Sean's 'blog for 2008

[ 2007 Blog | Long Lost Twins ]

 

The Most Racist Race?
July 4, 2008

It has taken over nearly 230 years for America to put forth a candidate for President who's black. And for many it's a sign of hope, a sign that perhaps 50 years after national desegregation and so-called equality among the races that perhaps it may finally be true, or at least the truth is beginning.

But when I saw the reaction of people in West Virginia, interviewed at restaurants who came right out and said that they wouldn't vote for Barack Obama because he was a black man, it was disheartening, but very very enlightening. It shows that this equal society hides its severe racism very close to the surface.

And just this past week the Detroit News published this cartoon by Henry Payne:

Its intent may have been to show that blacks and super delegates favor Obama but women don't. Which, by the way is completely false. Women are flocking to support Obama.

But oh dear.

Now where do I know that pose from?

Let me think...

Oh yeah:

Mammy. Henry Payne actually invoked Al Jolson and Mammy on Obama...

Oh dear...

Fathers' Day 2008
June 15, 2008

Today is Fathers' Day (note the appostrophe at the end, because it's the day for Fathers, not for Father.) My daughter gave me what I consider probably the coolest Fathers' Day card I've ever seen, and she picked it out herself. (She's 12 and very clever!)

Heh. I love it.

Fathers' Day Gife #1 - MediaLounge Wireless Media Viewer! A+++!
May 16, 2008

Also for Fathers' Day I got (though I took ownership of it a week earlier) a D-Link DSM-520 MediaLounge device, which is exactly what I've been hoping for for years. It's this wonderful device that sits with your entertainment system (ie: TV, stereo, etc.) and reads files off your computer by the wireless network.

When I got my FiOS connection I was promised a HDTV as well as a $50.00 Circuit City gift card. Months went by and no FiOS for my building. When it did become available, they didn't want to honor their original agreement with me but I fought the issue, showing them the signed documents, etc. They said they couldn't provide the TV because that deal was over and they had none, so they offered me a $100.00 gift check to go against my bill, and a $200.00 Circuit City Gift Card, so I accepted. It arrived in the mail last week, so I jumped onto Circuit City's online shop to see what to get. I was going to get a large external hard drive, but then I found this little beauty.

Hook it up, install a server on your computer(s) that you want shared, and then specifically share out whichever directories you want shared out. Connect the device to your wifi router (easy setup) and (provided your computer has a recent Windows Media Player - mine didn't, and I had to go install v.10) it connects to your running servers and using the convenient remote control you can browse through the media on your computer and watch it on your TV. This is great.

It works with MPEG-4-encoded video (most DivX .AVI files I have play without problem, with the exception of some I encoded myself which don't work very well.) Some formats are not supported, of course, but I do have conversion software (eRightSoft's Super) which works fairly well. I don't think it does DVD ISO files, but hey, that's what DVD players are for.

It reads music files, which I can play on my stereo because I have my TV audio piped through my stereo's Aux input. (I could also route the audio directly to the setreo for better sound if I want). It reads photos (I have thousands of family photos on my machines). It reads video files. Most of the stuff I watch comes from my computer.

Before now, I would have to burn an episode of Doctor Who or Sea Patrol (excellent Australian TV series by the way) to an individual CD or DVD and watch it in my DivX-enabled DVD player. This results in a lot of loose DVDs lying around. That's no more. I can just watch it directly.

Oh, and another super feature is a USB port, the only physical feature on the face of the device apart from the power button and a light. Plug any USB-flash drive or hard drive in there, and the machine reads directly from it, which is incredibly useful! And for some weird reason, when you're playing directly from the USB, you don't need Windows Media Player. (I guess the server uses WMP to route the video to the wireless, but why that's not necessary for the USB port is beyond me. It should be unnecessary for the Server as well. Oh well.)

