MetaFilter

Oh great another "weblogs are stupid and they all suck" article came out, but what I really want to know is: why does the other article running this week at ALA acknowledge that "99% of everything is crap," but the weblog article doesn't? Comparing the cruft at the bottom of weblogs with the 1% best of writers (Ginsberg and Kerouac) seems unfair and pointless. And where are the solutions? Tell everyone to stop? Tell them to write better? What's so hard about ignoring the sites you don't like instead (I do that with most advertising)?
comment posted at 2:41 PM on Jul-14-00
comment posted at 2:43 PM on Jul-14-00
comment posted at 2:47 PM on Jul-17-00

I am shocked - shocked, I say!- to discover that the Linux/Open Source media would operate using the same sort of shenanigans as the media covering the Evil Empire!
comment posted at 7:56 AM on Jul-14-00
comment posted at 7:57 AM on Jul-14-00
comment posted at 2:56 PM on Jul-14-00

Funny how the 'Net works... I got an email from Sonrisa Vertical but couldn't read it, so I went to The Babelfish and found out they were asking me to add a song called "El Cazador" that they made to my Internatonal MP3 Station. Cool. Nice song. I like it. But The Babelfish wouldn't tell me what "El Cazador" meant. So I did a search on the 'Net. Ever heard of The Wreck That Changed The World? [more]
comment posted at 5:56 PM on Jul-13-00
comment posted at 4:59 AM on Jul-14-00

Is this the real reason some people hate cellphones?
comment posted at 5:58 PM on Jul-13-00

"Hatch Warns Labels, Don't Make Me Come Over There and Spank You" Oooh! This is gonna be good. [ From Inside via Dan Lyke's excellent Flutterby. ]
comment posted at 6:56 PM on Jul-13-00
comment posted at 5:52 AM on Jul-14-00
comment posted at 7:43 AM on Jul-14-00
comment posted at 9:13 AM on Jul-14-00
comment posted at 10:10 AM on Jul-14-00
comment posted at 2:18 PM on Jul-14-00

More Stupidity.
Now when little Billy goes to get that violent video game he can check out the latest issue of Juggs Magazine too!
comment posted at 5:57 AM on Jul-14-00
comment posted at 9:15 AM on Jul-14-00

Fresh net-privacy hell.
comment posted at 9:25 AM on Jul-14-00
comment posted at 9:35 AM on Jul-14-00

Wow! Lars Ulrich makes a valid point! Who'd a thunk it? While he still fails to notice the obvious benefits the Nap' provides, or make amends for attacking his own fans (or at the very least realized that it's not Congress' place to meddle), Lars has gone ahead and more clearly illuminated his own point of view. Now if only he could have STARTED his argument a few months ago with such calm and coherent points (as opposed to grandiose posturing), this whole Napster debate would be a bit more...um...SOLVED by now?!
comment posted at 6:14 AM on Jul-14-00

OPEC to increase crude oil production. Hopefully this will drop the prices of gas in Southern Ontario to below 70 cents/litre. More >>
comment posted at 2:58 PM on Jul-11-00

he's fabulous. i read this guy' journal from beginning to end in an obsessive fit yesterday. enjoy.
comment posted at 11:54 AM on Jul-12-00

Alan Herrell running for a seat in ICANN. He was the glue that held the etoy/eToys protest together, strong supporter of The Million Mom March, and exposed the Evils of Double-Click's hidden agenda.

He's running for office, and I can't think of a better man for the job of fighting for our rights....
comment posted at 12:47 PM on Jul-11-00

Dekard a Replicant
The fact that Ridley Scott felt it necessary to share this information totally ruined my day. Not because I ever thought that Dekard wasn't a replicant, but because by the question remaining open it allowed one to take the film on so many more levels. Now he's just a robot. Thank you Ridley for clearing up all those annoying mysteries.
comment posted at 5:10 PM on Jul-10-00

Well, here's an interesting one. Slashdot reports that a company called Quova is pinging the entire Internet, and pissing lots of folks off -- partially because they won't say why.

But I'm on the North American Network Operators Group mailing list, populated by the people who run those networks, and I ain't heard squat about it. Whassup widdat?
comment posted at 7:16 AM on Jul-8-00

Smoking tobacco is bad for computers and other living things.
comment posted at 8:10 PM on Jul-7-00

The Last Refuge... invaded... Yes, I have a cell phone. Yes, I use it. But, I turn if off any place it would be rude to be having a full-voiced conversation, because I hate it when people make or take a call in those situations. I'd always sort of enjoyed the fact that the airlines claim they'll screw up navigation systems; whether they do or not, it means I don't have to listen to a dozen suits around me trying to out-do each other a-wheelin' and a-dealin and a-squealin' up and down the aisles. Guess I won't be flying Virgin Atlantic again any time soon...
comment posted at 1:13 PM on Jul-6-00

