*grrrrr*
So my power supply up and dies last week, with no warning. Computer just shuts off. It's one of those X-Connect dealies with the modular cables - which, btw, turned out to be a huge mistake; the modular cables are much thicker and more difficult to manage than the standard ones, which would be funny if it wasn't such a pain in the ass. I only bought it because my last one died just outside the warranty period, too, and it was one of the few unopened boxes at Fry's - if I didn't have it on an APC ups, I'd suspect the power in my building had problems.
Anyway, it turns out their RMA policy is "we sell you another one, charge your card, and you return your old one in the same box to get your money back. Oh, and you pay return shipping." Yikes. But the funny part is: I'm replacing a sleek-looking metallic black model, which matches my case and everything. The only option I had for replacement? A blue case with an ORANGE UV light inside. Oh my. Since they SELL you another as their return policy, if they're out of stock of your color, you're just out of luck.
Anyway, avoid Ultraproducts.com and their ultraconnect line of power supplies like the plague.
Too much free time + digital camera =
The Perry Bible Fellowship
I have just found the oddest webcomic...
http://cheston.com/pbf/archive.htmlSome of them you have to think for a 'sec to get the joke. But when you do, they're pretty funny. And for as Avant Garde as the subject matter is, the art is very nice.
EDIT: The more I read, the more off-color they get. Make sure you read them all before you pass on the link to others...
"Updated" Warner Brothers Cartoons
Bastards. Be sure to check the link provided at the end of the text to see the trailer for this raping of cultural icons to appeal to 6-year-olds.
Quite the informative link.
http://www.uweboll.com/A website devoted to
Uwe Boll, maker of such classic video-game-inspired films as Alone in the Dark and House of the Dead (as well as the upcoming Bloodrayne and Far Cry movies). Whether you're a fan of his work or not, it's important to check this out, as I think they have an underlying message in their site with which we can all agree.
E-mail
I have received so much e-mail in the past couple weeks that Eudora is erroring out: it addes numbers 000 to 999 to the end of attachments, but it has run out of numbers I've gotten so many viruses.
So I'm killing the catch-all forwarding on my e-mail. If you need to contact me, please use the address in the address book ONLY.
Grokster support ^_^
It has been pretended by some, (and in England especially,) that inventors have a natural and exclusive right to their inventions, and not merely for their own lives, but inheritable to their heirs. But while it is a moot question whether the origin of any kind of property is derived from nature at all, it would be singular to admit a natural and even an hereditary right to inventors. It is agreed by those who have seriously considered the subject, that no individual has, of natural right, a separate property in an acre of land, for instance. By an universal law, indeed, whatever, whether fixed or movable, belongs to all men equally and in common, is the property for the moment of him who occupies it, but when he relinquishes the occupation, the property goes with it. Stable ownership is the gift of social law, and is given late in the progress of society. It would be curious then, if an idea, the fugitive fermentation of an individual brain, could, of natural right, be claimed in exclusive and stable property. If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation. Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property. Society may give an exclusive right to the profits arising from them, as an encouragement to men to pursue ideas which may produce utility, but this may or may not be done, according to the will and convenience of the society, without claim or complaint from anybody. Accordingly, it is a fact, as far as I am informed, that England was, until we copied her, the only country on earth which ever, by a general law, gave a legal right to the exclusive use of an idea. In some other countries it is sometimes done, in a great case, and by a special and personal act, but, generally speaking, other nations have thought that these monopolies produce more embarrassment than advantage to society; and it may be observed that the nations which refuse monopolies of invention, are as fruitful as England in new and useful devices.
- Thomas Jefferson to Isaac McPherson
13 Aug. 1813Writings 13:333--34
Quiet in Here
I'm assuming you're either a) visiting family, b) playing World of Warcraft, or c) like me, doing both!
So, who's in WoW? Got a lev19 human mage on the Eastern server Elune (playing with my brother). Love this game! We did the Moonbrook mine instanced dungeon last night, and boy is that damn boat cool.
Evil Dead Remake
I'm not sure this is very good news.Rather than make an Evil Dead 4, Raimi has given the go-ahead to an Evil Dead remake. Looks like it'll have Bruce, but other than that... Raimi will NOT be directing. *sigh* We'll see.
You Bay Area'ers can actually go see this, you lucky dogs
Pity I didn't find this site on Halloween
Most punnerific /. story evah
Yeesh!
Pic inside of my newest toy...
Not All Fascism Looks Like Adolph Hitler
Optical Illusions
http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/index.htmlThey have lots of animated ones, which are new to me. And there's some rather in-depth explanations for most of them, which is cool. This site breaks my mind.
.
(I assume everyone has seen
this Bush/Jesus thing already, so I can stop being a prick and making MC load slowly)
Katamari Damacy
http://gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/918766.aspYay, it comes out today!
Basic idea: you're a little man. Roll on the ground. Things you roll over, stick to you. Become a huge ball!
Yaaaaaaaar, mateys!
Don' be forgetin' to talk like a pirate today, ya scurvy sea dogs!
Slow it down about 100000x and you've got my trip
Fly-eating Robot
You slashdot readers have probably already seen
this, but it's too damn interesting not to post. Damn, but that's some cool (and scary) tech.
Ninja clear
Well, I DON'T want the first few minutes of SH4 spoiled, and I'd like to be able to use the Ninja again. So...
Sci-Fi!
New jaw grown on man's backI had no idea doctors could do this now. Simply amazing.
Girls Are Pretty
Posted the link in my links before, by never really sat down to read it through.
I have no idea what's going on here, but it ENTHRALLS me.
For those of you with Doom 3
How Convenient!
Load a map in Doom 3 using the "devmap" command instead of "map" to enter development mode.
Then type the command "crash" in the console.
What did you THINK would happen!?
Spamusement
One-panel comics inspired by SpamLooks like there are more added daily - yay!
Uh, oh - BRYCE:
We gotta bit of a problem. Check the Ninja. It's only been hitting older posts, so I didn't notice it.
Hitchhiker's Guide Movie Trailer
In the thingy. Not much, but still cool to see something.
Some Plaque Company is Fired
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0715041wtc1.h...It was just noticed and reported that the plaque at 9/11 Ground Zero lists the date as 9/11/2002 instead of 9/11/2001 in the text. WOW.
Top-shelf Satire
http://objective.jesussave.us/kidz.html(From the same lovely people that brought us the eerie, whispering
Baby Jesus head)
"Hopsiah the Kanga-Jew"... priceless. ^_^
More VG speed runs!
http://planetquake.com/sda/other/other.htmlThe Half-Life one, at 48 min with all cutscenes included, is incredible! I particularly love the snark-jumps and using the scientists to prop open doors that are supposed to shut.
There's a 17 minute Fallout 2 one, but I haven't watched it yet. The Mario 64 vid is cool, too; all 70 stars!
Well Said
From Gamespot's review of Spiderman 2 for the PS2 (which is supposed to be flawed but fairly playable, as I understand it), regarding Bruce Campbell being the game's narrator:
"If you're a fan of Bruce Campbell's unique brand of being Bruce Campbell, you'll likely enjoy the hint speech."
Well, I guess I am. ^_^
Tetris controllers!
http://spong.com/news/r%5C/e%5C/retropluga138457.jpgActually, these aren't just controllers; they connect directly to the TV to play tetris. Grooooovy.
Worlds longest e-mail addresses
Oh, I am SOOOOO tempted.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?desc...A GBA SP designed to look like the old-school NES controllers. Whoever thought of this is a marketing genius. If I hadn't already managed to find 4 GBAs for Crystal Chronicles / 4 Swords, I'd be all over this.
Oh, and since when does Newegg (the best online store for computer stuff, period) sell game systems?
Streamline Windows XP
Just a couple links to streamline Windows XP, particularly for a gaming PC. Did wonders for me!
WinXP Tweaking: From Reformat to RelaxGood guide, though not all of it is performance issue-related; much of this is a matter of personal preference. Some very good data in here anyway, though. Particularly the links to great utils like Microsoft's Bootvis and the 3rd party Cacheman on the second page.
WinXP Tweaking: From Relax to RighteousSequel to the above article. Not nearly as useful, as most of it is customization.
