is it powered by RPGs?

What do you do after you've written the book on first-person shooters? Launch a rocket!

double-take headline

The town of Clones always makes for amusing headlines, even if inadvertently. (it's pronounced with emphasis on both vowels, for what it's worth)

VFI claims drop in business due to smoking ban

According to the Vitners' Federation of Ireland, there's been a "significant drop" in business since the introduction of the smoking ban. The VFI is the same group that said it was okay for Diageo to add 6¢ to the price of a pint on the grounds that the price hasn't gone up in 18 months, and also the group that advocated pubs not paying their taxes if the smoking ban was introduced, and for good measure the group that ridiculed figures for the number of smoking-related deaths in Ireland. I think this may colour a lot of opinions on their claims, whether true or not.

cool as fuck

SpaceShipOne makes it! Man, this is just UTTERLY cool.

smoking ban redux

Before the smoking ban came in, I was pretty laid back about the whole thing; I didn't mind the fact that the air in my local made other, more sensitive peoples' eyes water, or that I'd have to toss everything in the laundry pretty much immediately after a night out. Now that the ban's in place, I'm feeling more and more peeved at people who insist that screwing up my health and my clothing - and, more to the point, the health of the barstaff - is some sort of right that has been removed from them. One of my barmen tells me that there's a high court challenge, and a politican is calling for the Vintners Federation and whoever else to get together and sponsor a consitutional challenge. Where the hell does it say in the constitution that you can wilfully endanger others just to satisfy your own addiction? Is it under the bit that says you have to drink Guinness in order to qualify for citizenship?

teletext

Laugh all you want, monkeyboy. Teletext rocks. It may look stupid, but it's a damn fine way of catching up on news and TV listings when you're too damned lazy to roll over and reach for the laptop.

in chat

i might enjoy it if the fucking cunting throbbing flashing YOU HAVE ALREADY WON A BLOWJOB WITH THE DEVIL fake popup window banner ad wasn't splodging across the photos.

Apparently peeved at the trimmings on this Sterling blog entry.

words of advice to young geeks

IF you submit a bug report using the built-in bug-reporting tool, don't strip out the debug information. It's there for a reason.

IF the built-in bug-reporting tool sends mail to a subscriber-posting-only list, subscribe to that list. It's only polite and shows you have an interest in the code, and in seeing if your bug is fixed.

IF the list/code maintainer politely mails you to suggest that you still haven't subscribed to the list, and he's getting kinda tired of approving all your damned emails (but politely), don't be condescending in your reply. Because he's the maintainer, and it's as easy to drop your posts as approve them.

Comma, you dork.