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You're Sixteen, You're Beautiful, and I'm a Pedophile Singer; [Aug. 11th, 2008|03:53 pm]
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Song lyrics that one couldn't get away with anymore:

You come on like a dream
Peaches and cream
Lips like strawberry wine
You're sixteen, you're beautiful, and you're mine
Mine all mine
...
You're my baby, you're my pet
We fell in love on the night we met
You touched my hand, my heart went pop
Ooh, when we kissed, I could not stop


These are from the song You're Sixteen, written by Richard and Robert Sherman. They can get away with it, professional song writers are not always writing what they mean. But the original singer, Johnny Burnette, who was 26 at the time, might have needed watching. Ringo Starr also covered the song, at age 34. Perhaps a reason for his divorce a year later?

Almost as expected, several punk bands have covered the song with tongue-in-cheek versions. Several other artists have as well, but they generally change the age to that of the person to whom it is dedicated.

Given, offbeat songs have had first person narration before without actually being confessional, but generally there's a lyric or two that clue the listener into this, the subject matter is absurd enough, or they're just cashing in on "improved" the image. That's not really the case with this one, so it makes one wonder. But I guess you could be a 26 or 34 year-old singer and have your target audience be 16 year-old girls; doesn't really make it less creepy though.

I think that American censors might have a field day with these lyrics if they were released today. Or at least R. Kelly would.
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Video: The Bible vs. The Book of Mormon [Jul. 30th, 2008|12:29 am]
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The Bible vs. The Book of Mormon
Video: http://www.lhvm.org/vid_bible_med.htm

Two LDS->Christian converts pull together a documentary exploring the anthropological evidence supporting both The Bible and The Book of Mormon. Long story short, they could find absolutely no corroborating historical evidence to support the Book of Mormon. I wouldn't call this video golden evidence, sans impetus, nor comprehensive. I wouldn't say full due process was served to the subject matter or facts. But, I would say it really doesn't need it given the general consensus of the religious studies community with all things Mormon. Normally, I am completely neutral on religions due to my personal hypotheses, but I'm sorry -- the Book of Mormon is false. I have yet to find anything to cast a shadow of credibility toward its inception or claims. At least L. Ron Hubbard had the intelligence to place his fictitious religion so far in the past and in the supernatural that there would be no way of proving it is fake (barring time travel). Can't say Joseph Smith was gifted with such foresight. Though, he tried hard.

To clear up some confusion before you watch it, this video obviously has a hidden agenda. It's purpose is to prove to the creators' Mormon friends that they should renounce the LDS Church like they did. It seems like they've tried to be neutral and removed from the subject, but as with all deeply-Christian-created works, they have no ability to suspend belief in the Christian written texts for their assertions. It is filled with the usual "well, this other religion is wrong because the Bible says something contradictory" type justifications that you get from Christians. At no point in the documentary do they ask if parts of the Bible are wrong or unverifiable. In fact, they avoid the entire topic by only showing snippets with supporting evidence.

I don't want you to watch it expecting to see a scientific comparison of the two religions. To be clear/fair, the video does not assert that either religion is true, only that Christianity is anthropologically supported whereas Mormonism is not. It's not even until the end that they [directly] ask the question, "Is it scripture?" in which case they argue that both are a matter of faith, not evidence, but it's hard to have faith in something with no supporting evidence.

Though I have to say its funny actually seeing Christians actively and directly working against another religion (their assertion is the LDS is a false Christianity, not a sect).
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Barack Obama the Antichrist? [Jul. 12th, 2008|11:59 pm]
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While recently watching the Decoding the Past episode I mentioned in my last post, I had a thought.

They mentioned the Bible, particularly the Revelation of John. Before John's Armageddon there is the rise of the Antichrist. Everyone loves the Antichrist. He's seems like a good guy, is even given power over the world, even though he seemingly rose to popularity from nowhere. If you take the stance that the battle of Armageddon starts in 2012 and you add a bit of American egoism to it you can come to a fun conclusion.

