My friend Sellam Ismail is going to visit this weekend, and I might sell him a computer. I also might have a coin-op video game for him. In an email exchange to make plans, he asked:
Do you need anything from me?
I replied:
World peace, or failing that, maybe some whirled peas?
And his response was:
I [...]

Three other people sharing the elevator were discussing a documentation error.  One of them explained that a consultant had been brought in to write that documentation, but had been “thrown out the window”.
I asked, “are we actually allowed to defenestrate contractors?”
Maybe we can only do that when no one is looking.
I think this may be [...]

On the CCTALK mailing list, I found myself in the unusual position of defending some of the design decisions that went into the original IBM Personal Computer (PC), which was introduced in August 1981 and with which all modern PCs are still largely compatible. At the end of the posting, I wrote:
[Geez, I can't [...]

Surplus in inches is absolutely necessary
If they’re necessary, by definition they aren’t surplus.
When the first first Gulf War broke out, I was watching the television coverage with coworkers in the company auditorium.  There was a commercial for a pickup truck, bragging about the size of its engine.  The voiceover said “there’s no substitute for cubic [...]

I heard about that other guy that was moving out and needin’ all his stuff ta disappear quicklike, and advertised on Craigslist, and got rid of it all durn fast. That got me to thinkin’. I hafta move out of my present digs by noon on January 20 of oh-nine, and I’m far [...]

Joe and Fred were relaxing on the beach in Florida, and struck up a conversation. Joe asked Fred what he did for a living, and Fred relied, “I owned a grocery store. Business was good, but last year there was a fire and the building burned down. I got an insurance settlement, [...]

I’ve suspected it for a while, but today I finally saw proof that my roommates’ dog Ralphie is a space alien or robot or something.  The first indication was that when he plays with his stuffed animal squeaky toys, he is careful not to tug on them hard enough to damage them.  But the incontrovertible [...]

I’m eating my oatmeal with a fork today.  As was said in The Matrix, “there is no spoon.” At least, not in the break room at work. I was too lazy to go to another floor in search of one.
Reminds me of an outdated joke, that used to be told before 1998:
Why does [...]

In late 2001 I was visiting friends in Oregon, and we decided to see The Fellowship of the Ring, Peter Jackson’s film of the first book of J.R.R. Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.  I was torn between excitement to see it and fear that it might not compare favorably to the book (since most [...]

Ever wonder what was really going on with those classified shuttle missions?  Now, thanks to This Day in Alternate History, we finally know!