Well, here I am at Steve's house where we're connected to Mindspring at a blazing 26400 bps. That means two things. One, that Steve won't be wandering into my house at 8 in the morning to post, and two, that Maarten won't be wandering in with him. I think that's about it.

The page does load remarkably fast though for such a slow connection though, and Win2k's Internet Connection Sharing is dead simple to use. Maarten's already sitting next to me all over the porn sites, so I think everything'll be back to normal soon.

Weekend. Yahoo.

Today on quakecon: Paul J. with "Trash my map", A Raven software roundtable entitled "What do YOU want in Quake IV?", a JK2 demonstration and more. (I shall spare you the links to quakecon radio today.)

Movie: Stick all the bits of brain in a plastic bag, Barry!

Quakecon Ultra Extra Evening Reading for you. There's no way it could have been avoided, sorry! First, there's like a ton of other gaming news out there but a) I'm tired and b) nobody really cares at the moment so we'll just leave that for tomorrow or something.

And there have been a monstrous amount of ER submissions tonight (thanks!) - unfortunately too much to be included in one edition. Here's the editors pick for today:

• Trust the healing power of the penis! Or not. Fuck the doctor first, then sue for sexual assault. Best of both worlds if you ask me.
• San Fransico isn't exactly cheap, that's nothing new. So you are a well paid air traffic controller, what do you do to make ends meet? You start to rob banks. Ofcourse.
• I know you all have been waiting for something as big as this: A NFS (NES sound format) plugin for winamp! Yay!
• Check out this poor polar bear. He's hot and is taking a nap on a block of ice.
• Oh my! The chicks are totally going to dig this guy. And imagine the fun you could have with TWO of these arms!
• Picture this: You're totally into bondage, and playing some games with your favorite human. Then, suddenly the cops show up. I tell you ... that is not good for your reputation as respectable sheep.
• British people are weird. And why ask the children? There are enough big boned people in britain who could do a whole lot more damage then a bunch of featherlight kids!
• French people are even weirder. And I have no doubt they're very good at imitating pigs.
• There's also some cnn coverage of quake 4.

Special sniffs to Dognose, and the other contributors: MrShmoo, Goofyboy, Zoesch, jo-papa, and others I forgot.

And oh, this queer version of ER is dedicated to my copy of Win2K, that decided to crash the second before I tried to post the original version of this article.

I got a chuckle out of this - according to the register, an MS employee brought a code red infected laptop to work and attached it to the MS intranet. And yes, there were unpatched servers active there.

Good morning Shackland! Today, as we're all aware, will be the day id Software will make an appearance on Quakecon. According to the schedule, a general id press conference will be held from 14:00 to 15:00 (US Central Time), and John Carmack will give a presentation from 15:00 to 17:00. Both events can be followed on Quakecon Radio, but with a delay. Check the Quakecon radio website for the details.

According to Steve, things might get a little hot around here. If that happens, we'll have to cut down on comment traffic, archive some comments, redirect discussions to the forums or other unusual things. I'll be around most of the day to make sure the server doesn't blow up and you guys can post whatever is on your mind.

Movie: Sometimes I got so bored of trying to touch her breast that I would try to touch her between her legs. It was like trying to borrow a dollar, getting turned down, and asking for 50 grand instead.

Now... where was that other news?

Well, this certainly has been a day full of ups and downs. Nothing really interesting out there right now, so we'll just fast-forward to the stuff you've been waiting for the whole day - BEER! (The original, bulleted version - not the barely fake.)

• Drinking, gambling and karaoke is good for you!. A hong kong teenager scored all A's in his exams after his mother encouraged him to drink, gamble and sing. Another girl that took the same test apparantly couldn't handle the stress and lept to her death. She passed. Away, that is.
  
• technical virgins (NWS) is a site that educates teens about the choices they have in life. Be sure to check out the movies.
  
• Various funnay pictures of normal places with abnormal names: here, here and here.
  
• A flash version of the classic "Romeo et Juliette", adapted for 31337 poepel liek us.
  
• You want a cool crapper? Some English company is developing a seat that analyzes your poo, and in case of emergency - emails the doctor. The quote of the day: "Why shouldn't toilets be linked to the internet?"
• A pretty cool and pretty technical article about traffic jams. They've got animations, simulations, and even theorize about you making a real difference on the highway!
• This one is pretty old, but since it's useful information I'll just post it. It's a site with instructions for women on how to pee standing up. Everything that helps our women to experience the immense joy of pissing against a tree instead of under it is a good thing(tm).
• Want to buy a foot? Here is your chance! An injured guy is going to chop off his foot with a home-made guillotine. And you can watch it, online - if you cough up the cash.

