Codemonkey

I have been meaning to post this for ages.

This sums up so beautifully how the Intertnet is such a positive medium.

 

Why would you want to be a pirate?

 

Everybody Gets One

 

SecuROM

Penny Arcade:

The one topic upon which there is any consensus at all is that SecuROM copy protection barely deters piracy, and makes life more difficult specifically for paying customers.

So true.

 

A sign of the times?

A banner ad on The Irish Times caught my eye this morning:

If you click on the ad it takes you to:

Which is a domain for NewBornMillionaires.ie and the text on the webpage states:

This account has been suspended.
Either the domain has been overused, or the reseller ran out of resources.

Definition of irony anyone?

 

Yo! Simon!

I went to a Champions of Innovation talk organised by the University of Limerick and Enterprise Ireland yesterday. It was given by Simon Woodroffe.

Funniest. Talk. Ever.

It was brilliant! He was seeringly honest and very down-to-earth. Very inspiring and hugely encouraging. He gave loads of insights into how he motivates himself and others and how he innovates. A great talk.

If you get a chance to hear him speak then I would strongly encourage you to take the opportunity – you may just learn a thing or two but you definitely will leave with a huge smile on your face!

 

Mac vs. PC vs. Linux: South Park style

from southpark.wtdmusic.composted with vodpod

 

4Q! Now that the pleasantries are out of the way….

… how do you feel about filling in this survey?

(There is no survey here – just astonishment!)

Who possibly imagined that a survey tool labeled “4Q” was a good idea?

Well it turns out the guy’s name is Avinash Kaushik.

Why no one did this simple test and asked him to repeat the name a couple of times baffles me:

4Q loop

YouTube video by Avinash here.

 

YouTube – Danny Boy

A day late – but early for next St. Patrick’s Day.

from video.google.com posted with vodpod

 

100 classic Seinfeld moments and catchphrases mashup

Genius!

I had the audio for this for ages – but this is just brilliant!

 

You know you’re in trouble if….

HNLim01, originally uploaded by mike.walsh.

… you need a sign indicating how to find a GPS!

 

The Internet is down for repair. Please try again later.

TheOnion.com‘s original video.

 

Excellent!!! Sony Bravia Paint ad – what happened next…

Original Sony ad:

What happened next…

 

Network Administration – This is EXACTLY what it’s like!

 

Science meets funny!

From the Ig Nobel Awards:

2006 MATHEMATICS
Nic Svenson and Piers Barnes of the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization, for calculating the number of photographs you must take to (almost) ensure that nobody in a group photo will have their eyes closed
REFERENCE: “Blink-Free Photos, Guaranteed,” Velocity, June 2006,
WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL PRIZE CEREMONY: Nic Svenson and Piers Barnes

2005 LITERATURE
The Internet entrepreneurs of Nigeria, for creating and then using e-mail to distribute a bold series of short stories, thus introducing millions of readers to a cast of rich characters — General Sani Abacha, Mrs. Mariam Sanni Abacha, Barrister Jon A Mbeki Esq., and others — each of whom requires just a small amount of expense money so as to obtain access to the great wealth to which they are entitled and which they would like to share with the kind person who assists them.

2004 MEDICINE
Steven Stack of Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA and James Gundlach of Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, USA, for their published report “The Effect of Country Music on Suicide.”
PUBLISHED IN: Social Forces, vol. 71, no. 1, September 1992, pp. 211-8.
WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: James Gundlach.

2003 PEACE
Lal Bihari, of Uttar Pradesh, India, for a triple accomplishment: First, for leading an active life even though he has been declared legally dead; Second, for waging a lively posthumous campaign against bureaucratic inertia and greedy relatives; and Third, for creating the Association of Dead People.
WHO ATTENDED THE IG NOBEL CEREMONY: Lal Bihari overcame the handicap of being dead, and managed to obtain a passport from the Indian government so that he could travel to Harvard to accept his Prize. However, the U.S. government refused to allow him into the country. His friend Madhu Kapoor therefore came to the Ig Nobel Ceremony and accepted the Prize on behalf of Lal Bihari. Several weeks later, the Prize was presented to Lal Bihari himself in a special ceremony in India. [NOTE: Filmmaker Satish Kaushik will be making a film about the life (and death and life) of Lal Bihari.]

