Ardent Disdain

Wooyawnhooooooo!

2008-07-06T23:03:00.001-07:00

It's way too late and I'm way too tired, but I had to post this little tidbit. As a former C64 owner, this is one of the cooler things I've heard recently and it really makes me nostalgic for that old piece of hardware. Maybe I can get one off Ebay for cheap. It'd be nice to play around with after all these years.

Stop it, Apple. Just stop it.

2008-06-10T07:41:00.000-07:00

News article

So apparently Apple is really, really hellbent against people using their property how they want to as opposed to how Apple wants them to. Latest stunt in this iPhone power-struggle fiasco is that they're requiring people to sign up for an AT&T contract before they're given the iPhone (you used to be able to buy the iPhone and sign up later).

I've been a Mac fan for a long time, and I'm still a big fan of Apple's hardware, but their business practices surrounding the iPhone (contract lock-in) and the latest run of iPods (encrypted firmware, meaning it's really hard to install something better than the standard iPod "OS" like RockBox) is pissing me the fuck off. I recently purchased my own cell phone (Samsung SGH-D900) as a standalone device, meaning that I can use it on any (GSM) network I damn well please by swapping a SIM and also have full access to its camera, multimedia functions, system options, and what-have-you without stupid carrier lockdowns getting in the way...Verizon Wireless I'm looking dead squarely at YOU.

I was never that excited about the iPhone. Mostly I was pissed because they delayed a Mac OS X release in favor of getting the phone out the door. I was more excited about the iPod Touch. But now that I'm starting sentences with "but" and making Pat Doyle cry, and now that I also found out about the firmware locks on the 6th-gen iPods (which is the same bullshit Microsoft pulled with the Zune) I'm really turned off by the thought of either of them. Sucks, too, since they encrypted the iPod Classic's firmware, which is the model that has a 160GB flavor. And 160GB of RockBox-enabled FLAC playback that's drag-n-drop loadable by ANY PC YOU WANT (i.e. not one single computer to which you have an iTunes library sync setup) is damn delicious.

But fuck it. My 60GB 4G iPod is fine, and it WILL run whatever I want, and I have yet to fill it totally to capacity. I'll stick with that, and I think I'm only going to be buying Apple's PCs and staying away from their multimedia/comms/whatever line for a good long while until they pull their collective head out of their ass. Because this lock-in business is quite crap.

Of course that's just my opinion, I could be a jaded bastard.

Posty McPostsalot

2008-06-04T19:43:00.000-07:00

Why no, I didn't put a single instant of thought into my subject, thanks for asking.

I have to keep reminding myself I have a blog and that I should post in it. Fascinating thing, people wondering about you. Helps to toss them a bone once in a while and let them know you haven't offed yourself by bleach ingestion in a fit of nihilistic rage.

Or that you haven't changed one whit, for that matter.

So, a little over a month into the new job and things are going great. Some days get extremely hectic (did I ever mention I really don't like the word "hectic?" It sounds so awkward) but never once have I been bored. And you'd be surprised just how much I appreciate being able to eat and drink at my desk again. That was one of the worst things about working at Burrows - couldn't even have water. And fine, each company has their own way of doing things - I acknowledge that and it's okay, but the super-stiff culture at Burrows is just not one for me. Anyway, though, things are much better here and look to get better still.

Also newsworthy is my new living arrangement. I've secured an apartment not far from work. It is to be my new abode, and mine alone. It is not shared with anyone nor do I want to share it with anyone - roommates are absofuckinglutely not for me, unless they're significant others with whom I'm living WELL IN ADVANCE OF MARRIAGE (you Christians can all blow me and so can your morals). For the time being, though, I have blissful solitude at long, long last. Absolute isolation and perfect silence. The peace of mind I've always TURN YOUR FUCKING STEREO DOWN, COCKBISCUIT dreamed of. ...Well, almost.

Further details of the apartment available upon request.

I think that's about all for now. I mean, I know there's more going on but if I rack my brain too hard I'm going to wind up writing another insanely long Master's-thesis post that's going to result in 40 WoWs and about 271 tl;drs.

-ADN

Attention apartment-rental websites

2008-04-17T19:53:00.000-07:00

FRAK YOU.

When I tell you I want apartments in Rosemont, it means I actually want them in Rosemont.

Not Des Plaines. Not Schaumburg. Not Skokie, or Mt. Prospect, or Arlington Heights, or Chicago.

Oh, wait, yeah, my mistake. I'm just typing "Rosemont" for my health. Because of course those towns all have L stations and are located near highways and airports. They're all the same, right? Of course I should want to live there instead of where I fucking specify.

Maybe I should just take a walking tour of the town and stun-gun rent information out of local landlords. It would be better than rent.com at any rate.

Movin' on up

2008-04-11T15:01:00.000-07:00

Aidan's got a new job.

Aidan has scored what is, in some eyes, the ultimate promotion.

In two weeks, Aidan will become head of IT.

It's almost enough to make you refer to yourself in the third pers...aw, crap.

Quick update - Firefox 3

2008-04-07T21:13:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am alive. I'm just seriously swamped right now. Graduate-level biology classes are interesting when your background is data networking.

Anyway, I wanted to pop on and prove that I've not been eaten by a giant squid, nor have I fallen into London Below or anything.

I also wanted to note, on an unrelated...note...oh frak you, it's late. I wanted to note that anyone who might be even the slightest bit interested should seriously try out the Firefox 3 beta. It's incredible, it's fast, the memory problems are long gone, and it has some really neat new features. It installs alongside your current version of Firefox, so you don't need to worry about losing anything. You'll have separate links to your "normal" install (2.0.whatever) and the FF3 beta. Windows users will see a "Firefox 3 Beta" folder in the Start menu, Linux users probably will already have it figured out by the time they're done reading this, but in case it eludes you, you can type "firefox-3.0" in a terminal and that should do it. Mac users might want to create a folder under /Applications, as the .app file is still named "Firefox" and you do run the risk of overwriting your old install.

Anyway, FF3 beta good. No crashes so far. Some addons don't work perfectly but that's to be expected with most FF updates.

Try it out, here.

All I Want for Christmas...

2007-11-20T21:18:00.000-08:00

Is a goddamn unified .NET Framework installer package that can actually be slipstreamed into an XP install without taking all the time it normally takes to install itself and yet still somehow manage not to register when I try to install an application that requires .NET.

Seriously, Microsoft, what the fuck. Not only do you have 3 versions that are not one steady version cycle (.NET Framework 1.1 is not included in the 2.0 package...you have to install both, but 3.0 will install 2.0 along with its own components...I think), but it is, as far as I can tell, goddamn impossible to get them all to install and play nice when trying to include them in an unattended XP setup.

Lady J and others who take issue/wonder why/question me when I say that WinXP is a broken shitpile of an operating system...this is a prime example of what I'm talking about.

Please...just...please...you include all your patches and security hotfixes in Service Packs, can't you do the same for the .CRAP Framework?

I wouldn't even give a shit except that the very software I use to build my unattended installs, nLite, is itself dependent on .NET 2.0.

I am SO glad that Ubuntu 7.10 is so awesome. Maybe finally having a Linux distro that's as automagic as MacOS will take the pressure off this ideal-XP-setup-in-a-box project. If you haven't tried it lately or at all, definitely give Ubuntu a shot. Download the LiveCD, burn it, and take it for a spin. Runs totally off CD, no "commitment" necessary.

In other news (because I just can't leave a topic the fuck alone for the life of me), I've been kinda rediscovering Nightwish's music. Their latest release left me kinda lukewarm and I've been going back and listening to classic 'Wish, and I've determined that their "Oceanborn" album is better than I may have given it credit for in the past. I had forgotten that they could produce sounds that hard in light of their more recent stuff, which either attempts to be epic (and is thus outperformed by Epica and Therion) or panders to the "U DUN KNOW HOW I HURTS INSIED!" wrist-cutter crowd (and is thus outperformed by...how the hell should I know? I take out my inner torment and self-loathing on other people, fuck ruining my nice shirts taking razors to my own arteries). Oceanborn was still "gothy" but had gems like Devil & the Deep Dark Ocean to remind you that yes, they are metal. The "Wishmaster" album also had some good guitar work, more intricate than what's found on "Once" or "Dark Passion Play," which seem to lean more toward repetitive chords heavily accented by percussion. I think part (perhaps a large part) of the problem I had/have with them is that they tend to stand way back with their instrumentals when Tarja and/or Annette are singing. Therion, by contrast, will layer intricate guitar riffs right on top of the vocals, almost always to thrilling effect. I have the same problem with Within Temptation, who actually sound like they downmix the instrumentals during mastering and artificially emphasize Sharon's voice. Sounds very, very unnatural. Guys...if I wanted vocals-uber-alles, I'd listen to Top 40 pablum. Metal's good because the vocals either take a backseat to instrumentals or complement them without stealing the show. I don't care how great your singer's voice is - Olaf Hayer, Liv Kristine, Floor Jansen, Hansi Kursch, Roy Khan, Simone Simons, Tarja Turunen, this includes you - metal is about the instrumentals first. Namely guitar and drums. The rest is gravy. Sweet gravy, as in the case of Epica and Therion's choirs, but gravy just the same.

In Nightwish's case, though, I just have to be careful not to overdose on them again, as I think that's why I was cold to them for a long time there. They're still universes behind Therion, but...yeah, they're good.

Also, I think I pirate too much. I have a LOT of CDs to burn. On a related note, anyone know where I can get either:

A. Good deals on LightScribe discs (particularly DVD, but I'll take CD deals too), or

B. Dual-layer DVD+/-Rs at a sane price? Circuit City wanted $60 for a 25-pack. Sodomize that with a jackhammer.

Need book help

2007-10-09T23:14:00.001-07:00

I talked to my biology professor and he said it'd be fine if I attended some live classes, even though I'm an internet student and also, due to work arrangements, a guaranteed late arrival to class. So I figure I'll try to catch at least every other class session, if not more. This, however, means commuting time. (reading on the way to ITM440, if I opt to attend live sessions, is a no-go as that commute is via highway)

So I downloaded a mega-torrent of eBooks from various sci-fi/fantasy authors. Studying on the train is a lost cause, I've tried it before and there are too many distractions for really absorbing material. Fiction, however, is another story. So I figure I'll throw some on the GP2X (god I love that thing, best handheld EVER) and read on the go.

However, I'm still faced with one problem...where the frell do I start?

Here's a list of the authors whose works were included in the multi-gig behemoth of a torrent I nabbed:

Alan Dean Foster

Angie Sage

Anne McCaffrey

Audio

Ben Bova

Christopher Stasheff

Dave Smeds

David Eddings

David Weber

Derek Paterson

Diane Duane

Dragonlance

Forgotten Realms

Gaiman

George Orwell

Glen Cook

Harlan Ellison

Ian Prater

Isaac Asimov

Jim Butcher

JK Rowling

John Norman

John Ringo

Jonathan Stroud

Kate Elliott

Kate Saundby

Keri Arthur

L.E. Modesitt

Larry Niven

Laurell K. Hamilton

Lawrence Watt-Evans

Margaret Weis

Mercedes Lackey

Orson Scott Card

Philip Jose Farmer

Philip K. Dick

Piers Anthony

RA Salvatore

Robert Asprin

Robert Jordan

Robin Hobb

Simon R. Green

Stephen King

Stephen R. Donaldson

Terry Brooks

Terry Goodkind

Terry Pratchett

Tolkien

Ursula LeGuin

Wilbur Smith

So, which of those are good/particularly good/excellent/read-now-or-you'll-lobotomize-me-with-a-screwdriver?

Or, at the very least, which ones lend themselves to reading in short bursts, such as on the train where there's a line change after half an hour's ride?

I've heard good things about Norman and the Gor series, but I haven't actually read any of it yet. I know Pratchett is hilarious, and I hear Jordan has a tendency to be rather long-winded.

Also, Herbert's "Dune" series...anyone read it? Input, perspectives, opinions? It's not in this list, but I can probably nab it or try to find a dead-tree version that's small enough to be pocket/train/commute friendly.

Holy Fuckman, Batshit! He's ALIVE!

2007-10-08T21:51:00.000-07:00

So, you probably all thought I contracted Marburg and was dead in a pool of maggots and drying bodily fluids, huh?

No such luck, bitches.

So, let's see what's been happening in my corner of the ~~world~~ ^^padded^room.

I finally got back to writing, at least for a little while. Classes are getting the better of me, but I try to work on Apotheosis when I can keep animal physiology at bay. Mmm-mmmmmmm, god-slaying goodness. I completely trashed the prologue and rewrote it from scratch. It's a thousand times better in every way, plus a little treat for...well, I won't spoil the surprise. Searska might get it, depending on how she's been following along with my musical interests. Metalheads of a certain variety will appreciate it.

Speaking of which, stopped by Metal Haven in their new digs in Ravenswood last Friday (after killing 6 hours in a jury assembly room reading Neal Stephenson whilst waiting to be called...never was) and got a bunch of goodies, including the limited edition release of the new Epica. Scans shall be provided upon request. Were I not blissfully content in my pairing with Journey I might be very, very interested in the profile pictures of a nude-and-tattooed Simone Simons adorning many of the interior pages of the CD book (not a case, no plastic to be found, actually a hardbound book). As it is, however, I have a prettier girl than you, Mark Jansen. *raspberry*

Yes, girl, boy is being mooshy. Too bad.

Also fleshed out the Therion collection with "Theli," their first symphonic release. Really, really interesting album, that one. They were fresh out of their uber-harsh death metal style and experimenting with classical influences, and you can hear the opposing styles warring and vying for dominance the whole way. I also now have their 4-DVD, 2-CD anthology set, "Celebrators of Becoming." Definitely the best metal act ever.

Oh, and me brother and meself finally got our hands on a Wii. Prime 3 is incredible, Caidn's having tons of fun with Twilight Princess (which he's had in his possession for nearly a year now with no ability to play, frell you Wii shortage), and Red Steel isn't half as bad as its detractors would have one believe. RE4: Wii is good too. Really intense, though the lack of a 180° turn button is vexing.

I finished reading Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy about a month ago. It is absolutely phenomenal. I still haven't read the final Harry Potter, as I'm afraid of the disappointment it (hypothetically) poses after the feast that was HDM. Lady J, you mentioned having read Book 1. Trust me, the rest is well worth your time. It goes quick, but leaves you feeling more fulfilled than HP does without a much larger investment of time. It'll take a little longer, but it's just Pullman fleshing out his world more.

And yeah, it will PISS OFF fundies. It should be required reading for schoolkids nationwide.

Listened to the new Nightwish. Like as pertains to so many other things, my feelings about it are mixed. The new singer is good for sure. Smoother voice than the last one, reminds me a little of Sharon from Within Temptation, but only a little. Certainly her voice blends better with the music, rather than jarring attention away from it. Some of their songs were a bit thrashy, which I don't really like, as it puts my mind to a vocalist who wants to sound "hardcore" but can't do a proper death growl. WORK THAT LARYNX, BOY. I do confess an unhealthy addiction to their single "Amaranth" though. Reminds me a lot of the "Once" album's instrumentals mixed with the lyrical style of "Angels Fall First."

