Friday Follies

O + = + ) = hcf
Originally uploaded by nor¤cal¤jeff.

Here's a short examination of why DVD players have regions--and how to get rid of them. From Wise Bread.

Back before the invasion of Afghanistan, when the world was telling the U.S. that it wasn't possible, one of the reasons given was the "brutal Afghan winters." And it does get cold there occasionally -- almost as cold as it gets here, at any of our numerous ski resorts. I thought of that when I read about the woman who skinny-dipped in the Trevi fountain in Rome, to "beat the heat". The blistering record heat wave of... 27 Celsius (80 Fahrenheit).

Emotive's flagship product, the patent-pending "Push Ringer", reverses the common ringtone model. It enables a caller to push an outgoing ringtone to the receiving phone allowing the caller, not the called person, to set the tone. Oh, great, just what we need. I've already seen a roomful of people doing the Cellphone Macarena because they can't tell whose phone is ringing, and that's when they know what they set their ringtone to. Want to hear another reason this is a bad idea? You think spam e-mails are frustrating, wait until someone "pushes" a sales pitch onto your phone. Imagine the hilarity when your pocket asks you if your pen!s is really large enough for you. During an important meeting.

Sheryl Crow thinks we can all get by with "only one square [of toilet paper] per restroom visit." Fortunately, Rosie O'Donnell performed a public service by delivering an untoppable answer to Crow's suggestion: "Have you seen my ass?"

Looking for a fast moneymaking scheme? Buy a herd of sheep, take them to Japan, and sell them to the locals. Tell 'em they're poodles. They won't know the difference: They don't have many sheep in Japan. Oops, too late.

John Q. Public really didn't need more reasons to hate Wal-Mart. BusinessWeek suggests that the recent implosion of some of the nation's largest electronics retailers (CompUSA, Tweeter, Rex, Circuit City) is attributable to WallyWorld having broken the $1000 barrier for flat-screen televisions back on Black Friday 2006. Just as their aggressive toy and grocery pricing killed FAO Schwarz and Winn-Dixie, respectively. (Saw it at The New Shelton Wet/Dry.) The Wall Street Journal reports that "In past decades, deejays and music critics helped shape musical trends. Today, many music industry executives agree, the big boxes have become the new tastemakers." And we all know whose box is the biggest. (Saw it at the Consumerist.) And now Forbes has named "the Wal-Mart squeeze", summarized by the Consumerist thusly: "The more stuff you sell at Walmart the more dependant your company is on their various whims. The result? The most stuff you sell, the smaller your profit margin is."

The mysterious fifth sense

I was beginning to think no one would ever hear my adaptation of H. G. Wells' "The Country of the Blind". But, much to my surprise, there it is in ARTC's Podcast, part one last week and part two this.

I can't judge the performance of the actor playing the lead character, Nunez, but the rest of the cast is delightful, and it was a pleasant surprise to hear my friend Thomas Fuller as the Elder of the little village.

This has always been one of my favorite stories, and I hope we've done it justice.

Why people hate tech support

There is nothing unusual about this tech support call. Thousands just like it happen every day.



From The Consumerist.

Friday Follies

Robert Heinlein at One Hundred.

The ancient mystery surrounding the great acoustics of the theater at Epidaurus in Greece has been solved.

This is the story of a girl named Corey O'Malley, and a boy named Corey O'Malley, who had their credit reports accidentally merged.

Did you know that Don Imus' "nappy-headed ho" remark was actually George Bush's fault? It's on the Internet so it must be true. Just as well he isn't in the furniture business.

Interplanetary war is now reality. First we invaded Mars, then we nuked Jupiter.

ZDNet's list of 10 flagrant grammar mistakes that make you look stupid. "Bare/bear", "poll/pole", "ring/wring" and "reign/rain/rein" mysteriously missing from list.

Oops

The downside of moving to the new post-beta Blogger template is that I have no way to display old comments. I've archived them all, but Blogger gives me no way to import them into its comment engine.

Sincere regrets for any inconvenience this may cause.

Friday Follies

No Dumping
Originally uploaded by creativelychallenged.

I don't know what's more interesting, the fact that this letter has been lost in the mail since September 1943, or that it's junk mail.

Organ donor? Cremation? Traditional burial? Why not place your loved one in a unique resting place? (He always wanted to be a writer...)

Playboy comes to my alma mater, only thirty-two years late. Go, you Brazilian dawgs.

It may not be green so much as a slightly greener shade of brown.

Is it possible to be on the Billboard list if you don't have an album? Well, yes, now. (NY Times story requires registration.)

Receiving fines and points had no significant impact on the risk of repeat [traffic] citations. Great, now you tell me.

April Fools Day

Our first day in Japan
Originally uploaded by 7-how-7.

I don't think I dislike April Fool's Day as much as Sleestak does, but it has lost a lot of its charm for me. On the Internet, it means you can't trust anything you read...but that's different from the other 364 days how, exactly?