Month: January 2004

A six-year-old terrorist?

Why don’t I trust the government to do things right? When they’re fully convinced that a six-year-old girl is some sort of terrorist. I don’t care how nice they were to her, the security people should have never had to do that to a little girl — period. Quoted:

My daughter was scared and shaken up by the ordeal and told us that she “hated it.” At least the security people were polite to her. But they were like polite robots, unable to laugh at the fact that someone had mistakenly pegged a little girl as a potential terrorist. No, they insisted that she had to take off her shoes and get patted down and have a wand passed over her body and have her Hello Kitty suitcase opened and examined with a fine toothed comb.

Salon has a good editorial about this.

How to break into a Windows system

Microsoft publishes program to blast MSBlast

Happy Birthday Jeff Bezos

Amazon’s founder is lampooned in a hidden easter egg on Amazon’s Web site (search for “old fart”). In case Amazon takes it down, it goes here.

Hillary Clinton for Prez

Great signature I saw in an email today:

Some Democrats are talking seriously about Hillary Clinton running for president in 2004. I don’t think they are serious — I think they are trying to get Rush Limbaugh to go back on drugs.

Truth be told, I’m wearing glasses

End of AP’s story on CES in Sunday’s Oregonian had this:

“One interesting little device debuting at the trade show claims to put truth detection voice analysis on the bridge of your nose.”

“Voice Analysis Eyeglasses” provide real-time analysis on the inside of the lenses about whoever is talking at the time, says its maker, the Israeli company Nemesysco, which developed the technology for counterterrorism and government customers.”

“A chip inside the glasses is able to read the voice frequency of the person you are talking to,” said Beata Gutman, a spokeswoman for the company. “The voice is analyzed through that chip, and there are lights that indicate whether the person is lying.”

“She said the truth spects were expected to be available at the end of January for $400 to $500.”

Raises all sorts of intriguing questions, doesn’t it? If it works, that is.

Can’t find anything on that particular product on their Website but do find an equally intriguing press release from late ’02 about “LOVE-SENSE,” which the company calls “the first-ever PC software that can detect love!” by analyzing the voice over the phone in real time to “detect deep emotional feelings.”

Sure, yeah, right. I believe that, don’t you?

$3100 and some change

Just got my bill for my stay in the hospital (all three hours of it) and it’s a bit over $3100. That included rental of the space, all the various drugs I got while I was there, rental of the recovery room (and hour of time for $300 — and the would’ve kept me longer if I wasn’t like “I’m fine, get me the hell out of here.”), etc… . That didn’t include the anesthesiologist (which I’m still waiting on a bill for) or the surgeon (which I don’t have to pay for). I still have to pay off my MRI (about $1000), and I know the anesthesiologist won’t be cheap (probably a $1000). So I still have $5000 of medical bills or so (could be worse — if I had to pay for the surgeon and post-surgery care at the specialist’s office, it’d be over $10,000).

Donations still being accepted 🙂. Hopefully I’ll get back some money in taxes this year (and I should), so that’ll kill off about 25% of it (crossing fingers as I got a good refund last year), and I’m playing the “transfer balances between zero interest credit cards” game to avoid paying interest on it so I won’t be paying double in the long run.

The Ostrich

A man walks into a restaurant with a full-grown ostrich behind him. As he sits, the waitress comes over and asks for their orders.

The man says, “I’ll have a hamburger, fries and a coke,” and turns to the ostrich, “What’s yours?”

“I’ll have the same,” says the ostrich.

A short time later the waitress returns with the order. “That will be $6.40 please,” and the man reaches into his pocket and pulls out the exact change for payment.

The next day, the man and the ostrich come again and the man says, “I’ll have a hamburger, fries and a coke,” and the ostrich says, “I’ll have the same.”

Once again the man reaches into his pocket and pays with exact change.

This becomes a routine until late one evening, the two enter again.

“The usual?” asks the waitress.

“No, this is Friday night, so I will have a steak, baked potato and salad,” says the man, “same for me,” says the ostrich.

“A short time later the waitress comes with the order and says, “That will be $12.62.”

Once again the man pulls exact change out of his pocket and places it on the table.

The waitress can’t hold back her curiosity any longer.

“Excuse me, sir. How do you manage to always come up with the exact change out of your pocket every time?”

“Well,” says the man, “several years ago I was cleaning the attic and I found an old lamp. When I rubbed it a Genie appeared and offered me two wishes.

My first wish was that if I ever had to pay for anything, I would just put my hand in my pocket and the right amount of money would always be there.”

“That’s brilliant!” says the waitress. “Most people would wish for a million dollars or something, but you’ll always be as rich as you want for as long as you live!”

“That’s right. Whether it’s a gallon of milk or a Rolls Royce, the exact money is always there,” says the man.

The waitress asks, “One other thing, sir, what’s with the ostrich?”

The man sighs, pauses, and answers, “My second wish was for a tall chick with long legs who agrees with everything I say.”

Thanks to Shasta Bob for the Joke.

How To Take Care of The Kids, Part II

A while back I posted a funny pic about how you should take care of your kids if they’re rotten.

Here’s another example of what can be done, especially if you’re stuck takin’ your kids to “National Take Your Child to Work Day” or something similar 😉

Can we send him there?

President Bush wants to establish a permanent human presence on the moon. I think there are better things to worry about right now (*cough*enormous debt*cough*) then blowing/budgeting money for something like this.