Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Wednesday Randomness

This isn't really my week for links to serious topics...

1) Robot Arm Clocks. Creating timepieces with robots & colored blocks. Most are pretty intuitive but for a couple I had to watch again to see how they worked.

2) The Pan flute Flowchart. Succinct. For your wind instrument decision-making needs.

3) Pictures of a Polish Radio Station. It looks like a Sci-Fi movie set! Very cool. I’d love a tour of this place.

Link to full post.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Where for Art Thou Journalism?

What kind of an idiot would do a report on ammunition shortages and not talk to anyone who actually makes ammunition? A Associated Press writer, that’s who.

A blogger followed up on the AP story by performing the revolutionary and counter-intuitive task of calling ammunition manufacturers and asking them what’s going on. And the answers he got were very interesting.

You want to know why public opinion of Journalists is somewhere between pond scum & Congress? This is exactly why. There's no point on journalists waxing rhapsodical about their theoretical superiority in fact-checking if NO ACTUAL FACT CHECKING IS PERFORMED.

Let’s give a hand for the AP, who never lets investigation get in the way of telling a good story!

Link to full post.

Musical Oddities

A Harmonica Band (with Midget!) Um, yeah.

Hip-Hop From the 1940’s. The Andrews Sisters like you’ve never heard before. I’m undecided on this one.

Ukrainian Mix of Rasputin & The X-Files Theme. The video is so-so but the mix is interesting in a “I’m going to have this stuck in my head for the next week” kind of way.

I Will Survive (Classical Style). It’s good. Sung by a weird Russian & Japanese duo but, still good.

Opera Parody! From the incomparable, dearly missed Beverly Sills & Danny Kaye.

Link to full post.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Robotic Double Trouble

I intended to do a Monday Hit Lit of the wonders of our technological world (with perhaps a dash of politics for spice). But instead, ROBOTS!

1) Keepon Getting His Groove On. A rather sweet music video about the adventures of a dancing robot & his scientist friend.

2) Stolen Life. A Film Noir Movie with Robots. And Chris Jones. AND Claudia Black. Well, I’m in!

(This is the first post I needed a "robots" tag for? Clearly, this blog is not yet representing my interests accurately.)

(The Blogger Spell Checker suggested replacing "noir" with "nair". Is there a corporate tie somewhere I'm unaware of?)

Link to full post.

New Eagles Music!

The classic rock station played a new single of the upcoming Eagles album this morning. I believe it was called “How Long”. Definitely a Glenn Fry song (which means it was a little too country for a classic rock station). But it had everything a good Eagles song should have: solid lyrics, good guitar work and excellent harmonies.

And it does speak something about the versatility of the band when the DJs were looking at the songlist going “That’s a Joe Walsh song.” “This is a Don Henley song.” I mean, how many modern bands could claim that kind of variation in style between their members, where the song’s title alone reveals a distinct and unmistakable voice?

Link to full post.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Sunday Hit List

Here’s a few links of interest:

1) How To Criticize Without Causing Offense. A handy article with some really good advice. I’ve actually used several of these methods. It can make a critical difference in developing successful business relationships.

2) Popular Mechanic Survival Guide. The magazine has made disaster survival an on-going focus. This link shows a list of their best articles. Always good for a quick reminder, especially during hurricane season.

3) Dark Side of the Rainbow. I had never heard of this. Apparently, certain Pink Floyd fans discovered that the “Dark Side of the Moon” album synchronizes with “The Wizard of Oz” movie. Several of my co-workers verified it (they are a versatile bunch).

4) Coolest Statistics Presentation EVER! Dr. Hans Rosling debunks myths about the Third World & development in a talk that is simultaneously funny, informative and well-paced.

5) Impact Modeler for NEO asteroids. Courtesy of the University of Southampton. Asteroid impacts really are the ultimate natural disaster and models like this one could go a long way to improving our ability to recover from such an impact.

Link to full post.

Messages to The Creator

The NYTimes recently ran an article on the theory that our universe could just be someone else's simulation. As a follow-up, they created this thread where you can post messages to the "Prime Designer". The best message wins a DVD or something.

