Holy shit: I grew up on the ol' Amstrad. This here was my first computer, and she was a beauty.

I still long for a version of Fruit Frank i can play. That game was awesome.

Smaller. Tactile feedback (the joy of opening / closing). Protecting the screen.

I had a Moto v8808, a good 7 years old until just recently. I was hoping to use it until GSM networks were obsolete but (ironically) the flip broke. Never seen such a flimsy flip on a phone, the same model broke after two weeks ownership after being in my pants for too long.

Not wanting to be a "saw it there, like, twenty years ago" troll... but this story popped up about a month ago on BoingBoing, and even carried all the way to local news (in Australia), as well as US Network TV that gets played late night / early morning.

But for some reason... here it is again, on US Network news beamed to Au, and local / national news. I'm really curious what has driven every news agency I access to not just replay, but totally re-do this story over, with the same information, footage etc - is that a second wave of the blogospehere has started to run with it? Or has the internet corroded everyone's memory that badly?

More on topic: this is amazing tech, and the CBS (?) story I watched showed labs where they were growing replacement bladders and heart valves grown from this 'extra-cellular matrix'. Incredible stuff.

@ Antinous (#3): I had vivid, horrible images of sitting on the tip of an impacted fecal.... thing.

When the image loaded.... all I could think of was Dugong shit.

This ends my highbrow contribution for the day.

#18: True, but spanish TV is anunregulated mess that cannibalises celebrities / any public figure in the most awful of ways.

#53: That song was so... grotesque. Fucking grotesque, it lasted about 25 seconds.

#61: If your quote is in reference to the music linked in #53, then damn: that's a room of really, really boring people. Let me never be in a situation like that.

72 comments later... and no-one's mentioned Kevin Blechdom?

Britches Without Britches, people.
One of my most played albums (half of it, anyway).

http://www.discogs.com/release/157946

I lost two very close friends last year, and I still can't bring myself to delete their numbers.

I still send them texts sometimes.... neither had voicemail, which i'm not sure is good or bad, but i s'pose it doesn't feel that healthy to me right now.. still trying to get one last message through to them.

@15 Simra:

Wow. Thankyou for those links - i've always seen the symbolism reflect The Odyssey, but the parralels between Thus Spark Zarathustra and some of the plot-lines and visuals cues - you have broken my brain.

Gotta watch it again tonight.

I love Arse Elektronica, last year had some great coverage around the place.

On a grammar nazi note: is "irregardless" through the net? It still makes me wince.

I'm dumbfounded by the penalties or 1/12 of an Oz.

Holy crap! Is there any wonder the prisons are overcrowded. Laws like this just seem like a departure from common sense.

Even a young person who uses recreationally: sending them to jail is like sending them to Criminal College, just dumbfounding.

Ciarin,

Sure - rules are rules, and it is for "national security", but common sense should still have a place. Read #52's linked article about the pregnant woman being asked bare herself in the security line.

Seems like the rules only get bent when people want to power trip even beyond their already overly-assigned rights to do so, never to make someone who is pretty clearly not a threat have a better time of it.

Your disdain for the commenters who do complain about the heavy handedness, as Antinous (#122) points out, is a pretty clear demonstration of what is wrong with the system and the inappropriate sense of entitlement TSA employees have been given in a security-dazed "post 9/11" world.

@#50 IRREAL: "Coopers, VB, Crownies, James Boags"

One of these things is not like the other. VB?

Coopers or it's nothing. Although I'm a snobbish South Australia, and say graph likeso - "grauf" not "graff".

I'll stop trolling now.

#52 Bat Guano: So you've played Knifey-Spooney, ay?

As an Australian I can say: no, not "Australian" food.

In fact, Australian food - besides a stereotypical BBQ (chops! sausages! colesaw! anywhere food) - is a massive conglomerate of cultural influences our young-ish convict outpost adopted at inception.

Indigenous Australian food is a whole different matter, and couldn't be further removed from dairy, oil and potatoes.

Also: I am now very hungry.

The War on Common Sense marches forward, irregardless of what any whinging lefties may spout here.

(I'm a highly confused individual)

You'd think the universe would just dump a shitload of money into the writers' and editors' laps for being generally awesome.

Damned commercial... commercials.

At least there doesn't seem to be any "exclusive" content in those categories. That would make Baby FSM weep meatballs.

I miss Wired, in a similar way to how I miss the 90s.

Their prognosticating seemed so... ridiculous, a lot of the time, as did their preoccupation with Negroponte. But somehow they got a lot of it right, and the magazine today is still pretty damned awesome - even if I replaced my sub with wired.com quite a while ago.

It's, uh, "great" that the TSA is starting to listen... but isn't it a few years too late?

After spending 18 months planning a working holiday, partly in the US, I canned it and went elsewhere.