So what happens in 2012 in America? A Presidential election.
Who do we know that's running for 2008 that generally everyone loves, is a great guy, nobody had heard of him until recently, and will probably win meaning he'll be most likely to win again in 2012?

That's right, Barack Obama.

One thing that has to happen for someone to be the Antichrist is that he must "be wounded in the head and thought dead only to rise again". With the growing interest on the web of people wanting to assassinate Obama if he wins coupled with the greatness of current medicine, it could just happen to him. Hopefully not, not only for his well-being but the world's.

So let's see, everyone predicting the end in 2012, the last President before then who fits the profile somewhat, and we're running out of pre-Apocalypse popes.

I'm sure if I pressed the issue I could come up with 50 reasons why Obama is the Antichrist, but none of them would matter. We'll see when we see. (Oddly enough, someone has done it for me: Barack Obama the Antichrist?)

Disclaimer: I AM NOT claiming that Barack Obama is the Antichrist, nor am I claiming that he isn't, nor do I wish he is, nor do I wish for this to influence your vote for the next USA President. Vote for whomever you think will do the best job. Potential Antichrist or not, I'm still leaning toward voting Obama. Though I'm not officially endorsing Obama or McCain.

Now, if you made it this far you're in for a reality check and bit more seriousness.

The Term Antichrist

Society is always thinking someone is the Antichrist. Unfortunately, the Bible doesn't actually predict a single antichrist. It does make mention of the term, but is used as a general term for anyone who says that Jesus of Nazareth was not the Jewish Messiah. One can use the term, however, to describe the first beast from the sea in the Revelation of John of Patmos, namely because the beast's main purpose was to rule the world and blaspheme the people to his favor, thereby making him not only an antichrist but arguably the Antichrist.

Analysis of the Revelation

Hah, you thought I was going to do a full analysis in this paragraph. Good luck. Do your own if you seriously think Obama could be the Antichrist. After you read the book over and over, research John of Patmos, research the history of how the book came into canon, the subtleties of the translations you've been reading (you did read more than one right?), and rack your brain trying to make heads or tails of the text, you'll come to the conclusion that it is so complicated and arbitrary that we could only match it up as a postdiction and never a prediction, even then it would be a challenge. But that shouldn't stop you from trying. Feel free.

Metamorphosis of the Imagery

I mentioned above the idea that the Antichrist will rise from obscurity. You probably thought that was the accepted case. Why? The book says that the beast rose from the sea. That could be taken to mean many things. Obscurity, turmoil, a body of water, etc. You could do an analysis of the original text to see exactly what word John used, then cross-reference that to its accepted connotations in the same era, but you'll probably come up with a really long list of things.

The beast has 7 heads, with "names of blasphemy" on each, and 10 horns, with a diadem on each. The form of a leopard, the feet of a bear, the mouth of a lion. Since I doubt we'll be seeing that anytime soon (though genetics is now creating chimeras) I'd assume this is metaphor. Most obvious modern interpretation is a single entity consisting of 7 parts, each ruling a deadly sin, and together controlling 10 industries of some sort. An entity so powerful that the world is handed to it (hence why some think the UN is the beast). Another obvious interpretation is a single person embodying all blasphemies, ruling 10 things, and with 7 seemingly independent facets.

So the Antichrist is wounded in the head, thought dead, then rises again to the wonder of the world. I wrote the last paragraph so I could point this odd general acceptance out. Most every bit of media you see has a single person as the Antichrist, who generally gets shot or otherwise wounded in the head. Why? That doesn't make sense in either of the two obvious interpretations. A portion of the beast is supposed to appear slain and rise again. This causes much "wonder" on the part of the public. Then later there is much rejoicing and idolatry of the beast.

Conclusion

I wrote that I could come up with at least 50 reasons why he is the Antichrist, on that same note I could also come up with 50 reasons why he isn't the Antichrist, the cons possibly being more compelling than the pros. But it wouldn't really get us anywhere would it? So I'm going to just throw this out there and let it live in the aether. I know this post is a bit disconnected, but it is on purpose, it is for you to consider these disconnected cases. Feel free to comment and let me know what you think.

