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02-28-07
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
A handful of of snubfighters against the most powerful battlestation ever built? Two photon torpedoes in a thermal exhaust port that was only two meters across? When we talk about the destruction of the Death Star, there are dubious coincidences that we take for granted. We accept them like sheep.
People may call me a conspiracy theorist, or paranoid, or just plain crazy. But I say that there are things that we have to know about the Death Star's destruction. This article asks the questions, uncomfortable questions, that we have to face in order to learn the truth behind this tragedy. Who knows what shadowy phonecalls were made between government leaders after this event.
Don't believe the lie because it's easier.
02-27-07
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
A Mac OS X system update I applied did some wonky things to my server's mySQL installation. Things seem to be fixed now.
Hooray for revised Daylight Savings Time.
02-26-07
Monday, February 26, 2007
02-23-07
Friday, February 23, 2007
02-21-07
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Before her death in June of 2006, somewhat obscure British pianist Joyce Hatto had completed a miraculous renaissance near the end of her rather unremarkable career. Dubbed "The greatest pianist that no one has heard of", she had come out with several albums demonstrating a broad range of style and technique.
Recently, when a reviewer for Gramophone magazine put one of Hatto's CD's in his drive, iTunes (querying the CDDB) identified the CD as someone else's. After digging through his extensive collection of CDs, the reviewer found the CD that iTunes had identified. Sure enough, it was identical to the Hatto CD.
An audio engineer conducted a more detailed investigation which showed many of her recent recordings to be copies of other artists' works. Some were slightly modified to change the tempo without modifying the pitch, or given an EQ filter.
This shocking fraud is rocking the music and recording technology worlds. Hatto's husband and producer says he "Cannot explain the similarities." But given the mounting evidence, he may find himself on the receiving end of a class-action lawsuit by a number of composers and record companies soon enough.
02-20-07
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
At last, I've found it, and it came from the British. Data is a singular noun, and any attempt to wrangle it into plural context simply constitutes bad usage.
I've ranted and raved before about the problems with this good-intentioned grammar abortion, and I was generally on the right track. I said that "data" was a "body of substance". Apparently, there's a more correct term for this: "massive nouns". For example: The data from the crash tests has helped immensely.
... is the same as saying...
The information from the crash tests has helped immensely.
You would not say:
The data from the crash tests have helped immensely.
... any more than you would say...
The informations from the crash tests have helped immensely. The article also points out that there are many more of these type of words in English such as stamina and agenda, the latter of which is already under assault for "correction". Definitely a good read.
02-19-07
Monday, February 19, 2007
I'm finally backing up.
I purchased a Firewire hard drive enclosure off eBay. I pulled the extra 80GB hard disk out of the GeekMan's World server (I wasn't using it for anything) and popped it into the enclosure. It lives at the office. While I'm here, I hook it up to my laptop and have a little program called SilverKeeper scan my hard drive for changed or new files and adds them to the backup. I hope that when Mac OS X Leopard comes out that I can switch to using Time Machine.
It's a load off my mind. I take my computer everywhere and there are tons of bad things that could happen. Fire, theft, spontaneous hard disk damage (looking in your direction again, Dixons). Losing the laptop isn't a huge deal (besides the cost), but losing all my files would basically be a LIFE DISASTER. All the music I've ever written, all my creative efforts, emails from 2001, purchased music, the list goes on. You have no idea; I have AppleWorks drawings of Lego models that I drew back in 1994. It says on the file, "Date Modified: May 20, 1994". It's been with me through 5 different Macintoshes. I often wonder what will happen to all these files when I'm gone. What a strange era. No more paper, just files, files, files... but every bit as precious to me.
02-16-07
Friday, February 16, 2007
02-15-07
Thursday, February 15, 2007
So I turn to my LiveJournal friends page and see all the lovely Valen-hate going down. As you know, my Hypocritic Oath allows me to radically alter my opinion of Valentines Day at any time. I do so now in order to piss people off.
Naturally, I have a predilection towards cynicism when it comes to holidays that are pumped up by commerce in order to associate love with material goods and therefore drive the economy forward. However, to the people whining about Valentines Day on their blogs I must firmly and sincerely say, shut up! Seriously, is someone holding up a gun and saying that if you don't buy something that they'll shoot a dog? I doubt it. Are you afraid that if you don't buy something for your loved one, that they'll hate you because they don't understand that you're (a) poor or (b) opposed to celebrating your relationship with gifts? Well, then you probably shouldn't be with that person in the first place! And lastly, I don't need an excuse to treat my lover like a goddess, but dammit, given the opportunity, I'm gonna take it!
