Category: Technology

Hey, I know: how about a show called Video Game Killer Investigations?

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Now that the carnage at Virginia Tech is past and the identities are known, I have another fear: that useful reactions to what happened will be ignored in favour of the irrational. My wager is that politicians will be scared to raise gun control as an issue, but that some bright light will call for the FBI/police to monitor creative writing assignments to screen for violent content, just as calls went out to restrict video games after the shootings at Columbine.

Interesting note from Wired: 8 hours after the VT shootings Reuters had raised the spectre of video games once again.

.:.

Still in a betting mood, I’ve got $20 that says the Globe’s Andrew Ryan is right about the inevitable creation of a CSI channel. I think maybe it’ll start out as a Law & Order/CSI channel; twice as many episodes that way. And hey, maybe they could add on Cold Case and Without A Trace and Crossing Jordan and just call it the Vanilla Predictable Investigation Channel. Their tagline: don’t think too hard.
[tags]virginia tech, gun control, creative writing, video games, csi, law & order, cold case, without a trace, crossing jordan[/tags]

It's like a puzzle, but with heat

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One of the things we’d noticed in the new condo was that the thermostats display in Fahrenheit, not Celsius. Personally, I have no concept of Fahrenheit temperature so that had to go. We tried playing around with the settings, fiddling with buttons, looking for switches, but to no avail. It stayed in Fahrenheit.

Tonight, going through some documents, Nellie found instructions on how to change it. It reads as follows:

  1. Bring the heat setting down to 52°F.
  2. Press the up and down arrows at the same time until the screen clears.
  3. Press the up arrow twice and then press the down arrow once. Then press the up arrow again until the setting changes to Celcius.

Well, my face is red. That’s so intuitive; how could I have not figured that out on my own?

[tags]thermostat, fahrenheit, celsius[/tags]

The conscientious objector

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Attention, everybody who keeps sending me Facebook invitations: I will not do it. I don’t want to join the club. I didn’t like the club when it was called Myspace or even Friendster, and I don’t like it any better now just because they’ve fixed the style sheet. I sure as shit don’t want to “catch up” with 99% of the people I went to high school with, and I don’t want to take part in the online clique-building. If you want to keep a blog or post your pictures, please use a site that doesn’t require membership in a cult just to view it. I decline. I forestall. I abstain.

Thank you.

.:.

This blog post by Matt Brown sounds almost exactly what was going through my mind the first time I visited Vancouver. I left miserable weather (and a fairly unhappy life) in Toronto to visit Vancouver on business. As I flew there I read The Water In Between by Kevin Patterson, a book about a guy who leaves his shitty life behind, moves to BC, buys a boat and just starts sailing. When I got to Vancouver it was sunny and warm, and I sat in my hotel room overlooking English Bay, wishing I had Kevin Patterson’s guts. I had my phone in my hand, ready to make my resignation phone call.

Of course, I didn’t. I returned to Toronto a few days later, and stuck it out there, even though I pretty much had a job offer in Vancouver. In the end, of course, my life turned out pretty well indeed. I don’t for a second regret staying here in Toronto, but I can absolutely understand what Matt’s feeling.

I guess I’ll just keep living Vancariously through Stanzi.

.:.

It’s my mom’s birthday. I’d point you to her blog to leave a congratulatory comment, but she doesn’t roll like that. Given the current trend she’ll no doubt be on Facebook soon though, so maybe y’all can say bonne fete next year.

[tags]facebook yawn, vancouver, english bay[/tags]

"To do less would have added moral shame to humiliation."

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Colin sent me a link to this New Yorker article today about Iraqis who joined up with the invading American forces to become translators and civil servants. It’s long, but very interesting.

The Arabic for “collaborator” is aameel—literally, “agent.” Early in the occupation, the Baathists in Ali’s neighborhood, who at first had been cowed by the Americans’ arrival, began a shrewd whispering campaign. They told their neighbors that the Iraqi interpreters who went along on raids were feeding the Americans false information, urging the abuse of Iraqis, stealing houses, and raping women. In the market, a Baathist would point at an Iraqi riding in the back of a Humvee and say, “He’s a traitor, a thug.” Such rumors were repeated often enough that people began to believe them, especially as the promised benefits of the American occupation failed to materialize. Before long, Ali told me, the Baathists “made the reputation of the interpreter very, very low—worse than the Americans’.”

The article laments the American administration’s treatment of these Iraqis, and rightly so, but I thought it ignored the historical parallel of how such people have been viewed by the occupied citizenry in past conflicts. For example, while officials in the Vichy French government may have felt they were doing the best thing for their country by siding with the Nazis, that didn’t stop the French resistance from hating them. Obviously American foreign policy in Iraq is markedly different than Germany’s in 1940, though the average Iraqi might not appreciate the nuance. I just think the article should have gotten some reaction directly from Iraqis opposed to the occupation, to get a balance.

.:.

Ever since Flickr’s map view of images was launched I’ve had fun playing around with it, but it comes in really handy when you’re looking at travel options. Is that town pretty? Let’s see…yup. Very. I think I’ll go there.

[tags]iraqi translators, vichy, flickr[/tags]

Twit(ter)

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I just can’t get into Twitter. That’s not to say that I won’t cave some day, but I can’t imagine anyone being interested enough in my life to want a minute-by-minute update, nor can I imagine being that interested in anyone else’s.

