Recently in Miscellaneous Category

Blizzard is doing the beta for World of Warcraft. As excited as I am about it, I'm more excited for their next console release: StarCraft: Ghost, which supposedly ships on June 10th.

Over at Design Observer, an article by Michale McDonough entitled "The Top 10 Things They Never Taught Me in Design School" grabbed my attention and still hasn't let it go. Stir in Pilgrim's "Most Valuable Asset" and if your thoughts aren't provoked into a whirling galaxy of contemplation then maybe you're just not as big a dork as me.

Over at Slate, there's an article about the science behind Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The article is enjoyable reading if you saw and liked the movie. I saw it last weekend and loved it. I'm going to try to write a review of it.

Blogmedic got a new domain and a flashy new MT install. Go Andy, go Andy, go Andy, it's your birthday...

I can think of worse things than pretty girls...

Hey... ::tap tap:: is this thing on?

It's been a while, but I've been in a funk lately. I'm going to try to ease back into this starting off with a quick summary of some things I think are noteworthy:

FireFox, formerly Mozilla Firebird. Check it out.

Ben Hammersley: That's nothing, here they call fruit salad 'Macedonia'.

For future reference: Sour Bob, Q & A With Bob. I have to repeat: Bob rules. His style makes his writing enthralling. If you're not checking out his work, you should be.

Dell Linux Blog.

Cossette: You think I'm joking? With the way the teams is looking this year, I'm going to start wearing a surgeon's mask and bathing in germicide.

I tried to make James' cinnamon rolls. They turned out way better than the bagels I attempted a while back. These were actually edible. Thanks for the recipe, James.

Check out the new Daily Flight Design Magazine

This site currently looks like trash in IE. Sorry about that. I'll see what I can do.

Sitting between two boys was an elderly man. The boys were discussing their CD collections, a tough looking black kid on one side, and an equally rough looking white kind on the other. Back and forth they went. The boy to the left was turned in his seat to face the other, the man was facing the aisle, his head rotating side to side as he tried to keep up with the conversation.

"You got that shit?"
"Yeah, I got every one of them. They hot."
"They hittin'? How bout that new stuff, that shit any good?"
"Yeah. You got my cell? Hit me lata tonight, I'll read'em off to you. I got the new Rza, all of 'em, I got all that shit."

The elderly man was confused, as if right there, in his presence a drug deal was going down. His head swiveled as if he was trying to determine whether or not he was on the subway or sitting in the middle of a sitcom set.

I looked at the man and started to laugh, the fact that he had no idea what was going on striking me as being quite humorous. He saw me and smiled back as if to admit his inability to comprehend what was going on.

This whole thing called life is a little strange, no? Art, likes and dislikes, age differences, past experience, current environment… They all have a profound affect on us everyday through how we live and the people we interact with. Welcome to a New Year, friend.

Recently I came across a bagel recipe linked by Dean at Textism. I always read Dean's recipes with curiosity, as he seems to be a food connoisseur. This time I thought "that can't be so hard. I'll try it myself."

My problems started at the grocery store where I couldn't find potato flour or malt syrup. Once I started work on the recipe, they continued when my first attempt at yeast growing failed (note to self: lukewarm means hot, not a little better than room temperature).

Finally getting a dough that rose, I thought I was on the right track. When I went to separate it into bagel size pieces however, it flattened right out. No problem, the recipe says let it rise for fifteen more minutes, so I thought I'd be ok.

I started poaching the bagels, however they kept reminding me of the bald rodent in Kimpossible. Not looking so good. I brushed them with egg, threw on some sesame seeds, and popped them in the oven.

Now two side notes. 1) When the last five things you've cooked in the oven have come out slightly more cooked than you expected (read burnt) maybe the problem isn't you. Maybe when the oven says 400, it means fires of hell. 2) When the recipe takes you to almost eleven at night and number one occurs, removing the smoke detectors will help keep your neighbors (who go to bed at 8) from slashing your tires the next morning.

As you might be able to guess, my bagels ended up burnt and my smoke detectors were blaring. To make matters worse they didn't look like bagels, they looked like pretzels.

The moral of the story here is that not only is Dean a PHP genius, but he also must have some Julia Child in him. Me? I'll stay out of the kitchen from now on.

Anatomy of Cross Site Scripting. I haven't read this yet (it got slashdotted and I couldn't get to it), but it looks to be interesting.

The first Jedi was reported in Star Wars Galaxies. I've never really gotten into the MMORPG games, however the new Final Fantasy and the Star Wars Galaxies are definitely piquing my curiousity. I may just have to try it out.

I had a chance to read an article at the Harvard Business Review entitled "Contextual Marketing: The Real Business of the Internet". It's pretty good. From the search result page:

The painful truth is that the Internet has been a letdown for most companies--largely because the dominant model for Internet commerce, the destination Web site, doesn't suit the needs of those companies or their customers. Most consumer product companies don't provide enough value or dynamic information to induce customers to make the repeat visits--and disclose the detailed information--that make such sites profitable. Instead of trying to create destinations that people will come to, companies need to use the power and reach of the Internet to deliver tailored messages and information to customers. Companies have to become what the authors call "contextual marketers." Delivering the most relevant information possible to consumers in the most timely manner possible will become feasible, the authors say, as access moves beyond the PC to shopping malls, retail stores, airports, bus stations, and even cars. The authors describe how the ubiquitous Internet will hasten the demise of the destination Web site--and open up scads of opportunities to reach customers through marketing "mobilemediaries," such as smart cards, e-wallets, and bar code scanners.

If you have a chance to read the whole article (for instance if you can request it from the library), check it out. It's interesting and thought provoking. I hope to have more to say on this shortly.

Did I tell you I got a fish tank? I don't think I did. Let me tell you about it.

When you start a freshwater aquarium with tropical fish, you need some equipment. In my case the tank, hood, filter, and heater were given to me by a family member who recently upgraded to a ten gallon tank. That meant I needed enough tank decorations to fill my new little five gallon apartment addition.

I bought white stones and some fake plants as well as some black granite rocks about the size of my fist with white and gold veins. I read that they might cause a problem because the gold was some type of metal and it would rust in the tank, but I didn't pay too much attention. I also bought a small air-pump and an aerator which I placed under the gravel.

After running the tank for three days to make sure everything was working properly I made my first attempt at purchasing fish. I bought three tiger barbs and a swordtail. After having the swordtail for a few days I decided it needed a friend, so I bought another. Now there are two things to know about new aquariums: one, you should have one inch of fish length per gallon of water and two, a tank "cycles" when you first set it up. During the cycling period, bacteria build up in the water forming what's known as a biological filter. This bio-filter is what breaks down fish waste as well as the bi-products of that process. Without it, your tank will need constant cleaning and your fish will have short life spans. With it you'll need less chemicals, fewer water changes, and your fish will live happier lives.

