Gawker
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trendwatch
Server Trouble? Blame Iran
Is your company's Web server hosed again? Give your beleaguered sysadmins and programmers a break and blame hackers. Preferably Iranian hackers. It's all the rage! Just ask The Atlantic and Boing Boing. More »
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By Ryan TateComment by Iceland Spar: Is that a screen shot from WarGames? 2 Responses | Other threads
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domain names
GoDaddy Advises Against Buying a Domain Name from a Disappearing Island
If you want to buy a .tv domain name, Bob Parsons's GoDaddy registrar will sell it to you. But not without a tsk-tsk lecture about how the island of Tuvalu, which owns .tv, is sinking. More »
7,203
By Owen ThomasComment by yankeespitfire: Tuvulu is NOT sinking. The sea level has actually fallen. Ol' Bob needs to check his sources a tad better... 7 Responses | Other threads
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blogging for dollars
How Comcast Bought Its Way Into Boing Boing's Good Graces
Until today, if edgy digerati blog Boing Boing mentioned Comcast, it was with a sneer that was practically house style. Suddenly Boing Boing has fallen in love with the "bumbing, evil" cable guys. Why? Money. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Baroness: I'm really over reading Boing. For every one cool thing there's 10 others about some pet fascination (steampunk!) beaten to... 4 Responses | Other threads
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twitterati
The Twitterati Wear Shorts to a Cage Match
Things that the media's Twitter addicts are savoring: onion rings, Hulk Hogan, and weather warm enough for shorts. Michelle Malkin, Sarah Lacy, Xeni Jardin and others reveal their not-so-hidden desires: More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Baroness: Oh, that Xeni Jardin. Part of me is interested by her- she's clearly lovely-looking, with a certain Annie Lennox aesthetic... 1 Responses | Other threads
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twitterati
The Twitterati Head South, not to Mention Southwest
Can you destroy — or cement — your professional reputation in 140 characters or less? On Twitter, it's easy! Watch and learn from ABC's Jake Tapper, ex-Wonkette Ana Marie Cox, VentureBeat's Eric Eldon and others: More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by TRexstasy: I want Ana Marie Cox's job. Apparently all she does is drink and go to parties and occasionally poop... 2 Responses | Other threads
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twitterati
The Twitterati Are All Over the Place
Are all the Twitterers headed to the SXSW festival, like Digg's Kevin Rose? Actually, no! Here's where Boing Boing's Xeni Jardin, Salon.com edi-bore Joan Walsh, and Politico's Patrick Gavin recorded their time-wasting thoughts: More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by swagv: This regular feature has the same "Weee! Look at me, I'm on Twitter!" virtues as all those "Weee! Look at... 1 Responses | Other threads
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twitterati
Cheating Media Moguls Across the Twittersphere
For the media, Twitter is the new confessional. Xeni Jardin admitted to watching an illicit movie, Peter Kafka overcharged his boss, and Jeff Jarvis admitted to being an all-around fraud. Today's crimes against Twitter: More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by abmw: Jardin's tweet is lifted right out of the Classic American novel, "A Confederacy of Dunces", by John Kennedy Toole. 1 Responses | Other threads
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online advertising
Layoffs at Federated Media Signal Blogs' Ill Health
John Battelle is the salesman for a host of indie sites, from the futuristic Boing Boing to the Web-obsessed TechCrunch to mommyblog Dooce. What does it say that his company, Federated Media, is canning workers? More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by TrilbyAuxo: I missed the former story on how he tried to misuse other blogs for a Microsoft campaign. I think what... more » | Other threads
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commenter of the day
steampoweredboy
Why do I love Boing Boing as much as I hate seeing Mark Frauenfelder in an Adobe ad? steampoweredboy files a tidy 3-paragraph reply: More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by OliverAmphion: Your post accusing bOING bOING of being sellouts was hilarious, but not for the reasons you think it was. Paul,... more » | Other threads
