Pirates Raided and Shut Down

Wow, this is kind of shocking. The Swedish police have evidently seized The Pirate Bay's servers to investigate a possible breach of copyright law. The Pirate Bay, for those who don't engage in such nefarious activities as piracy, offered torrents for music, software, videos and other miscellaneous downloads. It can now add it's name to the same list as Napster and SuprNova.org, the latter another bittorrent site shut down a few years ealier under presseure from the RIAA. The internet weeps today as a price is slowly being put on digital information. Let's hope this is only temporary.

News to Me

This is really old news, but I somehow missed this. Evidently Tom Cruise doesn't fantasize about all–powerful Lord Xenu any more!

"Hubbard himself was a washed-up science fiction writer who couldn't make it as a novelist, so he turned to creating his own religion instead. He made his fortune by the Barnum and Bailey method...I got suckered, I did. I'm angry. Very angry. "

He just dropped like 90 crazy points. Now if he'd just get over his delusion of heterosexuality.


[old news source]

Superegomaniac

I honestly don't understand how everyone in my family is under the delusion that this man is a Republican. Do Republicans wake up every day and pop a few Naïvra while they sip coffee they had their Mexicans grind for them? Bah, anyway, Colbert reported last weekend on the 150th anniversary of Sigmund Freud's birthday. It amused me and because I haven't posted in forever I thought I'd share.

Fags and Nutwings

This is the funniest video I've seen in weeks. I honestly don't know which is my favorite part: the touch therapy or the kinetic whack a pillow therapy. Both seem really effective at making ex-gay ministries look like...eh, well I really don't know what. But it's funny! Enjoy!

Update: I've officially decided on a favorite scene.

Thanks to Malcontent.

Return of the Jedi

This is what I'll be installing when I go to pick up my laptop at the Apple store today. I'm kind of excited. Yes it is necessary for me to have posted this again. This is the finally released beta version for Powerbooks.

Update: cats + Macsaber = more fun than you've ever had with a cat. Ever.

Coming in Too Hot

Looking for a fun way to break your new MacBook (Pro)? Try MacSaber.

I'm kinda jealous.

Apple + Opus Dei

This apple.com parody is my favorite. I want that iPod Cyllis so I can further enjoy my self–inflicted pain.

Not–So–Gorgeous Vistas

Apparently the latest beta verstion of Vista is really really bad. Makes you wonder if all the rumored delays are rumoring a too-early ETA. Anyway, according to Gizmodo, "beta version is difficult to handle and that all the prettiness is lost on those with even a passing awareness of OS X." Oh and also: "...we’re slowly getting the feeling that the big V is going to blow a donkey."

I saw someone running what i can only assume was the latest Vista Beta at cartel last night. The only thing that caught my eye was Microsoft's very own little widgets. Er, widget. An analog clock. (See image on Gizmodo.) Needless to say I was pretty impressed.

I Just Macgasm'd

It's like I'm right there! They need to set up another panorama of the inside of the store. I want to see more. I've always wondered how they make those things. Meh, I'll go look it up later. Enjoy the panormic view of the Apple Store NYC.

Aquaman is Hot

Too bad CW (the new WB + UPN network) cancelled it for more 7th (Motherfucking) Heaven. Not that Aquaman would have been a much better show.

Take A Stand

Okay, seriously, what part of this movie doesn't kick ass?

• Angel: gorgeous
  
• Storm: finally gets to actually use her powers
  
• Beast: present
  
• Juggernaut: smashing
  
• apparent destruction of lots of stuff
  
• Phoenix Phoenix Phoenix
  

I can't wait.

Safari Graphite

Okay so another very minor thing that bothers me about Safari's GUI is that even though I have Tiger's theme set to Graphite, the navigation buttons in Safari are still blue. Bad. So, I futzed around with my LiveQuartz and now I've got a little home-made present for you. This is a zip file of the pressed/clicked navigation buttons used in Safari. To use them, find Safari in Finder. Control click to reveal the popup menu and select "Show Package Contents." Open Contents > Resources. Then, in case you ever decide to go back, find the images contained in the Resources folder with the same name as the images in the zip file. Duplicate them and back them up in your Library folder or whever you like. Then drag the images in the zip file into the Resources folder. Voila. Graphite.

Procrastination, caffeine and boredom are a terribly lethal trio.

(You can use the "Show Package Contents" to look at the guts of any application. It's really fun to do. There are some features I've found in Safari and iChat which have yet to actually be implemented. Perhaps stuff being saved for Leopard?)

