E-Filler Archives

Here's the post-modernism generator I was talking about. Wikipedia has a good article on post-modernism, which itself is a little post-modern.

Making good on a 40-year old dare, some engineers here at Western replaced the Canadian flag atop of the bell tower with a pirate flag.



For those of you who don't go to Western, the University College bell tower is basically this school's icon.



Personally, I thought this was a great prank...but it looks like the dean of engineering thinks otherwise. Lastly, here's that letter from the dean after it's been put through Gizoogle.

So today I was doing some scientific literature searches and came across
this:
and think to myself why I'm working so hard for my thesis when case study like this in a crappy journal makes its way into the scientific community.
So I don't know who's dumber: the doctors or the woman who didn't realize what had happened.
And exactly how can you inhale a condom into the lung? AND not suffocate and die from it?
And it only gets better when this 22-year old guy in my lab, upon reading that article and noticing the last word "f****tio" asked me what it means (sincerely). So my answer to him? "you're so innocent"

Ridiculous!

Geez, it's not even April 1st and the jokes have already started. JetsGo is apparently planning to start flying again in June. The've got planes, pilots and fuel...now all they need are some passengers.

If you were ever wondering what it would sound like if Snoop Dogg read this (or any other) webpage, you can finally find out at Gizoogle. The page will translate any other page into...well, almost another language. Below is snipped from yesterday's post:

"Some pimp over at MIT have created an alarm clizzay tizzy runs n hides so you REALLY have ta git up ta tizzay it off. Seems like a good idea fo` thugz like me who can turn they alarm off witout ridin' up. The coolest piznart is T-H-to-tha-izzat it tries ta hizzle in a different spiznot everyday so show some love niggaz. Brotha or not this is "research" or jiznust an application of technology is debatablizzles a coo` idea none-thizzles . Bounce wit me."

Some researchers over at MIT have created an alarm clock that runs and hides so you REALLY have to get up to turn it off. Seems like a good idea for people like me who can turn their alarm off without waking up. The coolest part is that it tries to hide in a different spot everyday. Whether or not this is "research" or just an application of technology is debatable...but a cool idea none-the-less.

Bored? Well now you can practice your matching skills and learn about the CFL with this logo matching game, featuring the new TiCats logo too...how current. It keeps track of the high scores...Billy the Kid, you will be mine.

For the nth day in a row, Terri Schiavo is in the headlines. If you've been living in a cave or on another planet, you'll want to read this background to get up to speed.

Why her parents want to keep her alive I'll never know. I'm not trying to sound like a heartless bastard here...if I was in the state that Terri's in, I'd want to be let go too. They can probably keep her (or anyone) alive indefinitely with technology, but look at the quality of life. So, I guess the question is, when does one let go?

Great site design, I was just visiting MSN.com, and I couldn't elp but think this site has been 'microsoftized'. Either way, very asthetically pleasing.

Happy Easter everyone.

That is all.

...and with a new web server comes a new look. I updated the style of e-filler, but it turns out it doesn't look so great on all screens (that's what I get for not checking)...should I keep the current scheme or go back to the old? (As always it's best viewed with Firefox/Mozilla.)

Sony has released the PSP (Play Station Personal) at long last. I remember when Play Station was origionally released, it was targeted to an older age group (18-25 I believe). PS2 followed the trend. Nintendo has always targeted a younger audience (8-18?), and because of that they've always had success with their portable gaming devices.

How will the PSP fair? I would never buy this device becuase I'm never riding in the back of my parents car anymore. The unit costs around $400 CDN and doesn't even include a game...I'd say it's a bit pricy for an 8-16 year old...hell, it's even too pricy for me. Dispite it's general coolness, are we about to see another NGage disaster?


A full review can be found here.

As I wrote before, E-Filler is moving servers...

If you're reading this, then you're on the new server. (Could someone please post when they see this so I know the move is successful...)

If you're noticing any problems please send me an e-mail (dan at e-filler dot ca).

There seems to be an uproar at my old stomping grounds. UWO is about to bestow an honorary degree upon Dr. Henry Morgentaler, who was "Canada's pioneer abortionist doctor."