I've taken up a couple of other passive hobbies as well. The first was cooking. Yes, Aidan is learning to become useful in the kitchen, or trying to (if he can ever find frelling coconut cream for this one Thai recipe). I bought a cookbook of spicy food from Borders awhile back. I successfully prepared scallops in black-bean sauce with fresh garlic, ginger, and red peppers. It was quite good. This next one is prawns (might substitute shrimp because they're cheaper and I'm weak) in a pineapple curry sauce. Journey picked it out, said it looked good. If anyone knows where to get ahold of coconut cream, do let me know. I've tried a Trader Joe's, a Whole Foods Market, a couple of regular grocery stores, and...I think one other place. I might try a couple of Asian stores, since coconut is so integral in a lot of Thai dishes.

Also, rendering. I downloaded a copy of Blender and a guide and have been working on a (crude) reconstruction of the Zohar artifact from Xenosaga. The monolith itself was pretty easy, though the rings around it were a bastard and a half. I still have to learn to do textures and stuff, but I'm learning my way around the Blender interface rather quickly. Nice, too, since Blender is free and I don't have to work through the long-ass procedure to crack Maya. The Mac version even has a crack that requires Windows to apply. How fucked-up is that? So yeah, Blender it is; once again, open-source FTW. Once I get into skinning and textures and building proper scenes I'll post my work up on a graphic artists' community site and let you all take a gander. Gander. Funny word. Wow, midnight feels a lot later than it used to.

Well, I suppose I'll let you go for now. I wanted to post some highlights from a funny conversation Journey and I had about marriage rituals over the weekend, but my brain's too fragmented right now. Mind. Mind is too fragmented. ...Case in point. I'll at least titillate you with a quote from it.

"If any can show cause why these two should not be wed, shut the fuck up and get out. If you didn't think it was a good idea, why didn't you say so in the first place rather than letting them get this far? What kind of friend are you? Get up and go, walk away to the sound of your inevitable condemnation you soon-to-be pariah. They probably just invited you to guilt you into buying a wedding present anyway."

That's greatly embellished from its original form, but I don't recall the original form verbatim, so might as well snazz it up, non? I think it was sparked in response to a Twilight Zone episode. That or the giant spectacle channel 5 made of some people's wedding as planned by the network's viewers. Television these days, I tell you.

Anyway, it's late, I have work tomorrow, a midterm to study for, and an audiobook of Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion" beckoning me to let it lull me to sleep.

<ROD_SERLING>Thank you, and good night.</ROD_SERLING>

Currently listening (gots to do this shit manually):
-Some chapter of "The God Delusion" that's playing too quietly for me to make out right now.

Currently reading:
-Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson, because it's required reading for InfoSec nerds and because it's some sort of lead-in for the (ludicrously long and I can't frelling wait to sink my teeth in) Baroque Cycle.

-Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson. Because it is, as one Rendaw Deus Kalick puts it, "Assloads of monkey fun."

Girl gets it!

2007-08-11T08:12:00.000-07:00

Journey figured out what was wrong with the S:AaB DVD menu picture. And yeah, that's pretty much what happened - they hired an r-tard for a graphic designer who thought "hey, this space station looks spacey, let's put it in."

Morons. Oh, well, I've heard the series itself is pretty good, so I'll see what I think and perhaps forgive them their transgression against B5. Episode 1 at least started out interestingly enough. I like shows that hit the ground running.

Harry Potter

2007-07-24T07:45:00.001-07:00

Don't ask me, guys. I haven't read it yet, too much other stuff to get through first. On the other hand, American Gods is still excellent.

I downloaded the leaked "digital camera rip" last week out of spite toward the ridiculous amount of secrecy, paranoia, and other Fort Knox bullshit surrounding the release, but some of those images really are crappy and unreadable. 'Course, maybe it was just me trying to read fuzzy text at 3 in the morning. Anyway, my brother's already done reading his copy so I'll get to it eventually. I'm debating whether I want to bump it up above The Golden Compass in my queue, though. Decisions, decisions...

Space: WTF And Beyond

2007-07-16T08:05:00.000-07:00

Okay, folks, pop-quiz time. In one minute or less, can you tell me what's wrong with this picture?

Quick update

2007-07-02T07:52:00.001-07:00

I've disabled comment moderation for the time being on this blog as I noticed they've introduced CAPTCHAs for bot prevention. I know, I know, CAPTCHAs suck, but I'd rather have more people able to comment on my writings and if the CAPTCHAs keep the spambots away just as well, then I figure it's a small price to pay. Also, non-registered users are now able to comment.

If, however, I have any problems with spambots in the future, I'll most likely reenable reg'd-only comments and comment moderation. I will not have my blog used as a venue for advertising ch34p v14gr4 4n|> c1al1s.

Thought for food

2007-06-28T10:09:00.000-07:00

Borrowing a concept from a fellow I used to work with. I give you my thoughts, you give me food. Yeah, going on lunchtime.

The topic of today's entry: "Friends-only" blogs/blog entries. This is something that's been confounding me for a while now. I see this from time to time, and it seems particularly prevalent on LiveJournal over other blogging services (Blogger, Xanga), and nonexistent on privately-hosted Movable Type/WordPress blogs, probably because they don't have those bizarre social-networking platforms to operate on installed on every damn site that hosts them.

Anyway, getting sidetracked. "Friends-only." I've been turning this over in my head for a while and I can't seem to decipher the logic behind the phenomenon. I've always seen the Internet as a communications tool. At its core, that's exactly what the Internet is. In the early days there were BBS services and IRC channels, newsgroups, LISTSERVs, and the venerable, ubiquitous E-mail. All of these served the same fundamental purpose: communication.

Once the World Wide Web (not the same as the Internet, though I'd like to think the folks reading me would know that) came into its prime (after the days of single-long-ass-page HTML documents with sliding rainbow HR tags--I'm talking late 90s/early 2000s here), there was a noticeable shift in focus away from the "wild-west" systems of old and onto forms of online communication styled after print publications. Some sites followed this more than others, and certainly there were those that went off and did their own thing, eschewing the trends of the time, but by many rights websites were becoming online magazines or newspapers.

Then, the next generation of Internet-based communication services (marketroids labeled it with the nonsensical and ill-thought-out moniker "Web 2.0" [1]) came into being. Blogs were a major part of this "Web 2.0" phenomenon. Not necessarily the first, but these days they're certainly among the most pervasive elements of the user-generated-content-heavy sectors of the Web.

Blogs (as if you didn't know) give users a way to easily publish information, opinions, thoughts, reviews, previews, code, specifications, requirements, images, sound, video, or just about any other kind of data imaginable. "So what? Big deal. You can do that with a website." True, but the advantage of a blog is that it does the dirty work of HTML/CSS formatting for the user, thus enabling publishing by those who have something to say but not the knowledge of markup languages to effectively say it. This is subject to debate as to its nature as a good or bad thing, but the point remains that blogs enable quick and easy publishing without having to sift through piles of code. This in turn enables someone to reach the large audiences previously available only to web developers, but with the simplicity of E-mail or BBS services.

So now we have people who can easily publish what's on their mind. "Fantastic," I say. "Go forth and publish! The pen is mightier than the sword! And give me back my pants!" Just seeing if you were still paying attention. So people go out and publish, but then, for whatever reason, blog-hosting services give people the option of posting "private" updates to a blog. This is where everything starts going down Counter-Intuitive Boulevard. The whole point of a blog, as I have always seen it (and maybe I'm just flat-out wrong about this and that's where the confusion lies), is that it enables one to reach large audiences with ease. Now, however, with "private entries" or "friends-only," that advantage is effectively nullified and we're back to the days of either communicating with the world at large via websites or, more specifically, communicating within small circles via BBS/Usenet/IRC/LISTSERVs/E-mail.

So...then...why not just use a BBS or E-mail if you want to communicate with only your friends? I'm sorry to burst bubbles, but NOBODY has a circle of friends large enough that they need a blog to reach them all. Hell, start up your own IRC server, host your own Invision/phpBB/vBulletin message board, or just use frickin' E-mail. I can't help but feel like I'm missing some fundamental part of the equation here. Marking a blog posting as "friends-only" seems like nothing more than some juvenile attempt at stirring up drama or provoking some jealous/indignant/angry emotional response. It's akin to hanging a sign with bright red letters saying "GOOD FREE STUFF INSIDE!" on a door whose doorknob has a numeric keypad attached to it (substitute biometrics/magstripe/RFID as your preference dictates). What's the point?

If you want to communicate privately, there already exists TONS of infrastructure for that, some of it decades old and developed to perfection. Seriously, when's the last time you remember having problems with E-mail because of a bug in the POP/IMAP/SMTP protocols? The protocols themselves, not someone's misconfigured server.

If you want to communicate publicly and have the skills (and the time, o ye accursed eternal arch-nemesis), make a website for yourself. Hosting is cheap and I'll set up your web server for you personally. If you want to communicate publicly and don't want to bother with hosting fees/server configuration/writing code, then use a blog.

If you use a blog, however, please attempt to understand that you're using an inherently public communications medium and that "friends-only" entries/blogs are doing nothing but cluttering up server space that could be better used hosting something that benefits everybody.

Quote of the Moment: "Turn ALL friends-only and private entries public, so everyone can see them. Thus rendering the "piggybackers*" obsolete, all the knives in each others backs will be totally revealed. Know those negative things you said in private about your boyfriend that he didn't know about? He would know now. ...and watch armageddon happen with a bunch of moody 19 year olds. :)" -British(51765), Slashdot.
(equally hilarious) Reply here.

Song of the Day: "Pillar of Salt" by Star Salzman.

[1]: This is tangential to the topic of this post, but I feel the need to clarify, for those who aren't active in IT circles, the reason why "Web 2.0" is such a reviled term among geeks. It's actually a simple explanation: Version numbers are intended to denote differences, be they large or small, in the form, function, or codebase of a piece of hardware or software. "Web 2.0" only refers to new applications for existing Web technologies, but does not accompany any change in the technical specifications of the World Wide Web itself. No new version of HTML is associated with it, no revision to the HTTP protocol, nothing. It seems petty or nitpicky to those whose passion is not technology but it treads on sacred ground, so to speak, to geeks and can cause a lot of confusion for those whose computer knowledge encompasses the general concept of versioning but who do not understand the specifics. The tech semi-literate are more likely to be interested in "Web 2.0" than the modern-day luddites, but at the same time are also more likely to be misled by marketing terminology into believing "Web 2.0" reflects some radical change in the way the World Wide Web operates. In reality, it reflects only a bunch of self-important bloggers, irritating teenage Myspace users, and campus-resident students at big, populous party colleges posting pictures of themselves in various states of undress and/or inebriation and spewing bullshit about how they're angry that their off-brand MP3 player was stolen from the locker room.

Now that I think about it, maybe "friends-only" isn't such a bad idea anyway. At least not if it spares me from having to read drivel like that.

Quote of the moment:

2007-06-18T13:22:00.000-07:00

Cloner's Colosseum:
ONE MAN ENTERS, TWO MEN LEAVE! ONE MAN ENTERS, TWO MEN LEAVE!

OMG WTF VGM HAX

2007-06-15T14:37:00.000-07:00

Tiny little pet peeve of a game music fan:

Dammit, people, stop crediting Yasunori Mitsuda for the Shadow Hearts soundtrack. It is not his brainchild, it is Yoshitaka Hirota's. Mitsuda did 10 tracks out of an entire 2-disc album, and they weren't the album's best ones either.

Oh, but he did Xenogears and Chrono Trigger, so we all have to fanwank over him.

Don't get me wrong, I love his work, but Shadow Hearts is not his work. It is equal in quality but vastly different in style, and to attribute it to Mitsuda is not at all fair to Hirota, who contributed some real creativity and ingenuity to make Shadow Hearts sound as good as it does and deserves to be appreciated for it.

I'm going to upload some samples from Xenogears and Shadow Hearts when I get home. You tell me if you think they sound anything alike.

EDIT: Okay, here they are.

The Yasunori Mitsuda sample, "Leftovers From the Dreams of the Strong," from Xenogears.

And the Yoshitaka Hirota sample, "Much Hatred Still Rankles," from Shadow Hearts.

You tell me: similar? I think not.

An Invitation to l33ch

2007-05-24T18:44:00.000-07:00

First of all, congratulations to Journey on becoming a true-blue grad student. Though I know that the ooshing has just begun, good job anyway.

I'm currently in the process of ripping every CD I own (and still care about--i.e. not those I just haven't got around to selling) to FLAC.

Because of this, it is now easier than ever for me to share tunes with you, the masses who adore me (NO, NOT RLY).

So, if at any time any of you heard anything in my house/car/at a LAN party/any other time that intrigued you, speak up now and ye shall receive.

Journey, I have the converter apps you need to put FLAC files on your iPod, and am looking into software (for everyone) to burn directly to CD from FLAC. Lady J mentioned knowing of one for Windoze, and I'm looking into rad bad Mac FLAC apps. Sorry, couldn't resist.

So, this will include:
-Therion, about whom you've heard me rant and rave
-Nightwish
-Epica
-Blind Guardian
-Blur (Corenn will remember the film-noir-esque music video for "To the End," Journey has heard Rendaw and me talk about them, Lady J should remember some of their stuff from CDs I've made her)

-Final Fantasy 5-10
-Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne, DDS, Devil Summoner, and Persona 2 and 3

-E.S. Posthumus

And many, many more.

In other news, saw "Eragon" yesterday from a ripped DVD. Journey, it probably isn't your cup o' tea. Not quite "a boy and his dragon" but close, and not much brain food. Jeremy Irons at least put on a good performance (lol@Dungeons and Dragons).

I'm just shy of halfway through "American Gods." So far I'm enjoying it quite a bit. The random sex scenes caught me off guard, especially the first which was truly bizarre, but otherwise it's a decent read. I've heard it's darker than "Neverwhere," but so far it hasn't seemed so. Maybe it picks up later on.

Also, finally finished Farscape. I'll try to keep the fangushing to a minimum, but...

Definitely my #1 series. Babylon 5 comes in 2nd for its intricate plot, but Farscape's characters and plot twists keep it in the lead. Plus, "The Peacekeeper Wars" is definitely the best series-to-movie adaptation I've ever seen. For all of Whedon's attempts at, as Rendaw says, "Wise talkin' and fast crackin'" (yeah, reverse much?), the dialogue of "Serenity" doesn't come close to gems like "Great, I'll cut it out!" or "But...but shooting makes me feel better!" Plus, its brief space battle had nothing on the final unveiling of the wormhole weapon. The "Babylon 5" movies work very well within the context of the show, but were never intended to be grand finales or wrap-everything-up-and-go-out-with-a-bang closers.

