Good word

"Women sense my power and they seek the life essence. I do not avoid women, Mandrake. But I do deny them my essence."

-- Sterling Hayden in Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Hello from computerland

The power supply I bought when I built a computer a few months ago is quieter than the one that was in the computer I'm using as a home theater PC. It's important for an HTPC to be quiet, so I decided to swap the power supplies. But I was temporarily stymied when I realized that the power supplies' motherboard connectors didn't match. The old power supply has a 20-pin connector, but the new one has a 24-pin connector. I eventually learned, though, that a 20-pin power connector can work with a 24-pin motherboard, and that you can disconnect the extra four pins from a 24-pin power connector, making a 20-pin connector. So that all worked out. Now the HTPC is quieter, though I'm still not quite convinced that this beta of the DVR software that supports QAM is ready for prime time. I guess that's why it's a beta.

Today in comedy

I love the lead of this Wall Street Journal editorial about the indictment on corruption charges of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens:

Yesterday's seven-count indictment of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens is another blow to the Republican Congressional reputation for honest government...

The wha? Oh, I suppose Congressional Republicans have a reputation for honest government, in the sense of reputation as erroneous notion wildly promoted by ideologues in spite of flood tides of evidence to the contrary.

(Don't even get me started on Teapot Dome.)

Short confession

At the end of the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Redemption, Part 1" (you remember, season four's cliffhanger finale), which I watched last night, I got a little teary when Picard and the Enterprise crew gave Worf a surprise formal send off as he left the Federation and threw in his lot with the Klingon High Council.

Good word

"Sickness will surely take the mind where minds can't usually go."

-- The Who, "Amazing Journey"

All I ever wanted

Back from vacation! We just spent two glorious weeks in Tennessee and North Carolina's Great Smoky Mountains, as we did last summer. We hiked steep paths; saw frogs the size of your thumbnail; ate grits; took shelter from a thunderstorm in a 150-year-old cabin; and explored Knoxville's glorious Sunsphere, a treasure with or without the wig store.

Good word

"The left wing fears the right, but the right does not fear the left."

-- Vincent Bugliosi