The following are taken from the above two articles:
Greatis Startup Application Databasesysinfo.orgGreat lists of startup apps to track down what does and what doesn't need to be in the registry "run" area.
Windows XP Home and Professional Service ConfigurationsInsanely useful list of which Services are necesssary and which can be removed. In particular, you MUST grab
this file, which modifies the Windows descriptions for each service to include actual USEFUL info on whether or not it can be removed. Note that the linked file is for XP Pro; see
here for other versions.
System Optimization Guide for GamersA specific guide to optimizing your system for gaming, including both hardware and software.
Roll a D20
Yeah, I didn't get to be a level 20 bard by being stupid. You think I'm going to go raid that chest? With all those OBVIOUS undead on the walls and the discolored floor plates? Yeah, that's really gonna happen.
Incidentally, this is from a
seriously messed up page describing (with pics) an actual Catacomb where people were strapped to the walls in lifelike poses. Fascinating and creepy in the extreme.
Moron
http://22synchronicity.net/Gosh what a moron, thinking his life revolved around the number 22...
...doesn't he know it's really 450!?
New Fan Version of Maniac Mansion
You code-monkeys - a question:
I'm looking to brush up on my C++ skills, possibly with a simple game or somesuch. It's been a while since I've spent days searching for dropped semicolons, so I'm a bit out of the loop: what's a good compliler/IDE these days? No Microsoft, including C# and .NET, please. Needs to be for a Win32 environment, as I intend to do some DirectX 9 stuff. Oh, and no, I don't want to do this in Java. No game company worth their salt uses it; too damn slow.
IIRC, Codewarriors had a good product; anyone use them lately? Borland used to do some good stuff, too.
Aundy Kaufman Returns... supposedly.
OK...
I'm currently downloading The Matrix Revolutions for my cell phone. It's a good time to be alive. ^_^
Here kitty kitty...
I love the 'net. Just when you think you've seen everything, something like this comes along.
The Infinite Cat ProjectNew Apartment, New Phone, same old Martin!
I finally got around to putting my address in the thingy (for all y'all that want to send me buckets of money and candy). I also put up my new phone number (cell only, no land line here) since I finally found a way to get the phone I wanted at the price I wanted. Go T-Mobile!
Chris, monitor question:
Did you get that 21" flat panel from Best Buy you mentioned? I'm thinking of splurging on one (my 19" CRT is like 7 years old now, and acting kind of funky) and wanted to know what model you got and what your opinion on it.
The Hamster Returns
See the thingy. Fear the rodent.
For the record, I don't think that's by the Blue Man Group, but it does sort of sound like it.
We comin' to a Bay Area near You!
Assuming everything goes as planned, Bryce, Matt, and myself will be in the Bay Area from Sunday night through Tuesday morning to move some of my stuff from storage to my new apartment in Chula Vista. We're coming down Sunday, picking up the truck and loading it Monday, and driving back Tuesday. We'll be in the San Jose area, and any of y'all that are free for dinner Monday night please drop one of us a line via cell phone, and we'll figure out somewhere good (probably near us, as we'll be packing 'till evening, I'd wager).
The McGurk Effect
This is the coolest thing since that misspelled sentence that you could still read I posted awhile ago. Follow these instructions very carefully to get the full effect:
- Get the file "McGurk_large.mov" from the thingy. It's tiny, like 300k. I'll not be posting the link since we're still getting hit so hard for that mario vid. ^_^ Oh, and get Quicktime if you don't have a way to handle MOV.
- Play the video, watching it very carefully. Do not look away from the vid. What is the man saying? If you had to write it down, what syllable would that be? Play it several times and decide what it is.
- Now, play it again, only this time look away or close your eyes. NOW what syllable is he saying?
(more in the reply, but DO THE ABOVE BEFORE READING FURTHER)
This guy is my new personal hero.
Playstation 2 Better Than SexTo summarize: At a baseball game, they held a little contest where 3 bachelors tried to charm a pretty lady and win a date with her. She chose the best of the 3, but when given the choice between an all-expense-paid date with her and a PS2, HE CHOSE THE PS2! The men in the audience cheered. ^_^
Weird Al's Parents Found Dead
Windows Sounds Remix
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/noises.phpSomeone has got waaaaaay too much time on their hands - those sorts of people make the 'net a better place.
Movie Warning
HELLBOY SUCKS.
There, just thought I'd warn you away from this steaming pile of ripe mammal dung.
I've decided
After much deliberation and soul searching, not to mention extensive research while on the road, I've come to a decision regarding where I'll be living. I've been in contact with thoraxcorp, a game publishing company in the Ukraine, and they've offered to pay my moving expenses if I'll move there, a gracious offer which I've gladly accepted. They'll have me working largely on the advertising side of their K-12 line of gambling games. I'll be leaving out of Raleigh in a week; I'm sorry that I won't be able to make it to CA for a sendoff.
Sweet!
Just got an e-mail requesting permission to translate the mod I did for Morrowind ("Cult of the Clouds") into French. It's already been translated into Russian about a year ago. Neat to see my work getting around the globe.
Movie Recommendation
Jim Carrey's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is incredibly good. Carrey's trademark camp is even less evident than it was in The Truman Show. I could go on and on, but as it has opened to both critical acclaim and great word-of-mouth (already #84 on imdb's top 100) you need to go see it. Now. Twice.
Trunk Monkey
http://www.suburban-trunkmonkey.com/I'm gonna get me one of these. It can keep evilNavi company.
WoW
So, I'm assuming we'd have heard about it already if it was so, but I'm asking anyway: anyone get into or know someone who got into the World of Warcraft Beta? That game makes me feel kinda funny, like when we used to climb the rope in gym class.
BUSTED!
http://www.moveon.org/censure/caughtonvideo/Rumsfeld claims he never said Saddam was an immediate threat. They show him his own quote, stating quite the opposite. He goes from zero to Porky Pig in four seconds.
David Belle
http://www.muchosucko.com/video-davidbelle.htmlNOT WORKSAFE, but only because a couple of the banners on that site look a bit pornarrific. This guy is awesome. I never thought I'd see a real life person make the dude from Prince of Persia look like a quadruple amputee drunkard.
Um...
After passing the checkpoint at the Raleigh airport (where they confiscate your nail clippers), my Mom's husband found a rack of nail clippers for sale in a convenience store next to his gate. I guess that's a good business, between the wannabe terrorists and the long-nailed people who just got their clippers taken. ^_^
Martin's Show Reviews
I think I've seen all the shows I'm gonna see. Here's my reviews, for those interested (morecooler gets googled! ^_^ ):
La Femme - French-inspired artistic topless revue, in an avant-garde style with comedy, magic, etc. added between acts. A great start for my trip; they manage the rare feat of going artsy-fartsy without losing any sensuality. The theatre is tiny, too; the worst seats are like 30 feet from the stage, which helps add an atmosphere of intimacy. Recommended.
George Carlin - I commented on this one in an earlier post. Not recommended.
Zumanity - Cirque du Soliel takes the passion and intensity present in all their shows and applies it to raw eroticism. Parts of this show will give me nightmares for weeks. Others will give me... *ahem* different dreams. The small theatre with the protuding stage brings the audience much, much closer to the action than in other shows, which is good, because there's a bit less going on here at any one time than in other soleil stuff. The theatre's entrance is cool, too, with peepholes and naked cast members behind glass. The ushers flirt with you, too, which is fun. ^_^ While not Cirque's best work - which is hardly a biting criticism, given the company - it is nonetheless very powerful; if you're over 18 and you've already seen "O", this is your next stop. Highly Recommended.
Blue Man Group - Wow. There was less music and more humor & visual effects than I had been led to believe by the advertisement, which was perfect. The "little spinny strobe dancing guys" are one of the coolest things I've ever seen; those who've seen the show will know what I mean. Extreme audience interaction, stunning special effects, great music; just a kickass time. Extremely Recommended.
