Crumpled
Friday, May 26, 2006
Once you go Blak...
in a post below, there is a comment that refers to Coke Blak. Well Clint I bought some and tried it because of that. It might have even been good, but for some reason they put aspartame in it. For people who drink that kind of thing, they can't even taste it, But for me, it's all I can taste.
Too bad. It sounded like a Hacker's Delight.
It reminds me of when eric, joel and I lived in that duplex, and our water company was shit. They would flush the pipes on the first wednesday of the month and we were advised not to drink the water. So I ran Sobe black tea through the coffee maker. Coffee maker didn't like it. I don't like Coke Blak.
posted by Elex | 8:24 AM | 2 comments
Friday, May 19, 2006
vista
If there is one thing that windows needs to learn from the mac os, it's that your customers will forgive you if you you force them out of reliance on legacy software support. so when Windows Vista is released maybe it won't seem like it's running on DOS. It seems that windows has elected to learn a lot more from mac os, including a whole bunch of user interface ideas.
Once again windows is going to copy mac os, but I bet it will be as convoluted than ever.
I ran Microsoft's tool to see if my computer was good enough for Windows Vista. Appereantly it takes 16gb to install, and my video card isn't quite good enough, and there aren't drivers for some of my hardware including my video input/output card (and I cant count on the manufacturer to write one.)
I don't think I'm going to buy it. If I'm going to switch operating systems, and I'm going to have to upgrade my hardware: Why not just buy a mac?
It's a pretty easy bet that the 5th version of OS X, which will come out around the time the first version of Windows Vista is released, will be way more stable and secure. Windws XP Pro, can't stay around forever. I'll have to upgrade my OS, and to do that I'll have to probably buy a new computer, and finally ditch the Pentium 2 that we have as our secondary home pc. (it's sometimes not fun to play WoW on a computer that doesn't quite meet the minimum system requirements) So when the time comes, we'll have a mac on our home network, maybe I'll save room on the mac to install windows. Hey microsoft, if you make me upgrade my hardware, it's the perfect time to switch. Pentium 2 will become a linux box, and my current linux box will go to the dump. I like having a lot of platforms on which to look at websites I make.
Here's an illustration of Microsoft's Style Problem:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5487302194049101890
Here's an illustration of Microsoft's Innovation Problem:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3469743121209807715
posted by Elex | 1:53 PM | 0 comments
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Disaster's I've Pondered
After hurricane Katrina I've considered possible scenarios for future disasters that might effect me personally (unlike Katrina). I may be a bit of a fatalist when it comes to natural disasters. Like if I can't mark it in my calendar I can't be held responsible for the consequences I'm forced to cope with, and besides we might get hit by cars or something. You know, whatever. They call them "Acts of God". How that survives as a legal term is beyond me. Anyway.... In the November 2005 issue of Wired magazine is an article called "Danger Zones: Ten trouble spots you aren't already worried about."
I had thought about three of them. The first one after Katrina that was brought to my attention happens to be number one on Wired's list: Sacramento Levee system failing. I was made aware of this because my local NPR station is based out of Sacramento. (the Governator recently, and arbitrarily declared a state of emergency to try to get federal money to prop up the system. That's like one Republican suggesting to another that they both pretend to be Democrats for a while.) But two of the other nine are also places that I've lived.
When I lived in Missouri, in my sophomore science class, we all watched a tape-recorded news report from our NBC affiliate about how, sometime in the future, a large chunk of the state would probably get destroyed by a huge earthquake. I bet everyone went home and told their families about what they learned in school that day. It's such a good anecdote. But nobody really cares. It's fatalism again. Wait until it happens, then you'll believe it and it will really concern you if you live there. In the meantime, don't worry. What can you do? By the way, the likelihood of this scenario, according to the news video and the more recent article is very high.
Then there is Mount Rainier erupting. Pretty much everyone who lives in Seattle acknowledges that this is an inevitability, but this time the consequences aren't so clearly defined. One thing seems to be reasonably certain in this scenario: the glacial ice pack on that mountain will probably mix with the lava, and create a huge moving wall of concrete (these flows are called "Lahars"), that will drastically alter the surrounding area.
Anyway, I'm probably moving up there. (we'll see what the job market is like), so let's just hope that the volcano behaves itself for a while, or the lahar doesn't travel more than a hundred miles or so. If it does, oh well, act of God. Whatever.
posted by Elex | 1:34 AM | 5 comments
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Social Work
My mom is about to get her MSW, that's a Masters in Social Work.
I'm proud of my mom. Social Work is thankless work.
posted by Elex | 2:35 PM | 2 comments
Friday, May 12, 2006
I used to want to be in the CIA.
Now, something very spooky indeed is looking to clench the balls of the CIA.
posted by Elex | 6:23 PM | 0 comments
donations anyone?
yeah plaid!
posted by Elex | 12:03 AM | 0 comments
Thursday, May 11, 2006
elex plays out the whole console war, one possible outcome
okay so, the xbox 360 is $299
and the blu-ray enabled ps3 is going to be about $499
an xbox 360 will be able to play hddvds given an added drive.
lets be really nice and pretend that drive is only $100, although that price is probably stupidly low. making the retail for an hddvd enabled console $399 vs the blu-ray enabled console at $499
okay now, as far as power goes, the xbox will have nothing on the ps3.
as far as formats go, the blu-ray disc stores more data than the hddvd (a cumbersome acronym)
one might argue that whoever wins the (so called) format war, wins the console war. I'm not sure anybody will win the format war all that quickly. there are enough consumers these days to justify a lingering format, especially one that's going to stay in the living room anyway, whether you watch videos on it or not.
