See everyone there! I'll be speaking on "Saving Digital History: A Quick and Dirty Guide". Mention Slashdot to me for absolutely no special gift whatsoever. Catch you at the bar.
Actually, at 2pm, you would still have a couple hours there. I only spent a few there myself, and saw quite a bit, as the pictures hopefully show.
I posted this at midnight on Saturday, and was taking a big gamble that the story might be posted before opening time on Sunday, and maybe a few people could make it. Either way, now you know for next time: the success I saw at the convention indicates there will be another one, and you'll make it.
What will always be my memory when I hear the words "The Getaway" is "The Big Lie", the lie, of course, was in the screenshots that got posted to fark.com that I happened to see (this was 3 years ago, and Fark was tiny).
Luckily, the web provides the shots I originally saw: here, here, here. I mean, if you saw these things, your mind said "we're here, we have photorealistic games, the world has opened anew in dewy wonder and I am reborn".
So I waited and waited and waited for this game to come out; the dumb "Getaway" name made it hard to keep track of, but man, when I did re-find those screenshots, I mean, it was like a lollipop in my mind.
Finally, quietly, the damned game came out and it wasn't anywhere near those initial promises. Yeah, call me naive, but they really did look so good.
And finally, if in fact this whole mess is actually a troll, I apologize to every single person involved, since I try to pick and choose my postings on the site, and I do my best to avoid getting swamped into ratholes over minor issues.
Well, I browsed a bit through your weblog (slow server, sir) and I can see that there's enough bad blood between yourself and the Slashdot crew to shut down a Canadian cattle ranch. However, your declarations that various editors have kicked your puppy on several occasions does not entirely scan with the current topic being posted, i.e.,
Slashdot: "I went to CES" You: "So did better people than you"
Which makes at least a bit more sense knowing that you consider yourself personally wronged by michael and possibly others (I didn't go THAT deep into your log, yet.) I assume that you assign guilt on Taco for giving michael a throne, so there's at least two.
The thing is, Slashdot continues to harbor an enormous, mind-blowing amount of readership. Somewhere, at some point along the line, there must at least be a nugget of quality or talent in there, whether in the programming (is the medium the message) or the choice of stories (savantism?) that makes a lot of people want to come to the site, and a lot of people keep coming back.
My biggest complaint is, like I stated before, that Slashdot relies a lot on outside content and does not generate much of its own (relative to the amount it links to outwardly) so I applaud any attempt to increase it. I think most blogs and sites could use such an improvement.
They got the golden ticket and you're standing outside the Wonka factory. I'm sorry. My suggestion is that you put in your.sig that michael sucks and link to some pre-made page on your site with your case for your assertion. Otherwise, you just seem like a maniac.
While it's nice that you have other sources of information available regarding CES, and believe them to be better than timothy's work, the fact remains that he's a staff member of Slashdot and is generating content for the site.
How can he be expected to improve his skills over time, writing about the important events in technology, without making at least an effort to write more stories?
Slashdot and many sites like it consist mostly of links to other content-generating sites, themselves writing articles and doing the actual on-the-prowl research. One of the ways Slashdot can definitely improve itself is to encourage more and more "home-grown" articles, written by staff members, and then work with the staff from the many, many comments that each story generates. While this "learning curve" probably turns off folks who are expecting a full-on technical publication staffed with the top-flight of writers, the fact is that this site is nontheless popular and might as well make the occasional attempt to tell the story from their own, unique point of view.
I do agree that an opening paragraph in which the writer says "The following (link) (link) (link) write-ups are out for CES, and here's my impressions" would be a small mark better, allowing readers to get comparitive views (something that the publications you mentioned will not do), but I think disparaging his "editor" title was uncalled for.
- Jason Scott
textfiles.com: Your Cure For a Broken Heart
Re:Basement NOCs - They're the Future!
on
Build Your Own NOC
·
· Score: 2, Informative
People actually pay you money to host their websites in that basement? Please let me know what form of hypnosis you used on your costumers. *sarcasm off* Seriously beyond the basement, how can you possibly compete price wise with any half-decent provider? Are these friends of yours or something? Just no way that you could afford a T-1 and still make money by hosting 3 customers. Unless they are a bit "sheltered" and don't realize what a few hundred dollars gets them on the open market.
Even though this thread is well on its way to death, I wanted to respond to this (currently 0 rated) comment, since I think there's something worth discussing in it. Likely a version of this will go into a "my basement data center" page I should really build.
