Apr. 15th, 2008

Quotes

Apr. 15th, 2008 01:00 am
jack: (happy/hannukah)
"Can I post binary files here?"
-- comp.basilisk faq

"My friend expressed surprise that you could get ants sent to you in the mail. I replied: 'What's really interesting is that these people will send a tube of live ants to anyone you tell them to.' Security requires a particular mindset."
-- Bruce Schneier

S: "It seems everyone's being hit by the baby stick."
Me: "The baby stick? Oh, is that what they call them nowadays?"

Me: "Thank you very much, I'm very glad I've found someone nice to share with, that's very convenient".
Sebastian: "Thank you for sharing."

" the article is quite good, and includes at least sketches of the various proofs that 0.999... = 1 ... the arguments ... are interesting, .. one gets to watch people who don't really understand why this should be true, but want to understand it ... It might give you a headache, though. It's like sausage being made."
--Isabel, God Plays Dice

"Headline: Gay Scientists Isolate Christian Gene!"
-- via robh

"Col Mustard is so heartbroken that he kills himself, in the billiard room, with the lead piping, which causes a certain amount of confusion further down the line."
--Andrew Rilstone

"If the planet’s seas really do rise, I’m going to the Netherlands. [The] attitude is 'what’s a few more feet on the dikes?' Not only have these people been keeping the North Sea out since the Middle Ages, but they also work at it 24/7. If you want to get something done, ask a busy person." -- Patrick Neilson Heydon

"I can understand why you were confused. If you're trying to combine Suction and Inverted Psycho Suction, that would be enough to confuse anyone. Actually, I think you got off lucky; I'd expect that mixing Suction and Inverted Psycho Suction in your brain would lead the two to react and create a fantastic explosion which would reduce your brain and your head to gamma radiation leaving nothing but the top end of your spinal cord sticking out of your shirt, attached to nothing.

Of course, if this happens, the opponents should immediately summon the Director."
-- rec.bridge

"I can easily check just by looking down that I am not a poached egg (I have arms and legs, but not a white or a yolk). But who my father is, and whether or not he created the universe, is much less obvious."
-- Jacob

"But I really can't complain, since my title's cotaken from Einstein anyway. Yes, cotaken, as in I took the complement of what Einstein said; there are no arrows getting reversed involved here."
--Isabel, God Plays Dice
jack: (Default)
That's the second biggest rickroll I've ever seen![1]
(link)

[1] I debated with a "Biggest. Rickroll. Evar." Simpsons reference, but decided the Monkey Island reference was better as (a) Monkey Island is the coolest thing ever and (b) it probably does come second best, after xkcd's take.

I get great fun explaining this at work, as people had heard of Astly, but never of the practice of rick-rolling. In short, what happened was the American sports team the New York Mets had a poll on their website to decide their new theme tune.

Read more... )

Terror law in tatters as extremists go free
(link)

What a marvellously accurate headline. I'm fairly sure there's a subtext that "terror law in tatters" is a bad thing, or a good thing, but I can't tell which. The content is very serious, but I just love how well-chosen words can convey precisely an opinion, even a deliberately ambiguous one (even though I don't suppose the headline was actually intended objectively).
jack: (Default)
Wikihistory (Desmond Warzel)
(link)

"Wikihistory is a delightful science fiction short story by Desmond Warzel in the form of a series of messages posted to a time-travellers' forum." Via someone.

A Plan for Scams (Daniel Franke)
(Link)

In which Achilles and the Tortoise discuss plans for an Eliza system to automatically generate plausible gullible responses to 419 scams (and so make it impossible for scammers to pick out real victims).

Achilles: I'm drafting a letter from Hooke, Lynn, Fischer & Pierre, partners at law.
T: I wasn't aware you had any legal training.
A: You know all that email in your junk folder purporting to come from rich Nigerian widows with jammed caps lock keys? Read more... )

ONN: FCC Okays Nudity on TV if it's Alyson Hannigan
(Link, plays video)

From the Onion. I love that just about the whole headline is the URL. I haven't watched the video, I just thought the title was so perfect.
jack: (books/Sarpadian Empires (cropped))
http://andrewrilstone.blogspot.com/2008/04/42-fires-of-pompeii.html

Unsurprisingly I didn't agree with all of his conclusions, but unsurprisingly, I think he has a good insight into what bothered me about the translation and time-travel of this ep :)

[1] No, really. Think about it. My theory is the entire episode was building up to this pun, but the producer pulled the plug at the last minute, hence the slightly aimlessness of the plot near the end, and the marvellousness of everything else where they ran around shoving in good ideas with abandon :)

Win

Apr. 15th, 2008 09:13 pm
jack: (happy/hannukah)
I recently brought my household bin in from the garden (don't ask, not the big "black bin", the human sized one), and left it by the front door, as it was a bit muddy. Then I got a flyer. Hey, those jokes about two in trays really have a point, don't they? Win.

Rcv1 recently lent me "Three seasons of angel videos, with a video player". (I decided I wanted to see Angel enough, but probably not to see it again, hence borrowing.) Video cassettes are really cumbersome, but they look lovely lined up on the shelf, and now I have a video plugged into a cable receiver plugged into a DVD player plugged into a TV. I'm sure that's not quite right, but win.

The bike fairy (university cycles) collected my bike and fixed it. Thank you. Win.

Other recent little victories include:

* Shower curtain rail. It fell down ages ago, I taped it together, and never got round to fixing it properly. However, it's quite clever inside: one rod fits inside the other, and the end of the inner is an off-centre rotating wood bit, so you simply extend them fully and twist, locking them in place.
* Mud guard. I can't remember what I fixed about it, but it must have been satisfying :)
* I made a firefox quick search to turn "lj username" into a full URL. It's amazing how often saving that little bit of typing helps your mood.
* Tesco started selling a marvellous innovation! A pesto jar wider than a spoon! :)

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