« December 2003 | Main | February 2004 »
January 30, 2004
Rollable OLED displays
Anyone who knows me, knows I'm a huge nerd. And a gadget fiend. And that I talk bigger than I buy. I'm the guy to see if you neeed help shopping for electronics. I live for watching other people consume, particularly when I can't do it myself. My latest obsession is with OLED technology.
Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) is a new display technology that's set to do battle with LCD and Plasma. OLED is an organic system that is used to create a flexible, pliable surface which can be charged and used to create an emissive display. You can print it out, roll it up, and then display things on it. Really.
This will be used for cell phone displays early on. It will eventually be a high-definition, full color solution for home entertainment. Some day you will see labels on clothing with luminous, animating displays using OLED. It's naturally ommissive, unlike LCD, so it won't need to be backlit. This will offer a more color-accurate, and less power hungry alternative to LCD. What esle will it do? Eventually, it will drive down the prices of LCD and Plasma displays in an almost unnatural manner. Tubes, too, of course. Cheap, cheap televisions for everyone!
Anyways... I've been all excited about this for a while. You'll have to excue me.
Here's one of Philips' first public press items on the subject.
Also, check out this exploding whale and his 5 foot penis.
January 27, 2004
Pomona Textile Company
I just finished a small site for a client called Pomona Textile Company. It's a tiny little five page, flat site with a few photos and a warm, brown color scheme. They've been hurting in search engine rankings, so I was careful to hook up some good meta tags and place a couple links to the site around here and there.
January 26, 2004
Latest image stolen from AP
Pope blesses breakdancers
Worst. Week. Ever.
I'm sick of complaining. Anyone who wants to know what my problem is this time can go read all about it at Micki's blog.
Maybe I'll do a pictorial about it someday when I replace either my brokewn digital camera or my broken scanner.
January 21, 2004
Easy Rider
This one's courtesy of Jeff.
Read the description.
Back away slowly.
The new Sonnie and Cher
Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey have signed on to host their own variety special on ABC. It may become a series if things go well. Let's hope they don't.
In the meantime, catch them hosting Saturday Night Live this weekend, or sit around and wait for Jessica's ABC sitcom pilot to air.
Oomph!
I work for a new media ad firm in Marina Del Rey called McElroy. We have 50+ employees and near as many clients. We are a fairly large, and constantly growing company, which has never had a web site of it's own. Seriously.
Well, we do now. McElroyLA.com launched this week and it freaking rules. Go check it out.
What the hell just happened?
Item 1. The Iowa caucus
It's old news now, but the Iowa caucus just came and knocked me off my ass. Howard Dean, heavily favored in the northeast and a legitimate candidate in every sense, had his angry little ass kicked. Massachusetts Senator John Kerry turned out the big winner at 38%. And where the hell did John Edwards come from, closely trailing Kerry by 6 points? Clark, Kucinich, Lieberman and Sharpton were all deemed nonviable candidates, so I guess it's not fair to think of Dean as "losing" the caucus... I guess we'll see what happens in New Hampshire, where support for both Dean and Kerry has traditionally been furious.
Item 2. The Straight of the Union
A constitutional amendment to prevent "activist judges" from exacting their "arbitrary" will in striking down state laws banning homosexual marriages? Are you serious? A proposed line in the constitution saying gays are less than equal; that they aren't due the same rights and privileges as hetero-merica. Can this be interpreted as anything but the entrance of yet another discriminatory statute into the constitution of our country, this one not antiquated, but as a new amendment? Who would be in favor of this? Turns out just about everyone. The Defense of Marriage Act, signed by Clinton in '96 states that marriage not be entered into by any but "one man and one woman." It also says that no state may affect the law of another state in this regard. This amendment will, literally, make a federal case out of this issue, and remove the right of any judge, or any state for that matter, to allow gay marriage.
It speaks volumes of Jurassic mentality of both the conservative government, and the ignorant American public, that a President, suffering low approvals and strongly opposed in an election year, can speak so candidly about such a powerful topic in the State of the Union. There was very little tip-toeing involved. There was a very plain statement made that the President supports marriage exclusively as a heterosexual institution, and that anyone who disagrees is a radical activist. Most topics, a President would have to be more careful about. Not this one. He can be sure that all the people who matter are on his side.
I sure do hope the fags hit the voting booths this year.
Powers of Ten
As brought to you by Michael W. Davidson, Florida State University, and the magic of the Java Applet.
January 15, 2004
Hey kid. Wanna buy a record label?
Defunct record label Grand Royal has hit the auction block. You too can bid on the former home of the Beastie Boys, Bis, Ben Lee, and Luscious Jackson (whose name does not start with a "B"). The winning bidder will likely not be allowed to release new items under the Grand Royal moniker, but with become owner of "various master recordings, license agreements, recording agreements and miscellaneous contracts."
January 13, 2004
Zork
Kitchen
You are in the kitchen of the white house. A table seems to have been used recently for the preperation of food. A passage leads to the west and a dark staircase can be seen leading upward.
On the table is an elongated brown sack, smelling of hot peppers.
A bottle is sitting on the table.
The glass bottle contains:
A quantity of water
>open sack
Opening the sack reveals a lunch, and a clove of garlic.
>take bottle and sack
Taken.
>go up stairs
You have moved into a dark place.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
>download original Zork text adventure
You are here
This is a complete map of the universe, beginning at the Earth's core and moving outward in a direct line to the Comoving Future Visibility Limit and the presumed Big Bang.
Those guys at Princeton will do anything on a dare.
