When using clipart in Microsoft Publisher 98 (part of the popular Microsoft Office) a search for the word "monkey" displayed an African-American couple sitting in a playground. Obviously someone eventually filed a lawsuit.

When users type the word "monkey" to obtain a graphic, the program displays an African-American couple sitting on playground equipment, alongside four other images that show various types of monkeys. The suit claims that while the term "monkey bars" is supposed to refer to the playground equipment on which the couple is sitting, the equipment shown in the image "is plainly not 'monkey bars.' "

A rational look at how this happened would lead one to realize it is just a result of the search algorithm used and was not intended in anyway to be racist.

Of course this was all back in mid-1999 - long before the 43rd President of the United States, George Walker Bush, was elected to office. The most common means of poking fun of the 43rd president was to compare him to a monkey. This clear case of disrespect for one of the highest offices in the world was widely found acceptable - in the name of comedy and satire.

This of course makes me very curious. My simple question is this: Can anyone poke fun at the 44rd President of the United States by possibly comparing him to an animal? ... Will it be funny or will it be racist?

Posted in: Politics, Random,

My younger brother got married this weekend, and me being a true critic's critic have to make my comments. It goes without saying that the bride and groom were obviously quite happy. Even after all the hiccups, I am pretty sure the entire event went very much to their liking. I must say that there were some serious errors in planning and execution but the real surprise was ... I actually had a really good time. That's not to say I was expecting a bad experience, but rather I didn't know what to expect. I was traveling to a place that I don't visit too often and I was not involved in majority of the planning due to the distance.

There were some near-miss incidents with a missing restaurant, a missing suit and a missing grandmother but all were eventually remedied. I was quite pleased with the barkeep when he told me I ordered a "man's drink" - I think he was tired of mixing so many fruity drinks. I was also incredibly happy to see my nephew and nieces tearing up the dance floor. They all had such a great time. As for me, I think I would have been better at doing the "Pretzel" had I not been so hammered. But I did sober up for some bonding with some future in-laws. All in all it was a fun time.

Now, only one ... two ... maybe three more to go???

Posted in: Life, Travel,

Almost everyone familiar with the world wide web knows about cybersquatters. These are annoying opportunists who purchase domain names for website that they do not intend to use, but sell for a profit. Considering it costs less than $10 to purchase a domain and host a blank web page for a year, squatters will sell for much more, sometimes in the $100's or $1000's price range. Typically on these sites there are links which are basically ads. From the ads, squatters only need to recover the $10 cost per year to be profitable.

I registered this domain (mjmwired.net) in 2003, but over 2 years passed before I bought another domain name for a new site. It was incredibly difficult to find a good name both times. It occurred to me that if I ever had an idea and wanted to create a site around it, I would keep running into the same problem. Since then, anytime I think of something (however vague), I register a domain name. I'm fighting the squatters on their own turf.

Well, I thought I was. I picked a ".net" domain instead of a ".com", thinking it would be more personal and less commercial. I was shocked in Sept 2007 to see that some squatter had registered mjmwired.com. I only noticed when a google search for "mjmwired" put it on the first page, sometimes as the 3rd or 4rth result. Upon visiting the site it showed the standard list of ad links. The automated ad system these sites use place links that are relevant to the domain. For any normal domain that would make sense, but in this case it was showing all sorts of links that would be typical on my site. Now anyone who was looking for my site and ended up there would be confused. As annoyed as I was, I decided to sit still. If it did not show up on google, I really would not care, but I get majority of all my traffic from google searches.

Over the course of the year, I was tempted many times to email asking how much they wanted for the domain. However by doing that, I feared they would just raise the price. So I ignored it for a year hoping that it would not be renewed. Unfortunately at the end of Sept 2008, it auto-renewed. I was disappointed until I started receiving emails like this (emphasis added):

It is not even clear if that price includes the actual cost of the domain, which most likely would be inflated through bidding and who are these "interested parties"? I ignored these emails and waited till the end of December hoping no one would purchase it. Unfortunately, sometime after Christmas another squatting domain service bought the domain. By this time I had totally given up.

About a week ago, as I was drafting this post, I looked up mjmwired.com again. To my shock it said it was available! I was uneasy for a few hours since it took a great deal of time to get approved after I purchased it, but it only cost $10! So that ends 16 months of minor irritation. Now I guess I can protect my brand online. ... There's only one thing that bugs me though: should I be worried about this problem for my other domains?

(FYI: I use 1and1 for all my new domain purchases.)

Posted in: Website, Internet, Rants,

A long December indeed ... I really don't like to write about my own personal health. The last thing we need is more complaining on the internets, but I would like to leave a note to my future self when I read this: December 2008 was terrible for me. I was probably sick for 90% of the time and just when I thought I made it out of the woods, something stronger knocks me out.

I missed a lot of things this past holiday season and oddly enough I missed quite a few things last Christmas as well (India trip). I guess this year I was looking forward to that warm feeling when the whole family is around and enjoying the time off. But somehow with everyone's schedule, that only lasted for 1 whole day. And going forward, I don't know if it will ever happen again. I really should not be surprised. I guess it's time to grow up.

The only shopping I did was to force myself to Macy's and JCPenney to find a suit. A very concrete reminder of the upcoming functions of 2009. And as for this new year, I no longer believe in resolutions timed on a periodic occurrence. However I do think that the turn of the year provide a good time for reflection. Last year started with anticipation and potential, but ended with huge disappointment (I wish I was only referring to finances). I just hope that next year when I'm forcing myself to write something, I will look back more fondly at the time passed.

Posted in: Life, Rants,

Well another Thanksgiving came to a close. I often wonder what "tradition" means when it comes to this particular holiday. For the past 5 years or so, every Thanksgiving has been wildly different from the previous. While I'm not saying that it is a "bad" thing, it always makes me feel ambivalent before the day and quite relieved after. This year was no different.

If I could pick one common thing about Thanksgiving when I was growing up, it would have to be that there was almost as much arguing as there was laughter. Of course, this is nothing unusual when you have so many family members, friends, kids, in-laws and out-laws all competing for some attention and sweat potato - at the same time.

I know I could try harder to get along or just relax a little. I could never understand, as a kid, why everybody couldn't just have a grand merry time? And now as an adult, I'm often amazed at the times that we all do get along. Even though I get accused of being a "downer" at times, I think I fulfilled my quota of laughter for this holiday. ... Now if only I could stop thinking about next year.

Posted in: Life,