It's inevitable now. I have finally Scorpions-ed the iPod, and sooner or later (possibly the next time I cider-up my innards) the reviews will flow like an amber current from my brain.

If you are reading this and you are an alumnus of the Mallet Assembly, your friends need you. NOW. The continued existence of Mallet could depend on your involvement as an alumni.

If you have access to the Mallet Wiki but you haven't checked recent changes in a while, do so. NOW.

If you are or have been a member of an the "Marvin List" but you haven't been reading it lately or have unsubscribed, re-subscribe. NOW.

If you are a Malleteer but you don't know what either of those previous two things are, email me. But don't use the yahoo.com address that I normally advertise on this blog. That thing gets so much spam that I'll probably never read your message. Use gmail. I am confident enough in gmail's spam detection that I am now ready to state my gmail address on this blog: jeff.robertson@gmail.com

If you are a Malleteer who has a blog, spread this like a viral marketing campaign from hell.

Via, of all places, Bruce Schneier.

Exposing my two-year old to Tex Avery cartoons.

I've had a hard time getting this one to like as much as the 5-year old does. I think I may have just found "our thing".

God I hope mama don't read this blog.

EDIT: she just witnessed a man being shot in the head with a revolver by a mechanical arm that popped out of 1950's TV. There's no turning back now.

EDIT AGAIN: the Flintstones don't see anything wrong about Pebbles watching "the fights" with Fred. Which in case you've ever seen the Flintstones in your damn life, is like boxing except with big caveman clubs instead. And nobody thinks it's weird for Pebbles to be rooting right along with Fred.

FINAL EDIT (I promise): Mama lets her watch Desperate Housewives. Tit for tat.

I'm not particularly impressed with this video, but it's still the best song evar.

EDIT: holy shit, Tom Petty wrote it.

Back in the late 80's and early 90's, I listened to the long-gone 92 ZEW in Mobile, AL. This station was my only connection with any form of music more "alternative" than "classic rock" and hair metal. I am slightly less of a redneck because of this station, which as early as the mid 90's had already switched to classic rock format. It was the station that I want Dave FM to be, and it just ain't.

There was one song, that I heard exactly twice. Both times while half asleep, in 1994, resting after evenings spent delivering greasy pizzas to sweaty people in sweaty, greasy trailer parks. I never found out the artist or the song, but it stuck in my head. It's been torturing me for nearly 13 years. If my obsession with this song was a person, he'd be old enough to... well I'm rambling.

Over the years of trying to figure out what song this was, I figured out it was probably the best song ever. And now I know that I was right, because I've fucking found it!. If I get hit by a truck tomorrow, my life will be considered a success on account of finally tracking down this song.

"Ways to be Wicked" by Lone Justice

I will not attempt to review this song at the moment. I am still recovering from the shock of finally hearing it while fully awake.

Our iPod is 6 months old, and I never knew what "Smart Playist" did until now.

It's like having Windows 95 and never clicking the Microsoft Network icon!

OTOH, getting the most out of smart playlists would appear to depend on accurate tags. Which, when you are promiscuous about where you get your MP3s, is something of a luxury.

There are a whole bunch of articles related to this, linked from this one.

The primary reason the IT security industry exists is because IT products and services aren't naturally secure. If computers were already secure against viruses, there wouldn't be any need for antivirus products. If bad network traffic couldn't be used to attack computers, no one would bother buying a firewall. If there were no more buffer overflows, no one would have to buy products to protect against their effects. If the IT products we purchased were secure out of the box, we wouldn't have to spend billions every year making them secure.

I just remembered we've had the Boomerang channel for, like, years. And I've never watched it. Need to remedy that.

Consider yourself WARNED! This book contains scenes graphic violence!

People have mocked this for years, but I think it's perfect. This is exactly what the "plot" of a classic game, the kind of game that doesn't need or have too much of a story, looks like if you literally translate it into book form without embellishment. I'd love to see these guys do Galaga.

a consequence of Sturgeons Law combined with the passage of time: As new material is released, the vast majority will be of mediocre or worse quality, but over time, a powerful selection pressure causes all but the best 10% (or even best 1%) and worst 10% be rapidly forgotten, leaving an increasingly inaccurate impression of the overall quality of the genre over time.

Yes. This is why nobody remembers how popular Grand Funk Railroad was. They fell into the middle of the bell curve, that nobody remembers. The top 10% of the early 70's would be things like Zeppelin, Sabbath, and the Stones. The bottom 10% would be the "mellow gold" and "easy 70's" type of music that you see being sold in compilations advertised on VH1. The kind of music that people remember mostly because it was so horrible. The rest of it, is simply forgotten.

Ironically, I don't think this applies to television as much as it does to music and movies. I am 100% sure that TV now, in 2007, is better than it was in when I was a teenager.

The golden age of network TV is now. I don't watch many shows, because most shows still suck, but the few I do watch are the best shows evar.