2005 October archive at Daniel Spisak on Technology

Archive for October, 2005

4 years, 4 months ago

John Edwards Poor Roadtrip

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Categories: Politics

On Real Time with Bill Maher Bill chatted with John Edwards, who now heads the UNC Chapel Hill Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity where Edwards talked about his college campus tour on raising poverty awareness called Opportunity Rocks. Maher also took Edwards to task on Democrats lack of big vision message and discussed aspects of the Bush administration looking to get Edwards views on current matters.

John Edwards talks with Bill Maher (29.1MB WMV9)

Meanwhile here is the latest Flash animation from those JibJab guys. It discusses the issues surrounding Wal-Mart in case you dont pick up on the subtle hints laid out in the animation. Check it out here:

http://lab.jibjab.com/swf/BoxMart_JibJab.swf

4 years, 4 months ago

Bush-Cheney Industries

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Categories: Humor and Politics

This weeks Real Time with Bill Maher opened with an awesomely snarky and hilarious psudeo-ad for “Bush-Cheney” treating the pair like a major national conglomerate. You know, like one of those ads you might see for 3M or Dupont that tries to show the viewer how the massive multinational corporation makes their worlds better. This is along those lines, but its how Bush/Cheney is making things worse for all of us. Short, sweet, and dangerously funny/true. Man I really hope we do better come next presidential election.

Bush-Cheney Worse Ad
Bush Cheney Satire Ad on Real Time (2.9MB WMV9)

4 years, 4 months ago

The death of dating and the courting ritual?

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Categories: Relationship Follies

This week on Real Time with Bill Maher one of Bill’s guests was author Tom Wolfe. One of the topics covered in their chat was the death of dating as I think many people perhaps my age and older are familiar with. That is to say that a man and a woman get to know each better through a series of encounters a.k.a “dates” is no longer the prime mover of relationships and their associated cousins like the fling or the one night stand.

Bill Maher chats with Tom Wolfe (26.5MB WMV9)

Part of the reason for this discussion was because of Wolfe’s latest book “I am Charlotte Simmons” is set in the midst of a college university and goes into some depth about life on and around campus. I can’t say much more about the book because I have yet to read it, but I went ahead and ordered a copy via Amazon and plan to read it soon as it shows up at home here.

Certainly however I feel there is much truth to what Wolfe mentions in his talk with Maher, basically that the courting rituals of dating have in large part been replaced with the “7-minute seduction” Wolfe mentions. I think this has come about because of more herd-like mentality that I see people engaging in over the past years. This is to say that typically, when you go out, its with a group of friends or people whom you trust. Even I am a victim of this mentality at times I admit. However, whenever we do run into someone talking to us or approaching us who aren’t part of our own small group we instinctively view them as outsides and tend to discredit whatever they might be saying. At least perhaps this is how things feel from my own male viewpoint when one is trying to chat up an alluring woman. More often then not when we go out to socialize we aren’t socializing with new people, typically its those we already know thus furthering the insular state of affairs. I wonder if this is a direct effect of all the varied forms of communication that now permeate and bombard us daily, the emails, IMs, blogs, cellphones and personal sites like MySpace or Friendster.

4 years, 5 months ago

How good is the iTMS video encoding? Let’s take a look…

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Categories: Cool and Technology Musings

With Apple’s announcement of its deal with Disney/ABC to sell episodes of Lost and a few other shows on Apple’s iTunes Music Store I decided to spend a $1.99 of the 3 bucks and change that I had in my iTMS acount to check out the quality of the H.264 video encoding. Well after downloading Episode 3 of Lost from Season 2 I can say that the quality of the video is excellent.

Lets touch on file sizes here for a moment. For this episode of Lost which comes in at 43:29 in length the video is 197.8MB. It’s encoded in MPEG-4 video codec according to what Quicktime 7 is telling me, with the audio in AAC protected format using PlayFair 2.0 DRM. The video is encoded at 320×240 resolution at a bit-rate of 628kbit/sec. Below are some high quality JPEG screen captures from the video playing on my Mac:

Lost, Season 2, Episode 3, Grab 1

Lost, Season 2, Episode 3, Grab 2

Lost, Season 2, Episode 3, Grab 3

Lost, Season 2, Episode 3, Grab 4

Lost, Season 2, Episode 3, Grab 5

4 years, 5 months ago

New Apple annoucements, crazy stuff!

