Links

Sometime between February 23rd and February 24th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• Safari 4 Hidden Preferences: $ defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4TabBarIsOnTop -bool NO to kill the tabs-on-top 'feature'. Admittedly, I haven't installed the Safari 4 beta yet (that's on the dock for this evening), but just from the screenshots and Erik's notes, it doesn't seem like such a good idea.
• And the Circle Is Complete: Star Trek novels with new titles photoshopped in based on the cover art. Some really funny stuff in here.
• UserFriendly comic plagiarized multiple punchlines from Metafilter comments: The author's a long-time Metafilter user and apologizes here, while people keep finding more. (Ironic disclaimer: all of the preceding text was <del>borrowed</del> <del>copied</del> <ins>plagarized</ins> from Waxy.org links!)
• Last.fm – the Blog · "Techcrunch Are Full of Shit": "On Friday night a technology blog called Techcrunch posted a vicious and completely false rumour about us: that Last.fm handed data to the RIAA so they could track who's been listening to the 'leaked' U2 album. ¶ I denied it vehemently on the Techcrunch article, as did several other Last.fm staffers. We denied it in the Last.fm forums, on twitter, via email — basically we denied it to anyone that would listen, and now we're denying it on our blog."
• Roger Ebert: The Oscars are Outsourced: In his post-show wrapup, Ebert mentions one of my favorite bits of last night's Oscar ceremonies: the set. "By moving the orchestra onstage and replacing a traditional orchestra pit with the semi-circled seats of nominees, they made the Oscarcast feel a little less like a show, a little more like a party. ¶ The new design also made possible a crucial new camera shot, looking directly at the nominees from behind the presenters on stage. The looks in the eyes of Viola Davis, Marisa Tomei and Amy Adams as they were praised by Oscar legends was dramatic–infinitely better and less sadistic than the the traditional practice of framing the nominees in little boxes so we could see the instant reactions of the losers."

Sometime between February 18th and February 23rd, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• Reality TV Helps Break Down Racial Barriers: "Despite decades of public pressure on the major networks to diversify, the lead characters in all but a handful of prime-time scripted shows this season are still white — and usually young and affluent. In contrast, reality programs consistently feature a broader range of people when it comes to race, age, class and sexual orientation."
• Can You Really Just Waltz Into SAM, Say You Have No Money to Pay the Suggested Donation, and Be Let In?: Apparently, yes you can: "Before I could finish, she said, 'Oh–absolutely, here you go,' and handed me a ticket printed with '1.00' in the corner. She was the epitome of friendliness. As we passed a museum guard, who'd heard the interaction, she smiled and gave us directions to Hopper. We looked at Hopper's women, and looked at women looking at Hopper's women." This is really neat — good for you, SAM!
• Re: The P-I’s Online Plan: "It's hard to overstate how big a change this represents. For a daily newspaper to abandon its belief that important local news should be conveyed first through its own trusted reporters, and its own trusted reporters only, is a tremendous shift. It fits with something else that's been becoming more clear lately: Hearst wants to hold on to the P-I brand, and the online traffic that comes with it, but it is ready to jettison a lot of old notions about what makes a journalistic enterprise."
• The Mystery of Ireland’s Worst Driver: "It was discovered that the man every member of the Irish police's rank and file had been looking for – a Mr Prawo Jazdy – wasn't exactly the sort of prized villain whose apprehension leads to an officer winning an award. ¶ In fact he wasn't even human. ¶ 'Prawo Jazdy is actually the Polish for driving licence and not the first and surname on the licence,' read a letter from June 2007 from an officer working within the Garda's traffic division."
• Wil Wheaton: Spoiler Alert: WATCHMEN is fucking awesome.: Wil says good things about the Watchmen movie in his (actually spoiler-free) review, which I was going to link to anyway after reading it in Google Reader, but when I tried to click through to Wil's site to link the page, I got this, which I thought was funny: "Your request to URL 'http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/2009/02/spoiler-alert-watchmen-is-fucking-awesome.html' has been blocked by the Webwasher Real-Time Classifier. The page was classified as sexual, erotic or adult content (90% probability in meta information) which is not allowed by your administrator at this time. "
• Writing Star Trek Novels, Or, Why Don’t You Get a Morally Acceptable Job?: Vonda N. McIntyre: "Years later, the opportunity to write a Star Trek novel came along. The folks who invited me to write it knew I'd been fond of the series and they trusted me to treat the characters with some respect.¶ My editor happened to be coming to a convention in Seattle just before the book was due, and asked me to give him the manuscript there, so I did. ¶ To my surprise (and not a little discomfort), my editor sat himself down in the middle of a small party and started reading. After he'd read fifty pages or so, he said, 'Paramount will either love this, or they'll really, really hate it.' ¶ Fortunately, the former."

