Posts for May 2006
I pledge a "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" review!
Great link from BoingBoing on the upcoming videogame based on the Left Behind
book series -- Imagine: you are a foot soldier in a paramilitary group whose purpose is to remake America as a Christian theocracy, and establish its worldly vision of the dominion of Christ over all aspects of life. You are issued high-tech military weaponry, and instructed to engage the infidel on the streets of New York City.
Schweet. Kinda reminds me of Postal; another classic. (Where IS my copy of that?) But the kicker for me is a couple of links in, in an LA Times article: To generate buzz for "Eternal Forces," Lyndon and Frichner plan to distribute 1 million sample discs to churches nationwide.
W00t!! Who's gonna get me one of those babies!!? If I can get one, I promise a review over at Nerdware Review (where I owe an Auto Assault review right now, actually...). Some churchgoer, hook me up!!
May 31, 2006 permalink | Comments (3)
SL back in the sights...
Oh crap! I've been putzing around with various other MMORPG type thingies recently, and behind my back, Linden Labs finally added http callouts to Second Life. AWESOME! This makes some very interesting stuff possible now, and really escalates SL to a full-on partner with the Web. Previously, calls in (via XMLRPC) were easy, and calls out could be hacked up via email. But with http requests available, it's a 2-way world now!
See? All you have to do is wave something shiny and new under my nose...*grin*
May 31, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)
Good times...
Playing PC archaeology tonight and cleaning up my home directory. One of the many cool things I've found and archived (why delete when disk is free?) are the original mailing list archives of kenzoid-l; my friends mailing list from back in 1998, managed from my account at the awesome (and much missed) io.com! (PrismNet still runs the domain, but it just ain't the same...I let my account lapse a year or two ago.)
Brings back memories...*sniffle*. I actually ought to try and track a couple of people down from this! Back to rummaging, though...who KNOWS what else I might find!
May 30, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)
Boy, do I love data...
Data is awesome. Enough data, and you can figure out all SORTS of crazy stuff. My own most recent example is cleaning out my work Inbox. I constantly bump into the upper limit of my storage on our Exchange server, because I'm a packrat. Tonight, I was cleaning things out via the webmail frontend...which has limited search/sort functionality, so I had to get creative.
But it's fascinating what you can do with good metadata; I seldom delete based on the text of an email's body...it's from:, or from and size, or from domain, or date, or subject thread, etc. Really interesting. Dumping the majority of the metadata into the sort of in-memory database that Jon Udell has been espousing lately could probably turn up some really interesting info about me and my interactions via email. Coupled with the types of analysis tools that Nathan Eagle is playing with, you've got potential!
May 26, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)
Cygwin, how I love thee...
Sheesh. I can't BELIEVE I let 2+ years go by without an up-to-date Cygwin install on either my home or work Windows box. OK...I guess I can, as I run GNU/Linux desktops in both places. But still!! I just re-installed Cygwin at work yesterday, and at home today, and there is much rejoicing.
May 24, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)
Pot smoking cancer study finds unexpected results
Another interesting find today!
Scientific American Science News: Large Study Finds No Link between Marijuana and Lung Cancer. It'll be worth seeing what both sides say about this study, as the increased tar and carcinogen content of marijuana smoke has been one of the long and oft-cited dangers of regular marijuana use. (Full disclosure: I don't smoke marijuana. Heck, I don't even drink alcohol...my drugs of choice are caffeine and capsaicin. But I enjoy examining controversial issues, as evidenced by this post and the previous one. Especially when I'm in a cantankerous mood. *grin*
May 24, 2006 permalink | Comments (1)
The ever-present tension embodied by the concept of free speech...
Fascinating. The Senate just passed the Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act, already passed by the House, and which I'm sure will quickly be signed into law.
There's always a tension between free speech and uncivil speech. Where do we draw the line? Particularly interesting to note the the maximum penalty here is not minor; $100,000 and one year in jail.
May 24, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)
Sex Across the Highway...
NY Times: Home on the Range: A Corridor for Wildlife. This would be awesome; I've thought about this sort of thing before, and wondered how many people really cared about it. More info at Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y).
May 24, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)
Holy teleporters, Batman!
I wouldn't have believed this if I hadn't seen it....a beautiful US patent application for Full body teleportation system: Abstract -- A pulsed gravitational wave wormhole generator system that teleports a human being through hyperspace from one location to another.
link from jwz
May 15, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)
What else can I say?
What ... a ... day. *sigh* As I said in a earlier post, we will reap what we sow.
PS: And yes, Lee, after review, this IS probably what in particular set me off today. Not that I haven't been mad for a LONG time, but my facade is starting to slip...*sigh*
May 11, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)
Pandora. Just go try it!
Holy shit, thanks John. Pandora rocks! (For those of you coming in from the desert even later than I have, Pandora is one of those "if you like that, try this" music stations). It's pretty dang cool...it actually seems to work.
link from Kung Fu Monkey
May 8, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)
It came from the Cryptography Mailing List...
Wow...I have to agree with the poster: WRT Windows XP product activation; In case you wondered what was behind those sequences of digits...Gory details here: http://www.licenturion.com/xp/fully-licensed-wpa.txt ... Ew, I think I have to take a shower now.
More than you'd probably ever want to know. Part of the reason I love the Crypto Mailing List! (PS: yes, I know the paper is from 2001. *grin* It's still cool!)
May 7, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)
Ping-Pong Days...
Whew. Not much updating lately...things have been crazy. I have several fairly large posts in various stages of construction; I just can't quite find time to clean them up and pull the trigger. I'm in one of those "constant small issues" phases, both at work AND at home!
Stick with me, Interweb! I shall return! *grin*
May 4, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)
Earlier posts -- Later posts
