That may be the only thing that would inspire any progress at this point. The American space program has arguably never made so many advances at such a grueling pace as during the Cold War, when the big motivator was to beat the Russians at everything they could. Without a manjor spacefaring superpower to contend with, the desire of the powers that be to cream the next milestone and flaunt the bragging rights just isn't there anymore.
Friendly cooperative American/European/Japanese Mars probes aside, I'd wager that if word got out today that China or North Korea or Grand Fenwick or someone were planning a manned Mars flight, NASA would be thrown a large bag of moneys and ordered to get some sort of competing plan together within the week.
I don't presume to know your job, but if your users need to subvert the protection scheme in order to use the system for its intended purpose and do their jobs, the protection scheme needs some serious work.
There are also articles on the Olympics and the old "Mighty Casey is at bat" baseball poem. It seems Forbes just ran a text search for "games" on their own site and called the resulting page a "feature" in hopes of scoring a few thousand extra ad impressions.
I remember reading an interview with some "cybercrime" expert in the early 1990s, who collected printouts of the "if you're law enforcement you're not allowed to login or nark on me" screens from underground BBSes, just because they were so incredibly funny and naiive.
There are a ton of snarky "lol the movies sucked" comments being posted, and that's all good, but it's actually interesting to note that this very fact formed another part of Chan's failed appeal. FTA:
Beeson seconded MacIntosh in rejecting the argument the movies "were neither current, nor in the `blockbuster' category." She wrote: "A court was not in a position to assess the quality or value of such material."
Joe Camel really has nothing at all to do with this. The violent video games and porn cartoons are directed at adults, and meant to be restricted from viewing or use by children. If you show a child hentai, you're guilty of child abuse.
The Joe Camel cigarette ads, on the other hand, were directed toward the general public and viewable everywhere, including places children would see them.
That makes me wonder where the "virtual child abuse" line is drawn. There are lots of non-porn instances in pop culture. Can South Park still kill Kenny? Can Charlie Brown still get whacked with a baseball and go flying off his pitcher's mound? Can Popeye still chase Swee'pea around a construction site? Can God still tell Abraham to kill his son Isaac in the Christian Bible? And don't get me started on the mythological dysfunctional families in the Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Norse, and other ancient polytheistic pantheons that most kids learn about in school.
Or have the bloodsucking lawyers already eaten the site? Anyway, here's the first blog post:
Bizzare Google Request
December 9th, 2006
Here is a bizzare e-mail discussion I had with a guy who contacted me yesterday.
xxxUPDATExxx I have posted the second part of this, you can view it here: Second bizarre email
-Original Message-
From: xxxxx xxxxxxxxx
Date: 12/8/2006 xx:xx:xx PM
To: Dean Hunt
Subject: DeanHunt.com Google Removal Request
Hello Dean,
My name is [edited] and I run [edited].com
I have been running the site for over two years and we have been ranked very highly for the search term [edited].
On Thursday morning I checked our google positions and your site is now above us for this term. I haev checked your blog and it has nothing to do with [edited], so I think it would be best all round if you remove your blog from google for this search term.
Please understand that we make our living from this, and you are just writing a blog that has nothing to do with [edited].
If you do not remove yourself from google for this search, then I will call them myself and have you removed.
I expect a reply soon.
Thankyou.
[edited]
[edited].com
From: xxxxx xxxxxxxxx
Date: 12/8/2006 xx:xx:xx PM
To: [edited]
Subject: Re: DeanHunt.com Google Removal Request
[edited],
Dean here from DeanHunt.com
I just received your e-mail. My first question would have to be Are you serious?
I had to re-read your e-mail three times to make sure my eyes were not playing tricks on me!
Here is some more info that may help you understand my stance on this:
a) I have never attempted to rank for the search term [edited], I seem to rank fairly well for [edited], which I suppose is fairly similar. But if Google prefers my site to yours then perhaps you should be asking yourself why that is.
b) There is nothing I can do about removing myself for that search term, nor am I going to attempt to do anything. I have no information on my site related to [edited], so I am sure that the searchers will generally visit your site instead.
c) You can contact Google if you wish! I doubt you will get a serious reply though.
Perhaps instead of wasting your time with e-mails like this you could work on improving your web site instead?
Anyway, good luck with contacting google, if you do get a reply, I would love a copy of their e-mail. I have prepared a nice little place on my wall to hang it from.
Take care,
Dean
UPDATE: I have been getting a LOT of e-mails from people asking if they can blog about this story. So if you want to write about this in your blog/site then feel free.
