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The raw anger of this rant has always appealed to me.

Fucking anime nerds. Diediedie.

forgot the http in the link, fixed

Check out Maddox's Segway Improvement

I think this site sums it up pretty well: Why the Segway is bloatware

With all due respect, I'm assuming your friend didn't do anything "significant" on the web. I can't help but think that the poster asked this question in the context of people that offer projects or popular websites out to the WWW. What happens when someone like Maddox passes? It's quite likely that no one will know what his online legacy is, or furthermore how to bring an end to it.

If you have a major web "presence", I think you have a responsibility to your viewers to tell your local meatware (parent's, spouses, kids, etc) what your websites are and what the passwords are in your will.

Since the web has a reputation of hosting short attention spans, I dare say that most people wouldn't "research" a site if were/wasn't updated for a few weeks or more. Particularly, sites that only update every week or two will fall into the ether if their owner dies and doesn't leave a "living will" or some other form of notification to its fans.

There are a few websites that will send an email if you don't respond every month or so, saything that you're deceased... maybe someone should create one that webmasters can join and if they don't check in after X months/years it will send an email to all of it's visitors saying that it is likely that the owner/webmaster is deceased.

Alternatively, you could build a quick perl/php robot that submits very controversial articles/content after you're deceased. You could change your stance on issues and offer viewpoints that you wouldn't ordinarily take. Heh. updates like this could continue on as long as your server bill was paid...

Though in even more cases, they don't

Why, when I look at the other submissions, do I think of this?

My personal opinion is that anything to do with The Sims, and any future plans for new Sims or Sims-like games should be destroyed, and i'll tell you why. I have to admit, the original "The Sims" was a good game to waste a couple hours in. I don't however think it was good enough to spend money on 7 or so expansions to the game. Honestly, how people get away with sending out the same crap more than once in different boxes without being thrown in jail (gangraped, etc.) is beyond me. Now there's "The Urbz." This seems to me much like the move made by Mcdonalds when they changed their slogan to "i'm lovin it." To quote Maddox from his site: (in reference to Mcdonalds.) "Everything about the new campaign is engineered to target "the culture of today's consumer." Apparently the culture of today's consumer doesn't mind the implied discrimination with the use of specific grammar and punctuation used in the new slogan." This seems much the same. Kind of pathetic if you ask me.

Dude, you're racist, get over it.

Note: Follow-link or you'll just keep blabbering on like an idiot.

You'll love this guy
Maddox

I don't know who the hell this Bucky is, but I think I've found his website.

You're just jealous that you don't have huge balls

If you had said "Newton, Galileo, Kepler, Dirac, Faraday, Planck, Kelvin, Maxwell and Einstein ate beef. So do I" would there bave been any objection? It seems to me that you are just saying that you all eat beef.

I bet the vegetarians might have gotten pissy over this - but to them I say For every animal you don't eat, I'm going to eat three

turn it off. thx.

...though since I almost never close Mozilla, it doesn't really matter. What I really like is having a group of tabs associated with the "Home" bookmark. At the moment, one click opens up: /., explodingdog, maddox, the LP's homepage, wikipedia, suprnova, where's george?, and google news. These are all the pages I view at least daily, so I like having them at my fingertips.

Here is a mirror for http://a.zzq.org/kulc/ page. Please try not to eat up all of my co-lo bandwidth.

Hmm... I wonder if it works if there is more than one link on the same page going to the same site.

President of the Internet

President of the Internet

In Utah, Xmission is an excellent ISP to go with to run a server from your house with a DSL connection. They have small business/home office accounts too for fairly cheap. Info on their dsl services. Their tech support is pretty awesome too. This sounds like an ad but I don't work for them, I'm a customer only.

There may not be as much violent crime as some cities I know, but a few districts come to mind where you'd better watch your wallet. Mong Kok, Sham Shui Po, etc., etc. You know, all the interesting ones.

There is only one solution. I suggest some good old-fashionedSeppuku There's nothing like swallowing a buttered-up frizby after getting really super pissed.

You can use Zamyatinian then. Zamyatin's "We" was first published in 1924, so it's harder to get a grubby hand on. :)

Actually, I went to go see Spirited Away. I didn't see a single type of the person he mentions. In fact, there were a number of older couples, and a lot of normal teenybopper middle school kids. Plenty of people went to see it here in Boston because it got a great review in the Globe.

The guy has more pent up anger than I've seen in ages. You want a perfect example? How about this. He's mentally ill, complaining about people who go "Hmmmm" while thinking about things, for example- and speaks of murdering women by bashing their heads against walls. A very disturbed and dangerous individual who needs psychological help, much more so than any of the individuals he described.

