So, fellow nerds, where's the Neuromancer movie?
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 12:37 PM on July 19, 2008

Everyone's mom will email this to them in about three months.
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 8:13 PM on July 16, 2008

The article is pretty good (although the WSJ ran essentially the same thing a few weeks ago), but the headline oversells the story. There is basically no evidence presented of any "shadowy group of short-sellers" who "murdered" Bear.

Also, of course people formerly associated with Bear blame everything on shadowy figures (international banking, the freemasons, the Bilderburgers, hedge funds etc.) rather than their own gigantic... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 8:30 PM on July 1, 2008

But you said it yourself -- every public company is always swimming in a sea of rumors and short-selling pressure; I think Bear just became more vulnerable to the effects of that constant contagion by its mistakes with the big hedge funds, Jimmy's horrible press, etc. It's like getting a hole punched in your spacesuit -- all the bad stuff out there suddenly rushed in.
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 5:13 AM on July 2, 2008

One of my favs: the Yosemite Sam station [.wav]. That's some sort of data burst just before the Sam part.
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 6:42 AM on June 30, 2008

Made me think of Infinite Jest, which, as I recall, involved a film of a beautiful woman somehow rotating or perhaps walking around in a revolving door. That, and tennis.
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 9:23 PM on June 27, 2008

Clearly it's Sleater-Kinney.
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 7:40 PM on June 26, 2008

How many of these people do you really think were hardcore hackers? I say that having met about half of them at various 2600 meetings and such in the 1990s. A lot of scenesters with red boxes and such, but not a lot of Wargames-type stuff going on -- at least that was my impression. (I was an admitted hanger-on.) But, then agin, I never met the L0pht people -- they always seemed more serious and dangerous from what I read.
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 9:32 PM on June 25, 2008

I have reservations!
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 7:12 PM on February 13, 2008

This is great.
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 7:53 PM on February 2, 2008

I gather from some of the links that the guy had a deformed hand which was smaller than normal. Hence "on the other hand...."

Har har.
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 8:17 PM on January 31, 2008

I commute to work in Chicago and I'm pretty sure the bikers here already use a sort of "bike box" by pulling up to the intersection, crossing the pedestrian crosswalk, and then parking there while waiting for the light. The cars are stuck several feet behind you but you're still far enough out of the way of crossing traffic that you don't block the road. Also, cars can make right turns behind you. Also, because you're out into the intersection, you're more visible.
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 9:04 PM on January 11, 2008

(commute on a bike, duh)
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 9:06 PM on January 11, 2008

I'm always amazed at the number of people who know nothing about adoption who somehow feel qualified to recommend it to other people. Here are some reasons that people might want to use fertility treatments (which can range from a simple and cheap Chlomid pill to full-blown IVF) rather than adopt:

1. Most domestic adoptions in the US are "open" adoptions -- the biological parents know who the adoptive parents are, can contact them, and, when the kid is a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 6:55 PM on December 30, 2007

Kittens - not sure what you mean by "must have baby now.". Both adotpion and IVF are long, expensive, painful (in different ways), and not guaranteed to result in a baby. It's pretty much the opposite of must have baby now.

As far as the terms "obtaining a baby" and "something they want" - I was trying to talk about adotption versus IVF in the most practical terms possible (to rebut the notion that there is no practical reason to choose IVF... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 6:30 AM on December 31, 2007

In the Navy . . . [warning: muppets]
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 5:28 PM on December 29, 2007

In case you missed the liner notes:

The Most Unwanted Song:
Soprano: Dina Emerson
Speaking vocal: Nina Mankin
Children: Emma Ensign, Kate Polsky, Max Polsky
Piccolo/flute: Elissa Kleeman
Harmonica: Wade Schuman
Bagpipe: David Watson
Accordion: Yuri Lemeshev
Harp: Margerie Fitts
Organ: Mary Bopp
Banjo: Dave Soldier
Tuba: David... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 7:55 PM on December 15, 2007

Many of these are not mysteries. Crime and Punishment?! Dracula? The Hunt for the Red October?
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 8:31 PM on December 2, 2007

The thing is, in the Kaycee Nicole threads, people exactly like Brenda showed up to swear up and down that Kaycee was real and that anyone who said otherwise was a liar. These people had the best intentions but were blinded by their emotional attachments.

Absent some independent confirmation of the story (i.e., a news article or obituary), there is no real way for any of us to distinguish this story from Kaycee, no matter how adamant Brenda and others are. Especially... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 8:28 PM on October 30, 2007

Well, if you found out that a website was talking about your uncle's death and a sizable contingent of people there were arguing that he wasn't a real person and that his death is somehow a scam, wouldn't that upset you?

Probably no, because as long as my uncle was anonymous to the 'net (as he is now, and as is Dr. Syn), what harm would it do? I know my uncle died. My family and his friends will mourn him regardless of some chatter on a website... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 9:05 PM on October 30, 2007

Kodee Kennings wasn't selling anything. Neither was Kaycee. And there have been other "suicides" on blogs that turned out to be fake. The lack of a profit motive (which no one has alleged here) does not equal verification.
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 6:57 AM on October 31, 2007

One of Dr. Syn's fans purports to reveal his real name here.
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 9:45 AM on October 31, 2007

And so could you.
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 7:57 PM on October 31, 2007

I knew I could draw dhartung out with a reference to Kodee Kennings!

