[Tech/Funny] Kill Bill's Browser

Bloody genius.

http://www.killbillsbrowser.com/

[TV] Kill your [TV]

{incoherent rant} Two months ago I had I 27" TV hooked up in my apartment. It dominated the main wall of my living space. It was the central frame of the room. All the furniture was situated around viewing angles.

It was gathering dust.

I'm not quite sure when it was that I realized it was a waste of time and valuable apartment real estate, but it only took me a couple of days to come to a conclusion of what to do with it.

I pitched it. Recycled it, actually, since CRT TVs have quite a lot of lead and other toxic chemicals in them.

I haven't had too much reason to regret my decsion. I kept a tiny 9" tv for emergencies, but it mostly resides in the back of a linen closet.

The state of television programs in the US is as bad as it has been at any point, perhaps no better or worse. To say the least, that is pretty lousy. Television has a grade average of about D+ most of the time. Sure, there might be a couple things that it does well, but most of the time it is just coasting, not living up to its potential as a medium.

First of all, television has been shortened to record-low times in the pursuit of more and more advertising time. Hour long shows now are only a little more than 40 minutes (I think the average is like 41 minutes now). One of the most compelling reasons to ditch your TV is to ditch the crappy adverts that break into your mental landscapes like a burglar in combat boots. If the bulk of Western civilization were selling anything I had any interest in buying, I might consider it a service. But they sell shit. Crappy worthless shit. Plus perscription drugs (for examples, see any evening national news program). They sell it using the most asinine and hackneyed techniques. There is no doubt that the people who write ads also write for television.

Second, most people consider cable TV a given now. $50-100 a month!? Are they kidding? Plus, a quick preview of what's on should tell you that cable TV is mostly more of the same crap the broadcast networks spout. I will not pay $60 a month for TCM and the Sci-Fi channel. My parent's recently got Dish Network, and mostly the only useful channel is the Sirius sattelite radio channels. Even that, as a stand-alone is $10 or $15 a month. Better to give that to Minnesota Public Radio, who actually play decent music.

Third, television programmers have shit for brains. I'd like to make a special shout out to the programming folks at FOX, who kill everything I love. FU Fox!

I mean seriously, Fox cannot market Arrested Development, probably the funniest show on television in a decade, and yet they'll cancel it and hope for lots of long term profits with 'Prison Break' (which has insufficient long-term prospects to warrant a miniseries, much less a series - let me give you a hint 'they break out and the show is over or they don't break out and you drag the show to death over rough asphault). Other networks fill their dead air with terrible soap operas that are almost more product placement examples and less actual story (boy meets girl, meetings and partings, TNA, numbskull beergut dads). Worst of all is when rank amateurs like J. J Abrams is given a bunch of shows and tons of people watch them, hoping he has some idea of where it is all going (he doesn't - see Alias post season 1 for proof). It isn't much better than this.

I'd normally bitch that broadcast TV cannot do scifi without cancelling it, but it actually seems like a couple networks have gone and done scifi this season. Too bad all the new shows look terrible. The networks want to replicate the success of the first five or six season of The X-Files (now, sadly, starting to look awfully dated), so they even retry Kolchak The Night Stalker, which the X-Files itself ripped off (and I should mention that the original Kolchak only lasted 20 episodes.) The only half-decent (and I am fearful that it really is only half) fairly new scifi is Battlestar Galactica on SciFi, which is better than the original but going in a very disconcerting direction. To confirm it, Hollywood is pretty much out of ideas, and anything new or cool will be killed swiftly (probably by Fox).

The FCC wants to sell off the multibillion dollar spectrum and have everyone switch to digital tv/hdtv. Then you can spend money to buy a digital tv or converter so you can watch hi def signals of shallow crap. $5000 for a plasma tv? I don't think so. Unplug instead. There is a whole world out there.

The benefits of ditching the tele as a foreground aspect of your life include the ability to take back your time and your ability to entertain yourself. Read a book. Play a musical instrument. Buy a puppy. Write something. See a play (plays are better than tv). Learn a skill. Seriously, at some point it is a good idea to stop bowing down to the altar of passive entertainment. You might even learn how to think for yourself again.

