fractalnavel

G103

Hides in Hand | Slippers | Moose Boot Slipper

i have these.  they’re even better than they look.  nyahh.  so there.

just a couple more microsoft peeves that have been annoying me lately:

1. well, maybe i'll just tell you where to stuff it, instead:

   Welcome to Windows Live Messenger Help

   August 25, 2009 - Install the latest version of Messenger. You need to install the latest version of Messenger. It includes security updates to help keep you and your friends safe online while you chat. Starting September 15, 2009, users are required to have the latest version of Messenger installed on their computer in order to sign in and continue using the Messenger service. To download the latest version of Messenger, go to the Windows Live Messenger website.

   thing is, if you go to update live messenger, you are forced to update every other piece of "live" software that you've installed as well.  and don't forget that the "live" upgrade dialog also defaults to selecting every piece of uninstalled "live" software for installation as well - every time you do this.  it won't remember that you've unselected anything the last time.

   what about corporate users ?  are entire enterprises being forced to update as well ?

   more: Upgrade from Windows Live Messenger 8.5

2. every - ten - minutes:

   

   yes, you can find "instructions" on how to change this behavior - not from microsoft, of course.  but some of them are only temporary "fixes", and some don't work on all systems.  like mine.  if you have xp home, only hacks are available.

and before any linux weenies start getting all holier than thou over this shit, those installation processes aren't anything to brag about either.  seems the only choice we have these days is between a dictatorship or complete anarchy.

there needs to be a "software professionals anonymous" (using the term "professionals" very loosely).

so i'm reading around the 'net, innocently, i might add (since all such anecdotal events are required to have occurred innocently), and i run into the following:

...

"The way to stop this collective madness is, of course, to get a committee on that and get a decent standard together.  No, wait . . . . you wanted sane.

[kills self]

"The last time we did that we got XML, and no, the pain has not ended. Indeed, I would echo your whole comment, but change “C” to “XML” and poise a knife over my wrist."

...

[dadhacker, 2009.11.17]

NOOoooooo!!!  SELF!!  he killed self!

i am so depressed.

and here self was, just a  minute ago, getting another cup of coffee, and ...

wait a minute - there's self now.  grinning as stupidly as usual.  well, ok - laughing at me.

self says that everyone has a self - even self has a self.  ad infinitum, apparently.  more likely, ad nauseum.  so i guess it's ok to "kill self", since there are back-up selfs all the way down.

kill self!  kill self!  kill self!

self just laughs at me.  he's holding a knife now...

fitness (via Backreaction: Thoughts and Experiments)

• Mandelbulb: The Unravelling of the Real 3D Mandelbrot Fractal
  must-have link, of course. "realness": in the end, the author brings arbitrary & subjective judgement to bear, and so misses the point, despite all the other cool work. it's the difference between a mathematically inclined artist, and an artistically inclined mathematician. no, virginia, there is no santa claus. (via immortal_curiosity; thx)
  (tags: math visualization)

• Strange Maps
  cartographical menagerie, any sort or purpose, factual or fictional. an interesting lens to look through.
  (tags: maps visualization history geography blogging)

We have diagnosed you as most likely being a member of the:
Autonomous Rebels

take the survey yourself, let me know what you are.

Skhizein (Jérémy Clapin,2008) on Vimeo (via Vimeo)

• FTC Publishes Final Guides Governing Endorsements, Testimonials
  wtf wtf wtf wtf - well, ok - i hereby declare that i am connected with everything, and that this is all made up. don't trust a word i say - my motives aren't yours. i am _especially_ connected with the u.s. goverenment, who would otherwise be taking $11k from me, so please understand - anything good you may hear about the ftc is pure bullshit.
  (tags: blogging ethics marketing advertising business government)

Look round our world; behold the chain of love.
Confirming all below and all above,
See plastic nature working to this end,
The single atoms each to other tend,
Attract, attracted to, the next in place
Form'd and impell'd its neighbor to embrace.
See matter next, with various life imbued
Press to one center still, the gen'ral good.
See dying vegetables life sustain,
See life dissolving vegetate again;
All forms that perish other forms supply,
(By turns we catch the vital breath and die)
Like bubbles on the sea of matter born,
They rise, they break, and to that sea return.
Nothing is foreign; parts relate to whole;
One all-extending all-preserving soul
Connects each being, greatest with the least;
Made beast in aid of man and man of beast;
All serv'd, all serving: nothing stands alone;
The chain holds on, and where it ends, unknown.

—Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man

(via "The Gripping Hand")

that excerpt fits pretty well, i think.  that's all that was in the book; the final text.  now i'm thinking i should probably read the whole poem. but i haven't been in that sort of reading mood/mode in a very long time.

ah well; time to finish my coffee and perform some (more) vegetation dissolving in the backyard.

• ReverseHttp
  cool - and scary. run a javascript webserver from within a browser - ! first thought: trivial p2p browser chat. second thought: live talking to website visitors, individually, or in groups of one or more. been done - but with plug-ins. think: twitter gone mad.
  (tags: web development javascript http reversehttp architecture)

self appreciated this little poem (pic).

(from C. Bowyer Vaux: Canoe Handling , retrieved from the wayback machine)

• MagicCube5D
  delicious madness; explore the site, & go to the home page for the gravitational stuff.
  (tags: math visualization software game puzzle)