Posts by Mike Flugennock
1587 posts • joined Monday 19th November 2007 22:51 GMT
Re: Instead of
Well, not any more than an idea that Bill Gates stole.
"New Coke Moment"
Sounds more like a "Too Much Coke Moment", if ya know what I'm sayin'.
Re: It's clear...
hose two judges are positioning themselves for a Supreme Court nomination, when/if the Republicans ever get control of the White House again...
Y'ever pay attention to what Obummer's been up to the past five years?
There is a friggin' Republican in the White House.
Two whole days later...
...the malware slingers and domain squatters are just now rushing in to capitalize on the Boston Marathon bombing? Running a little late, aren't they? Must be losing their touch.
What tha'...?
You mean, the guy who voted to renew the Patriot Act while in the Senate, who went back on his promise to close the concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay, and who claims the right to kill anyone he wants anywhere on Earth is threatening to veto this dung heap because it's too evil?
Christ, I need to go lie down.
"Look, honey! The new toaster sent us an email!"
It says, "burnt"... and it's cc'ed to the coffeepot.
Posted in The ten SEXIEST computers of ALL TIME
Now, the Cray 2, on the other hand...
...not only has superior functionality, but looks ultra-super-cool, like a computer from a sci-fi movie. Wicked-assed sexy.
Posted in The ten SEXIEST computers of ALL TIME
MacBook Air and Mac Cube
Speaking as a long-time Mac user, imho the Air and the Cube may have looked cool from the outside, but the MacBook Air's inability to upgrade memory, its lack of internal Ethernet, and limited USB capacity -- and the Cube's various technical issues -- made them far less sexy. The MacBook Air would've been much sexier if it had expandable memory and more ports (I would've settled for it being a bit thicker for that) and the Cube would've been way sexier if not for the power switch issue, the defective polycarbonate issue, and its limited expandability. Too bad, really -- they looked really cool. What a lot of designers don't realize is that functionality adds to "sexiness", too.
Re: KHAAAAAAAAAAAAN!
Right on about A Clockwork Orange. While not necessarily a "sci-fi" as such, there are a tasty fistful of futuristic and dystopian elements. I'm surprised it didn't make the list as well as THX 1138.
Also, am I the only one here who considers 2001 and Clockwork Orange to be companion pieces of a sort? There's 2001 with the big sweeping grandeur of interplanetary adventure and finding God, and then there Clockwork Orange with "meanwhile, back on Earth..."
Don't bother with "Gattaca"
I saw Gattaca about ten years ago on cable -- or, should I say, tried to see it but couldn't get through it as it was dull as a beige room and so goddamn' depressing that I just couldn't take it. Don't waste your time.
"Star Trek: TMP" but no "THX 1138"?
Bah! It's a fix!
I'm shocked -- shocked -- that you'd include the 1979 franchise cash-in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and leave out THX 1138 -- or, as I like to call it, The Only George Lucas Film That Matters.
Still, you did see fit to include 2001 and Blade Runner -- although too far down the list, imho -- so I've got to give you some credit.
Re: Now... will the movie industry take note?
Quite willing to pay for content, but won't put up with:-
* Having to install 3rd party software to view it
* Not being able to view it on the device of my choosing
* Having to "sign up" and give personal details to view it...
Oh, yeah, and you forgot:
* Movies that suck
Re: People will pay for music if it is sanely priced
That's why the Musics Mafiaa cartel failed - they refused to operate within market forces.
Also you need a good product, and since the 80's the industry has largely failed to nurture bands to the point where they were great. Where are the Pink Floydds? The Queens? The Guns n Roses?...
Yeah, I was just going to say... a smidgen? An uptick? What, did some old freak replace his old copy of Saucerful Of Secrets?
Ahh, there's good news tonight!
Oh god..a bit of russian malware I'd *actually want* in the UK...
Hell, I'd like to see that bad boy hit the States, too!
...and that ain't no goddamn' joke, either.
Re: You don't hang out in record stores.
Actually, it depends on the record store. Back in my college days, we had a little joint called Penguin Feather Records, a combination record store and head shop where you could find, along with the usual high-profile releases by the Stones or Pink Floyd, damn' near any kind of obscure indie or import album you could possibly think of -- and if they didn't have it, they usually knew about it and would order you a copy. Everybody who worked there was a hardcore music geek in pretty much every genre you could think of, from psych to prog to glam to funk to R&B to reggae to punk and hardcore. I got to be really good pals with several of the people who worked there, and when I was there picking up a copy of a Cramps or Slade or early Pink Floyd album and a pack of rolling papers, I often wound up hanging out talking music with the manager or one of my music geek pals who worked there.
