Those of you who are amused by bad Engrish translations would absolutely love the user interface for my Aver USB TV tuner. Don’t get me wrong; the software is actually quite intuitively and elegantly designed– but that doesn’t prevent the grammar in its error messages, dialog boxes and online help from being utterly atrocious.

Want proof? Here are some actual, unaltered quotes from the drivers’ help file. I’m not making these up, even if some of the translations sound like they were accomplished by a team of trained rhesus monkeys…

• “To use those favorite channel: [1] Move mouse to TV screen and press mouse right button.”

• “The application support sequence capturing still image function. User can adjust the capture frame and interval time.”
• “Image Sequence Capture Button: To capture image when the live video is anytime.”
• “There are two type of video display mode, 320×240 and 640×480.
  If select 320×240, you will get better video frame rate.
  If select 640×480, you will get better video quality but cause the video.
  It’s depend on your PC system CPU speed.
  If your system CPU is Pentium III 400 or above, this problem will be solved.”

• “To demand the better video quality, the 640 x 480 mode is recommended. In this mode, when you enlarge your TV screen size from 640 x 480 to maximum 1600 x 1200 the visible video quality will display in better quality. But, the frame rate will generate (max. 30 fps) up to your CPU speed. The lower CPU speed your PC is running, the fewer frame rate on your TV screen is generating.”

I could go on, but I think it’s probably best summed up this way: “We get TV signal! Main screen turn on! What you say?” ::grin::

This photograph was found in the Local/State section of today’s Macon Telegraph. Look carefully at the sign on the right-hand side of the picture. Then note the name of the coordinator, as mentioned in the caption. Anyone else find this combination amusingly ironic?

Hah. While looking around Radio-Locator, I was presented with this advertisement for a book by former Georgia governor Zell Miller. Now I can understand misspelling the name of my state once– but twice in the same ad?!

And incidentally, the Internet connection here in the residence halls at Mercer is going to be upgraded to 10mbps this weekend (and in the process, split apart from that used for the university’s Atlanta campus). Those of you who have dealt with the sluggish network performance in the dorms and computer labs will very easily understand why this makes me happy… and those who haven’t, well, let’s just say that the connection rates I’m getting right now make those from my old Compu$erve dialup actually look good, heh.

I would have written something longer about today’s events at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but Kat has already written an excellent commentary, and as is more often than not the case, her opinions on the issue are practically identical to mine. So, I’ll just use her blog entry as a starting point and add a few comments of my own…

I still find these whole happenings surreal. Despite the fact that I’ve been bombarded (no pun intended!) with scenes of the attack playing throughout the day on television sets around the campus, despite the fact that I heard the news as it happened while listening to the radio, despite the fact that classes were even suspended today in memory of the victims– I just can’t believe that it actually happened. Kat’s right; it’s just so bizarre, so unexpected, that it seems more like something from a piece of alternate-reality fiction than anything which actually occurred. Perhaps that’s part of the reason she and I can’t really feel much emotion toward it; don’t get me wrong; I sympathize for those wounded or killed during the event, it’s just that, like Kat, I can’t emotionally connect with anything that’s happened. I’m too separated from anything that’s gone on to really feel any grief, in the usual sense of the term.

Indeed, what I’m more afraid of– living only miles from a major air force base, especially– is the fact that this can only go further from here. Will this lead to all-out war? Is this “the next Pearl Harbor,” as many commentators have suggested? Only time will tell– but one thing’s for sure: this has definitely made its way into the history books.

To think that the Pentagon has been attacked for the first time since its inception… To think that the Twin Towers will literally be unknown to our descendants, a vestige of history… wow. Again, it’s just so surreal, so outrageous, that it’s simply unbelievable…