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.
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.
You must be busy. A). not the best subject for people whom you associate with to reply to. B) There is no lead into it, like "My mother tried to get a patent to a automatic diaper changer for 40 year olds hanging upside down and was turned down." C) No new content in a couple of days..
I have been real busy as of late, but I have bene posting a bunch to the 'interesting finds' on the left hand side. No real commentary, just links.. but they are usually good reads.
Since Google announced plans to buy DoubleClick for $3.1 billion last week, privacy advocates have expressed growing concern over the mountain of data Google's would hold following the deal. The largest search engine in the United States, Google fielded as many as 3.5 billion search queries last month, and it regularly stores that data. (It recently said it would begin to get rid of those records after 18 to 24 months.)
The company also collects and stores data on a range of other services, including user's schedules on Google Calendar, address information from Google Maps and e-mail documents from Gmail. By acquiring DoubleClick--the country's largest advertising network, with a reach of about 80 percent to 85 percent of the Web population--Google would have access to a database of user's surfing habits across hundreds of sites, including DoubleClick customers such as Time Warner's AOL and Viacom's MTV Networks.
The public-interest groups contend that by holding all of that data, Google is vulnerable to security breaches and surveillance by law enforcements in the United States and abroad. They say people's right to privacy could be severely diminished.
Among other requests, the groups ask that the FTC order Google to create a "meaningful data destruction policy" and give users reasonable access to information stored about them.
I have said it before, and I will say it again: I am not necessarily scared of google having a massive amount of data on me as long as they reciprocate the deal with providing me free services, and more targeted relevant advertising. What I am scared of is a 3rd party having access to a mass amount of data on Americans (be that the gov't, hackers, etc).
I have a feeling these discussions will be a lot more public with this acquisition on the line, and maybe the general Google consumer (even though it is free, we are still consumers) will sit down and realize how much Google knows about them (their schedule, what they search for, how they search for it (mobile at the office, etc) where geographically they search for it (again mobile but in the near-future), what they are working on at work, and if all goes planned, what they were listening to when they heard the ad or what they were watching, and the place in which they bought something etc.
But don't get me wrong, Yahoo and MSN Search would be doing the same thing if they were this big. Only problem is that they are not and won't be any time soon.
Google is an interesting company. They have realized that if they broker advertising in every media; online, print, television, radio, etc. they can make a lot of money.
Now Coca-Cola won't have to manage relationships with newspapers, magazines, radio centers, cable, web sites, etc. They will just work with Google, and Google will place their marketing material in all these formats. Pretty smart.
I don't necessarily think the idea of being the middle man for all media mediums is a really new idea. It is just that Google a.) conquered one area very early at its inception (PPC) and b.) has the reserves to buy their way into the others.
Still doesn't change the fact that along with being the traffic director, they still get to see all our traffic.
I think there is a very good blog post to be written about Google with respect to what it is trying to become.
I personally distrust and hate the consumerist culture. Marketers and advertisers devote their time to creating what they call "cradle to grave" customers. They do this by targeting children at the earliest possible age and instilling an insatiable need to buy shit.
Google is going to be an enabler of this system in a big way by offering "full spectrum dominance" advertising, to borrow a term from the Pentagon.
A lot of people may not see anything wrong with getting bombarded by advertisements in every walk of life and I dont think it is an argument like "murder is wrong" that would ever reach a consensus on in the sense that it would be a self evident truth.
Anyway, I am going to put together a post on this one day...
God, I love to buy shit. If google can help me do that, god bless thier bones. Though I will say I'm terrified about the personalized advertisements. I got kids that get on this computer to ya know.
P.S. On a legit note, telecom "mergerization" (I think i just created that word) freaks me out more. Massive telecom industries like the "ma" bell att&t and others bothers me. More of my personalized life must go thorugh them then anyone else, including my internet usage. They know my content to conversations, and even know where I am at at all times. Freaks me out.
"Cho Seung-Hui in 2005 was declared mentally ill by a Virginia special justice, who declared he was 'an imminent danger' to himself, a court document states."
