I would whine about a $5k laptop.

7:30 and B, I'm told. I'll drop something in Twitter or on here once I get set up, although I don't plan on doing much Real Blogging. We are shooting a bunch of BBtv stuff, though.

You have an STi, Pork? I hate you so bad. That's my maybe-someday-I-could-actually-afford-that dream car. (Although the new Evo X is hot, too.)

I commend his attempt, but why did he publicize it beforehand?

Wonder how they take to Brooklyn. I imagine we could hire someone to bring in fresh grass everyday and clean up the piles.

(I'm kidding. Or am I?)

Yeah, I don't know that "trust" is what I'm picking up from the App Store at the moment, especially considering that at least three applications that I can think of off-hand have violated Apple's murky standards but were still sold on the App Store:

• Aurora Feint – Transmitted users' contact data over the internet to developer's server without encryption. Not nefarious, it turns out, but still bad security.

• NetShare – Pulled because it violated AT&T's terms of service for the iPhone data plan, despite the fact that AT&T disavowed any knowledge or responsibility for NetShare's interdiction.

• I Am Rich – The $1,000 iPhone app that was removed for not being classy, more or less, despite failing to violate any of Apple's rules for iPhone Apps.

Trust is for spouses and Elvis Costello. Everyone else gets the skeptical eye, especially when they're acting so mysteriously.

Oh, thanks, Mujadaddy. I'll add the price into the post.

Last night I met a woman who carries around a MID for work. CRAZY BUT TRUE.

I fail to see how cyborg puke is in any way not classy.

Pork, I'd say pack light, don't worry about staying clean (the dust keeps you from getting too smelly, although wet wipes are always welcome), and just be prepared to go with what takes you.

Yeah, everyone should feel free to send us your PAX photos and coverage if you're already going!

Also, Pork, Rampant: I am indeed going to BM. First time in several years.

If it's real — and I don't think it is; it looks too similar to that costume everyone is passing around — I'll be a bit bummer out that it's dead.

Come on, Chris. You're not even trying now: http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en-us&q=eff+wins&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

I'd love to. I usually give the talk, "How Not to Have Opinions on Things: Making Sure What You've Said Has Been Said...Before!"

It's a compromise at best, hypocrisy at worst. I'm comfortable with my decision, but I'm not about to disagree. My only retort: if you've contributed less to the EFF this year than my contribution minus my fees to AT&T (a few hundred dollars, I think?), you should really consider matching my donation before you get too persnickety.

Frankly, though, if I'd known I was going to get free scrotum hair I would have bought the new iPhone much, much sooner.

Oh, you did indeed, Bonnie! And I thought it was your flickr stream. But it is not! So let me add a healthy via.

I only play a design critic on the internet, but I think you guys are missing the point: in a good logo or logotype, less is definitely more.

Ah, but that's easy to fix, Jesse: All my faucets emit only urine.

"I think we can officially give up on steampunk now, don't you?"

I wouldn't bet on it!

LeopardPrintHussy: Boing Boing Gadgets has reported on the Comcast decision over the last couple of days:

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/08/01/fcc-casts-withering.html

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/07/31/comcast-extends-wris.html

Or he could just buck up and learn how to use chopsticks.

How in the fuck... It would take hours to search for copyright infringing material. Hours per person.

You know, I just presumed it was a matrix — and nothing said so far by Esquire indicated otherwise — but you guys may be right.

Let me try to follow up with Mr. Griffin and see!

@TeamShadowBoat: Good question. I'll ask eInk.

Oh, neat catch, mmbb!

Any netbook I buy will be in Pink. I am That Guy.

IT PRINTS AMBERGRIS!!!!!

After you mulch, don't forget to inoculate it with helpful fungi to break it all down!

Faffing!

They sell round pizzas now?

Never heard of it! What is it?

They are spec'd similarly, but I've yet to see an iPhone game that looks as good as a first-generation PSP 3D title. Super Monkeyball uses sprites for its avatars, for instance.

#14 POSTED BY TAKUAN , JULY 28, 2008 12:00 PM gee...it's almost as if New York cops were cowardly, brutal pigs.... whoddathunkit?

There are probably legal reasons why this wouldn't work. I would imagine the deal that Yahoo brokered with the music companies -- the same companies now willing to sell their music sans DRM -- prevent them from releasing a crack.

As a guitarist and a gamer I find this whole attitude to be hilariously misguided. I could spend months improving my guitar skills, put together a band, and then get on stage in front of thousands of people...or I could just enjoy myself playing this stuff at home with my friends for a few hours.

Why does that get under your skin so much, 68flh? I don't yell at you for not being able to fix my toilet after you've played a few hours of Super Mario Bros..

Cool, Pork. My contact at LEGO said they think it's an awesome idea and will get back to me next week about making it happen, if possible.

YAY KEN

That really is beautiful.

"Pick-up only. (Wear sandals.)"

John, have you finished that article detailing SQL Server's "sum(float)" function yet? I left a message on your voice mail.

Capitalism fixes this: simply start your own national baseball league.

