I’m a bit torn here. I like to know what my computer’s doing when it’s starting up, but I also like the calm serenity of the Grey Screen Of Boot that my Mac gives me. I know that I can press command-V on startup to get the verbose unixey startup, but I’m always too early, or too late, or something. I’ve only managed to get that working a few times.

But now, I just discovered this:

sudo nvram boot-args=”-v”

This will make it always boot up in verbose I’m-a-geek mode. I imagine running the command again with boot-args=”” would unset it, but don’t quote me on that.

There’s some guy named Steve that put his resumé up on line. Looks like he’s done a bunch of cool stuff. My favrouite line, from the first go-round at Apple:

Learned many things, including do’s and don’ts for building executive teams.

[cough]Sculley[cough]. Ahem.

On my way to work today, I saw what looked like a regular accident on the intersection next to my office. It seemed like one car had tried to merge into a lane where two other cars already were. I thought “stupid driver” and crossed the road. That’s when I noticed the undercover police car, and the undercover policewoman running down the street, away from the scene of the accident. That’s odd, I thought.

My office window overlooks the intersection, so I had a look. More police cars show up, more than you’d expect for a regular morning rush accident. Then a co-worker tells me that they saw a cop chasing down some guy running down the street. Turns out there was a full on shooting just outside my office! What excitement!

Theoretically, we are the proud owners of one of these and one of these. However, all we actually have in our possession are four bits of paper: an extended warranty sheet, a tax invoice, a delivery slip, and a credit card receipt. I can only hope that Clive Peeters [warning: annoying jingle that will get stuck in your head] doesn’t forget about us.

This has been a long time coming. We did our research, compared bunches of different brands, makes, models, and learnt all kinds of things about the whitegoods industry. Turns out that this Bosch washing machine has been manufactured in Thailand, in a factory owned and run by Bosch and Hitachi. They also make Siemens-brand washing machines, selling into the Asian market. Go figure. The dryer was actually made in Europe someplace (I’m guessing the Czech Republic, but I’ll find out when the thing arrives). The dryer was actually the sticking point. There weren’t any in the country, and the ship with all the dryers was stuck off the north coast in Darwin because of the nasty weather that was happening up there. So we waited. Every few weeks, I’d call Harvey Norman and get told that they’re still stuck someplace. A couple of days ago, on a whim, I rang the competition, Clive Peeters. They happily told me that they had one in their warehouse, and would I like it? Um, sure!

I’ll have more to report next Saturday when I’m told these things will show up at our house. Damn. I could have bought a MacBook. Clean clothes are important though, I’m told.

Because I’m active on some voice-over-IP mailing lists, my spam profile is skewed somewhat in the VOIP direction. Every few days one or two slips through my spam filter. Normally I just chuck ‘em, but the opening sentence of today’s one really caught my eye:

I have a great offer for all the New & old VOIP Company who are looking to mortify his business & setup a complete telecom service.

Yeah, baby. I want to mortify my business. I’ll be getting back to this guy right away.

Abu Bakar Bashir, an outspoken (to put it mildly) Islamic cleric from Indonesia, suggests that Prime Minister John Howard should convert to Islam to avoid going directly to hell and not passing “Go”. This is good advice for people who are heading in that direction.

However, I think Mr Bashir needs to look elsewhere in the world for people who need this kind of advice. I mean, Howard’s bad, but he’s no Gary Glitter.

For some reason (now forgotten), I went to have a look at Weird Al’s website and came across one of the most insane FAQ pages I’ve seen. It’s not so much a FAQ as a OAQ (once-asked question). There’s literally hundreds questions ranging from the wacky fanboy to the overly personal. I now know way too much about Weird Al. And now you, gentle reader, may too.

You’ve got to be kidding. Wow. Knock me over. A bank that’s open until 5pm. How about a useful time like 6pm, guys? You’re doing okay with the opening-branches-in-Victoria thing, but really. Trumpeting the fact that you’re open until 5pm only makes you sound like you’re begging for someone to pat you on the head and say “nice dragon”.

Elizabeth Taylor denies she’s unhealthy by asking the (hopefully rhetorical) question “do I look like I’m dying?”. While I could probably produce some pictures that would answer that question, I’ll instead reprint one of my favourite quotes, by exquisite star of stage and screen Divine

All my life I wanted to look like Elizabeth Taylor. Now Elizabeth Taylor looks like me.

Brilliant.

And be sure to check out that article linked above. It briefly covers what Lizzy has to say about her friend Michael Jackson’s recent legal troubles:

She said that she had been with him when he was in bed with his nephews. “There was nothing abnormal about it,” she said. “There was no touchy, feely thing going on.”

Nothing abnormal except perhaps that there were kids in a bed with Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor. Yikes.