Author: Nate

Caught in the net, “Real Genius” edition.

The character of Lazlo Hollyfeld in the film Real Genius may have been loosely based on a real person:

Chuck claims to be a fairly normal inventor at a large audio equipment manufacturer. But in 1972, Chuck lived in the tunnels beneath Caltech’s student dormitories. Soon thereafter, he moved into the misty realm of Caltech legend, where he apparently still lives today.

His legend played a central role in a recent movie about Caltech, called “Real Genius”. The movie was directed by Martha Coolidge and starred Val Kilmer. In the movie, a burned-out misfit named Lazlo Hollyfeld lives in the tunnels beneath a student dorm, easily recognized as Dabney House.

Found via google, looking for something else entirely.

“Lawyers behaving badly.”

Sometimes I get reminded that being in a fraternity in college was not just about having a supportive bunch of guys around to look after me when I was drinking, and a nice spot to crash on the couch and watch a very large TV set.

Sometimes, like Peter’s wedding, it involves genuinely being reminded of the strength of the friendships I developed there. And sometimes, it involves REALLY funny emails that I’d never have gotten if I’d just hung out with other geeks and Comp. Sci. majors.

I got forwarded a series of emails which apparantly are the legal community’s next answer to Craig Shergold. And apparantly, they’re real.:

The email that roared
The strange tale of a much-forwarded email chain describing “Lawyers behaving badly.”
By David L. Yas

Sadly, when Abdala typed those three syllables of gibberish, she made an electronic record of her own impetuousness, a record that may haunt her for quite some time.

How do I know? Because I was one of roughly seven zillion people who received a copy of the email this week. Thanks to an unstoppable phalanx of forwarders, the brief exchange has made its way to a countless number of attorneys after Korman shared it with a friend and allowed him to share it with a few others.

Fueled by attorneys’ curiosity that a young attorney would fire away at a would-be employee with so much vigor, the email chain made its way from firm to firm with the speed and recklessness of Apolo Ohno after six caffe lattes. It went to Rindler Morgan and Gadsby Hannah, to Mintz Levin and Sally & Fitch, to Nixon Peabody and Wilmer Hale.

It’s been across the state and out of state. And to Europe. Seriously.

And now to my house alumni mailing list, and likely heading to an inbox near you.

I have no idea if it’s legitimate to repost the email forward in its entirety, and to be on the safe side I’m not going to do so here. I am surprised to see that it’s NOT readily available on google yet. Suffice it to say that once someone DOES put it on the web, you’ve got all the keywords you need to find it in the Mass law article. And it’s funny as heck, and funnier still with the context the article provides.

Not that techies are immune to our own brand of idiocy, but I do like to think that the BOFH is fiction.

I’m looking for a job.

As of Friday, February 10th, I am no longer working at my old position at USF.

I was am actively looking for a new position – preferably in the San Francisco Bay Area – and appreciate any leads. My resume is available as a pdf
document or as html.

There are more versions available here, and further information on my job search and professional interests will be available in a few
days.

This post will remain “sticky” until I’ve gotten a job. In any case, to all friends reading here, please wish me luck, and I will probably keep you all posted about my job search in this space.
Update as of 3/11/2006: This is no longer sticky, as I’ve gotten and accepted a job offer. The resumes are about to be updated but I’ll leave a version up for the curious.

It’s Crypto Cat and the Crypto Kids!

Sounds like a bad comic book, right?

But via BoingBoing.net, we find that they’re stars of the NSA children’s outreach site.

They have comments on changes to the site, but in general, I’m just baffled and astounded(*); that they HAVE a ridiculous comicky children’s site to begin with.

(* I was going to say “hornswoggled” but I’m informed that means “fooled.”)

One for the Star Wars fans…

FROM:PRNCSS. L ORGANA
DEAR friend.
I AM PRINCESS LEIA ORGANA ONLY SURVIVOR
OF THE ROYALFAMILY OF ALDERAN (ALDRN).
I AM MOVED TO WRITE YOU THIS LETTER,
THIS WAS IN CONFIDENCE CONSIDERING MY
PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCE AND SITUATION.
I WAS FALSLEY IMPRISONED UPON THE
IMPERIAL BATTLESTATION (“DEATH STAR”)
WHEN MY PLANET WAS HIDEOUSLY DESTROYED
AND ENDED BY THE BVERY BAD SITH LORD
VADER. I ESCAPED ALONG WITH THE AID OF
BRAVE REBELS AND WOOKIES, AND AM NOW I
AM LYING LOW DUE TO THE SITUATION IN
THE 4TH MOON OF YAVIN TILL WHEN THINGS
GETS BETTER. I HAVE CONTROL HERE OF
THE SUM OF $25, MILLIONNN IN IMPERIAL
CREDITS DEPOSITED WITH A SECURITY COMAPNY
FOR SAFEKEEPING ON TATOOINE.

One version of the Nigerian Spam, a-la Star Wars.

