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Looking For Quacks In The Pavement

Category: Linkage

  • Oh God, save me from your followers.

    In case you need an example of why I grow increasingly skeptical and anti-religious as the years go by, let me share with you a bit of something to make you think:

    The rescuers were there in uniform, and the girl’s parents were interviewed. A reporter asked, “What do you want to say to the rescuers?” The father responded, “I want to tell them that we thank God for sending them!” Folks, let’s get some priorities in place here. This wasn’t a miracle, in any way. God didn’t send the rescuers, a telephone operator did. God didn’t supply the oxygen that the child received, nor the other first-aid techniques they applied. The rescue squad saved the girls life, after the omnipotent, all-seeing, omniscient one to whom churches have been erected all over the state ”“ allowed the child to fall into the water.

    (Tip of the godless man’s hat to James Randi.)

  • Beware the Antec Fusion Black

    I built a nice, powerful multimedia PC a few weeks ago, but once I got past the initial installation stages it’s been giving me some trouble. Most annoying among the ongoing problems is something of a showstopper: Every time someone touches the front of the computer, it resets.

    A problem, yes?

    On a whim I went a-Googlin’. It turns out that I’m not the only one with this problem. There’s also a relatively simple solution, though it involves hauling the machine off of the shelf yet again so I can monkey around with its innards. As a test I may just tape a piece of conductive material to the side of the chassis, bridging the front panel and the rest of the chassis, to see if this is indeed the final fix.

    Add this to the fact that the VFD (supposedly a multi-function display built into the chassis) has never worked as advertised and actually causes more problems than it’s worth (which is why I just unplugged all power to that useless piece of junk).

    In short: If you’re looking for a multimedia PC chassis, you might want to steer clear of the Antec Fusion Black… unless you feel like getting your hands dirty doing some internal rewiring.

  • Blogroll Updated

    It shows how often I really look at my journal, the fact that my so-called “blogroll” sported several defunct links and lacked a few sites I read almost daily.

    I’ve remedied that problem, though I wouldn’t be surprised if I still have managed to miss one or two important sites. Hmm.

  • Feeling Betrayed, Are We?

    David Morgan-Mar is an awfully clever fellow, the man responsible for the inaccurately named “Irregular Webcomic.” Today’s entry is amusing on its own merits, but what broke through my general posting malaise is the commentary he wrote to go along with the comic. To wit:

    Nothing anyone does can invalidate the pleasure you got out of enjoying some work of fiction or art in the past. You enjoyed it – you can’t un-enjoy it.

    This is why, even though the last few years’ worth of (for instance) Anne McCaffrey’s writing output disappointed me on various levels, I can still go back and read the books I love without the experience being “tainted” by what comes later. I don’t grok the notion of being “betrayed” by an author or musician or filmmaker.

    Anyway, go read Mr. Morgan-Mar’s commentary on “betraying the fans,” a good piece of writing that I wholly agree with.

  • The King Of Perfect Timing

    I’ve always had a few knacks, among them a knack for being proven wrong almost immediately after making a definitive statement. This time the knack which has bitten me in the backside is that which gives me the utmost in perfectly ironic timing. If I do something, there’s a good chance that if I’d simply waited a day or two I’d have known not to do that something.

    On Sunday I purchased the license code for the City of Heroes/City of Villains “Good Versus Evil” edition for the kids’ account so they could get some extra character slots per server and go into supergroup bases and such like that. So, guess what yesterday’s press release from NCSoft had to say?

    Today we announced the acquisition of City of Heroes from Cryptic Studiosâ„¢ and the formation of our new Northern California studio which we are informally calling NCsoft® NorCal […]. Nearly the entire City of Heroes team from Cryptic Studios has joined the NCsoft team and together we have formed the core of our new studio.

    Okay, so far so good. What’s the catch?

    All players with City of Heroes retail accounts will now have access to City of Villains, and all City of Villains retail accounts will now have access to City of Heroes. Players that didn’t previously have access to “the other side” will find that they do now.

    Oh. Well… I suppose that’s a good thing… for people who didn’t plunk $30 down for said “access to City of Villains” a mere 48 hours beforehand! Dagnabbit.

    (It bears mentioning, footnote-style, that the “GvE” edition provides a few in-game perks that probably won’t be given away with this “access to” bonus from NCSoft. Still, I could’ve bought the code for said perks alone and spent twenty dollars less. Such is my life, eh? And the kids get the benefit now instead of having to wait ’til NCSoft blesses everyone. So. There’s that, at least.)

  • Gravatar Support Added

    For what it’s worth, the comments portion of this journal now supports Gravatar images. Now that they’re owned by the WordPress folks, I figure performance shouldn’t be too much of an issue going forward.

    What can I say? It’s an excuse to use “buddy icons” in my journal. I’m a sucker for that sort of thing.

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