November 2005

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Sunday November 27, 2005 10:26:47 PM #

Ah, Google/Yahoo stalking.

Saturday November 26, 2005 12:34:05 PM #

Scarcity generates value. All types of consumer level entertainment and informative media are converging on various digital distribution models where ALL print, audio and video will be available, Anytime, and Anyplace, for a Negligible price. There will be no scaricity. The media itself will have no value. For a time the value will tranfer to the various digital pipes the media travels on. Value in the services that find the information for you and get the information to you anytime, anyplace, anywhere. This will be a very shortlived transference, historically speaking, however.

The technology already exists to create adhoc city-wide networks perpetuated by inexpensive individual personal nodes of electronics. As members of these networks travel throughout the world the connections and what they transfer can broaden more. No middlemen, no tollways. (But still there will be public works bridges). There is a greater Napster out there than the original Napster. Google is a middleman, and it's human nature to look for ways to get rid of middlemen. There will be a disruptive technology that marginalizes Google. (For now though, Google is good. We don't get rid of good things) Scarcity and value in conduiting information and media, however, is completely artificial today. It is a tenet.

There is faith in the belief that information has value. When a majority hold a faith like that, the belief, becomes truth for all practical purposes. Just having enough people believe a thing, like information value and scarcity, doesn't make it true however.

Having enough believe may make the falsehood more real than the truth but there are truths that transend belief, not that those that don't, necessarily matter in any appreciable practical way. These truths that we will in the future hold self evident are impractical to existing systems of today. However, time and history have shown impractical things and ideas can and do become practical.

A plane flys overhead.

When information flys free and nanomolecular machines assemble your hearts desires from the ethers of nothingness and the virtual becomes reality for all but those firmly and insanely committed to the abstract of authenticity. When desire's value itself is rendered to have no value because all desire is instantly fulfilled. When all novelty loses it's value because everything is novel. What then? Then where do you go? Where will be your scarcity? Where will be the value?

A bus crosses town.

We're not there yet I suppose. Anything good on TV? Did we get our new Netflix DVD? Look that song up on iTunes for me will you? How much does Amazon charge to ship that? Oh wow, look at the time. Where did it go?

Thursday November 24, 2005 7:43:42 PM #

Let's Go Surfing

» Digg.com Neat site, Sort of a combination of Delicious and Slashdot.

What's Digg? Digg is a technology news website that employs non-hierarchical editorial control. With digg, users submit stories for review, but rather than allowing an editor to decide which stories go on the homepage, the users do.

» Hollywood Reporter Interview with George Lucas on Change in the movie industry

» Neat looking redering of a prehistoric crocidile discovery

» Slate Article on Direct downloading of Television Shows. This is a very interesting emerging area to me.

» Cool Ceiling Rain Showers

» Neat National Geographic Site/Illustration cutaway of what is below New York City

» Saw this free web proxy that supposedly will get you through corporate and school firewalls on Digg. I don't think a name like: Hidemyass.com is good for such a service though.

» Crazy Huge Scroll of Calvin and Hobbes Snowman Cartoons

Wednesday November 23, 2005 11:46:59 PM #

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving so lets take a moment to be thankful. mmmmmmmmmmooooooooooommmmmmmmeeeeeeeennnnnnnttttttt. There, that ought to do it.

Sunday November 20, 2005 11:24:30 PM #

» Just watched the first season finale of Rome. Good stuff, but it's a bummer that both of those characters are gone. Now the one character, well you knew that was going to happen at some point. Still, it would have been nice to get an extra season out of him. The other character, well that's a completely unexpected bummer. Glad there is eventually going to be a second season.

Let's Go Surfing

» Video of SNL Steve Jobs Sketch - It would appear that the iPod has gotten small enough and holds enough music that nobody cares much about new ones.

