plurib.us

Dec 28

Because it's now several days after Christmas, I would like to wish everyone a Very Merry Yule-Season!

As my gift to you, here's that old poem, "Tweeze Denied Beef Worker Isthmus." Ideally, you'll all read it out loud to someone dear to you.

http://www.hyperborea.org/humor/tweeze.phtml

Dec 19

I am still working on a way to make these types of super-cool public statements known and shown. They are forever inspiring, (and surprisingly prevalant) and it makes me think of how oddly secluded I am.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200212130067.html

(Chris, you are gross.)

Dec 18

Edith Frost has a weblog.
http://www.edithfrost.com/

Also, I regularily violate at least 3 out of the 4 Principles of Hand Awareness.

Dec 18

Last week was Hand Washing Awareness Week. There was even a competition to come up with the best rap promoting hand-washing--the winner gets a poster of Henry the Hand, autographed by Henry himself!
http://www.henrythehand.com/default.html

Make sure you know the 4 principles of hand awareness!
http://www.henrythehand.com/webp/4Principles-Poster.htm

Dec 18

How Banks Make Money, by Samantha, Cynthia, Tara, and Alex. (I want to make web pages like this.)
http://www.howard.k12.md.us/res/bank/mkmoney.html

Dec 17

2 new icons.
http://plurib.us/1shot/2002-12-17_icons/

Dec 17

All you ever didn't dream of knowing about browser support for Style Sheets.
http://www.jessett.com/web_sites/css/css_browser_support.shtml

Dec 16

Music Boulevard.
PayPal.
Toys "R" Us.

http://www.cdnow.com/ joins the ranks of the "swallowed whole." (via Tom)
--
Oh yeah! (I want pictures tho)
http://web.archive.org/web/19990223192522/www.musicblvd.com/

Dec 16

The latest Netscape blocks pop-ups. The Register brings up some interesting points about it. Particularily, that this feature could make more people choose it over Internet Explorer. This feature along with tabs are the reasons that I can't tolerate IE anymore. I'm really intrigued by thoughts about if/why (and if/why not) IE 6+ would include these features.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/28582.html

Dec 14

I made some art. It's the first in a series.
http://www.plurib.us/1shot/2002-12-14_wctinm/

Dec 14

Just about everything about Ben Stein impresses me--the only exception is the show where people try to win his money. Anyway, here's an article he wrote on how the USA can destroy its ability to innovate. (2 pages)

http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2002/1223/225.html

Dec 12

Google has released the most important things/people of 2002, according to search queries:
http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist2002.html

Make sure to look at the timeline for some graphs on web-searches during specific events:
http://www.google.com/press/timeline2002.html

Dec 5

You want complete translations of bin Laden's latest statements, you've got them.

"audio statement" from a few weeks ago that rose a hubbub here:
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,5479796%255E663,00.html

"Letter to America" from November 24th:
http://www.observer.co.uk/worldview/story/0,11581,845725,00.html

Dec 5

BBC has excerpts from Saddam Hussein's public statement today.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/not_in_website/syndication/monitoring/media_reports/2546107.stm

Somewhat relatedly, here's a long recent (Dec 3rd) essay by Noam Chomsky about US & Iraq & the world situation.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=2694

Dec 4

Get out your shockwave-enabled browsers and learn . . . How to Dance Properly!
http://www.zefrank.com/invite/swfs/index2.html
(I happen to be a master of the "Basic Twirl".)

Only slightly less impressive is his guide on How to Impress Your Date.
http://www.zefrank.com/date_1/navigation.html

Dec 2

I made 2 icons (32x32 images, by my definition) tonight. When I am able to updload stuff to sub-directories again, I'll make a link to them here. (Despite their niceness on their own, they do not seem to make this page any prettier.)

