October 2009
7 posts
Jason Scott on the Geocities' Under Construction... →
Geocities closes forever in only two weeks
detour 2020 →
puddle in gravel →
boo! →
It feels weird to write a journal after such a long time of inactivity. Like they say though, it’s just like riding a bike (…which I also miss doing.) My activity here - as I’ve said to a few…
18 And Blunder →
Me: “Hello, this ***. How may I help you?”
Customer: “Hi, I have your company name on my credit card bill with a charge of $29.99. I’ve never heard of you guys.”
Me: “Okay, sir…there’s a…
Mind Over Biodegradable Matter →
(I work in a very environmentally conscious salon. We provide mugs for people to use for their coffee so that no garbage is created.)
Me: “Hi! My name is ***. I’m going to be cutting your hair…
Night Of The Loving Dead →
(I’m a personal trainer and at the end of a set my client makes an announcement.)
Customer: “So, I think I’m a necrophiliac.”
Me: “Um, what?”
Customer: “I think I’m a necrophiliac.”
Me:…
September 2009
7 posts
Nerdrock band uses entire Zork walkthrough as... →
“I hate grues.” [via]
Halo 3: The Nickel & Dime Generation →
This generation of video game consoles has paved the way for a new generation of pricing. Publishers settled into the idea of charging $60 for a new game rather quickly, but that’s hardly where…
Autumn →
Here’s some snow, kid.
HCUFS & VMACHIN: the unlikely combo that... →
‘Brought down’s obviously an overstatement, but the Occam’s Razor trouble with creating a game in which players can do “anything” is that they’ll use that anything to skirt the obstacles…
HCUFS & VMACHIN: the unlikely combo that... →
‘Brought down’s obviously an overstatement, but the Occam’s Razor trouble with creating a game in which players can do “anything” is that they’ll use that anything to skirt the obstacles…
Chrome Frame plugin turns Internet Explorer into... →
Alex, you sly dog
Feeling Fuel-ish →
(At the petrol station where I work, a customer comes barging into the store.)
Customer: “There’s $20 on my pump and I haven’t put any petrol in!”
Me: “What’s the problem exactly?”
Customer:…
August 2009
27 posts
Red Vs. Blue Takes On Halo: ODST →
Bridge smeared with butter to stop suicide jumpers →
Officials officials have had a giant bridge smeared with butter to stop people jumping off it. The 1,000ft long steel structure in Guangzhou, south east China, has become a popular spot for leaping…
May We Suggest Hire Education →
Customer: “Can I have an application to work here?”
Me: “We will need a copy of your résumé before you fill out an application.”
Customer: “What’s a résumé?”
Me: “A résumé lists your work…
Taxing Faxing, Part 2 →
Me: “We’ll need to put this on a credit card.”
Caller: “I don’t have a credit card.”
Me: “You can pay by check, if you’d like.”
Caller: “Can I fax you a check? I really need this to start…
Coin-tosses aren't fair →
Many statistics examples start with “assuming a fair coin-toss…” But it turns out that coin-tosses aren’t fair; depending on your toss, there’s a small-to-alarming bias in the result. 1. If…
Report: Mercury found in every single fish tested... →
“No fish can escape mercury pollution” is the bottom line in a federal study of mercury contamination that tested fish from nearly 300 streams across the United States. Link to AP article…
Coital "model" machine used in condom study →
The image above is a “coital model” at SSL International’s Cambridge Technical Centre. SSL International manufactures Durex condoms. The machine was used in a scientific study published…
Coital "model" machine used in condom study →
The image above is a “coital model” at SSL International’s Cambridge Technical Centre. SSL International manufactures Durex condoms. The machine was used in a scientific study published…
Scientists Create Fake DNA →
A laboratory at Nucleix, a life-sciences company, was able to manufacture DNA that would be accurate enough to pass forensic scrutiny:
“You can just engineer a crime scene,” Nucleix founder…
Quadriplegic man wins legal right to to starve... →
A man who became a quadriplegic after a road accident has been given the legal right to starve to death while watching TV. A court in Perth, Western Australia, granted the suicidal wish of 49-…
Offworld Gallery: The games factory, how Mario,... →
I’ve already highlighted some of the excellent photography in the latest issue of France’s games/fashion mag Amusement, but this one’s even more special: a series of photographs from the…
Offworld Gallery: The games factory, how Mario,... →
I’ve already highlighted some of the excellent photography in the latest issue of France’s games/fashion mag Amusement, but this one’s even more special: a series of photographs from the…
Q-BLOCK, 3D pixel art drawing tool →
drag to rotate the objects
Web Sites Using Flash Instead of Browser Cookies... →
Wired reports that over half of the web’s most popular sites are using Flash to track users who block traditional browser cookies. Photo by i y e r s. The findings come from a UC Berkeley…
Second Skin, documentary about the real lives of... →
looks great, only available free until the end of tomorrow [via]
Dara O’Briain on homeopathy
from Derren Brown Blog →
Great stand-up bit about homeopathy, new age “thinking,” and other follies. (Salty language ahoy) (Via Derren Brown)
It's thinking: Robin Baumgarten's... →
And so it begins: above is the first public entry into the previously covered Mario AI contest, with Robin Baumgarten’s A*-enhanced run, which pulls off a major coup halfway through…
why facebook is sooo gonna get you fired →
even more dangerous than friending your parents on facebook? friending a) your boss and b) the cubicle-mate you kinda can’t stand.
