The Browser

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sto7m — Wed, 06 May 2009 20:58:34 GMT

The handjob? really? Hmmm, honestly, being a shooter for some time I would say, post whatever the heck you want to. The more creative the better but depends on what it is your trying to do with whatever the site is. I shoot avatars for people and usually the images are studio portraits smiling and looking as suave as they want to be. Open your minds! DO what you want, albeit clean, and enjoy. change them up. the added activity gets you more visibility on the global net. Happy picture making!

What was that zodiac based game?

waywardcats — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:16:10 GMT

I've been trying to remember this game for ever but my memories are so vague that I have trouble describing it.

It was as much a puzzle game as anything else. I remember there was one screen with this colored waterfall that made a roaring sound and you had to time your way through in the breaks between the colored bits. It had something to do with the zodiacs - maybe there was a different puzzle for each one?

Like I said, I can't seem to remember it clearly enough to get much description but maybe it'll jog someone's memory.

Ah yes, the memories

doughdee222 — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:12:25 GMT

I had an Atari 2600 back then and I remember fondly the games mentioned. Adventure was indeed a favorite and I slayed those three dragons with the mighty sword a hundred times each. I didn't discover the easter egg until I was told about it but before then I did notice there seemed to be an odd unreachable space within the Adventure maze, difficult to see because it was in the lower right hand corner on one screen. I could use the Bridge to go there but it seemed useless so I ignored it. The victory screen still ranks as one of the most gratifying I've seen.

I remember a second easter egg was in the Defender game. If you survived to round 23 I think it was and you did something special all the alien craft turned into the initials of the game designer and stopped attacking you.

Loved too the Circus Atari and the one with the four castles in the corners. Yes, I remember too the sound of a city being destroyed in Missile Command. The Maze game was a hoot with its hundreds of variations, oh the dread of those squares turning toward your direction!

Those things were durable too. No matter how you treated them they kept on working. If a fault did appear a simple flick of the on/off switch or reseating the cartridge fixed the problem. Compare that to a modern computer where the slightest bump or misuse will corrupt the OS or damage the harddrive or crash the system...

Then a buddy bought the Atari 5200 which was leaps ahead of the 2600. And another buddy had the Intellivision with the great game The Dreadnaught Factor, loved that one. I bought a Colecovision system but it was a dissapointment and never had the number of games as the others.

The big change came when I acquired a Commodor 64, the Atari 2600 paled in comparison and I never went back. Damn that Commodor had some great games: Archon, Archon II, Raid on (Something) Bay, Mail Order Monsters, Seven Cities of Gold, etc. To this day still I think EA should put all those old 1980's games on a CD and sell them in a Windows XP compatible format. I'd buy it.

-Doughdee222

"I am a realist, not a pessimist. The real world is pessimistic by nature."

The coolness of Sheep

degsme — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 08:49:46 GMT

In Glazer's model, the Times would show me what articles my friends have read or give me a list of articles where they've left comments. That's kind of a cool idea, and one that the Times is trying to pull off with its Times People feature

Maybe I'm just too old to remember what I was like as a 20 something, but the idea that I would chose what articles to read based on what my friends have read and commented on seems so ovine and lacking in individuated thought that I find it hard to believe the author is deemed thoughtful enough to right this sort of article. And its not that I'm too old to understand the online realms. I have been playing in online realms for some 34 years now (not an exaggeration, I started before there was a Usenet, I remember systems like PLATO etc.)

Nor do I think this is really something that has to do with my place on the path of life vs. the authors. After all, my 18yo son, who for a long time was a tech-geek - living and almost breathing online with WoW "friends" scattered around the globe, heavy use of Live Journal, Something Awful and a host of other forums - has at this point foresworn most of his online existance in favor of F2F time with his friends and dorm-mates. Its not that he doesn't go online, but as he described it to me: I go online if none of my friends are available to hang with and I'm bored.

So the idea that a Facebook pre-digested news feed is something that will be a great boon to us, just doesn't seem that real to me. Yes, all news reporting is an abstraction at some level, and Yes, I do "filter" my news as well (I could care less about which Steeler stole which base :-P ) but I also work hard to maximize my opportunities for serendipity. And I choose to collect my knowledge from both sources I agree with, sources I trust, as well as sources I disagree with and sources I mistrust - if only to get a feel for the spectrum of thought out there.