There are several considerations you're not aware of or missing. There is no shame in this, since all you've had to go on is a paragraph and a picture.
First of all, I am an additional customer along with my other 3-4 customers. I use an awful lot of bandwidth (imagine how much goes out the door on artscene.textfiles.com alone) and so I pay a good portion of the monthly costs, more than anyone else in fact. What opening my basement to others does is turn what would be a crushing monthly recurring charge into a merely indulgent one. Since the vast majority of my work and public face comes through these machines and the network, I think it's a worthwhile expenditure.
I will take this moment to say that my T-1 comes from Speakeasy, and is an amazing bargain at about $520 a month. I've had people say "how do you afford the thousands for one" and the answer is I don't. They give me incredible service and top-level support. I've had a total of 30 minutes of outage in 11 months. They're good people and you should consider them instead of cable companies, who are, in fact, distilled evil.
I might have lost you (or others) when I displaced the notion of a profit motive behind the setup of my home. I don't really call these folks "customers", I call them "roommates", with a lot of the needed give-and-take that comes from that. When they need a reboot, they call me on my cell phone and I go do it. I've done part installs and troubleshooting, all part of the deal, just like roommates help each other out. When they need an extra IP or two, I get one to them. If they ask for a reverse lookup change, I go do it. And so on. I answer questions and make myself available. Also, we do things month to month, no contract. If one person leaves for whatever reason, I can swing the cost until I find a new person.
So I don't think it's hypnosis or delusion or sheltering; you will find most places give you "virtual hosting" or charge a lot for rackspace or will not give you the access to a dedicated person that I give, and can really only give if it's a small number of people. Will it ever be a full-on Colocation Facilty? No. Do I want it to be? No. Am I in competition with these places? I don't think so.
The 1990's imbued otherwise-rational geeks with this inherent need to justify everything as a business case. It really sours everything, if you ask me. This is more a little community than anything else. Don't worry, I'm not putting any colos out to pasture.
Quick explanation for the shot. It's a stitched together panorama shot, using software. It didn't come out like I'd like it to, so I will obviously have to retake it at some point. There are two lisas; there's an artifact of the one lisa looking like two. If you look around it, the shelf blends as well.
Other machines in there that might not be obvious: Vic-20s, C-64s, Apple IIc, Apple IIs (5), Macintosh SE (painted cow colors), Sun Ultra 2, Amiga 500s (3), Commodore PET (my first computer, given to me by dad when I was 9), Atari 800, and a metric ton of PC Compatibles. Oh, and a Microwave.
As for the tree, my home is about 110 years old, and they used actual tree trunks for supporting beams. Multiple inspectors say they're as good or better than other choices for supports, so they stay. I like them, and they're great conversation pieces.
Basement NOCs - They're the Future!
on
Build Your Own NOC
·
· Score: 3, Funny
I used to host with a fine place, but disagreements over costs and bandwidth usage charges inspired me (along with the purchase of my home) to host in my own basement. I have 3-4 customers, and we'll keep it at that. Bandwidth is a T-1. And I think the place looks pretty sharp. This is also where textfiles.com and bbsdocumentary.com are hosted, so it works for me.
Regarding the documentary, I actually had conversations with Dennis Hayes about interviewing him for it, but unfortunately his e-mail changed and I lost the ability to contact him to schedule an interview. If one of those kind folks out who stays in contact with Mr. Hayes could let him know I'm looking for him, perhaps he could mail me.
I have interviewed a number of people who have analyzed Bill Gates' code, specifically his work creating BASIC interpreters in the 1970s, which is not the last of but certainly near the peak of his "pure-coding" phase, before he moved into a more managerial position. The resounding answer appears to be that could code very well indeed and created tight, useful work.
There was an analysis of the code called "Inside Altair BASIC" by Reuben Harris. Sadly, it is off the net and I am unable to find a copy of it.
We have a situation here where we're reading a reporter's review of a conversation with the author of an academic study about that study. Doesn't that seem a little weak? I understand if there's an attempt to simplify and provide a summary, but how can we make any judgements, or even see what the author was trying to get across without a link to the document?
I made a vaguely involved attempt to find the PDF or HTML file somewhere on the various universities mentioned in the article, but then figured out I was doing too much work for it.
