September 22, 2003
Spammeriffic!
Just received three of the fake "Microsoft Update" virus spams - at an email address I didn't know I had. (Which probably explains why it wasn't properly spam-filtered.)
And 132 other assorted pieces of crap. Ranging from "Hi!" to "God Bless Pixymisa and the USA!" to the usual offers of sex and money (I'm fine for both at the moment, thanks).
Look, can't we kill just a few of them? Y'know, set an example?
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
11:54 PM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
| Trackbacks (Suck)
Brrr!
Well, they fixed the air conditioning at work. And then some. It was a balmy 31 degrees today (that's
real degrees, so 88 of your puny American degrees), which I doubt the computers would have enjoyed. Naturally on such a warm day I didn't bring a jumper or a jacket or anything... So they decided to switch the air conditioning from
Ineffectual to
Antarctic.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
11:44 PM
| Comments (5)
| Add Comment
| Trackbacks (Suck)
1
I think you need to talk to Murphy about this law of his.....
Posted by: Susie at September 23, 2003 02:10 AM (0+cMc)
2
Oh, and don't most places of business only have two settings, Ineffectual and Antarctic? I know that's what we have at the theater....
Posted by: Susie at September 23, 2003 02:12 AM (0+cMc)
3
I work in the climate-controlled area of the warehouse, which means refridgerator. The majority of the bay is hell-hot or arctic-cold depending on the season, and the biggest hazard is ceiling fans falling out of the sky.
Posted by: Ted at September 23, 2003 03:24 AM (bov8n)
Hide Comments
| Add Comment
September 21, 2003
September 20, 2003
Red Thunder
Red Thunder by John Varley
I've never been disappointed by John Varley.
Until now.
If
Rocketship Galileo had been written by the Robert Heinlein who wrote
The Number of the Beast, rather than the Robert Heinlein who, well, wrote
Rocketship Galileo, you'd have
Red Thunder. It's all there: the characters too stupid to live, the pointless and unappealing sex, the arguments about who's going to drive, the contrived plot...
I give it sucks out of five. And no, I haven't suddenly developed a New Zealand accent.
Avoid.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
09:43 PM
| Comments (5)
| Add Comment
| Trackbacks (Suck)
1
Ouch! I hate when they release a book to sell on the name of the author instead of the strength of the story.
Posted by: Ted at September 20, 2003 10:06 PM (2sKfR)
2
And it damages the author in the long run--there are a lot of "big" writers I stopped reading after a real stinker...
Posted by: Susie at September 21, 2003 02:46 AM (SM1Wt)
3
I took it back to the library half-finished, and even that half was a chore. I was so sorely disappointed. That the man who gave us "Persistance of Vision" (one of the best short stories ever) or the Gaea trilogy could do so poorly... sad sad sad.
One of my favorite ways to pass the time while at a boring job is to cast the whole Gaea world as a movie.

Posted by: LeeAnn at September 21, 2003 04:25 AM (HxCeX)
Hide Comments
| Add Comment
Happy Birthday to Meeee!
It's my birthday!* This afternoon I'm going to see
Finding Nemo with my family, then maybe dinner at a non-Thai restaurant.
I wonder if I'll get any presents? I've been a little... slack in the present-giving department this year, what with my three full-time jobs and all. Maybe my nephew will give me a present, since I gave him six boxes of Lego last weekend.
* 25. Though not necessarily in base-10.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
09:51 AM
| Comments (9)
| Add Comment
| Trackbacks (Suck)
1
Happy Birthday, O Keeper of the Templates! All Hail Pixy Misa!
Posted by: Susie at September 20, 2003 11:52 AM (SM1Wt)
2
Well, I had it marked on my calendar for tomorrow, but...yeah. Tomorrow is today and spring is fall, etc etc. So happy birthday! Since it's tomorrow I don't have to talk like a pirate! Happy happy birthday, Pixy!
Posted by: Jennifer at September 20, 2003 12:27 PM (3ZCRn)
3
Yay!
We'll be taking my nephew to see Finding Nemo too. He hasn't been to the movies before - we'll se how it goes.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 20, 2003 12:51 PM (jtW2s)
4
Yay! I loved Finding Nemo, he'll love it too. Took my 3-year-old niece, it was her first movie, and she stayed still almost the whole time. And this kid NEVER stays still for more than 5 minutes. She loved it.
Posted by: Jennifer at September 20, 2003 05:39 PM (3ZCRn)
5
He decided to spend the day throwing up instead

Mine.
I didn't know it was set in Sydney. And that's exactly what the seagulls say.
Mine. Mine. Mine.
And Knick Knack was on first - the one with the missing boobies.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 20, 2003 09:36 PM (jtW2s)
Posted by: Daniel at September 21, 2003 12:49 AM (Oc6V9)
7
Happy Birthday*, Pixy!
or, well, belated or something, anyway.
*should I assume that's 25 in hex, then? ^_^
Posted by: Chris C. at September 21, 2003 04:47 AM (f9aLa)
8
Ooo...you picked a good burfday movie! Happy Birthday!
Posted by: orange haired boy at September 21, 2003 03:54 PM (l0BS5)
Hide Comments
| Add Comment
September 19, 2003
Ahoy There!
That scurvy bilge-rat of a server I mentioned yesterday, me hearties, is now booting more-or-less happily. I guess that threatening to make it walk the plank did the trick.
Arrr!
Only thing is, it insists on doing a full file-system check first. Shiver me disk drives! With 1.6 terabytes of disk, that takes a while.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
12:46 PM
| Comments (7)
| Add Comment
| Trackbacks (Suck)
1
Buck up, matey! Ye 'll have plenty o time ta drink yer grog!
