Month: January 2003

Is this blog hot or not?

In case anybody cares, you can now vote if this site is hot or not. And I’ve added a couple small ads down the right-hand column. They shouldn’t slow down the load time of the site at all, but if you click on them or use the Amazon or eBay search forms on the left side, I’ll get a kick-back if you buy something through them.

And remember to sign up for my daily updates (put your e-mail in the field at the top of the page). It’s been fixed so it actually includes the title of the post now (it didn’t do that before). And if you have a Web site at all, please e-mail me, and I’ll happily add a link to yours (give me a little button, and I’ll link to it with that).

January 20, 2003

Unlikely Slashdot Articles

Fark frequently runs photoshop contests that are absolutely hilarious, but this one, showcasing unlikely SlashDot articles, was the funniest I’ve seen in a long time. Too bad it took the Slashdot folks four days to find it.

January 20, 2003

“I know guys who haven’t showered in several days … They just don’t feel the need to.”

These and the last few links were from the Obscure Store, though this one I found myself, too, as they were a former client of mine. Anyway, a great story from the Orion at CSU Chico about how disgusting college kids and their dorm rooms are.

January 20, 2003

“I can’t die, young man. It would ruin my image.”

You just have to love Jack LaLanne, who could still run circles around 90% of the population at age 88.

January 20, 2003

Man makes 24-pound hamburger

They like to do things big in Texas. And I thought the 36-ounce burger at the Pilot Butte Drive-Inn was big. It was done as a publicity stunt to show you what you could get in Austin for $41 (as he had got wind that you could get a 20-ounce burger in New York for the same price). He figured out how much of a burger he could make for $41, and he created a 24-pound monster. Full Story Here.

January 20, 2003

Want $20 from the record companies — free?

From Al’s Morning Meeting: “Suppose someone was handing out $20 bills and almost nobody wanted one? That’s roughly what’s happening with a massive price-fixing settlement involving states and compact disc companies.

The deal calls for payments of as much as $20 for customers who bought CDs between 1995 and 2000. But so far, only a few people have signed up, and officials fear the money will go begging. Full AP story here. Anyone who bought a CD, cassette tape or vinyl record at a retail store between 1995 and 2000 is eligible to make a claim before March 3rd. The site does not ask for receipts or proof of purchase, only that you promise you actually bought a CD in that time period.

In case you didn’t hear about the settlement back in October, here’s a story about it.

January 20, 2003

Boston Globe will stop describing tank tops as “wifebeaters”

I always hated the term “wifebeaters,” a word used to describe certain types of tank-tops. I’m glad the Boston Globe is making a stand against the term, too.

January 20, 2003

Cigarette Lighter for your Computer

For all your smokers out there, here’s a cigarette lighter that you can install in a drive bay. Just don’t smoke around your computer too often, as it will do BAD things to the interior (smoke doesn’t mix well with anything).

January 20, 2003

Windows Tips Directory

This has to be one of the best places for windows from Windows 95 all up to Windows .Net and all the Office products and MSIE versions in between. Check it out!

January 20, 2003

Rumsfeld orders .mil Web lockdown

U.S. defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld this week directed the armed service to strip military Web sites of information that could benefit adversaries, citing a terrorist training manual and a year-long review of the Department of Defense’s 700-gigabyte Web presence. Full story here.

I just love this quote: “”One must conclude our enemies access DoD Web sites on a regular basis.” Ugh…Rumsfeld’s a moron, and really is going a bit too far with this. Almost any information could be useful to an adversary in some context, but if this memo is followed, it would lead (as Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) says) to a “wholesale withdrawal of information from defense Web sites… This is a broad brush approach that’s not the right way to go.”

January 20, 2003