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Google Droids, Happy Friday
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Category Archives: Amusements
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(Available here.)
The Irony Overfloweth
@RobArnold tweeted: “Someone thinks targeted Facebook ads are an effective way to ask for Firefox features. Any other Mozillians see this?”
The irony of using a targeted ad, on Facebook, to ask for more privacy protection…
Cello Wars
For your holiday amusement:
Thanks, Jeff!
Gävle Goat Gambit Goes Astray
It’s a bit of a Christmas tradition here at Emergent Chaos to keep you informed about the Gävle Goat. Ok, technically, our traditions seem hit and miss, but whaddaya want from a site with Chaos in the name? You want precision, read a project management blog. Project management blogs probably set calendar reminders to kick off a plan with defined stakeholders, success metrics and milestones to ensure high quality blog posts. Us, we sometimes randomly remember.
But, but! This year, we actually have a plan with 8×10 color gannt charts with circles and arrows explaining how to set up a market to predict when the goat would burn.
We even have prizes.
Unfortunately, chaos (and flames) emerged, and the goat was burned before we set up the market.
You can read the full story of “Sweden’s Christmas goat succumbs to flames.”
Tap Tap Snarky
From the app store:
I hope this doesn’t cause Apple to ban snarky update messages.
The Flying Spaghetti Monster
In honor of rapture day, the Flying Spaghetti Monster has chosen to manifest his tentacly goodness in Stanley Park in Vancouver:
Star Wars, by George Lucas & Jean Paul Sarte
Here’s your Friday dose of Star Wars. Leave the volume on, even if you don’t speak French. That way your over-achieving cube neighbors will be distracted, too.
What’s the PIN, Kenneth?
There’s a story in the New York Times, “To Get In, Push Buttons, or Maybe Swipe a Magnet” which makes interesting allusions to the meaning of fair trade in locks, implied warranties and the need for empiricism in security:
In court filings, Kaba argued that it had “never advertised or warranted in any way that any of its access control products are impenetrable.” Locksmiths learn techniques to defeat all kinds of locks, and “thieves and others who want to defeat locks can obtain the same tools and learn the same techniques locksmiths use,” the filings said. “Indeed, any thief — even the most clumsy — can use a sledgehammer, a pry bar or bolt cutter to bypass essentially any lock.”
In a statement, Mr. Miller added that the company had “never received any confirmed report of a break-in” because of a magnetic bypass, and that it heard about the potential for magnetic mischief only in August 2010. Kaba is preparing a free kit to modify the locks and make them magnet-proof, he said.
All of which is really an excuse to share with you this picture. I have no idea if it’s a Kaba lock or not, and I’m reasonably confident that the sign is not Kaba’s fault.
Bureaucracy in inaction
Back in September, a group of Czech artists called EPOS 257 camouflaged themselves as city-workers, went to the Palackeho square in Prague and installed a fence. The fence was left on the square with no apparent intent or explanation.
At first, the city council didn’t know about it, and when there were told, they didn’t know how to deal with it – what if somebody put it there for a reason?
The fence stayed for 54 days before being removed.
It’s amazing how encrusted our nominally public spaces have become, and sad to see that it’s not just the US that suffers from this.
