Displaying comments 1 to 50 of 684
The real story of the “Harlem Shake”
I'm sure the early corporate participation accelerated the growth, but that's basically saying "people that made Harlem Shake videos and posted them to Youtube made the Harlem Shake meme go viral", which, well... duh.
I think you are severely understating how much of a hand they had in this. They didn't pull it out of thin air, but they did turn it from a reddit sized thing to a superbowl sized thing in a matter of days, and in such a way... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Devil Tesla
at 12:52 PM on March 28, 2013
Art in the Tumblr age
In a nutshell, Tumblr does away with the more complex ways in which photographs operate by reducing them all to single entities. Even if someone were to use a sequence of images on a Tumblr, unless a viewer only followed that specific blog (and who does that anymore?), the sequence would be broken up in the dashboard.
Worth noting: you can order up to ten images into an album, and it is that album that will be reblogged and bounced around tumblr.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Devil Tesla
at 2:32 PM on March 9, 2013
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers..
While I lament this move, I am still glad you will be able to receive packages and still send mail on Saturdays.
Jesus, how the hell can they manage that? There is seriously magic in the postal service, and without a doubt they will still be delivering mail (Thursdays only) long into the techno-dystopian future. Just one dude on a bicycle, doing cross country deliveries on the last Amtrak train.
posted to MetaFilter by The Devil Tesla
at 4:13 PM on February 6, 2013
Chat with the minds behind the Death Machines
As cool as it is to fund remakes and sequels through Kickstarter, there are some great original projects on there as well: The Banner Saga, FTL, The Dead Linger, and Valdis Story A.C.. There are some talented people breaking into indie development through kickstarter, and that is super great.
Less great (but still entertaining) is watching the huge failures failing. Your World (a lottery winner trying to make an MMO), Class of Heros 2 ($500,000 for a translation of a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Devil Tesla
at 10:06 AM on April 13, 2012
Crooked Timber on David Graeber
Graeber saw those stakes and wilfully raised them to a level that really surprised me.
It's worth noting that this isn't exactly a debate between equals. Graeber has had to fight to be accepted in academia, and I highly doubt that Farrell has had to deal with anything close to that. So when Farrell writes a post shitting all over Graeber's book, he's acting as a part of the establishment that Graeber has been butting heads with his entire life. So... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Devil Tesla
at 5:39 PM on April 7, 2012
Most of the world's population is not anything remotely close to slaves.
If you read the rest of the book you will see a lot of examples of people who were owned by others but were given some amount of agency over their lives and protection from harm. This isn't a feature of slavery as Americans known it (where slaves are equivalent to cattle), which is something that wouldn't be tolerated most places throughout most of history. While the huge... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Devil Tesla
at 10:36 AM on April 9, 2012
(women...but, apparently, they're not worth discussing)
Where is this coming from? Graeber is talking about both women and men when he talks about most of the world's people living in conditions tantamount to slavery, and one of his many criticisms of economic theory is that it doesn't take women into account. But I think you are under two wrong impressions: that women don't have any choices available to them in the third world (they have fought for... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Devil Tesla
at 12:47 PM on April 9, 2012
Goodbye and good riddance
To me, the crime of child pornography is due to the crime of how it had to have been made; taking pictures that were shot innocently and re-contextualizing them in your mind to be sexual and lurid isn't, and shouldn't be, a crime.
1. You don't necessarily know how a picture was taken when you see it. Pictures taken from kid's facebook (ewwwwwwwww) may not look that dissimilar from something taken under duress (like a clothed shot in an eventually... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Devil Tesla
at 7:29 PM on February 13, 2012
Pony Creator
Friendship is Witchcraft (2,3,4 and a short) is a re-dub and remix of Friendship Is Magic episodes set in a dark alternate Equestra where friendship and magic are but a mere distraction from constant war and misery. Unlike many other series like these it's only half fandom in jokes, so non-fans may actually understand them. It also has original music! While the first one isn't bad by any measure, it doesn't start becoming amazing until episode two, so you may want to start there.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Devil Tesla
at 12:23 PM on January 4, 2012
Beers, Jocks, and Queers
But are they part of the death of gay culture?
No. The occasional terribleness of these places (I'll be sure to avoid Boxers, the comment mentioned in there is fucking awful) is something that has been in gay culture forever.
posted to MetaFilter by The Devil Tesla
at 2:15 PM on December 7, 2011
horizontal democracy
Debt: The First 5,000 Years is absolute genius and everyone should read it. The business week article calls it alternate history but that isn't true at all, and I kinda think that the writer didn't know that alternate history meant fiction.
posted to MetaFilter by The Devil Tesla
at 11:37 AM on November 27, 2011
Oh, and the first link is the one everyone should click, it's a profile of Graber from Business Week (I know, hilarious) that is actually very good.
posted to MetaFilter by The Devil Tesla
at 11:44 AM on November 27, 2011
PRAISE BE TO TIA, GODDESS OF SHIT REDDIT SAYS
Warning, SRS is a whirlwind of injokes and sarcasm and may be impossible to understand. Just like the rest of Reddit.
The PRAISE BE TO TIA thing is a joke response to someone asking what the acronym TIA meant (It means "that is all") which began the worship of Tia Landry from the 90s sitcom Sister, Sister.
posted to MetaFilter by The Devil Tesla
at 1:32 PM on November 16, 2011
I leave all that I own to my cat Guppy.
My machine's all "Crysis 2? No problem. Isaac? Hnnngggghhh vector/bitmap combination.. just.. too.. hard.. Even on low settings.. ack."
Fucking flash. I get that flash helped them make this game as quickly and cheaply as they did, but it does suck that something so great has to be let down by the platform it was built on. Hopefully it'll get a remake into something less awful, like VVVVVV got.
posted to MetaFilter by The Devil Tesla
at 11:47 AM on October 3, 2011
I found success lowering the resolution to 800x600 and setting the quality to Medium.
Wow, just setting the quality to Medium helped a lot. THANK YOU
posted to MetaFilter by The Devil Tesla
at 3:04 PM on October 3, 2011
But on the other hand, I have a strong aversion to this kind of playful-blood-n-guts theming. As in, it just seriously bothers me. It doesn't make me ill, it doesn't offend me, I don't think it should be stamped out from the face of the earth. I just really really find it distasteful. It is not something I choose to spend my time trying to enjoy. Super Meat Boy was similar for me.
While I don't expect you to suddenly be okay with the theme after I... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Devil Tesla
at 10:28 PM on October 3, 2011
There aren't enough meaningful choices for my liking. Even in standard roguelikes there are a lot of choices you can make to mitigate the randomness, but so much of the game seems dependent upon finding the right combination of items at the right time that I don't really feel like I'm building my character
Other than the combat, this is probably the biggest difference between this game and most roguelikes. The truth is, you aren't building your... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Devil Tesla
at 10:03 PM on October 5, 2011
*crunch*
I have the most amazing urge for cool ranch chips right now and I blame you, Metafilter.
Same here, and I haven't wanted Doritos in the longest time. If the marketing department thought this idea up it's brilliant.
posted to MetaFilter by The Devil Tesla
at 10:01 AM on September 26, 2011
