28/02/07
Marcus:
The Impossible Quiz Deluxe. A huge (8mb) Flash-based quiz featuring hard-to-answer questions. (via)
Marcus: Not because they require the rigorous application of huge quantities of general knowledge, rather that the answers are generally more to do with decoding trick question after trick question.
Marcus: Apart from the dumb ones you just have to guess because there is no logic behind them...
Marcus: Be warned. If you click the link you will go insane. Assuming you wait around for the quiz to load.
Marcus: Here's a list of the answers up to 102 which kind of frightens me in that it could go on that long, and that people have got that far.
gareth: Holy crap that music is annoying.
gareth: And holy crap that is hard.
Marcus:
New Star Trek film announced for Christmas 2008; JJ Abrams of Lost and M:I 3 to direct. (via)
Marcus: Apparently it will feature the original crew played by new actors.
27/02/07
Justin:
Don't see 'The Number 23' - it's more of a 'number two'. However, do look into the 23 Enigma - I was into it from when I was a kid, and amazed to discover others like myself - ridicule all you like, but we all come into it by being obsessed with it then discovering it is a phenomenon beyond each individual.
gareth: How does Jim Carrey do as a very unfunny character?
Marcus: Humans are pattern-matching and significance-seeking machines. The number 23 is statistically no more or less prevalent than, say, 7 or 19.
Marcus: And as the Wikipedia article on The 23 Engima says, "many cultural references to the number 23 are deliberate, made by artists who are aware of the mythical status of the number".
Marcus: I also love this example in the article:
Marcus: "The film The Number 23 received overwhelmingly negative reviews, with the review tallying website rottentomatoes.com reporting that 119 out of the 129 reviews they tallied were negative for a score of 8% and a certification of 'rotten'. 1+1+9=11 1+2+9=12 11+12=23"
justin: Yeah, that explains half of it. But I clearly recall being obsessed with the number from an early age - from reading 'choose your own adventure' activity books for kids. The number 23 kept coming up, and I was 7 or 8 years old. The nthroughout my life I had fun pointing it out to people, and people began to notice. In fact, in one of the biggest coincidences in my life, I was explaining the phenomenon to people when a TV show section came on and started talking about the 23 Enigma - and that's how I found out that it wasn't just me. The significance of 23 is when you notice it, or it comes up by way of coincidence - like right now in my new job my phone socket is 23. A couple of weeks back I bought two bottles of wine in a bar at 23:23 and the bill came to 23:23 - when I pointed that out the guy behidn the bar revealed he was into it as well. It's just one of those things you either 'get' or not.
justin: Oh, and Jim Carey was terrible. At one point I had to look away from the screen in embarassment. I hate to say it, but it's just that I keep expecting him to goof-off.
Marcus: Well, if you fixate on a number, of course you're going to keep noticing it. But, for instance, as I look at this orange juice carton I see the numbers 250, 100, 500, 199, 120, 90, 2000, 70, 20 and 6. (No sign of 23 I'm afraid.)
Marcus: Let's focus on the number 250. Only yesterday I checked out the IMDB Top 250 movies. And taking another of those numbers: half 500 is 250! And I just glanced at the clock and the time is exactly 10:00. 1000 divided by 4 equals... 250. Then I read an article the other day where Sandisk are cutting 250 workers. In the year 250 a plague epidemic spread across the Roman empire into Egypt. Exactly one month ago today 250 militants were killed in Iraq. The list is endless.
tim: I have to comment on this, I was telling martin (my cyborg enhanced futuristic war machine mate) about this a few years ago and he thought it was bollocks, so I challenged him to open an A to Z of bristol randomly and what was the first page? 23. All we need now isto somehow link it with the knights templar...
justin: It's not just number fixation. It's a particular number a large amount of people get fixated with. There is no '17 enigma' for example.
Marcus: That's because people follow other people. eg 13 is an "unlucky" number, 7 is a "lucky" number. These are also forms of number fixation.
justin: You're just acting out your fixation with needing to act like an authority figure by attempting to explain away a phenomenon you have dismissed as insignificant. But numbers are very important and they permeate all life - especially prime numbers, the golden section, the Fibonacci sequence etc. Here. Most people who obsess about the number 23 treat it as a harmless curiosity in life - but then, if you actually bothered to look you'd see the ratio 1·61803 is everywhere - except most people don't have facinating stories of how they became transfixed with that number and how it keeps cropping up - Most peple learn it and use it. Many people treat number 13 as a given but 23 has a unique status and that's what makes it important.
