Steve Guidi

I've long been looking for a way to uninstall all those applications that come with Windows XP and that I never end up using. Outlook Express, Windows Messenger, Windows Movie Maker, and Windows Media Player, all consume disk space and system resources that I'd rather allocate to other applications. Sure, disk space is cheap, but I don't want to have to upgrade my disk because the operating system installs a bunch of auxiliary programs that I will never use.

Many of these programs are deemed uninstallable since they don't come with an installer, and if you do manage to "uninstall" them using the clever sysoc.inf manipulations, then the uninstall will merely hide the files instead of deleting them.

It wasn't until yesterday that I discovered a nifty tool called XPLite. The tool is used for creating low-overhead operating system images, and in the process of doing so, it will let you remove traces of all those extra applications, windows services, and OS components that you never use. You can even remove Internet Explorer, although I didn't try to for fears of being left with an irreparable shell.

Give it a shot -- let me know what happens!

I've been collecting films and DVDs for approximately eight years now, and for almost equally as long, I've been looking for a way to keep the collection organized. Up until recently, this consisted of a stack of slim jewel cases to keep the space usage compact, and a set text files to list what the jewel cases hold.

This solution isn't very robust. For example, if a friend wanted to borrow a film, I would have to search my text files to see if I own the film and then rummage through the stack of cases to find it. The stack will always be there, but the text file searching is a nuisance.

Yesterday, I uploaded my film collection text files to the online DVD management library at DVDSpot. In its very basic usage, DVDSpot maintains a list of your uploaded DVD titles and pulls data from IMDB to get title information. What I find interesting though are the statistics and film profile that DVDSpot computes from your collection. For example, Desmond Llewleyn appears most in my library, most likely as the character "Q" from the James Bond novels. Kevin Conroy is in the #3 spot, most likely as the man who is the voice of Bruce Wayne/Batman in the many animated Batman films and television episodes. Furthermore, and this should be no surprise, Akira Kurosawa is the most frequent director of films in my library.

Take a look at my collection (it is linked on the blog's main page). It is supposedly worth over $17000 US and I'll be updating it frequently!

Parts of the U.S - Mexico border are partitioned by a large fence -- it keeps the Americans from sneaking into Mexico and the Mexicans from sneaking into the U.S. On the U.S. side, congress recently approved the construction of a 700-mile fence along the U.S - Mexico border to keep illegal aliens out of the country. This fence will be bigger, better, and cover a larger perimeter than its predecessor. Who dares breach this new barrier to illegal immigration?

Well, it isn't that difficult to breach so long as you have an entity on the other side that is willing to help out. One of the firms that has been contracted to maintain the existing construction has just been fined for hiring illegal immigrants to do its work. Now that's ironic.

Amazing time-lapse video of an artist's rendition of a car, using MSPaint. More of Raffaele Picca's work at PixelGod.NET.

This is Jeopardy! Featuring tonight's contestant, a former NFL player and film actor from San Francisco, California, Orenthal James Simpson!

O.J. is back in the news again, only this time, he's capitalizing on the laws of double jeopardy by authoring a book entitled "If I did it". The book describes how Simpson would have murdered his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, if he indeed was the true killer. Since O.J. has already been acquitted of the murder charges, he is protected by the laws of double jeopardy and thus can not be charged and tried again for the same crime.

As Jay Leno joked about last night, be on the look-out for similarly titled books from Phil Spector and Robert Blake.

Do you remember being told as a child that if you were to dig a hole deep enough, you would end up in China? Some friends and I tried this once, only to be yelled at by my friend's father for digging a wide hole about 1.5m deep in his back yard.

I also recall watching a Road Runner cartoon in my youth depicting the coyote digging a hole (or tunnel rather) that brought him to China. When he exits the hole on the "China" side, gravity reverses itself -- he falls up towards the ground and is promptly outsmarted by a Chinese road runner.

Today, you can find out where you will end up if you dig a deep enough hole. It looks like both the coyote and I would have ended up in the Indian Ocean.

Over the past few months, I've been dying to get some thoughts and commentary posted to the blog. I've been preoccupied with many things: the World Cup, a real estate purchase and its side-effects, travel, and of course the daily challenges of my work-life as a senior software engineer.

I currently find myself on a ghetto public transit bus, on route to Jenny's house for dinner. The bus looks like it will fall apart given the weakest of impact; every time we hit a bump on the road, my laptop shakes violently to the point where I need to hold the LCD screen for fears of irreparable damage.

Over the past few months, I've learned and experienced many things. Keep an eye out for the following.

Guidi on the World Cup:

Forza Italia, campione del mondo! Why I can't stand ESPN coverage of any soccer event, and my experience watching World Cup with a predominantly American crowd.

Guidi on Real Estate:

How to avoid spending too much money on real-estate. I learned a lot from my first real-estate purchase, especially how much money I could have saved with the proper preparation. I truly want to share this information with my friends so that they can avoid making the same mistakes I did.

Guidi on Airport Security:

A must read for fans of TSA policy and frequent reader's of Bruce Schneier. If you don't believe that I was able to fly from Seattle to San Jose (and back) without photo ID, then read this post to discover, in excruciating detail, how I did it.

My stop is rapidly approaching and I can't wait to get off of this piece of junk. Got to run!

	A live re-enactment of world 1-1 from Super Mario Bros.
	A live re-enactment of Little Mac vs Glass Joe and Little Mac vs Don Flamenco from Mike Tyson's Punch-Out.

The Star Trek franchise is now 40 years old and to celebrate, Christie's auction house in New York City will auction various set props from the television shows and films. Among these items are Captain Picard's fencing mask, Deanna Troi's purple jump suit uniform, the command chair from a Klingon battle cruiser, and my favourite, a visual effects Romulan Warbird model.

The estimated sale prices of these items are absolutely astounding. Fencing mask: $400-$600, Troi's clothes: $2000-$3000, Klingon command chair: $6000-$800, Romulan warbird: $10000-$15000.

I have no idea what I would do with any of this stuff, nor do I think I'd have a girlfriend if I suddenly styled my livingroom with Klingon decor.

Last week, two days before the last match of the 2005-2006 Serie A league, allegations were brought forth about mismanagement of Juventus, Italy's most successful football club. The allegations prompted the resignation of Juventus' entire board of directors, and then the club's general manager, Luciano Moggi, one day after.

The allegations are very serious and involve match fixing, biased referee assignments, misappropriation of funds, and just about anything you can think of let alone name-calling. UEFA, Europe's governing football association, is now involved since Juventus has qualified for next year's Champion's League and UEFA needs to determine which clubs will repesent Italy in the tournament.

The progression of the investigation (coined "piedi puliti", or clean feet) will likely prove the allegations true and generate more publicity than Italy's Parmalat fiasco. If the allegations are true, Juventus will lose their Serie A titles from the last two years. A.C Milan, the team I support, will be declared champions until it is shown that they were involved in similar match-fixing scams that were not as successful as those of Juventus.

Today, I've joined the hype and started blogging, albeit a few years too late. I plan to post notes about what's going in with my life in Seattle, and links to the news articles I find interesting or absurd. You can also find my photo albums posted at the PhotoMat.

What irked me today? Someone already registered guidi.blogspot.com and doesn't maintain the site. Now I'm stuck with the not-so-cool steve-guidi.blogspot.com address.