This is a few months old, but I just rediscovered it and laughed by head off. It’s a “re-captioning” of the emergency icons from www.ready.gov; the site that The G has put up to tell folks what to do in the event of another terrorist attack. There’s some really funny stuff here. Read it. It’s funny.
Month: June 2003
Writebacks Enabled
I’ve enabled a Blosxom feature called “writebacks” on the blog, which is basically a comments system. I had been using the TrackBack feature before, but I think it may have confused people because it was being used in a non-normal way apparently. Anyway, clicking on the “x writebacks” link below any story will let you view any existing comments and leave your own. Use it, but be nice! 🙂
I Need a “Favorite Icon”
Everyone seems to have nifty little icons for their websites that show up in the address bar and on their bookmarks. I need one for my site, but I can’t think of anything. Does anyone have any suggestions? (And no, I won’t even consider a horse’s ass…) An elephant at a computer keyboard, perhaps? Probably too detailed for that small amount of real estate. Email me if you have a suggestion.
My Boy Likes The Ramones
There’s an advert running on the television right now for AT&T Wireless that features, of all things, the song Blitzkreig Bop by The Ramones. My 4.5 year old son, Thomas, has been running around the house singing the “Hey! Ho! Let’s Go!” chorus that is so prominent in the ad. So Saturday we’re in the car heading for Milledegville, GA for my grandmother-in-law’s funeral. We’ve just been listening to some exquisite Capercaillie when I tell Thomas I have a surprise for him. I pop in my 15 year old copy of Ramones Mania and skip to track 9. As soon as the chorus starts his eyes light up and he starts laughing and singing along. Now it’s the only song he wants to listen to. I think we’ve heard it 12 times since Saturday…
Wackos See Spaceships In the Clouds…
I found this this morning. It’s a web page claiming there are spaceships hiding in interesting cloud formations. Good photos, but no ships visible…
From that, I ended up here. This is a “news story” claiming that President Bush has “ordered the murders of whistleblowers”. Yeah, right. Here’s a little snippet for your enjoyment
George Bush has ordered the Murders of Whistleblowers, therefore take necessary precautions, Watch your back. Intelligence sources have confirmed that there are Israeli Mossad Hit Teams in the United States to assassinate Whistleblower & former and current Intelligence operatives.
Hoo boy! That’s a good one. Mossad agents operating in the US under White House orders. Come on guys, pull the other one!
A Golden Gem
JavaPro Magazine has done a review of my book, Ant Developer’s Handbook!!! The first line is the best:
The Ant Developer’s Handbook is one of those golden gems that appear every once in a while.
That is music to my ears. Now go read the whole review and then go buy your very own copy!
Expensive Bottled Water
From the latest Scientific American, an article about bottled water and how it is or isn’t different from ordinary tap water. Here’s a sample:
The most telling taste test was conducted by the Showtime television series Penn & Teller: Bullshit! The hosts began with a blind comparison in which 75 percent of New Yorkers preferred city tap to bottled waters. They then went to the Left Coast and set up a hidden camera at a trendy southern California restaurant that featured a water sommelier who dispensed elegant water menus to the patrons. All bottles were filled out of the same hose in the back of the restaurant; nevertheless, Angelenos were willing to plunk down nearly $7 a bottle for L’eau Du Robinet (French for “faucet water”), Agua de Culo (Spanish for “ass water”) and Amazone (“filtered through the Brazilian rain forest’s natural filtration system”), declaring them all to be far superior to tap water. There’s no accounting for taste.
I have to have filtered water, and ice cold at that, but I don’t really care about bottled water or the labels on the bottles. I can’t stand that Dasani water from Coca Cola. They add minerals to it and I get a distinctly metallic taste when I drink it. I don’t usually buy it, but if you want water at Disney World, that’s the only thing available.
The Matrix Reloaded
I just got back from seeing The Matrix Reloaded and I’m not quite sure what to make of it. I think I liked it, but there are several things I’m not sure I understand. Visually it was spectacular, though the fight scenes went on waaaaay too long. The scene were Neo fights 100 Agent Smiths was kind of funny.
I read in someone else’s blog that they believe Neo may be a program… I would probably not have come to that on my own, but with that seed planted, I can see how that may be possible. I guess we’ll just have to wait until the final chapter to find out.
And I could have gone for a very long time without seeing Keanu Reeves’ bare ass and been quite happy… Now, Trinity, on the other hand…
The preview for Terminator 3 was excellent. That’s going to be a killer film. Speaking of “killer” films, what moronic studio exec thought funding Freddy vs. Jason would be a good idea?
Guilty Pleasure Confession
I must confess that I really like t.A.T.u, the Russian (allegedly) lesbian, (allegedly) teenaged singing duo. (I also grew to like the Spice Girls years ago, but that’s another story…) Anyway, I’ve been hearing them on the radio for a while, but I recently got the record, and it’s quite good. Their cover of the classic song “How Soon Is Now?” by The Smiths is excellent. The song “All the Things She Said” is their defining song and is replete with sexually-charged, “we’re lesbians and we really really fancy each other” lyrics. Whether they are or are not into each other (or even girls in general) is up for debate, but they certainly play it up on camera and on stage.
This record is certainly not for the teen aged crowd (though I’m sure it’s a bestseller there), but for the adults, some good listening.
No (Apparent) Love Lost In JBoss Group Split
After this morning’s surprise announcement that JBoss Group was essentially forking, there has been a lot of speculation about what this means for JBoss Group specifically and JBoss in general. The new company was started by 8 now-former JBoss Group consultants and was announced with much fanfare this morning. Ben Sabrin of JBoss Group just posted a “rebuttal” of sorts to the jboss-user mailing list. He took a few jabs at the departing consultants and made one statement that’s a bit hard to swallow. The jabs:
“…the most important developers are on board with JBoss Group.”
“WE have the financial resources to patch the departures of three consultants in our US consulting operation.”
and the dinger is
“It is business as usual and JBoss Group is currently growing.”
The statement that all the “important” developers are on board is an attempt to downplay the reputations of those who have left by implying that they were second string, while the second is attempting to indicate that the new company is going to be strapped for cash, probably to scare off potential customers. I have no personal info on either statement or situation, nor do I know if the developers in question are useful or not. From what I can tell, though, in reading the various articles about the split, the consultants who left all seem like integral parts of the team… I can’t blame JBoss Group for being ticked off, but these statements just strike me as a little smarmy.
The dinger is a dinger because how can you be growing if half of your consultants just left?
I think it will be interesting to see how all this plays out over the next several months. Will this lessen or increase the business use of JBoss? I actually think the potential is there to increase it because you have more options for support, but that’s just me.
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