Plus it will free up some wall space.

{/ end of rant}

[Politics] Congrats to St Paul

Citizens of Saint Paul, good for you! I lived as a resident of St Paul for 12 years and had to live under the gentle (as in date rape) ministration of the Coleman and Kelly as mayors of that fine city.

It brought a tear to my eye to see Randy Kelly so overwehlmingly defeated.

[Politics] 53%

53%

Even with a 2.9% margin of error, that means the support is over half.

[Interblogy Linkify] Graveyard of Urban Tanks

Check it out...

That is both very sad and very funny.

[Musings] Blogspam

Well blogspam is not cool, nor is the fact those ass-clowns have harvested the emails for members from the profiles to send spam to them.

Despite this, I have resumed anonymous postings. I hated the limitations that the anti-spam measures imposed. I wanted this blog to be a sort of free-for-all for its members.

I will continue to delete the blogspam comments, unless I find them funny, from now on. But I will not re-enable the verification systems unless it becomes a problem.

[Musings] Oncallapus

Oncallapus (n) - 1. A greater demon from the depths of hell. Noted for its perverse pleasure to alter the daily life of mortals. Works through minor minions known as Bleepelots, vile small rectangular shaped entities known for the constant attention needs, annoying siren call, and tickling vibrations.

[TechZen] How to recover from serial split brain...

From http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/269233.htm

At this stage, you need to gain confidence prior to running the recommended command...

[Film] The Stars are Right!

I just picked up a copy of the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society's silent film adaptation of "The Call of Cthulhu" on DVD. Based on the best known short story by Howard Phillips Lovecraft, this has long been regarded as unfilmable. It has multiple locations, a cast of dozens, and requires a deft touch. Most Lovecraft film adaptations have been, well, lets face it, pretty terrible (with occasional okay standouts like 'Dagon'). So it seems a real gamble to do a faithful low budget black and white silent film version of a story that is supposed to take place in the 1920's (thus befitting said treatment).

Boy did it pay off.

Wow. It was even better than I expected. It would be difficult to imagine any authentic looking twenties style silent film being done at all anymore, much less one as pitch perfect as this one. From the old style effects and rendering tricks (scale, fx), a noir atmosphere, background music, even to such details as the scratching of the negative, the typefaces on the placards (in 24 languages to boot!), almost every detail was painstakenly done to look authentic. This project was clearly in the hands of folks who "get" Lovecraft, and wanted to do something that didn't betray the imagery and story. It comes off as part twenties silent film, part noir, part suspense film, part low-budget indie, Brechtian play, Wiene-esque Expressionistic nightmare, and part Ray Harryhausen inspired madness. All of it comes off as a labor of love, and a hell of a lot more than I ever would have expected given their budget and the less than stellar past Lovecraftian adaptations to rise from the depths of R'lyeh. The effects are seriously old school, consistent with what you might have seen in a real 1920's silent film (and the more modern effects are pretty seamless, and the acting is better than in the 20's!). It is also amazing what you can get away with in black and white. Some of the scenes are just surreal. The film runs 47 taut minutes.

If you are a Lovecraft fan you will absolutely shiver when you see Cthulhu emerge.

DVD was ordered direct. $20, and shipping was $1.31 A great value. Even my receipt came on paper that looks like a Lovecraftian inspired 1920's telegram. The details are everything. This film was done by a lot of dedicated folks not making a lot of money over the space of two years. Lovecraft fans should support projects like this. Here is the trailer.

If you like Lovecraft, reread "The Call of Cthulhu", then pop this movie in and enjoy.

[Special] Happy 6th Wedding Anniversary Nerdwife!

Thank you for six wonderful years, the good, the bad, my gas...

Here's to many many more.

[Musings] On difficult reading and pasta; including some digressions. With regards to Ben Marcus.

I recently read Ben Marcus' excellent folio in this month's Harper's magazine, entitled "Why experimental fiction threatens to destroy publishing. Jonathan Franzen, and life as we know it." I was so taken with this article that I am considering sending it to everyone I know and irritating them with persistent emails and an excess of lengthy voicemail messages until it has been read by all. In fact, reader, the only way to stave off this threat may be go find Harper's now. But first, a laudatory comment or two.

This outstanding discourse reflects on the damage perpetuated by outspoken advocates of popularized, popcorn-worthy fiction (namely, Jonathan Franzen, but he is far from alone in this enterprise). Should you be unfamiliar with this debate, I will attempt to summarize nearly two decades' worth of interviews, articles, blogs and commentary in two sentences. The argument essentially states that the role of fiction is to entertain as many people as possible by utilizing straightforward narratives, character complexities easily derived from their childhoods, and predictable plot twists and resolutions all neatly packaged in a setting as familiar as my mother's favorite stoneware. Fiction which strays from this well-worn path is dangerous, generally worthless and needlessly difficult (in Marcus' words, "disturbingly masturbatory").

Marcus' 2002-ish novel Notable American Women is an example of the difficult fiction decried by Franzen. This is a book so delectable that I am, even now, pleasurably lolling in memories of favorite phrases and passages. This is also a book that I have never recommended to anyone. It is a celebration of, and trial in, uses of language. The characters are at (most) times inscrutable; the plot is meant to be inferred by the reader; the narrator, unreliable... in short, this is not a book destined to be read by, say, my mother.

This should not detract from this book's value, both as art and as entertainment. By discouraging readership of esoteric, experimental, or otherwise narrow-audience fiction, Franzen threatens to deprive the literature world of significant works. Homogeneity is comforting but makes for a life of poor reading, in my estimation. Admittedly, I am a difficult and often contrary person (as confirmed by my poor husband), and often inclined to embrace ill-advised enterprises (cf my present thesis work). But does this make my tastes less valid than those of anyone else?

Consider dining with my mother. Mom is a bona fide culinary genius- she can make anything tasty. Our tastes in pasta diverge significantly, however. What is an al dente masterpiece to me is merely chewy to her. My mother also enjoys romance novels, so much so that she hasn't read anything else for most of my life. Indeed, I have been known to partake in the Harlequin goodness. Some days, I just need reassurance that although fate separated them at the alter, Drew finds Spencer as damnably desirable as ever, and will make her his on their quest for rare antiquities.... But I also need the toothsome enjoyment of (allegedly) difficult fiction. And spaghetti alla pepperocino. Often at the same time.

I propose an exchange. I will eat Mom's pasta (and like it), and continue to read nearly everything that crosses my path; I will also endorse "difficult" works, even to lovers of straightforward fiction. In return, readers, please support rare fiction enterprises by reading them, recommending them, and not listening to the grinding uniformity endorsed by some in the literary enterprise. Preserve the beauty of literature by reading something different!

Sláinte- to your reading health.

[Music] Arcade Fire

Went to the Arcade Fire concert at 1st Ave last Thursday. Amazing, simply awesome, actually the best concert I have been to in a long time.

It recharged my sould.

Also, the men's bathroom at 1st Ave is very interesting, you can urinate while watch traffic outside.

[Musings] Depression, the mistress of happiness.

Depression.

Depression, in everyday language, refers to any downturn in mood, which may be relatively transitory and perhaps due to something trivial. This is differentiated from clinical depression which is marked by symptoms that last two weeks or more and are so severe that they interfere with daily living.

In the field of psychiatry the word depression can also have this meaning but more specifically refers to a mental illness when it has reached a severity and duration to warrant a diagnosis. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) states that a depressed mood is often reported as being: "... depressed, sad, hopeless, discouraged, or 'down in the dumps'."

In a clinical setting, a depressed mood can be something a patient reports (a symptom), or something a clinician observes (a sign), or both.

Depression is the mistress, the secret lover of happiness. It is the yang of ying. The darkness to the light.

[Image] You will not see this in American media.

This graphic image found on the BBC News website I think illustrates the hell of war and what our soldiers are going through. Granted this is a British soldier, but our troops face no less of a threat.

Full story here.

