David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest: Recommended by Erk. Loving it so far, still early on.

Edward Tufte’s _Envisioning Information_: Halfway through. I wanted The Visual Display of Quantitative Information but the bookstores I checked didn’t have them and I have no patience. I’m looking forward to the next every-day-use of a stem and leaf plot. That should say something.

Kevin Mitnick’s Uh, latest silly hacker book. I don’t remember the title and it isn’t on kevinmitnick.com anywhere easy to find, what gives? _Art Of Intrusion_: Hyped, not nearly as good as the last one, which isn’t saying much. Borrow my copy, don’t waste your money. Oh, I used to make fun of Quake clan pages that had q1 graphics and red text on black backgrounds. Yay red text on black backgrounds. Still trite.

Bonus: David Allen’s Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity: I’ve not gotten this done yet. There is always something that pops up or whatever… Maybe I should get a book on time management, or maybe something about seeing things through to the end. Hrmm… Recommended. I said “open loops” the other day in a meeting. Fucking open loops man. All this managing is going to my head.

Grant: talking to Anonymous at Anonymous laser vision correction office client of yours
» lcd unit bad » had it fixed » any idea how to focus their projector » ?
Ben: focus it? uh
Grant: yeah » talking to Anonymous
Ben: move the projector towards the wall? » never used their projector. its like a typical inFocus one though
Grant: right
–/-- snip
Grant: I have to say, the irony here is delicious » seeing as how they do laser eye surgery » they should just give the lecture with it out of focus, then sign people up for eye exams and then laser surgery » brilliant
Ben: yea, maybe she’ll go for that

If you place an Exchange 2003 server live immediately behind a linux box protecting it from spam and worms and then the linux box has a hardware failure, you will get this ever few hours until you fix the front end server:

A large number of messages are pending in the e-mail server send queue.

Verify that you have Internet connectivity. If you can view Web sites normally, contact your Internet service provider (ISP) to determine if there is a problem with their e-mail server.

You can disable this alert or change its threshold by using the Change Alert Notifications task in the Server Management Monitoring and Reporting taskpad.

If using an acronym once (ISP), is it really necessary to make it an acronym?

OK, no wonder I hated the game as a kid after the fun fighting-over-pieces-part…

• Some house rules omit the auction rule. That is to say, when a player lands on an unowned property and elects not to purchase it, the property remains unowned, rather than being auctioned among the other players. This rule tends to prolong the game by delaying the formation of monopolies. Furthermore, it increases the odds for a player with good dice rolls at the start of the game; a player who gets poor rolls and doesn’t land on unowned property at the start of the game can be shut out by a player who lands on more unowned property than he can buy. The official rules, in contrast, allow a cash-rich and property-poor player a better chance at competing with a player who is property-rich and cash-poor.
• A house rule acting to increase chance and time allows players to build on a certain property only when they land on it. The game is again prolonged greatly.

Brain: Uh, how else would one play?

Having never actually read the rules, I always took these as cannon.

A by-the-rules Monopoly party is in order.

Any other house rules not mentioned that you were raised with? We always put any money owed anywhere that wasn’t to an individual in the middle of the board to be had on a Chance or whatever…

Oh, I’m going to see NIN in Philly and you aren’t.

I’ve been grabbing feeds from a few locals recently and will be adding more until swamped. Recommendations?

• DCist
• DC SOB
• A Ten, A Five, and Five Ones Yuppie foodstamp reference?
• DCFoodies
• DC Blogers I know it’s petty but every once in a while I’ll run down the list and open all of the ones with their own domain name
• In Shaw
• Upcoming.org

Jef Raskin, the apple developer responsible for the name Macintosh, among many other things, Just died.

Bicycle was such a stupid name anyway.

Some of these I’ve seen elsewhere but would like to do my own, open a CafePress shop and sell. I have a few design ideas but would like to first open for submissions logo work for the below stolen and stupid ideas.

• Disaster Area

Dream analysis has as much scientific credence as thetans, subluxation, Sco’s Unix claims, or any press release from mi2g.

Perhaps the most trenchant criticism of Freud’s work is that it fails to have the necessary predictive and falsifiable elements required of any scientific theory. It can be argued that Freud’s work is really just a narrative that can be woven around any situation that a patient might present with.

Just a friendly reminder. No, that last link’s graph isn’t phalic.

I’m obviously acting out against repressed conflicts

While it’ll be closer than the current closest grocery store by a block or two at 17th & Kalorama, the new Harris Teeter isn’t opening until the fall of 2006. Right after the construction on 16th at Alaska will be done. Long after I probably move to another neighborhood.