Eye See Cue

I ran into a snag when I was installing Trillian on my new laptop; I couldn't remember my ICQ password.  They assigned me a new one (an unsightly mix of numbers and letters) after my account got hacked 3-4 years ago, but I have never got around to writing it down or memorizing it (it's one of those r2bK0kcX9e monstrosities).  Without the password, I'd have no way to activate the account on my notebook.  Inasmuch as I take pride in such things, my inner geek likes having a low UIN in ICQ (334625), so creating a new account wasn't an option for me.

Fortunately I had a message from them in Hotmail with my "new" password from the last time I'd changed it.
Unfortunately I apparently deleted that message along with some spam within the last few weeks.
Fortunately they still have that "change password" feature on their website.
Unfortunately it no longer seems to work - leastwise it no longer recognizes any email address I've ever owned as being valid.

What to do?  In the back of my mind, the little voice that usually screams obscenities and tells me to kill people said, "Didn't you recognize your own ineptitude a couple of years ago and back up that message someplace?"  I couldn't remember the actual act of doing so, but neither could I shake the certainty that I had.  It took a couple days of digging, but I eventually found a copy of the message buried deep in one of the folders on my work account.  Hurrah for anticipating my own failings!

This morning I finished the downloads for the HL2 suite, and applied the last patch to WoW.  I have a couple of other titles to install, but I'm in pretty good shape for the next LAN party.  This will be SO much nicer than packing along my desktop!

Just to make your evening a bit more Orwellian...

As much as I dislike our government up here sometimes, it has been awhile since I questioned their sanity.

The latest little gem from the Bush camp looks like fun.

The plan, which would replace a military trial system ruled illegal by the Supreme Court in June, would also allow the secretary of defense to add crimes at will to those under the military court's jurisdiction.The two provisions would be likely to put more individuals than previously expected before military juries, officials and independent experts said.

Somebody on one of the message boards I follow had some interesting thoughts on this article.

To add a bit of weight to the situation. From Americablog: (below):

1.According to the Washington Post, "the plan, which would replace a military trial system ruled illegal by the Supreme Court in June, would also allow the secretary of defense to add crimes at will to those under the military court's jurisdiction." If that is correct, then the federal government could add ANY crime to the list, ANY crime. So any American suspected of ANYTHING could be picked up and sent to a military court and never heard from again because, oh yeah guess what,the new legislation says you basically get a Soviet gulag trial:

Under the proposed procedures, defendants would lack rights to confront accusers, exclude hearsay accusations, or bar evidence obtained through rough or coercive interrogations. They would not be guaranteed a public or speedy trial and would lack the right to choose their military counsel, who in turn would not be guaranteed equal access to evidence held by prosecutors. Detainees would also not be guaranteed the right to be present at their own trials, if their absence is deemed necessary to protect national security or individuals.

2. The part that could easily cover reporters, and political dissidents:

The military lawyers nonetheless supported extending the jurisdiction of the commissions to cover those accused of joining or associating with terrorist groups engaged in anti-U.S. hostilities, and of committing or aiding hostile acts by such groups, whether or not they are part of al-Qaeda, two U.S. officials said.

Aiding hostile acts? Who would that be? Well, according to the White House's own words over the past 5 years, every one of us who speaks out against the war, every newspaper who publishes articles about Bush's violating the law in his over-execution of the war on terror, is "aiding" the enemy. Remember,these are the White House's own words, folks. And now they want legislation that says that those of who "aid" the enemy can be basically tried in abstentia and never heard from again.