“Why he didn’t propose the banning of giant mutant spiders…”

Kos on the SOTU address:

Bush had two BIG initiatives yesterday, it seems — a blue ribbon presidential commission everyone will ignore to produce a report no one will read, and, more dramatically, the banning of that scourge of Western civilization — the human/animal hybrid.

Why he didn’t propose the banning of giant mutant spiders and killer self-aware robots is beyond me. Those are scary fictional crises as well!

(emphasis mine, purely because I love the line.)

Clearly Bush needs to meet Mearls.

“Addicted to oil:” a HUGE credibility gap.

Bush says U.S. addicted to oil

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Bush will say “America is addicted to oil” and must develop technologies to address soaring gasoline prices in a State of the Union speech on Tuesday night that argues against a U.S. retreat from Iraq and the war on terrorism.

Why should we believe that someone an administration which came out of the petroleum/energy industry can or will actually do a damn thing about this supposed addiction? (Especially when it has remained in bed with them through every public bit of “energy policy” since it came to power. And by “administration,” that just doesn’t just mean failed-oilman Bush; remember what Cheney’s background is as well.)

This is by far the funniest thing I’ve seen in the lead-up to SOTU. It’s rather like the head of Phillip Morris saying that the country has a lung-cancer problem.

It’s not a matter of whether you win or lose…

Son, when you participate in sporting events, it’s not whether you win or lose – it’s how drunk you get.
– Homer Simpson

I’ve been approaching today’s state-of-the-union address with some mixture of apprehension and interest; at lunch today, I realized (talking to Marie; it may have been her idea) that the Preznit’s speeches are RIPE for a drinking game, and that there probably already was one. Well, sure enough, I get back to my desk and hit Google and there there are quite a number of “Bush’s speeches” drinking games, as well as a number of State-of-the-Union ones.

Two stood out:
* First, there is a serious attempt at a college-style drinking game*†
* Second, purely satirical version by Will Durst, which he has done for at least some past years.

† the same guy did ones for 2002-2004; the 2005 version was at the current URL had to be dug up on the Wayback Machine

I may print and try the first one tonight. We’ll see, and if I do, we’ll see how drunk I get.

Also worth noting
Arianna Huffington: State of the Union 2006: Make Your Party Plans Now
archibaldtuttle on Daily Kos diaries: The State of the Union Drinking Game Party!
And the intriguing but more general HuffPost Presidential Speech Drinking Game!

WordPress 2?

I’ve upgraded to WordPress 2.  It seems to work with my old home-grown theme, and the default it offers is still the 1.5 one, so I’ve kept my custom one for now.  So far it looks like most of my plugins work, and the new editor looks cool although may get annoying later.  We’ll see.

Anything you viewers notice? Let me know… I may try playing with some alternate themes later.

A little close to home for comfort…

The Onion
U.S. Holds Going-Out-Of-Business Sale
January 17, 2006 | Issue 42•03

WASHINGTON, DC—In an address broadcast on late-night television Tuesday, President Bush announced that the federal government will liquidate its holdings in a going-out-of-business sale scheduled to begin Friday.

After 200-plus years of service, the U.S. government is closing its doors.
“The U.S. government, America’s place for law and order since 1776, has lost its lease, and everything must go, go, go,” Bush said. “But our loss is your gain, and make no mistake: You, the people, would be crazy to miss out on these amazing closeout bargains.”

The Washington-based government, which hasn’t shown a profit in five years and carries the highest debt in its history, was ultimately driven out of business by costly overhead and cheap foreign competitors. As a result, Bush said, everything—from flag stands and Capitol cafeteria flatware to legislation dating from the early days of the republic—will be marked down 30 to 90 percent.

Go, read the rest. The Onion is hitting a little too close to home these days.

Video game edition…

First, file this one under “why am I not surprised:”

Ogre to Slay? Outsource It to Chinese

December 9, 2005
By DAVID BARBOZA

FUZHOU, China – One of China’s newest factories operates here in the basement of an old warehouse. Posters of World of Warcraft and Magic Land hang above a corps of young people glued to their computer screens, pounding away at their keyboards in the latest hustle for money.

The people working at this clandestine locale are “gold farmers.” Every day, in 12-hour shifts, they “play” computer games by killing onscreen monsters and winning battles, harvesting artificial gold coins and other virtual goods as rewards that, as it turns out, can be transformed into real cash.

That is because, from Seoul to San Francisco, affluent online gamers who lack the time and patience to work their way up to the higher levels of gamedom are willing to pay the young Chinese here to play the early rounds for them.

Second, I’ve discovered a webbed version of a cool old 80s game “Alter Ego” (linked review is scathingly funny, BTW) when trying to find a better downloadable copy of game. Sadly, rather than abandonware, it seems to be still owned by Activision even if they’ve long since stopped selling it. But the web version seems fun and pretty acurate to the original even if it’s a bit slow to play and not quite the same as the old 40-column CGA version.