Month: January 2006

A while back, I had a post about Pandora, a cool new music streaming service that lets you create your own radio station, tailored to the kind of music you like to listen to.

If you still haven’t tried out Pandora, here’s an article from Fast Company that might get you interested. It introduces us to the guys behind the Music Genome Project and some insight into why Pandor is much more than just another music matching service.

I’m still using Pandora regularly, especially at work, where the fact it runs in Flash means it doesn’t get blocked by our vigilant web-blocking software. This article gives you some extra details on how to work with the software to make it even more powerful and help it to introduce you to a whole lot of music you would never have found otherwise.

I was going to write about this major security flaw in Windows, but Shel Holtz has already done so…and I couldn’t have said it better myself. So click over to Shel’s blog, A Shel of my former self, to read all about it.

Just one thing to add. (This will only make sense after you’ve read Shel’s post.) I’ve been following this danger since it was first discovered, via a very cool Podcast I subscribe to, called Security Now. If you haven’t listened to it, you should consider it. It’s an incredibly valuable collection of programs on how to safeguard your computer and your life from the bad guys out there.

Sure, it’s nerdy, but I find it fascinating. And the host, Leo Laporte, and security expert Steve Gibson do a fabulous job of making all this complicated stuff interesting and compelling. I’m addicted. And they were all over this Microsoft problem long before the company said a word. See this posting on Steve’s GRC website for all the details.

Update — Late Thursday, Microsoft saw the light and released their official patch for the WMF problem. So if you’re a Windows user, make sure your automatic update is working or go to Microsoft’s Update site to get the fix.

Happy New Year, everyone!

This will be an interesting year for me and my family, as we enter a new chapter in our lives. We’ve already bid adieu to two of our flock and in June, the youngest will be finished high school.

I know some parents like to keep the family home as a base for the kids to rally back to from time to time, but Heather and I have other ideas. So by the fall, we’ll both be setting up shop in Victoria, BC, a long way from our current abode. In fact, Heather left a couple of days ago for an extended stay in Victoria. She’ll be working as a midwife and preparing the way for the launch of her new practice in the summer.

Over the holidays, I’ve been reflecting on what a home means to a family, as we’ve enjoyed having our family all back here again. In a perfect world, perhaps we would stay put in one place…but we won’t be doing that.

Fortunately, we have our summer place at Buena Vista, just outside Regina. It’s a spot I’ll always keep and a great place to spend the summers. So far, we’re all committed to spending time together there every summer. So no matter where we all end up, it will give us somewhere to come together fairly often.

Wherever you are, I hope the coming year unfolds the way you hope and that you and all those close to you get all the happiness you deserve.

Happy New Year!