Barbie kicked out of West Virginia? March 4, 2009
Posted by Matsu in Humor, News, News and politics.2 comments
This is such a strange story. A state representative in West Virgina has introduced a bill that the Mattel doll known as “Barbie” should be outlawed in that state. Whoa. What did she ever do to that state representative? Huh?! Is there nothing more important going on that you could work on? Any problems in your state, like the economy or maybe health care? At the very least, they could they pick on someone their own size?
You don’t believe me? Wander over and read this news article. Needless to say, many of the fine citizens of West Virginia think this whole thing is rediculous and are ready to throw out the person who introduced the anti-Barbie bill and wasting everyone’s time.
Ten signs your son might be a hacker January 31, 2009
Posted by Matsu in Fun, Humor, Information Technology, Open Source, Security.add a comment
Yes, you read correctly. There are ten (10) signs that your son (or daughter) might be a hacker.
This is from an old post that’s been around a while, but I just happened to stumble across it today.
My favorite is sign number eight, which is:
8. Is your son obsessed with “Lunix”?
BSD, Lunix, Debian and Mandrake are all versions of an illegal hacker operation system, invented by a Soviet computer hacker named Linyos Torovoltos, before the Russians lost the Cold War.
It is based on a program called “xenix“, which was written by Microsoft for the US government. These programs are used by hackers to break into other people’s computer systems to steal credit card numbers. They may also be used to break into people’s stereos to steal their music, using the “mp3″ program.
Torovoltos is a notorious hacker, responsible for writing many hacker programs, such as “telnet”, which is used by hackers to connect to machines on the internet without using a telephone.
You can read all ten signs that your child may be a hacker on this website. They are very funny.
Amusing Sushi Bar Etiquette Video December 17, 2008
Posted by Matsu in Fun, Humor, Japan.add a comment
A friend posted a link to this YouTube video on Facebook.
If you have ever lived in Japan you will pick up on all of the hidden meanings behind it, but even if you have never even visited Japan you should pick up on much of the humor. Trust me, this is a very satirical look at the Japanese sushi bar.
Disclaimer: Please don’t believe what you see in this video or use this actually learn proper sushi etiquette. If you do, you are totally on your own!
Running out of cell phone numbers September 27, 2008
Posted by Matsu in Apple, Business, Humor, Information Technology, Technology, Web.Tags: AT&T, cell phone, iPhone
2 comments
Seeing this article about the upcoming IP number shortage reminded me of a recent experience I had with cell phones and cell phone numbers.
A couple of weeks ago I (with the help of my wonderful assistant) ordered about eight iPhones for a department where I work. Two of the phones were just upgrades to existing plans, but the other six were new service, so we were expanding the number of corporate cell phones on our account. That would seem to be a normal not-so-exciting routine process. Well, you’d be surprised at what a chore it was to get the vendor (AT&T) to ship the new phones.
Right away, after ordering the new phones through AT&T’s corporate customer website, we received e-mail confirmation of the phone order. Then, in about 24 hours we received several e-mail notices as the first of the eight phones were shipped. About two days after the order, all but three iPhones were on their way to me. But, three days later, we still had not received notice that the last three phones were shipped. When we called AT&T they told us those last three iPhone orders were “stuck” in the website. WHAT does that mean? They said to just wait and see if they will get “unstuck” on their own. I had a very tight deadline to roll out these phones and didn’t have time to wait for sticky websites. So, after much pressure on our AT&T account rep. and after many calls to the AT&T corporate support call center, they finally got the idea that we couldn’t wait any longer. After all, the rest of the cell phones part of the same order had already been received so it wasn’t a problem with the way we ordered the phones.
Finally, one of the people we spoke to shed some light on the problem — AT&T has run out of phone numbers, so the new iPhones that were added to our account had no phone number and couldn’t ship until AT&T could go wherever they go to ask for additional phone numbers for this part of the country. Isn’t that the wackiest thing you ever heard? I was really surprised that they had not seen this problem coming as they use up and assigned phone numbers to new phones every day. Surely, they have systems in place to monitor things like the amount of spare (unassigned) phone numbers left in their pool of numbers. It should not have caught them off guard the way it did.
So, the next time you are told by AT&T that your cell phone order is “stuck” in the website, know that they really mean they are stuck without any phone numbers and are scrambling to get more telephone numbers to assign their new cell phone customers.
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The following YouTube video has nothing to do with this post, other than the fact that I just purchased eight iPhone 3G phones from AT&T. The “will it blend” series cracks me up and I thought I’d share the video where they guy puts a new iPhone 3G into the blender to see what happens.
See your reflection in others July 2, 2008
Posted by Matsu in Family, Friends, History, Humor, Japan, Photography, Weblog.3 comments
It is interesting how much one learns of themselves by interacting with others. Yes, by interacting with people around you it helps you see yourself better and therefore you end up knowing yourself.
In the past several years I’ve worked with a person who has brought into focus the amount of influence my upbringing has affected my personality and character. I grew up in Japan. In fact, I spent most of the first 18 years of my life there, with the exception of three times when we lived in America for a year each time while on furlough. Well, the oriental influence on me is inescapable. And, this co-worker has been like a highly reflective mirror and given me a better view of myself and how I’ve been shaped by the oriental influences of my childhood.
One of the characteristics of oriental society is subtle communication. So, when I saw this photo posted on the Kyoto Daily Photo blog, I laughed out loud. It typifies how subtle the Japanese people can be, and by extension, how I am at times. The theme for the July 1st daily photo blog photos is “no.” The assignment is to take photos of signs that say “no” or “not permitted.” So, the photo of a walking path of large stepping stones with a single smaller stone sitting atop the first step means, “do not enter,” in the social language of Japan. That is a wonderful example of how small and subtle communication is in Japan — and while it’s subtle, I find it also to be crystal clear and almost obvious. But, that’s just because I think in those same terms.
So, thank you Bert for giving me a better view of myself and through that awareness, making this photograph that much more meaningful and amusing.
Disclaimer: The photo used in this post has nothing to do with the Kyoto Daily Photo blog. I wanted to use the stone path photo, but I didn’t have permission. Therefore, I found a good friend’s photo on the Wilmore Daily Photo blog site and used it without his permission. Hey, what is a friend going to do, sue me? Oh, oh! He seems to be tight with the local police. Maybe I should reconsider my attititude!
