If you’ve ever wondered how idiots, morons and imbeciles rank against each other, this sample from an old book shows you:
So where does “dumbass” fit on this scale?
[Update: Here’s the source of the image — Better for All the World: The Secret History of Forced Sterilization and America’s Quest for Racial Purity, a book on the eugenics movement in the U.S. in the early 20th century.]
Someone who goes by the handle of “bluechemist” posted this collection that takes me back to my youth: a composite scan of 66 covers from the old Choose Your Own Adventure series of books. I loved these books. They inspired the first computer game I ever wrote, New York Subway, my first serious foray into programming using the BASIC programming language as well as into telling tasteless jokes*. Really, really, really tasteless jokes (hey, I was 13). As my wife will tell you, I’m still programming and still telling tasteless jokes.
* No, the source code no longer exists in readable form: it’s on a TRS-80 cassette tape that has been lost to the ages.
Pictured below is a quick preview of the book covers. Click the image to see it at full size:
Bonus: Someone had the same idea I did and ran with it much farther. Brad: The Game is a very tasteless web game with all the Choose Your Own Adventure interactivity and all the New York Subway tastelessness (perhaps even more!). I’ve played it many times, and have ended up dead, joining the Greek Navy, found my pants and scored 72 times in a single night.
This year, Tucows will be hosting a series of “Ask Tucows” IRC chats
in which I and a number of Tucows employees will be available to answer
questions, take comments and suggestions and generally talk about
Tucows. The first such chat will take place on Thursday, March 23rd at 1:00 p.m. EST (10:00 a.m. Pacific / 6:00 p.m. UTC).
Since
my position is largely concerned with developer relations, questions
about developing on the Tucows platform are the type I’ll best be able
to answer. That being said, I’m sure that my boss, Ross Rader, Director
of Research and Innovation will be joining me, and he’ll be able to
cover a good number of questions I can’t. I plan to gather a number of
other Tucows folks to join in order to get a representative group with
whom you can chat.
Here are the technical details of the “Ask Tucows” chat:
Watch this space for more details about the chat, and if you’re not familiar with online chat via IRC, I’ll also post a “how-to” article.
It’s Monday, March 13th, and as promised, I have returned. Let’s begin, shall we?
I’ll be attending the Toronto Ruby on Rails pub night tonight at 7 p.m. at the C’est What (67 Front Street East, just east of Church), which got organized by the folks at Unspace. If you’re curious about:
…then you might find this event intertesting.
This will be a monthly event, but I always like attending inaugural ones if I can. Hope to see you there!
(This has also been posted to Tucows Developer.)
The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century will remain on hiatus until next
Monday, March 13th. My spare time is still quite taken up with all
sorts of things to do with Dad’s passing. I’d like to thank all of you
who commented, blogged or emailed me; it means a lot, and you have the
gratitude not only of me, but that of my entire family. Thanks for all
your kind words, prayers and good thoughts.
I’ve returned to work and the work blogging has resumed over at The Farm
and Tucows Developer. It’s mostly technical stuff, but you’re curious
about the sort of work I do, you might want to give them a look-see.