"Rape an elf? No, really, I couldn't. Tentacle's a bit sensitive, you see. I just couldn't. Oh, very well. They do look lovely. Just a half-elf then."

I demand pie!

Smaller devices means smaller batteries. Someone needs to figure out a way to make foam batteries that can be injected into devices to take up any available space around the green boards.

Oops, belay that. Those coupon codes are expired. Back to the drawing board!

I tore the whole machine down and put it back together again and it's still not working. I think the MB was fried somehow.

As of tonight, the best deals I can find are actually these HP machines. Even with a new video card it'd come under $800 for a quad core at 2.5GHz.

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=0&t=875914

I would buy this today for $200.

@SteveW: That's a great, tragic point. The sad truth is that if we ever make a replicant they'll be held in much higher regard than the average, traditionally grown human.

@Antinous: A lady never tells.

DAVID LEE HOTH

Ah, yes, 1/8th, you're right.

Having a 17cm wire sticking up out of the top of the ring isn't exactly wearable, sadly. :)

It's receiving for the ring. And the current antenna has rubber around the wire, so it should be shielded. It just seem the finger blocked the signal entirely.

That picture reminds me of what I sometimes wish John Brownlee looked like.

You guys are too kind. I can barely keep fiction up for a blog post, nevermind anything longer. It's fun, though!

Well done, cheetah. Now for your yellow belt test: doing that in the water.

I have iPint on my machine. Works great. I don't even know what a Carling is, so it must be working!

Man, so much great stuff in here. Thanks for all of it. I'm too busy this morning to respond to all of it but I felt compelled to say something!

Noted and fair enough, Pork, but all three of us love the art of advertising nearly as much as we like to childishly snigger at others' mistakes.

I'm not Mark, BlingCheese (#206), but I'll take a crack at a response: We were hoping to discuss ways to make deletions or changes more transparent; comments moderation is a separate topic.

I love getting rid of stuff. Almost as much as getting stuff. I gave away tons of clothing in my last move that I was too small to fit in anymore. Wonderful feeling.

Post-processing, folks!

Come on, guys. There's no need for names — in this thread, especially.

@Sushipook, you should post hyperlinks to those pictures. I am anxiously awaiting the day that I can joke about "unpublishing" without it being too flippant. But in the meantime, I'm glad someone else is doing it!

OH GOD GET A BLOG YOU GUYS

Oh, wonderful. This is exactly what I needed for the house.

I'm not going to make it over to HOPE this year, but I'm looking forward to seeing all the stuff that'll come to light!

I totally see their side of it. I don't really have an issue with what they actually did. It's just really funny that they had to resort to using a piracy group crack.

In fairness, it was also under 140 words!

I actually am siding with Cavalli on this one. I think by calling the thing a "hands-on" and stating he only spent a half hour with it, the reader has enough information to properly parse the context of his preview.

Yeah, in my anecdote-is-not-the-singular-of-data experience I've found that the accelerometers work just fine. In Super Monkey Ball in particular, any quirks with motion seem to be more of the result of Sega's decision to rotate the camera around the avatar at all points instead of leaving it locked behind, forcing you to continually adjust not just to steer, but to account for the camera. I get why they did it, but it'd be nice if they'd have given a 1:1 board-to-tilt option. And perhaps even a sensitivity slider like some other third-party games offer.

Steve Jobs stole Imipak's bicycle!

How does it handle dupes? One problem I've got is that I have some collections of albums that are also duplicated in other areas. I'd like to be able to see the duped albums and, I dunno, automatically compare bit rates or say "Any album in this directory takes precedence."

These should have been a pack-in for the collector's edition of Bioshock. The tagline is obvious: Bioshakes unlock your full potential!.

There's no accounting for taste, Porky.

Icky2000: If you thought it was embarrassing when I couldn't remember how a circuit fit together...

I want to be able to track what floor everyone is on.

OMFG RFID readers with a multi-foot read range are like $600!

Oh, another snag: We haven't tested any powerline networking gear here yet, but all three floors have separate circuits from ConEd, including three different boxes outside. That may pose a problem.

Wow, so many good suggestions! I have to say I'm leaning towards Alan's suggestions. I'd love to run it off the Mac, we've already got a Sonos and an AppleTV in the house. (Plus a couple of NASes, Xbox 360, etc.) I'm looking at Indigo right now.

Also, W000T, I'm going to get my ass down to a NYC Resistor class on Arduino here real soon. A housemate and I were just talking today about how we need to learn how to hack those. (And I could use any electronics theory help I can get.)

FINE I WILL DO THAT THEN SHEEEEESH. (Thanks.)

#2 You're right: You can select the @gmail account as the Reply To field if you have both accounts set up, but there's no way to make that the default setting.

Mark, Bardfinn, both those look great. I've just ordered used copies of both!

I have the HV20. I need to learn how to get better results!

Zuzu, I really like the idea of drop-in wind generators. Maybe you could design one with a turbine that could slow the descent of the package like an oak seed. :)

@Andreas: Or the next mobile campaign from a carrier which advertises a phone with six bars of reception.

Oh, hey, and me without one at the moment!

You know, I kind of get this one. I've known lots of people who've had problems getting Bluetooth to pair properly with funky phones.

