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Tuesday, July 31, 2001

I bought a neat book

I bought a neat book called Painted Rocks which comes with six colors of paint and one rock. Here's my first attempt. (click on link for bigger image.) Link Discuss

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 04:56:02 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

I want somebody to start

I want somebody to start a website that features funny or embarrassing SirCam attachments. Anyone know if there is such a site? Discuss

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:48:38 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Dr. Jan Bondeson is a

Dr. Jan Bondeson is a physician at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology in London who moonlights as an author of cool books about medical curiosities and wonders of nature! His latest is "Buried Alive: The Terrifying History of Our Most Primal Fear." Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 02:52:22 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

The Micro-Ecological Life Support Alternative

The Micro-Ecological Life Support Alternative is essentially a compost heap for spaceships! Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 02:38:32 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

U.S. seniors are telling Uncle

U.S. seniors are telling Uncle Sam to shove it by purchasing their drugs from Canadian prescription sites. Link Discuss

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:55:42 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Dumbass nerd infighting. The hacker

Dumbass nerd infighting. The hacker clan that discovered a vulnerability in telnet on BSD and created an exploit to demonstrate the extent of the bug are all hottenbothered because Bugtraq, a venerable security-alert mailinglist posted the exploit, despite a header that forbade such action. Now, the leet haxors want to sue the company that publishes BugTraq, despite the fact that the exploit is circulating all over the net in the usual places -- irc, gnutella, etc.-- because they're worried that publication of their exploit exposes them to liabiity if it's used to trash a server. In reality, I suspect that this is more security geek schisming -- every security guy i know has something disparaging to say about {bugtraq|comp.risks|Bruce Schneier|etc}. Near as I can make out, it all comes down to dick-swinging. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 12:22:19 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Tokyo DisneySea, the latest Disney

Tokyo DisneySea, the latest Disney theme park, is set to open.

The new park is divided into seven theme areas, with more than 23 attractions--including a storm simulator and a volcano-themed roller coaster--33 restaurants and a luxury hotel. The park will feature water rides similar to Splash Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean at existing Disneyland parks, but it will be based on cartoon characters from "Aladdin," "The Little Mermaid" and the "Indiana Jones" movies.

Link Discuss (via Exciting Monkeybum Stories for Boys and Girls)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:54:30 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

A full set of Harry

A full set of Harry Potter characters, furnishings and settings for The Sims. Link Discuss (via Exciting Monkeybum Stories for Boys and Girls)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:48:45 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Everybody wants animated lenticular images

Everybody wants animated lenticular images of winking girls, don't they? Link Discuss

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:30:12 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Disney sends bullying letters to

Disney sends bullying letters to Anahiem merchants warning them to buy $3000 season tickets to its stupid hockey team... or else. Link Discuss

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:28:02 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

This is hands-down the coolest

This is hands-down the coolest thing I've seen on the Internet in like, a month. A 25MB Quicktime clip (you have been warned) of the trailer for a remake of The Princess Bride, reenacted with rubber sharks. Rubber. Sharks. I nearly shat myself laughing. This kicks so very much ass. Link Discuss (via MeFi)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:00:38 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

MyPhysicsLab: groovy interactive animations illustrate

MyPhysicsLab: groovy interactive animations illustrate the principles of physics. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:59:38 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

OK, I like Disney, but

OK, I like Disney, but this guy makes me look like a punter. 1,005 Disney tattoos, a house furnished with all-Mickey tchotchkes. Yikes. Link Discuss (via Memepool)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:59:06 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

RIP, Wau Holland, founder of

RIP, Wau Holland, founder of the legendary hacker clan, the Chaos Computer Club.

Even the first famous CCC hack never would have happened had the German postal and telecommunications authority heeded Holland's and Wernery's warning that they had found a security hole in the Btx network. To make their point, the pair hacked into the system using the password of the Hamburg savings bank and ran up the equivalent of roughly US$50,000 in credit to the CCC account. Then they went to the media with the story, which caused a major stir in West Germany.

Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:58:32 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

ZDnet is reporting that Amazon

ZDnet is reporting that Amazon is de-ephamsizing its auction biz, possibly prepatory to phasing it out altogether. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:57:55 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Things must be tough: Lucent

Things must be tough: Lucent is selling off its private golf course (and, I hear, one of their jets, and I think, a helicopter? Jesus, these guys had the whole set). Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:57:24 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

The Pogues' Shane McGowan on

The Pogues' Shane McGowan on Salon today.

MacGowan wears pain and pleasure on his sleeve, along with beer stains, cigarette burns and the remnants of some long-forgotten curry. In Chicago, he once threw up onstage in midset fronting for his new band the Popes, and resumed singing without a hitch. When he broke up with the Pogues, U2's Bono, one of a passel of celebrity admirers that includes Bob Dylan, Johnny Depp and Nick Cave, let him dry out at his Martello tower in Dublin. Just over a year ago, the Guardian reported that MacGowan was admitted to a fancy rehab facility after his pal, Sinéad O'Connor, called the cops on him -- allegedly because he was hooked on heroin, a rumor MacGowan later denied after he was ejected from said dry-out program for reasons unknown. O'Connor told reporters that she feared for MacGowan's life, but MacGowan shrugged off the whole incident as if that sort of thing happens every day in his world. "I might as well clear up the fact that she [O'Connor] has made out that I was lying on the floor in a coma," he told the Guardian. "Whereas in fact I was sitting on the sofa having a G and T and watching a Sam Peckinpah movie, 'Cross of Iron.'"

Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:55:13 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

The Joy of Linux --

The Joy of Linux -- a handbook for explaining Linux to your parents or your boss -- reviewed today on /. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:42:05 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

The polls are in, God

The polls are in, God wins! From Gallup.com:

"[M]any Americans don't accept evolution as proven scientific theory. A March Gallup poll found that when given a choice, 48% of the public said they believe more in the theory of creationism, while just 28% said they believed more in the theory of evolution. Interestingly, 81% of Americans said they considered themselves to be at least somewhat informed on the issue. Additionally, when asked directly about Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, just 35% said that it was a scientific theory that has been well-supported by evidence. Thirty-nine percent say that it has not been well-supported by evidence. The rest say they don't know enough to say."

Discuss

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:02:38 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Monday, July 30, 2001

Genetically modified laboratory pigs are

Genetically modified laboratory pigs are stolen and turned into sauages. Link Discuss

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:34:04 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Good Jakob Nielsen AlertBox on

Good Jakob Nielsen AlertBox on designing the PR section of your Website to make journos happy.

In our study, we visited journalists where they work. Many journalists are freelancers or work from home, typically using slow dial-up connections. Many also have old computer equipment and do not feel an obsessive need to download all the latest software. Thus, non-standard data formats like PDF, Flash, and QuickTime tend to clog their limited Internet connections. In several test sessions, PR information actually crashed the journalists' computers. Not a good thing if you're looking for positive coverage of your company.

Another finding? Journalists spurn the informational black holes that populate corporate PR areas. They don't want to register to read a press release; they just want to see if it contains anything worth using in a story. And they don't want to send questions to generic email addresses. What do you think the odds are of getting a useful quote from something called "corporate.communications@nokia.com" when you're on deadline?

Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:53:59 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Blogdex is a spider that

Blogdex is a spider that indexes all of the links being posted via Blogger and tabulates the top ten. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:41:15 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Sunday, July 29, 2001

First corporate naming rights, now

First corporate naming rights, now this. It seems like imminent childbirth is a surefire ticket to wealth and fame for a certain class of fruitbat. For a minimum bid of $10,000, you can fly to Florida and watch a woman give birth. No pictures, though. Link Discuss (Thanks, drue!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:44:11 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

SETI is firing up a

SETI is firing up a new optical detection system that detects laser light beacons from hundreds of light-years away rather than listening for radio signals. The rub is that the ETs must be pointing their galactic flashlight right at us for the system to detect the signal. Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 10:35:28 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

A company called Minrad has

A company called Minrad has developed a laser-guided surgical scalpel and named it the Light Saber. It's that last part that doesn't sit well with the Empire. Link (Thanks, Gil!)

posted by David Pescovitz at 06:06:47 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

"How to Teach Someone to

"How to Teach Someone to Use a Computer" -- humane advice for techies from Phil Agre.