So Angela and I went to dinner last night at a nice little local Italian restaurant and shared a bottle of red wine. We talked the whole time. We walked home in the rain. When we got back we you wish you wish you wish you wish you wish you wish you wish you wish you wish you wish you wish you wish you wish you wish you wish you wish you wish you wish you wish you wish you wish you wish you wish. And then we you wish you wish you wish you wish you wish you wish you wish you wish you wish you wish you wish you wish absolutely amazing actually, this part you probably don't want to hear about almost broke my totally censored. What's wrong with you, sicko? Seriously, do you think I'd post that? My MOM read this blog. Just don't, K?. Then we went to bed, exhausted.
It was basically the best Valentines Day I've ever had. EVER. And yes, I did BUY something for Angela, but I didn't break the bank and she likes it. Our love doesn't hinge on commerce. Ask her to show it to you next time you see her.
02-14-07
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Ever been really keen on doing something productive only to find that when asked to do it by someone of authority you immediately lose interest? Myself and several people I know have railed against their parents on more than one occasion for this. You'll be all ready and eager to go out job-hunting, study for that midterm, do that housework; then mom or dad will come by and ask, "Haven't you done this yet? Well, get to it!" Immediately, you lose the will to move.
The phenomenon has a scientific name. Psychologists are calling it reactance: a desire to resist social influences that one perceives as threats to one's autonomy.
So it turns out that sometimes the best way to get someone to do something... is to not ask them to do it? Needs clarification.
02-09-07
Friday, February 09, 2007
02-08-07
Thursday, February 08, 2007
I had a client bitch me out today. I won't mention their name here because you'd recognize them and that can lead to all sorts of trouble.
Long story short, I followed up on a filing for which we had sent off the proof yesterday but had not received confirmation to file. E-mail has been incredibly flaky recently and it's a good idea to doubly confirm if you're uncertain of something. Sure enough, I got a phonecall 5 minutes later from the client which consisted of, "What? It's not filed? I sent an e-mail asking to file! Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck..." No exaggeration on that last part.
I hastily file the press release. Afterwards, said client calls up again, asking how this could have happened. I tell them (truthfully) that e-mail has become increasingly unreliable and it can be a good idea to call ahead to confirm filing. So, "This is the first time I haven't called and it gets fucked up! Fuck, fuck, fuck..." etcetera. I promise to look into it.
I check the log files for our spam scanner. His other e-mails are listed there "PASS", meaning not deleted as spam. There are no other records. I proceed to check the mail.log file on both our primary and secondary e-mail servers. Same deal again. Our servers never received his e-mail.
So what are we supposed to do? We write an e-mail apologizing for the inconvenience, but we explain the situation and show that it's an issue beyond our control. As network administrators tighten the nets to try to block out spam, an increasing amount of legitimate e-mail is filtered out. We whitelist the domain names of our major clients to make sure that doesn't happen... at least not on our end...
So after all this I have to say I'm fairly pissed off. I'm sure there are plenty of you who get bitched out at your jobs far more than me (StarBucks employees, I'm looking in your direction...) but this is BUSINESS. We have a minimum level of proper conduct. I cheese it every day and put on that carbon-copy business charm because that's what you DO when talking to people at this level. I get mad, annoyed, frustrated, but I don't swear at people, even when they're the ones who are providing goods and services to US. Anyone who acts the way this guy did is a tactless jerk who doesn't deserve be representing a major public company.
Who knows, maybe he just forgot to send out the approval to file, and needed somewhere else to place the blame. Asshat.
02-07-07
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Ever notice how in our society honesty is used as a weapon of hurtfulness and lies are used as a salve of friendliness?
Think about it: It's totally true. This is probably why I have so much trouble with well-intentioned but all-too-honest discourse. People will tell you that they want open discourse, but be honest about anything with the slightest tinge of negativity and people will inherently infer it as insult. What they really want, deep down, is the soothing caress of lies and omission of truth. The propriety of, "How's it going?" - "Oh, just fine."
I don't like to use truth as a weapon of hurt. It seems wrong to me. As a scorpio, some astrologers cite the "sting" as the act of taking one's intellect and well-spokeness to verbally attack, deconstruct someone's character in the most honest, hurtful way possible. There's plenty of venom for concepts and corporations on this website, but I've only done this to a person a couple of times in my life. To do it it is a primal, visceral feeling. I know it hurt the persons and it made me surprised at myself.
Truth, WHOLE truth, should be a gift given to the ones closest to you. Good news or bad news, you give the truth, and you damn-well give it without spite or ill-intent; you give it with love. Lies should be reserved for the people in your life who deserve no better than social niceties and pleasantries.
It's all so easier said than done. I hope that I can live up to it myself.
02-06-07
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
In a recent panel on modern media at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Rupert Murdoch, owner of News Corporation, admitted publicly that his company deliberately tried to use Fox News to sway public opinion in support of the Iraq war.