Favourite character: Scorpius, most certainly. Diabolical, but with a curious childlike innocence that sets him apart from the usual evil overlord type. I also LOVED that he was completely free from the encumberments of so-called "morality" and was willing to do whatever it took to get what he wanted.

Runner-up: Crichton. This one shouldn't even need to be explained.

Best/most defining scene: Season 3. "Thanks for Sharing." The "Who's your daddy?" exchange. Absofragginlutely priceless.

In other news, registered for a statistics class at the oh-so-shittily-run Harper College this summer. Got my approval for the credit to transfer to IIT so I can save a wee bit o' cash...okay, actually save GOBS of cash. Now I just have to figure out if I can borrow Journey's or my brother's calculators, or if I'd be better off getting that HP 50g from NewEgg. The 50g gets high accolades in geek circles as being the best for programmability and efficiency, but I dunno...we'll have to see.

Got the results of my two spring classes, and I must say I am pleased. I did better than ever before in my coding class, and found I can hold my own after all in old-fashioned science despite my exposure since high school being effectively nil.

Well, "Brave Fencer Musashi" disc 2 is done ripping, so I'd best get back to work.

Cheers,
-ADN

Aww-dee-oh-filez?

2007-05-18T10:30:00.000-07:00

Just a fun post I lifted from Slashdot in a discussion about networked speakers.

---

The Audiophile appreciates how music sounds on a high-watt system that's driven purely in the linear response region, has inperceptable distortion, crosstalk and noise, has a frequency reponse from 15Hz-22kHz that need not be flat, but must be pleasing to his ear.

The Audiophile understands that a great system starts with the speakers and works back to the source.

The Audiophile understands that spending time moving his speakers and furniture around the room will give you the best bang-for-buck improvement in sound.

The Audiophile understands that the difference between a CD player worth $200 and one worth $2000 is not as important as the difference between a set of speakers worth $200 and that worth $2000 - doubly so if you are keeping it digital until the tuner.

The Audiophile knows that the person who spend $1000 on each speaker cable is a wanker, while he calculates the per meter-resistance of his quality OFC cables and ensures that the paths to the drivers are as close as possible.

The Audiophile understands that a sub-woofer should not felt not heard. If its not SUBsonic, its just a woofer.

The Audiophile looks at the BOSE Lifestyle system with the contempt it deserves.

The Audiophile doesn't claim that the response of vinyl records is superior, but can appreciate the imperfections of the recording media as an important part of the whole listening experience.

The Audiophile doesn't store his CDs in the freezer, nor drawn on them with green texta.

Awesome

2007-05-09T23:13:00.000-07:00

Just too fucking good.

Spoileriffic

2007-04-11T12:56:00.000-07:00

Stargate Atlantis fans who haven't kept up, stop reading right here, right now.

I just watched "Sunday," SGA 3-17 and, well...

THEY KILLED CARSON? Those bastards! The guy was the reason I kept watching Atlantis through its less-than-stellar episodes. He was the most memorable part of the series premiere, and the reason I stuck with it to begin with. The heart of the series, a fan favourite, the best (and sometimes sole) source of comic relief Atlantis ever had!

This is like TNG killing off Data, or Farscape killing off Chiana (though that may still happen, I'm not done with S4 and PKWars). Hell, SG-1 tried it with Jackson and fans damn near rioted.

Speaking of SG-1, this seems a little too familiar. Carson is dead, presumably to be replaced by this Dr. Keller? Gee, where have I seen that one before? *cough*Janet Fraiser*cough*. They killed her off in "Heroes" and replaced her with some no-name, Dr. Lam if memory serves correctly. Let's see, how many times did Fraiser save SG-1's ass, come up with breakthrough discoveries working with Carter, and generally have awesome on-screen moments? Compare that with the number of times Lam has even appeared in an episode of SG-1 and we can easily see who the better doctor was. Hell, the mere fact that they had to shoehorn Lam in as a major character by hacking together some forced tension between her and Gen. Landry shows that they knew she wasn't going to be a suitable replacement for the awesome Fraiser character.

Now I liked Fraiser just fine, she was an interesting character and was used sparingly enough that she was believable in her "Janet saves the day" episodes, but even she paled in comparison to Carson Beckett.

And now they killed him.

"I think I feel something...I think it could be lunch-related."
"I feel not unlike...the priest in The Exorcist."
"Dry mouth, headache, the irresistible urge to run in a small wheel..."
"I don't wish anyone was here! I wish I wasn't bloody here!"

Dead. And an exploding tumor. What a way to go. At least Zhaan and Crais went out in their own respective blazes of glory (particularly Crais, along with Talyn). But an exploding tumor.

There is no justice in sci-fi.

Worm Nut

2007-04-04T14:33:00.000-07:00

Had another listen to the new Therion album last night before I turned in.

Someone, I think an Amazon reviewer, once said that Therion albums rarely, if ever, grab you on the first listen and once they do they require several subsequent listens before you can truly appreciate their depth and complexity.

He's right. My first listen of "Gothic Kabbalah" was somewhat unimpressive and left me with a neither-here-nor-there attitude toward the album. Then, like I said, I gave it another spin last night.

Oh, wow. Holy frelling hezmana, Crichton, it's amazing. And that's before the aforementioned "several subsequent listens" that are required to truly appreciate a Therion release; the same several subsequent listens that led to "Secret of the Runes" redefining my outlook on metal.

Lady J, I think you'd dig this one. You mentioned being a fan of Blind Guardian before, and I know you're a fan of Nightwish, and there are a few subtle similarities to both. It's also not as heavy as some of their previous work (notably Deggial and Sirius B, though the former is intricately layered and deliciously complex to offset any discouragement one may draw from its slightly harsher tones) and features plenty of clean vocals. Gone are the death growls that occasionally popped up in Lemuria, and which were the mainstay of their pre-"Theli" work. Unfortunately, also gone are the clean male operatic vocals which decorated "Secret of the Runes" and "Vovin."

Journey, I think you'd like it too, owing primarily to the fact that while we've never really talked music in-depth, you seem to have an appreciation for anything that's interesting or out of the ordinary (our peculiar shared interest in Dido being a noteworthy, if bizarre, exception to the rule).

The only one whose level of interest I'm not sure I could declare is Searska. She seemed quite fond of Deggial (particularly Emerald Crown and Flesh of the Gods). If you're a fan of heavier sounds, GK might not be so much your cup o' tea, though you'd probably still get a small kick out of it.

Time to go, write more later.

Heads-up!

2007-04-03T15:26:00.000-07:00

OpenOffice.org 2.2.0 was released recently (Mar. 22, but mine just notified me about the update today, probably because I haven't launched it too recently).

Downloading and installing the update now, I'll keep you posted as to how it works. I downloaded the version with the JRE bundle if anyone wants/needs a copy, but you can more than likely get it faster by downloading it yourself.

51st post and music

2007-03-29T11:02:00.000-07:00

Just realized (as, true to form, I wasn't previously paying attention) I made my 50th post on the new blog. Milestones, woo. Good riddance to the LiveJournal engine on which LJ and its unofficial sister site (and host of my previous blog for those who don't know and actually give half a damn) DeadJournal run. Assuming I don't eventually get off my ass, register a domain name, and host my own blog with WordPress or Movable Type, I'm definitely sticking with Blogger. Customization is a beautiful thing.

Anyway, I've discovered a new hobby: getting music recommendations by Googling for band names with the site:slashdot.org modifier. Dunno why it never occurred to me before to try it, as because Slashdot is one of the Internet's chief bastions of anti-RIAA sentiment, as well as populated by a (generally) more intelligent user base than YouTube, Digg, or (perish the thought) MySpace, it stands to reason that I can:
A. Discover at least partially geek-friendly music based on out-of-the-blue mentions and recommendations;
B. Discover similar acts to bands I already know by typing, for example, "site:slashdot.org nightwish" into a search box and seeing what comes up;
C. Get near-immediate warnings of bands that I would like, but are RIAA-tainted (e.g. Within Temptation who, for the most part, I like but alas cannot purchase due to their RIAA affiliation) due to 85% of slashdotters having their antennae up and listening to the RIAA's every move;
D. I know there was supposed to be a D. My train of thought has left the station. Maybe it'll come to me later.

The ulterior motive behind this post is to publish a shotgun-approach list of bands I've heard mentioned on various Slashdot discussions so that I can reference it later and shamelessly infringe on copyrights, exhibiting the extent of my moral bankruptcy and desire to undermine the American economic system.

Or something.

LIST!
-Poe
-The Gathering
-My Dying Bride
-Sins of Thy Beloved (already have some, need to listen)
-~~Evanescence~~ (scratch that, RIAA and way too poppy)
-The Gathering
-Ensiferum
-Finntroll
-In Extremo
-Lacrimosa
-Tristania
-Sirenia
-Thyrfing
(begin copypasta-not-the-4chan-kind)
Haggard - a classical death metal band from Germany that has 16 members complete with strings, horns a variety of vocal styles.

uneXpect - kinda like Nightwish meets Cradle of Filth but yet not like that.

Into Eternity - progressive death metal (lots of 3 part harmonies with the growly vocals)

Scarve - progressive death metal
(end copypasta-not-the-4chan-kind)

-Mandragora Scream
-Novembre
-Chalice
-"The Universe Will Provide" by Mike Keneally
-"Psalm 69" by Ministry (apparently extremely heavy)
-"666" by Aphrodite Child (also apparently death-in-a-box)
-Mostly Autumn
-Axxis
-Artefact (think I already have some)
-Um, just read this link and its replies
-Ahymsa (indie band plugged in someone's /. sig)

All of that by searching Slashdot for "nightwish."

Let's try Enter the Haggis.

Nothing.

Okay, fine. Gaelic Storm.

Also nothing. Fine, fine, GS is RIAA signed anyway.

Let's try After Forever.

Also nothing.

Fine, you (win|suck). Better go do some real work now, be back later.

I like cadmium myself

2007-03-22T07:44:00.000-07:00

This is awesome:

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/21/2321225

There you have it. Conclusive, incontrovertible proof of the highest caliber: a Slashdot article.

Now, time to head to Giordano's and order a Tropical Delight.

QUOTE OF THE MOMENT RIDES AGAIN:
"A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a"

Quicksilver

2007-03-12T19:35:00.000-07:00

First word I saw when I looked around my desk.

Funny thing is, it actually has some significance in my day-to-day life. Own a Power Mac G4 Quicksilver, use the excellent QuickSilver UI enhancement for Mac OS X, and have the book "Quicksilver" by Neal Stephenson sitting on my desk. Funny, that.

So anyway, this is just a generic update for friends and family (sometimes one and the same in a rather one-sided fashion: friends can feel like family, but family doesn't really feel friendly most of the time. Not in that casual way that's so great for lowering blood pressure).

Journey and I just finished Season 2 of Babylon 5 and Season 6 of the X-Files. In the same day. I'm still reeling from the plot twists. X-Files took a most unexpected turn involving some form of inscribed tablet with self-fusing and magnetic properties as well as a propensity to craft rather large incisions in christian holy scriptures (put simply, bible got pwned). Babylon 5 was more of the same. Huge war breaks out, assassination attempt, mind-blowing revelation about a major character. You know, business as usual. Searska--"Comes the Inquisitor" was fucking fantastic, and "Sebastian" is now among my favourite characters. Alas, I fear we've most likely seen the last of him.

I just figured out how to transcode video for the GP2X. Stargate looks awesome (though still not awesome enough to compensate for Morena Baccarin's completely wooden performance. The empty soda can on my desk has more personality. Adria should've stayed 7 years old, with Jodelle Ferland playing her. At least that kid can be downright creepy.) and it plays with nary a dropped frame in sight. If the DS weren't so quirky and fun, the GP2X would be the only handheld I'd ever care about owning.

Okay, I'm not quite done with my previous mini-rant. God damn you, Jonathan Glassner and Brad Wright, for getting a no-talent hack to play what could be the most interesting villain since Replicarter. You could've gotten Virginia Hey (Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan, Farscape) or Tricia Helfer (Number Six, Battlestar Galactica) or Alice Krige (Borg Queen, First Contact) or Mira Furlan (Amb. Delenn, Babylon 5) or, hell, even Rachel Luttrell (Teyla Emmagan, Stargate Atlantis) would've been better suited (though I guess that last one really wouldn't make sense since both Stargates take place in the same universe). But no. You had to get an actress from, of all series, Firefly. Firefly. Space Buffy.

God. Damn you.

Okay, that's done and out of the way, my blood pressure is back to normal.

Let's see, what else has been going on...?

I installed Windows Vista on my test system to try it out. Microsoft is hyping Vista with "The WOW starts now!" Really, all it gets is a "meh." There's really nothing new and exciting about it. The composite GUI isn't as great as it's made out to be (transparent windows and a few animations, but nothing to really help you get your work done, nothing like Exposé in Mac OS X or the virtual desktops that X11 has had for 10 years). The improvements to the networking stack are nice, I guess, but they seem more geared toward gamers, not professionals. The User Account Controls really are as bad as the Apple commercial makes them out to be. I would've been furious if I had been using it on a production box and not a dummy system. Being prompted for every control panel change and file read/write to a system folder is insulting and does nothing to solve the problem of people doing stupid things with their computers. All that's going to happen is that power users will turn the safety warnings off, and Joe Sixpack will eventually become conditioned to click "Yes" every time without thinking about what it is he's doing. Classic "boy who cried wolf" scenario.

If MSFT were selling Vista as an add-on pack to XP and charging maybe...$70 for it, I suppose it might be justifiable for those who really want a prettied-up interface. It is NOT, however, worth the $400 they're asking for the top-of-the-line version, nor even the $200 or so for the basic editions.

If you want a slick user interface, try Sabayon Linux. It's a LiveCD that boots into an XGL environment and loads a window manager called Beryl, which animates windows with physics-like effects and can do...well, lots. Here, see for yourself.

Got a couple new peripherals for my various-and-sundry computers. While I like the Apple Mighty Mouse and applaud their ability to integrate 4 distinct click functions into a single button, I felt the need for something a little more versatile, so I picked up Kensington's Expert Mouse trackball and have enjoyed it quite a bit thus far. Surprising, too, since I used to avoid Kensington's peripherals due to less-than-optimal ergonomics that, while solid, were always "almost right." Too many of their mice are boxy and uncomfortable, but the trackball I nabbed is a vast improvement. Pardon me a small moment of ubergeekitude, but it kinda feels like I'm using Goa'uld technology with the way the buttons are placed, the size and orientation of the tracking ball, and the very Stargate-esque scrolling ring that rotates around said ball. Yes, I admit it, I've "dialed" the scroll ring. CHEVRON 7 LOCKED, BEEYOTCH!

