Judging by the reaction I got from mentioning my latest purchase, I’m not sure anyone will be interested in this review, but I don’t want to go back on a promise, so here goes.

My “BoxWave miniSync”:http://www.boxwave.com arrived faster than I thought (only a few days after I posted my first entry about it). I’ve been using it now for a couple of weeks, and I’m very impressed.

The retractable cord makes for easy storage/portability, while the combination USB and power connectors make it very convenient to use. With the added car and wall plug adaptors, I can charge virtually anywhere. I don’t think my Palm has been lower than 75% battery strength for the last couple of weeks.

The cord itself is very thin and lightweight, but strong. BoxWave shows it holding up a couple of bricks on their website, and I have no doubt that’s for real. The connectors and the reel seem to be of high quality.

BoxWave offers the miniSync for just about every PDA model (Blackberry, Palm, Pocket PC, etc.). I would recommend them to anyone interested in a quick, easy hotsync-anywhere solution.

Well, I still haven’t done any graphic work, but I think the layout is pretty much in place. It will probably be tweaked pixel-wise to fit whatever design I build, but you get the basic idea. I would love to have something like the design over at “Ordered List”:http://www.orderedlist.com, but it probably won’t happen. Graphic Design is not my forté.

Enough of you have been complaining about the splash screen (was it really that hard to click the preview link?) that I’ve finally taken it down. I don’t feel quite so embarrassed about the site anymore; it actually looks alright like this. Rest assured, though — it won’t look this way for long.

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Have you heard about the ACLU’s recent gripe against Los Angelos County? Apparently, they have alleged that the symbol of a cross on the L.A. County seal violates the Constitutional principle of separation of church and state. I’ve provided a picture of the seal so that you can see what I’m talking about. The cross is VERY small.

I, for one, am glad the ACLU is worried about separation of church and state. I believe in that principle, and I might have been in agreement with their recent argument, except for one glaringly obvious problem. Notice the lady in the middle of the seal? That’s the pagan goddess Pomona!

Since it is much bigger than the seemingly insignificant little cross, that image of Pomona (goddess of gardens and fruit trees) probably should’ve been the first target in the effort to uphold the Constitution. Unfortunately, by attacking the cross first, they ACLU has merely proven (as if it wasn’t clear already) that they are not so much against integration of church and state as they are simply against Christianity.

The ACLU has issued statements against many other counties whose seals bear crosses, but will they send statements to any counties whose seals contain only pagan or other religious symbols? Sadly, I doubt it.

Further reading:

# “Petition Seeks to Restore Cross to County Seal”:http://tinyurl.com/24upz (L.A. Times)
# “Signature drive aims to keep cross on county seal”:http://tinyurl.com/ypgqb (L.A. Daily News)

I’ve seen spammers use incomprehensible text before, but one email I got today was the worst I’ve ever seen. I’ve included the text below, but I’m afraid it doesn’t do the email justice. It was actually styled very professionally. The text of the email was in a nice blue box, and the link was in a classy looking button at the bottom. Why they would go to so much trouble to make garbage text look nice is beyond my power to comprehend.

Here’s the email:

bq.. Hewl_lVo d1Iear home own^er,

We haInv,e been noBkti@fied that yLouVyr m=ortga?gzCe raHte is fixCed at a very h`igh in.teres)t rate. TPhereCfore you arxe cu’rrentXly overpayinhg, wMhich suArms-uEp to tho>usaynds of doll$arXxs annually .

Luckily for you we c2an g:uIarantee th*e lowest rates iln the U.S. (3.36%). So humrry beca6use the rate forecast is not lookin’g good!

There is no oblEi2xgation, and it’s FRchEE

Lock on the 3.36%, eAnven with bad credit~!

Click Her)e Now For D8et5ails

REMOVE HzERE

p. The links appear exactly as they did in the email, but I’ve broken them to protect the innocent.

I realize this unreadable text is used to overcome spam filters (and in this case, it worked), but how do they ever hope to sell anything using that tactic?

There’s a reason I’m blocking this kind of mail in the first place: I don’t want the product! When I saw it come into my inbox I didn’t say, “Oh! Silly me. Why was I blocking that? Boy, I sure am glad these guys are smart enough to get around my spam filter. I would’ve missed out on this great opportunity.”

No. No. No.

Spammers, let me teach you a very important principle. It’s called “demographics”. There’s a reason you don’t see feminine napkins advertised during morning cartoons, or Cheat Commandos playsets advertised during late night dramas.

Spam filters are a GOOD thing for you. Spam filters weed out all the people who don’t want whatever crap you’re selling, and guarantee that when you send out a professional looking email, it will reach only the people who are genuinely interested. Do yourself a favor: quit wasting your money marketing to the wrong demographic! Your unintelligible text is sabotaging your credibility with people who might actually want your product.

I uninstalled Internet Explorer from my work computer this morning, and let me tell you, I feel a lot better. My computer somehow seems smarter.

The only reason I was keeping IE around was so I could listen to my favorite streaming radio station, “K-LOVE Christian Music”:http://www.klove.com. Fortunately for me, they addressed some problems with Windows Media Player in Firefox 0.9, so now I can actually connect to the station in Firefox.

Uninstalling IE is easier than you might think. In Windows XP, you simply go to the “Add or Remove Programs” option in the Control Panel and choose “Add/Remove Windows Components” from the buttons on the left. IE appears on the list with a little check box next to it. Simply remove the checkmark and continue through the setup wizard. In no time your computer will be free from inferior browsers.

Happy Firefoxing.