January 2010
3 tags
Charles Stross on Amazon vs Macmillan →
“…to customers, Amazon would like to be a monopoly (i.e. the only store in town). To suppliers, Amazon would like to be a monopsony (i.e. the only customer in town). Their goal is to profit via arbitrage, and if they can achieve those twin goals they will own everybody’s nuts — the authors, the customers, everyone.”
Jan 31st
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Jan 31st
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Jan 31st
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Cory Doctorow On The Kindle/MacMillan Dispute →
If you’ve not yet heard, Amazon has pulled all of publisher Macmillan’s books from its online store in retaliation for MacMillan’s request to raise the prices for its e-books to $15, above the $10 ceiling Amazon considers reasonable. Thoughts? Well, Amazon pulling MacMillan’s e-books seems obvious for the situation, but they’ve also pulled the physical books from...
Jan 30th
WikiLeaks Temporarily Suspended →
“To concentrate on raising the funds necessary to keep us alive into 2010, we have reluctantly suspended all other operations, but will be back soon.”
Jan 30th
3 tags
Best Spam Email Subject Of The Day...
“Do you want me again? I love you madly I want. Take me gently caressing my bunny.” Ohh-kay…
Jan 30th
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“You’re right on the money with that… We’re all like detectives...”
– David Lynch
Jan 29th
Just passed an actual street preacher. Either he was being unusually earnest or he was quoting The Life Of Brian.
Jan 29th
4 tags
ListenHour of Slack #1241 - Live Jan. 24, 2010 - The...
Jan 29th
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“Boy, when you’re dead, they really fix you up. I hope to hell when I do...”
– J.D. Salinger - The Catcher in the Rye.
Jan 29th
2 tags
Best Spam Email Subject Of The Day...
“Cooli sh affec tiona te space port.” I think I’ve just been propositioned by a character from the Mos Eisley cantina…
Jan 28th
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Jan 28th
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Australian Government Bans Small Breasts! →
“The ban on small-breasted women in adult publications has been made by the Australian Classification Board allegedly on the grounds that such images could be construed as child pornography…” Good grief… I really don’t like large breasts. Just not a fan. Presumably, in Australia, that would be some sort of perversion. Whereas enjoying pneumatically endowed sideshow...
Jan 28th
1 tag
Best Spam Email Subject Of The Day...
“Replace flaccidity with swollen power.” That really does not sound too comfortable.
Jan 27th
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Jan 27th
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Welcome To The Future...
My internet connection appears to be wobbling between: Broadband, like God and Nature intended. Dial-Up, because who doesn’t enjoy a little bit of nostalgia? Fuck You. You don’t even need to BE on the internet all the motherfucking time. Go read a book. So, you know - I may be here, I may not.
Jan 27th
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Jim Mahfood's 'Los Angeles Ink Stains' #37 →
Jan 26th
1 tag
Best Spam Email Subject Of The Day...
“Hello. How are you? I happy will receive dating with you.” Well, when you put it like that…
Jan 26th
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Jan 25th
49 notes
2 tags
Get Smart
Steve Carell is perfectly cast as Maxwell Smart, although this doesn’t really appear to be a proper adaptation of the old TV show. The gags come thick and fast, failing more often than succeeding. Both Mr Rock and Terence Stamp seem wasted in small roles (even though Stamp plays the villain!). Anne Hathaway is very, very gorgeous. And quirky. Gorgeous and quirky - how often does that...
Jan 24th
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Jan 24th
121 notes
4 tags
Before They Are Hanged (The First Law: Book Two),...
Abercrombie is an excellent writer - his prose is lean and descriptive, and his method of altering the style according to which character’s viewpoint is being expressed is inspired - but this book has exactly the same problems that plagued the first volume in this series. It’s difficult to criticise a novel that is written so well, and which features fully developed - and developing -...
Jan 24th
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Jan 24th
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Ants Colonies Behave Like Individual Organisms. →
“By analyzing data from 168 different social insect species including ants, termites, bees and wasps, the authors found that the lifespan, growth rates and rates of reproduction of whole colonies when considered as superorganisms were nearly indistinguishable from individual organisms.”
