My original flight was scheduled for 7 AM. We got up at 5:30, got dressed to go, and checked the schedule. It’s been delayed until 10:30 (probably the plane didn’t get in from wherever it was supposed to last night). But I’m up now, and don’t know if I’d get back to sleep at this point.

I’ll be flying out first thing in the morning to the Space Access Conference in Phoenix, through Sunday. No blogging until tomorrow afternoon (when I may be live blogging the activities). If you’re there, say “Hi.”

OK, I’ve never knowingly banned anyone (despite Brian Swiderski’s fantasies), but I’ve decided that I’m going to delete posts of anyone who is so uncivil as to call me a liar. In the case of Anonymous Moron, he’s such a repeat (almost machine-gun like) offender in that regard (not to mention all the other offensive comments with which he’s desecrated my web site for months), that I’m going to start deleting each and every one of his posts, which is an effective banning.

I have a tremendous amount of patience, but it’s not infinite. I’ve had enough.

Oh, and I should add. Brian is hereby on notice.

Had to do an Apache upgrade on the server, and there were some glitches. Things should be OK now.

Mr. McGehee asks:

Why is Anonymoron still allowed to crap all over this blog?

At least two reasons. First, the trivial one. Because in his cowardice (and viciousness), he not only uses no name, but also changes his IP more often than he changes his underwear, there’s no obvious easy way to block him. I could delete his posts after the fact (and I suppose if I did that for long enough, he might eventually get discouraged and go away, but I’m afraid that the creature would just retaliate by spamming me or something when I was away from the computer). But there’s no way to preempt them that I’ve figured out, short of shutting down comments completely, a cure that I think (at least for now) worse than the disease.

Additionally, it would set a precedent. Though I’ve threatened to do it in the past in a couple cases, I’ve never banned anyone here. In general, there’s been no need, because usually the trolls get bored and go on to harass someone else. Anonymous Moron, unfortunately, seems to be quite persistent. I continue to hope that he is just a little more persistent than most, and will not become a permanent featurebug of this community. Unfortunately, he’s too stupid to realize that he convinces no one of anything except that he’s an idiot (I suspect that many people who might agree with him on the issues are tired of him as well, because he’s a caricature of their side, and makes it difficult for them to argue their own points, even when legitimate–I’d in fact be interested in feedback from that community on the subject).

However, I am getting more than a little tired of it myself (particularly since I’m generally on the receiving end of his vile attacks). If anyone has any ideas as to what to do about it, I’m receptive to hearing them.

I type a lot of link code, and HTML in general. Is anyone aware of any Windows software (or even a Firefox extension) that allows programmable hot keys, so that I could do <blockquote> or <a href=”” target=””> with a single (or dual) keystroke? It would help a lot with my incipient carpal tunnel problems.

I just saw this on Usenet: “Kids in the back seat cause accidents; accidents in the back seat cause kids.”

Yeah, I know, the blogging’s been light. I’m a little under the weather with a cold, and I’ve got paying work to do. When I get around to it, I may post a form that you can fill out for a refund.

Flew in from Amsterdam late last night. Posting may resume once I figure out what time zone I’m in. I will note, though, that NASA has to be a prime suspect in Anna Nicole Smith’s death–it seems to have knocked Nowak out of the news.

Just joking, of course. NASA hardly ever does things like that any more…

I’m in the Netherlands now. We had a whirlind tour of Belgium including a high-speed train ride from Calais to Brussells. It was quite a thrill–I don’t know how fast it was going, but I’m sure that it was the fastest I’ve ever been in a ground vehicle. Planes seem much safer, when you see all the landscape whizzing by (particularly when you pass another train a couple feet away at a relative velocity of whatever it is).

Drove down and had lunch in Ghent, then spent a couple hours in Bruges, and back east and up to the Amsterdam area. Taking care of business here, then back to Florida late tomorrow night.

On the previous post, I was going on the initial reports that Shipman was an astronaut, and hadn’t gotten the latest (it was a frazzled week). And yes, regardless of her actual accomplishments, I should have know to refer to her as a Naval aviator, not a pilot.

[Update a few minutes later]

Sorry, that was sloppy wording in the last sentence. The “her” referred to Nowak, not Shipman.

I’m flying to Europe this afternoon to deal with a family situation. I’m taking my computer, but I don’t know how much time, or Internet access I’ll have, so I may be out of touch for a while. I do plan to be back Tuesday night, though.