Today I friended two people: ConceptJunkie for referencing Ankh-Morpork, and leonbrooks for referencing Nisodemus from Diggers.

I just finished most of his catalog and need more!

That, and the old saying "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

But I'm more interested in what they're saying; if they're bigots or technophobes/luddites or humorless, or if they're just trying out the interface and freaking by accident, or if they're just like me and spend just a couple hours a day and want to see good stuff during that short time. Although I tend toward the carrot more than the stick: I have zero foes, but many friends. And everyone who fans me becomes my friend. It may take a while as I don't check it daily, more like monthly. But when I do, I bring everyone in so I can see what they're saying. I keep my threshhold at 3, but I +1 Funny and some other stuff so if you're making a joke, chances are I'll see it.

At any rate, shouts out to my freaks and hopefully I can turn you into fans! And if not, it's all good anyway. This is the Internet! ;-)

My new sig states "Bunch of Assholes" which is a link to http://www.sco.com. The idea behind this (the post I responded to) was that Google spiders Slashdot, and ranks based on how many pages link to a certain site (PageRank), so the more people who link the phrase "Bunch of Assholes" to SCO, the quicker it'll bubble up in the search ranks and turn up when someone searches for "Bunch of Assholes."

At the time I posted it, SCO was nowhere on the first page of search results (searching with quotes or without). They still aren't, but it's only been a couple days. Won't you join me? (Post a reply if you do.)

Thanks to the 120-char limit, I had to shrink my original .sig but it still makes some sense (Homer's insights are great). Hope this new year's better for you than the last year, especially if you're in IT (I'm working and haven't been for over a year -- woohoo!).

There is a service which purports to eliminate your debt because banks are violating Federal regulations when they issue credit cards. The sales pitch states that all you have to do is write a letter asking them to clarify their compliance with these laws, and they have 90 days to answer or your debt is eliminated.

They then said most banks will write back without answering the inquiry, stating that "you signed the forms, you owe us the money" but they didn't answer the actual question, so you write another letter asking them to clarify and they have an additional 90 days.

They state that you will become debt-free in 6-10 months, and that they've helped 20,000 people do this in the past 5 years. The cost is $2,995 for $40k of debt, and $995 for each $30k of debt above that (so to eliminate $130k of debt, it would cost $995 x 3 + $2995 = $5,980).

This is not a small amount of money, and although they have a money-back guarantee (which they said nobody has ever taken them up on, i.e. they have 100% satisfied customers), I am very skeptical and would like to know if anyone has heard of this, used it, or knows definitely that it's a scam.

They have a few websites with more information: a sparsely-detailed site, a site with more details and links, and a link to the parent company.

I am seriously considering bankruptcy (as I'm sure many of us are after the dot-com crash), and if this "too-good-to-be-true" process actually works then it'll save my credit from being torn to shreds. (They'll also help you fix your credit when you're done.)

Fox put this great show in a terrible spot and pre-empted it with the end of football games. Any wonder it's going away? The article is here and the fan club page is here.

Subject: Humor: "KILLKILLKILL -- The SCO Group"

The Scoop: I was reading news at Excite and saw this article in relation to SCOX: "KILLKILLKILL -- The SCO Group".

The article is actually a note for PRNewswire to disregard the earlier article about SCO's acquisition of Vultus Technology, but the headline gave me a good chuckle.

Dude, I'm getting a cell!

The "Dell Dude" was caught with a misdemeanor's amount of marijuana on him.

In related news, Hank Azaria (as Apu) said "420!" last night on "Inside the Actor's Studio" with the Simpsons.

I haven't used the Friend/Foe system at all, so I don't know what to do about it. And I've never used the Journal system either; this is my first entry.

That's all.