helping (e:paul) test out the server -- seems super spiffy!

nice work!

Wow, I just received payment for my Sync Magazine (http://www.syncmagazine.com) article about Sociolotron (http://www.sociolotron.com). Sync is supposed to be like "Maxim meets Wired" which is kind of, well, not really necessarily my thing (although I'm more into macho tech than cars, sports, or exercise). But my editor is real nice, and they want some clever game coverage, and it's a print magazine with 200K subscribers in North America (distro in EU, South America, and SE Asia/Australia, too). You might actually see it on the mag rack (but apparently Wegman's doesn't carry it, so I'm not sure if I'll ever see it myself... hehe)

I should get off my butt and go to Talking Leaves to look for it. Does anyone know if they carry Sync? They carry 2600 (http://www.2600.com)... that's enough to get me there...

Anyway, since I've been at UB I've slacked on my writing. I've written only a few articles for GF! and almost no school papers at all. I've written a couple papers about projects I've done and stuff, and I do consider my interactive stuff (http://www.shawnrider.com/onlineWork.php) "writing." But, wow, there's something about putting finger to keys in a particular way to create an article or story. I've written a LOT in the past -- I think I've published something like 200 reviews on GamesFirst ! (http://www.gamesfirst.com) But I've never written for a mainstream mag like this. It was really educational. It really brings home the freedom that we have with GF! And not just me, but my writers. I don't mean to imply that I was treated poorly. I was treated very, very well, and I hope to write for Sync or Ziff Davis more in the future. But the corporate world is something I might enjoy much more on an occasional, freelance, kind of engagement.

I <3 teaching.

and I <3 t e h Interwebs.

So is this just one big advertisement to get you to look for my stuff in the April/May issue of Sync Magazine available on your local cool guy mag rack? I dunno...

Oh, and Ajay -- just for clarification [inlink]ajay,318[/inlink]

I wasn't talking about personal websites. I mean homepages as in a customizable web portals -- like My Yahoo!, which is what I set to my homepage for easy access to lots of info, a handy calendar, local movie listings, daily comics, etc.

Actually, maybe you're a good person to ask: Know of a good, free, customizable personal webportal package? Something that would be easier than writing it myself in PHP and just aggregating feeds, etc? (I already use Vacoom! to gather some web comics for myself -- )

(e:Paul) said he thought it was pointless to duplicate Google's planned video blog features (http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/index.php?p=1236), and I can understand not wanting to "compete" with Google -- I'm a Google lover of sorts. I mean, I use Yahoo for my home page, but... (and that's another thing -- why can't I do the basic homepage things with Google that I can do with Yahoo!? Shouldn't that rank higher priority than getting videos online? Whatever; Yahoo! works well...)

Anyway, I think pretty much everything I get at (e:strip) is available all over the place. I could build it myself (not as well as Paul has) or I could just use any number of open source or free solutions to pretty much get the same features as (e:strip). In fact, I used to participate more heavily in a blogger blog. But (e:strip) has pulled me away? Why? Because I read (e:strip). This site is a different place. It's not the whole world. It's a village, becoming a town, and one day it might grow into a full-fledged city, but it will never be the whole world (I hope not, at least). It will always (hopefully) be a cool little corner, a place where I can niche.

So who cares what Google is doing? Whether or not video is "right" for (e:strip) is an issue on its own, and definitely not one to be taken lightly (all kinds of concerns on that one -- space, bandwidth, tech issues, etc.). I am not really arguing for or against that here. All I'm saying is that we got something Google ain't got, no matter what.

Wow, I'm not the biggest Hunter S. Thompson geek, but I'm all for people digging him and his stuff. I just found this through BoingBoing that talks about his wife's commitment to fulfill his wishes to have his ashes shot from a giant cannon. The cannon will be a part of a giant sculpture in the form of his fist/knife "Gonzo" logo. The logo is cool, and the illustration on BoingBoing features one of his great quotes, which seems really suitable for a headstone, "it never got weird enough for me."

What a cool idea. I applaud Anita Thompson for having such devotion. What a cool wife. I hope my wife blows some shit up (in a fun way, not a scary way) when I die...

I just came across this, via the ultiBlog, BoingBoing (www.boingboing.net).

It looks like awhile back there was a flare-up of the blogosphere regarding a topic called "Toothing." Toothing is(was?ever?) the practice of broadcasting bluetooth "hook-up" messages to everyone around you, and eventually, the idea was, somebody would take you up on your offer after receiving your message via their bluetooth enabled mobile phone.

The story trades on the hysteria surrounding blue-jacking, which is a real phenomenon (http://www.bluejackq.com/), but not nearly as dangerous or threatening as one might think.

It looks like the creators of this MEME have come clean about it -- it was all a hoax. They set up a fictional forum and filled it with fictional posts. Once they felt like they had a good history of a budding internet phenomenon represented, they submitted it to Gizmodo (http://www.gizmodo.com). Then it took off. Real people joined the fictional forum. People set up toothing forums for their own areas. It was mayhem.

Now, one of the original creators of Toothing has posted an article discussing it here:


worth a read...

My friend Dave Logan (http://www.dave-logan.com/blog) made this rad video for They Might Be Giants' song, Bloodmobile. Here's the link . It's a great animation. He has been teaching himself Maya in his senior year of high school. You might remember Dave's work from the thoroughly excellent Futurology video he made for DJ Funken Wagnalls feat. Cottonmouth MC, which is linked from our new site at FunkMouth.com (http://www.funkmouth.com/).

Have fun!

