Elliott C. Back: In Aere Aedificare

Do you think they look alike at all?

I found this via The Triumph of Bullshit; it’s a real gem:

Just plug your SnūzNLūz in and either connect it to your network via the RJ45 jack on the back, or via WiFi (WPA supported) if available. Then simply configure via the embedded web browser configuration utility. From here it’s a snap. Simply select your online banking institution from the list of supported banks (currently over 1600 are supported). Supply your login information and then select your favorite HATED charity or non-profit from the included lists (over 6200 currently supported). Then plug in your donation amount per snooze incident ($10 or more), set the time, and alarm, and voila, instant time profit!

You always wonder when you’re writing code if the undocumented part of the API which produces a bizarre side effect is a carefully thought out feature, or a bug. Well, now thanks to this lovely photo by Dratz you know:

It was a feature all along.

Live from the Honolulu International Airport, I bring you the following conversation I shared with the Transport Security Administration about the photography of their checkpoint.

Me: Is there any specific written tsa regulation prohibiting photography?

TSA Captain: Yes there is. Phography is not allowed.

Me: Can I see this in writing?

TSA Captain: I can’t let you see that.

Me: Then how do I know it exists?

TSA Captain: I just told you.

Obviously there is a problem here; I don’t mind not being able to take photos (national security, yada yada) but TSA as a government agency has to at least inform the public of its regulations. How can anyone be held responsible for violating a regulation they could not possibly know exists.

I like the idea behind Pirate Bay’s new image hosting venture Bay Image, which is free, unrestricted image hosting outside of political influence or police control. I like the idea that visual information can find a free home. However, they have a big problem at the moment, which is the massive amounts of porn being uploaded. Just take a look at their tag cloud and it becomes clear what BayImg really is: a free porn hosting site:

They have a “report image” link, but according to their terms on the front page, these kind of images are probably ok:

Bayimg is a place where you can host all your images. We do not censor them. We believe in freedom of speech, it’s of utter importance to us. As long as your pictures are legal they will be hosted here, but we reserve the right to remove images due to technical reasons though.

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