Ambiguous Confabulation

What have I been up to?

2009-09-21T22:16:00.000-07:00

Well friends, I didn't make good on my promise to deliver up to the minute reports from Comic Con. It's probably for the better, being that Comic Con was an utter disappointment this year.
I'll spare you the details, I'm weary of relating them as it is.

What have I been up to?

Well, for the last month and a half I've been preparing for Knotts Scary Farm Halloween Haunt! That's right, I'm going to be one of those crazy people running around in a mask. I was originally intended to be placed in a Zombieland scare zone, but as fate would have it, I was pulled out of the area and placed in Ghost Town. Talk about upgrade! I have some big shoes to fill, so I only hope that I'll be able to do my area and fellow monsters proud.

The costume is finished, all I have left are a few props to assemble. I'll be posting some pictures once everything begins on September 24th. I even received my Haunt name, after a rather loquacious conversation, of Syntax. Provided, I may have steered the name in that direction, but it was my skills with vernacular that sealed its endowment.

Tomorrow are the new maze previews, and I'm super tired.

I'll post some pics and such to keep you all occupied!

On the matter of Comic Con 2009...

2009-07-17T12:10:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how long it's been since I last wrote an entry on here. With things as they've been, I've been hard pressed to make the time to do any extracurricular writing. However, life issues have partially stabilized enough to allow me to jot some thoughts down.

Here we are in July, and for those of us that are cool, we know that Comic Con is around the corner. I've talked about the 4 day extravaganza on here before, but never really about what Comic Con truly represents and what it aims to accomplish.

From the outside perspective, it is just a congregation of the nerdiest kind. However, what it is, is a collection of everything remotely associated to comic books. Movies, Video Games, Toys, Books, Art, Memorabilia, and associated businesses are all represented here. If you're interested in the latest Harry Potter installment, chances are there will be a panel on it, with all the actors present. Do you really want to get Hugh Jackman's autograph on your Wolverine Comic, you can accomplish that. Do you want to talk with the developers of an eagerly awaited upcoming console game, you can do that too.

Comic Con 2005 (This is the view from the Marriot Gaslamp. Unfortunately, I don't believe this view exists anymore as the Hard Rock Hotel is right in front of it (you can see the construction starting down there.))

You see, Comic Con's importance goes beyond just merely being able to see spectacles. It's an opportunity to converse with others that are like you with your interests. I can't tell you how many times I've made a Warcraft reference at work, only to gazed back at with blank expressions. You make the same comment at Con, you're guaranteed to make somebody laugh. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find places such as this in your community. Comic stores are going under by the minute. When they are all gone, what will we be left with? The internet? We'll discuss our interests by way of anonymity on nothing more than an impersonal level?

Deadpool: Suicide Kings (this is a very well written series, and I suggest you go pick it up)

I'm a strong advocate of supporting local comic book stores. They provide us so much more than just a store front. They provide us with a venue, a safe haven, to discuss all things geeky without fear of perturbation. While the loss of brick and mortar stores, combined with the severe decline of the print industry, leaves predicaments better left for a later discussion. One matter remains, when we lose all of these stores, the industry will suffer a debilitating blow. With Comic Con becoming a huge force in the industry, I can only hope that its popularity will help spur on new interest and growth in the comic world.

Alakazam Comics in Irvine, CA (My Local Comic Book Store)

On the same note, I'll be doing my best to supply this blog with updates from Con. Last year, I didn't do so well as we had to drive back and forth each day. By the time I actually made it home, I wanted nothing more than to collapse on the floor and rest. By having a room this year, I hope to get a decent amount of updates in.

I know my girl is super excited to go, as many of her favorite industry professionals are going to be in attendance. Unfortunately, some of them have a raffle to get autographs or to meet them. James Jean, for example, incredible artist but not so fantastic to his fans. In other words, I think of him as a douchebag; serves a purpose, but isn't so wonderful to be around.

Soon enough we'll see exactly what wonders Con has in store for us.

Till next time!

A Blast from the Past

2008-10-07T00:50:00.000-07:00

By random chance, I logged into my Google Video account and found a couple of videos that I had forgotten that I uploaded.

This video was taken at a boat party at Comic Con 2006 of my friend Sean, completely wasted, talking about crazy shit.

