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Wink Chosen to Receive Noble Piece Prize

Posted by timothy on from the aptly-named dept.

Phil Shapiro writes "Wink, a beautifully written free program for creating Flash-format animated tutorials has been chosen to receive a Noble Piece Prize, the prize that honors the craftsmanship of Alfred Noble, who worked at the Jacquard Loom factory in France. Previous winners of this prize include the Digital Bicycle web site."

41 of 210 comments (clear)

  1. Wink, Wink by Vombatus · · Score: 5, Funny
    Nudge, nudge

    Say no more, say no more

    --
    This sig is intentionally blank
  2. Noble Piece Prize? by Vombatus · · Score: 4, Funny

    Surely this will infringe the trademark of the Nobel Peace Prize

    --
    This sig is intentionally blank
    1. Re:Noble Piece Prize? by mattdm · · Score: 2

      No, the *original* name is a joke. Repeating the joke isn't a *new* joke.

  3. Re:This sounds fishy to me too. by Tarcastil · · Score: 5, Informative

    This isn't the Nobel Prize. It's the Noble Prize. There is no Nobel Prize category for this type of thing.

  4. Re:The What Prize? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It is a joke, but not really a joke. It is just a groovy way of acknowledging a groovy piece of work.

    "That's one Noble Piece dude, someone should give you a prize for dat...hey!!"

  5. There's no way this is true... by pdevor · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...oh wait... The Piece Prize... Wow. It occurs to me that it is a highly humorous name for a prize. I am unable to contain myself. Really!

    1. Re:There's no way this is true... by NanoGator · · Score: 4, Funny

      "..oh wait... The Piece Prize... Wow. It occurs to me that it is a highly humorous name for a prize. I am unable to contain myself. Really!"

      Why do I have the feeling that this story was posted simply to watch the spelling nazis make asses out of themselves?

      Anybody want some popcorn?

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    2. Re:There's no way this is true... by pdevor · · Score: 2, Funny
      Why do I have the feeling that this story was posted simply to watch the spelling nazis make asses out of themselves?
      Because it's true :-).
    3. Re:There's no way this is true... by pdevor · · Score: 2, Funny
      some people don't bother reading the comments even after the story has been up for a while.
      What else is there but the comments? Surely you're not implying that there exist people who read the articles?
  6. I wouldn't be suprised if this Alfred was at... by jpardey · · Score: 3, Funny

    ... This wikipedia page

    --
    I have freaks! I did something right...
  7. I nominiate by cove209 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I nominate the guy that invented shirts for chicks that show off their belly's. Now THAT is worth an award.

    1. Re:I nominiate by tomhudson · · Score: 2, Funny
      Y'all better watch it, or I'll get Tammy Faye to sit on your face. You'll be prayin' a might hard then, boy! That'll put the fear of God in you. Yessirree!

      And them wimen, t'weren't no hookers. No siree. They was just ministering to my needs. And if you done seen Tammy Faye, you KNOW that, truthfully, I can say that I am truly grateful for the bounciful, I mean bootyful, I mean, ... never you mind!

      You KNOW the good book done say its a sin to sleep with a beast! That's why I done what I did. That's why the good lord sent those wimen to me. To save me!

      And that wasn't no demon rum, no siree. That was rhumitiz med'cine. Just like granny. You never seed the Beverly Hillbillies? You so dumb, I swear.

      And those porno magazines, they weren't mine. They done belonged to the cars' previous owner. I kept them so I could return them, as was my christian duty. I looked through them over and over to find if whoever had them before done left their name in it, over and over, and over and over, and over and ... well, you never mind! Sinner! You stop that tempting me. And stay of that there intarweb. It's a tool of the devil. And stop reading my email with Jeff Gannon! I'll tell ma, that's what I'll do!

    2. Re:I nominiate by Zog+The+Undeniable · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Fair enough, but their use should be strictly licensed. They're nice on Britney lookalikes, but I've seen too many fat chavettes with their guts hanging over their waistbands.

      --
      When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
    3. Re:I nominiate by Fact+Hunt · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Except, sadly, these shirts are often worn by fat older boilers. They should pass a law that only allows Crop Tops, Mini Skirts and tight leggings to be manufactured up to a size 10.

      --
      Only 10 types of people understand binary: those who do and those who don't.
  8. Re:The What Prize? by datadriven · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Piece prize", maybe next year they'll get the whole thing

    --
    GETPKG - Package Management for Slackware
  9. Re:Piece? by Golias · · Score: 2, Informative

    No, the Nobel prizes are the ones which have one for Peace.

