Monday, March 8, 2010

The Latest from Boing Boing

The Latest from Boing Boing

Link to Boing Boing

Magazine marketers give up on marketing magazines

Posted: 07 Mar 2010 09:29 PM PST

fortune1.pngI fly a lot less than I used to (and I never flew that often), so I was surprised when I received this piece of mail that seemed to be about frequent flyer miles expiring. It was either open the junk mail or keep cleaning the kitchen, so clearly I had to open the junk mail right away. I was surprised to learn that the direct mail had hardly anything to do with frequent flyer miles; it was a solicitation to restart my subscription to FORTUNE. fortune2.pngThis is how bad it's gotten for at least one prominent print publication: It has to masquerade as something other than what it is to entice customers to open an envelope. Time Inc., the newly AOL-free owner of FORTUNE, has a history of misleading marketing offers (example 1, example 2, example 3, example 4, example 5), but this particular maneuver feels like desperation. It's as if the marketers realize that their best chance to get readers to return to their product is to trick them. The marketing says, "Yeah, we're doomed."

Just look at this awesome underwear made from banana fibers.

Posted: 08 Mar 2010 05:09 AM PST

Just look at it.

Aussiebum) (Thanks, Mom!)

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Last week's web-censorship proposal shows that supporters of every party need ORG

Posted: 08 Mar 2010 04:34 AM PST

In the wake of last week's introduction of a LibDem pro-web-censorship amendment to the Digital Economy Bill in the House of Lords, Open Rights Group executive director Jim Killock has a call to action for supporters of all the UK's political parties to join ORG and its nonpartisan effort to promote liberty and openness in the digital realm.

(Incidentally, the LibDem Lords' support for web-censorship has sparked a rebellion in the party, and there's an exciting pro-Net-Neutrality, pro-freedom emergency motion that's to be put to the party conference this coming weekend in Birmingham)

In Labour, Tom Watson, John Grogan and others have raised strongly their voices about disconnection, from their Labour values of social justice and progressive politics: but their party is pushing for the punishment of the innocent in the Digital Economy Bill.

The Conservatives, the friends of liberty in markets, remain supportive of the opposite, through of disconnection and harsh IP enforcement in the Digital Economy Bill.

What can we do to make our political representatives understand the consequences of their actions, and how they are being misled into working against their own values? Protests, letters, press work, this all helps, but we need a deeper change.

In companies, board rooms, and in every social network - voices that understand the impacts of the digital age are needed. From the Greens and the Pirate Party - we need greater dialogue and connection with groups like ours.

In short - we need a much bigger movement, crossing every political and social divide. We need you. We need you to join ORG.

What the Lib Dem web blocking amendment shows: we need more members, from every walk of life (Thanks, Jim!)
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Help me find footnotes for ORG's paper on BBC DRM

Posted: 08 Mar 2010 04:15 AM PST

I've just finished a draft of the Open Rights Group's response to the Ofcom consultation on allowing the BBC to lock its broadcasts with DRM. I'm just looking for a few references to fill in my footnotes. If you have a good citation for any of the following, post it to the comments!

  1. Stats on US investment in HD broadcast content
  2. How much economic activity does free/open source software generate?
  3. References to BBC children's content that encourages remixing
  4. History of the controversy after the introduction of Zenith's first TV remote
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Happy International Women's Day

Posted: 08 Mar 2010 01:27 AM PST


Happy International Women's Day to everyone, but especially to all the strong, brave women who fought and fight for a world where women and men have equal opportunities, equal representation in all fields of endeavor, and equal rights in society, custom and law. I am privileged to have been raised by my strong, feminist mother and father to be a feminist man. For my Mom, my grandmothers, my wife, and my daughter, happy IWD!

International Women's Day (Thanks, @brigittekhair!)

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The Dude Abides

Posted: 07 Mar 2010 09:08 PM PST

Top 10 Jeff Bridges movies that his oscar was really for: 10: Jagged Edge. 9: The Last Picture Show. 8: Fisher King. 7: K-PAX. 6: Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, 5: The Contender. 4: Starman. 3: The Big Lebowski. 2: Fearless. 1: Tron.