Another one where he took an Anthropological look at, well, watch the video and you'll find out. In his defense, he had quite a lot to drink that night.

That really was a night to remember, I don't think I've laughed for 5 hours straight before that night.

The Blizzard Authenticator and why you need one

2008-09-20T11:53:00.000-07:00

Blizzard brought a nice piece of security technology to the States a while back, a technology that existed in overseas countries like China for a long time already.
This little piece of technology is called the Blizzard Authenticator, essentially a SecureID chip, its purpose is to add another layer of security to your account. It works by pairing it with your account then when logging into the game you'll enter both your login name and password, but afterwards you're prompted to enter a one time code that is generated at a push of a button on the authenticator.

Why would anybody want to be inconvenienced by having to add another password? Or, why what if I go to my friends house or a LAN center and want to play but forgot my authenticator?

Would you rather your account of 4+ years be hacked into, all of your valuables stolen, and your character transfered to another realm because you didn't want to spend $6.50? Personally, I wouldn't leave my account security to chance, no matter how amazing my anti-virus is, long my password is, or that I copy-paste it everytime I enter it.

I have to say, as a former Blizzard Account Investigator, I've seen some interesting hacks. More importantly, I've seen people lose practically everything on their account because we couldn't find their stuff in the logs. Most of these compromises were foreign in nature but a good majority number of them were account sharing. That's right, you're best friend hacks your account and steals all your stuff, such a nice friend.

Just recently my girlfriend had her account hacked by a "gold farmer" and her items were attempted to be filtered through a number of characters to cover the tracks. While most of these types of hacks were people that bought gold, visited gold selling sites, or maybe downloaded the wrong cookies from an untrusted site; I know she didn't do any of that. She doesn't go to those sites and doesn't even use UI mods. So, how did it happen?
Truth is, I have no idea, and it's that uncertainty which is the reason for getting the Authenticator.

The authenticator is not a way for Blizzard to screw you out of a whole $6.50, it's their way of providing you a way to protect your investment better. My girlfriend was able to get her stuff back, but you may not be so lucky.

Notice something?

2008-09-19T19:49:00.001-07:00

If you didn't catch it, look in the upper left hand corner.

I knew you'd find it! I am now the happy owner of a Jailbroken Iphone 3G. I can now do cool things with my phone, things that I should've been able to do to begin with.

Also, the Qik link on the right hand side is active. Now I can stream live video from anywhere with my Iphone.

UPDATE:

I found a pretty sweet WoW theme for my phone, it looks pretty nice. It's starting to feel like I have much more control over my phone now.

Large Hadron Collider means the end of the world....maybe

2008-09-08T02:35:00.000-07:00

My friends and I have been following the development of the Large Hadron Collider that CERN built underneath France and Switzerland.

While there are many great speculations as to what the LHC could unveil by means of science, the best theories are a recreation of the Big Bang or creation of a Black Hole. I personally am cheering for the Black Hole possibility. Could you imagine what would happen if a Black Hole was created? We would have conversations like this, "Hey want to go to Europe for vacation?" My reply, "No, we don't go to that side of the world anymore...."

Anyway, the LHC is set to project its initial beam September 10th, this Wednesday. Despite the lawsuits and the death threats.

Yeah I said lawsuits and death threats. The US filed a lawsuit in Hawaii's US District Court to delay the LHC launch saying that it is a "Doomsday Machine."
As for death threats, scientists working on the LHC have been receiving less than savory messages via email and faxes telling them to stop their research.
Honestly, I don't see why we should stop it. We let the Atomic Bomb get dropped, on people, twice. How many particle accelerators have been used up to this point, provided none of them were this size, but the end of the world never came. We have more to gain by activating the LHC than by letting it sit dormant and becoming a 20 year failure.

Oh, so you know, the LHC is capable of 4 trillion electron-volts at maximum power. Quite a bit of juice which won't be completely used until a little bit after the initial beams are launched.

Live it up people, Wednesday may be the end of the world!

The things we take for granted...

2008-09-05T23:21:00.000-07:00

Christmas, Thanksgiving, Weddings, Going Away Parties, and Birthdays; all of these things have something in common. They are each a gathering of people, but just any, people whom you have a deep connection with. These events happen each year with certainty. You live long enough you begin to acknowledge these events with no more than a nod.

