Test.
I'm back in the saddle, though I'm technically cheating since the
index file you see here is a PHP file and not an .shtml file.
Tonight I attend a dinner party. Whee!
Tonight I attend a dinner party. Whee!
While undergoing the dentistry I thought of an anecdote told me by Prof. Hsu, with whom I had two philosophy classes at UCLA. The subject was sense-impressions and incorrigibility, and Hsu talked about how once, while under the drill, he had complained of pain. His dentist had denied that he [Hsu] could possibly be in any pain; his brain (said the dentist) was just translating the vibrations of the drill into pain.
Oh: my tooth had roots of 27 millimeters in length, which is apparently so long that the normal dentistry equipment can't handle it. I feel strangely proud about this; I've always known that my teeth were mutants (I had three upper right front teeth), and this is another example.
THE TERRORISTS MAY HAVE ALREADY WON!
I joined Suncoast's laughably-named 'Replay Club' about a year ago when I bought a bunch of MST3K videotapes from them. I was spending enough in that one transaction that it was a net gain for me to pay my way into their club and take advantage of the discount you got from club membership. Every so often thereafter I recieved a lavishly produced magazine/promotional rag from them which I would promptly throw away. You hear about targeted marketing, and then you actually give a company a chance to learn all sorts of detailed information about your viewing preferences, and instead of the MST3K Martial Arts Godzilla Stomp Newsletter you get damn Saving Private Ryan in the mail every month.
The discount you get from club membership comes out to 5%, but it's not 5% at the register. Instead, you accumulate points. One point is worth one cent, and every time you accumulate 10,000 points (having spent $100) you recieve $5 in funny money in the mail. It's the same racket as gift certificates; they're banking that you won't redeem the funny money and that if you do, you'll buy other stuff on top of the value of the funny money.
This knowledge bore heavily upon me. If I didn't redeem my $15 in funny money for a video costing $15, Suncoast would effectively have $15 of my money. What's more, the terrorists would have won. Powerful as these incentives were, I had to steel myself to set foot in Suncoast, because shopping there (or at Sam Goody or any other store owned by the same company) is a huge pain. The cashiers are under directions to, before ringing up your purchase, subject you to a seemingly never-ending sales pitch. It's like willingly walking into a telemarketing call. Now that my Replay account has expired, two more steps have been added to the sales pitch, so it's a good thing I no longer have any reason to go there.
At great personal risk, I have reverse-engineered the sales pitch and present it below. This does not include all the "Are you sure? [Y/N]" steps.
The weird thing is, the guy in line in front of me actually responded positively to some aspects of the pitch! I guess I shouldn't be surprised, because Suncoast would discontinue the pitch if it didn't occasionally bear fruit, but it was odd to see someone who actually wanted to see the list of new and upcoming releases.
Though my membership is expired, Suncoast is still sending me the Saving Private Ryan Monthly advertising supplements. Said supplements now have cover covers begging me to renew my membership and continue the cycle of dependency. I'm sort of interested as to how long they can keep this up. The marginal cost of sending out one more supplement is nil, but it's not inconceivable that at some point pure shame will get them to give up rather than try to coax a renewal of a membership that lapsed 10 years ago.
I feel as though I should explain here that Kris and I have been friends since college; we didn't meet randomly over the net and decide to do a site together. Don't believe me? See for yourself.
With the new version, administrators now have finer control over granting specific permissions to users and developers, along with the ability to create customized roles to address other individual developers on a joint project.
Those in charge of a project can expose developers to specific levels of functionality within a given project, which company officials believe contribute to the environment's overall ease of use, company officials said.
Earlier there's a funny paragraph that ends not "company officials said" but "officials said", making it look like the FBI is involved. If we don't decrease time to market, the terrorists will have won!
That was the first thing I thought when I saw Ashcroft and Ridge, that they look like two halves of the cigarette-smoking man.
Oh, and don't try to send these [constructor and destructor] messages to the class Class; creating and destroying classes is called "programming", and it's far too late when the game is already being played.
--Inform Designers Manual, Volume 4
This is funny, but it also makes me want to demand that this functionality work just so I can try some sort of weird metaprogramming thing in a work of IF.
I just realized that one of the reasons I like IF is that it lets me make jokes in the form of software.
[MPlayer lead developer Arpad] Gereoffy and the other developers have more attitude than the law allows. At least the law in this county, and I'm the sheriff.
The distinction is very slight. Chex is a cartoon character, and somehow, even though he looks much the same, Lyle is a normal person. The major defining factor is Chex's absence of a (visible) nose. The distinction is better drawn through their behavior/knowledge, where Chex has a much more intuitive grasp that this is a comic strip, whereas Lyle generally doesn't concern himself with it and rather operates within its confines.
This isn't really going anywhere; I just wanted to point that out.
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Mon Dec 24 2001 22:22 It must be post-something, because it sucks:
Among our many holiday traditions is the tradition of Susanna and Rachel of claiming that we have a tradition of allowing Susanna and Rachel to open one of their presents on Christmas Eve. My mother always says no. It's traditions like these which make the holidays special. How could it be otherwise?
Monday, December 24, 2001It must be post-something, because it sucks 12/24/01; 10:22:19 PM
I'm in Bakersfield and having fun. Yesterday I went down to LA and saw the old gang (the old gang may contain any or all of Adam, Kris, Kurtis, Kim, and Melissa (not technically a member of the old gang since I'd never met her before)) again. Hail, hail, the gang was all there. Sumana came with and we had a great time. Tomorrow is Christmas and I look forward to the usual madness.
Among our many holiday traditions is the tradition of Susanna and Rachel of claiming that we have a tradition of allowing Susanna and Rachel to open one of their presents on Christmas Eve. My mother always says no. It's traditions like these which make the holidays special. How could it be otherwise?
I got lots of great presents, which I will elucidate when I am less tired and less sick. Also, great pictures in a bit.