…and it only took a couple of hours to get everything working!!! :)

After failing to get Lisa’s computer configured owing to some obscure binding problems and a firewall conflict, we tried to install the broadband software on my machine, to learn that there was a flaw in the script that tried to redirect my browser to finish the registration and it was pointing to the wrong URL. Plus my proxy server settings had to be set manually to finish. Once I got that straightened out, it was a piece of cake.

... because, according to the Wall Street Journal, they violated the Trading with the Enemy act. We’re just now finding out about this thanks to a FOIA lawsuit filed by Public Citizen and the Corporate Crime Reporter. According to the Journal, “Treasury is planning to make such settlements public on a regular basis.”

Unusually for the Journal, they also point out who’s not been charged: Dick Cheney.

The Treasury's latest list didn't include Halliburton Co., Dallas, the oil-services company formerly run by Vice President Dick Cheney. Halliburton opened an office in Tehran in 2000, when Mr. Cheney was chief executive officer. When the news became public last year, the company denied its office violated the U.S. law.

My sister Esta has returned from her pilgrimage. Apparently there were some eventful things: bad connection, super late arrival, cows in the road, “Bagging the Rush,” etc. Good things, too: sounds like there was lots of spiritual growth happenin’. Her leadership experience on this trip makes most of my business experience look tame.

Doc Searls: ThumbsUp to blogs.meetup.com. I wonder how many Seattle area bloggers have already voted for the site for the meetup on 18 July. Get yourself out there.

Surprisingly cool find: the weblog of the CIO of Utah, Phil Windley. Seems sharp and generally clueful, as evidenced by Blogs for System Status Communications:

My organization operates hundreds of servers in several data centers and a network that connects over 250 separate locations. One of the problems we have is status communication to various interested parties. Tonight I decided we should have a system status blog that uses categories with separate RSS feeds for various severity levels and systems. For the low price of $40/year we could have:

• One easy spot to post status announcements, which would be ordered in exactly the right way.
• A web-based record of status.
• Multiple RSS feeds of the various systems and severity levels.
• Easy integration into the personalization feature of our intranet; RSS feeds would show up as gadget boxes for people who want them.
• The ability to easily subscribe to RSS feeds and digest them in various ways for people with special needs.

How could you not like that?

Currently playing song: “I'm Waiting For The Man” by Velvet Underground on The Velvet Underground and Nico.

Boy, I need to get a new icon for Seattle news stories. Anyway, I was up until 11:30 last night finishing the painting in our great room. This morning the masking tape is coming up and the drop cloths are being folded away, while in the next room our flooring guys are masking the mess that was the old floor. The Broadband Fairy comes later today too. Far too much fun for one day.