Marcus: I find it bizarre that somebody who would so readily denounce religion is also so set on dogmatically pillorying me because I fail to recognise the "significance" of an obsessive number. Once again - as I have illustrated with 250 - all numbers, from a certain point of view, are significant. It's just if you choose to fixate on the number or not.
Marcus: Synchronicity is a foible of the mind - we are pattern-matching, significance-seeking machines, even where there is neither pattern nor significance. It makes the universe kind of scary to comprehend when there is no meaning. From this we get both religion and your own desire to see significance in a number and get angry with people that don't acknowledge it (religious fervour).
justin: Last word. don't mistakenly thing you have conclusively illustrated anything. Just because people fixate on a number doesn't mean it isn't significant.
justin: Case in point, the golden ratio - what do you have to say about that?
Marcus: Reader Toon pwns j00.
justin: How does he own me? he completely agrees with me, but doesn't go far enough -"But numbers are very important and they permeate all life - especially prime numbers, the golden section, the Fibonacci sequence etc." - Justin
26/02/07
Marcus:
Dethroner is carrying an excellent iPhone smackdown that's an unpublished followup to the earlier notorious Gizmodo "don't buy gadgets" piece.
Marcus:
Newsbiscuit: "Podcast revolution exposed".
Marcus: "The most exciting development in digital music and audio downloads was blown out of the water yesterday, when one elderly man asked for clarification on what was the difference between a podcast and a programme that had been taped off the wireless."
Marcus: Also in internet tat content publishing revolution fad fake news: "Oscars to include films off YouTube".
Marcus:
Wired, in an amusing Onion-esque column: "You know what's getting really tedious? All these time travelers. It seems like two weeks don't go by without some jerk with a time belt and a bad attitude blinking into my living room and trying to zap me into molecules, usually right in the middle of House."
Dave:
The Full list of OSCAR winners
gareth: I was surprised at The Departed doing so well, and pretty choked that Children of Men didn't win best cinematography.
Marcus: Letters from Iwo Jima didn't do nearly as well as the pundits were predicting. Nice to see Little Miss Sunshine walk away with a couple of Oscars too.
gareth: I also meant to say, The Fountain should have atleast been nominated let alone won for best effects - I mean, filming chemical reactions? What an incredible and stunning idea.
Gareth:
Steampunk Keyboard Mod: "...a retro keyboard that was fully functional and of a sufficient quality that it could be used everyday by a touch typist"
Marcus:
Hilarious George "Star Trek's Mr Sulu" Takei video response to homophobic comments made by some bigoted basketball player or other. Awesome.
Marcus:
Damn Interesting on the curious case of the Max Headroom TV signal pirate incident of 1987. (Here's a video of the amusingly odd, immature yet strangely hypnotic pirate video, which interrupts the Doctor Who broadcast about 30 seconds in.)
25/02/07
Marcus:
A short video illustrating where Daft Punk get some of their samples from. Interesting, in that I never realised Daft Punk sampled all that much. (Particularly surprising was discovering the sample origin of the main riff from "Digital Love", one of my all-time favourites.) (via)
Marcus: This page lists these tracks and more, and even provides direct links to MP3s of the original tracks!
24/02/07
Marcus:
Save the Girls is an awesome online museum of WW II-era "nose art" - fruity paintings of scantily-clad ladies on the front of bombers.
Gareth:
A giant sinkhole gobbles up a family in Guatamala. This thing is HUGE, just look at the pictures here.
gareth: What's weird is how round the hole is, almost as if it was made by something definitely not human.
gareth: Watch out though, it could be an emergence hole.
Marcus: You've been overdoing the Gears of War matey.
gareth: I'm fine, I just need to pick up some grenades.
Chris:
How running the SETI at home screensaver helped one couple retrieve their stolen laptop. Cute.
Marcus:
Stickman illustrated instructions on how to poo properly. If only I'd known you were supposed to use a footrest... (via)
Marcus:
The European PS3 won't be able to play as many PS2 games as the US and Japan versions - because Sony has skimped on the hardware and made the European PS2 emulation part software-emulated.
