A state-controlled manufactory of echoes.
Looks like Facebook’s at it again! Now they’ve gone and added web search capability into their search box, and it’s powered by everyone’s favorite search engine, Windows Live Search.
Now you can finally live the dream and not visit any site except Facebook for your social networking, blogging, chatting, gaming, vampire-creating, and now searching needs.
And even Wordpress image captions!
1:40am, the K2 stylesheet used on this site, has been slightly updated! It now features support for…
And there’s more! Why not download it and give it a try?
Introducing…
The New Adventures of Scrappy Doo: The Later Years
Featured in some college newspaper for the past several months, this comic follows the epic post-retirement adventures of the world-renowned detective, Scrapinold Dooington, as he interacts with a host of memorable characters.
Now, you can enjoy Scrapinold’s many adventures from the comfort of your own internet! Well, what are you waiting for? Go now, before it’s too late!
The next version of Firefox, 3.1, is looking up to be a fairly major step up from its predecessor; it includes a variety of new features and improvements, including a new Javascript engine that is much, much faster than that of 3.0. In fact, some tests are even indicating that Firefox 3.1 can execute Javascript faster than Google Chrome (which is an accomplishment, to be sure). Other notable changes include a new tab-switching interface, and built-in support for OGG video and audio content.
However, there is another change coming, one that I believe represents a signifigant regression: enabling of color management by default. Now, in theory, this would be a good thing–after all, color management’s purpose is to compensate for differences between display devices so that color representation remains constant. Unfortunately, in my case (and, if I were to extrapolate for the purposes of this article, those of many other users) it performs quite the opposite.
On my computer, regardless of whether I’m using my monitor or the built-in LCD, turning color management on has a tendency to cause images to be rendered as if they were shining through a brownish filter. Not one to miss a beat, images that look fine on my computer are likewise rendered as brownish on other color-mangement enabled computers. Granted, that’s through no inherent fault of color management, but rather though the fact that my monitors seem to have come with faulty ICC profiles. However, the issue remains clear: if my computer came installed with a faulty profile, how many others’ computers did as well? And with that situation as it is, does it really make sense to enable color managment by default in any web browser?
Back in 2005, I got my first cellphone. It was an Audiovox CDM-8500 that I bought used off of some guy, and locked to Virgin Mobile. At the time, Virgin Mobile’s plans were still actually prepaid (adding $20 to your account would extend the life of an account by 3 months, working out to a minimum monthly cost of $6.67), as opposed to the monthly nonsense they have now. (Today, VM’s only so-called “prepaid” plan requires you to pay at least $20 per month.)
Growing tired of Virgin Mobile’s arbitrary restrictions, their poor coverage, and lackluster selections of phones at the time, I decided, not even a year after buying my first phone, to switch to a different provider.
Now, what if I told you that my new provider offered $8.33/month for nationwide cell phone service with no restrictions, and was compatible with any unlocked GSM phone? What if I told you it still exists?
Don’t believe me? Then have a look at T-Mobile To-Go, T-Mobile’s prepaid service. By purchasing their refill cards in $100 increments (they’ll charge you more per minute if you choose the other denominations), you get 1000 minutes that don’t expire for a year (which works out to about an $8.33 per month minimum charge). Plus, you get free limited WAP service, with such services as pick up lines!
And now, to conclude the serious of strange DS games from Austria, here’s what is, presumably, the most fun game of all:
At only €39.99, how could I lose?
A Solution to the Conception-Definition Issue
It recently came to my attention that the US Department of Health and Human Services is currently circulating a proposal that states in completely clear, not-at-all vague and meaningless, terms:
Effectively, what this appears to mean is that, as in institution, you’re still eligible for government funding regardless of the institution’s beliefs (and policies) regarding abortion. While on the surface that policy is about as amazingly engaging at that text itself, this results in a more interesting side effect when taking into consideration certain arguments regarding hormonal and emergency contraceptives, which some argue are abortive in and of themselves (more so in the case of the latter). In this vein, such an act would make it perfectly legal for medical instutitions to deny such contraceptive measures as they see fit.
As such, I myself see I need to propose my solution to the problem. Consider that those of the pro-life ideological camp generally classify abortion as a type of murder due to the destruction of a potential life. Also consider that every second you’re not engaged in sexual intercourse, you could be conceiving a child. Think: every sexless minute of everyone’s lives, people are are ending millions, if not billions, of potential lives. With this in mind, I present to you my improved definition of abortion (based on the original present in HHS-45-CFR), which surely will immediately be selected by the DHHS to replace its current wording:
And there you have it.