The Null Device
2003/10/17
A special treat for the indie-pop fans today: Clag's Manufacturing Resent 7", released in 1993 and quite rare these days, is now online in high-definition MP3 format. Enjoy the twee indie-pop goodness.
A video gaming magazine rounds up some 10-to-13-year-olds, gets them to review vintage games, like Pong and Donkey Kong and Tetris. (via MeFi)
Tim: Which button do I press to make the blocks explode?
EGM: Sorry, they don't explode.
Becky: This is boring. Maybe if it had characters and stuff and different levels, it would be OK. If things blew up or something or--
Sheldon: If there were bombs.
Tim (on Space Invaders): This is nothing compared to Grand Theft Auto III, because you can't steal a taxi cab, pick up somebody, then drive into the ocean with him.
In my spam filter today, I found a mail with the title "julian haight funds terrorists b alqoswmw l lgng", referring to the outfit that runs SpamCop, and outlining grievances against the email filtering service:
You are reciving this email because we are having some trouble with an infamous company (http://spamcop.net) who seem to be hell bent on destroying not only my business but many other legitimate website owners and email list operators.
The email (sent through spam software, as evidenced by the anti-Vipul's-Razor garbage in the subject line) goes on with allegations of SpamCop fraudulently forging spam complaints against "legitimate operators" of "opt-in mailing lists" (funny, I don't remember opting in to this guy's mailing list) and "taking away our freedom of speech" and causing "financial disruption to companys who have invested years of hard work" for calling on right-minded internet users to lobby their ISPs to use a spam filter which lets through anything with an unsubscribe link (as that must be legitimate "opt-in" mail, right?).
Then, if that wasn't enough to persuade you, the patriotic consumer, to abandon SpamCop, it drops this bombshell:
Julian haight spamcops CEO is rumoured to have conections with Al-Quada, one of the most disruptive terrorist orginisations on earth. hes specialty is cyber terrorism. which disperses highly needed homeland security funds by rendering multi million dollar industrys unprofitable.
haights main motive is the perversion of American free enterprise.
Gee, if that's the case I'd better stop using SpamCop. Not only am I foolishly cutting myself off from worlds of financial and anatomical opportunity, but I'm Helping The Terrorists Win. I didn't realise the penis-pill industry was such a champion of truth, justice and the American Way.
Good to see that SpamCop is pissing them off. Oh, and one word of advice: if starting a whispering campaign against an anti-spam service provider, sending spam is probably not the most credible way to begin.
Sine Fiction is a website with electronic soundtracks for scifi novels (including works by Clarke, Burroughs, Calvino and Orwell's 1984), in downloadable MP3 format. (via bOING bOING)
Book soundtracks are an interesting idea; if a book induces scenes to play in your mind's inner theatre, what could be more natural than a score to go with it? A while ago, I did a short fragment inspired (partly) by a scene from an Iain Banks novel (one of his non-scifi ones). And I still intend to, one day, do a score to an imaginary film adaptation of a book by an imaginary author from a Jorge Luis Borges story.