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Archive of entries posted on June 2008

“Ballmer to Google: You’re a one-hit wonder”

“Pot, meet kettle.”

Weekend Trip

GoddessJ had a wedding shower to attend, so we packed up and took an overnight trip to the shores of Lake Huron. It was interesting… I saw a large number of power-generating windmills, including a couple that were still being put together (the first time I’d seen them close up — they’re freakin’ huge! I [...]

“Heavyweight physics prof weighs into climate/energy scrap”

The climate-change debate isn’t finished, but a British scientist has put some hard numbers on the various carbon-neutral energy plans that people have put forward for dealing with it. Interesting reading.

“What I learned from a dumb terminal”

A good tip for any kind of remote troubleshooting — hardware or software.

Follow-up on “Spam from spock.com” Post

Earlier this week, I posted a rant about three near-identical spam messages I’d received from spock.com. It turns out that they (apparently) weren’t spam at all, but that the site was contacting me on behalf of someone (as yet unknown) who had my addresses listed as part of their contacts. The messages were supposed to [...]

“Water Ice Found on Mars”

Yes, the Phoenix lander has found water ice! With water-ice proven to exist on Mars, it becomes a lot more likely that life, of some familiar sort, could be there too. It also means that human habitation of Mars could be viable (a lack of water would make a Mars colony prohibitively expensive). No wonder [...]

Russia Becoming Americanized!

Here’s the proof — a Russian lady turned down an offer of compensation, saying that she’d sue “for damages and compensation for moral suffering” instead. If that isn’t a totally American thing to say, I don’t know what would be.

Snail Mail — really!

If you’re a true Internet geek, you probably know about RFC 1149, the “Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers.” Yes, you read that right — it’s a way to transmit information, via Internet protocols, by homing pigeons. It was released on April first, 1990. Well, after eighteen years, it looks like [...]

Firefox 3 Download Day!

I woke up early this morning, all ready to download the official Firefox 3 onto the five computers that are presently operational here (and help them set a Guinness world record)… only to find that there’s no sign of it. Fortunately, the Firefox FAQ page includes a link to a Twitter page that says the [...]

First-Party and Third-Party Software

English is a very curious language. When talking about software, for instance, you have first-party programs (programs that are written by the same company that developed the computer or operating system that they’re run on) and third-party programs (programs written by other companies). Where are the second-party programs? For that matter, who would “the second [...]