Amid protests from many, it appears the decision is final.

Well, my car is finally back from the shop (London Motor Products). It was snowing like mad when I drove home today (I thought it was Spring!?!) so the pics aren't too great, but you can see the result here. I'm quite pleased.

The details of the incident were posted on March 8th.

After the melt-down earlier this month this site lost a load of files. Among them was what I thought was my only copy of Animal Scramble. Fortunately, I found another copy today and put it back online for the world to enjoy! If you've never experienced life on a farm you might want to check it out.

A young Canadian girl is behind bars today after her second night in jail. Where? Greece. Why? Because she picked up a piece of marble at the Acropolis.

Now, I can see the Greek's being a little uptight about people taking anything from there, after all, if everyone took a small piece of it home, there'd be nothing left.

But was it really necessary to through a 16 year old girl in jail for 2 days? Would a stern warning or small fine not have been enough?!? Maybe we'd be a little high strung too if our athletes were charged with doping in our own olympics...

Update: The Greeks have been so kind as to allow the Canadian girl to return home...pending her trial. Does this REALLY need a trial?

This is just an outstanding pick-up line. FYI, an Einstein-Rosen bridge is what sci-fi writers commonly refer to as a "wormhole".

If you've never read, but always wondered what To Kill a Mocking Bird was about, you can watch a Flash book report on it here.

As the two year anniversary of the war in Iraq approaches (or is it already here?), protesters hit the streets demanding that the US (and other allies) pull out of Iraq. While I never supported the invasion of Iraq, I can't say I support a pull-out. Even with 150,000 troops on the ground there is wide spread chaos. Imagine if they just up and left! So that leaves the question; what do the protesters expect to happen?

Wikipedia is on the ball today. The article on St. Patrick's Day has an image with the caption "The Chicago River, dyed green for the 2005 St. Patrick's Day celebration"...

Happy St. Patrick's Day

President Bush's greedy thirst for oil continues. Dubya narrowly won a vote in the U.S. senate which approves drilling in the Arctic region, home to an Alaskan wildlife refuge.

Let us hope this does not happen. One day, humankind's callous disregard for the environment will come back to haunt us. One day.

A new bill in Ontario is targeting "gender based pricing"...what does that mean? Apparently the fact that men's and women's haircuts cost different amounts is discrimination. Never mind the fact that a woman's hair can take considerably longer to cut/style. Well, I guess now we can all pay really high prices. And dry cleaning?? I guess it doesn't matter that women's clothing tends to be more intricate and fragile then men's has nothing to do with it. Who needs a free market anyway?

Michael Jackson; child molesting pervert or victim of gold-digging parents?

I haven't really been following the case too closly, but when it makes the headlines, I usually read the article. Having seen the Martin Bashir's documentary last year (or was it two years ago?) I would take the first view of Michael Jackson. What a bizarre fruity life this guy leads.

But having just read this article, and having read previously that the alleged victim's mother had once accused store security of assaulting her, I can't help but wonder if MJ really didn't do it.

No matter what, I think we can all agree on one thing...he's wierd.

As I'm sure you've all heard, various efforts are underway to unionize some Walmart outlets. Who wins if a Walmart is unionized?
- Hard working employees are bounded by metrics such as seniority
- If wages (as a whole) do rise, profits go down so the overall health of the store suffers (bad for everyone but the union itself)
- Employees have to pay union dues (thereby decreasing their pay)
- Customers suffer becuase labor costs rise, causing increased prices and a possible lower quality of staff (since they will have a harder time axing lousy employees)

Really, the only entities who benifit are lazy employees and the union itself. There was a report on CBC Sunday this morning that showed the story of a young man trying to unionize his Walmart...he spoke of dropping out of high school and that this was the life he chose so he had to make the best of it. Wouldn't the best of it be working hard at his job to move up? (I'm not sure how much room there is for advancement there...but there must be some.) I only see the union as being a short-term bandaid and a long-term handicap for this guy. Thoughts?

