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July 28, 2003
Why do I even try?
2Advanced Studios has just launched their latest redesign entitled 'Version 4: Prophecy'. The site is a marvel to behold and an animal to program. It's entirely dynamic backend was constructed using Flash Remoting and Flash Comm Server and is endlessly updatable. While most of us are still wondering how the got their lines so straight, they've again raised the bar for the internet design community.
July 25, 2003
He's earned it
Well, we all know about the Star Wars Kid. Anyone who's been reading my blog (or indeed ANY blog) also knows about Andy and Jish's efforts to raise money for The 'Kid as a gift, and about the possible lawsuit against the purveyors of the video. Well, the lawsuit is going to happen after all.
Just to refresh: two high school classmates of Ghyslain's found a recording of him practicing his Lightsaber moves with a golf ball retriever in front of an A/V Lab camera. As a lark, they encoded it and uploaded it to Kazaa under the moniker "Star Wars Kid." The public found it and it's now a legend.
Ghyslain's parents claim that the emotional damage he has suffered was enough to take him out of school, have him finish his semester in a children's psych ward, and file for over $160,000.
Methinks they just smelled a paycheck.
So here's the kicker: Nobody's blaming The 'Kid. He seems nice. Before he was 'advised against it' by his parents attorney's, he even granted an interview with Waxy. There is now a petition (with over 21,000 names) to get the 'Kid a cameo in Star Wars Episode III. It'll never happen, but even LucasFilm can't deny the commercial appeal.
Sign the petition.
July 24, 2003
'Good for boys'
Holland, senior lecturer in early childhood studies at London Metropolitan University, believes that boys who have been banned from playing at soldiers, pirates, or superheroes, become disruptive and live up to a 'bad boy' image."
Read all about it.
July 23, 2003
d'oh!
thanks to gary.
Liz Phair sucks
What an idiot.
A New York Times music critic named Meghan O'Rourke gave Liz Phair's new album the scathing review it deserved, and Liz decided she'd write a letter to that critic to discuss it. Then she decided she'd rather not discuss it at all, but voice her disdain in a moronic, fairy-tale-like short story.
Read it here.
Here's the original review, brilliantly entitled "Exile in Avril-ville."
July 22, 2003
You're never too young
I was about your age when I got my first...
This sight has banned the RIAA.
The good people over at Techfocus have created a fileset that allows 
webmasters to prohibit users whose IP's are known to be regulated by the RIAA or MPAA from exploring their sites. The file is new and incomplete, but should be able to filter out most RIAA traffic. Hundreds of members and programmers have joined the struggle to tweak this file further.
The latest version of the file should always be available at this address:
http://techfocus.org/files/htaccess.zip
More information about the struggle for user's right can be found at:
Boycott-RIAA
Techfocus
Blogathon 2003. Do you have it in you?
This Thursday is the annual Blogathon. For those who don't know (I didn't), the Blogathon is a charitable affair of sorts. Bloggers collect sponsors who will donate money to them. What do the Bloggers have to do? Sell magazine subscriptions? Bowl? Walk or run? They have to upate their blogs every 30 minutes for 24 hours.
There are those who are taking it a bit further and launching 24 hour broadcasts, or streaming programs. Jonas of FSCK has a rather noble approach to the whole affair:
If you're interested, you have until the end of the day (PST) tomorrow to sign up as either a blogger or a sponsor.
"Remember: blogging is not the only way to support the Blogathon!"
I need a custom 404 page
But it'll never be as funny as this one.
Half-Life.
Two bits of Half Life news. Brad and Matt, I'm sure you're way ahead of me on this one. Please try to forgive me.
Early rumors stated that Half-Life 2, the most anticipated PC game since PC's had games, would be fully playable only on Nvidia-based video cards. This sounded wholly unlikely, save for the fact that a few games have already been announced with Nvidia only features, subgames, levels, add-ons, etc... Bear in mind, none of those projects have hit the shelves yet. Still, having recently purchased an ATI DirectX 9 video card, I was a tad concerned.
