
card for my mother-in-law, who is feeling a bit isolated right now #glint

work as if you live in the early days of a better nation
Inspired (obliquely) by this Metafilter post, I set out to answer a burning question.
This occurs from second 36 to second 38 of this video:
The chime when extracted without further processing, sounds like this:
(direct link: Original-Log-Commercial_The-Ren-and-Stimpy-Show.wav)
I found a copy of Eudora Mail 1.44 for Windows (bundled up in an archive quaintly called “internet.zipâ€) here. The EUDOR144.EXE file is itself a Zip archive, and contains several files. The important one is WEUDORA.EXE (722,944 bytes; SHA256 checksum a35f2ef1e95242228381d9340fff0995f4935223f88a38b9200717107252dfb9).
This is a Windows 16 “New Executable†(NE) file, and I used panzi/mediaextract to scan and extract the RIFF/WAV data:
(direct link: WEUDORA.EXE_000a8200.wav)
They sure sound similar. But are they … the same?
Comparison
I made sure that both samples were set to the same rate, and I applied simple amplification in Audacity so that they both had a peak volume of -3 dB. Aligning the tracks as best I could, I got this:
The Eudora sample is very slightly slower than the Log one. It might have been that the Eudora authors sampled the chimes from an analogue video tape. The match is remarkable, however, as they play together with only very slight phasing effects:
(direct link: Log_vs_Eudora-log_left-Eudora_right.wav)
Yes, the Eudora Mail “New Mail†chime did come from Ren & Stimpy after all.
(without resorting to TinyURL.com, xrl.us or is.gd when posting …)
Some mail clients wrap URLs in a way that breaks their ability to be clicked on. Trying to explain a method to fix this is tiresome, so here’s an animation that explains it:
Basically, it helps to select the URL from the end to the start. Once you’ve got all the text, copy it, and paste it into your browser’s location bar.
Maybe a good idea: Red Dot Campaign | Say no to Junk Mail.
I discovered last week that GO don’t have a central announcement system. That means that unstaffed stations like Kennedy and Exhibition always leave their passengers in the dark. Plus, the e-mail announcement system only alerts you if the train is more than 30 minutes late. I think by that time I would have gone home.
No sign of that train yet …
I see that my company’s Outlook Web Access does much niftier things on IE than on FireFox:
You don’t get those options of Firefox. Bah
But in true MS dunderhead fashion, when you quit the mail client, it clears all your cookies — including the ones of sessions on other sites. Microsoft, this isn’t DOS; people multitask these days …
The only downside about being part of the Billboard Battalion is that you get a lot of mail from the city. I get a separate letter for each variance contested, and sometimes duplicates, so I get between four and twelve letters after each community council meeting.
You would have thought they could have stuck them all in one envelope, or used e-mail, to save money and paper. But no; we’re a world class city, after all.
Gmail works flawlessly on the BlackBerry. Wish I could find a general POP3 client for my other mail…
Just received a phishing e-mail that purports to come from eBay Pearl Harbour Security Departament. That’s pretty dumb.
The freighter Algorail loading salt in Goderich Harbour. One of the crew shouted for me to e-mail the photos; this is the best I can do for now!
Can you believe the Outlook mailbox limit at work? 60MB. Yup. I’ve been forced to tidy up every week.
I can’y believe a program as widely used as Outlook has so many critical limitations. Storing mail in binary archive files of limited size? Please; so 1989.
From OSEA:
The moment we have all been waiting for has arrived! The Ministry of Energy, the Premier, David Suzuki and OSEA will be announcing the Standard Offer Program on March 21st. We are organizing a celebration and press event in partnership with the Ministry of Energy that will take place at 3 pm at Exhibition Place, Toronto, home to Ontario’s first community wind turbine.
Please mark this date in your calendar and watch for further notices (via email and at www.ontario-sea.org) on details regarding location, speakers and entertainment.
This is a celebratory event – please everyone, let us celebrate the positive role the Standard Offer Contract program will play in Ontario for renewables, for community power, for cost effective power, and for our air quality and health!
Thanks to everyone for their efforts!
If the province has got this right, we really will see a lot more wind power in Ontario.
My Blackberry mail server setup hasn’t been completed yet (it’s quite a shock to be on a computer with nothing above user privileges, I tell you). So I’m getting lots of blackberry.net messages which look a bit like this:
BEGINETP 10
AwUAAAAAAAAAAQ!!
ENDETP ...
Sums up pretty much how I feel about it: AwUAAAAAAAAAAQ!! AwUAAAAAAAAAAQ!!
I had a good day. There was a lot of administrivia, setting up e-mail accounts, form filling, and learning about the network, but that’s all once off. The afternoon was mostly spent fighting with my new BlackBerry (a 7130e, you nerds), which works as a very nice phone, but the e-mail isn’t set up.
My cube has a view, and the transit is great. I’m happy.
There was supposed to be a picture of a nice — if low-res and a bit squinty — sunset over McLean’s Mountain on Manitoulin Island here, but 1&1’s webmail isn’t too good on attachments.
Update: Here it is:—
(The vertical lines are guy wires, btw)
Every couple of months, the Council of Canadians sends me a large and visually unappealing (1986 called; they want their typewriter font back) mailing, ranting about how those pesky Americans keep stealing our water.
Close reading of the mailing (which is hard, given the woeful typography) shows that the initiatives being railed at are either:
Like most environmental things, Canada has an appalling record of looking after its abundant water. I think we think that the rest of the world thinks better of us than they do, or maybe even frankly cares about Canada.
I’m a bit worried by the CoC’s use of the n-word — nationalist — since it has unpleasant connotations, like the BNP and SNLA. Also, at least half of the mailing could be summed up as The Maude Barlow Fanzine, with only slightly lower production quality than the average zine.
And anyway, pesky Americans haven’t been stealing our water. Catherine hasn’t been sneaking any more out of the house than usual …
You’ve seen those page-long legal disclaimers that legal counsels require on outgoing e-mails? Well, I’ve been dealing with an Irish company that has the best one ever:
If this e-mail does not relate to Company‘s business then it is neither from nor authorised by Company
Short, to-the-point, and all you need.
Looks like it’s down in some way; my daily condition monitoring e-mail didn’t get through to the fido.ca address, and neither did other subsequent tests.