Many reviews I've read talk about dodgy performance across the wireless, but I have not witnessed any issues. To be sure, obstructions in your wireless setup like how many walls between the two units, probably plays an important role here, but since I have no obstructions at all between the router and the DSM-520, I get perfect quality. No stuttering, nothing. It's 100% perfect.

I'm using it on a regular TV with Composite output. But the great thing is, this thing has HD-quality video output, and also verious output formats, including Component (much better) and S-Video, HDMI and Optical outputs, and can connect to a computer with a LAN cable if you're having trouble with your WiFi router, or have no wireless router.

Still, there are a number of issues you'll want to know before buying one of these.

This is perhaps the best piece of electronic hardware I've purchased in recent history!

REM Concert (with The National and Modest Mouse)
June 13, 2008

REM has been my favorite band for decades. They're awesome, and I've always liked them. But when "Automatic for the People" came out, it was the pinnacle of REM goodness. For a long time they've done well, but haven't quite hit that wonderful quality they had in the early 1990s, to me. Bill Berry leaving probably took a lot out of them, and it took some time to recover. But recover they did. Their most recent album "Accelerate" is excellent, and harkens back to the best sounds of REM, with short, peppy tunes and good political content.

So I got word that they were coming to the Comcast Center here in Massachusetts, and that Modest Mouse would be opening for them. I've been loving Modest Mouse's "Good News for People Who Love Bad News" album. Excellent, quirky, awesome sound.

And I'd never heard of The National.

I took my wife and daughter (who'd been asking if she could go to a rock concert. This was her first one.) As a birthday gift, I also took my friend Sean Dickinson. We got lawn tickets, and that was fine, except the lawn was soaking wet. Later, when REM began, we took seats at the back, because there were plenty of empty seats.

I have to say The National was the eye-opener. They were excellent. Great sound, and they had a guy who switched between piano and violin/viola and he even strummed the viola at times, sometimes into the bass drum's pickup. And they had a three-piece band playing trumpet, trombone and bassoon. Awesome! Their newest album is called "Boxer". I highly recommend finding it and getting it. (Their sound kind of reminded me of The Airborne Toxic Event, who I first heard on the Carson Daly show, and they blew me away.)

The bad news for people who love good news: Modest Mouse was underwhelming. I thought they'd be great, and I was seriously looking forward to them. But sadly, alas, they were not that good on that night. They may be one of those bands who produce well in a studio, but fall apart on stage. I mean they didn't exactly fall apart, but they weren't shining either.

REM, however... what can anyone say? They were absolutely fantastic. Michael Stipe spent a lot of time talking enthusiastically about his history at this venue, about his god-daughters, about life in general, and the political scene. He was up, happy, enthusiastic, eager, and a joy to watch as you could tell he was loving life at that moment. His performance was one for the record books. I am so very glad that for my daughter's first concert, this was the one we chose to take her to. It was life reaffirming. Thank you, Michael Stipe. The fact that the band didn't play some of my favorite songs was offset by the fact that they did play so many wonderful favorites from the past, and most of their new album, which is, as I said, very good.

The Set List

I was sad that they didn't play "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight", or "Nightswimming" or "End of the World", but hey, you can't have it all.

Already there are a few YouTube videos of that night's songs:

Living Well's The Best Revenge:

Orange Crush:

Don't Go Back To Rockville:

Ignoreland:

 

I am so glad I caught this show.

Is Wall•E Floyd?
May 16, 2008

1983 gave us one of the world's finest computer games in Infocom's Planetfall. It was a text adventure, or interactive fiction game. The game printed out text describing your situation, where you are, what's around you, and you told the computer what to do by typing in commands. These made for some excellent games, the best-known being Zork. But Planetfall had some amazing story elements that made it not only one of the best games ever made, but one of the most memorable. One of those elements was Floyd, a little robot that ran around after you, joking, getting into mischief, etc, and ultimately helping you at great cost to himself.

One of the things that makes Floyd so memorable is the little comments he makes at random throughout the game. If you decide to save the game, Floyd asks, "Oh boy! Are we going to try something dangerous?"

