autosize

I hate it when a website auto-resizes your main browser window. There is simply no good explanation for why programmers do this, let alone, why javascript allows code to change the dimensions of your only active window. I get that some people have small screens, but seriously? Do you have to assume that I don't know how to make the browser bigger or heaven forbid I have to use the scrollbars. I know there are options in Firefox to disable script access to this, but really? I have to turn it off for every site because some programmers were too busy to check if their window is already big enough to see the terrible flash rich content I'm about to throw using? My display has 2560pixels wide by 1600pixels high.. Couldn't say everything you wanted to say about [Insert Retarded Motion Picture ADVersite Here] with only 4 million pixels?

get an rss reader (aka, use an rss reader)

this is a story about using an rss reader. They are great. You don't have to go to the website anymore, just sit back and have it download new articles for you. Pretty much all blogs and websites provide rss streams for you now. You can even follow comments without needing to refresh

for osx: Use NetNewsWire
It's fast, configurable, looks nice, lightweight, rad

for win: use NetNewsWire for osx on the mac you are going to buy, or use google reader with some kind of notifier. Or I think firefox can act as an rss reader. use that

Congrats grad, you now will waste more time watching your rss reader and immediately switch from whatever you are doing to it when you see a new article has popped up.

Oh, and..


I'm Back!

what's in it for them

Apparently, 50% of all illegal bittorrents are TV episodes. For a long time, networks have viciously been going after people for downloading their shows instead of watching them for free over the air and skipping over commercials anyways.

Anyhoo. Remember when NBC withdrew their support of iTunes sales? Well, that's when this whole Hulu thing started to happen. I got my beta invite the other day and was just looking through it. Seems like a really snappy webplayer, all done in flash (Note* You do not need more than flash to deliver content stupid idiot networks forcing me to install some crappy DRM management plugin) So I caught the last 15 minutes of that House episode that aired after the superbowl, and then some Conan. No commercials at this point, which leads me to ask.

What's in it for these guys? Are they eventually going to a pay system, or are they finally going to accept that an ad on the side of the page is enough? Anyhoo, with the writers actually getting paid for these internet views now, we'll probably have to start paying for a service like this just so the networks can break even

let's get real.. and physical

well well well. It's been a while reader. How have I been you ask? I'm doing great. I'd ask how you're doing, but we both know that neither cares for the answer

today is a super day. It's time to vote, and while I'm not going to tell you what to do, I thought I'd take this time to write about something I've noticed in this latest of presidential campaigns.

First of all, people seem to choose the candidate they think will win, regardless of if they think that candidate represents them. I can only imagine how proud they are when the go home and find out "their" candidate won!! Oh man, they are a winner, which means that their vote was a winner, which means they are a winner. Who cares that the voter disagrees with the fact that "their" candidate wants to legalize killing everyone who's name starts with T (I'm looking at you Selleck.) I mean, the guy this voter liked had invented a new energy source out of salt water, but they weren't a top tier candidate, and didn't really get that much media coverage, so it's a good thing the vote went to the winner. This leads me to my next point

If you have ever made a political decision based of a "paid for by" ad, then you need to jump yourself off a cliff. I'll wait. Didn't kill you? Ok, Read on. I know most people claim to "hate" or "laugh" at these ads, but I know there are some of you who watch deal or no deal and half way through say to yourself "holy crap. I thought wwii really happened, but this commercial is saying it didn't, AND it says these are the FACTS! wtf am I going to do now? I guess I better vote yes to taxing Tom Selleck 80% more than myself"

Next is what I call "the party line" or "the party joke." There's always that candidate that people hear just enough about to think that this guy/gal must be a weirdo, and enough pundits seem to think so too, so this must be the joke. The problem is, they don't have a clue what this candidate stands for. They just know that the news doesn't like them. Or that they didn't win "The Hiphugger Pole." They also hear about a selected group of candidates that are the front runners. Have you ever noticed that there are 3-5 more candidates than you see in the media every election? Why do you think it's ok to give any single one of them more coverage than another before you know anything about them? Face it. The party line always comes from the media telling you who is this years "joke." You were too stupid or drunk to figure out who the real joke is. This is an intervention, and America doesn't look happy with you

Don't vote for someone, just because a celebrity endorsed them.

Don't vote for someone because they cried.

Don't vote for someone because they are the same race as you.

