05.14.2025

06.10.2005

FeedLounge

Filed under: a group of folks,blogging,neat! @ 13:09

I’ve been interested in a while in some sort of centralized feed reader. Currently, I use NetNewsWire on my laptop (a fantastic program), and Thunderbird at the office to keep track of all the sites I read. The problem is that the one reader I use doesn’t know anything about the other; I get fed the same articles in both.

Read more…

06.06.2005

Apple has sold its soul to the devil

Filed under: news,thoughts @ 12:18

Many have already heard Apple’s official announcement at WWDC 2005 that the company will be transitioning to Intel brand processors.

This announcement brings up some interesting questions. Will I be able to buy a cheap PC desktop and install OS X? Will some kind of Windows emulator be available (making the transition from Windows to OS X extremely easy for anyone)? Is my current hardware fated to a doom of ill support and obsolescence?

And, of course, is Steve Jobs in league with the denizens of hell?

Apparently, the first Intel Inside Mac will ship by June 6th, 2006. 666: indeed, the veritable number of the beast.

The answer, I believe, must be “yes”. How else could they gain such a legion of fanatics (in which I suppose I must count myself) if not by the means of the occult. I suppose I should not exclude the possibility that Mr. Jobs is himself the devil, but I’d have thought Satan would be better at predicting the future. Though, to be fair, all of Mr. Jobs’ false promises over the years may have been entirely intentional. It all may have been part of Satan’s tricky scheming.

At any rate, beware Apple. Their good design sense is just part of their twisted mask of deception. Do not be tempted by their sexy aluminum laptops, their vast expanses of widescreen flat panels, or their clean user interface. Every time you use a Mac, you’re communing with the lord of darkness.

I hear he’s pretty fun guy, though, so it’s not all bad.

05.31.2005

Just One Category

Filed under: wordpress @ 15:24

This plugin will cause WordPress to display on a category archive page only those posts which are direct members of that category, i.e. this plugin will exclude from that category page all posts which belong to any of that category’s subcategories but do not belong to the category itself.

Compatibility:
This plugin requires at least WordPress version 2.3 or higher, and I have tested it with the still-in-development WordPress version 2.8. If you haven’t already, upgrade to the latest WordPress.

Instructions:

  1. Download the plugin.
  2. Upload it to your wp-content/plugins/ directory (i.e. wp-content/plugins/just_one_cat.php).
  3. Make sure the file has sufficient File Permissions to be read by your web server (you probably don’t have to worry about this step).
  4. Activate the plugin called “Just One Category” from your Administration Panel’s Plugin Manager.

That should be it. No configuration is necessary.

Update: This plugin is now hosted on the wp-plugins.org repository. The download link above has been changed to reflect that.

05.29.2005

And I raaan. I ran so far awaaay. — 09:59

I ran my mile and half loop completely for the first time today, after taking two weeks off from running. Just seventeen and a half times farther than that, and I’ll be doing good.

05.26.2005

It pays to be a wise ass

Filed under: academe,neat!,news @ 12:31

My Quantum Field Theory professor, Professor Wise (check out the hot website), gives out change for correctly answered questions in order to encourage class participation. Previous to last week, I’d earned something less than a dollar for my efforts. There’s a couple people in the class who consistently make about ten or fifteen cents a lecture and there’s one person in particular who answers “zero” to every question for which that answer could be appropriate. Professor Wise has lauded (and suggested) this strategy, claiming that nearly all of the questions he asks can be answered correctly with that response.

In Tuesday’s lecture, we were discussing grand unified theories, and he posed the (implied) question, “Guess how many grand unified theories I understand.” I responded quickly and authoritatively, “Zero.” The professor immediately burst out laughing and headed for his wallet. Fishing around for a quarter he said, “No, no, no. That deserves something more”. He pulled out a single, but said, “No, no”, and pulled out a five spot. Coming over to my seat he proclaimed to the class, “This is the most money I have ever given out in all my days as a lecturer. No one has ever had the chutzpah to say something like that. Congratulations.” I expressed my deepest honor and gratitude and stuck it in my pocket.

