By now, most websurfers will have seen the standard ‘404 Error’ webpage that pops up when a requested page doesn’t exist. Some 404’s are cooler than others — and THCnet has the coolest I’ve seen yet.
Links
Things I run across that I find to be interesting, but might not have the time or inclination to craft a fuller post around it. Generally, short little “go here, look at this, isn’t it neat?” posts.
Fire your friends
More stupid people: Burned at party. Okay, so your friend’s passed out from all the booze he drank at your New Years party. Okay, so the old ‘hand-in-a-bowl-of-warm-water’ or ‘shaving-cream-on-the-face’ tricks are pretty old. But is dousing his leg in lighter fluid and setting him on fire really the best and brightest idea for a prank?
I’m in the wrong business!
Microphage Lumber and LSD — Your Source! — If only I’d thought of this first!
It’s astounding, time is fleeting…
Okay, so sure, I haven’t actually posted any real content since my site came back online…but I just stumbled across this, and am completely jazzed about how cool it is.
Google just added the ability to search through Usenet postings — 20 years of postings, actually, dating back to 1981! I’m afraid it would be all to easy for me to spend hours searching through this. I did take a couple minutes on lunch to do an ego search, and came up with a bunch of neat stuff from when I was active on Usenet. Discussions on whether the Borg might be related to V’Ger, nine inch nails fans in Alaska, good introductions to Taoism, introducing myself to the alt.music.nin newsgroup (and again), and my earliest returned post was apparently posted February 9, 1994 about live nine inch nails cd’s. Yikes. Anyway…really fun toy to play with.
Privacy, shmivacy
Wheee…more fun news from our dear friends in the FBI: “Magic Lantern”, a government developed ‘trojan horse’ style virus that appears as an e-mail attachment. Once on your machine, it can record keystrokes (in other words, anything typed on the keyboard — letters, e-mail, passwords, credit card numbers, etc.) and transmit them back to the FBI for analasys. As if that wasn’t bad enough, antivirus software makers are considering intentionally not scanning for this particular virus — in essence, selling crippled versions of their software. More info can be found at Wired and The Register. Just thought this deserved some mention.
Please? Pretty please? With Muppets on top?
If any of you kind souls out there who check this page (yes…all five of you) could find it within your heart to do so, I’ve found my perfect Christmas grovel.
I know it’s a bit pricey. That’s why I’m grovelling. Really grovelling. I’m actually on my knees right now. It’s a little hard to type, but it’s worth it. As an added bonus, if I get this from someone, I’ll pay to have one of your shoes shipped down here and I’ll plant a big ol’ sloppy kiss on it — close as I can get to kissing your feet — then ship it back. Really.
Please?
What’s with the black bars?
While most of my friends have been around me long enough to understand my preference for watching films in widescreen or letterboxed format, occasionally I get questions about the ‘black bars’ at the top and bottom of the screen. While I think I usually do a pretty decent job of explaining why they’re there, one of the members of the Home Theater Forum put together a really nice Shockwave Flash animation demonstrating what’s going on. If anyone’s got any questions about widescreen presentations, this link should help get the idea across:
Kudos to The Onion
I just got a look at the most recent issue of The Onion, and I have to say that it’s very, very well done. If you’ve not read them before, The Onion is one of the more biting online humor sites — basically, they use a news-site format to skewer whatever is going on in the world.
This issue is their special issue regarding the terrorist attacks, and I really think that it’s an incredibly effective series of articles — using humor and irony to point out very serious, deep truths. Plus, it’s really funny — and it’s nice to see someone able and willing to take the initiative to look at some of the opportunities for intelligent humor in the wake of the tragedies. Sometimes, laughter really can be the best medicine — and The Onion is giving us just the right dose.
Some of my favorite quotes come from the article God Angrily Clarifies ‘Don’t Kill’ Rule:
“I tried to put it in the simplest possible terms for you people, so you’d get it straight, because I thought it was pretty important,” said God, called Yahweh and Allah respectively in the Judaic and Muslim traditions. “I guess I figured I’d left no real room for confusion after putting it in a four-word sentence with one-syllable words, on the tablets I gave to Moses. How much more clear can I get?”
“To be honest, there’s some contradictory stuff in [the Bible], okay?” God said. “So I can see how it could be pretty misleading. I admit it — My bad. I did My best to inspire them, but a lot of imperfect human agents have misinterpreted My message over the millennia. Frankly, much of the material that got in there is dogmatic, doctrinal bullshit. I turn My head for a second and, suddenly, all this stuff about homosexuality gets into Leviticus, and everybody thinks it’s God’s will to kill gays. It absolutely drives Me up the wall.”
“I don’t care what faith you are, everybody’s been making this same mistake since the dawn of time,” God said. “The Muslims massacre the Hindus, the Hindus massacre the Muslims. The Buddhists, everybody massacres the Buddhists. The Jews, don’t even get me started on the hardline, right-wing, Meir Kahane-loving Israeli nationalists, man. And the Christians? You people believe in a Messiah who says, ‘Turn the other cheek,’ but you’ve been killing everybody you can get your hands on since the Crusades.”
Upon completing His outburst, God fell silent, standing quietly at the podium for several moments. Then, witnesses reported, God’s shoulders began to shake, and He wept.
Anyway, go check it out. There’s quite a few different articles, and so far all of them I find well worth reading.
Fascinating, frightening, and touching: eyewitness accounts
Blogs from ground zero: Eclipsed (New York), Saranwarp (New York), East/West (New York/Oakland), UltraSparky! (New York), Andy’s Chest (New York), A Fire Inside (New York) (at least I think it’s from New York), Everlasting Blogstalker (New York), Fredosite (Washington, DC), Toothpick Girl (New York), World New York (New York) (this one looks really good), Lightningfield (New York), Mr. Barrett (New York), Mike Daisey (New York). I wouldn’t have had time to search all these out, many thanks to Blah Blah Blog Big Pink Cookie for originally posting most of them.
(11/25/2019 Update: In the time since this post was made, most of those links have gone dead.)
I’m a Mastermind
At the recommendation of Jaime, I just took The Spark‘s personality test — and according to them, I’m an S.I.A.T. Mastermind (Submissive Introvert Abstract Thinker). Pretty nifty, huh? Here’s what that means: according to them…
Like just 9% of the population you are a MASTERMIND (SIAT). You can be silent and withdrawn, but behind your reserved exterior lies an active mind that allows you to analyze situations and come up with creative, unexpected solutions. Normal people call this “scheming.” Don’t learn German.
Anyway, your sense of style and originality are your strengths, and people will respect your judgment once they get to know you. If you learn to be a little more personable, you could be a great leader — you’ve definitely got the “vision” thing down. Just make sure all the plotting you do behind those eyes of yours is healthy.
Famous masterminds in television: Dr. Claw, The Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Montgomery Burns.
Those of you who know me at all can make your own judgements as to how accurate they are — as for me, I’m pretty amused.