Fairtunes     Thursday, August 3, 2000
Crazy busy this week, but I wanted to add this site. Set up by two University of Waterloo students, Fairtunes allows you to donate money directly to a band or musician. They find the address and mail it off. Right now, their fee is 4% plus 25 cents to cover credit card costs, but they hope to reduce it as the project grows. Not sure how big their database is, but they had the Arrogant Worms in it. Oops. They can't take Mastercard until September. Well, getting closer anyway.

The Big Dig     Thursday, July 27, 2000
Visiting Boston this weekend. They're in the midst of a huge engineering project right now, digging an underground replacement for an elevated highway beneath that same highway, while keeping the original highway open. It goes under Boston Harbour too. The project is troubled. A few days ago, the governor of the project spoke to the Joint Legislative Committee on Transportation and gave his number one objective as "restoring credibility to the project with federal and state officials, and the public and media." The main site is slow and confusing, but I found this FAQ to be a good starting place. One of the questions: "Are you nuts?"

The Light of Other Days     Thursday, July 27, 2000
I'm reading a book that I once wanted to write. It's about a world without privacy, where anyone can see what anyone else is doing. The Asimov story "The Dead Past" ended with this idea as a nightmare twist, but this novel explores the repercussions, including many I would have overlooked. The link above is to a Slashdot article on the book rather than Amazon or a sample chapter because there were too many spoilers in those places. This goldfish-bowl-world concept was high on my list of potential projects, but it's a relief to see someone else do it. In the end, I guess I just wanted to read the book and writing it myself would have been the most drastic way to get a copy.

Episode II trailer (fan made)     Monday, July 24, 2000
I can't bear to call it fake. This is an incredibly well made trailer for Star Wars: Episode II. It just isn't by Lucasfilm. Stunning editing and clever fanboy appeal because it's based on the announced cast list. The Boba Fett part is genius. I wish I could find a bigger version. Author! Author!

Bit Tax     Monday, July 24, 2000
A proposal for a new tax in the world of "jobless growth" caused by information technology. An alternative to income tax, I believe. The author proposes a bit tax, set somewhat arbitrarily at 8 cents a meg. ($10 for the Deus Ex demo!) There are so many things wrong with this, but the main problem has to be that bit size doesn't equate to value. If Graham watches the streaming Whazzup! ad while I receive digital cash worth $10,000,000 (50 kilobytes of encryption code) in exchange for my formula for lemonade-powered cars (30K of text), should he really be the one paying all the tax?

Danger Research     Monday, July 24, 2000
Best Flash intro ever, and a great company name to boot. It's unclear what they sell -- possibly little girls in dresses, or maybe gasoline.

That's no moon. It's a space station.     Friday, July 21, 2000
And for the life of me, I can't find the next line on the net. Technology falls to copyright. I need the Freenet, man! The link to the NASA photo is from Slashdot.

Monopoly set ratings     Thursday, July 20, 2000
From the Brunching Shuttlecocks. I'd noticed this odd trend of giving an extra helping of trademarks to each box of Monopoly. In fact, I've actually played Pokemon Monopoly (which isn't included in this list of ratings) and it's better than the normal version, because different people have special powers when you roll doubles. Just like Talisman! It's a short article, so I won't spoil any of the jokes by copying them here. I'll spoil something else soon, I promise.

100% success for male birth control pill     Thursday, July 20, 2000
Five years before marketability, even so.

X-planations     Thursday, July 20, 2000
Short silly interview with the X-men actors. Question for Hugh Jackson: "Who would win in a fight, Batman or Wolverine?" Halle Berry is too smooth to play along with this one: "Do you have any unique powers that emerged during puberty?"

Number 4 on Google's list of Robotech Webrings     Wednesday, July 19, 2000
Google really loves me. It's my number one source of referrals. What I like about this particular Google search is that I beat out some major Robotech sites. Other good searches: "file sharing indian" "Natalie Portman Elfwood" and a ton of people looking for Alien Song, 405: The Movie and the "My Name is Joe and I Am Canadian" rant.