Don't vote for someone because the guy you like "doesn't have a chance"

Don't vote for someone because they "have the best chance at winning"

Be selfish. What do you want? What candidate reflects your personal beliefs? Stop using the "main talking points" Know how the candidates feel about every issue. Pick the one that you want to represent YOU.

How I feel: (You can stop reading now, I just wanted to write out why I'm voting for Ron Paul) Consistent voting record since entering office. Still thinks the Constitution is important. Understands economics. Against the patriot act. Against nation building (if you voted for Bush in 00, you voted for that; even though it didn't work out like that.) Smaller Fed, larger state. There's more, google him
I don't get why people think there are only two ways to make an economy work. Raise taxes, spend more, or, lower taxes, spend more, go into debt. Why aren't republicans mad about our national debt? Why do democrats think we should tax more and just spend the hell out of everything? Why are we in a war still/at all? Everyone of the candidates, minus Paul, voted for Iraq. Suck on that you hippies.

halloween

I officially avoided the entire month of October in blogging. Congratulations me. In the comments, you can praise me if you'd like

bo knows

emotron is the new aquabats, without horns or cd repo men

UPDATE:
Ok, so I guess this needs more info. Here's a demonstration

i guess, it's because of the chief

commercials for games are getting good.

my so called life

i had someone scheduled to check the amplifier outside my house (from charter) and my internet just went down. called in, they canceled my appointment, I asked to talk to someone who could reschedule me, and they hung up on me. but this post is not about charter.

The new Foo Fighters album is going to melt your face off.
The first song is just ridiculous. If you were at a show, and there was some old lady there, you can bet your balls you'd have so much energy, you'd punch her right in the face. The whole album is this crazy mix of fast/slow songs with awesome energy, and ends with a nice piano piece. It seems to be the way Grohl --

My internet just went out for 30 minutes, but I'm back for one last thing. Click the album art. Enjoy your weekend

Charter

ok. I'm writing the via the famed iphone. Once agan charter has died. Why they cant seem to fix it is beyond me. On my last call, i found out that they are "leasing" my modem to me. The problem there is that we have owned our modem for the past 6 years.

A guy came oit the other day and told me that he would s hedule for someone to check our amplifier within a couple days. The guy i just talked to told me it would be sometime in the next month.

None of the techs even offer me suggestions on what to do anymore. I basically spell out what's happening and for how long (a month), and they will just sit there speechless. I then have to say "so... What am I supposed to do?" they will actually tell me that they don't know and try to see if "there is anything else they can help me with" I guess missed the part where they helped me with anything in the first place.

I'm amazed they would be this crappy after 6 setting years of pretty ok service. Its like they got together and decided to start sucking and get rid of all their useless customers.

This really makes me realize how much I rely on the internet actually working. Not for just browsing or killing time, but my entire business banks on the fact I will have access to this service. I am going to sleep early now, and half of my work day is gone.

Finally, when I called in tonight, the guy I was talking to was a total douche. He made me go through the fact that here is no frlirst ne on our account for at least 2minutes as if I was lying about my name, or better yet, what if I wern't an actual subscriber... Oh no! I might learn their terrible secret that their stupid service was down in my area. They act like they are holding government secrets everytime you call in. It takes at least 10 minutes just to find out if your Internet being down is on your end or theirs.

Charter is teh suck!!!1

cali- forn ya

The wizard is no longer relevant

I know you are probably thinking, "what the heck are you talking about, the wizard is a classic movie about families and caring about retarded people." But this movie is literally insane. The whole movie, the kids are being chased by a crazed bounty hunter.

This guy physically assaults the children at multiple points in the story. I thought he was trying to help the kids. This movie also tells you that if you are mentally challenged, you should never be helped, but should be on the run to cali, forn ya
Why wern't any authorities alerted to these missing children? Were we supposed to believe that the Jimmy character was filled with gold, and if someone else got to him first, they would slice his belly and steal the medallions and Spanish gold doubloons?

I think the only thing that's important about the wizard anymore is that when you are googling Rilo Kiley for the first time, you think, "hey, I like this band. Let's see. Drummer? Check. Guitars? Check. Singer? Holy shit, that's the girl from the wizard!"

closing shop, opening a new store, free churros this friday

as some of my most avid readers may have noticed, i have disappeared.