Also got Logitech's MX Revolution for my notebook. That is a very nice mouse. First conventional wireless mouse I've used (I have the Gyration wireless keyboard/mouse combo, but that mouse is really something else, and I do mean that in a good way. Closest thing there is to having a Wii without having actually bought one yet) and it is the most impressive of Logitech's offerings yet. The thumb wheel is great for tab-flipping in Firefox, and the weighted flywheel, while it seemed gimmicky at first, is more useful than I initially imagined.

CompUSA in Schaumburg is closing. This sucks astronomically. It was the only place I knew of where I could buy Bawls by the case. I guess Target now carries 4-packs of Bawls cans, but...cans? Just not the same as those awesome blue bottles. And no caffeinated mist to snort so I can pretend to be some kind of junkie despite never having touched a mind-altering substance in my life (I know, I know, I'm pathetic). Damn, this really sucks.

Did I already mention that Therion released a new album? I can never keep track of what I post. Anyway, they did, and I downloaded it and had a listen. It's a little bit too Nightwish/Epica/After Forever for me to adequately enjoy as Therion (mind you, Epica and AF are great in their own right), but it's still a solid production overall. I miss the grandiose, operatic style of "Secret of the Runes" and "Lemuria/Sirius B" though. Gothic femme metal is fine, but that's never been Therion's style. Oh, well, still decent, and I still want to get to Metal Haven at some point and pick it up.

I'm nearing the end of Season 3 of Farscape and I can say without a doubt that it is easily the best sci-fi I've ever had the pleasure of watching. I know Journey will disagree with me, but oh well, she's allowed. Granted, I haven't seen all of B5 yet and it has a reputation for being god-on-a-disc, but the characters, plots, and dialogue of Farscape continue to amaze me beyond my wildest expectations. Stargate? Decent, but admittedly campy and difficult to take seriously. BSG? Haven't seen much of it, so I withhold judgment. TNG? Too stiff and stuffy for me, always was. DS9? Never got into it. Voyager? Ehh, okay, but I lost interest when 7 of 9 came aboard, as the premise of her character seemed really, really gimmicky. Sliders I like, want to see more of that. Firefly? ...Yeah, right. Star Wa...oh, right, not sci-fi.

So yeah, Farscape is amazing. B5 is in 2nd place for having a great story so far (and if S3 is as much an improvement over S2 as S2 was over S1, then damn that's going to be a helluva ride). After B5 would probably come X-Files, though it's a different breed of SF, a bit heavier on the S than the F.

...'kay. That's all. See ya.

REVENGE OF QUOTE OF THE MOMENT:
"This just in, Energizer bunny robbed! Mugger caught, charged with aggravated assault of a battery."

American Travesty

2007-02-27T18:20:00.000-08:00

I fucking hate American Idol.

Not only does it oust the one show I like watching (House M.D.) from its rightful timeslot on Tuesday nights, but it is nothing but a pathetic front for the RIAA to sucker in more young hopefuls and get them to sign extortionate recording contracts after the fulfillment of which they'll be indebted to the record company to the tune (no pun intended) of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"Winner" indeed. Winner gets SCREWED by a record label.

If I ever find the guy who came up with the idea of American Idol, I'm going to stab him in the mouth with a gardening trowel.

In other news, I found out tonight that I have slightly elevated blood pressure. GEE, I WONDER WHY.

On a semi-related (to point A) but more positive note, Therion has released a new album, "Gothic Kaballah," which is said to be quite good but a deviation from their usual symphonic and operatic style. I downloaded it and am looking forward to getting my hiney to Clark and Belmont so I can hit Metal Haven and pick up a copy. You know...buy independent, non-American, non-corporate music from an independent, non-corporate, privately-owned music store. So that the RIAA doesn't see a dime. Take that, American Idol.

I am happy.

2007-02-20T15:27:00.000-08:00

Oh, yes, I am happy indeed.

VGM FTW

2007-02-07T21:07:00.000-08:00

Following is a post I made in the Gamingforce Interactive Forums, my favourite online gathering place and the only forum community I find consistently tolerable. GFF, as its members call it, has its roots in trading, discussing, and appreciating video game music. Of course it's grown into something greater than that now, but VGM remains at the core of its members' interests and is arguably stil the chief element that unites the forum's user base. In a discussion thread titled How did you discover video game music existed outside of video games?, I made the following post:

(WARNING: This is a LOOOOONG post)

God, I fucking love these threads. Memory lane is in the middle of a damn fine neighbourhood.

I remember first really noticing VGM in the Commodore 64 version of "Aliens." The title screen theme and Level 1-Dropship Landing theme were what really caught my ear. I also remember listening to them years and years later (only a couple years ago in fact) and realizing that they were ancient, scratchy-as-fuck chiptunes. But hell, I didn't care. Still don't. That was some catchy shit.

After that came Phantasy Star 3. For some reason, the (overly simplistic now that I look back on it) dungeon theme really stuck with me, and I found myself humming it throughout the day in school, much to the chagrin of the girl sitting next to me. (Thinking back on that, I think she was kinda hot...for a 9 year old. And goddamn I hope the pervy police don't read that sentence out of context).

So anyway, pissing off the classmates by humming PS3 dungeon music later gave way to the brilliant idea of making mixtapes of VGM as it came on. This was, needless to say, an imperfect science at best considering that A. I needed to time my recordings exactly so that they would start with the in-game music and B. it consisted of putting a tape recorder up to the monaural TV speaker in my room. Still, kicked ass for the time. I remember recording a whole damn tape of nothing but "Thray" from Phantasy Star IV by leaving the game at the scene in Molcum where you first meet Rune.

After that it was...I admit it...Final Fantasy 7. Did the same thing with "One Winged Angel" as I did with "Thray" due to the sheer novelty factor of bombastic choir music in a game. (Side note: that wasn't the first time I'd heard it, as to this day "Consumite Furore" of Sierra's 1995 horror game Phantasmagoria remains among my favourite VGM tracks, and it used choirs singing Latin lyrics to much greater, more haunting, and more intelligible effect. MORE INTELLIGIBLE. GODAWFUL LYRICS OF O.W.A. I AM LOOKING AT YOU.) I still remember my vacation with my family up to House on the Rock in Wisconsin. Bored to tears by the car ride and still below driving age, I played my 2-sided OWA tape to myself over and over and over.

Hmm, and I wondered why I can't stand that song/boss/game/franchise anymore. GEE LET ME THINK.

After that I was officially hooked on VGM. I'd do anything in my power to get ahold of it in any way, shape, or form. For a good, solid few months this primarily meant downloading MIDI files from vgmusic.com, playing them on my old IBM PS/2 as it was way too slow to handle MP3 (which I didn't even know existed at the time). I still hit that site up once in while, as some people have done some truly impressive things with MIDI that I wouldn't have thought possible.

The year was 1999. The name of the place...was Babylon *ducks tomatoes*

...Five. *ducks more rotten vegetables*.

Seriously, though, the year was 1999. I was 16. Final Fantasy 8 was released and marked the pinnacle of my now-long-dead-and-buried Squaresoft fandom. I still hold that game's soundtrack in high regard, likely always will. I had just gotten a new computer from my dad. An HP Pavilion--not impressive by any objective means, especially considering the state of HP in the late 90s, but its 466MHz Pentium 2-based Celeron (I know, I know) was a huge step up from the 486 (I assume, I don't even know what that thing was running) and 8MB of RAM in the old PS/2. Best of all was the fact that it had a 10GB hard disk and could run Sonique, which meant...drum roll please...

*drum roll*

Thanks.

Which meant...MP3 TIME!

Conveniently, at just about the same time, I discovered ffnet.net and its then-still-intact MP3 archive replete with the entire FF8 soundtrack, samples from FF9, samples from other games, and more shit I can't even remember. I downloaded and blasted so much of that music while I was closing up shop at night at my first job. Of course, the office had a T1 line and I had shitty 56K at home, in a pre-flash-drive era and with no CD-RW on my work PC and no Zip drive or anything else on my home system. So I wound up sampling the whole OST at work and then downloading the "best of the best" at home when every last kilobyte had to count.

Somewhere around that time I also found this weird site that hosted a bunch of game soundtracks on this online storage service called IDrive. Dunno what that shit was all about.

Finally, the summer before my 4th, final, and most hellish year of high school, I lost my OST virginity. My mom's office was 4 doors down from a small mom-n-pop independent game store. I'd stopped in now and then but was always underwhelmed by their selection of "normal" games. See, my limited and youthful mind wasn't aware of the wide world of imports, boxsets, models, action figures, etc. based on video games. Yeah, I think it too nowadays: dumbass kid.

So anyway, I stopped in one day and what did I see? The tall, slender case of the "official" (Official Hong Kong Edition, that is) Final Fantasy 8 OST. Gold. Motherfucking GOLD. With every last penny I could scrounge up from what I'd earned at my degrading, thankless, soul sucking, but still-really-fucking-good-for-a-16-year-old library IT job I slapped $40 in cold, hard cash down on the counter and snapped that sucker right up. As an added bonus, I found out that it came packaged with a bootleg Samurai Shodown soundtrack and some J-pop singer's CD too. AND Disc 3 was conveniently missing the grating, screechy "Eyes On Me" which I despised at the time (I hadn't yet heard the nails-on-chalkboard Suteki Da Ne and so EOM was pretty horrid for lack of that updated basis of comparison). Bootlegs fucking rule.

I took it home and immediately popped it in the stereo. I giggled like a 13-year-old schoolbitch when Liberi Fatali rang like a carillon bell from my Dad's custom surround-sound speaker system. I was hooked in a whole new way.

From that point I'd go on something of a minor buying spree of soundtracks, all from the local retailer as my mom was seriously paranoid of online shopping at the time and I had no means of ordering online by myself. Of course, the vast majority of what I got from them were bootlegs, but they all had the tracklists intact, so what did I give a shit?

VGM would have a particularly profound impact on me over the course of a hellish 7 months of high school (thank $DEITY for early graduation). It became a refuge of sorts, something that was only mine and that nobody else could taint by association as they were all wrapped up in the latest teen-rock schlock of the era or in Sailor Moon soundtracks to really take an interest in VGM. It kept me sane through the worst parts of the ensuing months--instrumental pieces to form a soundtrack to life as I knew it, a kind of pseudo-escapist psychological defense mechanism by which I could view my circumstances as less than real--and stayed with me after I left my high-school hell and went on to a better job and a college where I was finally a stranger. At that point, it was no longer as necessary for its calming effects and psychological cushioning, but I'll be damned if it didn't make great background music for lonely, dull weekends in the office.

About 2 years later, after I had padded my collection more via online ordering, my good ol' local indie retailer (now closed and out of business, god damn you GameStop), and Gamingforce FTPs, I discovered Direct Connect.

The rest, as they say, is history. And so was the free space on my hard drive.

Those who knew me about 7 years ago will likely remember my esoteric listening interests. Searska is probably most likely of my associates to recall, as well as Lady J. Oh, no offense intended with the "Eyes On Me" bit. It's just that after having heard some of the vocal and other work that came after it ("Small of Two Pieces" of Xenogears, "Waiting For You" of Silent Hill 4, "Ozar Midrashim" of Legacy of Kain), "Eyes On Me" is kinda underwhelming. The associated feelings certainly weren't, though. Lady J is in a similar boat in the case of SoTP from Xenogears.

Yes, I'm a complete fucking nerd. I made couples songs out of game music when I was a teenager. But who else was I supposed to use, Bryan Adams? Fuck that.

...This reminds me. Journey, let me know when you have a few spare hours. There're some songs I want you to hear. I'll be asking you to pick one... Oh, god, not more tomatoes. *ducks, dodges, runs, hides*

Attention creationists:

2007-01-10T17:46:00.000-08:00

Stay the hell out of my national parks.

Go ahead. Click the link. I'll wait.

Now let me put this in perfectly simple terms. Terms a kindergartener could understand.

If this does not enrage you beyond the definitive capacity of the English language, there is something deeply (and, if you'll pardon me one unintentional pun, fundamentally) wrong with you.

Preposterous bullshit like this is why I have such a huge problem with religion. Things like this are why I'm deliberately tailoring my book to raise the shitstorm of all time among the bible-thumper crowd. To indict the religious community for their wholesale vandalism of the collective knowledge of the human race. Apparently nobody else is willing to call them on the carpet about it. And I don't care what religion you are, either. This includes my former-fellow Neopagans as well.

You can believe whatever fabricated, fairy-tale, Mister-Rogers-Neighbourhood-Of-Make-Believe bullshit you want in your places of worship, but keep it the hell out of the domain of science and keep it the hell away from anything else that professes knowledge brought about by scientific observation. Your Kansas science textbook fiasco has muddied the waters enough for one decade.

And if you have that much of a problem with accepting the fact that the world has indeed existed for more than 6000, 10000, or whatever other ridiculous figure of years your Bible, Torah, Quran, or Book of Shadows (I told you you weren't safe) tells you it has, then might I suggest you seek the services of a degreed psychological professional and try to avoid unnecessary interaction with the world at large until you understand the difference between sanctimonious horseshit and real scientific theory backed by decades of study and mountains of tangible, demonstrable, quantifiable evidence.

We now return to your regularly scheduled Americhristian brainwashing.

For my own reference

2007-01-04T13:14:00.000-08:00

http://www.ebcym.com/laptop/laptop.html

Flash-drive Foibles

2007-01-03T15:23:00.000-08:00

I know a few of you are regular USB disk users and that at least one of you are in the market for one. I thus feel that it is my duty to warn you of a most unpleasant detail that has recently come to my attention.

Flash drives (or pen drives, jump drives, thumb drives, etc.) are now being bundled with spyware.

Yep, you read that right. Not only that, it's a really nasty crapware bundle that is really nastily hard to get rid of.

The software is called "U3" and a drive will be labeled as "U3 Smart" as they naturally pay off the manufacturers to include the software and spin it as a feature. What's worse is that there is NO WAY to get this crap off of the drive short of using a U3-developed utility to reflash the drive firmware.

Basically what happens is that the USB disk is equipped with firmware that splits it into two pseudo-partitions. One is the primary storage partition which equals roughly the advertised space minus about 60MB (considerable when you realize that USB disks are usually used for smaller files) and the other is a CDFS-formatted partition that acts like a virtual CD-ROM and launches U3's proprietary "LaunchPad" software.

Naturally the first thing I tried was just deleting the files, as is usually sufficient for "value-added" scumware shipped with various electronic gizmos. When that didn't work, I tried formatting. No dice.

Repartitioning with Windows NT Disk Management, FDISK, Mac OS X Disk Utility, and even QTParted on my Ubuntu box all yielded no results. The only way to clean the U3 crap and turn my flash drive into a plain-Jane storage device was to use a Windows-only firmware reflash utility that exorcises the U3 demons. Of course, it only does this after about 3 click-thru "warnings" about how wonderful U3 is and why you should never remove it and how the cute little bunny gets it if you do.

