July 2004 Archives

Accordian Guy writes about the growing trend of people getting dumped via email.

The underlying idea of using email to deliver unpleasant news isn't all that novel. You've probably had to phone someone to cancel plans and were relieved to get their voice mail or answering machine rather than the actual person, and you may have even heard of situations where people have broken up over the phone. Breaking up in writing was common enough for the term "Dear John Letter" to be coined. In these situations, the bearer of bad news is trying to weasel out of having to deal with the reaction.

Listing the reasons for a breakup, whether the breakup is taking place in person, by postal mail, over the phone or email, isn't new, either. What is new is listing the reasons in point form. [Accordian Guy]

Definitely a fun read.

Not being a part of the working world these days I completely forgot that today was Sysadmin Appreciation Day.

: Sysadmin Appreciation Day

w00t! It's Sysadmin Appreciation day! What could be better?

System Administrator Appreciation Day - A special day, once a year, to acknowledge the worthiness and appreciation of the person occupying the role, especially as it is often this person who really keeps the wheels of your company turning.

1. Read about the day: www.sysadminday.com
2. UserFriendly's cartoon: www.userfriendly.org
3. Do something good for yourself and join Usenix/SAGE: www.sage.org
4. Schedule some "me time" and register for LISA in the US, or SANE in Europe.

[Everything Sysadmin]

O'Reilly has announced a new magazine coming in 2005 called Make.

Make brings the do-it-yourself mindset to all the technology in your life. Make is loaded with exciting projects that help you make the most of your technology at home and away from home. This is a magazine that celebrates your right to tweak, hack, and bend any technology to your own will.

Coming early in 2005, Make is a hybrid magazine/book (known as a mook in Japan). Make comes from O'Reilly, the Publisher of Record for geeks and tech enthusiasts everywhere. It follows in line with the Hacks books and Hardware Hacking Projects, but it takes a highly visual and personal approach. [Make]

 

Sounds pretty cool, I can't wait to check it out.

There's an interesting article over on engadget.com about "tethering". Tethering is where one product is tied into another, one example given is the little packets of coffee for use in a certain coffee maker.

So we looked on with enthusiasm at the new pressurized personal coffee makers. They push hot water through a sealed “pod” filled with a precise measure of coffee. It was neat, slick, well-designed, and promised a strong, good, dependable dose. It’s the same technology that supplies those surprisingly good coffee available from coin machines in public spaces in Europe.

After a half-hour of debating the pros and cons of such a radical “format shift,” we left without one of these cool new machines. We opted out because these specialized “pods” are essentially “tethered” to this brand of coffee maker. [engadget.com]

The author goes on to mention other devices that are tethered in this way (or becoming tethered) such as printers makers and garage-door opener companies. He also talks about the whole Apple vs Real situation and how it is becoming another example of this. I personally think Apple is blowing it. As much as I'm not a fan of Real this doesn't seem like that big a deal to me.

Selma points to a fun little flash movie about depression and a cure.

I'd been looking to pick up a new DVD player recently, since my old one croaked on me recently. After doing some hunting around online I decided on the Philips DVP642. I decided on this one for a few reasons. First, it supports DivX. This was a big deal for me because I watch a lot of anime that is encoded in this format. Second, the price was right. At $69.99 it wasn't too expensive a risk. Some of the reviews indicated that the DVD playback wasn't that great, but I figured at $70 even if it was good I'd be happy.

Today I picked up my player at a local CompUSA (the only place locally that had them in stock). Initial setup was easy, as was updating the firmware to the latest version. This entailed downloading two files from the philips.com website and burning them to CD and starting up the dvd player letting it read the CD. I haven't tested a DVD yet, but I did test with a DVD-RW that had a few files on it. The good: it read the DVD-R and could play some of the files. The bad: it couldn't play them all. I'm trying to figure out what the differences were in the files it wouldn't play, but so far nothing is jumping out at me.

I've also set up a page on my wiki about this player so that I can keep notes on what works and what doesn't. If anyone has anything they think would be useful to add, please let me know.

It hasn't taken long for someone I know to get his bag searched on the T. I'm so glad the T is just something I can't do that easily these days, it means I don't have to put up with crap like this.

Ellen asks "Is this serious?" Sadly, I think it just might be. Though I never really thought of my hot dog toppings as being that political.

I found this a few days ago and I can't for the life of me remember where I got the link to it. But at least I'm finally getting around to posting it. So here's a link to Petals Around the Roses.

Halsted has found the cruise of a lifetime. Though I'm not sure whose lifetime, but certainly not mine.

