popplers

May Day! May Day!

Reason #1,472 why I love the People's Republic of Cambridge: where else can I walk down the street and encounter Morris dancers weaving the maypole and leading the crowd in May songs?

On haters

The Brothers Chaps, when asked if people hate their work:

"I hope so, I hope someone hates our stuff. Because you're not punk rock if no one hates your stuff… you're Garfield."

Caturday panelz

Current panel— MAKING IT BIG: Now that you’re a huge cultural force in your own right, what do you think of popular mainstream culture? Are you inspired by it? Repelled by it? What do you draw from? Listen to anything good lately? Any business models online that you admire?
Moderator: JD Connor, Harvard University

Panelists: Rooster Teeth (Red vs. Blue), Brad Neely (Superdeluxe.com), The Brothers Chaps (Homestar Runner), Rob, Kris, Matt, Dave (Cyanide and Happiness)

Spockity Nimoy love

Upstairs at the Middle East for the "Concert of the Internet"; ROFLconcert. Lemon Demon just finished their set, and I am so bummed that they didn't play "Geeks in Love".

Birds of a Feather?

Went to check in at our hotel after the last panel (Internet Fame), which meant that we were quite late getting to the "birds of a feather" dinner meet-up at Cambridge Brewing Company. So, we got a table for two on the patio and enjoyed a quiet dinner together. The Cerise Cassée (sour cherry beer) was superb.

Not in Kansas

Only at ROFLcon: the moderator suggests changing the LOLfont to Comic Sans, and is greeted by an overwhelming chorus of jeers and catcalls.

More LOL

Question to Martin Grondin (of LOLCat Bible) from our moderator (Alexis Ohanian of LOLDeconstructed/ Reddit): "Is there any interest in a LOLquran?"

<pause>

"Because that would be the silliest fatwa ever."

ROFL waffle

Alert technophile Perley informs me that we're in Wired's Underwire column. (Well, Chris is, anyway, along with the back of my head.) We were at Laughing Squid's drink-up at the Asgard last night, partaking of good cheer and Guinness.)

Now I'm at the LOLcat panel (I Can Haz Case Study?) and it is really funny to hear someone introduce himself as the "CEO of I Can Has Cheezburger".

p.s. Lots of pics from the con in flickr and streaming live video.

In my tribe

Cambridge is warm and sunny and filled with meme-y goodness. I'm happily reporting from ROFLcon, where the keynote by David Weinberger has ended, and we're now in the midst of a panel entitled You Can Get Paid for This?: Making Some Bucks. The panelists are Kyle MacDonald (One Red Paperclip), Joe Mathlete (Joe Mathlete Explains Marmaduke), Ian Spector (Chuck Norris Facts), Andy Ochiltree (JibJab.com), Andrew Baron (Rocketboom), and Alex Tew (The Million Dollar Homepage). Already scored some amusing free schwag: two Snakes on a Motherfucking Plane t-shirts.

I just like saying Googlegänger.

I enjoyed this NYT article on namesakes. Best quote: As Jon Lee, a student and a Web developer who wants to be the first Jon Lee to turn up in a Google search, explained on his blog, "I have to top a recruitment firm, a washed-up pop star, a dead drummer and an I.B.M. guy."

There are several others who share my (our?) name, including a physics postdoc (researching Cosmic Microwave Background), an Italian software architect, a VIP chef/ caterer, and an elementary school principal.

Googlegänger Googlegänger Googlegänger.

Spellbound by Ken, Part II

As it turns out, I did win a t-shirt. I just checked my email, and there was a message from Monday informing me that I'd "posted the high score on www.besoysmart.com for Thursday, June 2nd". Here are two more fifty-cent words that I learned as a result of playing their game…

• usufructuary

  Main Entry: ¹usu•fruc•tu•ary
  
  Pronunciation: "yü-z&-'fr&k-ch&-"wer-E, -s&-
  

  Function: noun
  
  1 : one having the usufruct of property
  2 : one having the use or enjoyment of something

• psittacism

  /SiD eh sizem/ mechanical, repetitive (parrot-like) speech without thought of the meaning of the words spoken

  IN BRIEF: Automatic speech without thought of the meaning of the words spoken.

  Tutor's tip: This word was used in the 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee finals.

