Chapter 28

2014-01-07T02:50:11Z

Coldhead: note on security through immaturity/obscurity

{{BE PxP Header}}

==Page 301==
'''It's a warm evening''' 
Sept. 8th (according to the invitation Maxine received last chapter)

==Page 302==
'''''Matrix''-era Ray Bans''' 
Reference breaks the usual, though not ironclad, pattern of giving a film's release date when mentioned. Perhaps because the theme of the party going on is "1999" and since the film came out that year Pynchon doesn't feel the need to spell it out. Anyone have a grasp on the logic behind sometimes giving release dates and sometimes not? Is there always a good reason for when the date isn't given?

Also, "era" is a bit of an odd word choice considering nothing else in that list of nineties "instant nostalgia" items gets qualified with a time of creation and/or when popular indicator word or phrase. Why not simply something like "Matrix glasses"?

According to this [http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2003-05-04/features/0305040269_1_matrix-glasses-morpheus page] the glasses for the film were made by Blinde Design and they did not produce them for commercial release until a few years after the first Matrix film came out. This [http://www.sunglasses-shop.co.uk/film-and-tv/t/the-matrix.aspx site] says Ray-Ban makes similar glasses, though not when they started producing them.

'''pre-crash fantasy years''' 
This line (and this whole paragraph in general) may be about Y2K and the financial crash, but it's really about 9/11. No?

'''Blink-182, Echo and the Bunnymen, Barenaked Ladies, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony''' 
Strange list, of course, but Echo seems a little out of place since they pre-date the other bands by at least a decade and their "hits" were in the 1980s. Great band name, by the way, Echo and the Bunnymen. Seems like the sort of name Pynchon would find interesting. Joylessly, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echo_%26_the_Bunnymen WIKI] informs us that the name means practically nothing and, according a band member, the name was haphazardly chosen out of a list of names, all "just as stupid as the rest."

==Page 303==
'''PBRs ... in a washtub of crushed ice''' 
Pabst Blue Ribbon, a mediocre beer popular with hipsters.

==Page 304==
'''temporal aliasing''' 
In signal processing and related disciplines, aliasing refers to an effect that causes different signals to become indistinguishable (or aliases of one another) when sampled. It also refers to the distortion or artifact that results when the signal reconstructed from samples is different from the original continuous signal. Aliasing can occur in signals sampled in time, for instance digital audio, and is referred to as '''temporal aliasing'''. Aliasing can also occur in spatially sampled signals, for instance digital images. Aliasing in spatially sampled signals is called spatial aliasing. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporal_aliasing]

'''I think he's in some creepy retro-pissing contest with Josh Harris. Remember that millennium-eve party at pseudo? Went on for months?''' 
I was hoping this would be referenced in ''Bleeding Edge''. This is depicted wonderfully in Ondi Timoner's Sundance Film Festival award-winning documentary "We Live In Public." [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XSTwfdFwIY Here is a trailer]. [http://weliveinpublic.blog.indiepixfilms.com/ Here is the official website].

==Page 305==
'''Security through immaturity''' 
Playing on the pejorative term "[http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/S/security-through-obscurity.html security through obscurity]" in which security vulnerabilities are merely hidden instead of being closed. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_through_obscurity WIKI]
==Page 306==
'''Had a brilliant Arturo Fuente the other day!''' 
Arturo Fuente is a brand of cigar, founded by Arturo Fuente, Sr. in 1912 in West Tampa, Florida. It's one of the most critically acclaimed makers of hand-rolled premium cigars outside of Cuba.. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arturo_Fuente Wikipedia]

==Page 307==
'''Nazi Vegetable''' 
This is a fictional musical group, obviously.

==Page 308==
'''epileptigogic lighting''' 
This would be lighting that can trigger an epileptic fit, i.e., strobe lights.

'''Electric Slide''' 
Likely the dance that was inspired by "Shall We Dance (Electric Slide)" by Grandmaster Slice and Scratchmaster Chuck T., produced by them in 1989. Check it:
{{#ev:youtube|lawyOmNqA9Y}}

'''Paradise Garage''' 
Another [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Garage Paradise Garage] reference, to go along with those in chapters 14, 15, and 23. This last one goes into much greater detail as to what dancing at the Garage meant to Maxine.

==Page 309==
'''THE EH? TEAM''' 
A play on the title of a popular 80s TV show ''The A Team''

'''about as fat as Ally McBeal''' 
Calista Flockhart played the title character on the TV show ''Ally McBeal'' (1997-2002). She was very skinny.

'''poutine''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poutine WIKI] tells us this is originally a French Canadian food item made of french fries, brown gravy and cheese curd, now found all over Canada and some places in the northern United States.

==Page 310==
'''CD tilde home''' 
The [http://forum.linuxcareer.com/threads/1669-Single-linux-command-to-return-to-home-directory Linux command] to change back to your home directory.

'''server farms''' 
Seems worth noting a passage in the novel where Pynchon talks about things we find on the cover of ''Bleeding Edge''. See a [[Bleeding_Edge_cover_analysis|discussion]] on the cover.

{{Bleeding Edge PbP}}

Errata

2014-01-07T02:41:50Z

Coldhead: p71: 'there might not much difference'

56: "some some tell"

71: "there might not much difference"

131: "''Scream, Blacula, Scream''" film title does not have commas

181: "Latrelle Sprewell" - should be "Latrell"

192: "dos" should be "does"

297: "does not not entirely"

314: "The spread on the Jets-Indianapolis game Sunday is 2 points." It was actually 1.5

314: "a defensive end who then proceeds to run the ball 98 yards to a touchdown." It was actually 95 yards.

340: "Keenan and Kel" should be "Kenan"

'''451:''' "Off she goes goes on the time machine"

'''457:''' "the Schachtman unpleasantness" - Shachtman is how the name is spelled.

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Chapter 28

Errata