SOME RANDOM DUDE

Happy 2008. I will be back on schedule from this point forward with some format changes and some cool articles in the coming weeks.

Enjoy the links.

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More cool (and good) links this week to keep your mouse finger happy. This week has a clear winner however with the AC power plug designs for alternative use - I have rarely seen something this clever and potentially useful (in a non earth-shattering scale). I am hoping beyond hope that some folks will start helping me out with the good links every once in a while. Please, do not be shy.

Enjoy the links.
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I am away from the city this weekend, so I did not get to do any “blog chores” this weekend. I will have a long stretch next weekend and an even longer stretch in about three months or so. Until then…

Enjoy the links.

(more…)3d, 3rd world, actionscript, application, architects, art, att, beta, bill oreilly, bloxorz, boulder high, browser, bush administration, car, chains, China, christianity, claraty, color, color inspiration, complaints, congresss, corporations, corruption, crash, css, cssvista, dance craze, democrats, design process, dick cheney, dsl, energy bill, europe, fcc, flash, Fox News, framework, gas mileage, german crash test, government, GUI, healthcare, iraq, job, kde, links, linux, Mac, masters of painting, media, michael moore, mileage standards, movies, nasa, nature, net neutrality, news, operating system, painting, philosophy of history, Photography, pirates, politics, posters, religion, right wing christianity, robotics, safari, safari beta, secrecy, senate, sicko, sphere, subliminal messages, teenagers, telecoms, torrents, transformers, tree, tree drawings, war, warez, web, web designers, web development, weekly Windows

My apologies for the off-schedule posting this week - I should be able to make up for it in spades for the next couple weeks. Regardless, the this week’s collection is quite nice, with some really well-designed home accessories that are easy on space and on the eyes.

Enjoy the links.
(more…)book design, China, container city, design, DIY, folding chair, furniture, glacier melting, global warming, good, good design, green computer, home accessories, hp, isis, jake phillips, koncept, led lamp, led leaf lamp, lighting, links, london, nevada solar one, recycling, reuse, ripple, rp5700, search engine, solar power, solar powered water heater, trash into books, weekly yves behar

Yesterday, I happened across an interesting online application that allows you to see if a site is blocked from being viewed in China. As can be expected, I was curious to see if Some Random Dude was blocked; thinking the entire time that there was no way anyone in China would give a damn about this small, unassuming site. To my utter disbelief, the service did in fact notify me that this site is blocked in China. I am still extremely surprised by this and part of me thinks the service that informed me of this is just flat out wrong. I would love to have someone (from China) tell me that this is incorrect - I have to think there are at least a few peeps from China reading this site (if it is not blocked of course).

I am a big opponent of censorship of any kind, most notably online censorship - so this obviously rubs me the wrong way. China’s censorship of the web is well renowned and both deplorable and unacceptable for a country that many consider the next superpower. Freedom of information is absolutely essential to a healthy society and a healthy internet. I try my best to keep this blog as open as possible - I want people to dig through this site, see my traffic stats and be as much a part of this blog as myself. I think that is why I find even that possibility of some outside entity blocking my site without my permission so despicable.

This is just another example of why we all need to support methods of subverting the Chinese firewall.

UPDATE: - Turns out the website above is giving bunk information. Some Random Dude is not banned in China - my apologies for the mistake. The good thing those is that this has caused some very good discussion about privacy and free speech.censorship, China, chinese firewall, firewall, information, online censorship, open information some random dude