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mark frauenfelder
Boing Boing founder's directory of wonderful ads
Mark Frauenfelder launched bOING bOING, an ink-on-paper zine, in 1988. He did the artwork for Billy Idol's 1993 Cyberpunk album, using a Mac instead of a photo studio. Frauenfelder joined Wired when that was considered a foolish move by media professionals. Later he resurrected Boing Boing as a website, then again as a blog in 2000. He's now editor-in-chief of Make magazine. Does this guy have an unlimited supply of cool? Not unless he learns to say no to advertisers who co-opt him. More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by El_Feo: They also FREAK the fuck out if you criticize anyone n one of their sponsored posts. So hypocritical. It's slimy... 1 Responses | Other threads
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virgin galactic
Back to our regularly scheduled Xeni Space Pr0n
Save your blog drama for Obama. Boing Boing starship trooper Xeni Jardin posted close-up photos of fun-loving Virgin billionaire Richard Branson's new space tourism plane, Eve, from yesterday's big debut event. More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by Mouser_UK: it is probaly Otto Lilienthal in that first one. Sheesh who let the special needs kids^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h COBOL programmers comment more » | Other threads
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we read twitter so you don't have to
Boing Boing expands from unpublishing to untweeting
Teresa Nielsen Hayden, the Boing Boing comments moderator who posted Boing Boing's formal response to last month's Violet Blue "unpublishing" flamefest, is a smart lady who, judging from her own comments, doesn't afraid of anything. She invented the practice of removing the vowels from blog comments she deems out of line, to avoid scrubbing them completely from the public record. So I'm surprised to see that Hayden took down one of her own Twitter updates Monday, apparently because Blue linked to it. Teresa, wht th fck?
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By Paul BoutinComment by jsavimbi: Under attack by Gawker Media? Half a dozen posts and twenty comments no constitute an attack? Apparently she's become insensitive... more » | Other threads
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nerdfight
Violet Blue tries to restrain critic with court order instead of sexy rubber strap
Internet sex educator Violet Blue has asked a court to serve a restraining order against Ben Burch, a Wikipedia editor. Blue's entry on Wikipedia has been home to almost as much conflict as the fallout from her deletion from the popular blog Boing Boing: her boyfriend, Jonathan Moore, is responsible for at least eighteen of the entry's edits (as "Wikiwikimoore"), prompting Burch and others to question whether he can observe the site's requirement for a neutral point of view regarding all subjects. Blue's response, based on documents forwarded to Valleywag, is to ask a court to declare Burch a threat to her physical safety. More »
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Comment by Baleusias: Actually, denied "without prejudice" means that it was denied, but that it wasn't a frivolous case. If the plaintiff... more » | Other threads
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boing boing
The glamorous way out of a Web drama
What's the classiest finish to an Internet catfight? The shining example will be July 2008's Boing Boing vs. Violet Blue. It wasn't about player-hating and girl-on-girl sex, we'll all say. No no, it was about freedom and blogging and privacy and good versus evil. Now that we've all moved on, the New York Times steps in a week later to clean things up with a G-rated rehash that suggests Violet Blue may be the real winner. What have each of the participants learned? More »
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Comment by TallulahSkankhead: Map seems to have been removed--why link to it here? And, why do I care? more » | Other threads
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100-word version
Boing Boing's unapologetic eleventh-hour apologia
Boing Boing's readers, hopped up on free-speech rhetoric, continue to find the tech-culture blog's act of unpublishing unspeakable. Hoping to put the Internet's most enduring drama llama this month to bed, the Los Angeles Times rounded up four members of Boing Boing's staff yesterday for a late-night confab. The result is transcribed here and there, but for those about to launch into a three-day weekend, we salute you with only the most wonderful bits, perfect for around-the-barbeque reblogging. It is at once brilliant and brain-numbing in its inconclusiveness. But if the answer to bad speech is more speech, why not answer an act of unpublishing with more nonwords? More »
