"Finding" and "looting"

I don't know if boingboing was first to report it, but this story and this story have been making the rounds on irc and forums.

Basically, two different news services, within hours of each other, posted stories about people carrying groceries: One about some white people who "found" some food in a grocery store, and one about a black man who "looted" some food, also from a grocery store.

Read more to see a large comparison picture...



UPDATE: Here's what the photographer of the "finding" picture had to say at SportsShooter.com

I wrote the caption about the two people who 'found' the items. I believed in my opinion, that they did simply find them, and not 'looted' them in the definition of the word. The people were swimming in chest deep water, and there were other people in the water, both white and black. I looked for the best picture. there were a million items floating in the water - we were right near a grocery store that had 5+ feet of water in it. it had no doors. the water was moving, and the stuff was floating away. These people were not ducking into a store and busting down windows to get electronics. They picked up bread and cokes that were floating in the water. They would have floated away anyhow. I wouldn't have taken in, because I wouldn't eat anything that's been in that water. But I'm not homeless. (well, technically I am right now.)

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Spray-on bacon!

For centuries, man has fought a ceaseless battle to create futuristic pork products. Witness the peak of technology that is Schneider's Grill'ems, featuring built-in cheese.

Last week, a post on Fark caught my eye. A new player in the technopork arena: David Burke's Flavor Spray.



Intrigued, I ordered a bottle of Smoked Bacon and a bottle of Banana Split. Today, my package arrived...

The illustrious David Burke has put the word "diet" in his domain name, but seems to fall just short actually putting it on the product. Notice the ™ position in the logo:



I'm not sure how spraying weird stuff on flavourless items will cause anyone to lose weight.

No, wait.

I am sure - because the hideous Smoked Bacon flavour made my plain rice disgusting. The initial whiff was "Hrm, that smells like those really smoky artificial bacon bits.". A second sniff produced the dry heaving noise gurgled by Fry in the Futurama episode "A Big Piece Of Garbage". (That means it was super-gross.)

And Banana Split? Blecch. But for a truly tragic taste, try combining it with Smoked Bacon! My eyes were weeping for my nose and stomach.

However, nauseating though it may be, Smoked Bacon spray is really futuristic so I gave it an A+!

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Whatever happened to Delivery.ca?

Delivery.ca was a wonderful system. It allowed one to leisurely order food from restaurants in one's area without the burden of talking. One could alter and tweak an order to one's satisfaction, with no one trying to rush the process.

Though I never tried it, there was also beer, wine, and flower delivery availble.

I was convinced that having survived the dot-com bubble, Delivery.ca would stand as a shining example of real convenience made possible and practical by the web. However, it was not to be.

According to my calculations, Delivery.ca went offline mid-July 2005, taking SuperWaiter's online orders with it.

I've been using Delivery.ca since June 2001. Every time I placed an order, I received a receipt by email. So... The question is, just how much money did I spend in the last four years?

Let's find out...

I exported the receipts from Outlook to a csv file, imported the csv into MySQL, then used a PHP script to run regular expressions on the bodys to get a new table with the individual data elements.





(Damn, Excel makes ugly charts!)

You can see that in 2003 I was really poor, so I didn't make many orders.

Farewell, Delivery.ca, I salute you!

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Taiko no Tatsujin Portable menu guide

A few days ago, Taiko no Tatsujin Portable came out for the PSP. Since there's no region control, every gamer can enjoy this import title without hassle.

Well, actually a little bit of hassle. The menus are all in Japanese! I can't read it, but I kept clicking until I figured out the important stuff (ie starting a normal game and saving).



Click here to read the full guide.

The screens below (phone pics, sorry) will help you navigate the game once you're past the title screen. Remember, since this is a Japanese game, Circle is the enter key while X is the escape key. (The opposite is true on most North American PSX/PS2/PSP games.)











Oh, and a note about points: When you complete a song, you get a certain number of points. As you get more, you can unlock up to four secret songs, one extra difficulty level, and two costume upgrades for your drum guy. It takes about 12000 points to get everything.

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Hackers crack the PlayStation Portable... But Sony may have the last laugh

Last week I wrote an article about the PSP, hoping to have it published in NOW Magazine.

Although NOW accepts amateur submissions, I never heard back from them so I decided to just post it here.

My cousin tells me that freelance writers (and especially amateur ones!) occupy the lowest space on the totem pole. To succeed, he says, one must constantly call and remind editors of one's existence.

But really, I just like writing stuff in my spare time - I figure that someone either wants it or they don't... There shouldn't be a big production over it.

Anyway, click below to view the article.

Last March, Sony released its first portable gaming device into a market traditionally owned by Nintendo. The exciting games and stunning widescreen LCD have attracted millions of consumers to purchase the versatile devices.

However, as originally shipped, the PSP may have been a little too versatile.

In mid-June, hackers created an exploit that allows any PSP owner to run unauthorized programs. Copied from the web and stored on a memory stick, these programs range from simple amateur games and utilities to full-blown copyright infringement.

Sony isn’t taking these developments lying down though – In what appears to be a carefully considered move, Sony is soon to release an update to the PSP operating system. Unlike the two minor revisions before it, version 2.0 does more than fix holes; it adds compelling new features like a web browser and television content.

Since new games will likely require the 2.0 upgrade, amateur software enthusiasts and lawbreakers will have a decision to make: Should they keep their units as-is and miss out on new features, or update and lose the ability to run unauthorized code?

Sony does have a third option for those reluctant to choose... Buy another PSP!

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