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June 2000 Archives
June 30
the economist presents a very clear
review of why and how the zimbabwe elections went horribly wrong and what this means for the future of zimbabwe & africa. [this article is neither long nor hard but it's strong. read it] "After 20 years of ZANU government, the average Zimbabwean is a third poorer and can expect to die more than 15 years younger. . . The responsibility for reviving the sick economy still rests with Mr Mugabe and ZANU. Half of the workforce is jobless. Inflation is eating Zimbabweans savings at a rate of almost 70% a year. An unrealistic exchange rate has led to shortages of fuel and other imports. Mr Mugabes plans to seize white-owned farms without compensation, and his contradictory statements about whether he will do the same to mines and factories, have scared off both foreign and domestic investors. Despite having some of the most fertile land in Africa, Zimbabwe could need food aid this year."
posted by palegirl at 10:28 PM PST - 17 comments
Violent Media is Good For Kids
Interesting theory that viewing violent media, reading comics and playing bloody video games is actually cathartic for kids. Not sure it's valid, but it's interesting.
posted by brookish at 3:06 PM PST - 1 comments
Well, it's about time
that we got around to this. Imagine the freedom we have now. Also imagine the possibilities for abuse. Could a jpeg be legally binding now? We still have a long way to go, but it's a good first step...
posted by dgallo at 2:33 PM PST - 1 comments
What if you didn't need a prescription
to get birth control pills? The FDA is thinking about allowing The Pill to be distributed over-the-counter. This would save a lot of effort and money. The concerns over the issue are that women may not continue with their yearly checkups if they don't have to get a prescription; that they may not realize the side-effects of using the pill with other medication, such as antibiotics; or that teenagers might be more likely to start using it without their parents' knowledge. Any thoughts?
posted by daveadams at 8:32 AM PST - 23 comments
Has
Amazon.com finally ditched the unsustainable and cluttered one-tab-per-store interface? And if so, is this how they react to their stock falling?
posted by tranquileye at 7:34 AM PST - 12 comments
June 29
Oh, now this is just great.
Going into bankrupcy, the most valuable property that a lot of failed dot-coms have is all the information they've collected about their customers in the mean time, like names and addresses and phone numbers and credit card numbers and purchasing patterns and loads of other stuff. In order to appease creditors, three of them are actively trying to sell off their databases right now. What makes that interesting is that they had previously promised never to reveal that information to anyone.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 10:06 PM PST - 10 comments
I seem to recall an online utility that presents a view of what a web site would look like in multiple browsers and on multiple platforms. My searching has turned up empty. Of course I've been known to choose unsuccessful keywords. Specifically, I'm looking for a utility to simulate the appearance of a web page on a Macintosh. Anyone here know of such a tool?
posted by netbros at 9:38 PM PST - 12 comments
Douglas Rushkoff:
"The myth of the internet - and one I believed for a long time - is that most people really want to share the stories of their own lives." And I'd add to that: most of those people who DO want to share their own stories really don't know how to do it. And that includes me...
posted by ericost at 2:01 PM PST - 13 comments
Oh, happy day!
Just when thought the 2000 US Presidential Race was going to be a woebegone contest between
Dull and
Duller, the impish whackjob returns for yet another round of merry hi-jinks and paranoiac delusions presented as fact!
posted by m.polo at 11:29 AM PST - 4 comments
Giving God His Props.
The latest
Survivor reject thanks the Lord 37 times in his 750-word departing statement -- which is exactly the kind of spiritual Tourette's that got him kicked off the island in the first place. Did I miss the introduction of an 11th Commandment requiring God to be overthanked?
posted by rcade at 9:27 AM PST - 19 comments
Well this is Qte!
I'm sure I'm probably the last to know about it. And it's probably not fashionable to admit to being a trekkie nowadays, but since when have I been fashionable? Finally they have come out with a Star Trek computer game that I enjoyed. Kinda like the card game. I suck at it, but it was still fun. And it's great for the ego. You get to pretend you're Q...
posted by ZachsMind at 12:53 AM PST - 10 comments
June 28
MSNBC's Robert Wright seemes confused
in this story about the Global Positioning System. He misinforms the reader about how terrorists can now use the military's encrypted GPS signals for more accurate positioning. (FYI: you are still unable to use the military's encrypted GPS signals, contrary to what Wright claims.)
more inside>>
posted by darainwa at 10:08 PM PST - 2 comments
The New-Boy Network
Finally, the Malcolm Gladwell article describing - all at once! - hiring in the software industry
and the scientific basis of first impressions ia
onliné. I discussed this very story with a recruitrix from MSN just today. It cast a bit of a pall over an otherwise surprisingly pleasant and reassuring interview (held after hours in a café with me wearing shorts).