A little errata

Snopes tried to debunk a chain letter that's been going around about this topic, though I have to say they did a pretty lame job of it. Thought to be fair, they did successfully debunk the letter. However, they spun it like they were debunking the idea, which they didn't.

The official name of the Biblical book is "The Book of Revelation". Known historically as "The Apocalypse of John" or "The Apocalypse of the theologian", otherwise known as "The Revelation to John", and "Revelation(s)". Though oddly enough, it refers to itself as "The Revelation of Jesus Christ" and was written by John of Patmos, Patmos is a Greek Island. "Apocalypse" means "unveiling" in Greek, therefore "Apocalypse to John" can mean "Revelation to John". Make sense?

So you thought the Apocalypse was the end of days? No, it is the story of the end of days. The final battle contained in the story is referred to as Armageddon. Which has its own sorted history of language misconceptions.
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The 2012 Apocalypse According to the History Channel [Jul. 12th, 2008|06:13 pm]
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Decoding the Past did a piece on the 2012 predictions. I've noted these before.

The episode is a good gathering of research, but the narration language in the video is a bit off, it is more geared toward keeping viewers interested than accurately portraying the "facts", so take that with a grain of salt. For example, it will say "the Mayans thought the world would end in 2012" then right afterward the interviewee will say "the calendar predicted a galactic alignment that indicated the coming of their paradise to earth". Not exactly the same thing.

As a reminder, the 2012 predictions say that something very significant will happen to humanity on the Winter Solstice 2012 (21 December 2012). These predictions come from many independent predictions made across the world starting from antiquity: the Mayan Calendar, Timeline in Khufu's Pyramid, analysis of I Ching, Oracles from Greece, Rome, England, etc., and a bunch of other sources, both ancient and modern.

Obviously a lot of the modern predictions are swayed by people looking for something to match the dates so you can mostly ignore them, but it's hard to ignore the ones predicted a few hundred or thousand years ago. Many of them are open to interpretation, but the Mayan Long Count Calendar is very accurate, so it tends to get all of the credit.

The Decoding the Past episode poses the hypothesis that the event will be the pending pole shift. Others predict it is an asteroid, aliens, the overdue ice age, war, technological disasters, return of the gods, the apocalypse, and anything else you can imagine.

Here is the YouTube version of the episode, complete with commercials.

Decoding the Past: Doomsday 2012 Part 1/5

( Parts 2 thru 5 )
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Improve Your Week with Casual Monday and Formal Friday; [Jul. 11th, 2008|12:35 am]
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This one's for businesses that have a normal dress code of business casual or something similar.

To liven things up a bit and normalize the feel of the work week, try instituting an unofficial Casual Mondays / Formal Fridays policy. That is, let a Metallica t-shirt and jeans be standard on Mondays and suits, ties, and high fashion be standard on Fridays.

Shoe DualityThis is the reverse of Casual Fridays with a different, though similar, intent. Mondays are evil for most of us, we have to leave the weekend slump and get back to the grind. To alleviate one of the pains of the transition, go very casual. This also allows people to show off the out-of-office personality (keep it tasteful), which helps strike up more conversations and form new/stronger bonds. Everyone is worn out by Friday and ready to go out and have fun. Dressing very formal on these days helps bring focus back to the job, plus the Western sense of responsibility inherent in dressing up. It will also help those who have no sense of formal build up a formal wardrobe, which everyone needs.

So on Mondays, your workers get to have one less formality to worry about on the home-work transition, letting them focus more on the job and co-workers. It also allows personality to show, causing more bonding. Plus most everyone likes going more casual, means they don't have to throw out the band and comedy t-shirts (Utilikilt day anyone?).

And on Fridays, your workers get to go formal, a rare treat for some (pain for those with bad formal attire), and a reason to wear that killer suit or dress (or kilt) that's gathering moths. It also helps to helps block the work-home slip by formalizing the setting a little more on a generally distracted day. Some might work later because they can go straight out afterward -- no need to change ;).
The clothes may not make the man, but they sure tweak him.