Posted by: Susie at September 19, 2003 01:16 PM (SM1Wt)
2
Good point, Cap'n Susie!
Now if only I had some grog...
Arrr arr ar.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 19, 2003 02:20 PM (LBXBY)
3
Shiver me disk drives indeed!
Best pirate speak yet.
hln
Posted by: hln at September 20, 2003 02:42 AM (CWwGn)
4
Me dear wife shut down me router at the first bell of the middle watch. I was forced to slit the wench from gizzard to gullet with my cultless when I awoke this morn.
More grog!
Me bilge rat of a daughter refuses to speak like a proper pirate this day! Perhaps a keel hauling will change her temperament.
Where's me bleedin' grog!
Posted by: DreadPirateRossz at September 20, 2003 03:07 AM (43SjN)
5
There are a lot designer factories and children’s clothing shops that plan
clothes according to the seasons cheap christian
louboutin . Top designer marks like Eliane Et Lena Garments, Paper
Wings Winter Clothings, Catimini Children Clothes, Room seven Oilily sell with
summer time, monsoon, winter garments that contributes your kid from the acid
seasonal exposures louboutin
.These cool children’s clothes are now obtainable in a figure of on-line shops
christian louboutin
shoes . Kids must invariably fray colourful, cool, durable
and homely outfits that suit their age and mood christian louboutin sale! Nowadays,
a figure of clothes shops that illustrate factories like Eliane Et Lena Clothes,
Paper Wings Winter season Clothings, Catimini Kids Garments, Room Seven Oilily
are concentrating on plotting garments fully for children cheap christian louboutin shoes
. Mother and dad now have a figure of options whilst purchasing clothes for his
or her kids louboutin shoes.
Eliane Et Lena Clothes, Paper Wings Winter season Clothings, Catimini Kids
Clothes, Space seven Oilily and many other citizens checklist harvest of
designer clothes and offer the majority recent in style designer garments,
designer garments prepared of great high quality materials and it's planned to
rear upward your small 1 to contribute her or him to obtain their heavenly
originate in existence christian
louboutin sandals sale . Maybe the majority reasonable gift notion for kids
is clothing Discount
Christian loubouitn sale. Children can placed on the clothes and you can be
sure that your gift shall possibly be placed in great use cheap louboutin. Many citizens
favor purchasing for kids clothes on-line Christian Louboutin. When
planning to give kids garments as talent, you're majority possible hunting to
store online also Christian loubouitn sale.
If you're, these signals shall possibly be useful louboutin cheap
Posted by: loufsdf at May 27, 2011 11:16 PM (R2DjZ)
Hide Comments
| Add Comment
Arrrr!
Avast there!
Late for work, me hearties! Now where did I put those scurvy Linux disks?
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
09:41 AM
| Comments (3)
| Add Comment
| Trackbacks (Suck)
1
I guess it is talk like a Pirate day where you are. Even though today was the first time I have ever heard of it.
Posted by: Wanderer at September 19, 2003 10:00 AM (vbmCW)
Hide Comments
| Add Comment
September 18, 2003
Uh-Oh
My PC, it will not boot.
I rm'd * while su root.
Well, actually, I didn't. I've always wanted to try that, but I've never had a box I didn't care about at a time when I
had the time to play around.
I think it just overheated. Spring has well and truly sprung here in Sydney, but the office air conditioning is still set to Winter. So it's really not surprising that the computers are finding it a bit on the warm side.
And it's not really my PC, it's one of the servers. The one with a terabyte of data on it, to be precise.
Poot.
I've left it turned off overnight, and tomorrow I will return armed with a 30cm fan, an extension lead so we can position it somewhere a little cooler... And my Linux install CDs, because I'm not
that much of an optimist.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
06:46 PM
| Comments (13)
| Add Comment
| Trackbacks (Suck)
1
It can't be spring because it is fall.
;-)
Posted by: Jennifer at September 18, 2003 10:47 PM (rZmE1)
2
Once a friend was setting up a Linux box on a box. It was his first time. I was giving him some instructions via irc. I typed "rm -rf /*" as a joke, and then typed"just kidding, don't do that", except I was too late. On the other hand, he did learn how dangerous being logged in as root can be.
Posted by: Rossz at September 19, 2003 01:50 AM (43SjN)
3
I really need to wait until AFTER my morning coffee before posting, or learn to proof-read when half asleep.
Posted by: Rossz at September 19, 2003 01:52 AM (43SjN)
4
He's still your friend? Wow.
Posted by: Victor at September 19, 2003 02:04 AM (FNHVL)
5
Well, Jennifer, this is where it gets confusing. You see, down here, September comes in March, so it really is Spring. Also, while you are still in 2003, we're already in 2020. The only people ahead of us are the Kiwis, who don't really matter that much even if they did beat us in last year's Americas Cup race to Pluto.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 19, 2003 02:48 AM (jtW2s)
6
You forgot to tell her about your drains swirling backwards because you are upside down....
Posted by: Susie at September 19, 2003 03:08 AM (SM1Wt)
7
That's because they don't. It's a myth.
Our drains swirl upwards. Something of a problem, that.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 19, 2003 03:18 AM (jtW2s)
8
Definitely a myth. See this site for explanation: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_161
I see a Science at Home forming on this - or not...
Posted by: Daniel at September 19, 2003 06:41 AM (Oc6V9)
9
Our drains swirl upwards. Something of a problem, that.
So, you have toilet towels instead of toilet paper, right?
