"Just because you're paranoid, don't mean they're not after you." - Kurt Cobain

In summary, gold digger sues hypocrite when corpse samples cadaver.

Way to publicize a Shoutcast server with a 22 listener limit.

Yorgle wins my super awesome prize for that keen eye!

There's some really amazing pics on the linked site, but many are very sexual and some are downright gross. Consider yourself forewarned!

@#13
I use Outlook for work and Gmail for personal email so I've used both folders and filters. They're really the same thing except for one fact - a single email can only go in one folder but it can fit into dozens of filters. If you create one folder for emails about chocolate and another folder for emails about peanut butter, under which folder do you file an email about peanut butter cups?

On the server side just rename *.mp3 to *.jpg automatically when uploaded, and convert them back on demand. Is it against the law to host a graphical bitmap?

My favourite unexpected benefit of having a cell phone camera is taking a picture of the guy who parks in an inconsiderate fashion in the spot next to me.

So, if you yourself hold the package can you prove you're not on some fourth-dimensional box o' widgets in that big supermarket in the cosmos?

Great, funny story. Woulda been nice if you'd explained in the summary what made this a victory for the 'stones, Mark.

We're whalers on the moon...

I hope you and Randall enjoy the polyamory panels. Can we expect your lovechild to be stick men writing about Google's privacy policies?

Unbelievable that artists and those that represent them would claim a copyright violation on a parody. Do they honestly believe videos like this are swallowing up the artist's profits somehow?

The music industry has all but ruined my naive appreciation of music. Now I'm motivated to research an artist's business affiliations before committing to investing in that artist's portfolio. Business and pleasure are arch enemies.

This article is gold. I've been researching SEO and AdWords optimisation and other webby kind of stuff, and your article fills in a lot of blanks. It's the kind of list that's tough to write but makes you say "well, duh" when you read it - especially the point about copyright boilerplate in page footers.

The way Mickey crooks his eyebrows makes him look like he's casing Disneyland for a big heist.

"Minnie's beloved collection of petticoats will be mine! Ho ho!"

I bought this game a little while ago and to be honest I found the game slightly upsetting in the first 10 minutes as I got used to the controls because I was aimlessly running around a school, getting beat up by random kids with no recourse but to hit them back. Then I found some story missions and it was immediately apparent that my role would be to defend the helpless from the bullies who prey on them. Once I'd settled in a little I "got it", and now I feel the game is about defending the helpless, not the inverse. I definitely agree with the sentiments of this story and I urge Canada's teachers to play the game for at least an hour. You're rewarded for going to class in this game!

On an unrelated note, be sure to check out the absolutely fantastic soundtrack for this game which you can download from eMusic for free (just download each song individually). It's written by Shawn Lee who has done both rock and electronica albums, and this soundtrack is basically Harry Potter meets Rockabilly meets Jamiroquai. It's a genuinely interesting soundtrack that you will pay attention to as you listen.

http://www.emusic.com/album/10966/10966886.html

Here's a quote from Cory's Eastern Standard Tribe website: (http://craphound.com/est/download.php)

"If you want to, go ahead and buy a copy and I’ll get my royalty. But there’s no obligation on you to buy it if you’ve read — you’re not ripping me off"

That is absolutely wonderful. These are the very words missing from Nine Inch Nails' recent album, and from the book, movie, and music industries. The works are going to get pirated one way or the other so you can either embrace your fans or grapple with them.

Cory, it must take months and months for you to write a novel. Are your novels your main source of income? What is your motivation to give them away, no strings attached? Is your publisher cool with this?

Thanks for taking the high road, Cory. You're a trailblazer.

"He says his brother ran an experiment on him and four other audio aficionados listening to a new CD from a new group blindfolded."

Maybe it was just a crappy album. How good could it be if the group was blindfolded?

@#13
Thanks for the tip! I do agree that a $5 convenience fee is reasonable here, and I can understand why they'd want to minimize advertising the free alternative.

@#15
It leaves a bad taste in my mouth because Trent is giving mixed messages about whether he wants to sell or give away his music. Maybe this is because he wants to do both, and I have no problem with that, but he should say so conclusively.

I think Kurt (#6) is right, that a CC license means you may use the content privately for free at the very least, and you can make derivative works for profit at most.

