Month: December 2004

U.S. Government to Shut Down GPS

Their reasoning? To “fight terrorists.”

President Bush has ordered plans for temporarily disabling the U.S. network of global positioning satellites during a national crisis to prevent terrorists from using the navigational technology, the White House said Wednesday.

[…]

The GPS system is vital to commercial aviation and marine shipping.

So if you use GPS to get yourself to work, out of a jam when you’re lost, or out of the woods when you’re hunting (and don’t even think about Geocaching), this could really screw you over. And not to mention that if you’re flying on a plane, this could make it so the pilot suddenly has no idea where he’s going or where he is.

Isn’t that nice? Thanks, Bush. Quoting this BB post: “Nice one, George: why not shut down the fire-departments, too, so that ‘terrorists won’t be able to survive fires started by careless smoking?'”

December 16, 2004

I’ve Given Up On The MovableType Forums

This isn’t the first time I’ve posted questions in their forums before and not gotten a response, so I’m going to post the two questions here and see if anybody here running around the ‘net right now can help me. Read on…

(more…)

December 16, 2004

Moron Crook For The Day #2

Maybe if they laid off the dope, they wouldn’t be such idiots.

A Florida Panhandle couple is under arrest after notifying police Thursday that their quarter-pound stash of marijuana was stolen and that they needed the weed back, because they were going to later sell it.

Thanks Cheryl for the link.

December 16, 2004

Moron Crook For The Day

If you’re going to deal drugs, don’t sell them in front of the sheriff’s house. Idiot.

December 16, 2004

It’s A Great Time For Researchers

There are lots of things going on that is going to make researcher’s lives much easier. Google announces plans to digitize millions of books. Lexis Nexis launches their AlaCarte service (and if you know anything about that database, you know how large it is). And on the other side of the pond, The Scotsman is going to make nearly 200 years of content available online (thanks Neil for that). I really hope all of this starts a good trend where instead of pouring through a crapload of documents while witting at the library (which is what I had to do for this project in college), I can sit on my butt and get reliable, citable, information all online.

December 16, 2004

People Aren’t Too Bright

I’ve been dealing with some folks to get an ad for our company here into a local golf guide. Part of the gig was that I was to send them some marketing material, and they would write radio ad copy to use in their campaign. I had sent all the marketing gibberish a couple days ago, but I get an e-mail from my sales rep for the ad, asking me to send her the promotional bullet points again, because she didn’t have it.

The thing was, though, she was replying to my original message from two days ago, and she had the entire copy of my marketing gibberish in her e-mail to me — so she obviously already had the material she was looking.

I resent it to her anyway, as I could see there was no way to win this battle so there was no sense in starting one.

December 16, 2004

World’s Smallest Peer-to-Peer Sharing Application

With only 15-lines of Python code, TinyP2P was created “to illustrate the difficulty of regulating peer-to-peer applications. Peer-to-peer apps can be very simple, and any moderately skilled programmer can write one, so attempts to ban their creation would be fruitless.” Link via BB.

December 15, 2004

Alton Brown Rides A Sweet BMW

Like Jon, I love watching Good Eats on the Food Network. Alton Brown, who really needs to update his blog more, is hilarious, and a great cook to boot. That, and he rides one sweet motorcycle.

December 15, 2004

The Lost Journals of Doogie Houser, M.D.

I actually remember watching that show quite a bit, and remember the scenes at the end of the show where he typed into his journal. I would’ve loved to have seen these come across his screen. Some examples:

November 17, 1989

Sometimes the best advice is in the last place you look, and by “best advice,” I mean, “my wristwatch.” And by “the last place you look,” I mean, “Mr. Cheswick’s esophagus.”

May 7, 1992

This week, I finally found myself. No, really. Vinnie and I split a sixty of Triple Sec and nine hours later I found myself sleeping in the bushes beside the Taco Bell, wearing nothing but a couple of napkins and a plastic sombrero.

December 15, 2004

What can’t corporate America build?

A sentence.

R. Craig Hogan, a former university professor who heads an online school for business writing here, received an anguished e-mail message recently from a prospective student.

“i need help,” said the message, which was devoid of punctuation. “i am writing a essay on writing i work for this company and my boss want me to help improve the workers writing skills can yall help me with some information thank you”.

Hundreds of inquiries from managers and executives seeking to improve their own or their workers’ writing pop into Hogan’s computer in-basket each month, he says, describing a number that has surged as e-mail has replaced the phone for much workplace communication. Millions of employees must write more frequently on the job than previously. And many are making a hash of it.

“E-mail is a party to which English teachers have not been invited,” Hogan said. “It has companies tearing their hair out.”

And I don’t blame them for pulling their hair out. I’ve had to teach basic grammar and composition skills to some folks who have become far too casual when it comes to business communication, and it’s going to come back and bite them. Link via The Dren.

December 15, 2004