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Firing an employee for blogging without a discussion, warning or an official policy is lame and a sign of a company that has its priorities backwards.
I'd cancel my account with them, but damned if I remember what email address I used. Instead, I'll just have to link to Jeremy's screenshot. Almost as good.. not quite.
[via: Jeremy]
I had a $30 iTunes gift certificate to spend and sadly, the music selections looked quite unappealing -- I either already have all the music I like or I just don't connect to modern music anymore. Can't quite decide, but that's a whole separate discussion. Instead, I decided to go for an audio-book. An international best-seller is usually a semi-safe bet (only semi, after all, Grisham of the-same-book-over-and-over-again is on that list) and I purchased Dan Brown's The DaVinci code (correct, I have not actually read it yet).
I like this audio-book thing. I listened in the car, at the gym, while doing the dishes. This really works out great for me. It took a little bit to get used to the reader's style of faking accents and making women characters sound like fainting transvestites.. but once I got over that part I was able to really get into the book (it's a fast paced triller filled with semi-historical data so it was entertaining) and actually enjoy it.
It's only too bad it costs more to get an audio-book in an mp3 format than it is to get an actual hard cover copy.. I think I'll mostly stick to the free selection. That is unless I get more iTunes certificates (actually, audible.com is cheaper). I envision being able to read, err... listen to more books with this whole book-on-iPod thing -- for me that's a good thing, my free time is about nil.
Once upon a time I used to spend time and effort reading rumors on usenet (back when it was useful) about new! improved! faster! sexier! processors. 200mhz! Oh, I remember that one well. I couldn't afford the Intel wonder but I did get the Cyrix (anyone remember them?) for $400 about a week after it first came hot-fresh and new off the assembly lines. At the time, that was a lot of money for me -- so it was definitely a sacrifice. I was at the top of technology -- following the news, getting the newest and greatest and processing the hell out of my computer.
I remember the 300, the 600.. who can forget the 1ghz? That was something. Somewhere along the way things changed.. I'm stuck in a time warp. My desktop is a dual 600mhz Intel (and I got those for free, they used to run the original dslreports website).. and well, it's good enough. My laptop is a mere 1.25ghz (g4, mind you) and it's just fine and dandy. My work desktop is somewhere in the 2ghz range (I don't even know where) and that's fine and dandy too.. sure, it builds our code fast... that's nice, I suppose.
I just don't care anymore. Somewhere somehow I saw a reference to a 3ghz cpu. First reaction was "when did that happen?".. second was.. "oh I don't care anyway". In a way that's a bit liberating -- I no longer have to spend far too much money to stay on top of things (I just don't care anymore) -- but it's also a bit sad. Somewhere along the way the whole speed race lost its magic.
Here's to the 5ghz cpu, early, bet I won't notice it on time anyway.
Today our office is moving from the big, spacious and more-than-half empty building we've been occupying in Wallingford for five years (me, only the last three-and-a-half) to a much smaller, compact and cheaper suite in Meriden.
I'm going to miss my big desk, window and well, space. I'm definitely going to miss space. The cubicles (no more office for me!) are less than 7x7.. and the unfortunate choice of furniture fills them quite completely. I'll be lucky if I don't bruise my knees when rotating in my chair. I think the addition of a keyboard tray will make me sit in a hallway. I'll find out tomorrow.
Perhaps it won't be as bad as it seemed from the floor plan.. but.. I'm not holding my breath.
My area was assigned the number 13 for the move.
My server was down earlier today for mysterious reasons. A switch at the data center was cycled and my box never came back on (the only one that didn't).
Bang-head-on-wall *check*
# uptime
22:52:34 up 206 days, 23:19, 1 user, load average: 109.87, 62.86, 27.35
Don't ask :)
I am getting quite annoyed with how some people decide to limit their spam intake. I don't like spam in my inbox either, this is why I use spamassassin and bayesian filtering in my email client. It works quite well, I rarely see any crap in my inbox. Some people take the other route: make others do the work for them.
Well guess what, when you're asking for an e-mail from a busy website that automates e-mail processing you better either not use a tool that requires a challenge-response from the server or learn how to use it properly (whitelist).
To all those people who allow challenge e-mails to go out as a response to a solicited-automated email, phbbfft. You will just not get the e-mail and not be able to use half the features on the website, too freaking bad. This is no way to fight spam -- it's just a way to annoy others.
