This is one example why I lead slightly right (libertarian). The lack of logic and reason in this clip is outstanding.
Three years ago (wow, THREE YEARS AGO!), I was living and traveling to and from California and DC for work. The six hour flights were killer; children crying, turbulence, cramped seats. I needed an MP3 player and a good pair of headphones. Enter Apple, with its 4th generation, black-and-white, 40G iPod and a pair of Shure e3c passive sound isolating headphones.
What a joy that combination provided. On a plane or bumming around the streets of San Francisco and DC, I had the music which I loved with me. But as with all computers, I’m rough on them. In college, I went through hard drives and motherboards (from over-clocking) too frequently. My laptops life expectancy were low — they were always bouncing around in my backpack and thrown on to my couches and beds. My iPod was no exception. A little over a year after my purchase, my hard drive-based iPod started skipping and crashing. I killed the hard drive. So, I replaced it. Fast-forward less than a year, and I killed my second iPod hard drive.
So, I have been iPod-less for the better part of a year. And I didn’t think it was too big of a deal. I received a small iPod shuffle as a gift last May. It was nice for running and quick trips walking around the city. But I missed having my music on my longer trips, so this past weekend, after much thought, I bought an iPod Touch. I like it. The protective gear from GelaSkins is en route, so I am still baby-ing it. But my (perceived) happiness has unexpectedly increased. While in the process of making dinner, I had run out of frozen shrimp, which I usually keep stocked. Enter my new iPod. With it in my back pocket and my Shure SE310 (I stepped, and thus broke, the e3c), I ventured out to find frozen shrimp.
There are a number of grocery stores near my place, but most are small corner stores with a very limited selection. I eventually had to make the fifteen minute trek to Safeway to find them. Even though this took the better part of an hour, I enjoyed the time walking around my neighborhood. I didn’t realize how much I missed listening to music while I walk. The streets which I’ve walked hundreds of times became new again. Instead of focusing on getting to my destination, my focus was on what was around me. Instead of rushing, I was enjoying. Instead of hearing broken conversations from passer-bys walking down the street, I can listen to noise that is familiar to my ears (like Ben Gibbard performance at DC’s 9:30 Club) and set my focus elsewhere. A worthwhile purchase indeed.
Here are two tracks from Ben’s performance at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC. This concert was featured by NPR in their live concert series. As such, the entire concert can be downloaded from their website or from iTunes. These two tracks represent two of my favorite tracks from Ben’s groups The Postal Service and Death Cab for Cutie.
Ben Gibbard from The Postal Service - Such Great Heights
Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie - I Will Follow You into the Dark
Note: Personal Rant
The past week or two have been horrendous. For the past couple months, the enjoyment from work has declined. In the past few weeks, it has decelerated to the point that I, and my team, are unproductive, as our client will not give us work. I am starting to look for other positions, inside and outside my company.
A week ago last Thursday, I was rejected by my first choice for business school. The other schools seem just as interested, meaning they are not. To top it off, I set up a ski trip with a bunch of friends in Colorado that started today. I recently dropped from the trip, hedging my bets that I would need to interview for business school in the next week. Apparently not.
Earlier this week, I was sick with a cold. I went to my doctor, who is fantastic. The good news was that I just have a cold, and that antibiotics will fix me in a few days. The bad news is he has some serious concerns about my health — my cholesterol is higher than it should be, I am 10 pounds over my ideal weight, my baseline EKG was inconsistent and incomprehensible, and I am an insomniac.
The past few months, especially the past couple weeks, have whittled my confidence in all respects, to nil. I am trying to take this in stride and be humbled, but honestly, this… just… sucks.
Props to ALo for telling me about The Hood Internet, an artist self-described as Italian pop / J-POP / K-POP (not that I know what those mean), that create some amazing mashups.
Mashups, a type of remix, have gained notoriety in the past few years, starting with the remixes of Jay-Z’s Black Album, which released an a cappella version in addition to his studio album. Tons of people, such as 9th Wonder, DJ Lt. Dan, K, McScottD, Kno re-released with different instrumentals than the original. Most notably was DJ Danger Mouse, who released The Grey Album, mashing The Beatles White Album with Jay-Z’s Black. EMI tried (unsuccessfully) to stop the distribution.
