Day: September 29, 2005

New Scientist Technology – Clothing gives sportsmen a kick up the pants

New Scientist Technology – Clothing gives sportsmen a kick up the pants

Kind of cool idea for rowing geeks like myself. Garments that buzz when you pull the oar incorrectly.

Om Malik’s Broadband Blog » What is Web 2.0?

Om Malik’s Broadband Blog » What is Web 2.0?

Om attempts to tackle the burning question. WTF is a Web 2.0?

I say you know it when you see it. "Dave Winer says, “Web 2.0 is a marketing concept used by venture capitalists and conference promoters to try to call another bubble into existence.”"

Happy birthday to Om.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Deadly plague hits Warcraft world

BBC NEWS | Technology | Deadly plague hits Warcraft world

"Many online discussion sites were buzzing with reports from the disaster zones with some describing seeing "hundreds" of bodies lying in the virtual streets of the online towns and cities."

This is fascinating. A virtual flu wipes out an online game. Not the first time it has happened either:

"The "Corrupted Blood" plague is not the first virtual disease to break out in game worlds. In May 2000 many players of The Sims were outraged when their game characters died because of an infection contracted from a dirty virtual guinea pig." (otherwise known as the DVGP)

That has to be the acronym of the day.

iPod Nano Paranoia

Macworld: News: Apple responds to iPod nano screen concerns

So the little piece of electronica bling-bling arrived on Monday and it seemed so … little, so frail. I have fingers the size of Nathan’s hot dogs, big sausages and I didn’t want to touch the obsidian-black case and smear it up with finger grease ….

 I got over that, but still, the thing is very frail. No way it gets dumped into my overloaded knapsacks and scratched to death like the rest of my gear. Today I get a Denison Ice-Link for the car so I can finally listen to its through the speakers and get rid of the accursed Belkin radio gizmo.

I love how iPod owners just put up a website and start ragging on Apple until their demands are met. Remember the infamous Neistat Brothers taking on the batteries that resulted in a class action suit and settlement offer? (I like the Neistat Bros. other films too.)

Now I’m convinced that unless I buy my nano some cushioned shock case that its going to get trashed. Off to Best Buy to drop $30 on a case. 

The Greatest Stories Never Told — Why I subscribe to the Atlantic Monthly

 Alex Beam on the Greatest Unpublished Stories validates my decision to once again renew my subscription to that bastion of the Boston Washington Literary Establishment, The Atlantic Monthly. (I subscribe to four rags — the Atlantic, the New Yorker, VeloNews, and the Independent Rowing News).

This description from an unpublished piece on a Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon had me laughing outloud, alone at my desk at 6 am:

"Nobody causes muscular dystrophy, and almost nobody gets it. The day before the show, [Jerry] did a promo with a fat lady from Channel 8 in Honolulu and concluded it by yelling, "Watch the show and getta hunka nooky." Every Muscular Dystrophy telethon ends with Jerry’s singing "You’ll Never Walk Alone," a peculiar choice of songs to address to crippled people."

 And this Thomas Farragher parody of the Boston Globe’s copydesk having its way with the Gettysburg Address:

" Fourscore and seven years ago (can’t we just make it 87 years ago?) our fathers (WHO ARE THEY?? Any mothers???) brought forth on this continent (North America?? Northern Hemisphere??) a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men (people, men and women, what???) are created equal. (Why don’t we just say they founded the United States and leave it at that? Pacing’s better.)"