Be aware of how abstract your language is. "Get into the editor" is abstract and "press this key" is concrete. Don't say anything unless you intend for them to understand it. Keep adjusting your language downward towards concrete units until they start to get it, then slowly adjust back up towards greater abstraction so long as they're following you. When formulating a take-home lesson ("when it does this and that, you should try such-and-such"), check once again that you're using language of the right degree of abstraction for this user right now.

Link Discuss (via Inflight Correction)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 02:55:42 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Paul Di Filippo reviews Starlight

Paul Di Filippo reviews Starlight 3, the kick-ass new SF anthology in which my story "Power Punctuation!" appears. He says: "Cory Doctorow is in fine gonzo fettle with a silly-serious story that would be right at home in H.L. Gold's Galaxy." Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:46:59 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Tech-support nightmares: slashsite for tech-support

Tech-support nightmares: slashsite for tech-support professionals. Link Discuss (via EvHead)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:02:14 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

New jargon, courtesy of the

New jargon, courtesy of the below link: "Twelve O'Clock Flasher." Someone whose every household appliance is currently flashing "12:00 12:00 12:00." Internet support line slang for a hopeless fool. Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:59:29 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Standup comedians have always used

Standup comedians have always used their place-of-work as a source of comedy. It was only a matter of time until an Internet Help Desk tech took up the mic. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:52:09 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

J. Eric Townsend chronicles his

J. Eric Townsend chronicles his plan to graft a jet engine onto his car. Seriously. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:30:39 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Dan sez:Ugh.Please remove "the band

Dan sez:

Ugh.

Please remove "the band from High Fidelity" from boingboing, you're injuring me with your ignorance. Only Jack Black showed up in _High Fidelity_. The only movie to include him and Kyle Gass (the other band member) thus far has been _Saving Silverman_, in which Kyle had a cameo.

Furthermore, please do not refer to the band by appearances in movies. The official tag-line is more along the lines of "Tenacious D: The Greatest Band on Earth". For the use of your blurb then, "Tenacious D (The Greatest Band on Earth)" ought to do nicely. Perhaps you could pepper it up with some inline links to sites such as <http://www.sidehatch.com>, <http://www.fugitivealien.com/td/video.htm>, and the like.

Dan is a little obsessive. That's OK, though. Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:12:53 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Saturday, July 28, 2001

Japanese researchers built a prototype

Japanese researchers built a prototype robotic exoskeleton that amplifies your muscles with compressed air-powered actuators! The target market? Nurses! So they can lift patients with superhuman strength, the scientists say. Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 08:12:57 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Numerical proof that the bottom

Numerical proof that the bottom has fallen out of the print advertising industry: the Publishers Information Bureau stats on net declines in advertising in major magazines in the first six months of 2001 versus the same period in 2000. Wired's down 39%, the Red Herring lost 49%, and the Industry Standard's down a whopping 74%. Ouch. Link Discuss (Thanks, ronks!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 04:02:23 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Stupendously clueless congressional report on

Stupendously clueless congressional report on P2P file-sharing, kids and porn. Link Discuss (via /.)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 03:57:11 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Teancious D (the band from

Teancious D (the band from High Fidelity) has a new animated video, courtesy of John K. and Spumco. Shockwave raunchiness, hooooo! Link Discuss (Thanks, drsmith!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 03:44:33 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Frida Kahlo meets Norman Rockwell,

Frida Kahlo meets Norman Rockwell, courtesy of JimWich. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 03:28:35 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

For the next couple weeks,

For the next couple weeks, I'm interviewing Jack Womack -- gonzo sf writer and author of such stellar novels as Going, Going, Gone, Elvissey, and Let's Put the Future Behind Us -- on the WELL. Email me if you have any questions for Jack. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 03:06:09 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Dan Clowes and Terry Zwigoff

Dan Clowes and Terry Zwigoff interveiwed about Ghost World in Salon. Link Discuss (Thanx, Steve!)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:54:22 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Friday, July 27, 2001

Here's a 30-second snip of

Here's a 30-second snip of The California Poppy Pickers singing "Yellow Submarine" on their 1969 album "Hair-Aquarius." Link Discuss

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 05:11:29 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

OK, enough people have complained

OK, enough people have complained about the slow load time of because of Reblogger. So we're back to QuickTopic. Discuss

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 02:03:40 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

The July 30 issue of

The July 30 issue of Time isn't on newsstands yet, but there's an interesting review of the wonderful movie, Ghost World in it. According to Terry Zwigoff, the director, he had to fight the studio for four years to get Steve Bucsemi a part in the movie. The studios wanted to put Freddie Prinze Jr. in the role that Buscemi played. And Zwigoff says the studio actually gave him a note that said, "Can't we have a double wedding [at the end]?" To which Zwigoff comments, "They were serious. It's unbelievable people don't get a gun and start killing people down there."

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 12:14:46 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

13-year-old Indian hacker gets a

13-year-old Indian hacker gets a book deal from Macmillan for "The Unofficial Guide to Ethical Hacking," which details "the tricks and techniques of ethical hacking." Link (via Meerkat)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 12:04:52 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Report from the EFF's meeting

Report from the EFF's meeting with the DoJ, on behalf of Dmitry. Link (via Meerkat)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:59:50 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Chilling Effects: a joint Harvard-EFF

Chilling Effects: a joint Harvard-EFF project tracks cease-and-desist letters sent in response to Internet activities. Link (via MeFi)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:35:12 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Controlled experiment determines which online

Controlled experiment determines which online activities generate the most spam. Link (via /.)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:33:36 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

A couple is offering naming

A couple is offering naming priveleges to their infant-to-be to the first corporate sponsor with a half-million bucks to spend. Link (Thanks, Raffi!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:11:37 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

The new "Discuss" program we

The new "Discuss" program we are using, called Reblogger, is slowing down the load time for boingboing.net. Should we stop using it and start using Quicktopic again?

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 08:17:33 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Thursday, July 26, 2001

Here's an article about a

Here's an article about a prototype shirt woven from fibers of shape-memory alloy, that neat material that roboticists use for electromechanical "tendons." Apparently, the shirt can be "ironed" with a hair-dryer and rolls up its own sleeves when it gets hot. Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 07:12:02 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

This micro-mechanical flying insect from

This micro-mechanical flying insect from UC Berkeley will be amazing, once it gets off the ground. Its design is based on a real blowfly. The researchers working on it told me they expect it to be ready for take off in the next couple of years! And they gave me an acrylic model of the robofly as a souvenir!!! Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 07:01:20 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

A trebuchet is a giant

A trebuchet is a giant catapault, basically. A cow is a four-legged ruminant. Put them together and you get: cow-flinging! Link (Thanks, alden!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:32:42 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Blind? Afraid of/allergic to dogs?

Blind? Afraid of/allergic to dogs? Get a miniature guide-horse instead. Link (Thanks Steve!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:24:24 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Ashcroft denies existence of FBI's

Ashcroft denies existence of FBI's Carnivore eavesdropping system: "When a reporter asked Attorney General John Ashcroft about the future of Carnivore during his visit to the Silicon Valley, Ashcroft replied that the FBI does not have a system called Carnivore. He then made a vague comment about how any similar system would use technology that is 'privacy neutral.'" Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 04:24:02 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Here's a kick-ass entry into

Here's a kick-ass entry into the patent-busting world: priorart.org is a site where you can submit your ideas -- they'll file them with patent offices worldwide (for free) and thus make any future patent claims invalid. In other words, you get all the protection of a "defensive patent" (no one else can claim to have invented your idea) without filing a patent. Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:55:08 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

How can you build suspense

How can you build suspense in high-tech mimetic fiction? What happens to all those nail-biting 30-second phone traces in the era of *69? Link (Thanks, Topher!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:58:03 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Great New Yorker article by

Great New Yorker article by Art Spiegelman about the strange life and death of the creator of Plastic Man. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:51:18 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

One man's inventory of SirCam-forwarded

One man's inventory of SirCam-forwarded documents. Link (via EvHead)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:43:41 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Printed batteries can be cut

Printed batteries can be cut to fit any shape. Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:23:12 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Verizon leaks customer personal info

Verizon leaks customer personal info sufficient to create thousands of fake identities. Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:22:17 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Wednesday, July 25, 2001

A stolen laptop, infected with

A stolen laptop, infected with SirCam, is broadcasting its whereabouts in the form of copies of the virus spammed to its address-book. Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 02:25:31 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

More convention costume photos! Link

More convention costume photos! Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:58:43 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Web site about the "Hot

Web site about the "Hot Club of America In Hi-Fi" Album. (You can hear the entire album by clicking on the "Audio" link.) Link (via Linkalog)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:30:36 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Tuesday, July 24, 2001

Which three weblogs would you

Which three weblogs would you take with you on a desert island? Mine would be linkalog, jimwich, and kottke. (see links at right under "Favorite Blogs.")

