James preaches the gospel about cheap hardware.

the myth of cheap hardware is a myth because hardware (cheap) is not that cheap. It's not 5 times cheaper, it's half the price, or 3/4. And it's not just slightly less reliable, it's a good deal less reliable.

Super Human Intelligence Trans-global Inc. is proud to announce MWilkieBot 1.0* **.

MWilkieBot, where the future was yesterday.

Afters years of research and development at SHIT laboratories, we have perfected the mwilkiebot prototype and are now prepared to preview it to the public.

The researchers at SHIT Inc. have spend years perfecting a highly sophisticated user interface called "iCommand Line® " and we have brought this dramatic new technology to the Instant Messaging sphere. Why just IM your friends to say 'hey', IM MWikieBot and say "HEY!"

MWikieBot 1.0 supports the exciting new feature: search movies by title.

How do I get in on the ground floor of this exciting new technology you may ask? Open your AIM client and start a chat with mwilkiebot, and then prepare yourself to be blown away by the power of "iCommand Line®".

MWikieBot 1.0 - in stores nowhere near you.

* MWilkieBot may have various similarities to N4CHL1N BOT 1.4, but any, or most, similarity is purely coincidental.

** MWilkieBot my cause extensive bleeding from the rectum and /or massive coronary infarction.

Capitalizing on all of Jim's hard work, I stole...err, borrowed his AIM chatbot code to hack up my own chatbot.

Jim leveraged the very nice perl Net::OSCAR AIM APIs, which makes it very easy to write up an AIM chatbot.

In the future I will use the bot to do exciting things like, well, I don't really know, but it'll be great. For now the bot responds to a few simple commands, one of which will let you read the latest post here at bitterpill.org. So instead of reloading this page every day for a month or so waiting for a post, you can send a simple IM chat command to see that I haven't posted. Ah technology, it really is making our lives better.

Send an AIM message to mwilkiebot for loads of hot bot on bot action.

Send an AIM message to N4CHL1N to chat up Jim's bot.

Jim uses the Acme::Wabby APIs to make for some interesting bot conversation.

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Jim and I bought these servers from a guy in Battery Park...psst, you need any 2U servers...cheap.

Mark says, "I thought of a great idea for a story on the train today, it's called Wad."

Jim's eyebrow raises.

"See, it's about a guy who is in love with a girl, but she doesn't know he exists. He accidentally places his hand on some gum that she has stuck underneath a desk, and he becomes both repelled and aroused by it. He becomes obsessed with chewed gum. He starts collecting it. He starts Asking people for their gum, collecting it from all around. He eventually creates the world's largest gum wad ball. It becomes a huge midwestern attraction."

Jim, on the brink of dry heaving, "ugg, that's, that's...yuck."

"You see, the gum wad is a metaphor for love and loneliness."

"uh, sure..."

"Well, it seemed like a good idea on the train ride in this morning."

For those of you who enjoy high art, daysofleisure.com brings you The Animated GIF Museum.

Jim reveals the truth behind pod-casting, and in the telling brings a tear to my eye.

It's all about liedercasting - operablog.20041010.mp3 (.mp3 - 460k)

Jim, always the champion for freedom of speech and expression, gets his nose caught in a giant red cone.