But I digress.
posted by joeclark at 6:42 PM PST - 5 comments
UK more crime-ridden than US?
CBS News has come up with a
report describing the UK as a "battleground" for crime, replete with pictures of downtown Friday night battles after the pubs close. You're more likely to be robbed, assaulted, or have your car stolen in Britain than the US, according to recent figures. Then again, according to the DOJ, you're less likely to be raped, murdered or shot. Comparing apples and oranges?
posted by holgate at 4:25 PM PST - 29 comments
Frictionary!
Now whenever someone posts crap about the state of MeFi, you can successfully use the phrase, "That's such whipped meme".
posted by Neale at 4:11 PM PST - 2 comments
Does it bug anyone else
that if you have a MetaFilter account with cookies enabled, it automatically enters your password (which can be read in view source)???
Personally I think this is a very bad thing, as I've visited metafilter at the library a few times..
posted by Bane at 12:38 PM PST - 15 comments
Boy Scouts: 1 Gay Memebers: 0
Court Says Boy Scouts Can Bar Gays, which is slightly troubling, in that a psuedo-national organization can make rules that go against government policy. I don't see how a scoutmaster being gay has anything to do with teaching kids how to tie knots and go camping though.
posted by mathowie at 12:00 PM PST - 52 comments
Fidel's victory over the U.S. is complete.
Elian will return to Cuba, probably before the next sunrise. Why did this decision take so long? The negligent bungling of the Clinton adminsitration, the Department of Justice, and the INS. When Elian first arrived, the INS placed him in the custody of his nearest kin here in America, and advised them to seek a state court ruling on custody. They relied on that advice and did so. Then, for political resonas, the administration betrayed both the family and the boy, critically undermining our foreign policy objectives in the process.
His future as a pawn of the Castro tyranny looks bleak indeed. We can only hope he and every other Cuban are soon freed from Fidel's rule.
posted by mikewas at 11:33 AM PST - 34 comments
Yahoo-Groups!
Yahoo! seems to be building itself into a virtual AOL. I suppose they are going to grab a cable company or entertainment company next. Hey - maybe Paramount's new owners will put it on the block.
posted by rich at 7:09 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
June 27
If you`re like me, then you believe that as time goes on and technology gets better, information content providers will have fewer and fewer means of preventing their content from being freely distributed - until all information is free, essentially. We`re already seeing this - MP3, motion pictures and whatnot. But let`s stretch our imagination a little and try to conceive the convergance of this trend with
Nanotechnology... [more]
posted by SilentSalamander at 7:00 PM PST - 5 comments
I've never actually seen this in use (probably because I'm totally amerocentric in my browsing), but apparently you can get some
wäĉkŷ characters in your domain name if you want to, assuming you want a dot-nu domain. If your browser speaks Japanese, you can even have a
kanji domain. That's pretty neat.
posted by endquote at 6:24 PM PST - 12 comments
And now, here's something we hope you'll really like...
Californian David Simon decided that It Would Be Nice If you could use the Internet like your VCR. The MPAA and the Studios disagreed.
Is this guy crazy? Or crazy like a fox?
posted by baylink at 10:01 AM PST - 8 comments
Another day, another piece of
unconstitutional net-censorship legislation in Congress. And this time it's authored by your pal and mine, John "Watch Out for Charlies!" McCain. Perhaps we should start a deadpool for all these bills, giving out some cash to whoever guesses the dates on which the courts throw them out?
posted by aaron at 9:52 AM PST - 4 comments
Screenfridge!
How many times have you read an article where some 'expert' predicts that even your fridge will be hooked up to the net in the future? Well Electrolux have already invented it.
posted by Markb at 9:18 AM PST - 13 comments
A true American tale: follow
the rise and fall and rise and fall of David Stanley, the con artist with Christ-like charisma who dodged a prison sentence, dyed his hair, and began the multi-million dollar startup
Pixelon without a driver's license, a social security card, or a shred of technology to sell. The people he has screwed over still love him for his kindess and genius. In Stanley's own words, "God has blessed me with a unique ability to defy reality". Why are people and corporations willing to invest millions of dollars into ideas without proof? And why do I admire this liar?
posted by sixfoot6 at 8:55 AM PST - 1 comments
Oh this is lovely.
