Flutterby™! From 1998-05-01 to 1998-05-13

The CIA has a web page for kids up. I don't think there's anything I can add that would make this any more surreal. Note the smiling happy people in trench-coats. Seriously.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Web development ]

There are a bunch of neat examples of various styles of modern art available on the web, maybe I will have to revise my earlier complaints about lack of content...

Dave Winer, editor of Scripting News (a great source of gossip on the industry) posted the lyrics to If I Were a Rich Man...

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Web development Dave Winer ]

The Schmio Awards, a response to the Clios. May 12th in New York (alas). Honors include:

• I Want My EmpTV Award
• The Sex, Lies & Ratings Award
• A Marketing Opportunity is a Terrible Thing to Waste Award
• Our Bodies / Your Sales Award
• Have Your Coke and Drink It Too Award

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture ]

Dave Winer has a new DaveNet diatribe, called Time Changes Everything. Some pretty good observations on the nature of Microsoft the corporation versus the idealistic individuals who make up the company.

[ related topics: Web development Dave Winer Microsoft ]

Jade and Rebel present The Unofficial Butch versus Femme Test. It's fun, and I wrote the CGI for it!

[ related topics: Web development ]

The Fully Informed Jury Association promotes information relating to the true nature of juries: That they are, in fact, empowered to decide both the law and the facts.

Protect Artists It's Not Shareware comes across as a bunch of ranting underinformed whiners, but I agree with them in concept.

[ related topics: Web development ]

Animé physics explained!

[ related topics: Web development ]

Great parody of new media associations.

The revolution is over. Wired has been sold to the publisher of GQ. Computers are a branded commodity. Pepsi is suing Coke for monopolistic practices, like anyone cares which caffeine, corn-syrup and water combination they drink.

[ related topics: Web development ]

Nerve Magazine has Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress. For those of you who believed your High School English Teacher who claimed that sexuality in literature was a recent thing...

Had we but world enough, and time,

This coyness, lady, were no crime.

We would sit down and think which way

To walk, and pass our long love's day;

[ related topics: Children and growing up Erotic ]

Yep, a day early, it's Susie Bright's column in Salon. It's about her use of Viagra:

"Should there be a code you can call out if you need me?" Joe asked. "No," I said, "I'll just throw the first exhausted victim out on the carpet and growl."

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Web development Sexual Culture ]

Just in case you have been living in a cave for the past decade, Wal-Mart sucks.

Ellen Ullman has the first part of an essay on the dumbing down of computer programming in Salon this morning. I usually don't agree with her, but I usually think her stuff is worth reading.

[ related topics: Web development ]

Hey, has anyone out there read Hamlet on the Holodeck? Good? Bad? What's the story?

Mr Science presents Things that go Boom. Potato guns, watermelon canons, things like that.

[ related topics: Web development ]

Ummm... you needed it for a friend. Yeah, that's the ticket. The STD Clinic Locator at http://www.unspeakable.com/locator/nph-locator.cgi

The San Francisco chapter of the Society for Human Sexuality has a web page.

The World Museum of Erotic Art

[ related topics: Erotic ]

Microsoft has announced plans to introduce a line of vacuum cleaners. They want to market a product that doesn't suck.

[ related topics: Microsoft ]

There's an interview with Annie Sprinkle in Spectator Magazine online, about her new show opening soon in San Francisco.

[ related topics: Web development Sexual Culture ]

May is National Masturbation Month! so celebrate often!

[ related topics: Sexual Culture ]

U.S.: First cyberattack by terrorists screams the Reuters headline, but when we read a little further we find that this " was little more than a bid by ethnic Tamil guerrillas to swamp Sri Lankan embassies with email". Thank god for the US State Department, what would we possibly have to worry about without them...

[ related topics: Religion Business Web development ]

Apple introduced a new computer today. Steve Jobs had this to say about it:

"It looks like it's from another planet, but a good planet," he said. "The back of the iMac looks better than the front of the other guys' products."

Apparently things like "usefulness" no longer sell product. I despair for our culture.

[ related topics: Apple Computer ]

Just found this sound-bite, better than the one below, from the same source:

"Our design group is phenomenal," Jobs said. "We're seeing some great designs coming out of Apple. How important is fashion? If you go back 10 years, the average American owned one watch. Because of fashion, the average American now owns seven watches. We believe Apple has a core competency in the fashion and design area."

