July 30, 2004
Flymageddon
Somehow, the downstairs portion of our house has become invaded by flies. I put up fly-paper last night and caught 18 by this morning. After one buzzed my head as I was returning upstairs, something snapped. I turned around and took up arms -- a folded newspaper.
The onslaught began.
Over 25 flies fell to my hand in no more than 15 minutes. This does not included the flies I decided to torture rather than swat. For a select few (11 flies), I decided to seal them between the panes of glass in our kitchen window. There they shall slowly realize their fates as one by one they fall into the gritty slots of the window sill -- all the time while watching their friends on the fly paper struggle for life.
For now, one can comfortably walk around downstairs without being buzzed or landed on. I do, however, anticipate a retaliatory attack sometime this evening. The flies are down, but they are not out. Regardless, this is a war I intend -- no, have to win.
G5 Delay
As expected, Apple today changed my shipping date from today (7/30) until September 13th (!). I've got a call into the enterprise division and have a lady calling me back sometime later with more details. She said the dates on some orders were changed incorrectly, and needs to investigate if mine is one of them. Yay.
July 28, 2004
Nintendo DS Update
Nintendo of Japan today confirmed the name of their new upcoming handheld will remain 'Nintendo DS' as well as releasing photos of the unit's final design. Having played DS at E3, I have to say this design looks much easier to hold and makes the system much easier to look at.
July 25, 2004
The Upcoming G5
I've been pretty busy working lately, so I've had less time to post mindless things here the last few days. I figured I'd resume my updates with something nice and easy, like posting the specs of my soon-to-be-had PowerMac G5.
Dual 2.5gHz G5 Processors (1.25gHz FSB)
1GB DDR400 RAM
160GB SATA HD
8x SuperDrive (DVD+/-RW)
Nvidia 6800 Ultra DDL
Internal Bluetooth Module
Now Apple, on their order status webpage, says this thing is shipping "On or Before 7/30/2004," but I don't believe that for a minute. I'm speculating August 16th. Partially because the woman who I called to check my order status gave me a "we expect to ship these.." date of August 8th. But mostly because Apple is usually 2 weeks late when it comes to bringing their new products to market.
I'm in no huge hurry though. I'd like to have it before school starts (eek!), but the only thing that would truly piss me off is if Doom 3 came out for the mac before I had it. Recent comments from id's CEO, however, seem to indicate the mac version is still a few months off.
And being that I feel silly about making it its own entry, I just want to quickly mention (for your astonishment and/or enjoyment) that I've begun "working out." By this I mean I'm attempting to develop some semblance of pectoral muscles as well as building up my arms. I'm doing it all from the privacy of my room with my personal weight-set I picked up a year ago and never used. The last 3 weeks have basically been getting my body use to lifting more than a computer mouse. Tomorrow, the "toning" phase ends and the exxxtreme tissue-generation phase shall begin.
July 22, 2004
New Office
I've now moved for the second time in 2 months into a new office. While it's annoying to trudge computer, et. al down the hallway, this move resulted in something that is definitely welcome -- a corner office with giant windows on both walls. It's a large office, and so I'm in there with 3 other people, but it's so bright and spacious...so who cares. I have a great view of Oakland and the Cathedral of Learning (it's a library...don't go religious on me).
Perhaps a picture shall be taken shortly..
July 21, 2004
*Pop* --Tssssssss.... GLUG GLUG GLUG
Arriving in the mail today was my very own Brushed Nickel Wall-Mount Beer Bottle Opener (tm). While a position has not yet been selected for its mount-point, I am tempted to put it in /mnt/bathroom. However, I think something like /mnt/livingroom will end up being its home.
Thank you Miss Jaclyn.
July 20, 2004
Doom 3 Theme
id/Activision have a short sample of the Doom 3 "theme song" up on the game's website. After listening to it, I have to say I come off unimpressed. It's only a 20-second clip, so I don't want to come down too hard, but it sounds simple and cliche. Maybe that's good? I'm just tired of shooting demons to the tone of Slayer + Metallica. I was hoping for a soundtrack more akin to Silent Hill 4's. SH4 has that metal sound, but at the same time has an eeriness to it that just makes you uneasy.
LCD Specks
I've currently got my powerbook hooked up to my 23" Apple Display until my G5 comes. Everything has been great so far except one thing -- on dark backgrounds, the screen "sparkles." To see what I mean, check out the video below..
Now, my thought it it's a video card thing, but I don't have another mac/PC to test it on. Anyone have any ideas? Like I said, it only happens on dark backgrounded windows, and the pixels that are "sparkling" are completely random. And the "sparkles" are actually green/red...even though they appear white in the video.
July 19, 2004
Doom 3
..went gold a few days back. While the mac version won't be out for a few months, I'm still excited.
Celebration in best Gir voice:
doom doom doom...doom de doom doom....doomdy doomdy doom DOOM! doom doom dedoom doomdeedoom DOOM! doom....
Soundtrack Musing
My latest soundtrack "composition" -- check it out.
