Physics Geek

The end is upon us

This article linked by the Puppy Blender is wrong on so many levels that I cannot actually believe someone was stupid enough to put it in print:

“Research published in Personal Relationships found that when a father spent a lot of solo time with his child and the mom perceived him to be a competent caregiver, the woman had a lower self-competence rating.”

Translation: If you're a good father to your children and like to spend time with your kids, and the mother notices both of those things, the mother then feels worse about herself.

Seriously? This is research? This sounds like something that person suffering from a psychotic break would write. If mothers actually have their self worth reduced because the fathers of their children happen to be good parents, then there is a sickness in society in general and women in particular that nothing short of a world-killing asteroid can fix.

Personally, I don't believe it. It defies all logic, common sense and empirical evidence. Instead, I believe that the "researchers" worked backwards from a conclusion that they desired, one which doesn't look on fathers as anything more than sources of money for the mothers and children.

Jeff Goldstein in a nutshell

I give you this from Protein Wisdom:

I really can’t tell you much about where I am exactly, because I was pretty fucked up when I got here, and I kinda kept passing out during orientation. If I had to guess, though, I’d say I’m in Heaven. Because already I was able to score several ounces of crystalized Methylenedioxymethamphetamine, and I didn’t even have to blow Carrot Top under the table at Nate ‘n Al’s to do it.

I think I’m going to like Heaven.

Oh wait a minute. What I really meant to link to was this. Excerpt:

And if it passes — and then somehow withstands the legal challenges — it’s game over for this American experiment.

And that’s not hyperbole. What we’ve been witnessing is a kind of ideological coup — decades in the making — that will culminate in a takeover of a vast portion of the US economy. This takeover will lead to a proliferation of government unionized labor, which in turn will lead to a perpetual progressive majority wherein Democrats will be able to redistribute wealth in exchange for votes, essentially trading money for power in the form of legalized theft and bribery.

That’s why a short-term defeat in mid-term elections doesn’t much bother the leftwing ideologues driving this “reform” debacle (to the point where we are all of us now daily counting votes for what we all know to be a cowardly and unconstitutional procedural gambit); because in the long term, the left has set itself up for a checkmate: as the economy moves more and more toward government-run jobs, competition will die out, and the left will have a stranglehold on the means of production. They will control you — in exchange for the promises of cradle-to-grave “protections.”

Go for the dick and fart jokes and stay for the thoughtful analysis.

Oh, who am I kidding? I'm ALWAYS into fart and dick jokes.

Great news

So Mr. and Mrs. IMAO are expecting. Totally awesome. Nuke the Moon: the Next Generation.

Anyhoo, stop by and wish Sarah K. your best wishes. Also, stop by and tell Frank to start banking some extra sleep.

Update: I should have guessed that the dad-to-be would have stolen my Star Trek joke already.

Time for a list

Okay, this is a repost from years ago in response to a link at Michele's old site, but I was curious as to how people would respond today.
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"Chick flicks" movies that I, a guy, love:

Children of a Lesser God(shut up)
When Harry Met Sally
Sleepless In Seattle
An Officer and A Gentleman
Steel Magnolias
Four Weddings and a Funeral
The Princess Bride(I'm not convinced that this is actually a chick flick since I've read the book, but stay with me here)
The Truth About Cats and Dogs

"Guy" movies that I, a guy, do not like:

Rambo
Rocky V
Rush Hour
Platoon
Fight Club
Fandango

Movies that I, as a hardened, cynical, unfeeling, soulless person tend to break down in tears while watching:

The Green Mile
Schindler's List
Dead Poets Society
Terms of Endearment
Forrest Gump
Brian's Song(original version, not the abortive remake)
It's a Wonderful Life
E.T.
One Flew Over a Cuckoo's Nest

Anyone else willing to share their lists?

