This is a Jbox
Back in my youth, when I was a ‘miscreant’ punk…
We used to play with these devices.
I think what these residents have done is great. We need more art around us.
Archive for June, 2004
Movies to See
I can’t wait to see “Fahrenheit 9/11″. I read this NY Times article just now, and I’m jazzed. I have to see this movie when it comes out! I hate going to the theatres, but this sounds like an impressive documentary. If this movie holds up, and it does what I think it will do to the Bush presidency… it will become one of the hallmark examples of “freedom of speech saves democracy”.
I also want to see Napolean Dynomite, but I may wait to see that when it goes to video.
Recent movies…
Shrek 2 - Recommend - Not bad, had some slow parts. Seemed a little to adult for the kids.
Paycheck - Recommended - This was an entertaining sci-fi movie. I recommend the rental. Probably the only decent sci-fi movie I’ve seen in many moons.
Princess Mononoke - On the fence - I wanted to see another Miyazaki film. This one disappointed me a bit. Very serious topics and a bit too scary for the young ones. See it once.
The Cooler - Highly Recommended - A very enjoyable story, good production for an indy, and a nice score.
Rush Hour 1 & 2 - Recommend if you are in the mood - I was recovering from my operation and I wanted some fun Jackie Chan movies. The movies are predictable, fast food for the eyes. I was in the mood for this kind of junk food. These could probably fit into the category of Black/Asian - sploitation. It is sad to see John Lone (in Rush Hour 2), in this kind of movie, though. Jackie Chan rocks.
The Last Samurai - High Recomendation - A very good movie as well. If you enjoy learning about Japanese history and culture, and seeing what it would look like, this will fit the bill. High quality production, and great actors.
Seabiscuit - High Recomendation - Another well-done movie, high quality production. A good story, well told.
Bulletproof Monk - Don’t Recommend - I was in the mood for an action film. This film was just made for 18 year old kids, and was way … WAY too cheesy.
I fucking hate gas powered leaf blowers etc.
Damn it! I fucking hate that shit! Those damn things put out more toxic exhaust than a car!
Photoshop is cool
I enjoy graphics. Creating something that looks good is such an affirming feeling. The other day I saw some nice buttons on a web site and I wondered how they were created. I am used to the old-school of pixel painting (Mac Paint, Paintbrush, Deluxe Paint, Super Paint, etc.) I tried to use Photoshop to create a similar button. Within a few minutes I knew I was in way over my head 
After about 30 minutes of toying around and learning the concepts by trial and error, I can understand the power and usability issues of Photoshop. This is a serious tool which requires different concepts to be learned. The reward for learning these concepts is fantastic looking graphics. Much better than anything that could have been created with those previous tools.
June 30th is a big day
I’ve noticed that June 30th is going to be a big turning point for a lot of different things.
In no order of importance:
Greenspan announces the fed’s rate change (if any). U.S. hands over control of Iraq to the new sovereign government. Spiderman 2 comes out. Gas prices will be hitting their summer peaks. This guy at work will have his fiance move in with him.
These are milestones… can you think of any big ones that I’m missing?
Are there any other events missing?
Nice Article on Feynman
This article is a nice read. I got the link via Bob Congdon, (a neato, old school NeXT developer who contributed to the legendary Lotus Improv project.
Anyways, I think the article draws on a really interesting figure. I like Feynman’s style. He liked straight talk, or real-world conceptual frameworks. He liked to tinker. That is a good life.
One other note: I saw a Connection Machine back in the SCRI days. I never got to use it. At that time 92-93, I don’t think anybody used the machine anymore. I heard that it was too hard to program. There was some truth to this since the leds were always in the same configuration, but that was a really beautiful machine to look at. People were more impressed by the new 233 mhz DEC Alpha box that we received. Still, any real comp-sci person will always believe that massively parallel is cool.
Typical Slashdot
They post an article up which is a review by some other site. The other site has over 20 pages of performance conjecture, which is good for the reviewer site’s ad revenue (Vonage and newegg.com ads).
Now for the interesting part. The article is a review of RAIDs and performance. Now, in all of the 20+ pages of graphs, there is not one single RAID failure test to see if the RAID even does a good job with a bad block or failure. To me, that is the reason I use RAID.
What crap.
