Okay, so I'm a bit slow. I just realized Groovetech is gone. They had a ton of DJ sets there that I used to love to listen to (some amazing stuff from DEMF for instance). Anyone have any idea if the archives have been preserved anywhere? And for bonus points if they're available to listen to online.
January 2004 Archives
Posted before, but I'm in need of silly things: A Dancing Purple Hippo.
Via Boing Boing:
SNOT: Social Networking Overdose Totality.
Example: I invited all of my friends to sign up for Orfuckster this week, despite having just come down with a bad case of SNOT.
Aka, MUDDA. Check out their site.
Via jennett.radio, the worst coffee ever.
I knew Lebanese Brazilian was never going to be the greatest coffee, but I wasn't prepared for quite how disgusting it was. It tasted likefish. [cityofsound] [via jennett.radio]
Mmmm, nothing like a little fish with your coffee.
Dr. Seuss: "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." [Quotes of the Day]
(Warning, Greg's venting ahead)
This is looking to be the week from hell (with a few tiny silver linings). The biggest thing I'm looking at is having to give notice to my landlord that I'll be moving. This means that I haven't been able to find a job and am going to have to relocate to CT till I do. To say I'm not thrilled with this is an understatement. I still kind of have a month because I am supposed to give my landlord 30 days notice. So I can cross my fingers that I find something and not have to move to my parent's place.
Then there's car stuff. My registration expires in about five days and I owe a couple hundred that I don't have in parking tickets and I need to get those taken care of first. Anyone wanna buy my Audiotron? I've been looking to sell it anyways. Then I just found out the my pulmonologist never received the handicapped parking application I sent for him to sign. So I've got to get that in the mail. I think the word for me now is overwhlemed.
Oh yes, and it is too damn cold out. It kills me to be outside for more than a few minutes, it is way too dry out.
There are some good things though. I do have a possible consulting gig that would at least help me be not completely broke in the future. And I do have some job stuff I need to keep calling on. So I guess things aren't totally bad.
Phew, got that out of my system. Now I'm off to run some errands and maybe get some comfort food. I'll try and make happier posts later.
From Bungie, Pimps At Sea.
Pimps At Sea is a trailblazing combination of action and real-time strategy set in a lush, fully 3D world. You'll sail from port to port, making mad loot with all the freedom and realism offered by the most complex economic simulation ever to appear in a game.
Now someone just needs to make a game of Attack of the Zombie Street Pimps.
Malaclypse the Younger: "'Tis an ill wind that blows no minds." [Quotes of the Day]
Here's a puzzle a bunch of us have been working on, match the letter of the alphabet to the video game. I warn you, some of these are frickin' hard.
Update: I got all but around 4 or 5 on my own and then compared notes with other people. I'll post the results tomorrow morning.
Update 2: Answers are posted in the comments.
TV's 'Captain Kangaroo,' Bob Keeshan, dead
(CNN) -- Television's Captain Kangaroo, Bob Keeshan, died Friday morning in Vermont, a family friend told CNN.
"Captain Kangaroo," a children's show, featured the walrus-mustached, bowl-haircut Keeshan entertaining youngsters with his gentle, whimsical humor. Among the show's other characters were Bunny Rabbit, Mr. Moose and Mr. Green Jeans (Hugh Brannum).
The show ran on CBS from 1955 to 1985, and then moved to public television for six more years.
Shows were frequently interrupted with silliness, such as hundreds of ping-pong balls dropping from the ceiling or Mr. Moose's knock-knock jokes, but the mainstay was Keeshan, who chatted with Brannum and told stories. [CNN.com]
I remember those ping pong balls. As a little kid, Captain Kangaroo was one of the shows my mom would let me watch. I can still remember all kinds of things about it now. I find it kind of amazing that I can still remember the other shows I watched around then. Shows like Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers, and Electric Company (which was still my favorite). I think I'll take some time today to get in touch with my inner child. Maybe I can find a bunch of ping pong balls to dump on someone.
