Catching up on linkblogging.

Comic Strips

  • I found a printout of this User Friendly comic strip while cleaning out my old desk last month. Ah, tech support! Help, I can’t send e-mail!
  • XKCD on spambots vs. constructive comments (warning: language)
  • Two comic strips about book collections: Wondermark and Girl Genius. I stumbled on the Wondermark strip at Long Beach Comic-Con (write-up should be done today is online) and it really hit home, between the fact that I grew up loving books for exactly this reason, and the impending arrival of the next generation. As for Girl Genius, I think Castle Heterodyne’s library could give the Beast’s a run for its money.
  • Fake Science explains the difference between regular and decaf coffee. Insert obligatory “It was ground this morning” joke.
  • C-Section Comics shows the difference between iPhone, Android and Blackberry users. For the record: Android user, picked up the link from an iPhone user. Hmm…

Photos

Other Stuff

  • Someone wants to buy a cosmic treadmill from me: Umm…Not For Sale?
  • Wrapping up Cyber Security Awareness Month at the Internet Storm Center. If you use a computer, you should at least take the time to look through this.
  • Gotta love the MPAA’s priorities. A brief scene of therapeutic swearing earns the same rating as an entire film full of graphic, gruesome torture: The King’s Speech vs. Saw 3D.

Crispian Jago presents the history of science as a subway map (cool visualization).

The comic strip The Oatmeal tackles the irony of mobile app pricing. Or, in the worlds of “Weird Al” Yankovic: “I hate to waste a buck ninety-nine.”

A 19th-century terraforming experiment: Ascension Island’s artificial ecosystem, instigated by Charles Darwin.

Author Seanan McGuire explains why movies’ financial success matters to fans: Since Scott Pilgrim failed at the box office, similar movies aren’t going to be funded for quite a while. I’ve actually been meaning to write up something similar, but haven’t gotten around to it.

Fake Science diagrams the Types of Plugs. I’m going to have to hang on to this one for the “shameless” variety.

Nmap has a nice visualization of the Internet’s top websites: Icons of the Web

Leverage has put up a set of short video clips from their Comic-Con presentation. Let’s go steal a Comic-Con. (Interestingly enough, they picked some of the same bits I did for my own write-up of the event.)

Hilarious. People working on viruses are actually sending their crash reports to Microsoft — including the malicious code!

The Bad Astronomer presents: Top 5 Ways the Universe Could Wipe Out Humankind. He goes into these threats (some likely, some unlikely, and some certain — but not for millions of years) in a lot more detail in his book, Death from the Skies!, which is a fascinating read.