In between editing boring documentation on student assistants, I keep pondering my dream vacation. For those of you too terrified to click that link — and really, I can't blame you — it's a cruise. But not any cruise, no. I will quote part of the website:

You will have "absolute inside access", spending a week vacationing in the Caribbean featuring 3 of Rock's biggest artists, Journey, REO Speedwagon & Styx.

Journey, REO and Styx have agreed to this once in a lifetime experience for you, but space is extremely limited and cabins will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Relive some of the best days of Rock & Roll while you get up-close and personal with the bands. This is not a regular stop on a tour.

[cygnoir's quill]

The other day over on #joiito i was whining about how I wished I could get friends-locked posts in the RSS feeds on LiveJournal. Luckily LJ user crschmidt was there to let me know that it was possible. In general, the link to someone's feed on LJ is http://www.livejournal.com/users/[username]/data/rss. The problem is, it only shows you public entries. So, in order to get friends locked entries, you need to send along your LJ username and password and tell LJ what kind of authorization method to use. The end result looks something like this:

Note that this will only work in RSS readers that do the right thing with urls that have login information in them. But it works in NetNewsWire so I'm happy. While I still have my friends page, this means I now have access to all my LJ friends in the same place I read other blogs.

It seems that the Gov UK isn't able to take a joke:

Emergency advice parody misses Gov UK funny bone

The Cabinet Office has demanded that the author of the Preparing for Emergencies parody site, remove it from the Net immediately, and not put it up again in another guise.

The government launched an advertising and leafleting campaign yesterday, advising us all of what to do in the event of a national emergency. The idea is that because we live in a faster, 24-hour world, we are unlikely to have a stockpile of tinned food in our cupboards like our WWII surviving grannies, and are so less well-prepared for any terrorist strike.

Naturally, the campaign has an associated website, and as we all know, it doesn't take long for things to happen in Internet-Land. The parody site went up almost immediately at the remarkably similar address www.preparingforemergencies.CO.uk, as opposed to GOV.uk. [The Register] [via dropsafe]

The author has refused to take the site down so far, but has added links to the real site in hopes to satisfy the powers that be. Here's some advice he gives on what to do in an emergency.

General advice about what to do in an emergency

If you find yourself in the middle of an emergency, your common sense and instincts will usually tell you what to do. However, it is important to:

• Run.
• Really, really fast.
• Follow the advice of the emergency services, unless that advice is something other than "Run".
• Try to remain calm and think before acting, and try to reassure others. Or, trample them in a desperate attempt to flee as the building you're in is consumed by a radioactive cloud.
• Check for injuries. Here's a hint: if it's painful, it's probably injured. However, hurting when you pee is probably not an injury related to the incident. But get yourself checked out anyway.

A few weeks ago, while getting on the Pike at like 1 AM (at the Allston entrance), I ran into a situation I'd never experienced before. The only green lights to get onto the pike were at the FAST LANEs. The lights above the lanes to pay cash were red. I slowed the car, thought "what the fuck?" and slowly drove through the regular lane (one of them didn't have a traffic cone blocking the way). As I drove by the booth and peeked in there was nobody there. I thought this was odd, but figured maybe whoever was working had to go take a leak or something.

15 minutes later I'm pulling off the pike in Natick and run into the same situation. Only this time there were cones in front of all the lanes but the FAST LANE ones. This time I was really confused. What did they expect me to do? Just sit there and wait? In the end I went through a the FAST LANE and went on home.

Today I open up my mail to find a "Toll Violation - WARNING LETTER" for the night when I went through that lane in Natick (I guess going through the red light lane at the Allston exit was a good idea). Now, I don't owe anything because it is only a warning, but I'm close to thinking this is all a big scam. Since, at the bottom of the warning, is the note "If you are interested in joining FAST LANE, call the FAST LANE Service Center". This must be how they get new customers, they force them to go through the fast lane and then 'warn' them with a helpful offer of how this won't ever be an issue again.

Bastards.

I think I knew this already, but just in case you were wondering.

Tapping on soda cans actually works?
shocking, I always thought it was an urban myth [via scattered.org]  [Waxy.org Links]

Groucho Marx
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." [Quotes of the Day]

So a friend of mine pointed out that one of the ads served by google to my site pointed at a site called My Music Inc (I'm not going to put the actual link here because I don't want to give them any promotion, but the shortened link is http://xrl.us/ciot). Which tells me that I can "Download free unlimited mp3 music, dvd movies, software, games and more!" and that it is "100% Safe & 100% Legal". Sounds kickass to me, so I put in a name and email address and am brought to the download page where I see it costs me $0.76 cents per month or $25 for a lifetime membership that will let me download FREE MUSIC AND MOVIES. Hmmm. Well, if I even want to consider paying for free stuff I want to know if they really have music I want. So I go to their search page, click on artist and type in LSG. And they say they found some LSG. So then I thought to myself "self, I wonder if they have that hot track 'asdfg' or 'ztsjfb'?" And they did! They even had "skdhfusdsd". In fact, they had everything I searched for. So my opinion is that these guys are scam artists. I wonder how many other shady websites like this there are out there

And If they are legit, they really don't seem to be making much of an effort to seem so.

