A Metric Ton of Quickies

Step right up ladies and gentlemen and behold, quickies so amazing, that you may not want to stare directly at them. First up, a trio of Microsoft bits: Ethan sent us an RFC for writing RFCs in Word. Russ pointed us to a great entry contained within the microsoft knowledge base. and an anonymous reader noted that boardwatch is selling BillGatus of Borg posters again. You may need a soundtrack for this one: chisox sent a bit about Jem Finer composing a thousand year song (and a machine to play it). If generative music ain't your thing, Jason noted that MC (Stephen) Hawking has made some of his R&B and Rap cuts available in MP3 format. And while it isn't exactly music, Several folks showed us the way to best learn about Semi Conductors: have Britney Spears teach it. wishus's submission is much less educational: he's kissing up to me by telling us that Sarcasta's latest update is in depth study on Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. If you need some images to enlighten and amuse, B.D.Mills noted that stinky meat is back if you didn't get enough the first time, Ant sent us the correct use for the new mac cubes, and danfairs sent us a picture of... well, a fire extinguisher. table and chair pointed us to Political Arena, a Quake 3 modwhere you blow up the political candidates (is this treason once one of them gets elected?) If blowing up Bush isn't enough stress reduction for you, einstein has shown us how best to customize your case and void your warrenty in one swing. Of an axe. Kartoffel wrote a CueCat interface for BeOS as well as a Mr T vs. CueCat Comic Strip. Even more offensive then another Mr T vs. episode is a comic featuring Admiral Ackbar debating Napster sent in by georgeha. Last of all, if you didn't know, Spinal Tap is back out in limited release. God what a great flick. Just figured I'd mention it ...

Re:rfc's are TEXT!

what, and emacs isn't overkill? ;)
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A link to the mentioned poli quiz.

The questionaire mentioned above can be found at the http://www.self-gov.org/quiz.html [self-gov.org], entitled, "World's Smallest Political Quiz."

As noted by the domain name (self-gov), this is a tool by libertarians. However, it is generally fair, if a bit simplistic. Ten questions: five on economic issues and five on social issues.

The four extents are Left-Liberal (social freedom over economic freedom), Right-Conservative (economic over social), Authoritarians (neither economic nor social individual freedom), and Libertarians (minimal central government).

The middle of the chart is, as you might predict, the Centrists, which represents nearly all elected officials in the US, regardless of their mud-slung labels.

They even break Authoritarians into left-authoritarians (socialists) and right-authoritarians (fascists).

I've made a Palm version of the same quiz, and it was made for the Newton a couple years back. Email me for a PalmOS/PocketC version.

RFCs in Word

Wait a second!!!
If I'm not mistaken I've already got a patent pending on that!

bemis
-shut up dude! i was just trying to impress your mom!

Am I a nerd?

Is it bad that after looking at each Britney Spears picture for about 3 seconds each, I started reading the equations and trying to remember my Junior year semiconductors class?

Re:rfc's are TEXT!

using Word to create a text-only output is a slippery slope
Hallelujah my brother.
You have hit the proverbial nail right on it's proverbial motherfucking head.
Once you start down the slippery slope there's no telling where you might end up. I've heard horrifying tales of people using advanced multi-user operating systems for playing nethack. There have even been rumors of people using turing-complete programming languages to print "hello world". Thank god those are only rumors.
--Shoeboy

Re:Bah

Or what if the world spins the wrong way [microsoft.com]?
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Re:m = pole to equator thru paris/1e7. Real intuit

It's great to see so many people trumping in with the definitions of mass, HOWEVER I am afraid that the original poster is correct.
The standard unit of mass is the kg, and the kg is defined as the mass of a platinum (I think) block stored in Paris. The block is meant to be exactly the same mass as 0.1m x 0.1m x 0.1m of pure water at maximum volume (i.e. 4 degrees C) at standard atmospheric pressure (sea-level, 1 Bar????). Unfortunatley for the idiots making the "block" they never noticed or were unable to discover with the current methods that they were about 0.04% out and hence the whole water idea had to be scrapped and the block was used instead. The question is why did the idiots not just stick with the physical definition and stuff the block!
As for the meter etc. It was created as 1/10e7 of the quarter circumference of the earth through both poles and Paris...however as this is patently absurd and useless it was actually the distance between two scratches held on a metal "ruler". This was subsequently re-expressed (and the definition of the width of the scratches etc. made moot) as both the distance travelled by a certain number of wavelengths of the red-orange emissions of krypton 69 (or some other isotope, I hate chemistry) AND the distance travelled by light in the micro fraction of a second it takes to go a meter (debate has ensued previously over which is the true definition of a meter but I believe it is the multiple of the wavelength of the Krypton).

since physical definition (that is, definition using physical features available everywhere) is the whole point of the metric system.

