Category: Uncategorized

Yesterday I got a text message on my phone from Cingular telling me the email address associated with the phone was changing from a @mobile.att.net to a @mmode.com address. As you might know, Cingular assimilated AT&T Wireless a while back. In fact, after April 26th, 2005 that link to attwireless.com will probably redirect to cingular.com I also noticed that today my phone now displays CINGULAR where it used to say AT&T. Though the startup screen still shows the AT&T logo. The debug menu displays CINGULAR as well.

I also got a text message regarding replenishing my account. (This phone is a prepaid model.) When logging into your account at the Cingular site the first time, it let’s you know that it might take a few minutes. (Do they have an old 386 running Linux talking to an AS/400 or something?) You do get to look at a nice flash animation of the Cingular logo jumping up and down while waiting… Well, after a few minutes I was told that the number I entered was “not found in their records” so I might have to wait another week or two for AT&T Wireless to ship all those records over to Cingular…

Anyway, we just wanted to welcome our new Cingular Overlords…

Why I love Perl… From the perliaq – infrequently asked questions about Perl

How do I get my perl program to run faster?

In Perl, there’s always more than one way to do it. Try one of these techniques.

        use more 'cpu';
        use less 'time';
        use more 'speed';

        ## or, the ever popular 
        ## Military Marching Band accompaniment:
        use March::Sousa qw(:DoubleTime);

The March::* hierarchy is not found on CPAN. Please contact the author for more information.

Alternatively, programs have been known to complete more quickly when they contain a declaration like this one:

        BEGIN {exit}

If your application is truly urgent, you might try the experimental

        no more 'time';

feature, but this has been reported to cause some systems to panic.

How can you not love a language with a good sense of (geek) humor? See the rest of the perliaq for more fun…

The “Road” part of the Road Trip is cancelled. Well, part of it anyway. I had mentioned that my vehicle might not make it, and then I was told I would be renting a car, and then it was decided I would fly from Madison. So, that means I’ll drive to Madison (1 hour) and then fly to Minneapolis (1 hour) rather than drive there (about 5 hours.)

All I need now is a train and I’ve got the makings of a movie…

Supposedly podshows.com is “Radio – where you want it, when you want it” but they go on to ask “Let’s face it who wants radio anymore?” and say that podshow.com is “the world’s first website to give you unique downloadable radio shows”

Oh, they also go on to mention something called "pod-casting" in their FAQs… urg…

Wake me when it’s over….

I saw Sin City. It’s a movie. I guess some guy named Frank Miller (I’ve heard the name, but don’t know his work…. Or am I thinking of Herman Miller?) made some comic books (or are they graphic novels?) and they made it into a movie…

devildoll says this:

Was it a comic movie unlike any comic movie we’ve seen before? Yes. I respect that, and I admire it, and I’m glad I went to see it.

Now, I thought I should check on what a certain word means, because sometimes a word doesn’t mean what you think it means: comic:

arousing or provoking laughter; “an amusing film with a steady stream of pranks and pratfalls”; “an amusing fellow”; “a comic hat”; “a comical look of surprise”; “funny stories that made everybody laugh”; “a very funny writer”; “it would have been laughable if it hadn’t hurt so much”; “a mirthful experience”; “risible courtroom antics” [syn: amusing, comical, funny, laughable, mirthful, risible]

Hmmm, on second though, maybe Sin City is a graphic novel, not a comic book. Anyway, I think the part about “arousing or provoking laughter” and “an amusing film with a steady stream of pranks and pratfalls” sort of fits. See, I tend to find amusement in situations like someone getting an arrow shot through their guts, and then looking at the arrow, and talking about the arrow, but not seeming to feel any pain from the arrow. (Don’t worry, I can tell the difference between a movie and not-a-movie.) So, yes, some of it was comical.

Besides all that, it did live up to the promise. What promise? Well, I was told that it had half-nekkid chicks in it. And while it did indeed, it was all absolutely neccessary to properly tell the story. Where was I? Yes, the movie, it was different. I liked that. I was a bit worried that the style might be distracting, but I think they pulled it off very well. I can honestly say I’ve not seen a movie before that looked like it. No complaints about the casting or the storyline, and plenty of action, not a ton of thinking required, really more of a visual/eye candy thing. I have no complaints. Heck, I’ll even recommend it. At least until The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy opens.

Oh, and as far as comic book movies, I am eagerly awaiting Watchmen. See? Now that’s a graphic novel I can relate to. Hurm indeed!