@LogrusZed: That's a pretty good point. My only quibble: American Idol is extremely well designed.

I did not call a virtual abacus innovative.

@AGraham999: For big full-house installations there's still much to recommend the Sonos. But for people like me who live in a small apartment and already have or want an iPhone, this pretty much replaces any need we'd have for anything else.

Homophobic disdain? On the contrary, I've never seen such mincing in my life. He should be proud!

(Also, it's okay to use the word "fucking" here. We're all adults.)

Your friend sounds awesome!

"Apple sucks and they are evil" isn't exactly the sort of nuanced approach that merits a response, especially from someone posting anonymously, but what the hey.

We are not sponsored by Apple unless Apple chooses to buy some ads from us. Which as far as I know they have never done, but bully for them if they choose to.

Your question is couched in a compliment, so thanks, I guess, but accusing writers of even our questionable usefulness if they've compromised their journalistic ethics by taking money for editorial is really a dick move.

For the record, I like many or most of Apple's products. And they've got a big launch today, so you're going to get a bit of extra Apple news on BBG.

Now shut your yap!

I installed 7.7, but it's saying that my version of the iPhone sync software is the latest. And Mobile Me appears to be down. Looks like they're having server issues.

I'm no CC expert, Dr. Tran, but I would image you could go ahead and sell the image just fine. CC doesn't preclude you licensing your work to commercial sources. It's not the GPL.

I will always let anonymous comments through if they have a good point. Sometimes I will kill them if they are overly antagonistic, but I just loved "dillweed" so it passed muster.

Ledbury, you're too kind!

If I am not mistaken, Ralph McQuarrie was influenced by that very Mead drawing when he was mocking up the AT-AT. I think Lucas dreamt them initially when seeing the shipping cranes on docks, but maybe that was McQuarrie, too.

Either way Syd definitely had a hand, if only by way of inspiration, in Star Wars. Especially the prequels, I think. A lot of the early Republic ships look like something straight off a Mead page, what with all the chrome and such.

The camera's fine, but they should really add video support. The hardware can obviously do it, as will be proved Friday when the iPhone 2.0 firmware is released.

And really that's the big story here, as all the reviewers said last night: the App Store is where it's at. And conveniently, while I intend to get a 3G — more speed and more storage are appealing — knowing I can dick around with all the new software for a week on my iPhone EDGE while I wait for the rush to die down is fantastic.

Morcheeba: I can make it happen even when I'm not holding it, so I think something is drawing down power where it shouldn't be. The whole casing is plastic, too; Don't know where I'd draw in current, although I suppose some might be coming through my beard!

Anyway, are you saying I shouldn't be doing this in the shower?

In 1959, Papa Doc suffered from a heart attack and sustained oxygen deprivation that may have affected his sanity. He had been a diabetic since early adulthood and also suffered from heart disease and associated circulatory problems. On May 24, 1959 Duvalier suffered a massive heart attack and, possibly as a result of a subsequent insulin overdose, was unconscious for nine hours. Many associates believed that the neurological damage he sustained during the long period of time he was unconscious affected his mental health and made him paranoid and irrational.[3]

I declare the Kid Dock-for-Life!

Also, I think the Papa Dock is a separate product that the Kid actually slots into.

There's more coming!

I really want one of these. How big of a jerk would I be to buy one?

I like rainbows. This site needs more rainbows.

Yam gap!

Upon waking, I have to think that Pogue unfortunately swallowed some bull shoveled by the Apple PR folk. If the iPhone 3G's GPS can show your car moving down a street there's no reason to think that it shouldn't be able to do turn-by-turn. But until someone makes a proper GPS application, I guess this is as close to an official explanation as we get.

Quite a lot of us will be in the same physical location later this week, so we're going to continue to bang on this whole thing and try to reach some sort of happy medium. I don't have a lot more to offer than that at the moment, but thought I'd pop in and wave a hand to let you know we're still discussing things and moving forward. We're a slow boat!

Man.

Heh, W000T. I've never seen any of my G Word segments. I'm moving and unhooked the DVR!

I get your point, #3, but you're slightly missing mine: I'm not saying the Prius doesn't work as well as Toyota says it does. I'm simply saying that it's only somewhat (I avoided saying "marginally") more efficient than the small number of high-efficiency traditional internal combustion-only cars. Which is true. Doesn't make the Prius an albatross at all!

I think it'll still end up being carbon neutral compared to burning gasoline, but just breaking even, not exceeding. That's fine by me.

Also: Porter!

Zikzak: That criticism falls apart unless you accept that corporations can never create or do cool things.

"Feel different" seems reasonable, though. I have a lot more leeway for individuals creating than I do for products or services from companies.

This is really just the same as all the other tiny R/C helis that have been around for the last couple of years. They're all the world's smallest — and one of my favorite toys ever.

@1119: Well, there's suppression and then there's knowing when to take a breath. And in fact, I'm going to take that breath whether the comments are open or not. :)

I'm sorry that's what you're taking away from my comment, GabrielM. I feel like I've learned quite a bit.

Also, it looks like comments are still open!

