When a Math/Compsci Professor comes to your apartment, peeks his head around a corner and exclaims

- with sarcasm, suprise, and a hint of disgust -

“Oh look. Another computer.”

The UAL story – as a parable – is too good to be true. (As fact, it seems patently unfair to UAL.)

As a cautionary tale, it got even better – expanding on the chaotic complexity of interacting state machines:

Single Web Hit Led to UAL Glitch, Tribune Says – WSJ.com

Missed Last HOPE? Wanted to hear the OpenSSL lecture but couldn’t get into Turing?

The ridiculously overpriced DVDs ($20 per talk, $100 for ten) of the lectures are being ripped and tracked here.

Note that the video quality issues (poor color and contrast) are DVD issues, not a consequence of the ripping.

But I wanted to finally close this tab.

Bedspread line named ‘Nazi Collection’ outrages Indian Jews – CNN.com

At least they weren’t planning to include lampshades and soap in their home furnishings line.

As an aside, I wonder what basis the Jewish community has to sue / seek an injunction (as mentioned in the article). I wouldn’t be surprised, given its history, that India has laws prohibiting the defamation of religion or some such.

Haven’t posted in ages, mostly cause I’ve been having too much fun biking around the city on my new bike.  I’ll post pics when I’m done adding/swapping parts to my liking.

See what they’re doing to your ‘hood, while you’re away:

StreetFilms » Take a Virtual Tour of NYC’s First Chartreuse Bike Lane

You know, I was tempted  to entitle this post “Supergood,” but that would have been too much the cliche – whether or not it has been used to describe Superbad, which I just saw.  Somehow it smacks of the trite wordplay I expect from the Post or the Daily News, neither of which I care to emulate.  Moreover, it’s just not true -  the movie was good, better than expected of its genre, but still, it dragged at times.  It did have me laughing out loud at moments, but not nearly as much as I expected from the trailers.

Incidentally, I have to get mp4s working under Debian more reliably.   More on that later, in another post.

Back to the flick.  Worth seeing.  Serious kudos are owed for a film which makes all three of its objets d’lust brunettes.  In doing so, it avoided an idiotic cliche; not all men prefer blondes, yet still prefer women.

But I can’t, nor can I be bothered to figure out how to do so. Let me point out one simple fact… If that character defines the set of people who find you acceptable, likable – or rather, you believe this to be so – you carry the small, small soul of a politician, and must deal with the simple fact that I am the backwards E that is bringing your shit down.

Moreover, if you did not understand the above paragraph, nor did you engage in the five minutes of consultation with Google or Wikipedia, or lord forgive us, a book, that might cure you of ignorance – ignorance not being a crime, sin, or disease, but the total inability to remedy it being all three – if you did not understand, than you are simply the type that I care to offend, the burden on goodness which allows me to say, “Well Lord, I am not much, but at least I am not that.”

More on this later.

For now, a mere thought that has been bothering me. Many people write. Some even have some skill. A select few are truly good. Whether I belong to the ultimate or penultimate class, I care enough to edit, to read aloud, to avoid reuse – you know, the basic artisanry of writing. So why is it, that the bulk of personal writing that even I am willing to put out into the world, is the horrid, horrid, shit that fills many a tower of blog? Yes, I apologize – this blog’s content is tepid, the prose unedited – and not in a good (i.e. avoid the NC-17) way. Isn’t it odd that I am not unique in that; of all the things we commit to paper or Word format or HTML, why is it that we choose the least of it to disseminate to the world?

That the answer is clear makes it no less disheartening.

A last point: some TV shows are really good enough to make me consider going outside, buying a pack of smokes, and relighting the habit. Californication seems to be one of those shows – I can’t remember laughing so hard, naturally. It deserves some time and a chance.

Took my Technician class amateur radio test yesterday at Columbia. I easily passed. Thus, I also made a mistake. The Technician exam is currently far easier (arguably too easy) than the test I planned to take a year or two ago. Frankly, I spent a day studying the regulation question pool and was ready – but for a little more time, I could have done the General exam. In the end, I suppose, it does not matter, as I will just take General+Extra in a month or two.

Now I just wait for the license to appear on ULS.
Now to figure out what radio to buy in the meantime….

Clearly, the Zionist Plot proceeds apace.

• From the Washington Post (via the BBC): “A few weeks ago, 14 squirrels equipped with espionage systems of foreign intelligence services were captured by [Iranian] intelligence forces along the country’s borders. These trained squirrels, each of which weighed just over 700 grams, were released on the borders of the country for intelligence and espionage purposes. According to the announcement made by Iranian intelligence officials, alert police officials caught these squirrels before they could carry out any task.”

• Directly from the BBC: “British blamed for Basra badgers – …UK military spokesman Major Mike Shearer said: “We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area… …One housewife, Suad Hassan, 30, claimed she had been attacked by one of the badgers as she slept. ‘My husband hurried to shoot it but it was as swift as a deer,” she said. “It is the size of a dog but his head is like a monkey,’ she told AFP.”

I think this proves the great diversity now afforded by the West. After all, for too long, following the doctrine espoused by the infamous Judeo-Christian World Zionist Plot, by Big and Little Americas (aka, Satan) – an ancient document dating back to the early 3^rd grade – only Zionist dogs and Zionist swine were permitted in the Western ranks. The inevitable children produced by the mixture of the noble legions were also allowed: the valued zionistische Schweinhünde. It brings joy to the heart to see the opportunities of Western decadence offered to an wider array of members of the powerful Phylum Chordata. In turn, this will secure dominance in the air, on land, and sea. Still, in light of these news reports, two things are clear.

• Iranians are better hunters than Iraqis. After all, the Iranians managed to catch squirrels alive, while the Iraqi could not manage to hit a 30 lb. dog-monkey. Come on guys, can’t Juma give you some shooting tips?

• The only animal sympathetic to the plight of Dar al-Islam is the the mouse. Walt Disney would be proud at how the image of mice has been rehabilitated. Once the mascot of the World Zionist Government, now the mouse too suffers under the oppressive heel of the Jewish conspiracy. (Though he seems to suffer from geographical issues as well; somehow “Tel Rabi” has moved to the soon to be liberated Jerusalem).