[18 Nov 2009 | 07:57pm] Peak Eggos. We need public-private cooperation in the development and implementation of new breakfast technology. Write your congressman. [ mood | scared ] 2 deep thoughts|Think, think, think!

[17 Nov 2009 | 06:55am] Trio found bloodied in Delco house; cops say man, 29, cut dad, uncle & himself We learned about this situation as it was in progress the other night, and speculated whether any of the victims would be brought to our ER. None were. They were all too badly injured -- I have an informal report that one lost an ear -- and were taken to two local trauma centers. All the members of this family have been ER patients over the last decade. Regardless of their other problems, they were never violent or angry. I wouldn't haven't expected this sort of thing to happen. But that's what they always say, isn't it? "He was such a nice boy. So polite. I can't imagine why he killed twenty people, performing Dim Mak with a Pez dispenser. What could have come over him?" The situation strikes me as gothic, almost Faulkneresque. Is 'Faulkneresque' the word I'm looking for? Help me out here. Poll #1486656 esque Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 8 Is this violent and bloody event: View Answers Faulkneresque? 2 (25.0%) Kafkaesque? 1 (12.5%) Rubenesque? 0 (0.0%) Whedonesque? 1 (12.5%) A raven and a writing desk? 4 (50.0%) Something even less appropriate which I will describe in the comments 0 (0.0%) [ mood | bitchy ] Think, think, think!

Computer woes [13 Nov 2009 | 11:46am] So, I got home from Vegas, baby, Vegas and found my desktop PC dead, baby, dead. I had disconnected it from everything, as I usually do before I travel, so the stray lightning bolt won't fry it. When I reconnected it, the green power LED on the motherboard came on (the lying bastard) but nothing else did. No CPU, no POST, not even a fan. Ugh. This PC has been slightly power flaky since I built it, almost four years ago. If it is disconnected from the power line, it refuses to turn on again until you pull the PS2 keyboard and mouse connectors. Then it turns on, and you can reconnect everything. What? It's been on a KVM switch, that draws power through the PS2 connectors. Maybe that was the problem? This time, though, the trick didn't work. Nothing worked. A little googling around (using my traveling laptop) suggested that it was the power supply at fault. Even with the lit motherboard light? Yep, even with that. And come to think of it, there had been an odd 'burned' smell around the PC for the last six months or so. I had thought dust might be settling into the fins on the CPU cooler and burning up. But I sniffed at the power supply, and yup, strong burned smell. So. Surf to Newegg for a new PS, a Seasonic M12II 430 watt, well-reviewed by Silent PC Review. Arrived last night. Installed. And the PC turned on, and acted like its old self. Yes, the problem was indeed the power supply. The evildoer? J'accuse Antec Model SP-400. Which is odd, because Antec is almost as well thought of, as a PC parts maker, as Seasonic. Still, this one failed after less than four years of fairly light use. No whomping gaming cards, no SLI, none of that. It may not be an especially good Antec model. It came with the case. Lesson: don't settle for the PS that came with the damn case. Shell out a little for a good PS. Something else: the PC had an annoying buzz ever since I built it. A couple of slaps would make the buzz go away, but it always came back. I re-tightened every screw, made sure everything seated properly -- no dice. With the Seasonic installed, the buzz is gone. The buzz must have been in the Antec PS. Maybe a sign that the Antec was damned in the cradle? A defective unit from the start? Could be. So my comfortable old Ubuntu box is back in service, and I'm content. But after four years, it's beginning to feel just a little sluggish on some tasks (Firefox, I'm lookin' at you) and I may built a new one around 2011. [ mood | geeky ] 5 deep thoughts|Think, think, think!