I remember a time when a birthday was a time of absolute celebration, all eyes were on you; it's your special day. Best of all, you loved the presents. Before you even dug into the brightly colored gifts your mind had already raced through all the possibilities of the fun you could have with them, not even yet knowing what it was. Your heart beat furiously in your chest as you revealed small sections of the prize inside. When the paper was discarded you held up over your head in triumph a treasured item.
Each moment of the ritual as sacred as the next. The games, the cake, the gifts, the pictures.

Yet, through all of this there was another component, easily overlooked at such a young age. A component that is easily forgotten even as you progress in years.

It's the people.

You spend so much time on yourself that you can forget what it is that really makes these days special. The people. Would that party be all that much fun if nobody was there? How would you feel if there wasn't anybody to show your new treasures to? The truth of the matter is, it wouldn't be fun at all.

Tonight on my birthday, I was reminded of the things that truly matter to me. I have forgotten what it was that made these days special. By matter of circumstance all of my family and closest friends were working, in school, or out of town. Which, left me alone. A day where one should feel special, yet I did not. While the texts and emails from friends afar were greatly appreciated, they still could not account for the human element in which we as sentient beings, require.

I above all others am guilty of taking my family and friends for granted. Which to me now, is among the greatest transgressions we as a people can make. In the end, our connection, our relationship with others is all we really have to experience this world, is all we have to make it as special as it should be.

As I sit here, and read birthday cards left for me; I ask that you never take those closest to you for granted. Enjoy every moment with them, cherish the memories you make with them; even something as small as getting coffee on a cold night. For when they are gone, it can be the most crushing feeling to endure.

Mojave Experiment, the results are in and Vista still sucks

2008-09-05T02:39:00.001-07:00

I was watching TV earlier today and saw an ad for a Microsoft Vista campaign. This campaign, not unlike the Pepsi taste challenge, is to sit people in a controlled environment and show them a 10 minute demo of a "new" Microsoft operating system called Mojave.

These peoples reactions are of complete awe, then they are told that it is Vista and their reactions are, "Oh, I've been wondering if I should upgrade" or "It looks great, my friends were unsure."

It's no secret now that Vista was a complete failure on behalf of Microsoft. So much so that Bill Gates even issued an apology to the public for how poor it is. Also, I'll have to dig up the link to the leaked internal memo he sent before he left Microsoft, berating the company on the failures of Vista.

There are so many things wrong with this commercial. For one, the controlled environment that this takes place in. Sure, if you have the perfect conditions and don't do anything intensive; it should look great.

The Placebo Effect, if I tell you something is newer you'll use it and believe it. That is just how we work. This is the same thing.

Lastly, of course the reactions are carefully groomed and edited to ensure only the most satisfactory of responses.

Its a failure of a campaign and all it tells the customer is, "Our customers are stupid and will like whatever we tell them to."

Addition:
Don't bother going to the Mojave Experiment website. You need Microsoft Silverlight, and if you don't have it already, don't get it, it's just more bloat on your system.

Best Buy gets Iphone 3G. Still tries to shaft you.

2008-09-04T21:33:00.000-07:00

Oh yes, that special time has come for Best Buy. They are now allowed to carry and sell the marvelous invention of man known as the Iphone. Soon very intelligent and well informed minimum wage workers wearing blue shirts will be trying to sell me a package far more expensive than I need. Soon I'll be able to purchase an extended warranty plan that comes with pseudo tech support from the illustrious Geek Squad. I'll be persuaded into getting an accessory bundle that I desperately need, if I don't buy it than not only will I have to setup my email and phone by myself, but the terrorists will win. In the end, I'll be very happy overall with my shopping experience.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Oh my, I think I pooped a little on that one.

In reality my shopping experience would go something like this.

