AVATAR: Film Review

I watched Avatar a few days after Christmas. I was spellbound. The story was interesting, but what I was more impressed with was the visuals. They were outstanding. One frequent complaint about CGI anthropomorphic characters is that they don't really look lifelike. This was absolutely not the case here. Apparently they did motion capture for the actors and matched the movements (including eyes, expressions, and mouth movements) to the actors. The result was amazing. I had read reviews that said that Cameron "raised the bar" with this film, and figured it was just hyperbole. It wasn't. The emotion shown on screen with these characters is remarkable. As lines are delivered, it really looked like the CGI character delivered the line. It's been said that this was the most expensive film of all time. Every dime was on the screen. Go see this film in a theater. Don't wait for a retail release.

Lunchbox Laboratory, part II

I just made a return trip to Lunchbox Laboratory - this time I brought my Dad.

He's a "basic" burger guy, no bacon, raw onions, etc. Here's his "custom" burger:














Louie got something called "The Smoker", which included a 1/2-inch stack of smoked bacon and havarti cheese:


Of course, Louie failed and couldn't finish his. But he gets to enjoy it later...

I got the "Homage to Dick's Deluxe", which didn't disappoint:



I think this place is fantastic. I wish they had a Los Angeles location. Until then, I get my once-or-twice-a-year fix here in Seattle.

Al Franken is a disgrace

Chris Dodd, Barney Frank: Officially Sons-of-Bitches

Fantastic GPS mount

Since getting the "new" car, I've been using a "bean bag" type mount for the GPS. I didn't like it, but like the suction-cup-on-the-windshield mount even less. Also, the bean bag mount put the GPS in such a position that it would reflect off the windshield at night, which made for a constant annoyance if I needed to use it after dark.

I found an alternative that worked wonderfully. In this new position, the GPS screen doesn't reflect off the windshield, but it's at a perfect viewing position, and easily within my reach. I bought a custom-made mounting bracket (basically a small, bent and drilled piece of sheet metal with a ball on the end) from the geniuses at Pro.Fit International. They even sell a simple plastic tool to allow me to pop the console off without scratching it. It required minor drilling (but the two small holes are hidden under the console if the mount is removed) but the results are outstanding. Witness the new mount below:Now I just have to find a way to secure/conceal the cord a little better...

Blocked Caller ID

I know when Caller ID first came out, many people freaked out and voiced privacy concerns. But the truth is, if you're the caller, why would you want to mask your number unless you're up to no good?

I don't know why people still have their number blocked. It's stupid. Some people aren't even aware that their number is blocked.

UNBLOCK YOUR NUMBER PERMANENTLY. The people you're calling will appreciate it.

So how many jobs did you say we’d save???

Suspect sought in acid attack on South L.A. woman -- latimes.com

Suspect sought in acid attack on South L.A. woman -- latimes.com

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Angelina Jolie – 5 Magazine Covers??

I saw this at the market today:

5 different magazines have her on the cover at the same time?  Does she really boost sales that much?

No comment necessary...

9/11 Trials to be held in NY

The 5 surviving known 9/11 conspirators, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will be tried in CIVILIAN CRIMINAL court. This means that since some of them were "tortured" some evidence will likely be inadmissible in court.

This is a mistake for several reasons. These people are not U.S. Citizens, and therefore have no right to the protections offered by our Constitution. They are enemy combatants, and as such should be tried in MILITARY court. The methods used to interrogate them were necessary. They participated in the worst attack on American soil in history. Any information that was obtained from them should have been obtained by any means necessary.

This trial will go on for YEARS, and cost untold millions of dollars to taxpayers.  More importantly, the civilian criminal trial system is designed to protect the accused from unjust prosecution.  The defense lawyers will use every tool available to game the system.  Though it may sound far-fetched, it’s even possible that some or all of them will walk free.

Make no mistake, although A.G. Holder made the announcement, this was President Obama's decision. Those of you who voted for this clown made a big mistake. This is yet one more piece of evidence to support my assertion.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jujZxVn--lj_j5uwTTzPRreHxX1gD9BUO2I00

Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood at the 2009 CMA's

Unemployment hits 10.2%

Just saw this on the news, and didn’t believe it.  I went to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics website, and pulled up this:

Here’s a brilliant illustration of this (from June 2009):

I bought a new convertible notebook

I've been testing Windows 7 for a few months, but I installed it on an old machine, and that version is set to expire soon. I know I've got to get a lot more comfortable with Windows 7, and I don't want to mess with my primary work machine, which is Vista x64. I've also been eager to buy a convertible notebook. It's not that I really need another one - I already have several, but I guess call it a case of "gadget lust." So, to kill two birds with one stone, I went out and bought a new HP TouchSmart tx2-1375dx. It's got Windows 7 Professional x64, 4GB RAM, a 320GB Hard Disk, and a 2.2GHZ AMD Turion X2 with virtualization support. So far, I love it. Gadget porn to follow:

 

By the way, I posted this using Windows Live Writer.  Kinda cool.  It seems great for posting with greater control over the layout and content.

