Quarter Life Crisis

The world according to Sven-S. Porst

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Octopus¶

296 words

The Register: Linux on XServe for octopus detection on submarines. A hard day for those dismissing the Apple and Linux people as weirdo peaceniks, I guess.
On international domain names. Be sure to read the comments and indulge in the sheer ignorance of the writers.
Ok, the ignorance of those people is actually well known and I shouldn't have bothered reading the comments, but as UnicodeChecker has supported conversion to and from IDNA names for a while now, I though I'd check who else uses it.
Get in the slave workers and cheap old tankers for US oil corporations in Iraq! You'll Get out of jail for free. It's so nice to be ~~monarch~~ president.
From the same department of 'world leadership', The Guardian has bits about buffett christianity and convicted felons.
All fun U.S. visa conditions for criminals – well, middle-aged male people from poor countries mostly. Enjoy how the form, that is optionally given at some officer's discretion to anyone else as well, has clever things such as a Full Name (In Native Alphabet) field, odd things such as a Clan or Tribe Name (If Applicable) and stupid things like the List All Countries You have Entered in the Last Ten Years (Give the Year of Each Visit) field that won't be able to hold more than two entries. And marvel the good and creative use of capital letters they make throughout the form.
iPod: The Missing Manual. WTF?! While I don't own an iPod, I am quite sure there is no need to have a 300+ page book in addition to its own manual to operate a 21st century walkman that can also display your address book. Why are people buying these books?
preserve, perverse, persevere

August 7, 2003, 22:11

Comments

Comment by d.w.: ¶

The good news is that even the average sheep on the street here is starting to hear about these things, and be concerned about them. On the civil liberties issues, the current administration is starting to irritate not just the people who voted against the current government, but their own “conservative” power base as well. People in both major parties want to roll back elements of the so-called Patriot Act, and the even more excessive Patriot II hasn’t a ghost of a chance of passing. Unfortunately, things such as the visa requirements are decided and implemented by the executive branch, which means that they aren’t subject to legislative review (though on occasion the judiciary branch can overturn them.) The current administration is extremely vulnerable on economic issues, so here’s to hoping the opposition manages to coalesce around an electable candidate for the 2004 election.

August 8, 2003, 15:43