I’m not so sure motion sensor lights in bathrooms are a good idea.

I read “an interesting article”:http://wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,65106,00.html over at “Wired News”:http://www.wired.com yesterday. Apparently, Google News is facing some complex issues. I’ve been wondering for a while why it’s still considered beta even though it hasn’t changed much since I stumbled across it almost a year ago.

The answer is simple: it’s not generating any revenue for Google. Since they are culling their news from thousands of third-party sites who they are not contracted with, if they were to throw any advertising up they would probably be hit with a class-action copyright infringement lawsuit.

It’s really a shame, as I think their idea is an extremely good one. I’ve been using it as my only news source for several months now.

“Spread Firefox”:http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=user/register&r=5005 has started a new campaign to get 10,000 users signed up to help spread the word.

If you haven’t signed up, yet, get your butt in gear!

I’m seriously considering a switch to “WordPress”:http://www.wordpress.org, but I’m not sure I’m ready to take the plunge, yet. I’ve installed a test at joeyday.com/wp so I can try it out. It’s very different from MT.

What I like about it is that pages are generated entirely with PHP and MySQL. No Perl/CGI is used at all, meaning pages are truly dynamic. In addition, WP is open source (MT recently went commercial, offering a hard-to-find free version with limited allowable use).

I’ll keep you posted on my decision to switch.

_[EDIT: The test site listed above was originally linked, but I’ve made the switch now so I removed the link.]_

For as long as I can remember, I’ve had frequent and long-lasting nosebleeds, always from the left nostril. Since I lived in Kentucky, I’ve also had mild allergies. In the last four or five years I can’t remember having a cold without being sick for at least three weeks — I usually develop a sinus infection from the congestion.

My “Otorhinolaryngologist”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otorhinolaryngologist (ear, nose & throat) is pretty sure that these symptoms are due to a deviated nasal septum, and has recommended surgery (i.e. “septoplasty”:http://my.webmd.com/hw/health_guide_atoz/uf6156.asp) to correct the problem.

Actually, he recommended this two years ago, but I didn’t go through with it because of an insurance quibble (my family had just switched providers and we were on a pre-existing conditions restriction). The insurance issues are out of the way now, so I’ll be going in for surgery on October 12.

Septoplasty is common and has a high rate of success. It’s outpatient surgery, meaning I’ll be home the same day. I may be in bed for a few days afterward (doped up on painkillers :-)), but should heal quickly. Along with the septoplasty, the doctor is planning to cauterize some capillaries in my left nostril to prevent nosebleeds. He’ll also try to widen the vents into my upper sinuses to prevent future sinus infections.

I’ve never had any surgery done — not even minor. Understandably, I feel a little nervous about it. However, I’m confident that things will turn out alright.