A Festival of Light and Sound!

No...

Not, really, this is actually going to be a post of things that haven't quite made it into my blog. Some of these I've had for a while... now I'm just going to regurgitate them.


A Protective Force Field for your PS3!

Apparently, dust is evil, as is cigarette smoke! Now, they've made a dust/smoke shield for the PS3. At first blush, I thought this seemed silly, but, after thinking about it, it's actually a pretty brilliant idea.

I've actually cracked open my XBox and Gamecubes, as well as my old PSX and every Nintendo system I've ever owned at some point or another and cleaned out the dust at some point. If I'd had something like this, it would have saved me the trouble. Of course, being the geek that I am, I actually really enjoy taking things apart and putting them back together, so, perhaps I would have lost out in that.

Anyway, it's kind of neat, and only $20 or so with shipping. Although, it doesn't release until April, so, you'll have to try and hold out until then. There's a ton of silly add-ons for your PS3, XBox 360, and Wii all over the interwebs.


Snoughnuts?

This is not something I would call news... but, it's interesting anyway. Apparently this is more common that you'd think. It's much like a snowball, but, more doughnut like. The Seattle Times website has a surprisingly long article all about them.

"This is no joke. We did not build it," said Mike Stanford, an avalanche-control expert with the state Department of Transportation (WSDOT). "They are a natural occurrence in nature."

Talking Urinal Cakes? Minnesota is a splendid place to live!



The Star Tribune, Minneapolis' premiere newspaper, has a special recording of new speaking urinal cakes on their site. Apparently it's an effort from MNDoPS, they distributed out about 100 them to various venues for St. Patrick's Day. A woman's voice speaks to you, while you deluge the cake with urine, saying, "Hey there, big guy!" She urges you to get a ride if you've been drinking, and then reminds you that "...you're future is in your hand."

My penis?

Huh.


Mozilla Desktop Environment

So, the folks over at the mozilla.dev.planning list have been discussing a building a Mozilla based Desktop Environment for Linux, similar to KDE or Gnome, but based around the Mozilla Project, the great people that have brought us FireFox and Thunderbird. They would have a lot of work to do, such as implementing a file browser in FireFox, but, I can imagine that this would be wildly successful if implemented correctly.

The beauty of this would be the fact that they could package it as a distribution, being able to pick whatever kernel they'd like. They've already got a great programming language: XUL, which is the XML User Interface Language.

I'm going to be keeping an eye on this, I hope they can pull it off!


Rear Window v.5


Disturbia, a new movie starring no one of interest, and directed by no one of interest, seems to be taking liberty, yet again, with Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window. Of course, it's been updated to reflect our current world. Instead of the great Jimmy Stewart sitting in his apartment with a broken leg and a pair of binoculars who witnesses a crime. It's a handsome teenager under house arrest with a pair of binoculars who witnesses a crime.

Congratulations, whoever you are, you just plagiarized a great man! Genius! No one will notice!


Old, but funny list!

From the Washington Post's Mensa Invitational, circa 2005.

1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the
subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.

2. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until
you realize it was your money to start with.

4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.

7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

10. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.

11. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

12. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.

13. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day
consuming only things that are good for you.

14. Glibido: All talk and no action.

15. Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

16. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after
you've accidentally walked through a spider web.

There's a slew of great comment entries on that page, too, well worth checking out.


Stupid Funny: Tilted Room!




Another Oddly Addiction Game

It's called Boomshine. It's very simplistic, but a lot of fun. Basically, you have to 'ignite' colored dots, causing them to explode, and take out as many other dots as possible. You have a goal in each level to get a certain number of the total. So far my best score is 284, which I though was pretty darned good... until I saw the high score list, where there are people with numbers that don't even seem possible.

Enjoy!


Stan Lee Media Sues Marvel: $5B

This is the kind of story that just sickens me. Stan Lee Media, a defunct dot com from the 90's, which was originally found by Stan Lee and Marvel as a web presence for their heroes, died many many years ago. Since then, apparently, one man has brought it back from the dead, and is trying to make good on a contract agreement that gives them the rights of co-ownership of the main Marvel heroes pantheon. Now, they are suing Marvel for $5 BILLION.

It's twisted, it probably won' work, but it if it does... it's genius.

Stan Lee is upset about the whole thing too. Even though his name's on the company, he hasn't got a damn thing to do with it anymore.

Read the whole article here.


Run Vista legally without Activation?

It was reported about a month ago that you could skip the activation feature in Windows Vista up to 3 times using the SkipRearm method. When you install Windows Vista, you are given 30 days to activate, if you use the SkipRearm method, it will give you another 30 days. If you do this three times, you will get 120 days worth of activation free use. This is a feature that was included in Windows to help businesses and customers that were not in a position to activate their copy of Windows.

Now, it seems that the same people have discovered that you can actually use this method for at least a year... possibly indefinitely.

Microsoft is upset, calling it a "hack", and an "exploit." This is hilarious because it's a documented feature they've included.

Nerdery abounds.


NSFW Photo Spread...

Yep, this is a page filled with Bikinis that are as small as possible... I doubt anyone could get away with wearing them in public... but, I'll be damned if the photos aren't fap worthy...


Energy Fiend

A website filled with ridiculously detailed information about caffeine related food and drink... I was most intrigued by the "Kill Me" button on this page, at least, how easily I was willing to click on anything that says, "Kill Me".



THAT'S IT!

And, hopefully it's enough for today...

Lata!

I'm not yet a Zombie...

No matter how much you might have wanted it.

As mentioned previously, I've been having a bit of an issue with my wisdom teeth coming in. Today I had surgery to remove the problems...

I went in at 11:30am, it was just outside Downtown St. Paul, so, I got lost at first. I used to live about 10 miles from there, but it doesn't matter, I can never find my way around that city. Minneapolis is fine, I grew up enough in Mpls. that I can generally find my way around Downtown just fine, but put me in St. Paul and I get all turned around. Anyway, I made it there pretty much unscathed.

I filled out the forms they make you fill out every time you go to a new office. It's not that big of a deal, but, when you've filled out the same forms over and over with different headers and footers, it gets a little old. I sometimes think I should just make my own forms to bring with me, and then just make them fill it out themselves. "No, I've got more, everything you need is there, fill it out when you have time."

Because they planned to put me under, I wasn't allowed to eat or drink for 6 hours before. The dentist I was referred by told me this, but failed to mention that I would need someone to drive me home. Of course, I knew this, so I was fine, but it was funny to hear all the people who were completely blind sided by it, "What, I was just knocked out with a powerful anesthetic and now I'm not supposed to drive?"

So, I go into the office, where I have a bit of a Q & A session with one of the techs. As I go, I realize that this doctor has a freaking oral surgical assembly line thing going on. He has 8 rooms set up, and his appointments are staggered by about 15-30 min. He just moves from room to room doing surgery from 8 AM to 1:30 PM, then, I assume he goes home and swims through his mountains of cash.

The surgical tech asks questions, to which I reply. Things about my high blood pressure. At one point my incredible libido comes up. I explain my stalwart resistance to anesthesia.

