the current fetish lately is definitely double dave's pizza, or as kathryn so incorrectly referred to it, big dave's. we were there yet again tonight trying to land a rare slice of buffalo chicken, but it wasn't meant to be.
ended up seeing million dollar baby tonight, despite knowing nothing about it. i won't go all into it, i'll just say i give it a 7.5 out of 10. powerful stuff, but eh, kinda cliche-ridden a bit. worth the price of admission though, especially if you sucker somebody else in your group to pay for it and then don't pay them back.
don't have too much else to update on, so i guess i'll just throw in some random shit here, heh.
it's kinda cool that hdnet's providing some live HD coverage of baghdad during the elections there, i guess just in case shit goes down.
not sure if i'd actually use it myself, but i think it's cool that mobile carriers (cingular, for example) are launching mobile tv services. alayna and i were strolling through barnes & noble today, to kill time while i downed my caramel frap and she enjoyed her java chip, when i realized that $10 a month for that kinda service would basically be the same as buying two magazines a month. so for people that travel and need entertainment in airports and shit, i think the mobile tv idea is actually pretty worthwhile. oh, and if i had to get a new phone right now for it, i think i'd go with those new black RAZRs.
finally it was amazon that ended up doing what i'd dreamed of for years by releasing photo-based yellow pages, where you can virtually drive down a street by looking at sequential images. very cool. it's also sweet that google's launched a beta video search service that will actually scan closed-caption tv logs to find occurrences of text in tv news shows. fun to play around with for now at least.
thought it was kinda cool that a guy in the LA train wreck thought he was about to die, so wrote messages to his family in his own blood on the wreckage in case he could never talk to them again. luckily he ended up being saved...
i have no link for this one, but can i just request some kind of ban on talking about paris hilton for any reason? i really don't understand how she's somehow the topic of every 3rd american media news story now. just go away already.
consider yourself caught up.
--j
Sunday, January 30, 2005
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
some random links i came across for the day...
yes, you can stick up a donut shop with a laser pointer
some thoughts on TiVoToGo so far
the ipod shuffle head to head with a sandisk player
a clothing line that's cool for prolly 2 whole weeks
note: the above ipod shuffle link is pertinent because alayna and i are getting them for each other for valentine's, despite the fact that they'll actually ship to us no doubt much later than february 14th. so yes, i will now officially swear by my iAudio M3L for typical purposes and the ipod shuffle for workout/running purposes. $27 for an armband... gotta love apple.
--j
yes, you can stick up a donut shop with a laser pointer
some thoughts on TiVoToGo so far
the ipod shuffle head to head with a sandisk player
a clothing line that's cool for prolly 2 whole weeks
note: the above ipod shuffle link is pertinent because alayna and i are getting them for each other for valentine's, despite the fact that they'll actually ship to us no doubt much later than february 14th. so yes, i will now officially swear by my iAudio M3L for typical purposes and the ipod shuffle for workout/running purposes. $27 for an armband... gotta love apple.
--j
Monday, January 17, 2005
saw this posted on slashdot, thought it was worth posting --
Here are the top nine comments made by NBC sports commentators during the Summer Olympics that they would like to take back:
1. Weightlifting commentator: "This is Gregoriava from Bulgaria. I saw her snatch this morning during her warm up and it was amazing."
2. Dressage commentator: "This is really a lovely horse and I speak from personal experience since I once mounted her mother."
3. Paul Hamm, Gymnast: "I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and father."
4. Boxing Analyst: "Sure there have been injuries, and even some deaths in boxing, but none of them really that serious.
5. Softball announcer: "If history repeats itself, I should think we can expect the same thing again."
6. Basketball analyst: "He dribbles a lot and the opposition doesn't like it. In fact you can see it all over their faces."
7. At the rowing medal ceremony: "Ah, isn't that nice, the wife of the IOC president is hugging the cox of the British crew."
8. Soccer commentator: "Julian Dicks is everywhere. It's like they've got eleven Dicks on the field."
9. Tennis commentator: "One of the reasons Andy is playing so well is that, before the final round, his wife takes out his balls and kisses them...
--justin
Here are the top nine comments made by NBC sports commentators during the Summer Olympics that they would like to take back:
1. Weightlifting commentator: "This is Gregoriava from Bulgaria. I saw her snatch this morning during her warm up and it was amazing."
2. Dressage commentator: "This is really a lovely horse and I speak from personal experience since I once mounted her mother."