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 06:01:10 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Dan Clowes profile in The

Dan Clowes profile in The LA Weekly.Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 05:02:06 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Dan Clowes profile in The

Dan Clowes profile in The New Yorker. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 05:01:03 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

I just ordered this Califone

I just ordered this Califone record player. Only 139 dollars. I can't wait to get it! Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 04:56:14 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Short Village Voice piece on

Short Village Voice piece on the HAARP project.

"One can envision the development of electromagnetic energy sources, the output of which can be pulsed, shaped, and focused, that can couple with the human body in a fashion that will allow one to prevent voluntary muscular movements, control emotions with both short-term and long-term memory, produce an experience set, and delete an experience set."

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 12:33:28 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Wacky clip art from CSA

Wacky clip art from CSA archives. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 12:30:55 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

U.S. Post Office's creepy snitch

U.S. Post Office's creepy snitch program.

One thing that should set off alarms, the postal service says, is a customer objecting to filling out an 8105-A form that requests their date of birth, occupation and driver's license or other government-issued ID for a purchase of money orders of 3,000 dollars or more. If they cancel the purchase or request a smaller amount, the clerk automatically should fill out Form 8105-B, the "suspicious-activity" report. "Whatever the reason, any customer who switches from a transaction that requires an 8105-A form to one that doesn't should earn himself or herself the honor of being described on a B form," the training manual says.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 12:29:39 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Monday, July 23, 2001

Clay Shirky's open letter/petition to

Clay Shirky's open letter/petition to PC manufacturers, urging them to pressure Microsoft to support Java in Windows XP. Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:28:12 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Starlight 3, the third volume

Starlight 3, the third volume of the totally killer original sf anthology series is out! After trying for seven years and three volumes, I've finally got a story in it! Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:00:27 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Why good software takes ten

Why good software takes ten years to develop. Link (Thanks, Wayne!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:49:16 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Leaked memo details WTO's plans

Leaked memo details WTO's plans to sell globalization to disaffected youth.

Consider reconfiguring product logo. Teens who responded negatively to both WTO "brand" and "World Trade Organization" responded less negatively when letters were said to stand for something else (World Time Out or We Think Off-Beat were both presented to focus groups.). Possibilities are obviously limited within the current logo-scope. Consider using other letters?

Link (Thanks, Steve!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:47:49 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

TechTV coverage -- with video!

TechTV coverage -- with video! -- of the launch of Peekabootie, the Cult of the Dead Cow's new P2P freedom of information app. Link (Thanks, Laird!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:40:17 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Amazing story of the world's

Amazing story of the world's dumbest encyclopedia.

Adler decided that there are 102 great ideas—running alphabetically from Angel to World—and was able to hire a staff of unemployed intellectual workers to plow through the fifty-four volumes, constituting roughly 32,000 pages, to discover 163,000 referents in them to the 102 great ideas. The project took eight years and roughly a million dollars, back in the 1950s, when a million dollars really was a million dollars.

Link (Thanks, Margot!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:37:32 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Microsoft opens the source to

Microsoft opens the source to Windows CE (WinCE!) under their Shared Source license. Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:06:25 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Christian verses for popular songs.

Christian verses for popular songs. (e.g., "Smells Like Teen Spirit" becomes "Smells Like Holy Spirit.") Link (Gil sez: "Holy Rock, Batman!")

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 06:04:17 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Adobe backs off on Russian

Adobe backs off on Russian hacker, asking the FBI to let him go. Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:02:54 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Is Teoma the next Google?

Is Teoma the next Google? The results seem pretty good, and the directory stuff is great. Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:59:55 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

British scientist quits US-based conference,

British scientist quits US-based conference, citing recent arrest of Russian programmer in Las Vegas. Is there a brain drain in store? Thanks again, FBI!Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:18:08 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Article on new biological warfare.

Article on new biological warfare.

The direct destruction of life is not the only choice for a terrorist. Looking to the longer term, an effective alternative to attacks on people is one that has a devastating effect on the economy of the unwary victims. For example, a would-be attacker could hire a crop sprayer to spray wheat stem rust fungus over a few fields in the American Midwest. The effect might not be obvious immediately, but certainly by harvest time most of the country - and the world - would be aware that a considerable portion of America's grains were spoiled. The long-term effect would be disastrous. Not only would America's wheat sales be lost for that particular harvest, but the spores produced during infection would cause a domino effect that could have an impact on farming across states for many years to come.

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:46:32 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Friday, July 20, 2001

Real places that appear in

Real places that appear in Zippy strips. California Crazy! Link (thanx, Stefan!)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:43:23 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Who had had more fun

Who had had more fun in Italy - Her? or Him?

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:26:38 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Backwoods Home Magazine article on

Backwoods Home Magazine article on How to start a jug band for under a hundred bucks. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:54:32 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Stefan E. Jone's to-do list:

Stefan E. Jone's to-do list: 1) Get a bunch of old, cheap, obsolete laptops, a stencil kit, and a can of spray paint. Label the computers "PROPERTY OF FBI." Leave in airport bathrooms, Starbucks, masonic temples, and movie theaters. 2) When co-workers leave computers and monitors on after hours, set the screen saver to "Marquee" with text reading "THIS MACHINE CONTRIBUTING PROCESSING CYCLES TO SEA MONKEY NEURAL NET DECODING PROJECT." 3) Print up a bunch of mailing labels reading "THIS MACHINE DOES NOT ACCEPT DOLLY MADISON $2.00 COIN" Apply below coin slots of favorite vending machines. 4) Collect the DVD cases that AOL trial CD-ROMs come in. Remove all inserts and labels. Print up labels reading "STAR WARS EPISODE III SFX SEQUENCES." Insert blank or ruined CD-RW disks into case. Drop on dealer's room floor at SF convention. 5) Write "BEING HELD PRISONER. HELP. AMBROSE." on pieces of scrap paper. Collect co-workers' staplers when they are not looking. Peel rubber base off of a stapler, insert note, replace rubber base, and return stapler to desk. Repeat. 6) Order a custom service-dog vest reading "VOCABULARY ASSIST DOG. DO NOT TALK TO ME WHILE I'M LEARNING." Place on dog. Take dog for a walk down city street. Pause occasionally to point at and name common objects in loud, precise voice. If someone asks what a vocabulary assist dog does, look surprised and annoyed. 7) During travels, collect hotel and motel postcards. Write down cryptic phrases and random strings of letters and numbers on backs. Stamp CLASSIFIED with red ink. Find estate sale; hide postcards in lunchbox, toolbox or similar spot that other shoppers will likely look in. 8) Go to a local thrift shop. Begin categorizing and alphabetizing the used book section. If questioned, explain that you are fulfilling a community service requirement.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:47:38 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Here's the Boycott Adobe site,

Here's the Boycott Adobe site, which was set up after a guy by the name of Dmitry Sklyarov was arrested and held without bail for showing attendees how to crack Adobe's lame encryption scheme. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:42:03 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Photo gallery of bad human

Photo gallery of bad human factors design. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:27:28 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Filthy Lucre: "Most US dollar

Filthy Lucre: "Most US dollar bills are bacteria farms, cultivating dozens of potentially dangerous pathogens, a study in Ohio has revealed. The finding raises the possibility that paper money could be transporting antibiotic resistant bacteria quickly from one geographic area to another, say the researchers." Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:23:12 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

"Man charged with urinating on

"Man charged with urinating on another customer at home improvement store" Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:12:31 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Thursday, July 19, 2001

This shockwave cartoon (A Cyndi

This shockwave cartoon (A Cyndi Lauper parody) totally apes Shag's drawing style. Link (Via Sensible Erection)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:33:11 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Wednesday, July 18, 2001

I love this list of

I love this list of evil genius hoaxes.

