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24 July, 2003

The Catapult Watch

Arm yourself with the Amazing Catapult Watch.

The only watch that's also a weapon - it shoots BBs, dried peas, popcorn kernels, lentils and more up to 8 feet across the room!

This stainless steel watch will be the envy of the classroom or the meeting room. Use it to "wake-up" those sleepy headed co-workers and classmates. When they look around to see who's been pelting them with spitballs, you'll just be casually checking the time.

Posted on 24 July, 2003

The Pseudodictionary

At the Pseudodictionary site...

...words you've made up can become part of an actual online dictionary! slang, webspeak, colloquialisms...you name it, if you know a word that should be in the dictionary but isn't, submit it and we'll post it on this site.

For example, someone submitted the word walmart which is defined as:

Inexpensive and readily available but often sub-standard. e.g., "I bought that thing last week at three in the morning and it's broken already; it's so walmart."

And the word haffin:

To divide something in haff. An example of this word is, "Will you haffin that piece of gum wit me?"

And dropped pie:

Indicates ugliness. e.g., "That bloke has got a head like a dropped pie."

Posted on 24 July, 2003

iTunes Users Beware

If you've purchased any music from iTunes, make sure you read Shawn Yaeger's letter to Politech.

Having purchased a number of songs from the Apple Music Store while in the US and using a US funds credit card, I regrettably didn't read the fine print. I've now discovered that if you leave the country, your songs may just disappear, as mine have.

This is one more reason to avoid buying any product that uses any type of DRM.

Update: Well, it's not as bad as it seems. The problem, in this case, is not DRM. It's the licensing policies of the music companies. Thanks to Dan for point this out to me.

Posted on 24 July, 2003

More Mozilla Firebird Converts

It's gratifying to know that writing this blog can have an effect on people. I'm referring to people switching from Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firebird, based on my recommendation last week.

Ryan Moore (who runs the Colossus blog) writes:

After reading about Firebird from your blog and Mozilla in general over at A Whole lot of Nothing I must say, you sir are correct. I downloaded the package here at work. It works beautifully. I even got the Flash stop kit, the ad block, the Paranoia tool, the Blog This tool for my blog and greatest of all the RSS Aggreg8 tool along with the reader panel. Simply Marvelous. It has delivered in a half an hour of surfing all that you have promised and more.

And this, from Kevin Breit:

I'm a Linux user so I haven't used IE in years. But my girlfriend and sister are both Windows users who used IE. I showed my girlfriend Mozilla. Pop-up killing and the tabbed browsing did it for her. Whenever she has to use IE, she complains beyond belief :) Then there's my sister. She was getting a ton of pop-ups and the like. I installed Mozilla on her machine. I showed her tabbed browsing, pop-up killing and ad blocking and she was sold.

The point is that these are two VERY average computer users. They aren't technical in the least and I was able to sell Mozilla to them on features alone. Next? My dad :)

And then there's Wendy Lauver:

I have such a dilemma. I am absolutely loving Mozilla. But as the self appointed clock collector, I am sad to report that my first and favorite clock, the javascript clock by Kurt Griggt does not appear to work within Mozilla.

Maybe some JavaScript hound will take a look a the code and send me a correction.

* * *

Looking at my access logs, I'm also seeing that the percentage of visitors who use Mozilla has about doubled in the past week. That's a good sign, but there's still a long way to go.

Posted on 24 July, 2003

Microsoft vs. InterTrust

From Fortune: Microsoft's Patent Problem.

It seems that Microsoft is not faring well in this DRM-related patent suit.

Microsoft suffered utter defeat at a crucial pretrial hearing in what appears to be the highest-stakes patent litigation ever-one in which a tiny company called InterTrust Technologies claims that 85% of Microsoft's entire product line infringes its digital security patents.

Next step: settlement talks.

Though InterTrust declines to place a pricetag on the suit, it's hard to imagine the company settling now for any sum that does not have a "B" in it.

Posted on 24 July, 2003

Get Out Of Hell Free

This might come in handy some day: A Get Out of Hell Free card.

(via Tom McMahon)

Posted on 24 July, 2003

Big Steel

This guy is strong.

I was inspired to try and bend a crescent wrench. I have not been bending lately, letting old injuries heal themselves. It's hard for me to stay away from bending long and I decided to try again. I've tried to bend this particular 8" wrench before when I was near my peak. Nothing happened the last time I tried. I commented to a friend then that someday I would pull it from my toolbox and I would know I could bend it. I guess the day had come for this to happen because before the bend my hands felt good and I saw in my mind that the steel was not that strong.

(Thanks John Fleming)

Posted on 24 July, 2003

The End of Maryland

From The Onion: Deficit-Wracked Maryland Calls It Quits.

Citing mounting debt and a decline in tourism dollars, the state of Maryland will shut down for good on August 31, Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. told reporters Monday...

...The rights to Maryland's state flag, bird, and motto are also being sold to the highest bidder.

Posted on 24 July, 2003

Moving Images?

Take a look at this image. It appears to be animated, but it isn't.

Posted on 24 July, 2003

Son of Napster

Robert X. Cringley writes: Son of Napster - One Possible Future for a Music Business That Must Inevitably Change

It's an idea he calls Snapster.

Snapster is all about ownership. Snapster will be a company that buys at retail one copy of every CD on the market.

Each Snapster share carries ownership rights to those 100,000 CDs. You see, Snapster is a kind of mutual fund, so every investor is a beneficial owner of all 100,000 CDs. Each share also carries the right to download backup or media-shifting copies for $0.05 per song or $0.50 per CD, that download coming from a separate company we'll call Snapster Download that is 100 percent owned by Snapster.

It would never work, but it's a fascinating idea.

Posted on 24 July, 2003

Virtual Dali

The life and work of Salvador Dali.

As an art student in Madrid and Barcelona, Dal� assimilated a vast number of artistic styles and displayed unusual technical facility as a painter.

In the late 1920s, two events brought about the development of his mature artistic style: His discovery of Sigmund Freud's writings on the erotic significance of subconscious imagery; and His affiliation with the Paris Surrealists, a group of artists and writers who sought to establish the "greater reality" of man's subconscious over his reason.

This is a very cool site!

Posted on 24 July, 2003

A Button Collection

Check out Steve Garfield's Button Museum.

Posted on 24 July, 2003

Take The Senses Challenge

A nicely-done 20-question quiz about human senses, from BBC.

Posted on 24 July, 2003

Ticketmaster and Privacy

If you want to buy tickets for just about anything, chances are you'll have to deal with Ticketmaster. Is there any more hated company in the world?

People don't like paying an exorbitant "convenience fee" for each ticket, and most resent having to pay an additional facility fee and an order processing fee on top of that. But if they want to attend the event, they often have no choice. Ticketmaster is a monopoly. They can charge whatever they want, and they don't even have to provide good service. What a deal!

And there's more... Check out Ed Foster's article: Ticketmaster's Privacy Policy: Opting Out is Not an Option.

Here's an excerpt from Ticketmaster Privacy Policy:

"By purchasing a ticket, or completing a registration form so that you are able to access a purchase page for a ticket, to a concert, game or other event on the Site, you consent (i.e., you opt-in) to us sharing your personal information with the venues, promoters, artists, teams, leagues and other third parties associated with that concert, game or other event ("Event Partners"). We cannot offer you a separate opportunity to opt-out, or not to consent, to our sharing of your personal information with them."

Posted on 24 July, 2003