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April 2000 Archives
April 30
Pyra's killer app isn't
Blogger, says Michael Sippey in the most recent
Stating the Obvious. The
Pyramaniacs started out to build a robust project-management tool, and got sucked into the swirling vortex that is weblog-world along the way.
"Pyra's killer app isn't Blogger, it's Pyra. Of course, that's mostly semantics, since Blogger's an application built on top of the Pyra framework. Which means that Pyra could not only be your next project management app, but your next content publishing platform as well. An integrated content, template, task, issue, and discussion database? Sounds like a killer app to me. Now they just need to figure out the business model..."
I would have thought the business model was obvious. Isn't it?
posted by bradlands at 11:26 PM PST - 13 comments
The Flat Eric Society You know that fuzzt orangey-yellow puppet from that Levi's commercial? Apparently he's The Next Big Thing. And there'll be more Flat Eric commercials to come.
posted by honkzilla at 3:13 PM PST - 2 comments
A bizarre side of the Clinton presidency. It seems that during the White House Correspondents dinner the Clinton camp displayed a short comedy movie called 'The Final Days'. I saw a few snippets on Britan's Channel 5 and was SHOCKED. I just didn't belive it... As I watched it I felt like I was watching a skit on Leno. Mind-boggling.
posted by jedrek at 11:14 AM PST - 12 comments
April 29
Strangers When We Meet There are no fewer than a dozen bloggeurs in Toronto, and four of us got together f2f on Saturday the 29th, experiencing a climate change from summer to autumn in the space of three hours. Always slightly alien to meet online friends in person, but it
worked well. (Subject line is a Smithereens quote for which I can find no online lyrics – good copyright policing, that. "Please don't look my way when you see me on the street. We will still be
strangers when we meet." Not anymore,
bien entendu.)
posted by joeclark at 6:56 PM PST - 2 comments
"we're just two schmucks who thought something was funny." Yet more elian/true news (like you needed more). The two playboy guys have backed down from the AP bully boys. if you are running a mirror site, send in a link to these guys and they'll link to you. With over 1,000,000 visitors in the past couple of days, it might be worth the e-mail.
Meanwhile Salon also has a
run down on the story.
posted by Neale at 6:25 PM PST - 6 comments
Another Diablo II beta sign-up is this monday. This time they will be taking 100,000 users so maybe everyone will have a slightly better chance of getting selected. (I doubt it)
posted by corpse at 7:02 AM PST - 2 comments
April 28
It's
Penis Day at Wetlog, apparently. [ If you think only adults have penii, you might want to treat some of those links as adult content... ]
posted by baylink at 10:09 PM PST - 13 comments
So Dave has a
distributable protest site up for the elian_true animation. What I want to know is, what does this mean: "Wazzup!!! To every tax paying American that felt
they should have sent Elian Gonzalez
to join his Mother (in the ocean)."
posted by ericost at 8:47 PM PST - 24 comments
COMICON.com Splash is reporting that the DC Comics company has pulped the entire print run of the fifth issue of
LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN because it reprinted an actual Victorian-era ad for a douche syringe that included the word 'vaginal'. The maker of the syringe was the MARVEL CO. It's not clear whether DC publisher Paul Levitz destroyed the comic because of the term or the reference to Marvel.
Marvel Comics is, of course,
DC Comics' main competitor.
posted by bjennings at 5:25 PM PST - 3 comments
I think this deserves the front page: the two Elian_True guys work for Playboy:
http://www.playboy.com/digital/inthenews.html
posted by baylink at 3:56 PM PST - 9 comments
Not only can Kevin Mitnick not touch a computer, cell phone, or the Internet for three years, but
a judge is trying to bar him from the lecture circut because he's talking about hacking and technology. I wonder, if they get him to stop
talking about technology, are they going to bust him for
thinking about it too?
posted by mathowie at 7:05 AM PST - 4 comments
i think this lawsuit is
for me to poop on. pets.com is suing Robert Smigel, saying that he ripped off their sock puppet as inspiration for Triumph the Insult Comic.
posted by sugarfish at 12:08 AM PST - 7 comments
April 27
Higher beer taxes = lower STD rates? Apparently our government thinks so. I thought the first thing they taught you in statistics class was that correlation does not always equal causation. And if cheap beer equals high STD rates, then this college town I'm in must be in big need of antibiotics.
posted by UWliberal at 9:52 PM PST - 2 comments
Did everybody else completely ignore
this? Or am I the only one who didn't know that tonight is the 5th Annual Cool Site of the Year ceremony?
Why do they even bother anymore?
posted by ratbastard at 7:37 PM PST - 15 comments
the webmistress I got a laugh from this one - this totally unknown woman is accusing the great Zeldman of constantly copying off of her (she's kidding).
posted by 33east at 4:10 PM PST - 8 comments
Stenberg v. Carhart Interesting points (no pun intended): "consider a law that violates the principle of separation of church and state by mandating that each public school day begin with a sectarian prayer. The primary purpose of that law would be to advance [a] religion. ...In contrast, consider a law with the proper and constitutional purpose of promoting good citizenship, for example, a law requiring students to recite the pledge of allegiance at the beginning of the public school day. Unlike the school prayer law, this law would not be invalid ... However, it would be unconstitutional ... Forcing those students to recite the pledge would violate their First Amendment rights because the right to speak includes the right not to speak."posted by greyscale at 2:30 PM PST - 6 comments
You know, we seem to be saying "
wow" a *lot*, lately...
posted by baylink at 1:44 PM PST - 5 comments
Found this over at
Free Advice in regards to the Elian Gonzalez Spoof Movie:
WHAT IS "FAIR USE" WITH RESPECT TO A COPYRIGHT?
