Dividing by Zero

Today makes three years since my first post. This is my 457th post covering 14 very loosely defined categories, resulting in some 337 comments (not counting the several bazillion spam comments I’ve deleted). And with all that, the exact purpose of Dividing by Zero is still not defined. There may be a trend here.

Despite all the hints and tips on the last go-round, I regret to report that: Oops, I did it again. (At least this time I caught it before the exploding stage.)

It’s been a while since the last update on putting the house back together. Part of that’s because when it comes to putting things off, there’s nothing amateur about it, I’m a pro-crastinator. But I have been making some progress lately.

One of the big changes is that the home office is somewhat back together, albeit in a different room.

In addition to the desk, the bookcases have made their way out of the basement along with a large percentage of my books and the big bulletin board. There’s even space for a chair for a second person!

For the first time in the nine-plus years I’ve lived in this house, none of my houseplants are on a tem-permanent card table!

A few months before the big renovation project started, the house started falling apart when the railing going to upper floor pulled out of the wall. The railing needed to come down anyhow so I could paint, so it went into the basement for a while. As of this evening, the railing’s back on the wall.

And now for the next project:

Looking through photos of the devastation left by Hurricane Ike, what really strikes me isn’t the photos of the damaged houses, or even the incongruity of photos such as a boat in the middle in the middle of the interstate.

No, the thing I find most surprising is the occasional photo showing where an entire neighborhood has been removed from the face of the Earth, but one or two houses remain, apparently unscathed. That just blows me away.

From the Dactyl Manor mailbag:

Dear Television Viewer-Radio Listener,

Arbitron is conducting an important survey about television viewing and radio listening in your area. In the next few days, an Arbitron Research Assistant may call you to ask a few basic questions about your household. This call will only take a few minutes of your time.

In business since 1949, Arbitron is one of America’s oldest and most respected survey research organizations. Arbitron is best known for its radio and television “ratings”. Each year, we survey thousands of homes all across the country. Research is our only business. We will never try to sell you anything.

In order to ensure the quality of our research, we need your help by remembering to take our call and sharing this letter with others in your household.

Thank you for taking a few minutes out of your busy day to speak with us. If you have any questions, please call us toll-free at 1-877-255-7551 or visit our website at www.ArbitronResearch.com.

Sincerely,
s/
Steve Morris
President, Arbitron Ratings

In order to encourage me to participate, they’ve included a dollar. (WooHoo! I’m rich! Wealthy beyond my wildest dreams! Now I can leverage this great wealth to accrue power!)

One small problem: I don’t have a landline. There’s no way for them to call me.

The research company forgot to do their homework.

The DC Department of Health has been running a series of radio spots advertising a campaign to control the city’s rodent population. They’re providing assistance to help residents get rid of the rats under the slogan of “We All Need to Work Together for a Rat-Free DC” (PDF).

This is a terrific idea, and long overdue.

Assuming they’re successful, do you think anyone will notice the sudden drop in Congressional productivity?

Someone told me a couple years ago that “frak” — Battlestar Galactica’s curseword-that-isn’t-a-curseword — had been adopted for use in mainstream television in situations where shows would call for cursing but were prevented by the FCC.

At the time, it seemed a little far-fetched, but I let is pass. But you know, if it’s sufficiently widespread that CNN is noticing, then maybe frak really is getting out into the frakking mainstream media.

Thanks to Dave K. for pointing this out.

A number of media outlets have been reporting on the freshman at Michigan State University who by chance was assigned to the same dorm room his father had 30 years earlier. From all the media reports, it seems as though everyone involved thinks it’s a pretty neat coincidence.

When I was in college, my friends and I would occasionally switch the school’s name around and tell people we were students at State Penn. The average dorm room is only slightly larger than the average jail cell (12′ x 19′ versus 8′ x 12′), but I always assumed that a student’s living quarters were better maintained than an inmate’s. Now I’m not so sure.

According to those same media reports, the father’s first hint that it was the same room was that, 30 years later, the window latch was still broken.

What I find interesting is that as a percentage of web browsers, Playstation 3 and Playstation Portable had the exact same percentages. But yesterday’s breakdown of the web browsers also included a “Sony-HTTPClient” for 0.02% of the traffic.

Which begs the question: Which of those non-Sony operating systems is running a Sony web browser?!?!