24: Day 8 Teaser Trailer

I love this show, but the new teaser for Season 8 is making me think they've kinda "jumped the shark"...

Obama money...

The video below has nothing to do with Rush Limbaugh, it’s just that he re-played the audio from a radio “man on the street” report on his show.  It needs no explanation.

Of course, this reminds me of this...

Where The Wild Things Are

When I heard it was in production over a year ago, I got excited about this movie, waiting for it to come out, watching all the trailers, etc. I even bought the book I remembered from childhood, since the copy from back then is not around.

I didn't remember how short the book is - it's actually only around 10 sentences total. When my new copy of the book arrived, I wondered how Spike Jonze would "stretch" this very short story to a feature-length film.

Obviously, liberties were taken with the story - like the fact that in the movie, Max's adventure doesn't occur within the physical confines of his room (and imagination). Additionally, the "wild things" Max conjures up are given names and personalities - sometimes confusingly. Most notable with regard to that confusion is the "Carol" character - a typically female name, but the character was voiced brilliantly by James Gandolfini, and after a few minutes I didn't care about the gender/name conflict. Jim Henson Productions (of Muppets parentage) created "monsters" that were emotive, lifelike and surprisingly relateable. Many of the emotions Carol expresses (sometimes destructively) are clearly those felt by Max himself. By putting them upon Carol, it gave him an outlet to consider and deal with them.

I've read some negative reviews online, and many of them freely admit that they hadn't even looked at the book upon which the film is based. Others brought their children, sometimes very young children. This is not a film for children - especially younger than 10 years old or so. Some sequences may be frightening for younger viewers, and the pace is likely to test their attention span. Also, the allegory will be lost on of most children.

This film centers around (and is based upon) the vivid imagination of a boy (perhaps 8 or so) with some emotional issues, an absentee father, and other feelings that he expresses by "acting out" - tormenting the family dog, yelling at (and biting - !) his mother, etc. From that perspective, the film was a beautiful and compelling fairytale that expands upon the universe Sendak created 26 years ago. The visuals are unique and refreshing, and the soundtrack almost sounds like it was created and performed by a child - with pitch-perfect results. This is a film that needs to be seen in a theater or Blu-Ray for its full effect to be properly appreciated.

Old Student Video

I did a video for a class (Video Production) in 1990. I've had the master tape sitting in a box for years, and finally decided to digitize it. Here it is...

(there's about 15seconds of black at the beginning...)

Buster Hymen from badtzmartin on Vimeo.

Saw this at the grocery store

Saw this magazine at the checkout line. It's hard to see, even if you click to see it larger. The pink burst at upper-right says "Bad Girl Issue - for sexy bitches only"



I don't think they should print "bitches" on the cover (not Kim, the pink burst at right), since many moms bring their kids with them shopping.

-- Post From My iPhone

Horn broken, watch for finger

My horn died. :(

Of course, the dealer doesn't have the replacement part in stock, so I'll have to come back later in the week.

Looking at that bumper makes me sad...


-- Post From My iPhone

SNL on Obama

Hollywood Supporting a Pedophile?

It looks like hundreds of "big names" in Hollywood have signed a petition in support of Roman Polanski, who pled guilty to drugging and sodomizing a 13-year old girl in 1977. He was 44-years old at that time.

Some of the people who've signed it:
- Martin Scorsese
- Woody Allen (no surprise there)
- Monica Bellucci
- Pedro Almodovar
- Tilda Swinton
- David Lynch
- Terry Gilliam
- Fanny Ardant
- John Landis
- Mike Nichols
- Salman Rushdie
- Steven Soderbergh
- Diane von Furstenberg
- and what appears to be the majority of the entertainment industry in France.

View the entire list here:
http://www.sacd.fr/Tous-les-signataires-de-la-petition-All-signing-parties.1341.0.html

In case 32 years have made the facts fade in their memory, maybe they should read these excerpted transcripts from the grand jury testimony:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gg5_is0FiV6_hzuCv8BEeqLek4YwD9B21HU00

TheSmokingGun.com has posted more of the transcript here:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/polanskicover1.html

It's amazing how they're acting as if he's just a poor misunderstood victim who deserves their support. He pled guilty. He expected to get probation, but when he learned the judge was likely to "throw the book at him", he fled from justice.