I ran a LEXIS search just now both on "Daniel w/2 Krieg" and "MRSA w/4 eye." Nothing. And while I agree with desjardins that an obit might take several days to show up, I think a story like this would generate a news story in its own right, somewhere.

Further, I have yet to see anyone who claims to have met this person or claims... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 1:22 PM on November 1, 2007

So, still nothing on Lexis.
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 4:06 PM on November 5, 2007

There's a verifiable person with the right name listed in Union, KY -- both on Google and other databases.
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 12:04 PM on November 6, 2007

Anyone still following: the blog archives have been deleted and replaced with a new message. No obit yet at any source.
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 4:04 PM on November 13, 2007

Well, now that's deleted too.
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 9:06 AM on November 18, 2007

There's a more recent reference on the "wordnerd" blog, but I'm away from my computer and can't get the link. Maybe someone else can link?
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 3:34 PM on November 27, 2007

This is the most recent thing on the internet about all of this, as far as I am able to tell. The gist is that this blogger is saying that someone from the family of the deceased person contacted her by e-mail a few days ago to basically wish her well.

I thought this was interesting because (a) either you believe it, in which case all the doubters are wrong; or (b) it represents a real escalation of Kaycee Nicole-type behavior (i.e., impersonating other "family... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 1:43 PM on November 28, 2007

This guy was famous among kids in my town for his hard-to-believe name during the 1980s-1990s. I was shocked (and also a little impressed) that he hasn't changed the name so many years later.
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 7:48 PM on October 28, 2007

racist!
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 7:13 PM on October 4, 2007

Re: Fugazi, this one rocks too. Someone should do an FPP.
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 7:25 PM on October 2, 2007

On DaShiv's recommendation, I got a 50mm 1.4 for my Rebel XT and it is just awesome. I know that it's really an 85mm because of the "crop" factor, but it's still great, especially for portraits. I can't wait to get a full-frame one day and put this lens on it.
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 6:42 PM on October 2, 2007

Also off topic: I just finished reading this; I think Rankin fans will like it.
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 8:42 PM on October 1, 2007

what if you have open wifi?

They get your hard drive as part of the "discovery" process in litigation, they do a forensic analysis on it, and they find all kinds of half-deleted crap that you downloaded.
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 7:53 PM on September 28, 2007

Google "spoliation."
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 9:08 PM on September 28, 2007

Delmoi - I was talking in general, not about this case. But how could this possibly go to trial with no evidence from the HD?
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 5:20 AM on September 29, 2007

Mitheral - it is possible to get the physical hard drive in civil litigation discovery, though it is not common (but becoming more common).
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 8:07 PM on October 1, 2007

Bush: this sure is some mighty good, what do you folks call it . . . ?

Aznar: Flan.
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 8:39 PM on September 25, 2007

Instructions for making coffee:

1. Put the cofee in the filter.
2. Press the button only ONCE!!!!!!
3. You will have coffee in about 5min.
3. If you press the button more than once, the coffee WILL be in an overflow situation and office services should be alerted per Barb.
4. "We all have to work here so please remember to pick up after yourself."

Have a good one!
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 7:59 PM on August 23, 2007

I'm listening to the Tweedy/Bennet bootleg right now and it is really great - fantastic audio quality and the song list is great too -- even an Uncle Tupelo song. Thanks, jonson. If anyone else has good bootleg-type links, they'd be great. I find archive.org and other sites to have just too much stuff of varied quality to wade through.
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 2:28 PM on August 18, 2007

I don't think Countrywide is offering 25% yields (which would be insane), I think their publicly traded bonds are trading at a discount price that would give the buyer a 25% yield on his/her money. That means that investors are dumping these bonds, which is understandable. On the other hand, some the world's richest people made their money scooping up distressed bonds like these (Carlos Slim was the biggest holder of WorldCom bonds in the end, for example).

For the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 6:32 PM on August 16, 2007

Well, Jake, somebody got phrogged.
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 7:20 PM on August 15, 2007

There is something about 4chan that is just so end-of-the-world. And it's not like I (or any of us here) haven't been around the block on the whole on-line community thing -- BBSes, Usenet, IRC, etc. But I honestly have no idea what these people are talking about, how they organize their site, or why they write in pidgin english. Is this generational? Are they all 14 years old? This somehow traces back to the whole Stile thing, right? I never understood that either.
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 7:42 PM on August 6, 2007

I've seen the figurines in another post, I think, but still cool.
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 8:07 PM on July 22, 2007

I maintain that one of the most difficult things to describe in writing (at least in English) is the quality of someone's voice--other than the basic deep, high, tenor, bass, etc. David Byrne is one of the best examples--how to describe the spooky weird quality of his voice? The singer for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah sort of sounds like that too, but all you can say is "he sorta sounds like David Byrne."
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 5:43 PM on July 21, 2007

Let me make the obligatory Cory Doctorow comment. But, to at least partially make up for it, I will link this totally awesome Docotrow/subway snark.
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 7:11 AM on July 21, 2007

I've been down to Porto Morelos a few times and really enjoyed it, especially the english-language bookstore. Cenotes are also fun, though I have only experienced the one at the "Tres Rios" nature park.
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 4:35 PM on July 15, 2007

Here's a close-up of the bomb, linked in the prior thread (by me). It's the wires running along the collar that make it look like it has been tamper-proofed: cut the collar, damage the wires, boom.
posted to MetaFilter by Mid at 3:41 PM on July 11, 2007