<p>So, there&#8217;s some debate on whether or not these images are real. I <strong>think</strong> they are. Either way, it&#8217;s still kind of freaky.</p>

Update

<p>OK, so, not that <strong>everything</strong> you read on the internet is true, but I found <a href="http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/porcupinedog.asp">this site</a> that says it&#8217;s true.</p>

I just can’t plug this enough I have 3 people so far who have completed an offer. That leaves 2 more people and I get an iPod for free. It seems like such a scam, but what the hell. The sad thing is, I’m sure the owner of the site is making money hand over fist off this site. I’d guess for every iPod they give away, they make at least 3x the cost of the iPod (probably closer to 4x or 5x). I could be wrong… but I kind of doubt it.

<p>So, be a good little soldier, and sign up&#8230;</p>


<p><a href="http://www.freeiPods.com/?r=9258422"><strong>freeiPods.com &#8211; Get a <span class="caps">FREE</span> iPod!</strong></a></p>

“Podcasting”)

<p>&lt;snip&gt;

>Podcasting, I don’t get it. What’s the big deal? I agree with Maddox on this topic: “Someone had the revolutionary idea of taking a compressed audio file and putting it online. Yeah, doesn’t sound so sexy when I describe it for what it is, does it you morons? It would have been a great idea if streaming audio wasn’t already around for over a decade before the word “podcast” entered the lexicon. Man, I can’t stand the word ‘lexicon.’”

<p>&lt;/snip&gt;</p>


<p>OK, I don&#8217;t normally respond to people who can&#8217;t read, but I&#8217;ll take a stab at this one. Podcasting is more than just &#8220;streaming&#8221; mp3s (It&#8217;s not streaming at all really). Podcasting is really an audio blog of sorts. Take iTunes New Music Tuesdays for example. As you listen to it in iTunes, there&#8217;s a little icon that pops up next to the status window. When you click on this icon, a dropdown menu displays with album covers and titles that are in that weeks podcast. This lets you navigate through the Podcast to whatever section sparks your interest more. But that&#8217;s more of an added bonus really. The idea behind podcasting is just an automated way of downloading content to your machine so you can listen to it whenever you want (hmmm, this sounds familiar. Damnit, what is it? It&#8217;s on the tip of me&#8230;. <span class="caps">OHHHHHHH</span>! that&#8217;s right, it&#8217;s <span class="caps">DVR</span>).</p>


<p>Honestly, I think these people are just upset because the term &#8220;Podcast&#8221; was coined after the iPod&#8230; God forbid those Mac freaks!</p>

This is kind of, well, bizarre. We’ll be flying to the U.K. around Christmas time this year. I’m not too sure about having my iris scanned.

<p><a href="http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/us/frequentflyer/fcnewsfeatures/iris_scanning.jsp">Virgin Atlantic &#8211; Iris Scanning</a>

There will soon be the introduction of Iris Recognition Immigration Systems (IRIS) at UK airports. This is a process of scanning an individual’s iris in a quick and non-evasive way. The reason for scanning the iris is that it is unique to the individual and does not change throughout a person’s lifetime. IRIS scanning is an automated border entry system that recognises passengers’ irises, allowing individuals travelling to the UK to pass through Immigration without showing their passport, speeding up time at Immigration control.

<p><span class="caps">IRIS</span> was initially trialled at London Heathrow’s Airport and due to the success of these trials, it has now been rolled out to Terminals 2 and 4 of Heathrow Airport, followed by Terminals 1 and 3 in summer this year.</p>


<p>From the summer until the end of the year, all UK airports will go live or be installed with <span class="caps">IRIS</span>.</p>


<p><strong>The process</strong>:

Passengers will be asked to do a one-off enrolment at UK airports, undertake some immigration checks and have their iris pattern captured so that the information can then be captured on a secure UKIS Database. Once all checks have been completed and the passenger’s information verified, every time they enter re-enter the UK, they will be able to bypass the queues and proceed through Immigration control. Once their iris has been identified, they can pass through the security barriers and through to Departures in a quick and easy process.

<p>Those eligible for iris scanning include; permanent residents, work permit holders, long term students and frequent travellers.</p>

OK. So, the site is fully run by WP. The archives have been converted from Blogger and I’ve stuck a bunch of Redirect directives in my .htaccess file so any linkers won’t get 404s. More inportantly, links from search engines will be updated to the most current URLs because I tacked on permanent after the Redirect. Kind of like this…

Redirect permanent /path/to/old/file.html http://www.newserver.com/path/to/new/file.html

<p>Kind of basic, but it sends a 301 instead of a 302 (permanent vs. temproary) redirect.</p>


<p>This theme I&#8217;m using (Random Image) is a canned theme from the web. I imagine I&#8217;ll tackle creating a custom theme later&#8230;or just come up with my own images for the rotation.</p>


<p>That said, I&#8217;m going to bed&#8230;</p>

So, I’ve decided to forego the backend side of things completely. It seems pointless to re-invent the wheel. Today’s opensource tools have just about everything you could need and thensome. WP, thus far, has enough features for me (and this site) that developing a dynamic site would be, well, dumb.

<p>I&#8217;ve migrated the previous posts over from <a href="http://www.blogger.com">Blogger</a>, but I know that there are some sites that are linking to some of that content. WP has a slightly different <span class="caps">URI</span> schema so I&#8217;ll have to either enlist the help of mod_rewrite (which I know little about) or just use an .htaccess file for those (and other) URLs. I suppose learning rewrite rules wouldn&#8217;t be a bad thing&#8230; I&#8217;m just a tad on the lazy side.</p>