The rest of the class responded with a mixture of laughter, shock, and (I’d like to think) admiration (for the both of us).

To make the deal even sweeter, Professor Wise also finalized his plans to take the class out to dinner the following evening.

Five bucks and a free meal for going to class and being a smart ass. Awesome.

Now that’s a shockwave

Filed under: a group of folks,neat!,physics @ 11:44

A couple days ago, NASA reported that Voyager 1 has passed through the solar termination shock (and that their graphics people have made some pretty hot little movies). The termination shock is part of the interface between the solar wind exiting our solar system and the intestellar wind blowing about around us.

Suck on that, Jeff. None of this namby pamby kidney nonsense :)

05.24.2005

Vroman’s Snoozes and Loses therefor

Filed under: neat!,useless @ 17:48

I like Vroman’s. They’re not quite as massively chain like as Barnes and Noble or Borders, they make me feel like I’m shopping a bit more locally, and they put on pretty good events.

But this time they lost me.

Read more…

05.21.2005

Moonshine Party

Filed under: shenaniganity @ 17:32

So I guess there’s an undergrad party tonight: Moonshine. Anybody interested in going? And if people do go, does anybody know if we’ll be disappointed as we were at the last Dabney party?

Me: “Where’s the bar?”
Undergrad dude: “There is no bar.”
Me: “…”
Me: “Where’s the bar?”
Undergrad dude: “There is no bar.”
Me (in my head): “It is only your mind that drinks.”
Me (out loud): “Perhaps I’m not making myself clear, or perhaps, being under the age of twenty-one, you are unfamiliar with the ‘bar’ concept. I am interested in obtaining alcoholic potables in some quantity. Whence might such libations be procured?”
Undergrad dude (out loud): “?”
Undergrad dude (in his head): “Jackass grad students. I can’t believe we always have to ask for funding from the GSC.”
Me: “?”
Undergrad dude: “…”
Me: “Peace.”

05.19.2005

Idiotic spam (parental discretion advised)

Filed under: useless @ 17:31

Hello,

Try this revolutionary product, CIALIS Soft Tabs.

Cialis Soft Tabs is the new impotence treatment drug that everyone is talking about. Soft Tabs acts up to 36 hours, compare this to only two or three hours of Viagra action! The active ingredient is Tadalafil, same as in brand Cialis.

Simply dissolve half a pill under your tongue, 10 min before sex, for the best erections you’ve ever had!

Soft Tabs also have less sidebacks (you can drive or mix alcohol drinks with them). No prior prescription needed.

You can get it at: [url removed]

Aside from the grammatical problems, there are a couple things that are just not right about the above spam message I recently received.

The first is that soft tabs seem difficult to cut in half. But supposing you actually manage to cut the things, it must be even harder to save the juicy bits from the second half for use later. Oh spammer, why not just make smaller pills?

The second is a problem of marketing. If someone is interested in obtaining the “best erections [he’s] ever had” lasting “up to 36 hours”, he sure as hell isn’t going to want anything called “Cialis Soft Tabs”. Come on, people. This impotent but yearning hypothetical man, this member of a readily exploitable demographic intent on a cure is going to want “Hard Tabs”. Or “Big Tabs”. Or, if he’s into that whole alliteration thing, “Turgid Tabs”. But “Soft”?

Please.

Maybe I should go into the marketing business peddling snake oil wares promising to reduce erectile dysfunction. Or maybe I should just hit the delete button faster.

05.17.2005

A new method of narcissism — 14:01

After an email from Jeff regarding new comments on old posts, and in thinking of a side discussion on the old end of the world post, I’ve put up a link to blogwaffe’s most discussed posts there on the sidebar under the recent comments. Go and amuse yourself.

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