Links

Stuff I find around the web that interests or amuses me.

PvP takes on the comic syndicates

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The author of PvP, a webcomic that I really don’t read often enough (though that should change now that I discovered their RSS feed), has decided that the newspaper comic syndication racket isn’t for him. So, instead of giving up all the rights to his strip, he’s going to investigate syndicating it himself for free.

This last year, I was contacted by Universal Press Syndicates about PvP. They know the strip and were very interested in syndicating it as a feature. I would love to see PvP in newspapers and we started talks. I let them know that there were six years of archives available and that I could edit the strips to conform to family paper editorial standards. The only thing I could not do was give up my ownership and rights to my creation.

Under no circumstances would I relinquish my copyright, book deals, merchandise deals, rights to market my strips, etc. If they wanted PvP, we would agree to a newspaper distribution deal and that was it. After six weeks the syndicates returned with their answer: They wanted PvP…all of it. If they could not have the rights to the feature, they weren’t interested. So we parted ways.

But I’ve already become attached to the idea of seeing PvP in the papers, and that’s why I’ve decided to start a new program. In the coming months, I’ll be putting into effect, a program in which papers can receive PVP for free. That’s right, free. They don’t have to pay me a cent for it. I will provide for the papers, a comic strip with a larger established audience then any new syndicated feature, a years worth of strips in advance, and I won’t charge them a cent for it.

Best of luck on this project. From the sound of it, if this is a success, it could be the first step in rather radically changing the comic strip industry.

iTunes: “Love on Haight Street” by BT from the album Movement in Still Life (2000, 6:18).

What’s the profit margin on this troll hunt?

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Okay, yes, diff’rent streaks for diff’rent freaks and all that, but — without meaning any offense — I’ve got to admit that an all-economists Dungeons and Dragons game just might rank fairly high in my personal descriptions of hell. ;)

Is it really financially prudent to go after this troll?

What’s the expected profit-to-loss ratio if we attempt to capture the dragon’s hoard?

Does our raiding party’s net worth really justify attacking in this instance?

Disclaimer: I am neither an economist nor a D&D player, so I have no real personal experience to draw upon for this — though while my exposure to economists is nearly nonexistent, I’ve known, been around, and lived with enough D&D players to know how wacky they can get on their own — I just thought that the combination of the two was simultaneously amusing and frightening. Please take this post as the good-natured ribbing that it’s meant to be. ;)

Pay attention to the road, you idiots

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Years ago, while driving around Anchorage, I glanced to my right and saw a couple guys driving around with a portable DVD player sitting on the dashboard of their car, quite happily watching a movie as they motored around town. Very unamused by their obvious disregard to the safety of themselves and those around them, I made sure to move a lane over so that I wasn’t next to them, and then spent the next few minutes ranting to whoever I was in the passenger seat about the idiodicy of trying to drive and watch a DVD at the same time.

Well, with the boom in fancy car toys over the last few years, including things like in-car DVD players, the inevitable has finally happened: two people in Alaska were killed by a driver watching a movie on a dash-mounted DVD player.

In what may be the first trial of its kind in the nation, prosecutors have accused the pickup truck’s driver of second-degree murder for watching a movie instead of the road when he crashed head-on into the Jeep.

The pickup’s driver, Erwin J. Petterson Jr., denies using the DVD player as he drove north on October 12, 2002 and contends he was only listening to music from a compact disc, said his attorney, Chuck Robinson.

[…]

After the crash, Petterson and his passenger, roommate Jonathan Douglas, were transported to an Anchorage hospital. Within hours, Douglas called his ex-wife and told her he was not sure how the collision occurred because he was “spacing out on a movie they were watching,” according to prosecutors. The woman is scheduled to testify.

David Weiser, 34, the son of the slain couple, said only two people know what happened in the cab of the truck. But equipping a truck with entertainment options that can be used while driving goes beyond a momentary distraction of putting on makeup or using a cell phone, he said.

“This takes forethought, this takes methodical steps,” David Weiser said. \”You have to go to the store, plop over money, install it, and install it so it can be used without a brake employed.

“I view it as no different than walking into a bar, having five beers within an hour and getting behind the wheel,” said Weiser, who quit an eight-year career as a loan originator in Boston to attend the trial.

It’s very simple, people. If you’re driving a car, then drive the damn car. Don’t jabber on a phone (I don’t care how many times you tell me it doesn’t affect your driving — studies show that cell phone usage while driving is at least as dangerous as driving under the influence of alcohol, and if I know that you’re calling me from a cell phone while on the road, I will hang up on you), don’t watch a damn movie, and for God’s sake, pay attention to driving!