Carve computer-generated ripples in the surface of a main highway, and when vehicles pass over the surface, mysterious voices whisper, and distant music plays. Two ripple-tracks, one for each tire, should give stereo sound. Two tires each makes it all echo-y. Is this already being done? Little sub-threshold voices which say "Vote for Rush" "Drink Pepsi" "The BATF is your Friend" Wait, I know, "ALL YOUR BASE BELONG TO US!"

Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 08:47:16 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Already down in the dirt,

Already down in the dirt, Razorfish asks to be kicked again by sending a spam that used the actual mailing list address as the return address, so that everyone on the list started getting everyone else's complaints. Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:47:13 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

The Simputer is being touted

The Simputer is being touted as a very low cost ($200) handheld computer that allows illiterate people to use the Web. The designers claim it will translate English text into tone of many different Indian dialects and then convert that into speech. Instead of a keyboard, it's got several navigational buttons.Even though the project has received a lot of uncritical press coverage, it smells like vaporware to me. Link Discuss

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:14:08 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Hurrah! The Mad Scientists' Club,

Hurrah! The Mad Scientists' Club, one of my favorite kids' book series, is being reissued by a print-on-demand service, with the author's preferred text and additions from the original manuscript. Link (scroll down on page) Discuss (Thanks, theek!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:57:31 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

$1700 will get you from

$1700 will get you from the US to Transylvania, where you can re-trace the steps of Jonathan Harker as you visit Dracula's Castle! Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:46:33 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Ghost Ride Productions' new, state-of-the-art

Ghost Ride Productions' new, state-of-the-art cob-web gun.

Cob webs are one of the most important and often overlooked details in any dark attraction. Our exclusive thermoplastic webbing system creates authentic looking webs faster than any other system available. The gun's custom tip funnels webbing material into a stream of compressed air, resulting in less waste and precise application of webbing material. Get within an inch of your scenery or blow webs up to 30 feet away - you have control over direction, amount and density of webs.

Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:44:32 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Need to insure an airshow?

Need to insure an airshow? Circus? Haunted house? You need Allied Specialty Insurers. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:36:24 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Sued by Starbucks: The hair-raising

Sued by Starbucks: The hair-raising story of a culture-jammer's adventures with the Starbucks logo. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:26:25 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Interesting Salon interview with Mike

Interesting Salon interview with Mike Lewis. I'm particularily intrigued with his explanation of how novelty-obsession causes us to maintain an adolescent point-of-view.

He did this study in which he finds that if people who haven't tried a new kind of food, like, say, Japanese food, by the time they're 25 years old, there's a 99 percent chance that they won't try it for the rest of their lives. If they haven't tried a new kind of fashion by the time they're 20, like an earring or a nose ring, there's a 99 percent chance that they'll never do it for the rest of their lives.

He finds that rats show exactly the same propensity. They are born very conservative creatures. There's a brief period during adolescence when they are obsessed with novelty. They are frantic to try new things. An adolescent rat is an explorer, is an adventurer. But then after this brief period, they return to the same conservative tendencies they showed when they were very young, and the same hesitancy toward new things. He surmises that there is something wired into us, but he has no explanation for it.

What's interesting about it is that this trait in human beings now intersects with the economy in a really rich way. If you have an economy that's premised on really rapid technical change, young people, people who are willing to accommodate that change and embrace it, are going to do better than they've ever done. That trait in adolescence, that essentially adolescent trait, becomes highly prized.

And once you realize that, you start to explain a lot of the behavior of the people who were sort of in the middle of the technology world as they get older. They understand as they get older that they've got to preserve this quality in themselves, and they end up preserving an awful lot else of adolescence along with it.

Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:22:49 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Hurrah! The Onion is back

Hurrah! The Onion is back after a month-long hiatus. Favorite headline: "300 Naked Women Feared Lost In Computer Crash" Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:57:16 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Japanese fabric researchers figure out

Japanese fabric researchers figure out how to embed your dialy dose of vitamin C in your t-shirt, whence it will osmose into your bloodstream. Goes well with the nerdy Dockers pants from yesterday, huh? Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:50:41 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

A court upholds a 1985

A court upholds a 1985 patent that entitles its holder to "licensing fees for all Internet software downloads." Hey, those intellectual property laws sure do encourage innovation, huh? Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:37:38 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Tuesday, July 17, 2001

"The FBI has discovered that

"The FBI has discovered that 449 of its weapons and 184 of its laptop computers have been stolen or lost." Watch them spin this (and their other recent blunders) as a way to get a big fat budget increase. Link Discuss (Thanks, Gil!)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 06:28:50 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Dockers ships khakis tailored to

Dockers ships khakis tailored to disguise your PDA, pager, and mobile. Birthday present!

Seven pockets in all. Standard side pockets are replaced by "mesh" ones deep enough to carry checkbooks and airline tickets. A hidden zip vault pocket inside the right mesh pocket can secure valuables. You can even sit on your fanny with a floppy in one of two back pockets without being uncomfortable or snapping the disk in two.

The company says you can unzip a pocket to answer a ringing phone in 0.15 second.

Link Discuss (Thanks, Scott!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:49:16 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

The online personality disorder test.

The online personality disorder test. Boy am I screwed up. Link Discuss (via EvHead)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:03:41 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

I turned thirty last night,

I turned thirty last night, in an airplane over middle America. I am no longer trustworthy. I feel decrepit. Being old sucks. Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:46:45 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Monday, July 16, 2001

Here's a Wired News article

Here's a Wired News article about the Tele-Actor, a human "robot" I helped develop with researchers at UC Berkeley and MIT! Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 07:48:30 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

A sysadmin installed distributed.net's screensaver

A sysadmin installed distributed.net's screensaver -- which harnesses idle computer cycles to crack long-key ciphers -- on a bunch of university computers. The university decided that using their idle resources was a crime that cost them $415k+, and is seeking some awfully stiff penalties. So much for academic rigor. Higher education sucks -- you heard it here first, folks. Link Discuss (Thanks, Rael!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 03:39:29 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Pithy thoughts from Richard Kadrey,

Pithy thoughts from Richard Kadrey, posted to the WELL (reposted here with permission):

Topic 1481 [genx]: Work-Related Oddities
#167 of 177: Call Out Research Hook #1 (kadrey) Fri Jul 13 '01 (17:24) 8 lines

almost no one knows what they hell they're talking about, in my experience. and most companies are one bad meeting away from imploding, no matter how tranquil and together they appear on the surface. economic moments like the current one are the convergence of all those points of free-floating incompetancy swirling into the accretion disc of a big black hole of Suck. this is the terror of adult life. this is why strangers will sometimes lock eyes for a shared moment of ass-puckering fear.

Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 01:41:23 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

It's OK for law enforcement

It's OK for law enforcement to wiretap citizens, but not OK for citizens to document their encounters with police. Massachusett's "highest court on Friday upheld the conviction of a man who secretly recorded police after they pulled him over."

Hyde, a rock musician, said he recorded Abington police because he thought they unfairly targeted him for a traffic stop on Oct. 26, 1998, because of his long hair, leather jacket and his sports car. Hyde recorded officers using an obscenity, asking him if he had any cocaine in his car, and threatening to send him to jail. Several days later, he brought the tape to police headquarters to try to prove he was harassed. Instead, police charged Hyde with unlawful wiretapping.

Link Discuss

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:58:36 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

MS and Ximian will work

MS and Ximian will work together to make an open-source clone of .NET. Link Discuss (via /.)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:30:32 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

MacMinute -- comprehensive, up to

MacMinute -- comprehensive, up to the minute MacOS news. Link Discuss (Thanks, George!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:32:47 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Greetings from the Microsoft XP

Greetings from the Microsoft XP ISV seminar, in building 33 here in rainy Redmond. What a difference a week makes! These guys set the standard for nerd-luxury: blazing-fast 802.11 access (and wired access for the losers benighted souls without WiFi), a bounteous harvest of caffeine delivery systems, and location/construction that allows me good, solid cellular and pager access. All conference facilities should be this accomodating. Yes, yes, I know, it doesn't take much to make me happy. Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:24:17 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Xerox PARC researchers cautioned not

Xerox PARC researchers cautioned not to research patents at IBM's patent-server, for fear that Big Blue's researchers will use the server-logs to second-guess PARC's research efforts. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:58:38 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Good analysis of the degree

Good analysis of the degree to which computer virii are analogous to human viruses. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:55:33 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Funny glossary of Internet security

Funny glossary of Internet security terms: "Ciphertext n. Euphemism for garbage." Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:53:30 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Gary Larson struggles with comics-want-to-free

Gary Larson struggles with comics-want-to-free and cartoonists-want-be-in-charge in an open letter to his Internet fans.

