May 2009
The Winner
It’s the winmodem driver, of course.
Not only is the software useless, it’s for hardware that was deliberately useless. Plus USR became pretty useless after 3Com bought them.
The item pictured here is a “write ring” for 9-track data tape.
The linked article inaccurately calls it a write protection ring, but does describe its function correctly. Writing to tape is disabled if the ring is absent, meaning that the ring enables writing.
O'Reilly Upgrade Policy →
If you’ve purchased an older edition of a book, O’Reilly will give you a 40% discount on the purchase price of the newer edition.
Books may not have warranties, but O’Reilly’s can be upgraded. I find that not a lot of people are aware of this, so I like to mention it now and then.
Yet Another Tumblr Wish
It’d be nice to have a setting we could check to indicate that we have commenting enabled on our tumblelog, and a discreet graphic indicator on our posts in Dashboard if we’ve checked it.
Even nicer would be Disqus integration into Dashboard (counts, pop-up to comment,…), but I’d be pleased as punch if my posts just indicated in Dashboard that you can click through to...
“Be grateful. Books don’t even HAVE warranties.”
– Jason Sweeney, my canadian boyfriend
“Male dictum interpretando facias acrius.”
– Syrus - Maxims
(Translation: Explaining a bad saying makes it worse.)
Fun Fact: There has only ever been *one* navel...
Navel Oranges are the sterile fruit of an 1820 mutation, so can not be planted or cross-bred. Cultivation is achieved by cutting and grafting onto other varieties of citrus tree.
“If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds...”
– Edgar Rice Burroughs (via mercenarywriters)
This is worth repeating.
(via monkeyfrog)
I’m hoping it works for photos, too.
(via ronbailey)
It does, with the prerequisite in both cases that you are trying to produce something good.
The Feminist Pessimist: Why WCA? →
We’ve decided to pull our daughter out of her current daycare.
My wife, Amanda Shankle-Knowlton, explains why, and why it’s especially dismaying given the YWCA’s motto of “Empowering Women”.
“Some days I feel like my shadow’s casting me. Some days the sun...”
– Warren Zevon - Dirty Life & Times
Random Safety Tip
If you have any sort of incident (accident, dropping it, whatever) with any sort if helmet (bicycle, football, motorcycle, whatever) that results in the helmet being cracked, it is no longer a helmet.
Next time, the energy that was absorbed and displaced by the crack is going into your head, which may well do the same thing.
They’re playing a Steel Drum Star Spangled...
“See your slides as the table of contents of your presentation - not the...”
– Chris Heilmann - Pitching a hack (or a product) do’s and dont’s
Amen.
Urban Dict - interknow →
To be acquainted with someone over the Internet, but not IRL
This coining just occurred to me today but, of course, was already in UD. I like it. I’m tired of air-quoting the fact that I “know” people I haven’t “met”.
Goodbye, Farewell and Amen →
Just watched last week’s 30 Rock, and thought I’d provide this link as a public service for those too young to catch the Alan Alda reference to a chicken, a baby, and crying on a comedy show.
Twitter gives rise to a network of amateur... →
“There are all these people who never considered themselves comedians or writers, they were just funny people,” said Nick Douglas, … “And suddenly they’re getting this larger appreciation.”
Happy to have made the sidebar of a big media article on Twitter that actually gets things right.
Edit: The article’s not just about Nick’s book, but...
Project 52 Update, Week 19
Weight: 264 lbs. YTD Loss: 37 lbs. Weekly Loss: 1 lb.
Pics: http://tinyurl.com/p52pics
What this is about: http://tinyurl.com/shameme