Marcus: In other words, Sony is shafting its European fans like never before, in a clear indication it really doesn't care about the customer experience of European users.
Marcus: You'd have to be mental to live in Europe and still want a PS3.
Gareth:
A lightsaber fight in which one man was killed broke out at Princess Leia's 22nd birthday party. A little NSFW for language.
23/02/07
Gareth:
From reader Xempyreum: Lord of the Terror, a bunch of pictoral similarities between Lord of the Rings and the war on terror. Some of them are surprisingly accurate. Thanks, Xempyreum!
22/02/07
Marcus:
Play "spot the B-list movie/TV actor" in the new Command & Conquer 3 trailer.
Marcus: Look! It's him from Lost! Her and her from Battlestar Galactica! And that cut-price Jack Nicholson fellow! And Lando! And it's all really cheesy and early-90s game FMVish!
chris: (splutter) Michael Ironside as a cut price Jack Nicholson? Ye gods, man, have you never seen Scanners? Or Starship Troopers? The man's a legend! I dunno - youngsters today...
chris: You'll be telling me you've never seen Q: the winged serpent next...
Marcus: Er...
Dave: There was a time when the mere thought of a new C&C video game would excite me so much I would shake. However now, I don't think I care all that much.
Marcus:
If there's something more awesome than Chris Eubank driving up and down Whitehall in his articulated lorry and sounding the horn in protest at Prince Harry going to Iraq, I want it caught and shot now.
Justin:
Hack Stand-Up Comedy FAQ -"Black people walk or talk or dance differently than White people." (etc.)
21/02/07
Gareth:
"Here’s a rare public appearance of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates together at the recent D: All Things Digital conference."
gareth: According to this gallery the photos are from May 2005 so no doubt everyone's already seen this and I'm just in the dark.
Marcus: It just so happens they're having a joint "unscripted onstage chat" with Walt Mossberg at the end of May.
Dave:
Reason 42 why civilisation is borked. Since Britney Spears went mental and shaved her head in front of cameras whilst muttering something about "the bells", you can buy her hair for $1million. Or off eBay. We're doomed.
20/02/07
Marcus:
BBC: "Mac users 'still lax on security'".
Marcus: It's true. We're rubbish. I also leave my front door unlocked and hand out flyers containing my credit card details to strangers.
Marcus:
Great Lifehacker tutorial on setting up your own SSH proxy server in order to get to sites that The Man (ie work) doesn't want you to see.
19/02/07
Gareth:
In no way legally related to the Nintendo Miis, create your own WeeMee.
Dave: These WeeMees are linked to MSN messenger and have been around for ages. I wonder where Nintendo got their idea from...
Marcus:
The IMDB has redesigned and seems a tad visually confusing to me - if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Or just give it a bit of polish, rather than shunting things around in a weird way just because you can. (via)
gareth: What's weird is that they left that top panel, which doesn't really go with the rest.
Marcus:
"Robot Island is the largest source for tin toy robots and space toys with over 250 items to choose from." (via)
Dave:
C'était un rendez-vous is a short film made in the 70's where some french guy drives a Ferrari round Paris stupidly fast. Here is a video with a google map of the route.
gareth: C'est déjà vu
gareth: Although yours adds a bit more info
18/02/07
Marcus:
YouTube: 419 scammers are tricked into doing Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch.
Marcus: The correspondence between 419 Eater and the scammer can be read here.
Marcus: It includes the observation that the guys in the video were probably not scammers themselves, but paid to produce the video by the scammer.
Gareth:
Free Public Domain Movies. Some good classics that'd probably be very difficult to find elsewhere on there.
gareth: And from reader Kris: Public Domain Torrents. Thanks, Kris!
17/02/07
Gareth:
An interesting poke at the Japanese judicial system, in which "confessions are obtained from 95% of all people arrested, and that its courts convict 99.9% of all the suspects brought before them"
Gareth:
A paraglider recently survived being carried up to 32,612 feet by a thunderstorm. That must have been one hell of a view.
16/02/07
Gareth:
The US military is starting to hit the bottom of the bucket for recruits. I wonder if they'll go so far as to introduce conscription?
