I got this in email the other day. It seems like a good one that’s been around for a while, but the names are pretty interchangeable (depending on your affiliation, of course). I was too lazy to choose more neutral names, though; with this group, there’s no way to twist it my liking.

Given that Al Gore has no job, he decided to take a sightseeing vacation to Europe.

While visiting England, he is invited to tea with the Queen. He asks her what her leadership philosophy is. She says that it... [More]

MS security patch EULA gives Billg admin privileges on your box on The Register talks about the new EULA for the recent patch to Window Media Player. It seems to involve some wording that allows Microsoft to upgrade your machine and software automatically to conform to DRM standards it, and its content providers, have agreed to. Whether you’ve agreed to it doesn’t matter. Your agreement is implicit in your use of the patch for the security holes in their software. That’s right, they ship... [More]

There are 68 pictures and 15 journal entries detailing our journey to Switzerland almost a month ago. If you just want a massive overview, then check out the new print feature here [print] (just click print at the bottom right, after selecting options).

Logitech Pocket Digital Review on Hardward Central reviews the new Logitech digital camera. It’s only 1.3 megapixel, but if you’re looking for a snapshot camera, this one has other statistics that make it more attractive than other alternatives, like the popular Intel Pocket Camera. “[I]t’s no larger than a laptop’s PC Card, half an inch thick and 1.8 ounces … Battery life is ample; controls, including a self-timer, are simple … the Logitech is almost an impulse buy at $130.”.

The battery is... [More]

IBM Research News has recently announced their latest new ‘world record’ for storage density. IBM’s ‘Millipede’ Project Demonstrates Trillion-Bit Data Storage Density says:

“Using an innovative nanotechnology, IBM scientists have demonstrated a data storage density of a trillion bits per square inch — 20 times higher than the densest magnetic storage available today.”

The breakthrough involves a return to mechanical storage, reminiscent of the punchcards of old, but this time, the card is “a... [More]”

When I was younger and still in middle school, as it’s called these days, I began to wonder about the Pledge of Allegiance. I didn’t have well-worked out ideological reasoning for disliking it, it just rubbed my rebellious nature the wrong way. What was this pledge I was forced to take every day in a supposedly free nation? It smacked of a fanatic level of control, though that too was only vaguely expressed or felt at the time, to be honest. Regardless of the vague and unsubstantiated nature of... [More]

Weighing in at 16 journal entries and 157 pictures, the Southwest 2002 is finally finished. It includes over 70 pictures from Gary’s collection as well. The Print Preview alone is over 40 pages and is the best way to check it out offline. However, I highly recommend to browse through the Calendar if you’re looking for something specific.

Xentex Technologies has developed a dual screen laptop called the Xentex Flip-Pad Voyager. Each screen is 13.3" diagonal, but each is also aligned in portrait mode. For presentations, the screens can be swiveled around to face the 180° the other direction (JPG). The start of the tour shows it all folded up and mentions that it sits at 3" high, so it’s more of a slim briefcase than the laptops you’ve become used to. It looks pretty high-tech though, like something out of James Bond or Mission... [More]

ShackNews is reporting that John Carmack has updated his .plan file recently in Carmack On New Cards, Rendering − the actual .plan file is here − Carmack’s 2002/06/28 .plan.

If the other .plan link is broken, then you can get an archived copy here − Carmack’s 2002/06/28 .plan

His latest two updates concern the Matrox Parhelia. The first update pretty much trashes the card, calling it “really disappointing for the first 256 bit DDR card” and that the “[a]nti aliasing features are nice, but it... [More]”

Common Dreams has a very ironic article by Rahul Mahajan called Arafat Calls for Democratic Elections in the United States. In it, he notes that “Arafat, who was elected with 87% of the vote in 1996 elections…[which were] declared to be free and fair by international observers” actually has far more of a mandate than a President elected by a “majority of the Supreme Court”.

This is in response to U.S. President Bush’s speech on Monday in which he called for the Palestinian people to have new... [More]

Beyond3D has some extremely detailed questions with John Carmack in John Carmack on DOOM3 rendering. Of interest is the mention that “[t]he game characters are between 2000 and 6000 polygons”, which makes sense, given the massive number of rendering passes in Doom 3. Since all shading and lighting is done in real-time, the number of polygons becomes a lot more important.

Other engines, like the Unreal engine, boast much higher character-polygon counts, but they use only limited dynamic lighting.... [More]

A long-lost feature from version 1.x has finally been restored to the modern photo albums. Printing is back and enhanced from the original version. Any journal entry can be printed, either by itself or in a hand-selected group from the explorer. Additionally, the entire album can be one-click printed from the album’s home page. Print options include all standard options plus the ability to include thumbnails from that journal day.

If you’ve been watching the World Cup, setting your alarm for 2:30 in the morning and dragging yourself out of bed to watch Andreas Cantor scream at you in Spanish on Univision, you’ve seen a lot of questionable refereeing. Probably the most often-miscalled play is offsides, in which the linesman always seems to err for the defense.