Sometime between 07:00 and 13:31, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• Non-Hierarchical Management: "A better way to think of a manager is as a servant, like an editor or a personal assistant. Everyone wants to be effective; a manager's job is to do everything they can to make that happen. The ideal manager is someone everyone would want to have. ¶ Instead of the standard 'org chart' with a CEO at the top and employees growing down like roots, turn the whole thing upside down. Employees are at the top — they're the ones who actually get stuff done — and managers are underneath them, helping them to be more effective. (The CEO, who really does nothing, is of course at the bottom.)"
• Irony for Me: The Trilogy Tomatometer: "Do you know how many hours are wasted amongst men and women determining the best movie in a trilogy? Trillions, that's how many." The Trilogy Tomatometer uses SCIENCE — and the Rotten Tomatoes movie review site — to determine the relative awsomeness of movie trilogies.
• No Photo Ban in Subways, Yet an Arrest: "Twice in the last five years, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority proposed a ban on photography in the subways as an antiterrorism measure. And in 2007, the city proposed severe restrictions on filming in the city streets, but retreated when visual artists and activists gathered 26,000 signatures on petitions of opposition within a few weeks. ¶ Both times that the transportation authority tried to ban photography, it, too, dropped the idea because of opposition. Even so, people taking pictures in the subways are regularly stopped by the police and asked to let the officers see their images or to delete them. ¶ 'They don't have to do that, and it's completely unlawful to ask them to delete them,' said Chris Dunn, a lawyer with the New York Civil Liberties Union. 'But it comes with the explicit or implicit threat of arrest. It's a constant problem.'"
• Facebook Backs Down on Privacy Terms: "Facing a federal complaint from a leading privacy advocacy organization and a revolt of tens of thousands of its users, Facebook on Tuesday night backed down from what many have seen as an onerous privacy policy. ¶ The policy had seemed to grant Facebook perpetual rights to users' uploaded content, and the threatened complaint from the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) had demanded, essentially, that the social-networking service return to its previous terms. ¶ Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post late Tuesday that the company had decided to do just that."
• YouTube – the Simpsons – NEW Main Title: The Simpsons gets a new intro sequence — the first since it began, I believe — for its transition to HD.

