First use of "pirates" in the "copyright" sense - 1703

"As to Answers, Banters, True-English Billinsgate, I expect them till no body will buy, and then the Shop will be shut. Had I wrote it for the Gain of the Press, I should have been concern’d at its being Printed again and again, by Pyrates, as they call them, and Paragraph-Men: But would they but do it Justice, and print it True, according to the Copy, they are welcome to sell it for a Penny, if they please." - D. Defoe "The True Born Englishman" (1703)

Yes, I was surprised too.

Thinking about Google+ and the #nymwars...

Wouldn't you like to get away?
Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your 'nym,
they don't know you're a her or him.
You wanna be where you're not seen,
'cos everyone looks the same.
You wanna be where nobody knows
your name.

Incredible movies that will never get made...

There is occasionally discussion of a movie version of Ender's Game. I don't think that the novel would work well on the big screen, though it might make a cable TV series.

The short story, however, is a different matter. I think it would make an excellent movie...

...if it was produced by Miyazaki.

Unthink Direct Marketing

If you've been following my Google Plus stream, I've been poking around "Unthink", the new social network that claims that they're "not Facebook".

It seems to me that they're being a whole lot more Facebook than Facebook dares to be. With a dash of OKCupid...

 ...and a pinch of LinkedIn...

...and a big heaping spoonful of direct marketing...

... oh maybe there's a reason for that!

More Verbogeny - WASPonym

I've done some more verbogeny...

WASPonym

A whitebread pseudonym chosen to avoid letting a restrictive social networking site such as Facebook know that you're using a pseudonym.

When bitten by a vampire...

It's vitally important that you know what mythos, TV show, or popular fiction series your vampire is from. A vampire bite can be anything from an isolated event that leaves you feeling unsettled for a few days, to the beginning of a nightmare of damnation and unholy cravings.

Something you don't want to see in your kernel source.

_stime()
{
/*
   ifnot (super())
   {
   udata.u_error = EPERM;
   return(-1);
   }
   sttime(tvec);
   return(0);
*/

   udata.u_error = EPERM;
   return(-1);
}