Here's my 7 funny favorites:
10) “Dear Prime Designer, May I call you Primey?”
9) “Enough with the fractals everywhere. It’s a little too obvious.”
8) “Platypus: WHY?”
7) “Dear Great Overlord, Really loved the flowers. That was a nice touch."
6) “Please, I want to be a real boy.”
5) “Can you take your own name in vain or do you just say, 'Oh my me!'?”
4) “DON’T YOU DARE DRINK THAT AT THE KEYBOARD! I am NOT going out that way!”

And 3 more on a serious note:
3) “I know there’s no progress without cost. But cost without progress is obscene.“
2) “The equation, the equation that contains the mechanics of creation, are we even close? Newton gave it a stab, then Schrodinger, then Dirac, then a huge bunch of people with the Standard Model. I am stabbing at it now. Will I ever know?”

1) This was posted as a quote but I have no idea where from

“ 'He learned almost too late that man is a feeling creature, and because of it, the greatest in the universe. He learned too late for himself that men have to find their own way, to make their own mistakes. There can’t be any gift of perfection from outside ourselves. When men seek such perfection they find only death, fire, loss, disillusionment and the end of everything that’s gone forward. Men have always sought an end to our misery but it can’t be given, it has to be achieved. There is hope, but it has to come from inside, from Man himself.' ”
(sigh) Humans, we really are a wondrous sometimes.

Go check out the thread because there tons more humor and food for thought on Man's place in the cosmos. Very amusing and cool stuff.

Link to full post.

Bambi on the Move

Double-take (n): What you do when you see the following in your rear-view mirror:

Link to full post.

Saturday At the Movies

Stardust: Last night, I went to see this with two friends of mine. Very good film. It had a little bit of everything: comedy, drama, action, fairy tale. And it wasn't afraid to make the audience squirm a little. The plot was a bit scattered in the beginning but it quickly began bringing the threads together for an excellent (and satisfying) conclusion. My theater was packed and everyone left talking about how good it was. Both of my friends also really liked it so it definitely wasn't just for the sci-fi/fantasy geeks like me.

Link to full post.

Friday, August 17, 2007

Digitial Music Files

I have spent every spare minute this week converting wmas to mp3s in preparation for my permanent Ubuntu install. As part of this I’ve discovered a few things:

1) WMA files are huge! Mp3 conversion has freed up a good bit of my HD and I’m only a few hundred songs in.

2) I’ve decided there’s no way in hell I’m paying Napster $275 dollars MIN to keep “my” god-damn-DRM protected songs. I’ve saved a list of them and I’ll be re-acquiring these tunes elsewhere.

3) Windows has the exact same problem as Ubuntu for ripping CDs to mp3s. I attempted to rip a recently bought CD with Windows Media Player and got a similar error message to my SoundJuicer attempt “Mp3 codex unavailable”. Ubuntu’s correction to rip & play mp3s requires an install via Synaptic (which I haven’t completed yet). Windows method is to charge you $10 for the MP3 ripping ability or this "helpful" page from Microsoft.

4) This is not so much a discovery as a realization and a decision. Explained beneath the cut.

At UT-Engineering, the lectures for your senior design project are about general ideas in engineering that could effect product development. During the discussion of intellectual property, my professor emphasized several times software should be patentable and copyright protected because it should be treated the same way as concrete goods. I didn’t & don’t really have a problem with that.

BUT, current software licensing acts in a way totally counter or acceptable for concrete goods. EULA’s get around the end user loophole in commercial law. Meaning no matter how much you paid for any piece of software under an EULA, it’s NEVER your property. Consider a situation where you have purchased* a car, computer or television, etc. Now imagine GM, Dell or Sony telling their customers “After one year your purchase of this product is revoked.” And in order to regain “your” property, you have to pay for your goods twice, thrice or more. Concrete goods are not treated in this manner (see First Sale Doctrine).

DRM-protected music files are no better than EULAs. As the recent Google Video fiasco proves, no matter what you paid for digital media, it’s never yours. This flies in the face of any reasonable expectation of ownership. If I own a CD when buying it in a bricks-and-mortar store, then I also should own a CD purchased in an on-line store. PERIOD. If the entertainment companies want to keep up this DRM BS, then they should be forced to change their services' descriptions from "Purchases" to “Rent to Use”. This of course will never happen because apparently the very last thing big entertainment wants is to be honest with their customers.