I collect strange academic papers so I'd like a copy, as I'm sure some small portion of Slashdot folks would as well. Others can continue the trend by commenting on a slashdot story about a reporter's thoughts on a conversation with a professor about an academic study.
The production quality was really good: good audio recording, good cinematography, good lighting, and a clear presentation of the information. I came away from this documentary with an idea of how gaming competitions work, and I thought the in-the-trenches video portion of the battle, including the blow-by-blow commentary of what we were seeing, gave some real insight into the event.
Following the single team was a good idea; it gave you an easy way to get back to the "spine" of the story when you travelled around throwing in a number of interviews and shots from surrounding locations. There's some amount of strangeness in the fact the event takes place in Texas and you and the main interviewees all have British accents, but hey, I like British accents so I'm fine with that.
Simon, if you had stuck a BBC or TechTV logo in the bottom right corner of the documentary, I would have been hard-pressed to think I wasn't just watching a regular documentary bought by the network. Kudos to you, especially for making this content available for free for people to download. That's a real nice gift, and people will use this as a reference material in the future. And bonus on snagging the Romero interview.
All I can say is that if you don't like how this documentary looks and sounds, give my BBS Documentary a wide berth when it comes out next year, because I doubt my production will outstrip his. This is great work for a one-man crew, and I can't wait for the next film from you.
But there is definitely a predecessor to "VD": The Elk Cloner Virus. Showed up on the Apple II, and the message would appear after 50 resets of the disk. It would infect any disk put in where you did a CATALOG of that disk.
There is a webpage dedicated to it (with source!) at this location.
"Elk Cloner: The program with a personality"
It will get on all your disks
It will infiltrate your chips
Yes it's Cloner!
It will stick to you like glue
It will modify ram too
Send in the Cloner!
There are other similarly dated variants. Elk Cloner has been mentioned in the press in the past; this is someone at the BBC being lazy. As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, glorifying the process as if it was a great accomplishment is a little strange.
I withdraw the use of the word "art" and replace it with "project". I suspect there are other similar issues in the review, if you wish to take issue with them.
The best feature of Keegan's book is that it functions both as an instruction manual and reference manual. While the first half generally has both excited-sounding paragraphs and stories, it quickly hunkers down into both step-by-step instructions (for those of us in the "get it done" mode) and reference lists (for those of us who want to get "arty" and start programming customized functions and interfaces to the TiVos).
Avoid getting hung up on a poor choice of words, focus on the intent; that's what makes you better than a compiler.
The page you link to is a series of screen grabs from the Matrix Revolutions trailer this story talks about, bookended along the way which appears to be a free-form improvisation of what the Matrix Revolutions plot might be, with just those images.
All of the images in the article are in the Trailer. It is not a leak, but it is a brilliant idea, kind of a new sub-art form; trailer improv. I would love to see more of this work in the future.
And in the name of being positive, I should turn people on to a DVD Documentary out right now called "Avatars Offline", which goes into the Everquest and Ultima Online phenomenon and interviews a large number of people with different points of view on the subject. It ranges from intense EQ players and users of various online games, to developers of those games (including people who made Star Wars Galaxies, EQ, Ultima Online, and others). I personally have a soft spot in it for the interview with Lord British, who just makes for a great on-screen addition when he gives a tour of his insane house in Texas in one of the extras.
There. So I've trashed one person and elevated another. Total Kharmic result: 0.
This makes it sound like Julian Dibbell isn't what he is, a hack writer who mines the online communities he can find for grist. His article on MUDs (which he later expanded into a book was a complete smear job, a non-insightful overview of the MUD world intended to turn a small little molehill into enough of a mountain to get his paycheck. He writes self-indulgent overviews of his online comings and goings, each one crafted as if he has expertly stumbled into a forbidden cave of insight and perspective. No doubt this current project is the most recent seed for whatever next article or tome he will lure a credulous publisher into foisting on us. Take a pass, friends.
Of course, for many people, "The Wizard" means....
on
Remember The Wizard?
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· Score: 3, Interesting
....Mike Jittlov, the Wizard of Speed and Time.
If we're going to spend some time contemplating the deep philisophical meaning of the Fred Savage Nintendo Movie, then maybe we can set aside a few minutes to consider this fantastic film.
Over time, I've consistently held The Wizard of Speed and Time to be my number one film, trumping all others by a long shot. Certainly if your primary source of entertainment is a little box with a keyboard, then you can appreciate more than anyone the amount of work and care that this film shows in scene after scene. Jittlov is, basically, a master animator, and this story of a man trying to tell his dreams through filmmaking is both inspiring and entertaining.
