February 2000 Archives
February 29
Wendi, of slumberland.org,
Wendi, of slumberland.org, gets to keep her house!
I don't think it's actually on her website yet, but these days the only way to be weblogger #1 is to log something before it happens. If you see Wendi and Jason at The Speakeasy, be sure to buy them a latte.
Dave Winer
Dave Winer , it appears, is mentioned in the new April issue of Macworld. I just picked up the new issue, and looked to the last page, and David Pogue wrote about how different media outlets predicted Apple's demise, and then he went about humiliating them by reprinting portions of their articles or quotes, and responding. Yes, Dave Winer was one of the people quoted.
My wedding photographer
My wedding photographer has a website up. but it's not her "wedding photography" site...
Stupidity Abroad.
Stupidity Abroad. Apparently Americans aren't relying on our amazing capacity for atrocities at home anymore.
Man, this guy is desperate.
Man, this guy is desperate. Missed out on the Fox pageant? Here's your chance to be the next Mrs. Rockwell. "Last of the true romantics"? If that's true romance, thank god he's the last.
Virtual Dub.
Virtual Dub. No, nothing to do with music. Virtual Dub is open source capturing software with built-in capture support which can often use as much as 90% of your hard disk's maximum sustained transfer rate -- as high as 10 megabytes per second -- without dropping a frame.
We just tested it at work with our ATI All In Wonder 128 and were impressed with the crystal clear results.
Japan hit by leap day glitches
Japan hit by leap day glitches Looks like y2k wasn't a total bust. I want to know what happens in seven decades, when all the people who implemented a is post-1972, is not post-1972 solution still haven't updated.
The VW vs. Virtual Works case is a lot like the eToys vs. ETOY battle. The vw.net site is owned by a small ISP that has been using it for the last few years, but VW is saying that their brand is diluted and their trademarks infringed when another company uses the initials "vw". Like the eToys case, it looks like Volkswagon has convinced a court of this and will be taking the domain soon. If you remember the different top level domains, .org is for non-profits and organizations, .com is for commercial ventures and corporations, and .net is for network companies and network providers. One would think an ISP qualifies for a .net, and that VW should be perfectly happy with their .com domain, or am I missing something here?
February 28
Well, this won't last long.
Well, this won't last long. It appears to be streaming video of every single Simpsons episode. Ay, carumba!
Today's Davenetics (it's a newsletter) noticed a flurry of wireless deals came about today. AOL is planning mobile versions of instant messenger, email, and other AOL services, Microsoft is working on mobile MSN and Hotmail, while Amazon has unveiled their phone portal to shopping. Looks like we will soon be reminiscing about the good old days when the internet used silly wires and cables.
This explains (choose one)
This explains (choose one)
(1) The real trouble with Globalization, or
(2) Why Germany has started so many wars.
(yes, Wittler is a German name; you wanna make something out of it?)
(1) The real trouble with Globalization, or
(2) Why Germany has started so many wars.
(yes, Wittler is a German name; you wanna make something out of it?)
The fact that there's a tool like this available just blows me away. Customize your blue screens of death on windows to any color combo you want...as if that helps anyone out (actually the other apps on that page are pretty useful, I just don't know what good a custom BSOD tool is).
Moon Land Registry!
Moon Land Registry! Is this a scam or what? Prices on the upper east side too high for you? Get an out-of this-world deal here.
Two Against Nature, as it always has been.
Two Against Nature, as it always has been.
After all this time, I thought Rikki HAD lost that number...
After all this time, I thought Rikki HAD lost that number...
Through a random series of events, Jamie Zawinski (oooh, I'm such a name dropper :) sent me some very old archives of the Mosaic/Netscape sites and their beta browsers. Chuck Lau, the originator of the Netscape Museum has cleaned up some of them and has just put October 1994's entire mcom.com site online. Chuck's working on getting the others online (there's at least 5 or 6 more archives of the site at different points in 1994 and early 1995), and will also be putting up a page linking to an archive of the very oldest of Netscape/Mosaic's browsers. The browsers are currently sitting in dissarray on my workstation here. I tried out Mosaic 0.4 beta on my windows machine, about the only site that worked in it was Yahoo's.
February 27
ABC reports on Napsters
ABC reports on Napsters usage on University Campuses.
Carl's synopsis of his thoughts on "Web Weaving,"
Carl's synopsis of his thoughts on "Web Weaving," a book he contributed to a few years back, is a hilarious and eye opening read. I continue to live in awe of The Carl
censorship
censorship hmm.. one of my posts seems to have disappeared... are you censoring this weblog?
Slashdot has
Slashdot has some good discussion about purchasing domain names. As always, there's a lot of crap in the discussion, but a few informative posts.
eBay may buy Sotheby's.
eBay may buy Sotheby's. I can see it now: online bidding for Picassos and vintage automobiles, right next to the guy selling his old computer and the one trying to sell a kidney.
how to get around the recent napster embargo
napster code
napster code here is the code and schema behind napster
Amazon
Amazon is approved for a patent on the technology behind their affiliate program. Wow, this really has the potential to shake things up a bit. Will software patents like this destroy internet commerce?
New street signs have been proposed for New York City
New street signs have been proposed for New York City in an effort to make that city a safer place for its residents.
Mars, the next version of MSN, is just around the corner.
Mars, the next version of MSN, is just around the corner. It's obviously an AOL clone, giving new users a view of the internet filtered for ease of use. My opinion of it is split. On the one hand, there's nothing wrong with making a useful, straight-forward interface that anyone can use. In fact that's a holy grail for UI designers. But the interface is a bit much, taking up over a third of the screen real estate, and it will no doubt funnel users into all of the MSN websites. Will MSN users know the rest of the internet is out there?
February 26
Grim Reaper's Age Guesser
An even weirder guessing game is the Grim Reaper's Age Guesser. Got me within one year asking questions like "How many years has it been since you last hopped?". [from julia's journal]
Oh my lord. The Guess the Dictator/Sit-com character site works by asking a series of questions about a person you have to think of. I selected an obscure sit-com character, Chris Elliot from Fox's ill-fated "Get a Life" series. If you would have asked me to bet money on it before proceeding, I would have gladly put $20 on the site not figuring it out. After about 15 questions, it guessed right. This is scary stuff. [via rebeccablood]
I love The Industry Standard, especially their daily emails like the Media Grok and Intelligencer. Friday's Intelligencer email spotlighted a story on credit card fraud, but if you click on the link in the email, it redirects to the Standard's main page. I searched for the article and you can see it in the results at the top, but it is dated two days into the future and clicking on it redirects to the front page. I wanted to read that article, too bad I don't have a time machine around...
Interpol's Most Wanted are now on the web!
Interpol's Most Wanted are now on the web! Interestingly, no U.S. nationalities on their Top 20 list, but a few with dual citizenship in Canada.
Blame Canada? No, America must catch up and start producing better international criminals. Of course, I could be wrong...
Blame Canada? No, America must catch up and start producing better international criminals. Of course, I could be wrong...
The Half-Human, Half-Silicon Chip
The Half-Human, Half-Silicon Chip sounds like something out of a movie I saw on MST3K. And the reference to the "cell in the hole" sounds like an old catchprase from Seinfeld. In other words, TV Comedy Technology.
What is it with Time and images of the Devil?
What is it with Time and images of the Devil? A few years ago they give Clinton horns on their cover, and now they invite Beelzebub to the Democratic presidential debate.
Hadn't seen this mentioned anywhere, but it looks like Adobe is trying to hook designers (Web and otherwise) up with gigs. You can post a resume and an online portfolio, and get searched by location, name, or specialty. Seems kinda neat.
Jason
Jason thinks he can set a new world record or something with the most obscene or porn-related posts in a row. Well we'll see about that! Let's challenge him! Let's beat him at his own game! Post porn on your weblog. Bring the goliath down! Just kidding, Jason, we love you! [get him, guys]
February 25
The Simpsons' Mike Scully is interviewed in this week's Onion.