Sydney, Seoul, Barcelona, Atlanta, and now... Somebody remind me to move outta Dallas within 12 years, before the gone and forgotten
Izzy makes its appearance in my hometown. Sheesh. We need this like we need another
DART bus. Or a pipe bomb, for that matter...
posted by ZachsMind at 6:47 AM PST - 7 comments
Jeff Koons on his art:
"I'm interested in making objects that you would want to grab and take with you if your house was burning down. " He also says he's really into cereal boxes. New York Times (registration required)
posted by lockecito at 6:35 AM PST - 7 comments
YAHOOGLE!!
Your average weblogger's favorite search engine makes the big time (and they just hit a billion pages indexed, too). Will success spoil
the Googs?
posted by wendell at 12:14 AM PST - 5 comments
June 26
Tapping Dave Winer's backend , so I don't have to.
Are Webloggers and Weblog-followers getting so jaded as to not even care about the New-And-Improved
SubHonker Filter? Let's see: according to Weblogs.Com's
Weblog Search, it has been mentioned by only 9 weblogs (including
its creator's own) prior to this post, and never made it over the threshold to show up on
Beebo's Metalog. Or maybe that's the point. We're not supposed to be counting hits or trolling for readership. But when you're looking for something new and fresh from someone who has something unique to contribute to the Weblog Community (which we're not even supposed to admit exists) is there an easier way to go than a random dive into the SHF's list of "New" blogs? Or maybe you just want to be made aware within an hour of when your favorite web-pundit has posted another magnum-opus (or magnum-bill-the-cat). Do these tools matter anymore? Or is it just that, with a couple thousand registered to weblogs.com, you have to be an obsessive-compulsive nutcase (like me) to even dive into the swamp, no matter how much Dan has improved the filtering interface. (Four hours going through the list so far, and I've only decided Yes-or-No on about 15%, and it's the obvious 15%!)
posted by wendell at 11:52 PM PST - 17 comments
A dose of reality.
I apologize for the content of this URL, but this is just too funny not to post. Finally, the world gets a dose of reality that .com != good company.
posted by fusinski at 8:28 AM PST - 5 comments
Here's an interesting one...
The Office of National Drug Control Policy apparently decided to buy banner ad rotations on websites... using pro-drug keywords. I actually think that's kind of clever. The problem is that they're using DoubleClick...
posted by baylink at 7:18 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
June 25
SIMbabes ain't putting out...
I play
The Sims. You probably suspected that didn't you? Well, there's a
Blogger Powered weblog by the guy behind the upcoming
Blueprint program, and guess what? Copyright infringement once again rears its ugly head in cyberspace. A website called
Simcorally has downloaded objects others created and claimed them as his own. So now the
SIMbabes are on strike. The upshot of this is I'm still stuck with that obnoxious green couch. I want
something better. And that piano looks awful nice.
Simlane has more on the topic.
posted by ZachsMind at 7:38 PM PST - 8 comments
teens spin web of the future.
great article re: the winners of a competition for teenagers maintaining useful, unique, nonprofit sites.
Emily Boyde, 17, of Newcastle, Australia, was the only female finalist. Her Web site,
MatMice, allows kids to create their own Web sites and view sites made by their friends.
She taught herself to write HTML, the language used to create Web sites.
"I don't know a lot of other females who do this sort of thing," she said. "But after I saw the Internet, I liked the look of it. So I decided to learn to use it myself."
Emily rocks my world.
What do you think of the winners?
posted by gusset at 5:06 PM PST - 2 comments
«Êtes-vous un mod ou un rocker?»
At the earsplitting industry schmoozefest I attended this week (which I am forbidden to link to because I blogged it at one of my sites), I beelined toward the more interesting-looking people. One fella had a full-on
mod look. I listen to the show
Mods & Rockers on
CIUT, and I claim to understand
Blow-Up. But I was impressed as hell by an explanation of the origin of the terms
mod and rocker. It's the sort of cultural introduction I wish more people would write after you teach yourself what a concept is, you document that self-teaching for others. Hey, it's the Internet gift kulcha, innit? (Also:
Mod films!)
posted by joeclark at 10:29 AM PST - 1 comments
"To achieve memorable badness is not so easy.
It has to be done innocently, by a poet unaware of his or her defects. The right combination of lofty ambition, humorless self-confidence, and crass incompetence is rare and precious. "
I wish I was talanted enough to write something really bad. At best, I flirt with the mundane.
posted by grumblebee at 7:02 AM PST - 7 comments
Words to web by:
"My personal theory, for what it's worth, is that Web sites looking to make real money either need to A) be Yahoo, B) sell porn, or (best of all) C) start small, and win a damn following."
posted by owillis at 12:41 AM PST - 2 comments
June 24
Porn on the net is not a problem.