Shortly after being added to the tank, the second swordtail started growing fungus on its mouth. This is called cotton-mouth and requires treatment. The medicine I added to the tank turned the water neon green (think anti-freeze). To this day, the air-pump hose is stained green. In any case, the fish slowly started to get better, I eventually added more activated carbon to the tank to remove the green color, and after having the water checked at the local fish store thought everything was good. I was wrong.

The second swordtail died shortly after I finished its treatment. I purchased another one that ended up dying the same night. At this point I figured the first swordtail wasn't meant to have a friend. Within a week though the remaining swordtail began developing suicidal tendencies. I'd hear splashing noises and look in the tank to see the fish shoot out of the filter stream. He was jumping up it like a salmon spawning. Bad news.

After a few "upstream" trips the fish had managed to mangle his fins to the point where swimming was tough. He passed away a short while after.

Lets return to the tiger barbs. They seemed to be doing well, swimming around and enjoying life. More water checks at the fish store showed that the tank was mid-cycle and doing well. Good signs. I had read online that tiger barbs can be aggressive and mean. I hadn't noticed that. Yet.

Within a week of being the only fish in the tank, two of the tiger barbs began attacking the third. The tore his dorsal fin almost completely off, ate most of his tail fin, and chewed up his other fins. I added some stress coat to the tank to help strengthen him, but the other fish kept up their attacks. I tried removing one from the tank, but upon introducing it back the first thing it would do is take a bite out of the injured fish. I started to get more and more upset. Finally after a long time of watching the poor fish get picked on I got fed up and gave one of the aggressive tiger barbs a ride down the neverending porcelain whirlpool. Within hours the second tiger barb began attacking the injured fish all by itself. It went for a trip of its own. I was down to one fish.

To start the rebuilding effort, I bought a little cat fish. He was and still is my favorite. He pokes around munching things that fall to the bottom, minding his own business and sleeping a lot. My kind of guy. The remaining tiger brab started to grow back his fins. To fill the place up I bought three leopard spotted danios. They're very fast and animated. Fun to watch.

Things had been going well for a while and then two weeks ago I noticed a brown slime start to take over. It got worse and worse until I finally had to take the tank apart and clean everything. I replaced the metal veined rocks with a fake plastic log and added some more fake vegitation. Very traumatizing for the fish, but the tank is much cleaner and the inhabitants look happier.

That's my fish story. Right now I everything seems to be going well. The fish come to the top of the tank to see me when I feed them and they swim back and forth for me to watch. The tank building process has been complicated, but quite rewarding. I'd recommend it. Hell, maybe I'll even upgrade soon, and you can have my five!

Well hello there. It seems like it's been a while, eh? It hasn't really, but sometimes when you're really busy the time seems to slow right down, dragging out and turning days into millenia, weeks into aeons. I've been storing some things up for you. Let me share them with you now.

• Susan Mernit posts a portion of an article about the coming search wars between Micrsoft and Google. In a world of too much information, the search engine is our floation device. For a search junkie like me, this is interesting stuff.
• The WonderChicken is back, "I learned an important lesson about living in Korea today, and I learned it at the point of a gun, which may just make it stick for a while, for a change." It's a long, rambling post that goes here, wanders there, and finally rolls around back for the finish. Exactly the reason I started reading the old 'bottle to begin with. Welcome back man. Again. Hopefully this time we'll get to have your company for a little longer.
• James talks about the Sox, Kerry, and Dean. I have a few things to say: 1) The reason you love the Sox? Check this out and see if it rings true for you. It did for me. A quote: "Growing up in New England taught me that [baseball's] true value lies in the bonding it promotes among otherwise disparate fans, and in the connective tissue it builds, game after game, season after season, within the region it symbolizes and represents." 2)I went to a Dean rally yesterday. People had signs that said "Red Sox 03, Dean 04". I'm sorry, but what does your favorite team have to do with your ability to be President? Kerry should get back to work doing the job the MA people elected him for, at least for a few more months. As for Dean, my mind isn't made up about him yet. I'm glad I have over a year left to choose.
• Jason Kottke links to an article about pirate radio in London. It's interesting how the broadcasters use technology, including texting and voicemail on their cellphones. Great article.
• Joe Clark on weblogs and ISSN numbers. I mentioned that I wanted to apply for one, but as of yet have not filled out the application. Must move this higher on the to do list.
• ALA is getting a redesign. But you knew that. Right?

• Over the last couple of days, Zeldman has made some excellent posts, reminding me why I thought he was so great to begin with. With superb writing, excellent insight, and great links if you haven't been stopping by regulary, go and read of it.
• An interesting piece summarizing "The Future of Database Research" as determined by some of the industry thinkers. Includes a link to a pdf report from the meeting. If you dig data, check it out.
• Some information regarding a variation on the scrambled letters meme. David was studying the progressions of memes through the blogosphere and released several variations of the quoted text so he could track them. Quite interesting.

sylloge: Water Under Ground

This post by Stuart over at sylloge has illustrations of the systems beneath New York City. The scale illustration at the National Geographic site is very interesting.

Couple of odds and ends for you. Ryan sent me a favicon. Thanks man! Check out Ryan's site, it's pretty excellent. For starters, read this post.

In other news, Mozillazine has reached 5 years old. I've been reading the old lizard zine for probably close to five years, and it's been a great ride, from clunky milestones to usable browser, the guys there have been with Mozilla right along. Congratulations and keep up the good work!

My post about finding your voice and that of your blog has been received pretty well, leading to some new blogs showing up in the referrer log. I've added some of them to my daily reading list. Many of them have come from Linkpool. Check it out.

In other news, I wrote a few posts about the Red Sox for another blog I was going to start, and then had the hosting outage. In the meantime, those posts have gotten a decent amount of traffic. If you happen to be looking for more Red Sox posts, I hope to have a few in there soon. Keep your eye on the ball.

The redesign has also been well recieved. Thanks for the great feedback and comments from everyone who's written both in email and in the comments. I'll try to flesh out the templates and work in the suggestions and advice.

In relation to my sharing knowledge post earlier this week, John Gruber of Daring Fireball talks about helping family and friends pick a computer. Like all of Gruber's work, its an interesting and worth-while read.

Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Encyclopedia, Dictionary, Thesaurus and hundreds more

"And so, Bartleby.com—after the humble character of its namesake scrivener, or copyist—publishes the classics of literature, nonfiction, and reference free of charge for the home, classroom, and desktop of each and every Internet participant."

• Ovidiu has some information regarding the theory that the power outage may have been caused by terrorists. Fox news sources say "Sabotage Cannot Be Ruled Out in Blackout".
• Via Modulo26 I learned about BlogStakes. You could win stuff. Check it out.
• Kevin Millar about having to love the Sox in order to encourage them to win. I believe him and I've stopped talking about wild card positions, I want that damn penant. Bring it Here!

• George Bush has an action figure. Bet that makes him giggle as he falls asleep at night...
• When all you do is make PowerPoints day in and day out, it's easy to run into creative road blocks. Modulo 26 has some excellent ways to break on through.
• Zeldman points to Joe Clark's write up on ISSN numbers. For some reason I thought there was a mandatory fee, but now that I realize there's not, I'll be printing out that application and filling it out.
• Via Asa comes a link to Jesse Ruderman regarding Chrome URLs in Mozilla and Firebird. This allows for neat tricks, such as loading the javascript console into a tab. You do know how to access the javascript console by default, right? Type javascript: into the location bar and hit enter. Only works in Gecko based browsers and NN as far as I know.
• Heh. I know Cory was a goose fan. To punish Cory for his lack of posting, go by his site and post a comment. First one to do it will make the majority of his page disappear.
• Over at Penny-Arcade, there's a discussion about video games and their effects on little kids driven by a recent politcal cartoon claiming that video games turns kids into monsters. I completely agree with Gabe and Tycho. Bad parenting is the problem, not video games. Make sure to read their posts. Definitely worth it.

• Kottke talks about Googlettes. It's an interesting idea, one with many possibilities. I almost wonder if the buyout of Pyra isn't considered by Google insiders to be a prototype Googlette. Having smaller subsidary type businesses driving the market for the mother company's offerings is a great way to make sure that other people can't grab all of your market share. At the same time, using the mother company's clout and resources to give the smaller ogranizations a leg up on the competition is quite powerful too. All of this goes to show that Google has some very smart and innovative people working for them, and the purchase of Pyra is and was just one of a number of things to keep an eye on.
• Dan Gillmor about Howard Dean's use of the web as a means to organize support for his campaign. An interesting read. If you're not already keeping an eye on Dean, you should be as he's quickly shaping up as a candidate who's going to rock the boat in the upcoming elections.
• Another post by Dave about how Mark Pilgrim is a mean spirited bully. The phrase "It takes one to know one comes to mind" but who am I to criticize without knowing the whole story. All I can say is that from my vantage point, all of this squablling and name calling sheds a very immature and infantile light on weblogs and their supporting technologies. Maybe that's why other vendors aren't showing public involvement. All of the childish squablling is turning their stomachs. Dave, you may have some good points, but my mom always told me that at some point you need to stop keeping score. It seems like you want to take your marbles and go play somewhere else, but at the same time you just can't bring yourself to leave.
• The digital portfolio of Greg Apodaca. Found via Caterina. As Caterina said, the guy is good. He shows digital photos before and after he touched them up. In some cases, things look nothing like they did when he started. Digital imaging: making shit look less shitty.
• Software millionaires spare pro bowling from demise: PBA's image, cash flow change with new owners. "Nowadays, the association encourages antics from bowlers such as Pete Weber, who points to his crotch after throwing a strike." I don't know what his crotch has to do with his strikes. Is this just the reporter misunderstanding the motion for 'suck it'? I'm not sure, but either way it sounds like bowling has met WWF.

So here's the poop: as of late, I ain't got much to say.

It's not that things aren't happening, they're just not very interesting things, or things I feel worthy of sharing, or things that someone else hasn't said. Anyway, here's some things:

Firebird 0.6.1 PC rocks. It's seriously awesome. Gone is the dropdown crash that made me cry, here are the new buttons that are smaller and more brightly colored. Seriously, this is the brower you should be using. Got questions? Fire away. I'm game.

Andy Gienapp is posting regularly. Again, I'd like to remind you that there are lot of things in life that we take for granted, one of them being that if we dial 911 someone will be there to help us. Read Andy's stuff. It's a sampling of the things he faces every day; it's a sampling of the things you take for granted.

Using ETags and Last-Modified dates in PHP for the purpose of aggregation is easy to do. However, what's not so easy is capturing a bunch of feeds at the same time because it causes your script to time out. I'm not wuite sure how to get around this yet. Ideas appreciated.

I refuse to believe that Jackie killed JFK. Obviously so does everyone else. That's why this guy hasn't received any rational replies. Also, I don't know where that video is from, but it's pretty graphic (wasn't the Zapruder black&white? Am I wrong or was it from the other side of the car?).

I have a theory: a team that gets blown out one night is too ashamed to let it happen again. Just go ask the Texas Rangers or Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Jerks.

My MT install is no longer pinging. I'm not sure if it's the slow response of weblogs.com or if it's because of something on the host. I hate the web.

Rat Chicken was one of the first sidebar links I put on my blog, back when I was writing my own blog software. That was a long time ago. Rat Chicken lives on, though. You can find one episode here. Rat Chicken rules.

And while I'm posting humorous nonsense, check out My Cat Hates You. "He can barely stand to look you in the eye. Because you suck."

Via James over at Aces Full of Links comes a story at CNN about rubber ducks washing up along the shores of New England.

The ducks were released from a shipping container that fell off a cargo ship in 1992 while travelling between China and Seattle. Since then they've moved North through the Bering Strait and then past Iceland.

Aside from wondering why no one tried to pick these little plastic eco-destroyers out of the ocean, this is pretty wild. I'm half tempted to drive down to the beach to look for a few of the suckers myself! Screw that geo-caching stuff; these ducks have been hidden in the ocean for years!