Why not just put chips in their heads? Big Brother for real. . .
comment posted at 7:48 AM on Jul-6-00
comment posted at 8:58 AM on Jul-6-00

Napster Says RIAA Trying to Stifle Technology. Aw yeah, it's nice to see Napster get on the offensive. Armed with data showing that CD sales have increased with the rise in mp3 trading, Napster is now alleging that record companies are against the software because it reduces their 100% control of the music distribution business. But will a court allow Napster to go on while their users walk the fair-use tightrope?
comment posted at 1:17 PM on Jul-5-00
comment posted at 8:34 PM on Jul-5-00

Surgeon General's Warning: Canadian cigarette packages will soon make you gag, but only contain things which may complicate pregnancy.
comment posted at 3:16 PM on Jul-4-00
comment posted at 1:31 PM on Jul-5-00

www.excite@home.com Anyone know how they got that domain? Which NICs are allowing "unusual" characters, and how widespread is the standard?
comment posted at 3:23 PM on Jul-4-00
comment posted at 1:37 PM on Jul-5-00

According to a halfway-serious survey, one-third of business e-mailers go :-( when they see :-).
They didn't ask whether it was better with the nose :-) or without :) or in semi-profile :^), or if if the toungue should be represented by the lower-case-b :-b or upper-case-P :-P, and what about when you put a smiley inside parentheses (Here's a survey on THAT topic)
Nominee for Most Trivial Topic on MetaFilter in June!
comment posted at 11:21 AM on Jun-27-00

Unsurprising posts: Perhaps this should be in Metatalk (and certainly it's more Matt's business than mine), but I want the readers of MetaFilter to read it. Unless I'm confused, the point of a post to Metafilter is to satisfy two criteria:

1. It's interesting to the readership.
2. It's something they're unlikely to discover or encounter elsewhere on their own.

As I look at MetaFilter today, I see several articles which are nothing except digests of news events which I could just as easily have read at Reuters, or the BBC, or CNN, or any of half a dozen other normal web sites. Unless the post here includes an odd editorial slant, just what does it contribute that I can't get from those other sites?

To contrast this, we spent a great deal of time discussing Elian over a period of weeks, and many of those articles included links to the mainline news organizations. But these were means to permit commentary, not treated as ends in themselves.

If you want to tell us that the Dutch truck driver has been indicted, tell us something else besides which we can't discover by visiting CNN or Reuters or the BBC. And why were we told about the end of the hostage standoff in Fiji? What was added here beyond what I would have discovered on my own at CNN?

Unfortunately, what this looks like is "Gawd, this is neat! I want to participate, too!" syndrome. That part's fine, but before you say something, make sure you have something worth saying!
comment posted at 1:27 PM on Jun-23-00

The overthrow of Premier Mossadeq Last week the NYT posted PDF files of a CIA report detailing the overthrow of Premier Mossadeq of Iran in 1953. Names of Iranian participants who assisted in the operation were digitally "removed" because of fears that there families would face retribution when their status as foreign agents was revealed. John Young of cryptome discovered that the redacted text was not really gone -- by cancelling the PDF rendering at a certain point, the hidden names were revealed. He contacted the NYT and after some discussion told them he would not post the full files; the Times removed their copies of the files until they could edit out the names more securely. Young has since heard that other people also noticed the flawed redaction and has concluded that the information is therefore public. He is now posting the full text of the files (first installment up now) with the names restored. Is Young playing fast and loose with people's lives? Or does belief in a free press obligate this sort of thing?
comment posted at 1:27 PM on Jun-22-00

Found in my referer logs. Does anybody have any idea what this guy is about, or why someone who would go here would visit me, too? :-) [WARNING: Even adults may not want to look at this page...]
comment posted at 10:56 AM on Jun-22-00
comment posted at 1:17 PM on Jun-22-00

Assistance offered to teachers in Santa Clara, the county with the highest median house price in the US [from fark] See attached flame inside>>>
comment posted at 10:49 AM on Jun-21-00

Why can't I get a job like this?
comment posted at 5:51 AM on Jun-15-00

Stephen King's scariest idea yet - A Shareware Novel?
comment posted at 6:26 PM on Jun-14-00
comment posted at 5:49 AM on Jun-15-00

Not sure what to title this... 'We come in peace'? dunno... but very interesting
comment posted at 6:31 PM on Jun-14-00
comment posted at 6:31 PM on Jun-14-00
comment posted at 7:36 PM on Jun-14-00
comment posted at 5:42 AM on Jun-15-00

Internet dependence among college students Article based on study done by counselor at RPI that identifies characteristics of "internet dependent" students. "What he found is that at least 10 percent of college students use the Internet so much that it interferes with their grades, their health, or their social lives, and that the problem may run much deeper at science-and-engineering institutions."
comment posted at 2:32 PM on Jun-14-00
comment posted at 2:12 PM on Jun-15-00