You could obviously do this at a more- or less-formal company as well. The point is to go one or two steps down on Monday, and one or two steps up on Friday. Some shops may not want formal to include a tux or tails, some may not want casual to include sandals -- feel free to tailor to suit.

If you want to have more specific definitions for dress codes, try these.

[ digg story ]
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Added FriendFeed to xerotopia -- About FriendFeed; [Jul. 9th, 2008|03:18 am]
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I did a slight revamp of xerotopia.net tonight. I've embedded both my recent LJ entries and my recent FriendFeed activity.

If you haven't heard about FriendFeed yet then let me inform you...

FriendFeed is an excellent service that enables you in two main ways:
1) Collect all of your RSS feeds into a single place accessible anywhere.
2) Collect your entire web activity into a single place for others to read.

So, say you have accounts on Flickr, Digg, Twitter, LJ, Google Reader, Reddit, Disqus, Linked In, Pownce, Google Talk, del.icio.us and Facebook (a fairly common set for the current early adopter). Instead of having all of your friends have to check each of those to see what you're doing, you can import all of those services directly into FriendFeed and then your friends have a single place to see what you're up to. In many instances they can even post information directly back to the source service from the FF interface.

But that is just the vanity aspect, what about a tool for you?

That's where point #1 above comes in, you can take the RSS feeds (aka, Live Bookmarks, Atom Feeds, etc.) for all of your online comics, certain LJ friends, blogs you read, and anything else you keep up with and add them as "imaginary friends". They will then be imported into your feed in real time. Think of it as a LiveJournal Friends page that is completely open, and where you don't have to be a paid member to add a syndication journal.

A nice bonus is that there has been a great community building up on FriendFeed lately. Yes it aggregates all of these other services, but it also has its own system of posting, including liking and commenting on any post from any service. It gives you many more characters to work with than Twitter and less overhead than LJ or Tumblr. The system of Likes and Comments is very simple but increasingly powerful for finding new content and distributing your own.

If you and your friends live on Facebook now, you'll be pleased to know you can setup your feeds and import them directly into Facebook via their app. There's supposed to be a way to get your Facebook activity back out into FF as well.

So, check out the new xerotopia, and then sign up for FriendFeed to make your life easier. I'm jokeyxero on FriendFeed, from there you can get linked directly to any other services I join so we can stay connected.

#1 new user tip: the Hide button is your friend.
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Odysseus' Return from Trojan War Dated; [Jun. 24th, 2008|07:32 pm]
Odysseus' return from Trojan War dated
Time pinpointed to the day based on astronomical references in epic poem
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25337041/


This is nifty. If Homer existed, and if Odysseus existed (and traveled the sea for 10 years), and if there was a Troy that fell, and if the Odyssey isn't entirely fake, and if we moderns can do local astronomical math correctly, then Odysseus landed home from his trip on 16 April 1178 BCE.

Some scientists took astronomical clues from the poem, interlaced them with the "accepted" range of dates for the fall Troy, and they all happened to mathematically agree on a single date. So, will the history community pay more attention to Homer's works now? *shakes magic 8-ball* Signs point to 'Yes'.

If this turns out to be that precise and wholly accurate then this also gives us a much more precise chronology for the events during that era, which lends to more precise archeological research as well. Yay, synergy!
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George Carlin, Dead at 71; [Jun. 23rd, 2008|02:31 am]
OMG...

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/06/23/ap5141711.html

George Carlin died today. The world is a sadder place. I call for Monday to be day without laughter, the seven dirty words, or out of place sex jokes, out of mourning. But they shall resume Tuesday en masse out of respect.

He's one of those celebs you just thought would live forever, or at least go out in blaze of glory. Heart failure (while it makes sense) is not how I thought he'd go.

The world is short one comedic hero.
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Marvel's Epic Plan for The Avengers Movie Uncovered; [Jun. 21st, 2008|10:46 am]
[ digg story ]

I just noticed that the latest trailer for the new Hulk movie has a cameo of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark.

