ITGumbo: spicing IT up

Here's a story especially for Halloween:
A scary but true tale of an American reporter in Asia trying to communicate around The Great Firewall of China. The supression of free speech is horrible, but... but... oh, come on, isn't that just such an awesome pun???

And if you're still not satisfied, Wired has published a slide show of some very geeky jack-o-lanterns, including this 3D replica of the Death Star. Force not included.

Okay, so I can tell that's not enough, that you need something more like seared-into-your-brain scary. Well, you asked for it: Remember how frustrated you were back in 2000 when your SIMs could barely figure out how to hug each other? Well, you'll want to step out of the way of this big heavy pendulum. Now all kinds of really gross stuff is possible on Second Life. Some of it may even soon be made illegal by the supreme court! Wow, the first amendment part of my brain is fighting with the part of my brain that can never undo what it saw when I Googled "she-male" back in 1999. There are drawbacks to growing up in the information age, you know. Now that's what I call scary, folks. Happy Halloween.

Who's afraid of the big bad Google? Some Australian publishers it seems. And anyone else who's selling links. If that's you, start boarding up the windows if you know what's good for you.

New high-tech credit cards with digital displays look like that solar calculator that you owned in 1982. But with more ability to increase your consumer debt!

Growth projections in Open Source Software by 2010 let both Open Source Developers AND proprietary software conglomerates sigh with relief. $22 billion looks different, after all, depending on where you're sitting. Of course, the figure is based on "analyst projections" which is a nice way for saying completely made up, but these pie charts make it look very official. mmm... pie.

Hey, do you guys remember MTV??? Did you know it still, like, exists and plays videos sometimes? Well, MTV is trying to beef up its online presence by creating a massive index of searchable song lyrics. So, if you ever wondered who it was who sang "Ba to the Ba da dang da dang ditty," just type it right in... assuming that's the correct spelling convention. We won't see this "innovation" until 2008, though, so in the meantime call your cable company and say... wait, just kidding. That era's over.

Apple's new operating system Leopard is out today and folks say it's worth the wait. But then again, when do Mac users ever deride taking a Friday off of work to purchase and play with a new product?

What is this, science Friday? The "scientists" at "NASA" have found a new slew of black holes, like a hundred of them, just sitting around the universe waiting to devour all the light in known creation. In a related note, Linux is losing the battle to Windows.

This item is strictly for programming dorks of a particular web variety: here it is, your programming language in LOLCats. Call it LOLCode. (BTW Error Condition... kthx)

Facebook is like so totally hot, (how hot is it?) It's so totally hot that it's market cap exploded!!!
Okay, so a dumb joke pointing to the dumb over-valuation of facebook as reported by TechCrunch.

Who's actually paying for that pretty little free browser I mentioned in the news yesterday? (Hi Mozilla!!!) Turns out it's Google, by a factor of 85%. Yowzers! Replace the all the times I said the word "free" with the phrase "strategic move by Google to clobber Microsoft" and everything will make sense.

And just because you're supposed to learn one new thing every day, here are some videos that explain string theory in two minutes. Rubber ducky, you're the one... underlying principle of the universe.

Always wanted to confuse your cellphone with your blush? Toshiba has created a round cellphone that looks like a makeup mirror. Just put a pretty picture of you as your phone's wallpaper and you'll be all set!

Gmail does IMAP!
Gmail does IMAP!
Gmail does IMAP!
stop the presses folks.

It turns out Mozilla makes a ton of money by giving stuff away for free. Companies of the world, here's your model of a profitable open source community. I promise you, you can do it sans banner ads.

Want to get busted for stealing a government license printer? A good way to do so is to call tech support and ask how it works. And the Thomas Crown Affair led me to believe that thieves were smart...

CalTech researchers have created an electronic nose which can distinguish between smells and indicate which ones might be harmful. It still won't laugh at your electronic fart joke, though.

Hollywood writers guild considers going on strike to get a piece of internet residuals. After watching Heroes last night, I personally feel that a writers strike would only improve my television experience.

Dell-ification no longer to be a business-school buzzword??? Dell announces a plan to sell PCs through Staples. I guess supply-chain-optimization isn't the be-all-end-all we all thought it was. Are you listening, HBS?

Tired of the information age? Check out the biggest collection of brand-name pencils every assembled. Now all you need to do is find some of that... whadaya call it... paper.

Wired News breaks the story of a spy for the MPAA. That's the Motion Picture Association of America. The revelations of theft and deception are kind of like the old movie "Hackers." Except NOTHING LIKE IT WHATSOEVER... THIS IS NOT CONCEPT INFRINGEMENT.

Only one item this morning, but it's AWESOME!!! Check out this domino set-up made entirely of PCs. Originally mentioned here. I promise you that you will not be disappointed.

Microsoft releases an updated version of it's Zune music player, and all the world has an opinion.

Fuel cell technology is finally used for the benefit of all humanity: in Toshiba's cartoon-watching device.

Ubisoft's line of games for girls is offensive not only to women but to most rational humans! But then again, don't our 6-year-olds need practice online shopping?

Why do companies choose proprietary software over Open Source????? These survey responses are going to surprise you.

An anonymous tinkerer ranks and reviews all the current mobile platforms for ease of open development. Who is this masked man? The world may never know.

AOL is finally turning WOW.com into a social networking site for World of Warcraft users... And I thought the game was already both social and networking... shows what I know.

GPS makers TomTom and Nokia fight over position. Ha Ha, get it? GET IT???

Two Harvard alums are writing a satirical novel about the founding of Facebook. The clever working title is "Facebook Book." The only worry is the book being obsolete by the time it's published.

Axe body-wash has taken its advertising straight to video. Straight to internet video, that is. Parent company Unilever is banking on eyeballs flocking to their mini-movies like rats after a Piper's fife.

Today's new start-up FriendFeed promises an rss-like reader for what all your friends are up to. Alternative? Um, pick up the phone.

In case you happened to be spending quality time outside this weekend, here's what you missed on the internet:

An in-depth product review of Microsoft's Surface platform. It's like a coffee table you can break by putting a coffee cup on it! Plus, Microsoft strikes back at Google with an online tool for viewing and storing MSOffice documents.

Nokia strikes at apple over the locked-down nature of the iPhone. How do those grapes taste Nokia, sour?

The US Navy, in internal recruiting documents, calls the MySpace generation an alien life force. All that crazy slang will make them difficult to recruit into the services. Plus, the current war is like a total bummer.