No way in hell I could do that in Harmony Hut or Tower Records back then. The people who ran those places were chain-store zombies.
Record Store Day?
Y'know, I could get behind the sentiment in the headline a little more if it weren't coming from a high-profile, famous musician who likely gets all the top-quality pussy he wants.
As far as (giggle) Record Store Day, I can't remember the last time I was in a goddamn' record store -- quite possibly because it's been some years since the last independent record store in my city closed. There's allegedly a few good ones out in the 'burbs, but they're waaaaayyyyyyy the fuck out there.
Pretty much all we've got now in my city (Washington DC) is big fat chains where the latest flash-in-the-pan bullshit albums are sold at upwards of TWENTY GODDAMN' DOLLARS APIECE by rock-stupid, apathetic teenagers.
Record Store Day. B'WAHH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
Re: At least it's news..
...It is, however, incorrect to state that 's the fault of MS and Adobe that there are problems - you run what you run because it has function or value...
...or, in the case of most corporations, because it's what they've foisted on you, because nobody was ever fired for recommending Microsoft.
Well, unfortunately I'm still running a flavor of "Tiger"...
...as I'm still stuck with late-model PowerPC machines here.
Still, I don't recall even installing Java Runtime at all, and have Java switched off in Firefox most of the time. I spend a total of ten minutes, tops, at a sitting in Facebook (I'm hardly on as it is) with absolutely zero apps, so I should be in pretty good shape.
Also, assuming there are 1800ish vulns in OSX (show me your sources or take a hike), Windows still holds a pretty substantial edge in desktop share, not to mention that fact that, iirc, Windows still comes out of the box with its security set to "hack me, backdoor me, trojan me, zombify me, pwn me".
Apple and Google "butt heads"?
Hey, you said it; I didn't.
Re: "an increase in the QUALITY of..."
One can only hope that the proliferation of ad-blockers and commercial skipping will result in an increase in the quality of ads...
WTF? An increase in the quality of... SPLURRRTHA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...
You bastard.
The "new hotness"?
"New hotness", my ass. I've been hearing wearable computer hype since at least the late '80s. M'eh.
Cable networks in the States have 'em beat
Over here in the Colonies, pretty much everything is a repeat. If you find yourself in the States sometime, check out how many network promos end with "on an all-new (insert name of program here)" in order to let viewers know that they've actually produced a new episode of something, instead of the same episode they've been running every six hours for the past month.
200 million office workers gagging for a...
...Microsoft SURFACE?
You guys sure that "gagging" is really the right word?
Bastards.
re: Hale-Bopp and Heaven's Gate
Actually, that whole episode turned out to have been a big misunderstanding.
Apparently, the cult was right about aliens coming to take them off of Earth, but the cult members misheard the message. They thought the aliens were saying "wait for the comet Hale-Bopp", when the actual message was "wait for the comment 'Hail Bob!' "
Hale-Bopp was pretty awesome...
...even though it wasn't nearly as bright as the Moon. Still, I do recall it being as bright as Venus, if not just a hair brighter. It was certainly a great excuse to go sit out on the front stoop and drink a beer after dinner in the evening.
"...as we previously put it..."
"so spectacular that it may achieve a brightness of an apparent magnitude of -16, which would greatly outshine the brightest Moon", as we previously put it...
...or, as the Drudge Report will put it:
IT'S COMING RIGHT FOR US!!!
...in 72-point bold, with a still from the movie Deep Impact of the giant asteroid plowing into the Earth.
Re: Thanks for the heads up!
Never even heard of them before! Thanks for the heads up though - I will remember to forget about their website as soon as possible!
D'ahh ha ha hah, nice one, man.
Actually, I'd heard of them and seen their little link buttons lately on every other Web site I visit, encouraging me to "pin it", but I sussed it out pretty quickly and immediately thought "d'ahh, yeah, them -- another place to post stuff you find on the Internet. M'eh..."
In fact, today was the first time ever that I actually visited their site, and only because I read this very article on The Reg, mentioning that they were seeking a 2.5 b-b-b-b-BEEEEELION GODDAMN DOLLAR valuation.
