June 2007
Britt: On the road to Monterey.
Music Retailers Flip Out That Prince Wants To Give... →
For years, some have been saying that the real problem holding back the music industry from embracing digital distribution hasn’t been the record labels so much as the record stores. In fact, in the Rolling Stone article about the suicide of the recording industry, one of the key stumbling blocks was that the music retailers threatened the record labels if they embraced digital distribution...
Microsoft: Patents Are About Sharing, Not FUD →
Last month, Microsoft went on the offensive in playing up its patent portfolio in an attempt to scare other companies into agreeing to licensing deals. This showed a complete flip-flop from Bill Gates’ own words from the early ’90s about how innovation is stifled by patents. It seemed to only underscore the idea that patents are used not to encourage innovation, but to protect legacy...
Britt: Sushi!
Britt: @edrabbit The heavy atmospherics trying to disrupt you better judgement so you’ll buy things?
Britt: @s4xton I thought you weren’t getting a Jesus phone?
Britt: Is it me or is Second Life the clumsiest UI ever?
NYC to require $1MM in insurance and a permit to... →
Cory Doctorow:
The mayor of NYC is proposing a vague set of rules governing the use of video cameras on public property, including sidewalks. The rules would require many “filmmakers” (including kids videoing each other in line for a movie or anyone else using a camera for more than five minutes within a 100-foot square of city property) to get $1,000,000 in liability insurance and a...
Britt: @entropyblues Ok I’m sold.
Britt: Just a general tip, don’t google image search ‘Librarian’ at work.
Britt: @entropyblues No it won’t, by the third night we’ll be chasing each other through the snow with power tools.
Britt: @entropyblues We are not insane! *goes back to constructing his Zeppelin*
Britt: Not standing in line for the iPhone, but does anyone have a Pownce invite?
Rolling Stone Writes Obituary For The Recording... →
Yeah, it’s not like most of the folks outside of the recording industry didn’t recognize this years ago, but Rolling Stone has pretty much summed up the situation in the recording industry by writing what is effectively an obituary for the industry’s suicide. There’s nothing really new in there, but it hits on a few key points. The music industry is still doing great. ...
Britt: IN a meeting where I am not being fed lunch…hmph
What Happens Without Safe Harbor Protections: ISP... →
In the ongoing case of Viacom against Google, one of the keys is whether or not Google/YouTube have protection under the DMCA safe harbor provisions, which are supposed to protect service providers from the actions of their users. This is an important, because without those safe harbor provisions, the increase in liability would basically cripple all kinds of internet service providers. For an...
Upstart Blogger →
"Booze and pills 4 Jesus" banner →
Mark Frauenfelder:
Greg has created a banner for high school kids to use who don’t want to get kicked out of school for unpopular use of the 1st Amendment.
According to the wikipedia pages describing the Supreme Courts Ruling a student can’t contradict the Schools mission against illegal drug use. Link
Previously on Boing Boing:
• Bong Hits 4 Jesus
Court rules blood contract unenforceable →
Mark Frauenfelder:
Big Fez says:
A Santa Ana, CA, judge said a promise to repay $140,000 penned in blood by businessman Stephen Son was not an enforceable contract.
Son punctured his finger and wrote “Sir, forgive me. Because of my deeds, you have suffered financially. I will repay you to the best of my ability,”
“Blood is the worst of all testimonies to the truth,”...
Hope Larson’s Hopelessly Tainted Kiss Book →
Hope Larson bought a bound sketchbook that she intended to turn into a “kiss book” — and then those other terrible comics artist people got hold of it.
Neuros open PVR gets YouTube support, courtesy of... →
Cory Doctorow:
The Neuros community just released a major cool new feature for the OSD: playback of any YouTube video on your SD or HD TV set, along with keyword searching and other YouTube features.
The Neuros OSD is a sweet little Linux-based set-top box that can record from any device (cable box, game console, DVD player, etc) and can play back Internet video from USB drives, memory cards,...
Supreme Court To Weigh In On State Laws Regulating... →
For years, there have been lawsuits over state regulations that ban the sale of certain products from “unregistered” vendors outside of the state in question. The products regulated are often things like wine, contact lenses and cigarettes — with the state often arguing that the laws are there to protect minors from getting easy access to potentially troublesome products. ...
Britt: @KarinaLongworth People that want you to look at their boobs instead of listen to there words.
Honor student suspended for marijuana free speech... →
Mark Frauenfelder:
Blair says:
This is an article along the lines of the “Bong hits for Jesus” article. In this case a grade 10 honor student who vows no prior drug use has been suspended from a high-school in small town Saskatchewan, Canada and was forced to miss a final exam over his research paper that compared the harmful effects of alcohol, tobacco and marijuana. In his paper the...
