Heinlein was awesome
2008-09-16
Gee.
2008-08-28
[…]
He said he was then banned from changing it back or to another password of “Barclays is better”.
The bank apologised and said the staff member no longer worked there.
TV is out, Web 2.0 is in
2008-08-22
GIN, TELEVISION, AND COGNITIVE SURPLUS:
A Talk By Clay Shirky
[…] People asking, “Where do they find the time?” when they’re looking at things like Wikipedia don’t understand how tiny that entire project is, as a carve-out of the cognitive surplus that’s finally being dragged into what Tim O’Reilly calls an architecture of participation.
Now, the interesting thing about a surplus like that is that society doesn’t know what to do with it at first—hence the gin, hence the sitcoms. Because if people knew what to do with a surplus with reference to the existing social institutions, it wouldn’t be a surplus, would it? It’s precisely when no one has any idea how to deploy something that people have to start experimenting with it, in order for the surplus to get integrated, and the course of that integration can transform society.
Outstanding essay and video presentation. The movement of society from passive consumption to active participation that Shirky describes gives me hope for the future.
Cheeky cops
2008-08-21
Jenny’s still out there
2008-08-08
Jenny, are you there? (867-5309)
519: [Girl’s voice] Hello, you reached Jenny at 867-5309. I’d love to talk to you, leave me a message, but there has been a change in me. [Guy’s voice] I’m not Jenny, not Jenny so if you still wanna leave me a message, leave it at the end of the beep. Bye!
Truth
2008-08-07
This is not a blog post about Surrealism
2008-08-06
Bookninja » Subvirtualism: The Surrealists’ love child, immaculately conceived
As you may note, these techniques no longer affront common conceptions of reality. In fact, they’ve become reality – the currency of our culture, the shared vocabulary of our consumer society:
* Odd juxtapositions and subconscious drives? Advertisers have long mastered such techniques and moods, employing them to sell a whole array of consumer products – everything from bottled water to toilet water to toilet paper.
* Automatic, unedited writing? The embrace of democratic possibilities in art, regardless of expertise? Try a blog. Try ten-thousand, if you like.
* The spread of associations across a wide field of play? That essentially describes the dynamics of the web.
* Collaborative creations? Well, the Wiki has become the new Exquisite Corpse. Unfortunately, most Wikis feel more like diddling with the dead than daring to risk through language.[…]
Despite the violence done to the form of Surrealism, the deeper thrust remains within a new group of contemporary writers. Like the Surrealists, these writers are driven by the need to crack open the fissures in accepted reality, thereby making us see the dynamics of self and society; the need – not to shout or rail or talk incessantly – but to growl from the landscape of the true, as they perceive it. These contemporary writers are responding to the political, scientific, and cultural tone of their time. Now, however, that tone resounds within and from the virtual nature of our society.
Eureka Carpark Melbourne
2008-08-01
Buckcherry, owned
2008-07-31
Band Leaks Track to BitTorrent, Blames Pirates
It turns out that the uploader, a New York resident, had only uploaded one torrent, the BuckCherry track. When we entered the IP-address into the Wiki-scanner, we found out that the person in question had edited the BuckCherry wikipedia entry, and added the name of the band manager to another page.
This confirmed our suspicions, but it was not quite enough, since it could be an overly obsessed fan (if they have fans). So, we decided to send the band manager, Josh Klemme – who happens to live in New York – an email to ask for his opinion on our findings. Klemme, replied to our email within a few hours, and surprisingly enough his IP-address was the same as the uploader.
via reddit
There’s Something About Mary: Unmasking a Gun Lobby Mole
But these two Marys share a lot in common—a Mother Jones investigation has found that McFate and Sapone are, in fact, the same person. And this discovery has caused the leaders of gun violence prevention organizations to conclude that for years they have been penetrated—at the highest levels—by the NRA or other pro-gun parties. “It raises the question,” says Paul Helmke, the president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, “of what did she find out and what did they want her to find out.”
(via Metafilter)
