2008 Jul 14, 4:37"Neal Stephenson delivered a talk entitled The Fork: Science Fiction versus Mundane Culture at Gresham College." Talk is sort of pop analysis of geeky entertainment. Lots of annecdotal evidence but
interesting ideas anyway.
geek history neal-stephenson scifi fiction literature culture video 2008 Jun 30, 5:45Erik on writing for games vs books: "Even worse for game writers, the 98% garbage part of a game isn't even usually garbage because instead of reading something boring about the history of Belgium,
the "reader" probably gets to jump a Camaro over a dino
game humor interview valve portal article erik-wolpaw 2008 Jun 30, 11:13"Scene: The History lesson in school. The teacher wearily calls Microsoft Boy to his desk to try to discover where his homework is."
humor business article microsoft satire marketing via:oldnewthing 2008 Jun 26, 5:43A bit of history on US phone numbers from the source: "AT&T developed the North American Numbering Plan in 1947 to simplify and facilitate direct dialing of long distance calls. Implementation of
the plan began in 1951."
phone att phone-numbers reference 2008 Jun 2, 12:57A card game where 'new players are often told only "the only rule you may be told is this one."'. '...the game being a parody of life in the People's Republic of China during the Cultural Revolution,
where the laws changed secretly..."
card history politics game legal parody 2008 May 30, 10:52'"Richard Feynman reporting for duty. OK, boss, what's my assignment?" The assembled group of not-quite-graduated MIT students was astounded.... So we sent him out to buy some office supplies.'
history richard-feynman programming computer article essay technology physics science via:swannman 2008 May 19, 12:28"Were he alive, Konrad Kujau, the man who forged...countless paintings, would no doubt feel a tingle of pride for his great-niece...being prosecuted for forging his signature on hundreds of cheap,
Asian-made copies of works such as the Mona Lisa..."
art history fraud 2008 May 19, 11:54Forged fake art: "After being released from prison in 1988, Kujau opened a gallery in Stuttgart where he sold 'authentic fakes'... In fact, his work became so popular that other forgers began to
create forged copies of Kujau's forgeries."
art fraud history via:boingboing.comments konrad-kujau 2008 May 2, 10:20
![[The cover of Cryptonomicon]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0380788624.01._SX140_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg)
![[The cover of Quicksilver]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0060593083.01._SX140_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg)
![[The cover of The Confusion]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0060733357.01._SX140_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg)
![[The cover of The System of the World]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0060750863.01._SX140_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg)
I've finally finished the Baroque Cycle, a historical fiction series set in the 17th and 18th centuries by Neal Stephenson whose work I
always enjoy. There were often delays where I'd forget about the books until I had to take plane somewhere, or get discouraged reading about the character's thoughts on economics, or have
difficulty finding the next volume, or become more engrossed in other books, projects or video games, and leave the Baroque Cycle books untouched for many months at a time. Consequently, my reading
of this series has, I'm ashamed to say, spanned years. After finishing some books which I enjoy I end up hungry for just a bit more to read. For this series I don't need a bit more to read, I'm
done with that, but I do want a badge or maybe a medal. Or barring that, college credit in European History and Macro Economics. I can recommend this book to anyone who has enjoyed Neal
Stephenson's other work and has a few years of free time to kill.
history neal stephenson baroque cycle book nontechnical 2008 Apr 30, 12:03"But once upon a time telephones were fiendishly complicated devices that required instructional videos like these!"
history video education phone 2008 Apr 30, 10:48"anything that gets invented after you're thirty is against the natural order of things and the beginning of the end of civilisation as we know it until it's been around for about ten years when it
gradually turns out to be alright really."
via:ethan_t_hein history internet douglas-adams article essay 2008 Apr 28, 12:55Clay Shirky talks about the surplus of thought that TV occupies.
article clay-shirky culture internet tv technology collaboration community history 2008 Apr 18, 12:58"I found myself in possession of the "Infocom Drive" - a complete backup of Infocom's shared network drive from 1989." He posts emails from that backup w/o consulting those involved who show up for
luke warm debate in the comments.
if interactive-fiction infocom hhgttg history scifi videogame article 2008 Apr 9, 2:36History of Enigma in WW2: "One particular German code clerk continually used his girlfriend's name, Cillie, for his messages, and so these easy-to-guess indicators became known as "Cillies.""
history encryption cryptography article security nsa enigma 2008 Apr 8, 1:52"The Culture War: How new media keeps corrupting our children." Article snippets condemning novels in 1700s, the Waltz 1800s, Movies, Telephone, etc etc. for corrupting the youth
article wired videogames culture youth media censorship comic politics history humor 2008 Apr 1, 11:21'95 article on the Internet fad: "So how come my local mall does more business in an afternoon than the entire Internet handles in a month? Even if there were a trustworthy way to send money over the
Internet--which there isn't--the network is missing a m
humor article internet news history future 2008 Mar 19, 2:25A short story expressed as a forum for time travelers: "At 18:06:59, BigChill wrote: Take it easy on the kid, SilverFox316; everybody kills Hitler on their first trip. I did. It always gets fixed
within a few minutes, what's the harm?"
humor fiction wiki timetravel forum via:boingboing 2008 Mar 19, 11:30Excellent rant on the history and state of IE8's decision to default to super-standards mode vs IE7 mode.
browser internet browser-war ie microsoft history w3c standard standards html css joel-on-software 2008 Mar 18, 1:33A 1990s VHS video on the Internet and World Wide Web.
internet history video humor via:boingboing 2008 Mar 3, 4:18PBS documentary on the history of the credit card. Looks interesting.
via:mattalyst documentary credit-card credit card economics education history tv video
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