I just saw a link to this on Slashdot, and it completely whips ass.
Just watch the video: http://ted.com/tedtalks/tedtalksplayer.cfm?key=j_han&flashEnabled=1
It looks like the way Tom Cruise’s computer looked on Minority report. They had some other similar stuff in the two Matrix sequils. I’m sure that the movie people did their homework and found out that someone was working on this stuff, and that’s how it made it into the movies, but it’s still really cool to see something that just a couple of years ago looked like far-out science fiction that’s making its way into reality today.
On another note- I just downloaded Firefox 2.0. If you notice me making fewer spelling errors in my posts, it’s because Firefox has automatic spell checking in all web forms.
I know people would love it if your comments showed up on my blog right away, but in the last day and a half I’ve had over 40 spam comments from some random spam site that looks like it’s in Italian.
Here, I uploaded my skydiving video:
jzoe.com/movies/joe-skydive.avi
It’s 43 megs, so if you’re on dialup I’m sorry. I tried to reincode it to be smaller, but I couldn’t get it much smaller without seriously screwing up quality.
I saw a link today to Carls Jr’s nutrition facts sheet, and it scared me. Check it out: http://www.carlsjr.com/content/downloads/nutrition.pdf
The worst sandwich on there has 1,520 calories, 47 grams of saturated fat, and 2,760 mg of sodium. FYI, the recommended daily allowance for sodium is 2,400 mg. Enjoy that sandwich with a big bag of onion rings and a wash it down with an oreo milkshake, and you’re going DOWN.
I wondered how that stacked up to McDonalds, so I checked it out- http://www.mcdonalds.com/app_controller.nutrition.index1.html.
The worst sandwich on McDonald’s menu is the double quarter pounder with cheese, and it has 730 calories, 19 grams of saturated fat, and 1,330 mg of sodium. That Carls Jr sandwich (the Double Six Dollar Hamburger) is like eating two of those! What is it, a full pound of beef, with half a pound of cheese on top of it?
In case you’re curious, here are links to:
Kentucky Fried Chicken (yum.com)
Subway Sandwiches (really not so bad)
Wendy’s (about the same as McDonalds)
It was really easy to find those- I can’t remember if there was some sort of law passed, but it seems like all of the major fast food chains have nutritional information on their websites.
If you’re a nerd for this stuff or not- have a look.
http://www.atelier-v.ch/index.htm
Some of this stuff makes me think of what would happen if Bjork was a product designer, but maybe it’s just from the Ikea-like photography. Also, I wonder what language that is.
After skydiving I encoded a 5 minute video on Kendra’s computer (I still need to upload that thing!!), and it took 20 minutes. This evening I encoded a 128 minute video on my new laptop, and it only took 45 minutes. Both processors run at 2.0 ghz, but the laptop worked over 11 times faster. If anybody wants to know, I think that’s the point of the new processors.
My new laptop showed up today. Kendra said it looks “fugly”, I say it looks professional.
There are a few things I’ve noticed so far, I guess I’ll just comment on them here.
-The CD drive is kind of hard to open; the button isn’t easy to feel.
-There is a LOT of pre-installed software stuff on here.
-There’s a really cool hard drive protection feature that can sense if I shake my laptop like I’m going to drop it, or if I jar it on the table. I actually played with that for a few minutes… and then I realized that I was smacking my new laptop on the table.
-There’s a fingerprint reader, and it’s neat to not have to type my windows password to log in. It was really hard to use before I watched the tutorial video, but the video did a great job of showing the motion required.
-I ripped a CD in about five minutes.
-The graphics are awesome.
I played through a portion of the Doom 3 demo this evening, and not only did it look good, it was very playable at medium settings. I was probably getting 5-10 frames per second at the ultra-high quality setting. My only complaint with that game is that it’s so DARK! I was going to buy it, but it seems like half the strategy is figuring out when to have your flashlight and when to have your gun. It’s been said a hundred times and I’ll say it again- if you can build a military base on Mars, can’t you find a way to attach flashlights to guns? Maybe duct tape?
Anyway, I’m fairly confident that this laptop will very helpful for times I may need to bring CAD outside the office. Now I just need to decide if the laptop sleeve I got to go with it is going to be OK. It’s oversized, and looks kind of cheesy. At least it was cheap.
Edit: Here’s a link to an editorial about duct tape in doom 3, and why Doom 3 is really like a horror film.
Tonight I opened a 2003 bottle of Charles Shaw Cabernet Sauvignon, and at $1.99 per bottle it’s a real bargain. It’s not really sweet, and it’s fairly mellow. Nothing too bitter or weird about it, so it’s easy to drink and goes well with spaghetti.
I’ve had wine that cost ten times as much, and really… I don’t think it’s ten times better than this stuff. If you can get to Trader Joe’s, this is the stuff you want to buy if you just want to enjoy some wine, and you don’t want any of that snobby shit.
Kendra and I watched “The Grudge” this evening. It really wasn’t that good. I guess there were plenty of creepy scary parts, but certain things were just silly.
First of all, it didn’t really make much sense. The flashbacks weren’t well marked… I really didn’t feel like I had any establishing shots or cues that anything was a flashback. I catch myself missing that sort of cue when I’m drunk, but I was totally sober. I just didn’t get it- but maybe they were trying to confuse me to throw me off and creep me out.
Next of all- the creepy sound that kept coming back that meant the thing was about to get you was that irritating noise you can make by tighting your throat and inhaling with a wide open mouth that sounds like a croaking clicking sound. You know, we used to do it when we were kids and pretending to be dying. It’s THAT sound- also a little kid that meows like a cat!
And number C- the curse was supposed to have to do with a place, but it totally doesn’t stick to that. It’s just busting out all over the place. You don’t even have to be alone for the monsters to get you. Screw that. You can go in this place, get cursed, and just die wherever you go.
Disclaimer- this post contained spoilers. If you didn’t already see The Grudge, then now you don’t have to.
Even though I already quit my job and I’m only going to be here the next few days, I found myself performing routine security updates on my work PC. I guess I can’t NOT click “Yes, download and install security updates” on a monday. This is kind of sad, but I catch myself hoping that whoever has this PC next takes care of it as well as I did. There’s one for my STS profs!