August 2008
61 posts
Dumbest salvo yet in the war on terror, courtesy... →
Today I spotted this sign at a Tesco’s grocery store in Islington, London — it might just be the single stupidest salvo in the war on terror to date, courtesy of the London Metropolitan Police:
Porn Mode On! - Part 2 →
Download pornmode2.comicdoc
The uncanny valley →
Tom points us to this fascinating concept. It’s called the uncanny valley and it goes back as far as Freud. When you get too good at faking it, people freak out. We love cute dogs, cute monkeys,…
Jesus Blamed For Windows Error Message →
A sign appears to BLAME JESUS for an error message. (props to FAIL Blog)
Yankees will drag you out of the stadium if you... →
The Yankees are serious about their bizarre prohibition on going to the bathroom during the playing of “God Bless America” during the Seventh Inning Stretch: a man was dragged out of the stadium for…
What Does a Video Ad On the YouTube Homepage Cost? →
$175,000 per day, says Forbes in July, with an additional $50,000 that need to be spent on Google/ YouTube ads. (New ad formats may come up too, Silicon Alley Insider reports.) [Via …
Making money on YouTube with Content ID →
Late last year, we introduced our newest tool for YouTube’s content identification and management system, Video ID. While we have long provided copyright owners with similar content policies and…
Guitar Praise: Christianized Guitar Hero →
Guitar Praise is an, er, Christian knock-off of Guitar Hero. “Grab the guitar and play along with top Christian bands! Shred those riffs or blast the bass…you add a unique sound to the…
Why China Saves So Much Money →
Great post by John Hempton on the real roots of China’s penchant for savings: Its one-child policy. In most poor jurisdictions there is a simple method of saving for old age. Have six kids. They…
Opentape: Host Your Own Muxtape Clone →
We were big fans of Muxtape here at ReadWriteWeb, but when the the virtual mixtape service shut its doors last week because of legal issues with the Recording Industry Association of…
City Tells Woman She Can't Link; So She Sues →
A woman named Jennifer Reisinger claims the Sheboygan, Milwaukee, city attorney ordered her to remove links to the city’s police department web site from her personal site. She believes the order was…
Why China Saves So Much Money →
Great post by John Hempton on the real roots of China’s penchant for savings: Its one-child policy. In most poor jurisdictions there is a simple method of saving for old age. Have six kids. They…
Geek & Pokes Little Weekend Thoughts →
Download weekendthoughts.comicdoc
Developers Can Roll Their Own Multi-Touch PCs →
A company called NOR_/D (a self-described “research and development studio… in the area of art, architecture, and system design.”) is now selling an inexpensive development kit for…
Polish Telecom Hired 'Hip' Actors to Queue... →
There’s an offensive joke in here somewhere. Poland’s largest telecom, called Telekomunikacja Polska, admitted today to hiring “hip-looking film” actors to STAND IN LINE for the recent…
Profile of Hans Monderman, radical traffic... →
Tom Vanderbilt of the The Wilson Quarterly profiles the recently-departed traffic engineer, Hans Monderman, of the “less is more” school of traffic control.
Vanderbilt is the author of…
AdSense Click Tracking Data in Google Analytics Is... →
If you are using Google AdSense on your website, here’s some very good news.
You will soon be able to track visitor clicks on your AdSense ads using Google Analytics reports.
These new…
The LDS/Facebook Rumor Didn't Pass the Common... →
In the absence of news, there’s nothing the blogosphere loves more than an unfounded, nonsensical rumor, especially if two visible, but often misunderstood, parties are involved. I was amusingly…
Apple Store Wrecks New York City Neighborhood →
A New York City residents’ group has filed a formal, public complaint against Apple, saying that its lower-Manhattan Apple store is the “WORST NEIGHBOR in SoHo.” The group is vexed by not…
Songsterr: A Flash Guitar Tab Player That Might... →
One of the reasons why the guitar has become a staple in pop culture is its immediate accessibility. In lieu of standard notation, guitar players have developed tablature - a more intuitive…
Mormon Church to acquire Facebook? →
Cat with four ears →
Yoda is a Chicago cat with four ears. Valerie and Ted Rock found him in a local pub being “passed round by curious drinkers,” hopefully not like that scene in Lynch’s The Elephant Man. From the Daily…
Google Sinks $10 Million Into New Geothermal... →
Google’s philanthropic arms, Google.org, is investing a little over $10 million into the development of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). Rather than extracting heat from the ground a…
“If we increase the number of H-1B visas that are available to U.S. companies,...”
