Random Signs of Intelligence

Friends

2010-02-25T19:26:00.000-05:00

I should kick myself for being so nice to my friends - they don't deserve it and are assholes back to me anyway.

Bad luck

2010-02-19T13:29:00.000-05:00

Every time I meet this friend of mine, I seem to have bad luck within the next 2 days, usually the next day. And like real bad luck, crashes and injuries and stuff like that. Though this is a real good friend, I guess I can live with one less. Bubbye!

I have a friend...

2010-02-04T14:28:00.000-05:00

... I really like but I am afraid that once she moves on (from here at work) she won't keep in touch.

The 4 F's

2010-02-03T18:51:00.000-05:00

Cat Predicts Deaths

2010-02-03T18:20:00.000-05:00

Cat predicts 50 deaths in RI nursing home - Telegraph

Freaky, if true.

HOV Cops... Metermaids

2009-09-04T18:06:00.001-04:00

Got a ticket the other day for an HOV violation. Here's how it works, the fucking metermaids (they think of themselves as the NTTA Police in Texas) first slow down ALL traffic because they are stopping HOV violators and every-fucking-body has to slow down to take a look! This causes some people (moi) to panic and jump into the HOV lane because the regular lanes are now just a parking lot. And bam! you get a ticket! Fucking metermaids.

I really need to loose weight

2008-10-30T16:58:00.001-04:00

Why can't the fucking scientists come up with a fat eating bacteria - you get an infection and a week later all your fat has been eaten away; you then take an antibiotic and bam! you are all set!

One whole year!

2008-10-26T19:59:00.001-04:00

And I just realized that except for that post telling y’all that I am still alive, its been a year since I have posted here. Is there anyone out there?

SCRUM

2008-10-26T19:57:00.001-04:00

This is interesting stuff:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCRUM

I'm alive

2008-09-06T20:04:00.001-04:00

In case you thought otherwise.

Wordpress, AdSense and AdSense-Deluxe Plugin

2006-10-27T09:48:00.000-04:00

I just spent the better part of a day trying to get AdSense to work on a Wordpress (not Wordpress.com) blog using the AdSense-Deluxe plugin. Either I am really stupid or ... whatever.

Blogger does AdSense so much better! No surprise there though, maybe I'll just kill the old blog and get with Blogger with ftp. I upgraded to Blogger Beta and its really cool too. Hmm, have to seriously think about that - Blogger templates are much easier to edit and I know how to bring some decent love to it. Hmmm indeed.

Ouch!

2006-10-23T17:53:00.000-04:00

Much ado over Borat

2006-10-19T13:16:00.000-04:00

Wish people would stop taking themselves so seriously and start having a sense of humor. I mean, otherwise, you are just inviting people to make fun of you. Think about it, nobody makes fun of people who can laugh at themselves.

On a lighter note, they're proably inviting Cohen over so they can behead him on video ;)

Also,
"It's a shame that some Americans will probably believe what they see there," is funny because its more plausible than you might think. (If you don't get it, don't worry about it buddy.)

Boing Boing: Cat parasite leads to more boy babies ... who could up to be statisticians with way too much free time

2006-10-12T16:31:00.000-04:00

They discovered that women whose antibody count was high - suggesting a substantial infection - had a much higher chance of having baby boys. In most populations the birth rate is around 51% boys, but women infected with toxoplasma had up to a 72% chance of a boy.

Source: Boing Boing: Cat parasite leads to more boy babies

Statistic are bloody stupid - a sample of 2000, phuf! The first sampling which indicated 51% might have been off, or this one coupled with a bad flu season. Fucking statisticians! I say we should enlist them in the army and test the effects of various munitions on them. That study will incidicate that 100% of statisticians subjected to a grenade up their ass are expected to meet a gory end. Also the study will show a 100% drop in statistics courses in colleges.

Masturbation during Ramadan

2006-10-08T21:12:00.000-04:00

Masturbation during Ramadan on Andrew Sullivan's blog The Daily Dish reminds me of Arun Shourie's book The World of Fatwas, Or, the Shariah in Action:

Full 43 pages of Vol VI of the fatawa Dar al-Ulum, Deoband are devoted to considering what breaks the roza fast and what does not. Mufti Kifayatullah gives a very qualified ruling on watching wrestling or kabaddi, "To see wrestling in such a way that private parts come to be seen is "na-jaiz". Maulana Ahmed Riza Khan's fulminations against doing anything which entails association with kafirs, Hindus in this case, extend over more than a hundred quarto-sized pages of closely packed text. These fatwas are grouped under the heading "Nafrat ke Ahkam" "The Ordinances of Hatred". (P.245)

Chapter 6 entitled "Women and Shariah" is an exhaustive study of the man- woman or the husband and wife equation; and redundant to add that "the husband is always the master". A woman is wickedest thing. And "when excited, she is a hundred times more passionate than man... A woman is "mom ki naak" (white hot tip of the candle), "balki raal ki pudiya" (a tight little packet of resin), "balki barood ki dibiya" (in fact a packet of explosives). If she is brought near a spark (of temptation) it will explode. She is defective in reason as well as in faith. And by nature she is crooked. (p.289) Which is why the husband has the power the absolute, unconditional power to exercise talaq for which he is not accountable to anyone on earth - to throw the wife out by just uttering the word talaq. (p.292). The chapter is replete with hundreds of examples of talaq, and every time the husband stands victor and superior.

Source: INDOlink Book & Media Review :THE WORLD OF FATWAS

I don't know where you could get the book or if Mr. Shourie plans on publishing an electronic version, but I am sure if enough people are interested, Mr. Shourie could work something out.

Er, nice colors?

2006-10-02T15:54:00.000-04:00

Trying out Windows Live Writer (this post) and so far, well, it works. That is a lot more than the last time I tried it, when, well, it won't work.

Other than that, nothing extraordinary about it other than, nice colors and a sidebar to keep monkeys busy. I'ld still use BlogJet and hey, wonder what's up with w.Bloggar and Marcelo.....

.... just checked, it seems his site was down again and is now up, barebones.

Technorati tags: Windows Live Writer, w.bloggar, blogging

Top 10 Lies told to Naive (Artists and Designers) Programmers

2006-10-01T19:46:00.000-04:00

Top 10 Lies told to Naive Artists and Designers.

After 16 years in InfoTech, working as an employee, owning a business and freelancing, I can’t tell you how much of this post rings true for naïve programmers.

A variation or rather, an extension to #3 (“Do this for us and you’ll get great exposure…”) is where they try to convince you that your program will tap into this unexploited niche market and that they, as one of the insiders in this industry will try to sell the software for you. They even turn around and ask you to pay them to get this opportunity to tap into this vast business opportunity.

Alien Abductions

2006-09-30T18:53:00.000-04:00

Right.

US head teacher shot in Wisconsin

2006-09-29T19:56:00.000-04:00

Student Shelly Rupp, 16, said she heard five shots and ran out of the school, but turned around and saw Mr Klang as he was shot.

"He was laying on the ground in the hallway. He had just a pile of blood by his leg," she told the Associated Press news agency.

BBC NEWS | Americas | US head teacher shot in Wisconsin.

16 years old? In high school? Pile of blood?

Who's Using the Speakers!

2006-09-28T20:02:00.000-04:00

I am in the market for a new laptop and currently in the ‘research’ phase; but knowing me, I’ll spin my wheels forever until one day, I’ll make an impulse buy and then worry about I am going to pay it off… but that is a story for another time.

Looking at all the laptops out there, I wonder about a few things; the speakers for instance. Who the hell is using these? I think laptop manufacturers should offer machines without speakers, just a single low-fi speaker like the ones in cell phones. No one can be serious about playing music on a laptop! At least in the work \ office segment. And put a damn volume \ on-off wheel on there for heaven’s sake!

