2000
Just hit 2000 on the meter. Woohoo!
Number 2000 was a referral from Geographica, using AOL, IE 5.5, and Windows 2000.
I know, it's the little things...
Tuesday, April 29, 2003
She sounded old enough officer...
Earlier this evening my friend Renee had me call a place she helps out sometimes with computer issues, as they had something going on over her head, and she was trying to pack for vacation. She'd told them they'd have to pay me.
I got the receptionist, Stephanie, on the phone. She sounded very nice. We actually started troubleshooting the problem, which if I could have helped with in no more than half an hour, would have been a "don't worry about it, you're a friend of Renee's" freebie.
Before we got far, the owner got on the phone and asked how much I charge. Then she "had to go" as she was with a customer, and would call me back. On the idea she might actually mean it, I stayed in earshot of the phone for the next 2 1/2 hours. Then I e-mailed Renee a rant about people not wanting to pay anything, thinking she'd not even see it until she was back from Florida.
Renee called, mortified, and apologized. Obviously the urgent problem became less urgent as soon as there might be real money involved. The irony is that before I got to a length of time for which I'd have bothered to bill, I'd have either solved it or found out I couldn't because it was apparent hardware failure. Thus the woman, Sue, deprived herself. But this is not what the post is about, except peripherally.
When I talked with Renee later, I asked her if Stephanie was as cute as she sounded. "She's in high school," came the firmly amused reply.
*Snort* "That figures!"
So for what it's worth, she is as cute as she sounds, plus mature looking and sounding for her age, and "shapely." She also thought I sounded nice and was pleasant to talk to. Which was especially useful when I did phone support for a living, even if I was phone phobic, but that's another story.
Oh well, too bad about that pesky age thing.
Earlier this evening my friend Renee had me call a place she helps out sometimes with computer issues, as they had something going on over her head, and she was trying to pack for vacation. She'd told them they'd have to pay me.
I got the receptionist, Stephanie, on the phone. She sounded very nice. We actually started troubleshooting the problem, which if I could have helped with in no more than half an hour, would have been a "don't worry about it, you're a friend of Renee's" freebie.
Before we got far, the owner got on the phone and asked how much I charge. Then she "had to go" as she was with a customer, and would call me back. On the idea she might actually mean it, I stayed in earshot of the phone for the next 2 1/2 hours. Then I e-mailed Renee a rant about people not wanting to pay anything, thinking she'd not even see it until she was back from Florida.
Renee called, mortified, and apologized. Obviously the urgent problem became less urgent as soon as there might be real money involved. The irony is that before I got to a length of time for which I'd have bothered to bill, I'd have either solved it or found out I couldn't because it was apparent hardware failure. Thus the woman, Sue, deprived herself. But this is not what the post is about, except peripherally.
When I talked with Renee later, I asked her if Stephanie was as cute as she sounded. "She's in high school," came the firmly amused reply.
*Snort* "That figures!"
So for what it's worth, she is as cute as she sounds, plus mature looking and sounding for her age, and "shapely." She also thought I sounded nice and was pleasant to talk to. Which was especially useful when I did phone support for a living, even if I was phone phobic, but that's another story.
Oh well, too bad about that pesky age thing.
Monday, April 28, 2003
Letter to Chirac
Via Jen. I agree with her; read it now. Scoot. Pretend it's a Bill Whittle essay, only shorter, and hurry there now.
Via Jen. I agree with her; read it now. Scoot. Pretend it's a Bill Whittle essay, only shorter, and hurry there now.
Mr. Gut Rumbles
Apologies to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, inspired by this post, for your lyrical pleasure, to the tune of "Mr. Bojangles":
Apologies to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, inspired by this post, for your lyrical pleasure, to the tune of "Mr. Bojangles":
I knew a blogger Gut Rumbles
And he'd post for you
The ex-wife blues
With silver hair without a shirt
Posting his rants
Acidman's cracker news
He would sound so sly
Sound so sly
When he'd lewdly expound
He told us of the time he played in
Dives while travelling
Throughout the south
He spoke with tears of fifteen years
How his dog and he
They would travel about.
But his dog up and died
He up and died
And after twenty years he still dreams
He said "I blog now
At every chance and like to post
Using Movable Type
But most the time I spend
Farting dust down at the plant
Keeping slackers in line
Then he took time off
Oh lord when he took time off
I could swear I heard someone say please
Mister Gut Rumbles
Call him Mister Gut Rumbles
Mister Gut Rumbles come back and blog please
Sigh...
Built a new computer for the office several weeks ago, but barely used it. Now that taxes are done, I wanted to switch to that as my primary computer so I can wipe and reinstall this one. Now it won't boot; registry corruption apparently. Sheesh. How does the registry corrupt while it's sitting there turned off? Anyway, time to see if a simple recovery will work...
Built a new computer for the office several weeks ago, but barely used it. Now that taxes are done, I wanted to switch to that as my primary computer so I can wipe and reinstall this one. Now it won't boot; registry corruption apparently. Sheesh. How does the registry corrupt while it's sitting there turned off? Anyway, time to see if a simple recovery will work...
John Doe
Anyone else watch this? I watched the tape of Friday's season finale last night. For some reason, right at the beginning of the episode, I realized someone was not as he seemed, so the ending was in that respect what I expected.
I haven't watched religiously, but I've seen perhaps as many as half the episodes. Good show. It still reminds me of Pretender, another good show with almost messianic overtones about the main character. To really follow in its footsteps, John Doe will need a cliffhanger final episode, after which it's abruptly canceled. Hey, it could happen! I'm convinced that becoming a TV executive requires first being a brain donor.
Anyone else watch this? I watched the tape of Friday's season finale last night. For some reason, right at the beginning of the episode, I realized someone was not as he seemed, so the ending was in that respect what I expected.
I haven't watched religiously, but I've seen perhaps as many as half the episodes. Good show. It still reminds me of Pretender, another good show with almost messianic overtones about the main character. To really follow in its footsteps, John Doe will need a cliffhanger final episode, after which it's abruptly canceled. Hey, it could happen! I'm convinced that becoming a TV executive requires first being a brain donor.
Tough Love
This is an interesting article on how dating has changed for the younger set.
And yet, it doesn't sound that much different from when I was young. I always perceived that girls were the ones in control, and that there were no clear rules, and so forth. I think we were in a transition stage to the way it is now, even that long ago.
This is an interesting article on how dating has changed for the younger set.
And yet, it doesn't sound that much different from when I was young. I always perceived that girls were the ones in control, and that there were no clear rules, and so forth. I think we were in a transition stage to the way it is now, even that long ago.
Economy
Mrs. du Toit makes a good point about the economy.
My take on it is, first, that it's a matter of attitude. We don't see an in your face boom, so we tend to say "well, this sucks." Second, a lot of us are geeks, and that's where there's disproportionate unemployment, reduction in pay, and dislocation in skills people have versus what's sought. It's also a prime area of globalization now, making it the steel mills of the early eighties.
If you are unemployed, or a disproportionate number of your friends are unemployed, you're going to perceive the economy as lousy. If the type of work you do is going overseas and you may never be able to work again without changing fields, you're going to perceive the economy as lousy, especially if you are loathe to try or learn something new. If the type of work you do can be had for $25-30k a year when you might have readily been able to make $60k a year not so long ago, you're going to perceive the economy as lousy.
Finally, if you're a tech worker, you're disproportionately likely to be online, and to express a negative opinion of the economy there. I suppose you could say all economics is local. Such perceptions are, anyway.
Mrs. du Toit makes a good point about the economy.
My take on it is, first, that it's a matter of attitude. We don't see an in your face boom, so we tend to say "well, this sucks." Second, a lot of us are geeks, and that's where there's disproportionate unemployment, reduction in pay, and dislocation in skills people have versus what's sought. It's also a prime area of globalization now, making it the steel mills of the early eighties.
If you are unemployed, or a disproportionate number of your friends are unemployed, you're going to perceive the economy as lousy. If the type of work you do is going overseas and you may never be able to work again without changing fields, you're going to perceive the economy as lousy, especially if you are loathe to try or learn something new. If the type of work you do can be had for $25-30k a year when you might have readily been able to make $60k a year not so long ago, you're going to perceive the economy as lousy.
Finally, if you're a tech worker, you're disproportionately likely to be online, and to express a negative opinion of the economy there. I suppose you could say all economics is local. Such perceptions are, anyway.
I Don't Know Which I Like Better...
Scott Ott is on a roll today! I don't know which article to recommend more, so just go read them all.
Scott Ott is on a roll today! I don't know which article to recommend more, so just go read them all.
Blog Tour, Fourth Leg
Or, a blog by any other name would- well, anyway...
Freedom Lives is a blog you can visit for the wonderful gratuitous rose pictures, and stay for the odds and ends of other cool posts that slip in between. Perhaps Starhawk saw that bunnies were already taken and decided it could work for roses too, I dunno. I do know it's cooly refreshing to visit, like a virtual garden stroll, if not as impressive as Longwood Gardens* (where I spent a weekend once in the dorms they have for interns, of which a friend was one, so I got a unique, thorough perspective - and saw the July 4th fireworks/fountains/music synchronized extravaganza, but I digress).
This is also the blog where I found the "Which firearm are you?" quiz link, though by the time I took it I had forgotten who to credit. There are also non-rose pictures of things like jasmine. The jasmine picture, currently at the top, reminded me of the yard where I grew up, and of my grandmother's yard. That's what made me spontaneously select the site for the latest blog tour post.
* Allegedly there is a longwoodgardens.org but it errors.
Or, a blog by any other name would- well, anyway...
Freedom Lives is a blog you can visit for the wonderful gratuitous rose pictures, and stay for the odds and ends of other cool posts that slip in between. Perhaps Starhawk saw that bunnies were already taken and decided it could work for roses too, I dunno. I do know it's cooly refreshing to visit, like a virtual garden stroll, if not as impressive as Longwood Gardens* (where I spent a weekend once in the dorms they have for interns, of which a friend was one, so I got a unique, thorough perspective - and saw the July 4th fireworks/fountains/music synchronized extravaganza, but I digress).
This is also the blog where I found the "Which firearm are you?" quiz link, though by the time I took it I had forgotten who to credit. There are also non-rose pictures of things like jasmine. The jasmine picture, currently at the top, reminded me of the yard where I grew up, and of my grandmother's yard. That's what made me spontaneously select the site for the latest blog tour post.
* Allegedly there is a longwoodgardens.org but it errors.
Victory Is Here!
So unless you've already been there, done that, eject yourself on over to read Bill Whittle's latest magnificance, Victory. Tissues on hand recommended.
So unless you've already been there, done that, eject yourself on over to read Bill Whittle's latest magnificance, Victory. Tissues on hand recommended.
Sunday, April 27, 2003
Belay That
This is an actual exchange of e-mails between me and a law firm secretary we'll call Moneypenny just for giggles. It relates to my dismay about places failing to incorporate their e-mail addresses and web sites into their marketing.
Moneypenny:
Me:
Moneypenny:
Moneypenny, again:
Me:
Moneypenny:
I revisited this e-mail thread the other day and thought it was most amusing.
This is an actual exchange of e-mails between me and a law firm secretary we'll call Moneypenny just for giggles. It relates to my dismay about places failing to incorporate their e-mail addresses and web sites into their marketing.
Moneypenny:
If you need business cards and haven't already done so, would you please let me know by Friday (1/24) noon. I will try to place the order in the afternoon.
Thanks. Moneypenny
Me:
And make sure nobody gets their e-mail address or the [Firm] web address printed on them! That would be like... um... modern marketing or something. We can't have that. ;>
Moneypenny:
Thanks for letting me know about the e-mail address. I was not aware of that and some people had asked for it to be put on their cards. I will let them know that it is not allowed. (You're sure about this?)
Moneypenny, again:
Are you "pulling my leg" about the e-mail address on the business cards? The attorneys really want it on there.
Me:
I'm joking!!!
People's cards that are new since long after we had e-mail and www.[firmdomain].com are lacking that stuff, when all should have had it on the first reprints, or if people were new here. Bentpenny had a list of everyone's e-mail addresses for that purpose, but when she left it went by the wayside.
Moneypenny:
thanks, sorry I didn't catch the joke.
I revisited this e-mail thread the other day and thought it was most amusing.
Timothy
Anyone remember the song Timothy? I just heard it on the radio, which is a rare thing. I can still remember when I first realized what it was about, when it wasn't a lost oldie yet. It's such a catchy tune, but cannibalism... what a topic for a song!
Barry Scott was just saying that some say Timothy was an animal, but there's too much implication to the contrary. In a mine? Selling your soul for food? Denial and selective memory loss? Naw, Timothy was not an animal.
Anyone remember the song Timothy? I just heard it on the radio, which is a rare thing. I can still remember when I first realized what it was about, when it wasn't a lost oldie yet. It's such a catchy tune, but cannibalism... what a topic for a song!
Barry Scott was just saying that some say Timothy was an animal, but there's too much implication to the contrary. In a mine? Selling your soul for food? Denial and selective memory loss? Naw, Timothy was not an animal.
Polygamy
As I mentioned in passing, the topic of polygamy made me think of my great grandfather; my maternal grandmother's father, whose name was Ed.
Ed was an electrician, when that was a hot new thing to be. He wired many of the local houses when they were retrofitted with electricity, which was a perfect opportunity for him to be the proverbial milkman. When my great aunt was in high school, a guy she was interested in and vice-versa had to tell her "I'd love to date you Shirl, but mom says I'm Ed's." Apparently there was a lot of that going around, and we are related to more people in the area than we'll ever know.
So one day my great grandfather hopped the train out behind the house, leaving my very pregnant great grandmother and a bunch of kids behind for good. He then married someone in Connecticut and had a family there. We've actually had contact with them. He did the same to them, and had at least one other family. As I recall, the next one was somewhere like Arizona or New Mexico; southwest.
Apparently he was quite talented. He worked at Cape Canaveral in some capacity along the line. He worked at the Pentagon, apparently involved in early computerization efforts. Whatever it was he did, when the family made inquiries years later, the government was secretive about his whereabouts. We weren't able to learn until the past several years that he had died in 1975 in Connecticut. He seems like quite a character, but definitely a rogue. Bigamy and polygamy are close enough that seeing polygamy mentioned all over the place lately made me think of him.
My great grandmother died either in 1970 or 1972; I am spacing on which offhand. She was cool. In pictures of her when she was younger, you can really see the Wampanoag blood from her grandmother. I'm told it wasn't a good idea to cross her, but I remember her as the cool gram who always had candy for us when we went there. She had it amazingly tough after he left, that's for sure.
As I mentioned in passing, the topic of polygamy made me think of my great grandfather; my maternal grandmother's father, whose name was Ed.