Only Five URLs Still Available     Wednesday, July 19, 2000
One of the five: "www.ButterButterButterButterFrog.com." (This article may not be one hundred percent true.) Found on My Dog Wants to Be on the Radio.

What will people pay for?     Wednesday, July 12, 2000
A short essay by Dan Bricklin, insightful creator of VisiCalc, about what wireless services people will pay for. I'd add it to my Human Side course, but I'm tired of adding things to it. That course will take ten years to complete.

Manhattan.org     Tuesday, July 11, 2000
Owned by the Chamber of Commerce of Manhattan, Kansas. Right on! And remember, if the society types want to buy the URL, don't sell low, no matter how nice the beads look.

MAME (for Windows)     Monday, July 10, 2000
I'd heard about MAME, the arcade game emulator, but never tried it. I finally got curious enough today and after ten minutes or so was able to play Bubble Bobble, an old favourite of mine. I may be too chicken to play without a save game feature though. Modern games have turned me into a sissy. The MAME emulator above doesn't come with the copyrighted game ROMS which I have no idea how to get.

Things sure are different     Saturday, July 8, 2000
A Slashdot reader's account of his first encounter with being a guru. I love his account of the library's applesoft basic manual, too important to show to children.

Photo.net tutorial     Thursday, July 6, 2000
Philip Greenspun is an incredible Internet figure. I've linked to his Ars Digita University project and have loved many other of his online pieces. If you're curious, start with this tutorial on photography and browse around. The photos alone are worth the visit. God. I just visited a little more myself and found this essay about the death of his dog. He includes this quote: "One often has mixed feelings about relatives, but few people could identify serious problems in their relationships with dogs." Maybe that link should have been the top one here.

Sooke Harbour House     Wednesday, July 5, 2000
I accidentally bumped my system clock ahead to September 3rd, which is why that previous entry comes from the future. When September 3, 2000, does come around, my sweet and I will be at the Sooke Harbour House for our anniversary. Highly recommended to any island visitors with a special occasion at hand.

Drums Along the Mohawk     Sunday, September 3, 2000
A reminder to myself to rent this film. I've always been surprised at how few Revolutionary War films Hollywood makes. This CNN article attributes the reluctance to the high costs of extras, which seems unlikely.

Lottery numbers published ahead of draw     Monday, July 3, 2000
In the scramble after a computer crash, an Oregon paper published Virginia's winning Pick 4 numbers as the winning numbers for that night's Oregon draw. They won in Oregon too, drawing the attention of some security heavies. The story's cute, but CNN is going to get geek letters about this part: The odds of hitting the Pick 4 are 10,000 to 1. And the odds of pulling the Virginia lottery numbers by mistake and having those numbers drawn in Oregon the next day? "A gazillion to one," Hooper said.

Havana Street Retro Clip Art     Friday, June 30, 2000
My startup screen in Windows is a dog with a retro space helmet and antenna. I didn't know where the clip art came from until Ratbastard pointed the way.

Sex in Europe     Friday, June 30, 2000
A survey of how frequently Europeans are "creating the need for euphemisms." Worth reading for the out-of-the-blue last paragraph. Sent to me by Grum.

Startopia     Friday, June 30, 2000
A preview of a Dungeon Keeper-like game in which your task is to make the most popular interstellar hotel around.

Web-based John Travolta     Wednesday, June 28, 2000
Well, there's really no way to expand on that. It's the old Travolta, not the Battlefield Earth one. Don't be afraid.

PocketPig     Wednesday, June 28, 2000
This woman uses her Palm Pilot to draw pictures of her meals. I like how information technology has made the world so damn freaky.

Diablo 2: Milkin' It     Wednesday, June 28, 2000
In an admitted effort to pull in crazed Diablo II fans, Daily Radar posts a review of everything but the game. The box, the registration card, the AT&T flyer -- it's all there, baby. Side note: the first patch for Diablo II is already out. The game is not yet out. Not sure whether this is a good or bad thing. (Ensemble Studios *still* hasn't released their first sorely needed patch.)

