Haircut

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0908.php#p895 August 14, 2009

Walk with Adam and Comfort

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0908.php#p894 August 12, 2009 Rock Band Game Night

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0908.php#p893 August 10, 2009

Adam and Comfort's Obi-Wan

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0908.php#p892 August 8, 2009

Early morning Shot of Grandville Meijer before I left for Chicago Comic Con.

More of my comic con Photos

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0908.php#p891 August 4, 2009

Saw Alien at the Wealthy Theater

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0907.php#p887 Random Non-Sequiters

I don't really need anything.

I'm quite happy with the internet, my gadgets, my tinkering, movies/tv, comics, books, my couch, studio, bed and good conversation with friends.

Yet, you've got do do more than that to be useful and have a sense of purpose.

So if I don't need anything, then I should find a way to be useful to other people and help them with what they need.

But you can't just do things purely for other people 100% of the time, because that removes all value from what you are doing.

Selflessness is nice but over time, humans are built to not value selflessness and view it's practitioners as naive at the very least, and more commonly as stupid for not valuing their time or skills by requesting something in return for valuable acts.

So that leaves a situation whereby you have to find things to do for other people who can in return do something for you, but it also has to be organic and mutually reciprocal lest it become an impersonal business transaction and thereby lose its humanness-- but for the most part, I don't need anything (except of course occasionally money, but that's what my job is for.)

Quandary. ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0907.php#p886 Random Non-Sequiters

Generalist Blogging I haven't been updating the blog much the last couple weeks.

Normally on the weekend, I go though a large pile of items in Google Reader that I've starred throughout the week for later viewing. The last few times I've done this however, I've been finding that at the end of this catch-up, I really don't find much worth sharing on the blog.

Things move very fast now, and the news cycle on a lot of this stuff is very short. In a world of Twitter and Facebook Updates, blogs are becoming like quaint slow moving newspapers in a 24/7 cable news world.

It also feels like a rough time to be a generalist, because to truly keep up with most of these things, you really have to focus and specialize. In fact the only valuable time to be a generalist is if you are out on the frontier of change in an undefined process zone. Because then the generalist can pull from multiple disciplines to define the new frontier. These new frontiers are getting harder to find and with the ease of coordination today, undefined zones do not stay undefined very long.

Speaking of News

The above analogy of slow moving newspapers vs. 24/7 cable news is actually kind of old. Cable News went out of business as soon as Obama was elected. Switch on any 24 news channel today, you will be very unlikely to find news, you will find two heads talking about their feelings on various topics of the day and other talking heads appling dramatic narrative overlays on one days event or another... but you are very unlikely to find news.

This really bums me out, because putting aside the damage a non existent 4th estate does to a democracy, it gives me no station on TV to play in the background for background noise.

More and more I'm getting my news once again from newspapers as well. (at least their online forms)

Palm Pre

Still really enjoying this shiny new toy.

The new WebOS 1.1 update has really made it snappy. Little clicked up touches of animated pop ups and subtle interface and functionality tweaks. Great update.

The homebrewers are really starting to pick up steam on the Pre too. Just a couple days ago they released both a desktop 1-click homebrew app installing solution, and a Pre App that will from the Pre also directly install apps without the need of a desktop.

When I got my Eee PC netbook there was a similar community of innovation that sprung up briefly for a time. It's fun to find and play with these status quo changing devices at their beginnings when these hacker culture communities embrace them.

I really want to work on my own custom apps for the pre soon, they will have to be eccentric though, because the general stuff if probably all well on it's way to being constructed in the next few months.

Back to Twitter

Two more good “real-life” friends joined Twitter this past week. Love Twitter, it becomes even more useful the more real people that you have real connections with on it.

Throw the Pre into the mix and Twitter becomes even more useful. It's definitly a tech that's been worth the hype... especially as your friends and followers become more connected to you in real space.

Four types of Paragraphs

Influence, Inform, Express, Entertain.

I guess the above has mostly been about the the first three; had I been shooting for the the 4th, I would have went with more out-there metaphors, otomotopia and retorical repetition.

I bring up the four types of paragraphs because I've been toying around with them as applied to conversation and activities in the real world too.

Influence, Inform, Express, Entertain.

The above is about deciminating information... typing it, makes me think is there a corollary to gathering information?

Reports/Documentation collection, Interviews, Surveys, Focus Groups, Direct Observation, Model Testing?

Interviews

During the analysis process, interviews are conducted for a variety of purposes and with a variety of goals in mind. An interview can be conducted at various times within the process for

-Initial introduction
-Familiarization or background
-Fact gathering
-Verification of information gathered elsewhere
-Confirmation of information gathered from the interviewee
-Follow-up, amplification, and clarification \

Goals of the Interview?

At each level, each phase, and with each interviewee, an interview may be conducted to:

Gather information on the company
-Gather information on the function
-Gather information on processes or activities
-Uncover problems
-Conduct a needs determination
-Verification of previously gathered facts
-Gather opinions or viewpoints
-Obtain leads for further interviews

Media Fragmentation

So many stories to read, watch and listen to. But what aditional: Influence, information, expression or entertainment do they provide if experienced in a vaccuum?

With the possibility of of completely individualized programs encompassing the above 4 where will the commonality come into place. Humans are social creatures and individuals. what a balance to strike, when it's so easy to swing to either side.

fini

...and so ends my random non-sequiters for now. ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0907.php#p885 Wealthy Theater

Went to the Wealthy Theater tonight and saw The Muppet Movie.Delightful experience. The theater is very charming, the people were interesting and friendly (employees and patrons) And it was all around a really nice time.

I'm definitely going to keep an eye on upcoming Tuesday night Meanwhile series of movies.Upcoming showings of Alien, Aliens and Fight Club will probably be must sees. good Times. ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0907.php#p884 Rick Astley/Nirvana Never Gonna Give You Up/Smells like Teen Spirit Mashup

Pretty cool.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0907.php#p883 Video Games I Have

I just made a page with all my PS2 games on it. Yes I just have a PS2. I can't really beat those games, so an XBox 360, Wii or PS3 isn't really high on my to buy list.

Why did I make this list? I've been seeing alot of good discount bins for PS2 games and just wanted a reference on the one I already had.

Here's the list

Leave me a comment on any PS2 games you think I need to add to the above. (Sure they might be old, but they'll probably be new to me.)]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0907.php#p880 Let's Go Surfing

» Very cool, a car that runs on air! ('course you have to use something to compress the air, but still, neat.)

» The Heinz Beanzawave mini-microwave, charges by USB. Video! This is cool.

» Drinking Battleship game. Neat, but you could probably just make a piece of paper with a prinout of all your ships and put a shot glass on each one and save yourself the trouble.

» Video: U2's Bono Singing on Stage in a jacket covered in 240 lasers

» ThinkGeek has this Mimo extra monitor that runs off of USB for $130. 800x480, this would be perfect to move my twitter an IM off my screens at work. If it worked on Linux (it doesn't) I certainly would have bought one to use as a second monitor for my Eee PC. Still thinking about it though. $99 would would fully convince me if they want to drop it to that price point.

» gdgt.com looks like it could be the next big thing, or maybe not, in the world of gadgets. A social network and wikipedia for gadgets rolled into one. If enough people participate then it could be very very useful, if not, then I'm not sure. Seems to me, they could really use a news site component to drive traffic to this thing. Even without that, it's a place to watch, and potentially if it gets traction, a good first check for gadget info before hitting Google.

» Zambabook.com. Allow customers to schedule their own appointments on the web. Interesting concept.

» Pre-Star Wars, Pre-American Graffiti interview of George Lucas. Interesting thoughts on the movie business, or any creative business really.

Ice Cream, Firework and Sparklers with Adam and Comfort.

"That's going to be changing in two months, three months, six months etc."

Running into some challenges where there are some roadblocks to doing things because: we are waiting for the process to be final, or the final people to be in place etc.

The process is never final though. People will never be final either. Both are and should always be changing, tweaking, refining getting better. Learning from each project and having a feedback loop that makes the next project better.

Do what can be done now. See the goal, and steer to it, but if you are waiting to the road to be final, it never will be.

If you have a window of "no change" then those that want no change will stall until they reach that window or the next, and one week slides into the next.

Change needs to be part of every process. Nothing is done, nothing is final.

There needs to be a distant point down the road where everyone can focus on and measure whether they are on course or off course. But that point can not be a small specific idea, that point needs to be a big broad idea.

Google's: "Don't be evil" as an example. Everyone at Google can ask, does this make us more or less evil. It's a big idea, it's a bright star in the sky to guide by. Everyone can look up and see it, and there is nothing final about it. There isn't a point where Google is going to be: in 2 months, 3 months, 6 months, we'll no longer be evil once the non-evil plans are in place.

Google's: "Organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful..." it's a big idea, it can never be "done" but you can keep steering to it.

Nothing is final... everything is work in progress, bright guiding stars need to be in the sky and they have to be real, and people have to buy into them. You need to get people focused on the same stars that are charting the course.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0906.php#p874 Random Non-Sequiters

» In my new cubicle location at work. I have it about 80% organized, the other 20% is hidden, so it looks fairly neat anyway.

» I saw Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen last night. Long movie, lots of explosions. All of Michael Bay's female casting is along the lines of Megan Fox. It was the Bayiest Bay movie that ever bayed I think. If the the first Transformers was targeted at 8 to 12 year old boys, this new film probably targets 14 to 17 year old boys. Taken in that context and for that audience, it was a very good film. Don't expect much plot and don't expect the Autobots or Decepticons to take themselves too seriously and you'll enjoy this just fine (if you are a guy.)

BTW, I thought it was much more like the cartoon than the first film, and on some level I'm guessing that it will turn out to be a better G.I. Joe movie than G.I.Joe will turn out to be as well.

» Thinking alot about Advertising today (happens often actually). Thinking about *if* the era of an advertiser asking permission to interrupt someone and deliver a message that the advertiser wants to deliver a customer is over?

I know that interrupting someone with advertising without someone's permission is probably over and often creates as much negative feeling as good. With so much out there asking for a customers attention, why would a customer want to give their attention to anyone providing them an untargeted general message not tailored to their *current* needs at the moment?

I know why I make interruption advertising, I'm payed to. And within the constraints of what is left of that type of advertising, I can accomplish what is accomplishable. But it's a changing world. ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0906.php#p873 Video

» Improv Everywhere. Bunches of people download an MP3 and then take instructions from a voice, acting in unison.

» Man on the street interviews... people don't know what a browser is.

» Weird Al Craigslist Song.

» What if people treated other people like they do graphic designers?

» Tweettabs Tweetdeck-like web based updating search columns

» Ocipital Red Laser Bar code Scanning App for iPhone 3GS.

» iPhone 3Gs vs. Palm Pre Browser Showdown.

» John Hodgman/Obama Roast. funny.

» Giant Japanese Gundam robot moves it's head, blows steam out of it's frame.

xkcd is an interesting comic. Besides the entertainment of the comic, however, there are often hidden gems of commentary or insight in the comics "alt" tag text (the hover box when your cursor rests over the image.) A week or more ago there was this comic an amusing enough math geek take on the Seinfeld episode This or That where Jerry and Elaine try to change the rules of sex between Men and women.

Like I said the comic itself is derivative but the alt text? The alt text is pity and profound:

This happens in geek circles every so often. The 'Hey this is just a system I can figure out easily!' It's also a problem among engineers first diving into the stock market.

I've been noodling on that statement 'Hey this is just a system I can figure out easily!' for the past week an half.

Then also this past week, I've had the opportunity to interact with a handful of people I've known a long time, who are in new situations. Same people, new situations. And it's been interesting that certain things I thought would be the way things should be, were.

This would lend itself to reinforcement of people "...just being a system I can figure out easily". Systems that react in reliable predictable ways, are like algebra equations with Xs, Ys and Zs right? Understand the variables and solve for the equations.

The engineering mindset, is that equations are solvable, you just need enough information. Get enough transparency, collect enough data, and you can solve the equation. Or maybe not...

Enter The Dark Knight.

The Dark Knight was on HBO this morning, I have all the above spinning in my head, frothing about with current events and current situations and then I get to a scene in The Dark Knight, a movie I've seen before but a movie good enough that if you watch it several times, you can peel back some interesting nuggets of thought. I tuned in, shortly before this exchange:

INT. BAT-BUNKER -- DAY

    Wayne sits at his video screens- they
    all play the Joker's video with different
    IMAGE TREATMENTS and SOUND TUNINGS.
    Wayne turns to Alfred. Indicates
    the screens.

            WAYNE
        Targeting me won't get their money
        back. I knew the mob wouldn't go
        down without a fight, but this is
        different. They've crossed a line.


            ALFRED
        You crossed it first, sir. You've
        hammered them, squeezed them to the
        point of desperation. And now, in
        their desperation they've turned to a
        man they don't fully understand.
    Wayne gets up from his monitors,
    raises the bat-cabinet.

            WAYNE
        Criminals aren't complicated, Alfred.
        We just have to figure out what he's
        after.

            ALFRED
        Respectfully, Master Wayne, perhaps
        this is a man you don't fully
        understand, either.

            ALFRED
            (looks at Wayne)
        I was in Burma. A long time ago. My
        friends and I were working for the
        local government. They were trying
        to buy the loyalty of tribal leaders,
        bribing them with precious stones.
        But their caravans were being raided
        in a forest north of Rangoon by a
        bandit. We were asked to take care
        of the problem, so we started
        looking for the stones. But after
        six months, we couldn't find anyone
        who had traded with him.

            WAYNE
        What were you missing?

            ALFRED
        One day I found a child playing with
        a ruby as big as a tangerine.
            (shrugs)
        The bandit had been throwing the
        stones away.

            WAYNE
        So why was he stealing them?

            ALFRED
        Because he thought it was good sport.
        Because some men aren't looking for
        anything logical, like money... they
        can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or
        negotiated with.
            (grave)
        Some men just want to watch the world
        burn.
    Wayne stares at Alfred.
    Reaches for the bat-suit.

...some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money... they can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.

Another piece to throw into the froth, "irrational drives". Drives so embedded, so built-in that circumstances can't change them. Sure circumstances may mitigate them potentially, circumstances may even submerge them temporarily, but these "irrational drives" so core to a person's make-up, just wait to reassert themselves.

You can't know all the drives, you can't collect enough information on those, there are also likely many drives, many submerged by circumstance. You can't predict fully which ones will surface themselves and play off the surfaced drives of others either.

It's chaos.

But given enough time, you can see the "irrational drives" even though submerged, identify them, and ping your sonar against their depths to check and see that they are still there. But you can't predict when they will surface. And that's stressful. You know the submarine is out there, periodic pings on your sonar over time confirm it. Yet you don't know when it will surface or worse yet, launch one of it's ICBMs. So you build defenses. You try to prepare for all the possible sub attacks, but soon you come to the conclusion that it's just not possible to anticipate them all and their permutations of combinations, for the ocean is large and their numbers are legion.

This is a potential attack. Attacks provoke Fight or Flight or tend and befriend. But neither of these responses work well against the subs.

So then you just blog about it.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0906.php#p871 Delayed tweet backs

I was away from twitter all day, but when I got home I scrolled back to my last check in and read them all to catch myself up.

There's a certain point where it's just to late to comment on a tweet in twitter... but if I had been around today, these are some of the tweet back comments I might have made:

On Iran:
By all account the other guy still doesn't care much for America either. I think twitter peeps are a little too excited for the whole Iranian election.

I'm not a fan of the green color over icons thing either, seems too much like the web equivalent of sticking a ribbon magnet on your car.

On a Tweep getting told he was Twitteringto much:
If you are at your desk all day working, tweeting is no different than talking to the cube next to you.

To a tweep fretting about eyebrows:
You have eyebrows? I knew you had eyes, but I'm not sure I ever noticed what your eyebrows look like.

To a tweep making donuts:
mmm donuts!

To the tweep who posted her facebook address:
Hey you're hot!

To my friends currently in Charlotte!:
Whoo Hoo!

To the tweep who thinks the cafeteria lady has a vendetta against him:
You're not paranoid... there really is cafeteria conspiracy... I'm sure of it... ;)

To the tweep buying a $85 power charger:
Ouch... I never have bought into why they get away charging so much for those.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0906.php#p870 More thoughts on the Palm Pre

Eleven Days later.

A twitter friend of mine asked yesterday about my likes and dislikes about the Palm Pre. So here's some additional thoughts since I've had a chance to carry it around awhile.

I like the shape and weight of it in my pocket. I'm partial to the whole zen/rock style anyway so the ergonomics and the design of this device are ideal for me. I really dig that the screen in seamlessly molded into the body. If you are a tactile person, this device is a lot of fun to thumb and scroll around on.

Email is pretty great. The device works perfectly with Gmail and my Work's Microsoft Exchange server. Both email services can be viewed separately and since the device supports multiple cards (what they call open applications) you can keep both emails open.

The “push” email is also great. There is a little notification area at the bottom, whenever I get email, I'm notified much like a text message. There is a gmail or an outlook style icon too, so I can tell at a glance if it's my home or work account.

Gmail and Exchange calendars also work great and are displayed sideby side in different colors.

The Web browser works well and pretty much handles everything you can throw at it except flash. And Flash support is supposed to be on the way. It's speedy on both the Sprint network and Wi-Fi.

Wi-Fi works great by the way, once I picked out my Wi-Fi zones, it seamlessly switches between work, home and my friends' house.

Videos on the Youtube app are very clear, often better than on my desktops. Search on Youtube works great too.

I use the Accuweather App a lot, Very well layed out visually appealing weather information.

I also really like the Flix and Fandango movie apps, where you can easily find show times and coming soon movie trailers to watch.

What else do I like? I like the tweed twitter app that is available. It works well, not as good as tweetdeck, but no complaints for a mobile twitter app.

The Gmail and AIM instant messaging is fantastic. Being able to carry AIM and and Google Chat in your pocket and use it like a text message is great. Text messaging is also great in that it uses the same user interface as the chat.

The Clock is simple and clean. It looks like one of those old time plastic “flip” clocks. The alarms are easy to set and use, and it does wake me up if I take a nap.

I love the camera. Very clear bright photos. 3 mega pixels and it's very easy to email pictures after you take them. The camera flash is also really easy to turn on, auto and off. I also like that it stores the orientation information with the picture, so when I email my photos to my flickr account for autoposting on my blog, the pictures are vertical or horizontal as I shot them.

I also really like the “Where” app which has a yellow pages that makes it very easy to use the devices' GPS to find your way to restaurants etc.

I suppose I could mention a little about the phone app. ;)

The phone works good, people say that my voice is much clearer than it was on my previous flip phone. Dialing is easy. The fact that it pulls your friends profile pictures from Facebook or Gmail and matches them with their phone numbers automatically is a neat feature. It's really easy to know who is calling when that full screen image pops up. (I forgot to mention that, since it pulls and keeps your Facebook and Gmail Contact friends info into your contact list and merges them, it makes a great address book and an awesome dialer.)

Things that could still use a little work.

Google Maps, Google maps works real well when you have one of the other apps pump the starting and ending addresses into it. But for a device that has GPS, it seems odd that I can't have it auto populate my “from” field and do a simple search to get the “to” field filled. Typing addresses can be a bit tedious on the small keyboard, since you have to shift between numbers and letters a lot.

There is a “You are here” button on the Google maps though, push the icon and it shows you with a little blue dot where you are on the planet.

Visual voicemail would be nice. As it stands now, you have to call up and go thru your voicemail one by one.

The phone app could be better integrated with the contacts app. They really are two different apps and sort of display as two different cards, it would be nice if there was an icon on the phone app that better took you to the contact list within the same card. Not a big issue but it would be a smidgen faster than switching between cards.

Notetaking is sortof lacking... you can look at all the office document formats and view/edit google docs, but the notetaking and document editing could be beefed up abit. The built-in app and Evernote both could use some work. (The simple task app which looks like a molskine binder however is very useful and nice... but it too needs to sync somehow off the device.)

Things I haven't played with yet.

I really haven't done much with video or audio files yet. The Palm Pre does sync with iTunes, but I haven't been using iTunes so I haven't tried any of that out yet. I have a small MP3 player I already use for music/podcasts so this wasn't a big feature for me.

You can also run all the old classic Palm Pilot Apps, I haven't tried any of those yet.

One other note.

This isn't an iPhone.

For me, it has better features than an iphone. The web integration and the multiple apps and multiple views of the same applications are incredibly useful for someone who lives in Twitter the web and email/IM messaging like me. But Palm really hasn't started their Ad campaign yet (it's supposed to start today though) and none of your friends have heard of this phone, so if you want mainstream status, this ain't the phone for you yet until more people get to see it out in the wild. And then you're still going to hear a lot of: “Is that an iPhone? Is that a Windows Phone?”

