Geekstuff

RIAA rides again…

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Record Industry Sues 493 More U.S. Music Swappers WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. music industry group said Monday it had sued 493 more people for copyright infringement as part of its campaign to stop consumers from copying music over the Internet. The Recording Industry Association of America (news – web sites) has now sued nearly … Read more

OK, chapter done, up for air.

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Tonight’s Moe forecast is for heavy bookishness with scattered blogging (that’s what my girlfriend called it): I finally acquired the new Neal Stephenson this evening and the sooner I read it the sooner I can stop lugging it around. Great books, but they’re blessed heavy.

Sing it, brother.

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Christopher Bahn has some rather pointed suggestions on how to save Episode Three from the vast wasteland of suckitude that it’ll otherwise inhabit. I should be using qualifiers, no doubt, but hey, I saw the last two films: the next one is going to be even worse. Bahn’s suggestions range from the serious Considering that … Read more

Small World Alert (part 2)*

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Hat tip to the all-knowing Gary Farber for sharing this vital blogging tip

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For those of us who consider the New York Times the best of the lying press, but have been more than slightly annoyed that as you go back to find that Times article you read that will destroy your opponent’s argument, only to realize that they retire their ware into archives and then have the nerve to ask us to pay for it, here’s the ticket

HOW TO GET TO OLD NY TIMES ARTICLES.

Gary’s also scooped me (and the NYT) on the rising popularity of Extreme Ironing. Finally, a good excuse for my wrinkly shirts (“Honestly, my parachute wouldn’t open.”).

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When you get right down to it…

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…this has got to be the best commentary of the blogosphere ever. (via Backward) UPDATE: Oh look, it kinda works for other sites too! sample 1 sample 2 Sorry…had a bit of a flashback to the second grade there for a moment.

Ye gods. Maybe trolls have uses after all.

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I have my parents visiting*, so posting may be light this weekend. If you haven’t checked out Kevin Drum’s analysis on the strengths of blogging, do so: it’s pretty comprehensive, although I think that he’s ignoring one in particular. Not fact-checking – he’s aware; he just doesn’t think that it’s all that important – but … Read more

Enlightenment is where you find it.

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It’s interesting how many stops on the blogosphere remind me of this passage from The Illuminatus! Trilogy:

…”As for the rest of you – who can tell me, without uttering a word, the fallacy of the Illuminati?”

A young girl – she was no more than fifteen, George guessed, and the youngest member of the crew; he had heard she was a runaway from a fabulously rich Italian family in Rom – slowly raised her hand and clenched her fist.

Hagbard turned on her furiously. “How many times must I tell you people: no faking! You got that out of some cheap book on Zen that neither the author or you understood a damned word of. I hate to be dictatorial, but phony mysticism is the one thing Discordianism can’t survive. You’re on sh*twork, in the kitchen, for a week, you wise-ass brat.”

The girl remained immobile, in the same position, fist raised, and only slowly did George read the slight smile that curled her mouth. Then he started to smile himself.

(Pages 429 – 430)

No, I’m not going to tell you what post on what site sparked this observation, because it’s not going to make any real sense unless you understand what the above passage is driving at, and I have no intention of explaining what the above passage is driving at. You either get it, or you don’t – and as the Church of the Subgenius points out, when it comes to enlightenment… if you think that you got it, you didn’t really get it*.

Moe

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Bloganalysis.

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I’ll admit it; I’m a sucker for metagaming this entire blogging thing. The mechanisms by which blogs develop readership, grow, shrink, influence, live, die… I find it all really, really fascinating, which is why I always enjoy it when the Politboro Diktat does a post on the subject. Which is why I’m linking to Dean … Read more

CUL8R, NOT ;-p

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Because we could all use some lighter “news”: Britons Using Text to Break Up More Often Nine percent of Britons admit to dumping a partner by sending an SMS text message on a cell phone — possibly signalling the beginning of the end for the “Dear John” letter — according to a new survey. Among … Read more

This is as far back as I could go.

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This probably wasn’t where the meme started, but what the heck. Does LiveJournal have server logs? 1. Grab the nearest book. 2. Open the book to page 23. 3. Find the fifth sentence. 4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions. “Upon opening the fridge, a ridiculous monster pops … Read more

More rules of thumb.

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Not quite as funny as the classic When I am an Evil Overlord series, but still worthy of note: The Pulp Movie Survival Tip List. Some words of wisdom: 19. If a local person who has spectacularly saved your life before indicates that you have some kind of supernatural power, role, or place in custom, … Read more

Umm, right.

