Category: General

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General Meta Technical

Trains and planes

Server is back as of a few minutes ago (thanks Kevin!)

So I’ve been car hunting the past few days so I can actually get to a job. Its pretty crazy what people are trying to sell around here. Now I’ve never bought a car before, but from the classifieds I read in today’s “Lawrence Ledger” people are either overly hopeful, or just plain naive.

MITSUBISHI GALANT LS ’01
$7,500. Excellent condition, leather, full power, bone color, sunroof. 112, 000 highway miles.

Sigh. I’m new to this whole car scene, but something about 112,000 miles in ~three years doesn’t sound too great.

Otherwise things at home are just like normal. Not too much to do until more friends get back. Applying for jobs is going as expected; there’s a position in Cendant Mortgage doing some HCI + web development that looks reasonably enticing.

It’s weird applying for jobs there because you’re only allowed the ‘privelege’ of talking to a computer. I filled out a lot of info online, sent them a résumé, and now…I’m supposed to wait. I have this suspicion that I’m just another row in a database table waiting for some HR guy to SELECT me out. Its all faceless and automated. Guess that’s the way the future is going to be…

Categories
General Humor Reviews

“Anakin, I’m hit!” – a review of Episode III

“Buzzdroids!”
Wednesday night last week was the most fun I’ve had in the movies for a long time. I’m so glad I had the chance to see Episode 3 the night it came out; it will exceed the nerd quotient for long time.

Females? I can count them on one hand. Of course there is Padmé (1); there had to be a Skywalker mom after all. Female Jedis? There was a blue Twi’lek with crazy head tails (2) who died in the same scene she is first seen in. Then there were Beru Lars (3) and Leia’s mother, Bail Organa’s wife (4) – they got to hold some babies, how becoming.

Its like the emp says “yeah, so you’re bad now” and anakin is like “sweet! i can slice me up some little kids!”

The other amazing parts were when yoda saw chewbacca, and when R2-D2 and C3-P0 were together for a good portion – but had their memories erased right before the end. Convenient. Where “convienent” = cop-out. I guess they had to include the old school characters after the utter lambasting Episode 1 got by the critics.

This is reading a little harsh for a “review”. The movie certainly was a good time, and nicely wraps the two trilogies together. Even though you know Anakin has to become all evil and heavy with the breathing, it’s like Titanic – people want to see it anyway.

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General

…and he’s done, folks

Hatred of IE5 for Mac++…hit enter and it forgets text box contents.

Anyway to recap that 1/2 hour post:
1) I’m back at home, the drive was looong.
2) Digital Fortress by Dan Brown is a fine example of extreem buzzword mangling, too much unnecessary globetrotting and Euro-culture bites, and a failure to really discuss where national security and personal freedom merge. It’s a good cheap thrill, or maybe a laugh. Maybe.
3) I’m officially of the opinion that broadband Intarweb is by far more useful than cable TV.

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General

Anybody seen my voice?

It’s one of the most interesting things to lose your voice. The per-word effort it takes to communicate increases so much you are forced to be 1) very concise or 2) a whispery, bumbling, throat-clearing, loquacious ass.

This past week I kept forgetting my voice was dead. I couldn’t butt into converstations or project!

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General

New Precedent

I wrote about Google Maps a while ago, but this guy got creative. Any other gems that slipped through the “gray area” net? I’m sure at least a few people in the government are less than amused that Joe Googler can look at everything in the country with a click (at pretty decent resolution too).
Fun experiments include finding:

  • The most boring and repetitive suburb?
  • Who owns the biggest mansion in America? A celebrity? Bill Gates? Al Gore?

Other ideas?

Firefox just broke the 50,000,000 downloads mark. It’s definitely no longer relegated to underdog status. I’m glad its catching on so well. My guide to cool extensions is almost done, because it seriously makes an already great browser get even better.