– Bill Gates, Testimony before the Committee on Science and Technology, US House of Representatives
“Speaking of Trent Reznor, I heard that before his fame with Nine Inch Nails, he...”
– Derek Sivers
RIAA has to pay $107,951 for court costs in failed... →
The RIAA has lost its lawsuit against Tanya Andersen, a disabled single mother, and have been ordered to pay her court costs of $107,951. But the good news keeps on coming: Ms Andersen is now…
Computer Super Slo-Mo Confirms Phelps Win →
It looked like Milorad Cavic of Serbia beat American Michael Phelps yesterday in the 100-meter butterfly, but the electronic timing system gave the gold to Phelps by a margin of ONE…
Why are friends such plonkers about fine wine? →
As a wine evangelist, I always bring a bottle of something really decent whenever I visit friends. The trouble is, their thanks rarely reflect my expenditure. Should I make more of a fuss about the…
S&P 500: We're the Least Loser! We're... →
Lovely chart from Bloomberg today showing that the languishing S&P 500 is newly languishing less than the newly even more languishing (and previously rocketing) indices of the BRIC countries. …
RIAA has to pay $107,951 for court costs in failed... →
The RIAA has lost its lawsuit against Tanya Andersen, a disabled single mother, and have been ordered to pay her court costs of $107,951. But the good news keeps on coming: Ms Andersen is now…
“If I had a quarter for every time I said I had a nickel, I would have five times...”
– Stephen Colbert
Temporary Becomes Permanent →
Originally posted in Long Now>
Most permanent things begin as a temporary fix. A footpath becomes a road becomes a highway. A quick hut becomes a house becomes a hotel. A doodle becomes a logo…
Crows stealing coins from car wash? →
My favorite TED talk of 2008 was given by Joshua Klein, who built a vending machine that crows can deposit coins into in exchange for peanuts. (Here’s the video of his talk.)
Today, Phil…
Twitter Ends SMS Support In UK; Says Costs Up To... →
Twitter says they’ve stopped sending SMS updates to Twitter users in the UK because of the high cost of sending those messages. US, Canada and Indian users can still opt to receive messages via…
HitMeLater: A Snooze Button For Your Email →
I complain about my email inbox problems endlessly, and even performed a major purge a couple of days ago that wiped out over 23,000 unread emails. I don’t know what the solution is, but I think…
“Increased counterterrorism measures often simply transfer terrorists’...”
– How to Get the Biggest Bang for 10 Billion Bucks (The Wall Street Journal)
Google For Everyday Life - Part 1 →
Just in case you haven’t seen these oops messages yet, click here (from googlewatchblog.de). Download googleway.comicdoc
Traffic cams bring in $250,000/month in a town... →
Why do towns install speeding cams? Is it because robotic, inflexible, perfect enforcement of every single infraction of the speed-limit makes the streets safer? Or because they can raise $250,000 a…
Authorized Warren Buffett Biography (976 pages)... →
Image by Getty Images via DaylifePublisher Random House has announced the forthcoming publication of the authorized biography of Warren Buffett. The hardcover book will have 976…
Cops break into wrong house, leave note in... →
Cops in Oldham, UK broke into the wrong house while searching for a fugitive; rather than leaving an official note or apology after smashing in the door, they used the magnetic letters on the fridge…
Story of flying without ID →
Sherri Davidoff wrote about what it was like to go through airport security without identification. The TSA kept telling her, “you need to have identification to pass through security,” but…
LivePlace To Launch Photo-Realistic Virtual World... →
LivePlace.com has posted a video displaying a very impressive render of a 3D virtual world called City Space. At this point very little is known about LivePlace, other than that the WHOIS lists…
There Must Be Something Between Viral & Obscure... →
You’ve probably been in those meetings too: someone mentions a cool, “edgy” (uh-oh) youth-oriented campaign, and someone else says “video”, and then someone else completes the axis of online evil…
Televised coverage of giant firework footprints in... →
10 Beautiful Things For A Beautiful Life →
This post is one of the winners of our guest author contest. Over three weeks 12 winning articles will be published — selected top-10-lists and discussion articles. You can follow our updates…
Google Maps →