Ed was an electrician, when that was a hot new thing to be. He wired many of the local houses when they were retrofitted with electricity, which was a perfect opportunity for him to be the proverbial milkman. When my great aunt was in high school, a guy she was interested in and vice-versa had to tell her "I'd love to date you Shirl, but mom says I'm Ed's." Apparently there was a lot of that going around, and we are related to more people in the area than we'll ever know.
So one day my great grandfather hopped the train out behind the house, leaving my very pregnant great grandmother and a bunch of kids behind for good. He then married someone in Connecticut and had a family there. We've actually had contact with them. He did the same to them, and had at least one other family. As I recall, the next one was somewhere like Arizona or New Mexico; southwest.
Apparently he was quite talented. He worked at Cape Canaveral in some capacity along the line. He worked at the Pentagon, apparently involved in early computerization efforts. Whatever it was he did, when the family made inquiries years later, the government was secretive about his whereabouts. We weren't able to learn until the past several years that he had died in 1975 in Connecticut. He seems like quite a character, but definitely a rogue. Bigamy and polygamy are close enough that seeing polygamy mentioned all over the place lately made me think of him.
My great grandmother died either in 1970 or 1972; I am spacing on which offhand. She was cool. In pictures of her when she was younger, you can really see the Wampanoag blood from her grandmother. I'm told it wasn't a good idea to cross her, but I remember her as the cool gram who always had candy for us when we went there. She had it amazingly tough after he left, that's for sure.
Good Thoughts
Speaking of The Man Who Sold The Moon, here are some worthy quotes borrowed from this site:
"George, there is nothing so permanent in this world as a temporary emergency."
--Delos (DD) Harriman, The Man Who Sold The Moon
(reprinted in the anthology The Man Who Sold The Moon, pg 76)
"In fact, the real engineering problems of space travel have been solved since World [War] II. Conquering space has long been a matter of money and politics."
--Delos (DD) Harriman, The Man Who Sold The Moon
(reprinted in the anthology The Man Who Sold The Moon, pg 84)
"Our race is about to burst forth to the planets; if we've got the initiative God promised an oyster we will help it along!"
--Delos (DD) Harriman, The Man Who Sold The Moon
(reprinted in the anthology The Man Who Sold The Moon, pg 85)
"Chance of a lifetime, nuts! This is the greatest chance in all history. It's raining soup; grab yourself a bucket."
--Delos (DD) Harriman, The Man Who Sold The Moon
(reprinted in the anthology The Man Who Sold The Moon, pg 87)
If Columbus had waited for decent ships we'd all still be in Europe. A man has to take some chances or he never got anywhere.
--Delos (DD) Harriman, The Man Who Sold The Moon
(reprinted in the anthology The Man Who Sold The Moon, pg 140)
Speaking of The Man Who Sold The Moon, here are some worthy quotes borrowed from this site:
"George, there is nothing so permanent in this world as a temporary emergency."
--Delos (DD) Harriman, The Man Who Sold The Moon
(reprinted in the anthology The Man Who Sold The Moon, pg 76)
"In fact, the real engineering problems of space travel have been solved since World [War] II. Conquering space has long been a matter of money and politics."
--Delos (DD) Harriman, The Man Who Sold The Moon
(reprinted in the anthology The Man Who Sold The Moon, pg 84)
"Our race is about to burst forth to the planets; if we've got the initiative God promised an oyster we will help it along!"
--Delos (DD) Harriman, The Man Who Sold The Moon
(reprinted in the anthology The Man Who Sold The Moon, pg 85)
"Chance of a lifetime, nuts! This is the greatest chance in all history. It's raining soup; grab yourself a bucket."
--Delos (DD) Harriman, The Man Who Sold The Moon
(reprinted in the anthology The Man Who Sold The Moon, pg 87)
If Columbus had waited for decent ships we'd all still be in Europe. A man has to take some chances or he never got anywhere.
--Delos (DD) Harriman, The Man Who Sold The Moon
(reprinted in the anthology The Man Who Sold The Moon, pg 140)
Which Firearm Am I?
This doesn't mean much to me, as I am am the most rabid 2nd amendment supporter I know, yet have never owned and almost never fired any guns. Unless you count BB guns when I was a kid. Or slingshots. Arrows? No? Okay, so I'm lame, but some of you gun people might enjoy seeing my "which firearm" result even if I have no clue.
 |
Which Firearm are you? |
This doesn't mean much to me, as I am am the most rabid 2nd amendment supporter I know, yet have never owned and almost never fired any guns. Unless you count BB guns when I was a kid. Or slingshots. Arrows? No? Okay, so I'm lame, but some of you gun people might enjoy seeing my "which firearm" result even if I have no clue.
Space Momentum
I'm going to be bad and regurgitate a lengthy comment I posted over at Rand Simberg's Transterrestrial Musings, in his post about the Bezos space article on MSNBC. Why write from scratch when I'd want to say basically the same thing anyway? Here it is...
I'm so excited! This is how I envisioned things happening, long ago. When I was in my late teens I wanted nothing more than to get into the private space industry, creating a launch company or joining one. I had notions of how to raise money, etc. and was highly amused when I read Heinlein's "The Man Who Sold The Moon" and saw some of it there (though mainly the tone and avidness I had then), as imagined decades before. My phase of wanting to be in the business so bad I could taste it was circa 1977-1979.
Later I decided that'd never happen, but I could write, incorporating the ideas. I imagined an entrepreneur who was in various businesses, some of which might be proving grounds for technologies needed for space flight, duration flight, and terraforming. He then reaches a point where the money and credibility exists, and undertakes the new venture. I'd pictured having to fly out of another country due to excessive red tape in the U.S., and part of the process being to help some small country set itself up as a free market beacon of hope and space launch central. This was in the late eighties.
More recently, I have been expecting someone would come out of the woodwork, perhaps a dotcom fortunate or software magnate, to back or embark on a space business. After all, I figured, someone out there with money had to be interested. Looks like it's actually heading that way. Woohoo!
I'm going to be bad and regurgitate a lengthy comment I posted over at Rand Simberg's Transterrestrial Musings, in his post about the Bezos space article on MSNBC. Why write from scratch when I'd want to say basically the same thing anyway? Here it is...
I'm so excited! This is how I envisioned things happening, long ago. When I was in my late teens I wanted nothing more than to get into the private space industry, creating a launch company or joining one. I had notions of how to raise money, etc. and was highly amused when I read Heinlein's "The Man Who Sold The Moon" and saw some of it there (though mainly the tone and avidness I had then), as imagined decades before. My phase of wanting to be in the business so bad I could taste it was circa 1977-1979.
Later I decided that'd never happen, but I could write, incorporating the ideas. I imagined an entrepreneur who was in various businesses, some of which might be proving grounds for technologies needed for space flight, duration flight, and terraforming. He then reaches a point where the money and credibility exists, and undertakes the new venture. I'd pictured having to fly out of another country due to excessive red tape in the U.S., and part of the process being to help some small country set itself up as a free market beacon of hope and space launch central. This was in the late eighties.
More recently, I have been expecting someone would come out of the woodwork, perhaps a dotcom fortunate or software magnate, to back or embark on a space business. After all, I figured, someone out there with money had to be interested. Looks like it's actually heading that way. Woohoo!
Hoax Fisking
Someone at a client forwarded a virus hoax e-mail to everyone there. I deconstructed it in a fisky manner in yet another effort to teach people how to recognize what's likely to be a hoax, in addition to reminding them they can look these things up before passing them on. I thought it might make good blog fodder. Here it is:
Let me do a step by step analysis of why this is a hoax on the face of it, without even having to lookup online whether it is one. Sort of a fisking, if you will, for those familiar with the term. It will help you to know what to look for in the future when evaluating such e-mails, which virtually always are hoaxes.
New killer computer virus
The subject isn't as formal as it would probably be for a real virus alert, and oh no, it's "killer." Now there's a nice, weighted word intended to scare people. Note that in many hoaxes, searching for the subject and the word hoax online will find out whether it is one promptly.
> > READ ASAP!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Means hoax. Period. A real virus alert would be matter of fact rather than a frantic attention getter.
> > > Please be extremely careful, especially if using Internet mail such
> > > as Yahoo, Hot mail, and so on.
Okay... "Internet mail"? They must mean "web-based mail," since all e-mail could be called internet mail, yet they are referring to web-based mail services. Oh, and it's "Hotmail," not "Hot mail." There is absolutely nothing described in here that would affect web-based e-mail more than other e-mail.
> > > as Yahoo, Hot mail, and so on. This information arrived this morning
> > > from Microsoft and Norton.
Microsoft is not in the habit of sending virus warnings such as this. It's likely that if the makers of Norton products sent such a thing, it would be attributed to the company, Symantec, whose web site is a fine place to check whether e-mails such as this are hoaxes.
> > > from Microsoft and Norton. Please send it to everybody you know who
> > > accesses the Internet.
Aha! Send it to everyone. That is how hoaxes are spread, since they do not have the power to get far without cooperation of the recipients. A plea to send it to everyone is a glaring red flag, even if you're from France and would prefer a white flag. (Sorry, couldn't resist.) This one sentence is probably enough all by itself to make you say "ah, a hoax."
> > > You may receive an apparently harmless e-mail
> > > with a Power Point presentation "Life is beautiful.pps" If you
> > > receive it DO NOT OPEN THE FILE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE, and delete it
> > > immediately. If you open this file, a message will appear on your
> > > screen saying "It is too late now, you life is no longer beautiful,"
> > > subsequently you will LOSE EVERYTHING IN YOUR PC and the person who
> > > sent it to you will gain access to your name, e-mail and passwords.
PowerPoint? A .pps file as a virus-laden object? Whoa!
AND HERE COMES THE ALL CAPS APPEALS TO YOU, which are almost single-handedly a certain indicator of a hoax.
What a powerful slide show it is, doing these massive, unlikely things. Impressive. How is it going to get your passwords? By residing as spyware and seeing what you type? After first deleting everything so you can't use your computer?
Note that the name of the file it mentions, "life is beautiful" and the word "hoax" will probably be the ideal things to search for when trying to determine if it's a hoax.
> > > This is a new virus which started to circulate on Saturday afternoon.
Which Saturday? Yesterday? A year ago? Impressive feat, identifying the exact day and part of the day on which the virus was released into the wild, so why not be more exact with the calendar date for us?
> > > WE NEED TO DO EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO STOP THIS VIRUS: AOL has already
> > > confirmed the severity and the anti virus software are not capable of
> > > destroying it. The virus has been created by a hacker who calls
> > > himself "life owner"
MORE CAPS! This is so urrrrrrgent!
An appeal to authority again, this time AOL, that well known source of virus information. Why leave it for the antivirus software vendors and labs to come out with warnings, when we have AOL to guide us. It's their specialty, after all. Great sentence structure here, too. English as a second language perhaps? Or a less than perfectly literate kid?
Oooh, a hacker was involved, and we've all learned hackers are eeeevil, so when an average person gets this, it's kind of a loaded word. Good one, hoax writer dude.
> > PLEASE MAKE A COPY OF THIS EMAIL TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS.
ANOTHER WELL-WRITTEN SENTENCE. And those darn CAPS again, must be serious if it's uppercase. Look, send it to your friends, pass it around, propogate it, otherwise it will die on the vine. The second send to everyone plea, in case the first wasn't convincing enough. Send it to everyone is to a hoax virus e-mail what "buy now!" is to a sales pitch, which makes it an appropriate closing.
That's it. You can say with virtual certainty, just by what it says and how it says it, that this is a hoax virus warning. You don't even have to know anything technical if you keep in mind the caps, send to everyone pleas, the exclamations gone rampant, and the cites of unexpected authorities for virus warnings, such as AOL, Microsoft, and IBM.
Finally, if there were any doubt or you didn't want to trust the method of telling a hoax by how it reads (or if it doesn't really read like a hoax, which could happen), there's Google. I went to google.com and I typed:
"life is beautiful" hoax
That got several hundred hits, with all of the ones on the first page being links to hoax pages at antivirus vendors and snopes.com. The first one in the list was:
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/life.is.beautiful.hoax.html
There you have it.
Update:
I'm told by the guy who sent it that he in fact modified the subject, so the original was completely different in that respect. Oops.
Someone at a client forwarded a virus hoax e-mail to everyone there. I deconstructed it in a fisky manner in yet another effort to teach people how to recognize what's likely to be a hoax, in addition to reminding them they can look these things up before passing them on. I thought it might make good blog fodder. Here it is:
Let me do a step by step analysis of why this is a hoax on the face of it, without even having to lookup online whether it is one. Sort of a fisking, if you will, for those familiar with the term. It will help you to know what to look for in the future when evaluating such e-mails, which virtually always are hoaxes.
New killer computer virus
The subject isn't as formal as it would probably be for a real virus alert, and oh no, it's "killer." Now there's a nice, weighted word intended to scare people. Note that in many hoaxes, searching for the subject and the word hoax online will find out whether it is one promptly.
> > READ ASAP!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Means hoax. Period. A real virus alert would be matter of fact rather than a frantic attention getter.
> > > Please be extremely careful, especially if using Internet mail such
> > > as Yahoo, Hot mail, and so on.
Okay... "Internet mail"? They must mean "web-based mail," since all e-mail could be called internet mail, yet they are referring to web-based mail services. Oh, and it's "Hotmail," not "Hot mail." There is absolutely nothing described in here that would affect web-based e-mail more than other e-mail.
> > > as Yahoo, Hot mail, and so on. This information arrived this morning
> > > from Microsoft and Norton.
Microsoft is not in the habit of sending virus warnings such as this. It's likely that if the makers of Norton products sent such a thing, it would be attributed to the company, Symantec, whose web site is a fine place to check whether e-mails such as this are hoaxes.
> > > from Microsoft and Norton. Please send it to everybody you know who
> > > accesses the Internet.
Aha! Send it to everyone. That is how hoaxes are spread, since they do not have the power to get far without cooperation of the recipients. A plea to send it to everyone is a glaring red flag, even if you're from France and would prefer a white flag. (Sorry, couldn't resist.) This one sentence is probably enough all by itself to make you say "ah, a hoax."
> > > You may receive an apparently harmless e-mail
> > > with a Power Point presentation "Life is beautiful.pps" If you
> > > receive it DO NOT OPEN THE FILE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE, and delete it
> > > immediately. If you open this file, a message will appear on your
> > > screen saying "It is too late now, you life is no longer beautiful,"
> > > subsequently you will LOSE EVERYTHING IN YOUR PC and the person who
> > > sent it to you will gain access to your name, e-mail and passwords.
PowerPoint? A .pps file as a virus-laden object? Whoa!
AND HERE COMES THE ALL CAPS APPEALS TO YOU, which are almost single-handedly a certain indicator of a hoax.
What a powerful slide show it is, doing these massive, unlikely things. Impressive. How is it going to get your passwords? By residing as spyware and seeing what you type? After first deleting everything so you can't use your computer?
Note that the name of the file it mentions, "life is beautiful" and the word "hoax" will probably be the ideal things to search for when trying to determine if it's a hoax.
