Slacker-tude
In Chris Ward-Johnson's "Dr Keyboard" posting today, I'm linked because last week Chris mentioned in passing that there weren't any "chapesses" associated with the group of chaps that had been harrassing him about his posts or lack thereof. I emailed Chris to remind him that, as he already knows, I do occasionally post my "Musings" on these pages. Unfortunately, I have a job and a life and therefore, it's not that I don't want to post daily but rather that I don't have time to post daily. Okay, so part of the problem is also that I don't have that much to report (How much do you really want to know about software licensing agreements?) and besides, 98% of what I deal with is under NDA anyway so I could tell ya but then I'd have to kill ya! Not good-- tends to lead to decreasing readership, y'know?
Short Date
Scott Kitterman writes:
I hate to tell you, but the short date versus long date business turns out to be a hoax. Pournelle published it a few months ago and it was quickly outed. All the short versus long change does is change how the data is displayed. It has no impact on the internal representation of the data.To which I replied:Scott Kitterman
kitterma@erols.com
Thanks for your email, Scott.Before I responded to Scott's email, I checked with Brian cuz I wanted to make sure that it wasn't a hoax. (If there's anything Brian dislikes more than computer virus hoaxes, I have yet to find it!) Having confirmation in hand, as it were, I responded so, we'll have to see if Scott takes the challenge to leave his computer with the short date on it. As I said, I don't want to take the chance.Remember in my "Musings" where I said that Brian had known about the
problem last summer but had forgotten to tell me about it? Its because
last summer they did a Y2K test and, guess what? The short date failed
when they turned over the fiscal year at his office on July 1; when they
"fixed" the short date to a long date, it worked and everything has run
fine since then.Well, let's see, you could not adjust your computer and we'll see
who's up on January 1? Sorry, I don't want to take the chance! :>)Thanks again,
Marcia
Trivial Pursuit, Millenium Edition
From time to time, we all take advantage of our particular posts in this world and recommend (or not, as the case may be) various products and services. This is one that I can definitively say: Do NOT buy this product! There are probably half as many question cards as with any other of the editions of Trivial Pursuit but, in addition to that, when we were playing, we found at least four (4) grossly incorrect questions/answers. If these people are going to set themselves up as "trivia experts" and publish a game that is supposed to be accurate, then they should do that but, when they fail miserably, they should also post those short-comings. I am extremely happy to know that we didn't pay full price for the product; we purchased the game at a "discount" house so we paid probably 1/2 of the "Manufacturers' Suggested Retail Price". If we had paid full price, I'm pretty sure I'd be contacting a lawyer now.
No, this is not just me complaining about this product but, I have tried and tried and tried-- I have a series of approximately six weeks of emails (me to them and their computer responses) trying to get a resolution to some of these questions. Unfortunately, I only get "form letter" emails with the names of companies who are looking for people who want to be hired as trivia question writers and how to contact them. As much as I enjoy "creative writing", I think my conscience wouldn't let me work for these people; they obviously don't possess the kind of integrity that I possess and require of my employer.
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