Readers chime in on
an opinion column with opinions of their own. My favorites "All one has to do if you don't want to read such garbage is to delete it when you first sign onto the Internet" (this guy obviously has no clue how the web works) and "Is there software I can buy to block out you?" In this article, Porn site supporters and detractors both seem to agree that users have to go out of their way to see pornographic content on the web. You
have to click on the link to see porn. Funny how the writer of the original article couldn't figure that out. Is porn really that much of a problem on the web, or are some people just too embarrased to admit that due to some curiosity, they
wanted to follow the links?
posted by mathowie at 5:13 PM PST - 11 comments
June 23
Three words: Charlie's Angels Trailer.
This looks pretty funny, especially with Bill Murray involved. I guess the real question this movie raises is "are the re-makes of yesteryear successes going to continue in the 00's?" Personally, I thought it was a 90's thing, which I often call the "recycled decade." Side question: why don't the angels have guns in the ending silhouette? Is that because of the current anti-gun climate? [thanks
Kristin]
posted by mathowie at 3:19 PM PST - 6 comments
Yesterday
Justice Philip Cummins looked down at the two clean-cut young men in the dock as they sat close together on a long, leather bench. He condemned the brief, severe assault that caused Hibbins' death. He said their actions could not be justified as a citizen's arrest of a suspect because they punished Hibbins instead of apprehending him. However, he said, they were not vigilantes because their conduct was not premeditated. Instead it occurred because of an unplanned upsurge of emotion in both men. The judge said their behavior belonged in the least culpable category of manslaughter because they were decent young men who entered the park not looking for trouble, who reasonably believed a woman had been raped and who were then caught up in a perverse confluence of events for which they were truly sorry.
posted by murray_kester at 12:43 PM PST - 10 comments
Unsurprising posts:
Perhaps this should be in Metatalk (and certainly it's more Matt's business than mine), but I want the readers of MetaFilter to read it. Unless I'm confused, the point of a post to Metafilter is to satisfy two criteria:
1. It's interesting to the readership.
2. It's something they're unlikely to discover or encounter elsewhere on their own.
As I look at MetaFilter today, I see several articles which are nothing except digests of news events which I could just as easily have read at Reuters, or the BBC, or CNN, or any of half a dozen other normal web sites. Unless the post here includes an odd editorial slant, just what does it contribute that I can't get from those other sites?
To contrast this, we spent a great deal of time discussing Elian over a period of weeks, and many of those articles included links to the mainline news organizations. But these were
means to permit commentary, not treated as
ends in themselves.
If you want to tell us that
the Dutch truck driver has been indicted, tell us
something else besides which we
can't discover by visiting CNN or Reuters or the BBC. And why were we told about
the end of the hostage standoff in Fiji? What was
added here beyond what I would have discovered on my own at CNN?
Unfortunately, what this looks like is "Gawd, this is neat! I want to participate, too!" syndrome. That part's fine, but before you say something, make sure you have something worth saying!
posted by Steven Den Beste at 10:45 AM PST - 25 comments
Are you sick of John Rocker yet?
I am. How about
Rudy Giuliani? I am.
In the latest round of NYC entertainment, Rocker has promised to ride the No. 7 train to Shea Stadium. Lots of people are telling him to not be a dumbass (little bit late for that). Comedy hijinks ensue.
For what it's worth, I rode the No. 7 for years and nobody looks at anybody on that line (or at least gets caught doing so), as is consistent with NY subway etiquette. Rocker will be completely anonymous, unless he decides to go through the car passing out gift pens with little slips of paper that have the sign language alphabet printed on them. Even then, 98% of riders won't make eye contact with him.
posted by elgoose at 10:24 AM PST - 3 comments
Deal Announced To End Hostage Standoff in Fiji
President's spokesman Joe Brown announced yesterday that a deal has been reached for the release of hostage MPs, and the former Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry. The release is set for 11 a.m. (Fiji Time) today. Additionally, amnesty has been granted to the seven men who led the coup in Fiji on May 19.
The hostages have been held for the past five weeks, leading to the declaration of martial law, the suspension of the country's constitution, and plans for an interim government. Military officials conceded that George Speight, leader of the hostage-taking, has won most of his demands from the government, including enshrining native Fijian political hegemony in any new constitution.
posted by rschram at 5:42 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
The Filth and The Fury.
