...if the original problem was that my computer randomly reboots every once in a while, up to twice in one day, it doesn't do either of us any good to ask whether or not the problem has been fixed half an hour after the tech leaves. Try looking up "randomly" in the dictionary.

Gah....

A poster boy for the caption on this userpic:

Ferndale police collar 'Darth Vader' hold-up suspect

After arresting a suspect last night for the armed robbery of a convenience store, Ferndale police observed in a statement that "[t]his is one of the world's dumbest criminals."

The suspect took an undisclosed amount of money from the clerk at knife- ( Read more... )

Poll result:

As the Obama administration proposes repealing the policy known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” a new New York Times/CBS News poll finds that a majority of the public support allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the military.

There’s less support, however, for allowing homosexuals to serve openly.

Confused?

If I weren't so cynical, I ( Read more... )

I spent this year's bonus on a new laptop and a new desktop. Both were scheduled to arrive yesterday.

The laptop was delivered (by FedEx) without incident. The desktop... not so much.

The first indication of a problem was that when I did a check of the UPS tracking page, it claimed that a delivery attempt had been made. I called starmalachite (who had ( Read more... )

Why relying on somebody else for primary storage of your data (as opposed to off-site backup of your data) is an idea that ranks somewhere between "Hey! Let's change the formula for Coke!" and "Hey! Let's invade Russia during the winter!":

T-Mobile: we probably lost all your Sidekick data

Well, this is shaping up to be one of the biggest disasters in ( Read more... )

Another example of government officials justifying the level of faith and trust I have in them:

FBI Director Robert Mueller was banned by his wife from doing online banking after he nearly fell for a phishing scam, he said on Wednesday during a talk at the Commonwealth Club of California.

He received an e-mail purporting to be from his bank that ( Read more... )

Fortunately, everybody in our gaming group is more mature than this guy:

A friendly game of Monopoly turned ugly when a Fraser man hit a friend in the side of the head and knocked her off a chair, knocking off her glasses, when she refused to sell him Boardwalk and Park Place, Fraser police said....

Story from an Arkansas Holiday Inn Express that evidently needs to work on its staff training:

Prank Call Blamed for $50,000 in Damage to Conway Hotel

...Police say a person called the front desk and said they were an employee at a fire sprinkler service. Officer Sharen Carter says the caller told the clerk there was a problem with the sprinklers and ( Read more... )

At a press conference today, Senator Harry Reid explained why imprisonment requires release:

REID: I'm saying that the United States Senate, Democrats and Republicans, do not want terrorists to be released in the United States. That’s very clear.
QUESTION: No one's talking about releasing them. We’re talking about putting them in prison somewhere ( Read more... )

From boingboing:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Fred von Lohmann sez, "Hearings for the DMCA triennial rulemaking are going on this week in DC, where the educational community is asking for an exemption to rip DVDs to take clips for classroom use. The MPAA responded with a video showing how to camcord (!) movies from a flat screen monitor, ( Read more... )