Just got this e-mail through my Yahoo mail account. It is a virus...

TO PLEAD, PRINT OUT THE ENCLOSED TICKET AND SEND IT TO TOWN COURT, CHATAM HALL., PO BOX 117

Then there's a .zip file attached. DO NOT OPEN THE ZIP FILE.

The e-mail I got actually originated in Spain, not New York. It's disguised to look like it came from nypd.gov, but it didn't. Furthermore, after receiving a number of these kinds of notices (long story, paperwork mix-up that got another guy's tickets sent to me), I can tell you that they don't come from the state. They come from the city or county court that has jurisdiction over the violation. They come on paper and they identify both you and the car involved specifically. They also identify the location of the violation and the officer who is certifying the evidence of the violation.

It's a good trick, seems legitimate. Basically, since they can't shove a virus down your throat, they're trying to trick you into swallowing it. When you open the zip file and double-click the file inside, you're going to get a virus, and you'll have given it to yourself.

We're planning on a Disney Cruise next year. I decided to look into whether wifi was available on their ships and what it cost.

Here's a link: Disney Cruise Line Internet and Cellular Services

They charge $0.75 a minute unless you buy a pre-paid block of minutes that lowers your per-minute rate to between $0.55 and $0.30. You cannot upgrade from one pre-paid block to another nor are unused minutes refundable. Service is slower than normal WiFi hotspots and not guaranteed to be available at all times. And if you're on a 6-night cruise, you can buy a package of 100 minutes for $40, but if you're on a 7-night cruise, the same package costs $55.

But the worst part of all to me is not the perminute rates, but that they charge per minute at all. Anyone who knows about networking knows that data is "bursty". Someone will use data intensely for a few seconds while they download something, then they'll spend some time using little or no data while they process/read the data they just downloaded. So you really only need the wifi for the 3 seconds it takes to download a web page, but Disney bills you for the 3 minutes you spend reading the web page.

The amount of time someone is connected to the network is not, in and of itself, a good indicator of how much they're actually using the network.

And it's not like Disney is creating a new connection to the satellite for every user who is on their network. The connection to the satellite provides a data stream which can then be shared throughout their onboard wireless network. There is little or no incremental cost for each user who is connected to the shipboard WiFi network, but not activelty transferring or receiving data. Their cost really only comes in general maintenance for the network and for the data being moved.

Charging each user by the minute is disingenuous, because they're not incurring costs by the minute for each user. Furthermore, their system is slow by their own admission and I've read complaints of it taking 10-15 minutes to send an e-mail. If they charge by data usage, then whether it takes 1 minute or 10 for sending an e-mail, you're paying for the data, so it's the same price. If they charge bt the minute you're paying extra when the system is especially slow. While it would still be annoying for it to take 10 minutes to send an e-mail, it becomes infuriating if every extra minute is costing you $.30 to $.75.

I looked into mobile satellite internet services for businesses and internet-addicted RV'ers who want a connection while they're outside the range of most cellular nets. Prices were generally on a monthly basis with a DSL-comparable speed (3-5 megabit downloads, 1-2 megabit uploads) with a usage cap of 3-9 gigabytes. For a 5 megabit plan with a cap of 9 gigabytes, it was 839 a month.

Assuming Disney is getting better speeds and better rates because of their ability to run more/bigger dishes and negotiate bulk deals, their cost is $0.09 per megabyte or less. If they added on an over 200% mark-up, they could sell a 100 megabyte package that let you check your e-mail and a few favorite sites every day and post a few photos to Facebook for $30. Or maybe they could sell the 100 megabyte plan for $50 and do a 500 megabyte plan for $150. It would still be pricy, but it would be based on how much data you actually used.

But since there's no competition once you're onboard, you pay what they charge and you pay it based on the unreasonable metric of how long you're connected to the network instead of based on how much data you use.

I was surprised and pleased to find out Disney Cruise Lines didn't pull the trick of making juices and other sugared beverages free, but charging you $2 a pop for diet sodas. But I guess some of the cruise line overcharge mentality had to worm its way in somewhere and it's wormed its way into how Disney charges for internet access onboard. Such a shame.

Last night, my wife was feeling a cold coming on and I knew a little soup would comfort her. I had a couple of limes, an avocado (which it turns out wasn't ripe yet), chicken breast. I thought a chicken tortilla soup would be nice. As I normally do, I looked at a couple of recipes, got a sense of the base concept, and then made my own recipe. It turned out great. Some friends have asked for it, so here is my recipe from last night.

Chicken Tortilla Style Soup

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 red onion
1 lime
1/2 tsp each coarse ground black pepper, dried oregano
1 tsp each caldo de pollo (chicken bullion), kosher salt
1.5 teaspoons each ground cumin, curry powder, ground new mexico chile
3 tablespoons choped fresh cilantro
2 Knorr garlic minicubes
1 Knorr chipotle minicube
7 ounce can fire roasted, diced green chile
14.5 ounce can fire roasted, diced tomato with garlic
29 ounce can hominy (drained and rinsed)
4 14.5 ounce cans chicken broth
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Combine your spices, bullion, and minicubes (crushed) in a bowl and set aside. You can usually find Knorr minicubes and caldo de pollo bullion in the Hispanic foods section of your local supermarket. If you can't get them, you can substitute 2 chopped garlic cloves, a cube of regular chicken bullion, and a seeded, chopped chipotle pepper.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in your stock pot and begin sauteeing the onions over medium high heat for about 5 minutes, giving them some time to soften and mellow. Add the can of diced green chile and crank the heat up to high and sautee for another 2-3 minutes so you can boil off some of the liquid given off by the onions and chiles.

Add the spices and stir until they bloom and become fragrant, then add the tomato and crank back down to medium high. Cook this for about 5 minutes to get all the flavors melded. Add your chicken broth and hominy. While bringing that to a boil, zest the lime into the pot, then add the juice of the lime and a little bit of the lime pulp.

When the mix is up to a boil, cover, reduce to a simmer, and let it bubble away for around 30 minutes. During that 30 minutes, prep your chicken.

While you butterfly each breast and season with salt and pepper, get the last tablespoon of oil hot in a sautee pan. Brown the breasts over high heat, 4 minutes a side, then remove to a cutting board, cover loosely with foil, and let rest for 10 minutes (if you prefer you can grill the breasts). After 10 minutes, cube them up into nice bite-size pieces.

Your thirty minute simmer should have just completed about now. Skim the fat from the soup, then add the chicken pieces and any juices on the cutting board into the soup pot.

Bring the soup back to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and simmer covered for another 15-20 minutes. Around the end of that period, chop your cilantro. Add the cilantro to the soup, stir, and let it bubble away another 5 minutes before removing from the heat and giving 10-15 minutes to cool a little.

Ladle the soup into a bowl, sprinkle with some shredded cheese, mix in a half a handful of broken tortilla strips, and serve.

I am honored at how close the voting was, but out of patriotism and a desire to let the nation move forward, I am conceding the race for People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive. I would like to congratulate Bradley Cooper and his team on his hard-fought win. I know we went back and forth there in the polls for a while, but in the end, the sexier man won.

I will be joining my wife and our children at our ranch outside Everett, Washington, where I can do some soul searching and figure out how I can best use my sexiness to help the American people.

Thank you and God bless.