News You Can Bruise for 2000 February 17

Thu Feb 17 2000 07:38: According to some bogus study or other, Linux has 4% of desktop market share compared to Mac OS' 5%. I can't wait for Linux to pull ahead, not because I hate the Mac OS (although I do), but so I can say "Ah yes, the non-desktop OS that's on more desktops than the Mac."

Thu Feb 17 2000 15:54: I asked Peter in our weekly write session how the world would be different today had the Library of Alexandria not been burned. Because of our write conventions and his lowercasosity, his answer looked a lot like a free-verse poem:

not too different;
the world was not ready for all that truth
by which i mean, all that enlightenment
the barbarians left little when they were finished
sacking rome;
europe was a dark place;
byzantium wasn't too much better, especially once the
muslims took over;
we got just about the right doses of antiquity into europe as it is;
but about the database you suggested;;

Thu Feb 17 2000 18:18: I forgot to mention that they tore down the Sherman Oaks Galleria, beloved of Moon Unit Zappa's character in Valley Girl and absolutely no one else.[0] This ended my tradition of singing the "Sher-man-Oaks-Gal-le-ri-a" line from Bull + Swamp = Cow whenever I was in a car that drove past it. I am now reduced to singing that line whenever I'm in a car that drives past where it used to be, confusing the heck out of the other people in the car, who see no Sherman Oaks Galleria in sight.

I remember the first reference I ever saw to TCP/IP. I was 14 or 15. It sounded really mysterious and scary.

[0] I've been in some bad malls in my time, but none as bad as the Sherman Oaks Galleria.