Because it speaks to the AdBuster in me: http://stilldrinking.org/trolling-marketers-for-profit-and-pleasure
Culture jamming big data
The most unwanted song
Vicki [1], of Do-or-DIY [2] fame, filled in for a show on WFMU [3] over Christmas Eve. I’ve been subscribed to the Do-or-DIY podcast feed [4] since I was a wee lad. And now I’ve finally caught up to Christmas in my podcast listening.
All of this to say that about halfway through the show she plays a track called The World’s Most Unwanted Song [5].
An international poll was conducted with 500 respondents asking what people liked most and liked least in a song. Then the results were handed off to conceptual artists Komar and Melamid [6]. From these results they created the world’s most un/wanted songs. From the survey, the most unwanted things in a song include
- Opera
- Rap
- Country ballads
- Bagpipes
- Ooompa bands
- Holiday/Festival/Christmas music
- Children’s voices
So they took all of this and combined them into a song. The World’s Most Unwanted Song. Which, oddly enough, is completely awesome! Really, if you have a spare 22 minutes, give it a go.
My favorite lyric (at the moment):
Ramadan! Ramadan!
Lots of praying with no breakfast!
It is with a complete lack of surprise that I say that the World’s Most Wanted Song is entirely forgettable.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_Like_Us_%28musician%29
[2] http://wfmu.org/playlists/pl
[3] http://wfmu.org/
[4] http://wfmu.org/podcast/PL.xml
[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gPuH1yeZ08
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komar_and_Melamid
Consternation
This is not at all surprising. And yet I chafe at the idea that my suspicions have been confirmed. The ‘Door Close’ button on most elevators isn’t even wired up. http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/595/do-close-door-buttons-on-elevators-ever-actually-work.
Elegant
I just wrote some damned elegant XSL today. Feeling moderately chuffed about that.
Chilly
The National Weather Service graphic somehow makes it seem worse…
In remembrance
This is the sort of obituary I want when I go: http://www.neatorama.com/2015/01/02/obituaries-to-remember/
It’s hockey time in Omaha
Ready for a Hamms tallboy or three and the opportunity to direct some verbiage at my least favorite USHL team–Waterloo. Here’s to hoping they got into town too late to hold their traditional referee potluck dinner so we get the calls this time around.
Death by fire
Yet another reason for hating on Microsoft: NTLM. Specifically, that some folks insist on running SOAP services protected by NTLM. More particularly, SOAP services that are intended to be consumed by platforms other than Windows. And especially that no cross-platform scripting or programming language has native support for NTLM. With the coup de grace being that all of this sits on the corporate LAN–ostensibly shielded from those who would attack it by the full force of $COMPANY’s firewall.
So do I hate Microsoft or just the people who want to impose Microsoftian $FOO on an internal, polycultural ecosystem? Given that it is Monday and that the office is running at half capacity I’ll be generous and hate them both with equal fervor.
Oh, and by the way: Microsoft officially no longer supports NTLM because it is easily spoofed. So there’s that too.
Vibratory wrist
I’m experiencing alert fatigue. For the last 50 or so minutes, my watch has been buzzing me every 30 seconds to keep me abreast of the Leicester City vs. Tottenham score. Soccer does not move that fast. Please, just tell me when the score changes.
Similar issues with hockey and football games. Once Google Now thinks it has you figured out, the notifications are relentless.
Angry lizard
This could have been sent as a followup to a theoretical conversation one could imagine overhearing in CubeLand on a day like today:
