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This excellent post on games for 10% attention brought my attention to a blog that’s a bizarre combination: photography, volleyball, and games.  I say it’s bizarre not because those three items don’t match, but because it’s an almost perfect match for one particular reader of this blog.

If you are not that reader, I apologize for this post.

Joss Whedon+Musical+Free+3 Act Web Movie = Watch Now!

It doesn’t stay free for long, so get it while the gettin’s good.

Jonathan Coulton has a song for the occasion. He’s even got a video!

(I may post a real update one of these days. That is, assuming I survive my police ride-along tonight! I’ve only just realized how little comfort it is when someone offers you a combat vest.)

The Apple iTunes Updater– I’m sorry, the Apple Software Updater– I’m sorry, the Apple Software Installer– is now distributing Safari to unwitting Windows users.

Maybe, like me, you’re lazy and install those auto-updaters on purpose. Hey, who doesn’t like updates? Or maybe you installed iTunes while drunk and ended up with the Apple Updater on your machine after forgetting to click that checkbox (I once got the Yahoo Toolbar that way. Talk about a rough morning after).

In this case, though, you may end up with quite possibly the worst mainstream browser on the planet: Apple Safari. It’s not Safari’s fault it’s terrible. Nobody cares about poor old Safari, with its itty bitty market share. Tiny companies with names like “Google” can’t be bothered to make sure their pages work with Safari, and Apple can’t be counted on to implement every single IE quirk.

Fault is irrelevant, though. The only person who would ever want to run Safari is a web developer who needs to test their pages. If that’s not you, keep a wary eye out for the Apple Software Updater. (And don’t drink and download.)

Happy Festivus! By this point, you should have your twelve foot pole, and you should have aired your grievances. It is now time for feats of strength.

Scott Jennings has supplied Festivus celebrants with a dancing bird. I don’t know if that’s somehow part of the festivities, or if it’s just another Festivus miracle.

I recently bought a computer from Puget Systems, and wanted to let other people know about it.

Puget has inherited Monarch Computer’s mantle, since Monarch closed its doors.  Unlike NewEgg (also an excellent computer parts retailer), Puget has an extensive online custom configuration utility.  You can heavily customize a gaming rig, graphics workstation, laptop, or even a water-cooled system.  Their list of parts for each slot is lengthy, and many of the parts are favorites recommended by the likes of SharkyExtreme.  Puget supplies their own suggested choices, and discussions of many parts’ performance and noise levels.  If you want a fast and silent rig, this is a great place to go.  Play around with their configuration utlity– it’s addictive.

Puget fills the needs of people like me, who are sick (or paranoid) of hand-assembling custom rigs, but still want to be able to pick the best parts.  Their prices are good, and they provide a 1 year warranty on the parts.  They even provide the warranty if you use some of your own hardware (I used my own hard drive and video card).

For a business rig, Puget has a few issues.  I recently ordered a system which worked on arrival, but died after a couple weeks.  I think it was a motherboard failure, and it’s perfectly understandable: sometimes hardware fails, and it’s outside Puget’s control.  I called them up, and they had me re-seat every part, including the CPU and heat sink, to make sure it wasn’t failing to boot just because something got jostled.  Reasonable, but it definitely took me some time.  Once that was verified, they told me they’d pay for return shipping, since the failure was within 30 days.

It actually took a couple of days between when I first called tech support, and when they got me the return shipping authorization.  Then I had to schedule a UPS pickup (which I had to pay extra for, and of course UPS is happy to come any time between 8 am and 6 pm– don’t leave the house!).  Finally, the computer was packed up and on its merry way.

Puget fixed the computer quickly, sent it on back, and now it’s working great.  It’s a super fast system that’s finally giving us good Adobe Illustrator performance (that program is a bear).  Unfortunately, our primary working rig was basically out of commission for two weeks, and I lost quite a bit of my own time messing around with it.  Every step Puget took was totally reasonable, but two weeks is just far too long for a business rig: in a previous experience with Dell, they overnighted a replacement part on the first phone call.  (On the other hand, Dell still forces Vista with their high-end rigs, so they’re out of the question.)

Do I have a reasonable alternative?  Actually, I’d stick with Puget Systems for any non-critical rig, such as a gaming machine.  The chance of failure is low, and Puget’s customization options are the best I’ve seen.  Their prices are reasonable, and well worth it.  I don’t think they have a real competitor, to be honest.  For a critical business rig that absolutely needs to be up, though, you might want to look around for some place with a more business-centric support plan.  You’ll probably have to put up with some hardware you wouldn’t normally choose, and you’ll pay more, but sometimes it’s worth the price.

There’s a real dungeon in Italy. Not a dismal little room with a rack and an iron maiden. Rather, it’s a giant underground temple, Dwarven in its scope and ambition, and clearly doomed to unleash an ancient evil that has lain dormant inside the earth for thousands of years.

It’s called the Temples of Humankind, and you can view it in this extensive Flash gallery. It’s breathtaking to see what people can create when they get inspired, or crazy, or both.

I just gave Froogle Google Product Search a try, and was surprised to find that it’s been overrun by scammers. It doesn’t have a seller verification system, so it’s only useful as a quick search for scam sellers. Plug in any popular consumer electronics product and sort by price, and Google will helpfully display a number of obvious scams.

A quick search for the Sony KDL-52XBR4 (their latest 52″ HDTV) turned up a few gems. They’re obvious: the whois records are days old, and after any attempt to order with a credit card they make an excuse and request a money order. Some of the frauds are even well documented.

What’s surprising about these shops, though, is that they’re fairly comprehensive. The perpetrators can’t come up with a believable brand (“Shopping Shop: Welcome to Our’s Shop”), but online store software has become advanced enough that it’s a fairly small endeavor to make an entire fake electronics shop. Choose your software, pick a template, throw in some stolen graphics, and then input the products– in the ideal case, you can automatically parse this information from another site and upload it to your store. It’s non-trivial, but a couple fake $1500 TVs will pay for the work in no time.

Google’s developing a reputation for shotgunning beta products, and shutting down Froogle is a good first step towards fighting that image. The quirks of some beta products are merely annoying: GMail remains quite usable, despite its infinite beta status. On the other hand, Froogle is helping to facilitate massive fraud. Shut it down until it’s ready for prime time.

UPDATE: I did a bit of digging around on other price comparison sites.  Most have a lot fewer money-order scammers, but are instead full of 5-star-rated fraudsters who will ship a foreign gray market product without telling you, send you products you didn’t order and charge you for them (then attempt to charge a restocking fee when you return them), and claim your product is out of stock if you refuse to buy their overpriced extras.  MySimon and PriceGrabber list the scammers alongside reputable merchants; EveryPrice.com specializes in listing only scammers.  It’s hard to tell if they intentionally manipulate their own rating systems to keep ratings for the rip-off artists inflated, or if employees from the “companies” manipulate them.