The Null Device
2002/2/7
A list of what are claimed to be the 100 worst movies of the 20th century. Not surprisingly, the likes of Ed Wood and Menahem Golan take multiple honours. I was disappointed, though, that the list doesn't include anything by Donald G. Jackson. His film Return of the Roller Blade Seven is genuinely awful, and the others (with titles like Lingerie Kickboxer and Hell Comes To Frogtown) cannot possibly be much better. (via Lukelog)
This is interesting: data compression as a technique for analysis. Taking advantage of the pattern-finding nature of data-compression algorithms, some researchers have found that compression (such as gzip) can be used to analyse the language of a text file, and even to provide clues as to authorship.
What does spam say about spammers' opinion of netizens? Well, according to the content of spam, most net users are short on cash, after a fast buck, grossly overweight, sexually insecure and obsessed with particularly depraved hardcore pornography. and are not unlikely to be aspiring spammers themselves. Oh, and needless to say, they're also very, very gullible. (via Techdirt)
Which brings to mind the following quote:
"Anything that might be of interest to Slitscan. Which is to say, Laney, anything that might be of interest to Slitscan's audience. Which is best visualized a vicious, lazy, profoundly ignorant, perpetually hungry organism craving the warm god-flesh of the anointed. Personally I like to imagine something the size of a baby hippo, the color of a week-old boiled potato, that lives by itself, in the dark, in a double-wide on the outskirts of Topeka. It's covered with eyes and it sweats constantly. The sweat runs into those eyes and makes them sting. It has no mouth, Laney, no genitals, and can only express its mute extremes of murderous rage and infantile desire by changing the channels on a universal remote. Or by voting in presidential elections." -- William Gibson, Idoru
You find out the oddest things when searching Google for "bogans". For example, that there's a Swedish pop band called The Bogans. They seem to be more Britpop than AC/DC though; still, some of their hairdos look rather bogan. Most of the links are to news articles about some basketballer whose surname happens to be Bogans; though there's a web design firm called bogan.com. Apparently they had a family reunion page, but that seems to be gone; perhaps because it was inundated with posts from actual bogans as opposed to Bogans?