Sunday November 20, 2005 9:48:27 AM #

» DC Comics Previews Solicitations for February 2006 - Picks: BATMAN #650 • CATWOMAN #52 • GOTHAM CENTRAL #40, Final Issue • NIGHTWING #117 • ROBIN #147, Teen Titans • SUPERMAN #226 • ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #649 • ACTION COMICS #836 • SUPERGIRL #6 • INFINITE CRISIS #5 • RANN/THANAGAR WAR: INFINITE CRISIS SPECIAL • INFINITE CRISIS SECRET FILES 2006 • AQUAMAN #39 • BIRDS OF PREY #91 • FIRESTORM #22 • GREEN LANTERN #9, GL vs. Bats • GREEN ARROW #59, GA vs. Bats • HAWKMAN #49, final issue before name change • JLA #125 • JLA CLASSIFIED #17 • JSA #82 • JSA CLASSIFIED #8 & 9 • JUSTICE #4 • LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #15 • MANHUNTER #19 • OUTSIDERS #33 • SOLO #9 • TEEN TITANS ANNUAL #1 • TEEN TITANS #33 • WONDER WOMAN #226, "final" issue

DC Direct Previews Solicitations - Picks: Darwyn Cooke, New Frontier JLA Action Figures: Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Blackhawk • Green Lantern Hal Jordan Power Battery Mini-Prop Replica

Marvel Comics Previews Solictations for February 2005 - Picks: ULTIMATE EXTINCTION #2 • SAGA OF SQUADRON SUPREME • FF PRESENTS: FRANKLIN RICHARDS, SON OF A GENIUS -- EVERYBODY LOVES FRANKLIN, Marvel's Calvin and Hobbes rip off continues • MARVEL LEGACY: THE 1960s HANDBOOK • MARVEL TEAM-UP #17 • RUNAWAYS #13 • EXILES #77 Squadron Supreme (80s style) •

Saturday November 19, 2005 12:36:01 AM #

» Watched the Superman Returns Teaser Trailer this morning. Fantastic. This is going to be a big big big movie. Good Stuff.

» Just saw the Daily Show from Thursday night.... The Dick Cheney bit with the slot machine in the background! Oh that was fricken brilliant.... absofrickenlutely brilliant!

Let's Go Surfing

» Superhero or Household Cleanser.
via Fark

Thursday November 17, 2005 10:48:15 PM #

» Too much thinking. Life seems not to be as complicated as we would like it to be.

Tuesday November 15, 2005 10:34:51 PM #

» An entry where I talk a little about nothing.

Just did the open enrollment on my healthcare at work. Health Insurance really doesn't work in American Capitalism does it? Car insurance and home insurance work fairly well. You can roll the dice and odds are pretty good for the insurance companies that they can cover the spread on those. But Health Insurance? Everyone is going to get sick at somepoint. Live long enough and you're guaranteed to use it and it's definently going to cost more, the way things currently are, for even the most minor issues than most people can afford. Hard to see how health insurance works in our American capitalistic system. Doesn't seem right not to have a system in a modern bountiful civilization that doesn't take care of people's health though.

Work, Go Home, Do a few errands, watch a little TV, read a little, sprinkle in 1 to 3 socializations with non-household family or friends per week. Your drama level may vary but that's pretty much the routine I think.

I haven't been posting much on Comics lately, I'm going to get around to that megapost I've been promising at some point. I will say that I've been digging on DC more and more each week. Their universe is rock solid right now. All these different characters really feel like they are more or less inhabiting different corners of the same world. However, one thing I would like to see explorered: how would crisis's like the OMAC's really work from a political and media standpoint in the DCU? I'd really like to see a Gotham Central type take on that from the point of view of a Television journalist and maybe a US Senator or Attorney General.

Still on Comics, Just read Green Lantern Corps Recharge #2 (yeah I know I'm a little behind) wow that's good stuff. Nice take on the mythos.

Politics. The president is trying to defend the use of torture as a method. Let that sink in for a minute. Torture. Y'know, it's almost hard to get upset in this day an age over a story about politicians lying, but politicians defending torture? Even if we only torture the "bad guys", I can't buy into that, I can't believe it's even a national debate. We're supposed to be the good guys. Good Guys don't torture.

