Silly Wampa's World

one game at a time

2011-03-13T00:12:00.001-05:00

So, I've hesitated to post anything about the Devils for obvious reasons. on Jan 8th, they were 10-29-2, 19 games under .500 and 27 points out of 8th place, dead last in the NHL. As of tonight they are at .500, 32-32-4, 6pts out of 8th with 14 games to go. An amazing record of 22-3-2 in their last 26 games. Playoffs are still a huge hurdle, but no longer a long shot or a pipe dream. Even if they don't make it, seeing them make this kind of a turnaround is just unheard of in sports. Doesn't matter what happens from here on out, I'm one proud Devils fan.

S-A-TUR-DAY Night!

2011-02-19T23:02:00.002-05:00

Made a big breakfast for dinner, French Toast, home fries, bacon, sausage. yum yum. Afterwards, I played Connect-Four against Charlie. It was really fun. I took a 4-1 lead on him and then he beat me 4 straight to take me 5-4. And I wasn't helping him or letting him win. It's great to see him figure things out. He learned and adapted. My hope was to get him to see the possible moves before making his move. It worked. We were watching the Devils game and after 1st period, it was Timmy's turn to pick the game. We played Thomas DVD bingo and Timmy won.

After watching the rest of the Devils game, they won 4-1, I watched the end of Ottawa/Toronto and now I popped in a dvd. Strange Brew. One of my favorite comedies from the 80s. Hilarious and very quotable movie.

That's been my Satruday night. Original plan was to take Kris out to dinner, but babysitter cancelled yesterday. Playing games with the boys and watching my team win is a suitable alternative.

That bowl was super duper

2011-02-07T23:07:00.002-05:00

So, I'm not much of a football fan. I'll watch the 2nd half of a game in the playoffs if either the Giants or Steelers are playing. Naturally, I was going to watch the Superbowl, but wasn't planning on paying attention. It's kind of amazing that people are more interested in the commercials than they are in the game itself. Some of them were kind of weird, a couple of them funny. But for the most part, pretty damn boring. Game had some excitement to it, when the Steelers actually showed up in the 2nd half.

The movie trailers were cool, but all too short. Lots of movies to look forward to over the next 5 months. Cowboys & Aliens, Captain America, Green Lantern, Transformers 3, some other alien invasion movie.

The Pepsi Max commercials were a little out there. Physically assaulting other people with cans of soda can be funny, but these were a little more disturbing than funny. And WTF is up with the name. Pepsi Max is zero calories, so what's the "MAX" for? At least Coke Zero is appropriately named.

In the battle of the local deals web sites, LivingSocial's commercial was funny, Groupon's was awful and in poor taste.

Half time show? Well, not much I can say about that. Black Eyed Peas make some fun music, but they really didn't sound good. And WTF Slash?

Your call is very important to us

2011-02-07T22:19:00.016-05:00

So, I had to call an insurance company tonight. Their website lists a toll free # and states that it's 7 days a week, but nothing about times, so I assume at 10pm EST that someone would pick up. I call and the robotic lady voice tells me to press 1 to be connected to an operator. Ok, 1 it is then.

For the next 8 minutes I get stuck in a loop. The robot lady voice tells me the same 3 things over and over.

Your call is very important to us
* musical mariachi interlude for 10 seconds *
Be sure to ask the operator about other valuable offers, available to select callers.
* musical mariachi interlude for 10 seconds *
We are connecting your call, and one of our operators will be with you shortly
* musical mariachi interlude for 10 seconds *

So, I wait, and wait, and as I keep hearing the same 3 messages over and over, I start to go slightly insane.

Your call is very important to us
me: I bet you say that to all the callers
Be sure to ask the operator about other valuable offers, available to select callers.
me: kiss my ass robot voice lady
We are connecting your call, and one of our operators will be with you shortly
me: oh great, finally connecting my call
Your call is very important to us
me: wait, What? then pick up the damn phone if it's so important to you
Be sure to ask the operator about other valuable offers, available to select callers.
me: oh, I have some things to say to the operator, don't you worry...
We are connecting your call, and one of our operators will be with you shortly
me: YOU LIE!!!
Your call is very important to us
me: Then please, for fuck's sake, pick up the damn phone
Be sure to ask the operator about other valuable offers, available to select callers.
me: do any of those offers include actually SPEAKING to an actual PERSON??
We are connecting your call, and one of our operators will be with you shortly
me: no you're not. why ya gotta go and lie about that. just be honest, it's me isn't it?
Your call is very important to us
me: STOP saying that! I know you don't care about me anymore. stop with the mental abuse.
Be sure to ask the operator about other valuable offers, available to select callers.
me (sobbing in a fetal-position): Whyyyyy, whyyyy...
We are connecting your call, and one of our operators will be with you shortly
me: Oh the hell with you. I'm done with you robot voice lady. I'm moving on with my life because I know I deserve better than you. I'll always remember the time we had, but that's it, it's over, goodbye!
Your call is very important to us
me: Really, you mean it. You really do care.
Be sure to ask the operator about other valuable offers, available to select callers.
me: Oh no, I've been here before. You're trying to trick me again.
We are connecting your call, and one of our operators will be with you shortly
me: FUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCKKKKK!!!!! *CLICK*

Yeah, I have issues. Fuck you, don't judge me!

So, What's next?

2011-01-31T22:37:00.002-05:00

I've found that lately I'm in a bit of a rut. I need to flex my brain a bit and learn something new. I need some pet project that will challenge me. Here's some things I've been thinking about learning or actually doing:

- learn Ruby
- create a new facebook app, just to get reacquainted with the PHP SDK.
- create an Adobe Air app
- Create an Android app
- learn MongoDB
- expand knowledge of HTML5 and CSS3
- Create an opensource javascript project and put it on GitHub

Wow, that's a lot. I'm mulling these all over and I'll be trying to cross some of them off my list in the next 3 months.

