January 2000

• Ancestry.com has many databases online, including the Social Security Death Index. A good place to start.
• There are many pages listing Genealogy Resources on the web. This one was pretty good.
• Researchers:
  A to Z Name Exchange has a researchers index where you might find someone else researching your family.
  FamilyHistory.com has a ton of message boards. It's another good way to find others doing the same research you are.
• State Specific:
  The Minnesota Naturalization Records Index is one of the databases at Ancestry.com that's proved useful for me.
  The Minnesota Historical Society has information on Family History Research and a ton of records at their new building in St. Paul. Among them are the actual microfilms of the Naturalization Records.
  South Dakota Birth Records from more than 100 years ago are online. Some of my ancestors were born in South Dakota.
  I've also got ancestors in the New York State Vital Records and Iowa Vital Records.
• Passenger lists on the Internet has pointers to many online sources of lists of immigrants to the US. Once you know when your ancestors got here, this can help you figure out where they came from.
• Germany:The German Migration Resource Center has information on many folks who left Germany.
• Sweden:Genline will have Swedish Church Records Online, the Riksarkivet tells you how to find answers in person in Sweden, and there's a Swedish Genealogy Page which has an index of surnames and researchers.
• Poland: Genealogy & Poland has a list of resources for Poland, Poland - A Country Study gives you some history, and the Polish Genealogical Society of MN has resources for those of us in Minnesota.

Weather in Minneapolis for January 31, 2000     January 31 in History

• Web users have lost privacy. Say goodbye to anonymity on the Web.
• AskTog: OS X, a First Look, or if that link doesn't work, check at AskTog: OS X, a First Look (mirror). New Coke says Tog, and you know, I can't really argue with him. I won't be switching to Pepsi, but maybe it's time to start hoarding Old Coke.
• In A modest proposal, Charles Curley asks if we really need a Congress.
• Trump revelation: "I'm a big a**hole". Indeed.
• Mini'app'les is the local Mac User Group.
• I've updated Dave's Consumer Reports with the results of my quest for a mouse that doesn't fully suck. I found one, but it took some doing to actually buy it.

Weather in Minneapolis for January 28, 2000     January 28 in History

• Earth Calendar will tell you what holidays are being celebrated around the world.
• Mead makers tout their product's ancient qualities.
• Come election time, you may want to Consider the Alternative.
• Is John Rocker Mark Fuhrman in cleats? Nope.
• The World's Only Ass-Kicking Machine. Really!

Weather in Minneapolis for January 24, 2000     January 24 in History

• Paul T. Riddell asks Do you remember rock and roll radio? It's the first I've heard of SDARS, which doesn't sound like a bad idea. For $10 a month, you get to bypass the jabbering DJs and commercials.
• Pirate radio goes legit: The FCC is thinking of allowing micro-power (less than 100 watts, which gives about a seven mile broadcast range) FM radio stations.
• Dot-com town puts Internet on the map. The first town I've heard of to change its name to a dot-com, anyhow.
• The Minneapolis Snow Emergency page will tell you where you can park when it snows around here. It's just some of the fun of living in Minnesota in the winter.
• The USPS will tell you How to Pack a Hippo. This is a pretty normal page (heck, some might call it useful), except for the hippo part.
• One hundred year old babies found in UK - another Y2K bug.
• Incrementalism on steroids is a Tenth Amendment update.
• Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell Encryption explains how the ambiguities in the new crypto regulations arre still worth fighting. Crypto-Gram -- January 15, 2000 has links to more commentary.
• Spycam City isn't a report about some place in the UK. It's right here in the US. From the sound of things, it won't be long before we take the lead in suveillance, and I mean that in the worst way.

Weather in Minneapolis for January 21, 2000     January 21 in History

• Hart Scientific published Year 2000 - The Sequel. It's just as much fun as the original Hart Scientific unofficial Year 2000 statement. And please, someone send them a Metrology Joke.
• The Onion gives us the Least Essential Albums of the 1990s as counterpoint to the many best-of lists.
• Is This Man a Crypto Criminal? John Young, who runs Cryptome is sticking his neck out, but it will clarify the new crypto laws and regulations.
• Dave Plotnikoff asks Can you keep a hundred secrets? I don't have the 3x5 card that he does, but that doesn't mean I don't want a better way of keeping track of all my passwords. At least I'm not using known words (making them more secure, but harder to remember) since I use Dave's Password Generator to make most of my passwords.
• The February 2000 edition of Conventional Wisdom talks about being a soft communitarian. It's pretty close to my philosophy some days.
• In Defense of Fucking Off - This sounds like my job on a good day. I don't have enough good days, though.
• GWBush.com fights back against the shrub.
• MonkeyDex finishes 1999 with 213 percent gain, which would make a chimp the 22nd best money manager in the US, ahead of more than 6000 humans. Check out the MonkeyDex Home Page for more information.

