The link.

By nature, websites are interlinked and content is discovered. Search engines link based on user queries, bloggers publish critique and commentary, and we can drift either aimlessly or with a purpose around cyberspace for hours and hours.

Simply following links.

So when the link is threatened by bureaucrats in repressed organisations that either don’t get the Internet, or want to play in it on their own terms, it’s time to sit up and take notice.

I’ve seen some pretty stupid “linking policies” over time, but they’re usually published by small websites and are a good source of ridicule.

When the big boys of media start shouting about it, you can still ridicule them, but unfortunately there’s also the possibility they might swing things their way.

Take Rupert Murdoch, for example. He’s the head honcho at News International, a beast of a media company that owns… pretty much everything. Or so it seems.

He wants to put a wall around most of his content, and stop search engines linking to it. Apparently, the tradition of linking and fair-use quoting is not OK in his eyes.

He’s not the only one, either.

Despite the fact that many more traditional news organisations have been proven to steal content, without attribution, from blogs and other online sources, when anyone innocently links (with full attribution) to one of their websites, that’s labelled stealing.

There’s even a ridiculous notion that publishers of any size or motivation would need to seek permission for every link they want to use (to an objecting web site).

Pathetic.

It’s true that there are many sites that rip off content. No-one’s immune.

Yet I don’t see what the problem is with links to original source material when a writer wishes to comment on that.

It seems that these media moguls don’t want the free publicity that search engines, bloggers and anyone linking via social networks can provide.

Maybe we should all voluntarily stop linking to those publishers that object so much, and simply find sites that embrace the spirit of the Internet instead.

Long live the link!

Right2Link.org

The accompanying article complains mostly about the violence in the new generation of cartoons featuring the “weirdies”, the Super-Heroes. While the piece does mention both sides of the argument about the effects of violence on children it comes down in favor of the classic and presumably more kid-friendly characters from animation. The author seems to have forgotten how incredibly violent the old cartoons were. They were astonishingly brutal even with the heavy editing that was performed prior to network broadcast to ensure all the explosions and maiming of bunnies at the hands of crazed opera singers were not shown and all the horror occurred between scenes or off-screen.

Read more at That’s My Skull, but do not forget to admire the illustration in the article.

Via Fanboy.

Dave over at Cross-Eyed Cyclops has posted all Marvel Super Special Issues. Get them while they’re hot.

Here’s the list of all submitted comics:
1 Kiss (1977)
2: Conan (1977)
3: Close Encounters (1978)
4: Beatles Story (1978)
5: Kiss (1978)
6: Jaws 2 (1978)
7: Sgt. Peppers (1978)
8: Battlestar Galactica (1978)
9: The Savage Sword Of Conan (1978)
10: Star-Lord (1978)
22: Blade Runner (1982)
11: Warriors Of The Shadow Realm (1979)
12: Warriors Of The Shadow Realm (1979)
13: Warriors Of The Shadow Realm (1979)
14: Meteor (1979)
15: Star Trek (1979)
16: Empire Strikes Back (1980)
17: Xanadu (1980)
18: Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981)
19: For Your Eyes Only (1981)
20: Dragonslayer (1981)
21: Conan The Barbarian (1982)
23: Annie (1982)
24: Dark Crystal (1982)
25: Rock & Rule (1983)
26: Octopussy (1983)
27: Return Of The Jedi (1983)
28: Krull (1983)
29: Tarzan Of The Apes (1983)
30: Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom (1984)
31: Last Starfighter (1984)
32: Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)
33: Buckaroo Banzai (1984)
34: Sheena (1984)
35: Conan The Destroyer (1984)
36: Dune (1984)
37: 2010:The Second Odyssey(1984)
38: Red Sonja (1985)
39: Santa Claus: The Movie (1985)
40: Labyrinth (1986)
41: Howard The Duck (1986)

More pictures after the jump.

Complete set at Flickr.

More at English Russia.

More turntables can be found at Audiowood.

Discover more awesomeness in our forums.

 In what could probably be the best console homebrew yet conceived by geeks and perverts–a method has been discovered that transforms the Nintendo Wii into an “erotic” device.

A new homebrew application developed by Team DWiildo has transformed the popular family-oriented console into a vibrator. Dubbed the Wiibrator, the app runs in the Wii in order to make the Wii Remote vibrate. The team has already adviced those who want to try it to make sure to use the Wii Remote jacket and refrain from using the Wii Zapper or the Wii Wheel peripherals (how that is even possible my mind cannot fathom).

The app has four different playing levels. At this point it is nothing more than a cool tech demo but the team looks like they already have more ideas up their noggin, possibly even putting slideshow images, USB webcam support, online chat and local multiplayer options. Then there is the possibility of having a 32-player online multiplayer that will actually bring a virtual orgy into fruition.

How could you not buy a Wii?

This week Yatzee, who is possibly the world’s funniest game reviewer, decided to pick up the latest version of Brawl and review it, giving a lot of focus to the multiplayer part, which, should be the most important part of this game, but ends up being not as fun when they realize they had to previously unlock a lot of the game content.

Personally I don’t think that the game is bad, but there are some really wrong aspects about some multiplayer games, like this one, which Yatzee bluntly put out. Still, I think he could have mentioned the soundtrack, which is probably the most varied one yet (in terms of different musicians) and is what I was looking to forward to hear, or hear about.

‘There was no need to stick the wand in that hard,’ he (Dumbledore) said gruffly, clambering to his feet. ‘It hurt.’

This is pretty laughable to me. You could take lots of passages from many different books out of context and apply sexual innuendoes to them. The fact is, people like to pick on whatever is the most popular and find something wrong with it.

Besides, bash.org already had an “article” talking about this issue ages ago.

The article at Times of India also touches on Batman and Robin being gay.

‘Touches on Batman and Robin’ … I guess that was a sexual reference…

The test PC equipped with Windows XP Professional Service Pack 1 was an average of 0.5% faster than the same hardware with Service Pack 2 installed. The percentage difference between faster and slower is insignificantly small. Less than 2 or 3 percent in some benchmarks could be dismissed by most but when gamers are looking to squeeze every extra frame out of their machines…it may count.