Any suggestions? What on this list would you want to tackle?

A season to forget?

2011-01-31T22:08:00.003-05:00

As a Devils fan, I've become accustomed to great defense and goaltending, with some good offense here and there. This is the first season in a long, LONG time that it's been pretty much over by the 30th game of the season. By game 41, they were 10-29-2, only 22 points putting them dead last in the entire league. I mean, for fuck's sake, the ISLANDERS are ahead of them. The New York fucking Islanders I said.

Now we Devils fans aren't used to this at all. Not since the early years of the team did they do this bad. Since their first playoff appearance in 1988, they've only missed the playoffs twice. 1989 and 1996. They made it all the way to game 7 of the Conference Finals in 88, one win away from a date with the Oilers in the finals. In 1994, same thing. 1 win away from the Finals, until a bad defensive play by led to a seemingly harmless wraparound that still lives in infamy. The following season, redemption. A 2nd round exit to the Rangers again in 1997 led to 3 straight season of great regular seasons with disappointing post season exits. 2000 was the start of some phenomenal post seasons. The 3-1 come from behind ECF win over the Flyers followed by the Double OT Cup Winner in Dallas. The return trip vs Colorado in 2001, a first round exit in 2002, and another Stanley Cup win in 2003. 2004 was a first round exit, lockout in 2005. 2006 saw the Devils ride an 11 game winning streak into the post season where they then SWEPT Lundqvist and the Rangers out of the first round. They got their ass handed to them by Carolina (again) in the 2nd round. Came back in 2007 to beat Montreal in the first round, only to lose to Ottawa in the 2nd. 2008 was their first season in Newark, where they have yet to win a playoff series. 5 games and out to the Rangers in 2008, a 7th game shocker loss to the Canes (Again with the fucking Hurricanes) in 2009 and an EMBARRASSING loss to the Flyers in 2010.

Now we stand at the half-way point of the season They've actually been on a pretty good run going 6-1-1 in that span. Marty added another shutout to his record total and both he and Johan Hedberg have played well. They're 22 points behind Atlanta for 8th with 3 games in hand. In their next 10 games, they play 9 times against teams ahead of them. (NYR-2, CAR-3,FLA,OTT,MTL,TOR) and one against San Jose. Their is pretty much no way in hell they'll make the playoffs this season. It would take a run of monumental proportions. They need at least 90 points which leaves them with only about 5 or 6 losses to spare.

The first 10 (11) game span of the 2nd half is off to a good start. 6-1-1. If we break down the 2nd half into 4 10-game stretches, and look for records of let's say, 7-2-1, 8-1-1, 8-2-0 and maybe that last 10 games gives them a shot. They have to beat all the teams ahead of them to get there, and would need help along the way. I was actually hoping the Rangers would beat Florida last week, but nope.

So, I'm not getting my hopes up, but it will be interesting to watch. If anything, the least they could do is make things harder for the Rangers.

And to the Ranger fans out there who like to dig the knife in a little deeper, don't bother. I've already made my peace with this season. only the 3rd missed playoffs in 23 years. As opposed to the Rangers missing half of the last 20-something post seasons and our 3 Stanley Cups in that time to their 1.

This is hardly a season to remember, but not one to forget because the team needs to learn from their mistakes.

Mean ole bunnies

2010-10-15T22:29:00.002-04:00

Seen this commercial on tv. I think it sends a bad message. That poor snake has a prosthetic and the rabbits all just laugh at him. That's just mean.

The Commitments

2010-06-21T23:35:00.002-04:00

I can't help it. Every time this movie is on, I just have to watch it. Fun movie, great music.

I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101605/

Follow Follow Follow...

2010-05-30T22:30:00.004-04:00

Finding some cool people to follow on twitter lately.

that is all...

Link Roundup

2010-05-18T00:25:00.004-04:00

Some great links I came across today.

Luke Skywalker has OCD!

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1925913

Dead Tauntaun Wedding Cake!

http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/index.php/2009/10/23/tauntaun-grooms-cake/

AT-AT Wedding Cake!

http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/index.php/2010/05/17/at-at-wedding-cake/

LOST: Desmond's car has special features:

http://topcultured.com/desmonds-lost-car-has-special-features/

Funny Motivational Posters, courtesy of TheChive

http://thechive.com/2010/04/26/monday-motivational-posters-29-photos/

Oh, silly silly clients:

http://clientsfromhell.net/post/577009778/me-i-will-create-a-login-box-on-your-website

Oh, and Russian Cheerleaders!

http://englishrussia.com/index.php/2008/06/26/russian-cheerleaders/

Sarah Palin is easily distracted:

http://i.imgur.com/OQQSP.jpg

Examples of Unintentional Porn

http://www.holytaco.com/25-examples-unintentional-porn

Enjoy!

Code code code

2010-03-28T01:31:00.005-04:00

code code code, blog blog blog. 2 things I should do more often. I've been tweeting a lot more lately. Not like you or anyone else really cares, but I had to. My geekiness depends on it.

So I have a TON of pet projects for web sites, blogs, domain names, that I just NEVER get around to working on. When I do, it's rare. So tonight, I opened up Eclipse, and looked at code I haven't touched in at least a year or more. As is often the case, I decided to rewrite a good chunk of it. It's not terrible code, I just think I can do it a better way. I'll reuse a lot of it, but make adjustments here and there. I've been writing my own framework in PHP 5. I know there are tons of PHP frameworks out there, but for me it's not about just grabbing someone else's stuff to get things done, it's about learning how to do it. First iterations were kind of kludgy so I rewrote it a couple of times, and now I'm rewriting it yet again. I've learned a lot about classes, subclasses, inheritance, etc...

Once those pieces are done, I can proceed with some of the sites I wanted to do.

I have domains and blogs related to subjects I'm interested in such as hockey, politics, and technology. As I get through some of these projects, I will post info about them.

