Random Spirkoisms

2010-09-29T13:42:00.001-04:00

I bought a medium cup of meatballs from WaWa and what did I get? Two thirds of a cup of meatballs.-Spirko

Important Information About Your Account

2010-07-13T14:57:00.002-04:00

When a corporation sends mail to a person, it's almost always because they want money from the person. Sometimes the person has contracted with the company, and the topic is billing, collections, or account maintenance. (Or even, heaven forbid, a product.) These usually come in plain #9 or #10 envelopes. Because of privacy laws, they usually don't have a lot written on the outside.More often

PA State Budget Crisis

2009-08-03T12:14:00.004-04:00

Having a government with no budget is nuts. The state and state agencies have made promises and contracts with people and organizations and now they're not holding their end of the bargain. If an employee of a company fails this miserably at their job, they get canned and the company has to face lawsuits. I propose the following solutions:If there is no passed budget for even a single day, the

Vizio TV Remote

2009-05-11T13:18:00.002-04:00

I've been distracted by Facebook for a while, but this seems longer than is appropriate for a wall post. We got a Vizio VW42LFHDTV this spring, and for the most part, it's been a nice TV. My biggest initial complaint was the lack of a button on the remote control to change the aspect ratio. I play PlayStation2 games in Widescreen, but our TiVo recordings should be viewed in a 4:3 aspect ratio.

Google Fail?

2008-12-11T17:58:00.003-05:00

Adventures in Windows

2008-12-03T06:22:00.002-05:00

We just got a new emachines E19T6W 19" flat panel LCD monitor, and getting it to work with my Toshiba Satellite A105 laptop was a royal PITA. Technically, it worked right away, but it looked terrible because the laptop wasn't driving the monitor at the native resolution of 1440x900. It's not that the Intel 945GM graphics accelerator can't output that resolution, it's just that the EDID data

Bail-out loophole?

2008-09-28T20:28:00.002-04:00

The "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008" contains what looks like a huge loophole. In Sec 101 (e), entitled "Preventing Unjust Enrichment," the current text says the Secretary should prevent unjust enrichment by "preventing the sale of a troubled asset to the Secretary ata higher price than what the seller paid to purchase the asset." Besides a few huge exceptions spelled out in the

Thoughts on the Bail-Out

2008-09-25T13:33:00.002-04:00

Let's pay for the $700 billion economic bail-out package. With a U.S. population of 300 million, that's $2333 apiece. So much for our economic stimulus checks of $600 or $300.Why is it that when people are having trouble, we get hundreds of dollars, but when corporations are having trouble, they take thousands from us and give it to the corporations?Another question, what's going to happen to

Sarah Palin said that the PA Dutch aren't Christians!

2008-09-24T08:36:00.001-04:00

How deceptive is this woman?[During her run for mayor in 1994,] even though Palin knew that Stein is a Protestant Christian, from a Pennsylvania Dutch background, her campaign began circulating the word that she would be "Wasilla's first Christian mayor."The title to this post is a link to the full article.

Large Hadron Collider

2008-09-10T06:33:00.002-04:00

Well, the LHC has been turned on and it hasn't destroyed the world. Hooray for science! All of the doubters who thought we'd be dead by now can go pound sand.P.S. Ssh! I know.P.P.S. I'm still not sure why some people responded to the danger by sending death threats. Assuming their fears were true, they were giving the scientists a choice between death and death.

The great Root Beer Monopoly

2008-08-05T21:29:00.003-04:00

I didn't know this, but A&W Root Beer, Hires Root Beer, IBC Root Beer, Stewart's Root Beer are all made by the same company: Dr. Pepper Snapple (formerly part of Cadbury Schweppes). With Barq's owned by Coke and Mug owned by Pepsi, that leaves just A-Treat, Dad's, and the microbrews to provide an independent taste of root beer.

PA Turnpike should be government-run

2008-06-25T08:47:00.002-04:00

Here's how I know that a lease deal for the PA Turnpike is bad: SPAM. The commercial entity (partially backed by Citigroup) that wishes to run the Turnpike send me a SPAM message this morning begging for my support. AFAIK, the deal has "bipartisan support" (Morning Call, June 6, 2008). So why do they need a SPAM campaign?Here's why: it's a bad deal. (1) Businesses get into deals to make money

Back to complaining: RCN Sucks less than last week.