Well, it seems that it was all a big hubbub over nothing. Here's a quote from the ATI web site.
Can my machine even play Half-Life 2?
Good question, and one that has no doubt been plaguing the budget-minded nerds of the world for some time. It appears that Half-Life's developers, Valve, have considered this very carefully, and implemented additional rendering modes to accomodate most recent video cards. All games render differently on different hardware. Most show the best quality they can, according to the hardware capabilities and certain settings and modes controlled by the user. Half-Life 2 will initially run scans on the system hardware and determine what is possible and what is suggested on that particular machine. There are rumors that the game may even have a "Smart-Adjust" setting which could alter rendering modes based on the game's performance.
It appears that any Direct X video card with at least 64MB of Ram and a P4 2.2 or better CPU will run the game just fine. If you are using DX6 or 7 or have an older card with under 64 MB of ram, you may consider an additional 3D accelerator. This is often a cheaper and less involved solution to replacing your video card. The game makes use of Direct X 9, so certain dynamic shadows, fractal reflections, and other pixel rendering schemes will not show up in sub DX9 cards.
Mutant Reptiles swarm New York City.
Shredder nowhere to be found.
Some neighborhood kids stumbled across a really cool looking rock on May 21st in Albany. They thought it was way cooler when it poked two heads out of it's shell and begin looking right back at them with two sets of eyes.
Story is here.
Flash forward two months and northwest 15 miles: Two girls in the same NY county find themselves face to face with a frog. An eyeless frog. This was July 21st in Raymertown, NY, also part of Rensselaer County.
Story is here.
Just to be clear: both animals seem healthy and happy. The frog has no trouble hunting and eating prey and the turtle's heads both seem to be complete, fully functional, and capable of moving and seeing things independently.
July 21, 2003
IFFB on Starz!
As many of you know, Micki was the festival director in charge of documenting this year's Independant Film Festival of Boston. She and her small crew were at every event, taking video and audio of various goings on and interviewing the glitteratti.
Micki also editing a short cut reel for the Starz! network, for a program they were assembling about film festivals. The material Micki shot and editing should appear tonight at 7:30pm EST on Starz! in a program called "Festival Pass with Chris Gore". Who knows the context of the material or the amount of it that will actually make it into the program, but it's certainly worth checking out.
I'm fat. Are you?
Micki and I recently discovered the Cold Stone Creamery. It's a rather large national chain of ice cream shops that apparently exist in just about every state, but we'd never heard of until stumbling across it in Hermosa Beach... and then San Diego... and then Hermosa Beach again. Their specialty is their own brand of custom made ice cream flavors that they assemble to order right before your eyes using two scoops, a cold slab of rock, and any number of gooey, crunchy, salty, cakey, or sticky mix-ins.
My suggestion? I dig the coffee ice-cream with Heath Bar, brownie, fudge and caramel in a chocolate-dipped waffle bowl.
Anyhoo... They are holding what they call the Second Annual World's Largest Ice Cream Social this Thursday the 24th. From 5 to 8 pm there will be free ice cream creations offered at ALL of their locations. Proceeds (?) to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Elderly drivers
An 85 year old man crashed in the DMV building in Van Nuys, CA on Friday as he was arriving to take a driving test. His license was revoked on the spot. Pretty funny except for the fact that a man about the same age careened through the Santa Monica Farmers Market that same week killing 10 and injuring near 30.
Here's a suggestion. At age 70, one should be presumed unable to safely control an automobile. They should have a special Senior driver's permit that expires at the end of 12 months. Before renewal, they must pass a test. I don't believe this to be unreasonable in any way, and considering the number of deaths and injuries caused by elderly people at the wheel, I don't think this is a subject we can afford to tiptoe around much longer.
Here's the story.
Update: It is now suspected that Russell Weller (86), the murderer of those 10 people at the Farmer's Market, was likely attempting to flee the scene of another accident he'd caused about one block away. Police are investigating the possibility that Weller had crashed into a Mercedes while exiting the local Post Office and decided to flee.
