A few hours after I moved the last boxes of junk from my old apartment into my new house, I was laid off from my job as a network engineer.
It sucks, but I knew it would happen sooner or later. Sprint had been holding the layoff axe over our heads for over a year and a half, and the latest round of rumors convinced me to really start looking for other employment.
My mom writes:
“We had a guy come into the hospital today, who had a fractured penis. I asked the doctor how something like that would happen. “Was he just being vigorous or did he have someone “enthusiastic” or gymnastic?”
“The doctor said it is usually (to put it delicately) caused by putting somewhere he shouldn’t be putting it. Also, a lot of people into S&M get penile fractures. Don’t ask me how; maybe somebody is bending it in weird positions.
Microsoft Outlook tries to be too smart for its own good. Its willingness to execute scripts and display attachments that only-heaven-knows-who may’ve sent is the reason the world heard of the MELISSA and ILOVEYOU email worms.
If you or someone you know is forced to use this steenking pile of excuse for software, by corporate policy or otherwise, you might direct them to two ways I found to give Outlook a well-deserved lobotomy: a registry hack from Microsoft to force Outlook to display email as plain text, and a different solution from Slipstick Systems that uses Outlook’s Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) implementation for good rather than evil.
Tara took a great photo of a street sign in Seattle.
When I was a wild young rebel [long hair and listened to KMFDM, grr!], we used to “correct” street signs, using black electrical tape.
“WATCH FOR LICE ON BRIDGE”
Check out the new “unofficial” beta release of Adium, complete with a Brushed Metal theme.
After tabbed message windows, the next best thing about Adium is that it supports overriding background colors and fonts. Since I prefer a nasty green-on-black terminal-style message window, people using official AIM clients tend to squeal in pain when I message them.
Another wisdom tooth is gone from my head. I’m very disturbed to be losing chunks of my skull, but it had to go, as it had grown in slightly crooked and was stressing my other teeth. The whole procedure took about ten minutes, and afterwards I felt a lot better than I did a few weeks back, when the tooth started bothering me.
If you’re in the Atlanta area and are looking for a good dentist, Dr. Ken Berger is very good.
For those of you shopping for a new home: if you are considering purchasing a “Home Buyer’s Warranty” on the appliances in your new home, stop now.
Home Buyer’s Warranties are a scam.
The contracts come with so many fine-print loopholes, 2-10 will almost never have to pay a dime when it comes to fixing anything. In my case, the deductible cost about the same as repair visit would normally cost. The repairman took one look at my oven and suggested I replace it, due to the inner lining being rusted out. 2-10 refused to pay replacement costs, because they don’t cover damage “due to rust, within the first 30 days of closing.”
And we’re finally, mostly, moved in.
Rather than spending eight hours and risking permanent back injury, Laura and I hired movers. They got the job done in about two hours, and were well worth the expense.
The house is still filled with boxes and neither of us knows where things are, but I’m sure we’ll work that out soon.
This morning we woke up to 50F temperatures, colder inside the house than outside. After much obscenity, I realized that yes, I really was lighting the pilot light correctly, and no, the pilot light simply wasn’t going to stay lit. A call to a repairman confirmed that the ‘thermocoupler’ had failed. A few hours and $80 later, we had heat again.
Starbucks is the devil, and here’s proof!
Yea, verily, and I will bow down and suckle Her brown nectar from Her quivering black teat.
Japanese scientist has a working prototype of Ghost in the Shell-style “transparent” clothing. It uses a video camera and LCD fabric to display a rough image of the scene directly behind the wearer.