> > > This is a new virus which started to circulate on Saturday afternoon.
Which Saturday? Yesterday? A year ago? Impressive feat, identifying the exact day and part of the day on which the virus was released into the wild, so why not be more exact with the calendar date for us?
> > > WE NEED TO DO EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO STOP THIS VIRUS: AOL has already
> > > confirmed the severity and the anti virus software are not capable of
> > > destroying it. The virus has been created by a hacker who calls
> > > himself "life owner"
MORE CAPS! This is so urrrrrrgent!
An appeal to authority again, this time AOL, that well known source of virus information. Why leave it for the antivirus software vendors and labs to come out with warnings, when we have AOL to guide us. It's their specialty, after all. Great sentence structure here, too. English as a second language perhaps? Or a less than perfectly literate kid?
Oooh, a hacker was involved, and we've all learned hackers are eeeevil, so when an average person gets this, it's kind of a loaded word. Good one, hoax writer dude.
> > PLEASE MAKE A COPY OF THIS EMAIL TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS.
ANOTHER WELL-WRITTEN SENTENCE. And those darn CAPS again, must be serious if it's uppercase. Look, send it to your friends, pass it around, propogate it, otherwise it will die on the vine. The second send to everyone plea, in case the first wasn't convincing enough. Send it to everyone is to a hoax virus e-mail what "buy now!" is to a sales pitch, which makes it an appropriate closing.
That's it. You can say with virtual certainty, just by what it says and how it says it, that this is a hoax virus warning. You don't even have to know anything technical if you keep in mind the caps, send to everyone pleas, the exclamations gone rampant, and the cites of unexpected authorities for virus warnings, such as AOL, Microsoft, and IBM.
Finally, if there were any doubt or you didn't want to trust the method of telling a hoax by how it reads (or if it doesn't really read like a hoax, which could happen), there's Google. I went to google.com and I typed:
"life is beautiful" hoax
That got several hundred hits, with all of the ones on the first page being links to hoax pages at antivirus vendors and snopes.com. The first one in the list was:
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/life.is.beautiful.hoax.html
There you have it.
Update:
I'm told by the guy who sent it that he in fact modified the subject, so the original was completely different in that respect. Oops.
Saturday, April 26, 2003
Archives
It appears I have fixed my archives, which is cool. It took setting preferences to no archives, then back to weekly, then republishing all. The data's there, it just got mangled so that was needed. Whether it should be so easy for it to become mangled, well, that's a good question.
Once I made the effort to look in the Blogger knowledge base, I found the fix info both easy to find and easy to implement.
It appears I have fixed my archives, which is cool. It took setting preferences to no archives, then back to weekly, then republishing all. The data's there, it just got mangled so that was needed. Whether it should be so easy for it to become mangled, well, that's a good question.
Once I made the effort to look in the Blogger knowledge base, I found the fix info both easy to find and easy to implement.
Shudder
I watched the latest episode of Enterprise today, having taped it when it was on Wednesday. It was fairly typical. The notable thing was some of the crew went spelunking in a serious way, trying to find some Denobulan scientists and get them off the planet before they became victims of the new, unfriendly regime.
At one point they had to crawl through a narrow passage. Ugh! I could barely stand to watch. I don't consider myself claustrophobic, but seeing or reading anything like that makes my skin crawl. I can just feel myself being stuck in a narrow passage, unable to move. Especially one as unforgiving as a passage through rock deep below ground. I have no idea whether this is inherent, or I picked up this phobia, if you can call it that, from a specific incident sometime in my early life.
The first time I remember feeling the empathically skin-crawling shudder is when I read a book when I was a kid. It involved a kid caving, at one point having to worm through the tiniest of passages to reach a new, undiscovered cavern, almost getting stuck. Then there was a TV show episode I saw in which someone was stuck in a heating duct, which I could barely stand. Same kind of thing.
I had completely forgotten this particular revulsion until it was triggered today by that Enterprise episode.
I watched the latest episode of Enterprise today, having taped it when it was on Wednesday. It was fairly typical. The notable thing was some of the crew went spelunking in a serious way, trying to find some Denobulan scientists and get them off the planet before they became victims of the new, unfriendly regime.
At one point they had to crawl through a narrow passage. Ugh! I could barely stand to watch. I don't consider myself claustrophobic, but seeing or reading anything like that makes my skin crawl. I can just feel myself being stuck in a narrow passage, unable to move. Especially one as unforgiving as a passage through rock deep below ground. I have no idea whether this is inherent, or I picked up this phobia, if you can call it that, from a specific incident sometime in my early life.
The first time I remember feeling the empathically skin-crawling shudder is when I read a book when I was a kid. It involved a kid caving, at one point having to worm through the tiniest of passages to reach a new, undiscovered cavern, almost getting stuck. Then there was a TV show episode I saw in which someone was stuck in a heating duct, which I could barely stand. Same kind of thing.
I had completely forgotten this particular revulsion until it was triggered today by that Enterprise episode.
Recording Industry Madness
Okay, so I was singing along with the Beatles earlier, some goofy ditty about wanting to hold somecompliant lucky gal's hand, and pondered the fact that I own but one Beatles CD; the "1" compilation. I also own two vinyl albums; the blue and red compilations.
Why not more? Too expensive. I have always wanted more; at least the White Album, but every time I have gone and looked on the store shelves, I have reacted with economic revulsion. This is especially true of the Beatles, as they are forever popular, thus never distressed, reduced merchandise. However, as I have mentioned before, it is true in general.
"Why is this so," I wondered to myself earlier.
I think for me, and no doubt for others, apart from any emotional reaction to relative prices, the presence of music on the radio reduces the perceived value of a CD. It's a double-edged sword. Radio is a massive marketing machine for music sales, it's true, as well as a revenue source in itself. At the same time, there's some point for each listener at which hearing a song on the radio is enough, eliminating sale of media. I, for instance, am most inclined to buy old, familiar music that is at a big discount from the dominant rapacious pricing. I am next most inclined to buy music I never hear on the radio that I have heard enough to be hooked on. (Thus the Chicago compilation I purchased largely for one song, even though I like several others on it.)
The value of a CD is conveniently being able to listen to music of your choice at high quality on any CD playing device any time you wish.
An MP3 freely obtained is like radio, in that it both promotes and depresses the demand for CD media, but it differs by being playable on demand. I would rather have a CD, but I would want to be able to copy music from CD to MP3 if desired, just as I can copy from CD to tape in order to play the same music in my car conveniently, if at lower sound quality. An MP3 is large, takes time to locate and download, and because the music companies ran away from technology, lacks predictable quality.
I represent a fount of pent up demand. Halve the price of music CDs and my spending would increase hugely; certainly compared to the almost nothing it is now. I can't possibly be alone in this. I'd pay for a convenient source of MP3 music at predictably decent quality, for that matter, but it couldn't be hoop-jumpingly restrictive.
Mess with CD media to make it play in fewer devices, or be restricted in use, you reduce the value of the music media more. It becomes even less appealing at a high price. In effect, adulterating the CD format in order to fight the "loss of sales" from MP3 sharing is like increasing prices even more in a soft market.
Did I mention the economy is soft? Of course, music is such a vital necessity, a recessive economy can't have affected sales. Must be file sharing. Can't be the taste of the audience not matching new releases being pushed. Must be file sharing. Can't be that the music industry has lost its way managerially. Must be file sharing.
That one Beatles CD I own was not bought on a whim, and was not an easy sale. I looked at it in stores probably three times before I overcame my revulsion at the price and parted with my money for it. I find it regrettable that it was the price of two or three albums, and I don't get to experience the other album or two I could have afforded were they acceptably priced.
So that is what I think of the way things are in the music industry. Prices are too high. Management is deplorable. The record companies are driving themselves out of business by technology phobia and belief in stasis.
Okay, so I was singing along with the Beatles earlier, some goofy ditty about wanting to hold some
Why not more? Too expensive. I have always wanted more; at least the White Album, but every time I have gone and looked on the store shelves, I have reacted with economic revulsion. This is especially true of the Beatles, as they are forever popular, thus never distressed, reduced merchandise. However, as I have mentioned before, it is true in general.
"Why is this so," I wondered to myself earlier.
I think for me, and no doubt for others, apart from any emotional reaction to relative prices, the presence of music on the radio reduces the perceived value of a CD. It's a double-edged sword. Radio is a massive marketing machine for music sales, it's true, as well as a revenue source in itself. At the same time, there's some point for each listener at which hearing a song on the radio is enough, eliminating sale of media. I, for instance, am most inclined to buy old, familiar music that is at a big discount from the dominant rapacious pricing. I am next most inclined to buy music I never hear on the radio that I have heard enough to be hooked on. (Thus the Chicago compilation I purchased largely for one song, even though I like several others on it.)
The value of a CD is conveniently being able to listen to music of your choice at high quality on any CD playing device any time you wish.
An MP3 freely obtained is like radio, in that it both promotes and depresses the demand for CD media, but it differs by being playable on demand. I would rather have a CD, but I would want to be able to copy music from CD to MP3 if desired, just as I can copy from CD to tape in order to play the same music in my car conveniently, if at lower sound quality. An MP3 is large, takes time to locate and download, and because the music companies ran away from technology, lacks predictable quality.
I represent a fount of pent up demand. Halve the price of music CDs and my spending would increase hugely; certainly compared to the almost nothing it is now. I can't possibly be alone in this. I'd pay for a convenient source of MP3 music at predictably decent quality, for that matter, but it couldn't be hoop-jumpingly restrictive.
Mess with CD media to make it play in fewer devices, or be restricted in use, you reduce the value of the music media more. It becomes even less appealing at a high price. In effect, adulterating the CD format in order to fight the "loss of sales" from MP3 sharing is like increasing prices even more in a soft market.
Did I mention the economy is soft? Of course, music is such a vital necessity, a recessive economy can't have affected sales. Must be file sharing. Can't be the taste of the audience not matching new releases being pushed. Must be file sharing. Can't be that the music industry has lost its way managerially. Must be file sharing.
That one Beatles CD I own was not bought on a whim, and was not an easy sale. I looked at it in stores probably three times before I overcame my revulsion at the price and parted with my money for it. I find it regrettable that it was the price of two or three albums, and I don't get to experience the other album or two I could have afforded were they acceptably priced.
So that is what I think of the way things are in the music industry. Prices are too high. Management is deplorable. The record companies are driving themselves out of business by technology phobia and belief in stasis.
My Brain Is Bursting
Argh! I am sitting here with so many thoughts on what to write that I don't know where to start and could take all night doing it. Polygamy, which involves a tale of a rascally great grandfather I never met. The record industry, inspired while I was singing along with the Beatles in the car. Answering my own question below, perhaps, though that will require some thought. An overdue SARS roundup. An amusing e-mail exchange with someone on a client's staff. The promised commentary on change in the world. And I'm sure other things that surreptitiously slipped out of my mind the second I started typing this. Shall I start one now and risk the nephew being ready to be driven home before I am done? Hmmm...
Argh! I am sitting here with so many thoughts on what to write that I don't know where to start and could take all night doing it. Polygamy, which involves a tale of a rascally great grandfather I never met. The record industry, inspired while I was singing along with the Beatles in the car. Answering my own question below, perhaps, though that will require some thought. An overdue SARS roundup. An amusing e-mail exchange with someone on a client's staff. The promised commentary on change in the world. And I'm sure other things that surreptitiously slipped out of my mind the second I started typing this. Shall I start one now and risk the nephew being ready to be driven home before I am done? Hmmm...
Ten Reconstituted
If you could replace or change the original ten amendments to the constitution in any way, changing nothing else about the constitution, how would you change them? I am curious what people might say.
I haven't sat and thought about this at length myself, but I know I'd want some things to be clearer. I've thought in the past about what I would want a constitution to look like for a "from scratch" society starting out on a newly settled planet, but that's a whole different ballgame.
Bizarre as it may be, this question was inspired by the thought of someone fisking the bill of rights, and what that might look like, even if it were from an idiotarian perspective. That thought came when I was at Xrlq's blog.
Update:
Hmmm... 14 hours and no comments to a direct question post. Guess this one's a dud. Heh.
If you could replace or change the original ten amendments to the constitution in any way, changing nothing else about the constitution, how would you change them? I am curious what people might say.
I haven't sat and thought about this at length myself, but I know I'd want some things to be clearer. I've thought in the past about what I would want a constitution to look like for a "from scratch" society starting out on a newly settled planet, but that's a whole different ballgame.
Bizarre as it may be, this question was inspired by the thought of someone fisking the bill of rights, and what that might look like, even if it were from an idiotarian perspective. That thought came when I was at Xrlq's blog.
Update:
Hmmm... 14 hours and no comments to a direct question post. Guess this one's a dud. Heh.
Friday, April 25, 2003
Note to self...
Remember next chance you get, post about the "aren't we ashamed of us" dinner conversation on the evil enablement of antiquities destruction and looting by our incompetent war management.
Me, I say if the barbarians act like barbarians instead of becoming humans, it's the fault of the barbarians and not the humans that the barbarians have failed the minor challenge of humanity clue absorption. But hey, maybe that's just me.
Note to others... sorry for the lightness of posting. Still entertaining the nephew and being preoccupied otherwise. Thanks for the new links; you know who you are. Looks like I'm not going to make 2000 hits by the 2 month mark, but I'm still doing okay.
Remember next chance you get, post about the "aren't we ashamed of us" dinner conversation on the evil enablement of antiquities destruction and looting by our incompetent war management.
Me, I say if the barbarians act like barbarians instead of becoming humans, it's the fault of the barbarians and not the humans that the barbarians have failed the minor challenge of humanity clue absorption. But hey, maybe that's just me.
Note to others... sorry for the lightness of posting. Still entertaining the nephew and being preoccupied otherwise. Thanks for the new links; you know who you are. Looks like I'm not going to make 2000 hits by the 2 month mark, but I'm still doing okay.
BlogSplat, This Is A Stain On The Web
I just intentionally brought up one of the not found pages Blogsplat generates; in this case it was a link for Drumwaster, but mine was the same. Was thinking how easy it'd be to make a spoof on that page (see the title above). Anyway, the other thing I noticed is it says:
"You may wish to visit the home page for this site."
All well and good, but the link in there points to "http://.blogspot.com/" like they don't really know whose subdomain they're failing to find. Sheesh.
I just intentionally brought up one of the not found pages Blogsplat generates; in this case it was a link for Drumwaster, but mine was the same. Was thinking how easy it'd be to make a spoof on that page (see the title above). Anyway, the other thing I noticed is it says:
"You may wish to visit the home page for this site."
All well and good, but the link in there points to "http://.blogspot.com/" like they don't really know whose subdomain they're failing to find. Sheesh.
Health Insurance
As I believe I mentioned before, I am becoming disgruntled with my health noncoverage and should really find something else. They've raised rates again, effective May 1st, having gone up about $50 a month in two years, or almost 25%.
