Author Archives: Jeremy Cole

Teen does something meaningful…

Farris Hassan, a Florida 16 year old has done something meaningful. He visited war-torn Iraq, on his own, without telling his parents. And what does he get for it? A lot of flak and harsh feelings.

The news is reporting it with a strong emphasis on how stupid he is, and how he could’ve been killed, and how he will get in a lot of trouble with his parents. My perspective is a lot different.

I commend him for having the guts to do it. No, it wasn’t stupid. He wanted to see how it was first-hand, with no media filter. And he did it. Yes, he’s only sixteen. So what? The kid has a bright future, as far as I’m concerned. If you can figure out how to get to Iraq via Kuwait and Lebanon, and you have the guts to actually do it, at only 16, you have my support.

Update: Rich Tatum also blogged about this, a bit more eloquently, and I completely agree with him. Be sure to read the essay Farris wrote, at the Wikipedia link above.

New York, not the police

When you try to dial a number in area code 212 at Yahoo!, it’s really easy to end up trying to call the cops.

A number like “9 1 212…” is easily misdialed as “911…” by missing the first 2. Of course, they intercept “911” calls even though they are not fully qualified. (You’d have to dial 9911 to get the real 911, although I think they intercept that here, too.)

So it goes like this:

Jeremy dials 9 1 212 but misses the first two, notices, and hangs up to try again.
Phone rings.
Mission Control: Mission Control, 911 was dialed from this phone.
Jeremy: Ooops, I was trying to call 9 1 212 …

They must get that a few times a day…

So quiet…

This week, we have both Monday and Friday off, making for a rather short week. Since there are only three days off in between two four-day weekends, lots of people are on vacation this week. During lunch today, one of my coworkers made an observation:

Guy: It’s so quiet and empty and easy to get lunch today, it kind of makes you wish for a big layoff…
Me: … That’s going on my quotes page …

Awesome. He’s right, though, it’s pretty nice for it to be empty sometimes, but certainly a layoff wouldn’t be so good. :)

A subpoena?

Overheard today from the stairwell:

Muffled voices from person on “push-to-talk” cell phone.
Guy: I’m sorry, did you say a subpoena?

Most annoying noise, bar none: push-to-talk in a concrete stairwell.