Yes, I was mean ...

... in calling a friend out for sending me a forward, but alarmist spam really bugs me.

I guess I won't bother with a "top ten ways to identify a bogus forward" list, but I did find this bit of advice that I found online useful:

Take your time. Resist any urge to “act now”.

When you get a forwarded mail, your impulse should not be - ohmigodletmesendthistoeveryoneiknow. Instead, consider sitting on it. Don't ask yourself - could this be real? Ask yourself - could this be spam? If the answer is even maybe, then it is probably junk.

if moon was cookie

does not refer to magnetic north pole

ff3 update

so i've been sampling the three different ports (win/mac/linux). one of the key developments with this release is the decision to "go native" with the UI. in other words, the browser is much more tightly integrated with the look and feel of the underlying OS.

the mac version is slick, and feels like a bonafide apple browser. the windows version is shiny and vistafied, but i'll probably get used to it soon enough. and then there is the linux version. the firefox people took the "go native" directive a little too seriously here, which means that the linux version looks like crap. yup - it has shitty icons, mismatched fonts, and poor anti-aliasing ... everything we love about linux based UIs. one of the nice things about the old firefox was that it had a clean simple design, and generally looked good, even under linux. i'm hoping i can reskin it back to the old look, and i'm hoping that mozilla realizes that they have better graphic designers than the bit bangers that work on linux (who are extremely smart people but a little command line happy). just because you can dereference a pointer doesn't make you a visual artist.

ff3

I just got the new Firefox, and it is *blazing* fast. Slick looking too! Me likey.

If I ever get around to it, I will post a completely subjective, opinionated and non-comprehensive review pimping the Firefox. But a lot of the memory and speed issues that dogged the old version seem to have gone away.

Punch IE in the Face

bikes on board

i've been pretty good about riding my bike in to the oakland office when i can. but the berkeley site has always been slightly more challenging, because it is way high on top of a hill. ok - that is really just an excuse, because they have a shuttle where one could theoretically load one's bike on the rack, and simply bus it to the top. really this is all about my irrational fear of loading my bike on the rack. which translates to embarrassment at not knowing how to do it properly, and being slightly shy and afraid to ask someone for help in the middle of the commuting time crunch. so yeah - i've been too afraid to try.

UNTIL NOW!

i am happy to announce, that i successfully loaded my bike on the bus today. i even found a nice helpful instructional video, in case you've been grappling with similar issues:

http://www.actransit.org/riderinfo/bikes.wu

saving the world one irrational fear at a time. YES WE CAN!

back in black

yup - the good ol' craptastic "minima" template is back.

mangled

Apparently, I am Shrevas Chiolia (at least according to the Globusworld agenda).

More Chris Glass

Taking the kids to Target


Originally uploaded by chrisglass

I'm feeling a lot of love towards Chris Glass of glass.typepad.com

From the hit new movie ...

"They're zombies.
No, they're strippers.
No, they're... zombie strippers."

I think Snakes On A Plane just got some competition!

non-conundrums

i guess most of our so-called ancient philosophical problems have been solved by science. think about it:

1. chicken and egg - umm - easy - egg - the evolutionary parent of the chicken lays an egg with a slightly mutated piece of DNA, and voila - we have the first chicken egg. Once you start using biological markers to differentiate species, this stops being interesting.

2. tree falls in the forest - NO - it does not make a sound, if there isn't a sound perceiving agent around. sound is a psychological construct, and simply how we perceive vibrations in a medium. no "we" - no sound.

3. one hand clapping - either bart simpson has already solved this one, or this is a semantic argument, and thus uninteresting from a philosophical standpoint. (As in, you've already defined a clap as the product of two hands striking each other, so you either have to redefine your original terms or eliminate your wankage. it's like asking what if 2 times 2 were 13 [assume base10 here])

monster noises

can i just say that it is an absolutely sublime moment when you are finally able to go GNNHHRHHHR to your child, and she responds back with another GNNHHRHHHR. we are communicating!

just like that

we have a new look.

and just for being patient with my whims and fancies, i'll leave you with some gorgeous shots of ancient computer hardware: http://www.corememoryproject.com/main.php

when duke is not duke

an observation - when duke is a #1 seed, it generally means that they've got a great record and are actually good. #2 or lower means that they've had a few losses but the committee wouldn't dare give duke a lower seed, because they have so much cachet. any time duke is a 2 or 3 is a good year to pick against them in the early rounds, since it screams overrated.

dammit

boredoms were playing last week and i just found out. i think i'm going to compile a list of awesome shows that i've missed this year. pre-boredoms, we've already got the mag fields, and the mountain goats.

/regex art/

i wonder if anyone has thought of creating literary art using regular expressions. i'm thinking of something along the lines of e.e.cummings but with regular expressions as modifiers instead of whitespace. ideally, it would still hold meaning for the casual viewer, while offering up hidden treats for the l33t.

hmm - now, i'm afraid to google it, because i'll find that someone has already stolen my genius idea before i even thought of it.

and yes - i know that examples would be nice, but it is still only in the concept phase. which means that this may not quite be the genius idea that i made it out to be, once i flesh it out a bit.

telephone hunting

Who knew that buying a regular old phone - the kind that you use for your standard landline hookup - could be such a pain?!! Having only used hand-me-down units for the past several years, and given that my work-from-home schedule requires me to get something slightly less craptastic, I found myself in the market for a new phone. However, the people designing these phones would appear to have never used one before. Seriously, I went in looking for a pretty basic set of features:

• Mute
• Speakerphone
• Ringer on/off switch
• Caller ID
• Cordless handset

Unfortunately, modern phones seem to be chock full of useless features that are never the ones you need. For some reason cordless handsets are getting their design inspirations from cellphones. WTF?? Cellphones are getting smaller to make them easier to fit into your pocket, not because they feel comfortable to hold or talk into. I like the bulkiness of a large handset as you cradle it between your neck and shoulder. Cellphones are actually really cumbersome to use because they are typically the wrong shape and size for an ergonomically sound phone conversation. Now why would you make cordless phones increasingly smaller? Who the hell wants to carry a cordless phone in their pocket? Talk about misguided design choices!

In addition to making these things small and sleek, the manufacturers seem to throw in things like bluetooth and musical ringtones. But it doesn't occur to them to include a mute button or a fracking off switch. Grrr!

And you can't just get a simple phone any more without getting 4 additional handsets to decorate your house. In the end, I got the one phone that the customer rep was embarrassed to have in stock. The "grandma" phone as we like to call it:

Complete with a flashing visual ringer for when the baby is asleep!

James Joyce Predicts the Winner of the Super Bowl

Thusly and thricely slaked he uptrod the spiral staircase and fancied for himself only a briny frieze.

— Give out, Jesuit, or forever in peace may you lie.

Sardonic, sardonic was the smile then adopted. It can twist forever (if the vicars will allow, if the oxen pull the plow).

— Dearly beloved, he quipped through shut mouth, did not Rapunzel cry from on high?

She skipped with a slow whistle to the first stone slab. As at Young Colin's, on the eve of Fata Morgana, all rose quietly. How could it be remiss?

Thanatopsis. Requiescat In Pace.

Prediction: Unclear

JJ and other famous authors call the big game at McSweeney's.