Copyrighted work may be used for certain limited purposes by people other than the owner under the doctrine of "fair use." "Fair use" includes reproduction for specific purposes such as:
criticism and comment, including
parody
news reporting
teaching
scholarship
research
I beleive that the movie is protected. How else could have the South Park used the photo in last night's episode? I doubt the AP is going to go head to head with Comedy Central over the issue.
It is just easy for big companies to threaten the little people and know that they will win. What a shame.
posted by da5id at 11:13 AM PST - 8 comments
Cassie and Jason have engaged me better than any soap opera, movie, journal, weblog, anything. Cassie's reports about her husband's near-fatal car accident and his creeping recovery are, well, moving. She writes with clarity and simplicity and selflessness. Her letters make my eyes tear, then I grin and can't hold it back. I flinch, wince, sigh, laugh. The hair on my neck bristles. I want to squeeze that lovely woman and carry that man around like a king.
posted by Mo Nickels at 6:44 AM PST - 3 comments
Crackpots brought to you by 'balance" is a piece over at the Boston Globe on the state of the media today. It focuses on the media's handling of the whole Elian G. business, but it also takes a different angle on the more general matter of being journalistically 'fair' . . . which I thought interesting too in the light of growth of online fora and web logs (and perhaps also ask-an-expert sites?) which are coming to be considered as legitimate news resources.
posted by mrpalomar at 4:28 AM PST - 7 comments
Here's an 'update' on the gay highschool football capitan that decided to come out of the closet and was warmly accepted, blah blah blah. I was reading this and I realized that I have absolutely *no* idea how my friends would react if I, or anyone else, 'came out'. Although I knew a few gays while I was growing up in the states, I do not know a single gay person in Poland. It made me think...
posted by jedrek at 2:18 AM PST - 1 comments
April 26
Broadcast "quality" animation in 3 days? Something disturbing about tonite's southpark that just occured to me. it was basically about the ellian controversy, and the raid on easter sunday, they even had janet reno dressed up as the easter bunny for the attack, and they used "the closet photo" to kill kenny. now I know southpark animation isn't that difficult, but that seems awfully fast for them to put together an episode, espeically given that they've been advertising the episode all month...I'll be dreaming of conspiracy theories to explain this one tonite
posted by nomisxid at 11:20 PM PST - 10 comments
Supreme Court Debates Boy Scout Ban on Gay Leaders You have to love the comparison used here...
"Justice Antonin Scalia, the other former Boy Scout on the court, sought to help Davidson, interjecting the group did not ask if leaders were ``ax murderers'' or ``adulterers'' either."
It's always nice to be reminded what a horrible person some people think you are.
posted by bvanveen at 5:43 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
speed limit -- A bill banning Internet sites which publish or even link to drug-making information looks set to sail through Congress
posted by palegirl at 4:55 PM PST - 3 comments
oil.dirt megas take a tour on a virtual carpet with chatters wearing images that represent themselves- surf the same sites- and shop for images together- this is just the beginning.
excites virtual places chat community takes a few days to figure out- but its a perfect way to kill a rainy day.
go to oil.dirt megas to download images to wear while traveling in virtual places- this is one of the best places to shop for beautiful "megas"
posted by lotus at 2:46 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
This new "FreeNet" sounds like a perfect utopia, where
all information is free like beer, and not just free like speech. Some of the provisions for the network, like
not being able to remove a file,
remaining anonymous, and
not even being able to track down where the files are really coming from make it sound like a anarchist's paradise. I'm wondering though, will it be a place to exchange banned books, or will it be clogged with porn, warez, and mp3s? Will it be populated with idealists against censorship, or AOLers wanting free stuff? Do things always go to the lowest common denominator right away, or does it take time?
posted by mathowie at 2:29 PM PST - 5 comments
In the late 90's, Sophonie Telcy's mother illegally entered this country from Haiti, looking for a better life for herself and her daughter; last spring she turned the care of the 6-year-old child over to an old friend, returned to Haiti to see a doctor, and died.
Sophonie's father is unknown. She has no legal standing in the US, no residency papers, no health insurance...and, despite a loving family who is willing to care for her,
very little chance to stay here. Congressman Alcee Hastings filed
House Resolution 4179, "for the relief of Sophonie Telcy," but the bill will almost certainly fail. (
read more about it here.)
The bill has been referred to the Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims. I'm not sure what to do here to help, but I have listed all the members of this subcommittee on
my website if you'd like to write or call.
Any other ideas?
rcb
posted by rebeccablood at 12:28 PM PST - 2 comments
Stuck with Windoze but it drives you up a wall? Maybe
98lite will help...
posted by baylink at 8:39 AM PST - 9 comments
April 25
There's a new version of
icq out, although
it looks like they're pretty close to their limit on adding buttons to the interface.
posted by mathowie at 7:16 PM PST - 19 comments
Wired No More The assimilation of Wired.com into the Lycos empire is complete. And www.wirednews.com also goes to the Lycos music front page. How long before it gets shifted to a Tripod member page?
posted by holgate at 4:35 PM PST - 2 comments
Please help me out. Only a few days left till the 5k has to be finished. I just went through three marathon days in a row getting entries into the database, but it is hard to select ones to send to the judges. Have a look and send your recommendations in (instructions on that page).
posted by sylloge at 4:19 PM PST - 4 comments
Am I nuts or is it possible that
Hell.com could become one of the web's most valuable addresses?
posted by wendell at 4:05 PM PST - 3 comments
Pledge to be a part of the 2000 GLBT voter turnout. Straight, gay, bi...
all signatures are welcome. Remember that for evil to triumph all that is necessary is for good men to do nothing.