Batteries and wall-warts! Integrate! Integrate! Integrate! I’ld rather have the battery and the transformer in one package, even if that means that the battery will only pump juice for about say 30 minutes. Think about it; these days one isn’t too far from a power outlet; airports, restaurants, etc. For instance, my laptop primarily runs off the mains. At most I might run it off the battery for maybe 10–15 minutes while I check email or something during a lay-over. Battery+transformer would be perfect! Hell, throw in a retractable cord too!

As an option, offer a “snap-on” battery pack, like those ugly things for iPods! So if you need the juice, there you go. If not snap-on, just a plug-in thingy; lets call it “strap-on” hee-hee.

And stop making those damn “notebook mice”. WTF! Just because you are using a notebook, does you hand get smaller? And is it really that much of a difference between the smaller notebook mouse and the regular ones? Instead, a notebook mouse should be a wired mouse (no batteries, no hassles, get it!) with a retractable cord or a short cord just about a foot and a half or so.

And now that you have a regular sized mouse, build a little storage compartment in there for the ear buds. Or not; who wants to have to stuff a pair in there, I’ld just throw them into the bag and be done with it. You use those for music and stuff while you are working, connected to an outlet – note, not while on the go – that is what mp3 players are for!

So without the big battery how do you enjoy movies on the flight while seated in coach? You don’t! Whoever “enjoyed” watching a movie on a laptop? Fuck it, read a book or catch a nap instead. Do yourself and your neighbour a favour! But if you still need to watch a movie, get yourself an iPod or a PSP or something. Don’t be bothering everyone with your laptop; because then you will hog the arm-rests as well as figet all over the place getting you shit unpacked and packed again!

One last thing, manufacturers, please switch to those way-cool slot drive for discs – I hate that tray !

Wasn't Peter Jackson a fat guy?

2006-09-28T10:41:00.000-04:00

Organ sales 'thriving' in China

2006-09-28T10:35:00.000-04:00

The sale of organs taken from executed prisoners appears to be thriving in China, an undercover investigation by the BBC has found.

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Organ sales 'thriving' in China.

Quite frankly, how does it matter to the prisoner being executed how his body is once he’s executed. In fact, I would say that no part should be wasted; after the execution and the organ harvest, the rest of the body should go to medical schools for disection class. Its the least the prisoner can do to repay the state for all the trouble and expense he has caused .

Moreover, in fact they should start to optimize the death row list based on the organ requirement list. No point in wasting a perfectly good part when someone is waiting for it. I can see it now, DROMS – Death Row Organ Matching System.

5G iPod Search feature

2006-09-13T19:20:00.000-04:00

There you have it folks, right from the horse's mouth, a very big "fuck you very much" from Apple to all the dolts who bought the early 5Gs. The search is only available on the late 5Gs. Its just software damn-it! If you can retrofit the screen contrast ( why'ld you take it out in the first place!) why can't you put the search in. Its like, everytime a new iPod comes out, the old owners are given the shaft. Enough already, get with some standards and just leave it be! What's new about the new 5G anyway? What's new about the new 5G anyway, you know the increased battery life is only because of the ability to dim the display, other than that, its all just software! Fuck you and the iPod you rode in on Stevie!

iPod: How to use the search feature
iPod nano (Second Generation) and Fifth Generation iPod (Late 2006), both announced 2006-09-12, allow you to search iPod for songs, album titles, artist names, podcasts, and audio books. The search feature does not search videos, notes, calendars, contacts, or lyrics.

Disclaimer: I have gifted 1 iPod and own another 2, a 4G and an (early) 5G.

RSS gone wild!

2006-09-11T09:32:00.000-04:00

Here is an excellent post on CleverClogs on cutting the RSS beast down to size! Some of these I already use, some are new and worth trying out.

But the one I like the BEST is #8. Shut that reader down once in a while! Sometimes, you get so involved with subscribing and reading, that you forget what its all for. The road to a destination becomes the destination. Rather than understanding what is going on in the world around me, I become like a gerbil in a running wheel! Besides, not all LIFE, THE UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING is contained in newsfeeds, no matter how many you subscribe to.

By the way, I try to keep my list down to 20-25 at most. That's it! I believe its something like E-Loan; blogger have to compete for my attention, and I will only grant it to about 25ish of them. I have a folder called Probation (similar in function to Evaluate in the post on CleverClogs) as well as one called On-Notice. And feeds get shuttled around between Probation, On-Notice and my regular reading folders about once every month or so. Which means that if a feed does make it to my regular reading list, it better keep being interesting or else, next month it will find itself in the On-Notice bin, and the month after that, pufth!

What does my monitor display...

2006-09-11T09:08:00.000-04:00

... when I am not looking at it? You would think the answer would be the same as "If a tree fell in the forest and there was no one around, does it make a sound?".

Anyway, yesterday, I think I caught it goofing off while I wasn't watching - I caught something in the corner of my eye but when I turned to look full-on, it quickly changed back to my Visual Studio screen that I was just working on. This happened twice. I could have sworn that it was displaying, like, balls bouncing around. Hm.

As for the tree in the forest, I don't think we have to worry about that one. Mankind has solved that riddle, or rather, found a cure for it. One word people, deforestation! Find out more at your nearest Big Business or wherever nature is not respected and profits are everything!

(gulp) Credit reporting agencies run amok!

2006-09-08T21:25:00.000-04:00

“The credit reporting agencies are now scanning this list (U.S. Treasury Watchlist) and putting watchlist information on the reports even if it’s a partial match,” said Sinnar.

Arcata Eye :: the mildly objectionable weekly newspaper for Arcata, California.

Tip: How to stop compulsive online spending

2006-09-07T10:53:00.000-04:00

I use a particular credit card that gives me a virtual number to use online; its a great service. You can assign a limit to the charge amount and everything!

Anyway, here is a tip on how to stop compuslive online spending; max out your credit card. Then, when you try to buy stuff online (or in a store), your card will be declined! Great, eh. :(

Now that's a People's PC f ever there was one!

2006-09-06T16:38:00.000-04:00

Way to go Office Depot! Now just can those rebates and make it all simple and upfront. [from TG Daily]

Sweet!

2006-09-01T13:30:00.000-04:00

I have to go dig up all my Pink Floyd albums now!

Life-sized likenesses of Guard members ease separation pains

2006-08-31T20:05:00.000-04:00

BANGOR — Lt. Col. Randall Holbrook travels just about
everywhere with his wife Mary and their two sons, Justin, 14, and
Logan, 5.
He’s quietly in the background on family outings to the
grocery store, to restaurants, camping, even on Mary’s most
recent visit to her gynecologist. [Read]

This is a joke right? Please tell me it is, please! This has got to be the creepiest thing I have ever heard of. 'Children of the corn' type creepy! Can you imagine kids walking around with a life size cutout of their parent(s).

Hey, maybe they can start using this for divorced parent(s) as well.

Could Oboe be the answer?

2006-08-30T23:40:00.000-04:00

Click the image for more by Utter Doul.

I remember this music locker service from MP3tunes but I don't recall why I didn't fall all head over heels for it earlier. Anyways, now they have a 40 bucks a year plan that will let me store and stream unlimited music. I have a huge collection, and a couple of backups. And yet, I am always nervous that maybe I don't have enough backups. Maybe this will be just the thing. Of course, there is nothing to guarantee that they won't loose my music, but they are proably all setup for hardward failures and such.

