K-Squared Ramblings

There’s a convention for everything

Here’s a weird one. it turns out that ROFLCon, dedicated to all those Internet fads, was held at MIT this past weekend. Found via the Mozilla blog: Firefox Spotted at ROFLCon (look there for a picture of a life-size Firefox mascot with Tronguy).

Blog Action Day is coming up

This morning I read about Blog Action Day, a campaign to get thousands of bloggers to write about the environment on October 15. I’ve actually got a draft post I’ve been working on that would fit the topic, so it’s an easy choice to make.

And for those of you who need a different kind of motivation, there’s a quiz: What kind of blogger are you?

I think that’s probably the first time I’ve ever been called a “socialite.” Frankly, I’m a bit disturbed. (And is it just my imagination, or does the drawing on that badge look a little like Neil Gaiman?)

Update Oct. 15: Here’s my post on water conservation in California. It’s actually not the one I had in mind, which I decided wasn’t quite on target, but I had some other ideas bouncing around in my head.

Update September 2008: They’ve taken everything down from 2007, including the images for the quiz results. I pulled a copy of the banner from the Wayback Machine and uploaded it locally.

(via Opera Community)

Geek Rivalries

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while, now: the Geek Rivalries Meme

Star Trek or Babylon 5? Babylon 5
Windows or Linux? Linux
Windows or Macintosh? Mac
Farscape or Stargate? Farscape
Linux or BSD? Linux
Intel or AMD? AMD
Star Trek or Star Wars? Star Wars
Firefox or Internet Explorer? Firefox
Firefox or Opera? Firefox
Wordpress or Movable Type? Wordpress
Marvel or DC? DC
Neanderthal or Neandertal? Neanderthal (with the TH sound)
Slashdot or Digg? Slashdot
Anime: Dub or Sub? Subtitled
Dr. Pepper or Mountain Dew? Dr. Pepper

The rules: You must choose one. If you like both, decide which one you like better. If you don’t like either of them, figure out which you dislike less.

Shuffling across the memetic landscape

Two months later, 12,500 pages mention Apple’s “Do not eat iPod shuffle” joke.

Ironically, one page that doesn’t mention it is the one that started it all. Apple has removed the footnote from its iPod shuffle product page. Sure, the comparison to a pack of gum is still there, but I guess enough people thought it was a stupid-lawyer trick instead of, you know, a joke.

Something I didn’t notice at the time, though: the U.K. version was worded differently: “Do not chew iPod shuffle.” Perhaps reflecting the relative populations, this phrase only pulls 48 hits (soon to be 49, I expect).