So yeah, long story short, examine packaging very closely if you want to buy a flash drive in the near future, and avoid the models listed here:

http://www.u3.com/smartdrives/

If you do somehow get nailed with this crap, go here and download the reflash utility to clean your USB disk and get your 60MB back.

And if, for whatever reason, you get a U3 drive and want to keep U3... I think you're nuts, but I guess you have your reasons. Whatever, dude.

I'm alive.

2007-01-02T19:28:00.000-08:00

I'm still alive, scout's honour.

Wait, scouts have honour? This is news to me.

(To all of you BSAers out there...aw, who'm I shitting, I'm not sorry. And stop sharing an acronym with these fascist cocksuckers.)

In case you hadn't figured out yet, I'm also still the same old me.

So two months go by and what happens in the life of Aidan?

Well, lots, but little you'll likely care about.

Holidays were good, I got a mountain of sci-fi books and various sundry caffeinated drinks in the form of miniature bags of coffee and an assortment of teas.

Among the reading material were a number of works by Gaiman and Stephenson to whom, were their first names spelt alike, I would lovingly refer as "The Ne(a|i)ls." Alas, their names are spelt differently, and this vexes me. I find it vexing. Vexatious. Vexsome even. I know it isn't--shut up.

I've been working more on Apotheosis, work which currently consists chiefly of scrawled notes and stream-of-consciousness let's-get-this-shit-down-on-paper-before-I-Alzheimer-it-into-oblivion upchucking of notions, fancies and musings into a small, black and rather unremarkable notebook I picked up from the art store on...State and Jackson, I think.

The new job has been progressing nicely. I really don't want to write too much about it for fear of hexing it, but it's a thousand times better than the library could ever dream of being in just about every conceivable way. And to think I was once berated for ragging on Microsoft in the office. You oughta hear these guys. It's like George Carlin meets Dennis Miller meets Richard Stallman. Then you put them all in a blender and watch the result crank out some COBOL code. Comedians + Coders: Will It Blend?

In other news I hear the RIAA is suing AllOfMP3.com. This is priceless. We now have the most hated organization in the US going head to head with...drum roll, please...the Russian Mafia. Popcorn, anyone?

Okay, enough worldliness and awareness of socio-political and/or commercial goings-on, let's get back to the part where I talk about myself like the egocentric sonuvabitch I am.

Spent New Year's weekend with Journey, who has just returned from her trip to California. We watched probably 24 hours worth of the X-Files, talked science, talked school, talked nonsense, talked everything. Did dinner at Chicago Pizza on Saturday (Her idea, no less. Remind me to find the cynical bastard who said perfect love doesn't exist and shit-beat him within an inch of his...oh, wait, that was me. Crap.) and walked around Lincoln Park for awhile. Sunday we opted to stay home as crowds would be lunatic as they are wont to often be at these festiv-cities. That's festivities in the city. Stop throwing rotten vegetables at me. Anyway, it was nice with just the two of us, a bottle of bubbly, and the hollow shell of what used to be decent TV coverage of the (Bill) NYE (the Science Guy) events.

I suppose it's another testament to the sad state of USian culture that New Year's celebratory concerts and events that once consisted of rock 'n' roll and good jazz are now mostly drunken orgies of horrid pop "music" and inebriated twentysomethings or vacationing college coeds trying to show more flesh than is entirely necessary on TV before the network censors catch it. Yeah, we saw that bit at the Coyote Ugly too. While I'm all for appreciation of the human form, for godsakes, show your goodies to the right people for the right reasons with the right blood alcohol content.

Blah blah walked to school uphill pouring rain Dad beat us if we talked out of turn.

Damn kids, get off my lawn.

Anyway, general lameness of TV coverage notwithstanding, it was the best New Year's I've had in quite a while. It's nice to finally have someone to kiss when the ball drops and with whom I can enjoy my genuinely Happy New Year. Here's to 2007, and if you're reading, Journey, here's to you.

(p.s. *Chomp* Clam gotcha. :-P )

Now the random tidbits that usually pertain to filmed fiction.

"Dexter" is a great show for those who like dark humour.

I finally saw "The Fountain" about a month ago. It was/is nothing short of amazing. If you have any means whatsoever, see it.

Inland Empire comes out this month, or so I last heard. On top of that, it seems Lynch has written a (nonfiction) book. I must read it. It's worth it just to hear what a guy like that is thinking.

Okay, think that about wraps it up for tonight. See you folks soon.

ITPLDone

2006-10-17T18:59:00.000-07:00

I am a free man.

Woo.

2006-09-12T17:18:00.000-07:00

So I guess I'm 23 now. Go me?

*drinks heavily*

I suppose I'm supposed to say something...ummmmm...

Well, to those who celebrated with me in some-or-another capacity, thanks for making it great. Searska was naughty-funny as ever with her gifts, and I know you never read this, Colin, but that Hawaiian tiki idol thing is fucking AWESOME. I HAVE to grab a red light bulb to go in it, as that will be badass like nothing ever before.

Many many thanks to Journey (whom I stole for 6 days), simply for being wonderful and for the gifts and being the best thing in my life.

Let's see, other stuff going on...

-I'm finally going to start programming, motivating myself the only way I know how. I'm going to start coding games for the GP2X. It's C++, a nice language to learn, and it comes with a devkit that has all the libraries I need to compile for it.

-Xenosaga 3 is a decent RPG. A vast improvement over part 2 (gone is the battle system from hell), and a fitting if somewhat disappointing conclusion to this part of the Xenogears story. I still want a part 4 to tell what happens to Chaos, KOS-MOS, Abel, and Nephilim in the intervening millenia between Saga 3 and Gears.

-There are pLANs for a LAN in the works. Early stages at this point, but it looks to be a Halloween LAN (meaning that AtLANtis will have to wait for some other time). I've so far gotten 4 sources of approval for it, 4 votes for people definitely being on board. If it goes through it won't actually be on Halloween as the 31st is on a weeknight, but on the 28th and 29th instead. Looks to be at the usual spot, and I've got a Gig-E switch now. More details as they develop. Anyway, if you're at all interested, shoot me a quick E-mail with suggestions, requests, ideas, offers, etc. The more input I get the better it will be (ask anyone who was at the 2005 summer LAN, it was awesome), and the more likely I'll be able to con my family into surrendering the living room for a weekend.

-The 40GB hard drive is currently at Rendaw's being loaded with various stuff he likes, probably taking up about 7 gig or so. Requests for leeching or contributing go to my E-mail, and you'll be added to the rotation.

-Lady J, I've ordered my replacement DVD-RW and enclosure. Exact same models as the one you have, I'll let you know what the cost comes to. I do believe it's well under $100 though.

-Watch this shit. Now.

-Nintendo is releasing the black DS in the States after all. I'm most likely going to wind up getting one and giving Journey my (as Legalista so aptly calls it) DSPod.

-Legalista is now interested in buying a GP2X. I rule. Worth noting a few things if you do go through with it:
--Buy the AC adapter. It's worth it. Also you're going to need an EU-to-US converter for the plug.
--The carrying case is also worth it. It's hardened more than the PSP or DS cases and will afford good protection.
--You're probably going to want some MMC/SD cards for it. SanDisk makes good ones, and supposedly PNY does as well, but I stay away from them ever since using their HORRIBLE CD-R media. 27-coasters-out-of-a-pack-of-50 horrible.

That's about all for now. Respond, or something.

Quote of the Moment: "Fuck off, Jesus. She's mine." -Me

It's official

2006-08-02T16:14:00.000-07:00

Aidan's got a girlfriend.

That is all.

That familiar burning sensation

2006-06-29T20:12:00.000-07:00

Just when I thought I'd seen everything there was to see after 7 years of working at the library, suburban teenagers...you know, the ones we call America's future...figure out a way to surprise me once again.

We are now down one trash dumpster, and up one melted, flaming metal husk.

You read that right.

Some snot-nosed teenage shit-wits set fire to the library's dumpster.

As I described it in an iChat conversation, "Say, does our dumpster always emit white smoke?" *WHOOSH* "OH CRAP."

Dunno what they burned, or what was already inside, but it was really, really hot. As in, melting-through-metal-walls-in-two-places hot. Completely slagged the plastic cover, bent the hinge bar for said cover, peeled all the paint off, and just generally made a spectacular mess.

Never a dull day around these parts.

HP (not the tech company)

2006-06-28T09:59:00.000-07:00

A post of mine from GFF, in a thread about the last Harry Potter book and a special on CBS about whether Harry would die.

Unlike most of my HR-tag-enclosed quotes, this one is actually mine.

I'd love to see Ron and/or Hermione snuffed out by surprise just as they're about to confess their love for the other. Mostly to spite an ex-girlfriend of mine who was a digustingly huge H/R shipper (hey, at the end of the day I'm a simple creature), but also because it would pack a lot more punch than the previous death scenes in the series, one of which was more puzzling than depressing and the other of which was lackluster.

Oh, and if Hermy or Ron are killed off...I'm torn as to whether I'd want the other to die as well. I'm more a fan of "live a long, lonely, tortured life forever yearning for the one you lost" than I am of "together forever in peace." Still, it would be cool to see the other go for revenge and get swatted like a fly by Voldemort.

...Is it wrong that I'm thinking such cruel things about characters in a children's story?

Updatez-vous

2006-06-23T09:30:00.000-07:00

So...lots of new developments on the Aidan front, just not any particularly noteworthy (well, sorta...more on that later)

-My 2GB of RAM came, and I popped it into my G5. That. Thing. Fucking. SCREAMS. You oughta see this thing with Final Cut Pro running. Oh, and those HD 720p episodes of Ergo Proxy? Yeah, looks like sex. Absolute sex. Not a single dropped frame or sync error. Much as I loved the G4, it didn't have quite the oomph to handle HD. This thing chews those videos up and spits them out.

-I picked up a smallish (40GB) hard disk and an enclosure from NewEgg. When they arrive and I put them together, I'm going to start passing them (it) around amongst folks I know. This way, if you ever get any sci-fi series, albums, games, British sitcoms (ahem...Lady J I am looking at you), or other random cool stuff, just wait for the drive to come your way and you can put them on it. The nice thing is that you'll also be able to copy off anything anyone else has put on it, and it'll just keep getting passed around. Once everyone who wants a particular file or folder has gotten it, we can delete the file to keep the drive from filling up.

Speaking of drives, how'd my DVD-RW work on your PC, J?

-I bought a Nintendo DS Lite and gave Caidhan my original DS. We faced off in Big Brain Academy. There was LOL.

-In other news, Caidhan is a botting 'tard. That is all. ...BOTTER. BOTTY McBOTS-A-LOT. Bot bot bot.

-I've been ordering shit like a fiend. I currently have on order:

3 Shin Megami Tensei mandala emblem T-shirts from the Atlus store

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Kuzunoha Raidou original soundtrack

Persona 2 Innocent Sin OST

Persona 2 Eternal Punishment OST

Persona 3 OST (will ship once it's released)

"See the Sound" by Etro Anime, featuring the track "Danger" from the opening sequence to Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner (god dammit Atlus, long names for the lose)

One pre-ordered and pre-paid-in-full copy of the US release of Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Kuzunoha Raidou (to be renamed Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner, in a gracious act of name-shortening by Atlus)

One pre-ordered copy of Phantasy Star Universe, possibly to be the phabled Phantasy Star Phive that may phinally phulphil the phrantic phantasies of series phantatics the world over. Seriously, we've wanted PS5 for TWELVE YEARS now.

And there's one other thing. Something very good. It...well, won't mean much to others, but will wind up meaning a lot to me. I don't want to give too many details away, as nothing is certain or set in stone yet and as such I do not wish to hex it. But...those of you privileged with my personal details (you know who you are...all 3 of you) can inquire in private. ...Okay, that means the one out of you three who actually reads this. All I really have to say about it is...geology never sounded so sexy.

QUOTE OF THE MOMENT: "...It's a bot." -Caidhan Novastral

ATTACK OF THE RETURN OF THE SONG OF THE DAY RETURNS TO ATTACK.

OR SOMETHING.

"Danger"
Etro Anime
See the Sound/Digital Devil Saga

I don’t wanna try to fight this love
How dangerous can it be
I know the odds are so unfavorable
And honesty's forsakable
So many run for safety
Run from the

Danger of falling in love like this
Danger of falling apart
In the hands of another
Danger in falling in love like this
Cold sweat craving the dark
So completely
So sweetly
Danger

Things have gone wrong
They do more often than they don’t
I was a child before
A soldier in defense
I'll take the leap
I've gone so far for lesser gold
I wanna know this life
By your side
I don’t wanna try to fight this love
How dangerous can it be
I know the odds are so unfavorable
And honesty's forsakable
So many run for safety
Run from the

Danger of falling in love like this
Danger of falling apart
In the hands of another
Danger in falling in love like this
Cold sweat craving the dark
So completely
So sweetly
Danger

Danger of falling in love like this
Danger of falling apart
In the hands of another
Danger in falling in love like this
Cold sweat craving the dark
So completely
So sweetly
Danger of falling in love like this
Danger of falling in love like this

The devil's in the terminology

2006-06-18T12:07:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's another comment lifted from Slashdot, but it's one that puts quite concisely the problem with some businesses' mentality (including our favourite targets of Aidan's raging, indignant rants, the media companies).

Corporations don't see people as "citizens" anymore. We're not even their customers -- we're consumers. Language always gives one away.

This is very true. It's always a good idea to see what a corporation calls you.

If you are a client, then they think of you as an integral part of the process. You are involved in the development of whatever they are selling to you, and it is built around your needs. Outsourcing companies, good hotels, and lap dancers think like this.

If you are a customer, then they think of you as an individual who makes a take-it-or-leave-it decision about their product. They will attempt to make as many people as possible want to take it, but won't worry too much about missing a few around the edges. Still, they need to keep you happy and won't do something that's bad for you without a really good reason. The good ISPs and expensive high street stores think like this.

If you are a consumer, then they think of you as tied up, prone, on the floor, while they defecate their products onto you and then send you an invoice. It doesn't matter what you think, you don't get to make a choice. The big media companies think like this. So do the telephone carriers, and most other monopolies.

Cultural experiment: refer to yourself in any commercial setting as either a "client" or a "customer," and never as a "consumer." See what reactions you get. Might be worth it to throw in the words "demand service" while you're at it.

M is for Minus

2006-06-16T13:25:00.000-07:00

Three computers ago, we had an IBM PS/2 (of PS/2 connector pioneering fame) before my father ordered us a new HP.

This PS/2, which disappeared very shortly after acquiring the HP, had an IBM Model-M keyboard.

I USED the legendary Model-M, for at least a year, and I didn't even realize it. And now it's gone.

God, I'm such a n00b.

G5++

2006-06-16T10:16:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen...

The computer has arrived.

A few observations:

-Front-mounted USB2 and FireWire 400 are a wonderful touch. No more reaching around back to plug in...anything.

-Whisper-quiet. As lovely as my G4 is, it's quite a noisemaker. I have to look at the light on the G5 to figure out if it's even on (assuming I've been away and power-save mode has kicked in, blanking the displays).

-Fans FTW. 8 actively-controlled (seriously, they have fan drivers and everything built into the OS specifically for the G5) fans and a water-cooling system to keep this thing from melting a hole in the floor. PPC970s do tend to put out a fair amount of heat. Not as much as the Prescott core Pentium 4 chips, but more than my old G4 or an Athlon.

I ordered a couple of 1-gig sticks of RAM to pop in, ThinkGeek's blank keyboard (Das Keyboard), and a jog/shuttle wheel for FCP. Those should arrive somewhat soonish.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee, G5. Can't wait to install FCP this weekend.

G5 minus minus

2006-06-13T09:27:00.000-07:00

Fuck you, FedEx. Deliver my fucking computer, cocksuckers.

THE GODS WAIT FOR NOBODY.

MyMusing

2006-06-11T11:51:00.000-07:00

I'm increasingly (and I mean practically by-the-minute here) proud to say I do not have, nor will I ever have, a MySpace.com user account.

GP2X++

2006-06-01T10:05:00.000-07:00

Holy crap.

I have just stumbled upon portable video game utopia.

Behold: The GP2X

It's a handheld a la Gameboy/DS/Sony PSP.

It's open-source.

It runs Linux.

It plays music/movies/homebrew games.

It's everything a PSP is, only cheaper and it doesn't suck ass.

The following is a transcript of a conversation between myself and Rendaw with regard to this magnificent device. What you are about to witness is a game-gasm. A phenomenon only seen in the company of geeks, when geeks go batshit fucking insane over a device that rewrites, in whole or in part, the dictionary definition of "l33t." Although in this case, as the GP2X is a Korean device, I suppose it would rewrite the definition of "gosu." Still, the spirit is the same.

Begin quote:
--------------------------------------
(11:43:58) Rendaw: GP2X Rise of the Triad [GP2XTorrents.com]
(11:44:05) Celtic Whisper: oooooooownage
(11:44:10) Rendaw: Did you ever know anyone to own that system?
(11:44:14) Celtic Whisper: Jagwire?
(11:44:20) Rendaw: No.
(11:44:30) Rendaw: Isn't the GP2X a system
(11:44:35) Celtic Whisper: Didn't think so.
(11:44:35) Rendaw: A old hand held one.
(11:44:37) Celtic Whisper: Maybe.
(11:44:40) Rendaw: Remember.
(11:44:47) Celtic Whisper: I cannot...
(11:44:49) Celtic Whisper: I must not...
(11:44:50) Rendaw: Back a long while, after the game gear.
(11:44:59) Rendaw: There was a PC handheld.
(11:45:03) Rendaw: It bombed.
(11:45:05) Celtic Whisper: Game.com?
(11:45:10) Rendaw: YOU COULD PLAY DOOM!!!
(11:45:15) Rendaw: ...
(11:45:18) Rendaw: dot dot dot
(11:45:25) Rendaw: Was that?
(11:45:31) Celtic Whisper: It did horribly.
(11:45:44) Celtic Whisper: Worse than WonderSwan or Neo Geo Pocket.
(11:45:50) Celtic Whisper: Arguably worse than Virtual Boy.
(11:46:15) Celtic Whisper: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gp2x
(11:46:17) Celtic Whisper: FTW
(11:46:19) Celtic Whisper: You're right.
(11:46:25) Celtic Whisper: Open-source handheld.
(11:46:28) Rendaw: HAhaha.
(11:46:39) Rendaw: http://www.gp2x.com/
(11:46:46) Rendaw: New ones.
(11:46:48) Celtic Whisper: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game.com
(11:47:44) Rendaw: GAME DOT COM!!!!
(11:48:00) Rendaw: MAZIN GRAPHICS OMFGAH WOW!!!
(11:49:53) Rendaw: The GP2X natively supports codecs and formats such as DivX, XviD, MP3, and Ogg Vorbis, but because the player is open-source there is also already support for various other formats, such as SPC, NSF, GBS, GYM, and VGM. The GP2X also supports a variety of picture formats, such as PNG, JPG, GIF, etc.
(11:50:06) Rendaw: Why do I have an iPod again?
(11:50:07) Celtic Whisper: Holy shit.
(11:50:20) Rendaw: Fucking Koreans.
(11:51:18) Rendaw: The GP2X unit's primary storage is the Secure Digital card slot, which can currently take SDs up to 4 GB. It also has a 64 MB flash memory storage
(11:51:33) Rendaw: 4GB is my iPod.
(11:51:38) Rendaw: Damn..
(11:51:42) Rendaw: I want one now.
(11:51:54) Celtic Whisper: Shit yes.
(11:52:20) Rendaw: Man are you reading the wikipedia shit?
(11:52:21) Celtic Whisper: It looks like the PSP. I will get one, and people will say ZOMG you have a PSP. And I will say HAHAHAHAHA NOOB this is better than your mere mortal PSP.
(11:52:24) Celtic Whisper: It is open-source.
(11:52:28) Rendaw: YEah
(11:52:28) Celtic Whisper: AND IT IS KOREAN!
(11:52:31) Rendaw: PPC
(11:52:34) Rendaw: ^_^
(11:52:56) Celtic Whisper: Holy fucking shit.
(11:52:58) Celtic Whisper: $200.
(11:53:03) Celtic Whisper: Cheaper than a goddamn PSP.
(11:53:05) Celtic Whisper: Cheaper than iPod.
(11:53:06) Rendaw: Yeah
(11:53:07) Rendaw: no
(11:53:10) Rendaw: Same price.
(11:53:16) Rendaw: 200 for a 4 gig.
(11:53:17) Celtic Whisper: Holy fucking fuckity fuck shit goddamn hell fuck ass.
(11:53:44) Rendaw: Built in FTP
(11:53:50) Celtic Whisper: Stop.
(11:53:52) Celtic Whisper: Just stop now.
(11:53:52) Rendaw: and Uhhg.. Telnet.
(11:53:54) Celtic Whisper: I want.
(11:53:56) Celtic Whisper: Fucking fuck.
(11:54:02) Celtic Whisper: Fucking fuck fuck.
(11:54:11) Rendaw: • CPUs: Dual-core: 240 MHz [3] host ARM920T + 240 MHz ARM940T integrated into SoC - Overclockable by software (CPU cores rated at 200 MHz, but seem to operate at 240 MHz+ in all systems. Most machines' ARM920T can operate stably at 266 MHz, some at over 300 MHz.)
• Chipset: MagicEyes MMSP2 SoC (System-on-a-Chip)
• NAND Flash ROM: 64 MB (expected to increase to 512 MB+ in future revisions)
• RAM: SDRAM 64 MB
• Operating System: Linux-based OS
• Storage: SD Card (SDIO support probable in future)
• Connection: USB 2.0 High Speed
• Power: 2 × AA battery (NiMH or Lithium batteries STRONGLY advised, Alkalines perform very poorly)
• Display: 3.5 inch, color TFT LCD with 320×240 resolution
• TV out: Supported (with optional cable (which supports S-video only, not to mention RCA audio relay). System supports Composite and Component video outputs, among others internally.
• AC power: 3.3V (supplied as DC current by AC Brick)
• Physical size: 142mm wide, 82mm high, 27mm deep (excl. joystick) approx
(11:54:13) Rendaw: ^_^
(11:54:21) Celtic Whisper: Fuck you.
(11:54:23) Celtic Whisper: Stop.
(11:54:27) Celtic Whisper: I want.
(11:54:29) Celtic Whisper: But cannot have.
(11:54:32) Rendaw: Overclockable by software
(11:54:33) Celtic Whisper: Want now.
(11:54:35) Celtic Whisper: FUCK.
(11:54:37) Rendaw: HAhaha
(11:55:29) Rendaw: http://www.gp32z.com
http://www.dynamism.com
(11:55:34) Rendaw: In america.
(11:55:38) Celtic Whisper: Max 1920x1024 resolution.
(11:55:48) Rendaw: DAMN! ++
(11:55:50) Celtic Whisper: I know the dynamism site. It's where I found out the price.
(11:56:05) Celtic Whisper: Goddamn, 10 hours on 2 AA batteries.
(11:56:08) Celtic Whisper: That is sick.
(11:56:31) Rendaw: Yeah... leik woah.
(11:56:38) Rendaw: Fucking ROM's downloads.
(11:56:40) Celtic Whisper: I am so fucking tempted to order one.
(11:56:43) Celtic Whisper: I know I shouldn't.
(11:56:46) Rendaw: We would have never known.
(11:56:51) Celtic Whisper: I know I need to pay off the fucking G5.
(11:56:57) Rendaw: Not until you research..
(11:56:58) Celtic Whisper: But goddamn, for $200 that is wicked-sick.
(11:57:01) Rendaw: And yeah...
(11:57:05) Rendaw: G5
(11:57:09) Rendaw: I fucking hate you.
(11:57:12) Celtic Whisper: Yeah.
(11:57:14) Rendaw: /gline
(11:57:17) Rendaw: Die
(11:57:20) Rendaw: Fuck you
(11:57:20) Celtic Whisper: I fucking hate me too...oh, wait a minute...
(11:57:21) Rendaw: Die
(11:57:25) Rendaw: I hate you.
(11:57:33) Rendaw: G..... 5...
(11:57:36) Celtic Whisper: So yeah, did I mention I have a 10GHz box?
(11:57:43) Rendaw: Is satan still trading souls?
(11:57:46) Celtic Whisper: Think so.
(11:57:47) Rendaw: ...
(11:57:55) Rendaw: Fuck you.
(11:58:05) Celtic Whisper: This is what I consider justice, though. ...mostly in that once again I have a leeter box than my brother.
(11:58:06) Rendaw: Did you get the reference?
(11:58:13) Celtic Whisper: No...
(11:58:17) Rendaw: Hahaha.
(11:58:21) Rendaw: Um Apple geeks.
(11:58:25) Celtic Whisper: Ohh.
(11:58:33) Rendaw: When the G5 Quad core first premiered.
(11:58:45) Rendaw: Anak wanted to trade his soul to the devil..
(11:58:47) Celtic Whisper: Hehehehe.
(11:58:53) Rendaw: And the devil was like why do you want to..
(11:59:00) Rendaw: Wait no.. I think it was Hawk.
(11:59:04) Rendaw: Yeah Hawk.
(11:59:10) Rendaw: And he explains it to the devil.
(11:59:12) Celtic Whisper: YES! GP2X has Genesis/SNES emulators.
(11:59:14) Celtic Whisper: Fucking sold.
(11:59:33) Rendaw: And the devil says umm fuck you man this is cool I'm keeping it.
(11:59:42) Rendaw: x_X
(11:59:49) Rendaw: Well wait a little bit shane...
(12:00:04) Celtic Whisper: Grrrr...must wait.
(12:00:07) Celtic Whisper: Must...resist...
(12:00:20) Celtic Whisper: Must...eat...Chinese...food...
(12:00:26) Rendaw: ...
(12:00:28) Rendaw: dot dot dot
(12:00:38) Celtic Whisper: ...Mmmmmmm, kung pao shrimp...
(12:00:41) Celtic Whisper: Okay, back to resisting...
(12:00:50) Rendaw: Gp2x TV-Out Cable
(12:00:52) Rendaw: ...
(12:00:56) Celtic Whisper: Shit, I'm at least blogging this motherfucker.
(12:01:01) Rendaw: LOL.
(12:01:07) Rendaw: Mention this convo.
(12:01:14) Rendaw: And how it came about.
----------------------------------------------------------
End quote.

I.
Fucking.
WANT.
ONE.

G5++

2006-05-29T13:46:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, my faithful little Power Mac G4 hasn't been feeling well lately. Considering the amount of continual strain it's been under (rendering video, torrenting a ton of stuff, and running 24 hours a day for the last few years), I'm inclined to believe the problem is, in fact, hardware-related as no significant software changes were made to prompt it displaying the problems it is.

This is most unfortunate, as it's really a great computer and I still have high hopes for it as a media box for the entertainment center.

However, it leaves me without a personal MacOS-based system for my work.

And so, as a solution to this problem, I have placed an order for a 10GHz quad-core Power Mac G5 (to be dubbed "Gal Da Val" in keeping with my Phantasy Star naming schema).

Specs:
2 dual-core PowerPC 970 processors at 2.5GHz/core
512MB PC4200 DDR SDRAM (to be upgraded upon arrival by yours truly to approx. 2GB)
250GB SATA HDD (RPM unknown, damn you online Apple Store)
NVidia GeForce 6800 display adapter with 256MB GDDR3 VRAM
16x DVD+/-RW DL optical drive
Onboard Gigabit Ethernet
Bluetooth/AirPort integrated

And a 3-year AppleCare warranty in case something like what happened to Nurvus happens to my new system.

I've wanted a G5 for a long time. I just wish it could've happened under better circumstances.

Wizardry

2006-05-24T08:09:00.000-07:00

Said once before, but it bears mentioning again, and was stated most articulately in a Slashdot discussion on computer literacy (available here [slashdot.org]).

What is magic? Words and symbols of power that shape the world according to the will of the magician. The magician speaks the right magic words, and draws the right sigils, and obtains the desired effect.

Meanwhile, the INT 8 half-orc barbarian doesn't have the faintest idea what all the runes carved on his battleaxe actually do. He doesn't care. He knows the end result is a +1 to hit and that suits him just fine. Neither is the ranger concerned about exactly how these enchanted bracers improve his aim with a longbow; they just do. Only the wizard needs to worry about the details.

And what is programming? Words and symbols of power that shape the computer according to the will of the programmer. Type the right instructions, give the right command arguments, and obtain the desired effect.

Ever created an infinite loop? Had a recursive process go berserk on you? Made a small mistake while invoking rm -rf? Yeah. Pure 'Sorcerer's Apprentice'.

We are the nearest thing to magicians that has ever existed in reality. Our spells work and are truly powerful, our mistakes cause incomprehensible chaos, and when one of us turns bad then sometimes the whole world can suffer the consequences. No wonder the muggles treat our creations like they're the mysterious products of a magical power beyond their understanding: that's what they are.

Another good post (a wee bit harsh, but all things considered, very true) and its even better reply can be found here [slashdot.org].

And as I sit here linking to these posts which I feel reflect my view on computer literacy, I become more and more aware that it's going to be asked of me exactly how I myself feel about the topic.

Okay, then, my views on "computer literacy" and what makes one "computer literate." Tricky to quantify, as many people use computers for many different things. Maybe an enumerated list...

