Archive for October, 2003

Happy Halloween

Friday, October 31st, 2003

Damon’s & Gabe’s jack-o-lanterns:

Diebold To Students: Shut Up About Our Broken Voting Machines

Tuesday, October 28th, 2003

(via Dan Gillmor)

Diebold is apparently producing some seriously flawed voting machines. Swarthmore students posted some internal memos about these machines, and Diebold is serving them with cease-and-desist orders. Now several other sites are mirroring those memos.

Today’s Kids On Yesterday’s Games

Tuesday, October 28th, 2003

Electronic Gaming Monthly shows the video games I used to play to some 10-13 year olds to get their reaction. They were not, um, overwhelmed.

Andrew: This is a lot like that game. Um, whatchamacallit?air hockey.

Sheldon: Except worse.

Becky: It looks like a Mario that got run over by a car.

Andrew: Really. I mean the man is almost flat.

Kirk: He’s only an inch tall. He’s a little short fat guy who eats way too much pizza.

EGM: Football. It’s one of the first great portable games.

Brian: I thought it was Run Away From the Dots.

Kirk: I’m sure everyone who made this game is dead by now.

Happy Birthday, nyuk, nyuk!

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2003


Stooge Curly Howard was born 100 years ago today.

The Seven, er, Six Deadly Sins

Monday, October 20th, 2003

(via devnull)

A group of French chefs and others are petitioning the Pope to have Gluttony from the list of the Seven Deadly Sins

I wonder if they have any suggestions for a replacement? Maybe serving red wine with fish, or (gasp) saying ’email’ instead of ‘courriel’!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

Friday, October 17th, 2003

Oh, wait! No, I meant congratulations Yankees!

Oh, wait, no, I did mean aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

Small Universe

Wednesday, October 8th, 2003

(via Nature)

The universe may be smaller than previously though…and and shaped like a soccer ball.

Measure the Speed of Light With Chocolate

Tuesday, October 7th, 2003

This is pretty cool. Just remember: Measure twice, eat once.

Build a Balancing Scooter

Tuesday, October 7th, 2003

Can’t afford a Segway? Build one yourself. It’s ‘only’ $2000!

Chickens Prefer Beautiful Humans

Monday, October 6th, 2003

(via MetaFilter)

The best journal article title I’ve seen in a while: Chickens Prefer Beautiful Humans

Dave Barry Does It Again!

Monday, October 6th, 2003

Dave Barry takes on the telemarketers again. Yeah!

“But the ATA [American Teleservices Association]surely doesn’t WANT you to call again. It’s inconvenient! And to insist on calling somebody who doesnt want to be called, even if you have the legal right to call, well, that’s just plain rude.”

What Don’t You Know?

Monday, October 6th, 2003

philly.com has an interesting story about the various news sources people use, and the misperceptions about the Iraq war they have.
The full study is here. Essentially, people who relied on Fox news had the highest levels of misperception, followed by the Big Three networks and CNN, finally print media and PBS/NPR had the fewest misperceptions.

The Internet as a news source was not examined. I’d like to see those numbers. Also, the right answers to the questions polled were all in line with a Democratic viewpoint. It would be interesting to see a study where the right answers corresponded to a typical Republican stance, I wonder if the same news sources would be as reliable an indicator of misperceptions in the opposite direction.

The Fanimatrix

Wednesday, October 1st, 2003

(via MetaFilter)

The Fanimatrix

What New Zealand Matrix fans do in their spare time.

From the FAQ:

Q. Is that copy of NMap on Medusa’s machine trying to port-scan itself?
A. Shutupshutupshutupshutup….