March 31, 2005
Scientific American's April Fools Day Editorial (secondhand)
"Okay, We Give Up" [via] http://mrbobhatesyou.blogspot.com/2005_03_01_mrbobhatesyou_archive.html#111147519912475081Posted by irons at 03:56 PM
Ebert's "Sin City" review is ecstatic
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050330/REVIEWS/50322001Posted by irons at 10:27 AM
March 29, 2005
Jerry Brown piles onto Bush over his Schiavo and Texas healthcare bills
http://jerrybrown.typepad.com/jerry/2005/03/florida_v_texas.htmlPosted by irons at 10:33 PM
Looking for fractal-esque "self-similarity at multiple scales" in the long tail
http://longtail.typepad.com/the_long_tail/2005/03/microstructure_.htmlPosted by irons at 06:28 PM
Ebert vents about fundamentalists screwing up science museums
When I first heard this story, it made me want to go find a conservative church so I could argue with the sermon. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050328/COMMENTARY/503280301Posted by irons at 05:33 PM
Jerry Falwell's on a ventilator
"An avid sports fan, Falwell had made the trip to Chattanooga, Tenn., on Saturday to see Liberty University's team play in the third round of the NCAA women's basketball tournament. The team lost." http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Falwell.html?hp&ex=1112158800&en=5c693201b971d129&ei=5094&partner=homepagePosted by irons at 02:20 PM
BBEdit 8's document icons are 52 KB each!?! (no, actually)
I thought the file bloat had to be some kind of resource-fork document corruption, and I reported it as a bug. BBEdit 7's icons were about 8 KB. update: I was wrong, and I'm still confused.Posted by irons at 11:58 AM
March 28, 2005
Ken Auletta on the ad business
Noteworthy in part for the breezy admission by the story's primary authority (the woman who brought us the Aflac duck and wrote Toys-R-Us's legendarily annoying jingle) that if advertising didn't work, "the generic brands of every category would be selling out." That seems perilously close to, "if our business didn't exist, everyone would have more money and the world would work better." http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/050328fa_factPosted by irons at 07:39 AM
March 25, 2005
Data-driven sparkline scripting in Photoshop CS
You can script Photoshop with javascript? I'll be damned. http://www.lodgephoto.com/articles/sparklines.htmPosted by irons at 04:06 PM
Sparklines depicting Technorati mojo at the Observer
Ben Hammersley's handiwork. Really intriguing idea. http://www.benhammersley.com/weblog/2005/03/01/sparklines_at_the_observer.htmlPosted by irons at 04:05 PM
Richard Lederer's lovingly stat-heavy obit for fireballing relief pitcher Dick Radatz
http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/2005/03/dick_radatz.phpPosted by irons at 02:47 PM
CNN just can't stop digging that grave for itself
http://www.gawker.com/news/media/cnn/this-just-in-were-morons-037152.phpPosted by irons at 09:26 AM
March 24, 2005
Transparent desktop pictures
I like this image so much, it makes me want to renovate my office to put more interesting textures behind the computer, so I can replicate the effect. [via] http://www.flickr.com/photos/w00kie/7234920/in/set-180637/Posted by irons at 03:25 PM
March 23, 2005
Cheap, high-end chocolate at Trader Joe's
Fazal Majid on the case. http://www.majid.info/mylos/weblog/2005/03/22-1.htmlPosted by irons at 11:09 AM
March 22, 2005
David Pogue swears off "Fisher-Price" as an adjective
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/22/technology/poguesposts/22pogues-posts.html?ex=1269147600&en=55e5752b2cc8c42f&ei=5088&partner=rssnytPosted by irons at 03:41 PM
March 21, 2005
Never buy a glass desk
The most comical thing about the picture is the trail of comments saying "Oh no, I own that desk." http://www.flickr.com/photos/8lettersuk/1104535Posted by irons at 04:56 PM
Engagement bathtub
The most arresting element in Michael Alderete's anecdote about an accidental kitchen remodel is his use of the phrase "Engagement bathtub", which as of this writing exists in only three places in the Googleverse. All three are pertinent, and one contains the definition. http://aldoblog.com/blog/448Posted by irons at 04:06 PM
"The Mona Lisa was a fireworks display in front of a mosh pit."
