April 2005

Thinking Machine 4 not only plays chess, but it will even show you what it's thinking.

Will Wright, the master of the Sim games, presents his newest creation and a new way to think about games. He calls it Spore.

Republicans who claim that the Democratic judicial filibuster against right-wing nominees is unprecendented are, quite simply put, lying. "On March 8, 2000, thirteen Senators, all of whom were Republicans, attempted to filibuster Marsha Berzon for U.S. Circuit judge."

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is also a radio series on the BBC.

"nLite is a GUI for permanent Windows component removal by your choice. After removal there is an option to make bootable image ready for burning on cd or testing in virtual machines."

Use Your Misery to kickstart creativity and overcome procrastination.

Choosing an upgrade path from Windows 98: "This article outlines a strategy to avoid costly upgrades from Windows 98 to Windows XP (in terms of both hardware and software), by upgrading to Linux, instead."

While I am a confirmed Firefox fanatic, it's worth noting that Opera 8 final has been released for Windows and Linux.

Learn and avoid the Six Fatal Design Flaws Newbie Web Designers Make.

Anyone who's been watching US culture for any length of time can appreciate why we need a National Day of Reason.

The latest version of the Adobe Acrobat Reader for Linux can secretly report document usage to an external website. Bet you the Windows version does this, too. "After doing a little research, we found that Adobe's Reader was connecting to http://www.remoteapproach.com/remoteapproach/logging.asp each time we opened the document. The information is submitted over port 80 using HTTP, so it is unlikely that a home or office firewall would, in a normal configuration, block the activity, unless the firewall administrator is attempting to block Web browsing."

Laser-controlled headless zombie flies! What evil overlord could ask for more?

Introduction to Spyware Keyloggers: "[K]eyloggers are applications that monitor a user's keystrokes and then send this information back to the malicious user… These logs can then be used to collect email and online banking usernames and passwords from unsuspecting users or even capture source code being developed in software firms."

Silicon Valley Slang documents the unique patois of the digital generation. "Code 18: An error made by the user. Refers to 18 inches from the computer display. A synonym for PEBCAK".

Science vs Norse Mythology: "It’s always both cute and pathetic listening Fundamentalists try to use the language of empiricism to try to defend their wonky myths and superstitions, sort of like seeing chimpanzees wear little human clothes or very young children trying to use polite etiquette. They can approximate the form, but they just don’t get the content."