    This is the Noble Piece Prize, which has zero to do with the Nobel foundation in Zurich, and therefore not actually a big deal.

    --

    Information wants to be anthropomorphized.

  10. Standards? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Not only self-promotion on part of the author, but a completely irrelevant non-article and intentionally misleading to boot. I hope I'm not alone in expecting a higher standard from the slashdot editors.

  11. What kind of bollocks is this? by WouldIPutMYRealNameO · · Score: 4, Informative
    There is no article, no such thing as a Nobel "Piece" Prize, no mention of any such prize on Wink's homepage.
    So basically no evidence of anything at all. Is this whole article a Troll to see how many slashdotters will bite? Did the editors check a single link?
    This article can be summed up as "No content here, but I have some links - Clicky clicky clicky please!!"
    This is the most inane thing I have ever seen.

    If you will excuse me, I'm off to make up some prizes to award to random people.

    --
    Damnit - I wanted my nick to be "WouldIPutMYRealNameOnSlashdot"
    1. Re:What kind of bollocks is this? by kfg · · Score: 5, Insightful

      " There is no article, no such thing as a Nobel "Piece" Prize . . ."

      Of course there isn't. It's the Noble Piece Prize.

      As in "really great bit of work." Noble Piece. Get it?

      And of course it exists, it's just been announced right here on Slashdot. With winners and everything. Yeah, Phil Shapiro made it up, but, that's how awards come to be you know. Someone just makes them up and starts handing them out.

      They don't come down from the mountain engraved on stone by the hand of God or something. Someone, like maybe Alfred Nobel, just decides to give 'em out.

      I have made up and awarded a number of prizes in my day mayself. They're perfectly legitimate prizes. Like the "Best Drive of the Day" trophy at my local kart track.

      I'm off to make up some prizes to award to random people.

      Exactly! Just like Nobel and Pulitzer did. Although awarding them at random takes some of the value out of them. I suggest you develop some real criteria first. Then they'll really mean something.

      You have an "Authority Thang," don't you?

      KFG

    2. Re:What kind of bollocks is this? by datafr0g · · Score: 2, Funny

      If you will excuse me, I'm off to make up some prizes to award to random people.

      So you're the one responsible for the MTV Awards!!

      --
      "Who says nothing is impossible? Some people do it every day!" - Alfred E. Neuman
    3. Re:What kind of bollocks is this? by tomhudson · · Score: 5, Informative
      The heathens. Next thing you know, they'll be saying there's no such thing as the ig Nobel Awards

      Just in case, though .. the2004 winners were

      MEDICINE

      Steven Stack of Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA and James Gundlach of Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, USA, for their published report "The Effect of Country Music on Suicide."

      PHYSICS

      Ramesh Balasubramaniam of the University of Ottawa, and Michael Turvey of the University of Connecticut and Haskins Laboratory, for exploring and explaining the dynamics of hula-hooping.

      PUBLIC HEALTH

      Jillian Clarke of the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences, and then Howard University, for investigating the scientific validity of the Five-Second Rule about whether it's safe to eat food that's been dropped on the floor.

      CHEMISTRY

      The Coca-Cola Company of Great Britain, for using advanced technology to convert ordinary tap water into Dasani, a transparent form of water, which for precautionary reasons has been made unavailable to consumers.

      ENGINEERING

      Donald J. Smith and his father, the late Frank J. Smith, of Orlando Florida, USA, for patenting the combover (U.S. Patent #4,022,227).

      LITERATURE

      The American Nudist Research Library of Kissimmee, Florida, USA, for preserving nudist history so that everyone can see it.

      PSYCHOLOGY

      Daniel Simons of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Christopher Chabris of Harvard University, for demonstrating that when people pay close attention to something, it's all too easy to overlook anything else -- even a woman in a gorilla suit.

      ECONOMICS

      The Vatican, for outsourcing prayers to India.

      PEACE

      Daisuke Inoue of Hyogo, Japan, for inventing karaoke, thereby providing an entirely new way for people to learn to tolerate each other.

      BIOLOGY

      Ben Wilson of the University of British Columbia, Lawrence Dill of Simon Fraser University [Canada], Robert Batty of the Scottish Association for Marine Science, Magnus Whalberg of the University of Aarhus [Denmark], and Hakan Westerberg of Sweden's National Board of Fisheries, for showing that herrings apparently communicate by farting.