For over 30 years, he's avoided prison. Most people wouldn't be able to do that. His wealth and lack of morals protected him from the fate he earned. The people who've signed this petition should be ashamed.

Toshiba Notebooks

When clients ask me what brands they should consider, I often specifically say that I've had problems with the quality of Toshiba notebooks in recent years.

I'm currently restoring a client's Toshiba notebook, and got a great working example of such a problem. I put the factory-supplied Recovery Disc into the machine, and began the process, only to be greeted with a message that this was the "Wrong Machine!" O RLY?

It turns out that many Toshiba notebooks suffer from this specific issue, so much that Toshiba's support site has a "fix" for the issue, but it apparently took them several years to put it up. And to make matters worse:
- There's different fixes depending on the model
- It involves making either a bootable floppy (?) or CD - not very user-friendly.
- It involves booting the machine from that bootable floppy/cd

I'm just wondering how they screwed this up across so many different models.

To wit: http://www.google.com/search?q=toshiba+%22wrong+machine%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

ACORN

Just listened to Glenn Beck in the car. He was going through yet another hidden camera exposé on ACORN. Why is NO ONE ELSE reporting on this?


-- Post From My iPhone

Kanye West is a Douchebag

I didn't watch this year's MTV Video Music Awards, but I became aware of a controversy stemming from Kanye West ripping the mic out of Taylor Swift's hand as she tried to give an acceptance speech. Viacom removed all of the videos of it from YouTube, but here's the clip on MTV's site:

http://www.mtv.com/global/music/videos/popout/?id=1620605&vid=435995


For someone as successful as he is, he sure seems to have a victim mentality. The truth is, if Taylor Swift was white, he wouldn't have done it. He's a racist douche who needs to learn to keep his mouth shut.

Lunchbox Laboratory

I had read about a place called "Lunchbox Laboratory" in Seattle, WA. I saw pictures of their "dork" (duck & pork) burger, and their "super beef" burgers, loaded with real cheese, thick smoked bacon and plenty of greasy goodness. I knew I had to try their work. I was already planning to visit Bellevue, WA, and decided my trip must inclide a visit to Lunchbox Laboratory.

Below is a record of what was consumed.

Above is the "Homage to Dick's". Apparently Dick's is a local burger joint that sells tasty but crappy burgers. This was clearly tasty but nowhere near crappy. On the side are some lovely tater tots.

Here's the "Dork" (duck & pork) burger, onion fries on the side:


The place is very tiny, barely enough room for 15-20 people to eat at any given time. Below is a short clip showing the entire extent of the "dining room", which includes the line to order food.



The prices weren't cheap - about $60 for three burgers, fries and sodas. Once I ate there, the price could've been double. I wouldn't have cared - it's that good. Overall, I knew this would be an exercise in excess. I was correct. I'm still recovering. I regret nothing.

WinAntivirus - Mac users falling for it?

I received two calls today from clients who "fell for" a "winantivirus" popup, AKA smitfraud. For those who don't know, that's a scam popup that often results in a "drive-by download" - a virus that installs itself on your machine without you clicking anything.

It varies all the time but may look something like this:



It alerts you to several viruses that it says are currently on your machine, then directs you to download their antivirus software that will fix everything. Of course, it doesn't fix anything, and in many cases it is the thing that is infecting your computer. It is sometimes very hard to remove.

I get calls about such scams almost every day, but what makes today interesting is that these aren't Windows users. It's two clients who switched to Mac over two years ago.

Thankfully, these types of scam software doesn't even work on Macs. But the website that the popup directs you to asks for credit card and other personal information as they process your "order" for this crap. That, of course means they're stealing your money and likely worse.

Windows 7

I just put Windows 7 Ultimate RTM on a pretty modest test machine (P4HT, 512MB RAM, Intel Graphics).

Despite the fact that it's a low-end machine, I'm very impressed.

Many of the things that were quirky about the UI (user interface) on Vista are much better. Overall, the interface seems smarter, and more user-friendly. A frequent complaint about Vista is the UAC (User Account Control) pop-ups. With Vista, even when a user is simply changing their desktop background, they're asked to authenticate/approve the change. Many UAC pop-ups require two separate approval clicks. Windows 7 gets a big plus in the user-friendliness department - UAC pop-ups are very infrequent. In fact, I haven't seen any since installing it.

One thing I hate about Vista is the Sidebar. Without exception, I turn it off immediately when setting up a client machine. When clients have it already enabled, I often simply ask them if they care about the "clock, calendar, and sample photos" that the default "sidebar" includes. 98 times out of 100 they don't, and I kill the whole thing. One less thing running can't hurt performance. I like the idea of Gadgets, but hate the fact that Vista sticks them in a window that interferes with other things. In Windows 7, the gadgets are independent - little "windows" on their own, without actual windows of course.

