My Programz are _The Popular_

I'm taking this "E-Commerce/eBidness/iWasteTime" class, since it's the only 400-level MIS class being offered this Fall. The class is taught using ASP.NET 2.0: I've never programmed in it before, but I've done web programming in PHP, Perl, and ColdFusion, and I've done development in Visual Basic (ASP.NET lets you write the actual code in either VB or C#).

Same difference.

Mason is not all that Microsoft technology friendly, so our professor made us get ASP.NET hosting accounts to publish our homework to. He recommended this site called Somee, which is free.

I setup my account a few weeks ago and published my homework there. The first assignment is due tonight, and this afternoon I got this email:

Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2007 12:50:50 -0500
From: Support@somee.com
Subject: Your web site has been deleted!

Your site was deleted by our automated verification system. Reason: CPU overuse.

Somee International
http://somee.com

><

Somehow I doubt that my ASP.NET-based wage calculator was the top item on Digg today.

Tori Amos Improvises her Opinions on Celebrities

During the celebrity DUI binge of 2007, Tori Amos improvised a song at one of her concerts called "I'm Not Stupid":

Just a little chat
I need to have
When I was 21 do you think I had a bag of cocaine
in my car?

If I did - if I did
You’d never know it because it would have been hidden
I’m not stupid.
But why are so many 21-year old millionaires so stupid?
Stupid and cute.
But stupid - I don’t know

Let’s just say
When I was 26 (or seven - or eight)
And I was a billionairess
What would I have done?
Many naughty things
Many, many, many naughty things
But I would have had a DRIVER!

‘Cuz I’m not stupid, no
I’m not stupid, no
Not THAT stupid anyway
‘Cuz if I had been naughty
(I like being naughty)

But I haven’t been caught so far
and I am almost 44
44
And I’ve done many, many, many, many, many bad things

They are hidden inside my *mmm - mmm*
Inside my *mmm - mmm*
So there’s no record or no fingerprints on it

‘Cuz I’m not stupid
‘Cuz I’m not stupid
No, not stupid!

Apparently, Ms. Spears inspired her to improvise another commentary at a concert this past Tuesday in Australia:

Listen Here

Britney, they set you up
But you drank from their cup
Britney, they set you up
Oh, but this is what it looks like, love,
This is what is looks like

When a star falls down
When a star falls down

Well, maybe you’re a mother
But you still need your mother
Yes, I may be a mother
But I still need a mother
To pick me up
Yes, to pick me up

When it all falls down
When it all falls down

Britney, they set you up
Is your contract winding up?
But you drank from the cup
Boy, this is what it looks like
Yes, I said, this is, this is what it looks like, Disney, yes

When a star falls down
When a star falls down

You may be a mother
Baby, you still need a mother
Yes, I may be a mother
But I still need a mother
To pick me up
Yes, to pick me up

When it all falls down
When it all falls down
When it all falls, all falls down
When it all falls down

Yesterday, I began a media blackout on all this Paris/Lindsey/Britney. I've decided that The Three Whores of the Apocolypse are wasting all my time.

Mark Warner decides to run for John Warner's Seat

From WaPo:

RICHMOND, Sept. 12 -- Former Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner will announce in an e-mail to supporters Thursday morning whether he plans to run next year for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican John W. Warner.

As a Virginian, I'm all for this. Think of how many tax dollars will be saved by only replacing half of every nameplate?!

Come to think of it, if we're going with the $VIRGINIA_SENATOR = TO_CHAR($APOSTLE, 4) + "Warner"; -- this would be a good time to spend the $25.00 to get my name changed to LUKE WARNER.

If your blood has never boiled in your veins...

I suggest you use Microsoft Word for Macintosh, if only for 10 minutes.

There's nothing quite as pointless as adjusting Window position EVERY FUCKING TIME you open Word. And then, the excitement of changing your font and losing your toolbars EVERY GOD DAMNED TIME you open Word.

Do you see how the new document window opens under the floating toolbar? Who thought that was a good idea? Why isn't the Font Name/Size/Style toolbar on top, but in that oozing cyst on the right?

That Normal.DOT bullshit does not work in Macintosh Word the same way it works on Wintel.

Why do I use it? Why do I punish myself? I don't know. Maybe I'm more retarded than the developers who shat this thing out.

Shitty Tuesday

My power went out last night for several hours around midnight. All the UPSes kicked in, but apparently there isn't enough runtime on the big one for kaitain to shutdown anymore.