The Simpsons' Mike Scully is interviewed in this week's Onion. He briefly addresses the whole a.t.s. I-hate-the-show-but-I-keep-watching-anyway syndrome, along with the symbolism of the Comic Book Guy. It was amusing until I realized that I'm guilty of the exact same attitude when it comes to The Onion each week. Is it me, or is the paper just not as funny as it used to be?
If you're tired of candidates dodging the issues or sugar coating their positions, it's time to consider the straight talking candidate, Duke. He's got interesting positions on universal health care, abortion, and wildlife conservation.
Another domain battle begins,
Another domain battle begins, as the Honda Motor Corp. is suing the owner of honda.net, a fan site owned by a web designer. The owner has his own take on it, and Alan Herrell wrote a nice summary too. Come on Honda, let it go, this is a pointless fight.
If you were to draw one stick person
If you were to draw one stick person every second 24 hours a day, it would take you 200 years to make 6 billion drawings. The YouDraw exhibition will show 6 billion drawings of the world's people together for the first time ever. 500,000 drawings of people will be collected from the internet. These 500,000 drawings will be compiled in a book of which 12,000 copies will be produced. 12,000 books will represent a total of 6 billion drawings and will be in shown in an installation, to be exhibited internationally.
Oh my, this is one of the most surprising bits of info I've seen in a while. I've had disagreements with my dad before, but it wasn't like he went out and started a proposition against me. We talked about prop 22 a couple weeks ago, but what I didn't know until today is that the guy behind it, Republican state senator Pete Knight has a gay son that he doesn't speak with, and his son feels the proposition is rooted their private family conflict. [news link poached from Jason's wonderful running tally]
Important News Bulletin: The HighFive, Projectcool, and A List Apart networks are down due to some major flubs on the part of their bandwidth provider. Here's Glenn Davis' letter about it.
BringOutYourDead.com.
BringOutYourDead.com. Coming soon to a browser near you: webcasted funerals. What a great idea, I could really see people getting emotional over some jerky, highly-compressed, blurry RealVideo of a casket. On second thought...
When you reach an error page
When you reach an error page on this manic-depressive server's site, you get some very interesting results. This is not your typical 404, it's a whole lot more.
"If supermarkets were designed like Web sites, milk and bread would be at the front of the store."
"If supermarkets were designed like Web sites, milk and bread would be at the front of the store." Instead, he thinks commercial web sites should put the most popular items deep so you have to "walk" past other items.
If the entrance to fifty other stores was always within two steps, no matter where you were within the store, stores wouldn't be organized that way!
How could someone at IBM make such a fundamental error?
February 24
to follow up the scandal of who wants to marry a millionaire, might fox give us who wants to marry a staggering genius featuring 50 young, college-educated women vying for the affections of sympathetic literary star Dave Eggers?
Is this for real?!
I missed the grammy awards last night, and I kind of regret missing this
I missed the grammy awards last night, and I kind of regret missing this because it's just so outrageous for our puritan american television tastes. And what pray tell, is David Duchovny covering up with that envelope?
Matt "Mr. Metafilter" Haughey in his PJs
The Dick Tracy age is upon us.
The Dick Tracy age is upon us. Web access in a watch? Count me in, although I'd hate to have to learn yet another new language like WWML (wrist watch markup language, I just made it up) to make a watch-compliant version of MetaFilter.
After all the death-penalty arguements have been made, there is only one reason to link to the story about this Texas case: to use the phrase Beets Around the Bush.
We may be lonely, but at least we're enjoying it.
We may be lonely, but at least we're enjoying it. Today, the results of a new internet use survey were released. The main finding is that 70% of users say that the internet is improving their lives, another notable stat was that over 50% of those polled had used the internet before. There was one odd thing they found, almost 60% said they enjoyed the idiot box (TV) more than the internet. Could it be because you actually have to participate to use the internet, and it's not a passive medium? Personally, I can find more enjoyable content on the web in five minutes than I can surfing a TV dial for a week.
February 23
the bill gates makeover
the bill gates makeover "He is the father of the future, the symbol of a new generation, and he really needs a makeover. Bill Gates as you've never seen him before; it's almost as if he were an entirely different person."
perhaps
perhaps i would have read more in high school...
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
Nurse Ratched: I destroy my patients psychologically so I can have power and control.
Randall P. McMurphy: But freedom and happiness are good things.
Nurse Ratched: Lobotomy time for you, buster.
(McMurphy DIES but inspires HOPE so OTHERS may LIVE.)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
Nurse Ratched: I destroy my patients psychologically so I can have power and control.
Randall P. McMurphy: But freedom and happiness are good things.
Nurse Ratched: Lobotomy time for you, buster.
(McMurphy DIES but inspires HOPE so OTHERS may LIVE.)
It's a DVD Player,
It's a DVD Player, it's a CD player, it's an mp3 player, it's a karaoke machine! ... okay, so I probably won't use the karaoke part, but at $179.95, I had to grab the APEX AD600A DVD player. It's even got a supersecret menu so that you can change region settings... not that I would *do* that, but... you know... if you've got friends visiting from Taiwan or something...
You'll note I didn't post the link until my order was confirmed. I'm all about sharing the love, but not at the risk of having the love backordered.
Jet-Li
Jet-Li ...as Boba Fett? How weird. I really don't think he's going to take it though. It would be interesting if he did.
Apparently,
Apparently, the digitization of all words ever spoken by human beings would take up 5,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes. Or, 5 exabytes. How long will it be before my laptop has that much space?
Steve Champeon, one of my personal favorite Web-type people, has a good article over at Webmonkey called RTFM: A Guide to Online Research. The gist of it is "look it up on the Web before you ask a stupid question on a mailing list", but it goes far beyond that in providing sources one can use to find answers to all sorts of questions.
Darva the gold-digger wants out
Darva the gold-digger wants out is anyone surprised? It was a matter of time...
Sex in Space
Sex in Space Boldly going where etc. I have a new mission in life.
All Warburton, All the Time!
All Warburton, All the Time! Apparently, Patrick Warburton is a multifaceted hero. He's also shot something like 60 episodes of The Adventures of Buzz Lightyear for Disney. He's one busy superhero!
Space Ghost is old news. Brak is the new king.
Space Ghost is old news. Brak is the new king. His variety show "Brak Presents The Brak Show Starring Brak" on The Cartoon Network the other night was the surreal highlight of my TV year. Another episode comes along March 16th--miss it if you dare! And please, please, please let the mentioned CD of songs be real. My girlfriend called me at work today and played Brak's rendition of "Highway 40" to cheer me up!
Buyer's Guide to Alternadomains
Buyer's Guide to Alternadomains . Can't secure a .com/.org/.net domain? As we know, a host of small nations are selling their domainspace, but the requirements have always been a bit confusing. So I did my research and compiled all the basic information on one page. Now you can comparison-shop among .cc, .gg, and .nu!
Calista Flockhart Is an Idoru.
Calista Flockhart Is an Idoru. Because she is.
February 22
KNAC was the heavy metal station
KNAC was the heavy metal station in southern california from 1986 to 1995. Their stickers graced the back of many a 4x4 and street sign. While driving around today, I noticed a KNAC PURE ROCK sticker for the first time in ages, but there was a .COM where "105.5" used to be. Going to KNAC.COM reveals that they are in fact back with their same format, now solely internet based. After firing up their broadband stream, I heard some good old Ozzy and it was like being in high school again. This begs the question though, since they went under from a lack of advertising before, is there enough money in internet radio to keep them afloat today?