Uno'd

Back when iTunes 6 was released, lots of people were a little angry that the GUI was changed to a more polished look that didn't really fit with the rest of Tiger's brushed windows. If you're using Safari just glance up at the toolbars or open a finder window. For the rest of you, you can get a feel for what it looks like here. I'd show you myself, but that isn't what my applications look like any more thanks to UNO. I personally like the new iTunes interface so I changed everything to match it. However if you're in the opposing crowd, UNO has an option to make it look a little better with the rest of Tiger's windows. (It's called UNO cause it's supposed to bring a unifying graphical user interface to your computer.) Anyway, here's some screenshots of my new windows.





My only (minor) complaint is that the bottom of the iChat windows are now very rectangular. Meh. I'll live.

Oh and here's UNO:

If you don't like the the new look, you can uninstall any changes it makes. I recommend giving it a shot. See what you like best.

Christy News

œ article of the week: Christian

 The most important day of the year for Christians is Easter-Day when, legend would have it, Jesus Christ burst forth from a giant chocolate egg to save you from your sins. Except from the sin of being a fatty and guzzling too much chocolate. Although graphical representations of Jesus Christ usually depict him with a slender figure, chances are he was a fatty with body weight dimorphism.

Favorite Word in the English Language to be Named for a US Politician:
Santorum

I saw him in the news today and thought I'd share that. He earned that definition a while ago from comments he made on the homos.

George Bush Is Watching You Poop

Holy shit:

The government is secretly collecting records of ordinary Americans' phone calls in an effort to build a database of every call made within the country, it was reported Thursday.

AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth telephone companies began turning over records of tens of millions of their customers' phone calls to the National Security Agency program shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said USA Today, citing anonymous sources it said had direct knowledge of the arrangement...

The program does not involve listening to or taping the calls. Instead it documents who talks to whom in personal and business calls, whether local or long distance, by tracking which numbers are called, the newspaper said.

Bush needs to work on his dictator image. He's gotta loose the chimp look if people are going to take him seriously. And I know you or one of your cronies is reading this Bush. So please. Grow a Hitler–stache or something. They're not going to impeach you for a little facial hair and maybe some arm bands.

Serpentine Surprises

I realize literally none of you will care about this, but Solid Snake is going to be in the next Super Smash Bros. game. I'm putting my money down on a Wii ASAP.

Also, Mario, Kirby, Pikachu, Link, Metaknight, Pit, and Samus (sans powersuit!) If only I had the time and money for videogames.


UPDATE: OMG OMG OMG OMG TRAILER

Soundstream

Remember that screensaver I said I couldn't effectively take a screenshot of? Well, I decided to take a shitty quick video with my digital camera. Enjoy.

iGod

Well there's officially nothing the iPod can't do now. So much for keeping it strictly a music player. Ah well, I suppose it's pretty neat. I'm just afraid that gyms are going to forbid them from locker rooms a la the cell phone. There are cameras on way too many things.

Cellular Woes

They're fucking killing Cingular. Royally pissed. Someone needs a new PR firm. :P

Sexiest Man of the Year is a Liar!

Uh oh. Rummy was caught in a lie. This one seems kinda big. And by big I mean "blatant." I'm surprised no one picked up on it earlier.

Also, I've decided I think I want to start watching Fox News when I get back home. It looks to be one of the best non-premium entertainment networks on television.

Why You Think the Net Was Born?

Some guy introducing a revolutionary idea that's connecting people across the globe. They call it "internet" (now with "more soul than any human being"!) and it is going to change everything.

"You type in a question and you wait." God the internet must have been amazing back then. Waiting for one of the other three people online to cyber with you. Hoping it's not a bot. Praying they know how to use their harddrive. (Their query answered. In .46 seconds.)

:-] I'M KIDDING
:-[ I'M SERIOUS
:<] I SMELL A T-SHIRT

Pithy Software

More fun shit for your Mac! (I swear to god these machines only get cooler!)

Pith Helmet

Those of you who use Safari may be annoyed by the plethora of ads on the internet. And if you prefer Safari's superior speed to Firefox's adblocking capabilities, well, you needn't worry about ad banners any more. Originally I was using this to block unwanted ads, but unfortunately, that style sheet can't discriminate between good java and bad java. Certain actions (like viewing the exif data on Photobucket) just wouldn't work. Well, I'm not sure how I missed this before, but Pith Helmet seems to be be absolutely perfect. (Although I'm not entirely certain about how much it is. It's considered Shareware which usually means you get 30 days to try it out or something but I haven't gotten a warning that I need to pay up at any time.)