I was going to rail against the latest statement I received, but it may be that I am back on the buildup to using all of my $500 deductible. The charges were $166. Discount is $13, so I suppose I get that courtesy of being insured. Amount not covered is $153. All of it. Ah, it's classed as a routine physical, not covered for that reason. Well, at least I knew that. But the physical was in December. It's almost May. Hello? That's slower than my billing! (I just billed for January.)
Anyway, even when I've used up over $500 and it's supposedly paying 80%, I get statements almost as bad as this. Inexplicable "the charges are 100, discount is 10, our 80% is 30, you'll be paying 50" kinds of things. The only thing they've ever paid most of is a testing lab bill.
Sigh...
I offered to pay a friend to look into what's available, since she works for a good insurer/HMO and Knows Things. I don't think she actually took me seriously though.
As I believe I mentioned before, I am becoming disgruntled with my health noncoverage and should really find something else. They've raised rates again, effective May 1st, having gone up about $50 a month in two years, or almost 25%.
I was going to rail against the latest statement I received, but it may be that I am back on the buildup to using all of my $500 deductible. The charges were $166. Discount is $13, so I suppose I get that courtesy of being insured. Amount not covered is $153. All of it. Ah, it's classed as a routine physical, not covered for that reason. Well, at least I knew that. But the physical was in December. It's almost May. Hello? That's slower than my billing! (I just billed for January.)
Anyway, even when I've used up over $500 and it's supposedly paying 80%, I get statements almost as bad as this. Inexplicable "the charges are 100, discount is 10, our 80% is 30, you'll be paying 50" kinds of things. The only thing they've ever paid most of is a testing lab bill.
Sigh...
I offered to pay a friend to look into what's available, since she works for a good insurer/HMO and Knows Things. I don't think she actually took me seriously though.
Blah
Well, there they are. The Gweilo post was saved in w.bloggar and I brought the Surreal post back up, but to get them online I had to paste them into the Blogger web interface. When w.bloggar and Blogsplat play nice together, it's a wonderful thing, but when they act up, boy is it frustrating. I probably wouldn't post nearly as much if I always had to use the Blogger web interface to do it.
Well, there they are. The Gweilo post was saved in w.bloggar and I brought the Surreal post back up, but to get them online I had to paste them into the Blogger web interface. When w.bloggar and Blogsplat play nice together, it's a wonderful thing, but when they act up, boy is it frustrating. I probably wouldn't post nearly as much if I always had to use the Blogger web interface to do it.
Surreal 'R' Me
I haven't had this kind of thing happen in ages. I woked up froma bizarre dream, saw the bright sunlight, saw "1:11" when I twisted myself to see the alarm clock, got all excited, jet propelled myself out of bed, hit the switch on the computer, grabbed the mug, and on reaching the kitchen saw 7:14 on the clock. After having made enough noise to ensure my nephew, sleeping in the living room, was wide awake. Oops!
So I jumped back into bed, because I had figured I'd sleep until 9:00 today, and hadn't fallen asleep until about 2:30 (which is an improvement over insomniac 5-6 AM). After about 20 minutes of not being able to fall asleep, I gave up. Too pumped up. That was 7:26, which means it's one of those slow motion clock days.
So here I am, going through e-mail and checking the web. My nephew wants nothing more than to replace me at the computer, of course. He hovered around behind me twice, after I suggested there was a towel he could use, to get in the shower first, in the hall closet, and subsequently said "or you could go back to sleep..." I think he's done the latter.
Then there's the dream I was having. I was in urban combat. Some British guy and I were firing rounds directly into each other at close range around a car in a narrow road, all other fighting having calmed down, neither actually being harmed, until we realized it was futile, we were running out of ammo, and we were actually supposed to be on the same side anyway. At that point we both went into a storefront on the right side of the road, and I learned the Brit was blind, which hadn't seemed to have hurt his fighting ability. The storefront seemed to be some combination former record store, and book store, now used as a headquarters/barracks/hangout. The blind Brit had a box of vinyl record albums in there he was trying to keep safe, and when I woke up I think he was attempting to explain to me why that was so.
Yes, I have crazy, involved dreams like this all the time, which makes it fun when I actually remember them.
I haven't had this kind of thing happen in ages. I woked up froma bizarre dream, saw the bright sunlight, saw "1:11" when I twisted myself to see the alarm clock, got all excited, jet propelled myself out of bed, hit the switch on the computer, grabbed the mug, and on reaching the kitchen saw 7:14 on the clock. After having made enough noise to ensure my nephew, sleeping in the living room, was wide awake. Oops!
So I jumped back into bed, because I had figured I'd sleep until 9:00 today, and hadn't fallen asleep until about 2:30 (which is an improvement over insomniac 5-6 AM). After about 20 minutes of not being able to fall asleep, I gave up. Too pumped up. That was 7:26, which means it's one of those slow motion clock days.
So here I am, going through e-mail and checking the web. My nephew wants nothing more than to replace me at the computer, of course. He hovered around behind me twice, after I suggested there was a towel he could use, to get in the shower first, in the hall closet, and subsequently said "or you could go back to sleep..." I think he's done the latter.
Then there's the dream I was having. I was in urban combat. Some British guy and I were firing rounds directly into each other at close range around a car in a narrow road, all other fighting having calmed down, neither actually being harmed, until we realized it was futile, we were running out of ammo, and we were actually supposed to be on the same side anyway. At that point we both went into a storefront on the right side of the road, and I learned the Brit was blind, which hadn't seemed to have hurt his fighting ability. The storefront seemed to be some combination former record store, and book store, now used as a headquarters/barracks/hangout. The blind Brit had a box of vinyl record albums in there he was trying to keep safe, and when I woke up I think he was attempting to explain to me why that was so.
Yes, I have crazy, involved dreams like this all the time, which makes it fun when I actually remember them.
Aw Jeez
I've made two posts this morning with w.bloggar and they timed out. One I saved as a text file in case, the other I didn't. After all, normally a timeout means they posted but didn't publish. However, here I am at Blogger making a gratuitous post intended to force the two errant ones to publish, and I see they didn't even post. Argh. Well, I'll try again..
I've made two posts this morning with w.bloggar and they timed out. One I saved as a text file in case, the other I didn't. After all, normally a timeout means they posted but didn't publish. However, here I am at Blogger making a gratuitous post intended to force the two errant ones to publish, and I see they didn't even post. Argh. Well, I'll try again..
Thursday, April 24, 2003
Blogsplat Archives
Intriguing. All archives of mine up to a certain point are fine. Then we get an archived week that displays the following:
Every week of archives subsequent to that one generates the familiar Blogsplat 404 page. Our brain on the web indeed. I wonder what in the world happened to cause the FTP madness, and whether there's a connection between that and the subsequent hosing of archives. Heck, I wonder programatically and technologically if it's really that difficult to manage this functionality on a large scale as Blogsplat does.
Intriguing. All archives of mine up to a certain point are fine. Then we get an archived week that displays the following:
220 batcave5 NcFTPd Server (licensed copy) ready.
USER FTPUser
331 User FTPUser okay, need password.
PASS xxxxxx
230-You are user #22 of 250 simultaneous users allowed. 230- 230 Logged in.
SYST
215 UNIX Type: L8
PWD
257 "/home/FTPUser" is cwd.
REST 1
350 Will attempt to restart at position 1.
REST 0
350 Will attempt to restart at position 0.
Restartable feature is enabled.
TYPE A
200 Type okay.
ERROR: The file transfer service could not find the upload file: /home/localOutput/3857713_ArchiveIndex.html after waiting one minute.
TYPE I
200 Type okay.
PORT 192,168,10,110,232,214
Every week of archives subsequent to that one generates the familiar Blogsplat 404 page. Our brain on the web indeed. I wonder what in the world happened to cause the FTP madness, and whether there's a connection between that and the subsequent hosing of archives. Heck, I wonder programatically and technologically if it's really that difficult to manage this functionality on a large scale as Blogsplat does.
Moore Does Career Day
Link courtesy of the great Frank J., friend of puppies and primates everywhere.
Link courtesy of the great Frank J., friend of puppies and primates everywhere.
Funny End User Tricks
When a program error occurs it will generally say "runtime error" and some error number and description.
I find it amusing how consistently people will tell me they got a "time running error." It's kind of cute. For instance: "...I get a time running error '-2147220992:' (80040200) and then I get kicked out..."
When a program error occurs it will generally say "runtime error" and some error number and description.
I find it amusing how consistently people will tell me they got a "time running error." It's kind of cute. For instance: "...I get a time running error '-2147220992:' (80040200) and then I get kicked out..."
SARS Worse With Socialized Medicine
Medpundit has a good discussion of that theory and more today. Worth a look!
Medpundit has a good discussion of that theory and more today. Worth a look!
Linkage and Stuff
I have links to fix over in the blogroll, from people going and changing names, locations, and even ceasing to exist on me. I have a ton I can add, and am not immune to suggestions. What I do is add sites to favorites in IE, in a particular candidate folder, then I look at them again closely enough to decide link, don't link, or watch them to see what happens.
I first want to remove some sites from the Blogrolling section of the blogroll. I figure any sites that don't show last updated either at all or reliably can go in the template. I also figure any sites that are frequently or predictably updated enough that the updated status doesn't matter can go directly in the template. Simple enough.
That should add some room to put more links with Blogrolling without getting totally out of hand. I'd also like to link some more non-blogs, like OpinionJournal, Reason, and MSNBC. That's as much for my convenience as that of any visitors, no offense.
Look for that maybe this weekend sometime. I got thinking of this when I realized I hadn't added a permalink to Oscar Jr's main page yet. Lately I've found myself only adding blogs that have a "Blogroll Me" link to make it easier.
Oh, the "and stuff" part of this... The geek-in-training nephew will be hanging out with me for the next couple days, and I have important things to get done, so I may post lightly at best for a time. I've posted tons of stuff in the past week, so feel free to wade through all of it that you haven't seen yet, commenting freely. Beyond that, check out the sites in the blogroll. Lots of cool site seeing to be experienced there.
I have links to fix over in the blogroll, from people going and changing names, locations, and even ceasing to exist on me. I have a ton I can add, and am not immune to suggestions. What I do is add sites to favorites in IE, in a particular candidate folder, then I look at them again closely enough to decide link, don't link, or watch them to see what happens.
I first want to remove some sites from the Blogrolling section of the blogroll. I figure any sites that don't show last updated either at all or reliably can go in the template. I also figure any sites that are frequently or predictably updated enough that the updated status doesn't matter can go directly in the template. Simple enough.
That should add some room to put more links with Blogrolling without getting totally out of hand. I'd also like to link some more non-blogs, like OpinionJournal, Reason, and MSNBC. That's as much for my convenience as that of any visitors, no offense.
Look for that maybe this weekend sometime. I got thinking of this when I realized I hadn't added a permalink to Oscar Jr's main page yet. Lately I've found myself only adding blogs that have a "Blogroll Me" link to make it easier.
Oh, the "and stuff" part of this... The geek-in-training nephew will be hanging out with me for the next couple days, and I have important things to get done, so I may post lightly at best for a time. I've posted tons of stuff in the past week, so feel free to wade through all of it that you haven't seen yet, commenting freely. Beyond that, check out the sites in the blogroll. Lots of cool site seeing to be experienced there.
It Makes Me Wanna Puce
Okay, so I started seeing this "Puce" thing mentioned here and there, getting a great deal of attention, amusement, and speculation. I went and took a quick look, and the first time I said "well this is stupid" and went away wondering why the fuss.
Eventually I looked again, read more closely, looked at the links versus the text for context, and saw some "sense" and the scrambled nonsense tongue. I laughed at the silly posts instead of being contemptuous of them.
If you reacted like me... all I am saying, is give Puce a chance.
What would Pucemania be without a Puce Watch "fan" site? Poor Puce, it looks like the grammarsphere, represented by Puce Watch, is really giving him fisk of rage.
Okay, so I started seeing this "Puce" thing mentioned here and there, getting a great deal of attention, amusement, and speculation. I went and took a quick look, and the first time I said "well this is stupid" and went away wondering why the fuss.
Eventually I looked again, read more closely, looked at the links versus the text for context, and saw some "sense" and the scrambled nonsense tongue. I laughed at the silly posts instead of being contemptuous of them.
If you reacted like me... all I am saying, is give Puce a chance.
What would Pucemania be without a Puce Watch "fan" site? Poor Puce, it looks like the grammarsphere, represented by Puce Watch, is really giving him fisk of rage.
World Blogs
Go figure. Oscar Jr, of Blogs Around The World, reports that there's another person with the same basic idea. It's called World Blogs. This is by Flightless Farrago, who talks about how they differ in this post, which is currently the top one.
Go figure. Oscar Jr, of Blogs Around The World, reports that there's another person with the same basic idea. It's called World Blogs. This is by Flightless Farrago, who talks about how they differ in this post, which is currently the top one.
SARS, China, and AIDS
Conrad blogs on this topic, related slightly to my previous post, as far as sanitary conditions are concerned. This also reminds me I saw a passing comment on a blog, I forget which, worrying about what SARS could do in Africa where AIDS is so prevalent.
Conrad blogs on this topic, related slightly to my previous post, as far as sanitary conditions are concerned. This also reminds me I saw a passing comment on a blog, I forget which, worrying about what SARS could do in Africa where AIDS is so prevalent.
China and SARS
Back when I was in college, I was required to take a communications class. That was one of my "kicking and screaming" requirements, as I am generally terrified to speak before groups. Eventually I got around to taking it as a summer class, before my last semester (which also consisted of a part time class schedule, including a math class that had been put off by my kicking and screaming through the prerequisite maths to that point), on the idea that the crammed summer session would make it more bearable. It did. Only had to do one speech, in the end, which I chose to do on space privatization (this was in 1987). It was horrible, even after being in the class all that time and being somewhat comfortable with my classmates.
The professor had participated in an exchange program the college had going with China. She'd spent a year there, and as I recall she'd visited a second time, and written a book. Meanwhile, our school had started offering Chinese as one of the foreign languages offered, taught be genuine Chinese instructors. I was almost intrigued enough to try it for a semester, but I'd already had four semesters of German and was just trying to get school over with already.
In that communications class, you could completely derail the professor by asking her about China. She would then talk about it at length, even for the rest of the class time. Heh.
The thing I most remember is how bad hygiene, if that's the right word, was there, and how sick people tended to be as a result. People just freely spit on the ground anywhere, which spread things around. Where she taught, there were students sacking out eight in a room on the floor, happy to be able to attend school. It was amazingly crowded, with limited bathing facilities and poor heating.
So no wonder China is such an incubator for new flu and, now anyway, other viruses. It's easy to see how new strains could cook themselves up and start to spread. We simply managed to be served up with something worse than a new flu strain this time.