CyberCafe.com
CyberCafe.com is a nice worldwide index of internet-enabled coffee houses and bars. Although their presence is waning in the US (The LA area only has three), most other countries have a handful in each major city and they're quite handy when you're traveling. A friend recently came back from Ecuador, where he used one for about a dollar per hour. By the way, I noticed something odd in the Ecuador listings, one cafe is called "BillGato Zona Internet." Am I translating that correctly as "Bill Gates Zone?"
For the low price of only $220, you can have 40 lbs of M&M's candies in your choice of 21 colors. School mascots could throw school-colored candy at crowds, but it's all fun and games til someone puts an eye out.
Who wants to marry a washed-up sitcom and cheesy movie star?
Who wants to marry a washed-up sitcom and cheesy movie star? Tom Arnold decides to use the web on his quest for love...
File under "creativity in product naming".
File under "creativity in product naming". Expect future weblog management tools to bear names such as Blodder, Blobber, and Blopper.
New MacOSX Screenshots
New MacOSX Screenshots are available at XAppeal. It still looks beautiful, but I think the whole Gelcap look will get really old after use on a daily basis. OSX's BSD core is very intriguing, and I like the Terminal Window.
Web-related software patents
Web-related software patents are starting to look like the new cyber-squatting equivalent. People are patenting all sorts of mundane things like "electronic shopping carts" and "making secure purchases via the internet." My guess is in 3 or 4 years, after many of these silly patents have been awarded, we'll see a restructuring of the US patent system.
2GET+HER
2GET+HER - Did anybody besides me see this movie on MTV last night? I never would have, since movies about boy bands aren't exactly my idea of a good time, but Leslie told me to watch it and I always trust her judgement... she was right, it was hysterical! If you missed it, it's okay - it's playing once or twice more:
Fri 25 8:00 PM 2Gether MTV
Sat 26 4:30 PM 2Gether Pre-Show MTV
Sat 26 5:00 PM 2Gether MTV
Sun 27 9:30 AM 2Gether Pre-Show MTV
Sun 27 10:00 AM 2Gether MTV
Sun 27 6:30 PM 2Gether Pre-Show MTV
Sun 27 7:00 PM 2Gether MTV
Be sure to check out the songs Say it, Don't Spray It and You're my Baby Girl...
Fri 25 8:00 PM 2Gether MTV
Sat 26 4:30 PM 2Gether Pre-Show MTV
Sat 26 5:00 PM 2Gether MTV
Sun 27 9:30 AM 2Gether Pre-Show MTV
Sun 27 10:00 AM 2Gether MTV
Sun 27 6:30 PM 2Gether Pre-Show MTV
Sun 27 7:00 PM 2Gether MTV
Be sure to check out the songs Say it, Don't Spray It and You're my Baby Girl...
February 21
I guess Microsoft can't be everywhere.
I guess Microsoft can't be everywhere. Where do you want to litigate today?
Laetitia Casta has been elected as France's new millennial Marianne, symbolizing the embodiment of the Republic and symbol of the Revolution. In protest to the election of a supermodel to represent France, a french villiage has named a main square after an "ordinary woman" in the villiage.
The long awaited re-design of K10K is go!
More bad news about Fox's multimillionaire.
More bad news about Fox's multimillionaire. Now the smoking gun says he was abusive to a past fiancee. i'm willing to bet someone in the research department is sweating today.
So I was reading megnut,
So I was reading megnut, and while I was dutifully following her current links, I noticed that her brother mike seems to be flashing web designer gang signs. Does that mean that Meg and Ev have jumped him into blogger crew?
Jakob Nielsen's
Jakob Nielsen's view of the Study of the Social Consequences of the Internet by The Stanford Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society.
I just have to say that I was a reclusive social pariah long before I was on the net.
I just have to say that I was a reclusive social pariah long before I was on the net.
Scientific American has an interesting article on brand loyalty
Scientific American has an interesting article on brand loyalty on the web. Researchers at MIT are concluding that people stick with familiar commerce sites. Even though the web is supposed to enable shoppers to choose from any site, they instead stay with their favorite, even paying more for the security and familiarity. The researchers also concluded that $20 off coupons and bargain deals aren't going to bankrupt top sites, because it's a considerable investment (from a user's prospective) to shop at a new commerce site, and the offers offset that cost accordingly.
(1 new)
(1 new) Just recognizing another underdocumented IMPROVEMENT in the Metafilter. Visitors who aren't members will miss out on the site's ability to tell you what's been added since your last view... now it even points you to where the new comments are. Matt, you are at the top of MY list of web whizbang artists, and there should soon be about 390 new comments on this post seconding my motion.
I'll never need to do my own weblog again, and I can go on dedicating my site to afflicting the comfortable (shameless plug)
I'll never need to do my own weblog again, and I can go on dedicating my site to afflicting the comfortable (shameless plug)
Xenoblogs
Xenoblogs I got a bit tired of the Amerikanski domination of Weblogging (not that I don't love you all!), so I've started a compendium of blogs maintained outside the USA, which I've given the snappy name Xenoblogs. The current list is based, with permission, on a well-known geographical map of worldwide blogs. Additions welcome.
What the hell? Garth Brooks is playing pro baseball now?
What the hell? Garth Brooks is playing pro baseball now? Does this mean he has to sing the national anthem at every game?
DianaDress.com
DianaDress.com is a site that lets you bid on one of Diana's dresses, cut up into millions of tiny pieces and sold off for charity. Although all the money is supposed to go to a good cause, it's a creepy way to raise money any way you look at it.
February 20
Grab your water-wings while you can, because I'm afraid I am the bearer of bad tidings. We only have a billion years of beach time left, because our planet's ocean's are going to dry up completely. Fortunately, earth will be almost completely unlivable by then, so our descendents will already be dead. According to professor of meterology James Kastings, "My calculations are somewhat pessimistic and present a worst case scenario..."
Bantu
Bantu is the holy grail of instant messaging apps. The people behind it have been working on this for a while, and they're now offering a web-based, java client that can talk to ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo instant message clients. If it were a client side application, I'd probably use it, I'm not a big fan of leaving a browser window open all the time. Another drawback is that it can't reach AIM users.
People often mock the Simpsons überfans for thier painfully detailed episode guides, but now there's EPguides which allows for anyone to write an episode guide on anything currently on TV. This site will allow for geeky exchanges like "Did you see episode 108 of Freaks and Geeks last week? Do you have that Joan Jet album that has the fourth song they played that night?"
workspot
workspot Sometimes you run across something on the web and you go "gee, why didnt I think of that?". Imagine being given your own linux box, with a way to view the desktop remotely via a java app that only draws the changes to the screen. Workspot does that and more - you get StarOffice, TheGimp, the K desktop, and a web server with cgi - bin access... it's cool!
February 19
David Eggers is encouraging McSweeney's readers to write fake reviews at Amazon. Some are more amusing than others, and most are variations on the same theme.
I love seeing a well established offline brand bring their image and experience to the web. Tonight, I stumbled upon Blue Note Records' site for the first time. Blue Note is famous for producing both wonderful jazz records and beautiful album artwork. The splash page shows a random artist and the graphics are reminiscent of their covers. They're even cool enough to offer live streaming music from their library, which sounds great over my cable modem (although it's done through windows media player).
Who Wants To Marry A Liar-Loser/Multi-Millionaire?
Who Wants To Marry A Liar-Loser/Multi-Millionaire? Unfortunately for Hard-bodied nurse Darva Conger, her. It seems that the pointy chinned-geek multimillionaire of Fox's ratingsfest "Who Wants To Marry A Multi-Millionaire" wasn't exactly the man he made himself out to be. (I personally would've gone wither with the other blonde, or the brunette next to her at the end.) - Aw c'mon - you can admit it - I know you saw at least some of that two hour scoop o' slop... - Uhhmmmm welll... yeah - well I was just testing you - I didn't see it either... yeah... umm I was watching basketball.... On an entirely different note - how about that 90210? - I'm really getting worried about Kelly...... Uh yeah, well I was just testing you again... Ummmmm... I gotta go now...
