Saturday, November 23, 2002
Mail Chauvinism, indeed
The United States Postal Service is mad at us.
We received notice that we have to check the mail every three days at a minimum. After ten days mail delivery service will be cancelled.
You know, if we didn't receive so much junk mail this wouldn't be an issue, even if we do go up to two weeks between checking the mail box.
Compliments of the house
It does seem, however, that United Parcel Service does love us. I received a complimentary copy of O'Reilly's HTTP: The
Definitive Guide today in the mail!
I learned a few weeks ago that I was mentioned in the book on page 230. I made mention of that on the WWW Robots Mailing List (which I've been on since 1995 or 1996) and the author of the chapter in question, Brian Totty, replied back to me! We exchanged some email and he said he would try to get O'Reilly to send me a complimentary copy.
Which they did.
Woo hoo!
The book itself seems to be well written and does explain some of the more obscure bits of the HypterText Transport Protocol, which will certainly help Mark and I on Mark's webserver.
Silver change
I almost didn't go.
I was feeling a bit tired after lunch so I debated with myself if I really wanted to hit the convenience store and get some Coke. I'm not sure if I won or lost as I ended up going to the convenience store. I was most surprised to find myself with a 1952 U.S. quarter in the change I received.
As a kid, I had one of those books that list the prices collectors are willing to pay for coins of certain years and there was a remarkable difference between the 1964 and 1965 U.S. quarters. The 1965 quarter was the first year the U.S. mint stopped using silver to make the quarter; therefore the price differential.
I no longer have the book (which was the price guide for something like 1979 or some such year) so I have no idea how much exactly my 1952 quarter is worth, but it shouldn't be hard to figure out—a quarter weighs 5.670g (those are the current quarters, but they can't have changed that much in weight over time and that's the first figure I found with Google) and the current price of silver is $4.445 an ounce, but that's Troy ounces of which there are 12 per pound, not 16, so you have 38 grams/ounce and not the usual 28 grams/ounce … so you divide … then multiply … but the quarters back then were 90% silver, not 100% so you adjust accordingly and you get … 59¢ worth of silver!
Um … yea.
But it's still neat!
I hate traffic this time of year
The double yellow line down the center of the road has a meaning. The meaning of the double yellow line is “Thou shalt not pass.” It does not mean “Thou shalt not pass unless thee is in such a hurry that you cannot wait for another car to turn.” Nor does it mean “Thou shalt not pass unless thee is in such a hurry that you cannot wait for another car to turn and Thou art in a yellow Beetle.”