Incredible story on Indy Online here ( ). It looks like a 20 year old guy from Taiwan (Taipei) committed suicide after his girlfriend dumped him for his online alter ego, which he had secretly used to hit on her. Wow. I'm not sure what's more shocking, that he killed himself, or that he got his girlfriend to dump him for his online self. I mean, that's a weird thing to do, right? Right?


Woman dumps man for his online alter ego
Published on the Web by IOL on 2003-07-17 09:45:02

Taipei - A Taiwanese man who used a different identity through the Internet to double-date his girlfriend, has committed suicide after the girl fell for his email-based alter ego, a Taiwanese newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Huang Tzu-heng, 20, a shop clerk in Taipei County, began dating his high school class mate Hsiao Lan in the Spring, the Apple Daily reported.

Hoping to find out if Hsiao Lan really loved him, Huang dated Hsiao Lan on the Internet, posing as "Mr J" while continuing to date her in real life.

As Hsiao Lao did not tell Huang she was dating Mr J on the Internet, Huang became frustrated because he believed lovers should share all their secrets, the report stated.

Then one day Hsiao Lan told Huang that she had fallen in love with "Mr J" and wanted to break up with Huang.

Huang killed himself by burning charcoal in his bedroom on Monday night, leaving two suicide notes, one to his parents and one to Hsiao Lan.

In his letter to Hsiao Lan, Huang wrote: "Do you remember your Internet friend? That is me. But I never thought our love would have such an ending." - Sapa-DPA

Oh, yeah. I love it. I mean LOVE it... It's so great. It's like having a PS2 in my hand. but I've spent way too much time trying to get it to tunnel with xlink/Kai. I switched to XBConnect and it worked just fine right away. Well, mostly. It kicked me out of THUG 2 while I was playing, but now I have some new ideas...

Anyway, if anyone else got a PSP feel free to drop me a line. I have a few games on hand. I have been doing experiments with video and stuff and it looks like I can get it down to about 2mb/minute of video, which is pretty decent. I'm going to get a 256mb card and stock half of it with video pulled from the internet each day and half of it with music? I might just do it...

(I wish I could help (e:Paul) with the server, but all this stuff just underscores how little I know about anything. He can do everything I can do better. [inlink]paul,3123[/inlink] Thankfully we always have the elder geeks...)

[inlink]jason,111[/inlink]

I know people here cuz I got to school at UB and all. I got into the site because (e:Paul)'s my classmate, and when he told us about his MFA work, I thought, damn, that's a cool site. And you'd have to be blind to not recognize the raw talent, effort, heart and soul that has gone into this thing. I'm an old-time webmaster ( ) so it's especially satisfying to see eStrip succeed...

In my mind, eStrip needs outsiders. Without that, well, I dunno. I've talked with (e:Paul) about his goals, and I know that he's really interested in this localized network community, as opposed to all the other online communities that focus on bringing together people from all over the world. I think it is a cool project, and I believe in it. But if the whole local community can't get on, then it's more of a clubhouse, and that's not quite the same thing. How am I going to feel like a creepy (just turned 30) old guy spying on everyone else's private journals if it's a safe-zone club where everyone feels just fine blurting out any old thing.

Words have consequences. Images have consequences. We can't pretend it doesn't exist, even if we put ourselves into a discourse group where everyone speaks the same dialect. I think recent (e:strip) history ((e:pageseven) anyone?) proves the dangerous quality of language exists and occasionally rears its head and slaps us in the face with a 12" of miscommunication.

So while (e:jasonsback) has a point about the in-crowd that certainly exists on eStrip, I'd like to think, hope, that crowd has really been formed around the on-site interactions. Certainly IRL interaction is important, but I would hope that the cliques and interactions on (e:strip) are as much about what people say, think and do on their journals than anything else.

I remember when (e:paul) uploaded the skinny dipping shots (or were they just nekkid dudes in the woods?) -- I thought, wow, that's ballzy. I wouldn't do that. And I wouldn't. Mainly because I'm not comfortable with that, and I hope that's just as OK as (e:paul) doing it. (And I hope that doesn't discourage ANYONE else from ALSO posting nudie pix -- it's a pr0n powered Internet...)

Soyeon's journal used to be my fave. Now I can't even read my faves from her journal. How sad. Why did I like it? Cuz it felt personal. It felt like sometimes she said more than she might have said if she had stopped to consider it...

I like to read (e:ajay), (e:holly), (e:matthew), (e:terry), (e:uncutsaniflush), and (e:jasonsback) Why? Mostly cuz they post enough that I feel like I have gotten to know them a little. It's inspired me to post more. Maybe you feel the same way?

And for any of my students, employers, teachers, or unclassifiable guardians (or those people from the government who are watching me ), HEAR THIS: My journal on eStrip is where I come to have fun and vent and rant and rave in Buffalo, in order to make the most of my time here and have fun. I hope people dig it, but that's fine if you don't -- I work on other stuff much harder. I hope I don't offend you, but if I do, then let's talk about it. Don't come here looking for representation, respectful presentation or otherwise fucking stuffy bullshit like that.

In these trying times... let's have an Easter Egg Hunt:

2600 (http://www.2600.com) is having an Easter Egg Hunt on the DVD for their film, Freedom Downtime, which is a pretty dang amazing piece of documentary work. It covers the persecution of Phiber Optik and Kevin Mitnick. Mitnick ended up doing years in prison without being charged, and has only recently been allowed to touch a computer again. You never know when someone will rewire the space station using a pay phone and a bubble gum wrapper... Anyway, here's the page describing the contest ( ), check out the film if you feel like remembering how our civil liberties were trampeled over the previous decade, too...