  Posted by rv at 11:35 PM | Comments (0)

Spellbound by Ken

I admit it, I have a Google news search that alerts me any time Ken Jennings makes the headlines. His latest gig is a "spelling bee" for Odwalla juice, where you can compete against the Brainiac himself. If you're interested in playing, head on over to besoysmart.com. I played it a few times last night, and did pretty well. I tried again this morning and managed a perfect score of 132. The Top 10 finishers each day win an Odwalla t-shirt (and they clear the high scores each evening at 6 pm). Correction: The single top scorer each day wins a t-shirt. (It wasn't me.)

Most of the tier 3 words weren't that difficult, but there were several that I'd never even heard before. (I just checked, and most of the ones that are completely unfamiliar are only available at Merriam-WebsterUnabridged.com.) To give you an idea, here are two words that tripped me up during my first encounter.

Nifty shirts

Threadless.com has a new batch of T-shirts this week, including this one which I quite like: Tasty Table. (And if you're looking for drink recipes, go check out extratasty.com! They do not have a recipe for Thirsty Camels, however.)

Also cute: Why Did The Chicken Cross Abbey Road…? and Midnight Snack.

Lewd Avatar Synchrony*

I am happy to say that I've finally completed my anagram T map. All lines have been anagrammed, including the Silver Line and Commuter Rail, and there are lots of other jumbled goodies in the margins. (Check out the map legend, too.) The PDF version of the map is great— lots of details and nearly infinite zoom capability. But the PNG version on Flickr captures most of the info. Enjoy.

* Charlestown Navy Yard

Next Stop Low Nerd DNA

Inspired by Boing Boing's recent posts on Anagram Transit Maps, I've taken some of the names from Analog Kid's Orange Line Anagram Map and started putting together a complete MBTA map. So far, I've finished the Red Line and the Blue Line. Still working on: Green Line, Silver Line, and Commuter Rail. I hope to finish one more line today.

Mad Props to Wordsmith.org's Internet Anagram Server (I, Rearrangement Servant).

Home for the holidays

The tech support generation got off easy during this most recent visit. I didn't check Download Squad's list of Top 10 things to do for mom's PC over Thanksgiving, but I did:

• install an updated version of Java (so that mom can play Yahoo! bridge using Firefox instead of Internet Exploiter)
  
• get the sound working on the desktop system again (speakers were plugged into an auxiliary power switch, and the switch wasn't turned on)
  
• check the antivirus defs (up-to-date) and update the spyware detection stuff
  
• install Quicktime and a newer version of the Palm desktop software

Will no one think of the children?

Boston Globe headline: Kids get new weapon against predators using Internet.

[…] NetSmartz, which is available to all elementary, middle and high schools in the state, features the animated figure Clicky rapping and offering advice on how to spot Web users who use foul language, try to get strangers to meet them, send pornographic pictures or ask personal questions. […]

Rapping? Aieee.

Here's what "Clicky" looks like:

(At least it's better than Microsoft's @#$%ing paper clip.) The website offers the following Digital Rights Management sermon/ "lesson":

Clicky's Stolen Song: A Lesson in Digital Ethics

Captain Bootleg, an Internet pirate, has stolen Clicky's hit song. Nettie and Webster learn why it is wrong to steal music from others.

What a load of crap.

Free Cuddling

Alert reader Poz spreads the gospel of the Free Penguin Project.

Objective:

The starting point of this project was the question: "Why is it that on the one hand in the Linux® world all code of software is freely available and on the other hand the code to compile a soft toy penguin is still not open source?" This project will try to publish code that will enable people to sew soft toy penguins themselves provided they meet certain hardware requirements.

ROFL

Don't miss… David Wong 's A World of Warcraft World: 10 Ways MMORPGs Will Change the Future.

There are more people playing World of Warcraft in the U.S. today (two million) than had indoor plumbing 100 years ago. There are more people with blogs today (31 million) than had internet connections ten years ago.

Thomas Edison said it best: "Change happens with ball-flattening speed."

OMG!

Via Gizmodo: Hello Kitty halogens. Hmm, do I put them on the WRX or the S2000?

Honestly, though, if I'm going to buy the lights, I'd better spring for these badass rims, too. Only $960 (for a set of 4, I hope— I'll have to get Chris to translate).

Words, words, words.

Technorati sez that a new blog is created every 5 seconds, and that the number of blogs doubles (roughly) every five months. (Interesting reading here, with bonus points for the use of 50¢ word folksonomy.)

Amusing: What Everyone Should Know About Blog Depression.

Branding

Fun with the Google Logo Maker: obligatory self-promotion and other silliness.