15/02/07
Dave:
Eric Idle's follow up to the brilliant Spam-a-lot will be a musical based on The Life of Brian, one of my favourite films ever!
Gareth:
I'm sure a lot of people have already seen this, but the promo site for Portal (a new game from Valve using the source engine in all sorts of bizarre physics puzzles) had me laughing out loud more than once. I'm kinda excited for this; the source engine is basically begging for this sort of game. See the trailer here
14/02/07
Marcus:
Whilst I'm giving the Wii yet more acres of adoring fanboy free publicity, here's a link to some charming Wii-themed printable Valentine's Day cards. (via)
Marcus:
A new "Everybody Votes" channel is now available for the Wii. In which you can cast a vote on the sort of poll questions that would make even the most frenzied meme-happy blogger blush at the pointlessness of it all.
Marcus: [Ten minutes of faffing later...] Having now played around with Everybody Votes for five minutes, I can say it's actually quite good fun, in a pointless timewasting sort of way. You can have more than one Mii vote (so I've got my flatmates' Miis in on the action too) and you can predict poll results to see how "tuned in" you are. So it's sort of a game. Sort of.
Marcus: Just for the record, I voted for "fried" as my favourite style of egg, although I predict "boiled" will come out on top. Marvellous.
Marcus: There will probably be conspiracy theorists who suggest all this data is going to be used for sinister market research purposes. To be honest, unless the questions suddenly take a more commercial route, I'm not sure how Nintendo will exploit stuff like "Do you prefer cats or dogs?".
Marcus: Unless they sell the answers to pet shops.
Marcus:
Fascinating interview with Gilbert & George, the famous London artists, from 1973, when both they and their interviewer got very drunk. (via)
Dave:
Here's a good site for downloading subtitles for your avi files.
Marcus: That, er, you legally bought, or can watch under fair use terms, obviously.
Zanna:
Valentine's Day is now firmly established as a special date in India despite complaints from some radical religious groups.
zanna: 'The group also encourages its members to burn Valentine's cards and members have put up billboard advertisements asking young lovers not to hold hands.' That sounds like something Tim would do!
tim: whats that? young people expressing emotions? I won't stand for it do you hear!
Marcus:
The world's most complicated origami. (via)
Marcus: The accompanying video showcases some completely awesome creations.
13/02/07
Marcus:
MacLive is an Xbox Live friend-tracking app for OS X. See what games your buddies are playing without turning on your 360. (via)
Marcus: Still needs some polish, but it's shaping up great.
Dave:
Apparently when Microsoft developed Vista, they left in a feature that allows you to make a full install from an upgrade version. It's a longwinded process but follow these steps and it should be easy. (thanks Rob)
12/02/07
11/02/07
Gareth:
The coolest music video ever. The artist (Jason Forrest)'s bio and a bunch of info. Had to use tinyurls as the actual url contains c*ck, but rest assured I'm not sending you off to some page full of browser exploits.
gareth: The animator (Joel Trussell)'s webpage
Gareth:
"No one disputes that an on-duty Irvine police officer got an erection and ejaculated on a motorist during an early-morning traffic stop in Laguna Beach." Very bizarre.
10/02/07
Zanna:
A 69-year-old woman who was shocked with a stun gun after she honked her car horn at a police cruiser has been convicted of resisting arrest for sparking a quarrel with officers.
gareth: You've gotta watch those senior citizens, they're pretty vicious. They'll just jump at you without warning.
Zanna:
Has everyone signed the petition against travel tax? The deadline is the 20th of Febuary.
zanna: While I was signing that one I thought I'd have a look at other petitions. this one is to increase minimum wage to £7 per hour.
zanna: While I was signing that one I thought I'd have a look at other petitions. I was entertained by this one to introduce a 99p coin.
Marcus:
The Candirú fish: never, ever, ever go for a wee in the Amazon River.
Marcus: I thought the so-called "Willy Fish" (swims up your urine stream into your uretha) was an urban myth - but apparently not. Yikes.
Marcus: Four minute video about the Candirú on YouTube.
Marcus: Some great footage of the fish attacking its normal prey, and worth it alone for Silvio Barbossa's hilarious reenactment of his painful exit from the river.
gareth: This made me cross my legs.