Heh, I guess I may not know how to lock the thread.

Also, I'm going to try to shut down the comments but I hope it doesn't accidentally remove them all. I only wish I were joking.

But if they blip I'll bring them back.

Okay, everyone. Despite thinking we might be able to beat Metafilter's own comment count on this subject, I don't think we're really moving forward anymore in this thread, so I'm going to lock it down. For the evening, at least, but perhaps for good. I can promise this won't be the last we have to say on the matter, but as I said above, we've got to get everyone together and think this through and we're just not built that way by default. Half of the editors are on vacation with their families, but they're still checking in as they can.

I'm going to leave comments up on the rest of the site, but I'll be removing any comments that are wildly off topic. Given the nature of the whole situation, you can be sure I'm not trying to stifle conversation, but after over a thousand posts I'm issuing you all an executive break. And us, too.

Thank you all for getting into the thick of it with us, even if it's only been to criticize. This has been a crash course in whatever it is we're doing here.

Update: Added a "the" and highlighted the top in bold to draw attention to it.

JM: That's what I thought, too, but according to Oobject that's only the spelling you use when you're talking about stuff that goes in department store windows. (Or on the back of your scooter.)

@Random832 (#961): No, we haven't. And even if we had, we obviously have a lot more information and perspective to add to the equation.

So, hi!

There are lots of separate but related concerns being voiced about this whole thing. I appreciate that, even when very valid points were couched in vitriol or vehemence. We weren't being twee when we said we were listening.

I apologize for being too defensive or even antagonistic at times in this thread. It's hard to parse criticism when you aren't sure if it's from concerned friends or mawkish ghouls — not that being either validates or invalidates any specific critique made — but in situations like these, we've got to be willing to soak it all up. We'll do better.

In the meantime, can you guys give us a few days to digest all this? Despite what you might conceive, Boing Boing is a highly asynchronous, individually autonomous group of people. If our choices as a group are as important as many of you say they are, I don't think it's too much to ask to let us sync up and discuss this more.

Now I won't promise what, if anything, will be different in a few days — we may agree that we're fine with all our choices, at which point you may feel free to promptly reapply your boot to our ass — but we need a little space to figure this out.

@903 - Let's be fair. In this context — the web-facing part of the blog — unpublishing a comment looks the same as a deletion.

We definitely remove comments from public view that we deem are sufficiently off topic.

Speaking from personal experience, as an adult, I've found alarm clocks to be almost vestigial in their usefulness. If I go to sleep at a reasonable hour my mind tends to wake me up at a pre-planned hour. It's as simple as mentally telling yourself "I want to wake up at 6 AM." And wouldn't you know it actually works? Or at least does for me.

Now what doesn't work is waking up and enjoying the peacefulness of a fresh morning. I'll be back asleep in an instant if I don't watch it. That's what's good about alarm clocks for me: they force my lazy ass to actually get up out of the bed.

I appreciate all the commentary, from the words of support to the legitimate outrage. It's helped my understanding of the spectrum of concerns, if nothing else, and changed my opinion on a couple of points.

Jonom: I don't actually find it revolting!

@376 (See): Well, it wasn't supposed to be a public disassociation, specifically because it would have provoked these same inquiries about a private matter. I get that people are curious. I get that "You'll just have to trust us" is a fairly weak offering. But we're still trying to strike a balance between (belated) forthrightness and decorum.

As we said in the original post, there was clearly some fucking up here on our part, although I can report that even in our internal discussions we weren't entirely sure what a better course of action might have been. And it's difficult to say "We'll never do that again" when we're not sure what a better option would have been.

We're all hearing the "You should have told us what was going on" remarks. I can only speak for myself, not everyone, but I think that's a fair point and were a similar situation to arise in the future — ugh! — we'll take a different tack.

A word on "unpublishing." This isn't a new term, at least for those of us who have been blogging for several years. It simply means to remove the posts from the public archive. To the outside web, that's the same as deleting, but internally it means the content still lives in the database.

I'll grant that using the term in this context does have unfortunate overtones of doublespeak, but there is a real, if subtle distinction between the two terms.

@geekpdx: Your curiosity is natural, but airing (and hence overblowing) the details is exactly what we were trying to avoid in the first place.

The policing the comments thing was delicate, for sure. We probably should have said something like "We hear you, but we're not ready to address it yet." But sometimes when you have people trying to force your hand before you're ready to respond it's frustrating.

"Posting in epic thread." (My quotes imply irony!)

Round UP!

I have added "wrong!" Thanks!

I believe you've missed the point: the iPhone will allow for new, innovative forms of cell phone gaming beyond the slapdash Java/BREW games that have been the options in the past.

I got my necro up to level 15. I'm starting to come around.

The Adventurer's Club should *be* Disney World. It's the only place in the park where the experience is even nominally tweaked for each participant instead of pre-scripted, literally robotic mediated experiences every 9 seconds.

Bastards.

I played it for a few hours tonight in single player. I'm starting to get it a little bit, but it was really grating at first.

Update: I hate this game!

My first install gave me CD key errors. I am not a happy non-pirate at the moment!

