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- Dirty, Drunk and Punk: the untold history of Toronto's BUNCHOFFUCKINGGOOFS
- ICANN votes to roll out 400-800 new generic top-level domains
- Flamethrowing trombone
- Gary Gygax memorial in the offing
- Tinyhack: minimalist adventure half the size of a favicon
- Anteater wants you to untie his paws
- From Make: Tips My Dad Says
- GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios resigns amid AT&T scandal
| Dirty, Drunk and Punk: the untold history of Toronto's BUNCHOFFUCKINGGOOFS Posted: 20 Jun 2011 03:54 AM PDT  Jennifer Morton's Dirty, Drunk, and Punk: The Twisted Crazy Story of the Bunchofuckingoofs is an impossible and glorious history of Toronto's legendary punk band/bike gang/social phenomenon Bunchofuckingoofs, who maintained a series of club houses/speakeasys/music venues/communes in Kensington Market called Fort Goof, stuffed full of vicious dogs, dirty punks who slept in cages, and the wandering subculture kids who drifted in and out of Toronto. I grew up in the Goofs era, saw them several times at venues like Larry's Hideaway, went to a few late night booze-cans at Fort Goof, and had a good friend who dropped out and more or less moved in with them for a while, and Dirty, Drunk and Punk feels like a true and real account of the band and their weird, storied, anarchic, nihilistic history. The thing that made the Goofs such a force was their blend of out-of-control, violent insanity (they'd smash TVs on stage, open beer bottles with chainsaws, dive off Fort Goof into the mountain of empty beer cans in the back yard, get into chain-fights with Nazi skinhead raiders) and their strong ethic of mutual aid, compassion, and social justice. Crazy Steve Goof, the band's founder and non-leader, ran for city council twice, led a campaign to get hard drugs out of Kensington Market, and took in waifs and screwups by the hundreds. Dirty, Drunk and Punk's story is told on a backdrop of photos, gig sheets, fliers, news clippings and other detritus and ephemera, artfully collaged behind text that has the screw-you madness of punk band fliers. Morton interviews the Goofs, their friends, their enemies, the law, their hangers-on (even my friend who ended up living with the band), and develops a kind of collective memoir of the band and the era they represented. The Goofs changed the fabric of legend for kids in Toronto in the 80s; they were second-wave punks who made anarchism and anarchy their way of life. Dirty, Drunk and Punk is a fantastic trip through the story they made for themselves. Dirty, Drunk and Punk (author's site) Dirty, Drunk, and Punk: The Twisted Crazy Story of the Bunchofuckingoofs (Amazon)
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| ICANN votes to roll out 400-800 new generic top-level domains Posted: 20 Jun 2011 03:17 AM PDT  Wendy Seltzer posts this historic snapshot of the aye vote at ICANN in favor of launching 400-800 new generic top-level domains. The domains -- which will include the names of cities, lots of abstract nouns, and many other words -- are staunchly opposed by the entertainment industry for obscure reasons (best guess is that they worry that if there are more possible domains, it'll be harder to police trademarks and copyright enforcement bots will have to employ larger tables, both of which are pretty thin excuses for what's been rather a lot of outrage). Inside word is that they're going to sue ICANN to stop the domains' rollout, and that there's been some sneaky stuff snuck into IANA (the entity that contracts with ICANN to manage the domain system) to force ICANN to reverse this. One more quirk of the new domains: I'm told by a reliable source that they'll be differentially priced from the get-go -- that is, of the domains that you can buy (not .SONY, but maybe .LONDON), you'll pay more for registering common words than for nonsense strings, shorter words may cost more than longer ones, etc. Rather than providing a windfall to the people who grab the largest number of potentially lucrative identifiers, the domain registrars will use auction mechanisms and other pricing schemes to price their virtual goods out of the gate. Of course, with 400-800 new generic top-level domains, the artificial scarcity that made sex.com and so forth so valuable will be largely obliterated, which may take the prices down a peg or two. |
| Posted: 20 Jun 2011 02:42 AM PDT Scott made this flamethrowing trombone because he could and hell why wouldn't he? The video advises: don't try this at home, go to a friend's house." Sound. This is a working playing flamethrower trombone that has fire on demand. It is made up from plumbing, torch, and compressed air parts. It took about two weeks and a couple of weekends to complete. It has a 21 foot range with the fireball, and a concussion wave of 150 feet. It can be difficult to play since it has a recoil.FRANKENHORN Flamethrower Trombone (aka Scott 's Flamebone) (via Make) |
| Gary Gygax memorial in the offing Posted: 20 Jun 2011 02:36 AM PDT  The Gary Gygax Memorial Fund, established to install a bronze bust of the Dungeons and Dragons co-creator, has attained planning permission from the relevant authorities in Lake Geneva, WI: The Gygax Memorial Fund has reached a huge milestone. We have been granted land for the memorial site at Donian Park. Donian Park is a four acre open space site which encompasses a wetland and the 100 year recurrence interval floodplain along the White River in downtown Lake Geneva.Land in Donian Park Approved! (via /.) |
| Tinyhack: minimalist adventure half the size of a favicon Posted: 19 Jun 2011 09:35 PM PDT  Amazing favicon hacks such as Matheiu Henri's Defender of the Favicon made me wonder: just how small could a game go? I'm not much of a coder, but over the weekend I had a go at making an adventure game only 8x8 pixels in size. It's barely-playable and has all the charm of a malicious lite-brite. But once you've found the sword, shield and the all-important, all-healing pub, you can dash through it in a few minutes. I bet a really great programmer could fit a proper roguelike into the same space! As it seems more like a 1970s electronic toy than a video game, I also made sure to include the original box, which explains exactly what those meaningless pixels are. (And you can refresh the page for a randomly generated one) Play Tinyhack |
| Anteater wants you to untie his paws Posted: 19 Jun 2011 01:43 PM PDT  |
| Posted: 19 Jun 2011 10:05 AM PDT Gareth Branwyn says: "Earlier in the week, we asked our staff, some of our MAKE contributors, and you, dear reader, to share some maker tips and words of wisdom from your dads and granddads. We got a lot of great contributions, stellar words of dad-ish wisdom, filled with practical ingenuity, good humor, and garage philosophy as only dad can brew it up. Probably our favorites were from Photo Editor Sam Murphy’s dad: 'If you ever have to shoot someone, make sure you empty the gun. That makes it look like you were scared' (Okay… thanks, dad. Good to know), and from staff writer, Brookelynn Morris’ pops: 'If you get in trouble when you are diving for abalone, drop your weight belt. It will be right where you left it at the bottom of the ocean when you go back to find it.'" My father (a lawyer) told me that company culture is driven from the top — if it’s the people who make the product, you’re good; sell the product, you’re OK. If the accountants take over, look for another job, and if the lawyers take over, run as fast as you can the other way. –Alden HartTips My Dad Says (Happy Father’s Day to All of the MAKE Pops) |
| GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios resigns amid AT&T scandal Posted: 19 Jun 2011 08:42 AM PDT Andrea James told Boing Boing yesterday (though I'm just posting this now): Politico ran a piece last week examining progressive non-profits that received AT&T donations. More this morning on the story: Politico, Signorile, LGBTQnation. |
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