After all of this, she leaves for a moment, and then comes back with the surgical tray and a giant bib for me. About 1 minute later the doctor comes in. He doesn't look at me, but asks the 2 techs, one of which walked in with him, what he's there to do. They tell him they're pulling 3 teeth. He looks at the X-Rays hanging behind me, and then asks me, "How old are you?" He pauses for about half a second and realizes I don't know who he is, he then says, "I'm sorry, Stephen. Dr. Mittling. How old are you?"

That's it exactly, he speaks as if he's a third party who's introducing two people in a semi-formal setting.

I answer, 26, and he says, no, we're taking two teeth, the wisdom tooth can stay, and it will likely shift into a better position once we get the infected one out.

I say, "Ok."

He walks over to the tray, and grabs an I.V. serenge, and one of techs wraps a rubber strap around my arm. The surgeon, he says, "Make a tight fist for me, you might feel a pinch. Good, now relax your hand."

He administers some of the liquid, then reaches over to the tray with one hand and grabs a black foam rubber block, he tells me to open my mouth wide, and then to bite down on the things he's just shoved into my face.

Then the first surgical tech is saying, "Time to wake up. Here, get into this chair." Which, I do, and she says, "You did good. It went well."

What I'm thinking is: are we gonna do the surgery yet?

She pushes me into a little room with plastic beds like those in a school nurses office, and helps me to lay down. I feel heavier than usual. I roll over onto my side, and taste evil in my mouth. I try to roll over the other way, and a guy in the little cubby hole of a room, apparently a little further on in his recovery, lunges forward to keep me from falling onto the floor.

About half an hour later, I've paid my down payment, received my scrip for Vicodin and I'm on my way home.

Now, the upper whole that once housed a tooth is throbbing, my whole jaw feels like I've just been in a rough fist fight, even with the Vicodin, and I need to keep gauze in my mouth to catch the oozing blood... which is really uncomfortable.

At least I didn't die and join the ranks of the undead.


Only one link... for now.


The Russkies have über boots!

These boots are in the news again. Gas power boots that can give you up to a twelve foot stride, propelling you, on foot, at up to 25 m.p.h.

Neat.

YouTube video from the first link:



WOOO!

Mostly about Commodore.... but, there's some racial stuff too.

Commodore's Back Baby!!

Wow!

I recently mentioned an article which stated that Commodore was coming back with new gaming machines...

This news was pretty cool. But now that I see what they're doing... I'm just impressed. Of course I'm a little biased, because Commodore is a name from my youth, and to see the company getting updated hardware and focusing heavily on current technology for gaming... it just feels right!

Europe's largest tech show, CeBIT, not unlike our CES, just took place. Commodore was there showing off their new machines, and according to what I've read, it was a jaw dropping experience.

I've never been a big fan of OEM PCs. The biggest reason is the amount of Spyware and Malware that comes bundled out of the box, not to mention the trialware and insertcreditcardnumberheretokeepmachinerunningware. PC manufacturers generally subsidize the cost of building machines by getting kickbacks from various software vendors for bundling their code in their machines. I understand the reasons why Dell, HP, and Companies like them do this: it's a cutthroat business with limited profit margins. They buy parts from the lowest bidders, and are not interested in give the end user the best performance. In all honesty, though, the machines you buy from your local retailer still have enough performance to do the basic stuff.

Worse, is that the cost of gaming machines from companies like Alienware (Dell now), and WidowPC is astronomical. The reason behind this is the better components, and less of that terrible software pre-installed. Gamers want power, and these companies are able to capitalize on that. And, they do provide something that the average user who would build their own wouldn't get: Support. Maybe it's outsourced to India, maybe there'll be a 3 month turnaround on repairs, but, you have some level of piece of mind you wouldn't get otherwise.

Commodore is entering into this world. The competitive world of gaming machines. But, they have something that none of the other companies have: brand recognition.

If you think about it, most people in their target demographic will likely remember the lofty heights to which their own machines were held. They were the pinnacle, at the time. Most kids at least knew someone with a C64, and if they were lucky enough to own one themselves, they knew they were on the cutting edge. Now, those kids are likely part of the working world, going around voting with their dollars. I imagine that those votes will be cast in the direction of Commodore's new offering, much like the new TMNT movie. In addition, the Amiga, one of the Commodore brands, has managed to keep a cult following, the Amiga OS just recently got ANOTHER upgrade, and is still catering to those people that love the brand.

So far, pricing is unknown, but I imagine the costs will be high. Apple high. According to their website, they'll be releasing machines with 2 letter codes: the XX, GX, GS, and G. The top of the line XX will be a Core 2 Quad with SLI'd Dual nVidia GeForce 8800 GTX's and 4GB of Corsair Ram, although, it's supposed to be customizable. The basic G system will be a lower end Core 2 Duo with 2GB of ram and an nVidia GeForce 7900 GS, which is still plenty of performance for most games these days (that setup is similar to what I'm running, and trust me, I do fine).

Adding to the joy that is Commodore power is the C-Kin case system. A set of interchangeable panels, and not cheap ones either, are going to be offered with their machines. There are TONS of options, and I imagine that, as your interest in a game wanes, and is supplanted with new hotness, you'll be able to order new panels to match your taste. There are several Commodore Classic designs, a plethora of Game designs, graffiti tag designs, art photographs and landscapes, as well as a slew of (not so plain) colours. Seriously, the options are actually almost inundating.

Thus far, it appears that these machines will be limited to europe... at least for the moment, and pricing has not been announced, but, I'm not too worried about that. I wouldn't, and couldn't buy one in the foreseeable future anyway. It's just great to see old brands making good moves.

In other commodore news, they are trying to saturate the market, it seems. They'll be releasing a series of devices they call 'Gravels'. There's portable media players with WiFi and Cameras, called Gravel in Pocket and Gravel Personal, and a GPS navigator, called Gravel in Car. All seem to have a really intuitive navigation schema by putting a joystick on the back, where your fingers rest. Why didn't anyone else think of that? (Besides me...) It looks like they'll be sparing no one in this new push for success. I just hope it pans out for them, I'd hate to see another name fall into obscurity again.


In other news: Searchles!

It's funny to me that I hadn't heard of Searchles, a really amazing social search engine, until I read an article about Sony's video site, Grouper, which I'd also never seen before.

What's interesting about Searchles is that they've got a new feature called "Searchles TV", which allows you to embed a mash-up of videos into one player which can then be embedded into your Blogger, MySpace, or personal website. The videos, though, don't come from one source, but can actually come from Google Video, YouTube, MySpace Video, Grouper, and a few others. It's also dynamic, so that whatever you add to your channel on the Searchles sites, automatically propagates out to wherever you've embedded your video.

It's interesting... I just don't have time to fuck with it. Maybe you do.


Tar Baby!

On Friday, Republican Presidential Candidate, Senator John McCain used the term "Tar-Baby", and immediately knew he'd made a mistake. I'm not a fan of McCain, he's always contradicting himself and making horrible flubs. He can't seem to think on his feet. There's no shortage of people who don't like him. The problem is, he used the term correctly. Seriously, it was originally used to describe a spade of tar used on ships in the 19th century, it was hella messy if handled incorrectly.