Get angry here.
Here are the names of the people lost during last Wednesday's tragedy:
• Gloria Gonzales - age: 32
• Lynne Weaver - age: 47
• Leroy Lattier - age: 55
• Movsha (Michael) Hoffman - age: 78
• Molok Ghoulian Nabatian and - age: 63
• Brandon Esfahani Davidi - age: 7 months
• Kevin McCarthy - age: 50
• Diana McCarthy - age: 41
Google pranks
As most are aware, Google is constantly sneaking in pranks, bombs, false search results, and inside jokes. Anyone remember early last year when a search for the phrase "go to hell" returned links to Microsoft.com, AOL.com, and University of South Carolina? Microsoft came in just ahead of Hell.com. Similar Google bombs have provided hysterical results for searches including "The Antichrist" and "Illuminati."
Well, it seems there's a new bomb on the block.
Blix couldn't find the WMD's... did he try searching with google?
- Type in the phrase "weapons of mass destruction" in quotes
- Hit the "I'm feeling lucky" button to be taken to the first search result
Not bad.
July 18, 2003
Geektip: Smarter P2P
I'm not letting the RIAA scare me... are you?
Were you a Napster fan? Maybe an old school Hotwire user? Did you find yourself left out in the cold when the first wave of P2P file sharing networks died? I did. Gnutella never had an agent that I thought cut it. Sure there were moments of clarity and even divine splendor in the beginning, but after a while, it became evident that these systems were only defeating themselves.
Nowadays, Kazaa is the reigning king of P2P file sharing. Keep in mind, I'm using the term P2P somewhat loosely, as many major file-sharing networks are not genuine peer-to-peer networking solutions. But, honestly, who cares? Kazaa is huge now. This is great for some. It means that the number of users online at any time is generally going to be huge, therefore the number of files available to any given user, should grow day by day. The downside is that you are now dealing with the general public. Just like when the general public makes punk music and it comes out like Hoobastank, when the general public encodes and uploads media files, they often don't work out quite right. Misnamed, poorly encoded, badly tagged, sometimes incomplete files plague these major file sharing networks. Lord know how these kids are encoding their files. Even those files with decent bitrate and sampling rate numbers can still sound like crap when not done correctly.
The solution? Be an elitist. Go to the nerdlier P2P networks and do your trading with people who know better. The following services take different approaches to file sharing, but I've had great luck with each:
eMule
BitTorrent
SoulSeek
| eMule resources:
eMule Agent
eMule Plus GUI
eMule Plus FAQ | BitTorrent resources: Comprehensive FAQ Official FAQ Official Agent GUI-less Agent Multi-Download Agent eTree's BitTorrent Wiki | SoulSeek resources:
SoulSeek Agent
Comprehensive FAQ
Official FAQ
SoulSeek Forums
SoulSeek Records
|
Update: Just wanted to toss one out there for all the Mac users. I've recently heard fantstic things about an OSX P2P client called Poisoned. Poisoned connects to the FastTrack network (Kazaa, Grokster, iMesh), the Gnutella network (Limewire, Acquisition), and OpenFT, which means you get a greater number of searchable peers than almost any other client provides. Poisoned is fast, salable, fully supported, and OpenSource. If you are a Mac user, go get it.
July 17, 2003
Unemployed? I am.
Why not spend your time building the better paper airplane?
Here's the link.
July 16, 2003
At least 8 killed and 40 injured at Santa Monica Farmer's Market
I was doing my daily blog-skimming when I came across an upsetting post at Andy Baio's Waxy.org.
Apparently, maroon four-door Buick careened through the crowd at Santa Monica's weekly Farmer's Market at speeds approaching 60 mph, only minutes ago. Immediately afterwards, rain began to fall from the normally sunny Santa Monica sky.
Current numbers state: 8 deceased including a 2 year old girl, 14 critical, and at least 25 more injured to some degree.