And take to heart the words of Martin Niemoeller: "In Germany they came first for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up."
posted by veruca at 2:57 PM PST - 9 comments
The same-sex domestic partnerships bill in Vermont has
been approved by the state's lawmakers. "
The continued denial of these legal protections, benefits and responsibilities to a small but vulnerable class of Vermont's citizens diminishes their humanity, dignity, freedom and independence." It's about damn time, hopefully other states will soon follow suit. Oh, and if you have a problem with this,
listen to this and let me know why you continue to have problems with it.
posted by mathowie at 12:50 PM PST - 12 comments
I just posted a pretty weak link on unsound and fallacious arguments.
Here's a better one. If you participate in debate on the net, you probably ought to read this, so you know *how* they're snowing you.
posted by baylink at 9:26 AM PST - 2 comments
April 24
RedHat Linux security problem uncovered. Today, apparently it was discovered that if you install the Piranha package with RedHat 6.2 (ostensibly part of the default installation, but there's controversy over this), a default password is installed that would give anyone access to the Piranha configuration package; from there, it is apparently trivial to execute any command on the box that you want.
I find it very interesting that the fact that Microsoft had a "backdoor password" in a DLL made
huge news (and it turned out to be patently false), yet this has gotten almost
no press. I'd like to think otherwise, but I know it's because people hate Microsoft, and thus are eager to deride it... and yet here's proof that even the mighty Linux is susceptible to the same exact problems.
Next time you reach for the keyboard to cry out "nyah nyah!" at the discovery of some problem with Windows, remember this...
posted by delfuego at 9:38 PM PST - 15 comments
The war continues over people against the ever-dreaded video game! It's a long article, but definitely worth a read (later on they talk about people giving noiseblasts to other people just to see them squirm, teehee).
posted by starduck at 6:33 PM PST - 1 comments
Limp Bizkit teams up with Napster to bring the world, or at least ten select cities, free music. After lawsuits were recently filed against Napster by artists Dr. Dre and Metallica, Napster answers by sponsering a free tour featuring Limp Bizkit and Cypress Hill.
posted by howa2396 at 5:41 PM PST - 1 comments
Roger Black shows just how little he knows about the web. Favorite inflammatory quotes:
"There's hardly any good work on the Internet at all."
"There isn't an Internet community anymore."
"I don't think print and the Web are all that different."
"I think the Internet is not a venue for storytelling."
It's too bad Adobe is giving voice (in
web and
print) to someone so clueless.
posted by fraying at 2:21 PM PST - 56 comments
U.S. Likely to Seek Break-Up of Microsoft-Source "Under the recommendation, one part would manufacture the Windows operating system, including functions to browse the Internet. The second company would market everything else -- including the Microsoft Office programs -- and would also be allowed to sell Internet software, the source said."
posted by bvanveen at 11:05 AM PST - 17 comments
April 23
Microsoft unsympathetic toward ending serial killings.
"Spokane County Sheriff Mark Sterk held an extraordinary public meeting two months ago and asked the public for fresh tips. He even wrote to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, asking him to donate software to help analyze 10 years of homicide files; according to a sheriff's spokesman, Microsoft said no." => Lack of confidence in their software, or lack of a value system for MS?posted by greyscale at 9:25 PM PST - 5 comments
I Hate Myself for Blogging You -- or, more accurately, I Hate Myself for Blogging Myself. Can invert and non-invert habitués of Metafilter please
look at my blog and tell me if my feelings on
love at first sight ring true or not? It's because I think they do, but they're so dang radical I need people to genuflect and shout "We're not worthy!" or, conversely, whip out a white glove, slap me across the face, and pour the glove's concrete gravel onto the tarmac. Is what I'm saying.
posted by joeclark at 7:19 PM PST - 9 comments
Those of you who're Slashdot kids have probably already seen this new computer made in Taiwan, but
it's so small, it may have been overlooked.
posted by jason at 4:31 PM PST - 3 comments
"Elian and the Stormtrooper": that famous picture which people have wondered about, makes more sense as part of a sequence. The cameraman was just snapping away, and picked the one picture which was most dramatic. When you see it in context, it makes more sense. The agent had just entered the room and didn't know what he'd find (Great Uncle with a shotgun?).
Once he knew he'd found the kid, he clearly points his gun
away.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 4:26 PM PST - 10 comments
These people didn't like SXSW too much. I know a lot of people here went to SXSW this year, and these people treated it like shit.
(Sorry, yes I know it's been over a month since SXSW, but that's what happens when I let personal email get backlogged to 148.)posted by bluechief at 12:27 AM PST - 7 comments
April 22
This is one for discussion. Last week, I read an article debating whether or not photography was a true art form like painting or drawing, or if instead it was merely a reflection of reality and not artistic. With that in mind, when we see photos like
this one,
this one, and
this one, why do we assume that any part of what was captured was the truth? Is the camera an impartial observer, or is the photographer staging these images as a painter would? Do you think a photograph has enough reality to be considered the truth, or is a photograph a miniaturized view of reality, depending on what you point a camera at? I'm curious to hear people's thoughts, as I see groups on every side of the issue spinning these photos to support their cause.
posted by mathowie at 1:10 PM PST - 26 comments
ottawa boy, obsessed with columbine, stabbed several people and slit his own wrists with a steak knife because
he longed to be famous. "'We'd be on the phone or walking and he'd say, 'Seven days til Columbine, 11:21, six days til Columbine, 11:21', a witness said"
posted by palegirl at 7:16 AM PST - 5 comments
April 21
Autowraps This company will pay you up to $400/month to wrap your car in advertising. Intriguing, but not exactly aesthetic...
posted by owillis at 3:10 PM PST - 5 comments
Panda Porn: ``As part of the pandas' education, we make those which are sexually inept watch videos of other pandas having sex...''
posted by evhead at 2:01 PM PST - 5 comments
Maybe
John McCain will get elected president after all, even though he's 'not running anymore'...
posted by baylink at 9:21 AM PST - 5 comments
Privacy? What's that? We all know that most of the new 'free' Internet Access Providers pay the bills by selling ads that you're forced to read, and some of them are selling information about *you* to other people. Well, along comes Predictive Networks,
who are going to sell information about your surfing even if you're paying the freight. Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.
[ from Lauren Weinstein's Privacy Digest ]
posted by baylink at 6:59 AM PST - 2 comments
The Full Monty was broadcast on Fox last night with copious warnings about nudity. When the final scene arrived, they block-blurred the butt cracks, except for the very last still which was on screen for several seconds. Question: why is it OK to show still tushies, but not moving tushies?
posted by plinth at 6:12 AM PST - 14 comments
April 20
A day after a MSIE bug, a Netscape bug. I figured I had to post this here, since the anti-Microsoft crowd always posts about the MSIE bugs, but seems to stay
reeeeeal quiet when a bug is found in their chosen browser. I wish that people would just acknowledge that all software has bugs, and that discovering them is a helpful link in fixing them.
posted by delfuego at 10:23 PM PST - 4 comments
The Latest Michael Moore message is about the INS trying to deport 8 hotel workers. The workers were arrested in a raid, thanks in part to their employers tipping the INS off, in retaliation for the workers starting a union. Even though they won a court battle over Holiday Inn's unjust labor actions, the INS is still after them. Is this fair?
posted by mathowie at 4:15 PM PST - 8 comments
Mother-stabbers? Father-rapers? Methinks the writer of this piece on the repercussions of trading MP3's is a bit too much of an Arlo Guthrie fan, but the info's interesting. 3 years for *1* copyrighted MP on your hard drive? Is it time for the Second American Revolution yet?
[ From Clickz, via
NewsLinx ]
posted by baylink at 10:31 AM PST - 15 comments
Everything old is new again. I ranted on this a little in my blog, but here is the crux: why does something that looks like a Commodore 8-bit demo program earn respect as a good web design? The font is even a direct lift of the 64's built-in font. I find it kind of funny that we're trying to duplicate stuff that was done well over a decade ago, but because it's on the web, it's good design.
posted by hijinx at 10:04 AM PST - 15 comments
April 19
Do security apps like
this one actually work? Anyone here with a DSL or ISDN, or other "always on" connections, have any tips on security at home?
posted by milhous at 11:31 PM PST - 17 comments
After reading the
great discussion following mathowie's post on Dr. Dre, I was reminded of an article, "A Musician's Manifesto," from a while back found at
http://www.musicisum.com/manifesto.shtml, but apparently
musicisum.com no longer exists. The original NY Times Articles (
1,
2) where I first read about the manifesto are down, but one of them is available
here and
here:
[A] more ambitious alternative: to devise an entirely new way of doing business. That is exactly what Lanier is doing. Recently, he drew up a five-point strategy, formed a musicians' collective called Musicisum with Kristen Stavola and signed up more than 45 artists to begin a noble experiment that involves the Internet, subscription fees and music filling stations.
Here is
Jaron Lanier's home page, and he links to all those dead links above also. A mystery. I emailed Jaron; but did not hear back from him, anybody have some insight as to what happended to Musicisum?
posted by ericost at 9:26 PM PST - 1 comments
They bagged the kid who was responsible for all those Denial-of-Service attacks a couple of months ago. He's Canadian.
Here's an interesting legal question: could the US extradite him? The crimes were committed in the US, but he was in Canada at the time he did it, since he worked through the Internet. Whose laws apply?
(By the way, I've seen no indication that the US is considering extradition; I was just curious whether they
could extradite him.)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 4:30 PM PST - 18 comments
Going to Disney Land any time soon? You may want to see which
Restrooms are the best, and which ones aren't. Which ones are open, and which ones are closed. Of course, you could always just go there and take your chances.
posted by da5id at 9:54 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
Does everyone know about the
Darwin Awards? (These are the awards given to people who most improve the human race... by departing early...)
The most commonly cited one is the story of the guy who mounted a rocket on his Chevy Impala, and flew it into a canyon wall... well, as with most good stories,
it's based on an actual event. [ Reserve an hour or more, and bring diapers. ]
posted by baylink at 8:24 AM PST - 4 comments
Philly Prostitution Ring Busted. " 'People shouldn't be making their livelihoods off of the actions of juveniles,' Castor said yesterday afternoon during a news conference in his courthouse office in Norristown."
Hadn't someone ought to tell Michael Eisner that?
posted by baylink at 6:50 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
April 18
S u m e a features some amazing ways to use Java and Flash on the web. The best thing about the whole site is how fast all the 'applets' load on my 56k modem.
posted by Mark at 7:56 PM PST - 4 comments
I've been thinking of making my own digital delay for several years, but I've been waiting for CPU prices to drop. Damned if Cirrus logic went and
solved that with one chip.
posted by plinth at 11:19 AM PST - 4 comments
Snake Handling IS dangerous.. One might consider this a near piece of selfpromotion but since I really don't provide any content to this site and just coded and designed it it's not. =) I just think its a funny and interesting article about the wonders of Snake Handling.
posted by sikk at 9:06 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
This whole click tracking thing... There's a spinoff discussion going on concerning the fact that I post links with embedded click-counting munging, so that I can see how many people are interested in the various topics I post, both here and on my own 'log.
On the basis of 2 replies, Matt's decided "he's glad he doesn't do that", and I think that might be a slight overreaction...
posted by baylink at 6:39 AM PST - 18 comments
The next Sith Lord? Darth Kawasaki? This guy looks like a bad-a** and no doubt has the talent, but come on! Darth Maul had the ultimate look and feel. We barely got to know him! Bring him back! Clone Maul!
posted by da5id at 6:08 AM PST - 5 comments
Are americans really this stupid or does the rest of the world just have better things to do? TV owners are suing a company for running an ad with a CGI cockroach in it after destroying their TV's while trying to kill the roach. Will wonders never cease?
posted by jedrek at 1:35 AM PST - 12 comments
Digitally Imported is the best Internet-radio I've heard yet. It's mostly trance stuff, but if you bitch enough on the
forums, you might get a house track or two played. Just good stuff.
posted by endquote at 12:32 AM PST - 1 comments
April 17
Sometimes people are stupid. Every glass of water you drink has been through a million kidneys; this is no different.
