I have no opinion on the authenticity or otherwise of the decor in Stalin's bunker, as depicted in a series of pictures on English Russia.
But I think whitewall tyres on an armoured vehicle are pretty darn sweet.
Reality show idea: "Pimp My BMP"!
Whisker storage unit
12 August 2007 — danIf you own one or more cats, you will occasionally find a shed whisker lying around.
Unlike the little delaminated bits of claw, dismayingly frequent piles of vomit and prodigious amount of ordinary hairs that cats also leave lying around, shed whiskers look as if they ought to be good for something.
Regrettably, the cat's-whisker detector used in classic crystal radios does not use an actual cat whisker.
I'm also not a painter, so I don't need a super-fine single bristle for putting highlights in eyes.
I do own a microscope, but have not recently needed to push any minuscule shells around on a slide.
And I have no interest in enraging a cricket.
So I am, at the moment, unable to think of anything to do with spare whiskers. Until such time as I do, I've chosen to store them.
Like so.
I welcome any suggestions regarding what to make and/or do with this impressive collection.
The Case of the Vanishing Icons
12 August 2007 — danOne of the great entertainments that awaits you whenever you reinstall Windows is seeing what new and strange personality features your fresh install exhibits.
It happens almost every time, and usually within days, or possibly even hours, of the reinstall; some weird thing arises that you've never seen before, even if all you've done is reinstalled the same version of Windows on the same computer you were using before.
Munged icons are a pretty common Windows problem - the OS messes up the pointers to its cached icons file, so each class of file or folder gets a semi-random new icon. But this new install of mine just came up with a variation on that theme which is a new one on me.
Yes, it munged the Quick Launch icons!
(In case you're wondering: No, none of those icons match the programs they're connected to.)
No problem, said I. I opened TweakUI and used its "Rebuild Icons" option, confident that everything would now be fine again.
Instead, I got this. Now all but one of the icons is invisible!
More "Rebuild Icons" attempts caused the single still-visible icon to change, and more and more icons on the desktop to disappear.
Well played, Windows! Well played!
Signs you may be the right man for the job
6 August 2007 — dan
Spam-lessons update
2 August 2007 — danAnother of those thesaurusised porno spams arrived, with the puzzling subject line "lascivious yez Cyprians rmpp Masturbates!"
So now I know that "Cyprian" is not just an archaic word for a resident of Cyprus, but is also an old term for "a lewd or licentious person, esp. a prostitute".
It's not, I grant you, as useful a word as "catamite" for everyday abuse of the deserving, but it's diverting nonetheless.
(Modern definitions of "catamite" are a bit colourless, if you ask me. I much prefer the succinct old Oxford definition, "a sodomite's minion". The 1913 Webster's opted for "a boy kept for unnatural purposes", which left the details of the poor fellow's everyday life alarmingly hazy.)
The author of a different spam was pleased to inform me that after using certain suggestively-named pills for seven months, "now my shaft is extremely weightier than civil".
I think there's something in that for all of us, don't you?
Today's spamtertainment
30 July 2007 — danDate: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 17:40:09 +0000
From: "Kiite Karl Igho"
Subject: Interested Supplier NeededInterested Supplier Needed
Hi How you doing... In respect to your Add which i searched via google.. I'm interested in it .. what is the present Condition. The products are to be Supplied to the Government of Bangledash. Pls Quote Best price. We need Office Material. We have been Given a quota to Supply Office Equipment. And total price must not Exceed 3.9 Mission USD. Pls, We will be glad if you don't sell kindly forward our message to anyone you know is in Such Business.
Thanks and Hope to read from you Soon.
Kiite Doris Karl
WInTEch Sales
singwitme02@netzero.net
www.wintechsaleshome.1hwy.com
wintechsaleshome@netzero.net
"3.9 Mission USD" is pretty good, but "the Government of Bangledash" is just fantastic.
Well played, credit-card scammer whose name is alleged to contain at least the words "Kiite" and "Karl"! Well played!
Pay no attention to the man inside the oil barrel
29 July 2007 — dan
Frankly, this enormous Metal Gear Solid 4 gameplay demonstration video (Australian direct download link for iiNet customers here) would be quite hilarious even if it weren't for Snake's incredibly-well-defined buttocks.
But they, and the little dancing robot, push it to a whole new level.
Hideo seems very serious about it all, but I've no idea what he's actually saying (beyond stuff like "aru-P-G" as he whips out an antitank launcher...), so I can't be sure. I presume there's a simply excellent explanation of Snake interrupting his murderous pursuits to check out a girlie mag.
Drugs are bad, but only if the chi-square analysis works out
28 July 2007 — danBen Goldacre's piece on the new Lancet marijuana-and-mental-illness meta-analysis (previously mentioned on his site here), and the typically inept media attention it's attracted, is worth reading just for the headline.
I belive "Blah blah cannabis blah blah blah" was actually one of Cypress Hill's later albums.