What he said was:

"For me to stand here and … say I'm going to declare divorces invalid because of someone who feels they weren't treated fairly in court, we are getting into a tar baby of enormous proportions and I don't know how you get out of that."

Now, people generally associate the term "tar baby" to being a derogatory term for African Americans, such as Nigger, Porch Monkey, Coon, and the like.

Now, what he was referring to was this, the lovable (and banned) Disney character, who is sticky and causes no end of trouble for the poor Br'er (brother) Rabbit. It's an old story, very old, passed down for years and years until Disney turned it into part of Song of the South. The Uncle Remus stories that it's based on, are basically African American folklore and oral storytelling, which were written in the mid-1800's and were revolutionary for their time. Now, however, they're racist.

This is one of those frustrating things. Black people used to tell these stories. They are derived from even older African tales of characters like the trickster Anansi. They used to use these words and talk about these things, it's part of their culture. Just as much TuPac as rapping about "coming up", and "shootin' da nigga", or Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream".

It's a sad world where we can't talk about this stuff in an open forum. Why is racism a problem? Because no one can let it go. Innocuous comments like this, which aren't meant to be derogatory, become huge issues. Now, if he'd said this while wearing a white sheet... perhaps then I might be convinced of it's negativity. But, seriously, I'm more racially offended by Coca-Cola's portrayal of Black people drinking their products on some of their more recent commercials. Everyone knows they don't drink Coke, just Orange Soda.

Seriously, though, the problem remains that we still insist on seeing color. And that will never change, but until we can embrace the fact that each of us has a unique culture, and that there is always going to be differences, we'll never truly be able to move forward, together.


Now, as I looked around at the various bits of info for Br'er Rabbit, and Song of the South, I did come across a couple of videos that I think are somewhat funny... well, sorta. They are 'banned' from regular view due to their 'questionable' content.

The first is Popeye in "You're a sap, Mr. Jap". Clearly, this is Max Fleischer and Kings Feature's way of showing support for the war effort (WWII). Obviously, a dark part in our history was rounding up Japanese Americans and putting them into internment camps for fear on an on-soil attack. And, just as clearly, what we have is a very racially biased video. It wasn't the first time "orientals" were portrayed in this way...



The next video, however, is quite a bit darker. Disney's "Education for Death". It is somewhat disturbing to watch, but, it's also very interestingly artistic. It's obvious why this one has been 'banned' from general viewing. Disney has had a lot of bizarre allegations alleged against him from being communist, to a Nazi sympathizer, and of course, there are the rumors that he's been cryogenically frozen, and his body is interned at Disneyland, awaiting the day that there's a cure for lung cancer. There are equally strange allegations against the old Eisner as well... but, that's neither here nor there.




The mood on this blog may have dropped slightly...

So, check out Wedding Thriller



If ever I bother to get married again... I might have to do something like this. Though, perhaps instead I'll have use do a scene from West Side Story.

Funnier still is... Indian Thriller! (Dot, not feather)



And this is just hilarious...

I'm on Vicodin!!!

Oh God... I wish I were dead...

This, right here, is the X-Ray of my upper right molars, specifically 1-4. What you'll see is that I have my upper right wisdom tooth absolutely destroying my already terrible molar. I've had bad teeth in the back since I was in high school. For various reasons, I've not really taken care of problems as they've arisen in the back there since the mid-90's.

Now, I've always taken decent enough care of my mouth, brushing twice a day, etc.. but, when I was younger, poor hygiene, and what I think might have been a greedy dental practitioner led to several fillings in the back teeth. The front have always been fine, although somewhat yellowed from too much coca-cola, coffee, and eventually smoking.

When I was in high school, I was told I needed a root canal. I don't remember experiencing a lot of pain until after the procedure was done, then the filling immediately came out and there was a ton of pain. They re-performed, but since then, I've more or less sworn off dentists. Relying instead on better hygiene and Tylenol, Ibuprofen, and Aspirin.

The lower wisdom teeth came in years ago, both breaking apart the teeth in front of them. The upper left came in about two months ago, with very little fan fare. I just sort of noticed one day that there was a tooth where gum had been.

This one, however, has been troubling me for about as long, and it's been absolute murder. I haven't slept now in three days, and yesterday I actually passed out at work from the pain.

Going to the dentist today, I was informed that I need to have both of those teeth surgically removed.

Surgery is scheduled for Monday at 11:45 AM in St. Paul.

Wish me luck. Oh, and feel free to donate money to me, because I have NO IDEA how I'm going to pay for this.

The good news is that my teeth up front still look just fine. And that's all that matters, right?


Rant

No, actually, it's not me that's ranting. Instead, and I'm not sure how he snuck it out on me, but, Chuck Palahniuk's new book, Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey, comes out on March 1st! I can't believe that I didn't know about this sooner. I was anticipating Haunted, his last novel, forever. Literally from the dawn of time I waited for it.

Rant seems to be written in an interview format. The couple of pre-reviews I've read so far seem positive, but even if they'd said it sucked, I still would read it. Chuck's work is amazing!

Anyway, checking out Chuck's Website, I also saw info on a book written through his Writer's Workshop: Monica Drake's Clown Girl. It seems to be about some sort of strange clown chick, and her struggles with life, or something. I read the first few pages on Amazon, and it's pretty good so far. It has a real Chuck feel, which might be why he's given writing credit... so I'll likely pick that up soon as well.

If you've never read his work, or are like me and just can't get enough of the guy, you can check out a short story he had published in the magazine Viceland called "Mister Elegant". It's not exactly his greatest work, but it gives you a decent feel for his work. He's the mastermind behind Fight Club, which was actually a book before it was a movie.


LED Throwies

I absolutely must make a million of these!

I don't' know if you're familiar with instrucables.com, but, in the vein of many howto sites, like wikihow.com, the content of which come solely from it's users, though, instructables is much more stylish. It's filled with a ton of useless shit and a few really interesting bits.

One of those interesting bits is LED Throwies, as seen on the right. It's amazing. I must do it... MUST DO IT!!!

Wow, you think the Vicodin is making me loopy?


Heeeere FISHY FISHY FISHY!!!



Rare memories of joy from my youth... good times.



The Onion's new ploy for illiteracy in America.

Yep, they're promoting it. Why read the magazine that used to be really funny... when you can watch it and just let it happen at you...




Maybe they'll have edgy new material...





no, they won't.


I need to go lay down...

bye.

Write these words back down...

Nothing to say...

Seriously, there's not even a stitch of news about me. Sorry. (Because I truly think you care...) Read on for things you might ACTUALLY care about though...


"R" Rated Transformers?

I really don't know how much weight you can put into this "news" article from JoBlo.com.

Supposedly the MPAA gave the first submission of the new Transformers movie an 'R' rating for intense violence. Michael Bay, not wanting to make any changes, apparently called upon a higher power, uttering some sort of dark prayer. That higher powers was, apparently, Steven Spielberg. Now, after working some sort of voodoo magic, the same film has been relegated to the land of PG-13.

Again, I really don't know if I can trust this completely un-cited story. I gather we are supposed to take it upon authority that user "ElderPredator" is just "in the know."

