the ridey.net weblog

He's heeeere!

Dubya has arrived in Blighty. George, old buddy, you can run, but you can't hide.

So long, Norton

"Clad in his trademark T-shirt, open vest and beat-up felt hat with upturned brim — a hat Carney paid $5 for in 1935 while still in high school — he became one of the most enduring second-bananas in TV history." The LA Times remembers Art Carney

Quote of the Day

"This is another in a long line in historic events in Tempe, going all the back to Pope John Paul II's visit to the Super Bowl," proclaimed Neil Giuliano, mayor of Tempe, Arizona, in announcing that a presidential debate would take place there next year. Hmmm, the Pope went to the Super Bowl? I think I must have missed the game that year. Or maybe he came out during the half-time show. I never watch that.

Bonfire Night

It's Bonfire Night here in England, and outside it sounds like Baghdad on a good night. Fireworks are completely legal here, and you can buy them literally everywhere, from the local supermarket to the corner shop. And I don't mean sparklers and small firecrackers. You can get some serious ordnance. But now the government is planning, finally, on regulating fireworks, sort of.

I love fireworks, spent many summers of my youth dodging the Grayslake Police and setting off homemade fireworks that the IRA would have been proud to have owned. But even I have to admit that the situation here is totally insane. Guess I'm just getting old.

WiFi'd Up Again

It only took them a month, but Apple finally managed to get me a replacement for a faulty power adapter for the Airport Extreme Base Station. Plug it in, lights blink, and we're wireless again. Didn't even have to do any reconfiguring (well, not much anyway).

Northern Lights, Down South

The recent solar storm activity has resulted in some spectacular light shows visible as far south as Florida. Nasa has been collecting photos of the aurora from around the world for the benefit of those of us who live in places where it is usually overcast. We'll be out there looking north if and when we get a clear night.

I will never forget seeing the Northern Lights while on a canoe trip in the Quetico. We paddled all night one night just to watch them. I'd give anything to see them again.

A Hidden Message in Spam?

Here's a strange one. When I launched the Unix terminal application this evening it told me I had mail. So I checked it and there was a single email in the inbox. When I read it I found this curious string of words included in the email's html coding:

chlorine libertarian sheaf articulatory eastwood =
manslaughter
dodecahedron convolve conservatism downright suffragette =
give
penicillin toni oblivion rubicund profit =
dugan
math mot mutt riddle alternate =
inure
legging profligate appointe epicycle blackbird =
soluble
rousseau kipling difficulty johann indestructible =
derate
baxter gogo coulomb ignominious bryce =
allegiant
formate ewing precipitable hydrothermal port =
bop
notwithstanding integrity bostonian conductor obscene =
axiomatic

So I launched mail.app and read it in the usual way and discovered that it was yet another piece of spam trying to sell me Viagra and other various pills. It looked like this:




So I have to ask you, Mariano Benavides (marianobenavides@dietreminder), what does it all mean?

Great news, Sox fans!

The Big Hurt and the Cy Young winner (if there is any justice) will be back on the South Side next year! Now all the Sox need is a manager. My money is still on the Hawk!