...we get that. But I really want some of you to take a look at this guy's rant about Anime nerds. He's spot on. Sure, I've got my DVD of Akira, some old VHS tapes with Ghost in the Shell, Armitige, etc... I've enjoyed Totoro, Iria, and the like. I even took Japanese (long before I watched anime with any regularity) because I am into it. But, you wouldn't catch me anywhere talking about the philosophy behind an anime film and how it applies to the real world. I will never get into heated discussions about the balance of good and evil in a cartoon, or come to the defense of my favorite anime character (must admit that I don't have one) when someone else assails them for being a weak person. Get a life people! Oh... and the link I referred to above is hillarious. Check it out. Really.

1 / The Sims / Electronic Arts / 11-1999 / $41
2 / RollerCoaster Tycoon / Infogrames / 02-1999 / $23
3 / Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone / Electronic Arts / 11-2001 / $28
4 / Diablo II: Lord of Destruction / Vivendi Universal / 06-2001 / $34
5 / The Sims: House Party / Electronic Arts / 02-2001 / $28
6 / The Sims: Livin' Large / Electronic Arts / 12-1999 / $28
7 / The Sims: Hot Date / Electronic Arts / 11-2001 / $27
8 / Diablo II / Vivendi Universal / 03-1999 / $38
9 / SimTheme Park / Electronic Arts / 11-1999 / $19
10 / Age of Empires II: Age of Kings / Microsoft / 08-1999 / $41

People who own the Xbox don't play video games.

I wrote it sometime during the fall of 2001; I don't remember exactly when, but it was last updated Jan 23 2002.

Of course, X pagers had been around long before this one... can the public submit prior art to the USPTO and get MS's patent denied?

A lot of technology stems from ideas and designs in science-fiction. Always has always will probably. Submarine, Fax machine, just about everything on my desk.

So, like, yeah. It is only a cartoon, but then some guy went out and built technology from that cartoon, so now it's sitting right there on a football feild. Neat.

Disclaimers: 1] I've never seen the cartoon in question, and I'm not going to rush out to grab a copy... for reasons that are my own, and Maddox's. 2] I like anime, just not every single damn thing penned. Flying schoolgirls? Creepy. I'll stick with the giant robots kthx.

So - that sentence can end at the first comma, and be no less accurate in representing his opinion.

Except, he shows two opinions since it's a two part statement. Part 1 says "we must punish people who don't want to be identified online" - note that there's no mention of a crime being committed - and part 2 says "we must focus on the people committing crimes".

Maybe he didn't MEAN to say that we need to go after people who are trying to stay somewhat anonymous, but he DID say it. As a lawmaker, I think he needs to pick his words more carefully since this may suggest he either has two agendas here, or perhaps he doesn't clearly understand his own position.

Now if we could only keep that pesky concept of what constitutes a "crime" from continually expanding...

That is in direct contrast to what a government would want to happen. After all, if eveyone can be made to be a criminal part of the time, you can just lock anyone up anytime you feel like it. Of course, in America, the citizenry is supposed to be alert and prevent that sort of thing from happening... but I'm not holding my breath for the "osama bin laden hold on weapons of mass destruction no wait tax cuts for the rich no look improving but jobless economy hold on the queers are trying to get married" sheep people morons who get led around by the nose by dumbasses like Bill O'Reilly and his ilk.

I'm not sure what you mean by "once again". Hardware-wise the PC was already ahead at system-launch (or that's what I remember from E3 reports). Game-wise, I honestly can't say it's caught as much interest for me as the PS2, or the GC, or the GBA, and I'm not alone. If anything the XBox has been offering some kind of middle-ground as a cheap PC and a powerful platform.

A large storage medium allows you to store stuff for later. Things like save games vs save points, patches, upgrades, extra content, user made content etc etc to your hearts content.

That said, I don't know anybody who has managed to fill up a PS2 memory card, and the idea behind consoles is that you don't need patches because you have a finished product. Upgrades, extra content, and user made content are all good in theory; how many XBox games impliment them?

Remember Kotor? On the x-box a simple game. The moment it came out on the PC people were hacking it.

And do you think that any console can ever match the PC in that regard? Heck, I hear a lot about Metroid and FF6 mods, but again those are obviously PC-based. These are all (legal or not) essentially open-source projects...which MS tends to loathe. I'm too cynical to see them intentionally encouraging such projects, but feel free to prove me wrong.

What about that blood atonement thing, you guys still do that?

Oh, and planet Kolob? Is "Pearl of Great Price" still church doctrine?