PS. - Note the Zone of Avoidance. That's all. Just note it.
PPS. - Here's a really great article explaining the map.
Free registration required.
New York Times
January 10, 2004
Paris Hilton's Pipes
After the debut as the year's most talked about Skin Floutist, Paris Hilton has recently announced that she will be releasing an album of her own. Singing. Paris Hilton singing. Paris Hilton will be singing on an album. A Paris Hilton album.
Get it?
Me neither, but I know there's a joke in there somewhere.
January 09, 2004
HiFi blowout sale
For those of you who don't know, Cambridge Soundworks has an online store called HiFi.com where they sell overstock, closeout, and discounted merchandise. It's truly one of the best bargains on the internet and the brick and mortar locations have even been known to pricematch HiFi.com deals if you print out a page and show them! Well, right now HiFi.com is having an inventory clearance with discounts up to 60%.
Those who know me well are aware of my penchant for techno-gadget price-watching. I usually try to keep it seperate from my blog, but not today. This is too good.
HiFi.com 60% off clearence sale
Drum machine
Best.
Anything.
Ever.
Latest image stolen from Reuters
New TiVo products in 2004
"...including a method for shifting saved programs to a home computer"
TiVo has recently released info on the new line of products for 2004. This year saw a bevvy of combination products which included a built in TiVo DVR, including DVD players and recorders from Toshiba and Humax, DirecTV receivers from Philips and Hughes & Kettner. The coming years will reportedly see High Definition TiVo recorders, extended TiVo home networks, and more TiVo-enabled DVD recorders.
TiVo-to-Go is the new networking solution. It will make possible the transfer of files back and forth from the TiVo box to one's PC and home network server. This may finally enable the TiVo to play AVI, WMV, and MP4 encoded video located on one's PC over the network and on one's television. It will be kept secure (for however long) with a hardware usb dongle.
January 07, 2004
Elliot Smith case "still open"
I don't know how to feel about this.
Indie, btw, stands for "independent"
When I asked my friend Brian yesterday if he's heard about this rotten "Indie Pirate" radio station at 103.1, he quipped "No. But those thing usually last about a week before it comes out that they're owned by Clear Channel or someone."
Well, Brian is apparently a genius. No wonder he used to be a private eye.
"Indie" 103.1, whose repetitive and scattered repertoire has left most in my office slightly underwhelmed, is in fact owned and operated by Clear Channel, the evil empire of commercial radio. Good songs, yes, but played three or four times a day and intertwined with some real out of place losers. I guess I should be happy that there's a radio station around now where I can hear some of these things, even if it's not quite the utopian broadcast it could have been. I guess.
Sample playlist
5:05 PM U2 Unforgettable Fire
5:09 PM MICHAEL ANDREWS Mad World
5:13 PM SOCIAL DISTORTION Story Of My Life
5:17 PM X White Girl
5:21 PM SMITHS What Difference Does It Make
5:25 PM NOFX Franco Un-American
5:27 PM STONE TEMPLE PILOTS Plush
5:33 PM PIXIES Velouria
5:37 PM POLICE So Lonely
5:41 PM IMA ROBOT Dynomite
5:43 PM FOO FIGHTERS I'll Stick Around
5:51 PM ATMOSPHERE Trying To Find A Balance
5:55 PM BEASTIE BOYS Rhymin & Stealin
5:59 PM NIRVANA Come As You Are
For those about to rock (again)
Post punk dynamo and genuinely nice guy J. Robbins has just released a new web site. Check it out for news, mp3s and info about studio production projects and his new rock outfit Channels.
January 06, 2004
Many apologies
... to those friends I've just realized were missing from my blog links list. Matt at Blue Room and Jeff at Dropform both fucking rock me in ways I'm not sure I should be rocked.
Matt knows more about law than you and Jeff knows more about being hip than you.
Matt is way metro and Jeff works for the MCP.
Matt and Jeff are both cooler than you, but if you read carefully, maybe you'll learn something.
Oh no! Techno boner!
The 4GB Apple iPod mini!
Who is this?
Atomz is my search engine of choice. Every week they send me a search report of the most common searches on my site. Someone or other decided to mess with me:
- 1 for "blogger is broken so i am sending you secret messages"
- 1 for "come home so we can go eat indian food"
- 1 for "happy new year"
- 1 for "hooray la"
- 1 for "blaster worm"
- 1 for "i love you"
- 1 for "qvc ladder"
- 1 for "i love you jason"
- 1 for "i love your sweet sweet can"
- 1 for "smoosh"
- 1 for "you are a good dancer"
- 1 for "you are at the gym and i miss you"
This guy is so fired
Isn't it kinda like "Ghost 101" that you don't get caught on closed circuit security cameras? Wouldn't you think that would be among the most elementry things you're taught before you're allowed to go free and haunt as a fully liscenced spectre? Well, this guy was obviously out sick that day.
January 01, 2004
And Happy New Year
We ended up going out after all. I don't make it a habit to go out on New Years, as I'm not much of a partier and not much of a drinker, and nothing can really keep from disappointing me on a 'big night' like New Year's Eve. Always made more sense to stay home with friends and try to enjoy it quietly.
Well not this year. We somehow finagled vip passes to Avalon in Hollywood. The club was big, the music was good, the bar was open, John Digweed was boring but passable, and the new year came right on time.
I won't go into any further detail here, as Micki's covered it pretty well in her blog. She also beat me to reviewing American Splendor, which we finally saw last night. Having been outdone fully and completely, I leave you now with some images from a better time.