Regardless, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, even if the digital download is only $5. This very much reminds me of the disingenuous offer to download the worstselling PC game Left Behind: Eternal Forces for free* (it's free after a "$5 digital convenience fee").
http://www.leftbehindgames.com/free/

Come on, Trent. You're so close. You captivated me in that bootleg concert video where you encouraged your fans to pirate your music. You teased me by releasing several songs and their isolated samples with CC licenses. Give the whole thing away for free in FLAC and graciously and optionally accept any pittance your fans are willing to give you.

$5 is a reasonable offer from the record exec suits. Only free is acceptable from Trent himself. $5 is a small enough asking price that it makes Trent sound like he's unsure of his own rebellion.

Your model's dead! And no one cares! If there is a Torrent I'll see you there!

I love NIN for making this happen, but I'm confused - if the whole album is CC-licensed why do I need to pay to listen to the whole thing? What are the terms of the CC license?

#2

No ATM tells you your wallet is incompatible with currency. HDCP serves no useful purpose for the general public, only for the Hollywood suits. Hollywood feels it's worth the gamble to frustrate owners of older televisions if it means they can prevent people from recording iTunes movies onto another format.

I wrote a little essay on the juxtaposition of the Katamari Damacy universe versus the real world. Have a lookie if you like:
http://blog.demodulated.com/2006/09/15/we-live-katamari/

However, just because I wrote such an essay, doesn't necessarily mean I'd be interested to read others. I personally appreciate "buyers' guide" reviews that leave the metaphysical implications for the player to perceive. Some games have been so mindboggling that they've literally changed my perspective of the world I live in, while others are just pleasant diversions.

@28

Sagan was a staunch atheist - no wiggle room. For some insight into his true feelings on the subject, and for a very pleasurable read, I highly recommend his novel Contact (it's better than the movie, which I also enjoyed).

This game is made by the son of one of the hosts of the Games For Windows magazine/podcast (http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3148397). The father expressed a lot of pride in his son's creation in one podcast episode.

@18
A (Canadian) friend of mine was given the opportunity to choose his own middle name when he was 5. He chose the name "Snuggles". Really. He's very proud of it so I can't help but feel good for him.

Here's a similar, more carefully edited video featuring the Trackmania racing game. Thousands of takes were superimposed into a really beautiful result. The music makes it all come together.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/12321.html?id=12321

As awesome as this video was, I'll be refreshing this page regularly to see the submissions in the comments.

Here's my favourite LOTR overdub:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ataRoBcULg&feature=related

Insert gross "out back" joke here.

@Takuan

I don't mean to discourage people from having these kinds of experiences altogether - I simply mean to reinforce that these substances give us ordinary peons the opportunity to learn a great deal about ourselves whenever and wherever we choose. This is a big deal, a bit of a gamble, and an amazing and wonderful chance to experience the world in a strange new way.

I won't lie - salvia was very scary and made me feel very small. Here's an excerpt of one Erowid experience I read:

"I can’t believe I’d never realized that this was my existence. Why did I have to find out now? I wish I had never realized. Ever. I would have been much happier existing this way and not knowing it."

But you know what? It's good to know. Life is what it is. It's not good or bad. If you dare to learn then life belongs to you and not vice versa.

I have no experience with ayahuasca but my wife and I tried a "similar" substance last year - Salvia Divinorum. I blogged about our experience, and blogged again the next day to describe the utter sorrow I felt after my relatively mild salvia revelations (I felt 100% better the next day - just needed time for it to all sink in). We shared maybe 1/5 of the single gram we bought and the remainder has sat undisturbed ever since - Despite my reluctant enthusiasm in my blog entries I'm just too scared to revisit it.

You can get more information about ayahuasca, salvia, and other legal ethnobotanicals at Erowid. There's one thing you need to know above all others, though: once you consume and commit you're in it for the long haul. Buy the ticket, take the ride. Make the best of it. Don't surrender to astonishment or horror. Don't let it end before you've taken something from it.

Maybe this is a case of valid message/hypocritical messenger, but it's hard to take Google seriously here. They've bought Picasa, Earth, Analytics, Writely, YouTube, Blogger, Postini, and who knows what else. And Doubleclick.