Ubisoft DRM servers go down, punishing customers but not pirates

Posted: 07 Mar 2010 08:46 PM PST

You remember Ubisoft's announcement that they were crippling their new games with a DRM system that would kick players out of their games if they couldn't connect continuously to Ubisoft's DRM servers? Now Ubisoft's servers have started to go down.

Of course, pirates and people who break Ubisoft's DRM can still play. Way to correctly align the incentives, Ubisoft.

Well, as it turns out, when the Ubioft severs go down, no one can play their games and Ubisoft customers get very upset. At around 8am GMT, people began to complain in the Assassin's Creed 2 forum that they couldn't access the Ubisoft servers and were unable to play their games. Fast forward ten hours and it seems that the problem still hasn't been resolved, despite the assurances from a Ubisoft representative that the servers were 'constantly monitored'

"I don't have any clear information on what the issue is ... but clearly the extended downtime and lengthy login issues are unacceptable, particularly as I've been told these servers are constantly monitored," said 'Ubi.Vigil', adding, "I'll do what I can to get more information on what the issue is here first thing tomorrow and push for a resolution and assurance this won't happen in the future."

Ubisoft DRM Authentication Servers Go Down (Thanks to everyone who suggested this!)
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Hey Jude: Times Square subway sing-along

Posted: 07 Mar 2010 08:39 PM PST

Here's video of some subway buskers in NYC's Times Square station getting the entire station to help them sing the finale to "Hey Jude." That's some heartwarming stuff right there. Or, as Patrick put it on Making Light: "The terrifying, tough-as-nails world of the NYC subway system at night. How do people manage to live in this urban hellhole?"

Hey Jude Times Square Subway Station (via Making Light)

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Science teacher's mitosis cookies

Posted: 07 Mar 2010 08:33 PM PST

Steampunk Professor Xavier wheelchair

Posted: 07 Mar 2010 11:11 AM PST

Daniel Valdez built this steampunk Professor Xavier wheelchair (complete with bubbling cranberry and vodka tubes on the back). It's powered by an Adafruit Waveshield -- an Arduino-based audio kit -- that gives it a series of awesome SFX. It's built around a 19th century rocker, with pistons from a steelworks.

Steampunk Professor Xavier Wheelchair Project - powered with an Adafruit Waveshield! (Thanks, PT!)

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Galls: Creepy and beautiful plant parasites

Posted: 07 Mar 2010 08:52 AM PST


Scienceray has a great, photo-heavy feature on the humble gall, a kind of woody egg-sack that incubates a parasite -- bacteria, mites, fungi and insects. They can look utterly Martian, or like something from the realm of faerie. And they can get to be the size of cats.

The Abnormal, Gruesome Gall - Alien Invader in Your Yard (Thanks, RJ!)

(Image: Too many galls, a Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike photo from anemoneprojectors' photostream)

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Steampunk Film Festival, San Francisco Mar 10

Posted: 07 Mar 2010 09:19 AM PST


The SF in SF lecture series and the Nova Albion Steampunk Exhibition Convention are hosting a steampunk film-festival in San Francisco on Mar 10 (this coming Wednesday) -- they're asking attendees to come in costume, and will be screening The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello, Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog and Perfect Creature. They're asking $10 at the door, with proceeds to fund the next Nova Albion; bar proceeds go to Variety Children's Charity. Sounds like a kick-ass side-trip from this week's Game Developer Conference in SFO.
Wednesday, March 10
The Variety Preview Room Theatre
The Hobart Bldg., First Floor
Entrance between Quiznos & Citibank
582 Market Street at Montgomery & Second
Seating is limited; numbers will be given upon entrance to ensure that we fairly seat everyone. First come, first seated.
Steampunk Film Festival (Thanks, Rina!)
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Ultimate D&D-playing dungeon. And I do mean "ultimate."

Posted: 07 Mar 2010 08:34 AM PST


The Burntwire Brothers spent two years building a custom D&D room in their house. It includes a rack of swords, medieval chandeliers on dimmers controlled by the dungeon-master, as well as hidden strobes and fog machines. It also has every goddamned game ever published, by appearances. And skulls. Iron-bound doors. You get the picture. Give these chaps the Happy Mutant of the Year award.

Two years later...

Previously:


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