John's got it. Even worse, it wasn't even a question of pirating it, since Rob had a spare set of keys. I just paid $40 so I could play it tonight instead of waiting a day (or more) for the torrents.

The crack about Blizzard running out of money was the joke. Even though they don't *need* my $40 doesn't mean it isn't the right thing to do.

This better be good.

Zuzu: I buy games, especially good ones, because I want companies to make more. Plus I am getting a bit worried that Blizzard may be hurting for cash.

Apparently I can buy this digital download now, but I'm having a hard time justifying $40 for a ten-year-old game (plus expansion).

How do you feel now, huh, Anonymous? Huh? Not so anonymous now are you oh right you still are.

"I expected better of BoingBoing" is never really going to be a criticism that works with me. Your opinion is your opinion, but it doesn't become magically more valid because you think that we should share it.

And I know jack and squat about electronics but even I know you can run an LED without a resistor just fine, especially in a hacked up jobber like this.

We trusted that Dug North, who said he actually purchased the cards, wasn't full of shit. And since he's a person with a real name and not a whiny anonymous yahoo, I'm going to stick with "They're real" until we hear differently.

We tried "The brass stuff that Willie thinks is slightly cool" but it didn't roll off the tongue quite as easily.

Quoting a few paragraphs out of a full-sized feature isn't discourteous at all. It's called an excerpt. I believe you've seen it before on blogs. I'm sure if Wired has a problem with it they'll let us know, but until then I'll let them know they have an anonymous defender on the internet.

LEGO Gun == "Yawn."

Does not compute.

When I interviewed Sky Dayton at the Helio launch in 2006, I asked him why a company named Helio would have a flame instead of a sun for a logo. He said he'd never thought about that before. That's attention to detail!

Andrew Mayer! How the hell are you?

Cockerham: Well played.

Craziest Gadgets Dot Com has a point. I call for a return back to the early day of the internet when getting a fresh domain was as easy as popping down to your corner local host. And maybe it's just grown fonder in memory, but those domains seemed refreshier.

The Most Adorable Game.

Let it be known here: BBG thinks all bloggers are fundamentally disabled.

I still don't understand what the buttons are for. Are you projecting intent to the remotes? Be warned, remote three, for I am about to select you. Prepare thyself!

I'm just here to mention how much I, too, enjoyed Infinity Factor.

Since posting this I've been working on Cave Story for the first time. It was totally not what I expected. When you start out it's a pretty traditional platformer, but I'd only ever seen clips of the end which made me think it's a shooter. (I understand the progression from one to the other now.)

It's neat but I doubt I'll beat it. It's getting difficult!

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/05/20/review-a-few-days-wi.html

We reviewed one, too.

Well, they only change the form factor of the devices. The Dock connector itself hasn't ever changed that I know of. Maybe it changed once back towards the beginning of the line? That's why iPods come with those little plastic inserts to work into the dock. The shape changes, but the plug itself does not.

@zuzu: False dichotomy. Who says the Snow Leopard install can't be smaller and more stable. That is the stated intention, after all.

I think part of the problem is that the phrases are really all so benign. "Where would you like to go today?" and "Where do you want to go today?" are so similar as to be indistinguishable. And when I see the former I certainly don't think "Oh, hey, Microsoft!" It's not that the phase is something KITT would or wouldn't have said; it's that it's a perfectly reasonable thing for a GPS to say.

CUT CUT CUT

Yeah, I feel like there might be an argument in Charles' post, but I'm not sure I have the energy to pick it out. I've got too many other people at this party to talk to.

Yeah, Little Big Planet looks great. Can't wait for that one.

But how can you argue that SM3 wasn't 2D? Don't give me that "bend down on the white lumps to fall behind the screen" bit, either, or I'll cut ya!

Exactly right. The first mini computing device to really hit traction was the Eee. What did you hear from everyone who bought one? "Yes, I can type on this thing." It's all about the keyboards.

And while I'm reiterating, what's weird about Om's complaints is that the device he already wants already exists. It's just that he doesn't want one, apparently, or he'd already have it. (And Om's a fairly big gadget hound.)

I also don't understand why people put "web browsing device" and "something with proper input" into two different columns. I can deal with the relatively crappy iPhone keyboard because it fits in my pocket. But that doesn't mean I'm not often frustrated by seeing some great post or discussion on my phone that I can't properly chime in on because I'm not going to thumb type out a 500 word response.

Yeah, I find the engineering fascinating but towards such an unappealing purpose. I don't think I'll be into floating cruise ships until they are big enough to support their own eco-systems, a la Ian M. Banks "Culture" novels.

Yessssss.

No worries, Matthew. Thanks for the typo spotting!

KEEP IN MIND I AM NOT A DOCTOR HOWEVER I BELIEVE THAT IT HAS BEEN SCIENCE INFACTED THAT A WOMAN'S PINEAL GLAND IS TOO "LACY" FOR THE SUBTRACTION AND ADDITION NECESSARY TO GREP OR AWK HENCE THE OLD SAW "THAT'S WHAT SHE SED" BUT SERIOUSLY WHAT IS IT ABOUT VAGINAS?