If it is true, however, I'm not sure how I feel about it. I mean, yes, the original cartoon had shooting and guns and things, but, it was still more than acceptable for the average child to watch. But, this new version is supposedly not watchable by anyone but adults? What gives Michael Bay? Moreover, what's the deal with making a movie that's clearly not watchable by children, and then having the great and powerful Wizard of Hollywood bully the MPAA into dropping its rating?

I don't get it.

Oh well.


The Top 10 Most Important Video Games of all Time!

This is mildly interesting.

Mostly, they've decided that the following are the most important games of all time, but there's more story than that, some of which is somewhat worth reading, but only if you have time.

Mr. Lowood and the four members of his committee — the game designers Warren Spector and Steve Meretzky; Matteo Bittanti, an academic researcher; and Christopher Grant, a game journalist — announced their list of the 10 most important video games of all time: Spacewar! (1962), Star Raiders (1979), Zork (1980), Tetris (1985), SimCity (1989), Super Mario Bros. 3 (1990), Civilization I/II (1991), Doom (1993), Warcraft series (beginning 1994) and Sensible World of Soccer (1994).

I Mention an Article... because it's filled with stupid.

CVG, a website I can't remember visiting before, but apparently exists none the less, reported about something the CEO of ID Software said, which is that ID went to consoles to 'battle piracy'.

I'm just gonna say... DUH! I mean, wow, it's slightly harder to pirate a video game, but, at the same time, piracy is part of the gaming world.

What really made me laugh was this:

In the discussion, Soren Johsnon - designer/lead programmer, Sid Meier's Civilization III & IV - said "game design on the PC is going to bend toward persistence" as in MMOGs. Massively multiplayer online games succeed because "You cannot pirate an MMO. Period", said Johsnon.

You can't pirate an MMO, eh? Tell that to the guys on the various Hamachi servers...


The Internet's not a Big Truck...

But soon, it may not be a series of tubes either?

Several big companies are pushing for internet to be offered a whole new way... over the airwaves. Specifically, they want to use the channels in various markets that aren't being used already to offer high speed internet service.

It's an interesting read, though the Washington Post article does not mention important factors like speed, security, and cost. Most notable in all of this is the plain and simple fact that you cannot 'own' anything being transmitted over the air, so, I can't imagine it would take long before people 'hack' the technology and it becomes another 'pirated' service. The other issue is that I can see the potential in 'receiving' data, but how, without every user building a massive radio tower, could people also send specific data. Also, how many users could such a technology actually support?

I hope these answers come swiftly.

The good news is that something like this might mean my Comcast bill could go DOWN for a change...

I know, I know. That won't EVER happen. But, it's nice to dream a little.


Gangsta Rap... Colouring Book?

bahahhahahahahahhahahaha

Clearly the Sun is the most reputable of all news sources, but, I can't help but laugh at the little girl that's coloring '50 Cent' "white".

Another Wonderful Time Waster

Line Game


That's it for now! Enjoy!

One Hundereth Post Extravaganza!

Not really, I just like making myself sound important...

In my world, things happened. Last night I went out for my birthday, the one that happened 2 weeks ago. It was just me and a few friends. Less snow happened, so, we went and had dinner at Champps, then to D & B's for a few hours of half drunken video games, and rounded out the night at Boston's....

All was good, except the service at Boston's, which was pretty awful. We were there for 3 hours, and all 4 pitchers we ordered sat on the bar for about 10-20 minutes before they made it to our table. It took almost an hour to flag down the waitress so that Katie could get some water, and when Brandon showed up, around 1:20, the waitress brought us our bill rather than offer us more drinks.

Her tip was ZERO dollars. It would have been near $50 had she been better.

Oh well. It was still a good time.


Also, this night, I spent some time with my good friend Mikey-poo, which is he shall be referred to from now on... or until I forget, about ten minutes from now.

We dug out some of his old shit from back when we were in high school and reminisced about being gangly, ugly mother fuckers with very little talent. Now we're just ugly mother fuckers with very little talent.

It comes full circle. And then there's a panda.


On to the LINKS!


Zoomquilt 2

The original zoomquilt was amazing. Enter Zoomquilt 2! It's excellently good! What it is: A collaborative art project designed like an internet 'quilt', where each piece blends into the whole. It flows continuously. Check it out!


A photo gallery that freaks me out...

Square America


Unreleased Jimmy Page Guitar Riff To Be Retrieved From Secret Vault To Save Rock And Roll

The Onion, one of the most respected news organizations on the planet is reporting what I copy and pasted up there in the 'title' of this section. Are you adequately prepared to rock?

I know I am.


Speaking of reminiscing...

This is great, even if they can't spell the page title right... it's < title >Console Time Attack Videos< /title > stupids!

Oh well, it has what the misspelled title implies, videos of console games being played through really quickly. It's a lot of fun... if you like that sort of thing.


ReadyMech!

Seriously, the FWIS guys have got the best way to waste printer ink on the planet!

READYMECH!!! Print some out, grasp an Exacto and some double sided tape and get to work.

Fwis has some really interesting things to look at, the only problem I have with them is that I really have a hard time understanding what I'm looking at. Their site is nearly impossible to navigate without getting lost and confused, and really, just plain scared.

(*Note - I will not be blamed for anything that goes awry from grasping double sided tape).


Difficult Simple Game...

I've given an hour of my life to this game. I give up. I hit 42.something seconds... that's good enough as far as I'm concerned. Besides, it's in French.

A man's fight to stop ski mask discrimination...

Check out one of the stupidest web sites on the planet. Yes, even stupider than this one. Even stupider than your 10 year old nephews Naruto page.

In case you missed it on the mouse hover... http://www.crazyskimask.com/

Wow.


From the Out of the Woodwork & Beggin' for money, Dept.

A guy is actually claiming that he invented SpongeBob Squarepants... during the recession of the 90's... it's...

No, just read this:

"It is more than ironic that two working class sponges are named Bob," Walker says in his complaint. "Both characters are unemployed. Both characters live in a house concept."

They both live in a house concept...

Well damn... Viacom ought to be forking over the money any day now.

Speaking of... I need to have some words with Marvel and DC, because I remember creating a whole slew of superhero characters when I was 8 that seem to be plagiarized quite a bit now...


Watch this somewhere other than work...

John Cleese teaches sex. ed.... Monty Python remains fresh and funny.



For a milestone type post...

this was pretty lackluster. I'm sorry.

300 Reviewed and loved...

... however:

I give it 4.5/5, but I do so based on the movie it is... and not what it might have been:

Amazingly visual. Disappointingly poor adaptation.

This film had everything at its disposal to make perfection. Money. But, unfortunately, they didn't quite get it.

You can read the plot summary on your own. Basically, the story goes thusly: Due to Spartan law, the king is unable to take the full force of his highly trained (read, from birth) army to face a massive Persian force numbering in the 100's of thousands. He merely takes a small handful, 300, to try and stop the advance of this multi-continental force by hole-ing up in a small mountain pass that eliminates the numerical advantage of their enemy. It's based, albeit very loosely, on true historical recordings. The film is an adaptation of the Frank Miller's fantastic comic.

