Tag: doom

How to enable Java 7 in the browser on Mavericks

Content warning: just tech.

If you’re running the Oracle JDK 7 on your OS X Mavericks machine you may have noticed that the control panel doesn’t do anything. In particular, you can’t switch back and forth between enabled and disabled Java. Silent failure occurs.

It is officially a bad idea to run Java in your browser, which is why it’s disabled by default. However, sometimes it’s necessary to use the damned thing for some job-related or government nonsense. Here’s how. Disclaimer: I am just another user. This may destroy your life. It works for me.

Open a command line. and execute the following:

cd '/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/'
sudo mv Info.plist Infoplist.bak
sudo ln -s Enabled.plist Info.plist

Close your terminal. You should now be able to use the browser plugin with Firefox and Safari. It can’t work in Chrome for other reasons.

THEN of course remember to turn it back off:

cd '/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/'
sudo rm Info.plist
sudo mv Infoplist.bak Info.plist

I hope this works for you. It did for me.

The Crew that Never Rests: Crowdsourced Absurdity

In a word, their pleasures were showy, but totally unsubstantial—their activity unceasing, but fruitless and unavailing—and their condemnation appears to have consisted in the necessity of maintaining the appearance of constant industry or enjoyment, though their toil was fruitless and their pleasures shadowy and unsubstantial. Hence poets have designed them as “the crew that never rest.” Besides the unceasing and useless bustle in which these spirits seemed to live, they had propensities unfavourable and distressing to mortals.

— Sir Walter Scott, Letters on Demonology

 

games without frontiers

Twitch Plays Pokemon via The Wisdom of Crowds (Metafilter). I think that Sisyphus is happy, and his name is Legion.

IT’S ANDYS ALL THE WAY DOWN

Andy KaufmanIn 2006, we discovered and reported the truth about Andy Kaufman‘s survival in a groundbreaking investigational piece: We Are All Andy Now.

Reviewing in 2011, we investigated further and found disturbing evidence that the Andys were multiplying incestually. This was published as There Are Certain Things That Enter The Minds Of People Even Without One. Although mainstream media ignored the story, those in the know confirmed the truth, some in public.

For a while, things were quiet. We began to wonder if the phenomenon had slowed down. Perhaps something in the genetic material was faulty? Or did they just get tired?

Nope.

We have found another Andy. This one has an australian accent, very large glasses, and a suboptimal solution to male pattern baldness. The definitive evidence is in his style. Nobody else can combine deliberately bad critical thinking, delusions of grandeur, and almost-plausible manipulation like a full-blooded certifiable Andy.

Clearly the Andys are still spawning. We can’t wait for the next election.