h a l f b a k e r yGuitar Hero: 4'33"
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Censorio
Application that runs in background and blocks out Harry Potter related content. | |
This small, low memory footprint application would do two things for the next week: it would prevent users from tying in "harry potter" or "deathly hollows" and "spoilers; and it would automatically block any Harry Potter related information coming in through any program, be it email, RSS reader, or
web browser.
The OSX version would, of course, have extra Quartz effects; like a swirl of misty smoke above any Harry Potter content.
The program would update after July 21 with a question designed to test whether someone has read the book. Answered correctly, the application would uninstall itself, it's job complete.
(?) Danger, spoilers
http://www.zendurl.com/hallows/
[zen_tom, Jul 18 2007]
(?) JK Rowling - good author or not?
http://blogs.guardi...g_con_is_the_p.html
Very long discussion about whether or not JK Rowling's writing style is any good (for kids) and whether or not it matters [imaginality, Jul 18 2007]
[link]
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So, I'm curious. How does it end? |
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I'd like to see the antithesis of this, a virus that just pops up a window occasionally with spoilers to new films, taken from an RSS feed. |
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In fact, I'd quite happily install a screensaver that ruined films for anyone strolling past my PC. |
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[Edit] Hang on a minute, I can already do this, at least on a Mac, there are screensavers that read an RSS feed, all I need to do is create aforementioned RSS. |
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Yeah, I'm not sure I understand how a series of mediocre films is supposed to raise levels of literacy. |
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It's strange, how that argument keeps getting trotted out. I mean, I remember books when I was young, and some of them were really rather good - these poor children are being asked to believe that this is the best that literature has to offer - no wonder they are turning away in their billions to their playstations. But I'm with [Lt Frank] on this one, sadly, this is just how it's been marketed. |
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And I expect he kills Voldemort (again) or maybe it turns out Voldemort is his father, or perhaps he just gives up having magic powers altogether and moves into a townhouse bedsit where he gets a habit for heroin and strong cider. |
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Let's hope not - in the meantime, I'll reserve my right not to get caught up in the marketing hyperbole and try to point out that there's much more, and much better, elsewhere. (Something that seems to be conveniently overlooked in all of this do-goody "Potter™ Promotes Literacy" bollocks) |
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For example, Ursula Le Guin's Wizard of EarthSea series is a far richer, much more exciting, and less cliche ridden than Rowling's Potter. |
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H.G. Wells provided some wonderful short stories that I remember hoovering up when I was of Potter-appreciable age. |
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Rudyard Kipling too, especially the Just So Stories, and Jungle Books, were great. |
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I was also really very fond of E Nesbit (The Railway Children, Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet) and C.S. Lewis' Narnia (early) series was lovely too. |
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Winnie the Pooh of course has to be another favourite. |
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Then there was Roald Dahl, and the Andrew Lang collections of fairy stories (The Red Fairy Book, The Blue Fairy Book, The Yellow Fairy Book etc - well worth looking up online) and the Hitchhiker's Guide series by Douglas Adams. |
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I'm sure I could reel off more - but these are the ones that come to mind first - and what I would encourage anyone else to read, especially in their formative years, rather than getting dragged into this whole hyped-up Potter industry. |
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Ok, fine, all you annotators are above the whole Harry Potter thing. Good for you. |
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So far as the idea, I think its a quite good one. Perhaps it could be integrated as a filter subscription in Adblock. |
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And this would be useful on a general basis. Personally I would love to filter out anything about Paris Hilton. |
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This gets a Magickal Bendy Bun from me. Croissantadicus! |
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Good to see that many of you are alreadying employing the thought-app, Censorio Psuedointelligencia; using one's self-perceived status as a "good reader" to censor pop-lit. This app has a long history, including during the 14th century with the Canterbury Tale, the 19th century with the rampant proliferation of Charles Dickens "drivel," or in the 1980s, of Stephen King. |
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Now, if we can only apply that same technology to HPSpoilers, we're set! Thanks guys! |
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I'm not particularly worried about the "quality" of Harry Potter or with reading spoilers since I don't read the books. What I would like is an application that delivers an electric shock to people who retreat to a corner of a room at, say, a dinner in order to whisper about Harry Potter or who hold up recreational wiffle ball games for fifteen minutes by standing in the middle of the field between innings to talk about what interesting twist one of them just read. No, I'm not bitter. |
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// And this would be useful on a general basis. Personally I would love to filter out anything about Paris Hilton. // |
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If I could get this built into my eyeglasses, I'd pay the extra for it. I'd be protected while at the supermarket, watching television, everywhere! Genius!! |
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This idea I like. I'd rather see a kid reading Harry Potter than banging away on a Gameboy. Regardless of whether or not it's the best literature ever written is immaterial, kids read them and then want to read others. There is no downside to that. |
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Pretty sure that the Gameboy manufacturers would beg to differ. |
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