These are the Opus Strips that won't be published today or next Sunday

Double Click on the strips to make them legible.

AC/DC Sin City 1978

I am rather embarrassed to say that my taste for the boys down under (particularly the one in short-pants) came quite late in life. Indeed, when I was young, I rather disliked them. Either I was very wrong then or I am very wrong now. I hope for the former. Enjoy.

This will work, not!

Sun Microsystems is going to leave the roots of its name -- Stanford University Network -- behind and change its listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange from SUNW to JAVA.

In 2000, SUNW traded above US$61. Today, it's under US$6.

I can't say how much I disagree with these words

From (someone will have to show me how to do block quotes:

http://chronicle.com/free/v53/i50/50b00801.htm

If the plays had been written with a word processor on a computer that had somehow survived, we still might not know anything definitive about Shakespeare's original or final intentions — these are human, not technological, questions — but we might be able to know some rather different things... We might discover the play had originally been called GreatDane.doc instead of Hamlet.doc. We might also be able to know what else he had been working on that same day, or what Internet content he had browsed the night before (since we'll assume Shakespeare had Web access too). While he was online, he might have updated his blog or tagged some images in his Flickr account, or perhaps edited a Wikipedia entry or two. He might even have spent some time interacting with others by performing with an avatar in Second Life, an online place where all the world is truly a shared virtual stage.
...
We may no longer have the equivalent of Shakespeare's hard drive, but we do know that we wish we did, and it is therefore not too late — or too early — to begin taking steps to make sure we save the born-digital records of the literature of today.

The photo Dr. Jeff does not want you to see

Many have wondered about the Rabin Household’s IT. Some, well one anyway, says it rival’s Google in terms of innovation, scope, and capacity. While details (and ultimate purpose) are a closely guarded secret (some have suggested Skynet or the Matrix) the above photo (date unknown) was recently smuggled out. What we do know is that the operator is not Louise.

I don't know who the people are who build these websites, but their work is much enjoyed.

www.spamradio.com

Welcome to Spamradio

"Serving up delicious helpings of spam to all who are hungry."

Using a complex arrangement of pipes and funnels we turn the junk mail that we receive into a streaming audio broadcast that can be enjoyed from anywhere on the Internet.

Could you ask for more?

Why does today's music sound like (not that it is) crap?

Compare the two waveforms above.

Is it merely nostalgia – and by enjoying such nostalgia are you only showing your age – or did music use to sound better? (I am not saying that the music was any better, only that it sounded better.) Well, it’s not just nostalgia – though there is a bit of that – there is reason behind the claim: compression. Here’s a good article laying out the problem:

http://spectrum.ieee.org/aug07/5429

There’s also a very good ‘multi-media’ presentation at:

http://spectrum.ieee.org/aug07/5480

You see, I am not making this all up.

Steve's Dinner Last Night--He wanted us all to see that we can take care of himself when K is away

Is your internet down? Could be lead poisoning

By Robert McMillan, IDG News Service, 08/20/07

Sponsored by:

ISPs in the U.S. experienced a service slowdown Monday after fiber-optic cables near Cleveland were apparently sabotaged by gunfire.

TeliaSonera, which lost the northern leg of its U.S. network to the cut, said that the outage began around 7 p.m. Pacific Time on Sunday night. When technicians pulled up the affected cable, it appeared to have been shot. "Somebody had been shooting with a gun or a shotgun into the cable," said Anders Olausson, a TeliaSonera spokesman.

The damage affected a large span of cable, more than two-thirds of a mile [1.1 km] long, near Cleveland, TeliaSonera said.

The company declined to name the service provider whose lines had been cut, but a source familiar with the situation said the lines are owned by Level 3 Communications. Level 3 could not be reached immediately for comment.

Cogent Communications warned that some customers may be experiencing disruptions because network lines had been cut somewhere between Montville, Ohio, and Cleveland. "Splice crews are currently doing preparation work on the new fiber cable before splicing begins to resolve the outage," Cogent said in a note to customers.

According to Keynote Systems' Internet Pulse Report, Cogent was experiencing significant latency problems on Monday.

The outage caused headaches for Christopher McCoy, a system administrator for a Web hosting company in Atlanta. "This Telia outage is really causing a pain," he wrote in a blog posting. "Telia is one of my company’s main network providers, and explaining to your average Webmaster the details and specifics of a fiber break isn’t all that easy."

Why this topic obsesses me so, I can’t say.

Well, and I am glad of it, the Space Shuttle Endeavour has safely returned to earth a day before its original plan.

