Tuesday March 1st 2005 01:44 PM PST
from slashdot....
Airfoil lets you play any audio to your AirPort Express.
Thursday March 3rd 2005 01:55 PM PST
Read
this Article then decide if you think the FEC is as out of their minds as i think they are.
Lets just put this into a nutshell. There is a maximum amount of money i may contribute to any political candidate's
campaign. Thats simple. On the other hand there are strict advertising laws relating to campaigns. Advertising is tracked
based on expenditures on televsion/radio time, and ad placements. So the internet USED to be classified as being the TV/
Radio/Print kind of a media. If a candidate spends money on internet presence, then that money is just an advertising
expenditure.
Here's where it gets backasswards. Now the FEC is saying that if i were to write on my blog about a particular candidate,
reference their campaign material, and then link to their site, that act would be deemed a campaign contribution. The time
i spent writing would be counted. The cost of my computer. The cost of the electricity that it took to power the pretty monitor.
Everything would be counted as a contribution.
So here's my questions
If i were to stand outside my house on any day and talk to everybody on the street about a particular candidate, would that be
considered a campaign contribution? If i wore a button outside to publicly display my support of a candidate, would that be a
contribution? Bumper stickers, tshirts, hats, signs.... JUST WEARING THEM? Is that a contribution? It IS the candidate's
campaign material, and i am displaying it in a public location... How much money would a T-Shirt wearing rampage in
Hollywood count for as a contribution? How bout if i was in Bakersfield? Would my contribution be less? OR would it be more,
cause i had to spend money on gas to get to Bakersfield?
How much does one paragraph of a rant on a blog cost to write? How much money did i spend right there? How much money
did it cost you to read this? Did i waste your time? Should you have been looking for a cure for cancer? How much does a link
cost?
I don't know the answers to all these questions. Fuck i don't think i know the answer to ANY of these questions. But i do
know that writing an entry like this is nothing more than me starting a discussion. I'm opening up a topic, and i want to see
where it goes. Simple free discussion. I'm talking about things that matter to me, and i am expressing my opinions in a way
that does not infringe on the rights of any other human. They have the option of telling me what they think. Simple
So what is the FEC really trying to do?
They don't want a campaign give $50 to each blogger it can find.... all under the table. Spending HUGE amount of money in
rouge advertising. Is that their goal? To regulate the campaign? To make sure their advertising expenditures are all
accounted for? They want all the politicians to play fair? So why are you planning on regulating ME? Go fix the problem at the
source. Don't try to tell me i'm doing something illegal. I'm really sorry if this
offends anyone at the FEC.... BUT STAY THE FUCK OUT OF MY CODE. MY HTML. MY SITE. MY OPINION. MY SPEECH!
Thursday March 3rd 2005 04:24 PM PST
Last night Jen got home and told me she knew something about Lost. I looked puzzled. Was my wife actually going to drop a spoiler on me? Well as it turns out, in last weeks episode, if you look REALLY closely, there is an appearance of Hurley on the TV in a flashback scene in Japan. The naration was translated by hard core fans, and as it turns out, it was a report on TV saying that some guy won the largest lottery jackpot in US history. She had heard this from the Bells. They had noticed it and their TIVO let them look at the scene more closely. So that makes things interesting. I looked up the episode description for the upcoming show, and sure enough it was called "numbers". Heh. Anyway, the new episode itself was quite a twist-filled experience, but on a couple occasions i found myself on the floor laughing at some of the lines.
One minute you're happy-go-lucky, good time Hurley, and the next you're Colonel bloody Kurtz!
-Charlie
4 8 15 16 23 42
Friday March 4th 2005 11:25 AM PST
thanks to boingboing for this one.
from:
L0rd 0f teh Ringz0rz -
Teh Tw0 T0werz
Frodo: "So... a/s/l?"
Gollum: "WTF?"