Thanks to the Bush Administration, our media has been 'sanitized' of any offending images. We will not see the horror and cost of war. We will not see the flag draped coffins. And if it wasn't for the efforts of media (by that I mean CNN's legal action against the gov't for the right to show these images), we would never see the images of the dead in New Orleans.

Just because we do not see the bad things that happen in this world, it does not mean that bad things don't happen. Wake up America.

[Yarrr!!!!!] Shit, almost forgot...

Today be talk like a pirate day all you sons of scuvious dogs!

Buckets-o-blood on me poop-deck!

Best pirate-ninja connection...EVAR!!!!

Right here.

[Musings] Why I can't piece two sentences together.

I've been suffering from writers block again, severely. I don't know why, I have a lot of pent up rants and observations crying to be birthed unto the world. I think it might be the fact I have worked almost everyday for two weeks and am thoroughly exhausted. It might be because I was dissed by a vendor at work (revenge is a dish best served chilled, with a cheese and cracker tray). But mostly I think it might be because it is a full moon.

Now before you laugh, I've been doing an observational experiment over the last few months and my productivity does go down the 3 days around and during a full moon. I get absent minded, I loose my ability to form cogent thoughts and sentences, and I make stupid mistakes. Now, this could be because I seem to notice it and hence psych myself out, but other strange things happen during a full moon. Systems at work break in strange ways, all by themselves.

I dunno, maybe I am going insane.

[Poem] 0xdeadbeef

e_ddi_get_dev_info: Illegal major device number <-1>NOTICE: VxVM vxio V-5-0-74 Cannot open disk ROOTDISK: kernel error 6

Cannot mount root on /pseudo/vxio@0:0 fstype ufs

panic[cpu3]/thread=10408000: vfs_mountroot: cannot mount root

0000000010407970 genunix:vfs_mountroot+70 (10437400, 0, 0, 104732fa, 80, 14)
%l0-3: 0000000010437400 000000001043ab20 000000323e000000 0000000010437608
%l4-7: 0000000000000000 00000000104139e8 00000000000c17bf 00000000000017bf
0000000010407a20 genunix:main+8c (104101f8, 2000, 10407ec0, 10408030, fff2, 1005
41a0)
%l0-3: 0000000000000001 0000000000000001 0000000000000015 0000000000000f69
%l4-7: 000000001042a1c8 00000000104791b8 00000000000da100 0000000000000100

skipping system dump - no dump device configured
rebooting...

SC Alert: Host System has Reset

[Musings] FEMA, the Supreme Court, and all

I read an interesting article by Steve Perry at City Pages (you can see it here).

I think he makes good points.

I wish the media would quit chest thumping about their coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Yes, they grew a spine and reported the atrosity. But don't give up now, challenge the talking points be persistant. Expose the administration for the frauds they are and keep uncovering their incompetencies and inadequacies as leaders.

Its not too late.

[Musings] Got nothing.

Been exhausted.

Turned 30.

Had a meat-coma.

Can't find a damn company to haul away a washer and dryer in Rochester.

Thinking about World of Warcraft.

[Musings] Perfection Deception

I spy with my little eye an epidemic.

There it is! Right in front of you! Buy this magazine, buy this book! You too can have perfect abs, perfect hair, perfect SATs, perfect sex. We're obsessed, enamored, entrenched. We have a love affair with the impossible - perfection.

When did we ever start believing this was possible? And how did our thinking become so warped that now we expect NASA and the space program to be perfect?

Thinking back to the coverage of the Discovery mission, I am still puzzled over the talking heads in the media. Their infotainment spin on the mission was if the shuttle explodes again, that will be the end of all space travel for the US. Ever. (Of course with some meaningless polls to back them up.) Now I can see how another tragic loss may prompt tax payers to take a harder look at the massive amount of fundage NASA receives, but I suspect the real reason for a NASA shut down would be that the public would consider another accident as evidence this whole space exploration thing is a total failure. We demand perfection from the most dangerous of our peaceful (as far as we know) pursuits.

I guess that's what baffles me - we do not recognize the cost of growth. Somehow we've been deluded into thinking progress and discovery come in neat, clean, and expected intervals.