My larger point, however, remains. It’s an unsafe ship well past its sell by date engaged on a costly and dangerous enterprise for which there is no rational justification.

NASA says it will keep the Shuttle grounded until the foam problem is resolved, which, after a fashion, is good news, but what of it when the Shuttles are repaired: more expensive and dangerous manned space posturing.

I don’t say I rest my case. I only state that the whole manned space industry is stupid -- if there is anything worthwhile to do up there, why can’t a robot do it safer and cheaper?

Many of course will argue with me. But I am not sure if I really care. The space race was won long ago, 37 years ago to be precise. May we not give it a break?

Please Stand for the Kazak National Anthem!

Once again, I had the pleasure of seeing the movie Borat on Friday with Sarah S. and John P. K. who had not yet seen the film. Of course, I was eager to fill this cultural lacuna in their character. On seeing the film again, I noticed a number of little things that I missed the first time around which gave me a smile, but what was especially interesting was listening to my friend’s laughter while they watched the movie for the first time. This laughter by proxy (or is it avarice) reminded me of when I first saw the movie. But on subsequent viewings, I have started to see something, albeit complimentary, quite different. And I think that is the integrity and openness of the Anti-Semitism (in the absence of Jews) and Nationalism (in the presence of other nationalities, including ‘assehole Uzbeks’ and gypsies) in Kazakhstan and the gentile racism, nostalgia for a mythical antebellum South, and sheer Xenophobia of the US. (Canada, I would like on the record, aside from the South business is no different.) There is without doubt genius in Sasha Baron Cohen, though I am not sure there is much more to be done with Borat. Please stand to attention for the Kazak National Anthem:

Kazakhstan greatest country in the world.
All other countries are run by little girls.
Kazakhstan number one exporter of potassium.
Other countries have inferior potassium.

Kazakhstan home of Tinshein swimming pool.
It’s length thirty meter and width six meter.
Filtration system a marvel to behold.

It remove 80 percent of human solid waste.
Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan you very nice place.

From Plains of Tarashek to Norther fence of Jewtown.
Kazakhstan friend of all except Uzbekistan.
They very nosey people with bone in their brain.

Kazakhstan industry best in the world.
We invented toffee and trouser belt.
Kazakhstan’s prostitutes cleanest in the region.
Except of course Turkmenistan’s

Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan you very nice place.
From Plains of Tarashek to Norther fence of Jewtown.
Come grasp the mighty penis of our leader.
From junction with the testes to tip of its face!

Harmless Diversion Alert: Zork!

Never having very good hand-eye co-ordination, I didn’t play many video games when I was young. It was embarrassing to be so bad at them. I did, however, like text adventures. My favorite text adventures where by Infocom, synonymous with the Zork series. Imagine my delight at finding Dave Lebling and Marc Leblances Zorks I though III available at:

http://www.infocom-if.org/downloads/downloads.html

Download them, unpack, double-click the batch file and you’re smack dab beside the mailbox with the leaflet inside which reads:

"WELCOME TO ZORK!

ZORK is a game of adventure, danger, and low cunning. In it you will explore
some of the most amazing territory ever seen by mortals. No computer should be
without one!"

I couldn't agree more!

While the CD turns 25 today, L Ron is sticking to vinyl

From today's Times, The industry may dismiss this as a fleeting trend [DRM free Music], but one group is taking it very seriously indeed. Having decided that no digital format is stable enough for posterity, the Church of Scientology has been pressing the collected thoughts of L. Ron Hubbard on to futuristic, nondigital, unbreakable, good old-fashioned vinyl.

A Very Boston Tea Party Moment For Me

On arriving home yesterday, I found a nice young women on my doorstep issuing licenses to our two pussy cats, Harry and Gracie. Licenses for pussy-cats? Since when, I asked. Since 1988 she said. Where is it written, I asked. It just is, she says. Here's a brochure. It read, in part:

Animal licensing
The Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 349, requires that all dogs and cats owned in the City of Toronto must be licensed and wearing a tag. By licensing your dog or cat, Animal Services will make every effort to reunite you with your pet.

