Home of DJ and technophile Jonathan Puddle (aka J Puddy)
Humourous
Offline book lending ruining the publishing industry
Jan 20th
The RIAA and others use ridiculous headlines such as mine, to try and explain their economic troubles. Piracy is always to blame. Strange that 2009 saw the biggest holiday records broken once again, despite the “rampant” piracy.
Here’s a great and humurous perspective on the matter.
Apparently, over 2 billion books were “loaned” last year by a cabal of organizations found in nearly every American city and town. Using the same advanced projective mathematics used in the study cited by Publishers Weekly, Go To Hellman has computed that publishers could be losing sales opportunities totaling over $100 Billion per year, losses which extend back to at least More >
Johnny on the spot
Jan 10th
I don’t remember when I first started using the phrase “Johnny on the spot”, but it’s one of my favourite sayings. I use it sparingly, and try to use it appropriately.
The grammatical genesis of ‘Johnny on the spot’ cannot be traced very clearly, but the phrase certainly originated from the longer and less expressive one, ‘Johnny is always on the spot when wanted.’ … The expression is to some extent a variation or rather a continuation of that other phrase, ‘He gets there.’” Johnny here must be a general name for any young male and doesn’t refer to a real More >
English Hothouse Cucumbers, and other innapropriate forms of measurement
Nov 10th
Maija subscribed us to a number of pregnancy emails regarding the development of our baby. We get a couple of emails each week, updating us with how big the baby may be, and providing advice and various pieces of information. It’s all quite good and informative, except for the sometimes strange choice of fruits or vegetables used to describe the size of the fetus (or foetus, if you prefer). They range from recognizable, common fruit (which gives us a good idea the size of the baby), to ambiguous and mysterious food items, which surely isn’t helpful in letting us know More >
Building of the Lego minifigs
Sep 6th
One of things I’m most looking forward to about having a baby is the unavoidable Lego, once the baby levels-up to child.
Gizmodo have yet another exclusive Lego video. I don’t recall if I posted the last one… I can’t find it here when I search. Here’s the links. Anyway, the new video is a demo of the minifig assembly process. Quite impressive.
First, the raw plastic material is put into the molds to create all the parts: the head, the torso, the minuscule hands, the hips, and the left and right arms and legs, plus any minifig complements, like helmets or tools.
• The More >
5 most laughable terms of service on the internet
Sep 6th
Do you ever actually read the terms of service you agree to, when you sign up for things online? Facebook, Google apps, whatever… You really should. I can’t claim that I do either, but I should.
For your enjoyment, via Slashdot.
According to these five terms of service and EULA, Google owns any content you create using its Chrome browser and can filter your Gmail messages if it likes. Facebook says it can sell its users’ uploaded images as stock photography. YouTube can keep footage of your kids forever, even after you’ve deleted it from the site. And AOL can ban you More >
Facebook – Too many stupid fan pages
Jul 28th
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I’ve decided there are too many fan pages for people I think it’s silly to declare yourself a fan of. The catalyst for me has been Christian leaders and teachers. These are good people we assume, maybe I would be even be a supporter of them. But I’m not a FAN of anyone of them anymore than I am a fan of my wife, or many of my friends. In fact, there are many who I agree with theologically More >
HP = Most wasteful packaging evar.
Jul 21st
I came across this story today on The Register, by way of Slashdot. (Yes I know I’ve been reposting a lot of /. news lately. It’s just been good news).
I absolutely believe the truth of this tale. Ingram Micro is terrible for excessive packaging, but HP really takes the cake on this one. The box below was used to ship 32 sheets of A4 paper.
Marty McFly’s 2015 Nikes coming to a store near you, in 2008
Jun 30th
Came across this this morning, via Engadget. Nike is *almost* bringing Marty’s shoes from 2015 back to the past.
See what I did there?
Anyway. Check it. And then get yourself a copy of the book Jennifer Government, which I just finished reading. It’s a superb piece of fiction, examining an Orwellian style future-present where corporations, not the government, control the world. Very funny, and quite disturbing, in it’s familiarity.
nakedpastor
Apr 17th
I’ve just added nakedpastor.com to my feeds. I read a few of his recent posts and very much enjoy his perspectives. Here’s some of his artwork that I find particularly brilliant:
And a book review:
I just finished studying Frank Viola’s and George Barna’s recent book, Pagan Christianity: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices. I want to start to say what I appreciate about the book and finish with what I think are some concerns.
Reading this book reminded me of the hours of ambitious dreaming and passionate debates that occurred during my bible college and seminary days with other visionary young More >
30 dumbest videogames ever
Mar 28th
CNET UK has a well funny article on the 30 dumbest videogames ever made.