Frequently, Floyd would ask if you wanted to play paddle-ball.

Floyd has no real description, leaving the form of Floyd up to the imagination of the game player, as games like Planetfall did very well.

But the newest trailer to the new Pixar film Wall•E shows the cute little cubistic robot - playing paddleball!

Now the people at Pixar are no idiots, and they were actively involved in the computer-game world in 1983 you can bet on that. This is no coincidence!

I just bought a Wall•E action figure, and you know the first thing I'm going to do is make a paddle-ball game for him! Using a piece of gray cardboard, a small wire and a little ball, my Wall•E will have a paddleball game before tonight's out.

Cheney's Glasses - UPDATE!!!
May 14, 2008

My previous Rant, "For Godsake..." talks about the image in Cheney's sunglasses that actually got TV coverage, for no damned good reason.

Now, you can see the secret behind the picture in the sunglasses:

Dude! That was brilliant!

For Godsake, 7 News, Boston, STOP IT!!!
April 12, 2008

For the past two days at least, 7 News in Boston (WHDH) has been airing a sensationalist gossip piece showing a crudely artifacted photograph of a close-up of Dick Cheney's face with sunglasses on. In the sunglasses, an oddly blurred flesh-colored reflection that 7 News is touting as "possibly a naked woman". Reflected in Cheney's glasses.

Oh.

My

God!

So here's the letter I fired off to them:

Why No Updates?
April 5, 2008

I've been busy. Most of my recent web-site update have to do with my Cartoons page, and my C64 games pages. Most notably my page on Piracy, a text adventure I wrote in BASIC in 1985. I dug out the source code for it in VICE and printed it off on my printer. It was fun going through it again. I also made some "feelies" for the game and the web page - a game map and a ship's map, a new logo, etc. Just for fun.

Then in January or February I started investigating INFORM, a language created by Graham Nelson for writing Interactive Fiction in a way very similar to the INFOCOM games of which I've always been such a fan. My plan was to rewrite Piracy in INFORM 6 (as opposed to the very different INFORM 7) as an exercise to learn the language. I bought The Inform Designers' Manual, a great hard-cover book that covers everything INFORM has to offer, and got started.

It became clear to me immediately I couldn't write the same game - it was so simple and shallow. I opted to make this a much better game, fully fleshed out - more what I had originally intended back in 1985 before BASIC memory space showed me its limits on a C64.

The best part is, I can play this game on my Palm Pilot. Any computer with a Z-Code interpreter can. That's the beauty of it! Anyway, off to write more INFORM code. I'll try to keep this page updated as to my latest passions. And speaking of which:

Some things I hope to write about: Toy Fair 2008, Interactive Fiction (I'm getting back into it), Airships (I'm a huge fan, and recent events have gotten me back into them.)

Hilarious Marketing
January 19, 2008

Ocean State Job Lot is not a glamorous store. It's a store that sells bulk and closeout items. Most of it is not great quality, but hey, you gets what you pays for.

This entry is about a particular item. A bath mat. That's all it is. A bath mat. Not bad, a bit quirky. It looks normal. Not the best materials, but it would certainly suit the purpose.

But check out the label.

Now note that this is not a bath mat. It's a 1-Piece Bath Set.

That bears repeating. A 1-Piece Bath Set.

And again. A one-piece set.

Wow! A whole bath set! Of one piece!

Hilarious!

Is Deckard a Replicant?
January 5, 2008

Let me first say that is my favorite film of all time. I saw it the summer it came out in 1982 and loved it then and have loved it ever since. I'm a fan of the deadpan voiceover of the original releases, and not as much a fan of the Director's Cut or the Final Cut as the originals, though they're all gold!

When the DVD set came out I got mine right away. (Let me say I'm totally impressed with this set - and the Spinner that comes with it is awesome!!!)

The Work Print was an impressive surprise to me. I think it comes out as my favorite version of all 5.

