i have a new roommate

Well a little spider has decided to make my room its home. While this doesn’t bother me a great deal, I have been trying somewhat half-heartedly to herd it out of my room and into the hall, where it can go and find a new home. Unfortunately, it is not cooperating. The thing makes Spiderman … Continue reading “i have a new roommate”

Well a little spider has decided to make my room its home. While this doesn’t bother me a great deal, I have been trying somewhat half-heartedly to herd it out of my room and into the hall, where it can go and find a new home. Unfortunately, it is not cooperating. The thing makes Spiderman look clumsy. It jumps around from place to place ridiculously quickly, evading all my attempts to catch it. I guess I’ll just have to learn to living with it. As long as it doesn’t start having babies or whatnot, I don’t really care all that much. How do spiders do that, anyway? Does it take two to make more?

scavhunt 2004

It’s that time of year again. Yes, the time of year where University of Chicago students team up to collect/build/collate stupid things, and make fools out of themselves in doing so. That’s right. Scavhunt! Check out this year’s list to see what things people are going to be making/doing until Sunday. Yeah, I know the … Continue reading “scavhunt 2004”

It’s that time of year again. Yes, the time of year where University of Chicago students team up to collect/build/collate stupid things, and make fools out of themselves in doing so. That’s right. Scavhunt! Check out this year’s list to see what things people are going to be making/doing until Sunday.

Yeah, I know the site is completely slashdotted right now, but let’s add a little bit to their pain :). Slashdot linking directly to a 365KB file on a small desktop machine must have brought the said poor machine to its knees.

the ‘wilder side’ of the internet

Was just reading Slashdot, and got pointed to a NYT article that examines the usefulness of IRC today. When I say ‘examine’, I use the word in just about the loosest sense possible. Basically, its a piece that derides IRC as being the backwater of the net where all the warez and script kiddies hang … Continue reading “the ‘wilder side’ of the internet”

Was just reading Slashdot, and got pointed to a NYT article that examines the usefulness of IRC today. When I say ‘examine’, I use the word in just about the loosest sense possible. Basically, its a piece that derides IRC as being the backwater of the net where all the warez and script kiddies hang out, and where not a whole lot of legitimate stuff happens. They say that it’s hard to find a decent technical conversation on IRC. Funny, I seem to have them daily. I guess they just spend too much time hanging out of EFNet. It’s not often that the NYT really does trashy reporting, but this has to qualify as one of those times.

gmail desperation

A picture speaks a thousand words … even a doctored one :). This picture no longer surprises me after reading some of the emails I’ve gotten and after reading the Gmail Community forums at Orkut. Thanks to Chris Hintz for sending that in. Also, to those of you who are still emailing me for Gmail … Continue reading “gmail desperation”

A picture speaks a thousand words … even a doctored one :). This picture no longer surprises me after reading some of the emails I’ve gotten and after reading the Gmail Community forums at Orkut.

Will work for Gmail

Thanks to Chris Hintz for sending that in.

Also, to those of you who are still emailing me for Gmail invites and to whom I have not replied: I don’t have any more Gmail invites. When I get them, I’m likely to get just two, and I already have some friends in line. So unless I get like more than 20 invites or something somehow, I’m not going to be giving them out to random people who email me. If I do get more invites than I know what to do with, my blog readers will be the first people to know about it.

thefacebook.com: new time sink

Well, I just signed up for TheFaceBook, which has turned out to be a real big time sink, because its really cool. It’s basically like Orkut, but just a lot more useful, and has far far more people who I know on it. They have a “visualize friends network” thingy, which is supposed to pop … Continue reading “thefacebook.com: new time sink”

Well, I just signed up for TheFaceBook, which has turned out to be a real big time sink, because its really cool. It’s basically like Orkut, but just a lot more useful, and has far far more people who I know on it.

They have a “visualize friends network” thingy, which is supposed to pop up an SVG render of a person’s network, but they send it as svgz (gzip-encoded SVG) without including a “Content-Encoding: gzip” HTTP header, so Mozilla/Firefox barfs on the svgz (because of the server misconfiguration). I shot them off an email about it, including telling them how to fix it. One of my friends who I bcc’ed on the email also sent them a line about it as well. I just hope that it doesn’t fall on deaf ears and they fix it, because its a really cool feature, except that it doesn’t work right now except on IE with the Adobe SVG plugin. If they fix the “Content-Encoding: gzip” HTTP header issue for svgz files then everything will be good.

an update on the iraqi liberation

I just though I’d prepare a short checklist of things that the US-led ‘liberators’ were supposed to have provided in Iraq: 1) Security…….not quite. 2) Water……not really. 3) Stable electricity……maybe later. 4) Freedom of speech…..I guess not. 5) Democracy…..you must be kidding. 6) Rule of law…..laws? what laws? So what have the Iraqis gotten from … Continue reading “an update on the iraqi liberation”

I just though I’d prepare a short checklist of things that the US-led ‘liberators’ were supposed to have provided in Iraq:

1) Security…….not quite.
2) Water……not really.
3) Stable electricity……maybe later.
4) Freedom of speech…..I guess not.
5) Democracy…..you must be kidding.
6) Rule of law…..laws? what laws?

So what have the Iraqis gotten from their liberators?

1) A new flag.
2) They now know how to make naked human pyramids.
3) Training in the art of being a wired up scarecrow.
4) Lessons in various kinds of humiliation.

So if they’re not getting their basic needs, at least they’re getting a taste of some of these other fine arts that the American and British troops seem so well versed in. So yeah, thanks America. The Iraqis love you. Or not.

Writing about this blog brought back memories of My Lai, another example of American soliders at their finest.

donald rumsfeld must be embarassed, if not, he damn well should be

So the United States is going to pull out of Falluja, and leave its protection to the ‘Falluja Protection Army’, comprised of Iraqis. What this effectively means is that the United States thinks it has no prospects of successfully controlling the city, so instead, they’re just going to cut and run and let the locals … Continue reading “donald rumsfeld must be embarassed, if not, he damn well should be”

So the United States is going to pull out of Falluja, and leave its protection to the ‘Falluja Protection Army’, comprised of Iraqis. What this effectively means is that the United States thinks it has no prospects of successfully controlling the city, so instead, they’re just going to cut and run and let the locals deal with the mayhem they created instead.

I guess the Bush administration is at least smarter than the Vietnam-era administrations, in that they know when they’ve lost and when to pack up and run away. Having said that, I still think its amusing that the most powerful nation in the world is having such huge problems maintaining security in Iraq. Cakewalk indeed. God forbid, should Bush be re-elected (please no!), at least he’ll think twice before trying to flex America’s muscle elsewhere in the Middle East. Bush and the brain behind him (Rumsfeld) certainly get failing grades for their performance in Iraq. Pretty sub-par, guys. Don’t you think?

gmail invites on ebay. go figure.

Well it was bound to happen sooner or later. I’m just surprised it didn’t happen sooner. There are Gmail invites available on eBay. If you’re really desperate, go and check them out. I just can’t believe that some idiots are trying to have one week auctions on these. These are 24 hour auction material, if … Continue reading “gmail invites on ebay. go figure.”

Well it was bound to happen sooner or later. I’m just surprised it didn’t happen sooner. There are Gmail invites available on eBay. If you’re really desperate, go and check them out. I just can’t believe that some idiots are trying to have one week auctions on these. These are 24 hour auction material, if even that. In a week these things will probably be worthless (not that they’re worth paying for right now when they’re so readily available for free).

Anyway, here’s the link if you feel like checking them out.