Bridge over Troubled Waters

Apparently they're constructing a new bridge over the Danube in Budapest, Hungary. And someone thought of the brilliant idea of conducting an online poll to name the bridge. Of course, the international media caught on. Now everyone from Chuck Norris to Steven Seagal is getting votes. Well, obviously there's only one logical choice, especially considering this is a Hungarian bridge.
I'm talking of David "The Hoff" Hasselhoff, of course.
You people think it was Ronald Reagan or John Paul II or Lech Walesa who won the cold war. Bullshit, I say. David Hasselhoff is the man principally responsible for tearing the iron curtain, despite what the revisionists may say.
Currently, however, he only has a paltry 225 votes. What the hell? He's the world's most famous lifeguard, for Pete's sake! Who better to name a bridge after? Clearly, if there's any justice in the world, The Hoff would win this in a landslide. I ask you to join me in making this a reality. Get off your ass and help out The Hoff!

1. Go to http://www.m0hid.gov.hu/vote
2. Select "ABC szerint" to easily find The Hoff
3. Scroll down to and select "David Hasselhoff híd"
4. Scroll all the way down and click "Elküld"

Now, I know my blog has a fairly limited readership, so spread the word! If everyone chips in, he'll win this in no time!

The Reign of Madness, Ended

Just to post a quick follow-up to previously reported events, I'm happy to report the issue at hand came to a happy and not particularly dramatic conclusion. I mailed the CD store in question, they apologized and sent me the right CD, I sent the wrongly delievered CD back to them. They even paid the postage fee. I'm still not quite sure how such a mix-up is even possible, but I'm beyond caring at this point. I can now rock out to Savatage's sophomore album without having to worry about such matters. Well, until next time I receive a CD I did not order, at least. This was not the first time. In the future I should just buy CDs readily available in the local, offline CD stores. The problem with that is that I'm not really looking to complete my thus far non-existent Britney Spears collection.

And for those wondering whether this whole ordeal was the reason for me taking a brief hiatus from blogging...no.

Madness Reigns

One of my favourite bands is the American heavy metal band Savatage. I have all of their albums, save for one, The Dungeons Are Calling. I ordered a bunch of CDs, including Dungeons, from an online CD store. However, the package I received did not contain Dungeons. Instead they'd sent a CD featuring music by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg.

Let's review:

• Did receive not ordered CD featuring music by Norwegian 19th century composer Edvard Grieg
• Did not receive ordered CD featuring music by American 80s heavy metal band Savatage

How on earth is it even remotely possible to confuse the two? I figured the two CDs' article numbers must be similar, but no! I've checked the store's website, the article numbers are not even close!

Here's an interesting coincidence, though: One of Grieg's most famous compositions is In the Hall of the Mountain King from Peer Gynt. One of Savatage's most famous albums is Hall of the Mountain King, whose title track is based on Grieg's composition.
However, I did not order Hall of the Mountain King. Had that been the album I ordered, I could possibly understand the mix-up. The album I ordered was called The Dungeons Are Calling. No Grieg reference there whatever.

Now, don't get me wrong, I like Grieg's music, the compositions for Peer Gynt in particular. But that wasn't what I've ordered. The Grieg CD was much cheaper than the Savatage album. Not a good trade-off for me, seeing as I'm being charged for the Savatage album. Time to raise hell with the customer service, in other words. I except to receive the right CD within the next six months. Stay tuned. On second thought, don't.

Note: the title refers to a line from the lyrics to Savatage's Hall of the Mountain King: "Madness reigns...in the hall of the mountain king!" Indeed.

Internet Apocalypse Now?

Via Slashdot^[1] I found this disturbing article:

World Cup streaming to cause network meltdown

The BBC's decision to stream all its football matches live on the internet has been greeted with joy by UK fans, but could cause massive headaches for the country's network managers.

...

"This will generate a huge surge in network traffic, eating into the bandwidth available to run business-critical applications effectively."

This is becoming a bit silly. It's bad enough most of the entire world^[2] screeches to a grinding halt every four years to watch a spherical object being kicked around. Now I won't even be able to check my mail everytime Romarionaldona gets a yellow card?
I'm probably sounding more negative to football than I actually am. It's enjoyable to watch, I suppose. But not at the expense of the world turning! I'm drawing a line in the sand here, people!

Proud Finn as I am^[3], I have to point out how ahead of the curve we were on the issue of Internet destruction. Professor Hannu Kari of Helsinki University pinpointed 2006 as the year the Internet would end already in 2001, according to this Ars Technica article. Although, Dr. Kari seems to credit the predicted demise to assorted malware and spam rather than football.

Of course, this could all be propaganda from the anti-network neutrality lobby. In the interest of being fair and balanced, the pro-network neutrality lobby, aka the good guys, are over here. I'm sure you can't tell whose side I'm on.

^[1] Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'll read /. if I want to.
^[2] Save for the US, but you guys got the Superbowl.
^[3] Well, after Tony Halme/Ludwig Borga won a seat in the Finnish parliament, I typically pretend I'm Swedish.