My friend Jeff passed me along this news release on whitehouse.gov. Here's a snippet.
Remarks by the President to the Press Pool
Nothin' Fancy Cafe
Roswell, New Mexico11:25 A.M. MST
THE PRESIDENT: I need some ribs.
Q Mr. President, how are you?
THE PRESIDENT: I'm hungry and I'm going to order some ribs.
Q What would you like?
THE PRESIDENT: Whatever you think I'd like.
Q Sir, on homeland security, critics would say you simply haven't spent enough to keep the country secure.
THE PRESIDENT: My job is to secure the homeland and that's exactly what we're going to do. But I'm here to take somebody's order. That would be you, Stretch -- what would you like? Put some of your high-priced money right here to try to help the local economy. You get paid a lot of money, you ought to be buying some food here. It's part of how the economy grows. You've got plenty of money in your pocket, and when you spend it, it drives the economy forward. So what would you like to eat?
Q Right behind you, whatever you order.
THE PRESIDENT: I'm ordering ribs. David, do you need a rib? [Whitehouse.gov]
This post is a bit old, but I just read it for the first time todaytoday, thanks to welcomerain. A list of 213 Things Skippy is no Longer Allowed to do in the U.S. Army.
Once upon a time, there was a SPC Schwarz stationed with the Army in the Balkans. SPC Schwarz was either very clever or very bored; but probably both, since he managed to attempt or be warned about 213 things he wasn't allowed to do. He collected those things into a hillarious list and posted them to the web. The site hadn't been updated in a couple of years and has since gone away; but the list is classic, so I saved it. A couple favorites: 2. My proper military title is 'Specialist Schwarz' not 'Princess Anastasia'. and 191. Our Humvees cannot be assembled into a giant battle-robot.
- Not allowed to watch Southpark when I'm supposed to be working.
- My proper military title is 'Specialist Schwarz' not 'Princess Anastasia'.
- Not allowed to threaten anyone with black magic.
- Not allowed to challenge anyone's disbelief of black magic by asking for hair.
- Not allowed to get silicone breast implants.
- Not allowed to play 'Pulp Fiction' with a suction-cup dart pistol and any officer.
Wired reports on the poll that the American Family Association posted online last month. Here's a bit from the article.
But the AFA never counted on the power of the Internet. And once the URL to the poll escaped its intended audience, everything went haywire. As of Jan. 19, 60 percent of respondents -- more than 508,000 voters -- said, "I favor legalization of homosexual marriage." With an additional 7.89 percent -- or 66,732 voters -- replying, "I favor a 'civil union' with the full benefits of marriage except for the name," the AFA's chosen position, "I oppose legalization of homosexual marriage and 'civil unions,'" was being defeated by a 2-1 ratio.
"We're very concerned that the traditional state of marriage is under threat in our country by homosexual activists," said AFA representative Buddy Smith. "It just so happens that homosexual activist groups around the country got a hold of the poll -- it was forwarded to them -- and they decided to have a little fun, and turn their organizations around the country (onto) the poll to try to cause it to represent something other than what we wanted it to. And so far, they succeeded with that."
Of course, no such poll can be said to represent an accurate picture of popular opinion. But, clearly, the AFA had hoped Congress would take the numbers it planned to produce as exactly that kind of evidence.[Wired Magazine]
So they put a poll on a public website, and are surprised when the public takes it. And then when they don't get the results they wanted they just throw the whole thing out. How childish.
(And I won't rant about online polls being unaccurate (IMHO) to begin with).
Edith Wharton: "If only we'd stop trying to be happy we'd have a pretty good time." [Quotes of the Day]
I must say, I am quite happy that Hikaru no Go is in Shonen Jump now.
Posted without comment.
