Thinking Chaos, Thinking Fences

Sunday, May 04, 2003

Starting a Computer Club An entertaining thread has emerged on Slashdot. This was the original question: When I moved up to my high school this year (I'm a Sophomore), I was surprised to find that there was no 'computer' or 'technology' club at the school. Sure, there's A/V, but what fun is carrying TV sets around? So, I'd like to approach my school's administration about starting an after-school computer club. I'd like to educate my peers on the alternatives to Windows (Linux and Open Source), how hardware works and fits together, job offerings in computer-related fields, and anything else that may be of interest. Perhaps we can do fund-raisers to build and upgrade a computer for the club, which could be donated to the school or community? Does anyone have suggestions on this? Has anyone tried this before? I've had a lot of support from my peers, but I'm still not quite sure how to go about it. Now, I'll come right out and say it: I spent a fair number of lunch hours hanging out in the computer lab bathed in the warm green glow of the Apple IIe's or whatever the heck they were. And there was an informal group of peers who were there too, creating nifty little programs and pixelated animated movies. That said, you'll never find any photos of me in the computer lab in the yearbook I recognized and (to a limited degree) embraced my own geekiness. This guy's just asking for trouble. He'll be the Martin Prince of the School in no time. The Slashdot thread goes on to offer a number of informative and/or entertaining suggestions, including this homage: The first rule of Computer Club, is you do not talk about Computer Club. The second rule of Computer Club is you do not talk about Computer Club. The third rule of Computer Club is, if the CIA catches on, the hack is over. The fourth rule of Computer Club is, only one guy to a computer. The fifth rule of Computer Club is, one critical section at a time, boys. The sixth rule of Computer Club is, no ties, no sports jerseys. The seventh rule of Computer Club is, coding sessions will go on as long as they have to. The eigth rule of Computer Club is, if this is your first night, you have to release 1.0. 11:21:04 PM

Long Exposures Get your mind out of the gutter. Lovely, eerie photographs from David Allee created at night, using shutter speeds of two to three minutes: 10:58:00 PM

Not Safe for Work That last post got me wondering. As it turns out, Google told me that there is indeed a site called Not Safe for Work. If you're dumb enough to go there while at your place of business, I bear no responsibility for your dismissal. 10:54:44 PM

The Flaccid/Erect Quandary The diligent guys over at Erection Photos have assembled an extensive, impressively scientific comparison of the flaccid and erect penis (note, unless you work in gay porn, this site is not even remotely safe for work). They don't draw too many conclusions, but: The slang terms "growers" and "showers" are not based on research but are popular culture words that come from the everyday experiences of men. These words imply that a grower is someone whose flaccid penis is not very large but grows quite a bit as it becomes erect. And a shower is someone whose penis shows a good bit of length when flaccid and gains proportionally less length as it becomes erect. The absolute amount each of these types gain may be equal -- but the effect is more dramatic for the grower because he started with less length. (We should acknowledge that for every general principle there are exceptions. In this case, the exceptions mean that there may be short flaccid penises that gain only slightly and long flaccid penises that gain quite a lot -- and everything inbetween.) The sundry photos on the site seem to reinforce this hypothesis. There are also some slightly disturbing images of penile implants and an interesting FAQ. Once again, this site is so totally unsafe for work. 10:49:06 PM