-Need to have basic proficiency with text entry. In other words, a rudimentary level of touch-typing ability is necessary.
-Know some hardware. People I know, for some weird reason, are terrified of the guts of a computer. I'm not saying know individual IRQs and IO addresses, or even the pinouts of processor sockets, but at least know what hard drives look like, what network cards look like, what video cards look like, etc., and be able to install them physically (drivers are commonly another issue that, much of the time, I would not wish upon my worst enemy).
-As was stated in the post I linked, know the difference between a type of task and the software that is used to execute it. You do not give a PowerPoint in front of the board of directors. You give a presentation, and that presentation may have been made with PowerPoint, KOffice, Keynote, AppleWorks, OpenOffice, or another application.
-Related, but significant enough to be separate: THE BLUE E IS NOT THE INTERNET.
-Know about different operating systems, some (not all) of the advantages/disadvantages to each, and some of the basic ways in which they differ. For example: Windows has the most off-the-shelf software available for it, is reasonably easy to use, but is insecure and unstable. Linux is free, has a wide variety of software available for download (usually not available in stores), but is very difficult to configure except in certain cases. Mac OS is the easiest to use and falls somewhere between Win and Lin for stability and security, but requires special hardware to use and is not free.
-Know alternatives to "default" software packages. For example, Foobar/MPlayer as replacements for Windows Media Player/ITunes, Gaim/Miranda as replacements for AOL/MSN/Yahoo messenger, Jabber as a (superior) replacement for those messaging systems as a whole, etc. Not necessarily required to always USE those replacements over the "official" package, as this is a matter of preference, but at least be aware of their existence. This goes back to knowing the difference between tasks and the tools used to carry them out.
-It's sad that I have to say this, but know how to protect yourself when networked with other systems. I don't care what the zealots say, just having and using Linux/OSX as opposed to Windows isn't good enough. Nothing is an adequate substitute for caution and common sense. A guy I work with contracted a rootkit on his Linux box, thus proving my point. Further proving it is the fact that he has been paranoiacally cautious ever since, and has yet to be compromised again in an even remotely similar fashion. As soon as the human element (i.e. recklessness versus caution) was addressed, security improved significantly. This does not mean you need to know in detail what a rootkit is, how viruses work, the specifics of buffer overflows, etc. But understand the basic concepts: viruses attach to files and cause various forms of damage (widely various-everything from simply bogging down network connections to rendering a system unusable at the firmware level (y halo thar ANSI virus)), rootkits compromise access to your system and open a "backdoor," spyware reports your activity to its masters, etc. Also know the countermeasures for each, and remember for the love of $DEITY to keep definition files updated.

I could go on and on, but this is the major stuff out of a nearly endless list of criteria I could give. Honestly, what it really comes down to (in my opinion) amounts to two things: First, be able to learn new things. Yes, "things," that ever-loathed generality of generalities. Learn new stuff without going into panic mode, understand that you probably won't hose your system, and if you do, know that it can be fixed. Second, and possibly more important on a psychological or emotional level, take interest in technology to some degree. This does not mean you have to be a card-carrying member of the geek association of your local community (or hell, the world). But if you enjoy doing something on a computer, read up on it. Read the Wikipedia entry, check out a book, read technical whitepapers (ok, that last one will be demanding of your attention span). Have an iPod? Do some reading to find out exactly how the songs get onto the magic white box. Like doing digital photography? Study graphical compression algorithms (LZW, JPG, PNG) or CCD technology. Take enough of an interest in what you do most often with your PC to want to learn how at least that part of it works.

And for godsakes, that's NOT a cupholder.

Three-Shitty?

2006-05-15T11:06:00.000-07:00

Just saw this little gem [slashdot.org] over on Slashdot.

Pardon my momentary regression to the mental state of a 7-year-old, but...

Nyahh nyahh nyaaaaaaaaahh, neener neener neeeee-nerrrrrrrr!

I think that hack came out even faster than those for the original Xbox. As soon as they get that thing to run homebrew apps, I might seriously consider picking up a used one. I've seen some pretty keen things done with the original Xbox, and seeing as how there's no way in hell I'm paying Sony $600 for a PS3, a 360 might make a nice complement to my inevitable Nintendo Wii-volution purchase.

Ah, Microsoft... Those few times I don't absolutely hate your rotten guts are those during which you provide me with such quality entertainment as this. And I'm not talking about the games.

EhhhHHHHHHH

2006-05-04T08:32:00.000-07:00

I'm racking my brain trying to think of what's going on that's worthy of mention.

Looking at computer parts, as I'm getting the builder's itch again. I have an old case just taking up space in my room, and I'd like to paint it cherry-red and maybe cut a window in the side. Build a somewhat decent box out of it.

I'm still eyeing up G5s on Apple's online education store. I can get one with a mid-range video card (desperately want that Quadro, but cannot justify $1400 for a single component when I'm still new to DV and haven't cut my teeth on 3D animation yet), wireless and bluetooth, quad-core CPU configuration, and a 3-year AppleCare warranty for about $3300 or so. Sweet compared to what I'd be shelling out without the educational discount.

I could always just build myself a box and run Linux (or Windows XP... ... ... ...AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA...ahaha...ha...hahaha...oh, man...) on it, but that means no Final Cut Pro, and screw that. I definitely want OS X, and I definitely want Final Cut. Beyond that, as nice as the Intel-based Macs are, the fact that the "Core Duo" (most retarded proc name ever) is a 32-bit chip is the deal-breaker. Why they went from the 64-bit PowerPC 970 to the 32-bit Intel in the iMac is far beyond me. But seeing as how the G5 is the only Mac that offers 64-bit, is also dual-core, and is fully expandable (FULLY, you fucking Mac-bashers) with PCI-e and SATA...yo-ho, yo-ho a G5 it is for me.

Still thinking of building that box, though. Pricing out parts on NewEgg, I can put a decent one together (AMD Athlon64, 1GB PC3200, 128MB video) for ~$500. That should run Slackware or Kubuntu just fine. Plus I'd like to have my own custom-built box. Colin hasn't complained to me once about his, so I guess I did a really good job on it.

Speaking of the kid, happy 15th, dude! I'm glad you like the Pod. And remember, like the sticker says..."Don't steal music."

...
...
...
*snicker*

There's really not much else going on. Eh, I guess that's not really true-I did get a pack of DV tapes for my new camera and I'm itching to try it out. I'd like to get cracking on the show with Rendaw, I just need time. Luckily my class is finished this week, so I'll have a little more time than I do right now. I'm also working on a webcomic with one of my cow-orkers. We're backlogged a few strips, and I might opt to just go ahead and do a solo strip so we have something more to put up. Need to think of something suitably witty and off-the-wall.

If anyone has had any amusing conversations or brief exchanges and would like to see them comic-ified, do feel free to send them to me. To give you an idea of our style, see http://www.literarystigmata.com/comic.html

I may have already mentioned this, but in case I haven't, I'll say it again. If you haven't already, connect to my webserver and get the .zip of Kaizer's Orchestra that I have hosted on it. They are too cool. Really weird European rock with a catchy style and addictive beats. The lyrics are in Norwegian, and despite being unable to understand them, I find the sound of the language combined with KO's bobbing pitch pattern adds a certain quirky je ne sais quoi that makes their sound all the more compelling. Seriously, I can't recommend these guys enough. They're not metal, they're not jazz, they're not traditional rock, they're just...well, they're just Kaizer's Orchestra.

Lady J, you might think of them as a really, really energetic Mirrormask soundtrack. They remind me a bit of old Blur, back when Blur was doing weird-ass off-the-wall stuff instead of mindless noise (god damn you 13, and bring back Graham Coxon).

My favourites off of "Maestro" are KGB, Pa Ditt Skift, and especially Knekker Deg Til Sist.

Going into the city with Searska this weekend (Saturday), and then maybe getting together with Rendaw on Sunday, though I can't be out that late again.

I've now seen Silent Hill 3 times. MPAA-support dirty feelings notwithstanding, I can't get enough of it. It's just as good, if not better, each time I watch it.

Speaking of such things, Lady J, did you want to get together sometime this weekend and maybe catch a flick at the $2 seats or something? Haven't seen you for a while, and it sucks having to plot out social visits so carefully. Argh schedule.

One final thought: If I can't find room or use for the case I want to build into a computer, I'd be happy to take bids on it. Either from an aspiring builder who wants a cheap case or from someone who wants a full system after I put one together. Nothing yet, as I want to make sure it works first (Lady J's sister's system...*sigh*), but once I get it up and running I'd be happy to provide someone with a working box for whatever purpose. It'll be moderately powerful-I listed the specs above, and I'll probably throw a 160GB SATA disk in there and a DVD-RW, faceplate sprayed red to match the case.

Seems every time I write one of these when I can't think of anything going on, it turns out to be "War and Peace." Weird.

Anyway, have work, must do.

Quote of the Moment: "I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve." -Bilbo Baggins

The dead seek out sin

2006-04-22T06:47:00.000-07:00

Silence has been broken.

I saw the 10:30 showing of Silent Hill last night. Me, my jumbo popcorn and sugar water, and a theatre full of the most hellish noises you can imagine. Once I duct-taped the teenagers' mouths shut, though, you could hear the movie just fine.

So, then, what did I think? Obviously I'm biased for my enthusiasm about the game, but I'll be as objective as I can.

...

Okay, fuck objective. This movie was incredible. Aside from being the first truly well-done game-to-movie that wasn't all rendered (FF:TSW reigns supreme in the 3DCG category), this movie gave me all the scares I was hoping for, and actually managed to carry a decent plot. Unfortunately, that plot was watered down a bit from the game, and Gans took some liberties with characters, but it stood on its own just fine.

And I got to see Pyramid Head on the big screen. How freaking cool is THAT?

However, a caution to my readers: it should go without saying for any horror movie, but it really goes double for this one. DO NOT see this movie if you have problems with gore. It has it in spades. Among other things, there are scenes of scalpel mutilation, flaying by Pyramid Head's bare hand, burning alive, and the most graphic barbed-wire scene I have ever seen in my life. I ate it up, but I know a few others who, if disturbed by the final fight in "V for Vendetta," (yes, Lady J, I am looking at you :-P), would quite likely pass out more than once during SH. Probably 5 times during the final church scene alone.

Little things:
-The alleyway scene from the beginning of SH1 was recreated BEAUTIFULLY. Even the camera-tilt at the corner was picture-perfect. And the mumblers were truly chilling.
-Hearing Akira Yamaoka's "music" (a.k.a. noise horror) arranged for the big screen was one giant fan-gasm. Half the fun was trying to pick out all the songs and remember which game they were from, when they played, etc.
-It was nice to see the "tough guy" character actually respond properly in the face of reality-defying terror. Cybil started out a little more...erm, butch...than I remember from the game, but she was freaking out quite acutely within a half hour of being introduced to Silent Hill's otherworld. This was a wonderful change from the John-Woo-style uzi-wielding Alice from Resident Evil, who would just shoot at whatever nasties were on the screen. In slow-motion. With heavy metal playing in the background. Did I mention the RE movies sucked? But none of that crap here-even when Cybil shot at Pyramid Head, he just kept coming. True to PH style, he abruptly turned and walked away when the world began to shift back to reality, but he sure didn't mind those bullets.
-On that note, seeing Pyramid Head on the big screen was worth the price of admission. I now know that in a battle of the gigantic-blade-wielding villains, Sephiroth would be toast in about two seconds, screaming and crying tears of blood as Pyramid Head systematically disassembled his body with his bare hands.

Silent Hill was not a perfect movie, granted, but it was one hell of a ride, and one I would happily see again and again.

Awesome

2006-04-20T20:13:00.000-07:00

Yeah, Lady J is awesome too.

Installing cryptography plugins isn't the only way to attain awesomeness.

*sigh*

The communication blackout of late has led me to believe I've upset you. I didn't mean to. I'm sorry if I did.

You may not encrypt your IM sessions, but you are still awesome. Anyone who can manage to remain by my side through the hardest times of my life and especially through what we went through with Ireland and my subsequent metamorphosis into King Bastard transcends awesome. Anyone who will come over to my house with no plans or special reason and just kick back and join me in a LotR marathon is far beyond awesome.

Anyone who goes through a fiasco like the Chicago Pizza thing and doesn't wind up eating me for dinner instead of the pizza exceeds awesome.

Lady J, you are awesome, and I love you. Not in the same way I used to, not in the HAWT HAWT TRISHEESECKS way, but I do. It's like what Catherine said in Twin Peaks. About lashing out at the one person who was decent enough to stand by her all that time. Granted, I never took my principal pleasure in it, and granted you weren't the one and only person who never strayed from my side, but you're one of the few.

I do get overzealous about InfoSec stuff-it's what I study and what interests me. And privacy is also very, very important to me, for reasons I've explained to the world many times before. But I'm not going to let my enthusiasm for bit-scrambling drive a wedge between us.

I hereby present this awesomeness award to Lady J, for her long years of outstanding awesomeness.

LADY J IS AWESOME
LADY J IS AWESOME
LADY J IS AWESOME
Lady J is awesome
LADY J IS AWESOME
Lady J is awesome

Recordez-vous

2006-04-20T11:23:00.000-07:00

So I did it. I broke down and ordered a DVCam. I figure if I'm going to get into doing video, I might as well have my own for complete autonomy. Last thing I want is another power struggle with another hotheaded member of my household (though that wound up having positive results for me) who refuses to take "fuck off and die" for an answer.

So watch out world, I'm armed and dangerous. Now where'd I put those MiniDV blanks?

Quote of the Moment Returns:

Oni: "I mean, think about it. Microsoft's address is 'One Microsoft Way'

I'm not kidding. That's their address. A bit pretentious don't you think? But Apple names theirs 'infinite loop.' A programming joke. How cool is that?"

Senjutsu: "Pretentious? It's the clearest statement of their philosophy that they've ever made. Unless someone happens to have a video of Ballmer screaming 'Ein volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer'?"

WikiGimmick

2006-04-17T08:30:00.000-07:00

Go to Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]. Type in your birth date (but not year). List three events that happened on your birthday. List two important birthdays and one interesting death.

Events:

1888 - Mary Ann Nicholls is murdered. She is perhaps the first of Jack the Ripper's victims

1897 - Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, the first movie projector.

1920 - First news radio program broadcast in Detroit, Michigan.

Births:

1928 - James Coburn, American actor (d. 2002)

1945 - Van Morrison, Irish musician

Death:

651 - Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne, Irish bishop and missionary (Draw your own conclusions on THAT one.)

"Pity the insomniac dyslexic agnostic. He loses sleep wondering if there really is a dog."

Ugh

2006-04-17T06:05:00.000-07:00

People ask me why I'm not a MySpace user. Behold: the reason.

Now mind you, it's not that I've done anything illegal and want to avoid being caught. It's that MySpace users are apparently so staggeringly stupid that you'd swear evolution was working backwards.

People, there's this little thing about firebombing hangars. First of all, don't do it. But if for whatever cokehead reason you're going to go ahead and do it anyway, kindly refrain from posting it on the fucking internet, you retards.

It's people like you who are preventing First Contact, and I want to see me some Vulcans.

Idiots.