      Even I couldn't make this shit up (well, maybe I could, if I was given a research grant like most of these people were)
    4. Re:What kind of bollocks is this? by raehl · · Score: 2, Funny

      even a woman in a gorilla suit.

      As it turns out, it was actually a 43 year old married man in a gorilla suit pretending to be an 18-year old bisexual woman in a gorilla suit.

      --
      paintball
  12. Re:I don't believe it by Golias · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Except that it is to be confused, that's why they chose that name. It's supposed to be funny.

    It's not, but it's supposed to be.

    --

    Information wants to be anthropomorphized.

  13. Uh... spam on Slashdot? by ta+bu+shi+da+yu · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Isn't this getting a little close to spamming? I mean, the app might be good, but the prize seems dodgy.

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
  14. Re:The What Prize? by northcat · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's a joke. A rather bad one. Definitely not worth posting on the front page of slashdot. But still, it's a joke.

  15. What the heck? by Geoffreyerffoeg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you read the description of the prize, it seems like it was created by Phil Shapiro, the submitter of the story.

    So can I create my own Nebula Peas prize and give it to some random free software project, like Hebcal or something, and get it posted on the front page of Slashdot?

    (No offense against Hebcal; I just picked the first nonfamous project that I saw browsing SourceForge.)

    1. Re:What the heck? by Devoid+Josh · · Score: 5, Insightful

      An editor is one who separates the wheat from the chaff and prints the chaff. -- Adlai Stevenson

      Dont you just love the quotes at the bottom of the article? I know I do.

  16. I hope to sum up the reaction from all non-posters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...

  17. Re:You may be wrong... by tomhudson · · Score: 5, Informative
    Why is everyone saying there's no link to the article (which is an obvious joke)?
    Alfred Noble worked as a loom designer in the Jacquard loom factory in France in the early 1800's. He was known for constantly sharing with his peers better ways of doing things and for the beauty of his inventions. When people tried to give him credit, he always passed along credit to others.

    When Noble was focusing on a particular piece of ass, or task, he would often stay after work to get it just right. His reputation for producing things of beauty and inventiveness caused his factory co-workers to label anything beautiful or inventive as a "Noble piece."

    One day the owner of the factory suggested that an annual prize be given to anyone who created something of great beauty or inventiveness. In honor of Alfred Noble, this prize came to be known as the Noble Piece Prize.

    When Alfred Noble found out about this prize, he was so overjoyed he exclaimed, "That's dynamite."

    The owner of the factory was so happy with the orgasmic development of the Noble Piece Prize, he told his factory workers that he would seek to have the prize given annually by the king.

    Alfred Noble, who never said much, spoke up. "I'd much prefer that this prize not be given by a king, but that it given by any contributing member of our community. To me, the honor of giving the prize ought to be as great as the honor of receiving it -- and the people best suited to choose the prize giver are community members themselves. They know. Ask them."

    He walked over to one of his co-workers and holding his forearm said, "Rudy, here, has dignity." He walked over to another co-worker and holding her forearm said, "Elizabeth, here, has dignity and hooters."

    "Don't you see, it's dignity that matters, not status?"

    A hush befell the factory floor. Even the looms fell quiet at the poignancy of the moment.

    "And we cannot give this prize annually. Our days on Earth are limited. We must give this prize more often, for beauty and inventiveness exist everywhere if we just look for them. Twice a year is how often this prize must be given.

    And we must have other Noble prizes beyond the Piece Prize. Do we limit our homage to one another because of words?"

    And such is the origins of the Noble Piece Prize, which honors two people twice a year. Today the prize is most often given to people working on public-spirited software projects -- people who embody the spirit of Alfred Noble. By tradition, the giver of the Noble Piece Prize has no connection to software creation, but is a person who embodies great dignity in the community.

    By all accounts, there can be no greater honor than the Noble Piece Prize.

    February 2, 2005
    "... all we are saying ... is give piece a chance ..." just doesn't work.
  18. That's not the article. by Grakun · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That's just background information on the Noble Piece Prize. The article is supposed to talk about Wink being chosen to recieve the Noble Piece Prize.

  19. wink is great by havaloc · · Score: 4, Interesting

    All joking beside (peace/piece), Wink is a great utility and is a must download. It's great for creating tutorials on how to do things on computers.

    1. Re:wink is great by starfishsystems · · Score: 2, Insightful
      It may be a "free program"; too bad it's not free software.

      Binary distribution only. The accompanying license states, in part:

      No form of decompilation/reverse engineering/disassembling parts or whole of the software be done.
      --
      Parity: What to do when the weekend comes.
    2. Re:wink is great by vrai · · Score: 4, Funny

      If only there was some way of distributing software that allowed the end-user to build it for their machine; whatever the architecture may be. Clearly America must focus the minds of its finest Computer Scientists on solving this, apparently insurmountable, problem.

  20. Re:No reference? by SYFer · · Score: 2, Funny

    Pointless? I think not. In fact, I've just granted this story the first ever "SYFer No Bell Prize." I'll get a press release out RSN and I'll look forward to reading about it in Slashdot next month (maybe twice).

    --
    "...all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness..." yada yada
  21. I could have sworn this was a dupe... by antispam_ben · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "New Awards To Compete With Nobel Prizes"
    http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/0 3/1712250
    Are these two stories, Nobel Prizes/Noble Piece Prize, appearing the same day a coincidence? I think not.

    The Biggest Lie Of Science:
    "The Piece Prize will be waiting for you backstage after you give your conference paper."

    --
    Tag lost or not installed.
  22. Wink is a nice app for Linux by nacs · · Score: 4, Informative

    I realize that most of the comments are going to be jokes because of the tone of the submission but Wink itself is a very useful application.

    It's similar to Macromedia Captivate and the dozens of other Flash-output screen recording tools available but what sets this app apart from the others in my opinion is it's support for Linux (it's available for Windows too) and it's price (free).

    The only other app that I've used that does screen recording and outputs Flash files is the vnc2swf console based program. While vnc2swf is quite good at full motion recording it's editing capability is virtually nonexistent (there is a program called edit_vnc2swf but it's console based at least right now).

    Wink has an excellent GUI, is 100% free ( I made a voluntary donation to the developer via Paypal and encourage others to do the same), allows you to do manual or full-motion (timed) captures, and has very good support for Linux. It's definitely an app worth downloading.

    (Note: I'm not affiliated in any way with Wink--just a happy user).

    --
    "I filter at +6, and have yet to miss out on an important comment." (#822545)
    1. Re:Wink is a nice app for Linux by unitron · · Score: 2
      - KKK -...trouble handling colour separations...

      But I thought color separation was what it was all about?

      ...tending to render large areas colourless...

      On second thought, maybe it works as designed after all.

      --

      I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

  23. Re:The What Prize? by TummyX · · Score: 4, Funny

    More likley it's a paid-for ad.

    Shameless

  24. as far as I'm concerned by michaelbuddy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    as far as I'm concerned, this fake award has as much weight to it as any other award given by a foundation, hollywood, or some other society. I think it's a cool idea. Somebody decided to recognize the achievements of someone else and tried to spread it like wildfire. I'm not sure how many are in the academy whom vote for the academy awards, but I'd bet many people would vote for Wink when given the chance to see it. It really is excellent software.

    In the area of tutorials, Wink is like Firefox and Openoffice are to their respective categories. those programs have gotten plenty of awards and recognition. Wink and Satish should too. it's more of a niche program, but so is the Web Developer toolbar for Firefox, but we'd award that one in a second wouldn't we?

    --

    ...::----::...

    I am in no way affiliated with this sig.

  25. Re:This sounds fishy to me too. by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Specially with their reference to the word "dynamite" (Alfred Nobel was the inventor of dynamite).

  26. Re:Nobel Prize is a JOKE!!! by LK01 · · Score: 2, Interesting
    This..lunatic claims the AIDs virus was engineered for the sole purpose of destroying the black race.

    That particular claim (if it really has been made) is a bit steep but there is a credible theory which claims that AIDS originated from polio vaccines.

    The oral polio vaccine theory IMO explains quite a lot and also has evidence to back its claims. It's not just for the tinfoil hat crowd.

    More here: Origins of Aids

    "The second theory, the "oral polio vaccine" or "OPV" theory, has it that AIDS began after an experimental OPV that had been cultured in chimpanzee cells was given to nearly a million Africans from the Congo (DRC), Burundi and Rwanda in the latter half of the 1950s. This hypothesis is highly controversial, and is rejected by many medical scientists, (including those who prepared and administered the vaccine). There is concerted opposition to the theory from those who publish and write in Nature and Science, the world's two leading scientific journals. However, despite the fact that many of the aforesaid scientists deny it, this is the theory that is supported by most of the available historical and scientific evidence."

    Maybe a bit off-topic but interesting and maybe important as well.