Lance Burton at the Monte Carlo - Yawn. For those who've seen Fox's Arrested Development, imagine Jobe with a slightly bigger budget. The tricks are somewhat impressive, but they're 90% mere variations on time-old mirror&trapdoor tricks. What's more, if you're seated (like I was) on the edge of the area, you can see how he does some of the tricks! The props are showing wear, his dancers all look to be in their mid 30s, and he's obviously bored with what he's doing. This show needs to be put out of its misery. And his "I'm cool 'cause I talk like I've had a stroke" speech mannerisms get very old quickly (hmmm - I hope he didn't really have a stroke, then I'd be an asshole). Not Recommended
O - Cirque du Soleil with water. Jaw dropping; perfect shape and form in every shape and form. Words fail me. Watch it if you can. Get the expensive tickets if you can. Enjoy. One side note - the water on the stage makes for a much more pleasurable arena environment. It tempers the temperatures and adds a fresh smell that is calming even before the show begins. Extremely Recommended
Carlin
Just came back from Carlin's show (his second-to-last in Vegas for this run). Has anyone seen him here before? Is he ALWAYS this obscene when in a casino show? I'm not a prude by any measure, and I certainly wasn't offended or anything, but there was NO material that wasn't potty humor. Much of it had no punchline other that the gross darkness of it all, but that gets old fast. By the time he suggested that we dig up young dead women and cut out their genatalia for use as sex toys, I was tired of laughing out of politeness.
His mind is going, too. He kept forgetting things, and the thread of his jokes wound and doubled back in a disturbingly chaotic way. And the most awful, stomach-churning thing of it all is the painfully obvious certainty that Carlin knows this is happening. He stutters, apologizes, and prefaces his jokes with strange, rambling qualifiers. At one point he even noted that he was screwing up the transitions, and at another he offhandedly mentioned that it was weird that he couldn't remember any of his old material, and that it had been happening alot lately. That wasn't part of his joke, just sort of a sad little aside while he frantically tried to think of something else to say.
He blamed it on the venue, calling the place "a curse" and emphasizing how glad he would be to leave it behind and go back to his normal touring schedules. And to top it all off, his opening and closing pieces (neither of which were very funny) he read word-for-word off of paper because, per his own explanation, his material was too hard to memorize on his own, and he needed to perform it for it to stick.
For those who saw his bomb on Leno shortly after his appearance in SLO where he stumbled and ruined most of his jokes, imagine that stretched out over an hour and a half. I used to like Carlin - hell, I still like him - and that made the show that much worse to bear. Pity doesn't make a man more funny.
Damnit...
So I come back from a rousing day of losing my shirt, only to find that the maids have stolen my roll of toilet paper. I mean, I've got another roll, so I'm not up the appropriate creek, but it's just confusing. The roll that was up is gone, and the little dowel was in the sink.
Matt has informed me that this is probably because I didn't leave a dollar on my pillow. It's like some sort of bizarre reverse tooth fairy. Strange people come into my room while I'm not there, and if I DON'T leave them money, they take important things like toilet paper. You better believe I'm tipping now.
Oh, no!
I just received the following e-mail:
------
Dear user of Mwoody.com,
Your e-mail account will be disabled because of improper using in next
three days, if you are still wishing to use it, please, resign your
account information.
Further details can be obtained from attached file.
In order to read the attach you have to use the following password: 03013.
Cheers,
The Mwoody.com team
http://www.mwoody.com-------------
Damn you, mwoody! Damn you to hell!
Political Correctness
I was just watching one of VH1's "best of the 80s" special thingies (it's late, nothing good was on) and heard the most absurd thing: the word "retarded," used to describe the mentally challenged character on LA Law, was BLEEPED OUT! That's a new extreme in my experience.
Recommendations
I'll be in Vegas from tomorrow 'till midday Saturday. Those who've been: any suggestions for shows/sights/etc. while I'm there?
Testing the Camera
Just stuck a couple of mindly amusing vids (P*.mov) in the file thingy. Just me testing out my camera in Matt's car with 2 different quality settings.
Poetic Spam
This is amazing - the following (I'll post it in a reply) text block was included in a spam in an obvious effort to avoid filters. The interesting part, though, is the amazing number of fantastic poetic phrases within.
"cryptogram enfant"
"crankcase polymerase"
"sacrifice conciliatory"
"silver congratulate extravaganza"
I don't know how this thing was generated, but it's one of the best freeform avant-garde poems I've ever read.
I feel like a turncoat
I like artsy movies, I like cerebral plots, I like Bill Murray, and I like Japanese culture. But I found the critical lauded _Lost in Translation_, which I just rented, boring and devoid of plot with subpar humor spaced too far apart to save it. What's wrong with me?
McInternet
I'm sitting in a McDonald's parking lot near my house, paying $3.95 per 2 hour block to connect wirelessly to the Internet. Weird.
They neglect to mention this charge, incidentally, on the site advertising that some of their restaurants are now wired. Also odd is the complete lack of advertisement for the service within the store.
Useful Utility
Last night I spent 3+ hours trying to get an OGG movie (.OGM) to play correctly so I could watch End of Eva. I learned two things:
* I HATE OGM. It's little more than a container format, and yet it screws up regularly. Some of the (many!) tools required to view these files have been abandoned by their creators before reachine a stable version, and it shows.
* Anyone who watches video on their computer on a regular basis could benefit from downloading the
GSpot Codec Information Tool. This compact little utility will load a movie, check what codecs the movie requires, and show you which codecs on your system claim to be able to support the video, audio, and "other" (subtitle, usually) tracks. You can even ask it to try rendering the video, at which point it will go step-by-step and show you what works and what doesn't (rather than just waiting for the movie to crash your video player). Sweet.
I AM A GOD!
My brother and I just repaired our PS2, using the
instructions from TechTV's site. Went from "Disc Read Error" on all media to working perfectly. Bow before our maaaad mad skillz!
(Really, I'm just happy that I managed to work on a plugged-in PS2 without getting my retinas burned off by the laser...)
Grrr...
Anybody else getting like 100+ emails (or bounces) a day with viruses attached? This latest batch of worms is driving me nuts (yarrr).
An IE Panacea
http://zcat.wired.net.nz/upgrade/Do NOT click on this link with any browser other than Internet Explorer.
Remember, kiddies, it's not polite to sing Madonna crap in Internet Cafes
Blast from the Past
CBC Archives: "A Network Called 'Internet'"1993 news broadcast (streaming video) about this newfangled "Internet" thingy.
Star Chamber
After being reminded of it by
Penny Arcade, I've been playing around with a pretty cool new online-only collectible card game called
Star Chamber. It's a neat combination of 4x turn-based strategy (think Master of Orion - the old one, not the crappy new one) and collectible card gaming (think Magic: The Gathering). And I don't mean that it has a strategy game with a card game sort of tacked on - i.e. Etherlords - the cards actually affect the overall game; you don't just enter into little side card-battles to settle skirmishes encountered on the overworld map. The client is a free download, and once you sign up (also free) you can play around with sample decks in solo play.
The client and UI seem pretty solid and well designed, and I'm having a blast in the solo demo games, so I think I'm going to get their $20 starter deck deal soon (14 packs, 210 cards). The game has been very
well reviewed, especially for an independent company, with the primary complaint being "not enough players online yet." Hopefully, with me and other Penny Arcade readers (c'mon, Chris, you know you want to ^_^ ) playing, we can remedy that.
Anyway, I highly recommend trying the tutorials and solo mode, even if you don't intend to spend any money. It's a unique and enjoyable experience.
Droooool
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10118One terabyte of storage capacity, $1200. Or, as the article puts it:
With this unsurpassed storage capacity, the LaCie Bigger Disk allows users to store nearly two years of continuous music and up to one month of non-stop MPEG-2 video.
Accents from Around the World
http://classweb.gmu.edu/accent/Fascinating, even for you computer types. ^_^
Outside Our Apartment
Yaaaaaaay! Snowball fights!
Surpassing Obstacles, Anime Style
Arrested Development
Anybody seen this new Fox show? My Aunt is a huge fan, and she's got me and my brother hooked. Really funny; it's on after Malcolm in the Middle, I believe.
I believe my favorite character is the one played by David Cross (of "Mr Show with Bob and David" fame; also the "you're small" guy).