Friedrich Nietzsche
"Only sick music makes money today." [Quotes of the Day]

With OS X, I don't have to deal with computer problems like Adam Felber is having.

I'd just written an amusing explanation of the incredible discovery of Bush's lost military records. And then my browser crashed. I haven't worked on a Windows PC for a while, and I'd forgotten that they only work for so long before something horrible happens, at which point the Windows manual suggests that I scream, sob, rend my garments, and upgrade to a newer version of the software that will really definitely totally not crash quite so much this time albeit depending on various conditions involving things that would be far more difficult to learn about than simply following directions and getting a head start on my next bout of screaming, sobbing, and etc. [Fanatical Apathy]

I'd also recommend valium, and some whiskey, and maybe some Lexapro.

Wow, being in the army has some great perks, including things like new breasts!

Bigger breasts offered as perk to U.S. soldiers
Plastic surgery available on taxpayers' dime
Updated: 10:34 a.m. ET July 22, 2004

NEW YORK - The U.S. Army has long lured recruits with the slogan “Be All You Can Be,” but now soldiers and their families can receive plastic surgery, including breast enlargements, on the taxpayers’ dime.

The New Yorker magazine reports in its July 26th edition that members of all four branches of the U.S. military can get face-lifts, breast enlargements, liposuction and nose jobs for free -- something the military says helps surgeons practice their skills.

“Anyone wearing a uniform is eligible,” Dr. Bob Lyons, chief of plastic surgery at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio told the magazine, which said soldiers needed the approval of their commanding officers to get the time off.

Between 2000 and 2003, military doctors performed 496 breast enlargements and 1,361 liposuction surgeries on soldiers and their dependents, the magazine said. [MSNBC]

The article doesn't mention whether or not these were performed on men or women though.

Hodding Carter
"Television news is like a lightning flash. It makes a loud noise, lights up everything around it, leaves everything else in darkness and then is suddenly gone." [Quotes of the Day]

Thanks go out to Suw for two posts that I'm pointing at tonight. I blogged about this last month, but here's some more information about Mr. Shatner's effort to revive his singing career (ew).

William Shatner does something unspeakable to Pulp's Common People

You remember James T Kirk… er, I mean, William Shatner's last foray into musical endeavour? His stunning - and that's 'stunning' in the same way that a sharp blow to the head is stunning - rendition of The Beatles'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds? Think that's the depths of JT Hooker… er, I mean, Shatner's depravity?

Think again.

Shatner has teamed up with Ben Folds, of Ben Folds Five, to record a slew of new tracks. According to XFM, the new album, ‘Has Been', will be released on the Shout! Factory label this September.

Earlier today I heard Shatner's cover of Pulp's Common People, and I can assure you, it will blow... you... a... way..., featuring as it does Shatner's thespy spoken-word vocals and Joe Jackson, (yes, that Joe Jackson), doing the wail-y impaled art student bits.

You really, really do need to listen to this. You absolutely must. I have scoured the web for a link to a full length version, but all I can find is this (fairly substantial) snippet. (Quicktime. Other formats available.) [Chocolate and Vodka]

Rands in Repose gives a history of his N.A.D.D. and some good reasoning for getting a 30 inch flat panel.

Thinking is messy.

You don't want to admit this because you've been carefully orchestrating yourself out of the chaos by constructing your personal version of N.A.D.D. These interactions with your desktop, your content, your thoughts exist because information is messy, too. It's all a big mess and our job as consumers of an infinite amount of information is to find a system of organization which best suits our interests and our attention spans.

The comment I've heard most about this new 30 inch flat panel is, "Who in the world needs it?" You do. Right now. So do I. 60 inches would better, but 30 inches is all we got.

Yes, I can't afford it. Neither can you because we're not working at Pixar or PDI where they've got a present day politically correct justification for all those pixels, but that doesn't mean we don't need it. It just means we haven't successfully convinced the bill payers that more pixels means more productivity. [Rands in Repose]

Sir Arthur Eddington
"Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine." [Quotes of the Day]

I want to live in this village.