As a huge fan of Radiohead and their new album In Rainbows, this mashup with Eve is tight. Follow link below to download a copy of The Hood Internet’s second track from their second mixtape. Their entire second mixtape can be downloaded for free from their site.
This is my first, hopefully of many and frequent, mp3 blog posts.
Eve (featuring Swizz Beats) vs Radiohead - Tambourine Reckoning
For the most part, our soldiers don’t want publicity. They are not trying to become celebrities. Our men and women, fighting for freedom (rightly or wrongly), are much more modest.
The best example of this is the World War II Memorial. This memorial celebrates, in the words of Tom Brokaw, “The Greatest Generation.” It was finally opened to the public on April 29, 2004, nearly fifty years after the conflict ended. Did they deserve this? Unequivocally yes. Did they ask for it? One veteran asked his Representative[1]. It was approved on the fourth time.
Over 16 million US forces served in World War II and over 400,000 died due to service. Clearly they are a modest group.
I say this because recently, on October 11, 2007, Navy Seal Lt. Michael P. Murphy received our nation’s highest military decoration posthumously. I knew of this because I read libertarian and conservative blogs (Ace of Spades, Volokh Conspiracy, Blackfive, Reason) and it was mentioned there. It was also mentioned in a few New York daily newspapers, such as the New York Post, Newsday, and the Daily News. Not the New York Times. Fox News ran the story, and so did the LA Times[2]. That’s it. Not the Washington Post. Not the Washington Times. Not the Chicago Tribune. Not the Indianapolis Star. Not (MS)NBC. Not CBS. Not ABC.
Blackfive has a good article on Murhpy. The Medal of Honor has only been awarded five times for conflicts that occurred after the Vietnam War. I would think that a new recipient would garner some sincere attention from the media. I am wrong.
But the reality is for those who care all this means, in the words of his mother, is, “now the world will know what his family has always known: how special he was.” Fortunately, modesty is still prevails in our military, not that the mainstream media knows it.
The BBC has a short, interesting article in it today, about the status of W.
Imagine an administration has given more than $15bn towards treating HIV/Aids, mainly in Africa; that has hinted it might boycott the Beijing Olympics if China doesn’t intervene to stop Burmese monks from getting slaughtered; that has tried - and failed - to force immigration reform down the throats of its own party; that obsesses about alternative fuels and talks climate change.
Imagine an administration that prefers a diplomatic to a military option in Iran, is in bed with the French, on the sofa with the Germans and in the cooler with the Brits.
Stop imagining. What I have described is the White House of George W Bush in October 2007.
The quote above is all true. And to be honest, I don’t understand the complaints about Bush. I just don’t get it. They say he lied to us about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. Well, there are two parts to that statement. First, I’ll take on the WMDs. Let us define weapons of mass destruction. I’ll use Wikipedia:
Weapon of mass destruction (WMD) are weapons which can kill large numbers of human beings, animals and plants. The term covers several weapon types, including nuclear, biological, chemical (NBC) and, increasingly, radiological weapons.
Then, I’m going to reference this Fox News article which states WMDs were found in Iraq, and additionally provides a link to a report from the National Ground Intelligence Center that was sent to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI).
It states chemical agents, such as mustard and sarin nerve agents, were found in Iraq. These are weapons of mass destruction. But this in-the-face fact is refuted by many, because the WMDs found were not nuclear. That is a bullshit excuse.
Which brings me to the second part of that argument: George W. Bush lied about the pre-War intelligence. The key word there (in italics if you didn’t catch it) is intelligence; intelligence is not a fact. Everyone (Colin Powell, the UN, Iraq’s generals, etc.) believed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, including, but not limited to, nuclear weapons. So, I’ll paraphrase. The United States said, “Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. And from our intelligence, this includes nuclear weapons. This is bad, and we should stop it.”