@MLA Fair enough. Even though I spent most of my words wagging a finger, my real point was simply that even if Gore is a hypocrite, it doesn't really matter. Global warming and our energy crisis are still quite real.

Takuan, you really need to moisturize.

Look I am an AMAZING WRITER but a CRAPPY READER.

I DO THIS FOR YOU PEOPLE AND ALL I GET IS STATIC OH GOD WHYYYYYYY

Also, I sort of want one of these bottles. I know. :(

Let this be a lesson to the Raytown Middle School 7th grade class of '90 third-period gym class: You may not remember who was picked last for kickball, but I do.

@Anonymous: Yeah, looking at it again $150 is way too low. But $400? Sheesh.

The freedom part is more the Mother Boing's bag, but I try to cover the tech side of it when it's interesting!

If I had my own plane I could stay low enough to not worry about pressure differentials!

@Dacker "So put your little hand in mine. There ain't no hill or mountain we can't climb."

I meant "Thought Leader" ironically I swear to god.

Charlie, if you read this: that's really, really fruity.

Man, you guys deliver! I'll keep you posted.

Very classy, AGraham999.

Haha, yeah. John and I were just talking about how fast we tend to sip pints...because we enjoy the taste. Good beer fixes manifold sins!

Yup, that's also a possibility!

I love chiptunes!

Matt: Do you happen to have a link for that?

You plug the Ethernet into the power supply, which has a Wi-Fi bridge inside that can connect to the laptop. It's a neat way to stash the Ethernet off the machine. (Although obviously you are limited to Wi-Fi speeds.)

You are spoiling our fun.

BREAKING: President Obama's Presidential Institute for Executive Innovation Announces Matter Transportation System.

I liked it better when it was just a wall of boom boxes.

Okay, okay, that's a good point: these would be good for arthritis sufferers.

@2 Yes, you've found us out. Our immense power caused the the Flip to take 13% of the market share. Thanks for acknowledging our sway!

@Agent 86: Check out the MSI Wind. That's the one to beat right now, it seems.

Yay!

Hey, I ain't saying I don't have some ugly hardware in my rig, too! I'm even a little sad to see the ol' blue sandwiches going away. But just a little.

@Enochrewt: That guy is my new hero.

DeWalt should come out with a line of pepper mills, garlic mincers, wine openers, and other kitchen gadgets powered entirely from their powertools. (A la Alton Brown.) I'd buy a set in a heartbeat.

@pronto Before I go into the woods, I roll up a bunch of cigarettes. :)

Man, I smoke a lot.

@ariwriter: Here's a hint: In three more years it will still be more relevant than your comment.

Oh man, you know what else I miss since leaving the midwest? Cheap strawberry soda over crushed ice at the BBQ joints. Slorsh slorsh slorsh!

Arizona makes a zero-calorie green tea that I like. It's super-Splenda'd up, though. (A many Splenda'd thing?)

They also make an "Rx Energy Drink" that is so sweet that you can feel your eyes crystalizing, but gosh is it tasty. I haven't had one in years, though. I pretty much ditched the sugar water, except for juices in moderation and the occasional Coke. And the occasional Welches Grape when I'm eating cheap fried chicken. Oh, and a Vimto when the middle eastern store gets them in.

Okay, so maybe I didn't cut out as much as I'd thought. But at home it's coffee, tea, or water.

@dculberson Most of the reported sales figures for PC games do not include subscription fees for MMOs nor digital downloads. Add in Wow alone and you've got a spare billion or so.

An erectile enhancement device that induces pneumatic priapism at the sight of a vagina, simultaneously spraying mindbending chemicals that cause the subject to mistake a woman's genitals for a man's? As long as they also made a model that did the inverse, I would unquestionably endorse and celebrate such a product.

Dr. Black: Do you have a scanner? That would be the first step. A flat-bed scanner should be able to bring them in without issue.

If you want, shoot me an email (joel@boingboing dop net) and I can help walk you through it.

Dr. Black, you should totally scan that in. I'd love to see it.

It's banal, but Dead Rising totally nailed the American shopping mall.

@1 I don't understand how those time-traveling Italian designers were able to tune in a vision of the iMac, but I'll be reporting them directly to Il Stephano.

Qozmiq sticks and moves, folks!

I'm of the economic status that I lust after more expensive suits, but am only considering buying the $200 one. :)

I did ask the guy specifically if I was getting special treatment. He denied that was so, saying, "We just want everyone who has a Kindle to have the best experience possible" or something like that.

Impossible to say, but at least according to my one customer service rep, they're not playing favorites.

Huh. I called Amazon and they said they'd swap it out for a new one, even though it's likely I had caused the damage myself. I'll take it!

It does include a semi-hard fake leather case, but I hated the way it looked and felt so I never used it. I'm not sure it would have protected the screen from a pressure break, but it may have. Hard to say!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/26/business/media/26link.html

Profile today of XKCD in the Times.

I think this was an important distinction when the walled gardens were being built, but as more phones have Wi-Fi built-in — even the iPhone, locked down as it is, will allow VoIP clients over Wi-Fi starting next month — the wireless connection is just that: a connection to the greater internet. No need to build any custom web application when the honest-to-god web is already on most smartphones and an increasing number of phone-phones.

