Streaking is back! Yay!

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Security at the Australian Open was again under scrutiny Friday when a male streaker interrupted a doubles match involving the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena.

Security staff captured the man and banned him from attending the rest of the tournament after he ran on to an outside court while the sisters were playing Ayumi Morita and Martina Mueller.

Well, not everyone enjoys streaking...
More sports streakers here.

T-Mobile Web Services Outage?

Seems like T-Mobile has been having issues with their websites and web services like their mobile browsing and access to customer minutes used and the like. It may have been a pretty big outage as both computer and handheld/mobile access to their sites and services seem to have been down for at least 1.5 hours. The My T-Mobile site did come up a few minutes ago, but there was no data available on billing or minutes used.

Gibson Guitar Corp is Full of Crap...

Or at least their PR Department is. The recent hype that they are producing "the world's first self-tuning technology" for guitar is a false claim - and I'd bet they know that damn well. As do Jimmy Page, Joe Perry, Dave Beegle, Tom Keifer, Mark Slaughter, Graham Nash, Ed Roland, Masayuki Matsuyama, Pat Metheny, Rich Robinson, Mick Fleetwood, Robert Hunter, Kenny Loggins, Art Alexakis, Cameron Morgan, Oliver Leiber, David Lynch, Peter Buck, Eddie VanHalen, Peter Frampton, Sonny Landreth, Jeff Martin, Pete Townshend, Buddy Miller, Randy Saxon, Scotty Burton, Nile Rodgers, Jamey Faulkner, Randy Jackson, Matthew Curran, William Eaton, Tony Catania, Jason Bonham, Rick Springfield, Peter Cunnah - and other well known artists and producers who use TransPerformance's Self-Tuning Guitars. Their products have been on the market since the early 90's.

I can't say how the products compare, but the point is that Gibson, and by association their partners in Germany who actually came up with the self-tuning technology found in the 'Robot Guitar', are being dishonest. Which is a shame IMO. Was it really necessary to say "the first" instead of 'revolutionary' or a similar claim that would make the point that their product is cool *without* flying in the face of reality and integrity? I think this is the kind of thing that gives marketing and PR a bad name.

Pictured: the TransPerformance Gibson Special Double Cutaway. I trust the irony is not lost on anyone.

From the "More Cowbell!" Department

What this country needs, aside from a new Frank Sinatra, is more Chuck! Chuck Norris is the answer to all tough problems this country is facing - and the problems your country is facing, too! It actually doesn't matter what the problem is - Chuck will find the bad guy behind all of it and put his feet and fists to work like a cowbell track at 780 RPM. That'll fix it.

Music Industry Will Eat Itself

This might be The Most. Absurd. Thing. Yet. When it comes to organizations that police the world to supposedly protect recording artists. Exec summary: listening to the radio while working is considered unauthorized performance when others can hear the music, and is therefore a copyright infringement. OK everybody, turn down your speakers so no one else can hear what you're listening to - otherwise the music industry boogie men are going to come after you. WTF?!

Respect - shout out to Pop Will Eat Itself.

Yarrr! It's Talk Like a Pirate Day Once More, Mates!

Scroll down and refresh yerselves with last year's post. Otherwise, it be a gran' occasion t'ave a laugh at the expense of these bilge rats.

Punk Rock Lives

Or is it more a case of punk reaching out from the crypt to rattle some cages? The irony in all this is at least as remarkable as the screw-up factor at the Solo Mobile marketing department and their agency.

Update: to be clear that this post is not glossing over the horror of the holocaust here's a sobering, if not full-on creepy, view of life of the SS officers and other personnel at Auschwitz. These pictures were sent to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum last December and have recently attracted press attention.

From the 'It's About Effing Time' Department

The New York Times announced recently that it was going to drop it's paid content area, TimesSelect. That took effect last night at midnight. All I can say is it's about freaking time! I've been avoiding the site for 11 years because of this kind of crap.

I remember various hacks that people used over the years to link to articles that were (weakly) protected from viewing without registration. Their whole approach to online publishing has been so contrary to the spirit and logic of teh Interweb for so long, this is a kind of relief. In the meantime, however, many have found plenty of other excellent sources for news and opinion.

Rumor has it that The Wall Street Journal is considering a similar move away from their pay-for-content service.

From the 'Arrr' Department

What better idear fer a holiday there be? It be the new fav'rite of the captain, aye it be so, maties. What's that? Ya dunno what in the blazes I be referrin' to? Ya must be livin' under a reef, lads an' lasses. Why of course it's International Talk Like a Pirate Day and it's more entertainin' than gettin' loaded to the gunwales! Yarrr...

Set yer sails, gentlemen [and ladies] of fortune - and let's set a course fer all things relatin' to the sweet trade...

Where the madness be started
Video Instruction - Talk Like a Pirate [a must see, ya salty sea dogs]
How to Talk Like a Pirate - Terms
I'm a Pirate - Sea Shanty [it be on YouTube]
Pyrats - the Movie [avast, yar be needin' QuickTime]
A Cannon Game [blast the maddenin' tunes, tho]
Outfit yerselves wit a fine pirate dwellin'
By the powers! Pirate Radio
David Byrne be singing about Pirates

All together now, ARRR!

Update: Linus "Cap'n" Torvalds be sailin' the pirate seas as well.