Apparently, Salon ran an April Fool's edition yesterday. Gee, how surprising. That's the problem with April Fools' jokes. Sometimes, all they do is get your hopes up.
The Brain Energizer claims to be a Windows program that gives you a caffiene-type energy boost. Personally, I question whether anything can improve brain function while using Windows. Still, a downloadable stimulant? Can you say "Snow Crash", boys and girls?
I'm taking a Microsoft SQL class this week. The instructor has one of these: Microsoft Certified Professional action figures. I took photos to prove that this exists, and then the instructor found the web site where you can buy these things. I couldn't make this up if I tried.
I thought that the settlement over Matel's lawsuit over the decryption of its "Cyber Patrol" banned sites list was just business as usual, no matter how unfortunate. Even the GNU and mirroring issues didn't interest me enough to speak out. However, the Register's note on the degree of hyperbole used in the ruling makes me wonder if the judge isn't a bit unbalanced.
It raises a most profound societal issue, namely, who is to control the educational and intellectual nourishment of young children - the parents, or the purveyors of pornography and the merchants of death and violence.
Actually, if there is a question in this case of who is controlling the development of kids, it's between an informed public and a handful of corporations with their own agendas to promote. Please, before you consider using this to "protect" your kids, check out some sites like Peacefire for some background info.
Just enter your name below and the Cyborger will tell you what your name would mean if you happened to be an shallow imitation of humanity with a dark purpose.
IF!?!?!?
And when you get right down to it, maybe you are.
Ah. Much better, primate. Perhaps you will be spared.
Hydraulic Artificial Replicant Manufactured for Fighting and Ultimate Learning
Biomechanical Robotic Entity Normally for Nullification and Accurate Negotiation
Obedient Knight Engineered for Efficient Fighting and Exploration
I've made vague hints about my Evil Master Plan from time to time. Well, what would an Insane Evil Overlord be without a rival Insane Evil Overlord? I guess this means that I really need to register my own domain as soon as I can scrape the bux together.
But then, neither does anyone else. Is it just me, or is there a little cabal of the top weblogs that spend most of their time and space linking each other? (Bleah. I'm just feeding the fire with that comment, aren't I?) Thankfully, my meta-blogging desire seems to be going into remission. (Too bad one of the better ones seems to be going away.)
The internet has been cast as the bane of the modern family. It retards development of children's social skills, isolates them from their families, distracts them from their education, and keeps them away from other physical and intellectual activities, right? Wrong. A new report from the National School Boards Foundation finds that children who use the internet spend less time watching TV, continue to stay involved with family and friends, and may even increase their non-computer reading, outdoor play, and interest in school. There may be other factors (economic, social, etc.) involved, but I find this news a refreshing contrast to the usual demonizing of the net.
A handful of companies are starting online-bookmarks services. Hey, that's one of the reasons I add things to this weblog. Eventually, I'd like to have a weblog/links site that is at least as easy to manage as my bookmarks list. I'll have to keep some of the problems these services are having in mind as I work on the Evil Master Plan.
Looks like the Grudge Match guys are back. I looked them up a couple of days ago, without even realizing they'd been gone. Hey, here's a grudge match for you: the webloggers vs. the diarists. Of course, this whole "3000+" magic number business seems kind of silly to me. Write what you want, make it as long as the subject demands, if you have content that doesn't fit the form of one site, start another. Is it better to say nothing in 3000 words than to say it in 100 (or vice versa)? Damifino. Update: I wanted a smackdown, not a lovefest.
Mirasol has started an eGroups mailing list for fans who watch Iron Chef on the Food Network. Cool. Update: I'm going to give this subscription box a shot:
The desire to Meta-Blog grows within me like a cancer. Now that I've looked around at the meta-blog scene a bit, I realize that at least some of the meta-bloggers don't deserve the nasty comments I've been making about them (and the ones who do deserve it probably enjoyed it). Anyway, my latest bad idea is to blog what bloggers are blogging on the subject of blogging. More and more bloggers are writing about why they blog, how to get started, etc. Take Mike Murry's little Tirade, for example. Zine guru Mike Gunderloy has created a great resource page that collects weblog resources, but why shouldn't such a list take a weblog format? Hopefully, I'll get over this idea before I actually do anything with it.