So, how many people know someone who was affected by Jetsgo? I know of one family who had their March break plans destroyed, and someone else who had almost bought tickets with them (just last week) but aborted at the last minute.

What I'd like to know is how Jetsgo could continue to sell tickets up until the last minute? What if you had JUST bought your airline tickets? You're SOL??

...it probably is. Here are some rebuttals to the "Beer isn't fattening" article.

Update: This image isn't a photoshop job. Click here, and go to the Fillers.

Here's some good news: Apparently beer isn't as fattening as people think.

Update: Fixed link.

Last Friday, after an already long week, I returned to my apartment to find that my car had been involved in a non-moving incident. A large steel grate was knocked onto my car by the driver of the snow plow who was clearing our parking lot.

The damage can be viewed here.

Needless to say, the building owner said he would pay for the repairs, but asked that I first get two estimates. Fair enough. I got 2 estimates, $2200, and $2500 respectivly (I even prefered to have it done at the cheaper of the two). Now he tells me (through our building manager, she's his proxy) that those estimates are too high and I need to take it to "his guy". Do I have to put up with this? I left for school Friday morning with a new car (less than a year old) in flaw-less condition, now the roof is dented in several spots and the paint is chipped. Do I have to settle for a second rate repair job?

The car once looked like this:

Rather than track guns, why not track the bullets? If (somehow) we were able to print a unique serial number inside each bullet (to prevent tampering), then track the production and sale of said bullets, would this not make tracking down shooters easier? There's already more than enough unregistered guns to go around.

I know, I know, there's probably more than enough ammo out there to commit violent crimes for the next 10,000 years, but I just thought I'd throw that idea out there.

There is an article at the The Star that talks about some initiative by the federal government to (among other things) broaden the government's ability to watch what you do online.

Is this really a problem? The way I see it, if you have nothing to hide, who cares?

However, author of the article tied several issues together (in what one might call a 'synergissue'). One of these issues is the blocking of competitive network traffic by ISPs. It's nothing new for ISPs to prioritize traffic through their network based on its source and destinations, but recently Vonage (a VoIP provider, that's phone over the Internet) filed a complain with the FCC because some ISP blocked their VoIP traffic. (I assume this ISP also provides local telephone service.) Should this be illegal? Probably. If Bell Canada didn't let you phone Sprint to change your local phone service everyone would freak out, that's anti-competitive in a big way.

Then there's the whole issue of the copyright infringement listed in the article (the last 4 paragraphs). I've said it before and I'll say it again: people who don't understand technology, shouldn't make rules that govern it.

Will yesterday's tragic events strike a blow to the process of decriminalizing marijuana? The bill before Parliament has reduced penalties for those caught in possession of the drug, but tougher penalties for those found growing the stuff.

The way I see it, the bill will only serve to make matters worse. Growing marijuana is already an extremely lucrative business. Won't decriminalization have the effect (or at least potential effect) of increasing demand? Thereby making a grow-op even more lucrative? And, in turn, place more officers in danger?

Steve Fossett flew solo around the world, why is this such a big deal? Well, maybe commercial airlines will begin to offer a non-stop New York to New York flight. That would be useful. (It should be noted that this has been done before, but not by a solo-pilot.)

The other thing I'd like to ask is how do they define "around the world". Being a sphere, the diameter of the Earth changes with the latitude...technically you could fly a kite around the world if you were at one of the poles. I think flying around the equator would be the ultimate challenge, anything else is a bit of a grey area.

If you're unable to post a comment, please let me know (through e-mail or the feedback page). I upgraded the server to MySQL 4.1 and the transition seems to be causing some problems. I think I've fixed all the known problems now...but more may/will crop up.

Well folks, it's that time again, roll up the rim is back at Tim Horton's. Last year, I don't think I won a single thing...will this year be different? I doubt it. I think this image pretty much sums up how I feel:

Has anyone here won anything yet? Ever?

It's official: Condoleezza Rice won't be coming to Canada as expected because we decided not to participate in problem plauged missile defence plan. My question is this; what exactly does Canada stand to lose by Ms. Rice not coming here?

No visit for you!