Muffin Bottoms [not] Just another WordPress weblog

03/08/2009


Bruce Sterling Gets It! Cypherpunk Author Knows How 2 Twitter.

Filed under: Food,Humor,Mundane Or Sublime,Tech — admin @ 11:00 am

So I was NOT surprised that Bruce Sterling would really know how to use Twitter effectively.

Here’s just one great example and then a link or two to some of his earlier works for any who don’t already know him.

  1. Icon_lockCollapsonomics, Econocataclysm, Uneconomy, The Opportunity, Economy 3.0, The Crisis, The Long Emergency, The New Dark Ages

  2. Icon_lockGreat Reset, Global Reboot, Unreal Estate, Wall Street Blues, Uncapitalism, Capitalism Eats Itself, the Deep Economic Wrinkle…

  3. Icon_lockHousing Crisis, Market FAIL, Global Economic Restructuring, Tsunami, the Enronicom, The Great Ponzi, the Great Fake, Bush’s Legacy…

  4. Icon_lockGreat Restructuring, the Bailout, TEOTWAKI “The End of the World As We Know It,” the Inflection, The Great Disruption…

  5. Icon_lockReplies pour in: “Compression, Subprimicide, World Economic Crisis aka Svetska Economska Kriza, Economic Debacle, The Great Re-Skilling…”

  6. Icon_lockI’m hunting neologistic synonyms. “Meltdown, Credit Crunch, Great Recession, Econolypse, Depression II…” Help me here, Twittersphere.

http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2009/01/2009_will_be_a_year_of_panic.php

http://www.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/343/Bruce-Sterling-State-of-the-Worl-page01.html

http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/Sterling

02/09/2009

What you need to know about the Grammys 51

Filed under: Food,Humor,Music and Stuff,News,Tech,Uncategorized — admin @ 6:15 am

Here we give you some play by play and chatter during
the Grammys’ 51st ceremony.

Before we get to what they broadcast last nite, I’ll
mention that Leo Fender’ wife accepted his Technical
Award for designing guitars & amps.

And my friend Martha’s Saxophonist, Randy Brecker won
the grammy for best contemporary jazz rekkid.

Daft Punk is a noshow at the Grammys? Dork.

Suddenly NARAS is putting all their extra energy into the non-profit world just as the economy tanks?  — Predictable.

The Grammy backing band is earning their salary today – lots of no-shows

Did I just see Winona Ryder dancing in the front row to Heavy D? Bach had 20 children… something about pulling out all the organ stops? No offense dude, but really dumb frickin’ joke.

Bela Fleck & The Flecktones win for Best Pop Instrumental for their Christmas CD – Victor Wooten accepts in a pirate costume

Pete Seeger wins for best traditional folk – $5 if you know
who accepted for him – [ hahaha. was eating. Bruce Stringbean? ]

Watching Coldplay’s CBS interview footage in a plane I
couldn’t help but think about Josie and the Pussycats
with the planecrash intro.

Is Bono making fun of teleprompters and lip syncers??

Al Green is rockin’ it; and jeez, Justin Timberlake is
NOT sucking tonite.

I saw Kid Rock at Harley’s 100th anniversary. He’s very
untalented. Just sayin.

John Corbett’s still doing Applebee’s ads I see. That seems
like quite a gig for him.

Coldplay seem to have nothing to say. Just sayin – maybe
they should’ve said the reason they didn’t steal those beats
was they’d never lift such a horrible sound. Oops.

KidRock, less heroin, ok? Sorry Kid, you’re no Ricky Medlocke.
To his credit, I have to say he’s not sucking like he did at
Harley100 but I do wish he’d amp less. What the HECK was the
clap-4-the-wolfman stuff he put in there with his backing
tracks???

I wonder if the #grammys official AA dry peoples’ room is full
this year?

Is that Billy Ray rockin’ the mullet directly behind Miley there
stage right? I never liked Taylor Swift until New Years, she
impressed me greatly then. She’s helping Miley not suck too.
Miley’s major talent since she was 5 has been reading cue cards
very conversationally as if she’s improvising each every phrase.
Whoever taught her RW&A should B proud

Guitar Hero ad. Well produced. Too affected. Good try though.