Former RIAA defendant suing RIAA →
Mark Frauenfelder:
Three cheers for Tanya Anderson, a 42-year-old disabled mom who refused to sit quietly when the RIAA attempted to shake her down for money after accusing her of illegally downloading music. After the suit against her was dismissed with prejudice, she turned around and filed a 13-count civil suit against the RIAA and the major labels.
You may remember Andersen as the single...
Mushrooms as insulation material →
David Pescovitz:
Eben Bayer, 21, has invented an organic insulation formula with oyster mushroom spores as its main ingredient. The material, called Geensulate, also contains water, flour, and the mineral blend perlite. Bayer, who learned mushroom cultivation from his dad, and business partner Gavin McIntyre, 22, have been growing the material under their beds but hope to bring it to market in a...
Are The RIAA's Investigation Techniques Illegal? →
Having victims of the RIAA’s shotgun legal approach fight back is certainly nothing new. In fact, having people charge the RIAA with racketeering for its actions has happened quite a few times at this point. However, this latest case against the RIAA is a little different. Filed by the same woman who charged the RIAA with racketeering two years ago, Tanya Andersen, the latest case...
Crustaceans chewing up Japanese island →
David Pescovitz:
At left is a photo taken between 1955 and 1965 of Hoboro Island off the coast of Hiroshima. At right is a recent photo of the same island. Hoboro Island is quickly being eaten away by isopod crustaceans digging into the rock to deposit eggs.
From MSN-Mainichi Daily News:
“It’s rare, even on a global scale, to hear of biological erosion that has proceeded on such...
Britt: Abandoning twitter friends that I don’t know in real life and that are boring.
Violent Crimes Keep Dropping As Violent Video... →
A few years back, we posted some research someone had done noting that youth violence had decreased drastically over the years as violent video games became more popular. Now Digg is highlighting a similar, and rather dramatic, drop in overall violent crime during the period since 1993 (when the video game Doom was released). Obviously, this is a correlation, not proving any kind of causal...
Good Morning Sinners →
(via riotclitshave)
Jabber::Simple →
Britt: Exacting vengeance upon those that have wronged me.
Addiction Experts Say No To Video Game Addict... →
We mocked the recent attempt to get “video game addiction” classified as a medical disorder, and it appears that addiction experts agree. At the latest American Medical Association meeting, various addiction experts came down strongly against the proposal, noting that a lot more research needed to be done and that there was “nothing to suggest” that video game addiction...
“We remain wholly committed to the destruction of America, the Great...”
Bong Hits 4 Jesus: high court ruling's... →
Xeni Jardin:
andy carvin says,
I’ve just posted an analysis of today’s Supreme Court ruling against the Bong Hits 4 Jesus kid. The court basically says that the school was within its rights to bust the kid because he was displaying anti-drug messaging and it was a school-sanctioned event, even though it occurred off campus. This might affect students who have been busted by...
Viewing American class divisions through Facebook... →
Paul Dowman » Ruby on Rails EC2 “Appliance” →
O'Reilly Network -- How to Build Simple Console... →
London's mayor calls deadbeat US Ambassador "venal... →
Cory Doctorow:
In NYC, a country’s national corruption index is a good predictor of the likelihood that its UN diplomats will rack up unpaid parking fines.
In London, the top offender for traffic fines is the US Embassy, which refuses to pay the “congestion charge” for driving in central London. The US Embassy owes the city of London £1,484,765 in unpaid fines. This state of...
Britt: @entropyblues Yeah, Maniwa turning into Radarman pissed me off too. Though I did like The Chief’s little pocket reality.
Britt: @entropyblues Oh, I see you watched disc 4. Indeed. What the fuck?
Britt: At work eary than I have ever been…
John Rogers’ Marriage Guide →
How an experience on a funfair ride gave screenwriter John Rogers the chance to tenderly express his love to his wife:
It’s always a matter of debate, what was the most humiliating moment of my meltdown. I hold that it was when I screamed “I DON’T WANT TO DIE LISTENING TO MADONNA!” Lovely Wife prefers the bit where, legitimately concerned at my terror, she yelled “Hold my hand!”
At the...
MontereyBay-Polaroid-02 →
Conway L. posted a photo:
What an odd tuxedo!
medicine cabinet.jpg →
Inktea posted a photo:
This is a view from the outside of the house. You can see, inside the medicine cabinet, still on the wall of the otherwise empty bathroom inside.
Britt: Dinner at Farmer Brown’s and then the theatah tonight.
Britt: I need a word: something that was originally brilliant but has been so overused that it has become trite.