2008-06-21T15:30:00.001-04:00

After years of only one-way cable internet service (aka hybrid or asymmetric cable modem), RCN finally "upgraded" our area to two-way. This means the cable modem now doesn't need a separate phone lien, so it is much more useful. Time to order digital cable and internet service.Here is a chronology of events since then:June 18, 9am: Digital cable installed.June 18, 11am: Determined cable modem

Obama outshines Clinton on Colbert Report

2008-04-18T06:21:00.002-04:00

When I watched last night's Colbert Report and saw Hilary Clinton's act, I was a bit disappointed that it consisted of a symbolic yet ultimately meaningless joke. Fixing Colbert's video monitor and his makeup? Come on, you can do better than that. If you aren't ready to try to solve problems, you have no business running for President of the United States. By now, we all assume that's true.

What's wrong with this picture?

2008-03-20T07:52:00.002-04:00

This news-robot-chosen image of the space shuttle accompanied an article about orbiting space debris.At least I hope the photo was chosen by a robot.

No, we're not a bunch of rednecks.

2008-03-06T07:13:00.001-05:00

Scary factoid:"Pennsylvania's top employers today are the federal government, state government and Wal-Mart, in that order." -Morning Call (March 6, 2008)

Upside-down Rainbow

2007-11-18T09:49:00.000-05:00

Last week in upstate New York I saw this rainbow.The sun is near the horizon, and the rainbow curves upwards on the sides. Normal rainbows surround the sun. This one definitely didn't have the sun at its center. The sun is outside the rainbow in the picture. After a little research, I think that what I saw was a Circumzenithal Arc. This type of rainbow or halo is created by ice crystals in

Tired of incompetent journalism

2007-10-30T15:58:00.000-04:00

The media is supposed to communicate us what's going on in the world. Part of communicating is being as clear as possible and avoiding confusion. But these days, the AP and Reuters are constantly updating their articles, and sometimes I wonder if there is an editor involved in the process. Often, an article will jump around between two or three different topics without any segways, and just as

Bush acknowledges slavery in Iraq?

2007-07-19T09:13:00.000-04:00

Bush's recent Executive Order allows the US Gov't to take assets from people who commit violence against the Iraqi government. The way I read it, the affected people are "any persons determined by the [US] Secretary of the Treasury ... (i) to have committed [violence], (ii) to have assisted [anyone covered by the order] or (iii) to be owned or controlled by [anyone covered by the order]."So that

Verizon cutting copper wires during FiOS installation

2007-07-08T10:15:00.001-04:00

When customers get FiOS from Verizon, they often aren't informed that the copper lines get cut, meaning they can't ever go back to POTS and DSL. This means they can't switch to another phone company, thus locking in customers and creating a new monopoly for Verizon. And what about that 30-day money-back guarantee?read more | digg story

Conservative Supreme Court keeping busy

2007-06-29T07:27:00.000-04:00

In Fall 2005, when John Roberts was nominated to be the new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, people were afraid that it might be a move toward overturning Roe vs. Wade. But Roberts calmed the alarmed Democrats saying things like, "settled as a precedent of the court" and "applying the precedent of the court".Flip to now. The court has been releasing rulings recently and a decision on price

My diggs

2007-06-22T12:02:00.000-04:00

Look over there.The articles that I've recently dugg are listed. So no more "something happened somewhere" posts, unless I have something to say about it.

Nothing is true until it's officially denied.

2007-06-20T20:40:00.000-04:00

That's what I thought about Bush's watch being stolen the other week. (I'll leave it up to you to know or search about that.) This time, the Bush administration says the housing slump is kaput. If by slump they mean that prices have been going up while buyers are more scarce, I sure hope that's over. Because nothing could make less sense. Economics says that when the demand goes down, the

Verizon Sucks

2007-06-18T12:11:00.000-04:00

Yeah, the title's not very creative, but as frustrated as I am, it's a wonder I can write without swearing a lot. Of course, I'm not the only one (do your own search).When we moved in to our current place, we had our Verizon phone and DSL service transferred from our old place. After a few weeks of spotty service, they finally admitted that we were too far from the CO, and they cancelled our

Brickman using illegal immigrants for landscaping? Really?

2007-06-08T12:05:00.000-04:00

I just can't believe that such a fine landscaping company would use "undocumented workers" for spreading mulch and mowing lawns. Brickman should hire Americans. If they can't drum up interest, they should raise the wages. If that means losing the Lehigh contract for being too expensive, tough. All of their competition uses real American labor, I'm sure.

A Physics Teacher Begs for His Subject Back

2007-06-08T10:23:00.001-04:00

From Digg: "Wellington Grey, tired of what he's seen done to his subject of physics, has written up his complaints."I'll be lazy and not actually read the article before I post it.read more | digg story

Street Sweepers

2007-04-10T09:35:00.000-04:00

[Update (4/11/07): The building behind the sweeper is now a demolition site. It looks like Party City is still open, but the stores to the left of it are gutted.]My friend Nate is really into street sweepers. Every time I see one, his child-like (not childish) giddiness comes to mind. It's fun to see people be happy, so when I realized I had the camera in my car as I drove past a street

Cell Phones on Planes

2007-04-04T07:44:00.000-04:00

Lots of people have opinions about why cell phones should or should not be allowed on commercial flights. The FCC currently bans their use because the signals could interfere with the cell networks. This makes sense. The networks are designed to pass phones from tower to tower at fairly low rates corresponding to cars driving well under 100 MPH. Suddenly add lots of fast-moving phones in the

Satellite Radio News

2007-03-28T10:36:00.000-04:00

Since I've been driving for over an hour a day, I got satellite radio. Depending on my mood, I may want to listen to rock, comedy, or news. NPR is only on Sirius, so that was an obvious choice. Unfortunately, none of the US-originated news stations is very good. There are several of them, but they're all seriously flawed. NPR only does hour-long programs like Fresh Air. This is a great

Happy pi Day?

2007-03-14T11:16:00.000-04:00

Bah. I'm waiting around for e day. Only 3893 days to go! (Or 4128 days if you go by European notation.)

Useful program - FileSync

2007-02-28T19:33:00.000-05:00

FileSync is a Windows program that synchronizes two folders so that they contain the same files and sub-folders. I use it to keep a backup of my teaching files from my notebook computer on my USB drive. Then, I use FileSync again on a desktop computer to keep a copy there, too. FileSync is even set up on a hotkey so all I do is plug in the USB drive and hit Ctrl-Alt-S and it starts up.It's

Stupid warning labels

2007-01-23T08:59:00.000-05:00

In the Intro Physics labs here, there are a few signs on the wall that say, "Caution!!!!!!! Hot Plates might be HOT!" So why don't they call them...oh, wait, they do.Today there was a digg about a few more funny warning labels. Gotta love the chainsaw warnings.

Movin' On

2007-01-09T08:54:00.000-05:00

After 15 1/2 more-or-less continuous years direct affiliation with Lehigh covering parts of 17 calendar years, I'm finally leaving. I've been an undergrad, a summer REU student, a grad student, a TA, a visiting researcher, and a research scientist, but now I'm simply an alumnus.(As an aside, for some reason, I hate it when people call me "an alumni". It's a latin word whose masculine singular

Christmas Lights

2006-12-23T18:28:00.000-05:00

I have some odd fascination with Christmas lights. This time, I'm wondering what will happen if you put two blinker bulbs on the same string of lights. Blinker bulbs have to warm up before they start working, so the operation is temperature dependent. If two blinkers are present, will they mess with each other's temperatures? What will the end result be? Any guesses before I give the results

Philadelphia Flyers - Worst Team in the NHL

2006-12-19T09:33:00.000-05:00

It's official. On Sunday night, the St. Louis Blues scooped up one point in the standings and the Flyers are now tied for last place in the entire NHL. (UPDATE 12/19: Tonight the Blues won, and the Flyers lost, so now we have sole possession of last place.) You know the last time Philly got a point? It was Saturday, Dec. 2 in an OTL to the New Jersey Devils. Including that overtime loss, we

Christmas Lights in Bethlehem, PA

2006-12-10T17:49:00.000-05:00

THE house to see in Bethlehem, PA is at the intersection of Sunset View Dr and Sunset Pl, near Jacksonville Rd and Macada Rd. As Steve puts it, this guy could hook a generator on the spinning disc on his electric meter and get even more power. If you haven't already gone there, go.There's another great house at the end of Budd Ave.The Morning Call should put out an article maybe this weekend on

Some e-Voting machines push straight ticket voting

2006-11-09T09:20:00.000-05:00

In comment on another blog, I mentioned how a friend complained about the Northampton County, PA WinVote machines pushed people to vote a straight party ticket instead of picking individual races. Well, more people are complaining about the same thing. Maybe this type of voting really should be eliminated altogether.

