For weeks now I've had this item on my to-do list. It is time to send an update to the folks on the list and let them know what we're up to in life. Without fail when I sent that note I would have gotten a thoughtful beautiful response from Bill.

When checking email this afternoon, however, I saw an email from a friend with the subject Bill Floreck. When a friend emails and the subject is the name of another friend the news is never good. And it was the worst sort of news possible.

"Bill Floreck passed away on Friday, July 14th," the message began. A very sad day indeed.

I had the great pleasure of working with Bill on Larimer County Search and Rescue for a couple of years and later on the Larimer County Emergency Services Support Team. So many memories make up those days we spent together. From grinding through meetings to sunny days in the snow practicing driving the snow cat and doing avalanche searches or sitting in Bill and Kate's dining room practicing navigation. The memories will live on forever and his spirit will continue to bring joy to all those who were fortunate enough to have shared a little bit of life with Bill.

So I have a setup I like well for keeping the iPod up to date. I don't carry much music on the laptop because I have too little disk space and usually carry the iPod with the laptop so I already have all the music. But when on the road I sometimes want to charge the iPod from the laptop. The problem is that with the iPod set to auto-update the podcasts on the iPod are wiped out.

So the problem is how to charge the iPod from the laptop without having the podcasts stored there wiped out? By launching iPod Updater before plugging in the iPod iTunes is never told that an iPod is attached. The iPod charges and the podcasts are left alone.

The New York Times airs the dirty secret of high school sports. There's the old coach's tale that high school coaches far and wide trumpet how their athletes are learning how to be fit for life. Then there's the reality where most of them aren't learning life skills but are instead engaged in something which they cannot sustain and aren't learning much useful in the process. That does not mean, however, that school districts strapped for money will consider cutting athletic budgets anytime soon.