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Friday, August 24, 2007

The Week in Geek

posted by on August 24 at 12:56 PM

panflute.jpg

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New Craze! - Witness Faceball, a new sport invented by those wacky geeks at Flickr, who are somehow both more productive and have more free time than I. The Stranger Faceball team is organizing now. I love crazes.

Cruel and Unusual! - Court orders convicted downloader to use Windows. Mercy!

Laser Car! - So, when I was a kid back in Baltimore (go O’s, Hon!), we played a game called “Laser Car” as we walked to and from school. Car headlights were lasers, see, and if they had a clean line-of-sight at you, you were dead. So we ran along the streets, diving behind parked cars and trees, and generally having a great time. You were allowed one shield per round, which involved whipping your backpack around to your chest and facing the car head-on, blocking the lasers. Modern-day children have more than imaginary lasers to worry about, or course—they’re constantly being gunned down by real guns, real lasers, RPGs, and god-knows-what. That’s why they have the Ballistic Backpack. It’s bulletproof. That’s right, a bulletproof backpack, for kids. Whew, went a long way for that one.

Easy Reading! - No time to read? Get the classics (and not-so-classics) delivered via email, in bite-sized, 5-minute chunks. I’m already 2/3 of a page into Crime and Punishment—should be finished sometime next fall. Easy!

Unlocked! - Smart nerds have offically unlocked an iPhone, and Engadget goes to great lengths to prove that it’s real. Not a hoax, not a hoax, not a hoax. Get it? It’s not a hoax.

Doing Lunch! - Want to have lunch and a “great conversation” with some complete strangers within a specified radius of your current location? Noonhat.com wants to help you do that.

New Word! - Coined on Sunday, overused by Friday. Bacn - |’bãkɘn| - noun - E-mail you want, but not right now.

Big Disc! - “TeraDisc system uses light-sensitive molecules called chromophores to create hologram-like matrices that can be used to store a full terabyte of data on a single disc using a red laser,” which is so totally obvious.

Yikes! - Hackers take down Estonia (the country) using botnets. We’re in trouble—someone call Aquaman.

Voilà, le conversation dans le parc:

RSS icon Comments

1

All musicians and producers should have that flow chart tattooed on them (not that I'm volunteering . . .).

Posted by Levislade | August 24, 2007 1:28 PM
2

I wonder if that hacker who took down Estonia is here in Seattle for PAX!! You should do an interview.

Posted by Katelyn | August 24, 2007 1:45 PM
3

Posted by chris | August 24, 2007 2:01 PM
4

How does the botnet attack on Estonia, which took place in May, fit in "The Week in Geek?"

Maybe you should change it to "The Week in Other News Sources Which Are Targetted At Geeks."

Also, first no mention of the San Diego Comic Con when that was going on, but now no mention of PAX, which is going on RIGHT NOW, IN SEATTLE?

Posted by Ben | August 24, 2007 2:03 PM
5

Ben, I do those things specifically to elicit comments like yours. Thanks for playing.

Posted by Anthony Hecht | August 24, 2007 2:08 PM
6

what i meant to say was, i'm totally drooling over the guy in the "hey unite!" t-shirt in the faceball vid. thanks for the friday afternoon TSFW (totally safe for work) eye candy.

Posted by chris | August 24, 2007 3:05 PM
7

I've been screaming about botnet attacks for a couple of years, but no one seems to be interested. The legal rights of spammers to spam unmolested now puts us all at risk. Anyone who doesn't think they could do this to the US doesn't understand how botnets work. This is far more dangerous than any bogus WMD canister of gas on the subway bullshit.

The panflute flowchart is conclusive proof of the perfection of the universe.

Posted by Fnarf | August 24, 2007 3:07 PM
8

I'm far more worried about China missing 8 kilos of nuclear fuel today, Fnarf.

Even if they're the botnet haven.

Posted by Will in Seattle | August 24, 2007 3:24 PM
9

Can't stop laughing about the panflute cartoon. Not sure why.

Posted by Jude Fawley | August 24, 2007 3:38 PM
10

Because it's true, @9.

Posted by Will in Seattle | August 24, 2007 4:57 PM
11

The headlight dodging game was called "carlight" when
I was a lad in Pittsburgh, Pa. We didn't have shields
because we were hardcore.

Posted by Ufog | August 25, 2007 12:52 AM
12

Okay, can I just say: what fucktards are in charge of the legal system that will put someone in JAIL for 5 months for illegally downloading Star Wars! OMG, that is soooo stupid. Doesn't the FBI have better things to do with its time?!? And I think it is hilarious that this guy has no problem doing the jail time, but doesn't want to give up Linux for Microsoft. hehe. That just cracks me up. Of course, I would feel the same way, only with my Mac OS instead of Linux. Does that make me an übernerd? heh. I hope this guy gets his linux box!!! Go linux geeks!!! Yah!!!

Posted by Kristin Bell | August 25, 2007 1:05 AM
13

I want a panflute now. I miss the panflute commercials. :)

Posted by Kristin Bell | August 25, 2007 1:07 AM
14

I'm so jealous of those Flight of the Conchords guys. Bastards.

Posted by Blah | August 26, 2007 7:27 PM
15

I fucking love Flight of the Conchords. I would do them both, preferably at the same time.

Posted by angel | August 27, 2007 6:11 AM

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