Oh no the Jonus Brothers…Mute quickly!
Jonas Bros and Stevie this is like when Clive or someone made
John Denver team up with Pavarotti.or Domingo or someone on a
whole album. Stevie Wonder playing with the Jonas Bros. My mind
cannot fully process the essential wrongness of this.

Blink 182. What’s my talent again?

I’m sure the Obama girls are watching the Jonas Brothers now singing
with Stevie Wonder and I bet they’re tring to find some diplomatic
way to go, “WTF?”

I will never get these minutes of my life back. Damn you Jonas Bros.

RT: @PnutButter downturn really hit me 2day when I saw a lady w/ sign
in front of Wholefoods: “Will work 4 organic arugula & pinot grigio.”

Katy Perry kinda doesn’t sing good.

OMG. Just gave kudos 2 a talented chubby person! [Adele] I think
Mario Lanza was the last time NARAS allowed something like that!

Todd Rundgren for Carnival Cruise Lines. Surreal. I think I’ll
take drugs now.

Tribute to Bo Diddly – Couldn’t you have done that when he was
still alive and everyone was stealin his beats???

Paul, promise me you won’t sing that “Freedom” song you hacked
to pieces? I hid for 5 days. Wow, he’s still got that high G
falsetto thing going on. It’s like watching Beatlemania with
25% of the real deal.

Christian Bale rant was possibly staged. Says Hollywood catching
on 2 how 2 use social media: http://tinyurl.com/csgle9

Oops, more Silverlight rebuffering\sync problems again. I thought
Microsoft worked that out a couple major events ago! Wow, someone
simply playing a guitar really well, and someone singing really
well. Is it that hard for everyone else???

OMG I’m gonna buy a Sugarland rekkid just ’cause of this. Don’t
think I’ve done that since I was like 10 & Roger Miller swept
or something

I bought the Radiohead album when it was free. That felt safe
and warm.

Well we found something new that Silverlight doesn’t handle
well. Bleeping. >:| !

PARAPHRASING THE PREZ “In times like these people turn to us
for hiding their gross income on a tax dodge,” No one’s demanded
more cowbell yet. Alright. Lemme be the first. Just sayin.
Oh no he didn’t. did NARAS president say “yes we can” to suing
the pants off preteens who Napster??? Neil Portnow is so last
Millenium. Woah, so is Neil Diamond. Where’s screech when you
need him? http://tinyurl.com/c5ro3d

And who remembers when C. Michael Greene abruptly resigned
in the wake of sexual harassment allegations? Oops.

And the Grammy for most murder charge acquittals goes to
Phil Spector

Seeing 5 seconds of Odetta made me sooo happy. Imagine if
the Grammys gave her a minute or 2; especially seing as
how she died last month before her #inaug09 gig. I can’t
help but think about how much Odetta wanted to sing at Obama’s
inauguration – and she almost made it

News Reports coming in that Chris Brown did in fact beat up
Rihanna.

Is lil wayne wearin’ uggs? OK, they’re BKs or something.
I thought they uggs! Hahaha

Great. CBS is recycling this embarrassing forever young
pepsi jingle. wil i am and bob dylan are prolly squirming
with heavy groans like me! Should I be happy that Dylan
is still relevant enough to headline a Pepsi ad, or sad
that vintage Dylan is in a Pepsi ad? I’m feeling both.
(happy/sad about the Dylan renaissance…)

So Chris Brown beat Rihanna nearly to death. Who does he
think he is JAMES Brown??? Small-brained coward

Page and Plant wrote this? It sounds like they stole it
from Roy Orbison!

RT @postrock Oh no, the Dylan/will.i.am. commercial that
makes me reach for the Grey Goose. And it’s EMPTY!!!!

T-Bone Burnette is the GE Smith of the Grammys tonite.
Plant and Krauss deserve this one just for putting up
with his hairdo.

“…and Rounder Records who are working against all kinds
of stuff that is terrible.” Understatement of the Millenium.
Thanks Mr. Plant!

You’re running perfectly on time and still feel the need
to put music over Robert Plant and T-Bone Burnett? C’mon,
producers.

