Unhelpful

WASHINGTON - December 12, 2003

US to take advantage of offshore outsourcing

the United States announced that during the first quarter of 2004, it would begin an aggressive internal reorganization to reduce operating costs.Part of the reorganization is said to include the offshore outsourcing of certain jobs, following the practice of other US-based corporations. Read more »

Somewhen, deep in the bowels of time–my guess is the late 1950’s–a decision was made that would have serious ramifications on youth culture for generations to come.

The decision in question was what watermelon candy should taste like.

It doesn’t taste like watermelon, which I like. It tastes like itself, which I also like. I’m very hard-pressed, however, to divine the relationship between the two tastes. Watermelon candy, such as bubble gum, is one of the most potent, least sublte flavors on the candy flavor palette. Watermelon itself is a very subdued flavor. This begs the question.

My assumption is that in one of those “mad scientist” styled labs (present in 50s and 60s sci-fi, cartoons, and Ponds commercials to this day), some crazy researcher with no sleep in days and who sported outrageous hair finally finished a glowing beaker of “watermelon trial #2077″, called it finished, and changed world history as we know it. After completing the “banana” candy flavor in a mere 14 trials, he was no doubt the wunderkind of the flavor scene.

Keeping it real, so to speak.

A long, mostly pointless posting in which the author brags about having recently taken in some culture haute by seeing the comic plays “MacHomer” and “Greater Tuna”, and later bitches about the declining quality of movies as evidenced by “The Rundown” and “The Medallion”. Read more »

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Interesting news today, I suppose. The US has refused to comply with a judge’s order to permit Zacarias Moussaoui access to defense witnesses.

Yahoo (AP) article here. Read more »

It’s a complete shame what Star Trek has done to the genre of science fiction. I grew up a fan of Star Trek, and for the longest time I could not understand why traditional fantasy a la Dungeons & Dragons was grouped together with science fiction. After all, the settings for each are radically different. Abusing Tolkien as the canonical example of fantasy, it simply doesn’t compare to any thing in Star Trek, so how the hell did those to areas get put together? Read more »

Photos from the Detroit-area Woodward Dream Cruise last weekend are up for your viewing pleasure.

Since there can never be enough pictures of bark and other miscellany, I’ve uploaded some of my photos.

Enjoy (or not).

Today saw an article in the news about MIT and Boston College refusing to comply with RIAA-issued subpoenas for private information, although on a matter of legal procedure, not principle. A counter-tactic occurred to me.

RIAA is currently using bait servers and mp3s to track the identities of people who are downloading mp3s. They log the userids and IPs of people who download from their bait servers and use that information to prosecute the downloader.

One little problem: downloading an mp3 isn’t a commission of theft or piracy itself. Downloading an mp3 of music you don’t own is, but RIAA has no way of knowing what cds you own and what you don’t.

The counter-attack then, is obvious. It would require thousands of people to participate, but it would completely shut down RIAA’s current method of identifying people to harass. The tactic? Download music you have media for.

I should be able to download all the U2 mp3s I want to - I own every cd they’ve put out. If I download a bait U2 mp3 from a RIAA server, and end up getting a subpoena accusing me of piracy, guess what: they’ve just wasted resources trying to prosecute me, as I’ve committed no crime.

If thousands of people were to do this, and subsequently RIAA ended up trying to sue all of them for downloading music they already own, it would have a couple of beneficial effects. First, it would waste millions of RIAA’s dollars. Second, the courts should realize after a handful of such cases that just because someone downloads an mp3, they aren’t necessarily committing theft or piracy. RIAA would have to prove that the downloader didn’t have media for that particular song, which fortunately is flat out impossible.

Tactic extension: if you get a subpoena accusing you of downloading an mp3, just go out and buy the cd - use cash. RIAA will have no way of proving you didn’t already have it.

There used to be a time when making a meal involved dealing with raw food products. Now, not only do our mashed potatoes come from reconstituted industrial potato flake product, even heaving a goddamn spray bottle of glass cleaner is too much to ask of us.

We need a wipe for this.

(Pictures follow in the article, click them to enlarge.) Read more »

When writing out of your life somone who has become, as they say, ugly on the inside, it can be better if, the last time you’ll ever see the person, that the ugly on the outside catches up. Or, perhaps, that it was always there but you’re finally seeing it.

“I will always remember you as you were at that moment, thank you. Then I will slowly forget you.”

It’s a small gift, but one I’ll gladly take.

TUiE is a somewhat atmospheric album that doesn’t lend itself well to typical shuffle-play; there are various bits and pieces as both individual tracks, and appended to the ends of song tracks that more or less mandate listening to it as an album. Anything Box has only recently entered my music collection. As I understand things, they used to be very synthesizer oriented, and only in recent years have begun adding the sound of guitars to their music: TUiE falls under their “newer” sound, with guitars. Read more »

I would say there’s some minor spoilage, but there’s damned little plot to spoil anyway. Not all of the plot is given away below. Read more »

It’s no secret that men get paid more for doing the same job.

Women, however, read this. Believe it or not, it has nothing to do with prostitution, at least not in the normal sense.

“On the reproductive front, the survey found a fertile woman could sell 32 egg cells over eight years for a grand total of $224,000. To approach that amount, a man would have to make 12 sperm donations a month for 20 years.”

I’d write more, but there’s nothing really to say.