April 16, 2004

Priceton 3D Model search engine — sketch a shape, return similar matches (via) #

Using Perl in PHP — saving this for reference (via) #

Ancient CD-ROM Shovelware

Posted April 16, 2004 by Andy Baio

Like Brewster Kahle, Nicola Salmoria, Sarinee Achavanuntakul and other archivists of the computer age, Jason Scott is one of my heroes. He dedicates a large part of his life to preserving the history of the BBS scene, from the amazing collection of vintage textfiles and e-zines, historic audio recordings, artwork packs from the computer art scene, interesting papers and books, a growing list of every BBS that ever existed, a comprehensive timeline, and a work-in-progress documentary with over 200 interviews. (I could write an entire entry about every one of these. Go check them out when you have a chance.)

I briefly chatted with Jason in IRC earlier today about some of his current and upcoming projects. His newest project is CD.TEXTFILES.COM, a collection of over 90 CD-ROMs from the late 1980s and early 1990s. These “shovelware” CDs archived files from the era for easy distribution over fileservers and doors.

Most directories have a FILES.BBS text file, which gives short descriptions of each file. Reading these brings back such a hot flash of nostalgia, it’s like stumbling on all the ephemera of my adolescence on one site.

The graphics archives are a hilarious look back to the years before Photoshop 1.0. The TBBS Carousel’s GIF archives (part 1, 2 and 3), To The Maxx’s categorized GIF archive, and the very retro Swimsuits to the Maxx. Each of the eight “Night Owl” collections from the early-1990s have a GIF and JPG directory. Very bizarre.

There’s legal shareware, games, graphic demos, textfiles, MODs, audio clips, and utilities for the PC, Atari, Amiga, and Commodore 64. The PC-Blue archive is a collection of disk images for IBM PCs from 1983 to 1985.

It’s a treasure chest of pre-Web randomness that would take weeks to explore. Let me know if you find any gems.

April 15, 2004

Queso on Gmail paranoia — Paul Boutin debunks the critics, but proposes lame concessions at the very end #

Maciej on bloom filters — a practical example can be found in Loaf (via) #

Pornstars quarantined after actor's HIV infection — the San Fernando Valley's chief export is threatened (via) #

Bob Schneider's "Come With Me Tonight" — heavy b3ta influence, and a very impressive Flash homepage (via) #

Cooperative Linux, run Linux on Windows natively — yes, natively. here's how it works (via) #

Turn your GBA into a microcontroller — Gameboy robots will destroy us all (via) #

Stuff magazine's Baby Jessica hoax — it's a hoax, but the real Jessica has a weblog #

Analogia, algorithmic celebrity face matching — upload your image, see which celeb it thinks you look like #

California boasts more New Yorker subscribers than New York — I subscribe, and skip through the New York-specific sections (via) #

Google Adwords go local — advertisers can target specific regions for ad campaigns #

Kempa on metasongs and Nilsson's "Vine Street" — don't miss the Family Guy MP3 parody of Randy Newman #

Adam uses Technorati bombing to prove a point — Technorati and Trackback are not a replacement for comments #

Video: Googling for Happiness — you find it in the strangest places (via) #

April 14, 2004

E! Online's breaking coverage of Bush's necktie — this could be the scandal that brings down the Bush administration #

Full-size Lego Volvo car — what, no Lego wheels? #

Video: Amazing Unreal 3 engine demo — very, very impressive lighting effects (via) #

kkrieger, the 96k first person shooter — not bad for something that fits on a floppy disk, 15 times (via) #

Slack Album, Jay-Z meets Pavement — it's a dead meme, but the album is very listenable #

David Bowie's official mashup contest — mashup two Bowie songs, win an Audi TT coupe (via) #

Insert Snarky Title Here — calloo and callay (via) #

Amazon launches their A9 search engine — the A9 toolbar has a Diary feature #

Haughey explains the benefits of Bluetooth — connect your laptop to the Internet with your cellphone #

Half-Life Rally, racing mod for the HL engine — it's amazing how flexible it is #

April 13, 2004

Mysterious Whitehouse.gov document — no Google cache, no Wayback Archive... any idea what this is? (via) #

Album art by comic artists — the Chris Ware ones are beautiful (via) #

Kottke says "syndication" is a misnomer — he's right, but the meaning of the word will evolve #

Screech loses his domain battle — read the text of the decision (via) #

Stockstock, festival for short films made from stock footage — I'd love to see a broader competition that uses any available free footage #

New Yorker profile on Harold Ramis — they tell human stories so well (via) #

Bird Watching with the Blind — identifying bird species by sound alone (via) #

Image: Letter from the liquor store owner — good clue that you might have a drinking problem #

Spike, networked clipboard for Mac/Win — sounds interesting (via) #

Cameron creates a Timecube AIM bot — it's indistinguishable from talking to Gene Ray himself #

Gameboy Books to Go — copyright-free books for your GBA #

Mat tests out Gmail's ads — very nice, with tons of screenshots #

MacGyverisms — "disarmed missle with a paperclip" (via) #

Metafilter catches a spammer — they posted a long denial #

Songs to Wear Pants To — request ridiculous song ideas, and Andrew creates them #

April 12, 2004

Weird Al's statement about his parents' deaths — this is so sad #

New Yorker profile on the Boondocks #

American troops in Iraq pirating music and movies — I'm sure the RIAA is preparing lawsuits at this moment #

Matt hosts the Jon Stewart interview on Franken's radio show #

Maciej on PC Forum — I always wondered what those $4000 conferences were like #

Audio: Streaming audio from the 1964-65 World's Fair — or you can buy them on CD #

Great Dooce thread on the childhood names of private parts — I had a "dinghy", defined as a "pleasure craft on a larger boat" #

Video: Daily Show interviews uber-spammer — Scott Richter is a bad, bad man (via) #

Livejournal's Most Recent Images — warning: it's very random, so may be very offensive (via) #