Quote of the day

And it's from Iowahawk, of course:

"If we Democrats have any hopes to survive past November, I say we ditch this brain-damaged bitch and replace her with someone who isn't radioactive political poison outside the Castro district -- say, for example, highly respected House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer," said a Capitol Hill legislative insider from Maryland.

"The Speaker may not realize it, but some of us actually have to campaign for re-election," said the source. "Unlike Nancy, we didn't win the jackpot and get a safe district full of 1960s acid casualties, gay Marxist academics, government union goons, and guilt-ridden software billionaires."

He needs to be syndicated. Last week.

Water is wet

And Lindsay Graham and John McCain are still self-aggrandizing idiots. Everyone knew-everyone- that the only reason that the Democrats agreed to this was because they were in the minority at the time, and that there was no possible way that they'd agree to it when they became the majority party again. Everyone, that is, except for McCain and Graham.

Honestly guys, you were dupes, fools, rubes. They rode you hard and put you away wet. You didn't get $20 on the nightstand even. In other words, you fucked up: you trusted them. Why, I don't know. Oh wait a minute, I do: you're stupid. And despite the pain that your idiocy has cost this country, I can still take some small solace at the look of dawning realization on your faces as you -finally- realize that you've been had.

A good chain email (repost)

Anyone that knows me personally can attest to the fact that I hate chain emails. My family and friends know better than to send such drivel. Should I actually receive any such garbage, I do the following: if the email is funny, interesting, or just plain twisted, I gladly forward it to people(blind copied, of course), removing all of the "please forward to 10 people so that blah blah blah". Most times I just delete it. However, I finally received one that's worthy of publishing. It's rude, crude and socially unacceptable, just like me. If you're easily offended, skip the rest of this post and go over to a kinder, gentler site like the Emperor's.

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Please read this before you delete this... if you're tired of internet chain letters, you'll get a kick out of this!

FINALLY A CHAIN LETTER THAT I LIKE! :)

Hello, my name is Basmati Kasaar. I am suffering from rare and deadly diseases, poor scores on final exams, extreme virginity, fear of being kidnapped and executed by anal electrocution, and guilt for not Forwarding out 50 billion fucking chain letters sent to me by people who actually believe that if you send them on, then that poor 6 year old girl in Arkansas with a breast on her forehead will be able to raise enough money to have it removed before her redneck parents sell her off to the traveling freak show. Do you honestly believe that Bill Gates is going to give you and everyone you send "his" email to $1000? How stupid are you? Ooooh, looky here! If I scroll down this page and make a wish, I'll get laid by every Playboy model in the magazine! What a bunch of bullshit. So basically, this message is a big FUCK YOU to all the people out there who have nothing better to do than to send me stupid chain mail forwards. Maybe the evil chain letter leprechauns will come into my apartment and sodomize me in my sleep for not continuing the chain which was started by Jesus in 5 A.D. and was brought to this country by midget pilgrims on the Mayflower and if it makes it to the year 2010, it'll be in the Guinness Book of World Records for longest continuous streak of blatant stupidity.

Fuck them.

If you're going to forward something, at least send me something mildly amusing. I've seen all the "send this to 50 of your closest friends, and this poor, wretched excuse for a human being will somehow receive a Nickel from some omniscient being" forwards about 90 times. I don't fucking care.

Show a little intelligence and think about what you're actually contributing to by sending out forwards. Chances are it's your own unpopularity.

THE FOUR BASIC TYPES OF CHAIN LETTERS:

Chain Letter Type 1:

(scroll down)

Make a wish!!!

No, really, go on and make one!!!

Oh please, they'll never go out with you!!!

Wish something else!!!

Not that, you pervert!!

Is your finger getting tired yet?

STOP!!!!

Wasn't that fun? :)

Hope you made a great wish :)

Now, to make you feel guilty, here's what I'll do. First of all, if you don't send this to 5096 people in the next 5 seconds, you will be raped by a mad goat and thrown off a high building into a pile of manure. It's true! Because, THIS letter isn't like those fake ones, THIS one is TRUE!!

