Author: substitute

nope

The identical girls

I walked on to the patio tonight and was immediately struck with the following scene: Two pretty 20somethings sitting in the coffeehouse, both with ponytails, both with laptops, facing the same way, sitting the same way. And I said to myself, “we live pretty near the factory, don’t we?” At one point they started talking to each other and we figured maybe they were comparing cars or boyfriends or generally having a Famille Smith moment. It was really sort of eerie.

here they are

Go Cyberverse!

For the second year in a row, my ISP has done the following:

  1. Totally screwed up the billing for months
  2. Not noticed a change in my credit card information
  3. Sent me a dunning notice for several hundred dollars with a threat to discontinue service.

Come on guys. You don’t invoice monthly, you don’t call if there’s a problem, you barely keep records, and suddenly after months of this crap you want $700. Remember last year, when you did this? And apologized? And billed me an extra $20 a month to get your money back slowly? REMEMBER?

Capitalism shouldn’t be this hard.

Edit: The mess was worked out to mutual satisfaction. One advantage of the small ISP is that when the shit hits the fan, you can get someone on the phone who has the authority and the time to deal with your problem. I’d still recommend these guys, with the caveat that you need to get invoiced monthly or you’re fucked.

Professional driver. Closed course. Do not attempt.

It is important for stockholder value for the sysadmin to be sitting under fluorescent lights for 8 hours during times of possible high server load.

Christmas in the WHAT

I don’t think we’ve gone far enough with fantasy sports. Sure, we’re paying to pretend to manage athletic events that we usually just watch professionals act out on the television, and that’s pretty cool. But I think we need video games that simulate fantasy sports, so we can pick out fantasy teams and play against computer opponents and each other, live, networked. And then, we should have a feature film based on that video game. And a novelization of the feature film. And a children’s book based on the novelization of the feature film of the video game of the virtual management of athletic events played by professionals on TV. And finally we can put those characters on footballs and have the kids throw them around. Then we can organize them into leagues…

Yesterday I saw an ad for Norwegian sardines on public television.

We sail tonight for Singapore
The whole town’s made of iron ore!