| sTaRe: Guest Sidebar |
|
Saturday, January 31, 2004
|
 |
|
| Aries | Libra |
| Taurus | Scorpio |
| Gemini | Sagittarius |
| Cancer | Capricorn |
| Leo | Aquarius |
| Virgo | Pisces |
| Archived Literature |
| Teenage Trash |
| I HATE YOU ALL! |
| ozric
dampierre on... |
| PrisonPlanet |
| Manifesto in Hypertext |
| The Rat |
All the cute with none of the poop...
Virtual kitty! It purrs, it plays, it gets torqued off if you touch it's tail...
.
(thanks Kerry!)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Shirk Ethic: How to Fake A Hard Day at the Office
David Wiskus gives new meaning to the term "working lunch." The Denver tech-support worker installed a program on his Handspring Visor hand-held that allowed him to manipulate the screen on his office computer from a booth at a local diner.
As he lingered for hours over burgers and fries, he could actually open windows and move documents around on his screen via the hand-held -- creating the impression to anyone who walked by that the diligent Mr. Wiskus had just stepped away from his desk.
It has never been easier to be a white-collar slacker. While the uninitiated are still grousing about how mobile technology has created a 24/7 work culture and sabotaged their private time, a savvier crowd has moved on to a more rewarding pursuit: using technology to make it look like you're working when you're not.
Psychologists call these games "impression management," a field whose rules have been transformed now that so many people communicate through technology rather than a handshake and a conversation. In some ways, the e-mail that arrives at 11 p.m. is the modern sign of a dedicated worker
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Movie review - 'The Matrix Reloaded'
The Matrix has been reloaded and comes back with a digitally enhanced vengeance! This highly anticipated sequel to the sci-fi cyber-punk classic ‘The Matrix’ does not disappoint. From start to finish its high-octane mix of martial arts, philosophy and futurology provides thrilling entertainment on many different levels. It’s not quite as good as the original. That had the advantage of being unhyped and hugely fresh. In ‘Matrix Reloaded’ expectations were high and there is really nothing that we haven’t seen before. But it does develop the things we saw in the first movie and gives us something bigger and more frenetic - think of it as ‘The Matrix’ on speed. |
Flash: It would appear that the elements of an ARG are embedded in the movie and the game. Some of these elements have been prematurely uncovered by some of the bright minds at unfiction and the Matrix Community.org.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Johnny the Homicidal Maniac
It looks pretty boring doesn't it. I was in a black and red mood when I did this (which was a perfect time to build an annoying torturous JTHM page). There is more to this site than meets the eye. Look for the links, they're there. Sorry, I just couldn't bring myself to make the links any color other than black, and once you get to those pages some of my text is impossible to read, but hell, why be ordinary?
If you can, check out the Directors Cut of this psychotic comic by Jhonen Vasquez - it's funny as hell but probably not suitable for all audiences! |
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Building a Nation of Snoops
by Carl Takei, the Boston Globe[More from Libertythink]
"Watching America with Pride, not Prejudice.''
This is the Orwellian motto of the New Jersey-based Community Anti-Terrorism Training Institute, or CAT Eyes, an antiterrorist citizen informant program being adopted by local police departments throughout the East Coast and parts of the Midwest.
Mike Licata, a high school teacher and retired Air Force officer, created the CAT Eyes program in cooperation with ex-military SWAT officer Jason McClendon and businessman Tony Elghossain.
In a recent telephone interview, Licata said he wants to use CAT Eyes to create what he calls ''a modern civil defense network,'' converting neighborhood watch groups into antiterrorist informant cells. These groups, constantly watching for signs of terrorist activity in their neighborhoods and workplaces, would report suspicious activities directly to the FBI.
Said Licata: ''I envision 100 million Americans looking for indicators of terrorism and promptly reporting it to a central database where it would get analyzed.''
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
"...she's a flight risk."
Is it real or is it Memorex?
