One of our servers greets me like this on login: OMG BRONIES!!! Bronies, as you may be eager to know, are obviously the favorite means of transportation for Brogrammers, the cavalry of software engineering.

These are only some of the labels attached to an IBM/Lenovo laptop power supply. I am always impressed just how much paper they manage to stick onto these. The labels range from “this is a power supply, may contain traces of electricity” over “by the way this item has inventory number 1234ABC and we want to remember this for all eternity” to, well, “by the way Saudi Arabia’s outlets have 2 more volts than the ones in the US”. Besides, these power bricks are usually the size of an average midsize car (and equally as heavy). It can only be a matter of time until those (like baseball bats) are not allowed on planes anymore.

Sometimes I look at a Mac power supply and take it for granted — until I see one of these again, and realize that good industrial design is not the rule, but the exception. It makes me sad.

Looks at this set of wine glasses, sadly misappropriated to hold champagne (actual champagne, too, not sparkling wine). Do I hear a “first world problems”?

Take a look at our recently-acquired half a pig, wrapped in subtle white paper packaging, spending its days in subzero (Celsius, anyway) darkness until it is consumed. There are various fine things in there that I am eager to eat: Bacon, obviously, but also various different roasts and cuts that are just waiting to be turned into Schnitzel.

Nom nom nom.

Today’s science experience was: Does a Christmas stocking holder survive unharmed when dropped off the mantle? Sad answer: It does not. Despite the state-of-the-art glue and toxic lead paint holding it in place, the “gift” on the top broke off and had to be fixed. Quality made in China just isn’t what it used to be anymore

Say hi to Mozilla’s new Firefox costume! I think it turned out great! Our old costume served us well, but this one will looks much friendlier and even has a fiery tail (that Thunder has clearly taken a liking in).

I am looking forward to hearing more about the design process that made this happen!

Today, I decided it was Chowdah (sic) Day, a tradition started long ago by the fine folks at the OSU Open Source Lab, where every Friday was Chowdah Day. The smart folks among you will helpfully remark that today is not, in fact, a Friday, but it would also be customary I have the dish in the right place with the right people and with a drop or two of Cholula, so sadly the weekday isn’t the only tradition I had to break with today.

Without all of the right circumstances in place, of course it is not quite the same. The Chowder, however, was delicious, also thanks to the world’s biggest pepper grinder that I conveniently borrowed from Mozilla’s kitchen.

Today I framed some “old” Mozilla posters that I got. The left one is from the “10 years of Mozilla” anniversary and the right one is from the Firefox 3 release. Both are from 2008 and I think they are great artwork.