Small village changes its name

A small village in Wales has changed its name from Llanfynydd to Llanhyfryddawelllehynafolybarcudprindanfygythiadtrienusyrhafnauole in protest against a wind farm which is planned for a nearby hill. They need to be careful - Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch got its full name when a tailor from Menai decided that they needed more tourists. Perhaps Llanhyfryddawelllehynafolybarcudprindanfygythiadtrienusyrhafnauole will stick.

(Llanhyfryddawelllehynafolybarcudprindanfygythiadtrienusyrhafnauole means "quiet beautiful village, a historic place with rare kite under threat from wretched blades" and beats Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, or "the church of St Mary in the hollow of the white hazel near the fierce whirlpool and the church of Tysilio by the red cave", in length by 8 characters.)

Thanks to ASBradbury for the tip. [Chocolate and Vodka]

Today's song is one that I tend to listen to when all my health issues get to me and I'm feeling a bit down. Off of Boingo Alive, here's It Only Makes Me Laugh. Because darkness can never last too long, when you laugh in its face.

Oscar the Grouch would be quite happy in Boston these days. Boston police ordered the city to remove trash barrels from 30 downtown streets, including places like Beacon Hill, Back Bay, and the Theatre District. The result?

''That's kind of weird," Donald Contois said, as he crumpled up a 7-Eleven taquito wrapper and went to discard it in an overflowing frame near the corner of Mount Vernon and Charles streets yesterday afternoon. He was working a construction job around the corner and had been busy taking down scaffolding, he said, ''so it would look pretty for the convention."

Pretty it wasn't on Beacon Hill yesterday. Under blooming window boxes and faux gaslights on the hill's quaint, tony main streets, Starbucks Coffee cups and cigarette butts toppled out of the trash can frames onto narrow brick sidewalks. Over the weekend, city workers began removing public trash cans on much of Charles and Cambridge streets. By yesterday afternoon, complaints flooded the local neighborhood association, and many business owners fumed as they watched the trash pile up outside their stores.

''Now, it's a mess," lamented Alex Marder, owner of Simmons Liquors on Cambridge Street, where an overflowing trash can frame stood a few feet from a planter he had recently filled with purple and pink flowers. ''People throw out here, they throw out there, they don't care!" [Boston Globe]

It is starting to look like every security measure is just stuff they happen to think of off the top of their head. Next up will be backpacks (unless they're made of clear plastic), soda cans (plastic bottles okay), and iPods.

Quentin Crisp
"If at first you don't succeed, failure may be your style." [Quotes of the Day]

Halley points to a Dave Barry post (be sure to read the comments) about Cuddle Parties: "your worst nightmare that is supposedly "sweeping New York."" Pretty scary, the Cuddle Party site even includes rules for when you have a cuddle party:

1. Pajamas stay on the whole time.
2. No SEX. (Yep, you read that right.)
3. Ask for permission to kiss or nuzzle anyone. Make sure you can handle getting a no before you invite or request anyone to cuddle or kiss.
4. If you're a yes, say yes. If you're a no, say no.
5. If you're a maybe, say NO.
6. You are encouraged to change your mind from a yes to a no, no to a yes anytime you want.
7. NO DRY HUMPING!
8. Communicate, communicate, communicate.
9. If you're in a relationship, communicate and set your boundaries and agreements BEFORE you go to the Cuddle Party. Don't re-negotiate those agreements/boundaries during the Cuddle Party. (Trust us on this one.)
10. Get your Cuddle Life Guard On Duty or Cuddle Caddy if there's a concern, problem, or question or should you feel unsafe or need assistance with anything during the Cuddle Party.
11. Crying and giggling are both welcomed and encouraged.
12. Outside of your personal relationships, it's nobody's business who you cuddle, so please be respectful of other people's privacy when sharing with the outside world about Cuddle Parties.
13. Arrive on time.
14. Be hygienically savvy.
15. Clean up after yourself.
16. Always say thank you and practice good Cuddle Manners.

They also say that liquor isn't allowed, but this kind of event seems like the perfect place for MDMA.

So what does everyone else out there think? Is their skin crawling as much as mine?

Today's song is one from back when I was in College. I used to hear it on WXXP in Pittsburgh, one of my all time favorite radio stations. I recently picked up some CDs by China Crisis that I'd been looking for forever, and on What Price Paradise? is the track Arizona Sky. The track is in AAC, so use an appropriate player.

Looking at my referrer logs this morning I noticed that I had a link or two from Feedster's Feed of the Day Page. When researching more I discovered that my site had been the feed of the day back on December 15, 2003. Pretty cool, I wish I'd noticed it before that. I've added the little Feed of the Day button to this page in celebration.

Here's a music video made my synchronizing Soul Calibur with a dance track:

Music video made with Soul Calibur video game footage

Dance, Voldo, Dance is a music video made by synchronizing the movements of gladiators from the game Soul Calibur with a dance track, so that they appear to be getting down with their nasty selves to the music. It's quite good!