The Hortons     Wednesday, June 28, 2000
I was offering free doughnuts as an incentive get reviewers to pay attention to my Age of Kings scenario. My search for a jpeg led me to Tim Hortons' web site, which is actually quite good. They even offer nutritional information, albeit in PDF form. Turns out that doughnuts aren't as bad as I thought. Even the most sinister of them, the apple fritter, has only 15 grams of fat. Not something you want to include in every breakfast, but they're a rare treat for me. I kept freaking myself out by looking at the kilojoules column and thinking it was calories. "Good Lord! A Boston Cream has 1075 calories! Oh wait."
        The pretend bribe worked too. I got an embarassingly lavish review within the hour: perfect score.

Alarmist.org     Tuesday, June 27, 2000
Intriguing collection of essays about how wrong things could go. Want to defeat Gnutella? Make draconian examples of a few thousand users. Need an aerial laser capable of killing people from miles away? We have the company for you to call.

Kamut®     Saturday, August 26, 2000
Cereal box discovery. "Heritage O's: from the Ancient Grains of Spelt, Quinoa and Kamut®" The name of an ancient grain is a registered trademark? To the search engine! Well, it turns out that the official name of the grain is QK-77, but the 1977 rediscoverer of this grain, allegedly found in an Egyptian tomb, wisely created a more marketable name. Oh well. The cereal is yummy-crunchy. Human kibble.
        In searching for the HTML code for the ® symbol I found this bonus link, "Microsoft trademarks the trademark symbol"!

Foster Street house tour     Saturday, August 26, 2000
A tour of my new house on Vancouver Island. I heartlessly put all 2 megs of photos on the same page, so dial-up users beware.

If any of you web design geniuses can suggest a better background/foreground colour scheme for a photo tour, write me. Currently it's black text on white.

I choose you, Korino!     Saturday, August 26, 2000
Our poor great-grandparents, born before web-based name generators changed the world. They were stuck with telegraph-based name generators, a pale substitute. This generator gives your Pokemon name. Here's mine: Your Pokéname is: Korino. Profile: You live in the arctic wastes of Siberia, and your diet consists mostly of berries, twigs and beer. That is surprisingly close to my yearbook prediction. Combat Characteristics: You can breathe rocks. You can spit acid. You can breathe acid. You can shoot lightning. Breathing rocks! That's pretty dangerous, I guess. Keeps my hands free for other things, like throwing rocks. Natural Enemies: Your natural enemy is Lochu. Well, obviously. Thanks to Marmalade.

Katrie vutrified     Friday, June 23, 2000
I missed the web. I missed out on it when it could have been important to me, when I was a teenager and a student with time. I see all these articulate young people like Katie and Margaret (Zoetrope) and while I am sure they were smart and talented to begin with, you can see how they've sharpened themselves by being exposed to the other voices on the web. Rasher, the almost-16 year old who's working with me on the video game, was the voice of reason in a message forum squabble today. They're so smart. How did these young things get so smart?
        More likely though, I'm not missing the web, I'm just missing being a pup.

QWERTY versus Dvorak     Tuesday, June 20, 2000
Okay, you know the story about how QWERTY keyboards were designed for inefficiency and the only reason we can't switch to a more sensible standard is because QWERTY training is so widespread? This article says poppycock.
        Nonetheless, QWERTY is a really easy word to type.

405: The Movie     Saturday, June 17, 2000
You hear these bold claims about people sitting at their home computers and being able to create scenes that rival Hollywood. These two fellows did it. Unbelievable. {Thanks Grum!)

Mosquito!     Friday, June 16, 2000
We have a small mosquito problem at the new place -- maybe two or three a night. I expected the wind off the ocean to have more of an effect on the buggers. Doesn't look like there's a lot we can do, besides wear DEET to bed or add screens to the windows, which is probably an overreaction.
        In unrelated news, I have malaria. Damn miasma!

