1630 MetaFilter comments by baylink (displaying 151 through 200)

Is his body even cold yet? "Wendy's will honor its late founder, Dave Thomas, by adding a reference to him in commercials next month and putting posters of him in restaurants." It seems the turnaround from colorful founder to straight-out corporate icon has been shortened to five months. I just wonder if the animated Dave will have Randy Quaid's voice.
comment posted at 1:13 PM on May-22-02

Does anybody really know what time it is? If anybody really cares, the NIST is the place to go for not only the answers (including a list of government operated open access NTP servers), but more information than you probably ever wanted to know about standard time.
comment posted at 8:15 PM on Jan-5-02

Small plane crashes into Florida bank tower Small non-commercial plane crashes into a Bank of America tower in downtown Tampa. Followed (chased) by a coast-guard helicopter.
comment posted at 4:30 PM on Jan-5-02
comment posted at 6:38 PM on Jan-5-02

The Buzz On Designer Vibrators: Is It Form Over Function Or What? This is what happens when a sex-products company asks top designers like Mark Newson, Tom Dixon, Tara Cottam and Mari-Ruth Oda to come up with cool-looking vibrators. Nowadays there's a designer version of everything. Sometimes they don't work too good. But they look great. So is this a good thing or has form finally triumphed over function? (Please click on "toys" on the mother-link to see and read about the six vibrators)
comment posted at 4:33 PM on Jan-5-02

What is the status of Civics subjects in schools these days? I found this rather old data on the ACLU website, but I'm having trouble finding out the current status of what I call "national pride" activities in schools these days. When I was a kid in the 70's, we always said the Pledge of Allegience every morning as well as had a prayer. I remember when the prayer was turned into a "moment of silence" (early 80's?) but I don't remember when/if the Pledge was discontinued due to ACLU activities like the one above. I've not thought much about this until now, but realizing that many, many kids don't know the Pledge or our anthem disturbs me greatly.
Could anyone enlighten me, please?
comment posted at 7:50 AM on Sep-24-01

How to combat hijackers. "If someone were to stand up,brandish something such as a plastic knife and say 'This is a hijacking' or words to that effect here is what you should do: Every one of you should stand up and immediately throw things at that person — pillows, books, magazines, eyeglasses, shoes —anything that will throw him off balance and distract his attention. If he has a confederate or two, do the same with them. Most important: get a blanket over him, then wrestle him to floor and keep him there. We'll land the plane at the nearest airport and the authorities will take it from there."
comment posted at 3:40 PM on Sep-21-01

I hope the intentions of the people publishing websites like this are honorable but I fear they may not be. In the last hour I have received three email messages soliciting money for 'disaster victims'. Here is one in its entirety (inside as a comment) Call me me crazy, but this sounds like a scam to me. I have no idea who any of these people are, but they have either questionable motives or questionable judgement or both. What causes people to prey on others generosity during such a terrible time?
comment posted at 11:56 PM on Sep-15-01

Reactions. We won't be making war against our enemies because they are evil and we are good. We will be making war against these people because they are killing Americans and our allies, and we have to make them stop. --Orson Scott Card
comment posted at 12:06 AM on Sep-16-01

Washington state and the Bangor submarine base are all also in a state of heightened security. I drove past Subase Bangor and they are in Condition Delta, which is when every person who enters the base is physically searched, as well as their car. As a former member of the US Submarine Service I can tell you from first hand knowledge that the military is being scrambled right now to prepare for heightened security along the coastlines of the US. The entire Puget Sound is reeling from the tragic news... malls are closing, the WA state ferry service is no longer transporting cars, federal buildings are being closed, and major structures such as the Space Needle are being evacuated.
comment posted at 12:56 PM on Sep-11-01

Plane crashes in to the word trade center. Apologies for not linking to anything besides the main CNN page but there are no full stories on this yet. The plane crashed into the building about six minutes ago, from what the TV is saying. We are about sixty blocks north and we can see the smoke over the skyline.
comment posted at 10:43 AM on Sep-11-01

We've discussed whether the moon landings were faked, but now we have conclusive proof.
comment posted at 7:35 AM on Aug-21-01

IE5.5 SP2 cuts out plug-in support. When users downloaded and installed the new service pack for IE5.5, they found that some of their favorite plug-ins didn't work anymore, including Quicktime. Why? Microsoft stopped supporting them in favor of active-x components. Can anyone explain why this is a good idea?
comment posted at 7:47 AM on Aug-21-01