BitTorrent Tips
Just a quick note for those of you who, like me, love
Suprnova. Make sure you're using
Shad0w's 3rd-party Client so you can properly diagnose connection problems (a yellow light means port forwarding needs to be configured).
Neat Web Design Trick
DSLReports Google resultsFound this while troubleshooting my POS motorola cable modem, which apparently likes to crash under extremely high traffic (i.e. bitTorrent). Click one of the links for DSLReports.com on google and the site detects you've come from google, extracts your search terms from the referrer URL, and suggests you use THEIR local forum search to find what you're looking for. Very useful.
Of course, this works better when site:DSLReports.com isn't in your search string.
Japander
http://www.japander.com/As you may know, it's pretty common for US or GB stars to do TV spots for Japanese TV (though they avoid Western ads for fear of appearing to "sell out"). Japander.com has a pretty good collection; some of these are hilarious.
LOL
http://homestarrunner.com/legal.htmlI never noticed the "legal stuff" link at the bottom - might be new. Anyway, let it sit for a minute.
Pardon my indexing
I've never posted this link anywhere, but some folks might find it useful, so I'm sticking it here so Google will pick it up. Hate to think I wrote this thing and only got a single use out of it (Webber's class project).
Flash SWF FLA Alphabet Block Message CreatorOK, WTF.
So, here I am in the "South," land of wooly Republicans, buck-toothed rednecks, and harsh climates... Or so one would think. In the past week:
* I just had some of the best Japanese food of my life in a great little place down the road called "Wujari". It was run by actual Japanese people, and it's not even the only one in this area; Raleigh beats out SLO for per-capita Japanese restaurants.
* Last night I was up until 2 AM (after having shifted my schedule to something more normal) because it was SO FREAKIN' HOT. NC is supposed to have the seasons that CA lacks, but last night we had all the windows open and fans going full steam. Where's my white Christmas!?
* Nobody has a southern accent! Well, I shouldn't say nobody; I hear them here and there, but they're intermittent exceptions to the rule. I heard about as many in SLO. Apparently, with the economy so bad elsewhere, and with Raleigh bordering "Research Triangle Park" ("the new Silicon Valley"), the city has so many immigrants that the accent has gone the way of the dodo unless you head for cabins in the woods.
Quickly GIR! RIDE the PIIIG!!!
So...
There's like five people online right now, and ShoutBox is gone. Wuthappened?
You killed Navi! You bastards!
So I've had the new Nav disc for my car for about a month now, and I usually drive in local areas with the voice off (it just interrupts the music). So while running some errands in the Bay Area just before my flight, I turned the voice on so I wouldn't miss any turns. Imagine my shock and horror when an entirely unfamiliar voice, in a sultry and thoroughly unsettling female baritone, instructs me to turn left!
Apparently, enough people complained about the anime-style "kawaii" voice that they've switched it to a Standard English older-woman voice. Bleah. I want Navi back. :-(
I've debated what to name the new one, but I think since I don't like her, she can remain nameless. Bitch.
I wonder if Navi went to the Matrix or back to the source? ^_^
Relocation
Well, I'm in North Carolina as I type this. I'll probably be here 'till next month sometime. My cellphone isn't currently on a national plan, so you can't reach me by phone - er, I guess that's not a huge difference.
I'll post my new # when I get a new phone.
ID3 tagger
MusicBrainzA large, growing database of "fingerprints" with which to recognize OGG or MP3 files by their contents. It can organize and re-tag entire collections of music automatically.
Haven't used it yet, but it sounds very cool, and I've read that the database has gotten quite usable in the last few months. Anybody tried it before?
Homeless Children Folktales
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/issues/1997-06-05/fea...It's an old article, but it's fascinating and more then a little unsettling. I remember trying to summon Bloody Mary in the bathroom when I was a kid in MO.
Oh, no, they didn't...
Garfield: The MovieHas a movie that ended with ": The Movie"
ever been good? And who the #@%@#$% thought a LIVE ACTION Garfield movie would be good!?
t.A.T.u. anime
t.A.T.u PARAGATEYes, it appears to be real. No, I don't know if it will be in Japanese or Russian; Matt votes "both." ^_^
Christmas Suggestions
Soooo, folks. What's topping your Christmas lists this year? No crap about world peace, please. ^_^
My pie-in-the-sky wish:
Canon "Wordtank" IDF-4600 - Watching anime lately, I'm starting to surprise myself with how much Japanese I can pick up. Going to start learning again on my own.
Yeah, yeah, I'm weird. But here's one I'd wager most of us can agree on:
Firefly - The Complete Series DVD - Yes, it includes the never-before-seen three episodes that were never broadcast. Remember, DVD sales for Family Guy brought it back, and Whedon is on record as wanting to continue the series in some format...
A Challenge
First prize goes to the first person to find some way to
get us into E3 this year. I'm thinking I might try a pay stub from when I used to work at ibuyline, but that might be too old.
License Plates
Got my custom license plates today. It took about 2.5 months for them to finish. A couple of weeks ago I called to ask about where they are (I leave SLO this weekend, and was afraid they wouldn't be done). The lady told me that yes, it usually took the full 8 weeks and that it was because their staff worked 3 times a week for half a day each time. I started to ask why when she reminded me: they're prisoners. Ooops. ^_^
Pic is inside, for the curious.
Funniest Thing I've Read in a Good While
Neighborhood Hazard (or: Why the Cops Won’t Patrol Brice Street)Oh. My. God. ROFLMAO.
In case the URL breaks, I've mirrored the text in my first response.
(Note: Read from the original link unless it's broken; some of the formatting is lost in my cut-n-paste job)
So bad it's good, or so bad it's just really, really bad?
Star Wars Christmas SpecialWow. I want to see this, if only to laugh at Harrison Ford before his whole "career" thing.
Great Quote
"Translation is like a woman, if she is beautiful, she is not faithful; if she is faithful, she is not beautiful."
Taken from a
rather lengthy but interesting article on translation.
Matt's right...
It IS quiet in here. So, here's the things I've found interesting lately:
a) In Monday's mustang daily, the subheading for an article on the main page (the smaller title under the title) proclaimed in bold text: "subheading goes here, left justified and not a complete sentence" (paraphrased, don't have it in front of me). It took me about thirty seconds to realize it wasn't some bizarrely worded comment on the article to which it was attached. ^_^
b) The same issue included a wire article about a group of college students on another campus who haved started a club called "tengo pantalones." It's all about people who like to wear pants. They have 40+ members, at last count. I'd link the article, but mustang daily's site is down; here's one
from another source.
c) The meter maid cars they use on campus are painted, for the most part, just like the regular patrol cars for the campus. This results in the following tremendously amusing juxtoposition: "Parking Enforcement" directly above, in the same font, "Protecting Your Future". I guess maybe if I couldn't find parking 'cause people without permits took all the spots, and so I missed class, and so I flunked out, and so I couldn't get a job, and so I died cold and hungry, then
yes, indeed, they would have protected my future.
d) Monkey.
e) Any suggestions on a good phone (both the device and the plan) for me? I want voice mail (finally!) and nationwide coverage. And is internet access via phone any good?
f) As God is my witness, I thought alabaster was white. The BOX for the venetian blinds was white, that's for sure. I had to replace my blinds 'cause they broke, but I've replaced them with the yellowish white they call "alabaster." Bastards with their $10 color words; I hope my landlord doesn't notice.
Longest Running Movie Series in the World
Otoko Wa Tsurai Yo ("It's tough to be a man"): 48 films, spanning 25 years. Wow. Just look at the
"followed by" list.
I wish there was a place where I could rent stuff like this. Somehow, I don't see Blockbuster having any of 'em...
Found this, by the way, in the liner notes for UY. Like every other famous Japanese movie in history, UY has a parody of it. ^_^
Urusei Yatsura
Been watching my Urusei Yatsura (Lum) DVDs this weekend (anything to put off writing a 12-15 page research paper). I'd forgotten how absolutely hilarious this show is.
AnimEigo has some extras of all five box sets currently released available for purchase. They're limited runs, so get 'em while they're available, and the first three boxes are at a pretty hefty discount as they burn off their extras (HEY - I preorder years in advance and I pay more than you lazy bums!?).
