Month: October 2003

Dave Barry takes on the telemarketers — again

A month or two ago, Dave Barry wrote about the American Teleservices Association, one of the groups that is suing the government to have the Do Not Call list banned because it violates their free speech rights. So Barry published the association’s toll-free telephone number under the premise that “Hey, if the ATA feels its members have a constitutional right to call you, then surely the ATA feels that you have an equally constitutional right to call the ATA.”

Apparently so many people called that the number had to be disconnected.

But, as Berry let’s us know now, the ATA has a new phone number (at least for now): 317-816-9336.

Expect that number to be non-reachable soon enough.

October 5, 2003

OK, the comment spam is starting to get to me

I’ve been getting a pile of stupid comments on the site, many of them loaded with URLs for casinos, male enhancement, among other crap. I don’t want to have to resort to moderated comments, but I will probably implement Neil’s partial solution as well as a duplicate comment hack at some point and see if that helps (as I’d like to avoid editing my Movable Type files as much as possible, as I’m sure they’ll get overwritten during the next upgrade cycle).

October 5, 2003

When would this ever be a good idea?

A high school band director has apologized for a halftime performance that included “Deutschland Uber Alles,” the anthem closely associated with Adolf Hitler, and a student running across the field with a Nazi flag. The band director was quoted as saying “We had an error in judgment.”

You think so? Jeez, buddy… Needless to say, there were nearly riots during the performance, and the school district is playing like “Oh, we didn’t even think about this making people mad.” Idiots. A Star Telegram columnist had some good comments about things, too.

But really: When is it ever a good time to show a Nazi flag? Not only that, but how in the hell did they get a hold of one to begin with? They’re not something you can just buy in any Wal-Mart.

Thanks to Barney for the tip.

October 5, 2003

How do men and women experience orgasm?

(This was sent to me by Shasta Bob, but I’m reposting the code here, as the code he sent me was a mess. If you know the original source, please let me know so I can cite it.)

You’ve always wondered how the other sex experiences an orgasm. Do you want to see the difference? Then try this Orgasmic Simulation:

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October 5, 2003

Want to buy the Web? All of it?

Alexa has 60+ terabytes of data they’ll sell you in a nice “portable” format. The Internet Archive uses this data.

So what the heck would you do with something like this, other than use it in a library?

October 2, 2003

Safeway delis pull salmonella-linked egg salad

While it’s scary that this stuff was in stores, I find the picture attached to this story to be much funnier:

Thanks for Barney at Bend.com for taking an appropriate photo for this.

October 1, 2003

One small victory, especially for Mac users

Just about three weeks ago, Sarah Ward, 65-year-old educator, artist, and grandmother, received notice that she was getting sued by the RIAA. Well, apparently, the RIAA came to their senses and dropped the suit. Why, you ask? The seven record labels sued Ward solely on the basis of “screen shots” from the KaZaA network and information obtained from a controversial subpoena issued to Comcast, Ward’s Internet service provider, under the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Here’s the thing: Ward doesn’t use KaZaA. She’s never heard of it. Why? Ken will appreciate this: She doesn’t even own a PC, she uses a Mac, and KaZaA isn’t available on Macs.

Moral of this story: Avoiding lawsuits by paying for an overpriced Mac may very well be worth it.

October 1, 2003

Executive level stoner’s assistant needed immediately

Just so you’re aware, the boss smokes a little grass now and again. Link via Fuck That Job.

October 1, 2003