Public Service

I found this entry on National Geographic Traveler and found it important enough to share:
2. Trash your “cookies,” small files (stored in your Internet browser) that record the websites you surf—and the transactions you make. Say you go online and purchase a $200 plane ticket from Chicago to Omaha. The next time you visit that site, you could be quoted a higher rate than what’s actually available because of your spending history. Avoid this problem by deleting these files each time you log on; detailed instructions can be found under the “Help” option in your browser menu.
Now the cookie thing is common knowledge if you’ve been on the internet for any length of time. However, as (occasionally) blur as I can get, I didn’t think that the airlines would use purchasing history AGAINST you…
The most expensive part of my travel is usually airfare. I generally dun stay at fancy schmancy hotels at my destination (because that’s money best spent on FOOD and Booze); rather I stay at hostels for both the experience and economy. Don’t get me wrong, I looove fancy schmancy hotels. But unless I’m planning a rendezvous of some sort, the money spent on a fancy schmancy hotel is better used for food. And booze. And cigars.

So long entry short, delete your cookies in your browser before you do any kind of airfare hunt.

Bender is two

My Powerbook is two years old.
Still looking spiffy, it’s been all over the world, like my Ixus. And me.
But Bender (that’s its name) has a bum battery. It’s been charged 383 times over two years and has lost over 3/4 of its ability to hold a charge. And yes, my iPod is named “Dr. Zoidberg”. Futurama reference anybody?
Those of y’all that have a laptop understand my pain here. Because a new battery is US$150!!!
That’s a lotta chump change!
Urgggggg…

What’s worse then no DSL?

No dial up!
My land line went down today. No dial tone. Nothing.
Phone company says “it may be fixed between now and friday”.
Funny how they want to be paid IMMEDIATELY but when they have to do something, you get fuzzy time…
Grrrrr.

Upgrade Complete!

Took a tad more work this AM, but got the NetPBM module to generate thumbnails of pictures with a little help from IPC Run!
I know, waaay too much geek speek this early in the day…
Here’s a lion from a fren’s wedding.

There’s a tradition during the lion dance that you throw oranges for good luck. At this wedding, an orange, hurled from one end of the room, hit a waiter square on the head on the other side of the room. He cursed up a blue streak in Guangdongwa, despite the fact that he probably is more familiar with some of the obscure traditions than anyone else in the room!

The Longest 3 hours

Six Apart has released the latest version of Movable Type, 3.2, a long overdue overhaul of its blogging software. With lots of anti-spam goodness. And because this goodness is built in, it should make leaving comments easier!
The upgrade instructions seem simple enough.
Replace files in your installation with the files in the upgrade package. Make sure permissions are correct. Then log in as you usually do and blammo, it upgrades itself. Sounds easy, right? Not by a long shot!

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Eternal Truths

Sometimes we need reminders of the eternal truths, just to keep us grounded. For example:
Beautiful women are beguiling,
Checks you write for property tax get cashed immediately (overnight!) while checks the City owes take 16 weeks to show up,

The “right” travel deal NEVER comes along at the right time,

And the most relevant eternal truth, at least regarding this entry (drum roll please),

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