This is a quickie while I'm home for lunch. Salon has a softball interview with "Computer Security Expert" John Vranesevich, who runs a site called AntiOnline. Not everyone has such a high opinion of him, however. In an "interview" he did last year for Slashdot, he showed what I believe to be his true colors, refusing to answer serious questions and being generally insulting to the /. community. More later; I have to get back to SQL class. Update: It's later. Slashdot also linked an old Forbes article questioning his expertise, motivations, and background. He has been involved in the shutdown of other computer security sites. Unfortunately, much of the media still seems to take this self-aggrandizing schmuck seriously.
Unfortunately, I haven't been active in the SCA for a while. I ran into an acquaintance from the local chapter last night who had recently returned from a war. Anyway, a CBS film crew was there as well, and they plan to broadcast a segment on the SCA on a Sunday morning in April (4/2/00 or 4/9/00). I'm looking forward to seeing this, and I need to at least stop in at a Baronial meeting and say hi.
Ever since the unfortunate incident at the awards ceremony a couple of weeks ago, no one has stepped forward to give the UserLand OverLord the coverage which he deserves. This is a pity, because He Whose Site Must Not Be Linked has so much to say, and I sometimes have trouble translating Manilaspeak into English. With a rival cult continuing to steal his thunder, his words of wisdom might go without notice!
Other regrets, I gave a hint to the cluelessness of VA Linux. We offered to make them kings of our world, but they'd rather be whores to the corporate bosses. Not great profit margins there. We're not hucksters folks, we just want to help you make the products we want. Thanks for listening.
From what I can tell, those ungrateful fools don't want to provide a new Pimp Daddy with discount hardware, or become the hardware vendor of choice for the coming Manila Wide Web. Losers!
[via CamWorld] A List Apart discusses the Mozilla project, specifically its Gecko HTML rendering engine. They seem to feel the same way as I do: It doesn't matter that much is Mozilla is a success in and of itself, as whether it raises the level of standards compliance for the industry as a whole. In particular, I hope that it forces Microsoft to drop its naked contempt for the specs. P. S. Wouldn't "We just want to help you make the products we want!" be a great new Microsoft developer slogan?
This evening, I received mail from the dude who runs said site. Apparently, this sorry excuse for a weblog was his introduction to the wacky world of weblogging; because of my Slashdot signature, he found his way here, and then to Blogger. And he ran with the idea, much farther than my lazy self has. He created a few web-updatable weblogs, learned that WebReference was looking for authors, and that the Pyra folks wanted someone to write an intro for them.
His article won him a thousand-dollar software package. And now he thanks me for setting him on that road. As I wrote him back, "You have no idea how much the idea that my weblog may have caused some lasting good terrifies me." It seems that my words here may have more of an impact than I thought. I don't want to let this go to my head, but it certainly brings to mind a few ill-considered comments that I've made in this space recently. And so I close with bad poetry:
Pebbles tossed from shore
May give birth to mighty waves
Past the horizon.
What? You believe that I am only 80% mad? Fools! You shall learn the proper respect under the coming regime! [I won't tell you how much loonier than Meg I seem to be.]
Teamsters have reached an agreement with Interstate Bakeries, ending an 8-day Twinkie Famine. What a relief; I was afraid that Congress was going to have to tap into the Strategic Cream Filling Reserve.
[via Ouch!] I don't know why I find El Dia de los Muertos (the Mexican Day of the Dead celebration) so fascinating, since I've never actually seen the festivities myself. My only exposure has been through media: Lucasarts' Grim Fandango computer game, Concrete Blonde and Oingo Boingo album covers, a Sergio Aragones comic, movies, etc. Still, I thought this link on making the "sugar skull" decorations was pretty neat, and I knew I'd never find it again if I didn't link it.
