Mark Pilgrim Monkeys Around

Mark Pilgrim's half-year search for a hobby that doesn't involve electricity appears to have been as fruitless as O.J. Simpson's hunt for the "real killers."

Pilgrim, who's being Michael Corleoned back into blogging on IBM's new PHP weblog, has recently released a script for GreaseMonkey, the Firefox plug-in for editing web content a la autolink.

The script removes everything but links on sites published by Robert Scoble.

Pilgrim also has released a new open source beloved butler that does to Google what it wants autolink to do to the rest of the Web (screenshot).

Like Winer Watcher, Pilgrim's new ScobleFucker is another meticulously programmed fuck-you that could be rewritten to serve a useful, non-malicious purpose.

But as he'd probably ask, where's the fun in that?

Publishing · 2005/03/14 · 10 COMMENTS · Link

A Marine who attended President Bush's speech at Camp Pendleton disagrees with my fashion critique:

Most Marines I talked to didn't even know what that jacket was, they thought is was Pres. Bush's personal jacket he had modified. As for the flight suit thing, he was flying on a Naval aircraft landing on a Naval aircraft carrier, he had to wear one! Hell we gave the Discovery channel guys flight suits when they flew on my ship in 1998.

In retrospect, I should have been skeptical of reporter Dana Milbank's claim that Bush was setting a new trend with his faux-military presidential duds. I still think the jacket was too Lord Farquaad, but Clinton and his recent predecessors also liked to play dress-up, as does President Bartlet.

Of all the photos offered by InstaPundit readers as proof that I should wear a "Jackass-in-Chief jacket," the one from West Wing stung the most. I hold that fictitious liberal presidency in great regard.

Politics · 2005/03/14 · Comment · Link

If you're not already panicked enough about the "overdue" killer flu pandemic, Guardian science editor Robin McKie offers a new periodic cause for alarm.

Every 62 million years, the species of Earth suffer a mass extinction:

After analysing the eradication of millions of ancient species, scientists have found that a mass extinction is due any moment now.

Their research has shown that every 62 million years -- plus or minus 3m years -- creatures are wiped from the planet's surface in massive numbers.

I love the use of "any moment now" alongside a prediction with a three-million-year margin of error.

Journalism · 2005/03/13 · 1 COMMENT · Link

By using a custom style that makes nofollow links blink lime, Phil Ringnalda can see how sites are using the attribute:

I'm surprised by how little use of rel="nofollow" I'm seeing (in blinking lime) on non-blog, non-wiki sites. It seemed like such an obvious tool to use, to micro-manage how you transfer PageRank within your site and to other people.

One of these days, I'm going to sue Phil for usurping the color I've chosen for my links and monkeying around with my content to make it more interesting than I intended. Ringnalda v. Cadenhead will become the web dork's Roe v. Wade.

Publishing · 2005/03/13 · Comment · Link

Charlie White's Evil Puppet

The music video for Interpol's "Evil" features a troubled puppet with just enough realistic human features -- eyes, teeth, hair, and furrowed brow -- to scare the bejeezus out of people. Fans have taken to calling him Norman.

"Evil" is the first video by Charlie White, an artist who builds photorealistic images that combine real people, digital effects, and disturbing puppets.

I bought Interpol's CD Antics this week, and it all sounds like "Evil" -- a bunch of lush, gloomy songs that remind me of '80s bands like the Psychedelic Furs and Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark.

If John Hughes was still making angst-ridden teen movies, these guys would be playing right at the point where Jon Cryer finally realizes that girls will never choose him when Andrew McCarthy and James Spader are available.

Music · 2005/03/12 · 2 COMMENTS · Link

Harvard Hacked at URL Guessers

Ed Felten offers an interesting analysis of the legal and technical implications of the Harvard Business School URL-hacking incident.

More than 100 applicants to the school have been summarily rejected because they changed fields in a URL to see if they had been accepted, learning about the technique from weblogs or message boards.

Felten believes the school's punishment is extreme:

I might feel differently if I knew that the applicants were aware that they were breaking the rules. But I'm not sure that an applicant, on being told that his letter was already on the web and could be accessed by constructing a particular URL, would necessarily conclude that accessing it was against the rules.

Incidents like these make me wonder how anyone can argue that modifying a URL is inappropriate, much less compare it to breaking in to a computer system.

If you make something available at a URL, you've invited the world to view it. Harvard should be dropping the hammer on ApplyYourself, the company whose poor programming revealed admission decisions prematurely, not on these hapless applicants.

Update: One of the peeking applicants said knowing early about his rejection helped him pursue another school before it was too late.

2005/03/11 · 11 COMMENTS · Link

I Blog For Short

New York Times:

On the Web log, or blog, he chronicles his daily life, his small victories, his disappointments, his liberal views on politics and the health of his pets.

Washington Post:

Mosteller's supervisors and co-workers at the Durham, N.C., Herald-Sun were well aware of her Weblog, or blog.

ABC News (Australia):

The lanky, sandy-haired writer composes a frequently updated Internet journal -- weblog, or blog for short ...

Maine Today:

Hands-on science experiments, creating an online Weblog -- or "blog" -- and learning how to project video images onto oneself to create living art are just some of the offerings.

ChulGoo:

What is a weblog or blog? A weblog, or "blog" for short, is a kind of website or a part of a website.

I was reading his site in 1999 when Peter Merholz coined the term blog, putting a harsh German sound to a new publishing practice he described as "information upchucking."

Six years and 7.7 million blogs later, our web sites (or sites for short) are still being explained to the public on first reference. How many Senate Majority Leaders, network news anchors, and gay Republican reporter hookers do we have to bring down before the press realizes that weblog is a four-letter word?

Publishing · Journalism · Jargon · 2005/03/10 · 14 COMMENTS · Link

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