More to the point, it's exactly the same as the drinking water in New Orleans, which is processed from the Mississippi river and contains the output of the sewage treatment plants from St. Louis among many other cities, not to mention industrial wastes and farming run-off.
Speaking as a Californian, I think most of my fellow citizens are idiots.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 12:36 PM PST - 13 comments
"When you visit a site, you can't take that information and use it for your own purposes, especially for commercial purposes," the lawyer says. Is it just me, or will
this ruling render every single search engine illegal?
posted by jjg at 11:03 AM PST - 13 comments
More news on the IIS exploit After acknowledging the problem last week, Micro$oft is now saying that the backdoor in IIS... is a flaw. M$ Technet seems to have a
fix for this problem, delete the offending file! So, if systems are your bag, my advice is to
start researching security if you are running M$ internet server products (SQL 7, Exchange, IIS, Index Server, etc.).
posted by Dean_Paxton at 8:17 AM PST - 2 comments
April 16
The myth of megapixel cameras is explained here in detail, finally "illuminating" why digital resolution is often
worse than you'd expect. In brief, digital cameras interpolate to get a color image from a black and white CCD -- losing sharpness in the process, and taking up far more flash card space than reason dictates. Conclusion: buying into the
latest technology isn't worth
the expense, until camera companies wise up. Finally, evidence which backs up my faith in scanning photos taken on a (decidedly analog) Nikon N70! [via
Honeyguide]
posted by legibility at 1:59 PM PST - 6 comments
NPR on the side of Corporate Radio? Bird on a Wire spotted this Salon story that says that National Public Radio, those bast...ions of freedom of speech, are siding with Clear Channel and Infinity Broadcasting to try and restrict the proposed Low Power FM broadcasting service to third adjacent channels (90.1 -> 90.7) instead of second (90.1 -> 90.5)...
a change that will cut the number of possible stations from thousands... to 75.
posted by baylink at 1:33 PM PST - 4 comments
Got Rice? If you've ever lived in any metropolitan area in North America with a small Asian population, you've likely seen some of these cars on the streets.
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 11:36 AM PST - 8 comments
Haven't really tried it yet, but
RedGorilla sounds like a badly-named but useful tool for people who need to track their hours so they can accurately bill clients.
posted by endquote at 8:42 AM PST - 3 comments
Speaking of re-designs. Doc Ozone has a new "front end." Or, it's new to me, as I haven't been there in a few months. This guy is nuts... he's a U.I. maniac. Not sure where he's concentrating his efforts these days. He was working in Europe for a bit. One can pick up a lot of inspiration from this complex site. Look's like he's added a discussion forum too.
posted by Dean_Paxton at 7:52 AM PST - 6 comments
M-W redesigns but doesn't actually improve the site. One curious (read: irritating) thing -- if you are currently looking at a definition (with the definition tab highlighted) and you click on the thesaurus tab, it doesn't automagically look up the same word in the thesaurus. It just gives a new search box. Dumb.
posted by sylloge at 1:48 AM PST - 4 comments
projectcool sighting < a home + living guide for the post-college, pre-parenthood, quasi-adult generation > so, I'm not an adult until I've got that degree AND kids? What else will be required by they time I graduate? A house, a second wife who wants kids, a graduate degree, and a brand new BMW? Social symbols/rites associated with maturity are so bizarre in our material world.
posted by greyscale at 12:37 AM PST - 4 comments
April 15
Telecondoms, the ultimate in germaphobe equipment. I guess just using something like a zip-lock bag would be too easy?
posted by Mark at 2:34 PM PST - 1 comments
Shoppping cart abuse, whether physical or psychological, is all too common in our modern era. And at long last there is a web site that offers documentation of this problem, photographs of abused carts, and 12 step guidance for offenders who desire help. Most importantly,
The Confessional offers a chance for visiting abusers to repent by sharing their stories. It's the most consistently humorous crop of visitor comments that I've ever come across on a silly site like this.
posted by sixfoot6 at 5:41 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
The Virtual Training Company Online University is packed with free, quickly downloaded visual lessons to over 50 major programs. This site covers most major-market releases, though not Dreamweaver 3, I'm afraid. The resolution is pretty good, but if it must be perfect you may pay an extra $25 and get the works.
posted by Awol at 12:52 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
April 14
Inevitable... Sigh. I'm tired of this one already. I will grant that the lipsync is pretty well done. And did I mention my girlfriend met Harrison Ford last week? It's true.
posted by anildash at 2:25 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
Hate vs. Hate Film critic Roger Ebert criticizes Hatewatch, a catalog of hate sites intended for people who hate hate.
My commentary is a bit too long for the front page, so I put it on my log. Choose your poison.
posted by baylink at 10:16 AM PST - 11 comments
Assasination Politics? Does your email address end in .gov? Watch out, then, because cypherpunk and convicted tax evader Jim Bell might be out to get you, and his plans don't sound especially pleasant. The meat of the Wired piece is on page three:
[ Pull quote left out because it makes the page too tall ]
May we live in interesting times...
posted by baylink at 9:40 AM PST - 1 comments
Wacky Packages! Of course, all the cool kids called them Wacky Packs. It's odd to recognize that I was sticking these on notebooks, walls, doors and lockers when a lot of my coworkers were in diapers. I remember
series 3 the best.
posted by plinth at 9:28 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
April 13
I don't believe it... I actually agree with something Network Solutions has done. They've apparently changed their policy to make domain name squatting more difficult. The story sounds sympathetic to the two ladies in question, but I'm not. Ok, maybe they should have been a touch more careful in how they *rolled out* the new policy, but the policy itself is about 5 years overdue.
