Category: Uncategorized

Sad Bear 1 by nedroid. Click to see the original.

Over at the site A Pointless Waste of Time, there’s a great essay by David Wong titled 7 Reasons Why the 21st Century is Making Us Miserable. Go read it, because I’ll talk about it later.

Sad Bear 2 by nedroid. Click to see the original.

For those of you who want a quick roundup of those seven reasons, here they are:

1. Not enough annoying strangers in our lives.
2. Not enough annoying friends, either.
3. Text = Bad communication.
4. Text = Less communication.
5. We’re not criticized enough.
6. The outrage machine.
7. We feel worthless because we’re actually worth less.

Sad Bear 3 by nedroid. Click to see the original.

Go read the essay (’cause it’s a worthwhile read and I’ll talk about it later), and feel free to discuss in the comments.

In case you were going to try and reach the Tucows’ head office (where I work), in Accordion City, please note that this Monday, August 7th, is a holiday in Canada. Across Canada, it’s known as “Civic Holiday”, but its name varies from province to province. Here in Ontario, it’s called “Simcoe Day” after Lord John Graves Simcoe, and the holiday’s sole purpose is to provide a long weekend in August. Gotta love it!

Here’s the official Tucows statement on what departments will be up and running:

On the upcoming Statutory Holiday in Ontario, which occurs on 07 August 2006, Tucows will be offering the following support hours:

07 August 2006:

Customer Support and Sales hours 1300 UTC to 2100 UTC.

(That’s 9:00 a.m. EDT to 5:00 p.m. EDT.)

Payments hours 1300 to 2100 UTC.

(Once again, 9:00 a.m. EDT to 5:00 p.m. EDT.)

Compliance department is CLOSED.

08 August 2006:

All departments OPEN as usual.

Please note that the Operations Department will continue to

monitor OpenSRS systems 24 hours per day, seven days per

week and Customer Support will be available via pager for

system-wide emergencies.

I myself will be enjoying the long weekend, but I just might sneak in a post in this blog.

Gideon Strauss points to an inspiring video put out by Pamela “Escape from Cubicle Nation” Slim, which is a call to become independent, start your own business and work for yourself. It’s a slicker version of Nathaniel Talbott’s presentation, Homesteading: A Thriver’s Guide, but the message is the same: work for yourself.

Even if working for yourself is not in your plans (I’ve done it before, it isn’t for me right now, but it may be someday), the video is worth watching, even if only to inspire yourself to great great presentations. I’ve included a few stills from the video below — click any of them to watch the video.

The Geek Hierarchy

As a reader of this blog, it’s likely that you tend to visit a number of nerd-oriented sites and have seen the Geek Hierarchy chart created by Lore Sjöberg on the Brunching Shuttlecocks site. Pictured below is the abridged version:

(Don’t know what a furry is? What, didn’t you see the CSI episode, Fur and Loathing in Las Vegas? Here’s the Wikipedia entry for “furry”.)

Star Trek-Based Furries

You might snicker at the concept of Star Trek furries, but believe me, they do exist. In fact, there’s a site devoted to stories that take place in a universe where furry versions of both Star Trek and Star Wars mileus co-exist called TrekWars: The Furry Conflict. Here’s a quick sampling of the Trek-based characters:

Ensign Brett Walick.

Captain Marc Xavier.

Lieutenant Commander Cyber Tiberius Hare (really!).

The Programming Language Hierarchy

Luke Welling has crafted his own hierarchy chart, The Programmer Hierarchy, which seems to pretty accurately display the opinions of the language pundits these days:

Here’s a good way to catch up on all your blog reading and still look like a dedicated employee: read your blogs using Workfriendly! Simply visit the Workfriendly page, enter the URL of the blog or web page you want to read and a pop-up window will appear. It’ll contain the text of the blog or web page you wanted to read, disguised to make it seem as if you’re editing a Microsoft Word document.

For instance, here’s this blog as it would normally appear:

And here it is, as shown by Workfriendly:

If you’ve got really nosy people reading over your shoulder, Workfriendly has the “boss key”: move the mouse cursor over this button, and the web page you’re reading will be replace by what looks like a Word document with hints on how to overcome procrastination.

Right now, Workfriendly has two themes: Windows XP Blue and Windows XP Silver. I’m sure if you nag them enough (there’s an email link on the Workfriendly page), they’ll make Mac- and Linux-themed ones.

Special Note to the Boss, the CEO and Tucows Investors

I am blogging this purely for entertainment value of Joe Middle Manager and Jane Office Worker and all whose purpose is to merely crank out TPS Reports. Unlike those mindless drones, I am working hard on all my current projects to maximize customer and shareholder value!

Here’s another post on dork — er — pocket bikes, inspired by my earlier post.

There’s a lot of work involved in making pocket bikes seem cool. Most of it involves posing women beside pocket bikes, either in comic form:

Or in real-life itchy-in-the-pants form:

However, the reality is less glamourous:

Far less glamourous:

Far, far, less glamourous:

Welcome to August! And by the way, today’s the day!

Today we’ll be holding the third “Ask Tucows” online chat session of the year. I and a number of my coworkers will participate in an online chat session where you’ll be able to ask us questions, make comments and suggestions and get to know us and the company a little better. Whether you’re a customer of ours, one of our customers’ customers, a developer who’s either building or thinking of building applications on our platform, an investor or just curious, you’re welcome to participate in the chat!

The chat will be held on the Tucows Chat site at chat.tucows.com today between 12:00 noon and 3:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (that’s 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon Pacific Daylight Time, or 16:00 – 19:00 UTC). The chat system is built right into the web page, which means that all you need is a browser to participate. Join us!