Tech

477 posts

Adventures in Survey Research Part 1.5: The Background

So, you’re probably thinking, “That first post made no sense. Of course I’ll keep reading!” It’s okay. I never seem to be able to start at the beginning. SO.  In the interest of explaining what survey research actually is, how it works in practice, and what it aims to accomplish, I’ll backtrack and give you just a little about the tools and methods that are commonly used. Get out your notebooks everyone, I’m going to get all teachery for a bit. If you’d rather be on Facebook, or sleeping, or texting, there’s the door.

Adjusts glasses. Continue reading →

Craigslost – Bots and Slim Finally Get the Band Back Together

We know how much you crazy kids love Craigslost. It’s a veritable institution, like 60 Minutes, or racism. But it so happens that the dark and perverted netherworld of Craigslist.org is simply too much for one man to trawl. Navigating the fine line between hilarious and disgusting is quite a workout.

Why is it so exhausting? Well first of all, the intrepid CL explorer has to learn all sorts of pervert shorthand. It’s probably a lot like being in the military. For example, when it says “BBC” in the title it’s not in fact an ad for Doctor Who fetishists. It actually means Big Black Cock. I learned that after innocently/stupidly clicking on the ad and being greeted with a giant picture of a BBC. I now have BBC PTSD.

So it’s a lot of hard work… and that’s why the legendary (and fellow ATLien) Slim Pickins has joined the Craigslost team. She put on her bio-hazard suit, strapped on the slime goggles and went digging with me for the best psycho-trash we could find. Let’s get to the fuckery!

Warning: Craigslost is NSFW. 
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Chick-fil-A Fighting Vermont Tee-shirt Artist Over Use of “Kale”

Even though we are heading into the holiday season, let’s not get overwhelmed by good will. Some people deserve to be on Santa’s “naughty” list. In this case it’s Chick fil-A who’s going after Bo Muller-Moore, a Montpelier, VT tee-shirt maker for his website selling tee-shirts and bumper stickers with the slogan “Eat More Kale.” Chick fil-A insists Muller-Moore’s website eatmorekale.com conflicts with their website and slogan, eatmorchikin.com. Continue reading →

Elvis Costello Wants You to Buy a Louis Armstrong Record

When the music industry is failing and no one is buying CDs the solution is always to charge more money. It worked for Abercrombie and Fitch earlier this decade right?  Oh wait…

When the content creators are asking you to charge less money and willing to take the pay cut the solution is always to charge more. It’s worked really well for the airlines right?  Oh wait… Continue reading →

V-12 Engine in the Palm of Your Hand

Alright guys, I know this is long, but check it out.  It is one of the smallest working engines I’ve seen completely built from scratch in this guy’s time off from work.

I swear to you that when it starts running off of the compressed air towards the end I squealed like a 12 year old girl at a Justin Beiber concert.  Maybe not a first, or even an insane breakthrough, but the fact that someone put this much time and effort into precision machining and designing this thing deserves some serious props. Continue reading →

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback Sucks

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback denies reports that he sucks

An eighteen-year-old Kansas high school student,  Emma Sullivan went on a field trip to Topeka, where she got to enjoy a speech from Kansas governor and laughable 2008 presidential candidate Sam Brownback.  The speech–probably as electrifying the stirring oratory that vaulted Brownback to almost seventh place in Iowa’s caucus in 2008–was so moving that Emma couldn’t wait to tweet about it. “OMG Sam Brownback is awesome! A dreamboat!” she tweeted enthusiastically. Continue reading →

Things You Can Now Do If You Take Your Multivitamins

My good internet friend sent me a link to this story and, like all news stories on the internet, I briefly scanned it, barely digested what it was about, and started making jokes about it in my head.

The story seems to be about a study that has found there’s a correlation between taking multivitamins, feeling a sense of invulnerability, and doing risky and/or stupid things. Continue reading →

You’re Probably Causing Your Own Identity Theft

SplashData has released their list of the 25 worst passwords of 2011. Of course, you should know exactly what they’re talking about. Those six digits or so that you plug in whenever you want to access your bank account, your email, and all the stuff that’s really important to you so Skynet won’t be able to steal your identity and then make Terminators in the year 2152. Whatever. You can’t stop Skynet. Silly humans. Anyway, in your valiant attempt to control sentient robots, there is a list of passwords an infant in Albuquerque could crack, so maybe you shouldn’t use them.

Continue reading →