I think it's a nice picture, but unless it moves, I hardly think it's worth it.

"The Bombay Company is selling steampunk-style brass home accessories, instruments like astrolabes and sextants."

When it's not, y'know, filing for bankruptcy and closing its doors...

#1: That's what caught my eye, too. I tried to figure out what he actually said, but exponential is nowhere near algorithmic, and logarithmic implies the trend is leveling off....

"If you're going to paint, you've got to compete with Picasso. If you want to write a great classical music piece, you're competing with Mozart."

And if you're going to make a video, you've got to compete with... Why I Eyes Ya Cat?

@RRSAFETY #2:

I think in anyone's book, someone who is not working is not contributing to the economy while someone who is working, is contributing to the economy (broken window fallacy notwithstanding). Therefore, if someone was working, and no longer is working for whatever reason, the economy takes a hit.

In that sense, it doesn't matter if that person is "unemployed", "discouraged", "disabled", or "not part of the labor pool".

This is why some people choose to look at the Employment data rather than the Unemployment numbers.

I also disagree with your contention that separating out food and energy from the core inflation rate was a good idea. I agree that it's nice to see the inflation rates of individual items, but when you get right down to it, you're looking at an average across the entire populace, and while different people spend predominantly on different things, the *overall* economy takes a hit regardless of what item shows inflation.

For me, the ability to convert xyz format into pdfs is the important thing, since I already have an ebook reader -- the iRex iLiad. I currently use a hacked-up program I wrote to convert rtf, txt, and html to pdf, which compensates for various incompatible codings of accented and other characters such as left- and right-quotes and em- and en-dashes, as well as the txt craziness of one-paragraph-per-line or one-line-per-line.

Can any of these programs do that?

Bloodninja does it with a robe and wizard hat.

@#11:

No, all humans are treyf. Yeccch, #11, bleccch! Next question?

Internet Archive?

What about libraries that have Medieval documents, and forbid you from copying them and redistributing them? Is that against copyright law? US? International?

Cory,

I love your writing and all things Cory, but they're "segments", not "pixels" :)

Alton Brown FTW. http://www.altonbrown.com. Not a shill, just a happy viewer :)

LOL. Laptop: UR DOING IT WRONG.

I still don't get how the Olympic (TM!) Committee agreed to hold the Olympics (TM!) in Beijing. The only way I can figure it is that a hearty exchange of money was involved.

@94: Xopher, thanks for bringing a little levity to the party. :)

Can someone 'splain me whether the pilot had been through the training program? The article talks about the pilot and the response to the accident, then quotes a gun guy who's shaking his head, then veers off into a discussion about how there are full training courses all the time, but that transportation and lodging isn't paid for, which is why some pilots eschew the training.

The article seems to imply by this that the pilot didn't go through training, but was given a gun anyway.

Did I miss something?

@#9:

It shoots you IN ORDER TO make you breakfast.

Without looking at the title, the first thing I thought this was, was an airplane exploding in midair. Then I took a closer look.

I guess I'm creepy -- I collect first edition first printings of scientific and mathematical books!

BTW, still looking for 1st ed. Vols 1 and 2 of Knuth AOCP, no ex-lib, no owner sig. Contact me and prepare to be creeped out :D

This preview is rated R, and is not suitable for those under 17 or unaccompanied by a parent or guardian.

---

The scientists didn't believe in the Law of Unintended Consequences. So they went ahead with their extracellular matrix experiments. But little did they know that a renegade researcher sent some of the untested powder to his brother after a fingertip accident involving a model airplane.

"Put the powder on the finger," read the instructions. And the brother did just that.

ON THE DETACHED FINGERTIP.

Now a new movie from New Line Cinema... The Fingertip. Rated R for Gore and Violence.

You know, looking at that cover, the woman looks evil. Her eyes are white and her eyebrows are lowered. She looks mean and pissed. So maybe the guy with the axe is the hero? I'm just sayin'.

Oh boy, so the over-the-top you're-a-moron voice just riled up the rules lawyer (RL) in me.

Q: Don't be offended, but...
A: It's offensive! I'm not interested in educating you!
RL: Well, you're a transsexual. We don't see a lot of you. What did you expect, no curiosity at all?

Q: Did it hurt?
A: "An-es-thesia", dumb-dumb!
RL: "Un-in-ten-ded in-tra-op-er-a-tive a-ware-ness".

Q: What was your "real" name?
A: Calpernia, dumbass!
RL: I know a few transsexuals, and their names mostly come from feminizations or masculinizations of their previous legal names. WTF does "Calpernia" come from? It's not exactly a common name, so I'd really like to know. Dumbass.

