It's a bright, sunny day around Casa de Wilson -- not a cloud in the sky, but plenty of snow still on the ground. Lorraine is off to the Tidewater area this evening -- I'll be here with the cats grinding away on "Modeling and Simulation Implications of the "Power to the Edge" Vision, a paper for the upcoming 2004 Advanced Simulation Technologies Conference. The paper describes part of my dissertation research.

It's snowing here at Casa de Wilson. We haven't had as much snow as I expected (at least we haven't had it yet). After such a wet spring and summer, I thought we were in for a tough fall and winter. Well, I guess the broken hot water pipe in the upstairs bathroom two Sundays ago was exciting, but not in a snowy kiind of way.

The forecast/guess is that we'll get six or eight inches of snow tonight, followed by ice tomorrow and perhaps Tuesday. The ice is the most treacherous, particularly when it's as cold as it is. Road salt is essentially useless at this temperature.

I ran across the Available C++ Libraries Frequently Asked Questions list this afternoon. Worth additional investigation, I suspect. Available C++ Libraries FAQ

I'm on a PowerPoint roll this afternoon.... PowerPoint Remix (Aaron Swartz: The Weblog)

More PowerPoint hammering, this time at the hand of Edward Tufte.... Wired 11.09: PowerPoint Is Evil

Slavish reliance on Microsoft(r) PowerPoint is one of my areas of interest. The Risks Digest Volume 23: Issue 10

I was searching for a definitive discussion of the equipment-related failure in Sheffield during the Falklands/Malvinas war. Offensive Air Operations Of The Falklands War

Interesting paper on "sea-basing", a topic that is reemerging in the press and the thoughts of senior leadership. The Time For Sea-Basing

Lorraine and I drove the Dempster Highway in 1999; it was quite a trip, and well worth taking again. The 25th anniversary of the completion of the highway will be celebrated next year. This short story discusses the history of the Dempster, and provides details of next summer's celebration: Northern Happenings - Yukon Wild @ Heart

Lake Superior State University released its Banished Words List for 2004....Banished Words List :: Welcome

I was slaving away on The Dissertation, searching for a little information regarding the prevalence of Internet traffic going over microwave radio relay links, when I came across NationMaster.com. Very interesting site, filled with useful statistics. Detailed Country Profile: United States

Lorraine and I spent New Year's Eve at the Wildernest Inn in West Virginia. It's a very restful place, not too far from home. The area supports hiking, bicycling, and river running. We'd hoped for snow this year, but wound up with unseasonably warm weather. It's odd to be hiking in shirtsleeves on the last day of the year this far north.

John Jay Chapman's commencement address to the graduating class of Hobart College in 1900 comes to us by way of David P. Reed, Internet luminary. John Jay Chapman address

Lorraine and I finally got the floors refinished in the bedrooms and the upstairs office. We spent last weekend clearing those three rooms out -- what a chore! -- and spent most of Christmas Day moving stuff back upstairs. It will probably take weeks to get everything resorted and carried back up to the upstairs office. Whew!

Too funny. adrants.com carries Big Wassabi's salute to Paris "Paris the Heiress" Hilton. Well done, Big. Adrants: Advertising and Media News With Commentary, Gossip and Opinion.

From the "What was she thinking?" file....

Boeing shows Darleen Druyun the door: what was she thinking? I guess she may have missed the procurement scandals of the 1980's, and must have missed the MANDATORY annual ethics training.

I'm a fan of Alan Simpson, former U. S. Senator from the great state of Wyoming. Al's been particularly critical of AARP. I heard about Third Millenium by reading an interview Al gave, which mentioned this group as an alternative approach to that taken by AARP.

I'm also a sucker for good "news" sites. The Onion is one of the very best. RealStupidNews and Fark are also good.

I'm a sucker for well-written food critiques. Today's critique comes to us from the folks at Flak Magazine.

One of the topics that I'll need to write a bit about in the next week or so, is the use of "open source" in combat, weapon, and military command and control systems. I did a quick Google(tm) search on "military use of open source", and what should pop up, but a reference to The Initiative for Software Choice. There must be an art to naming organizations -- make sure the average reading can't figure out exactly what you're for, and what you're against. Who wouldn't be against "Software Choice"? Wouldn't it be positively un-[fill in your nationality here] to be against "Software Choice"? Welcome to Software Choice