Well, the story is a long one, but i'll give you the short version. I bought an iphone. I only paid 300$ I sold my nokia for basically what I paid, then I was attacked by a terodactle, it was at least 10meters wide. Really


So here's what I need. I already have a site ready to go for my new blog, but I need an idea. What should I write about? What makes you return to my stupid blog to read it? Would you like to laugh? Have me ramble about business plans? Maybe a blog about tech? How about my thoughts on some news story each day. Should I talk about kittens, or maybe avoid them? Should I ever mention myself in the blog, or is this a disconnected thing? Should I have an image in every blog? A photo? Should it be a photo blog alltogether? Should I write about bFit tests? Did you like my blog before? Why do people write blogs in the first place?

ttyl

freakin weekend, gonna have me some fun

Things to remember for the weekend:

1. Get bioshock. It's just good
2. Did anyone get Metroid? Yeah.. Don't know if I'm excited about that one
3. I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more, just to be the man.. Well, this goes without saying
4. Think of better theme for a blog
5. Convince Friends to help with it
6. Get people to read it
7. ...
8. Profit!

This concludes week 2

Secret Shopper

Dear Other Guy,

Hey Other Guy. I see you shopping in the store with me. You acting all sluggish as you trail behind your girlfriend. Did that thing look good that she just picked up? Who knows, but I think you said yes. Did you say it with enough enthusiasm to get her not to question your response? Uh oh, looks like you missed that one. You'll have to get it right on the next item, oh, there it is.

Ah, you're getting better. Better get out your phone and see if you, uhp.. no, bars....

Hey, don't think I didn't just see you look around for something to sit down on, good luck, I've been looking since I walked in.

Woah other guy, slow down. When she heads off to the other end of the store, the end you walked past to get to where you are now, leaving you wondering why you walked past it if she intention to walk right back there, you don't need to stay close. You bet your ass she's coming right back, well, with a few circles around a rack of clothing she doesn't want, other than for an excuse to go back to, just to see if maybe that thing she saw was cute or not.

Ok other guy, I saw you just give her the glance while holding your watch near her. You know you just screwed yourself right? Now, even though you are right here shopping with her, and you'll probably go to 10 more stores, you are getting no credit. Sorry bud, you tried, but when you get home, all she's going to remember is that glance when she says something like "can we go back tomorrow to see if there's something I missed"

Uh oh. I've got to go to the try on zone. I'll probably see you in another store in a bit. You don't have to make eye contact with me, without words letting me know how you feel. I know how you feel.

Wish me luck other guy.

halo 3, part 1, the sequel

this actually looks good.







They will have to try pretty hard to top Street Fighter as far as video games movies go. tiger, uppercut!

tuesday morning

3:16 am PST

as seen from

my driveway.

a total eclipse of my heart

week 1, v2

so, where were we.

global warming, as sensationalized by any douchebag who wants someone to listen to them, is retarded.

I'm not saying that it's impossible the earth's average temperature is increasing every year. I'm not saying that it's impossible that humans could change the earth's climate. I'm saying, that any scientist, worth being called a scientist, would not give a definitive answer on this concept. They might say something like, if you take a small sample of recent history, blah blah blah. But if you hear "we [humans] are causing the earth's temperature to increase," seriously?, just laugh. What scientist makes a call without a control variable? Without a reasonable sample? I mean.. Come on? Really? Douche

Ok. So here's what I don't understand about this whole affair. They say that people claiming global warming isn't true, are big corporations that don't want to loose money by having to recycle or not dump waste into lakes. Ok, that might be true. I'm sure they don't want to loose money, sounds reasonable, they have something to gain by it being untrue. So you have those dudes on that side of it. -- Now, Who's on the other side? Hippies? Environmentalists? Where does this idea come from being for the idea that global warming is a reality? Do people side with this idea because there is no big company behind it; therefore, it makes them look good? Wait a second. What about the douche who's selling some lightbulb that "saves" a bunch of energy. Maybe it's huffy, who wants you to ride bikes so you'll buy more bikes. Maybe nike wants you to walk so you'll wear out your shoes faster. Maybe it's some solar panel company who wants to sell more of their product. Has anyone noticed, that no matter what side you pick, you are still going to "ruin" the planet?

a solar panel costs way more of the earth's resources, and way more money, that you will ever save during the entire lifespan of that solar panel (* I made this up, but it's probably true ) You burn more of the earth's fuel (food/food production) by walking to your destination that it costs to drive (car/gas/production) *

