One of the problems with the Internet is the large number of username and passwords that you have to keep track of. Now, I probably sign up for more things than most people, but I still have 70+ accounts, most of them active and still used occassionally. You go to a web page to get information and you have to log in. Luckily I use the same 2-3 account names and 2-3 passwords for all the accounts. What really bugs me are sites that give you random account names (and worse, random passwords) that you can't change.

To me it's really annoying. Apple has the Keychain to alleviate this. Internet Explorer for the Mac keeps track of username/password combinations based on URLs and the information is kept in your keychain file. This is much better than keeping cookies on your browser since that's not as secure and not transportable. With the Keychain you have to log in once to access all the stored passwords and any application can be enabled to use the Keychain.

But even the Keychain is not used by many people as it's a recent addition to the Mac OS and has to be specifically enabled. So I don't particularly like web sites that require a login but don't have any use for it. Some keep track of your user settings and preferences, some use it to keep restricted areas restricted, some us it to keep track of you for ad purposes (which is really annoying, use a cookie instead). It's because logins are annoying to me that I don't use that in my web site.

Which brings me to the topic of MP3ing all the Star Trek sessions that I've recorded. It's actually not that hard, taking about 1-2 nights to do one session with very little interaction on my part. The first two episodes came out relatively well. The biggest problem is getting everybody's permission for me to post them on my web site. There are some things said that would be embarrassing if they ever got out.

Right now I have enough permissions that I can post about 2-3 episodes, the rest being blocked by one person or another. Now, that won't stop me from making the MP3 files and posting them on my site. They just won't be linked and the files will be relatively inaccessible (unless you hit the right naming convention I use for "inactive" files on my site). I'm not going to bring up this topic because once we're all together, someone uncomfortable with the idea would be peer-pressured into giving permission. And I don't want that to happen. This is also the reason I don't bring up many other things that I only mention once. I tend to assume that if people don't respond the first time, they don't want to talk about it so I stop.

I'm starting to use the DVD player on my PowerBook more and one thing I've noticed is that it skips a lot unless you don't do anything else with the computer. As long as it's playing by itself with nothing major in the background then it plays fine. When I switch to another application or try to do light work with the DVD playing in the background I get a lot of image skipping, the audio stays fine at least. That could just be the way my system is set up, as I've heard of people playing a DVD on the desktop while they work.

Dave said to me that he can tell if I'm doing a lot of work because I get way behind on my journal. Now that I think about it more, that's not really what's happening. To a certain degree I do get busy and stop writing, then it builds up even though I don't have work because I don't feel like trying to make up all that writing. But sometimes I just don't write because I can't of anything good to write about. I use work as an excuse, but really I think it's more whether I feel I have something to say or not.