And the second bizarre email:
Bizarre Google Request Update
December 11th, 2006
Good morning,
You are probably aware that over the weekend my âoeBizzare google requestâ story was featured on many major news sites on the net. It has been discussed on thousands of sites and forums and the response was so high that my server crashed on two occasions. (Current total = 45,000+ readers)
I am honestly amazed by the response! I only posted the first e-mail on here because I thought it was amusing, and I was genuinly surprised to see the attention that it received.
Anyway, I have spoken to some friends and my plan was just to let this all calm down and for me to get back to normal. But I have received another e-mail from him this morning, and if you guys find it half as funny as I do then it is surely worth posting.
However, this time I have NOT replied to the e-mail. Quite frankly I am lost for words with this guy, and I am losing my patience.
So what I would like you to do is to use the comments box in this article and tell me what you think I should reply with.
Here is his e-mail:
Dean,
Firstly, I have to admit that I was not impressed with the sarcastic nature of your reply.
Secondly, I am writing to let you know that I
So China doesn't want to play games with controversial religious messages, territorial disputes, or suspect political commentary. They must have loved it 21 years ago when Super Mario came back to life after death, lowered a flag outside a castle, and rescued a kidnapped princess from an evil king.
The judge then clasped his hands together, made an imaginary pistol with his index fingers, pointed it at Illinois, and shouted "Boom! Headshot!!" before shoulder-rolling out of the courtroom.
Slashdot Mirror
I would, except it's full of those freaking "Magic: The Crack Addiction" cards.
That may be the only thing that would inspire any progress at this point. The American space program has arguably never made so many advances at such a grueling pace as during the Cold War, when the big motivator was to beat the Russians at everything they could. Without a manjor spacefaring superpower to contend with, the desire of the powers that be to cream the next milestone and flaunt the bragging rights just isn't there anymore.
Friendly cooperative American/European/Japanese Mars probes aside, I'd wager that if word got out today that China or North Korea or Grand Fenwick or someone were planning a manned Mars flight, NASA would be thrown a large bag of moneys and ordered to get some sort of competing plan together within the week.
So it turns out that life does stop and start at my convenience...
I don't presume to know your job, but if your users need to subvert the protection scheme in order to use the system for its intended purpose and do their jobs, the protection scheme needs some serious work.
I always use a firewall to block off that port.
Who came up with that name, My Cousin Vinny? "Two yoots..."
There are also articles on the Olympics and the old "Mighty Casey is at bat" baseball poem. It seems Forbes just ran a text search for "games" on their own site and called the resulting page a "feature" in hopes of scoring a few thousand extra ad impressions.
It gets better once you get past that miniboss battle and unlock the bonus "make-up shag" level.
Still waiting for some Gameshark codes, though...
I remember reading an interview with some "cybercrime" expert in the early 1990s, who collected printouts of the "if you're law enforcement you're not allowed to login or nark on me" screens from underground BBSes, just because they were so incredibly funny and naiive.
Amazing! That's the same password I have on my luggage!
You try telling anyone whose life savings were vaporized by the fallout from Enron and such that white-collar criminals aren't dangerous.
After the episode airs, I'll come back and replace this post with one that wins the pool.
Joe Camel really has nothing at all to do with this. The violent video games and porn cartoons are directed at adults, and meant to be restricted from viewing or use by children. If you show a child hentai, you're guilty of child abuse.
The Joe Camel cigarette ads, on the other hand, were directed toward the general public and viewable everywhere, including places children would see them.
That makes me wonder where the "virtual child abuse" line is drawn. There are lots of non-porn instances in pop culture. Can South Park still kill Kenny? Can Charlie Brown still get whacked with a baseball and go flying off his pitcher's mound? Can Popeye still chase Swee'pea around a construction site? Can God still tell Abraham to kill his son Isaac in the Christian Bible? And don't get me started on the mythological dysfunctional families in the Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Norse, and other ancient polytheistic pantheons that most kids learn about in school.
Right, by Google bombing other sites to knock the target out of the top rankings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_bomb
Anyway, here's the first blog post:
And the second bizarre email:
So China doesn't want to play games with controversial religious messages, territorial disputes, or suspect political commentary. They must have loved it 21 years ago when Super Mario came back to life after death, lowered a flag outside a castle, and rescued a kidnapped princess from an evil king.
But on the downside, you have to play with a joystick that looks like Spongebob. *shudder*
The judge then clasped his hands together, made an imaginary pistol with his index fingers, pointed it at Illinois, and shouted "Boom! Headshot!!" before shoulder-rolling out of the courtroom.
Is that all before or after the symbolic journey through my own death and subsequent rebirth as a star baby?