Noisecast Roundup 5-2-2011: memeification of the wicked witch

As you’ve probably heard by now, Osama Bin Laden, the wicked witch of the mountains, is dead. Strangely he was killed in a luxurious mansion that he’d been parked in for a few years. That bothered me at first. I was so much happier thinking he was slumming it in caves smelling jihadi foot-funk and cowering from the might of America. To think that he was living it up better than me and laughing at our two wars and billions in expenses, falling reputation around the world, and petty politics, sexual assault by TSA and thirst due to inability to carry bottles of water on flights. Ugh. But then I realized that in order to stay hidden, he didn’t have phone service or internet, which means he didn’t get to read the Noisecast daily. That’s just cruel. Presumably, a courier could have printed out our articles and gotten them to him, but somehow I doubt it. By the end, he must have just wanted to to die. I wouldn’t wish a Noisecast-less life on even my worst enemies. We’re sort of a big deal. Hit up the roundup after the jump.

• Boing Boing goes through a roundup of the memes built around Bin Laden’s death.
  I admit to a creeping sense of the sick morbidity of the world celebrating a death, even that of an enemy. In general I’m indifferent to whether people mourn or celebrate a death. What bugs me is the savage edge at the corner of my eye. Like behind the smiles and celebrations, I see a people who are just a step above an animal gone mad. I see people hugging but can imagine them burning things down. Hooray, the witch is dead, but why have I never been more cognizant that deep down inside we are monsters in fancy dress?
• Bin Laden news is big, but not as big as Soccer.
  This is really just a space filler. Analysis of twitter traffic says the news didn’t even crack the top ten, but it also added that the news came out late at night and when Europe was mostly asleep. Honestly, slow news day. My feed usually has 1,000 items plus, I had about 250 and most of it was redundant and Bin Laden related. *shrugs*
• No advancement in E-Ink technology this year.
  Ugh. I’m done with E-Ink. What ever happened to Pixel Qi and Mirasol? I love my E-Ink device and the fact that i haven’t charged my kindle in 2 weeks, but lets face it, we’re missing out on critical media. If I wanted to replicate paper perfectly, but nothing else, then I’d use paper. but I want to replicate paper AND do more. I have never hoped more for anything before than I do for Amazon to release an Amazon tablet this summer.
• Researchers create 100 terabit per second connection.
  it’s 2011. In about 20 years we will all have 1 Gigabit, so… This sort of information pisses me off. Great, we have the technology now but thanks to AT&T and Verizon who feel like we don’t need that speed, we won’t get it. We need it, assholes. Don’t you realize that it will make everything more efficient for you too? It costs you so much to handle all the data you handle because you have to micro-manage bandwidth. 100 terabit is so much, that the nonsense we use it for will be less than a blip on your networks. Get us to 50 or 100 Gigabits and you won’t regret it. 100 terabit is more than any of us will need for decades. I know I’m oversimplifying the argument but seriously, stop dicking us around.
• When it rains it pours. Sony just can’t get a break.
  Oh SONY. SOE (Sony Online Entertainment) was hacked too. Doesn’t seem to be unrelated. Over 24 million accounts and thousands of non-american credit cards lifted. I think, at this point, bowing low for 7 seconds in apology won’t cut it. I suspect someone is going to be committing Seppuku. (Does that count as a racist joke?)
• Twitter is buying TweetDeck. So which 3rd party twitter app is left?
  No seriously, is there anyone left?

Of course conspiracy theories have already started about his not really being dead. I don’t know, maybe they think he’s chilling on an island somewhere with Ken Lay, Elvis, Kennedy, and Tupac (an island that doesn’t differentiate between good and evil). This is clearly nonsense to anyone with a brain. These people are all dead, except Tupac. Everyone knows Tupac is alive.