marginalia.org

I finally gave up on ever restoring my Windows98 install to its former functional glory, so I wiped the drive and reinstalled. I can play Quake and watch DVDs again! So in the ongoing "irritating me to no end" race, Windows has a commanding lead. ©

Something for the you have to be KIDDING file. ©

555 phone directory. People have lots of time on their hands. And watch too much TV. ©

Compelling analysis of Gosford Park as a reuniting of the English whodunit with its literary forbearer, the 19th century English novel. Of course, Gosford Park is perhaps at its weakest when viewed as a whodunit. It is, however, great as a whydunit. ©

The Way We Talk Now. From the online excerpts:

Take the way we ask permission. It used to be that we said, "I'm going to take offnow; is that okay with you?" Now we say, "Are you OK with that?" The end result is the same but the perspective is inverted - the language has rotated its eyeballsone hundred and eighty degrees inward. It's as if to say, "Before I leave, please tongue your psyche and see if you encounter any raw spots that might prevent you from, as it were, being there for me when I get back."

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Just when I think that Linux can be the most frustrating computing experience possible, windows 98 comes along to prove me wrong. All I wanted was to play Quake without spontaneous reboots, was that so wrong? ©

Let Slip the Blogs of War

The weblog is not the most useless weapon in the War On Terrorism. That title is still held by the nuclear submarine. But it is precisely their unconventional methods that make the war bloggers enemies to be feared. Like Al-Qaeda, the war bloggers are a loosely structured network, a shadowy underground whose flexibility and compulsive log-rolling make them as cost-effective as they are deadly.

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Useful article about hidden mozilla prefs, specifically network settings. The changes make page loads seem a lot faster, particularly on sites with lots of images. ©

New Wallace & Gromit! Yay! (via boingboing) ©

I suspect this is why the article below has resurfaced in blogdom.

Out novelist Clive Barker will produce Bloody Mary, a new horror film based on urban myths, for Disney, Variety reports. The script by Silvio Horta (Urban Legend) is based on Lynda Edwards’s feature for the Miami New Times, “Myths Over Miami,” about folkloric horror tales told in homeless shelters in south Florida. The film will focus on one tale, about a bogeyman figure named Bloody Mary who lives in the Everglades and steals children in the night.

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Amazing and sad article about folklore amongst homeless children in Miami.

When seven-year-old Maria is asked about the Blue Lady, she pauses. "When grownups talk about her, I think she get all upset," Maria slowly replies. She considers a gamble, then takes a chance and leans forward, beaming: "She's a magic lady, nice and pretty and smart! She live in the ocean and comes just to kids."

She first appeared to Maria at the deserted Freedom Tower in downtown Miami, which Maria calls "the pink haunted house." A fierce storm was pounding Miami that night. Other homeless people who had broken in milled about the building's interior, illuminated only by lightning. Her father was drunk. Her mother tried to stop him from eating the family's last food: a box of saltines. "He kept hitting her and the crazy people started laughing. When I try to help her, he hit me here" -- Maria points to her forehead. "I tried to sleep so my head and stomach would stop hurting, but they kept hurting." A blast of wind and rain shattered a window. "I was so scared. I pray out loud: Please, God, don't punish me no more!"

(via Eclogues) ©

The Tick cancelled. Geez, that sucks. FOX gave this show no chance to succeed. ©

For some reason I didn't know about Just Concerts - it's a CBC production with all kinds of live concerts, including the fabulous Sigur Ros concert I raved about late last year. ©

oh oh oh: altonbrown.com, complete with news about his upcoming book and the essential Sodium Chloride Containment Unit (currently sold out!)

(Now if only foodtv wasn't months behind on showing new episodes.)

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The Canadian Marketing Association's Do Not Contact Service. ©

Strangest quiz ever: my new year's resolution should be... ©