One hundred pushups

A friend of mine and I have started the workout plan from hundredpushups.com.

It's a program that in six weeks or so hopes to have you completing one hundred consecutive pushups. The program is three days a week, and very simple and straightforward.

We're still in the first week, but I'll be updating my progress. My initial test netted me 20, so we'll see how it goes from there.

Technorati Tags: Exercise,working out,pushups,hundredpushups.com

Pandora and the Music Genome Project

I know what your thinking, and no, that's not the name of my latest story.

I've heard about the web music app Pandora for a long time, but never checked it out. Recently I remembered it and pulled it up. Going to the website presents a front end that lets you specify an artist (or a song) that you like, and Pandora starts playing something by that artist.

 

Pandora builds a queue of music based off of your initial selection and the Music Genome Project. Basically, it analyzes your selection and assigns the song certain attributes that it matches against songs in its database. Subsequent songs are automatically queued up and played.

I've started with various musicians I like and also tried some obscure ones. The vast majority of times I've enjoyed what I've heard, with some obvious matching selections but also some bands that are new to me. It's great for parties or just hanging around if you are tired of your current media selection or don't want to create a custom playlist (or are too lazy to hit Shuffle).

There is also a Pandora app for mobile devices, but I'm not sure how great this is due to it always being on and streaming data/music. I could see your battery draining due to the Pandora app, but as I don't have a phone with that kind of capability I'm basically talking out of my Napster. I'm sure it works - why offer it otherwise.

Technorati Tags: Pandora,Music Genome Project,MP3,streaming music

Interesting recommendation from Netflix

So we use Netflix, and we love it. With kids and a full schedule, it's nice to cut out an errand whenever possible. I check the mail every day on my commute, so it's win-win. Commercial over.

We are pretty slow in our movie-watching, though, as we are on the two-movie-at-a-time plan, and one of the movies is always earmarked for Friday's movie night. One grown-up movie at a time and you can see why our queue is 285 movies long.

Anyway, somewhat recently I added Hancock (Peter Berg + Jason Bateman FTW)to our queue, and Netflix has a handy feature that shows you a list of movies that, based on you just clicking Movie A, here are Movies B - G that you also might enjoy due to their similarity. I'm not exactly sure about this one, though.

Hmm....Hancock is a superhero. Fantastic Four and Spiderman 3? Check. I Am Legend? Obvious. Uh, Brokeback Mountain?

We saw Brokeback Mountain, and it is a really good movie. I don't recall superheroes in it, though. No Will Smith connection either.

Am I missing an obvious connection? Are cowboys really that super? Is there some submessage in Hancock? Is it just and unfortunate naming mismatch?

Technorati Tags: Netflix,Hancock,Brokeback Mountain

Feed the Pod!

So I've got a fairly long commute...about thirty minutes one way. Long for me, that is. I don't like much on the radio, so I've started just MP3'ing it, or listening to audiobooks.

Lately, I've been checking out a lot of podcasts, and one I've been thoroughly enjoying is Pseudopod - a horror fiction podcast.

It has some really good stories, and various people have stepped in to read the stories, from authors to other podcast hosts to the site's own Ben and Alistair, my favorite narrators.

The authors are supported by donations - the aforementioned "Feed the Pod."

What I really like is the variety of the stories - some mainstream horror from faithful genres (zombie, vampire (my favorite), Cthulhu, etc), but it also has plenty of surprises waiting for the gentle listener.

Spurling's Virus was my first, and I was hooked since then.

Pseudopod is the horror branch of a trifecta of podcasts, the others being Escape Pod (science fiction) and Podcastle (fantasy).

Check 'em out!

Technorati Tags: Pseudopod,horror,podcast,audiobook,Escape Pod,Podcastle,vampire,cthulhu

Windows Live Writer, finally!

I begrudgingly tried Windows Live Writer while at SIGGRAPH. Think of Writer as a word processor that uploads to your blog. Before trying it, I was fine going online to my blog, writing updates and uploading pictures. If I couldn't get online, I just didn't blog. Connection taking too long? I got frustrated and didn't blog.

I didn't know what I was missing!

What I like: offline post creation, WYSIWYG, easy tags and formatting.

So far the only thing I don't like is that there seems to be a bug that un-centers images when I upload a post. I have to redownload the post, center the images again, and reupload.

I wasn't sure I could do this, but I just Alt-PrntScrn'ed the window and pasted it into the body text. Nice! I figured it would, but nice to know it works like expected.

I'm using it exclusively for blogging moving forward.

Thanks Dave!

Technorati Tags: Windows Live Writer,Microsoft,blog

Demoscene screening

From wikipedia, a demo is a non-interactive multimedia presentation made within the computer subculture known as the demoscene.

What I knew about the demoscene I found out in college, so it's been a while since I've even thought about it. I was used to very small, early 90's era graphical programming examples that were cool, but I never got into it. What I saw at the screening blew my mind!