The phone companies controlling the access via the wireless spectrum are no different than the cable or DSL providers. Which is to say: they'll all try to screw us with levies and partnership deals.

We're bastards! Sorry about that. I updated the post.

You know what? They should sell these pre-installed in sections of dry wall. Seams are much easier to make look nice than installing one of these, I bet.

IGNORE ME!!!

I would wear these.

Credit where credit is due. Ryan Ash had a couple of real winning lines: "You could say they top the Vietnam War, but you won't."

"The N-Gage had nothing going for it for one sole reason: it's a fucking phone."

I mean, come on! Those are great. I think the kid's got potential. A few sessions with Mrs. B and I think he'll be cranking out some gems.

I am fine with this.

Dulli rules.

Fantastic work, folks!

Todd: I think it's a wonderful game that captures NYC like no other game before, but it *is* a shooter/action game, so if you don't like that gameplay, you'll probably tire of its repetitive missions quickly.

Ah, Psion. It's so good to see you.

Top one is the Hearst building. I've eaten lunch there!

Rockstar really did just nail the atmosphere of this game. What a great job.

Okay, I know I shouldn't be angry, but what in the hell is wrong with these people? UMPCs are a huge failure — another solution in search of a problem — and then manufacturers turn around and make the exact same device with a new chipset and a new acronym? My anus is roiling with toothy, peristaltic indignance.

I so pronounce: maybe.

A Nokia N800-sized device would be weird. Not much bigger than an iPhone/Touch, but big enough not to be pocketable. And if they release a tablet with no keyboard, it would surely run the Touch fork of OS X, not OS X proper. So that seems weird, too.

Plus I question how much more useful a slightly larger, slightly higher resolution screen would really be over the modestly high DPI screen of the iPhone/Touch. If they'd open up Bluetooth enough to allow a proper portable keyboard, I'd be happy with the screen size of the iPhone for most of mobile computing. (Imagine something as thin as the current Apple Wireless Keyboard, but capable of being folded in half. Apple would never do it — too inelegant — but for writers it'd be the balls' balls.)

That said, I'd put money down on a Mac Tablet over a dedicated Apple gaming platform any day.

Nope, no solid state, unfortunately. Just a plain ol' SATA drive. We've got another couple of years before the SSDs really take over, but yeah, I agree. Now they just need to cook up shatter-proof screens!

Oh, think there won't be innovative games on the iPhone? It's the first handheld gaming device that has a built-in accelerometer. Think of what you could do with that? RTS games where you control the incline of the playing field. Marble Madness meets Command & Conquer!

Oh, the battery light flaw? Yes, that had nothing to do with the inverter. It exhibited that before I blew up the smoke, when I was still at home playing around with it.

I talked to these guys the other day. They're experimenting with fully animated ones using arrays of LCD panels. YES I WANT THAT IN MY ROOM

YES OVER MY BED

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/04/25/sky-factory-skyceili.html

@FarrisGoldstein That's a very fair question and one for which I have no good answer except that I didn't have time to buy a 12-volt car adapter for the Thinkpad.

It was two nights, actually. Down from three total planned. I just felt like I had tested all the gear but wasn't getting a lot of work done, so didn't want to burn an extra day just for the sake of it.

Hey guys! We're still there, but having a bit of difficulty gaining momentum: people come in, see only a few people in, and leave. If you could come in and stick around for 10 or 15, that would help us get t going.

"Heyborne." That's a neat name. I wonder if it means "high-born" or "hay-born"? That's a good name for a Jesus!

I stand somewhat corrected! Either way: what the fuck were these guys thinking?

That's no dragon; that's a demon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_core

I'm stuck in the airport. There is no such word as "Legos."

That looks amazing, Curtis. I may have to check that out!

Oh god, shut up, all of you.

You know what really sucks? Sci-fi. All of it. Ever.

I'm taking my big glowing balls and going home.

@Shanefer: If you read the words in the post you might be able to suss it out!

Rob has it. And thus, with my first disciple, I claim the ultimate and inevitable title of Master of Categories.

I don't remember enough about Thundercats to recall its intricate backstory — I was busy reading Proust and writing Lonely Planet guides to your mother's cervix — but Independence Day and War of the Worlds are retro-futurism: past visions of an unlikely future. This is why all sci-fi is ultimately — given time — retro-futurism. If you're going to going to quibble about something, quibble about my sweeping semantic brush, not the first three words of Star Wars.

You know who you need in here? Teresa. I bet she'd back you up.

It is absurd! Star Wars is obviously Lucas & Co.'s vision of the future — or a past civilization so far advanced beyond our own that it is "futuristic." To deny this is to miss the forest for the trees.

Yeah, Brownlee. Surely you listen to some songs just as songs, right?

Yeah, I saw that, Strider, and through the same thing, sort of fantasizing that if I had been the artist that I would have had to chuckle as someone added another layer of abstraction that turned the pieces of plastic back into real-world junk.

Burnchao, that sentence is a bit stickily worded, but you're reading it idiomatically when you should be reading it literally.

