February 2002 Archive Page

(ZDNet)
"The only way to explain Microsoft's decisions over the past couple of years is to say that they know their packaged software business is doomed," says open-source advocate Eric Raymond. --Cheap PCs will doom Microsoft

: Plants are psychic. The Russians are interfering with the weather. An early USENET conspiracy theorist from UWEC was once responsible for generating nearly 90% of Internet news traffic. --Robert E. McElwaine from the UWEC is an "Internet Legend"

"...in the past three months, the pent-up thirst for knowledge and modern skills has transformed the capital. Dozens of storefront language and computer skills centers have sprung up, and last week several thousand young people showed up to take entrance exams at the newly revived university." --With War Over, Afghans Battle IgnoranceWashPost)

My student Matt Hoy sent me this link.  Thanks, Matt! --Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog

(New Yorker) Manhattan treasure hunt: "Across the street, a writer for 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' and a crossword virtuoso named Ellen Ripstein are scrutinizing graffiti in a phone booth. Catercornered to them, the editor of the Wall Street Journal crossword is standing beside a professional palindromist who is riffling through a bin of adult-education pamphlets." --The Riddler: Meet the Marquis de Sade of the Puzzle World

"The history of teaching teems with machines that have jammed and stained. Who can forget that buried next to the ditto are the old-fashioned 8and 16-millimeter film projectors?" --Jamming Together: Remembering the Dittob> (Chronicle)

No, he was not squashed by a falling safe or run over by an Acme Indestructo Steel Ball. Jones created the Road Runner and Coyote cartons. Rules from that series:

• "No dialogue ever, except 'beep beep."
• "No outside force can harm the Coyote -- only his own ineptitude or the failure of the Acme products."
• "The Coyote is always more humiliated than harmed by his failures."

--Animator Chuck Jones Dies

A palindrome is a word or phrase that reads the same backwards and forwards:  "Madam, I'm Adam." Nick Montfort & William Gillsepie have written a whole palindrome story. --2002: A Palindrome Story

"The day I came home for Christmas vacation my parents and I were sitting in the kitchen, I looked at them and said, 'I'm pregnant. Just kidding, I want to change my major.'" Jeanine Savageau --Changing Majors: Junior Realizes Journalism Isn't for Herb> (UWEC Spectator; registration required)

"The year 2002. The 20th day of the 2nd month, 2002. And, on the 24-hour clock, at two minutes after 8 p.m., harmony. 2002." --2002 2002 2002b> (Toronto Star)

"Traditional publishers... couldn't understand his willingness to surrender his 'authority' over his own work by letting others participate. Nor could they understand his desire to 'devalue' his copyright by posting a whole book online." --A Footnote to E-book HistoryWired)

"Alongside the boom, however, there have recently been a few faint signs of backlash. As increasing hordes take on the task of trying to keep new sites looking nice, sounding original and free from banalities, more hordes just seem to fail." --Blah, Blah, Blah and Blog (Wired)

"...I think the wonder of our aesthetic or religious sense, or musicality, is increased by the fact that it depends on three pounds of jelly in our head." --Interview with Oliver Sacksneurologist and novelist)

"I was eight years old when my parents bought these for me, and I can still remember those chewy little peanut butter sticks more vividly than almost anything else from my childhood. I've wanted more of them for three decades!" --Space Food Sticks

Kathleen, I wanted to do this in this most potentially embarassing way possible, and I figured doing it here and now, in front of a quarter of a million strangers was as good a way as any. CmdrTaco --Geek in Love (Slashdot)

A short series of philosophical exercises, in a futuristic setting, which asks you to evaluate different definitions of personal identity. (Do you step into a spacecraft that has a 50% chance of killing you, or have your whole body scanned, destroyed, and re-constructed somewhere else three minutes later?) At the end, your choices are analyzed. (Baggini and Stangroom) --Staying AliveThe Philosopher's Magazine)

"I have lost all touch with reality, and only live to comment on the comments that other bloggers have made in reference to my notes about their comments. Is anybody out there?" --Blog ad Nauseam (The Weekly Standard)

"It may sound far-fetched, but a U.S. federal court will hear preliminary arguments next week to determine if this most elemental of Internet activities is the business property of a lone company, protected in the form of a patent." --British Company Claims Patent on HyperlinksWired)

What's it like interviewing college students at job fairs? "What a snooze. By the sixth interview of the day I vow that I'll hire anyone who can make me remember their name, and I'll sign over my 401(k) to any candidate who can make me laugh." Erin Cronin --Honesty, Shining Throughb> (WashPost)

(Word Circuits): Hypertext poetry by Stephanie Strickland --The Ballad of Sand and Harry Soot

"Calling the theological giant's stranglehold on the religion industry 'blatantly anti-competitive,' a U.S. district judge ruled Monday that God is in violation of anti-monopoly laws and ordered Him to be broken up into several less powerful deities." --Judge Orders God to Break Up into Smaller Deitiesb> (TheOnion)

"Write simply. Keep headings, summaries, sentences, paragraphs and documents short. Get to the point. Then stop." Gerry McGovern --The Need for Simple English on the Web

"Poor sad Mac, born in a plastic age. / A time when the world still thought in beige. / Crafted and molded just like a piece of art. / An orphan, abandoned. It's enough to break your heart." [Which column would you put this one in? Sometimes I wonder why I continue to split my links like this.-- DGJ] --Songs about the Macintosh Wired)

Kaycee Nicole, an attractive student dying from leukemia, shared her ordeal via on online diary. Her mother started a companion diary. Web surfers became close friends with this family through email, chatroom, and even phone conversations. The New York Times even quoted Kaycee about college life.  When she finally died, her online friends grieved like they had lost members of their own families. But  Kaycee Nicole never existed. Adam@rootnode.org --Phantom Weblogger: Kaycee Nicole Never Existed