Really!!! Here's how it goes:

*Send this to 1 person: One person will be pissed off at you for sending them a stupid chain letter.

*Send this to 2-5 people: 2-5 people will be pissed off at you for sending them a stupid chain letter.

*Send this to 5-10 people: 5-10 people will be pissed off at you for sending them a stupid chain letter, and may form a plot on your life.

*Send this to 10-20 people: 10-20 people will be pissed off at you for sending them a stupid chain letter and will napalm your house.

Thanks!!!! Good Luck!!!
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Chain Letter Type 2

Hello, and thank you for reading this letter. You see, there is a starving little boy in Baklaliviatatlaglooshen who has no arms, no legs, no parents, and no goats. This little boy's life could be saved, because for every time you pass this on, a dollar will be donated to the Little Starving Legless Armless Goatless Boy from Baklaliviatatlaglooshen Fund.

Oh, and remember, we have absolutely no way of counting the emails sent and
this is all a complete load of bullshit. So go on, reach out. Send this to 5 people in the next 47 seconds. Oh, and a reminder - if you accidentally send this to 4 or 6 people, you will die instantly.

Thanks again!!
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Chain Letter Type 3

Hi there!! This chain letter has been in existence since 1897. This is absolutely incredible because there was no email then and probably not as many sad pricks with nothing better to do.

So this is how it works:

Pass this on to 15,067 people in the next 7 minutes or something horrible will happen to you like:

*Bizarre Horror Story #1

Miranda Pinsley was walking home from school on Saturday. She had recently
received this letter and ignored it. She then tripped in a crack in the sidewalk, fell into the sewer, was gushed down a drainpipe in a flood of poopie, and went flying out over a waterfall. Not only did she smell nasty, she died. This Could Happen To You!!!

*Bizarre Horror Story #2

Dexter Bip, a 13 year old boy, got a chain letter in his mail and ignored it. Later that day, he was hit by a car and so was his boyfriend (hey, some people swing that way). They both died and went to hell and were cursed to eat adorable kittens every day for eternity. This Could Happen To You Too!!! Remember, you could end up just like Pinsley and Bip. Just send this letter to all of your loser friends, and everything will be okay.
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Chain Letter Type 4

As if you care, here is a poem that I wrote. Send it to every one of your friends.

FRIENDS

A friend is someone who is always at your side, A friend is someone who likes you even though you stink of shit, and your breath smells like you've been eating catfood, A friend is someone who likes you even though you're as ugly as a hat full of assholes, A friend is someone who cleans up for you after you've soiled yourself, A friend is someone who stays with you all night while you cry about your sad, sad life, A friend is someone who pretends they like you when they really think you should be raped by mad goats, then thrown to vicious dogs, A friend is someone who scrubs your toilet, vacuums and then gets the check and leaves and doesn't speak much English...

* no, sorry that's the cleaning lady,

A friend is not someone who sends you chain letters because he wants his wish of being rich to come true.

Now pass this on! If you don't, you'll never have sex ever again.
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The point being?

If you get some chain letter that's threatening to leave you shagless or luckless for the rest of your life, delete it. If it's funny, send it on. Don't piss people off by making them feel guilty about a leper in Botswana with no teeth, who's been tied to a dead elephant for 27 years, whose only savior is the 5 cents per letter he'll receive if you forward this mail, otherwise you'll end up like Miranda.

Right?

Now forward this to everyone that you know otherwise you'll find all your knickers missing tomorrow morning.

What he said

I saw Steve Forbes speak at the Richmond Forum this past weekend. Excellent stuff, unless you're a socialist money grabber. Anyway, his article here hits on many of the same points that his speech did, probably because he's been hammering those points for a long time. Sadly, not enough people in government bother to listen.

