Someone suggested that an annual driving test should be enough for old people, but the fact is enough deterioration could happen in a matter of months to make an old person a very dangerous driver. It’s just too risky. Investigators found out today that the old man responsible for yesterday’s massacre was involved in recent accidents.

Maybe a hybrid solution is in order. Maybe after age 70 there is an annual driving test until you reach the age of 75, after which you are just fucking done with driving. Here’s another article about this.

There was a tragic incident today in Santa Monica that rekindles the argument that there should be an age limit for drivers. An 86-year-old man mowed down over 54 people at a street market, killing 9 and injuring 14 others critically for over two blocks. He told police he couldn’t stop and that he may have hit the accelerator instead of the brake.

Uh huh. For two whole blocks!? That shit don’t make no motherfuckin’ sense!
There should be a law that states that after the age of seventy-five you should be all done with driving. Period! Thank you for playing.

When I walked out of the Aladdin yesterday I realized that I had not gone outside for two and a half days. Also, sadly, the temperature was still at 114, but it felt like 125–crazy!

Anyway, I couldn’t contain myself and spent another $50 before heading to the airport, bringing the total tally to negative $100. Again, still not bad for almost three days in Sin City. Plus, I got to meet a bunch of staff from other cities–all-in-all not bad for a firm event. Big ups to Benson Tran who left Vegas up $300.

The dark side giveth, the dark side taketh away. The craps tables were red hot tonight. This is great if you are playing with the shooter, but not so great if you are betting against. Needless to say, I gave back all of my winnings, plus about $50 tonight. A big win in roulette also helped me recover some losses.

Now, for the whole trip I am in the hole. Although, being down only $50 for two days is pretty good! And what do I have to show for it, I got hours of high-quality gambling entertaininment, meals, drinks, and even a show (see yesterday’s entry) for $50–that’s a bargain.

For those that don’t know, I am in Vegas until Tuesday for a work-related training session. I arrived at the airport at 1:00PM and it was 114 degrees–let me spell it out, one hundred and fourteen!!! Who the hell can stand this heat? Some of my co-workers actually went out to play a round of golf in this weather. Insane! Can you say extra crispy!? I thought I saw a falling star, but it was a bird that had burst into flames! Jeez!

So, I walked outside and jumped into a sedan to the Aladdin. Ah, air conditioning, it’s wonderful. In the desert it isn’t just “air conditioning,” it’s “life support.” The ride was excellent. I got to the hotel and had to wait in a long ass line–at least fifty mofos deep. That wasn’t good, but it’s Sunday and the person in line told me that it is like that everywhere. Well, okay. Checked into the room, changed into shorts and hit the craps tables with Benson Tran.

Let me make a long story short: Benson and I are up, way up. We have turned $40 into at least $120 about three times now. We gambled all day, ate twice, bought countless drinks, even watched a show at the hotel and I am still over $100 up. He’s probably up more than I am, since he started doubling his bets up.

The whole time, even as I showed him how to play craps for the first time, we played “the dark side”–the don’t pass line. The moral of the story, as Emperor Palpatine would put it, never underestimate the power of the dark side. I am going to sleep now with a smile on my face :)

In this leg of the race, the teams made their way through India on a grueling 24-hour train ride to the city of Ernakulam. The train ride was arduous and all teams except for Millie Mole and Wolf Man upgraded to the first class air-conditioned cabins–they wanted to save money–dumb asses.

The Roadblock that followed was disgusting! One team member had to agree to be dragged through a pool mud and bullshit (and bull piss I am sure) by a couple of bulls running at top speed for 100 yards. It did not look pleasant. Tian did it and the event almost ripped her breasts off her chest–titties flying everywhere!

Next, there was a Detour that involved delivering yarn on elephants or delivering chickens on a bicycle. All the teams except Reichen and Chip chose elephants, and they all paid for it with serious butt pain. Reichen and Chip came into the Detour in last place, but choosing the bicycle delivery allowed them to pass Tian and Jaree to the pitstop–so, the girls were eliminated.

This leg of the race was very close, which is what you want to see. Nobody wants to see the last place team rolling into the pit stop way behind the pack. Tian and Jaree should be proud of their finish. I still predict the virgins, Millie Mole and Wolf Man to be gone next. Stay tuned.

Larry O’Brien sent me this video stream link, a Japanese variety show clip that shows a Matrix-style ping pong game. It’s pretty entertaining, or as Larry put it: this is the funniest thing ever filmed. Check it out.

I recently changed my hosting provider from OLM to Jumpline. One of the things that I totally got used to with OLM was SquirrelMail webmail, arguably the best webmail application on the face of the planet.

Unfortunately, one of the requirements for SquirrelMail is the IMAP protocol, and Jumpline does not provide IMAP access to their mail servers. They support POP3 protocol mail access only.