• Blogspot: Each post is a sentence formed from the acronym of the last word from the previous post. Like word games? Looking for some weird word combinations to use as quotes on your site? Check this out.
• It's not what you say, it's how you say it. When written in pastel colors and rounded fonts, anything can sound cheery.
• Slashdot is running a T-shirt design contest. I'd like to do something, but lately I can barely breathe on a consistent basis, nevermind come up with enough creativity to design a T-shirt. And there are all those other projects I'm supposed to be working on right now. Oh well, if you want in, here are the official rules.
• I can't get a real permalink to work, but soxnation has a post called "If you will it, then it isn't a dream..." Brian's argument is that the Patriots were so successful in their SuperBowl in large part because their fans were so supportive. When they were in a fight against a team that was tough, that last bit of toughness they needed was drawn from the support of their fans and the belief that they really could pull it off. Brian claims that if the Red Sox got this same kind of support, maybe they too could be champions. I've said this before, calling it the Tinkerbell theory. Everyone needs to clap, or Tinkerbell, or in this case the Sox, will die.
• Another corked bat parody: Sosa called to help NASA with cork insulation problem.
• Ever wanted to create an extension for Mozilla? This tutorial will teach you how.
• Looking to build you own TiVo like system? Well, if you're willing to shell out the time and the money, ExtremeTech will show you how. The pricetag is a little bit steep for me right now, but it's an interesting project.

• Blogger now works with Mozilla. Although they claim to still bounce other browsers to their low-fi interface, one would think supporting Moz would open them up to other standards compliant browsers. It will be interesting to see how all of the competition between Google owned Blogger, SixApart owned MovableType, and others such as Userland shapes up.
• Newsmonster will soon/now works with Firebird according to a post at Kevin Burton's site. This is interesting because I installed NewsMonster in Firebird the other day and it was close to working but not quite fully functional. From what I saw it was pretty good, so I'm looking forward to a fully functional Firebird extension release.
• On the day of the release for the new WarCraft expansion, four of Blizzard's top designers filed their walking papers. As a huge Blizzard fan, I can only hope that thisleads to two amazing companies: Blizzard and the one that should soon be started by these four amazing people.
• NASA was studying the ionosphere the other night by making clouds. No matter how safe they claim this to be, releasing trimethylaluminum into the atmosphere and burning it sounds a little scary to me. And I'm no Captain Planet.

I've been feeling a little out of sorts lately, so I haven't been posting much as I haven't found anything truly post worthy. However, here's some things:

I've started reading penny arcade more often. They're pretty funny, and very talented.

In the same vein, Cox and Forkum rule.

The Red Sox are breaking my heart again. Damn you Theo! Damn you! (and you too, Pedro!)

The other night I saw the Ducks win they're first game of the series in overtime. It was amazing. It hooked me. Last night I watched again, and was rewarded with a similar ending and a tied series. Do they script this stuff in order to attract viewers? If Seacrest shows up on the ice, I swear I'll kill someone.

I'm currently plodding through Physics for Game Developers, an O'Reilly book by David Bourg. Extremely dense and difficult, but interesting.

Look for a php script that turns blogrolls into dropdown menus coming soon, inspired by Jasmeet, coded by me, and tuned by Scott.

• Honda ad: Engaging advertising. Is that an oxymoron? Not at Honda. This is a mirror of an advertisement run by the automobile company. You'll need Flash 6, but it's highly worth it.
• Curve Ball:Highly addicitve paddle ball with a twist. Ha ha ha... I couldn't help myself.

Throughout history people have written love letters to each other as part of the courting process. The effect of these on what we know of our history goes well beyond establishing relationships. These letters give us glimpses into our history; they define personal views of individual hardship, ethics and morals, and the ideals surrounding relationships.

Modern technology is changing the way we court our new significant others. From online dating to instant messages, the bricks forming the foundations of our relationships are changing, and more importantly disappearing. Have you seen the commercial where the girl forgets her cell phone in her date's car and upon going back to retrieve it finds him in text-messaging his friends? Once that conversation is over, it's gone into the ether. (If you can't remember or haven't seen how it ends, he tells his friends he's falling for her, someone responds that he shouldn't trip, and then she walks away and trips falling right on her face.)

The same thing is true with emails. Throughout college I knew many people who conversed with members of the opposite sex throughout the courting process by email and instant message. Unless a conscious effort was made to save a message or two, they're gone.

This says nothing about the content. We could argue long and hard over whether or not the content of an email, quick and hastily typed out complete with spelling and grammatical mistakes is as meaningful as a letter, handwritten and perfected on a sheet of writing paper.

Why am I even mentioning this? Today on the subway, I saw a young couple speaking quietly, holding hands and smiling at each other. The young man reached into his bag and pulled out a CD that he had made, handing it to his female friend. I caught a quick glimpse of it as she reached into her bag for her CD player. It had the word 'luuuuuuvvvvv' wrapped around the hole in the middle and small quotes and dates on it in different places. We don't sing below someone’s window in the Oughts, we create mixed CD's so someone else can do it for us.

For me, I’m not convinced that all of this is bad, but I’m concerned over the losses that can occur. Will your children find an old hard drive in the attic full of elegant and loving messages to your wife?

I spent this weekend moving to my new apartment. I don't have email or internet there yet (or for that matter, cable), so posting will be light. I did manage to attend a panel at the Boston Public Library on Saturday, and even got to meet Meg Hourihan. Comments on that soon, I hope. I miss you all!

So it's been a few days since posting, and lately the words are coming far and few between. I've been in the process of settling arrangements for a new apartment and have begun moving things. In the process, a bunch of new projects have up and died on me, and that's never fun.

Here are some things to think about. I'm not coding this semantically just to aggravate Scott.

The Celtics lost games one and two of their series with the Nets. Once again, we have drama between the two teams, this time due to the comments of a sports writer who wants to smack Jason Kidd's wife in the mouth for using her child as a prop at games. She does, but smack her? Come on now. Couldn't he just make fun of her name? "My mama? No, Joumana is so fat..."

The Red Sox have one of the best four records in all of baseball right now. Once they get their bulls back into the pen and teach them how to throw the ball, maybe we'll take our rightful spot in first place.

Cory has some issues. They help him write interesting stories. Try this one out. It rivals some of the things I read over at Mark's place.

Jonathan and I are working on a blogging community site for our area, like nycbloggers, bostonblogs, etc. I'm letting the cat out of the bag in hopes that someone will email me and tell me to hurry up and get it live so we can have our first gathering. Sometimes I need some encouragement.

Finally, if you happen to know how to use PHP or Perl to easily send secure emails please drop me a line. I'm stuck and need a solution soon.

So. It's been a few days since I posted. Life's been kind of hectic. I'm moving into my first ever apartment within a week, and the preparation has left me with little time to do much else.

A quick summary for tonight. pottymouth has been cleaned up a little to get it back on track. Feel free to contribute.

Andy has a new post up. I absolutely enjoy reading his work.

The Celtics are a game away from going to the second round of the NBA playoffs. It feels almost like the Patriots, with the whole "they'll never make it" vibe in the air. We want them to, though. The green Celtics towels are out, the radio is abuzz with "Like the *old* Celtics" quotes, and Paul Pierce looks like he's feeling pretty damn good. Some people may think professional basketball isn't worth their time, but I'm enjoying it...