My effort here is to try and speak to the intangible impact, the emotional cost to me, personally, of seeing my work collected, digitized, and offered up in cyberspace beyond my control.

Link Discuss (via EvHead)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:33:35 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Goths and the Internet go

Goths and the Internet go together like peanut butter and chocolate. Viz, the upcoming gargantuan net-goth conference. Link Discuss (via Memepool)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:29:07 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

On the Internet, no one

On the Internet, no one knows if you're a lawyer or a loudmouth teenager. Talk about a reputation economy. Link Discuss (Thanks, Martha!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:24:00 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Exhaustive calculation calculates, once and

Exhaustive calculation calculates, once and for all, why shower-curtains billow inward. Link Discuss (via /.)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:21:03 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

British lobby-group fights to get

British lobby-group fights to get respect for copyright integrated into school curriculum.

"Copyright is relevant to music, art, information, technology, and English; and patents and design rights are relevant to science and design technology," reads the report. It goes on to recommend specific ways teachers might make copyright issues a little more real to their 12- to 18-year-olds: "School children should recognize their own creativity by including the copyright symbol on their course work."

Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:19:14 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Microsoft softens stance on MP3.

Microsoft softens stance on MP3. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:10:37 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Saturday, July 14, 2001

Duck bites (police)man: A mother

Duck bites (police)man:

A mother duck is a hero in Vancouver because she chased after a police officer, grabbed his pantleg and directed him to her ducklings caught in a sewer grating.

Link Discuss (Thanks, theek!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 02:12:19 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Hilarious insider's look at Bob

Hilarious insider's look at Bob Jones University. Full of amazing quotes from former alumni, like this:

"I'm not a scientist, but I've done enough reading to know that the whole concept of natural selection and evolution is not science. It's not repeatable. It's a theory. You can talk about chemistry, physics - those things are all a matter of fact. Evolution is a religious tenet - it's a tenet of secular humanism, and of Marxism and Communism."  -- Rep. Samuel Rohrer,   BoJo alumnus; Republican Assemblyman - Pennsylvania

Link Discuss

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 12:20:54 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Cool, illustrated writeup of the

Cool, illustrated writeup of the Brooklyn Mermaid Parade. Link Discuss (via Calamondin)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:24:46 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

The original Hotwired guidelines are

The original Hotwired guidelines are raw, unadulterated early digerati rantings of the first water.

Where Wired is a clear signpost to the next level, HotWired is operating from that next level. HotWired is a constantly evolving experiment in virtual community. It's Way New Journalism. It's Rational Geographic.

Today is like 1948; a new medium has reached critical mass. We're trying to help define the future of that medium before it ends up like television.

So if you're looking for the soul of our new medium in wild metamorphosis, our advice is simple. Get HotWired.

Link Discuss (via kottke.org)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:17:36 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Help this guy (Link) identify

Help this guy (Link) identify this song (Link). He's been trying to name that tune for 20 years. Discuss (via kottke.org)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:12:07 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Why Open Source? Here's a

Why Open Source? Here's a good, comprehensive paper, full of quantitative data on why Open Source server tools are better than their proprietary breathern. Link Discuss (via /.)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:00:08 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Public Enemy is posting vocal

Public Enemy is posting vocal tracks from their next disc on the Net and asking would-be DJs to mix in instrumentals and post them. Link Discuss (via /.)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:56:07 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Friday, July 13, 2001

The timber industry commissioned a

The timber industry commissioned a pastiche of Dr Suess's Lorax fable, with a pro-logging spin, and distributed it to schools. Jerks. Link Discuss (via Robot Wisdom)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:36:13 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Good, timely Dilbert comic today.

Good, timely Dilbert comic today. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:31:59 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Whacks of pleasant and unpleasant

Whacks of pleasant and unpleasant MacOS rumors on MacSlash. OS9.2 has gone gold-master. OSX.1 is delayed. Link Discuss (Thanks, silly!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:27:20 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Terry Pratchett interview (delightful!) on

Terry Pratchett interview (delightful!) on the WELL. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:20:24 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Hacker sends Viagra to Bill

Hacker sends Viagra to Bill Gates. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:15:29 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

The headline really says it

The headline really says it all: Cat Mauls Man While Showering Parrot.

An elderly Canadian man was recovering Thursday following a savage attack by his pet cat, which drew four carloads of police, two ambulances and an animal control officer.

Link Discuss (Thanks, Pat!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:11:46 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

More weird crap from Skymall:

More weird crap from Skymall: the in-flight recliner. It's an inflatable seat-liner for airplanes. The cool part is, you inflate it using the overhead air-nozzle. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:09:14 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

A whack of Disney Internet

A whack of Disney Internet radio stations at Live365.com, including tons of theme-park music and rarities. Link, Link, Link Discuss (Thanks, Jeff!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:04:31 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

The MegaPenny project is almost

The MegaPenny project is almost as much fun as the Eames's "Powers of Ten" Link Discuss

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:41:33 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Twelve Hottest Cartoon Babes. Link

Twelve Hottest Cartoon Babes. Link Discuss (Thanks, carolen!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:49:07 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

I just got back from

I just got back from Internet World Chicago. It was a ghost town. Declan McCullagh's posted his pix of the empty hallways. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:39:03 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Linda Barry is back from

Linda Barry is back from her hiatus, with a new strip on Salon. I'm glad -- it's a lovely strip -- but I sure hope she gets back to work on the next novel. Cruddy, her last one, was a savage and brilliant book like a fishhook in the mind. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:36:12 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

MAPS, the spam-relay blacklist, begins

MAPS, the spam-relay blacklist, begins charging for access to its service. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:33:52 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

NC17-rated Spumco shockwave cartoon. Link

NC17-rated Spumco shockwave cartoon. Link Discuss

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:33:40 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Collective Robotics is an example

Collective Robotics is an example of Ant Colony Optimization in action. Using simple rules, robots can behave in a coordinated fashion without any coordinating mechanisms (in other word, each robot acts out its own autonomous, simple behaviours, and the emergent effect is coordinated effort). Check out the video!

The objective in the transport task is to locate a brightly lit box and move it to a goal location (located at the leftside of the screen). The box is weighted such that at least two robots are needed to move the box. The goal position is indicated with an overhead spot light placed at one corner of the lab environment. The robots do not explicitly communicate and are not centrally controlled. The robots also do not differentiate between objects and other robots.

Six robots starting from a random initial position must locate the box using two forward pointing light sensors. Once a boxside is located the robot determines if the box is between the robot and the goal using an upward pointing goal sensor and either pushes or repositions itself on the box. Repositioning can (and often does) cause the robot to loose sight of the box since the field of view of the box sensors are not omni-directional. This results in the robot having to relocate the box, find a boxside and determine the goal location. Although not an optimal solution, the robots always manage to push the box towards the goal and demonstrates the utility of simple feasible solutions.

Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:29:31 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Ant Colony Optimization is an

Ant Colony Optimization is an elegant branch of cellular automata theory that's being used to come up with optimized solutions to really, really hard problems (like the Travelling Salesman Problem). Its applications right now are primarily network load-balancing and automated manufacturing, but there's some really, really tasty applications for distributed computing (OpenCola Folders can be thought of as an Ant Colony Optimization simulation). Link Discuss (Thanks, Ethan!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:20:46 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Thursday, July 12, 2001

"Eric Conveys An Emotion" is

"Eric Conveys An Emotion" is a site where you request an emotion and Eric acts it out for you in a still image. Silly and fun! Link (Thanks, Karen!)

posted by David Pescovitz at 09:23:50 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Gallery of five paintings by

Gallery of five paintings by illustrator Sonny Liew. The one I linked to here is my favorite. Link Discuss (Thanks, Marc!)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:10:49 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Automatic book making machine will

Automatic book making machine will cost $30,000.

