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[icon] Mmm, Duff
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May 1st, 2009

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Subject:Swine flu
Time:09:29 am
We are no longer allowed to call Swine Flu Swine Flu. We must now call Swine Flu by its flu ID #, and not Swine Flu. So don't call Swine Flu Swine Flu anymore, ok? It is an attack on the meat companies and all things American to call Swine Flu by its name of Swine Flu.

And also, yay Bob Frank for taking on Fox Business and their idiotic robots. It makes all of us in AI research weep.
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April 26th, 2009

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Subject:SSH forwarding, GNU Screen, and emacs -nw
Time:10:46 am
I live life in GNU screen for remote development, and much of that in emacs without a GUI, but I occasionally need to run some graphics Python or Lisp code from inside screen.

The problem is when I would forward X connections over ssh, and then login from another machine, I could no longer forward any X programs. ( Read more... )
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February 5th, 2009

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Current Music:A Whiter Shade of Pale
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Subject:Kudos
Time:06:43 pm
I wanted to balance my ranting with a shout out to two of my current favorite brands:

1) JanSport: Nothing but love for you
Why? They take their lifetime warranty seriously. I sent in my backpack, which was quite old and went all around the world with me but the shoulder strap was tearing. They sent it back, not only repaired but with stronger straps and beefier stitching than before!

2) Pilot G-2 gel pen
The ultra-fine point is awesome! I just bought a whole bunch more. They are the best pens I've ever had!
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January 31st, 2009

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Subject:Lawyer up?
Time:04:52 pm
Note: I am not a lawyer and do not know how effective or legal this is, but if for some reason it becomes important I want a record of this.


[contact info redacted]
January 31, 2009

To:
Verizon Legal Department
Verizon Communications
140 West Street
New York, NY 10007

( Letter to Verizon )
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January 30th, 2009

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Subject:I am afraid
Time:08:20 am
There is a deep mental illness that permeates political discourse in this country. It goes far beyond the trifling differences between Democrat or Republican politicians, or the insanity of the idea that everyone's beliefs can be summed up on some sort of bipolar conservative/liberal scale. It involves fundamental issues of competence, accountability, responsibility. I will present three seemingly unrelated case studies with a common and very scary thread.

( Iraq, Auto Bailout, Banking Bailout )
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January 18th, 2009

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Current Location:Slightly closer to Hell
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Subject:OS X Printer Blues
Time:02:28 pm
When people ask me (since, as a Mac owner, I am proselytizer, zealot, and all-powerful all-knowing guru of all things Holy Apple, of course) if Macs work better than Windows, I say "Yes." Because they do. But working better than Windows is a pretty low bar, and there are times that Mac OS X just barely limps over it. Today was one of those times.

It wasn't a bug. It wasn't a hardware issue. It was a man-made, known problem with printer sharing that takes one command line to fix. One. I guess Apple just couldn't be bothered.

The issue is printer sharing between an OS X 10.3 Panther print server and a 10.5 Leopard client. It just doesn't work. Previously when I've done printer sharing, I just turn it on in the server, and the printer pops up in the client when you want to print. Presto changeo, like magic, the way Macs are always supposed to "Just Work(TM)". (Only if you are Steve Jobs.)

But my shiny new printer hooked up to our Panther file server didn't show up when I tried to print from my laptop. It did not show up in the internet printer scan. When I tried to force it to add manually as an internet printer, the laptop happily complied and then swallowed print jobs without ever actually printing. Yummy.

There was a distinct lack of "Just Working(TM)".

After several hours of adding, deleting, re-adding, purging, yelling, banging, searching, reading, and researching, I finally came across this: Mac OS X 10.5: Using printer sharing with different versions of Mac OS X.. Now, I am a pretty good Googler, but this did not show up in any search. I had to find it linked from a forum question from another poor lost soul trapped in Print Purgatory after my fourth or fifth failed search attempts.

Here is the solution to getting a printer from 10.3 to show up in 10.5:

cupsctl BrowseProtocols='"cups dnssd"'

That's right. I told you: one line.

Here is the preceding text, verbatim: "Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard uses Bonjour to locate shared printers on your local network, but it does not display printers shared by Mac OS X 10.2 through 10.3.9 which are broadcast to the network using the "cups" protocol."