Pith Helmet's preferences are nearly identical to Firefox's adblocker. You can choose whose images will be blocked and if you know a site that hosts only ads, an asterisk after the ".com/" will block all content from that site. The window above is accessed either by the Pith Helmet menu or through the shortcut "shift + apple + E" (or "option + apple + ," if you want to see the preferences for a specific site).


Conversely, if you know of a site you can trust whose content might accidentally be blocked, a simple control click on the page will pull up the typical context menu, but with the addition of a "don't block" feature which creates a list of safe sites.

Blah blah blah...words and diagrams...blah blah blah....Where are the results?

Well, I went around to some of the ad-heaviest sites I could think of. Here's what I saw:

See how much more empty myspace is now?


(Sorry. I spilled coffee on faceook and the text smeared.)

The missing ads are much more evident on myspace. (Just goes to show you how much of your space is actually advertisements.) Anyway, I recommend trying it out. If it turns out I need to pay for it, I'm probably going to end up doing it.

EDIT: Pith Helmet gives you a java alert (the irony is burning my fingertips) every 1000 sites it blocks asking you to donate money. IE: It's free. :)

---

Voice Candy

Simply. Amazing. Unfortunately this one does come with only a 15 day trial before they make you pay, but do what you need to in that time and I'm sure you'll have a blast. Anyway, you can see what voices they have (not all of them are much fun; "soar throat" = fucking stupid).

Hear for yourself: [warning] [public service announcement]

And of course... [download]

---

Soundstream

This one is basically useless, but hey, it's pretty and we all like pretty. Unfortunately I can't really take a screenshot of my screensaver and even if I could it really wouldn't do it justice. Basically, it's the same as the "Flurry" screensaver except that it reacts to ambient sound and the little swirling balls of light get brighter. You can choose how big/bright they get, how fast they move and even how many of them there are. Basically it's just fun to show off, so by all means, show off.

---

Sci-Fi Short Story/Film

They're Made Out of Meat

Based on the short story by Terry Bisson.

Thanks, Byrne, for the video.

Best Porn Movie Ever

You were expecting something a little less work safe? Sorry to disappoint. This is a hilarious Lifetime movie I read about somewhere. Basic plot: kid gets addicted to porn, it tears his life apart, everyone hates him and in the end he places second in some swimming competition. And everyone still hates him. Because he's addicted to porn. With friends like that I'd spend all my time looking at porn too.

Oh yeah and in the scenes where he's watching the porn, he's watching the porn. Staring at it. Eyes glued to the compy, hands on the keyboard. It's a very realistic film about the harmful effects of improper use of porn.

Superman Returns with a Trailer

Is Kevin Spacey ever not an amazing actor? He's so perfect for this role. Also, I like the style of the movie from what I can see in the trailer. It feels very old–school Superman comic books. Sure Superman flying is probably going to look a lot like the claymation they used in the Matrix, but this looks like a great superhero movie and I'm pretty easy to please in that regard. I'm gonna have to brush up on my Superman lore. For the world's most popular superhero, I know very little about him.

The Aftermath

Video reactions from Colbert and Stewart on Colbert's weekend activities.

Picture of the Week:

[Thanks, NYT!]

Google + Spotlight

New Tiger add-on:

When you begin a Spotlight search, Spotlight Importer will instantly grab the top results from Google and show them right next to the files from your computer.I'm gonna test this out tomorrow.

Apple's New Ad: We're Young and Trendy, Yet Dorky Enough to Know How a Computer Works!

See this and the rest of apple's adorable new ads on their website. I'm a huge fan of the iLife and Restart videos.

Mohammed in South Park After All!

Every episode in fact! Those sneaky bastards. Way to go Matt n' Trey.

Go ahead. Find Waldo. He's wearing a red and white turban.

Powerpuff Z

Because it was pretty much made for Japan anyway. 

I think I'm gonna be sick.

Prezzie Bush: Above the Law

And I thought Stephen Colbert had balls to piss in the President's soup the other day. Well Bush is here to prove that he's the bigger man and he's drinking the entire bowl full of it. Evidently, Georgie thinks he's not required to obey 750 laws he enacted:

Among the laws Bush said he can ignore are military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, ''whistle-blower" protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research.

Says legal analyst Phillip Cooper:

"There is no question that this administration has been involved in a very carefully thought-out, systematic process of expanding presidential power at the expense of the other branches of government..."

I do believe I smell a tyrant.

Thanks Stephen

Be sure to thank Stephen for his speech last weekend (previous post on aforementioned speech). I'm sure he'd appreciate it. He's already got 11,000 thank yous. Can you believe it?