COOOOOOOL! I got to work today, and my Iron Giant robot was sitting on my desk waiting for me. It’s still in the box, since I have to move out of my office for a week while they do work in here; I’ll unpack it when I move back in.

Breaking: New York judge has barred distribution of DVD decoding software. I predict that this won’t stand on appeal or trial (I know I’m not going out on any limbs here).

Sean Elliott is poised to return to the San Antonio Spurs. Sean has focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, and got a kidney transplant from his brother shortly following winning the national championship last year. If he returns, he’ll be the first major league athlete to return after a major solid-organ transplant.

What little banner graphic are all of the hackers going to put on their website now that Kevin has been released? “Let Kevin Online!”?? (And as of right now, the Free Kevin website shows that he will be released in “11 months, 30 days, 22 hours, 6 minutes, 16 seconds”. Hmmmmm…. looks like someone has some JavaScript editing to do.)

The American Medical Student Association’s new Medical Student Bill of Rights.

Does it bother anyone else that all of the major media outlets seem to want to call Elián González “the Cuban boy” rather than by his name? Usually, they get around to mentioning his name, but the headlines or commercial teasers almost invariably use “Cuban boy.” (CNN, NY Times, Chicago Tribune)

And while we’re talking about nicknames, I’m amazed how many serious news outlets are willing to call Russell Tyrone Jones “Ol’ Dirty Bastard” with a seeming straight face.

It turns out that a blind man has had a brain implant since 1978 that allows him to see in a rudimentary sense; when I read about this last week, I thought that it was the coolest thing, and best-kept secret, in a long time.

Lotus is finally sticking cc:Mail where the sun don’t shine. While very popular, cc:Mail has been a nightmare to run and support; all that being said, maybe you’re better off avoiding Lotus Notes, also.

CNN has a fascinating story on a Dutch-as-they-get guy who was made king of a region of Ghana. Royally strange (pun intended).

Two great Frontier tutorials: writing an objectNotFound handler, and setting up the search engine.

And, a few neat medical informatics sites that my mom passed on today: Computers in Medical Education, Journal of Information Technology in Medicine.

If you’re using Windows 2000 and wonder where the ability to set a NetBIOS scope ID went, it’s been removed from the UI. You can still get to it in the Registry, though.