I can't count the number of freeware apps I've installed that have tried to trick me into installing Google toolbars and stuff. I'm constantly astounded when I see people, at work and at friends' houses, perpetually running Google Desktop with no clue of how or when it was installed. I'm even getting tired of hearing jokes and other references to the company on sitcoms and cartoons and on Jeopardy.

This is like Coke criticising Pepsi for being nothing more than sugar water.

@#1

If only the summary read "zero to forty degrees below zero" I could have usurped a clever line from Futurama:

Leela: Fry, night lasts two weeks on the moon.
Moon farmer: Yep, drops down to minus-173.
Fry: Celsius or Fahrenheit?
Moon farmer: First one, then the other.

Holy crap, this is so awesome. I'm DJing tonight and was thinking of being a douchebag by mixing in "Deep Deep Trouble" from the "Simpsons Sing the Blues" album, but I could do a realtime mashup of Running with the Devil during the chorus with this acapella!! Digital media FTMFW.

I hope this documentary, as well as Negativland's DVD, will be available for free on Google Video and reasonable facsimiles.

For those not familiar with Negativland, check out their website or this interview on Off The Hook (hosted by Emmanual Goldstein of 2600 Hacker Quarterly Magazine).

I gotta agree with Cory - Massimo's at College and Spadina is the city's best. It's so good that I can't bring myself to order anything fancier than their most basic Margarita slice - cheese, sauce, and rosemary.

I don't know what all the hubbub is about. These videos are the unfiltered truth. You can take from them whatever you wish. Isn't it best that someone posts these kinds of videos to serve the public than to rely on triple-pasteurized TV news briefs? Who knows the news best - some toupee-sporting actor or the people who record the news they themselves make?

Boing Boing is providing the antithesis to journalism by simply reporting the truth as it tells itself. Mark's description of this submission couldn't be any more impartial. This is why I subscribe to Boing Boing instead of the newspaper.

Sorry, my crappy signage photo is superior (in every way but resolution).

demodulated - Splurge for the signage

Happy birthday to BB and to Gareth!

It was my blog's 2nd anniversary a few weeks ago and it's quite a fulfilling feeling. Unlike magazines to which only your most faithful subscribers have access to the earliest issues, the web reveals all your work, for better or worse, on demand and clear as day. It's refreshing to be accountable - especially when such a reputable publication as Boing Boing is such a pleasure to read no matter what year you dial in to. Now how about some zine archives?

I gave Wubi a try a couple of weeks ago and was very impressed by the installer, though most of my PC parts were too new for Feisty Fawn (like my NIC, so no joy). Most impressive was that it installed the Ubuntu flavour of my choice (I chose Kubuntu) and launched it as the secondary option from the Windows XP bootloader instead of GRUB!

The installation couldn't have been easier, though for power users that's not necessarily a good thing. No access to 64 bit kernels yet and no tweaking the install. The end result was more featureful than a liveCD so it's perfect for those who are sitting on the OS fence.

P.s., these pills contain 5mg of caffeine. For comparison, that's one quarter the caffeine in a grande Starbucks coffee.

I watched an interview with Jonathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal1ty) a few months back. For those who don't know him, Fatal1ty is basically the Beckham of competitive PC multiplayer gaming. He's also quite the sporty spice. His advice for improving one's reflexes and alacrity for intense gaming is to engage in real world sports, keep fit, eat right, sleep well, and be happy.

But hey, crank is a part of a balanced breakfast so why not do a few lines. Er, pills.

The sound of that slightly distorted 909 kick melts my heart just a little. Roland is responsible for many of my favourite instruments, chiefly the TB-303. If I had $300 to spare that's what would be on my license plate right now.

"Crackle, Inc., a Sony Pictures Entertainment Company..."
http://crackle.com/about/

Wow, Penn Gilette is such a rebel.

Gack, I neglected this opportunity to plug!!

I recently blogged about the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry who let their ifpi.com domain name lapse and our good friends at The Pirate Bay scooped it up. TPB made their own site for their newly formed Internation Federation of Pirates Interests and, as was their right, redirected all @ifpi.com email to a catchall address.

The "real" IFPI bitched and moaned and had this perfectly legal purchase overturned due to copyright infringement, despite the ICANN's insistence that a domain name is not copyrightable.

