🏷️ a series of tubes

We have a WiebeTech hard drive enclosure at work and I'm very impressed with it, so I ordered another one for my new home backup drive @zobar #40088 . Have you ever read an order confirmation email? Have you ever enjoyed reading it?

Hello from WiebeTech,

We just received your order and we think it's just super duper that you've chosen to do business with us.

If you check the shipping status of your products hopefully you'll see everything is squared away and ready to go (those are called "out-the-doorsies"). Sometimes everybody wants the same thing you want at the same time you want to have it and we run out of stuff (those are called "out-of-stocksies"). If you ordered an "out-of-stocksie" it makes us sad, but then we're happy again because we know that it will soon turn into an "out-the-doorsie."

So after all the money and shipping twiddle bits are set to go then all the products you ordered are built skillfully by hand in a magic realm called "Production" by clever little beings called "Wiebes." The Wiebes will carefully test and format every function and characteristic of your product(s) before carefully packing it and sending it off with a smile and a wave of their little orange hands. If you want to check on the Wiebe's progress with your order you can send an email to shipping@wiebetech.com. But don't worry, they will send you an email when it goes out the door.

When you receive your order don't forget to register it (www.wiebetech.com/registration) so the Support Wiebes can assist you with your product should you need it.

Also, we're on the edge of our seat wondering what you think of WiebeTech, our products, our people, our website or even of life in general. Would you mind just taking this little survey for us? www.wiebetech.com/survey it won't take but a minute.

We had the greatest time doing business with you. You are now our new best friend!

Thanks a Bunch!
WiebeTech, LLC

It's like Charlie and the Hard Drive Enclosure Factory over here. I'm picturing Laverne putting a glove on my enclosure as it rolls by on the conveyor belt and waves to the assembly line.

- Z

On April 12, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously passed the Open Government Act ... [which] would strengthen the federal Freedom of Information Act...

The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a similar measure in March - but that bill was blocked from reaching the Senate floor for a May 24 vote because an unknown senator placed a secret hold on the bill.

A secret hold. On a bill that would help the public have greater access to public information. Think about that for a minute.

Well ok that's pretty fucked up, but the Society of Professional Journalists has come up with a quick and innovative way of weeding out the culprit

Now really - if you don't know how your elected, paid representatives are voting, how are you supposed to decide whether to continue electing and paying them?

- Z

...from Brandon Bird I can't tell which is better: his Law & Order coloring book, or the Special Victims Unit valentines.



...tangentially related, from Chris Dimino


- Z

It turns out that buying a laser printer for your house is not like buying an inkjet printer for your house. First off, you don't so much buy an inkjet printer as find it slipped into the packaging for some other major purchase you've made, like a Cracker Jack prize. [They are also like Cracker Jack prizes in that they are worthless pieces of crap, except that you need to keep feeding them $40 of ink every 150 pages.]

But when you buy a laser printer, even if it's just going to end up in your living room under a stack of papers and dirty laundry, Xerox sets you up with an account manager. I was not prepared for this. I emailed a question to, like, sales@xerox.com and got a response that said, hey, give me a call and we can chat. OK, spaz.

The punchline of this post is that since I use Gmail, Google's algorithms have determined that the following advertisement is somehow germane to the differences between the Xerox Phaser 6120 and 6180:



- Z

- Z

Wow!! Sabres pogs!!

YourHub, The Buffalo News' fledgling social networking site, has been around for a few months now and I was initially reserving judgment because a website is only as bad as its content, and there wasn't much content yet. Well, after four months of paying local self-published wordsmiths to fill their site by plugging their novels, today's discussion topic is: drinking too much coffee . When the inevitable follow-up came I could not help but contribute. Only after I had pushed the Send button did I remember the photo I had posted on my profile lo these many months ago .

Now I'm not going to knock YourHub because it's not like I haven't been down that road on (e:strip) myself @zobar #37304 . And it's academically interesting that, despite its stated corporate goal of being inclusive of all 630,000 Buffalo News readers, it's becoming an in-club just like any other social networking site - that the in-people [most or all of whom are paid to be there] have formed their own community and are talking about their caffeine intake and their favorite Italian restaurants just like the rest of us unpaid local bloggers. Except that they can't really speak freely because they can't say anything that would offend Depewites' tender sensibilities. Which means that not only are they talking about in-stuff we don't care about, it's totally watered down. It's like eating someone else's cold tapioca when you don't like tapioca and you're not hungry. Or like reading Buffalo Current without Sabrina the Creepy Sex Columnist (GOOGLE - cache:www.buffalocurrent.com).

But I guess that's all to be expected. This is what bugs me about YourHub. It is divided into neighborhoods: Amherst/Clarence, 'Central,' Grand Island/Ken-Ton, Hamburg/West Seneca, Niagara Falls, Orchard Park/East Aurora, Southern Tier, and West Niagara County. They are arbitrary but at least they're well-defined ... except for Central. I kind of figured that since Buffalo is the county seat and that's also where the Buffalo News is headquartered, Central meant the Buffalo city proper. But no! It appears that they completely forgot to include the city in their list of neighborhoods. So where is an urban hipster like myself supposed to post the pictures I took drinking PBR in the booth at Frizzy's?

And that is why we have (e:strip).

- Z

... those sweet sweet cravings ...

- Z