If you're tired of using canned Latin "Lorem Ipsum Dolor" to fill the text areas in your design projects, how about using 21st Century Greeking instead. It features such meaningful passages as: "Fundamentally transforming well designed actionable information whose semantic content is virtually null. To more fully clarify the current exchange, a few aggregate issues will require addressing to facilitate this distributed communication venue."
"[Model Guinevere] Van Seenus must have been a saint in a previous life, because she sure is an evil bitch in this one."
"[Model Guinevere] Van Seenus must have been a saint in a previous life, because she sure is an evil bitch in this one." Finally, mean-spirited gossip about the fashion industry. And a chance to add your own, too!
Sony web site mobbed...
Sony web site mobbed... The number of nline orders for the PSX2 at the Sony web site forced Sony to close down the page temporarily as they were getting 100K hits in one minute yesterday.
The PSX2 is projected to be released on March 4th. =)
The PSX2 is projected to be released on March 4th. =)
I thought I'd never get to see the day that this happened, but etoy.com is back online. The War Is Over.
February 18
Derek's long overdue explanation
Derek's long overdue explanation of the "I hate weblogs" comment. It's a good one.
What kind of a sick masochist would you have to be to buy your Internet access from Fry's Electronics?!?
Tomb of Osiris Found!
Tomb of Osiris Found! Ok, so this isn't a great reference. I originally saw a piece about this on MSN; two hours later, I was unable to find it on their site due to unbelieveably inconsistent and crappy nagivation. (Did they ever consider that maybe 'Search' should allow you to search just MSN? Or that story links, uniform in appearance but in fact linking to heterogenous destinations, are confusing as hell?) Anyway, fun stuff. Did you know George Bush Sr. worships Osiris?
The sky is falling, the sky is falling!
The sky is falling, the sky is falling! Looks like this weekend will be the time to go outside and get that killer tan you always wanted.
What's that you say? You love Shakespeare? You really love Shakespeare? Well then, why don't you just print his complete works, all in a single file. It's a plain text version of almost everything he's done, and it's 5.1 Mb. When was the last time you saw a >1Mb text file?
What? No sock puppet!?
What? No sock puppet!? It really makes little sense for pets.com to offer all of the other goodies but no sock puppet for the kids....(yeah...kids, that's the ticket). I bet everyone at Chiat-Day (pets.com advertisers) received one, why can't we?
We're not a bunch of internet-loners!
We're not a bunch of internet-loners! We're vindicated - new study shows that people who become reclusives though using the internet are in a minority.
Mr Arthur strips bare.
Mr Arthur strips bare. No, no, not what you think. Glassdog 8.5 is here in lovely greys and khaki. Lovely, but sparse.
BeOS 5 will be free
BeOS 5 will be free for download later this quarter. Smart move. I can't wait to try it out.
February 17
This guy gets in pissing contest with that guy, then this guy's new widget looks a lot like these folks' widget (at least that's what this other guy says). And now these folks give that guy a job.
I love the web! (Just not for the right reasons)
Superfriends.
Superfriends. True Dat.
Only in L.A.?: Bad LAPD cops could cost the city $125 million; I just hope they aren't the same cops who successfully sued the city for $40 million. Yeeesh.
Use #1002 for your palm pilot.
Use #1002 for your palm pilot. Sure, there are the obvious uses - calendaring, contact lists, cribbage, email, reading rebeccablood's blog... but what else can you do with a palm pilot? How about building a robot using brainstem technology? Guaranteed to recognize, analize, and vaporize your cubemate's wussy little Lego Mindstorm.
Everybody is blogging the intraoral camera
Everybody is blogging the intraoral camera link on Wired today. When I first saw it I was like "EEEEEEW!" I mean, it's bad enough I have to *hear* them drilling a(nother) hole in my head - I sure don't want to WATCH! I suppose as long as they don't use the same camera they use for this, it doesn't really bother me too much.
X-Men the Movie
X-Men the Movie trailer was released recently. I didn't even realize they were working on this.
Here are two of the anti-smoking commercials Philip Morris succeeded in getting taken off the air. (News story via Rebecca's Pocket. I'm still looking for the "Body Bags" spot; if you know how I can get it, let me know.)
Do we all need to get out more?
Do we all need to get out more? Although they're putting the "too much time with computers, not enough social interaction" spin on this study's findings, there are actually some good results of it. Heavy internet users spend less time in traffic (because they look up traffic before going anywhere?), less time in malls (shopping online instead, duh), and less time watching TV (this is the best news of all, I barely watch it anymore because it's mostly inane garbage, whereas on the internet, I can find interesting things to read and enjoy). As for the less face time with friends and family, I have a growing number of friends online that I consider to be as close as any Real Life friend could be.
I guess this is proof you can web-enable anything.
I guess this is proof you can web-enable anything. The New York Taxi.com company launched this site to accompany their internet-connected cab which features live shots from the streets of NYC. While not exactly as exciting as HBO's Taxi Cab Confessions, it is an interesting use of the web.
Watch the Win2K launch live
Watch the Win2K launch live courtesy of Microsoft.com
And thanks to all the fish?
And thanks to all the fish? British researchers say fans of loud music may be responding to a 'pleasure-inducing hearing mechanism' passed down through evolution from fish to humans.
Well, slap me with a large trout!
February 16
Welcome to Burma.com
Welcome to Burma.com How's *this* for net access?! And we sometimes complain about how the government views the net in our own countries... fact is we don't know how good we've got it.
Special note to anybody who thinks the Tobacco Companies are getting a bum rap:
Special note to anybody who thinks the Tobacco Companies are getting a bum rap: Apparently, even their own growers think they are a bunch of rat bastards.
Radiskull HATE snow
Radiskull HATE snow Yay, episode 3.
The Razzies
The Razzies dis-honor the worst achievements in film for 1999. My personal favorite, Heather Donahue in Blair Witch. Forget the Oscars.
Apple released brand new
Apple released brand new versions of all their hardware, and I want to change. New Powerbooks with FW ports built in, and a graphite iBook, but what is it about moving from PC to Mac that gives one the feeling of coming out the proverbial closet and shielding themselves from being pelted with tomatoes?
February 15
You want to know the definition of irony? Take a look at this, and notice where this video is the number one seller. I've ranted before about my local Blockbuster and Hollywood Video not carrying this title in LA, but that screenshot speaks volumes about a large group of repressed people.
It's too late to enter Luke's Death Pool,
It's too late to enter Luke's Death Pool, but you can visit the previous "participants" in the game at Find a Grave. It's pretty useful, you can search by birthdate, deathdate, and by their claim to fame among other criteria. Many even have photos of the grave site like Orson Welles, Nat King Cole (died 35 years ago today), and Smokey Bear. Useful and bizarre.
I'll need a jetpack, a sonic devestator, and maybe one of those hoverboards. Future Horizons is like a clearinghouse for all those cool ads I used to see in the back of magazines.
More Live-Action
More Live-Action versions of beloved cartoon icons. I was thrilled this morning when I heard an actress being interviewed about her upcoming lead in the new Josie and the Pussycats movie. That thrill turned to disgust when I discovered it was Rachael Leigh Cook (Devon on Dawson's Creek) and not Laura Prepon (Donna from That 70s Show) being interviewed. It only got worse when I discovered that Jennifer Love Hewitt is being wooed for the role of Daphne in a possible Scooby Doo project (with Mike Meyers as Shaggy???). Hey, Laura Prepon could do that one too!
The U.S. Lawn Mower Racing Association
The U.S. Lawn Mower Racing Association has a pretty detailed site up. On the one hand, It has made me anxious for the roar of the engines and the smell of the fresh cut grass, but it makes me sad too - ever since Sta-Bil bought out the lawn mower racing circuit, it's become way too commercial. My favorite line is a caption from the picture on the front page: "The Webmaster Leadin' the Pack on his Blades of Thunder in Lisle, IL." It's nice to see someone who is able to combine their work with their passion.
