Wisdom from Rael Dornfest

"Old hacker buyer's trick when approaching a computer sales person... ask if {whatever doodad} comes with LRF support. If they don't crack a smile and say "yes", walk away quickly."

(LRF = little rubber feet.)

G.I. Joe explained

A lot of friends are asking me why I think those G.I. Joe things are so funny.

I can actually explain this, at least in part. The cartoons wouldn't be nearly as funny without the choral "Geee Eyyyye Joooooe" at the end, with the logo, the same one that closed up these dorky little public-service ads when they actually ran in the 1980s, and its presence here implies that the preceding nonsense was a PSA too, teaching kids a valuable life lesson of some sort. But it's a PSA from planet koo-koo. The end.

Other things that are funny.

Because mommy knows best, TiVo has been quite insistent that I watch Conan O'Brien, patiently recording it for me every other night or so and dropping it suggestively in my Sugguestions folder. Actually, friends have been trying to get me to watch this for years, and so today, my first true day off in a while, I gave it a go. And of course I can't recall the last time I laughed out loud at an hour of TV like I have at this. My goodness.

OTOH, I'm watching guest band Polyphonic Spree now. Uhhhh? I have not heard of them before. They are vaguely creepy. Are they actually a religious cult, or just play-acting? The lead singer looks like former Maine Campus editor and current S.F. Guardian columnist F.J. Gallagher, but is probably not him.

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The new WB cartoon movie will have to work a little harder in order to make me want to see it, but the TV ad does successfully deploy the paris/france/underpants rhyme, and I appreciate this, at least.

No email (maybe not)

I think I just horked all jmac.org-based mailservices, because I tried to configure a mailing list. Mistake number one. So I'm effectively off the map until I post otherwise. Arrrrrrrgh.

Apologies to all affected, except me, who doesn't deserve any. Am trying to reach people who can bail me out, since I actually have no idea anymore how my mail is configured, since I had certain people set all that up for me, and didn't pay much attention at the time. Mistake number zero.

Update After poring over error logs, I seem to have found the table-leg I kicked out and krazy-glued it back into position, perhaps upside-down, but whatever; I'm getting mail again.

I really need to audit my poor computer's entire mail process. Like, this weekend.