Surprising

Created by Auto Insurance.org

Tell that to the last 4 insensitive peace officers who ticketed me for insignificant things like doing 140 mph in a school zone, taking out 7 stop signs in a row, sending 5 doddering old crones to the emergency room and giving the Hawai'ian Good Luck sign to the Mayor's convoy.

Sheesh...

What the Intelligentsia are watching...

I have this cousin. He's about as ivory tower as you can get. Russian scholar, dabbles in painting, published playwright, ecclesiastical leader, university professor, patriarch, you name it. I'm surprised he condescends to watch TV at all. So what's his favorite show?

Law and Order. And I think that's a hoot.

I quote you a part of an email that he sent me the other day:

"What most engages us--a veritable addiction--is the TV series, "Law and Order." By now we relate to detectives Eliot and Olivia like our own kin. The series must help its various Manhattan based guest actors pay the rent, and all perform brilliantly. The realistic settings and directorial detail are unsparingly lavish in their variety. Unlike sci-fi and other fantasy plots, the scenarios come right out of the daily news, underscoring the latest controversies. Realistically, the good cops don't always win and justice doesn't always prevail. Talk about "right questions about human behavior"-- the series deserves the Olympic Gold. (I'm obviously applying for a p.r. job with its by now fabulously wealthy producer, Dick West.) There's even a Russian version with similar background music and effects, but neither it nor its actors come close."

So there you have it, L&O fans: a ringing endoresement from the rarified atmosphere of academia. It doesn't get any better than this...

What the Meep?

(Newser) – A Massachusetts principal has banned an unlikely word from school grounds: meep. The nonsensical word—it's from the character Beaker on The Muppet Show—has for inexplicable reasons gone viral. Meep was such an epidemic at Danvers High—where students were using Facebook to plan a mass meeping—that principal Thomas Murray sent out an automated call to parents warning of immediate suspension to any student who uttered it. "It has nothing to do with the word," Murray tells the Salem News. "It has to do with the conduct of the students. We wouldn't just ban a word just to ban a word."

There's hope yet. If I can just get "hqiz" on the national stage...

Writer's Block: Name your talent

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I think I'd like to be able to play the piano well. I mean, really well. I had lessons as a kid. I love music. I love to play by ear. And, I wasn't willing to put in the exceptional effort to become an exceptional player. So, since you asked...

Stealth Installation: No Thank You

Here's a perfect example of something that rubs me the wrong way.

While installing AVG free edition, I'm presented with this little dialog:



Notice the options I was given, and how they are nested. First of all, I don't like opt-out installations. These boxes should be unchecked by default. Second, logic (and long experience with GUI's) would dictate that if you uncheck the top one, the bottom one will also be disabled. Not so:



So if you're not paying attention, Yahoo! becomes your default search engine, and you open yourself up for more spam.

Now, don't get me wrong. I love AVG, it's worked wonders keeping my system free from malware. Someday I may actually upgrade to the paid version just to show my gratitude. But rule No. 1 for me is "All installations must be opt-in and not opt-out." Checking crap on my behalf that I may not want, and might miss if I'm in a hurry, is underhanded and deceptive. AVG's a good enough product that they shouldn't stoop to this particular tactic.

*yarg snarl snap yarg*