11.2 MB Quicktime Link

[via Boing Boing Blog] [via Waxy]

There's also notes about it linked to from the video. Pretty cool.

Alton Brown saw "Supersize Me" and had some interesting things to say about the movie and eating out in general.

Here’s what it comes down to kids. Ronald McDonald doesn’t give a damn about you. Neither does that little minx Wendy or any of the other icons of drivethroughdom. And you know what, they’re not supposed to. They’re businesses doing what businesses do. They don’t love you. They are not going to laugh with you on your birthdays, or hold you when you’re sick and sad. They won’t be with you when you graduate, when your children are born or when you die. You will be with you and your family and friends will be with you. And, if you’re any kind of human being, you will be there for them. And you know what, you and your family and friends are supposed to provide you with nourishment too. That’s right folks, feeding someone is an act of caring. We will always be fed best by those that care, be it ourselves or the aforementioned friends and family.

We are fat and sick and dying because we have handed a basic, fundamental and intimate function of life over to corporations. We choose to value our nourishment so little that we entrust it to strangers. We hand our lives over to big companies and then drag them to court when the deal goes bad. This is insanity. [Alton Brown's Rants & Raves]

Gizmodo always has some of the coolest things out there. Here's one I wouldn't mind having as part of my home theatre system (though I'm not sure I'd want to feel Jet Li's punch in my ass, I'm not into that kinda rough stuff):

Crowson TES 100 Couch Shakers

If you've ever said, "You know, I just didn't feel Jet Li's punch right in my ass," when watching a DVD -- this is an especially strange thing to say if it's not even a Jet Li movie -- then Crowson Technology's TES 100 "tactile transducers" might be worth keeping an eye, or ass, on. For $650, the TES 100 Couch Kit fits under the four feet of your couch and converts the low bass rumble of your stereo system into a physical rumpshaking effect that replicates the effects of a giant subwoofer without actually producing any (on-purpose) sound. CNet has a fairly technical and fairly positive review, although for $650 (a $350 one-transducer version is available) you'd hope Crowson would include the wire necessary to connect the thing. [Gizmodo]

So Apple has information up about their new iPod and I'm kind of pissed. A few years back I'd bought a 20GB iPod, right before the release of the one with the dock. I didn't mind not having the dock, but it quickly became apparent that Apple was going to ignore their older iPods. They got just enough updates to make things run better, but none of the new features like on-the-go playlists.

Fast forward to a month ago when I bought a new 40GB iPod. It doesn't bother me much that they now are $100 less. I've had things like that happen to me all the time. What bugs me is that all the new iPod features announced today are only available for the new iPod. I'm afraid they're going to stop adding new features to this iPod. The even more annoying thing is that many of the new features don't seem to be hardware based features. Features like Multiple on-the-go playlists, tweaking playback speed, and one click shuffling are not things that I'd expect to need new hardware to do. Bah, thank you Apple for screwing me over again.

Starting a new feature today, inspired by some of the cool music blogs out there. I'll be trying to post a song a day, usually something from what I've been listening to in the last day or so. Sometimes I'll write extra stuff about it, sometimes not. Songs will stay up for around a week or so then come down, so as not to piss people off too much. I'll also close comments at that time I think. Also, most songs will be in unprotected AAC, since that's what I have them encoded in. I'll be sure to mention what format the song is in when posting. There are programs that can play AAC on just about every platform out there at this point.

The first song in this new area will be Pushing the Sky by Yoko Kanno (I'm assuming performed by The Seatbelts) from the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack. It's a pretty rockin' track and just seemed fitting for today. The track is in AAC.

Robert Morley
"Anyone who works is a fool. I don't work - I merely inflict myself upon the public." [Quotes of the Day]

#!/usr/bin/girl links to a very cool site that has a list of restaurants that offer free food on your birthday. I think I'm going to have to make note for my next birthday and eat as much free food as I can:

Free Meal(s) on Your Birthday!
Everyone loves something for free. I'm sure most people have experienced the "free dessert on your birthday" at a restaurant before. Let's take that a step further. It's your birthday, after all! You should get more than just a free dessert!

Check out the Cheap Stingy Bastard's List of Free Birthday Meals. (And desserts. And coupons. And a few other things.) Yum. You could eat all day!