Wireless Ethernet at 12Mb/s     Friday, June 16, 2000
Looks like wireless Ethernet is getting practical. These systems have speeds comparable to 10BaseT. Unfortunately, they don't seem to handle peer-to-peer (two computer) networks, which means that you're stuck buying a hub. The cost isn't practical for this home user just yet (US$1700 for three computers), but by the time I have a laptop or webpad that I want to saunter around the house with, perhaps the tech will be there.

Zoetrope     Thursday, June 15, 2000
Poking through my referral logs, I see that another Pita, Zoetrope, has observed that she and I use the same lovely blue. "Mooselessness blue" it says here on my crayon box. :) What's weirder is that she writes that she has "this incredible ability to take 24 shots of a doorknob" which you may recall is exactly what I did, when I first got hold of a digital camera. Must remember to check the focus on the old mind control lasers. (Hi Margaret!)

Courtney on giving music away for free     Wednesday, June 14, 2000
Hands-down the most intelligent piece I've read on the recording industry and MP3s, largely because it comes from someone who knows the industry and understands the technology: Courtney Love. Read this one.

Magic: TG - pro finals     Monday, June 12, 2000
Gadzooks. The company behind the card game Magic: The Gathering put up $2 million to try to jump start a professional game image. This page details the final matches played by the overall winner. You might speak English, but not like this. "The crowd reacted with disappointment when Finkel didn't Tutor on turn three for a Persecute."

French Food You Suck On     Friday, June 9, 2000
Been a while since since the last Brunching Shuttlecocks link. This one is a new addition to their series of product ratings.
        "It tastes as if you let a chocolate bunny come in your mouth."

Oh, and their Bandwidth Theatre take on the Microsoft split is top notch for you Flash users.

Gold     Wednesday, June 7, 2000
Diablo 2 has gone gold! It should be out by the end of June. I am going to need to buy a few extra days of the week.
        Oh ya. And they're going to split Microsoft. I guess that's news too. Cute Slashdot comment by Signal11: "This company has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. If the problem persists, contact your vendor or appeal to a higher court."

Offspring sells Napster shirts     Monday, June 5, 2000
Hahahaha. Well, this link will be everywhere, but that means it will be here too, so I may as well get it over with. The MP3-friendly band Offspring is selling unlicenced Napster merchandise, including T-shirts and hats. According to this story Napster sent them a cease-and-desist order, which ranks high on the clueless-PR-move charts. It may all prove to be a hoax, but if not, sweet sweet irony. [Update: within minutes of my post, Napster and Offspring had reached a deal that would let Offspring sell the shirts. Glad I could help bring these two together.]

Historic Agreement Between NASA and the Fish and Wildlife Service     Sunday, June 4, 2000
"Under the terms of the new agreement, packs of wolves, imported from Canada, will be introduced into several NASA centers." Some wonderful humour gets thrown into the storms of Slashdot comments. Doesn't it break people's hearts to write something and have it vanish a few hours later? Perhaps it's closer to live performance. Here's a bonus Slashdot link about the crash of the gamma ray satellite.

Series Pilot: The Tick     Friday, June 2, 2000
I am trying to stop watching television. This won't help.

Silver     Wednesday, May 31, 2000
I won the silver National Magazine Award for fiction here in Canada! The story, The Cold Outside, was published in Prairie Fire, which is why I linked it above. The gold medal went to CBC host and author Bill Richardson, who I liked a lot, but now must trap in a tiger pit.

Napster.com and the Death of the Music Industry     Wednesday, May 31, 2000
John Perry Barlow, songwriter for the Grateful Dead, welcomes the end of the music industry. "Last fall, an obscure 19 year old student named Shawn Fanning quietly inflicted the wound that I believe will eventually kill the music business as we know it."

Previously on Mooselessness     Wednesday, May 31, 2000
Most recently I linked to Public Agenda Online and a Slashdot post that compared music to fireworks. You can also visit the archive index.