So, Sam Jackson at the end of Iron Man as Nick Fury, RDJ as Stark in the Hulk...sounds like The Avengers are shaping up for a movie. So I did some digging, and found out there's a lot more slated than I would have ever thought...

(Spoiler Free)

Found this little summary at Wikipedia to start things off:
In August 2006, Marvel Entertainment's "Marvel Studios Overview Presentation" listed the Avengers as a property under development for a feature film, with Zak Penn as screenwriter.[25] In a May 5, 2008, report to shareholders, Marvel Entertainment announced the release dates for two planned Avenger movies. The First Avenger: Captain America (working title) is scheduled for May 6, 2011, followed by The Avengers, scheduled for July 2011.[26]

The first reference in film to the Avengers is in Iron Man (2008), in a post-credits scene of Nick Fury (played by Samuel L. Jackson) speaking with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) about the "Avenger Initiative". At the conclusion of The Incredible Hulk (2008), Tony Stark briefly speaks with General Thunderbolt Ross (William Hurt) regarding the formation of a team.

I also heard rumors of a Thor movie, so I checked that out. Found an entry at IMDB that was recently updated, movie is slated for 2010. Supposedly Thor's human persona, Dr. Donald Blake, will have a cameo in Hulk as well.

There appears to be an Iron Man 2 movie in the works as well for 2010. There's also mention of an Ant-Man movie being in planning.

A Luke Cage (aka Power Man) movie is also slated, for 2009.

There's a Deathlok movie in thinking as well, IMDB has it as in scripting but a 2008 release, so I doubt it will happen. With Deathlok comes Galactus (in theory), unfortunately the last Fantastic Four movie already ruined Galactus, but they made Silver Surfer even cooler.

Nick Fury has his own movie slated for 2010. So does Dr. Strange.

A Sub-Mariner movie has a 2010 date, but the latest update I could find was 2006 with Universal working on it.

There's also Ghost Rider 2 in 2009 and Punisher 2 in 2008. They're not Avengers, but I might as well note them while I'm at it.

So what's the time line for this epic Avengers plan?
2008 - Iron Man (Iron Man, Nick Fury)
2008 - Hulk (Hulk, Thor, Iron Man)
2008 - Deathlok (Deathlok, ?)
2009 - Nick Cage (Nick Cage, ?)
2010 - Ant-Man (Ant-Man, ?) This will more likely be 2009.
2010 - Nick Fury (Nick Fury, ?)
2010 - Iron Man 2 (Iron Man, ?)
2010 - Thor (Thor, ?)
2010 - Doctor Strange (Doctor Strange, ?)
2010 - Sub-Mariner (Sub-Mariner, ?)
2011 - Capt America (Capt America, ?)
2011 - The Avengers

We're still missing a few characters, though I'm sure they'll come about either as secondaries in the final film or as cameos in the others.

Marvel overload?

The bad part? I don't really like the Avengers that much...

All of this for Avengers, and all I really wanted was the next Spiderman and X-Men so I could finally see live-action Carnage and Apocalypse. Getting Spiderman 4, probably with Carnage and some pointless villan, but not X-Men. But I'm ok with the Weapon X Program movie and the origin of Magneto+Xavier (provided Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart reprise their roles).


Trivia bits:

  • Lou Ferrigno is (obviously) in the new Hulk, but also does the voice of the Hulk, which is good because Ed Norton wouldn't have been able to pull that off.

  • Capt America's shield is the background of Iron Man.

  • The new Hulk movie is a sequel and takes place five years after the first one.

  • The new Hulk movie involves a super-soldier serum made in WWII by Dr. Reinstein. That is a reference to how Capt America comes about.

  • Thor's human persona, Dr. Donald Blake, will have a cameo in The Incredible Hulk.


IMDB has a lot of fun slated for Marvel Enterprises in the coming years.
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Windows Vista SP1 Release Notes; [Jun. 21st, 2008|01:18 am]
Been reading the Windows Vista SP1 Release Notes. The improvements are quite significant. Seems like it may fix a few of the minor annoyances, a lot of the performance problems, printing problems, file system problems, improve security even more, add improved and more stable drivers, and improve notebook battery life.