I went to see this film last night and it has to be one of the best music documentary (or, if you will, rockumentary) films I've seen. It charts the Sex Pistols rise and fall and is surprisingly funny and touching. It even manages to capture Seventies Britain in all its revolting glory. I think I shall now go and put a safety pin through my website.
posted by dodgygeezer at 5:32 AM PST - 3 comments
June 22
Longtime dream of Francis
Ford Coppola finally comes true. I posted this on my site like 5 times just because I think it's so cool. I've never posted on Metafilter before but felt I had to share this since other blog types aren't blogging it. It's a revolution for artists of all types that (writers, screenwriters, photographers, actors, graphic designers, and more) just opened yesterday. Coppola has been dreaming of it for a while. I've been a member of the earlier Zoetrope site for short stories for two years and can tell you that this is the result of a lot of hard work on the part of the webmasters and Zoetrope company. Go there. Share your stories. Share your images. Share your headshots. Share whatever. I know there are writers and budding photographers and filmmakers among you. And if you go, email me or post it here so I can invite you to my private message board area over there -- it's really one big, fun, family.
posted by tracy at 6:58 PM PST - 4 comments
Gee that was sweet Johnny
but the world happens to like suing everyone for everything they're worth be it offline or online so we're going to pretend you never said that. Honey?"
"Yes dear." "Where's my
lawyer's phone number?"
"You put it on speed dial, remember?" "Oh yeah.."
posted by ZachsMind at 5:45 PM PST - 6 comments
Sports Night No Go on HBO.
Despite the fact that Aaron Sorkin (the creator) had already made plans on an HBO-ized show, ABC and HBO have called off talks due to "financial issues which couldn't be resolved." If you were a fan of Sorkin (Sports Night), you may enjoy "The West Wing." I do.
posted by chrish at 11:41 AM PST - 2 comments
The overthrow of Premier Mossadeq
Last week the NYT posted PDF files of a CIA report detailing the overthrow of Premier Mossadeq of Iran in 1953. Names of Iranian participants who assisted in the operation were digitally "removed" because of fears that there families would face retribution when their status as foreign agents was revealed. John Young of
cryptome discovered that the redacted text was not really gone -- by cancelling the PDF rendering at a certain point, the hidden names were revealed. He contacted the NYT and after some discussion told them he would not post the full files; the Times removed their copies of the files until they could edit out the names more securely. Young has since heard that other people also noticed the flawed redaction and has concluded that the information is therefore public. He is now posting the full text of the files (
first installment up now) with the names restored. Is Young playing fast and loose with people's lives? Or does belief in a free press obligate this sort of thing?
posted by tingley at 8:10 AM PST - 14 comments
Nortel offering $1 Million to employees who recruit talented friends.
Employees are being asked to submit applications from family and friends, and for every new hire the referring employee gets $2,000 and the chance to enter five draws, each with a prize of $100,000. About 1,000 of the 5,300 optical jobs are in Canada, with the rest split between the United States and Britain. For well-connected employees, there is a $10,000 bonus for bringing in three people, and a $20,000 bonus for five.
Did I happen to mention my major is Telecommunications Management, and I graduate in 2 semesters???
posted by da5id at 7:10 AM PST - 3 comments
Found in my referer logs.
Does anybody have any idea what this guy is about, or why someone who would go here would visit me, too? :-) [WARNING: Even adults may not want to look at this page...]
posted by baylink at 7:03 AM PST - 11 comments
What will George do? Gary Graham is on death row and would be president Bush has a decision to make. Only one of six witnesses has identified Graham as the killer and four witnesses say Graham was elsewhere when the crime took place. I'm not saying the death penalty is wrong, but isn't it the greatest injustice of all to be executed for a crime you didn't commit.
posted by jay at 3:56 AM PST - 26 comments
June 21
Kottke offers a good critique of online discussions (like MeFi), and he makes some excellent suggestions on how to improve them. He quotes an unnamed source: "The problem with online forums is that those who have very little to contribute participate the most while those with valuable information to share participate the least." Now, let's try to keep the conversation cordial...
posted by ericost at 8:15 PM PST - 2 comments
Hate your neighbor???
I wonder why I never thought of doing this to the neighbor that accused me of smoking pot... in front of my mom, for Heaven's sake. Those were the days...
posted by fusinski at 4:57 PM PST - 4 comments
F.Y.I.
the second round of Pimpwars has begun with sign-ups starting last night. New in the 2nd version: 20 members per alliance, 3 different types of weapons, but still the same ole laying the smack down on people.
posted by da5id at 4:59 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
June 20
Poetry Slam 2000
will be in of all places Providence Rhode Island this August 8th-12th. I have liked this idea and yet could never wholly embrace it. The intensity is strong but the angst seems repetitive.
posted by ZachsMind at 10:24 PM PST - 8 comments
Let web designers have
Jakob Nielsen for usability guidance, we Flash designers have our own budding guru of usable Flash on the web at Flazoom.com. The guy behind Flazoom follows up his Cancer piece with some
good guidelines for Flash on the web.
