1) You'll notice the search title has a line under it now. I'm not sure why it didn't before, to fix it I had to do something dumb, and for all I know it will break again. Stupid web...
2) If you try to make this page validate, you'll notice that it won't. You may also notice that all the lines that break reference trackback data. Smarter people than I have tried to fix this problem, and failed. Again, stupid web.
Oh yeah, Happy New Year.
Giftmas came, and then it went. I got a Game Cube and Metroid Prime to go with it. Let me tell you, Nintendo has come a long way. From 2D 2 color Mario way back, through the Zelda series and more, the new Metroid is phenomenal. The graphics are smooth, there are virtually no load time delays, and the game play, with consideration for the complexity of the worlds and environment, is excellent. As I play through it, I'm sure I'll have more to say, but for now I'll leave it at that.
In other news, I'm almost done with the fourth Harry Potter book. Truthfully, there was a time I thought I'd never read them. "Bah," I thought, "they're for kids... If I want fantasy, I'll re-read some Tolkien, or Eddings." Then I started reading the Potter books. They're simple, but addictive. Compared to Tolkien, they're very simple; the world is not very complex. However, they're quite entertaining, and the charcters are very easy to relate to. Every kid who went through a period of their life where they didn't quite fit in can understand Harry. Every kid who couldn't always have the newest toys, but whose friends did can feel Ron's pain. All of us geeks can associate with Hermione. That's where the strength of these stories is: no matter how old you are, one of these people will suck you in. It's great. I can't wait for the next one to come out.
So Christmas has arrived. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Time seems to go by so quickly lately. One second I'm thinking about something months away, the next thing I know I'm remembering it. When do we get to slow down and enjoy things?
I finished my shopping last weekend to the tune of... Well, since I'm trying not to think about it, let's just say I spent what I needed to and it was more than I would have liked, but less than I would have wanted. I gave my first gift today and it went over really well. That kind of made the whole thing worth while. And that's what it's all about right?
As you can probably guess, like most everyone else in Blogaria, posting will be light over the next few days. I do, however, have some neat things in the works: at least one longer post and some cleanup around the old toybox for the new year.
Best wishes to you and yours this Christmas.
Random Fixation
For the most part, Cory's blog has been moved into it's new home. It looks the same and tastes the same, it's just got a new address. Update your bookmarks as necessary, I'll get around to mine at some point. Yup Cory, you're now officially in the other sites category...
I think I'm gonna cry...
I got to see The Two Towers last night. As a stand alone movie, I thought it was amazing. The scenery was incredible. The special effects were remarkable. Overall, I was very impressed.
As a conversion from a pre-existing book, this movie was not as good as the first one in my opinion. It seemed to me that major pieces of the plot were changed. In the first film things were left out for time's sake. That's very different from changing them.
I'll definitely have to see it again, and I'm excited about the third one. With this one, I just had a little trouble separating the film from the book. Both are excellent on their own, but not necessarily together. Oh well, we can't always get everything we want, right?
Wired: Why Nintendo Won't Grow Up
Despite his unfailing politesse, he bristles at the suggestion that his own creations might be holding back the industry. "People often talk about Grand Theft Auto. But I am not sure whether that sort of extreme subject matter is always appropriate. They also talk about the future of games being a kind of virtual reality. But I am not convinced that being more realistic makes better games."
In his view, it is the urge to imitate cinema - not his own unwillingness to compromise - that impedes the industry's evolution. "Videogames do not have any competitive edge over movies as an entertainment form. We have to pursue something that movies cannot do." Just what that is, however, is hard for him to articulate. "The most important thing is for games to be fun," he says. "I cannot tell you exactly what that means. It is something you feel, I think."
Great article from Wired with some history of the genre as well as a little bit of insight about the future.
Day one of being 23 didn't go so badly over all. I tried to do some Christmas shopping, but walking through the mall was so depressing I didn't end up buying a single thing. On the upside, though, my mom made me Birthday cake and put candles on it.
Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday. It's appreciated. Catch you all tomorrow when hopefully I'll get my final birthday present: a win over the Titans.
Well, my birthday is rapidly drawing to a close. It felt like just another day. When I was at college we had a party one time to celebrate Joe's, Jake's, Cory's, and my birthdays all together. After not going to a party since school, it would have been a fun way to celebrate. Makes me miss the good old days. Man, I even sound old (however, according to a woman I work with, I'm just a "baby", having not even been born when she had already been working for the company for ten years).
I got up this morning, did the same stuff as usual (shower, shave, blah blah blah), vacuumed the house, cleaned the bathroom, stuff I shouldn't do on my birthday but had to be done. I went to Foxwoods and came home up ten dollars, having hit for over a hundred in order to put my up fifty, and then having blown forty of that in less than ten minutes. Easy come, easy go. I then came home, ate some pizza, and watched TV. Aside from a few phone calls from well-wishers, it might as well have been any other day.
