Internet Blackout Day

Jan 172012
 
strike-paper

Generally, I avoid joining protests, but occasionally there are ideas so bad that I can’t stay away.  Such is the case with the Protect IP Act (PIPA) which is coming up before the Senate next week.  The goal of protecting intellectual property is certainly a laudable one, but the means to achieve that goal must not come at the expense of the 1st amendment, nor should it fundamentally weaken the technological structure of the Internet.  The Protect-IP bill does all of this with a vague and poorly thought-out bill.

So tomorrow, January 18th, this site will join larger organizations such as Mozilla, WordPress and Wikipedia in a general internet blackout.  I strongly suggest that you contact your Senator and express displeasure at this heavy-handed approach to IP protections.  For some general background on the bill, please check out the video below:

Yeah, but can he walk the dog???

Nov 082005
 

Literally unbelievable footage of the 2005 Japanese Yo-Yo Champion. Watch it here. Take that Tom Smothers.

[Via: 2005 Yo-Yo Champion]

Cool Effect

Jul 072005
 

Here’s a fun little optical illusion for this Thursday morning:

Pacman Optical Illusion
[Via: hoboclips]

Amazing Video

Jul 052005
 

I sure wish I had the courage and skill to drive like this:

IFILM – Short Films: Climb Dance]

Dominique Made a Friend

May 092005
 
Dominique Made a Friend

I’m glad she’s out meeting people, but I’m not sure about this fellow. ;)

Classical Greek Computer

Apr 282005
 

Here’s an interesting little article about a classical Greek computing device that was discovered around 1900:

At the beginning of the 20th century, historians were shocked to learn that Greek thinkers had built a rather sophisticated analog computer in the neighborhood of 82 B.C. and then, astonishingly, left no record of its existence.

[Via: Interesting Thing of the Day: The Antikythera Mechanism]

I’ve always been fascinated with knowledge that has been made and then lost for centuries. I remember seeing a great documentary by Nova on the history of the Archimedes Palimpsest in which he toys around with many of the concepts of integral calculus some 2000 years before Newton and Leibniz. Ah, it just breaks your heart to think of the knowledge lost of the numerous fires of the ancient libraries.

[Listening to: So What/Album Version - Miles Davis - Kind of Blue (09:22)]

New Stalker Tools

Feb 282005
 

I’ve signed up for a neat dual purpose service called AudioScrobbler. Essentially, it tracks every song you play on your local machine, uploads them to their server and builds a musical profile of your taste. They then use that information to sell to record companies to help them market their new music to the appropriate listeners. They do that through a great little radio station tied in called last.fm which, once you have a nice profile built up it really does a great job of introducing you to new music that doesn’t drive you completely nuts.

The other side advantage of the service is that I can now provide you another tool to track this boring computer nerd. You can now see the last 5 tracks that I’ve played on the right hand frame. So for all of you that have way too much spare time, stalk away. BTW, I’m really disturbed by a few of you people who watch the webcam for hours on end. Trust me, nothing exciting will ever happen there. ;)

Update (02/28/2005, 6:00PM): The moment I announce this little change, the feed goes down. I’ll update when the song list is back up and running.

Update (03/01/2005, 5:50 PM): OK, looks the server is back up and running. Enjoy.

Back in the Tom Waits News Business

Feb 192005
 

Due to popular demand, I’m back in the Tom Waits News Buisness.

What Beautiful Music I get at Work

Feb 182005
 

James, the Network and System Administrator here at the office has an fabulous singing voice. Here’s a little short clip I recorded on my phone. Sorry for the poor sound quality.

The Singing Network Adminsitrator

New Blog of Note

Feb 182005
 

My friend Peter, owner of PowTen.com, has a new blog called RomanOkie.com where he will post about all things religious and specifically Catholic.  My own nasty opinions on religion aside, Peter is a thoughtful and contemplative man of faith who practices Christianity without the stink of irony so common today.  It should be a good read and something to add to your blog rolls.

 Older Entries

Page optimized by WP Minify WordPress Plugin