Spool is the name of a program on unix systems that has something to do with printers; the 'spool' has all the files that people want to print out. There's probably some explanation about where the name came from (maybe the programmer picked a word at random out of a dictionary?) but I don't know what it is. Spools (I keep typing sppols by mistake) hold thread, or sometimes heavier things like twine or cord or rope or cable or chain. I don't know what sppols are. Probably something to do with the Conspiracy. The 2nd lowest rank. "I was promoted to sppol last week. Another couple of years and perhaps I'll make workd." Which is another word I type by mistake a lot, workd instead of world. Also mistke, which is obviously the 4th rank in the Conspiracy.
Hopefully someday I'll figure out what the Conspiracy is conspiring about. Must have something to do with aardvarks, I'm sure, and spools, and unix.
Showing posts with label aardvarks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label aardvarks. Show all posts
Friday, April 23, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
One week is less than 'weeks'
Spring is Here! Which reminds me of Tom Lehrer's comedy song "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park", whose title unfortunately gives away the joke, and I wonder why Lehrer let that get by him. Perhaps the title was imposed on him by his producers, who are notorious for messing up artistic visions in misguided attempts to pander to the popular will. That is, not Lehrer's producers in particular, but producers in general. For all I know Lehrer's producers are or were gems in human form and the title is merely an ironic joke that's too subtle for my poor brain to grasp. My guess would be that that's not the case but I've been wrong before. More than once, even. Like Fred Saberhagen's time-traveling hero, Pilgrim, I can remember three times in the past century that I've been wrong. (Pilgrim is quite a character.) But he doesn't really have much to do with Spring, or with Tom Lehrer, as far as I know, although, again, it could be that the whole story Saberhagen tells is a coded message, understandable to those in the know, explicating Lehrer's song and it's relation to the season, and how it all traces back to trained aardvarks from Ancient Atlantis.
But probably not.
But probably not.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
It's technically still morning!
Today's random word is 'automatic' (courtesy of this site.)
Automatic MacHinery (1742-1919), one of the Virginia MacHinery's, was an inventory of automatic machinery which he modestly named after himself. His mother's family, the Pluperfects, originated in New Hampshire from a colony of mutant mold spores whose DNA was blended with human DNA by radiation from a fallen meteorite. This unusual ancestry no doubt accounts for MacHinery's long life, although he himself claimed it came from his father's side, on which he was allegedly descended from Ancient Atlanteans. The family tradition of vegetarian aardvark breeding adds some verisimilitude to the claim, although the tradition can be traced back with certitude to no earlier than the early fifteenth century. MacHinery's first invention was inspired by this tradition: a peanut shelling machine which made it much easier to feed the aardvarks. In his old age, MacHinery was heard to remark that it was a wonder the Atlanteans hadn't invented such a machine themselves, and if they had, the continent might well have survived to this day. Based on this comment, some researchers have speculated that the peanut-shelling machine must have been suppressed by enemies of the Atlanteans such as the Muvians, who bought up all the patents before the machines could go on the market. Others, however, have argued that even if MacHinery was descended from Atlantis, he had no better idea of what sank the continent that Plato did, and stories of patent-suppression were no more than propaganda by anti-Muvian partisans. The truth may never be known.
Automatic MacHinery (1742-1919), one of the Virginia MacHinery's, was an inventory of automatic machinery which he modestly named after himself. His mother's family, the Pluperfects, originated in New Hampshire from a colony of mutant mold spores whose DNA was blended with human DNA by radiation from a fallen meteorite. This unusual ancestry no doubt accounts for MacHinery's long life, although he himself claimed it came from his father's side, on which he was allegedly descended from Ancient Atlanteans. The family tradition of vegetarian aardvark breeding adds some verisimilitude to the claim, although the tradition can be traced back with certitude to no earlier than the early fifteenth century. MacHinery's first invention was inspired by this tradition: a peanut shelling machine which made it much easier to feed the aardvarks. In his old age, MacHinery was heard to remark that it was a wonder the Atlanteans hadn't invented such a machine themselves, and if they had, the continent might well have survived to this day. Based on this comment, some researchers have speculated that the peanut-shelling machine must have been suppressed by enemies of the Atlanteans such as the Muvians, who bought up all the patents before the machines could go on the market. Others, however, have argued that even if MacHinery was descended from Atlantis, he had no better idea of what sank the continent that Plato did, and stories of patent-suppression were no more than propaganda by anti-Muvian partisans. The truth may never be known.
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