Category: Humor and horror

New horizons in digital rights management.

… other, thingy and Tyra Banks.

From Thog’s Masterclass:

`Big boogers of uncertainty were beginning to form.’ (Vernor Vinge, Rainbows End, 2006)

Also from Ansible:

Martin Morse Wooster was deeply thrilled by junk mail from `a company called Hawthorne Village, which has the Official Lord of the Rings Express Diesel Locomotive. This heirloom quality train — richly adorned with scenes and characters from the movie trilogy including Elven text and a working headlight on the diesel locomotive — will have you reliving this epic saga every time the train journeys around the tracks. You know, when I mentally visit the rugged, primeval landscape of Middle Earth, I think to myself, “You know, these trees and rocks are OK. But WHERE are the toy trains?”‘

O NOES

HAI
CAN HAS STDIO?
I HAS A VAR
GIMMEH VAR
IZ VAR BIGGER THAN 10 O RLY?
     YA RLY
          BTW this is true
          VISIBLE "BIG NUMBER!"
     NO WAI
          BTW this is false
          VISIBLE "LITTLE NUMBER!"
     KTHX
KTHXBYE

(Via Peeve Farm.)

Addendum: See also Whitespace.

(Via Chizumatic.)

• If you believe in your heart or in your conscience that 2+2=5, does anyone else have the right to tell you that you’re wrong? Explain why we should avoid judging other people’s mathematical operations.
• Fractions are divisive. Can you think of better ways to express a quotient, without using divisive fractions? Is division something we should strive to do with numbers anyway?
• Explain why the labeling of numbers as either “positive” or “negative” is discriminatory, hurtful, and a manifestation of the bigotry of value-ism. How would you feel if you were labeled a “negative” number? What can you do to help end this kind of discrimination?

The latest offering in the rapidly overflowing strategy genre is hard evidence that strategy games need a real overhaul, and fast. Chess, a small-scale tactical turn-based strategy game, attempts to adopt the age-old “easy to learn, difficult to master” parameter made popular by Tetris. But the game’s cumbersome play mechanics and superficial depth and detail all add up to a game that won’t keep you busy for long….