New York Doll tells the story of Arthur “Killer” Kane of the New York Dolls. Kane faded into obscurity, got sober, found religion, and was living quietly when Morrissey asked him to be part of a NYD reunion thirty-odd years later. (Via MeFi)
What We Learned Today
Backups should include your fucking crontabs too, lest impolite installers accidentally run as root fuck everything up.
Dept. of Forbes is Full of Crap
Forbes has published (use Bugmenot or this local PDF) an astoundingly, resoundingly stupid piece on how to “punish bloggers” — or any internet site — when they run afoul of your corporate talking points. Nowhere in their recommendations do we find “don’t be a dick,” which is kind of surprising considering the content of most of these “brand-bashing” sites. Instead, Forbes focusses on silencing critics without regard to the content of the criticism. Lovely.
Included in their “blog defense” plan are such gems as digging up dirt on the blogger to discredit him or her as well as blatent misuse of the DMCA to intimidate ISPs and hosting companies into taking the blogger’s site down. We suppose simply NOT operating in a way that inspires sites like Untied.com is just not in the cards. BoingBoing has an excellent collection of rebuttal links, including a fine piece by Dan Gillmor.
It’s worth noting, too, that the author is a well-known anti-Open Source bigot, and was one of the lone voices defending an article about Pamela Jones (local PDF) of Groklaw that was little more than thinly veiled attack-and-intimidate piece. Jones’ site covers the SCO-IBM trial, and while Lyons attempts to paint her as a partisan IBMer, the facts of the case have always been on her side (as is evidenced by every single ruling in the years-long case so far). From Gillmor’s piece:
One sidebar, attacking a pro-Linux blogger, inveighs against bloggers’ alleged attacks on free speech because they complained about journalism they found wanting. This could have been an interesting story to cover, but Forbes turns something fairly subtle into a cartoon. One of the problems with the story the Linux folks were attacking was some unsupported innuendo, which the Forbes piece actually repeats in an especially slimy way. (Perhaps it’s worth noting that the Forbes reporter [Daniel Lyons] has a long history of jabbing at the open source folks.)
One word? Cretin. Way to go, Forbes!
“Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
The creepy slashfiction fringe of Trekkie fandom is now nearly drowning in its own froth.
PR Lessons for the White House
So, White House lawyers have actually gone after the Onion, a satirical weekly newspaper, for using the Presidential Seal without permission.
Of course, this constitutes a violation of that rule about getting into fights with people who buy ink by the barrel, virtual or no: this week’s edition includes something we suspect is meant as payback.
Merry Fitzmas
Buh-bye, Scooter. Vice President Cheney’s Chief of Staff Lewis Libby has been indicted on 5 felony counts. Wonder who’s next?
Now watch the same craven fuckers who insisted Clinton’s perjury warranted prison time backpedal and claim this is some “technicality” and that Fitzgerald is “criminalizing politics.”
What’s not to like about this?
Via Majikthise, it’s the Snow-Monkey Cam. Sure, it’s in Japanese, but MONKEYS. In the SNOW. Besides, you may need something light after the last entry.
Remember Operation Eden?
Yeah, things have gotten a bit better for Clayton Cubitt’s family. Close your office door before you read this if you don’t want people to see you get misty. Sometimes, good things happen. Sometimes, people are just better than we have any right to expect.
Voting.
Look, voting’s about to happen. Let me make this very, very clear:
VOTE.
And, more importantly, if you’re in Texas:
VOTE NO ON PROP 2.
If you vote for this abomination, you’re no friend of mine.
In the early days of lipsync, it sucked even MORE
BoingBoing points us to this gem (local copy): the Boxtops “performing” their hit “The Letter.” Knowing what we do about lead singer and songwriter Alex Chilton’s later career, we sort of wonder if this was the best they could do, though.
Dept. of Reversals
The Bush Administration has announced it will reinstate Davis-Bacon wage levels in the Katrina-stricken areas — illegally suspended after the storm — on November 8.
It’s a craven reversal, but at least it’s in the right direction.
Dept. of Grade-A Snark
Via TBogg:
I’m didn’t really care much one way or the other who won the World Series (although I did get a charge out of watching George H.W. and Barbara Bush witness something even more disappointing than their children)…
Buh-bye
Harriet Miers has withdrawn her nomination to the SCOTUS. Frankly, this makes me think more highly of her than anything else I’ve heard, as she is manifestly unqualified for the job.