Quote of the day

From the resurrected Goldberg File:

Or take John Edwards. I've written some very harsh things about John Edwards over the years because I, like countless other conservatives, could tell that he is what social scientists call "full of sh*t" and an awful person. I once wrote something to the effect of: "No serious person I know thinks Edward would have ever gotten into politics if he'd been burnt by acid as a teenager." I remember some idjit left-wing blogs went beserk about what an idiot I was. Not only did they not get the joke, they insisted that John Edwards is the most sincere, caring, decent, honest, wonderful, shiny-happy-neato-peachy-keen, pretty person this side of a Teen Beat centerfold (I'm quoting from memory). Now, it's clear that John Edwards is to decent politics what crack whores are to nunnery.

You want The New Goldberg File? Go sign up, as it's email only distribution now.

Update: From a later Goldberg File comes this gem: implantable permanent bras. Really.

They would do this to my children once

Once.

Reading stories like this reminds me of that scene in Finding Nemo where the pelican is flapping around in the dentist's office and he exclaims, "The world's gone MAD!"

Just to clarify:

1) Offered drug
2) Declined and handed pill back
3) Suspended because hand touched the pill and therefore constitutes possession

I feel like possessing some officious little asshat's testicles in a pair of vice grips. And if this was MY kid, I'd be cranking those grips hard.

Quote of the day

From the fertile mind and keyboard of Jerry Pournelle:

There are people in this world who want to control others. They tend to become public employees.

I don't really have anything to add to that statement.

I can't quite figure out what he's saying here

Dan Riehl is trying to make a point but I'll be darned if I can tell what it is. Excerpt:

This neophyte, this joke we have in the White House has absolutely no idea of the force and the rage he is about to unleash on him and his entire political party. If there are not enough responsible adults left within his party to rein in this accidental, affirmative action jerk, this self-styled, extremely flawed little man, then his party is worthless to America. It deserves to be marginalized electorally and, ultimately, utterly destroyed, before being relegated to the dung heap of history with the rest of the marxist, socialist clowns Americans have dispatched before.

Sigh. I wish he'd stop beating around the bush and get to point, which is by the way, what?

The Amendment that the left would prefer not exist

Because guns are just so icky. Anyway, check out this post over at Big Government and keep the following picture in mind:

So no one else with a screechy, whiny voice was available?

I enjoyed the Olympic closing ceremonies right up until Canada decided to inflict Neil Young on the world. Again. Anyway, he wasn't too bad this time due to my muting the TV while Neil was "singing". I did manage to find a copy of the song that he meant to sing on Sunday. He must have used his second choice instead. In any event, here are the lyrics to Northern Man:

Northern man better wear your tuke Celine Dion makes us want to puke Northern games had to end at last Now our pucks were sliding fast Northern man

I saw curling
and I saw ice
old Vancouver
was kind of nice.
Northern man
was it
worth the price?
I saw skiin'
and pucks asliding'
Third place? Third place?

Northern man
better wear your tuke
Celine Dion
makes us want to puke
Northern games
had to end at last
Now our pucks
were sliding fast
Northern man

Li'l Crosby,
your hair is golden brown
I've seen your wrist shot
swingin' round
You won the game
and didn't let us down!
I saw skiin'
and pucks asliding'
Third place? Third place?

Another Windows security hole

You know what a bug is? When your PC screen changes colors, or a program hangs/crashes. You what a security hole in MS Windows is? Predictable.

Quick takeaway: if a website asks you to press the F1 key, DON'T.

Oh, and Microsoft? Can your next bug be that the wallpaper shows pictures of porn on the desktop? Because these "might allow someone to hijack your PC via IE" bugs are starting to piss me off. Kthnxbai.

Rrequired reading

Orson Scott Card takes on the education establishment. Excerpt:

As long as a single child grows up to vote Republican, these educators feel that they have failed.

So, here in the great state of North Carolina, they have come up with the perfect solution: Secede from the United States of America, and teach only the history of Politically Correct America.

