With the spaceship-like toolbar and the Guinness book of records attempt, I can't help thinking that Firefox is heavily targeting the male under-12 market.
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 1:01 PM on June 17, 2008

I just saw that there isn't actually a Guiness(TM) Certified(C) World* Record for "most downloaded software" yet. So the Firefox crew would succeed in setting the record even if Firefox isn't downloaded as often as other software has been in the past (think Windows Security Updates). In fact, they'd set the record even if only jwz and his mohawk-sportin' metal-lovin' robo-dog downloaded it. Which makes the whole world record thing even more idiotic.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 3:17 PM on June 17, 2008

I preferred the one when he posted all those adventure game peoples' correspondence without asking them. And I have to wonder: How many Fridays can this possibly have taken?
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 5:44 AM on April 24, 2008

The movie website really carries its lack of credibility on its sleeve.
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 6:17 AM on September 28, 2007

How did these two consortia, apparently locked in battle, come to collaborate on their choice of encryption system?
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 3:11 AM on February 16, 2007

Hm.... the prize is kind of an adverprize. Not that I was expecting anything valuable, but it felt a bit tawdry. Anyway, the puzzles are fun. With hints, I thought Overly Verbose was the hardest; but I never would have got Odds and Ends without the hint.
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 3:27 AM on February 13, 2007

Yup, I'm sure -- it only lets you proceed to the next stage once you've got them all right. 2,3,5,6,7 are all 'when you've got it you know for sure' (each of 3 and 5 has two possible answers, but you're told which one to choose). Do scour the hints and follow all the advice there. Hint 14 helps enormously with question 7. All the hints are good, with the possible exception of 11 in which I found the word 'completely' a bit misleading.
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 5:12 AM on February 13, 2007

In that case, salmacis, you are very smart, and very, very close to solving #7. Assuming you've drawn something, you may want to (a) draw a black border around what you've drawn, and/or (b) come back and look at it with fresh eyes later.
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 6:15 AM on February 13, 2007

salmacis -- For #6, look at these two lines first:

"Have you ever noticed I sometimes take 1000 words to say
what could be said with just 500? I'm like that sometimes - "

Then consider the whole paragraph.

For #7, it really sounds as if you have done everything right. The simplest refactoring does give a letter. Perhaps you need to swap what you're seeing as 'figure' and what you're seeing as 'ground'?
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 7:57 AM on February 14, 2007

salmacis -- Add Xes all around what you posted above. It does make a letter; one that I am especially fond of.
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 3:17 PM on February 14, 2007

Oh, sorry, you got #7 already. Re #6, if taking every 2nd line doesn't work, your puzzle is different from mine. Did you try it both ways?
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 3:19 PM on February 14, 2007

So.... is the bit where it says 'Your video here' supposed to contain a video of me? Is this something I would need a webcam to understand?
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 5:03 AM on February 1, 2007

Please someone explain it to me. The thread will get closed in a minute and then I'll never know.
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 7:17 AM on February 1, 2007

P.S. I don't mean the Sixth Sense thing.
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 7:18 AM on February 1, 2007

Ah, this thread has moved into Stage 2 of the 'Americans discuss UK TV' blueprint.

Stage 1: 'See all the awesome stuff they get on the BBC. US TV sucks so badly because of, like, Fox or something.'

Stage 2: 'In the UK, you have to have, like, a license to even own a TV. It's like TVs are dangerous like guns or something.'

Though this has never happened in my presence, I dream that... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 5:16 PM on November 26, 2006

(all of which has little to do with the actual post. Which, doubtless, has more to do with Channel 5 execs correctly understanding that erect cocks and penetration translate directly into revenue. If it was the BBC, they would be hairier.)
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 5:19 PM on November 26, 2006

I love Altman's films that I've seen, but McCabe and Mrs Miller is special. The dirty, sodden, amoral loneliness of it makes me feel a particular shade of emotion that I haven't experienced before or since.
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 10:12 AM on November 21, 2006

Though I think it is disgusting, I'm sure the investigation will find that the student's struggling justified the tasing. But I can't imagine any defense for the incident where the woman asks for the badge number, and the cop responds by threatening to tase her too.
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 10:49 AM on November 16, 2006

Every big school has its own police.

No, many countries get along fine without them.

Sometimes there are real crimes!

And history suggests that at UC at least, the police are often used against the students, rather than to protect them.
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 12:29 PM on November 16, 2006

I have been afraid of Wee Jimmy Krankie for as long as I can remember. When I was really small, he induced a visceral, churning fear. Years later, I found out that he was an adult woman, and my fear was supplemented with a more rational disquiet.