Sometime between 14:54 and 17:12, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• Magenta Ain’t a Colour: "So what does the brain do when our eyes detect wavelengths from both ends of the light spectrum at once (i.e. red and violet light)? Generally speaking, it has two options for interpreting the input data: ¶ a) Sum the input responses to produce a colour halfway between red and violet in the spectrum (which would in this case produce green — not a very representative colour of a red and violet mix) ¶ b) Invent a new colour halfway between red and violet ¶ Magenta is the evidence that the brain takes option b — it has apparently constructed a colour to bridge the gap between red and violet, because such a colour does not exist in the light spectrum. Magenta has no wavelength attributed to it, unlike all the other spectrum colours." So apparently, T-Moble has trademarked a color that doesn't actually exist. Boy, I bet that makes the lawyers happy!
• A Young Mad Scientist’s First Alphabet Blocks: "We are pleased to announce the release of our Young Mad Scientist's First Alphabet Blocks. These lovely blocks contain many carefully engraved illustrations of the equipment, training, and activities that a budding mad scientist will require, combined with a clever alphabetic introduction to the concept depicted."
• CBS & Paramount Announce First Star Trek Blu-Ray Sets: "Today CBS and Paramount made official what we have been reporting for months, for the first time ever, Star Trek is coming to Blu-ray in 2009. CBS announced a Blu-ray set for the first season of TOS and Paramount announced all the TOS era movies are coming to Blu-ray, all to be released this Spring. TrekMovie and DigitalBits.com have worked together to bring you all the info on the new sets."
• Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Specify Your Canonical: "Carpe diem on any duplicate content worries: we now support a format that allows you to publicly specify your preferred version of a URL. If your site has identical or vastly similar content that's accessible through multiple URLs, this format provides you with more control over the URL returned in search results. It also helps to make sure that properties such as link popularity are consolidated to your preferred version."
• Joss Whedon Goes Where No TV Man Has Gone Before: "Joss Whedon, the George Lucas of television, reveals why working on his triumphant return to the small screen, Dollhouse, has convinced him to abandon TV for good. His alternative medium: Web serials." (via Seattle Geekly)

Sometime between February 12th and February 16th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• Mindfuck Movies: "Some movies inform. Some movies entertain. And some pry open your skull and punch you in the brain. MATTHEW BALDWIN gathers up the films that have caused him to clutch his head and moan." Not a bad list — of the ones I've seen, I've liked all of them except Mulholland Drive (that was two hours of my life that I'll never get back).
• Firefighters Get Eyeful When Called to Hotel: "A ruckus at the Black Angus Inn on Gambell Street ended with the hotel flooded, a man under arrest for assault and firefighters who were trying to control the sprinkler system mooned by an unruly guest. ¶ The bare-bottomed woman also ended up in jail after refusing to leave the crew alone, according to police. ¶ 'She was drunk and obnoxious, getting in the way of the firefighters,' police spokeswoman Anita Shell said. 'She was mooning the firefighters, asking to see their penises.'" Yeah, well, you spend the majority of six months without sunlight and see how desperate you are for entertainment! ;) Heh…Alaskans are wonky.
• Legal Guide for Bloggers: "The difference between you and the reporter at your local newspaper is that in many cases, you may not have the benefit of training or resources to help you determine whether what you're doing is legal. And on top of that, sometimes knowing the law doesn't help – in many cases it was written for traditional journalists, and the courts haven't yet decided how it applies to bloggers. ¶ But here's the important part: None of this should stop you from blogging. Freedom of speech is the foundation of a functioning democracy, and Internet bullies shouldn't use the law to stifle legitimate free expression. That's why EFF created this guide, compiling a number of FAQs designed to help you understand your rights and, if necessary, defend your freedom."
• 13 Facts About Friday the 13th: "If you fear Friday the 13th, then batten down the hatches. This week's unlucky day is the first of three this year. ¶ The next Friday the 13th comes in March, followed by Nov. 13. Such a triple whammy comes around only every 11 years, said Thomas Fernsler, a math specialist at the University of Delaware who has studied the number 13 for more than 20 years."
• Star Trek Inspired Corset: If I was a girl, I'd be snapping one of these up in a heartbeat: "This corset is designed after the Star Trek: Next Generation jumpsuits." (via Boing Boing)