For most people, the response to my mentioning this film is "Well, of course." but if you haven't heard of this film before, trust me, you're in for a treat. Mike Jittlov is a great guy personally, and a fantastic filmmaker professionally, and the more people who know about this incredible piece of work and bring it into their lives, the better.
Due to the usual vagaries of the film production business, Mike sees little or no financial reward from the versions of the film currently out there, so don't pay too much thinking it'll get back to him. But see this film. I risk breaking its back with the accolades I and others heap on it.
Just for the record, if you have entered into a Hulk Trailer Physics Discussion and John Friggin' Carmack starts weighing in and uses the full power of the mind that wrote the physics engine for nearly every ID product to assist you in calculating the physics of the Hulk Trailer... and then you counteract with a dismissal referring to an obscure NASA miscalculation regarding measurements.. and you're wrong because in fact you're confusing him with a general NASA engineer instead of his side work with Armadillo and professional rocket propulsion.....
At this point, everyone should be running at full speed (rocket-jumping, if they got them) because you've just opened the biggest black-hole of geekery since Stallman and Torvalds took the stage together and ignited a GNU/Linux naming flamewar at a Linux Award Ceremony. Every last bit of non-geekery lying around for a two mile area, from stupid t-shirts with the BSD daemon on them to every hand-written Sci-Fi con button should be flying through the air at dangerous speeds to be blowing into the event horizon of the complete and total geekitude tornado that has been unleashed.
Close your eyes, baby.
(Yes, that's right, an obscure Aliens quote in a John-Carmack-participated NASA-referencing Hulk Trailer Physics discussion.)
Here is the official webpage of the Classic Gaming Weekend. This page seems to be working well, occasionally, even under the slashdotting. Here is an attendee's web page with some details of the work he did. And, of course, you should be aware of how many great people and groups there are out there keeping the memory alive with humor and aplomb, like these good friends.
I actually called Ward after the story was posted and apologized for swapping "Chicago" and "Computerized". I'd already submitted the story to Slashdot and had it rejected, and my "second try" had the mistake in it. Of course, that's the one that got in....
My biggest issue was making sure that Randy's last name was spelled correctly. And that I did.
Slashdot Mirror
See everyone there! I'll be speaking on "Saving Digital History: A Quick and Dirty Guide". Mention Slashdot to me for absolutely no special gift whatsoever. Catch you at the bar.
Actually, at 2pm, you would still have a couple hours there. I only spent a few there myself, and saw quite a bit, as the pictures hopefully show.
I posted this at midnight on Saturday, and was taking a big gamble that the story might be posted before opening time on Sunday, and maybe a few people could make it. Either way, now you know for next time: the success I saw at the convention indicates there will be another one, and you'll make it.
...you'll forget you're in Cleveland!
What will always be my memory when I hear the words "The Getaway" is "The Big Lie", the lie, of course, was in the screenshots that got posted to fark.com that I happened to see (this was 3 years ago, and Fark was tiny).
Luckily, the web provides the shots I originally saw: here, here, here. I mean, if you saw these things, your mind said "we're here, we have photorealistic games, the world has opened anew in dewy wonder and I am reborn".
So I waited and waited and waited for this game to come out; the dumb "Getaway" name made it hard to keep track of, but man, when I did re-find those screenshots, I mean, it was like a lollipop in my mind.
Finally, quietly, the damned game came out and it wasn't anywhere near those initial promises. Yeah, call me naive, but they really did look so good.
And finally, if in fact this whole mess is actually a troll, I apologize to every single person involved, since I try to pick and choose my postings on the site, and I do my best to avoid getting swamped into ratholes over minor issues.
However, you can't win them all.
Well, I browsed a bit through your weblog (slow server, sir) and I can see that there's enough bad blood between yourself and the Slashdot crew to shut down a Canadian cattle ranch. However, your declarations that various editors have kicked your puppy on several occasions does not entirely scan with the current topic being posted, i.e.,
.sig that michael sucks and link to some pre-made page on your site with your case for your assertion. Otherwise, you just seem like a maniac.
Slashdot: "I went to CES"
You: "So did better people than you"
Which makes at least a bit more sense knowing that you consider yourself personally wronged by michael and possibly others (I didn't go THAT deep into your log, yet.) I assume that you assign guilt on Taco for giving michael a throne, so there's at least two.