(via /.)

iTunes: “Entrada and Shootout” by Goldenthal, Elliot from the album Heat (1995, 1:45).

Buckminster Pinhead

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Buckminster FullerPinhead

Yesterday was the 109th birthday of Buckminster Fuller, inventor of Geodesic domes and many other nifty technological goodnesses.

However, in a rather bizarre turn of events, the U.S. Postal Service chose this date to issue a commemorative stamp featuring the visage of famed Hellraiser Cenobyte Pinhead.

iTunes: “SickAspFuck (Full Gimball #1 Club)” by Pigface from the album Preaching to the Perverted (1995, 4:59).

So then — off I fucked.

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Slate has a wonderful look at the history and vernacular of our Vice President’s most notorious favorite four-letter word in A Very, Very Dirty Word.

The following anecdote appears in one of Niall Ferguson’s absorbing studies of the British Empire. On the eve of independence for the colony of South Yemen, the last British governor hosted a dinner party attended by Denis Healey, then the minister for defense. Over the final sundown cocktail, as the flag was about to be lowered over the capital of Aden, the governor turned to Healey and said, “You know, Minister, I believe that in the long view of history, the British Empire will be remembered only for two things.” What, Healey was interested to know, were these imperishable aspects? “The game of soccer. And the expression ‘fuck off.'”

(via Buzzworthy)

Spamalot

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Coming to Broadway in early 2005: Monty Python’s ‘Spamalot’, \”the musical lovingly ripped off from the motion picture, ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail.\”‘

Starring David Hyde Pierce as Sir Robin, Hank Azaria as Lancelot…and Tim Curry as King Arthur.

If there’s any way I can find the time and money, it just might be time for me to find a way to visit New York.

(You’ve just gotta love the picture caption in that CNN article, too….)

(via Dori Smith)

iTunes: “Starship (Raumschiff) Edelweiss” by Edelweiss from the album Wonderful World of Edelweiss (1992, 4:02).

Demand Space

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Anyone in need of a hosting provider?

D just pointed me to Demand Space, just started by a friend of hers, and they’ve got a really good limited-time-only Grand Opening special (at least, it looks like it to me, though I haven’t looked into these things in a while):

  • Domains: 5
  • Disk Space: 1500 Mb
  • Bandwidth: 20 Gb
  • Email Addresses: Unlimited
  • Subdomains: Unlimited
  • MySQL Databases: Unlimited
  • Administrative Interface: cPanel
  • Monthly Price: \$10.00
  • Yearly Price: \$120.00

Might be worth looking at, at least.

iTunes: “Girls” by N-Son-X from the album Goa Rave (1994, 3:27).

Step right up! Get yer tickets here!

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The automated systems that create the Google News pages occasionally make some rather odd decisions when combining headlines with summaries…

Tickets to Brando's cremation?

Somehow, that’s an event that I wouldn’t expect tickets to be sold for, let alone being sold out.

A porn that needs to be made

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Last week, I pointed to an unusual job listing for a combination tech support and phone sex website. I found the link through Something Positive, one of the few web comics I read on a regular basis.

The current storyline on S*P involves Aubrey (one of the main characters) getting all fired up about this idea and starting her own geek chat porn site.

I just found out that her site actually exists. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present: Nerdrotica!

And sure, I already tossed this into my linklog, but what prompted a fuller post was this bit from Nerdrotica’s “Videos” page…

We currently offer a set of original short erotic movies to customers. These movies cover a wide range of interests and tastes. Whether you’d like to see our suggestive historical recreation of Sir Isaac Newton discovering gravity when his lover, Apple, shows him what goes up must go down, down… all the way down, or our frightening yet enticing tale of H.P. Lovesnatch and the Call of Clitulhu, we’ll think you’ll be more than pleased.

H.P. Lovesnatch and the Call of Clitulhu.

That movie so needs to be made.

iTunes: “Bodies” by Project Pitchfork from the album Zillo Jubiläums Compilation 1989-1994 (1994, 4:30).

Tech Support Porn

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The job market just keeps getting wierder. Consider this Portland Craigslist job posting, for instance…

Seeking qualified tech girls for specialized phone hostess positions.

Requirements:

You must be over 18.
You can be described as a “Tech Girl”, “Geek Chick” or “Network Ops Cutie”.
You need a pleasant speaking voice and able to talk “tech”.
Calls can become sensual so you need to be ok with that.
A fully clothed photo for our web site, although exhibitionists are preferred.
Be willing to take calls from those who find your certifications very sexy.

Please see our web site for more information: http://www.askthetechgirl.com/

There’s a devious, if sad, brilliance in this.

(via Something Positive)

iTunes: “Going to California” by Led Zeppelin from the album IV (1971, 3:35).