ceramic owl mug

Michael Baird August 4th, 2006

Between Ted Stevens and a tech consultant.

Tech: Basically what you need to know is that all information on the internet is transmitted in small packets of information, and they travel through vast networks, some DSL, some cable, larger networks use T1 and T3 lines some of the fastest networks use OC-12 and OC-768.

Stevens: I’m not following you. I want to be able to communicate this clearly to the rest of the congress. What are the kids calling fast internet connections these days?

Tech: Well, fast is really relative to what you are used to. But if you feel you have a fast internet connection, some people used to call it a ‘fat pipe’.

Stevens: A pipe? Like a sort of tube?

Tech: Well kinda, they are relating it to a tube, not that..

Stevens: A tube! That makes perfect sense! No wonder the internet is so slow sometimes, some big companies must be clogging the internet tubes.

Tech: Well, that can’t technica….

Stevens: Hush up for a second. Did I ever tell you about the time I asked one of my interns to send me the internet so I could review it? It never even showed up! There has to be some way to stop those big companies from clogging the tubes. They think they can just dump all their data into the tubes like dump trucks and it won’t effect the rest of us.

Tech: Well, actually a lot of people find the information from the large companies to be extremely useful, and the web would nothing but a bunch of blogging morons if it weren’t for some usable content from companies like google, yahoo and amazon.com.

Stevens: I’m sorry, did you say something? I wasn’t listening.

• Thoughts
• Comments(0)

Michael Baird August 2nd, 2006

Got this article from boingboing. Maybe it will help.

ScienceCareers.org | Forty Winks: Science and Sleep: Levine: 28 July 2006

If you answer yes to any of the following questions, perhaps you should take a gander.

• Thoughts
• Comments(0)

Michael Baird July 19th, 2006

Apparently flickr is was having some issues and have posted a coloring contest for those flickr addicts that can’t help but be creative.

click on the thumbnail for the full size version.

• Thoughts
• Comments(0)

Michael Baird July 19th, 2006

If you ever wonder why your internet connection is running slow, its cause it takes a while to send it cross country.

I know this would have been fresh about two weeks ago, but I prefer a well aged cliche. I find them to be juicier and more flavorful.

• Thoughts
• Comments(0)

Michael Baird June 19th, 2006

His life no longer seemed like such a big deal, gotta or no gotta. albacore cable And the next.

Now his trembling hands flew up like startled birds and clapped against the sides of his head, as if to hold in his exploding brains. That would not do at all. And his buttocks. “Paul began to laugh. All the way through it. Her eyes widened and for just a moment she looked both startled and guilty — Naughty Annie instead of Nasty Annie. “I don’t believe anyone in Annie Wilkes Stadium — or in the home viewing audience, for that matter — thought he had the sly-test chance of getting that wheelchair moving after the blow he took, but I believe. avow

• Thoughts
• Comments(0)

Michael Baird May 26th, 2006

While looking for references to Ripple Wine on the internet, I rolled across a site that documented Christmas wishes from soldiers deployed in Vietnam.

I wonder where some of these guys are today and what they would say now to freshly deployed soldiers.

Also found a new term I had never heard of “Doughnut Dollie”

I don’t like war. I don’t like the idea of killing for any reason. I wonder if there is anything worth the costs involved (human and moral, not monitary). I’m sure under some circumstance there might not be any other choice but to fight, not sure what it would be though.

Anyway, if anyone can find me a bottle of finely aged Ripple, it would make an excellent Christmas present for myself and SP4 Tim Crowley of So. St. Paul, Minn.

• Thoughts
• Comments(0)

Michael Baird May 26th, 2006

I’m not really sure why, but i have a strange and recurring obsession with cheap and hobo-esque wine references.

I love to talk about Ripple, Mad Dog 20/20, Night Train, Thunderbird, etc.

I have never tried any of these brands, partly because I have never found them on sale, also because I have a fear of becoming a hobo.

My favorite reference is Ripple. I think it has to do with an old Dan Fogelberg, or was it John Fogerty, album my dad used to play. I can not be 100% positive this is were my knowledge for the reference comes from, but I am pretty sure.

Recently there has been a small uprising on the fringe of the wine-snob world regarding Wine in a Can. My only problem with the concept is that it seems to be good wine. Who wants to drink good wine out of a can? When I enjoy a nice wind with friends and family, there is a certain satisfaction in the process of selecting the bottle, removing the foil and maneuvering the cork out of its hidy-hole. I don’t think you can get this experience from a can (or a box for that matter)

I would have thought there would already be a hobo wine in a can, but I can’t seem to locate any reference on the internets.

If I could find Hobo Wine in a Can, I would keep some in my hobo wine cellar (Styrofoam cooler).

Peace in the Middle East.

• Thoughts
• Comments(0)

Michael Baird May 24th, 2006

Got plans for memorial day weekend? We are gearing up to drive down to the greater Peoria area this weekend. See the family. Hang out for a bit.

Hope everything goes smoothly. The wife has been under the weather for the last 3-4 days. Some sort of sinus infection.

• Thoughts
• Comments(0)

Michael Baird May 11th, 2006

Where do you get the job that lets you sit around and watch monkeys get drunk?

Drunken Monkeys

[via boingboing]

• Thoughts
• Comments(0)

Michael Baird April 27th, 2006

Thrilflight on a restored, vintage B-17 “flying fortress”

Saw this link on boingboing and it reminded me of when I was younger (15 or so years ago), I was fortunate enough to be visiting my grandfather in Larned, Kansas at the same time that one of these groups that restored a b-17 and a b-19 were in Hutchinson and we were all able to go on a flight on one of these awesome machines.

The best part of the whole experience was that my grandfather used to pilot one of these things over Germany in WWII (He supposedly flew a couple of missions with Jimmy Stewart). So before we took off, we explained the significance to the people in charge of the machines and while we were in air, they stepped back and let my grandfather take the controls for a good 15-20 minutes while in flight.

Now to understand how big of an event this was to him, you have to understand the type of man he presented himself to be. He was always a no-bullshit type of old man. I hardly ever new him to seem happy or act like he was enjoying what he was doing – whether it was running his Ford dealership or fixing irrigation systems in the middle of a corn field.

But when he took the controls of the b-19, his eyes filled with life like I had never seen before.

There used to be a website that had documented his plane (the shady lady, of which there were a few as I understand) and crew as well as some of their flights, but like so many things on the internet, it seems to have fallen to the wayside.

It wasn’t more than a year or two later when my grandfather had a serious stroke and was barely able to remember a face. I don’t know if there is anything to be learned from this other than the obvious.

• Photos , Thoughts
• Comments(0)