Thanks to the contributors: freak!, jboogedy, targetboy, gegtik and Gladiator. Thanks fsck for the spellingcheck.

QCon started a few minutes ago. Expect some news from that event later on.

Anyway, For the attendees we have a Quakecon Insiders Guide by Ritualistic, listing places to get food, to party and other useful resources.

For all the people who stayed at home, you can check out the happenings on the official website and listen to live reports on Quakecon Radio. Events today include broadcasts by Paul Jaquays, Activision and Quake III FFA tournament coverage.

Holy hell late. Dunno what happened. Well I do but you wouldn't care :)

Well despite what I said yesterday morning I did see Rush Hour 2 last night. And I'm glad I did because it's probably the best movie I've seen this summer, and I'll just see it again next week. Tucker and Chan work so well together, and the movie is just one big continuation of laughs and action, that it's just hard to not like it. Far better than the original movie, which I liked a lot.

Movie: You'll be Chief Inspector of Subway Toilets by the time I'm through with you!

From the looks of it today is going to be a pretty slow newsday. I ran circles on the net trying to dig up some worthy news, but there's very little real news out there. (Probably because it's way too early)

I saw "Space Cowboys" on DVD yesterday. It's a pretty good movie, and its a real joy watching those great actors together.

Movie 1: You should never underestimate the predictability of stupidity.
Movie 2: There's no WAY we're gonna find a helicopter in this desert! (I can't believe that brilliant movie got a 4.4 on IMDB!)

(That's two quotes just because it's weekend!)

Anyway, busy day for me - I'm going to try and write some image recognition code (C++) that determines the size of gifs and jpegs, so that we can safely let you guys upload pictures on the forums. Then I'm going to test the title system so we can have titles (newbie, member, godlike, etc) and then I'm going to have to make a decision about what style of forums we're gonna have around here - Something similar to the current style or something more like the classic UBB style (or something in between). The big difference is that the current style is threaded and always has the parent article quoted in the replies, whereas UBB doesn't have that and is more like the comments system.

Plastic Cowboy Hat Image of the Day: Rick Johnson (Raven Software)

Hey... Anyone awake already?

I'll bake you guys some news. In the meanwhile you can drool over the E3 BoothBabes @ VE. (And be sure to look at all of them. Twice!)

Movie: And stop saying "okay" all the time! Okay?

... And about those boothbabes. Someone find us more pictures of this girl.

That's an Extra Early Evening Reading for you! Even George Clooney can't handle this much coolness in one episode:

• Proof Tony Blair is indeed the devil! But really, nothing new here.
  
• Mexicans apparantly have trouble recognizing hookers, and because of that the prostitutes are going to wear uniforms.
  
• I'm not sure what to think of this upcoming nintendo title for two players - Gang Bangs.
  
• Good to know that even Canadian pilots are professionals.
  
• The flying kitty from this morning had various facelifts - super kitty, super hero kitty.
  
• A captive british parrot called the police when his owner left the building for a second. It is unknown if the animal was indeed freed, or not.
  
• Some more shack-hero action right here (from xvdl) and here (various authors, I think). You can make your own superheroes with the Hero Machine!. Be sure to share your creations with the rest of us.
• A gallery of cool BSOD's. Crashed ATM's, large public screens with BSOD's, etc. Link sponsored by Red Hat.
• "The Lone Gunman" gets the boot. X-files returns, but without Mulder. (Probably with just those geeky gunmen.)

I'm expected at work early in the morning tomorrow... so this is it for me today. With a bit of luck Steve & gang will actually remember the way back to their hotel and get some more news in here.

Thanks to all the contributors: Sikander, Moz, Daemonite, illogical and eject.

Oh, I kinda screwed up the movie quote (it was posted earlier), so here is a new one: "No bugger robs pipes in the buff."

And yes, it's a bulleted list! Get over it already! Geez!

As you all know, Steve and Co. are at the E3 - probably attending the various openings right now. I'm sure they'll report in later today, but for now they've left me to watch over the server, make sure it doesn't explode, etc.

Anyway, I'll try and dig up some worthy news for you guys. In the meanwhile you can amuse yourself with the following:

• Not everyone can keep up with the pace of technology these days - and for those who can't there is no a nursing home for the technologically inept. Thanks Torias.
  
• Digitally Imported (great shoutcast site) had a pretty funny picture that shows what the world looks like according to America.
  
• Cats can fly. Better captions can be posted in the comments.

Movie: No, I am a meat popsicle!

