A few random links that I’ve collected over the last six months.

• Catalog Choice helps you get off the mailing lists of all those catalog companies. The DMA’s Mail Preference Service is a bigger hammer, addressing all unsolicited mail from member organizations. (via.)
• The Opposite of Backup and other stories of “backups that didn’t” reminds me of somebody who has a policy of, once a week, asking for a randomly-selected file to be restored from backup. “It is amazing what you learn by doing this.” I’ve never tried doing it here at work, though I’ve considered it on occasion.
• Microspotting tracks down The Golden Helmet.
• Seized alcohol used as fuel in Sweden.
• Battlefield deception by the U.S. Army’s 23rd Special Troops, whose job it was to create fake armies to fool enemy reconnaisance. The story reminded me of Jasper Maskelyne, who performed similar tricks for the British, including moving Alexandria Harbor and making the Suez Canal disappear. (I note for completeness that the reports of Maskelyne’s derring-do have been disputed.)
• Researchers order medical products advertised via spam.
• It’s an XXL world after all. MiceAge reports (third story) on the reason why the Small World ride will be closed for renovations, and why Scandinavia is partly to blame for you having to endure the stupid song while you wait for the jam to be cleared.
• Next time you’re stuck at Disneyland waiting for the Haunted House or Pirates of the Caribbean ride to reopen, it might be because somebody scattered human ashes all over the ride, and the staff is busy cleaning it up. (via.)
• The University of Washington surplus property public store sells off property from various university departments. The online inventory is kept up to date, and you never know what you’re going to find.
• Picking Up Girls Made Easy! Man, if only I’d known about this instructional audio set earlier!
• Pictures and narration from a randomly-selected Hong Kong wedding. A glimpse into another culture. The tea ceremony, the suckling pig, the three-dress rule, the funny poem, the dummy cake… (Okay, not all of those elements are traditional.)
• Shawn Travers fill in some of the details on how to create a bootable Windows DVD.
• Hand over the document and nobody gets hurt: Watch a security researcher analyze some malware script.
• Mattias Lindberg shows us how to use the moon as a compass.

And then the obligatory plug for my column in TechNet Magazine, which, despite the fact that Microsoft’s name is on the magazine cover, does not establish the official Microsoft position on anything.

• The Healing Powers of Safe Mode. (See also the earlier blog entry with bonus content.)
• Windows Explorer Doesn’t Do Text. Another entry where I failed to come up with a catchy title.
• The Known DLLs Balancing Act.
• Calling Dr. Watson.
• The File System Paradox. (The editors got spellcheck-happy and “corrected” my Web 2.0 names from Raymnd and Chenster to Raymond and Chester, which kind of ruins the joke.)
• A Joystick Need Not Be a Microwave. The original title had the word “burrito” in it. Oh, and here’s the blog entry from The Audio Fool that inspired the column. (There’s also a follow-up.)