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Comment by drinkwater: I can't help but ponder what the internet would be shaped like if it was founded in some place like... more » | Other threads
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nerdfight
Boing Boing's relationship with Violet Blue comes full circle
Sex blogger Violet Blue may have tried to ride the Boing Boing coattail express to microfame by airing grievances publicly. But once upon a time she waged the same kind of war on Boing Boing cofounder Xeni Jardin's side against Matthew Neal Sharp, curator of xenisucks.com, and the New York Times. Now, after the bad breakup between the two bloggers became serious business, another gentleman has put a thumb in the third eye of the popular catalog of eclectic ephemera by creating violetbluevioletblue.net — a directory of formerly wonderful things from Boing Boing that featured Blue, deleted by Jardin from the site a year ago. More »
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By Jackson WestComment by raincoaster: @Avery: Seven comments in and it's already time for someone to pull a Godwin's? more » | Other threads
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metafilter
1,259 insults on one page
As a human being with a soul in there somewhere, I've avoided blogging about the Xeni-Violet scandal. But as a wannabe comedy writer, I found myself obsessively poring over the 1,200-plus Metafilter comments on our report. I'd forgotten why I love-hated Metafilter: It's a boyzone of spiteful, pseudonymous insult comics, but many are snappy with the English language. "Instead of calling it what it is, they're going to clown us with semantics." Red meat for you guys at MeFi: The "homophobic" headline on yesterday's post was added by big gay Owen Thomas himself. Discuss.
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By Paul BoutinComment by Paul Boutin: @jsavimni: Linked. Don't ever write for The Economist. more » | Other threads
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full disclosure
The Valleywag-Boing Boing sex map
"Did you sleep with Violet Blue? I can't keep track," my editor IM'd me. He's not nosy; he's just trying to stay on top of things. To help him — and you — out, I've dashed off this sex map of l'affaire Boing Boing, including my own involvement. (Why didn't Xeni Jardin just do this in the first place? In retrospect, that seems easier than taking the abuse she's now getting.) Jardin thinks blogging one's personal life is "stupid," but then, I get to report for an operation where my seriously gay editor factchecks the difference between "lesbian" and "girl-on-girl." And if we're fucking the people we're reporting on, we'll tell you. So no, I did not sleep with Violet Blue. Even though she asked. More »
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Comment by lastweeksdate: the map isn't very clear. how to do i get to nick? more » | Other threads
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geek love
How Xeni and Violet's Boing Boing affair went sour
What turned culture-jamming tech blog Boing Boing into the kind of censorious monster it normally ridicules? Beyond its initial statement that the reasons are "personal," Boing Boing hasn't elaborated, but all signs point to the foundering of a once-romantic friendship between Boing Boing editor Xeni Jardin and Violet Blue, the sex blogger whose many links from Boing Boing were erased last year. (Full disclosure: Jardin is Valleywag's favorite gendertastic sex-robot space princess from the future, while Violet Blue has contributed to Fleshbot, a porn blog published by Valleywag owner Gawker Media. Blue once approached Valleywag contributor Melissa Gira Grant for sex, but was rebuffed.) In an email to Valleywag, pasted below, Blue continues to profess ignorance of what she did wrong; she also dismisses her entanglement with Jardin as a friendship laced with casual sex. Blue's own photo of the two at Kink.com party, shown here, suggests, in its entangled limbs, that the relationship was more serious than that. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Erin91: I wasn't aware that a practical invisibility potion and/or ray had been invented. Did any of you know that had... more » | Other threads
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blogging for dollars
Did the Internet's free-speech guardians try to hush up a girl-on-girl love affair?
