Oldies: Sunday, June 23 - Saturday, June 29, 2002...
Friday, 28 June 2002: I am truly surprised this did not happen sooner. Have you ever heard of a piece of software called Gator? Well, it's a program that saves all your personal information (name, address, credit card info, etc.) in one neat little package so that when you visit a website, you can automatically upload your information when ordering something and you don't have to type all your data in each time. In other words, software developers are capitalizing on laziness. Sounds nifty, right? Well, bundled with this software is an advertising manager that will automatically pop up ads when you visit websites that are supposed to be related to that particular site (for example, you go to Amazon.com, it will pop up an ad for Barnes & Noble or something of that sort). Many users of Gator don't realize that this ad software is bundled in there. They just kinda assume that the administrators of the websites they are visiting are throwing in those pop-up ads. Well, they're not. And they're pissed about the ads especially when the ad is for a competitor (rightly so). Now, ten web publishing companies are suing Gator. What I'm hoping for is that, if these publishers win, it will be a major strike against pop-up ads in general. Maybe some kind of legislation will be reached regarding these ever-annoying advertising menaces to either limit or eliminate them altogether. I can only hope.
If you'd like more details, check out this N.Y. Times article.
Thursday, 27 June 2002: Last night, I passed my exam and I am now certified in CPR. It's
actually a pretty fun process and really informative. What made it even better
was that my instructor is a licensed and practicing paramedic so we got to hear
some pretty good horror stories about life on the job. And I got my fair share
of razzing from everyone in the class because I was the only guy enrolled.
Well, that's step one done...
Tuesday, 25 June 2002: I never thought that I could become so entranced by video games
again. I had an Atari 2600 and 7200 when I was a kid and I loved them. I also
had the old 8-bit Nintendo console in the early 90s and I loved it. After that,
I did purchase a Super Nintendo which I only played occasionally. So little, in
fact, that I didn't really hold onto it too long. Oh yeah, I also had the
Turbografx 16 which I also didn't play too often. As a result of my sudden cold
streak with video games, I never bought into the N64, PlayStation, or DreamCast.
Yeah, some of the games interested me, but not enough to spend the money on the
system.
However, about a month ago, I got a PlayStation II and I'm hooked. Although I only own two games so far (Madden 2002 and Salt Lake 2002), I've been renting a few here and there. I am currently addicted to Spider-Man and PacMan World 2. It's a blast. The games aren't nearly as difficult to play as I once feared they would be. And the controller, while it is far more complex than any controller from any of my old systems, kinda grows on you after a while. Don't worry, I'm not so addicted that I ignore Katie. I've only played a little bit here and there and mostly when Katie's on duty at the pharmacy. When she's gone and I'm home alone, I don't feel too guilty about playing. Oh yeah, I'm about halfway through Spider-Man. However I'm stuck on PacMan. So if any of you know of good websites to get cheats on games, let me know. Any little bit will help.
Monday, 24 June 2002: It's been a heckuva long time, but it is definitely the
appropriate moment to revisit the "Darwinism Missed Me" file. This one out of
Canberra, Australia. Up to six students from a small town west of Brisbane were
busted having made fake driver's licenses to get themselves into pubs and clubs.
Apparently, a lot of work was put into making the IDs as real as possible.
However, keen-eyed bouncers decided to look very carefully at the pictures on
the IDs (which already makes them significantly more responsible than 95% of
American bouncers) and discovered that the boys were wearing their school
uniforms in the photos. Now, one kid who actually used the ID has been fined
A$675 (US$385) while the rest, if it cannot be determined that they actually
used them, will be given notices on their permanent police records.
C'mon guys, it sounds like you all really put some thought into this. You worked out the templates nicely on your computers and found a high quality printer for the whole charade. Why in the name of hell would you be stupid enough to wear your prep school uniforms in the photos? And why they hell didn't at least one in the six of you realize what a mistake you were making?
Survival of the fittest? I think not.
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