Back when I was in college, I was required to take a communications class. That was one of my "kicking and screaming" requirements, as I am generally terrified to speak before groups. Eventually I got around to taking it as a summer class, before my last semester (which also consisted of a part time class schedule, including a math class that had been put off by my kicking and screaming through the prerequisite maths to that point), on the idea that the crammed summer session would make it more bearable. It did. Only had to do one speech, in the end, which I chose to do on space privatization (this was in 1987). It was horrible, even after being in the class all that time and being somewhat comfortable with my classmates.
The professor had participated in an exchange program the college had going with China. She'd spent a year there, and as I recall she'd visited a second time, and written a book. Meanwhile, our school had started offering Chinese as one of the foreign languages offered, taught be genuine Chinese instructors. I was almost intrigued enough to try it for a semester, but I'd already had four semesters of German and was just trying to get school over with already.
In that communications class, you could completely derail the professor by asking her about China. She would then talk about it at length, even for the rest of the class time. Heh.
The thing I most remember is how bad hygiene, if that's the right word, was there, and how sick people tended to be as a result. People just freely spit on the ground anywhere, which spread things around. Where she taught, there were students sacking out eight in a room on the floor, happy to be able to attend school. It was amazingly crowded, with limited bathing facilities and poor heating.
So no wonder China is such an incubator for new flu and, now anyway, other viruses. It's easy to see how new strains could cook themselves up and start to spread. We simply managed to be served up with something worse than a new flu strain this time.
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
SARS Poll
Michele has a poll/quiz looking for your opinion on SARS. Overhyped? Wrath of God? Alien plot? End times? Let her know what you think.
Michele has a poll/quiz looking for your opinion on SARS. Overhyped? Wrath of God? Alien plot? End times? Let her know what you think.
Grammar
Now it's Eugene Volokh weighing in on grammar, or written communications at any rate. I am inclined to agree with him. I especially hate all caps, which my father likes to use because he can see what he's typing more easily.
Now it's Eugene Volokh weighing in on grammar, or written communications at any rate. I am inclined to agree with him. I especially hate all caps, which my father likes to use because he can see what he's typing more easily.
You've all heard of Nigerian spam e-mails...
I actually have received a paper mailing, similarly suspicious, from South Africa. I want to believe it's not legitimate due to the similarity to the spams, and a few red flags, but darn they did a good job making it appear reasonable. It was mailed from Africa, but apparently not South Africa (stamp says Republique Togolaise). It has a real signature. It has phone numbers, but not a street address. The envelope is hand addressed, and the addressee is not printed on the letter. The letter is a relatively low quality printout, which appears to be mass produced.
But I shouldn't be telling you this! I'm supposed to handle it with confidentiality. Heh.
I actually have received a paper mailing, similarly suspicious, from South Africa. I want to believe it's not legitimate due to the similarity to the spams, and a few red flags, but darn they did a good job making it appear reasonable. It was mailed from Africa, but apparently not South Africa (stamp says Republique Togolaise). It has a real signature. It has phone numbers, but not a street address. The envelope is hand addressed, and the addressee is not printed on the letter. The letter is a relatively low quality printout, which appears to be mass produced.
But I shouldn't be telling you this! I'm supposed to handle it with confidentiality. Heh.
I Just Can't Imagine...
Being locked up, year after year, for something I didn't do. Or facing execution for something I didn't do. South Knox Bubba inspired me to say this with a post on a death penalty case.
Not that long ago a guy was released in Massachusetts after being falsely convicted of rape and spending the prime of his life jailed. I just can't imagine what that might be like, knowing the system had made a mistake and your life was all but over because of it. *Shudder*
Being locked up, year after year, for something I didn't do. Or facing execution for something I didn't do. South Knox Bubba inspired me to say this with a post on a death penalty case.
Not that long ago a guy was released in Massachusetts after being falsely convicted of rape and spending the prime of his life jailed. I just can't imagine what that might be like, knowing the system had made a mistake and your life was all but over because of it. *Shudder*
Tax Cuts Versus Spending Increases
Over at Asymmetrical Information, Jane Galt posts about the difference between tax cuts and spending increases on the economy. Spirited discussion ensues in the comments.
I made the following comment myself, asking if it made sense:
On a slightly related note, I always assert that an administration's fiscal policies have limited impact on the economy in the short term. So, for instance, I tend to credit Reagan with the boom of the nineties, along with a delayed productivity factor from computer technology finally kicking in. I tend to credit Clinton with the downturn, apart from whatever the artificialness of the dotcom boom and accounting fraud had to do with it.
Over at Asymmetrical Information, Jane Galt posts about the difference between tax cuts and spending increases on the economy. Spirited discussion ensues in the comments.
I made the following comment myself, asking if it made sense:
On a slightly related note, I always assert that an administration's fiscal policies have limited impact on the economy in the short term. So, for instance, I tend to credit Reagan with the boom of the nineties, along with a delayed productivity factor from computer technology finally kicking in. I tend to credit Clinton with the downturn, apart from whatever the artificialness of the dotcom boom and accounting fraud had to do with it.
Spam, Glorious Spam
Ha! I just got a whole new class of spam! Not penis (or breast!) enlargement, not growth hormones make you feel younger, not Nigerian scams, not yummy Russian brides, not come see our nekkid contortionists at play, not lose weight, prevent diabetese, none of those things were involved at all this time.
This was from cardsofwar@beefymailer.net, has a subject line that says what it's about, and starts with a headline in the body of:
It has links to go buy, pictures of the cards... it is very nearly cool spam.
But then in the end it says this:
There's an unsubscribe link where it says "no-moo." All well and good, but like so many spams, it lies in this part. Bull that your e-mails aren't sent unsolicited! I never ask for this stuff. Lies lies lies! They always lie in the remotely legitimate looking spams that include this clause. I hate that more than I hate getting the spam in the first place. Be unsolicited, but don't effing LIE to me and say you're not when you are. Argh!
Ha! I just got a whole new class of spam! Not penis (or breast!) enlargement, not growth hormones make you feel younger, not Nigerian scams, not yummy Russian brides, not come see our nekkid contortionists at play, not lose weight, prevent diabetese, none of those things were involved at all this time.
This was from cardsofwar@beefymailer.net, has a subject line that says what it's about, and starts with a headline in the body of:
Get the Iraqi 'Most-Wanted' Deck of Playing Cards
Only $5.95 a Set!
It has links to go buy, pictures of the cards... it is very nearly cool spam.
But then in the end it says this:
This is a Beefy Mailer mailing! Our emails are never sent unsolicited. If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter, simply click here: no-moo and your email address will be removed within eight hours
There's an unsubscribe link where it says "no-moo." All well and good, but like so many spams, it lies in this part. Bull that your e-mails aren't sent unsolicited! I never ask for this stuff. Lies lies lies! They always lie in the remotely legitimate looking spams that include this clause. I hate that more than I hate getting the spam in the first place. Be unsolicited, but don't effing LIE to me and say you're not when you are. Argh!
Thoughts For Your Nickel
Justene at Calblog links to a good article on coinage, mainly a temporary change to nickels.
Justene at Calblog links to a good article on coinage, mainly a temporary change to nickels.
Zero Blogs
I opened a few of the Ecosystem blogs near the bottom, that show they have 0 links, to see if there was anything interesting to see.
Blue Dot looks good so far. I saw the name and thought "the blue dot cleanser," but it's actually "a blue dot in a sea of red." By now you may have seen most of what Blue Dot links and has for pictures, but there's good stuff.
Grumpicus Maximus has a cute logo and name. I love the sword through the monitor. There's some interesting stuff, including this I liked, and the links from this site have a lot of comics and gaming orientation to them if that appeals to you. I lean more toward revisting Blue Dot regularly, of the two I've mentioned here so far.
Flow of Time is a European (looks like Finland), business-oriented blog. I'd have to visit more to see what it's like over time, but it could be interesting. If you don't mind occasional poking of fun at Americans, that is. An example of something linked from Flow of Time is an article on there being more to CRM than technology.
That is all for now.
I opened a few of the Ecosystem blogs near the bottom, that show they have 0 links, to see if there was anything interesting to see.
Blue Dot looks good so far. I saw the name and thought "the blue dot cleanser," but it's actually "a blue dot in a sea of red." By now you may have seen most of what Blue Dot links and has for pictures, but there's good stuff.
Grumpicus Maximus has a cute logo and name. I love the sword through the monitor. There's some interesting stuff, including this I liked, and the links from this site have a lot of comics and gaming orientation to them if that appeals to you. I lean more toward revisting Blue Dot regularly, of the two I've mentioned here so far.
Flow of Time is a European (looks like Finland), business-oriented blog. I'd have to visit more to see what it's like over time, but it could be interesting. If you don't mind occasional poking of fun at Americans, that is. An example of something linked from Flow of Time is an article on there being more to CRM than technology.
That is all for now.
For Whom The Grammarians Debate
Over at Dean's there is a vigorous discussion and debate over his post, similar to mine, referring to the funny apostrophe graphic Joanne had on her site. I got one comment. He got 33 and counting. Envy aside, the post and discussion might be of interest to some of you.
Over at Dean's there is a vigorous discussion and debate over his post, similar to mine, referring to the funny apostrophe graphic Joanne had on her site. I got one comment. He got 33 and counting. Envy aside, the post and discussion might be of interest to some of you.
An Intriguing Proposal
Joe Queenan makes an amusing, intriguing proposal in an OpinionJournal column. It's inspired by the Leno/Couric show swap for a day.
Joe Queenan makes an amusing, intriguing proposal in an OpinionJournal column. It's inspired by the Leno/Couric show swap for a day.
Tuesday, April 22, 2003
Blog Tour, Third Leg
Have you had A Taste Of Africa yet? Mmmm... camel meat (hilip geyl). But seriously, I read about Somaliland's striving to regain nation status separate from Somalia before I ever read a blog for the first time. Naturally I think it's wonderful. Well, this blog is by someone who has gone to Somaliland to work there and help things along. I have found it fascinating, leading up to the elections, reporting on their results, what life is like there, the tribulations of small business, the food... And there are some nice photos! You should check it out, but at least go all the way to the bottom (beginning) of the current page and then scroll up to the next post chronologically as you read. Then it makes more sense.
Speaking of African food, I have had Ethiopian food twice in my life, and loved it. Both times were in Montreal, each at a different Ethiopian Restaurant there. The first was The Blue Nile (Nile Bleu). I can't remember the name of the other place, but I think it was Au Messob d'Or. It was down some steps, on a cellar level, at any rate. Both times I was at the Con*Cept SF Convention and went with a bunch of people, including at least one local. That was a great way to do it, because we were able to order a bunch of different dishes and try some of each. It'd be nice if there were some good Ethiopian places around here. I understand there's one expensive one in Boston, and that's it, unless things have changed.
Of course, when I told people I went for Ethiopian food they were surprised there's a distinct cuisine that justifies having Ethiopian restaurant, and I got to hear "what do they eat, rocks and sand?" Duh.
The other cool thing in Montreal was getting smoked meat sandwiches from Schwartz's. Yum!
Have you had A Taste Of Africa yet? Mmmm... camel meat (hilip geyl). But seriously, I read about Somaliland's striving to regain nation status separate from Somalia before I ever read a blog for the first time. Naturally I think it's wonderful. Well, this blog is by someone who has gone to Somaliland to work there and help things along. I have found it fascinating, leading up to the elections, reporting on their results, what life is like there, the tribulations of small business, the food... And there are some nice photos! You should check it out, but at least go all the way to the bottom (beginning) of the current page and then scroll up to the next post chronologically as you read. Then it makes more sense.
Speaking of African food, I have had Ethiopian food twice in my life, and loved it. Both times were in Montreal, each at a different Ethiopian Restaurant there. The first was The Blue Nile (Nile Bleu). I can't remember the name of the other place, but I think it was Au Messob d'Or. It was down some steps, on a cellar level, at any rate. Both times I was at the Con*Cept SF Convention and went with a bunch of people, including at least one local. That was a great way to do it, because we were able to order a bunch of different dishes and try some of each. It'd be nice if there were some good Ethiopian places around here. I understand there's one expensive one in Boston, and that's it, unless things have changed.
Of course, when I told people I went for Ethiopian food they were surprised there's a distinct cuisine that justifies having Ethiopian restaurant, and I got to hear "what do they eat, rocks and sand?" Duh.
The other cool thing in Montreal was getting smoked meat sandwiches from Schwartz's. Yum!
People Search the Darndest Things
Recent search hits to my blog:
ged "95th percentile"
Sezchuan greetings
drum solo's (okay, not odd, just amusing to me)
dotnet jobs ireland
instapundit businesspundit
vee vc++ variant
"boycott french companies" (also not odd, and I get this a lot)
pei chinese SARS
Or maybe it that I write the darndest things in close enough proximity to be found with unexpected search combos.
Recent search hits to my blog:
ged "95th percentile"
Sezchuan greetings
drum solo's (okay, not odd, just amusing to me)
dotnet jobs ireland
instapundit businesspundit
vee vc++ variant
"boycott french companies" (also not odd, and I get this a lot)
pei chinese SARS
Or maybe it that I write the darndest things in close enough proximity to be found with unexpected search combos.
The Right Time for Weapons of Mass Destruction
Little Tiny Lies speculates that Bush is clever enough to be saving any big, demostrably true announcement of WMD discoveries for the right, hit 'em all at once, time. I am inclined to agree that it makes sense both as a theory of what the administration is up to, and as a political move.
Little Tiny Lies speculates that Bush is clever enough to be saving any big, demostrably true announcement of WMD discoveries for the right, hit 'em all at once, time. I am inclined to agree that it makes sense both as a theory of what the administration is up to, and as a political move.
Discontinuity
I'm working on a post that at the moment is titled "Discontinuity, Stasis and History." I had started it weeks ago, then put it aside. I just more than doubled the length of it, and if I wanted I could add a few more words and put it up, and it basically would say what I have in mind. However, I've lost the mood, the train of thought, and I'd rather sit on it at least until later today. The last time I made a post that made some kind of a strong point about the Bush administration, I wrote most of it, then a couple days later I finished and edited it. The result was good enough to get plenty of attention, so I decided if I consider something a meaningful post, taking my time is worthwhile. Regardless, I don't think it'll be all that long, and it certainly won't compare to anything Bill Whittle would write. In his sleep.
I'm working on a post that at the moment is titled "Discontinuity, Stasis and History." I had started it weeks ago, then put it aside. I just more than doubled the length of it, and if I wanted I could add a few more words and put it up, and it basically would say what I have in mind. However, I've lost the mood, the train of thought, and I'd rather sit on it at least until later today. The last time I made a post that made some kind of a strong point about the Bush administration, I wrote most of it, then a couple days later I finished and edited it. The result was good enough to get plenty of attention, so I decided if I consider something a meaningful post, taking my time is worthwhile. Regardless, I don't think it'll be all that long, and it certainly won't compare to anything Bill Whittle would write. In his sleep.
Get Out The Vote
Frank J. needs you, to go vote on his official picture for the IMAO site. Vote early and often!
