The Mandelbear's Musings

Hey, super_star_girl! I understand you're trying to clear all of the Barbie dolls out of your room.

(From this post by wcg.)

From the BBC, no less, we get the headline FBI tries to fight zombie hordes!

Of course, it's about networks of hijacked computers, not yesterday's silliness. But the timing! (From wcg.)

This would have been the Quote of the Day if I'd posted it yesterday when it happened, but I got distracted. I was dropping the Younger Daughter off at school, and she was having trouble getting out of the car.

Her: This seat belt hates me!

Me: It's just trying to protect you.

I didn't even have to think about it.

The owner of parody site www.getafirstlife.com recently received a "proceed and permitted" letter from secondlife.com -- if anything the letter is funnier than the parody.

We do not believe that reasonable people would argue as to whether the website located at http://www.getafirstlife.com/ constitutes parody -- it clearly is. Linden Lab is well known among its customers and in the general business community as a company with enlightened and well-informed views regarding intellectual property rights, including the fair use doctrine, open source licensing, and other principles that support creativity and self-expression. We know parody when we see it.

Moreover, Linden Lab objects to any implication that it would employ lawyers incapable of distinguishing such obvious parody. Indeed, any competent attorney is well aware that the outcome of sending a cease-and-desist letter regarding a parody is only to draw more attention to such parody, and to invite public scorn and ridicule of the humor-impaired legal counsel. Linden Lab is well-known for having strict hiring standards, including a requirement for having a sense of humor, from which our lawyers receive no exception.

In conclusion, your invitation to submit a cease-and-desist letter is hereby rejected.

(From Boing Boing via this post by slothman)

A virgin birth is expected this Christmas, though this particular nativity scene will be set in a zoo instead of a stable.

That's because the virgin in question is Flora the Komodo dragon, a giant lizard at Chester Zoo in England that has laid fertile eggs despite never having had a mate.

Bill Gates may soon be joining Leona Helmsley and Donald Trump among the world’s elite hoteliers. Sir Bill’s investment group is part of a consortium bidding to take over the Four Seasons Hotel chain. One can only imagine what may happen if the bid is successful. At the new “Four Seasons Live,” room service will be available for just $35 per call, though all food deliveries will be routed through Bangalore. To combat rampant towel piracy, guests will be required to validate their room keys within 15 minutes of checking in or get locked out; the toilets will ask three times if you’re really sure you want to flush. Welcome to the Hotel Microsoft: You can reboot any time you like, but you can never leave.

When etch was installed we wanted to access the USB disk in order to move some pieces of the backup to the new system. It was pure horror. After plugging the cable into the USB slot, an icon appeared on the screen and after clicked caused the system to mount the first partition on the external disk. It worked. Out of the box. Without tweaking anything. That's so non-Debian...

I also noticed a while ago that a USB mouse with a scroll wheel was also simply recognised by X.Org in etch and just worked. Huh? That's not how Debian is supposed to react.

Where are the hours of fiddling around how to properly add USB stuff to the system? Where are the evenings you needed to debug such stuff? Nowadays it just works? Where's the Debian we all knew?

The tools are simple: A shoe brush, water and elbow grease, he says.

British authorities aren’t sure what to make of the artist who is creating graffiti by cleaning the grime of urban life. The Leeds City Council has been considering what to do with Moose. "I’m waiting for the kind of Monty Python court case where exhibit A is a pot of cleaning fluid and exhibit B is a pair of my old socks," he jokes.

Microsoft marketers are having a hell of a job establishing the super soaraway operating system in the pecking order in Latvia.

Apparently, whenever they ring up peddling Vista, Latvians burst out laughing because the name means "chicken" or "frumpy woman" in the local lingo.

"Sure, the Microsoft people in the US cant be expected to understand all languages, but this really is funny," he said.

Arvis, an IT manager of a chain of casinos in Riga, was also chuckling about Microsoft Frump. Or Fowl. No, make that Vista.

The past few days according to LJ (approximately) according to azurelunatic. DO NOT read with food or drink in your mouth. (Link via celticdragonfly by way of sandy_tyras.)

... Seuss?!!

From Boing Boing (of course) comes this link to

Horrton Hears a Heart

True, I've been shaken - and true, I've been bad.
But how can you say that this elephant's mad?
This Loopidy sickness has sharpened my brain!
My ears are quite large, and I hear things quite plain.
So before you pass judgment, please let me explain...

...

I buried him under the theedlewog bush
And jumped in a pool to rinse blood off my tush.
How smart I was, Sam! How sane was my plan!
So sure I'd be implicated by no man! -
It was then I stopped splashing. I heard a queer sound...
A faint tumpata-tump - but there's no one around!

Followed by a list of "Some books by Edgar Allan Seuss" that's an absolute classic all by itself.