Tweet about health care, and see what happens...

2010-03-22T21:04:00.002-04:00

Wow, had it really been a year since I last blogged. I'm so lazy. of course, nobody but spammers come here anyway, so whatever.

So I tweeted about healthcare using the hash tag #hcr, and damn people started re-tweeting me and I'm picking up followers. Never really threw my hat in the ring on political stuff to such a broad audience. Will be interesting to see where this goes.

Favorite Sci-Fi Movies

2009-03-16T21:27:00.012-04:00

I'm watching "Alien" right now. Fucking awesome Sci-Fi movie. It got me thinking about some of my other favorites of the Sci-Fi genre. There's always Star Wars (ultimate favorite, all 6 movies), Star Trek (only really liked 2, 4, and 6 of the original cast), and Lord Of The Rings (all 3 movies kick ass). I don't count them in my top 10 because they stand above and beyond. Following is a list of 11 or 12, I'm too lazy to count. No particular order here, just listed in the order I thought of them.

The Black Hole (1979)
A dark and disturbing look into a mad genius and one of the scariest robots ever. Maximillian scared the crap out of me when he killed Norman Bates.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
I'll never look at mashed potatoes the same way again. Brilliantly told story of visitors who were just as curious about us as we are about them.

Flash Gordon (1980)
Campy 80s Sci-Fi at it's best. Melody Anderson and Ornella Muti, nuff said.

Alien (1979) / Aliens (1986)
The first one was just utterly fantastic sci-fi horror. 2nd one had more of an action-movie flair to it, but still great sci-fi.

The Arrival (1996)
An astronomer picks up a signal that turns out to be coming from Mexico. Turns out, they're already among us. R.I.P. Ron Silver

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Doesn't get more classic than this. The first evidence of intelligence outside our planet leads to a mission that ultimately fails due to a sociopathic artificial intelligence computer.

Serenity (2005)
The movie that wrapped up the story from the tv show Firefly. Great, great, great show, and the movie was a fantastic compliment to it. The outer worlds of our known universe have become a wild west frontier of settlers, corrupt government and brutal savages. Follow a small band of thieves trying to make their way, but a higher purpose intercedes.

The Matrix (1999)
I liked the trilogy, but this is the only one worthy of my top sci-fi list. Great story, great special fx.

The Philadelphia Experiment (1984)
Bad special fx, bad acting but great story about time travel. Michael Pare was a GOD in the 80s.

The Abyss (1989)
James Cameron's finest movie EVER. Fuck Titanic. This was his crowning achievement as far as I'm concerned. While the world is going to hell in a hand basket due to tensions between the world's 2 superpowers, a small group of oil workers goes on a rescue mission and finds even more in the depths of the ocean.

Planet of the Apes (1968)
Astronauts crash land on a world where Apes evolved to dominate humans. The twist at the end is the stuff of movie legend. Fuck Mark Wahlberg, Heston was the man.

Still Alive

2009-03-16T21:16:00.002-04:00

To my 2 readers out there, I'm still here, just been too busy. Fuck that, I've really just been too lazy. I've got work to do at work, work to do at home. Craziness. I'm working on some really cool stuff for a colleague. very involved, taking me too long to finish because I'm new to PostgreSql. I've only ever used MySQL before. A friend also has a plan for a site, coincidentally his idea is almost 90% like a site I've already created a few years ago, but never finished. Been all over the Facebook thing, finding friends I haven't heard from in years. Keeping in touch with relatives both near and far. Been trying out this Twitter thing too. Like this blog, I've nothing really significant to say, just spouting off about myself, things that amuse me or piss me off.

Fuck the Oscars!

2009-02-22T21:45:00.001-05:00

Rich people spending too much money on shit that really isn't that important while working class people are losing jobs and homes.

I know, I know. There are businesses that make a lot of money off the Oscars and rightfully so. But it just pisses me off to see all that glitz and glamour while the economy is so shitty.

I'm not watching anyway, I have no interest in seeing who won anything this year because other than Dark Knight, I didn't see any of the nominated films.

WTF is Fred Thompson talking about?

2008-09-02T22:28:00.001-04:00

While talking about John McCain's history as a POW, Fred just proved why torture doesn't work. He stated that McCain had been beaten and instead of giving the names of other pilots, he gave them the offensive line of the Green Bay Packers. Wait, Fred, so what you're saying is that while being tortured, a person might give you BAD information???

Fred also said the EXACT same words spoken by Wesley Clark not a month ago. "Being a POW does not qualify one to be President." - Where is the righteous condemnation of Thompson over this statement? WHERE?

Why am I watching this shit?

Projects, code and other things...

2008-07-30T00:38:00.004-04:00

I've been learning a lot lately. For the last few months at work I've been on a team working on a new virtual world for kids done entirely with Flex 3. It took some getting used to, but now I'm totally into it. Flex Builder is an excellent IDE for working in Flex. It's built on Eclipse and integrates well with the Flex framework and compiler. Definitely worth the money.

I'm also learning to use jQuery and starting to get the hang of it. I've worked with object-oriented-like javascript before, building the framework myself, and then worked with the prototype framework and scriptaculous. jQuery blows them away with its ease of use and capabilities. It's a very powerful tool.

On another project I had to work on parsing rss feeds from youtube using some custom javascript. It worked out pretty well, got it to parse a user's video feed as well as custom playlists.

I've been working on my own facebook app, but due to sheer laziness, I never actually finished and launched it. I missed the boat on the app craze and it looks like the pool has been diluted. I may still finish it and release it, but I'm not too concerned over it now. If anything, by working on some apps at work and on my own app at home, I've learned a lot about REST and about the facebook platform. Anyone needs a facebook app, just let me know.

I've been doing a lot of reading on PHP 5. I've been away from PHP in my professional life, but have kept up with it on my own. I switched over to PHP 5 a year ago and started writing my own framework with database abstraction layers, classes and subclasses, etc... It's fun stuff.