Posted by: Victor at September 19, 2003 06:43 AM (FNHVL)
Posted by: Jennifer at September 19, 2003 09:02 AM (rZmE1)
11
Back in the 80's (when dinosaurs ruled the earth) I was sitting at a terminal - before PC's you went to the terminal room to work - and just happened to glance at the next guy's screen. He typed "RM COBOLV", hit return, logged off and left. Ten minutes later the Military Police were there, looking for the guy who deleted the Cobol compiler. It was scary thinking that we had that kind of power as a default, and the only hope was to hope we never thought to try something so stupid.
Posted by: Ted at September 19, 2003 10:35 AM (2sKfR)
12
I remember terminals!
Only I was one of those nasty egg-stealing little Unix rodents.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 19, 2003 12:49 PM (LBXBY)
Hide Comments
| Add Comment
September 17, 2003
Just One Of Those Days

See you tomorrow.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
11:03 PM
| Comments (5)
| Add Comment
| Trackbacks (Suck)
1
Awww, penggie.

Posted by: Jennifer at September 18, 2003 12:06 AM (rZmE1)
2
everyone likes babies

Posted by: Ted at September 18, 2003 01:04 AM (2sKfR)
3
cute penguin! cute kitty! awwwww.....
Posted by: Susie at September 18, 2003 01:33 AM (SM1Wt)
4
Awwww....that is cute!!
Posted by: Tink at September 18, 2003 08:51 AM (Pp0b1)
Hide Comments
| Add Comment
September 16, 2003
Urk
How did I end up with two full time jobs instead of one part time job?
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
08:18 PM
| Comments (10)
| Add Comment
| Trackbacks (Suck)
1
Because you volunteered to move the whole blogosphere offa BlogSnot for free?
Posted by: victor at September 16, 2003 10:23 PM (L3qPK)
Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 16, 2003 11:26 PM (jtW2s)
3
P.S. Don't tell them that, Victor! Now they'll all want one!
Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 16, 2003 11:32 PM (jtW2s)
Posted by: Jennifer at September 16, 2003 11:39 PM (E9paH)
Posted by: Ted at September 17, 2003 05:07 AM (2sKfR)
Posted by: LeeAnn at September 17, 2003 11:58 PM (HxCeX)
7
And I somehow spelled my own name incorrectly. Geez.
Posted by: LeeAnn at September 18, 2003 10:51 AM (HxCeX)
8
Did you? I hadn't noticed.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 18, 2003 06:48 PM (jtW2s)
Hide Comments
| Add Comment
September 15, 2003
Naughtiness
The Axis of Naughty rules!
Instapundit...
Oops, I mean
Instapundit says so.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
11:29 PM
| Comments (5)
| Add Comment
| Trackbacks (Suck)
Posted by: Jennifer at September 15, 2003 11:41 PM (rZmE1)
2
Hiya, Pixy! Before my computer crashes again or bursts into flames, I want to ask ya something.
Are you still looking for new blogs to add? If you are, check out Death's Door. It's on my blog roll. This guy is GREAT. I've read most of his archives and he has mentioned getting off Blogsnot before. He's consistent, funny and you can tell by the way he writes and thinks that he's a good guy. I haven't said anything to him about any of this, 'cause I wanted to check with you first. If you do move him over here, ya won't be sorry. (Don't let the title scare ya off. There's very little, if anything about actual death.)
Posted by: Stevie at September 16, 2003 11:24 AM (3Sob/)
3
What's wrong with death? I posted about death once. Should revisit that one of these days...hmm.
Posted by: Jennifer at September 16, 2003 03:50 PM (rZmE1)
4
Ain't nothing wrong with death. Except, I hope I don't go through it 'til I'm back in those 29" waist jeans...sigh.
I just didn't want Pixy to be leery of the title. Actually the whole thing is something like "Death's Door-The view from the Spanish Announcer's table". Which has something to do with wrestlers being heaved out of the ring, on top of the Spanish announcer-guys table all the time. (Don't ask me...I just like readin' the guy. He's really funny and he's got a unique way of expressing himself.)
I'm hoping Pixy likes him enough to invite him to come here, too.
Posted by: Stevie at September 16, 2003 06:37 PM (2CdrH)
Hide Comments
| Add Comment
September 14, 2003
Magic
I spent the day at my brother's house celebrating my nephew's second birthday. While he likes the Lego I bought him, his favourite present by far was the
Wiggles Safari DVD (the Wiggles meet Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter).
As soon as he had it unwrapped, he grabbed the DVD, trotted into the living room, and -
Well, he doesn't
quite have this down pat. He put the DVD on the shelf under the TV, grabbed the remote control, and started pushing buttons. After all, the DVD player is too high up for him to reach, so it's worth a try.
At two, he's realised that if you put the shiny round thing in the silver rectangular thing and push the little buttons on the small grey oblong thing, pictures and music come from the square black thing and you can dance along - which at that age consists of spinning in circles until you fall over.
Unfortunately, the DVD was warped, and in the middle of
Wobbly Camel the picture and sound broke up and it swiftly became unwatchable. We found that only the first two and last three of fifteen or so songs played properly.
Which kind of ruined the magic...
What I'd like to do here is write a Whittleian essay about how what engineers really want to do is
magic - build machines that work so well that the very workings that they laboured so hard to create are effectively invisible to the user. You do
this and
that happens, every time, without any noise or smoke or heat. You don't need to pull it apart twice a year to grease the flanges or re-tune the interociter. You don't need to prime it with margarine before starting it when the weather's below freezing.
It just works.
I guess I went into computers because it's the closest useful field we have to magic. You move this thing until that thing points to this other thing, then you push on this thing and music! Movies! Books! Your printer springs to life and prints out a newspaper, or you send a letter to your friend on the other side of the world (and it arrives in a matter of seconds.)
Bugs are the mis-aligned gears and dry solder joints in the engineering magic of programming. When you run into a bug, it reveals the workings you've tried so hard to hide. The magic is ruined, though we're used to it and we usually manage to pick ourselves up and move on.