The KNBC4 news in LA are showing shots of the stretch of road right now and it's absolutely unfathomable that one car could cause so much damage. The overhead shots reveal 8, 10, maybe 12 yellow tarps covering lifeless bodies. We're being constantly reminded that the priority of the authorities would be the alive and injured, that the desceased would be left under tarps until the scene is cleared.
The state of the driver and his intentions are still unknow, although one bystander described him as a lucid, grey-haired caucasion male in his 60's. The eyewitness on screen right now is stating that the driver seemed lucid and angry and made several snide comments to bystanders as he was escorted away by the police. Another bystander states that the man appeared trapped and helpless in a malfunctioning automobile.
This all took place immediately outside Andy's office and he's taken the time to point out the following news reports to us:
- MSNBC
- NBC4 LA
- MSNBC live video
- CNN
July 11, 2003
Of all the crazy things to have come out of your penis...
Special thanks to Matthew Tobey for sharing this with his blog audience.
It's an article at Yahoo! India about a boy with a very serious problem. For two weeks now, fully grown flies have been evacuating his body via his penis. Don't believe me? Think I'm lying? Well may the very same thing happen to you.
July 09, 2003
Mikey Dee 1962-2003
Mikey Dee Linick died.
Mikey Dee was not a close friend of mine, but I knew him well enough to know he should still be with us. He was, by all accounts, one of the warmer, kinder, and more genuine people associated with Boston music. At 3:50 AM on Sunday, July 6th, Mikey succumbed to one of his many bouts with pneumonia. He apparently passed on in comfort, in peace, and in sleep. Here is a brief account of his recent struggle as laid out at mikeydee.com:
"On February 7, 2000, Mikey Dee suffered a devastating brainstem stroke after undergoing routine heart surgery for a congenital defect. He spent 25 days in the ICU at Children's Hospital, 18 days at the Shaunghnessy-Kaplan Rehabilitation Hospital and 22 months at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston. He moved to the Greenery Extended Care Center (a long-term rehab, now called The North Andover Skilled Care Facility) in December 2001. Mikey was due to move to a new home nearer Boston when he succumbed to pneumonia on July 6, 2003. More than just Boston's scenester-extraordinaire, Mikey was a beloved friend to many and an inspiration to people who he never even met. Thanks to everyone who visited, or made it to, or participated in, Mikey's singalongs, benefits and parties. All of your love and support made the past three years worth fighting for. " |
Here's a bit of information from Mikey's Web Site:
| A memorial service to celebrate the life of Michael (Mikey Dee) Linick will be held at Marsh Chapel at Boston University, 735 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA on Monday, July 14th at 7PM.
Reception to immediately follow at The Paradise, 967 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA.
In lieu of flowers, tax deductible donations can be made to The Mikey Dee Musicians Benefit Trust, 580 Harrison Avenue, 4th floor, Boston, MA 02118 Obituary: 'Mikey Dee, 40, musician, promoter, friend of local bands' by Steve Morse (Boston Globe) |
July 08, 2003
California
So I'm finally getting around to writing an entry about our move to California. I don't have my computer here and my father's machine doesn't have Photoshop, so there will be no graphical accompaniment.. My apologies. I was going to put this off until I could do better, but this will have to do for now.
Trust in me, there will be many new galleries coming soon: California First Impressions, The Beach, Our Trip to the 99 Cent Store, My Dad's Car Is Better Than Your Dad's Car, Terror At Disney Land, and more.
California fucking rules.
It's gorgeous here. It's almost exactly as I imagined it. We're close enough to LA to get in and hang out, but we're far enough away that everything is warm and clean and friendly and no one has tried to sell me any crack. The restaurants near us are all amazing and we're within walking distance to the sands at Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach.
We've already been to a rock show (Rilo Kiley and M. Ward), worked out at two different Bally's, opened bank accounts, and seen fireworks at Disneyland.