More VG speed-freak goodness
http://www.morecooler.com/plugins/uploads/moSMB3.w...Super Mario Brothers 3, completed game, 99 lives, 11 minutes. Whoah.
Family Guy coming back!
http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2003-..."Family Guy could return with as many as 35 new episodes for January 2005."
Jeff (and others):
http://stack.dnsalias.net/~eddie/archives/000923.html
Jeff, you play galaxies: is this possibly real?
Freakin' hilarious even if it isn't. ^_^
Victor the Talking Budgie
http://www.budgieresearch.homestead.com/conversati...I dunno what to make of this one. I've read that birds, even larger birds like parrots, can only - well - "parrot" words without understanding their meaning. But then again, I've also read that the world is flat.
Too much fun.
It's more cooler with the thing. (OK, so I had to cheat a wee bit...)
I have seen the face of god...
Metroid Prime 100% complete, 1hr37mOh. My. God. I downloaded this mostly to see the 100% ending, as after about 13 hrs (IIRC) I only had 80% when I played. But I can't stop watching it. The precision... The planning... I mean, an under 2hr time is impressive in and of itself, and even that requires you to get the power-ups in an unintended order with uber-tricky jumping skillz. But to get 100% at the same time!?
What's funny is how long some of the doors take to open, as he's going so fast the game doesn't have time to load...
EDIT:
There's commentary!
Laser Squad Nemesis
Just signed up for a one-month trial, which means I can challenge non-subscribers to a game. If anyone is interested in playing an X-Com style (from the team that made X-Com, no less) play-by-email game, post or e-mail me.
You can try it out by
downloading the client and playing the tutorials. My brother and I played a game this afternoon; it's pretty fun, despite some minor complaints with the interface. At $40/year (or $7/month) the price is certainly right.
If you've ever had any interest in comics at all...
...you HAVE to read Neil Gaiman's Sandman.
And right now, there's a
torrent at suprnova.org (568Mb)with ALL of it (well, all of it in the main series) - surprising good quality.
Act now, before the torrent dies! Oh, and you'll need
this program to view the .cbz or .cbr files. Actually, they're just renamed .zip and .rar files, but that program is pretty nifty freeware anyway.
One note: Sandman gets better as time goes on and the series attracts better artists, though all of it is quite good. Many (myself included) consider it the finest example of graphical literature ever produced.
EDIT: They've also got all of my favorite manga,
Ah! Megami-sama (Oh My Goddess) (1.3Gb) up as well. I love
suprnova!
Monkey Island insult swordfighting
http://www.scummbar.com/community/games/swordfight...Now that I've got your attention, Chris... How 'bout posting some of the digital pics from our previous get-togethers?
Best Onion Article Ever
Undercover Agents Talking To Each Other In
'Under 12' Chatroom
WASHINGTON, DC—In an effort to weed out pedophiles, two FBI agents, identified only as "Cutiepie1994" and "KoalaLover," unknowingly communicated with one another in the under-12 chat room of TweenTalk.com for almost two hours Tuesday. "You should see me in my new bathing suit. It's really rad," Cutiepie wrote. "Kewl. Guess what? My parents aren't home right now," KoalaLover responded. Two minutes after their lengthy Internet conversation ended, KoalaLover unknowingly passed Cutiepie on the way into the bathroom.
Entertainment News
1) Coupling (American version) got cancelled. Is the British version still going?
2) Ahnold is losing money on his licensing: as a public figure, his image is now public domain. Unlicensed Halloween masks with his face sold like hotcakes this season, and he can't do a thing about it. ^_^
LOTR meets ST
I've uploaded one MOV file to rule them all to the file thingy, titled Bilbo.mov. I believe we've discussed this before, but the video is new to me, at least. It proves, of course, either one of two things: a) there is no God, or b) God has a sense of humor like me.
Coincidence?
I was sitting in class not two hours ago thinking about how cool it would be to see an Alien vs. Predator movie. I come home, and
what do I find?Cooooool. Although, the director's pedigree is spotty (Soldier, RE, MK)... We'll see.
*sigh*
So, I sit down to watch a DVD on Friday, placing my food and drink on another table so I wouldn't get any near the computer. About twenty minutes in, I move the glass to my main table to refill it. I do so, and then promptly tip the entire goddamn thing over into my laptop. Sprite dripping from every crevice.
Well, it's totally fried, and I'm back to my desktop after the quick addition of a PCI wireless card. I'll call Toshiba tomorrow for a service center, but I'm guessing this bad boy is on its way out. On the plus side, I was able to pull the hard drive and stick it in an external USB/Firewire enclosure to get my data off, including about 40+ hours worth of un-backed-up work on theTombs. I'm hoping the 802.11g wireless card I added all of five days ago will still work, too.
The moral: SPRITE IS SATAN'S TASTY BEVERAGE OF CHOICE.
SomeOne is trying to tel Mel something...
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_831648.html?m...To summarize: The actor who plays Jesus in Mel Gibson's controversial "Passion of Christ" film has been struck by lightening TWICE during filming. ^_^
New Weirdest Spam Ever
Title: RE: Your Platinum Card 4654
Sent to:
asdfd@mwoody.com (when would I have used this?)
Text: YXNkZmRAbXdvb2R5LmNvbQ== Then pulled the wagon to Mrs Widow Douglas's house. There they were ushered inside by the old Welshman.They were not mad though they were actually proud. His grandfather had told them everything and they understood.
Both of the boys got down on the floor and then they heard the voice again I sort of needed a little vacation.
---
WHAT THE #@$%@!#$!!? Since when do selected passages from Tom Sawyer convince me to buy a platinum card?
I guess maybe it's one of those "forward random text found on computer with virus attached" trojans, but there was neither an attachment nor a notification of virus removal. Odd.
Gamer Candy
Found a copy of X-Com designed to work under Windows. I even got it working, sound and all, under XP Pro. It's in the File Thingy.
If the video looks scrambled, run "dxdiag" and look in the display options for the button to turn off directdraw acceleration.
On a related note, I'm considering giving
Laser Squad Nemesis a shot. It's a play-by-email, PvP version of the old X-Com. Could be fun.
Good Movie Alert
Just rented
Equilibrium. Very good flick. Imagine an arthouse flick with occasional action sequences that, despite a lesser budget, make the Matrix look like amateur night at the O.K.Corral, and you've got this movie.
I highly recommend it; although it takes itself too seriously at times, the action is hands-down more impressive - and, thanks to the gun-kata, more original - than anything I've ever seen in a movie. And it's fairly plot-hole free, which is a plus in sci fi these days.
Kids these days...
Child's PlayEGM gets a bunch of twelve-year-olds together and transcribes their observations on old games like pong, donkey kong, and space invaders. Actually pretty funny in spots; especially the last two lines in the article.
LOL...
One of the side effects of doing the polyglot thing with the titles:
http://www.whois.sc/morecooler.com..The website title - "MoreCooler: È più più fresco con la cosa" - makes it look like a French website. ^_^
BTW, like that whois site. Especially the method of entering your search: whois.sc/nameofwebsite.com
We should rename Morecooler
"All-Martin, all the time."
Do I just have more free time than everyone else?
Off-color but hilarious
http://wm.ifilm.na-central.speedera.net/wm.ifilm.n..Not worksafe, not PC, and more than a little disturbing. But absolutely hilarious. These sorts of "revenge" stories usually end with the guy getting the short end of the stick; good to see another side. ^_^
Supposedly based on actual events, too.
Masked Avenger needed
Met some of y'all (Brian, Chris, Jeff, Jua, Sean) at the career fair today, and the question came up: what is "wookie" called in my car? I can't come up with anything particularly clever; it was suggested that Bryce would be the mac-daddy for naming, and I'm inclined to agree.
Oh, and though it seems somewhat self-aggrandizing to post your own quote, I stumbled into what I think is an epiphany this afternoon, so I'm putting it in the quotes page.
@#%$#%#$@@#
One of the delightful new features of Flash MX 2004 is that sometimes it refuses to save all of a file. Says things are OK, gives no errors, but doesn't actually do anything. I keep opening files to find they're old version, with several hours worth of work lost.