Frank J. needs you, to go vote on his official picture for the IMAO site. Vote early and often!
Blogger Death
I was thinking about this topic just the other day; what it would be like if someone with a blog died. I sometimes get morbid like that. Dandelion Wine points out this Wired article about it.
I was thinking about this topic just the other day; what it would be like if someone with a blog died. I sometimes get morbid like that. Dandelion Wine points out this Wired article about it.
Galloway
I agree with Andrew Sullivan; this is big. I was shocked when I read the news yesterday that he was being paid by Iraq. Besides Andrew covering it, Instapundit talks about it and points to Tim Blair for a roundup.
I agree with Andrew Sullivan; this is big. I was shocked when I read the news yesterday that he was being paid by Iraq. Besides Andrew covering it, Instapundit talks about it and points to Tim Blair for a roundup.
Free Speech
Drumwaster covers very nicely what is and isn't constitutional freedom of speech, for benefit of Sarandon and Robbins. They would do well to read and learn.
Drumwaster covers very nicely what is and isn't constitutional freedom of speech, for benefit of Sarandon and Robbins. They would do well to read and learn.
Wedding Planner
I watched The Wedding Planner last night. I liked it and thought it was particularly cute, even if it was a reasonably standard romantic comedy. It was definitely better than Maid In Manhattan, though I liked that one well enough. These aren't things you sit down to watch expecting high art. Plus, as I may have mentioned before, I'm a sucker for romantic comedies. One of my friends was shocked when he found out I hadn't seen The Wedding Planner a while back, and told me it was a "me" movie.
I watched The Wedding Planner last night. I liked it and thought it was particularly cute, even if it was a reasonably standard romantic comedy. It was definitely better than Maid In Manhattan, though I liked that one well enough. These aren't things you sit down to watch expecting high art. Plus, as I may have mentioned before, I'm a sucker for romantic comedies. One of my friends was shocked when he found out I hadn't seen The Wedding Planner a while back, and told me it was a "me" movie.
Blogs Around The World
Before this post scrolls completely into oblivion, I thought I would put a permalink above the blogroll to Oscar Jr's cool Blogs Around The World project. That way the handful of people who see my blog from time to time are more likely to notice the link and visit, and when Glenn someday links me, a whole mess of people will see it.
Before this post scrolls completely into oblivion, I thought I would put a permalink above the blogroll to Oscar Jr's cool Blogs Around The World project. That way the handful of people who see my blog from time to time are more likely to notice the link and visit, and when Glenn someday links me, a whole mess of people will see it.
Monday, April 21, 2003
Blogshares
I have noticed that there seem to be people who buy most of the stock in newly listed blogs, when they are at a share price of 0 or near it, then sit and wait until they increase, becoming rich in the process. What I haven't figured out yet is how to know when a blog is newly listed and at that absurdly low price. It's almost like some people have some way of knowing. One of them bought most of the shares in my blog within a day of it being listed, and last I looked has a sell order in for when it reaches a dollar per share.
The trouble is, from what I have seen, most of what drives a price up and down seems to be the actual transactions. So, for instance, a blog might sit there at a share price of 24¢ for ages, then someone sells 500 shares and it's suddenly 50¢. Which can be a good trick; selling part of your shares to make the price go up and have the value of your remaining shares be higher than the total was before you sold. But sometimes the price goes down, which I haven't figured out the rule for yet. It may have something to do with P/E ratio.
I thought "Hot Stocks" might be the new, low priced ones, but they are not the zero or penny ones. Hotness seems to be based on a low P/E.
Well, at least I've done okay, even if I am not worth as much as half a billion virtual dollars like one of the predatory players I looked at.
Update:
Aha! You can do it by creating a search by share price. Wish I'd known that sooner!
I have noticed that there seem to be people who buy most of the stock in newly listed blogs, when they are at a share price of 0 or near it, then sit and wait until they increase, becoming rich in the process. What I haven't figured out yet is how to know when a blog is newly listed and at that absurdly low price. It's almost like some people have some way of knowing. One of them bought most of the shares in my blog within a day of it being listed, and last I looked has a sell order in for when it reaches a dollar per share.
The trouble is, from what I have seen, most of what drives a price up and down seems to be the actual transactions. So, for instance, a blog might sit there at a share price of 24¢ for ages, then someone sells 500 shares and it's suddenly 50¢. Which can be a good trick; selling part of your shares to make the price go up and have the value of your remaining shares be higher than the total was before you sold. But sometimes the price goes down, which I haven't figured out the rule for yet. It may have something to do with P/E ratio.
I thought "Hot Stocks" might be the new, low priced ones, but they are not the zero or penny ones. Hotness seems to be based on a low P/E.
Well, at least I've done okay, even if I am not worth as much as half a billion virtual dollars like one of the predatory players I looked at.
Update:
Aha! You can do it by creating a search by share price. Wish I'd known that sooner!
Apostrophe Rules!
A basic guideline on apostrophe usage, via Joanne Jacobs. It's cute!
It leaves out the "its" and "it's" exception though. There is one very easy, simple way to tell if you have erred when typing "it's" in a sentence. Whenever you are rereading what you just wrote, replace "it's" with "it is." If it sounds stupid, then it's clearly a mistake. The word "it" is an exception to the posessive rule. Every dog has its day is correct. Every dog has it's day really says "every dog has it is day."
Very simple rule to follow. It drives me absolutely bonkers, all out of proportion to the seriousness of the error, when I see someone spell "its" with an apostrophe, and all the more so when it's done repeatedly. Any of us can make a typo some of the time. I do that with it's and its, their and there, your and you're, but not as systematic, unthinking spelling abuse.
"It's" can only ever mean "it is." Easy rule to remember guys! Even you editors at major publications can remember it for me, right? Right?
A basic guideline on apostrophe usage, via Joanne Jacobs. It's cute!
It leaves out the "its" and "it's" exception though. There is one very easy, simple way to tell if you have erred when typing "it's" in a sentence. Whenever you are rereading what you just wrote, replace "it's" with "it is." If it sounds stupid, then it's clearly a mistake. The word "it" is an exception to the posessive rule. Every dog has its day is correct. Every dog has it's day really says "every dog has it is day."
Very simple rule to follow. It drives me absolutely bonkers, all out of proportion to the seriousness of the error, when I see someone spell "its" with an apostrophe, and all the more so when it's done repeatedly. Any of us can make a typo some of the time. I do that with it's and its, their and there, your and you're, but not as systematic, unthinking spelling abuse.
"It's" can only ever mean "it is." Easy rule to remember guys! Even you editors at major publications can remember it for me, right? Right?
This One is for Bob
Bob does FoxPro development, at least when he has no other choice. Anyway, this is another Register article on Microsoft antics. They are in rather tricky territory here.
Bob does FoxPro development, at least when he has no other choice. Anyway, this is another Register article on Microsoft antics. They are in rather tricky territory here.
"...Congressional intent carries a great deal of weight, even when it's entirely wrongheaded, or even corrupt."
This isn't good. I love the way The Register spins things when they write on something like this. For instance:
This isn't good. I love the way The Register spins things when they write on something like this. For instance:
This type of burden-lifting doesn't directly contradict the Fourth Amendment -- merely 230 years of case law, which the DoJ has conveniently neglected to recall.
Patriot's Day
Today is Patriot's Day in Massachusetts, a state holiday, and the traditional day for the Boston Marathon.
I've only ever worked at one company that took it as one of their holidays. That's common downtown, but this was for no better reason than the founder of the company was a marathon fan. It was cool, but the problem was we did support for a POS system nationally. The only other state with a holiday that day was Ohio, or so I was told.
So it meant one person for each system having the pager, but the other person being on call by phone if the primary needed to assign work when it got too busy. On weekends and evenings until 11:30 PM, we alternated having the pager. That was fun. The pay was awful, but the overtime from being on call made it almost feel like real pay. It was an automatic hour per evening and two hours per weekend day, just to be on call, plus a half hour per call, however much or little time it took. Exceptions were granted for the rare four hour calls from hell.
Now I have a pager every day, every hour, every week, and while it typically only goes off once or maybe twice a month, there's no real compensation for being available (and that's because I'm available by e-mail at almost all times). Three years ago, without thinking through the consequences adequately, I let the client in question change payment plans in a way that means in effect that they no longer pay us extra to be available, only to do what's needed, as and when. Not a good result for either party. But I digress.
Today is Patriot's Day in Massachusetts, a state holiday, and the traditional day for the Boston Marathon.
I've only ever worked at one company that took it as one of their holidays. That's common downtown, but this was for no better reason than the founder of the company was a marathon fan. It was cool, but the problem was we did support for a POS system nationally. The only other state with a holiday that day was Ohio, or so I was told.
So it meant one person for each system having the pager, but the other person being on call by phone if the primary needed to assign work when it got too busy. On weekends and evenings until 11:30 PM, we alternated having the pager. That was fun. The pay was awful, but the overtime from being on call made it almost feel like real pay. It was an automatic hour per evening and two hours per weekend day, just to be on call, plus a half hour per call, however much or little time it took. Exceptions were granted for the rare four hour calls from hell.
Now I have a pager every day, every hour, every week, and while it typically only goes off once or maybe twice a month, there's no real compensation for being available (and that's because I'm available by e-mail at almost all times). Three years ago, without thinking through the consequences adequately, I let the client in question change payment plans in a way that means in effect that they no longer pay us extra to be available, only to do what's needed, as and when. Not a good result for either party. But I digress.
Dog Snot Diaries
This site's name may sound disgusting, but he has the hots for Alyson Hannigan, which makes him okay in my book. He is also amused by Acidman; another plus. Not that Acidman and Alyson are at all comparable...
This site's name may sound disgusting, but he has the hots for Alyson Hannigan, which makes him okay in my book. He is also amused by Acidman; another plus. Not that Acidman and Alyson are at all comparable...
Burt Rutan
Rand Simberg at Transterrestrial Musings has more on the Burt Rutan X Prize competitor that was unveiled Friday. Of particular interest are the mess of comments this post inspired, including a regulatory troll, and later a more rational regulatist. Is that a word? Well, it is now. Regulatist: One who is a regulatory proponent. Heh.
Glenn also caught up on the story.
Dean wants to have Rutan's baby. That's another post with a cool set of comments, different from the ones at Rand's blog. There's talk of Rutan's track record and qualifications, and comparison to the Sky-Car. Dean also has an update.
I'm inordinately pleased that I was, as far as I know, the first blogger among myself and those I read to have picked up on this, with a link to the MSNBC article. It's such an exciting, important story! My second post on it, "Private Space Program," was better, but even that was ahead of most. It was just luck, though, that I saw the first article when I did.
Jerry Pournelle was actually at the demonstration, and had hinted Friday something was up, then later posted pictures. He hasn't posted anything new since, but I'm sure he and his correspondents will have much to say.
Update:
The X Prize site itself has a news entry (with picture) on this.
Rand Simberg at Transterrestrial Musings has more on the Burt Rutan X Prize competitor that was unveiled Friday. Of particular interest are the mess of comments this post inspired, including a regulatory troll, and later a more rational regulatist. Is that a word? Well, it is now. Regulatist: One who is a regulatory proponent. Heh.
Glenn also caught up on the story.
Dean wants to have Rutan's baby. That's another post with a cool set of comments, different from the ones at Rand's blog. There's talk of Rutan's track record and qualifications, and comparison to the Sky-Car. Dean also has an update.
I'm inordinately pleased that I was, as far as I know, the first blogger among myself and those I read to have picked up on this, with a link to the MSNBC article. It's such an exciting, important story! My second post on it, "Private Space Program," was better, but even that was ahead of most. It was just luck, though, that I saw the first article when I did.
Jerry Pournelle was actually at the demonstration, and had hinted Friday something was up, then later posted pictures. He hasn't posted anything new since, but I'm sure he and his correspondents will have much to say.
Update:
The X Prize site itself has a news entry (with picture) on this.
Normal As Stupid
I was chatting on AIM with Bob last night, and we ended up discussing the idea that people of high intelligence see themselves as "normal," and therefore can see perfectly normal, functional people as "stupid." If I were diligent, I would pause here, go do research and post links to any extant scientific theories or research on this topic. TK if I bring it up again as anything more than idle chatter. I've noticed this in myself, and find I have to be aware and watch for it. Anyone else out there notice the same thing?
I was chatting on AIM with Bob last night, and we ended up discussing the idea that people of high intelligence see themselves as "normal," and therefore can see perfectly normal, functional people as "stupid." If I were diligent, I would pause here, go do research and post links to any extant scientific theories or research on this topic. TK if I bring it up again as anything more than idle chatter. I've noticed this in myself, and find I have to be aware and watch for it. Anyone else out there notice the same thing?
Happy Birthday Rachel
It's a time like this when I really miss the comments on her site. Then again, nobody commented when I announced my birthday, so perhaps it doesn't matter. Then again, she has many times my readership. Lucky for her, she's still a youngster.
It's a time like this when I really miss the comments on her site. Then again, nobody commented when I announced my birthday, so perhaps it doesn't matter. Then again, she has many times my readership. Lucky for her, she's still a youngster.
Is It Better To Be Linked Or Respected?
The Truth Laid Bear poses the above question in this post, so why not mosey on over and give him your response in the comments. I gave my answer.
The Truth Laid Bear poses the above question in this post, so why not mosey on over and give him your response in the comments. I gave my answer.
Jerky Knees
My youngest niece, Alicia, who just turned one, has a broken arm. I managed to get to the age of 29 before breaking any bones (left arm, and damaged both elbows for perpetuity, but this is its own post sometime), but she didn't make it to her first birthday.
She's been cruising the furniture for a while, walking while holding onto something. My brother had noticed she was crawling strangely, with just one arm, but he figured it was just an odd step on the way to walking. Then my mother noticed she was switching everything put in her right hand to her left. She's right-handed. Investigating further, my mother figured out something was painful to the touch at a certain spot on that arm.
So my brother and sister-in-law took her to the doctor, and the arm was broken. Nobody knows how it happened, but the theory is that one of the other kids jerked away from her too vigorously. Sounds like she'll have fun, having three rambunctious older brothers. They wrapped it up, then the next day she got a cast.
Well, the hospital was going to call DSS. For those who don't live in Massachusetts, that's the state child protections/family services type of agency. Calling the DSS on someone is possibly worse than calling the IRS on someone. Obviously there are cases where they must help here and there, but mostly they seem to cause people a lot of unnecessary grief. Kind of like this situatuation, which I saw mentioned on Dean's World and Right We Are. Fortunately, the pediatrician insisted that they not call DSS, because he knew there was no possible way it was appropriate.
They would have, if he'd not been there to toss some "I know these people" sense into the way. I know abuse happens, but it seems the knee jerk reportage of suspected abuse has gotten out of hand.