The best link in the article goes
here, where he asks you to find both uses of Flash on the page. I totally missed the first one, even when I knew what to look for. His use of Flash that just blew me away - hardly any animation, just usefullness.
I'll stop cheering now...
posted by DragonBoy at 8:40 PM PST - 2 comments
"[11-year-old] Greg Smith loves going online and playing soccer . . .
he spends afternoons reading outdoors, hiking through the mountains and playing basketball with buddies...except that this 11-year-old has just completed his
first year as a full-time student at Randolph- Macon
College in Virginia..."
Why do I have a feeling this kid is going to be writing a painful memoir about his lost childhood by the time he's 19?
posted by Zosia Blue at 12:16 PM PST - 10 comments
Where are they now?
Don't front like you weren't pumping
Arrested Development back in junior high. Yeah, we now know their whole Afrocentrism schtick was a record company ploy, and I'm sure this new album will be nothing to write home about. But man, I still know all the words to "Mr. Wendal" and "Tennesee" by heart. Sounds like time for a Napster run...
posted by NickBarat at 7:48 AM PST - 2 comments
I pulled up to a
McDonald's today and saw a sattelite dish on top for Muzak.
Their web site looks hip and cool, completely belying that their output is the work of Demon Spawn. One disturbing thing - doesn't the guy in the lower right look a little
too much like
Pat McKenna from the
Red Green Show?
posted by plinth at 5:56 AM PST - 7 comments
June 19
Election fraud in Haiti? I can't believe it!
Imagine that...they don't seem to want the US telling them what to do. How novel. Well, I'm sure our compassionate President will respond by feeling their pain, and of course, causing more of it with our laser-guided bombs and the like.
Didn't we put Aristede there in the first place? Man, it ain't like the old days, when the US would stand by its tyrant, now is it? (Sorry, but I must obey my
Uncle Joe, and I always thought of sarcasm as linguistic bran anyway.)
posted by Ezrael at 11:33 PM PST - 1 comments
Mike Meyers deserves a medal
for having the guts to admit that the character he created for a five-minute sketch wasn't going to carry a full-length movie. He gave up a 20-million-dollar payday and saved us all from another "SNL spin-off" movie.
posted by wendell at 2:14 PM PST - 10 comments
I can't help but feel that Flash interstitials (like those one finds at
HillmanCurtis.com) are like holographs stuck on book covers. All the little flashing squares and pomo imagery and industrial sounds are wonderful, but they don't seem to add very much to the user experience. Did the Web kill cool multimedia? Have we actually taken a step back from the mid-1990s, when there were interesting projects on CD-ROM?
posted by tranquileye at 1:39 PM PST - 8 comments
Well, we're all screwed.
Seems like BT patented hyperlinking years ago, and they plan to aggressively enforce it in the US. Anyone know how to setup blogger for gopher?
(free registration is required to view article)
posted by Jairus at 12:31 PM PST - 9 comments
Why does the left ignore Waco?
I remember watching Waco burn on tv and being totally radicalized by it. Believing I was experiencing holy truth, I was of course shocked to find alot of people thought they had it coming. This link proposes things I had not considered.
posted by thirteen at 10:56 AM PST - 27 comments
UK - Eighty-eight people mistaken for tomatoes found
dead in a truck.
posted by tiaka at 6:57 AM PST - 4 comments
June 18
Coinstar
seems like a good idea, however, in the FAQ, they don't give the exact amount of the service charge. How odd.
posted by starduck at 2:48 PM PST - 15 comments
Another new console
is set to hit the market. That makes PS2, Dolphin, XBox, and now, the INDREMA! Personally, I think this is a bit too modern for current gamer tastes, but the fact that it runs LINUX makes me think they're going for something else. It saddens me to see all the next-gen consoles turning into computers, because nothing beats holding a controller in your hand. *gets misty-eyed*
posted by starduck at 2:38 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
furnish thy pad.
pure design sells some of the best work from the new generation of designers...including douglas coupland (yes, *that* douglas coupland), karim rashad, and nick dine. and they sell it online. superbonus!
posted by patricking at 12:34 PM PST - 7 comments
Weekend box-office
shakedown: "[Shaft] skewed younger and male, said Wayne Lewellen, president of distribution at Paramount Pictures, which released the film in 2,337 theaters.