I think I'm going to have to start hitting CTRL-S like six or seven times every minute.
God I hate this software. Every step forward is two steps back, and their IDE sucks so hard that they actually SUGGEST you use an external program like EditPad to deal with actionScript.
The only thing buggier is Java. :-P
Clever, very clever.
http://www.gamespot.com/all/news/news_6076592.html..While I'm usually an opponent of any copy protection scheme, and I'm sure this will quite quickly be undone, it's still just clever enough to be admirable.
All Catholics Need to Curl Up Into Tiny Balls and Die
Vatican: Condoms Don't Stop AIDSThis is immoral on so many levels it's hard to comprehend that this crackhouse is supposed to be some sort of moral compass for millions of people. I guess maybe they had lots of eight year old boys in their congregations with the AIDS, and just assumed...
As for my title there, I'm trying to see what sort of referrer searches I can lead here. Just to, y'know, get a different crowd in here. ^_^
Holy Fucking God
Ahunuld. We elected Ahnuld.
I'm leaving. No, I'm serious, I'm leaving California when I graduate. That its citizens held similar political beliefs to myself was the only thing the state had going for it, in my mind; I'm gone. Hand me a diploma, you crappy underfunded administration-happy state university, and kiss my ass so long.
Next Resident Evil Movie
http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/residentevilapo..Actually a pretty cool trailer, even if you're not a fan of the series (games or movies). Follow link and click "watch previews" to see. My comments inside (watch it first).
Interesting...
http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2003/10/04.."For the first time in the 50-year history of the Billboard charts, all Top 10 songs in the country this week are by black artists - signaling the culmination of hip-hop's ascent as the dominant force in popular music and culture."
Wow, I had no idea. No wonder I can't stand MTV these days (sorry, Sean).
Best Spam Title Ever
"Re: that problem with your ears"
Received this morning. Message was empty, which was greatly disappointing. Note that SpamAssassin doesn't thing this is Spam; I think I'll forgive this one.
Chris
...please! ^_^
Chris, my address is in the "address book" thingy on the right. Please send me a check (and I imagine Matt and Sean would like one, too).
The amounts owed are:
c->m $479.80
c->w $921.00
c->s $101.90
Half Life 2 source leaked
Yes, looks like a version of the HL2 engine source code was leaked, as reported on /.
Who has a torrent link?
Colin is Sorry
http://www.22minutes.com/realwrapper.php?target=ap..Hilarious enough that I couldn't stand the thought of merely burying it in my links page. ^_^
2 Worms3d files for y'all
For those who've gotten the Worms3d demo working, I've uploaded a "cheater" program which will allow you to enable many of the game's weapons in the demo. Super-sheep are particularly fun. Items without an icon in the cheat program, BTW, will crash the game. It also lets you disable the time limits, up the resolution to 1600x1200, and other neat stuff.
For everyone interested in the game, demo or not, here's an interesting chart I pulled off their forums:
EDIT: Will put the image in the replies. Was silly of me to post it on the main page.
It's not official, just fan created based on screenshots at the site and comments from the developers in the forums/press. The green and blue checkmarks are weapons confirmed to be in the final game. The red X's are weapons confirmed not to be in the final game. Squares with no symbol are unknown.
Note that this doesn't show the items completely new in Worms3d; for example, girders are out, but there's a nifty "bridge building kit" that you can enable in the demo that more than replaces its function.
FFXI Benchmark/Demo
http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/benchmark.html..They've worked on this some since it's lackluster Japanese release. I might do this one, I might now. Depends on whether or not D2 1.10 is out by then, I suppose. ^_^
Pompeii, America
http://www.yowusa.com/Archive/Aug2003/volcanism4/v..Apparently, there are powerful forces brewing under Yellowstone that will (just a matter of when) explode with enough force to destroy everything within 600 miles.
Might be a month from now, might be in 100,000 years.
Um...
Where'd all the... er... formatting go?
EDIT: Never mind, problem solved. It somehow deselected what style I had selected, I guess.
GodSpeed 3d
http://www.socialimpactgames.com/modules.php?op=mo..A biblical-themed roller coaster game where you veer left or right to answer biblical questions.
N'kay...
Counter-Example
"Anidroccg to crad cniyrrag lcitsiugnis planoissefors at an uemannd, utisreviny in Bsitirh Cibmuloa, and crartnoy to the duoibus cmials of the ueticnd rcraeseh, a slpmie, macinahcel ioisrevnn of ianretnl cretcarahs araepps sneiciffut to csufnoe the eadyrevy oekoolnr."
Obfuscation
I was scrolling through some code in theTombs, and I came on this line:
_root.MessageBox.addMessage("Casting \""+spellList[tablets[hotkeys[num]][0]][tablets[hotkeys[num]][1]][tablets[hotkeys[num]][2]].shortDescription+".\" ", false);
That is the most fsucked up array call I've ever seen, much less written. I've got to stop programming at 4am...
YASuggestion:
Is there any reason the "Quotes" page need be restricted to members-only? Aside from, of course, any future political aspirations for our members...
Suggestion
The "recent referrers" section might be more useful if it didn't duplicate referrers, i.e. would be cool if it wasn't all LiveJournal. ^_^
Linguistics
So I'm sitting in linguistics today (MOST BORING CLASS EVER), and we get to talking about phonemes, words, phrases, clauses, and sentences. The professor asks for an example of a word.
Someone says "cat."
"Good," he says. "Now, the difference between phrases and clauses is very subtle: a clause is a phrase with a verb. So, does anyone have an example of a phrase?"
"The door," replies another student.
"Also good. Now, anyone have an example of a clause?"
I raise my hand.
"Matt Rung."
^_^
Send me money!
...please! ^_^
Chris, my address is in the "address book" thingy on the right. Please send me a check.
The amounts owed are:
c->m $479.80
c->w $921.00
c->s $101.90
And Matt, check out my mailing address; look familiar? ^_^ Santa Margarita is so freaking small that the owner has no mailbox; the post office doesn't deliver mail, they just give everyone a PO box. Figured I'd just go ahead and get my own.
Speed Demon
If y'all have a second, and you haven't installed Flash Player 7, I'd appreciate if you'd help me with a quick test:
1) Open
the old "The Tombs" game.
2) Move around; get a feel for the speed of it.
3) Try running my
uber-debug copy which I just finished converting to Flash Player 7. (Spent nearly three hours tracking down two typos; Flash Player 7 is case-sensitive, unlike Player 6! Thank goodness for small favors: I
thought version 6 was case sensitive, so the only things I had to change were actual typos that the case insensitivity let by.)
4) If you don't mind, please try installing the new player and give the new version a shot.
Two sets of questions:
- Did it automagically prompt you to upgrade your player? What did the window look like before you updated? What browser are you using?
- Is this faster, or is it my imagination? I can't go back and try the original out anymore, because it's now a Flash 6 movie running on the faster Flash 7 player.
Incidentally, this copy is pretty crappy; I was in the middle of several things and had lots of stuff disabled when I discovered Flash MX 2004 had been released. It's also in debug mode; you can't die, and you can press the number 1 (not on the numpad) to access the level design mode. If you want to play with the level design, open the panel, click "default", edit those values, and click "make". Rinse and repeat. Some values WILL crash the player, though; be forewarned.
I appreciate your help, guys. Hopefully, these speed increases, if I'm not imagining the whole thing, will help make the game more enjoyable. I may also be able to eke out even more speed if I rewrite large portions in ActionScript 2.0, but don't hold yer breath; it's a considerably different animal.
Well-written
Michael Moore responds to claims that "Bowling for Columbine" is fiction.
Interesting read; he's got a good command of the language. I haven't been following this whole deal much, so I don't know if he addresses all pertinent claims with relation to the film, but it does rather neatly cut down much of his opposition.
Owwww, my eyes!
Some of the best optical illusions I've ever seenI thought the first one was an animated GIF at first.
theTombs
I doubt this applies to anyone here, but don't try to send me e-mail @thetombs.com. I've had to shut all e-mail off and set up a bounce message because some a$$hole has used random addresses @thetombs.com as the return addresses for thousands of e-mails, and a good percentage of them are bouncing. We're talking 20-30 or more an hour. I think I can have everything EXCEPT
webmaster@thetombs bounce, but I'd rather just wait and see if the flood subsides.