2002 ECONOMICS
The executives, corporate directors, and auditors of Enron, Lernaut & Hauspie [Belgium], Adelphia, Bank of Commerce and Credit International [Pakistan], Cendant, CMS Energy, Duke Energy, Dynegy, Gazprom [Russia], Global Crossing, HIH Insurance [Australia], Informix, Kmart, Maxwell Communications [UK], McKessonHBOC, Merrill Lynch, Merck, Peregrine Systems, Qwest Communications, Reliant Resources, Rent-Way, Rite Aid, Sunbeam, Tyco, Waste Management, WorldCom, Xerox, and Arthur Andersen, for adapting the mathematical concept of imaginary numbers for use in the business world. [NOTE: all companies are U.S.-based unless otherwise noted.]

2001 TECHNOLOGY
Awarded jointly to John Keogh of Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia, for patenting the wheel in the year 2001, and to the Australian Patent Office for granting him Innovation Patent #2001100012.

2000 PSYCHOLOGY
David Dunning of Cornell University and Justin Kruger of the University of Illinois, for their modest report, “Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments.” [Published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 77, no. 6, December 1999, pp. 1121-34.]

1999 PHYSICS
Dr. Len Fisher of Bath, England and Sydney, Australia for calculating the optimal way to dunk a biscuit.
…and…
Professor Jean-Marc Vanden-Broeck of the University of East Anglia, England, and Belgium, for calculating how to make a teapot spout that does not drip.

1998 SAFETY ENGINEERING
Troy Hurtubise, of North Bay, Ontario, for developing, and personally testing a suit of armor that is impervious to grizzly
bears. [REFERENCE: "Project Grizzly", produced by the "National Film Board of Canada.]

1997 ENTOMOLOGY
Mark Hostetler of the University of Florida, for his scholarly book, “That Gunk on Your Car,” which identifies the insect splats that appear on automobile windows. [The book is published by Ten Speed Press.]

1996 PUBLIC HEALTH
Ellen Kleist of Nuuk, Greenland and Harald Moi of Oslo, Norway, for their cautionary medical report “Transmission of Gonorrhea Through an Inflatable Doll.” [Published in "Genitourinary Medicine," vol. 69, no. 4, Aug. 1993, p. 322.]

 

23C3 – Lawrence Lessig – On Free, and the Differences between Culture and Code

 

Every OS sucks!

Too true!

 

An anthem for the Digital Age!

Don’t download this song by “Weird Al” Yankovic.

Quotes:

“…they’ll treat you like the evil, hard-bitten, criminal scum you are..”

“… even Lars Ulrich knows it’s wrong.”

 

Pure Gold!

World of Warcraft meets South Park.

Here: http://wowsouthpark.com 

Here: http://www.dailymotion.com/visited/search/south%20park/video/xgv4c_south-park-wow

or

Here: http://www.greedtube.com/video/963/

 

When the comment is better than the article!

Register report on a Daily Mail article. Comments are at the bottom of the article.

Article:
“Seasoned googlers, of whom there is already a vast tribe, are nerds, anoraks and braces-wearers of the worst sort who spend every working moment searching the infernal engine for other people’s blogs.

They are descended from a generation of titterers, pranksters and spokespersons of the bleeding obvious who in a more primitive era used to fool around with the office photocopier, circulating allegedly humorous material (“In these days of equal rights, why is Manchester not known as Personchester” ) faxed or posted to them by fellow-nerds who in turn had painfully copied the stuff from a parish magazine.”

Comment:
“Thank God for one brave and fearless voice speaking out against the tide of mediocre thinking and blatant pornography. that is the so-called “world-wide-web”. My grandaughter was convinced to try this “googling” of which you speak by a schoolfriend and now she is pregnant. What I want to know is, what is this Government going to do about this nonsense, especially now foppish young Cameron has revealed it to be one of his unseemly passions? In my day, such an admission would have been a resignation matter. I’m disgusted.

- Nordelius, Bristol, UK”

Genius!