I guess I could go on. Hey Calpernia... you're not common! We have questions! Get used to it!

I think the auto-driving cars on the highway was completely reachable with 70's technology. Look elsewhere for blame!

whatcouldpossiblygowrong?

You just can't trust robots: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb2Pzl1U0sY

OK, boingboing ate my lt and gt. with body on the front and /body on the back, except enclosed as html tags :/

What's funny is that "Git-R-Dun/Got-R-Did" is eerily similar to the geek shirt with on the front and on the back. Except the geek version is less permanent.

I'm not excusing it, I'm just sayin'.

Doesn't look like I can search for specific CC licenses. You know, like http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons does.

Here's the thing. We all know Three Card Monty is a scam. Yet people still play it. Is it because they're stupid? Maybe. The fact of the matter is that we don't live alone. We live in a society, and people in that society are of all kinds and types.

The fact of the matter is that Americans are typically not finance-savvy. That's just the society we live in. It's a fact.

So stop trying to say that we should kill off the majority of our society because they're not as educated or savvy as they should be. If you do that, the society will collapse, taking you with it.

The 38-year-old, three-bedroom home was expected to go for much more, according to the auctioneer.

Recession FTW!

Did anyone catch this?

"Also included in this money can’t buy piece of memorabilia..."

Except it's on eBay. So apparently money CAN buy it?

I was going to make some kind of witty remark about cardboard computers, but then I noticed the ladybugs, and I just couldn't.

@Madjo:

It would be worthy of the suddenoutbreakofcommonsense tag if one of the Teachers' Federation's numbers made the suggestion. I think the reaction from CTF will be, "Oh, we already know what Bully is all about from listening to parents." We're talking about deeply-held beliefs here. I'd be very surprised if a CTF member takes up the offer.

Holy cow, I thought Ken just didn't understand how medical supplies or air travel for children worked. Now I realize he's just plain malicious. Or a TSA employee. Probably both.

Thanks, Teresa!

@EKPPP:

These are prescription devices that you can't just buy at any old pharmacy. They typically have to be ordered through the mail. So if you don't have a backup with you, and your equipment goes bad... you say hello to our wonderful hospital system.

@Ken Hansen:

The article doesn't mention parents. In fact, it says *the child* pleaded with the TSA. I hardly think the parents were there.

That being said, do you think the kid, who is 14 years old, is so wise and experienced that he'd know not getting on the plane, going back home, and not getting to his destination was an option?

I think you're ascribing way too much savvy to a 14 year old.

Clever. All it needs is:

"I'm in ur way, poppin ur 'loonz"

I love Cory, but I have to call shenanigans here. E-paper-based ebook readers have not been around long enough to become cheap. Phones and game consoles have.

Ray Kurzweil says that it's hard to see the exponential because it's so shallow at first. Just you wait :)

@4:

I wonder if GEICO (lizard) CAUSED that kind of damage.

Nixie tubes always bump up the cool factor, but in this case I'm not sure it's quite period-apropos. Perhaps flipping cards?

On why people are so unenlightenedly selfish:

I read somewhere on teh Intarweb (in fact, right here on teh Boing of Boings, so it must be true) that while technology has evolved since Day One of humanity, our brain has not. Our brain -- emotions and culture -- is stuck in the Stone Age. Thus, everything we do, think, and feel, is related in some way to living in a small tribe of simians, in danger from both other tribes of simians and the rest of the world.

This is why we (well... THEY) constantly elect leaders who are powerful rather than smart, and why people want to jealously guard the tribe totems (the revenue stream).

It's a theory, anyway.

A friend of mine back in college attended one of his lectures. My friend, who happened to be wearing a T-shirt with the Superman "S" on it, asked a question about nuclear power. Carl Sagan replied, "I would have expected a question like that from someone wearing a Superman shirt."

And proceeded to the next question.

I don't know enough about Carl Sagan to know if that was fairly consistent with his personality, though.

Good luck, Klaus! It's so hard to break into Hollywood but he has a lot of positive energy. If Jean-Claude Van Damme can do it, so can this guy.

@11:

Interesting, I didn't know so many people had this. I suspect there are two issues here, the "normal" issue where things seem far away on the border between waking and sleeping (#2, I'm looking at you!), and the "pathological" issue where it happens so often that it affects your life, and is accompanied by other hallucinations.

I used to have something like this, mainly when I was young. It would usually happen at night when I was about to get to sleep. Things would seem far away, and smaller than they were. However, it seemed that I was able to make the effect come and go at will (but not during the daytime).