There are some things I'm "on the fence" about, however. A feature of Vista that I think is great is the Windows Photo Gallery. I think it gave Windows users a near equivalent to the Mac iPhoto application. Unfortunately, it's gone by default in Windows 7, but Microsoft offers "Windows Live Photo Gallery" as a replacement. It requires you to have a Windows Live (or MSN/Hotmail) account, and also requires that you login to the service to use it. I don't see the customer benefit of this change, since the program seems to work very similarly to the Vista program. If Microsoft wants to integrate Windows Live features into it, I wish they had made it an optional setting so that the user could simply use it on their local machine.

Despite my minor misgivings, seeing how well it's running on this old-ish POS, I'm likely going to put the retail Windows 7 upgrade package on at least one of my own machines.

Wonder if Pelosi will acknowledge this?

You know how the liberals in Congress have been dismissing the protests at recent Healthcare "Town Hall" meetings, calling them "astroturf"? She (and others) figured that by de-legitimizing them as "professionally organized" she'd be able to get people to ignore them.

The reality is that ACORN and other organizations that have the President in their pocket are doing this themselves. Watch this:

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations Sells Off Most of its Healthcare Holdings

I wonder why? Would it be because of what ObamaCare will bring?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125029373754433433.html

Idiot Sighting

This dummy knew she pulled up with the gas door on the wrong side. She got out, opened the filler door, then entered her card, and only then figured out that the hose wouldn't reach.


-- Post From My iPhone

Ford's SYNC website doesn't support IE8??

Although the Ford SYNC system is made by Microsoft, apparently the syncmyride.com website doesn't like IE8...

Despite the warning, the site appeared to work fine.

Clown Shoes

I've always wanted a chance to use the term "Clown Shoes" properly. I finally got it.

A friend/client of mine called about three weeks ago, apparently he got a new phone system.

The guy who installed it said that I needed to make some changes to their router to allow them to service the phone system remotely.

I told the client to have the phone guy email me what he needs. I heard nothing. Or so I thought. For three weeks or so, I told the client I heard nothing. Because I truly believed that I hadn't.

Anyway, the client finally forwards the phone guy's email to me.

Turns out, the phone guy sent me an email with no subject line, and when he entered his name in his email settings, he used some goofy capitalization - "Shmuly GOldsmith". Between the goofy spelling, lack of subject line, and the fact that I don't know anyone with that name, I figured it was spam and marked it as such. Mystery solved. Of course, this would also block him from sending me mail in the future as well.

Here's what I wrote to the client once I figured it out:

"I think I figured out why it got marked as spam.

His name is shown with goofy capitalization, and he put NO subject line.

Fucking clown shoes."

Anyway, "Shmuly GOldsmith" -- thanks for the outstanding opportunity to use "Clown Shoes". Next time take less than a friggin' minute to type your own name correctly and enter a subject line.

Obama's Credit Card Bill for USA

Click this to see it larger:


Obama's Credit Card Bill for USA
Originally uploaded by syedbalkhi

Just something to think about...

How's this for "hope" and "change"???

Just saw this and nearly threw up:



-- Post From My iPhone

Double standard?

If, as David Letterman insists, this is
the "slutty stewardess look"...
























Then what, pray tell, is this?
























First Lady Obama exiting Westminster Abbey.

MobileMe & Outlook - Birthdays

When I setup MobileMe, it took all of my birthdays and moved them to a separate calendar called "Birthdays". I didn't sweat it too much at the time, but knew that because they were not included on my primary Outlook calendar, I wouldn't get alerts before they occurred.

Later, I also discovered that the birthdays in the "Birthday calendar" were not actually sychronizing with Outlook anymore. In fact, although there were birthdays showing up on me.com/calendar, they did not appear in Outlook anymore.

Rather than going crazy worrying about the sync of Birthdays, I simply re-created them manually in Outlook, and rather than using the word "Birthday", which I worried would cause them to go to the "Birthday calendar", I used "BDay". I also made them recurring for 9 years only.

So far so good.

Finally! The White House Press Corps lets Gibbs have it

This is beautiful. I wish it would happen every day.

Gattaca is here

One of my favorite movies is 1997's Gattaca. It's a fictional story set in the not-too-distant future, where virtually all babies are "genetically engineered" to be free of genetic flaws or diseases. Job applications are submitted with blood and urine tests. Although this is done today, it's typically for drug testing purposes. In the movie, it's done to determine health, likely aptitudes, genetic predispositions to mental illness or addiction, etc. The story centers around a protagonist whose parents wanted a "God baby" - a birth left up to nature. The viewer follows this "natural" protagonist through his efforts to fit into this genetically "perfect" society.