Yet another new blog that I noticed because of the title: "I Really Must Insist You Leave". (Favorite design element: the Bouncy Bubbly Sidebar.) At first, I thought it was a line out of Heinlein; now I think I remember the correct line: "Honor demands that one of us leave!" from Double Star, which, when uttered by a Martian, means that you are seconds away from a duel to the death. Anyway, it looks like just another personal weblog, Not That There's Anything Wrong With That. In fact, I'd like to encourage it; I'm considering starting a new weblog (possible title: "Under the Radar") dedicated to linking at least one new weblog every day. I'd like to add a little bit of commentary to each link, as opposed to the links-only styles of the monitor or portal. Can anyone tell me if such a weblog already exists? The "Meta-Blog" trend seems to be turning into an even uglier version of the "popular weblogs" trend, and I'd like to help give previously unnoticed newbies a little encouragement, without trying to create another bloody web.clique. P.S.Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesman and philosophers and divines." (Of course, he also wrote, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know." I doubt he would have liked weblogs either.)
As widely as MP3 files are being pirated by Napster users, you might think that an album released only on MP3 would be spread around just as quickly. Well, according to one Slashdotter, they aren't. I'm glad to hear that a good-faith effort to support this format by a couple of great artists is paying off.
Since I started seriously following weblogs a couple of months ago, I've found the Weblog Monitor to be a useful resource. (Contrary to what its creator seems to believe, that does not imply universal admiration for him or all his other projects.) I can find the most recently updated blogs, egosurf, notice new logs, search for specific subjects, etc. Unfortunately, some of the new "features" that have been added in the last few weeks seem to be more trouble than they're worth. The "Favorites" list could be useful, but for some reason, I am uncomfortable exposing that list for all the world to see. Now Userland has added a new free weblog-hosting service (in addition to their existing EditThisPage service), which would be cool if there wasn't a full-blown form at the top of the recent updates page. I have to scroll down a whole page (on a reasonably large monitor) to get to the information I want. I may start a Manila site at some point, mostly to give myself ideas for the Evil Master Plan; if I agree to start a site, will this form leave me alone? Still, I wish the Userland folks the best, and hope their network problems are fixed soon. Update: It has been pointed out that this attitude towards privacy really doesn't go along with some of my other ideas. Would I have had a knee-jerk reaction if anyone other than the Manila-meister had done the same thing? Dunno.
The St. Louis Riverfront Times, our local weekly alternative paper, has a profile on a pretty colorful local character. Beatle Bob tries to hit at least one live musical performance every night; he passed the thousand-in-a-row mark this winter. I don't go to local clubs that often, but I've seen Bob's frenzied solo dancing several times.
[via Robot Wisdom] To all those who say that webloggers don't maintain the same standards of dignity and quality as "professional" web journalists: Nyaaah!
Zannah points to an unusually good (if incomplete) Japanese Animation fansite. Most anime site I've seen have either showcased the art, charcters, stories, etc. of some particular series, or have been a gallery of anime-style art. This site goes beyond that with an attempt to explain the stylistic conventions of the genre.
Dan Gillmor notes the latest piece of patent silliness: a patent on faster-than-light communication. "300,000 km/s: It's not just a good idea, It's the Law!"
Back home from the Users' Group, trying to catch up on mail and the web. Hopefully, I'll have something vaguely content-like tomorrow. For now, everything is in archives.
considered harmful adj.
[very common] Edsger W. Dijkstra's note in the March 1968 "Communications of the ACM", "Goto Statement Considered Harmful", fired the first salvo in the structured programming wars (text at http://www.acm.org/classics). Amusingly, the ACM considered the resulting acrimony sufficiently harmful that it will (by policy) no longer print an article taking so assertive a position against a coding practice. (Years afterwards, a contrary view was uttered in a CACM letter called, inevitably, "`Goto considered harmful' considered harmful'"). In the ensuing decades, a large number of both serious papers and parodies have borne titles of the form "X considered Y". The structured-programming wars eventually blew over with the realization that both sides were wrong, but use of such titles has remained as a persistent minor in-joke (the `considered silly' found at various places in this lexicon is related).
-- from The Jargon File, version 4.1.4.
