Is it just me, or are some three-day weekends actually shorter than their normal, two-day counterparts?
I could use for this particular weekend to have lasted, oh, a few days more. Seriously. Le sigh.
Author: Karel Kerezman
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The Tao of Transit
You wouldn’t think that it would take very long to get from SE 39th and Gladstone to SE 34th and Belmont by bus, especially when you get to the bus stop just in time to catch one. Today, you’d be wrong, however. Did you know they’re doing paving on 39th? I didn’t. I do now, though. We couldn’t even get off the bus at Belmont.
Our destination? The Tao of Tea, a nifty little hole-in-the-wall tea place (go figure). Of course, we almost missed it due to the hustle and bustle of… the Belmont Street Fair, taking place one day only… today. Of course.
This is the sort of wacky luck I tend to have. It makes life more flavorful, I suppose, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Oh, and the coconut mint frappe was pretty good. (Seriously? The size of the tea menu borders on the mindboggling.)
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It’s more fun this way, isn’t it?
Getting to play a City of Heroes character through to Level 50 in under five minutes is, in a way, quite a fun experience. In the last day or so I’ve built a half-dozen characters, thanks to the CoH Planner.
I suppose now I should actually… er… play the game, huh?
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The Fewwowship of the Wing!
Do you love “The Princess Bride”? What about “The Lord of the Rings”?
If you do, and the thought of seeing what happens when quotes from one are used in scenes from the other offends your delicate sensibilities… well, tough luck.
The Inn of the Prancing Pony:
HOBBITS: Who are you?
STRIDER: No one of consequence.
HOBBITS: We must know.
STRIDER: Get used to disappointment.
HOBBITS: Okay.Ithilien:
GOLLUM: Good night, hobbitses. Good work. Sleep well. I’ll most likely kill you in the morning.Tomb in Minas Tirith:
DENETHOR: I am the Dread Steward Denethor. There will be no survivors!
GUARD 1: Now?
GUARD 2: Not yet.
DENETHOR: My men are here. I am here. But soon you will not be here!
GUARD 1: Now?!
GUARD 2: Light him!Outside Minas Tirith:
WITCH KING: Good heavens. Are you still trying to win? You’ve got an overdeveloped sense of vengeance. It’s going to get you into trouble someday.
EOWYN: Hello. My name is Eowyn. You killed my uncle. Prepare to die!
[…]
EOWYN: I admit it, you are better than I am.
WITCH KING: Then why are you smiling?
EOWYN: Because I know something you don’t know.
WITCH KING: And what is that?
EOWYN: I am not a man!The Tower of Cirith Ungol:
FRODO: Sam, I’ll tear your arms off.
SAM: Oh, you mean this Ring.Oh, just go read the whole thing, won’t you?
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The future is now. Then. Er, yeah.
Gustav (yes, the Gustav) sent me the following bit of amusement. It’s an Engadget homage, of sorts, to the heady days of yore, back when we engaged in all sorts of wild speculation about what computing technology would be like in the years to come.
You know, ‘cause we don’t do that sort of thing nowadays. Ahem.
Anyway, read and enjoy, won’t you?
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TV Wonder? Wonder why it sucks, you mean.
The Project: See if using external USB devices for TV tuning and quality audio I/O is a viable alternative to cramming PCI cards into crowded 2U rackmount computer chassis, so we can intelligently order appropriate gear for the next batch of production studio computers.
After several workdays during which ATI’s tech support insulted my intelligence by suggesting I try things that I already told them I’d done, they finally came through with a sensible suggestion that helped me get their TV Wonder USB 2.0 device working.
(James Burke Voice:) Well, sort of.
I had to dial down the USB bandwidth setting in order to get video that didn’t look like the actors on TV were experiencing severe and prolonged epileptic seizures. And then I made the mistake of actually hooking up the Digigram USB audio device. Bzzzt. That was it, no more ATI television viewing. At all.
Believe me, I tried a lot of things to make it work (again). No go.
My verdict? This solution isn’t even remotely ready for prime time. Once again, USB devices fail to live up to their glorious advance billing…