Tailen the Cheetah

Ideas are a dime a dozen, it's the will to carry them out that takes all the effort, so this is what the patent system should be replaced with:

When laws protecting the common good are distorted into laws protecting individual companies to the clear detriment of the common good.



Part 4 in the series available here

A "best of" list of hacked devices by the security community.

I was watching the chipophone video below, and noticed that in the middle of the Commando (Highscore) song sounds an awful lot like the Portal 2 Cara Mia Addio song (the turret opera). I'm not sure if they did it on purpose or not.

Chipophone (at 4:23)


Commando Highscore original (at 0:22)


(Spoiler: end movie)
Portal 2 turret song (at 2:13)

In distilled format:
How many blind piano tuners does it take to develop an ATM with two 30 second fuses if you can't move the fox and the hen on the same boat?

Cave Johnson would be proud

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR.

But since you can't remember that, much less spell it, I've come up with my own name for it: Culinary Pulverizing Resurrection.
Which works, because it involves putting something in the person's mouth (air), and pulverizing their ribs in the hopes of resurrecting them.

On a discussion about how Christianity is a derivative of every religion before it, and how every story is traceable to earlier mythologies:

"In fact, Christianity is the equivalent of a movie about an animated blue boy wizard and his replicant pirate jedi mentor going back in time on a bus traveling above 50 mph while being chased by aliens in the ventilation shafts, in order to bring the Maltese Falcon to Mount Doom in bullet time and find Sarah Connor."

This is the sort of thing that makes you simultaneously fearful of, and in awe of, the complexity of the human race.

Well it's the end of HumidCon 2011: The Culinary Holocaust.

I was the staff Auction Cat this year (again), in charge of organizing the Art Show and being a runner at the live auction. Cheetahs are good at running.

Being a runner in the auction was probably the most fun. Taunting people with artwork they really REALLY want and making them whine while they're trying to calculate how long they can go without food in order to make the next bid is great. And helping the auctioneers to encourage bidding wars by running from one bidder to the other is just the best part. I'm probably enjoying it a lot more than I should, but it's all for charity! (Oh won't someone please think of the otters!)

We didn't get much attendee feedback about the art show afterwards/during, which is good. If no one says anything that usually means no one noticed anything catastrophically wrong about it. We got plenty of visitors, plenty of bids, and in the end plenty of auction pieces and lots of money raised for artists and the otters, so we're pleased.
The few hiccups we had behind the scenes are at a manageable level now, as opposed to previous years ((O.O)) and with the improvements for next year, the process should be streamlined to the point where the Auction Cat and his volunteers are able to go to sleep at a decent hour on the Friday ^.^

The con was a blast, the pawpet show was especially good this year. I think the general perception of the show was "I can't believe they just got away with that..!"
The videos during the intermission were absolutely mesmerizing to the foreigners there. All the UK furs were laughing and singing along, and all the foreign furs were just staring in confusion and utter disbelief.

I was sad about missing the Pub Quiz, I'll have to schedule things better next year so I don't miss it again.
Banner Brawl was awesome, I hope they'll keep doing this next year too. And get a taller partition wall. (Have you ever been to a furcon? Was that furcon ON FIRE?)

There were a few downsides this year, I caught the Conplague going around and had to catnap an extra hour or two every day to keep awake in the evenings.
Also, the hotel seemed to be breaking into pieces around us, I was almost expecting there to be just a large pile of rubble at the end of the con with a tail sticking out. Having no aircon didn't help either since this was one of the most humid spring weeks I've ever experienced in the UK, it was like being in Florida.
The hotel staff did a fantastic job taking care of us this year, but bending reality just isn't quite within their powers.

It was suggested that the con theme this year should have been "Maintenance" (since the Post-Apocalyptic theme has already been done), just a lot of fursuiters with hard hats and high invisibility jackets running around bopping each other on the head with foam shovels. Then we wouldn't even have had to move the smoking tar truck from the group photo at the end of the con!

Food was a lot more manageable this year, however, which was good. The pre-paid coupons for meals and the simpler CF-customized menu of food that didn't take so long to prepare was a great idea, it's just a shame that the coupon food was so terrible. The pizza buffet was especially vile and greasy, I had to dab my pizza with a napkin to get some of the grease off. They allegedly had six different pizzas, but even the waiter couldn't tell the difference between them, they were all just tomato sauce with plastic cheese on top.


All in all, I have to say it was a good con and People Seemed To Enjoy Themselves™. You can always judge a good party by the sheer amount of memes and inside jokes it generates, and this con certainly wasn't low on either of those.
It was really wonderful hanging out with all my friends again and making some new ones as well. The traditional staff party on Monday was awesome as always, and the Dead Dog Dance was such a laugh. Staying the extra day really helps keep down the PCD.

Let's do it all again next year!