As promised...
http://www.plurib.us/1shot/2002-12-02_icons/

Dec 2

Boxes that are large-ish and uniformly sized are extremely useful--I have a end table and some shelves made out of them and some tape. These folks, though, furnished an entire room with them. The sofa is truly something to behold.

http://www.kleqkleq.com/dole/

Nov 22

This article makes me want to get a palm pilot (but I'm not going to), a one-handed keyboard, a web browsing cell phone, and a bar code reader.

http://www.billbuxton.com/LessIsMore.html (via RobotWisdom)

Relatedly, the Phoenix web browser is fantastic.

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/phoenix/

Nov 19

Humanity is doomed.

"You don't have to sing, you don't have to dance, you don't have to do
anything -- except think you're hot. It's good, pure fun."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/20021119/en_nm/television_hot_dc

Nov 14

Frequently, we're more entertained and fascinated by those things which are the worst of their class--that is, we tend to give at least as much attention to those things that are really bad as we do to things that are really good. Part of the wonder and mystery of the internet is its tendancy to document the horrible and bizzare.

With all that being said, direct your hyperlinking skillz to:

The Gallery of Regrettable Food - http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/index.html

(first prize to the Gelatin Garden Salad - http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/knox/4.html )

Nov 6

Niue, a pacific island nation just east of Tonga, holds a little over 2000 people. According to the CIA world factbook, an important source of revenue for Niue is "the sale of postage stamps to foreign collectors."

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/australia/oceania_ref01.jpg
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ne.html

Niue has only one ISP, but gets its own ccTLD, ".nu".

Glenn Fleishman has made a really neat-looking book searching site that, while hosted in what seems to be Seattle, has a .nu TLD in "an attempt to show how smarter systems combined with cleaner URLs can create shortcuts around roadblocks." (Much like this site, except for the shortcut-around-roadblocks part.)

http://isbn.nu/ - (thanks, Krista.)

Nov 1

If only I had a use for any of these...
http://www.funklogic.com/products.htm

Oct 29

I am the biggest security risk.
http://www.theregus.com/content/55/26788.html

Oct 29

Soon we'll be able to listen to Real Audio without using Real One. I'll have to add this into my 'music formats' info page.
http://www.theregus.com/content/4/26799.html

Oct 28

Ever think that maybe the current administration just needs to get it out of their system? These folks are taking donations to buy Prez. Bush a Playstation2� with the game "Conflict: Desert Storm".

http://www.evilninja.net/buybush.htm

Added bonus: VP Cheney gets his own controller!

Oct 27

Arts and Letters Daily (http://aldaily.com/) is a frequently-updated list of news links for snooty people. Although it's now owned by the Chronicle for Higher Education, the link-blurbs on it have the same biting wit as your favorite college professor. It's good to know that someone is pandering to the liberal-arts majors.

Oct 24

Best Buy acquires Geek Squad. "We value having fun," says VP.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/789/3386001.html

Oct 23

Tom is selling his car.
http://www.carsoup.com/UsedVehicles/detail.asp?UVID=759858
(Select Minnesota from the drop down, then back up twice and hit the link again.)

Oct 22

The new online role-playing games are dominated by players who only care about the advancement of their characters (gaining levels, etc.) Progress Quest (http://www.progressquest.com) takes these games to their ultimate conclusion. From the manual:

"There is no need to interact with Progress Quest at all; it will make progress with you or without you."

Your character will go on random quests, kill monsters, and learn spells. Automatically.

If you're feeling snooty, check out the reviews. (http://download.com.com/3302-2097-8644833.html)

Oct 13

Back in the day, I got all uppity about the interpreted nature of art, ie. that art doesn't really make any clear statements, but instead calls for interpretation by the viewer. I talked about Wittgenstein, but I should have been talking about the field of semiotics, the study of symbols and their interpretation. There's nothing like finding out that your big idea has already been exhaustively discussed.
Brief glossary: http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~comm300/mary/semiotics/barthes.terms.html
Index of intro texts: http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itc_data/semiotics.html

(from an explanatory dialogue)
R: Well, when they're represented they acquire additional meanings. Signs are never innocent. Semiotics teaches us that.
V: And it teaches us to have dirty minds, if you ask me.
(http://www.abc.net.au/comms/lines/programs/prog05.htm)

Oct 2

Mel Gibson is going to do a movie in Latin.
http://groups.google.com/groups?th=5bebc0fc56d653b6&scoring=d

More pseudo-random about it...
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22mel+gibson%22+%22last+12+hours%22

Oct 1

The new best game of all time is at http://holdthebutton.com/ . If you come anywhere near the high score, you should be kept away from society.