Pictures of picture-takers of the Mona Lisa. http://WWW.lostremote.com/archives/004087.htmlPosted by irons at 12:22 PM
Here's a thing with no link
What happens? Gosh, I don't know.Posted by irons at 11:43 AM
zipdecode
One of the reasons this Java-based zipcode exploration tool is so flippin' nifty is how it depicts national density, incidentally putting the lie to red/blue electoral maps. Try just typing the first digits 0-9 to see how much area, inversely proportional to density, each covers -- "8" encompasses everything west of Texas and Oklahoma until California, Nevada, and Washington, a huge swath of vacant red states. http://acg.media.mit.edu/people/fry/zipdecode/Posted by irons at 09:00 AM
A good story about Colin Powell in the Google laundromat
http://www.livejournal.com/users/gleemie/94676.htmlPosted by irons at 12:03 AM
March 18, 2005
30 things not to say in bed
I felt like an idiot while I was laughing, but I was laughing http://www.defectiveyeti.com/archives/001209.htmlPosted by irons at 04:49 PM
YA-cache test
Here's a cache testPosted by irons at 12:20 PM
cache test
Here's a cache test wang! pop.Posted by irons at 12:17 PM | Comments (0)
March 17, 2005
"Another flashback shows [George] Sr. attacking Richard Simmons" (PDF link)
The Parents Television Council has been mailbombing the FCC for years with haphazard indecency claims about television shows, copies of which the FCC usually releases when they reject the complaint. Here's one regarding a 2003 episode of "Arrested Development"; be sure to scroll down to the list of grievances. http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-05-36A2.pdfPosted by irons at 07:59 PM
Scenes from the Cultural Revolution
Finally, the context I've lacked to understand David Horowitz. http://billmon.org/archives/001752.htmlPosted by irons at 07:27 PM
Penny sculpture
File under "college activities of people who didn't realize how easy it was to persuade other people to have sex." [via] http://www.fincher.org/Misc/Pennies/Posted by irons at 07:17 PM
"But what if giving children the vaccine might increase the risk that non-immunized adults could develop a different disease that is very unpleasant?"
Via Slate. Vaccines are such counterintuitive, unprofitable, fascinating little bastards. http://www.slate.com/id/2114797/Posted by irons at 07:13 PM
March 16, 2005
"Hello World" as an MT::App subclass
In only four files. MT::App is huge and undocumented, making this all the more valuable. I realized I needed to learn this business after it dawned on me that the plugin I was writing exposed its configuration page to the whole web. http://www.papascott.de/archives/2004/08/12/hello-world-as-an-mtapp-cgi/Posted by irons at 11:20 PM
Scifiwire reporting on Canadian anti-semitic responses to "Passion of the Christ"
Noteworthy because either the "news service of the Sci-Fi Channel" is dramatically broadening its scope, or Jesus is science fiction http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire2005/index.php?id=30613Posted by irons at 11:20 AM
March 15, 2005
another test
Does this really [cache] not work with existing articles? (Cache) Not anymore it does [/cache] not! no sir. not a bit. Good job.Posted by irons at 06:41 PM | Comments (0)
when toddlers attack
http://www.livejournal.com/users/wookiepocket/81835.htmlPosted by irons at 05:36 PM
Grand old men of CBS News, retiring under clouds
Aaron Barnhart turns up an illuminating anecdote about Edward R. Murrow. http://www.tvbarn.com/ticker2004/archives/028232.phpPosted by irons at 05:31 PM
March 14, 2005
UnitKit
I never cottoned to OCUnit for test-driven Objective-C development. This looks potentially better. http://unitkit.org/Posted by irons at 08:22 PM
Happy Pie Day
http://www.livejournal.com/users/fantasygoat/44088.htmlPosted by irons at 09:54 AM
Schneier on "Sensitive Security Information" (SSI), the regulations you're not allowed to see
"In 1993, the U.S. government created a new classification of information -- Sensitive Security Information -- that was exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. The information under this category, as defined by a D.C. court, was limited to information related to the safety of air passengers. This was greatly expanded in 2002, when Congress deleted two words, 'air' and 'passengers,' and changed 'safety' to 'security.'" He arrives at a conclusion that gobsmacked me a little bit. http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/03/sensitive_secur.htmlPosted by irons at 07:22 AM
Badass hack of Google Maps overlays arbitrary geographical info, like Wifi-equipped coffee shops
[Via] http://romeda.org/index.php?p=52Posted by irons at 07:17 AM
March 13, 2005
Netflix lists extended Lord Of The Rings movies for the first time