No, it's better :) (for me anyway.)]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0906.php#p869 Up

I saw Disney/Pixar's Up yesterday. I liked the movie.

As movies about old bittered grumpy widow guys helping out young asian boys go however, I preferred Gran Torino.

The best part of Up was probably the scenes dealing with the old man's life with and loss of his wife. Very sweet, although the indirectness of it all (since you can't actually say she died, since that might scare the kiddies) wore on me after awhile.

Overall I recommend seeing the movie, but you could wait until DVD, because even though the animation is beautiful, it's not bombastic in anyway and shouldn't suffer on the small screen.

Good Stuff, do see (but see Eastwood's Gran Torino first).]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0906.php#p868 Let's Go Surfing

» Like eBooks but miss the smell of books? You're in luck!

» Draw Pixel Art!

» Mike Sterling had this fun post on paper rings that came in Topps Trading Cards Packs.

Would be a fun little template to create.

» Automatically Wikify your copy with links to wikipedia.

» 4TB Harddrives That's alot of space.

» USB powered microwave. Very Cool.

» Video on the web is about to get a whole hellava lot awesomer. Watch Below:

» Very convincing argument that 30 Rock is the Muppet Show revamp. Click on the link, you should want to go to there.

» Sure I'm firmly in the Palm Pre camp, but you've got to take hats off to this guy singing about the new iPhone 3Gs.

» Copypastecharacter.com It's a Web Based CharMap program.

» You me and the Bourgeoisie (iPhone Song), The Submarines. The lyrics are actually quite subversive/ironic being that the iPhone is one the Bourgeoisie's iconic representations of conspicuous consuption. I have new found appreciation for Apples' ability to revile it's own customers while charging them for the pleasure.

Here I am with all the pleasures of the first world
Laid out before me, who am I to breakdown?

Everyday I wake up, I choose love, I choose light
And I try, it's too easy just to fall apart

Oh, my baby don't be so distressed
We're done with politesse
It's time to be so brutally honest about
The way we know we long for something fine
When we pine for higher ceilings
And bourgeois happy feelings

And here we are in the center of the first world
It's laid out before us, who are we to break down?

Everyday we wake up, we choose love, we choose light
And we try, it's too easy just to fall apart

Plastic bottles, imported water
Cars we drive wherever we want to
Clothes we buy, it's sweatshop labor
Drugs from corporate enablers
We're not living the good life
Unless we're fighting the good fight
You and me just trying to get it right

In the center of the first world
It's laid out before us, who are we to break down?

Everyday we wake up, we choose love, we choose light
And we try, it's too easy just to fall apart

Love can free us from all excess
From our deepest debt
'Cause when our hearts are full we need much less

Yeah, I know we long for something fine
When we pine for higher ceilings
And bourgeois happy feelings

But here we are, in the center of the first world
It's laid out before us, who are we to break down?

Here we are, in the center of the first world
It's laid out before us, who are we to break down?

Everyday we wake up, we choose love, we choose light
And we try, it's too easy just to fall a-

Everyday we wake up, we choose love, we choose light
And we try, it's too easy just to fall apart

» Playscreen.com games formated for your Palm Pre.

» Japan has a life-size Gundam. Awesome.

» Palm Pre's Fonts Prelude

» Give your netbook the abillity to seek out John Connor

» Nice comparison chart on iPhone, Palm Pre, Android G1, and Blackberry Storm

» I really want this Twitter Shirt

l1nf0:0614 ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0906.php#p867 Let's Go Surfing

» Find CD/DVD/Game Cover Art at AllCDCovers.com

» Read Movie Scripts online. IMSDB.com

» 4 Websites to make you a Visual Basic Guru

» iRex Color eInk eReader in 2011

» Youtube has a streamlined format specifically for viewing videos on your TV: Goto Youtube.com/xl and take a look.

» You should watch the Han Solo, P.I. Opening below...

...and then you need to watch the Magnum P.I./Han Solo P.I. comparison below.

» Crunchpad, computing from your couch is coming. Can't wait!

» Windows Freeware converts JPEGS to PDF

» Extend your XP Taskbar across Muliple Monitors, Freeware

l1nf0:0604 ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0906.php#p866 Random Thoughts About Vacation Time

Yesterday I broke out a calendar for the rest of the year and plotted out my vacation time. Over the next 6 months I marked off 23 days to take off in the next 25 weeks. That still leaves me 2 to 7 days to take during that same period of time. (I'm actually not sure if I got my 6th week last year, or if I get it coming up this year. It may very well be that I still have 7 more days to plot out.)

The time above doesn't count 4th of July and Labor Day which I also get off during the same period.

Out of the next 120 working days, I get 27 off (25 + 2 holiday) and potentially 32 days off (30 + 2 holidays) or basically 1 in every 4 work days off. (I didn't quite plot it out that way... there's a couple whole weeks off in my mix.)

It's really quite crazy.

I haven't taken any vacation time in the last 6 months, which is the reason all of this is bunching up.

It all sounds like a good problem to have, but I'm not the type of person that really relaxes when I know that projects I'm involved in are continuing without me when I'm not there. I don't like that catch-up feeling I have to go through when I come back from a few days off and have to figure out the twists, turns and changes that occurred while I wasn't present.

I guess I'm going to have to get better at dealing with that feeling though.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0906.php#p865 Removeable Swapable Netbook SSD Hard Drives

Throwing this idea out to the internet at large. What I would like is a low cost netbook with Easily swappable SSD hard drives.

Think about it, pop in your windows drive, boot and use your favorite windows Apps, pop in you Ubuntu drive and enjoy your open source afternoon. Maybe pop in an Android drive for frequent on and off quick info access while traveling.

With all my data safely in the cloud or in an SD card... The drive with the OS and Apps could become strictly that, a drive only with the OS and Apps.

Sure you could put a bunch of OS's on one big drive and have all these operating systems in a multi-boot environment, but why get that complicated with it? Most OS's don't need more than 4 or 8 gigs to live comfortably, so these SSDs can be small.

All those flash drive makers like Sandisk etc, have to be looking around for some sort of new idea, what with their products getting commotitized all to heck.

Swappable OS/App Netbook SSD Harddrives. Get to it internets!]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0906.php#p864 Palm Pre first impressions

I got my Palm Pre phone today. First Impressions: sexy, elegant, well done.

I went to Best Buy on Alpine. They had 5 Pre's. All five sold out immediately, which is a little ironic since I was the only person who got to Best Buy a few hours early. The other 4 people walked up at 9:45am. Still although it turned out I didn't need to be there early, I still got the 1st one out of that store so a little bit of geek pride in that.

When off the Pre is solid glossy back. It really does look very much like a river stone in your hand.

Set-up was quick and painless, I added my Google email and password, and my Facebook password and the Pre Grabbed all my contact info and phone numbers off of those two services.

Gestures work great. I very much like the way the gesture area is both on and below the screen. I've seen people complain about the keyboard but after a few minutes I was typing fairly quickly on it, it's small but serviceable.

The screen is very crisp and clear. Device also feels good when the keyboard is extended. Maybe it's my familiarity with flip phones but I felt most comfortable with the keyboard extended while talking.

Downloaded Tweed (a twitter app) and Pandora (streaming radio) from the app store. Also grabbed the Fandango Movie App. All three worked great and simultaneously [hooray for multitasking!] which is nice. I tried the built-in Youtube and it was very clear over the cell network (Sprint TV was abit choppy, but I'm guessing that has more to do with the low bitrates they are streaming and little to do with the phone.

Played with the browser briefly, the pinch zoom and shirk works very well, it's a very dynamic way to move around the screen.

Overall very pleased so far. It's like a little bit of future in the palm of your hand. More impressions later. ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0906.php#p863 http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0906.php#p862 Batman and Robin

I just read the Morrison/Quietly Batman and Robin #1. It was good. I enjoyed it alot actually. It feels like a book where Nightwing takes over the mantle of Batman should feel. Gotham is still a twisted city but now it's reflected thru Dick Graysons Carnival/Circus prism.

I also liked the Flying Batmobile. Dick would have a flying Batmobile, that makes sense, and is a good reflection of his character. And a fun signal that this is a different Batman.

I like the dark angsty all-too-serious ready to prove himself Robin too. It feels fresh having Batman be the slightly lighter persona and having the young Robin be the one who is a little too dark.

I like that it feels like the Batman and Robin mythos has progressed, instead of being stuck in one place.

Do you want to know what my problem with this book is though? It's all bound to be undone and reversed when they do a "triumphant return" of Bruce Wayne as Batman, after which it will likely be forgotten, mentioned occasionally, if at all, here and there and finally retconned fully out of existence. Except we'll have 4 Robins' (Dick, Jason, Tim and now Damian) instead of just 3.

Ultimately it's just a "real" Elseworlds title to eventually be pushed out of canon. Which is fine, I like a good Elseworlds tale, and it's not like much gets a chance to stay in canon anymore anyway. DC has abandoned canon for an elastic "iconic" status quo.

As I said, it's a good book, but it'd be a better book if there was uncertainty or mystery on how it would all play out. And there is no uncertainty. Bruce Wayne will be back, so beyond this moment in time just being a good story in the here and now... there's little point to this yarn in the Grand Batman mythos in the long term.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0905.php#p860 The Astounding World of the Future

Hilarious!

» Royalty Free sound effects at Soundjay.com Nice variety of effects.

» Add Facebook Style Chat to your website with this JQuery Chat Code Free for non-commercial use.

» Todo List Apps are a Dime a Dozen... but if you are looking for something very clean and simple with very rudimentary pop up reminders, take a look at this Adobe Air App: Doomi

» Fan made Green Lantern trailer featuring Nathan Fillion (Capt. From Firefly)

» Ubuntu is creating an execution environment that will allow you to run Android apps from within desktop Linux. That's pretty cool. I wonder if Apple will be doing anything like that with their iPhone Apps? Seems like a great way to sell apps to non-iPhone, Mac owners.

» Intel's Moblin Linux Netbook OS. See the video (and listen to the bizarrely relaxing birds and british woman's voice) below.

» A Mouse Guard Role Playing Game. Sounds fun (and I'm not really into RPGs at all) Read about it here. Read ALOT about it here. Buy it on Amazon

» Steve Martin playing Banjo with the Muppets.

» SmartQ 7 Internet Tablet Pretty nice looking device. Fair amount of apps beyond Web Browsing too. Video demo below.

» TinyChat.com has relaunched, it now has video too. Very Slick.

» Google Web Elements Embed Calendar, Conversation, Custom Search, Maps, News, Presentations, Spreadsheets, or Youtube News on your sites. Eh. Most of these have been able to have been done before in different ways. This does bring all the above together on one page though.

» Specto Get instant notifications of Web/RSS items on your Linux machine. Looks especially useful if you use it in conjunction with your own web page that collects or parses data from elsewhere.

» Cameron house from Ferris Beuler's Day off is for Sale in Chicago. Looks like they fixed the window. Pretty cool.

» Plastic Logic eInk Touch Screen Demo. This is like pure computer geek porn. I lust for this device. Avail. January 2010. No idea price.

» I really like the idea of this pop-up table. This could be a great way to build a game room and have lots of in-floor storage as well.

» I'd love to try Hulu Desktop but my media pc connected to my TV is a Linux box, so no Hulu Desktop for me it seems :( (PC/Mac only at the moment)

» iCar remote. Completely fake, but amusing.

l1nf0:0529]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0905.php#p858 Let's Go Surfing

» Farkie.com is an interesting website, give it a page link and it gives you a list of pretty much every possibile image or item on that page that you can directly download.

» Printfriendly.com will take a link you give it and reformat a page for cleaner better printing. It also will let you deselect elements, and images on a page so you only have to print the parts you want. Also will save the page to a PDF. Nice.

» Switching Transformers' Ravage from a Cassette Tape to a USB Stick, that's just genius!

» Glympse.com neat service, only on Android at the moment (iPhone, Windows Mobile and Blackberry coming-- and let's hope Pre), let's your friends "get a glympse" of your location and real time track your movements. Thay can actually watch your icon move in real time on a map and know where you are and judge for themselves how long it will take you to arrive :) The privacy implementation is great, since the glympse by default is for a limited time to specific people. Nice idea.

» Nice looking eInk Screened watches Very cool.

» Yet another eBook Reader, Cybook 6" screen... looks neat, no word on price. I still want to get one of these eventually.

» ABC passed on the American No Heroics remake Just as well, I can't imagine it even being able to come close to what the British version is. American Censors wouldn't allow it.

» Jetpack Neat plugin for Firefox, like Greasemonkey, sort of. Video demo at link.

From Techcrunch<

Mozilla has unveiled a new project from its Labs division called Jetpack that gives us a taste of how Firefox might begin extending web functionality in years to come. While the project is still quite early in development, it seems to be taking the form of a streamlined extension system, allowing web developers to introduce new features to the Firefox browser using web-based tools and requiring only a minimal amount of effort on the user’s part.

Firefox extensions have long been one of the best parts of the browser, allowing users to add and remove features to suit their needs. But while the user experience of installing these has been relatively straightforward, it still requires a browser reboot, which can be frustrating when you’re in the middle of something. With Jetpack, this isn’t an issue - you click install and you’re done, with the new widget or application installed a few seconds later.

» Sarcastic Gamer Parody voice over of Microsoft future Vision Video. Cynically funny.

» Create your own bundle of RSS feeds to share with other Google Reader users. You could always do this by making an OMPL file, but using this drag and drop method is even simpler.

» If Apple comes out with a tablet, does that mean we'll get good cheap knockoffs, or expensive knockoffs.

» It's pretty slick that Google Maps is now suggesting multiple alternate routes to destination

» ABC's New V trailer looks really good (and that's an awesome surprize). ONe problem though... do you know how hard it is to accurately google a single letter?

Watch this trailer if you haven't seen it already.

» Repper is a really neat website that makes patterns. You upload an image, then scale and move the little transparent box in the main area, and presto, you have some very interesting patterns.

» Terminator theme overdubbed with a ukulele. Sounds corny but it's actually pretty good.

» District 9 Looks like a very interesting (and thoughtful?) Alien movie.

» Interesting walk thru Green Lantern History with alot of cover pictures too.

» Samsung $129 8" secondary monitor conects via USB. Slick. A device like this is definitely on my purchase radar.

» Wack a Kitty

» A very well written article on motorcycle engine repair.

A manager has to make many decisions for which he is accountable. Unlike an entrepreneur with his own business, however, his decisions can be reversed at any time by someone higher up the food chain (and there is always someone higher up the food chain). It’s important for your career that these reversals not look like defeats, and more generally you have to spend a lot of time managing what others think of you. Survival depends on a crucial insight: you can’t back down from an argument that you initially made in straightforward language, with moral conviction, without seeming to lose your integrity. So managers learn the art of provisional thinking and feeling, expressed in corporate doublespeak, and cultivate a lack of commitment to their own actions. Nothing is set in concrete the way it is when you are, for example, pouring concrete.

» I really really really dislike the Cult of Done Manifesto. Done is not a goal. Done may be a state, but to have "done" as a goal is to miss life's point entirely.

» Want to know what is is like to work as a Graphic Designer in a corporate environment? Watch this:

l1nf0:0525]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0905.php#p857 Random Non-Sequiters

» So today's new tech hotness is The Google Wave. Take every web or internet based communication form you can imagine and roll it all up into one giant integrated real time collaboration ball and you have the Google Wave.

Clear as crystal right? Nah, but it definitely looks like something new and huge-- Real Time Communication tying you into everything. Looks to me like it might be challenging for people who already struggle to keep up with their inboxes, but email is failing at the real-time collaborative world, so maybe this will be something useful.

» Are humans really designed to function well in a constant state of “fight” that real time imparts? If items of note or action are constantly arriving in front of you and require you swat them away with replies, action, or simply digestion of information. How much real time will be too much real time? When do the gnats swarm so tight as to form a viscous cloud hampering breath?

Fight or flight. Where will the flight be built into the system?

» Thinking a lot of about agency and how you balance it with a sense of community , cooperation and collaboration. I've been seeing the phrase “sense of agency” too, which is an interesting phrase since it can imply that someone feels they have agency that they do not actually have. What a complicated thing it is to contribute to someone's “sense of agency” over a period of time.

» Thinking about the use of competition in a corporate environment whereby you structure an outcome that produces more losers than winners. Specifically thinking about how if that is done on a regular basis how that effects morale once the majority, due to the “greater losers than winners” outcome of such a set-up , feels perpetually in a state of loss over time. Competition seems a danger fraught approach if the contestants have no sense of release from the arena and are forced more often than not to be eaten by the lion and to live with the cumulative consequences of their losses. There are tricks to create a “sense of progress” (see my mention of “sense” above) But over time this is destined to be less effective as a sense of recognition of the difference between “sense of progress” and “actual progress” is likely to be detected.

» Also thinking about shared experience. A decade ago you heard a lot about the 500 channel world. Now the channels are infinite and culture so niche and diverse it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a way to speak to commonalities in shared experience, since the current abundance of choice makes the common threads between individuals so potentially thin. I've been thinking about this often, as in order to properly advertise to mass markets of people you have to identify those shared experiences that bond those masses together.

» On a different more country-wide note, I would like to see Obama do something to shake up the ship a bit. I know it's a cruise liner and not a speedboat, but it would be nice if he found a topic or two to make a hard turn to port on anyway.

» Enough randomness for now. ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0905.php#p856 Random Non-Sequiters

Tweet Spam.

I have a computer in my livingroom hooked up to my TV. One thing I do with it sometimes is leave it set on Twitter Search, with a search phrase entered it to it.

This is entertaining because as I come in and out of the room, it's zoomed into the last 3 or 4 entries of the given search. A greasemonkey script autorefreshes the page every few minutes.

When I launched the web browser this morning, the last search in it was for Star Trek.

Everytime the page refreshes there is Spam in it right now with the words "star trek" appended to it so that the spam will show up with that currently popular search term.

The page is zoomed in, mind you, so that you can see the top 3 tweets from across the room and everytime it refreshes one of those three tweets is spam. One in every 3 messages just about with the words Star Trek in it, is spam. That's just incredible.

It's got to suck being twitter right now, trying to get that under control.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0905.php#p855 Random Non-Sequiters

I just took a shower.

Last time I went grocery shopping, they were out of my regular unscented shampoo. So presented with the available choices, I chose the Vanilla shampoo. It seemed the most benign choice available with unscented not being an option.

I used the Vanilla shampoo just now. It was like showering in ice cream but without the stickiness. Very aromatic.

My hair is clean, but I have an overwhelming desire to go to Coldstone Creamery or Baskin Robbins.

I also feel like I need a Hot Fudge scented conditioner and maybe some candy sprinkles to finish off the experience now. Doubt they make such a thing, just as well.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0905.php#p854 Random Non-Sequiters

» This is how I want to drive to work. I want to get into one of these little electric taxi's and be whisked away, happily reading an eBook, watching a video or listening to a podcast.

» Zipmaps.net is a neat site that shows you a on a map where a zip code area is visually, in the same sortof way that you see congressional districts cut-up.

» From David Goyer (Dark Knight) New TV Series- Flash Forward. Looks Good.

» DC Blammoids Yet another sortof dumbe format to crank out their major icons in. I'd be ok with just more DC Direct 6" figures.

Still I'm sortof a sucker and will probably get a Green Lantern one. (probably not that Sinestro costume though...l I mean if you're going to go funky... go with his classic look.)

Speaking of DC Direct... There's also a new JSA wave coming out. great for pedo-type-collectors that is, not one but two teenage girl JSA figures. I'll probably get them to keep my JSA collection complete, but it doesn't mean I won't feel a little creepy about it (especially since I already have the Kingdom Come Superman and that Hourman Figure. "Two teenage girl figures only please!") They should have hooked us up with Star Girls' partner Robot-Suit: Stripe instead of putting Cyclone in the same wave. Give a guy a little dignity at the cash register ok ;)

» A $176 laptop Not US yet, but still cool. I saw a 9" Eee PC on Woot yesterday for $150. I'm getting pretty excited for the day when you can pick up a Netbook with Wi-Fi at a Walgreens or Meijer for $99.

» Google Barcode Scanner/Product Search App for Android and all the other Smartphones soon I imagine. It's going to be a rough time soon to have a brick and mortar store that isn't internet-competitive on pricing soon.

And oh, yeah reality better be on the look out because that is going to be augmented in real time soon too.

» It really looks like it would suck to be a designer at Google. Except maybe for all that free food and neato campus. I mean if you are going to be a corporate drone, I imagine that's the way to do it.

