Waxy.org is the sandbox of I started this blog five years ago today with a basic idea: keep it original and keep it relevant. Unfortunately, I left out "keep it updated." As you can probably tell, Waxy is taking the back seat these days to other priorities, namely work and family. (I don't even have the time to weed out comment spam.) I terribly miss the quirky form of investigative reporting I used to do and I certainly miss spending more time exploring the backroads of the web. I promise I'll be back. In the meantime, the infrequent updates continue. Happy birthday, little blog!
Five Years of Waxy
Posted Apr 14, 2007
November 20, 2009
Regretsy gets a book deal
— the anonymous author turned out to be April Winchell, collector of audio oddities
Google Chrome OS Demo
— a world without a local filesystem and apps; also, the Chrome UI concept video
(via)
Patrick Moberg's Internet Vices
— funny, Tumblr feels more like beer than wine to me
Charlotte Gainsbourg and Beck's "Heaven Can Wait"
— Keith Schofield's surreal video and insane treatment were inspired by FFFFOUND and Reddit, but maybe too explicitly
(via)
November 19, 2009
YouTube adds machine-translated automatic captions
— starting with some partner channels, but auto-timing is available to everyone today
Microsoft tries to patent Edward Tufte's sparklines
— they were recently added to Excel
Leonard Lin's Retweet Avatars for Greasemonkey
— a subtle change, but a big improvement
Web-ops god John Allspaw leaves Flickr to join Etsy
— he's the last of the original Ludicorp team to go
(via)
November 18, 2009
Laptop Steering Wheel Desk
— don't miss the product photos
Interview with Ralph Eggleston, Pixar's production designer on WALL-E
— from last February, but new to me; I didn't know the Axiom had three passenger classes
NSFW: Animated pixel-art video for Flair's "Trucker's Delight"
— warning: very offensive and sexist, but the attention to 16-bit detail by director Jérémie Perin is incredible
NY Observer on Anil Dash's new government 2.0 incubator project
— Expert Labs debuted at Web 2.0 today, funded with a $500k grant from the MacArthur Foundation
November 17, 2009
Google's Dan Morrill explains how the Droid autofocus breaks every 24.5 days
— this gets second-place for quirkiest Android bug
(via)
Conan O'Brien and Andy Richter on Zach Galifianakis' Between Two Ferns
— his style of comedy usually makes me uncomfortable, but this made me laugh
The Pirate Bay shuts down their tracker for good
— they're switching to DHT instead
November 16, 2009
How Darren at Link Machine Go found Belle de Jour's identity five years ago
— Brooke was part of the early UK blog scene
ICU64, real-time visualization of Commodore 64 memory
— the developer also posted videos of Paradroid and Boulder Dash
(via)
Russell Davies on pretending and "barely games"
— his SAP prototype looks like great ambient fun
(via)
NYT Magazine on the indie gaming movement
— nothing new here, but good overview with a wonderful closing anecdote from Cactus
Tim O'Reilly on the pending War for the Web
— "more than that, it's a war against the web as an interoperable platform"
November 14, 2009
Jason Scott rounds up Geocities' top 10 most popular MIDI files
— along with a torrent with 51,000 MIDIs rescued by Archive Team
Matt Haughey on the discovery of his brain tumor, treatment, and the Internet's response
— there were about 1,000 #mathowielove tweets in 24 hours
Belle de Jour reveals herself after six year of anonymity
— only six people in the world knew, she only told her parents yesterday
(via)
Paul F. Tompkins debates comedy ethics with Improv Everywhere's Charlie Todd
— great discussion, and it's hard not to see where both are coming from
(via)
November 13, 2009
Rogue Amoeba stops iPhone app development after App Store idiocy
— I'm with Marco, the only fix is allowing external apps, but it's unlikely
(via)
Numb3rs on IRC
— "Luckily, I speak l33t."
Prank War 8: The Skydiving Prank
— hard to say if life-threatening situations are funnier than public humiliation
301 Works, Internet Archive works to preserve URL shortener data
— the shorteners will provide regular backups and hand over data on closure, though TinyURL's conspicuously missing
November 12, 2009
Quizipedia
— simple game with trivia scraped from Wikipedia entries
Kill Screen, funding a new art magazine about videogames
— sounds like the English analogue of Amusement I was hoping for
5:39 PM
Happy Birthday, Waxy.org
It's always a pleasure reading your blog, Andy. :)
6:37 PM
a little less yahooing and more waxy!
10:13 PM
5 years is a long time.
10:42 PM
Happy Blogday!
12:39 AM
Happy birthday Waxy.org...can't wait for you to find more time for blogging again. In the meantime we still have waxy links.
1:12 AM
A mention by waxy means a torrent of interest. People know quality. Keep it going!
6:29 AM
my site's been up for the same amount of time too.
I'm updating mine less and less lately...and it seems just like a cost to me now...I'm really thinking about just auctioning it off and handing the keys to the hosting to someone else. Sad but I just don't spend all that much time on the net doing anything constructive these days...a generic run-of-the-mill funny video and pic site.
10:26 AM
Why not allow a few close friends who also have an eye for intriguing pages and stories contribute to waxy links in order to keep the spirit of the blog alive? Just a thought.
1:56 PM
Maybe a redesign is in order. The links are still updated regularly, but they're relegated to a sidebar. Kottke, for instance, just puts all the stuff in one column, and it doesn't feel like the front page is old just content. Then you can sidebar the articles, so they are easy to find.
3:42 PM
Oh, don't worry. I have big plans. They're just going to have to wait a while until things settle down.
11:01 PM
Congratulations!
I still subscribe to you, even if you take months to post. Do your thing man!
11:26 PM
Just do what you need to do, little buddy. We'll be here when you're up and running again!
Happy anniversary!
3:31 PM
Congrats. Also: beware the path of updates about a lack of updates. It does not end well.
4:00 PM
Take as long as you want -- my feedreader will still catch ya. And congrats on 5 years :-)
4:17 PM
Hey Andy, grats! Nice work. Always a pleasure cuz u have uncommon topics
9:01 PM
That's OK we still love you for the links. Always fresh!
8:24 PM
I remember when I shut down for a while and you yelled at me. I won't do the same. Heh.
Bring! Waxy! Back!
1:22 PM
Bring back ascii art!
er Waxy.. yes bring that back too ya Fink.
Teal
1:05 PM
Happy birthday! (or is an anniversary?) Your original rules are still great and I try to run my site by them except I every now and again give into #2.
4:48 AM
I'm glad you're packing not all in; I started reading your post there and thought it was a 'farewell' to blogging or something like that. Hurry back to posting. And Happy Birthday!
3:18 AM
Waxy - I am not sure you realise that you are your own brand through this blog. And its a brand more powerful than I think you realise. I agree with the fourth poster - less yahooing - more waxy. I reckon the rewards will follow.
3:21 AM
Waxy - I am not sure you realise that you are your own brand through this blog. And its a brand more powerful than I think you realise. I agree with the fourth poster - less yahooing - more waxy. I reckon the rewards will follow.
6:29 AM
Congratulations!! Five years are really a long time in the online world. Keep up writing articles for the next five years.
6:04 AM
I don't think regular updates are nessecary for a good blog! And your blog is a good one!
6:07 AM
I don't think regular updates are nessecary for a good blog! And your blog is a good one!
9:38 PM
OH, man, you have made my day, ages ago I watched the Nutragrain I feel great commercial. Then I lost it, then I found your site and bookmarked it. I still occasionally open the link and watch it over and over again. It never fails to crack me up. Thanks for keeping it up there!
Hey does your Ascii art have anything to do with Fungi...Now I have to check that out...
Sarah
1:38 AM
Glad to hear that - I've always a big fan; I helped research the pirated Oscar movies...
2:12 PM
Congratulations.
By the way, who doesn't know about the time problem? Bringing life family work ... and webthings into little 24h a day
Cheers, keep on rocking
RockTheCam
6:07 PM
Sometimes quality means more than quantity...update when you can, we'll still be here!
Danni.
10:13 PM
Been reading your linkroll for a long time. I've always enjoyed how you portray the internet's. Take you time, but life is only gonna get busier.
Thanks for all the tasty bits.
1:12 PM
Sometimes quality means more than quantity...update when you can, we'll still be here!
4:40 PM
First kottke stop posting frequently, and now you. I don't know where to turn anymore!
7:44 AM
3 posts a year? hopefully you'll post another before the end of the year. :p
9:44 AM
Anybody home?
11:03 AM
Patience! Updates coming very soon.
8:59 PM
Yay.
10:27 AM
Wow, congrats for surviving such a long time.
1:03 AM
Come back to us...
COME BACK!