A Big Announcement

Linnaeus and newmarket are pleased to announce…

…the engagement of their respective keyboardists, Heidi and Josh!

The two computers joined us here at BTN for a short Q&A session following the announcement.

So, Linnaeus, what are you most looking forward to about this new arrangement?

Does this mean I get wireless Internet at home?

Well, yes, it does.

WOOHOO! So, can you get married tomorrow?

Not so fast there, buddy. I know you’re excited about getting off the dial-up, but there are other priorities. Sometime next summer, probably.

But I want it now!

Yeah, well, life’s tough. newmarket, any thoughts from your side?

Heidi’s been talking about pruning me, since she says I’m an Apple. Yeah, but I’m not that kind of apple! Stop her! She’s scaring me!

OK, settle down. She’s just joking. She’s really not that bad — matter of fact, I kind of like her.

(sniffs) OK. But no pruning, and as long as Linnaeus doesn’t try to eat me again. Can we play more piggyback instead?

Linnaeus? How about it?

Maybe. You are promising the wireless, right?

Yep. You’ll be a full partner on the network. Actually, you already are when you come to visit.

Can I come to visit more, then?

Well, you’ll have to ask Heidi about that, but I don’t think she’ll object.

In all seriousness, we’re very excited. :) Thanks to everyone who’s commented, e-mailed, and/or passed along kind words since the news started to trickle out. And yes, if you’ve got books, we’ll take ‘em.

A Tale Of Two Boxen

H has a new computer. His name is Linnaeus.

We hoped that Linnaeus and my Mac newmarket would play nicely together, despite their size difference. Early indications were promising, as a game of “piggyback” developed.

But then Linnaeus got hungry, and, well…

I guess we can’t really blame him. After all, Malus domestica can be pretty tasty.

Even Geeks Get Old

Kareem of reemer.com remarked last week on the quick-changing nature of the digital experience among young adults:

[I]t’s hard to generalize how those in their mid-to-late 20’s interact with tech, since it came around as we were growing up. Younger generations, on the other hand, don’t know a world without the Internet…

I got a taste of that a year or two ago, when my dad (who learned his Internet at the same time as me) complained that my sister never responded to e-mail. To get her, he had to use AIM — which didn’t surprise me, knowing that she uses her profile as her main means of communication with a group she leads at school.

The real enlightening experience, though, has been watching my brother start at Tech this year. After I posted my last entry from the terminal at Hartsfield two weeks ago, I flew to Roanoke and drove to Blacksburg, where I crashed in the suite room of his dorm and met a couple of his suitemates for the first time.

One of his suite’s chief complaints with the dorm has been that VT CNS requires them to pay extra to have the Ethernet ports in their suite room activated. This is rather inconvenient when guests (like me) or classmates show up with laptops, hoping to plug in and achieve something while hanging out and watching a movie or a game. They asked me whether we’d had to deal with this when I lived in New Res East during its first year of construction (1998-99), and I felt a little old.

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A Word From Our Sponsor

And now for something completely different.

In honor of his recent retirement…

[Music starts]

Bud Light presents… Real Men of Genius.

(’80s singer guy: Real Men of Genius)

Today we salute you, Mister Control-Alt-Delete creator.

(Guy: Mister Control-Alt-Delete creator!)

When we’ve been working for hours, and suddenly the screen turns blue, that’s when you shine.

(Chorus: I can’t believe it!)

Computer users all over the world swear by you… literally.

(Guy: I hate that guy!)

But in the end, they all know that without you, when their computer froze up, well, then they’d have to do actual work, instead of getting right back to surfing porn.

(Chorus: Gimme that porn)

So crack open an ice cold Bud Light, Mr. Control-Alt-Delete Inventor. And if the cash register locks up trying to check you out… well, you know what to do.

(Guy: Mr. Control-Alt-Delete In-ve-e-e-en-toooor)

Anheuser Busch, Redmond, Washington.

Blogules, 9 December 2003

The calendar over there to the left (if you’re looking at the front page) has been looking a bit lonely this month. At first, that was a consequence of MT using the current month every time the front page is rebuilt, which in turn happens every time someone posts a comment. Post an article on the last day of the month, get a comment after midnight, your full calendar disappears.

But that’s only an excuse for a couple of days, until you realize that your intrepid columnist (web-author? publisher? blogger? whatever) has just been busy/lazy. So there you go — all I can say is “my bad.”

As usual in times I’ve been lazy, there’s a backlog of small stuff that I can fashion into a semi-respectable post. So on with the show!

• Coming soon, I promise, will be a report from the 2003 Army-Navy Game and a commentary on the Richmond RiverDogs hockey game I attended a few weeks ago. I may also hit an education story out of Maryland that both Gerritt and his brother commented on last month, but that’s less certain.
• I’ve made a small change to my blogroll. Tim of Rink Blog made a spectacular exit from hockey blogging, angry (and in many ways justifiably so) at what the National Hockey League has become during Gary Bettman’s tenure as commissioner. I wish Tim well, but with his exit, I’ve added Backcountry Conservative to the roll in his place. BC is run by fellow Fanblogs.com contributor Jeff Quinton, who was kind enough to link to BTN — so I’ll return the favor. Jeff posts on, among other things, conservative politics, Clemson sports, and Georgetown basketball.
• Recent discovery: my iBook’s battery life has dropped like a rock. I’m getting about 2.5 hours using WiFi and the screen on full brightness — I used to be able to pull 4 hours out of that. This may settle the question on whether the iBook goes to Europe (oh, yeah, I’m heading for London and Dublin) all on its own. If I can’t watch a couple of DVDs on the plane without plugging it in (and carrying the extra power brick the airplane power ports would require), it may not be worth the hassle.
• Speaking of Europe, I’ve asked Matt to guest-write the BTN Insight Bowl report, as I will be taking off for Gatwick about the time the Hokies and Bears kick it off in Phoenix.
• The steel tariffs have been lifted. Given the political uproar, it was probably the best thing to do. The idea of giving in to European political manipulation (and oh, how they’re crowing about it) irritates me, but such is life.

More soon.