Gizmo Lovers Blog » humor

The Twisted Logic Of Copyright Math

MegaZone — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 07:20:31 +0000

I caught this funny TED video through Ars Technica and I thought you’d all appreciate it. Comic author Rob Reid skewers the entertainment industry using their own numbers on claimed losses due to piracy in “Copyright Math™”. Hoist with their own petard!

Via Ars Technica.

M-x psychoanalyze-pinhead is All Grown Up

MegaZone — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 20:43:55 +0000

Some of you, like me, are probably emacs users. And some of you may have, at some point, played with some of the sillier elisp extensions, such as M-x psychoanalyze-pinhead. For those who don’t know, it pits Eliza, one of the first ‘chatbots’ in the guise of an analyst against the Zippy the Pinhead quote generator. Wackiness ensues. I could not help but think of that while watching this video.

Researchers from Cornell’s Creative Machines Lab pitted two chatbots against each other in a talk-off, which rapidly degraded into a verbal sparring match. Though it did generate some great non sequiturs. I predict this is already being printed on T-shirts right now: “I’m not a robot. I’m a unicorn.”

Of course, the other thing it reminds me of is any number of comment threads and web discussions I’ve read over the years. On this flamewar made more sense than many of those.

Via Engadget.

(Try M-x spook sometime too, if you’re install has it.)

Happy Friday

MegaZone — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 18:07:02 +0000

Hitler Reacts to Netflix Increase In Pricing

Warning: The subtitles may not be safe for work.

If you’re not familiar with the “Hitler reacts to…” meme. Uh, welcome to the Internet? You must be new here.

Pop Quiz: New Laptops

MegaZone — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 17:36:37 +0000

Pop quiz time!

Hypothetically, given that someone was considering buying this laptop:

1. Would you recommend another laptop with similar specifications instead? Consider as constraints that a screen resolution of 1680×1050 is considered a minimum requirement, the physical dimensions should be similar and certainly not much larger, Blu-ray support is desired, and, while not a requirement, AMD is favored. A lower price is always a plus.

2. Bonus essay – justify your answer to #1.

3. Extra credit – try to convince this person to consider a Mac.