The thing is, Slashdot continues to harbor an enormous, mind-blowing amount of readership. Somewhere, at some point along the line, there must at least be a nugget of quality or talent in there, whether in the programming (is the medium the message) or the choice of stories (savantism?) that makes a lot of people want to come to the site, and a lot of people keep coming back.
My biggest complaint is, like I stated before, that Slashdot relies a lot on outside content and does not generate much of its own (relative to the amount it links to outwardly) so I applaud any attempt to increase it. I think most blogs and sites could use such an improvement.
They got the golden ticket and you're standing outside the Wonka factory. I'm sorry. My suggestion is that you put in your
Good Mr. Finklestein:
While it's nice that you have other sources of information available regarding CES, and believe them to be better than timothy's work, the fact remains that he's a staff member of Slashdot and is generating content for the site.
How can he be expected to improve his skills over time, writing about the important events in technology, without making at least an effort to write more stories?
Slashdot and many sites like it consist mostly of links to other content-generating sites, themselves writing articles and doing the actual on-the-prowl research. One of the ways Slashdot can definitely improve itself is to encourage more and more "home-grown" articles, written by staff members, and then work with the staff from the many, many comments that each story generates. While this "learning curve" probably turns off folks who are expecting a full-on technical publication staffed with the top-flight of writers, the fact is that this site is nontheless popular and might as well make the occasional attempt to tell the story from their own, unique point of view.
I do agree that an opening paragraph in which the writer says "The following (link) (link) (link) write-ups are out for CES, and here's my impressions" would be a small mark better, allowing readers to get comparitive views (something that the publications you mentioned will not do), but I think disparaging his "editor" title was uncalled for.
- Jason Scott
textfiles.com: Your Cure For a Broken Heart
People actually pay you money to host their websites in that basement? Please let me know what form of hypnosis you used on your costumers. *sarcasm off* Seriously beyond the basement, how can you possibly compete price wise with any half-decent provider? Are these friends of yours or something? Just no way that you could afford a T-1 and still make money by hosting 3 customers. Unless they are a bit "sheltered" and don't realize what a few hundred dollars gets them on the open market.
Even though this thread is well on its way to death, I wanted to respond to this (currently 0 rated) comment, since I think there's something worth discussing in it. Likely a version of this will go into a "my basement data center" page I should really build.
There are several considerations you're not aware of or missing. There is no shame in this, since all you've had to go on is a paragraph and a picture.
First of all, I am an additional customer along with my other 3-4 customers. I use an awful lot of bandwidth (imagine how much goes out the door on artscene.textfiles.com alone) and so I pay a good portion of the monthly costs, more than anyone else in fact. What opening my basement to others does is turn what would be a crushing monthly recurring charge into a merely indulgent one. Since the vast majority of my work and public face comes through these machines and the network, I think it's a worthwhile expenditure.
I will take this moment to say that my T-1 comes from Speakeasy, and is an amazing bargain at about $520 a month. I've had people say "how do you afford the thousands for one" and the answer is I don't. They give me incredible service and top-level support. I've had a total of 30 minutes of outage in 11 months. They're good people and you should consider them instead of cable companies, who are, in fact, distilled evil.
I might have lost you (or others) when I displaced the notion of a profit motive behind the setup of my home. I don't really call these folks "customers", I call them "roommates", with a lot of the needed give-and-take that comes from that. When they need a reboot, they call me on my cell phone and I go do it. I've done part installs and troubleshooting, all part of the deal, just like roommates help each other out. When they need an extra IP or two, I get one to them. If they ask for a reverse lookup change, I go do it. And so on. I answer questions and make myself available. Also, we do things month to month, no contract. If one person leaves for whatever reason, I can swing the cost until I find a new person.
So I don't think it's hypnosis or delusion or sheltering; you will find most places give you "virtual hosting" or charge a lot for rackspace or will not give you the access to a dedicated person that I give, and can really only give if it's a small number of people. Will it ever be a full-on Colocation Facilty? No. Do I want it to be? No. Am I in competition with these places? I don't think so.
The 1990's imbued otherwise-rational geeks with this inherent need to justify everything as a business case. It really sours everything, if you ask me. This is more a little community than anything else. Don't worry, I'm not putting any colos out to pasture.