(Seattle residents: there at least a few Seattle specific places on the list!) [#!/usr/bin/girl]

nihilistic_kid links to an article about how Martha Stewart is comparing herself to Nelson Mandela. He also offers a song for the occasion:

Free ol' Martha Stewart
Free, Free, Free, ol' Martha Stewart
Free ol' Martha Stewart
Nearly six months in captivity
Her shoes too gauche to fit her feet
Her body still hot but her mind is crazy
She is so blind that she cannot see

I say Free ol' Martha Stewart
I'm begging you
Free ol' Martha Stewart

Fourteen new tips to decorate Christmas trees
Suburban housewives are her army
She is so blind that she cannot see
She's like Mandela; takes it seriously

Free ol' Martha Stewart
I'm begging you Free ol' Martha Stweart
[the rest here]
[via Nick Mamatas' Journal]

Disneyland opened on this day in 1955 (according to my computer). And according to about.com my computer is correct.

I normally avoid talking about politics here, since I'm too afraid of sounding like a complete idiot. But this quote from over on Taegan Goddard's Political Wire just had to be shared.

Quote of the Day

"I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn’t do my job."

-- President Bush, quoted in the Lancaster New Era, during a private meeting with an Amish group. [Political Wire]

Delusions of Grandeur maybe?

Claud Cockburn
"Never believe anything until it has been officially denied." [Quotes of the Day]

There's a new online DVD rental service called rentanime.com that I've decided to give a try for their two week free trial. It's a neat idea, but I have a feeling Greencine will still have them beat (at least for me). Some issues I already see with the site. There are some very noticeable holes in their selection. No original Bubblegum Crisis. And they've only got the second OVA of Fushigi Yugi (I'd thought this might be a good chance to check out the series since I've never seen it).

So, the first marks against them are for selection, but I'm willing to cut them some slack since they first opened. Beyond that, the site itself feels like it needs a bit of work. the design feels a little rushed. And it' is missing features that other sites have. For example: Can I queue up a full series and get them in order? Doesn't look like it. Can I easily request things they don't have? The don't say. There are lots of little details that I think they need to look at if they are going to survive. Especially when there are services like Greencine that have a kickass anime selection and a great site overall.

I'll report back more when I've got my first selections from them.

Crossposted to An Unnamed Anime Blog.

Halley Suitt's blog, one of my favorites, has a new look. Of course this has probably been up for ages and I just noticed it now. Though I'm pretty sure it wasn't there yesterday.

From over on Jamie Zawinski's LiveJournal:

It's profoundly unsurprising that one might have trouble convincing ClearChannel to take your money for an anti-war billboard: I mean that's not even news, right?

Clear Channel kills nonprofit's ad for N.Y.'s Times Square

But I just love this statement:

Meyer said the company generally does not run copy that would be unsuitable for children or cause them to ask difficult questions.

Those meddling kids and their difficult questions!

That's it, blame the kids! It's always their fault!

Mark Twain
"I am not one of those who in expressing opinions confine themselves to facts." [Quotes of the Day]

I just discovered Adam Felber has a blog. Coolness.

Ugs, this just pisses me off.

DMCA hammer comes down on tech service vendor

This just in: A district court in Boston has used the DMCA to grant a preliminary injunction against a third party service vendor who tried to fix StorageTek tape library backup systems for legitimate purchasers of the system.

How is this a DMCA violation? Well, it turns out that StorageTek allegedly uses some kind of algorithmic "key" to control access to its "Maintenance Code", the module that allows the service tech to debug the storage system. The court found that third party service techs who used the key without StorageTek's permission "circumvented" to gain access to the copyrighted code in violation of the DMCA, even though they had the explicit permission of the purchasers to fix their machines. [LawGeek] [via boingboing]

What scares me the most about this is thinking about what the next step from here could be. Could a car manufacturer do a similar thing with the computer in your car? I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know for sure, but it seems like it could be done.

Oscar Wilde
"One is tempted to define man as a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason." [Quotes of the Day]

This morning I drove out to my hometown, Glastonbury, CT, to go to some of the fruit and vegetable stands to get stuff for my BBQ tomorrow (btw, any of my friends who I haven't mentioned it to I'm having a smallish bbq tomorrow, drop me an email if you want to drive to Hartford). First, the ride was so nice. And it was great to be able to just park the car and not have to put up the windows and lock everything up. One of the nice things about a small town. The more I think about it the more I'd love to end up in a place like that.

Imagine New York City, Spider-Man swooping through the streets. And then he starts to sing!

Spider-Man: The Musical

July 09, 2004

According to Variety "Spider-Man is about to become a musical."  Though Marvel has not confirmed the story, Variety maintains that Neil Jordan (director of The Crying Game) will write the book for the musical with Bono and the Edge of U2 performing the songwriting chores and Julie Taymor, who helmed the hugely popular stage adaptation of The Lion King, directing and Tony Adams (Victor/Victoria) producing. [ICv2]

I'm sorry. Even if I try to think of this the theme from the animated show keeps flashing through my head. Imagine if the opening to the musical is a variation on that theme. Spider-Man. Spider-Man. Does whatever a spider can.

