The UK tabloid The Daily Star stole a story from RetroCrush entitled The Worst Sex Scenes Ever: A Look At The Most Unsexy Sex Scenes, then passed it off as their own. It was picked up by at least 30 other media outlets and The Daily Star was credited with the story. When pressed on the issue, the News Editor was quoted as saying: Well, if it’s on the internet it’s up for grabs. You can’t copyright anything on the Internet.
Webmaster and writer of the article Robert Berry is calling for legal assistance
A tiny flexible fibre invented by Australian scientists from the University of Sydney‘s Optical Fibre Technology Centre could change the way the human body is seen, and lead to the development of personal computers that run on light
James Glassman and TCS have given birth to something quite new in Washington: journo-lobbying. It’s an innovation driven primarily by the influence industry. Lobbying firms that once specialized in gaining person-to-person access to key decision-makers have branched out. The new game is to dominate the entire intellectual environment in which officials make policy decisions, which means funding everything from think tanks to issue ads to phony grassroots pressure groups
Test-Aankoop, a European consumer watchdog body, is suing the world’s largest music companies for selling copy protected compact discs that won’t play in car stereos and on computers — via Die Puny Humans
Colourful mini iPods have been unveiled at the current Macworld Expo. The mini iPods come in silver, gold, pink, lime and blue, alas there is no purple. They hold 4G worth of music and/or data and is even smaller than your standard iPods. The buttons have been integrated into the scroll wheel, which is actually a click wheel on these things so I’d be interested to see how this goes. Not sure if I like the idea of them reinventing the scroll wheel, it’s a fantastic usability and design feature of the iPod that helps set it apart from all the other wannabe iPods.
Accessory madness has already hit the mini iPod range. You can now buy an armband to shamelessly flaunt your shiny new mininess. Not sure if it’s such a bargain though, a full iPod with 15G capacity is $299 USD, where as the mini iPod holding 4G is $249 USD. You’d really have to love the colours and really, really, really, really need something that bit smaller.
New iLife has also been released with a new app, GarageBand, which allows users to record and mix their own tunes. But wait, isn’t that what Soundtrack was/is for? Hmmm… maybe. GarageBand seems to be the really, really, really, easy way to record, for example, with one cable you can just plug in your guitar and go off! Which has sold me, not sure how soundtrack does do this or if it can.
More stuff was announced but you can read about it here.
Had a comment spammer hit one of the non-MovableType contact forms this morning and realised that there was no IP address listed for the weasel — never needed it before, so it wasn’t part of the forms. Had a chat to sbszine who, never one to believe in reinventing the wheel, suggested glomming the code from MT. We now have IP address reporting functionality for all the forms on the site
Forget the industry spin — the numbers prove that, for Australia, CD-Rs and MP3s are not hurting record sales in the slightest — based on a recent Australian Record Industry Association survey. It would be interesting to see what the numbers for the US or UK say
Microsoft was sued again this week. Game developer Mythic Entertainment has accused the Beast of Redmond of infringing its trademark and engaging in unfair competition. It claims that Microsoft’s up-coming online multiplayer role-playing game Mythica infringes on its name and trademark
The Cobalt community was handed a lifeline when Sun Microsystems released the Cobalt code under an open-source licence
I am back at work after 2 weeks of… not being at work. The time was spent/wasted on some freelance work, numerous family do’s, quality family fueding at the beach house, drinking with friends and family (note: drinking and family do’s go hand-in-hand, this is necessary for maximum sanity retention), photo taking wanderings and Lord of the Ring-ing. How many freaking close ups of Froddo’s freaky face do we bloody well need I ask you!
I say my time was spent and wasted simultaneously because I of course did not do everything I had intended, such as drawing, getting my resume up to speed and getting a new portfolio together. Oh well.
The Xmas haul was so-so. I got a cool purple bag and ring box. Everything else was pretty average. I guess no one read my Xmas wishlist entry earlier, which in hindsight was still far too short. I mean I forgot to add the graphics tablet, a better digital camera, some furry cat ears on a head band, a rice cooker (my mum can’t cook rice and when she does she puts steak spice and peas in it for christ sakes!), and heaps of other crap I can’t think of right now.
