Legatissimo.info - Off Beat

Who wants to join a fantasy fishing league?

kyle — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 17:44:56 -0500

ESPN has this thing called B.A.S.S. I don't have an account. Someone try this out and tell me what it's like. I imagine that fantasy fishing is incredible.

Drinking with Steve

kyle — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 20:20:26 -0500

DrinkingWithSteve.com

Rough day at work? No job? You've come to the right place. Steve has found a loophole that blurs the line between the casual drinker and the raging alcoholic! Simply pop in the video, choose how many beers you feel like having and relax with your new drinking buddy. No stupid chit chat, no crying about ex girlfriends, just you and Steve tipping a few back. Enjoy.

This guy just made a DVD of him sitting on his couch drinking. Never drink alone again!

Google news search of "RIAA" returns this:

kyle — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 11:56:01 -0500

In my last post, I cited a news search for "RIAA," and I was very amused by the headlines. You might be, too.

RIAA sues woman that has no computer
Afterdawn.com - 12 hours ago
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has found yet another strange case amongst the thousands of copyright infringement suits it has launched ...

Between rock and a hard place
Globe and Mail, Canada - 8 hours ago
... According to Nettwerk and the family's lawyers, the RIAA is demanding that the family pay a legal settlement of $9,000 (US), or half that if paid within a ...

Addonics announces new iPod to PC conversion kit
Geek.com - 1 hour ago
... It also means itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢sa good solution for the RIAA to subpoena iPods to search them for illegal copyright material, thus extending its reach outside of just the ..

DRM News From All Over
Stereophile Magazine, NY - 15 hours ago
... Nettwerk vs the RIAA: How's this for a heart-warming scenario? A recording artist, MC Lars, gets an

RIAA Watch Speaking in Tongues
CounterPunch, CA - Feb 4, 2006
... Even if those words perpetuate the RIAA propaganda that bootleggers are sub-human creatures, void of morals, who have direct links to terrorism. ...

RIAA defendant 'has never used a computer'
IT Week, UK - Feb 3, 2006
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has issued another 750 writs against people it believes are pirates, including a carer in New York who ...

RIAA claims computerless woman was a pirate
Inquirer, UK - Feb 3, 2006
THE RIAA seems to have adopted a "sue everyone policy " in its cunning plan to stop file sharers. Not ... cent. So the RIAA sued her. ...

Ex-RIAA chief opens antipiracy consultancy
ZDNet - Feb 2, 2006
... The firm will work with economist Barry Massarsky, who has previously worked with the RIAA and music composers, to help companies and venture capitalists ...

Admittedly, these are all online sources, so they're probably at least a little biased. But still, the RIAA is really doing a bang-up job staying on top of its public image.

SwarmSketch is a pretty neat idea

kyle — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 15:02:23 -0500

SwarmSketch allows people to collaboratively draw a picture around a theme. Each user gets a length of line they can place anywhere on the page. After they draw their line, they "vote" on lines other people have drawn by increasing or decreasing their opacity. The product is pretty cool. Here's "Merry Christmas:"

Ummm...so I'm in the New York Times

kyle — Sun, 08 Jan 2006 15:20:35 -0500

Note: I just attended the party, I didn't organize it. Credit there goes to Chet and Brett.

The New York times ran a little article today that I was in: In Your Facebook.com (requires registration). Back in late November I did an interview with Nancy Hass, who writes for the Times. We talked about facebook, informational changes in society, and a party that had nothing but cake. It was an interesting conversation, that had a lot of overlaps with the material I was working on for my thesis -- which was all about informational changes in society.

Anyway, a little while after that, they asked me for photos from the party, and a high-res version of the picture in my profile, and said that they might use some, or all or none of the pictures I sent. And oh yeah, they might also recreate my profile.

Well, it turns out they did all of that. I woke up with a text message that read: "hahahaha that was quite a surprise in the NYT today." Scrambling to my computer, I found it online, and someone had already sent me an image of the spread.

Goodness gracious. That's me...or rather, a space pirate interpretation of me. Maybe this'll drive some traffic, but probably not. I've seen a few extra hits here, I've yet to check Gullible. I'll put up the entire article in another post.

