Archive for July 2007
My 1992 MS-DOS Batch Menu
This is a picture of a MS-DOS batch menu I created for myself in 1992 and stopped using, apparently right around 1995. Windows 95 must have killed off the need for it, I guess. I made this with a batch file and I had a whole collection of other batch files to do cool other things.
From the menu:
X-Tree Gold was an awesome file manager, at the time when all we had otherwise was DOS command lines or the really awful Windows 1.x. I LOVED this program!
Blue Wave was what was known as an off-line mail reader. Used in conjunction with Telemate (modem dialing software, like ProComm Plus or Telix). For anyone under the age of 25, this is going to sound crazy, but even as recently as 1995 we didn’t get our messages via email. We had to use a thing called FidoNet instead and you needed a mail reader like Blue Wave to read the QWK message packets that you downloaded from BBSs. BBS stands for Bulletin Board System, which was a computer system you called into using your PC, a modem and a phone line to transfer data, files and these mail messages with. It was sort of the precursor to the internet and it was tons of fun. I still remember my favorite local system was the ComputorEdge BBS and I was a member of the coffee club there. LOL!
Qedit was THE text editor in its day. It offerred something that you could not find otherwise in a DOS editor at the time, editable keys. You could run a little tool that came with the editor and litterly tell it that every time you pressed any key or combination, it should do something other than the default. So, Ctrl-R could be your “make all caps” choice. This was HUGE back then because this could both save you a ton of time whenever you had some tedious repetitive task to get through.
Norton Disk Utils!
Duke Nukem!!!
Aahhhhh, good times.
Yeah, espionage systems, that’s it…
According to many articles floating around this week (and thanks to Lisa for the tip), Iran recently caught a gang of squirrels trying to infiltrate their border, all of them equipped with the latest in high-tech spy gear.
Here’s one relevant quote from the as-always misinformed massed media:
“A few weeks ago, 14 squirrels equipped with espionage systems of foreign intelligence services were captured by [Iranian] intelligence forces along the country’s borders. These trained squirrels, each of which weighed just over 700 grams, were released on the borders of the country for intelligence and espionage purposes. According to the announcement made by Iranian intelligence officials, alert police officials caught these squirrels before they could carry out any task.”
Well, good they were caught, but HA! that they were sent there by any human government or other organziation. I mean, realllly. When will we start calling this what it really is? It’s an organized and obviously well-funded war against humanity orchestrated by the most evil creature to ever set foot on the planet Earth. I think with this little slip up of theirs, there is really only one question left to ask:
Are you prepared to fight in the Battle Against the Vermin?
Ordering food in China
…just got a bit easier for us foreigners. Ben Ross, from the excellent Ben’s Blog, has just started a new web site called HowToOrderChineseFood.com. Ben is an American living in Fujian province and his main blog is totally worth reading for anyone wanting to learn more about life in China right now, but this new site is even cooler.
It’s really simple and really useful. He gives you pictures and glossary definitions for lots of foods common in China. he organizes them by their main ingredients so it couldn’t be easier to find what you like.
I’m going to write down all of the items that look most appealing and use this on our adoption trip, someday.
Econauts
We built a Terrestrial Shrimp Support Module, or a jar with some shrimp and a few snails in it, according to this project idea in Make magazine. The main idea is that if you include just the right set of plants, animals and so on, they will be self-sustaining for a long time. That’s supposed to be up to 3 months but we’ll see.
It was fun collecting the stuff at the local aquarium store and the pond up behind our house. The boy here loves watching his new friends swim and crawl around inside. We are hoping they will last in there a while but we’ll see. If they don’t, that’ll just give us an excuse to go make another one.
San Antonio, Tejas
I just got back from San Antonio (SA), site of the 2007 Kiwanis International Convention. I had a good time but learned a few things about convention attending while there.
1. Conventions are really just social gatherings.
I think I must be part autistic or something, because I actually went into this thinking this would be mostly about the By-Law amendments and seminars. Of course, it turned out to be mostly an excuse to take tours around SA, eat lots of good Texas BBQ and chat with old friends. I’ve only been in Kiwanis a bout three years and didn’t talk to anyone in my local division before the trip so of course I had very few people to talk to. I had some fun anyway but next time, I will prepare better by arranging meals and what not with whoever else might be going.
2. Texas is hot and muggy in the summer.
Well, duhhhhh. But even worse it rained hot rain down on us some of the time. The improvement would be to bring more shirts so I could have changed more than twice a day.
3. The group’s selected hotel is not always the best choice.
I actually came out on the right side of this one. The hotel my Kiwanis District was staying in was one of those 15-story urban places but I reserved my room too late to get in there. Instead, I stayed at the smaller, more cozy place just a bit down the block and it was much more my style. It had a nicer layout, fewer people and gave me an excuse to walk a bit more around town, which was fine (except for item #2 above).
Anyway, here are some pictures.
The Master Has Arisen. The Hellmouth opens soon…
Prepare for the onslaught, America. Soon you will see what I’ve been warning you about the last few years.
In this EarthTimes story, we learn how the town of Norcross GA is stricken with fear by a white squirrel. Check out what the local authorities are saying already:
“I don’t know how long he’s been there,” City Clerk Susan Brooks told the newspaper. “He is kind of cute.”
To any sane outside observer, this is clearly a sighting of the usually very elusive Master of All Squirrels, similar to this Master from Buffy. These people must be under His spell already since they are unable to distinguish the difference between evil incarnate and a Disney film character.
What we need now is a Buffy the Squirrel Killer. I’d volunteer except I’m really busy these days doing, ummmmmm… stuff.