No matter what you do, or how you live, you are going to ruin the planet. No matter how much of a douche you are, you are doing something wrong, according to someone out there. So do you really want to spend your whole life walking around wondering what you are doing wrong, or would you rather make a few "earth friendly" choices when you can, and keep it to your freakin self

Z 4 Q Q Q

charter communications. The past few weeks, my cable internet has been sucking pretty badly. So I've tried calling into their tech support a few times. First time I jumped through some hoops and finally got a person on the line. After giving my name, the phone number on the account, and my address (and declining to give my social security number over the phone), i get this "I understand you are having internet troubles today. I would like to commend you on selecting our 3 meg internet package as this is our most popular package if you would like to hear about our other offers or to know about our current..." 'Sir' ".. rates we will be happy to talk ..." 'Sir' " .. about our current offerings that are more than..." 'Would you please listen to me? All I want to know is if there is an outage in my area' "ok. what's your social?" 'I don't feel comfortable giving that over the phone' "um.. umm." [5 minutes later] "hello? ok yes we are having an outage in that area." 'Ok. Is there an estimated time it's going to be back?' "um. 10 pm" (that's 7 hours away at this point) 'Ok, fine. Is there someone who I can talk to about being refunded for the time I've lost?' "um. oh. yes, bla bla bla bla something yes, ok, I'll transfer you to someone who can help you" [disconnected]

guy hung up on me and didn't help me. I really don't have any idea what this guy was thinking. wait, no, I don't have any idea what charter was thinking. why would they ever think that this was an acceptable way to deal with a customer? Here's my point

When a company becomes a monopoly, they don't have to give a flying crap about any single one of their customers. The only thing that will take their business away is some freak change in the industry of whatever they are peddling. Can monopolies be good? Most people will freak out and say "all monopolies have to be the devil, everyone who works there hates the world and the environment" not true. if a monopoly became a monopoly without the government making a deal to get them there, then it would have to have pleased people millions of times and kept doing that or everyone would jump ship. what really happens is some retard makes a deal with another retard and BAM, we all have crappy cable, for a crappy price, with terrible support and they could care less. Who just won? The cable company and the government. So why can't we have this? well. we're already really screwed from all the crap flying around. You would take away peoples' job and everyone would get all fussy and blame you instead of their inability to get a new job. just how stupid big companies complain when you tell them they are destroying the world and they'll have to spend an extra .01$/part to fix it. Man, whatever happened to making a fair profit from something instead of always ruining things just to help your bottom-line.

This will be my first in a series I'd like to call free-market-fridays.

this concludes my first week.

alpha omega

so anyways. Nikon just announced the d3 and the d300. What is it about these things that makes me say "yeah, I'll buy that." I have a d200, which does everything the d300 does, you know, minus maybe 3 features, that for some reason, I really want. Full frame? Self cleaning? Everything else? Sign me up. d3x has 9fps of 12mp, 25,600 ISO (so you can take pictures in a blackhole). What the heck.

what's the deal with taking on jobs that don't pay me. I typically get involved with stuff that never will pay me, but I think "hey, this is a future investment, and someday I'll be really rich because of the time I'm putting in now." 3 weeks of being up until 4 and not a dime in my hand is a little frustrating. I keep going to meetings where we talk and talk. "Would it be great if.." "Wow, we could really sell this if..." wtf guys. show me the money to quote the late cuba gooding jr.

and why do I bother with photography anyways. nobody pays me for it and if you want to be a pro, you have to start wearing a bandanna and buy a really crappy flash template website that every single other photographer out there is using, and for some reason everyone thinks they are hot shit when the one image fades to the next, but they don't even think that maybe the website could be a template. It's like buying a honda and telling people you made it, and for some reason, everyone says "how the hell did you fit all these injection molded parts into the engine? you must be hot shit"

i guess working for nothing, but doing something I like is better than making money, getting a d3x, hating myself and being miserable every second of my working life.

follow your dreams kids

sirens

oops, you're 25 now and still didn't do your thang, but instead, you are performing country covers in starbucks. at what point in your life do you say "oops" maybe the problem is that someone ruined your life first and you are just getting back at them. by the way, that's britney and tawny above (sorry about that link, but when the first result in google is a quasi nude picture of you at the playboy mansion, you made a wrong turn about 100 ft back)

wonderful gopher moat