Don't give them any email addresses, though--their "Privacy Policy" says that they'll spam the heck out of you.

Sep 25

I've been documenting every cent I spend since 9/20/2001. I have now created a graphical representation of my spending that includes a full year. Do with it what you will.

http://www.plurib.us/1shot/2002-09-25_spending/

Sep 23

Google news joins ranks of Yahoo news

http://news.google.com/
http://news.yahoo.com/
.......

Sep 18

I've had this page open in my browser for a couple of days now, and I can't bring myself to close it.
http://www.ceafinney.com/alpaca/index.html

Also.............
Announcing... the new......
Music page! (http://www.plurib.us/music/)

Sep 16

If I were to write a punkrock song about a particular part of grammar, it would definitely be about subjunctive verbs. Known also as "contrary-to-fact," they're the bane of Latin students and some of the supercoolest language constructions of all time. Like everything else, they're explained and catalogued for your convenience on the Information SuperHighway.

Using the subjunctive mood in everyday conversation is a sure-fire way to get that "special someone" to take notice!

http://www.ceafinney.com/subjunctive/

Sep 15

Check it out. My complete address in Google.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=brian+lukis%2C+mn

Sep 13

A crazy new way of gliding/flying.

http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/08/08/coolsc.snakes/index.html

Sep 13

Nelson Mandela, you rock. [scroll past the ad.]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/806174.asp?cp1=1

Sep 10

While looking around for info on world leaders, I found out that the world's largest religious dome is 170 feet across. I also found out about this golf course in Malaysia.

http://www.victorynews.net/NationalMosqueMalaysia.htm
http://www.marimari.com/content/malaysia/golf/azizshah/

Sep 10

Alejandro Toledo, current Peruvian president, speeks about his country in this link. I had this idea about collecting links that include text written by / spoken by world leaders. This one is kind of cool.

http://www.socialistinternational.org/9SocAffairs/1-V49/eToledo.html

Aug 30

I was at the MN state fair yesterday, having fun spending dollar coins to buy food. I wondered if it would be inappropriate in any way (i.e. not respectful to the ways of normal circulation; hording the limited national supply; ...) to go to the bank and get loads of dollar coins for spending.

To my astonishment, many banks don't carry them because there isn't enough demand. And since banks aren't carrying them, they've stopped making them!!! "The mint will decide in early 2003 if demand warrants resuming production of the coins for circulation next year." From now on, I'm going to request all my money in Sacagaweas.

http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2002/08/26/story2.html

Aug 29

A psychology professor reports that incompetant people can't recognize incompetance. I suppose it makes perfect sense.

"Not only do they reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it."

http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/health/011800hth-behavior-incompetents.html

(Note: It's a NYT article--the first link may require you to register. If you prefer not to, use the second link, which will generate a random login for you. Just follow the instructions. It's a super-neat idea.)

http://www.majcher.com/nytview.html?url=http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/health/011800hth-behavior-incompetents.html

Aug 28

As the stock market has become more accessible to the casual trader, several companies have developed socially- and envioronmentally-conscious mutual funds. These funds invest in companies which meet certain non-monetary criteria (e.g. no tobacco companies, no arms dealers, strict environmental policies, etc.) Quite a few of these funds now exist, each catering to a slightly different group of people who care about such things.