So I guess I didn't have this syndrome, but it was a very weird feeling. I have not been able to get it to happen for at least 15 years.

I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals. I'm a vegetarian because I HATE PLANTS!

:)

"Flight of the Reindeer"... just before the reindeer is hit by a car. Urgh, where's my unicorn chaser?

It would be fun to combine this game with the final goal of that storytelling game -- what was it? Once Upon a Time? After you finish up Gloom, narrate the story of your character. Extra points for irony.

I would tend to agree with #16, though. A big downer for these types of games is the limited repertoire. How many times can you play "Pursued by Poodles" before it gets unfunny?

A possible fix: verb/noun combinations. Play a "Pursued by..." followed by a "...poodles" card. This could increase the fun factor. ("Sexually molested by... midgets", "Hit on the head with... a bust of Thomas Jefferson", "Attacked by deranged... dragons")

Mad Libs meets Once Upon a Time meets Gloom!

Kitty probably thinks it's another kitty in a racoon costume. A fursuiter, perhaps :)

Why stop at toaster bacon? How about chocolate-chip pancakes wrapped around a sausage on a stick?

Oh.

"You found it!"

Rat kings were hoaxes played upon the gullible uneducated class (peasants and royals both) who also believed things like cats steal your breath and bats want to tangle in your hair. It's just cryptozoological embuggerance.

Oh, you Windows users! When will you learn that the only game worthy to play is Photoshop?

--A somewhat depressed OSX user

I'll wait until the Singularity for a moneyless society, thanks. :) My favorite Iain M Banks quote: "Money is a sign of poverty."

I don't know about cables, but every time I fly from Baltimore or LAX, I have to take out the electronics. I just take out the larger pieces (the ebook and laptop) and don't bother taking out the cables.

However, normally I leave my diabetic supplies (in a plastic ziploc) inside. Only once at LAX did they do a handsearch of my bag because of that. All other times they couldn't care less.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is... TSA is inconsistent at best.

@#9:

"11. When walking in open territory, bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask him to stop. If he does not stop, destroy him."

Where's the LOLpic for EPIC FAIL?

You can see the new house with almost-completed construction in Google Street View at 6160 California St.

@Sparkdale:

So what you're trying to say is...

No moar steampunk! Do not want!

BTW... the vast majority of the items is contractor trash. Broken tools, nuts, bolts, sawblades, other metal bric-a-brac, beer cans. Kind of puts a different slant on the pictures.

@Jeff

But I think Banks's Culture is predicated on the fact that AIs run the government, and that the AIs love humanity (either from a sense of responsibility or as pets, no one is quite sure).

The point being that it is people who are doing the spying in this case, and you can't trust people to do the right thing.

--Rob

@Pixel:

It's true, people remember the bad things more than the good things -- that's why product feedback forums are filled with complaints rather than happies.

But Cory contends that it was FORD who did the wrong thing initially, by sending a letter to Cafe Press containing blatantly over-reaching claims.

So yes, Ford corrected the mistake, but Ford still deserves the black eye. As does Cafe Press.

--Rob

That's nothing! Just wait'll she gets the *bill*!

Ha ha, only serious :(

--Rob

@Pengo:

In case you haven't noticed, it's an increasingly networked world. And while I'd like to take the train, somehow they haven't built a tunnel under the Atlantic yet.

Although I have to agree that bitching about Heathrow is kind of beating a dead, rotting, bloated, zombie horse.

--Rob

It looks kind of edible. Maybe they could make one out of marshmallows?

I was expecting Big Bug Battles, not Big "Big" Battles...

They worked really well. Until you got your tie caught in it.

Dear Ford,

Please please PLEASE sue the people who make those Calvin-peeing-on-X stickers.

#10: The reason we're going all nuts about this is that data protection is a hot button issue for the techie community. To deny that data protection is necessary is like saying we can hold our breath and get oxygen through osmosis.

For someone with as wide (and, I guess, untechie) an audience as Clarkson to deny that data protection is necessary isn't just misguided, it's downright evil.

Hence the hate, and the jubilation when he gets smacked.

For years and years I thought a judge could order anyone to hand over their passphrases otherwise they'd be charged with obstruction of justice?

Blargh! Not what I wanted to see during my usual round of the geek news sites during breakfast. Definitely need unicorn chaser.

Ha! Who says fundamental science has to take a roomful of expensive equipment?

Oh wait...

:)

I highly recommend Flightstats. It's a free registration, and you get historical ontime performance of airlines, airports, and specific flights. This way, if you're considering a particular flight, check all the legs with Flightstats to see if any stand a good (say more than 75%) chance of being on time.