Bad Instructions or Election Shenanigan?

2006-11-07T13:02:00.000-05:00

When I originally registered to vote during World^H^H^H^H^H Gulf War I, I had registered as a Republican. Over the years, I realized that I didn't completely share their values (mostly in the "Screw the Poor" department and their poor choice of a leader these last few years), so I recently changed my registration. But I've still been getting all of the campaign emails from the RNC. Today, in

Traffic

2006-11-06T11:52:00.000-05:00

I'm fascinated by traffic patterns, from road-design to individual behavior to mass phenomena, it's all interesting. The local paper has The Road Warrior", who does a weekly column on some traffic topic. This week's column is about the daily backup on US-22 Westbound near Airport Rd. One friend of ours is always pissed off by these kinds of traffic jams that happen "for no reason". After all,

Lehigh Art

2006-10-26T13:00:00.000-04:00

Why American's Don't Save Enough

2006-10-13T14:55:00.000-04:00

I was looking over our finances for the month and was reminded of something I find funny. Each month, we earn interest on our savings account, while we also receive a bribe for using a certain credit card. Each month, the bribe is more than our interest. Basically, what the business world is telling me is that we earn more by spending than by saving. I guess they like the part where they get

Eagles 38 - Cowboys 24

2006-10-09T09:01:00.000-04:00

I had a great time at the Eagles-Dallas game last night, despite a few Cowboys fans sitting behind us. We didn't do anything rude, though. As a matter of fact, whenever something great happened on the field, we politely turned around and offered high-fives so as not to exclude them from all the excitement.One funny thing was when the woman next to me called for a flea-flicker. Well, about 3

Bud Light commercial spoofs on Youtube.

2006-09-28T22:23:00.000-04:00

Real Financial HeroesNow I want a beef jerky maker.Lots of related videos, too.

Seamus Kennedy back in Bethlehem for Celtic Classic

2006-09-21T12:01:00.000-04:00

Woo-hoo! Lots of free Seamus Kennedy concerts. One on Friday, three on Saturday, and two on Sunday.

There should be a Man Law against this.

2006-09-19T11:32:00.000-04:00

I found this book I've been trying to get at a reasonable price off eBay for almost a year now. So I put in a bid and wait to see if it'll stick. It's pretty normal to be outbid, but it's really annoying when some schmuck just walks up the price to place a bid just higher than mine. It's even more annoying when I know the schmuck.

No double parking

2006-08-29T10:06:00.000-04:00

If this was me, I would have been towed already.

Is Earth still a planet?

2006-08-24T15:37:00.000-04:00

The International Astronomical Union (mirror) has finally defined the meaning of the term "planet", and much to my dissapointment Pluto doesn't fit the bill. The part of the definition that it fails to satisfy is that a planet must have "cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit."This brings to mind certain news stories that pop up once in a while about killer asteroids that might hit Earth.

Bookmark: General Relativity Notes

2006-08-21T14:34:00.000-04:00

By Professor Sean Carroll at Stanford.

Driving pet peeves

2006-08-14T09:28:00.000-04:00

We just got back from vacation, and it involved a bit of driving. With this recent additional experience, I can list a few things on the road that really annoy the heck out of me.Not getting to the right (left) side of the lane when making a right (left) turn. Using the shoulder to pass someone who's making a left turn is perfectly fine as long as it can be done safely. But if they don't make

Scary police shooting in Bethlehem

2006-08-02T09:32:00.000-04:00

To summarize, last night a little before 7pm, police and at least one suspect exchanged gunfire along Catasaqua Rd in Bethlehem (probably near the eastern edge of the map on the mcall.com article page). One officer was hit and is recovering, and one suspect was killed. To me, there are two scary parts. (1) We drove through that area at 7:10, annoyed at the traffic problems.(2) These two bits

Arrested for taking a photo in public!

2006-07-31T18:07:00.000-04:00

I'd believe this could happen in DC or in Texas, but in Philly? "Cruz, 21, told the NBC 10 Investigators that police arrested him last Wednesday for taking a picture of police activity [in public] with his cell phone." (NBC 10 Article) The report sparked outrage not only in the Cruz family, but also on slashdot where readers left many interesting comments (the link is to the backlash article

Landfill Mining: this is what I've been saying for years.