» We are small, so very very small and the universe is awesome in scale

» Google Street View Automatically blurs people's faces... that's what makes this so funny

» The Simpsons sung a cappella

» This Wall Mount Cat Bed is pretty cool.

» Nice collection of Free eBooks for Web Designers

» Was 1971 the perfect time to be born a geek? Interesting post.

Article also copied below:

The perfect geek age? May 14th, 2009 (Visited 12497 times) Tags: Was being born in 1971 the perfect time to be born a geek? * It meant I got to see Star Wars in the theater, 13 times, at ages 6 and 7, exactly when it would overwhelm my sense of wonder. * I got an 8-bit computer at exactly the age when boys get obsessive about details, and I spent days PEEKing and POKEing and typing in listings from magazines and learning how computers actually worked. * It meant at least half the new games I played were actually new ideas. * And yet I got to play real pinball machines. * In real arcades. * New Wave science fiction was the used paperbacks laying around, and I got to read cyberpunk and steampunk as they were invented, and see SF when fandom was not yet a media circus. * I got to play D&D from as close to the beginning as most anyone. * And feel like I had inside baseball knowledge during the D&D scene in E.T., which the other folks in the theater didn’t get. * I was there for when the X-Men were new and fresh * I got to high school when PCs were becoming ubiquitous. * I got to college when Macs were on Apple campuses, and actually useful. * And when you had no choice but to use libraries for research, so I actually learned what real research is. * And I was too young to feel cynical about Dead Poets Society. * I got onto the Internet after it was tiny, but before it was mass market. So I got to see and use most of the tools and software that were key to its evolution, as they were used, then replaced, then discarded. Pine, gopher, Usenet, Mozilla… * I read Sandman when the issues first came out. * I got into the games business before it was mass media, but got to ride the wave. * …and also got to see the Web unfold… * …and got Wikipedia and Google just in time for when I didn’t need to use libraries anymore… * …and see some of the science fiction coming true. Looking back on it, it makes me feel a bit sorry for those born ten years later. And I can’t judge ten years earlier, but so much of that seemed to hit at the right age. Looking back at history, it seems like the last big waves of popular invention like this were decades ago. Teens with hot rods? Engineering in the 20s? I see my kids now, and they are so clearly getting the finished products of so much, not the products in the process of invention… Am I wrong?

» Very interesting documentary on Web Collaboration: Us Now Video-60 min. Wisdom of the crowds and democracy writ large (there will need to be protection from the tyranny of the majority though).

» Qimo is a Desktop OS and set of programs especially designed for kids 3 and up. You download the iso, and then burn it to a CD. Then you boot the computer directly from the CD and the kids can play with the programs with no worry of them disrupting anything on your Windows drive. Looks neat.

» Scribd Store an iTunes for Documents. Interesting. Scribd gives you the abillity to embed word and pdf documents, etc. into your website in a flash player. Now they are offering people the ability to sell those documents too. Neat.

» Templatewise.com Free Powerpoint Templates and Backgrounds. Slick.

» Very nice simple TV Calculator compare the size of multiple television sets. Useful.

» Google Desktop Gadgets Add Google gadgets to your desktop, works like the Sidebar thing in Vista.

» Tweet Remote. Interesting Twitter to blog concept. Uses hashtags to allow you to format different tweets into different types of blog posts.

» Seth Godin: It doesn't hurt to ask. or sometimes it does.

This is fantastic! Probably would be funny if it didn't hit so close to home. Want to know what it's like to be a Graphic Designer... watch this....

Thanks to friend Jeff for passing this along]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0905.php#p852 Random Non-Sequiters

Busy busy day today. Work went fast and furious. Then afterwork, hit comic store, Meijer and then had friends over for game night.

DVR wasn't cooperating. Was afraid to turn it off with people here fearing I might lose the TV entirely. Once everyone went home I turned off the DVR, unplugged it and then replugged it in, and it worked fine. Cool, cause I hate calling the cable company.

Game went good. But I'm starting to think that we are all getting a little too good at Heroclix. Dan got completely eliminated, but noone else lost a single character. (Dan unfortunately had a bad night of dice rolls and ended up with himself stuck between the three of us, so mostly just bad luck for him.

Forgot to have my friends take home what was left of their vegetarian pizza. I never touch the veggie pizza myself. I have a couple slices of a Meat Lovers left over for tomorrow. No biggie, but I always hate to waste Papa Johns pizza, even if there is no carnivore stuff on it.

Already looking forward to Memorial Day. I love holidays better than vacation days. So much better to have the day off knowing that noone is back at the office sending emails or dropping projects off on my desk.

Where'd the spring go, we're already into summer temps today. Too hot. :( Looks like weather might be perfect 69s and 72s starting Friday though. Hooray for that.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0905.php#p851 Random Non Sequiters

I come back to Maslow's Hierarchy a lot. Here are some of my Sunday morning musings on this topic.

Physiological
Breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, homeostasis, excretion.

Breathing, homeostasis and excretion are the least interesting of these physiological needs. Generally they are automatic, one does not spend a lot of time thinking about how to achieve these things.

Sleep used to be in the uninteresting automatic category. For many this is a much more actively sought after activity now. It's largely an individual activity.

Food and Water or let's just say Food and Drink. It's pretty common to meet people who have a large portion of their day focusing on these two. They are however, such an individual activities now. There is so much choice in food and drink and people have developed such individual preferences due to their accustoment to that range of choice, that you are lucky if you can get two people to agree on a meal or even a restaurant, much less a group agreeing on a single meal. For a group to share a meal it helps if they are all directly related, as the odds of shared food customs are more likely to be in sync as many preferences are held over from childhood and passed down generation to generation. But even that becomes a challenge as food preferences does now radically change with age and exposure to greater choice.

There's a psychological component to a shared meal and not just sharing space with others while different meals are consumed. A psychological component that is much less frequent now.

Sex is an interesting point on this chart. Typically it's radically and wildly differently approached by the genders. Discussion of sex between genders can (although not always) rapidly highlight difference. As a perception of sameness builds trust and connectedness, focusing on difference is counter productive to that aim and can cause feelings of distrust and disconnectedness.

Safety
Security of body, of employment, of resources, of morality, of the family, of health, of property.

You could look at his section as the government, employment and religion section. Individual and group enforcement of the laws and mores of these three institutions largely cover the seven bases above.

This whole section of the chart is becoming more and more a function of the collective and less and less a function of the individual. You could look at a farm based society and easily see most of the above areas as an individual act of will under individual control. But in a modern city society control or heavy influence of all the above except potentially morality and health are greatly ceded to third parties or institutions. This lack of control highlights why many in our country may be so pro-gun as guns (and force) give the illusion that control can be reclaimed over these areas. It's an illusion though. Guns have limited functionality when used individually, they also only truly have power when used in the collective, but even then if everyone is using guns I can't see the category of safety being fulfilled.

If sameness, trust and connectedness contributes to a sense of well being, you can see why in a modern city society family is such a highly regarded point in this category. The people that have control over your familial standing are much more likely to share many of your same beliefs and values than the people you interact with within these other safety spheres. You can also see the draw of the family farmer ideal as areas like body, employment, resources, morality and property can all be more closely connected to the interactions with family in such a society.

Love/Belonging
Friendship, family, sexual intimacy.

This is a fascinating level. Very difficult to publicly analyze. These are more easily kept connected to through irrational beliefs than rational introspection. I'm going to skip discussing this on my blog for now, but it's a fascinating topic of discussion in a conversational setting.

I will mention that these three are generally bound by common acceptances, situations, shared interest, shared experience, or goals with the added factor of time. Various combinations of these elements in parallel contribute to their strength. Individuals are often unique in which of these elements is valued more strongly in the overall mix.

Outside of their own intrinsic values, this level can also be greatly dictated by fears of loss in the two levels previous.

Esteem
Self-esteem, confidence, achievement, respect of others, respect by others.

After writing the last paragraph, I now wonder if this level is best addressed from a biological and an irrational point of view too. I think I want to think about this level more.

Self-actualization
morality, creativity, spontaneity, problem solving, lack of prejudice, acceptance of facts.

This whole level is very idealistic isn't it? You have to be in a society and situation where almost all your problems are eliminated to fully tackle these ideas. You have to be in a mindset where you anticipate and react to problems building permanent self sustainable solutions and or live in a society that is incredibly utopian to be in a position to deal with these transcendental issues. To properly deal with these it would seem a utopian society would almost be a necessary precursor because the mindset necessary to reach this point may prohibit the mindset necessary to participate within this.

In place of discussing my musements on this topic further, I'm instead going to turn 45 degrees and print a dialogue quote from the movie Serenity.

The Operative:

I'm sorry. If your quarry goes to ground, leave no ground to go to. You should have taken my offer. Or did you think none of this was your fault?

Capt. Malcolm Reynolds:

I don't murder children.

The Operative:

I do. If I have to.

Capt. Malcolm Reynolds:

Why? Do you even know why they sent you?

The Operative:

It's not my place to ask. I believe in something greater than myself. A better world. A world without sin.

Capt. Malcolm Reynolds:

So me and mine gotta lay down and die... so you can live in your better world?

The Operative:

I'm not going to live there. There's no place for me there... any more than there is for you. Malcolm... I'm a monster. What I do is evil. I have no illusions about it, but it must be done.

If your decision tree only has two branches, you should water it more. ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0905.php#p848 Random Non-Sequiters

» Downloaded a neat freeware Windows program for burning DVDs this weekend. DVD Flick. It will burn a DVD player playable dvd directly from FLV files (ie: Youtube videos). Useful.

» Still waiting for Summer to kick in and stick. I know it's only May but it'd be nice to get a few more late 60s early 70s days in. It's brisk out there today.

» This weekend, I Plugged my Eee PC directly into a 19 LCD monitor that I have in the living room. The monitor normally sits on a small stand next to the TV. I use the LCD to control my media box that is hooked to the TV for playing back internet videos etc. Anyway, I slid the monitor stand over near my comfy chair and plugged in the Eee PC. The Eee PC automatically switched to the native resolution of the 19" monitor and it worked exceddingly well for viewing digital comics. Makes me want to second 701 Eee PC just to use for that purpose.

» You know what works really well? Taking some Double Stuff Oreos and crunching them up in your hand and dropping them into some Breyers Vanilla Ice Cream. I had that yesterday with some hersheys syrup dripped over. Very tasty. ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0905.php#p847 Let's Go Surfing

» First mover advantage is about compound Interest, not market share. Interesting

» Students create CRT emulator, hope to recapture that analog gaming vibe of yesteryear.

» You can post a Google Lattitude widget with your location on your blog

» Pac Man Fever. This is one of those things that makes me feel old. When alot of people think of video games they think of their Nintendos, Playstations and XBoxes, but I'm not sure I'll ever fully disassociate video games from arcades in my head.

Froggy's Lament - Riiiiibbbiiit.

» jstrip strips metadata and thumbnails etc, out of JPEG files. Makes them smaller without changing the pixels.

» CintaNotes is a very neat note taking/clipping program. It has a portable version also.

» Fold-up skateboard. Neat but doesn't look like it'd really save much room to me.

» This Dry Erase Whiteboard clock is a neat idea, and would be easy to make.

» Burger Kingon Videos Star Trek Parody videos starring the Burger King. Most odd.

» My Little Pony: The Action Movie

» bDule is a Twitter and Facebook Application, similiar to to Tweet Deck except it is not an Adobe Air app. It is a Microsoft .Net application.

Watch the video demo below.

A couple days ago I watched a Chris Carlsson AtGoogleTalks video. Carlsson has written a book titled Newtopia. As you can imagine with a title like that, the author speaks a lot on topics of bicycling communities, community gardens, and a world where we all just help eachother and get along. etc. etc. Typical 60s Hippie stuff for a new era. I have no real problem with that. I don't disagree with the idealism, even if I do disagree with a lot of his enthusiasm from a strictly practical point of view.

I only bring up the above because he used a term in his talk that as a society "We are atomized”. Meaning, that we are a very individualized culture where many people travel from job to job, location to location and do not really know their coworkers or neighbors well, if at all.

“We are atomized.” It's a very neat term and I've found myself coming back to that term several times in the past few days and rolling it around in my head over and over again in the context of marketing and advertising.

“We are atomized.” Neat concept to think about.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0905.php#p844 Sometimes I like to spew a good rambling rant*

Amazon just did a little stage show in New York and announced the Kindle DX a 9.7” larger screen version of their Kindle e-reader. The price? $489. Seriously! This eInk technology is as frustrating as flying cars.

70% of the owners of the smaller $389 Kindle are over 40. Which makes sense because you need to have some disposable income and be old enough to like books to be likely to spend that much for a device that just reads books.

eInk is a revolutionary technology. (and a decade old as well) It is going to change the world. But it's being kept locked up as a niche invention, and it just pisses me off to no end.

Recently we had a scrappy noone's ever heard of them company, Asus, annoy the heck out of the computer industry by launching a netbook as an affordable concept. This is not something the industry wanted. Smaller is supposed to be more expensive in laptops and Asus turned that concept upsidedown. Asus stuck with it long enough to develop the market to the point that now we have netbooks in Best Buy, several models to choose from even. But Asus and every netbook maker is slowly creeping the size of these machines back up. 7” screens at first, then 9” then 10, now most of the manufacturers are announcing netbooks with almost 12” screens. That pisses me off too.

The computer industry wants to get the margins back up on the netbooks, and they want to get them close enough to the full size laptops to make you think twice about one of them, so they're doing that by slowly creeping back up screens to 12”.

We had 12” screens at one point, 13” in fact were part of the mainstream... but users wanted bigger screens on their laptops, not because they wanted laptops with bigger screens, but because they wanted something smaller than a desktop at home and they didn't want to buy a desktop and a laptop.

The majority of people that bought netbooks recently didn't want a netbook, what they wanted was a cheaper laptop. Netbook makers figured that out and they are trying to find the ceiling on what people will stand for a cheap laptop again. It took the netbooks to at least break the cycle that manufacturers could convince consumers that they needed the newest OS and the fastest processor.

Netbooks need to trend down to $99. At $99 they will be impulse purchases, and as prolific as Nintendo DS, everyone will have one. That's when the game changes... that's when they will hit the next disruptive plateau.

eInk readers need to get down to $99 even more than netbooks do to be disruptive. The frustrating thing is, eReaders could be that cheap. They are screens that can run on the guts of photo frame hardware for godsake and that's what keeps pissing me off. A cheap eReader should be even easier to do than a netbook.

The companies involved with this stuff are just too anti-any-sub-$250 price point to make any off this happen. Where's the scrappy company that's going to take these things to the next level? Cause our current crop of corps isn't going to do it, and that pisses me off.

*Who am I kidding I ALWAYS love a good rant]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0905.php#p843 Random Non-Sequiters

Wolverine leaked out on the internet a full month before the premiere. Everyone that saw the leaked copy gave negative reviews to the movie. Yet the movie still make 87 million in it's opening weekend.

Marketing that reinforces people's existing beliefs works, people believe what they want to believe despite what they hear, and as long as you give people their special effect action movies on the big screen one at a time without crowding them together-- people will go see anything.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0905.php#p842 Let's Go Surfing

» Funny.

» Carosel Cops and Evil Clowns. Cool.

» Why Minds are not like computers Lengthy article. Good.

» Google Images Similiar feature is pretty neat, read about it here

» Lacie $10 Data USB Data Share.

» Scriblink Nice collaborative whiteboard.

» Yahoo Media player is an incredibly slick way to play mp3s on your webpage.

» Rainy days this weekend. They suit my mood.

Saturday I got a haircut. I had been letting my hair grow out a bit. It had been a few years since I'd let it go long for a couple months.

Presently at work, I've only been having to deal with a handful of people on any regular basis, so the clean cut office thing wasn't really an issue. Seemed like a good time to play around and do a more artist type thing. However, there are some changes going on at work, depending on how things work out, possibly even good, at the worst, probably no worse than ok. In anycase-- changes, so the return of office-hair me.

On that work change front, right now it's just org boxes on a page. The structure looks sound, but I've been in that building long enough to know that boxes on a page are only as good as the drive of the people that they fill them with and the backing of the people that live on the chart in the boxes above those people. In an organization of the size of the one that employs me, change has a way of being naturally countered no matter how positive it's direction. Like water, the organization will seek it's historical level unless the change agents are active and persistent. So we'll see in a few months how it sorts out.

» On non-work fronts. Still very impressed by Twitter. Although I've participated infrequently in Tweetups in the area, the whole Tweetup concept is fascinating to study. Twitter is managing to take the network effects of the internet into realspace in a way that although concentrated in the early adopters right now, may very well break through to the mainstream soon. The internet via Twitter seems poised to begin organizing real world activity in a meaningful way soon.

That might be a good thing too, in the personal if not theoretical sense. Very good friends of mine that hold a majority stake in my evening socialization may be moving out of the area soon. If that happens I may very well need to take more advantage of the internet's new found ease at organizing realspace interaction :)

» Really enjoyed the Caprica, pilot. There is a core concept at the center of the episode that deals with if something appears for all intents and purposes to be the thing it is, is that thing then in fact the thing it is. Or put differently, if it talks like a duck, walks like a duck and looks like a duck, is it not in fact a duck. One character argues this point in the affirmative, the other in the negative, and I find it fascinating how it's made me look at people and their behavior from the Daniel Greystone (Eric Stoltz) point of view, when in fact I think I would be more closely aligned with Joseph Adams.

I do not believe things are what they are because of the way they appear or act. Those are important aspects, but there are other concepts much more ephemeral and based in words, interpretation, and an understanding of motive and drive that are just as important to a thing's definition than what can be gleaned from it's physical manifestations. Yet I still find Stoltz character's argument compelling and hope the series turns out to be just as probing as this first episode installment.

Here's a scene where the two lead character's discuss the authenticity of a computer recreation of one of their daughters.

But what if they could come back

There's an axiom in my business, "A difference that makes no difference, is no difference." She looks like Zoe, she talks like Zoe, she thinks like Zoe, remembers all the events of her childhood, has all the same likes, dislikes, flaws, strengths, all of it. Who's to say her soul wasn't copied, too?

>> >You can't copy a soul.

And you would know that how? Hmm? How can you prove or disprove that idea?

>>>Look, I know what I know, okay? And I know you can't copy a person.

I know that she's my daughter. I know that she is my daughter, and I know it in the only place that matters. Here. The only difference between her and the Zoe that lived in this house is just that. She lived in this house instead of a virtual world. I want to bring her here. Joseph, I want her to live in this world once more. I want to hold her in my arms, and I want to kiss her, and I want her to feel the sun shine on her face. I want her to see the flowers at the side of the road, Joseph.

» Ubuntu came out with version 9 of it's OS and it also came out with the netbook book edition of the same. The netbook edition will run from a flash drive there are some instructions on how to do that here. I have downloaded the image and I think I may run up to Meijer to get a 2Gb stick to install it on and test it out (you could do it on a 1GB stick but as I mentioned last week, those are harder to come by). I may get some gummy bears too, while I'm at it.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0904.php#p839 Let's Go Surfing

» Neat looking idea for a laptop sleeve. Of course in this color it looks a little like a shamwow.

» Boostcam.com instant disposable two-way video conferencing.

» Make CSS corners.

» I need to stop liking shows, because apparently when I like a show, they get cancelled. dollhouse, Sarah Conner Chronicles In that spirit, let me say that I hate ;) Better Off Ted.

» I'd love to see Pushing Daisies' Brian Fuller do a new Star Trek TV Series. I'm guessing they'll do a couple more movies before they pull the trigger on a new TV show though. I'm guessing that once the Live Action Star Wars show hits, they won't be able to resist fielding a Star Trek TV Show.

» do you use Google Calendar? You might find this Grminder Windows Task Tray App useful

» Another X-Men reboot? X-Men First Class. Hopefully not but Hollywood is starting to like rehashing the same property in quick succesion now.

» Winsplit Revolution is a great little utility that will make managing the placement of your multiple windows on your large monitor a breeze

» Youtube has Hulu-fied itself somewhat and thy now have a full tv show section. Most of it is pretty lame but there are some interesting picks like: The Tick.

» Pastehtml.com is a tinypaste type of site for publishing HTML real quick.

» Google Code University

» How to spot Quality Web Design. Most of these types of articles are a dime a dozen but this one's not bad.

» Fairly intricately photo-illustrated almost porn NSFW.

» Green Lantern Trailer from a couple week's back.

Ok, here's where I go a little fanboy on this film.

White gloves. They should have kept the white gloves. Besides straying too far from the costume by ditching them, you also lose something in metaphor. I'm really bummed by the lack of white gloves.

Abin Sur looking more alien. A friend of mine suggested that making him look more alien helps distinguish him from Sinestro and makes it less confusing that they are not of the same species. Eh, I don't think it's a big deal really if someone gets a little confused by that.

Sinestro in the Yellow Lantern Corp Costume. Without seeing the movie, this and the other costume touches make it look like the film is borrowing heavily from current continuity. Not sure if that's going to work well in a stand alone film.

Sigh, I really liked New Frontier. Here's hoping that despite the overly contemporary visuals that this cartoon doesn't disappoint.

This DVD get's released on July 21, 2009. ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0904.php#p837 Let's Go Surfing

» LG has some really amazing television advancements. Give these a look.

» Saw on the internets.

» Very Cool >Outdoor Office Pod.

» Live Text to Speech web page reads your words as you type them. I do not see many uses for the average person for this. But it's neat.

» Boks is an Adobe Air app that makes creating CSS grid configurations easy. It seems a little confusing at first, but if you watch their demo videos it's really easy to use.

» Some really nice Nightwing as Batman costume designs over at Project Rooftop. I like the one below. But there are about a dozen others.

» Want to talk with someone? Omegle.com is a chat server for talking to completely random strangers. You go to the site, you hit a button, and you are talking with a completely random stranger. And odd idea really.

» I want one of these Chairs that turn into a messenger bag. It even has a drink holder. Nice.

» Bid Flyer is an interesting visual way to look at eBay listings. But not a terribly efficient way to shop the site.

» StripMail is a neat little stand alone no-install Windows application that can be used to strip out all those extra characters in forwarded emails.

» Liquid Rescaler Plugin for Gimp. Look at this article to understand how seam carving resizing works

» The Libgrary of Congress has a Youtube Channel

» Mark Waid post on the Triangle Rule Talent, personality, ability to hit a deadline.

» Bumptop is a really cool "replacement" for your Windows desktop (I put replacement in quotes because it doesn't really replace it so much as it runs ontop of it.) Take a look at the video on this Engadget article. Here's an article about it on Mashable too.

I've been using it for a week. and I like it. It's sort of a novelty, but it there are somethings about it that just make working with your files more natural too.

» I've been digging the new color filter feature of Google Image Search.

» Want to make long articles on the web easier to read? Try Readability. It is a bookmarklet that you save and when you are on a web page, you click it and it represents the page in a very clean stripped down simplified way. Also great to use before coping and pasting large chunks of a web page too.

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0904.php#p836

You get a twitter account and you get a twitter account and you get a twitter account...

#oprahday]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0904.php#p835 Size Matter

Yesterday I got a good deal on a 7” digital picture frame at Meijer.

Here's my plan. I want to make a few collections of photos and text to play in the frame. I figure the best way to do this is to Make my slides in Open Office Impress and export to JPEGS. Since the native resolution of the monitor is only 480x234. I also resized my JPEGs for that resolution. That gives me a JPEG of a file size between 15K and 25K. Tiny little files.

Today I went looking for a few SD cards for the frame. Figuring the best way to store my little shows would be on individual cards I could pop in and out as needed. By my math I should be able to fit 131,072 25K Jpegs on a 256 Meg card. That should be more than I need, but i figure I'm unlikely to find a card smaller than that so I hit a couple stores.

I was surprised to discover that 2Gb is the new bottom end in USB sticks and SD cards. (Sure a couple stores still had some 1Gb ones, but those were basically the same price as 2Gb) 2Gb is enough memory for 1,048,576 at the resolution of my picture frame. A million slides is just a little bit bigger than the number of slides I was planing on buying.

Basically in this case, a 2Gb card is like buying a Hummer to take your trash out to the curb. it's a little over kill. And while the 2Gb cards can be had for $8 or so on average. Even, 256 megs is overkill for my purposes.

If 2Gb=$8, can't I get a 256 meg card for $1 then? seems like I should be able too, but alas, 2 Gb appears to be the new small at $8, and it does not look like my search for a small trivial priced SD card I can buy a stack of will be accomplished (although I may try a dollar store next week.).]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0904.php#p833 Let's Go Surfing

» vattoz.com. Search for Music, add to playlist, shuffle or straight play!. Even share your playlist with others with a link. Crazy slick. Takes fizy.com to the next level and may become one of my new favorite services.

» Cardboard stand turns iPhone into a scanner I think I need to make the same thing for my camera. Slick.

On April 1st, I chronicled my very strange experience all day on Twitter. Here is the account. Times are approximate.

• Just arrived in Florida
about 6am

• Flickr: karathc posted a photo: Too Early

• Weather is beautiful 73 deg and Clear
about 6am

• Flickr: karathc posted a photo:I'm here!

• Flickr: karathc posted a photo: Decided just to have this today. I figure it's appropriate.

• Flickr: karathc posted a photo:Very Cool!

• Getting fitted into my flightsuit now. Don't care for the orange.
about 8am

• We're walking down the gantry now. I have Right Stuff soundtrack on my iPod. This would be so badass if it wasn't for the orange.
about 8am

• Strapped into my seat now!
about 8am

• Really regretting drinking all that tang awhile ago. Really regretting that.
about 9am

• Buzz says we're already in the pre-flight countdown and I can't leave my seat. I've explained the Tang. He's being a dick about this.
about 9am

• ahhhh.... feel better now. Also feel happier about and understand now why flightsuits are orange. (Buzz still a dick.)
about 9am

• Flickr: karathc posted a photo: Ready for Launch

• Currently playing this on my iPod
Link to David bowie - Flight Control to Major Tom MP3
about 9am

• Buzz says my singing is making it too hard to hear Mission Control. Tom doesn't think song is funny says he's a Captain not a major.
about 9am

• Flight suit warm/damp. Just all around uncomfortable in here. (Buzz AND Cpt. TOM! - both being dicks.)
about 9am

• Stewardess says I have to turn off all electronic devices and stop tweeting now.
about 9am

• Excuuuuuussssseeee Me. Not Stewardess... "Science Mission Specialist" Lisa Nowack. Everyone so touchy about their titles here.
about 9am

• karathc has posted a video: Here We Go!!!!!!

• Arrrrrrrhgggggggghhhhhhgggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhh!
about 10am

• "Science Mission Spc" Lisa informs me that even though we are in space... yes in fact they can hear that. Buzz and Cpt. Tom more pissed.
about 10am

• @suckahpunch I've been informed by Cpt. Tom that my hotel will also have a docking station.
about 10am (in reply to suckahpunch tweet about their being an iPod dock in her Hotel Room)

• @kuteykat Science Mission Spc Lisa is only 5'8" & is very imposing esp when I was tweets during liftoff 5' 9" isn't short for a girl at all
about 10am

• @kuteykat Oh, misread that... it's the no gravity... it makes you lightheaded.
about 11am

• Flickr: karathc posted a photo: Suck it Sara Palin, I can see Russia too!

• Lunch. This is what we are having for dessert. EXCITED!

• I've been told we should arrive at the moon base at 1pm
about 11am

• there are several buttons in this cabin explicitly marked "Chris do not push" Feeling condescended too.
about 12pm

• @PackardGoose Completely different Buzz. Oddly though this Buzz's voice sounds exactly like Tim Allen.
about 12pm

• Flickr: karathc posted a photo: Hooray! the Moon Station!

• Sooo happy I entered that Gemini Croquette Contest and won this trip. I think it's going to be fun. I hope there is a pool!
about 12pm

• Stewar... er, uh Mission Specialist Lisa says we are beginning our descent now. No Tweeting. More later.
about 1pm

• Flickr: karathc posted a photo: This place does not look like what I thought it would. I was hoping mor..

• They gave me a little communicator-like cellphone. Note to self: Buzz gets pissed when you talk into it and call him Scotty.
about 2pm

• There are some strange "pods" here. there's movement, seems to be alive. Cpt. Tom seems concerned. Meh, I'm going to go find the pool.
about 3pm

• @TheUniques I kindof miss my apt right now, this moon station is sort of a dump. there are exhaust vents every 10 feet. bleh.
about 3pm

• Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
about 3pm

• No pool. So upset. Dropping my luggage off at my room. Better have cable.
about 3pm

• Cpt. Tom called me and then all I heard was gasping and screeching noises. Cell reception sucks here.
about 3pm

• Tried calling Lisa and Buzz, neithr picking up. Keep hearing clawing & scratching noises in ceiling. I think this station might have rats.
about 4pm

• @chadvw Mission Specialist Lisa is only Woman up here. She's all business, And she's only 5'8". Buzz and Tom are former AF, I'm probably ok.
about 4pm (This was in reference to chadvw suggesting that I was likely to get "face raped")

• been getting fail whale alot up here, might miss messages.
about 4pm

• Flickr: karathc posted a photo: Oh Fu-- Fu-- Fu-- that was not a rat, what the Fu-- WAS that!

• running thru hallways... all look to same... got to get back to ship... that was not a rat. I'm never eating Gemini Croquettes again!
about 4pm

• oh my god, I just passed Cpt Tom, Buzz & Lisa, or what's left of them, I think I'm going to hurl. the aliens r in the ceiling gaining on me
about 4pm

• oh kay oh kay At the ship now
about 4pm

• oh god-- I can hear them at the hatch
about 4:30pm

• trying the autopilot computer. Boot damn it boot
about 4:30pm

• YES!!! Heuristic Automated Logistics online! "Computer launch! take-off! blast-off.! Whatever!!!!!!"
about 4:30pm

• Computr keeps saying: "Sorry Dave I can't do that?" Who is Dave? Im Chris, who the hell is Dave? Oh God.- they've broken through the hatch--
about 4:30pm

--END TRANSMISSION--
about 4:40pm ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0904.php#p830 Only the last 15 Twitter posts are shown above... Follow all of Today's Twitters and my exciting journey at: http://twitter.com/ckarath ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0903.php#p828 Director of Marketing of Ning, Social Media Presentation to educators.

Dec 2008
HighEdWeb 2008 Conference keynote by Kyle Ford, director of product marketing at Ning, Inc., and previously the associate product manager at Yahoo! Inc.

You might want to skip 10 minutes in or so, but there is some good background on smaller scale social networks in this presentation. ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0903.php#p827 Paradigm Shift

It's not Search & Pages, It's now Real-Time and Followers. ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0903.php#p826 Really good hour long Talk on Twitter and other things by one of it's co-founders. To skip the personal anecdotes and growing up story, jump to about 10 minutes in.

Biz Stone, co-founder and Creative Director of Twitter, presents a keynote address at the 2008 play Digital Media Conference.

Biz Stone helped to create Xanga, Blogger, Odeo, and Obvious. In this keynote, delivered at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley, he discusses the creation and evolution of Twitter. (November 15, 2008)

Seen on a friend's twitter.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0903.php#p821 Random guy in red shorts sings an infectious most curious I Love Battlestar Galactica Song. Covers the plot of the whole series. Spoilers.

I have a weekend of errands before me.

Haircut, bills, paperwork type stuff, some cleaning, and a project for a friend etc. Busy work mostly.

It will probably be another weekend where I don't do anything with anyone. There are some people I could track down, and perhaps some groups I could even more fully participate in, but most of them seem like "filling time".

"Filling time" is a concept I've been thinking alot about lately.

Supposed to want things, and go forward etc. I've also spoke with people who have lost things and want to go back. Go back, go forward. Lots of going. Direction. But then what. Different dot on the same map?

There's a system. It's not defined, and it's not heterogeneous, there are lumps in the system and it's thicker or thinner in spots. Some people think that government is the system, or corporations, I just see those as facets, shiny surfaces that are easy to see reflections bounce off of. There's a system though, and most of it seems like it's on the go. It's going somewhere. Lots of going. Direction. But then what. Different dot on the same map?

I like learning things, giving my curiosity free reign. Sometimes I even give myself little projects so that the curiosity and impulse to learn has a directed focus. But most of it is arbitrary. The buzz isn't in the result, not in the go, it's in the doing, being and the soon to be un-unseen.

I look around and in my sphere I don't see needs. I see wants and drives. Those are different than needs. Needs aren't under your control. I need to eat, breathe, sleep. The sphere around me is powered by wants and drives, but people masquerade them as needs, perhaps some are not in mask and for those I am sad.

Labeling as wants lessens them somehow in most peoples minds. I see the opposite. Wants are what truly make change. If you are on the go, destination or direction minded, you have to want. If you are acting out of need, you won't go as far, unless not in masquerade and instead truly grotesque.

I think of Agent Smith in the rain: Why, Why do you do it Mr. Anderson. Neo: because I choose to. But that's not an answer either. It's true, but not satisfying. Choose does not answer why, want does not answer why. Drives may answer why, but they are not intellectually satisfying. To reduce action to the same set of forces that makes my stomach growl, or my eyelids heavy, is not satisfying. To invent mythological forces to layer beneath those is also not satisfying. The concept of satisfying however is terrifying, because if one were satisfied, what need, want, drive or choice would apply.

Paragraphs of twisted logic. Logic is not satisfying, Faith is not logical. Not upset. Not frustrated. Not blue and no dark cloud overhead. Comfortable with ambiguity. Ambiguity does not have to orbit fear.

Be.

I have a weekend of errands before me. ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0903.php#p819 Is it Really your Data?

I just read another article that says that users should have control of and be able to delete their data from the internet.

That sounds nice, but it doesn't work.

The problem is, when does your data become my data?

Example: I create a website. The profiles are simple. You post your name and favorite color to the site.

I take that data and out of 100 participants, I calculate that, in the month of March, 75 people chose red as their favorite color.

In April there is a big public communist scare. Red is banned because it's discovered that people who like red are more likely to be communist. (It's a silly example yes, but I'm creating a point here.)

Businesses then start discriminating against people who like red in order to protect their public image. Well naturally you are going to want to remove your profile from my website that shows how much you like the color red.

But what about my data as the website owner? My data says that in March, 75 people listed red as their favorite color, but in April, only 5 people are listed with that preference. Do I change my data? If I do, what if my data correlates with other data (ie I post that 75 men dropped the color red as their favorite last month) and that correlation makes it possible to see who the red favoring people were even with their main profile data removed?

What if you are famous and a reporter goes to the site, sees that you like red and posts an article about that fact.

My illustration above is not elegant, but hopefully it does illustrate the point. determining what is my data and what is your data is always going to be arbitrary to some degree, because data is data, a person can not own a fact, any more than copyright is a right. Both are arbitrary social constructs that only work as long as a necessary majority of participants play some sort of lip service to them. ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0903.php#p818 Random Non-Sequiters

Collecting my thoughts.

Microsoft Sustainability contains many of the same scenes in the video I posted before but in an extended presentation.

The future never ends up being this homogeneous but still this sort of thing is fun to watch. ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0903.php#p816 Why Blog

Recently I had a friend post a blog entry on the futility of blogging and what could be construed as the futility of the internet overall. One of his points made was that others are blogging better than he, with larger more dedicated fanbases etc. etc.

There was a short paragraph also lamenting the authenticity of Facebook, Twitter and Flickr friends.

This post isn't really a direct counterpoint to any of that per se. Those are valid feelings. What this post will be is a post on Why Blog?

Blog, for the same reason you vote.

Voting adds your voice to the millions and soon billions of others that share your ideas to shape the course of human history.

They say elections matter, They say elections have consequences. I would say, so does blogging.

In and of itself one vote doesn't make a difference. In and of itself, one blog post doesn't make a difference either. But elections and blogging do make a difference. In an election, our voices combined empower the people that will make decisions that will effect us and effect the course of human history. When you blog, you contribute to the great body of human thought and discussion that also combines to empower the people that will make decisions that will effect us and effect the course of human history.

I know I make blogging sound grandiose, and common wisdom is that it is not. Common wisdom is correct in that any given blog has maybe 10 regular readers but blogs also get swept into the all prevalent Google algorithm. Each of those 10 people will know 10 different people, the Kevin Bacon effect will come into play. Each link you add is a vote for a particular site to contain relevant information to the words that surround that link. Each word that you lay down, gives the Google algorithm context and understanding.

When I put the the words “Green” and “Lantern” together. I'm not talking about a verdant hued lighting appliance, I'm discussing a superhero. And because millions of people put those two simple words together and surround them with words like: superhero and DC and comics and Hal and Jordan and Superman etc. etc, those words have meaning beyond their root definitions in a dictionary. Google presents Green Lantern as a supehero and not a verdant hued lighting appliance because I and millions of other people put those words together in that context. Like voting, our blogging, our wikis, our web pages have given those two insignificant words a distinct and different meaning when put in proximity together.

The above example is trivial, but the forces in play in it's example are not.

Blogging has consequence. Your ideas and thoughts may only reach 10 people, Google may only direct 1 or 2 searches your way that day, but because you do reach those 10 people, and because you did help shape the direction of those handful of searches and others unseen, you shape the course of human events as directly as does your election vote. Your content contributes to the body of human knowledge and knowledge has consequences, knowledge generates action, and actions have effects on our lives.

Noone knows who invented the wheel, noone knows who first cooked over an open fire. The genesis of those ideas are lost, but putting ideas, thoughts and comments on the internet, those also have an effect. They shape the ideas, thoughts and comments of others that come after you. One idea builds upon another. Once one problem is solved, the next challenge can be taken up, and so it goes.

That's why some of us are so in awe of the internet, because we see the connections, we feel their effects and we realize the change in that we are now smaller voices in a larger whole, but at the same time, everyone now has the possibility for their voice to reverberate out on any random Sunday and effect the whole of humanity.

That's a grand sweeping effect, and that's why I think people should blog. ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0903.php#p815 My thoughts on the Battle Star Galactica Series Finale.

Three really good youtube, At Google Talks speakers that I have watched this week.

David Thomas

A Harvard Business School professor and a recognized & award winning thought leader in the areas of cultural diversity in organizations and strategic human resource management, David Thomas's work is thought-provoking, controversial and might make you think differently about the diversity climate across corporations. Professor Thomas presented his book 'Breaking Through: The Making of Minority Executives in Corporate America' to a packed room of Googlers.

While the speaker's research is focused on minority leadership in the workplace. There are alot of very interesting points applicable to anyone. Since much of the talk is compared to a baseline of white males, everyone who works in an office environment will come away with interesting things to think about with this talk, don't let the Minority/diversity part of the description push you away from this one if you are a majority white male.

Thomas Ricks

Washington Post reporter Thomas Ricks visits Google's Mountain View, CA headquarters to discuss his book, "The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq." This event took place on February 24, 2009, as part of the Authors@Google series.

Author of Fiasco discusses his latest book on Iraq. Good Talk.

Helen Fisher

Helen Fisher visits Google's Mountain View, CA headquarters to discuss her book "Why Him? Why Her?: Finding Real Love by Understanding Your Personality Type." This event took place on February 20, 2009, as part of the Authors@Google series

Romantic Love explored from a scientific and anthropological stand point. Speaker is also affiliated with Match.com and Chemistry.com.

Fisher has also done a TED talk using most of the same talking points and conversational illustrations. This Google Talk is superior to the TED talk in my opinion.

So there you go, 3 hours of really smart presentations. Give a couple a watch.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0903.php#p813 Color eInk!

» It's a color eInk eBook Reader. Sure it's $1,000 but I didn't expect to see a color one yet. Neat. Will this push down the cost on the black and white ones? Or are cheaper color readers on the way?

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0903.php#p812 Let's Go Surfing

» Ok Apple, you can stop making your iPods smaller now.

» Six Gigabytes, 1,200 songs from SXSW. I haven't downloaded it yet. But that's a fair amount of music to grab for free.

» Friend Adam's Green Lantern Print is coming along nicely. Unfinished Pencils below (larger at the link).

» My Life in A Cube Cartoon.

» Watchmen cupcakes from Mike Sterling's Progressive Ruin.

» Movie Destro looks like he is sad.

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0903.php#p811 Let's Go Surfing

» Vue mesh network video cameras are really slick cordless and wireless wi-fi network cameras you can slap up any where and easily view from the web. These tiny things run on button cell batteries. Video at the link. Very neat.

» Add Twitter Search Results to the Top of your Google Searches a userscript that requires Greasemonkey on Firefox. Very slick.

» Microsoft's Vision of the Future

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-GB&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:a517b260-bb6b-48b9-87ac-8e2743a28ec5&showPlaylist=true&from=shared" target="_new" title="Future Vision Montage">Video: Future Vision Montage</a>

» Presented without comment.

» Friends Adam and Comfort interviewed on Comic Timing Podcast Mega Con Interview starts at the 27:45 min mark and goes for about 10 minutes.

Also you can look at their sketches and read their Mega Con Report on their blog

» I'd rather have a cheap tablet pc than this Asus Dual Screen

» Here's another neat comic Strip making web site. stripgenerator.com Drag and drop characters and word balloons etc.

