Smalltalk with James Robertson

Fighting the Future

28 October 2010 6:18:53 AM

TechDirt spotted an entertaining attempt at revenue gathering via an implicit paywall - an upstate New York newspaper website posted the following:

A subscription is required at North Country Gazette. We allow only one free read per visitor. We are currently gathering IPs and computer info on persistent intruders who refuse to buy subscription and are engaging in a theft of services. We have engaged an attorney who will be doing a bulk subpoena demand on each ISP involved, particularly Verizon Droids, Frontier and Road Runner, and will then pursue individual legal actions.

I anxiously await the response from that famed ISP, Verizon Droid.

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posted by James Robertson

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Oops - World Not Ending in 2012

21 October 2010 3:09:48 PM

Never mind the difference between "end of time" and "end of an epoch" - apparently the Mayan calendar hasn't been properly converted to our calendar, either:

According to the new book Calendars and Years II: Astronomy and Time in the Ancient and Medieval World, we should stop believing that doomsday will come in 2012 because that's when the Mayan calendar ends, since scientists didn't convert the Mayan calendar into the modern calendar correctly and could be off by as much as 50 to 100 years.

Quick, someone call Roland Emmerich :)

Technorati Tags: mayan calendar

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Sad But True

18 October 2010 6:02:50 AM

Joy of Tech nails it again :)

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Nerd Dreams

15 October 2010 6:24:00 AM

If you have this sort of dream, well..... :)

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Too Much Information

20 September 2010 6:14:54 AM

Sometimes, you can know too much :)

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Get Your Cobol On

9 September 2010 11:58:40 AM

Well, the website is interesting, I'll give it that. I feel like I need a modem and a BBS to visit it though....

Technorati Tags: cobol

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The Empire Might Have Won

2 September 2010 8:34:59 AM

Had the Rebel Alliance been suffering from death by powerpoint.....

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Just About Right

23 August 2010 8:13:50 AM

I had to laugh - first, there was Leo Laporte's "social media sucks" thing. Then Joy of Tech pretty much nailed that subject. Finally, I saw this float by in an IRC channel I hang out on: