Click Here: May 2007

Comments/feedback Archives: 2007 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 01

31 May 2007

Microsoft Surface #
The first true desktop computer. (The best bit is where they transfer photos from a digital camera to a smartphone with exactly zero button-presses required. I expected some kind of wizard.)
Flickr: The Story Map #
Okay, wow.

30 May 2007

Internet, You So Dirty #
Moral of the story? Never let anyone take your photo. Never.
An Interview with Ze Frank about Creativity #
Far. Ze Frank would be an awesome lecturer. Make sure you tell me if he ever comes to NZ.
xkcd: Merlin #
Have I mentioned, I love this comic?

29 May 2007

The Commuter Hierarchy #
Whenever I get the train, it's just about empty. But that's probably because public transport in Auckland sucks.
Every good domain is taken. Here's why. #
For example, Cameroon is making good money because .cm is good for typos. The whole system seems a bit screwed; I wonder if domain names will obsolesce in the near future.

28 May 2007

Pirates of the Caribbean 3: No End in Sight #
"I think Pirates may be what Shakespeare meant when he had MacBeth say, 'A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.' Of course, he wrote that a long, long time ago, so he probably was referring to one of the Porky's movies or Police Academy 4."
How 1800 People Suddenly Fell Over and Died #
Comment #4 sums up my thoughts nicely. Comments #13, #54 and #65 add some important observations. Meanwhile, in #40, "massacre" showed that humans are not causing Global Warming by linking to an article in the Timaru Herald. Woo!

27 May 2007

Eddie Griffin crashes a Ferrari Enzo #
Painful to watch. But we must bear witness.
Brendan Eich: The Open Web and Its Adversaries #
"I assert that there is something wrong with web-like 'rich' formats that aren't hyperlink-able or indexable by search-engines. You could argue that these bugs could be fixed, and Flash is wisely becoming more URI-addressable and view-source-able over time. But it still ain't the Web. It is not hand-authored, easily tweaked incrementally, copy-and-paste-able. It's hardware."

26 May 2007

YouTube: How not to exit a parking Garage #
What the fuck was this guy trying to do?
DI: A Walk in the Valley of the Uncanny #
Fascinating, this. Does make a lot of sense when you take some time to think about it.

24 May 2007

IE7 Interest: Flat #
"In the last three months, IE7's growth has slowed to a trickle. IE7 has a decent enough number - 31 percent as of last week - but IE6 is still higher, at 46 percent-47 percent." Damn. So now we have to hack for two browsers.
Artists and labels seek royalties from radio #
I am regularly shocked by some new fucked up oddity lurking within free, progressive America. They have legislation saying you can't get royalties when your song is played on the radio?!
Flickr: Crazy Chief of The Podface Tree People #
Blah!
You can be my Firefox #
Classic. Note to my friends: if I ever do anything like this, shoot me.

22 May 2007

YouTube: Powerpoint Presentation #
Perhaps not for everyone, but it got some laughs out of me.
It's official: Pirates crack Vista at last #
Ah, Microsoft. Neatly showing us how a company driven by its sales department is heading straight down.

21 May 2007

Google To Shut Down AdSense Arbitrageurs #
I have no idea how to pronounce that, but, you web scum! Suck it!
That's got to use a fair bit of electricity #
Nice book collection, too.

20 May 2007

J. D. Salinger: A Perfect Day for Bananafish #
Wow. Someone will have to explain this to me.
Top 100 Wikipedia Articles #
A mix of pop culture, dirty words, geography and WWII. Also self-references - Wikipedia is the 5th most popular article on Wikipedia.

19 May 2007

Rediscovering the Button Element #
Amazing that people are still finding more utility out of such well-known tools as HTML and CSS.
No Life Too Small #
We took our cat to the vet a year or two ago and Mum told me Dad had said, "If it's going to cost hundreds of dollars, just have it put down." I was speechless for a few moments, then asked, "Does he say that about us when we get sick?"

18 May 2007

YouTube: American Psycho: Business Card Scene #
Wicked. I shall have to see this film.
The First Wireless Remote Control #
Didn't need any batteries. Easier to use than today's remotes, too. (Pity about that ambient sunlight.)

17 May 2007

YouTube: Worst movie scenes ever #
I can't decide between the horizontal horse stunt and "What do you say I take you home and ..." (And how ultimate was that shark?)
You Are Mozilla #
Taking blogging back to the golden days of ranting about changing the world.

16 May 2007

YouTube: Now That's Choreography #
Cruel. Beautiful. Cinema! Second video, though, dunno about that one.
YouTube: Do Not Watch This #
What the fuck. No, seriously. What. The. Fuck.

15 May 2007

Mozilla Calendar: Still Going #
It sounds like this is getting virtually no support at all from Mozilla. Thunderbird and Sunbird/Calendar (now approaching 0.5) seem like worthy investments to me.
The New Yorker: Walt Mossberg #
Some more New Yorker for ya.

14 May 2007

Google Losing Fight For Its Name #
I had always thought that Google becoming a verb was good for Google.
Mozilla CEO on Future of Firefox #
Long and poorly edited, but touches on some interesting topics, such as: What's with that $55 million a year in revenue? Mozilla has a development office in New Zealand? When can I get Firefox on my mobile? Also, there's a great "No speaka de englesh" moment by Mitchell when she is asked why adblocking is not built into Firefox.