» Ok the movie Alien Trespass looks like something different.

» Multiple categories of Free Superhero Stories in prose form. Wow... that's alot of stuff to read for Free. Just need a Kindle and no job.

» Lawrence Lessig Google Talk on Money in Politics. Really really good talk.

» Friend Dan put together a bunch of posts highlighting his favorite Heroclix teams that myself, Jeff, Adam, and he has played. There are also some of his favorite random game pics too

» I'm a Marvel and I'm a DC, Watchmen/Wolverine edition.

» Enterprise tool consolidation. Has a nice overview of online collaboration:

» HTML-pdf-converter.com is a site that converts a web page to a PDF. works ok, although it timed out on some larger sites I gave it.

» When you have 10 minutes give this Sci-Fi short World Builder a view. It's a short put together by essentially one guy. Good Stuff.

» Break down of online Collaboration methods. Lost the original link. But I believe it's on Read Write Web.

The 10 Categories of Online Collaboration

Here are the categories we see today:

1. Forums. Yes, forums seem very old-school Web 1.0. But they are an effective tool and are being updated by vendors and included in integrated online collaboration services.

2. Wikis. This is currently a hot space, hugely competitive with many vendors, but also with a lot of adoption. Wikis nicely fit the gap between email (which is unstructured and bad for creating shared content) and traditional content management systems (which are too process-intensive).

3. Blogging. Blogs and comments are a good way to spread and find information.

4. Microblogging. The 140-character limit forces brevity, a huge blessing in the corporate context! There are many "Twitter for the enterprise" offerings. They feel more like features than distinct products, ripe for integration in larger offerings.

5. Document workflow. This seems really old school, even pre-Web 1.0, but most business processes require a document of some type. Some vendors are putting these features in the cloud as well as integrating them with other collaboration tools.

6. Email. We don't even think of this as collaboration. It's just what we do all day, every day, like breathing. But the evolution of email and its integration with other tools is an area seeing a lot of innovation.

7. Document creation. This is the office on the web, the online alternative to MS Office on your hard drive. Collaboration capabilities are the driver for this market.

8. Conferencing. Whether for text, voice, or video chatting or screen-sharing for demos, web conferencing is the alternative to expensive, eco-damaging, nerve-wearing travel.

9. CRM. As CRM moves more online, it becomes more about online collaboration. Some simple online collaboration tools can be alternatives to low-end CRM. We see opportunities in CRM 2.0 that really take advantage of online networking.

10. Contact networking. This is the space dominated by LinkedIn and Facebook. In our view, it is the key to CRM 2.0.

» I want one of these "Souper" Man Spoons

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0903.php#p810 Let's Go Surfing

» Websites with designed with texture

» I want an Eee PC tablet Netbook.

» Change... Into a truck.

» e.ggtimer.com is a great site. You type the url and then your desired time 5:00pm or 1hour25min and the site counts down the time for you.

» Katie Can Draw made a PDF you can use to print your own Batman Mask ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0903.php#p809 Let's Go Surfing

» Command Line Fu Neat site with all sorts of command line snippets to do different things.

» This Memo Mug is a pretty neat idea.

» Watchmen "80s" Arcade Game Pretty slick for the midi style soundtrack alone. Old School TMNT sidescroller like action.

» Marvel Super-Hero Squad Animated TV Series later in 2009 on Cartoon Network.

» Mashable Guide to 60+ How To Sites

» Pillow with a Handle Cool.

» 11 Free and Useful Open Source Alternatives for Designers Lots of good free software on this list.

» Flump, Adobe Air App that allows you to download Flickr Photos.

» Mac Plus emulated on a Jailbroken iPhone... that's really cool.

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0903.php#p808 Let's Go Surfing

» Snippage is a very interesting adobe air application. It allow you to make a desktop widget out of any part of a website. It's sort of the old Active desktop idea but with a modern twist. take a look at the Rendur is a site that let's you type in HTML and it will give you a real time preview. Also supports CSS.

» I want a Plastic Logic Reader. But they are not out yet.

» $99 Mids are coming but will we all have iphone, Pre and Android Smartphones before they arrive making them more or less moot even at that price point?

» Microsoft Recite is a program for Windows Mobile that let's you record voice snippets and then search fro voice snippets also with your voice. Watch the youtube below. It's impressive.

» Dell has a $99 Ultra Portable Printer It's ZINK based, which means you need the special ZINK paper. Nice Pricepoint. Nice Size. But 50¢ a print. Hmm. Not sure why anyone would need it. Better just to carry the prints around on your camera or phone I think.

» I hope the New V Series doesn't suck.

» Very Interesting Mouse. Watch the video

» 18,000 Naked People

» Some people just don't get stressed as much as other people

» Words give brain handle on feelings

» Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars Omnibus variant cover art by Mike Zeck and Alex Ross. Nice.

» HTC Magic Android G2 Looks slick. Video at the link.

» Image to Color Palette Generator Nice web site that you can paste an url or upload a jpeg to and get a color palate from. You can even save a Photoshop Swatch File.

» I learned that I can go to http://gmail.com/tasks on my mobile phone browser and I can view and edit my Gmail Tasks. Nice.

» Seth Godin Tribe Interview

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0903.php#p807 Let's Go Surfing

» Mobile applications for Data Collection

» New York Times Article Skimmer Nice at a glance news.

» Tinychat.com Such a neat service. Instant disposable chatrooms. Great!

» Some Fabric Covered Boxes a co-worker made. Neat idea. I will have to do something similar for some CD boxes under my TV I think.

» Uni-Form Green Lantern, Neat.

» DC Direct Blackest Night Green Lantern Figures

» I think it would be neat to have a President Laura Roslen Action Figure. And a new BSG Old school Cylon too.

» Tootsie Pop Owl That's kindof a cool thing for your desk.

» I want a Tick Action Figure

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0903.php#p806 Daily Show Cramer episode

Daily Show Jim Cramer interview was brilliant tonight.

Jim Cramer should not have gone on there.

Here's what I think makes Jon Stewart's take down of CNBC so poignant.

CNBC purports to be a financial news service. In fact they largely just do pundit commentary and read stock tickers out loud. With the the financial meltdown going on, NBC and CNBC are trying to make our current national crisis into CNBC's "CNN Gulf War". Just like the first Gulf War put CNN on the map, CNBC/NBC is trying to use this crisis to raise CNBC's ratings by purporting to be a financial news network that will get you through this. CNBC does very little investigative reporting or real analysis. CNBC was part of the problem in the lead up to this situation by creating a reckless minute by minute hype guised in authority that did not help the lead up to this situation.

For some reason Cramer decided to take on Stewart. That's the sort of hubris and invincibility that got him in the situation he is in. It was not smart to go after Stewart. Stewart is a comedian, but under the comedy he's a serious commentator, and if he draws his bow at someone, the someone better be sure not to have an apple on their head.

EDIT: the uncut interview which is even longer than what aired (Note at the time I watched the uncut clips, the pre-roll advertisement was for Bank of America. Nice)]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0903.php#p805 Really fairly, barely coherent Random Non-Sequiters

Don't have time to read this much? Do you like robot voices? listen to this rant instead. Press the pink play arrow below:

I spent some time thinking about change this weekend.

We just had a change election. That's why we voted for Obama right? We wanted change?

But did we? Did we want change, or did we really want someone to change things back to before they got all effed up? I think it's the latter. I think what the campaign sign should have said was: “Change things back”

But you can't do that. You can't change things back, not in an open connected system. The “back” doesn't exist any more and no amount of change will get you to “back”.

People aren't going to accept that though. They realize that things are different, and some of the different, they want (like their internet and their ipods) but they want the new good different in the old framework.

As a illustration of my point. The recording industry is coming around to the idea of Mp3s but they want Mp3s to behave like CDs. they want to bundle them and charge for them and they want noone but themselves with their CD factories to be able to make copies. But that can't happen. An Mp3 is not a CD and it can't be controlled in the same way as the physical object, it's different and “back” won't work on it.

A less well worn example. America wants good paying jobs, but they also want to buy everything for a dollar at Walmart. American's can't have good paying jobs if everything they buy also has to cost a dollar. But isolationism isn't the answer either. Things can be made for a dollar and at present there are people that are willing to make those things for a dollar, so a dollar is what those things cost to make. Putting too many levys on them won't help the situation either.

Labor is the cause of our current problems. American labor is too expensive for the American consumer. But without the American consumer, the people willing to make things for a dollar can't make a living selling to us either. We've priced ourselves out of our own market, because the internet is quickly making things one market.

There has to be an adjustment. A leveling. the world has truly gone flat, one global market. Poor countries will have higher standards of living, but our country is going to have to have a lower standard of living. don't despair though, and don't hate outward at these “foreigners” taking our jobs. First of all, the people working for a dollar should be making more anyway, and they really aren't our problem in the first place. Why deny them the standard of living you ask for yourself?

How do we solve the problem? We solve it with less choice. A terrible thing to say sure, but less choice is the solution.

Walk into an electronics store. How many different TVs are there? How many different computers? Then think to yourself how much inefficiency goes into creating all those variations? How much cheaper would they be if there were three choices of televisions and would your experience of television be worse if you were watching on the same Sony TV as everyone else?

Walk into the mall. How much clothing variety do you really need? Yes you want to express yourself, but do you need that much choice.... how much does it really matter?

Right now all that inefficiency creates a lot of jobs and the illussion of prosperity, but we can lose a lot of choice, a lot of choice, a lot of choice, and our standards of living could be just fine.

Choice hasn't been driving our economy anyway. What drives our economy is the sense of lottery. The sense that if you work hard, educate yourself, make the right connections and catch the right breaks you too can be a multi-billionaire. That's what drives the economy. “You too could be a winner”.

That motivator: “you too could be a winner” that's what needs to be replaced, because we can't afford to have people at the top getting multi-billions of dollars as their prize any more. We could when there were lots of different markets, when there was lots of tops, little kingdoms for everyone, but things are too connected now. Winner take all doesn't work when it truly is one market and the all truly is ALL. We have to spread that winning downward, there needs to be a more equitable solution for everyone on the planet.

The multi-billionaires are going to fight that. Money is power and people never want to give up or share power. But it's going to happen, as sure as the Mp3 replaced the CD, it's going to happen because it's just the way the world works. And because the world isn't working that way right now, that's why you are having the current crisis.

“You too could be a winner” but you're going to have to find a way to “make everyone else a winner” first. ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0903.php#p804 Star Trek Trailer

This looks really really good.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0903.php#p803 Charlie Rose Eric Schmidt interview

Google CEO... interesting conversation

video]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0903.php#p802 Watchmen

Thursday Night Midnight Show, I saw Watchmen with friends at the Rivertown Celebration Theater.

It was better than I thought it would be. For the most part, I liked the ending better than the book.

As long as the movie is, I would have liked it to be longer.

The movie follows the book close enough that it is not a Hollywood formula type of movie. One of the things I enjoyed about it.

I have no idea how this movie would play to people unfamiliar with the book. I know that I filled in a lot of the blanks and missing parts in my head from my knowledge of the story.

The actor who plays Rorsharch, really hits it out of the park. Great stuff.

Night Owl was also well played. I also appreciated the fact that they went with the bad 80s late 70s hair for the actor. An odd statement I know, but I appreciate a movie that isn't afraid to have its cast not look like fashion models.

Comedian was fantastic too. The actor really disapeared into this character, I didn't see Denny Duket at all... He was pure Comedian.

I look forward to seeing this film again in it's extended release/directors cut this summer. If you like this sort of thing. Go see.

PS "I'm not locked in here with you! You're locked in here with me!"]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0903.php#p801 Random Non-sequiters

» I watched Vicky Christina Barcelona. the film was written and directed by Woody Allen. I'm used to seeing Woody Allen films starring Woody Allen and set in New York. I enjoyed the same style of storytelling but the change of character types and location.

The film takes place in Spain. It centers around two young American women abroad for the summer. One of the women is played by Scarlett Johansen. Penelope Cruz pictured in the poster has a secondary role and doesn't come into play until halfway thru the film. the male lead is played by a Spanish actor that is total doppleganger for the the dead guy from Greys Anatomy.

Anyway, the film doesn't have much plot, instead in a very Woody Allen way the movie climbs into the heads of and puts the conflictions, reflections and everyday experiences (albeit everytday experiences set in Spain) of its cast of characters on display for it's duration. The dialogue is suberb, the acting natural, and the overall look of the film beautiful. If you are looking for non-standard non-Hollywood paced and plotted fare, you'll enjoy this film. Do see.

» Picked up my midnight Watchmen tickets for tomorrow yesterday. Had some challenges with that. The film is rated R and Rivertown has a bizarre policy whereby supposedly you can't buy more than one rated R ticket without presenting ID for everyone. I had to get a manager involved in order to pick up tickets for my well over 18 friends.

I'm looking forward to the film, although I feel it will be sort of a Snakes on A Plane type situation (cult following, mainstream flop). It's a little disapointing that so many people have seen advanced showings already, undercuts the midnight release experience abit, but still despite all that, I'm looking forward to it,. It should be a good time.

» Yesterday, I watched Monday's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. It was ok. It has possibilities, but I think it's going to take him a few months to get into the swing of it. The best part of the show was the Conan O'brien sketch at the opening. I was disapointed that he didn't find away to work in Twitter or Facebook or social web 2.0 stuff in some way on his first show. Disapointing given how interactive the webisodes he's been doing for weeks have been. Perhaps he'll gear up more with that in the coming weeks.

» Interesting to see that the Amazon has released a Kindle platform on the iPhone. I suppose that's one way to build volume in sales without actually selling cheaper hardware. Still I'd love to see a sub $200 eInk based reader in the near future. Perhaps Kindle on iPhone will help grow the market to make that possible. ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0903.php#p800 Five things you think will make you happy but won't

Interesting article, especially if you like Devils' Advocate type arguments.

# 2 Genius - So What's the problem...
Want to know what it's like to live life as a genius? All you have to do is go hang around with the stupidest, most incompetent people you know. Cringe at their stupid jokes, feel the frustration as they fumble even the easiest tasks and fail to grasp the simplest concepts. Being a genius must be like that, only everyday. Everyone is an idiot compared to them. They're living Idiocracy.

Article also explains the problems with and fame, wealth, beauty and power.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0902.php#p799 Random Non-Sequiters

» I went up to Meijer real quick. I had a short list of things I needed. Including light bulbs. I got my first pack of Compact Florescent light bulbs. hmmm... After screwing in the CFL bulb, it only took one of me to do that if you're wondering, I'm not sure I like the light as well as a nice energy wasting regular bulb.

» Also swung by Staples on the way back home. I saw a couple of the large HP all-in-one touchscreen desktop computers. They had a 22in touchscreen All-in-one floor model for $945. Very slick opening up paint and drawing across a surface that large

» Still wrapping my brain around the Kevin Kelly TED talk I watched this morning. The concept of a post-web already is just mind expanding.

» Along the same thought plane I've been thinking about this NPR Science Friday podcast that looked at a scientific study that promotes buying experiences over buying things.

Psychologists say people reported feeling happier when they spent their money on experiences rather than objects. Ryan Howell, a San Francisco State University psychologist who led the study, explains the results and speculates on whether the findings extend to gift-giving.

I've been wondering why people would keep working in a post-Walmartization of cheap quality goods. I've been noticing the focus on travel and experiences in my own office environment for awhile, but I think there's something to the above interview. I think this is going to be where they, they in the generic sense, shape the zeitgeist next. There needs to be a reason to go to work, and with goods becoming cheaper, experiences are starting to feel like the direction they, again in the generic sense, will push the American mindset next.

More thoughts on this on my blog in the weeks and months to come I think.

» I've been also thinking a lot about Dunbar's Number.

Dunbar's number is a theoretical cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. These are relationships in which an individual knows who each person is, and how each person relates to every other person. Proponents assert that numbers larger than this generally require more restricted rules, laws, and enforced norms to maintain a stable, cohesive group. No precise value has been proposed for Dunbar's number, but a commonly cited approximation is 150.

and also this article on How Many Friends can you really have on Facebook

Thus an average man—one with 120 friends—generally responds to the postings of only seven of those friends by leaving comments on the posting individual’s photos, status messages or “wall”. An average woman is slightly more sociable, responding to ten. When it comes to two-way communication such as e-mails or chats, the average man interacts with only four people and the average woman with six. Among those Facebook users with 500 friends, these numbers are somewhat higher, but not hugely so. Men leave comments for 17 friends, women for 26. Men communicate with ten, women with 16.

Put differently, people who are members of online social networks are not so much “networking” as they are “broadcasting their lives to an outer tier of acquaintances who aren’t necessarily inside the Dunbar circle,” says Lee Rainie, the director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, a polling organisation. Humans may be advertising themselves more efficiently. But they still have the same small circles of intimacy as ever.

The above concepts along with my recent thoughts on People Time and Math as well as my “just getting a little older” is really making me think about the actual scope and size of people that I can have intimate, influencial, and meaningful relationships with.

It's a small number, and I find myself dwelling on how to attract and interact with the “right” small number.

More thoughts on this in the weeks and months to come as well I think. ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0902.php#p797 Kevin Kelly TED Talk

Twenty minute TED talk by Kevin Kelly on the next 5,000 days of the web. A very accessible presentation on where the web is and is going. Very thought provoking. Give it a watch or listen.

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0902.php#p795 I may need create a new commenting system or at least migrate to the newest version of their software.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0902.php#p794 Tech Thoughts

I have a Pocket PC. An archaic phrase I know. But in the grand scheme of things it isn't that old of a device. In anycase, it's battery is completely dead at the moment.

Y'see, I haven't touched the the thing in at least two weeks and also haven't put it in it's charging cradle in at least that long as well. This is the second time I've had it go dead in the last 4 months, from extreme lack of use and way to much standby time. Previously in the last 5 years or so, I've only had it's battery and backup battery completely die twice. so to have it happen again twice in a few months, hmm... habits have changed..

I don't use the Pocket PC much. There was a time when we were inseperatable. I used to have podcasts, TV show downloads and AvantGo, eBooks, and I used Wi-Fi web on it. I used the note taking app and Word and Excel on it incessantly.

Then a couple years ago, I got a web enabled phone, and all the web information I used to access with the Pocket PC, I ceased accessing, the phone was easier to grab info from the web. Then I got a little sandisk MP3 player and all my podcast playback went to that, because the battery life on the MP3 player would go for weeks and weeks of use on my morning drive. But still the Pocket PC was good for note taking and retrieval of Word and Excel documents.

Then a little over a year ago I got an Asus Eee PC. The Eee is so much better for Word and Excel, and PDFs, graphic apps like Gimp and Inkscape and using Wi-Fi I grab Google Docs from the either. the Eee is small too. I can take it into any conference room and use it for notetaking. And typing is so much faster and useful than hand notetaking on the Pocket PC. And video, the Eee has a larger screen and it tilts toward me. I was always propping up my Pocket PC against a salt shaker or napkin holder to watch video while I ate.

The netbook has killed my use of my Pocket PC. The sole two uses in the last year or so that I have used the PPC for has been hand scribbling note taking of shopping lists, and occasionally the calculator. It's sad, because I used to so love my PPC. Nothing about it changed, but I just had these other devices come into use, and I find myself with little use for it. So little, that I forget for several weeks to take it out of my bag and charge it, because it's been a couple weeks since I've even used it. And so it is, my Pocket PC battery is dead.

I'll charge it tonight though-- if I remember.

iPhones and Blackberries and Pre's oh my

I'm waiting til June to see/get the Palm Pre. I want a better web enabled phone, but I want one that shoots video, this leaves iPhone a non-option. On my phone I do: email, camera, calling, and video. I also occasionally like Sprint TV for CNN.

I love the look of all those shiny neat iPhone apps, but then I think of my Pocket PC and wonder, will I use them or will I just take 25 seconds to boot up my netbook?

But video? I know I use that, and it would be something I miss switching to an iPhone, so Pre it looks like it will be. (And I like the Pre's real keyboard too.)

...unless Android adds video support before the Pre... then, hmmm, who knows.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0902.php#p793

Why, Mr. Anderson, why? Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you're fighting for something, for more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is, do you even know? Is it freedom or truth, perhaps peace -- could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson, vagaries of perception. Temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself. Although only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson, you must know it by now! You can't win, it's pointless to keep fighting! Why, Mr. Anderson, why? Why do you persist?

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0902.php#p792 Networks effect

One person can be right.

If 1,000 people decide they don't like that "right" person and they decide to storm the "right" guy's castle as an angry mob with torches and pitchforks. It may not matter if the "right" guy is right.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0902.php#p798 Oscar Live Blog

10:52:21 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Goodnight internets

10:52:09 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Ok, I'm going to bed... maybe when I wake up in 7 hours, this will be over.