My dad and his wife are being very accommodating. We have a car to use almost any time we need it (either a Maxima or a TT Roadster convertible!). We have our own room, complete with private bath and patio. We have a new best friend in the form of a dog named Lucky, who is an endless source of both fun and barking. We're feeling reasonably settled in and will probably start looking for work next week. Actually, Micki's already gotten a call for a job. It's for no pay, but it's working with people she met on the Mystic River shoot and would make for some great connections.
All in all, everything's been pretty much perfect so far. Seeing our friend's Jane Gulick and Sean Daly was a blast. I'm absolutely dying to go see Brian and Kelly this weekend in San Diego. We miss our friend's in Mass very badly, though. We spent so much time with Brad, Amie, Brandt, Juice, Kim, Adam, and Christina just before we left, that every day seems a little weird without running into any of them. Hopefully, we'll see some friends soon. Ellie, Jeff and Jen all have tentative plans to head this way before too long.
Anyhoo... please stay in touch and keep on visiting the page. We'll keep you better informed as soon as the computer arrives.
July 04, 2003
Tabbed Browsing for IE? Damn straight.
I'm so in.
Netscape is clearly the superior browser when interface is the main concern. It's sharp, accessible, and has a much better roster of features including tabbed browsing. Problem: Netscape still doesn't quite render a lot of mark-up the same as IE, and IE makes up more than 80% of the viewing public. So far the best solution I've found, is to take IE and let someone make it feel more like a Mozilla based browser.
Enter My IE 2. Some awfully smart folks have managed to build this IE-based browser in a Mozilla-tabbed style, and offer it to us schmucks for free. It's fast, light, stable, and the price is right. It also works with almost any IE plug-in, including RoboForm and the Yahoo and Google search bars.
Visit myie2.com to get it.
July 03, 2003
Receptacle for the Extensible
Well, we now have an RSS feed. I'm still learning about all this stuff, but it worked right away, so I like it. Another thing Blogger's gotten right in it's attempt to make nice with me. Don't think I don't notice, Blogger.
Link to http://escapist.net/receptacle/index.rdf for the feed.
I'm trying to find a good RSS feed app, as well. So far I'm really into AmpehtaDesk. Very customizable and easy to use. Good layout and I think it might be skinable. I hear good things about FeedReader as well. I found a great page with information and links for ALL RSS readers on ANY platform. Check out the RSS Feed Reader / News Aggregators Directory, courtesy of hebig.org/blog/.
Care: Vmyths needs your help!
Any old timers out there may remember an email circulating a decade or so ago warning you those who receive an email with the words 'Good Times' in the subject line that their computers might explode, wives may leave them, and shoelaces may become inexplicably tied to one another. There was no Good Times hoax, but the warnings that circulated around the web did so in large enough numbers to crash many servers and royally screw up many others. This was one of the first FUD-style virus hoaxes to truly attain rock star status.
Since then, a site called Vmyths has appeared to debunk any and all web hysterias that may pop up unduly. Get a creepy email? Vmyths can probably explain it. They've done a service to us all for years without asking for anything at all. Now they're in need of our help. Advertisers have been shy about supporting the site because it spends more time angering software manufacturers and dispelling their reign of false insecurity and perpetrated ignorance than not. With Vmyths guru Rob Rosenberger heading to the Persian Gulf with the US Army, funds have run low and help is needed. Please visit Vmyths and make a small donation to keep them alive.
Check out an article about Vmyths at Wired.com here
Make a donation to Vmyths here
July 02, 2003
Let's try this again
I'm a Californian.
I'm in my temporary home, using my temporary computer. I'm rested and fed. My cold seems to be letting up. There were no major catastrophes on the flight(s) here. So far, so good.
I also fixed my blog template. Or rather, rewrote my blog template. Me and Blogger, we're agreed to disagree and stay friends just the same. Blank slate style. So far, I'm happy with the arrangement. I've got my page back, and Blogger seems to be letting me use 'target' tags now. Compromise. It's what makes a relationship like ours work.