[Face of a woman] Afraid you'll be single forever? Learn the "Secret Psychology" to getting a man hooked for good (Read More)

I say: Marketing FAIL!

This little video is awesome in my opinion:

Prey Alone

I was recently posting in the thread "Good Enough" Computers Are the Future , which was a funny (really tongue in the cheeck) article about how computers are good enough these days. As you undoubtly know, I am adherent of that premise. For normal office work, a well installed older computer (think P-IV class with 512Meg RAM) is more than sufficient. (Given that the OS is correctly installed)

So, evidently people like me voice their opion. Fellow people that refurbish old machines for the fun of it. Go and read this comment. A guy takes out an older machine from his basement, fixes it, and bang free computer. Fun, instructive and useful.... Yet there is always someone going to point out that for 300$ you get a new computer. Well, yes, of course you do, but that was not the point and 300$ isn't peanuts in the first place. I told him so and then I get the reply that time=money and that he could have worked and earned money instead (resulting in a, presumably, net profit)

I don't get these people. They either live in a world where everyone is paid by the hour or everyone is self-employed. That's utterly deluded. A salaried person can work 14h/day or 8h/day and will get paid the same. Also, for the hourly wage-worker: if your boss says "it's over for today", it's over for today... no more work. The self-employed person hasn't gotten it any better. He has clients and the client most likely doesn't want you at the office between 20h00 and 6h00.

Plus, those kind of people completely disregard the fact that some people find this fun. Fun is worth more than any payment you get. I'd rather fiddle with old computers and have fun, than programming a boring business application (and believe me, I've done just that the last 10 years) for hours in a row.

I admit, it is true that if I count in the hours that the refurbished dumpster-diven computers have cost me, those are extremely expensive machines. But I don't.... Just like the guy that goes cycling for fun, doesn't count his hours on the bike.

A final remark: these days, you're more likely to find halfway quality components in a computer from the dumpster than a 300$ special from the retailer... but that's a whole other story...

Not that the achievements are anything unknown. I submitted a story (Robotic Penguins) because I thought it fit here. What I got was both "Submitted a Story That Was Posted" and "The Maker".

What the first one means is obvious. My story got accepted. What the second means still remains mysterious... Now, since I didn't post in that story (I was sleeping), it can't be related to that. What it might mean, is that it was posted on the full frontpage instead on a subsection. I don't know. What is clear, is that both are intimately related.

Screenshot of my "Achievement" messages.

After The Crisis: A Parody of 15 Corporate Logos

Found via Neatorama.com

I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church. -- Thomas Paine

Absolutely insightful! How far has the US strolled from it's enlightened founding fathers...

Source using an iGoogle Gadget.

Sometimes I enjoy looking a bit around in my Apache server logs. It's a low-volume machine on a DSL line doesn't see much traffic in the first place.

Out of pure curiosity, I sometimes do a nslookup on the IP addresses. (I'm too lazy to install a traffic analyser, but if you know a good one that is easy to use feel free to make suggestions)

I found this gem:

root@mako:~# nslookup 65.113.40.1
Server: 127.0.0.1
Address: 127.0.0.1#53

Non-authoritative answer:
1.40.113.65.in-addr.arpa name = little-black-box.vmware.com.

Authoritative answers can be found from:
40.113.65.in-addr.arpa nameserver = ns4.vmware.com.
40.113.65.in-addr.arpa nameserver = ns1.vmware.com.
40.113.65.in-addr.arpa nameserver = ns3.vmware.com.
ns3.vmware.com internet address = 65.113.40.2
ns4.vmware.com internet address = 65.113.40.4

root@mako:~#

Cool name for (probably) the gateway server at vmware. (Before you flame me that I put IP addresses in clear text, think that if I simply would have said the name of the server, you could easily look the address up, so protecting it makes no sense)

Shepherds don't look after sheep because they love them -- although I do think some shepherds like their sheep too much. They look after their sheep so they can, first, fleece them and second, turn them into meat. That's much more like the priesthood as I know it. -- Christopher Hitchens

Now that is insightful and hilarious at the same time!