Weather in Minneapolis for January 17, 2000     January 17 in History

• You might've heard about how Bill Gates hands over reins of Microsoft to Steve Ballmer. Dan Gillmor's From Microsoft to CBS has more about Ballmer. Ballmer puts a different face on Microsoft. Speaking of Microsoft, The Passport Payment is the story of the guy who paid for passport.com when they missed their payment.
• Usenet Death Penalty Notice: @Home Network. The war on spam continues, and this time it's a big target. It'll be interesting to see how long it takes @Home to respond.
• D I T H E R A T I gives you a daily quote in which the digerati dither.
• The Register offers 102 ways to kill your computer.
• Bubbles in Guinness Do Go Down. Well. That explains it. And here I always thought it was some sort of optical delusion or the result of having too many pints. The original press release is at Fluent on Guinness.
• Pie Throwin' Man: Fighting the power with cream tartlets.
• VH1's 100 best rock songs. I guess I can't argue too much with it.
• The Register says Apple consumed by consumers. They nailed down the uneasy feeling I've had about Mac OS X since reading the reports of the Steve Jobs keynote at MacWorld. Apple damn well better put in some off switches for these crowd-wowing but productivity diminishing features.
• New weapon in gun control debate: Common sense. There are a lot of links in this one, too.
• The New York Post asks If Rocker is crazy, what about Turner? It's a pretty good point they make.
• How to elect a shifty-eyed weasel urges you not to withhold your vote from supposedly unelectable candidates. One of the main features of the shifty-eyed weasel is being electable by never taking a firm stand.

Weather in Minneapolis for January 14, 2000     January 14 in History

• How the U.S. collateralizes it's debt by taking property from its citizens.
• The Fugitive Fact File is a collection of hard-to-find and elusive information collected by the Hennepin County Library staff. There's some stuff in there I wouldn't have thought to look up, but it's cool to know where to find it. An example: the number of each type of animal in a box of animal crackers.
• Uncultured Perl tells the story of the birth of Perl. Not only is it written by Larry Wall, who's always fun to read, it covers some of the process of how he designed a new language.
• memepool claims to be first on the scene - because we're the victim (among other catchy slogans). It's another blog. I kinda like it.
• Corporate Consulting for the 21st Century isn't quite what it sounds like, but it's got a lot of good ideas. When you're done with that, check out the Culture Jammers' Encyclopedia.
• Survival Research Laboratories do some cool things that are definitely art (at least to me - others might have a different take).
• LaughNet has a quiz: Are You The Right Person For Me?

Weather in Minneapolis for January 10, 2000     January 10 in History

• California Officials, counties sued over oaths. If the lawsuit is successful, it would remove the governor, the attorney general, and others from office. More importantly, it would nullify any actions taken by them while they were improperly in office, would require them to repay their salaries for the time in question, and may subject them to prison time. For example, SB23, which is described in Upstanding citizen one day, criminal the next might be nullified.
• APB News asks Are 'Smart Guns' stupid? I sure think they are. Would I want a gun that could be disabled by someone jamming the radio in it or by hitting it with an EMP? No. In The trouble with 'smart guns', Joseph Farah has more to say about the issue.
• Wired's A Century of Spectacular Failure is another look back at the 1900s.
• Netizens unite against Big Business over DVDs and the first round of the battle has been won.
• Phew, we made it through Y2K. This is one of the funnier articles I've read.
• Hollywood stars turn against the 'lying' Clintons. Even Hollywood thinks there's been some prevarication coming from the White House.
• Bored with the USA? Try joining one of the Internet-based Nations.
• D'oh! An analysis of the medical care provided to the family of Homer J. Simpson. Maybe this explains why the Canadians have better health care than we in the US do.
• Killer bug sparks new food scare as salmonella enteritidis now infects forty thousand people annually in the UK. In the US, it's one in ten thousand eggs, according to the CDC Report on Salmonella enteritidis Infection. ... by man intentionally eradicating a disease, he simply opens up an ecological niche for another unheard-of illness. The consequences are frightening. Google Search: salmonella enteritidis will point you to more information.
• Yugoslavia Today on Central Europe Online lets you keep track of what's going on in Kosovo. Poland Today is interesting to me, too. No law, little order and not much justice in Kosovo is one of the articles I found. No peace in Kosovo is another article. Things there seem to be headed in entirely the wrong direction.

Weather in Minneapolis for January 7, 2000     January 7 in History

• BirdBrain's Nest is my ex-girlfriend Kate's site. She's really taken to Manila in a big way.
• I did some cleaning around home over the holidays, and came upon some old bonds. Thanks to the Savings Bonds Calculator, I now know what they're worth.
• Do you know How to Build Lame Web Sites?
• The Breakfast Guide to the Twin Cities doesn't have the places I eat breakfast on it, but it's not a bad place to start.
• Y2KMistakes is the original Y2K Screenshot page.
• Iowa Electronic Markets are futures markets for political events (like elections). No real money involved.
• Upstanding citizen one day, criminal the next describes the dilemma many Californian gun owners face.
• And don't forget to check out the December, 1999 picks if you weren't online on New Year's Eve day.

Weather in Minneapolis for January 3, 2000     January 3 in History