[05 Nov 2009 | 08:02am] I mentioned the other day that English is the second language of Las Vegas? The first language seems to be Mandarin. Yep, you can see the future from here. SUCK IT, ANGLOPHONES. PS: Thanks for repatriating our foreign exchange, guys. PPS: Eurofolk, we need you, too. Try the slots. Have a steak, take in a show. That Bill Cosby is great, isn't he? Try the Margarita Bar at the Mirage. They got strawberry, lime, whatever you want. Eurodollar:USD has been pretty strong lately, hasn't it? Go ahead and spend lots of them, they go a long way. I thank you, and so does Tim Geithner. [ mood | worried ] 1 deep thought|Think, think, think!

[05 Nov 2009 | 07:56am] A rift has opened in the Ethiopian desert. It is possibly the start of a new ocean, as the African and Arabian tectonic plates drift apart. The processes creating it appear to be the same processes at work at the edges of tectonic plates where they meet in the deep ocean. Whoa. [ mood | enthralled ] 5 deep thoughts|Think, think, think!

[03 Nov 2009 | 08:52am] I'm in Vegas, baby, Vegas. Here for a medical education conference. First time in Vegas in five years or so. Heading towards baggage claim in McCarron Airport, you are confronted with immense twin posters of a coltish-looking Bette Midler, and a seductive Cher ("The Goddess Returns"). Both appearing at the Coliseum, whatever that is. Uh. Vegas is for old people. Both of these two are are in their 60s. Shouldn't they be doing PBS specials or something? I can't imagine anyone who can't remember the Kennedy inauguration being interested in them. The old people must be in bed. Or at least they were at one in the morning, when I went on my prowl up and down the Strip. Only young people about. English is the second language around here. I heard it spoken frequently. The Strip is almost unnavigable. It's under heavy reconstruction, concrete barriers everywhere, most of its lanes cut off. Looks like the Green Zone. My airport shuttle got stuck in a traffic jam at midnight. Midnight! God only knows what it's like during the day, but I suppose I'll find out. You know, despite Vegas's attempts to crank up the feeling of risk and edge, there's something intensely bourgeois about it. Maybe it's all the casino hotels imitating stuff we already know about, and don't find threatening. New York. Egypt. Rome. Paris. I'm staying at the Paris Las Vegas, which is surmounted by a reconstruction of the Eiffel Tower. The ceiling of the big box casino floor is a trompe l'oeil blue sky with fluffy clouds. Not bad. But where are the guillotines? Where are the dour Existentialists? Where are the banlieus, illuminated by burning cars? Las Vegas, you're all about breasts and craps tables, but where's the *real* edginess, huh? What, gambling? No, I haven't been gambling. Gambling's about losing money, right? Why would I want to do that? I find the whole gambling thing incomprehensible. [ mood | bitchy ] 5 deep thoughts|Think, think, think!

[02 Nov 2009 | 12:56am] Yahoo Mail is flagging its own error messages, from MAILER-DAEMON@yahoo.com, as spam, and sending them to my spam bin, and presumably to everyone else's. This is funny and sad. I'm sure it's a side effect of Yahoo's spam system, which flags as spam not only senders whom you, the user, flag as spam, but also those which its other users flag as spam. This is a real problem, because it appears that lots of people subscribe to a mailing list, then tire of it, and instead of formally unsubscribing, they just flag it as spam so they never have to see it. That's fine for them, but then Yahoo flags the mailing list as spam for *everybody*. Which sucks for everyone who still wants to read the mailing list, and the mailings keep ending up in their spam bin. It keeps happening to me with OWW list posts, for example. It also happened with a gmail account and a medical mailing list. Ugh. Dumb and lazy people screw things up for everyone else. But what else is new in the world? [ mood | annoyed ] 2 deep thoughts|Think, think, think!

[01 Nov 2009 | 09:48pm] I have a bad feeling about this, Piglet Dr. Calvin. [ mood | annoyed ] Think, think, think!

[31 Oct 2009 | 05:13am] 21 Halloween costumes [for guys] that will not get you laid. Mildly NSFW. [ mood | shocked ] 3 deep thoughts|Think, think, think!

[30 Oct 2009 | 02:20am] riotclitshave. Striking photographs. Some NSFW. [ mood | awake ] Think, think, think!

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