i could try and argue that the superior format would finally be the one adopted by the blockbuster videos of the world, (the netflixes could probably accomodate either), and then the superior format would win. but i know that hollywood doesn't utilize all the advantages of a format when it goes against consumer intution. for example: all those two disc dvd sets; most of those would have fit on one disc. all the bonus features on the same disc, but less discs seems like less features.
now, manufactuing costs for the two consoles have been calculated by various analysts and the cost to build either of them seems in both cases more than the cost of selling them. yes, they cost more to make than they do to buy. depending on where you get your data, the manufactuing cost is anywhere from $50-$250 more than retail for the xbox, and $100-$300 for the ps3. i think warren buffet said that anytime you can spend a dollar and make two dollars you should do it. i don't think he would scoff at a buck fifty, but then again you cant spend a used console like cash so i guess that doesn't apply, but it is interesting.
consider this: a stand-alone video player in either blu-ray or hddvd will probably initially cost $1000, i'm not sure if it was david folkenflick that said that or if it was on wired.com. i'd say that price is a bit high, so lets say $800-$900 added consumer value that's disregarded in order to get these systems into your home.
why? because it's obviously not the sales of the consoles that's going to please the manufacturers. it's the liscencing of rights to sell games that people can play on them. it's fun for me to think that if somebody bought every single one of "product x" ever manufactured, that product would be a huge success, but if one person bought every single one of the consoles, it would be a horrible failure.
that's where the console war gets really silly. i'm no economist, but it seems to me that a console that's got so much processing power that it'll take the game makers years to utilize the potential of the hardware (ps3), has a much longer lifecycle than a console whos games are running on last generation technology (xbox360). it also seems to me that it wouldn't matter if one console was released an entire year later than the other one. wouldn't that just mean that you weren't competing against the other manufacturer in sales so much. the people who waited would finally buy one, and some of the people who bought the other one last year will be willing to buy this one. and new shoppers who haven't decided between the two systems will buy the one that is actually in stock. (xbox is having trouble not running out) and it doesn't matter if xbox is already in a few million homes, because the sales of the system itself does nothing for the company if people stop buying games for it. therefore, everything that happened so far while the ps3 has been finishing up its hardware doesn't matter. xbox will compete only on price, and eventually, people will demand the power that the ps3 can deliver and that the xbox can't. then what happens? you buy a new xbox? as far as technology goes, microsoft might be ready for a new one right about now anyway.
this is all just my opinion. it might not be finacially sound. but check the scene in 2 or three years. microsoft's xbox will get no love. sony's ps3 will still be rockin, and people will party together on nintendo's wii. it's a swell future. maybe they lost betamax, but sony will probably eventually prevail in the great format war; the last one, some say, before it's all downloads.
posted by Elex | 12:11 AM | 1 comments
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
news
I read a lot of news. I read just about as much news as I have time to read from as many news sources as possible on the internet.
But I usually exclude the following sources: times of london, the washington times, voice of america, xinhua, fox news, msnbc, cnn, china daily, and probably others.
Sometimes, like cnn or msnbc, I can't explain why they are 'blacklisted' there's just something about them that seems fishy that I can't put my finger on.
Others of the news organisations on my little list are state run propaganda devices, or they are partnered with a party as a propoganda device.
Another organization, ABC news has just made it into its own special category of 'not suitible for information gathering.'
Here's how ABC news stood out to me today:
"Trainer Says Blaine Had Convulsions"
that's the headline. forgive me for falling into the trap of knowing about this stunt, like I said I read a lot of news and I always figured your skin would soak off after a few days of being underwater.
but the ABC headline really suggests that there was a great deal of suspense involved in a two hour program about holding your breath (that aired on ABC). After most of the other news sources mocked the program, and simply pointed out that Blaine failed to acchieve his goal, and then moved on with thier days. ABC sicks their news departmet to stand up for their tv programing by saying, you should have seen seen that, it really was scary, this trainer says so.
Anyway that's not a big deal I guess. It was the scariest headline about breath-holding aout of al of them, designed to add suspence to one of their investments that came up a little short on suspense. (he said he would die if he failed. he failed to die. now there's a way to salvage your program.)
okay here's the other problem I had today with ABC. I have to tell you guys, I don't watch tv. pretty much not at all. there is no signal that carries tv into this house. I consider tv a waste of so many things.
Well, ABC just cooked up a little tv movie that capitalises on the exagerated fear of bird flu, and made the whole idea even scarier. Like Hichcock directs "Outbreak" or something. And then, prompts people who may have seen the program to watch or read their news to get the real milder version of what might happen during a pandemic. ABC is the only source of the don't-worry-about-what-you-saw-in-that-movie news. I found news of this sort on multiple ABC affiliate sites and nowhere else.
Lets produce a movie that we can market to peoples fears. While it's in production, lets try and increase those fears to increase our market. If the movie causes additional fear, lets direct them back to the news to be soothed. If the movie fails to deliver enough fear, lets use the news to try and revise the movie to make it scarier in retrospect.
If you can't make news without shows, you don't belong in news, and if you can't make shows without news, you don't belong in entertainment.
thus endeth the rant.
Here is a short list of my more favored sources:
cnet, wired, ny times, la times, sf cronicle, npr, boston globe, washington post, guardian (probably britains most sarcastic mainstream news) seattle p-i, forbes, and reuters.
posted by Elex | 12:43 AM | 3 comments
Monday, May 08, 2006
once upon a time....
the internet was a way of posting truthful discoveries, exclusively.
If anybody knows about the other internet that exists right now, send me a memo.
Just thought I'd ask.
posted by Elex | 9:52 PM | 1 comments
