The most valuable supply of worthlessness on the web
If you are a long-time gamer, you reallllllly need to watch this. I’ve not finished it, but I can’t quit laughing at every failure this guy has in this modified Super Mario Bros. ROM. I wouldn’t have to patience to play it, but it’s great to watch. Definitely not safe for work (NSFW). Video runs over 20 minutes.
[tags]What Mario would be like in hell[/tags]
Over at boingboing there is a link to three audio illusions to listen to
Watch the Tea Partay commercial to see how vanilla, old-money boys really rock.
From the local newspaper:
NASHVILLE – In a surprise move, a House panel voted Wednesday to repeal a state law that forbids the carrying of handguns on property and buildings owned by state, county and city governments — including parks and playgrounds.
“I think the recent Virginia disaster … has woken up a lot of people to the need for having funs available to paw-abiding citizens,” said Rep. Frank Niceley, R-Strawberry Plains. “I hope that is what this vote reflects.”
So good news for those who appreciate the legal right to self-defense.
[tags]Tennessee repeals state/county/city government property firearms restrictions[/tags]
Can you complete The Impossible Quiz? (thanks Blue)
Sometimes, you just need to stick to the disposable stuff.
Japan’s leading toilet maker Toto Ltd. is offering free repairs for 180,000 bidet toilets after wiring problems caused several to catch fire, the company said Monday.
The electric bidet accessory of Toto’s Z series caught fire in three separate incidents between March 2006 and March 2007, according to company spokeswoman Emi Tanaka. The bidet sent up smoke in 26 other incidents, the company said.
So be careful how you clean our backside. On the other hand, fire is an extremely effective manner of cleaning and disinfecting. I suppose it all depends on how much you value quality sterilization.
[tags]Bidets catching fire in Japan?[/tags]
I’m not used to seeing this kind of reaction from the liberals, but Senator Harry Reid has suggested caution in any push for stricter gun control laws in wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy.
After the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid cautioned Tuesday against a “rush to judgment” on stricter gun control.
A leading House supporter of restrictions on firearms conceded passage of legislation would be difficult.
“I think we ought to be thinking about the families and the victims and not speculate about future legislative battles that might lie ahead,” said Reid, a view expressed by other Democratic leaders the day after the shootings that left 33 dead on the campus of Virginia Tech.
Yes, it will be difficult to get additional restrictions on firearms. There’s still that whole 2nd Amendment guarantee that needs to be protected. Sure, a few of the Senators have already started the gun control battlecries:
In the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, a few Democrats renewed the call for gun control legislation, and more are expected to join them.
“I believe this will reignite the dormant effort to pass commonsense gun regulations in this nation,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat who was a leader in the failed drive to renew a ban on certain types of assault weapons that expired in 2004.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., was one of very few lawmakers to refer on gun control in the early hours after the shootings. “There will be time to debate the steps needed to overt such tragedies,” he said on Monday, “but today, our thoughts and prayers go to their families.”
Hopefully enough of them realize the problems that this won’t gain traction though. Personally, I look at this from the other side – had just one student in that classroom been carrying a firearm, the number killed by this nut could well have been far fewer. Restricting guns might reduce law-abiding citizens from carrying firearms, but it won’t slow down the criminals too much. Considering that the shooter acquired the weapon over a month before the shooting, it seems likely that he planned this and therefore would have pursued other means of arming himself were he unable to buy legally from a gunshop. I don’t believe restrictions on firearms would have stopped this, and I don’t think it will improve student safety in the future.
[tags]Senate Majority Leader cautions against pursuing stricter gun controls in wake of Virginia Tech shootings[/tags]
Surprising many people, I am sure, it looks like Firefox continues to gain market share to the detriment of other browsers.
Hoping to cash in on some of the still unclaimed money floating around in the media-everywhere int4r-web thingie, Adobe has announced the imminent release of Adobe Media Player to the, ummmm, complete lack of notice to users everywhere. So what’s so great about Abode Media Player, and why should we be excited? Well, let’s see what the experts have to say:
Bruce Chizen, CEO at Adobe Systems Inc., commented that: “Adobe Flash has revolutionized the distribution of video content across the Internet and Adobe Media Player builds on this leadership position,” with regard to the company’s aspirations for the introduction of its newly integrated media player.
. . .
“Adobe has created the first way for media companies to release video content, secure in the knowledge that advertising goes with it,” said Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey in a Reuters report. “Control is something that media companies absolutely get high on,” he continued on the subject of media company reticence concerning the release of their content to the Web.
That’s right. Thanks to Adobe, you’ll now be able to get your media, secure in the knowledge that you’ll not miss out on your advertising when you receive your content. And if this product holds to the standard Adobe product features set, you can count on it being large, slow, intrusive, and possibly annoying.
I will give credit for one thing though – as much as I despise advertising, I do think having advertising tied in with the content distribution will get more premium content online for the enjoyment of consumers online. Not much more, but I believe it will help increase premium media distribution. It’s just dumb to proclaim how great it will be because it can force advertising in with content when sharing with end-users. Sell to them based on features they want – non-intrusive, lightweight, speed, ease of installation and use, and so on. Of course, Adobe might not be doing that in this case given the difficulty the company faces in producing applications that meet any of those requirements other than maybe ease of use.