FAQ: I put one up for awhile earlier. See, I kept getting the same questions. Particularly accusatory ones which suggest that I am a poor role model for young girls who might look up to me. You know, questions like, "why'd you take the money?" (You see, one has to be a pauper- or at least entirely without anything approaching the level resources required to hide from a determined and well funded searcher- to be a respected practitioner in the field of abscondtion or pseudocide. Near as I can tell you can't have underwear either, or at least it has to appear that you are without underwear. Something to do with the degree of difficulty rating of the vanishing attempt and the French judge I'm told). But the web log felt... well cliché with an FAQ. It felt like I was designing a website to sell a product. People don't have FAQs about them, well unless you are definately not Steve Wozniak. New software products have FAQs. Tools for making FAQs have FAQs. I don't want this endeavor to have that feel. The skeptics are hard enough on me over my sometimes questionable choices in nightmares- I don't need any more critical attention. Can you imagine what would happen if I actually answered a few reader questions pre-emptively? That's content that my ego actually designs. Surely, I must be far more responsible for that than content that instead comes unbidden right from my unadulterated id, no? My lawyer would almost certainly tell me that I shouldn't be assuming that sort of liability just yet. Those pesky critics are already just waiting to pounce on the sudden and massive parade of commercialism they know I am just right around the corner here from trying to sneak by them. Imagine what would happen by my introducing a customer service infrastructure into the memoirs. It would be like a launch warning or something. I shudder to think. (Though I have to admit that one mischievous night I came very close to setting up a cafe press store just to see people scream. I can just see "Jon Rubin" blowing a heart valve with such force that the upstairs neighbor would wonder if she heard something coming from her new rug. (It could be the ghost of her late husband, he hates rugs). What if I were- oh, for example- to offer the Exclusive "Run Isabella Run" Thong? Seriously. This looks to be a high quality product. Just consider the description offered:
These thongs are made for strutting! Perfect for any type of low rise pants, these panties are made to fit low. Combed cotton baby rib with an exclusive high end woven trim makes these panties look and feel like no other.
I'm all about strutting around my clandestine safe house with low rise pants on. A couple promotion photos with idenfifying details blurred out... Of course, the hostile reaction would be swift, relentless and originate from many directions simultaneously. Like wasps defending the fragile regurgitated paper of their internally honeycombed internet nest from a biped who unwittingly bumped her head into it when ducking under a low network cable.
"Look! Look! I told you! It's a fat, 46 year old man with a panty fetish AND it's a commercial publicity stunt!"
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Not getting enough Spam to read? Now you can listen to it also.
" Using a complex arrangement of pipes and funnels we turn the junk mail that we receive into a streaming audio broadcast that can be enjoyed from anywhere on the Internet."
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Nowhere Girl
Nowhere girl, highly recommended by Warren Ellis, available online: http://www.nowheregirl.com/episode/01/01.html |
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
The Gospel according to Neo
Theologians and pop-culture experts see 'The Matrix' as a phenomenon shaping public opinion about religion
In a film era long gone, the Bible was a major player. Charlton Heston and Jimmy Stewart starred in movies that directly drew on themes of Bible history and Christian redemption.
Hollywood treats religion a bit differently these days. Mel Gibson's "The Passion," aside, most A-list stars aren't lining up to play the carpenter from Nazareth. But some of Hollywood's most enduring science-fiction films have borrowed greatly from his story. |
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
NPR does a story on blogs
...and if you click to the second Weekday show for today (titled, ahem, "blogs") you will see a link to sTarE and the infamous Dr. Menlo!
From the site: Online web logs, or blogs, have become popular destinations in cyberspace. We catch up with this new cultural phenomenon and get a list of your favorites blogs.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
New YAWN
...and there you have it.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Ten Thousand Monkeys 50th issue
Holy cats! Spring had sprung and we've got a bumper crop of new monkeys poking their heads up out of the soil. Everywhere I look there's brand spankin' new stuff to read, look at, ingest, digest ... and so many other ests I can't even think straight. Soon it'll be time for the harvest ... whatever that means.
And HEY! check this out ... those whacky scientists are saying what we've known all along: Typing Monkeys Don't Write Shakespeare!
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Pole Shift Party at my place tomorrow!
Just kidding. But in case you didn't know, the world is ending on Thursday, May 15:
From Samsara2003.com (including spelling error):
See: "ETs Warn Mankind"Pana Wave Laboratory is a Japanese cult whose members have been roaming the countryside in search of a haven from the electromagnetic waves being beamed at them by communists. To protect themselves, they wear white clothing, drive white vans, and drape the trees at their camp sites with white sheets. The group does not bathe and eats only instant noodles. They believe that Planet X will cause a pole shift on May 15...unless "Tama-chan", a seal trapped in a Tokyo river, is successfully rescued. Failing that, if their leader dies (and she is, in fact, dying of cancer), the group may "exterminate all humankind" on its own (according to one of their pamphlets). They have been compared to Aum Shinrikyo. News stories: 1 2 3 4 5
Zetatalk.com and PlanetX2003.com appear to be the sources of this exact date for the apocalypse.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Hello?I'm new here. My name is Sylvain but I prefer to be called Beastie. I run a website called Chapel Perilous and assist in the sales of Unique and Sexy Socks at Fetishize-Me. Not a Fetish Site, a Socks Site that is safe to browse at work.
I am also a member of It's A Moo Point and Yummy Wakame.