BTW, I am proud to say that my collection is 100% legit. I have ripped all my disks (thanks to Columbia House and stupid spending habits, I have lots of em) and I was a one of those lucky members of eMusic when they had an unlimited download policy. I got a lot of stuff from them before they introduced that download cap.

We've known this about computer chips, memory, etc. ...

2006-08-26T19:19:00.000-04:00

... but even coffee and groceries!? Check it out:

'Product sabotage' helps consumers

How Google made me e-sloppy and may cost me my e-sanity

2006-08-25T13:47:00.000-04:00

In the goog old days of limited free online email space, one learnt quickly how to sift thorough all your post-spam filtering email and keep only what you really really need, and delete everything else. Alien as it may sound today, there where actually times when the net contents of all my folders would be 0, albeit briefly.

And this habit would spill over to your work email in Outlook with corporate hosting and unlimited space.

Sure, you can still do that with GMail and similar multi-gig services. But over time, little by little, these services erode that disciple and today, I suddenly find that I have 1000s of archived email messages that I can't get rid off. See, in the older process, there were support systems which handled the job of archive the important information. Word docs with codes and numbers, print or pdf files of important conversations, etc. Now, everything is just one exquistely searchable lump of data.

And its a one-way street. I can never hope to sit down and clean everything up; its too time consuming and costly (since time = money). Besides, you look at that percentage used number at the bottom and tell yourself you still have enough playing room and decide to do it later. At most, I manage to clean up the first 2 or 3 pages of the inbox.

And the tags! Pinhead would love 'em! What wonderously painful little things they are. You start out with a few basic ones, and then you decide to break them down a bit more and you go back and redo the ones already there, and Google then allows you to filter and tag retroactively, so you go back and do some more and then some more. Until it becomes a fiendish obession and you are stuck in a death spiral of an ever more finely tweaked tagging structure. I'm not there yet, but its just a matter of time, what with the obsessive complusive behaviour and the mood medication. On the other hand, I am obsessively compulsively lazy; so that may actually prevent me from falling into the abyss.

But I know now that I stand at the edge of insanity; for when I look down into my email, it looks back up at me!

Ready To Assemble

2006-08-25T12:44:00.000-04:00

Click the image for more by Utter Doul.

As opposed to "not ready to assemble" where they mail you the ore, coal and a cow and you build your own metal framed leather office chair.

Expensive stand alone DVD Player

2006-08-25T12:35:00.000-04:00

Click the image for more by Utter Doul.

WTF! "No need to buy an expensive stand-alone DVD player. Who are these people who can afford TVs, laptops, DVDs, a roof over your head and even electricity but cannot afford an "expensive stand-alone DVD player"?

'My Favourites' playlist

2006-08-22T11:39:00.000-04:00

Here is my current hand picked ‘My Favourites’ list from iTunes:

Happy People [Album Version with DJ Skit] R Kelly Happy People - U Saved Me
Europa (Earths Cry Heavens Smile) [Album Version] Santana The Essential Santana
Hey Nineteen Steely Dan A Decade of Steely Dan
Teach Me Tonight Tito Puente Gene DePaul/Sammy Cahn Golden Latin Jazz All Stars: In Session
Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)/Album Version Marvin Gaye Gold
Let's Get It On/Album Version Marvin Gaye Gold
What's Going On Marvin Gaye Greatest Hits
Sexual Healing [1982] Marvin Gaye David Ritz/Marvin Gaye/Odell Brown Soul Train: Hall of Fame, 20th Anniversary
Every Kinda People/Remix Robert Palmer Best of Both Worlds: The Robert Palmer Anthology (1974-2001)
Every Kinda People Robert Palmer Andy Fraser Addictions, Vol. 1
Hello The Cat Empire The Cat Empire
Welcome to the Jungle Guns N' Roses Axl Rose/Duff "Rose" McKagan/Izzy Stradlin/Slash/Steven Adler Greatest Hits

Yeah it does look like I went overboard with Marvin Gaye. Oh well, its my list and I’m sticking to it!

Road

2006-08-22T10:38:00.000-04:00

Click the image for more by Utter Doul.

Picture taken on Jan 27th 2006 somewhere in New Jersey.

Some interesting reading

2006-08-19T18:39:00.000-04:00

Check out this recent post on Boing Boing, the books mentioned seem like some interesting reading. I’m off to the bookshop now.

Something similar

2006-08-19T14:23:00.000-04:00

My ex-boss and his wife would do something similar. They cancelled my benefits and instead took vacations and bought themselves fancy toys.

Strange Fruit

2006-08-13T13:44:00.000-04:00

Here are the lyrics to the song "Strange Fruit" by Billie Holiday. If you've never heard it, you've simply have to, one of the saddest and most haunting songs I have ever heard.

Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

Just in case you didn't get it, it's refering to a lynching.

Death

2006-08-12T14:04:00.000-04:00

I got to thinking about the drastically
different view of death that Christianity has vs. that of Hinduism
and other eastern religions like Jainism, Buddhism, etc. Christianity
believes in the rapture while Hinduism believes in a cycle of death
and rebirth until you attain moksha, release or
enlightenment.

I never made the connection before between the
what each philosophy believes about life-after-death and how they
treat the dead. In the belief about the rapture, the idea is that
when you die, you still somehow cling to your corpse and that at a
specified time in the future, you shall arise. Therefore, the
practice is to decorate the corpse store it in an expensive box in
the earth. On the other hand, in eastern philosophies, the idea is
that the body is a temporary container for the soul and in death, the
soul moves on and the body is now nothing but a shell. Hence the body
is burned and the ashes scattered or drowned and thus quickly
returned to the earth. The corpse is not decorated in any way other
than maybe some flowers and is burnt barely covered in a simple thin
piece of cloth (more for the benefit of the onlookers than the
deceased really).

Before I go ahead, this is not a commentary
on a particular religion, so don't go get your knickers in a twist.
What I say next is just a (pseudo) scientific \ educated person's
view of these practices.

First, what a waste of money
decorating a corpse. Secondly, no matter how religious you are, you
have to accept the fact that your corpse is going to rot in the
ground, no matter how expensive the box it is stored in is. Quite an
unsavory thought that you have to rise again with that. Unless you
believe that it will miraculously be restored. And to what then, the
state it was in at death? How you looked when you where 21? 11? Do
you get to choose? If I die at 60, when I rise I would like to be
restored to what I was like at 21. I mean, if you are turning the
clock back on decomposition, why stop at the moment of death; go back
a few more decades.

Hang on! Yet you pray for the soul of the
departed at the funeral. So, what does that mean? Does the soul leave
or not. Are you praying for the soul that will continue to stay with
the body until rapture? And are you able to hear and feel while you
'rest' in the ground?

And if rapture is to happened at a
certain point in time, kinda unfair for those souls that were born
early on in the game. They have to wait the longest. Ideally you
should shoot for the morning of the rapture to die and hope for the
event to start around noon. That way you only have to spend a couple
of hours in the ground. In all probability you might still be in the
morgue.

So, one way is to burn the corpse and return it to the
earth as quickly as possible. Quite frankly though, the Parsi
tradition fascinates me more. Its probably a outcome of my taste in
gore-fest movies. The Parsi leave the corpse on a high tower where
vultures are expected to eat the body. I guess what is left is
expected to rot in the open air. Property buying tip: don't buy a
home near a Parsi sun temple; you never know when a careless vulture
will drop part of its meal on your rooftop.

All in all, I vote
for the burn method. Clean and hygienic. You sanitize everything, you
know, any infectious disease and stuff. And don't talk to me about
burning releases toxic chemicals into the air. Its nothing compared
to what we have done via industrialization and also, like forest
fires, its a natural process.