As of now, I don’t plan to ever use a DRM-protected music store again. And I don;t have to with places like eMusic and AudioLunchbox.

* not rent or lease, that is a transaction defined as different from the get-go

Link to full post.

That Wacky (Sometimes Scary) Texas Weather

"Hurricane" Erin disintegrated over the Hill Country early this morning. But not before dumping massive amounts of rain on San Antonio and the Texas Hill Country. We were released from work early yesterday (which almost never happens due to weather or otherwise). By about 4:30pm (when I would ordinarily get off of work), the view out my patio looked like this:

At the time this picture was taken, we were getting 1 to 1.5 inches of rain an hour in my area. Some parts of SA got five to six inches of rain yesterday alone. Thankfully today has been drier and sunnier. The more we dry out now, the better we’ll be able to handle it if Dean makes landfall in Texas.

Link to full post.

Overheard At Work pt 3

Double trouble today.

“the intimate seat belt market” – During an interesting (and otherwise straight-laced) seminar on cold-forging

“Ewoks are soothing” – My supervisor discussing cell phone ringtones

Link to full post.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Internet Radio on Steroids

Otherwise known as Last.fm. This was mentioned on the Supernatural music thread a while back.

I decided to join the service when I noticed that Ubuntu had an application to run it. HOLY MOLY! This is fantastic! I've already joined the Supernatural & Blues groups and wasted the entire evening tagging songs.

(is rocking out to Styx's "Renegade")

Link to full post.

Monday Miscellaneous

1) MIT Invents Flexible Biodegradable Battery. Cool & useful tech of the day.

2) Google Gyps Consumers on Video Purchases. Having just realized how badly Napster-to-Go was screwing me over, I feel terrible for all those people who bought videos expecting to you know, keep what they paid for. The more I hear about DRM-protected stuff, the more I want to throttle an entertainment company executive.

3) Ok, when I attended my high school reunion, one of my previous classmates mentioned he'd been working on an animated version of Edwin Abbott's “Flatland”. I really enjoyed this book when we read it in high school Geometry so I checked out the website. It looks really good! Go check out the trailer.

4) What can zombies teach us about ourselves? Hmmmm..... Squishing heads is fun? No, wait that was “Kids in the Hall”.

5) Ode to a classic graphical design program. Hehehehehehe.

6) A Beginner's Guide to Lock-Picking. Because you never know when you'll lock yourself out of your own bathroom by mistake... (sigh) That was a really bad day.

Link to full post.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Hey, It's THAT band!

There's songs you've heard so often, they are kind of like background music. Growing up, the music of CCR and The Eagles definitely fit in that category. And then, there's Booker T & the MG's.

I recently re-discovered this band during an episode of Supernatural (which with its classic rock emphasis has one of the best soundtracks on television today). And the fans of the show have really embraced the sound. Here is the TWOP thread for discussing the music & swapping songs. I found many hidden gems on this board.

Anyway, the episode in question was "Folsom Prison Blues", during which they played "Green Onions" one of my favorite instrumental songs. Apparently, the Johnny Cash title song was too expensive so they used this instead. Instant flashback time!

I decided share the renewed love with some YouTube links. Enjoy!

Performance of "Green Onions" on "Hollywood a Go Go"
(with wacky 60's choreography)

1970 Performance of "Time is Tight" (with CCR watching from off-stage!)

Live Performance at 2007 SXSW in Austin.


Live Performance of "Hang 'Em High". As my brother says "Good chillin' music".

The absolutely lovely "Soul Dressing". (video is of record playing)

As a bonus, here's some Bo Diddly love from the 60s.

Link to full post.

Overheard at Work pt 2

“I heard they had breasts downstairs so we had to go and see.” – co-worker referring to the post-Mastectomy Prosthetics at the Company Health Fair

Between that and the free food, they certainly knew how to get our attention.

Link to full post.

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Thursday Miscellaneous

1) Ok, I know this is old but....OH MY GOD. I'll be sleeping with a can of bug spray tonight.

2) In rebuttal to crazy lady dissing Harry Potter, here are two articles discussing the latent pro-Christian symbolism of the books.