3. Paul Hamm, Gymnast: "I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and father."
4. Boxing Analyst: "Sure there have been injuries, and even some deaths in boxing, but none of them really that serious.
5. Softball announcer: "If history repeats itself, I should think we can expect the same thing again."
6. Basketball analyst: "He dribbles a lot and the opposition doesn't like it. In fact you can see it all over their faces."
7. At the rowing medal ceremony: "Ah, isn't that nice, the wife of the IOC president is hugging the cox of the British crew."
8. Soccer commentator: "Julian Dicks is everywhere. It's like they've got eleven Dicks on the field."
9. Tennis commentator: "One of the reasons Andy is playing so well is that, before the final round, his wife takes out his balls and kisses them...
--justin
Friday, January 14, 2005
sorry for the monthlong break, didn't have much to write about, nor the inclination to write without my 8 hour daily dose of cubicleness.
one thing i haven't talked about much on here is my newfound annoyance for music availability online. in an illegal underground sense, it's getting to be more and more impossible to find a particular single track for free online. i'm not knocking the idea of being able to buy a track online, hell, there's some benefits to doing it that way even. i'd agree more with the concept of buying music online *if* you could buy a track and forever own it yourself without any restrictions. as it stands now, most major online music stores use digital rights management (DRM) to prevent you from doing too much with your newly purchased audio track. it basically prevents you from playing it in certain unsupported situations (like in a linux environment or on certain portables) and limiting your ability to burn in at will. at a relatively ridiculous $1 per track, what's the advantage in buying a track online in comparison to a CD? i don't think i see the advantage.
the only way it comes in handy is if you don't want to buy the whole album, a somewhat frequent problem lately. i'm going on official record as saying that the compact disc format might as well be dead. well, at least to me it is, despite the surge in sales for 2004. they were always way overpriced (from what i've heard, they stayed that way for a decade because consumers kept buying the product) and today for anybody with any kind of forward-thinking setup they're a bottleneck.
while i think the idea of the CD is now rather antiquated, what i prefer about it is if you go to a store and actually buy an album yourself, you now *own* the music in a much less binding format. sure, you don't have the original master tapes from the studio recording, but you can do anything you want with that disc. you can copy it for a friend, you can rips only tracks 3 and 7 if you want to, back it up to your own music server at home, whatever. typically you can find a lot of major CD's for $12-13, just a few bucks more than getting the whole album digitally online. how would getting the CD not be worth the extra few bucks? because you're too lazy to drive to the store to get it? is that where you're really saving here? my point is that you're paying $10 for an album with very little stability. it looks like it's a potentially profitable business model, but i think 30 or 50 cents is more accurate for buying a single track online that you don't have 100% control over.
napster's also come out with their subscription based service, where you pay $15 a month for unlimited downloads, and if you cancel your service, BAM no more music. i think this has pros and cons, the biggest pro being that you can get as many songs as you want, giving you plenty to choose from in your personal collection. the biggest con with this has got to be that when you choose to end your service (let's face it, that's got to be at some point) you have NO music from your experience. that's essentially the same thing as renting an apartment -- you have a place to live, but as soon as you stop paying rent, it's like you never had anything at all, your investment went into a black hole. i love the idea of an ever-expanding tightly-controlled music library, but the idea of losing the whole thing if you find something else or can't pay $15 a month anymore is kind of hard to stomach.
for about 5 years now, i've been a solid music-downloader. there's always been good underground ways to get the music you hear and enjoy on the radio. i've gotten tracks from IRC, websites, napster, newsgroups, bittorrent, etc. too many crackdowns means no source is ever really pure for long enough. lately i've had to resort to newsgroups and newsgroups only for getting any kind of mp3s, with suprnova closing down its doors recently. occasionally you can still find some good stuff on IRC (it's pretty much the only source for drum-n-bass mp3s anymore) but it's really messy. the suprnova replacement eXeem might be the answer, but i'm a bit skeptical. what's funny is that right now it's easier to get a recent DVD release than a recent radio release.
if we're gonna say CDs are dead, let's just say terrestrial radio's dead too. the commercials are way too rampant now, there's not enough music-to-ads anymore. the only reason i can think of to keep it is for getting new music out to the masses, but i'm all for just doing that with satellite radio. hearing XM on our 12 hour colorado road trip and sirius everyday in the gym, you wouldn't believe how different it is to NEVER hear any annoying commercials.
