And now, a word from Doktor Sleepless.
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Google announces free public DNS servers.
It could be said that DNS is one of the services which underpins the Internet by translating hostnames (like drwho.virtadpt.net) into the IP addresses which are actually used under the hood (such as 66.93.100.253). Unless you remember the IP addresses of the sites you usually visit or you have them hardcoded on your system, if your local DNS isn't available there isn't a whole lot that you can do online. Scattered around the Net are publically available DNSes that you can configure your machine to use in the event that something goes wrong with your …
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There's cosplay, and then there's cosplay.
One of the big draws at Dragoncon every year are the costumes: all shapes, all sizes, all genres. You name it, chances are there are two of 'em wandering around, a third trying to cool off in the late summer heat, and one more camped out by the Cruxshadows' table waiting for an autograph. But sometimes, just sometimes, you see something that's downright amazing. Harrison Krix, the brains and hands behind Volpin Props, along with his fiancee' Emily amazed everyone at D*C this year with costumes from the videogame Bioshock - Emily went as one of the Little Sisters, and …
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A significant advance.
About two weeks ago, Lyssa's orthopedic surgeon sawed away her latest fibreglass composite cast to replace it with a walking cast, which is held on by a number of velcro straps, and thus removable. It also weighs much less than the composite ones that she'd been going through at a rate of one every two weeks (applied with increasingly acute angles at the ankle to gently stretch her surgically repaired achilles' tendon). It also simplifies bathing immensely in that the walking cast can be removed, which means that we don't have to tape garbage bags over her leg every morning …
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0000 EST5EDT, Black Friday '09.
Around midnight last night, Lyssa and I were on the road headed in the general direction of her parents' place in southern Pennsylvania. It's plain to see that there were no shortage of people who'd forsaken warmth and rest to invade the mall just outside of Carnegie, Pennsylvania the moment the stores opened for Black Friday '09. Witness:
The images are of rather low quality, which I apologize for. They were taken through the windscreen of the TARDIS late last night with the defogger running full blast. The highway running in the opposite direction was at an utter standstill with …
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Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
As the title of this post so subtly implies, today is Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
I don't actually have a whole lot to write about right now. Lyssa and I left the DC metroplex last evening and arrived at her parents' place around 2300 EST5EDT. We got a couple of hours of sleep, enough to recuperate after the drive home. Surprisingly, the drive didn't agree very well with her injured foot. I think it had to do with the lack of elevation for her foot combined with the low temperatures (it's finally starting to get cold around here). Also, the …Read more...
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Crackers leak climate research e-mail, possibly to manipulate public opinion.
The argument over whether or not the global climate is getting warmer or cooler due to the actions of humanity has been going fast and hard ever since someone claimed back in the 1960's that average temperatures were getting cooler...
Did I say 'cooler'? I meant 'warmer'. Back when I was in high school (in the first half of the 1990's) and into today the concern was over whether or not the globe was getting warmer, and if you haven't been paying attention to the television this has been a campaign point in the last few presidential elections.
If that …Read more...
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Edward Woodward, RIP.
It was announced on Monday that actor Edward Woodward died at home at the age of 79. Woodward is probably best known for his role as police sergeant Neil Howie in the movie The Wicker Man, though audiences in the United States are probably more familiar with the mid-80's television series The Equalizer, and in the late 1990's as Alwyn in an episode of Crusade alongside his son Peter. He was also a talented vocalist, and recorded a dozen solo albums throughout his lengthy and varied career. He is survived by his second wife Michele Dotrice and four children, Tim …
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An open letter to the ACLU.
Dear American Civil Liberties Union:
I understand that your programs are funded largely by donations from the public. While I won't discount what your hard work has done for everyone or my personal participation in several of same, you really need to stop being so pushy. Earlier this year you sent me a donation request that, upon cursory examination, looked for all the worlds to be an overdue bill notice strongly resembling my monthly automobile payment. In the past nine days one of your solicitors in the state of Texas (phone number 512-916-0420) has taken to calling me several times …Read more...
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A few from the media front.
Earlier today, Lyssa and I arranged to reserve a couple of tables just behind the dance floor at The State Theatre in Fairfax to have dinner and catch a double-header concert which we and the usual suspects been anxiously awaiting since October. Amanda Palmer returned to NOVA, performing with and backed by the Nervous Cabaret out of Brooklyn, New York. Lyssa and I arrived first, following a madcap search for parking which Lyssa could comfortably walk from and a few last-minute arrangements earlier today. A generous soul at the front of the line let Lyssa (who is still on crutches …
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