I have no desire to enter the grand old United States anymore, which is a shame, but things like the TSA's abuse of passengers at airports is at the top of a growing list of "Why you never want to visit the US".

(Go Canada!, btw)

Let me amend that - Xeni is not even saying "he's japanese" she's saying "Ronald is in Japan"...which he is, no?

#51 MNEMESIS: Uh, is it being presented as an ad?

It's "crazy Japanese Ronald" with "link to more ad mash-ups"

At no point did BB comment on the cah-rah-naziess of Japanses commercial culture or otherwise, I felt it was being presented as "here's a demented mash-up of an ad, fyi the dudes japanese"

Read the fucking article (all 10 words of it) before getting ya panties all bunched up.

Stove tops are the only way to go. Easy.

Drip systems, and their warming-plate = coffee genocide. Just not worth the bother, may as well crack out the Nescrape 43.

If you don't have a stove top boiler (which is a perculator, although it only drips-through once - I know some models keep recirculating) then a plunger is the way.

Espresso / coffee machines are alright, but you can only be sure with an industrial number and a decent barrista. The at-home numbers (even the four figure machines) aren't necessarily going to be worth it.

Incredibly hard to clean - especially if you have alot of algae growth on the sides of those domes. Which would happen - more light exposure = more opportunities photosynthesis.

And what happens when your little fish friend drops dead in a lower sphere? Or if you need to medicate the tank? I don't think you'd get a very equal distribution of medications / food in that tank.

I prefer the building-wide fish habitrails I've seen. Although if one of those lovely Cichlids died in the higher part, well... that'd be really fucked.

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/01/09/habitrail-for-fish.html

The TSA, and the associated War On Common Sense has descended beyond "troubling" and "sad", passed "absurd" and is just wallowing in absolute ridiculousness.

I'm shocked that government has not intervened... at what point will congress take note? The US is turning into a real theatre of the absurd, and will only look stupider and stupider to foreigners and their governments.

One can't help but think too many people either lack self-respect or just don't want to think about losing face when they conceed that the 'terrorists', lets face it, have 'won' - if you want to continue to use those inappropriate terms propagated in the name of homeland security.

Pinball... illegal in Michigan? In the 70s?

As soon as i'm off this dial-up connection, I'm going to have to do some reading.

Anyone got any insight into how or why? And what the thinking was behind it's legal status?

This is going to be one of the great, unexpected benefits of the studios screwing over their work force.

Much like artists and content creators are really beginning to usurp the power of the RIAA and it's distribution channels, the next r/evolution in media creation and distribution will come as much from the failings of the powers that be, as it will the drive of the individuals, that until now were stuck in that system.

There is something satisfying in watching these dinosaurs write their own obituaries.

Also: never thought I would be so excited about a venture from the creator of "Air Bud".

I quite like the irreverent stylings of Gawker blogs over, say, Weblogs.. which run it a bit more dry.

Just had a good read through the last few pages of i09, and it's made it into the feed. Thanks for the tip!

AirPort is a dog for any secure connection - I have problems getting any AirPort-card'd Mac to join non-AirPort networks, and vice versa.

My only solution - and it's barely a solution - is to ditch password protected access all together and use MAC addresses to control access.

Totally useless if you don't have access to the router (which, in most cases, one doesn't). Also: my friends' hate me when I diddle with their network and end up totally locking it down (with MAC filtering) or opening it right up.

Zac has the key for my other workaround - just try every variant of WPA encryption while we all wait and hope for Apple to get their hardware into line.

With as a "Ingredients… …Disney World Special Ingredient" segue into the time lapse, all I could think was that 'special' ingredient was methamphetamine.

So what do they do with all the gingerbread when it's done? Doesn't it create a bit of an insect problem?

Those photos of the 70's peeps, having an awesome time, make me wonder what they are doing now - whi they are, what their lives are like, if they have kids (dewynken, heh).

I wander what will be posted as "old" (and therefore 'safe') material in 30 - 40 years, with our very digital, camera equipped society.

Mark said:

Joshua -- Where did you learn this? I'm interested in finding out more.

Joshua said:

If you want I'll ask around and see if I can get anyone at either RationalWiki or Conservapedia to consider talking to you about it.

Mark:

I 'd rather see some evidence that bots are responsible than hear what someone at Conservapedia has to say about this..

And then words were put into your (Mark's) mouth.

How else would one find evidence that bots were responsible than talking to the individuals who run the site and might have access to the click-through info - whether it was bots, people, suspicious IPs etc, etc.

No sure how else one would "see" this evidence, except through some sort of psychic osmosis.

Talking to the parties involved is where one might divine any sort of evidence.

Is this the difference between invesitgation / journalism and blogging - searching for answers or having a reader convieniently send you an explain-all piechart?