Via my friend Jeff:

SEX AND ROCK'N'ROLL!

A couple of Norwegian music fans face court action after they stripped off and had sex onstage during a rock concert.

Tommy Hol Ellingsen, 28, and his girlfriend Leona Johansson, 21, say they did it to help save the rain forest. Public sex is illegal in Norway.

According to Norwegian TV’s Nettavisen, the pair are members of an organisation called Fuck For Forest which is dedicated to having sex in public places in order to save the environment.

During a show for Norwegian band Cumshots on Tuesday, the pair walked onstage, asked ‘How far are you willing to go to save the world?’, took their clothes off and got jiggy with it. [NME.com]

There's a personality test going around on LJ and I finally took it. It seems I'm an evil genius. I like the sound of it. Not quite as good at a SUUUUPER genius, but close.

You are an SEDF--Sober Emotional Destructive Follower. This makes you an evil genius. You are extremely focused and difficult to distract from your tasks. With luck, you have learned to channel your energies into improving your intellect, rather than destroying the weak and unsuspecting.

Your friends may find you remote and a hard nut to crack. Few of your peers know you very well--even those you have known a long time--because you have expert control of the face you put forth to the world. You prefer to observe, calculate, discern and decide. Your decisions are final, and your desire to be right is impenetrable.

You are not to be messed with. You may explode.

The test can be found over here.

Over on my LJ friend's list, this post surfaced yesterday about John Kerry and John Edwards, complete with picture.

When John reached out across the space between them, he knew he was doing more than symbolizing how their partnership would bridge the gap between the divided halves of America. He was making an overture that could both save him and damn him, but as he took John's rough-skinned palm into his own cool, smooth fingers, he knew he couldn't resist. That touch sparked something in him, something that made him dream of an end to so many cold, lonely long Massachusetts nights, and a beginning to something beautiful and warm in the District of Columbia. The campaign trail had been a rough one, but he needed just one word to give him the promise that he would no longer have to do it alone. He looked into those twinkling eyes and leaned forward, hoping to hear that soft Southern voice tell him, "Yes." Just that one word, and then he could take so much more from those soft lips. [click for more...]

Of course, this post led to the creation of the JohnXJohn community over on LiveJournal. I'm both hopelessly amused and horrified. I will never look at pictures of the two of them the same again.

As usual, from that /usr/bin/girl:

Flash Fun: Microlife

Grow, train, and defend Microlife in this little flash simulation game. Each level has a different objective; passing one will give you the password to continue. It's not too difficult, but I found it rather entertaining. [#!/usr/bin/girl]

I lost a good hour and a half playing this one, even if it is a little slow to start out.

An old high school and college friend IMed me the other day and was telling me about some of his current projects. One that caught my eye was Hosting Comparison. It's a site that compares various types of web hosting services, from shared hosting to dedicated web server hosting. He's also working on on expanding the features and should be opening up a sister site in the near future (I'll be sure to mention it when he does).

This morning I was chatting with a friend of mine about some of the great old movie serials I'd seen over the years. On a whim I decided to google for "Movie Serials" and found The Serial Squadron. It's a site dedicated to old serials, including having DVDs available of some classic ones I remember. I'm really thinking about picking up a copy of The Phantom Empire. How can you go wrong with Gene Autry?

Some of the shows they're working on just so so wonderfully wrong, like MALA: Secret Agent of the South Seas.

Yes, it's the serial that everyone's talking about. It's the one and only Mala, the spy with the floral loincloth, and his pals Rex, King of the Wild Horses, and Buck the big fat St. Bernard, to the rescue as evil saboteurs crack codes and plot to blow up dirigibles and set fire to ships and stuff on remote Clipper Island in the South Seas. Will super-spy Mala's good looks convince the beautiful island princess to save him from being sacrificed in the fire pit? Who is that guy with the amazingly bad cockney accent and what is he doing in this serial?

Oh yeah, and be sure to check out Ask Ming in the Games section.

I was looking around Wikipedia to see if they had anything about Pulmonary Fibrosis and discovered that Peter Stone, who wrote Charade and Father Goose (two of my favorite Cary Grant movies), died of pulmonary fibrosis. Of course Wikipedia doesn't seem to have anything on Pulmonary Fibrosis or IPF yet, so I guess I may have to contribute something.

Engadget.com has a post about a new USB drive that meows when you plug it in.