Where we DIDN’T go in San Francisco
The de Young museum in Golden Gate Park re-opened on the last day of our honeymoon; we got close, but decided not to go in given the crowd. Reading now about their approach to art and technology, we wonder how quickly we can go back. (Related pix here.)
Dept. of Public Service Announcements
“Because it’s there” is all the reason a geek needs to do something like this
Someone has created a distributed file system built on top of TinyURL.
All we have to say is keep the damn TV off if you stay there
In Raleigh, NC, a Pet Cemetary is being, um, evicted so they can build a hotel.
In case you’re nostalgic for the days when gangs had themes
Warriors Action Figures are now available, which makes sense, as there’s a new DVD available as well as a game — from RockStar, even — coming soon.
Of course, if you listen all the way through, it seems justified
When Fox gets ahold of this, it’ll be When Bjork Attacks!
Dept. of Stuff We’re Kinda Embarrassed We Didn’t Know
So, as the previous post probably makes clear, we’ve switched ISPs. Gone are the $50/month days of Earthlink (yeah, we know; we’ve just been paying the bill for five years without bothering to check other deals). Welcome to the $25/month days of SBC, with better than twice the bandwidth (3Mbps down, .5 up).
The sudden influx of speed made us wonder what the next step might be. For 15 years or more, we’ve thought of the T1 as the holy grail of bandwidth, but we realized we didn’t actually know how fast it was. Turns out, “T1 speed” is about half what we’re getting from SBC, but it’s symmetric (1.54Mbps both ways). As Mike pointed out, time was that a T1 made you an ISP (well, you’d also need a modem bank and a shitload of inbound lines); now, a T1 means 10-year-olds laugh at you.
Ah, life in the future.
Grrrr.
Dept. of Games We’re Still Playing
It’s been about a year since we first fired up the (then-beta) World of Warcraft. We believe this is the first time we’ve ever played a game this long, especially with no signs of stopping soon. Neat.
Dept. of Games We Want
BoingBoing points us to Set, a geektastic card game we really must try, but perhaps with a drinking rule component added.
Four Years Later: Feel Safer Yet?
Security maven Bruce Schneier has a bit to say on FBI abuses of the PATRIOT act. You, the abuses we were told not to worry about. Turns out, there have been a bunch.
Heh heh heh heh
Who needs a nanny when you’ve got the Babycage?
Oops.
The “offal quiz” link is fixed now.
Dept. of Ew.
Gridskipper wonders how well you Know Your Offal.
These will be a lot more fun if they put the clickwheel behind the areola
Dept. of Life in the Future
We just got a wrong number call.
On our VOIP Skype number.
What happens when the sort of people who dress their pets eventually have children
Ew. That’s gonna take a lot of therapy.
Suggestions
“Why don’t you be Santa’s little helper and shut your damn Pie Hole?” (Flash)
Dept. of Fine, Fine Comics
Sample 1: KISS MY ASS, BITCH, I’LL BE A DUANE’S!; and
Sample 2: In which Trudeau has a little homage to Hunter.
More From Merlin
Merlin Man’s 5ives has a real winner today:
Five rules from the NPR drinking game
- Nina Totenberg reads a transcript (1 drink)
- oboe is heard (2 drinks)
- Malcolm Gladwell reference (1 drink)
- Scott Simon cracks himself up (1 drink)
- Daniel Schorr mentions Watergate (3 drinks)
And you thought YOUR commute sucked
Check out this account of a displaced geek getting back to his apartment in Louisiana. As he said, if they’d died, they’d be shoe-ins for the Darwin Awards.
Remember that whole Davis-Bacon suspension thing?
It’s got consequences.
Dept. of Weather History
NASA’s got a couple of great animations showing the development and path of every named storm this year (Arlene through Wilma).
No honor among goons
Bye Bye, Ricky.
Try not to get TOO excited, but:
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas court issued a warrant Wednesday for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to appear for booking, where he is likely to face the fingerprinting and photo mug shot he had hoped to avoid.
<a href=http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/19/delay.indictment.ap/index.html”>CNN
Dept. of “We don’t really give a shit, but…”
It’s worth pointing out that the Astros can be more or less relied upon to disappoint.
If I were a betting man, I’d probably put money behind them continuing their 45-year streak of not appearing in the World Series.