This basically confirms from the horse's mouth what most of us already suspected all along: that Fox News is a propaganda machine for the Bush administration. It's sick. From the article:
"Where is the outrage? Where are the calls to disband this mammoth and unlawful propaganda machine? ...Think of the precedent this sets for any other wealthy and ambitious ideologue that seeks to manipulate public opinion... ...And it can not be tolerated! Not by any standard of journalistic ethics. Not by a nation that values a free press so much that it incorporated that freedom into its Constitution."
I'm inclined to agree.
02-05-07
Monday, February 05, 2007
An update on the ATHF bomb scare for you. After politicians and public officials covered up their utter incompetence with furious anger, Turner Broadcasting caved in and not only issued an apology, but also offered to pay up to $2 million for the cost of the Boston shutdown.
Far be it for me to defend a corporation, but this is really is a societal travesty. Perhaps it's just me, but if trained law-enforcement officials can't tell the difference between some blinking lights with some C-cell batteries taped to it and, oh say, A BOMB, then it's not someone else's fault. You have a serious problem with your anti-terror personnel and procedures. Here's a tip: if someone wants to blow something up, they place bombs in inconspicuous places, with inconspicuous packaging, thereby maximizing the chance that they won't be discovered and will indeed, explode as planned. If you're going to place a bomb in a well-viewed area and cover it with bright, colorful lights, you might as well just write "BOMB" on the side in big yellow letters and take out an ad in the classified letting people know it's there. Is this not implicit logic? Is this not the kind of thinking that a monkey is capable of, much less TRAINED, COUNTER-TERRORIST OFFICERS? Blaming civilians as furiously as possible is an unfair way of whitewashing government incompetence. Get people angry at the advertising campaign quick enough and maybe they'll forget that their bomb squad can't tell the difference between a bomb and a lite-brite.
Now that I'm done with my rage, let me tell you that Angela and I had a wonderful weekend which consisted of watching a LOT of the new Battlestar Galactica. Jeff had seasons 1 & 2 on DVD. I've been skeptical of the series for some time. Honestly, the original show was cheesy and I'm wary of anything that comes from the T.V. networks these days. But, this series is an excellent Sci-Fi drama that had quite rightly earned it's fandom. The show is well-written, it's concepts and characters are interesting, and to boot it's filmed right here in Vancouver (we can't wait to start seeing Adam). The show is in fact so addictive that Angela and I watched the 3-hour miniseries and the first 6 episodes this weekend alone. Regrettably, this also means we now have a solemn pact to only watch the shows together. It's probably a good thing, otherwise I'd spend all my time engorging myself with BSG instead of doing homework or chores.
02-02-07
Friday, February 02, 2007
Man, this one's going to take a long time to explain...
Okay, let's say you have a T.V. cartoon, and it's is called Aqua Teen Hunger Force: one of the weaker links of Adult Swim's lineup of edgy, nonsensical humor-based shows.
Now, let's say you're one of the producers of the show, and you want to promote it using a cutting-edge method called Viral Marketing: that is, by stealth or guile or honest-to-goodness forthrightedness, you convince your fans to do a low-key advertising campaign (often internet-based) for you.
Still with me? Re-read the first two passages if you need to. Okay, let's say that for this viral marketing campaign you get people to build little LED-signs of some of your show's characters. You encourage fans to build some of them and hire people to build others. Then you have people place the little LED signs on walls and hang them on various structures. And when people see them they look at them and say, "What's that?" And then they find out about the show. Genius! Right?
WRONG. DEAD WRONG, SON.
What really happens is that after weeks of being ignored by the masses hobbling along in their usual fog of apathy, people suddenly notice the little signs and as one voice cry out, "OH JESUS CHRIST! WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT? IT'S GOT BLINKING LIGHTS! IT MUST BE A BOMB MADE BY THE TERRORISTS TO BLOW US UP!!!"
So, a major American city like Boston virtually shuts down for an entire day as SWAT teams and bomb squads poke at the little signs for a bit before realizing that they're completely harmless. Two men (electronic hobbyists and fans of the show) who placed the majority of signs in Boston are arrested and later released on bail. The prosecution claims that the signs were "bomb-like", whereas the defense attorney rebuts: Based on that criteria, a half-smashed VCR in the middle of the road is "bomb-like".
Now, imagine all this really happened.
I'll give you a minute to laugh hysterically or weep for humanity... or both... whatever you feel is applicable really.
I think it was someone on Digg who put it best when they said that this was indicative of the huge generation gap between two groups of western society. That is, we have the younger, internet-saavy people for whom everything is tongue-in-cheek and absurdism is the foundation of humor. On the other end of the spectrum are the people who still consider even the most delicate sarcasm to be crass; for whom the world is divided into two categories: things they understand and things they fear.
Being a member of the "younger" group and at the same time quite close to 30, I wonder how long it will be before these two demographics clash once again.
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