Month: September 2004

pink is more than just a color

I ran in the Susan Korman breast cancer race this morning.


My initial goal of being the quickest finisher from my company was pretty well dashed when I showed up to find a lean, 6’2″ employee from Africa who insisted on being at the extreme front of the start and when asked replied “oh yes, I’m fast.”


5k isn’t that far. There is so much going on you really don’t have a lot of time to settle into a pace or allow nagging pains to slow you too much. Around 400 meters from the finish I spotted the ringer ahead. Throwing elbows trying to get around the survivors, who got a two minute head start btw, I managed to pass my competition and finish ten seconds ahead. A time of 23:30 or so. And here’s the humbling part – the world record in the 5000 meters is 13:05.


Title explanation: The slogan on our team t-shirts.

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no limit hold ’em for smartphone


Even though I am teased for having a fancy phone that has trouble making calls and staying connected, the functionality is still quite nice.


Witness – No Limit Texas Hold ’em for SmartPhone.


I’ve got it installed and have been playing. The players are randomly assigned playing styles, loose, tight, etc. There isn’t nearly as much psychological play as in real poker, but it definitely helps hone the statistical aspect of the game.


I kindof wish you could see the other player’s faces. As it stands I can’t remember which ones are playing tight or loose.


[via Mpx200.org]


Hey this reminds me. When we played real poker this past weekend I suggested that we play on a computer, but with real chips and money. Of course everyone thought that was a stupid idea, but the speed of play was just way to slow. We could have fit two or three tournaments in the same time it took to play one.


My family used to do the same thing with Monopoly way back in the day. You could actually finish the game, because it was able to quickly move your pieces and count money.

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linux distribution chooser v0.2

Handy website tool to figure out which of the 100s of Linux distributions you might want to try.

I’ve mentioned before that I toy around with Gentoo, but based on the chooser I should be on Mandrake.

I downloaded and installed it today. The installer is obviously far far far better than Gentoo’s, but I managed to have kde crash on me several times in various ways within the first few minutes. The auto-updater package thing choked badly as well.

Linux Distribution Chooser v0.2

[via OSNews]

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our mandated desktop image

There are advantages in working for an apparel retailer.


Here is the desktop image they asked us to place on our computers.



With the corp ad slogan photoshop-smudged out.

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would wal-mart manhattan do well?

File this under ‘stuff people used to send around via email, but is now slightly less annoying because it is on a blog, and it is ok because it is kindof funny’. All that follows is ripped directly from the source.

Some Wal-Mart customers will soon be able to sample a new discount item: Wal-Mart’s own brand of wine. The world’s largest retail chain is teaming up with E&J Gallo Winery of Modesto, California, to produce the spirits at an affordable price, in the $2-5 range.

While wine connoisseurs may not be inclined to throw a bottle of Wal-Mart brand wine into their shopping carts, there is a market for cheap wine, said Kathy Micken, professor of marketing at Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I. She said: “The right name is important.”

So, here we go: The top 12 suggested names for Wal-Mart Wine:

12. Chateau Traileur Parc
11. White Trashfindel
10. Big Red Gulp
9. Grape Expectations
8. Domaine Wal-Mart “Merde du Pays”
7. NASCARbernet
6. Chef Boyardeaux
5. Peanut Noir
4. Chateau Des Moines
3. I Can’t Believe It’s Not Vinegar!
2. World Championship Riesling
And the number 1 name for Wal-Mart Wine:
1. Nasti Spumante

[via NoCode/The Daily Bushwack]

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Chechnee who

If you found yourself wondering “gee, I wonder how all this Chechnya stuff comes from” after reading about the school-terror-standoff, the editors of Slate have prepared this handy one-page recap of the whole history.



So, what does al-Qaida and international Islamic terrorism have to do with any of this? Probably very little. Chechens have plenty of reason to do what they do without outside inspiration. In addition, their tactics are very different from al-Qaida’s. Osama Bin Laden’s group generally aims for maximum casualties; the Chechens, at least when they have staged hostage-takings, have not seemed to have that goal. Al-Qaida explicitly targets Westerners; the Chechens, on the other hand, explicitly exclude Westerners from their list of targets; they target Russians and Russia-sympathizers. Finally, the Chechens’ demands, when they have made them, have always focused on the war in Chechnya to the exclusion of any religious or international agenda. They have consistently demanded a the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya—an unattainable goal in the current Russian political climate, but one that may look plausible to the Chechens because it worked after Budyonnovsk.


[link]

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