Last Friday my cube neighbor and I went for a walk to get something for lunch. Passing a man screaming out loud about nothing at all, I launched into a tirade about the crazy people in Boston. The day before, a woman had been standing on the train in front of a seated man who was sleeping. I'd seen this man once before, and that time he was laughing out loud for no reason, stopping periodically to glare at passengers. This wasn't a little "remember that funny joke" giggle, it was a full, all out hysterical, "I'm going to eat your children" type laugh. The kind of sound that made the woman sitting near him move her child further away.

So the lady is standing in front of this guy who I know is a psycho, and she must have accidentally bumped his foot. At this point he opened his eyes, lifted his head and screamed at her, "Move Over!"
And she did. Quickly.

He put his head back down and went back to sleep.

Nearing his stop, he awoke again, stretched and let out this ear splitting roar after yawning. If you weren't already convinced, the guy is a nut.

Back to Friday. I'm yelling about all the wackos and my cube neighbor says "Maybe they're just on the T", to which I reply "No way man, they're everywhere. Look around you, Boston is filled with crazy people". As I'm saying this, there's a woman walking towards us on his side of the sidewalk. No sooner do the words leave my mouth and the lady tips her head to the side, leans towards us and launches this huge snot rocket from her nose. We're talking stuff hanging and she's wiping at it. Cube Neighbor and I jump away, I laugh in her face, he wipes his coat trying to make sure nothing got on him, and she continues swatting at the gunk hanging from her face.

I laughed for the next ten minutes before I could get myself under control. You have to watch out; you never know what's going to happen on the streets of the big city.

According to this article from the Telegraph, researchers at Harvard are soon to publish findings of a study that shows that global warming may be part of the world's natural order of things.

Such claims have now been sharply contradicted by the most comprehensive study yet of global temperature over the past 1,000 years. A review of more than 240 scientific studies has shown that today's temperatures are neither the warmest over the past millennium, nor are they producing the most extreme weather - in stark contrast to the claims of the environmentalists.

Duh. I'm not saying that humans haven't caused some problems on the old ball of rock we call home, but I also don't think it's all our fault. We need to be careful and we need to protect forests and other natural resources, but we don't need to run around screaming that the east and west coasts are going to slide into the ocean. I mean really... At the rate we're going, we'll die in a nuclear war long before we cause our atmosphere to blow away...

Baseball season has started, and in true Red Sox style, we lost our opening game to Tampa Bay and proceeded to struggle through our second game, barely squeaking out with a win in the sixteenth inning. Again, true to our history, we got a new General Manager (the youngest in MLB history), a great statistician, a whole new outlook on things, got our hopes up, and bam: take a loss to what is supposed to be one of the worst teams in the league. Then, Jeter separates his shoulder! I mean, we're Red Sox fans! What are we supposed to do? Send him a get well card? And so we seal our fate, sending not only ourselves, but our team straight to hell by secretly cheering the Yankees' loss. Someone out there, maybe even The Babe himself hates us, and he's setting us up to not only be bad, but to have bad karma. Sheesh... Well, the Patriots did it once, maybe we should start looking forward to football season again... Not like the Bruins or the Celtics are going to help us out any...

In other news, more and more cool people have been visiting my site. I've quietly been adding them to my bookmarks (yeah, I'm old fashioned... no blogroll, just bookmarks). Look for me to share some links soon.

I've been working on some other projects. Hopefully I'll be able to share some more info soon, but that's based on whether or not I get any more work done on them. In any case, here's a tip: DO NOT ever forget the style rule clear:both/left/right. It is your friend. Love it, use it, and keep it with you always. Twice now it has solved sticky problems I couldn't figure out.

Yesterday was April 1st, otherwise known as April Fool's Day. Needless to say, I got had. My buddy Dave and my host Ron convinced me that something I had done to the server was causing it to crash and that my account was going to have to be suspended until we figured it out. They had me going for about ten or fifteen minutes. Dave finally told me. To make it worse, on my way home the local radio station announced that the Famed Buddy Cianci, Providence's former and currently incarcerated mayor had been parolled. I believed them too... They had this "interview" with him that was made with bits from old tapes. They announced the story a few days earlier to set it up. Man. What bastards...

Over time, I collect links on my desktop that I'd like to share. Typically, I do this so that during times when content is slow I'll have some backup material to post. Sometimes, though, I go a little too far and collect a little too much stuff. My desktop ends up covered in links. One of the biggest problems with that is that some of the content is time sensitive, that is it becomes less relevant and more moldy the longer I wait to post it.

In any case, consider this a link queue purge. The following are things I found interesting, and you might too...

• How to set up your own Certificate Authority using OpenSSL on Windows: A great and useful tutorial for those who want to have an SSL certificate but don't want to buy it from verisign. The drawback to this method is that some browsers alert the user to the fact that the cert in question isn't signed by a major cert granting authority. The connection is still encrypted, though, so with a proper explanation, your consumers should still feel safe and you'll have some extra cash to do something else... Like buy a beer...
• A while back, Blizzard published a short interview with Harley D. Huggins II, Ghost Cinematics Project Lead to discuss some of the aspects on the cinematic creation process used in Blizzard games. There are some storyboard examples and a video that shows some of the development process. At 6.84mb, the video takes a little bit to download on a modem, but it's great to get a better look at the creation process used by one of the better game development companies out there.
• Over at Zoode.org, Ahmet is a geek's geek. Smarter than smart, his blog has a lot of information about programming, everything from java to ActionScript. Here's a post about Duff's Device, a way of optimizing loops by unrolling them and using switch statements. I've heard of and used these techniques before, but Ahmet has a port to ActionScript that he says works as advertised. Definitely worth a bookmark.
• Anti-Aliasing and Anti-Anti-Aliasing, both by John Gruber, discuss the anti-aliasing differences between various OS X browsers. Although the article has a heavy Mac slant (it is a mac oriented site), there's a lot of useful information in here if a) you don't know what anti-aliasing is, or b) you're a "font nerd".
• Ever want to write a Movable Type Plugin? The MT system is extremely powerful as is, but the wide variety of system hooks and strong plugin API allow for an infinite number of extensions. Developing Movable Type Plug-ins by Timothy Appnel gets into the nitty-gritty of using the different features of the MT plugin API and is a good way to get started if you want to add new features to what I think is one of the best personal content management systems around.