and if you must know, i got my iAudio M3L the other day, and for the record, it does kick much ass. possibly considering an ipod shuffle for working out. good price for the capacity, i like how they chose not to even bother with a screen. typical apple shit though, $29 extra for the armband. still, worth considering i think. same thing with that little mac mini. although kinda deceiving in cost (doesn't include plenty, including enough RAM) it's certainly cool looking and a good idea overall. i've always wanted to have a mac (in addition to the mandatory PC), and this would prolly be the best way to get into it, if i were so inclined. thus far, i'm not really inclined, but still, worth noting...
i could go on and on, but honestly, would you read it? ;)
happy friday afternoon,
justin
one thing i haven't talked about much on here is my newfound annoyance for music availability online. in an illegal underground sense, it's getting to be more and more impossible to find a particular single track for free online. i'm not knocking the idea of being able to buy a track online, hell, there's some benefits to doing it that way even. i'd agree more with the concept of buying music online *if* you could buy a track and forever own it yourself without any restrictions. as it stands now, most major online music stores use digital rights management (DRM) to prevent you from doing too much with your newly purchased audio track. it basically prevents you from playing it in certain unsupported situations (like in a linux environment or on certain portables) and limiting your ability to burn in at will. at a relatively ridiculous $1 per track, what's the advantage in buying a track online in comparison to a CD? i don't think i see the advantage.
the only way it comes in handy is if you don't want to buy the whole album, a somewhat frequent problem lately. i'm going on official record as saying that the compact disc format might as well be dead. well, at least to me it is, despite the surge in sales for 2004. they were always way overpriced (from what i've heard, they stayed that way for a decade because consumers kept buying the product) and today for anybody with any kind of forward-thinking setup they're a bottleneck.
while i think the idea of the CD is now rather antiquated, what i prefer about it is if you go to a store and actually buy an album yourself, you now *own* the music in a much less binding format. sure, you don't have the original master tapes from the studio recording, but you can do anything you want with that disc. you can copy it for a friend, you can rips only tracks 3 and 7 if you want to, back it up to your own music server at home, whatever. typically you can find a lot of major CD's for $12-13, just a few bucks more than getting the whole album digitally online. how would getting the CD not be worth the extra few bucks? because you're too lazy to drive to the store to get it? is that where you're really saving here? my point is that you're paying $10 for an album with very little stability. it looks like it's a potentially profitable business model, but i think 30 or 50 cents is more accurate for buying a single track online that you don't have 100% control over.
napster's also come out with their subscription based service, where you pay $15 a month for unlimited downloads, and if you cancel your service, BAM no more music. i think this has pros and cons, the biggest pro being that you can get as many songs as you want, giving you plenty to choose from in your personal collection. the biggest con with this has got to be that when you choose to end your service (let's face it, that's got to be at some point) you have NO music from your experience. that's essentially the same thing as renting an apartment -- you have a place to live, but as soon as you stop paying rent, it's like you never had anything at all, your investment went into a black hole. i love the idea of an ever-expanding tightly-controlled music library, but the idea of losing the whole thing if you find something else or can't pay $15 a month anymore is kind of hard to stomach.
for about 5 years now, i've been a solid music-downloader. there's always been good underground ways to get the music you hear and enjoy on the radio. i've gotten tracks from IRC, websites, napster, newsgroups, bittorrent, etc. too many crackdowns means no source is ever really pure for long enough. lately i've had to resort to newsgroups and newsgroups only for getting any kind of mp3s, with suprnova closing down its doors recently. occasionally you can still find some good stuff on IRC (it's pretty much the only source for drum-n-bass mp3s anymore) but it's really messy. the suprnova replacement eXeem might be the answer, but i'm a bit skeptical. what's funny is that right now it's easier to get a recent DVD release than a recent radio release.
if we're gonna say CDs are dead, let's just say terrestrial radio's dead too. the commercials are way too rampant now, there's not enough music-to-ads anymore. the only reason i can think of to keep it is for getting new music out to the masses, but i'm all for just doing that with satellite radio. hearing XM on our 12 hour colorado road trip and sirius everyday in the gym, you wouldn't believe how different it is to NEVER hear any annoying commercials.
and if you must know, i got my iAudio M3L the other day, and for the record, it does kick much ass. possibly considering an ipod shuffle for working out. good price for the capacity, i like how they chose not to even bother with a screen. typical apple shit though, $29 extra for the armband. still, worth considering i think. same thing with that little mac mini. although kinda deceiving in cost (doesn't include plenty, including enough RAM) it's certainly cool looking and a good idea overall. i've always wanted to have a mac (in addition to the mandatory PC), and this would prolly be the best way to get into it, if i were so inclined. thus far, i'm not really inclined, but still, worth noting...
i could go on and on, but honestly, would you read it? ;)
happy friday afternoon,
justin
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