Marcus:
Nintendo are now offering free, chunkier Wii remote replacement straps. Here's the European form; here's the US form.
gareth: They should offer free seminars in teaching people how to hold onto objects.
09/02/07
Zanna:
Cheese makers in Somerset have set up a webcam on a truckle of Cheddar so that people can log on to watch their product maturing over a year.
Gareth:
I've just been playing the Supreme Commander demo, and wow am I ever excited for the full thing. What an impressive game, especially with utilizing dual monitors - very useful for micromanagment with allowing you to keep an eye on the front and your base at the same time. I suggest getting one of the torrents, as it's a pretty sizeable download. Albeit definitely worth it.
Zanna:
Anna Nicole Smith, the former Playboy model and actress, died last night.
zanna: Wikipedia went crazy hours later.
Marcus: "We're all just a bunch of necrophiles, aren't we?"
Marcus: Terrific potential strapline for Wikipedia there.
08/02/07
Marcus:
Damn Interesting - everybody's favourite source for everything, er, damn interesting - is soliciting donations so they can go and write a proper book full of DI articles.
Gareth:
Norway declares Apple's iTunes illegal. Funny that this happens right after that steve jobs drm thing
Gareth:
this phase toy is pretty cool
Dave: Wow, I've been making beautiful music.
gareth: Yeah, I know! It's pretty fun to play around with, and actually makes you feel like a pseudo musician.
07/02/07
Marcus:
Stephen Colbert Ben & Jerry ice cream. Postmodern satire never tested so good (or possibly bitter, depending on whether or not you think plastering your face all over an ice cream tub is selling out in an extremely hideous and depressing way). (via)
Marcus:
Awesome "I'm a Mac/I'm a PC" Peep Show character traits comparison. Which one are you? (Thanks to reader Barrie!)
Marcus: Obviously I'm a Jez.
Gareth:
Steve Jobs' thoughts on DRM. He raises some good points, and the idea of totally DRM-free music is nice.
Marcus: Unfortunately, Jobs' "DRM isn't our fault, blame those nasty mean record companies" line is demonstrable bullsh*t.
Marcus: That "Hey guys, if the record companies let us stock music DRM-free, we sure would!" line is so disingenuous and smug it makes me want to go over to Apple HQ and stone Jobs to death with iPods containing 3% DRM music.
Marcus: Also, whilst Jobs is technically correct that there has been no DRM system implemented on CDs for playing on stereos, there have been plenty of attempts to prevent CD ripping and playing CDs on computers. ie DRM.
Marcus: Crikey, I'm more worked up about this than is probably necessary. But fake, disingenuous populist nonsense spouted purely for self-promotion and misdirection (see also: Richard Branson) winds me up.
Marcus: Cory Doctorow seems to agree with me, with the possible exception of the stoning part.
Marcus: Christ, even the BBC has bought into this rubbish and made it headline technology news.
justin: "fake, disingenuous populist nonsense spouted purely for self-promotion and misdirection" - that's Apple through and through.
Marcus: Possibly, but the things they make are sleek and shiny and that makes it all better again.
Dave: Crapple.
Marcus: Says the iPod owner. I don't have an iPod. Mainly because it broke. Or I broke it. The important thing is it's broken. Possibly in response to the Hypocrisy of St Jobs. But in reality, more to do with a bungled battery replacement operation.
justin: I am still happy with my k800i which does everything for me in one gadget: sat nav, mp3, camera, phone, synchronised diary etc.
Marcus: Not all of them too brilliantly, though. And there's no proper facility or real ability to store and run proper apps. Convergence is all well and good, but for the time being with any device I've seen it's still a case of "Jack of all trades, master of none".
Marcus: Although I still think the Treo 650 is the most awesome smartphone ever (and it was doing all the things you mention about the k800i years before Sony Ericsson moved towards convergence).
06/02/07
Gareth:
"A NASA astronaut is being held without bail after police say she attacked her rival for another astronaut's attention at Orlando International Airport Monday." It gets even more bizarre in the article.
Gareth:
A funny little video about OCD
gareth: I kinda want it to be longer, like Rainman but OCD instead of autism. It's a very interesting disorder.