And I can't believe that I and my son are all that unique (heck my wife doesn't even bother much with online stuff or even reading the newspaper on a regular basis, yet she is at least as well informed as almost any regular newsreader I know).

So its "cool" to be a sheep?

BAAAAA

that's the pitch?

Munich — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:33:33 GMT

Glazer offers this mental exercise to understand how an online social nirvana might benefit you: Think of an activity you do on the Web in a solitary way, and then imagine how that activity would be better if the site knew about the other people that you care about.

I'm imagining it. My answer is: "not at all."

I read the New York Times every day.

That's probably your first problem.

In Glazer's model, the Times would show me what articles my friends have read or give me a list of articles where they've left comments.

Who gives a shit? No, really ... who cares?

Checking out a stock? It would be nice to read chatter from other potential investors.

If you would find that "nice," I have some advice for you: stay the hell away from the stock market.

Baking a cake? Look at advice from those who have already tried the recipe. Tempted by a new restaurant? See if your foodie friends have eaten there already.

This is veering into the territory where I think your article might be an elaborate psychological experiment.

The reason we don't do these things now is that the "barriers to social are too high."

Speak for yourself, kiddo.

The CRT's of the early 80's???

Mmmmm — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 03:44:26 GMT

All CRT's work that way, dear. Still do. The difference is actually in the video hardware in the console.

Play them on current consoles!

Carney — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:00:03 GMT

Atari Anthology, Activision Anthology, and Intellivision Lives! are titles available now that work great on modern consoles and PCs. Look them up and fire away.

I only wish that USB-based Atari-style joysticks, paddles, and trackballs were available that worked with my PlayStation 3... :(

I liked the old games

Anse — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:19:36 GMT

I liked he mostly-horizontal two dimensional, aspect of them. I recall being completely and utterly spellbound by Supermario 64 and it's three-dimensional fantasy land (I was doing a lot of mushrooms at the time, as I recall), but I really lost interest when the games became single person shooter type things where you're always walking through hallways

What happened to the swords?

doughdee222 — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 07:23:47 GMT

There's something I've been wondering for a while but despite searching the Internet I've yet to come up with an answer.

During the last year of the Atari 2600's glory days (83? 84?) Atari made four fantasy games which had a quest theme to them. Each game was based on one of the four elements: earth, air, fire and water. The catch was that the games were a contest/puzzle. The first person to complete one was rewarded with a code that won a prize. Each prize was a fabulous oranamental sword worth $25,000 - $50,000 each. I can't recall the names of the games. I've wondered since then if the swords were ever rewarded and if so where they might be today.

Does anyone remember this contest or know further details?

-Doughdee222

"Fire me, boy!"

Typo

halfcookies — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:14:21 GMT

Yo Mike,

"Atari discovered his handiwork discovered after a 15-year-old player..."

Typo!

-HC

Found old friends

catco57 — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:31:06 GMT

That I lost contact with through Facebook. You do have to be careful about the information you give out and some of the lame questionaires it wants you to answer. Not only people on your friends list can read it,so does the people on their friends and any person in any group you choose to join within Facebook.

facebook question from a luddite

viretarmis — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 22:42:50 GMT

My gf recently signed up for facebook and was almost instantly pinged by a dozen "suggestions" from the site for potential "friends". The spooky part? She actually did know a number of the people the site "sent" to her.

It seems farfetched that they possess some kind of global data mining app that matches, say, graduates of Mamaroneck H.S. or people who have ACE certificaion with one another. Or do they?

So..., how do it know?

Huh?

karen231 — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 01:35:00 GMT

I don't know about the rest of you, but I have a diverse group of friends (some high-ranking US military, a few socialists, lots of hunters, several vegetarians, etc.). Not only would they not be interested in all the parts of my life, but I'm not interested in every corner of their lives. But, if we come across a video/article/op-ed/recipe we think someone else would appreciate...guess what? We send it to them directly!

And frankly, I don't need or want Big Brother telling anyone what I'm up to.