This year's list of Oscar nominees seems way, way off.
This year's list of Oscar nominees seems way, way off. But here's my big five predictions given their lame choices (along with my personal faves if I could choose anything): best pic: American Beauty (Magnolia), Actor: Denzel Washington (John Malkovich), Actress: Hilary Swank (same), Supporting Actor: Tom Cruise (Philip Hoffman), and Supporting Actress: Angelina Jolie (same, she was amazing).
February 14
Jerry Lewis pulled an Andy Kaufman
Jerry Lewis pulled an Andy Kaufman at a recent comedy awards Q&A session. When asked about female comics he admires, he answered with "I don't like any female comedians" and went so far as to say that he considers a woman "a producing machine that brings babies in the world." No word yet on whether or not he'll start professional wrestling anytime soon.
Here's a nice survey of geographic location
Here's a nice survey of geographic location of domain name ownership. I was surprised to see that people in Los Angeles own more domains than San Francisco, but I assume the researcher didn't lump all the Silicon Valley cities together to get that number. I'm sure a "Bay Area" grouping would be number one. Of the .com, .org, and .net addresses, the US still leads the world with 2/3 of all addresses in that domainspace, so I guess the web will continue to be American-centric for some time.
Indiana University Bans use of Napster
Indiana University Bans use of Napster It appears that Indiana University has banned the use of Napster recently. Apparently it was accounting for 50% of IU's Internet traffic. Officials are sighting bandwidth as the reason for the ban. I wonder how many schools will follow suit this semester.
Yahoo! is being sued. The plaintiffs claim that Yahoo!'s use of cookies violates Texas anti-stalking laws.
I knew hard drive storage was cheap, but I didn't think it was that cheap.
I knew hard drive storage was cheap, but I didn't think it was that cheap. Freediskspace.com is offering 300Mb of storage for pretty much anything. They integrate with PCs, Macs, and Linux boxes, in addition to PDAs. That last one I find most curious, because I've never maxed out the storage space on my 2Mb palm pilot before. [thanks bump]
AOL jumps on the get-rich-quick bandwagon.
AOL jumps on the get-rich-quick bandwagon. "Every time you generate a new member for AOL who stays for 90 days, AOL will pay you $15. Imagine how much extra cash you could make! Make $20,000, $40,000, $80,000, $100,000 - the sky is the limit!" Wow, it almost sounds easier than working...
An interesting article over at Slashdot on the 9 continents of the Internet. I've always had a sense that there were these different "circles" that people ran in, but I never could quite pin them down. Of course, I'm not sure that they can be pinned down precisely to 9, but I can appreciate the attempt.
Forget Fezbot (Feb 13th) - now you can try out Linux with a bootable CDROM. DemoLinux.org is making available downloadable disk images that you can burn to a CDR and boot from your CDROM drive. This Mandrake distribution recognized my video card and mouse without any problems (but not my soundcard). A healthy variety of software (like Gimp, Netscape, and Corel WordPerfect) is included.
Well, the word is out,
Well, the word is out, Windows 2000 ships this Thursday and, with it, approximately 63,000 bugs. The spokespeople are saying:
"All software ships with issues. The difference is (that) no software in the history of Microsoft development has ever been through the incredible, rigorous internal and external testing that Windows 2000 has been through."
While that's great and all, they didn't say they actually fixed the bugs that those 750,000 people found. I certainly won't be switching anytime soon.
"All software ships with issues. The difference is (that) no software in the history of Microsoft development has ever been through the incredible, rigorous internal and external testing that Windows 2000 has been through."
While that's great and all, they didn't say they actually fixed the bugs that those 750,000 people found. I certainly won't be switching anytime soon.
Well, that was quick. Last week Clintion & Reno urge the FBI to go into a full investigation of the DoS attacks of Yahoo, eBay, etc., and they're already suspecting it was German crackers. They don't actually say how or why they suspect them, other than the program used in the attacks might have been German. It'd be nice if they could actually show that the attacks originated from German IP addresses before they start suspecting anyone.
February 13
As the Human Genome Project
As the Human Genome Project gets closer to unlocking the entire genetic code that makes up human beings, Clinton is urging researchers to keep it open to all. Apparently many pharmaceutical companies have patents on chunks of the code and uses for it. The government funded research continues to be posted to the web, hopefully the entire database will be available when they're done.
Adventures in Consumer Stalking: Interactive TV
Adventures in Consumer Stalking: Interactive TV "Broadcasters and advertisers, meanwhile, have long been eager to fire up interactive services, because they can know more about who is watching (and doing) what, and what consumers are buying. Targeted advertising with better response rates has long been a goal in the television industry."
Linux just got easier than Windows ever will. Fezbox is a *web-based* installer for Red Hat Linux and works in either Linux (as a windows update-style site), or in Windows itself (apparently you can partition and install linux over the web too). If this works smoothly, I'm in awe.
Another one gone :-(
Another one gone :-( Keep screamin' Jay.
February 12
RIP Charles Schulz and Tom Landry
So Charles Schulz ran out of ink about two hours ago, preceded in death by about five hours by Tom Landry. The worst part is, both were in my dead pool, which starts in about 24 hours. (The second-worst thing is all the "It's a sad day for Snoopy" and "Good grief" ledes we're going to have to endure. Blech.)
The Dallas Morning News obit went over the wires at 85 inches before Landy was even cold. Gee, you think they saw this one coming?
The Dallas Morning News obit went over the wires at 85 inches before Landy was even cold. Gee, you think they saw this one coming?
Rex Reed will probably be getting some bad reviews in the future,
Rex Reed will probably be getting some bad reviews in the future, thanks to today's arrest for shoplifting CDs from a New York music store. Too bad he never got into Napster and mp3s, maybe this would have never happened. I think I own all three of those CDs, actually. Rex, I would have let you download them!
Potential Employment:
Potential Employment: Here is a chance to show what you are made of. Quit your high paying job you have now, for one that will give you the opportunity to "help the children."
Adding to the list of weird shaped rock formations found on Mars
Adding to the list of weird shaped rock formations found on Mars is the heart shaped plateau, just in time for Valentine's Day.
From the "We're in the 2000's, right?" file: Senator Jesse Helms continues to be an asshole, blocking *any* African-American judges from being appointed to the 4th Circut Court of Appeals. The court happens to preside over an area with the largest population of African-Americans anywhere in the country.
The Discovery Channel has a pretty good "Hackers Hall of Fame"
The Discovery Channel has a pretty good "Hackers Hall of Fame" but of course they get hacking/phreaking/cracking all munged up. There's a brief bio and short synopsis of activities for each person.
With the ACME License Maker you can test out how (an abbreviated version of your) URL would look on the license plate of that new bug you've been looking at.
The Bad Touch
The Bad Touch by The Bloodhound Gang. I love it and KROQ is playing it pretty much every hour, so if they haven't already been labeled loser-sellout-musicians-non-gratia they will be soon. Musically, I'm the kiss of death.
February 11
The Shuttle Endeavour launched earlier today
The Shuttle Endeavour launched earlier today and thanks to those rocket scientists at NASA, you can see the exact part of the world they are flying over, right now.
politically incorrect may air a gay marriage.
politically incorrect may air a gay marriage. if they can find two guys who will exchange vows, P.I. will air it on febuary 18th. hmm. "The on-screen wedding will kick off an episode devoted entirely to gay marriage, a particularly timely topic given Vermont's recent block of an anti-marriage bill, California's upcoming Proposition 22"
New STATUS info for MetaFilter! Now I can see what has happened during the 15 minutes I was away!
827 days
827 days never seemed so long.
So What's The Next Big Thing In Weblog Troublemaking?
So What's The Next Big Thing In Weblog Troublemaking?