It's definitely kosher to link to Gizmodo. We're not competitors. (Because if so, they win!)

In before lock.

Ooh, that is from PopSci. I'll put up a credit. I actually just took it off the referrer's page.

I have a contact at WOTC. Let me see if I can get comment.

I would just like to note that Brownlee's defense of Star Wars as sci-fi, not retro-futurism, was that it occurred "A long time ago..."

Despite my obviously bargain basement of simple electronic principles, I have fully restored power to all the gear.

@Thornae: It was a cheapo internal frame pack from Amazon. I don't recall the brand or model at the moment, but it got decent reviews and was only $75. It seems a lot like scuba BCs; you can get all the same features for the low price, but the fixtures won't be as nice.

Still, it should suit me.

@Betterthanyou: Your mother. I fucked her.

I'm thinking about building one of these as a replacement for my current Windows gaming rig since I am often pushing my MBP to the extreme when recording music.

Okay, I rearranged my pack with the same gear and it's a lot more comfortable. Enough so that I'm not that worried about tipping the scale at 50 pounds. (And yes, I'm accounting for water.) I'll take a look at the rest of the gear before I go, but I'm feeling a lot better about my chances.

Of course, I'll still be dead dog tired trying to do all this. I call on the power of Les Stroud!

Malgwyn not like fancy shoes! Malgwyn angry! Malgwyn stomp big boots!

Cory, got the galleys of this. I love the story, but the way you've incorporated a method to bend time by folding the dedication page into a tesseract along the dotted lines is brilliant. I expect this is something we'll be seeing in a lot of books in the past!

P.S. Your grandmother and I need to talk to you about a little mistake we made a few decades ago. We can chat at the reunion.

Okay, bye, Jeff! Thanks for reading!

I am a bit Xacti obsessed right now, but it's mostly just on the CG6. All the other flash-based stuff is either too expensive or -- if it's a still camera -- just too boring.

Sorry, Dan. That's all I've got!

You know, "you guys aren't writing like other gadget blogs" isn't really the sort of criticism that's going to keep me up at night.

Metafactory, you raise an important point, perhaps inadvertently. Boing Boing Gadgets, while certainly proud to be under the care of Boing Boing and certainly in a same general ethical and editorial sphere, is a new site with new writers and new pretty-much-everything-else. It would be reasonable to expect that some people are going to like BB in a different proportion to their like for BBG. Nothing I can do about that. I'm fine with that.

As for noting you may have to change your Boing Boing parsing habits, well, that may be, too. I will say that in my experience adding new content to a site increases its readership - those usage patterns - rather than decreases it.

So while I'm proud that you consider BBG such an intrinsic part of BB that its increased output affects your perception of the whole...well, you already said what I would say. It is an interesting point, for sure, but one I wager you're overthinking. But circle around in a few weeks and let me know if I'm wrong.

I was sure the Nintendo DS was going to be a flop.

You're annoyed that you have the option to read something you might not like, jo?

We're having fun. If you don't enjoy our type of fun, there's really only one option: just keeping reading until you do.

The irony is not lost on me. :)

The cup is paper, actually, and I do recycle them, along with the plastic tops.

Wurp: Noted. I wouldn't expect it to change, however!

This is why I call my penis "My little sorcerer's apprentice." ("My little" a familiar diminutive, of course, not necessarily a descriptor.)

@Belarius: Cool!

@eustance: "Glass" is a cool way to say lens. Or specifically, the glass in them. :)

@murray: You know, I was questioning that when I wrote it. I actually thought I removed all references to "rangefinders" until I could actually figure out what I was talking about, but hurdurr.

Yes, George. We call those 'typos.'

Guys, I never got your emails about what color you wanted your Ferraris painted.

Fuck it. I'll just get one of each.

And good for crowdsourcing the world's largest index of cat images. If only we knew what to do with cat pictures on the internet!

Lee was our school psycho, a mantle foisted on him by fate more than choice, but one that he grudgingly wore. He wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, a lower-middle class kid from a typically complicated midwestern suburban family, who had the misfortune to discover a dead body in the woods behind a local elementary school. I asked Lee about it once when we were older and he told me about finding the old man face down in the creek on a frosty afternoon. Lee was pretty sure he was just an old man who had wandered too far away from home, perhaps from senility, perhaps because he felt his time was nigh and wanted to face down eternity with his bare feet in a cold creek instead of in a stainless steel hospital bed.

It wasn't Lee's fault, but he became the Guy Who Found the Dead Body. And as middle schoolers will chitter, legends began to circle Lee. Maybe the guy was alive when Lee found them, some whispered, and he held him down in the mud until his bare legs stopped kicking. Or perhaps Lee found the body days before and did all sorts of strange things to it. Just poked it with a stick at first, but then who knew?

Of course the truth was much less remarkable: Lee ran out of those gully woods and told the cops.

But the damage was done. Perhaps a more truly devious kid could have recovered from the bumps and scrapes of lunchroom gossip. Lee started wearing black heavy metal t-shirts, stopped washing his hair, and started giving gawkers the stink eye. Soon