There have been other game-changing calls, though. Probably the first was in the first round of games in the group stage, in which Turkey was robbed of a tie and a... [More]

Rhetoric Distorts Realities… by Robert Jensen on Common Dreams takes Bush to task on recent statements he’s made, many of which contradict the facts of history. Whether they do so through ignorance (which is inexcusable in a leader with that much power) or through deception is still at issue. The truth about U.S. history would certainly not serve the administration (the current one or any recent one, for that matter) well.

Ignoring the truth lets Bush say, “Targeting innocent civilians for... [More]”

Ben Cohen has published Enemy Wanted on AlterNet which talks about more government obfuscation, this time with a specific example involving the U.S. military. The Pentagon’s budget next year is expected to top $400 Billion. The money is being spent solely to fund defense contracting companies. All of the hardware provided can’t possibly help in the war on terrorism. Seriously, why does the U.S. need more submarines?

“Even Lawrence Korb, a top defense official under Ronald Reagan, says we’re... [More]”

The Onion has the latest from venerable columnist Jim Anchower: a rant about movies called What the Hell is Wrong with Movies These Days?. His review of Star Wars is particularly scathing and hilarious:

“I saw the new Star Wars movie, and even that blew. I mean, yeah, there were some great space scenes, and you get to watch Yoda fight with a light saber, but as soon as the weed wore off, the whole thing just dragged. The love story was totally sappy, and there were all these long, boring scenes... [More]”

SatireWire just published Arabs Slyly Building Wall Around Israel in response to a Yahoo News article Israel Begins Work on West Bank Fence. Yahoo claims the Israeli efforts are “aimed at protecting Israelis from Palestinian suicide bombers”, but SatireWire claims that they are “unwittingly footing the bill to construct the first stage of an 800-mile-long wall meant to seal off the entire state of Israel from everyone else.”

Go read the SatireWire article for the full story.

Worth 1000, a website that holds Photoshop contests, has a good one called Best Friends. It’s a contest to come up with the best picture showing Arafat and Sharon as “best friends”.

The New York Newsday published a letter to the editor today in response to an article by Robert Jensen, published on May 29, 2002, called Journalism Should Never Yield to ‘Patriotism’ (reprinted here at Common Dreams). The letter is excerpted below:

“To be an American is the height of being a human being. This does not mean we are better than other people, it does not mean we have no humility. It means that we have led the way. Through our economic system, we have shown others how to live free... [More]”

The New York Newsday today had a headline on their front page which noted “Bush Expands Order To Topple Hussein”. On pages 2 and 3, the article Bush: Get Saddam… had more details of a planned U.S. coup attempt. Under that article was another, In Congress, Support for the President, which dispelled any notions that this coup attempt was just the unsanctioned idea of the President and his administration, bent on revenge.

So, here we have a very blatant example of the complicity of the U.S. media... [More]

Kath and Marco’s car, ‘Fritz’, now has his very own earthli Album, called Fritz, strangely enough. So far, there are just basic outside pictures, but after a good washing and cleaning, more interior pictures should be available.
 

The Southwest 2002 Journal from the Van Evera family trip to Arizona (and Las Vegas) is available, but hasn’t been proofread or edited yet (just entered by mvonballmo).

The Register has published Dubya calls for US Gestapo, covering Bush’s speech late last week. He called for a new cabinet-level position to be created, effectively legitimizing the Office of Homeland Security. “The stated purpose here is to provide a second layer of insurance against the intelligence and communications failures affecting both the CIA and FBI, which Congress is now investigating.” But, the proposal calls for the CIA and FBI to create reports of information and hand it over to the... [More]

The White House has issued a new set of 6 posters created to help Americans through this trying time.

“Attention American Citizens! You stand hereby directed to prove your patriotism by printing out hundreds of the wartime morale posters below, and distributing them widely throughout your community!”

Anyone not joining in will be determined to be an “Arabiac”, as described in John Ashscroft’s latest press release, Attorney general ashcroft announces new hospitality measures for arabiac immigrants... [More]

Motion Playground has a Ski Stunt Simulator on their Games page. There’s a Java version that you can play online, trying out the ‘kicker jump’, ‘the wall’, ‘crash and burn’, ‘practice’. ‘Practice’ is good for just trying flips:

front flip

lean back and down, then move forward quickly; the mouse should make a horizontal line to the right, then back to center

back flip

lean forward and down and then move back and up quickly; the mouse should make a counter-clockwise C-shape

Those are my... [More]

Someone put a lot of time and effort into creating this map of Springfield (from the Simpsons). It took me a while, but I finally found Moe’s and the Kwik-E-Mart.

The original was found at CrapHound.

The caption is a bit small, but it reads:

<q>Thomas Martello, 6, whose dad died at the World Trade Center, manages a smile as President Bush takes yet another crack at spelling his own name correctly.</q>

This guy is from another place altogether…

John Carmack Interview on Voodoo Extreme

U.S. Is Icing Our Warming Report from the New York Newsday talks about a recent report issued by the U.S. federal government about its stance on global warming, the Climate Action Report 2002. In it, the U.S. government finally admits “what every other important institution in the world has long insisted: that global warming will wreak massive damage on every corner of the planet.”

However, the logic of the U.S. empire being what it is, this does not lead to a call for curtailing of activity... [More]

Do you miss Myst? Try out this groovy game Kharon4a with a DNA theme, available in English and Norwegian. It’s got a cool soundtrack.