from the MacBook-64 department
Intel hurried the ship dates for all three of the Core2 CPUs and there isn't a single word about it. I didn't find out until I saw it in the ArsTechnica sidebar.
What is this world coming to? You ought to be able to rely on Zonk and the other Mac-otaku to mention this stuff. I'm serious.
Oh damn, did I f*ck up. My dear old Yahoo account is gone.
Way back in the previous millennium, I was pondering the impermanence of college-based email accounts and decided it was finally time to get a free webmail as backup. My college email actually did survive, but that was only due to unforseeable luck and a bit of mild trickery.
Hotmail was supposedly a good service back in the pre-MS era, but I vetoed them for the amount of spam sent by Hotmail throwaways. In fact, my procmail filter was set to auto-reflect anything containing the string hotmail back to their admin addresses... including admin auto-replies. My judo proved to be such a hassle for them that Hotmail's chief techie took the time to contact my postmaster and ask him to ask me to stop. But I digress.
According to many reviews, the very best was Rocketmail. Unfortunately I waited a few months too long, and RM was bought by Yahoo before I opened an account. But I liked Yahoo anyways (having used them since the Akebono days) and signed up.
So for the past 8 years, I've been using Yahoo mail (and later Geocities). And for the past 8 years, I've been storing the same password -- weak, short, all-alpha. On monday I finally decided it was time to secure it. I chose a slight variation of my wetware password algorithm. At the time the new variant seemed perfectly memorable. Turns out it wasn't. D'oh!
Then came the perfect storm. Firefox didn't record the password change, so it was totally lost. Furthermore, I hadn't updated my Yahoo profile for an unknown number of years, and I was unable to guess my own birthday, zip code, and/or secret question. D'oh! D'oh! D'oh!
I wrote to Yahoo customer service for help; they have so far declined to respond. Which led me to spending an hour this morning rooting through cookies and stored passwords for the dozens of sites (Slashdot, iTunes, Paypal, etc) registered under my Yahoo address and changing them to my other emails instead. Argh.
I kinda needed to consolidate my online presence anyways, but this was not the optimal way to do it.
Jumping Jebus on a pogo stick, am I pissed at those whoresons in Redmond. Their freaking craptacular browser STILL doesn't support HTML4 character entities that were officially standardized NINE years ago, which means I can't use entities in our online math tests. Instead we'll have stupid little image files scattered through the text.
And I'm not even talking about obscure stuff. This is just common high-school math like ≠ (not equals), ≅ (congruent), and ∅ (null).
Grr... </vent>
Do you believe that increasing our majority in the Senate is vital to advancing President Bush's proposals for America?
Well, yes, that claim is undeniably true. However, if you had asked me if I think doing so is a good idea, you'd get a much different answer.
I quickly filled it out and mailed it back, with the same returned check from the previous 2 surveys. Then yesterday I got another letter from RNSC, but not a rejection this time. Instead it was yet another RNSC survey, now with a Bill Frist cover letter. Similar format to the previous one but with a different variation of questions. It's in the mail this morning, with both my figurative and literal two cents worth.
As always, I support reducing the federal budget and reforming public education, while I oppose the marriage amendment and pretty much all of Bush's military proposals. And once again, the money shot:
(*) YES, I will support the RNSC with my contribution of:
( )$250, ( )$100, ( )$25, (*)Other:__$0.02__
As long as they're willing to pay round-trip postage, I'm happy to keep playing along.
p.s. I'm also on the environmental lobby shared mailing list, after donating to the Nature Conservancy in December. The NRDC wanted me to sign their petition (and a little moolah if I wouldn't mind). Their cover letter was from RFK Jr. His invective is harsh sometimes, but on a scale of 10 == "God said, 'Earth is yours. Take it. Rape it!'" he scores maybe a 6. They got a check too, same digits as for RNSC but in a different order.
Followup: last week I received a hand-stamped envelope from the RNC. Enclosed (without comment) was my survey form and my check (uncashed). Apparently at least one person in the RNC mailroom correctly interpreted my survey response. Total cost to the RNC: labor, paper & postage for 3 mailings (survey, reply, rejection). However...