In a nutshell, this antipiracy group circumvented the law to get their way. In this vein I purposefully opt not to credit the original artist when I say to the IFPI "I see your true colours shining through..."

Refer to the ongoing battle between Nissan Motor and Uzi Nissan of Nissan Computer.

http://www.nissan.com/

Nissan Motor has fought Uzi Nissan for this website for over a decade. In 1999 Nissan Motor sued poor Uzi for $10 million and he lost this domain (which he registered in 1994) temporarily because a judge decided Nissan Motor was more entitled to it than a man who founded an eponymous company. Later this decision was reversed and the domain went back into the hands of Uzi Nissan with the caveat that he may not use the domain commercially. This jeopardized his 15-year-old computer business.

For more info see Uzi's site:
http://www.nissan.com/Digest/The_Story.php

I've always been a big proponent of free internet as I personally define it as a basic human right. However, I had a rare and fascinating discussion with a former CIO of New York City a few months ago and he gave me much to mull on this topic.

He is vehemently against free wifi. He said it's exceptionally expensive and it's a service no city is trained to handle right now. He brought up the topic of ever-changing standards and the cost of converting WAPs from 802.11b to 802.11g to 802.11n to who knows what. He also mentioned that NYC did some trial rollouts and because commercial broadband was so prevalent hardly anyone used the slow free service.

Whatever's best for the populace, whether it's free wifi or lower taxes, that's what I want. Whichever is appropriate for your locality may differ from your neighbour.

@Rugerredhawk

For the most part Miro downloads content before it can be watched whereas Joost streams video on demand (though Miro can do this with content from sites like Youtube). Also, Joost is a closed publishing platform while anyone can post content on Miro. Miro has TONS more content than Joost, and I find Joost's content to be largely superficial and crappy.

Miro > Joost!!

I should start blogging on papyrus!

"... and face up to three years in jail if convicted..."

"the project was awarded the NG 333 prize for young artists by Prague's National Gallery together with a cash prize of 333,000 koruna"

Weird things come in threes.

I bought a bunch of new computer parts this holday (yaaay!) which called for a format and re-install of Windows. I was frustrated but unsurprised when my online activation of my legal copy of WinXP failed and I had to call Microsoft to obtain a working activation number after explaining why I dared to use this product I bought.

What was quite surprising and even more insulting was the fact that I had to do the same procedure for Microsoft Flight Simulator X!! Why on earth (or soaring slightly above) does Microsoft need to profile my PC and put a hold on my "account" if I've suspiciously upgraded my computer so that I can adequately run their very CPU-intensive game?

I believe in this case fair use allows one to purchase and wear said panties, but soiling the panties is an infringement of IP (no pun intended).

Oops, forgot the all-important URL!

http://www.getmiro.com/

Stories like these make me appreciate services like Miro all the more. I'm the kind of person who is in the mood to enjoy some non-interactive (non-game) entertainment once or twice per week on a whim. Those whims are fleeting so I need instant gratification. I open up Miro (which I leave resident to download my content) and watch precisely the shows I want, in the order I want. My subscribed content is all already downloaded, waiting for me. I can watch BBTV if I want 5 minutes of entertainment, or start up a 45 minute video podcast (about video games, of course), watch the first half and close the program, and resume where I left off later. No DRM, no commercials, and certainly no hassles with my brand of monitor.

He's pretty mouthy with the audience. Did he really call them all bastards?

Regardless, this gave me a great chuckle. Terrific submish!

The power of blogging! It's astounding how this fledgling medium empowers the individual to be heard as far and wide as any national broadcaster.

Cory, if you haven't got it already I bet you'd enjoy The Annotated Alice which my parents bought for me a few birthdays ago.

http://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Alice-Definitive-Lewis-Carroll/dp/0393048470/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197375202&sr=8-2

It explains all those 18th century lolrus and the lolpenter jokes where "you had to be there".

