Posts by BigUglyDean

John Sweeney: Why Church of Scientology's gravest threat is the 'net

Re: Psychlos

@ asdf:

Ahhh... You may be confusing the Mormons with the Gideons, who donate (usually New International Version or New King James) the now-ubiquitous desk bibles in every motel desk and night stand in the U.S.; in years of travel I've never run across a Book of Mormon in a motel room. A shame, as it would open a whole new world for my one-man illustration project in motel-room bibles --- I usually provide a picture of Moses battling Gigantor.

The obvious exception to this is the (Mormon-owned) Marriott chain... But you can't watch pay-per-view porn in your room at a Marriott either, go figure.

John McAfee goes Hollywood with Warner Bros. movie deal

There's a phrase...

... in the Southern United States which sums up J. McAfee: "nuttier than a Stuckey's Log."

'Geek' image scares women away from tech industry

Non-techie observation

This Cracked article indirectly points out a couple of misconceptions about XX-chromosome based techs:

http://www.cracked.com/article_19160_8-scenes-that-prove-hollywood-doesnt-get-technology.html

The women are either trendy beauty queens or hopeless social retards. No real middle ground.

My own hypothesis that like most people these days, girls get their first interaction with tech through gaming. Maybe if male gamers, regardless of age, didn't devolve into horny fourteen-year-olds ("yer a GURL?? Tits or GTFO!!") when playing, tech in general wouldn't seem such a hostile environment for those in possession of a uterus.

Man surfs slopes at night in LED suit

Starting at 0:41, I could hear the voice of every 'boarder I know saying, "Get outta the trees, STUPID." Tree runs aren't for "professionals", they're for people who don't like living.

(Or it could be I'm just frustrated because the snow here in the Sierras has been lousy all season; it's been a damn dry year..)

Pope's PR says Vatican in grip of WikiLeaks-style scandal

Let's all sing along...

... With Tim Minchin:

http://www.secularnewsdaily.com/2010/04/30/tim-minchins-pope-song-fuck-the-motherfucker/

Thailand can't wait to wield Twitter censorship hammer

Hello, government of Thailand? Bhumibol Adulyadej sucks goats.

Problem with me saying that? Come on up to my house: I live in a small town called Camptonville in California; just ask around for the 'Cobbler Guy' and people will point you in the right direction. Nothing would entertain me more.

America abandoning DSL in favour of faster cable

The tiny town I live in has had DSL available for just shy of one year now. We survived for 6½ years with satellite (first Hughes, then WildBlue) up here in the Sierras. Yeah, it was faster than dial-up... But nowhere nearly as fast as DSL or even wireless. Oh, and forget about NetFlix downloads over dish: both satellite services limit your bandwidth so if you exceed XX gigs of downloaded data a month, they throttle you down to an utterly useless speed. Satellite broadband is a joke.

NASA close to approving first sci-fi flick shot in space

Oh, NASA. Given that you can use every tiny chunk of good will good PR you can find these days, I'm surprised y'all weren't wetting your pants with joy over this film.

It's a hard sell at the moment. The US has a general feeling of, "Okay, great, we've got the ISS, we had the Shuttle project, we aren't going to Mars any time soon... Um, can you guys see to it that a few potholes be patched now?" (Funding the Afghanistan quagmire is pricey enough.)

Moog goes boom with itty-bitty bass synth

So how many...

... Bass players does it take to change a light bulb?

Who knows? It's not like anyone is paying attention to them...

Bah, humbug! Virgin Media censors Charles D**kens

Other banned words:

- Kn*ckers

- Kn*ckers

- Semprini

US pols sack Santa Claus in cost-cutting drive

Be careful how you talk. People might mistake you for a (*gasp*) libertarian, and then you won't be able to post on Gawker without being screeched at.

Details of all internet traffic should be logged – MEP

Boy, I'm lucky.

I sure am glad I live in America, where we're spied on and censored by our corporate overlords, and not the government! USA! USA!

MC Hammer getting into search business

Who knows?

Say what you want about Mr. Burrell/Hammer, but he's not a dummy. (Personally, his music always bored the piss out of me, but that's neither here nor there.)

His biggest mistakes --- which he has hopefully learned from --- were in who he trusted with his money when he was riding high, and assuming his style would last longer than it did. He forgot that hip-hop fashion doesn't age like wine, but like yogurt.

Look, he's a smart guy with a good work ethic, so hey, more power to him.

Damn you, Horrid, you beat me to it!

Facebook games teach teens bad habits

Stranger Danger!!

Funny, I thought we'd covered this territory before...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2009/04/28/the-myth-of-online-predators.html

Want to decrease the chances of your child being kidnapped? Don't go through an ugly, contentious divorce where custody is a major issue. Want to (drastically) decrease the chances of your child being molested? Be suspicious when Creepy Uncle Bob starts offering his babysitting services.