ViceFund uses exactly the opposite criteria. According their data, the wages of sin greatly outperform the S&P 500 over a 5-year period.

http://www.vicefund.com

Aug 26

This is very, very odd. (via robotwisdom)

http://www.news.wisc.edu/releases/view.html?id=7719

Aug 23

Pretty nice description of how the mind sees color. (This morning I had a revelation about color: Red and Violet [oposite ends of the spectrum] seem "near" to each other, and are placed adjacent to each other on color wheels so often because they are nearly "octaves" of each other, as 700nm (red) is nearly double 400nm (violet).)

http://www.rwc.uc.edu/koehler/biophys/6d.html

Aug 22

Michelle works here.

http://www.berghahnbooks.com/

Aug 22

Look at this. If you click on squares from the top 3 rows, you get satellite images of the future.

http://cleardarksky.com/c/Minneapoliskey.html

Aug 13

This is kind of funny. Actually, it's really funny, for a little while.

http://www.google.com/intl/xx-hacker/

Jul 11

This page features many jokes from Russia, which have now been translated into English for your amusement and amazement.

Sample:
- What feet you have, Vasily Ivanovich. They're even dirtier than mine.
- That's because I'm much older then you, Petka.

http://www.russia-in-us.com/Humor/

Jul 4

First there was the terrifyingly addictive game "Bridge Builder." Now the same company had released the sequal, "Pontifex," with a 1st-person view option! Also don't miss "Triptych," which is like Tetris, but the blocks are bouncy and have inertia.

If you can stop playing these games quickly, then there's probably something wrong with you.

http://www.chroniclogic.com/flash1.html

Jul 3

Admittedly, sometimes random e-mails that I didn't ask to receive actually contain useful information. Here's an excerpt from something I got today. I've only heard of two of these cartoonists, but the rest, by virtue of being in a list with the two, are probably worth checking out. (Some hunting will be necessary, as these are all probably pretty obscure.)

>>>>>>>>
The first-ever collection of its kind, Bright Red Rocket brings you "God Hates Cartoons," a DVD of
delightful animations from stars of the alternative comic scene! An entire disc of hilarious fun, "God
Hates Cartoons" features over 20 cartoons, artists' galleries, comics and secret surprises.

The stellar lineup includes:

- Jim Woodring (Frank, The Book of Jim, Trosper)
- Tony Millionaire (Maakies, Sock Monkey)
- Kaz (Underworld)
- Sam Henderson (The Magic Whistle, Humor Can Be Funny)
- Ivan Brunetti (Schizo, Haw!)
- Mark Newgarden (Garbage Pail Kids, B. Happy)
- Walt Holcombe (Poot, King of Persia)
- Tim Maloney (Underwear Girl)
- Lance Myers
<<<<<<<<

http://www.brightredrocket.com/

Jun 24

Search Engines: Google & Kartoo. What is going on?

http://groups.google.com/groups?th=87e2ae7d6b0bc9c0&scoring=d

Jun 23

PetitionOnline is an fantastic catalogue of what people think other people will care about.

Included in the links:
--A petition in favor of cake
--A demand that the original NES be returned to production

http://www.petitiononline.com
http://www.petitiononline.com/cake1234/petition.html
http://www.petitiononline.com/wwnbf/petition.html

Jun 15

These guys have been put in charge of a contest where someone will win a yacht. However, the yacht has no name yet, so are running a sub-contest (ha ha) to see who can come up with the best name. I have submitted the S. S. Rock Musician, and the S. S. Vague Descriptor. Surely you can do better.

http://www.dependentfilms.net/pjz/yacht/

Jun 15

"Most likely ... the Internet's role as a site of radical business and technology innovation, and its status as a revolutionary force that disrupts existing social and regulatory regimes, is coming to an end." - an excerpt from a book that is reviewed the link below. This is a depressing (yet undeniable) overview of the internet (including its means to prevent web-diversity).

http://salon.com/tech/books/2002/06/14/root/print.html

Also, the most twisted and dramatic scheme to overcome these problems [at hand, at the very center/top of the internet] that I've ever read. (extremely well thought out.)

http://www.templetons.com/brad/dns/fix.html

Jun 15

Via RobotWisdom, I found/read this CounterPunch article about Palistine. When Jorn Barger uses "Goddess-priestess" to describe the author, you know it's going to be good/whelming. I included a link also to my (quite possibly) all-time favorite CounterPunch article, from March.

http://www.counterpunch.org/starhawk0614.html
http://www.counterpunch.org/jensenpain.html

Jun 15

I didn't know exactly what to think of Lindows before, and now I really don't know what to think. Walmart is going to sell computers with Lindows preinstalled.

http://www.theregus.com/content/54/25249.html

Jun 14

Computer generated mark-up that's so bad, it's funny. (May require a little knowledge about html.) ... Does that third message say something about html e-mails being penalized? I wonder how widespread this practice is?

http://groups.google.com/groups?th=25f7d682f6d8733a&scoring=d

Jun 13

Cool Linux article. The comment entitled "A minor concern..." is what's crucial for me. It's nice that the article author responded to it.

http://newsforge.com/newsforge/02/06/12/1731250.shtml?tid=19
http://newsforge.com/comments.pl?sid=24341&cid=15783

Jun 13

This site is now being advertised on Google, officially. I am filled with puzzlement so far. There are far fewer questions than answers, not surprisingly.

http://answers.google.com/

Jun 10

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you what is possibly the most useful webpage ever.

(examples include how a singing fish works, and how "military pain beams" will work.)

http://www.howstuffworks.com/
http://www.howstuffworks.com/singing-fish.htm
http://www.howstuffworks.com/pain-beam.htm

Jun 6

I've been following the progress of the in-developemnent operating system, Lindows OS. It's "open source," and the open source community is all in a hoop-la about everything Lindows does, because I guess on some level they're not playing by the rules. On the other hand, Michael Robertson (Lindows CEO) & crew it seems is dumping loads of money into furthering current open source code -- most interestingly and inspiringly, WINE. Here's everything current I can find on it.

Some more thoughts:
1. This whole click-and-run service seems very silly to me so far. But this happens to be a key feature in Lindows' business model.
2. I am totally undecided about signing up for the sneak previews at this point. I think I'm not clear enough on the situation, as a lot of this is new to me.
3. I would need an OS such as this to be able to run in order of importance: Mozilla/Netscape, The Bat! e-mail client, EditPlus, Photoshop, and (unfortunately and leastly) MS FrontPage. Realistically, I could not make the switch without these.

http://newsforge.com/newsforge/02/06/04/1222246.shtml?tid=51
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/24827.html
http://newsforge.com/search.pl?op=stories&sort=1&query=lindows§ion=newsforge
http://www.lindows.com/lindows_products_lindowsos.php

Jun 1

LCD Monitors: after a bit of looking on Pricewatch.

It looks like just about all of the 15" monitors are 1024x768 (the ideal resolution?) and well under $500. 17" and 18" monitors are 1280x1024, and anywhere between $500 and $1000.

http://www.shentech.com/flatpanlcddi1.html
http://www.computer3g.com/monitor.html

May 29

You may not have been aware of the tremendous contoversy surrounding "Contemporary Christian Music." Some say it is as terrible as music can be, but others feel that it's a tool of darkness. From this site:

"I believe the evidence is overwhelming that Satan is the author of rock music."

"No honest person can deny that God intends for a man to have short hair and a woman long hair. Asking silly questions like, "How long is long?", just shows your rebellion to the Word of God."

And for Mitch:
"One simple guideline for Christian music is NO DRUMS!"

It's terribly unfortunate that I tend to sign emails with "Rock music". The fires of Hades will soon consume my degenerate lifestyle.

http://www.av1611.org/crock.html

May 23

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) are quite different in a number of ways. These theological differences may account for the differences in the appearance and layout of their FAQs.

(Note: The content of the FAQs may also be affected by the differences in theology.)

http://www.elca.org/co/faq/index.html
http://www.lcms.org/cic/faqs.html

May 16

Question: supposing that you were a very nice person who wants to buy music, what is the "best" way to obtain that music with regards to supporting the artist? (without, of course, going totally overboard.)

Knowing very little about this (but speculating anyway), I would have to say the best way is to either attend a concert and buy CDs there, or (the next best thing) buy CDs via the label or the label's web site. I have done this once before, with somewhat satisfying results, and I see no reason not to do it again. In fact, I'm going to with these 2 CDs.