I have never understood why the BBC subjected the nation's children to such an unsettling experience.
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 7:54 AM on October 28, 2006

I wish this were scottish-centric. Sadly, the fact is that these disturbing people have negatively influenced the lives of children in such far-flung realms as England, Wales, and perhaps even Northern Ireland. If it were scottish-centric, I would be far less screwed up than I am today.
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 11:00 PM on October 28, 2006

"Reiser has sometimes been known as abrasive and arrogant in development circles"

Ah, those old giveaways.
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 9:58 PM on October 11, 2006

someone, please, make it stop
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 4:08 PM on October 8, 2006

The industry-standard Ishihara charts for testing colour blindness also include 'anti' colour blindness tests, i.e. patterns that you can only see if you have anomalous colour vision. Ishihara developed them to screen military recruits. For this kind of screening, it's important to know whether the subject really has a visual abnormality, or is simply answering 'I can't see it' to every question. By including patterns that only the 'color-blind' can see, Ishihara was able to distinguish... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 5:43 AM on June 29, 2006

Perigee: It's almost like you're trying to make us care less about Till, by posting so obnoxiously.
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 12:04 PM on June 26, 2006

FWIW, Perigee, the article on your blog about "drag-queen" foetuses is completely moronic too. You paint the research as some kind of conserverative plot to cure homosexuality. Actually it is presenting evidence that homosexuality may be linked to foetal development. This is in opposition to a common conservative stance that homosexuality is a psychological illness you get if you're "brought up wrong". I understand you're trying to be funny, but you come off as plain... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 12:31 PM on June 26, 2006

Impeach Ian O'Cotton!
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 1:04 PM on June 26, 2006

That conversation was almost as inane as the one on the collaborative fridge magnet page.
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 11:36 PM on June 25, 2006

I remember that being pretty awesome.

Yeah, it was fun, but one person writing 'MEATLIFTER' ten times, and a bunch of other people stealing all the letters to put them in a pile doesn't constitute high-quality discussion.
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 11:52 PM on June 25, 2006

I admire Gates for redeeming himself from his former rapacious life, and Buffett even more for apparently becoming wildly successful without ever having been rapacious. But I have two questions:

1. What are Melinda's qualifications for being the primary dispenser of these billions? 'Product unit manager of... Microsoft Bob' is not very promising. Or is her role merely symbolic? In which case, who actually decides where the money goes?

2. When... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 8:14 PM on June 25, 2006

blasdelf: My College bought a couple of Macs and like 30+ Final Cut Studio licenses with their last Gates grant.

That's cool.

spiderwire: As for "is Melinda Gates a competent manager for this money?" I think that Buffett answers the question pretty conclusively in the interview I linked. A big part of his decision was that he didn't want to give his money to someone that wouldn't manage it well (he wanted... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 9:08 PM on June 25, 2006

The airline-themed version on Top of the Pops is cool too.
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 3:06 PM on June 15, 2006

I love this poster advertising government-run mobile cinema in 1960s Cuba (and just about everything else on "The Chairman Smiles").
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 1:50 PM on June 13, 2006

I think they should serve a Joyce Happy Meal! It would consist of kidneys ("fine tang of faintly scented urine") and a mustardy gorgonzola sandwich ("fresh clean bread, with relish of disgust pungent mustard, the feety savour of green cheese"), accompanied by a glass of burgundy. Oh, alright, Guinness as a 'supersize' option.
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 11:09 PM on June 12, 2006

Dave Gilmour played guitar once with my classical youth orchestra when I was about 10. I had no idea who he was but had vaguely heard of the murderer Gary Gilmore and assumed it was him.

To be fair to the Keller, he wasn't opposed to all new music (wikipedia), he just didn't like the Floyd.
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 5:00 PM on May 29, 2006

Ski Jumping - the only Olympic discipline to ban women.

Except they're not banned. As described in the article you linked. The women's ski jumping organisations have not met the (non-gender-specific) criteria for inclusion.

Ski Jumping - the only Olympic discipline to ban women.
Except you say here that there's no women's nordic skiing either.

Maybe you should have... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 11:15 AM on February 11, 2006

Man in pain signals anger with impotent gesture. What exactly are we supposed to be celebrating?
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 12:10 AM on February 2, 2006

I would be fascinated if someone would explain what they found funny about this.
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 1:09 PM on December 5, 2005

Thanks aaronscool! I think my failure to be amused and your amusement are two sides of the same coin. My thought was 'I've had this conversation with countless drunk blokes in pubs, and they never put us on the radio. What's special about these guys?' And yours was more like 'This is a funny pastiche/satire of all those crazy drunk blokes I've met in pubs over the years.'

Peter H: The reports of the death of my sense of humour are greatly exaggerated.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 3:54 PM on December 5, 2005

The jumps video is a thing of beauty.
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 11:33 AM on November 23, 2005

I waxed off one of his nipples! I wish it would let me do the same for his face!
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 10:29 AM on October 21, 2005

Most likely her MFA final project, judging by the name
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 2:37 PM on October 19, 2005

Photograph screen, print, cut out Calculator window. Stick cutout to left hand. Point with right hand. Need a tripod!

This would explain why the Calculator window is not lined up with the screen, too.

Maybe.
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 3:02 PM on October 19, 2005

I love watching people get hurt -- as long as there's no gore
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 7:23 AM on October 17, 2005

peacay: "Nasty kid."

What makes you say this? It seems like a pretty run-of-the-mill bullying incident to me, but with unforeseen[1] consequences.[2] I live across the street from an elementary school and (except for the HIV part), worse-sounding bullying happens at every recess. And when I was at elementary school, kids stabbed other kids with compasses with monotonous regularity.

[1]... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 11:02 AM on April 30, 2005

it's better to be wrong than right. i wore the wrong thing to the fancy dress ball and a man on a flying sheep dropped an anvil on my head.
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 10:02 AM on March 6, 2005

Comic quote #1:

Q: What's wrong with letting homosexuals marry?
A: Everything.
posted to MetaFilter by beniamino at 12:49 PM on November 21, 2004