Surfing Dinosaur

I'm typing this on an ancient computer. Well, not ancient, it's not like it's a Commodore 64 or anything. But it is a 10-year-old mac, running system 9.2.2 because it's processor isn't fast enough to handle OS X. I was able to install an old version of Mozilla on it - not Mozilla Firefox, as that won't run in 9.2.2.

Anyhow, I honestly don't know if this will post or not. It took me some efforts to get it to just log in to blogger.

Update: it lets me post, it lets me comment, but it doesn't let me see the comments I make till they're uploaded, and the same with titles for posts. So I may be a little more typo-ridden than normal till I get a new computer. It also doesn't let me view videos, which sucks a lot. Trying to bold the word "update" bolded "I'm typi" instead. It just randomly highlighted a different sentence while I was typing that one. Ah, man, no tabs! That's gonna really impede the way I surf and blog.

I'll probably get a mac mini in a couple of paychecks, since the keyboard, mouse and monitor work fine.

My Computer's In Dry-Dock

Yar. On Friday last, I got up at the booty of dawn ('tis less southerly, and more pleasant desirous than the dirty ol' buttcrack of dawn), hauled my piratical dictionary up'n from below-decks, and prepared to set match ta a volley of swarthy countenances that would clarly belabour both'n the cut of me jib an' the temper o' me steel. But'n, fer land's sakes, me ship just lingered there in port - the sails were mutinously refusing to unfurl. Eventually, wit' great personal effort and displeasure, I was able to make them unfurl, but even then they weren't but catchin' nary a wind. Instead of blowing out to sea, they just sat there making a gawd awful racket, like a three pence whore grindin' her holey teeth agin' the basket hilt of me cutlass.

In less flavorful terms, my computer died. I've spent nearly14 hours across the past 3 days trying every trick, system disk, and repair program I know. It won't even recognize that it has a hard-drive now. Crap.

I've got my wife's laptop to fall back on, but since she teleworks two days a week, my internet time will be a bit restricted in the near future. And since she just got her holey teeth filled (so as to not resemble a 3-pence whore), we lack the dubloons to get my 'puter's hull shored up this paycheck. It sits in drydock till some unforseen horizon, and I'm left to wrestle with a windows machine running a variety of microsoft products. Somebody'll be walkin' the plank fer that, I assurn ye.

In short, if'n yer expectin' this scurvy dog to entertain ya, or respond to any parchments stuffed in emailical bottles, yer outta luck.

This is only a test

I'm testing to see if blogger will set this post to 10:11 as well.

EDIT: Yep, it did. The correct local time is nearly noon. Stupid computer bugs.

Jake, did you delete your comments?

Several of Jake's comments to my posts have disappeared. If he'd deleted them, they'd say "this comment has been deleted by the poster." I noticed because my 'alternative to black holes and dark matter' post had a comment yesterday, which was relevant to my prep/research/brainstorming for NaNoWriMo. I was going to scribble a note about it for myself, but today there's no comment at all. Did I imagine it?

Directly below that, on my "Bush plans to lock you up" post, Jake had commented about being so crazy he wasn't worth the government locking up. That comment is also gone today.

Probably just a bug in Blogger's ointment... but if a guy were inclined to be paranoid... or preparing to write a novel about conspiracies... or just had friends of the sort who might consider gaslighting him... : )

"Once we get all the bugs ironed out, this thing will be running on flat bugs."
- bumpersticker from Pegasus Publishing.

What the plurk is this for?

I've been talked into setting up an account on Plurk. To be honest, I'm not sure what the point of it is.

• It's like IM, except it archives all your old posts (which some IMing software already does) and it more readily allows you to hop on and off group threads or reanimate long dead threads. Debatable whether that's really a good thing.
  
  
  
• It's like email, except a lot shorter, so you don't feel pressured to write more. But isn't that what IMing is?
  
  
  
• It's like a blog, except you only get a 140 characters per post (including spaces). That enforced brevity might actually be a good thing in my case. I tend to ramble, after all...
  
  
  
• It's like all of the above, except (for now, anyway) my wife can access it from work. I guess that means I'm committed to trying it out.

Oh well, I'll give it a try for a least a couple weeks, and then I'll report back when I have a more informed opinion. In the meantime, if you have a good reason I should or shouldn't be using Plurck, please let me know.

Dear God the things I google

This story has creepy implications about what's considered evidence in trials.

Computer expert: Briton searched for 'how to kill'
By DENISE LAVOIE, Associated Press Writer

WOBURN, Mass. - A computer expert has testified that a laptop taken from the home of a British man accused of killing his wife and 9-month-old daughter was used to do an online search on "how to kill with a knife" four days before the slayings.

Medford police Detective Lawrence James testified Tuesday that the Google search was done on January 16, 2006.

The people he's accused of murdering were shot, not stabbed. Obviously, I have no knowledge of whether or not the guy in question committed the crimes in question, but I'd just like to say that it's freakin' scary that what you google could be used as evidence against you in a trial. Especially for gamers and conspiracy theorists, such as myself.

I google things with little provocation. You'd be amazed how often I google for things with the word "dungeon" as part of the search ('cause I play Dungeons & Dragons). Let's just hope no one I know gets locked in a dungeon. (You hear me, Jake, no more S&M for you!)

Point being anyone who uses their internet connection knows how often we search for weird crap - and how it really has no bearing on your life. It'd be like using the fact someone once read the back cover of a novel as evidence against them. I know a guy who'd include "Hitler" in every websearch, just 'cause it filters out the mainstream sites and only gets him the really strange stuff (or at least he used to do so, I haven't asked him about it in years). It's not impossible a person could google "how to kill with a knife" because of having had a discussion about a poorly filmed fight scene in a movie, or something else innocuous and coincidental. Creeps me out that that could be used as "evidence" to convict you if someone else kills your family. Shades of The Fugitive, y'know?

googlelagging

My google homepage is currently lagging nearly 48 hours behind. For example, it claims "Mechanics of Diplomacy" is the most recent post here, when in reality there are 6 (now 7) other posts in the two days since then. Same thing with other blogs and news sources. Until this week, it never really lagged more than a couple hours. Maybe I'd just never noticed?

RE: Conspirators

Anybody know what criteria Blogger uses to constantly rearrange the order of the contributors to multi-person blog? If I could predict or understand the process it would have applications over at nomiblog.

RE: Conspirators

• Jake
• X
• r_b_bergstrom
• David
• iSirkus

I've tried just refreshing the page, and it changes the order, but it seems to have little if anything to do with how recently I've blogged. For example, just posting this the first time changed it from the above to:

RE: Conspirators

• iSirkus
• Jake
• David
• r_b_bergstrom
• X

Any insights?

Sarah's Photoalbum

My wife decided to post some of her photos (of cool places and things we've seen) at www.myphotoalbum.com. Here's a link to the first dozen or so photos she's put up: http://sarahbergstrom.myphotoalbum.com/albums.php

I imagine there'll be plenty more in the coming weeks. We have two harddrives full of photos to upload.

(Error message # bX-6tnmaz was here, but I kicked its ass)