[tags]Adobe announces new media player, Rest easy knowing you’ll not miss your advertisements in future distributed content[/tags]
I’ll admit that I sometimes wonder how one company can hate potential customers so much that they would make their products non-functional and then tell customers to buy new hardware or wait for an update that is probably never coming. If you choose to invest your money in products from a company like this, might I suggest you have your head examined?
At this point, I honestly believe the smart thing to do is to download illegal copies of the movies or music that you want and then just send Sony a check for the amount of the product you would have purchased had it not been created in a manner as to make use difficult or impossible for customers who acquired it legally. That way Sony will still have your money and you’ll have a product that works.
YES ! It appears that Sony have done it again. In their zeal to make their DVD movies copyproof (yeah right) they have in fact made their latest releases unplayable on some DVD players, including my Sony DVP-CX995V DVD player. I recently rented “Stranger than Fiction” (2 copies) and “The Holiday” ( please no comments on my choice of movies) both by Sony Pictures. Both load up to the splash title screen and then load no further, then after about 60 secs the player turns itself off!
ALL my other DVD’s and new releases from other movie companies play perfectly
I called Sony Electronics help line and they said to call Sony Pictures 1-800-860-2878 which I did.
The following is a compression of our discussion:
Sony Tech: We know about this problem. Its our new copy protection that’s making these discs unplayable in some players including our own, we do not intend to change the copy protection. The only correction to this problem is a firmware update to your player. The electronics division know about this and should have given you this information.
If you hit Google and search for whatever movie or music CD you want followed by the word Torrent you should have no trouble finding what you are after. If that doesn’t pan out, try The Pirate Bay and enter the movie or CD name in the search box there. After downloading, use Google again and search for instructions on burning your movie or music to a disc if you don’t already know how to do that. At this point, you’ll have a functioning copy of the product without the restrictions that make it fail like the legal product does. Now you can send your check to Sony along with a nice letter thanking them for the wonderful movie/music you’ve downloaded. Plus, you’ll have a backup ready in case your original gets destroyed.
If all that doesn’t convince you, at least look at what Amazon customers are saying about problems and lack of help from Sony. (via slashdot)
[tags]Sony hates customers more than before, Sony shows the hatred of consumers, Sony encourages downloading of pirated material[/tags]
Since most of the sites on the web posting news about the Virginia Tech shootings appear to be getting their stories from the Associated Press, I’ll minimize my comments about the shooting and just direct my visitors to the AP special coverage section (here’s a shorter link if that one is broken) for more details.
I’m finding the site to behave poorly in K-Meleon, Firefox, and Internet Explorer. I don’t know if that’s an issue with my system or their code, but I wanted to mention it in case others have problems readying some of the site news.
Look for more coverage of the mishandling of the incident as more details are known. It’s easy for outsiders to second guess the administrators and security personnel now that we know what happened. Remember that knowing the appropriate response is much more difficult when dealing with the situation as it happens. I understand people saying that there should have been more effort to warn the student body and possibly close the school earlier, but the information available on the event as it happened may not have made that seem like the right option. Just be patient and see what we learn over the next day or so.
[tags]Associated Press coverage of the Virginia Tech shooting spree[/tags]
PC World has their write-up of the 20 most annoying tech products of all time. We’ll just knock out some suspense here – AOL CDs made number one. The rest of the list has some good ones, too, though. There’s also a picture guide to 10 of the worst, but honestly, it’s not worth the viewing time. Just read the full list and you’ll see the same things as hitting the photo guide.
Unlike PC World’s 25 Worst Products of All Time, irksome products aren’t necessarily bad, buggy, or dangerous. But they all have one or two traits that make you want to wrap them in 200 pounds of steel cable and toss them off the side of a boat. From stupid features and rude behavior to brain-dead design and poor corporate policies, these 20 products have truly annoyed us over the years, and some continue to do so.
Here are a couple of the annoying tech products from the list that really bug me, just to give you a sampling.
Adobe (Macromedia) Flash (1996 to present)
Adobe’s animation tool, introduced by Macromedia in 1996, has arguably done more than any other product to liven up our Web browsers. But it’s also the dominant technology behind those running, jumping, spinning, swirling, flashing, dancing, popping, peeling, and just generally irritating rich-media Web ads. We like Flash, but we wish Web designers would use its power for good and not evil.
. . .
Apple iTunes, Microsoft Windows Media Player, Microsoft Zune, Napster (2003 to present)
The media players themselves are mostly fine, but their incompatible digital rights management (DRM) schemes drive us nuts. Despite Apple’s recent decision to sell some DRM-free songs, most iTunes tunes still play only on iPods, a couple of Motorola phones, or a computer with iTunes software on it. (And the DRM-free songs cost 30 cents more.)
Windows Media files are worse–now, two different, totally incompatible DRM file formats use the .wma file extension. So if you buy a WMA file from a service that uses Microsoft’s PlaysForSure DRM (most notably Napster), it won’t work with the Zune (which uses Microsoft’s Zune DRM). Can’t we all just get along?
Microsoft has said it will “soon†sell DRM-free music for the Zune. We’ll see.
Yup. I hates me some DRM. But if you don’t know that by now, you either don’t visit here often or don’t know what DRM is, since I write against it quite often. Hit the end of the article for the list of 14 ways to be sure to annoy your customers. It’s a little treasure trove of sarcasm, too.
[tags]PC World’s 20 most annoying tech products[/tags]