In a hard candy shell

2006-04-16T20:31:00.000-07:00

While I don't buy into the religious aspect of Easter, one truth is simply incontestable...

Cadbury creme eggs kick ass.

In endless dark

2006-04-16T07:53:00.000-07:00

5 days until silence is broken.

"Monsters? They look like monsters to you?" -Vincent

A Shower of Praise

2006-04-13T11:43:00.000-07:00

Seeing as how one tends to catch more flies with honey than with vinegar (no, I'm not comparing any of you to insects, cool your jets), I'm opting this time to take a different approach to alerting my readers to the importance of protecting privacy.

Searska is officially my Carbon-Based Lifeform of the Month. She took the time (all of 10 minutes at most) and the effort (all of 10 clicks at most) to download, install and use the Gaim client (which she already had) and the Gaim-Encryption plugin. I helped her generate a slightly stronger key (done by simply clicking a button and entering a larger number in a text box) and we carried out a nice, long, and secure encrypted conversation. What was it about, you ask? I can't tell you that, that would defeat the purpose! :-)

Searska is officially characterized by any assortment of the following adjectives:
-Leet
-l33t
-Uber-leet
-Gosu
-605|_|
-Uber-gosu
-Awesome
-TEH WINNAR
-Cool
-Generally positive and/or desirable in a non-sexual fashion
-Slick
-Swank
-Tubular (going back to the 80s now)
-Hip
-Happening
-(fill in other here)

In a world of packet-sniffers, logging utilities, hackers, phishers, crackers, script kiddies, nosy sysadmins (Jeremy I am looking at you), and other undesirable sets of prying eyes that want to be all over your personal communications, she's joined me in taking a stand for privacy and saying "No, this conversation is my business and nobody else's." (obvious semantic/logistical flaw notwithstanding).

If you're on a Windows box and using Trillian, the official AOL/MSN/Yahoo messenger clients, or (Goddess help you) AIM Triton, give Gaim a shot for its faster performance and freedom from ads, as well as the ability to easily and seamlessly encrypt your messages to keep private business private. Remember that only a year ago, AOL announced that all messages sent over their network were theirs to do with as they please. While using AOL's service over Gaim is still using their network, you can make your messages useless to them (as well as keep personal business personal) by taking these fast and easy (and free-remember, Gaim and the crypto plugin are open-source and you do not have to pay anything for them) steps to protect your messages.

You wouldn't want the post office reading your mail, would you? That's why you use envelopes. Gaim-Encryption is essentially the equivalent of an envelope for instant messages.

Once again, that's Gaim and Gaim-Encryption, both available from Sourceforge.

And please, please, please, if you have ANY trouble at all with installing these, let me know and I can either walk you through it via IM/IRC/E-mail (Allison), or if you live nearby, we can get together and I can help you get the software installed (Lady J, Lovely.Legalista, MayoOnASalamiSandwich). I'm thinking of doing an illustrated walkthrough of how to get it set up, using screen captures of the download, install, and tweaking process. If there's enough demand, I'll certainly do so. I do rather enjoy writing guides.

And one more tiny detail before I go. Remember...

SEARSKA IS AWESOME
SEARSKA IS AWESOME
SEARSKA IS AWESOME
Searska is awesome
SEARSKA IS AWESOME
Searska is awesome

Quotage

2006-04-13T11:24:00.000-07:00

From the usual source: "You don't get it, do you? This is America. The land of the stupid measurements. Where there's 12 inches to a foot, 3 feet to a yard, 1760 yards to the mile, 16 ounces to a pound, 2000 pounds to the short ton and getting 543816 votes more than your opponent means you lose an election.

Sorry... couldn't help myself. God bless America for boobies and donuts! :)"

While angels sing

2006-04-11T09:40:00.000-07:00

Ten days 'til silence is broken.

Squealing brakes

2006-04-06T08:25:00.000-07:00

Windows Explorer just crashed. The back-breaking processor-intensive task that prompted it? The daunting feat of logic operations and number crunching, the herculean labour whose astronomical level of intensity was simply too morbidly demanding for the poor, hapless explorer.exe to bear?

Searching for a file.

"Windows XP is the most stable Windows ever!"

If Windows XP is stable, then our old computer lab attendant...you know, the one who cut herself with the tape dispenser, popped pills, shrieked at the top of her lungs at apparently random intervals, and hid under the desk, all while on the job, must have been ROCK FUCKING SOLID.

Susie-May...git mah SHAWT-GUHN.

Das Job Haus

2006-04-04T14:23:00.000-07:00

So I'm now doubly employed.

Thanks to a mysterious benefactor, I got in contact with a placement company and landed myself a 2-month contract with a company just outside Chicago, doing document analysis and updating, making sure they're compliant with Sarbanes-Oxley. Of course, starting work @ 7:00 AM at this job and getting home at 9:20 PM from the library isn't exactly what I'd call a walk in the park, but everyone who knows me knows that I hate myself^W^Wlove a good challenge.

So far it looks good, though. I actually do real work that entails more than answering a walkie-talkie and saying "click the OK button" or "it's the hardware, stupid," and I now know what a balls-to-the-wall, 24-hour-response-or-we-have-your-head IT department is like.

I like it.

Anyway, more details available upon request, but for now, I must get to my IPRO as it starts in half an hour.

I leave you with a quote.

"Microsoft has decided that Gamers are idiots with too much money to spend. I would guess that there's ample evidence to support this given the success of $1000 paired video cards to get 0.5fps more in first person shooters, 'collector's editions' of games which cost $20 more and contain a figurine or cloth map, or the actual existence of Alienware." -Podperson (Original Post)

1 is a waste of money if you don't do professional 3d ani/modeling, I'm admittedly guilty of 2 (consoles only), and if I commented on 3 I'd laugh up a lung.

wikiwikiwiki

2006-03-28T00:32:00.000-08:00

Holy crap.
Holy crap.
HOLY FUCKING CRAP.

http://www.wikibooks.org

Go there.

NOW.

RIGHT NOW.

Free books. Open-content books. Anyone can read, download, edit, write, etc.

So...freakin'...awesome...*twitch*

In other news, I'm putting some Kaizers Orchestra up on the webserver. Interesting band, and I can't really classify them any more than I can E.S. Posthumus. They remind me of Blur's quirky days when they'd have odd beats that were discordant, yet strangely compelling. Definitely worth a listen at the very least.

-ADN

Winslows

2006-03-27T18:22:00.000-08:00

Can someone explain to me why a simple low-end graphics package takes 10 minutes to install on LoseXP?

Seriously. This shit's pre-compiled. There are no computations or function calls or architecture parameters or anything involved. It's just copying files from a CD. On a 52x drive, no less.

Oh, right, it's a Dell PC running Windows XP. I guess I should be thankful it didn't take an hour.

*grumbles, goes back to using installpkg*

2006-03-16T11:02:00.000-08:00

Perfect FF12 synopsis on Slashdot today.

"Androgynous man-girl-thing gets together group of pals, who rid the land of evil. During this he/she manages to find love with another slightly more feminine lady-boy. The last boss is a bitch.

Also chickens you can ride on and little white cat things."

Heeho.

Oh snow

2006-03-16T08:17:00.000-08:00

It is snowing.

In March.

I know we've had snow later in the year than this. That is beside the point. It's supposed to be warming up, not burying me in this frozen hell. It should be against the law for it to snow after February.

Oh, well. At least I get to amuse myself watching the homeless people in the city beat the shit out of each other in fights over sleeping spots on top of warm sewer vents.

Good ideas

2006-03-09T20:29:00.000-08:00

From the usual source: "You're right about the theatre problem, however. I had a similar incident with a pre-teen/teen kid sitting behind me during a movie. He kept kicking the back of my chair (little bumps every now and then, from him fidgeting). We asked repeatedly for him to stop, and told him that we would have the managers remove him if he didn't stop. He didn't. Luckily, he was sitting in the last row, and I was in the row in front of him. I simply stood up for a while, and then sat on the seat (folded up) so he couldn't see the movie. Eventually, I sat back down and enjoyed peace and quiet for the rest of the film.

Theatre owners are too easy to offer refunds for bad experiences because they know that the vast majority of people won't ask for refunds. They cut corners by removing the ushers, and offer refunds instead.

Here's a great movie-theater business model (for grown ups):
- Ushers at every isle intersection with 10,000 candlepower flashlights
- No one under 18 allowed (period). [ ok, so this one is controversial; wait until you're over 21, and you'll get this one ]
- No candy sold in hyper-sealed polyurethane 10' baggies
- No old ladies in pairs seated next to each other allowed in the theater during the main showing
- breathalizer entry points: unless it's a comedy, you have to blow a .007 to get in
- Raised walls (cubicle style) surrounding each seat pair (with adjustable arm divider)

There, instant successful theater just add water. Now someone go out there, make it happen and invite me for a critiqual visit."

Servez-vous beaucoup

2006-03-09T01:02:00.000-08:00

The server is up.

E-mail me (celticwhisper at spymac dot com) for the details on how to connect. Also, please do not give others the connection info without asking me first. I can tell who's connecting, and if I see more IP addresses than people I've told, I know someone's spilling. By all means, share the files you get from it with others, but check with me before you give others the juicy details.

I'm tired. Goodnight.

Update

2006-03-08T16:20:00.000-08:00

The Apache server is coming along nicely. Slackware 10.2 is installed and configured on the box that will act as the server, and I've got httpd starting up with the OS (not like it was hard work on my part, Slack lets you tick a box at install time to do that). I found the directory that Apache serves from and am working on replacing the index_en.html page to something not too hideous. Here's what I'll need to know from yous guys: how many songs per band will you need to make your recommendations? I'm not web-hosting full albums, as that's too conspicuous and also the reason I have the SFTP server, but I can do up to 3 songs without maiming my disk space and bandwidth.

Days of Rising Doom

2006-03-06T03:53:00.000-08:00

Well, no poll this month for the metal album. I'm already decided on the meta-band Aina's "Days of Rising Doom: The Metal Opera" for reasons I'll get into in a minute.

The good news is I'm working on setting up a web server on my Linux box, so I can actually post MP3 samples of the albums I'm mulling over ordering. That way you guys can make better suggestions (okay, okay, and I'm itching to help people pirate). This will give me about a month to get Apache tweaked for performance and figure out how I want to handle organizing files (and maybe put together a nice-looking page to list them while I'm at it)

The tentative candidates for next month, though, are:

"Letters From Fire" by The Crest
"A Night at the Opera" by Blind Guardian
and
"The Black Halo" by Kamelot.

With some Therion to follow, depending on my mood. "Vovin" and "Secret of the Runes" are bloody incredible, and I'm itching to get them. But other bands need some love too.

Anyway, it's 6 AM, I really should sleep.

Oh infant

2006-03-03T18:18:00.000-08:00

It is the opinion of this writer that anyone forced to resort to using the words "oh baby" in a song for lack of anything more original or intelligent needs to have their vocal cords removed.

HIKARU UTADA, I AM LOOKING AT YOU.

Je suis fatigué

2006-03-02T14:18:00.000-08:00

So I've been up till 6 or later 2 days this week, and for some reason couldn't sleep last night (probably for my biological clock having been thrown off by the first 2 instances). As a result, I'm dead on my feet...again.

This is all fine and good, though, for IIT has a 7-11 in its campus centre, and in that 7-11 can be found that sweet nectar of the gods which comes in a blue, textured bottle.

That's right, IIT has Bawls. And it only took me 7 months to figure that one out.

So anyway, you're wondering why I'm so sleep deprived. Or maybe you're not, but for the sake of being able to ramble on and get this new blog off the ground, I'm going to assume you are.

First was the video. Publicity video for the library. This one has me a bit miffed, actually. Probably would be infuriated if I weren't so tired. They came to me Wednesday of last week and said "Can you do a video to promote libraries to the legislators for the meeting next week?" I said, "Ummmmm...you're giving me one week? To do everything from planning to postwork?"

But fine, I did. Scripting, shooting, importing, editing, effects, voice-overs, the whole 9 yards. They took it, watched it, told me they loved it.

And then they decided not to give it to the senators.

Zuh? Wait, they did what? So all that work, with zero advance notice, scrambling for 3 days and staying up till 6AM to finish was for...what, exactly?

2nd time was for a presentation at IIT, compiling a bunch of people's PowerPoint (yuck) slides into an OpenOffice (yay!) presentation. Since they gave me their frames in all different styles and layouts, porting everything to a uniform look was, simply put, a bitch.

So last night I wound up laying awake in bed and watching about 4 hours of Twin Peaks. Good show. Bad sleep deprivation. BAD.

Theme++

2006-02-26T02:19:00.000-08:00

Firefox users, give the GrApple (Eos Pro) theme a whirl. It's slick.

Portage minus minus

2006-02-25T12:06:00.000-08:00

I was going to port my old entries from Deadjournal over to this new blog, but as DJ offers no easy way to export a blog to XML or the like, I'm just going to link you and call it good enough. I honestly don't fancy the idea of looking up specific dates for entries, going in and copying the HTML, and then worrying about dead links and all that jazz.

So, if you're interested in the goings-on in my corner of the world prior to this entry, just go here [deadjournal.com] and see what I have (or rather, had) to say.

frist psot

2006-02-21T01:37:00.000-08:00

Yeah, yeah, /.isms and all the rest.

I'll be working on porting my blog from Deadjournal over here, as Blogger allows for easier manipulation of styles and is more portable than DJ/LJ.

Ardent Disdain

Woo*yawn*hooooooo!

Stop it, Apple. Just stop it.

Posty McPostsalot

Attention apartment-rental websites

Movin' on up

Quick update - Firefox 3

All I Want for Christmas...

Need book help

Holy Fuckman, Batshit! He's ALIVE!

Girl gets it!

Harry Potter

Space: WTF And Beyond

Quick update

Thought for food

Quote of the moment:

OMG WTF VGM HAX

An Invitation to l33ch

Aww-dee-oh-filez?

Awesome

Spoileriffic

Worm Nut

Heads-up!

51st post and music

I like cadmium myself

Quicksilver

American Travesty

I am happy.

VGM FTW

Attention creationists:

For my own reference

Flash-drive Foibles

I'm alive.

ITPLDone

Woo.

It's official

That familiar burning sensation

HP (not the tech company)

Updatez-vous

The devil's in the terminology

M is for Minus

G5++

G5 minus minus

MyMusing

GP2X++

G5++

Wizardry

Three-Shitty?

EhhhHHHHHHH

The dead seek out sin

Awesome

Recordez-vous

WikiGimmick

Ugh

In a hard candy shell

In endless dark

A Shower of Praise

Quotage

While angels sing

Squealing brakes

Das Job Haus

wikiwikiwiki

Winslows

Oh snow

Good ideas

Servez-vous beaucoup

Update

Days of Rising Doom

Oh infant

Je suis fatigué

Theme++

Portage minus minus

frist psot

Wooyawnhooooooo!