While several of our "awards" elsewhere in EGR are obviously bogus, these are for real -- interspersed with links to sites that have linked to us, reviewed our stuff, or that we liked for some other reason that's really none of your damn business.
"Visit the 4WORK Passionate Site O' the Week (PSOW), which is still Rage Boy's Entropy Gradient Reversals. If you happen to be unimpressionable, or easily offended by biting sarcasm, stay here where you'll be safe."
Tasty stuff from a guy who can actually write. Definitely worth a look.
on...
Our favorite feedback on The Gate's dynamite review: Your attraction to fame is bourgeois stink. It'll suck you in and then the media moguls will consume you, transform you, and assimilate you. Not pretty. I recommend ignoring any attention you may get in the future. I certainly don't want to hear about it. And, I'll save you the task of ignoring me by not engaging you further in e-mail diatribes. I won't subscribe to EGR if I have to read self-masturbatory dribble. Otherwise, keep up the good work and I'll be glad to peek under your skirt now and again. Cuz, I really do like your stuff.
We get a birthday present from Ziff-Davis. Sadly for their ass, this pub went defunct shortly afterwards. Can this be mere coincidence?
EGR lands the Short Attention Span Site of the Week award from the Centre for the Easily Amused. Cathie Walker says "In the land of the blind, EGR keeps one good eye peeled for further news of its kingdom come."
It seems EGR has been nominated for something called The Webby Awards, sponsored by The Web Magazine, The Discovery Channel and a bunch of obscure cyberadvertisers. This allows us to display what must be one of the all-time lamest gifs ever hacked up for an award (see graphical abomination at right -- what is that, an irradiated rubber glove?). But what the hell, click on it anyway and go vote for us. Think about it: if we win, you may be able to hear John Belushi's terminally disembodied voice shouting "Holy Shit!!!" over the Discovery Channel. [see Special Issue.]
The Funniest Sites on the Net
Among other things, this review of EGR says: "As for all the laughing, well, that's obvious. It's in every nook and cranny. I'm thinking I should have checked the document source or tried starting my browser backwards to find even more." Actually, if you can start your browser backwards, there is more. Try it. Thanks Jadie! (Be sure to check The Archive for a lot of piss-yourself-laughing material.)
t@ap online gives EGR its highest-ever rating ("89% YOW!") in Zine Review Stomp. Among the many cool things Tara Calishain says about us there, our favorite was:Reading this newsletter is like riding down a steep hill on a Big Wheel with no brakes. Christopher Locke, Man Behind EGR, has a command of the language that makes reading a great ride.Thanks Cal!
On 10 January 1997 we land a "This is Cool" designation. The review says:
Entropy Gradient Reversals is basically one man's newsletter rant on the current state of the Internet and life in general. Very funny rants, delivered irregularly, on everything from the sudden unexplained popularity of The Weather Channel to the predeliction for media predictions at the end of the year. Available via the web and email.Yeah, turn your sound down in the office, wage slaves. Thanks Lynn!(ps: A warning for families: There's nothing really that objectionable at EGR content-wise (unless you object to clever writing), but be aware that it does contain a liberal sprinkling of 4-letter words and has a "holy sh*t" soundfile that plays on page loading. Possibly not great for the office.)
Our writeup says "Deadly but delightful, Entropy Gradient Reversals skewers Internet stupidity, yet subscribers include the savviest people in the industry. Go figure!" You can also go to the site and vote for EGR. We'll pay you good money to do this. Send email for details...
Your Metamegacorporate Friend on the Web®
We recently received the following communique through our Backbeat form:Name: Robon Corporation Publicity OverNodeWe did visit and were quite impressed, not least with the link to the following site...
Email: publicity@robon.com
comments : 12/28/2006
Robon Corporate Communique #A04-227B
Congratulations to [your organization] on a high-quality "web-site!" You are to be commended. However: It has come to Robon Corporation's attention that [your organization] is unaware of Robon's offerings on the web. Invite yourself freely to http://www.robon.com and experience the joys of Robon meme-crafting.
Robon Corporation: Life Is Upgradeable!
Featuring "Complex Solutions to Simple Problems," this site includes a link to Effing Products, Inc. ("every imagesetter is an Effing Imagesetter!"), and of course, much more. The Dimbulb site won the prestigious Go Ahead! Make Me Laugh!! award, which is also worth a long and penetrating look.
Sponsored by Border's Books, Salon is one of the most literate sites on the web. In a feature piece for their Special Holiday Issue (December 23-January 5) entitled The Good, the Bad and the Webly, Mary Elizabeth Williams reflects on the best and worst of the web in 1996. "In the midst of all this masturbatory glee," she says, "some folks with original and intriguing points of view actually managed to create a forum where they might otherwise never be heard." Search on "intriguing" to find the link to EGR. Thanks again Mary Beth!
In this new volume from Wiley Computer Books, authors Jeannie Novak and Pete Markiewicz (who "once launched his pet mouse 6,000 feet into the air") catch EGR's editor/publisher in several rare first-person pronouncements.
Page 20:
The Internet is already well on its way to becoming a mass medium, but it will never support "mass media" in the sense most people attach to that phrase. However, in the aggregate, the myriad micro-audiences online will, in effect, create massive opportunities in both business and entertainment.Page 55:In fact, the net is already a major entertainment medium for a large proportion of its current users. Network TV share stats are down across the boards I understand. Where do you suppose these folks went?