The way they plan to do this is to stop teaching our 11th-graders any American history prior to 1877. This is not a joke. This is a real proposal from our state Department of Public Instruction.

Let's see ... what does that leave out?

The colonizing of America. The Revolutionary War. George Washington and the creation of a republic that doesn't lead to "presidents-for-life."

The ideas and compromises leading up to the Constitution.

Alexander Hamilton and the creation of our economic system.

The Monroe Doctrine, Andrew Jackson's populism, Manifest Destiny, the Mexican War and the nation's growth to the west coast.

The political struggles over slavery leading up to the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln and the freeing of the slaves. The Reconstruction of the South, with the Republican Party forcing the South to accept black voters and office holders.

Yeah, that's all they're cutting out.

Quote of the day

He may enjoy a Rottweiler smoothy on occasion, but Glenn Reynolds does know how to turn a phrase:

To me, people’s reactions to Palin — particularly the extreme hatred she’s inspired in the left — are more interesting than Palin herself. She may, someday, be ready to be President, but she isn’t now. Heck, she’s barely more ready than Barack Obama was when he was elected. . . .

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go dry off my keyboard.

This country is in the best of hands

From the Puppy Blender:

HOMELAND SECURITY AT WORK: Homeland Security reports losing guns. “The nation’s Homeland Security officers lost nearly 200 guns in bowling alleys, public restrooms, unlocked cars and other unsecure areas, with some ending up in the hands of felons.”

If I leave my entry badge on my seat to get a glass of water, I can get written up for a breach of security. What do these jackasses get? Probably a raise and promotion.

Backing up your data: the computer owner's prime directive

Actually, not pouring Coke into the vent, or not using your CD/DVD drive as a cup holder, might rank higher, but not by much.

Anyway. I assume that you're backing up your My Documents folder and all of its subfolders on a regular basis. If not, please move along and continue driving while blindfolded. Just don't be surprise at the unexpected deceleration certain to occur. However, even if you are anal about backing up your data, restoring a hard drive to the state you like it best can take a while: reinstalling programs; changing system settings and wallpapers; and recreating your email contact list and browser favorites. These things all take time. There are ways around this problem, though, and some of them are free. These methods involve creating an exact image of your hard drive and then installing that image either onto your existing hard drive or, in case of a crash, onto a new one. Boot up and everything looks exactly the same, with all of your programs and settings intact. The only thing missing would be any files or programs added/updated since you last imaged your hard drive.

Now, how do you go about this? Well, I have strong affection for Norton's Ghost, even though it costs money. It not only creates perfect images, it does so quickly. However, Ghost is commercial and some might see that as a negative. Not me, though. It works so well that I find the investment completely worthwhile. Let me state for the record that I'm somewhat less positive on the newer versions of Ghost. They're prettier and the GUIs look fabulous, but I don't find them as easy to use as previous versions. This is why I still run a copy of Ghost v.11. It's an older DOS-based program and it requires you to use some care when installing the image onto a hard drive: if you screw up, you cannot recover.  But it works extremely well and I'm pretty careful with my data. If you are too, then by all means use Ghost.

Let's suppose though that you really don't want to spend any money, but you really like the idea of creating a perfect image of your hard drive. In that case, I recommend Clonezilla. It's Open Source and therefore free, although they do accept donations and you might think about tossing some change in to thank the developers. Up to you, of course.

What is Clonezilla? Well, I'll let the website give you the skinny:

Clonezilla, based on DRBL, Partition Image, ntfsclone, partclone, and udpcast, allows you to do bare metal backup and recovery. Two types of Clonezilla are available, Clonezilla live and Clonezilla SE (server edition). Clonezilla live is suitable for single machine backup and restore. While Clonezilla SE is for massive deployment, it can clone many (40 plus!) computers simultaneously. Clonezilla saves and restores only used blocks in the harddisk. This increases the clone efficiency. At the NCHC's Classroom C, Clonezilla SE was used to clone 41 computers simultaneously. It took only about 10 minutes to clone a 5.6 GBytes system image to all 41 computers via multicasting!

