The New York Times reports that Todd Oppenheimer is a critic of technology in education:
There is little good research showing that students learn better with computers, Oppenheimer wrote, and the more money that goes to technology, the less money available for such endeavors as art and music programs or for hiring more teachers.
Well it's about bloody time someone else started pointing this out.
Total bathroom humor. Well, not even that. Scatalogical humor. Except it's not terribly logical. Anyway: http://www.doodie.com/
Making bizarre slime !
Electric Motorbikes has a $4000 electric motorcycle. This looks like a super cool commute device.
Salon Magazine has an excerpt from Lisa Palac's book The Edge of the Bed: How Dirty Pictures Changed My Life .
Lessee: Entrance tunnel. Flashing animaged GIFs. GIF titles and menu entries. Eye-straining white backgrounds. Yeah, I'd say their site is a prime example: http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/ At least they've got alt tags...
If you care at all about the creation of online community, the destruction of the commons, the history of the 'net, why spamming newsgroups is bad, you must read this.
http://web.nwe.ufl.edu/~northrup/usenet.html
http://www.satlug.org/~afcasta/usenet2.html
And I'm not sure if my automatic htmlifier will choke on this, but the DejaNews URL is:
dejanews URL for Alberry 'net rant
Dil Dog presents The Tao of Windows Buffer Overflow .
Late sleepers, stand up for your rights . Luckily I'm not one of them... hehe.
The Incomplete History of Art , photographs by Dean Brown
I'm the last person to support Microsoft on technical reasons. I cringe at the quality of their products, at simple Word documents 100 times the contained text that would have been cheaper to ship as high quality JPEGs, and so forth. However, the American People have overwhelmingly voted for mediocrity by buying Microsoft products and stock, and I believe they deserve to get Microsofted good and hard. So do these folks: http://www.moral-defense.org/
Mike Sierra documents the decline and fall of civilizations in The Flummery Digest
So I've tried wading through parts of the USDA's proposed National Organic Program at http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/rule.htm
While it's reinforced my Libertarianism heavily, I do realize that utopia is not an option and we've got to work with the gang of armed thugs we've currently got.
Therefore: I've seen a bunch of lists of things people don't like about the program, does anyone have a list of those things cross-referenced to the appropriate sections? For instance I've seen one flyer complaining that sewage could be used as a fertilizer, yet the preamble (which goes on for tens of pages) clearly discounts this. But there are other things I don't remember from those lists that bother me more.
Anyway, help would be appreciated.
If you're not a regular reader (or at least as regularly as he publishes it) of Brock N. Meeks' CyberWire Dispatch you simply cannot be with it. Hopefully the recently published manifesto for TechnoBlatherism will be up soon, it's a wonderful skewering of those "Technorealist " dolts.
The ethics of what I do for a living have been bothering me recently. If I don't help provide the technologies to make entertainment that I don't necessarily believe in, won't someone else? What entertainment can I help create that will build the society I want to live in? How do IPOs create wealth?
Jon Katz has written a two part series on Ted Kaczynski. part one talks about the inevitability that his ideas, however disjointed, would be dismissed. Part two talks about Shelley's foresight in Frankenstein, of how reluctant we creators are to acknowledge that the effects of the devices we create are real.
IMAGEK has 35mm film-canister shaped digital back for cameras. They ask for way too much information to let you at more info, though, especially without a privacy policy.
RinkWorks , online entertainment. Including the Book-A-Minute abridged SF stories and other random stupidities.
Rectal Tronics , high tech butt-plugs. You will laugh.
Johnny Cash shows his support for the "Nashville music establishment and country raidio for your support."
Everyone who's been around a bit has undoubtedly seen the sign posted on a machine room wall (or perhaps the German variation). It bears repeating:
ACHTUNG! ALLES LOOKENSPEEPERS!
