An awful lot of people have mentioned the documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, which came out last year. The mail usually goes along the lines of:

"Did you know about this fantastic arcade documentary that came out? I thought it was amazing, you should see it if you haven't already."

So to all my helpful compatriots, I just want the message clear: I hate that movie. I hate it on principle. I hate it on personal, selfish grounds. I hate it on ethical grounds. I dispute its content and I despise its message. That it is being considered a modern classic grinds my teeth and riles my fists.

Huh.. very interesting, and quite disturbing.

The King of Wrong

We all thought it was time to party, that the enemy was finally vanquished, that it was time for Champagne and cigars. We learned our lesson yesterday afternoon, though, when SCO smacked us all in the face with a hundred million dollars.

That's right, SCO suddenly has deep pockets, courtesy of their friend Stephen Norris, the uber-finance geek. Norris and his private equity firm — Stephen Norris Capital Partners, LLC — have decided to buy a stake in SCO, though the exact amount won't be clear until the Utah courts decide how much SCO has to pay IBM and Novell. What is clear is that they suddenly have a $95 million line-of-credit to pursue all the litigation their cold, black hearts desire. Others have pointed out that these guys are the biggest, baddest, beat-the-crap-out-of-anyone-in-their-way-ist, and won't have a moment's pause about coming after everyone in the Linux world, from IBM and Novell right down to us, the everyday users.

As the ever-vigilant White Knights over at Groklaw point out, there's still some hope — the all-powerful Bankruptcy court can quash them with the stroke of a pen, and the European Commission not to mention the SEC may well have a thing or two to say — but the outlook certainly isn't as rosy as it was on Wednesday.

Lord have mercy..

I think i am going to vomit...

[ Ugh, what the fuck. Fuck SCO. -k]

SCO is Back, and This Time It's Personal | Linux Journal

“This really strikes out into a new area,” he said, sounding chirpier. “People could prepare to leave behind a lot of their records in a My-Space format, prepaid perhaps, so they could stay online forever and others could go back and see what they were all about . . . It’s probably a good business opportunity.” I ought to hang up now and get myself a lawyer, I thought. But Steve was probably emailing his Apple geeks as we spoke, and he’d be taking advance orders for iDead by sundown.

Didn't Virgil propose this?

Also, LOL iDead.

The Big Log Off

WSJ:

George W. Bush took office in 2001 with budget surpluses projected to stretch years into the future. But it's almost certain that when he returns to Texas next year, the president will leave behind a trail of deficits and debt that will sharply constrain his successor.

I keep returning to a thought that I think I'll have to spend some more time thinking about at some point. It occurs to me that the fundamental legacy of the entire Bush presidency -- which includes, of course, not simply Bush, but all the cronies and advisors and appointees -- is the near total obliteration of people's trust in government.

Plenty of people simply hate Bush, but I believe on a deeper level, many people have learned to believe, to steal a phrase, that their issue is with the game, not the player. The culmination of so many failures, failures of government, over the past 7 years strongly undermines the faith people have that government is capable of solving their problems.

And I begin to believe also that this was the point. That the architects of this administration had an overarching goal of systematically rendering foolish the very notion of the federal government itself.

In other words, all the bumbling and incompetence, the unchecked spending, the outright mendaciousness, the straining of our military resources to the brink, the engagement in failed diplomacy, the trashing of the economy and the erosion of civil liberties, was designed to paint a vivid picture of the inability of government to effectively manage the affairs of it's people.

Even saying all this pushes the limits of my own conspiracy theory skepticism... I'm not really that guy for the most part. Of course, this is nothing more than a vague impression, not a researched position, and certainly not supported by specific evidence. Still, while correlation doesn't necessary equal causation, it may still be worth investigating. I just can't help being struck by how all the terrible shit that's happened over the past 7 years points in this same direction.

Legacy of Deficits Will Constrain Bush's Successor

Udy, a British citizen, said the agent told her he had "a security concern" with her. "I was basically given the option of handing over my laptop or not getting on that flight," she said.

Oh my god, FUCK that. No more international flights with computers folks. Unless you want your shit gone through. My laptop is infinitely more sensitive and private than my underwear and shit in my bag. There is a zero percent chance I'm letting some fucking guy go through it without a warrant.

If this becomes a common practice for domestic flights, commerce will grind to a halt. Beyond that though, I just won't travel anymore. What complete horseshit.

US Customs TSA confiscating laptops - Boing Boing

Flash haters will hate this, but Adobe's managed to create a pretty full featured web-based word processor, presumably to compete with Google Docs. No spreadsheets or presentations yet, and of course, none of the integration that makes Google products so attractive.

Still, it appears both snappier, prettier, and more functional (for one thing, lists and tables work a LOT better) than Google Docs.

Since Word for the Mac is such a giant steaming pile, this is might be a compelling alternative for me.

Buzzword

Wow, flying out of SFO just became much worse. While traveling this morning I surprised to find out that TSA is now requiring that you remove all electronic devices from your carry-on bags, including cables etc. and place them in a separate bin to be scanned at the security checkpoints. Along with slowing down the line to a crawl, this will undoubtedly lead to people losing expensive equipment, not to mention the possiblity for your stuff to be accidentally taken by someone else or even stolen.

Of course none of this information is mentioned on either the TSA or SFO websites.

Does anyone know if TSA is requiring this at any other airports?

Huh. Well, fuck that. This would take about 5 minutes for me. I don't keep, e.g. the charger for my DS, camera, etc. at the top... it's usually buried in my bag. I typically travel with laptop, cell phone, camera, ipod and nintendo ds, plus cables for each of those devices. Say what you will about my gadget oriented lifestyle, but whatever. I'll fly less before I'll give up the things that make the experience even marginally tolerable as is, or deal with even worse headaches in the ATL security lines.

This country needs so much help.

New Arbitrary TSA requirement: all electronics out of your bag (cables, too) - Boing Boing

Return to Dark Castle

The third installment of the classic Dark Castle series is here for Mac users! Download your copy of Return to Dark Castle directly from this webpage!

I am so buying this as soon as it's out.

SHFF : Games : Dark Castle

Ugh.

Afghanistan: death sentence for downloading, distributing report on oppression of women - Boing Boing

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