The system-restore data image for Apple’s new iPhone is already loose on the internet.

My money says it’ll be under a month before the first flashable mods for the OS are available. The term ‘closed system’ has a half-life, just like radioactives.

gwot1 Originally uploaded ‘in the wild’ by brucesflickr.

You can always rely on Bruce Sterling to spot and photograph items of surreal interest - and this is no exception. I wonder if there’s any plans for a ’stupid draconian security measures’ expansion pack?

Sometimes an out-of-context headline will stop you dead in your tracks with the most ridiculous image or idea. Happened to me just minutes ago when I caught sight of this one:

“Penguin Going to Court on Plagiarism Charges.“

I could just see him, stood there in the dock with a hang-dog expression…

… but I see via the BBC website that some other folk have been having a high old time in it:

That’s just priceless.

(But the owner of those instruments is going to discover that the necks won’t agree with the temperature one little bit.)

How in hell do you keep your mind on the job at hand when there’s a view like this to distract you?

Picture originally from (and doubtless copyright of) NASA; found at Accelerating Future.

My back is wrecked again. Pictures like this are a welcome distraction.

Good news via Torque Control … there may be an Eastercon after all, despite the collapse of the Convoy bid. Contemplation 2007 promises to be a ‘lightly programmed replacement’ for Eastercon. That may not be what everyone wants to hear, but it sounds good to me - what I’m after is a chance to have a social with some other sf heads again. I’m still new to cons, and the sense of community is enough for me (though obviously having some notables about would be a bonus).

Continue reading “Eastercon back on again?”

Well, just to prove that Scalzi doesn’t have the monopoly on nice sunsets (even if he does have a far better camera):

Continue reading “Sunsets, plus the unexpected consequences of 1337-speak and search engines”

Thanks to Bruce Sterling’s sharp eye, we can now confirm that between bouts of enslaving the mortal souls of lesser beings, Cthulhu likes to go paint-pen tagging in Amsterdam:

[Image Copyright © Bruce Sterling]

You’d not want to get into a turf war with *that* dude, for certain.

Following nicely on from the future hazard signs I found the other day, here’s something even less serious, but even more amusing:

We can thank the cephalopod-obsessed PZ Myers at Pharyngula for pointing that one out. Click on the image to be taken to the originating site - the original version is *much* larger than my reposting of it here.

As a side note, what is it about Cthulhu that makes Him so popular on the intarwebs? Maybe He has awaited the coming of this technology for spreading his influence far and wide - sometimes the signal gets a little scrambled, though.

I just couldn’t resist posting this macroscopic picture of some Velcro in the process of being torn apart, for obvious reasons. How skiffy does that look? I found it via MAKEblog.