A recent copying error (of an email address) got me to wondering about the difficulty of teaching an old dog new tricks. It was only in the last year that I finally got rid of my keypunch machine, so I'm not what you would necessarily call the most forward thinking technologist. :-)
I also fondly remember how my colleagues and I used to deride editors such as vi and emacs as "Fool Screen Editors". We believed that if you made it easy for fools to use computers they would do foolish things with them. Come to think of it, we were dead-on in that prediction (though few people today would call those editors "easy").
And don't even get me started on WYSIWYG word processors! If you couldn't hack TeX or troff you had no business writing anything in the first place!
Gotta go feed my mouse.
Monday, March 28, 2005
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Divine Intervention
A recent reference by Gene Bob about Divine Intervention (in this case a lightning strike on the transmission tower broadcasting Air America) caused me to recall a Divine extortion scheme involving Oral Roberts.
In 1987 Oral Roberts informed his flock that God had appeared to him and demanded that he raise US$8 million by March of that year or God would "call him home". There was immediately a campaign mounted under the banner "LORD", which stood for Let Oral Roberts Die. The goal was to convince people to NOT contribute to Oral Roberts' fund raising effort!
The "LORD" button was quite popular on the UT campus. Sadly, I didn't save one of the buttons. And, of course, Oral is still with us.
In 1987 Oral Roberts informed his flock that God had appeared to him and demanded that he raise US$8 million by March of that year or God would "call him home". There was immediately a campaign mounted under the banner "LORD", which stood for Let Oral Roberts Die. The goal was to convince people to NOT contribute to Oral Roberts' fund raising effort!
The "LORD" button was quite popular on the UT campus. Sadly, I didn't save one of the buttons. And, of course, Oral is still with us.
Sunday, March 20, 2005
I don't wanna grow up / When I was your age
As Gene Bob reported recently, I just celebrated a birthday. One of the benefits of having kids (and sometimes there don't seem to be many) is that birthdays have to have gifts and cake. So I asked for a Lego X-Wing Fighter. And I always get what I want!
But it makes one think... I can remember a time when I was thrilled that my parents had given me an empty box from the Dixie™ paper cups. It had a clear plastic window in it! Pure Joy! I didn't have a cool space toy, but I had a box with a plastic window in it!
All together now... And I was grateful!
Unfortunately, my younger brother was as upset about me getting the Dixie cup box as I was happy to have it. So he pushed me down the stairs to the basement.
But it makes one think... I can remember a time when I was thrilled that my parents had given me an empty box from the Dixie™ paper cups. It had a clear plastic window in it! Pure Joy! I didn't have a cool space toy, but I had a box with a plastic window in it!
All together now... And I was grateful!
Unfortunately, my younger brother was as upset about me getting the Dixie cup box as I was happy to have it. So he pushed me down the stairs to the basement.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Dandelion Crop
I pay my kids 10¢ for each dandelion they bring me from my yard — as long as it hasn't gone to seed yet. If it's gone to seed they get fined (15¢). Of course they've figured out that it's best to quietly destroy the ones that have gone to seed so that I don't find them.
Thankfully, they don't yet appear to be cultivating dandelions, though I'm sure they'll figure out the financial benefit of that someday. :-)
Thankfully, they don't yet appear to be cultivating dandelions, though I'm sure they'll figure out the financial benefit of that someday. :-)
Incredible!
The Incredibles was released on DVD yesterday and my (much) better half found it for sale at Target for only $15.99. It was even coupled with a coupon for a 4-pack of flavored fizzy water.
We're the sort of parents who prescreen movies before letting our kids watch them and usually try to have the first kid viewing during daylight hours. Maybe that's overprotective, but pundits are getting increasingly concerned, as am I, about the accelerated aging of our children. I'd prefer to allow my kids to be innocent for a bit longer, though it's hard to do unless you home school (which I personally think is a mistake).
Anyway, I watched The Incredibles last night and loved it! Two big toes up!
