Use this handy calculator to figure out how much your illegal hoard is worth.
Category: Interesting
Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg
No, that’s not me just smashing keys on my keyboard, that’s apparently the (un)official name for Lake Webster east of Webster, Massachusetts. It’s the longest place name in the United States. More information here and here. You can see the sign for the lake here.
But I have one question: Can anybody pronounce it?
Thanks Barney for the link.
OneEighty Bend Gets Bought By Unicom
Did I miss this in the local paper? I happened upon this Spokesman Review article that says that OneEighty (formally known as Highspeed Communications, formally known as EmpireNet, formally known as a guy whose name I completely forgot running a BBS out of his basement) is selling it’s Bend and Madras branches to Unicom. OregonTrail, I’m assuming, is part of that deal as well (as they were bought up by OneEighty).
Personally, I haven’t dealt with any of those companies for quite a while (I have had to deal with OneEighty on behalf of a client, but it was on minor issues that are probably going to get much more complicated now). I did have to deal with OregonTrail when I first started working at Sunray, as they hosted Sunray’s site (long since moved) and they were a bit of a pain to deal with as they didn’t know much about hosting, it seemed.
I also know there are some folks locally who are getting free hosting from OneEighty in return for links back to the company’s site — are those folks going to get booted?
So who does that leave in Central Oregon for Network/Data Center providers? Other than BendCableBroadband, who else is there? It seems most of the smaller ones that used be around have disappeared.
Update: I’m an idiot. Now I know why it’s not in the Bulletin — it probably ran two months ago when the actual purchase happened. So not only am I not on the ball, but The Spokesman Review is quite a bit late to the game, too.
Ugh…I need more free time to keep up on this stuff…
Can You Identify This Purse?
I occassionally read through Ask ORblogs, which is like a localized version of AskMeFi. This question caught my eye as it sounds like something a reader of this site might know (and I’m just copy/pasting the question here, so don’t blame me for the errors)…
I bought this purse in TN and it has a horse logo embossed over jwm derr Bend oregon USA.Does anyooone know anything about jwm derr? It is a really nice hand crafted leather purse.
Can anybody help him? Either comment over there or here.
Advice On A Portland Trip
I don’t need the advice (I am going to Salem and Newport for a few days next week on a much needed vacation, however), but an online buddy of mine is heading to the area and wants some advice from some bloggers in the area. Can anybody help him?
Putting The “Public” in PBS
A great commentary about how PBS should really put the “public” back in Public Broadcasting System (yes, I know it’s old — it’s been on my “to read” list for a while).
This Actually Assumes I Had Money
But if I did, I’d follow some of these tips here, and make sure to avoid doing stupid things.
Are Track Measurements and Records Accurate?
Anybody who knows me knows I’m a track and field geek (used to compete a lot more, but haven’t since my back surgery). So when I came across this story on Slate, I was certainly intrigued.
The Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell set a new world record for the 100-meter dash on June 14, with a time of 9.77 seconds. The previous record, set by American Tim Montgomery, was 9.78 seconds — just one-hundredth of a second slower. How accurate are the devices used to time these events?
They can record to the ten-thousandth of a second, although that level of precision is not commonly used. That’s because every track (and every lane) differs in length by a minuscule amount, so two runners who race at exactly the same speed might cross the finish line with times that differ by a tiny fraction of a second. In the 1972 Olympics, for example, two swimmers finished a 400-meter race within two-thousandths of a second — or a few millimeters — of each other. As it turned out, each lane of the swimming pool had been constructed to a precision of just 10 millimeters, so there was no way to determine the winner.
Luckily I raced longer distances where a centimeter ain’t going to matter worth a damn, but I can see this being a problem in shorter events.
Simpsons Episodes For The Blind
It would suck being blind. It’s so much easier to enjoy The Simpsons if you can see and hear it instead of just hearing it described to you.
First-hand Post-Nagasaki Report
American George Weller was the first foreign reporter to enter Nagasaki following the U.S. atomic attack on the city on Aug. 9, 1945. Weller wrote a series of stories about what he saw in the city, but US Military refused to allow the material to be printed. Weller’s stories, written in September 1945, can be found here. Link via kottke.