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Papa - Darrell Williams
(Mar. 28, 1921 - Dec. 30, 2005)

My Papa, Darrell Williams gracefully left us tonight (December 30th) at 5:30 pm. It is never, ever, ever, ever easy to lose a loved one; especially when they are as special as my Papa. That’s why I’m so grateful to know that I will again see him in Glory someday. There is great peace to know he is with our one and only Lord and savior tonight.

We Love you always Papa!

Papa

Pap

Our Last Christmas Together

Darrell Williams was born March 28, 1921, in May, Texas, the son of Garnett and Frankie Williams. He died on December 30, 2005, at the age of 84 years. He had been a member of the Baptist Church since he was 9 years old.

He received his Bachelors Degree from Howard Payne University, Brownwood, Texas, and his Masters Degree from East Texas Baptist University Marshall , Texas, He did graduate work at the University of Houston where he taught graduate classes as an Adjunct Professor. He also was a graduate from Shephard Field Air Force Training School, Wichita Falls, Texas and taught in the Inspection Division.

Papa, as we affectionally call him, worked in the public schools of Texas for thirty-five years, He served as superintendent of schools for thirty of the thirty-five years of service. He retired as superintendent of South Park Independent School District in Beaumont, Texas on July 1, 1976. For three years he worked as an educational consultant for many Texas public schools. And then from 1979 to 1986 he served as Executive Director of the Central Texas Chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors in Austin, Texas. During that time he earned many honors from the National Association of Builders and Contractors in Washington, D. C.

He was preceded in death by his mother and father, two brothers, Cecil and wife Mary Lou, Frank and wife Bea,
and sister, Elwanda Williams Coppic.

Papa is survived by his wife and best friend, Lola, of the Woodlands, Texas; his brother Kelly Williams and wife Inez; two daughters: Sharon Kay Williams McKinney and husband William of Pinehurst, Texas; Patricia Williams Todd and husband Clarence; Two sons: Kelly Lynn Williams and wife Shannon of Houston, and Michael Williams of Fort Worth, Texas. He is also survived by the apples of his eyes; four grandchildren: Chris Todd, Jeff Todd, Kim McKinney, and Whitney Garrison, two very precious great grandchildren, Madison Grace Todd and Alexandra Garrison; numerous nieces and nephews; and a family of Teachers and Administrators that share his quest for knowledge and passion for education.

Test Drive Linux For Free!…Over The Internet!

Want to try the latest technologies over the Internet? This allows you to test drive some of the hottest hardware and operating systems available today. All this over the Internet, with no local installation or downloading required.

read more | digg story

Tech Experts Anticipate New Year’s Virus

Technology experts are warning about a computer virus set to worm its away around the Internet by the New Year.

read more | digg story

Anti-Wifi Paint

Scared your neighbor is leeching on your connection? Here’s one way to stop them…coat your whole house with this stuff!

read more | digg story

iPod video torrents via one link

This site lists various torrent repositories that have sprung up that are dedicated to letting you download videos for your video enabled iPod.

read more | digg story

I installed Word Press 2.0 tonight…

It was a very easy install, with basically no problems….best of all, almost all of my plug-ins worked perfectly. I had a little scare because my theme did not work at first. Once all the plug-ins were active, BINGO…up and running!

Over all my initial impression is: VERY NICE. It has lots of new features, and a much better admin GUI.

New Feature highlights (from: http://asymptomatic.net):