Apparently, "not-too-distant" is here. See the following:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5702674/Genetic-MoT-for-disease-free-babies.html

Holy crap - Hackintosh FTW

I've been playing with the "Hackintosh" for a few days now, and I'm pretty impressed. It actually seems nearly as fast as my "real" MacBook.

Now to do something about the 16GB SSD... ;)


-- Post From My iPhone

Three tech things today

1. Sorry, Linux... We won't be friends after all.
After extensive "playing around" with the new netbook, I've decided that Ubuntu (both 8.04 and 9.04) are not for me. Too many things didn't quite work, and too many things needed command line work (sudo judo) to function. It may be good for some, but not me.

2. Hello Hackintosh.
So once I decided that I didn't want Linux on the netbook, the question remained - what to install?
Rather than putting XP on the netbook, I decided to follow the 20 or so steps clearly documented on the web to install OSX 10.5.7 on the netbook. And yes, I stuck a small Apple sticker on it. I've gotten it working quite well, and faster than I'd ever imagined. I even got bluetooth working properly (took a little extra work), which leads me to...

3. BLUETOOTH INTERNET TETHERING

Now this is pretty damn cool. Basically, on either the "real" mac or the "hackintosh", I have gotten the iPhone 3GS's new "Internet Tethering" to work. This will allow me to "borrow" the phone's 3G connection via bluetooth and use it on either computer. And no, that's not a stock shot - that's my phone's home screen.

UPDATE - Apparently it also works on Windows machines connected via USB.

Just got my new iPhone 3GS!

It came in a day earlier than I expected. I had been tracking it via FedEx, and apparently it was shipped direct from China.

Just started syncing it.

Holy crap I'm excited.

Just got my netbook

I saw Dell advertising a netbook for $250, and bought it.

It just arrived. My intent is to bring it with me to appointments, so that I can use it to test clients' networks. Tyically I'd been lugging around a ThinkPad T60, but figured carrying the 8.9" Dell Vostro A90 would be a lot easier.

It's got 1GB RAM, and a 16GB SSD. I'll probably be upgrading both soon. It also has a built-in webcam and bluetooth.

It'll take some getting used to for a few reasons:
- It's got Ubuntu Linux 8.04 preinstalled, and I've never used ANY Linux distro before.
- It's VERY tiny. I thought I'd only have issues with the tiny keys, but the little screen is going to need adjusting to also...

I just spent about 20 minutes playing with it, before grabbing the MacBook to post this. Switching from the 8.9" screen to the MacBook's 13.3" screen suddenly made the "little" mac feel GIGANTIC. ;)

That being said, I'm really excited about it, and the size/price just can't be beat.

More about Obama firing IG Gerald Walpin

When asked for the reason for firing Gerald Walpin, the White House rep said that Walpin had appeared "...confused, disoriented, unable to answer questions and exhibited other behavior that led the Board to question his capacity to serve." Essentially, they called him SENILE.

See http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/06/white-house-plays-hardball-says-fired-ig-walpin-was-confused-disoriented-engaged-in-inappropriate-co.html

Really? Well, it seems Glenn Beck thought this was pretty unreal as well, so he proved that Mr. Walpin is anything but senile.

See http://hotair.com/archives/2009/06/17/sweet-glenn-beck-gives-gerald-walpin-a-senility-test/

WHOO HOO!!! iPhone 3GS!!!

I wanted to buy the new iPhone 3GS, but initially AT&T wanted me to either pay $700 now, or wait until November to pay $300. Obviously, this cooled my enthusiasm.

A lot of people were bothered by AT&T's upgrade pricing. There were around 2,000 people who joined a complaint group on Twitter, and many news outlets covered the public outcry.

Long story short, AT&T caved.

I was able to order the iPhone 3GS online, and pay only $300. Even better, I won't have to go to the store and wait in any lines. It'll be delivered to my door within a week.

Barbara Boxer is petty and small

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) unleashed her wrath on a Brigadier General for calling her "ma'am" yesterday.



If that video goes down, try this.

She was absolutely out of line. I don't know what caused her to snap on this particular officer, but I'm certain others have called her "ma'am" before.

I'm also certain that the Brigadier General worked a lot harder (and longer) to earn his title.

Barbara Boxer showed herself to be petty and self-absorbed. She should be ashamed.

She's up for re-election in 2010. Hopefully she'll be answering to "ma'am" again soon.

Another bad sign...