My youngest niece, Alicia, who just turned one, has a broken arm. I managed to get to the age of 29 before breaking any bones (left arm, and damaged both elbows for perpetuity, but this is its own post sometime), but she didn't make it to her first birthday.
She's been cruising the furniture for a while, walking while holding onto something. My brother had noticed she was crawling strangely, with just one arm, but he figured it was just an odd step on the way to walking. Then my mother noticed she was switching everything put in her right hand to her left. She's right-handed. Investigating further, my mother figured out something was painful to the touch at a certain spot on that arm.
So my brother and sister-in-law took her to the doctor, and the arm was broken. Nobody knows how it happened, but the theory is that one of the other kids jerked away from her too vigorously. Sounds like she'll have fun, having three rambunctious older brothers. They wrapped it up, then the next day she got a cast.
Well, the hospital was going to call DSS. For those who don't live in Massachusetts, that's the state child protections/family services type of agency. Calling the DSS on someone is possibly worse than calling the IRS on someone. Obviously there are cases where they must help here and there, but mostly they seem to cause people a lot of unnecessary grief. Kind of like this situatuation, which I saw mentioned on Dean's World and Right We Are. Fortunately, the pediatrician insisted that they not call DSS, because he knew there was no possible way it was appropriate.
They would have, if he'd not been there to toss some "I know these people" sense into the way. I know abuse happens, but it seems the knee jerk reportage of suspected abuse has gotten out of hand.
Liberation's New World Order
Andrew Sullivan is back with a vengeance. Guess this means you no longer have to come read me instead.
Andrew Sullivan is back with a vengeance. Guess this means you no longer have to come read me instead.
Science Fiction Shrine
In Seattle, complete with aliens. NY Times so registration is required. Link via the Reading for the Future list.
In Seattle, complete with aliens. NY Times so registration is required. Link via the Reading for the Future list.
Sunday, April 20, 2003
I Am A Slithering Reptile
There have been changes at the TTLB Blogosphere Ecosystem. I am now a slithering reptile, rather than an insignificant microbe, because most ofg the categories are now based on percentage of total blogs listed.
I think this is a superb change. Only 7-8 more links and, barring other jostling of the list, I will morph into a flappy bird. That'd be cool. Now I just have to write something clever, if not Whittle-like, to achieve the requisite linkage...
Writing about the sorry history of my hair just won't cut it. No pun intended.
There have been changes at the TTLB Blogosphere Ecosystem. I am now a slithering reptile, rather than an insignificant microbe, because most ofg the categories are now based on percentage of total blogs listed.
I think this is a superb change. Only 7-8 more links and, barring other jostling of the list, I will morph into a flappy bird. That'd be cool. Now I just have to write something clever, if not Whittle-like, to achieve the requisite linkage...
Writing about the sorry history of my hair just won't cut it. No pun intended.
Kids Are Cool
Sometimes, anyway. I swung by the office for a little while on my way home. A few minutes ago my partner stopped in with his oldest daughter, who is 9, cute, funny, and bursting with life and enthusiasm. She's so infectious, I feel much better than I did mere moments ago. She grabbed one of the few remaining Sunkist Fruit Gems, and I gave her a mini Cadbury caramel egg from my private stash.
Usually in the office I keep a container of Sunkist Fruit Gems, a Container of individually wrapped Twizzlers, and something in an M&M dispenser most of the time. Sometimes there are other things. Most recently I had Swedish Fish, but that's bad because I can't take or leave it the way I can everything else. I devour those. The Fruit Gems and Twizzlers can last months, depending how much other people eat them. I figure it adds a fun touch to the place.
My partner needed to buy a CD drive out of inventory for a machine he's troubleshooting. Unfortunately for him, I don't have any Pentium 4 motherboards on hand. He thinks he may have a bad motherboard. That's no fun.
Sometimes, anyway. I swung by the office for a little while on my way home. A few minutes ago my partner stopped in with his oldest daughter, who is 9, cute, funny, and bursting with life and enthusiasm. She's so infectious, I feel much better than I did mere moments ago. She grabbed one of the few remaining Sunkist Fruit Gems, and I gave her a mini Cadbury caramel egg from my private stash.
Usually in the office I keep a container of Sunkist Fruit Gems, a Container of individually wrapped Twizzlers, and something in an M&M dispenser most of the time. Sometimes there are other things. Most recently I had Swedish Fish, but that's bad because I can't take or leave it the way I can everything else. I devour those. The Fruit Gems and Twizzlers can last months, depending how much other people eat them. I figure it adds a fun touch to the place.
My partner needed to buy a CD drive out of inventory for a machine he's troubleshooting. Unfortunately for him, I don't have any Pentium 4 motherboards on hand. He thinks he may have a bad motherboard. That's no fun.
Blah
Well, I managed to go to my grandmother's for the Easter dinner thing, albeit rather late. This whole insomnia/sleepiness thing went to a whole new level, by dint of my wanting to fall asleep while driving. I'm not a "sleepy while driving" person without good reason, so it was disconcerting. I think I'm having a bout of depression in which the sleep problems are a symptom, but maybe it's related to the balloon-like feeling in my sinuses.
I'll probably end up having my nephew come to the office with me a day or two this week, since it's school vacation. His parents aren't too happy, because he's being a teenager lately. They tried to get me to take him for the week, overnights too, but I wasn't buying it. He's turning into me, being given used computers by people that are his if he can make them work. I think the last one is still in suspense. The latest one tries to boot Win98 then shuts itself down; he forgets what it says. Sounds to me suspiciously like the problem where the OS thinks it can't find VMM32.VXD, usually even if it's there. Nothing fdisk can't solve, if all else fails. I am up to probably five machines in the Pentium 100 to 200 range that work, or mostly work, that have been given to me. One of these days I need to go through them and get them going, or chuck them, and see if I can find them a purpose in life.
Oh well. Maybe I can do something useful before the day is out...
Well, I managed to go to my grandmother's for the Easter dinner thing, albeit rather late. This whole insomnia/sleepiness thing went to a whole new level, by dint of my wanting to fall asleep while driving. I'm not a "sleepy while driving" person without good reason, so it was disconcerting. I think I'm having a bout of depression in which the sleep problems are a symptom, but maybe it's related to the balloon-like feeling in my sinuses.
I'll probably end up having my nephew come to the office with me a day or two this week, since it's school vacation. His parents aren't too happy, because he's being a teenager lately. They tried to get me to take him for the week, overnights too, but I wasn't buying it. He's turning into me, being given used computers by people that are his if he can make them work. I think the last one is still in suspense. The latest one tries to boot Win98 then shuts itself down; he forgets what it says. Sounds to me suspiciously like the problem where the OS thinks it can't find VMM32.VXD, usually even if it's there. Nothing fdisk can't solve, if all else fails. I am up to probably five machines in the Pentium 100 to 200 range that work, or mostly work, that have been given to me. One of these days I need to go through them and get them going, or chuck them, and see if I can find them a purpose in life.
Oh well. Maybe I can do something useful before the day is out...
Which Marvel Hero Am I
A cool one, naturally! Good for me, not one of the top five either.
For what it's worth, I don't recommend the above link for those who lack broadband. It doesn't go right to a straighforward web page with the questions, but rather to a slow loading base page, which launches another slow loading page, which does some other slow loading, and then you're at a place where you can figure out which button loads the test. But it is kind of neat, even if it's a form of viral marketing.
A cool one, naturally! Good for me, not one of the top five either.
For what it's worth, I don't recommend the above link for those who lack broadband. It doesn't go right to a straighforward web page with the questions, but rather to a slow loading base page, which launches another slow loading page, which does some other slow loading, and then you're at a place where you can figure out which button loads the test. But it is kind of neat, even if it's a form of viral marketing.
The Puppy Eating Scandal Grows
Over at Happy Fun Pundit, they have chosen now to reveal they kept the puppy eating news to themselves. They could have done the brave thing and said something sooner, but they chose instead to alienate their audience in the long run for site hits in the short run. All the while, puppies died horribly. How can they ever recover their blogging integrity?
Over at Happy Fun Pundit, they have chosen now to reveal they kept the puppy eating news to themselves. They could have done the brave thing and said something sooner, but they chose instead to alienate their audience in the long run for site hits in the short run. All the while, puppies died horribly. How can they ever recover their blogging integrity?
Saturday, April 19, 2003
Weekly Wrap-Up
This one seemed fairly interesting to me, so...
1. What's your favorite method of travel? Why?
Car. Freedom and flexibility.
2. What's the longest road trip you've ever taken? Where?
1575 Mile drive to Ft. Myers, Florida, as far as a one way trip. My trip to P.E.I. and Nova Scotia almost five years ago ran up 3000 miles in an 11 day trip, so that probably counts more.
3. How many plane trips have you taken in your life?
Two? If each two-way overall trip counts as one.
My first flight was to Houston to go to Galveston for my cousin's wedding to her first husband. I gave her away, standing in for my late uncle. That was non-stop from Logan. Then on the way back my flight was cancelled for mechanical reasons, and I ended up bumped to an American flight that had a brief stop in Memphis.
My second flight was for work, where I went from being asked to go to North Carolina to being on the plane within about three hours or so. That was fun. The flight was supposed to be Logan to Atlanta to Wilmington, NC. Due to the flight being delayed, I missed the plane in Atlanta and the closest they could get me was a puddle jumper to Myrtle Beach the next morning. This is when I learned you always take with you a carry-on containing a basic change of clothes and anything else you'd prefer to have on an unexpected overnight. The airline put me up at a hotel and gave me one of those "RON" remain overnight kits. A few hours sleep and I was on the little plane, dying from the exhaust fumes, hopping to Myrtle Beach. The guy who did the installations met me there with the rental car, which he had me drive back up the coast (route 17 I think it was) to Wilmington. I got to shower, change, and then give a training class for the POS system. I was there most of a week, training, helping install the system in two locations, programming the menus, and putting out fires. We ended up not having to rent a second car, as the customer liked me so much he loaned me his Mercedes to drive, while he drove his daughter's Mercedes. She was away. The flight back was Wilmington to Charlotte, then on a bigger plane back to Boston.
4. What method of travel do you fear so much or intensely dislike that you avoid it? Why?
Hmmm... I can't really say I am afraid of flying or dislike it. I can't think of anything else even close. At this point the main reason I'd avoid flying is because the government has made it so tedious in the name of safety. For instance, if I go visit my brother in Ohio, there's virtually no chance I'd fly rather than drive. Unless I had enough time off, I'd probably fly to visit friends on the left coast. Ditto my cousin in the Houston area, though that's enough closer to ,ake driving more plausible.
5. Describe the worst travel experience you've ever had.
Probably the time, after sophmore year of college when wanderlust craziness struck me as sometimes happens, my Chevy Luv pickup, which had a Toyota engine, threw a rod when I was in Virginia. I ended up staying in my tent behind the garage that towed me, for a couple nights. I sold the dead truck for $50 to the garage owner, got a ride from him to nearby Winchester, Virginia, and drove a rental car home from there.
I found there was a Hertz agent in Winchester, so I called the main Hertz number and reserved a mid-size car at a certain price. I had never rented a car before. I did not get any kind of reservation number or anything. So I arrive at the place, which is a little hole in the wall garage that also rents cars and is manned by a wacko young guy who reminds me of my off the wall cousin. They don't know me from Adam, and at this point neither does Hertz, and even if they did, they have no small cars to rent, only a Lincoln Towncar. Which is a significantly higher price. So I gave them the $200 down and did the paperwork and all, drove back to the garage, loaded my stuff and was on my way. One good thing about such a big car, my bike fit in the trunk without any effort.
So I sucked down lots of gas and drove on home, then the next morning had my brother follow me to the dropoff Hertz agent, which also happened to be a travel agency. The guy who handled rentals wasn't there yet, so I dropped the paperwork on his desk. All of it. Stupid stupid stupid. I was due a refund of about $40 out of the $200 I'd put down, and I left all evidence of that with the agent, in an environment that looked as cluttered and messy as my apartment does right now. I never did get the balance of my money back, and to this day I will refuse to deal with Hertz if there's any way to avoid it.
A runner up worst trip might be the drive home from my six week stay in Florida. There was a snow/ice storm, and I drove all the way from Raleigh, NC to Massachusetts in one day. It turned out that Pennsylvania, which was where the ice storm was worst, didn't believe in doing anything to the roads. So most of the way north through Pennsylvania was at 20-25 miles per hour, very carefully, driving past cars and tractor trailers one after another spun off onto the sides of the highway. It was brutal. Then at the New York border it was like night and day; the roads were well plowed and sanded.
This one seemed fairly interesting to me, so...
1. What's your favorite method of travel? Why?
Car. Freedom and flexibility.
2. What's the longest road trip you've ever taken? Where?
1575 Mile drive to Ft. Myers, Florida, as far as a one way trip. My trip to P.E.I. and Nova Scotia almost five years ago ran up 3000 miles in an 11 day trip, so that probably counts more.
3. How many plane trips have you taken in your life?
Two? If each two-way overall trip counts as one.
My first flight was to Houston to go to Galveston for my cousin's wedding to her first husband. I gave her away, standing in for my late uncle. That was non-stop from Logan. Then on the way back my flight was cancelled for mechanical reasons, and I ended up bumped to an American flight that had a brief stop in Memphis.
My second flight was for work, where I went from being asked to go to North Carolina to being on the plane within about three hours or so. That was fun. The flight was supposed to be Logan to Atlanta to Wilmington, NC. Due to the flight being delayed, I missed the plane in Atlanta and the closest they could get me was a puddle jumper to Myrtle Beach the next morning. This is when I learned you always take with you a carry-on containing a basic change of clothes and anything else you'd prefer to have on an unexpected overnight. The airline put me up at a hotel and gave me one of those "RON" remain overnight kits. A few hours sleep and I was on the little plane, dying from the exhaust fumes, hopping to Myrtle Beach. The guy who did the installations met me there with the rental car, which he had me drive back up the coast (route 17 I think it was) to Wilmington. I got to shower, change, and then give a training class for the POS system. I was there most of a week, training, helping install the system in two locations, programming the menus, and putting out fires. We ended up not having to rent a second car, as the customer liked me so much he loaned me his Mercedes to drive, while he drove his daughter's Mercedes. She was away. The flight back was Wilmington to Charlotte, then on a bigger plane back to Boston.
4. What method of travel do you fear so much or intensely dislike that you avoid it? Why?
Hmmm... I can't really say I am afraid of flying or dislike it. I can't think of anything else even close. At this point the main reason I'd avoid flying is because the government has made it so tedious in the name of safety. For instance, if I go visit my brother in Ohio, there's virtually no chance I'd fly rather than drive. Unless I had enough time off, I'd probably fly to visit friends on the left coast. Ditto my cousin in the Houston area, though that's enough closer to ,ake driving more plausible.