E-ticket ride

Yesterday, it hit 91° (a record high). I didn't go hiking. I didn't go to the beach. I didn't bask in the air-conditioned glory of the local cineplex. I spent yesterday at an ex-army base, on hot tarmac, driving around (and over) a sea of orange cones.

Yep, the S2000 and I finally tried autocross. The New England Sports Car Club offered its Solo II School yesterday, so I got up at 6 a.m., loaded up the car, and drove out to Devens. My co-worker Jane had already set up a tarp, so I parked next to her Audi TT and got my car ready to be checked by the tech guys. I pulled everything out of the trunk and set it up. I removed the car mats. I went to check the tire pressure, and found that Chang had already inflated the tires to 45 p.s.i.(!)

There were some very nice cars there. Besides Jane's TT, there were the requisite Miatas and WRXs, a few BMWs, lots of Hondas. And a red Ferrari 308 GTS (the same car that Magnum PI drove). And not one, but two gorgeous, brand-new, British Racing Green Lotus Elises.

The morning started out with the aforementioned tech check. Then there was an hour of classroom time (held in the shady patch next to a motor home), where we sat on folding chairs and Chang went over the basics of autocross. At this point, we broke up into groups— two intermediate groups, and three groups of n00bs. I was in Group B, which consisted of the Ferrari 308 GTS, the Audi TT, one of the Elises, an older convertible BMW, and something else that I can't remember. And our first lesson was the Slalom.

There were 2 sets of cones set up, so you'd drive down one slalom set, and then drive back to the start on the other slalom set. And then you'd get back in line and do it again. There were 3 instructors in our group, and they would switch off between riding in your car and instructing you, and driving your car to show you how it's done. When Instructor Kevin drove my car, I felt like I was on the Cyclone. The first set of slalom cones were spaced closer together, so you couldn't go as fast. The second set were farther apart, so you could get up to 35-40 mph. I spent the whole day in 2nd gear. Somewhere during slalom practice, I really started to feel like autocross was not the sport for me. I felt queasy, and I was really having difficulty understanding why someone would want to do this to his car. But I kept getting back in line and trying to pay attention to all the different things that you're supposed to pay attention to (look ahead! smooth turn! back side of the cone! steady speed! look ahead! have an aneurysm! don't hurl!) and driving it over and over and over again. And then it was time for the Kidney Bean.

The Kidney Bean, not too surprisingly, is a course laid out in the shape of a kidney bean. There are increasing radius turns and decreasing radius turns, and a small slalom in the middle. You can't see any of this at first glance, though. Mostly it looks like an explosion at the traffic cone factory. But the instructors walked through the course with us, and explained what would be happening and where we should be looking. And then we got in our cars and drove the course slowly a few times (again, talking about what should be happening at a given point). Repeat, only faster. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. At some point in here, I stood out on the course and re-set any cones that got knocked over during someone's run. Thankfully, most people didn't knock over very many. Did I mention that it was frickin' hot? OK, now start driving it in the clockwise direction, if you can figure out the course. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. (Look ahead! Accelerate! Back side of the cone! Brake! Accelerate! Outside edge! Look ahead! Brake! Accelerate! Look ahead!) This started to get fun again, and was not nearly as queasy-making as the slalom. Next: Offsets.

The final lesson of the day was Offsets. There were cones set up in a zig-zag at the extreme edges of the runway, and the goal is to drive big smooth arcs (half circle in one direction, half circle in the other. The steering wheel is never pointed straight, because you're immediately transitioning into the next turn (look ahead! look ahead! look ahead!). This part was definitely fun, although my brain was starting to melt as we hit the hottest part of the day.

After all of the lessons, there was a mini-autocross course. As before, we walked the course with an instructor, then drove it with him. Then the instructor drove it while I sat in the passenger seat. Repeat, repeat, repeat. I got to wave the green start flag while the other set of drivers went through their runs. Then 4 more runs for me, followed by another stint of flag-waving.

Instructor Kevin exhorted me to really push my car, saying "You haven't even spun it today, have you?" So, during my penultimate run, I really pushed it, and was "rewarded" with a 270° spin-out during the final offsets. It was fun, but that blew my time. I tried pushing it during my final run too, but my overall time was slow. I did better when I pushed it less but paid more attention to the course and timing, and I don't yet have enough brain cells to do both things at the same time.

