The Onion

Sometimes, people just don't get satire. It can get very comical at times, like when a Chinese daily printed a translation of an article from The Onion assuming it to be a credible news source. Another instance (though not exactly satire this time) was when the information on a website on di-hydrogen-monoxide was used by a city council to almost ban the use of this chemical in producing styrofoam cups.

The Personal Space Concept

Remember the MTV lift-man - the guy with the bald pate and missing teeth who would rant about the new generation and the stuff shown on MTV? A series of close encounters with the young college going crowd has made him my hero. Pity I couldn't find the guy's pic on the net.
My pet peeve so far had been about dull conversations being shoutcasted to all unwilling listeners at restaurants. But my experience at a dance fest yesterday makes this chitter chatter tolerable.
It happened at a dance fest called Prayog at the Chowdiah Memorial Hall yesterday. I had taken a seat right next to the aisle. There isn't much of a gap between rows of seats at this hall. This young thing comes in to take a seat somewhere in the middle of my row and I withdraw as much as possible to make way. Then she spots a friend in the the aisle. A long exchange of pleasantries begins. The nubile thing stands facing me. If I had a navel fetish I wouldn't be complaining (but I'm a pretty normal guy you see). For a minute or so I tried to act cool about it, fixing my gaze on random things on either side. When the giggle fest didn't show any signs of ending I decided to reclaim my rightful personal space. I finally looked up and asked her politely to either move in or out. The encroacher moved out with a sheepish grin.
Note to Kamath: The girl didn't say "Excuse me uncle" at any time during this incident - I was genuinely aggrieved. And I eagerly await your blog's launch.

Urban Legends

Can Coke dissolve nails? Should mobile phones be switched off near petrol pumps? Check out urban legends at snopes.com.

Smashing the Stack

A classic article on how to get a shell from an application with a buffer overrun: http://www.insecure.org/stf/smashstack.txt
Read the jargon file if you are interested in hacker slang, writing style and culture. Hacking need not anything to do with computers. The MIT Hack Gallery contains some interesting hacks.

Kibology

Hilarious! The Kibology FAQ. If you really want to know about Kibology check out the Wikipedia entry.

Reflections on Trusting Trust

An article by Ken Thompson on the cutest program he ever wrote: http://www.acm.org/classics/sep95/.

Moo

The cow is of the bovine ilk; One end is moo, the other, milk.

-Ogden Nash

More quotes ...

Lactose Intolerance

I often find myself in awkward situations when visiting friends or relatives. The standard beverages offered are tea, coffee or milk and I end up looking like a fussy character when I refuse all the "options". Not everyone has the enzymes to digest lactose in milk yet few people know about lactose intolerance. I can have curds though since the lactose is already broken down. Ice creams are OK too since contrary to popular belief, there is little or no milk in most ice creams. Many ice cream brands sold are made using vegetable oil unless they specifically claim to be selling dairy ice cream.

Power Napping

What do you do when you feel drowsy after lunch at work?
Try power napping. It works very well for me and some others I know at work. Fifteen minutes to half an hour suits me fine.
Sleep study seems to be serious business looking at the number of sites dedicated to everything about sleep.

Chacha Choudhary and Spiderman

Our Chacha Choudhary has a website too. Check it out. Who says you need to wear tights to be superhero? Spiderman is switching to dhoti too.

HitchHiker's quote

"You know, it's at times like this when I'm trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space that I really wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was young!" "Why, what did she tell you?" "I don't know, I didn't listen."

E-mail disclaimers

Ever wonder why your employer adds those stupid e-mail disclaimers that begin with "If you are not the intended recipient ..."? Well here's a site that collects stupid disclaimers.
Some funny parodies that you can use in your mails.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is an excellent online encyclopedia. Check it out here.

meee.
Test post to get the pic into the blog.

So Sito has got a shiny new GMail account now. Wonder how many posts I need in my blog to get mine? Sigh ....