Washingtonienne in Playboy

Washingtonienne in Playboy. Still waiting for hot Wonkette on Cutler action photos. NSFW, duh.

Best of Still Journalism 2004

Best of Still Journalism 2004. Great link; hours of entertainment here.

Vincent Gallo and Ebert hash out the

Vincent Gallo and Ebert hash out the whole Brown Bunny colonoscopy flap.

Landlord poetry

The almost-poem included with September’s rent notice from the landlord:

September is here
Fall is near
Now is the time-to cheer !!!
Any leaks/repairs call us.

I didn’t know whether to tear up at its simple beauty or wonder how much of my rent was going toward rent statement verse writing.

You know what they say about unsolicited advice

I enjoyed reading The Vice Guide to Everything, particularly these two bits:

When you move to a new city, you have to go on walking tours and rent DVDs about it and stuff like that. You have to know about it so when your parents visit you can say things like “That’s the house where Ben Franklin signed the Statue of Liberty.” If you move to a new country, you have to like it. That means learning the language, speaking it at home, and not minding if your daughter marries one of them. Does that mean you can’t wear your turban if you become a New York City cop? ‘Fraid so.

and

Buy a fucking newspaper. You have to read at least some of the front section every day. Otherwise, you are not allowed to have opinions about anything that is in the news. To say all media is biased is a cop-out. There are two PCs: politically correct and pro-corporate. There’s a left-wing bias for things like abortion and immigration but there’s a right-wing bias when it comes to anything corporate. Get over it. There’s still tons of other pertinent information in there, even in the Jew York Times.

By the way, simply saying someone is “right wing” doesn’t count as an apt criticism. Have you ever even listened to the other side’s positions? Then shut your face. And Republicans, do you even know anyone in the sex industry? Then you shut your face, too. The terms “right wing” and “left wing” were created for baby boomers who had just given up religion and were looking for a new gang to join. Calling yourself Democrat or Republican is for pussies.

Link via the always excellent Gulfstream.

Movable Type 3.1 is out

Movable Type 3.1 is out.

A quine is “a program that generates

A quine is “a program that generates a copy of its own source text as its complete output”.

So now we’re building Web browsers in

So now we’re building Web browsers in Flash movies embedded in HTML displayed by Web browsers?. I think I’m getting a headache.

Florida State finalizing huge deal with Apple

Florida State finalizing huge deal with Apple to provide free copies of iTunes and 99 cent songs for students. Wow! How will they keep everyone else from taking advantage of this great deal?

Serena Williams goes goth on the tennis court

Serena Williams goes goth on the tennis court.

The economists’ estimation of the Olympic medal count was off

The economists’ estimation of the Olympic medal count was off. GDP isn’t the whole story.

Cold Mountain

Hilary and Jackie

The Jackal

Cell phone use while driving results in

Cell phone use while driving results in significantly more impairment than does driving while intoxicated.

The amateurization of type design

The amateurization of type design. Odd examples in the slideshow though…where’s Chank, Joe Gillespie, or Ray Larabie? They’re the real amateurs.

Friendster continues its campaign of cluelessness by

Friendster continues its campaign of cluelessness by firing an employee for blogging.

Apple announces new iMac

Apple announces new iMac. Hardware is tucked behind the monitor in elegant all-in-one design.

Should have known…Communists for Kerry site is a spoof

Should have known…Communists for Kerry site is a spoof. Wait, not a spoof…a fascist plot!

NYC RNC protest photos

Went and took photos of the main protest march today. More tomorrow maybe. (Not more photos, more words.)

Bikes Against Bush thwarted

Here’s the video of Bikes Against Bush creator Josh Kinberg being arrested on Saturday afternoon after demonstrating the bike for MSNBC (he was being interviewed by Ron Reagan) and the NYPD:

Torrent of video from DV Guide (please use this one if you can)
Link to video on kottke.org (20.6 MB, QuickTime)
Mirror At Spymac (20.6 MB, QuickTime) (thx Keld)

After seeing that demonstration and being assured the chalk was easily removed from the sidewalk with water, officers consulted with their superiors, placed Josh under arrest, and confiscated his bike & equipment. He was charged with vandalism and released on Sunday morning.

Bikes Against Bush creator arrested before he

Bikes Against Bush creator arrested before he could even use the bike.

Mike from Satan’s Laundromat gets arrested during

Mike from Satan’s Laundromat gets arrested during RNC protests in NYC.

Janitor throws out trash bag that was

Janitor throws out trash bag that was part of an artwork. I tend not to like art museums where you can’t tell if the fire extinguisher is art or really just a fire extinguisher.

GmailFS provides a mountable Linux filesystem which

GmailFS provides a mountable Linux filesystem which uses your Gmail account as its storage medium. This is beyond cool.

The Great Gatsby

Not wanting to drag my current hardcover with me to the beach, I grabbed The Great Gatsby off the shelf as I left the apartment this morning. I cracked it open on the platform as I waited for the subway and continued reading on the train. Once I arrived at Rockaway Beach, I had a quick lunch and walked down the boardwalk to find a good spot for me and my blanket. Between swims and relaxing naps in the sun, I continued reading. A few hours later, I got back on the train toward Manhattan, reading all the way. As the train slowed for its stop at 14th Street, I read the final paragraph, closed the book, and stood just in time for the doors to snap open in front of me. Fitzgerald, some 80 years ago, must have written the book just for my trip today.

• books
• F. Scott Fitzgerald
• greatgatsby

BarterBee is a cross between Netflix and

BarterBee is a cross between Netflix and eBay, collective swapping of CDs and DVDs. Buzz is that the site may bee a little too heavy on the bee theme.

E-mail Addresses It Would Be Really Annoying

E-mail Addresses It Would Be Really Annoying to Give Out Over the Phone. “[email protected]”

“Want to learn how to create and

“Want to learn how to create and sustain psychosis on a national scale? Look carefully at the public statements made by the Department of Homeland Security.”. Bruce Schneier on the Department of Homeland Terrorism.

British bookmaker is taking bets on discoveries in physics

British bookmaker is taking bets on discoveries in physics. The Higgs boson, gravitational waves, and life on Titan are among the wagers to be made.

How to score at the Republican National Convention

How to score at the Republican National Convention. “Tell her that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge isn’t the only gorgeous, white thing you’d like to see drilled immediately.”

Cincinnati Mall has a dress code and other rules

Cincinnati Mall has a dress code and other rules. No baseball caps on sideways or groups larger than three. Mom and Dad want to take their 2 kids shopping? One of the little buggers needs to stay in the car.

Panel of experts ranks the top ten sci-fi films

Panel of experts ranks the top ten sci-fi films. Any of your top ten missing from this list?

Olympic transcript of the 800 meter sideways cobblestick shuttlerun

Olympic transcript of the 800 meter sideways cobblestick shuttlerun. I don’t think they gave the American enough coverage…

People are anthropomorphizing their iPods, particularly in

People are anthropomorphizing their iPods, particularly in relation to the shuffle function. “…her device had a penchant for picking songs containing four minutes of dead air followed by a bonus track”.

The Great Beanie Baby Bubble of the late 90s

The Great Beanie Baby Bubble of the late 90s. “In many ways, in fact, the Beanie Baby mania was the dot-com stock bubble writ small.”

The Google Cartography applet searches Google for

The Google Cartography applet searches Google for street relationships and maps them. I wonder what this would look like output in the more traditional grid structure (so that, for instance, 7th Avenue is a line, not a point).

A look at different voting systems, with examples

A look at different voting systems, with examples.

Clive Thompson on Stromotion

Clive Thompson on Stromotion, “software that breaks an athlete’s fluid movements into stop-motion-style freeze-frames”. You’ve seen it on the Olympics; Clive compares it to “ghost mode” in some video games.

• Clive Thompson
• video

Game Over looks like an interesting documentary

Game Over looks like an interesting documentary of the chess battle between Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue. Be sure and check out the trailer.

Bikes Against Bush is gearing up to

Bikes Against Bush is gearing up to do its thing during the RNC. Submit a message to be written by the bike; each message written will be photographed and marked on a map (using GPS).

A Flickr rainbow, built with their API and Processing

A Flickr rainbow, built with their API and Processing.

Blue Monday by New Order

Thanks to 24 Hour Party People, I’m discovering New Wave, albeit about 20 years late. From 1983, here’s the original UK release version of New Order’s Blue Monday (mp3, 10.2 MB), the best selling 12” single of all time.

Photos of the liberation of Paris in 1944

Photos of the liberation of Paris in 1944. Today is the 60th anniversary of the liberation.

Things Google knows about you

Things Google knows about you. Google’s security and privacy policies need to address these issues.

The Google Browser

Last summer, Anil Dash suggested that it would be a good move for Google to develop a Google browser based on Mozilla. Give that kid a gold star because it looks more than plausible. Mozilla Developer Day 2004 was recently held at the Google Campus. Google is investing heavily in JavaScript-powered desktop-like web apps like Gmail and Blogger (the posting inferface is now WYSIWYG). Google could use their JavaScript expertise (in the form of Gmail ubercoder Chris Wetherell) to build Mozilla applications. Built-in blogging tools. Built-in Gmail tools. Built-in search tools. A search pane that watches what you’re browsing and suggests related pages and search queries or watches what you’re blogging and suggests related pages, news items, or emails you’ve written. Google Toolbar++. You get the idea.

Mozilla is currently getting some good press due to Microsoft’s continuing troubles with their browser and the uptick in usage compared to IE is encouraging. But it’s nothing compared to what could happen if Google decides to release a Mozilla-based browser. A Google Browser would give the Mozilla platform instant credibility and would be a big hit. The peerless Google brand & reputation and their huge reach are the keys here. Mom and Dad know about Google…if Google offered a browser that was as powerful and easy to use as their search engine and didn’t scum up their system, they’d download it. IT departments wanting to switch away from IE would have some formidable firepower when pitching to upper management…”Mozilla? What? Oh, it’s Google? Go for it!” Get good reasons in front of enough Google users and millions would switch from IE.

A Google Browser is a no-brainer for them and they have to be thinking about it. It’s been obvious for awhile now that Google isn’t a search company, nor are they an advertising company, despite what the experts have to say. Sorry to sound like a broken record, but I’m convinced they’re building an operating system (of sorts) from which they will dispense all sorts of applications and data (as well as allow other people/companies to do the same in this fashion). What we could see is the next generation of office suite. Not Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Outlook of Microsoft’s Office or iPhoto, iDVD, iMovie, iTunes, and Garageband of Apple’s iLife suite, but Google search, Gmail, Google Browser, Blogger, and perhaps even GIM. It’ll be interesting to watch whether this happens or not.

Update: John Rhodes floated the idea of a Google Browser back in September 2001.

Tricks of the Trade

Tricks of the Trade.

A look at the upcoming Delicious Library,

A look at the upcoming Delicious Library, an iLife-like app for managing your book, DVD, and music collections. Don’t miss the screenshots. Coolest feature: add books to your library by scanning the barcode with your iSight camera.

Atomflow is Atom input and output on

Atomflow is Atom input and output on the Unix command line. Pipe your way to almost anything.

Stephen King’s Everything You Need to Know

Stephen King’s Everything You Need to Know About Writing Successfully - in Ten Minutes.

• how to
• stephenking
• writing