13. august 2003

K.I.S.S. Jakob Nielsen uses quite a few words to say: keep your message simple and short, and people will read it! I think both short messages and long essays have their place. I like to read, and I assume my readers like it, too. Sometimes I like to read one-liners. Other times I prefer book-length essays. I write as I like to read, if not as well. That said, Nielsen has a good point. People are used to thinking verbosity signifies authority. It doesn't. As my old math teacher used to say: brevity signifies mastery. 11:38:00 PM    comment []  trackback []

I am now officially Fair and Balanced ™ Yup, of course I jumped on the bandwagon, a collective blog bashing of Fox. 8:36:41 PM    comment []  trackback []

Google is god Google also has a built-in calculator. Type a simple math expression into the search field and it will calculate the result for you. Bah, it can't solve equations. PS: But try to search for gogool, and you'll see the calculator pop up. These google people have a great sense of humour. 7:42:01 PM    comment []  trackback []

Worm abound The MSBlast (W32/Lovsan.worm and W32.MSBlaster) worm is spreading all across the net right now, and it appears to be the real thing. It exploits a vulnerability in the Windows NT family (2K, XP)  Run WindowsUpdate regularly to avoid such problems.  Wonder if this explains the radio blog server being crappy and unresponsive today, too? PS: I just went into windowsupdate, and for the first time ever it gave me "server too busy." 4:26:44 PM    comment []  trackback []

— White House asks Van Impe about Middle East future If Bush is really letting superstitious belief in Bible prophecies affect US policy in the Middle East, as some have asserted, it is tragic and dangerous. I have not, however, seen anything in his actual decisions to indicate this is the case. However, fundie nut Jack Van Impe certainly wants his readers to believe he has government interest in his ridiculous interpretations of Biblical apocalyptics: I am not sure whether he [Bush] knows all of the prophecies and how deep of a student he has been in God's Word, but I was contacted a few weeks ago by the Office of Public Liaison for the White House and by the National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice to make an outline. And I’ve spent hours preparing it. I will release this information to the public in September, but it’s in his hands. He will know exactly what is going to happen in the Middle East and what part he will have under the leading of the Holy Spirit of God. So, it's a tremendous time to be alive. History has taught us that the only thing anyone can learn about the future from Bible-based prophecy nuts, is what is the least likely thing to happen. I certainly hope the US administration is not putting any emphasis whatsoever one the predictions of Bible-quack Van Impe. PS: Somebody send the URL for this page to the president instead. It lists hundreds of failed prophecies about the end of the world, many of which Bible-based. 2:46:43 AM    comment []  trackback []

Attempt to supply surface-to-air missile to terrorists in US foiled An established British arms dealer has been arrested in Newark in New Jersey after successfully smuggling a Russian-produced Igla (picture) surface-to-air missile into the US, and selling it to what he thought were terrorists wanting to use it to shoot down a large passenger plane. The "terrorist" buyer was really an FBI agent, and no real terrorists were involved in the operation, which was an operation showing unique cooperation between Britain, the US and Russia. It was the Russian FSB who first became aware of the British arms dealer's plan to supply these weapons to terrorists. Such weapons in the hands of terrorists located in western countries is one of the biggest if most obvious threats of mass murder we face. Well done by the intelligence agencies to pick up and thwart the plans. And a reminder that we should perhaps take the cost associated with equipping commercial planes with missile defence. 1:25:41 AM    comment []  trackback []

So that's how they do it For a great laugh, find a short paragraph of normal text (like, from this blog) and paste it into the box on The English-to-12-Year-Old-AOLer Translator. The below blog entry was garbled into the following, which matches pretty well what we frequently see on quite a few message boards: AREBUS AND HON3YWEL AND WORKNG ON A TECHNOLOGY TAHT ALOWS PLAEN AU2PILOTS 2 OVERIED DA PILOT OR RATHER A HIJAKER 2 AVOID FLYNG IN2 OBSTACLES OR CRASHNG IN2 DA GROUND!!!!1 OMG WTF LOL DA SYST3MS HAEV BAN TESTED ON SMALAR ARECRAFT WIT PROMISNG RESULTS11!!!1! LOL Sorry for all caps in blog, but it's part of the style or lack thereof. 1:01:52 AM    comment []  trackback []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.09.2003; 14:08:49.