The following twitterers contributed to this report:

@ShannonRenee
@FolkAlley
@andylevy
@PnutButter
@crinkle_LC

01/31/2009

Twitter Breaks Google-Epic-Fail Story In Realtime

Filed under: Food,Humor,Tech — admin @ 9:15 am

So this morning I didn’t even try to “Google” anything yet. I checked my Twitter as part of my new daily routine, right?

Everyone’s complaining that everything they’re searching for is being labelled as “harmful” to their computer. Google seems to have torqued up their malware thingamabob to the highest setting and all their searches are showing every single hit as malware.

Now I know the zine I’ve been publishing since 1988 (ati, activist times, international) is harmful to your mind, but to your computer???

I think not.

So it lasted less than an hour.

Here’s some of the twitter chatter I saw in realtime while this story was breaking:

OK true. Twitter broke the Google story first – as with pretty everything. Twitter is the new place to go when you need to know. half a minute ago from twhirl

TechCrunch broke the Google story first: http://bit.ly/igUF Note to self: This is why it pays to have a Belgium bureau. 24 minutes ago from twhirl

ok, google is busted. somebody google the address for altavista. 27 minutes ago from web

FLASH: Google is no longer harmful. Play on. less than 5 seconds ago from web

HAHA: @joeshaw woo fixed. those 20 minutes without google were the darkest of my life.

Great to know that Google Search has been fixed! 3 minutes ago from web

Why is google showing all of my naked facebook pictures??? 4 minutes ago from web

hahaha @leolaporte is calling it an internet blackout. It’s funny watching people try and grasp this in realtime. 4 minutes ago from web

ahhh looks like Google search is not harmful anymore 6 minutes ago from Power Twitter

@grader WARNING! “Google May Harm Your Computer (#GOOGMAYHARM)” http://bit.ly/GKvA — Please RT and help spread the word. 7 minutes ago from web

@rabble @kellan jeez now Google’s image search quality is worse that Cuil’s first offering. 23 minutes ago from web

HAHA: @natfriedman:I was thinking about switching to Yahoo!search,but Google just warned me it’s not safe. Better steer clear! 32 minutes ago from web

This is the equivalent of an Internet blackout. I never asked Google to “protect me.” I bet Carol Bartz did this. 35 minutes ago from twhirl

I guess I know what the number one topic will be on the radio show today. 41 minutes ago from twhirl

Something is seriously wrong with Google. 42 minutes ago from twhirl

@grader Searches for ‘google’ gives a full page of “this site might harm your computer” errors – something tells me they’ll fix this quickly about 1 hour ago from web

Their page that explains is a server error page. http://bit.ly/1wJ05K about 1 hour ago from web

Ridiculous. Google says scripting.com has malware. http://bit.ly/QMPn about 1 hour ago from web

@atizine @rabble @grader google seem to be afraid of the entire web this morning. even google.com is coming up as bad. (which today it is) about 1 hour ago from web

Google/Firefox is throwing up Malware warnings when I attempt to visit answers.yahoo.com. I know the answers are bad, but malware, really? about 1 hour ago from web

@godfoca Google thinks ruby blogs / sites are malware? it’s a conspiracy by the pythonistas at google me thinks! about 1 hour ago from NatsuLion

01/21/2009

No way, Shira Lazar Interviewed the new Energy Secretary???

Filed under: News,Tech — admin @ 9:28 am

1:47 AM Carter Fort – Whew. What a day. Over 30,000 people watched our Internet broadcast, and we had a blast doing it. Keep an ear out for the next project from our team. You won’t be able to miss us.

LINK-Live did an “on location” at the Corcoran center in DC last night where hundreds of us were able to chat and watch video of Shira Lazar hosting the video portion of a live inaugural Gala.

There was a jazz band, dancers, guests galore and the techy crew even turned the camera on themselves once in a while to let you in on just what was going on with them, live and personal.

The neat thing taking it far beyond “web 2.0” was that while she interviewed someone she would often glance over at her Mac Laptop and then back at her guest. What was she doing you ask? Looking over our chatroom to see if any of us had a decent question she could ask our guess for us. Yes, she was facilitating and we were all watching her interview but unlike in TVlandia, we weren’t passive, we were active participants. Not just voting in polls. We were typing in actual questions. Talk about getting chances to feel heard.

Take note of that, Mr. Obama.