On monday I received yet another machine-stamped envelope from the RNC. Enclosed was
p.s. Back on Valentine's Day I got a fundraising call from the DNCC. I had a grand time haranguing the guy over the Dems' spinelessness. No donation for you, not even 2 cents.
March 9, Followup to the followup: I received a 4th letter from the RNC yesterday, returning my second survey same as above. Will they go for the trifecta? To be continued...
You are among a select group of Republicans who have been chosen to take part in the official CENSUS OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.
Enclosed is your new GOP CENSUS DOCUMENT which was assigned and prepared especially for you as a representative of all Republicans living in your voting district.
In other words, sweeeeet. And this is less than a year after my previous census, so apparently they didn't run screaming to the database and delete me as I expected.
A few highlights: I don't mind air strikes, but generally oppose Bush's "security" policy. I agree that Congress should reduce spending, but I don't mind the Death Tax(tm). Yes, students, teachers, principals and administrators should be held to higher standards (I also hold census question writers to high standards, and this one should be fired). I oppose federal abortion laws (pro or con), the Marriage amendment, and the Bush retirement plan. We should work with the UN, and quit blowing money on star wars defense.
Last but not least:
(X) Yes, I support the RNC and am enclosing my most generous contribution of:
( )$500 ( )$100 ( )$25 (X)Other: $_0.02__
Yep, I'm a certified RNC donor & member. I hope to do a vanity search for myself on http://opensecrets.org in the near future.
Thanks in advance. If no one here can answer, I'll try MacOSXHints.com, Usenet CSM*, maybe discussions.apple.com. Or your suggestions for a better Mac help site?
(2005) Here's the latest bout of hilarity from the same folks who told us that feminists were to blame for the 9/11 attacks, just perfect for roasting on an open fire...
Jerry Falwell's "Liberty Council" has declared that you're either with him or against him, and any store who greets customers with "Happy Holidays" is an enemy. Apparently millions of traitors are secretly conspiring to eliminate Christmas trees, which inevitably leads to euthanasia and gay marriage. That makes perfect sense, doesn't it?
Interestingly, both history and the Bible almost agree with Jerry: ALL Christmas trees are a pagan plot.
Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
The custom of evergreen decorations began with wreaths for the roman Saturnalia, a drunken orgy on December 25th. Pope Julius I shrewdly moved the birthday of Jesus to the same day so that roman converts could continue to hold their winter parties.
A bit to the north, Germanic pagans had a similar ornament tradition. They would hang slaves on pine trees as sacrifices to the gods for their 12 days of Yule.
Meanwhile, although good old Santa Claus bears a small resemblance to the byzantine Saint Nicholas, he actually has a lot more in common with Norse mythology. The god Odin would travel the world during Yuletide on his flying eight-legged horse Sleipnir. If good viking children put a boot by the chimney with hay or carrots in it, Sleipnir would land on the roof to eat, and Odin refilled the boot with candy.
By the way, the real St Nick didn't ride a sleigh at Xmastime. He was known for trying to stop executions and for paying the dowries of three girls so their poor father wouldn't sell them to a brothel.
Hmm... it seems like this holiday that Jerry is fighting mad to defend, really isn't about Christianity to begin with. So where do we go from here? What should we do on Christmas?
In the spirit of holiday cheer, I have the perfect gift suggestion for that special missionary on your list. They should have a subscription to Playboy magazine, honoring their second-favorite pagan ritual! Surely they must know that the springtime festivals of both Eostre (sexy Teutonic goddess of fertility) and Ishtar (sexy Babylonian goddess of fertility) were celebrated with bunnies and eggs.
You might need to help connect the dots for them, but after they figure it out I'm sure they'll thank you. With a gift of Playboy, you'll make their holidays truly "conservative" by going back to original meanings. That makes perfect sense, doesn't it?
On the other hand, reviving their interest in orgies or blood sacrifice probably isn't such a good idea. Instead it might be better to follow a few simple words of wisdom:
"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store."
"Maybe Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more!"
Please pass this festive blessing along. Happy Holidays to all!
Yeah, I know everyone has already written about this. It still bugs me enough to do it again myself.
The largest damage done by ID is not that some kids in Kansas will be taught some extra bits of nonsense, it's that in order to accomplish this goal they explicitly redefined the word "science". ID is not science: it makes no predictions, it offers no verification. So the Kansas board of ed simply removed such requirements from their science curriculum. ANY explanation of how the world works, testable or not, may now be claimed as science. Arrr!