In other news, I'm back at 'Poly for one last go-round. I have Internet access up, so I'll be back on ICQ when I'm home. Interesting note: the house isn't wired, but the guy renting the other room set up a wireless access point near the cable modem. So I've configured my laptop to access the net over WiFi and then share the connection over ethernet. Kind of a weird setup.
Booyah!
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Acocdrnig+to+an+elgnsih+unviesitry%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=30&sa=NPulled it from the referrer logs; we are link #1! Morecooler rocks hard on Google searches, have ya noticed? I think it's 'cause it keeps getting fed into Blog lists, and those links raise its rank.
Matt:
Is SpamAssassin off?
WTF?
http://medlem.spray.se/Wotan/html/MW10.htmSearch for "Cult of the Clouds" (or "Cult of the Cloudes", as they seem to have chosen to spell it). It seems my mod has been incorporated into some sort of tremendously crappy fanfic. What's more, as much of the text in that section is mine but they've added typos galore, it appears they copied it down by hand then typed it out again, rather than pull the text out of the mod.
I don't know what to make of this, really. Very odd. Almost as odd as the fact that a google for "cult of the clouds" returns more non-English sites carrying the file than English ones.
READ THIS QUICKLY
Acocdrnig to an elgnsih unviesitry sutdy the oredr of letetrs in a wrod dosen't mttaer, the olny thnig thta's iopmrantt is that the frsit and lsat ltteer of eevry word is in the crcreot ptoision. The rset can be jmbueld and one is stlil able to raed the txet wiohtut dclftfuiiy.
Chris:
I haven't gotten an e-mail from you about Friday yet. If you want me to drop off your stuff and pick you up at your house, you need to
e-mail me.
Woot Woot Woot
How did
this sneak up without me noticing? Already finished enough for in-game footage? Due out October '03!? I'll NEVER pass my next quarter of classes!
Come one, come all: stuff!
I'll be heading back to SLO on the 17th or 18th of this month, so anyone who had me bring stuff back for them probably needs to come get it sometime soon. If you can't make it, I can store it for longer, but I'd prefer to get it outta there.
Here's my list, off the top of my head. Some of this stuff might have been intended for Goodwill, I can't remember. The truck broke down so we didn't do a goodwill run; just brought everything back with us.
Papa-san chair - Chris
Lamps - Bryce
Glass table - Matt
Microwave - anyone want it? Got three now.
Blast, I know I'm forgetting a few things. I'll be over there in the next couple days and fill in the blanks, unless y'all remember what I'm forgetting.
My New "Car"
Finally got around to taking some pics of my new 2003 Honda Pilot. Open the post to see the pics, but be warned: there's a lot of 'em, and they're about 60k each.
E-bayers?
I need to sell a few cars, and I'm thinking of putting them up on E-bay. Has anyone (read: Matt) sold or bought cars on E-bay before? Any tips?
Stop the presses...
Whoops, one more bill. Sorry, guys, thought mine were all done, but the last power bill came today for $41.03. The @#$%#$%'in morons sent it to SLO, despite my request to send it to San Jose (after the forwarding delay, it's due TODAY and I got it TODAY).
Now, this is the first time I've actually used the board program, so please check my numbers. Although, logically, these make sense. There's some rounding errors because the prog only accepts five digits including the decimal.
c->m $479.80
c->w $921.00
c->s $101.90
Hope no one (er, I guess that would be Chris, actually ^_^ ) has written any checks yet.
On a happier note, just bought a new gamecube w/mario golf (very fun, LOTS of features), F-Zero GX (fun, but wish there was less racing and more blowing enemies up), and Soul Calibur 2 (link w/ the megaton hammer is DA BOMB). Good times for nintendo lovers.
Autotuners
Posting
this just to see Bryce foam at the mouth... ;)
Question for Matt
Is anybody else getting around 50-100 e-mails a day from this new #@$%@# worm? It's driving me nuts! (Yarrrr...)
Matt: Is it possible to set the virus software on the server to kill entire messages that contain viruses, rather than just strip the viruses? I almost never get valid e-mails that just happen to have a trojan on board. I know it's possible, especially within company e-mail systems or when using Outlook (bleah), but it's fairly rare these days. Besides, simply deleting these messages would probably save considerable hard drive space if it were a server-wide rule.
Another one like the ping-pong
Attention D2 players
NOTE: See my reply before downloading...
Sean, in case you didn't find it, here's the website for
ATMA. For everyone else, this program is a sweeeeet little app that removes the need for a multi-machine setup or mules in Diablo II w/expansion w/1.10 beta patch. It essentially lets you move stuff on/off any character and either on to another character or into a special stash file. This is NOT an editor; it will not edit stats or items, just move the items around.
There's one very, very cool thing about this program, though, with the new version: it includes a converter so you can upgrade to 1.10s without losing any of your items! Yay!
Gonna try to upgrade right now; I'll let y'all know if I have any problems with it. Hell, might even upload my stash if y'all are interested.
Oh, and for those looking for a fun build, I have a lvl70 Amazon with 20 points in both poison javalin and plague javalin and, thanks to synergies and a +8 from items, it deals roughly 15k-16k damage over about 13 seconds. It actually says "15k-16k" in the character screen; the damage no longer fit in the box in whole numbers. ^_^ Saw it go over 20k once with a skill shrine. Also got points in Valk (level 20 as well) and decoy, as well as a bad-ass Barbarian merc with monster scaring equipment (first time I've found this ability anything other than annoying), so I can deal with poison immunes.
Silent Hill 3
Well, I'm all alone in the house, and I'm playing Silent Hill 3. I am a stupid, stupid man. Good game, though; just wish I had more than one pair of pants...
On a related note, for those of you who've played any of the series,
Jacob's Ladder might be worth a look, as it is the direct inspiration for the series. Just finished watching it; the overall plot is similar, and the environments are definitely taken right out of certain parts of the movie. It's actually given me a different take on some of the events in the game, but I won't elaborate for risk of spoiling the film.
The Board
The following is the board as we left it. Chris, please check my numbers. Note: Please don't pay anybody yet, or bother simplifying it; not all bills have arrived yet, and we've yet to get back any of our deposit (Chris, Walt should be sending that to you in SF). The stuff for the house cleanup is at the bottom, in the bills.
Key: Chris=C, Martin=W, Matt=M, Sean=S, J=Jeff, Y=Bryce, H=Josh
C->W: $ 76.00
S->W: $ 4.00
M->C: $ 67.00
C->M: $163.39
S->C: $ 17.85
W->M: $ 2.00
J->C: $ 12.00
Y->W: $ 28.00
J->W: $ 4.00
Y->C: $ 25.00
S->M: $ 12.00
Y->M: $146.50
H->C: $ 23.00
Bills
-----
Power: $221.62
$158.57
$ 41.03
Water: $ 86.76
$ 88.48 (Final)
Cable: $147.32
$ 5.09 (Paid by Chris - final bill)
Gas: $ 15.54
$ 19.32
$ 10.95 (final bill)
Phone: $ 44.72 (final bill)
Trash: $ 44.20
Maid: $175.00 (Took longer than she estimated)
Carpet: $154.00 (Cheapest price I could find)
Please let me know if there are any inconsistencies.
Well, this is interesting...
Google search - check the first entry...
BTW, I'm gonna get a new car soon. Looking at the 2003 Honda Pilots. They look groooovy. Anyone know anybody who owns one?
Me News (Best Kind!)
Found a room to rent. $500/mo, 9/1 through 12/31. In Santa Margarita (8 miles north on 101), and the house is PRISTINE. The guy is a recent 'Poly graudate - forestry major - and he bought it brand new, but would like some people to live in his two fair-sized guest bedrooms to lessen his payments.
Woohoo! Actually, getting housing in SLO is pretty easy, if you look during summer. I had to turn down another guy this morning who accepted my app an wanted to give me keys this afternoon. Felt kinda bad about that, actually, but business be business.
