More interesting bookmarks

[jack]

In my previous post, I described some of the bookmarks I keep around because I keep thinking they're awesome, even if I don't need them for anything http://cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com/797921.html

Here are some more:

100 Movie spoilers in 5 minutes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN5avIvylDw

If you're bored of all classic and not-so-classic movies having their endings spoiled in casual conversation and want to get it all out of the way at once, here is one of the most efficient movie-ending spoilers. It's really funny :)

This is another recent entry into the group that's not an internet classic yet, I just happened to really like it myself.

Also see http://xkcd.com/109/

Geek hierarchy

http://brunching.com/geekhierarchy.html

Here is a helpful schematic illustrating which groups of internet users consider themselves less geekier that which other groups of internet users, starting with "published science fiction authors" and working its way down through many different groups.

Some relations go both ways, eg. between "anime fans who insist on subtitles" consider "anime fans who don't care about subtitles" more geeky, and vice versa.

Note that it records how people see each other. It's not saying there's anything wrong with writing erotic furry self-insertion startrek fiction, just that if you do, many people will consider you nerdy.

Also see brief FAQ: http://brunching.com/features/geekhierarchyfpq.html

OUTLINE FOR AN UNWRITTEN EPIC NOVEL
BY LARRY NIVEN

http://web.archive.org/web/20090107002647/http://www.noreascon.org/users/sflovers/u1/ftp/pub/sf-lovers/fandom/fiction/down-in-flames.txt

Before Niven wrote ringworld, a friend suggested to him an awesome and convoluted plan to write a novel explaining how the entire history of known space (slavers and tnunctipun, galactic core explosion, etc, etc) was all a giant hoax, but the existing stories (Beowulf Shaeffer) are all consistent with what "really" happened.

I don't think I'd enjoy reading it as a novel, but I was really interested to see how he envisaged it, partly to see what the state of the Known Space novels was before Ringworld, which were the main novels I read. (This history was incompatible with Ringworld, and abandoned when he wrote that.)

Shamus Young, Geeky non-MTG-player author of DM of the Ringsdescribes a game of Magic:The Gathering at PAX

http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=11015#more-11015

1) Before starting, make sure you have the following equipment: A pair of twenty sided dice, some sort of chips or markers, an iPhone, and about $5,000 worth of cards. A table and a couple of chairs would be nice if you have any money left over.
2) Your opponent may have arranged his deck in a way that will make his cards useful. To thwart this, cut his deck, just once, more or less in the middle. Note that if he’s a total jackass he might do the same to you.
3) Draw several cards, look at them, say “mulligan”, and then discard them and draw some more. There is a provision in the rules that allows you to play with the first set of cards you draw, but nobody ever does this.
...