Err, excuse the gramatical car-crash above that was my first thought on a Monday morning...

Cory, I was already to storm in here and refute your idea of "addiction", but it seems others have done it nicely for me.

Working with people who are substance dependence / "addicted", in a Clean Needle Program, you get to see exactly what addiction and dependence are, and how to two vary greatly.

The smoker is a good example - some people can smoke to the point where they are physically dependent and just stop, withdrawal be damned, where others simply can't. Not because of physical withdrawal (it's fairly minor with nicotine), but because of a psychological dependence.

Ask a doctor is that benzodiazepine or SSRI anti-depressent is "addictive" (which they most certainly are, the former more-so) and they'll refute you all the way to the bank. A semantic proposal borne mainly from sensitivities about creating "addiction".

All in all "addiction" is a blunt, crude term that deservers to be replaced by 'dependence', and a few other terms, whether refering to something psychological or physiological.

"Video has been removed", simultaneous tab to the YouTube page.

This is all very much like an article I read in Wired, about a decade ago, when it was still awesome.

If you like this guy, then you should check out lektrogirl's great album on Rephlex Records.

Last.fm page:
http://www.last.fm/music/Lektrogirl/I+Love+My+Computer

Alot more simplistic, but a whole heap of fun, and definately an earlier foray (1999, I think it was released) into the entire chiptunes genre.

One word: permalink.

Joel, as much as I tend to cringe at overly "politically correct" terminology (really, most of the time it's about polite euphamisms), "retarded" just isn't cool.

As someone who has worked with the physically infirmed or people with cognitive disabilities, you get to see first hand how hurtful the notion of being retarded is. That said, i've never really come across any terminology that doesn't have the potential to offend. "People with special needs" hits the spot, with reference to specific illnesses being the way to go when you get down to a case-by-case discussion of individuals (with special needs).

Sure, Tim's comments were a bit acerbic and perhaps not that well articulated... but here is a man who is spearheading an organisation that will happily watch Africa sink into a pit of HIV infections, simply so they can tow some antiquated "moral" line about contraception.

I find catholics - at least the extremists - a disgrace.

What do I mean by extremists? Anyone who rightly thinks that God's will to pump out more Catholics is > God's will to not see people, their families and children suffer (from HIV / AIDs, in this case).

But, to the point in case: Yahoo's news is a hilarious epicentre of poorly matched headlines and AP photographs.

Oh dear, I found the boob jokes actually incredibly funny. I've laughed as hard - if not harder - to this episode than the past few.

And i'm with Neon:
a bit of lippy = ! Transvestite.

As someone who considers themselves a pinko-leftie, and who is very much not American... it's hard not to just balk and wishfully wait for the US the be slammed into place by common sense, or a global community sick to death of the ongoing military blunder that is the War On Terror.

Incompetance is one thing, but when it involves such vicious trampling of individuals' rights... well. I pity US citizens who don't actually agree with the War, or the rhetorical stance(s) the administration has taken over the past term and a half.

I'd implore more people to vote in the next federal election... although who knows how many elligible voters ultimately agree with the shit-gurgler America appears to be going down.

Stop the stupidity, already, and do something useful, something more morally sound with the US' military might. God help us all.

@Hijinx Comics: Oh, it was Joel. Duh!

@Joel: you bad man, you.

Regarding the SE990i:

"This thing crashed more times than an Italian dodgem car; actually it didn’t even have the dramatic wit to crash, it just hung and wasted your time. Plus it had an internet/access point/wifi set-up system that made you want to weep, stamp your feet and disembowel the team responsible."

Fantastic.

@hijinx comics: Interminable grammar, rolling senences... but it all makes sense if you just imagine him speaking while you read.

Again, fantastic.

A society that is incapable of forgiving children is... scary.

OM: Not only did you miss the point, but your lack of sympathy for individuals who (in some cases) are as much victims as the people they harmed is inhumane.

"Upgrade to Microsoft Microsoft-DOS"

What's with the "Microsoft MS-DOS" references.

Personally, i'm much more Wow-ed by this than any Vista campagin (or Vista itself). It's, uh, nice to see MS have never really had any marketing finess.

I'll refrain from talking about their products' inherent lack of finess. We, actually, no refrain at all there.

386 rap was way cooler, too.

...does the world really need another thing to plug into an outlet? Especially a device that has no functional use for that electricity, beyond aesthetic enhancement.

I'm sure those pretty LEDs don't use much power, but they still use power.

Joel: Tweaking or not it's refreshing to hear a gadget blog not lick the boots of just any old tube amp whore.

I'm sure there is a difference, but how many people, readers included, listen to 128AAC/MP3s daily? How many have tweaked their import settings to a higher quality?