On January 27th, see PUPPET SLAM! An event of puppeteers putting on amazing shows.

More information: http://www.draft89.com/

Draft89 is raffling off an ASUS "eee" mini laptop, to raise money for the theatre collective. The "eee" is fast and tiny, and comes with a super-easy to use linux os, with Open Office for office work, Thunderbird and Firefox for email and web browsing, and a bunch of other cool software. If you own XP you can also wipe it and drop XP on it....

More information: http://www.draft89.com/

Risha is raffling off a Wii.

Tickets are $5 each (or $20 for 5 tickets). Drawing is on January 1/08.

For more information go to www.rishayorke.com

Security site Secunia has a new program. It's sort of like a "Windows Update" but for 4000+ other programs:

The first time it scanned my computer, it showed me that Quicktime, Skype, OpenOffice and several other programs had newer versions, and provided direct download links.

Now it sits quietly in the taskbar and alerts me whenever a newer software version is released.

This is important because a lot of internet-based attacks are taking advantage of bugs in non-Microsoft programs, for example Skype.

https://psi.secunia.com/

So Skype was down for two days. This probably makes people worried -- especially those who had invested in Skype as their main personal (or even business) phone system. If you need 100% up-time for your phone system, then go with plain-old-telephone-system lines, and use systems like Skype as the backup.

This article is a follow-up to my argument 'Toward a Post-Meaning Era'.

In the last two years I have discussed the concept with many people, and the one problem that has regularly come up is how to distinguish between post-modern thought and post-meaning thought.

These days I think of the difference between the two like this: post-modernism allows for the construction of meaning in opposition to absurdity, I.e. Absurd meaning. Post-meaning allows for no such defiant construction so we are left with 'the meaningless absurd.'

I like this phrase, 'the meaningless absurd'. I think it captures the essence of the post-meaning argument.

Does the meaningless absurd allow us to understand the devastating quake and tsunami of 2004. I don't think so. However the meaningless absurd does, I think, provide a frame within which to view the horror of the most savaged shoreline since D-Day. What happened is a true example of the meaningless absurd, because in the post-meaning era, we say that these things happen, and there is no reason or meaning behind it.

"Where is God in all this?" people ask. Indeed, where was God when the waves washed everything away? In the post-meaning era, it doesn't matter.