USB drives these days come shaped like everything from ducks to rockstar jewellery, but Taiwanese firm Panram sets the standard for others to follow with its 256MB Cat Bar, which both looks like a cat (well, sort of) and meows when you plug it in (well, sort of; see below). [Engadget]

I want to hack it so that it makes other sounds. Preferably something obscene.

Paul Fix
"The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory." [Quotes of the Day]

As usual, /usr/bin/girl posts about some of the neatest flash things.

Flash Fun: The Phone

The Phone. You dial, and it takes you somewhere else. You try to find the number to the next world. Time goes by, and you realise your soda can is empty and you need to go to the bathroom.

Oh wait. That's just me.

The Phone is fun, regardless! [#!/usr/bin/girl]

I love these flash things. There's just so much imagination that goes into them. I'd never think of half of the things like this.

Anime Expo is going on this weekend and there's some cool anime coming our way. Ones I'm most happy about: Midori no Hibi, Bakuretsu Tenshi, and Popotan. I'm most happy about Midori no Hibi, because it's one of my recent favorites. Also, it appears that TOKYOPOP will be releasing CLAMP no Kiseki: The Ultimate Collection. CLAMP's 15th anniversary, 12 issue collection. With each issue coming with pieces for a CLAMP chess set (with some interesting choices for the pieces).

BBC News has the tale of a US chihuahua that is wowing the Japanese:

US chihuahua wows Japanese crowds

A wheelchair-bound chihuahua from the US is on a tour of Japan with his owner to tell his story of hope.

Wheely Willy was crippled and abandoned before being rescued by Deborah Turner and helped to gain mobility by using a specially-designed wheelchair.

Ms Turner and the 13-year-old dog are visiting schools and hospitals in Japan over the next two weeks to promote the book How Willy Got His Wheels. [BBC News]

Youwhores.com:

youwhores is a site for you to advertise what you are willing to do and the price you are willing to do it for.

And in turn youwhores.com is a site for you to browse the services on offer and choose the ones you are willing to pay the price for.

youwhores.com is free there are no charges or catches.

WARNING This is not a porn site.

We all have our price, what is yours?

For $50 bucks I'll write a blog post about how great you are. I take paypal or cash.

Waxy.org has a wonderful post about the Amazon.com Knee-Jerk Contrarian Game:

Here's a fun game... First, look up the most popular and critically-acclaimed books, movies, and music on Amazon. Click on "Customer Reviews," and sort them by "Lowest Rating First." Hilarity ensues! It's the Amazon.com Knee-Jerk Contrarian Game! [Waxy.org]

Some of the ones listed are hysterical. Here's one as an example:

John Coltrane, "A Love Supreme"

• "Coltrane's A Love Supreme is the most overhyped jazz album in history. It is music? Maybe. But I find it to be unlistenable, despite several efforts to find something good in it."
• "The first number is torture if you like melodic music. There's no connection between the phasing and the rhythm. Again, is this supposed to be clever?"
• "Nobody will care about the technical achievements of these guys in 100 years."
• "I think about Kenny G., for instance. His rythmic session is much more regular, whereas Coltrane's session seems sometimes to loose the beat."

Here's my contribution: West Side Story

• I left this movie with the feeling of fairness what i mean by this is this movie was obviously given toooooooo much credit and really deserved LITTLE.I felt this movie was a rip off of REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE.The knife fight sequence even the backround music that went with it,oh and casting natalie wood,as i was watching this movie,scences of REBEL kept flashing in my mind. i would have enjoyed this movie if it was ORGINAL!ENOUGH SAID!
• The singing [stinks] and the characters barely talk. It is about a...girl who cares more about her evil lover than her brother..... It's a really terrible plot not worth spending to see
• There are several old movie musicals that hold up ... this isn't one! Some of the music is good, though enormously derivative, hence the one star. Two scenes have some life in them still: the 'officer krupke' song and 'america'. Everything else is tedious, unreal, awful, sappy ... and it's full of 35-year-old 'teenagers', this movie needs a remake: with a changed ending, the loss of a few songs, better choreography (it's so bad now ... I don't understand my memory of it being exciting, at the time it came out ...), and more reality: a better re-creation of that time ... the directors did not have an eye for their own time at all!

From CNN.com

Rabies-infected organs kill 3 patients

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Rabies spread by organs taken from an infected donor has killed three transplant recipients, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.

"This has never happened before," said Dr. Mitch Cohen, an infectious disease expert at the CDC, in a conference call with reporters.

A fourth recipient died during the actual transplant operation, before there was time to develop the disease, officials said.

Rabies was also determined to be responsible for the death of the organ donor. [CNN.com]

You know, I'm not sure I want the call to come sometime in the next day or two after reading that. I need some time to forget about it.