned that applications are the important ingredient nowadays, not OSes. And several pointed out that social engineering works the same on any OS.

Probably the most interesting response, to me, was the one from independent researcher Dino Dai Zovi:

Neither. Consumers should see if Apple’s iPad or the forthcoming devices based on Google’s Chrome OS suit their needs because both are significantly more secure than any general-purpose desktop system, Linux, Mac, or PC.

He’s got a point, but I can’t recommend an iPad, at least right now. The same features that make it “significantly more secure” also make it significantly less useful, in my opinion.

“Microsoft shops to fly Win 7 minus SP safety ‘shoot”

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Or, to translate from the very British terminology: companies using Windows are planning to upgrade to Windows 7 before the first service pack. Of course, that’s hardly news to us in the hard-core tech-geek community, because we see Windows 7 as nothing more than a large (and very much needed) service pack for Windows Vista anyway.

Moved, But Missing A Cat

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We’re safely ensconced in the new place now… well, most of us. Our cat Winston ran out the door while the movers were there. I followed his tracks down the street (it’s the only time you’ll hear me say it, but thank God for fresh snow), but eventually lost them.

He may still show up at the old house, once he’s gotten over his terror. Or someone may find him, he’s wearing a tag with his name and our address and phone number on it. We haven’t given up hope, but we’re worried sick about him.

Moving Today, Internet Connection Down

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My Internet connection (and phone line) will be down this morning. If all goes well, it’ll be back before noon, at the new place; if it doesn’t, I’ll be back as soon as I’m able.

I’d like to officially thank our friends c-square, W, and B for helping us with the main part of the move yesterday, and everyone else for the well-wishes. See y’all on the flip side! 😉