Last week, we announced an Obfuscated code contest with a geektastic prize provided by our sponsor, Safari Books Online, who also offered BB readers one month free online access to any of the following books: JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, Learning Perl, and Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML. The goal was to write a wonderfully obfuscated code snippet that prints out the phrase "Boing Boing." The prize: one year of access to the complete Safari Books Online Library, a digital library of technical books from the likes of O'Reilly, Apress, and Addison-Wesley.

We were absolutely amazed by the entries. There are some incredible bits of code in there. But we had to pick one, so we did. Or rather Joel Johnson did, because this whole thing was his idea to begin with. So we are pleased to announce that the winner of the inaugural Boing Boing/Safari Books Online: MCD. The entry was pithy, clever, and got the job done (see above). Congratulations, MCD! And thanks to Safari Books Online for sponsoring the contest!

In the comments section about the Pagan Love Song video, Haineux pointed to this fantabulous video of "Alvino Rey playing his pedal steel guitar in an early talk-box-like situation, with an anthropomorphic guitar puppet and a guy in a really odd hat." Truly, what more could you want?

Pygmy tarsiers, long believed extinct, have been found in Indonesia, according to a story in The Globe and Mail. In August, researchers from Texas A&M, led by Sharon Gursky-Doyen, trapped two males and a female in moutain-top mist nets on Mt. Rore Katimbo in Lore Lindu National Park in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. With distinctive eyes, the pygmy tarsiers are primates; they are"about the size of a small mouse;" they have claws instead of nails, which is a distinguishing feature.

Here's a short video from the researchers showing the pygmy tarsier running up a tree.

link to Texas A&M article.

Jack Imel playing the marimbas and tap dancing to "Pagan Love Song." (Via Filled with Chocolate Pudding!)

Longtime Boing Boing collaborator Bruce Sterling is closing the long-running Viridian Notes transmissions I enjoyed so much, and with it -- if I'm understanding correctly? -- the entire "Viridian episode" he dreamed up and nurtured over the last decade. Snip:

Recent events have clearly established that the character of the times has changed. The Viridian Design Movement was founded in distant 1999. After the years transpiring – various disasters, wars, financial collapses and a major change in political tone – the world has become a different place.

It remains only to close the Viridian episode gracefully, and to conclude with a few meditative suggestions.

As I explained in the first Viridian speech, any design movement – social movements of any kind, really – should be designed with an explicit expiration date. The year 2012 would have been the extreme to which Viridian could have persisted. Since the course of history has grown quite jittery, this longer term was spared us.

Some Viridian principles can be lightly re-phrased, buffed-up and likely made of practical use in days to come. Others are period notions to be gently tossed into the cultural compost. I could try to describe which are which – but that's a proper job for someone younger.

I'm following current events with keen interest. There's never been a better time for major political and financial interventions in the green space. However, Viridian List is about design interventions, it was not about politics or finance, so a decent reticence is in order at this juncture.

The Last Viridian Note (Thanks, Jolon)

PHOTO: "Fageda d'en Jordà," 2007, by MorBCN, of Barcelona, found on his Flickr stream.

Michael Minelli is suing Simon & Schuster because he does not think his photograph belongs in the book Hot Chicks with Douchebags.

In the book, Louis noted that Minelli's "popped-collar, spikey-haired presence was so far beyond regular douche, so far beyond uberdouche, he could spontaneously create a new element on the periodic tables--Douche Nine." At the time he was photographed by Louis, Minelli was working the door at the popular "Rehab" party at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. As first reported by Courthouse News Service, Minelli's Clark County District Court lawsuit seeks unspecified financial damages and legal fees. Last month, three New Jersey women sued Louis and his publisher over their appearance in "Hot Chicks with Douchebags," which they claimed was "vulgar" and presented them as "females who date dubious men."

Alleged "Douchebag" sues author

While on the trail to the falls in Johnston Canyon, which is a wonderful walk off a road that runs between Banff and Lake Louise, we came across this beautiful snow-made creation that declares a couple's love for each other. The snow-made man and woman were starting to melt but here's good wishes to their anonymous creators.

Lidija Davis on ReadWriteWeb summarizes current VC advice for startups and entrepreneurs:

Go back to the garage. That's the message venture capitalists at the Dow Jones VentureWire Technology Showcase in Redwood City CA today, are offering to entrepreneurs and startups.

In the midst of one of the worst economic crises the world has seen, investors are in the main optimistic, and agree that to weather this storm and come out on top, today's entrepreneur's need to change their mindset and go back to basics: go back to the garage, and success will follow.

Expect to hear startups saying "yeah, we've gone into 'garage-mode,'" modeling after the term "stealth-mode." The only trouble is what to do with all the boxes?

image source.

Michael Holloway from the UK Open Rights Group sez,

Today we're proud to release ORG’s annual Review of Activities. It’s been a bumper year for digital rights. From HMRC posting half the UK’s bank details to the Darknet, to the ongoing campaign against Phorm, to three strikes and the rightsholder lobby’s so-far thwarted attempt to take control of your internet connection, this year was the year digital rights went mainstream. Thanks to generous support from the ORG community, we’ve been there giving an informed perspective on the issues to the natonal press, working with policymakers behind the scenes and mobilising the grassroots into effective action.

Threats to our digital liberties continue to menace us. 2009 will see new challenges, such as the Government’s proposed Intercept Modernisation Programme. That’s why, as we celebrate ORG’s third birthday, we’re also asking the community to renew their support for ORG. The ORG-GRO campaign is delivering excellent results (huge thanks to all the people who have contributed so far). But the leap from 750 to 1000 fivers received each month is not yet enough to guarantee us long term financial stability. We must reach our target of 1500 fivers before the end of the year. And we can’t do that without you.

ORG review of activities, Join ORG (Thanks, Michael!)

(Disclosure: I co-founded ORG and am proud to serve on its advisory board)

Today on Boing Boing Gadgets, we took Google's new iPhone voice search app for a spin, and reflected on the nostalgic smell of old NES cart sleeves, as well as the analog fluttering of old clocks. Brownlee wrote a post in morse code about a morse code watch, and admired an ad-hoc iPhone number pad for MacBooks. Meanwhile, Joel flustered about Apple's crappy hardware DRM and made an Arrested Development connection in regards to a busted philanderer's dirty iPhone pics, which he swears are a firmware "glitch." Guest blogger Tony Hightower gave us the scoop on organic motion: motion capture without the suit. A carbon-fiber acoustic guitar was attractively lute-like. Covert gamers cram old GameBoys into their graphing calculators. Joel deeply inhaled the miasmic retch of a Stitch himidifier. Also in the day, Joel invited readers to goatse his new picture frame (email 2062270093 DERP tmomail.net if you'd like to get in on the fun). Brownlee wanted to play his complete Tiny Tim collection on a horrifyingly surreal SpongeBob SquarePants dock. We took a Tesla for a spin by proxy, and made a call on our banana phones. Otherwise, Beschizza ripped apart a Boeing 788 in a stress test. and discovered a surprisingly cheap MacBook Air prototype that may not be all it seems. And Dan Lyons, aka "The Real Steve Jobs", is now being censored by Newsweek for doing exactly what he was hired for. Oh, also. The Zune? Prepare for its imminent release. Link