On an unrelated note, never, ever, ever pour out a bottle of red wine vinegar directly outside your only window. My room smells like a combination of feet and easter eggs.
SEAN AND CHRIS:
House stuff - we found a cleaning lady who can come on Tuesday, the 29th. She charges $100 for the first 3 hours and $20 for each additional hour on move-out cleanings (her specialty, actually). She says an average move-out takes 4 hours.
These seems more than reasonable, in my experience. Are y'all interested in this? $120 (probably) split 4 ways is a measly $30 not to have to vacuum / scrub walls / clean toilets / mop floors / scrub stove / etc. We have a section in our lease that lists what needs to be done; I thought we'd just give that to her.
Note that this DOES NOT include professional carpet cleaning, which she recommends we get done separately AFTER she's done (so she'll have vacuumed and all). That'll probably be an additional $100 total. Also, we've yet to figure out the whole who-will-be-here-to-let-them-in-and-check-to-make-sure-they-did-a-good-job-and-give-the-keys-to-walt-with- the-receipt-for-the-maid-and-cleaners-as-specified-in-the-lease problem. But if I am able to get a lease starting on the 1st - as I think I just might - I may be able to just hang out in town and make sure everything gets done. Dunno; we'll figure it out.
This is the coolest thing ever...
If they get opposable thumbs, it's all over for us!Oh, and I'll stick a couple of unrelated-but-cool animations (watch them in order, named papillon*.wmv) in the file section, just to help test the new system. ^_^
House Stuff mk3
Y'know, I just realized, I've got Matt McGee's figurines from when we played D&D on my shelf. Is he still in town? Did they come in some sort of case?
Also, Chris, we really need to know when you'll be back in town, in order to plan. I'll have a 14' truck on the 26th heading back to San Jose; if there's anything big you need moved in that direction, now's the time to speak up. Plus, we need to know when to schedule the carpet cleaner. I wonder how much it would cost to hire a maid to get cobwebs / clean bathrooms / mop kitchen / etc?
Arrrr! It's driving me nuts!
Argh!
Eh, that was way too long, on second thought. If you're even vaguely interested in hearing me rant about an online store that pissed me off, click me.
Wow.
This one is too more cool to just stick in my links (plus, don't know how long the vid will stay up). It's glass that's bulletproof from one direction, but allows you to fire THROUGH it from the other (it even reseals itself)!
A brief presentation on how it works is at the end of the demo vid below.
Article about the glassDemo videoEdit:Website for the manufacturer w/more infotheTombs - up again!
Finally finished the real site, not that crappy one from before. Features include a full, looooong manual (with backstory and tasty chocolate bits) and a fully functional forum. So there can be 8 posts asking "Scruffy?" instead of 8 ICQs.
theTombs.comHelp, please
Chris and I are trying to get to the bottom of some weirdness with
theTombs. It seems Firebird (pheonix) doesn't want to refresh. Could y'all try out the
Play page with different browsers and see if it works? In particular, I want to make sure it properly loads the current version, 0.9.135, which should appear in the bottom left corner of the blue title page within the SWF file. This test will be particularly useful if any of y'all have been to that page before, as it is refreshing the cache that Firebird doesn't want to do.
Thanks!
Edit:
I think I've got it fixed; Matt figger'd it out. I had PARAM pointing to one file, EMBED to another with different capitilization. Yet another casualty of the browser wars. Stupid thetombs.swf, why can't you be more like your brother, theTombs.swf? HE works on Netscape browsers.
I can never think of a good title.
Here's an interesting bit of trivia. Much has been made recently of the US networks' plans to copy the BBC show
"Coupling" with a
crappy remake. But, I was watching a
"Married with Children" marathon this afternoon, and in looking at its IMDB page, discovered they
did the same thing, in reverse. "Married for Life" is a crappy British version of our beloved Married with Children. I'd be interested to see a few eps... Kazaa, here I come!
Homstarrunner
I was watching the "first time here" animation on homestarrunner a minute ago, and I had a thought: could we register
http://www.imabigmoronwhocantrememberhislines.com/ ? Is that even a legal domain name?
Whoooooah
I just noticed that when I scroll the page, the dotted line thingies on the right get all trippy and change to solid lines or like, other kinds of dotted lines and stuff. It's really freakin' me out. Whoooooah. 8-o
theTombs is live!
Just went live with the first early version of the website. I'm proud to state that I'm almost 100% content-free! ^_^ At lest, however, theTombs.com is no longer just a direct link to the game.
Odd side-note: google has already spidered theTombs.com somehow. And it DIDN'T get it from morecooler, as morecooler hasn't been spidered yet. It's like google is some sort of super site-ninja.
Well, fuck.
Eric ain't interested in the house. Would have been too far for Matt to bike, among other concerns. Turns out he was waiting for us to call him on his cell phone, unaware we didn't have the number (finally got up with him at home, thanks to Jeff).
Guess I gotta tell Walt, then. And now both Josh and Eric have flaked on me; I'm going to be homeless. Bloody hell.
Bryce, you'll like this'n:
Original article which inspired the book whose adaptation inspired the screenplay "Adaptation." OK... Line between reality and fiction faaaaadiiiiing...
Bwahahahahaha
I never even thought of
this, but I guess that would be an issue you'd have to deal with. Wonder what the percentage is in the US?
Happy Birthday, Bryce!
Er, I know that Bryce's birthday is this week, but I can't for the life of me remember exactly when. I was waiting for ICQ to tell me, but I just realized it ain't in his profile. So, um... Happy belated birthday, Bryce! Or, if I'm early... Happy early birthday, Bryce! Or if, wonder of wonders, it's today... Merry Christma- er, Happy birthday, Bryce!
Heh, heh... That'll teach ya to keep yer ICQ profile updated. Sorry I couldn't be down there this week. Hope your "birthday surprise" was both "surprising" and... ah... "birthday."
GTA3: Vice City
So I'm switching through the channels last night, and I come across the movie
Scarface. My first thought is, "hey, ain't that the movie where a lot of the music in GTA3:VC came from?" My second thought is, "holy shit, this scene is right out of the game!" Looks like the mansion in the game (the cool one on the middle island) is more or less right out of the movie, as is the "final" mission in the game. Sweeeeeeeet.
Well...
Well, I've been posting in my "links" section on occasion.
God bless the French!
I just stuck a parody of The Matrix: Reloaded on forlop; it's from the MTV Movie Awards 2003. It's kinda humorous, I guess, but it gets a little old. Anyway, the really funny part is that since I got it from a French site, it has subtitles in French, and given the low-brow humor of the MTV Movie Awards, you can learn to say a lot of interesting slang in French. My favorite translation, though, is when one character refers to the game "Dig Dug": It becomes "Dick Duck". An entirely different game, I'd wager.
Link
I've been sticking stuff like this in my links, but
this is pretty cool.
I'm addicted!
It's past 3am, and I want to go to sleep, but I can't. I'm addicted to that goddamn "Deal with it." For those of you in-town, that's channel 960; Matt found it. My high score is 1150 so far.
Surreal
I'm currently watching Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (Excellent Adventure 2). Only, given that I'm reading
this interesting little analysis at the same time, I've decided to view the film as one of the earlier matrices, with Ted as "the one." The parallels are frightening. ^_^
Good joke...
"Being an MTV V-jay is like be a farmer with a government subsidy. You get paid not to play videos!"
Believe it or not...
There was actually a letter the the editor in today's (Tuesday) Mustang Daily about a guy's favorite urinal. I stuck a copy in my backpack for those who missed it. ^_^
Hunh
In researching my speech, I found
this. (warning: PDF software required)
It's an analysis of the video game industry from an investor's perspective. Weird, but kind of a neat angle.
It also illustrates my earlier comment about Bank of America's international branch "misspelling" their name... ^_^
New Homestarrunner Content Up
...
...and my link to the Petey picture was broken.
C'mon...
Aw, c'mon, my first idea was to post Petey. But I thought, no, I won't do that. That would be in poor taste. And starting a site with squirrel porn rarely bodes well for the future.
Yep
Cool, HTML works. ^_^
Test...
Wow, cool! Let's see...