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Categories: Cool and Technology Musings

So unless you lived under a rock today here is what happened:

New iMacs – Has better version of the iSight camera built-in, comes with a remote control and a media-center like application called Front Row, are somewhat thinner and have upgraded CPUs and video cards. Of significant note is that this is the first Mac I have seen sporting a PCI-Express video card. That was sort of underscored but that is a huge win for Apple. Same price on the 17 incher and the 20 incher is 100 bucks less. They are a great deal for anyone.

http://www.apple.com/imac/

New iPods – Supports video! 30fps for H.264 and MPEG-4 decoding! Both models thinner then the smaller 4G iPod! Comes in 30GB and 60GB models now. 2.5 inch 320×240 res TFT LCD screen. Supports video out with optional cable. Not mentioned much but with this new iPod as well as the Nano firewire sync support has been dropped, only USB2 is supported for syncing. Firewire can still be used to charge the devices however. $299 for 30GB model, $399 for 60GB model. In stores next week.

http://www.apple.com/ipod/ipod.html

New iTunes 6.0 – Supports Video! You can download select ABC/Disney Channel TV shows (Lost, Desperate Houseviews, Nightstalker:ABC The Suite Life, That’s So Raven:Disney). You can buy TV shows for $1.99 the day after they broadcast. TV shows are ad-free. Also sells music videos for $1.99. iTMS now allows you to buy gift songs for others easily, has a Just For You section that suggest music you like based on previous iTMS purchases. Available for download now.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/
http://www.apple.com/itunes/videos/

Updated Quicktime 7 – Pro version supports ability to encode video to size and formats supported on video enabled iPod. Available for download now (also is bundled with iTunes 6 download)

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/

Get on a Mac or PC with Quicktime 7 installed on it to view the video of the special event here:

http://stream.apple.akadns.net/

4 years, 5 months ago

A View To A Kilt

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Categories: Cool, Misc and Personal

So I went out to Great Western War out at Prado Regional Park this weekend and had a lot of fun. I wore my kilt for Friday night and got a photo or two for those of you who are wondering what I look like wearing a kilt this is your payday!

Kilted Dan 1

Kilted Dan 2

4 years, 5 months ago

&*^@#& Eclipse and hanging SystemServerUI on Tiger

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Categories: Misc and Technology Musings

Finally! I have finally figured out what the damn problem was with Eclipse and my Mac! Turns out its a Spotlight bug of all damned things. If you use Spotlight to find Eclipse and then launch it it makes the entire righthand side of the Mac OS X menu bar beachball out and lock up the SystemServerUI thread. However if you launch Exclipse via the Finder or Dock this problem doesn’t happen! Bug is documented here at Eclipse:

https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=93017

Apparently they have informed Apple of this issue, one hopes this issue gets resolved in 10.4.3 which I suspect will be out on October 12th since thats when the Apple Special Event is taking place up in SF.

4 years, 5 months ago

Why some women don’t know what kind of guy they want

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Categories: Humor and Relationship Follies

So recently on MySpace I saw a prime example of a bulletin that just rubs me the wrong way. Often I will see women on their posting the following bulletin as a supposed insight into the kind of man they want in their life. However, if you read the list critically it just falls apart in my mind and I set about to document what I thought were the major fallacies I saw. My comments in italics after the original bullet from the bulletin. I see this kind of bulletin quite often and reading it I couldnt help but open my mouth and give my thoughts and opinion on this claptrap.

-i’m the guy who will text you every single morning and tell you good morning and every single night to tell you sweet dreams

Me: Right, I dont buy this one. After a few days of this the woman would be complaining to her girlfriends that the guy was a stalker or that he was “smothering” her.

-im the guy who will text you and tell you “i love you and you make me smile” just because

Me: And then the girl will start wondering what you did wrong and are guilting yourself about to make you spontaneously text her that message.

-im the guy who will blindfold you and take you to the beach, let you run your toes through the sand and then make you guess where we are

Me: This is rich, like most women these days would let ANY guy blindfold them. Paranoia and fear run rampant.

-im the guy who will show up at your games (or competitions or meets) without you knowing just to surprise you

Me: Uh, say hellow to your STALKER boyfriend yet again.

-im the guy who will hold you when you crying and wipe away your tears

Me: This should be normal human nature and not something special!

-im the guy who still thinks you’re beautiful with no makeup in sweats and a big tshirt

Me: Well, this is a romanticized explanation for morning wood.

-im the guy who won’t pressure you to do things you dont want to

Me: So instead of stepping up and being a decisive guy you want to date a unsure, flip-flopper of a man who can’t make up his mind.

-im the guy who will show up at your house with soup and a movie when you aren’t feeling well

Me: Once again, this shouldn’t be something special, this seems like basic human compassion.

-im the guy who kisses you on the forehead

Me: What the hell became wrong with kissing on the lips?

-im the guy who doesnt kiss and tell

Me: Right, I’m all for this but all rules are off if the other person starts spreading lies.

-im the guy who actually listens to you when you talk

Me: Once again, this shouldn’t be special, then again unless the other person is being completely boring in which case I think you should let them know your about to get put 6ft under the ground due to extreme boredom.

