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: December 2011

  • Marvel Comics Actively Supports SOPA

    [Disappointing, but not surprising.][link] Marvel is shit-scared of piracy, and instead of finding ways to make their comics better/more interesting/more apt to be purchased, they spend their time and money on disgusting legislation like SOPA. Really, they’re no different than the movie or music industry. They’ll fuck you as hard as they can to eek out one little *potential* point of revenue.

    [link]: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/12/29/marvel-comics-actively-support-sopa/ “Marvel To Actively Support SOPA | Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movies and TV News and Rumors”

  • Go Daddy’s Position on SOPA

    [In short, GoDaddy supports the Stop Online Piracy Act.][link] Fuck ’em. You can transfer all of your domains to [NameCheap][nc] with a discount using the code BYEBYEGD.

    [link]: http://support.godaddy.com/godaddy/go-daddys-position-on-sopa/ “Go Daddy's Position on SOPA | Go Daddy Blog | Go Daddy Support”
    [nc]: http://www.namecheap.com?aff=25585 “NameCheap”

  • Does Airport Security Really Make Us Safer?

    [Vanity Fair says no:][link]

    >As you stand in endless lines this holiday season, here’s a comforting thought: all those security measures accomplish nothing, at enormous cost. That’s the conclusion of Charles C. Mann, who put the T.S.A. to the test with the help of one of America’s top security experts.

    Experts like Bruce Schneier have been calling what the TSA does “security theater” for 10 years now. The mainstream press just now seem to be catching on.

    [link]: http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2011/12/tsa-insanity-201112 “Does Airport Security Really Make Us Safer? | Culture | Vanity Fair”

  • TextSecure

    [Sounds good:][link]

    >TextSecure is a replacement for the standard text messaging application, allowing you to send and receive text messages as normal.

    Why isn’t this built-in to Android? or iOS for that matter? or everything?

    [link]: https://github.com/WhisperSystems/TextSecure “WhisperSystems/TextSecure – GitHub”

  • The Icon Handbook

    [Jon Hicks makes great icons, and I look forward to learning what he has to teach.][link] The 323-page book ships January 30th, 2012 and there’s [a PDF sample][samp].

    [link]: http://www.fivesimplesteps.com/products/the-icon-handbook “Five Simple Steps – The Icon Handbook”
    [samp]: https://s3.amazonaws.com/fivesimplesteps/IconHandbook-sample.pdf “Icon Handbook Sample”

  • Technical Details of The 3DS Internet Browser

    [Useful if you have a website which is trying to target 3DS users specifically.][link] Includes the user agent string, actual screen dimensions, and some HTML5 tricks to make it behave.

    [link]: http://3dbrew.org/wiki/Internet_Browser “Internet Browser – 3dbrew”

  • IE to Start Automatic Upgrades across Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7

    [… and Web Developers around the world have the confusing feeling of wanting to hug someone at Microsoft.][link]

    [link]: http://windowsteamblog.com/ie/b/ie/archive/2011/12/15/ie-to-start-automatic-upgrades-across-windows-xp-windows-vista-and-windows-7.aspx “IE to Start Automatic Upgrades across Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7”

  • A Statement From Louis C.K.

    [His direct-download, no-DRM, concert video has sold over 100,000 copies. Louis:][link]

    >I really hope people keep buying it a lot, so I can have shitloads of money, but at this point I think we can safely say that the experiment really worked. If anybody stole it, it wasn’t many of you. Pretty much everybody bought it. And so now we all get to know that about people and stuff. I’m really glad I put this out here this way and I’ll certainly do it again. If the trend continues with sales on this video, my goal is that i can reach the point where when I sell anything, be it videos, CDs or tickets to my tours, I’ll do it here and I’ll continue to follow the model of keeping my price as far down as possible, not overmarketing to you, keeping as few people between you and me as possible in the transaction.

    This is news that I am very happy about.

    [link]: https://buy.louisck.net/statement “Louis CK: Live at the Beacon Theater”

  • Invision: UX Prototyping Tool

    [Looks really nice, can’t wait to give it a try.][link]

    [link]: http://www.invisionapp.com/ “UX Prototyping Tool Made Beautiful – Create Interactive Wireframes & High Fidelity Prototypes”

  • A List of HTML5 Game Engines

    [Saved me a lot of time this afternoon.][link] Sometime I’d really like to review all of these.

    [link]: https://github.com/bebraw/jswiki/wiki/Game-Engines “Game Engines – GitHub”