I am very pro-2nd Amendment, but how does someone that is declared mentally ill pass the requirements for purchasing a firearm in any state? Not to say he probably could not have found another gun illegally if he had wanted to, but something isn't working correctly if someone is documented as 'mentally ill' by government worker is allowed to purchase a gun (or two).
Also as a side note to this, I am starting to get annoyed with the media's portrayal of VT's police force as somehow semi-responsible for this event.
Also I completely understand how a bill like this gets moved back in the wake of VT. But personally, I hope it does not affect its passage.
Also, yesterday I found myself reading Cho's really shitty plays and thought they were very odd and immature, but I just read that he sent a whole package of stuff to NBC and I really don't think I care to read anything else by him, just because I feel like it might in some small way validate what it seems like he wanted (attention?). I am sure the news will plaster it everywhere and it will be inescapable, but regardless I an not going to personally look for it.
I will read more about the victims though. What a terrible, insane event.
I figured that the 2nd amendment thing would come up at some point. The NRAers are going to argue that if everyone was armed to the teeth then this wouldn't happen. The other side is that if no one had guns then he wouldn't have been able to do this. Etc.
Another reaction is probably going to a call to model public places on lock-down prisons. A policemen on every corner and a metal detector by every door.
The truth is that if someone is determined to do something like this, metal detectors and gun laws are not going to stop them, just as the existing laws on murder don't stop them. I hate to think this is going to be a political issue, but I am sure that someone somewhere is going to wave the bloody shirt and call for a bigger police state. One of my coworkers already said, in all seriousness, "the problem in this country is that you can't lock people up until after the crime is committed." Minority Report, anyone?
I also expect all kinds of discussion about why this happened. The argument will be that our cultural decay is a result of blood drenched video games, movies and an exposed nipple on prime time television during the Superbowl, among other things. I don't know about all that. One thing I know, this is a horrific tragedy. The number of people killed is greater than the total number of firearm related homicides in many other countries for an entire year, but it is a fraction of a percentage point in the US. (On the other hand, Iraqis have multiple VA Tech massacres every day.)
I'll be avoiding television more than usual in the coming weeks.
First of all, you 100% right, that is exactly what he was seeking attention.
Second, he followed the gun laws; which makes it clear that they need to be more stringent. It should be really hard to get a gun, and even harder to be allowed to own one. That doesn't mean that you are taking away the right; it is limiting it.
while i agree that the gun laws clearly failed in this situation (and i should also say that i'm fairly anti-gun in general), i'm not sure that a "mentally ill" disqualification is the right way to go, either. people who have eating disorders, for instance, are "mentally ill." people who have panic attacks can be labeled "mentally ill." my point is that you can get a diagnosis for almost anything.
good point. maybe the blanket of "mentally ill" isn't the best, but maybe some kind of defintition of a subset of those people who a Dr. feels probably shouldn't be able to purchase a weapon for fear or harm to themselves or others. I know that is extremely vague and would have to be fleshed out though. (to much contempt/debate of the nra, etc I am sure).
I believe the actual law is that anyone who has been involuntarily committed to a psychiatric institution is restricted from buying firearms. Cho was found to be a danger to himself and others, but was allowed to voluntarily check in to a facility. This is the way that it usually goes. "You're going, but we'll let you do it yourself before we force you." Please correct me if I'm wrong, but that's what I understand to be the case.
My initial thought when this was going down was not about how a mentally ill person was able to buy a gun but how in the world is someone who is in this country with a student visa able to purchase one. Once again our government is focusing on impossible tasks like locking down the Mexican border and not taking care of the little things that could make a difference. Under no circumstances should anyone that is in this country on a temporary basis (buy this anyone but an American citizen) should be able to purchase a weapon in this country. I am amazed that no one in the press has even brought this up. In my mind this should have been one of the first things addresses after 9/11.
If the media wouldn't validate these monsters by putting them on TV after they mass kill then it might deter a few more from following through. Instead, the media could simply refuse to ever mention his name and definately don't show the world his crap. It only makes other life losers see that they can get a moment of validation.
Richie sent me this and it is cracking me up. I especially like the slow-mo shot of the guy on the rights face as his beer is spilled.