I had to quickly regroup and search for the next best webmail application. It had to be compatible with my Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS) system and not have an IMAP requirement. I tried almost all of them: Neomail, Popper, NuralStorm, Instant Web Mail, and IlohaMail.

I finally settled on Open WebMail for use with my domains. Based on Neomail, Open WebMail has been improved substantially in the last two years by an International group of programmers into a very solid application. It isn’t Squirrelmail, but if you are without IMAP it’s the next best thing.

Gary “The Glove” Payton in a Laker’s jersey! The Lakers offered Payton a one-year contract earlier today. And, if Karl Malone also signs with the Lakers, the journey to the dark side will be complete. That’s right, four all-stars on one team. It’s just unheard of–read ‘em and weep.

Prosecutors met with sheriff’s officials today to discuss the possibility of pressing charges against Kobe Bryant, the Lakers camp has scheduled a conference call for 5:00PM ET, and speculation on exactly what happened in Colorado is running wild. What do you think? Is Kobe guilty of these allegations?

Who still uses floppies anyway!?

I had completely blocked this from my memory. The SPA actually created this video (Windows Media, 16.5MB) to deter kids from copying computer games. I think this encouraged more kids to become crackers for 0-day warez groups than anything. It is so excruciatingly bad that I am almost too embarassed to post it. Even more scary is the fact that the SPA still sells the video for $15. Big ups to Defective Yeti for link.

Kobe Bryant turned himself into police and posted a $25,000 bond on a felony count of sexual assault in Colorado today. Allegedly, Kobe sexually assaulted a young woman in a hotel room near Vail, Colorado a week ago. Damn, that’s one hell of an allegation!

Kobe is the last person I would expect to see in this type of scandal. Maybe I am naive and the public persona is all a carefully crafted illusion. Has he pulled the wool over on all of us? What the hell was he doing with a woman who wasn’t his wife in a hotel room!? Well, maybe I have an idea, but surely not Kobe! He’s a new father, happily married, a decent guy, right!? I am so confused.

I don’t know if this whole thing is true, and it’s probably too early to tell. However, when I start hearing words like “physical evidence” it seems this may not be a simple case of “she said, he said.” Bottom line, for the sake of Kobe, the Lakers, and the sport of basketball, I sure hope this brouhaha is all a really big misunderstanding.

The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that the Karl Malone, would take a huge salary cut to come play for the Lakers. In fact, he would take the minimum to allow for salary cap room to allow the Lakers to also sign Gary Payton.

I am salivating just thinking about a starting five with four all-stars. Shaq at center, Karl Malone at power forward, Kobe at small forward, Gary Payton at shooting guard, and, well, anybody at the point. Hell, even I could play the point with those guys around me. Stay tuned.

I hope that everyone has a safe and happy 4th of July holiday. If you can’t get to a fireworks show, check out this link that my classmate Jon Cornelison sent me–pretty cool fireworks java applet.

Teams experienced serious culture shock on this leg of the race traveling from Amsterdam, Holland to Mumbai, India. In Mumbai, the conditions of the streets and the rampant poverty brought some of the team members to tears.

The going got really tough on this leg of the race, and as expected, Monica and Sheree were eliminated. Because, when the going gets tough, the rich stop tryin’. Untimately, third world conditions were too much to handle for The Supremes.

The funniest scenes of the race came as teams tried to get on the grossly overcrowded trains of Mumbai. The amount of people was crazy! All of the women were totally manhandled in the sea of humanity, except for Millie–must be the big-ass mole on her face. And Chuck almost didn’t make it on the train after Millie was already inside. Man, what a lamer!

The race is coming to the wire. Reichen and Chip are going strong, as are David and Jeff. Tian and Jaree seem to have put aside their differences and are again working as a team. The crowd favorites, clowns Jon and Al, are dangerously close to elimination in last place. And the NFL wives are finally gone. I now predict that the next team to fold are the virgins, Millie and Chuck. Stay tuned.

Not since Tiger Woods has there been such an amazing junior golfer. Michelle Wie is a 13-year-old girl from Honolulu, Hawaii. She is 6-feet tall and can drive a golf ball 280 to 320 yards (not a typo). She has already qualified for several LPGA events and even got to the final group at the Nabisco Championship, an LPGA major, in March of this year. She is the youngest USGA tournament champion and has her eyes set on The Masters (again, not a typo). She says that her dream is to play on the PGA Tour, not the LPGA. Geez, what are they feeding these kids!?

The National Park Service is selling chunks of concrete from Alcatraz as part of a $7.7 million renovation project. They say it is more cost effective to sell the concrete than to have the debris shipped off the island to a landfill. The moral of this story–tourists will buy anything!