Torrance @14, while Cory is certainly teh awesome, he didn't invent the term "steampunk" by a longshot.

Check out some of the links on the excellent Brass Goggles blog for more info, or have a go at one of the seminal Steampunk novels - The Difference Engine.

@12 "smcinpdx" A mechanical display would be cute as a Steampunk artifact...

In a manner of speaking, such displays exist right now - but are usually found in HDTV sets, not computer monitors (tho' my Samsung has a VGA port on it, too)

They're HDTV displays powered by Texas Instruments' DLP technology :)

It's irc and you don't want folks being "unruly or rude" ? So you're, uh... not expecting to have any, actual users on that channel then ? ;->

On a more serious note, Unix/Linux types can get some real old-time irc goodness with the epic client. A wonderfully expandable tool via the use of script packs...

::looks puzzled::

Tim Horton's and Dunkin' Donuts have better coffee than Starbucks ?! Come on now... Yeah, they're a big step up from watery, gas station swill, but Starbucks outdoes 'em (even if their roasts are often on the edge of burnt-tasting).

Of course the best everyday coffee is what I make at home with fresh ground beans that were roasted in-house at my local Whole Foods ;)

Got a chuckle out of GaryG's comment :) Grado headphones are not only extremely retro-looking (part of the charm), but some of the best sounding $100 or less 'phones on the market (see their SR60 model).

I bet they'd respond to a bit of cosmetic modding quite nicely :)

Another reason Zojirushi rice cookers haven't "invaded" the West yet is that they're just so bloody expensive. The $30 rice cooker I got on NewEgg.com works great for a fifth the price or less.

Nice products, really. We owned a great Zojirushi coffee maker for several years until it released the blue-smoke genie and stopped working.

Cool pic. One of my favorite guidebooks, Rick Kennedy's Little Adventures in Tokyo, suggests a visit there. Said he'd never had better sushi, even if it was for an early breakfast ;)

A friend we spoke to last night said he'd written to cancel his Blockbuster acct and gotten several phone calls from them to reconsider. In one of the calls, they finally admitted they had the power to switch him to another kind of acct that basically gave him the same features as he'd had before for less money ;)

So maybe a bit 'o bitchin' to their Customer Service is in order. The squeaky wheel gets the grease...

As someone who worked telephone cust svc for Apple 10+ years ago, I find this appalling. I guess they couldn't even stomach paying decent technical reps the cheap wages they used to get vs. bargain basement people in South Asia.

I can, and have, seen "Wal-Mart" type companies like Dell do this. I mean really ? What do you expect from them. But Apple's reputation is an actual asset to the company, and nonsense like this will damage it...