and a pony

Posted on Tuesday, 2002 September 10 by Anton

Just think: after tomorrow we may never hear that hideous pleonasm “one year anniversary” ever again.

I can dream, can’t I?

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This Old Palace

Posted on Monday, 2002 September 09 by Anton

Much to my (and her) amusement, my housemate is hooked on a reality show: Country House [link updated 2006] follows Lord & Lady Tavistock (the future Duke & Duchess of Bedford) and their staff as they manage the Woburn Estate.

In a recent episode, after Lord T’s heart surgery, Lady T said: “Your new diet starts tomorrow. Have you decided on a final indulgence? . . . Are you thinking what I think you’re thinking?” “It’s only a short drive.” “Last time?” “Last time.”

So Lady Tavistock went to McDonald’s to fetch a hamburger and a shake. His lordship was in heaven.

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hard stars

Posted on Monday, 2002 September 09 by Anton

Vladimir Bulatov has made some awesome stellated polyhedra in wood.

When I showed the small stellated dodecahedron to my housemate, she asked, “Did you make that in PoV-Ray?”

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“No Sugar”

Posted on Sunday, 2002 September 08 by Anton

Greg Egan eloquently denounces pointless cruelty toward refugees.

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a little Latin and less Greek

Posted on Saturday, 2002 September 07 by Anton

Today I started a course in medical terminology (aiming to make myself more marketable). I have to restrain myself from speaking up too often, as I know more Greek and Latin (and which is which) than the teacher does. Evidently it is thought undesirable to burden the students with such notions as a distinction between nouns, adjectives and verbs.

Posted in language, me!me!me!, medicine | Leave a comment

bandages

Posted on Friday, 2002 September 06 by Anton

Slashdot | Larry Wall On Perl, Religion, and . . .

If you look at all the RFCs at dev.perl.org, you’ll find that most of the feature requests are bogus on some level or other because they tend to suggest bandaid solutions. Nevertheless, I think it’s best to treat them all as a “cry for help”. With computer languages, about 75% of the bandaids have a bullet hole underneath.

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11010011

Posted on Tuesday, 2002 September 03 by Anton

It would appear that a significant number of netizens have taken to rejecting mail from 211.x.x.x, and that the Chinese spammers know it: I got several spams today that advertised a website in China (at least china-motion.com appeared in traceroute) but used a mail relay in the West.

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