Dennis Henninger refers to notedFriday, February 28th, 2003Dennis Henninger refers to noted economist Joseph Schumpeter in his column today (subscription req’d). He points out what I think so many of us had long suspected about the protesters and their ilk. quoted below… “If Schumpeter is correct, much of the opposition to war with Iraq is more than anything the politics of liberals here and the left in Europe who would not abide being led anywhere by a conservative U.S. administration. Hell no, they won’t go, no matter how many resolutions are outputted by the Security Council.” Figured I’d say “Word” to that observation. In other news, I discovered the Velociblog somehow (don’t ask me how) but if you enjoy reading this blog, it’s worth a read. laters, |
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Archive for February, 2003
My letter to the WrigleyThursday, February 27th, 2003My letter to the Wrigley corporation. Dear Wrigley, I recently saw your advertisement for Juicy Fruit longer lasting gum. The advertisement prompted me to purchase some of your gum, and I have been extremely satisfied with the product. However, there is a downside. As you may well have expected, all of my friends are now always accosting me for gum because Juicy Fruit has even longer lasting flavor. To remedy the situation, I am interested in buying one of your “attack kittens,” which your television advertisement indicates are “sold separately.” The local convenience store where I purchased the gum told me that they do not carry the “Wrigley Attack Kitten” and they were unaware of where I should go to procure the item. Therefore, I write to you now, hoping that perhaps you could tell me which stores carry the attack kitten, which I now believe to be a necessary acoutrement to your line of Juicy Fruit gum. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Sincerely yours, Robert J. Sama |
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I just read this story…Thursday, February 27th, 2003 |
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“Not unless you think aboutThursday, February 27th, 2003“Not unless you think about the irony!!!” Yesterday’s blog seems to have gotten something of a reaction. Vikingzen seems to have devoted her blog entry of the day to commenting on it, and I received an email from a friend who wrote, “C. ‘Y’all need to be having more sex, and less IM.’” I guess we struck a chord. More irony to think about… some of you may be noticing that the banner ads that Blogger has decided to place on my blog have a decidedly anti-war bent… How’s that for irony? |
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Calzone and I had thisWednesday, February 26th, 2003Calzone and I had this argument on January 29th, 2002. We were reminiscing about it yesterday, so I figured it’d suffice for today’s blog. It’s a completely inane argument about something completely theoretical, though it’s amusing to see how an innocent discussion turns into a name calling contest. Enjoy reading, and be sure to vote at the end of the discussion to let us know who’s right. (subsequently edited for content) Calzone (3:57:23 PM): Orgasm May Be Right-Brain I think that when you have an orgasm, the brain releases a The right brain cannot ascribe anything to the right side of the 1) cannot control the motor functions of teh left side 2. A Left brain in a jar would never have an orgasm 3. A right brain in a jar, when orgasming, would believe for that 4. A full brain with a severed corpus collusom, in a jar, would Now, here is the change in your brain. Your brain has How exactly do you experience this orgasm? 