Now, if we could just get them to *do what we tell them to*...
Cheers,
--
jraposted by baylink at 8:00 AM PST - 10 comments
Disneyworld... has lowered it's adult age prices, so now if you happen to be 10 or older, you're paying full price, which if memory serves me correctly is about $40 bucks. (it rarely does.)
posted by Cavatica at 5:32 AM PST - 3 comments
April 12
Damn Cybersquatters
Here's a little
run-in I had with a cybersquatter while trying to secure a domain name for a company I'm starting.
Apologies ahead of time for being self-serving in using my home page there (promise it won't happen again!), but I had no other place to write the content. Hope you guys will have a look and give me an opinion on things! If anything, it's good for a quick laugh even though I'm completely disgusted at the fact people make a living off leeching off hard-working individuals like you and me in such a manner.
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 10:33 PM PST - 12 comments
Acid.org is cool... I just noticed ACiD redesigned it's main page. It's good to see groups like ACiD and
iCE are still organized producing art. For those who remember those ANSI and BBS days, don't go there expecting to see that sort of stuff.
posted by Dean_Paxton at 10:02 PM PST - 3 comments
Somewhere in these notes is a reference to RTVReco. I thought it fair to point out that some of of think of
RTV as Room Temperature Vulcanization, a convenient quailty in a substance for making
molds and
casts. And you all thought I was just a code monkey.
posted by plinth at 1:07 PM PST - 1 comments
Who stands to benefit from the growing hysteria over school violence -- especially since school violence is actually
dropping? That's the question posed by the USA Today story, spotted originally by Brennan at
Considered Harmful. I think it's an excellent example of the general principle: always question their motives.
posted by baylink at 12:41 PM PST - 6 comments
According to MSNBC, Kozmo delivers to predominantly white parts of town. This is a thorny issue all around. The company claims to target areas of high internet usage, but there's a whole host of factors that would lead to huge racial differences in those areas. I still believe one of the greatest things about the internet is that it's a place where race
really doesn't matter, but unfortunately the barriers to entry aren't exactly colorblind. MSNBC went so far as to produce
some interesting maps that support their claim pretty well though.
posted by mathowie at 10:22 AM PST - 14 comments
April 11
What a BIZARRE food site... I don't know which is more disturbing: watching young ravioli struck down in their prime, or witnessing a 10-year old Tammy Faye Baker chug a cold can of pasta & sauce.
posted by vitaminb at 7:52 PM PST - 4 comments
Love that Blogger redesign. Normally I wouldn't blog about this here, but they leave me little choice. (Other than jumping ship and kludging some scripts together). I want my free service that I pay nothing for and should be grateful just to have
now!
On a serious note, I love Blogger, think it's great, and use it myself, but is it bad to become dependant on a third party tool? You've basically placed the life of your site at the whim of the tool provider. Granted, Ev, Meg, PB, [that fourth guy], Matt, and now Jack seem like pretty nice people to be at the whim of, but wouldn't it be better to do it 'on your own?'
Just thinking out loud, as soon as it's back up I'll go to my little traveled corner of the web and stay there.
posted by alan at 6:51 PM PST - 16 comments
IToke.com wants to deliver high-grade marijauna using a fleet of trucks across Europe-- kind of like Kozmo.com except...better
posted by chaz at 4:14 PM PST - 7 comments
Mcsweeny's is back to normal, rather abruptly. Okay, I give; what was supposed to be funny about this whole thing, anyway?
posted by mrmorgan at 1:57 PM PST - 15 comments
If this happened in the US, then the owners of the circus would be guilty of Manslaughter, at the very least, due to their negligence in not feeding the lions.
Of COURSE a starving lion is going to grab a kid; to a lion a human looks like lunch.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 1:27 PM PST - 12 comments
Did you know that
math is hard? Apparently this is true for windows applications. Thank you Microsoft, the best truly is yet (if ever) to come.
posted by plinth at 12:02 PM PST - 16 comments
NPR doesn't like low-power FM radio? Great. LA radio sucks rocks, so I was kind of excited by the idea of having more stations pop up here that don't have to answer to a giant mother network (a la KROQ or KLOS). It's disappointing to see that NPR wants to join in with Corporate Radio. Write your congressman! Tell 'em to vote down H.R. 3439!
posted by RakDaddy at 10:19 AM PST - 1 comments
A terribly misleading use of the .GOV top-level domain has surfaced. The House Republican Committee, by all means an organization that deserves a .gov designation, has decided to
use that designation for purely partisan means... the site is chock-full of "aren't Republicans great?" feel-good stories and digs at Democrats.
What a terrible precedent to set; I can hardly wait for all of the interest group caucuses to start grabbing their own .gov domain names and throwing up pages that, by virtue of their URL, pretend to be the official word of the U.S. Government.
How does one go about registering displeasure with the person in charge of granting .GOV addresses?
posted by delfuego at 9:36 AM PST - 8 comments
April 10
The 7-11 website gets my vote for scariest splash screen image, ever. A burger shaped like a hot dog? Who would ever find that remotely appetizing? The site's not all bad though, they do have
slurpee postcards.
posted by mathowie at 10:51 PM PST - 4 comments
If you've never lived in California, you really ought to
give this site a try. We haven't had a big one in a few years, so I guess we're due for a devastating one any day now...
posted by mathowie at 10:05 PM PST - 2 comments
The warez, mp3-traders, hacker and terrorist industry just got a just got a boost in the arm. the goverment and all the music companies are going to see that the internet is not to be regulated. You cannot stop individuals from sharing files between themselves and everytime you start to ban one program another one more innovative than the last pops up. I am going to stop my little rant here because I don't want to seem like i am anti goverment ...viva la revolution.
posted by neo452 at 2:02 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
I thought for a moment that
CUJoe's site had been hacked.