Face it, mormonism is straight-up weird. I mean... okay, just about every religion is straight-up weird, but if you were handing out medals for straight-up weirdness, the LDS would take the silver, finishing only behind Scientology in the straight-up weirdness stakes.

What about that blood atonement thing, you guys still do that?

Oh, and planet Kolob? Is "Pearl of Great Price" still church doctrine?

Face it, mormonism is straight-up weird. I mean... okay, just about every religion is straight-up weird, but if you were handing out medals for straight-up weirdness, the LDS would take the silver, finishing only behind Scientology in the straight-up weirdness stakes.

But I suppose it's ok when United States free trade guts entire nations of any hope at a life not lived in squalor. It's amusing that it's ok for the United States government to do everything in its power to make a nation decrepit and weak to the profit of corporations, but once even the tiniest bit of money potential is taken Americans stand up and scream at the top of their lungs like a small child not given their 3rd helping of dessert.

Blame the corporations who care most about fattening their dividends, not the workers they employ for less, to reach that goal. I'm sure everyone wants to work, not just you.

And because someone else has always said it a litle better... Oops! You're racist. (not that I'm implying anyone's racist... yeah)

The old adage "they don't make them like they used to" is sure as hell true in my book.

I agree :-)

If they're president of the USA, yes. If they're vice-president , then too.
--

No, I'd have to say they were all working together toward a common end or something similar for it to be a conspiracy theory. Each is working toward its own end - monopolize the sector and suck money from people. That really is the ultimate goal of any truly capital-focused organization.

Unfortunately, human bias is, always has been, and always will be alive and well. Yes, yes. Everybody keeps linking to CNN, MSNBC, and MSN as if that meant something. No, it doesn't. If I want an alternative to those three, I have it on the 'net. Not so on the TV. From a marketeering standpoint those brands still have similar pull on the 'net as on the TV and print. However, there's nothing stopping people from grabbing alternative viewpoints on the Network. MSNBC sits two obnoxious blowhards down who became famous writing half-assed, shit-stinking books (Coulter and Moore are two good, polar examples I like to use if you're having trouble envisioning things) and call that "choice". In other words, you get to "choose" between two idiots who probably aren't smart enough to even KNOW there are points of view outside their own, much less what they are.

On the Internet, that's not so. Everything is weighted. Consider Maddox. Maddox is just "some guy". He's not a pundit, an analyst, or an author. He's just a guy. However, he's a guy I can personally relate to. Similar age, work, and education. I value his point of view either for: 1) Insight or, if nothing else: 2) Humour. Why insight? Why should I listen to him? I have a better question: why should YOU listen to Anne Coulter or Mike Moore or Jerry Nachman (yes, I know he died) or Chris Matthews or Wolf Blitzer? Who the hell are they? Nobody special. At least Nachman had some experience. Blitzer is just a talking head and the other three only have one thing going for them: their big, fat mouths and the never-ending flap of their gums.

And that pisses media moguls off. Some guy out in Utah is getting all this free attention by talking about his giant nuts and how he kicked his elderly neighbor in the throat, and a huge mass of people are more interested in that stupid shit than the stupid shit on the front page of CNN about Michael Jackson sticking his hand up some little kid's butt.

It's all a matter of perspective. Jackson is, from my perspective, less newsworthy than some guy's giant balls, and equally as stupid and pointless. But, guess what? The media doesn't want to write stories about giant balls and they don't want to have different points of view on real subjects that actually say something. The solution is to be as vanilla and generic (CNN) as possible or to go all out for one group (Fox). Don't alienate the consumers or the advertisers walk! Well, on the Internet, if I want to listen to some guy talk about his big balls instead of hover over the TV to get a shot of Paris Hilton coming out of a car - I can do that!

Or, to shorten the whole thing to one executive bullet point: they don't like it because they can't control it.

I believe I first saw a "third-wheel" design for the Segway at maddox's site.

How to render the Segway obsolete.

Maddox had this idea long before this clone

Ikaruga was a great and innovative 2D shooter.... even Maddox liked it.

Their policy is simple -- You can use up to the bandwith your account type allows. The basic $19/month package has 3 GB/week, add 1 GB/week (4 GB/month) for $10. They give static IP address and no arbitrary server restrictions.

In their newsgroup discussions, they explain that because there are so many people who pay for big chunks of bandwidth and don't use it, they can provide the whole enchalada without problems. If more people started using all their bandwidth, then they'd have to lower the limits, but with all the homes and businesses and colo connections that consume only a tiny bit of the bandwidth they pay for, they don't anticipate it as a problem. Their stats show an aggregate of about 3 empty 45Mb/DS3 lines even at the peak use.

xmission is great.

