July 5, 2004

New Yorker on radio payola and "spot buys" — record labels are gaming the Billboard charts (via) #

Bootleg RSS request service — $2 to get an RSS feed of any site (via) #

July 4, 2004

Audioscrobbler Weekly Charts — somewhat random, but should improve over time (via) #

Anil on track to win this month's SEO Challenge — he'll win a 17" flat panel on July 7th #

The Fray's "Fireworks" — anecdote from a politically-charged 4th of July #

LA Weekly rounds up media's treatment of Cheney's "fuck" quote — only the Washington Post spelled out the direct quote (via) #

Michael Moore approves of "Fahrenheit 9/11" downloads — spread it far and wide, but don't charge for it (via) #

Nintendo Famicom papercraft (via) #

Video: Super Mario theme on piano, blindfolded — he tackles several other NES themes, as well #

Justin Hall's review of the "Brick Attack" retrogame concert and fashion show — the Minibosses concert at L.A.'s The Smell (via) #

July 3, 2004

City Paper on dying online — everyone on my buddy list is still alive, fortunately (via) #

Bead art of retro videogame sprites (via) #

Suprnova mirror, ordered by subject — let the downloader beware (via) #

Getty Images' The Big Idea — short films made only from Getty's stock photos and video (via) #

July 2, 2004

Colin Powell joins the Village People — young man, put your pride on the shelf #

Google removes dictionary definitions from searches — never mind, they just added it back in #

Flash: Spark plugs? — prank phone call, turn up your volume (via) #

Rock, Paper, Saddam — caption silliness #

NPR Ombudsman on "Hip, but Inscrutable" music reviews — is he complaining about the reviews or the music? (via) #

Panasonic's vacuum-tube car CD/MP3 player — the Japanese homepage for the product (via) #

Browser exploits involving human reaction times — tricking users into executing malicious code with fake games and captchas (via) #

Marlon Brando died broke and alone — a tragic end to an excellent actor #

Facetop, desktops with webcam overlay — here are more photos and screenshots (via) #

Gmail as an online backup system — limited by the 10MB attachment limit, though (via) #

ASCII Rock — classic music videos converted to text and MIDI #

CAcert, free SSL certificates for everyone — I always wondered why certs were so expensive (via) #

July 1, 2004

New Chankast alpha supports Shenmue, Soul Calibur — amazing Dreamcast emulator gets even better #

ICO spawns Japanese novel — possibly the best game ever released for the PS2 #

Photos of the Bodie Ghost Town — nicely preserved mining town from the late 1800s #

Gothamist launching LA-focused LAist.com — finally, we'll have good L.A. events on Upcoming.org (via) #

NetNews Tracker, Usenet search agent — deliver daily search results from Google Groups by e-mail #

The source of the famous "My Pet Goat" story — as read by George W. Bush on 9/11 (via) #

iPod Mini Wedding Cake — heh, a "cakemod" #

Audio: The Delgados cover ELO's "Mr. Blue Sky" — very pretty #

Google bans Gmail swaps and sales — this should still allow sites like Gmail Swap #

Gamecritics interviews E3 "booth babes" — the guys are generally scared of the women (via) #

Amazon.com Knee-Jerk Contrarian Game

Posted July 1, 2004 by Andy Baio

Here’s a fun game… First, look up the most popular and critically-acclaimed books, movies, and music on Amazon. Click on “Customer Reviews,” and sort them by “Lowest Rating First.” Hilarity ensues! It’s the Amazon.com Knee-Jerk Contrarian Game!

Post your own favorites in the comments! (Coming soon: The Slashdot.org Knee-Jerk Contrarian Game.)

July 14, 2004: In a weird coincidence, Justine Larbalestier came up with the same idea on her own weblog two days before this entry. Creepy.

July 29, 2004: Alan Taylor wrote a neat utility that lets you easily find the 10 lowest-ranked reviews, without even going to Amazon. Yay!

Continue reading “Amazon.com Knee-Jerk Contrarian Game” →

Underdog Webloggers 2004 — list is too pundit-heavy, so I nominated five of my favs in the comments #

Flash: Titanic in 30 Seconds, with bunnies — not as good as The Shining or The Exorcist (via) #

MSNBC on the "Fahrenheit 9/11" BitTorrent leak — correction: it's terrible quality, by any standard #

Microsoft drops paid inclusion for MSN Search — it's still no Google #

NYT on political video games — including the best one of all time, Bushgame.com (via) #

Implanted device relieves man of hiccups — stimulates the vagus nerve to permanently stop hiccups #

Salon on the Photoshopping of the President — how a software application brought political satire to the masses #

Night vision goggles foil Chatsworth teen's effort to bootleg Spiderman 2 — despite this, the telesync was released yesterday (via) #

Chess Boxing — finally, a well-rounded sport (via) #

Newthings on STALKER and the wave of realism in games — 3D modeling the mundane and the ordinary #

Erik posts the Tiger desktop widgets — some require Safari to run, though (via) #

Audio: new Rilo Kiley songs ripped from KCRW — these are so very good, thanks Leonard #