2007 year-end link clearance
A few random links that I've collected over the last six months.
- Catalog Choice helps you
get off the mailing lists of all those catalog companies.
The DMA's
Mail Preference Service
is a bigger hammer, addressing all unsolicited mail from member
organizations.
(via.)
- The Opposite of Backup and other stories of "backups that didn't"
reminds me of somebody who has a policy of,
once a week,
asking for a randomly-selected file to be restored from backup.
"It is amazing what you learn by doing this."
I've never tried doing it here at work,
though I've considered it on occasion.
- Microspotting
tracks down
The Golden Helmet.
- Seized alcohol used as fuel in Sweden.
- Battlefield deception by the U.S. Army's 23rd Special Troops,
whose job it was to create fake armies to fool enemy reconnaisance.
The story reminded me of
Jasper Maskelyne,
who performed similar tricks for the British, including
moving Alexandria Harbor and making the Suez Canal disappear.
(I note for completeness that the reports of Maskelyne's derring-do
have been disputed.)
- Researchers order medical products advertised via spam.
- It's an
XXL world after all.
MiceAge reports (third story) on the reason why the Small World
ride will be closed for renovations,
and why Scandinavia is partly to blame for you having to endure
the stupid song while you wait for the jam to be cleared.
- Next time you're stuck at Disneyland waiting for the Haunted House
or Pirates of the Caribbean ride to reopen,
it might be because
somebody scattered human ashes all over the ride,
and the staff is busy cleaning it up.
(via.)
- The
University of Washington surplus property public store
sells off property from various university departments.
The
online inventory
is kept up to date, and you never know what you're going to find.
-
Picking Up Girls Made Easy!
Man, if only I'd known about this instructional audio set earlier!
-
Pictures and narration from a randomly-selected Hong Kong wedding.
A glimpse into another culture.
The tea ceremony, the suckling pig, the three-dress rule,
the funny poem, the dummy cake...
(Okay, not all of those elements are traditional.)
-
Shawn Travers
fill in some of the details on
how to create a bootable Windows DVD.
-
Hand over the document and nobody gets hurt:
Watch a security researcher analyze some malware script.
-
Mattias Lindberg
shows us
how to use the moon as a compass.
And then the obligatory plug for my column in
TechNet Magazine,
which, despite the fact that Microsoft's name is on the magazine cover,
does not establish the official Microsoft position on anything.
