Thursday, April 18, 2019
“Help! I'm still trapped in a Chinese fortune cookie factory!”
Bunny and I are having dinner at a Chinese restaurant. The check is delivered and we crack open our fortune cookies. Mine is something generic, but Bunny's cookie says, as God is my witness:
![[“Pick another fortune cookie?” I guess that's a great way of increasing sales.]](/2019/04/18/fortune.jpg "“Pick another fortune cookie?” I guess that's a great way of increasing sales.")
Unfortunately, there was no other fortune cookie to pick from. Go figure.
Monday, April 15, 2019
I like the whole “computers-in-wood” asthetic
Love Hultèn (or Hultén—it's spelled both ways on that page) made a series of life sized computers based off the old Lego computer bricks (link via Jason Kottke) and I must admit, they are very cool!
But then I checked out Love's other projects and the The Golden Apple—wow! A Mac Mini housed in a custom walnet case based off the original Macintosh 128K case is just beautiful (although to be truthful, I could do without the gold keys on the keyboard but that's me). The Pet De Lux is no slouch either.
One of these days, I'll get a computer into a wood case. One of these days …
Saturday, April 13, 2019
Notes on an overheard conversation about emptying the dishwasher
“I see you were right about putting the platter back in its place.”
“I was?”
“Yes. Last time I showed you where it goes, you said, ‘We'll see if I remember next time.’”
“Ah.”
“So I guess your head isn't filled with useless trivia then.”
“No, my head is only filled with useless trivia.”
“Ha! Just like my head is only filled with song lyrics.”
Monday, April 08, 2019
Why the web went bad
My recent post about "why gopher needs crypto" received a very well-considered response over at The Boston Diaries. The author (do I call you "the conman"?) …
…
The conman suggests that creating a new protocol is to risk that we "start falling into HTTP territory". This is of course a very real risk, but I also very strongly believe that it is perfectly avoidable if we are sufficiently determined from day one to avoid it. To this end, I hope to think and write (and read, if anybody wants to join in!) more in the future not just about the shortcomings of gopher but very explicitly about what is right and what is wrong about HTTP and HTML. It's vitally important to identify precisely what features of the web stack facilitated the current state of affairs if we want to avoid the same thing happening again.
In my opinion, the point where HTTP and HTML “went off the rails” into the current trainwreck of the modern web happened when browsers gained the ability to run code within the browser, turning the browser from a content delivery platform and into an application delivery platform (althought that transformation didn't happen overnight). And no, it wasn't the fault of Netscape and their introduction of Javascript that brought about the current apocalypse of bloated webpages and constant surveillance. Nope, the fault lies directly at the feet of Sun Microsystems (whose zombie corpse is following the command of Oracle but I digress) and the introduction of Java in early 1996. Javascript was Netscape's reaction to Java.
But while the blame definitely lies with Sun, that's not to say it wouldn't have happened. If Sun didn't do it, it would have most certainly been Microsoft, or even possibly Netscape (my money would have been on Microsoft though—they had already added support to run VisualBasic in their office suite and adding such to the browser would have been a natural progression for them). I think that whatever protocol was popular at the time, HTTP or Gopher, would have turned from a content delivery platform to an application delivery platform because that's the way the industry was headed (it's just that HTTP won out because of embedded cat pictures but again I digress).
In fact, the very nature of wanting to “improve Gopher” is what drove HTTP into its current incarnation in the first place and one must fight hard against the second system effect.
Notes on an overheard conversation about the possibility of the Return of the Demonic Creature, or The Alien Invasion
“Come quick! I just saw something entering the neighbor's house.”
“A burgler?”
“No, something. Nothing human. Come on!”
“Okay! Okay! I'm coming. Where?”
“See where I'm shining the light?”
“Yes. It looks like a screen is falling out.”
“Yeah! That's where I saw and heard movement when I was taking out the garbage. Some … thing … scrambling to get in.”
“Might be a squirrel.”
“It could be the start of an alien invasion!”
“Really? It's a squirrel, or maybe an opossum.”
“Or, you know, the return of the Demonic Creature that invaded Bill's Room!”
“Now you're being silly.”
“Don't say I didn't warn you.”
Thursday, April 04, 2019
It's just one of those days
![[Oh, so that's what a “vet” is. Sigh.]](/2019/04/04/dogslife.jpg "Oh, so that's what a “vet” is. Sigh.")
Driving to work to day was horrible! No matter what road I took, it was always a parking lot. The picture above of that dog? Yeah, that's how I was feeling, waiting for traffic to move.
Sigh.
Wednesday, April 03, 2019
My social has been suspended
Of course just when I default to a silent ring tone, Verizon is offering services to block robocalling, which might explain why the number of robocalls I've received the past few days has dropped dramatically. That doesn't mean I'm going to stop using the silent ring tone.
So an unknown caller calls me, only this one leaves me voice mail. Usually when that happens, it's because it's someone I know calling from an unknown number or the car dealership telling me my car is ready or something along those lines.
I listen to the message: “—number we have gotten an order to suspend your social at very right moment becaue we have found many suspicious activities on your social before we go ahead and suspend your number kindly call us back on our number … which is … 325 … 399 ‥ 0630. I repeat it's … 325 … 399 … 0630. Thank you and good-bye,” followed by 10 seconds of silence.
Wow.
Just wow.
My social will be suspended. I guess that explains why I no longer have Google+.
Monday, April 01, 2019
The Rings of Silence
So a friend of mine saw the iPhone bug report and sent me a silent ring tone. I installed it and went through the laborious process of giving everyone in my contact list a custom ring tone, then set the default ring tone to the silent ring tone.
We shall see how well it works.
![[It's the most wonderful time of the year!]](http://www.conman.org/people/spc/about/2018/1212.t.jpg "It's the most wonderful time of the year!")