"In keeping with successful business strategies for... other Internet ventures, Bump will be... acquiring as many other weblogs as possible, regardless of quality, to ensure that we generate lots of press releases. "
I'm ready to sell.
"In keeping with successful business strategies for... other Internet ventures, Bump will be... acquiring as many other weblogs as possible, regardless of quality, to ensure that we generate lots of press releases. "
I'm ready to sell.
The Lot,
The Lot, a New Zealand e-commerce site, has a hilarious commercial (2.7Mb mpeg) that a friend sent to me with the title "Shopping in LA." The NRA could not be reached for comment.
The most disgusting things I've seen in California this year are the parents against a student group and Propsition 22. Last night, I saw that support for prop 22 was leading in the polls, which I find incomprehensible. The LA Times has a summary of what religious leaders think about it, and there's a protest against the proposition by 400 clergymen this weekend. If even these guys have problems with it, why would the average citizen support it? Hopefully reason will win out on this one, but unfortunately, if you haven't already registered to vote in CA, it's too late for this primary election.
If you've ever played Buzzword Bingo at a meeting, then you'll enjoy The Adventures of Action Item. It's proactive
Uncle Sam wants YOU
Uncle Sam wants YOU to solve the internet's problems. President Clinton announced yesterday that, due to a complete lack of knowledge about the internet, it will cost $2 billion in 2001 to develop anti-hacker secuity. Plus they intend on subsidizing college costs for computer science majors that agree to work for the government. Hey if he'd give me just one million dollars, I'd be able to pay off my school costs and hunt down hackers personally, like Boba Fett.
How much would you pay
How much would you pay for a giant donut? Don't answer yet. What if that donut were not 7, not 9, but 14" in diameter? Now how much would you pay? $10? $20? $25? Best Donut Man of New York will deliver a giant 14" donut to your doorstep for a mere $43.95 (which includes overnight delivery)! Now if only I could find someone to deliver a garbage can size cup of coffee and some throwrug sized napkins, I'd be totally set.
February 10
I thought it was lame that Missouri was introducing measures to rename a stretch of highway in response to it's adoption by the KKK, but Kentucky drafting a measure requesting an apology from Craig Kilborn? I mean, sure, the show is bad, but it's not "Kensucky" bad.
IBM has developed a new storage technology called Millepede which has more in common with old-school punch cards than it does with magnetic hard drives. The system uses a tiny heated sensor to mark a thin polymer layer, and can already store 400 gigabytes per square inch. And it will improve. Will we ever have enough important information to fill up such ridiculous amounts of space?
The Ultimate Bad Candy Website
The Ultimate Bad Candy Website is not the most high-end in production design but the stories of these two guys eating everything under the sun provided me with a a good 15 minutes of joy.
Southpark makes waves overseas.
Southpark makes waves overseas. "The U.S.-made adult cartoon show was responsible for a rise in swearing and misbehavior" said the student council. Lets all sing together: "Blame America! Blame America!" (hopefully you've seen the Southpark movie and heard this)
Costly High-Tech Band-Aid Unveiled
Nixon caught with his pants down
Nixon caught with his pants down Selected Watergate tapes & other audio items of historical interest, including the smoking gun.
Parlimentary,
Parlimentary, my dear.
New Zealand breaks ground with the world's first Transsexual Member of Parliment (formerly the world's first Transsexual Mayor). Her maiden speech included the circumspect "I was quoted once as saying this is a stallion that became a gelding and now she's a mayor. I do have to say that I've now come full circle and become a member."
[stolen found on :::..::: Cortex
So long Ernest.
So long Ernest. He was amusing, and only 50.
So a few days ago, I went off on some resume sites going out and pilfering my resume off my personal site. Well, I opted out of passportaccess.com, and here is their response. My favorite part: "Once you post your resume or any sort of material on the internet it becomes public information and therefore, can be spread from site to site very quickly." Uh, excuse me? Since when did "public information" equal "copyright-free and we can do anything we want with it?"
The El Modena High School Gay-Straight Alliance Club
The El Modena High School Gay-Straight Alliance Club finally met, thanks to a federal judge ruling. There was a bit of a scuffle outside afterwards with protestors, but apparently it was a real sissy fight.
Freaks and Geeks,
Freaks and Geeks, arguably the best new show of this lackluster TV season, is being shelved for the remainder of February sweeps. Although it will return next month (and if you've never seen it, check it out), its future is pretty dim. Why does the public constantly complain about the lack of quality shows, but refuse to support the ones that do rock?
Code Rush
Mark your calendars: PBS is running a special called "Code Rush" in late March, about the hectic coding schedules that Netscape employees like Jaime Zawinski coped with in early 1998. It sounds like it's going to be good and will probably be similar to other stories about the formation of Netscape.
I'm not sure which disturbs me more: that Stan Lee has stooped to this, or that A.J. looks a lot like the freshly shorn Derek.
February 9
If you use AltaVista's yellowpage listings, you may be letting Alexa know exactly where you live, where you're planning on flying, and who you talk to on the phone. This is so far beyond a simple breach of privacy. This is insane.
One thing is for sure: Overstock.com and American Science & Surplus aren't the run-of-the-mill e-commcerce sites. I love AS&S's detailed information, which occasionally runs like: "Unfortunately, the default colour is chartreuse", or "You have to buy at least three per order. Believe us, you'll probably need the parts."
Goodbye, Ben.
TheSimpons.com
TheSimpons.com ride's along with K-Mart's Blue Light Special to offer free internet access and email. While what is considered the top ISP offering free internet; NetZero, it would just seem much cooler to be chillin@thesimpsons.com.
SPOON!
SPOON! I'm not sure how I feel about a live action Tick, but I suppose if you're going to do it, you could do worse than to cast Patrick Warburton as the Nigh-Invulnerable Blue Guy...
The Today Show
The Today Show really pisses me off. They never have links to the stories I want to pull up (like the head of the KKK in Jackson saying "why is everyone so bigoted and full of hate when it comes to *us* trying to preserve our heritage"), but they do have stories like Allowances, sleepovers and street crossing...
Is your child ready to take that next step?
Regarding the KKK piece, the story was about a Missouri Legislator planning to introduce a bill to rename a section of road "Rosa Parks Highway" in response to the KKK's participation in the Adopt-a-Highway program. While it seems pretty obvious to me that the KKK would just move to another section of road, I was a) offended by the comments of the KKK spokesman, and b) irritated by the State Legislator's lack of preparation for the interview. Why didn't he directly respond to the accusation of hate and bigotry? Why didn't he have facts on hand about the 'heritage' that the KKK was trying to preserve? Why didn't he have information about it's past and present activities and mission? Why didn't he point out that membership in the KKK is in and of itself sufficient to get you booked on the Jerry Springer Show? These things always bug me, because it's clear that groups like the KKK do quite a bit of preparation in fact distortion and spin control, but the Voices of Reason seldom do any prep work at all.
DoS Attacks for Fun and Profit
DoS Attacks for Fun and Profit - It looks like the list has expanded quite a bit this week... enough that the FBI is going to hold a press conference today at 11 PST. This is almost enough to argue against unlimited bandwidth for the average consumer. I hope they track the bastards down; not only does this impact the future success of eCommerce ventures, but it lends to stereotyping the technically elite as potential closet-evildoers.
Web Design to reach new lows
Web Design to reach new lows as the college programs unleash their first wave of cookie-cutter web designers and Microsoft fights to give us a new appreciation for the untalented. Ugh.
Like some people,
Like some people, I'm obsessed with traffic. I was very happy to hear that Toyota is developing chips to drive smart cars, since groups of people in cars can't seem to drive very well on their own. I've studied traffic for years (living in LA means lots of "time in the lab") and have actually tried no-stopping experiments and observed merging behavior. People seem to use their brakes too much, or over-react to people ahead tapping their brakes. I can't wait until the day traffic flow can be controlled by computer, LA might be livable again. Just to prove to others that this is in fact a thinly-veiled simpsons newsgroup, Homer and Bart benefited from similar driving-assistance technology in episode #AABF13.
