New site: Madeofawesome.net - Taadaa

OK, I think it’s ready.

All pop culture, no politics ever.  The return of Emily from the Starkcast.  Astoundingly awesome logo by artmonkey.  Tell your friends!

Seriously, tell your friends.  If you read this site for the non-political content, it will ALL be over there.  I am SO sick to death of politics.  I cannot stand to prattle on about the same dumb shit endlessly.  No one is listening anymore, and no minds are, or will in the near future, be changed.  It’s a complete waste of time.  I’m preaching to the choir mostly, and while I love my choir, how does it help?  I’m awfully small-time to matter, I don’t break news or stories, and everyone can pretty much predict what I am going to say about any given story.  It’s all so ponderously depressing, and I’m not in that “my team is best-blog every bad story about Billary or Jesus Hussein Obama” mentality anymore.  I’m trying to lighten my life up in more ways than one.

I want to have fun on the internets again.  I started to dread the *idea* of blogging, because I got tied up in thinking that every day/week/indeterminate period of time has to contain some serious political shit or UR NOT DOIN IT RITE.  But, for the last year or two, I’ve only ever had fun writing about tv and movies and games and whatnot.

Couple weeks ago, the answer became clear.  A fresh start, an new outlook, do what I like, have some fun.  A new site.

Tell your friends and family!  I plan to go see a lot more movies this year, as we found a theater that doesn’t allow the crap that has driven people out of theaters.  Punk kids, phone conversations, too much yapping, it’ll all get you thrown out.  I will be doing reviewcaps of more TV shows now.  I have a co-host again.

There’s a good chance that I might start up a modified version of the podcast again.  Something much shorter and simpler.  In short, I am *excited* by this.  It’s like when I first realized that a website could be in this interactive form, with automated software to set it up chronologically and with archives and stuff.  Those crazy webernet kids were calling the diary/linksites “blogs” and while that sounded a bit like the sound a dog makes when it vomits...blog it is then.  Let’s do this thing!  I was excited about the idea of interacting with people in this new way that wasn’t as demanding as IRC/chat, but more exciting than a regular website.

I’m excited again.

If you could do me one favor...well, two really.  First of all, come by the new site and register.  Jump in with both feet.  Secondly, tell one person about the new site.  Email, a link off your site, however you can.  Just one person!  Please?  I do stuff for you.  Not sure what, but it’ll be good and you’ll like it.

It’s the dot net, as someone out there owns the com and wants $500 bucks for it.  I have about $5.  So it’s www.madeofawesome.net.  If you see any bugs or something looks weird in your browser let me know.  I tested it with Firefox, IE 7 and 8, Opera and Safari so it should be good.

See you there.  It’s gonna be awesome.

Posted by JimK at 12:07 PM on May 20, 2008
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Categories: Personal,  Technobabble (Technology),  The Internet(s)
Tags: made of awesome

It’s a trap! [/Ackbar]

If you are a torrent user, you may have noticed that Demonoid is back.  It’s minus the site’s creator Deimos, and nothing but the torrents lists and trackers are working.  The thing that makes me really nervous is the ratio never changes.  No matter how much you upload or download, your ratio never changes.

Add the fact that the number of rejected IP numbers in my PeerGuardian logs *triples* when connected to a Demonoid tracker and I am suspicious.  I think it’s a honeypot.  I think any number of government or commercial entities could be running the domain, and Deimos isn’t telling us because they’ve threatened to jail his ass for piracy.

Maybe I’m crazy.  All I know is I could put a tracker together in about ten minutes that updated ratios in real time, much less once a day like Demonoid.  It’s been a week, and nothing has moved.  I am staying away.  Plenty of good trackers out there.  No need to feed the beast.

Posted by JimK at 01:16 PM on April 18, 2008
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Categories: Technobabble (Technology),  The Internet(s)
Tags: demonoid bittorrent

Things I meant to post over the last week

1. The Swayze is responding well to treatment.  Go Swayze.  It’s time to not be nice to that cancer.

2. Bret and the girls wrecked the house they were staying in, and VH1 didn’t bother to buy the promised insurance.  Gee, what a surprise.  VH1 is an irresponsible organization and those whores have about as much respect for property as they do for themselves.  Oh and Bret Michaels is a douchebag.

3. Is PC gaming dead?  Hell yes it is.  I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: PC gaming is a never-ending cycle of upgrades and driver problems.  Every two or three years, the latest and greatest game will require a new graphics card.  The high end is always brutal, cost-wise.  $500 bucks.  A really good latest-gen upper midrange card goes about $200-$250.  Budget cards worth buying are $175.

On the off years when you aren’t upgrading video cards, you need to upgrade your CPU to keep up with the video card you plan to get next year.  And every so often you’ll need a new motherboard.  And fans will burn out.  Power supplies go bad.  Your entire PC will be replaced a part at a time over a three-to-five year lifespan, and while you can build a rig for a grand, if you want a good rig you’ll be spending about two grand.  Or just buy a whole new rig every three years.  For $2000.

OR...you could buy an Xbox 360 for $250-$400 (depending on the model) and be done with it.  Add in a second controller and a year of Xbox Live and you still can’t break $700.  Done and dusted.  The games rock.  If online is your thing there is no better matchmaking right now than Live.  It’s simple, easy, and like they always say about Macs, it just works.  Except for the red rings of death.  But they’re doing what they can to make good on those problems.

Maybe the PS3 is more your speed.  Do it.  It’s the best Blu-Ray player around right now, and you get to play MGS and SOCOM.  I’m not dying for a PS3, but when we get an HD TV, I may look at it just for the movie capability.  And SOCOM.  :)

4. Brokeback Mountain is a shit film, regardless of its alleged social import.  Rann nails the very exact thing that I complained about when I first saw it: These are two lying pieces of shit who destroyed their families because they were too cowardly to be who they were.  The fact that they are gay is not a reason to justify that they are lying cheaters.  They are not heroes, and the movie did nothing to frame gay people as normal in the minds of AJMG (Average Joe Movie Goer).  Plus it was plodding, boring, an hour too long and slower than dial-up internet access. It was poorly directed and poorly edited.  Fuck Brokeback Mountain.

Posted by JimK at 08:08 PM on April 11, 2008
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Categories: Entertainment,  Gaming,  Xbox 360,  Celebridiots,  Television,  Rock Of Love,  Rock Of Love 2,  Technobabble (Technology)
Tags: gaming xbox 360 VH1 Rock of Love Reality TV Bret Michaels Poison 80s hair metal Patrick Swayze

RIP Arthur C. Clarke

We have lost a truly great mind.  Arthur C. Clarke died Tuesday at age 90.  Look around you.  Everything you see is in some way shaped by Clarke, Heinlein and Asimov.

Sometimes I think that our best days - as creative and enterprising human beings - are behind us.  Then I remember what men like Clarke have done, and how far we’ve come in just 50 years.  I think about what it will be like to have technology allow me to be a fairly fit 175 years old.  I’ll sit in a chair, on a porch somewhere warm, sipping something cool and reveling in the fact that I may be too old to get on the ship, but I’ll be damned if you can’t book a flight to the nearest inhabitable system now as easily as you used to be able to grab a cheap seat on an airplane.  You know, way back in olden times.

We’re going Out There.  One of these days, we’re going Out There.  Men like Clarke will have made it possible.

Posted by JimK at 04:44 PM on March 19, 2008
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Categories: Entertainment,  Technobabble (Technology),  Things To Ponder
Tags: Arthur C. Clarke

I need an outdoor hobby

Took this quiz yesterday, forgot to post the results.  Took it again, faithfully re-creating my mistakes, I promise.

I’m not proud of that. ;)

Posted by JimK at 02:26 PM on March 14, 2008
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Categories: Personal,  Technobabble (Technology),  The Internet(s)
Tags: internet culture

Teh awesomez - A song made with nothing but Win98 and XP default sounds

So much win.  This is better than the new NIN record.  ;)

Posted by JimK at 09:31 PM on March 06, 2008
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Categories: Entertainment,  Music,  Technobabble (Technology)

HD-DVD may be dead

First Warner Brothers announced they were Blu-ray only, and now the North American HD DVD Promotion Group has canceled their CES press conference.  If one more studio picks Blu-ray, it’s pretty much over.  I’m glad I didn’t fall for one or the other yet.  Of course I’d need a hi-def TV first…

*UPDATE* - New Line, a Warner “sister” company, also went Blu-ray.  I suppose that was probably a no-brainer.  Speaking of no-brainers, it’s starting to look like Microsoft backed the wrong horse...and if there is some plan to announce an Xbox 360 with built-in HD-DVD at CES...uhh...oops.

*UPDATE* - Nevermind.  Microsoft says no HD-DVD 360 coming, and thy’re apparently sick of telling us.

“We have reiterated multiple times since launching the Xbox 360 HD-DVD Player that we have no plans to integrate an HD-DVD player in to the Xbox 360,” a spokesman told GameSpot. “We feel that offering the drive externally is the best way to give consumers the ultimate choice to create their own high-definition experiences.”

Well alrighty then.  That’s code for “We don’t think HD-DVD is gonna make it either.”

Posted by JimK at 03:27 PM on January 05, 2008
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Categories: Technobabble (Technology)
Tags: blu-ray HD-DVD CES

Dear Motley Crue - plus Muse

This is pretty awesome.  It’s a site that collects letters written to a musician or band from whom you have stolen music in the past.  The premise is, you confess your sins and send the musician five bucks, and then send a copy of your letter to Dear Rockers.

Here’s how it works:

1. Pick a musician
2. Write them a letter
3. Scan or photograph the letter and send it to us
4. Mail off the letter along with $5
5. Enjoy your new, guilt-free life

Cool!  here’s my entry:

More

Click me, I get bigger

Text of my letter:

Dear Motley Crue,

Hi.  I’m sorry I stole your music.  See, back in the day I was trying to be that guy from fast Times.  The guy that could get anything.  Drugs, concert tickets, copies of albums that the other kids parents wouldn’t let them buy.  Shout at The Devil was my number one seller.  Even more than the pot!  I copied that record (from vinyl and cassette) onto what had to be a couple hundred cassettes over the years.

Funnily enough I never made much money, as the cost of cassettes was high and you couldn’t sell copies for more than half of what a new one would cost Plus it was really labor-intensive and all around a stupid idea.  In retrospect I should have just asked for a buck or two over retail and bought them legit copies. That’s what I used to do in second grade with Now & Laters.  I resold them by the piece for profit.  I guess even then I was always scamming something.

Anyway, I’m sorry I stole all that cash from you, and I’m sure you need my $5 like Tommy needs another social disease, but here it is anyway.  Thanks for rocking so hard (except that brief period where you all wore too much chiffon) and for being part of the soundtrack to my youth.

Also, please stop Tommy from ever making solo music ever again.  If you have to animate Mick with robotics and pour vodka on the floor to attract Vince on stage like a trail of Reese’s Pieces, then do it.  I’ll send another five bucks for every year he doesn’t make solo music or do reality TV bands.

JimK,
Hamden CT

Hat tip: Michele at a big victory (her entry is here and yes, I totally stole the black & white idea.  The difference is hers is actually a good photo.)

As for Muse, jo-jo turned me on to this band over Thanksgiving and I can’t get enough of Black Holes and Revelations.  It’s like everythingt hat was great about old, edgy U2, plus they are as good as Coldplay is alleged to be (but actually isn’t).  Then they often add some aggressive guitars to the alt.brit.emo.prog rock mix they do.  It;s hard to pin them down to a genre, but I can safely say this album is pretty great.  Go download it, then write them a letter and send them five bucks.  :)

Less

Posted by JimK at 09:46 PM on November 28, 2007
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Categories: Entertainment,  Music,  Technobabble (Technology),  Piracy,  The Internet(s)
Tags: Motley Crue Dear Rockers music piracy downloading

Super cool Japanese space stuff

This is mighty cool.  The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency have sent a hi-res camera to the moon, and images are coming back.

Kayuga (nicknamed Selene) is actually three satellites working together to take the best data we;ve ever had on the moon.  I assume this is simply the first stage toward applying this kind of data collection to a target further away.  Say, Mars?

One of these weeks soon one of the elements of Selene will pass over the lunar landing site and put to rest the conspiracy regarding the moon landing.  I’ll admit it, I bought into one of those conspiracy movies when I saw it.  Lots of weird, unexplainable things until you delve into deep technical issues and actually understand the science.  All science aside, you know what makes up the ultimate proof that we went to the moon?  The U.S. government would have blown this Japanese satellite out of the sky if we hadn’t.  They’d never let that thing take pictures of an empty landing site.

Anyway, the Kaguya site is cool if you dig space stuff.  Can’t wait to see more images.

Posted by JimK at 03:55 PM on November 16, 2007
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Categories: Technobabble (Technology)
Tags: space JAXA KAGUYA moon

By way of an apology - Heroes, Ariel and the Cuda concept

Not only have I not posted jack-squat since last Thursday...I just skipped Heroes this week.  I actually liked it too, but by the time I felt like writing it all down it was late, and then I had to take Gus back to the vet Saturday, so I let the weekend get away and just chilled out.

So...Heroes last week then?  Except for the ugly Irish girl who is British and can’t actually do the brogue for shit, I really enjoyed this last episode.  First one that has felt less like placekeeping or treading water, but instead felt more like a real Heroes episode.  From everything I read, the WGA strike might be the reason it picks up.  They have up to episode 11 done, and they canceled Heroes: Origins.  They say it was a money thing, but I think they needed to cram as many scripts in as possible, and couldn’t spare the time to work on Origins.  Everyone knew this strike was inevitable.  So, unless it is resolved very quickly, Heroes will have a mini-season ending with episode 11, which is also supposed to end Volume 2.  They even shot an alternate ending to episode 11 that can act as a season finale, just in case.

All that is by way of saying I expect things to pick up on the show now as far as pace goes.  Feel free to spoil away with theories and whatnot in the comments.

Now...the boobs.  This is a NSFW gallery of Ariel from Met Art.  She’s ridiculously hot.  Enjoy that.

Lastly, my apology includes another retro-future muscle car.  The new one is a Barracuda concept that Autoblog scoped out at SEMA.

Chrysler is doing these retro designs fairly well - in the looks department anyway - and should make some cash with them...as long as they don’t succumb to the temptation of making them (on the cheap) with identical interiors and mostly parts out of the common bin.  This one is supposed to be an all carbon fiber body.  We know that won’t make production.  And the interior is just the SRT8 you can find in the Charger and so on.  Hopefully a production version could customize the interior for this specific model.  What is it with Chrysler and the shoddy interiors anyway?

Anyway. while the concept looks great, I think I’d still rather pay 50 grand for a fully tricked-out and over-muscled 1972 ‘Cuda.  Something about that old 70’s steel just appeals to me.  Maybe the advent of “modern muscle” will drive the prices on vintage muscle down a bit to where a normal human could afford one some day?

Posted by JimK at 02:25 PM on November 05, 2007
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Categories: Beautiful Women,  Television,  Heroes,  Technobabble (Technology),  Things With Engines
Tags: TV Heroes beautiful women Ariel Barracuda concept Cuda SEMA