What's it all mean? I have some personal projects I need to work on over the next 2-3 months and they'll be utilizing these skills. I hope to get at least one done before hockey season starts. Once the puck drops, I spend more time watching reading and posting about hockey than I should be on my projects.

Kubuntu FTW!

2008-07-30T00:32:00.004-04:00

I installed Kubuntu on my desktop 2 weekends ago and It's awesome. I already got LAMP setup, Grabbed Eclipse w/Aptana and Subclipse, setup subversion and I'm on my way to a Windows-free desktop. I'm still logging into xp now and then because I haven't migrated all of my email and browser settings. I also need to still use xp to play a few games. But my primary web surfing, RSS reading and a few other little things are all happening on the Kubuntu setup. I'm doing some development work right now. Trying to get some side projects ready to go live over the next few months.

Atheists get out - a followup

2008-07-27T00:02:00.004-04:00

Back in September 2007 I posted about a letter-to-the-editor printed in an Alaskan newspaper. I posted it, and forgot about it. I don't get traffic, so I didn't really care to follow up on it. Turns out the letter was a joke. The woman who submitted it meant it as a joke and contacted the paper to tell them so. Problem is, the letter struck a chord with people on both sides of the issue. There were enough people who felt that way that decided to followup and trumpet the same attitude. So even though the letter was a hoax, I still feel my analysis counts for something.

Now, why do I bring this up again, almost a year later? Because today I got this lovely tidbit from an anonymous poster.

Well, talk about proving my point for me. My original post was about the intolerance of those who should be tolerant. Also that this country is supposed to be a haven for folks of any and all faiths, even if that faith does not happen to be in any one religion or god. Read the comments to see my reply.

Goodbye, Farewell, Amen

2008-07-07T22:25:00.008-04:00

Work was rough today. Over the weekend the news spread of the death of a co-worker. To a lot of people she was not just a co-worker, but a friendly face and someone to look up to. Dorcas had battled cancer once already, about 3 years ago. I started working here at IAC (then ask.com) while she was out of work and recovering from that first battle. I noticed from her emails that we had some common interest in the stranger things on the web. We also shared a love of 80s pop culture. Turns out, we were the same age, only a few days apart. We seemed to laugh at lot of the same things. Her laugh was infectious and just hearing it made you laugh harder, which only made her laugh harder. She was so thrilled when she had gone a year past treatment and was deemed cancer free. After that she headed off to conquer Mt. Kilimanjaro. I was impressed by that, and somewhat in awe.

Last fall, when we gathered in the conference room to listen to her tell us that the doctors found something, I was taken by surprise, as most people were. We all wished her well and hoped she'd be back soon. The few times she was in the office it was hard to get the time to say hello. I tried to just get in a "hey, how are ya" but wasn't always successful. The last time I saw her, probably back before spring, her hair was short and blond. She looked happy, and seemed more upbeat than previous times so I took that as a good sign. Didn't know that'd be the last time I saw her.

I wasn't part of her circle of friends at work, and I know they're all going through a rough time right now. I never deal with death too well. I hear other people getting upset and I start to lose it. Today was tough, hearing some of her really good friends talk about her, trying not to lose it themselves. She was always really friendly, asked me about my kids from time to time. Here and there we'd have a laugh about some thing or another. It was always fun when she'd take part in our dart gun battles. Her laugh will echo through the office for a long time.

This weekend went by, and I didn't really know how I felt yet. After hearing John and Tim talking about her today, I lost it a little and I'm still having some trouble with it tonight. What's surprising me is how sad I feel. I wasn't expecting to feel this bad about someone I wasn't that close with. I guess that's a testament to the person she is.

I'm not religious. God and Heaven are just things I can't find it in me to believe in. I believe there is some kind of afterlife and I hope it's a peaceful one.

Fucking Verizon drops alt.*

2008-06-24T23:38:00.004-04:00

I'm a regular reader and contributor in alt.sports.hocky.nhl.nj-devils as well as a few other newsgroups like alt.php, alt.html ...

They claim they will now only carry the "Big 8".

This sounds like some pencil pusher who knew nothing about USENET decided to cut bandwidth costs by eliminating the hierarchy that contains most of the porn. How much do you want to bet that the assholes at the RIAA or MPAA have something to do with this.

Verizon's announcement

I didn't leave Optimum to have to deal with asinine shit like this.

Fuckers are going to get an earful about this from more than just me.

Ars Tecnica reported on this recently, I must have missed it. Turns out the AG of my very own state of NY is responsible for pushing them to block child porn, which I commend them on, but Verizon took the next step to block alt.*, a BAD move.

SWBF2 video

2008-06-22T22:19:00.002-04:00

A little gameplay video I put together a year or two ago.

Lego Death Star

2008-06-20T22:54:00.001-04:00

Awesome, just awesome!

Check out this 3800-piece LEGO Death Star at gizmodo.

Great Mashup

2008-06-19T22:19:00.000-04:00

Ferris Bueller's Requiem for a Day Off

Love the one your with

2008-06-16T16:32:00.003-04:00

Have a job you hate? I know the feeling. Thankfully, that feeling is long behind me. I'm approaching 3 years at my current job and aside from a few little nuisances, it's really been a great experience. In the past few months I've attended a company sponsored keg party, happy hour, a booze cruise around Manhattan and went to the movies to see Ironman. They like to come up with fun things to do. Last year we went to Six Flags, played lasertag, had a few happy hours. Bring your kid to work day is always exciting for the parents. Halloween is cool too. Some people come up with some really original costumes.

The work itself is challenging. I'm on the team that does all of the front-end production. That's a change for me, having been doing both back-end and front-end for so long. But we don't do just simple web pages, we have full-fledged web apps. I personally had to write and convert about 4000 lines of code for one app. Object-oriented javascript is very powerful if you know how to use it. We've also done a lot of Flash/AS2.0 and are now doing Flex apps. I still deal with some back-end code, but only as it concerns front-end output using JSP, JSTL and Velocity.

So don't get down on yourself if you hate your job. A better job awaits you somewhere.

Firebug for Firefox 3

2008-06-16T16:06:00.005-04:00

I've been using Firefox 3 RC3 for about a week now. It's an excellent update to my favorite browser. It loads pages and files much faster than previous versions. Of course, every time an update is released, I worry about the extensions needing to be updated as well. So it looks like my installed version of firebug was not compatible, but I couldn't check for updates because getfirebug.com has been down. After searching a bit, I found Joe Hewitt's blog where he explains the situation and points to a new version on addons.mozilla.org.

So fret not Firefox faithful, the best app for developers is still around.

Booze Cruise

2008-06-07T12:30:00.003-04:00

The company took us out for a Booze Cruise this week. Everyone had a good time drinking, dancing, not being at work for half the day.

I've got a few pics on flickr, but most are on my facebook acct. There's also some video on vimeo. I especially like the ones of Bill doing the worm.

This weekend is going to be hot, thankfully, I got the AC units in the windows last night.

Congrats to the Red Wings, even though I wasn't rooting for them. Funny how it was the matchup everyone thought would be so great with all the offensive talent on both sides. It turned out to be such a defensive matchup. And when the Pens defense fell apart, Marc-Andre Fleury was there to bail them out. He was awesome in the finals. So much for the myth that a European captain can't win The Cup.

Thinning the Herd

2008-05-18T23:04:00.002-04:00

Well, this one has to be a finalist for a Darwin Award!

Hey, let's get drunk and take a running start to see who can spit the furthest off this balcony, woops I tripped and uh-oh, pavement...SPLAT!

Still Alive

2008-04-08T23:20:00.003-04:00

Been a while since I posted. Here's a brief synopsis of recent happenings.

Gave Cablevision the finger and got Fios from Verizon. very nice package, and I like the free HD TV they sent me.

Upgraded my PC with a new Graphics card, monitor and a little more memory. Waiting for Ubuntu 8.04 to come out of beta so I can try installing that. didn't have much luck with my old graphics card and version 7. I'm going to put Kubuntu 8 beta on a live cd to give it a whirl.

still need to fix smtp on my server

Very impressed with Barrack Obama and I hope he goes on to win it all.

Watching The Black Hole on DVD right now.

Picked up Firefly, complete series DVD's with some Christmas money I got. Love that show.

Can't wait for LOST to come back on 4/24.

Pissed about Jericho getting axed, again, but hey, what can you do. With The Wire gone, I don't have too many tv shows left to watch.

Psyched for Indiana Jones and the new X-files movie.

Psyched for NHL playoffs to start tomorrow. DEVILS/RANGERS. LETS GO DEVILS!!!
I don't have too much confidence in my team, but both teams are so much alike in every way that this could really just come down to luck.

that's it for now, thanks for tuning in, all 2 of you.

Video: Darth Vader

2007-10-27T14:53:00.000-04:00

Hilarious video of Darth Vader with lines dubbed from other James Earl Jones movies.

Hey Video Professor, FUCK YOU!

2007-09-25T21:18:00.000-04:00

It amazes me how much some people just don't understand freedom of speech and the internet.

Video Professor upset by criticism, sues 100 anonymous critics

You know that friendly old guy on tv who tries to help old people and housewives to use their computers better, yeah, that guy. Reading through the Ars Technica article and the comments on infomercialscams.com I can not find any leg for VPI to stand on. These are actual customers who tried to get the "free offer" and found it to not be what they expected so returned whatever merchandise they were sent. Many of them found charges on their credit cards for things they never asked for and despite promises of refunds, have not received any money back. According to Ars, the lawsuit doesn't even mention specific posts but wants ip addresses and any user info from the site. Unfortunately, some judge thought this was a good idea and gave them a subpoena to do it.

These people are posting legitimate complaints about a product and a company's policies and customer service and possibly illegal activities. What about any of that is derogatory or defamatory if it isn't true. With credit card statements to back up their claims, most of those people can probably prove their cases. The problem here is VPI should never be allowed to get their information based on the content of that site.

Unauthorized Criticism?

Is there such a thing? I don't think so!
VPI claims the people posting the remarks are committing "unauthorized Internet disparagement of VPI and its products". What a FUCKING JOKE! Since when do you need a company's permission to complain about their products and service? What a bunch of Fucktards!

Not all publicity is good publicity

There are cases where any publicity is better than none, but this is not one of them. VPI has just opened up a can of worms and the shit will now hit the fan BIG TIME! I never heard of this site infomercialscams.com before, but now I have and I read about people's complaints with VPI. No doubt other people are reading that too, and now more people will be passing that info on to family and friends who might consider ordering from that company. They took an obscure web site and made it famous. Did they learn nothing from the SCO fiasco? This will only backfire on them.

In conlcusion...
Video Professor, I've never needed or used your products, and never will. I will never recommend your products to anyone because I don't like companies who try to stifle people's rights online. So I'd just like to finish this up with one last FUCK YOU YOU FUCKING SHITTY ASSHOLE MOTHERFUCKING FUCKTARDS! (pardon my tourettes)

Atheists get out?

2007-09-23T21:53:00.000-04:00

Saw this on digg, just goes to show the intolerance of some people.

"The United States is based on having freedom of religion, speech, etc., which means you can believe in God anyway you want (Baptist, Catholic, Methodis, etc.), but you must believe.

I don't recall freedom of religion meaning no religion."

As another commenter on digg put it, does that mean I have to own a gun or leave the country? I mean, wow. Talk about intolerance. I thought religions were supposed to teach you to love thy neighbor and all that, regardless of whatever you perceive as their sins. Wasn't it

For the record, The First Ammendment. I especially like the explanations under Establishment of Religion that states:

"The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment prohibits the establishment of a national religion by Congress or the preference of one religion over another, or religion over non-religion."

There is nothing about the 1st that says you must believe in any god, just that you have the freedom to believe what you want. I believe that there is no god and religions are just mythology. That's my belief and I'm protected to have it. So Fuck off Alice Shannon of Sodotna.

I like the mention of this on about.com. It even links to the Alaskan newspaper that printed it and some of its readers' responses.

More on ad-blockers

2007-09-16T11:40:00.000-04:00

I saw this posted on digg, had to get my 2 cents in.

Web ad blocking may not be (entirely) legal

Why we have ad-blockers

I never had much of a problem with ads before. When a site kept it to a minimum, a banner up top, maybe on the bottom too, some ads on the side, it was all fine and good. It didn't interfere with the content and at most all you had to do was scroll a little. Then advertisers started coming up with ways to fool people by making their ads look like Windows dialog boxes telling you that your computer needs an upgrade or you have a virus. That was shady and dishonest and it would get clicks from more of the gullible users out there.

We also started seeing the really annoying flashing multi-colored ads. Then there were "hit the monkey", "shoot the [insertanimalhere]", and flash ads that try to act more like games to get clicks. Now we have video ads, ads with audio, and my favorite, the ones that expand to cover the page if you mouse over them. UGH! Then there's ads that sit in the middle of the content or css-styled ads that cover the content. And of course the keyword ads that will highlight or double-underline words in the text to look like links, but they're really ads.

These ad-networks all add a ton of cookies to my browser as well. Every browser has cookie-blocking capabilities, and I as a user should be allowed to block or delete any cookies from any site.

When they use tactics that interfere with a user's web experience or attempt to deceive a user, they're going too far. The whole reason ad-blockers exist is because of those kinds of ads.

The "logic" behind possible legal action

So let's say Joe Shmoe has a website. It's a popular site about electronics and gets a lot of traffic from all kinds of people. He supports his site through advertising which includes banner ads, box ads and probably some text ads from google. I arrive at his site, read some articles and leave. I click on no ads. End of story. My friend Bob goes to the same site and has an ad-blocker installed. He reads the same articles and sees no ads, eventually leaves the site.

What is the difference between these 2 experiences? When I visited the site, the ads registered an impression, or one view by a user. It probably set a bunch of cookies too. I have trained myself to just ignore ads on the page and go right for the content, but sometimes they're just so annoying. When Bob viewed the same site, he probably did not register an impression or have any cookies set. Either way, the owner of the web site made no money through ad revenue on either user.

The reality is, someone who uses an ad-blocker is not someone that would click on your ads in the first place.

NY Times article on the topic. (login required, go to bugmenot.com)

Why Block the Fox?

2007-08-17T22:29:00.001-04:00

So earlier today I came across this link on digg pointing to a site called whyfirefoxisblocked.com. It seems that this guy who owns a bunch of sites decided to block firefox users from his sites and instead redirect them to this domain where he explains his reasons for doing so.

Now before analyzing his reasons, let me first say that as a site owner, you have the right to block whomever you want. As a web user, you also have the right to view or not view what you want. If I wanted to surf the web with cookies disabled, I can. If I want to turn off javascript or images, I can do that too. I can even view your web site using colors I specify in my browser settings instead of using your site's stylesheet. As a user, we are under NO obligation to view your web site the way you want us too. We may not have flash installed, so we won't see flash components of your site. As a site owner you can choose to accept this or deny us access. Do so at your own discretion and in some cases, own risk.

Now, this guy has taken his reasoning to a new extreme. He's under the delusion that if you go to his site you are under the obligation to view the ads on his site.
"Software that blocks all advertisement is an infringement of the rights of web site owners and developers."

WRONG!
While web site owners have the right to display ads on their sites, web site users are under no obligation to view them. Ever heard of text based browsers or the afore-mentioned surfing with javascript turned off. You can block me for not having javascript turned on if you want, but I have no obligations to view your ads. NONE!

This perception is flawed for another reason. Someone who is using an ad-blocker is a person who would not be clicking on your ad to begin with. Heck, I could care less about ads. I just ignore them and read the content. I've trained myself to just see the content and not look at the ads, does that mean I'm infringing your rights too? The people who display these ads only get money when the ads are clicked, so if I view the site and don't click on ads, too bad. If I use an ad-blocker, oh well. Funny thing is, I use Firefox. One might say I'm a firefox evangelist, zealot even. I don't use adblock because I don't feel the need to. I've done nothing wrong but you would choose to block me, a potential ad-clicker, just because I MIGHT be blocking ads?

Someone in the digg comments mentioned that there's ad blocking software for IE 7 as well. Does that mean he's going to block that browser now too?

"Numerous web sites exist in order to provide quality content in exchange for displaying ads."

If the content is that good, then charge for it, or a version of it that is ad-free. If it's good enough, people will pay.

The web exists as a medium to share information. It's been used to make money by selling services but some folks think that just because they put up a site or a blog, someone has to pay them. I'm sorry Grasshopper, but the world wide web don't owe you a living. Create something of value that people want to pay you for and you'll get your check.

"Accessing the content while blocking the ads, therefore would be no less than stealing."

WRONG AGAIN!
If you have ads along side the content, we are not stealing the content if I don't click on your ads. If you are so dependent on the ads being there, then don't display the content for free! As users we have signed no contracts legally binding us into any agreement with you saying that we will view/click your ads. Putting something in your site's TOS doesn't hold me liable either. I can't be liable for a contract I did not agree too.

"Millions of hard working people are being robbed of their time and effort by this type of software."

Well boo-fucking-hoo for them. It's not our fault that they thought all they needed to do was throw up a few pages of intellectual masturbation* and some ads then sit back and watch the money come flying in. It don't work like that.