February 8
Page 33 of the latest Red Herring is a full-page ad for Morrison and Forrestor, attorrneys at law. What's great is that in big, yellow print is the firm's URL: mofo.com. Now, they have to be aware of the multiple meanings here, but they appear to be playing it straight, and the site is full of MoFo news and MoFo history.
From the "You learn something new everyday" file: apparently, if you're a vegan, you can't drink most red wines. Luckily for them, there's people selling vegan friendly wines. I've been a vegetarian for about 10 years now, and I was a vegan for a few months until I heard that you're not supposed to eat honey. That was a bit much for me, but like most things, there's always someone willing to take it even further.
Add Buy.Com
Add Buy.Com to the list of sites getting hit by Denial Of Sevice Attacks lately. The site went down just as they were getting extra traffic because they just released their IPO, good timing...or I should say bad timing.
Casey over at Boiled Brains is working on a weblog map of the universe. Currently, it only works in Netscape for me, and it doesn't do much, but I hope that someday it will be as cool as the Interactive Map of Strategic Alliances in the Internet Industry applet.
The Athlon 1.1G Processor
The Athlon 1.1G Processor is due out this summer. I'm sure I'll need it to run my 36GB hard drives and my 140GB CDROM, but it's still a bit of a shock considering that only a few years ago I decided to splurge and get a cutting edge 486-66(MHz) with a 170MB hard drive I knew I'd never fill it up.
Presto Technologies
Presto Technologies is hard at work on Presto Pass - an example of the growing m-com (mobile e-commerce) market. SF Gate has an article about it which is (according to my source within Presto Technologies) not entirely accurate WRT which company does what in the process, but covers the actual product pretty well. Will this be a vector for the rocketlike Shopping-Cart-At-A-Time grocery store checkouts we've been promised, or just another way to track consumer demographics for Madison Avenue? Can I have one of these implanted in my scalp, so that I can find my head even when it isn't attached?
Paul Ford's Ftrain
Paul Ford's Ftrain has a great piece on Micrsoft Word, writing, and the web. His stream-of-consciousness essay has hilarious nuggets like the "computer science axiom 'all software expands until it can send mail.'" There's a couple illustrations worth noting: the first looks like Word with all the tool bar icons enabled, and the other is Word's paperclip assistant interfering with an especially private moment. Great stuff.
Vote for Powazek!!
And you thought Gattaca was just a fantasy futuristic movie? The age of genetic discrimination is upon us already.
February 7
Personal rant time: I wrote my own resume a while ago, and have been building onto it for a couple years now. To me, it is copyrighted material, just as anything else I write. So why is it showing up in all sorts of resume databases? I'm getting calls from recruiters saying they got it from Aquent, Passport Access, and various other resume sites. These sites seem to be sucking down resumes, putting them on their site, and making money off them. I can't see my own resume, since I haven't paid to look at it. I find PassportAccess to be especially annoying: they offer an opt-out page. What the hell? Why should I even have to do this? It's my resume, not theirs!
Do you, a, have problems getting to Yahoo? Yahoo was unreachable for much of the morning, and it turns out that it was apparently due to hackers. I saw estimates that the loss of 3 hours worth of traffic meant about 58 million lost page views. How many dollars is that?
Corpses
Corpses are great if used to prove points, and they mayor of Taipei wanted to make a point in cleaning up the rivers there so it can become a tourist attraction. I think his point was well made when a corpse of a 50 year old man came floating by.
In addition to SelectSmart's Presidental Candidate chooser app which was mentioned here before, AOL now has one and iVillage does too. Although all the questions are different, I'm getting the same top three in all apps. A funny sidenote: if you leave everything at the defaults of "no preference" at AOL's candidate chooser, Al Gore comes up as first choice. Although it's just a bug caused by alphabetizing the candidates, I think it's a little too close to the truth to ignore. :)
I wouldn't normally post a job announcement URL here on MetaFilter, but this one is different because it may be every young web jedi's dream. Industrial Light and Magic is looking for web and database people. Can you imagine the street cred you'll have when you get to build the pages for the SW movies and trailers months before anyone gets to see them? I wonder if Lucas would force you into some sort of solitude, so you wouldn't leak any juicy info to others.
February 6
Simpsons Feud
Did anyone watch the Simpsons Sunday night? Did you notice how bad it sucked? Maybe it was on purpose, as a response to the feud going on between the show's writers and the alt.tv.simpsons newsgroup.
FoxTV has reached a new all-time low. I couldn't find an official site, but here's the listing over at tvgrid.com. "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire" is an upcoming special where a single guy will pick from one of 50 women, and get legally married by the end of the program. This one is pathetic all around; for the freak going on TV to pick his wife in a matter of 2 hours, the 50 women lining up to marry a man for his money, and for Fox pulling such a lame ratings stunt.
Today I was once again reminded why I hate domain squatters so much. I wanted to find the website for Scream 3, but scream3.com is some half-assed hacked site. Every domain with "scream3" in it seems to be taken (some by Miramax), but none of them resolve to a movie site. The only one that looks halfway official is in french. Here it is, opening weekend, and there doesn't seem to be an official site up that I can use.
The owners of the i.am domain
The owners of the i.am domain for a long time gave out free redirects. My home page was i.am/so_smrt, and my resume was i.am/for_hire. Now it appears the domain is under new ownership, or it has been hacked. Either way, I have to change my .sig.
I often forget that there's still a community of visual basic developers out there building all sorts of goofy apps for windows. This site has a whole bunch of useful utilities, including Gribouille, a program that lets you draw all over your desktop, Pubcruncher, an app that kills popup windows, and my favorite: "Nap and Coffee", a fake app that lets you walk away from your computer and make it appear that you're copying large files, scanning for viruses, or setting up a program.
February 5
Whatever it is
Whatever it is that Becker, Boyer, and Brown are working on, I have a feeling it's going to be good.
Who wants to be a twenty-aire?
Who wants to be a twenty-aire? $20 for you, $10 for me. Or, $20 for you, $10 for Justin. Or whatever. Either way, I can't find the catch. Free money, and you don't even have to write a review of anything.
The way Bank of America has been dicking me around, I expect to transfer to an Internet bank by the end of the year. Although x.com is interesting and is giving away free money, I don't think this will be it. I'll probably wait until ETrade gets its act together with Telebank. If precedence is anything, I expect ETrade to give $100, United miles and a toaster to early adopters.
This is also the first one-letter domain that I'm aware of. (I lack the interest go try all 26 to find out.)
Jason's got a real noodle scratcher
Jason's got a real noodle scratcher at his site. I'd say the first gunman and second gunman should take their first shots at the third gunman, but they're likely to miss, then the third gunman would kill number 2, the first one gets another shot, but it's again only 1/3 likely to hit #3. #3 then shoots #1 and it's over. I bet the correct answer is for #1 to shoot at himself or something, but that makes no sense either. What do you think?
metafilter is famous!!! well.... maybe?
metafilter is famous!!! well.... maybe? "Metafilter is a weblog that anyone can contribute a link or a comment
to.
Its purpose is to break down the barriers between people, to extend a
weblog beyond just one person, and to foster discussion among its
members.
The site has centralized numerous discussions so you can participate on
topics ranging from the "New Northern Ireland" to "Microsoft's font
demos". The topics get more interesting as people with different
interests
participate.
Esoteric Collaboration"
WTF
WTF does AFAIK mean? Should I RTFM before asking the BOFM? If he tells me "IIRC, IMHO, I'm not HTH" what would you do? Try the acronymfinder.
Note to self: buy these as soon you see them in a store.
The finalists for the SXSW web competition have been announced.