The whole point of the metric system was to provide a scalable system without all the 12 of these or 16 or those or 3 of these makes a schnugelbindel, a consequence was meant to be the definition of all values by inrefutable physical quantities.....It failed. You could define the Imperial measures by similar means (reduce number of wavelngths and you have a yard, work out the volume of water for a pound) but they would still be a pig to work with when scaling (how big is 10e13 inches or 10e13 cm, I know my mind loves the latter and detests the former). Metric is about the number 10, not about definitions.

Re:New BSOD?

So, BSOD=Banana Screen of Death???

This was doubly funny since I had a Choco-Banana shake for breakfast this morning.

Here's my recipe in case you don't want to risk the Banana Screen of Death.

1 Banana, peeled
5-7 Ice Cubes
5 oz, Soy Chocolate Milk
2 oz, Liquid Non-Dairy Creamer
1-1/2 scoops Soy Protein Powder

Blend Ice & liquids until ice fully crushed.
Add Banana & Protein Powder and blend and still smooth.

Drink within 12-15.4 seconds to avoid 'brain freeze'.

Re:stop with the political editorials!!

Some time ago I saw a questionnaire from the libertarian party that presented political positions as a XY grid, where one axis was social issues and another was fiscal issues.

This was a HUGE eye opener for me, and ever since I have been annoyed at media classifications of simple LeftRight.

Either a) most of the main stream media don't get this concept. Or
b) They think we are all too stupid to understand such a "complex" idea. ;-)

That being said, I just think we are done a disservice when editorial comments on slashdot cause it to sound like a PAC newsletter. Consider that when people who disagree read your comments, they downgrade the rest of what you say.

Report the issues and facts, Don't tell us how to think.

Re:rfc's are TEXT!

I was waiting for a post like this..Knew it was coming.

If you had read the RFC, you'd have seen that it was simply a template and some instructions to make writing RFC writing easier if you are using Micrsofot Word.

It's NOT a request that Word become the 'official' file format of RFCs. In fact, though it was written by MS employees, it most points out how Word can sometimes be problematic when dealing with text export, etc, and offers solutions to work around these issues.

Please read the links before you blindly comment on them.

Re:Metric Ton? Metric sucks. Long live Standard un

Yes YOU Americans are right. It is 2387 ferbles to the rod, and that's the way it should be.

More wacky Microsoft Knowledgebase entries

Some other amusing entries in the knowledgebase are Computer Randomly Plays Classical Music [microsoft.com] and Sometimes Barney Starts Playing Peekaboo on His Own [microsoft.com].

Life imitates humor...

Now that I've seen a picture of one of those Mac Cubes in action, (as it were) I can't believe no one mentioned (or took a picture of) the obvious use for it!

It's a TOASTER! It always was a toaster, and it always will be! Forget NeXT, forget the Amiga, the Cube is the right boxy shape, *and* it has the slots for BREAD!

That's awesome; I want one of those to go with those iMac aquariums Apple sells. In fact, why don't they ditch the whole computer line and go into home furnishings?
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate [ncsu.edu].

New BSOD?

Does this mean we now get the Choco-Banana Screen of Death? Because the all the Blueberry Screens of Death were starting to make my teeth hurt. Maybe this way I'll get some vitamins...

You missed one.

I can't believe taco didn't post the formation of the karma whore fantasy league [slashdot.org].
--Shoeboy

Carpal Tunnel Related links

Here are some useful links for those feeling hand/wrist/shoulder/back pain from computer use.

• "What I did about my hurt wrists" [jwz.org]
• Typing Injury FAQ [tifaq.org]
• Stretchin g Exercises [shelterpub.com]
• Posture, Movement and Ergonomics [ergonomics.org]

-- .sig --

Fire extinguisher knock

"and they seem to be unaware that the name Unix might be inappropriate if you are marketing a reliable and fail (and fool) proof device."

Oh, man! I think that's a fine name for a reliable fire extinguisher... A lot better than Microsoft Extinguish©, v1.0!!

;)

Atchoo!

Now who's gonna sue who? Apple sue Kleenex or vice versa?

That's pretty funny, that picture. I kinda thought it looked like one myself when they came out. LOL!