And speaking of Obama, the final guest Shira got to interview was Dr. Stephen Chu, Obama’s choice for Secretary of Energy. I queried if he could be asked that with all the alternatives available now, could he consider pulling completely out of the Black Mesa area for uranium mining from now on, but they ran out of time and didn’t get a chance to ask that one for me. Quite a few of my other questions got asked though, that was neat.

She was also able to interview venture capitalists and activists alike discussing everything from Ruby on Rails to White Boards, bandwidth to

Shira’s blog about the event: http://shiralazar.com/livestreaming-today-from-inauguration

She twitters about interviewing Obama’s brand new Energy Secretary http://twitter.com

Of course she ends her “tweet” with “I feel like” and twitter cuts her off right there at the 140 character mark. Leave us hanging why don’t you. What DO you feel like??

And Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9t5BDx4XNc

And here’s a trackback:

I’m in the Link Live Audience in D.C. It’s amazing to see all this incredible technology in action. Millenials rock!

Comment by Jason Pollock — January 20, 2009 @ 4:09 pm

01/19/2009

24 hours at Sundance; Watching Irina; Punking Shira

Filed under: Humor,News,Sports,Tech — admin @ 5:19 am

Did you watch or participate in Ashton Kutcher’s Gameshow Reality Show thingamabob?

I did.

My favorite thing to watch was when my friend Irina built an igloo on a curb (right in the road!!!) and invited two people into it to watch a premiere using the back side of their new swag Nikon CoolPix as their movie screen.

Click this pic to watch it…

Asking them to come out and give a movie review on their way out of the “theater” was precious!

But my favorite thing to do was when I punk’d Shira Lazar. (http://qik.com/video/878860)

At 2:35 mins you see her blink three times and try to figure out a phone call I sent her through http://www.wakerupper.com — Yup, that’s me on the other end. Sorry Shira, I punk’d you!

[TO BE CON’T]

01/04/2009

Microsoft Actually Does A Quickfix!

Filed under: Mundane Or Sublime,News,Tech — admin @ 7:45 pm

Microsoft announced yesterday they have a fix for what people started calling the Zune 30 leap year bug.

My Zune 30 is frozen. What should I do?

Follow these steps:

  1. Disconnect your Zune from USB and AC power sources.
  2. Because the player is frozen, its battery will drain—this is good. Wait until the battery is empty and the screen goes black. If the battery was fully charged, this might take a couple of hours.
  3. Wait until after noon GMT on January 1, 2009 (that’s 7 a.m. Eastern or 4 a.m. Pacific time).
  4. Connect your Zune to either a USB port on the back or your computer or to AC power using the Zune AC Adapter and let it charge.

Once the battery has sufficient power, the player should start normally. No other action is required—you can go back to using your Zune!

My Zune 30 has been working fine today. Should I be worried?

Nope, your Zune is fine and will continue to work as long as you do not connect it to your computer before noon GMT on January 1, 2009 (7 a.m. Eastern or 4 a.m. Pacific time).

Note: If you connect your player to a computer before noon GMT on January 1, 2009, you’ll experience the freeze mentioned above—even if that computer does not have the Zune software installed. If this happens, follow the above steps.

What if I have rights-managed (DRM) content on my Zune?

Most likely, rights-managed content will not be affected by this issue. However, it’s a good idea to sync your Zune with your computer once the freeze has been resolved, just to make sure your usage rights are up to date.

What if I took advice from the forums and reset my Zune by disconnecting the battery?

This is a bad idea and we do not recommend opening your Zune by yourself (for one thing, doing so will void your warranty). However, if you’ve already opened it, do one of the following:

  • Wait 24 hours from the time that you reset the Zune and then sync with your computer to refresh the usage rights; or
  • Delete the player’s content using the Zune software (go to Settings, Device, Sync Options, Erase All Content), then re-sync it from your collection.

Microsoft’s first response had been:

There is a bug in the internal clock driver causing the 30GB device to improperly handle the last day of a leap year.

And the next one quickly followed:

Early this morning we were alerted by our customers that there was a widespread issue affecting our 2006 model Zune 30GB devices (a large number of which are still actively being used). The technical team jumped on the problem immediately and isolated the issue: a bug in the internal clock driver related to the way the device handles a leap year. The issue should be resolved over the next 24 hours as the time change moves to January 1, 2009. We expect the internal clock on the Zune 30GB devices will automatically reset tomorrow (noon, GMT). By tomorrow you should allow the battery to fully run out of power before the unit can restart successfully then simply ensure that your device is recharged, then turn it back on. If you’re a Zune Pass subscriber, you may need to sync your device with your PC to refresh the rights to the subscription content you have downloaded to your device.

For Zune developers to respond next with these step by step fix instructions in realtime like this is perhaps just as newsworthy as the problem in the first place. I think that when a corporate structure this big reacts so readily to such an issue I’m moved to say “kudos.”

12/21/2008

Bragging Rights

Half.com 100%
Twitter 96.1
Linked In 90%
UConn 3.751
UWGB 3.667

12/19/2008

Wow, The 24 Hour Podcast. What an Idea…

Filed under: News,Tech — admin @ 6:22 pm

Geek News Central’s Todd Cochrane has announced the tentative schedule for the 24 Hour Podcast, a marathon celebration of indie media scheduled for December 20-21st.

Here’s what Todd has to say about the event:

I kick off the event at 6am HST / 8am PST / 11am EST and go for 24 hours straight. We will be talking with some very cool people during the event.

This event will be streamed live on Ustream and everyone patched in via Talkshoe. I hope that you will join me. If you are guest on the 24hr Podcast an you have a time conflict email me immediately and we will get you scheduled in a new slot.

[ref]=[ http://www.podcastingnews.com/2008/12/19/24-hour-podcast-update ]

11/28/2008

Black Friday = Long Lines ? Else Just Cheap Black Hats !

Filed under: Humor,Mundane Or Sublime,News,Tech — admin @ 6:11 am

11/14/2008

Why Seek An Inventive Mind? YOU have one!

Filed under: Mundane Or Sublime,Tech — admin @ 8:42 am

Pssst! They really DO want you to think it’s THAT hard.

Have you ever seen an invention go across the screen, or across your own reality set and you very quickly inquired how much and it was like 30bucks and you go, “you’ve got to be kidding me, I can make one out of walking right up to my garbage can, fishing something out, folding a little, tearing it up a bit with my swiss army knife and then using it!”

Then do it! Don’t be shy.

See what I mean???

http://gizmoblog.net/pic/cellphone_holder.jpg

>-=-=——————>->->>>

http://www.weblogsinc.com/common/images/1241461835969015.JPG?0.38991018867550664

I’m serious. And this is just one of many. I do this kind of thing at least twice a day. I probably think about doing 10 other things just like that which I don’t have the follow through and drive to finish. I figure in just five years I’ve saved myself about ninetythousand dollars by just taking things out of my own garbage can and inventing something. If I had followed through on all the others rather than go to to the Mal-Wart or Abercrumble and Pitch I might have saved myself a whopping one point five million dollars!!!

Let’s say the average device is 30 bucks. I believe that’s low. But my inventions are even lower; we’re talking 0! So each time it’s a savings of almost 100% before you factor labor and smarts, eh? But I digress. This cute plastic ipod holder is just 9 bucks, but that’s extremely low even before you start getting into serious hardware and software, right? So yeah, I’ve easily saved 60bucks before making something out of cardboard, and old screendoor or a mountainbike tire I just replaced, etc. So let’s say 29.99 for the average.
29.99 x 365 x 5 = 59110.29 if you count sales tax and not shipping and handling.
60 thousand dollars, people, in 5 years!
And had I followed through on 12 inventions a day instead of 2??? Ay yay yay!

59110.29 x 6 = 354661.74

OK, so my 1.5 mil estimate before math was high, but not too far off, huh? That’s not small peanuts.

So here’s my advice. It’s not a new idea. Stop working so hard in life. Work smart! I’m serious. Think about it. And then do it. You can. Every aspect of your life.

PC users, there’s an icon on your start menu that’s a DOS prompt. Did you know you can write programs in there?

If you’re not happy with how an application works, read up on how it was created and then teach yourself how to build a better one. I’m telling you. We’ve forgotten we’re human!!!

Now, where’s that little green Geiko Geklo? I have to strangle him with used dental floss before sunset.

Cheers,

marco

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