I woke up this morning, brought kaitain and both dvrs back up, then VPN'ed in to get the call-in number for my 9:00am conference call. It was, as they always are, a crucial waste of time.

My laptop died during the call, because the battery is old, and because Virtual PC does nothing but eat CPU cycles (I could cook an egg on the bottom of the laptop when it's running). After the call was over I got dressed and went into work.

Since today is Tuesday, there was no parking. I found one secret spot in front of the PE building, parked there, and walked through the rain to my office...where people were looking for me. I apparently missed a 9:30am meeting about the same thing the 9:00am meeting was about.

Did I mention how much pain I'm in?

120CCs

The doctor drained 120ccs of fluid from my abdomen today.

How sexy is that?

It's just an ATM

Would someone please tell the Chevy Tahoe in front of me that you cannot h@x05 the Gibson from a Bank of America ATM?

You've had your 15 minutes, brother...give somebody else a chance.

Goods News, Bad News

The good news is that I installed my new, cheap car battery from Costco at lunch yesterday.

The bad news is that I can barely move today. Apparently, four weeks after abdominal surgery is not the best time to be lugging around a 50lb car battery.

I am a dolt.

eCops bust eHookers and ePimps for iFucking

We can thank the New York Times' eminent journalists for this article on Craigslist Prostitutes:

All eight were arrested on prostitution charges here, snared in a new sting operation by the Nassau County police that focuses on Craigslist.org, the ubiquitous Web site best known for its employment and for-sale advertisements but which law enforcement officials say is increasingly also used to trade sex for money.

Nassau County has made more than 70 arrests since it began focusing on Craigslist last year, one of numerous crackdowns by vice squads from Hawaii to New Hampshire that have lately been monitoring the Web site closely, sometimes placing decoy ads to catch would-be customers.

“Craigslist has become the high-tech 42nd Street, where much of the solicitation takes place now,” said Richard McGuire, Nassau’s assistant chief of detectives. “Technology has worked its way into every profession, including the oldest.”

[...]

Law enforcement officials ask why Craigslist even includes Erotic Services among its 191 categories. Mr. Buckmaster, the company president, said the site created that category “at the request of our users” for legitimate massage, escorts and exotic dancers. In an e-mail interview, he said that the police had praised the company’s cooperation, though he did not give examples.

Have I moved to the Netherlands yet? The US has become such a fucking police state.

Bargains, bargains, everywhere

I apologize in advance for the lameness of this post, but after an insane summer schedule followed by surgery and a three week recovery, "the funny" (or "the angry") is going to take a minute to regenerate.

Right after surgery, a letter came addressed to the previous homeowners. It said something about "GE Appliance"-something, so I figured it was something I should open and look at. It turns out, I was right:

Over several years, normal use of liquid rinse aid in some models results in a concentration of rinse aid on the wires inside the dishwasher door. In the affected models, the rinse aid can degrade the insulation on the wiring inside the door, which can cause an electrical short, overheating or fire if the wire comes in contact with the metal door. You should stop using these dishwashers immediately until you obtain more information.

I mean, who wants a flaming dishwasher?

Since Home Depot was having a sale, and GE was going to give me another $150.00 to replace a 6-10 year-old dishwasher, I decided it was probably the right thing to do. The deal broke down like this:



While I wasn't planning on spending any money on a dishwasher, it was likely that I'd have to replace mine sometime before I sold the house. $180.00 delivered and installed to do that is a pretty good deal.

---

You may recall that I turned the WRX in last January, and ended up with my parent's 2002 Honda Accord. I've noticed that if the car sits for a day or two, it has trouble starting (but once I drive it, it charges right back up). I don't think that battery has ever been replaced, so I decided to start looking around for battery deals.

My first stop was Sears, even though they have pissed me off the last several times I've attempted to buy anything there. A Diehard Gold for the Accord is $109.00, which seemed a little high to me. I decided to do some looking around online, and I found this little gem:

Most auto batteries are made by just three manufacturers, Delphi, Exide, and Johnson Controls Industries. Each makes batteries sold under several different brand names. Delphi makes ACDelco and some EverStart (Wal-Mart) models. Exide makes Champion, Exide, Napa, and some EverStart batteries. Johnson Controls makes Diehard (Sears), Duralast (AutoZone), Interstate, Kirkland (Costco), Motorcraft (Ford), and some EverStarts.

So Sears and Costco batteries come from the same manufacturer, huh? How much is the comparable battery at Costco?

$54.49

I had to drive to two different Costco's last night, but I found one. Now I just need to put it in and I'm good to go.

My poor American Express.