Funny. But I still don’t want to use Vista.
In Which I Take a Whack at The 39 Clues
This past Tuesday the countdown clock at the39clues.com stopped counting down, and the site went live. The 39 Clues is a new series for 8-12-year olds from Scholastic, the company’s first major launch since the end of Harry Potter. Elsewhere on this website I have taken a whack at it.
I felt bad about doing so, because Scholastic had …
The End of the World is Nigh; But Bonus, We Found the Higgs Boson!
It’s always in the last place you look.
Re: the whole will-it won’t-it question about the Large Hadron Collider, an e-mail from commenter dennitzio reminded me that Larry Niven has a short story called “The Hole Man” about something like this. It’s a murder mystery, where the murder weapon is a quantum black hole that some demented …
Reviews Coming in of Neal Stephenson’s Anathem
Laura Miller — who may be even more of a Stephenson superfan than I am — weighs in here at the L.A. Times. The Wall Street Journal reviewed it today. Both raves. The only negative piece I’ve seen is in the Washington Post, where Michael Dirda compared it to Harold Brodkey’s Runaway Soul, which I think is totally unfair, and anyway …
This Just In: Alan Moore Smart
The other day — some other day, I forget which, not this one — io9 pointed me to this documentary by/about Alan Moore:
That’s the first installment. For the rest click through to io9. The production values are amazingly cheesy, even for 1987, but the force of his ultimate-genius-freak personality pushes through.
It’s just him …
Alpha Flight Haikus
PUCK
Eugene Milton Judd
Overcompensating dwarf
Will punch you in nuts
SASQUATCH
Big, strong and fuzzy
More than just an orange Hulk
Talks smart not dumb
NORTHSTAR
First gay superguy
Uses power to speed-date
Wear super condom!
AURORA
So sexy, could have
Any man, but only wants
Her gay twin brother
GUARDIAN
Canada hero
Wears …
Because You’re Curious: Bill & Jerry
And I thought he didn’t work there anymore.
Will Wright on Spore: Cute vs. Science
This week, to make sure that Time was different from every other magazine and newspaper in the entire world, I wrote a piece about Spore.
I love interviewing Will Wright. He sort of interviews himself. He has some kind of built-in filter that prevents him from ever saying anything uninteresting. I only had a page for the piece, and I …
Dr. Horrible Rules iTunes, the Future
My work-copy of iTunes is so broken, it actually emitted that sharp, loud angry-Mac beep when I fired it up just now. But nonetheless I was able to confirm that the Dr. Horrible soundtrack is the number two-most downloaded album right now. Such is the amazing power of Whedonicity.
It looked like a one-off, but it’s turning out that …
They Are 8-Bit: From Games into Art
There’s always something cool-slash-disturbing to see whenever the I Am 8-Bit people put on a show. Basically it’s paintings inspired by 1980′s video games. For some reason they’re all really fascinated by Dig-Dug.
Google Releasing Its Own Browser; World Wonders What Took Them So Long
Google’s Chrome browser drops today. They’ve created a handy comic strip outlining its features so clearly that even a technology journalist can understand them. I hear Jon Favreau has already acquired the movie rights. Some screenshots are here.
Obvs I’m going to give it a spin. Google people are smart, which makes me curious what …
Off for Labor Day Weekend
I’m not going to the 5th annual PAX this weekend. Instead I’m going to stay home and work on my book and monitor Robo-James’s favorite Simpsons quote thread and possibly hack away at Force Unleashed. If anybody has any information about the care and feeding and killing of bull rancors, hit me.
In conclusion, I would just like to know: …
