Links posted in February 2008
February 27, 2008
An extinction timeline from a business-audience fortune teller. Sadly, retirement is scheduled to disappear before I hit it, but I'm delighted to note that in 6 years my dad should stop getting lost. Microsoft's demise is plotted for roughly 2035.
Also mildly entertaining from the same site: 335 cocktail-party phrases to make it sound like you're paying attention.
Looking for a Few Good Fat Men
Attn Montgomery Biscuits fans and others who root by Mascot:
The Florida Marlins are ... hosting auditions tomorrow for baseball's first all-male, all-obese cheerleading squad: the Manatees. They say they want "big bellies with the biggest jiggle, big feet with the best dance moves and enthusiasm that will rock Marlins fans out of their seats."
My Favorite Liar - I love this. Apparently also applied by Neil Postman (Teaching as a Subversive Activity). [thx kottke]
"...'let me explain how I teach. Between today until the class right before finals, it is my intention to work into each of my lectures ... one lie. Your job, as students, among other things, is to try and catch me in the Lie of the Day.' And thus began our ten-week course."
- Jimmy Kimmel responds to revelations about Sarah Silverman's infidelity
- An adorable three year old explains Star Wars - See? This is why if I have a daughter I'm naming her Leia.
- Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early (spoiler alert).
The Prarie View A&M Satyagraha -
Texas Republicans have worked overtime to make it harder for key Democratic voting groups to vote and be represented fairly. The redistricting games they’ve played are infamous. And for the Prairie View A&M University precincts, they put the early-polling place more than seven miles from the school.
So what did the students in this video do? They shut down the highway as they marched seven miles to cast their votes on the first day of early voting.
February 25, 2008
Neato Optical Illusion [thx DF]
February 24, 2008
SxSW Music Torrent - there's for some reason no official torrent of SxSW artists' mp3s this year, so someone took the legal, redistributable mp3s from the SxSW site and packaged this unofficial torrent.
Over Time I Get Used To Everything And Start Taking It For Granted - brilliant. From subtraction.
Interesting article on the Great Firewall of China - wonder if MsC will be able to read this.
How we'd fuck up Casablanca - A fun exercise: "take a classic flick that pretty much reaches the heights of iconic perfection and decide what we'd do for the remake if it were today". [more inside]
February 23, 2008
February 21, 2008
Eactly which way is east of the north pole?
LASIK@Home is the same patented surgical procedure performed at eye clinics around the world, but without the unnecessary equipment and staff. Find out more on the How It Works page. [more inside]
February 20, 2008
Obsolete Skills - from Adjusting Rabbit Ear TV Antennae to Zipping Archives Across Multiple Floppies
February 19, 2008
How people count cash around the world. For some reason this kind of knowledge is endlessly fascinating to me. Why wouldn't the manipulation of paper bills evolve differently the world over? (from cyn-c)
February 16, 2008
Stuff White People Like - This is a scientific approach to highlight and explain stuff white people like. They are pretty predictable.
I need a teammate who will compete with me for SxSW passes, ACL wristbands and a trip to Coachella. [more inside]
February 14, 2008
February 12, 2008
In anticipation, here's a thanks. Andy and I would love to move back to Austin and we've been looking for jobs. We were wondering if any of you Austin folks had any ideas on job opportunities or head hunters that could help us with the job search. I have some info on our skills inside. [more inside]
February 09, 2008
TV Strike Ovar? Sounds like the breakthrough was to agree on a percentage of revenue receipts rather than on rerun-based residuals (if I understood this correctly). I know the music labels, like most baseball teams, have made an art form out of losing money on only the subject-to-royalty parts of their revenue streams, but it sounds like they were careful to specify 'receipts' (i.e. gross, not net). Summary of the agreement (pdf) here.
MIT approved* perpetual motion [more inside]
February 08, 2008
Talk show host fight! My money's on Conan. He's like Lincoln. Big guy, big reach.
Political propaganda dumping ground - we have a long and active discussion about the election thread (aka 'Valatan explains the electoral process') for the apathetic and the outraged to route around. As we gear up for the general election, though, we need a place for things that are less "here's how I/we see things" and more "here's how you/the rest of the world should see things, dammit".
So, here it is. Flames and propaganda here; thoughts and news there, both stickied on the sidebar at top right.
The entries are in! We have narrowed the field down to 9. We are going to have a people's choice award as well as the grand prize, so watch them and vote for your favorite. Theoretical Football is pretty funny.....
Wired magazine turns 15 years old this month (which for some of you is just another reason to realize how damn old you are.) I remember paying the insane (for me, at the time) subscription prices of $40 a year back in high school so I could learn about Push technology. Now they send me a note every few weeks begging me to come back for $10/year.
Anyway, here is a nice reminiscence/review of the first issue as seen through the jaded 2008 reader.
Berkely, CA hard at work producing republican chain mail propaganda. Is it alright for me to hope the "big one" strikes before election time?
February 07, 2008
Our recent marathon "Insane Politics" thread got me wondering whether that had become our most-commented post yet. While waiting for some code to finish I jumped in and SQL'ed up the answer... [more inside]
What Chinese New Year is like in actual China. Yowza.
So, maybe you certainly wouldn't call yourself a hardcore gamer and you couldn't win an online game of Halo or COD4 to save your life. On the other hand, you know video games and you play video games enough to be better than most complete noobs. Is there a place for you in this crazy world? Maybe you can be a midcore gamer. (Okay, you got me, I just wanted you to watch the youtube video of the person playing what is effectively DJ Hero).
February 06, 2008
Auto Tuner Abuse in Pop Music - with examples.
February 05, 2008
Entries for the nanobowl competition. Work is so hard, I had to sit here and watch all 28! I particularly like the Superbowl X^IX one.
Vote for new Texas standard license plates. There are four new designs up for vote or you can choose the current design. New plates will be available in 2009.
Homeland Security, Doing Good by Doing what it does Well - DHS has for almost a year had a program to comb common industrial Open Source software products (the Apaches and the Linuxes and the Firefoxen &c) to detect and repair security flaws. This is perfect for everyone involved -- it has a real effect on security, and highlights why openness is a superior approach to security; it signals to whomever still doubts it that open source software can be industrial strength; and it's a contribution that enthusiasm-driven open-source projects struggle with but that a government agency is superbly equipped to provide. It's also cheap, as far as I can tell ($300k/year). More of this and fewer of the airport anal probes please DHS. [more inside]
Some new webcomics if you're interested. First up, Backwards Compatible by Aaron Williams. It has a little something for everyone: the ladies, video game cynics, and virtual rockers. Everybody's happy!
Second, Ding! by Scott Kurtz for all your Warcraft inside joke needs.
February 01, 2008
Frog went a-courtin’ he did ride, hmm (2x)
Frog went a-courtin’ he did ride
Sword and his pistol by his side, hmm
Microsoft makes a hostile bid for Yahoo! This would pull Flickr, Yahoo! Mail, upcoming.org and del.icio.us into the Evil Empire. I can't imagine there won't be digestion pains from that one.
Frozen Grand Central - possibly the best Improv Everywhere to date. (Previously we've enjoyed them singing, dancing, attending, shopping, posing and celebrating.) [more inside]