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Slashback: Lamo, Trilogy, Searching
Microsoft thinks LookSmart looks less smart. securitas writes "Internet search company LookSmart was dropped by Microsoft's MSN service today. MSN has decided not to extend its licensing contract with LookSmart beyond January 2004. The news is devastating for LookSmart since, 'Microsoft accounted for approximately 65 percent of listings revenues, and all of LookSmart's licensing revenue in the second quarter of 2003,' according to a company press release not listed on LookSmart's site. The move comes after LookSmart recently launched its own Overture-style pay-per-click service and indicates Microsoft is close to launching its new search engine technology designed to unseat Google for the search crown. All of this is against the backdrop of acquisitions by rival Yahoo. More coverage at SearchEngineWatch and a Reuters mirror at CNN Money."
They could have fixed this if they'd googled for an answer ... powerg3 writes "This follow-up, explains the Google wackiness posted yesterday. Here's the quote from the Google Weblog: '...when a spam result comes up in a search, Google not only blocks the spam, but every result after it. This means that for searches where spam results manage to rise to the top, very few -- sometimes zero -- results will be returned....It's pretty amazing that such a serious bug made it past Google's tests. It will be interesting to see how quickly it's fixed.'"
Pardon me, mum, can I borrow your hard drive? AndreL writes "The Guardian has an update about the BBC's digital archive plans. They're considering using P2P technology to avoid bandwidth bottlenecks. The bad news: because of technical, financial, and legal problems nothing will happen until 2006 at the earliest."
Please arrive in costume if at all. KTecumseh writes "The list of theaters showing the extended editions of LOTR as been revealed. You can check out the list at the official website, and before you look, pray that you live somewhere close by to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime experience. For those that can not make the full 10-hour saga, they are also showing the first two extended additions on different dates, but who wants to miss out on an entire theater of sweaty LOTR fans."
Shamus Arrigan asks plaintively "There is no mention of these ticket sales in any other country. Does anyone know when and where these tickets will be sold at? (Canada especially)"
Wait, are you fellas press? Dangnabbit! ccnull writes "Good news from the inquest against hacker Adrian Lamo. According to a paragraph in a Washington Post column (buried about 3/4 of the way down the story), the FBI appears to be backing off from pursuing reporters' notes in the case. Relevant quote: 'A Justice Department official says the FBI agent "acted out of turn" by not seeking approval from the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan and Attorney General John Ashcroft's press office. "The agent did not follow standard procedures," the official says. "We're just not going to pursue it. It is the policy of the Justice Department to exhaust all other means before seeking information from members of the media."'"
Eh, what's a few orders of magnitude? Grant hayes writes: "It seems the decimal point in the Mono story you ran is being a bit ambitious. We should be reading Mono 0.28, not Mono 2.8. Check the link below as well as links there to other Mono resources; I see 0.28 throughout." Here's the Mono site -- guilty as charged. Thanks for the correction.
"...a list of the theaters whose seats will soon be smooshed for far longer than usual under the weight of those dedicated enough to sit through 10 hours of Lord of the Rings"
And also those large folks that will play an inspired game of D&D after the movie.
I'm thinking that the title 'Lord of the Inflatable Butt Rings' would be more appropriate for those with more tender hindquarters.
a list of the theaters whose seats will soon be smooshed for far longer than usual under the weight of those dedicated enough to sit through
... has been known to reduce the natural life of cushions by 95%.
A, the deadly combination of 10 hours of sitting plus the 400 lb weight of your average LOTR nerd
Cyde Weys Musings - Scrutinizing the inscrutable
Glad to be of assistance to all out Canadian (or is it Canadien?) friends!
Lord of the Rings will be playing at the following theaters (or is it theatres?) for our northern neighbors:
We hope you enjoy our movies and our hemispheric hegemony!
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
I heard that there will be no toilet breaks, because it's all part of a contest. See, without toilet breaks, that will make it easier to distinguish who is really a hardcore LOTR fan and who is a poser. There will be judges monitoring the audience via hidden camera, and whoever earns the most points as a hardcore LOTR fan (dressing up in costume helps your score) will be awarded a full-size cardboard cutout of, umm, Gandalf. I am completely serious. Really.
Toilet breaks? To enjoy the full experience of a non-stop 10-hour immersion, *real* LOTR fans will prefer this solution
I will be the guy in the front, with the box around my neck, selling the depends for 8$ a pop!
Or this solution.
GF.
Lots of petrified grits
You are right on the money. That's why they will be releasing a 90 minute combination of the highlights of the three movies in all the other cinemas, repackaged as LOTR:FTRD - Lord of the Rings: For The Ritalin Deficient.
http://pcblues.com - Digits and Wood
5 words: Fat suit stuffed with ham.
Or better yet:
... I know we're losing a lot of money, it's just.... At the movies? No that's just my DVD player... Hello? ... Hello? ... I can't hear you... I think we've got a bad connection... (Makes static sounds)... Yeah, this phone has been giving me trouble for a couple weeks now.... Hello?.... (click)"
"The server's down? Look, I'm really sick.... thirty thousand an hour?
Removes phone battery.
Loses job.
I was in a bad car accident over a decade ago, I was unconscious and they had to put a catheter in for me to pee. I remember waking up on the gurney saying "I'm peeing and I can't stop!" and they said don't worry, there's a catheter.
When they took it out it was a very unusual (unnatural!) feeling...
The worst part though, was when I went to the bathroom an hour later. The nice nurse wanted me to use a bedpan, but I wanted to walk to the bathroom which I did. I sat down (broken collarbone and rib weren't conducive to standing), and when I started...
I FARTED OUT MY DICK!
This has never happened before, and I imagined that I had some serious internal damage. But when I told the nurse, she said, "Oh that's no problem, it must have just pushed some air in when we inserted the catheter."
If that's common knowledge they should warn us... Or maybe that's one of the "perks," watching the look on people's faces (i.e. priceless)...
Sorry I didn't mention LOTR. ;-)
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
I FARTED OUT MY DICK!
You mean you farted out of your dick. Because first I thought you really farted and your own dick somehow flopped out of your ass.
Not that English is my first language, but...
So only spammers advertise speaker bracelets? I'm disappointed.
Okay, lemme get this straight ... it's a story about a hobbit who has to throw the One Ring of Power into Mount Doom to save Middle Earth from the Dark Lord Sauron. It starts off with Bilbo Baggins leaving the Shire and walking off on a long journey. Then Frodo & Company walk to Bree, after which Aragorn joins them and they walk to Rivendell. Then Legolas, Gandalf and Gimli join them and they set off walking toward the Misty Mountains ... you get the idea. Our way of appreciating this epic of walking is to sit for ten hours straight. Maybe I'll walk to the theater.