(Like, say, when my ADSL connection drops out and destroys the illusion that the internet is "just there".)
One recent failed spell has reduced
Tuning Spork to
speaking in tongues in a most amusing way, but usually the results are just a bloody nuisance.
I have no idea where this post is going, though, so I'll stop here. If you do happen to know, please tell me and I'll do my best to finish it.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
08:25 PM
| Comments (15)
| Add Comment
| Trackbacks (Suck)
1
I think you were going to say that all bugs must be stomped out so that the illusion of magic remains intact.
Posted by: Susie at September 15, 2003 01:31 AM (SM1Wt)
2
Excellent post! I love hearing Mac users tell me how difficult and clunky Windows is, because I get to ask them how many AOL uers they know who couldn't function on a Mac. My father-in-law is the perfect example. He has no clue as to what he's doing, but manages quite nicely on AOL.
Posted by: Ted at September 15, 2003 04:36 AM (2sKfR)
3
My interociter is much nicer than that.
Posted by: Ryan at September 16, 2003 11:59 PM (SrRJG)
4
I can help *starts signing*;
crocodile hunter,
big Steve Irwin.
crocodile hunter,
action man -
crocodile hunter,
tell ya true-
krighky, it's a croc',
I'll save it if I can.
or
http://www.thewiggles.com.au/CD/safari/wigglysafarimusic.html
Posted by: jim at September 17, 2003 11:27 AM (lN8eP)
5
Thanks, but I already have that stuck firmly in my head, so you can't do any more damage.
Oh, by the way, it's "crikey".
Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 17, 2003 11:54 AM (jtW2s)
6
ccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccc
Posted by: wow power leveling at March 27, 2008 12:40 PM (DXRxB)
Hide Comments
| Add Comment
September 13, 2003
September 12, 2003
Scarcity Abounds
I may be somewhat scarce on mu.nu this weekend - I have books to read, programs to write, presents to buy, parties to attend (yay!) - so there will be bloggage after, but perhaps not so much bloggage during.
In the meantime, why is it taking so darn long to grep this file? It's only, um, five gigabytes. It's not like it's particularly big or anything...
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
11:46 PM
| Comments (6)
| Add Comment
| Trackbacks (Suck)
1
Nothing like an abundance of scarcity to pique interest....
Posted by: Susie at September 13, 2003 01:17 AM (SM1Wt)
2
One would think that an abundance of scarcity would pique indifference - but then what does one know?
Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 13, 2003 01:25 AM (jtW2s)
3
Ah! but people love a mystery....
Posted by: Susie at September 13, 2003 01:40 AM (SM1Wt)
Posted by: Ted at September 13, 2003 02:27 AM (bov8n)
Hide Comments
| Add Comment
September 11, 2003
Europe
I'm having a discussion elsewhere with a gentleman from a European country which I will not name. Here's a snippet - my comments are in plain text, his in italics):
The way I look at it, is this: the concept of democracy has a number of elements which we can use to ascertain the degree of democracy. The GDR was a socalled "peoples democracy" which in our definition was not a democracy.
Yes, this is known as "a lie".
Another interpretation is not necessarily a lie.
This is not "another interpretation". Calling East Germany a democracy is a lie. There's no complication here, it is simply and entirely untrue.
From our point of view it is a lie, not from theirs. Why would our truth be more true than that of others? Because we have proven it to be so because the wall fell?
And here we get to the crux of the problem, the post-modernist fallacy that all points of view are equally valid.
Words have meaning. "Democracy" has a meaning. East Germany was not a democracy. This is a fact. They called it a democracy, therefore they lied. This is also a fact.
In fact, they knew damn well that it wasn't a democracy and the whole thing was a sham from the beginning.
Some people just don't get it.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
10:18 PM
| Comments (8)
| Add Comment
| Trackbacks (Suck)
1
This "words have meanings" problem seems to be a recurring theme among certain ( liberal) groups of thinkers. It goes hand in hand with moral relativism, especially when they things like "What the U.S. did in Afghanistan was terrorism." No. Terrorism has a specific meaning.
Posted by: Daniel at September 11, 2003 10:58 PM (Oc6V9)
2
Exactly. Though I take exception to this use of a perfectly good word (liberal) when we have a much more specific term (left-wing nutcases). Also with your use of the word "thinkers".
This particular individual might not have the full disease, and might respond to a treatment of facts and differing opinions. He is at least polite.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 11, 2003 11:10 PM (jtW2s)
3
This explains the invention of the Cluebat™.
Posted by: Susie at September 12, 2003 03:53 AM (SM1Wt)
Posted by: Ted at September 12, 2003 09:51 PM (bov8n)
5
Where do words get their definitions?
Posted by: Ron at September 17, 2003 07:53 AM (sEgIW)
6
At the Meaning Shop. They're having a sale right now - buy two meanings, get a free conjugation.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 17, 2003 10:07 AM (jtW2s)
Hide Comments
| Add Comment
Shitferrets Are Us
SilverBlue is
not happy with the shitferrets* at the RIAA.
Not happy at all.
* In one post I used the term shitweasels to refer to the senior management at SCO, and received an irate comment from a shitweasel complaining that I had unfairly maligned shitweasels the world over. Hence the neologism.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
01:59 AM
| Comments (4)
| Add Comment
| Trackbacks (Suck)
1
Hmm...both my pings to him timed out, as did yours..you think they bumped into each other in cyberspace and bounced back?
Posted by: Susie at September 11, 2003 02:13 AM (SM1Wt)
2
Good thing they didn't cancel out!
Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 11, 2003 02:16 AM (jtW2s)
3
You ponged him!!!!! SO did Jennifer! LOL! I'm usually the one who does that!
Posted by: Susie at September 11, 2003 02:17 AM (SM1Wt)
Hide Comments
| Add Comment
Bloggers Under Glass
N.Z. Bear has a particularly fine collection of bloggers in this week's
New Weblog Showcase.
Jerry McCusker of
Machine in the Ghost ponders the question of what things would be like
If Americans Ran the Afterlife, and suggests that Purgatory could be run at a profit.
Open Source Software Law has a background article on
SCO vs. IBM, but they lose points for failing to use the word "shitferret".
Virtue Pure (sounds like a bottled-water company)
muses on the value of role-playing, and suggests that playing Dungeons and Dragons may in fact lead us to better understand other people.
And if that fails, we can zap them with
Leomund's Lamentable Belabourment. That'll teach them.
Aaron at
Pardon my English suggests that giving drivers licenses to
illegal immigrants
may not be the smartest move.
Iocean at
Inspiranote returns to
an essay written shortly after the September 11 attacks. This is warm fuzzy new-age stuff, unfortunately, and not for me at all.
Eye on the Left picks up on some
unusually insane ramblings. The post consists almost entirely of the quoted insanity, which confused me a little when I read it reformatted on the Bear's site.
Brainstorming spotted James Dean keeping an eye on holiday traffic and stopped to
take pictures.
I couldn't find the selected post from
Like a Packet of Woodbines, but
this picture is a classic.
And Jim at
Snooze Button Dreams wonders why he
can't be gay.
So, who are my picks?
Brainstorming, because, well, that's cool
and funny.
Snooze Button Dreams because it's funny and insightful, and because I have an addiction to the snooze button myself.
And
Pardon my English, because sometimes irony will not do and you just have to cut loose with a rant.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
12:32 AM
| Comments (9)
| Add Comment
| Trackbacks (Suck)
Posted by: Jennifer at September 11, 2003 01:50 AM (rZmE1)
2
Thank you!
I'm still not getting links to ambientirony.mu.nu counted

I think I know why, and I left a little note for Mr Bear, who perhaps can look into it.
So in the mean time I'll just have to link to everyone else!
Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 11, 2003 01:52 AM (jtW2s)
3
I can't find the correct post at Snooze Buttons Dreams...stupid bogsplot!
Posted by: Susie at September 11, 2003 02:20 AM (SM1Wt)
4
Stupid Blogspot! Hey!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 11, 2003 02:24 AM (jtW2s)
5
Hi Pixy,
Wait until they hear that you were my first, uh....trackback that is. I had been meaning to find out what that "trackback" button actually did, but I think I get it now! (You might have picked up on the fact that having a blog is a real new experience for me.....lol.)
I like the design of your site, clean and easy on the eyes. It looks like you're in Australia? I plan on adding a list of bloggers around the world.
Nice to meet you and a sincere thanks for being the first to link to a post in brainstorming!
DC
Posted by: DC at September 11, 2003 08:22 AM (hXV8K)
6
thanks for voting in the New Blog Showcase.... there is an angry blogger, however, that is critical of your multiple votes for certain entries (curi.blogspot.com). This person has also made a mockery of the democratic process by casting 25+ votes for another entry in an attempt to bring up VirtuePure's vote count.
Posted by: Aaron at September 14, 2003 03:46 AM (P3ldy)
7
There is always an angry blogger. It's one of the Laws of the Net. (Another law is that any forum will contain at least one crazed lefty.)
Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 14, 2003 04:41 AM (jtW2s)
8
Well, the link whore won the showcase.... he had 6 separate bloggers vote for his entry TWICE, and they dind't do what you did, and vote for everyone once, and their own personal votes a second time...
Whatever happened to fair play?
Oh well... life goes on.
Posted by: Aaron at September 15, 2003 11:58 PM (P3ldy)
Hide Comments
| Add Comment
September 10, 2003
Feces-Flinging DRM
Feces Flinging Monkey (no,
not Ethel, a different one) has a
rather depressing look at digital rights management (DRM) and how it will destroy civilisation.
What he fails to consider is that all DRM is ultimately doomed for the simple reason that DRM is
digital and humans are
analogue. Can't rip an MP3 of that song? Play it back and record it again. So you lose a little quality. Can't cut-and-paste that article from the New York Times? Well, you can read it, yes? You can type, yes?
And so on. Which doesn't mean that the DRM-types aren't evil - they are evil, no question - just that DRM isn't going to bring about the heat death of the universe.
That's my job.
I would have left a comment at the Monkey's blog, but his comments don't work right now. Funny how that happens to the not-Munuvians.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
04:27 AM
| Comments (9)
| Add Comment
| Trackbacks (Suck)
1
Um, how come you have a "more" link but there's no more?
Can I help "bring about the heat death of the universe" in my capacity as Linkmistress of Chaos?
Dang, now I'm going to be late for work!

Posted by: Susie at September 10, 2003 05:22 AM (SM1Wt)
2
There's more, you just can't get to it... Now there's a bug if ever I saw one. Or at least a misfeature.
Run, Susie, run!
Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 10, 2003 11:20 AM (jtW2s)
3
Hi...it's me. Thank you for inviting me to get off Blogsplat and into the real world. Just tell me what I need to do...and, bear in mind that I am a computer-illiterate blonde. I can't even fix my stupid template. Linking from Blogspot gives me pin-point bleeds in my brain. I downloaded MT once and didn't get anywhere with it. Of course, at the time I was using a computer that was at least 10 years old. I'd like to try it again.
Honestly, I'm starting to feel like a blog on blogspot is like cubic zirconia. Pretty, but not real. Besides, in the not-too-distant-future, I fear there'll only be me and a few crickets left at blogspot.