My date of birth on the web

2006-08-10T12:24:00.000-04:00

If everyone followed my example, it would seem like people are only born on the 1st of January of whatever year. That's the date I put in when asked for a birthdate when registering for anything on the internet. This is simply because giving out your real date of birth is a security risk. It is also one of the items of information used by banks and such for identification. Also, my mother's maiden name is not her real name, nor is my city of birth. I just permanently selected an alternative for each of these.

While we are on the topic, why do websites which offer a drop-down or selector for the year in the date of birth field bother to start with 2006, or whatever the current year is? Are they expecting newly borns to use the site? They might as well subtract 11 or 13 from the current year; most sites shouldn't be signing up juveniles anyway.

Carni keyboard designer!

2006-08-09T19:39:00.000-04:00

Recently I setup my "home office" wherein I hooked my laptop into everything and its uncle. I ended up daisy-chaining 2 7-port USB hubs and have the keyboard and mouse hooked to the hub furthurest from the laptop (in terms of connnections). I don't know if that is to blame for the mini-freezes I have been experiencing with the keyboard and mouse. The mouse not so bad, but the keyboard is driving me nuts! Maybe its just this damn cheap Microsoft keyboard, though I do like that it has that slight curve to the keys. Who the fuck decided that it was a great idea to have all the keys in a single line in the first place! I'ld sure like to see his deformed little arms and hands! Bugger!

How to find a lawyer

2006-08-09T15:49:00.000-04:00

Here is a great article I found on Lifehacker. But, I thought all you needed to do was throw some chum off the side of the boat and wait for the ~~sharks~~ lawyers to come to you.

BTW, I actually believe that being a prostitute is a step up from being a lawyer.

Microsoft's .mdi document format

2006-08-07T21:20:00.000-04:00

In response to PDF, Microsoft has created the me-too MDI format, available with Office 2003. And only Office 2003 as far as I know. They don't even offer a damn viewer. Thankfully, some generous Russian sole has this utility that allow you to view and print .mdi documents. Its not in English but there is only a hand full of menu options and its easy to figure out.

So I've been using the .mdi format to save my scanned documents for a couple of years but a recent change in jobs means that I no longer have (or even wish to have) Office 2003 and I can no longer access my documents. Serves me right for putting my faith in Microsoft like that. Anyhoo, luckily, with this utility I can convert all my documents to pdf, using a pdf printer driver. Let this be a warning to you all - never, ever trust your stuff to a non-open evil empire document format. The revolution will be open-sourced!

By the way, if anyone can translate this or get more information about the developer I would really appreacite it - I would like to thank the person and even send a little something their way.

You get this if you are a programmer

2006-08-07T20:31:00.000-04:00

Analogies and Metaphors Found in High School Essays

2006-08-05T16:21:00.000-04:00

Found this really cool collection of lines from high school essays here. Just in case they take it down, I reproduce below in full for your entertainment.

Analogies and Metaphors Found in High School Essays

Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two other Sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master. - Sue Lin Chong, Washington

His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free. -Chuck Smith, Woodbridge

He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a Guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it. -Joseph Romm, Washington

She caught your eye like one of those pointy hook latches that used to dangle from screen doors and would fly up whenever you banged the door open again. -Rich Murphy, Fairfax Station

The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't. -Russell Beland, Springfield

McMurphy fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup. -Paul Sabourin, Silver Spring

From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and "Jeopardy" comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30. -Roy Ashley, Washington

Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze. Chuck Smith,Woodbridge

Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the center. -Russell Beland, Springfield

Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever. -Unknown

He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree. -Jack Bross, Chevy Chase

The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease. -Gary F. Hevel, Silver Spring

Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph. -Jennifer Hart, Arlington

The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the period after the Dr. on a Dr Pepper can. -Wayne Goode, Madison,AL

John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met. -Russell Beland, Springfield

The thunder was ominous sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play.-Barbara Fetherolf, Alexandria

The red brick wall was the color of a brick-red Crayola crayon.-Unknown

He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River. -Brian Broadus, Charlottesville

Even in his last years, Grandpappy had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long it had rusted shut. -Sandra Hull, Arlington

The door had been forced, as forced as the dialogue during the interview portion of "Jeopardy!" -Jean Sorensen, Herndon

Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do. -Jerry Pannullo, Kensington

The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work. -Malcolm Fleschner, Arlington

The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while. -Malcolm Fleschner, Arlington

He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something. -John Kammer, Herndon

Her artistic sense was exquisitely refined, like someone who can tell butter from I Can't Believe It's Not Butter. -Barbara Collier, Garrett Park

She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up. -Susan Reese, Arlington

It came down the stairs looking very much like something no one had ever seen before. -Marian Carlsson, Lexington

The knife was as sharp as the tone used by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) in her first several points of parliamentary procedure made to Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) in the House Judiciary Committee hearings on the impeachment of President William Jefferson Clinton. -J. F. Knowles, Springfield

The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant. -Jennifer Hart, Arlington

The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM. -Paul J. Kocak, Syracuse

The dandelion swayed in the gentle breeze like an oscillating electric fan set on medium. -Unknown

He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up. -Susan Reese, Arlington

Her eyes were like limpid pools, only they had forgotten to put in any pH cleanser. -Chuck Smith, Woodbridge

She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef. -Brian Broadus, Charlottesville

She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs. -Jonathan Paul, Garrett Park

Her voice had that tense, grating quality, like a first-generation thermal paper fax machine that needed a band tightened. -Sue Lin Chong, Washington

It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall. -Brian Broadus, Charlottesville

Portable Apps why don't ya?

2006-08-05T16:08:00.000-04:00

If you are going to be installing an application and there is a portable version of it available, why won’t you install that instead. In fact, if an application can run with full functionality as a portable app, well then, there is no need for the non portable version. Yes, even for workstations and desktops. And if all the functions don’t work in the portable version then it looks like the developer(s) have their work cut out for them.

In fact, there is no reason any software should use the registry. Use .ini if you want, what the hell. Or use .xml if you want to look all tech savy and then some. Chicks dig xml.

Check out PortableApps for some sweet portable action.

Movie Critics Suck Monkey Ass

2006-08-03T16:51:00.000-04:00

Yup, its true! They certainly do. How else can you explain how they are ALWAYS off on their movie reviews. Whenever I have watched a "highly rated" movie, its been crap. Yeah maybe I am a philistine, but honestly, I don't think so.

Take "The Matador" for instance. Highly rated at RottenTomatoes. The movie is a total waste of time. Stupid story line, slow and though the critics though it was witty, it was about as witty as a whore is pure! Sheesh.

Over Digg-ified!

2006-08-02T16:04:00.000-04:00

Today, I deleted my Digg feed.

The really good stories will eventually make it to one of my other (more filtered) subscriptions. Other than that, Digg just sucks down too much of my time. I end up bookmarking hundreds of sites I know that I will probaly go back to; and if I did, I won't know why I wanted to go there in the first place.

I guess this is the otherside of the Digg Effect.

The birth of Krishna

2006-07-26T13:23:00.000-04:00

What recently started out to be one of those forwarded jokes got me thinking much more seriously about the birth of Krishna, one of the reincarnations of God in Hindu mythology.

The story goes something like this. Kansa was a cruel king and at one point he heard a prediction that his sister's 8th child will grow up and kill him. And so, to prevent this, he throws his sister Devki and her husband Vasudev into the dungeons where they live, and procreate for many years. But each child that is born is put to death by Kansa until the 8th child, who they manage to smuggle out of the prison.

In the joke that I was reading, a small boy questions this asking why Kansa but his sister and her husband in the same cell. Makes sense, all he needed to do was put them in separate cells! In fact, if the husband was not going to cause any trouble all he had to do was put his sister in prison.

