so this girl I asked out today has some rediculously cute dimples. I ask google what the deal is, and I get this.

I think I’d better cancel. obviously they are an instrument of insanity. or at least serious ego coupled with bad writing.

she seemed innocent enough. who woulda thunkit.

i love anyone who screws with advertising. i think this one is my favorite though:

thanks to Jere for pointing out that the contact page wasn’t working. it’s probably been that way for a while and i just haven’t noticed. so if you’ve emailed me through the form lately and i haven’t responded, it’s because i didn’t get it, not because i’m an asshole. (probably.)

simple. elegant. deliciously evil. krustus.com.

so… Self just released their newest album, recorded entirely with toy instruments and pieces of electronic toys. and it sounds better than any other alterna-rock I’ve heard in the past year.

music sucks. not really, but you know what I mean. any and every song, band, or video that you’ll ever hear without taking the preventive measures of turning off the radio forever or melting MTV with an orbital laser is bound to be bad. any and every song I hear hummed in lab, pumped out of cars, or requested at parties makes me want to reach for the tater tosser.

I’ve liked Self from the get-go, cause they a) make all their own samples and b) turn most bad songs they hear into some absolutely torrid covers that shred the original artists. on the other hand, they do some less exposed music some real service with some pretty creative versions.

yeah it’s kinda poppy, but they’re from tenessee, give ‘em a break.

and yeah, this rant is a cliche, but when a few guys can hit the nail on the head without even touching a gituar or drum set, what kind of excuse do we have for not drowning limp bizkit in public?

when i first took a look at this, i was (and to some degree i still am) extremely skeptical. after digging through the incomprehensible marketroid speech and finding a little more helpful a description, it appears to me to be yet another attempt at taming the polyglot of online identities with one standard replacemnt for email addresses, multiple username/passwords for different sites, digital business cards, and e-cash. a good idea if one can actually get the system designed right and get it off the ground. so many have tried and so many have failed because of the old chicken and egg syndrome. so my first reaction to this XNS thing is to start up a pool on how long it takes before this one tanks too.

but i read a little more, talk to a few people and, while i still think that the chicken/egg problem will probably do this one in too, i do see a small glimmer of hope. first of all, they appear to be approaching it from the right direction, designing a flexable architecture and, most importantly, making it an open architecture. it’s also apparently a non-profit venture. they hope that by publishing the underlying protocols of the system, working within existing standards as much as possible and releasing a bunch of code under an open-source license, they can get enough support from open-source types and get it built into enough systems that they can reach that critical mass of having enough people using it that it is actually useful. should be interesting to see if they can pull it off. if they can, and it becomes widespread, i’m thinking that it could be a good framework for getting a nice public-key infrastructure up and running.

i wish them the best of luck, but i’m not holding my breath.

in part 2 of a two part series on things that make me happy: an Extension of the Body is a very nicely designed site with a lot of quality writing. and it uses a repurposed version of my vortex image. first of all, i’m happy to see someone else getting some use out of my work (makes me feel much better about spending my time on art instead of school or work). second, i’m happy to see it used well on a quality site in a much nicer design than i could ever do.

i think that one of the reasons i like PGP so much is because, everytime i type in my passphrase correctly when i sign an email, it says “Passphrase is good.” then i get to say to myself: “why yes, it is a good passphrase. thank you.” and i can feel all warm and fuzzy inside knowing that PGP approves of my passphrase. although i think it would be a good idea for them to modify the program slightly so that instead of giving me the same compliment everytime, it would mix things up a little. one time it could say “Passphrase is good”, the next time it could say “my, you’re a skilled typist”, or “damn, your hair looks sexy today.” ok, maybe that last one is a little more than i want to hear from my computer. nevertheless, i think there is a definate market out there for esteem boosting software. perhaps a random compliment feature should be added to the linux kernel. then, just when you’re getting all depressed cause you can’t figure something out, a message would pop up on your screen saying “you’re skills are under-utilized at work. they should give you a promotion” and you would feel much better about it.

a woman named Sherril Babcock was unable to register on BlackPlanet.com because some filtering software they use took offense to her last name. she contacted them and they refused to either fix the software or register her manually. eventually, she was able to register… using the name Sherril Babpenis.

okay, okay, so maybe I’m just a little sensitive when the people that are usually out to destroy science start using our tools and technologies for their own purposes.

but really. this?