Comments on: Noelol’s

By: Detcord

Detcord — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 21:22:56 +0000

There is a group of music aficionados who will listen to nothing but records played on turntables as this gives the highest fidelity. In order to make the music fit, CD makers cut corners on fidelity and MP3’s cut whole blocks. Since these music buffs tend to be, well, fairly focused on this, one would reasonably expect their offspring to know this and purchase accordingly. Amazingly, Gene apparently doesn’t and the look on Arlo’s face says it all.

By: mitch4

mitch4 — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:29:47 +0000

Ah, the 1964-65 Fair! I don’t recall the picture phones or microwave ovens, but who could forget Belgian Waffles? Mmmmm.

By: Cidu Bill

Cidu Bill — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 03:19:11 +0000

Earlier than that, Mark: The 1964-5 World’s Fair introduced many of us to picture phones. and microwave ovens. Apparently back then, the concept of microwaved hamburgers seemed like a good idea.

I swear, sometimes I think I can still taste that slimy thing.

They told us that both inventions would be in our homes soon, but they showed up half a century apart (and in the case of the picture phone, as you point out, from a completely unexpected direction).

By: Mark in Boston

Mark in Boston — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 02:39:41 +0000

I liked the Sunday “Zits” with Jeremy giving Grandma a tour of the house by carrying the computer around.

You know, in the 1970’s they said we would have picture phones real soon (there was one in the movie “2001″) and we didn’t get them and we didn’t get them …

and the phone company never DID introduce picture phones …

and suddenly it turns out we’ve had them for a couple of years now and didn’t even know it.

By: furrykef

furrykef — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 03:48:35 +0000

Yep.

By: Jeff S.

Jeff S. — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 02:50:30 +0000

I can relate to two of the comics from this Christmas alone…

My wife, son (20) and daughter (12) went to see my mother (89) this Christmas. We had our Christmas before we left, so we stayed up kinda late Christmas Eve, and my son slept in pretty late (just like Jeremy). We had already eaten lunch.

Then we went to my brother’s house for dinner, where my mother passed out Christmas cards to all the family. Every one had a check for $30 inside. I opened mine and said, “Cool! $200! What did you get?” My brother had a very puzzled look on his face for a few seconds until he realized I was joking.

By: mkilby

mkilby — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 22:43:55 +0000

As far as the comics are concerned, I thought that “Zits” was the best of this set. It’s a perfect compliment to Calvin’s dad saying “I still think this could have waited until dawn.” (And as it happens, my family has always had a few decorated Christmas eggs hanging on the tree, much to the consternation of first-time visitors.)

By: Mark in Boston

Mark in Boston — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 17:12:19 +0000

Yes, it’s WordPress. Do a right-click View Source and you’ll see the code WordPress puts in. You’ll also notice that it replaces ordinary double-quotes with fancy open and close double-quotes.

By: Mitch4

Mitch4 — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 12:25:44 +0000

Definitely I agree with Neko and Kef on both points:
— this is Word Press behavior, not browser behavior;
— behavior like this would be bad browser behavior.

However (to flip a usual motto), you can’t reason from an ought to an is. After I installed Skype (for example), I noticed ordinary text phone numbers on web pages being turned into call-it-now buttons by Skype’s browser add-on.

By: furrykef

furrykef — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 09:06:19 +0000

Yep, the web browser has nothing to do with it. Web browsers never insert links by themselves; they only insert links exactly where the webpage says links should be. (Browser add-ons may change this behavior, but I imagine very few people have such add-ons without knowing it.)