Secondly, even if he did put them in the same cell, why did he kill the first 7 babies? The prediction stated that the 8th child would be the problem - that's the only one he needed to eliminate. If he was smart, he wouldn't even have needed to imprison his sister, just keep her family close and watch her. And when the 8th child is born, abduct just that one.

IE7 and Genuine Advantage

2006-07-22T14:26:00.000-04:00

Normally I wouldn't be caught dead with such company but, in the interest of being fair, I decided to install IE7 and give it a spin.

M$ needs you to run and pass the genuine advantage check before you can install IE7; that is great news for Firefox, Opera, etc. Face it, with the recent stories about how many Windows cheaters WGA has caught, even if the numbers don't add up, we know that there are a LOT of people out there using illegal copies of Windows. And by locking those people out of IE7, M$ has done the other browsers a big favor. Way to go, dumbass.

Maybe it is true, maybe the decline of M$ has begun.

Adieu Google Reader

2006-07-21T20:57:00.000-04:00

I used Google Reader all of this week, but it seems that its the black sheep of the Google family.

Sure, nice clean interface, but very frustrating. First, I didn’t really understand how it ranks the reading list in Auto mode. I suspect that if I read a couple of posts from a source that I would not normally pay too much attention to, it seems to up that feed’s rank. Yeah? I donno.

Next, I imported a large opml file thinking that I will quickly prune it once all the feeds are imported. Er, no. Have to remove subscriptions one at a time.

Also, no folders, but it does have labels. So I guess its the GMail philosophy? But the implementation is real poor. I can label individual posts and\or entire feeds. I think this means that if I label a bunch of feeds one thing, then I can use that label as a folder. I think that works, but all quite un intuitive. BTW, I love the GMail way of using labels for email. Moving along.

Of course, as most of you probably know, there is no way to quickly catch up by marking all as read. You have to read each item or use a slow greasemonkey script. Though I did love the Google Reader Mousewheel Always Marks As Read script which lets you scroll-wheel over the reading list and marks the items as read as they scroll by. I’m almost tempted to stay with Google Reader just to watch this script in action. Almost.

Finally, what up with managing your subscriptions and what the reader pulls into your reading list. Days after I deleted certain subscription, it kept bringing in items from these subscriptions. I suspect that the reverse will also be true, it will take a while before it starts to pull in stuff from new subscriptions. Eh?

One does not like bad mouth a member of and otherwise righteous and outstanding family, but alas. Maybe Google Reader is the Cinderella of this story, the Fairy God-Engineer will appear and maybe fix everything and we can all live happily ever after. Until then I will be dating the ugly sisters, BlogLines and\or ReBlog

50000GB Disks!

2006-07-21T20:16:00.000-04:00

Professor V Renugopalakrishnan of the Harvard Medical School in Boston
claims to have developed a layer of protein made from genetically
altered, light-sensitive microbe proteins which could store up to 50K
GB or 50 terabytes...

When they do finally bring this technology to market, Windows will still barely fir on one of these disks!

But wow! Everything, EVERYTHING and a complete digital version of you on a single disk!

India bans blogsites

2006-07-19T11:16:00.000-04:00

India bloggers angry at net ban

The Indian government is up to its old tricks again, whenever something happends, they want to control the flow of information rather than let it flow freely. If you think banning blog sites is bad, check this out! They also shut down the cellular networks immediately after the attacks so as to ensure that no one passed out any news of this. That way, they decide what the rest of the world finds learns of these events.

BBC has listed a few of the links that they have banned, go ahead and enjoy ;-)

Canadian is the new Polish!

2006-07-19T00:19:00.000-04:00

Evacuation - Show me the green stuff

2006-07-18T17:28:00.000-04:00

Andrew Sullivan | The Daily Dish: Email from Beirut: "They are finally getting everything together today, but they dropped a little surprise: they are going to be billing us for giving us emergency transport to Cyprus, and then basically dropping us off on our own to get commercial flights back to the US."

Incredible! Fucking incredible! Time was when a government would look after its citizens and try to get them out of harms way when on foreign soil. Everyone knows that if you are out of your country and need help, you go to your country's embassy.

But now they charge you to evacuate you! So what if you say, you ain't paying? Do they leave you there? Or do they evacuate you anyway and then hand over your outstanding debt to a debt collection agency; maybe it even goes on your credit report.

And what if you can afford more - is there a 1st class evacuation service; business class and coach? Do you board in order of how much more you can pay. And if seating is limited, can they auction the evacuation service.

This is proably because they have outsourced even this to contractors. If this is true, its really sad.

Religion of peace?

2006-07-17T22:25:00.000-04:00

Armed gang seal market and murder 60 shoppers

By James Hider in Baghdad

GUNMEN
in Iraq’s “Triangle of Death” sealed off a crowded
market south of Baghdad yesterday and slaughtered almost 60 men, women
and children, spraying the crowd with machinegun fire, grenades and
mortars, security officials said.

Not to say that other religions are any more peaceful or better, but really don't want to hear that crap about Islam being a "peaceful religion" anymore. I cannot recall a single incident which would even remotely hint at it being a peaceful religion. On the contrary, its proably one of the few religions where they openly preach violence and non-tolerance.

And if you say that its a few people that are giving the whole religion a bad name, well, that's an aweful lot of "few people".

Just my 2 cents anyway.

Is a scam audible?

2006-07-17T16:13:00.000-04:00

So, I think I will get me an audiobook, and start to browse the Audible website. I find a audio book that seems interesting and start to look at their membership plans. If I signup today, I can get the book free. And they have various book-credits plans as well as the basic no-book-credit plan. If I decide not to join, this is what I can expect:

Fair enough. But since they mentioned a "saving" over "retail price" I decided to check out what Amazon is selling this for. It turns out that they are partners and I am being redirect to Audible from Amazon:

Okay, lets check that out. Look at the price I can get if I don't join Audible but instead buy from Amazon!

No obligations or anything! While its cool what a little price hunting and cross-checking will get you and I love the way the internet is the great equalizer and all, its sad that Audible doesn't just offer me the same price directly. Sure its a promotional offer for new customers, but I really hate that kind of a deal! New customers are wooed but old customers are given the shaft!

Multiplayer Asteroids

2006-07-16T13:44:00.000-04:00

Sweet!!! I still play asteriods, its my #1 game on the Nintendo mini, and they just kicked it up a notch!

Multiplayer Asteroids - Today's Time Waster: "Filed under: Fun, Games, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Freeware, Time-WastersWhat do you get when you take Asteroids, add a bunch of other players, and, er, take out the asteroids? Multiplayer Asteroids. It's an extremely fast-paced and addicting Flash space shooter that takes its aesthetic cues from the classic arcade rock-blaster and adds a dozen or more players from around the world. The controls will be familiar to Asteroids players: Left and right rotate your ship, up and down move you forward and backward, and the space bar fires. You can also press enter to get a text box to broadcast messages to other players, and you can pick up power-ups to boost your health or weaponry. The game can be different depending on how many players they are: With three or four players there's a little more strategy involved than when there's 10 players, in which case the screen is a blizzard of projectiles. This is a game that's hard to stop playing.

[Via Waxy.org]

Heatseek: The porn browser

2006-07-16T13:40:00.000-04:00

Wow, neat. Er, not that I need it or anything but this is a great idea for a Firefox extension. Anyone?

Heatseek: The porn browser: "Filed under: Internet, Security, Windows, Shareware

There's a lot that the term 'porn browser' brings to mind, but Michael Arrington's review of Heatseek is any indication you can add 'pretty decent app' to the list. He says Heatseek's developers have 'clearly thought this through,' and that 'every feature is aimed at either making porn consumption easier or making it less likely that others will know what you are up to.' Heatseek requires users to enter a password just to access the browser, and all files downloaded are encrypted and can only be accessed within the browser. Files can be organized in playlists and favorite scenes in videos can be bookmarked for quick access. Heatseek is based on Internet Explorer and available for Windows only.

