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Disposable Objects 21

Blendolini Problems
Following the classic Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q261186, covered in our previous issue, we are pleased to present Q157668, which goes by the title ‘Selecting Blendolini Causes Choco-Banana Shake Hang’. The problem is described as follows: “Your computer may randomly stop responding (hang) in the Choco-Banana shake recipe if you wait more than 10 seconds to select the blender after you receive the "Time to Blend" prompt.” Something we’ve all experienced, I’m sure.
     We won’t divulge the solution, even though the article has since been removed from the Knowledge Base. Suffice to say that it is rather mundane, as it turns out to be a very real problem suffered by users of that well known DreamWorks Interactive product, Someone's in the Kitchen 1.0. At the time of writing it could still be seen here. We hope the problem was fixed for version 2.0.

Poetry Please
During our meanderings across the Web we came across the following item, which we thought you might appreciate. Called either ‘Raven 2.0’ or ‘If Edgar Allen Poe had a Computer’, it is attributed to one Eric Portell. We reproduce just the first two verses, but you can find the rest at http://mentalsoup.com/mentalsoup/ifedgar.htm. The remainder of Mental Soup’s web site is well worth a look, too:
     Once upon a midnight dreary, fingers cramped and vision bleary, system manuals piled high and wasted paper on the floor, longing for the warmth of bedsheets, still I sat there, doing spreadsheets: having reached the bottom line, I took a floppy from the drawer. Typing with a steady hand, I then invoked the SAVE command and waited for the disk to store, only this and nothing more.
     Deep into the monitor peering, long I sat there wond'ring, fearing, doubting, while the disk kept churning, turning yet to churn some more. "Save!" I said, "You cursed mother! Save my data from before!" One thing did the phosphors answer, only this and nothing more, just, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"

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