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October 31, 2005
"When you deliver a baby,
...do you remove its liver?"
Our old friend Spivey has a new website, it looks like. Always fun to see what he's up to. Don't mess with Texas.
October 27, 2005
Great Hall, great man
Last night Aimee and I went to see Paul Rusesabagina (the guy the film Hotel Rwanda was about) talk at Iowa State.
The event, while worth seeing, was made disappointing by several things:
First, the great hall was packed beyond capacity. A lot of people came to hear him speak, which is great. I think they could have planned for this better by choosing a bigger venue like Stephen's Auditorium, instead of the Great Hall of the Memorial Union set up with folding chairs.
Second, the lady who is in charge of the lecture series at Iowa State, you know who I'm talking about if you went to ISU, was even more annoying than she has been in the past. After all the seats filled up, people began simply standing along the walls. There were several hundred people standing. The lady comes out about fifteen minutes after the event was supposed to start and says they are working on getting things going, and that people are working on opening up another section of the Great Hall for people to sit, while adding "You people are slowing us down." What?? Who is she addressing? She made no mention of how "we" were slowing them down at all. She did nothing but aggravate an otherwise overcrowded (and rising-temperature) room. Then, a few minutes later, instead of politely asking people to move to the newly-available section, she says "Ok, you people are going to have to move NOW or else I'm going to get the fire marshall to make EVERYONE leave." This lady is crazy.
Third, the audio/public address system was terrible. Feedback at the beginning, a horrible echo, and the rest of the time totally over-modulated and distorted. The guy flew all the way from Belgium to speak and is one of the top-requested world-wide speakers ... can we at least get him a decent audio level?
Rusesabagina talked for a little less than an hour and then answered questions. His talk was very informative and interesting, and it was probably good that it was on the short side since everyone was cramped and uncomfortable. There were some very good questions, too. Read more about the event here.
Some of the things that Paul talked about that were different from what happened in the film (might not want to read this if you haven't seen the movie):
The last time Paul saw his brother-in-law Thomas, Paul's wife was not there at the house.
Paul's son that witnessed his friends' murder was older than depicted- he was about 14 (he looked about 7 or 8 in the movie), and didn't talk for about 4 days (if I remember correctly) after the event.
When Paul talked/bribed the guards for the lives of the people in the van for the first time, it took several hours instead of a couple minutes as in the movie.
At the time of the events, Paul actually was working at a different hotel than where everyone ended up seeking refuge, but had worked there in the past.
It sounded like when he was awoken by the gunman and demanded he be downstairs in 15 minutes, he didn't call the French hotel owner but rather local contacts, since it was 6 a.m. at the time in France (and where he was). The night before he was up until 4 a.m. faxing different people for help.
When he was separated from his wife and kids (when the wife and kids tried to flee, but Paul overheard the orders to attack the U.N. trucks on the radio), his wife was more hurt than depicted in the movie and took a week (?) in bed to recover.
October 25, 2005
In the business of doing business
There is a new business website up that I think readers will be interested in. They have some odd people working there, but it's worth taking a look.
October 24, 2005
Hotmail and IE... bane of my existance
Ok, maybe an exaggeration. But, if you are using Internet Explorer, especially on Windows, my website might look messed up. I'm working on a fix, but in the meantime... what are you doing using IE?? How do you expect to view sloppily-coded sites like mine?? Try something much better like Firefox instead....
Also, it seems I'm not the only one who has experienced this: Hotmail does not properly deliver email from Mac users using the Mail.app- with no delivery failure message. Read more about it here. (link via digg)
Celebrate mediocrity!
Ever want to be on a postage stamp? No longer do you have to be a great leader, Elvis Presley (fat or thin), or even an upside down airplane. In olden times, you had to be at least "somebody" (in the U.S., a deceased "somebody") to ever get your likeness on a postage stamp.
Well, not anymore!
Yahoo and the post office have started a service that lets you put you, your straight-C kid, or your disinterested dog on a stamp!
Your kid only known for carrying stuff on his head with a goofy grin on his face? No prob. He can be on a stamp too! Maybe he'll grow up to be president. Probably not, but maybe.
October 21, 2005
The power of teh intraweb
Ever need to look up someone's address?
...from 1938 pre-Nazi Vienna?
As a bonus, how about in less than an hour?
Behold the power of the internet...
Be sure to read the comments further down... the story gets interesting!
New List
A new list is out, and it's actually 4 months overdue (opps). It's pathetically short, but still some good puns. Check it out.
(Warning: clicking on the link will take you into the nether-regions of the old site! Watch your step!)
October 20, 2005
New Look
As you might have noticed, the site has a new look. Feel free to explore. I'm not sure if you'll find too much new, but you might break something!
Much thanks to Mark and Chase for helping me get up and running.
And, hey. I have comments now. So leave one!!
Update!
Two things of interest for computer-nerd types:
First, the origin of the :-) smiley face on computer bulletin boards (and eventually the Internet).
The symbol was suggested on September 19, 1982, by Scott Fahlman to differentiate messages meant to be "jokes." People using the Carnegie Melon bulletin board system would post messages meant to be funny (The elevator will be closed due to a mercury spill!), but were interpreted as serious. This is the first documented use of the smiley online, although some have suggested it was used by teletype operators earlier than this.
Second, it seems that researchers have cracked secret codes inserted by some laser and ink jet printers.
The codes are used by the Secret Service to track the date and time as well as the serial number of the printer. You can imagine what kind of application this could be used for tracking threatening letters to the president, Al Qaeda propaganda, and the latest Star Trek Deep Space Nine Zine.
I had no idea printers did this (you can only see the codes with a magnifying glass or microscope), but it's pretty clever. It's weird to think that people are actually paid to think these things up. ...and I have a feeling we're the ones paying them... it makes you wonder what other secret government branches thinking up. I think it justifies the tin foil helmet I wear around the house.
- -
In other news, Chewbacca is to become a U.S. citizen.
He might as well make it official... he's been busy doing other American things such as...
Throwing out first pitches...
Playing the drums...
Sitting around...
Who knows... maybe there will soon be a Mrs. Chewbacca...
What a darling...