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Bob Cringely responds to today’sTuesday, February 25th, 2003Bob Cringely responds to today’s blog… reprinted below… Dear Rob, Look a little closer. Microsoft announced that it would be supporting the Intel 64-bit instructions, BUT NOT IN THE FIRST RELEASE. So this idea that the 64-bit product was released for manufacturing was wrong. Also, while Microsoft announced support for Itanium, they didn’t announce that they WEREN’T going to support Opteron, which this story implies. There is lots of Fear Uncertainty and Doubt here. It is well within what Microsoft says for the company to ship support for Itanium and Opteron at the same time. It is also very possible that they’ll completely change their minds. Remember Microsoft is very good at announcing intentions that are never realized. So while I may eventually be proven wrong on this issue, I am not wrong yet. All the best, Bob |
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ok… as promised last night…Tuesday, February 25th, 2003ok… as promised last night… Right around the end of the year, Bob Cringely, noted online columnist and documentary filmmaker for PBS, wrote an article about the AMD vs. Intel 64 bit chipsets. See, the issue was that the new AMD chipsets could handle both 64 bit and 32 bit instruction sets, making a migration from the current 32 bit MS operating systems to the planned 64 bit MS operating systems a bit smoother. The Intel chips, on the other hand, can run only 64 bit operating systems, and thus are blocked from offering IT managers a migration path – either upgrade whole hog or don’t upgrade at all. In his column Cringely predicts, “So what is likely to happen (here comes my prediction) is that Intel will be forced by Microsoft to adopt AMD’s 64-bit instructions.” In other words, Intel will have to adopt AMD’s architecture in a stunning twist of fate. It seemed like a bold prediction, especially given that even by Cringely’s admission, Intel is higher on the pecking order, and has far more economic clout than AMD has. Nevertheless, it made sense, and I sort of looked forward to it happening. Well it didn’t. Those of you who hate Microsoft and believe they’re evil may have your own conclusions to draw on here but I have my own as well (which you now must read). See, Cringely’s argument made perfect sense in normal economic times for tech, where IT managers are slowly upgrading equipment and then replacing operating systems across the enterprise all at once. But that isn’t happening today. Today, nobody has an IT budget of any significance, and stagnation has set in. I think that this move of Microsoft’s may be an attempt to “double down” as it were, to have a revolutionary change waiting in the wings instead of slowly releasing an evolutionary change. So that when IT budgets begin to inflate again, there will be a new generation of products out there, and a mandate to upgrade, because literally, there’s no going back. All of this conniving and posturing seems positively absurd, of course, to anyone with slight interest in engineering who’s from the Boston area. See, DEC (digital equipment corporation), which was sold to Compaq and is now a division of HP had built about 10 years ago a 64 bit chip known as the Alpha chip. According to every electrical engineer I know (and yes, I know quite a few), it was apparently a work of brilliance. They taught from it at local engineering schools in the Boston area, and it was leagues beyond anything that Intel or anybody else was doing at the time. It ran the 32 bit operating systems of the day (if I remember correctly), and the 64 bit UNIX systems and should be able to run the 64 bit MS operating systems of tomorrow. So where is the Alpha chip today and why isn’t it being used or rolled out by HP, who wants to be able to compete with the likes of IBM who makes the PowerPC line of chipsets? That’s a good question… |
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Just looking over the hitMonday, February 24th, 2003Just looking over the hit logs… In addition to the usual major ISPs, some interesting people have been past here… including: informedsecurity.com You can see for yourself the most recent visitors by clicking on the counter on the right. Happy investigating. Tomorrow morning, I challenge Cringely to explain the error of his prediction… |
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ok. So my buddy NateMonday, February 24th, 2003ok. So my buddy Nate had been reading this book by Noam Chomsky recently, which he apparently received as a gift from the grandfather or uncle of his girlfriend, a man who by Nate’s description appears to be some sort of lefty hillbilly recluse who reads a lot and likes to discuss politics. So Nate has been reading this book, trying to get his arms around it and describing to me Chomsky’s nonsensical gibberish and gobbledygook and obviously getting frustrated by the attempt. Now Nate and I have a tendency to discuss political and philosophical matters while drinking beer, and so he came to me to ask for help in understanding what Chomsky was saying, in large measure because what he was saying seemed to be so utterly incredible (as in, not believable, not as in, amazing). I told Nate that there is no point in reading someone like Chomsky, that he doesn’t make any sense, probably even to himself, and that he tries to mask the fact that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about by intentionally confusing his readers in a mess of conceptual abstractions and confusing prose. But Nate pressed on, feeling that he didn’t want to let this book get the better of him. So you can imagine my surprise when I came across this article. It appears that scholars far smarter than me agree, Noam doesn’t really stand for anything, and is really just a big mess. In some cases, it’s not giving in to call it quits. It’s giving in to keep the course. GWB may want to consider that tidbit of wisdom in deciding wether it’s worth his time continuing with the UN… And speaking of the UN, check out the Iraqi Explorer Error Page. Who says liberals can’t be funny? |
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New season of CrankYankers startsMonday, February 24th, 2003New season of CrankYankers starts next week. YAY, YAY, YAYYY!!! |
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