As readers will notice, this column’s been reduced in frequency. According to the logic of the Mail & Guardian Online, as told to me, it’s because it is expanding and getting more editors, and needs to reduce costs. (So, reducing the content that draws people to these pages in the first place is somehow creatively and economically helpful to them. Gee, that — ahem — makes — er — sense.) Good luck on figuring out the logic; I can’t. Be interactive and mail them and ask what gives, if you like.
The unholy scam that advertisers call “Christmas” is approaching. Here’s a great pathetic gift. It’s an exact replica of the sad Christmas tree that Charlie Brown managed to find one year. Go drool over Charlie Brown’s Tree.
Apparently good bomb-making info that you should try at home: allegedly, if you drop sweets containing gum arabic into cold drink, they go “boom” — no kidding. Watch this short but very useful video clip of someone putting some peppermints into either a Coke or Pepsi bottle: Gum Arabic Sweets in Cold Drink.
Assorted news items: when sub-editors party hearty. A pic of a high-school girls’ soccer team celebrating was given an online caption that it was celebrating a teammate’s decision to “come out of the closet as a lesbian.” Read Newspaper Apologises for Offensive Caption.
Good idea: showing your expert “gun-twirling technique” using a real gun. Bad idea: forgetting to unload said gun: Man Shoots Self in Chest.
A news-item link for which we’ve waited a long time: Big Pussy’s Court Trial Delayed.
South Africans’ stupidity makes the headlines again: Angry at Train Delays, Commuters Burn Trains. D-u-u-u-h.
Want to try to tart up your iPod Nano? Install iPod Linux. Then — and here’s the geeky fun — install a version of Doom to run on your iPod Nano — see iDoom.
Tea lovers have been trying since time immemorial to come up with gadgets to make their morning dose of caffeine automatically. Look at these wondrously intricate turn-of-last-century Tea-Making Gadgets.
Film geeks will probably know the name of Moustapha Akkad — he was the producer who scored big by financing the first Halloween movie. Well, he died in the recent Jordan bombings. Thank you, covert forces disguised as “terrorists”.
Things you weren’t expecting, #477: a flash animation showing Godzilla skateboarding on Brighton Pier. Go watch Skatezilla!
When your words come back to haunt you: look at this forum thread from 2001, with people moaning about the (then) new release of a thing called an iPod, and how it will never take off. Forum Reaction to Release Of iPod: Apple’s New Thing.
Sony continues its war against consumers. We recently saw the discovery of a rootkit spyware program that Sony audio CDs install on users’ computers. If you don’t know what this means, and you’re a music fan who’s put audio CDs in your DVD/CD drive for whatever reason, you now have an infection and a spyware program on your PC that no standard antivirus can even see. Read Sony’s Spyware Program.
Here’s a news item on another blocking program for PlayStation 3, and here’s another Trojan program that’s been discovered to have been secretly installed on users PCs: Sony Shipping Spyware from Suncomm.
You sicko users of Macs aren’t safe either from Sony’s “malware” — read Sony Music CDs Infect Macs.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has taken a close look at Sony’s end-user licence agreement terms for buyers of Sony music. Go read what you’re agreeing to, at Sony’s Bizarre Legal Requirements.
At least one copyright-stripping application has announced that it has updated itself to strip Sony’s Trojans from all CDs and DVDs. Read Any DVD.
Sony has announced it will stop shipping music CDs with built-in spyware, but far too little, far too late. Read Sony Announcement.
Underwater gills for soldiers: it’s no longer in the realms of sci-fi any more. Read this report on an army contract that’s been handed over to researchers: Underwater Breathing Gills. Apparently this technology has been achieved already, via an Israeli scientist — read Applied Henry Law.
Christians have a tough time of it, apart from their kids whom they can brainwash from an early age into accepting the whole fairy story concept as — ahem — “gospel”. Fewer and fewer people are buying into the whole bizarre notion. Take this weird site that is designed as a Christian site appealing to workers in the porno industry: JC’s Girls Girls Girls.
For the wallpaper geeks and collectors of bad graphic art — that is, readers of most local newspapers — go soak up the varied joys of Stupid Comics of the Golden Age. And browse through these rather darker Hello Kitty images than fans might be used to: Hello Kitty.
What passes for local game distributors have again shown their total contempt for local consumers by delaying the release of the long-awaited Quake IV to almost two months later than the rest of the world. I guess they’ve shipped product by slave-rowed slow boat, rather than using normal air freight, in order to increase profits.
Think of the logic: Does this sound like a great way to prevent piracy? “Make sure an eagerly waited-for game is available everywhere else globally (including illegally online) for at least six whole weeks, but tell locals to be honest and just wait patiently.” Duh. As if they will. What are we, children? (Don’t whine about piracy when you can’t keep pace with modern distribution networks and consumers’ desires and wants.) Grumble over. Here’s a collection of juicy, panoramic virtual-reality shots from within the game world: Quake IV QuickTime Clips.
Some sleaze that’s for adults only. Looking more like simple psychedelic retro art than what it is, go stare at what — in 1975 — passed for an Erotic Colouring Book.
Until the next time, unless the M&G needs more money for more editors.