As for the article, it discussed the party really accurately and made didn't make us sound like we were raging against some sort of machine. Cake party was about absurdity, not about rage. Anyway, if you're interested, here's some more pictures and here's the website we made to mark the event.

Related: previous Facebook shenanigans.

Gullible.info mailbag

kyle — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 20:34:14 -0500

The question:

name: J.D.

email: ***police@*****.**m

re: http://www.gullible.info/archive.php?m=2005-12#post465

type of message: Positive

comments: Can you provide me with the source of you information on the drug pigs?

The answer:

Hello,

You asked a few weeks ago about drug sniffing pigs, and where the information was from. My apologies for not replying sooner, I have been traveling around the sub-Sahara on a quest -- of sorts -- and the strangest thing happened. You undoubtedly heard about the cold snap in that region. Well, it came to pass that I was there during that cold snap, and I wanted nothing to do with it. Rather than just come back to the US (BORING!), I figured I'd just open up the paper and see where the hottest temperature in the world was. As it happened, it was in Bombay, India.

Now, J.D., I am not a man of empty promises, half-hearted efforts, nor am I full of boloney. If I resolve to go to Bombay, I am going to Bombay. So I hopped on a train and was on my way. After five days of traveling I started to get bored, and took to wandering around to other train cars, trying to engage strangers in conversation, or at least to steal a loaf of bread I could survive on for the next week. But even a life of petty crime (you can't touch me if it happened outside of your jurisdiction, right? your jurisdiction isn't Bombay, India, right?) was ne'er enough thrill for my wandering heart. Bags in hand, I jumped train two hundred and one miles from Bombay and started off on foot. Let me tell you this: that was a mistake. Flat out, no bones about it. I am willing to say that I thought it would help, but it didn't. Not at all. I'm a big enough man to admit when I was wrong.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, I made it to Bombay and got a tattoo so I would have a good conversation starter that I could use to segue into the incredible journey I had just taken. Tattoo or not, I was in Bombay. I had accomplished my single, overarching goal. Bags in hand, (ONCE AGAIN!) I got on a plane to fly back to America. Just before they were about to close the door on the jet, though, I punched a flight attendant in the kisser (it's okay, he was a guy!!) and said, "hold on one second, I've got unfinished business with India." Then I pushed the door open, and spit on the ground, shaking my fists, then turning my gaze skyward yelling, "I beat you, India. You are now mine." Everyone on the plane was Indian, and the airline was an Indian as well. So that meant -- because I owned everything there -- there were free drinks for everyone on the whole plane. And if that story weren't enough of a hoot, guess what I had to drink! YOU GUESSED IT! Bombay Sapphire. What are the odds? Ha ha ha.

Long story short, if you need some really chill people to hangout with in Bombay, drop me a line. I've got like 200 names and phone numbers and they all owe me a drink.

-Kyle

Looking for a band name?

kyle — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 11:47:55 -0500

It's unlikely that I will ever start a band. However, if you ever start a band, you are more than welcome to select one of these names I thought of last night. I've got a few more pages. Maybe I'll add them, but they're probably not that interesting to you.

Aptly Yours
The Mysterious
Banana-Flap Jack
Born Apart
Shoot Shot Gone
The Shoestring Seven
Terribly Tabby
Bad News Call
A Late Night Ring
The Bottleneck
Coffee and Cream
Stuck In Front
Impossible
Bunions 'n' Things
The Silk
Whispering
The Hattrick 3
In Case of Fire
The Last Call Motley
Jonah and the Whale
Saddled Pride
Just in Case
Quietly, Shadow
Against Traffic Jams
One Raindrop Falling
Lights on a Timer
The Batting Cages
Since 1985
Talking about Honey
Bears and Related Matters
Cool Kids Can't Count (later becomes CKCC -> CK^2 -> C3K (aka Potassium Tricarbonate))
Nautical Larry
The Next Lofty Plateau
Reaching to Climb
Here and Know
Incredibly Simple
Once you Know the Secret
The Impossible Abominable Identical Snowflakes
Should have Waited
Gambling Debt
Outward Moving
Dante's Satan
Religion and the Cold
Everyone Else
Christmas Dinner
A Very Long Time
The Echo of Enlightenment
Purest Night
EssentiallyOils
Never Quite There
Pastor in the Cart
Late Night Theater
Scribbling
What's More
Echoing