For years they've claimed, absurdly, that they won't stock "re-releases" of movies already available on DVD, counterexamples like "Apocalypse Now Redux" and the "Donnie Darko" director's cut notwithstanding. http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?movieid=70024198&trkid=181026Posted by irons at 04:22 PM
How to fix iChat when it forgets how to paste inline images
Good tip, amounting to "kill iChatAgent and let it relaunch" http://onearmedbear-vs.com/~mns/index.php?entry=entry040918-222922Posted by irons at 10:57 AM
March 11, 2005
Dahlia Lithwith loathes L&O:TBJ
My favorite legal commentator finally adopts TV criticism. Hooray! She nails the show's absurd mistreatment of defense counsel (even in advance of the current episode, which explores the ways in which defense attorneys are worse than recidivist child molesters). Not even Carey Lowell and a revolving selection of actors from "Oz" and "The Wire" are making this thing watchable. http://slate.msn.com/id/2114689/Posted by irons at 07:21 PM
under "reason for non-delivery" they appear to have checked "I'm so fucked up, I'm seeing some shit"
Contact Dave Barry's literary agent http://www.livejournal.com/users/mrspleen/222941.htmlPosted by irons at 10:42 AM
March 10, 2005
Deadwood's place in contemporary culture
Frank Rich's columns, going back at least to the 2004 election, are necessary elements of my grasp of modern America. Deadwood is indeed off to another running start, and though I do not understand Gottfried's joke, "The Aristocrats" went right on the netflix list. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/13/arts/13Rich.html?ei=5088&en=f35030f67a38a305&ex=1268197200&partner=rssnyt&pagewanted=allPosted by irons at 10:50 AM
March 09, 2005
"Stephen Hawking's editor told him that every equation he included in his book would cut sales in half."
Paul Graham describes how to start a startup. http://www.paulgraham.com/start.htmlPosted by irons at 06:53 PM
King County (WA) Bar Association vs the War on Some Drugs
Good radio interview with Roger Goodman, director of the Drug Policy Project at the King County Bar Association. He begins, warming my heart, by defining what success and failure should look like, and pointing out how the Bush administration's claims to success are cherry-picked nonsense. The DEA, Partnership for Drug-Free America, etc, all declined to participate. http://kuow.org/theconversation.asp?Archive=03-08Posted by irons at 06:52 PM
March 08, 2005
Cronkite tosses Rather an anvil
With appropriate commentary by Lisa de Moraes, who was doing Wonkette's schtick when Wonkette was still a dot-com kid. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A15601-2005Mar7?language=printerPosted by irons at 12:29 PM
"There is no such thing as the United Nations," said our new UN ambassador
Going on to say, "If the U.N. Secretariat Building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference." If hubris had a smell, we wouldn't be able to smell anything else. http://slate.msn.com/id/2114455/Posted by irons at 12:04 PM
March 07, 2005
Net::Delicious
More infrastructure I should have known about already. http://search.cpan.org/dist/Net-Delicious/lib/Net/Delicious.pmPosted by irons at 09:15 AM
Kellan's MTKeywordList plugin
I thought I was being clever by building a linkblog locally and submitting it to del.ici.ous after the fact, but while researching MT's keywords, Google informed me that Kellan did it two months ago. http://laughingmeme.org/archives/002717.htmlPosted by irons at 09:13 AM
March 06, 2005
Doom 3 for the Mac will require a 1.5GHz G4
Dang. That not only rules out my current machine, it might rule out my next machine. http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/03/02/doom3/index.phpPosted by irons at 03:54 PM
March 05, 2005
Jorge Drexler's acapella Oscar speech an act of "gentle malice"
http://slate.msn.com/id/2114131/Posted by irons at 11:01 PM
March 03, 2005
Paul Krugman at full length
I love Paul Krugman in the NYT, but his ~700 word op-ed ceiling is a crime. I'd so much rather he had a deal like Frank Rich, with triple the word count once a week, than that he continue to boil his points down to razor nubbins to beat back the inanities of David Brooks. Here he is in the NY Review of Books, at 5,700 words, on Social Security. (Cache) http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17771Posted by irons at 09:01 AM
Mark Kleiman's barnburner on judicially-sanctioned prison rape
I can't imagine the scandal that's finally going to push this issue to a point that the public becomes motivated to fix it. Abu Ghraib raised the bar a lot. http://www.markarkleiman.com/archives/crime_control_/2005/02/liberal_justices_for_prison_rape.phpPosted by irons at 08:17 AM