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.

GLTerminal

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Best. Terminal. Evar.: GLTerminal.

GLterminal

Complete with green or amber text, spots of variable brightness, screen curvature warping, and even baud selection (set it to 300 baud and watch the characters pop up on your screen)!

Incredibly old-school geeky. I love it.

French Headmaster Dooced

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The headmaster of a technical school in Lozere, France, has been dismissed after discovery of his anonymously-written weblog, which was deemed obscene and pornographic (link to Babelfish translation). Apparently he was discovered when he posted his photo in a recent entry.

Can remarks published on a blog perso justify a dismissal? Yes according to the national Education which judged that this civil servant held a blog “obscene and pornographic”. It there posted its homosexuality and criticized its administration.

The fact is without precedent in France. Located on Internet via its blog Garfieldd.com, the headmaster of the technical school of Mende, in Lozere (48), at the beginning of January by national Education was revoked. The institution reproaches him for having published contents in “pornographic” matter on its blog, however held under pseudo (Garfieldd). But of the notes on its professional life frays with others intimate and on its states of hearts its function and identifiable place of work returned.

Besides in his last version(filedpartly), the chief of establishment posted his face in banner page. What could convince the professors of another college of the area to alert their hierarchy. “To denounce” others will say.

In an interview on line on the site of RTL, the headmaster reacts highly: “I challenge the pornographic term, that was never the case on my blog (…) in which I spoke about my life (and thus also) of my professional life. Objectively my blog was anonymous.” Like any civil servant, this headmaster was held with the duty of reserve, of which the blogs are not free.

I, unsurprisingly, discovered this when I noticed traffic getting a bit of a boost thanks to a link midway through the article.

This business rests the question of the freedom of the blogs compared to professional space. Abroad precedents exist: a Web designer American laid off in 2002, to have scoffed the life at its company (without quoting of names) on its blog Dooce.com; an employee of Microsoft in 2003, for an impertinent post published on its blog perso; an employee of bookshop in Edinburgh (Scotland) to have disparaged its employers; an air-hostess of Delta Air Lines to have photographed itself in uniform on an aircraft of its company in a sexy installation.

Heh. “Impertinent.” I like that.

I’m also starting to get hits from the ZDNet France article that the Yahoo! page was syndicated from. Two and a quarter years after ‘the incident’, and while things are slower, my 15 minutes of fame is still making itself known from time to time. Yikes.

Seattle Pillow Fight

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I’ll do my best to avoid any snarky “my god MySpace drives me up the wall” comments (heh…oops) to pass on this tidbit I just found:

Seattle Pillow Fight

So here’s the deal… SEATTLE PILLOW FIGHT is going to be a Guinness World Record breaking event held right here in Seattle THIS SPRING IN 2006! It’s going to be a great way to bring the excitement of a world record home to the Seattle community. Pillow fights have been sweeping communities and college campuses recently, each time setting the bar higher and higher (or not, as some efforts haven’t quite made the mark!) DOES SEATTLE HAVE THE SPIRIT AND THE PRIDE THAT IT TAKES TO SHOW EVERYONE WHAT IT MEANS TO COME TOGETHER AS A COMMUNITY AND CRUSH A WORLD RECORD? You bet it does! Let’s see who will stand behind this charitable effort between now and the “to be determined” date in May of 2006!

No definite day yet, but this should be worth paying attention to.

(via seattle)

iTunes “Get Up! Go Insane! (Fatboy Really Lost It)” by Strech ‘n’ Vern from the album Fatboy Slim’s Greatest Remixes (2000, 7:14).

Etymologic

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Here’s one for dad: Etymologic.

In this etymology game you’ll be presented with 10 randomly selected etymology (word origin) or word definition puzzles to solve; in each case the word or phrase is highlighted in bold, and a number of possible answers will be presented. You need to choose the correct answer to score a point for that question. Beware! The false answers will often also seem quite plausible, and some of the true answers are hard to believe, but we have documentation!

On my first run through, I got four out of ten. Gotta work on that…

iTunes “Hymn” by Front 242 from the album 06:21:03:11 Up Evil (1993, 3:26).