By the end of the day (~5 p.m.), I was wiped. Went back to my "camp", loaded up the car, let down the tire pressure, and put the roof up. Cranked the A/C, and waited for my brain to re-solidify. As the car cooled down, I realized that I was ravenously hungry.

Nothing prepared me for the sound of an autocross. There is a constant background of engine and tire shriek, not just from your course, but from all of the other areas at the event. Driving home, I could still hear all of those sounds in my head, like when you play Quake for too long. I also can't believe how tired I am (although I think part of that is due to the heat) and sore. That said, it was a lot of fun and I'll do it again (preferably on a cooler day).

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?

Geek humor for Queen fans via Mike: Bohemian RPG. (Someone needs to record this one.)

Craigslist

It's been done before, but it's still cute: Why Geeks and Nerds Are Worth It…

9.) Most frequent bars as often as slugs frequent salt mines. You won’t have to worry much about your geek guy getting his “groove” on with club hotties because, frankly, he’ll be too busy rooting around under his computer wondering where that spare cable went. You won’t have to worry about him flirting with other women because, 9 out of 10 times, he’ll zip right by them in a perfect b-line towards the nearest electronics store. I’ve seen this happen.

Me: “Eww. Victoria Secret’s Models... They’re so skinny. How is that feminine? You can see her ribs!”
Geek Guy: “ooooooo...”
Me: “Hey!” *notices he is staring lustfully towards the computer store*
Geek Guy: “What?”
Me: “Never mind...”

Just doing my part to spread the blogmeme

These are my URL ABCs:

• A is for accordionguy.blogware.com/ - You haven't lived until you've heard "You Shook Me All Night Long" played on an accordion.
• B is for boingboing.net/ - geek pop culture fix.
• C is for coh.com/ - Best. Game. Ever.
• D is for defectiveyeti.com/ - (Naturally.)
• E is for en.wikipedia.org/ - The sum of all human knowledge can be found on the internet.
• F is for fark.com/ - (It was a toss-up between this and fafblog)
• G is for google.com/ - See "E," above.
• H is for hacks.oreilly.com/pub/h/491 - TiVo hacks. Gotta have that 30-second skip.
• I is for ifctv.com/henry/ - What can I say? I dig Henry Rollins.
• J is for jobs.boston.com/ - I keep looking for the one where they pay me to play City of Heroes, but I haven't found it yet.
• K is for katc.com - random news story from Fark
• L is for littleyellowdifferent.com/ - Ernie cracks me up.
• M is for mcphee.com/tiki/tiki.html - Your source for Tiki crap.
• N is for neilgaiman.com/journal/journal.asp - I can not wait for his next novel, Anansi Boys.
• O is for oca.microsoft.com/en/response.aspx - Microsoft's "Online Crash Analysis" page. Insert joke here.
• P is for palmbeachpost.com/accent/content/accent/epaper/2005/04/27/a1e_twinkie_0427.html - A random article about Twinkies turning 75. (Again, I blame Fark.)
• R is for rottentomatoes.com/ - I hate paying full price to see a bad movie.
• S is for smartypants.diaryland.com/ - Come for the stream-of-consciousness, stay for the Nora stories.
• T is for tivo.com/ - (Followed immediately by talljay.blogspot.com)
• U is for uncensoredondemand.com/ - IFC's unedited/ uncut on-demand service.
• V is for vermonteddybear.com/ - Awww… they're so cute.
• W is for webster.com/ - Another great resource for word freaks!
• Z is for zeeb.at/oops/ - The infamous "oops" list.

LifeQuest

Steven F. (of Spamusement "fame") offers an interesting idea for personal productivity and motivation. Speaking as a City of Heroes addict^H^H^H^H^H^H^H player, I think it could work for me!

Third time's a charm

(Note: non-CoHers will probably want to skip this post.)

After two failed attempts, HP Wuvcraft finally completed the Terra Volta respec trial! General consensus was that the previous attempts failed due to insufficient damage-dealing and control. The winning combo (for us) was 2 blasters, 2 tankers (1 of which was a fire AoE tanker), and 1 defender. Congrats to Misspelt, Mister Snow, Crispy Fries, and Doctor Dude!

Freakazette did this trial some time ago, and is about to get the Atlas Medallion (just need to get the Pupil badge). On a side note, did a little bit of badge hunting last night with Doc and Snow. Easy pickings on Striga if you need Family, Warriors, or Wolves.

Woooo… still dizzy.

Trippy. I stared at this for a long time before realizing that I could interact with it by moving the mouse around.