10:47:27 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
yeah, um, I don't think it's going to be worth it to watch the rest of this.

10:40:07 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
hmmm I don't know if I want to watch more of this... there's got to be about 3 hours left. They haven't done Actor, Actress or Film or Producer or Director yet.

10:32:30 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Slumdog for sound mixing over Wall-E? I haven't seen it... but it seems unlikely.

10:29:57 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Dark Knight over Wall-E for sound? really?

10:27:43 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Wow Oscars, way to award the most boring Special Effects movie.

10:22:56 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
funny Jimmy Kimmel commercial

10:17:29 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
more movies noone has ever heard of.

10:16:17 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Leather suit.

10:15:40 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Bill Mahr's movie should not have been nominated. It was not even a good HBO documentary.

10:13:43 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Bil Mahr? really?

10:08:35 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Heath Leger... well that was unexpected *rolls eyes*

10:07:33 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
You know what this Oscars needs? More cowbell!

10:04:20 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Is Philip Seymour Hoffman's head cold?

10:03:42 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Oh God they're going to do an hour an a half presentation for supporting actor too.

09:57:48 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
The musical isn't back.

09:56:27 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Really the High School Musical kids again.

09:55:59 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
looks good, but getting thicker isn't she.

09:54:21 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Beyonce...

09:51:56 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
It's not like they do it voluntarily... it's a state program.

09:51:16 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Seriously? coke wants to take credit for recycling?

09:51:12 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Seriously? coke wants to take credit for recycling?

09:50:07 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
What's with all the JCPenny commercials

09:47:26 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
short films, more movies, noone has ever heard of.

09:46:24 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
That comedy feature... featured alot of movies that wern't comedy

09:41:39 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Fox are definently chasing an Oscar with that pretentious looking Solosit movie

09:39:16 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Jessica Beal's dress has a little too much fabric on the left side.

09:37:36 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
At least they've ditched the bad Bruce Valench jokes this year.

09:37:06 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Joaquin Phoenix... could not think of that name for the life of me.

09:35:29 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
bla...slumdog gets cinematography

09:34:24 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Ben Stiller is stealing this moment

09:32:36 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Ha... topical joke

09:30:23 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Weird Coke commercial

09:29:27 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Jud Apatow short film coming up

09:26:05 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
I can't place the girl

09:25:34 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Twilight Vampire guy

09:24:21 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
mke-up to Benjamin Buttons

09:22:50 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
boring

09:21:31 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
A movie I haven't even heard of.

09:16:07 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
bond, James bond

09:13:00 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Gweneth Paltro American Express commercial. nice

09:10:58 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Domoaregatto Mr roboto... that's funny

09:09:50 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Don't they make any English short animation anymore?

09:08:02 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Hooray for Wal-E... but it would have been better if they put it in the Best Picture category.

09:06:11 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
They need to bring back some 2D animation... It's a bummer that everything is 3D

09:04:46 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Wal-E!

09:03:47 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Ah that's what the Oscars needed, a Thunderstorm Warning graphic running across the bottom of the screen for the night.

09:02:16 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
A little slow and sparse on the graphics...

09:01:15 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Log in to the chat at right

08:59:48 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
They should have had Fey and Martin host!

08:57:28 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Haven;t seen Milk

08:56:40 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
I'd be cool if Wall-E wins

08:56:37 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
I'd be cool if Wall-E wins

08:54:39 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Fey and Martin rock!

08:54:28 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
lol

08:53:54 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
30 Rock in the house!

08:53:40 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Tina Fey and Steve Martin!

08:50:40 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Where have they hidden the orchestra?

08:49:42 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Ok, I take it back... I don't want to hear from the winners either. Play Penelope off.

08:46:22 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
We don't want to hear from the presenters, we want to hear from the winners.

08:45:15 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Oh god if they are going to do a different person/different speech for every nominee we are going to be here all night.

08:43:26 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Whoopie and the Oscar equivilent of The View

08:41:41 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
curtain malfuncton

08:40:40 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
ha Brad and Angelina joke was funny

08:40:15 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Nice 20 min delay joke

08:38:50 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Nice plug for Wolverine tho.

08:37:52 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
I think they are going all out for just women on this show now.

08:36:00 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Brad Pitt grew some more facial hair so he doesn't have just that lame gable mustache anymore

08:33:54 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Billy Crystal did this bit better.

08:32:48 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Not Funny.

08:32:18 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
OMG, I just realized this whole evening is going to have an Australian accent. Hmmm... that might be abit much.

08:31:26 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Wolverine

08:31:08 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Oscar set looks like the set from Tron!

08:30:43 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Everytime I hear Leary's voice, I think of the MTV/Cindy Crawford bit from years and years ago.

08:30:27 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Everytime I hear Leary's voice, I think of the MTV/Cindy

08:29:49 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Dennis Leary as the voice of Ford F150 Trucks

08:29:46 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Dennis Leary as the voice of Ford F150 Trucks

08:28:30 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
fairly lame Red Carpet show... not enough famous people.

08:24:50 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Seth Rogan

08:23:39 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Jack Black

08:22:30 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
The dad from six feet under, cool

08:20:40 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
who really wants to see the acountants walk down the carpet?

08:20:21 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
who really wants to see the accountants walk down the carpet?

08:18:16 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Really the Nasanex Bee during the Oscars?

08:15:42 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Mylie Cyrus is definently the next Britney train wreck.

08:13:52 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Robert Downey Jr. Looks very young without facial hair.

08:13:23 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
High School Music kids the girl is cute the guy seems kindof lame

08:12:23 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
I've seen Benjamin Buttons... that might be it for the Best Pictures Oscars.

08:11:18 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
I don't think I've seen alot of the nominated movies.

08:10:37 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Now they are interviewing a fashion designer on the red carpet? I do not want to see the designer. I want to see famous people.

08:07:40 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Hopefully the commercial get better. Oscars used to be Superbowl level commercials for a few years.

08:06:49 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
I like Frank Langella, I need to see that Frost Nixon movie at some point.

08:04:35 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Sarah Jessica Parker is wearing a wedding dress

08:04:03 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Amy Adams, nice Red dress

08:03:44 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Red Carpet

06:46:37 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Come back at 7:45 or so.

06:35:59 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
You can save wear and tear on your twitter account

06:35:42 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Sign in to the chat at right.

06:35:40 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
Sign in to the chat at right.

06:31:17 PM Sun 02/22/09 Chris
I think I'm going to Live blog the Oscars.

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0902.php#p791 Twitter multiplier effect

On Twitter You see the comments of people you follow.

If one of the people you follow targets their message at someone you do not follow, you do not see that comment.

If a person you follow targets a message at another person you follow, you do see that comment.

Recently some of the people I follow were getting very very chatty. I was getting too many updates. I liked following all the people I was following, and I like seeing their general comments, but I wasn't very interested in alot of the crosstalk they were having with eachother.

There is an exponential twitter multiplier effect. The more networked together the people you follow are, the more chatter you get.

Since I was getting too many messages, I looked at this connected group and unfollowed one of them to cut back on the multiplier effect. By getting rid of the one person I not only lost that persons few messages, but I hid from view the 5 or 6 people's messages targeted at that user which were greater in quantity than even the unfollowed user's messages.

I can envision a day when twitter will need to give you granular control of the connections you can view between individual people on your follow list, where you will be able to specifically exclude connections between individual people, yet still see their general posts or their crosstalk with other friends.

Sadly that granular control is not here yet, so in order to exponentially reduce tweets, I had to cut one person to reduce my view of the crosstalk on that specific group.

What a difference it made in the tweet count I received!

Picture from flickr]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0902.php#p790 Plastic Logic Reader

Very Very Cool.

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0902.php#p789 Lawn Scrabble is an absolutely brilliant idea.


]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0902.php#p788 » Scott Adam's, Dilbert creator, blog Post: Quality Follows Popularity. Interesting blog post. Makes some good points.

Some quotes from his post below:

The common notion about entertainment is that the better the quality, the bigger the audience. There's some truth to that. But what I find more interesting is that it works the other way too: You need popularity before you have the luxury of developing quality.

Entertainment gets a chance to find an audience only if the concept is so simple it can be understood in a few words.

So here is the key learning. If you are planning to create some business or other form of entertainment, you will need quality at some point to succeed. But what is more important than quality in the beginning is some intangible element that makes your project inherently interesting before anyone has even sampled it. That initial audience will give you the luxury of time to create quality.

I have a twofold test for whether something can obtain instant popularity and thus have time to achieve quality:

1. You must be able to describe it in a few words.

2. When people hear about it, they ask questions.

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0902.php#p787 I hate Valentine's Day. You hear that alot.

But why do people hate Valentine's Day? Do people not like red and pink? Are people anti-love or anti-doing-things-for-people-they-love? Do people hate cards, chocolates and flowers? Really, what's the deal with hating a holiday constructed to celebrate all those things?

Or do people hate Valentine's Day because we are a "too me centric society"?

Valentine's Day is exclusionary compared to many other holidays. To fully participate in Valentine's Day you have a prerequisite of being in a positive relationship or coupleship. Are we growing that petty that we condemn a holiday because it excludes us? I'll admit, historically speaking I have not been able to fully participate in Valentine's Day more often than I have been able to. But I don't begrudge the holiday.

Too many people seem to feel judged by it. I don't think they should see it that way at all. All holidays do not have to pertain to everyone. I mean, Mother's and Father's Day is a little one sided for many people, but I don't see the vitriol for those. So to all the Valentine's Day haters out there, relax abit. Sure the holiday was created by card companies, but there's nothing inherently bad about the concept.

As I look around the gray Michigan landscape in mid-February, I'm happy for any day that just promotes a little color and it's ok to me if I get nothing more out of it than that.

Picture found on flickr]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0902.php#p786 Videos

» Brave New World. Sure it's slightly reverse offensive... but it is topical

» Lost Generation - I see what she did there.

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0902.php#p785 Let's Go Surfing

07:20:38 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» iyhy.com Surf the web stripped down.

07:16:22 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» Random Images

07:10:13 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» Creepy Robot Kid

07:06:57 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» Google books for iPhone and Android

06:58:19 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» At-At wants outside.

06:55:57 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» Neverending Story

06:41:02 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» Guy builds a joystick into a tray table.

06:31:50 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» Printablechecklist.org Make a checklist, print it out.

06:26:10 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» PMSbuddy an online PMS tracking/alert system.

06:23:21 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» Online Rhyming dictionary

06:17:53 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» Google Lattitude is Google's competitor to BrightKite. It allows you to show your friends where you are on a google map. It will work with most cellphone's soon.

06:12:49 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» Posterous Auto Posting Bookmarklet is pretty cool.

06:06:05 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» Speaking of Tetris, here's and interesting alleyway art installation of giant Tetris Blocks

06:02:09 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» If you use utorrent, I learned that you can go to the Help->About uTorrent menu and then press Ctrl-T and you can play a hidden game of Tetris.

05:59:05 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» yourfonts.com Make your own handwriting font. Print their template. Fill it out. Scan it into your computer. Upload it. Viola. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm going to soon.

05:51:06 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» Q10 is a full screen distraction free windows text editor. Download the portable app version with spell checker. After installing hit f1 to see the menu. Ctrl-P to change fonts and colors or to turn off the typing sound. F7 for spell check.

05:36:50 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» embed custom Google News on your website Neat.

05:35:02 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» Mashable list of 15 Firefox extensions to work with Flickr

05:29:19 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» Zombie Valentine

05:17:41 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» io9 interview with Summer Glau worth digging just for the pictures.

05:14:10 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» Bitbox wrinkled paper textures

05:12:13 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» Various Microsoft Songsmith remixes that pretty much just show that Songsmith mostly sucks.

05:06:10 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» Gmail tasks APP for the iPhone read and watch the video.

05:04:02 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» Song.ly is a site where you can put in a link to an mp3 and it will give you a tinyurl like link to a player that you can paste into twitter or email.

05:00:13 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» ginipic.com is a very very slick windows desktop application for searching and working with images from a bunch of different internet services. Take a look at this go2web20.net article

04:46:20 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» 99chats.com looks like a quick and easy way to add a chat room to any web page.

04:43:33 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» Zelda-computer humor Visual pun.

04:40:37 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» Article on how to backup various Google services

04:38:45 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» Mr. T hits a Shark

04:33:49 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» Besides being on Cartoon Network, Star Wars Clone Wars will also be on TNT After the first 3 episodes or so, it's a very good show.

04:18:01 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» I haven't tried it yet but Camspace looks like a neat program. It allows you to control any windows game using your web cam.

04:07:54 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» These felt crafted mii's are a neat idea.

04:05:41 PM Sat 02/14/09 Chris
» I'm sortof surprised to read that they are making a Ghost Rider sequel

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0902.php#p784 Random Non-Sequiters

» I saw a free advance showing of The International this evening. Well worth seeing Free. I wouldn't see it in the theater unless you really like Thriller/CSI type Novels. You could certainly wait until DVD or Cable. There were three quotes/lines in the movie that made me think... and that's more than most movies. One quote was on banks and debt, the second quote was on the truth, the third was a rather long speech about the state of the world. Movie starred Clive Owen and he spends most of the film trying to look as intensely at the camera as possible.

» Trying to figure out some stuff at work lately. Trying to figure out what the place "wants" beyond money. All corporations want money, but corps are collections of people too, and people want things. For example, Apple wants money, but they also want to be considered to have taste. Google wants money, but they also want to be smart. I'm trying to figure out what the gestalt at my place wants. I've been there awhile, I used to know what "they" wanted, but things do change and lately, I'm not really sure.

» Also trying to figure out what I want to do after work in the larger cosmic sense. If the past couple decades are any indication, things should continue to remain fairly solitary (with occasional bursts of social activity, much like "light showers") You can never predict life of course, but past performance can be indicative of future results. With contacts and relationships generally fleeting, there's just a certain futility to it. Not in a despair way, but in a sand castle sort of way. ie: It's all well and good to build an elaborate sand castle but if the tide is going to roll in and wash it away, well there is a sense of futility to it after the waves roll out. The more waves I see coming, and the older I get, I do see the waves coming, the less interested lately I have been in getting out my bucket and shovel.

» Hmm, that's all for now, tomorrow is already Thursday. Time can really fly sometimes. ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0902.php#p783 Random Non-Sequiters

» I saw Push today.

If you liked Jumper, you'll probably like Push. If you like and buy comics you'll probably like Push. If you liked the first season of Heroes, before it started to suck. you'll probably like Push. If you did not like any of those things, you probably won't like Push.

» A week ago I did a post I titled People, Time and Math. Lately, Been thinking more about that, along with thoughts on power, money and self. Also have been watching people in cars who get cutoff, or find themselves unable to turn because of traffic. Been watching the dysfunction of politics post-election. Been thinking about all the advances of technology and what they mean to our interaction with people. Been thinking of some things my mother said, and my grandmother said, and my grandma said. Been thinking of Ben Affleck on a Big ass boat in He's just not that into you (not Ben, but the concept that represents.). Been thinking about "first mover advantage" and "power law". Been thinkng about growth and exponential growth. Been thinking about the desire for lies and the distain for truth. Been putting all those thoughts and more into one big crockpot of thought.

I think my brain has come to some conclusions based on the above, but my brain also has locks and safeguards, sometimes fortunately and sometimes not, that are preventing those conclusions from passing into any sort of accepted thought. Perhaps one night soon, while I sleep, the locks will be loose and guard will drop down and the conclusions will fully slip thru, settle and take hold. That's how it usually happens, not with a start, but a sleepy quiet realization acted out in a dream that really isn't such.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0902.php#p782 He's just not that into you

I saw this movie at a matinee today with a few people. I enjoyed seeing at the theater, because I love movie theaters. I enjoyed seeing it with the group i was with. I enjoyed the first half or maybe 3/4 of the movie. Now I'll tear part of it apart. I'll try not to give anything away, but stop now if you don't want to be spoiled.

First off, I am not familiar with the book other than it was supposed to be a popular dating guide for women out not too long ago. One structural plus to the film is it's little asides with "real people" or at least real looking people that are obviously paraphrasing parts of the book. These scenes are very pop culture documentary style and are very funny.

The cast is varied, large and filled with likeable romantic comedy actors and actresses. I won't break them all down. You can go watch the trailer and see the star power and archetypes for yourself. I will say that they manage to represent several different single and couple archetypes across the late twenties/thirties spectrum.

This is an ensemble piece, and the movie introduces the characters one by one well and takes it's time showing you how they are all connected. Since they are all connected you get several different overlapping stories that get more interconnected as the film carries on and these connections are quite fun. And most of the scenes are amusingly constructed, working individually and as part of the whole.

At it's core the movie spends most of it's time illustrating why many popular women's misconceptions on dating are just that, misconceptions. I imagine this is in keeping with the book.

By it's end however, Hollywood really comes into play and undoes all the movie's "lessons" and reinforces all the misconceptions the first part of the movie skillfully dismantles.

There is a reoccurring line, paraphrasing, "everyone thinks that they are the exception when in fact they are actually the rule." By the end of the movie, everyone in the film, however, is the "exception" and gets their Hollywood ending, except for two characters, who cross the "social line", and as you would expect in a Hollywood film, get the "ending they deserve".

It's a good movie, I did enjoy it, I would have liked it to take more of an indy high road at the end, instead of the well worn Hollywood path, but if you like any of the actors in this film, you'll like them here. They all play wonderfully to type. If you're leaning toward seeing, go see.

P.S. Oh and guys if your girlfriend/wife wants to see this film but you'd rather see Taken or Push. It is the Valentines season, so you might want to just go with her on this one, it's a nice guy thing to do and you'll be rewarded with two or three Scarlet Johansen scenes well worth the price of admission (and a pretty good scene with Jennifer Connley too. ;)

P.P.S Somewhere out there, is a friend that will see a scene in this movie, and may think of me and laugh a little extra hard for no apparent reason.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0902.php#p781 Celebration Movie Theater Matinee Coupon

See any Matinee before 1pm for $5 Feb 7 thru Feb 13. (Coraline is $7) Print their Coupon]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0902.php#p780 Electrical Madness

Had an Office-wide electrical failure around 4pm today. Lights started flickering then my computer made a noise and "turned off". Hopefully they have the issue resolved by Monday. And hopefully my computer isn't completely fried. I'd hate to get a new one and have to reset up everything again.

Below is some video of the crazy strobe lighting effect we were getting. It is not an artifact of the video. It really looked like that for the 30 min before they managed to turn off the lights and I went home.

It was a disco dance party in there, without the disco or the party. ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0902.php#p779

I was listening to an Google Talk today while working. This chart struck me as interesting.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0902.php#p778 Star Trek Clip

Just saw this Star Trek Next Generation clip on io9. It's one of my favorite Star Trek scenes ever. As it explains why all the races in Star Trek are primarily bipeds and look the same except for bumpy foreheads, spots or strange ears.

Good Sci Fi.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0902.php#p777 Random non-Sequiters

Happy Monday,

Today is rolling like runaway train. I was up late due to the Superbowl last night, so got a slightly late start into work. Went over to our other office building across the street this morning. Had a meeting with our eCom area. Haven't been over there too much but I enjoyed it, it's fun getting a chance to talk technical things with technical people.

Back to the Superbowl-- Hulu was very impressive. they had the commercials up on one clean web page within a respectable timeframe of the commercials airing on TV. They also had a RSS feed set-up that pushed out the commercials in a steady stream too. On my own front, I tweaked around with some AJAX chat software and created a live blog page which I live blogged my reactions to the Superbowl event on. Worked pretty well I think. I am going to expand the page though. Build in a chat window and possibly embed a stickcam or a ustream camera. I also want to better integrate loading photos along with the text. Not sure when the next major tv event will be to make that useful but soon. It'll be a fun project.

The live blog is just an interesting exercise to tinker with and contemplate when it is preferable when compared to twitter, IRC, IM or a forum or a web chat room.

Our work cafeteria is under new management today. There are napkin dispensers on every table. The plates are black plastic styrofoam (classy compared to the paper boats before) hamburger was fine, fries were crinkle cut and slightly smaller portioned. The rest of the cafeteria seemed similar to the previous company in set-up and execution. They had cheesecake that I might try out at afternoon break. Not much junk food in the cafeteria section, but I'm going to go check out the new vending machines on my way back downstairs.

Lots to do this afternoon, so the rest of the day should go fast.

New Heroes tonight. I fully expect it to suck, and after tonight I'm not sure I'm going to watch it on Mondays... may just let them collect and view them as filler if the show is as bad as I expect it to be.