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Not to be indelicate, but seeing as the male/female blogging ratio is somewhat skewed (not nearly as skewed as other forms of geekdom, mind you), when someone happens to be offering what is apparently a demented fusion of group blogging, cybersex and reality show-style elimination rounds and apparently there are three times as many women … Read more

Carpeicthus Memorial Counterfactual Thread

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Because I am in glorious geekmode tonight, that’s why. Post your favorite alternate history scenarios here. For myself, I’ve always been interested in what would have happened if Islam had expanded west into Byzantium, instead of going east into Persia. What would that have changed – and what would have stayed the same?

This is an impossibility.

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There can be no Starship Troopers sequel, even if it’s direct-to-video, because THERE WAS NEVER A STARSHIP TROOPERS MOVIE FOR IT TO BE A SEQUEL TO IN THE FIRST PLACE. If there had been, and had been the sort of film that rumor suggests, it would have been regrettably necessary to cut off Paul Verhoeven’s … Read more

If seven years behind the spatula taught me anything…

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…it’s that the Scotsman is eternal. Don’t let that happy clown fool ya: Mickey Dee is as good as the Mouse when it comes to shrugging off attacks (although the latter is unparalleled for sheer bloody-minded viciousness). What’s that, Karl? Oh, right, you’ve expanded, you and your tractor. You’re going against them all now, not just the Golden Arches. The fact that you couldn’t even slow ’em down had nothing to do with it. In fact, I think that your protests might have even increased interest in the corp, which led to increased sales, which made my stock in the company go up in value. IOW, many thanks from this small cog in the VRWC for globalization; we couldn’t have entrenched ourselves in France without you.

Then again, how were you supposed to realize how much supernatural mojo the Pros from Chicago actually pack*?

Moe

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OK, one more post.

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If you want to guess about the name of this website – folks who know already, no cheating – or just want to talk about geekstuff, have at it.

Living la Vida Dorka…

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…which is in itself a geek reference (John Kovalic, Dork Tower, primo stuff*). At any rate, took the last two days off to read the latest Harry Turtledove and catch the Hellboy movie. Said movie was quite tasty, all in all; the main characters were well matched with their actors, who did generally did good … Read more

One Night in Orthanc…

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The folks at Crooked Timber (who – along with Brad DeLong – don’t need my traffic, as a look at our referrer logs will readily enough show) is talking about the latest “No way! Way!” to hit the buzzosphere: Lord of the Rings musical planned. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I tried to avoid mashing that in with any number of Broadway musicals.

I failed.

(UPDATE: I also failed to say what it was ripped off; the Terrace Duet from the musical Chess, more or less)

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Generic Bookblogging Title

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A random perusal of ObWi’s bloglists is starting to suggest that possibly we’re all really, really focused on politics right now: findiing less wonkish stuff isn’t as easy as I thought. However, Short Hope Unfiltered has very nicely reminded me that Book Two of Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle is coming out next month. I dunno if he gets anything for having the Amazon links up, but far be it from me to interfere with it if he does; it’s only an extra clickthrough.

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A Long-Expected Prequel.

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To everyone wondering why there’s no real buzz about a Hobbit movie, the answer’s simple: yup, you guessed it, there’s a battle going on over who has the rights: NEW YORK (AP) – Peter Jackson won’t be returning to the Shire any time soon. The Oscar-winning director is planning to film “The Hobbit,” the prequel … Read more

Greenbacks and Spam

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Would you buy it with a dime? Would you buy it for some time? Would you buy it if you’re poor? Would it make you write much more? If e-mail was no longer free (something geeks around the world are debating, mostly as a response to the scourge of spam), how would that change the … Read more

To everybody popping in from Googling crack Pax Romana…

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…the official link to the site’s here. I agree, it does looks highly addictive; I especially like the internal politics version of the game. Very interesting. Moe PS: Favorite Google hit so far: postmodern pirates of the Caribbean. The possibilities are nigh-endless.

Hit counter and Syndication info added.

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Finally got around to adding Sitemeter; I’m keen to compare it to what the internal Typepad hitcounter is telling me. Also, upon the request of Jim Henley, here’s a XML syndication feed: http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/atom.xml It apparently works, so have fun with it. Otherwise, take this as an open blog technical thread. Opinions on whether I should … Read more

Who Are These Slackers?

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So The Pew Internet and American Life Project suggest that the majority of bloggers are somewhat casual about the whole thing. “The impression out there is that a lot of the blog activity is very feverish,” said Lee Rainie, the Pew project’s director. “That’s not the case. For most bloggers, it’s not an all-consuming, all-the-time … Read more

Tie a broom to your car, Peter…

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…because that was a clean sweep, baby. Moe PS: No tuxedo: bad suit. No haircut; wild mane of hair. No bow tie; carelessly tied real tie. Top shirt button unbuttoned. Something that looked suspiciously like a Trek insignia on one lapel. Thanked everybody from New Zealand to JRR Tolkien in the speeches. Best of all, … Read more

Stay Alert. Trust No one. Keep Your Laser Handy.