As new media gets big, it remains small at heart — and not in a good way. Boing Boing, the popular tech-culture blog, has offered a tardy defense of its mass deletion of posts mentioning a sex blogger from its archive, and it amounts to this: Because Boing Boing started as a personal blog, it's entitled to be as petty, as hypocritical, and as inconsistent as a 14-year-old girl with a MySpace page. Never mind the fussing about so-called "censorship" — though one would be sure that, had this happened at another website, we'd be reading all about it at Boing Boing, with its editors in a righteous nerd froth. The excuse that "it's personal" would ring more true if we weren't talking about a media enterprise whose audience exceeds that of Conde Nast's Epicurious.com, or the publicly traded finance site TheStreet.com. While Boing Boing's revenues are unknown, the site formed the cornerstone of Federated Media, an online-advertising startup which has already made founder John Battelle — Boing Boing's "band manager" — a multimillionaire. Oh, and did we mention that Violet Blue, the sex blogger in question (and contributor to Gawker Media's Fleshbot), shown here at right, used to be the lover of Boing Boing editor Xeni Jardin, left? More » -
blogging for dollars
Blogger completely deleted from Boing Boing archives
Violet Blue, a popular local blogger, columnist, sex educator and contributor to Gawker Media's smutty sister Fleshbot, seems to have rubbed someone at Boing Boing the wrong way. She discovered that nearly all the posts on the site that mentioned her or her work had disappeared — save for one, a post from last year on the Top 10 Sex Memes from 2006. Shortly after that post was discovered via Google site search, it disappeared as well. More »
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By Jackson WestComment by loyaleagle: It's such an odd move by them. I mean did they think it wouldn't be noticed? more » | Other threads
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your privacy is an illusion
Okay to be evil in India
Google has reportedly turned over the necessary information to identify an Orkut user who wrote "I hate Sonia Ghandi." The Indian government had the name of the perpetrator, Rahul Vaid, but Google provided the IP address that pinpointed his location. This is not the first time Google has helped a foreign government go after its own citizens. After the jump, Boing Boing TV filmed the art pranksters from the Billboard Liberation Front and Monochrom teaming up to help Google advertise their close relationship with the ruling Chinese Communist Party's Internet censors — on the day of Google's annual shareholder meeting, no less. "Do no evil" seems pretty darn flexible if you're a moral relativist with profitable interests in international markets. More »
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By Jackson WestComment by ValerieSextus: Why is this such big news? 'Online Harassment' is a class 1 misdemeanor in Virginia, and it could be something... more » | Other threads
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jackpot
John Battelle takes $22 million in fuck-you money
Anyone telling you that Federated Media, the online ad network which reps Boing Boing, GigaOm, TechCrunch and other blogs, has raised $50 million from investors is dead wrong. It's true, Oak Investment Partners and others paid $50 million for shares of Federated. But only half of that went to the company, we're told; the rest went to founder John Battelle and other employees. According to our source, Battelle's take was roughly 90 percent of the insider shares sold, or about $22 million. More » -
bloggers
Why No One Should Ever Buy Gawker, Boing Boing, Or TechCrunch
Portfolio, which Condé Nast started because there were no other credulous business magazines, has a story on why media companies should buy blogs, which is of course entirely wrong. Here's why Gawker Media, TechCrunch, Boing Boing and every other blog making over a million dollars should never be for sale. More »
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By Nick DouglasComment by Nick Douglas: @hhpeterson13: Chris Mohney (Gawkerist, then Gawker and Gridskipper - he just left the latter), Andrew Krucoff (Young Manhattanite, then like... more » | Other threads
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boing boing tv
Xeni Jardin invades my brain
I should be making some witty remark about Boing Boing blogger Xeni Jardin's visit to the workshops of Your Psycho Girlfriend, makers of offbeat reclaimed-materials couture and taxidermy-infused tech. But really, the whole time I watched this clip, I kept thinking, "Xeni Jardin is a gay trangender alien visitor from the future. And I for one welcome our possum-keyboard-bearing overlords."
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By Owen ThomasComment by queensissy: Jenny's got 100% female hips and ass (brava to that, by the way); otherwise I'd say her real name is... more » | Other threads
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joel johnson
Gadget blogger takes on AT&T on AT&T's show
AT&T wants to scan all your emails and downloads for illicit content. Not very happy about that, Boing Boing gadget blogger Joel Johnson brought up the topic on The Hugh Thompson Show. Which is, of course, distributed exclusively on the Web over the AT&T Tech Channel. Because Johnson eventually got the audience involved, the first take of the interview likely won't make it to the episode's final cut. But troublemaking Gawker Media videographer Richard Blakeley took his own footage for the clip above. "I was tackled by 3 guys trying to get the footage out of the building," Blakelely tells us. CES wishes they had such security.
