By Rob Beschizza | Published:
August 3, 2010
Benj Edwards assembled a compilation of the games bundled with operating systems. Harry McCracken writes in:
They’ve been around for decades. You’ve used them. Woz wrote one. So did Bill Gates. Yet they get no respect–or, really, attention at all. Josefina Vazquez Mota
Pictured above is the Gates magnum opus, DONKEY.BAS, tossed off in a few hours for DOS 1.0. Consoles, regrettably, are not represented in the roundup. [Technologizer. Thanks, Harry!]
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By The Daily Beast – Cheat Sheet | Published:
August 3, 2010Spoiler alert! Just before the two were to go on their final date, which aired on Monday’s finale episode, Bachelorette Ali Fedotowsky declared she’s in love with Roberto Martinez. Fedotowsky told unsuccessful suitor Chris Lambton that he was “one of…
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By Rob Beschizza | Published:
August 3, 2010Doctor Grasshopper offers a writer’s guide to disease and injuries in fiction. [Thanks, Jeraliey!]
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By Rob Beschizza | Published:
August 3, 2010
Ed Fries, former VP of game publishing at Microsoft, has created an Atari 2600 version of Halo. He describes in detail the challenges of developing for the ancient and extremely limited platform. But the results are superb. Halo Goes Old-School [IGN via submitterator. Thanks, RevRight!] Here’s the story of how this game came about [Atari Age via Waxy]
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By Rob Beschizza | Published:
August 3, 2010The Mexican tourist board advertised the humongous Cave of Swallows by pasting a life-size photograph of its interior over a Manhattan skyscraper. [Hatam Soferet via Submitterator. Thanks, spaceling]
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By Rob Beschizza | Published:
August 3, 2010
Microsoft gutted a new privacy control system from Internet Explorer 8 at the behest of the advertising industry and its own marketing executives. Ryan Singel at Wired quotes the WSJ:
When he heard of the ideas, Mr. Brian McAndrews, the executive involved with Microsoft’s Internet advertising business, was angry, according to several people familiar with the matter. Mr. McAndrews feared the Explorer group’s privacy plans would dramatically reduce the effectiveness of online advertising by curbing the data that could be collected about consumers. The debate widened after executives from Microsoft’s advertising team informed outside advertising and online-publishing groups of Microsoft’s privacy plans for Explorer. Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer assigned two senior executives, chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie and the general counsel, Mr. Smith, to help referee the debate, according to Peter Cullen, Microsoft’s chief privacy strategist.
Microsoft Quashed Effort to Boost Online Privacy (Paywall) [WSJ] Report: Online Ad Groups and Microsoft Watered Down IE Privacy Controls [Wired]
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By Rob Beschizza | Published:
August 3, 2010
The FBI ordered wikipedia to remove its seal from the article there about the bureau. It threatened to litigate. Unfortunately for the FBI, the law it cited is the one that forbids making counterfeit badges, and Wikimedia’s lawyers mocked them in its response. John Schwartz in the NYT: “Many sites, including the online version of the Encyclopedia Britannica, display the seal. Other organizations might simply back down. But Wikipedia sent back a politely feisty response, stating that the bureau’s lawyers had misquoted the law. ‘While we appreciate your desire to revise the statute to reflect your expansive vision of it, the fact is that we must work with the actual language of the statute, not the aspirational version’ that the F.B.I. had provided.” The part that’s hard to understand is why the FBI would seek to abuse the law in such petulant fashion, knowing that it will be subject to public ridicule for its actions. F.B.I., Challenging Use of Seal, Gets Back a Primer on the Law [NYT via submitterator. Thanks, OdMeadhbh]
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By Yahoo! News: Odd News | Published:
August 3, 2010Reuters – It must seem to some that Christmas comes earlier and earlier each year, and for shoppers in one London store that was certainly true this week.
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By Yahoo! News: Odd News | Published:
August 3, 2010AP – A 113-year-old woman listed as Tokyo’s oldest person is missing, officials said Tuesday, days after the city’s oldest listed man was found dead and mummified.
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By The Daily Beast – Cheat Sheet | Published:
August 3, 2010Can she act? Susan Boyle is set to appear in the next season of Glee, according to the show’s creator Ryan Murphy. He says she’ll appear in a Christmas episode as a “dinner lady.” Also, Murphy says Paul McCartney has offered the show his music. “It…
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By The Daily Beast – Cheat Sheet | Published:
August 3, 2010Newsweek’s staff is relieved that the magazine, which The Washington Post put on sale months ago, has been bought by businessman Sidney Harman. But Business Insider says they’re nervous, too, as Harman has indicated he wants to hold on to about 250 of…
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By The Daily Beast – Cheat Sheet | Published:
August 3, 2010Well this will be bold, if it’s true: Gawker says Wired Editor Chris Anderson is preparing a web article for the tech magazine that will declare, “The Web is Dead.” Ryan Tate writes, “Anderson is expected to argue that more tightly controlled corners…
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By The Daily Beast – Cheat Sheet | Published:
August 3, 2010An Aspen judge ordered Charlie Sheen to spend a month in rehab after the actor pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault in his domestic-violence case. Two other charges were dropped. Sheen must also serve three months of probation and undergo 36 hours of…
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By The Daily Beast – Cheat Sheet | Published:
August 3, 2010We guess we were a bit premature in declaring Monday that, “Sometimes good sense prevails at Michael Steele’s Republican National Committee”: The RNC has re-invited known liar and possible racist Andrew Breitbart to a party fundraiser after earlier…
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By The Daily Beast – Cheat Sheet | Published:
August 3, 2010Gunmen shot to death at least 45 people in Karachi, Pakistan, Tuesday in the wake of a politician’s assassination. At least 93 others were wounded. Police and Army Rangers struggled to regain control as dozens of vehicles and stores were set on fire;…
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By The Daily Beast – Cheat Sheet | Published:
August 3, 2010We guess they have better things to invest in: Goldman Sachs has announced that it will not spend any money on the 2010 elections, even though the Supreme Court’s recent Citizens United decision allows corporations to spend unlimited funds. “Goldman…
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By The Daily Beast – Cheat Sheet | Published:
August 3, 2010Six teenagers drowned in Louisiana’s Red River Monday, and a seventh teen, 14, was saved. They were playing in a shallow area where the bottom drops away suddenly to a 20-foot chasm, and though adults were around, no one knew how to swim. Only one…
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By The Daily Beast – Cheat Sheet | Published:
August 3, 2010Could this soon be part of the Republican platform? Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has joined other members of his caucus in calling for Congress “to take a look at” reviewing the 14th amendment so that children of illegal immigrants born in…
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By The Daily Beast – Cheat Sheet | Published:
August 3, 2010The Deepwater Horizon oil spill-which The New York Times says “is by far the world’s largest accidental release of oil into marine waters”-could be over once and for all on Tuesday. BP is cautiously optimistic that it can perform the “static kill” to…
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By Yahoo! News: Odd News | Published:
August 2, 2010Reuters – Pennsylvania residents can buy wine from vending machines but first they must pass a breath test to prove they haven’t been drinking.
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