The Blue Screen of Death

A whole new dimension to the above phrase was brought to my attention today when I heard last week's edition of "Wait, Wait! Don't Tell Me!". Basically, the (British) Royal Navy will install Windows O/S on its subs - including those carrying thermo-nuclear warheads.

"Are you sure you want to launch this missile?" Yes-No

"This Sub has perform an illegal military operation and will now sink. If this war persists, please contact the MOD." (find this quote and the full article here)

Roger Ebert's New Website

Yeah, my UIUC alum has a new website. A lot of his older reviews can be found theree too. Be sure to check out the Little Movie Glossary section. it's a reader-defined/spoofy list of movie effects/scenarios/plot devices, etc. For example:

Harrison Ford Situational Reassessment Doubletake: Scene where Harrison Ford chases a small number of bad guys. He then stops suddenly, his expression changes to one of shock, and he runs back the way he came, as we see that the bad guys have been joined by a large number of reinforcements. (See "Star Wars," "

Indiana

Jones and the

Temple

of

Doom

." JEFF CROSS,

Marblehead

,

Mass.

Just Here for the Ambience: Characters order full meals, talk for a few minutes and then leave without eating any of the food or paying the bill.

Flushing With Excitement

So unfortunately, Ramji couldn't make it out of Florida ... what with the hurrciane and all (is it just me, or does it seem like a hurricane hits Florida everytime there's a major sporting event ... or is it actually the other way around?!) ... and so Metal & I got his tickets ... and only I landed up yesterday to watch a couple of matches (Davenport bt. Bovina 7-6(7) 6-2 and V. Williams bt. Rubin 7-6(4) 6-3).

Amazing atmosphere, but I wonder how much of that was Heinikin induced. I mean, I've seen crowds on TV at other Grand Slams, and they certainly seemed more restrained. It wasn't an Indian cricket match by a long shot, but it wasn't one of those Polite-Claps-After-Each-Point either!

Update on the Motorcades

Java clarified that Bush was staying (allegedly, at least) at the Waldorf ... which is a couple of blocks near my place. Which explains the cops & the barriers over the last few days. For some reason they're still up, even though the convention ended yesterday.

I believe some of the delegates are staying over the weekend, so I guess thing's return to normal (or as close as they can get in NYC) next week.

And I Thought Last Night Was Weird!

Around 11am today, I went down to the street ... it was chaos. I don't know where all the protestors from this morning went, but it was still weird. Cops everywhere. Secret Service agents ... well, I think they were Secret Service. They looked like they'd walked off the set of Men In Black, and had that piece of loopy telephone cord behind their ear.

The police had put up concrete & steel barricade along most cross streets, and weren't allowing traffic onto Lexington Avenue. Obviously, it was someone major ... and I wonder who it was.

Cheney's already in town - he addressed the RNC right? This guy from the White House came on The Daily Show last night and said that Bush was in town and would be practicing his spech in his hotel room this morning ... so who else is left who'd deserve an entire avenue being shut down? Powell? Ridge? Rummy?