exhibit a)
exhibit b)
exhibit c)
Unexplained space phenomena captured in photo of... →
One of the recent images returned from the Cassini spacecraft, a school-bus-sized probe orbiting Saturn since 2004, includes an odd detail that is puzzling astronomers:
It’s not exactly…
It's thinking: Robin Baumgarten's... →
And so it begins: above is the first public entry into the previously covered Mario AI contest, with Robin Baumgarten’s A*-enhanced run, which pulls off a major coup halfway through…
A Bone-Anchored Hearing Aid With a Built-In MP3... →
A new generation of hearing aids will be able to block out background noise and let users directly jack into music:
On Friday Mr Hughes had tiny titanium screws drilled into bone behind…
Unexplained space phenomena captured in photo of... →
One of the recent images returned from the Cassini spacecraft, a school-bus-sized probe orbiting Saturn since 2004, includes an odd detail that is puzzling astronomers:
It’s not exactly…
Twitter, Facebook attack targeted one user →
Accounts of pro-Georgian blogger were targeted in denial of service attack that led to outage at Twitter and problems at Facebook, Blogger and LiveJournal, Facebook CSO says. Read this blog post by…
A Decade Later, The Iron Giant’s Weaponized Soul... →
“Can a gun have a soul?” That’s the question asked by criminally underrated animated film The Iron Giant, which opened 10 years ago to mostly empty theaters and sporadic press coverage.
…
Why Technology Loves Rounded Rectangles: They’re... →
Ever wonder why so many tech gadgets, OS windows and images all have rounded corners? It may be more than just visual appeal. The rounded corners may make things easier on the eye!
Nänni…
15 War Machines by Leonardo Da Vinci →
The Toy Zone has pictures and descriptions of fifteen weapons or defensive systems that historians have found sketched in the notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci. These include a tank, cluster…
America makes nothing except weapons →
Jon Taplin reproduces this jaw-dropping chart: Floyd Norris’s scary graph of Durable Goods Production, adding, “We have so hollowed out our industrial plant that the only thing we are now…
July 2009
41 posts
Midway Newcastle R.I.P. →
I’ve been meaning to write this blog post for two weeks now…. I guess it wasn’t the most instantaenous thing in the world to suddenly convert all my feelings into a convenient block of text. Here…
CSSPrism: Slick New Site For Editing Your Site’s... →
Developers working with template site designs often have several CSS files to wrangle — one for the basic layout elements and others with site-specific rules. Sometimes all you need to do to…
Vulnerabilities Allow Attacker to Impersonate Any... →
Security researchers at the Black Hat security conference Wednesday show how an attacker can fool nearly all popular browsers.
Blue Food Dye Treats Spinal Injury in Rats →
Scientists discovered that regular old blue food dye can help prevent nerve damage and speed healing in rats with a spinal cord injury.
A Sweet Tooth…And Sweet Legs, Sweet Arms… →
Customer: “Hello, I’d like to return this cookie jar.”
Me: “Do you have your receipt?”
Customer: “Yes.” *hands receipts over*
Me: “So why are you returning this?”
Customer: “Oh, my husband…
That’s A Lot Of Tubes →
(A customer enters our pawn shop, and I motion her over to my counter.)
Me: “What can I do for you today?”
Customer: “Yeah, I wanna pawn my internet.”
Me: “Do you mean your computer? If it’s…
THIS ONE'S FOR THE BUTT-HORNS →
A hard-boiled Gary Busey fights terrorists in possession of a super-tank? Where do I sign up for this action-packed, thrill-ride?
Harry Potter and the Japanese fangirl →
Buses equipped with bricks →
A Chinese bus company is equipping its vehicles with bricks for passengers to use to break windows in an emergency. The bricks, painted yellow with “emergency use” written on both sides, are stored…