Features of Clonezilla

• Free (GPL) Software.
• Filesystem supported: ext2, ext3, ext4, reiserfs, xfs, jfs of GNU/Linux, FAT, NTFS of MS Windows, and HFS+ of Mac OS. Therefore you can clone GNU/Linux, MS windows and Intel-based Mac OS, no matter it's 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x86-64) OS. For these file systems, only used blocks in partition are saved and restored. For unsupported file system, sector-to-sector copy is done by dd in Clonezilla.
• LVM2 (LVM version 1 is not) under GNU/Linux is supported.
• Multicast is supported in Clonezilla SE, which is suitable for massively clone. You can also remotely use it to save or restore a bunch of computers if PXE and Wake-on-LAN are supported in your clients.
• Based on Partimage, ntfsclone, partclone, and dd to clone partition. However, clonezilla, containing some other programs, can save and restore not only partitions, but also a whole disk.
• By using another free software drbl-winroll, which is also developed by us, the hostname, group, and SID of cloned MS windows machine can be automatically changed.

Limitations

• The destination partition must be equal or larger than the source one.
• Differential/incremental backup is not implemented yet.
• Online imaging/cloning is not implemented yet. The partition to be imaged or cloned has to be unmounted.
• Software RAID/fake RAID is not supported by default. It's can be done manually only.

For most of you, I recommend Clonezilla Live. You can boot from an optical drive or a thumb drive and back up your Windows, Mac or Linux hard drive. Be sure to read all of the documentation before you start. Since Clonezilla is a Linux-based system, the way that drives are named may not be familiar to you. In fact, you might want to print out all of the steps to back up AND restore and image before you begin.  What I'd really like to suggest is for you to test this on a system that you don't use that much, or have outgrown and upgraded. That way, if you screw up, you're still fine. However, that may not be feasible for most people, so I will only suggest -strongly- that you use this software wisely. That way, if your system should choose to crap itself in the future, you're only a few hours away from being up and running again.

One final note: Be sure to create new images on a semi-regular basis, especially if you install lots of new hardware and/or software. Otherwise, you'll spend a lot of time post-restore installing new drivers and updating program settings. Not that that has every happened to me, of course. ::cough-cough:: Also, if you can swing it, alternate the place where you store your images, such as two separate external hard drives. That way, if one dies, you're no more than one image away from the present.

Happy computing.

Update: Based on a comment from VW Bug, I've decided to update this post with backup, rather than mirroring, software. You want scheduled backups? You want incremental backups (only what's changed)? Then I've got some software for you.

First up is SyncBack Freeware V3.2.20.0. Scroll down to the freeware utilities at the 2BrightSparks download page to get it. Be sure to grab the PDF help file while you're at it. I recommend creating 3 folders named Daily, Weekly and Monthly on your external repository and use them accordingly. Read the documentation (caution: PDF) to get more info.

EZBack-it-up looks pretty good, but it hasn't been updated since November 2004. No file compression, just straight data copy. This looks to be a decent choice, but I haven't played with it enough to give it my seal of approval.

Cobian Backup is:

The Cobian Backup software is an advanced utility that can even schedule backup times and backup to other drives in the same computer or to another computer through network connections and even through the FTP. What is interesting about this software is that there are two different versions of it; there is an application version and a service version. It is quite a lightweight program that runs in the background and keeps up with the schedule that you gave it. It will periodically copy your files in an original or a compressed mode with numerous compression types in a secure and encrypted format.

What is ICE Mirror? This:

This utility creates or maintains an exact duplicate of the original directory. ICE Mirror will compare the mirrored directory to the master directory and correct any disparities. ICE Mirror allows ultra fast mirroring because it performs incremental updates. In other words it only copies files that have changed. If only a few files have been updated, it performs very fast.

