Advice for system builders

If you’re decided to take the plunge and buy a bunch of parts to build a new computer system, good for you! It’s the only sane way to get the best PC out there. Just keep in mind that SLI != Crossfire, and that your choice of motherboard has consequences in what kind of video card setup will work for you. I have a commercial account with my parts provider and my rep was able to straighten things out quickly, but it’s still best to avoid making the mistake in the first place!

I’m sure these people know what they’re doing!

Today I received an email from ThinkEnergyGroup that had this in the subject line:
“5 secrets for Writer’s to Earn More Money”.

They may have the “secrets” part down, but something tells me that they’re not quite that up on the “writing” part. A mistake like that happens all the time on blogs and forums, but when it comes to official marketing and other official documents it leaves one looking careless and foolish.

When you put it like that…

The Coincidence Theorist’s Guide to 9/11. Everyone knows that such an unlikely convergence of factors and events must absolutely and without fail be due to pure, unintentional dumb luck.

Online gaming just hit a new low, apparently.

World of Warcraft player assaulted in home, computer vandalized by sore loser’s husband. Seriously, this is pretty sad, but then it appears that the victim made an ass of himself AND gave the loser player his home address, so it’s pretty safe to say that no MENSA members were hurt in the incident. That said, WoW really does seem to bring out the very worst in people.

A turning point in the drug war?

Officers in botched raid plead guilty to manslaughter; reveal that evidence is planted on wounded or dead suspects routinely. If this sort of crime committed by police doesn’t cause a rethink in the US’s medieval drug laws, then I don’t know what will. Is keeping some people from putting stuff in their own bodies justification enough for turning law enforcement officers into criminals with badges?

Tired of waiting for you…

No, this isn’t some whine about love’s labor lost, but my attitude towards the Nintendo Wii. Seriously, this thing’s been out for months, and you still can’t get one for the retail price at any store in Montreal (as far as I can tell). Ridiculous.

Continue reading Tired of waiting for you…

Tony’s Tune of the Day for April 25th 2007.

Love Story by Shirley Bassey. I’ve been getting into lounge music quite a bit recently and this is a fine, fine piece (plus, the video is cute). The idea that I’m even plugging an Andy Williams tune sung by Shirley Bassey must be a sign that I’m getting old — and indeed I certainly feel that I’m getting older faster these days. Still, it’s not often these days that you hear a singer who really knows how to sing…

I think it’s safe to describe him as ‘not at all well’.

Man cuts off penis in restaurant. Of course the restaurant would have to be called “Zizzi”, wouldn’t it… (“zizi” is a childish slang term for penis in French).

China and spam.

I always used to wonder why there was an option, in many spam engines, to block out any mail coming from China (the country). It didn’t seem to me like that big a deal, and anyway stuff coming from Russia seemed far more suspect to start with. Until this past week. You see, it appears that Chinese ISPs filter outgoing mail and harvest outgoing email addresses, selling the address lists to spammers.

Continue reading China and spam.