DC Direct’s Bank Robber Joker 1:6 Scale Figure

In mid-December, DC Direct will release this Hot Toys-produced Bank Robber Joker 1:6 scale action figure. This thing’s got amazing detail, but you’ll have to cough up $175 for it.

1/16 Scale Golden Age Flash from DC Direct

DC Direct has announced this 1:16 scale Golden Age Flash shipping in July 2009 for $99.99.

Tabula Rasa to Shut Down Feb 2009

Richard Garriott may be reaching for the stars, but Tabula Rasa has been grounded almost since the day it was released. So it comes as no surprise that NCSoft is finally shutting the game down,

Last November we launched what we hoped would be a ground breaking sci-fi MMO. In many ways, we think we’ve achieved that goal. Tabula Rasa has some unique features that make it fun and very different from every other MMO out there. Unfortunately, the fact is that the game hasn’t performed as expected. The development team has worked hard to improve the game since launch, but the game never achieved the player population we hoped for.

So it is with regret that we must announce that Tabula Rasa will end live service on February 28, 2009.

WTF - ZDNet Registration

Someone sent me a link to a story on ZDNet about the best netbooks to buy this holiday season, and all I wanted to do was post a short comment about the MSI Wind. So I enter my comment and hit the submit button, at which point I get a page from ZDNet telling me I need to register and provide all of the following information in order to submit a comment (and it is all required except for the Address 2 field).

Are they high?

Growing Up Skipper Doll

Oh my.

HugeURL

Okay, everyone’s heard of TinyURL, but what about HugeURL — the service that will take any URL and then make it arbitrarily larger. For example, rather than linking to http://brian.carnell.com/, you could link to,

http://www.hugeurl.com/?NGZmOTAxNmRlMTVkYmI0ZmUxNjJjNWNhMmE0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That is awesome. (Found this at Nethackz.com)

The Circle Is Now Complete — Antinous Is the Master

Antinous, one of the moderators of the comment threads over at Boing! Boing! has finally surpassed Teresa Nielsen Hayden in his moderation skills. I am in awe after running across an exchange between Antinous and a user going by the handle “Harveyboing.”

Good old Harvey made the mistake of posting a comment critical of a CNN piece claiming George W. Bush had been snubbed at the G20 summitt. Harvey made the mistake of opening his post by saying, “Hey, give me a break” which Antinous righteously transformed to “h, gv m brk” before disemvoweling other parts of the post.

Harvey found this a bit hypocritical and the following exchange ensued,

#24 posted by HarveyBoing , November 20, 2008 2:22 PM

Let’s see:

“i hate bush”

“Dumber than YouTube”

“Bush is the weird pale kid who lives with his grandmother, eats liverwurst sandwiches for lunch every day, and that no one pays any attention to at all”

“an alcoholic, middle aged man desperately looking for approval one last time”

“bush is one of the shittiest leaders we ever had”

But, asking for a break, and making a factual statement about the pro-left bias in this particular CNN report, and I get disemvoweled?

Hey, Antinous…inconsistent much?

Take a look at this

#25 posted by Antinous , November 20, 2008 2:27 PM

Harvey,

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I doubt that you ever will.

Antinous is right, some of us will never get it. And, frankly, I hope I never become the sort of person who does.

Stands for Justice League Unlimited/DC Universe Classics Figures

Mattel’s collector-oriented webstore, MattyCollector.com, is currently selling action figure stands for Justice League Unlimited and DC Universe Classics figures. Those JLU figures are especially a pain in the ass to display, so this is a nice addition. Both are available in 25-packs for $12 plus shipping.

Ozzy Osbourne Ad for World of Warcraft

Best one yet.

Boston College Drops Student E-mail Accounts

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that Boston College has decided to stop offering students e-mail accounts beginning next year. Instead they have set up an e-mail forwarding system, so each student is assigned a Boston College alias that then forwards to whatever personal e-mail system the students are using.

Some of the comments reflect what seems to be the prevailing IT view in academia about university-provided e-mail accounts: if they don’t use the e-mail account we give them, we can’t be sure any e-mails our faculty/administrators send actually reach them.

Which is certainly true. Just as it is true that unless we assign all students on-campus mailboxes that they must check, we can’t be certain any snail mail we send them actually reaches them. And unless assign students to a university-provided voice mail system that they must check on a regular basis, we cannot be certain any phone calls we make to students will actually reach them.

I’ve never understood the rationale for treating e-mail communications any different in this regard from voice/physical mail accounts. Most students would find having to manage a university voice mail/physical mailbox system a major headache, and clearly a lot of students find it annoying to have universities assign them yet another e-mail account they need to check.

Given the budget crunch that many universities seem to be facing, why are they in the student e-mail business at all?