  • More Abstracted Data Layer - The core WordPress code has been refactored to abstract direct calls to the database when adding posts, comments, and other data. This will lead to improvements in database access (perhaps even supporting other database engines in the future) and plugin development, including…
  • New Import System - The new import system leverages the abstraction done at the data layer, so that import routines can call simple functions to convert posts from other blogging tools instead of a huge complicated series of queries. Importers are also available directly from the admin, so no special process need be taken to employ them. (Thanks, tinster.)
  • Admin Redesign - It’s not so significant as the Tiger Admin plugin, but there are a few more gadgets in the admin, especially on the Write page. You can now drag sections of the page to reorganize them, and click the plus/minus to expand/contract the sections.
  • The Rich Editor - WordPress has a new post editor built in that lets you see what you’re going to get without having to decipher tags. You can also resize the editing area on the fly by dragging it, which is pretty cool. Not everyone who has tried it likes the WYSIWYG editor, so there is an option to disable it on a per-user basis.
  • Image/File Uploading - Just under the Rich Editor in the Write panel, there is a new control that allows you to upload and insert images into your posts. WordPress keeps track of these images and can even automatically provide dedicated pages to receive comments for them.
  • Improved Post Preview - Instead of displaying the post as plain text below the editor, the post is now displayed in an embedded frame, using all of the layout and CSS that is normally applied to your site. In effect, the post looks exactly like it will when you publish it, giving you ample opportunity to review the post’s layout.
  • User Metadata - To support user-based options, the user data now sports a much more flexible structure. People who use WordPress as a CMS can now use code to add custom data of any kind to any user profile.
  • User Roles and Capabilities - The “user level” concept of security has now been replaced with Roles. WordPress associates a Role to each user. Roles have Capabilities such as “edit posts” and “activate plugins” that allow certain actions. There is no more concept of hierarchical users, but plugin authors can now create whole new Capabilities to apply proper permission management.
  • Presentation Page Changes - WordPress 1.5 lets you switch themes, and 2.0 shows you what they look like before you do it. If a theme includes a screenshot, you’ll see it in the Presentation admin panel to help you choose the theme for your site.
  • Ajax Category Addition - There’s a bunch of ajax in WordPress 2.0 and this is probably the most requested use of it. This feature lets you add new categories directly from the post-writing page.
  • Ajax List Management - There are a few places in the admin that show lists of things and let you delete, like categories, posts, comments. Now, instead of reloading, the row turns red and then fades out.
  • Moved Javascript/Images - Version 2.0 uses a lot more javascript than prior versions. Some utilities, like FAT (Fade Anything Technique) and SACK (Simple Ajax Code Kit), can be used by other tools and plugins, so it’s good to put them someplace where developers know they will reside, and outside of the admin directory, which might have weird permissions.
  • Theme Admin Pages - The guys who worked on K2 went to some lengths to hack a custom configuration page for their theme into the WordPress admin. Now that capability is easily available by including a functions.php file with the theme. You can see this at work in the new header generator for the Default theme.
  • Ping Delay Removed - Rather than pinging trackbacks and pingbacks when the post is saved (this causes the delay you see when posting to WP1.5), the pings are attempted via a different method that allows the admin interface to respond more quickly.
  • Persistent Cache - There are certain types of queries that WordPress makes to the database repeatedly. To speed things up, the results of these queries are cached to disk. This caching is still compatible with other caching plugins, like WP-Cache, and could be just enough of a boost for larger sites to avoid optimizing everything.
  • Database Versioning - Now when updates are made to the database schema, your admin panel will tell you to run the upgrade routines. This is handy because it keeps your database fresh enough to support the code that runs on it.
  • New Built-In Plugins - WordPress 2.0 is now packed with the Akismet plugin for comment spam prevention, and the WP-DB-Backup plugin for manual or automated database backups.

U.S. Patent Office Likely to Back BlackBerry Maker - New York Times

OTTAWA, Dec. 19 - The technology patents at the heart of an infringement lawsuit by NTP against Research In Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry wireless e-mail device, are likely to be struck down by the United States patent office, both companies said on Monday, a move that would be a setback for NTP.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office took the unusual step of notifying the companies that it expected to reject the five patents held by NTP in its final rulings.

The office has issued preliminary rejections of all five wireless e-mail patents in the past. The final rulings may come by mid-February, earlier than expected.

“The patent owner’s arguments are deemed nonpersuasive,” said the patent office document, which was received last week but dated Nov. 30. “The next office action is expected to be a final rejection of all current claims.”


More…

10 Fastest Production Cars Ever

Model Year Vehicle Top Speed (mph) Source

2005 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 253 Car and Driver
2005 Koenigsegg CCR 241 independent observer
1998 McLaren F1 240 independent observer
2003 Saleen S7 223 at 6500-rpm redline
2004 Ferrari Enzo 220 Auto Motor und Sport
1993 Jaguar XJ220 212 independent observer
1992 Bugatti EB110 GT 212 Autocar
2002 Pagani Zonda S 208 Sport Auto
2004 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 207 Auto Motor und Sport
2004 Porsche Carrera GT 207 Auto Motor und Sport

The Bugatti only cost 1.25 million…you can read more about it on the Bugatti page

WordPress 2.0 Release on December 26

WordPress 2.0 Release on December 26
Filed under: WordPress, Release — Dougal @ 11:09 pm
In response to concerns about availability of support over the
Christmas holiday, the release of WordPress 2.0 has been delayed until
December 26. This will allow all the fine helpers who answer questions
in the forums and on IRC to enjoy the holiday without feeling that they
need to rush back to assist upgraders.

From: geek ramblings » WordPress 2.0 Release on December 26

The Mall at Christmas

I went to the mall tonight….what an idiot!

Next year I really am going to start my shopping in June!

 

On a more serious note, due you think it is possible that
every teenage girl at the mall actually sneaks out their house or changes in
the car on the way to the mall…or are their parents just insane? 

I just don’t understand how a parent can allow a middle
school girl to leave the house dressed like a playboy playmate!  OK admittedly my daughter is only three and my
day is coming, but I still just can’t fathom how this happens.  Check back in about 10 years and I’ll
follow-up on this.