Extra Future

Hi, I’m Phil Nelson, a writer, developer, and audio-visual maker of stuff. I have been making stuff online for over 25 years. I run RetroStrange and Set Side B. Good to see you.

Blog Archives

Month: October 2009

  • Excerpts From The Book The NBA Doesn’t Want You To Read

    [Salient chunks from Blowing the Whistle][link], by disgraced former NBA ref [Tim Donaghy][tim]. The guy obviously has an axe to grind, but the detail and name-dropping extent he goes to is pretty remarkable. This is gonna cause some serious shitstorms in the NBA.

    *UPDATE*: As I was writing this, the book [was dropped by the publisher][dropped], due to the NBA threatening to sue the hell out of them.

    [link]: http://deadspin.com/5392067/excerpts-from-the-book-the-nba-doesnt-want-you-to-read “Excerpts From The Book The NBA Doesn’t Want You To Read – Tim Donaghy – Deadspin”
    [dropped]: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7016839645 “Disgraced Ref Donaghy’s Book Cancelled By Publisher”
    [tim]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Donaghy “Tim Donaghy on Wikipedia”

  • Game Engine “Unity” Launches Free Option

    [Interesting news from the world of creating video games][link]:

    >The Unity engine is becoming even more affordable to independent and hobbyist developers, as Unity Technologies has retired the $200 “Unity Indie” offering and replaced it with a free license, simply called Unity.

    Sounds like a great deal for the price.

    [link]: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=25840 “Gamasutra – News – In-Depth: Unity Launches Free Option, Announces Xbox 360 Support”

  • The Return of Ramon Raquello and His Orchestra

    Inspired by [Jason Kottke’s Apollo 11 broadcast][kottke], the team behind [Me and Orson Welles][movie] is presenting a [broadcast of the Mercury Theater’s infamous War of the Worlds][link], 71 years to-the-minute from [it’s first airing in 1938][war].

    The impatient can find the .

    [link]: http://waroftheworldstribute.com/ “War of the Worlds Tribute”
    [kottke]: http://kottke.org/09/07/apollo-11-live-tv-coverage “Kottke’s Apollo 11 info”
    [movie]: http://meandorsonwellesthemovie.com/ “Me and Orson Welles”
    [war]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(radio) “Wikipedia’s page on the 1938 broadcast”
    : http://www.archive.org/details/OrsonWellesMrBruns “War of the World’s MP3 on Archive.org”

  • TONIGHT: Dancing Bear Benefit for Lorraine in #Sweatshop

    [Eliza Gauger][link]:

    >The nose is all wrong, but this graceful creature is nonetheless my
    friend Lorraine, who has just suffered a grievous accident in which
    she fractured her spine. She is a dancer and a model and is now
    bedridden, totally unable to support herself. Tomorrow I will be
    running a tipjar marathon in which I paint portraits of her all day,
    and collect donations on PayPal for her medical bills.

    “Dancing Bear” means Eliza paints as long as people keep money in the tip jar. Seriously, she will paint forever if you keep giving her money. Once it’s going, you’ll be able to [watch/interact on USTREAM][ustream].

    Top tippers will get one the paintings themselves, or one of two $50 gift cards to [Clockwork Couture][cc], purveyors of fine Steampunk wearables.

    [link]: http://elizagauger.com/gibberings/lorraine-test-sketch-for-tomorrows-dancing-bear-benefit/ “Gibberings – Lorraine test sketch for tomorrow’s Dancing Bear Benefit”
    [cc]: http://www.clockworkcouture.com/ “Clockwork Couture”
    [ustream]: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/sweatshop “ustream #sweatshop”

  • Amazon Relational Database Service

    [Amazon’s new MySQL cloud service][link].

    [link]: http://aws.amazon.com/rds/ “Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS)”

  • Warren Ellis T-Shirt Of The Week #001: LOVE

    [Warren and his filthy assistant Adriana are doing a t-shirt a week][link], and selling via [Cafepress][cafe]. First up: “LOVE means never having to tell the authorities where I buried you.”

    [link]: http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=7889 “Warren Ellis » T-Shirt Of The Week #001: LOVE”
    [cafe]: http://www.cafepress.co.uk/electrophonic “Cafepress”

  • Goodnight, Sweet GeoCities

    You were responsible or many of the most retch-inducing websites on the internet, and you only got worse with time. We’ll miss you.

    [xkcd is GeoCities-ified][xkcd] ([saved image][image]).

    [link]: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/10/geocities-closing.html “GeoCities’ time has expired, Yahoo closing the site today | Technology | Los Angeles Times”
    [xkcd]: http:xkcd.com “XKCD”
    [image]: http://extrafuture.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/xkcd-geocities.jpg “xkcd’s homage”

  • Using Helvetica Neue Light In Firefox + Safari

    [Great tip from Guillermo Esteves][link]. Worked a charm on this very site.

    [link]: http://blog.gesteves.com/post/36097597/helvetica-neue-light “Helvetica Neue Light – All-Encompassing Trip”

  • True Romance

    Screen shot 2009-10-22 at 10.18.33 PM

    [Amy][amy] and John [Gruber][gruber]. Say goodnight, [Gracie][allen].

    [allen]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burns_and_Allen “Burns and Allen”
    [amy]: http://twitter.com/AmyJane “Amy Gruber”
    [gruber]: http://twitter.com/gruber “John Gruber”

  • The Microsoft Store

    So you met someone new and the next time you see them they’re dressing exactly like you and they like all of your favorite bands now and you try to be nice about it and not get creeped out but it’s fucking CREEPY and a couple months later you wake up and they’ve stolen your skin.

    Yeah, that’s what [the Microsoft Store][link] is like. It’s the [Single White Female][link] store.

    [link]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9Hk0ZCqRxg&feature=player_embedded “YouTube – Welcome to the Microsoft Store”
    [link]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_White_Female “Single White Female”