[teh funnay] Mormons Are Borg? Juxtaposition Funnies, #1

2706.Sometimes YouTube's related lists and the sponsored video work together to suggest disturbing connections which may (or may not) lurk beneath the surface of This Modren World. I swear the next screenclipping is not Photoshopped:

Now, you all know how these things work. You go looking for things and YouTube's engine (they all are engines these days, like you'd find them under the hood of the car or sommat) serves up suggestions based on whateverall it is you're doing. So, I go looking for videos about the Borg … and YouTube serves up a promoted video about Mormons.

Artificial intelligence, artificial stupidity, or artificial humor in dubious taste? You be the judge. This blog offers no opinion one way or the other on Borg, Mormons, or religion in any form, for what that is worth. 

[net_liff] Back to Firefox 3.6 (For Now)

2590.While I like Firefox 4 muchly, I'll be going back to Firefox 3.6 for now. As soon as the PDF plugin maker makes that plugin okay for FF4, I'll be upgrading. Also the DIVX plugin won't work with it … for now.

If you don't depend on those plugins or your workflow doesn't demand that they be there, I say go ahead and upgrade. But it's nice to be able to view PDFs in the browser, which is the biggest flaw in an otherwise fabulous browser.

[net] Available Just Now: Firefox 4

2588.Firefox 4 is due to be released later today, they say, but it's available on Mozilla's FTP servers now, reports SitePoint's Craig Beckler.

Go to: ftp://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/4.0/, and choose your system, then navigate to en-US for the USA! USA! USA! version.

And good luck.

[tech] Adobe Does HTML5 End Run Around Apple - With A Wallaby

2575.Now it looks like you may be able to view Flash on your iOS device.

Oh, not as such, of course.

Enter that amazing new thing, HTML5 - HTML that people are actually doing animation and video games in. The new little beast from Adobe - codenamed Wallaby - will take your Flash file and break it down into HTML5, CSS, JavaScript - Dreamweaver-licious components, all with a simple dragon-drop, so it is said.

PC Magazine has an article about it here: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2381620,00.asp

… and Adobe Labs' download page for Wallaby is here: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/wallaby/

It's in prerelease, so you'll probably find out some stuffs in it.

 

[liff] Warning: Craft Guru Is Apparently Dangerous To Your Computer

2573.Me and The Wife™ are both fans of Wendy Russell, the Canadian craft mavenne who's cute and charming show, She's Crafty, is being run on IONLife right now. But when I went to teh Googel to see what Her Wendyness was up to lately, I was dismayed, for Google saith thus:

I can't believe that Wendy's site would harm my computer, except to have the hard drive populate with a ton of craft ideas for The Wife™. But then, she's whipped a corner of the basement that needs it into quite the neat shape, so it's all good.

 

[liff] Everything I Needed To Know I Learned From War Of The Worlds

2561.

Just some basic truths.



Go here to read witticisms.

Technorati Tags: War of the Worlds

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[net] A Rising Facebook Meme Lifts All Cartoon Character Blogs

2545.

Any uptick in hits on my blog has been a cause for private celebration. Since I haven't yet figured out how to incite the national love affair with me I so richly deserve, it's been a bit like trying to induce lightning to strike - and happens about as often (there's a corollary to Murphy's Law which I've codified that essentially states that while it is true that if anything can go wrong it will go wrong at the most inopportune moment, it most certainly will not come when you actively attempt to induce it (but you won't keep it away permanently by inviting it)).

So, when it happens, it's a treat ... but the real triumph comes in finding out why.

For the last two or three days, I've been notching around two-three hundred hits a day, a welcome influx. I've deduced why. Apparently there's a Facebook meme in full effect, where everyone is replacing their profile pic with their favorite cartoon character. In as much as I am my own favorite cartoon character, I resisted the bandwagon for a while, then, realizing that I did quite adore Speed Racer (who had to duke it out with Tintin), I changed my Facebook avatar for a little bit to the illustration you see left.

After this I found out that this has something to do with an online awareness campaign about child abuse. Being against child abuse, I didn't really have a problem with that, though one would want to do something a little more material, I'd think.

But the real reason I did it was to marvel at the connectedness of things these days, and that the virtual sphere is just as chaotic in its way as the real. You see, the endless searches for "cartoon character" is pinging this off-the-cuff article like mad.

Traffic is still fun, though. So I'll just enjoy it and hope people stop by to read the rest.

On Facebook I'm http://www.facebook.com/samueljohnklein, and on Twitter I'm http://www.twitter.com/sjkpdx, of course.

Technorati Tags: Memes, Facebook Memes, Speed Racer, ZehnKatzen, Samuel John Klein

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[net] URLus Shortenerus Interruptus, Brought To You By Libya

2509.

It's convenient to think that TLDs - Top Level Domains, the last two or three (or, four, even) letters if your FQD (fully qualified domain) name, such as .com, .net, .org, .biz, .tv, &c, &c, are just collections of letters anymore with little intrinsic meaning or value. There was a time when .org was reserved for non-profits and suchlike. Now, via open-for-business internet registrars, anyone can be a .org.

But, as it occurs, TLDs may indeed have intrinsic value and authority, as the author Violet Blue has just - and rather abruptly - discovered.

URL shorteners have entered the handy-toolkit of the Twitterer and the web surfer, for reasons which should be self-evident. And the TLD ".ly" makes for nifty URLs: bit.ly, the go-to for Twitter, ow.ly, the go-to for Hootsuite, good.ly, the charitably-slanted URL shortener.

The obstacle begins to suggest itself when one remembers that the .ly domain is the TLD of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya ... Although you're more likely to say Libya.

Yeah, the one with Gadaffi in charge. That Libya. They got sharia there and all that.

However, when Violet Blue and her business partner decided to debut a "sex-positive" URL shortener, the .ly domain seemed to make sense. It was fashionable, after all, and resellers from the ccTLD NIC.ly, Libya's internet registration authority, seemed to market to Western tastes. And it worked well for a year. The second year, however, things got all brown and chunky for 'em:

It’s official: the Libyan government has seized vb.ly. This was done with no warning. Despite the fact that vb.ly was a one-page link-shortening service, Nic.ly (the registry for .ly domain reseller registrar Libyan Spider) informed us that the content of our website was offensive, obscene and illegal according to Libyan Islamic Sharia Law. Not the domain, but the content of the website – no matter where the domain was hosted.

The  photograph of me with my bare arms, holding a bottle, and the words “sex-positive” were cited as obscene, offensive and illegal. We were also told that we were “promoting an illegal activity” with our link shortener.

Violet and her business partner appear to hold that this has perhaps a little more to do with a Libyan effort to prevent non-Libyans from owning domain names shorter than four characters than it does actual implementation of Sharia with respect to who they do business with. If so, appeal to Sharia is a mere tool to an end ... but, man, what a tool. You can't resist it. And, since the word came down via the reseller from the ccTLD registrar, then what they say, goes.

And with that, went all the links that were shortened through vb.ly, for now irretrevably borken.

Which makes this something to keep in mind: when procuring services through an extranational concern, they may well be marketing with your aims in mind. But in the end, they might have to comply with laws that most certainly do not.

Also:

• Internet Marketing Guru Andy Sernovitz delivers a blunt "What the heck were they thinking" in the general direction of bit.ly at http://www.damniwish.com/2010/10/would-you-bet-your-business-on-the-whims-of-muammar-al-gaddafi-and-the-lybian-government-bit-ly-did.html
• ccTLD registrar NIC.ly's "did too!" to VB's "you totally did not tell us that there was any problem with this rege" letter at http://nic.ly/anvp.php. (Essentially: We sent the notices. If you didn't get them, it's not our problem)

It's a tough internet out there, campers. Go in with eyes wide open if you can.

Technorati Tags: vb.ly, nic.ly, libyan spider, tlds, URL shorteners, violet blue

[net liff] Scribefire Fixed It!

2467.

In the credit where credit's due department, we note that, given the presence of the screenclipped logo below, Scribefire's developer, Christopher Finke, has fixed the image upload problem.

Me and a whole lotta bloggers depend on and love Scribefire, which allows us easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy blog posting with quick image upload and FLAVENS. So, when you get a nifty free Firefox addon that allows you do this thing here, and he fixeded it, you give mad public ups.

I'm leaving the Muse Art & Design logo because you should go there.

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Technorati Tags: net liff, muse art and design, scribefire

[liff] Best. Online. Sports. Headline. Ever

2416.As seen on the website of KPTV Channel 12:

Yep. Timbers Fall To Impact 1-0.

I mean, did they use an axe or summat?

I love great headlines. Like the rug in the Dude's apartment, it ties the whole thing together.

Technorati Tags: headlines, net liff, KPTV Channel 12, Portland Timbers

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[writery] Young Dr. Spock, Paging Young Dr. Spock

2411.When I was a kid, one of the first memories I have was watching Star Trek on a Silvertone black and white console TV.

I didn't know the alien was green for a very long time.

Thus begun years of correcting my elders: "No, Mom, it's Mr. Spock. Not Dr. Spock"; "No, Mom, it's not Captain Spock, it's Captain Kirk, Mister Spock ... no, that's Mr. Spock, not Dr. Spock ... "

And so it went. Now, I was alive long enough ago to know who Dr. Spock was. If you'll recall, he was the pediatrician who gained fame for a book, Baby and Child Care, as was blamed by a lot of rural, John Bircher, and old-fashioned old-school parents for creating the so-called "permissive" childrearing approach.

Kind of the opposite of a Vulcan child-care expert, actually, if you think about it.

But you'd think we'd be beyond the name confusion, tho? Heck, no, not even caaa-lose!. Today, at the website The Celebrity Cafe, in announcing the cancellation of Heroes, enumerated the achievements Heroes alums have notched, including Zach Quinto's assistance in the recharging of the Star Trek mythos:

The text, which still reads of that as of this writing, is as follows:

Several of the show’s breakout cast members such as Ali Larter, Hayden Panettiere and Zachary Quinto found success on the silver screen during the show’s tenure. Quinto was cast as a young Dr. Spock in the 2009 remake of Star Trek,  which was one of the year’s biggest hits and he is expected to reprise the role in the expected 2012 sequel.

Quinto was cast as young Dr. Spock. Wow.

After I unrolled my eyes (I mean, how lame can you be – you're a website, reporting on TV shows, operating over an Intartuebz that is a result, largely, of Star Trek geeks ... and you can't get TV's most famous alien's name straight?!?) I actually thought it kind of reminded me of those golden-era medical soap opera dramas.

With that in mind, let's look in on a long-lost scene of that medical serial Young Dr. Spock, brought to you by Tide (Tide's In, Dirt's Out) ...

CUE ORGAN MUSIC. ORGAN MUSIC FADES.

INTERCOM: Young Dr. Spock, Young Dr. Spock, you're needed in pediatrics, Young Dr Spock ...

DR SPOCK ENTERS R, ENROUTE TO PEDIATRICS. SUDDENLY, CHRISTINE CHAPEL, R.N., FRANTICALLY CALLS TO HIM FROM NEXT TO A GURNEY ON THE L.

CHAPEL: Young Dr. Spock! Dr. Spock! Please, come quickly! You're the only one who can help this patient!

SPOCK: Illogical, Nurse Chapel, as this is the premier hospital in the district, employing more than 150 medical professionals. Certainly there are other physicans who can be of as much assistance.

CHAPEL: No, young Dr. Spock! This is a problem that only your unique experience can shed any light on.

SPOCK: Very well, Nurse. (SPOCK RETRIEVES THE CHART FROM THE GURNEY. THE PERSON UPON IT IS MOANING; AMONGST HIS CLOTHING THE VIEWER CAN SEE A BELT BUCKLE READING SS BOTANY BAY. AFTER REVIEWING THE PATIENT'S CHART, DR SPOCK RETRIEVES AN OTOSCOPE FROM HIS VEST POCKET AND SHINES ITS LIGHT INTO THE PATIENT'S EAR. HE RAISES AN EYEBROW) Hmmm. Fascinating. (MAKES NOTES ON THE PATIENT'S CHART, RETURNS IT TO ITS POCKET) Nurse, your illogical summoning of me was a logical move. You are correct. It's a Ceti Alpha eel, but we may have caught it in time. Put this patient on 15 cc's of quadro-triticale stat. I am due in pediatrics. The drug should stablize him until I return.

CHAPEL: But, doctor ... can you save him?

SPOCK: Affirmative. Prognosis is excellent and indicates a full and logical recovery.

CHAPEL: Thank you, young Dr. Spock!

DR SPOCK ATTEMPT TO EXIT L, ON WAY TO PEDIATRICS, A BEAMING AND ADORING NURSE CHAPEL WATCHING AFTER. HE IS STOPPED JUST BEFORE HE CAN LEAVE BY THE HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATOR, MR JAMES KIRK.

KIRK: Spock! I ... need to speak to you ... immediately! These ... Medicare reimbursements are ... throughtheroof! What ... are we gointodo ... about it!?

SPOCK: Sir, those are records of successful treatment. All of my patients have made sastisfactory recoveries. This is, logically speaking, a maximum benefit for the taxpayer's dollar.

KIRK: That may be ... SpockbuttheFedsare ... coming to audit. They are sending thier ... top auditor a man who ... isruthlessastheycome, I believe his name is ... Khan N. Singh!

CLOSE ON YOUNG DR. SPOCK'S FACE AS HE TURNS TOWARD THE CAMERA, RAISING A SINGLE EYEBROW.

SPOCK: Fascinating.

BRING UP ORGAN MUSIC. FADE TO COMMERICAL.

It needs polishing, but I think I could sell this.

Damn shame it's not 1955. I would have liked to have met Jack Paar.

Technorati Tags: Dr Spock, Mr Spock, Mixed-up Names, Star Trek, TV

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[net liff] How Gizmodo Made Everyone On Twitter Lose All Thier Followers

2405.I love it when trendy services FDGB (fall down, go boom) in an embarrassing way, even if I enjoy them.

Today's victim: Twitter. John Herrmann, writer at Gizomodo, figured out how to force anyone to follow you. Anyone. Even Ashton Kutcher. Fo'reals, apparently.

Then, I'm assuming, an ass-ton of people tried it.

Why?

Because, suddenly, at about 1015 PDT, everyone's followers fell to zero.

And everyone following fell to zero.

And there was much RT WTF.

At the time I postulated three possibilities:

1. CERN had a glitch in the Large Hadron Collider.
2. Justin Bieber, somehow. I don't know how.
   
3. Deepak Chopra meditated.

But soon enough, it was revealed that Gizmodo's force follow hack may well have been the problem:

We identified and resolved a bug that permitted a user to “force” other users to follow them. We’re now working to rollback all abuse of the bug that took place. Follower/following numbers are currently at 0; we’re aware and this too should shortly be resolved.

Update (10:18 AM PST): Of note: protected updates did not become public as a result of this bug.

So, at this writing, we await Twitter putting things to rights.

And Gizmodo and John Hermann are probably going to wonder if another lawyer is going to show up at the door soon.

Ain't modern technology wunnerfull?

Update, 1101 PDT: Twitter's appeared to have fixed the problem. The oppressor @aplusk rules once again.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, hack, Gizmodo, force-follow hack

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[net liff] The End of the Internet

2380.

This I dug up a few days ago from this spot. Harkens to a time when the intartuuebz was a simpler place:

The farthest east site on the farthest east bit of land in North America used to have just one incoming/outgoing leg.

Good times, people, good times.

[net_liff] TROLO-LOL Cat, Complete With Auto Shut-Off

2370.

Now, here's an innovation. Should have seen this one coming, when you think about it. My guess, is the module has its on/off switch installed in the cat just below the tail in that spot where you get "elevator butt".

It's Edward Hill's world & we just live in it.

Technorati Tags: Memes, Edward Hill, Trololol, TROLOLOLCat

[meme] Edward Hill, the Russian Rickroll, Simplified

2347.

You think you've seen everything you need to see about Edward Khil', but you ain't seen nothing until you see this remix.

Does it pull him out of the uncanny valley or only put him deeper? You be the judge:

I think it makes it just a little more awesome. And, by awesome, I mean scary.


Technorati Tags: Edward Hill, Eduard Khil, russian rickroll

[net] ZehnKatzen On Delicious

2342.

I've recently started up on delicious again, Pariah Burke's CreativesAre Community Toolbar making social bookmarking just a click away.

Want to share something with me, keep track on what I'm interested in, or just connect bookmarkedly? I'd be thrilled to have you (yes, you!) in my delicious network. The link is over at the top of the sidebar, just below the link to the Behance online portfolio, or you can just go to:

• http://delicious.com/zehnkatzen

Hope to see you there …

Technorati Tags: net liff, delicious, ZehnKatzen, bookmarks. Samuel John Klein

[liff] Twilight: New Moon, The LOLCats Review

2270.Mope. K thx bai!

Technorati Tags: LOLCats, Twilight, New Moon, teh funnay

[liff] Twitter Is Crack Cocaine

2263.Didn't we just know it?

(Warning: Theres a couple of adult words on that. Nothing you've not heard before, but don't go readin' it to the toddlers, K?)

Technorati Tags: teh funnay, social networking, net liff, net humor, adult humor

[net_liff] Win Fawlty Towers For Following Dave At Twitter

2254.As anyone knows, Dave Knows PDX.

Dave knows PDX is built on an ancient unicorn burial ground, and you can trust Dave, because Dave Knows PDX, as I said.

I know that Dave is on Twitter, and Dave knows he wants more followers, and if you follow Dave, then you DM him on Twitter so that Dave knows you're following him, he will enter your name in a drawing, and once Dave knows he has more than 150 followers, he'll randomly pick a name and you'll know whether or not you'll be the proud owner of a shrink-wrapped set of the complete run of Fawlty Towers, which, as you and Dave and everyone knows, stars the not-yet-late John Cleese.

You know.

So you'll want to follow Dave at http://twitter.com/DaveKnowsPDX. And then let him know that you're following him.

If you know what I mean. You know?

Technorati Tags: net_liff, Dave Knows PDX, PDX Tweeters

[liff] But Then Orwell Rather Lends Itself To Such Irony

2164.Inasmuch as Nineteen Eighty-Four is one of my favorite books, I found this kerfuffle incredibly amusing: it would seem that Amazon has not only deleted Orwell's famous dystopian novel from its e-book stocks, but also remotely removed it from every Kindle on which it was downloaded.

The irony inherent in Nineteen Eighty-Four being chuted down the memory hole should need neither introduction nor explanation.

The truth is actually as prosaic as it was amusing; the publisher who released the e-version of the novel was not the publisher who had the rights to do so – in the USA, anyway. Nineteen Eighty-Four is in the public domain in several countries (notably, Canada). Just as with much other net goodness (vintage video-game ROM images and porn come to mind) the responsibility lies with the downloader or, in this case, the entity making such content available for sale to others – Amazon, in this case.

Thus, the deletion of Nineteen Eighty-Four from the Amazon e-book stock and the Kindles. Amazon was, essentially, selling a pirated work (at least as far as USA law is concerned)

The subtlety to the jest comes in the apology that Jeff Bezos published to the Kindle community. It was all mea culpa and no explanation. I don't mean to criticize the policy really; there could have been exculpation and explanation in equal measure, though. But CNet columnist Peter Glaskowsky leapt unto the breach with a succinct, clear message.

Myself, I prefer actual books, not networked devices that the vendor can delete content at will on (hell, can't afford a Kindle anyway). Which reminds me, I got some Harlan Ellison I need to get into.

Technorati Tags: DRM, Copyright, Kindle, Amazon, Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four