This is what I saw before I realized that it was just a typo (beware adult content).
posted by plinth at 1:43 PM PST - 6 comments
I've seen some disturbing stuff on the web before, but for some reason
a pro-anorexia site featuring
low cal recipies and
a scary guestbook gives me the creeps like no other site ever has. I wish it were fake, and all the people in the guestbook saying "great site!" were joking as well, but I know it's the sad truth for a lot of people.
posted by mathowie at 11:28 AM PST - 9 comments
The Rapture Index "by no means is meant to predict the rapture, however, the index is meant to measure the type of activity that could act as a precursor to the rapture." It tracks such data as unemployment, inflation, false Christs and, of course, plagues.
posted by philip at 6:07 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
April 9
A visual weblog where a current event is encapsulated into artwork. It's updated everyday and you can mail the graphic and URLS to a friend. The cross contextualization of the links is interesting, because each story has multiple sources.
posted by p2 at 2:18 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
April 8
Why tab based interfaces suck This site finally fell into interface hell. Originally they used tabs as navigation and still are now... BUT it doesn't work...
Watch... every ecommerce company that copied its interface will also fall into the same interface hell...
The others include ebags.com, urbanfetch and more....
posted by efader at 8:58 PM PST - 8 comments
U.S. population stands at 13,462 With the April 1 deadline for returning Census 2000 forms finally passed, the Bureau of the Census announced Monday that the U.S. population stands at 13,462. "We at the Census Bureau are shocked by the incredible decrease in the population that apparently took place in the 10 years since the last Census in 1990," Census Bureau director Kenneth Prewitt said. "A 1999 projection estimated the U.S. population at 274 million and set the annual growth rate at .95 percent. Yet from this latest Census count, we find that this projection overestimates the population by a multiple of 20,000."
posted by cmeck33 at 12:46 PM PST - 1 comments
"Such screenings are common in Britain, with more than 100 carried out in the last five years." You know, guns and lawyers and creationists notwithstanding, sometimes I'm really glad I live in the US and not in places that don't have a Bill of Rights.
A mass genetic screening like this would be a direct violation of the Fourth Amendment:
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
While genetic testing is permitted here, it can only be done on a suspect when there's reasonable cause to believe that
that particular suspect is guilty of the crime. It requires a search warrant.
And that, in my opinion, is how it should be.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 1:18 AM PST - 5 comments
Separated at Birth?
Angelina Jolie has been chosen to play
Lara Croft in the upcoming Tomb Raider movie. I must say that from the neck up, she's actually a pretty good choice. (From the neck down, no woman alive measures up.)
The only problem is that Ms. Jolie is California, not England. I wonder how well she can do an English accent.
"Val Girl Lara" just doesn't make it.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 12:34 AM PST - 1 comments
April 7
Love and lice, according to Lynda Barry. I remember the first time they came to our second grade class searching for lice. I had no idea what lice was, so I just played dumb and let them act like monkeys looking through my hair.
posted by veruca at 2:05 PM PST - 4 comments
wired does xxx... getting my daily fix of info, i stumbled on a coedsex.com add delightfully served by doubleclick!
is there something that i don't catch or is it just plain stupid and [perhaps] illegal to serve adds like that on such a big portal?
i don't mean i'm in favor of regulation, but Wired is a [ was a ] very visited portal, and even if kids don't have much to read there, it may be shocking for some people.
Even if the server has snooped my hard drive till it found that videos he may contains, it doesn't mean that the current user is not my 2 years old that had somewhat lit my comp.
if you have a kid that loves to smash the keys of keyboards, and if you don't want him to destroy your neat advanced keyboard, find him a old amstrad CPC.
Heavy, robust and the keys are very clicky and easy to repair.
posted by deboute at 1:42 PM PST - 1 comments
IE 5.5 beta is out, and there's
an article on MSDN describing its new features. Most interesting are the user comments, where everyone's saying "standards! standards!" (click "read user comments" at the bottom of the page)
posted by endquote at 11:15 AM PST - 9 comments
This will be the last time you leave your Francs in the car unattended. Were they Francs or american currency...I wonder?
posted by neo452 at 6:37 AM PST - 4 comments
Steal a Snickers bar ---> Get 16 years in jail This Texan appears to be extremely unfortunate, even when you read his past criminal record. How can stealing a Snickers equate to 16 years in prison? However, the audacious comment from the assistant attorney is worth noting:
"
If it was a Milky Way, we probably wouldn't have even tried him on it".
posted by williamtry at 5:57 AM PST - 11 comments
April 6
The X-Men Full Trailer clears up a lot of the "Omigod! Something's really wrong here" comments about the film, but there's still no Colossus and no Gambit. What gives? Perhaps they're saving all that for the second or third films (if any)?
posted by Cavatica at 1:58 PM PST - 2 comments
This DHTML site is just plain amazing. Hearing that the author wrote the whole thing by hand in a text editor with nothing but a
book for reference is incredible. It reminds me of seeing an insane rug or quilt at a museum and hearing it was stiched by hand using only crude sewing tools. Just thinking of the work it took to make that site makes me want to cry in pain. [link pilfered from
kottke]
posted by mathowie at 11:54 AM PST - 21 comments
April 5
And speaking of frogs (see below) . . . here is a good entry for the 5k. They are still anonymous (until the judges are finished).