I'll focus first on the positives: Visceral visuals. Violent and powerful shooting, excellent effects, and more (gruesome) sound than the human brain should process. There's something to be said for the current trend of big budget green screens. That something is: WOW! It's incredibly immersive, there's nary a point in the movie that you don't feel convinced that the things on screen are real, even when you know they cannot be. The sound comes at you from every direction, and in the extremely well choreographed fight scenes (the majority of the film), the sounds of blades rending flesh and bones being crushed are amazing.

The character design is also spot on, and translates well from the original books. There's more than a few moments where you'll wish you could pause it on the big screen just to examine some strangely disfigured creature, or amazingly detailed animal. The costumes are also astounding, while the Spartans merely sport red capes and leather bikini briefs, the Persians are well adorned with Jewelry and armor as are the animals. The most amazing is the "God King Xerxes", whose costume is as dazzling as his stature (which I would guess at around 8 feet).

The negatives, however, are a bit more problematic. It's hard to really settle on the problems, because they aren't really consistent throughout the film.

There are bits of dialogue that you'll hear, and you'll regret them for the writers. There's a sub story involving the romance between the Spartan King and his Queen that goes more or less unnoticed, although it seems as though they wanted it to be a pivotal plot device. There's a plus / minus point, depending on your point of view, in that there's a near soft-core like pornographic sex scene that really does nothing to further the story in any way, but does give the viewer a few moments of visual carnal knowledge that's hard not to "enjoy".

By far, my biggest complaint is the pace. It seemed as though the actual story component of the movie was rushed, or possibly cut, in favor for the massive battles. The battles are amazing to behold, and you still feel very much compelled by the Spartan's plight, but, there are pieces of the puzzle that feel like they're missing.

A great example would be the size of Sparta itself. They focus so very narrowly on merely the king at the beginning of the film. When he takes his handful of Spartans, the 300 to which the title refers to, you get the 'impression' that this is a small number compared to those which might be at his control. They explain why he's taking a small number, but not very well, and you really have no sense of the size of the Spartan army until the very end. Perhaps that was the intent, but, none-the-less, it seems as though you might feel more impressed if you knew from the beginning that his numbers COULD have been 10,000 strong, and, even facing armies that out number them 6 to 1, this would have been an adequate figure to do some damage to King Xerxes masses. As a matter of fact, the movie does a terrible job depicting the actual size of Sparta in general, in the beginning, when an messenger from the Persians comes, you see what seems like the entire city of Sparta, all 27 of them.

Are these things enough to make the movie 'bad'? NO! It's an excellent film, even if just for the incredibly detailed visual immersion. But, for those that are going in looking for a powerful story, historical reference, or even just Sin City 2, you'll be horribly disappointed.

It's a movie that I loved for what it was. And, I recommend that everyone do the same.

And in the last post I learned...

That I shouldn't try and use the 'WYSIWYG' editor in blogger...

Wow. I'm not sure what it did... I just wanted to try changing the bold titles to orange... but, they ended up all fuxxored.

I guess the html will have to be the way to go... ugh!

Some news you can use!

Not really, no. You can’t use it. It’s just for show…

Some semi-obligatory information about me. Don’ you just love it when I share?

First, I’m writing again, which is refreshing since I love it so very much. I’ve got a lot of thoughts beating around the inside of my skull there, where the brains are kept. So, feel free to head over to my writing blog of doom, ad petum literae, where I have posted the outlines of a new short story, which is so far untitled. I’ve also made some massive grammar and spelling corrections to “About A Girl” and “Chelsea” as well. I’m hoping to dig into a couple more of my titles soon and get some work done. I will finish something soon!

In other news, I created a new business card which I’m pretty proud of. I probably shouldn’t be, but oh well. It’s part of a test of a new system we’re using at work, and the bottom line is that I get some fine ass business cards for free. You couldn’t beat that with a stick. Not even if you tried really hard.

In addition to all this, I’m really excited because Mike has started working on a new script that’s pretty awesome. I’m not going to say anything about it, but it’s really pretty cool. Now, if he’d just finish ‘Ink’, we’d be in business!

On to the links!

Something I’ve been saying for a while now!

Well, not exactly, but along the same vein anyway. The National Geographic website has an article about the warming of polar ice caps on Mars, you know, the planet in our solar system that doesn’t have cars and factories and things.

In this case they are pointing blame at the Sun. One of the many factors to be the cause ‘global warming’.

I’ve been saying for a while that falling into Al Gore’s over animate, although hypnotizing, propaganda train about billions of tons of CO₂ being pumped into atmosphere was all a bunch of tripe. People fear what they don’t understand. They don’t understand that the planet as been going through cycles since long before we were here, and will continue to do so long after we’re gone.

Go ahead, drive that fucking Suburban man, and drop the hammer in your Impala SS. Feel free to flush your toilet at the same time as your tap runs while you’re brushing your teeth.

Bah. We need to be more worried about over-population than global warming.

Commodore Returns!

There’s news that Commodore is coming back. They are planning on releasing a whole new series of gaming optimized PC’s!

I for one remember the good old days of the Commodore64, so, the idea is very intriguing!

I won’t buy one. No sir. But, it’s still good to hear.

Feel like posting in that forum? Wait, you need to know something…

This is just damn funny.

So, your user interface is the dog, right?

I just don’t get this, although I’m trying. The new Fable, Fable 2 (because, if you remember, the last one was actually Fable 1.5 for PC) is going be something very different from the first.

No, you still get to choose your alignment all throughout. However, you’ll now get to choose between male and female controllable characters. This seems fine and dandy, but, there’s the fact that your characters now get to have sex, and, if you’re a male, you can knock up yourself an NPC. If, however, you’re female, you can get yourself knocked up. I’m not sure what that will do to your “wisdom” stats, but I imagine that as your pregnancy progresses, you’ll find yourself “Speed -9” and “Movement -6” as well as “Irritability +92” and “Bloating +31”. I wonder if they’ll have virtual PMS and menstruation.

Well, as if that wasn’t enough to throw at fans who’re curious about their new title, they also mention that you get a dog. Your dog. Who also somehow acts has your user interface. You don’t get to control the dog, rather, it’s just there, and it gives you useful information. You don’t get a map or an on screen HUD, you get a dog.

I just wonder what happens if Rover tangles with the wrong bandit and ends up heading to the big dog house in the sky… are you clueless for the rest of the game?

Thus it ends.

That’s it for now, as I’m tired, and I think I have carpal tunnel.

Catch you later!

And the world keeps turning...

...and turning, and turning, and so on, etc...

Seriously, I've yet to truly change the world. That's really too bad, because I am far and away the most amazing person to have walked the face of this earth.

Oh well, one day, I will be king.


A new dog?

I have a dog, the greatest dog ever! Although she's a filthy thing that the local Dog Groomers have banned from their premises, I love her so. But, as a whole, she's about 284 years old, in human years, and likely to die.

This makes me sad. I can't bear to lose my Amphetamine Annie Dog.