13 May 2007

Aaron Swartz Interview #
Geez, and he's younger than me too.
Powell's Chief of Staff Advocates Impeaching Bush and Cheney #
"I really do think that our founding fathers, Hamilton, Washington, Monroe, Madison, would all be astounded that over the course of our short history as a country, 200 plus years, we haven't used that little two to three lines in Article II of the Constitution more frequently, the impeachment clause. I do believe that they would have thought had they been asked by you or whomever at the time of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia 'Do you think this will be exercised?' they would have said 'Of course it will, every generation they'll have to throw some bastard out'. That's a form of accountability too. It's ultimate accountability." Well, that would certainly be interesting.

12 May 2007

fortuitous: How to talk to the press #
I subscribed to this blog from the first post.
How Convenient: The perils of coincidence #
Screenwriter discussing the over-reliance on coincidence in Spiderman 3. I missed 2 in the cinemas but had been looking forward to it, as I had heard good things and enjoyed 1. Eventually I caught it on TV, unfortunately. Oh no! Aunt Whatshername has been kidnapped by the evil baddie again! Oh, gosh, Spidey saved her, what a relief! But OH NO! NOW THE BADDIE HAS GOT MARY JANE! AGAIN! Fuck you, Hollywood.

10 May 2007

Jakob Nielsen: Top 10 Usability Bloopers in Movies #
Makes some interesting observations about time travel and Minority Report.
Daily Cat Picture #
This is the internet, after all.

09 May 2007

Microsoft in Early Talks With Yahoo #
The idea of a merger has been floated. Wouldn't that be something. Something bad, though, I hazard, reminiscent of AOL Time Warner. One analyst agrees with me: "If Microsoft buys Yahoo, Microsoft should immediately spin the Yahoo-MSN business out as a separate company. If it doesn't, both Yahoo and MSN will die."
YouTube: Full Metal Jacket for Wii #
From the Crazy Japanese files. Having seen Full Metal Jacket probably helps, but I found not doing so enhanced my WTF factor.

08 May 2007

I love like the dry humor like that. #
A college class was instructed to comment on some blog posts, including this one. I'm guessing they're first years. Sarcasm ensues!
The New Yorker: Four Short Crushes #
Fucking fantastic. Someone should totally subscribe to this.

07 May 2007

Rands: How To Not Throw Up #
Another fantastic piece by Rands, this time on public speaking. I used to dread this more than almost anything, even spiders. But then we had to give a seminar for our final-year project, and I loved it. I mean, I hadn't prepared enough, I freaked out, I stuffed up, it was pretty disastrous and all. But I was passionate about what I was saying, and it managed to somehow work, and we really connected with the audience. It is one of my favourite memories from uni. (And I haven't even covered how much I enjoyed writing it.)
Mental Note: Take Own Advice #
Backing up: easier to preach than perform.

06 May 2007

Eat My Delicious Meats #
Just the look on his face is enough to give me nightmares.
Vista: Bigger than Windows 98! #
I just thought this was hilarious: "Now ranked the fifth-most popular operating system by Net Applications, Vista jumped ahead of Windows 98 ...". Still, that's not bad for a system whose best feature is it's brokenness.
Etymologic: the toughest etymology game on the Web #
Apparently Emma got 9/10. After getting the first 3 wrong, I was pretty stoked with my 6.

05 May 2007

People Are Crazy #
You probably already noticed this, especially if you've ever been on the internet, but still. This marathon comment wasn't even relevant to the post. (Which, ironically, was actually about comment spam.)
Video: Shaolin Monks Train To Become Near Super-Human #
Totally bad ass. All that stuff you saw in Kill Bill is true.
Adding Insult To Injury #
Now available: special pirated copies of Windows XP with IE and WMP replaced with Firefox and VLC.

04 May 2007

It Starts as a Trickle... #
Dell will offer Ubuntu on their computers. I would say widespread Linux on the desktop is only a year away now, two at the most.
Bill Moyers Interviews Jon Stewart #
dy link blog says: "Smart & serious people discuss major issues. Somehow this got on TV."

03 May 2007

Flickr: I am not a furry. #
I love the caption. My DF T-shirt took more than 6 months to arrive. Six months! How can you possibly get that far behind in T-shirts? Viva la CARS.
Subtraction: To Wrap It Up, I’ll Take It #
Brief post making a very interesting observation - someone has managed to innovate on wrapping paper. At time of writing, it has already collected 2 very small-minded comments.

02 May 2007

DF: The iPhone’s Funny Price #
See, I like it when Gruber writes columns like this: well-researched, insightful, covering exciting Apple products. Jackasses, not so much.
Cause of Death: Resuscitation #
"Consider someone who has just died of a heart attack. His organs are intact, he hasn't lost blood. All that's happened is his heart has stopped beating — the definition of 'clinical death' — and his brain has shut down to conserve oxygen. But what has actually died?"

01 May 2007

Screw You, Humans! #
I hate it when you drink.
DI: Swordfish! #
Actually, maybe it wasn't much like Swordfish. All I remember about Swordfish is that to hack any computer system, you need 6 LCD screens and state-of-the-art 3D acceleration. I found this story interesting though because, apart from being another fascinating piece of counter-intelligence (now that has got to be an exciting job), it glamourises programmers, which is rare enough to warrant mention.