[ related topics: Apple Computer Interactive Drama ]

Fairfaxians! Gordy Toe sends along this:

I've again updated the NO ON MEASURE C web site. I have added information about the upcoming meetings, the ballot language and stuff provided courtesy of LadeyJ, and of course, my amusing comments on it all. To get there just aim yer mouse to:

[ related topics: Web development ]

Henry Knorr points out flaws in the new iMac. Like: No printing; no backup; and you pay quite a bit more for the lack of those capabilities than you would with a comparable Wintel machine.

[ related topics: Web development ]

Felice points us to a new Jesus of the Week.

[ related topics: Religion Humor Web development ]

News.com's rumor mill focuses on the non-NTness of Hotmail, now a Microsoft company...

[ related topics: Business Web development Microsoft ]

Everyone needs an occasional Dysfunctional Family Circus fix.

[ related topics: Humor ]

Seiko is introducing the Ruputer on June 10th. Wristwatch computing for the masses, 128k volatile, 512k or 2mb non-volatile, 102x64 screen, IR port and joy stick.

[ related topics: Web development ]

Keith Knight has a great sendup of the Godzilla advertising on Salon Magazine.

[ related topics: Humor Web development ]

A new Rumor Mill, The Devolution will not be Webcast.

[ related topics: Business Web development ]

All new Volkswagen Beetles have been recalled. I don't care how cute it is, that company hasn't made a car that'll run reliably since the original one. Who'd think they'd break a trend?

I'm getting lots of hits from Jade and Rebel's butch vs femme test. The test is slowly growing and should be up to the full size soon. I've run across a couple of really badly biased "sex on the web" tests which have gotten a whole lot of publicity. It'd be fun to do one biased the other way. Any suggestions for questions? Mail 'em to question@flutterby.com.

[ related topics: Web development Erotic Sexual Culture ]

The justice department claims that the case against Microsoft is build on some Interesting memos that assert that Microsoft knew they had a technically inferior browser, and that bundling was the only way to get market penetration.

[ related topics: Business Web development Microsoft ]

A new rumour mill takes Ellison to task for his recent comments about Bill Gates, points towards some in-depth Apple bashing, etc.

[ related topics: Apple Computer Business Web development ]

Don't bother checking this link, there's nothing here: http://emptywebsite.com/

Crypt Newsletter 48 is out. Where do the Pentagon and other clueless "Electronic Pearl Harbor" doomsday screamers come from? Is this some sort of evolutionary time warp? Good reading if you don't mind getting depressed about use of tax dollars.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Politics Privacy ]

Mother Teresa is a nice lady because it makes her feel good. I light things on fire for the same reason. The relative merit of either action can be argued, but the base motivation is exactly the same.

Mark Denovich

TechWeb theorizes that the anti-trust hysteria is a Microsoft marketing ploy...

[ related topics: Microsoft ]

Hey: Flutterby.com is a fairly new resource, and I'm trying to figure out which directions I should grow it. If you're one of the regular readers (and I know you're out there, I can see the recurring entries in the logs. Don't worry, I won't tell), drop me a line at danlyke@flutterby.com and tell how you found this, what you find here that you like, things you think would be cool to add, &c. Possibilities include:

• Your own suggestions for cool links
• Searchable databases of old suggestions (tell me how you remember things, too. Quite often subject or keyword searching doesn't work for me).
• Other user's ratings of the links I suggest.
• More of my deranged ramblings and notes on the world.
• More reviews.
• More sex and fringe culture stuff, more computer industry stuff, more offbeat humor, more photography, more of the recurring stuff (Ala Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet and Marylaine Block's columns, etc).

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Humor Web development Photography Erotic Sexual Culture Marylaine Block ]

If you're not in the bay area, ignore this:

It rained and rained and rained

The average fall was well maintained

And when the tracks were simply bogs

It started raining cats and dogs

After a drought of half an hour

We had a most refreshing shower

And then the most curious thing of all

A gentle rain began to fall

Next day was also fairly dry

Save for the deluge from the sky

Which wetted the party to the skin

And after that the rain set in

- Anonymous

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

You can put your own messages on the Netscape sign:

[ related topics: Photography ]

Quote of the Day:

I went to my first computer conference at the New York Hilton about 20 years ago. When somebody there predicted the market for microprocessors would eventually be in the millions, someone else said, "Where are they all going to go? It's not like you need a computer in every doorknob!" Years later, I went back to the same hotel. I noticed the room keys had been replaced by electronic cards you slide into slots in the doors. There was a computer in every doorknob.