2006-07-31T11:23:00.000-04:00

"If we don't throw away our cans and bottles, what are we going to mine from the landfills in 50 years?" Me, in the past.According to "There's Gold in Them Thar Smelly Hills", Alcoa thinks there is more aluminum in landfills than in Al mines. With the cost of energy (and hence aluminum) going up, it may actually be economical to mine landfills for metals soon.So do your part, stop separating

Former Flyers goalie Garth Snow gets a promotion

2006-07-19T09:04:00.000-04:00

Strange things are afoot in the NY Islanders' management. The GM was fired after complaining of "difficulty working within the team's revamped front office." Goalie Snow steps up to the plate by retiring to take the job. He skipped that whole scouting phase that Hextall went through before becoming the GM of the Manchester Monarchs, AHL affiliate of the LA Kings.

Suspension Bridges

2006-07-10T13:40:00.000-04:00

As mentioned by Nate, I recently got to go to a wedding on Long Island. Our car's route took us around most of Manhattan and over two of the ten largest suspension bridges in the world, the George Washington Bridge and the Verrazano Narrows Bridge (which is, I now know, the largest suspension bridge in the US, 60 feet longer than the Golden Gate Bridge). We also drove under of the most famous

Flood!

2006-06-28T04:44:00.000-04:00

The Lehigh River and Delaware River are flooding today. At some point I want to make a table of the past recent flood levels (and some of those of legend), but for now here are a few links to data and news websites to keep track of things.pa.water.usgs.gov - Real-time "streamflow" data, including current river levels (Lehigh River in Bethlehem), a table of levels from Hurricane Ivan (Sept 2004),

Man Makes $100-$300 a Day Sitting In Cars

2006-06-23T12:20:00.000-04:00

This guy sells his presence so that commuters can use the carpool lanes.read more | digg story

Bad idea?

2006-06-21T22:04:00.000-04:00

Is shopping for a pillow when you're tired like grocery shopping when hungry?

Adapting to zero gravity

2006-06-21T07:22:00.000-04:00

The above NPR interview/story describes how one astronaut and some animals adjusted to the gravity-free environment on the Space Shuttle. It includes discussions of the initial disorientation and the switching back to earth mode. Listen to it if you have the chance.

On net neutrality

2006-06-12T09:21:00.000-04:00

Network neutrality is a subject geeky enough for me to have an opinion about. I see both sides of the debate, but the ISP's have made their own bed on this one.The ISP side: Internet Service Providers (who sell dial-up, DSL, cable modem connections, etc., e.g. "Verizon") have been finding that a huge amount of their bandwidth has been consumed by people ("Us") accessing a small number of "

Jon Spirko, RIP

2006-05-15T11:46:00.000-04:00

6/28/1983 - 5/13/2006I remember when Jon (on the left) was born. It was so hot the day before that our air conditioner couldn't cool the whole house and we had to sleep in the living room. Of course even then we didn't get to sleep all night.Jon was a fun-loving kid who was also highly competitive. When he met my girlfriend (now my wife) at age 9, he rattled off a list of games that went

Google says Yuengling is popular in Allentown

2006-05-12T15:36:00.000-04:00

Go figure.

Diet Coke & Mentos Part II - The Experiment

2006-05-03T19:20:00.000-04:00

Well, that didn't take long. Here is a video of our own experiment.

Diet Coke and Mentos

2006-05-02T14:27:00.000-04:00

This is all over the net, but I think Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda did an excellent Diet Coke & Mentos video. With several tests, they confirm that fruit and sugar-free Mentos work about as well as regular sugary minty Mentos. Also, the various varieties of Diet Coke (C2, Zero, CFDC, didn't try Diet Coke with Splenda) are all good, though Caffeine-free did the best. The soda bottle was strong enough

Digg: Live re-enactment of Super Mario Bros.!!

2006-04-27T13:47:00.000-04:00

From digg: "These guys at Gordon College really put some time into making a real life version of everyone's favorite video game. You have to just see this one."read more | digg story

Newegg.com sticker optimizes system performance!

2006-04-13T13:26:00.000-04:00

What do Newegg.com customers think of the often-free sticker? It's magic. Read these reviews to learn the secrets to increasing processor speed by 1 GHz, 3dMark scores by 400 points, and getting better cooling to boot!read more | digg story

Real (and imaginary) math offset the pseudo-science.