Frodo: "U r teh Smeagol"
Gollum: "OMG... smeagol... ... hax"
[Later that night]
Gollum: "Teh hax is mine!"
Smeagol: "No! It R teh masters!"
Gollum: "Sif tard! IT R MINE!"
Smeagol: "But Master is my friend!"
Gollum: "Sif Friends!"
Smeagol: "STFU!"
Gollum: "FOAD... u have no friends tard!"
Smeagol: "STFU STFU STFU!"
Gollum: "Cheat!"
**Smeagol is shaking his head
Gollum: "HAX0R!"
Smeagol: "STFU. Not listening!"
Gollum: "CAMPER!"
Smeagol: "Go away!"
Gollum: "Go away? LOLOOLOL, tard"
Smeagol: "U r teh hax0r "
Gollum: "U R leet cos of me!"
Smeagol: "SIF!"
Gollum: "WTF?"
Smeagol: "U R teh hax. Sif need joo!"
Gollum: "WTF?"
Smeagol: "FOAD foo!"
Gollum: "...sif!"
Smeagol has logged in as admin
Gollum is kicked from the server
Smeagol: "Wooot! "
Friday March 4th 2005 05:33 PM PST
got tickets. Now i just have to figure out a way to get to San Diego on a monday night. Amtrak runs trains to a station that is literally 3 blocks away from the venu, but only 4 trains a day stop at that station. AND the last train out of San Diego back to LA leaves before the fuckin show starts. So looks like there is going to be a carpool situation in effect. Well at least i have non-drinking concert buddy. :)
Monday March 7th 2005 01:21 AM PST
At work last week i was talking to Ben about GT4. I had not yet played it, but he was telling me about all the geeky features. Ben's opinion is that the game goes far beyond all other games in exploring the fetish of cars. That being said, i was laughing about the "photo mode" where you can actually take pictures of the cars you aquire. Now i cracked the game open and played it all weekend long. About 20 minutes ago i finally looked into the photo studio and started to screw around. Its no laughing matter. Its honestly a small 3D photo program about the level of Bryce. But its to cars as Bryce is to mountains. So i take a couple shots and play around with the controls. Then i hit save and scroll through the options. My jaw just about dropped when i saw Destination: USB Storage Device. I hadn't even thought about it. Suddenly the PS2 could be hooked to a USB stick? So i just happen to have a few things lying around, so i started pluggin things in. First off I tried the SONY DSC-P10 digital camera. I was hoping that it would mount as a USB storage device and the PS2 would be able to use my 512MB stick inside. No Luck. So then I went for the CHEESY James Bond Spy Camera. And to my suprise, as soon as i plugged it in, the camera displayed Hd which in really old school LED display speak means... Hard Drive. So i hit save on the PS2 and get the shot saved!!! So now i can actually blog my TVR Cerbera Speed 12 in Times Square. Oh, how geeky!
now the only question is.... did they really need to slap a copyright on my virtual photograph of my virtual car, in a virtual Times Square? And are they going to hunt me down and sue me for publishing it online for all the world to see?
Monday March 7th 2005 10:58 AM PST
Thursday March 10th 2005 10:20 PM PST
to start things off... the Lakers won. Then right before 9, flipped over to FOX and watched the new Star Wars trailer (while still
avoiding as much of the OC as possible. Then finally CSI came on at 9 and we got to see Wil Weaton back in action as a crazy
homeless guy. Now off to play some more Grand Turismo 4.
Monday March 14th 2005 12:48 PM PST
flipping channels last night, i came across a travelog on KOCE. The entire thing focued on Catalina Island and the City of Avalon. Jen and i sat there for a better part of 2 hours watching this thing cause we love Avalon so much. KOCE was running a telethon, so they would break in for 20 minutes at a time to beg for money. We'd just mute the TV and wait for the documentary to come back on. It was really a whole lot of history of the island. I knew a whole lot about Avalon, but there were still a lot of little things that i picked up. For instance, i never knew that CBS would broadcast dancing from the Casino Ballroom nightly. Anyway, it was a lot of fun to watch, and just made me want to get back to the island soon. this time just Jen and me.
