Am I the only one to find this stupidity ... frustrating?
When reviewing my bank account, there are a whole bunch of EFT-POS transactions which I need to take a stab at identifying.
The usually have such cryptic descriptions as:
"POS W/D WELLINGTON BA-10:27"
"POS W/D UPPER HUTT NE-16:09"
"POS W/D HAWKES BAY CU-17:02"
"POS W/D HAVELOCK NEW -15:59"
These jerks have not given any thought to the label they attach to their transactions, and so with a limit of 13 characters, the only useful information transmitted is the town that the transaction occured. (I have no idea what place called "BA...." I was at at 10:27, the last one is the Havelock North New World supermarket).
Is there no-one in the banking community who *actually* considers that there is a need for standards in customer service and so would drive a sensible usage of the description label by trading companies?

Another shell script. Not mine,
and I don't know where I found it ...

#!/bin/sh
# self-mailer.sh: Self-mailing script

adr=${1:-`whoami`}     # Default to current user, if not specified.
#  Typing 'self-mailer.sh wiseguy@superdupergenius.com'
#+ sends this script to that addressee.
#  Just 'self-mailer.sh' (no argument) sends the script
#+ to the person invoking it, for example, bozo@localhost.localdomain.
#
#  For more on the ${parameter:-default} construct,
#+ see the "Parameter Substitution" section
#+ of the "Variables Revisited" chapter.

# ============================================================================
  cat $0 | mail -s "Script \"`basename $0`\" has mailed itself to you." "$adr"
# ============================================================================

# --------------------------------------------
#  Greetings from the self-mailing script.
#  A mischievous person has run this script,
#+ which has caused it to mail itself to you.
#  Apparently, some people have nothing better
#+ to do with their time.
# --------------------------------------------

echo "At `date`, script \"`basename $0`\" mailed to "$adr"."

exit 0

Self explanatory really.

From the ${COMPANY} Guideline document on using the Web-based e-mail interface.

Log out of the webmail session.
From the Tools menu, select internet options.
Click on ‘Delete Cookies’ and ‘Delete Files’ then click OK.
Close all browser windows.
Reboot computer if you can.
If possible, remove hard drive and shred using an industrial shredder.

Now I might get a new laptop after I find a decent shredder.

I've been paying a bit of attention to reports about Hurricane Wilma's approach to Florida, as my daughter was in Key Largo (until last night).
One of the interesting "facts" which keep getting repeated, and commented on down at the local watering hole, is that this is, barometrically, a record-setting cyclone; but NEVER any numbers to back up the assertion.
It took a wee bit of digging, but US National Hurricane Center Public Advisory #16a states:

BASED ON DROPSONDE AND FLIGHT-LEVEL DATA FROM AN AIR FORCE PLANE
JUST RETURNING FROM ITS MISSION IN WILMA...THE MINIMUM CENTRAL
PRESSURE IS ESTIMATED TO BE 882 MB...26.05 INCHES.  THIS IS THE
LOWEST PRESSURE ON RECORD FOR A HURRICANE IN THE ATLANTIC BASIN. 

Is it just my geeky nature, or is it just slackness that journalists don't care to back their assertions with the necessary numbers?

Who ordered Chop suey?
This is a government that *nobody* voted for!
Not the choice of the Labour left majority.
Not the choice of the National voters.
Not the choice of the Maori voters.
Not the choice of the Greenies.
So that leaves ...
Winston's shrinking collection of knee-jerkers;
... no, he told them he was going for the cross-benches.
Peter Dunne's gullibles;
... well below 5%.
a few in the Labour right,
... and Helen.
So we got a government that was the wish of about 5%
Perhaps we need to re-assess STV as a voting system.

http://www.dharma-haven.org/tibetan/digital-wheels.htm

I could turn into a Photo-blogger.

I can never remember the Codes for colours so I need a chart.
This is a bash script to construct a chart of alleged websafe colours
from the list of "safecolours".
Just run the script on a linux box & then copy the resultant file
into a browsable directory.

#!/bin/bash
LIST="0 3 6 9 C F"
PAGE="chartsafe.html"
echo "<html> <head> </head> <body> <table width=80% > " > ${PAGE}
for REACH in ${LIST} ; do
   for GEACH in ${LIST} ; do
 echo "<TR>" >> $PAGE
      for BEACH in ${LIST} ; do
         COLOR="${BEACH}${BEACH}${REACH}${REACH}${GEACH}${GEACH}" 
         COLOUR="${BEACH}${REACH}${GEACH}" 
 echo "<TD align=\"right\"> ${COLOUR}</TD> <TD align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#${COLOR}\"> <span style=\"color: #${COLOR}\">#${COLOR}</span></TD>" >> ${PAGE}
      done
      echo "</TR>" >> ${PAGE}
   done
done
echo "</table> </body> </html> " >> ${PAGE}
#[EOF]

This script is a bit more ambitious, it makes a chart of *ALL* the colours.
Moving the mouse over the resultant chart will give a "popup" colour value as a comment.

#!/bin/bash
LIST="0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F"
PAGE="chartall.html"
echo "<html> <head> </head> <body> <center><table width=\"600px\" border=0 cellspacing=0 > " > ${PAGE}
for REACH in ${LIST} ; do
   for GEACH in ${LIST} ; do
 echo "<TR>" >> $PAGE
      for BEACH in ${LIST} ; do
         COLOR="${BEACH}${BEACH}${REACH}${REACH}${GEACH}${GEACH}" 
 echo " <TD align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#${COLOR}\"> <a href=\"nowhere\" style=\"text-decoration: none\" title=\"#${COLOR}\"> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </a> </TD> " >> ${PAGE}
      done
      echo "</TR>" >> ${PAGE}
   done
done
echo "</table> </body> </html> " >> ${PAGE}
#[EOF]

Perl Poetry

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

do { use English; use strict } while($DEBUGGING) and not die;

An acquired taste perhaps ...

This is Ocean Beach in the Hawkes Bay, NZ.
notice the severe lack of houses.
RIGHT NOW a process called a "charette" is being run to decide what sort of development should be imposed on this landscape.
There is no option for protection.
This view will be cluttered with houses in a couple of years.
The local council is so developer-friendly, that it is actually paying for half the cost of the process which will create the plan for sub-division.
Hawkes bay has NO regional parks, and soon will have nowhere to make into a park!

For the reluctant vi user ...
... here's the keyboard especially adapted for you.

vi-keyboard

So it seems the Telecom mobile network clocks were a bit out,
and so they didn't know that it was after 7 o'clock.
And then they blame "a problem in the software fron our suppliers."
Hey guys, ever heard of NTP?

Watch out when an engineer-type says that something is simple.
They *won't* mean that it is cheap or easy to do, build or execute.
What they mean is that the concept is "not complicated", and they can grasp the essence of it and can explain how it works.
It is not necessarily quick or easy to do or make (that's "trivial".)