Brainstorm it:
At first I thought he was just seizing the opportunity to throw food at someone, which would be hilarious. But then I realized that he is trying to hit the player because he is from a visiting team and just had really bad aim. I love how the announcers can't figure out the motive.
Over the past few weeks I have slowly stopped working out (lots of work to do around home) and started gaining a little weight. After reading a story on MSNBC on how the soon-to-be-father ends up gaining a lot of weight during the pregnancy also (Couvade Light?), I decided last week that I needed to kick in a 'Mes Del Agua' for the month before we go on vacation. For those that don't remember Mes Del Agua 1 (success) and Mes Del Agua 2 (Failure), basically I will only be drinking water for the next 30 days (this includes flavored waters, but not juices, and not rum/beer flavored water). This, in conjunction with a optimal 1500 Calorie diet coupled with 3 or 4 days a week at the gym, I am hoping will pull me down from the 173 I am now, to the 155 target I want to weigh before the baby arrives (August). I had originally planed to be around 160 (from my max at 187 a few years ago) but even with working out 3or 4x a week I hit a blockade around 165, so maybe this (only water, no carbonation etc) will give me an extra boost into the 150s. Maintaining it will be another issue once I get there.
The pic above is of me polishing off the last of some tasty Myers light last night. The most interesting thing is the shot glass (which is really ice and made from the mold to the left) which I have had in the freezer for a few weeks but had not broken out to try a frosted shot of rum. There were ~2 left in the bottle so I went ahead and polished them off last night before midnight as bon voyage shots.
When I did the first Mes Del Agua I remember pretty clearly the sequence of events. Nights 1 - 3 it was kinda hard to go to bed (the nightcaps/uncle Pappy's Cough Syrup are not available to induce the sleepyness), Days 2-4 are some serious headache days (the full withdrawal of caffeine is pretty rude to the brain), but after day 5 things start to get a little better and after week 1, I remember seriously actually having more energy during the day, but at night my body was very tired (which is how it should be naturally I assume). So at least this time when attempting the Mes Del Agua I know what I am getting myself into. The first Mes Del Agua I was accompanied by my wife (who was very resolute and did it with flying colors), the second time I tried it by myself but failed less than a week into it. I am keeping a pretty strict diet/calorie intake and keeping a pretty detailed spreadsheet this time of calorie intake, so I am hoping that will keep the willpower strong when the Earl Gray caffeine muse sings its sweet song to me in the afternoons.
The Mes Del Agua will end at midnight on May 13th and we leave for a long weekend at the beach that Thur so I plan on having a Semana de Cerveza after this is all over.
you should be happy with 170's. I've been consistantly doing an hour of cardio and an hour of high intense muscle workouts five days a week for almost 6 months. I'm stuck at 180, down from 206.
I will happily say I do have a bench max of 250 right now, though my pecks still look more "boobish" then "man Mountain-ish".
I also consistantly down a case of beer per week and + or - some Bourbon also though, so that might be the reason for lack of movement.
But 170 for me? That would rock. But going to out simply rocks harder.
I have a question though. Obviously you are insane, but do you know you are insane? When you are wearing your wife's lingerie, clogging in pile of dog feces, thinking about the contents of your next blog post, do you ever stop and just say to yourself, "Wow, I have completely lost my mind?" I'd like to hear about how it feels to be so completely nuts.
(BTW, I'd be the smart ass that would vote for the Greatest Hits album just to piss off music snobs.)
Name: Guitar Hero Track Pack 1
Price: 500 Points
Availability: Not available in Asia
Dash Details: Bark at the Moon as made famous by Ozzy Osbourne, Hey You as made famous by The Exies, Ace of Spades as made famous by Motorhead, For all song credits please visit www.redoctane.com.
Name: Guitar Hero Track Pack 2
Price: 500 Points
Availability: Not available in Asia
Dash Details: Killer Queen as made famous by Queen, Take it Off as made famous by The Donnas, Frankenstein as made famous by The Edgar Winter Group, For all song credits please visit www.redoctane.com.
Name: Guitar Hero Track Pack 3
Price: 500 Points
Availability: Not available in Asia
Dash Details: Higher Ground as made famous by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Infected as made famous by Bad Religon, Stellar as made famous by Incubus, For all song credits please visit www.redoctane.com.
