September 25th, 2009 at 11:46 pm (Crumbs)
Back in the late 1990s, I discovered a very interesting new alternative in search engines, called, Google. They were still testing out their new search engine and I remember making suggestions for improvement at the time. I remember they appreciated those suggestions. Eventually, Google overtook every other search engine in popularity, the measure of which was the transformation of their brand into a verb.
In more recent times, Google has become an engine for spammers, with search results cluttered by utter dross with little coherence or relevance. It is a signal to, once again, reevaluate the options. One promising candidate comes from the evil empire, Microsoft, who invented the malware, called, Windows. The newest incarnation of their search engine is called Bing. It is a very respectable achievement and Microsoft is to be commended. The search results tend to be far more relevant and quite free of spam. It’s possibly another example of copying someone else’s creation and making it better.
Give it a go. Make it your new search home page in your preferred browser. And remember, no search engine is forever. That is especially true for Google.
Update: Bing maps seem more up-to-date than Google maps.
December 8th, 2008 at 11:14 pm (Crumbs)
In honor of the occasion, a 404 page will be officially launched, having been operational for some number of years already without any formal notice. If you make an error in the dinsdale directory at flag, the host of this venerable site, you will get the following image along with a brief message:
What you see on a 404 page at Dinsdale's place
It is hoped this will fulfill our obligation to pay proper tribute to Frank Zappa, himself appearing here as a 10 year old version of himself.
The artist as a young man at 10
June 26th, 2008 at 10:12 am (Crumbs)
The word blancmange derives from Old French blanc mangier. The name “whitedish” is a modern term used by some historians, though the name historically was either a direct translation from or a calque of the Old French term. Many different local or regional terms were used for the dish in the Middle Ages:
English: blancmanger, blankmanger, blank maunger, blomanger, blamang
Catalan: manjar blanch (Old Catalan; nowadays it would be menjar blanc)
Portuguese: manjar branco
Italian: mangiare bianco, blanmangieri, bramangere
Spanish: manjar blanco
Dutch/Flemish: blanc mengier
German: blamensir
Latin: albus cibus, esus albus
Though it is fairly certain that the etymology is indeed “white dish”, medieval sources are not always consistent as to the actual color of the dish. Food scholar Terence Scully has proposed the alternative etymology of bland mangier, “bland dish”, reflecting its often mild and “dainty” (in this context meaning refined and aristocratic) taste and popularity as a sick dish.
From Wikipedia.