Everyone's so Anonymous Coward these days! Shame.
Quick explanation for the shot. It's a stitched together panorama shot, using software. It didn't come out like I'd like it to, so I will obviously have to retake it at some point. There are two lisas; there's an artifact of the one lisa looking like two. If you look around it, the shelf blends as well.
Other machines in there that might not be obvious: Vic-20s, C-64s, Apple IIc, Apple IIs (5), Macintosh SE (painted cow colors), Sun Ultra 2, Amiga 500s (3), Commodore PET (my first computer, given to me by dad when I was 9), Atari 800, and a metric ton of PC Compatibles. Oh, and a Microwave.
As for the tree, my home is about 110 years old, and they used actual tree trunks for supporting beams. Multiple inspectors say they're as good or better than other choices for supports, so they stay. I like them, and they're great conversation pieces.
I used to host with a fine place, but disagreements over costs and bandwidth usage charges inspired me (along with the purchase of my home) to host in my own basement. I have 3-4 customers, and we'll keep it at that. Bandwidth is a T-1. And I think the place looks pretty sharp. This is also where textfiles.com and bbsdocumentary.com are hosted, so it works for me.
Well, thanks, Jeff.
Regarding the documentary, I actually had conversations with Dennis Hayes about interviewing him for it, but unfortunately his e-mail changed and I lost the ability to contact him to schedule an interview. If one of those kind folks out who stays in contact with Mr. Hayes could let him know I'm looking for him, perhaps he could mail me.
167 finished, 30 to go!
- Jason
I have interviewed a number of people who have analyzed Bill Gates' code, specifically his work creating BASIC interpreters in the 1970s, which is not the last of but certainly near the peak of his "pure-coding" phase, before he moved into a more managerial position. The resounding answer appears to be that could code very well indeed and created tight, useful work.
There was an analysis of the code called "Inside Altair BASIC" by Reuben Harris. Sadly, it is off the net and I am unable to find a copy of it.
We have a situation here where we're reading a reporter's review of a conversation with the author of an academic study about that study. Doesn't that seem a little weak? I understand if there's an attempt to simplify and provide a summary, but how can we make any judgements, or even see what the author was trying to get across without a link to the document?
I made a vaguely involved attempt to find the PDF or HTML file somewhere on the various universities mentioned in the article, but then figured out I was doing too much work for it.
I collect strange academic papers so I'd like a copy, as I'm sure some small portion of Slashdot folks would as well. Others can continue the trend by commenting on a slashdot story about a reporter's thoughts on a conversation with a professor about an academic study.
Did we just see the same documentary?
The production quality was really good: good audio recording, good cinematography, good lighting, and a clear presentation of the information. I came away from this documentary with an idea of how gaming competitions work, and I thought the in-the-trenches video portion of the battle, including the blow-by-blow commentary of what we were seeing, gave some real insight into the event.
Following the single team was a good idea; it gave you an easy way to get back to the "spine" of the story when you travelled around throwing in a number of interviews and shots from surrounding locations. There's some amount of strangeness in the fact the event takes place in Texas and you and the main interviewees all have British accents, but hey, I like British accents so I'm fine with that.
Simon, if you had stuck a BBC or TechTV logo in the bottom right corner of the documentary, I would have been hard-pressed to think I wasn't just watching a regular documentary bought by the network. Kudos to you, especially for making this content available for free for people to download. That's a real nice gift, and people will use this as a reference material in the future. And bonus on snagging the Romero interview.
All I can say is that if you don't like how this documentary looks and sounds, give my BBS Documentary a wide berth when it comes out next year, because I doubt my production will outstrip his. This is great work for a one-man crew, and I can't wait for the next film from you.
But there is definitely a predecessor to "VD": The Elk Cloner Virus. Showed up on the Apple II, and the message would appear after 50 resets of the disk. It would infect any disk put in where you did a CATALOG of that disk.
There is a webpage dedicated to it (with source!) at this location.
"Elk Cloner: The program with a personality"
It will get on all your disks
It will infiltrate your chips
Yes it's Cloner!
It will stick to you like glue
It will modify ram too
Send in the Cloner!
There are other similarly dated variants. Elk Cloner has been mentioned in the press in the past; this is someone at the BBC being lazy. As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, glorifying the process as if it was a great accomplishment is a little strange.
I withdraw the use of the word "art" and replace it with "project". I suspect there are other similar issues in the review, if you wish to take issue with them.