Adbusters, how i love thee. A twist on celebrating the 4th of July, courtesy of the Culture Jammers Network. This is the type of non-destructive activism i can support.
comment posted at 2:14 PM on Jun-13-01

John Ashcroft on web porn: "I am concerned about obscenity and I'm concerned about obscenity as it relates to our children". I'm curious what those of you who are more on the conservative/libertarian side of things think about this. Are there special exemptions to the concept of free speech when it comes to this type of content? [more]
comment posted at 8:36 AM on Jun-12-01

Tivo hackers today released the hack that enables you to get MPEG-2 video out of the box and put it on CDs, share it over the net, etc. No details because the AVS Tivo site (registration required) is being slashdotted...but will this precipitate a TiVo crackdown on the hackers?
comment posted at 6:38 PM on Jun-7-01

Xenon-gas-ignited, high-intensity-discharge (HID) headlights for cars have stired up some controversy, but should they be banned? I wouldn't mind one bit if they were outlawed!
comment posted at 8:03 PM on Jun-7-01

Anger Management Anyone? Turns out that old pc-rage video wasn't that far off the mark...
comment posted at 11:13 AM on Jun-7-01

And, speaking of raining cats and dogs, is your trick knee going to give you trouble? The Weather Channel knows...
comment posted at 12:13 PM on Jun-6-01
comment posted at 1:25 PM on Jun-6-01

It's raining cats and dogs this summer! GEEZ! Pearl Harbor, Shrek, and The Mummy Returns are already in the theaters. This weekend we get Swordfish, Evolution, and even Atlantis: The Lost Empire in limited release. What's next? Oh nuthin. Just stuff Angelina Jolie's been kicking around, Eddie Murphy's little pet project, something Jay & Silent Bob tossed off in the shower, Stephen Spielberg's thoughtful adult film coupled with his token bloodfest for the kiddies... Final Fantasy, Planet of the Apes, Kiss of the Dragon, a painfully predictable looking sequel to American Pie, a predictable but funny-lookin' sequel to Rush Hour, and a predictable sequel to Scary Movie, and the ever present SO MUCH MORE! I skipped half the movies coming out but those are the highlights. Is this gonna be the best summer blockbuster festival ever thrust upon the world's populous, or are we true fans of cinema about to once again take it up the ass? Whatcha think?
comment posted at 10:28 AM on Jun-6-01

Jail Cam Raises Hackles and a Lawsuit When Links to Porno Sites Are Discovered

Yuck. Remind me not to get arrested in Arizona...
comment posted at 10:32 AM on Jun-6-01

My God, how I've loathed them over the years for their heart-stopping mix of hubris, brilliance, clueless, utter lack of any discipline whatsoever and oh, the sheer arrogance, but after all these years, it's with a distinct sense of ennui that I read that Netscape is throwing in the towel.
comment posted at 10:40 AM on Jun-6-01

Chinese-American congressman denied entrance to Department of Energy offices U.S. Rep David Wu (outspoken and rather instrumental in the Wen Ho Lee case) was denied entrance twice, despite having Congressional identification. "Energy Department officials told Wu's office the caution was justified because congressional IDs are easy to fake... But Capitol Police recalled only one incident of possible congressional ID forgery, 20 years ago and never proven."
comment posted at 1:10 PM on Jun-4-01

Law enforcement and intelligence agencies now have access to software that can remotely record every keystroke and see every file on a target PC. Data Interception by Remote Transmission (D.I.R.T.), developed by Codex Data Systems (you need a username and password to get past the opening screen) can supposedly see through PGP, firewalls, whatever you throw at it apparently. Only works against Win95 so far, but that won't last. Is this hogwash or something crucial?
comment posted at 12:22 PM on Jun-4-01

Columbia's movies suck so bad they had to make up their own critic! Newsweek has discovered that a "gushy" critic who has been quoted in Columbia's movie ads for almost a year is an invention of their advertising department.
comment posted at 4:20 PM on Jun-3-01
comment posted at 12:25 PM on Jun-4-01

The Strange Tale of the Denial of Service Attacks Aagainst GRC.COM: The story of Steve Gibson's infiltration into the hacker world after a series of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on his site. His in-depth analysis of the attacks is fascinating and scary, as is his assertion that new features in Windows XP will allow DDoS attacks to be more devistating than any currently possible attacks. [via DyREnet]
comment posted at 9:15 AM on Jun-1-01
comment posted at 9:28 AM on Jun-1-01
comment posted at 9:44 AM on Jun-1-01
comment posted at 4:24 PM on Jun-3-01