One of th reasons I was so pumped about Guitar hero coming to the x360 was a.) that I own one and b.) that it would be updateable over XBL with new songs. But at $6 a 3 pack?! Thats $2 a song, I can get the original song off iTunes for $1 and run around in my underwear with a real guitar at home. Sorry MS/RO that is waaaaaay to much. Red Octane take note, you should price EACH song for $1 and not for the 3 pack. Let people pick and choose, if they enjoy the first couple I would bet they might pick up the songs they were on the fence with purchasing.
When I heard about this it was a bummer. I love the game (I finally beat the second set of songs on "hard mode" last night and me and the band have moved to Providence), but I guess I will be sticking with the original songs and/or just messing with Frets on Fire for the PC and still use the x360 guitar.
Microtransactions have so much potential in gaming and general entertainment in this brave new microchunking world, but only when they are priced right. I had envisioned a future in which a band could release a music video, non-DRM'd WMV song, and a Guitar Hero 2 play-along song for their new single for something like $3, THAT would have got my attention musically and as fan recreation, and most importantly I would blog/talk/discuss about it.
"Have you tried to play that new Of Montreal song on Guitar Hero? It is insane!"
+1 Coolness points cause I enjoy Oh Gravity!
+1 Coolness points for the DDR reference
+2 Coolness points for the cute Red Head from Heroes (Hiro's woman)
+3 Coolness points Guitar Hero Axe
+1 Coolness point because of the cross reference of the word "Hero"
--------------------------
TOTAL
+8 Coolness points for the video
Which is pretty good generally if it is something on MTV it automatically is deduced by 7 points, which puts this video in the + column.
Brainstorm it:
Something you missed is that the business looking guy was the semi retarded brother on Arrested Development. Worth another point in my book.
So awhile back I posted that one of the only things that I hated about my x360 was the small selection of codecs that MS allowed to stream over the x360. Looks like that is gonna change with the spring (May) update:
"# H.264 video support: Up to 15 Mbps, Baseline, Main, and High (up to level 4.1) Profiles with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles.
# Added MPEG-4 Part 2 video support: Up to 8 Mbps, Simple Profile with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles."
Xvid support will make almost my entire movie/tv show library that much easier to stream.
Also, they have connected MSN chat services with XBL services to enable people to intermingle the two and this little add-on will facilitate messenging back and forth (and also make it so much easier to input those damn GUID like codes for the points cards and beta keys):
Yeah, I am glad we wrapped up that equity line, but I don't really see the house as real debt, because it will continue to grow in value, and you will make money from it.
Just wrap it up in your house; let your house pay it for you!
...Because her Mom set down Puzzle Quest long enough last night (she is addicted) to get up and play Rhythm/Bass for 6-7 songs with me playing lead, and within those 6-7 songs (I think it was on Cherry Pie) we picked up the Joan/Lita Achievment AND the Lennon/McCartney Achievent,.
I finally went to bed around 1 or so after 4 beers, 2 new guitars and 6 achievements. Man what an awesome game.
Apple and EMI announced today that the music label will begin selling all of its music through the iTunes Store, DRM-free. During a press conference in London this morning, EMI said that all of its unprotected tracks will be available from the iTunes Store for $1.29 and that customers will be able to upgrade their already-purchased EMI tracks for 30¢ if they so choose.
EMI and Apple said that the bit rate of EMI's tracks will be bumped up as well. EMI's catalog will now be available as 256kbps AAC files, upgraded from 128kbps. "We believe that offering consumers the opportunity to buy higher quality tracks and listen to them on the device or platform of their choice will boost sales of digital music," said EMI CEO Eric Nicoli during this morning's press conference. Customers who are not interested in the higher-quality, unprotected AAC files will still be able to buy protected tracks at 128kbps for 99¢ apiece.
I will HAPPILY pay $.30 more per track for unencumbered and at a highre Bitrate. I rarely say anything good about record companies, but I will give them props.
The first thing I do when I buy a CD from iTunes is burn a copy and reimport it and back it up as non-DRM'd MP3s. This is a good move.
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.
