Gnorb.NET

Being in the tech industry, I run into the whole “outsourcing” thing a lot. Luckily, the company I work with hasn’t started that yet, so I’m good there, but I remember a couple of years ago when all News.com, Slashdot, and every other tech publication out there would talk about is how all the jobs are being outsourced to India (programming) and China (gaming?!). H1B, L1, Bangalore, Chenai, Hyderabad — that’s all I would hear about all day, every day, to the point where learning Hindi started making sense. (Though I don’t speak it, I can now understand some of it. But don’t ask me to try Telegu. It’s just not happening.)

Anyway, I’m getting off track here. If you’re a techie — or Indian — enjoy this cartoon.

100-inch, TFT-LCD. Width: 2.2 meters, height 1.2 meters. 6.22 million pixels. Response speed faster than 5 milliseconds. 3,000:1 contrast ratio. 180-degree viewing angle. Korean chicks not included. More info in this Korea Times article.

“So basically, I’m stuck with this service for the next two years, right? And if I cancel early it’ll cost me $500?! Yikes!”

Sound familiar? If you’ve ever signed up for a cell phone plan, it should. If you ever have/want to get out of your cell phone contract early, but don’t want to pay the early termination fee, here’s how you can have your carrier cancel your plan, at no cost to you. (Basically you use one of their rules against them.)

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In case you didn’t know, it’s the first Friday of the month. (Captain Obvious to the rescue!) For those of you who are interested, you can find out if there’s a 2600 meeting in your area. Here’s the Florda schedule:

• Ft. Lauderdale: Broward Mall in the food court. 6 pm.
• Gainesville: In the back of the University of Florida’s Reitz Union food court. 6 pm.
• Orlando: Fashion Square Mall Food Court between Hovan Gourmet and Manchu Wok. 6 pm.
• Tampa: University Mall in the back of the food court on the 2nd floor. 6 pm.

And for my buddies in the Great White North (specifically, in Ontario):

• Barrie: William’s Coffee Pub, 505 Bryne Drive. 7 pm.
• Guelph: William’s Coffee Pub, 492 Edinbourgh Road South. 7 pm.
• Ottawa: World Exchange Plaza, 111 Albert St., second floor. 6:30 pm.
• Toronto: Future Bakery, 483 Bloor St. West.
• Waterloo: William’s Coffee Pub, 170 University Ave. West. 7 pm.
• Windsor: University of Windsor, CAW Student Center commons area by the large window. 7 pm.

I downloaded and installed Google Earth today. After few minutes of playing with it I got curious and started looking for stuff I know I’d recognize, like my parents’ house and my old high school. I first looked for my parents current home, but it turns out that their home is too new, or the picture too old. In either case, their current house isn’t even on Google Earth. Not wanting to leave disappointed, I started looking for the place I lived in before I moved down to South Florida. Not surprisingly, I found it. What I found surprising, however, was also finding my old 1986 Chrysler LeBaron, as well as what I think is my parents’ old minivan (before my brother smashed it up against a gas station light pole one fine morning).

(Yes, I know, in the picture above its “Parents’” not “Parent’s”. I’m too lazy to re-do the whole thing. Plural possesive, blah blah blah…) Here’s the same image, zoomed in and at an angle, to provide a different perspective.

How do I know it’s my old LeBaron? Judging from the color, I’d say I have about a 95% chance of being right.

After it finally died, the car sat just in front of the house on the grass for about a year, waiting for some poor sucker to come along and pick it up for $100.What you see in the picture is where it sat for that year. Grass under it turned brown and died, creatures with 4+ legs called it home, and parents started using it to scare their kids. Come to think of it, I don’t remember whether anyone ever bought that thing or not.

As for the other car, I can’t tell whether that’s gray or white. If it’s gray, it’s a minivan. If it’s white, it’s a station wagon.

In any case, it’s nice to know that not only can I Google all my personal information, but that now, thanks to Google, my car is a pseudo-historical landmark.

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