Hey, how about this. What would you think of someone who gets obvious pleasure from listening to a CD that plays the sounds of crying or screaming people? Never mind whether the sounds are genuine or simulated.

What would you say? Hey it's just soundwaves, so who cares?

One of my friends showed me this thing in a basket. It was a small toy in the form of a puppy fast asleep. But the horrifying thing to me was that it was slowly breathing.

"Does it do anything else?" I asked.

"No, it just sleeps."

"That's creepy!" I exclaimed.

"Yes," she replied, "but the old people like it."

I had a vision of geriatrics at the old folks' home smiling vacantly at the faux puppy. Then I had another vision, this one more horrifying.

"What if it dies?"

"Then you just replace the battery."

"But it stops breathing."

"True."

I watched the imitation animal for a minute, then turned away, shivering. I couldn't help it. Tamagotchis had nothing on this.

Wasn't there a move by China to stamp out bad English translations ahead of the Olympics?

You know what I've always wondered about the Space Bag? If you need a vacuum cleaner to compress your clothes so they'll fit in your suitcase... what do you do when you're returning home? Borrow the hotel cleaning crew's vacuum cleaner?

Go get 'em, Cory! In my own opinion, this Burt guy sounds like one of those folks who love to take power and exercise it. He'll fight to retain the power, not because he's the best one for SFWA. Kick him to the curb!

She doesn't say "That hurts". She says "Aaa' huuu"!

Well... clocks just aren't cool unless they're made out of nixie tubes!

Where's my "suddenoutbreakofcommonsense" tag? ;)

At first, I looked at this list from the geek perspective. "Oh, look, PDF995 does PDF from documents for free on a PC... if you don't have a Mac."

Then I looked at the list again. You have a sad, sad job if you need "professional backgrounds for PowerPoint or a "must-have" tool for Excel that "pros" use...

And if you want to find out what may happen to these guys when they're in jail (because apologies sometimes just don't cut it in Japan)...

http://www.stippy.com/japan-life/gaijin-in-a-japanese-prison-1/

It's a gaijin's perspective, but quite enlightening.

It's not protection. It's an RL bounding box for collision determination.

Nerd, FTW!

What's interesting is that a 7-year-old understands the need for privacy: "Private code", "code settings", and also understands how important it is to really, really, really close an application with that gigantic "CLOSE" button!

@Zolastic: Very cool idea!

@Gilbert Wham: Sulfurous vapor from the onions combines with water on the surface of the eyes to form sulfuric acid, which causes the tears. Breathing through the mouth won't do it.

My solution: turn on the range's fan and cut on the range. It sucks the fumes out of the kitchen and into the outside, where presumably mice and ants can now enjoy teary eyes.

@Mr. Brown:

"...bust the spindle and crack the plates."

I know, I know. That's what Bilbo Baggins hates.

On a more serious note, making one of these would be a pretty sweet Make article...

Heck with the security images... that's an interesting-looking IDE!

@Pepsi_MAX2K:

You could have each ghost and the Pac Gentleman on different z-levels so that they wouldn't interfere. Yes, the z-buffer was invented in the 19th century!

Very amusing video! Of course, cats and kittens, always remember that P=VI, so if you up the V, you drop the I!

Maybe he should have read the Consumerist link posted here a couple of days ago!

It's certainly refreshing to hear intelligible tech-speak from a Senator! Not a "tube" in the whole talk!

I wonder what Jack would do faced with The Little Rascal's perpetually peasant-punching machine?

How about instead of tasers and guns, they use a net? The netee gets tangled up, so we achieve the goal of immobilization. And, a net wouldn't cause much trauma.

It looks like it could be a jeweler's tool. Maybe you position it so that it holds down a piece you're trying to solder?

Neither USAirways nor Delta seem to have a flight tracker in their cargo section.

@Jimkennedy: U haz made mah day. Now what I do wif it?

Knowing me, I'd use a cup too small and tip the cup over as I'm pressing down with as much force as I can, causing coffee and hot water to go everywhere!

And dude... what's up with the animated BBTV "bug" appearing multiple times in that short clip? You know how annoying it is on TV, right? So are you guys trying to make a point or something?

--Rob

I dunno. I mean, admire Lessig, and I like his books. But his anti-copyright cases were all duds. And now he's going up against something even more unassailable than copyright -- corruption.

I'd like Lessig to fight the good fight, but really, is his middle name Quixote?

They kinda look like pharmacists. Maybe that's why they named themselves after antacids.