I've never been what one may call a "sports fan" , I wouldn't even qualify as an occasional admirer of the finer points of contouring ones body to achieve some impossible timing in some irrational sport, but it's hard to not hear about the Olympics. Even my friend Matt, a programmer of unquestionable geek-quality brought up the Olympics in a conversation earlier today. He did, however, have the right idea. "The Olympics should be in the nude!". And why not, I say.
We took the Olympics back to its place of birth, good old Greece, why not go a step further and take them back to the roots? In the buff, all the way. Forget the silly swimming trunks, clingy costumes and running singlets (it's not like they cover much anyway). Slather the athletes in oil until the glisten and let them shine in a whole new way. After all, if there is anyone who deserves to prance around in the nude in front of thousands of people and camera lights, it's the athletes with their sculpted muscles, tight skin and fine physiques. It would be the ultimate spectator sport -- forget nude beaches with hairy old men and cellulite-covered women -- bring on the olive oil and summer athletes!
Even I would watch the Olympics then, heck, I'd subscribe to cable.
Although, maybe raise the entry age to 18 first.
For those unfamiliar with it, craigslist is a quirky, eclectic and fantastic online community for well, just about anything. I was recently happy to discover they now have a Hartford edition (although it is rather slow in growth.. unless you count the casual encounters section.. but that's a whole other animal) and was looking forward to the Hartford classified section growing in volume. It seems that today Ebay bought a 25% stake in craigslist. What will that mean? I think we can say goodbye to the largely uncensored, quirky community and welcome Yet Another Boring Classifieds Site.
I can hear the accountants and lawyers gnashing their teeth on new posting rules already. How sad.
Craig's post about it.
 |
| In the October and December issues.
Original can be found here.
Pretty cool! First time ever a photograph of mine will appear in a magazine.. even if it is just an ad... and.. Canadian :) |
It's been raining and thundering all day today and I'm feeling lazy. That means veggie burgers for dinner (I have the routine down to less than 10 minutes including fresh veggie slices and spicy spread) and watching some movie I've seen 10 times (hmm.. feels like an Indiana Jones night) with my favorite buddy while doing some light no-brain-required work on the powerbook.
That's about when I discovered an obscure server I once used to rely on for my email appears to be bouncing messages destined to my inbox.. No problem.. login in, fix sendmail (cough) all happy again. A realization struck me. This is the first time I logged into that system in about 2 years.. and I remembered the root password.
My brain always amazes me.. I have trouble remembering where I left my cell phone half the time (until it rings, I mean buzzes) yet I can remember a root password (one of those good ones, random numbers, letters and let's not forget mixed case and a sprinkling of funky symbols) I have not used in three years. That's not all.. actually.. I can remember login passwords to all kinds of systems.
We geeks are just wired oddly. Time to sprinkle some ssh keys though.
RAGM - Random Access Geek Memory - Remember all things obscure forget the useful ones.
.. but this is such a horrendously bad translation (I wonder from what language?) that it deserves to be retained for posterity..
Dearest Hot- Client! I am "Gradually H. Juliana", and I work on Reasonable-ProgramTools corporation. You realy is very momentous for our organization! You spend your banknot and time on my organization, and I like to let you know that our organization have conclude update of soft listings. Our firm like remind u that our firm suggesting that this time Our firm have more greater program-listings popular soft for huga cheap value with Your personal Buyer concession. would you be so kind as expend Time of yours dearly-bought time to test our Updated oem-soft catalogue righ here: <url removed> Truly yours, Customers Service subdivision, "Gradually H. Juliana"
This was just a test to see if people read spam, right?
There's a local deli I like to visit for those days when I crave a hot lunch and do not feel like patronizing the lovely selection of chains available to me here in suburban hell. This is a bit of an eclectic place, they sell hot meals, hand-crafted jewelry and assorted "nobody needs this stuff" arts & crafts.
Today I noticed something that caught my eye.. next to the door, available for sale (sadly, no price tag) was a wooden stump, - obviously to be used as a door-stop . This fine article had a piece of a chopped-off branch sticking out on one side and the carving of (what appears to be) the face of Jesus (some peoples Lord and Savior) on the other side.
I think I'll purchase it on my next visit (provided the price is under $10).. how many people can say they use Jesus as a door stop?
