Blackmoor Vituperative

There’s a really good article by Peter Coffee in this week’s issue of eWeek. How do you do quality control when you are manufacturing something that’s as small as you can build something out of atoms?

I’m not in the mood for another convertible (yet), but if I was, this is what I would buy: the Pontiac Solstice. Not only is this the first car Pontiac has made in the last decade or two that I don’t consider butt-ugly, but it’s the sleekest, sexiest roadster I know of that’s available in the USA for under $50,000 (the MSRP for the Solstice is around $20,000). It’s a hell of a lot prettier than the Chrysler Crossfire, that’s for sure.

As I said, I’m not in the mood for a convertible again. Not yet, anyway. I’m currently very pleased with my 2003 Tiburon V6 GT (in black, naturally). I’ll probably drive that until it starts needing maintenance more than once every six months. If you’re looking for a Tiburon, I highly recommend Laurel Hyundai, in Laurel, Maryland. I got a great deal (around $3,000 less than I would have paid in Virginia Beach), they were very helpful, and they don’t stick ugly dealer stickers on the back of the car up there like they do here in Virginia.

The top 20 search queries which led Internet visitors to blackgate.net, sorted by the number of requests.

The one that surprises me is “chapter 5 helps appreciate dr frankenstein”. That’s just weird.

I found a great site which walks you step by step through setting up Fedora Core 3: Fedora Core 3 Installation Notes. This is the clearest, most complete walkthrough I have seen so far. Well done, Stanton Finley, whoever you are.

While I’m at it, here’s a very helpful how-to for setting up a Linux server on a home network to connect to your broadband provider’s SMTP server. Marvelous!

Hootie-hoo! I just received the MST3K Collection Volume 7 from Deep Discount DVD. There are some great episodes on this one:

• Hercules Unchained
• Hercules Against The Moon Men
• Prince Of Space
• The Killer Shrews

Of course, I have all of these on DVD already, thanks to the MST3K Digital Archive Project, but the quality on these Rhino DVDs is much higher. I’ll definitely keep buying the Rhino DVDs as long as they keep releasing them (and hopefully the next generation of DVD players will still play them!). Aside from the quality of the movies themselves, the packaging on these Rhino sets is just awesome. Whoever designs these things obviously has a lot of fun doing it, and I appreciate the effort.