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Spoof of "24" with 1990s Tech
Topics: Weird & Humorous, Networked World, TV, 1990s, Tech Changes What if the TV action series "24" was set back in 1994? This video picks up on the idea. I especially love the part where: CT Computer Techie: "I can see it... he's hacking into the mainframe..." By the way, the X-Files episode "Unusual Suspects" did a similar "retro" twist when it depicted an earlier moment in Agent Mulder's career. Normally, Mulder is seen with a compact mobile phone. In this particular episode, he is carrying a large "brick" mobile similar to the one here. I wonder how we will look back at 2007's tech from 2020. I figure we may be laughing about Windows Chicken... I mean Vista. (Vista means "chicken" in Latvian.) J.D. Abolins |
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NYC MoCCA Exhibit: Infinite Canvas: The Art of Webcomics
Topics: Weird & Humorous, Interesting Tech, Networked World, Comics, Art, Graphic Novels The Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) in New York City is currently running the "Infinite Canvas" exhibit on Web comics. I am hoping to visit the museum and see the exhibit this fall. It's running until 14 January 2008. Even if you cannot go, the exhibit's page has links to various Web comics' sites. Among them was Supernatural Law, which I found to be a great spoof of the horror genre and of lawyers. Also mentioned on the Web comics exhibit page is User Friendly, one of my favourite comics. (My recent posting on the UK crypto law changes included one of the UF comics on that topic.) One interesting Web comic I recently browsed after reading a reference to it in a recent Wall Street Journal article is Shooting War. (The original Web comic can be read via the "Web Comic" link at the top of the page.) Shooting War is a story about a Web blogger/journalist sent to Iraq; it is set in 2011 0r 2012. The conflicts in Iraq continue and the US is still there. Whether you agree with the political views in the comic or not, the depiction of one possible future is interesting. By the way, if you are interested in comics and how they communicated, there's an informative series of books by Scott McCloud. Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics, and Making Comics -- all done in comic format -- well explain how comics work and what directions they may take in the future. They are a thinking person's comic book series. J.D. Abolins |
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Ask.com's Advert
Todya's New York Times and Wall Street Journal carried advertisements for Ask.com with the heading, "The Algorithm Sees the Internet the Way Dmitry Sklyarov Sees a Poorly Encrypted DRM File." Maybe many of the papers' readers didn't get the reference, but it made my day. The rest of the text heavy advert was laden with techno geek reference. Excellent! You can see a Web version of the advert at the Algorithm.com. J.D. Abolins |
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Frank & Ernest Comic Strip Insight on Literacy and Censorship
Topics: Weird & Humorous, Insights, Privacy & Liberties, Comics, Censorship Simple but profound insight in the May 2nd Frank & Ernest comic strip. It depicts a medieval king and his aide. The king says to the aide: "The literacy rate is going up? --- I suppose we better start thinking about censorship." I love it! (The comic strip, not censorship.) Although there can be censorship in oral cultures, it was the powerful traits of textual literacy that were met by new levels of censorship. Also, low literacy also made it easier to hide information from most of the population. I believe that general lack of textual literacy was a major reason the Caesar's Cipher worked for many years. Most people would not have been able to understand the writing even in plaintext. Even with textual literacy, the choice of language was another factor. In European history, the use of Latin usually required a person to not only learn to read but also learn another language. These days, the global communications present their challenges of information access. Phil Zimmerman, the developer of the PGP cryptography tool, once commented "Perhaps you could think of Arabic as a form of cryptography." (Figuratively speaking, of course.) This applies to other languages as well. Computers have been "speaking" mainly English for many years. But this is changing rapidly. In a decade or so, a large portion of the Internet might be "speaking" Chinese. 你好 (Ni Hao; Hello) J.D. Abolins
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A Belated Happy (American) Pi Day!
Topics: Weird & Humorous, General, Mathematics, Geek Culture, Nerdvana I was going to post this entry on March 14th, the "official" (in the US) Pi Day but things have been hectic and I didn't want to wait for the European Pi Day. "What?," some readers might say, "Isn't Pi the same around the world?" In the States, with the common month/date/year convention, March 14th could be rendered 3.14. If one wants to take Pi out to more decimal places, one could break out the champagne at 13:59:26 on March 14 to celebrate 3.1415926 as the Pi Second. In Europe, with the date/month/year convention, it would be 14.3 and that would not make sense. (And they say Pi is an "irrational" number!) So what do Europeans and others with the date/month convention do for a Pi Day? It turns out there are several Pi Approximation Days, and July 22nd will work as 22/7. Confused?
"Bye, bye, Miss American Pi... |
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Pointer: A Gallery of Linux-Related Comics
A Norwegian site has a nice collection of comics that refer to Linux in some way. It's at http://folk.uio.no/hpv/linuxtoons/ J.D. Abolins |
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An IT Project Management Spoof of The Screwtape Letters
The Register Developer site has The Screwpole emails, a spoof in the style of C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters. It's OK and does capture some of the feel of C.S. Lewis' book. But not as much info tech satire fun as Simon Travaglia's BOFH series. J.D. Abolins |
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