2006-04-11T10:58:00.000-04:00

"Hear about the stark reality behind the imaginary number, try a slice of pi, find out about the natural beauty of the golden ratio, discover why some infinities are bigger than others, and see why nothing really matters."Having the gravity plane at the top of my blog just didn't feel right.read more | digg story

Perpetual Motion strikes again: Gravity-Powered Aircraft

2006-04-11T10:24:00.000-04:00

No, no, no. You can't get energy from nowhere. Compressed air isn't free, especially when it's enough to propel an aircraft. Helium doesn't just change its bouyancy unless you do work on it, and then lots of that energy is lost to heat. What else is wrong?read more | digg story

Overkill or required tailgating equipment?

2006-04-06T15:18:00.000-04:00

Digg pointed me to a list of the top 20 strangest gadgets. One of them stood out.The Gas-Powered BlenderIt has a 2-1/2 HP engine and a 60 oz. pitcher. Wow. I can just imagine starting that thing up before a Lehigh game. People got scared enough when I had a Crock-Pot.

There are too many of us.

2006-04-04T14:34:00.000-04:00

Eric R. Pianka is a zoologist at the University of Texas at Austin. He is apparently well-known for believing that there are too many people on our planet, and argues for this in the essay, What nobody wants to hear, but everyone needs to know. Recently, he spoke at the Texas Academy of Science, and as reported by Forrest Mims (Digg), an Academy member, Pianka advocated the elimination of about

Friends, don't let this happen to me.

2006-03-27T15:26:00.000-05:00

AHMEDABAD, India (Reuters) - A jobless alcoholic burned himself to death after his wife refused to serve him meat for dinner, Indian police said Sunday.There are a lot of lessons in this story. Hopefully the people around me will withhold kerosene if things get that desperate.

Yakuza retirees get gov't retirement benefits?

2006-03-27T10:25:00.000-05:00

Yesterday's News of the Weird column said that retiring Yakuza gangsters are entitled to retirement benefits in Japan, proving that they worked through various means such as a letter from their crime boss or gang tatoos. And we think our Social Security system is messed up.

What's in a name?

2006-03-24T11:05:00.000-05:00

I've never been very creative, to the point of picking really stupid titles. Like the former title of this blog. It was terrible. So, at the insistance of a friend (NEB), I've changed the name. I even used her suggestion (refer to the first 5 words above). You can thank me later.

Still no Windows XP x64 driver for the Konica-Minolta Magicolor 2400w

2006-03-18T10:57:00.000-05:00

In a previous post, I bitched about the lack of a driver for the Konica-Minolta Magicolor 2400w under Windows XP x64. Then I relaxed because a rep called me and assured me that the driver is on the way. In fact, he said it was late.Well, it's two months later and there's still no driver. I'm beginning to believe the email rep who told me that it wasn't even in the development calendar. I

Sir Roger Penrose, in person

2006-03-16T10:03:00.000-05:00

I had the honour last night of attending a lecture given by Sir Roger Penrose. The topic was what happened before the big bang. He has some pretty "crazy" ideas, and as he said, you have to be crazy to come up with theories in cosmology.One quote that I enjoyed is: "Orbit ... a safer way to fall."Other than that, I didn't understand much but the most basic stuff. The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics

Go fly a kite.

2006-03-08T14:49:00.000-05:00

Kids should have hobbies. It can keep them out of trouble. Apparently, kite-flying might not be one of those hobbies. In Pakistan, kite-flying competitions often involve trying to bring down an opponent's kite through whatever means necessary. This includes glass shards glued to the string. There have apparently been people injured and even killed.Kite flying just isn't what it used to be.

Fork Bombs: Bringing Linux to its Knees

2006-03-07T15:43:00.000-05:00

I think only one Linux person reads this, but anyway, I was just reminded of the existence of fork bombs. This is basically a program that calls itself multiple times. Each child then does the same thing, and soon you have more processes running than the system can handle. In the bash shell, which is used on most Linux systems, there's a simple fork bomb that consists of all

Did you know?

2006-03-01T19:47:00.000-05:00

If you don't flush (or use) a toilet for like 4 months, all the water in the bowl will dry.On a related note, why doesn't a J-trap (below a sink) flush when you drain the sink?

Here we go again.