The 30 Boxes Webtop

2006-07-16T13:37:00.000-04:00

Oh fuck! I love(d) 30 Boxes' calendar and even got a few of my collegues to start using it. But then Google's Calendar came along and though it doesn't work in Opera (yet), I decided to move over since it made more sense since I am already using GMail and now, even Google bookmarks. And now they drop the 30 Boxes Webtop. I hate it when they do this! Now I don't know whether to stay or move back.

The 30 Boxes Webtop: "Filed under: Office, Productivity, Web services30 Boxes' Narendra Rocherolle wrote in to tell us about the new 30 Boxes Webtop, which is basically, well, a personalized home page a la Netvibes or Goowy. What sets it apart, of course, is that it's tightly integrated with the 30 Boxes calendar, so if you're already a 30 Boxes user you may prefer it to other home page options. Right now it's pretty basic, with upcoming events, buddy updates, to-do list, and Google search widgets, plus the ability to add any web page--including other services like Gmail or Meebo--as an embedded widget. Rocherolle writes about the webtop update on the 30 Boxes blog, and from the looks of it there's lots more in the works. I hope, at the very least, they add an RSS feed widget soon.

Why doesn't somebody tell me these things!

2006-07-14T15:28:00.000-04:00

Man, I really have been out of it for a while. For instance, clicking the little "More" on my GMail page, I learnt that Google has "Notebooks", "Sketchup" and some other cool stuff. Though I remember something about Google acquiring some CAD \ rendering company, I didn't know about Notebooks. Like a ingenious idiot, I was saving my notes as Drafts. Actually, I was saving notes on Netvibes but I got tired of that so I started to use Drafts.

Sometimes I am just overwhelmed by the number of options one has these days to do things online. Imagine that! And just a year ago, I was thinking that we are slowly moving towards a totally online experience! Slowly? Now there are at least 3 ways of doing everything you need to do, be it notes, contacts, spreadsheets, documents, etc.

Soon, we should just be able to scan ourselves into the Internet and delete our physical bodies. Everyone will give up their last name and instead will use the life-host service name. Utter Google for example. And social security numbers will be replaced with the next generation IP address.

iPod old school

2006-07-13T12:25:00.000-04:00

http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/10/apple-to-give-new-ipod-nano-an-aluminum-makeover

Maybe there is hope after all. Don't get me wrong, I do like the Nano, its cute and all, but the iPod Mini was the perfect package! The finish and the durability was just great. Yes, bring it back by all means. And take a look on eBay, the mini is still holding its price.

Blogger

2006-07-12T14:22:00.000-04:00

Me thinks its been pretty long since Blogger has shown us bloggers an love; no new features and such. Of course, I could be wrong - there could be a world of new features over what they had a year ago that I might have missed lying here under my rock.

They call it what!

2006-07-04T22:11:00.000-04:00

They acutally call it Taepodong! Who would have thought that they had a sense of humor.

And fuck! Now there is one more thing to worry about as if we didn't have enough shit already!

Dilbert hits home again!

2006-07-04T21:53:00.000-04:00

Wow! This is the nth time Scott Adams has a comic that is so true that it's scary! This is exactly why I left my last job - well I didn't want to kill but I did wish he would suffer somehow!

Why do they call it Menopause?

2006-06-30T13:33:00.000-04:00

What, like its going to start up again?

The trouble with relatives

2006-06-27T19:48:00.000-04:00

Here is another great reason never to get married, relative. Though my problems don't really stem from my wife's side of the family, they are kind of a side effect of marriage in the sense that there is a sort of simmering cold war at all times. And distance or time does not dull it, but that is a function of how a woman thinks more than anything else. They never fucking forget anything and each and every argument goes all the way back to the Big Bang!

I guess the ultimate issue is with me - I have to figure out a way to not let these people effect me so. I wish I could just fucking never see or have to deal with anyone any more. Like marriage, (extended) family should go the way of the dodo.

Anyway, certain of my relatives have a way of getting under my skin. And what's worst is that they have a way of really getting under my wife's skin and then she in turn takes it all out on me. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place!!!

Also, these people love to make you feel guilty to the point that you ar apologetic about whatever good is happending to you. Its like you need to share everything with everyone.

Wall warts, memory standards and other rants

2006-06-06T18:08:00.000-04:00

Okay, tell me this. In any sci-fi movie or any episode of Star Trek or any one of the Star Wars movies or even in Aliens, did anyone see a wall wart ie a power transformer? You know, the type which comes with almost every piece of electronic equipment and gadgetry. Any one? No right. And that is because we as a race are expected to have overcome this stupid limitation. Can't they built a super micro one into the device. I know they can! Fuck it, let the Chinese have a crack at it - they can make anything! At lease, design them right, like the one that comes from Apple with the iPod. WTF!

And while we are on the subject, how about making them all universal. I know that its possible so don't even try to make that excuse. I see a lot of even cheap crap that is rated 110-240.

Also, how about those auto power adapters. Why the fuck can't they get rid of those stupid huge lighter adapters and start using a usb power adapter. Some manufacturers are adding usb ports, but by now you'ld think it would be universal. Most of the time that stupid cock-plug doesn't fit tight or stay tight. Plus, if you need more ports, you are going to have an ugly mess. You could fit 3 or 4 usb ports in the same space. And a lot of shit charges from or is powered off usb now-a-days.

And Sony, stop fucking making up new memory standards. Get in the line, what makes you so special and all that!

And hats off to Motorola. After years of scamming the public with different-connectorts-for-each-new-phone, you have decided to begin to redeem yourself by making the Razr's connection interface standard usb. All you others, fuck you!

iFoxPod.com

2006-06-06T17:57:00.000-04:00

Is anything.com still considered to be hot and happening? Anyhoo, I think iPod is still hot and us computer types are still abuzzing about how great Firefox it and I personally like the FoxIt pdf reader way better than Acrobat. So if I put all that together, iFoxPod.com, its gotta be hot, right? I don't know what its going to be, but it sounds cool. Eh?

I am done with Wireless crap

2006-06-05T14:27:00.000-04:00

If I am ever tempted to buy any wireless keyboards or mice, just fucking hit me on the head with a hammer!

This crap is always overpriced and underperforms. Even the bloody $130 shit!

Geez you’ld think that by now we could make this shit work right. But I donno, maybe its me. I have noticed that electric and electronic stuff tends to crap out around me more than usual. Maybe I give off an extra high doze of personal aura juice!

Fuck it, I’m going back to wires. I should have taken that keyboard I had in the old office – the one with the 2 extra usb ports on the back – like the Apple keyboards. Now, for fucking $50 bucks a pop, why can’t they throw in a usb port or 2 on every wired keyboard.

Tempted by the fruit of another

2006-05-20T21:38:00.000-04:00

A while ( a long while) ago I wrote about how I have started to really like Opera, even though it has a few issues, espically when I am trying to use my reBlog implementation. But for everything else I just love it. And that makes me feel guilty, like I am cheating on my wife. The wife here being Firefox.

What a fucking idiot, to be made to feel guilty by inanimate softare. Ha ha! Alright, I got to go, Foxy is calling me to bed ;)

Evernote, I want to like you

2006-05-20T21:35:00.000-04:00

I do so want to love Evernote, really I do. But no matter how many times I go back to it, it just doesn’t click with me. I like the concept of a neverending roll of paper and I like the fact that there is all this nice web-clipping, but somehow, it just doesn’t work for me.

