tech@vedella

Back in 2010, I blogged the video of Jules Mattsson, a 15-year-old freelance photographer who was stopped by police while shooting an Armed Forces Day parade in London. The police inspector took down his details, told him it was an offense under the Terrorism Act to take pictures of soldiers, told him that the police [...]

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has died, CNN reports. And with him dies a great novelty Tumblog. I think I just heard every venture capital firm fire up their private jets. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il dead, state TV reports - CNN

The Modern Phoenix website has a great article about the history of Van Buren Street, "the former glory of Phoenix’s brightest thoroughfare that served as the 'Eastern Gateway' to the city." I liked the many washed-out old photos of hotels and other long-gone businesses in the article. Phoenix billed itself as the "Motel Capital of [...]

Robbo sez, Puppets, songs, the Flying Spaghetti Monster and Charles Dickens - all that and more are in our internet video holiday special: "Ruffus The Dog's Christmas Carol". Not just for kids, it's an unusual half-hour take on Dickens's classic - released under a Creative Commons License. Funded partly through IndieGoGo and a lot of [...]

How much has it cost the entertainment industry to convince Rep Lamar Smith to introduce and ram through SOPA, which will cost the American economy billions, which will nuke the games, microprocessor, search, and other high tech companies in his Texas district? A mere $50K a year for 10 years. You know, it's one thing [...]

In case you were trying to figure out how broken the Internet will be if SOPA passes, have a look at this article and this article from DynDNS, one of the world's leading DNS providers. (Thanks, Adam!)

TorrentFreak continues its prolonged spelunk through the database compiled by YouHaveDownloaded, a list of participants in infringing BitTorrent swarms, indexed by IP address. Today, it's a look at what's been downloaded by the IP blocks controlled by the RIAA (who have advocated that ISPs should be required to disconnect customers whose networks are used in [...]

MPAA Chairman Chris Dodd is making the rounds in DC, trying to gin up support for the Stop Online Piracy Act, which establishes a national censorship regime in which whole websites can be blocked in the US if the MPAA objects to them. The former senator turned shill has run out of plausible arguments in [...]

Link. Some context. A related video. A NY Mag article. A Boston Globe article. Ape Lad is the guy behind this. I give it massive uptwinkles.

One of the great vocal artists of our time has died. I saw Cesária Évora play once, many years ago, and she really was the "barefoot diva." Her voice filled the auditorium, and it seemed to pierce through the roof to fill the skies above. She died today in her native town of Mindelo, on [...]

The LA Times has a really interesting and well-done four-part series on autism. The central question: Does the increase in people diagnosed with autism represent an actual increase in prevalence of autism, or an increase in diagnosis and awareness? The evidence presented in the Times story seems to suggest the latter. In the first part [...]

Outtacontext says: "There is a controversy brewing in Leesburg, VA over just what constitutes a 'holiday display.' The traditional creches have already been joined this year by a skeleton Santa nailed to a cross and displays put up by atheists. Members of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster are scheduled to put up their [...]

Alec Macgillivray (Twitter General Counsel, former Google attorney, Berkman Fellow) has a great post explaining how SOPA might impact everyday Americans: The harm that does to ordinary, non-infringing users is best described via a hypothetical user: Abe. Abe has never even so much as breathed on a company’s copyright but he does many of the [...]

On OffbeatBride, a great (but complicated) HOWTO for making your own polyhedral chocolate dice molds from your D&D dice, and then cast delicious chocolates from it: Before we begin, some disclaimers. First and foremost: This is about as complicated and expensive (net cost: $100 + shipping) a mold as you're likely to get, for anything [...]

Via Reddit, where one commenter says, "Those pesky gays, ruining the family structure what with all the genuine, unconditional love and affection they shower on their kids/grandkids." (thanks,

Google claims that Universal had no basis for removing the "Mega Song" video posted in support of the MegaUpload service (which Universal is trying to drive off the Internet). Earlier this week, a court filing from Universal suggested that the company had negotiated the right to remove videos it doesn't own from YouTube as part [...]

Last week's SOPA hearings were punctuated by facepalming moments in which learned members of the House Judiciary Committee dismissed the distinguished engineers who say the bill weakens Internet security. They said things like, "I'm no nerd, but I just don't believe it." Well, you don't have to be a "nerd" to understand a) what DNSSEC [...]

π * 1,337% = 42 (ish). (via Reddit)

Fort Magic is a kit for building fabric forts; Tinkertoy-like connectors and rods are combined to make a frame that you can stretch blankets over to make elaborate, cool, fun play-forts -- teepees, airplanes, castles, etc. Fort Magic (autoplays sound, argh) (Thanks, JahFurry!)

[Video Link, created by justin johnson] via Joe Sabia