“Hi there, It has been long time since we did not meet.”
It goes on to pitch me some sort of medical site, but I can’t help but think that “It has been a long time since we did not meet” would be a memorable line in a poem or something. But instead, it’s trying to hock me their meds.
Sorry, cindy88, it’s going to be even longer until we don’t meet. Whatever that means.
A lot of companies give to charity, and it’s a great thing. Some match what their employees donate, and others just donate some of their profits to charities.
But a trend that drives me insane is when companies ask if you want to donate money to them to donate to charity. The “Product Red” campaign is a great example. It seems that you can pay, say, $50 extra on a product, and have $25 donated to charity. Plus, I’m sure the company receives a tax advantage when donating your money.
It’s sort of like the telemarketers for charities, which are usually run by companies that skim at least 50%, if not more, of your donation. In a way, they’re doing a great thing, but bringing in record donations to charity, simply by getting people who wouldn’t seek out a charity to donate. But at the same time, I can’t help but think that companies letting customers donate, indirectly, to charity are doing something insidious. Instead of giving a company money to donate to charity on your behalf, give it directly.
I’ve been thinking of building a new desktop… I was hoping for some peer reviews to see if I’m missing anything. I’m not positive what this will run, but I’m trying to favor OSx86 hardware in case. This machine will probably house some virtual machines, hence the quad core and generous RAM. I’m not going dual monitors yet, but I’m trying to find a video card that will support dual monitors.
I plan to re-use my old case and power supply (300W), along with the DVD drive, keyboard, and mouse. Thoughts?
From Ask Metafilter: Did Pythagoras actually exist? It seems that a number of historians and mathematicians have argued that he was more of a mythological figure that led a cult of people, rather than an actual mathematician.
Also, while learning that a2 + b2 = c2, we definitely never learned that he founded a religion based on reincarnation and not eating beans. There’s an interesting mix of brilliance and lunacy with Pythagoras. From Wikipedia: “He was one of the first to propose that the thought processes and the soul were located in the brain and not the heart. He himself claimed to have lived four lives that he could remember in detail, and heard the cry of his dead friend in the bark of a dog.”
He also, perhaps, inspired Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: “One of Pythagoras’ beliefs was that the essence of being is number.”
Math class would have been much more interesting if we discussed Pythagoras as a religious leader, ate some beans, watched HG2G, and then argued that Pythagoras never actually existed.
I’m still conflicted as to what I want for a machine; I sort of want a desktop, sort of a laptop, sort of a Mac, sort of not… But as I was checking out FatWallet and Slick Deals, I wanted to point out some highlights:
I’m having a hard time not buying that Asus LCD. DVI, HDMI, and VGA inputs. And it’s got nothing but good reviews. But it’s also tempting to upgrade my laptop to a 320 GB hard drive.
Oh, fellow T60 owners: in addition to the spiffy 320GB SATA disk for notebooks, I’ve been thinking of upgrading to 3GB RAM. The Bentley-issued T60s have two slots but a single 1GB stick. Looks like we want 200-pin, PC2-5300 memory. Most reviews say that a limitation in some low-level hardware (descriptions vary?), the Thinkpad is incapable of seeing more than 3GB RAM, so a single 2GB DIMM is in order. We can Upgrade to 3GB RAM and a 320GB disk for under $100? Still thinking I might sink my money into a desktop instead.
It’s Friday night. What am I doing? Watching the epoch.
n1zyy@t60:~$ date +%s 1234567890
Kind of like New Year’s. Only more epic epoch.
I’ve been wrong before, but my gut is telling me that Microsoft’s physical stores are going to end badly. Though I confess to being somewhat ignorant here: I’m not sure why it’s being done at all, but now seems like a pretty bad time to launch a brick-and-mortar store, particularly when you’re selling things found in every computer store in the country.
I was disappointed to hear that Judd Gregg had withdrawn from consideration as Secretary of Commerce. (The position is cursed?)
Even though I typically vote blue, I’m a big believer in ensuring that the minority party still has an active role, and really liked the idea of a fairly fiscally-conservative Secretary of Commerce. (And a New Hampshire resident!) Having him on a Democrat’s Cabinet would have forced something rare to happen: the two sides would have to to work with each instead of working against each other.
I’m curious what’s next, though. I can’t help but read between the lines and suspect that the RNC was privy to the decision, which makes me doubt that any Republicans are going to jump up for consideration. Which is a shame, really: now more than ever, we need to stop worrying so much about party lines.
Now here’s an interesting idea for a book: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. The Amazon summary is pretty apt in its description:
Product Description “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” features the original text of Jane Austen’s beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone crunching zombie action. About the Author JANE AUSTEN is the author of Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Mansfield Park, and other masterpieces of English literature. SETH GRAHAME-SMITH is the author of How to Survive a Horror Movie and The Big Book of Porn. He lives in Los Angeles.
How has no one thought of writing this before? (Found via Uncrate.)
I usually try to ensure that my posts here have at least some value, but here goes…
I’m pretty easy-going when it comes to music. I’ll be listening to NPR and switch stations when they go to a commercial, and find myself listening to gangster rap. Then they go to a commercial, and I change stations back to NPR and it’s some jazz. Then they do a fundraiser and I’m listening to classic rock.
I can think of only three songs that I absolutely refuse to listen to. I’ll turn the radio off or listen to a commercial before I listen to the song: