automaton_be

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• Commented on Keychain screwdrivers of stern utilitarian beauty
  Yes, I always have trouble flying with my swiss army knife, it weighs down terribly. With these, however, I can simply flap my arms and take off in in almost straight vertical line. They're perfect!...
• Commented on Toyota marketing stalks and terrorizes woman, claims she consented by doing an online personality test
  There was an incident here in Belgium a few years back where a marketing company sent out envelopes with a bullet and a ransom note reading 'we have your daughter, we're coming after you' to the editors of various magazines....
• Commented on Artsy Nazi gnomes, on display and for sale
  I saw an exhibition of these gnomes a few years ago, he had a whole bunch of 'em set up like a nazi party rally. I found it to be a great and biting satire of the German people during...
• Commented on Zombies Calling: snappy popcult zombie comic in the Scott Pilgrim mold
  In keeping with the whole anglophile thing, shouldn't the link be to amazon.co.uk, where your shopping cart is a basket?...
• Commented on Conservative California legislator gives pornographic account of his multiple affairs (including a lobbyist) into open mic
  I don't see what the problem is. Middle-aged men, married, with two children cheat on their wives with the first hot 20-year old secretary that comes along. That sounds like 'traditional family values' to me. It's about as clicheed as...
• Commented on Child-safety software sells your kids' IM conversations to market-research companies
  I wonder how the people who knowingly and willingly work on these things can go home at night, kiss their children goodnight and enjoy a good night's sleep. I really do....
• Commented on Dara O’Briain on homeopathy from Derren Brown Blog
  @16: Not every crackpot pseudoscience that is originally ridiculed gets redeemed later on. A very very tiny minority turn out not to be pseudoscience after all. But generally speaking, the 'scientific establishment' is usually correct....
• Commented on Visualizing a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book
  Heh, "Total: 42" We're so nerdy....
• Commented on Adobe: Once you license software in France, you can only use it in French
  Adobe's license policy is completely ridiculous. Not just the inflated prices, the byzantine upgrade structure is also a nightmare. I've got a completely useless upgrade copy of Indesign CS3 sitting here which i was unable to use because I didn't...
• Commented on Active kids sleep better
  While active children sleep better (and i'll add my 'duh' to the chorus) it's not a good idea to have them running around right before bed time. Kids need time to get into 'sleeping mode'. I'd be interested to see...
• Commented on True Blood: WSJ publisher calls Google a "digital vampire" with "fangs," "sucking blood" out of publishing biz
  A forced analogy does not a truth make....
• Commented on Boing Boing Video gets a website makeover, a guest tweet-blog, and a new url: boingboingvideo.com
  Lookin' good. No zany Web 2.0 gradients or fancy effects. I've been working on the design for a video website too, and we've come back from the 'full size' video on top. We replaced it with a slightly smaller Hulu-like...
• Commented on Welcome, <em>Wired</em>. We call this land "Internet"
  I think every print magazine is going through these troubles, but it is indeed more embarassing for a mag like Wired. When I read all of this, I am actually quite amazed that the site is as good as it...
• Commented on Muji USA webstore - simple, clean design from Japan
  The UK store is open to EU customers, thankfully. I hate it when they do that whole Region-code thing. Tried to buy MP3's from Amazon.co.uk the other day, but they wouldn't sell to me as a non-UK customer. The only...
• Commented on Texas lawmaker: Chinese Americans should change names so "Americans" can handle them
  I didn't see anything offensive about Betty Brown's arguments, except perhaps her choice of words. She uses 'American' and 'Americanize' a lot, while it should probably be 'Romanized' or 'Easily legible to an English-speaking person'. She should have known better,...
• Commented on BB Video: GDC Out-take - Radiohead Fan-Dance-Off with Giant Katamari Damacy Heads.
  Is that a Kramfors couch? I love those....
• Commented on Easy Encryption
  I use a portable USB drive for a lot of my day to day work, and I haven't noticed much of a speed hit. As a backup/synchronisation solution I use the wonderful Syncback SE. Pretty easy to set up, and...