The Americorps' Inspector General is supposed to be independent, so that he/she can investigate government waste and misconduct. The most recent Inspector General, Gerald Walpin, was just fired by President Obama because he was investigating a friend of Obama's, Kevin Johnson. See the the following:

http://www.google.com/search?q=fired+Inspector+General&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090612/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_national_service_inspector_general

http://www.seattlepi.com/national/1151ap_us_national_service_inspector_general.html

Why is this not on the mainstream (non-cable) TV news?

Chastity Bono -- Becoming a Man

Chastity Bono -- Becoming a Man

Yeah, yeah... Empathy, tolerance, yada yada yada...

I just can't wrap my head around this sort of thing.

If I was with a "woman" who told me that she had been born a man, I'd be very upset about what I consider false advertising.

One of the articles on TMZ mentions that Chastity Bono has been in a committed relationship for several years. This relationship is with a LESBIAN woman. So when she changes to LOOK MORE LIKE A MAN (because she's still got female chromosomes) will her partner suddenly be "going straight?"

Or will she be like that "pregnant man" who has a beard and KEPT THE VAGINA AND OVARIES???

Burkah wearing teacher at a Christian school?!?!?!

This may seem a little "out there" now, but in this PC world nothing surprises me. She'll probably not only keep her job, but receive some sort of financial settlement.

Society, here's your handbasket. Enjoy the trip.

Just watched Star Trek

...and I was astounded. It was nearly perfect -- respectful to canon, but fresh and innovative in just the right ways to bring in a new generation of fans.

-- Post From My iPhone

"Outrage" over "Police Brutality"

Some idiots decided to run from police and engage in a high-speed car chase. After one of the guys got out and ran, then laid down because he realized it was hopeless, the police kicked him. I say BIG DEAL. Wanna know why? First, take a look at this scumbag:

Yes - the name of his gang is TATTOOED ON HIS UPPER LIP. One of his buddies in the car has the gang's initials TATTOOED ON HIS CHIN - in thick block letters.

Why we let these sons-of-bitches drain our police resources is beyond me.

Of course, what makes this worse is that he'll probably sue and receive millions of taxpayer dollars.

More pictures and the full story here:

http://www.whittierdailynews.com/ci_12361988

Jeanene Garofalo is out of her mind

Recently there were protests across the country that were billed as "Tea Parties", to conjure up images of the original "Boston Tea Party". The idea apparently was to protest taxes and spending by the government. Whatever.

Most media outlets were at best skeptical of the protests, and many refused to refer to them as legitimate protests, choosing rather to refer to them as "teabagging parties" and calling the participants "teabaggers." (Yes - on national news) Many of the anchors on these news channels dove right in with double entendre, saying things like "licking their lips for teabagging" and "it's hard to talk (coherently) when you're teabagging." Seriously. I'm not making this up.

Well, once the demonstrations were over, I thought the story was over too. Not for Jeanene Garofalo, who not only dismisses the protests completely, but labels them as RACIST. I've always known that Jeanene Garofalo "leaned left", and ignored that fact due to her comedic talent. She refers to the protesters as "teabagging rednecks." Again - seriously, I'm not making this up.

Watch the clip below (replayed on Fox News' "Red Eye")

Halo Wars - I love it, but I'm disappointed

I'm not disappointed in the game. Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love Halo Wars.

What disappoints me is that Ensemble Studios, the developer of the game, has apparently disbanded - shut down.

What that means is that while other games get updates to fix various issues, Halo Wars likely will not. And in this case that's a real shame, since some of the AI decisions clearly could use some tweaking. For example, if a tank can't get through a narrow area, like between a turret and a mountain, it doesn't turn around and go the other way. It just sits there waiting for the mountain to move. Similarly, if AI-controlled units aren't specifically told to target things like turrets or shield generators, they'll often target far less strategic targets, like infantry or resource generators.

Also, while games like Halo 3, Grand Theft Auto 4, and the entire Call of Duty series have benefited from various add-ons and downloadable extras like maps, they were only able to offer such things because their developers were still alive.

Microsoft once owned the developer of the original Halo games - Bungie Studios. After Halo 3 was released, Bungie, broke away from Microsoft and became an independent company. Despite their independence, they continue to fully support Halo 3. Microsoft also owned Ensemble Studios from 2001 to 2009. It's a real shame that they couldn't just spin it off and allow it to run independently.

(5/20/2009) UPDATE: Thankfully I was wrong. There is an update and DLC for Halo Wars. Whoo hoo!! :) http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/19606/Halo-Wars-Gets-Title-Update/

I owe Adam Lambert an apology...

Holy crap.

I just got to catch Adam Lambert's recent performance of Tears For Fears' "Mad World" on American Idol.

I loved the original version, and really loved Gary Jules' 2003 cover, which has appeared in the film "Donnie Darko" and in commercials for "Gears of War".

