(no subject)

Via jwz, this 1993 report [PDF] on designing warning signs for a nuclear waste facility meant to remain legible until the material is no longer dangerous -- around 10,000 years. The challenge is to present the message This place looks pretty cool but it is actually very dangerous and will kill you. Yeah, I know, "ooh, mummy's curse, scary", but honestly there's no treasure here. This isn't honoring anyone or anything. It's actually just a big hole full of poison. What? I'm serious in a way that far-future people will not only be able to read -- factoring in erosion, vandalism, and changes in human civilization -- but be willing to believe, too. Neat stuff about employing archetypes of place, designing a structure that, just by its shape, attempts to radiate a go-away vibe to any human being. (And, failing that, chiseling cartoons of "The Scream" into rock faces. Eek!)

I found myself wondering why we'd care about the fate of people who were apparently on the other end of some unthinkable cultural cataclysm that broke them off from the past in such a way that they didn't know what this thing was (for surely the structure would be permanently world-famous, if actually built). But that's kind of selfish thinking, in a strange way. I guess.

But anyway, who knows... maybe even very optimistic futures with the spaceships and the ansibles and so on still have room for some yokels stumbling across this crazy site in the (once-)American desert. Earth-that-was and all that. And of course I wonder if anyone's made an IF out of this yet. (It would, of course, involve a human explorer, stranded on another world, coming across an alien warning system...)

Test platform needed

Dear fellow local techno-weenies: anyone have a handle on a cruddy ol Windows box that I could wrangle for cheap? If it can connect to the Internets and run MSIE without explording or taking a minute to launch it's probably good enuff for my purposes.

That asked, what's the average price of a new bare-bones DIY PC nowadays? I dunno man, I use Macs and I don't even know much about them these days...

---

In other news a gaggle of preschoolers walking past the diesel saw a young couple with a baby and all stopped to say LOOK! A BABY! HELLO BABY!! etc, and the mother is bobbling the totally confused infant's arm up and down for the kids outside. And I have to admit that's pretty damn cute even to me.

(no subject)

Any of my fellow Somervudlians use Comcast for broadband? D'ya like it? Do you know what TCP ports they block?

They've got a $20/month special going on now for new subscribers. Of course that's only good for six months, and they do a good job of not noting on their website what it reverts to after that. Still quite tempting, since I just learned that downgrading my RCN will still cost me $60/month for broadband alone. It's better than the $90 I pay now, but...

---

Ordered a copy of Alton Brown's classic I'm Just Here for the Food yesterday. When I scratched out a budget a couple of days ago, I concluded that food was the slippiest variable, and the one I can carve the most out of. Currently I spend -- ulp -- probably around $600 a month on everything I eat and drink, because I buy no groceries and do no cooking. (Sometimes I brew my own coffee, or shamefully browse the "a la carte" thing of colorless microwavable nuggetoids at Shaw's with the other pathetic bachelors, but that's it.)

So, yes, I'm gonna turn this around. I think $400 is a good target number to shoot for, and conversations I've had in the last couple of days suggest that I can make it a lot lower than that if I start getting good.