Monday March 14th 2005 12:50 PM PST
Tuesday March 15th 2005 09:45 AM PST
i got home last night and promptly turned on the TV to watch 6 hours of continuous west wing. Jen and i cooked dinner and
drank a bottle of wine (buttonwood from Solvang), and sat and watched a few episodes. Jen crashed and i got back to work. I
sat down in front of the computer and finished up a little project. While waiting for the client to get home and sign on, i started
to get bored. for no reason i picked up a old hard drive off the shelf and pulled out my hex wrench. But i didn't break anything.
I usually just rip pieces apart and take no care with anything. This time i meticulously pulled each screw and piece apart with
care. I've always known exactly how the drive works, and i've pulled many apart before, but not one recently. I guess i was
inspired by a post on boing boing a couple weeks ago about the guy making wind chimes out of hard drive parts. anyway, i
always seem to slowly return to a state where i love taking things apart and seeing all the little working pieces.
Monday March 21st 2005 03:27 PM PST
If there ever was a shoe for Nomisnoj....
Keen is most definitly the shoe. Jon has always found the most crazy shoes on the planet, so i'm thinking he's gotta pick up a pair of these. I've gotta get a pair before i go to Hawaii again. Many are completely waterproof, so i could use them instead of my Nike wetshoes. Justin here at work is walking around in a pair today and they look extremely comfortable. Also they are REALLY lightweight.
Tuesday March 22nd 2005 08:07 AM PST
i started feeling bad sunday night. Yesterday at work i went downhill. Today i feel like utter SHIT. I still got a dadline, so i'm just working from home, but i can't let this one slip. Just gotta put the final touches on the 2 month project that won't finish itself.
Wednesday March 23rd 2005 09:36 AM PST
If you're going south on the 110 freeway as you approach downtown Los Angeles, you pass the Hill street exit. The exit is on the left and as everybody knows, if you want to save a few minutes you can play the asshole game. Fly down the left exit lane as quick as you can and then jump into traffic at the last second. If you're in the left lane that is not the exit lane, you have to watch out for these people. There is a broken white line where they are suppost to get over. You always let people over here. Its just the thing you do. Then the line turns solid white. People usually jump over at this point, even though its "frowned upon". If people are signaling, you let em over. But then the left exit lane splits into two lanes. Actually, the left lane of traffic also may exit at this point. The exit lane at this point should already be long on its way to moving down Hill. Just after that, the left exit lane becomes the shoulder, and the freeway continues on. Usually if you're at this point, you no longer have to worry about people cutting in. Cause in order for them to cut in on you, they have to cut across that exit lane and all its fun, then drive on the shoulder, then cut in. So i was at this point.
brand new BWM SUV with dealer plates flies up on the left with no blinker on. I'm fuckin amazed that she's there, but then i realize that she's on her cell phone. She can't turn on her blinker, cause she would have to take the phone away from her left ear. I'm figuring that she's also driving on the shoulder, cause she has no clue that the lane she was in was an exit lane. So this is where it gets funny. She is slowing down, honking, and swerving directly into the side of my car like she's going to make the lane change into my driver's side door. She slams on her brakes, (still no signal) swerves and cuts off the guy behind me, drops behind me, gets directly on my rear bumper, and starts to give me the finger.
Camera is already sitting on my seat
She makes another quick swerve lane change and gets into the middle lane. She's pulling up on my right side now, to give me a piece of her mind i believe. What she does not know is that a CHP unit is in the right lane. He's been there since the 5 freeway interchange. I saw him pull on the freeway there, and i've been driving steady at 55 along with the rest of traffic.