-im the guy who’s excited all day because im looking fowrward to our date that night

Me: Ahh yes, I’m all excited because I havent had a date in forever! Of course that assumes the other party doesnt flake out of their plans at the last minute.

-im the guy who is content to just be able to hold you and wants nothing more

Me: Sorry, but these guys just dont exist. Period. Women, listen up, us guys we like to have sex. All. The. Time. If we don’t want to have sex then we either are really not feeling that well, got some serious shit on out minds, or something else.

-im the guy who can’t help but smile when you walk into the room

Me: It helps when your naked, or in lingere.

-im the guy whos perfectly content with staying in and watching movies and cuddling

Me: It’s cheaper then going to the movies, god, have you seen ticket prices lately?

-im the guy who won’t lie to you about where hes going or where he’s been or who he’s been with

Me: Unless I know I’m going to be getting an earful of whiney sand in my pussy bemoaning about how dare I hang out with my friends, etc.

-im the guy who gets butterflies when he hears your name

Me: Right, women want a guy who’s so nervous by your presence he’s on the verge of throwing up. That only worked for Stan Marsh in South Park women, and he was a cartoon.

-im the guy who picks you over his friends

Me: Provided you don’t give me a bloody guilt trip any time I want to hang out with my friends.

-im the guy who’s not afraid to tell his friends he loves you

Me: Provided things have been stable for a while and I dont think your going to go all psycho crazy on me.

-im the guy who isn’t always trying to act like a hard ass around you

Me: Yeah, because women just LOVE the guys with weak presence.

-im the guy who doesn’t care about your imperfections and loves you more for them

Me: Sorry women, but if you start doing something harmful I’m going to talk to you about it (i.e. Hey, why did you start smoking? Etc)

-im the guy who will hold you while we watch the sunset

Me: Sure thing.

-IM THE GUY WHO REALLY WANTS TO MAKE YOU THE HAPPIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD

Me: Duh, I mean really, this is so fucking stupid. Yeah hi there I want to have a relationship with you yet I DONT WANT TO MAKE YOU HAPPY. Uh, no! Everyone tries to make their partner happy, sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesnt.

Girls if this is your perfect guy repost this with the title “i want this guy”

Me: Girls, if you are just posting this bulletin because you’re a romatic fool then repost this with the title “I have no idea what I really want from a man”

Guys if this is you repost this with the title “im the guy”

Me: Guys, if the comments on these bullets is who you really are then repost with the title “I am a real man, not some romantic fantasy”

So yeah that is an example of some of the farcicle that is bulletins on MySpace.

4 years, 5 months ago

Think you can do a better job then FEMA? Chewbacca throws a pitch and other oddness

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Categories: Humor and Misc

Check out this interactive game about a supervolcano incident. See how good your disaster management skills are.

In other strange news I saw this on Yahoo recently:

Chewbacca throws first pitch at Red Sox-Blue Jays game

An actor playing Chewbacca throws out the ceremonial first pitch prior to a game between the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays Fenway Park in Boston, Wednesday Sept. 28, 2005. Chewbacca and an actress playing Princess Leia were promoting the Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination exhibit at the Museum of Science in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Also, in other news if you have heard about the AtomChip and their AMAZING 6.8GHz SG220-2 Supercomputer Notebook I’d like to assue you it is a total hoax! I mean come on, just check out this crazy photo of theirs:

'Optical' transciever

Their item key in this photo states:

NvIOpRAM 24GB-128GB [3-pin]

1. Removable NvIOpRAM
2. Optical lens
3. Pinout [Power supply]
4. Pinout [Read/Write enable]
5. Pinout [Ground]
6. Stationary adapter, which is connected to the
optical fiber and electrical cables, mounted to
the case of the computer
7. Pinouts [Power supply,Read/Write enable and Ground)

It’s a freaking Stereo 1/4″ mini phono jack from RadioShack! Please people, dont fall for this BS or I will have to come scrub your brains out with steel wool vigourously.

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About the Author

Daniel Spisak was born from the fiery depths of fusion and now roams the pale blue dot known as Earth. I obtained my bachelors degree in Computer Science from UC Irvine at the end of 2007.

I am also involved in technology & security consulting firms as well as being a freelance technology writer. I also contribute to Jerry Pournelle's website and Chaos Manor Reviews. Additionally I am also a freelance photographer as well and you can find my photos either on my own personal gallery or up at my Flickr account or on Zivity.

This blog is one of the main locations where I do my writing, which is then automatically sent to my LiveJournal, VOX, and MySpace accounts. I can also be found on a variety of social networking and microblogging sites like Pownce, Twitter, Brightkite, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

If your viewing this site with Internet Explorer it may not look correct because IE is horrible about following W3C web standards properly or consistently. I suggest you try browsing the Internet with Firefox. It is much better and not as vulnerable to security flaws as IE can be.