Waxy.org
Waxy.org is the sandbox of Andy Baio, a journalist/programmer living in Portland, Oregon. I work on Kickstarter, created Upcoming.org, made an album, and some other stuff too.

Contact Me: log@waxy.org or waxpancake on AIM
« January 2009 | February 2009 Archives | March 2009 »

Translating "The Economist" Behind China's Great Firewall

Posted Feb 26, 2009 (Updated Mar 5, 2009)

While researching Oscar screeners last month, I stumbled on a remarkable example of online collaboration in China that's completely undiscovered here. In short, a group of dedicated fans of The Economist newsmagazine are translating each weekly issue cover-to-cover, splitting up the work among a team of volunteers, and redistributing the finished translations as complete PDFs for a Chinese audience.

It reminds me of the scanlation movement, in which groups of fans scan, translate, and redistribute manga into another language. But I've never seen it applied to a newspaper or magazine, especially one as high-minded as The Economist.

It's an impressive example of online collaboration with simple tools, a completely non-commercial effort by volunteers interested in spreading knowledge while improving their English skills. In the process, they're taking a political risk in translating controversial articles about their homeland behind the Great Firewall.

Continue reading (1248 more words)...
24 comments

John Hodgman on "meh"

Posted Feb 24, 2009

I enjoyed this exchange with John Hodgman on Twitter yesterday, reminiscent of my own rant on "FAIL."

hodgman: Did I ever tell you people how much I hate the word "meh"? Nothing announces "I have missed the point" more than that word.

hodgman: It is the essence of blinkered Internet malcontentism. And a rejection of joy. Also: 12 hive mehs in the replies SO FAR

hodgman: By definition, it may mean disinterest (although simple silence would be a more damning and sincere response, in that case)

hodgman: But in use, it almost universally seems to signal: I am just interested enough to make one last joyless, nitpicky swipe and then disappear

wordwill: @hodgman Isn't rejecting joy how one traditionally demonstrates one's superior cool? Though, at the same time, to hell with that.

hodgman: @wordwill yes. It's part of the toxic Internet art of constant callous one upsmanship. And it is a sort of art, but not for me.

75 comments

Robin Hood's "Oo De Lally," Translated Into 16 Languages

Posted Feb 5, 2009 (Updated Nov 12, 2009)

There's something enchanting about these localized versions of Roger Miller's "Oo De Lally" from Disney's Robin Hood from 1973. While all of these videos were found on YouTube, each was created by a different person around the world. (Bonus points if you can find the Japanese, Chinese, and Norwegian versions. Got 'em all! Thanks, everyone.) April 7: Added Hebrew, but YouTube removed the Arabic version... Anyone have it? November 12: Added Finnish and Danish, but still missing Arabic.

Original in English

Portuguese, "O-La-Ri-Lo-Le"

Italian, "Urca Tirulero"

Continue reading (323 more words)...
46 comments
« January 2009 | February 2009 Archives | March 2009 »
Waxy Links
Ads via The Deck
September 1, 2010
Bear's Double Rainbow ad for Microsoft — also: meet Bear (via)
First details on Telltale's episodic Back to the Future game emerge — they also secured rights to make games based on Jurassic Park
Cee Lo Green's official video for F**K YOU — even better than the typography video, I'm perfectly content to have this song stuck in my head 24/7
Slate interviews Innocence Project cofounder about false convictions — over 250 people have been freed by new DNA evidence, many of them with false confessions
Unreal Engine 3 tech demo Epic Citadel for the iPhone/iPad — impressive tech demo, now available for free
GameSetWatch covers Assembly 2010's PC demo contest — if you have the hardware, I highly recommend trying out the two winners yourself
Apple announces Ping, a social network built into iTunes — their first foray into social, finally; seems inevitable that app/location/TV/music sharing will follow
August 31, 2010
All four issues of Daniel Raeburn's The Imp available for free download — highly recommended, covers Daniel Clowes, Jack Chick, Chris Ware, and dirty Mexican comics (via)
Eclectic Method's 8-bit Mixtape — not particularly great music, but the visuals make it (via)
Vanity Fair's glimpse into the day in the life of the President — long, must-read look at the insane complexity of today's political landscape
Lanyrd, social conference directory — brilliantly executed social event discovery; it should be pronounced "La Nerd"
Copyrighting Fashion — a new bill would subject fashion to copyright, but at what cost?
Tom Scott's Evil hack shows phone numbers exposed by Facebook users — culled from public "lost my phone" groups
Unhear It — replace one earworm with another
August 30, 2010
Stay Free's Illegal Art mix tape — the files all moved here
Mads Peitersen's paintings of gadget anatomy — love the iPhone guts (via)
Hark! A Vagrant's Nancy Drew covers — previously: the Gorey covers
Markov chaining Kickstarter blurbs — this also doubles as a Kickstarter project idea generator
Pomplamoose teams up with Ben Folds & Nick Hornby — Hornby wrote all the lyrics for Folds' new album (via)
The Wilderness Downtown — an HTML5 music video for Arcade Fire with some fun geo integration
August 29, 2010
Swarmation — like musical chairs for pixels (via)
August 28, 2010
Disney remixes old cartoons into "Blam!" — truly awful
August 27, 2010
PieLabPDX food cart makes customers play games to buy pie — they had to win a game of Rock Scissors Paper to get their choice
Dirpy — convert YouTube videos to MP3s with surprisingly deep transcoding options
Indie Game: The Movie interviews Adam Saltsman on Canabalt — every one of these shorts gets me more excited for the full-length film
August 26, 2010
Jerry Stiller Unscripted — an adorable encounter with the owners of the Costanza house
Members of Paramore, New Found Glory, and Relient K cover "Bed Intruder Song" — the original broke the Billboard Top 100 (via)
Happylife — prototype device ambiently shows a family's collective mood (via)
"Learning to Be Me" by Greg Egan — a better-written short story with a similar theme as "Where Am I?"
"Where Am I?" by Daniel Dennett — short sci-fi story from 1978 about where consciousness resides (via)

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