Check out the release notes summary here:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/005f921e-f706-401e-abb5-eec42ea0a03e1033.mspx?mfr=true

Check out the full disclosure here:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/20184cb6-7038-4e82-a32c-4bc10ffe56ab1033.mspx?mfr=true

Two hidden warnings worth noting:
Users who did not opt-in to the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) will be prompted again to join after installing SP1. The experience will remain the same and the default will continue to be opt-out.

The Windows Vista SP1 install process clears the user-specific data that is used by Windows to optimize performance, which may make the system feel less responsive immediately after install. As the customer uses their SP1 PC, the system will be retrained over the course of a few hours or days and will return to the previous level of responsiveness.
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Discussion: Is Using Someone Else's WiFi an Actual Crime; [Jun. 21st, 2008|12:22 am]
Fun discussion: Is using someone else's WiFi an actual crime?

My take on it:

I see WiFi as an extension of your land and the same laws that apply to trespassing should apply to your WiFi. It is not generally considered trespassing if the owner’s usage is unimpeded, the owner did not make a reasonable attempt to block you (log-on note, encryption, etc analogous to fence, gate, etc.), and the owner did not tell you to stay off (negative consent either verbally or in writing). If you break encryption/password then it should be illegal, you bypassed “reasonable measures” securing it. If your usage is so great that it impedes the owner’s usage then the owner must still investigate to point you out. If you spy on the owner or mess with his settings/etc. then you’re either committing wire fraud or trespassing.

Someone can not legally walk into your home even with an open door or bypass your fence, gate, or no trespassing sign. Those are considered reasonable measures to inform (the home is a separate law). However, without a reasonable measure of negative consent, your lawn is open game for squatting, just like your WiFi.

[Some use a "what if I leave my car unlocked and someone takes it" argument.] The "steal your unlocked car" example does not hold due to different laws. You own your car by agreement of the state government via a Title. If there is no record of you possessing that title then you do not own your car, in which case the person who last possessed a title owns it, unless sold to an undisclosed party, then whoever possesses it or a bill of sale owns it.

WiFi that is unsecured by ignorance (didn't know it had to be secured) is still open WiFi. Ignorance is not a valid legal defense in the USA. Some courts may allow it, but it is on a case-by-case basis, but generally it is assumed the individual is responsible for knowing all legal ramifications of his/her actions. That is part of being an American citizen. You can not prove ignorance. I could run someone over with a car and say I didn't know it would kill them. Unless someone could prove I had a mental disorder preventing me from understanding that very basic idea then I'd go to jail for at least manslaughter. This idea usually crops up in traffic cases where someone didn't know about a local law.


Trespassing law summary: http://www.enotes.com/everyday-law-encyclopedia/trespassing
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Mitsubishi Joins with Citroen; [Jun. 15th, 2008|09:08 pm]
Mitsubishi Motors, Peugeot to tie up in electric cars

Wow, two bad car makers are joining to form a worse car maker. That could get interesting[ly bad]. Hopefully the output will be closer to the [Mitsubushi-redeeming] Lancer than the [quintessential example of French engineering] 3CV.

Ok, I'm being rough on them, but they really do not have the best track record -- it's like if Microsoft joined with MySpace to make a Web 2.0 site. It'll come out clunky, hard to read, blaring poor quality music and video, and plagued with downtime.

They're not even pretending to be altruistic with the move, they just want to be first. Mitsu has the technology and Citroen has the prints-to-construction speed (with the questionable quality).

Mitsubishi does excel in electrical car parts though. They are good enough that the majority of Japanese (and some American and European) manufactures have a majority of their electric bits made by Mitsubishi. So maybe they can make a good (though hopefully not gray) electric car.
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Juliana Theory Catalog from Amazon; [Jun. 4th, 2008|05:15 pm]
I love Amazon sometimes. The deals can be wonderful.

Earlier today I got the entire Juliana Theory catalog (the ones I care about anyway) for less than $40 (including S&H) in like new condition. I probably should have been nice to the band and bought them directly from their label, but they broke up in 2006 and my contribution isn't going to get them back together.