It was 'certainly very strong' with black audiences, but also pulled in solid receipts from Canada, he added." I guess "Canada" signifies white people? What a fatuous thought process.
posted by highindustrial at 12:08 PM PST - 2 comments
I love "The Apartment."
It's one of my favorite films of all time. But whenever I've rented it and showed it to friends, they've dismissed it as a fun/sentimental comedy. I think it's got infinitely more depth than that, though it can be seen as a simple love story. Finally, someone else shares my love of this American Masterpiece.
posted by grumblebee at 7:53 AM PST - 11 comments
Napster retains (ahem)
counsel. The right move I think. Along with the DeCSS case, this may be setting the precedent for what "intellectual property" and "public domain" mean in the 21st century. Hopefully, things will turn out better than in Sterling's
"Distraction". Either way, things will never be the same.
posted by aflakete at 1:10 AM PST - 1 comments
June 17
how helpful.
a relatively complete listing of gay pride days around the world. just in case you're proud only once a year.
posted by patricking at 1:20 PM PST - 5 comments
Sigh.
Apparently it's cruelty when humans hunt and eat "animals," but not when other "animals" do it to each other. (Basic biology flashback: humans
are animals!) This is what happens when a species supersaturates its environment. Biological imperative begins to collapse and such furiously futile exercises as "pro-rat protests" are perpetrated in the name of something called ethics (not to mention free publicity).
posted by highindustrial at 11:08 AM PST - 17 comments
It's nice to know that people can still have big dreams.
This is not hallucination; these guys are very serious and very practical and their credentials suggest that they know exactly what they're doing. It's the same team which is just finishing the
Very Large Telescope project, which
when complete will be the biggest scope in the world, and will be more sensitive and get better pictures than the Hubble. Scopes #1 and #2 are now online, #3 is in engineering shakeout, and first light for #4 is coming shortly.
All four scopes will work together to generate images using interferometry.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 12:59 AM PST - 2 comments
June 16
Today I saw
an ad on TV
complaining that American health care is being Canadianized. All I can say is
that I wish these Americans would stop
lying about the Canadian health care
system. While most Canadians seem to agree that our health system is
a bit of a mess,
we also seem to agree that
we
dont want the American system, thank you very much.
The US market-driven
medical system spends about 14% of its economy on health care, while Canada's
cost is about 9% of GDP. Both countries' health care costs stood at about 7% in
1971, when the Canadian system converted to the public system and the US decided
to stick with a market-driven private system. Yet the Canadian system covers
everyone; the American system doesnt. Private delivery of health care means
money is lost to the profits investors demand (as much as 15%), higher executive
salaries, higher marketing/advertising costs, and lost economies of scale.
Why
attack the Canadian system? Part of the answer lies in the fact that to the
American health care industry, Canada is just one huge, untapped market that
they would love to have access to.
posted by tranquileye at 9:42 PM PST - 24 comments
If this little man
with the funny haircut has the courage to abandon the policies of his father, there is a chance within three years to witness one of the greatest triumphs of human spirit in recent memory.
posted by netbros at 12:01 PM PST - 3 comments
Clearing landmines with a click
It costs $3 to put a landmine in the ground and $1000 to pull it out. Along the same lines as The Hunger Site, head over to this site and help make war-torn areas safe again for the people living there.
posted by Calebos at 10:56 AM PST - 4 comments
Is the Boss really in charge?
Tucows is -- supposedly legally -- posting tracks from his early album, "Before the Fame" (though that sounds like a title applied after the fact to *me*).
posted by baylink at 8:44 AM PST - 2 comments
We can try who we like, but don't anyone try to try one of ours.
From the article: "The Clinton administration is offering a "Get Out of Jail Free" card to future Saddam Husseins and Slobodan Milosevics, simply in order to pander to the Pentagon and the Republican right on Capitol Hill. American diplomats are fighting a rearguard action in New York, in tandem with Congress in Washington, to emasculate the International Criminal Court that was established by the United Nations last year in Rome.
"Why does the United States oppose a way to punish the world's greatest villains? In short -- and in no uncertain terms -- congressmen such as Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms demand that no such court have jurisdiction over potential American criminals."
Silly me, I thought the law was supposed to apply to everyone or to no-one at all. Am I just being old-fashioned, or is anyone else bothered by the hypocrisy at work here?
posted by lia at 8:15 AM PST - 13 comments
Is linking illegal?
