paul beard

Recent Actions

• Commented on That Violet Blue thing
  Where I lose the plot is that these posts (and comments referencing them?) disappeared a year ago and only now does anyone notice. And in that time, no one thought of a way to communicate that to the teeming millions?...
• Commented on Nicaraguan town wealthy from cocaine bricks that wash ashore
  We called similar items (bulky herbal debris) square grouper, back in the day. Never found any, though....
• Commented on Analyzing Bush based on his favorite painting
  retnull @ 13 does the heavy lifting and reminds us to read a more detailed writeup. I saw that same piece and haven't read the Guardian piece. How anyone could see that as an illustration of religious devotion or the...
• Commented on Rotting textbook warehouse in Detroit
  Come to Detroit and see the post-apocalypse!! I went there on business a couple of times 20 years ago and was amazed at how dead the downtown seemed. Since then, all this stuff about farms downtown and the majestic ruins...
• Commented on Super Soaker Inventor Develops Mega-Efficient Solar Energy Engine
  I should have known someone would get to this: capturing heat seems easier than capturing sunlight, especially here in the soggy northwest. Wonder when I can tuck one of these in my attic?...
• Commented on End of skeptic James Randi's million dollar challenge
  Ya know,f if he put up a website with ad support to display all this crud, the prize money might re-appear, as if by magic ;-) seriously, I think putting that stuff up for review could provide hours of entertainment,...
• Commented on Macbook Pro and WPA Wi-Fi Error
  I have this quite often on my circa 2003 iBook and a new iMac G5. Best I have been able to tell, it's an authentication glitch between the 'book and the AP (a LinkSys running DD-WRT). Look in your system.log...
• Commented on Warner to sell no-DRM MP3s on Amazon
  Jason does have a point, even it's not germane to the issue. But setting that aside, I'm glad there is an alternative to the DRM-encumbered offerings from Apple. The whole "Apple is teh 3vil SUXXORS" chant was silly in the...
• Commented on How the UK government deals with a broken light bulb
  As crunchbird @ 10 explained it, these rules are to protect the government from liability as well as the person changing the bulb: if there aren't cases of someone smashing the bulbs and huffing the mercury, I'd be surprised. It's...
• Commented on Movable Type now under a free license
  It was never free as in speech, but for personal use was always free as in beer. I hope maybe now someone can fix its performance issues. Not sure how BB gets around them but there are plenty of former...
• Commented on Best Buy threatens blogger over someone else's parody
  is that really a parody? Or just someone copping the art without making reference to the original? If it said "Worst Buy" or in some way made a connection to Best Buy, I could see it as parody. The ever-reliable...
• Commented on Vintage Brochure for 1964 Honda T500 Truck
  I think the Chevron cars and trucks are direct descendants of this little thing. I'm with Joel: I'd love to see more like this on the roads....
• Commented on Land grab case in Boulder incites anger and protests
  I'm having a hard time with the idea of this going on for most of the 23 years they owned the land, especially if it was just down the street (as the comment above notes, 200 yards -- no great...