There is no profanity, no nudity, only the faintest hint of sexuality. The violence is bloodless, all body parts remain attached, and no internal organs are exposed or removed. If your kids can handle Popeye™ or Tom & Jerry™ or other classic cartoons then they can probably handle The Incredibles.
We plan on having a pizza-and-movie picnic in the living room this weekend. I'm sure it'll be incredible. :-)
We're the sort of parents who prescreen movies before letting our kids watch them and usually try to have the first kid viewing during daylight hours. Maybe that's overprotective, but pundits are getting increasingly concerned, as am I, about the accelerated aging of our children. I'd prefer to allow my kids to be innocent for a bit longer, though it's hard to do unless you home school (which I personally think is a mistake).
Anyway, I watched The Incredibles last night and loved it! Two big toes up!
There is no profanity, no nudity, only the faintest hint of sexuality. The violence is bloodless, all body parts remain attached, and no internal organs are exposed or removed. If your kids can handle Popeye™ or Tom & Jerry™ or other classic cartoons then they can probably handle The Incredibles.
We plan on having a pizza-and-movie picnic in the living room this weekend. I'm sure it'll be incredible. :-)
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
10 MPG
I saw a pick'em-up truck today with 10 MPG on its vanity license plate. Some vanity plates are a challenge to figure out (like "FXUN8" :-), but this wasn't one of them. It was on a jacked up Ford F-250 Super Duty with oversized tires, 4-wheel drive, and a V10 engine. So I think it's safe to assume that his plate refers to his gas mileage.
Which leaves me to wonder, is he bragging? If so, what does his other vehicle's vanity tag say? 80 IQ? HSDROPOUT? 4 INCHES?
Which leaves me to wonder, is he bragging? If so, what does his other vehicle's vanity tag say? 80 IQ? HSDROPOUT? 4 INCHES?
Monday, March 07, 2005
From the Big House to the Trailer Park
By now we've all had time to adjust to the fact that Martha is out of prison. She will be spending the next 5 months under Estate Arrest at her "winter" home (on 150+ acres) in New York.
Talking Heads are chattering endlessly about the resurgence of the Martha Stewart brand since she entered prison. Of course they talked about how her demeanor prior to prison hurt her image, but they've talked more about her "transformation" in prison. She is even rumored to be concerned about (women's) prisoner's rights. Then it hit me! It's BRILLIANT!
Where can you buy Martha Stewart™ branded products? K-Mart. Who shops at K-Mart? The kind of people who would be pleased to know that Martha is concerned about the treatment of prisoners!
Martha was always an inspiration to the little people. Martha's "style" wasn't about purchasing expensive things, but about making them. From scratch. Rich people, if they watched her shows at all, used it for ideas to give to decorators and caterers. The rest of us thought, "I can do that." Of course it was a farce, because even Martha couldn't do that without the effort and expertise of an army of assistants, but that was hidden from us. We would look at Martha and all her riches and finery and pretend that she made it all from the same kinds of scraps that we throw away every day.
And while we may have been upset with the idea that Martha had gone all uppity on us with her insider trading and all, her stint in prison reaffirmed her connection to the little people. And now she's going to be helping us fight for better treatment for Bubba and Betty-Jo when they find themselves in the lock-up because of the basic injustice of the world run by the haves (who look just like Martha).
Talking Heads are chattering endlessly about the resurgence of the Martha Stewart brand since she entered prison. Of course they talked about how her demeanor prior to prison hurt her image, but they've talked more about her "transformation" in prison. She is even rumored to be concerned about (women's) prisoner's rights. Then it hit me! It's BRILLIANT!
Where can you buy Martha Stewart™ branded products? K-Mart. Who shops at K-Mart? The kind of people who would be pleased to know that Martha is concerned about the treatment of prisoners!