Movies. Is anything good coming out anytime soon? I'm not counting Harry Potter. Haven't read the books, I hear they are lovely, but strictly basing my opinion on the couple movies I've seen. I just don't see the adult appeal. 'course I'm not big on Fantasy in general, and I talk endlessly on my blog about superheroes, so take my opinion for what it is worth.

DVD. I watched Pirates of Silicon Valley this past week. 1999 TBS telepic about Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, starring Noah Wylie and Anthony Michael Hall. It wasn't as good as I remembered it when it was originally on. Still it was an interesting movie to rewatch. The movie distills down and probably too simply presents the two characters. It's shortfall is largely that it is too ambitious in scope for 90 minutes. Jobs' is shown as a Cult of Personality motivating people by their nature to want to be like him and to please him. Gates' in the flick boils down to someone winning by taking advantage and making people need him. There's so much more material on both men in the last five years that it would be great to see a richer exploration of those two characters on a 12 part HBO mini-series.

Let's Go Surfing

Humorous Webpage ad for Firefox. It's actually pretty funny.

» Very nicely written rant on the topic that DC characters should age to be relevant.

» You really should click on this link where you'll see a neat Halloween pumpkin display. It's very Calvin and Hobbes Snowman-esk. Cool.

Saturday November 12, 2005 2:33:42 PM #

» I haven't read Infinite Crisis #2 yet. In fact I'm a couple weeks behind on comics in general. Bummer.

I did have a friend bring over Guitar Hero for the PS2 this week. Fun game. Similiar to Dance Dance Revolution except your fingers get the workout instead of your feet. I have no talent what-so-ever for this type of timing game, but it was neat.

Unrelated, In general I've been wondering what happened to the sun. Darkness at 5:30 in Michigan. Bummer.

Let's Go Surfing

» This is a pretty disturbing parody of the Jessica Simpson Rolling Stone Housewife of the Year Cover
via Boing Boing

» Slightly off vector from the above, but only slightly, A site dedicated to girls in the Princess Lei Slave Costume. Includes a page with Melissa Joan Hart, making the site all the more curious. (SFW, barely)

Tuesday November 8, 2005 10:46:29 PM #

» Couple of toy pics. Green Lantern Wave 2 from Emerald Dawn. Looks like a new head on the Guy Gardner. Looks like a New Sinestro head on the Super Friends GL body. The Salaak is nice though... If DC Direct really wants to complete the figure they'll add a Ch'p to it. Marvel more your thing? Click to see Marvel Select Spider Woman.

Tuesday November 8, 2005 6:54:33 AM #

Wow Thomas Hayden Church as Sandman in Spider-man 3. Dead on.

Sunday November 6, 2005 11:54:26 PM #

» More on Blogs. Blogs are nice. You can write alot of things down and put alot of things out there. Mostly I find that I use the backspace key on my blog. Most things that are important. Most things that are worth saying, can't go out to everyone (or they could but probably wouldn't be worth the consequences). Blogs go out to everyone, so most important things don't end up on the blog. TV, comic books, movies, toys, gadgets, these things are fine for blogs, because none of them matter too much. Their capability for controversy is limited. Relationships, Politics, Religion, Work, these are interesting topics that matter more, but their discussion has to be shaded for each individual audience. Blogs are searchlights with the potential to be seen by everyone and shine too bright for topics that require more subtle lighting.

So whenever I start a raging bonfire beacon of a blog entry, I find I generally use the backspace key to turn it into a voltive candle or backspace some more reducing it to an ember or backspace some more and snuff it out all together. However, in a perfect world, it would really be great to do the fire, toast some marshmallows and singe a few eyebrows off.

» Saw the Live West Wing Debate Episode tonight. It was okay. Nothing very spectacular. Kudos, however, to the West Wing's producer for getting one hour on network television to put out his views that directly on several common campaign topics. Just getting away with that is impressive.

As a side note, the Ellen stuff was weird. Is the audience for Ellen, the same as the Audience for the West Wing? The West Wing is a gennerally serious show (albehit serious with smart levity). Ellen if fairly light. It was a weird mix. I think I would have prefered her in a more traditional comercial dancing with her American Express card then having been woven into the show as if she was backstage.