Fun with Java

Spiffy applet: NameVoyager

Where no fan has gone before…

I just read this today, in the Globe: 'Star Trek' nears its final frontier as UPN cancels 'Enterprise'. My first thought was, Wow, it's still on?

Spiffy!

Via little. yellow. different.: tips for speeding up Firefox (broadband users only). Can't wait to get home and try it!

Tchotchkes on the Edge of Forever

I went out today to run some errands and buy a few more gifts. This is the tackiest thing that I saw at the local Hallmark store. Unfortunately, $28 is way too much for a gag gift. If they go on sale after Christmas, though, look out. (And I didn't even realize that it talks until I got home!)

Woooo… dizzy.

Via BoingBoing: fun recursive animation.

Everybody's doin' it…

I know that Chris and the Clue Fairy can both relate to these holiday musings on the tech-support generation:

[…] Next week, millions of college students and young professionals will head home for the Thanksgiving holidays. We’ll sit with our families in warm, candle-lit dining rooms eating stuffed turkey, reminiscing over old photographs, preparing holiday shopping lists and … Please. Let’s be frank. We are going home to fix our parents' computers.

Forget the generational tags you’ve already heard, like Gen X and Gen Y. We are the Tech-Support Generation. […]

The spirit is willing…

Perhaps this is the antidote for Senator's Club vodka (in Zinc's words, "The vodka so bad that it made us stop drinking.")

Prices given for comparison (1.75L bottles)
Senator's Club: $11.95
Absolut 80 Proof: $25.99 (on sale)
Ketel One Vodka: $28.99 (on sale)
Grey Goose Vodka: $42.99 (on sale)

Brita filter: about $6 (if you buy the multi-pack)

Travels with Bruce

It looks like Bruce has some competition in the travel photo sector.

tiny little buttons

MuffinButtons! I particularly like information goddess and puzzle geek.

Fuzzy slippers... with tentacles

I do love my Cthulhu slippers (from Modern Myths). But these are goofy enough that I'm tempted.

Zyzzyvas!

Scrabble junkie that I am, I loved Stefan Fatsis's Word Freak (refer to the popplers entry from 2002-01-23). Imagine my geeky joy upon reading that Word Wars is playing at the Coolidge Corner Theatre this week!

Anyone else want to go see Scrabble masters strut their stuff?

p.s. I think these people should teach their dog how to play.

Is that a chainsaw that I hear?

Should I be concerned that my one of my co-workers sent this quiz around: Programming Language Inventor or Serial Killer? Or should I be more concerned that every one of my co-workers scored far better than my 5 out of 10?

City of Heroes

PvP on City of Heroes-- funny and accurate.

Can I get a plug-in for the Roomba?

It would be so danged cool to have a household robot that can make a paper hat.

Vroom, vroomba

So, my mom got us a present for Mother's Day. (No, I'm not too sure how that happened either.) But it's terribly cute, and has such geek chic that I have to brag about it here. She gave us a Roomba Pro yesterday, and it just finished charging. We tried it out in the kitchen, and it seemed to do pretty well. It's quieter than a regular vacuum, and is a potential time-saver (although we just stood around like dorks, watching it vacuum the kitchen). We just let it loose in the bathroom, and I can hear it bumping around. iRobot is based here in Massachusetts (Burlington), and they're hiring!

N.A.D.D.

Via chrism, a highly amusing article on Nerd Attention Deficiency Disorder:

The presence of NADD in your life is directly related to how you've dealt with the media deluge of the new millennium. You've likely gone one of three ways:

1) You've checked out... you don't own a TV and it's unlikely you're even reading this column.

2) You enjoy your media/content in moderation. When I asked you to count how many windows were open on your desktop you either said, "One, my browser for which to read this article" or you made yourself a note to yourself to check this AFTER completing this column. In a previous age, you were the type of person who kept their pencils very sharpened.

3) You enjoy the content fire hose. Give me tabbed browsing, tabbed instant messaging, music all the time, and TIVO TIVO TIVO. Welcome to NADD.

Funny, but true. I'm somewhere between 2) and 3) on this one. However, I think NADD is conducive to success at the kinds of jobs that I've had lately, so I think of it as a blessing rather than an affliction. (Even though I can no longer function without tabbed browsing.)

Repent!

Read David Wong's Life After the Video Game Crash or Why Nintendo Won't Seem So Crazy in 2005.

