Bart Tender

Watching Quincy, it occurs to me that Mo in the Simpsons is remarkably similiar to Danny of Danny's bar (a common bar in Quincy). Same look, same accent. It might be where Groening got Mo.

USB Flash Disk Alert and General Backup Tips

I've lost a few replaceable files when I took out a USB flash disk too soon and found the disk was corrupt, had no files listed, and had to be reformatted.

The solution: I worked out that when you right-click the USB drive in My Computer and click 'Eject', then the name changes to 'Removeable Drive'. Then you must count FIVE seconds before removal. This gives the USB disk time to save all data. When I practise this, I have lost no data in a while.

Perhaps equally obvious: Buy 2 identical flash disks and copy 1 to the other once a week, then if one flash disk gets corrupted, you only lose a bit of data.

Tomorrow, I will write a tutorial for Total Commander on how to synchronise one disk to the other - without having to re-copy all the data!

Postscript: One way to be absolutely sure is to wait for the USB drive's LED/light to stop flashing and go dark. But always wait a few seconds AFTER it going dark to avoid data corruption.

"could agree more" VS "could care less"

Here's the answer to that question: American's don't speak English!

     http://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2009/02/could-care-less-or-couldnt-care-less.html

The Grad from HP

I remember, in my first year at University, I went to a talk in the business school, where a guy, a graduate from this University who was giving a talk to us, told us he had got a job with HP after graduating. All well and good, until...

He pointed to a chart, and said HP has profits of 60 billion dollars.

Profits? Shouldn't that be revenues? Is this guy barely competent?

It was then that I realised why the world of technology is so fucked up - it's suit guys like this guy, who don't know a damn thing!

Windows 007

Bond: Do you expect me to crash?

Gates: No, Mr. Bond - I expect you to die!

Smoking Considered Productive

It came to me recently that if you smoke, you can achieve more boring tasks. Merely chainsmoking the cigarette or cigar means time passes more smoothly, because you're in a constant state of euphoria.

So what about other drugs? Alcohol has the problem that it destroys brain cells, amphetamines can cause serious problems, but tobacco or nicotine only has problems much later.

I'm not condoning it, and I don't smoke, but I think tobacco is why the British Empire grew so big.

Movie Cliche #2 - I'm Innocent

In every prison film, and some legal dramas, there is a point where the hero says "I'm innocent really", and the other guy says "I'm innocent too! We all are!".

Well I want to call a halt! Next time try something original like "I'm not innocent at all. I'm a savage mindless killer with black teeth" - and then - "I'm guilty too! We all are!"