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September 26, 2003
This guy should get a job
A hand job! Ha!
September 25, 2003
It's not what you know...
.. it's what what you think you know, but don't actually know, and are too ignorant to realize that you don't know.
PS - Best new term of the week: Metacognitive.
September 22, 2003
Cell Phone Numbers
I've been holding out for months, waiting for a time when I can tranfser my current cell phone number to another cell phone provider. We all know it's coming, just not when.
Turns out there may be another revolution in cell phone number ownership. Several companies will be speaking this coming week about the feasability of transfering landline numbers to cell phone accounts and vice-versa.
September 21, 2003
The New Regime
Are you on this week's hit list?
Me either. Afraid you may end up on next week's?
Me too.
There's really nothing you can do to keep yourself safe while still sharing files. Abstinence is the best yada yada.. There are things that can make you a tougher target, though. I'm not gonna waste time talking about not using Kazaa and other shit-ware. If you need to be told that, there's no helping you.
If you're a bit more savvy than that, but would like some extra protection, download Peer Guardian from Methlabs.org.
The Peer Guardian agent signs on and downloads the latest list of known RIAA-associated IP's and protects your computer from being searched by those IP's. This program will not keep you safe. It is not going to give you free liscense to hand out the latest Limp Bizcut album all over the internet. It will make you a slightly tougher nut to crack, and that's a good thing.
Not in Kansas anymore
So, we had our first real LA experience the other day. Nothing to glitzy or glamorous, but noteworthy all the same.
Micki and I were sitting in my new favorite sushi restaurant, Kaya, in Marina Del Rey, just a block from where I've been working. This place is known for two things: having the BIGGEST lunch boxes in town, and always playing the greatest collection of 80's pop music imaginable. At one point I made a comment about the woman at the table next to us looking like "Downtown" Julie Brown. A moment later I heard her speak and it was no longer a joke. Just as "Two Of Hearts" came on the overhead, it occurred to us that this woman was in fact "Downtown" Julie Brown. At that moment, my lunchbox appeared even bigger.
Pretty cool, right? I have to say, the years have treated Miss Brown quite well. She looked better than ever and was decked out in a very funky, but incredibly subtle little outfit. If ever I'd have tried to imagine how she dresses while off the clock, I'm sure I would've pictured something far more tacky. You go, girl.
PS - this rules.
Newlyweds: Boredom & Procrastination
I had a couple of days off work this week and I spent them working on my design site. I was very proud of myself. It's really difficult to find motivation to work on my own projects, either out of lack of interest, or fear of frustration, or whatever.. So I was pretty excited after I spent most of two days reworking and then creating a new template, learning just enough PHP to get it to control the Flash navigation, and then writing copy. Then I got to a crossroads, design-wise, and the productivity came to an end. I got up this morning at 7, all amped up to work on my site, and all I have under my belt for the day is 2 hours of MTV's newest reality program, Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica.
I have to say, Nick Lachey seems like a fairly likable guy, and I have a new respect for him after seeing what he has to deal with in his wife. But I digress... Reality TV is not my area of expertise. I'll leave that to the professionals.
Anyhoo... Be sure to check in next week at escapist for the new design, and here for the latest with Nick & Jessica.
PS - In other design news, simbarecordings.com is now public and mostly operational. It's missing a lot of the content it will soon include, but the site had to be public for the release of the Danko Jones album and the content in question may not be delivered to me any time in the near future.
September 19, 2003
On with the show...
John Ritter was nobody's favorite actor.
He was not a brilliant theatrical mind. He was not a blockbusting silver-screen draw, and he was not a Neilson-toppling primetime attraction. He was not an actor-slash-singer, or actor-slash-governor, or actor-slash-environmentalist, nor was he one of those actor-cum-directors we've come to find ourselves surrounded by. If he was in fact any of these things, he certainly did not let on. Surely, John Ritter was nobody's favorite actor.
That said, he will never be forgotten. He was loved by millions and entwined forever in the minds of the X (and Y) Generations. His role as Jack Tripper on one of the seminal sitcoms of our time has placed this not-terribly talented or overly ambitious physical comedian securely in the history books, not as a joker or buffoon, but as a beloved character in each of our lives.
At the time of his death, Ritter was in the third season of his current sitcom project, "8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter". In fact, he was on set when he collapsed from an undetected heart problem. I won't lie, my affection for John Ritter was not nearly powerful enough to convince me to give this stinker a fair shot. ABC and the show's producers have recently announced that the show will indeed go on without Ritter, at least for the coming season. Whether this be a tribute to the man or an attempt to minimize studio losses is not mine to decide. Either way, I think I'll tune in and see the three episodes filmed before Ritter's death, and the fourth episode in which Ritter's character is suddenly taken from his television family. Each of the first three episodes will open with a special introduction by members of the cast, and the format of the fourth is, as of yet, unannounced.
8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter will premiere this coming Tuesday, September 23rd at 8/7c on ABC.
September 17, 2003
MYSTIC RIVER
The time draws near...
