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: May 2010

  • Proper Fucking Booming

    [A diary from a Daily Kos user and boomer][link], the basics of one of the myriad things that BP fucked up on the Gulf spill.

    [link]: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/5/11/11558/1890 “Daily Kos: State of the Nation”

  • Smokescreen: a Flash player in JavaScript

    [Very impressive.][link] If I were Adobe I’d be contributing to this project right now.

    [link]: http://simonwillison.net/2010/May/29/smokescreen/ “Smokescreen demo: a Flash player in JavaScript”

  • Wikipedia Is Broken In Dictionary.app

    I’m not sure if this is due to [Wikipedia’s new skin][skin] (with the “usability” enhancements), some other MediaWiki update, or if the problem is on Apple’s end (*Update*: [It is a problem with Wikipedia’s new skin][fix]), but this is another good example of why Apple doesn’t want to rely on third-party vendors for anything.

    [skin]: http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2010/03/the-change-in-interface-is-coming/ “Blog post on wikipedia’s new skin”

    Image

    The image above is what I get when looking up the word “Dictionary” in Snow Leopard’s built-in Dictionary application, and clicking Wikipedia. The Wikipedia page is very long, and should have vertical scrollbars, but there are none.

    *Update:* [Mac OS X Hints has information on how a “fix”][fix] which involves logging in to Wikipedia and setting your skin to use the previous one.

    Hat tip to [Shawn Medero][shawn].

    [shawn]: http://shawn.medero.net “Shawn Medero”
    [fix]: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20100525215150144 “Mac OS X hints fix”

  • 100 Rogues

    [A great-looking roguelike developed from the ground-up for the iPhone][link].

    [link]: http://www.100rogues.com/ “100 Rogues | An Arcade-Style Role Playing Game for iPhone & iPod Touch”

  • Tynt, the Copy/Paste Jerks

    [John Gruber provides a helpful method for blocking those super-annoying copy/paste shenanigans][link] that append the “Read More” links to everything you copy from sites like The New Yorker and TechCrunch.

    [link]: http://daringfireball.net/2010/05/tynt_copy_paste_jerks “Daring Fireball: Tynt, the Copy/Paste Jerks”

  • OpenPandora: “The most powerful gaming handheld there is.”

    [I’m sure your specs are great, but what a pooch][link]. Looks extremely unwieldy and chunky. It looks like it was designed by the same group as [the WarMouse (formerly known as OpenOffice Mouse)][mouse].

    [link]: http://www.open-pandora.org/index.php “OpenPandora”
    [mouse]: http://warmouse.com/ “WarMouse”

  • Warner Bros. Sued for Pirating Anti-Piracy Technology

    [From the Do-As-I-Say Department][link]:

    >Warner Bros. has been sued by a German technology firm which claims the movie and television production company pirated its anti-piracy technology.

    I can only assume that anyone at Warner Bros HQ will be no longer allowed to connect to the internet for any purpose, right? That’s what they want to do to alleged pirates, so it’s only fair.

    [link]: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/100937-Warner-Bros-Sued-for-Pirating-Anti-Piracy-Technology “The Escapist : News : Warner Bros. Sued for Pirating Anti-Piracy Technology”

  • Pabst Brewing Co. Purchased For $250 Million

    [By investor C. Dean Metropoulos][link], famous in food-circles for managing Chef Boyardee, Duncan Hines and Ghirardelli Chocolates.

    Here’s to hoping he doesn’t fuck it up.

    [link]: http://www.chicagobreakingbusiness.com/2010/05/woodridge-based-pabst-brewing-to-get-new-owner.html “Woodridge-based Pabst Brewing to get new owner – Chicago Breaking Business”

  • A Collection of Bowling Alley Scoreboards

    [I can smell the shoe-refresher and Miller Lite from here][link]. Smells like home.

    via [Andy Baio][andy], and I noticed that the site uses [la petite url][la] for short urls. Sold!

    [link]: http://worldfamousdesignjunkies.com/bad-taste/1000-screens-1000-dreams/ “World Famous Design Junkies » 1,000 Screens, 1,000 Dreams”
    [la]: http://extrafuture.com/la-petite-url “la petite url”
    [andy]: http://waxy.org “Waxy dot org”

  • Web Development Thought For The Day

    It is 2010. If you have a mailing list and every message does not include a one-click unsubscribe link, you are either lazy or an asshole.