Re: They're desperately hanging in there
...while trying to get Zuck to buy them & rebrand them as Scrapbook
Well, that makes sense, but.... d'ahhhh, I dunno, man. I think Fuckerberg's already been burned once over the whole Instagram thing.
"titties'n'kitties" (+1!)
...it's the usual "titties'n'kitties" crowd uploading wank and I never got as far as reading the T&Cs to see how much of my copyright privs are being flushed down the kharzi if I ever uploaded anything!
Yeah, I went there and read it, too, just out of curiosity. I appreciate their translating the legalese for us, except they made the mistake of translating it into cutesy Frisco hipsterese instead of English. Their translation of the legalese for "Governing Law And Jurisdiction" especially annoyed me:
"The Bay Area is beautiful this time of year. It's doesn't matter what time of year it is, that's what's so great! Anyway, you'll have to sue us here."
Yeah, whatever... goddamn' cupcake-eating motherfuckers... but, aaaaaanyway.
Of course, amidst all the cutesy hipster banter is buried the standard-issue signing-your-rights-away arbitration language:
"YOU AGREE THAT, BY ENTERING INTO THESE TERMS, YOU AND PINTEREST ARE EACH WAIVING THE RIGHT TO A TRIAL BY JURY OR TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION."
Bah. I'm gone.
Re: Lot of money to spend on donuts and coffee then isn't it?
...If it has no costs, why does it need $2.5Bn in funding?
Well, there's the stylish converted post-industrial office space, and all those Razor scooters and skateboards that have to be bought and maintained, and the espresso machines, and the foosball tables, and the overstuffed beanbag chairs, and the on-site gym, and the on-site cupcake shop, and the vet bills for the CEO's on-site dog ('cause, y'know, every dot-com startup worth a damn' has an official office dog) and the Art Director's on-site iguana ('cause every Web start-up Art Director worth a damn' keeps an iguana in the office).
Have I missed anything?
2.5 b-b-b...b-b-BEEEEELION??
SPPPLLLURRRTTTTHA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA, p'wuh, snurf.
You bastards.
uhhhhmmm... yeah. What HE said...
I've had a Facebook account for maybe two or three years, and from day one it's been locked down tighter than a prima-donna's corset -- no games, no apps, friends only, and spend maybe five or ten minutes at a time, tops, just long enough to upload my latest cartoon and blog post link, maybe flip through the feed real quick to see if there's anything really interesting, and then bail. I don't even look at it every day; sometimes I'll go for a week or so at a stretch without even bothering, and even then I get on only after reading an article in The Reg about FB jerking around peoples' privacy settings again.
all aboard the Schadenfreude Special!
Y'know, after seeing all the reports here about Zynga and their skeezy operating methods, their harvesting of personal data, their invasive marketing -- well, let's just say I've got my first-class ticket for the Schadenfreude Special. Toot, tooooooot! All aboard!
Re: They should be fed their own dogfood
Brilliant, man, just friggin'... BRILLIANT -- so brilliant that nobody would dare try it.
Posted in ESA proposes 3D printing on the moon
You guys missed a chance on tht headline
Shouldn't that headline have read:
ESA proposes 3D printing ON THE MOOOOOOOOON!
Just sayin'.
Re: I'm still using Office 2000
I expect downvotes for this, but seriously, they gave you a decent Office product 13 years ago, it wouldn't hurt to buy a new copy would it?
Why does this remark remind me of whiny Webmasters from fifteen years ago pissing and moaning on forums about why the users won't "at least click on an ad once in a while"?
I don't know how many other Mac users are reading this thread, but for the record, I've still got Orifice 2004 on my minitower and my laptop; it works fine for what I need to do with it. I fire up Word once in a blue moon to take clients' copy and re-save it as plain text for InDesign, and I fire up Excel even less often to take clients' data sets and create "raw" pie charts and such for gussying-up in Illustrator. I think I launched PowerPoint twice since I installed it. I also recently found a slick little FOSS conversion utility to deal with those goddamned hellspawn... uh, that is, .docx files.
The wife finally got Orifice 2010 for her Macbook about a year after it came out. She uses Word and Excel a little more heavily than I do as her work involves a lot of letter-writing and schedule creation, so moving up made more sense for her.
But, seriously, looks like Microsoft has publicly displayed its cluelessness yet again. Out of all the things I've read here that they're hyping, I've already figured out how to do most of them myself. Share stuff over the Internet? Cripes, that's what email is for, isn't it? Multiple devices? Well, there's my wife's and my laptops, and so far we've had no trouble opening each other's stuff over the house wifi, and I can't possibly think of any occasion at all where the wife is going to need to open a Word or Excel file on her friggin' phone.
I've already downloaded a copy of OpenOffice for OSX and checked it out, and keep it in reserve.
Ahh, there's good news tonight!
No, really I mean it. Anything with the potential to fuck up Big Brother's shit is OK by me.
So, can we just make it official...
...that whenever one of these clowns mentions "personalization" it actually means "we're going to hoover up as much of your private data as we can and sell it"?
I'm also impressed -- in a perverse fashion -- that Mayer and her ilk are still beating that "user experience" riff to death. That bullshit's almost as beat to death as "Electronic Pearl Harbor".
Inspires... CREATIVITY?
"Like Tweets, the brevity of videos on Vine (6 seconds or less) inspires creativity..."
Huh, I'll be the judge of that...
nice sizzle reel, anyway...
...even considering how much of other peoples' concept footage they stole for it, including that one bit that looks like the famous "ringworld" space colony proposed by a blue-sky futurist whose name escapes me now -- or, something out of Rendezvous With Rama.
That's quite a load of hype, too, about how DSI "will be there" at the scene of every highly-improbable blue-sky future space event. Why am I reminded of that commercial that plays on the side of a robot dirigible drifting over the city in Blade Runner: "Visit the Off-World Colonies!"
Another one who's been watching too many sci-fi flicks
Deep Space Industries will announce “the world’s first fleet of commercial asteroid-prospecting spacecraft” later today in Santa Monica. The cosmic drill firm’s founders, “who include leaders in the space field”, will also be unveiled.
Deep Space Industries will announce “the world’s first fleet of commercial venture capital-prospectors” later today in Santa Monica. The cosmic drill firm’s founders, “who include leaders in venture-capital schmoozing”, will also be unveiled.
There, fixed it for you.
Re: The next governmental announcement
...Surprised they didn't push to bring back the Un-American Activities Committee in the House as well...
Actually, they did, only under a bunch of different names.
Re: Bullshitometer
2 years to fix bug, says someone at a "penetration testing software" vendor.
Why do journalists on a techie blog print this type of crap?
Uhhmmm... so they'll have an excuse to use the word "penetration"?
Thanks, you've been wonderful. I'm here all week. Don't forget to tip your waitress.
Re: Search for which morons or morons your morons liked!
The moron is the person who:
a)calls people morons for not making their own opinions...
Y'know, I was just now thinking how sad this whole exchange is. Do you realize that without the word "moron", the entire Internet would probably grind to a halt?
re: "sauce for the goose"
Could we arrange for everything Mark Zuckerberg has posted to be as publicly available as he wants everyone else to be? Sauce for the goose, etc...
Y'know, I'd be surprised if Anonymous weren't already working on that.
Re: How do people find time for all the admin?
Welll-llll...
I have a FB account, but under a fake name, with a fake birthday, fake birthplace, fake city of residence, no workplace or education listed, and no list of favorite TV shows/movies/books/music. I post only copies of the cartoons I publish, and no fotos. I visit FB maybe once a week -- if that often -- and for about twenty minutes, tops -- if that long. My privacy settings are locked down tighter than a prima donna's corset, and I quickly got into the habit of checking them every time I visit FB.
So, basically, I spend zero time keeping my profile "accurate" and "updated", and maybe fifteen minutes checking to see if my privacy settings haven't been jerked around.
Re: Boring
Not the news, just the inevitable "it's just spyware" comments. FB in particular has the most amazing collection of data available which could be used for absolutely astonishing projects...
...yeah, like surveilling dissidents, or just pestering the shit out of people with advertising.
Shill much?
"Graph Search is one of the coolest things we've ever done," he boasts...
Oh, Christ, now we're really in for it.
Re: That blooper always annoyed me...
...Long story short, if you're awake while watching Star Wars there is a lot of jarringly stupid dialog that knocks you out of the movie. Either you can suspend disbelief enough or not, but it was pretty lazy on Lucas' part.
True, but let's face it -- Star Wars didn't exactly break any new ground in science fiction, or even basic storytelling, for that matter. When you strip away all the cinema tech advances, modernized visual style and effects gee-whizzery, what you've got left is just a remake of an old Flash Gordon pulp serial from the '30s.
It's not exactly THX 1138, that's for damn' sure.