This post goes out to the *fap* Pact because they really aren't getting any. Anyway, this right here is your werd/first post/chatty bitch post, so live it up! <evil>Post some links to some pretty girls to tempt the guys in the pact.</evil>

Anyway, I have no idea what to talk about here. Personally, i'm getting married in uh holy $*@# 9 days. Maaaaaaa'eeeeen is still European, and I hear they've taken up blowing up dead cows as sport. Steve's in Texas, because, well, Seattle has too many trees and hills and isn't hot enough for him. So, ladies and gentlemen, start your engines, get to chatting!

Maarten pointed out that today is April 20. This of course is National Pot Smoker's Day or something like that. As far as I can tell, it's as close to a religious holiday as they get in the Netherlands. *cough*potheads*cough*. So uh, celebrate or something, because I for one don't touch the stuff. Yes, the reason is: I'm a pansy.

Maarten, please put an IOTD here.

Movie Quote: Miss, you're not supposed to drink the bong water.

So I guess I suck because I have next to zero interest in the whole Oscars awards thing aside from chicks in tight dresses. It is a big deal to a lot of people though who enjoy trying to predict the winners. It seems to me that when you have to take into consideration the history and 'tastes' of the judges and not just what film is better you're not really predicting the best film but the film that best suits the tastes of the judges. Suppose that is why it is called the Academy Awards, these are the picks of the Academy. Here are the nomations and the show starts off at 5pm PST today according to the website. Some of the categories:

- Performance by an actor in a leading role
- Performance by an actor in a supporting role
- Performance by an actress in a leading role
- Performance by an actress in a supporting role
- Achievement in art direction
- Achievement in cinematography
- Achievement in costume design
- Achievement in directing

Share your prediction of what the judges will predict and win a prize!

Just for the hell of it on the weekend and all, I've compiled a few stupid stats from the past couple of years here on the comment boards.

# of times people have said "Maaaaaaaa'en: 390
# of unique people who have posted in 1999, 2000, and so far in 2001:
12,018 and 17,375 and 5,178
# of times someone has said "first post!" and first person to ever do it on Shack
3,918 and goober on August 29th, 1999.
[snip]

Apparently there has been a major Earthquake in the Pacific Northwest. 7.0(!) on the Richter scale and it's knocked out power for a large amount of the area. Steve is up there, as well as a buttload of companies that we cover on the site. Hopefully everyone and everything is OK up there, and I'm sure Steve'll do an update letting us know how he's doing.

note by Steve:Yeah fine here. Pretty long quake and some stuff fell over but thats about it.

Oh man this is just unbelievable. There is some pretty stupid and pathetic things in the world but this one here is up for the running of most pathetic parents ever. Wow: (Thanks Rob F.)

The parents of a 5-year-old Lebanese boy have been encouraging their son to smoke with the hope of entering the Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest smoker in the world. [...] It said the boy does not hesitate in smoking in front of his friends and parents, and thinks that "the cigarette is better than child toys."

They got the kid started when he was 3. Oh yeah, just had an earthquake here in Redmond. That was cool I think.

Well it being a really slow news day, and me not wanting to walk/move, I thought I'd post some news for a change. I just finished up the 10th annual Motorola Marathon in Austin this morning, and I'd have to say it was a really cool experience. I reserve the right to take back anything nice about the race if I can't get out of bed tomorrow.

Saw this MSNBC story on Stomped which talks about a new use of fibre optics. Basically they can use presure on fabric to trigger certain actions, such as your car seat moving when you touch it, clothes that play music, and all kinds of other useless (imho of course ;) ) things. But apparently they can use this touch technique in music and games as well, because of the increased sensitivity.

the next step will be videogames in which the player can tell characters to run, jump or fight “with more intuitive, natural gestures than a joystick.”
Inkster envisions couches where, to change a TV channel, you just use a finger to “write the number 7 on the arm” to change a TV channel

But the question is: do we really need it?

There is an article about a supercomputer plan of ISP Juno Online on CNet, reporting on Juno's new user agreement which has users agreeing to the fact that they are required to download software performing tasks unrelated to their Internet connection. Juno even wants people to leave their computer on 24/7 when they ask them too. This user agreement change was quietly posted on their website a few weeks ago and they only just announced it and of course consumer and privacy advocates are now throwing a hissy fit.

Ari Schwartz, a policy analyst with the Center for Democracy and Technology, worries the new rules will make it easier for government investigators to violate constitutional provisions against unreasonable search and seizure. For example, he said, weak wiretapping laws could allow federal investigators to go through Juno to gain access to customers' computers without their knowledge via the software that's installed on their machines.
"Individuals are in some ways signing over their Fourth Amendment rights by opening up their computers," Schwartz said. "It's too bad that to protect people's privacy, they have to pay extra."

Down with Juno or isn't it that bad?