That's all for now, have a good Monday internets, maybe more from me later.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0902.php#p776 Superbowl Live Blog

10:15:01 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
And so concludes my live blogging

10:10:35 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
Congrats Steelers!

10:10:26 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
That was a pretty exciting 4th quarter

10:05:23 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
Is it me or NBC... my surround sound keeps cutting out

10:00:50 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
holy crap... thats awesome

09:58:15 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
nail bitter of an ending

09:54:58 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
and Danica Patrick sucks

09:54:32 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
Go Daddy commercials are way too 1999/2000

09:54:01 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
I wish bud light would make the winter go away

09:48:56 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
thats some pretty exciting football... long hair dude ran with that

09:33:35 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
MacGrubber Pepsi FTW!

09:33:14 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
wind energy ge bla

09:30:49 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
sigh... more football

09:28:06 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
no singing heroes

09:27:56 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
he\'s also in charge of microwave programing!

09:27:32 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
Alec Baldwin for Hulu!

09:27:09 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
Alec Baldwin!

09:26:55 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
taco bell should just do a commercial where they have a taco, a logo and the bell ringing... I get totallylike pavlovs dog whenever that taco bell bell rings

09:25:54 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
I could go for some taco bell though

09:25:41 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
taco bell commercial was like a bad beer ad.

09:24:34 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
scarecrow ge looks cool

09:24:04 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
taco bell fail

09:23:36 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
vizio good commercial for generating name recognition

09:22:39 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
I\'ve been totally ignoring this game... I just wait for commercials even though most of them aren\'t that good

09:19:03 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
Hammertime and McMann Cash4gold... thought that was going to be a joke... wasn\'t

09:18:06 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
coke zero commercial kinda funny

09:12:40 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
Chrysler commercial in the local block... but no US car makers in the Superbowl proper.

09:12:03 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
Applebees is buying alot of GR time

09:11:48 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
local commercials

09:07:10 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
love french fries

09:03:56 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
if your conan lasts 3 hours, call a doctor

09:02:28 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
coke is just too high concept... pretty commercials though

09:01:48 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
love peter and the wolf!

09:01:38 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
Peter and the wolf music

09:00:31 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
heroes is going to suck

09:00:22 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
carearbuilder.com was retty goode. they punched a kola!

08:59:10 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
cool... more crazy transformers fun

08:45:37 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
Office episode looks good.

08:42:11 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
I actually do want to see the Witch Mountain movie

08:41:44 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
too much on the grandpa clydesdale

08:38:08 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
ha monster nice moose ass

08:37:32 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
mmm bacon

08:37:06 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
jump jump spacemen. cool

08:36:49 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
cool coke commercial with the avatars

08:35:54 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
that guy spooned the other dude a little long after that last tackle

08:28:00 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
the NFL reserves the right to control recitation of factual information

08:27:04 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
any accounts of the game are prohibited....

08:24:59 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
local commercials... save big money with menards

08:24:30 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
Millions of people Lauging their ass off... ha

08:23:34 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
commercial rerun... already seen the cape kid

08:23:05 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
bling bling

08:22:36 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
It\'s the shat!

08:22:25 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
tranny truck... lame

08:21:19 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
the quote is disney world not disney land

08:20:59 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
springsteen songs generally have more of an introspective undercurrent... that felt almost like springsteen channeled thru jimmy buffet

08:20:01 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
I\'m not sure springsteen really works when he\'s having that much fun.

08:16:09 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
I\'m fairly indifferent to springsteen... its an ok performance if you like springsteen I imagine

08:14:15 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
watching bruce springsteen now... I\'m a few minutes behind live

08:13:45 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
items in the middle of the tv look 3d but anytime the subject gets cropped it goes flat with the plane of the frame

08:13:13 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
tried it again with the sobe glasses and came to the conclusion that the real problem is that the 3d doesn\'t work when any part of your subject gets cut off by the tv screen frame

08:12:31 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
I tried the 3d commercials with some other glasses that were more red and more blue... they didn\'t work

08:05:32 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
3d commercials didn\'t work for me... not sure if it\'s my tv or the glasses... I\'m ging to rewind the dvr and try some different glasses

07:59:57 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
live blogging in 3d

07:55:20 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
dude landed on his head

07:51:23 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
If your hair covers up your name on your jersey... it\'s probably too long for football

07:49:36 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
I\'m not sure I care for Chester Cheetahs new voice

07:48:32 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
Is the dude who makes the sounds on the field too?

07:48:08 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
I thought Hightower was a Police Academy character

07:46:08 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
not witty, but it was a well done Jay leno commercial

07:45:14 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
not sure whtats up with the flowers in a box

07:44:56 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
handr block meh

07:43:54 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
h

07:41:00 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
hmmm not sure about up but Pixar rarely fails

07:37:43 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
hulu advertised on the superbowl, that\'s going to crash the server

07:37:17 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
my 3d glasses are ready

07:36:29 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
etrade baby!

07:36:00 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
yea commercials

07:34:29 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
james dude has quite the helmet visor

07:31:57 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
ok, less football, more commercials

07:25:27 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
cars.com sortof benjamin button like, but fell flat

07:15:04 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
Star Trek is going to kick ass

07:14:04 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
daisy dating, eh

07:11:45 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
Heroes is going to be LAME

07:11:05 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
or maybe you should get a clydesdale... weird back to back commercials.

07:10:30 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
pedigree ad not bad

07:09:55 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
I\'m good!

07:07:35 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
go daddy is just a little too juvenile

07:06:34 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
good commercial... doritos is on a roll!

07:05:55 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
Basterdizing my childhood. Land of the Lost

07:05:12 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
amusing for an oil commercial... who doesn\'t love monkeys (chimps)

07:04:13 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
wasn\'t there already a fast and furious movie shouldn\'t it have a different name?

07:03:06 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
Mrs Potato head. amusing

06:56:30 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
They have a player named after the terminator on sarah conner chronicals

06:53:39 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
nope I\'m not a venza

06:53:20 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
Year One... well that\'s an odd looking film

06:52:23 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
Conan... that would have been a funny commercial if it featured a serious actor instead of a commedian

06:49:06 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
Are comercials showing up on the Hulu rss before the tv? there\'s an NBC LMAO commercial on the feed that was pretty funny.

06:44:58 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
doritos snow globe.. nice

06:44:32 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
ok pepsi commercial

06:42:00 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
cool car chase commercial

06:40:42 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
Angels and Demons... no interest.... never saw the davinci code either

06:40:00 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
office meetings with Bud Light?

06:35:31 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
love the 2nd and 10 style graphics that get superimposed on the field

06:33:35 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
I like the live video floating heads

06:31:37 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
nice splitscreen

06:30:56 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
better Hyndai commercal... but um still a Hyndai commercial

06:27:57 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
General Petraeus you\'ve invaded several countries, where are you going next? The Super Bowl!

06:27:11 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
old guys on parade

06:25:59 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
Hyndai... lame

06:24:25 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
singing heroes... um no

06:23:35 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
ok... can\'t rip on Ronald McDonald house.

06:23:02 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
Avon! yeah there\'s your recession proof business. oy

06:22:27 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
it\'s the lame ass G.I. Joe commercial

06:21:25 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
Why does everyone do this song a different way? Can\'t we standardize it a little more?

06:19:44 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
Sounds like the National Anthem if done in a Disney Movie

06:19:13 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
really? Jennifer Hudson?

06:16:15 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
more faith hill

06:14:10 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
julia roberts and clive owen... duplicity... probably a meh movie but it\'ll be filled with good quips I bet.

06:13:28 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
subway, I like that 5 dollar foot long slogan

06:13:08 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
Verison commercial... bla

06:12:42 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
ok Universial Studios commercial. Kids in capes are cool.

06:12:02 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
lame best buy commercial

06:11:36 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
lame lebron commercial

06:09:47 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
There\'s a steeler named Colon. Is he a tight end?

06:01:16 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
Are you ready for some Faith Hill Football?

05:56:17 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
Live Blogging

05:10:40 PM Sun 02/01/09 Unnamed
I\'ll be live blogging Superbowl commercial stuff soon.

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0902.php#p775 Let's Go Surfing

04:59:52 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Wow finally worked thru last weeks starred items in my google reader. Done Link Blogging for now.

04:53:37 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Mozilla giving cash for Open Video development to make video work better on the web link Cool.

04:51:26 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Bittbox Free textures Flicr Pool. link Good Stuff

04:49:37 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Ihardlyknowher.com the curiously named stripped down Flickr browser. link I don't think Flickr is that hard to browse... but this is interesting anyway.

04:46:59 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Good Article: Here's what's wrong with the DC Universe link some good points and an amusing WOW analogy.

04:36:54 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Free Ubuntu Pocket Guide PDF download link cool.

04:28:21 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Song.ly share MP3s on Twitter. Basically ad an url to an MP3 and songly will give you a link to an embeded player to play it. link looks useful for some instances.

04:18:09 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Track packages via twitter. link Get a dm everytime your pacakage moves. Interesting

04:03:33 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Being Human BBC series about a vampire, werewolf and a ghost that live togeter. Video link Looks interesting in a No Heroics kindof way.

03:47:37 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Browse entire magazines in Google Book Search link Lots of well known ones too.

03:02:38 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Very cool Darth Vader leading Storm Troopers into battle illustration. link Neat.

02:59:29 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» When I grow up I want to be like mommy. Humor, funny. link rotfl

02:57:39 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Netflix profits way up link Bigger TVs at home and more expensive tickets to cookie cutter movies at theater. No doubt this trend will continue.

02:55:34 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» PayPal has joined the OpenID Foundation link And OpenID keeps barreling along

02:53:43 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» How to survive a social media revolt link Good suggestions for apoligizing in general in this article.

02:48:09 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» I posted about one of these last week but i really like the idea of these 7 in. USB displays link Very slick.

02:41:15 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Awesome drawing of 1970s Television heroes. link Very very cool.

02:39:01 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» V to return as a family drama? link Does not sound like a good idea to me. but you never know.

02:37:13 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Muxtape returns with a new focus on legal music. link Doesn't really sound like muxtape has returned then.

02:29:05 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» You can draw on Brisol paper featuring the art of KatieCanDraw link Pretty cool.

02:02:43 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» NBS Nightly News video about Dr. Manahattan from Watchmen link retro neat

01:32:03 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» twtpoll looks like a pretty simple poll web site you can embed them in your blog or twitter them link neat.

01:28:37 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Her Morning Elegance. The Girl on the Bed Stop motion Video link Very slick.

01:24:07 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Fontpicker is a Flash based Font Picker link It also installs as an Adobe Air application.

01:21:16 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» 4 Web Apps to make your own motivational posters link Cool.

01:20:07 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Thinkgeek: Back to the Future License Plate $29.99 link Neat.

01:15:50 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Hamburger Bed! link I caz sleepz in a cheezburgr?

01:14:06 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Hand Drawn Icon Set link Neat.

01:08:47 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Video of Dark Knight as an Old-School Nintendo Game link

01:07:47 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Marry Me. Very cute little short film youtube video link

01:06:20 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Time article. Does Facebook Replace Facetime or Enhance It? link Depends on the person if you ask me.

01:04:37 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» It's a real Spaceship link Click and scrolldown abit.

12:59:53 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» The The Impotence of of Proofreading Video link

12:57:49 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Cookie Monster Cupcake. Awesome. link

12:55:10 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Central Station dance video link

12:51:54 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Pic2color, upload a JPG and get a hex color pallette from it link

12:45:26 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» 1984 Steve Jobs Macintosh Demo link

12:41:40 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» David Letterman Top Ten Things We'll miss about Bush link

12:39:17 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Nigerian goat detained as robbery suspect link

12:11:47 PM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» I discovered FBReader link the eBook reader software on my Eee PC. Works pretty good.

11:36:40 AM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» MTVMusic.com link Wow MTV and music? what a strange combination. You can watch videos there.

11:33:20 AM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Tetris Necklace link Neat.

11:31:44 AM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» ChaCha CEO's 8 monitor computer set-up. Now that's the way to roll. link

11:30:26 AM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Carbonmade.com link is a easy to create artist portfolio site. Very clean and upto date looking in it's execution.

11:27:28 AM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» TechCrunch Cheap Web Tablet Prototype link Will this be the year we get uber-cheap sub $200 web tablets? I hope so.

11:10:46 AM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» KatieCanDraw Dr. Horrible. link

11:07:12 AM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Neat Zip Code program link Click the map and as you start typing it will narrow down the zip code location, by lighting up the map.

11:03:16 AM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» This 3.5 inch scale new Star Trek Movie Bridge playset is pretty cool looking. link

10:58:43 AM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Coolflick.org link is a Flash based, Colliris-like Flickr search tool. Put in your word and then you can flick throught the pictures Minority report style.

10:50:18 AM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Obama got to keep his Blackberry. I imagine he got to keep it, cause y'know he's the President and stuff. link

10:44:31 AM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Sketch Magazine online highlighted friends, Adama and Comfort's FREE Download of Uniques issue 1 last week link

10:38:11 AM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» BSG Photo of Six link

10:36:28 AM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Star Wars Tilt Shift Photography link

10:32:20 AM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Gigapan Super Huge resolution Google Maps style Navigation photo of the Inauguration. link

10:26:47 AM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Crap, I wanted to get the Palm Pre, but it won't have video recording at launch. That's a requirement for me. Looking more and more like I'm going to have to get a blackberry or just keep my flip phone for now. link

10:22:09 AM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Dell Adamo is a pretty sweet looking incredibly thin (MacAir smashing) laptop. link

10:13:30 AM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» 40 Twitter using companines and how they use it. link

09:52:28 AM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Retrosexuals link "the phenomena of people reconnecting via sites like Facebook and hooking up after not seeing each other for a decade or more. "

09:49:03 AM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» MSNBC hates on Linux link

09:46:03 AM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Chrysler uses some of it's bailout money to sponsor Chrysler cars in the movie: Terminator Salvation. Which is cool, because when you think "end of the world" now you can think "Chrysler" link

09:42:51 AM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» BlankSheetMusic.net link Where you can print any kindof blank sheet music free.

09:41:27 AM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Google JavaScript APIs get a playground link I want to start hooking my blog into more services with this sort of stuff.

09:37:41 AM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» MakeBeliefsComix.com is a neat web app you can make comic strips with. Great if you can't draw, but are dying to do a three panel joke link

09:27:43 AM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Leyio Personal Sharing Device, uses UWB and also USB sticks. Even if they ever shut down Bittorrent and sharing on the internet, these things would make Filesharing continue. link

09:15:02 AM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Bratz Dolls May Give Young Girls Unrealistic Expectations of Head Size link

08:58:23 AM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Um, no, we should go to the moon again, and to Mars. It's not a waste of money, it's one purpose for our existence link.

08:49:38 AM Sun 02/01/09 Chris
» Hey they Cloned an Extinct ibex! link but then it died after it was born. Cool, but still a bummer.

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0901.php#p774 People Time and Math (Weekly) 2 DaysTime allotted for Family: Parents, Siblings, Children, Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, what have you. 2 DaysTime spent with spouse or significant other 1 DayTime spent with close friend 1 DayTime spent on errands or obligations 1 DayTime spent for oneself, hobbies, pursuits or to unwind. Total 7 Days *You may be able to combine some of the above and eek out 1 additional open day, or once a month combine enough to eek out a second open day in a given week. But such changes will not be sustainable. **Above is postulated for people who work full-time in some capacity. Want to make friends? Find a single person who has moved away from their family. Otherwise, good luck, very few openings on the calendar are available. It's not personal, it's just math. ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0901.php#p773 Thank George Bush. It does not appear to have been joined in any sortof ironic way either.

I'm not even sure how to process that concept.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0901.php#p772 Random Non-Sequiters

There is no change.

There are too many interconnected forces acting in concert. There is no great will, but there is a direction.

The direction cannot be changed because there is no great will to change it. Small wills are overwhelmed by the interconnected forces, and all wills are small in the face of ever greater interconnected forces.

The only truth I know, is the people want to be lied to. There is a version of the world they want to be. That version of reality may be based on reason, or not, but it's most certainly incomplete and will require vast external and internal delusions to maintain, however solid it's ground. Anything that does not fit the individual hardwired point of view will be rejected, and the messenger killed-- if possible.

People want examples of success before they act. But to find an example, is to find something that already is. To do something that has never been done is impossible when a preexisting example of success is a mandate before action.

Power comes from inequity. To be equal is to have no power. If all men are ever truly ever created equal, then noone will have power.

People seek power, and therefore embrace inequity as long as they feel they are on the weighted side of the teeter totter.

Power is an illusion. Your odds of getting struck by lightning in a given year according to the NWS is 1 in 750,000. The odds do not care about how structured or solidly grounded your powercenter is. Ultimately over the course of your life, you have a 100% chance of death.

Entropy wins.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0901.php#p771 Random Non-Sequiters

» Hopefully Dollhouse which starts in a few weeks, does not suck. I need a new ongoing sci-fi/action show to add to my watch roster.

» Haven't seen much about this, and it might be a little Soap Operaish but this alternate history series Kings looks like it might be worth one episode at least (or maybe not March 19th will tell I suppose)

» Heard that Feb 2, Jott.com will no longer offer a free service. Jott is a service that you can call on your cellphone and it will transcribe your text. You can use it for leaving yourself notes, or for updating Twitter, the paid version converts your voice to email too. I use it infrequently, maybe once a month. So it's no great loss. Dial2do.com looks to do the same thing as Jott though, so I might try that as a replacement service.

» Last weekend I ran into someone in an online game room that I knew from the internet (not searched for or found by, just happened to be in a “room” of 5 people and 1 of them was someone I “internet knew”). Thought that was really weird. I've never “ran” into someone in a real time fashion on the internet. At the mall sure, but the internet is a huge place and to just run into someone, well that tripped me out a little.

» Did I mention I'm bummed that Google is dropping Notebook. Current users can keep using it for now at least. It's a bummer, I like Google Notebook.

Let's Go Surfing

» Danny Elfman is doing the score for Terminator Salvation that's pretty cool, hopefully he does use some of the classic Terminator bits. I love the music in the various Terminator incarnations.

» fixmyhtml.com is a simple website where you paste in your HTML and it fixes it.

» Check out this Ottoman to store your Rockband stuff.

» ReadWriteWeb article pronouncing the death of Enterprise RSS. A little premature I think, we're about 2 to 3 years from having workers who are used to RSS entering the workforce. Enterprise RSS isn't dead, it hasn't even gotten started yet.

» Map of the Star Wars Galaxy

» How to printout blank calendars in Outlook 2007.

» They might be able to develop a love vaccine. Now that's an interesting concept. Probably would change the world alot more than the Polio Vaccine.

» Good news, you may not be as real as you think you are. You may just be a 3D hologram representation of 2D data.

Videos

» What do you get when you combine the crappiness of Twilight with the crappiness of High School Musical? Twilight High School Musical. And it's not any better than the first two either.

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0901.php#p770 Random Non-Sequiters

» I made a crockpot full of chili today. I started it in the morning and let it slowcook for over 4 hours. It was very good. I'll also be having chili tomorrow I think-- and quite possibly Monday as well.

» Looks like there are two waves of Green Lantern figures coming from DC Direct, both based on the Blackest Night storyline. Wave 1 features Black Lantern Zombie superman, Alpha Lantern Bodika, A Blue Lantern and a Red Lantern. Wave 2 Features John Stewart, a Yellow Lantern, an Indigo Lantern and Zombie Black Lantern Martian Manhunter.

» Possibly the last computer I'll ever need.

Convertible Eee PC touch, goes from Laptop to Tablet PC. I'm pretty happy with my current Eee PC, but a 9” screen that folds to a multi-touch tablet pc, well that's about it right there. To have the functionality of my current Eee, but to be able to both hold the Eee as a flat tablet for reading, as well as to be able to scribble notes by hand and draw on it? For an Eee price hopefully? I can't think of anything else I'd really need to do with a mobile PC.

» I bought a 1 gig MicroSD card for my 1gig Sandisk MP3 player this past week. I'm sure billion gig iPod owners scoff at only a mere 2 gigs of audio, but I overwelmingly use my Mp3 player for audio podcasts, and I think that should do me for the near future at least. I've actually been fine with just the 1 gig. Normally I load it with podcast shows once a week for my commute to and from work. When the weather is nice I also listen to them on walks outside. I got the MicroSD just to make it a little easier to load Mp3s from work or from my Eee. It's easier to load the MicroSD card then to carry around the Sandisks' USB cord.