In case it doesn't show up for you and you need it, my email address is srv200163 at Yahoo dot com.
Thank you again and I sincerely hope my ineptitude doesn't make you regret this...
(I gotta go warn Ted that I'm probably gonna need his help with this.)
Posted by: Stevie at September 10, 2003 03:14 PM (AJ0RC)
4
The "play it and record it again" trick is called "the analog hole" by the recording industry. DRM is specifically designed to deal with this.
It works like this: you get your music and play it, re-record it, write a nice unprotected MP3... and nobody can listen to your new MP3, because DRM machines won't play media that doesn't have a DRM authorization. Obviously, if they did allow old MP3s to play, the analog hole would remain open and the entire system would quickly implode, just as you described.
A full-bore DRM machine will not run unauthorised programs. Authorised programs will not open unauthorised media. That's how it works.
Sorry...
Posted by: Mike Spenis at September 11, 2003 12:39 PM (43gaF)
5
Good point. So either (a) we need to fake DRM (which will be illegal, if it isn't already) or (b) we need to keep our old machines that actually work.
Mind you, a full-strength universal DRM requires a level of totalitarian government and big-business control that is utterly terrifying far beyond the mere inability to play music when we want to.
As I said, the backers of DRM are evil. I wasn't engaging in hyperbole - these people want to control your thoughts. Literally. I think you at least realise that.
This needs more though than I can give it right now. I'll come back to it soon.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 11, 2003 12:47 PM (jtW2s)
6
So either (a) we need to fake DRM (which will be illegal, if it isn't already) or (b) we need to keep our old machines that actually work.
Faking DRM is pretty hard - the core of it uses something called public key encryption, which, if properly implemented, is essentially unbreakable. The implementation will certainly have some flaws which could be exploited, but as those flaws are discovered, they would be fixed. Eventually, it would not be practical to fake it out.
Older machines (or, for that matter, Linux machines) will serve you well until they are no longer able to connect to the internet. In my opinion, DRM will eventually be required by the ISPs before they let you on. You could still play your own music files, but you would no longer be able to trade them.
Posted by: Mike Spenis at September 11, 2003 11:53 PM (3bPQJ)
7
We need a common blog for this

As you say, DRM builds on public key encryption. But that in itself is not enough. With public key encryption, you can do one of two things: encrypt something with someones public key so that only they can read it, or encrypt something with your own private key so that others can verify that it came from you.
Now, where are these keys going to come from? People can't be allowed to make their own, as they'll just share them when they need to share files. And you'd have to rely on people keeping and never losing their key. It would be a nightmare for the media companies.
No, it's going to be implemented in hardware like DVD region codes, and kept as a trade secret. (Patents won't work - though aspects of it will be patented. Copyright is completely useless.)
So every machine that can play digital media - everything from watches to phones to cars to fridges - has to be replaced with a DRM-locked version. And that trade secret has to remain secure and unhacked or the whole thing is screwed.
As for the analog hole: The only way to block it is to take away - forever - many things that people can do right now and indeed have been able to do for years, things that are taken as very basic functionality in a huge variety of devices. Rather than preventing people releasing their own DRM'd stuff copied through the analog hole, they could instead track this - if they had a global registry of every DRM-capable recording device and who owned each one.
As I said before, the really scary part is not DRM itself, but the level of legislation and policing required to make it leakproof. George Orwell was a piker compared to these guys.
tom beta 2's point on opponents is a good one: China and Taiwan and many developing countries have a rather relaxed view of copyright laws and would love to build a profitable industry selling DRM circumvention devices.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 12, 2003 12:16 AM (jtW2s)
8
We need a common blog for this
Aw, what the heck. It's easy to cut-and-paste.
You made a good point about embedded keys. I don't know exactly how DRM would address this problem. If they do embed keys, they are going to have to deal, somehow, with these keys being uncovered.
As I understand it, users have keys, too. They are tied to your name and credit card, and are used to originally purchace the copyrighted work. If you trade away your key, your name and card go with it...
WRT overseas competition, that goes away as soon as DRM becomes part of the law. Just as nobody tries to sell radios that aren't FCC compliant, nobody will try to sell non-DRM hardware, either. Even if they did, it, like the older hardware, would probably be excluded from the internet anyway.
Posted by: Mike Spenis at September 12, 2003 03:11 AM (W64Mu)
Hide Comments
| Add Comment
When You Care Enough
Darl McBride, Chief Shitferret at SCO (member of the Axis of Bloody Nuisances), has posted an
open letter to the Open Source Community. Not surprisingly, the letter is filled with mistruths and untruths and has generated appropriate levels of flamage at sites like
Slashdot.
There's also a feedback feature at LinuxWorld's site, where the letter is posted. This is what came up when I stopped by:
127 feedback items so far - last one posted 9 September 2003 12:08 PM
* Aaron Graves commented ...
Open Letter from Aaron Graves to SCO:
Dear Mr. McBride;
Go fuck yourself.
Sincerely,
Aaron Graves
That sums up the mood of the Open Source Community nicely.
Meanwhile, fellow Axis of Bloody Nuisances member the RIAA has taken to filing lawsuits against
twelve-year-old girls. Nice move, public-relations-wise.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
02:46 AM
| Comments (6)
| Add Comment
| Trackbacks (Suck)
1
A TWELVE-YEAR-OLD GIRL? They really are idiots. That just makes me so angry. Thanks for bringing this article to my attention.
Posted by: Wanderer at September 10, 2003 06:05 AM (hnF59)
2
I love that term: shitferret. I've long been searching for a catch-all word to sum up my exes.
And the post was very informative too.
Thanks.

