I just learned that the infamous and unrepentant scammer, Bernie Madoff, is being kept at the Butner prison, in NC. That's a couple of miles north of Durham, NC, about 30 miles from our house.
Look at the names of the towns up there:
Stem, Knap Of Reeds, Orange Factory.
Awesome!
The first hard drive I ever bought was 212 megabytes. 1993.
I just upgraded the drives in my network storage box. I now have a whopping 4 terabytes of storage sitting in back of my monitor, purring away, quietly.
I'm old enough to remember when a "terabyte" was something we nerds would use as an impossibly huge amount of information, something nobody could ever possibly need (see also Bill Gates and "640K"), an amount so large that it could be used as a geeky synonym for "infinite".
Today, you can get a 1TB drive for under $90.
Hooray for technology!
Also, I wonder: do geeky kids today speak of mythical exabyte drives ?
The Consumerist says that the Saab brand will be junked. So sad. I always dreamed of owning an S3 (or 900, as it used to be called). A bandmate of mine had a 900, and used to drive it around the snowy roads of Rochester NY like it was a sled: he'd take every turn in a slide, and fishtail down the streets. Or at least that's how I choose to remember it.
And man, did that heater work!
Wall Street Journal, via Obsidian Wings:
Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially providing them with information they need to evade or monitor U.S. military operations.
These things cost $15,000,000 each. And their signals are less secure than a $30 WiFi router.
U! S! A!
Update: It's bigger than just Predators ?
W! T! F!
A supermarket employee who alerted bosses when he was mistakenly paid more than £1m has been rewarded with a crate of beer.
...
A spokesman for the firm said: "Due to an error in our wages department earlier this month, Stephen Foster, an employee at our Birtley regional distribution centre, received a monthly salary payment of £1.4m.
...
"We were surprised and concerned about our mistake but not by Stephen's exemplary behaviour, which is typical of him.
...
"Coming as it does just before Christmas, it's the kind of act that renews your faith in human nature."
If you gave me a $20 case of beer in return for my saving you $1,400,000 my faith in human nature would definitely not be renewed.
City of Winnipeg
10:05 AM CST Sunday 13 December 2009
Wind chill warning for
City of Winnipeg continuedExtreme wind chill values of minus 40 to minus 45 [centigrade. that's -40 to -49F] will continue today, tonight and most of Monday.
This is a warning that extreme wind chill conditions are imminent or occurring in these regions. Monitor weather conditions..Listen for updated statements.
Frigid Arctic air combined with brisk westerly winds will continue to produce extreme wind chill values of minus 40 to minus 45 through Monday.
At these extreme wind chill values frostbite on exposed skin may occur in less than 10 minutes.
Yow.
OMGs, teenagers are sending each other sexy messages on their cell phones !
Back in my day, we had to use pens to write our vulgarities on these little pieces of folded paper that we called "notes", which we would slip into each other's lockers, between classes.
My parents never "talked to me" about this, probably because the practice is likely as old as writing itself.