My ex-girlfriend, who shall remain nameless - if I'm ever left alone at her tombstone with a sandblaster.
Emo Philips
5th October 2008

Ponderings For 2008-10-05

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22nd April 2008

Ponderings For 2008-04-22

  • Wow. Did you all enjoy this weekend’s bright, shiny, happy episode of Battlestar Galactica? Fantastic episode, but man the network must have hated this one. High praise goes out to four aspects of this one. First, Nicki Clyne. I won’t say why, cause many people probably haven’t watched the episode yet. You’ll know when you see it. Second, Gary Hutzel and his VFX team. Not only have they continued to refine their exterior ship effects, but they finally nailed the new centurion effects. This is the first episode where the Cylon centurions really felt like they were really in the room (though there were some nice shots down on Caprica when they were chasing Boomer and Helo in the first season). Third, Bear McCreary’s bleary, out-of-body music score. Which brings me to the fourth in the list, the combined and brilliantly odd cinematography and editing of the episode (particularly Cally’s material), which also plays perfectly into McCreary’s score. Overall, another great episode. One can feel the series hurtling through its final act at this point.
  • Here’s a hilarious example of what happens when big corporations start throwing law suits out there for the heck of it, without thinking things through.
  • Here’s another prime example of why DRM systems completely suck. It’s just one of a great many reasons why I don’t EVER touch any DRM protected media. Never. Ever.
  • The Sarah Connor Chronicles has been picked up for a second season
  • I ran into this exact same retarded captcha approach on the same site trying to download a shared file the other day. I tried a half dozen times to verify what they wanted, and just couldn’t get it right. I had to give up. It really is the worst captcha variety I’ve ever witnessed, so I’m in total agreement with that post.
  • Here’s an amusing list of some of the dumbest business decisions in history
  • Some more insane spam statistics
  • Western Digital has launched the VelociRaptor
  • Check out the unpacking of a second recreation of Babbage’s differene engine
  • What happens when a goat is challenged by a golden eagle?
  • This is just plain wrong
  • Need some “professional” help installing that XBox game?
  • And oh yeah, Dilbert.com has gotten a major overhaul
  • Lastly, here’s a very cool shot of the ISS from above. I’ve also done a cropped version of that picture for use on 1920×1200 widescreen monitors, linked below.

ISS from above 1920x1200

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27th January 2008

Ponderings For 2008-01-27

  • Go, Amazon, Go…
  • Huge congratulations go out to Juno for passing the $100 million mark (well, worldwide, but so little of that is foreign that it’ll roll past the domestic $100 million mark any day now). That’s a big achievement for a low-budget, indie-style movie to pull off. On top of their 4 major Oscar nominations, the folks involved in that film (my favorite of 2007) are surely giddy. The tenacity that it’s shown at the box office is impressive.
  • An amusing approach to the insanity of cellular hardware manufacturers and their immediate disinterest in any hardware they’ve already produced, in immediate favor of whatever their next model is. I’ve got an AT&T 8525 (a re-branded HTC Hermes) which has served me well, but the lukewarm support for the device is a surprisingly altruistic situation for an industry that I’ve seen abandon models before most consumers have even got their grubby little paws on ‘em.
  • I’m sure I’ve mentioned the site before, but InterfaceLIFT.com is my most highly recommended source for fantastic photographic (primarily) wallpapers. Particularly high-res, widescreen ones. It’s intended as a MAC-centric site, but their archive of material is great for any of us high-res, widescreen monitor fans. Such is the case with this most recent example of a cool photo.
  • For those interested in Microsoft certification, they have extended their free “second shot” promotion until the end of June.
  • This is old news by now, but the title to the new Bond film is one of their truly stranger choices: Quantum Of Solace.
  • Also slightly old news by this point, but very, very cool, is the fact that Disney/PIXAR is releasing the Toy Story films in new 3D transfers.
  • Another great Dilbert Blog entry. This time, resulting in a surprisingly good song.
  • Speaking of Dilbert, you may have noticed (unless you view my posts via RSS) that I added the flash-based, official Dilbert strip digest widget to the side of the site. Not sure if I’ll keep it. Thought it was cool and figured I’d give it a run. Cool that the archive is to feature the strips in color, no less.
  • Geek lust: Canon Rebel XSi

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9th January 2008

Ponderings For 2007-01-09

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4th January 2008

Ponderings For 2008-01-04

  • Holy cow. What a day for multimedia (well, within 24 hours or so of each other). First, Sony/BMG are working at dropping DRM from their online music offerings. That makes them the last of the major labels to do so.
  • But that’s not the big news. Warner Bros has declared their exclusive allegiance to Blu-Ray. While most people following this brutal format war expected Warner to do this eventually, the speed at which they did it was surprising. Not to mention the timing. This announcement comes just before the start of the weekend for CES. It apparently caught the HD-DVD camp completely off guard, causing them to cancel their primary shindig. So far, Warners is swearing that this was not the result of any payoff from the BDA camp, a fact that I would believe. More surprising, their listed justifications actually make business sense, rather than the usual PR spin most of the companies try to put on these kinds of maneuvers. So, it looks like the idiotic high def format war is finally in a tailspin. With some 70% of exclusive studio support, the HD-DVD camp doesn’t stand a whelk’s chance in a supernova.
  • Congratulations to Mars rover Spirit, for four years on the job. Boy, Spirit and Opportunity have been quite the little troopers. Spirit is a bit worse for wear, but the little guy just refuses to give up. In a few weeks, Opportunity will celebrate its fourth year, still going strong.
  • How about a man who amazingly survives a 47 story fall?
  • So, Asus is splitting into 3 companies. Interesting.
  • And to end today’s post on a serious note, here’s a blog posting you won’t see every day (thank goodness). Definitely worth the read.

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31st December 2007

Ponderings For 2007-12-31

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