Jan 23rd
2 tags
Brendan McCarthy's 'Spider-Man: Fever' →
Comics Alliance has a five-page preview of Spider-Man: Fever by writer/artist Brendan McCarthy. I buy so few comics these days - and very, very few ‘mainstream’ comics - that it takes something special to get me excited. I’m very excited about this.
Jan 23rd
5 tags
ListenHour of Slack #1240 - Avatar Meets Puzzling...
Jan 23rd
1 tag
Best Spam Email Subject Of The Day...
“I can do for you is - what can not no girl!” Who could resist an offer like that?
Jan 23rd
3 tags
The Stephenie Meyer Comic Book: So Much Worse Than... →
“It seemed as though every other girl was… different. Or, perhaps, she was the one who was different.” Comic Alliance’s hilarious deconstruction/review of the new Stephenie Meyer bio-comic. Looks like an easy target (Meyer has done nothing bar write the books and get married, and the comic art is abysmal), but anything that dents the Twilight juggernaut is good enough for...
Jan 23rd
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Jan 23rd
3 tags
Jan 22nd
1 tag
Jan 22nd
172 notes
1 tag
What's That..?
…a Katie Melua concert near me? When? Okay - well, I have a Pencil Through The Cornea meeting that week, but that’s… no, that’s okay, that’s earlier in the week. And I can reschedule my Whacking My Testicles In A Car Door evening to the Thursday, so that just leaves the Pouring Boiling Gum Into The Inner Ear seminar which will… oh, really? Katie Melua does...
Jan 22nd
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Leamington Spa Lifeboat Museum →
Explore this website - and make sure to check out ALL the links.
Jan 22nd
2 tags
Know Your Food Additives →
“Some experts recommend avoiding foods listing… ingredients of longer than three syllables.”
Jan 22nd
3 tags
Travolta To Save Haiti →
“Anywhere people are suffering, Scientology’s yellow-shirted “volunteer ministers” can be found lurking near news cameras and claiming to help people with their bullshit technology.” As if things weren’t bad enough in Haiti, now they’ve got this bunch of wackos and nutjobs to deal with…
Jan 21st
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Jan 21st
4 tags
Jan 21st
1 note
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Sleeping With Hinako →
This is a DVD that you play while you sleep. It’s a film of an anime girl sleeping. But you can pretend that she’s sleeping alongside you. That’s not at all creepy and sad.
Jan 21st
Jan 21st
5 notes
3 tags
Google Voice Offering Free Calls To Haiti →
“To help those families, we’re offering free calling to Haiti through Google Voice for the next two weeks. To place a call using Google Voice, use the Click2Call button on the website, the Google Voice mobile app, or dial your own Google Voice number and press 2 to place an outbound call.” Doesn’t quite negate the Google Books Settlement debacle, but fair play all the...
Jan 20th
2 tags
Ask A Silly Question
Me: What did you do in your I.T & Gadgets Club today?
Daughter: We used flip cameras.
Me: Wow. Isn't that a bit complicated?
Daughter: Yee-es. That's why they taught us...
Jan 20th
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2 tags
Now France Advises Against Using Internet Explorer →
“France and Germany have advised their citizens to ditch Internet Explorer in the wake of reports that an IE zero-day bug was involved in the massive cyber-attack against Google and other companies.”
Jan 20th
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Ursula K. Le Guin Resigns From Authors' Guild Over... →
“You decided to deal with the devil, as it were, and have presented your arguments for doing so. I wish I could accept them. I can’t. There are principles involved, above all the whole concept of copyright; and these you have seen fit to abandon to a corporation, on their terms, without a struggle.”
Jan 20th
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Jan 19th
2 tags
Ham - £257 Per Kilo →
“The world’s most expensive ham has gone on sale, complete with its own DNA certificate as a proof of authenticity.”
Jan 19th
Jan 19th
1 note
2 tags
South Australia To Censor R-Rated DVD Covers →
“…MA15+ film Saw - which depicts a bloody, severed foot on its cover - can still be freely displayed, while 2005 hit Fight Club - which features a photograph of Brad Pitt and Edward Norton - can’t be.”
Jan 18th
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Jan 18th
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Jan 18th
1 note
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Grow Your Own Pork →
“You could possibly design a hamburger that prevents heart attacks instead of causing them.”
Jan 18th