Reading Wisdom (Weblicht)

mystes9 — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:37:55 GMT

Mr. Agger!

I am delighted that someone is finally writing about the cognitive differences in reading wet-text (this stuff you are reading right now) and dry. Having been trained as a writer in the era of typewriters, I embody those differences in the process of writing, ambling back and forth over the line of ::this goes under the bone:: / ::this here stays on the surface::

Reading has been the (heretofore) unrecognized aspect of this distinction. I look forward to reading more from Agger on this.

I not only agree with this statement. . .

]] "Hamlet's BlackBerry: Why Paper Is Eternal." He describes the white stuff as "a still point, an anchor for the consciousness."[[

. . . I stake my career to it. About half of my submissions of 'difficult' work is sent out on snailback. If I want editors to feel me, I have to put it in their hands. Just think of it as 'editorial slowfood.'

Adaptable critters that we are, I expect the online ear/eye to deepen and grow more comprehensile (yeah, I'm thinking about reading with your cybertail) as we go. But for now, we're still in toddling mode.

Corriente calamo,

Mysti Easterwood

Yeah everyone knows what 'scrape' means...

kenwill — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:24:28 GMT

These two articles about Facebook today, have been written by fucking morons who assume we are all erudite tech head morons like themselves.

Facebook

disigny — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:06:36 GMT

I wouldn't exactly call F. user friendly. I tried to sign up, got into an endless loop of runaround about logging in; no one answers questions from "help", and there seems to be no way to telephone them. disigny

Google/Facebook

david wayne osedach — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:17:00 GMT

Welcome to the fray Google! You can make it easier for users to interact and thereby gain pre-eminence.

Irony

rthorat — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:18:45 GMT

Microsoft was talking about doing this five years ago, but there was little interest (mainly, I think, because no one wanted to cooperate with Microsoft because they did not think they would get fair treatment). Five years later and Google and Facebook are suddenly pioneers, with no mention of Microsoft's previous efforts (which eventually withered and became a mixture of things like Windows Card Space and Windows Live).

Speaking of Windows Live...not many people in the media are paying attention, but Microsoft is quickly turning Windows Live into a top notch service. Their latest iterations are strong competitors to Google's products, and they are pursuing a great strategy by turning your Windows Live page into a feed of all your social networking sites (with Facebook support just announced).

Sarah Palin's Medical History Mystery Revealed

AlFeldzamen — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 11:09:58 GMT

It seemed a bit mysterious, why Governor Palin's health records were such a secret, and only released on the eve of the election. She seemed adamantly determined to keep those personal health records from advanced public scrutiny, a most unusual stance for a candidate for such high office. What on earth was the lady hiding so grimly?

Could it be that, since the date of her first delivery is known and also the date of her marriage, being a public record, is also known . . . that her health records would reveal to all that this first birth was not premature, but full term, and that it strongly indicated the conception occurred before her marriage?

And that is exactly what the medical record showed, that the birth of her first child was full "term," which means 9 months, plus or minus 2 weeks. Yet the lady gave birth only 8 months after her elopement marriage. Such marriages are often rushed, for pregnancy reasons, and that seems to have been the case here.

This certainly would have been damaging in the election for one who professes such fundamentalist views and such personal virtue as the Alaska governor. She, after all, has been an ardent promoter of premarital chastity and abstinence, and an equally ardent opponent of sex education.

Seems to make her a hypocrite, no?

camoflage serves a dual purpose

gzuckier — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 06:19:51 GMT

when you're in the wilderness, it provides concealment.

and when you're in the city, it makes you stick out.

Sarah Palin and the hunt

j underhill — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 07:02:15 GMT

Sarah the Hunter is a metaphor for traditional values in the United States and was meant to be an appeal to Americans to recall these values. These values include independence, self-sufficiency, and rugged individuality in stark contrast to the present values in the United States that include dependence and conformity. Her goal, and doubtless McCain's, was to inject new life into the original American Dream, that has been taken hostage by modern philosophy. Her story was to be one of triumphing against the odds, renewing hope for the typical American citizen that "you can be anything you want to be." But it was not to be so. Americans, feeling their grasp on "free" money slipping and being replaced with the ache of a solid day's work, reacted by characterizing her as one would a hillbilly from the backwoods. Too bad that America will continue to languish as its progress is held in check by the chains of the dependent.