Creative porno movie titles are a surefire way to grab the buyer's attention. Just check out this list to see what I mean. Anybody know of any that are missing?
comment posted at 10:04 AM on Jun-1-01
comment posted at 10:05 AM on Jun-1-01

You'd have to be a Rock Star for service like this! It's Nutter butter cookies & Unscented Kleenex for MATCHBOX 20... And better be certain there's no hair in the food for the artist formerly known as Puff Daddy, and for The artist known again as Prince, who likes to shoot up before going onstage, make sure everything is rapped in plastic! and if Mariah should stop by, please provide some crystal champagne glasses & bendy straws.. Rock stars & their backstage requirements, from the The Smoking Gun What would you ask for? (besides bendy straws of course)
comment posted at 12:53 PM on May-28-01
comment posted at 8:26 AM on Jun-2-01

Women bare breasts in Boston seeking right to go topless. I know this isn't exactly the first time this issue has been brought up, but I couldn't find many resources on the web. Can you?
comment posted at 12:14 PM on May-22-01
comment posted at 8:43 AM on Jun-2-01

dack kills his blog
". I want to spend more time making short films, playing golf, and reading books. But what I really want to do is make computers, and specifically the Web, a much smaller part of my life."
I guess there's no enjoyment left in poking fun at dot.com vanity in this day and age...
comment posted at 12:28 PM on May-22-01

RIP, EOD After a year of daily posting, Greg Knauss is sending An Entirely Other Day to bed. I'm only reiterating what many others have said before me, but the guy can flat out write circles around most other people using this God-forsaken medium. Very few people -- in print or otherwise -- can make the trivial events in their everyday lives so amusing to read. Dammit.
comment posted at 1:25 PM on May-22-01


Furbeowulf cluster ... It could work but there's something about all that yapping from the Furbees that scares me... Considering how literal some geeks can get, I'm afraid... I'm very afraid.. (via NTK)
comment posted at 2:18 PM on May-11-01

The Rumor is spreading. The Tallahassee Democrat gets up to 10 calls and emails a day asking why they haven't printed it. Vanity Fair is sort of writing about it in its July issue, they say. The Internet is all abuzz. But it seems that nobody can prove The Rumor, so instead they're simply going to keep talking about the fact the rumor exists until either someone comes forward with documentable proof, or until practically everyone knows about it anyway and thus the desired damage is done, regardless of whether The Rumor is true or not. It seems to have something to do with high-ranking Republican Florida state government officials and blowjobs, though. The same old "friend of a friend heard that Jeb and Katherine Harris are lovers" BS, or something newer? Doesn't the media have a responsibility to keep their trap shut until and unless they can come up with some real proof, rather than forcing it to come out by making the lack of provability into a so-called news story?
comment posted at 9:02 AM on May-11-01

The XFL is dead! Now who had May 10th in the pool?
comment posted at 9:28 AM on May-11-01

Important Massachusetts Legislation shown here makes me pruod to live in the Commonwealth...
comment posted at 4:47 PM on May-10-01
comment posted at 9:34 AM on May-11-01

Nothing too big, exciting, scandalous, ironic or wacky, but in this article, several famous people who might be considered "American Achievers" are listed:

"The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; Michael Jordan; Jonas Salk; Steven Spielberg; Oprah Winfrey, Martha Stewart, the home fashion guru; Dorothy Hamill, the ice skater; Frederick W. Smith, the founder of Federal Express; and Steven Case, chairman of AOL Time Warner."

My question is: what criteria did the reporter, Elaine Sciolino, use to determine which famous people get an explanation and which don't? I know all of those names, except for Smith. My guess as to why more aren't defined is because it would sound crass to define some of the more impressive careers in just five words: "Jonas Salk, creator of the polio vaccine" or "The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., slain civil rights leader."
comment posted at 10:50 AM on May-10-01


In looking for a Hurricane Andrew image to illustrate a point on the ham radio thread, I came across evidence that the weather geeks may be the geekiest of all. Cool pull quote inside.
comment posted at 1:31 PM on May-9-01
comment posted at 10:54 AM on May-10-01


Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) has introduced into the house HJR 45, being termed the Liberty Ammendment, which would not only expressly prohibit the federal government from engaging in any enterprise except as provided for in the Constitution, but would also repeal the 16th Ammendment. [That's the one that made legitimate the income tax, after the US had managed to survive without one for a century and a half]
comment posted at 1:48 PM on May-8-01

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