The REAL Out4Blood |
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Friday, January 24, 2003
There's been a big rumpus about how everyone who attended the ANSWER rally in D.C. can now be considered a communist (I'm exagerrating the claims of course). I found the most egregious examples at Asymmetrical Information and at t a c i t u s, calling them useful idiots. Asymmetrical Information has a lot of comments arguing this point back and forth. The two cents I would add is: if you believe them, why bother arguing about it, since people have already made those associations, and if you don't, then why bother arguing the point? The rabid bloggers posting about it certainly aren't about to be swayed by anyone's views. I think our responsibility ended with pointing out who and what was behind the organization of the rally. Let the rest of the people form their own opinions about what that means. They will anyway.
Glenn Reynolds hits a high note: If you want to limit government corruption, you need to limit government power. The less the government can do, the less people will try to bribe its officials. Thursday, January 23, 2003
An article at kuro5hin discusses the ethics of linking. Many small sites get pummeled by the slashdot effect when linked to by popular community sites. kuro5hin sees "a 'reckless linking' lawsuit;" it's arguably a DOS attack on that website, so I am waiting...
This is unsettling, and yet another vote for blogging and reading blogs: The concentration of media ownership. At least with a blog, you generally know which side they're on. (via Boing Boing)
Discuss
Where are you at? The GeoURL ICBM Address Server locates websites via their physical location (as specified in a META tag).
This is cool. I just added blogrolling.com to the site. It's pretty handy. I don't mind brute-forcing my way through HTML and javascript, but this makes life so much easier.
Why is it that none of the major news services are exposing these people? Why is this left to us whacko conservatives? Byron York on Antiwar Movement on National Review Online
We should all be reading BBC NEWS to keep up with what "Old Europe" thinks about the impending War with Iraq.
A pretty cool explanation of 2001: A Space Odyssey using Flash (via ColbyCosh) Someone has waaaayy too much time on their hands. Wednesday, January 22, 2003
I just made some changes to the layout - hoping to add some more functionality. It currently lacks what is needed to be my outboard brain.
The Panama palindrome. You can read the story about it, but the poem is on the website of Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden.
If you haven't read this bit of collectively-written humor, you're missing out: What If LotR Had Been Written By Someone Else!?. My personal favorite is one "written" by Dr. Seuss: "Gandalf, Gandalf! Take the ring!
WTFOMG! Google has built a shopping site! It's called Froogle. You can read about Froogle here. Google is your friend. Froogle is your wife's friend. (And your enemy!)
FWIW, This site has a list of all the characters mentioned in the final chapter of the Number of the Beast, a novel by Robert A. Heinlein. The link comes from CalPundit, who also posts his opinion of "best to worst" of Heinlein's books.
For those who aren't aware of this, Wikipedia is "open source" encyclopedia. According to Slashdot, it just passed its 100,000 article. I'm wondering what people use most as a reference source. Personally, I use Google 100% of the time to research a topic. Occasionally, I get directed to a Wikipedia page. As far as open source is concerned, isn't Google the biggest open source reference in the world, where anyone can contribute (just build a site) and articles are valued on their merits (number of reference links)? You might want to compare with Encarta, Encyclopedia.com, and Everything2.
BBspot - Fans Outraged at New Character in The Return of the King. If you're a die-hard Tolkien fan, you might be a little upset at what Peter Jackson has done this time. Tuesday, January 21, 2003
In the aftermath of the MLK holiday, we always see some backlash posts. In one of them, I found this interesting tidbit about how Martin Luther King plagiarized much of his work. Not sure what to think of that. Does it matter? It doesn't matter too much to me; I never thought much of his writings. His actions are what are inspiring to me. However, I can't help but wonder how this would have been spun if he had been a Great Republican, rather than a civil rights activist.
Okay, so we found the smoking gun in Iraq. But what does that mean? Will we go to war, or will we just extend inspections? On this question, I am ambivalent. I don't know enough about what's really going on to decide either way. Would we all be better off with Saddam gone? Yes. Should we make war in Iraq to make it happen? I dunno. In any event, I'd like to see the Arabs step up to the plate to get rid of Saddam. Police your own, I say!
From CNN, via Slashdot, comes a report that San Fransisico has banned Segway use on the city's sidewalks. On the surface, you'd think that SF, being a fairly liberal city, would embrace the environmentally friendly Segway. Instead, we find them using the government to oppose the new technology. I wonder if the capitalistic intentions of its designer and his investors, along with over-the-top media hype that accompanied IT, led to a liberal backlash. When I read stuff like this I can't help but draw scary parallels with Atlas Shrugged. Monday, January 20, 2003
I think I may have found this on InstaPundit, but I am not really sure. It's a hilarious manipulation of male psychology to produce cleaner restrooms. Pretty funny and pretty ingenious. Hmmm, now I've got myself wondering whether it is a hilarious or an hilarious. Hmmm. *Googles*. This guy sure seems wrong. This article seems a little closer to what I have heard. "A is used before words that begin with consonant sounds (a rock, a large park) and an is used before vowel sounds (an interesting subject, an apple). However, note that the choice of a or an depends on pronunciation, not spelling. Many words that begin with the vowel -u- are preceded by a instead of an because the -u- spelling is often pronounce -yu-, as in useful ("a useful idea"), and uranium ("a uranium isotope"). In addition, in a few words borrowed from French, the initial consonant -h- is not pronounced: an heir to the throne, an hour-long lecture, an honorable agreement, etc." I say hi-'lar-E-&s, so I guess it should be "a" Sunday, January 19, 2003
I read about this new game from the designer of the original X-Com - Julian Gollop. The game is called Laser Squad Nemesis and it is notable for its success as an independently published game. "In other words, this game feels unlike anything you've ever played before. When playing a turn, it looks something like a fast-moving RTS game--but when planning a move, it rewards close attention to detail, careful planning, and clever strategy. In other words, Laser Squad Nemesis has more real strategy to it than just about any other strategy game--realtime or turn-based--on the market. Whether this style will appeal to you is a matter of taste; personally, I find it very engaging. I can do a move in ten or fifteen minutes, getting a little gaming fix during my lunch break, without having to commit to a few hours of play. I have a live opponent, not a dumb AI; and because of the nature of the game, I feel like my success or failure is a result of how smart and I, and how carefully I plan, not the result of better interface mastery or fast coordination. I like that in a game."I plan to check it out further when I am back in high-bandwidth land. Those of you who liked X-Com should check it out. |