So what's the big deal? The animations below aren't rendered with some sort of animation package - they are done in a miniscule amount of memory, usually 64k, and done in realtime. These guys really know their stuff.

Oh yeah. I had been away from demoscene for so long that I was totally unaware of the advances that have been made. Once the demos started playing, I was convinced that they were showing the incorrect footage. I mean, this couldn't be real-time, right? I actually got up out of my chair and talked to two people asking them if they were playing the correct footage. All they could tell me was that Demoscene was listed as starting at 4pm, and we were currently in the allotted time. They asked me what I thought should be playing, and I said I didn't know but I thought what was playing was too good!

I went back to my seat stunned, totally caught off-guard.

Five demos were shown:

Metamorphosis, by Andromeda Software Development

Beyond the Walls of Eryx, also by ASD

Debris, by Farbrausch & Nero

Route 1066, by UKscene Allstars

Lifeforce, also by ASD

Technorati Tags: demoscene,demo,Andromeda Software Development,Farbrausch,UKscene Allstars,SIGGRAPH

Posting with Blogger Buddy

Every once in a while I check to see if there are any interesting Vista Sidebar gadgets available. I mean, how many clock utilities do we really need?

One I just found is Blogger Buddy, which lets you post from your Sidebar without having to load your browser or editing app.







Well, this might be the first and last post from Blogger Buddy for me! Clicking on the Image button has a space to fill in the image tag, but it wants an html link, and it won't let you browse your drive for images.

No thanks. For quick text-only posts, I can see the advantage, but I prefer show and tell. Another problem I just found - I tried to select the following text and click the Italics button, and instead of bookending the text with the italics tags, it just put the opening and closing tags after the end of the text. That's useful, said nobody.

This is actually my second attempt - I think I messed up the gadget trying to move it off the Sidebar.

Also, I had to post the text of the, uh, post, with Blogger Buddy, then open IE, log in, edit my post and manually upload and add the images.

Weezer: Pork and Beans

So Weezer, one of my favorite bands, is coming out with a new album next month, and you may have heard the first single, "Pork and Beans."

They've released a video chock-full of internet memes.



Here is one of many websites that start cataloging the memes.

No Rick-Rolling, though!

Edit: I almost forgot to give credit where credit is due - thanks for the heads-up Cobra!

24: 1994 Pilot

So 24 got picked up by Fox again (duh), but it won't be until next year before we get some Bauer-licious action. What to do in the interim? Feast your eyes on this lost pilot recently unearthed from the archives.



Luckily it's posted to youtube.com and not just the Humor-Site-that-will-get-you-fired-and-in-hot-water-with-your-wife.

Thanks Shayne!

Who's in charge here?

I stumbled upon a cool website - Who's in charge here?

It takes a publicity photo and asks readers to determine who they think is the leader - based on the photo only. It doesn't matter if you know who is the "leader" of the group...this is an examination of the dynamic within the oh-so-important press materials.



There is some hilarious text and some great comments are sprinkled throughout.

I can has cheezburger?

What do you get when you combine cats, cameras and bad grammar? I can has cheezburger!

This website contains photos of cats (and other animals) submitted by people on teh interwebs with captions, usually from the animal pictured. Some of them are so-so, but some are FUNNY! I showed my wife some the other day, and she was moderately amused, at best, but I couldn't stop laughing...and looking at more...and laughing...etc. She had to practically shake me off the computer. This is the picture that started the website:



This internet phenomenon was dubbed "lolcats" and originated on some message boards before the aforementioned website.

Presenting Data and Information course by Edward Tufte

Monday I went to a seminar on how to effectively present data by one of the masters of visual information, Edward Tufte, with more info here.

It was in the Doubletree Hotel, and I parked in the parking garage and decided to walk down the stairs instead of taking the elevator. This corridor is straight out of the movies.



I figured if something was going to go down, this was the place. Luckily (for them), nothing happened.

The seminar was in a conference room, and they had some surprisingly good coffee.





Here is another "review" of his seminars by someone else that went - some great details that I left out.

ET, as he is known online and to the community, is a great presenter, and I liked his style. Most of it was him talking with a little bit of some multimedia stuff. He's a Mac guy, but he doesn't come off as pretentious.

Patrons of the seminar received four of his books, which I heartily recommend. They are fantastic references as well as just plain great reading.



I also picked up a copy of his mother's book, Artful Sentences.

So why did I take this course? I have to present a lot of data, the lion's share of it is performance data, and my customers are engineering, marketing and sales. Whatever I can use to make what I show more effective (and have them come back to me less) is a win!

Evolution of Netflix DVD shipping wrappers.

I found a short article about how Netflix has changed the design of their DVD mailers over the years - check it out.

Here is a direct link to the gallery of mailers from the beginning. I think the earliest mailer I can remember is the 2001 era mailer, #9 on the list.