Sarah Palin Shooting Fish from Helicopters

M. Swaid — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 12:03:10 GMT

http://carmenisacat.blogspot.com/

Our Babies Are Good Enough

Would Phyllis Schaffly shoot fish
in a barrell like they do in Gaza,
shoot babies in the cradle like
they do in Gaza, the Jews,
yes the Jews who are not
funny anymore, pathetic
How to say Hi! to the Jew
anymore after the fish
in the barrell come floating
to the top, boycott the looking
yes, Jew. You. How to shoot
fish in the AusDachauBlederling?
You the quiet Jew minding
his own business, you being
Jewish controllingtheworld
like you do, quiet minding
the business of the heartbreak
AusDachauBlederling.
All our babies line up
for your photo albums
don't they? Lay real
still for your photo albums
don't they you Martha
Stewartberry muffins. The Fenshui
of AusDachauBlederling hotel
is one on top of the other
in good rubble, hard rubble.
Phyllis Schaffly loves me,
she loves me not.
Email this baby to five
friends or special
women and you will
see your blessings
in the next ten days.
Scroll down or forward,
all the same. Our babies
are good enough aren't they
at least the AusDachauBlederling
post-it note enough?
Trust me, this works.

She was out of the news until...

ggmary — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 01:19:38 GMT

1. Her grandchild's paternal grandmother was arrested for drug dealing.

2. Her grandchild was actually born. Both her daughter and future son in law dropped out of high school.

Maybe in the future there will be less drama to report and she will quietly fade into the sunset.

Hunting today

cdlesniak — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 07:14:31 GMT

This wasn't a bad little article,despite the fact that there were still somewhat stereotypically portrayed as right-wing nut jobs. Let me assure you that hunters are a varied lot. The writer struck a nerve when he speculated about the decline in hunting in recent years. This raises a very interresting question which I think is worthy of exploration. Certainly one should differentiate "meat hunters" from the game ranch crowd. Beyond that I can only offer a few moments reflection as both my time and attention span are rather limited. And so it goes with hunting. Good hunting for lare maamals often requires a good deal of time dedication and effort (scouting, sighting in weapons, blind pacement etc.)-not to mention money. You would be surprised how much a pound of venison or elk costs when one adds in the cost of tags, food, fuel, equipment and most importantly time.. Sure, some rural folks bragg about being able to shoot game off their front porch, but that's not really hunting. Good hunting requires a good deal of time and effort and often means trekking out in the darkness early in the morning to spend hours freezing your butt off in what may not be the safest of environments. My point is that it often involves dedication and well . for lack of a better term . . .work.

Not long ago, I read an article about hunting in Germany which described how German hunters, known for their meticulous adherence to traditions and ethics were respected in the local communities for these traits as well as their knowledge and dedication.. I can't help but wonder if good hunters here aren't an undervalued human resource performing an important but thankless role.

Sarah is a symptom of America's ignorance of mental illness

redneckliberalpostbush — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:23:48 GMT

She is the political equivalent of Britney and Paris, and, I believe, a very dangerous women.

We have GOT to stop putting these people in office

Compare her to this:

Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) is a personality disorder defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the diagnostic classification system used in the United States, as "a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and a lack of empathy." [1]

The narcissist is described as turning inward for gratification rather than depending on others and as being excessively preoccupied with issues of personal adequacy, power and prestige.[2] Narcissistic personality disorder is closely linked to self-centeredness

World Health Organisation in Geneva 1992) regards narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) as "a personality disorder that fits none of the specific rubrics". It relegates it to the category known as "Other specific personality disorders", which also includes the eccentric, "haltlose", immature, passive-aggressive, and psychoneurotic personality disorders.

A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:[1]

has a grandiose sense of self-importance
is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
believes that he or she is "special" and unique
requires excessive admiration
has a sense of entitlement
is interpersonally exploitative
lacks empathy
is often envious of others or believes others are envious of him or her
shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes