Insert coin to continue

Steven Frank recalls mastering Dragon’s Lair:

Everyone who has seen Dragon’s Lair before has seen the beginning of the game. Dirk runs across the drawbridge, Dirk dodges the falling blocks, he swings across the fire ropes, and he drops on the falling disc platform. Far fewer have seen the scenes in the middle of the game. Fewer still have ever seen how it ends.

I remember it well. So much money, so little reward. Pleased to hear of someone who beat the confounded thing, even if it meant *buying a cabinet* to do so.




A bunch of men harmonising

The incomparable harmonies of Vince Noir…I mean Freddie Mercury & Queen. Vince would love that jumpsuit1.

Those voices led to this snippet from the Classic Album series on Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (skip to 6:40). How do three skinny rockers make that sound?

Who reminded me of Michael McDonald’s star turn on Steely Dan’s Aja. (skip to 18:00).

And just to show it’s not an art form that died in 70s rock, here’s Ryan Adams and the Cardinals nailing the last verse of Cold Roses, live. These guys were easily the best all male harmonies I’ve seen, just incredible.


  1. And this one. I love how Queen started out looking like proto metal rockers and ended up in one piece spandex. ↩︎




SMS is dead, long live privacy

Joshua Lund at MissingM has posted a comprehensive review of the current options for secure mobile messaging. He’s not afraid to drop the hammer on the less than worthy:

If they can’t be bothered to release any source code, fail to provide even basic protocol documentation, and have not posted a threat model analysis, then they are not worthy of your time or your attention.

He concludes with recommendations for Android and iOS, and the promise of nirvana:

Encrypted phone calls and text messaging bundled together in a unified interface that will be available on both iOS and Android? Hell yes.




The Indie Web

Dan Gillmor on the Indie Web, an attempt to wrest back some control from the corporate web barons:

We’re in danger of losing what’s made the Internet the most important medium in history – a decentralized platform where the people at the edges of the networks – that would be you and me – don’t need permission to communicate, create and innovate.

Maybe a little hyperbolic - the most important medium in history? - but a timely reminder. Get your content out of the silos.