Sometime between February 11th and February 12th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• Darwin Survives as the Fittest: Roger Ebert on the ongoing creationism/evolution debate in the comments to an earlier post: "As Darwin went on the voyage of the Beagle and produced journals of his observations of flora and fauna, so I have returned from my voyage through all of those comments, with my own notes. Here are some species I have observed: The True Believers, The Reasonables, The Metaphysicians, The New Agers, The Hard-Noses, The Playing-It-Safers, The Conspiracy Theorists, and so on…."
• Evolution and Facebook’s "25 Random Things About Me" Craze.: "'25 Things' authors can be seen as 'contagious' under what's known as a 'susceptible-infected-recovered' model for the spread of disease. Think of '25 Things' authors as being contagious for one day–the day they tag a bunch of their friends. Meyers found that, for that one day, the growth parameter of the '25 Things' disease during its ascent phase (roughly until the beginning of February) was 0.27. This means that, on average, each '25 Things' writer inspired 1.27 new notes. " (via /.)
• Czar Struck: Obama’s Brilliant Pick for Drug Czar: "The brilliance of Obama's pick for drug czar is not just finding someone who is open to new strategies, but someone who nonetheless holds undeniable qualifications as a cop. Nobody can claim Kerlikowske is a public-health nut who doesn't know the impact of drugs on the streets. Like many Americans, he agrees that drugs should be illegal. But he understands the place for low priorities and public health–and he's willing to step back where enforcement alone has failed."
• 15 Companies That Might Not Survive 2009: "It's possible that none of the firms on this list will liquidate, or even declare Chapter 11. Some may come up with unexpected revenue or creative financing that helps avert bankruptcy, while others could be purchased in whole or in part by creditors or other investors. But one way or another, the following 15 firms will probably look a lot different a year from now than they do today." The list includes Rite Aid, Chrysler, Dollar Thrifty (car rentals), Sbarro, Six Flags, Blockbuster, and Krispy Kreme.
• Surprising Stories Behind 20 Muppet Characters: "Rowlf the Dog, surprise, surprise, was first made in 1962 for a series of Purina Dog Chow commercials. He went on to claim fame as Jimmy Dean's sidekick on The Jimmy Dean Show and was on every single episode from 1963 to 1966. Jimmy Dean said Rowlf got about 2,000 letters from fans every week. He was considered for Sesame Street but ended up becoming a regular on 'The Muppet Show' in 1976."

Sometime between February 9th and February 11th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• Less Water, More Heat Forecast for State: "Fewer cherries and apples — but possibly more wheat. ¶ More summer days when streams grow dangerously warm for salmon — and worse winter floods flushing away or burying their eggs. ¶ More people dying in King County from heat stress. Less drinking water in the summer. A quadrupling of the acreage burned statewide in summer wildfires. ¶ But more electricity to heat our homes in the winter. ¶ Those are a few of the effects projected for Washington by the first comprehensive look at how climate change is likely to affect the state by the end of the century."
• China’s CCTV Didn’t Cover Its Own Tower’s Fire: "There were no pictures on the front page of The Beijing News. The home page of Xinhua, the official news agency, featured a photo from another tragedy: a stampede in South Korea that left four people dead. Throughout the morning, CCTV's brief bulletins about the blaze omitted footage of the burning tower. ¶ Even before the flames had been extinguished early Tuesday, images of the burning hotel had been removed from the country's main Internet portals. A directive sent out by propaganda officials left no room for error: 'No photos, no video clips, no in-depth reports,' read the memo, which instructed all media outlets to use only Xinhua's dispatches. 'The news should be put on news areas only and the comments posting areas should be closed.'"
• How a Dentist Visit Became a YouTube Hit: "David's father, also named David DeVore, says his son was safe the entire time and finds the video very funny. Mr. DeVore says he filmed his son to help ease his fear of doctor's appointments. 'I was trying to teach him that the anticipation is probably much worse than the actual event,' Mr. DeVore said. 'This might not have been the right case to give an example.' "
• Sad News for Architecture Fans: Portion of CCTV Complex Burns Down: "In 2009, one of the most eagerly anticipated buildings in the last 20 years was to be completed: The headquarters of CCTV in Beijing, designed by Rem Koolhaas and OMA. A striking, integral piece of that complex was the nearby Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Sadly, it looks like the hotel has almost completely burned down this morning." Yikes. More photos and video from Reuters, on Flickr, and from Shanghaiist.
• Wm. Shakespeare’s Five and Twenty Random Things Abovt Me: "14 On the topic of dating, my daughter Susanna loues to remind me: ~Jvliet was only thirteen! And I remind her that i) she was Italian, an impulsive race ii), she was actually played by a middle-aged Eunuch named Ned, and iii) she died. That always shvts her right vp."
• Things I’M Standing Next To: "Earlier last week we enabled a quiet little feature that, hopefully, allows you to navigate some of that same mystery and serendipity in the 100 million geotagged photos on Flickr. We call it 'nearby' and it is available for any geotagged photo on the site."