2006-03-01T09:07:00.000-05:00

Some guy in Nevada is proposing a state constitutional amendment that children must be taught about several perceived flaws in evolutionary theory. He only needs about 83,000 signatures to get the proposal on the ballot, and it must pass this year and in 2008 to be added to their constitution.There are so many things wrong with this it's ridiculous. First, it obviously takes more than 2 years

Staple, Loss Leaders, and "Temporarily Out of Stock"

2006-02-20T21:19:00.000-05:00

This week Staples has a pair of great specials that I'd like to buy. A 200 GB hard drive for $40 is about the best price I've seen yet. I thought last week's $70 200 GB SATA hard drive was good. Any computer geek could use an extra 200 gigabytes for cheap. The other deal is a $20 DVD burner. The only problem is that neither of these items is in stock at any Staples in my area.Now, I

Dick Cheney humor

2006-02-14T16:04:00.000-05:00

In 2004 Vice President Dick Cheney cursed at Senator Patrick Leahy during a brief argument in the Senate. "In retrospect, it looks like I got off easy," said Leahy. Washington PostMore jokes at Netfunny.com.In my opinion, when the ranch owner said, "This is something that happens from time to time," I think it was a warning.

Appropriate protest

2006-02-07T15:20:00.000-05:00

While I've been sitting at home sick these past 5 days, I've had a little time to read/watch the news in between naps and cleaning out the TiVo. On Sunday, pages 4-5 of The Morning Call had 3 headlines, one about an Egyptian ferry that sank drowning a thousand, one about death squads killing over a dozen Arabs in Iraq, and one about violent protests over the Danish cartoons. Apparently, with

Top Hybrid Car Myths

2006-02-02T17:38:00.000-05:00

Today on Digg was Business Week's "Top Ten Hybrid Myths". Well, they forgot one, and it's a pet peeve of mine. So, the eleventh myth about hybrid cars is...A hybrid car is inherently more efficient on the highway than a traditional car. Hybrid cars get more energy from a gasoline engine by always operating at the peak efficiency. There is a certain RPM and load that will use the least fuel

He passed out in the drive-thru!

2006-02-01T16:41:00.000-05:00

Police Report28-year-old Omar Porrata passed out in the drive-thru of McDonald's on 378 in south Bethlehem. When police woke him up (which was difficult), he ran.

Creative thinking or an identity crisis?

2006-01-30T09:49:00.000-05:00

Paul S. Sewell of Reading, PA signed his voter registration, PA driver's license, and the back of his credit card all with the name "God". He claims it's the same as leaving an X as a mark. The idea came because he is a bounty hunter and the fugitives often say things like "Oh, God, give me another chance!".Is this just an amusing way of expressing himself, or is it a blasphemous psychological

A real USB numeric keypad

2006-01-26T09:33:00.000-05:00

Several of my friends use external numeric keypads for their laptops. I never really saw the point, as there is a row of numbers abover the letters anyway. But if the keypad includes a calculator, now we're talking something interesting. If only it was a scientific calculator.

Want to copy a movie legally? Be your own lawyer.

2006-01-24T13:10:00.000-05:00

An independent moviemaker recently accused the MPAA of copying his movie without his permission, and they admitted that they did it. According to their own website, "Anyone who sells, acquires, copies or distributes copyrighted materials without permission is called a pirate." (I claim fair use here, and I'm properly attributing it to the MPAA.) But according to the LA Times article, "the [

Where was US 22 in Allentown/Bethlehem?

2006-01-24T10:35:00.000-05:00

I have a fascination with old maps and how cities, towns, and roads change over time. One of the questions I've asked is how US highway 22 was routed through Bethlehem before the current expressway was built. Remember, it was the Autobahn that started the whole expressway thing, so it couldn't have been there very long. Plus, as you go out west of Allentown, there are various roads called "Old

The PA State Government Can't Do Math

2006-01-23T09:54:00.000-05:00

Pennsylvania has a 6% state sales tax. Just in case retailers are too simple (or too smart) to understand what that means, they have this handy booklet to explain it all to them.This may be (read: is) mostly inconsequential and nitpicky, but the booklet clearly states that sales tax is supposed to be calculated wrong. On page 4, it states, "The six (6) percent state Sales Tax is to be collected

Lehigh Ice Hockey

2006-01-20T12:15:00.000-05:00

Many people don't know it, but Lehigh University has an ice hockey team. They compete in the American Collegiate Hockey Association Division 1. I didn't know their schedule until just now, so I've missed most of their games. There are two home games left, on Jan 27 and Feb 5.Wanna go, Nate?