Rogers really pissed me off a few years ago when they called me up and told me I'd downloaded more than some arbitrary limit, and that I risked having my account terminated unless I reduced my usage. I ditched them immediately for a local ISP (there are literally over 100 ISPs in Toronto so take your pick! - www.canadianisp.com)

However, I've since switched back to Rogers and I gotta say, the fact that they're upfront with their bandwidth caps makes all the difference. Their most popular package, Rogers Express, grants you 60GB per month (or maybe 75 now as the screenshot above shows), but since my wife and I cancelled our Rogers cable TV (Miro FTW!) we switched to Rogers Extreme which allows 100GB per month. That's a lot of gigs, and they come down at 8Mb/s.

Rogers has redeemed itself to me. They even offered to reconnect our TV at no charge which was kind, but seriously folks, the content on Miro is a zillion times more fulfilling, poignant, and enjoyable - especially with my super speedy Rogers connection.

http://www.getmiro.com/

Sorry to poop on the pasta party but I don't like this idea. It's both flamebait and troll food, co-mingling into a sort of troll truffle flambé - a real treat for the nastiest bipedal behemoths.

Christmas was invented by the Christians in order to reward wayward Romans for converting, so that they didn't have to miss out on the feast of Saturnalia which also took place on that same day of December 25.

Christmas was invented as a reasonable facsimile of the real deal, just like this poster. It's cute and all, but it's basically the hijacking of a Christian holiday by atheism in precisely the same way Christians tried to dupe the Romans long, long ago in 1963 or something.

I encourage atheists to either discuss their beliefs eye to eye with those who will listen or else not to discuss their beliefs at all. A favourite retort of more fundaMENTAL religious folk is that atheism is also a religion, and if we're going to prove them wrong let's do it by forgoing the childish propaganda they themselves have used since day 1. Let's lead by example, not by ridicule.

Perhaps this rev of the odometer is an appropriate time for me to recommend his fantastic book, Childhood's End. It's about aliens who nanny the Earth into a new age of splendour and acceptance, but still feel mankind is not yet ready to look upon their faces. A thoughtful and optimistic book about making difficult choices.

Congratulations Cory, this is officially THE best BB article ever! The throne has been usurped from the exciting StarForce kerfuffle a couple of years ago.

For some ridiculous reason the headline instantly reminded me of one I believe I remember seeing in the movie Fight Club - "Missing Apes Found Shaved"

Kind of looks like a poster for "Vote YES on prop 31337 - Kids Against Cockroaches bill". It's nice though. Plus, you get bonus points for using the word "penultimate."

You can contact the Prime Minister at pm@pm.gc.ca

For the phun of it I once took a look at http://www.whitehouse.gov/robots.txt to see what kind of pages the White House wants to hide from Google. There's some really great stuff on there including pages about their executive pastry chef, various presidents' Easter wishes, photo essays by Mrs. Cheney, presidential accounts of visits to other lands, and a history of the White House garden.

Was this a Diebold pie contest perchance?

This mod is really awesome. My wife and I laughed ourselves silly when we saw an newspaper dispenser with "LIES" graffitied over the front.

Even if you don't have Half Life 2 (which is required to play) you can enjoy the screenshots. Many are uncannily realistic, right down to the DWA (Designated Waiing Area) signs in the subway stations. Lucky owners of this great game can have the pleasure of blasting people in said stations.

http://www.torontoconflict.com/media.htm

I dabble with DJ software and mixed a short 40-minute Africa-inspired tribal house set a couple of years back. Please download and enjoy!

http:/www.demodulated.com/music/mixsets/Brian%20Damage%20-%20Shamanica.mp3

Seems like a pretty dumb feature considering the time of year. Your friends and family see all the stuff you've bought and either feign surprise when they receive that gift or pummel you senseless for giving them one of the cheaper ones on your list.

@musicman
filterset.g is woefully outdated. AdBlock Plus is the way to go these days. Just subscribe or one or two lists and you're all set.

er, my above comment seems to have been compu-butchered (yet still makes sense). Guess I have to jot it out in pseudocode:

if $it (string) is not equal to "butter"
then
set $belief (boolean) to false

if $it > butter then $belief = "false";

If this art style appeals to you and you'd like to immerse yourself in such a universe I highly recommend checking out the video game Psychonauts by Double Fine (Tim Schafer). The dialogue is as meticulously crafted and head-swimmingly surreal as the visual presentation; truly a game for English and art majors alike.

http://www.psychonauts.com/ (turn your speakers down before clicking!)