Deadbeat Sweetheart Live 10.31.2001 Love Music From Another Room Emotion is Dead This is a Dream
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Money as Debt - How Money Is Really Made; [Jun. 2nd, 2008|11:54 pm]
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279&hl=en

Paul Grignon's 47-minute animated presentation of "Money as Debt" tells in very simple and effective graphic terms what money is and how it is being created. It is an entertaining way to get the message out. The Cowichan Citizens Coalition and its "Duncan Initiative" received high praise from those who previewed it. I recommend it as a painless but hard-hitting educational tool and encourage the widest distribution and use by all groups concerned with the present unsustainable monetary system in Canada and the United States.


I agree. Give this a watch. The main point of interest that most people do not know: banks do not need money to create money, the pledge of someone's collateral is all they need, and the government allows them to loan usually nine+ times the amount they actually have. Very interesting explanation of the US/Canadian monetary system.
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Sychronize is Abbreviated Sync Not Synch; [May. 22nd, 2008|04:14 pm]
I would just like to remind the world that the proper abbreviation for synchronize is sync not synch. I care not what popular sources say; they are wrong on this matter.

For proof I offer the non-contextual pronunciation of the three:
synchronize
[sing-kruh-nahyz] or in IPA /ˈsɪŋkrəˌnaɪz/
sync
[singk] or in IPA /sɪŋk/
synch
[sinch] or in IPA /sɪntʃ/

Thank you. Have a nice day.
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Candid Pictures from the Sichuan Earthquake; [May. 16th, 2008|04:33 pm]
Candid (uncensored) front-line pictures from the recent earthquake in Sichuan, China: http://www.tuhigh.com/photo/p/219327

digg this story

One to get you started:
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Good Software Error Messages; [May. 16th, 2008|12:31 pm]
When you're coding away and write up an error/exception message to throw, remember one thing: nobody that recieves that error message will be debugging the code when it happens.

As a side-effect of that, it means they will not have access to any of the variables, parameters, or fields that went into causing that message. That is to say, "No, they will not just know what they did wrong."

Example of a bad message:
Could not access the file.


Example of a better message:
Could not access the file: c:\foo\bar\widget.txt


Example of a good message:
Could not access the file: c:\foo\bar\widget.txt

The file is read-only.


Example of a great message (for an expected message):
Could not access the file: c:\foo\bar\widget.txt

The file is read-only. Make the file writable or choose another file to continue.


Example of a great message (for a completely unexpected message):
Could not access the file: c:\foo\bar\widget.txt

The file is read-only.

at Xero.FileUtils.SaveTextFile(string, string)
at Xero.Widget.SaveDocument(string, string)
at Xero.Widget.btnSave_OnClick(object, fooArgs)


I think you get the idea.
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University to Equip All Freshmen with iPhone; [May. 15th, 2008|10:22 am]
University to Equip All Freshmen with iPhone

As of fall quarter 2008, Abilene Christian University will be the first school in the United States to equip all its incoming freshmen with iPhones. The school has developed about 15 applications for these phones, including course registration, 3-D campus maps, surveys, podcasts and emergency alerts. more...
That is a brilliant idea and I'm sure AT&T and Apple are loving them right now. Though I'm curious about how they will pay for the monthly services or if they were cut a [rationally priced] deal. I wonder if those apps will be publicly available (including source code). It's good to see ubiquitous computing getting a pat on the head though.
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Didn't Install My Own RAM; [Feb. 5th, 2008|11:15 am]
I just had someone install RAM in my computer. In 13+ years of working on computers, that's never happened. Maybe [info]antitimeanomaly did it once, but I doubt it. That was a very weird feeling. Though, it was my work computer so obviously it made sense to let IT do it. But still...

PentiumD 2.8/2.8GHz and now 2GB. It's hard to complain. Though it would be nice if I had another 19" LCD or a single 30" widescreen.
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Virtualization Rocks; [Jan. 30th, 2008|10:12 am]
Virtualization rocks.