We were right. Iraq has weapons of mass destruction (see above). But we didn’t find any nuclear weapons. So that is the scapegoat being used to discredit our military action. They still had WMDs! This reasoning makes my blood boil. There is no reason to dislike our actions, our Administration, or our military based upon this information. A sound decision was made based upon this information. Those who voice complaints choose to ignore the facts which are repeatedly presented to them.
They are idiots. And they will continue to complain for no good reason. Just look at what the BBC stated above; that’s pretty good. And they forgot to mention that the US stock market this week hit an all-time high. Or that our unemployment rate is low at 4.6%; the unemployment rate in France is 8.7% (December 2006 est., source: CIA World Factbook). The French unemployment rate is 89% more than ours. Ouch. Our GDP is almost six times the size of the French GDP.
I’m sick of hearing compliants. People need to start looking objectively at the current state of our country before they speak or complain.
One of my friends from Lockheed has a friend from high school who is is on Beauty and the Geek. Nice. But, there are three software engineers! What the Hell? Why do you have to give us a bad name? Seriously. Damn it. That’s harsh. 30% of the Geeks are software engineers. I’m depressed now.
I just read an article from Wired where a “virtual investment bank” recently collapsed in the computer simulation world of Second Life. For those that don’t know, Second Life (SL) is a computer game played on the Internet, were you create a character (or avatar) that can do anything. Literally, anything. Eat, drink, sleep, play sports, sex, start and run a business, murder… the whole nine yards.
In any event, someone created an investment bank in this fake computer world promising 60% returns. And people invested fake money (called linden) in to this back, hoping to make linden back. Here’s the kicker. You can buy linden with cold, hard cash (electronically). The current exchange rate is between 277 and 288 Linden (L) for $1US.
In any event, this guy setup this virtual bank, Ginko Financial, promising great returns. And suckers invested in this. How much? About $200,000,000L (~$750,000US). Then the bank “collapsed”. Holy crap! This is not a real bank. It is not FDIC insured. Yes, there are stock markets in this virtual world, but it is purely virtual. And to top it off, there are 20 to 30 other banks that operate the same way.
What a great scam. I’m not even sure this is illegal, because it is in a virtual world. There are no law-binding documents stating that this bank (or any bank in Second Life is FDIC insured), nor that it is even a bank. SL businesses don’t have to register with the state of California for a business license. Banks don’t need to get SEC/FTC permission. What a great scam. I’m just shocked how many people thought they would be getting so much money back.
In truth, according to the article, most people had between $50 and $100US invested. Not too much. But some people had $10,000US. Wow. I’m flabbergasted. But now the federal and state governments are getting involved. Maybe these people will get a second chance at being morons.
are not games. At this years DefCon (a hacker’s conference), NBC inserted a covert media journalist to capture hacker’s admitting to crimes and to out a federal undercover agent attending the conference. It is well known that federal/intelligence agents attend DefCon yearly to learn the latest and greatest intrusion techniques. They even have a contest titled, “Spot the Fed,” in which attendees point out who they think is a federal agent. I have known about this game for years (at least 10?), and it is not a surprise to the agents (usually). It is all “good natured,” according to the Wired article (which is true).
But her wanting to out a federal agent (presumably not through a guess) is bad news. The DefCon organizers set up a bait-and-switch game of Spot the Fed and invited her. After inviting her to a large hall for this game, the organizer said there was a twist, and that the new game was, “Spot the Undercover Reporter.” This sent her bolting out of the building. Sweet.
Don’t mess with hackers. 99% of them are not malicious. We like helping — especially our country.
Today was strange. It’s hot. It’s 92 degrees at 7p. When you walk outside, it is as if you walked into a sauna just as they start adding water over the rocks.
The odd part was, it was quiet. It freaked me out. Traffic was still there, but no honking. The birds were not chirping. The sun was completely obscured by clouds. It is as if the Sun zapped the energy from everyone and we were all dazed.
It’s so strange walking outside and only hearing traffic move at 30 mph. No people talking. No dogs barking. No birds chirping. Just cars. Strange sensation.