New York Times article about DeCSS linkage fiasco involving 2600. If linking is illegal, the Web is SOL. This is insane.
posted by elgoose at 6:55 AM PST - 7 comments
how in the world did
this article, which basically repremands readers from making assumptions about and being intrusive into the private lives of memoirists, end by propositioning dave eggers? i mean really, wtf? the author of the piece, lorri gottlieb, ought to be ashamed of herself.
posted by palegirl at 6:48 AM PST - 9 comments
never acknowledged:
evidently, reparations were never made to gay holocaust survivors in germany. never mind that's where the pink triangle came from...
posted by patricking at 12:15 AM PST - 2 comments
June 15
Do we really need virtual dolphins?
While I really find biomimetic research fascinating, I do sometimes wonder what it will end up actually producing. Then again, I am the guy who secretly wants it to produce battlesuits so I can play
Iron Man or what have you. I'm shallow that way.
posted by Ezrael at 8:06 PM PST - 2 comments
You know, after all the GW ads, I'm afraid that
this will look rather silly.
posted by tiaka at 5:47 PM PST - 1 comments
Sure, spud guns have been done, but sometimes we need
reminders of the awesome power of a flying tuber. I prefer this design, as it is powered by compressed air, whereas a buddy of mine just finished a device he calls "The Judge" powered by Acetylene and O2.
posted by plinth at 10:53 AM PST - 7 comments
This
is a bit old, but still topical; Louis Freeh propounds his ideas about freehdom... [from BugTraq^HSecurityFocus, via Counterpane Labs ]
posted by baylink at 9:04 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment
Did they miss a country?
The Amnesty International yearly report really makes you think about how much abuse, brutality, and persecution is still going on in the world that does't make the daily news.
posted by mkn at 12:44 AM PST - 1 comments
June 14
Is this a crock, or what?
Pseudotainment claims to be online tv, but
DotComGuy has better quality than this. The audio isn't as choppy as the video, but it's a sad state of affairs when the best we can do with all this technology can't even compete with local cable access programming.
posted by ZachsMind at 9:23 PM PST - 2 comments
POWER ALERT: SF and SJ, CA.
If you, or your website, are located in the *other* bay area :-), you might want to know that The California ISO (the people who run the grid)
have declared a power emergency and the City of Palo Alto Utilities, among others, has
implemented rolling blackouts.
Again, if you host in this area, this may result in intermittent outages to your site; you might wish to post a notice to that effect, so that regular visitors don't get worried.
posted by baylink at 7:16 PM PST - 8 comments
Internet dependence among college students
Article based on study done by counselor at RPI that identifies characteristics of "internet dependent" students. "What he found is that at least 10 percent of college students use the Internet so much that it interferes with their grades, their health, or their social lives, and that the problem may run much deeper at science-and-engineering institutions."
posted by elgoose at 1:07 PM PST - 10 comments
I despise parades.
The author gets a bit theatrical at the end but the core of the editorial is true. I live in NYC and often these ethnic pride parades devolve into some kind of justification for violence. Last Sunday's PR Day Parade was en especially bad example of this.
posted by Nyarlathotep at 11:51 AM PST - 23 comments
Pimpwars
Resets today. I know most of you probably don't care, but from the rumors, the newer version sounds funner than the first: i.e. - 2 different guns, larger alliances, better administration over all.
posted by da5id at 9:44 AM PST - 3 comments
Love unloads
This is one of the more comprehensive and insightful takes on the RIAA vs. Napster vs. Record Companies that I've heard. It's long and rambling, but it makes a lot of sense to me.
posted by y6y6y6 at 7:54 AM PST - 35 comments
Pat Methany accuses Kenny G of "lame-ass, jive, pseudo bluesy, out-of-tune, noodling, wimped out, fucked up playing."
And more! One of the best rants I have ever read.
posted by glish at 7:47 AM PST - 16 comments
June 13
"Well, nobody's perfect..."
Men in Skirts honored by #1 and #2 in AFI's all-time best movie comedies list ("Some Like It Hot" and "Tootsie") Nuclear War got #3 ("Dr. Strangelove"). So what would the MeFi Top 100 Comedies look like?
posted by wendell at 11:16 PM PST - 28 comments
Napster's screwed: Internal NapsterCo email and documents show that they intended to be a copyright-infringing pirate haven from the very beginning. Should have used PGP, kids!
posted by aaron at 11:10 PM PST - 5 comments
Sanity always comes as a surprise.
Apparently, for at least someone, the price is too high. I'm not sure I agree (I don't think drugs are ever the answer to anything, but I doubt we can afford to keep chasing them) but I applaud his concern for his men.
posted by ab'd al'Hazred at 11:06 PM PST - 1 comments