We finally saw the final trailer shown in a proper theater this past week, and now the web site has made an appearance. For a while, I was a bit worried that the static one-page thing at Warner Bros. might be the extent of the film's web presence, but this page is the furthest thing from. It's big, beautiful, graceful, and set up in a 16:9 frame. Very hip. Does that neat scratched, organic thing that Flash is normally oh-so opposed to. The site also features music from the film soundtrack as co-composed by Clint Eastwood and performed by the Boston Philharmonic.
September 13, 2003
The Peanut Gallery: Pt. 2
I absolutely loved DotComments. Dan Engler and Foreword just rule and the DotComments script was my first best experience with comments on the web. Unfortunately, the version of DC I was running had a few incompatibilites with other scripts I wanted to use (such as my new recent entries script), and I don't know enough scripting to get in too deep myself, so I decided to make the switch to Haloscan.
Haloscan is a more centralized approached, as they host the comment files and allow me to login to view and administer. It's pretty great. They aren't taking any new clients right now, but should start up again soon.
Be sure to check in with both DotComments and Haloscan if you're in need of a comments script. Dan updated DotComments to version 2.32 on September 9th. Be the first on your block to get it!
September 11, 2003
Up From Zero
The United States Department of Labor is giving away free copies of a 9/11 documentry called Up From Zero on DVD. Just follow this link and fill out the form. No shipping charges.
September 10, 2003
Dude... Radiohead is so deep...
So deep, in fact, that they've sprouted a thrid dimension. The new Radiohead video "Go To Sleep" premiered this week on the web. It featured hi-fi motion capture applied to lo-fi 3d models walking around in a hi-fi 3d environment.
Yeah, it's that good.
September 08, 2003
This Is Not A Love Song
New Film by Full Monty Writer Premieres On Desktops Everywhere
A new film written by Simon Beaufoy has recently been released to audiences around the world, over the internet. Fueled by a disdain for blockbuster cinema and a growing feeling that his particular niche is closing in on itself, Simon and the film's production team decided that the film would benefit from an online-only release. Beaufoy told the BBC that he wrote the film for the Net because it was becoming more difficult for smaller films to get distribution deals.
This Is Not A Love Song links:
- offical site
- imdb entry
- review at Filmcritic.com
- review at Guardian UK
- The Full Monty site at Fox
UPDATE: Apparently, the films idealistic approach has temporarily bitten it on the tush. As of 1:24 PST this message is posted at the film's offical site:
We are currently working to resolve the problem and anticipate that the site will return shortly.
Thank you for your patience."
September 07, 2003
Bitten by the Tailfly
or "How I Spent My Weekend Off"
Well, they finally got me. Sort of. I was on my way out the door yesterday and happened to notice a peculiar yellow window open on my monitor. It wasn't really the color of the window itself that concerned me, but the gashes of red sitting halfway down. Apparently, Norton had picked up a couple baddies and was unable to repair them. These guys apparently go by VerifierBug.class-3cf04223-5c5c2887 and VerifierBug.class-b3547f5-6c48aa62 and were purportedly some type of Trojan.
I looked them up and found several relevant forum threads, but no one seemed to have had any real trouble. A few people found them in virus scans, but no damage done. I quarantined and deleted the files, ran Norton again, and then ran a few out-of-box virus scans courtesy of TrendMicro HouseCall and PandaScan. Then I updated my copies of AVERT Stinger and AdAware (both freeware) and ran those. Everything came up clean except for a couple data miners in AdAware.
All better, right?
I decided to run a scan on my dad's system, since it's on the network and running the same OS. Part way through the scan, the system went down and never came back up. It wouldn't boot at all. Couldn't start from last good configuration, couldn't do anything helpful in Safe Mode. Ran FIXBOOT and FIXMBR in the Windows Recovery Console and that didn't help either. After a while fishing around, it seemed that at least one file from CONFIG/SYSTEM/ was missing or corrupt. Sounds virusy to me.
We ended up reloading the OS, having it get damaged, and then reloading it again. Both systems now run and test clean and the non-XP systems on the network are unaffected.
What I discovered
In a word: nothing. Every indication is that one of the two systems picked up a Trojan class virus and that both systems were infected. Because the VerifierBug files I identified and killed were never found on the damaged system, and since those files are apparently not known to damage SYSTEM files, we really can't be sure they caused any of this.
Here's what I do know: Virii that fall into the VerifierBug class are related to the Java Virtual Machine. This means that they probably get into your system through a piece of software running a Java Applet that appeared to be safe. The nature of a Trojan is that the file itself is almost impossible to detect as a malicious item, until it either attacks another file or directory, or begins to write a new file or replicate itself. It seems most likely that a file like this was picked up through a P2P network. I'm sad to say, that I did run Kazaa a couple weeks ago and I did find a couple suspicious files in my download folder. My only guess is that they caused the problem.
Anybody have any input? Please chime in.
UPDATE: (9-8-03) - My dad's computer tanked again last night. It now hangs at the Windows loading screen, assumably searching for a missing or corrupt sys file. Ugh.
September 06, 2003
playthings
This is some crazy shit:
limmy.com/playthings/xylophone/
When you're done with that, check out his main site. Just awesome.
limmy.com