Cave News

It was a dark and stormy night…

Snoopy is often shown sitting at his typewriter atop his doghouse beginning to write a novel with the words: “It was a dark and stormy night…”

There is a”Dark and stormy night” contest. The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction contest (where www means, “wretched writers wanted”) is run by the English Department of San Jose State University. A contestant writes only the first sentence of a bad novel.

Contest information can be found here. Contest results are here showing winning entry, runner-up and [dis]honorable mentions.

Hmm…how about a contest for the first sentence of the middle chapter of a novel…something like:

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Tonto, not knowing that the Lone Ranger was disguised as a cigar, stomped his butt.

…well, maybe on second thought…

Police need reliable communication

This just doesn’t look right…don’t most Police Departments supply radios instead of phone booths for communication?

Hacker pleads guilty to eBay digital attack

A hacker shut down the eBay web auction site for a short time in the summer of 2003.

An Oregon man used a worm program to hijack an army of about 20,000 personal computers set up as “bots” that were programmed to automatically bombard eBay with massive amounts of Internet traffic in an attempt to cripple the company's network.

Anthony Clark, 21, of Beaverton, Ore., entered his plea Tuesday afternoon in San Jose federal court. He was charged with intentionally damaging a protected computer. He will be sentenced in April and could receive up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

This was not the first time. A couple of years before, a hacker in Canada brought down eBay for a couple of days with a similar “denial of service” attack.

Link here.

Technology is changing everything

And I always thought storks brought ‘em.

...hmm...seems to me, that would be a long download!

Contact ‘em by email

Hard to lose: clip-on MP3 player

This novel device has limited memory so don’t plan on loading it up with lots of tunes because it may only hold a couple dozen or so.

You’ll have to transfer songs to the player and charge its battery via a headphone-based USB port.

This player is unique but maybe not very practical.

But look on the bright side. You can clip it to anything to prevent losing it.

You could also use it to clip those open bags of pretzels or potato chips.

Cost is about $35 - without pretzels.

Link here.

How about them there Huskers! Nebr 32 Mich 28

Huskers take a late lead to win the Alamo Bowl over favored Michigan.

Both teams entered the game with identical 7-4 records.

Michigan was ranked in the top 25.

Nebraska was unranked after a forgettable 5 win 6 loss season in 2004 when they did not play in a bowl game for the first time in over three decades.

Michigan did not want to play in the Alamo Bowl.

Nebraska was very happy to be in the Alamo Bowl and it showed in the final score.

Looks like the Huskers are back.

Democratic leaders: listen to party centrists

The time has come for the Democratic Party elite in Washington to listen to the moderates in the Party before irreparable damage is done.

Some centrist Democrats say attacks by their party leaders on the Bush administration's eavesdropping on suspected terrorist conversations will further weaken the party's credibility on national security.

The majority of Americans could care less about the antics of the extremists in Washington politics. However, when national security is at stake -- well, that’s another matter.

The extreme left-wing liberals in Washington want to handcuff the President when it comes to protecting our country. That is something the average American cares about and will remember in future elections.

For that reason it is not surprising that moderate Democrats want to tone down the fine-sounding but insincere and empty words of the far-left liberals in the Party.

Moderate Democrats are keenly aware that in the last three elections the Republicans have increased their numbers in the House and Senate.

Trying to handcuff the President on national security is not the way to stop the erosion in the Democratic Party.

Link here.

Bill Gates testing Microsoft Word Version 1

Old photo of Bill Gates testing
his Microsoft Word Version 1
(click here to enlarge)

Actually the picture above is a contrived photo for one of the Worth 1000 photo contests.

Charles to be George when he becomes King

There could be a name change when Prince Charles becomes King.

The Prince of Wales has discussed rejecting the title Charles III when he becomes King to avoid unhappy associations with some of the bloodiest periods in the monarchy’s history.

The Prince’s favourite alternative name is George VII, in honour of his grandfather — one of the best-loved monarchs of the past century.

The name Charles is regarded as jinxed in some royal circles. Charles I was the only monarch to be executed. His beheading in 1649, after the English Civil War, brought about the short-lived republic under Oliver Cromwell.

There were rumors that the Queen may see to it that the crown is passed from her directly to Prince William (lower inset photo) the second in line to the throne.

In that case, Prince Charles would not need to worry about becoming King Charles III.

Also, in that case, Queen Elizabeth would not need to worry about the possibility of Camilla becoming Queen - an idea that may not be appealing to her.

Link here for more of the story.