Distorted Tunes Test

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According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders‘ Distorted Tunes Test…

You correctly identified 26 tunes (out of 26) on the Distorted Tunes Test. Congratulations! You have a fine sense of pitch.

I’d certainly hope so! Some of those samples were almost literally painful to listen to.

(Though I will admit that years of violin and voice training, being able to plunk melodies out on nearly any instrument I’m handed, and having a slightly musical family — we all sing, Kevin plays cello, upright bass and bass guitar; dad plays guitar, banjo, and some viola; mom plays violin, piano, and organ; at least half if not all four of my grandparents were music teachers at one time or another — might have some small thing to do with acing this test.)

(Maybe.)

(via Blankbaby)

iTunes “Dance to the Music” by Kickshaw from the album Superstar (1999, 4:04).

My favorite random facts about…

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…Vin Diesel:

  • If you rearrange the letters in Vin Diesel it reveals his credo: “I End Lives.”
  • There is no theory of evolution, just a list of creatures Vin Diesel allows to live.
  • In an average living room there are 1,242 objects Vin Diesel could use to kill you, including the room itself.
  • Crop circles are Vin’s way of telling the world that sometimes corn needs to lie the fuck down.
  • Vin Diesel is the only man to ever defeat a brick wall in a game of tennis.
  • Vin Diesel can set ants on fire with a magnifying glass. At night.
  • Vin Diesel can divide by zero.
  • Magnetic compasses do not point toward true North – they point in the direction of Vin Diesel. He just likes to sit on a lawn chair and shout, “Jackets are for pussies!” at the Acrtic researchers.
  • Vin Diesel invented black. In fact, he invented the entire spectrum of visible light. Except pink. Tom Cruise invented pink.
  • When Vin Diesel runs with scissors, other people get hurt.

…Chuck Norris:

  • Chuck Norris’ tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.
  • Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.
  • If you can see Chuck Norris, he can see you. If you can’t see Chuck Norris you may be only seconds away from death.
  • Bullets dodge Chuck Norris.
  • A Handicap parking sign does not signify that this spot is for handicapped people. It is actually in fact a warning, that the spot belongs to Chuck Norris and that you will be handicapped if you park there.
  • The quickest way to a man’s heart is with Chuck Norris’s fist.
  • Chuck Norris is 1/8th Cherokee. This has nothing to do with ancestry, the man ate a fucking Indian.
  • Chuck Norris does not hunt because the word hunting infers the probability of failure. Chuck Norris goes killing.
  • Chuck Norris frequently donates blood to the Red Cross. Just never his own.
  • Superman owns a pair of Chuck Norris pajamas.

…Mr. T:

  • The last man who made eye contact with Mr. T was Ray Charles.
  • Every time a church bell rings, Mr. T pities a fool.
  • Mr T. and Chuck Norris decided to spar, they travelled to the only safe place in the Universe, the beginning of time. They bowed to each other and Chuck launched in with a roundhouse kick. Mr. T blocked it, and the resulting pressure wave is commonly called the Big Bang.
  • When Mr. T folds his arms, the U.S. Terror Alert Level is raised to gold.
  • Ever have a sharp pain in your chest that you can’t explain? That was Mr. T, and it was a warning.
  • Contrary to popular belief, the ancient world knew of 5 elements, not 4. They were earth, air, fire, water and pity. Mr. T invented them all.
  • Twenty-three. That’s the number of people Mr. T has pitied in the time it has taken you to read this sentence.
  • On the A-team, Face, Haniabal, and Murdoch were all masters of disguise. Mr T didn’t have to wear a disguise. The bad guys didn’t recognize him out of fear.
  • Mr. T is not black. It’s just that the sun is to afraid to shine on him.
  • Mr. T’s edition of the VH1 show ‘Where Are They Now’ was the shortest in the show’s history. It was 10 seconds long, and consisted of a black screen with the words “Right Behind You” written on it.
  • If you were born before 1980, there is a good chance that Mr. T is your father. If you were born after, it’s guaranteed.