I can’t believe this list was written 35 years ago. I mean, I wasn’t even born yet, and every item on that list is still 100% on the money. You don’t expect anything to resist obsolescence for that long in a field like computer science. We’re in a major design phase at work right now, and I think I shall circulate this.
This is the kind of social protest comedy that I love. I wonder if I can get a Canadian version, with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms instead. (Of course, the joke isn’t as funny in Canada, since our notion has always been tilted more towards the collective good than the American myth of the rights of the individual in the Land of the Free–c.f. “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” versus “peace, order, and good government“.)
My pal Neil A. MacFarlane, Esquire, (a.k.a. Disco Godfather–explaining the URL) is building himself a MAME cabinet. And he’s got a blog documenting the process. Even if you don’t care at all about old arcade games and the joys of “real” cabinets, etc, you should still give this a read. Neil’s “voice” while telling the story is hilarious. He’s kind of like that all the time, which either makes him fun to be around, or makes you want to throw a deck of cards at him, depending on your disposition.
My other pal Roach, back in Ontario, built something similar for himself a while back.
Speaking of Roach, he–as well as certain other author/musician friends of mine– might be quite irked at this news story:
A House subcommittee has approved legislation banning all forms of online gambling in the United States. To strike at offshore gambling sites, the panel authorized law enforcement officials to stop credit card and other forms of electronic payments to those sites.
Violators would be subject to up to five years in prison.
“Virtual betting parlors have attempted to avoid the application of United States law by locating themselves offshore and out of our jurisdictional reach,” bill sponsor Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) said in a statement. “These offshore, fly-by-night Internet gambling operators are unlicensed, untaxed and unregulated and are sucking billions of dollars out of the United States.”
This is one of the things liked to from the TechDirt article “Congress Moves Forward On Putting Online Poker Players In Jail”
Speaking of gambling
Speaking of side-by-side comparisons, you should get another cynical chuckle out of this side-by-side translation of the Windows XP End User Licensing Agreement (i.e. the thing you agree to when you open the box) into standard English. It’s not particularly comedic except in how one-sided it is. For instance, I particular like the bit that translates as:
Microsoft may cancel any service that they provide to you at any time and for any reason.
For something a little more fun than reading dry legal documents, you might want to check out the rules of ULTIMATE TEAM CARDBOARD FORTRESS BATTLE, a new sport invented by my online acquaintance Jon Sung (a.k.a. “Ferocious J”). Sounds like it would be a riot–and Laurenn’s photos from the recent San Francisco event also make it look like a good time.
(As an aside, Jon’s blog always makes me laugh. He’s like Salvador Dali crossed with Stephen Wright with a a does of mania stirred in there.)
No sequitor for this one, just a link to some short films by Alex De Campi, who wrote some good comics last year (and has a bunch of interesting look stuff coming up too). I am tempted to make some bad puns about her company name, but it would be a W.A.S.T.E., so I guess I’ll just stay muted.