[JCD]
McDonald's erotica.(01-16) [Cruel Site of the Day]
This is quite cool. RSS for iTMS.
iTunes Music Store RSS Generator
"I learned from Bill Bumgarner that the iTunes Music Store now has RSS feeds.I'll withhold comment on...." [More Like This WebLog]
This is the kind of thing I've been waiting for from Apple. They've got a good community built up around iTunes, but they've done a poor job of connecting and exposing it. I'll have to play around with this to see what it really means, but it would be great if I could find iTunes users with similar tastes in music and then subscribe to their feeds.
On a side note, here's yet another reason for full RSS feeds. I can't get to the More Like This site right now, which means I can't read the rest of the post OR get to the link. Incredibly frustrating.
[The Shifted Librarian]
I now have feeds for the last 100 New Releases and the last 100 Just Added. Very handy, now let's see how well it is updated. (And I still want one for the Quicktime Movie Previews that tells me when new things are added.
From AnimeNation news:
Live Action Witch Hunter Robin Confirmed
Mr. Joe Menosky, writer and producer for TV series including Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and The Dead Zone, has contacted AnimeNation with confirmation that last Friday, January 16th, the Sci-Fi Channel closed a deal with Sunrise Studios of Japan to remake Witch Hunter Robin as a live-action American television series. Mr. Menosky will write the series and executive produce along with Mr. Roy Lee (who licensed the remake of "Ring") and his business partner Doug Davison.
According to Mr. Menosky, "There may or may not be an announcement in the Hollywood tradepapers -- which tend to wait until a pilot script is completed, greenlit for production, with director and actors attached before they consider a television series worthy of mention. But given the focus of AnimeNation, I thought you might find the project of interest." [AnimeNation News]
I'm really not quite sure what to think about this. But it does seem to scare me some. I could see it really sucking. We'll see.
From over on The Industry Standard Blog:
Click and Clack: Real no more
Wayne Robins writes to alert us to this piece in today's NY Times about the public radio show Car Talk dumping the RealPlayer in favor of its Microsoft rival because "it's so hard to find the free Real player on the company's Web site."
P.S. I'm told there's a service that lets blogs point to piece on NYTimes.com without forcing those linked to be registered on the site. If you know more about that program than I do (shouldn't be hard), please write me. [The Industry Standard: Guest Blog]
Blah. It's just audio, why not just stream mp3 instead of going with something like Real or Microsoft?
Seen over on evhead.com:
The Industry Standard: The Blog
Jimmy Guterman: "For all of us, this is a chance to remain associated with a brand that still means a great deal to us, in whatever form. None of us are getting paid for this (at least I'm not getting paid; compadres, let me know if I'm getting a raw deal). It's a hobby. Hey, it's either this or clean the kitchen." [evhead]
Looking for a way to make the State of the Union Address on January 20th more fun?
"The State of the Union Address Drinking...
"The State of the Union Address Drinking Game 2004" [Daypop Top 40] [JCD]
Richard Feynman: "The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." [Quotes of the Day]
The other day John Perry Barlow posted about his missing friend Spalding Gray. It is a beautiful post, and the comments are worth the read too. I still hope he turns up alive.
Update: An update from John Perry Barlow posted soon after I posted this..
I found out today that my old high school is closing one of its campuses. I had heard that something like this was coming for a while, but hearing it officially really threw me for a loop. The campus they are closing is one of my favorite places, even now after all this time. I really loved driving through campus last fall, it is one of those places that still has that 'home' feeling to me. I know that due to financial reasons they have to do this (It's quite expensive to keep two campuses running), but that doesn't seem to make things much easier.
The thing that annoys me about the decision is some of the positive spin they are trying to throw on it. Of the major objectives this says they will be able to achieve I find the first three to be lame. I'm sorry, I didn't feel any kind of skimping of academic excellence with there being two campuses. I think that their ability to continue to provide lots of financial aid is very good though. To me that was always one of the strongest aspects of the school.
I'm wondering what kind of reaction people who went to the Northfield campus before the schools merged will have.
Now playing: ABC - How To Be A Millionaire
Is this proof of life on Mars?
So a bunch of people I know have been talking about Konfabulator lately so I thought I'd give it a try again. There are definitely some better widgets out there then when I last looked, but my big problem with it seems to remain. After running for about 12 hours it just seems to start slowing down my system. I'd open up a finder window and it would just lag while doing so.
Edit: I think I found the solution, hopefully this will help.
Thursday was a prime example of my laziness and the bad timing that seems to haunt me endlessly. I had just gotten out of a therapy appointment and was walking back to my car when I noticed it had a boot on it. Ugs. Figures that this happens on one of the coldest days of the week (and year, and so on). Bit of bad timing one. It's 4pm and the cambridge parking office closes at 5pm. Luckily I have my cell phone (with almost no battery left) on me and call a taxi. I'm able to pay just in time and call for a cab back. The problem is I have to walk out to the street to wait for it. Have I mentioned that it was one of the coldest days? Oh yes, and somewhere in this I've lost a glove. I have no idea where, but I know I lost it before I got into the first cab. I'm waiting for about 5 min for a cab and see another one that is empty and flag that down instead. By now I'm half frozen. So after waiting in my car for about 15 minutes playing on my GBA for the guy to come by and remove the boot.
So this is where bad timing part 2 and my stupidity comes in. I really should have payed these parking tickets ages ago, that way it would have been cheaper and I wouldn't have had to deal with the boot on the coldest day of the year. Also, on Monday I am going to be getting a parking permit for the next year, and was planning on paying my tickets then. So I would have been paying them within days anyways. Oh well, maybe this time I'll learn that I should pay parking tickets the moment I get them (but I wouldn't count on it).
One of the coolest features in iTunes is that I can keep all my music on a central server and listen to it from all the other machines in my house. Now someone has figured out the protocol apple uses for sharing music in iTunes and set it up so that you can share out your music from a linux box. I've got a few friends who have been looking for this kinda thing.
So I was just making a cup of coffee and started to pour the milk in and it was kind of, well, lumpy. I started to think "EWW. GROSS." when I noticed that it was actually just half frozen so a little slushy. Phew.
Gizmodo points to a post that offers a different view on the cost of the iPod Mini. And I think it definitely makes sense, it really depends on what you're looking for. Size or Capacity.
Martians
Mole People
Hobbits
(Thanks to Ellen for the Hobbits link)
Looking for somewhere to eat late at night. Check out LUNARAMA, a growing directory of all-night restaurants and joints. If you don't see your favorite spot on there, feel free to contribute it! Pretty keen. I found out about a place in Hartford that I'll need to check out.
(Ooops, Thanks to Carinah for this link.)
Proving once again that there is something for everyone on the net. We have the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (aka VHEMT (pronounced vehement)).
Q: What is the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement?
VHEMT (pronounced vehement) is a movement not an organization. It's a movement advanced by people who care about life on planet Earth. We're not just a bunch of misanthropes and anti-social, Malthusian misfits, taking morbid delight whenever disaster strikes humans. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Voluntary human extinction is the humanitarian alternative to human disasters.
We don't carry on about how the human race has shown itself to be a greedy, amoral parasite on the once-healthy face of this planet. That type of negativity offers no solution to the inexorable horrors which human activity is causing.
Rather, The Movement presents an encouraging alternative to the callous exploitation and wholesale destruction of the Earth's ecology.
As VHEMT Volunteers know, the hopeful alternative to the extinction of millions of species of plants and animals is the voluntary extinction of one species: Homo sapiens... us.
Each time another one of us decides to not add another one of us to the burgeoning billions already squatting on this ravaged planet, another ray of hope shines through the gloom.
