January 19, 2004 – 16:41 EST   “Mike Rowe, a 17-year-old from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada has angered Microsoft by registering a Web site with the address MikeRoweSoft.com. The software giant has demanded that Rowe give up his domain name. According to AP, he received a letter in November from Microsoft’s lawyers informing him he was committing copyright infringement. He wrote back asking to be compensated for giving up his name. Microsoft’s lawyers offered him US$10. He replied asking for $10,000. Last week, he received a 25-page document accusing him of trying to force the company into giving him a large settlement.”
(story via the always-excellent MacMinute)

Well, it was a fun weekend. Friday night, went out to the famed Indian Restaurant to celebrate Amy and Erik’s birthday. Got the chicken saag, mmmmmm good. Dared Cam to try the vindaloo — and well, Cam’s not one to refuse a dare. Let’s just say he had food for the next day.

Erik falls off the wagon, hard
Speaking of the next day, on Saturday I was up at a local park with Eric J, Sonia, Eric J and Sonia’s dog Melvin, Eric G, and Rob, where we threw the disc around for a bit. The field was great, much better than our current field (read: rectangular rather than baseball field-shaped). And the lighting is better too. So I’ll be looking at that after our lighting contract expires at the end of the month.
While driving home, a flash of yellow caught the corner of my eye. I did a u-turn, made a left at the light into the parking lot and parked. Must have been over six-dozen school busses! And gas pumps, too. “For refueling the busses,” I guessed. Snapped a few quick shots and turned around to leave. Turns out it’s also where the police refuel their cruisers.
The officer explained that even though the gates weren’t locked during the day, I was trespassing. D’oh. Whoops. I apologized. He asked to see my license, took down my name, asked me if I live in the area, if I was employed, where I work, what I do, my home number, my work number, and radioed in a check on my license plate. He went on to explain that sometimes kids run around at night and vandalize the busses. I told him I hoped nothing got vandalized that night. And that was that. Except I’m kind of wondering how many databases my name was added to.
Made the best of the rest of the day when I got home. Cleaned up a bit, ichatav’ed with mom and dad, and, having been bitten by the bug the previous night, whipped something together for dinner.
Woke up at 7:30am Sunday to the sound of thunder crashing, decided to stay awake. Spent the morning cobbling together a little utility that crossed my mind the night before, ripped 10 cds into 128 kbps AAC — the equiv of 192kbps mp3, according to my ear. On a side note, my iPod currently isn’t being recognized by my computer. At the very worst, it probably means formatting and resyncing with the library on my computer. Guh. Some things never change. While we’re talking hardware, the backlight on my LCD flatpanel is still functioning beautifully after its two-week dim period ended a couple weeks ago. I think it’s just grinding down my warranty.
Sunday afternoon was Ultimate proper instead of just passing around; we had five on five, and afterward it was over to Jeff’s for another installment of his famous BBQ sessions. We half-watched Tomb Raider and its sequel. And Jeff made cookies! Fun times indeed, but I was exhausted by 9pm. I think someone’s getting old!