And don't go poking around those directories please -- not all the files are called index.html and there is not a directory for every number (so you'll mostly get 404s). Just a few more days. Shhh . . .
posted by sylloge at 10:11 PM PST - 4 comments
Madness ...I tell you. Pure Madness. Stop the insanity...I thought they gave it their best shot with the frogs...I thought wrong. This new campaign is catchier than the frogs could ever be...
posted by neo452 at 8:34 PM PST - 3 comments
Everyone seems
to be
redesigning....and
now I've gone and done it too.
That's right folks, Just like everyone else I've gone and redesigned
my homepage. Any and all comments are appreciated, especially those on Mac
systems as I have no way of testing on that platform. And hey, if you were feeling
kind, you could generate me some traffic ;-)
Sorry about the blatant
self promotion, but hey, I did provide some links ;-)
posted by tomcosgrave at 5:14 PM PST - 10 comments
Yahama has made the Rolls Royce of pianos.
'Built around an Intel Pentium III computer chip, the piano allows functions to be controlled by a user's voice and lets the user watch an artist's performance stored on disc while hearing the concert. When the disc is inserted into a built-in DVD player, the performance is displayed on a computer monitor as keys and pedals move up and down recreating the piano part.'
And only $333,000, where do I sign up?
posted by Mark at 3:37 PM PST - 2 comments
I feel bad about posting an Elian Gonzalez link, just because the poor kid has been through enough, but
this religious imagery that CNN used in conjuntion with a story is just plain odd.
posted by jkottke at 2:21 PM PST - 5 comments
A rather interesting article on how scientists how found that people with the same surname usually share some common DNA. This could soon be used to track down the original founder of your last name.
posted by Mark at 11:21 AM PST - 3 comments
Netscape 6 Pre release is Official. . . Looks like Netscape caved in and released the leaked version of Communicator 6. I got it and it's identical to the leaked version posted here earlier. Which is almost identical to Mozilla M14.
BTW, does anyone else have a problem with AOL/Netscape having the entire internet develop it's newest browser through the Mozilla effort while they plan to profit from it? Especially with Mozilla's ardent open source position. Or, is it just me.
posted by Dean_Paxton at 11:01 AM PST - 29 comments
Did you miss your chance to buy Derek's Olympus D-600L camera?
Don't fret,
here's another chance to own a piece of web history.
If it were me, I'd replace the mattress...
posted by ratbastard at 9:04 AM PST - 1 comments
Bing! Bing! Amazon moves to two rows of tabs! Interesting . . . I've been part of dozens of conversations about what they were going to do when it *just got too wide*. The Amazonization Effect principle dictates that it will take 30-60 days before other big etailers follow suit
because now it's OK to do it.
Just in case I'm a test case here, I've posted the gif
here.
posted by sylloge at 1:54 AM PST - 20 comments
FilmFour (the best film channel on TV) often ask special guests to choose two of their favorite films. Tonight the special guest is
Kermit the frog, displaying a taste for B movie horror. There are also some good films they're showing in his honour (like Meet the Feebles).
posted by dodgygeezer at 1:52 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
April 4
"It is already possible for an assassin to send someone an e-mail with an innocent-looking attachment connected to it. When the receiver downloads the attachment, the electrical current and molecular structure of the central processing unit is altered,
causing it to blast apart like a large hand grenade."
posted by endquote at 7:19 PM PST - 9 comments
Convergence baby! Sony has released a Minidisc Player/Recorder, MP3 player with USB connectivity, and PalmOS PDA, all wedged into one small unit. Wow, that's enough buzzwords to kill a horse...
posted by mathowie at 9:57 AM PST - 4 comments
Verizon , a true example that there are no good dot com's left no matter how big you are. They had to put a lot of thought into this one to make it make sense.
posted by bvanveen at 9:10 AM PST - 5 comments
April 3
Keeping up with the breakneck pace of life at a San Francisco startup isn't as easy as
it looks.
posted by jjg at 5:01 PM PST - 8 comments
I misread
Alice's blog today. I thought she meant big
Tabasco. Tabasco also makes a nice spicy
soy sauce which is right tasty on
Trader Joe's vegetable gyoza. I had no idea that they made
pickled okra. I've never tried okra, but this might be enough incentive.
Did I mention that my dad got me to stop sucking my thumb by putting Tabasco on it? I blame him for my enjoyment of spicy food.
posted by plinth at 9:12 AM PST - 5 comments
April 2
It looks like the Microsoft vs. DOJ case might be worth paying attention to again, as their
settlement talks have ended.
"After more than four months, it is apparent that the disagreements among the parties . . . are too deep-seated to be bridged," said mediator, U.S. Circuit Judge Richard Posner.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson will probably issue a verdict any day now.
posted by endquote at 11:53 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
All pimpwar accounts disabled? I was really getting into the game. Its probably for the better since I will now be able to return to my previous life (not that it was anything signifigant). I'll just tough it out until May 1st when it comes back as a fully functional version.
posted by howa2396 at 9:16 PM PST - 5 comments
Springing into redesign Orbiting has been redesigned for Spring, and I've seen a couple of others.
Have y'all seen any other good ones (besides Derek's, which is fantastic)?
posted by Melanie at 12:11 AM PST - 11 comments
Are You 3000 Plus? Find out just how good your web writing is with this revolutionary online tool developed by the super-secret TSD Labs. Complex natural language analysis is performed to determine the complexity, readability, and likability of your writing.
posted by daveadams at 12:09 AM PST - 5 comments
April 1
Google Mentalplex Google's pretty funny... Let's see how long that light heartedness lasts after The Great Ass of Corporate Opression sits on them.
posted by Dean_Paxton at 8:30 PM PST - 3 comments
Stanford University Planning IPO I know this is starting to scrape the bottom of the April 1st barrel, but I WAS the first person to point out that the heading of the e-mail version of this writer's column is "D A N G I L L M O R O N T E C H N O L O G Y" (logical word breaks after DANG, ILL and MORON)posted by wendell at 12:17 PM PST - 3 comments
