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In one of history’s more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate… Read More.

“Extreme weather, low pressure (90km wind gusts) makes flying in and out interesting.”

This from a guy that’s just flown into a tiny country town in a light plane? Love it.

I really should know better than to trust sales people, I keep getting messed around, but I go back for more. This was a conversation I had with one of the reps at The Planet tonight.

Please wait while we find an agent to assist you…
You have been connected to Brian J.

• Brian J: Hello, how may I help you?
• Customer: Hi, I was just wondering what the different backup solutions offered with the dedicated servers actually were
• Customer: you list network backup or discsync, what’s the difference?
• Brian J: Disksync is automated and much more user friendly.
• Brian J: You can set it up to automatically run as frequent as you prefer.
• Brian J: NAS is space in a seperate storage array you would have to copy and send the data to when you would like to save.
• Customer: so the network backup is nas space allocated to us, disksync uses an automated agent?
• Brian J: Correct
• Customer: and what does disksync require on the server, a username/password setup on ftp or ssh?
• Brian J: Neither its a GUI agent installed on the user console
• Customer: I’m a little lost
• Brian J: Using a simple GUI interface, you can manage all aspects of your backup and recovery including data retention periods, backup schedules, and data restoration.
• Customer: yes, but how does it access the server assuming I’m going to change firewall rules and services running on the server I intend to setup?
• Customer: (I’m looking at a bare bsd/centos box)
• Brian J: The firewall rules would have no effect on Discsync
• Customer: how does it access the server?
• Customer: assuming it doesn’t traverse the network (which you seem to be implying by saying the firewall rules will not effect it)
• Brian J: Through the agent console installed on the box
• Customer: never mind, found the information
• Customer: you’re incorrect by the way – firewall rules would actually cause problems if they weren’t correct
• Customer: refer to your company’s faq on http://forums.theplanet.com/index.php?showtopic=83882
• Customer: goodbye.

Your session has ended. You may now close this window.

Neal Stephenson, you’re an amazing man. Now, the question is – why don’t we have a device like this already? (hint, if this hasn’t already been looked at, I’ve got dibs on an implementation idea!)
The book spoke in a lovely contralto, with an accent like the very finest Vickys. The voice was like a real person’s—though not like anyone Nell had ever met. It rose and fell like siow surf on a warm beach, and when Nell closed her eyes, it swept her out into an ocean of feelings.Once upon a time there was a little Princess named Nell who was imprisoned in a tall dark castle on an island in the middle of a great sea, with a little boy named Harv, who was her friend and protector. She also had four special friends named Dinosaur, Duck, Peter Rabbit, and Purple. Princess Nell and Harv could not leave the Dark Castle, but from time to time a raven would come to visit them . . .

“What’s a raven?” Nell said.

The illustration was a colorful painting of the island seen from up in the sky. The island rotated downward and out of the picture, becoming a view toward the ocean horizon. In the middle was a black dot. The picture zoomed in on the black dot, and it turned out to be a bird. Big letters appeared beneath.

“R A V E N,” the book said. “Raven. Now, say it with me.”
“Raven.”
“Very good! Nell, you are a clever girl, and you have much talent with words. Can you spell raven?”

Nell hesitated. She was still blushing from the praise. After a few seconds, the first of the letters began to blink. Nell prodded it. The letter grew until it had pushed all the other letters and pictures off the edges of the page. The loop on top shrank and became a head, while the lines sticking out the bottom developed into legs and began to scissor. “R is for Run,” the book said. The picture kept on changing until it was a picture of Nell. Then something fuzzy and red appeared beneath her feet. “Nell Runs on the Red Rug,” the book said, and as it spoke, new words appeared.

“Why is she running?”
“Because an Angry Alligator Appeared,” the book said, and panned back quite some distance to show an alligator, waddling along ridiculously, no threat to the fleet Nell. The alligator became frustrated and curled itself into a circle, which became a small letter.
“A is for Alligator. The Very Vast alligator Vainly Viewed Nell’s Valiant Velocity.”
The little story went on to include an Excited Elf who was Nibbling Noisily on some Nuts. Then the picture of the Raven came back, with the letters beneath. “Raven. Can you spell raven, Nell?” A hand materialized on the page and pointed to the first letter.
“R,” Nell said.
“Very good! You are a clever girl, Nell, and good with letters,” the book said.
“What is this letter?” and it pointed to the second one. This one Nell had forgotten.

But the book told her a story about an Ape named Albert.