Adam's version was more similar to Gary Jules' version, but yet again, he made it his own. He no doubt had a hand in the staging and lighting for his performance, which he has done before, and no other competitor has done to date.

I can no longer deny his extraordinary talent. I know I made a big deal about his "effeminate" style, but the more I consider it, I no longer give a crap about that.

He is an AMAZING talent, and deserves all the recognition he's receiving, and will surely continue to get.

As a side note, I really like Danny Gokey, and initially had picked him to win it all, but I must concede that American Idol Season 8 winner is already clear.

So Adam, if you or one of your friends reads this - I am sorry. I was wrong.

UPDATE - I bought the "studio version" on iTunes, and it's even better than the live version. It sounds great in the car, and yes - the Sync system recognizes when I say "play artist, ADAM LAMBERT" and goes straight to the correct track.

Blogging from 38,000 feet

As I write this, I'm on Alaska Airlines flight 520. Flying. At 38,000 feet. Going about 350 miles-per-hour. Pretty freakin' cool if you ask me...

Apparently this is the first time Alaska has offered such a service - as in this specific flight.

Since it's so new, it's free. I don't know what they'll charge for it, but I just wanted to mark the occasion. One day it (WiFi in flight) will be as commonplace as microwave ovens and cell phones...

American Idol... WTF?!?

I've been watching American Idol lately, and while I think all of the current contestants are very talented, there's one that just irritates me - Adam Lambert. Every week, he gets more and more effeminate. I don't care what his orientation is, nor do I care if he wears "guyliner". I just wonder about the state of our society if this guy ends up winning. He's very talented, but I can't stand to watch him writhe around as he sings in an increasingly feminine falsetto.

Apparently TMZ has noticed too, as they put together a comparison of Adam Lambert and former American Idol contestant Kimberly Caldwell...



http://www.tmz.com/2009/03/19/adam-lambert-david-cooks-ex/

Terrorism = "Man-Caused Disaster"???

Janet Napolitano, the new Homeland Security Secretary, apparently has a policy of avoiding use of the words "terrorism" and "terrorist". She prefers the poorly-crafted phrase "man-caused disasters."

Yeah, right... This kinda reminds me of the news anchors describing a guy with a bomb strapped to his chest as a "homicide bomber" instead of "suicide bomber." You know you've heard them do it. Did you notice it?

Is this political correctness or just stupidity?

Here's an interview with Mrs. Napolitano in Germany's "Der Spiegel":

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,613330,00.html

iomega's customer support is CRAP

A client of mine has an iomega NAS 150d RAID box. He bought it to use as a network storage device, and since it was advertised as a redundant RAID, he felt that it was a sort of "built-in" backup. I questioned the strategy, and suggested that a different approach might be better, as well as provide faster access to his files. He rebuffed my suggestion, probably because he paid nearly $1,000 for the device, and truly believed that it was adequate for his needs. I didn't push the issue further, and figured I'd address it again at a later time.

A few months later, he moved his office, which necessitated a change the IP addressing of his network. Since it's configured using a built-in webserver, the directions clearly say the device must be reset to factory settings. Okay...

The device was configured by the client to have four named folders, each with their own permissions. Again, according to iomega, when you reset such a device to the factory settings, all you have to do is "re-create" the folders and you'll be able to access them.

Unfortunately, the firmware on the device was 4x.xx, and the current firmware is somewhere around 8X.XX. This is significant. With the older firmware, when you try to "re-create" the folders, you have to click "browse" to get to them. When you click browse, the subsequent window never populates. So normally, the answer would be to update the firmware so that it functions properly. However, to go from 4X.XX to 8X.XX would erase all data on the device. In order to keep your data when doing a fimware update, iomega recommends using the device's built-in backup function. You hook up an external USB hard disk to the box, and use another "browse" button to tell the box what folders you wish to back up. That function doesn't work either.

Iomega's telephone support took days before even getting a return phone call to me, and by that point they told me there was nothing that their tech support could do. However, they also were quick to inform me that they have their own in-house DATA RECOVERY SERVICE. Hmmm... Let's build a device that's horribly flawed and overpriced considering those flaws. We can then charge THOUSANDS of dollars to recover data from a device we built - data that is only inaccessible due to OUR OWN DESIGN FLAWS.

During the whole process of contacting iomega for the client, I gave one of the phone reps my email address. I got various boilerplate/automated messages from the support department, but none of them were helpful. The client also mentioned that he dutifully registered the device, but never heard anything from iomega about updating the firmware. He and I both, however, have been receiving plenty of advertising emails from iomega.