The best feature of Keegan's book is that it functions both as an instruction manual and reference manual. While the first half generally has both excited-sounding paragraphs and stories, it quickly hunkers down into both step-by-step instructions (for those of us in the "get it done" mode) and reference lists (for those of us who want to get "arty" and start programming customized functions and interfaces to the TiVos).
Avoid getting hung up on a poor choice of words, focus on the intent; that's what makes you better than a compiler.
The page you link to is a series of screen grabs from the Matrix Revolutions trailer this story talks about, bookended along the way which appears to be a free-form improvisation of what the Matrix Revolutions plot might be, with just those images.
All of the images in the article are in the Trailer. It is not a leak, but it is a brilliant idea, kind of a new sub-art form; trailer improv. I would love to see more of this work in the future.
There. So I've trashed one person and elevated another. Total Kharmic result: 0.
This makes it sound like Julian Dibbell isn't what he is, a hack writer who mines the online communities he can find for grist. His article on MUDs (which he later expanded into a book was a complete smear job, a non-insightful overview of the MUD world intended to turn a small little molehill into enough of a mountain to get his paycheck. He writes self-indulgent overviews of his online comings and goings, each one crafted as if he has expertly stumbled into a forbidden cave of insight and perspective. No doubt this current project is the most recent seed for whatever next article or tome he will lure a credulous publisher into foisting on us. Take a pass, friends.
Well, good to know someone has a parody site up at DISRESPECTCOPYRIGHTS.ORG, huh?
....Mike Jittlov, the Wizard of Speed and Time.
If we're going to spend some time contemplating the deep philisophical meaning of the Fred Savage Nintendo Movie, then maybe we can set aside a few minutes to consider this fantastic film.
Over time, I've consistently held The Wizard of Speed and Time to be my number one film, trumping all others by a long shot. Certainly if your primary source of entertainment is a little box with a keyboard, then you can appreciate more than anyone the amount of work and care that this film shows in scene after scene. Jittlov is, basically, a master animator, and this story of a man trying to tell his dreams through filmmaking is both inspiring and entertaining.
For most people, the response to my mentioning this film is "Well, of course." but if you haven't heard of this film before, trust me, you're in for a treat. Mike Jittlov is a great guy personally, and a fantastic filmmaker professionally, and the more people who know about this incredible piece of work and bring it into their lives, the better.
Due to the usual vagaries of the film production business, Mike sees little or no financial reward from the versions of the film currently out there, so don't pay too much thinking it'll get back to him. But see this film. I risk breaking its back with the accolades I and others heap on it.
Just for the record, if you have entered into a Hulk Trailer Physics Discussion and John Friggin' Carmack starts weighing in and uses the full power of the mind that wrote the physics engine for nearly every ID product to assist you in calculating the physics of the Hulk Trailer... and then you counteract with a dismissal referring to an obscure NASA miscalculation regarding measurements.. and you're wrong because in fact you're confusing him with a general NASA engineer instead of his side work with Armadillo and professional rocket propulsion.....
At this point, everyone should be running at full speed (rocket-jumping, if they got them) because you've just opened the biggest black-hole of geekery since Stallman and Torvalds took the stage together and ignited a GNU/Linux naming flamewar at a Linux Award Ceremony. Every last bit of non-geekery lying around for a two mile area, from stupid t-shirts with the BSD daemon on them to every hand-written Sci-Fi con button should be flying through the air at dangerous speeds to be blowing into the event horizon of the complete and total geekitude tornado that has been unleashed.
Close your eyes, baby.
(Yes, that's right, an obscure Aliens quote in a John-Carmack-participated NASA-referencing Hulk Trailer Physics discussion.)
All hail Sherwood Forest II, RACS, and OSUNY. God bless them, every one.
Here is the official webpage of the Classic Gaming Weekend.
This page seems to be working well, occasionally, even under the slashdotting.
Here is an attendee's web page with some details of the work he did.
And, of course, you should be aware of how many great people and groups there are out there keeping the memory alive with humor and aplomb, like these good friends.
Yes, let me explain myself.
I actually called Ward after the story was posted and apologized for swapping "Chicago" and "Computerized". I'd already submitted the story to Slashdot and had it rejected, and my "second try" had the mistake in it. Of course, that's the one that got in....
My biggest issue was making sure that Randy's last name was spelled correctly. And that I did.