Don't let her tiny size fool you, though. She's a Cairn Terrier mutt that I adopted from the Humane Society back in 1995, and at that time they guessed she was about 1 yr. old. She's about 45 lbs, and all of it is muscle. This little bitch will take down a German Shepherd. I know it, because she's done it.

But, she's old.

Here's where things change.

A woman in my Grandmother's building, an assisted living complex, has cancer, and the doctors have now given her 3 weeks to live. While this is sad, she has a Miniature Schnauzer who needs a home. I've offered mine. My hope is that with a younger dog in the house, my Annie dog will have a companion, and might even get back some of her puppy like vigor, which, is still surprisingly strong. (As I'm told by a few sources can happen with older dogs when they around younger dogs).

Otherwise, at least when Annie finally goes on the "long leash-less walk", I'll still have something to shit in my hallway. Seriously, I just can't seem to do it myself.

I'll find out soon. If all goes as planned, I'll be posting pictures of the new addition to the scenery around here.


And the links you came here for...


Mike picks a winner.

I hate when Mike find things that I haven't. It's my internet, dammit, stop showing me up!

Seriously, though, he stumbled upon a gaming site that I had not yet been privy too: GameAlmighty.com.

It looks pretty great. I registered an account there, and have started poking around.

It almost has the feel of GameSpot.com if it had a 'Comic Book' skin, but, it's designed as if it were a giant magazine. There's tons of stuff to do. And, seriously, it's all Comic Book looking, with a fun interface, and a superhero on every page!

My only real complaint is that it's not easy to navigate about if you want to peruse the list of titles in their catalog. It's not impossible, but not easy either.

Also, the site is VERY bandwidth intensive.

The plus side is that there's a lot of ways you can contribute to the site, the articles I've read so far are written pretty well, and, maybe it's just my Adblock Script, but, there's not Ads to block that I can find. A major plus.

I'm a little frustrated that if I keep up there, I will need to start adding games from my collection, a daunting task considering I have 173 titles listed on my GameSpot profile and counting, and of course, the fact that I don't have any reviews there yet is a little annoying, so, I'll need to get that remedied soon.

They have a ranking system like GameSpot does, which also seems to be based on contributions, so, we'll see how that works.

Check it out, though. I don't know if they'll ever rival the big hitters like IGN and Gamasutra, but, they've got a lot of content already, and they can only get bigger. Right?


Adobe Photoshop Web?

C|NET is reporting that Adobe's CEO has announced Photoshop as an Online application within the next 6 months.

Wow.

Through a series of quotes, the article lays out the reasoning behind this move.

It is going to be similar to the Adobe Remix you can use on photobucket.com, which is an online video editing tool. They are trying to get their product out before companies like Google and Microsoft do it first as both companies are already vying for superiority in online office suites.

The product is said be to 'Ad' driven, but, they are trying to keep the bandwidth usage to a minimum. I imagine that it will be a watered down version of Photoshop Elements, which is a watered down version of Photoshop.

If I were to guess, there will be minimal capabilities such as cropping, resizing, tonal and color correction, red eye removal, and a few of their basic filters like sharpen, blur, and possibly noise control.

They have said that this is meant to be the best product in its class, although, I don't think there are other products already in this class, I assume they are predicting the introduction of an online version of Google's Picasa and the like. The bottom line is: they want to do this right from the get go.

As a whole, I think the biggest reason behind this move is money. No, wait, I know it's hard to believe that a company might be out to make money, but, let me finish. The CEO glosses over this in the article, but I think this is important.

Ad revenue. It's a wonderful thing. Think about it this way, Photoshop CS2 is about $600 for the full version (aimed at Professionals), Photoshop Lightroom (something I need to talk about soon, because it's a pretty nifty application, meant for Professional Photographers) will run you $299, Photoshop Elements (meant for consumers) will run you $99. All of these things will put a dent in your pocket book, but, as a whole, the majority of the people on this planet that use these products have never paid a cent for them, therefore, Adobe makes ZERO DOLLARS off of those consumers.

Let's imagine, though, that many of these people are not using a majority of the features, or, the entire customer set that WOULD buy the product if they could afford it. Suddenly, Photoshop online is there, and these people use it. Let's say $10,000 people use it in a week, and some of them click on ads that are served up to them. Let's say these ads are, for the sake of argument, aimed at them directly, offering products like Elements, Cameras, Keyboards and Mice, faster computers, or coffee. Anyway, suddenly, this free thing, the thing they aren't paying for, is making Adobe money.

Hazzah! Welcome to the internet!

I'll be watching for it. Since I use Photoshop CS2 nearly every day, I don't see myself really jumping on board with this one, but it's a great concept anyway.

As the big WebOS war looms on the horizon, online apps like this really are setting the tone of things to come.


A Lego MMO?

Yes, NetDevil has announced that they are developing a Lego Massively Multiplayer Online Game. The word 'Game' I use loosely, as I'm not sure how it's going to work yet.

As far as I can tell from the press release, it's going to basically make it so that kids can get together online and build things.

I loved Legos as a kid, so, I imagine this will take the Generation Fat into the future with the Lego Trademark.

As long as eight year olds aren't dropping out of school so they can log more time in the Lego World.

The Geneva Motor Show

Where sexy meets sexy!

Wow, that's all I can really say. Check out this page, which has a ton of pictures of beauties of all sorts!

It's a blog, so, don't forget to click next page at the bottom, because, it just keeps going.

When science meets secretly with the devil...

Scientists have been able to prove 'faster than light' speeds.

From the Article:

Scientists have finally exceeded the speed of light, causing a light pulse to travel hundreds of times faster than normal.

It raced so fast the pulse exited a specially-prepared chamber before it even finished entering it.

Skepticism abounds.

Break dancing!

Visit PlanetBBoy.com to find out more about a movie coming out... all about break dancing.

Teaser:



You can't NOT enjoy watching this!




What remains may not be considered safe for work... you've been warned.

Don't watch this.

Just... just don't do it.



BOOBIES!


BOOBIES!BOOBIES!BOOBIES!BOOBIES!
BOOBIES!BOOBIES!BOOBIES!BOOBIES!
BOOBIES!BOOBIES!BOOBIES!BOOBIES!
BOOBIES!BOOBIES!BOOBIES!BOOBIES!
BOOBIES!BOOBIES!BOOBIES!BOOBIES!
BOOBIES!BOOBIES!BOOBIES!BOOBIES!
BOOBIES!BOOBIES!BOOBIES!BOOBIES!
BOOBIES!BOOBIES!BOOBIES!BOOBIES!

Wobble?

Pretty straight forward...

Things for me...

are actually pretty normal. But, I must say that I've been a bit busy, mostly playing Company of Heroes and working. I did mention the party that happened on Saturday, and since then, a couple of things happened. I will highlight them.

Snow stopped...

... and I admired nature's beauty...





All of this leads me to the real prize...

Saturday's Lunar Eclipse.

I got a chance to snap off a couple shots of the lunar eclipse that happened on Saturday. I'm a little upset that I didn't get enough warning to set up my tripod and really get it right, but, still, I think what I got turned out pretty good.

NASA has eclipse info. I guess this one was supposed to be a big deal because it was the first time in a very long time it was visible from all seven continents. I think...




anyway... on to the thing you really care about...