-Danny Hillis

[ related topics: Quotes ]

We have enough trouble protecting the 'net from those who would destroy it from ignorance, we don't need someone who should know better advocating doing damage. Dave Winer, host of http://www.scripting.com/ does just that in his Making Money from DNS piece.

[ related topics: Web development Dave Winer ]

Part two of the Ellen Ullman article in Salon Magazine talks about how so many programmers now have lost the knowledge of what's going on under the hood. Good reading.

[ related topics: Web development ]

An Open Letter about the Politicization of the PC Industry, Dan Fylstra gives compelling reasons for all of us in the computer industry helping to fund this little startup called the Libertarian Party.

[ related topics: Politics Libertarian ]

This week Jon Katz talks about community, ethics, morality, and the Froistad case. In an online drinking moderation support mailing list, Larry Froistad confessed to killing his daughter to avoid child support payments. Several members reported his confession to police, but others felt the reporting was a violation of their community.

[ related topics: Web development ]

Another great cartoon on the web, User Friendly. ISPs note especially http://www.aspectus.com/uf/uf980510.htm and users of Win95 should pay attention to http://www.aspectus.com/uf/uf980119.htm

[ related topics: Humor ]

The Ansel Adams Gallery is sponsoring an exhibit at the Mumm vineyards in Napa. Christopher Burkett is the greatest color printer I've ever seen. His work is gorgeous in person, his web pages don't do it justice. William Neill has a good eye.

Galen Rowell is really a photojournalist more than a landscape photographer, but his work is still worth a look even if the final prints don't look as good as his images in books or magazines.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Web development Books Photography ]

Susie Bright's got a new one on Salon Magazine, titled Move over, Ken, it's "Bend Over Boyfriend".

[ related topics: Web development Sexual Culture ]

Oh yeah, that LA quote comes from http://www.faisal.com/quotes/l.html A little ego searching on a new (to me, at least) search engine at http://google.stanford.edu/ reveals this gem:

While it's obvious (to me, at least) that while the real solution to some of the environmental issues we're facing is to at least go for zero population growth, a first step might be to work towards not growing our huge population centers in the middle of the desert and then importing the lacking resources at the expense of ecologies hundreds of miles around. This isn't to say that there aren't advantages for developments such as LA. Concentrating the types of people who actually like smog-filled valleys, non-native foliage and awful sprawling suburbs near fault lines is a good thing.

Unfortunately, while I do remember writing it, I don't remember in what.

[ related topics: Quotes Web development ]

Grad School and Automatic Weapons includes gems like:

"Does the way Jon Webb keeps flicking the safety of his Mac-10 on and off at thesis defenses make you nervous, too?"

[ related topics: Children and growing up Web development ]

The Society for Photographic Education (http://www.spenational.org/) is a non-profit membership organization that provides a forum for the discussion of photography and related media as a means of creative expression and cultural insight

[ related topics: Photography ]

What happens when the power to a major city fails? For months? A scary reminder of how fragile infrastructures can be.

Q: How many Aucklanders does it take to change a lightbulb?

A: Does it matter?

Pickup line for Aucklanders:

"Would you like to come up to my room and see my <arbitrary electrical appliance> work?"

Q: What did Aucklanders use before candles?

A: Electricity.

Power's been restored now, but it's still sobering.

[ related topics: Cool Science ]

Are you using the wrong browser?

[ related topics: Web development ]

Just in case you wanted to know, here's the definitive list of rectal foreign bodies.

[ related topics: Web development ]

Philip Greenspun and Adriane Chapman present The Game.

[ related topics: Games ]

A debunking of the sexual addiction myth.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture ]

It's critical information like this that the web was developed for. Notes on deepthroating, sounds kind of uncomfortable to me, but I haven't tried it.

[ related topics: Web development ]

I think I've found my new religion. The Polyorchid Religious Society. Except that I'm short one prerequisite.

[ related topics: Religion Web development ]