Their policy is simple -- You can use up to the bandwith your account type allows. The basic $19/month package has 3 GB/week, add 1 GB/week (4 GB/month) for $10. They give static IP address and no arbitrary server restrictions.

In their newsgroup discussions, they explain that because there are so many people who pay for big chunks of bandwidth and don't use it, they can provide the whole enchalada without problems. If more people started using all their bandwidth, then they'd have to lower the limits, but with all the homes and businesses and colo connections that consume only a tiny bit of the bandwidth they pay for, they don't anticipate it as a problem. Their stats show an aggregate of about 3 empty 45Mb/DS3 lines even at the peak use.

xmission is great.

I really hate to say this, but the American media has an incredible habit of, ah, forgetting about relevant issues and facts. Osama Bin Laden seems to have completely dropped off of the map. Even the fact that the US had a budget surplus during the Clinton administration is almost unheard of in the midst of all of the hype surrounding the "War on Terror". In case nobody remembers, we trained these people to fight.
This probably explains why polls have shown that some 50-60% of Americans believe that Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the 9-11 attacks
Please do not mod this as flamebait, as it is not intended as such
This may be inflammatory, but it's worth looking at just to get a fresh perspective

The church has a lot of "baggage", as one poster put it, but compared to that of other religions, it is small.

The problem is that the LDS church continues to hold onto this baggage. They are in an uncomfortable position of having living prophets proclaim the importance of polygamy while at the same time having to adjust to modern times and laws.

You can't say "Oops, didn't mean that, we take it back" if you claim to have a prophet who receives instruction directly from god.

Note that similiar things have occured and will continue to occur in church doctrine. The changing wording of the LDS endowment cerimony makes people wonder "why didn't god give us the right version in the first place?". The now removed references to disembowlment, throat cutting, and fighting against the US government seem like foolish emblishments now, but were actually part of the original endowment cerimony.

Dont bother asking a mormon about it, they are sworn to secrecy. You can however read more here:

LDS Temple Endowment

Also interesting to read is the account of Dr. Michael Quinn who was a well respected Elder in the church and professor of history at BYU. He began to study LDS history and publishing his findings until unpleasant aspects of the religion started drawing attention.

At that point, given the choice to censor his work, or leave the church, he was excommunicated. The LDS leadership wants certain things NOT DISCUSSED and are very clear that you will be run out of the church as an "apostate" if you try to challenge their authority on the matter.

On Being A Mormon Historian by Dr. Michael Quinn.

To the old blood in the church, the memory of the "apostate intellectuals" being purged en masse back in the 70's and 80's is still a vivid memory.

"you're" not "your" see Maddox's hate mail for more details

Some classmates and I in the PMST program at the University of Utah just completed a Business Fundementals course. As part of the course, we completed a semester long project that analyzed The SCO Group. We came to same conclusions that many analysts did, that if SCO wins this case, it will be huge for them. But no one can come close to saying for sure that they are going to win. Download the report here.

Here is a monumental safety imporvement to any low speed scooter, like a balancing scooter, a segway, or something else:

Problem: In a low speed (under 15 mph) failure of the equipment, the passenger will continue to move forward after the vehicle has stopped. The safest and most reasonable thing for the passener to do when the vehicle halts is to step off the front. However the front handlebar of these scooters eliminate that option, and as noted by the first reference, and more publicly by Mr. Bush, you will be thrown down on your face.

Solution: Remove the front handlebar. You could implement the controls on a rear handlebar that wraps arround the sides of the rider. It would make the vehicle less natural to mount (you step into it backwards) but much safer to bail off of at speed. If this is unacceptable, (or if passangers need to be able to bail off of an out of control scooter without being run over by it), provide the controls above one or two handlebars on the sides of the vehicle.

Better Idea Forget the whole self balancing nonsense as proposed by the third reference. Tricycles, however, are very unstable when turning. Make a quadricycle with no stearing column or handlebars. Put a pressure sensing pad on the top - transfer of pressure in any direction indicates a desire to exprerience acceleration in the opposite direction. The rider only fails to communicate with the platform if she has lost her balance and her center of mass is no longer "over" the platform (with respect to gravity and any pseudo forces she is experiencing), i.e. when she has already comitted herself to falling off. The vehicle automatically stops when the platform is vacated.

How to render the Segway Obsolete

All I have to say is, BAM, third wheel!

like this??

What is the deal with this thing? It's one of those 'wow cool' inventions with no practical use at all.

Once again, I refer you to maddox: http://maddox.xmission.com/c.cgi?u=segway_more_com plicated_than_it_needs_to_be

Beat Your Kid