FWIW, ID is undeniably tautologous to Creationism. ID tries to dodge the God question by saying no one knows who created humans (et al). They say it could have been aliens or robots or some such. That argument is annihilated with one simple reply: Who designed THEM? How did they come to be? Were they created by God? Or did they
But then we have the redefinition. You can't trap ID in an argument like that. Logical reasoning is irrelevant, just like the reality-based community that believes in it.
Someday, the (re-)United States will look back on this era of willful ignorance with sadness and ridicule. Personally, I doubt it will come in my lifetime, but I dearly hope (yes, to God) that my children will live to see it.
Tom Magliozzi had a nice big rant on Car Talk this weekend, which finally inspired me to upload my SUVs Suck list.
Share and enjoy!
Why can't I live a life for me?
Why should I take the abuse that's served?
Why can't they see they're just like me?
I'm not the one that's so absurd!
As expected, the local "alternative rock" station (thankfully not a national franchise clone) played my long-ago teenage anthem a bunch this past week. Aside from reminding me that the iTunes gift certificate I received a couple Xmases ago is about to expire, it reminded me about the sadness of wasted youth. My own of course, but also my archetypal distant cousins, the Columbine killers.
Last week I reminisced about high school with some co-workers. I described my trenchcoat nerd clan, and one of our writers immediately piped up "Were you into Skinny Puppy?" Why yes I was, them and most of Wax Trax. Hmm...I think I figured out what to buy from ITMS.
How many fellow
Does your company copy software illegally?
Illegal copying is software piracy and it's against the law.
Report Software Piracy Today
Yes folks, a pay-per-click advert from our pals at the BSA. Click the link, you take some of their money and give it to Slashdot. It's an easy twofer! Caveat: for maximum effect you should manually increment the timestamp slightly, otherwise the ad server might detect it as a clickbot.
I still think it's a front-page-worthy submission, or at least YRO section. Yes/no?
Addendum: turns out it really is front page
It's very little and very late, but yesterday we, the people, scored two points for the Good Guys(tm). Judge John C Coughenour (appointed by Ronald Reagan) sentenced Ahmed Ressam to 22 years in prison for trying to sneak a bomb into the USA in December 1999. Here's the money quote:
"Okay. Let me say a few things. First of all, it will come as no surprise to anybody that this sentencing is one that I have struggled with a great deal, more than any other sentencing that I've had in the 24 years I've been on the bench.
"I've done my very best to arrive at a period of confinement that appropriately recognizes the severity of the intended offense, but also recognizes the practicalities of the parties' positions before trial and the cooperation of Mr. Ressam, even though it did terminate prematurely.
"The message I would hope to convey in today's sentencing is twofold:
"First, that we have the resolve in this country to deal with the subject of terrorism and people who engage in it should be prepared to sacrifice a major portion of their life in confinement.
"Secondly, though, I would like to convey the message that our system works. We did not need to use a secret military tribunal, or detain the defendant indefinitely as an enemy combatant, or deny him the right to counsel, or invoke any proceedings beyond those guaranteed by or contrary to the United States Constitution.
"I would suggest that the message to the world from today's sentencing is that our courts have not abandoned our commitment to the ideals that set our nation apart. We can deal with the threats to our national security without denying the accused fundamental constitutional protections.
"Despite the fact that Mr. Ressam is not an American citizen and despite the fact that he entered this country intent upon killing American citizens, he received an effective, vigorous defense, and the opportunity to have his guilt or innocence determined by a jury of 12 ordinary citizens.
"Most importantly, all of this occurred in the sunlight of a public trial. There were no secret proceedings, no indefinite detention, no denial of counsel.
"The tragedy of September 11th shook our sense of security and made us realize that we, too, are vulnerable to acts of terrorism.
"Unfortunately, some believe that this threat renders our Constitution obsolete. This is a Constitution for which men and women have died and continue to die and which has made us a model among nations. If that view is allowed to prevail, the terrorists will have won.
"It is my sworn duty, and as long as there is breath in my body I'll perform it, to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. We will be in recess."
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." -- Albert Einstein