Here's some stuff from today you might find interesting:

• The Floor Plan With a Plan:"Retail design guru Paco Underhill explains the little things that make such a big difference in Apple's newest and best-performing boutique."
• This Makes me Nervous: "That makes me wonder if We the People don't have leaders who ignore protests and attack anyway so that We the People can be afforded the luxury of having our rights defended while self-righteously blasting our iron-fisted defenders from the relative safety of our popcorn bowls at home in front of CNN." Good disscusion going on over at Cory's place. Check it out and keep it going.
• I saw a guy with the atari logo tattooed in the middle of the back of his neck. Hard core. (Dave says that the atari symbol is Kanji for the letter A sound in the word atari)
• A guy came off an exit today while I was on the highway. Merge from the left into two lanes, car to my right, no where to go. I was doing seventy, he sped up to try and cut me off and merge ahead of me. After getting in front of him and jacking my breaks because he pissed me off, I took the next exit to get gas. When I got back on, in an infrequent moment of justice, I passed him getting a speeding ticket. There is some balance to the world.
• Today I got email with a friends address in the to line and my address in the cc line. It was spam. Is this a new spammer trick? If so, it is very very tricky and devious... Maybe spammers should be stoned to death in order to atone for thier sins.

• A-ray 360 degree panorama inside mouth: So cool. via :: kottke.
• Advanced drawing methods in Macromedia Flash MX: Great examples of some Flash widgets. Using these types of controls and the ability to create Flash movies dynamically with things like php, I'm sure you could make some pretty neat applications.
• I love this guy.
• Bigha blog: I don't know how they found me, but these guys have some pretty sweet bikes. Custom made, and everything. Be sure to check out their video, their pictures, and their site. I wish I was that skilled with my hands...

Qwerticular Facies Markitus

(n) The impressions left on the face by falling asleep on a keyboard. Often referred to as Qwertyface. Syn: qwertyface, gridface, keypunched, ergonomic nose dysfunction. Ant: Dvorakular Facies Markitus

In an attempt to test our ability for world domination and such, Dave and I have conspired to name a new affliction: Qwerticular Facies Markitus. While not life threatening, it could definitely put a damper on a geek's sex life. I mean really, stoned chicks like Ellen Feiss want no part of anyone who's been keypunched, especially since it sounds like another nasty phenomenon...

The horror of blimps

Somewhere in the control room of my mind a fat little dwarf in a security outfit was paging through a Penthouse while smoking a cigar with his feet up on the table, watching the security monitors of my brain with his peripheral vision. Suddenly he saw the LARGE SILENT SINSITER MENACING FLOATING PRESENCE coming at me, and he pulled every panic switch and hit every alarm that my body has.

via :: Sam

I always find the subway in Boston to be surreal. The tunnels aren't clean, the walls are not white, and the trains are not shiny. The people shuffle back and forth in jerky movements, stepping over a discarded newspaper, around a slower commuter, all while making sure not to brush against the wall. In the background, musicians play, trying to get tips. For me, this is the strangest part, as the songs in the air are usually quite strange: polkas on an accordion, light melodies on a banjo, angst filled pseudo punk on an acoustic guitar. The songs float through the air making the people shuffling back and forth seem all the more distanced from each other, their environment, and me. It's so strange, yet so fascinating.

Today was Ash Wednesday. Today people moved back and forth wearing their religion proudly for all to see. In our current state of war and turmoil, it's understood that some religions are more equal than others. As people wandered from stop to stop, one train to another, no one's demeanor was changed. No one was more polite today than yesterday. Religious holiday or not, it was just another day, another banjo song drifting away through the air. Deep down we're all people, and right now many of us are scared/nervous/worried about the world we live in. Deep down, though, we're all people.

College Student
In college or graduate recently? Maybe you've been gone for a while. In any case, this will probably strike quite a few people as funny or at least bring back some memories...

Family Favorites is a collection of cards that were made for a game. Some of the art is well done, and some of the cards are quite amusing. For more info about the game, see The Blank White Cards History.

First, you'll notice a new section to the right, 'Now Reading'. Lately, I've been reading a lot (although slowly) so I figured I'd get some use out of that books category I have and start writing some book related posts. Stay tuned, as I'll be finishing The Silmarillion soon.

In the background, I've added the referrer checking script to all pages on the site. This will let me see even more of the great search terms people use to get here. For a long time now, I've kept the referrer script to myself and a few close friends. Now though, you'll find it linked in the within section to the left.

I'm slowly working on the new layout, however, I have some other projects as well going on. More will be revealed shortly.

On the web front, I've been skimming some pages that I've read in the past but haven't been able to get to recently. Specifically, check out the following:

• Random Fixation: Cory on "Doing the Right Thing". He also expounds on going to Church. No link here to that post, just look around a little. I think there are a lot of us right now who feel like we're currently adrift in life and we're struggling to gain control.
• Megnut: I like Meg a lot; she's witty, well spoken, and usually has some interesting things to say.
• dive into mark: Although I'm still a little put out with him, Mark has some interesting news on the Google/Pyra front.

Well, we have three feet of snow on the ground here. Based on the length of my driveway and each cubic foot of snow weighing one pound, I moved about a ton of snow today. I should be one hurting unit tomorrow. I mean seriously, Boston got more snow yesterday that in the infamous Blizzard of '78. Crazy...

• Progress and Future of Mozilla-the-application-suite
• Investigators Try to Identify Object Spotted Near Columbia
• Israel Offers Palestinians Phased Truce
• South Korea Fears U.S. Is Emotional Over North Korea
• Secret Shuttle Part Sought in Texas Search
• Sun Microsystems: The Java Problem
• Cosplay.com News and Features
• WTF???
• Al Qaeda’s Opening Shot
• How to be a Small Town Slut
• Common HTTP Implementation Problems
• An Introduction to Cuban Council

The phone went dead tonight for a good long while, hence the lack of a real post. Kind of a good thing, since I had some other work I needed to do and some of it actually got done.

I didn't watch American Idol. I'm not even sure who got voted through.

While I'm thinking of it, anyone watching Mr. Sterling on Friday nights? So far, I think I like it.

• Zeldman is redesigning. I like it so far.
• At thirty degrees, it feels warm in Boston today.
• Zipcar is running a new ad in the T cars. It goes something like this: "320 hours a year having sex. 450 hours a year looking for a parking space. What's wrong with this picture?"
• Dave never posted part three of his honeymoon story. He's a bastard.
• Is it possible to recognize a blog from a regular web page using some type of Bayesian filter that has a database of blog pages and a database of non-blog pages?