Martha was always an inspiration to the little people. Martha's "style" wasn't about purchasing expensive things, but about making them. From scratch. Rich people, if they watched her shows at all, used it for ideas to give to decorators and caterers. The rest of us thought, "I can do that." Of course it was a farce, because even Martha couldn't do that without the effort and expertise of an army of assistants, but that was hidden from us. We would look at Martha and all her riches and finery and pretend that she made it all from the same kinds of scraps that we throw away every day.
And while we may have been upset with the idea that Martha had gone all uppity on us with her insider trading and all, her stint in prison reaffirmed her connection to the little people. And now she's going to be helping us fight for better treatment for Bubba and Betty-Jo when they find themselves in the lock-up because of the basic injustice of the world run by the haves (who look just like Martha).
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Too Clever For Their Own Good
As mentioned in the previous post, I am the owner of a brand-new Compaq Presario SR1300NX computer. Due to factors beyond our control we have the need for floppy disk drive in this computer. A quick glance inside the floor model revealed that it does have both a floppy connector on the motherboard and the proper power connector on the power supply. So I opted to have what I assumed would be the cleaner option and purchased an internal floppy drive and cable.
Sadly, Compaq doesn't believe in internal floppy drives.
There is a removeable panel in the front cover between the removeable media slots (e.g. compact flash) and the front audio/USB/Firewire ports. Taking this off reveals an unused 3.5" drive bay which would be perfect for a floppy drive save for three things: first, the opening in the case faceplate is 6" wide; second, the drive bay is left justified in that space; and third, the mounting system doesn't let me mount the drive in the proper position front-to-back (it either sticks out half an inch or is recessed half an inch.
So scratch that option. There are some full size bays near the top for things like CD drives. You can buy an enclosure to hold a floppy in an attractive fashion in such a space. Unfortunately, Compaq strikes again. Apparently it just isn't sexy enough to have the front of a CD drive visible in the front, so they have a little trap door in front of two positions where they want you to install your CD/DVD drives. These trap doors are opened from the inside by the force of the disk tray opening. They even have a little button on the door which you must hope will line up properly with the eject button on your drive, if you wish to use an aftermarket drive in this beast.
I'm going to see if I can remove one of the trap doors without doing too much injury to the case. I'm hoping to use one of those floppy enclosures, though the possibility still exists that Compaq's sexy mounting system won't let me install that at the proper depth either. Oh, well. There is still the option of an external USB floppy drive.
Sadly, Compaq doesn't believe in internal floppy drives.
There is a removeable panel in the front cover between the removeable media slots (e.g. compact flash) and the front audio/USB/Firewire ports. Taking this off reveals an unused 3.5" drive bay which would be perfect for a floppy drive save for three things: first, the opening in the case faceplate is 6" wide; second, the drive bay is left justified in that space; and third, the mounting system doesn't let me mount the drive in the proper position front-to-back (it either sticks out half an inch or is recessed half an inch.
So scratch that option. There are some full size bays near the top for things like CD drives. You can buy an enclosure to hold a floppy in an attractive fashion in such a space. Unfortunately, Compaq strikes again. Apparently it just isn't sexy enough to have the front of a CD drive visible in the front, so they have a little trap door in front of two positions where they want you to install your CD/DVD drives. These trap doors are opened from the inside by the force of the disk tray opening. They even have a little button on the door which you must hope will line up properly with the eject button on your drive, if you wish to use an aftermarket drive in this beast.
I'm going to see if I can remove one of the trap doors without doing too much injury to the case. I'm hoping to use one of those floppy enclosures, though the possibility still exists that Compaq's sexy mounting system won't let me install that at the proper depth either. Oh, well. There is still the option of an external USB floppy drive.
Don't Give Me Any Ideas!
My wife decided that she just couldn't face running TurboTax this year on her old PC (266MHz Pentium 2). Gotta get a new one. Wouldn't let me build it myself (too expensive :-). So after gathering requirements and doing a bit of research on the web we ended up at the local Fry's where we picked a Compaq Presario SR1300NX ($429 with $50 mail-in rebate).