I've noticed there is a severe lack of links to labels in favor of linking to cdnow or amazon. Why this is, I'm not entirely sure yet. (But I have a hunch or two.) I'm having grand thoughts about making a web site that links albums to the "best" ways to buy them (i.e. the labels). I'm not entirely sure what the best way to go about that is, but I think I might try something like this soon. (input welcome.)

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/m/mirah/advisory-committee.shtml
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/m/mirah/cold-cold-water.shtml

May 15

Seven ten-year-olds were hauled into the principal's office and sentenced to one week without recess. The crime? Pretending to shoot aliens with their index fingers.

"These students crossed the line," Terch said. "From what I heard, the play was very dramatic."

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_1145302,00.html

(I wish I could still slay aliens with my index finger.)

May 14

It seems that dictionaraoke.org and www.dictionaraoke.org are entirely different places.
Also, a link I found via dictionaraoke.com, "droplifting," which seems to mean "discs are smuggled in and left in the racks of record stores without their knowledge."
(Note: the 3 links below are not listed for their clarity.)

http://dictionaraoke.org/
http://www.droplift.org/
http://www.droplift.org/faq.html#intro

May 13

The World Rock Paper Scissors Society maintains a vast archive of information on the sport, as well as propoganda from years past. Articles are on a variety of subjects, (such as "The Myth of Dynamite Exposed") and the on-line trainer is not to be missed.

http://www.worldrps.com

Make sure to look at the 1950 Soviet declaration which would have destroyed the game if it had succeeded.

http://www.worldrps.com/archive/lenin.html

May 13

Main Entry: dic�tio�nar�a�o�ke
Pronunciation: 'dik-shun-er"-A-O-ke
Definition: Audio clips from online dictionaries sing the hits of yesterday and today. The fun of karaoke meets the word power of the dictionary.

I especially recommend Liz Phair, the Bugles, John Lee Hooker, and the surprise appearance of ECC vs. John Denver (You know what I mean!)

http://www.dictionaraoke.com/

May 13

The age of not necessarily supporting Netscape 4.xx is beginning to be upon us. I have been getting into some of the cool stuff that has been invented (the standard stuff, not lame or proprietary stuff) since Netscape 4.7 came out.* The current state of this web page is an example of some of the neat things style sheets can do (not a particularly refined example -- I am still learning). These are some style sheet references I use most when I make pages that use them.
(I may attempt to augment this list as I find more links.)

http://www.cwi.nl/~steven/www/css1-qr.html
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS1#formatting-model

*it has been a surprisingly long time.

May 11

I didn't actually get a chance to finish reading this article, but I plan on picking it up again soon. This "George Soros" character intrigues me a lot (based only on the beginning of this article); I might even try to find and read his book, _On Globalization_. He seems to have a consistent attitude that no society can be perfect (surely too many utopian thinkers fall into this trap), yet should (can/do?) constantly search to improve. These are a very nice sounding pair, especially when attributed to societies.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/15403

May 9

I recently took an online quiz which determined which religion I was. I took it twice--the first time, I mistakenly submitted it without answering half of the questions. Both times, the Religious Society of Friends ranked very highly. Who is this mysterious sect with its own brand of oatmeal?

http://quaker.org/

May 8

This news group makes for some of the hardest reading ever. This thread has some nice self-recognition. It's also pretty. (note: do not post here unless you know what you're doing.)

http://groups.google.com/groups?th=d04e2a5f820eca49

May 2

This is one of the coolest threads I've ever read. Also, from now on, I'm going to try to regularily check up on newsgroups under comp.infosystems.www.authoring.* They are sheer excitement.

http://groups.google.com/groups?th=255a072785b634ed&scoring=d
http://groups.google.com/groups?group=comp.infosystems.www.authoring

May 2

Input devices for computers have desperately needed a revelation for a long time now. Cordless optical mice are a nice (small) step forward. These also look interesting, and if they were 1/3 to 1/4 the price, I would own one.

http://www.fingerworks.com/stealth_product.html

I'll try to forget what I'm supposed to forget