At least work was pretty easily eased into. Non-threatening coding and batch processing some photos was all that needed doing. The absence of the entire project management dept., (2 people) is also a blessing. What, just those 2 people gone make you happy? Why yes, yes it does beacuase they are both fucking nightmares to work with.
On another note, my friend Simone will be singing at the Hard Rock Cafe on Crown St, Surry Hills, 7 till 7:45pm 6th Jan. Go see her she’s good and she can write her own music, but not dance, she refuses to dance, but that’s ok.
OOOOO! Look at that, it’s home time!
Mark Allen was selling dangerously strong
magnets for $5 a throw, unfortunately he’s sold out, but you can still get them from All Ellectronics.
These are neodymium rare earth magnets with a magnetic field strength in the 45MGOe range. 45MGOe! I’m not kidding around here! Should two become co-joined by mishap, they are very very difficult to pull asunder. These magnets will fly eagerly through the air to reach each other, possibly crushing your fingers in the process. Let us be honest with each other — I’m simply not responsible enough to have these around.
As much as I’d love one of these babies, I’m not responsible enough to be allowed anywhere near them either.
Everyone’s seen the media fall over themselves with a stream of unsubstantiated video game equals violence drivel, but Penny Arcade decided to do something to counter the claims that all gamers are violent miscreants with no sense social responsibility. Penny Arcade delivered over US$200,000 worth of donated toys and games, plus a cheque for US$27,000, to the Seattle Children’s Hospital. The media response was barely a blip and the single television account got every detail wrong — via Wil Wheaton Dot Net
A New Mexico couple returned home from a week-long vacation to find the legs of a dead man dangling from their ceiling. Carl Smith, 81, the former husband of the woman who lived in the home, was stuck in an air conditioner duct, cause of death has yet to be determined
Caterina Fake is sewing a dress entirely out of labels from other clothes, and she’s soliciting raw materials for the project.
If you have any clothing you are throwing out or giving away (or even if you’re not) would you do me a favor and cut the labels out of them and send them to me? I am trying to make a dress that is contructed entirely of labels for a show at the Helen Pitt this coming spring. I’ve cut all the labels out of my own clothes, and they aren’t nearly enough. I can only make a little doll-sized dress.
AOL blocked more than 500 billion spam messages for its users in 2003. That comes to 40 messages a day per user. The company regularly blocks 75-80% of all incoming mail as spam. The top 10 spam phrases for the year include such come-ons as: Viagra online
, Online pharmacy
, Get out of debt
and Get bigger
There’s tentative information about the specs of the first 2-DVD release of Invader Zim. Media Blasters reports that Invader Zim Volume 1 is planned to arrive on 11 May 2004 and will include most of season one and commentary is planned for the bulk of episodes
One roll of wrapping paper lovingly designed to be suitable for all occasions, from the collective consciousness of Plastic Hassle.
I want some, and lots of it. Not only does it cover all occasions, but it’s guaranteed to offend a wide range of recipients. How can you not be happy with that?
Designer Jim from Plastic Hassle has pointed out that was the happy customer rather than the designer of the wrapping paper. You can get it from the T-Shirt Hell, along with a huge selection of offensive t-shirts.
Sasem has shipped OnAir USB HDTV, a USB-based HDTV decoder — that is, a box you plug into your PC’s USB port and use to receive high-definition TV signals
Robert Cringely offers up his predictions for 2004, but also takes a look back at how well he did in 2003
Australians travelling to the US are being told to be honest about any past crimes or misdemeanours, no matter how trivial or how long ago, or face deportation, and even fraud charges, on their arrival. In tandem with the anti-terrorism crackdown in the US, existing visa conditions are being more strictly enforced. Anyone with a record of offences such as drink-driving or shoplifting, even as long as decades ago, is compelled to reveal his or her personal history in a visa application. From Monday, in further measures, visitors to the US who have a visa to enter the country will be digitally fingerprinted and photographed. In a backlash against US government xenophobia, Brazilian police have begun fingerprinting and photographing US visitors on orders of a judge who compared planned US security controls on travellers from Brazil and other nations to Nazi horrors
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