Like other corporations, traditional media companies are typically scanning the horizon for competitors their own size. Thus, they miss the ants eating away at their feet! One little Web outfit may take away only a fraction of a percent of any established company's market. But thousands of them can erode an existing market overnight. I believe a lot of companies -- and not just in radio and television -- will wake up one day soon to find their audiences and markets have evaporated.Christopher Locke, Chairman/CEO
Entropy Gradient Reversals
Callahan Online
"This is DAMN NEAR the greatest electronic newsletter ever created" reads the sign-up form for the Callahan Online Dog Rocket Newsletter -- with a killer link to EGR no less. Thanks to Mark Grimes, the preternaturally twisted intelligence behind eyescream.com, we are also listed on the masthead as RageBoy® - VP of Noise & Mayhem. Callahan's humor has a savage quality. It offends some people... and that's why we like it. Thanks John!
EGR makes the Weird section's "Hot 5" lineup in the January 97 issue (#2) of this new hardcopy pub. The review says "Entropy may boast the most self-effacing bravado on the Web. Created and maintained by Christopher Locke, one of the few people who's ever worked for IBM and kept a sense of humor, Entropy is a mishmash of rants, articles, and links -- crabby, but in a cheery way." That's us to a T -- cheery motherfuckers all! Thanks Mary Beth!
Brian O'Malley dropped around the EGR site and told us about his new movie, Bleak Future, "a post-apocalyptic comedy" featuring an all-amateur cast. Check it out. Our favorite quote: "'Kool-Ade' is a registered trademark of a big, fucked up corporation." Go get em, Dr. Obvious!
EGR is recognized by Yahoo! as reflecting the same high quality as The Atlantic Monthly, Paris Match, People and Popular Mechanics. Look for us under News and Media-Magazines-General Interest. And look, you can even see EGR World Headquarters from here. Well Ya-hoooo!
While their tag line -- More Signal, Less Noise -- radically contrasts with our commitment to bring you All Noise - All the Time, Netsurfer Digest is a terrific resource. The review of EGR says in part: "You'd figure from the title... that this little e-zine would bring order to the universe. You'd be wrong... It quotes Alexis de Tocqueville and Samuel Johnson, yet literally shouts 'holy shit!' at you - repeatedly..." In few words, they seem to have captured our True Essence. Thanks Laurie!
Our listing under Pop Culture reads: "Gonzo web journalism from the front lines." Thanks Todd! (If you like his list as much as we do, let him know.)
Incredibly, EGR is listed on this zine collection hosted by the Singapore Internet Business Directory -- evidently, the censors must have been out sick that day. Thanks to somebody hip over there!
From: John Labovitz <johnl@meer.net>
To: clocke@panix.com
Subject: howdy
Date: Tue, 13 Aug 1996 08:30:22 -0700
the royal we at the e-zine-list think your zine is wonderfully fine (and we'll be adding it to the list soonish). EGR makes me scared to claim to make a living from 'this internet thing' -- that's probably a good result.
Our listing reads: "AK-47 irony aimed at self-inflicted Internet cluelessness." Thanks John!
'Zineworld gives us its "outstanding e-zine" award. On the Web 'Zines page, EGR joins the likes of Cooler Than You, Crank, Losers Are Cool, Oblivion, Riotgrrl, Spank!, Suck, Verbosity and X-Posure. There seems to be a pattern emerging here. The site's author says, "I now have a new favorite web-zine, this is it." Thanks Jason!
Another compendium of zines -- EGR among them -- for those unable to get enough. Thanks Otis!
Doc Searls' Millennial Musings on various aspects of technology and "deeper stuff." Caution: you may encounter an unacceptably high signal-to-noise ratio here.
In addition to his takes on "technology, human beings, and everything" in Chronicle Stream, Jake Prescott's homepage has these fine things to say:
To be hip to what's going on out there on the Net, there are a few things you gotta read regularly. One of the bellweather guys is Chris Locke. His e-rag is called Entropy Gradient Reversals, and if you don't bother to read it, you're on your own, bud.Thanks Jake!
As part of an ongoing experiment in anti-memic disinfotainment, we cloned a bit of a previous EGR issue into FEED's recent discussion of the CDA court decision. To our amazement, this got incorporated as a marginal callout in the Document section (the main body of which begins here). Thanks Steven!
We rate a 10 for "...original content...utilization...Heavy Netscape. An excellent example of the creativity of the human race." Now if we could just get the human race to lend a hand... Thanks Howard!
EGR gets killer positioning, on VTweb's Everything page, beating out, among others, Michael Kinsley's Slate, USA Today and Time Magazine. At least in some quarters of the net, sanity still prevails. Thanks Gary!
"For a few tart rips on the Web and its hype," EGR rates a link from "the site for fresh takes on silliness, Web culture and all things diastematic (gap-toothed)." Thanks Noel!
EGR makes Top 100 Magazines List -- named Magazine of the Month (May '96) in the Style category. Our listing reads: "strongly restricted access for readers without sense of humor..." Thanks Greg!
We are briefly reviewed, the conclusion being that stumbling upon EGR is "a lot like finding a cheeseburger in your medicine cabinet."
Now here's a business site with a refreshing difference. Your rights and obligations as a responsible corporate netizen are spelled out in no uncertain terms. Companies like this will clearly be the Big Winners of the 21st Century.
DO NOT GO HERE. This guy is positively deranged! We got laughing so hard we damn near choked to death. Also, RANT is arguably funnier than EGR. Avoid at all costs.
The sole purpose of this site is to gets it's creator mentioned in WIRED. Hey, this is our kind of Content!
We like what Mark Amerika is doing. A lot. The hard part is trying to figure out exactly what that is.
With no false modesty, we salute our roots in a long tradition of word butchers pushing the envelope beyond all sense and reason.
The grandaddy mass-media spammer, to whose competence in this field we can only aspire. One must have goals and role models.
Last updated 27 January 1996