5. Describe the worst travel experience you've ever had.
Probably the time, after sophmore year of college when wanderlust craziness struck me as sometimes happens, my Chevy Luv pickup, which had a Toyota engine, threw a rod when I was in Virginia. I ended up staying in my tent behind the garage that towed me, for a couple nights. I sold the dead truck for $50 to the garage owner, got a ride from him to nearby Winchester, Virginia, and drove a rental car home from there.
I found there was a Hertz agent in Winchester, so I called the main Hertz number and reserved a mid-size car at a certain price. I had never rented a car before. I did not get any kind of reservation number or anything. So I arrive at the place, which is a little hole in the wall garage that also rents cars and is manned by a wacko young guy who reminds me of my off the wall cousin. They don't know me from Adam, and at this point neither does Hertz, and even if they did, they have no small cars to rent, only a Lincoln Towncar. Which is a significantly higher price. So I gave them the $200 down and did the paperwork and all, drove back to the garage, loaded my stuff and was on my way. One good thing about such a big car, my bike fit in the trunk without any effort.
So I sucked down lots of gas and drove on home, then the next morning had my brother follow me to the dropoff Hertz agent, which also happened to be a travel agency. The guy who handled rentals wasn't there yet, so I dropped the paperwork on his desk. All of it. Stupid stupid stupid. I was due a refund of about $40 out of the $200 I'd put down, and I left all evidence of that with the agent, in an environment that looked as cluttered and messy as my apartment does right now. I never did get the balance of my money back, and to this day I will refuse to deal with Hertz if there's any way to avoid it.
A runner up worst trip might be the drive home from my six week stay in Florida. There was a snow/ice storm, and I drove all the way from Raleigh, NC to Massachusetts in one day. It turned out that Pennsylvania, which was where the ice storm was worst, didn't believe in doing anything to the roads. So most of the way north through Pennsylvania was at 20-25 miles per hour, very carefully, driving past cars and tractor trailers one after another spun off onto the sides of the highway. It was brutal. Then at the New York border it was like night and day; the roads were well plowed and sanded.
ScrappleFace
ScrappleFace has lots of goodies. In particular, though, you must see "U.S. Finds Contractor With No Iraq Ties." It's hysterical, and so in line with my thinking that the complaints were getting ridiculous. Thanks to Betsy's Page for the heads up before I had a chance to stumble over there on my own.
ScrappleFace has lots of goodies. In particular, though, you must see "U.S. Finds Contractor With No Iraq Ties." It's hysterical, and so in line with my thinking that the complaints were getting ridiculous. Thanks to Betsy's Page for the heads up before I had a chance to stumble over there on my own.
Dead Puppies
Frank at IMAO is having some fun at the expense of Glenn Reynolds and puppies. Fun continues in the comments, including new lyrics to "Dead Puppies Aren't Much Fun." Let it never be said I am incapable of being twisted and sick.
Frank at IMAO is having some fun at the expense of Glenn Reynolds and puppies. Fun continues in the comments, including new lyrics to "Dead Puppies Aren't Much Fun." Let it never be said I am incapable of being twisted and sick.
Private Space Program
A few posts ago I got all excited (Woohoo! Yes!!) and linked an MSNBC article about Burt Rutan's demo Friday of his space plane project, which is likely to become the X Prize winner and be a fully functional private space program. I knew this could be done. When I was in my late teens and early twenties, I wanted nothing more than to go into the private launch business. I even had ideas on how to promote it and raise funds, so I was amused and astounded when I read Heinlein's "The Man Who Sold The Moon" later and it seemed so familiar, in a slightly over the top sort of way.
Anyhow, there's also a BBC article on this, which I got the link to from Jerry Pournelle. On Friday's View, Jerry has discussion and pictures, since he was a guest at the Mojave demo, and had confidentially known about it for some time.
I think this is just the coolest thing! But hey, if there's another contender who beats Rutan, or nearly ties him, and both systems work, all. the. better. Let NASA do research and distant scientific probes and get out of what should be private enterprise.
Oh, there's also a space.com article which is via Jerry Pornelle's mail page. I used to read space.com all the time, but then they kept changing and tweaking and making it fancier and more "commercial looking" and less usable. I never visit there any more unless I see a link from someone else like this. It wasn't even that much of a conscious decision so much as the site lost much of its original appeal. Indeed, it looks like they have made major changes again since last time I was there. It's possible the latest improvements are an improvement on the earlier improvements...
A few posts ago I got all excited (Woohoo! Yes!!) and linked an MSNBC article about Burt Rutan's demo Friday of his space plane project, which is likely to become the X Prize winner and be a fully functional private space program. I knew this could be done. When I was in my late teens and early twenties, I wanted nothing more than to go into the private launch business. I even had ideas on how to promote it and raise funds, so I was amused and astounded when I read Heinlein's "The Man Who Sold The Moon" later and it seemed so familiar, in a slightly over the top sort of way.
Anyhow, there's also a BBC article on this, which I got the link to from Jerry Pournelle. On Friday's View, Jerry has discussion and pictures, since he was a guest at the Mojave demo, and had confidentially known about it for some time.
I think this is just the coolest thing! But hey, if there's another contender who beats Rutan, or nearly ties him, and both systems work, all. the. better. Let NASA do research and distant scientific probes and get out of what should be private enterprise.
Oh, there's also a space.com article which is via Jerry Pornelle's mail page. I used to read space.com all the time, but then they kept changing and tweaking and making it fancier and more "commercial looking" and less usable. I never visit there any more unless I see a link from someone else like this. It wasn't even that much of a conscious decision so much as the site lost much of its original appeal. Indeed, it looks like they have made major changes again since last time I was there. It's possible the latest improvements are an improvement on the earlier improvements...
Blogs Around The World
Oscar Jr. is doing the cool project of gathering blog links geographically from around the world, to list by continent and country. I think this is cool, as I'd had similar notions. Go check it out, and give him any additions he might be missing. Lots of blanks still to go.
Oscar Jr. is doing the cool project of gathering blog links geographically from around the world, to list by continent and country. I think this is cool, as I'd had similar notions. Go check it out, and give him any additions he might be missing. Lots of blanks still to go.
Asperger's Syndrome
A while back, Wired, to which I subscribe, had an issue with an article on "The Geek Syndrome." It was a fascinating look at Asperger's syndrome, which is a form of autism, on the autism spectrum of disorders; sometimes also called high functioning autism. People with it tend to lead a reasonably normal life, and tend to be disproportionately computer/programming/engineering oriented. Thus the article was looking at the idea that a high rate of autism in Silicon Valley and the Route 128 region might be a genetic result of the large number of geek, and therefore possibly Asperger, parents in those areas.
I was reminded of all this by a post on the topic at Dandelion Wine
The Wired article had a sidebar of an "Autism Quotient" test, which purports to measure where you fall on the spectrum. From what I have seen, many people don't think it's a particularly viable test. Nonetheless, I found it interesting and so I link to it here:
AQ Test
My score was 30. They say at the top of the test page that "Eighty percent of those diagnosed with autism or a related disorder scored 32 or higher." Looks like I push the envelope a little.
Related to this, Dandelion Wine also points us to a brain quiz, ostensibly "how male or female is your brain."
I took the interactive EQ test and then, clicking from those results, the interactive SQ test. Both require Flash. There's an option for manual tests as well. From the test pages you can then go to this final page to work out what type of brain you have, using a grid to plot the results of EQ and SQ and see which shaded area you fall into.
For what it's worth, my scores were:
EQ of 41
SQ of 53
Overall brain type "Extreme Type S"
Fascinating.
The original Wired article and AQ test led me to actually buy books on Asperger's and to read all about it online, because I seem to approach but not quite cross over to it myself, and I suspected my nephew was so afflicted. That and it was inherently intriguing, as I find anything to do with brain function to be, given my own history. That has always applied to IQ testing as well.
A while back, Wired, to which I subscribe, had an issue with an article on "The Geek Syndrome." It was a fascinating look at Asperger's syndrome, which is a form of autism, on the autism spectrum of disorders; sometimes also called high functioning autism. People with it tend to lead a reasonably normal life, and tend to be disproportionately computer/programming/engineering oriented. Thus the article was looking at the idea that a high rate of autism in Silicon Valley and the Route 128 region might be a genetic result of the large number of geek, and therefore possibly Asperger, parents in those areas.
I was reminded of all this by a post on the topic at Dandelion Wine
The Wired article had a sidebar of an "Autism Quotient" test, which purports to measure where you fall on the spectrum. From what I have seen, many people don't think it's a particularly viable test. Nonetheless, I found it interesting and so I link to it here:
AQ Test
My score was 30. They say at the top of the test page that "Eighty percent of those diagnosed with autism or a related disorder scored 32 or higher." Looks like I push the envelope a little.
Related to this, Dandelion Wine also points us to a brain quiz, ostensibly "how male or female is your brain."
I took the interactive EQ test and then, clicking from those results, the interactive SQ test. Both require Flash. There's an option for manual tests as well. From the test pages you can then go to this final page to work out what type of brain you have, using a grid to plot the results of EQ and SQ and see which shaded area you fall into.
For what it's worth, my scores were:
EQ of 41
SQ of 53
Overall brain type "Extreme Type S"
Fascinating.
The original Wired article and AQ test led me to actually buy books on Asperger's and to read all about it online, because I seem to approach but not quite cross over to it myself, and I suspected my nephew was so afflicted. That and it was inherently intriguing, as I find anything to do with brain function to be, given my own history. That has always applied to IQ testing as well.
Friday, April 18, 2003
Guilty Pleasure Movies
Great topic over at The Daily Rant! Jay Caruso posts on what films are his guilty pleasures. The audience joins in. Comments abound! Go check it out and add your 2 cents.
Great topic over at The Daily Rant! Jay Caruso posts on what films are his guilty pleasures. The audience joins in. Comments abound! Go check it out and add your 2 cents.
Bad News
So my younger brother gets all settled, things are pretty good, but you know that couldn't last. My older brother is staying at my grandmother's house while his wife has a restraining order. Now, if you knew them and the situation, you might find this a perversely reversed scenario. Had he gotten on the ball, he could have had her out long ago. He's worse off not acting to invoke major change, even if there's temporary untidyness as a result. Kind of like Bush geopolitical policy writ small.
This is why I sometimes am just as glad to be single and completely unattached. The aforementioned brother always tells me I'm the one who should have had all the kids, because I'd be a better father. He doesn't give himself enough credit.
Of course, it's easy to stay single when you go nine years without a date. When I say I'm shy, I really mean it. Nothing came of that date because she was too vacuous, but at least she was assertive enough to ask.
Sigh... my family wonders why I can be standoffish. Well, besides that I avoid the phone and the key to keeping in touch with me is e-mail.
Gotta go. Time for my Friday non-date with my female friends.
So my younger brother gets all settled, things are pretty good, but you know that couldn't last. My older brother is staying at my grandmother's house while his wife has a restraining order. Now, if you knew them and the situation, you might find this a perversely reversed scenario. Had he gotten on the ball, he could have had her out long ago. He's worse off not acting to invoke major change, even if there's temporary untidyness as a result. Kind of like Bush geopolitical policy writ small.
This is why I sometimes am just as glad to be single and completely unattached. The aforementioned brother always tells me I'm the one who should have had all the kids, because I'd be a better father. He doesn't give himself enough credit.
Of course, it's easy to stay single when you go nine years without a date. When I say I'm shy, I really mean it. Nothing came of that date because she was too vacuous, but at least she was assertive enough to ask.
Sigh... my family wonders why I can be standoffish. Well, besides that I avoid the phone and the key to keeping in touch with me is e-mail.
Gotta go. Time for my Friday non-date with my female friends.
Collateral Damage
I watched Collateral Damage last night, during one of my wakeful spells. I enjoyed it a lot, but I can see why they didn't release it a month after 9/11/01 as planned. Terrorosm, a fireman, rescue and escape scenes in burning buildings, explosions; yeah, better to have waited just a little as they did.
I watched Collateral Damage last night, during one of my wakeful spells. I enjoyed it a lot, but I can see why they didn't release it a month after 9/11/01 as planned. Terrorosm, a fireman, rescue and escape scenes in burning buildings, explosions; yeah, better to have waited just a little as they did.
"How Moore 'Blew It'"
Roger Ebert has a Q&A page that goes into some detail on Moore, starting with the Oscar speech but also covering other details. Kind of interesting, despite Ebert's high degree of sympathy for Moore.
Roger Ebert has a Q&A page that goes into some detail on Moore, starting with the Oscar speech but also covering other details. Kind of interesting, despite Ebert's high degree of sympathy for Moore.
Good News
My brother, who moved to Ohio a couple weeks back, got the job he was hoping for when he headed out there.
He's done cabling for a few years; network, video, alarm, phone, etc. The very small outfit he worked for got most of its work as a sub to national companies who service major retailers and so forth. One such company had them do some work in their headquarters, probably with the ulterior motive of seeing how my brother's boss behaved. He learned while he was there that they were hiring in the Cincinnati area and (wink, wink) hadn't seen any applications they liked yet.
So he grabbed an application and faxed them that and his resume from my office. Then he waited. And waited. and talked to someone. And waited. And exchanged e-mail. And waited. Eventually they got to the "we're not saying you're hired but you can pretty much assume that but we'll get back to you" stage, at which point he was due to move anyway. He got to where he figured he could take any $10 an hour job, and a side job, to make enough to scrape by and pay child support, but nobody would hire him until he was actually present in Ohio.
The place that had him stringing along, meantime, did more of the same. Finally when he called the right person, they cut through the bureaucracy and got him an official "start ASAP" offer. Woohoo! It's more per hour than the old job, but the old job was predicated on 50 hours a week. However, this job should have OT, the OT generated should actually be paid, there should be raises - which will be refreshing, and there's good health insurance instead of none. He'll officially start Monday. This is such great news!
My brother, who moved to Ohio a couple weeks back, got the job he was hoping for when he headed out there.
He's done cabling for a few years; network, video, alarm, phone, etc. The very small outfit he worked for got most of its work as a sub to national companies who service major retailers and so forth. One such company had them do some work in their headquarters, probably with the ulterior motive of seeing how my brother's boss behaved. He learned while he was there that they were hiring in the Cincinnati area and (wink, wink) hadn't seen any applications they liked yet.
So he grabbed an application and faxed them that and his resume from my office. Then he waited. And waited. and talked to someone. And waited. And exchanged e-mail. And waited. Eventually they got to the "we're not saying you're hired but you can pretty much assume that but we'll get back to you" stage, at which point he was due to move anyway. He got to where he figured he could take any $10 an hour job, and a side job, to make enough to scrape by and pay child support, but nobody would hire him until he was actually present in Ohio.
The place that had him stringing along, meantime, did more of the same. Finally when he called the right person, they cut through the bureaucracy and got him an official "start ASAP" offer. Woohoo! It's more per hour than the old job, but the old job was predicated on 50 hours a week. However, this job should have OT, the OT generated should actually be paid, there should be raises - which will be refreshing, and there's good health insurance instead of none. He'll officially start Monday. This is such great news!
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