» Also watched Rome this evening. Good Show. Bummer that there are only two more episodes left in the season.

» At some point I'm going to do a big comic post. Just haven't worked myself up into a frenzy on the topic yet. Big stack of books next to my computer that I could blather on about though.

Let's Go Surfing

» Saw this Orson Card article on why Software Companies Die. It is from 1995. It's fairly short.

Saturday November 5, 2005 11:59:01 PM #

» Y'know there are a few schools of thought I've seen about how to approach blogging. Thought One, Pick a topic and only, or mostly only, blog about that one topic. Thought Two, Blog about any random thing that comes into your head. Thought Three, Blog as positively as possible to make your life seem as bubbly and fun as possible. Thought Four, Blog as negatively as possible about every trival wrong done to yourself or the world. Thought Five, Blog what you believe to be insightful commentary on inane topics.

I have no point in the above paragraph.

I have done pretty much nothing today. (1) No post. (2) Pancakes are yummy. (3) Today was an incredibly relaxing day, I got a bunch of tasks I've been wanting to get at accomplished and overall it's just been a fantastic fall day! (4) Today was an incredibly dull day filled with boring minutia and trivial tasks, overall a completely forgetable fall day. (5) Isn't it interesting how you flip pancakes over once before you finish cooking them? There just aren't alot of foods you do that to, well hamburgers maybe but other than that I think the flipping of pancakes makes them fairly unique.

Let's Go Surfing

» I'm going to lift the entire post below from Everything isn't which excerpted it from The Guardian.

A Harvard psychologist named Gord.on Allport did some key research in the 1950s on various kinds of human prejudice and came up with a definition of religiosity that is still in use today. He suggested that there were two types of religious commitment - extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic religiosity he defined as religious self-centredness. Such a person goes to church or synagogue as a means to an end - for what they can get out of it. They might go to church to be seen, because it is the social norm in their society, conferring respectability or social advancement. Going to church (or synagogue) becomes a social convention.

Allport thought that intrinsic religiosity was different. He identified a group of people who were intrinsically religious, seeing their religion as an end in itself. They tended to be more deeply committed; religion became the organising principle of their lives, a central and personal experience. In support of his research, Allport found that prejudice was more common in those individuals who scored highly for extrinsic religion.

The evidence generally is that intrinsic religiosity seems to be associated with lower levels of anxiety and stress, freedom from guilt, better adjustment in society and less depression. On the other hand, extrinsic religious feelings - where religion is used as a way to belong to and prosper within a group - seem to be associated with increased tendencies to guilt, worry and anxiety.

Here's a neat device that I saw on Make. Some guy has taken the inner workings of an analog clock and attached a dry erase marker to the hour hand. A suctioncup has been added. Turn the device on and in an hour it draws a circle on the whiteboard. This would be a novel thing for anyone who spends alot of time in One Hour Meeting Corporate America.

Saturday November 5, 2005 11:41:01 AM #

» Bought some Fast Shake pancake mix for the first time this week. Brilliant product. It comes in a little plastic container about the width and breadth and twice the height of a small milk carton. You pour in some water, shake up the container and pour your pancake batter right onto the grill. You can then store the unused portion in the refrigerator. Absolutely Brilliant. No fuss, no mess. Good Stuff.

Thursday November 3, 2005 8:59:25 PM #

» Comics Continuum is reporting that it is unlikely that there will be any new Justice League Unlimited Cartoons until 2006. Bummer.

Tuesday November 1, 2005 9:21:27 PM #

Hooray November!

I don't spell check and my grammar, sentence and paragraph structure on this site leave alot to be desired. Most times I forget to go back and reread a post to see if it makes sense. Sometimes I type the word "Fnck". Flip the "n" over... I don't have a problem with the word myself, I just type it that way to slip it past overzealous work censorship programs and for the benefit of those that are sensitive to that sort of thing.