-I first wait a few weeks until the rush dies down.
-I enter the store, I'm met with an overwhelming about of flyers and posters letting me know that they are now selling the Iphone 3G.
-Knowing Best Buy the display is probably near the front, very convenient.
-I stand around at the counter looking through the literature, but I already did my research online; so I know which plan I want.
-I stand around for about 5 minutes and nobody comes near me
-I walk around the area and spot a few of the blue clad employees talking amongst themselves or doing some minor task.
-One finally notices that I'm looking for help and comes over to assist.
-I tell him exactly what I want, believing that I'll make it easier on the both of us. I opt for an 8GB model in black and go for the lowest plan.
-This blue glad douche didn't get the memo that I'm not here to be talked out of what I want. So he proceeds to try to sell me the White 16GB model. I reiterate to this reject that I don't want that phone and I would like to pay for what I want and get out.
-He then tries to sell me on a different plan, stating that if I go up to the next level I can get unlimited minutes. I tell him I don't need it, he then starts to get agressive and tells me that I do need it that I can't have enough minutes. I'm about to hit this guy, but he relents on the plan.
-He gets a phone call and answers it. While hes holding the phone to his head, I watch as he puts in the plan he was trying to sell me on. I tell him that I don't want that plan, he holds up his finger to me to indicate he was busy.
-He hangs up and tries to sell me the plan again. I refuse.
-The arrogant baffoon then tries to sell me the extended warranty plan, because, according to him I won't be able to return it if something happens to my phone. I refuse.
-Mr BlueDork now tries to sell me an accessories package, and I tell him no again. I'm growing impatient, but he continues to explain that if I buy this accessory package the "Dumbass Squad" sorry, "Geek Squad" will help setup my phone and email. Oh joy, some minimum wage guy is going to have my private email codes. I refuse again.
-This asshat then has the audacity to tell me that I NEED the accessory package otherwise it's going to be a hike to the top of Everest to setup my phone.
-I've now had enough, I'm just going to leave. I thank the guy for wasting my time and inform him that I'm going to the Apple Store across the street.
-He is now getting indignant, saying that I'm ignorant and a "sales tease" and that I'm predudice for not buying my phone with him and so on.
-I in turn let him know that I don't like being sold to, the Geek Squad are Dumbasses, the accessory package is a scam because Itunes sets your phone up automatically, and the Apple Store has an extended care program more unconditional and cheaper, they'll setup my phone for FREE as well as offer FREE tech support and advice, and they'll install apps to my phone if I need them to!

-In a perfect world I'd beat the man senseless with a chicken carcass and then desicrate his unconcious body with badger poo.

I really didn't see anything wrong with the current retail setup for the Iphone. Just go buy it at the Apple Store or the AT&T store, it really isn't that hard. Although, come to think of it, AT&T is also a perpetrator of the Accessory Bundle scam. So, I believe what I'm trying to say is; just go to an Apple Store and save yourself a headache.

EDIT:
By the way, those accessory packages are going to cost $106 to $234.

Babies, Lies, and Scandal ... wait, what?!

2008-09-04T18:21:00.000-07:00

Alright, so before we begin I want to make it clear that I dislike both presidential candidates and their Vice President choices (Although Palin is a little better on the freedoms department than Biden is, in my opinion). So this post will be without going into a political discussion on the positions or character of the candidates. Instead I would like to focus more on the blaring problem of bias in popular media.

One of the most blatant forms of character assassination showed up in the form of US Weekly. This little gem is now in markets across the nation:

What, may I ask, is your first reaction to seeing this cover?
No go ahead, think about it. I'll get back with you in a second.

Were you thinking that this woman is some sort of dirty politician with tons of skeletons in her closet? Do you think that the magazine has some juicy details on what a liar Sarah Palin may be? If any of these are true, than the magazines aim was a complete success.

However, none of the words on the cover are used negatively against her in the article. The article does its best to throw out many vague instances of things that have happened in her life or during her political career. For example, this "Trooper Gate" incident which she fired a Safety Commissioner for failing to fire a State Trooper for disorderly conduct. This story is being used by one side to "try" and crush Palin as they never tell people all the details. They never mention that the State Trooper made death threats against Sarah and her daughter and tasered his own 10 year old nephew (sounds like a totally stable guy).

Another one is that her husband is labeled as some kinda drunk because he has a DUI on his record...that he got 22 years ago when he was 22. Yep, young guy drinking out in the middle of nowhere, hell, I'd be drinking too if I lived in Alaska.

The lies are apparently about the "Liberal Bloggers" who have been spreading as many rumors and lies about her as they can, and US Weekly is being the knight in shining armor to help bring this epidemic to light (Aww, how nice).

There is a video below where the editor of US Weekly, Bradley Jacobs tries to tell us that these details were left out because the article was rushed. Rushed you say! I didn't know what would equal a paragraph of information was so hard to put in? This guy ends up looking like a massive slimeball.