"Working from a digital file, it can print, bind, and trim a book of any size in a matter of minutes. Having finished with one title, it can proceed to another and another, as long as the machine is kept supplied with ink, toner, and paper -- the same regular copy paper you might buy at Staples."

Link Discuss (via Street Tech)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 02:47:45 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Hoogerbrugge's "Modern Living" has a

Hoogerbrugge's "Modern Living" has a bunch of neat surreal/dadaistic animated gifs. Some of them remind me of Bill Plympton's "morphin' head" stuff. Highly recommended. Link Discuss (Thanks, Marc!)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 02:38:51 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

"Keen to boost sales in

"Keen to boost sales in a flagging market, a Dutch company is offering vibrators to customers who buy mobile handsets and take out subscriptions." Link Discuss

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:29:34 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Ookworld's superb gallery of old

Ookworld's superb gallery of old comic book covers. Look at the variety of subjects! Comics used to be so much fun. Link Discuss

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:14:45 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Excellent gallery of mug shots

Excellent gallery of mug shots from the Smoking Gun. Link Discuss

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:47:05 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Toronto's scary old Don Jail,

Toronto's scary old Don Jail, cited for human rights violations by international organizations, is closing. It will reopen shortly, though -- as a hospital. Link Discuss (via Exciting Monkeybum Stories for Boys and Girls)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:51:49 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Disney World drops free valet

Disney World drops free valet service at their super-pricey luxury hotels. On the one hand, this sucks. On the other hand, the internal transport system at WDW kicks all kinds of ass, and there's no good reason to leave the grounds, so why are you driving, anyway? Link Discuss (via Exciting Monkeybum Stories for Boys and Girls)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:45:00 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Gods of Tiki: New LA

Gods of Tiki: New LA Times piece on Leroy Schmaltz, Ed Roth, and other Angelino tikiphiles.

Think tikis come from Polynesia? Not really. Now even Tahitian hotels get their totems from Whittier, where Schmaltz's company, Oceanic Arts -- the only full-blown tiki supplier in the world -- sits nearly as stolidly as the tikis themselves amid a landscape that includes a juvenile correctional institute and endless fast-food franchises. In its heyday, Oceanic Arts employed 12 people, and needed three warehouses plus a two-acre plot just for logs. These days the company is smaller, its output reduced, but it has survived, packaging paradise for Southern Californians and beyond. Each year, as restaurants like the Beverly Hills Trader Vic's remove "clutter" from their interiors, as tiki palaces burn their last log, Schmaltz's impact becomes less visible. But the man is a legend in the world of tiki. His signature, Oceanic Arts, means a lot to his followers. Though far from charismatic in person, Schmaltz has made a powerful impact on the world of tiki, inspiring writers and artists, historians and gallery owners, barhoppers and hipsters. His impact is especially strong in L.A. and environs, where some speak his name with awe.

Link Discuss (Thanks, Steve!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:36:14 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Vomit: an open-source tool to

Vomit: an open-source tool to convert data captured from Cisco voice-over-IP phones. In a nutshell, with this tool and access to a network, you can listen in on conversations, archive them, and insert your own dialog. Of course, you can also use it as a network troubleshooting tool or a speakerphone... Link Discuss (Thanks, Chris!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:29:29 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

OK, so maybe wireless isn't

OK, so maybe wireless isn't all hype. Muslim clerics have ruled that men can divorce their wives by sending three SMS messages ("I divorce you") to their cellphones. Link Discuss (via Cheesedip)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:01:32 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Salon facing a takeover attempt

Salon facing a takeover attempt that's as hostile as it is goofy. I like Salon a lot, but I live for the WELL, which Salon owns. Stuff like this makes me very nervous.

...Salon Holdings LLC -- a one-man shell company that would buy Salon, fire the majority of the 37-member editorial staff and replace them with syndicated articles from magazines like the Atlantic Monthly and the New Yorker.

Link Discuss (via Evhead)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 04:55:08 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

For perhaps the first time

For perhaps the first time in my life, I wish I was in Vegas. DefCon, the k-rad haxor convention, starts this weekend. Seems like half of OpenCola'll be there, but not me, alas. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 04:25:56 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Wednesday, July 11, 2001

Borders interviews Samuel Delany. "Look

Borders interviews Samuel Delany.

"Look at any part of your body (or anybody else's, for that matter), fixed and unwavering -- your face in a mirror, your thigh, your forearm -- and you begin to see the skeleton beneath the skin, the potential for decay and death that underlies all living flesh and sinew. The presence of a hallucinogen in your system can make that a quite spectacular -- and particularly unsettling -- experience.

Link Discuss (Thanks, Thomas!)

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:38:10 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

70+ photos of lynchings. Link

70+ photos of lynchings. Link Discuss (via Memepool)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 02:52:24 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Kozmo.com schwag for sale on

Kozmo.com schwag for sale on eBay: Scooters, vans, cycling jerseys, messenger bags. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:36:54 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

The Museum of Questionably Medical

The Museum of Questionably Medical Devices. Notes and photos on:

* 1930's Health Magazine Covers * Battle Creek Vibratory Chair * Bloodletting Devices * Contemporary Quackery * Foot Operated Breast Enlarger * The Radium Case * Radium Ore Revigator * Relaxacisor * Shoe-Fitting X-Ray Device * Spectro-Chrome * The Timely Warning * Toftness Radiation * The Vibrometer * Violet Ray Generators

And much, much more! Link Discuss (via Memepool)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:34:13 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Terrific story on Salon today:

Terrific story on Salon today: NYC consumers, not involved with high-tech or finance, meet in a focus-group on the dot-bomb.

Even more than the silencing of the sock puppet, or the spectacular crash of Boo.com, the death of Kozmo was a painful event, a watershed moment in the psychology of the economy of diminished expectations. It meant an end to the dot-com dream of instant gratification, constant connection and free stuff. "After sitting at home in my bathrobe, and having some nice man hand me my movie, how can I ever go back to Blockbusters?" asked one woman. "It's like living in a Third World country." Said a young man, a retail clerk: "I'm just so tired now. I'm tired all the time."

Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:28:16 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Tuesday, July 10, 2001

Counterpoint: a compassionate article on

Counterpoint: a compassionate article on the care and feeding of hackers.

3.1: My hacker did something bad, and I want to punish him.

Don't. 30 years of psychological research has shown that punishment has no desirable long-term effects. Your hacker is not a lab rat. (Even if he were a lab rat, punishment wouldn't work; at least, not if he were one of the sorts of lab rats the psych research was done on.) If you don't like something your hacker is doing, express your concerns. Explain what it is that bothers you about the behavior.

Be prepared for an argument; your hacker is a rational entity, and presumably had reasons. Don't jump on him too quickly; they may turn out to be good reasons.

Don't be afraid to apologize if you're wrong. If your hacker admits to having been wrong, don't demand an apology; so far as the hacker is concerned, admitting to being wrong is an apology, most likely.

Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:21:07 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Oh, those pesky nerds. An

Oh, those pesky nerds. An IT Recruiting mag tackles the care and feeding of "prima donna programmers."

The syndrome often is found in someone like this: a young and brilliant software developer who lives and breathes IT. A true geek, “Hal” spends a lot of work time in techie chat rooms engaged in in-depth UNIX conversations, sharing code and discussing programming challenges. Despite his inclination to partake in on-the-job recreation, Hal is a prolific and productive programmer.

So far, so good. Just another proud member of the hacker tribe, right? But unfortunately, Hal has another side. He makes rude and disparaging comments about his coworkers. If he doesn’t like a project, he’ll let it slide. In particular, he resists the drudgery of correcting or upgrading “someone else’s ugly program.”

Link Discuss (via /.)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:15:30 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

LA County attempts to collect

LA County attempts to collect taxes on Hughes geosynch sats.

Brian Paperny, Hughes vice president of taxes, described the company's executives as "very concerned with the concept of a tax being assessed on a stationary object 22,300 miles away from the Earth, which is residing in a fixed parking slot . . . over the equator, far, far away from Los Angeles County and the borders of California."

Link Discuss (via /.)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:12:40 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

"The Extent of Systematic Monitoring

"The Extent of Systematic Monitoring of Employee E-mail and Internet Use" -- a study whose time has come. Summary: your boss is spying on you, but not as frequently as you think.