Sometime between February 8th and February 9th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• The Invasion From Outer Space: "From the beginning we were prepared, we knew just what to do, for hadn't we seen it all a hundred times?–the good people of the town going about their business, the suddenly interrupted TV programs, the faces in the crowd looking up, the little girl pointing in the air, the mouths opening, the dog yapping, the traffic stopped, the shopping bag falling to the sidewalk, and there, in the sky, coming closer . . . And so, when it finally happened, because it was bound to happen, we all knew it was only a matter of time, we felt, in the midst of our curiosity and terror, a certain calm, the calm of familiarity, we knew what was expected of us, at such a moment."
• Rands in Repose: A Twitter Decision: "* Decision #1: A user chooses whom they follow. * Decision #2: A user chooses whom they no longer follow. * Decision #3: A user should be judged only by what they say. ¶ These are simple decisions of empowerment. As Twitter's popularity grows exponentially, both veteran users and recent arrivals need to remember that these basic decisions mean Twitter is yours to build with however you choose. "
• New Nikon 35mm f/1.8G Adds Normal to DX DSLRs: "Nikon Inc. today announced the AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G lens, which is the first fixed focal length, fast-aperture DX-format lens that affords photographers superb image quality along with the creative possibilities and versatility of the classic 50mm focal length (FX-format equivalent of 52mm). When mounted on a DX-format camera body, it enables photographers to document their world with a lens that produces a picture angle similar to the field of vision as seen through the human eye. Whether new to D-SLRs or a seasoned enthusiast, users will appreciate the extreme low-light performance and the expanded ability to dramatically separate the subject and background with the new 35mm DX lens' wide f/1.8 aperture. "
• Comics Grammar and Tradition: "Comic book lettering has some grammatical and aesthetic traditions that are quite unique. What follows is a list that every letterer eventually commits to his/her own mental reference file. The majority of these points are established tradition, sprinkled with modern trends and a bit of my own opinion having lettered professionally for a few years now. The majority of these ideas have been established by Marvel and DC, but opinions vary from editor to editor, even within the same company."
• Want Olympics Tickets? Most Already Gone: "CoSport's allotment of individual tickets for the entire United States was 48,000 — about 3 percent. The New Jersey company received 14,179 orders with requests for 166,800 individual tickets. Forty percent of those requests came from Washington state. ¶ Only a small percentage were filled. Most fans who requested broad ranges of tickets got only a few events. Many, even those seeking tickets to less-popular events, such as Nordic combined, got nothing." Bummer! With the 2010 Olympics just a few hours north of us, Prairie and I had figured it'd be fun to head up to see something. I hadn't even heard that tickets were on sale at all yet, but it looks like we've already missed our chance.

