Our Town - Internet style

A recent find at the local B&N, The Egg Code, is a dizzying and delightful romp through the post-modern sprawl of the Internet. Through a series of colourful vignettes the author moves characters around like pieces on a chess board and at the center of it all is the Gloria 21169 router. It's funny and suspenseful. A highly recommended post-dot-bomb read. :)

permalink Ω 20 July 2002, Helsinki

HOPE

Wired reminded me that this weekend is H2K2, Hackers on Planet Earth 2002. I was tempted to attend just for the sake of nostalgia but the lawn needs mowing and I feel too old and out of the loop anymore.

I attended the first HOPE in 1994 since I was on my way to Rockport, MA that week anyway and I had a lot of friends from the NYC BBS MindVox, a.k.a. phantom.com, whom I could hang out with and enjoy a rollicking weekend of hacking, drinking and "spot the fed".

The best moment in the conference was when a drunken Charles Platt, writer for Wired and sci-fi author, screamed "WHERE'S THE CRIME?!" in the back of the MetroCard hacking talk. Charles was a regular on MindVox and we were all amused by that. Nick Jarecki, a.k.a. Razor, a rather precocious and horny little 14 year-old boy followed me around for days hoping to have his way with me in spite of my increasingly hostile rejections. NPR interviewed him so he thought he was famous and therefore worthy of some female groupies. I wonder where he is now.

My volvo got towed while I was at HOPE and getting it out of the impound was quite the adventure. Since the system was unable to verify an out of state plate and VIN on Sunday [ no, I still don't get that either ], I had to call the Missouri State Highway Patrol to get them to talk to the guy behind the counter to convince him to let me have my car back for a mere $175 that Charles Platt had leant to me [ they didn't take credit either ]. That's the last time I trust a doorman to tell me if parking is valid and to watch my car for $20.

J.C. Herz wrote Surfing on the Internet which largely featured our small corner of the Internet back in the good old days. I should wear my HOPE Staff shirt to work tomorrow :)

voidmstr's law(tm): bandwidth expands to fit the waste available

permalink Ω 14 July 2002, Helsinki

Wiener Boy eats Coney Island

The Economist has a story this week about Takeru The Tsunami Kobayashi, the man who ate 50 1/2 hot-dogs in 12 minutes. I read this story as I was watching "American Eats: History on a Bun" on the History Channel that colourfully told the history and stories behind such all-American foods like Jell-O, hamburgers, pizza and the democratic hot-dog. I am amazed that any human could consume 50.5 hot-dogs in 12 minutes. If I eat just a little too much my stomach becomes very uncomfortable so I cannot fathom just how painful 50+ hot-dogs must be without a Roman incident.

What an unusual story for the Economist to print considering how grotesque this contest seems in a world where starvation still exists and running it alongside the The Future of AIDS where more people die every day from AIDS than all of the victims of 9-11.

Why is this entertainment?

permalink Ω 14 July 2002, Helsinki

The Day I Turned Uncool

I recently found a little gem of a book while idly browsing at the Borders searching for something new and possibly amusing. The Day I Turned Uncool: Confessions of a Reluctant Grown-up sounded like something I would write so I bought it and have been recommending to everyone I know.

When growing up, we all think that we won't ever be as dull as our parents but, ever so slowly age catches up with us all and before we know it we're reluctantly becoming uncool. It's the little things at first, mowing the lawn, laundry on a Saturday night then one day the revelation comes that the world is no longer your oyster and it hits you; you have become your parents.

Each of the chapters are 'confessions'; I played golf. I take pride in my lawn, I spend a great deal of time engaged in home-improvement projects, My social circle has shriveled and shrunk, I went to a wine tasting, I am no fun anymore, Caffeine has become my recreational drug of choice, and I had a little midlife crisis. It's witty, sharp and hilarious prose mostly because you've been busted, you're uncool. :)

permalink Ω 11 July 2002, Helsinki

Ultraman is airwolf

Chip Salzenberg turned me onto Ernie Cline and his brilliantly hilarious Utraman is Airwolf album. Treat yourself. I should email him and see if he would be interested in doing a lightning talk at TPC/OSCON since he must be a Perl guy...:)

permalink Ω 1 July 2002, Helsinki