Once again, truth proves to be stranger than fiction.
Coby MP-C7052 MP3 Player — ouch!
“It is a rare day indeed we come across a piece of technology that so utterly fails at its intended purpose,” opines CNET editor Jasmine France, “but American electronics manufacturer Coby has managed to produce just such a device […] we were a bit surprised at the atrocity of this digital audio player.”
Editor’s rating: 2.3 out of 10. “The good: Cute design. The bad: Everything else. The bottom line: Don’t bother.” Only one user review, giving it a score of 1 out of 10, and the comment “An MP3 a monkey would like.”
Ouch.
Cell Phone Billing
After having a cell phone with the same company for nearly five years, I called last month to shut it down. We don’t use it enough to justify the cost. I was told that it would have to remain active for the remainder of my billing period, which was nearly at the end of the month. Irritating, but okay, I accepted that. I asked for a confirmation number, and was airily told that I didn’t need one, I would get a notice and final bill in the mail.
Riiiiight. Continue reading ‘Cell Phone Billing’ »
“Paris Hilton Says She’s Changed”
I’ve posted several things already today, and had planned to leave the blog alone until tomorrow, but this one is just too juicy to pass up.
Since I’ve already mentioned the Paris Hilton story a few times, I figured it was okay to continue following it. From this page:
She says she was depressed after her first few days behind bars. She told Walters she wasn’t eating or sleeping, and that she felt as if she were “in a cage.”
DUH!
“David Brin Predicts the Future”
I’ve enjoyed David Brin’s science fiction works, ever since I picked up a copy of Startide Rising in the early eighties. (It’s still one of my favorite SF books.) When I saw on Boing Boing that there was an interview with him that was published a few days ago, I had to read it immediately. It’s some pretty thought-provoking stuff.
Pitagora Suicchi, and the Algorithm March with Ninjas
This is an amusing video, apparently from a children’s television show in Japan. I’ve always loved the kind of Rube Goldberg devices that it shows.
This one, on the other hand, is simply weird. Though rather amusing, in an I-don’t-quite-get-it kind of way.
“NASA chief regrets having unpopular opinion”
Is no one allowed to have or express a politically incorrect personal opinion anymore? I tend to buck group-think myself on a regular basis — it’s part of how intelligent people think, and it’s very useful, even if the thoughts often aren’t politically correct.
Yes, it appears that global warming is a reality, and the evidence suggests that we humans could be at least partly responsible for it. But he’s absolutely correct when he says “I am not sure that it is fair to say that is a problem we must wrestle with.” No one is sure of that. It would be foolish for us not to try to do something about it, whether we’re sure or not, but he’s not arguing against that. His opinion is equally valid, and he shouldn’t feel any need to apologize for holding it.
“Extraterrestrial Life Will Be Discovered Soon”
This story seems a bit daft, until you realize exactly how the scientists expect to find signs of extraterrestrial life. It actually sounds feasible.
Of course, given that a Vulcan has recently been discovered in Canada, they may not need telescopes to find extraterrestrial life.
“Priapic litigant sues health drink outfit”
Pity the aptly-named Christopher Woods, an unfortunate fellow who had a health drink and woke the next day “with an erection that would not subside.”
Who needs a pill that will make you “harder than Chinese algebra” (in the words of the great comedian Robin Williams), when you can simply down a health drink that’s readily available at any US drugstore? It’s cheaper by far, and apparently lasts a lot longer too, though the overnight wait would rather ruin the mood.
I can only imagine the spam that will follow this one.
Changing the Displayed Date Format in Ubuntu Linux: a Geek Odyssey
This morning I noticed that Thunderbird (on my new virtual Linux machine) was showing message dates in the confusing 06/10/07 format. I much prefer the ISO standard date format (2007-06-10) — not only does it prevent confusion about which is the day and which is the month, it also comes out in the proper order when text-sorted, which is sometimes quite useful. “No problem, I’ll simply change it,” thought I. “How difficult can it be?”
I should have known that asking a question like that never has a good outcome. Continue reading ‘Changing the Displayed Date Format in Ubuntu Linux: a Geek Odyssey’ »