Posted by: LeeAnn at September 10, 2003 07:42 AM (HxCeX)
Hide Comments
| Add Comment
September 09, 2003
Mister Green
A very warm Munuvian welcome for [
Who is it this time, Susie? Right, thanks.]
Mister Green. Mister Green is the product of early bioengineering experiments conducted on [
What's that? Oh. Right, I see.]
Mister Green is
not the product of early bioengineering experiments, and in fact comes certified 100% natural ingredients.
Snap! Crackle! Mister Green!
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
01:47 AM
| Comments (6)
| Add Comment
| Trackbacks (Suck)
1
Pixy, if your surname is Misa, do you have any idea where your family originates from? I am researching a Misa family from Spain. Buenventura Pablo Misa's to be exact.
Posted by: Rosie at September 09, 2003 03:02 AM (e4Uwn)
2
Sorry, Rosie. I borrowed the name from a Japanese cartoon character. My real surname is Polish.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 09, 2003 03:09 AM (jtW2s)
Hide Comments
| Add Comment
September 08, 2003
This Comes As No Surprise
To anyone who knows me:

My inner child is six years old!
Look what I can do! I can walk, I can run, I can
read! I like to do stuff, and there's a whole
big world out there to do it in. Just so long
as I can take my blankie and my Mommy and my
three best friends with me, of course.
How Old is Your Inner Child?
brought to you by Quizilla
Where the heck
is my blankie, anyway?
(Thanks to Cherry)
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
01:50 PM
| Comments (7)
| Add Comment
| Trackbacks (Suck)
Posted by: Cherry at September 08, 2003 02:00 PM (i7dMY)
2
I think your blankie is in the fort with Teddy and Gerry the Giraffe....
Posted by: Susie at September 08, 2003 03:54 PM (SM1Wt)
Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 08, 2003 03:56 PM (LBXBY)
4
I'm in the fort? Dang, I'm supposed to be at work!
Posted by: Ted at September 08, 2003 10:10 PM (Qj620)
Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 09, 2003 01:15 AM (jtW2s)
Hide Comments
| Add Comment
Daniel Moore
Another new Munuvian! This time it's
Daniel Moore, nanotechnology researcher and all-round good guy. By curious coincidence, not long before joining us here he discovered this:
The Japanese have a word alleged, by Douglas Hofstadter - writer of this great book I read in AP US History forever ago called American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It, to mean "Your question cannot be answered because it depends on incorrect assumptions." I recently had a long discussion with a friend in which my answers were based on how I can't answer her questions because of the underlying assumptions to her argument that I didn't buy into and I didn't want to validate them. I could have just used this word. It is pronouced "moo" like the cow noise and is unfortunately transliterated to "mu" (unfortunate because it only supports people mispronouncing the Greek letter with the same transliteration).
My mother gave me Hofstadter's
Gödel, Escher, Bach for Christmas when I was 16, which led (via a tortuous path) to this very web site.
mu.
nu: The only way I could have packed more meaning into a domain name would have been to call it cat.dog... And there's no .dog TLD, so that's out anyway.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
02:14 AM
| Comments (3)
| Add Comment
| Trackbacks (Suck)
1
I had read that "mu" thing in the Illuminati Trilogy instead of Hofstadter (probably came from him very indirectly, as Wilson et al got it from the Discordians, and the Discordians probably ripped it off from Hofstadter himself). This definition takes issue with his claim, and suggests that it's a (possibly deliberate) misunderstanding of a famous Zen koan.
Posted by: Mitch H. at September 09, 2003 09:10 AM (tVSJJ)
Hide Comments
| Add Comment
September 07, 2003
Slow News Day
So I'll do what all the big news people do... Baby animal pictures!
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
09:46 PM
| Comments (10)
| Add Comment
| Trackbacks (Suck)
Posted by: Susie at September 07, 2003 11:24 PM (UA6yw)
2
Awwww. While installing the wood floor at my parents' house yesterday morning, I turned on Animal Planet for background noise. They had polar bears...a mama bear and her two adorable cubs. It was all cute and sweet until they ate a baby seal. Then when a male bear started stalking them and ate a cub, my own mother had enough. We watched college football after that.
Posted by: Jennifer at September 07, 2003 11:59 PM (rZmE1)
3
Yuck. Thanks, Jen--now I have to go to work with THAT image in my head....
Posted by: Susie at September 08, 2003 12:37 AM (UA6yw)
Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 08, 2003 01:36 AM (jtW2s)
5
If I had to be horrified, YOU have to be horrified.
Posted by: Jennifer at September 08, 2003 07:31 AM (rZmE1)
Posted by: Cherry at September 08, 2003 09:08 AM (i7dMY)
7
Firstly, on the cute babies: awwwww!
Secondly, I saw the frozen-baby-polar-bear-for-dinner show. Unfortunately, I was eating a popsicle at the time.
Posted by: LeeAnn at September 09, 2003 03:15 AM (HxCeX)
8
New desktop pictures!
hln
Posted by: hln at September 10, 2003 01:25 AM (CWwGn)
9
Oooooh, they're beautiful! I want one! Of each!
That second thing? That is why I refuse to watch Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom-type stuff. I had the horrible misfortune of seeing an adult male lion kill a females babies to make her come into heat. I love animals, but I'd have gladly shot his face off.
And, don't even get me started on those Nancy-boy, lame-ass, too-rich, ignorant wastes of life like Gerald McRaney (and Ted Nugent) who think it's cool to pay to kill exotic animals INSIDE a fence or cage. Talk about wanting to shoot someone's face off....EEEERRRRGGG.
Posted by: Stevie at September 13, 2003 06:03 AM (cySDt)
Hide Comments
| Add Comment
September 06, 2003
What If We Held A Convention
And
everyone came?