I think it’s a way for people who consider themselves blog “pioneers” to create a new social stratum, now that every teenager, CEO and expectant mother has a blog.

[tags]twitter[/tags]

How very Austin

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I thought I’d give the latest online radio site slacker.com (which was introduced this morning at SxSW) a try, and it’s playing pretty good stuff so far on the indie channel. The last three songs it played were “Nearly Lost You” by The Screaming Trees (a little indie-retro!), “Fidelity” by Regina Spektor and “Like The 309” by Johnny Cash. Next up: The Postal Service. Not bad, not bad. I just wish it had a blues channel.

[tags]slacker, slacker.com, screaming trees, regina spektor, johnny cash, postal service, sxsw[/tags]

I sprained something this morning, so kneeling will be difficult

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Dinner at Fieramosca again last night. Superduper as always, if way too much food and way too much Limoncello. Made it kind of tough to get out of bed this morning.

.:.

However, get out of bed we did and made it down to the Paramount Scotiabank theatre to see 300 (imdb | rotten tomatoes) in IMAX. A note on IMAX: it’s a great movie-going experience, but jeebus, do they ever need to get rid of the cheesy pre-film laser & sound show. Anyway, on to the main event: 300 was just slightly better than I expected it to be, and I expected it to be pretty good. This wasn’t classic, traditional cinema, but it was clearly a compelling story, and was skilfully, even artfully done.

Yes, it’s covered in blood and completely lacks nuance, but is it really any more mindless or formulaic than Music & Lyrics, which was playing across the hall? Or does it simply trade in male fantasy instead of female? In any case, the visuals of 300 — which are stunning — put it a step above most films solely in terms of craft. My biggest complaint: in a couple of scenes the “long moving scene as a female soloist sings something in latin” disease which infects so many epic movies flared up.

300 did $70 million at the box office, and broke the March opening weekend record, but it’ll fade quickly as all the fanboys would likely go in the first weekend.

.:.

After the film we decided to walk a bit and enjoy the weather, so we took the subway to Museum station and picked up a few things at Whole Foods. On the way out I checked Hero Burgers to see if they have veggie burgers; they do, and they’re quite tasty. Walked home from there, enjoying the sunshine & near-spring temperature, picking up a few things here and there. Caught up on some reading, watched the Selection Sunday show and am now trying to avoid reading another chapter of my %#@& textbook.

.:.

While Facebook’s been around for quite a while, it finally appears to be replacing MySpace as the preferred social networking site, just as MySpace replaced Friendster. Personally I find them all boring; unless you’re a teenager (or a musician, in the case of MySpace) I just don’t get the attraction. Then again I have a blog, so perhaps I just have a different strain of the disease. I guess I just find the friend-count popularity contest on those sites a little sad.

[tags]fieramosca, limoncello, 300, whole foods, hero burgers, facebook, myspace[/tags]

Hopeless? Or just pathetic?

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This post on The Movie Blog earlier today might’ve had the best title ever: “Eddie Murphy To Do Fantasy Island Remake – We are Officially A Hopeless Society.”

.:.

I can’t remember who told me about Open Culture, but it’s one of the most useful, educational websites I’ve ever used. It pointed Nellie to a podcast that helps her learn French, while I used it to find podcasts from top business schools around the US. It also pointed me to this NPR debate entitled “Is America Too Damn Religious?” I haven’t listened to it yet (not having a commute makes it hard to find a 40-minute block of time to listen to something), but you know I’m going to dig it.

Anyway, whoever told me about the site, thanks.

.:.

OK, must go and watch Montreal try to scratch their way back into a playoff spot.

[tags]eddie murphy, fantasy island, open culture, montreal canadiens, nhl playoffs[/tags]

Why Windows Media Player can be bad sometimes

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When people come over to my desk they can obviously see what’s on my screen; many years, when working in an office where we dealt with donor’s sensitive financial information, I developed the habit of very quickly downsizing whatever window I was working in when someone appeared behind me (as often happens when I’m listening to music at work). As a result, what’s often left on the screen is either Outlook (no big deal) or Windows Media Player.

Now, this is usually no big deal; all they see is the name of the song I’m listening to and maybe my playlist. However, when someone is standing there as you clear your screen to reveal that you’re listening to the Tool song “Hooker With A Penis”, there is a moment of awkward silence. I felt it would do no good to explain that the song was actually an indictment of fans who accuse bands of selling out when the fans themselves are typically mindless consumers.

Hopefully this doesn’t brand me as the office perv. While I wait to find out I’ve changed my WMP settings to hide song titles.

[tags]tool, hooker with a penis, windows media player[/tags]

Hee hee…that picture looks like half a fishy!

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Had a nice, relaxing weekend, in part to finally give my back a chance to fully heal. I’m terrible at resting injuries, and a back problem only gets better when you leave it alone for a while, so I spent the weekend with my ass stuck firmly to the couch (much to the chagrin of the cats) watching an entire season of Oz and a fair amount of sports.

Speaking of the cats, I’m obviously spending too much time around them, since this comic my brother sent to me seemed as insulting as it did funny.

.:.

RFID technology’s been around for a while now, but now it’s as small as powder.

The world’s smallest radio frequency identification tags have been unveiled by Japanese electronics firm Hitachi. The minute devices measure just 0.05mm by 0.05mm (0.002×0.002in) and to the naked eye look like spots of powder.

Freeeeaaaaaaky.

[tags]back pain, cats, rfid[/tags]