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Comment by lawnsprinkler: Of course it won't make the final cut, nothing either of them says makes any sense. more » | Other threads
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clips
Xeni Jardin cloning experiment results in deep-fried cell phones
Boing Boing's Xeni Jardin deep-fries cell phones. There's also a fade transition three and a half minutes into the video which features two split-screen Xenis. I thought for a moment Jardin had been successfully cloned.
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By Owen ThomasComment by pud: i hate quirky san francisco shit. yes i live here. more » | Other threads
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embargo breakers
Boing Boing cranking out even more video
Sorry Xeni, but I snarfed your embed code from IM. Boing Boing TV has added a new series of off-the-cuff vlogs to their slicker-production daily videos. In the first episode due Friday morning, Joel Johnson (blogosphere oldster — remember Gizmodo? Wired? Yeah, old) plays with a toy copter and a retro-chic radio. Full press-releasey post from Xeni after the jump. More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by meanguy: "imagine Cory wandering around in Tokyo with a handheld camera pointing out cool stuff he's seeing that day" wow, it's like... more » | Other threads
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clips
Xeni Jardin gets freaky with a nasty Santa
The ironic stance, the knowing wink, the deadpan tone: They've all become cliche in Web-culture documentaries. Boing Boing's Xeni Jardin explodes the genre by taking footage of rampaging Santas and turning it into a music video. My prediction: Xeni's confession, "I'm really freaked out," will become a ringtone before the end of the year.
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By Owen ThomasComment by Carlos: I thought xeni jardin was like a hot chick video blogger. So much for internetfamous more » | Other threads
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mindless entertainment
Even the ad is funny. In a really stupid way, but funny. -
boing boing
Lolcats history video — yes, it's a gag
Boing Boing's video tracing the origins of Lolcats to a 1912 comic strip, The Laugh Out Loud Cats, is a parody. Or a satire. Or whatever it's a joke OK? I would say I can't believe people think this thing is for real, except they do. -
burning man
Simpsons director sets tuba on fire
In the Nevada desert, the extreme-geek subcultures of Silicon Valley and Hollywood meet, breed, and raise mutant offspring. That's the only explanation I can come up for why Xeni Jardin is interviewing Simpsons director David Silverman about his sideline of playing a flaming tuba. Best part, of course, is when he plays the Simpsons theme as flames spurt out of the instrument.
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By Owen ThomasComment by shutupstellaismyshit.com: "very comfortable for burning in" ? LOL uhhhh ok.... :) and hearing him play the simpsons theme was almost as... more » | Other threads
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the new hotness
The five sites you must stop reading (and five to replace them)
Is the Onion still funny, or have you just gotten used to reading it so you haven't seen it decline from its '90s heyday to the pool of mediocrity it is today? How about Boing Boing, McSweeney's, CNN.com, or Perez Hilton? It's time to feel bad about what you like, for that is the path to enlightenment, or at least to not being that dink who IMs me month-old jokes about Bush. More » -
copyfight
Cory Doctorow to successful people: Die Hard!
