Ellen Feiss & Street Fighter

Another /. piece of news: an interview with Ellen Feiss, the "stoner" in the Apple "Switcher" ads. She's kind of cute now that she's 18. But now that she's shot down the stoned-while-shooting rumor, people going to latch on to comments she made in the interview that imply that she might be gay. That's what she gets for going to France! Just kidding. From the interview, she sounds pretty cool, actually.

There was a post about some Street Fighter thing on /. also, but what I found hilarious was the link to an amateur flick parodying the SF characters, like "where are they now?" The shorts are pretty well done—I want to see more! (Although predictably they mispronounced "Ryu" and he appears to be played by a Chinese guy.)

Chavez is a Turd

When I first heard about his antics in the news, I thought it was kind of funny, like a cheap circus act. Then I realized he was serious.

While it'd be nice if one of his own citizens would cap him in his fat head, if Chavvie wants to play hardball with expelling the U.S. envoy and reallocating other countries' investments to "the people" (i.e. him), then he can have it his way.

We pull out our people, and embargo the country. If they start procuring WMD, then we have license to go in and kick their asses!—after we pull out of Iraq?

Yeah, the Iraq war has been a fiasco not in that it got some soldiers killed—callous to say, but those are the casualties of war and the consequences of soldiering—it's reminded the world of the U.S.'s previous failure in meddling with another country's politics: Vietnam. It's also been a reminder that the American Military Might isn't all that it's cracked up to be, and all of a sudden all these little shitty governments like Iran and Venezuela are clamoring for a piece of the spotlight. As long as they're waving their cheap AK-47 clones, I don't really care. It's all about the nukes. If they decide they want to dance, maybe the world needs another demonstration of what happens to stupid dictators and their followers when they mess with their betters.

The Bridge HT and Why Consoles Discolor

Fringe news from /.
Where No Home Theater Has Gone Before
Plastic Discoloration in Classic Machines

Kiuchi Beer

MRG just sent me another note with a link to an article about a Japanese beer called "Hitachino". Looks interesting, but the price tag is pretty steep.

Hotel California

MRG forwarded me a note by a Japanese guy asking what the lyrics to Hotel California mean. How the hell should I know? Does anyone? Here are some opinions:

From Song Facts,
From The Straight Dope,
From Niniane,
And there's always Wikipedia.

Travelstar

From the intranet front page at work there was a link to an article on Hitachi infringing on a Chinese trademark. An older article gives more info about the battle. What they didn't say was when the BTHC registered their trademark and when IBM/HGST first used the mark in China—seems to me that would be most saliently relevant.

In Japan, the U.S. maker Logitech has to use the mark "Logicool" because another maker in Japan has the name "Logitec". Certainly if Logitech didn't enter the Japanese market before Logitec was formed, then they don't have the right to use the mark.

Law is fraught with peril.

Pizza Deliverators

I think I was looking for info on how much to tip the pizza guy online, and came up with these links to the adventures of "pizza deliverators". (Think Neil Stephenson's Snow Crash.) [1] [2]

Not sure whether to pity them for enduring pitiable treatment, respect them for bringing me fresh za, or to think that I've probably got it worse!

And every time I hear "pizza man", I think of the song "Super Orgy Porno Party", which starts out with a dude delivering pizza....

Japanese ok on Windows Mobile 5

I was looking at MDAs, thinking Sachie could use something more like a Japanese cell phone rather than one of the lame setups we have in the U.S. The Danger Hiptop (Sidekick) is cool, but doesn't support Japanese according to Katie and what I've read. T-Mobile had a couple phones that use Windows Mobile, which seems much more likely to support Japanese add-ons.

After some searching, I found out that it is possible to install a Japanese IME on Windows Mobile 5. Sweet! Now it's a matter of plunking down for a $400 phone and signing an onerous contract....

Condom Depot

B&E got the wife and I a condom sampler for Christmas. Apparently it was purchased at Condom Depot, in case someone out there needs to make a gift purchase.... "Condom Depot"—like Office Depot, except for condoms instead of office supplies!