@FALK

If I'm not mistaken, Miro uses Bittorrent which means that pieces of video files are downloaded out of order. I don't think it's possible to enable streaming with Bittorrent, plus quality and resolution are greatly limited when you're at the mercy of your download transfer rate. A few months ago I made the decision to keep Miro loaded 24/7 and now I always have tons of HD content ready to be watched immediately.

I've always thought IKEA stores would make for great first person shooters. It's an old level designer's trick to make the player weave through many turns and corridors to trick him into believing the level is anything other than a huge cube with walls in it.

If you're itching to blast something familiar be very sure to check out City 7 - a George Brown College project where talented students have turned many familiar Toronto locales (such as the subway system, Mel Lastman Square, and Dundas and Bay) into dystopian nightmares you can perforate real good!

http://torontoist.com/2007/11/city_7_toronto.php

I've always thought IKEA stores would make for great first person shooters. It's an old level designer's trick to make the player weave through many turns and corridors to trick him into believing the level is anything other than a huge cube with walls in it.

If you're itching to blast something familiar be very sure to check out City 7 - a George Brown College project where talented students have turned many familiar Toronto locales (such as the subway system, Mel Lastman Square, and Dundas and Bay) into dystopian nightmares you can perforate real good!

I hope you Boingers don't mind but I, er, "remixed" your favicon for my website. I omitted one "b", mirrored it, and recoloured it.

Boingboing has always had awesome iconography, but I was very dismayed the day your jackhammering cover girl stopped boinging! Bring back the boing!

I had an unpleasant altercation with Rogers' cable internet service a few years ago. I was a subscriber of their "unlimited" internet service yet received a phone call one day stating I'd been downloading too much per month. When I challenged them about their liberal use of the word "unlimited" in their advertising, they claimed that this referred to my ability to always be connected to the internet.

"So you're saying that I'm free to be connected to your service as long as I don't use it?"

"Yes."

"Isn't that the very definition of a limit?"

"No."

Download this CC-licensed movie here:
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7522

Yay!! Boing Boing TV is on Miro!

I can't wait to find an excuse to fly on Virgin. Their corporate attitude (RIAA affiliation notwithstanding) is enlightened and very with it. My Virgin cellular service is such a breath of fresh air compared to the shackles of Fido and Rogers.

As for BoingBoing TV, when is it coming to Miro? And when is Miro coming to Virgin Air? For that matter, how about some participatory culture aboard a Virgin airliner? Passengers could flightcast Wheels On The Bus in a round or something to other planes!

content content content content ADVERTISEMENT!!!!!! content content

The ad was way too loud! Normalize audio, please!!

Otherwise I really enjoyed this fun little video.

There's lots of games out there already that are sensitive without being girly, and reward smarts over reflexes.

The Longest Journey and Dreamfall by Funcom are the best examples I can give - tons of spoken dialogue, great character development, and a very intriguing fantasy-meets-sci-fi dystopian near-future. Both games have credible, strong-willed, lovable female protagonists. The Syberia series of adventure games is noteworthy as well for similar traits.

My mom and sister love "asexual" casual games like Bejewelled and Peggle. That's going to be the next huge market and currently the key demographic is women aged 40-60.

The aforementioned adventure games are inexpensive but rare in stores, while the latter casual games are plentiful. With the exception of Syberia all these games can be purchased on Steam.

Why isn't the show posted on the Miro guide? I want to subscribe!

For those who haven't tried Miro, check it out. Free community-created internet TV.

http://www.getmiro.com/

Either the second or the third word in the title is suffixed with an unnecessary "s".

Hi, Jack!

Reznor gets it. You do business by communicating at eye level with the people who love you. Musicians who ask for but do not demand your money are the ones who really deserve it. Those whose currency is proliferation are the only true artists.

I blogged about this topic if anyone cares. The summary is that I downloaded a free MP3 DJ set from the website of DJ Amber and loved it so much I bought a copy. She autographed it. She is the very definition of the enlightened 21st century artist.

My mom made me an R2D2 cake when I was 5 or 6. The Star Wars movies feature mass genocide, incestuous kissing, racism, and illegal POW torture. But you don't press the B button for that stuff to happen so it qualifies as kid-appropriate, right?