Pun Salad

• As a computer geek and Star Wars fan (and Simpsons fan), I found this story of how they made the "THX Sound" very interesting. Fascinating geeky factoid: since the program used to generate the sound was based (somewhat) on a random number sequence generated from a time-dependent seed, they were unable to recreate the exact version of the sound everyone liked when it was accidentally lost. (Via BBSpot.)
• Help send Shawn Macomber to Iraq. No, honest, he wants to go.
• Every so often, I spy a beautifully written blog entry that helps remind me of What's Important in Life. The Second-Smartest Woman in the World has written three of those recently. Abjure the usual blog-ordering and read the first one first, the second one second, and the third one third.
• And a blog I had not read before ("What Would Tyler Durden Do"-heh!) has a straightforward analysis of celebrity posturing for death-row Stanley "Tookie" Williams. The blogger points out something usually missed: the pleas for clemency can not stand to mention the names of the people Tookie murdered. What's up with that? (Via Galley Slaves.)

… over the next few days, as I am physically on the Left Coast, attending the LISA system administrators conference put on by USENIX.

The weather is nice here. But, holy crap, it seems that people are completely into cell phones here. While sitting at LAX, it seemed like 80% of the folks in the area were yakking away on them.

Anyway, (belated) must-click URL for you: My close personal friend Dave Barry is not currently producing weekly columns, and it's a miracle that the republic has nevertheless survived. But he's written his Annual Gift Guide, and that will have to do for awhile. Probably more items than you might imagine are associated with dogs and poop.