rob vincent dot net

You may be aware that I’ve recently begun prank calling 419 scammers who send me spam.

The other night, for a phone call to a scammer in the Benin Republic, I decided to whip out my impression of K-9, the faithful robot dog from Doctor Who and associated spinoffs.

It went pretty well; I’ve done lots of improv as the character (usually in the context of fic-writing and RPG campaigns) and my vocal impression ranges from passable with accent fail to surprisingly good actually. So K-9 was pretty true to K-9, and the scammer was appropriately confused.

However, I did not expect the call to go on for 45 freaking minutes. By the end I was just trying anything to get him to hang up on me without breaking character. It turns out that scammers are remarkably like customer service people; they really, really don’t want to hang up on you for anything, even when they’re bitching you out for daring to call them a scammer, and then repeating their scam pitch yet again.

I debated putting this call online since it’s such a monster, but Nicky convinced me with her debating powers. So, if you’re so inclined and you’ve a clear schedule, you can check it out here. (45 MB mp3) You can hear more and more mute spots in my side of the convo as the call goes on; that’s where I had to click off my mic and laugh my head off until I collapsed into coughing fits.

If you are in the Denver, Colorado area, you’re free the evening of February 3, and you can get dressed up like you’re headed out to a goth/industrial club, a friend of mine needs you to be in his film. Check out SORPFilms.net for the details!

After a family visit to the Lincoln Memorial, which has Lincoln’s second inaugural address inscribed on its walls, Obama’s 10-year-old daughter, Malia, turned her father and said, “First African-American president — better be good.”

(via CNN)

You can buy a decent professional-grade microphone for $100 or less. You can buy a good broadcast-quality digital audio recorder for about the same price.

So why the crap does a simple combination of the two cost from $1-1.5 K? Someone’s making a pile.

There’s got to be a way to just hack together a cheaper mic and flash recorder off the shelf into a self-contained unit.

/me adds that to the list of projects I hope to accomplish someday but secretly hope someone more capable does before me and shares the how-to, hint-hint.

Cheese and rice, this is unbelievable.

Federal tax dollars are going to clowns… literally. CLOWNS.

“Having sex before you are married is just like juggling machetes!”

“Sex before marriage will destroy all of your life’s dreams!”

Check out this must-see video of Dye at work in a middle school classroom

I was a pretty troubled and confused individual in middle school, and even I had enough self-possession to know sanctimonious bullshit like this when I smelled it.

You may be aware that I’m something of a clown myself. And by the power apparently vested in me as a clown to force my personal moral beliefs upon the masses, I hereby urge any and all of you out there to learn all you can and then make your own educated, responsible life decisions no matter what federally-funded claptrap gets thrown at you.

Now where’s my fat government check?

(via wtf_inc)

A quick blurb for the good folks at the Cowtown Computer Congress, Kansas City’s hacker space..

In order to raise funds to secure their new place, CCCKC have set up a raffle. The prize will rise in value the more tickets they sell. If they sell at least half of their 200 tickets, the prize will be a brand new 2.4Ghz aluminum MacBook, with free shipping anywhere.

Check out the details and buy tickets here on CCCKC’s website.

(via NYC Resistor)

Meme from teh Nix…

Rules:
*Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
*Turn to page 56.
*Find the fifth sentence.
*Post that sentence along with these instructions in your blog.
*Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

“I had broken my bottle and cut myself on the glass.” — Penn & Teller’s How to Play in Traffic

DWNY is cool. I shall have to hang out with these folks more often.

Sad news.. Patrick McGoohan has passed away.

A login screen at my job helpfully states, and I quote: “Unauthorized access to this system is not permitted.”