Sometime between 18:43 and 23:36, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• ‘Jeopardy’: What Is High-Tech?: "'Jeopardy' originally used cardboard and magic markers but now broadcasts in HD with a $4.1 million all-digital production. Alex Trebek talks about how the show has changed over the years"
• Make Love Not Porn :: Porn World vs. Real World: It's a pity they have to hide this site behind a "Click if you're over 18" button. I know, I know…"think of the children!" I am thinking of the children. I'd bet good money that there are a lot of people under 18 who could use reading this stuff…especially as with the state of sex education in this country, most of them are probably learning about sex through internet porn clips more than anything else. Oh, and this is most definitely a NSFW link.
• A president using obscenities is so much better than an obscene presidency.: "1. Barack Obama puts some salty language (in quotations attributed to others) in his memoir Dreams of My Father. 2. Obama reads the audiobook himself. 3. Obama gets elected President. 4. Blogger posts remix-ready clips of POTUS profanity online." Funny and wrong. I don't recommend the prank calls page, they're just as funny as any prank call is (that is, not very). The audio clips themselves are definitely worth a juvenile snicker or two, though. (via Metafilter)
• Today’s Playmates Are More Like Anime Figures Than Real Humans: "Oh, Playboy, why do you want your 'readers' to lust after androids? That's the only explanation we can think of for the proportions of your lovely ladybots. We culled the stats for every centerfold from December 1953 (Marilyn Monroe) to January 2009 (Dasha Astafieva), then calculated each woman's body-mass index. ¶ A clear trend emerged: While real American women have steadily eaten their way up the BMI slope — just like American men — Playmates have gone from a sylphlike 19.4 to an anime-ideal 17.6."
• The Sexual Evolution of Pepe LePew: "Is this a politically correct revision of the earlier 'What part of non don't you understand?' skunk-on-cat courtship? Or is it an extension of that courtship, and we're to believe Pepe's tireless sexual assaults finally wore the poor cat down, and what looks like love is simply Stockholm Syndrome? Or is this like that amazing scene in Gone with the Wind, when Scarlett wakes up the morning after her spousal rape with a smile on her face and a song in her heart?" Prairie and I were wondering about this, too — the new commercial featuring Pepe is the exact opposite of classic Pepe…which, of course, was harassment, stalking, and possibly rape. Heh. Cartoons are weird.

Sometime between February 5th and February 6th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

• Universal Studios Home Entertainment: Caprica on DVD 4/21/09: More info from iO9: "Can't wait to see Caprica, the prequel series showing the tawdry origins of the robotic Cylons? Now you won't have to: the show's pilot is going direct to DVD on April 26. ¶ The show isn't scheduled to start airing on Sci Fi until 2010, but an unrated, uncut version will be out on DVD in April."
• Dollhouse: Dollhouse’s Sexuality Is Creepy on Purpose: "…the marketing reflects the fact that sexuality is woven into the fabric of the show — and it goes to some very creepy places on purpose. The show is about men and women being brainwashed and hired out, and some of their assigments have to do with sex, says Whedon. The show goes into some situations that make Whedon himself intensely uncomfortable, even if they don't bother any of the show's other writers. ¶ Dushku was adamant that whatever TV show she made next should address sexuality, 'not just by virtue of being all hot, but by talking about sexuality: why it drives us and how it works.' One of the show's goals is to 'get the audience to ask what of their desire is acceptable, and what is creepy. In order to ask that we had to go to kind of a creepy place,' says Whedon. 'We may have crossed the line.'"
• Base System: xkcd explains the "base system" of making out. It's all so clear now!
• Movie Review – Coraline – Cornered in a Parallel World: "There are many scenes and images in 'Coraline' that are likely to scare children. This is not a warning but rather a recommendation, since the cultivation of fright can be one of the great pleasures of youthful moviegoing. As long as it doesn't go too far toward violence or mortal dread, a film that elicits a tingle of unease or a tremor of spookiness can be a tonic to sensibilities dulled by wholesome, anodyne, school-approved entertainments. "
• All the Way Through to "Kerplunk": Some teasers on the final three episodes of Pushing Daisies: "I'm keeping this as spoiler-free as I can, in case you hadn't noticed. I'm not gonna tell you what happens. The discs will be out at some point in the future and it's something you should experience yourselves. There's singing, there's swimming, there's sadness, there's love and broken hearts and broken hearts mended. There's everything this show has offered us before, only three more blessed-be episodes of it." (via @nedthepiemaker, of all people!)
• Neil Gaiman’s favorite bad review for Coraline:: "While watching this movie I couldn't help thinking it's Invasion of the Body Snatchers for kids." (Neil's reaction: "Coraline is currently 84% at Rottentomatoes.com: of the bad reviews, this is my favourite. I wish it was on the posters."