Over the past few years, employee monitoring has been increasing about twice as fast as the number of employees with Internet access. The online workforce in the U.S. as measured by Nielsen//NetRatings has grown by about 33 percent per year, to 40.7 million employees using the Internet in January 2001 from 30.6 million in January 2000.

Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 04:33:51 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

The Jim Morrison simulator. I

The Jim Morrison simulator. I think that the old Willie-Wagger was dead before I was born, but this seems eerily accurate to my untutored eye. Link Discuss (via MeFi)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 04:29:58 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

A slow news day at

A slow news day at Wired News, apparently. Check out this story about bumwad manufacturers' efforts to increase the capacity of industrial TP rolls by eliminating the roll in favor of more shit-tickets. Link Discuss Shit-tickets® is a registered trademark of John Henson, esq. Used here with permission

posted by Cory Doctorow at 04:25:20 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Princeton's new prez bemoans the

Princeton's new prez bemoans the lack of freaks on campus.

''I would like to think we could begin to attract students with green hair,'' declared Tilghman a few weeks ago. ''We will take pink and blue and orange hair, too.''

And perhaps a couple of nipple rings to add some contrast on this serenely picturesque campus, which some liken to the Talbots of the Ivy League. In fact, what Tilghman would really like to attract to this vaunted institution - which boasts not only some of the highest caliber students in the nation but eight Nobel Prize winners among its faculty - is some students who are well-rounded. Some mavericks. Some dropouts. Some from out of the box. Some, one might say, who are a little like her.

Link Discuss (via MeFi)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 04:17:43 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Chapter of Ulysses sells for

Chapter of Ulysses sells for more than 800,000 Pounds Sterling at auction. What I dig about this is the conclusive proof that my manuscripts are actually pretty organized, all things considered. Link Discuss (via Exciting Monkeybum Stories for Boys and Girls)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 04:10:42 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Marvel Comics isn't dead yet!

Marvel Comics isn't dead yet! They've licensed a crapload of movies based on their characters, which is more than making up for the money they lost when the bottom fell out of the funnybook market.

Projects based on Marvel characters are rolling along at practically every studio in town. Sony is making "Spiderman," a $100-million film that will open next summer's movie season on May 3. Twentieth Century Fox is developing "The Fantastic Four" and moving ahead with an "X-Men" sequel while making "Daredevil" with New Regency. Universal is doing "The Incredible Hulk," with Ang Lee attached to direct, and "Namor the Submariner." New Line, which had a hit with "Blade" in 1998, will release the sequel next year. Miramax's Dimension Films is developing four Marvel projects, including "Werewolf by Night" and "Ghost Rider." Arad also has a deal with Artisan Pictures to make films, TV shows and videos out of 15 Marvel characters, including Captain America and Black Panther; "Iron Fist" is slated to start filming later this year.

Link Discuss (via Exciting Monkeybum Stories for Boys and Girls)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 04:07:07 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

"Turn About is Fair Player"

"Turn About is Fair Player" -- in-depth analysis of MS and AOL's media player wars from O'Reilly's Lisa Rein. Rein's attention to detail and accuracy is fanatical-bordering-on-obsessive, but that's what makes this stuff so cool.

...Microsoft's real platform competition is not only with "huge" AOL Time Warner. It's also, and arguably even more so, with AOL's upstart partner RealNetworks. This time around, Microsoft's Windows Media Player, rather than its IE browser, is being bundled with its latest OS in an attempt to thwart the positioning of both its large and small competitors...

Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 03:50:32 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Bruce Sterling sez: "Dang! These

Bruce Sterling sez: "Dang! These rock!" Street violence figurines. Link Discuss

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:14:26 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

The current LA Weekly has

The current LA Weekly has a great special theme issue called "This is Your Country on Drugs." I especially liked Judith Lewis's piece about taking a drug called "foxy" when she was at burning man. Link Discuss

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:09:47 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Monday, July 9, 2001

Godlike journo and novelist Carl

Godlike journo and novelist Carl Hiassen's latest Op-Ed piece in The Miami Herald. Link Discuss (via Exciting Monkeybum Stories for Boys and Girls)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:41:53 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

How to install and tweak

How to install and tweak Debian Linux on the new iBook2. Have I mentioned that I just got one of these bad boys? It's the first box I've bought with my own coin in years, and I'm thrilled to bits, though I'm still looking for an omnibus OSX email solution that works as well as my beloved Entourage does. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:37:57 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Tim O'Reilly explains why Microsoft's

Tim O'Reilly explains why Microsoft's Craig Mundie has been invited to address the O'Reilly Open Source conference in San Diego in a couple weeks. I'll be there with bellzon, and I'm really looking forward to the debate.

what struck me most about Jim Allchin was that he is just as much a "true believer" as Richard Stallman or Eric Raymond. He wasn't at all the cynical plotter he'd been characterized as. He really thinks that Microsoft has a better mousetrap, and he believes he is doing the right thing for the industry. He really doesn't believe that Microsoft-scale businesses can be built with free software.

In Microsoft's view, the system that maximizes profits for software developers is one that maximizes the capability for investment, and thus innovation. Of course, I believe Microsoft ignores the fact that a great deal of innovation happens outside the commercial sector, and that they have profited enormously from open source development efforts, which have pioneered new innovations that they could then exploit commercially.

Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:34:52 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Sorry for the hiatus, folks.

Sorry for the hiatus, folks. I had a busy weekend and a spasming shoulder to contend with, so I took a bit of a break for a few days. As to today, well, I spent about 95% of it stuck in the world's crappiest airplane en route to Chicago for Internet World. I'm gonna post a couple things tonight, and if Internet World provides Internet access, I may get some licks in tomorrow, too.

I'm just about fed up with tech conferences that don't provide Internet access. It just seems so fundamental. O'Reilly gets it: Tim and the boys saturate their conference facilities with wireless 802.11 Internet access, free for the plucking. But consider W3C meetings, which don't provide Web access (duh, duh, duh). And don't get me started on the venues for Digital Hollywood and the Peer to Peer Working Group: apparently these hotels are Tempest-shielded Faraday cages, since neither my cellphone nor my email pager will work there. Even the generally clueful PC Forum opted for some bizarre, proprietary 802.11 clone instead of the real stuff -- needless to say, there was no MacOS or Unix support.

God, I'm having bad infrastructure karma. Last week, in the space of a few days, my RIM Pager, DSL router and cellphone died. So much for triple-redundancy. Ever hear the Lenny Bruce bit about the guy who gets too rank with the phone company and ends up like "a shmuck with two Dixie Cups and a string?" That was me. And just before I left for Chicago this morning, my sink in SF backed up and started filling the dishwasher with bracken. I sure hope my landlord gets back from holidays soon and checks his voxmail, otherwise, I may be facing a catastrophic aqueous event on my return. Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:32:01 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Friday, July 6, 2001

How much have you suffered

How much have you suffered for your art? A quiz for attendees to the six-week-long Clarion science-fiction writer's workshop (I scored a 34). Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:07:32 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Fabulous vignette by the magnificent

Fabulous vignette by the magnificent new sf writer, Benjamin Rosenbaum. If you can find a copy of the July issue of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, scarf it up and devour his brilliant, comical, touching debut short story, "The Ant King: A California Fairy Tale." Not since Bradley Denton's "The Calvin Coolidge Home for Dead Comedians" and David Marusek's "The Wedding Party" have I been so gobsmacked by a short story in a magazine.

A light bulb salesman fell in love with a duck.

He followed the duck to Canada in his little red van, the light bulbs rattling and clicking in their cases.

Past trout, moose, and grizzly bears, and into the tundra, he drove the van, calling to his duck beloved, "Sarah, my darling, will you come to me, will you lay your small head against my knees?"

Driving, sleeping, he dreamt of the duck, of kissing her webbed feet, of laughing together by the lakeside, of holding a can of beer for her to drink from in the summer night.

Link Discuss (Thanks, Pat!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:56:30 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Poignant story of a dotcom's

Poignant story of a dotcom's death on the O'Reilly site.

