December 15, 2004
Catch a whiff...of the power
Just when it seems the zeitgeist couldn't get any more schadenfreudian, along comes - I'm not kidding - Donald Trump The Fragrance. Just like that - no dash, comma, or colon. It reminds me of magnetic refigerator poetry. And the idea makes me shudder.
The Donald has apparently teamed up with the girls at Estee Lauder to come up with a $60 bottle of what the Macy's website calls "
The uncompromising men’s fragrance. Persuasive, commanding, determined. A passion for power. Inspired by the man who demands the best – and achieves it."
Jesus.
There's a certain Spaceballs quality to all the stuff Trump has his less-then-melodic name on. Trump Casino, Trump Tower, Trump this, Trump that. Though come to think of it, if you put a comma after Donald - "Donald, Trump the Fragrance" - it sounds like it could be a clever little folk ditty from the 18th Century.
jb | | # |
I have arrived
There's a certain fundamental satisfaction in knowing that the Stanford Fraternal community appreciates my work:
StanfordMan18: oh yeah you remember you opening webpage screen that looked like a bluish jazz lounge
StanfordMan18: i thought it was really cool and we actually modeled our vip lounge after it at our last frat party
Jason Bentley: haha :-) nice
Jason Bentley: it's still the same
StanfordMan18: awesome;) we also managed to build a waterfountain that flowed with our special punch
Jason Bentley: I'm gonna quote you in my blog :-)
StanfordMan18: hahha:) cool
From here on out, it's aaaaaall gravy. :-)
jb | | # |
There was lameness
So, Blogger - ya know, normally I love ya. But when you lost your ability to publish my content and waited nearly 16 hours before putting up a status message - that's lame. This is the same problem I've reported three times before - and each time received a response that "it must be something on my end."
So, when the same ineffectual, passive error message appeared yesterday -
- I had to think to myself, what a load of Microsoft-worthy spin-zone bullshit that is. "There were errors" is like those old cascading Windows errors that would announce "a fault was detected because an error occurred,' or when the Pentagon explains away a domestic accident helicopter crash with "mistakes were made." What errors? Socket is not established? Is that my fault or Blogger's?
Turns out, it's theirs. Some
16 hours after I first found out that "there were errors," and after pulling my hair out looking at my computer, router, cable, and web hosting configuration, this appeared on Blogger's status board:
Yeah, but some fundamental service problems remain. Blogger: There are errors.
jb | | # |
Ch-ch-ch-changes
My loyal readers will notices a few changes I've made around the weblog in order to alleviate some of the burden some of the heavy multimedia was (ironcally) putting on Macintosh users. I'm removed all embedded multimedia and replaced them either with simple text links or a new download icon:
I've also reduced the size of many of the images to accomodate a realightment of many pictures into a more "integrated" style.
These changes were implemented for the month of December onward. I'll remediate October and November eventually.
Good luck, Macheads.
jb | | # |
Word, Interrupted
Yesterday, Drew Cullen contributed an
article to the British online magazine
The Register about raids on a Finnish BitTorrent hosting site that featured this conspicuously placed, very funny, and too-unnecessary-to-be-unintentional abbreviation:
The Motion Picture Ass. of America (MPAA) today announced (PDF) that it is pursuing civil actions against hundreds of server operators of BitTorrent, eDonkey and DirectConnect P2P file-swapping networks, in its war on internet [sic] movie piracy.
Elsewhere in
The Register, Jan Libbenga reports that life is good in the Netherlands:
Employees in the Netherlands can't be sacked for downloading Internet pornography onto office computers unless there is a clear code of conduct, according to the Dutch legal trade magazine People Planet Profit, which conducted research on the subject.
Judges are demanding from companies that they have to set out clearly what can and cannot be done on company time and company equipment in order to dismiss employees.
jb | | # |