I like the piano, the strings, and the beat. The rest seems like clutter...no?
July 18, 2004
Open Wide
When you lack a mirror, you can always use your digital camera to inspect your teeth.
Anyone know what that redish stuff is on my filling?
July 16, 2004
Display Impressions
A few people have been asking me about my experience and impressions with the display so far, so I'll just take care of that right now.
First, as I emphasized in my original post -- it is huge. That being said, it's not too big...it's just big. I can't imagine using the 30"...that would be massive.
Next is the issue of response time. All of Apple's new displays are 16ms rise/fall. What this means is no ghosting or blurring when dragging windows, watching movies, or playing games. This will be a great monitor for people who work a lot with Final Cut Pro and other video applications.
As a side note, I took the time to watch Toy Story on here earlier -- Wow. I can't wait to see some high-quality HD stuff on here. I tried to watch some earlier, but it seems my powerbook, along with driving two displays, is not powerful enough to decode a 16000kbps stream in real-time. I guess that will have to wait for the G5. :(
Overall, this monitor is worth the $2000 that it cost. It's very bright (I actually have to turn it down a bit). Images and text are vibrant and sharp. I think most people could get away just fine with the 20" -- hell, I could get by just fine with the 20"....but this is what the Apple Store had...and this is what I bought. I can't wait to do some gaming on this thing. O_o
Gain 23 Inches in 2 Weeks!!!
The biggest story in compensation attempts just got bigger.
Originally I had ordered the 20" cinema display from apple.com, but it wasn't going to ship until 8/10. Being that I have a G5 shipping on 7/30 and no other monitor, this would not do. Thus, after the nearest Apple store (130 miles) had only the 23" in stock, I went for it.
This thing is huge. No joke -- huge. On top of that, it's so sexy that the metrosexual in me tears up everytime he looks at it.
If you can afford it -- buy it. If you can't, put it on your credit card like me. ;)
July 14, 2004
Members Only
Today I got my Apple Developer Connection orientation kit -- t-shirt, copy of OS X Panther, and 3 cd/dvds of developer resources. While the original intent of joining was to get a discount on a PowerMac, I think I am going to dabble into some OS X programming. The only question now is what to write.
Anyone have ideas/requests?
July 13, 2004
July 12, 2004
July 11, 2004
Fahrenheit 9/11
I stayed up all night, last night, because I had to be in at work this morning at 8 A.M. If you know me, you also know that waking up at 8 A.M. is not an option for me -- I need to stay up.
To burn some time, I decided to watch Fahrenheit 9/11, which I downloaded earlier in the day. I make this explicit only because Michael Moore gave the O.K. for his documentary to be passed around the internet for free in whatever form one should see fit.
The film pointed out a lot of scary connections between Bush, his friends, his father, and the Saudi's. Most of the interactions with Saudis can be explained as coincidence, but a few are kind of scary. My favorite was on 9/13/2001, the U.S. (aka Bush) OK'ed the departure of 23 members of the Bin Laden family from the U.S. to Saudi Arabia. Mind you, this was when all commercial air travel was grounded. Also keep in mind that none of the members of the family were questioned, or even spoken to, by any members of any intelligence agency before they left the country.
Another great moment is watching Bush, informed of the first plane hitting the WTC, going ahead with a photo-op at an elementary school in a low-income neighborhood. Then, after being informed of a second plane hitting the WTC, he continues to sit in the classroom for another 10 minutes.
To sum it up, if you don't like Bush, watch this movie so you can seethe. If you do like Bush, watch this movie and maybe you'll have a different opinion when it's over.
Maybe it's just me, but I prefer a president that gets blowjobs in the oval office from a young intern to one who gets them from the leaders of Saudi Arabia.
Now...time to go to work. More on that later.
July 06, 2004
ARGAHGAHAGGH
I just got out of a five hour meeting on a fucking database design.
My head wants to fucking explode.
July 05, 2004
buy something will 'ya
Selling some stuff on ebay...hurry up and buy something:
Parallax Boe-Bot Full Kit + Line Follower Module
i have a dream..
...and in it I have a Dual 2.5gHz G5 and a 23" display.
With any luck, mine by the end of the summer.
The Fourth
Went down to D.C. for the weekend to see my girlfriend. When we were there 2 years ago, we said we'd come back sometime to see the fireworks in person, as we did not get to go back then. We walked down to the mall like the rest of the masses. The streets were blocked off and, after the fireworks started, looked very eerie from the drifting smoke cloud.
Being so close, we soon found out that fireworks have a lot of associated debris. I got hit in the head with a 3x3" piece of cardboard.
So, in conclusion of this shitty narrative -- the fireworks were good, and the only explosions were those in the sky.
July 01, 2004
Watch Out Google
Microsoft is previewing their "new" search technology, which is supposed to rival google. There are several reasons why Google has nothing to worry about, but this is the best one:
Mind you, before this it *was* able to process my request; a query such as "you are not google" (unquoted) -- unfortunately, I got no results. Great search technology.