RMS's epic 22 page tour rider

No mention of brown M&Ms, or of spider-plants.

I think this must be a quite helpful document, because anyone who reads even the first quarter of it will know exactly what they're in for.

Don't stop reading before you've gotten to the part about codecs! And parrots. And crossing the street.

And, this already exists: The Stallman Dialogs. Oh, Internet. Is there nothing you cannot provide?

Friendly conference organizer: Mr. Stallman, I'm so sorry, we're running about 15 minutes behind schedule.
Stallman: When you need to tell me about a problem in a plan, please do not start with a long apology.
Friendly conference organizer: Oh. Well, it's just that, I know your time is very important and I...Sorry.
Stallman: That is unbearably boring, and unnecessary -- conveying useful information is helpful and good, and why apologize for that?
Friendly conference organizer: ...
Stallman: If it is night, and the stars are beautiful, I hesitate to say so, lest my hosts feel obligated to try to get one for me.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

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Man builds smartphone dock into arm

This is like a mash-up of the punchlines of several campfire stories: "The calls are coming from inside the bloody hook hanging on the car door!"

Previously.

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FBI's Newest Gang Threat: Insane Clown Posse Fans

Fucking gangs. How do they work?

Other gangs cited in the report, like the Haitian Boys Posse or the Custer Street Gang, are linked to homicides, gun running, and drug trafficking. Juggalo gang activity cited by the FBI cites is a notably lower caliber: thefts, hand-to-hand drug sales and felony assaults. The FBI has recently had difficulty distinguishing ordinary American Muslims from terrorists; now it appears it has a similar problem distinguishing teenage fads from criminal conspiracies.

"Social networking websites are a popular conveyance for Juggalo sub-culture to communicate and expand," the FBI warns.

Worse, "Juggalos' disorganization and lack of structure within their groups, coupled with their transient nature, makes it difficult to classify them and identify their members and migration patterns."

Most problematically, since Juggalos evidently believe themselves to be badasses, an FBI report legitimizing their outlaw image will surely embolden them. A generation of teenagers will come to believe it is acceptable to spray each other with Midwestern-specific soda and devalue lyricism in hip hop.

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Google Nymwars, redux

I'm told that my Two Point Plan for pseudonymity was discussed at the Google all-hands meeting on Friday.

Every week, Google employees internally vote up the questions that they want the executives to answer at the meeting, and this one made the list, so CEO Larry Page read this aloud to the whole company:

jwz says, the way you "support" pseudonyms is as follows:

  1. Stop deleting peoples' accounts when you suspect that the name they are using is not their legal name.
  2. There is no step 2.

Can we do this?

To nobody's great surprise, his answer was a very long-winded "no".

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Current Music: Anon -- Come Clean ♬

David Lloyd on the V mask

Where did inspiration for the mask come from?

Our basic character was an urban guerilla fighter against a tyranny, but we needed him to be more theatrical and flamboyant and eccentric. It had been established that he would be an escapee from a medical experiment lab and mentally affected by that, so the craziness of having him adopt the persona the costume and the mission of the historic thwarted revolutionary, Guy Fawkes, seemed like a good way of giving us what we wanted for V. It was an insane brainstorm of mine that just fit into to what we needed. And I wanted his mask to be an ordinary one you could get in any store around November the 5th but we created V in the Summer so I couldn't get one anywhere, so I invented my own.

What is the meaning behind the expression on the mask?

The smile was an accident caused by my memory of the moustache on the regular masks that I couldn't find. But it was a happy accident. Meaning? Resonance, more. Smile on the face of the tiger. Smile in the face of adversity. Smile though your heart is aching. Laugh and the world laughs with you. Immovable, inviolable optimism...

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Dear Tagging Douchebags:

You have been replaced by a small shell script and a couple of motors.

Senseless Drawing Bot

Previously, previously.

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Is Tropical

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