What Has Eight Arms and Juggles?

Otto the octopus, of course! Not only that, but this wily octopus can also smash his way out of the aquarium and wreak electrical havoc on the entire complex. I first heard this on Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! this weekend. An Austrian Times article elaborates: “Once we saw him juggling the hermit crabs in his tank, another time he threw stones against the glass damaging it. And from time to time he completely re-arranges his tank to make it suit his own taste better - much to the distress of his fellow tank inhabitants.” ...

Ian W. Parker

Thoughts on John McCain

Hayden Tompkins writes a blog titled Persistent Illusion. I’ve been reading her posts for some time now, and she continues to impress me. Her article today is called An American Hero. In it, Hayden addresses John McCain and the trials of his presidential campaign. Tompkins illustrates McCain’s patriotism well. With regard to the election last night, one particular point stuck out for me. It broke my heart to watch people boo John McCain as he attempted to end his campaign with a measure of dignity. Simply because he would not set verbal fire to the effigy, to the looming spectre, of Barack Obama as President-elect. John McCain deserved to be cheered, supported, and allowed one final moment of presidential statesmanship. ...

Ian W. Parker

Tossed into The Deep Friar

Have you ever met someone who can manage to make you laugh with almost every sentence they speak? Someone with a natural talent for wit? Well, I have found a site whose author has the gift of humor. The site is called The Deep Friar, and I don’t know what took me so long to find it. Friar has a spot on my links list now thanks to the laughter his articles have given me today, a day when I sorely needed some smiling medicine. ...

Ian W. Parker

Unix Toolbox

So far, this has been a great week for finding useful Unix/Linux reference on the Internet. The Unix Toolbox is a very lengthy, yet concise reference. This document is a collection of Unix/Linux/BSD commands and tasks which are useful for IT work or for advanced users. This is a practical guide with concise explanations, however the reader is supposed to know what s/he is doing. [caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“458.0”] cb.vu[/caption] ...

Ian W. Parker

Life Lessons at Zen Habits

Leo Babauta over at Zen Habits wrote a piece yesterday entitled 20 Things I Wish I Had Known When Starting Out in Life. This is a great read and contains such memorable gems as Tequila is seriously evil. I won’t go into details, but it should suffice to say that I had some bad experiences, and I’m not sure I learned very much from them or benefited in any way except to learn that tequila is the drink of the Devil. ...

Ian W. Parker

Why I still visit Daring Fireball daily

There are many times when I disagree with John Gruber of Daring Fireball, and there are times when I flat-out dislike what he writes. In fact, last week, I found myself considering removing his site from my RSS feeds in NetNewsWire, but I didn’t. Why? Because every once in a while, John writes something so precise, so true, and so entertaining, I am reminded of how intelligent he is. So while I may disagree with him all the time, his words are worth reading. He presents compelling arguments, even if he is a Yankees fan. ...

Ian W. Parker