I know, its got all that tagging and all that. But, somehow, I prefer OneNote’s traditional layout of folders, tabs and pages over EverNote’s tag based system. I also don’t quite like the way the notes display in EverNote.

And I wanted a quick and easy way to make notes. I even considered a simple text file, and the more I think about it, the more sense it seems to make. Anyway, that is fodder for another post. I have settled (for now) on using a TiddlyWiki.

How I lost my lovely hotel room

2006-05-20T21:18:00.000-04:00

I am working away from home; rather home has moved to a new location but I am working in the same location. At first I lived with a friend but later I decided to cut down the commute and moved to a hotel real close to the place where I work (same parking lot actually).

And there I lived, relatively happy. It did get a little lonely and during my little run-in with the ER, I started to think that it might be a good idea to move back in with my friend and his family.

So when the friend and my wife both insisted that I don’t live alone anymore, I accepted. And I moved back. And its good and all – no problems. Its just that I would love the peacve and quite of my lovely hotel room. Everything is clean, the beds get new linen daily and the bathroom is spic and span with fresh towels, face towels, hand towels, floor towel and soap and what have you.

Oh well, this really isn’t bad either. Just today evening was a bit irritating, but I guess that is because everyone was home and all. Its actually really nice on weekdays, I get a cup of tea in the morning and everything.

A visit to the Emergency Room

2006-05-20T21:09:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, I had a little runin with the ER. Well, it started with a chest pain; I've had these before and recognized it to be due to gas. I continued to work and thought that the pain would go away once the gas subsides. It continued over a Friday and Saturday, the longest I've ever had gas pains for. I even took all the normal over-the-counter stuff I take and nothing seemed to help.

Thats when I started to think maybe this wasn't just another bout of gas; maybe its my ticker. I was living alone, in a hotel at the time; what if I just fell over and died in the middle of the night? No one would even know till Monday.

So I called my doctor. Left him voicemail and had him paged. He didn't call back, asshole. Then I thought about it - what else would he do except tell me to get to the ER - he's not going to attempt to diagnose me over the phone or take a chance at getting sued.

So I drove to the nearest hospital and checked in. I was amazed that they didn't make me wait at all; I guess it was the chest pains that did the trick. I was in and on the ECG machine in 2 minutes. After they did more tests and 6 - 7 hours later, the doctor came in and told me that they'ld like to keep me for 24hrs for observations and furthur tests.

He said something about my case being 'borderline', plus I have a history of high blood pressure, high cholestrol, depression and am over-weight.

So there I was, moving from the acute care rooms in the ER to the cardiac center ward upstairs. They finally gave me a narcotic for the pain and it was great; felt like I had had a few drinks. I could have slept real nice but they didn't let me.

All through the night they were testing me. CAT scan, blood samples, repeated blood pressure readings and ECG or EKG or whatever you call 'em. More tests in the morning. An early morning echo cardiogram followed by the dreaded stress test. That stress test was a bitch. At least the tech was pretty. The tech for the echo CG was nice too and the way they do it, you get a nice hug; that felt good - nothing sexual; just the therapeutic value of human touch.

They finally let me go at 6pm in the evening. All the tests came back negative; which means that the old ticker is fine and dandy. In a way, this was a good thing. Just in my last post I mentioned that I should get a complete medical workup; and this was about as thorough a cardiac workup that you could ever get. Sweet.

Next is the gastro guy. I took it easy with the food for a few days but now I am almost back to my bad old ways. But do need to get the GERD rechecked just to make sure I don't have any problems lurking there. Also, my blood sugar came out high a couple of times so the doctor wanted me to get that checked as well.

And that's that. My visit to the Emergency Room.

Old Age

2006-05-12T16:15:00.000-04:00

God, I am getting old. And fat. Everything hurts and creaks. I look in
the mirror and see a tired man. Most times all I want to do is
vegetate in front of the TV or sleep.

I guess its not really that I am getting old; I've seen so many old
people who are vibrant and full of life. I think I am still depressed.
Eventually I feel like I have to cause a big shake up in my life and
take care of everything that needs taking care of. I should get a
proper medical evaluation and start a diet and excercise routine.

Or maybe I can just go to sleep.

Rum pickled human

2006-05-05T09:36:00.000-04:00

Builders who drank a barrel of rum at a house in southern Hungary had a nasty surprise when they got to the bottom and found a pickled corpse.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Builders find body in rum barrel.

Opps!

Firefox cold turkey

2006-04-21T22:48:00.000-04:00

Opera just blew me. Away. I installed it on a whim, not serious about leaving my long time lover, Firefox. But from that first day, I have pratically never gone back. The latest FF version was a whole lot unstable anyway. And I find that Opera either has all the crap I have to install extensions for, or, is something that I don't need nor miss.

Opera. You have to check it out.

Where the hell have I been?

2006-04-09T20:34:00.000-04:00

Wow, its been a while; so, what have I been upto?

It seems change always comes in multiples. Some of it might be planned that way and some, just happends.

We are moving this month. Sold the old place and ready to move to the new place. Also, a close aunt is dropping by from the old country for a few days. Didn’t plan on changing jobs but so much independent project work has come my way, that I don’t think I have time for my old job any more.

The royalty is off on one of their 4 or 5 annual vacations – at the busiest point in a current job. And when I asked for a few days, he refused. So, I think I won’t care if I lay this on him at this time.

And he doesn’t seem to be too bothered by it anyway.

Religion of peace and love? Really?

2006-03-29T15:46:00.000-05:00

Conversion, or apostasy, is a crime under Afghanistan's Islamic law.

Mr Rahman, who converted 16 years ago while working as an aid worker for an international Christian group, was arrested after police discovered him with a Bible.

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Afghan convert 'arrives in Italy'.

Time and time again we hear politicians and such declare that Islam is a religion of peace. Is it, really? I’ld never heard the term ‘apostasy’ but I know that there is no other religion in the world in which apostasy is officially a criminal (CRIMINAL! Like rape and murder) offense punishable by death!

Besides, once you convert, aren’t you deemed ‘safe’, like you have made it to base and can’t be ‘outed’ anymore.

I have personally seen what they do in the other direction. There was this case of a Hindu boy who converted to Islam; they treated him like royalty or a celebrity. Everyone in the community (ghetto) had him over for meals and gave him whatever he wanted. They proably let him fuck any woman he wanted.

And so I wondered why more guys didn’t convert, take in the good life for a while and when all the excitement dies down, convert back. Now I get it, once you’re in, you can leave except feet first.

'Deep Throat' looking for an ear

2006-03-24T15:02:00.000-05:00

Two-bit tech company As far as tech companies go, my employeer is really a 2 bit front operation for embezelling from our client. If you want to know more, or are associated with the press, leave me a comment and maybe I will be your ‘deep throat’.

South Park gets revenge on Chef

2006-03-23T09:55:00.000-05:00

South Park has exacted revenge on its former star Isaac Hayes by turning his character Chef into a paedophile and seemingly killing him off.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | South Park gets revenge on Chef.

Sweet! I hate people like Issac Hayes who are just fine with making fun of other people but can’t take the joke themselves! Fuck him!

US debt limit nears $9 trillion

2006-03-20T18:15:00.000-05:00

US debt limit nears $9 trillion!
I couldn't decide which part of this BBC story to quote so I'm just posting the whole thing.
US President George W Bush has signed a bill to raise the national debt ceiling to nearly $9 trillion (£5.12 trillion).

The bill means the government can borrow a further $781 billion and stops what would have been a first ever default of Treasury notes.

In addition, it permits the US to pay for the war in Iraq without increasing taxes or making domestic cuts.