In fact, the average business plan seemed to run somewhere along the lines of:

* Create dot-com business plan
* Get first round of funding
* Put something on the Web
* Get second round of funding
* Sell to bigger company for profit
* Become investor in other dot-coms
* Become rich and famous (hopefully by the age of 30)

Link Discuss (Thanks, Lisa!)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:51:28 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Self-cleaning clothing impregnated with gengineered

Self-cleaning clothing impregnated with gengineered bacteria that eat sweat and shit perfume. Link Discuss (via /.)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:33:48 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Palm rolls out streetside beampoints

Palm rolls out streetside beampoints where you can get infrared data -- Internet crap, haiku, etc. I love the conference beampoints they use at Comdex and SXSW, where you can insert your Palm and get a schedule, map, and info on local eateries. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:31:01 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Datamining the Googleverse. Google releases

Datamining the Googleverse. Google releases popularity charts for queries, misspellings, comers and go-ers. Link Discuss (via /.)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:27:49 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Thursday, July 5, 2001

Read William Gibson's aborted script

Read William Gibson's aborted script for the original version of Alien 3. Link Discuss (via Memepool)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:48:42 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Ximian, the Open Source shop

Ximian, the Open Source shop that publishes the Gnome Linux Desktop, announces a .NET-style open source project. The article implies that they're cloning .NET, but it's not explicit. Link Discuss (via /.)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:44:24 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Come up with a caption

Come up with a caption for this picture. Link Discuss

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 03:28:40 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Speaking of photovoltaic energy, dig

Speaking of photovoltaic energy, dig this gallery of "Guerilla Solar Rogues," who install solar equipment on the power grid without going through all the bullshit red tape of getting permission to do so. Viva El Sol! Link Discuss

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:10:51 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Stench Warfare: "The Pentagon is

Stench Warfare: "The Pentagon is developing a stink bomb to drive away enemy troops or hostile crowds..." Link Discuss

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:14:21 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Counterpoint: Clay Shirky's awfully compelling

Counterpoint: Clay Shirky's awfully compelling arguments against micropayments. Link Discuss (via kottke.org)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 10:02:38 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Decentralized Power. Rural Dominicans are

Decentralized Power. Rural Dominicans are installing photovoltaic panels to provide juice for lights, radio, TV and more. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:29:30 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

What Should I Put On

What Should I Put On the Fence? A frustrated bicycle commuter in London lashes back at a privately owned fence with a no-bikes policy by chaining a variety of objects to it. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:25:46 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Fabulous illustrated history and engineering

Fabulous illustrated history and engineering primer on the not-so-humble waterpistol. Link Discuss (via /.)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 09:02:40 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Here's an excellent photo gallery

Here's an excellent photo gallery of the people featured in the upcoming documentary, Rock That Uke. Link Discuss

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 08:59:00 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

AI guru Ray Kurzweil on

AI guru Ray Kurzweil on AI: The Movie in streaming MP3. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:43:17 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Wednesday, July 4, 2001

The world's coolest gothmobile. Carthedral

The world's coolest gothmobile.

Carthedral is a 1971 Cadillac hearse modified with 1959 Cadillac tailfins. Welded on top is a VW beetle and metal armatures with fiber glass. Carthedral is a rolling Gothic Cathedral complete with flying buttresses, stained glass pointed windows, and gargoyles.

Link Discuss (via Memepool)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:34:21 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

From the Sparks, NV municipal

From the Sparks, NV municipal code: an exhaustive list of code-words for escort services that may not be used in Classified advertising.

"The Utmost in discretion", "All our escorts have health certificates", "All our models have health certificates", "Bodies beautiful and girls galore", "Call us and make your point", "Call us we come to you", "Climax", "Models", "Couples and swingers", "Desires", "Direct to your room," "Do you want a swinger", "Dominance," "Double delight", "Erotic encounters", "Erotic", "Exciter", "Fantasies", "Fetishes", "For adults only", "Fox hunting", "Fulfill", "Girls to go", "Hard core", "Hot", "It's legal in Nevada", "Love", "Maid", "maids" or "maid service", "Make your point", "Massages", "Models, girls, or escorts in the privacy of your hotel or motel room", "Models, girls, or escorts to act out your fantasies", "No need to leave your hotel room", "No need to leave your hotel", "Nude models", "Open 24 hours for your desires,"  "Open 24 hours for your pleasure", "Outcall", "Rooms provided", "Satisfy", "Seductive", "Sensuous", "Sexy", "Showers", "Showgirls", "models", "actresses", "Showguys", "So good", "Someone to enjoy", "Special services", "Spend some time with me", "Spice or spicy", "Submit to pleasure", "Swingers and couples", "Swinging", "Tantalizing", "The pleasure is yours", "Two for one", "Warm", "We come direct to you", "We deliver", "We deliver the goods", "We go out", "We have a model, escort or girl for your every need", "We respond immediately", "You always win", "You won't be disappointed".

Link Discuss (via Memepool)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:31:02 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

The wonderful history of copyright:

The wonderful history of copyright: formulated to protect the public interest, twisted to protect the interests of rights holders.

 Copyright is a “deal” that the American people made with the writers and publishers of books. Authors and publishers get a limited monopoly for a short period of time, and the public gets access to those protected works and free use of the facts, data, and ideas within them.

Link Discuss (via /.)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 08:25:32 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Tuesday, July 3, 2001

Hacker fun and games! At

Hacker fun and games! At DefCon, the annual hacker conference in Vegas, the hackers play a game called Capture the Flag, in which the best and the leetest spend three days trying to break into servers on the LAN. Another group of hackers play an even more fun game, something called "Capture the Capture the Flag," in which all network traffic associated with Capture the Flag is sniffed and analyzed. Does your head hurt yet? Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 07:12:46 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Is this prime number illegal,

Is this prime number illegal, since it is the same as a "gzip file of the original C-source code (sans tables) that decrypts the DVD Movie encryption scheme (DeCSS)?" Link Discuss

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 02:00:26 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Here's a web site created

Here's a web site created by a bike commuter who got mad when the local government put up a notice on a fence that all bikes parked on the fence would be removed. So he started chaining all sorts of weird stuff -- ironing boards, frying pans, tricycles -- to the fence just to irk the authorities. Link Discuss

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:56:02 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

The Smoking Gun reprints 12

The Smoking Gun reprints 12 letters of complaint from people who are offended by certain vanity plates. (It's just a hunch, but I'll bet the people who wrote these letters of complaint have lousy personal lives.) Link Discuss

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 10:32:34 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Monday, July 2, 2001

Devil Girl dish towel on

Devil Girl dish towel on eBay. Doug sez: "The whole, devil-girl, hot-rod stuff taken to a new level. I want to say this is too much, but it's kind of cool at the same time." Link Discuss

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 01:52:36 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Radioactice garbage to be kept

Radioactice garbage to be kept in underground salt mines in New Mexico. "As one engineer put it, 'How would you like to have to build something that had to be 99.99999 percent perfect - forever?"

The WIPP salt caverns near Carlsbad, N.M., are located 2,150 feet below the surface and consist of a 112-acre underground area on which taxpayers have spent $2.1 billion so far. In 30 to 35 years, when the space is filled, the price tag is expected to be $9 billion. It will include an elaborate marker system to warn people not to drill into the salt for the next 500,000 years.

Link Discuss

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:00:24 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Spy cams in Florida: TAMPA

Spy cams in Florida:

TAMPA -- Strolling along Centro Ybor, the young woman stopped to browse at a shop window. Unbeknownst to her, she was presenting her back to a camera monitoring her progress. "Turn around," coached the man watching her on a video monitor tucked within a building several yards away, even though she could not hear him. The man, David Watkins of Advanced Biometric Imaging, was trying to compare the woman's face with thousands of images stored in a database of wanted criminals and sex offenders. The software he was installing, called Face-It, is linked to 36 cameras throughout the Centro Ybor entertainment complex and along E Seventh Avenue. It's the first system of its kind in the state, and Friday the Tampa Police Department began using the software for the first time.

Link Discuss

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:11:34 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Sunday, July 1, 2001

Scanned cover-art from 76 different

Scanned cover-art from 76 different editions of HG Wells' War of the Worlds. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 12:23:23 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Striking photos of Disneyland Paris'

Striking photos of Disneyland Paris' Phantom Manor, courtesy of Pat York. Link Discuss

posted by Cory Doctorow at 12:15:53 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

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