And I guess, basically, that makes it all kind of depressing. Sixteen, you get your permit. Eighteen, you're an adult. Twenty-one and you can drink. After that, it seems like it all goes down-hill.
Over the last year, a lot of things have changed. I got my diploma, I returned home, I'm a working slob now, I've started down the long long path of repairing my relationship with my father, and in so doing have learned a lot about myself. I've grown up a lot. I feel so young and so old all at the same time.
I don't know where I'm going with this. Basically, between the holidays, winter, and my birthday, I've got a nasty case of the blues. Although this wasn't a birthday that I'll try to forget, it wasn't one that will forever stick out in my mind having been spent exactly the way I wanted (whatever that is, anyway).
The highlight of my day, though? You'll find it here.
Wired News: Digital Actors in Rings Can Think
I can't wait to see the movie already... I just can't wait...
OpenP2P.com: Piracy is Progressive Taxation, and Other Thoughts on the Evolution of Online Distribution
An extremely interesting article by Tim O'Reilly. He has some excellent ideas about P2P, or peer to peer for those of you not in the know, and why people might pay for filesharing services. He also has some excellent ways of looking at P2P filesharing, for example, as the title says: piracy as progressive taxation. Excellent read and worth the length.
Textism
What a great application. This would make a great piece for web services. You could write html email on the web, post to your blog on the web, post to bulletin board forums, or just to your website. I wonder if maybe he'll release it... That would be cool.
Is the Computer Desktop an Antique? - by Steven Johnson
An interesting article by Steve Johnson, author of Interface Culture. Personally, I think innovation in the computer interface is past due: technology has advanced to the point where we can try new things and interact in new ways. When I'm working with a text document and I go to save it, why doesn't my computer reccommend a spot for it in relation to other documents on the same topic? Why don't pictures automatically group themselves in useful ways, such as by date? Why don't more monitors have touch screens built in so I can move my files around physically? Maybe these are stupid ideas, but they just prove that computers have gotten to the point where these types of things are possible, and with every possibility come the chance for innovation and more useful ways of interacting with the new e-world.
Now if we could only make them stop crashing...
CNN.com - Game: Walk in playboy Hefner's slippers - Dec. 12, 2002
Screw this half way stuff, if they're going to do this, they should go all the way. I want to haggle with the girls about what they have to do in order to be photographed, who they have to do to get the good photgrapher instead of cousin Bob, and which girls get to sleep in Hefner's bed on even and odd days. Quite honetsly, I don't want to experience a Mature rated version of his life, I want to experience all of it in its dirty, gritty, glory. Now that would be an awesome game.
Last weekend I saw Harry Potter II: The CHamber of Secrets. It was way better than the first one and inspired me to read the books. I'll let you know how that works out.
At work, I have learned more vbscript than should be allowed and can currently make Power Point sit, beg, and give me its paw. All completely automated. Look for some power point tools coming soon.
This Saturday I'm going to Foxwoods, a casino in CT to celebrate the birth of my mother's first and only son (bet you can't guess who that is). Hopefully I'll win big, but more likely I'll come home more poor than when I left.
Monday night the Patriots play the Titans. Yes folks, we've reached the magical make or break portion of the season. I'm quite looking forward to it.
Things have been kind of hectic lately, so you'll have to have some patience. Stay tuned though, as I do have a few things up my sleeves.
Six Log
Ben and Mena's company site... In case you didn't know, Ben and Mena designed Movable Type. They're both really smart people, and this site is a great place to keep up on all things blogish.
We need a team that can beat LA, not women and the justice system!"
via :: ESPN, quoting a sign in Portland, Oregon regarding the Portland Trailblazers
ESPN.com: NFL - Power Rankings week 15
Teams on their way to the Super Bowl don't lose to teams that have 47 yards in total offense.
Where's that stupid "Steeler's going to the Super Bowl" song now?
I've packaged up my New Door screen scraper for download.Please let me know if you use it or if you have questions. It's in php, it's just a function, and it's not glorious or anything, it just gets the job done. Hope you like it.
Whenever you get an off campus phone call, and you think no one is at the other end cause you say hello three times and you get no response, just remember never to yell "Hello, well fuck you asshole!!!" Cause there's always a good possiblity that it's your mother and you have a bad connection. And chances are she'll be super pissed when she calls you back.
Via :: someone's away message
Well now. It's been a few days since I've gotten back into posting regularly, and that's because some times real life can be a drag. I'm working on a few side projects right now for the site, but if you've looked around closely, you'll notice that a few things are still broken. C'est la vie.
In any case, yesterday, the Patriots won. The papers today said they dominated the Bills. Dominated? I'd say no. the 49 to nothing whooping the Cardinals got a few weeks ago sets the new definition for dominating. I mean otherwise, you could say that Houston dominated the Steelers yesterday. You wouldn't say that, would you? ::wink wink::
I was sad to see Bledsoe lose, even though it means the Patriots are heating up, and that's a good thing for those of us who enjoy post-season football; the kind of football where you can get up on Saturday and see a great game, and then get up on Sunday and do the same. Ah yes, football makes life sweet.