The debt increase, the fourth since Mr Bush came to power, comes as the budget deficit reaches near record levels.

An additional increase in the debt limit next year is likely, the Associated Press news agency said.

The latest measure enables the debt limit to increase to $8.96 trillion from its previous level of $8.18 trillion.

BBC NEWS | Business | US debt limit nears $9 trillion.

Wal-Mart to hire 150,000 Chinese

2006-03-20T18:03:00.000-05:00

Its funny about communism!Wal-Mart plans to hire an extra 150,000 staff in China over the next five years as it boosts its presence in the fast-growing retail market.

BBC NEWS | Business | Wal-Mart to hire 150,000 Chinese.

Or maybe even move to China.

There was a time in America, I believe that being a communist was the worst possible crime you could commit. And now, not only is it not so bad, but we can’t get enough of all the cheap (read child labor) stuff that they can manufacture for us.

Here is a riddle-in-reverse for you: what is the height of hipocracy?

Dell to double Indian workforce

2006-03-20T17:56:00.000-05:00

Computer giant Dell plans to double its Indian workforce to 20,000 over the next three years.

BBC NEWS | Business | Dell to double Indian workforce.

Is it time yet to pack my bags go back to the native land?

The importance of gifts

2006-03-16T15:33:00.000-05:00

I can’t remember the last time I received a gift from anyone; well that isn’t really true. I do remember but because of the person it was from and the circumstances under which or why he was giving it away (as a gift, get it?), the experience was rather unpleasant and uncomfortable.

Anyway, back to the topic. Wouldn’t it be great to receive a well thought out gift, something you really wanted, from someone close and from whom you have no issues accepting the gift? I have forgotten how good that can feel. Both ways. Therefore, I am now resolving to give little, but appropriate, gifts to all my near and dear, at least once every couple of months.

And hopefully I’ll get some gifts too. Though that isn’t why I have decided to give the gifts. Its just that gifting can spread such joy.

Christmas doesn’t count. I mean, the kids expect gifts as if it is their right. And maybe it is there right to receive something on Christmas, I don’t know. Anyway, there is no more magic or fun in Christmas gifts.

Our adult friends would exchange gifts for Christmas too but we killed that pratice with mutual understanding. And thank god for it! I mean, all you ever got was crap! And all you ever gave was crap to match the crap you got the last time. And no one thought it out, not really. It was all based on what’s on sale and how cheap can you get anything.

At the other end, I don’t like the really expensive gift giving either. That is more about the giver than the, er, givee. And I know some really stupid rich people who enjoy doing this for each other and telling the whole world what they did. That really sucks. Not only do they either don’t give you anything or get you something really really cheap, but they talk your ears off about that really expensive thing that they gave someone else.

Analysis and Design, shooting from the hip

2006-03-16T11:13:00.000-05:00

Yeah, that how we do it!

The traditional method of system analysis and design would start with a series of interviews with users, owners and stakeholdes, yada yada. But that’s old school, that not how we roll here in this place.

We’s all cutting edge and shit here. We sit at our desks and come up with things we think that the users will need; they’re dumb motherfuckers and don’t know what they need anyhow. We then invent all kinds of transactions and reports and shit like that.

And then we ram it down their throats.

Yeah.

Google in the future

2006-03-13T14:56:00.000-05:00

Slibe.com : 74093e76-googlein20years_ : 535 x 501 : 34.4 KB - Free Image Hosting.
Fucking priceless!

Flesh Eating Bacteria!

2006-03-10T14:29:00.000-05:00

Dunn physician Abraham Oudeh diagnosed necrotizing fasciitis, an infection that destroys tissue — a flesh-eating disease.

The infection is caused by a rare strain of streptococcus bacteria.

By the time Sharon arrived at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill that evening, the infection had spread farther down the left side of her body. Doctors amputated her arm at the clavicle and removed all the muscle and tissue around her left breast, torso and thigh in a futile attempt to save her life. Late that night, Sharon died.

Fayetteville Online - Current Article Page.

Gulp!

Beware the NewsMonster!

2006-03-10T10:56:00.000-05:00

NewsMonster is a news, weblog, and RSS aggregator that runs directly in your web browser. NewsMonster offers

NewsMonster.

I tried installing NewsMonster and it totally killed my Firefox install. I cleaned all that up and thinking it might have been something I did, I tried reinstalling and it blew it out of the water again!

Well at least I learnt how to manually uninstall an extension from firefox.

Windows Live Toolbar

2006-03-08T16:30:00.000-05:00

Now I needz me to go buy a gazillion MBs of RAM so that I can runz this Windows Live Toolbar thingy. Fuckz!

Nobody knows shit, or, Ultimate Enlightment

2006-03-07T16:10:00.000-05:00

Think about it, after everything we know, we know shit about anything! And some day everyone will be dead from a freak weather condition or the bird flu or the sun expanding or something and everything we collectively know will be useless and gone.

We don’t even know if that has already happened in the past and if this is our nth time around.

Maybe Ultimate Enlightment is when we finally realize that nothing means anything and we finally STOP and give up living.

Priceless

2006-03-07T16:02:00.000-05:00

Our hawk-eyed office administrator just saved the company $174 bucks! Whoop-de-do! I want my fucking allowances back!

When does it all end?

2006-03-07T16:00:00.000-05:00

I have to know, when does it all end? And what is the purpose of it all? Right now, it looks pretty much just random physics and chemistry that is producing all this biology.

Advice to men aspiring to get married: DON'T

But if you have to, marry a mute. Trust me on this one. I think mutes can groan and moan in case you like that in bed. And if she can't don't sweat it, you can always play the audio track of a porn movie; its proably far better than anything your wife can do. And if she is deaf, fuck it, she won't know ;-) Besides, all that is only the first couple of years anyway, after that the sex goes out the window.

And you can proably get a handicap tag for your car too.

Hot and Cold

2006-03-06T16:58:00.000-05:00

Video of a guy who throws boiling water up into the air in -40'C temprature. BTW, there is no reason for humans to habitate any place on earth where its that fucking cold!

Bush in India

2006-03-02T15:44:00.000-05:00

And he said "the US is looking forward to eating Indian mangoes", under an agreement to expand trade in farm products.

BBC NEWS | South Asia | US and India seal nuclear accord.

Sweet!!! Nothing like those Indian alphonso mangoes. This stuff we get here right now from Mexico is crap! It barely tastes like a mango.

Also, pictures like this proably care the bejeezeus out of a lot of Americans! All those turbaned men! :D

Government's Action Plan for Bird Flu

2006-03-01T10:34:00.000-05:00

Businesses need to plan on having 40 percent of their workforces out if a flu pandemic strikes and need to start rewarding employees for staying home when they are sick, U.S. government advisers told a conference on Tuesday.

Health News Article | Reuters.com.

And don’t forget the duct tape!!!

Some people are so dumb!

2006-02-15T10:40:00.000-05:00

I just heard this woman tell someone that since her mother had diabetes, her husband has to be careful with his sugar intake! Dumb woman, doesn’t she know that you can’t “catch” diabetes if you fuck the daughter of the woman who has it! Hell, he wouldn’t get it even if he fucked the mother-in-law!

When I grow up

2006-02-10T12:51:00.000-05:00

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Pharaonic tomb find stuns Egypt

...Archaeologists have discovered an intact, ancient Egyptian tomb in the Valley of the Kings, the first... [Read]

Who hasn’t dreamt of being a great explorer finding a Pharoh’s tomb in Egypt! The thrill of opening up a space which was last entered 1000s of years ago!

This shows that there is magic in the world after all. Even in this modern day and age when you’ld think that everything findable has been found and everything mappable has been mapped.