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It’s coming back. Praise all the gods of roleplaying gamers everywhere, it’s coming back, lasers blazing, updated for the modern era, it’s got Greg Costikyan, Aaron Allston and Ken Rolston involved and…

THERE REALLY WAS NO FIFTH EDITION.

Some of you know what I’m talking about: for the rest…

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A Religion that never was.

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While we’re in geekmode… I came across this while reading up on the background of the new Thomas Harlan series*. Not quite as good as it thinks it is, and shows a faint taint of the gameworld that spawned it, but still pretty interesting. it is one of the major goals of my life to have weird stuff like this constantly folding and unfolding in my head.

Just thought that I’d mention that.

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This is Romantic. Really.

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Well, only because the phrase “Stick of Pain, Lamont! Stick of Pain!” came up once or twice in the process of negotiating our way through the unmarked minefields that surrounded the wedding we went to today. My girlfriend introduced me to this website because she knew of my weakness for all things ninja; the Editorials/Rants … Read more

I don’t know if this is true…

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… about a F/A-18A really being offered for sale on eBay, that is. If it was, it’s sold now. Dammit, I need to get an account. And several million bucks in spending money. Hmm, why not ask for a reliable FTL drive, too? Moe PS: Going to a wedding tomorrow, so don’t expect any quick … Read more

Fear and Loathing in Gusev Crater

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The rover Spirit shattered a one-day distance record on Mars, rolling nearly 70 feet across the planet’s rocky surface, NASA said Tuesday. Later in the story, mission manager Jim Erickson is quoted saying, “”Everything seemed to go fine there. Tomorrow’s plan is further driving. The day after that is driving even further[.]” I’m afraid of … Read more

Coolest. Patches. EVER!

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Marvin The Martian and Daffy Duck (as the fearless Duck Dodgers) will be showcased on official 1st Space Launch Squadron patches for two NASA Mars Exploration Rover Missions this summer [summer 2003 — MN]. “They must be MINE!!!” I’m surprised it took this long for me to hear about them — I guess I just … Read more

Movies That Must Not Be.

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Not movies that should not be, nor movies that we wish never were: movies that simply cannot be actually real, because otherwise the fabric of reality would begin to unravel and then we’d have nowhere to put our stuff.

All entries to this – well, not contest – must thus be of ‘films’ that appear to have some evidence of existing for some inexplicable reason. Please note the title, why it Must Not Be and a plausible reason that explains away the aforementioned evidence for existence. For example:

Batman and Robin. This ‘film’ purports to have starred big names in it, but I ask you: would George Clooney have donned an anatomically correct Batsuit? Would Alicia Silverstone have? Don’t you think that Governor Schwartzenegger would have had more dignity – or have been able to have been elected with this on his resume? No, sorry, it was an Internet hoax gone terribly, horribly wrong – much like this Watchmen poster* – and those involved should apologize for it.

Star Trek V: THERE WAS NO FIFTH MOVIE. Paramount and the Roddenberry estate have disavowed any knowledge of a fifth Star Trek film, especially one that purported to claim that Spock had an older brother or that ‘God’ is trapped in an energy bubble somewhere in the galaxy. There was a mistake made with a sloppy graphic artist (who has since been sacked) designing posters for Star Trek VI: he left out the “I” and before it could be caught the posters were all over the world. There was no fifth film: you’re suffering from implanted memories. Of course, at least you aren’t believing that Satan-worshipping aliens abducted you as a child and took you to Faerie…

Highlander: There Can Be Only One, So There Was Only One. Simple and straightforward. Rumors of sequels? Distorted memories of the later television series being shown in two hour blocks on Saturday afternoons. Happens all the time.

Starship Troopers: While the idea of a Gestapo Doogie Howser does admittedly have a special appeal, if Verhoeven had dared make a movie anything remotely like the rumors he would have been messily assassinated by now by an angry mob of Heinlein fans. He’s still alive, right? So therefore he didn’t do it and the ‘script’ that’s circulating around is merely a (well-deserved) smear campaign against the director…

You get the drift.

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Yes, but what is it in miles?

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This little Powers of Ten applet seems pretty cool, but I bet that it’d be cooler if I had DSL (and thus could load it faster). Woe is me that I do not… (Via Instapundit)