I did this one back in April, but since it’s going around again, I figured I’d reprise my answers from back then. The only ones I’ll change are the ones where the question has changed since last time:
themouseshouse points to a job opening for a network administrator posted by spammers in Costa Rica.
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We went to the monthly Alpharetta Library sale, which (in order to celebrate the 14th anniversary of the library sale, presumably) had an Elvis impersonator singing on the front lawn.
Why is it that you never see anyone impersonating the young Elvis. Why is it always the old fat Elvis?
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Want to see how the other half lives. Try out the Online Orgasmic Simulator
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Couple of interesting spams this week.
The first was advertising “Christian Debt Management”, promising debt relief with a “Christian perspective”. I had a picture of an earnest young man in a shirt and tie sitting behind a cluttered desk, imploring a worried couple to “Render unto Visa that which is Visa’s….”
The other one that caught my eye boldly promised to help me achieve “The best sex I probably ever had.” Now, I’m not a marketing genius, but….probably. Way to hedge your bets there, guys.
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Most interesting news story of the week came courtesy of NPR’s All Things Considered on October 1, when they interviewed Andre Tolme, a man who is golfing across Mongolia. (Requires RealAudio to hear the actual story.) I also found Andre Tolme’s webpage.
An interview with Don Woods, one of the original authors of the Adventure text game!
Thanks to hitchhiker for the link!
I don’t know why, but this just made my week! 🙂
http://www.lasermonks.com
So tonight we moved our Usenet servers to our new data centre. All went pretty smoothly, aside from one stripped rackmount screw that we had to expend a good deal of effort dislodging.
Usenet was one of my first real online communities. I hung out on a few BBSes before I got on the Internet proper, and UMNews on BITNET was a sort of proto-usenet, but, really, it was on newsgroups that I first really became a PART of the online world. There was no world-wide web then. There was only e-mail, and glorious Usenet.
Which brings me to Russ Allbery’s Usenet Rant. I once had a copy of this printed out and posted over my desk. It’s a constant reminder of why I do what I do for a living, and why I do what I do in my spare time. It’s why I’ve poured my heart into sustaining projects like JediMUD and FilkNet.
Go read it. Here, there be wisdom: http://www.usenet2.org/rant.txt
And when we come to think of it, goodness is uneventful. It does not flash, it grows. It is deep, quiet, and very simple. It passes not with oratory, it is commonly foreign to riches, nor does it often sit in the places of the mighty; but may be felt in the touch of a friendly hand or the look of a kindly eye.
–David Grayson
Tuesday was certainly a mix of a day. On the whole, it was positive, but…
OK, this is too amusing not to share.
Radiohead Rorschach
An innocent fifth grader’s picture is worth a thousand-word critical analysis.
BY ROB HARVILLA
It is no longer possible to have an original opinion on Radiohead.
You’ve absorbed the deified albums, quarreled over the rock critic pontifications, frowned at the guarded, combative interviews. Thom Yorke’s ugly-stick-beaten mug has peered at you from the pages of every magazine known to man; his every word and every note has ignited its own individual Internet flame war. Mass media has bombarded us with Radiohead critique, rendering us unable to generate an unfiltered opinion of our own.
When you listen to Radiohead, you’re no longer actually listening to Radiohead — you’re listening to everyone’s opinion about Radiohead. It’s impossible to separate what you hear from what you’ve read. You are betrayed by what you know, and you know way too much.
Thus, in order to solicit an honest, undiluted opinion about Radiohead, you’d have to find the proverbial People Living Under Rocks. As People Living Under Rocks are unavailable, let’s use fifth graders.
(link found via John Scalzi)
I know kitanzi would murder me in my sleep if I started dragging junk like this into the house, but…
Steve Wozniak OK’s Apple I replicas
My first computer was an Apple ][, and I adored it. I used it up until it finally gave up the ghost sometime in 1991, and replaced it with an Amiga. I didn’t actually own a PC until 1994, when I began teaching computer applications and programming at a business school in Athens, GA, and found it useful to have the platform I was teaching at my home. And the whole history of computers is a fascination for me. Too cool!
(linked via lysana. Thanks!)
I don’t do politics very often, and maybe I should, but sometime in my late 20s I lost my stomach for it. On the other hand, this is important stuff. As Mike Peterson pointed out once, “To see people dismiss “politics” as a topic no more compelling than golf or the latest sitcom is very frightening. It’s like someone walking across a superhighway but casually saying that they aren’t interested in automobiles so they don’t bother to look.”
So take a moment of your time and read this interview with NY Times columnist Paul Krugman which appeared in Kevin Drum’s blog CalPundit.
Don’t skip it. Cause, y’know, this is important stuff.