3) Defending Earth: Two Space-Based Approaches. An excellent summary reflecting on asteroid deflection options. Also, there's reference to two papers by a man named Claudio Maccone that discuss how to use Lagrangian points for asteroid deflection.

4) 10 Little Known Historical Mysteries. About half of these are new to me. And I call myself a history buff.

5) NASA revises temperature figures used by pretty much everybody. But that's not the punchline. I had no idea the governments' software for analyzing temperature data isn't shared so that other scientists can duplicate the results. How does that make any sense at all? Look if global warming really is a problem, then we need the best possible information to counter it. And if it's not a problem, then a lot of people will be appearing in the late 21st century version of Stephen Jay Gould's The Mismeasure of Man.

Link to full post.

Recent Reading

1) Saving Capitalism From The Capitalists by Raghuram G. Rajan & Luigi Zingales: Fantastic read. The authors have managed to write an excellent defense of globalization of capital without drowning the reader in charts and graphs. They make excellent use of the broad strokes of the last century as well as specific examples. I thought it was very interesting that historically big companies and organizations manipulated through legal and political means the rhetoric of "protect the little guy" to protect themselves and in the long run hurting the overall economy.

2) The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams: The second of the Dirk Gently stories, this is a wonderfully off-beat read. Having discovered Douglas Adams through the Hitchhiker's guide series, the Dirk Gently character is much lower-key than I initially expected. Although, he still manages to be completely mad. The ending is a bit jarring but still really good.

Although I have 12 books in my "To Read" pile, I really, really want to buy this one. I mean, you can't go wrong with zombies, right?

Link to full post.

Back to Texas

So, back from LA. As part of my personal enrichment goals, I made an effort to take some pictures while I was there. Here's a teaser pic of a storm over downtown Houston.

More after cut.


I think this is the first instance where I didn't have to run to make my connecting flight when travelling through Houston Intercontinental. Which is how I noticed the strangeness of the George Bush statue they have at the airport. What's with the coat?

It's perfectly orthogonal to his body. I mean, if they wanted to convey wind the tie (blown to the side) would have done it fine. Personally, it looks like the sculptor was just showing off.

My rental car:

Which was terrible! Uncomfortable to drive with a huge blind spot. This picture makes it look blue but it was really this incredibly weird purple color. I felt like I was driving a clown car.

Usually, when I go to California, I spend my time in Orange County (for training / visit relatives) or the Carson area (for work). This time I got to go drive straight through downtown LA:

In a bit of LA strangeness (to me), there were these rather nice apartments right next to the freeway (as in you can see the sign on the left):

You could actually watch people out on their balconies while waiting in traffic. Who would want to live there?

Finally, I discovered the BEST RADIO SHOW EVER while in LA. When driving my crap rental car to the hotel, I listened to 88.1 KKJZ. Now usually, they play jazz and are pretty darn good. But on Sunday nights, they have a blues show which I caught for the first time. IT WAS AWESOME. Aretha Franklin covering Marshall Tucker Band? Comparing the original Statesboro Blues with the Allman Brothers cover? When I got to my hotel, the first thing I did was log-on to my computer to listen to the web feed.

Link to full post.

Sunday, August 5, 2007

Wasting Opportunities at FoxNews

In a follow-up to my previous comments about CNN’s incorporation of web reporting, I watched their “News to me!” program today while in the airport. It was pretty darn good. The program had a mix of newsy news stories as well as showing some popular YouTube fare. I searched FoxNews to see if they had anything similar. The closest was an option to send FoxNews a tip.

Unfortunately, FoxNews has seen a real drop in programming quality lately so I can't say they're sticking with what works. They have good reporters (I prefer their on-scene people to CNN's) but something's off and I haven't been able to pinpoint what exactly. Some innovative program ideas based on web-reporting could juice things up a bit.

On the other hand, the Lou Dobbs show? Totally unwatchable, even when I agree with someone on that show I want to scream “Get off my side doofus!” at the TV. I think I'll read a book when he's on.

PS – Blogging likely light this week as I will be traveling for work.

Link to full post.

Other Ubuntu Applications

I’ve spent the last week or so learning some other features of my new Ubuntu set-up. Here’s some of the highlights (full post is LONG):

X-sane
: Ubuntu’s scanner application is incredibly easy to use. It found my 3-in-1 scanner/copier/printer with no difficulty. It previewed and scanned my test picture with only some resizing on my part. The x-sane program even allows for some editing immediately (without going to a photo editor program) to clean up scanned photos.