Funny, though, using dashes as spacers. A limitation of 70s printing technology?

@Wil -- that would mean it was a unicorn PREchaser, no? :)

Hi all,

This was a much better episode than the others -- nothing rehashed from the BB pages. I like the three-camera setup for the interview, but I think it might look better to have over-the-shoulder shots instead of just closeups from the side. Although I'm guessing that you don't have a wrap-around greenscreen, so that won't be possible.

Also, Xeni -- do you have to dress up like you're going to the opera for BBTV? You're a geek. Dress like one! Please! My eyes hurt from the shiny!

--Rob

Straight out of Snow Crash :)

O gopod, a second person novel :(

@ZZT711

Dude, what do you want. They are straight out of the 80s. You want someone "modern", they'd be all 17 and MTV.

God bless the 80s! :)

Perhaps the commercial is parodying his lecture?

In any case, aren't boingboingers supposed to be FOR free information sharing?

Meh... it didn't get the new (2 week old) bank branch in my town. I guess it just relies on the phone company's listings...

Obsessions like... what? Farting, violence and idiocy? 'Cuz I never really got Ren and Stimpy...

--Rob

On the other hand, the LA Weekly article quotes the duo's lawyers as noting that scientists share harmless bacteria like this amongst themselves regularly...

LOL, I regularly share harmless bacteria with everyone I meet, and I'm not even a scientist!

Where mah +5 Funneh?

If it were me (I admit, I'm a coward), I'd be afraid the guy wouldn't stop at purse-snatching. Maybe he'd see me and kick my ass and then stomp my camera into a million pieces. Then again, I grew up in NYC.

So I guess I just have to say, Joe, you're way braver than I am. Way to go!

What would be really funny is if the "Recommended Words" section gave substitutes for what you would normally say in "Forbidden Words". So that when you enter a store, they will greet you with "You are crazy!" If you ask how much something is, "No money, no talk!". Or #7 in response to "I'm not sure I should get this." "Just take it and leave me alone!"

Well, that could be a good thing. With all those divers hopped up on meth, they won't be able to find the remaining abalone?

Well... now we know where Jimmy Hoffa went?

Wow, she sure put the "mor[on]" in sophomore! Maybe for her next art project she can run around the airport screaming "I'm Al Qaida! Look at me! I'm Al Qaida!"

MediaDefender-Defenders proudly presents the source code that MediaDefender use.

Well, at least we now know MediaDefender-Defenders doesn't have an American accent ;)

Cory...

This really isn't what I expected from BoingBoing. If I wanted to see the worst of humanity, I'd turn on the news. We KNOW people sometimes suck asstunnel. We KNOW it happens all the time.

I agree with previous comment, this is not my idea of "wonderful things".

(grumbling) Used to be BoingBoing was about cool gadgets and the wonders of technology. Now it's all pissing on dying people, students getting tazed, and TSA nutjobs.

:(

It really looked sinister to me.

My made-up story for this video is that the kid did what kids usually do to characters: kicked him in the balls, or stomped on his instep. Then Pluto grew a set (of fangs).

After chasing the kid (kids run *fast*), and being snagged by the mother, an argument appears to take place. Just as the mother touched Pluto on the back, Pluto fell off the curb. There's a muffled voice in there where I heard "...pushed me...!" but I don't know if that's an observer complaining that Pluto pushed him, or Pluto complaining that the mother pushed him.

The holding the hands up in the air part seemed to me like Pluto was gesturing that he was giving up the argument.

But the thing that tells me this probably wasn't so sinister, and just a misunderstanding kid and mother, is that Pluto also gestures to his eyes and then points back at the mother. No flipped-out person would do that. They'd be shouting and waving their arms, not acting like a character with no voice.

Still. It's a funny video :)

About the discussion on people liking printbooks better than ebooks... I think we're seeing the very beginning of the turning point. The Sony eReader is a fine product, but I particularly love the iRex iLiad. A little less than the size of a hardback book, but much thinner and lighter, 16-gray 768x1024 eInk display, easy to use, annotation features, with slots for cards.

Everyone I show it to is impressed at the legibility. Then I pull out the 2GB card and say, "And this gives me an additional 2,000 books worth of storage." That's a bit on the geeky side, but I have thousands of SF books that just take up space. I take the reader everywhere I go -- it's currently loaded with the top 100 books in my collection that I want to re-read.

The only downside is the $800 price tag. But I think in five years we'll see sub-$100 readers in color. Perhaps Amazon will get a promotion going at that point: free eReader with the purchase of 20 eBooks.