We're on our second run of Netflix memberships, and we have definitely been affected by their (in)famous DVD throttling plan. There seems to be a DVD distribution hub located in Austin, so delivery has gotten faster lately.


The mailers are famously red and can be picked out at a distance, as seen here. I've wondered about Netflix thieves watching the post offices for those telltale envelopes, but it turns out a lot of such scams exist. There is even what must be an upper echelon of discriminating DVD thieves, as seen here.

Portal

I just started playing Portal the other night, and I'm hooked! Portal is a game that also acts like a technology demo. If you've played any first-person-shooter computer game you instantly know how the control scheme, but the twist is the Portal device. This will let you create portals on different surfaces that allow you to solve puzzles and complete levels.

I was going to just "check it out" a little bit when I started and before I realized what was going on I was at level 15 and it was about 12:30am - an hour flew by!



If you must know more, check out the wikipedia article, but beware - it contains spoilers.

I'm not even going to attempt to create more of a mini-review than this, but I highly recommend this game! It is bundled in the Orange Box, which is a fantastic deal (if you haven't already played/own Half-Life 2) in that $37.99 (lowest price I've seen it at Circuit City) gets you Half-Life 2, Episode 1, Episode 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2 (the latest revision of the granddaddy of class-based shooters...this time with sublime art direction). That's alotta gaming bang for the buck!

As I mentioned in the previous post's comments, a 2D Flash version of Portal is here.

Don't Click It!

So I thought I was done with a quick blog note (previous Moleskine entry), but somewhere along the way I found a link to a project called Don't Click It.

It's pretty interesting, and I like it but it seems like the click is ingrained into my right hand.

I especially liked the Autopilot feature where you can view the first 20 seconds of previous visitors to the site.

Behold the mind...of a Mad Dog!

My buddy Mike has caught TEH BLOGGING FEVER - check him out.

More bees to love

The Halo 2 videogame had an elaborate Alternate Reality Game (ARG) called I love bees that tied in with the launch of the game. It involved real world people getting emails, text messages, phone calls, etc, from in-game entities, artificial intelligences, and other characters.

It looks like those crazy Bungie guys are at it again, but this time for Halo 3.



Click on the image or go to http://halo3.com/comic/ to check it out. I accidentally found the clue that lead me to more parts of the game.

I can see you!

Some interesting fallout from the Google Street View's Privacy-B-Gone mode. Slashdot picked up a Wired story about some privacy complaints from the picture-taking-van, as well as Wired finding a lot of interesting features from the photos.

Unfortunately, Denver, CO, is the closest place to me with Street View enabled.



I've seen a van drive around our subdivision with cameras, but so far no luck finding front views of our house online, which may not be a bad thing.

Full sized images posted...FINALLY!!!

I've complained about images I post to my blog not being clickable, that is, clicking on them did not link to the original/higher resolution images.

I've been searching Blogger help files, help forums and sending email to Blogger with no response. I checked other blogs on Blogger and their images don't seem to suffer this same fate.

I checked the HTML of my posts and I couldn't see any alternate upload paths for the high resolution image...it's like my blog lost the functionality to upload fullsize images.

Blogger lets you work in a WYSIWYG environment or an environment that displays all the HTML code. In the WYSIWYG environment, you can drag uploaded images around to the correct spot and the layout code was smart enough to make everything how you want it.

Well, almost how you want it.

It turns out that moving an image in the WYSIWYG space gets rid of the original resolution code (image name, path, pixel count, etc) that is in the HTML. It just disappears. All that is left is the code for the thumbnail image.

I stumbled on to this while flipping back and forth between the an older post that still had clickable links to full size images and a recent post.

Why does this happen? I can find no other reason besides it being a bug.

If you go to the HTML environment you are able to cut and paste ALL the image-related HTML code to another place in your post, and everything goes with it. I've reuploaded the image to the post below and it works like a champ.

I'm relieved that I've found the solution, to say the least. Am I going to go back and fix everything? Probably not.

A .dream come true!

I have a laptop running Vista Ultimate, and I recently found out about Windows DreamScene. It basically allows you to have mpg or wmv files as your Vista background.

Here is a static shot of mine. Just imagine the plasma wave gently undulating as I do work.

The software for this comes in three parts.

1. An update to Windows Vista Ultimate - Windows DreamScene.
2. Stardock Deskscapes - a free download. This extends dreamscape files (.dream) to add dynamic content, changes over time, etc.
3. Stardock DreamMaker - another free download. This allows you to create the actual .dream file and share them.

I already have some ideas for making some .dream files - basically animate some 3d content I already have for a quick test. This could definitely be an attention-grabber for systems at stores, kiosks, tradeshows, etc. Stardock has provided six free .dream files, and they are charging a few bucks for another one.

Go to WinCustomize for more .dream files, downloading the software or picking up some user-generated content.