MaisonBisson

Most people know I’m not a huge fan of Fox News, at least in part because Fox News is no great fan of mine. Al Franken and Eric Alterman are rather detailed their explanation of just how conservative Fox is (it’s like the tower of Pizza leaning toward Texas; actually, it’s like the tower layed […] » about 200 words

bookofjoe ran a story about Eccentrics by David Weeks. His story is really just a listing of the 15 characteristics of eccentrics as quote from the book, but it makes a good game to calculate how eccentric a person is. Try the list on for size: Nonconforming  Creative  Strongly motivated by curiosity  Idealistic: wants to […] » about 300 words

I guess somebody will sleep better at night knowing our Department of Homeland Security is shaking down music and video pirates. Their new plan: Strategy Targeting Organized Piracy (STOP), a crackdown on the theft of U.S. intellectual property such as pirated compact discs and knockoff auto parts. The effort is consuming the attentions of Attorney […] » about 300 words

Travelling buddies, Willberry & Cliff I should thank RoadSideAmerica.com for making a rainy day a fun day™. Will and I were supposed to go on a hike, but the rain killed that plan and most anything else we could come up with. RoadSideAmerica.com gave us alternatives. RandMcNally gave me directions. Cliffy met me in Warren, […] » about 300 words

I just got IM’d by my friend Karen. Her sister got married this past weekend and they were all in New Hampshire for the event. Here’s the transcript: hi – sooooo sorry we did not call the wedding was insane everything kept going wrong all weekend I didn’t really expect you to call.Not that I […] » about 300 words

We’re huge fans of The New Joy of Cooking by Marion Rombauer Becker, Irma S. Rombauer, and Ethan Becker. Hardly a meal goes through our kitchen that isn’t shaped in some part by the recipes and general information in its pages. A recent discovery was Joy’s description and defense of cocktail parties. So, when a […] » about 200 words

Some time ago, a box with the above pictured contents went to Chuck Robidoux. He wrote back: Nothing starts a Monday off like Kippered Seafood Snacks and Deviled Ham with a side of Spam and Potted Meat Food Product followed by Vienna Sausage, all washed down with some icey cold Clam Juice. Now I am […] » about 100 words

I hadn’t given it the slightest thought, but then I read TinyNibbles.com’s travel advisory (this site has been referenced previously at MaisonBisson). What do Politics, 9/11, & Sexual Identity have to do with each-other? Read: Traveling when you do not appear as the gender on your identification is much more tricky…. If your driver’s license […] » about 500 words

Decades ago, Nixie Tubes were used as indicating devices in many different types of instrumentation, and ultimately replaced by the cheaper – and unattractive -LED display. Having been obsolete for almost a quarter century, these glowing bottles of ionized gas have attracted another generation who appreciate their beauty and mysterious function. The display tubes may […] » about 100 words

Thank NPR for putting audio of Thursday’s presidential debate on their site. Spin-masters will be working this one over for a while, but the original is the most important. There were people who expected Bush to come off in his casual, frat-boy manner, but he didn’t. He stumbled, he got red-faced, and he never answered […] » about 400 words

I generally don’t get into this, but a series of columns by Paul Murphy at LinuxInsider (LinuxInsider!) caught my attention. In Macs Are More Expensive, Right?, he compares Apple’s offerings to Dell’s and finds the PCs cost about the same or more than similarly equipped Macs. At the low end…the PC desktops are marginally less […] » about 300 words

Oldtasty has posted a collection of pictures scanned from the pages of a clip art book of the Cultural Revolution. I’ve always enjoyed look of Communist art, and I’m particularly pleased with this showing. » about 100 words

I’m not sure of the origins of the following text. There’s nothing patently false in it, so I’m posting it here for all to ponder. Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum […] » about 700 words

What happens when machines edit our news? What happens when news sources game Google News to raise their ranking? Online Journalism Review is asking that question, and has some interesting answers to report. It seems conservatives and conservative-biased news or quasi-news organizations use people’s full names, while mainstream sources and those with a liberal bent […] » about 300 words

I’ve been interested in ultra-portable computers for some time. My first such computer was a Newton Message Pad 2000, which remains useful despite its age. The Newton was replaced by a Palm m125 that cost less and did less. No more email, web browsing, no writing or word processing. In short, nothing more than addresses, […] » about 400 words

I found Retro Gamer magazine on the rack last week and couldn’t hep but pick it up. It’s issue six with a feature story on building both stand-up and cocktail arcade cabinets with PCs running MAME (which isn’t to say you couldn’t use a Mac instead). For now, I want to keep track of these […] » about 200 words

Cliff worries that his website, Spiralbound.net, doesn’t get indexed by Google often enough. He’s a good guy, so I figure I’ll prime the pump for him. Here, Google Google. Solaris Docs: Migrating Veritas Volume Manager disk groups between servers Solaris Docs: Solaris Disk Partition Layout Solaris Docs: Copying A Boot Drive Between Disks With Different […] » about 200 words

First Gizmodo published a feature on in-car computers. ArsTechnica got into the automotive theme by reporting the International CXT story. Not to be outdone by Gizmodo, Engadget reported on the ultimate car computer install: a Tatra with a Mac in it. For some reason, I went looking at the Tatra car-mod and found Tatra trucks […] » about 200 words