In the end, rather than sending the box via fedex to iomega and spending at least $3,000 to have the data retrieved, I personally took the device to a local data recovery service that I had used in the past. The owner of the lab (with over 30 years experience in the field) described NAS devices in general as a "bad idea". He and his staff spent several days hacking into the Linux-based device, and eventually were able to recover the client's data. The final cost for that service was $1,000. It's a significant discount over iomega's data recovery service, but it's still a bitter pill to swallow.

What's worse from my perspective is that because it happened on "my watch", I felt partially responsible, despite the fact that I followed iomega's instructions and did nothing wrong. I "ate" a significant portion of my fees, and did a lot for the client without charging him. I also believe the client feels that it's my fault that he had to spend $1,000 to recover his data.

In short, I will never buy or recommend another iomega device. Their device (and apparently all similar iomega NAS devices in the product line) shipped with such serious flaws, and rather than HELPING me, they added my email to their marketing list.

Can you tell I'm upset by this??? ;)

Idiot sighting

I went to dinner with my Dad & Stepmom on Sunday. My Stepmom whispered to me: "Don't look now, but why is that guy wearing his hood inside the restaurant?"

I waited a moment, then looked over to see this idiot:
(It may be a little tough to see, since it was dark, and the iPhone camera doesn't do too well in dim lighting...)



Of course, at some point I had to ask why that young lady was having dinner with the Unabomber... ;)

Octomom IDIOT

TMZ has published a photo of the OCTOMOM IDIOT'S Minivan with a "Denver boot" on it.

As far as I'm concerned, the boot isn't the interesting part.

It's the fact that she left her children UNATTENDED in a CAR.


http://www.tmz.com/2009/02/13/octuplet-mom-odyssey-interrupted/

WARNING - They also have a picture of her showing off her HUGE belly. Be warned.

Octuplets Mom Has 6 Other Kids

Apparently the CA woman who recently gave birth to OCTUPLETS already has 6 kids.

She also lives with her parents in a small house.

The "father" of the children, at least the most recent 8, is apparently not in the country.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/29/earlyshow/health/main4761676.shtml

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7860041.stm

Of course, she took fertility drugs had 8 embryos implanted - which often leads to twins/triplets/etc.

I've heard reports in the media that her parents had to file for bankruptcy recently.

The babies were born several weeks premature, and are all around 2-3 pounds each.

Who do you think will pay for the extended stay and special care these children will receive in the hospital. Hmmm... I wonder...

Update:

She's apparently been obsessed with having children for a long time, so much that her mother believes she's got a psychological disorder of some sort:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090131/ap_on_re_us/octuplets_10

Why is it that virtually nowhere in the media is anyone reporting what an irresponsible parasite this woman is?

I just heard a report on NBC that said:
- Implanting eight embryos is NOT a normal medical practice. Typically no more than one or two are implanted. How this woman got a doctor to implant EIGHT is beyond me.
- "Complicated Births" can cost as much as $400,000 per child. That puts this idiot's bill at well over 3 MILLION DOLLARS. WHO DO YOU THINK IS PAYING FOR IT?

Our economy is in deeper trouble than many are aware...

This chart shows the federal supply of money. The steep curve starts in 2008.



Source: http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/fredgraph?chart_type=line&width=1000&height=600&preserve_ratio=true&s[1][id]=AMBNS

Surprised and humbled

My buddy Mike called me today, and asked me to be Godfather to his youngest son.

I didn't expect it, but of course told him I would be honored to do so.

Of course, this makes me feel old (a increasingly common situation.)

However, as John Mayer says, you can't stop this train...

2009 CES

Just got back from the 2009 CES in Las Vegas.

Some cool new stuff, like:
- Windows 7 - running on a large touchscreen
- Upcoming SDXC (super high-capacity SD) cards
with up to 2TB capacity
- Super-thin (less than 1" thick) HDTV's

I also got to play with:
- T-Mobile G1 Smartphone
(feels good in the hand, but still needs some more time)
- Blackberry Storm (I was unimpressed)
- Halo Wars
(interesting - didn't play it too long, but probably will buy it)

Click through to see my pictures from the show.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/martinlosangeles/sets/72157612445477409/

Idiot Sighting

I went to the grocery store tonight, and saw a woman walking through the grocery store. She was probably in her early 20's. She was talking loudly on her cell phone, and of course oblivious to anyone around her. Of course this happens every day. It's always annoying, but in this case it really irritated me. Why?

1. The conversation was clearly of little importance or substance.
2. A stream of f-bombs was emitted from this idiot's mouth.
3. She was pushing a baby stroller.

I was tempted to say something, but let my better angels win this time.

I curse sometimes; perhaps too much. It's never in public, and never around children.

Morons like this may be common, but the triple-threat combo performed by this idiot makes her extra special.