When every human chooses to stop breeding, Earth's biosphere will be allowed to return to its former glory, and all remaining creatures will be free to live, die, evolve (if they believe in evolution), and will perhaps pass away, as so many of Mother Nature's "experiments" have done throughout the eons. Good health will be restored to the Earth's ecology... to the "life form" known by many as Gaia.
It's going to take all of us going. [VHEMT: About the Movement]
I am just speechless about The Surreal Life.
Jerome K. Jerome: "It is always the best policy to speak the truth--unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar." [Quotes of the Day]
I'm catching up on some past news and found some stuff about a kid who was suspended from school for using NET SEND. Yes, the NET SEND that was part of DOS (and still exists in Windows today I believe) is considered hacking.
Hey! Where's the problem?
Hey!
On its face, that expression is neither offensive nor disturbing. "Hey!" is an informal way to say hello. It indicates kindness, simple courtesy and an economy of words.
But a 13-year-old boy at Richland Middle School in Richland Hills was suspended for three days in December because he sent that simple message to every computer in the school using an archaic form of instant messaging. The software was created years ago in the old disk operating system used in earlier versions of personal computers. [Star-Telegram]
The boy's dad has put up a site covering the whole incident, it's pretty funny (and sad). All I could think of as I read off of this is that I'd be so screwed if I was going through school these days.
Yay, it got up to 20 today! Thankfully a bit warmer since I'm having some folks over to watch anime this afternoon. I'm thinking about making this a standard thing once or twice a month on sunday afternoons and just have an open invite to people I know. We'll see. It would be nice to have something regular like that so that people can plan on it. I could also work through some of the shows a little faster that way. Oh well, back to cleaning up some before people show up. Yay Roomba!
There's this thing going around where you hit randomize on your mp3 library and post the first 20 songs that come up, so here goes.
- The New Stone Age - Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
- Brimful Of Asha - Cornershop
- Sibeling - Depeche Mode
- They Can't Take That Away From Me - Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong
- Kick - INXS
- Freedom - The Housemartins
- Fancy Face - Eric Serra (La Femme Nikita Soundtrack)
- Accelerator - Hybrid
- This Is The Way - Ultra Vivid Scene
- Elegy - Howard Jones
- The Great Commandment - Camouflage
- Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans) - Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
- Three Sisters - INXS
- Didn't You Know It - Bel Canto
- The Hunted Child - Ice-T
- To Our Surprise - Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts OST (Disc 1))
- New York City Boy - Pet Shop Boys
- Nothing - Depeche Mode
- romance - 梶浦由紀 (Noir Original Soundtrack I)
- Pushing the sky - è…野よã†å (Cowboy Bebop - Knockin on Heaven's Door O.S.T. Future Blues)
Pretty interesting, it actually came up with some songs I really love (The Great Commandment, Joan of Arc, Freedom, Pushing the Sky). So now I'm giving it all a good listen.
I haven't done one of these in ages, but I just couldn't resist this one.
Which Eddie Izzard line are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
Clare Booth Luce: "Lying increases the creative faculties, expands the ego, and lessens the frictions of social contacts." [Quotes of the Day]
I keep having friends I want to show this and can never remember where it is. So I'll blog it here. The condensed parody versions of The Two Towers and Return of the King. Enjoy if you haven't seen yet.
Via Boing Boing:
And a large orange drink.Burger King customers told: 'You are too fat to have a Whopper'
Police believe teenage pranksters are hacking into the wireless frequency of a US Burger King drive-through speaker to tell potential customers they are too fat for fast food.
Policeman Gerry Scherlink said the pranksters told one customer who had just placed an order: "You don't need a couple of Whoppers. You are too fat. Pull ahead." [Ananova]
Del Rey has announced the release dates for Tsubasa, RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE and xxxHOLiC. I know I won't be able to resist picking them up. Dammit.
Holy heck! It is -2 out!
(Insert rant about the icky cold weather and how it makes him cough a lot when he steps outside).
Elthar pointed me at this interesting page with pictures that were drawn while under the influence of LSD. Some of the descriptions as it goes along are pretty funny.
These 9 drawings were done by an artist under the influence of LSD -- part of a test conducted by the US government during it's dalliance with psychotomimetic drugs in the late 1950's. The artist was given a dose of LSD 25 and free access to an activity box full of crayons and pencils. His subject is the medico that jabbed him.
Okay, after a very boring bit about iLive, 730,000 iPods were sold last quarter (wow). Sold 2 million since they came out. 10GB becomes a 15GB at the same price. New headphones. And a new Ad. Now talking about flash memory mp3 players. Announces the iPodMini. 4GB of storage. Stores 1,000 songs. 1/2 inch thick. $249. looks nice, size of a business card, looks like a mini iPod. Too expensive IMHO. I could see paying $149-$199, but not $249. Available in Feb.
New iMovie. Found ways to make it even better. You can trim clips in the timeline. Can use iSight to bring in video. I wouldn't mind this for sending video letters to my nephew and sister. It would be quite slick. And iDVD is updated too, though I don't care much about it since I can't burn DVDs. Though now you can run iDVD on a machine w/out a DVD burner and then bring your project to one with a burner and burn it there.
New app that is part of iLife called GarageBand. Audio app for the masses. Digitally mix up to 64 tracks. 1000 digital loops included(Soundtrack), over 200 audio affects. You can plug your guitar right into the mac. Software Instruments. John Meyer came out to demo the app. Pretty slick. Though this demo is taking too long and it's getting boring.
Overall, some neat stuff, but nothing really amazing in this keynote. I was hoping for more.
Announced the G5 XServe. Shipping in Feb. Beginning at $2,999.
Announced a new XServe RAID. Nice. Works with Windows and two versions of linux. Very nice. Starting at $3,999 for 1TB.
Next up iTunes. Have sold 30 million songs since 4/28/2003. They have 70% of the legal download market (and he says, feels nice to be above 5% in something). The top spender at the music store has spent 29,500. Talks about audiobooks, they've sold over 50,000 since October. Some nice linkups with AOL. They're going to have the billboard charts downloadable by year. Pepsi and Apple giving away 100,000,000 songs starting in Feb.
Lost my stream and now I guess they only have 56k streams open now. That sucks.
He's talking about iPhoto and new features in it. I missed the beginning, but it looks like a lot of new features. You can also now share your photos with rendezvous.
Demo of Final Cut Express 2. Looks pretty cool. Now I need a machine with a DVD burner so I can make movies. $299, $99 for upgrade.
Office 2004 announced. Features demonstrated. Some neat stuff, like a kind of notepad app.
Steve's back now, talking about how many apps are out. Everyone should switch to Panther if they haven't already.
Talks about the G5 and the cluster at Virginia Tech. Shows a video about it.
(Still nothing real exciting... *YAWN*)
60,000 people watching the webcast of it. Asks the crowd to make noise when they like something.
The 20th anniversary of the Mac. Steve talks about when things were starting out and shows the original mac commercial (it's still cool.
He's talking about Panther. People love Expose (I know I do). Panther has done a huge success. 9.3Million OS X users, 40% of the Mac user base. Said the switch from OS 9 to OS X is 'over'.
Final Cut Pro Express 2.0 being released. Optimized for Panther and the G5.
(More soon)
Since I've done this for the last few keynotes I figure I'll do it again now. I'll be updating things here a bit today. Much more than recently at least. Things look like they're just about to start, they just asked people to turn off their cell phones.
Those wacky folks over at Landover Baptist talk about a new offer: Accept Jesus Christ as Your Lord and Savior and Get a Free PlayStation 2!
What is the theme for 2004 you ask? Bacon.
So I've just finished watching the last episode of Cardcaptor Sakura. It was definitely enjoyable to the end. But I wish they'd included some more stuff from the end of the story in the manga. I wonder if they ran out of time, or money, or what. I'll check out the movie sometime next.