Tower Defense

a.k.a 'Great Time Waster'

I'd like to think of Tower Defense as a mini-RTS for those moments when you just don't have enough to do. It's easy to get sucked into trying to kill wave after wave of evil circles, tear drops and those evil flying triangles.

Check it out.


Speedpainting

I can never watch enough of this shit. This is 3 hours of Photoshop work compressed down to 5 minutes. It's pretty astounding work.




A movie about a font?

Yep, Helvetica from Veer. A movie. About a typeface. It's a movie. Font. Movie.

Yeah. I got nothing.


Whisky Tango Foxtrot abounds!

Seriously... I don't get Sony. I've tried, I really have. But, they are just so fucking bizarre! Like that baby PS3 commercial. What was up with that? How about the eggs that turn in to Crows. WHAT!?!?

Now, here's something that really doesn't make a lick of sense.

www.thisisliving.tv

Go there. Watch the video. Despair.

Seriously, what the hell? First, it has nothing to do with the Playstation 3. Second, it's got nothing to do with anything. We've got some sort of strange transvestite, a grenade, an ugly dog, a Spanish villa, and asplodin' money filled suitcases.

What. Are. You. Doing.

Now, I really understand that Sony seems to thrive off bizarre marketing. It seems that they feel this really gives them some sort of edge. And, to their credit, it does become memorable.

Still, crazy lipstick lady and guy in wife-beater really does not inspire me to buy a PS3. Sorry, this doesn't make it worth $600.

Please try again.


Is that it?

For now it is. As always, I'll be back, and you'll read. It'll be good, just let it happen.

How I spent my Saturday...

Yesterday was my daughter's birthday...

So, today was my daughter's birthday party! We went to Cheapskate, an aging roller rink on the verge of collapse. I can't help but laugh because Mike and I went there as kids, and it was old then. Now, he and I couldn't help but marvel at the fact that it's EXACTLY THE SAME, right down to the exact same Skee Ball machines....

However, it was new to Tristan and she had a lot of fun. She turned 7 and had some of her school friends out to enjoy a good time. This was her first official 'big girl' party. Mike and his daughter also came, as did one of my co-workers and her daughter.

I will say this: I hadn't been on a pair of roller skates since I was a kid, so, it was 'different'.

Here is the invitation I created:



It doesn't translate well to the web, but, I assure you it looked quite nice when printed out.



I took over 100 pictures, but the place was dark, and being that I was on wheels, it was hard to set up the shots well. So, I didn't end up with many serviceable images, but I uploaded a few anyway:

Tristan's 7th Birthday Party

In other news...



Some amazing, although different, artwork.

Walter Martin & Paloma Muñoz have a very unique gallery, the most recent venture is a collection of incredible snowglobes.

I don't know why I'm always so amazed by really small artwork, but I am. It's just so... cool!

They are absolutely amazing, but, I will warn you, I got the link from someone on a forum I read, however, I assume he got it from somewhere big, because the page seems to have a little trouble loading. It's settled down a bit, but you may need to refresh it a few times to get it to load right.



Have you ever been amazed by a table?

Well, if you haven't, you're about to be:







Now, before you think about running out to your local furniture store, understand that these things retail between $50-70,000. Yes, that's right, I typed FIFTY TO SEVENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS.

They are designed by db fletcher designs, and if you didn't believe me about the pricing, they are up front about it.


Best Buy's hidden website...

It has been reported that Best Buy has admitted to having a hidden intranet site that is identical to their public internet site except that it does not show the heavy discounts that sometimes comes from internet shopping. That's right, it only shows their in-store pricing.

Apparently people think this is wrong of them.

I do not.

I can understand the lengths that a brick and mortar store will go to try and protect their razor thin profit margins. I mean, seriously, many of these stores will post annual sales in the $10's of millions, yet, if you look at their bottom line, they only actually make $6.84.

Yes, less than $7.

So, when you have a computer for sale on your website, a website which costs infinitely less to operate, it's not hard to post huge discounts for those products, especially when you consider that the website is a completely different entity than the store.

But, apart from that. It's their fucking store. I mean, as customers we're guests, right? Why do people expect that store's should bend over backward to give you whatever they want.

It's not a democracy for price people. If you want the special internet deal, buy it over the fucking internet. Stop being a bunch of pansy cry babies.

You see a price on the internet you like, just pay that price, right there and then. If you don't have access to the internet? THEN YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT THE PRICE! Of course, for the most part, you can actually make the purchase on the website and have pick it up in the store. So, you get the great internet pricing and the convience of picking it up without paying shipping. The reason they can do this is that the store gets credit for the item at their cost, they are protected from losing money.

A quick lesson on profit margins: Computer A costs Best Buy $600 when ordered in bulk. Best Buy buys these machines, then distributes them to various warehouses. Per machine, we've tacked on a good $50 or so for distribution and shipping, at least, it really does depend. From these warehouses, the machines either sit and wait for online purchase or they get distrubted out again, this time an interem dock, or in some cases direct to the store. The bottom line is that once you pay everyone along the way, when it's reached the store, that $600 machine is now coming to the store at a cost of around $700-800. Now, we want desperately to get people to buy this item, and we need to be competitive, so, Best Buy will advertise their item in store for $849.99. This means that they will make about $50 off the machine, if you don't count the kid that 'sells' it to you, the manager that gets it out the back room, and the kid who rings you up, let alone the cost of the store just opening the doors. So, the computer on the website is $200 cheaper because it has far less money invested in it, it doesn't cost the online store as much to get that computer to you, even the final shipping will be paid by you, the consumer.

People seem to misunderstand the position a retailer is in. They aren't magic pixies. Things that cost them money will cost you money in the long run. If you bully a store into a taking a return you should have brought to the manufacturer, if you bully a store into giving a discount you don't deserve, if you bully a store into selling their products below their cost... it's no different than shoplifting. The money a store loses on these things all come out of one place. Your final price.

The reason you pay so much more than you want to? It's not because your retailer is evil, it's because you're a dick. Stop being a dick.

The fact that Best Buy feels they need to go to these lengths just to keep customers from trying to cheat the system (and yes, on the site there are deals that specifically say "Online Only" and they are meant to be bought online only, that's part of the system you're trying to cheat) makes me sad. I don't like Best Buy, but they are a business just like any other.

You are not a special snowflake. Play by the rules and everything will go better.


Windows for Warships?

This article is amusing. No, not the article itself, but the reaction people are having to it. The most used series of operating systems on the planet is being used by the Royal Navy, and people are not certain we're all going to die because of it.

Because 1 mhz processors weren't outdated at all.

I can't help but laugh at this guys response though:

Actually, I think Tech Pro (and the new BattleStar Galactica) have a good point about the dangers of high tech, particularly of computer networks. I would assume, of course, that the RN has taken this into account.