Anyhoo, the kind folks at this here Blog invited me to post every once in awhile, so here goes with my first entry. Be Kind?Hyperspace Structures:Exploring the fourth dimension.
"Take a fascinating peek beyond our own mundane three dimensional world into the realm of hyperspace by checking out these cool movie clips of hyperspatial structures from the fourth dimension and beyond."
Not a repost, I hope. Been visiting here since Ancient Times, so I don't think so......
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Reality Hacking
By taking a perspective usually limited to looking at art in the museum to the everyday world I interact with existing public situations. The consequences of these encounters are interventions or temporary installations which are often abandoned. In this process the artist subjugates himself to the act of perception by being anonymous. |
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Operation Strangelove: Peace Is Our Profession
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Portable toilets with web access
The iLoo being developed by the MSN division of Microsoft Corp. in Britain is a standard portable toilet -- a loo to the British -- with a wireless keyboard and extending, height-adjustable plasma screen in front of the seat.
There would also be a "Hotmail station" with waterproof keyboard and plasma screen on the outside for those waiting in line.
MSN officials say they're negotiating for the manufacture of toilet paper imprinted with Web addresses that users may not have tried.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Was Saddam wearing an Alien necklace?
Regarding Saddam Hussein's appearance in a video supposedly filmed April 9 and which aired April 18 on Abu Dhabi TV:
"What is most puzzling is the mysterious golden necklace Saddam was wearing...Qusay was wearing one, as well. Since Saddam is not known for wearing jewelry with his uniforms, sources in Iraq cannot understand why he chose to wear it that day."
Correspondent Mohammed Daud al-Hayyat has a theory that the golden necklaces worn by Saddam and his son Qusay are protective devices given to them by the reputed Zarzi aliens. According to an urban legend, a UFO crashed in Iraq either during 1991 or 1998. Saddam granted the surviving aliens sanctuary, allowing them to live in either an underground base at Zarzi or at the centuries-old citadel at Qalaat-e-Julundi in the As-Zab as-Saghir river valley in northern Iraq.
"People say that when they wear these necklaces, Saddam and Qusay have only to clasp hands, and the circle of light will appear," Mohammed explained, "The alien vortex will instantly transport them to safety. In this manner, they can create the circle without the Zarzi aliens being present."
Also on Wednesday, April 9, 2003, a cylindrical UFO was seen dodging American anti-aircraft bursts while flying over Baghdad.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Seeing red leads to going green
Among displays of civil disobedience, it doesn't rank up there with the Boston Tea Party. Still, the polka-dot house in Avondale Estates stands out.
This was not an act of civil disobedience risked ultimately to enhance democracy but rather property values. When Avondale's Historic Preservation Commission nixed his plans for a rounded front stoop, Stan Pike protested...hiring two guys to transform the white home into an instant eyesore.
In a town renowned for its restrictive covenants -- it took an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit to coerce the city to allow "for sale'' signs -- Pike's psychedelic paint job will inevitably be deemed a violation of something, and he will be forced to restore the house to its former sobriety. Until then, Pike may dress up his lawn with old toilets as geranium planters to further annoy the dictators at his doorstep
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Multnomah County, Oregon, seeks Klingon interpreter for mental health patients
County research has shown that Klingon has gone from being a fictional tongue to what many people consider a complete language, with its own grammar, syntax and vocabulary.
"We have to provide information in all the languages our clients speak," said a procurement specialist for the county Department of Human Services, which serves about 60,000 mental health clients.
If a patient speaks only Klingon, the county is obligated to respond with a Klingon interpreter.
Also see: The Klingon Language Institute
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
DIY HERF gun
Build your own HERF-gun, a High-Energy Radio-Frequency raygun that can kill cars' electronics and laptops at a distance.
This project is a continuation of the HERF003 project. It will be just like the HERF001 but many times more compact and efficient due to optimization and better calculated design. The actual device (excluding the horn antenna) will be about 50 times smaller in volume than HERF001 while having the same output power yet even better antenna efficiency and low VSWR. I hope to get much more detailed tests done on the effects and range of this device. Results and test images/videos will be posted allong with data sheets, radiation patterns and videos of test shots on dummy PC's. Hmmm. E3 plus HERF gun=?|
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Where is everbody?
3 guesses.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Monday, January 05, 2004
|
 Ong's Hat: The Beginning |
| "I got really into this "time-travel cult" called Ong's Hat when a computer-game programmer I know told me she was contacted by a physics scholar who said that a bunch of her recent games reflected their canon. This dude told my friend that someone from Ong's Hat had befriended her and inspired her to create certain games without her realizing it. Whoa, right?" - Jane Magazine |
|
Buy - Reviews
- Free Stuff
- MP3 Collections - CTW
|
