calling all nerds ...

I see that this month's Slashdot Meetup will be held at a sports bar on upper Greenville Avenue : Ben's Half Yard House. In theory, a group of 5 or more readers of Slashdot (/.) will gather to trade Tales of the Nerd. In the past, many of these MeetUps have been cancelled because they couldn't draw a minimum crowd.

Where to find stuff (aside from Yahoo! or Google): Vivisimo; GigaBlast; ResearchBuzz ("Search Engine News and More Since 1998"); Librarians Index to the Internet; Topix.net (for local news, including Dallas); Findory News and Crayon (personalized newspapers); Compaq's SpeechBot (research project)

Deep Thought #32: what if I buy one of these mega-DVD units (like the Kenwood DV-5050M DVD Changer) and am audited? If I don't have 400 DVDs in my collection, can I be fined?

amusing nameSpot: KenTacoHut (merged fast food operating under one roof, ala KFC+Taco Bell+Pizza Hut). One of these KenTacoHuts operates at the northeast corner of 75-Central and Forest Lane. Also nearby is a TacoHut (Taco Bell+Pizza Hut), a KenTaco (KFC+Taco Bell) and a KenBeer (KFC+A&W Root Beer). This is precisely why UCC [UpperCamelCase] was designed!

Meanwhile, my paper copy of The Cluetrain Manifesto arrived: time to settle in for a read of its 183 pages. Sure, I could've read it online for free, but I'm still unconvinced that eBooks will dominate (Project Gutenberg advocates are undoubtedly rolling their eyes).

Why I pay my credit card balance in full each month: Making the minimum payments on a $3,000 balance carrying an 18% APR will take 431 months (almost 36 years) to pay off, and cost $7,511.74 in interest.

memo to Lanett: I do indeed have the DVD of American Splendor (someone beat you to the referral) and I'll watch it tonight.

In "the stuff you learn at lunch" category: Simethicone is the generic name for Gas-X; Mylanta Gas; Mylicon; Phazyme. Gas-X is available in Cherry Creme and Peppermint Creme flavors. It works after eating; if you want a preventive, consider Beano.