It needed more memory and a floppy, so I jotted down some info so the sales droid could write up the ticket while I went to pick up the floppy and a cable. Products in hand, I swung back 'round the information/assistance kiosk, picked up my order form and headed to checkout.
SCREEEEEECH! (sound of coming to an abrupt and lengthy halt)
The floppy I had chosen had a sticker saying it was $9.99 but the computer said it should have been $12.99. Any customer service rep worth their salt would have immediately given me the lower price (Fry's price stickers identify the product, so there was no chance that I had switched the prices) and made a note for someone to check other products on the shelf to make sure that all were properly priced. But I was at Fry's. The register monkey had to GO LOOK AT THE PRODUCTS ON THE SHELF before it could do anything OBVIOUS! :-(
While I'm waiting, still (barely) patiently, I lean up against the counter and hear a muffled POP along with a sensation of something ever so slightly giving way to my hip. "Hmmm," I think, "What was that?" I reach into my jacket pocket and find that a ketchup packet (from Whataburger) has burst. Ugh. I pull out a hand full of red, sticky, "fancy" ketchup. It looks not entirely unlike blood. Would probably look even more not entirely unlike blood were it to ooze between my fingers as they were squeezing harder and harder around the neck of the closest Fry's employee.
After cleaning up my hands I glanced at the memory module that the reg-monk had fetched from "the cage" prior to swinging off in search of the floppy aisle. It (the memory) wasn't what I needed. Since my monkey was off researching errant floppy pricing I tried to get the attention of someone else to check on the issue with my memory module. Nice idea, wrong store. My monkey returned at the same time that I succeeded in getting the attention of a manager. He must've been waiting for the Clearasil™ to dry before he talked to a customer.
By the time I had the right memory and the $9.99 price for the floppy the ketchup in my pocket was dry. I had spent AT LEAST 30 minutes at the register. No wonder I purchase most of my computer stuff over the internet — I get it faster and with less hassle!
It needed more memory and a floppy, so I jotted down some info so the sales droid could write up the ticket while I went to pick up the floppy and a cable. Products in hand, I swung back 'round the information/assistance kiosk, picked up my order form and headed to checkout.
SCREEEEEECH! (sound of coming to an abrupt and lengthy halt)
The floppy I had chosen had a sticker saying it was $9.99 but the computer said it should have been $12.99. Any customer service rep worth their salt would have immediately given me the lower price (Fry's price stickers identify the product, so there was no chance that I had switched the prices) and made a note for someone to check other products on the shelf to make sure that all were properly priced. But I was at Fry's. The register monkey had to GO LOOK AT THE PRODUCTS ON THE SHELF before it could do anything OBVIOUS! :-(
While I'm waiting, still (barely) patiently, I lean up against the counter and hear a muffled POP along with a sensation of something ever so slightly giving way to my hip. "Hmmm," I think, "What was that?" I reach into my jacket pocket and find that a ketchup packet (from Whataburger) has burst. Ugh. I pull out a hand full of red, sticky, "fancy" ketchup. It looks not entirely unlike blood. Would probably look even more not entirely unlike blood were it to ooze between my fingers as they were squeezing harder and harder around the neck of the closest Fry's employee.
After cleaning up my hands I glanced at the memory module that the reg-monk had fetched from "the cage" prior to swinging off in search of the floppy aisle. It (the memory) wasn't what I needed. Since my monkey was off researching errant floppy pricing I tried to get the attention of someone else to check on the issue with my memory module. Nice idea, wrong store. My monkey returned at the same time that I succeeded in getting the attention of a manager. He must've been waiting for the Clearasil™ to dry before he talked to a customer.
By the time I had the right memory and the $9.99 price for the floppy the ketchup in my pocket was dry. I had spent AT LEAST 30 minutes at the register. No wonder I purchase most of my computer stuff over the internet — I get it faster and with less hassle!
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