Curiouser and curiouser...could the sale/Joint Venture of IBM's Personal Systems Group be a prelude to Apple being bought by IBM? Cutting the PSG loose would be a necessary prelude to an IBM/Apple deal as far as Antitrust issues go. Speculation available here...the story's at The Register, so take it with a grain of salt.

Anyway, I'm back after a really fun (but really short) trip to Santa Barbara. Donald Burr is starting a new job today in Santa Maria...it's a contract position for 3 months, but hopefully it might become a full-time gig. He's had to move in with a couple of friends to take the job, and Saturday was the last big blast before the move. I should have been back home finishing up my papers and my math homework but this was way important. The Santa Barbara contingent are like family to me, and since much of my immediate family are dead at this point I need to keep these folks close to me. Donald was very, very appreciative of my presence at the party, which was held at the Something Fishy Teppan-yaki restaurant. Good food, good friends...a little slice of heaven.

Speaking of a slice of heaven, Chad gave me a little gift. A headless ThinkPad 570. It doesn't have a CD-ROM drive -- you need a dock for that -- or a hard drive, but the old 10GB drive in BlueTomato is perfectly at home in it. Basically it's going to become a server sitting on one of my DSL Extreme IP addresses. I've never administered a Linux server before so I would enjoy the chance to do it. A headless laptop is perfect for such an application...it sips power. It doesn't have a battery, and actually it doesn't need one, because it would be plugged in 24/7.

Anyway, no more flights of fancy until after I get done with finals. Too much is at stake.