In which we point out that other people seem to have enjoyed it, too
The oft-linked Mike seems to have enjoyed our wedding, though he does take certain liberties in his recap. In a later entry, he makes clear a sentiment we’ve heard much of in re: the reception food:
Chet and Erin’s wedding had, without a doubt, the best food of any wedding I’ve ever been to. I mean, even though I think my wife took to feeding me cake to stop me from talking to other women, I didn’t really mind.
Said food was from Jill Rubenstein and PersonalChefsNYC. She and her husband David ROCK THE HOUSE. They rule. Totally. Mike’s opinion of the food was shared widely at the reception. While Jill didn’t do the cake (that was the aptly-named Who Made The Cake?, with whom we are also very pleased), she was responsible for everything else that our guests ate or drank, including a pseudocustom cocktail. She was also, while not cheap, quite reasonable. HIGHLY recommended.
While we’re talking about awesome, we should also note our Crack Wedding Officiation and Documentation Team. David outdid himself with our beautiful pictures, and his fantastic wife was the best darn officiant EVAR; many folks complimented us on the service she put together around our (scant) input. It should also be noted that it was in fact David who pointed us to Jill, whom we first met through Spacetaker‘s launch party last year. Awesomeness abounds.
Dept. of Belated Birthday Greetings
This Guy‘s birthday was yesterday, so: HAPPY GODDAMN BIRTHDAY.
Dept. of Themes We Should Probably Nip In The Bud
“Look, Honey! It’s our first chinese food as man and wife!”
Dept. of We Fixed Something
The big ol’ pile of well-wishing comments on the last post reminded us we needed to fix something in the code so that said comments are actually legible.
Oh yes: we’re home.
Dept. of Somewhat Delayed Explanations of Uncharacteristic Silence
Remember that Irish reporter?
Yeah, she’s written a bit about how she was bullied by the White House after not letting George “lead the interview.” (Via Atrios.)
At the studio I handed over the tapes. My phone rang. It was MC, and her voice was cold. “We just want to say how disappointed we are in the way you conducted the interview,” she said. “How is that?” I asked. “You talked over the president, not letting him finish his answers.” “Oh, I was just moving him on,” I said, explaining that I wanted some new insight from him, not two-year-old answers. “He did give you plenty of new stuff.” She estimated that I had interrupted the president eight times and added that I had upset him. I was upset too, I told her. The line started to break up; I was in a basement with a bad phone signal. I took her number and agreed to call her back. I dialled the White House number and she was on the line again. “I’m here with Colby,” she indicated. “Right.” “You were given an opportunity to interview the leader of the free world and you blew it,” she began. I was beginning to feel as if I might be dreaming. I had naively believed the American president was referred to as the “leader of the free world” only in an unofficial tongue-in-cheek sort of way by outsiders, and not among his closest staff. “You were more vicious than any of the White House press corps or even some of them up on Capitol Hill . . .The president leads the interview,” she said. “I don’t agree,” I replied, my initial worry now turning to frustration. “It’s the journalist’s job to lead the interview.” It was suggested that perhaps I could edit the tapes to take out the interruptions, but I made it clear that this would not be possible. As the conversation progressed, I learnt that I might find it difficult to secure further co-operation from the White House. A man’s voice then came on the line. Colby, I assumed. “And, it goes without saying, you can forget about the interview with Laura Bush.”
Wedding Week: T+00:20:18:30
So far, marriage rocks. Thanks to EVERYONE who came and helped us celebrate!
Wedding Week: T-00:16:15:30
Probably time to go to bed. Out of ginger ale, and Tony’s drunk as fuck.
Wedding Week: T-01:19:30:30
Our friends Mike and Anne got married secretly at the Cambridge, MA courthouse years ago.
As things get more complicated and less done and the zero-hour looms larger, we think of Massachusetts courthouses as much more romantic locations than we did previously.
Geek Quiz
What is that in the picture at right? Proper names only, please.
Dept. of Juvenile Hypothetical Contests, Resolved
As it happens, under certain circumstances, the perennial “giant snake vs. hungry alligator” contest will in fact turn out a draw, but too late to allow either succor or comfort to the six-foot gator or 13-foot python, who burst in the effort.
(Geekiest possible joke on this story: “See what syntactically meaningful whitespace gets you?”)