Category: nerd

A forwarded e-mail that Michelle received this morning required a fact check. Most forwarded messages do. It has become standard practice for many of us to automatically open myth debunking websites like Snopes.com when we see FW: in the subject line of an e-mail. Not that we need to check the veracity of these claims, but that we need to have a response to reply to the sender to inform them about the flaw in the message.

I’ve decided that it is time to create a carnivore-like e-mail filtering system based on urban myths and scams that will automatically and permanently deletes chain letters. Snopes.com already has a tremendous database of junk subjects. All we need is a convincing argument that these forwarded messages are a threat to homeland security and poof! we can get funding for such a system. Maybe we can even have the authors of such offending chain mails unlawfully detained.

To add to an already busy week, my ICQ account quit working and told me my password was incorrect. I’ve been using the account since my sophomore year in college, and in the 6+ years I’ve used it, I never changed the e-mail address listed with the account. It still had my old Western address which finally got the axe last year. I’m not sure if I didn’t change the address because I was lazy, or if I was suspicious of ICQ once it was acquired by AOL. Either way, I couldn’t retrieve my password because it was sending the hint to an expired account.

I finally created a new account once I realized that ICQ support wouldn’t reset it for me without any proof of ID. I don’t like having a member number that is so big. Makes me look like a johnny-come-lately.

How many times must I type in my old password before remembering that I changed it?

I’m not sure which was funnier, the fact that support was no help, or that the tech asked me who he was speaking to when he could see my name.

There’s something in my genes that loves April Fool’s day. Sadly, I’m not allowed to express it at home (Michelle hates pranks) or a work (you changed everyone’s password!?!) so I have to relish in the exploits of others. Luckily, the Internet is full of pranks, jokes, and misleading information.

While enjoying Google’s annual prank, my friend lamented that he didn’t like April Fool’s because he couldn’t trust anything on the Internet. I reminded him that he generally shouldn’t trust stuff on the Internet anyway. I guess he’s got a point though – you can’t even trust links on days like this. Well, Internet Explorer users can’t trust links anyway, but that’s not really a prank, just more of a humorless security issue….

I’ve been playing Kingdom of Loathing for a couple weeks and this AM they’ve introduced a number of ad/banner type jokes. The game itself is fully of gags, but this one is good.

The Republican party elephant, the “college degree online” and the such are all great jokes that I can enjoy guilt free because I donated last week. Oh, there’s also a “this round of combat brought to you by Greenpeace” banner.

I’ve had The Ritual Battle song from the original star trek stuck in my head for several days. Its really one of the best battle songs ever. Especially for riding in traffic.

This is an example of when text field length becomes important.

I think buying music online is harder than buying it in a shop because you’ve got access to sites like allmusic to delve further into the album before purchasing. I’ve spent a surprising amount of time this morning without actually deciding on anything.

If only iTunes Music Store had tabbed browsing I could keep track of some stuff.

I got an e-mail from Friendster begging me to see what’s changed and generate advertising revenue for them and they used a rather brilliant hook by using examples of updates by friends in my network to lure me in.

I logged in and found very little different other than more surface area dedicated to ads. But I did notice that on my testimony to another friend, the date on which I posted the comment was way back in December of 1901. First Post!

Looks like there might be some Y2K issues? Or maybe they’re using old clamshell ibooks to host the site? My sister’s first generation iBook had logicboard problems and the clock was always resetting to Jan 01 of 1901. Bizarre.

Still, I’m going to keep the image and use it for nerd-clout. “Why I was using the internet back before it existed.”