OK, this is really stupid. I can use the email program of my choice to read email, so why can’t I use the instant messaging program of my choice.
My choice is Trillian, since I have accounts on AIM, ICQ, Yahoo and MSN. But AOL wants to block Trillian users. Bastards. I’m going to send them back all the “Get AOL and get 700 hours free!!!” CDs they’ve ever given me.
You can review history, you can relive history, you can recreate history and
you can even rewrite history. Now, thanks to the Internet
Archive, you can also re-enter history. Welcome to the Wayback
Machine.
Launched in October, the Wayback Machine is the public’s access point to contents
of the Internet Archive, which has been cataloging webpages since 1996, and
has given itself the goal of preserving — among other things — the “entire
publicly available web.”
An interesting article about the blending of consumer products.
I read it as I sat listening to my clock-radio.
The continent of Australia recently got drunk and woke up in the North Atlantic.
“It started off same as always; coupla fossils saying how our Banjo Patterson was a better poet than Walt Whitman, how Con the Fruiterer is funnier than Seinfeld, only they’re Aussies so no one knows about ‘em,” recalled witness Kevin Porter. “Then this bloke Martin pipes up and says Australia’s main problem is that it’s stuck in Australia, and everybody says ‘Too right!’”
“Well, it made sense at the time,” Porter added.
Googlewhacking. It’s the hot new game for bored web surfers. Go to Google and type two words into the search engine. The goal of the game is to find a unique concept so that Google displays “Results 1 – 1 of 1.”
I found one on the Gunters site for “gusers scofield”. I’m sure there are others. The problem with Googlewhacking is that they die quickly. “gusers scofield” will no longer be a winner once Google reindexes the Gunters front page and sees where I’ve written these words a second time.
Then pansies at MGM have leveled their 007 gunsight on New Line and its upcoming film, “Austin Powers in Goldmember”. They are not amused by the infringment on the copyright they hold on the word “Goldfinger”.
Anyone with half a brain knows that “Goldmember” is a parody and its use should be legal in the United States. New Line would probably win if they challenged the cease-and-desist order in court. Unfortunately, if you wan’t to release a movie in July you have to advertise in February, and you can’t do that if you’re still fighting a court battle in May. So, New Line has chosen to roll over.
The really bad news is that there was apparently a character named Goldmember in the movie, so they will have to change the script.
Personally, I hope that New Line launches an underground campaign to refer to “The Third Installment of Austin Powers” as “The Movie Formerly Known as Goldmember”. That’s how I plan to refer to it, and I urge you to do the same.
Do you know your beers? No, do you really know them? Can you name that beer when the label is missing? A quiz for any true Gunter.
Many of the Gunters have fond memories of playing Cosmic Encounter during our college days. (One sample memory: Martin ALWAYS seemed to get the Filch flare!) In fact, I still have the almost complete Eon set we play. I’m still searching for an Expansion Set 8 to complete it.
The original designers of Cosmic Encounter are now releasing an online version. Visit Cosmic Encounter Online to check it out. They have had a Java version of the game online for a few years. They plan to unleash a spiffed-up Flash version soon.
Cosmic Encounter Online will be a subscription service with a free component. Anyone can play the for free with one of six aliens. Subscribers have access to 21 aliens and player rankings with more to come in the future. If you sign up now, you will have a free full membership for one month after the launch of the Flash version.
So, go to the website now and sign up for your free membership today. You can also look at screenshots and animations of the Flash game and the aliens. The old Java game is also still available for play.
We should organize some times for the old Gunter crew to meet for an online game!
“Scientists have finally found a worthwhile use for technology and placed a pub-detecting global positioning system inside a wristwatch.”
I’ve upgraded this site to the current version of MyPHPblog. Now people can comment on the stories that are posted (no login required for comments), the archive viewer is calendar-based, and stories have perma-links which connect to the appropriate date in the calendar.
If anyone notices any problems (broken links, etc), please email me to let me know!