Password Manager
: As the name implies, this is a standard-installed application for managing your passwords. I’ve never actually used one of these before so I have nothing to compare it to. You have to create a master pswrd and then you get to add your passwords (& what they are for) to a list. Useful and easy.

Screensavers : This works in a very similar to Windows except you access the menu through System --> Preferences --> Screensaver. However, the out-of-the-box selection is much, much better. They have some absolutely gorgeous screensavers! My favorites are Lattice, Gleidescope, Sierpinski3D, LavaLite and SpirographX.

Continued after cut (Firewalls, Dictionaries, OpenOffice Drawing, Screenshots, Straw feed aggregator and More Games)


Firestarter
: A firewall program for Ubuntu. According to the book I bought, firewalls are pretty much the only must-have security feature for Ubuntu besides keeping up with your updates. It’s accessible through Synaptic (If you search “firestarter”, it’s the only result as of 08-03-2007). This application was very easy to set-up and I have yet to have it interfere with my desired on-line actions. I also liked how it logs unsolicited attempts to communicate with your computer. I used the McAfee Firewall program in Windows and it was annoying (McAfee in general is a deeply annoying program). This is much better and functional without being fussy.

Dictionary : Standard install dictionary with Internet look-up feature. Nice little program. Works with no problems as far as I can tell. I tested it using some old SAT-prep handouts. Not a feature I would have gotten on my own but nice to have.

OpenOffice Drawing
: Cool idea. Imagine the "Drawing" toolbar from MSOffice on major steroids and as a separate application. I made several diagrams and flowcharts with no more instruction than the help file.

Screenshot : Does what Alt+PrintScreen does for Windows but with some features. You can set the time delay, choose full screen or current window. The results are easy to manipulate in “gThumb Viewer”. Handy little application.

The following applications are things I added after installation. They are all available through the Applications --> Add/Remove... Menu. And there's tons more available there that I haven't had a chance to try yet.

Celestia
: Really Cool! This application lets you roam about the Solar System or even local stars. Everything's to scale and the planets are mapped with best know images. I can definitely see myself spending hours just wandering around in here.

Straw
: This program provides updates to all your webfeeds in one easy to read location. Automatically provides subscription to several Ubuntu-linux feeds, some of which I will keep. Nice and a cinch to use.

More Games
: I got several more besides the standard install bunch. My favorite add-ons (and ones I'm keeping) are Anagramarama, Atomix, Chromium, Gweled, and Kasteroids.

Remove Orphaned Packages
: With all the adding & removing of applications, you sometimes have dependent files that are “Orphaned” (where used by programs since deleted). This is application hunts them down to help clean up your files. A good idea well executed.

In conclusion, I would like to say I LOVE the “Add/Remove…” and Synaptic applications. That almost everything available is free, I find very liberating. Since the cost of install in terms of time, money and frustration is so low, it is incredibly easy to compare different applications for the same task and decide on the exact program you like. This means that the final collection of applications is exactly what you want.

Now, Windows does allow you to modify menus, install programs, etc. However, it’s just not as stream-lined as Ubuntu. Also, you don’t have to deal with a TON of manufacturer installed software that you don’t like and that’s a major hassle to delete (Dell Jukebox I’m talking about YOU!).

So far, I incredibly pleased with Ubuntu and its applications. The only major hassle has been that I can’t play wma music files but that is neither Ubuntu’s fault nor is it insurmountable. I do also have a list of minor bugs but none of them impact my day-to-day use. They are likely a side effect of the temporary install I'm using.

As of now, I plan to switch from Wubi to a permanent install. Before that I must to:
-Clean up Windows file system some more and defragment hard drive
-Expand size of Ubuntu partition (need to find out if I should do before or after permanent install)
-Buy external hard drive & configure to back up my data and as practice for main hard drive partitioning

Link to full post.

Friday, August 3, 2007

Icons: Fan-Creations Deserving of Major Props

For my last post tonight, I wish to talk about something I feel very strongly about....weblog icons. Specifically for various fandoms I keep an eye on. Because this is an unheralded fan wonderland. "Brevity is the source of wit" people and it doesn't get more brief than a 100pixel square.

