Tuesday, November 18, 2003

SCIENCETECH LINUX POLITICS GENERAL NEWS SCIFI MUSIC

Wednesday, November 12, 2003

POETRY
[Bio-Death] let the oceans take and transmutate this cold and fated anchor
[Bio-Death] let the oceans take and transmucate these leaden grudges into gold
* Bio-Death dances
[RayTracer] what's that from?
[Bio-Death] Tool
[Bynk] Which album?
[Bio-Death] Lateralus
[Bynk] Ahh, "The Grudge"
[Bynk] Funny, I like Tool now, more than when I got Undertow from the BMG club years ago
[Bynk] Lyrics remind me of some of the poetry I have written in the past.
[Bio-Death] ooo
[Bio-Death] bynk poetry
[Bio-Death] i wanna c

So, with a request like that, how could I resist? My fans are calling! Besides, I've been meaning to put up my poetry for a while now. Thanks Bio for giving me the impetus!

Ahh, yes, 1990, my early years.

TOPIC: writing

Tuesday, November 11, 2003

TECH, LINUX, & HUMOR

Monday, November 10, 2003

If you ever wondered what films the opposite sex watched during sex education (in the 50's), then check out Archive.org's Prelinger Archives.

TOPIC: history, media
Huzzah! I found Viking Kittens - Led Zeppelin - Immigrant Song from this URL.

Of course there is this replacement (Gay Bar) by the creator, since the one above probably breaks some copyrights.

TOPIC: Fun with flash
I just read Will the Last Computer Hobbyist Please Turn Out the Lights? by John C. Dvorak.

Hello, John! What about LAN gamers, Linux users, robot hobbyists, arcade game enthusiasts, and hobbyist programmers?

Admittedly the plumage and behavior of your North American Hobbyist has changed. Consider that programming bar is much higher, so such programmers end up being contributors to OpenSource projects. Also, the computer field is less concentrated and much bigger compared to the era that Dvorak references. User groups now flock around a technology instead of a specific computer.

Maybe it's that the average computer hobbyist is now obscured because computers are now everywhere, and thus we no longer consider them hobbyists. They now are programmers, admins, etc...

Though I wouldn't doubt that due to the variety of modern past times that there has been a decrease in the tried and true hobbyist, for all hobbyist fields. Just look at the increase of discretionary interests: PC gaming, platform gaming, home theatre. In some ways everybody is a hobbyist these days.

And me? Well, I think I will paraphrase my sister on this, "You make your hobbies into jobs and your jobs into hobbies".

She's right.
MOVIE REVIEW
Saw Matrix Revolutions last Saturday. If you are a fan, it's a Bargin Matinee. If not, Rent It, assuming decent sound and picture at home. [Find the scale here.]

IMHO, the Matrix went from inventive execution of a plot with special effects and wire-fu, to a plot with special effects and some wire-fu (more effect than fu), to a plot getting in the way of special effects (and a near lack of fu). I wonder if Matrix Revolutions will eventually go the way of "That Highlander Movie Which Goes Unmentioned". Okay, it's not that bad, but almost as forgettable.

Matt at Mac Hall had a good comment about it:
I caught a matinee of Matrix Revolutions the other day. Personally, I think it's a cinematic landmark, as this film is the first time someone has managed to construct a narrative entirely out of plot holes.
Here's Retina's Quick Review.
Apple will 'make RIAA beg for mercy' - readers: Okay, some things in this article I get. Others I don't. Is English English and American English the same? It seems to me the author is leaving out many details and specific references. Sure, the title caught my attention, and the title as a concept very well might happen, but the article content seems ambigious. It makes me feel like Picard in "Darmok". (Geek reference!)

Your 99c belong to the RIAA - Steve Jobs: A companion article.
MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

TECH

LINUX & SCO
  • Novell's SuSE Buy Strikes Blow to SCO: I didn't think of this angle until this article brought it up.
  • IBM warms to desktop Linux: Ahh, good, considering Matthew Szulik estranged comment about Linux desktops. Yes, the Linux desktop is not perfect, but I would have expected a bit more from a Red Hat chief executive.
  • What is The Fedora Project?: Okay, I admit it, I was confused by Red Hat's move to drop the Red Hat distro and did not understand what Fedora was. Chock it up to not reading between the lines and an unclear message from Red Hat's marketing.
  • SCO to Take On Hollywood: No comment. No, really, no comment. I just don't know what to say. *sigh*

Wednesday, November 05, 2003

RIAA! FCC! YES YOU! CLUE! GET ONE!
  • Boycott the RIAA and stay informed. (Thanks Retina!)
  • Federal Communications Commission Adopts Hollywood Tech Mandate: The FCC has decided that the way to get Americans to adopt digital TV is to make it cost more and do less... Slashdot too.
  • US downloads beat CD sales: Some 7.7 million tracks were bought and downloaded since the end of June - compared with four million CD singles sold, Billboard magazine reported... digital sales had a "symbolic significance" because they marked the music industry's move to digital operations
    (Industry's move???? Yeah, right! A move that so far has required kicking and screaming and suing.)

LINUX: Cha-cha-changes!

TECH

HISTORY
  • Plot was Guy-normous: What if Guy Fawkes' plan succeeded. Sounds like an interesting alternate history story.

Tuesday, November 04, 2003

Time for another LINK ATTACK!

RPG:

FUN MP3s

NATURE & SCIENCE
  • Seafood Watch regional cards from the Monterey Aquarium.
  • Milky Way's nearest neighbour revealed: Dwarf Galaxies! Nope, not Andromeda (as I thought) or the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy (discovered in 1994)."We found a large excess of these stars just below the plane of the Milky Way, spread into an elongated shape covering about 10 times the apparent size of the full Moon."
  • U.S.S. Enterprise Tested at Mach5: Just watch out for that space junk with shields down.

ONLINE MOVIES & FLASH

TECH & COMPUTERS

RIAA

FUN: Plain & simple

INTERESTING & STRANGE NEWS

REFERENCE:
FUN: with Flash!