05/02/07
Marcus:
Charlie Brooker: I hate Macs.
Marcus: Brooker points out something I've been thinking myself. The guys from the UK Mac ads are best known by many for Peep Show, "in which Mitchell plays a repressed, neurotic underdog, and Webb plays a selfish, self-regarding poseur. So when you see the ads, you think, 'PCs are a bit rubbish yet ultimately lovable, whereas Macs are just smug, preening tossers.' In other words, it is a devastatingly accurate campaign."
Marcus: "Macs are glorified Fisher-Price activity centres for adults". This guy is stealing all my jokes.
Marcus: Anyway, this is a very funny article, and I love it - even though I am a one-armed Mac user myself.
justin: Hmm, that sounds more like when I accused Macs of being a "My First Computer"
Marcus: Which is a gag you used in, er, homage to my own years-old joke about Macs being like a Fisher-Price "My First Computer".
Marcus: Although a quick Google suggests the rest of the internet tends to refer to Windows XP rather than Macs with the classic Fisher-Price quip.
justin: I think that is because of the Teletubbies colour scheme... however, I wasn't really thinking of Fisher Price when I said "my first computer" - I was thinking of Bontempi or Tomy or Apple.
04/02/07
Marcus:
Kikoman: weird Japanese Flash animation likening soy sauce to a superhero. Or something. (via)
Marcus:
YouTube: Japanese weirdness in the form of "I was robbed by two men", some kind of song and dance rote-learning video for Japanese women who need to know the English phrase for "please spare my life".
Marcus: Also, the amusing and totally NSFW "English lesson", focussing on sex phrases, from the late-night Japanese comedy show Vermilion Pleasure Night.
Marcus: Also from VPN, The Fuccons, disturbing black comedy featuring grinning plastic dolls.
gareth: I liked the first one, with the guy wearing the bandana backwards and for some reason having it tied under his nose.
Gareth:
Jim Gray Missing: Help find him by searching NASA aircraft imagery. This is really interesting, read the New York Times article for the full info.
03/02/07
Marcus:
So these two guys put some LED monster things around the city of Boston as guerrilla viral advertising for the Aqua Teen Hunger Force cartoon. This being the US they get arrested for being terrorists clearly intent on blowing up the city with their LED monster things. They then have the best post-court press conference ever, in which they insist on talking about the history of hairstyles and nothing else.
02/02/07
Zanna:
One of the most dangerous ways homosexuality invades family life is through popular music. Parents should keep careful watch over their children's listening habits, especially in this Internet Age of MP3 piracy. Here are some bands to watch out for.
zanna: And here are the safe ones. It includes The Dresden Dolls, I happen to be a fan of theirs. They sing about alcoholism, self harm and promisucity.
gareth: Haha, some of these are pretty funny: "Elton John(really gay)" and "Ted Nugent (loincloth)". I'm curious why Frank Sinatra's on the list though. There are actually quite a few bands on there that I like, such as Arcade Fire and Sufjan Stevens.
Chris:
Groundhog Day rolls around again. Hmm, I'm sure I typed that already...
gareth: I like the Bill Murray tag.
01/02/07
Marcus:
Michel Gondry's next film, Be Kind Rewind, will feature Jack Black trying to remake films like Back to the Future, Robocop and The Lion King in order to make a demented senior citizen happy. Sounds like five kinds of awesome.
Marcus:
YouTube: some kind of 1930s dance-off redubbed with Daft Punk's "Around the World". (via)
Marcus: Here's the original music; here's the original Daft Punk video by Michel Gondry, one of my favourite directors.
Dave:
Do I have moobs because I use products containing "essential oils"? Yes.
Dave: Yep essential oils, nothing to do with my penchant for cakes and sedentary lifestyle.
Marcus: "The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) team say doctors who see boys should ask about their use of such products."
Marcus: Doctors who "see boys" are being encouraged to talk to them about what makes their skin so soft, eh? These sick paed-o-tricians are getting away with their nonce activities in broad daylight and it's political correctness gone mad!
tim: you couldn't make this stuff up!
Marcus:
Auction Intelligence: find misspelled listings on English-speaking eBay sites that nobody else can find and save cash. (via)
Marcus: The theory seems sound enough, although I'm not sure how well it would work in practice.