Also ICE Mirror allows making differential updates. The differential updates are very useful if you are use read-only media (CD-R, DVD-R, DVD+R, etc.). There are two steps in differential updates:

1. Comparison the master directory and the mirrored directory.
2. Copying all new files from the master directory to the secondary mirrored directory.

In other words it only copies files that have changed in the mirrored directory to the secondary mirrored directory.

Well, there are more, but these should get you started. Remember that the time to think about backing up your data is before you say the words, "Oh shit!" Consider yourself warned.

Priceless

Received via email:

INNOCENCE IS PRICELESS

One Sunday morning, the pastor noticed little Alex standing in the foyer of the church staring up at a large plaque. It was covered with names and small American flags mounted on either side of it. The six-year old had been staring at the plaque for some time, so the pastor walked up, stood beside the little boy, and said quietly, 'Good morning Alex.' 'Good morning Pastor,' he replied, still focused on the plaque. 'Pastor, what is this? ' The pastor said, 'Well son, it's a memorial to all the young men and women who died in the service.'

Soberly, they just stood together, staring at the large plaque. Finally, little Alex's voice, barely audible and trembling with fear asked,

'Which service, the 8:45 or the 11:00?'

Economics made simple

Misha types slowly and uses small words to illustrate his point.

Sad news

James Joyner's father passed away this weekend. James typed a remembrance in his usual thoughtful style. Drop by and offer your condolences if you're so inclined.

Funny, but painful

Received via email:

A group of 40 years old buddies discuss and discuss where they should meet for dinner.

Finally it is agreed upon that they should meet at the Gausthof zum Lowen restaurant because the waitress's there have low cut blouses and nice breasts.

10 years later, at 50 years of age, the group meets again and once again they discuss and discuss where they should meet. Finally it is agreed that they should meet at the Gausthof zum Lowen because the food there is very good and the wine selection is good also.

10 years later at 60 years of age, the group meets again and once again they discuss and discuss where they should meet. Finally it is agreed that they should meet at the Gausthof zum Lowen because they can eat there in peace and quiet and the restaurant is smoke free.

10 years later, at 70 years of age, the group meets again and once again they discuss and discuss where they should meet. Finally it is agreed that they should meet at the Gausthof zum Lowen because the restaurant is wheel chair accessible and they even have an elevator.

10 years later, at 80 years of age, the group meets again and once again they discuss and discuss where they should meet. Finally it is agreed that they should meet at the Gausthof zum Lowen because that would be a great idea because they have never been there before.

No mention of Depends. I'm sure that it's just an oversight.

Joke of the day

Pulled out of some old emails at home:

This guy walks into a quiet bar. He is carrying three ducks. One in each hand and one under his left arm. He places them on the bar. He has a few drinks and chats with the bartender. The bartender is experienced and has learned not to ask people about the animals that they bring into the bar, so he doesn't mention the ducks. They chat for about 30 minutes before the bloke with the ducks has to go to the rest room. The ducks are left on the Bar. The bartender is alone with the ducks. There is an awkward silence.

The bartender decides to try to make some conversation.

"What's your name?" He says to the first duck. "Huey" said the duck.

"How's your day been?"

"Great. Lovely day. Had a ball. Been in and out of puddles all day." "Oh. That's nice," says the Bartender.

Then he says to the second duck, "Hi. And what's your name?"

"Dewey" came the answer.

"So how's your day been?"

"Great. Lovely day. Had a ball. Been in and out of puddles all day. If I had the chance another day I would do the same again."

So the Bartender turns to the third duck and says, "So, you must be Louie"

"No", growls the 3rd duck, "My name is Puddles. And don't ask about my fucking day!"

Geeky fun

Do you play Wizard101, but wish you didn't have to play it in Windows? Well, some bright person figured out how to install/play it using Wine in Ubuntu.