Das computermachine ist nicht fuer gefingerpoken und mittengrabben. Ist easy schnappen der springenwerk, blowenfusen und poppencorken mit spitzensparken. Ist nicht fuer gewerken bei das dumpkopfen. Das rubbernecken sichtseeren keepen das cotten-pickenen hans in das pockets muss; relaxen und watchen das blinkenlichten.
David Siegel's Complete Guide to Automythology is great. If you've ever cursed entrance tunnels, or 1 pixel IMG tags without WIDTH and HEIGHT, or design over content, this lambasting of the master is well worth reading.
An awesome introduction to Television Production
Testicles of Famouse People . Not that I'd expect any such folks, but if you're offended by cartoon drawings of genitalia don't click here. It is funny, though.
If you're reading this web site you're undoubtedly a person who's opinion needs to be heard . Don't tell your normal friends, we want to influence society for the better.
Just when I thought I'd had a completely fulfilling childhood, along comes this recall notice for Professor Wacko's Exothermic Exuberance chemistry kit. Man, I want one of these things now. From the recall notice:
The kit contains (2) two-ounce bottles of glycerine and potassium permanganate. The bottles are identical, except for their labels and contents. If after use, a child or adult inadvertently switches the bottle caps, causing small portions of the chemicals to mix, an unexpected fire may result. CPSC is aware of at least two house fires that reportedly resulted from the above scenario. In addition, the kit does not have adequate warnings and directions for safe use.
Coooooool.
If you think you're not familiar with the art of Joey Skaggs you probably need to probe
In the filtering software wars, we've finally found a clear winner .
Practical monitor calibration . This is a COOL site.
>From The Illuminatus Trilogy , by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea:
Love of country? Another lie; the truth is fear of cops and prisons. Love of art? Another lie; the truth is fear of the naked truth without ornaments and false faces on it. Love of truth itself? The biggest lie of all: fear of the unknown. People learn acceptance of all this and achieve wisdom? The surrender to superior force and call their cowardice maturity. It still comes down to one question: Are you kneeling at the altar, or are you on the altar watching the others kneel to you?"
have you seen the FNORDs?
The PostFundamentalist Press Adult Christian Sex Tour
The Whore Activist Network is making a documentary, but they've also got links to the various activist groups, COYOTE and such.
The Dead People Server is simply a list of interesting celebrities who are, or might plausibly be dead, and even those who have been spaced, with information as to who has really Rung Down the Curtain and Joined the Choir Invisible, and who's Just Resting.
'Toons! Thinking Out Loud
Monday is World Phone in Sick Day , which means that nobody will believe me if I do, so I'd better not get sick this weekend.
One day after the release of the Netscape Navigator source code, the first full strength encryption version for foreign markets was created by three programmers in Australia. From the press release at http://mozilla-crypto.ssleay.org/press/19980401-02/
Yesterday, at approximately 19:15pm AU (01:15am PST) Eric Young, Tim Hudson and Michael Watkin completed the first SSL-enabled Moxilla binary (unoffically named cryptozilla), for Linux.
Once again our government's outlandish stance on cryptography is shown to be fundamentally ludicrous.
The exposition of the biggest April Fools hoax of all time . You're undoubtedly one of the people taken in by it.
Back in 1985, Jerry Pournelle had a column in BYTE magazine, and in it bragged about his access to ARPANET (the precursor to the Internet). Here's the story of how he lost that access. If you're into recent history, this is a good one.
Peter McWilliams, the author of Life 101, later had a falling out with John-Roger, his alleged co-author, and the Insight/MSIA organiation, and wrote Life 102: What to do when your guru sues you . Very interesting reading.
It's not quite as compelling as The Road To Xenu , the critique of Scientology written by Margery Wakefield , partially because the Insight/MSIA people are a little more subtle, but both are very interesting reading if you're at all interested in how manipulation of emotions can be used.
For those of us who believe that some of the organizations which practice these techniques can be very beneficial, it's also a good look at when help becomes harm and ways to tell the difference.
Archives of neat sites posted to Flutterby , notes to webmaster@flutterby.com