Of course, All I need to do is change my user-agent string to one that is "allowed" to view such a site, and there'd be no problem for me. Of course, if someone is going to make me jump through hoops to view their site, then they have nothing on their site I want to see.

"Demographics have shown that not only are FireFox users a somewhat small percentage of the internet, they actually are even smaller in terms of online spending, therefore blocking FireFox seems to have only minimal financial drawbacks, whereas ending resource theft has tremendous financial rewards for honest, hard-working website owners and developers.."

So, I own a store and over time I notice in my stats that 75% of people coming into my store are wearing blue shirts, 10% wear red shirts, 10% wear black shirts and only 5% wear brown shirts. Of that 5% wearing brown shirts, only 40% of them actually spend money in my store. So I stand outside my store and allow only the other 95% of non-brown-shirt-wearing people into my store. If someone has a brown shirt on, it doesn't matter what their intention is, they are not allowed to go into my store until they change to a blue shirt. I explain to them that because people wearing that color shirt don't spend as much money in my store as blue-shirt-wearers, it's like they're stealing from me if they come in. How does that logic grab ya?

Some people are just too stupid to be on the web.

* - intellectual masturbation is a term I first heard from a co-worker to describe how people try to make their arguments sound right by using big words or sounding intelligent when really all they're doing is jerking you off while trying not to sound dumb.

Pownce

2007-07-11T22:17:00.000-04:00

Just got my invite to Pownce last week, setup my account today. Not really sure how useful this thing is going to be.

It seems to be a bit like Twitter or tumblr but with a little more in the way of features. It has some desktop software that I haven't installed yet, but your supposed to be able to upload files and share them.

I'll fiddle with it for a few weeks, see what gives.

Poker Challenge #3 Results

2007-07-04T14:39:00.000-04:00

I started out well, folded a few hands, won a few small pots. 2 people went out before me. Eventually It came down to me and Ben. I was working on a straight, 10 high. Got it on the turn but waited until the river to make my big move. I went all in with 93 chips. Ben was big stack and I wanted his chips. Problem is, he had a flush. I was out and that was that.

That first round didn't last much longer, about an hour. So the 5 of us that stayed started a 2nd round with half the buy-in as the first. This time, I was not going to be denied. So I lost $20 on the first round, picked up $50 on the 2nd. Overall, out of the 3 Poker challenges, I'm up about $60. Not too shabby. I might start looking for a home game to get into, play with some different people. Someday, If I gather up some dough, I'll try my hand at the casino. But that's still a little ways off.

Poker challenge #3

2007-06-26T00:01:00.000-04:00

So we're all heading to Ben's for poker again this week. I'm hoping I can walk away with some cash like last time. Last month I was ALL-IN 5 times and survived. It came down to me and Mr. Rogers. Several times I tried to raise him big time, he wouldn't take the bait. He tried to push me a couple of times too, I wasn't going for it. We ended up splitting the pot when it got too late to keep going. At one point side bets were being made by those who were out, betting whether or not I had an Ace. I had it, and the hand.

This time we got probably 8 players, bigger pot, possibly consolation pot for 2nd place.

Trip to Six Flags

2007-06-19T23:52:00.000-04:00

So, my company took us to Six Flags Great Adventure again. They first did this 2 years ago, decided to do it again this year. It was fun. I'm not much of a roller coaster rider so I wandered around, went on the Rapids ride, hung out with Marvin the Martian and before leaving we went through the safari. All in all, a good time. Big shout out to Rob and Liz who I bummed a ride from.

Flickr set from the day.

What a fun place to work

2007-06-11T21:14:00.000-04:00

I like where I work, we have fun. We have a Nintendo Wii, we shoot nerf darts at each other and we like to play poker. One of my super-fun co-workers came across this video today and sent it to the rest of us. It's a group of folks who work for Vimeo, College Humor, Busted Tees, and Defunker. They put this video together in one take, which I thought was very impressive. It's a great video, watch it, share it, learn from it. Corporate life doesn't always have to be so stuffy and boring.

Lip Dub - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger
from amandalynferri on Vimeo

disclaimer: the companies these folks work for are in some way related to the one I work for. I work for IAC and I think IAC has a stake in their parent, Connected Ventures, but not outright ownership.

WTF just happened on the Sopranos?

2007-06-10T22:47:00.000-04:00

Warning, possible spoilers!!!

I have to say, for a series finale, this episode left me wondering when it was going to get to the point. It seemed like one of those mid-season filler episodes that you just watch, then fuggetabout! The ending was quite odd. Are we to assume that Tony, Carmela, AJ and Meadow are all about to die? There's plenty of reason to come to that conclusion, but this show throws so many curve balls at you, you can't ever really assume anything.

What was the point of AJ's car going up in flames, his thoughts on joining the army, then changing his mind. The cat that stared a Chris' picture, Meadow not being able to parallel park, all the classic rock that kept getting played, (Jim Kerr is probably giddy over hearing himself on the radio during the show).

It all came to down to the breathtaking, heart-pounding, edge of your seat absolute nothing. That fight with NY, done. Some guy disappears, turns states' witness, Silvio still in the hospital, Phil gets whacked thanks to his own people turning on him. Seriously, WTF??? The next to last episode was so much better, it had tension, drama, and made us think that some great climactic confrontation was going to be next. Instead I was looking at the clock, wondering why I just wasted an hour and 5 minutes.

This was my only real reason to keep HBO. I hardly ever watch that channel anymore. I may just tell HBO to Fuggetaboutit!

Star Wars - Web 2.0 or Star Wars Character?

2007-05-27T19:26:00.001-04:00

This quiz is quite funny. Many of the new "web 2.0" web sites coming out are using some really weird names. Some just intentionally mis-spell known words or sound completely made up. Someone saw a strange similarity between the naming of these sites and characters from the Star Wars universe.

take the quiz

I scored a 40 out of 43. WooHoo!

Star Wars - Funny Valentines

2007-05-27T19:23:00.000-04:00

Found this through BoingBoing. These were absolutely HYSTERICAL!!!

Star Wars Valentines

Some of my favorites:

I'd give my right hand for you

the power to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of our love

Star Wars - LEGO - Frozen Han Solo

2007-05-27T19:22:00.000-04:00

This is awesome work. 10,000 LEGO bricks to make a lifesize Han Solo as he's frozen in Carbonite.

LEGO model making is becoming an art form in itself and the people who have the time and patience to do this seem to be really dedicated to their visions.

Star Wars - LEGO Mos Eisley

2007-05-27T19:14:00.001-04:00

In keeping with the Star Wars lovefest during this 30th anniversary week, here's a fantastic display of LEGO creativity. Mos Eisley Spaceport done entirely of LEGO.

Simply amazing is all I can think to describe this LEGO display.

Star Wars - Feel the Force

2007-05-26T20:42:00.000-04:00

It was 30 years ago this week on March 25 that the most spectacular movie to ever grace the big screen was released. I was 4 years old and I remember wanting to be Luke Skywalker or Han Solo and blow up the Death Star. Star Wars was a big part of my life as a kid and still is part of my life as a 30-something adult. It's hard to describe WHY it's so much a part of me and many other people. Like the Force, it's just something you feel. You can't pass it on to someone else or explain it. It's something you either feel or you don't. Others can understand why we feel this devotion to a series of movies because they may have similar feelings about other things. Some people love opera or Ballet, some love classical orchestras or broadway shows. Their devotion to those forms of expression are not much different than ours. We love these movies and are able to not just watch them, but participate in the whole mythology and universe.

When I was a kid, I used to get Star Wars figures and vehicles for birthdays and holidays. I played with them so much that most of them are broken, but I still kept them. I had the records and used to listen to them a lot. Go figure, Star Wars introduced a love of classical-style music to a generation of kids. Finding out that Darth Vader was actually Luke's dad was just such a mind-blowing moment for me. People who watch soap operas can appreciate the sense of awe and the gasp that went through the crowd at that critical moment in Empire.

People fell in love with these characters. Yoda was such a powerful character, even though he was just a space-aged Kermit the Frog (same voice actor, Frank Oz). Even the bad guys are loved. Darth Vader is the quintessential villain, dark and ruthless yet underneath it all, struggling with his inner demons. Boba Fett was arguably the coolest character in the series, and in my opinion, only Darth Maul comes close in coolness (forget Jango, he was only there to provide a back story). There are so many characters that got minimum screen time but still had action figures created out of them and somehow seemed more important than they were.

I've introduced my son to these movies and he's as blown away as I was. It's great to see it again through those eyes. Some would say that I still look through my own eyes that same way and I would tend to agree with them.

Star Wars - Which Character are you?

2007-04-18T08:53:00.000-04:00

I came across this little quiz via digg. I answered the questions as honestly as I could and this is what the result was. I'm Qui-Gon Jinn you bitches... Booyah!!! I know a few people who got JarJar and tried the quiz again, but that's cheating.

Take the quiz yourself here.

Turn the tables on telemarketers

2006-10-16T23:31:00.000-04:00

I love this. It's a counter-script to help you deal with telemarketers.
I hate telemarketers. Usually I just hand the phone to my son and let him talk to them. This sounds like something fun to do. I'll have to try it.

Eudora going bye-bye

2006-10-14T17:08:00.000-04:00

Eudora was one of the first stand-alone email clients I ever used. It was a good app. I liked it better than Netscape's mail client. Eventually though I left Eudora for Pegasus mail. That was another good POP-client. Eudora eventually had to integrate itself with IE in order to display html emails. This opened it up to whatever security risks that IE was suffering from.

Now it looks like Qualcomm is finally giving up on Eudora. Too many people use their default client, Outlook Express. And many of us use Thunderbird. Good news is they're teaming up with the folks at Mozilla to create a Thunderbird-based client they're calling Penelope.

I'll still stick with Thunderbird, but I think it's cool that they're going in that direction.

A special Friday the 13th

2006-10-14T12:09:00.000-04:00

This article @ the Washington Times points out a unique occurrence about yesterdays Friday the 13th. If you take the digits in the numerical representation of the date 10132006 and add them up, you get 13! 1 + 0 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 0 + 0 + 6 = 13.

According to the article, this last happened in 1520. 1/13/1520

I just thought that was interesting.

found at slashdot

Pandora and Last.fm

2006-08-15T21:38:00.000-04:00

I've been trying out both of these music services. These are both examples of how interactive radio is starting to bloom. Both operate under a similar premise. You type in the name of a band or artist you like, they find that artist and others just like them. For example, one of my favorite bands is the Descendents. On both services I searched for them and found them plus other bands like Black Flag, Pennywise, Less than Jake, etc. A whole bunch of punk and ska bands. Both services let you skip songs you don't like which is a huge plus. You can also tag songs you do like so the service can try to match your preferences.

The services vary in how they get the music to you. For Last.fm I downloaded their player, logged in and started looking for bands. I like the standalone player idea. It will even let you use Winamp or another medai player, but it still has to launch to connect to the service. I just wish it would minimize to the system tray like winamp does.

Pandora is a web based service. Flash is required, and I'm not sure, but I think java is too. I don't like the fact that if you skip too many songs within an hour, you can't skip anymore. I think I skipped 10 songs in a row and then got a message telling me that due to their license agreement, they can't let me skip anymore songs this hour. That's a load of shit.

So, I don't have any real conclusions or recommendations, just observations. I'd say I probably prefer last.fm so far though.

pumpcast news prank

2006-08-15T21:25:00.000-04:00

Hysterical prank involving Pumpcast News and unsuspecting Gas station patrons.

Youtube Video

found it on digg.