» My cell contract is up this month. I think I'll hold off upgrading until summer. I'll probably stay with Sprint. I'm interested in seeing the Palm Pre or the Samsung Android phone. The first is definitely coming out this summer, the latter is rumored to be. Here's what I use my cell for: phone calls, gmail, twitter, photos, mobile camcorder and some web (I also occasioanlly watch Sprint TV CNN). I'm sure with either of the above devices, my web use will go up. I imagine over the next few years, all of our web use will go up. Currently, I have a 2 year old Samsung A900M, it's been a remarkably good phone.

» I realized today that I regularly shop at 6 different Meijer stores. That's a lot of Meijer stores.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0901.php#p769 Viacom are dicks

Last night I got a note from Youtube that a video I had placed on there was taken down by request of Viacom.

What was the infringing video you might ask? Well it was a 5 min clip of two year old Scott Baio MTV reality show. The clip featured a former co-worker of mine that ended up on the show, and I had posted the short 5 min edited video to go along with a blog posting (also about 2 years ago) I did about the the coworkers' appearance on the show.

Way to go Viacom, I'm sure you've protected your lucrative Scott Baio Reality Show DVD buying business or Hulu distribution rights, by issuing a take down of my 5 min clip that basically didn't even feature Scott Baio.

I looked on my Youtube channel and I had an additional eight or so, short two to three min (or even shorter), videos that were captured from TV. Rather than deal with potential future Youtube hassle, I decided to take those down.

I'll probably just post/host those few stupid clips, which being one to three years old themselves now, probably have no relevance anyway, on my own site on a future archive page. ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0901.php#p768

Friends Adam and Comfort are now offering Issue #1 of their comic series The Uniques as a FREE Download. Issues #2 thru #5 are available for 99¢. All 5 issues are also available as Printed comics for $5.

If you haven't read Issue #1 yet. There's no longer any excuse, because, hey it's a FREE download! ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0901.php#p767 Random Non-sequiters

» I watched a new CBC Canadian Drama yesterday Being Erica. It's a fairly lighthearted show. I would describe it as mixing Samantha Who with Journeyman.

Thirty-two years old and nowhere near her proper life path, Erica Strange gets to work on understanding where she went wrong in her past with the help of Dr. Tom. In each episode Erica relives a part of her past that she regrets and has the chance to do it again the right way.

Only seen the one episode so far (only 2 have aired) but based on first impressions, Good show. Seek out and see. (I think you might be able to watch the 1st episode at the link above?)

» Really cold outside in West Michigan today. Single digits. Fortunately, though, very low wind.

» Read that Google is droping some services. Two of note, Google Video and Google Notebook. I haven't used Google Video much and there probably isn't much point to it for them since they own Youtube. Google Notebook is a neat little app though, and I've been using it quite abit lately. Fortunately they are going to continue to support current Google Notebook users, but apparently they are not going to allow new users to use the service. Bummer.

» Very happy it's almost the weekend again.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0901.php#p766 Random Non-Sequiters

In Michigan it is just too dark, too much in the Winter. It was dark when I went home from work, It's dark when I get up. When it's not dark, It's overcast and gray.

Where it's not dark: work. Recently a couple months ago they intstalled over head lighting. Lots of it too. It's the most artificial neutral all encompassing overbearing lighting system you could imagine. It makes one long for the 'well lit' spaces of a 1970s department store changing area-- yeah it's that bad.

Recently I got demoted at work. It has been an interesting demotion so far. I did not get less pay, so that's good. Technically, I'm even in a more interesting area doing more interesting work, and that is also good. I'm actually even working closer with some more capable people, so that is also good. So in many ways calling it a demotion is not very accurate. What really happened was another wave of structured process has washed over my office in the last year. More structure, less human initiative. More individual actors constrained along predefined process flowcharts. I'm pleased to be in a more forward looking area, at a time the organization is even more involved perfecting running the machinery of some entrenched venerable processes of which I'm no longer much a part. Hopefully it is an interim. I have a feeling of waiting to be asked to do something, but as the process becomes more and more all encompassing, it seems only the gestalt of the process can ask for anything as the individual actors are stuck on those predefined flow chart paths. And I question whether the gestalt can truly ask for anything interesting. And should I suggest anything, it seems it will be a lot of work to get the gestalt's attention.

I've got a couple good friends I see every other day or so. Some others I see once a week. Oddly most of my daily human interaction seems to come from following twitter streams, facebook timelines, the occasional IM status update and blog feeds of efriends. It is a peculiar situation, to be so primarily connected to what is ether.

Things aren't physically quiet. There's noise all around. Blur lines of motion this way and that. Clanking and banging noise of all types. With all that going on around me though, it's still very very silent.

Did I mention how dark it is in Michigan in January? ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0901.php#p765 Let's Go Surfing

» X-Wing Hot Dog Cooker serves no purpose except to be awesome.

» Snapter is a neat piece of software that helps you use your digital camera as a scanner. Makeuseof.com has a nice article on it.

» Jon Taplin has an interesting article titled Advertising's Folly

This is a bottle of Tide detergent. It costs about $7 at your local market. It has less than $1 of ingredients in it. The rest is packaging, marketing, “shelf space fees” and profit. Tide’s manufacturer, Procter and Gamble spends $255 million per month in U.S. advertising for all its products.

In the first six months of the year, General Motors spent around $200 million per month in advertising to sell 250,000 cars and trucks. That’s close to $1000 per vehicle for marketing.

» Robert Scobble interview with 12seconds' web 2.0 people. part 1 and part 2.

» I haven't tried this yet, but iSpring Converter which converts Powerpoint to Flash SWFs looks to be pretty cool.

» The Newspaper Spider-man just had his own Brand New Day. Who knew there was even still a newspaper Spider-man?

» I really want to think of something to try and make with Shapeways which is a 3D printing company. This 7.5" action figure looks pretty pricy at $194 but this 3.5" figure looks much more reasonable at $5..

» Oh and to make a service like the above even cooler. There is a consumer grade/priced3D Desktop Scanner coming out from a company called Realview.

» Wibe7.tv is a pretty neat way to surf Youtube videos.

» Timelapse video of a cat crawling over a guy all night long

» These little 7" 800x480 USB plug-in monitors are going to be really cool when they start hitting later this year.

» Minoru 3D web cam is shipping for $89.99. Sortof of neat. I pulled out some old red and blue glasses from a comic book and watched this sample video. Also noticed there were some other 3D videos on Youtube, but the red blue glasses made me a little dizzy after a bit.

» Ha!

» I played with Microsoft's Songsmith It's a novelty type program that automaticlly creates Casio Keyboard type accompaniement to go with your singing.

Videos

» Two great videos from Onion News Network Apple introduces Macbook Wheel and Attractive Girls Union Refuses To Enter Into Talks With Mike Greenman. The second is especially amusing.

» Asus t91 8.9" Tablet Netbook $499??? in March 2009??? Want!

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0901.php#p764 Good Morning

Press Play.

(Saw this on a twitter friend's tweet. Recorded it. Forgot to turn off the Mic. So you hear me cough a couple times. Works for the song though. Title is evident when you play it. Artist is Jens Lekman.)]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0901.php#p763 he's just not that into you

Given that title I'd usually think twice about a movie like this... but then I watched the trailer. There are alot of really interesting actors in this film:

Watch the trailer below:

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0901.php#p762 David Pogue Talk on Internet Telephony stuff

Yeah, it sounds boring, but it actually opens and closes with a nice musical parody number and he goes over alot of cool stuff you can do blending your cellphone with the internet.

Watch it.

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0901.php#p761 Random Non-Sequiters

» I saw the new Battlestar Webisodes, Face of the Enemy yesterday. Really really good. As good as any regular episode. I did miss Episode 9 which probably has a little bit of climactic expostion... but even without that. Great webepisode... Can't wait for the remainder of the season to begin in a few weeks.

» Also saw Valkyrie aka How Tom Cruise almost killed Hitler yesterday. I don't recommend it. First off, Cruise doesn't kill Hitler, you know that going into the story. Since there is no other emotional or plot component to the story, what would normally be a suspense thriller type of movie, loses all it's suspense. It's just a bla film. Don't even bother with the DVD.

Let's Go Surfing

» So, um does this SMS article mean that SMS is going to basically be free soon 'cause that would be cool. SMS is dying anyway (albehit a very slooooooooooow death) what with email enabled phones popping up everywhere.

» Inequality and the Sergey Brin Effect

As best-selling writer and investor Nassim Nicholas Taleb points out in The Black Swan, safe occupations are those where the worker is paid a fixed amount per unit of time. An accountant or a nurse is not going to become extremely rich or extremely poor; they could be called “billers,” because they bill for their time. On the other hand, a professional singer or a software entrepreneur is playing in a winners-take-most tournament. The difference in talent between an international pop star and an unknown lounge singer may actually be quite small. However, the nature of these fields is that the difference in rewards can be enormous. People who choose these sorts of occupations could be called “players.”

There is also another factor at work. A trend is underway in America for marriage to be increasingly “assortative.” That means children of well-educated parents tend to marry one another and the children of less educated parents tend to marry one another. This was less the case a few generations ago. For example, sociologists Christine Schwartz of the University of Wisconsin and Robert Mare of UCLA found that beginning in the early 1970s there was a striking “decline in the odds that those with very low levels of education marry up.” And they found that between 1940 and the late 1970s the likelihood that someone with only a high-school diploma would marry someone with a college degree dropped by over 40 percent.

According to their view, two generations ago, a husband and wife married in order to share production, with the man working in the market and the woman working at home. Today, the husband and wife are both likely to work in the market, and they choose one another because they have similar tastes in consumption.

» Papercase makes it easy to print Paper Cases with art and description labels for Burned DVDs.
1. Drag this Papercase link to your links tool bar.
2. Goto Netflix and browse for a movie. (you don't have to be a netflix member to do this.)
3. Once on the movie's "description page" click the link. Nothing will happen except a dialog will pop up saying your case is ready to print.
4. "Print" your browser page (A case will print, not the page)

Apparently this also works with music.aol.com and Picasa.

Videos

» Dave Letterman, Top 10 George W. Bush moments.

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0812.php#p760

Friend Jeff sent me this.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0812.php#p759 Amanda Waller JLU Action Figure

Cool.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0812.php#p758 Lennon OLPC Ad

It's one thing to use someone's image in an ad. It's quite another to fake their voice and have someone endorse something that didn't even exist at the time of their death.

Poor taste.

FAIL.]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0812.php#p757 Random Non-Sequiters

To point out that experts are wrong, however, is to misunderstand the purpose of them. Their function is not to provide knowledge, and still less clear thinking. Instead, it is to provide certainty. People hate dissonance, doubt and uncertainty. Experts help dispel these.

Confirmation bias, Halo effect,and Groupthink. interesting.

Let's Go Surfing

» Some character head shots friend's Adam and Comfort did of the cast of Pushing Daisies. Such a bummer that show got canceled.

Oh and speaking of Pushing Daisies, the actress that plays Chuck, Anna Friel, stars in the upcoming Wil Farrell Land of the Lost thing. I was pretty much planning to ignore seeing that movie until I learned she was in it. Now it looks like I'll see it. I like Chuck. Damn it.

» Batman and Robin Illustration I saw on someone's tumblr.

» Foxit eBook Reader $229 in January. Nice pricepoint, for what looks to be a pretty open reader (regular PDFs without conversion, SD card, and USB sticks.)

» Simple Java based Gif Animation Maker Runs on Win/Linux/Mac if you have Java installed.

» CaseConverter.com is a simple website that can convert your text case (UPPER, lower, Sentence, etc.)

» Tableizer is a web tool for converting Excel or Calc spreadsheet date to HTML tables.

» Kirk yelling Kahhhhhnnnn! action figure.

» Sharetabs is a tinyurl like service that lets you create a tiny url to a whole list of links. You put your list of links in, and they gie you one tinyurl that links to a page of thumbnails of those links that also can be loaded all at once.

» Program for Merging Mp3s together.

» DSpeech is a nice freeware text to speech program for windows.

» Fables might be an ABC TV series kindof a bummer since this show really should be on cable to do it justice.

» GMail added a Task/Todo list a little while back. I haven't used it much so far, I actually use a Google Doc list for a task list more at the moment.

» There has been talk that we may eventually go to a new more open office plan with half height cubicle walls. If we do, I think I'll buy myself this chair.

» If Twilight was 10 Times Shorter and 100 Times More Honest. If you are a guy that sat thru the Twilight movie, you'll find this hilarious.

» AIV DVD Cutter looks like a good win program for grabbing snippets off your DVDs.

» 20+ Great Greasemonkey Scripts for Improving you Twitter Experience. Endless Tweets is really good, it lets you keep scrolling to the bottom of the page instead of hitting the "older" link.

» Got an Eee PC or something you ned basic ftp access with? Try FireFTP.

» Portable version of Open Office 3.0 which will read docx files.

» Mailboxmap.com finds Mailbox, post office and UPS locations.

» Left 4 Dead in 4k. Slick.

» share1t.com (notice that ONE instead of an EYE) looks to be a pretty easy file upload service that provides you a tinyurl style link.

» Capture.net is a weird looking little windows program with a swiss-army knife array of odd little features, but the one that is really usueful is the screen capture utility which is really easy to use for grabbing a specific section of your screen.

Videos

» Somewhat creepy, but very impressive video when you consider that the whole thing is comprised of Still images from a Nikon D200 DSLR camera.

» Jetpack Dreams book trailer.

Jetpack Dreams Trailer from Mac Montandon on Vimeo.

» Don Hertzfeldt, Rejected. A seriously deranged collection of stick figure cartoons. NSFW.

» Mac vs. PC... Um not what you think, or maybe it is, dunno, anyway this is pretty cool.

» iPhone, iBoobs app. Not sure how often someone really would need this application.

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0812.php#p756 Random Thoughts

Been out of the random blogging mode for months now. Blame Twitter. It sucks up alot of the time I'd usually spend on blogging.

Been going through my starred items in Google Reader. I "star" items to mark them to look at later. Sometimes I don't have time, often I want to remember to blog or send the item.

Beyond, the Twitter, I've also been sharing Google items by email more. It's just so easy to to hit that Share with note button instead of blogging. So for the 5 or 6 people on my regular email list, some of this stuff might seem like reruns. Most of the below, I originally starred between Nov 24 and Dec 7th.

» I was pretty happy to find out earlier in the month that Caprica the Battlestar Galactica prequel show has been picked up for the whole first season. I hope that means that the creators have had alot of leeway to develop the show without much network interference. I also hope they can catch lightning in a bottle a second time.

» In March Coby plans $100 PCs for places like Rite-Aid and Kroger. Not sure how hackable these will be... but this is a pretty big game changer. The $265 Eee PC has been great, but getting the price down to $100, even if a limited device changes the entire tech landscape, especially if these things turnout to be fairly ez to install your own flavor of Linux on.

Let's Go Surfing

» Neat to see 1Gig Mp3 players as cheap as $20.

» A forum thread full of cool 3D CGI Steampunk Star Wars models

» Make an iPhone stand out of a couple of Bulldog paperclips.

» Citymelt provides and absolutely insane amount of demographic and census data on over 50,000 cities. Great site.

» Twitpay (a site that lets you send someone money as easy as sending a direct message.) seems like a really neat idea. but with everyone passing out their twitter passwords to every possible service, there may not be enough security left to make twitpay work. In anycase, Twitpay doesn't actually work at the moment for anything other than playmoney anyway, since at present there is no way to initially fund or cash out from the service.

» I have an older keyboard at work that I love, it has a very noisy click. ClicKey is a tiny piece of freeware that will click everytime you hit a key... it's really obnoxious.There are 26 different key press sounds to pick from.

» Bunches of Photoshop Brushes

» Would buying a Kindle save you money? Probably not. But they are still neat.

» Make a Papercraft Hall 9000 with cute little Feet

» Stinto.net is a neat service that lets you create instant disposable chatrooms online. They are in a Tinyurl like form so you could Twitter them too.

» It's pretty neat that there are Netbooks like this Dell Mini 9 that are coming standard with 3G built-in. Wi-fi is great, but ubiquitous 3G enabled laptops will be a game changer even more than Wi-Fi.

» This Wall Chess is a great idea

» Phoload has software for various phones, lots of Javabased stuff there. I originally discovered Twim a jar twitter client for my phone there.

» Great Weather Site goingtorain.com.

» Nice photo heavy article of Monochromatic Photography

» Really cool laptop chair. I'd love to have one of these.

» Here's a program that will let you use multiple keyboards and mice on a windows computer two people can pass control back and forth. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks useful for niche needs.

» Compfight.com is a great Flickr search program for fining comps for design jobs.

Videos

» Mega Man Fan Film Trailer.

» Olivia Munn Dancing

» Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart make mashed potatoes

» Milionaires, Movie Stars and Rock Gods. This was posted on friend Dan's blog awhile back.

» Jon Taplin America 3.0 Rebooting after the American Crash

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0812.php#p755 The Spirit

I know it's going to be bad but...

The Spirit is currently a 14% on Rotten Tomatoes.

I'm having second thoughts about seeing this.

"There is not a trace of human emotion in it. To call the characters cardboard is to insult a useful packing material."
-Roger Ebert

"The best thing about The Spirit is that it was directed by [Frank] Miller....The worst thing about The Spirit is that it was written by Frank Miller."
-Giant Magazine

"A disaster in nearly every way. Samuel L. Jackson seems to be channeling Grace Jones by way of Uncle Remus from Song of the South."
-Movieboy.com

"Fuck the spirit was one of the worst movies i've seen in a long time. I knew it would be bad, but not that bad".
- A guy who dressed as Wolverine on Halloween that really loves Comic Books on my Twitter list.

Should I go see it this weekend? ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0812.php#p754 Facebook

I just got a friend request on Facebook today. It was someone I'm friends with, so I accepted it.

I am not a big fan of Facebook. I rarely use it. I have my Twitter and Flickr set up to autopost to it, so that it looks more or less like I'm participating in Facebook, but I'm really not.

People on Facebook are so locked down. 90% of the people I find on Facebook live in it on a gated protected page. In that regard, it seems antithetical to the internet to me. I see the internet as open, but Facebook will not even let someone look at an open profile (like mine) without signing in first. That's just not in keeping with the spirit of the internet to me.

I do log in to Facebook on occasion, but only because there are people I like, who use Facebook as their only online internet channel, and if I want to keep up with those friends online, it is the only channel for me to do so.

I prefer, Twitter, Blogs and Flickr however, they are much more open, in every sense of the word.

(But Facebook friends... keep on keeping on... I'm glad you're digging it.)]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0812.php#p753

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0812.php#p752 Endless Tweets

If you have Greasemonkey installed on Firefox and you use Twitter, you might want to install this Endless Tweet Script (Install button is in the upper right corner). Once it is installed, you can endlessly scroll down Twitter pages as the script will automatically in that ajaxy sort of way load the next page's tweets and append them to the bottom of the page. No more clicking the older button!]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0812.php#p751

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0812.php#p750

Interesting Youtube video about the creation of the Obama campaign logo

Creative director Sol Sender tells the story of conception and birth of the Obama 08 logo, including the strategy behind it, developmental concepts and finalist designs for the identity not chosen by the campaign.

Part 1 | Part 2

]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0812.php#p749 The web wants to know who I am

Ok... I'm seeing alot of buzz about OpenID, Some Facebook login thing or another and now Google Friend Connect.

Maybe I'm looking at this wrong, but all the above seem to be a scheme to create a single sign-id for the web. (Am I off base on this???)

I just noticed that you can now log in to this friend connect with a Twitter ID. You can also log on to Friend Connect with a Google ID. does this mean that eventually someone is going to be able to wrangle their way into my Google account using my twitter ID?

Also how does this whole thing work with Phishing? Should I really be typing my Google or Twitter ID into any service that has a Google connect badge?

If I log in to one Google Friend Connect site will all other friend connect sites instantly recognize who I am if they also have the friend connect stuff running? What does that do for anonymity?

Is it that hard to keep track of multiple passwords? for those that don't like to do that, don't browsers already do a good job of auto completing the field?

Is this convience worth the security and anonymity tradeoffs?

I'm not sure I'm down with this whole concept... but with all the existing services I use moving toward this, it seems less and less likely that I will have a choice to participate or not.

Am I off base on this? Is my paranoia unfounded? What are your thoughts? Post in my comments. ]]> http://chris-karath.com/blog/blog0812.php#p748 Wow, Great Lecture

Arithmetic Population & Energy By Dr. Albert A. Bartlett, Professor Emeritus, Department Of Physics, University of Colorado At Boulder lecture titled: The Greatest Shortcoming of the Human Race is our Inability to Understand The Exponential Function

It sounds incredibly boring, and the production values are really Open Access Cable, but it's a really incredibly eye-opening lecture.

Everyone should take the 75 min or so and watch it.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6