G5/ PC hoax

You've probably heard the story by now. Guy gets a dual-processor G5 for Christmas, decides that he'd rather have a Windows PC, and converts it. Yes, it's a hoax. But don't piss off the Mac community… or else. As Wired News put it: Reaction from the Mac community was swift and brutal.

Andy said his e-mail inbox quickly filled to capacity, with more than 1,300 messages, and an unknown number bounced. The mail he did receive was full of nice, kind thoughts like death threats, insults and all kinds of colorful invective.

"I hope your PC blows up and leaves your miserable face disfigured forever," read one. "You will surely burn in hell for an eternity for this one." [...]

Andy said he was critiqued by PC users as well as Mac fans, but the truly unbalanced stuff came from the Mac camp.

"Mac users are nuttier than a fruitcake," Andy said. "People have an unnatural emotional attachment to object(s) like computers. For some, their reaction was akin to me butchering their parents or a beloved pet."

Geekasaurus Rex

One man's homage to car mods and the Rebel Alliance: the H-wing. (Source: little. yellow. different.)

(Note: no, I will not be doing this to my del Sol at any point in the forseeable future.)

Via Warren Ellis:

I was reading diepunyhumans.com, and quite enjoyed (and personally related to!) Alan Taylor's musings on a life where TiVo has always existed…

[…] My daughter was only 3 months old when [the TiVo] arrived and we set it up. As far as my daughter knows, TiVo has always been around. Now that she (and our TiVo) are three years old, and there are some very interesting things I've been able to observe. […]

First - she doesn't watch much TV (an allotted hour per day), but when she does watch it, she gets a choice of a recent episode of any of her favorite pre-recorded shows (current favorites are Dora the Explorer and Caillou), and she can watch it at any time of day. We get to choose what shows we'd like to allow her to watch, set up a Season Pass, and we're done.

Second - Commercials are an infrequent novelty to her. We always fast-forward through commercials, or watch non-commercial shows. When she does occasionally see a full commercial, she's fascinated, and will often ask us to stop so she can see what's going on. How can we demonstrate to her the evils of commercial interruption, when she has never had to experience it?

Third - Ignorance of Schedules/Programming - she has no idea when her favorite shows are on, never has. She gets quite confused when we are watching a non-TiVo TV, and she asks to watch ''a kids show'', and we have to explain that this TV won't do what ours at home does. We've sometimes shortened this explanation to ''This TV is broken'', which she seems to accept, and will wait until we get home to watch our ''fixed'' TV. […]

(Read the full entry at kokogiak.com.) I love that the best explanation that they could come up with was that the other TV is "broken". I can relate to the 3-year-old in question-- when we visit my parents' TiVo-less house, I constantly find myself wanting to pause a program (while someone's talking), rewind (to catch something that I missed), skip through commercials, etc. It's really strange to find that there isn't anything on that you want to watch.

This is so cool!

Haven't you always wanted to make your own paper model of a coelacanth? Yamaha's Papercraft models of motorcycles were linked to on slashdot.org (and lots of other places), but I think that the Rare Animals of the World series is even niftier. How about a model of a Cape Penguin? Or a kiwi (the bird, not the fruit)?

Also, check out the Rare Animals of Japan series. The Hondo Stoat is especially cute.

I am the Pusher Robot, DO NOT trust the Shover Robot…

Via slashdot.org, footage of exceedingly cute robots playing Dance Dance Revolution. (Requires Windows Media Player.)

404 Not Found

Well, after 3 years, I have finally grown tired of assembling popplers from 1s and 0s. I've stepped up. I'm no longer kickin' it old school, but I will still be keepin' it real. Or something. Point is, if you've bookmarked http://popplers.org/weblog/ or http://demonchow.org/weblog/ or even (God forbid) http://users.rcn.com/rv.ma.ultranet/weblog/, you need to update your bookmarks so that they point over here. For the record, the new URL is:
http://www.foamtotem.org/~rv/popplers/

Same popplers goodness in a wholesome new package: foamy popplers for the 21st century.

EarthLink LiveChat: Technical support or ELIZA program? You decide.

This is an actual chat transcript from earlier today. Some info has been changed to protect the innocent. (I haven't changed anything that affects the guilty.) Several times during the course of this chat (which lasted for over 30 minutes), I had to physically restrain myself. I kept feeling like I was dealing with an ELIZA-bot. This experience ensures that I will never choose EarthLink as my ISP. Apparently Jenn agrees with me.