From Paul and Al on whjy Friday morning:

What's the number one way to tell if your Super Bowl Party's host is gay? He tells you he's going in the kitchen to suck down a few Buds, and he's not talking about beer.

Fly UI

But this innocuous little fly just invites being peed upon, if such a thing makes any sense, but in a non-insistent, gentle, and entirely effective way. If you're the user interface specialist Donald Norman, I suppose you'd say the fly affords being peed on.

via :: asa

Got a few things to mention. First, I fixed the comment form, which broke with last nights changes. I also appreciate the comments people have been leaving and the email I've been getting. I've been replying where I can, so keep track of the latest comments in the sidebar to the right so you can follow the discussion. Of particular interest right now is the thread about video games. By the way, did you know that Nintendo announced a new GameBoy with a flip top screen? I wonder how it'll effect the ability for it to connect to the GameCube.

In other news, Apple announced a new browser today for OS X.2 called Safari based on khtml, the Konqueror rendering engine. I'm kind of upset that they didn't use gecko for the rendering engine. I read a few reasons why, but I'd like to see more. Guess I better go read Apple's safari page.

Giftmas came, and then it went. I got a Game Cube and Metroid Prime to go with it. Let me tell you, Nintendo has come a long way. From 2D 2 color Mario way back, through the Zelda series and more, the new Metroid is phenomenal. The graphics are smooth, there are virtually no load time delays, and the game play, with consideration for the complexity of the worlds and environment, is excellent. As I play through it, I'm sure I'll have more to say, but for now I'll leave it at that.

In other news, I'm almost done with the fourth Harry Potter book. Truthfully, there was a time I thought I'd never read them. "Bah," I thought, "they're for kids... If I want fantasy, I'll re-read some Tolkien, or Eddings." Then I started reading the Potter books. They're simple, but addictive. Compared to Tolkien, they're very simple; the world is not very complex. However, they're quite entertaining, and the charcters are very easy to relate to. Every kid who went through a period of their life where they didn't quite fit in can understand Harry. Every kid who couldn't always have the newest toys, but whose friends did can feel Ron's pain. All of us geeks can associate with Hermione. That's where the strength of these stories is: no matter how old you are, one of these people will suck you in. It's great. I can't wait for the next one to come out.

CNN.com - Game: Walk in playboy Hefner's slippers - Dec. 12, 2002
Screw this half way stuff, if they're going to do this, they should go all the way. I want to haggle with the girls about what they have to do in order to be photographed, who they have to do to get the good photgrapher instead of cousin Bob, and which girls get to sleep in Hefner's bed on even and odd days. Quite honetsly, I don't want to experience a Mature rated version of his life, I want to experience all of it in its dirty, gritty, glory. Now that would be an awesome game.

Whenever you get an off campus phone call, and you think no one is at the other end cause you say hello three times and you get no response, just remember never to yell "Hello, well fuck you asshole!!!" Cause there's always a good possiblity that it's your mother and you have a bad connection. And chances are she'll be super pissed when she calls you back.

Via :: someone's away message

Sometimes it would be better if people just leave things along. Sometimes, it's funnier when they don't. And the stupid Japanese people can't appreciate them. I mean, hey buddy: come sell those square things in America. We'll cut the tops off an turn them into vodka drinks for two, sell them at bars for $100 a piece and make a mint. Hell, maybe I'll just buy some glass cubes and grow my own. It's not like he can patent square fruit or anything. I'll make little square kiwis and sell them too... This reminds me of that cat in the jar thing... I wish I could find that... It was fricken hysterical... Cats in a jar... ha ha ha...

Update: Scott found the link! He rules! Yeah Bonzai Kitten!

From the funniest game show moments:

Announcer: What does a man from philadelphia dip his pretzel in?

Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: My Glamorous Life, veteran’s day
Excellent read for Veteran's Day. One to make you think. Thanks to everyone who has, does, and will put their life on the line to keep our country free and safe.

So it's been an interesting weekend. Got my new camera, which isn't what I had hoped for, but you get what you pay for. Also got my new car, which is about what I expected, minus an acceptable stereo. Needless to say, I've been listening to speakers and head units everywhere I go in search of a replacement. I didn't realize that there is some really nice sounding equipment out there for some pretty decent prices. I should be able to have something that sounds pretty good for about $250, which isn't too bad.

I had my first post to pottymouth that contained a racial slur. Feel free to leave comments about what a hypocrite I am for deleting it. I can take it.

In other news, I start my new job tomorrow. Assuming that I live through the commute, I'll let you all know how it goes.

Finally, I recently installed openBB, a forum software package. It's very complex and klunky. I was wondering if anyone knew of any other packages that are a little easier to use and more streamlined. The package I'm using is free, so I won't complain if there aren't any alternative, but if there are, I'd like to know.

Hope you all had a good weekend.

Slashdot | Cathy Rogers Responds Without Crashing
Interesting read, if you liked Junkyard Wars. I enjoyed that show a lot. Even though no one asked about whether or not the junk was seeded with certain items relative to the given episode's challenge (they'd almost have to be) some of her comments (such as this one "it is easier to do the american shows because american people are more 'tv-articulate' - they understand what is required for tv" in regard to which show was easier to do) are interesting. Especially since most of the episodes make her seem like eye candy as opposed to the intelligent woman this interview makes her out to be.

If this guy had been using his other hand to shine his laser, he'd have been all set.

For the second time in my life, someone said that to me. The first time was after I played an elaborate joke on one of my roommates. I switched his right and left mouse buttons and then sent him an email telling him there was a new virus out that switched your mouse buttons and then destroyed your hard drive. Being slightly promiscuous, it was even funnier when he yelled through the suite "J, I have the virus!"

In any case, the other day I had to install a CD burner for someone, then my grandmother's computer got a virus, and then I tried to install a hard drvie for somone else. I've spent so much time working on other people's computers, I've barely had time to work on my stuff. I did get the search engine for MT working, but the result sets are a little flaky. I'll fix that in time. I have a few other things to post about, but I haven't had a chance to get to it. Basically, I'm tired and beat and can't focus. It sucks to be me.

In any case, I'm going to bed. Tomorrow I drive my mom to the airport so she can go to Vegas, and driving into Logan is never fun. I'll need my rest. Hope you all are doing well out there in blogger land.

And by the way, in honor of me driving to Bean Town tomorrow, here's a wicked good link for you.