I downloaded MS VirtualPC to play with IE7 on my work box (still using IE6 to support most clients). It rocks.

My favorite feature is the undo disk. "Opps, I forgot to setup a local admin account before configuring Active Directory. Oh well, turn it off and discard the changes."
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Response Time Equation; [Jan. 20th, 2008|01:00 am]
Just keeping this note around so that I know where it's at.

Re = (P / B) + Tr + (R/Rc) + Ts + Tc

Re = Response time of a web page
P = Payload (number of bytes to ship)
B = Bandwidth (bytes per second)
Tr = Round-trip time
R = Requests to make (# of pages, images, etc to pull)
Rc = # of Concurrent Requests (usually 2 in modern browsers, if pipelining is on)
Ts = Server Compute time (time to generate page on server)
Tc = Client Compute time (time it takes client to generate page)

When speaking about scalability, the most important of these is generally Ts, the server-side compute time. All of the rest scale well or are out of the scope of responsibility of a developer.

Tc can be tweaked so that it appears quicker than it is.
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Another Use for Membership Cards; [Jan. 16th, 2008|01:20 pm]
I just thought of a better use for all of those membership cards you have to get everywhere now. Since an email address could be attached to the account, the customer could choose whether or not to receive an email copy (probably PDF attachment on company letterhead for legal/tax reasons) of his/her receipt with every purchase.

This would get several benefits. It would mean customers could recycle their receipts or not need them printed at all, saving paper. It could speed up the check out process slightly. It could help customers who just go home and scan their receipts into the computer skip a step. Customers would never have to worry about keeping up with the receipt or putting it aside before the ink is rubbed off. The fading ink would never be a concern either.

Thoughts?
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Weighted Companion Cubes; [Dec. 18th, 2007|11:50 am]

Want to donate to a nice charity and be a Portal fanboy/girl at the same time? Then make a bid on this [slightly larger than] life-size Weighted Companion Cube on eBay. The proceeds go to Child's Play.

Auction
Child's Play
Portal

Or you can snag a smaller (and cheaper) one from the Valve store.
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RedPrairie Moving On Up; [Dec. 14th, 2007|10:01 am]
Looks like we've cemented our lead in retail workforce/execution management (aka, scheduling and task management) for a little while. Yay for the combined powers of BlueCube and StorePerform.


RedPrairie Named a Top Retail Software Provider in RIS News’ Annual Leaderboard Rankings
RedPrairie Highest Ranking Workforce and Execution Management Solution Provider

Milwaukee, WI – RedPrairie Corporation, a world leading consumer driven optimization company, today announced that Retail Information Systems (RIS) News magazine has recognized the company as a ‘top 45’ retail software vendor in its 2007 Leaderboard rankings.

Compiled annually, the RIS News’ Leaderboard ranking surveys all retail software applications, evaluating and comparing functionality across more than 40 discrete application features. Senior level retail executives with significant IT responsibility then score each company on criteria ranging from customer satisfaction to return on investment and ease of upgrading. RedPrairie moved from 26th in 2006, to 18th this year, above all other Workforce and Execution Management providers.

“Industry recognition is always flattering, but direct acknowledgment from those with first-hand experience using retail software is especially meaningful,” said Kim Eaton, President RedPrairie Retail Productivity Division. “This year’s higher placement in the Leaderboard’s top 45 grouping underscores RedPrairie’s ongoing commitment to providing powerful technology that has an immediate and on-going impact to our customers’ business performance.”

Press Release
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Average Joe vs Extreme Jake; [Dec. 10th, 2007|06:43 pm]
Just another reminder of the differences between average man and extreme sports man.

An unidentified man died Sunday at Monster Park in San Francisco after falling 20 feet from the upper concourse to the mezzanine level below, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Monday.
http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/7549312?MSNHPHMA


Jake Brown landed a beautiful massive 720 then kicked out off the lip when he started getting speed wobble and fell about 50* feet onto the end of the transition and got up and walked away.
http://jokeyxero.livejournal.com/226202.html


* Wikipedia cites this now as 45 feet.
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