Science fiction writer, Boing Boing editor, and copyright activist Cory Doctorow claims the blockbuster movie is doomed. It would certainly validate his worldview. In Doctorow's mind, there are two kinds of people: Greedy moguls who will exploit copyright in every conceivable way to preserve their multibillion-dollar profits from schlock movies, and noble-minded indie auteurs — all of whom surely agree with his extreme view that "art" should be copied and distributed freely. They'll make it up on popcorn sales. More »
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By Tim FaulknerComment by fredbo: I've always liked much about Doctorow, but his rabid "copyfighting" really bugs me. If he wants to give his stuff... more » | Other threads
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great moments in journalism
Cory Doctorow (!?!) accused of copyright violation
Science fiction writer and Boing Boing editor Cory Doctorow has made a career out of finely parsing copyright issues. He's lectured on the topic as a visiting professor at the University of Southern California. So it seems kind of weird that Doctorow would cut and paste a 600-word satire by A Wizard of Earthsea author Ursula K. Le Guin onto Boing Boing and leave off the last line: "copyright © Ursula K. Le Guin, 2007." The result: An outstandingly huffy email from a spokesman for Le Guin. But there's more to the story. More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by rod: Cory's craven begging-for-forgiveness while simultaneously maintaining that he hasn't done anything wrong says something: if you're famous and all involved... more » | Other threads
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unicorn chaser
Boing Boing TV's secret code cracked
I'm coming to like Boing Boing TV as telegenic Xeni Jardin loosens up on camera. The willfully dorky Mark Frauenfelder has ditched the Mitt Romney look he sported in the pilot for a more fitting mad scientist getup. But in Studio City hipster-speak, the latest "ep" opens with a "bumper" of 36 rapid-fire 8-bit images. Whoa wait, what were those? I tracked down the artist, Adam Koford, who explained the subliminal list of Boing Boing's pet obsessive topics. More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by Trackback: Tireless Valleywag gumshoe Paul Boutin has an expos?? out today on those subliminally fleeting 8-bit characters you see in Boing... more » | Other threads
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blogging for dollars
Has Boing Boing sold out?
Did Boing Boing, Digg and Engadget bloggers get paid to appear in Virgin America's ads? Who cares! Bloggers don't believe in the complicated conflict-of-interest rules of traditional news reporters, any more than rappers care about classic rock's stance against "selling out." Virgin, Microsoft and other household names don't need to pay famous-for-the-Internet people to appear in their marketing campaigns. Bloggers do it for the far more valuable quid pro quo of being associated with a bigger brand. Be honest: You would, too. -
online video
"Xeni Jardin ... serves as a muse and screen-saver for fanboys everywhere." So claims New York Times media writer David Carr today, in a favorable take on the glam-o-tronic blonde's new role as anchor of Boing Boing TV. We love her, but if anyone has ever actually seen a fucking Xeni Jardin screensaver, let us know. As for your "serves as a muse" metaphor, Mr. Carr, save it for Penthouse.
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By Paul BoutinComment by joaquin: Plenty of non-computery types say "screen-saver" when they mean "wallpaper". more » | Other threads
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online video
Virgin America delivers captive audience to Boing Boing TV
God, I love scooping John Battelle on his own business. If you've been wondering when the hell you'll have time to sit still long enough to watch Xeni Jardin talk about vaginal ads and butt-biting bugs — they're big in Japan! — here's your answer. Virgin America, crazy billionaire Richard Branson's irreverent new airline (Branson toyed with the idea of renaming coach class to "Riff Raff"), will carry the equally iconoclastic tech blog's new video venture, Boing Boing TV, as part of its inflight seat back programming. We should've seen this coming when Virgin asked Boing Boingers to name one of their planes. Until Virgin's promised inflight Wi-Fi networks are deployed, this'll be the next best thing to surfing YouTube from 30,000 feet over Illinois.
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By Paul BoutinComment by Trackback: Soon, when you fly on Virgin America, you'll be able to watch Boing Boing tv episodes on the in-flight entertainment... more » | Other threads
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online video
Boing Boing TV travels back in time 50 years
There's something retro about Boing Boing tv, the new daily video from the wacky superblog. Not just the archival videoclips that make up half the show. BBtv's anchors, Xeni Jardin and Mark Frauenfelder, are shot in classic TV news-anchor style. The most popular videoblogs broke the rules. Ze Frank spent hours each day stitching together multiple angles of the same monologue. Rocketboom took the other tack — just let the camera run. Boing Boing's hosts are in the middle ground occupied by CNN — one straight take of a talking head reading a script. It feels dated, out of step with the website's glib groove. I want the show to succeed, so yo, BB: How about revising the format? And trim the 15-second intro down to two before the action starts. You're almost as slow to roll as The GigaOm Show's 23 seconds, an online video eternity.
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By Paul BoutinComment by Nick Douglas: Ze's delivery had a lot to do with his success, as it kept him interesting even on the days of... more » | Other threads
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Thu Jul 9
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