I got a little hot under the collar reading about these "intelligent design" people trying to shove their back-door creationism "theory" into the mainstream scientific discourse, and went off on a bit of a rant about it, even making a completely incorrect literary reference, and when I tried to reply to my own post making a joke about it, I got a message telling me my posting is temporarily disabled! I didn't even know that they did that. Funny thing, too, my ranting post was actually 20% Tro

Oh, man, two bad posts in a row... one modded Flamebait and one modded Troll. I guess I'd better start thinking a bit more before I hit the Submit button. Kind of reminds me of being a kid and saying something I thought was really funny or insightful, only to have everyone around me stare at me wide-eyed, mouths agape, unable to believe that I'd just said something so utterly awful. I'm a nice guy, really! Everyone around me just loves me to death. Or do they?

Sometimes an image comes to mind when I think about big issues like corporate giants battling over patents.

When I was reading about the battle over the JPEG patent issues, what came to mind was an image of the USPTO being a tiny ice cream truck that drives slowly around suburban neighborhoods handing out weapons-grade plutonium.

A while ago I came across the "Parable of The 10th Man," which was quoted in its entirety in a William F. Buckley column, and has appeared in numerous conservative blogs and columns all over the web.

I'm not going to recount it here. Just search for "The 10th Man" and maybe throw in the word "parable," and you'll find it easily enough.

Please go read the parable before you read the rest of this, if you haven't read it before.

I had previously written about being jacked up by OfficeMax, but now they have a new rebate system that prints the form for each item onto a rebate receipt, eliminating the need for sending in more than just one sheet of paper and the UPC.

The website at youmaybenext.com, which chronicled the struggle of a group of medium-sized e-commerce companies against PanIP's claims of patent infringement, now states that the group has settled the whole thing.

The message board and all the pages within the site are now gone, and there's only one single page that briefly outlines what happened.

I feel flattered that people have developed strong enough feelings about what I write that they would bother to switch their relationship with me from Neutral to Foe.

Interestingly, out of curiousity I took a look at how the comments of a recent "Foe" were moderated, compared to my own comments.

It can happen to you
It can happen to me
It can happen to everyone eventually

You know those commercials with the old lady talking with the voice of the guy who stole her identity? Well, that commercial has a special meaning for me now.

Imagine me talking in the voice of some guy in the Philippines who's walking around buying gas and, apparently, noodles, with my Visa debit card number.

Finally picked up my first Slashdot 'foe' today.

I never thought anyone would take such umbrage at a post of mine that he or she would set their relationship with me to 'foe,' but it's happened.

Apparently this person is annoyed that I quoted a bumper sticker that was printed and sold in response to another bumper sticker, and that they both had to do with guns.

Think that Janet Jackson boob-out at the end of that crappy half-time show was an accident?

Take a look at Jay Donaldson's page at CampChaos.com and click on "Britney, Britney, Britney."

Note the date that the webtoon was unveiled... back in 2000!

Is this an example of life imitating animated webtoon art?

There's a user on this system who shall remain nameless (but among my comments is the text below in reply to his comment) who uses a signature that I believe underscores the right-wing mentality when it comes to getting one's facts straight, which is, precisely, that actual facts don't matter.

I've gotten over my initial irritation at hearing about the iPod going to 15gb just weeks after I got mine for Christmas.

I'm happy with the iPod... ecstatic, really.

Now the g/f is thinking about buying one, and she has a PC! She doesn't even have a Mac and she'll have a better iPod than me, and can get hers engraved, to boot!

Oh, well.

After getting my beloved 10gb iPod for Christmas, I find out that I could've kept it in the box for a week, taken it back to the store, and gotten a 15gb one for the same money!

Aaaarg!

I'm irritated.