The finalists for the SXSW web competition have been announced. I'm sad to see that a site I urged the owner to enter, evolt.org, did not make the cut in the online community category. I'll be pulling for a couple cool sites I like and read regularly when I'm at SXSW next month. Do you see any favorites on the finalist list?
February 4
Ugh!! Is your manhood worth $2.3 million?!
If you think webcams are cool and the k10k desktop gallery is great, you've got to see this woman's desktop. The ultimate in exhibition, updated every 5 minutes, showing whatever she's working on.
Hey kids, it's a MetaFilter Challenge! Can you name all nine talking heads in the Ditherati header graphic? (Note: Consulting Terry Colon for the answers is considered cheating; consulting his illustrations at Suck for clues is not.)
Northern Irelands two month
old gvernment has about a
week to live, and Joerg Haiders Freedom Party has been sworn
into government....ho hum :-/
Today's Suck.com article
Today's Suck.com article is a hilarious self-deprecating homeage to the word.com redesign earlier this month.
A wonderful thing happened
A wonderful thing happened after the recent merger between eMachines and a company called FreePC. All 25,000 FreePC customers, taking advantage of the company's unique free-internet-and-computer-deal, were allowed to keep their computers with absolutely no strings attached. Real people benefitting from corporate business maneuvers? Gosh.
February 3
Oh Mighty Isis!
Oh Mighty Isis! I admit it, I found this because of a link on riothero's weblog, but the memory of Isis (who looked a lot like Catherine Zeta Jones, only without Michael Douglas' lipprints all over her) was just too good to keep to myself.
Windows Me???
Windows Me??? wow, is that the lamest product name ever? previously, my vote was for "the webster" (which dell smartly re-named). who are the ad wizards who came up with this one?
Just when you think people can't get any stupider, they go and believe something like this. If you thought the "Christopher Reeve walking" ad was real, you need to turn off your TV and pick up a book. Oh, and please don't have any offspring either (just trying to help speed the process of evolution a bit :).
Life imitates art
Life imitates art in the second anti-Blockbuster screed here. Of course, this won't make sense unless you've seen "Fight Club," as our esteemed columnists apparently haven't.
alt.callahans
alt.callahans is the usenet group we were talking about, Matt. How could you go wrong with lines like this?
Setting a bag of Susie B's on the bar, Freddie winks at Mike. "A round for the house, if you please, kind sir. It would be hard to come up with a better toast than the one just raised, so I'll just add a wish for you all." You truly can't go home again. or can you?
Setting a bag of Susie B's on the bar, Freddie winks at Mike. "A round for the house, if you please, kind sir. It would be hard to come up with a better toast than the one just raised, so I'll just add a wish for you all." You truly can't go home again. or can you?
Remember the movie "The Day After?" Back in the Cold War days, we were all worried about someday being vaporized by a nuclear blast. Well now, in this post-Cold War era you can relive those wonderful memories with PBS' Nuclear Blast Mapper. I popped in the coordinates for MetaFilter's server location, set the bomb to a 25 megaton blast and this is the result. Think about that the next time you hear a country gets their first nuclear weapons.
Whatever Likesilver is plotting, rest assured it'll kick a little ass.
Love the Liberator? Sure, we all do. But how much do you really know about Simón Bolívar, founder of a good six or seven South American countries? There are a few good quick biographies here, here, and here. The best site, by far, is the Virtual Library of Simón Bolívar, which not only has detailed scholarly articles but a number of Bolívar's own writings. Stop by and meet el Libertador again for the first time.
February 2
Speaking of
Speaking of High School newspapers and Matt's impending reunion, a friend of mine sent me to highschoolalumni.com a while back. As a result of some email I got from someone there, I found classmates.com which links to a high school bulletin board on delphi.com. Now I'm getting email left and right from people I haven't seen in 18-20 years, and it's a little freaky. The best so far was from my freshman year biology lab partner. She was totally the Roller Disco Queen at Skate City, and even had a Linda Blair-esque Roller Boogie picture in the yearbook. We didn't really know each other, so when she said "I too, am very fuzzy on high school days. It just seems like a life time ago, but I do remember you well", I took it as a compliment. It may seem silly, but I would hate to be forgettable. You see, Matt? You don't *have* to go back, you can interact with all the people you don't want to see again from the comfort of your own home.
HighWired.com
HighWired.com helps high schools put their newspapers (and classrooms and other information) online -- but i wonder if putting articles like this one, which tell personal information about students, online is a good idea. following that logic, i guess it's good that it's difficult to search high wired or find a list of all the high school newspapers that it hosts. if you poke around a bit, you can find many papers and it's good for a laugh.
Sylvia had an interesting exchange with an Audi dealer today.
Sylvia had an interesting exchange with an Audi dealer today. The situation kind of reminds me of the old "Chess for Girls" Saturday Night Live commerical (scroll down to see a summary of it). It's what, the year two thousand now? Can't women buy fast cars and enjoy driving them aggressively? By the way, that SNL commercial has prompted researchers to write books and papers about it, and quiz their students on the meanings.
The new Northern Ireland
The new Northern Ireland government teeters on the brink of collapse over Provisional IRA weapons decommissioning, while the rest of Europe worries about Joerg
Haider. I find it interesting that some worry about how a government will be formed, and
others worry if they will have a government at all.
The Wire
The Wire has just posted an article about the new Sacagawea dollar coin and the Federal goverment's attempts to promote it through Wal Mart and boxes of Cheerios. These days, it seems, even money wont sell itself anymore.
I think the splash page for Ciudad
I think the splash page for Ciudad is excellent. As a matter of fact, I think that the "Two Hot Tamales" have done a great job of carrying the design sense of their restaurants to both of their sites. I wish other restaurants did as well at conveying their ambiance online.
The design team over at Amazon.com needs to up their medication.
The design team over at Amazon.com needs to up their medication. What was once the most tabbed-interface on the web, but still quite useful, is now a raging mess of yahoo-category-style links that are all the same color. This reminds me of the altavista redesign a few months back. I wonder if they'll lose some customers on this one.
February 1
Smart Dog BackTalk
Smart Dog BackTalk lets me exchange vCards and Memo Pad data between my Newton MessagePad 2100 and all of the Palm PDAs scattered about my office. As a lonely Newton user in a world plugged full of Palms, these guys rock! Not bad for a dead platform, eh? Now watch me fire up my web server.
It looks like Dan Savage is in a bit of trouble
It looks like Dan Savage is in a bit of trouble for that stunt he pulled and wrote about for salon. He volunteered for Gary Bauer's campaign in Iowa before their caucuses and attmpted to infect the candidate and his staff with the flu he was suffering from. Now he may be charged with voter fraud and assault. Also see salon's reader's reactions. So was Dan just kidding in the article or did he really lick doorknobs? Think he's going to get in serious trouble?
First Quote of the Century
First Quote of the Century Here's the first quotable quote of the century. Monica Lewinsky on CNN's Larry King Live discussing her miraculous Jenny Craig weight-loss: "I've learned not to put things in my mouth that are bad for me."
This article at zdnet
This article at zdnet is all about how wireless web devices aren't that handy, and how our lives would suck if wireless web access was everywhere. I heartily disagree. I have a wireless 2Mb LAN connection at work and it's liberating (it's possible to code, listen to shoutcast mp3 streams, and check email outside or down at the coffee house next door). My PCS phone is useful too, I can surf a few important websites when I don't have a laptop around, getting news, weather, and email. Wireless access is certainly a Good Thing, and should make our lives easier, but the article's author is blaming the possible deluge of information on wireless, instead of the user. How would a wireless broadband connection make your life better or worse?
NetBabyWorld
NetBabyWorld NetBabyWorld is a very graphically interesting site. It has sort of a gameboy-retro look crossed with sim-city. Anyway, the games are very fun and this is a quite unique site...