Nope, I am not going political on this but I find it very weird when the "puffer machines" (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosives_trace-detection_portal_machine) are phased out and the new x-ray scanners promoted by former Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff (http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/01/02/group_slams_chertoff_on_scanner_promotion/) is suddenly being touted as the way to go. No mention is made why the Iscon scanners were not considered (http://www.isconimaging.com/index.htm) even though they are now being used by the U.S. Department of Corrections (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/US-Corrections-Facility-iw-2422628358.html?x=0&.v=1). One wonders why the privacy concerns of criminal suspects are more important to the government than the privacy and health concerns of the general flying public. Could it be that political friendships and ties are more important than doing the ethical and morally correct thing?

Well I was thinking about doing a board hop but those get really tedious for me. I know others that like them but keeping track of the links and posting in each board is time consuming. At the same time I wanted a way were any public Runboard could join in at any time and the board hop makes that hard to do as well.

So I have created a Runboard Web-ring. It took some doing and messed up the database for RunSearch at first but finally the default settings are working correctly. The code suffers from table-itis but hopefully that can be corrected as I get time...

The host for the code is RBBT.NET
The home site for the Web-Ring is Runboard Design

Drop on by and take a look. The Runboard Web-Ring is now active and accepting members.

Once I received permission from Thor to do this I created a "official" Runboard Products store. The store host I chose has many International sites so instead of just posting a link to the USA store I created a announcement posting in TRD here:


(click the pic)
so people can order their own Runboard products. I set the first of the official products (a t-shirt, coffee cup, ball cap, and bumper sticker) to show as featured items and have set the Runboard graphic as a template which allows you to create and order over 100 different items. Any and all profits generated by the Runboard store will go to charity. The first charity is a 114 year old orphanage located in Texas.

Recently Photobucket added the ability to create and purchase products such as t-shirts, ball-caps, and coffee cups using the pictures you upload to their site. It is kinda cool and the prices seem to be competitive with other online sites but I think they may get in trouble when users start using copyrighted or trademarked pictures and logo's.

I asked for permission from Thor before I placed my own order for a t-shirt with the Runboard logo on it (dang, forgot to ask for permission to use it on a coffee cup) because I do not wish to even appear to infringe on the owners rights.

I was going over my formal education a few days ago and noticed that I need less than 2 years to complete a bachelors degree in religious studies (kinda like a liberal arts degree). Time is precious and I have way to many duties and obligations to actually go back to college in person but I have been looking at this "online university" idea and found two accredited universities that would let me take just a course or two per semester to finish out that degree. It is kinda scary though as I have not attended any formal studies in over 30 years. Then again, it is kinda exciting to think I can finish a degree I dropped so long ago and be able to put another diploma on the wall. I went ahead and started the process of applying for grants (to late in life for a traditional student loan). Perhaps someone will be kind and grant me the chance...