A summary of great links:
The earth spins in the wrong direction
Squeeze one of Barney's hands to make sure he's awake.
Spewing shit
More to come about my zipzap
My mom told me this would happen
WTF?
Geek fun

lgf: Virgins Asked to Contribute

digitalMass at Boston.com

As a Mass. resident and someone who occasionally has to drive through Boston, this is kind of amusing to me. I mean, really now. Software will hold up the project? The stupid Big Dig has been going on for so long now that most of the technology they'll be using probably didn't even exist when they started. To top it off, someone told me the project is still 9 million or so over budget and without the moeny, they're not sure if they can finish, so they're trying to get the federal department of tranportation to help out. The longest running over budget traffic construction project in the nation. I'm so proud to be from MA.

In the nation-wide department store that I work in we have a giant gumball machine in the juniors department. The other day as I walked down the aisle, I saw a little girl trying to turn the knob. The sphere holding the gumballs is about 3 feet wide and the knob is about three feet off the ground. The little girl was struggling, so I went over to help her. She wasn't the first child I helped get their gum. Being a little kid at heart, I can understand where they're coming from.

I walked over and asked if she needed help and she said yes. I tried the know but it wouldn't turn any further, so I turned it back and realized she had inserted a penny instead of a quarter.

"You need a quarter, not a penny," I said as I struggled to get it out.

"I'll get it, my fingers are smaller," she replied, deftly working the penny back out of the machine. As she did this, I reached into my pocket to pull out a quarter and inserted it. She opened the door, watching for the gumball to drop.

"You should hold that closed so it doesn't roll away," I told her and she did. I turned the knob and the gumball fell down; the little girl opened the door and took it out. She looked up at me, smiled and said "Hey, thanks!"

I stood there with a big smile on my face. For a measely quarter, I was able to make some kid happy. However, then it hit me: these are the little kids that get kidnapped. The ones who are naive, who are trusting, who are cute and good natured. I just made her trust strangers more. I could be the reason this kid ends up in trouble. I wasn't so happy anymore.

I've always wanted to try building a model plane, but these model ships look pretty hardcore as well. You really did sink my battleship, ass!

Yahoo! News - Reuters

No need for words.

Shareaza

"Question: I just recently downloaded Shareaza a couple days ago, and it was working fine. However, the past 5000 attempts to start it up it always says that I have preformed an illegal action and I have to close it out. Is this something with Shareaza and should I download it again, or is my computer being severly retarded?????
Thanks!

Answer: You are correct in thinking that your computer is retarded however you may be able to un-retard your computer by re-installing Shareaza and upgrading to a later version of your operating system - Windows 9x/ME generally (do) get more errors and crashing than Windows 2000/XP."

Improv Message Boards - True Porn Clerk Stories
There's a new Porn Clerk Story up, posted on Thursday. I think they're pretty funny. If you haven't read any of the others, you should definitely use the links at the top of the page to get to the beggining.

What really gets me about this is the Ali Davis has. Her writing is far superior to much of what is on the web, is interesting, and funny. Why the hell is she working at a porn store? It really scares the hell out of me. Here I am, twenty grand in the whole still after an eighty thousand dollar education, and for all I know, I'll be working at a tampon factory or something, wasting my college education on a running commentary of how many strings I had to sweep off the floor on any given day. I mean at least it would be a job and all, and I could have it worse, but isn;t th whole point of education that its *supposed* to get better?

I have to stop. If I continue with this line of thought, I'll have nightmares. Simon says "Did you go to college? Well get a lawyer and sue your school."

A Battlefield Bot That Won't Die
We can do this but we can't cure MS, cancer, and AIDS? I guess this goes into the "If you throw enough money at it, you'll find your answer" category. And don't even get me started on the $160 million space dust NASA made last week.

errorwear: embrace your computer problems
Even geeks have to get some lovin', right?

BBC NEWS | Disposable planet
This is messed up. These people can't live as it is, and in order to eek out some sort of life, they're destroying all they have left. Where do we draw the line? Personally, I'm all for technical progress, advancing society, and having the newest fastest processor, but someone should be thinking about what happens to the old ones. Its the same thing with cars. We keep making more and we're not re-using the old ones as effectively as we could, in my opinion. I wouldn't be surprised if humans just kill ourselves off...

Kottke mentions an article about proper pub etiquette, and mentions buying the bartender a drink instead of giving them a tip. More personal and different. I never thought of that. I wonder though, if that works in America (the article is about British pubs)... Someone will probably sue you for getting the bartender drunk when they don't have a designated driver... Stupid people...

According to Entertainment Weekly, American Idol voting results have been tampered with by phreaks who have found a way to rapid dial the voting system.

Now seriously. This pisses me off for two reasons: 1) Who the hell is running this show? Why can people vote more than once anyway? Damn, you people are stupid. 2) Who the hell (and I know there are multiple people) wastes there time hacking TV show voting lines? Drink a beer, go to the movies, do something with your life. I mean seriously: what losers.

And ok, out of fairness, I admit: I've called and voted more than once, three times max. Other things to do, right? Besides, some of those girls are wicked good and deserve to be win. Who am I not to give them that opportunity?

And by the way: Go Kelly Clarkson!

GoneSour?

I guess sometimes banner ads are ok, like when they alert you to the fact that there's a sour Altoid flavor... I'm going to have to try those...

CNN.com - Crocodiles eat woman

Suicide? I think not. My theory is that it was too many episodes of The Crocodile Hunter

Slashdot | Rat Mind Control

This is quality... All I can picture is a rat with an antenna on its head doing donuts on a linoleum floor while a bunch of geeky scientists cheer on a buddy with a remote control...

Seriously, though. Scary stuff. There are people who are already putting microchips in their bodies. Is this the "big brother" scenario we never imagined? Where we all run around being remotely controlled by some bastard laughing insanely? Hmmm...

CNN.com - Report: Dogs are smarter than people think - July 31, 2002

Some dogs are definitely stupid, others however are quite smart. For example, my aunt has a shitzu that recognizes the names of certain people and acts differently when you talk about them. God forbid the little suckers ever learn how to talk...

Mouse Pad Couch

Sweet.

Improv Message Boards - True Porn Clerk Stories

Ok... So I know I have a pretty messed up sense of humor, but this is really funny.

I'm pretty torn abou it, though; on the one hand, the girl is an excellent writer, humorous and entertaining. I'm glad she works where she does because otherwise she wouldn't write about it. On the other hand, having paid for an education and not currently having a job, I can understand her pain at working in a porn rental store. I mean, damn. Read the one on the first page about the sanitizer gel. What a crappy job.

Courtesy of the Empty Bottle.

And by the way, should I have trackbacked that?

A FAINTING GOAT SPECIAL

That's one way to list a bunch of car models so that you'll get more search engine hits...