Disclaimer: I didn't make any of these and have no idea who did (I'm terrible about saving an icon without recording who made it). All fictional characters/people are the propery of their respective big-name entertainment companies or selves.

So, these are some of my favorites. Just peruse and enjoy the work of some truely funny and talented fans. Fandoms involved are Stargate, Stargate: Atlantis, Literature - Poetry, Veronica Mars, Harry Potter, Supernatural, Pinky & the Brain, Pride & Prejudice, Serenity/Firefly, Star Wars, Disney Movies & Eddie Izzard.








More beneath the cut.































Link to full post.

Friday Finds

In order of increasing cool factor and strangeness....

1) New Evidence for Deep-Sea Origins of Life. Based on new fossils excavated from a Chinese mine?!

2) Mozilla Releases Hacker Tools. Older ones granted but the idea is to help good guys test their programs for vulnerabilities. Way to fight fire with fire guys.

3) Magnetically Levitated Wind Turbines. Cool idea for the day. I also had no idea China already had similar (smaller) wind turbines in operation.

4) Sicilian Mom Cuts Off Her Son's Allowance Her 61-yr old Son. I've heard Europeans tend to live longer with their parents.

5) Weirdo Christian Fundamentalist Reads Harry Potter. Because Tom Riddle is "obviously" a villanized version of the Christian god, right? This would be funny if I didn't think she was serious.

6) Weirdest Terror Scare Yet. And the funniest thing I've read all day. Read whole post for punchline.

7) A 7-legged Hermaphrodite Sheep.

How are we going to accept the existence strange alien worlds when this one's so beyond belief sometimes?

Link to full post.

Congress = Manipulative Jerks

Our Congress Hard At Work. Rigging votes in order to kill "a motion to bar undocumented immigrants from receiving any federal funds apportioned in the agricultural spending bill for employment or rental assistance".

According to the Corner, this sort of behavior is not necessarily something limited to Democratically controlled Congress.

This is the caliber of our current political class? Willing to manipulate parliamentary procedure to get an outcome? Willing to sell out to the highest frickin' bidder?

WHY DO WE TRUST THESE YAHOOS? Democrat or Republican, they apparently have less moral self-restraint than a 2-yr old in a candy store.

Link to full post.

Thursday, August 2, 2007

CNN This Morning

I have been watching "CNN: American Morning" covering the bridge collapse in Minneapolis. I must say I'm impressed with their coverage. They interviewed a high school student who witnessed the collapse and he was perfect! Articulate, balanced coverage from a high schooler (and he's interested in journalism, which could really use more people like him). CNN is really doing better in terms of working with the audience in the Internet age. They make good use of YouTube, Flicker, Weblogs, Better interviews and how they display their information on giant screens to make it more interactive.

There was a time when "American Morning" was completely unwatchable. That's been changing recently with the addition of Kiran Chetry, who interestingly enough transferred from the Fox News morning show, "Fox & Friends".

Anyway, I thought I should just give credit where it's due.

Link to full post.

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Computer Smorgasbord

FCC complaint against overly broad copyright claims. It looks like NBC, Universal, MLB and the NFL have been vastly overstated their copyrights in order to scare consumers. And they’re getting called on it.

30+ Firefox add-ons. Most of them involve picture, pdf or video downloading. Several look interesting for me to tweak Firefox.

10 Things Your IT Dept Won't Tell You. 10 ways around draconian corporate internet controls. While I applaud the attempt, I can verify one of these doesn’t work. I attempted to use a proxy site today at work and my company, cleverly, blocks them.

Link to full post.

Napster

Based on my earlier realization, I issued a help request with Napster asking how can I convert my Napter-To-Go songs into purchase tracks. Guess what? YOU CAN’T.

Apparently, Napster removed that function. So in order to purchase the 275 songs I’ve downloaded, I have to re-search Napster for each and every one. Napster-To-Go is supposed to be for people with multiple devices but it requires sycronization to update the licenses. If I like the songs enoough, I should have an option to buy the tracks without this BS.

In worse news, I cannot cancel my subscription until I can convert my wma files AND find open-source music libraries I like.

My current opinion of Napster:

Link to full post.