She pulls directly next to me. Cell phone still on her left ear. Right hand comes across to give me the finger. At this point i have the camera already snapping shots. She's so into giving me the finger, that she does not notice the CHP unit drop in behind her and light her up.
It was a bright day with beautiful clouds, so the pictures were not too clear of her, but there is no doubt, she's got no hands on the wheel.
Thursday March 24th 2005 03:55 PM PST
I got my ass out of bed at 5AM today. I said goodbye to my wife and headed to the Target in Alhambra. The sun was not yet
up, as i pulled into the parking lot. I was not the first car in the lot. One other person was already waiting at about 5:30. We
both sat in our cars for another 20 minutes before other started to show up. I put my but down on the sidewalk and sat for 2
and a half hours waiting for the doors to open. Right before they opened, a target rep came out and gave us each a PSP
coupon. She counted out exactly 40 and sent the rest of the people in line packin. Once you had a coupon, you didn't need to
worry about what place you were in line. Still people ran through the store to get to the electronics area. I took my time to
check out the games and didn't get too worried about waiting.
So that was the first PSP i picked up today.
I jumped in my car at about 8:30 and headed to work. Perfect time, cause that's usually when i leave for work. When i got to
work, i quickly unwrapped the unit and started to look at all the goodies. Keegs showed up with his PSP and we both jumped
into a few WiFi multiplayer matches of wipeout pure. We drew enough attention that everybody else in the department
wanted to get one. So Keegs, Joey and I ran back out to see if we could pick up a few more. We got to ToysRUs and grabbed 3
more. Then to Target and we grabbed 3 more. Back to the office quickly and distributed our newly acquired toys. We didn't
mark up any prices, just sold at the retail price to people in the office.
So now we've got multiplayer matches of a bunch of different games, and i've been playing with all the photo, music and video
options on the PSP. So got everything working, now gotta get back to work.
Friday March 25th 2005 09:34 AM PST
Just in case you have not figured this one out. You CAN change the background color on the PSP. BUT its keyed to the
MONTH. If you're willing to change your PSP date to the wrong month, then you can have your background color one of Sony's
preselected 12 colors. Hopefully in a update this will be its own option. I know its stupid, but it would be really nice to just be
able to pick your own RGB value.
Saturday March 26th 2005 10:25 AM PST
i now shall refer to myself as "das klutz".
Last night Das Klutz was walking into the apartment, holding my bag, my gps, my camera, my PSP and my iPod. With the
acquisition of the PSP, i now have one too many items to carry. So Das Klutz dropped the iPod. I watched it hit the ground,
and couldn't do anything about it. Sure enough, it was on, and sure enough the drive is now toast.
I ran through all the diagnostic tools on the unit, and everything checked out except the drive. Its no longer under warranty,
and i've got nothing to lose, so i cracked the thing open and am ready to order a new microdrive for it. I'm gonna try a few
more little things, but it looks like a $200 microdrive will be a lot less expensive that buying a new unit.
Monday March 28th 2005 10:48 AM PST
Keegs and I ran out to find a couple of 1GB memory sticks for our PSPs. We drove around to a couple places in the Marina, but were not sucsessful. But while Keegs drove, i sat and scanned for wireless networks. Simply using the Network Preferences, i tried to set up a new network connection. With the little scan tool, i constantly scanned for networks around the area. In a couple block area i found a dozen or so networks, and a good number of them are open without WEP encryption.
So here's what needs to happen for me to be really happy.
1) GPS attachment needs to be avaliable for the PSP
2) Software development needs to be open to the public
3) I need to build a WiFi scanning app, that will record hotspot data with GPS locations.
Tuesday March 29th 2005 09:59 AM PST
Why is it every time i hear something like this i just shake my head. The US wants to regulate the entire internet. The state
of Utah wants to regulate the entire internet.
Now the UN wants to
regulate the entire internet. Now i don't know if this
metaphor works, but isn't this like your big toenail trying to regulate your entire nervous system?