I think the people responsible for the CounterConvention have a slight problem. Check out
this list of groups who have signed on as part of their RNC party-pooping program:
The Committee of Circular Flying Birds
Dwarves for the Responsible Control of Pliers
International Consortium of Those as Drunk as We Are
Glow Rabbit Society
Modern Drunkard Magazine
Society of Poop-Throwing Monkeys
John Dillinger Died for You Society
The Wow, Most People Think We're Idiots Association
Libs Against Basic Web Page Design (their motto: We’re too stupid to understand word wrap)
International Coalition of People Who Just Don't Get It
International Anti-Ismist Anti-Organisation
Bottle o' Pop Action Network
UNIX Users United for IMF Riots
Radical Anarchist Feminazis Against Veganism
Radical Anarchist Veganazis Against Feminism
Organization of People Who Always Show up at Protests
Sedated Gorillas for Masturbation and the Oppression of Iraqis by Devil Bush (We are a society of sedated Gorillas that only want the government to provide us our constitutionally-provided right to the pursuit of happiness, i.e., manual stimulation. And a free bottle of pop. And maybe a taco. It's our right goddamn it.)
Purple Polar Bear Society
Popular Front For the Liberation of This Website (All property is theft, including this website.)
Chocolate Chinchilla Coterie (An organization devoted to pitying the Angry Left while sipping martinis.)
ONOMATOPOEIA NOW! (Bang! Swish! Purr! Buzz!)
National Burping Society
Dead Penguins Society
Twinkies For The Ethical Treatment Of Twinkies
ZIG for Great Justice (Someone set us up the bomb. You are on your way to destruction. )
Australians Against Iowa Cornfields
Judean People's Front
Judean People's Behind
Die, Manatee Die!
Dreadlock Army (Too mellow to march.)
Tigers Are Great (Tigers are cool. Anyone who doesn't want to be a tiger is a fool.)
Organization of Bemused Onlookers
Oh yes, and:
Jimmy Taranto Fan Club (We love Best of the Web! )
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
03:29 PM
| Comments (29)
| Add Comment
| Trackbacks (Suck)
1
The Coalition to Save Us From All Marmite; It’s Pasty Evil
Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 06, 2003 03:34 PM (jtW2s)
2
The Clean Musk Ox union (End capitalist (marmite) pollution of our musk ox supplies!)
Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 06, 2003 03:34 PM (jtW2s)
Posted by: Ted at September 07, 2003 12:52 AM (2sKfR)
Posted by: Susie at September 07, 2003 12:54 AM (UA6yw)
5
I just followed the link and I scrolled through dozens of hilarious "organizations" and still didn't get to the parts of the list you listed....
one of my favorites was the coalition of people without shift keys....they're not timid, really...
Posted by: Susie at September 07, 2003 01:01 AM (UA6yw)
6
Susie, same here! This is some of the funniest crap I've ever read, and I'm still only 1/5 down the scroll bar. Be back in a couple hours!
Posted by: Tuning Spork at September 07, 2003 11:39 AM (Ll8Sl)
7
Wait a minute...I must have missed the Australians Against Iowa Cornfields earlier.
Posted by: Jennifer at September 08, 2003 12:02 AM (rZmE1)
8
Well, looks like they finally cleared all the funny ones. Dang.
Posted by: Tuning Spork at September 09, 2003 11:41 AM (68FmU)
9
I saved a copy

Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 09, 2003 11:48 AM (jtW2s)
10
They've cleaned it up now, but it still includes "Pieman (Global Pastry Uprising)". Mmm... pastry uprising.
Posted by: Rob at September 09, 2003 07:08 PM (ISznP)
11
The Adidas Titan Bounce White/Black<a href="http://www.adidasporschesdesign.com"><strong>Adidas Bounce</strong></a> Silver Metallic/Satellite G12244 provides all you need in a running shoe: comfort, versatility and lightweight.Inspiration of F50 is used in running shoes design and Hypermotion is developed. This is the lightest and fastest cushion design. Eva insole molded according to body structure is very comfortable to your feet. The new Bounce bottom tray guarantees its light weight. The reflective metallic three-tripe is more fashionable.
A force to be reckoned with, the adidas Titan running shoe employs BOUNCE(tm) for ultimate energy return, HyperMOTION for a faster and more efficient ride, and an adiWEAR(reg) outsole for high-wear durability, making this a high-tech, lightweight running<a href="http://www.adidasporschesdesign.com"><strong>Adidas Porsche Design</strong></a>.
Bounce back from a long day with the lively ride you'll come to expect from the adidas Titan. ; Air mesh upper supplies maximum ventilation for a truly breathable environment. ; Plush collar for added comfort. ; Non-slip lining for great slip in comfort and performance. ; Contoured EVA sockliner provides an anatomical fit and an exceptional feel. ; BOUNCE midsole delivers enhanced energy return with every stride. ; HyperMOTION technology with leaf springs in the heel helps to absorb the shock of impact and convert that energy for a more dynamic ride. ; adiWEAR outsole offers long-lasting wear. ; 14.00 oz. ; Product measurements were taken using size 11. Please note that measurements may vary by size
Posted by: Hermes Birkin Bags at June 27, 2011 07:56 PM (9tAYm)
12
http://www.buysoilpainting.com . oilpaintings can change your taste of life
Posted by: oilpaintings at July 06, 2011 04:53 PM (Ti2nF)
Hide Comments
| Add Comment
<< Page 60 >>
Processing 0.03, elapsed 0.1198 seconds.
49 queries taking 0.0961 seconds, 173 records returned.
Page size 117 kb.
Powered by Minx 0.8 beta.