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Rock Star alter egos are growing in numbers
"You're forming a fake band -- that's what you do," says Sadri, calling the game "the best part of karaoke, adding in a drummer and guitars."
The Magpie Developer
Jeff Atwood is one of the best programmer/writers around. I love reading his stuff, some I agree wholeheartedly with, other stuff we disagree, but this post is about a dead-on as they come. This idea has been floating in my head for a long time, but it is hard for me to conceptualize it in words, Atwood does a brilliant job at it. Must read for any developer.
Andy Olmsted's Last Blog Entry.
(Warning: Pretty rough) No matter how you feel politically about the war, this reminds you that each number people throw around as statistics is a human life. This is extremely well written, and pretty rough on your soul towards the end, but something everyone should read. Its a shitty situation all around, but there is always a human face behind the statistics and I want to make sure I never forget that.
LSU scared of the prospect of some Moreno action?
Photos of Abandoned Swimming Pools
9 Things You Didn't Know About Rockband.
Drinking stories that put yours to shame
Via Keith


To preserve his body during the voyage home, the second-in-command stored Nelson's body in the ship's vat of rum and halted all liquor rations to the crew. Not a bad idea, but when the ship reached port, officials went to retrieve Nelson's body and found the vat dry.



Disregarding good taste (in every sense), the crew had been secretly drinking from it the entire way home. After that, naval rum was referred to as Nelson's Blood.
making vodka pills in 24 hours
Recently, Chef Fabian was experimenting further with the Adria/Torreblanca technique of making 'vodka pills.' I use this word to describe the process of making liquid-filled candies by pouring flavored alcohol syrups into cornstarch and letting it set until a hard outer shell forms.
Strategy Letter VI - joelonsoftware.com
As a programmer, thanks to plummeting memory prices, and CPU speeds doubling every year, you had a choice. You could spend six months rewriting your inner loops in Assembler, or take six months off to play drums in a rock and roll band, and in either case, your program would run faster. Assembler programmers don’t have groupies.

Entire Article is Dead On. A must read for anyone in the software biz.
Mystery illness strikes after meteorite hits Peruvian village




 
 
 
 


(Monday, April 3)

Audio Review 4/3 (Make up for Last Week)

I didn�t get a chance to post last week's Audio Notes, so this week I went ahead and put up a stream to some of the songs. I have REALLY been enjoying that Rocco DeLuca & The Burden Record. The whole album is certainly top notch. I picked it up off iTunes, but it you can get it from Amaz now. I choose to stream Colorful because even though it may be the most popish sounding song on the CD, it is certainly the most catchy. The other songs on the album are just as good, I just have a feeling that if any of them were to be on the radio (and need to be catchy) that song would probably be the one that does it. Other highlights on the album for me are Swing Low and Soul. Soul is a lot darker than most of the album. But the intro break in is great. Esp with the slide. One of the CD's I picked up this week was Matt Costa's 'Songs We Sing'. Me and the Wife first heard Costa at a Jack Johnson concert where he and the Animal Liberation Orchestra were the opening acts. I had heard bits and pieces of songs from him since then, but grabbed this CD as soon as I saw it. Again the whole CD is great, but I really like 2 of the songs Behind the Moon and Wash Away. I put Behind the Moon up on the flash player, just because I flipped a coin, but after listening to it another 2 or 3 times, I do think it may be the best song on the CD for me. If you look at my last.fm stats over the past 3 weeks you will see that I have been listening to a lot of Arctic Monkeys. The whole CD is just a mesh of sound, and jumps speeds not only in between songs on the album, but also in specific songs. My favorite song of the CD has got to be Vampires is a harsh word but.., although I also enjoy Riot Van immesensly. Certainly worth the pickup, again whole album is great. Aceyalone and RJD2 was an interesting combo for an album, but it turned out pretty good. When I saw the two had paired up I imagined something along the lines of a Gorillaz-ish album. This really isn't that, but it also isn't bad. This is by far my favorite song on the CD, but the rest of the CD is worth the purchase. I do think All For U is the highlight though. In a couple of previous entries I wrote about the awesome Thom Yorke solo show that Cable and Tweed posted this week. This is his version of Morning Bell (one of my favorite songs of Amnesiac). Good stuff, do yourself a favor and check out the whole show. Last I included 'Always Love' off Nada Surf's latest album; the Weight is a Gift. It isn�t really a newer album, but the songs is just a great song that makes me smile and certainly worth a listen.


Brainstorm it:  Your Thoughts?











Travis - The Boy With No Name
 Travis is back. I wouldn't say I hated 12 memories, it was meant to be very political, I just thought it went a little overboard and was somewhat preachy. Then when the greatest hits CD came out to be honest I was really hoping it didn't mean the end to one of my favorite brit bands. Boy With No Name is everything they were capable of. Supurb CD all the way through. Every song is brilliant. Big Chair is probably my favorite song and the opening to the CD on 3 Times is as good as it gets in music imho.
Pop! Why Bubbles are Great For The Economys (Gross)
 One of the better economic books I have read in while, where the author gets their premise across in a well written, clear and concise manner. Basically Gross believes that the infrastructure left over after economic bubbles, provides companies with the ability to move forward (maybe more than the original bubble did). Not a hard read, I would definitely suggest it for a day and the beach/lake.
Feist - The Reminder
 I CANNOT GET "I feel it all" OUT OF MY HEAD. Period. Great album, angelic voice.
Catan - Xbox Live Arcade
 I am hopelessly addicted to this board-turned-video game on the xbox360. I had never played the board game but had seen it being played in some comic shops growing up. Click the Pick and play the demo, it isn't the 360 interface, but same game.
Arctic Monkeys - Favorite Worse Nightmare
 No Sophomore slump here. Just as good (if not better) than Whatever they Say.
Beautiful Evidence (Tufte)
 Tufte reads like a text book, most people would say bleh, but the information about "information" that he can deliver is top notch. My first Tufte book was "A Visual Display To Quantitative Information" and it was extremely well done, albeit confusing at time. I think beautiful Evidence is a little easier of a read (I am still only half way through it) and a little easier for myself to understand the ideas he is presenting..
Fountains of Wayne - Traffic and Weather
 Fountains of Wayne are the Gods of pop music. If Welcome Interstate Managers was a collection of short stories in song form, then Traffic and Weather is an even better collection with more humor. I already feel like CNN has the hottest female anchors, imagining them throwing their lust around like the Title track to the CD makes it even better.
Game of Thrones (Martin)
 I started this book assuming it was going to be a high fantasy novel. Elfs, Dragons, Magic and the like. It isn't. It IS fantasy but more surrounding the politics and cunning of a few high ranking families. Incest, Murder, Intrigue, unscrupulous midgets. It has it all and more.

 
Disclaimer The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in anyway.
© Copyright 2003-2007, Eric Thompson