I'd like to see the Patriots continue to get hot, and finally meet up with the Bucs in the big dance. Two teams built around crazy defenses with decent offenses duking it out. Yes, even if we lose, how often do the defending champs make it back to the Super Bowl? I don't think too often.
That's the end of my football rant for now. I have a lot more to say, and even some to say about baseball (Epstein anyone?). However, tonight I've said enough.
the book of seg. phillip m. torrone. segway ht human transporter
I don't know how I fel about this whole thing, but these are some interesting projects. Funny, though, that we can't do any of this with automobiles, or I should say that no one has tried it with them.
Well, the DNS changes have taken effect. I took a little vacation for the weekend, and now I'm back in RL and in Blogaria. I have a few things to do, such as checking some broken links, getting my email straightened out, and fixing some database connections, but for the most part things should be back to business as usual. Sweetness.
v-2 Organisation | beauty. utility. balance.
Ok. I admit, I've been reading Adam's site more and more frequently over the last few days. This post in particular caught my eye, and has me thinking about a new project.
On the topic of projects, I'm finding the New Door list to the left quite interesting. Here's the deal. When Mark's New Door script comes along to make its recommendations, it grabs all the links on my page. It finds all the links it recommended yesterday sitting right there, grabs them up, and makes new recommendations. Slowly and cautiously, my circle of reading is being expanded. I wish there was a good way to depict this graphically, or to at least watch what's happening. Due to problems with my host, I can't create files on my server right now, otherwise I'd be storing the links for eah day. Ah well... I guess for now I'll just have to wait a few days...
Wired News: The Games Wal-Mart Doesn't Play
As far as I'm concerned, when people start saying things like "With that kind of clout, the discount retailer can exercise considerable influence over the kinds of titles that find their way into consumers' hands..." we have a problem. I don't want Wal-Mart changing a game before I even get to buy it somewhere else, yet it seems like that's what's happening. That's crap.
Wal-Mart has already forced many mom and pop stores out of business as well as many larger chains. The more I read about them, the more I'm reminded of stories about the Darth Gates and Microsoft. Maybe when our DA finishes up with MS, he should head on over to Wal-Mart and give them some crap too.
Emptybottle
Chris has been doing some redesigning. I enjoyed reading his blog, and I miss it. Hopefully the fact that he's been messing with his layout means that even though he's been hurt, he's starting to mend a little bit. That's a good sign from a guy who lost a friend and who's been through a lot. Chris, if you read this, keep your head up man. We're thinking about ya.
Yesterday I wrote a little screen scraper that reads my recommended reading list from New Door and posts them here on my page. Based on what links I've written about and posted on my page my recommendations change, showing me new links. This also happens as I include and exclude sites. I thought this would be pretty neat, especially since the first few lists I read through seemed to be on the money.
Apparently, so did Doc Searls, as he linked to my site yesterday. Repeat after me: "I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy..." Doc is the Senior editor of Linux Journal, has written for numerous publications, and is a pretty well known blogger. It all makes me feel kind of special.
Being linked by Doc meant that suddenly my site was exposed to a larger audience than usual, and one of the people who linked me was Andy. He's got a nicely designed site and a good sense of humor, as proven by the fact that he too liked the latest post from the Dooce. Word. Word. Word..
I've never explicitly asked someone to link to me, but I do enjoy it when it happens. I guess what this proves is that if you build it, they will come. If you keep at it and give back to the community, eventually people notice, and it makes it all worth while. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: personal publishing rules.
dive into mark/Recommended Reading
In the left hand sidebar, I've added a new feature: My New Door recommendations. The script caches my recommended reading once a day. I've tried to clean up the results by adding links I read and links I'm not interested in, so you shouldn't see duplicate links that appear both there and in the Without section. However, because my New Door recommendations vary as do the links on my page at any given point in time, I can't make any promises that there won't ever be some redundancy.
As I did this, I noticed that depending on what links you include and exclude you can really change your results. Merely by including my results my list changed completely. Other fluctuations may be due to changes in the ecosystem data. In any case, because I haven't taken the time to see exactly how Mark's code works, I'm not exactly sure where the differences come from.
I'll be making the code available for download as soon as possible (the backend changes on my host aren't yet complete and this could affect some things, ie when the dns changes take effect I'll have two versions of all my files). Please keep in mind: since this is a screen scraper, any time Mark makes changes, there's a good chance this will break as well.
dooce: qualifying for pacific northwestern citizenship
So last night I was in the bathroom at a movie theater in Monroe, Washington, and I'm finishing going #1 in one of the 10 stalls when somone probably four stalls down from mine lets out a fart that almost sends her flying up through the concrete in the ceiling, out the roof of the building. It was a five-syllable fart, a cockadoodledo fart, a fart that shook me and every other person in that bathroom out of our mortal coils.
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