southwest standup

This kinda makes me want to fly Southwest.... in that put-my-life-in-someone-else's-hands sort of way...

guitar players

Nate posted this: (gotta love it!)

I'm not so sure about the CIA

Just click the image for the link. I have no comment a this moment.

blog annoyances + bacon

I have a new peeve. Well, actually, this isn't so much of a new one. It's been around for a while, but I've noticed that often I want to vent here rather than give any sort of entertaining comments... oh well.

So, yeah, blogs. These silly things that let people spew their typed word vomit all over the internet, available for billions of people to digest. Makes me hungry.

Then I notice a few friends -- ones whose blogs I wouldn't mind reading. (Hm, that suggests I cannot, which kinda lets the cat out of the bag here. Shit.) They post their tasty word vomit on myspace... on a private profile. Wow, thanks, but sharing your literature in the awkward realm between free and open web logs and personal emails makes me feel... awkward.

I can live with friends leaving awkward word vomit all across the internet. We have nifty mops and buckets and other ways to clean up that sort of thing. What kicks me in the right nut is that these are the people who write complete nonsense in their blogs. Like nonsense in the way that's more nonsensical than the worthless lost impetus of my consciousness here. (Note to self: drink less beer before typing word vomit on internet.)

So that's my peeve. People, what's the point of a private blog if all you type about is the latest viral video?

(Don't get me wrong -- these videos are great. I just want you to share them and your thoughts.)

Oh, and speaking of great vids:

a night of vista

I had a nagging urge yesterday to try out Vista. I arrived home, threw in some laundry, grabbed some food n bev, and fired up daemon tools. After a quick check by the Vista installer, it kindly and strongly suggested I uninstall daemon tools as well as nero due to potential complications. Okay, I wasn't there to fight the good fight, so I comply, and remove the two apps. No big deal. And also, to give myself a bit more of a warm, fuzzy, albeit scratchy, vista feeling, I download and run the Vista Upgrade Advisor (ya know, the software to "Make sure your computer is ready for the edition of Windows Vista you want.") This tells me everything is hunky dory, except for a few peripherals that will need updating, and a program or two that will be fussy (DVD player, etc.).


Fast-forward a bit: Vista got its installation going, restarts the computer, then a beautiful, all-too-familiar blue screen. Upon a few restarts, this blue screen appears consistently.

At about this moment, I had gotten thru a beer and was feeling a bit discouraged. Then, as if the gods of Microsoft heard my pain, there was a knock on the door. Yes, it was an angel of UPS... or was it Fedex... whatever, he was delivering my new bluetooth keyboard. This had to be a sign, right?

A while later I was in the middle of another installation -- this time from a clean boot. A minute later, Vista tells me "A CD/DVD drive device driver is required." This baffles me a bit, considering I'm installing from my DVD drive. A google search or two later, I direct my efforts towards feeding Vista controller drivers for my motherboard and raid card (no easy task). Skip ahead a beer more, and Vista's finally running on my machine.

I was pretty interested in using the new start menu search feature (the one that macs have had for years) to find my mouse settings (this is usually my first step because I cannot stand a slow mouse). It didn't work. Bummer.

Okay, next up: internet. Nope... need to find drivers for that, too.

Eventually I got the internet connected, tested out Media Center, and tried out a few sidebar gadgets (mostly worthless).

My two strongest positive impressions from an hour or so on Vista: the graphics are actually good -- like Microsoft took all the XP graphic design monkeys out back with a shotgun and shovel, then hired some fresh kids out of a real design school. Granted I say this all with respect to Microsoft's history of graphic "design." And secondly, the annoying notification popups are slightly less annoying.

So that's my little Vista installation story. Moral of the day: prepare all your drivers before installing because nothing useful works.

destressify

I've found that recently computer glitches really, really stress me out. I remember to take a deep breath.

Koasynth is in its last week of work before our "final" deadline. In reality, I believe this will be pushed back another week, and I'm sure we'll have revisions to do after the holidays. Right now, I'm diving head-first into a pool of Flash animation. I think I should have worn floaties.

Homecoming is looming on the horizon. I smell beer, football, and bbq...

read my mind, Bill

A few month's ago, Microsoft filed for a patent to pretty much read people's minds. Don't believe me? "A method for classifying brain states..." Okay okay, so it's not exactly reading your mind. The patent's actually for the method of filtering needless brain signals (like blinking eyes) from the useful ones (like getting excited over an ipod and not a zune).

In other worthlessness: A calf fights for its life between lions and crocodiles!!! No, seriously, it does... (The video's long and a bit slow at first, but worth the wait!)

Tron - 1983

Tron - 1983
Originally uploaded by canativ1669

This guy has posted a bunch of atari game ads from the 80s. Granted I wasn't quite old enough to understand these games, but I did have two older brothers and scores of Atari games growing up. These ads triggered a few distant memories in my brain. Good fun!

texts: I want to be wanted

This has happened to me a few times -- enough for me to make a comment.


Situation:
~~~
I have plans. I plan to meet friends at a said location at a said time.

I'm expressing to another friend said plans, and I suggest my other friend come and join the soiree.

My other friend tells me, "Well, text me when you get there."
~~~

Here's my problem: If there's a set time and location for an event and you want to be texted when it happens, you're imposing your supposed importance upon the event. You are not special in that the event must remind you to come to it. I don't care if you want to be wanted -- I don't want the responsibility to remember to let you know what I'm doing. That's what Twitter is for, and if y'all would use it, I'd be happy to send stupid reminders and updates of what's going on in my life because it's surely not exciting enough for you to make plans beforehand.

Sorry for the rant. Thank god the weekend's here.

sometimes i hate cnet

So, I'm considering purchasing this keyboard. Part of my ritual electronics buying habits is a quick visit to cnet for their "reviews."

The editors there give it 6.7 out of 10. Hm. Why?
1) They don't like the curved keys. Okay, understandable.
2) "Doesn't grip your desk as well as it should."

Those are the big cons? Wow, what an insightful synopsis of the review.

Upon further reading, they don't like the keyboard due to it's funky keys and difficult installation. They seemed to like all the other features. I'll be installing media center on my machine sometime in the near future, so this keyboard looks like a good choice for me. Woo woo!

attack of Sue!

 

And here Shana thought she would be safe sightseeing the museums of Chicago. We both had a moment of memory loss when we spent at least a solid 15 seconds trying to locate Sue in the Field. Seriously.

naps n such

Life: consider more naps. The Germans do.

Design: a cool resource. (I still have yet to really explore the site, but it didn't take me long to send it to del.icio.us.

Work: I'm having trouble concentrating, but my current task is to update our tower model with the typical floor level openings.

Koasynth: we had an intense meeting last night to get the team all on the same page. We're actually producing work surprisingly well. I hope the momentum continues.

Music: Ali re-inspired me over the weekend. I need to do serious research on midi controllers. What good is a musician if he can't be mobile? I need to harness the power of software, a laptop, and a 25-key controller.