John 3:16

If you're looking for a good manifesto, this blog post about format lock-in is great. And short too.

Now where is the manifesto about Excel not being an application development framework?

Burning Big Brother

Is this Slashdot comment a preview of life in the Orwellian digital age?

If you are worried that someone will take your hard drive and try to read the valuable contents on it, I offer a simple, low tech solution. Switch the leads on the power connector! Its as simple as undoing a few screws and switching the 12V and ground leads. Two snips with the dikes, two drops of solder, and you're done. Screw everything back in place and appropriatly adjust the power connector coming out of your power supply. Now I would recomend doing this long before you recieve any sort of court order so they can't claim you were tampering with evidence. When they go to plug your hard drive into the examining system *zap*. "sorry, um you never asked if my hardware was ATX compliant judge"...

Too young to be Mel Gibson's dad

I think I might have to find a new bar to drink at -- the latest patron I met at the corner bar is a Holocaust denier.

Delightfully weird

Reminder: Weird Al's new song, the Chamillionaire parody, comes out tonight.

Grab it here.

UPDATE: Whoops, turns out it was actually a Weird Al original, not a parody. Here's a direct link.

Spooky!

Wow.. I just completely guessed at the spelling of "Hammacher Schlemmer", and it turned out to be correct. Google didn't even need to correct me!

I'm on fire, baby!

Cream dream supreme

Finally! It is here!

We get letters

I initially laughed at this letter to the mayor of Times Square, until I saw the initials of the author.

Now I'm worried that I'll be accidentally sent back to the early 20th century, become an insane crank, and start writing weird letters to important people.

Go shove a goalpost up your ass

I am told that my former high school has started to charge students who wish to do athletics, including football.

When I read stories like this, I realize it's a great idea. Our nation's jocks get too much leniency to begin with.

Bar conversations

Old Cranky Guy: I think we need to start profiling people at the airports.
Me: Oh, so it's "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, except for those filthy Arabs"?
Old Cranky Guy: Hey now, I realize that not all Muslims are terrorists, but 100% of those terrorists are Muslim!
Me: Really? And what religion did Timothy McVeigh belong to?
Old Cranky Guy: Well, Timothy McVeigh wasn't Muslim when he bought all those explosives!
Me: [blinks incredulously]

A nation full of Lumberghs

Think Progress, August 10, 2006:

Fewer than half of Americans believe Muslims are loyal to the U.S., a Gallup poll shows. “Almost four in ten, 39%, advocate that Muslims here should carry special I.D. That same number admit that they do hold some ‘prejudice’ against Muslims.”

You know, the Nazis had pieces of flair, that they made the Jews wear.

Security by obscurity

Detroit Free Press, August 12, 2006:

Northwest Airlines urged passengers Friday to avoid carry-ons and instead check all bags, in order to speed up security lines and boarding.

Airlines worldwide lost a record 30 million bags last year, a number boosted by a global surge in travelers, a study issued Monday says.

Last year, the world's airlines boarded about 2 billion passengers who checked 3.7 billion bags, according to the study from SITA, a Switzerland-based technology consultant for the airline industry. Airlines mishandled about 1%.

Wily, indeed

An incredible discovery: if it were possible to plug in a Super Nintendo controller into two consoles at once, you could play and win Mega Man X and Mega Man X 2 at the same time. See the amazing proof here, accomplished using emulation.

I shall call this phenomenon "video game isomorphism". I wonder if there are any other instances?

I'll be able to blend in with my thick glasses

This event looks fun. Anyone want to go with me?

Ban him!

Scott Stevenson on a hilarious joke from WWDC 2006:

...Stump the Experts followed the Design Awards. If you've never been to this event, you need to go at least once. The gist is that the stage is filled with a panel of current and ex-Apple employees, and the audience tries to stump them with obscure trivia questions about Apple products and culture. The experts can also ask questions of the audience...

...Q: What city in Utah did Apple dump about 3,000 Lisas in?
A: Logan, Utah.

(this answer was found via Wikipedia, and the expert added that the number of Lisas in the area had tripled in the last sixth months. Some people got the joke.)

The cathedral and the bizarre

I just found out about this book, Math You Can't Use: Patents, Copyright, and Software.

I so have to read that book! (Especially because it's written by a programmer -- I'm tired of non-technical types trying to grok software patent issues. Because you end up with weird conclusions like this.)

It's all Greek to me

Try this:

1. Download the 10.4.7 kernel sources.
2. Search for keywords like oah.

Sue me if I play too long

Due to the increasing Livejournalization of this blog, I bring you the following lyrical excerpt of the Steely Dan song "Deacon Blues" for no good reason.

I'll learn to work the saxophone
I'll play just what I feel
Drink Scotch whisky all night long
And die behind the wheel
They got a name for the winners in the world
I want a name when I lose
They call Alabama the Crimson Tide
Call me Deacon Blues

51% of you voted for this douchebag, part 2

Matthew Yglesias analyzes other instances of Bush's striking detachment (and apparent mental retardation).

51% of you voted for this douchebag

George W. Bush's nuanced view of the burgeoning democracy in Iraq:

You know, I hear people say, Well, civil war this, civil war that. The Iraqi people decided against civil war when they went to the ballot box.

Don't solve that problem too well

Apple's preview of their "Time Machine" feature in Mac OS X Leopard asks,

Ever deleted something you wish you hadn't?

I think a good solution would be to modify the "Secure Empty Trash" function in the Finder to remove every revision of the trashed documents in question from the repository.