So *that's* what that was all about...

From today's Daily Illuminator:

Those sneaky forces over at The Network have a new scheme to entice home computer users to unwittingly join the conspiracy.

The ChessBrain Network ( http://www.chessbrain.net ) uses the combined computing power of hundreds of platforms across the world, linked by the internet, to power a "virtual chess supercomputer." At the 6th Annual NordU Usenet 2004 conference ( http://www.nordu.org/NordU2004/ ) next month in Denmark, they'll make an official stab at a Guinness World's Record for most linked computers playing a game against a human grandmaster. If you want to join the effort (and get a commemorative certificate!), check out their website and sign up.

-- Scott Haring

I wouldn't have a problem with signing up with this, except that the first time I heard about ChessBrain, it was because they spammed me.

Long day already

I could not get going this morning. After my alarm went off (waking me from a very interesting dream involving crashing a "runabout"-style spacecraft into a Dutch colony on Europa, getting out, and returning with my two superior officers, one of whom was archangelbeth), it took me another half hour just to get out of bed, and another fifteen minutes to get up the energy to actually get into the shower. I'd thought everything was going pretty smoothly after that, except that about 15 minutes into my drive to work I realized that I still had Alex's car seat in my car, so I had to turn around and return it - meaning that I got to work at 6:30 instead of 5:45.

Fortunately, I seem to have started my brain up okay, so the rest of the day should be better. Although I'm still mildly sick and I have a headache. </whine>

MegaTokyo, the online manga by Fred Gallagher (aka Piro), has published its 500th strip [edit: last Friday], to very little fanfare.

(

Congratulations on 500 strips, Fred!

)

I suggest that everyone (except cappadocius, because I already know that he doesn't like MegaTokyo) go over and at least check it out. It's a neat little strip.

I'm thinking about building a new structure on our property - at the moment, I'm envisioning a little two-room affair with a rather large porch, but depending on how events go I might expand it. It's an idea I've had for a while, but seeing The Last Samurai (</another shameless plug>) rekindled the thought in my head. I've already asked my parents for permission to build as a Christmas present; we'll see how that pans out.