Anyway, this post is to discuss something I've not yet seen in the global argument as to whether or not Deckard is a replicant, which could be hinted at in the film if you feel it is. And Ridley Scott, who has claimed that he is indeed a replicant, and points to the unicorn dream and the origami unicorn left at Deckard's door by Gaffe, as proof. Yet he doesn't mention something that could seriously bolster his claim.

First, you should know that I'm not in the "Deckard is a replicant" camp. I don't buy that it's illegal for replicants to be on Earth, but Deckard is a replicant working for the police. He's not strong, he's not fast, he gets tossed around like a rag doll. If a replicant is going to be employed to kill other replicants they're going to make darn sure he's stronger and faster than the best replicant available. And Deckard's record with Bryant seems to go back more than 3 years. Their rapport is of two men who have known each other for well over a decade. This is subjective, true. But there are other valid arguments.

However, I will bring up something I don't think anyone has brought up before in this discussion. And I mean the worldwide discussion that's been going on for 2.5 decades now.

And the fact that Ridley Scott says he is doesn't hold water if he doesn't actually PROVE it on the screen. He can say Deckard is most definitely a pink elephant too, but if it's not up on the screen, that's just HIS opinion.

Scott and others point to the unicorn dream sequence, which was not in the original releases, and appears tacked on in the Director's Cut and the Final Cut. So the idea is that Gaffe somehow has seen the scans of Deckard's implanted unicorn dream? Why? Deckard has seen Rachel's because he's investigating her. But Gaffe seems lower on the totem pole in the Blade Runner unit. Why would Bryant show him Deckard's implant scans? Still, it's possible.

So when Gaffe places an origami unicorn on the floor outside his apartment he appears to be letting Deckard know he's seen the implanted dreams.

The problem being Unicorns have had heavy symbolism throughout history, and the most common being innocence and purity. It can just as easily be argued that Gaffe put one outside Deckard's door to show that he knows Rachel is an innocent and doesn't deserve retirement, unlike the murderous replicant escapees. That's how I read it when I first saw that in 1982, and after countless viewings my opinion on that hasn't changed.

However upon viewing the Final Cut and the Work Print, I noticed something I hadn't seen before, and I have never heard used on either side of the argument, and even Ridley Scott never mentioned it when he laid out his "proof" that Deckard is a replicant. But it's fairly obvious if you notice it.

Most pro-replicant theorists point to the two unicorn scenes in this film, linking them together. They say that the unicorn dream means Deckard is a replicant because otherwise the origami unicorn left by Gaffe means nothing. (I already gave a plausible reason for Gaffe doing so above.)

However what most people don't realize is that there are actually THREE unicorn scenes in the film. And it makes no sense that TWO of them are related, while the other is irrelevant.

The third unicorn appears on J. F. Sebastian's desk when he's asleep in his room filled with toys. At the upper right of the screen is a fairly easily seen unicorn image.

So if J. F. Sebastian works on genetic development for Tyrell, it makes sense that he had something to do with the creation of the implanted memories. We don't really know what J. F.'s job is, but it could entail many things involving the creation of replicants, and Tyrell trusts him implicitly. So it could be that J. F.'s obvious interest in unicorns led him to create unicorn implants for Deckard.

And while I am not on this side of the argument, I thought it certainly strenghtens the pro-replicant side greatly if people would only notice the unicorn on J. F.'s desk.

And it seems to me that with three unicorns being in the film, more people would have used J. F.'s to help prove Deckard is a replicant, yet I've never before heard of it being used on either side of the argument.

Why not? Did people just not notice it? Or did people notice THREE unicorns and only consder TWO of them important? That's ludicrous.

And if Ridley Scott is so adamant, why did HE not bring it up as part of his "proof"?

Anyway, more food for thought.

(Above stolen from some blog or other - and I found HILARIOUS!)

Also, since I was linking around while writing this, I found this indespensible site. How to fold the unicorn.

January 1, 2008 - Visit my previous RANT page featuring rants from 2007 and earlier

 

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