This is not a rhetorical question and I'm not trying to score any points here. But to those Democrats and lean-Democrats in my readership, I'm curious as to what your opinion of how good or bad Howard Dean's leadership of the party has been since getting the leadership position. I actually figured at the time that he was probably a good pick, but have since thought that an architect like Leon Penetta might have been better for the position than a spokesman like Dean. But then I'm no the best person to make such a judgment, so I'm curious what you think.

I've got my new CD burner and software working and it's all going quite fantastic. I've noticed something, though.

I've switched back and forth between Nero and Adaptec/Roxio since I've been burning CDs. Since getting a portable MP3 player and later an MP3 player in my car, I've noticed that they index files differently. If I put on an MP3 CD burned with Nero and play it straight through, it will play - more or less - in alphabetical order. The exceptions are too rare to mention and make sense as to why they would read that way.

An MP3 CD burned with EZCD, on the other hand, will not index the files in alphabetical order. In fact, I can't determine how exactly it decides which file would go first. On the CD I was listening to today, it was a song that started with "H" (Hey, Hey, My My) rather than "A" whereas some "A" (Alabama) songs are almost halfway through the CD. A-M is generally towards the front and N-Z is generally towards the back, but there is little rhyme or reason as to which song goes where. Two versions of the same song with the same title may be as far apart as a dozen songs from one another.

I'm not complaining as much as I am confused. Honestly, a part of me really prefers what EZCD does cause that way I can listen to a 100-song CD straight through without all of the version of a particular track being lumped together. On the downside, it makes songs nearly impossible to find. So I dunno.

So my questions:
1) Does anyone know why EZCD doesn't put them in alphabetical order.
2) Does anyone know how to get EZCD to do what Nero does or vice-versa?

I've come to the conclusion that it's time to bite the bullet and get a printer. I want a color printer that's reliable. I'd also consider printer/scanner combinations. I'm willing to get an HP, but anything non-HP will get extra consideration.

Anyone have any recommendations?

Update: Follow-up question, I notice that Dell makes a lot of printers these days. Anyone know how good they are?

Does anyone know what language this is:

Kymmenen virhettä osuu minuun aika hyvin. Ehkä kirjoitushaluttomuuteni onkin tullut siitä, etten noudata noita ainakin ensikuulemalta fiksuja neuvoja. Itsensä haukkuminen ei tuo mitään lisää eikä herätä sympatiaakaan (ja hyvä niin). Vaikka on hienoa rimpuilla irti ruumismista, lukijoilla on rajalliset aivot ja kirjoittajapersoona pakkaa tietoa. Myönsipä sitä tai ei, aika usein tulee katsottua uudesta blogista ensimmäisenä millainen tyyppi sitä kirjoittaa.

Update: I knew there had to be a way for me to figure it out. I just put the words in Google and looked at extentions. Most of them are ".fi" so it's gotta be Finnish.

Here's apparently what it really says:

Ten mistake quota ego period much. Possibly kirjoitushaluttomuuteni hook became siitä , lest follow wizard anyway ensikuulemalta smart advisor. Herself abusing no yonder aught more nor revive sympatiaakaan ( and good thus ). Although is tops resist off ruumismista lukijoilla is rajalliset brain and kirjoittajapersoona package cognition. Myönsipä it or no , period oft tulee katsottua newly blogista ensimmäisenä millainen original it print.

Glad InterTran helped me figure that out.

As many of you know, there is some bankruptcy legislation passing through congress right now. Before making a decision about how I feel about it, I'd like to know what exactly the proposed legislation does. This has actually proven to be a challenge. So anyone who can provide me a basic summation of the bill (including the parts they haven't decided yet), I'd greatly appreciate it. I want a cut-and-dried explanation, not:

• Whether or not it's a good idea,
• The most damning/reasonable provisions,
• How much the credit card industry has given to Republicans and Democrats,
• How valuable/evil the credit card industry is,
• and so on.

The more subjective this is good/bad information the article has, the less I will trust the rest of the information contained and the less useful it will be to me. Can anyone help me out?

Anyone else having trouble with GMail? Seems like things are getting delivered to my email box quite belatedly...

What did Darrin Stephens, the husband on the TV show "Bewitched," do for a living? Did they ever say?

The last thing I tried to do when my last computer died was burn CDs. It was actually while burning CDs that the computer rebooted for the last time and fried. So I finally have my computer and CD burner set up and lo and behold, on an entirely new power supply, the same thing is happening. the computer hasn't died yet, but it has been acting suspiciously like the one that did. First, it refuses to burn at anything above 4x - it doesn't even list it as an option. When I try to burn at 4x, it likes to reboot. I've successfully burned 2 CDs out of six attempts. The problem could very well be software because I'm using the same Windows installation that I used on the previous computer, but there seems to be a hardware component as the computer is getting insanely hot. But it could be the software putting the hardware in a power-intensive loop causing the overheating to occur (the fans work fine).

Anyone familiar with this unique combination of issues?

I've been looking to get a treadmill over the past couple of days. They seem to fall into about three categories: cheap ($100-150), expensive ($600-800), and way too expensive ($1,400+).

Since the treadmill is something of an experiment, I'm not particularly enthusiastic about spending hundreds of dollars on it because it might end up as a glorified coat rack.

The problem is that the cheap ones look awfully, I dunno, short to me. While I'm a relatively tall guy, my legs aren't hugely long (Eel and I wear the same length pants and she's 5'9"ish), so I don't think I need a hugely long machine. On the other hand, if I have a short machine, it might mean that I have to take short strides, which might make it uncomfortable, which might make it a $100 coat-rack.

So the question I have is whether or not they really do make these things in "short people" models that wouldn't work for me (and any other help/advice you can give me in this regard).

I've been listening to a lot of stand-up comedians through Rhapsody at work and have been enjoying it a great deal. I started with Bill Hicks and have recently moved into the Blue Collar Comedy set, but am running dry of acts there, too.

So my question is whether any of you are fans of stand-up comedy and, if so, who would you recommend?