11.17.2008

Human Contact, with Computers. Also: Sexy Terrorist?



ITEM 1!!!

I returned to the lovely apartment of one of the profs in the UC program to work my magic on her and her husband's computers again yesterday evening.* This is a good deal for everyone: they get free computer repair / configuration and I get to be around other human beings. I was fed foods including:
  • Green vegetables!
  • Shallots (which are so much better and more interesting than onions! Who knew?)
  • Steak!
  • Beer!
So that part was great. The part that wasn't great was the husband's new laptop's operating system. I've only had a few brushes with Windows Vista, since it was just coming on the scene as I was on my way out of the temp tech job at the astrophysics dept. two years ago. The press on it has been uniformly awful, and GOOD GOD DAMN, people, the press was right. It's a bloated, slow, confusing, convoluted sack of shit. Things that were straightforward and responsive in Windows XP take four times as long in Vista, assuming you can find them at all.

The thing that really frustrated husband was that his reliable old workhouse of a printer doesn't work with Vista, either. And no one has or is going to write a new driver for it, so now he and prof have to think about buying a replacement, on top of the money they just spent on the new laptop.

ITEM 2!!!

While making the rounds on my usual news sites this morning, I came across THIS charming fellow:



Per this BBC article, this is supposedly the military leader of the Basque separatist movement the ETA. At first I thought "my goodness, what a dashing swarthy rogue is this!" But then I noticed something: the fashion mullet. He's sporting what appears to be a teased and product-using party in the back with a fashionable close-cropped deal in front, all held together by the George Michael facial hair scene.

He was probably captured because it was so easy to track him down by the smell of hair gel and the moans of disappointment from the ladies as they realized he had a mullet. Unless Basque separatist girls are into that kind of thing.

Anyway, I'm back to the BNF this afternoon after trudging over to the Monoprix to deal with the checkout ladies this morning. I am out of wine, pesto, and cheese, you see.

* By "my magic" here, I mean magic comparable to a primitive card trick. Or anything that GOB would have done on Arrested Development - say the Aztec Tomb.

4 comments:

FOSCO said...

I love the Aztec Tomb.

I also kinda have a mild crush on the mullet terrorist... You can't judge Europeans (or terrorists for that matter) by your anti-mullet standards. I mean, he's a freedom fighter! (Or something. To tell the truth, I only have the sketchiest understanding of who he is and what he stands for. Even so, I think I love him.)

kungfuramone said...

The ETA has always been one of my favorite bands of rag-tag terrorists/freedom fighters, as they endorse a whole mish-mash of leftist politics on top of wanting a Basque state in the Pyrenees.

And you're right: who am I to judge a mullet that carefully crafted? If I allow Australians to do it, I should welcome the Basques, too.

Ransom said...

Shallots! Yes! Perhaps you don't want to start substituting them everywhere you'd normally use an onion, but there are many places where they are quite superior!

Vista! No! Vista blows! As of Sunday evening, I think I'm not far off in saying that my most recent Linux installation (Kubuntu 8.10) was easier than my most recent Windows installation. No command line stuff. No nCurses stuff. All-GUI, two or three questions. Though I did have to figure out why I had no sound. (Strangely, by default in 8.10 the PC speaker and PCM sound are turned all the way down, and are by default not visible in the mixer widget). And KDE 4 is purty.

Dolce Vita said...

You know how to do the Aztec Tomb! Maybe you could teach me and I could perform it... on Newport Beach... do draw human contact. (I may be in the heart of en famille, but my stage of professionalization is lonely).

No mullet. No way. He can pull this off in Europe, but geography cannot overcome my opposition.