Konica-Minolta not ditching me after all.

2006-01-19T14:49:00.000-05:00

I got an actual phone call from a representative of Konica-Minolta. He assured that a 64-bit driver for the 2400W is on its way after all, and it's not quite time to throw away the printer yet. I'm glad that it's just a development delay and miscommunication that caused this trouble, and not a neglect of a soon-to-be-major Windows market. The use of a more personal form of communication was a

A DVD label 'kit'

2006-01-19T08:19:00.000-05:00

This wonderful "kit" was advertised on the outside of a 30-pack of DVD+R discs (which was really 3 10-packs shrink-wrapped together):Note that the "kit" consists of 8 stickers. How lame is that? Not only is there no "kit"-ness to it, but there aren't even enough for the 10-pack.

Konica-Minolta 2400w doesn't work in Windows XP x64 Edition

2006-01-17T17:59:00.000-05:00

I got this nice new Pentium 4 computer and I put Windows XP x64-Edition on it. After all, it is a 64-bit processor, so why not run it in 64-bit mode most of the time.I just have one (big) problem. My printer, the Konica-Minolta 2400w (which is for the most part a nice, cheap color laser printer) doesn't work with this version of Windows XP. It's not like I'm asking them for a Linux or BSD

Mathematicians think differently.

2006-01-11T15:54:00.000-05:00

In mathematics, if the solutions to an equation are all the same, it's said that the solution is unique.In sociology (or something like that), people are unique because we're all different.

Hey Kids! Come play the lottery!

2006-01-06T20:17:00.000-05:00

Gus the Groundhog is a cute, furry, animated spokes-hog for the Pennsylvania lottery, and he obviously likes gambling. After all, according to a TV ad I saw today, he plays "every day".Now far be it from me for criticizing anybody for gambling or offering a gambling service. If people want to pay that extra tax for those who don't know math, it's not my problem.But I seem to recall that Joe

Get a PC cheaper by building it yourself.

2006-01-05T14:06:00.000-05:00

There was a digg the other day that said that it's cheaper to buy a PC than to build one. The article even pushes Dell. Well, I beg to differ.I recently put together a PC from Newegg.com, saved in this wish list, that beats Dell's cheapest PC I can find in both price (even with Lehigh's discount) and performance. The system is a P4 630 (3.0 GHz, 2 MiB L2 Cache, 800 MHz FSB), with 2 GiB

A good day

2006-01-04T11:44:00.000-05:00

It's a good day today. The sun is shining, it's not too cold out, and my sudden urge for spaghetti was satisfied last night (which may be related to my horror of finding out that it's possible for someone to hate spaghetti).In the news today, the Intelligent Design Debacle is over in Dover, PA. Also, I just learned that last month a new largest prime number has been found. The number is (

My favorite little computer store...

2005-12-27T11:10:00.000-05:00

...is Beyond PC Ltd. in Exton, PA. They were formerly known as Beyond PC Corp or BPCC and recently moved a hundred feet to a new storefront near the FastSigns by the Exton Square Mall. I usually see them at the MarketPro Computer Shows in Allentown, where they consistently have good computer show prices for non-name-brand (aka white box) computers and parts.For some things, they can even do

Interesting graph of 2004 presidential election

2005-12-20T10:53:00.000-05:00

I'm not very political, except to the extent that I complain about politicians. But this graph is pretty interesting. It shows a point for each state, and graphs the percent vote D or R vs. the percentage of people in that state with a college education. It's not a very good correlation, but there is a trend.The webpage of Prof. Steven Ruggles at the University of Minnesota has that and more

A moment of Zen

2005-12-13T12:51:00.000-05:00

On Friday, a friend took a bunch of guys to the NHL game between the New Jersey Devils and the Colorado Avalanche (thanks, Steve!). It was a great game, and we had pretty decent seats in the corner where most of the goals were scored. Joe Sakik got creamed right in front of us, which was pretty cool even though I was rooting against New Jersey. One highlight of my experience was my picture up

The formula for expansion in professional sports.

2005-12-12T08:58:00.000-05:00

In a comment below, Nate reminisced about the Minnesota North Stars. It seems like that's the winning formula for expanding a professional sports league into a new city. It's pretty difficult to build a fanbase with an expansion team, one that may take a few years to even get a winning season. But take a good gelled team and move it, and you can have success in the new city. Then, you go back