I hate Internet Explorer. The hate stems from all the issues I've ran into over the years with web sites and web development while accepted web standards having to be bastardized to support IE. You add in all the security holes in that software with Active-X and all the COM exposed facets of the program and you have a nightmare for potential hackers intruding on your computer.

Today's news in the BBC simply highlights another in a long line of failures on Microsoft's browser:

Users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer are being urged by experts to switch to a rival until a serious security flaw has been fixed. The flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer could allow criminals to take control of people's computers and steal their passwords, internet experts say.

So PLEASE change over to a standards compliant browser that can fix vulnerabilities much faster: Firefox, Opera, or Safari. (I'd advise against Google Chrome for now)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7784908.stm

Its hard not to be excited for the change in leadership that will occur as a result of the election next week. Whether you agree with Obama or McCain (or even Barr), don't forget to vote!

It has been years since I carved a pumpkin! Well actually, Chris did all the carving but Sakura and I cleaned out the seeds. She was really fascinated with reaching her hand all the way in and putting out the seeds.

She kept three seeds aside to "play" with later. It's amazing how long three seeds can keep a child occupied - line them up in row, move them from place to place, etc.

The seed roasted up deliciously!

A couple more shots of Sakura enjoying the Halloween party. She wasn't too happy about taking an early nap since the party was during her regular nap time but hopefully it was worth it!

Saturday was the annual Halloween at YC&AC. Sakura got all decked out in her Tigger costume and enjoyed some treat-or-treating. She thought it was pretty awesome that people would put stuff in the little bag she was holding. She even tried to eat the candy through the wrappers!

Sakura is finally getting enough hair to do things with to make her look less like a little boy. I'm not sure why but I've lost count of the number of times that Sakura was decked out in full body pink outfits and frilly shoes and yet people will ask if she is a boy or girl. I'm hoping hair ties, pig tails, etc. will finally stop those questions.

As a side note, I'm about to jump on a plane and am looking forward to getting home for a bit.

On most Tuesdays, Sakura and I join other moms in the park to let the kids run around and play. It used to be that all of the other moms got to sit around and chat while the babies crawled around on the picnic mats and I chased after Sakura. Now the dynamic of the group of is really changing with former babies venturing off the mats and beginning walkers improving their skills.

Sakura really enjoyed walking to the top of this gentle slope and running back down. It was hilarious how her cheeks would jiggle as she ran!

I've been in the US for a couple of weeks on some business travel. I was thumbing through the photos I stored on my local machine from our Korea visit (which we'll be posting stuff about in the near future) and came across this photo. It pretty much sums up why I miss them in one shot.

Sakura is a bug from Yokogaijin on Vimeo.

Sakura has changed so much in the last few months. This video was taken about a month ago and it is even dated! In this video we're playing with locating body parts. Sakura now knows 7 or 8 body parts on her and us! She also likes to stand on the couch which gets her in lots of trouble.

Kim and I are watching this presidential race with detatched morbid curiosity. This is the first presidential race we've witnessed from outside the fish tank of the horrible US news media. Being outside the country certainly provides a different perspective of the state of the country, our problems and potential solutions. The 24 hour news cycle on cable networks generate a ridiculous amount of inane comments and manufactured hype that ends up on YouTube or overtly partisan blogs like Huffington Post. It is no wonder that the majority of my generation and younger turn to the Daily Show and Colbert Report to help frame the really important stuff from all this noise.

Regarding the election, I personally think if McCain were to win this election that the remainder of the free world would help build the border fences the GOP is pushing so hard to finish. In their minds it would not to keep illegal aliens from getting in the US but to keep US citizens from getting out and infecting the world with their stupidity... and I'm a registered Republican.

I'm always amazed at business models can be created out of identified business needs. I guess the adage "when the demand curve of people with more money than time intersects with the supply curve of people that have more time than money, a business opportunity exists" is really true.

This specific entry is about CAPTCHAs. These tools are appended at the end of blog comments, bank account login forms, web board submission pages, etc. to ensure that the data being submitted is coming from a human and not a 'bot' programmed to spread SPAM around the interwebs. Many people have put tons of effort into cracking CAPTCHAs so the bots can continue to do their work but a new development in the SPAM arms race is developing: human CAPTCHA crackers.

Dancho Danchev, writing for ZDNet, reports on the emergence of CAPTCHA-breaking as an economic model in India. He reports that it's impossible to untangle the corporate web that's unfurled, given that large CAPTCHA-breaking companies often farm work out to multiple smaller businesses, but all available information suggests that CAPTCHA-cracking (referred to as "solving" in marketing parlance) is a booming sector of the Indian tech economy. Danchev reports that CAPTCHA-crackers can earn more per day than they can as legitimate data processing centers.

Seems like we're destined for more SPAM in the near future... Great just what I was looking forward to.

Here is the full URL of the story: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080901-captchas-flummox-bots-but-may-be-doomed-by-captcha-farmers.html

I'm beginning to think this is the only way Sakura will wear a hat. She is constantly taking off her sunhats outside but ever time she finds a baseball cap around the house she willingly puts it on backward.

Sakura seems to be learning a new word everyday. However, a couple of her favorites are "feet" and "shoes".

I always tell her to go get her shoes when we are going out and she complies by bringing back a pair of shoes. From this she has learned to hint that we should go outside by bringing me her shoes.

She also likes to try on every pair of shoes she can find. Here she can be seen walking around the kitchen in Grandma's shoes. You should see her in a pair of heels!

I will post some more pictures from our trip this week but wanted to post some recent pictures from our visit to Hakkeijima Aquarium.

Sakura and I returned to Japan at the beginning of Obon which is one of the major holiday seasons in Japan. Chris had a 5 day weekend so we decided to take Sakura to the Aquarium.

Unfortunately, everyone in Japan decides to get out of the house during Obon. We got going early so we only had to wait 30 minutes to park and were able buy our tickets and walk right into the crowded aquarium. The line just to get in the door was huge by the time we left.

Sakura had a great time looking at all the animals and fish. She thought the penguins were especially cool. She was squealing and yelling above all the Japanese children.

Pictures from left to right: Sakura making herself at home in front of the giant two story fish tank; Chris and Sakura riding up the escalator in the middle of the giant fish tank; Sakura enjoying the marine mammal show (she thought it was great when everyone clapped)

We had a fun time despite to crowds and incredibly hot and humid weather.

Wow. It has been a long time since I posted any pictures!

Sakura and I spent most of July and half of August in the US visiting family and doing lots of shopping. She definately has enough clothes for the winter and quite a few for next summer.

It was great having so many people around to entertain Sakura. One thing she loves to do is sit on anyone laying on the floor. It only took a few seconds for her to climb on Jerry after he laid down. Somehow she got her hands on his wallet and preceded to empty it. Another of her favorite activities - emptying wallets.

She had cash in one hand and a credit card in the other. I tried to convince her to take me shopping but she was having too much fun bouncing up and down.