Which begs the question: Dear sweet heavenly fruit, why not?

So that's why when people ask me if Macs "Just Work(TM)" my answer is: "Sometimes."
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January 8th, 2009

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Subject:The Eyes Have It
Time:05:03 am
Sigh. And here is another reason I can never be a politician:

onemanonejar: Write this down and keep it in a safe place (away from windows and telephones): "terrorist 20755-6000 subversives Terrorism HERF pipe-bomb Whitewater" Activities

I appreciate subversive spambots as much as the next guy, but that one totally put me on some Carnivore/Echelon/Total Information Awareness database somewhere. I will try to be patient and polite with the humorless and overdressed federal agents who come to investigate.
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Subject:Please Allow Me to Amuse Myself
Time:04:55 am
Raj: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10133425-38.html

Mike: saw that

Raj: awful

Mike: indeed

Mike: he's the worst black president we've ever had

Raj: lol

This, among many, many other reasons (not to mention my penchant for fetish porn), is why I can never be a politician.
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January 7th, 2009

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Subject:Twilight in 15 minutes
Time:07:20 am
Current Mood:amusedamused
This won't be as funny if you weren't forced to watch the travesty of celluloid that is this movie by your (former) friend Ben, but I present it anyway for your viewing pleasure. Thanks to [info]sxxk1ttn for finding this and [info]cleolinda for writing it!

http://community.livejournal.com/m15m/19551.html
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December 23rd, 2008

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Subject:The Joys of Offshoring
Time:05:33 pm
Current Mood:annoyedannoyed
I haven't seen this level of customer service since I left Sprint!

... Please wait for a chat representative to respond.

... Welcome to AT&T Technical Support Chat. My name is 'Autumn Reese' and I’ll be happy to assist you today.

Autumn Reese: Hello, Mr. -----.  I will be happy to assist you with your technical issue today.

Mike: Hello.

Mike: I just purchased a Nokia 6085 phone over ebay without realizing it is tied to the AT&T network, and I have a T-mobile sim card.

Mike: I would like the restriction code to unlock the phone, please.

Autumn Reese: I apologize for any inconvenience.  I'll be happy to assist you with the issue of getting your phone unlocked.

Autumn Reese: Do you currently have an AT&T service?

Mike: I do not currently.

Autumn Reese: Please send me the IMEI on the phone.  The IMEI number is 15 digits long and can be obtained by looking on the sticker located under where the battery is on your phone or you can find this code by dialing *#06# on the phone.

Mike: Okay, just a moment.

Mike: -----

Autumn Reese: Thank you for this information. Please allow me 2-3 minutes to check this IMEI.

Autumn Reese: Thank you for holding Mr. -----. Just to confirm, you purchased this phone on ebay, correct?

Mike: Yes

Autumn Reese: I apologize but since this number is not a valid AT&T number, I cannot give an unlock code for this phone. You can contact Customer Service about getting the unlock code for the Nokia 6085.  The number to dial for Customer Service is 1-800-331-0500, they are available 7:00 AM-9:00 PM Monday-Friday and 9AM-6 PM on Saturday

Mike: Which number?

Autumn Reese: The mobile number for the phone is -----, correct?

Mike: No, that is my number. The phone doesn't have a number, since it doesn't have any sim card yet.

Mike: It won't accept my sim card without the restriction code.

Autumn Reese: I am unable to assist with getting an unlock code for this phone without an account with AT&T. You can contact customer service about getting the unlock code.

Mike Prentice: Are you not customer service?

Mike Prentice: You are on AT&T's customer service website.

Autumn Reese: This is the technical support chat room. I apologize, but I will not be able to give you the unlock code for the Nokia 6085 without an AT&T mobile number. You can contact Customer Serive at 1-800-331-0500, they are available 7:00 AM-9:00 PM Monday-Friday and 9AM-6 PM on Saturday


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[icon] Mmm, Duff
View:Recent Entries.
View:Archive.
View:Friends.
View:User Info.
View:Website (The Freak Brigade).
View:Del.icio.us. Zero Productivity Zone. Photo Gallery.
You're looking at the latest 10 entries.
Missed some entries? Then simply jump back 10 entries