Then again, who knows. *I* would have run my warships on Linux for a few simple reasons:

1: Open source. yeah, yeah, lots of risks involved with open source as well, but it makes me REAL nervous letting a private company control the brain of my ship with source code that no one outside can see. Of course, perhaps they have a special deal with the government that lets gov techs review the code? (like they would have time to review the whole os, not likely)

2: It's harder to play games on Linux. No, seriously, picture this scenario:

The scene, sometime in the near future, a RN submarine, running deep and silent in the Persian Gulf. Suddenly the peace is shattered by a wailing Klaxon:

WHEEEP! WHEEEP!

The captain comes running in to the command center and shouts, "XO! What's going on?"

"Iranian destroyer sir, they got us with a hard ping. They've got two torps in the water and locked on to us HARD!"

ping ping... The captain can hear the two enemy torpedoes coming at him.

"Well," replies the Captain. "Activate the defense systems! Drop a decoy, drop two!"

ping ping ping...

"Sorry", says the XO. "But the defense computer is, uhm, unavailable".

"Unavailable!!!!", screams the captain. "What do you mean UNAVAILABLE!"

ping ping ping ping...

"Well.. Sir", the XO stammers. "Some of the men were using it to host a lan party. They were playing...", he glances down at a monitor". "Something called Core Decision. It's going to take a few minutes to get it back online..."

"What the..!", The Captain's face is turning red. "Never mind the decoy's. Take us down 400 feet NOW, perhaps we'll lose them as we cross the thermocline".

Ping Ping Ping Ping Ping...

"Uhm... Sorry Sir." the XO says, hanging his head. "Navigation and Engine Control are also rebooting sir. Uhm, I think those were doing Halo 4".

PING PING PING PING PING PING!!!

"ARRRGH!" The captain screams. "Emergency surface! Blow all the tanks! Emergency Surface!"

The Xo grabs a mouse and clicks a big flashing red icon on his monitor. There is a brief pause, then suddenly a paperclip wearing a sailors uniform appears on the screen and says, "I see you are attempting an Emergency Surface. This could be dangerous and creates a hazard for any commercial shipping in the area, would you like me to show you how to use the diving planes for a safer surfacing procedure?"

PINGPINGPINGPINGPINGPINGPINGPINGPINGPING!!!!

The Captains next words are drowned out by two large explosions and the sounds of a collapsing hull...

That's it for now...

as always, I shall return... go cry n00bs.

Some sad news...

Well, sad for me anyway...

Two retailers, Circuit City and CompUSA, are closing a slew of stores. Circuit City is apparently shutting down a small handful of stores in the U.S. and dumping a slew of their outfits in Canada.

CompUSA, however, has announced that it's shutting down over half of their operation. Of 225 stores, they are shutting down 126, going to under 100 stores left in operation.

Why is this sad? Well, I couldn't give two shits about Circuit City, having worked for Ultimate Electronics, I've known my share of those that jumped ship from Circuit during their switch from commissioned to non-commissioned sales. No, my sorrow comes from the fact that the CompUSA stores here in Minnesota are shutting down, specifically, store #787. My store.

No, I don't work there now, and actually haven't worked there since the latter half of 2002, but, I was the Front End Manager there for a long time, before one of their management restructures left me with a hard decision: Keep doing the same job at reduced pay, or move on.

I chose to move on. I won't say I haven't regretted that decision from time to time, because, in all honesty, I really miss working there. But, I know it was the right choice, they've gone through a lot of hard times. The entire retail world has gone through hard times, of course. It's funny how few people, even those that have actually worked in retail during their lives, really know how hard retail operations are.

It's just a little sad to think that my store, my first stint in retail management, is going to be gone. Just like that. I had a lot of good times there... and I'm not afraid to admit that I had some INCREDIBLE times in the training center there... of course, it's not appropriate to discuss that...

I started there while I was in high school as a cashier, and within a month had gotten my first promotion. I had a lot of pride while working there. I still have many of my work shirts, the red one's from before I was a manager (even my "Ask me about Windows 98!" shirt), and my white management shirts. I've also still got my original white name tags with the Brother P-Touch labels, and my gold "Certified" name tags, my named stamped into them 'professionally'.

It's funny how certain things will make a person nostalgic. Hearing this news definitely stirred a twinge of sadness. My loyalty to CompUSA has never wavered, because, if not for the aforementioned reasons for leaving, I'd likely still be there. A lifer.

"Everyday's a good day at CompUSA." We'd say it when things were good. We'd say it when things were rough. It's always stuck with me, even though I haven't worked anywhere since with a name that rhymed so well with "day".

Goodbye Minnetonka Store 787, I shall miss you.

The Snow's Flying!

First, some music...

I realize that I really haven't been talking about music much lately, which is unfortunate, but, let me remedy that right now:

Franky Lee

Amazing sounds from an amazing band. I'm not sure how Sweden manages to produce such great punk rock, but they do. Here we have Franky Lee, the product of drunken musings that often befall band members. It's like so many other idle suggestions, "Hey, we should really do [insert usually dumb idea here]". However, in this case, some guys in Sweden, headlined by a man who's name I won't even try an type (it involves characters that aren't found on my keyboard...) who played for the incredible Millencollin, they went to the studio, apparently for gits and shiggles, and what came out was nothing short of a miracle. Goodness!

They are amazing. Now they just need to get a label in the U.S. and we'll be in business.

You can check out their myspace page, 'cause it's got some music on it... and that's a very good thing. Check 'em out!

The Creepshow

Another odd thing, Canada is giving us Psychobilly? Well, maybe not quite Psychobilly, rockabilly is a bit more accurate, but, really, they sing about Zombies and things, which, is just awesome. Best of all, The Creepshow is headlined by a chick! A HOT CHICK!

Check em out, they have the typical myspace thing going on! Good stuff!


Walking Robots? Pshhhh aww!

No really, this is actually quite an accomplishment, it's capable of dynamically walking, like real people, not like pre-programmed bots such as Asimo. Read this guy's blog about Dexter Walking.



I've got more...

but not the time...

I'll be back...

Something to Tide Myself Over...

The Black Donnellys

This show was incredible. I probably wouldn't have watched it had it not directly followed my favorite show, Heroes (which was amazing last night), but, being that it's done by the guy behind Crash and Million Dollar Baby, it's got potential just oozing from it.

I'm not sure if they'll run an encore, but I imagine they will, so if you didn't see it, watch NBC's listings so you can check it out. Otherwise, take advantage of the great interwebs and watch the entire episode on NBC.com. Isn't the modern era grand?


flOw

I mentioned this to a lot of people quite a while ago, but, this game is pretty amazing. It was originally done as part of thesis research into what makes games worth playing.

It came out for PC for free back in April, 2006. Apparently they've released a downloadable version for the PS3. If you've not had a chance, check it out. While there isn't an enormous amount of gameplay, it's still worth a few hours of enjoyment.

PC Website | PS3 Website

Where I was Born...

In pictures.

Doesn't exactly bring back memories, but, it's still interesting to see pictures of Monterey. It's been, we'll say, awhile since I was there.


Hilarious?

Yes! Though, it ends rather abrubtly... North Korean James Bond FTW!




Sloths!

I really don't like SNL all that much... but, they're good enough to release the few funny bits they do on YouTube...





That's it for now folks... see you next time...

HA HA Snow...

Proof that Mother Nature hates me: