The new Wii browser

Nintendo just released the "internet channel" for the Wii. It's based on Opera, and uses an onscreen keyboard for text input. Thank goodness for predictive text or this could take for freaking ever.

It does seem to work on most sites; nothing has yet thrown up any flags for me. They apparently spent a lot of time making sure YouTube would work in it.

It is the "trial" version, better known as "Beta" until March when the full version should be released. It will be free to download until June, and will then cost $5 to download.

I hope they get USB keyboard support soon, cause this gets old fast.

Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

There was more to the theme song?

I think they did well in paring it down.

Oh, and there's a new Die Hard trailer!

Interesting study on circumcision

Two studies in Africa show a marked difference in the rate of HIV/AIDS among circumcised men versus uncircumcised men. Circumcision has little place in a modern, hygienic society, like ours; but it may be quite helpful in Africa. Fifty percent? Sheesh.

And if my name were Dr. De Cock, I'd change my name the moment I entered the HIV/AIDS field.

That is not a small number.

According to Blizzard, the most crafted items in World of Warcraft are Soul Shards. For 12/6, they had a lead of 50%.

You can view back 7 days. They lead every single day. The margin isn't that high every day, but they beat #2 by about 600,000 on the low side.

Wii

I bought a Nintendo Wii the day it came out. Drove around Spring, Texas, where we were visiting some of Bridget's family, and found a Target that didn't have much of a line out front, near a Toys R Us that had NO line out front. Came back the next morning, an hour before opening, and got unit number 53 of 60. Yay!

It comes with a great game called Wii Sports, that's basically a series of mini-games, a demo for the motion-sensitive controller. Included are Tennis (HIGHLY addictive), Bowling (lots of fun, especially one of the training modes), Baseball, Golf, and Boxing.

Watch this guy get a great score in Bowling.

And this is unreal - the aforementioned training mode.

PlayStation 3

Tonight at midnight was the launch of the new PlayStation. The new Nintendo Wii launches Saturday at midnight (technically Sunday). I noticed something funny a few days ago in Wal-Mart: nearly all of the controller section of hangers had been cleared out, and new price tags had been put in place. About 8 were for Wii controllers; 2 were for PS3 controllers. I chuckled to myself at how much they were obviously pushing the Wii.

So tonight, I walk in 20 minutes after the PS3 went on sale to see people just leaving with their new $600 toys. I talked to one of the electronics workers (Eric Austin, who, by the way, will be a father in a couple of months), and found out they 6 total PS3 units. Damn.

So I walk to electronics, and still, no PS3 controllers; no PS3 games either. But there do happen to be SEVERAL Wii controllers and games.

I have found Nirvana

And this is it.

Edit: Indeed, the site appears to be down now. Probably surpassed their bandwidth limit.

David Copperfield is awesome

Just picked up this story over at Digg.

Would YOU believe an illusionist who said he had nothing in his pockets?

I'm only a year late on this...

Transparent aluminum.

In the movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Scotty teaches a 20th century human how to make a substance called transparent aluminum, which is several times harder than glass.

Now, apparently, we've done it.

New Windows XP theme

When Microsoft released Windows Media Center Edition, it released with a new default theme called Royale (screenshots here). It was basically the default Windows XP Luna theme with some glass effects.

Recently, someone got their hands on another version of that theme called Royale Noir; it's essentially a black version of the Royale theme (screenshots). Very, very nice. Installing the Noir theme also installs the Royale theme, so you get two in the one package.

And either one looks better than Luna.

D&D made simple

GameSpy put together a simple explanation of how to play D&D.

tvRSS

tvRSS is a site dedicated to providing RSS feeds of TV show torrents. I recently started using this along with the RSS Feed Scanner plugin for Azureus.

It's a pretty simple concept; the Scanner periodically checks the various feeds, and if it finds a new entry with one of my keywords, it downloads the torrent and starts it up in Azureus.

RSS Feed Scanner allows the set up of multiple feeds, for multiple shows. I currently have one set up for Heroes, one for Smallville, and one for Jericho. It also has the ability to parse the filename string to determine season and episode (assuming it uses one of about 5 season/episode formats), so I can instruct it to only download Smallville episodes Season 6 episode 6 and later, for instance. It will keep track of which episodes it has downloaded, and won't download those later.

This saves me from having to search for new episodes every few days, especially now that I'm trying to watch 3 different shows.

Pics

I recently discovered that Google offers 250MB of free image storage via PicasaWeb, an adjunct to their Picasa image editing software (which so far seems cool enough, except that resizing images is bass-ackwards). So, I've uploaded a bunch of the pictures I've got sitting on my hard drive of various weddings I've been to recently, a certain van wreck, stuff like that.

If you're interested.

Party at my place...

There wil be a total solar eclipse on my birthday in 2057.

Mommy, Billy touched me!

A Boston school has banned tag.

Because they were afraid of being sued.

Are kids getting hurt so badly playing TAG that parents are actually suing?

Positive liberty in action. These kids are now free to not be hurt.

I Nintendo-ed my video card

I just bought a new video game for Bridget, but every time it would start, the computer would lock up during the intro video. I messed around, trying to figure out if this was a problem with the processor possibly overheating, whether the video card was acting up, or the motherboard was dying. I ran some diagnostic tests, but that showed me almost nothing.

So, finally, I took out the video card and blew on the fan, releasing the months of dust stored inside.

Ta-da! Working video game.

I want to be this fast.

Pop'n Music gone wild

A few reviews whilst I think of them...

The Motorola L2 is a fantastic little phone, if you don't need a camera. I just upgraded to one, for free, and we added a new line for Bridget with the same phone, also for free. Polyphonic ringtones, .mp3 support, Bluetooth, speakerphone... I love it. As does Bridget. It is essentially their "business-class" SLVR; business because it doesn't have the camera, which is frowned upon by many corporate-minded individuals. Suits me just fine. The L7 is the high end model with built-in iTunes support, along with an SD slot to hold songs.

And now, a book!

I hadn't read a book in a good LONG while, and then I ran across an ebook copy of Neil Gaiman's American Gods (for you hardcover fans). I'd heard good things about both Neil and this particular book, so I read it. Quite enjoyed it. At my next opportunity, I'll be buying a copy.



Was browsing the cellphone sale at Amazon as I typed this - and the whole page looked like this. Tempted to try them on that.

A recent spam I received

I... what is the point of this?

Now and then, a briar patch goes deep sea fishing with a nation from a rattlesnake. Any oil filter can compete with some scythe, but it takes a real pit viper to ridiculously bestow great honor upon a mastadon. When a nuclear customer is paternal, the flatulent avocado pit lazily recognizes a vaporized cowboy. Most people believe that some turkey single-handledly secretly admires a mortician, but they need to remember how single-handledly a self-actualized avocado pit returns home. Some pickup truck inside the grand piano procrastinates, and a chess board for a buzzard hesitates; however, a mean-spirited jersey cow eagerly trades baseball cards with the briar patch. For example, the particle accelerator indicates that a bowling ball figures out the most difficult fruit cake. Most people believe that a turkey completely secretly admires a stoic blood clot, but they need to remember how knowingly the turn signal defined by an apartment building beams with joy. When a tabloid is gentle, the outer globule tries to seduce the inferiority complex. A grand piano around the ski lodge feels nagging remorse, but a satellite secretly admires an asteroid inside an ocean.

Some precise warranty At base level, this just comes down to total transitional flexibility.

You really can't fail with integrated management matrix approaches. If a freight train caricatures some paycheck about another light bulb, then a freight train defined by the submarine procrastinates. When you see some hypnotic reactor, it means that a grizzly bear living with the cargo bay hibernates. When a hypnotic football team rejoices, a briar patch starts reminiscing about lost glory. A fruit cake beyond a bartender competes with the unstable polar bear.

I think my favorite part is "it takes a real pit viper to ridiculously bestow great honor upon a mastadon."

A Reader's Digest Moment

A conversation just held at the front desk:

Guest (on phone): Yes, I'd like to call Germany.
Clerk: Umm... let me check on that for you.
Clerk (to me): How does a guest call Germany?
Me: They dial 9, and then the number as normal.
Clerk (to guest): Dial 9, sir, and then the number as normal.
Guest: Okay... but how do I dial the plus?
Clerk: The... plus?
Guest: Yes, the plus. To call Germany is +49.
Clerk (to me): How does he dial the plus?
Me: The plus? What? Did he actually just say that? You don't DIAL the plus!
Clerk (to guest): Sir, have you ever called Germany?
Guest: Yes, from my mobile.
Clerk: You don't have to dial the plus.
Guest (obviously does not believe clerk): I will try this...

The guest also did not know he had to dial the U.S. country code before dialing the number. This may not seem odd at first, as I'm sure not many Americans know to do this, but the man is FROM Germany, working for an American company IN the U.S.

Edit: When dialing an international call from the U.S., every call starts with 011 - which is the U.S. Country Code. The general format is 011 + City Code + number.

I... am unsure of what to think

Recently an announcement was made that a new Star Trek film was in the works. Heck, they even released a teaser poster.

This poster, it intrigues me, as it strongly implies TOS era. And not TOS movie era - TOS when it was on TV era. The Official Site also tells us that the director is set to be J.J. Abrams, best known as the creator of such shows as Lost, Alias, and... umm... Felicity. So, for the most part, that's exciting.

But then IMDb tells me that the rumored casting for James Kirk is...

MATT DAMON??!!?!

Now... I like Matt... but as Kirk? I suppose he does kind of look like him... I'll reserve judgement until more concrete news arrives.

The new job

I'm enjoying it, so far. Most of it, anyway. Being one of the only people trained to run night audit, and the only one with any real flexibility, once again has its drawbacks.

Actually, come to think of it, right now over half of our staff can run night audit; why is it that I'm the one here, running night audit at the last minute, then? Because I cave, I suppose. This one is sick, so we need a replacement; this one is supposed to work tomorrow afternoon, so he can't do it; and this one has arthritis, so doesn't like doing it more than twice a week, and he's cranky, and his mom's ill, and... well, the list goes on. This is why we're hiring a new night auditor.

I enjoy the actual desk stuff. The computer system here is great. I've always enjoyed a good treasure hunt, so digging through audit packs is a weird kind of perverse fun for me. I'm really enjoying having real co-workers, that I work WITH, instead of simply getting paid by the same company.

I have begun having desires to play WoW again. Even tried logging on earlier tonight, to see if I had any time left before my cancellation went into effect; 3 patches later, it tells me that I have, indeed, cancelled my account. Ah, well. When I have money again, I may re-subscribe.

I also found it interesting that the notoriously slow Blizzard Downloader downloaded the 1.10 patch far faster than the installer installed it. And that the patch notes were very different from the installer screen to the confirmation screen.

Any way, the night audit beckons, and I must answer its nocturnal call.

Google Page Creator

Google recently released their Page Creator, a website construction and storage tool. I signed up for an account, and recently received an email telling me I had access. I checked it out, briefly, and you can see my attempt, along with a brief review of the service.

I'll continue checking it out.

The times they are a-changin'

Well, we bought a new car. New to us, any way. And pretty new overall. A 2003 Saturn Ion, cranberry in color, 5-speed manual transmission. Very nice. I'll post pictures soon.

I've also started training at my new job, and so far, I love it. The Property Management System they use seems like it's a breeze to work with. Many times working at the Holiday Inn I've wished that certain functions were easier to access, or that it was easier to switch from one to the other, and this program focuses on that.

The staff members are also fantastic, from the desk clerks, to the managerial staff, to the wait staff, everyone is very friendly. And thes pressure I felt at being hired is starting to ease some, as my supervisor told me today she expects I'll be up to full speed within 6 to 8 weeks. I was definitely expecting to be up before then, and I thought they were too, so I guess my learning curve will be somewhat more realistic now.

Anyway, I've got more work tomorrow, so I'm off to bed.

More Chuck Norris Facts

This time, AS READ BY CHUCK NORRIS!!

The Safe Bedside Table

I want one.

Will you buy one for me?

Specifics

More about the job:

I will be working morning shifts most likely. This works out great for me, cause I'll get to see sunlight and Bridget again. Also great for them, as they have a night manager who comes in at 3.

I will be working 5 days a week, and weekends, as they are very busy, will be part of my work week. I can choose my "weekend" from the rest of the week.

I will be in charge of ensuring smooth operations at the front desk. Making sure everyone is following protocol, that deposits are beng taken, rooms correctly assigned, etc. I will be in charge of scheduling the front desk, and I will be tasked with being the emergency on call guy, which is cool, cause I've been doing that for years anyway.

I may actually start training before my 14 days is up at the Holiday Inn, on my days off there, to a) get a head start, and b) earn some more money. Both are good.

Really, working for Jay wasn't that bad. He was a decent guy, good sense of humor. He just took his employees for granted. Bridget told me I was being used, but I don't think so. I just don't think it occurred to Jay to do that.

But, I am glad to be starting somewhere new. Somewhere with fellow co-workers. somewhere with upward mobility. Somewhere that PAYS.

The Interview

So, the day of my interview it decides to rain like God is flooding the earth again. Driving through Many, I can barely see the truck in front of me - and we're stopped at a red light. I kept having mini-flashbacks of flipping the van.

Despite my misgivings, I did make it to the resort fine, and by this time it's stopped raining. I showed up 30 minutes early, not knowing how much the rain would slow me down, so I sat in the car and listened to the radio, then called Bridget, and finally headed inside. After a few minutes, a desk clerk went to tell the lady I was meeting that I was there, and then the interview started.

It wasn't really an interview, even. She gave me a rundown of the history of the place, who owned what, we talked a little bit about my experience at the Holiday Inn, and then she went to get the General Manager. The man is large, and his hands are HUGE. And by so big, I mean... hmm... meaty. He doesn't even try to close his hand around yours, cause there's just too much of HIS hand.

Anyway, the GM talked as if I already had the job, we briefly discussed a pay range, and then he gave me a tour of the place, which is gorgeous. Pricey, but gorgeous.

They wanted to hire me right then, but the job they were hiring me for didn't exist yet - they needed authorization from the corporate office to create it, which might take a few days. So They handed me some paperwork to fill out, and said they'd be in touch.

I come back for lunch with Bridget, we discuss pay stuff, and I head back up there to turn in the paperwork, ready to ask for the very top of that pay range. I walk in, and the lady says, "Hey! We got you approved!" Wow. So what could have taken a few days instead took a couple of hours, cool. Now to talk money. She leads me into the GMs office, and he says, "We got you the top of that pay range." I was speechless - I hadn't even had to say word one about it.

I think the thing that excites me the most about this job is that hiring me excites THEM. They are ecstatic about me starting work there. The people I've met seem fantastic.

I'm very much looking forward to working there.

Off to see the Wizard...

Well, here goes...

On the Horizon

Tomorrow morning I will be interviewing for the position of Front Desk Manager at Cypress Bend Resort. I'm nervous - much more nervous than I've been for anything in a while.

I don't know a whole lot about the job, really - learn most of that tomorrow. It's a full time salaried position. I'm hoping that means benefits. I'm hoping the pay is nice. I'm also hoping it includes discounts at their massage parlor.

They have a MASSAGE PARLOR.

And condos, and a golf course, and a marina, and a restauarant, and an amphitheater, and ballrooms... it's a REAL HOTEL.

The lady I spoke to seemed very excited to talk with me; I hope that carries over through the interview.

I'll let you know more... well, when I know more.

Kabumei: Art of the Sharpened Grenade

A 5-minute documentary on one of the oldest martial arts forms in the world.

Another wacky wild website

www.macgyver.com

And no, it's not what you think it is.

Twenty years after Challenger

I remember seeing the news footage of the shuttle disaster, probably because my dad brought me to watch it. I was 5 years old, so I'm actually surprised that I can remember it, but I have memories of remembering it at 8, if that doesn't sound too weird. When the Columbia disaster happened, I knew just how I would have felt at the Challenger.

MSNBC is reporting on 7 Common Myths About the Challenger Shuttle Disaster.

Most of them are pretty boring. But Numbers 2 and 3 surprised me. Especially #3: The flight, and the astronauts' lives, did not end at that point, 73 seconds after launch.

Apparently the shuttle remained mostly intact after the main booster fell apart, though some sections of the craft were also ripped away. It's possible the crew was alive, and although unlikely, were even conscious, when the shuttle slammed back into the water at 200mph 3 minutes later. Some of the emergency air bottles in the cabin had been activated.

That's... a scary thought. And one I don't think I'll dwell on.

Meepo

Meepo was the cornerstone, it seemed, of the short run I did of the Sunless Citadel adventure, as a prelude to Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil.

Well, ladies and gentleman, Wizards of the Coast has decided to showcase the further adventures of Meepo, the Kobold Dragon Keeper!

Hmmm. Something tells me we shouldn't mess with him now.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin...

Is an odd duck

Check out the video links on the right, bout a third of the way down.

Ladies and gentelmen...

I give you...

Darius "Don't Call me Hootie" Rucker!

I want it to be real...

http://www.livejournal.com/users/groovychk/85968.html

"I canna break the laws of physics cap'n."

"Yeah, but you could you maybe bend them a little?"

DSL!

I rule teh intarweb!

Ewwww...

DSL is not working. I'm on DIAL-UP.

It's been years snce I've been on dial-up. This is actually the first thing I've done since getting online, but so far my experience hasn't been horrible. Things are loading up at a decent speed... not crawling, at least. Bellsouth guy will be here tomorrow to check out the lines and see if there's a problem.