Every effort? Bullshit! It turns out that the municipal bylaw only came into practice (by stealth?) on January 1st of this year. Why does my cat need a license? Well, because of all the services the city provides to our animals. Provides? Neutering and spaying of cats, the brochure says? I remember putting that on my Visa. My cats have private health. When my cat has gone missing, the humane society did their bit. All Toronto did was give me the Humane Society's telephone number. Cat rescue? Never, ever has the city done anything for my cats. The one time I requested help after my Siamese had spent 3 days in a tree in deepest January after having been chased there by an unleashed dog, no one would help. 'You've never heard of a cat falling out of a tree dead from starvation, have you?,' they said. No, I admitted I hadn't. What of the cat we found last year. The city didn't do anything except details. It turned out that when we took the cat to our vet a week later hoping to adopt him, one scan with the chip wand revealed that he was a patient of the very surgery. The grateful owners had been searching for their pet for weeks and had (as had we) contacted the city numerous times about the cat. And what if I don't get a license for my cat? I will be subject to a C$250 fine. There are tax grabs and there are tax grabs and this one takes the friskies. Further investigation reveals that the city has hired students over the summer to go house to house to license moggies and note the unlicensed ones. What is this? Eastern Germany. And what are the economics of sending people door to door with glossy literature licensing cats for the princely sum of C$15. The mind boggles. In any event, I can sleep soundly at night knowing that my cats are legal. How will you sleep?

Straight lining it!

Now that's a chart (VMW-N) you can get to like.

The biggest flotation since Google, VMW supplies software that everyone will use but no-one will ever see. Say goodbye to rack computers and hello mainframes? I am not sure. But it will be interesting to watch this one. When Google (GOOG-N) floated using a dutch auction it the market running at $108 and is now US$505 (as I write). Now if Google could just make entry into the Enterprise!

UFOs over Haiti; Even Lincs Can't Beat This!

OK. I am a hypocrite. On the one hand I doubt the efficacy of the Space Shuttle. On the other hand, I would be very surprised if we were all alone in the Universe. And I enjoy the sociology of UFOism. And while undoubtedly, the above is a prank. It is a very good prank nonetheless.

Doesn't Look Good Does It?

To the right (the other right!) you can see the damaged tiles on the Space Shuttle. While the scale is hard to work out, you can see how deep the chip goes, practically to the Space Ship's inner hull. I am almost sure they will have to repair this. And while I know I have been harping on about the Space Shuttle, but I really do think it has become an expensive, and, moreover, dangerous anachronism. There may have been a time and place for manned space exploration -- and even here I have my doubts -- but if there is still a case for Space Exploration (which is itself rather an oxymoron) can't it be conducted without living, breathing humans.

It's Good To Know That Some Things Never Change

Russian news agency Interfax is reporting that thieves have stolen a three-tonne meteorite from the yard of the Tunguska Space Event foundation, whose director said it was the part of meteor that caused a massive explosion in Siberia in 1908. The massive three tonne rock was bought to Krasnoyarsk after an 2004 expedition to the site of the so-called "Tunguska event'' - a mysterious mid air explosion over Siberia in 1908 was 1,000 times more powerful than the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 and felled an estimated 80 million trees over 2,150 square kilometers (830 sq mi). The foundation's director Yury Lavbin claimed to have discovered the wreckage of an alien spacecraft during the expedition.

"It winds up that it disappeared said Lavbin. "Our colleagues are establishing what got lost, where the rock is and why they only came to us about it now,'' he said.

Via - Interfax

I knew it!

When Nazi's Have it Right

Gather 'round while I sing you of Wernher von Braun,
A man whose allegiance
Is ruled by expedience.
Call him a Nazi, he won't even frown,
"Ha, Nazi, Schmazi," says Wernher von Braun.

Don't say that he's hypocritical,
Say rather that he's apolitical.
"Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down?
That's not my department," says Wernher von Braun.

Some have harsh words for this man of renown,
But some think our attitude
Should be one of gratitude,
Like the widows and cripples in old London town,
Who owe their large pensions to Wernher von Braun.**

You too may be a big hero,
Once you've learned to count backwards to zero.
"In German oder English I know how to count down,
Und I'm learning Chinese!" says Wernher von Braun.

Wernher von Braun, perhaps NASA's most famous Nazi, had it right through when he argued that
rockets must be symmetrical from tip to tail. Having irregular protuberances anywhere along
the profile of the rocket -- solid rocket boosters, an auxiliary fuel tank and all the pipes,
cables and trusses holding everything together -- at the speeds and forces that a spacecraft
is subjected to shaking off its earthly shackles and re-acquiring them is bound to folly. And
so has it proved with this last space shot. NASA reports today that they will extend the mission
by another three days to determine (and repair if necessary)this twenty-odd year old's spaceship's
space-worthiness. Isn't it time to give the old bird a rest?