From a food allergy alert released today:
Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc., is recalling “Chocolate Covered Almonds” due to undeclared peanuts and “Chocolate Double-Dipped Peanuts” due to undeclared almonds. [emphasis added]
I have to wonder: are they just really bad about keeping their ingredients separate, or did they get the labels switched on a couple of batches?
There’s something delicious about irony in spam. Yesterday, the spamtraps netted an advance fee fraud scam message that started out like this:
Let me be honest with you. This information is just for you alone [emphasis added]. I would suggest that you try to fix it instead of making any trouble with it as my job might be put on the line here.
Your name has been on an awaiting list of payment roaster submitted by the Nigerian Government For your lottery/inheritance reasons of no banking particulars on which transfer should be made to until two days ago when the paying Bank personnel brought in another payment roaster for the replacement of the former that had your name on it.
The funny part? (Well, aside from the “payment roaster.”) There were about 300 recipients in the To: line.
Gee, I don’t think all 300 people have the same account info…
Most spam doesn’t run into this problem, since it’s generated by special programs that don’t even bother filling in complete headers. But from what I understand, a lot of 419 scams are still sent by people sitting in internet cafes, copying and pasting bits from templates. So it’s easy to imagine someone pasting their list into the wrong field. Kind of like the classic “Reply All” fiascos.
Oddly, the usual deluge of election propaganda hasn’t materialized yet, and the election is less than a week away. While looking through the scanty haul, most of which is focused on a quartet of propositions on Indian gaming, Katie found an intriguing statement:
Wait… pubic services? Whoa! And here I thought gambling on tribal lands was hot. This could blow it away… or alternatively, screw everyone over.
I found this photo while looking for the UCI Student Center pic. This was taken on the way back from a camping trip with UCI’s Campuswide Honors Program in the Angeles National Forest in April 2000. IIRC it was along Angeles Crest Highway.
A permanent sign isn’t necessarily the best way to indicate a transitory condition.
Yesterday, President Bush reportedly said, “Politicians in Washington shouldn’t be telling generals how to do their job.”
I guess he’d better recuse himself from any further military decisions for the rest of his term. Commander in Chief or not, the President of the United States is a politician in Washington.
Hmm, maybe he can give orders while traveling?
![[Opera Logo]](http://www.hyperborea.org/journal/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/opera-ooo.gif)
The Opera Web Browser is in the news today. First, they’ve just released version 9.20. In addition to the usual security, stability, and compatibility fixes, they’re promoting a new feature called Speed Dial, to make it easier to reach your most-frequently-visited websites.
Meanwhile, a recent survey by NetApplications and Surveyware found that while Firefox is widely considered the best browser, Opera’s users are more satisfied than users of any other browser. NetApplications’ current marketshare shows 79% IE, 15% Firefox, 4.5% Safari and 0.8% Opera for March 2007. (via OperaWatch)
While Opera is an excellent browser, this high level of satisfaction may be in part because of the size of its userbase. Often, when something is only followed by a small fraction of the potential audience, it’s mainly the hard-core fans. The only way to grow past that size is to bring in the casual users, who are less invested in it. Only time (and increased marketshare) will tell.
Webuser decided to lead with the Opera findings, which is great news for what they call “one of the internet’s best-kept secrets.” But they made an odd choice on the image to run with the article:
Maybe they figured the Firefox logo was more recognizable, and would get more people to stop and read?
Found this on Amazon a few months ago while looking for something by Neil Gaiman:
I just checked back and the listing is gone. I figure it was probably a placeholder or something.
You know the routine. We can’t pass up a bizarre image without taking a photo and posting some sort of comment. Not even on vacations.
The drive to Las Vegas from southern California is simple: make your way to the 15, head north, and keep going until you get blinded by the neon. The ⅔ mark is Baker, CA, a small strip of restaurants, stores and gas stations in the middle of the desert, famous for the Bun Boy and the world’s tallest thermometer. Baker has something new: Alien Fresh Jerky.
We were staying at the South Coast Hotel and Casino, the latest megasino to open, which is a bit off the strip. At first I was a bit worried about finding the right exit. As it turns out, it’s the first giant hotel you’ll see as you approach Las Vegas from the south…about two miles before you actually have a chance to get off the freeway! (They have a free shuttle to the strip, though that had its own share of problems.) They put us in a room on the 24th floor, which had a great view of suburban South Las Vegas. Continue reading
eWeek has an article about URL Tracer, a new tool from Microsoft to keep track of typo-squatting. At one point, the article refers to “typos-quatting.”
I’m sure it’ll get fixed soon, but it seems strangely appropriate.