Wenner needs to get a grip on reality and stop using his publications to further his agenda (Its no secret how over for Obama he is). Its pretty obvious what they were going for, and its sad that they have to resort to these kinds of tactics to gain an upper hand.

If you don't quite know what I mean, lets check out a few covers from Wenner's publications the last few months.

Ah yes, very much like the one they ran for Palin.....

Oh what about this one

Again, I love how harsh they are on his family.

Wait a minute! I hardly know anything about Obama's family? If only the conservatives would run smear ads about his past. Or, he would come out and tell everyone what his past is and who his family is.

At anyrate, here is the video with the editor of US Weekly Bradley Jacobs.

Oh Steve, you are SOO sued!

2008-09-04T01:42:00.000-07:00

That's right everybody. ATT and Apple are being sued in the latest class action suit to hit the courts.

ATT customer William Gillis was unhappy with the performance of his shiny new Iphone 3G so he filed a lawsuit. The lawsuit doesn't just focus on the performance of the phone, but also that ATT and Apple consciously oversold the Iphone.

He claims that the handset that requires "too much power" combined with the saturation of Iphones that have been sold, bombarded the network so much that it would only allow users to connect to EDGE 2G networks while dropping all the 3G calls, even though 3G coverage was guaranteed.

Gillis also points out that none of Apples packaging warns buyers of the current Iphone performance issues, and asks that they evaluate their product before marketing it to the public.

While I'm not particularily happy with its performance either, I'm not going to cry and file a lawsuit. Remember Blizzcon? I'm not even filing a lawsuit for that, nor would I ever. Sometimes there is just no way to comprehend just how popular a product is going to be, and even if you had and made preparations, people will still complain that what you did wasn't good enough.

Freedom of Speech...HA!

2008-09-04T01:19:00.000-07:00

So, you think that you can just talk about whatever you want without fear of somebody trying to put a stop to it?
Or how about this. For example, there is a vulnerability in a widely used piece of technology that puts millions at risk for Identity Theft and you have the means to inform the people of it, and there will be no roadblocks to prevent you from doing so. Seems like a cut and dry situation, right? Wrong!

Most recently at the HOPE Hackercon, Mythbuster Adam Savage was on a panel explaining why it is they won't ever do an RFID episode.

The short of it is, that the credit card companies gagged Discovery with legal action, Discovery relying heavily on advertisement was forced to back down. One must ask why. Why would the credit card companies want to suppress this information? What do they really stand to lose by letting the public know that this is a current threat? They are the credit card companies, they already own us, but having thousands of people be the victim of identity theft seems like a much more severe loss than whatever backlash they'd receive by having people find out they have poor security on their cards.

But here is the video from that Con.

"Iphone Girl" would not have been news if it had been "Iphone Guy"

2008-09-04T01:03:00.000-07:00

There is a good chance that you've heard nothing of this, it is a minor story. Recently though, an Iphone was purchased that had pictures already on it, and this time it wasn't of an entire tray of Iphones.
This one was of a cute Chinese factory worker posing for the camera.

This made instant headlines. Each news source speculating whether or not the poor girl would be fired for tainting the product or overall poor job performance (letting an Iphone go). Believe it or not Foxconn came out and said that the pictures were just testing the phone and that the girl wasn't fired.
All this media attention from around the globe made this poor girl a celebrity and the unofficial face of the company. So much so that she asked to go home for a day because the stress was too much for her.

After all this, what would have happened if it was a guy? I'm fairly certain that if it were a guy, the only places this story would've shown up was on some random guys blog.....wait....damn it!

An evening at the Magic Castle in Hollywood

2008-08-27T16:02:00.000-07:00

Ah, the Magic Castle; the stronghold of all things magical. This mysterious mansion sits on the side of a hill and is exclusive only to members and guests of the members.

The beginning of your night starts with an introduction to the mansion while standing in a small library and when you are ready you speak the magic words, the bookcase slides open and you are permitted into the castle.

You eat a fabulous dinner and watch shows put on by some of the finest magicians or up and coming...at least. The mansion is Victorian and it's décor speaks to that. It is odd and in some cases downright strange, with magic lurking around each corner.

As the dress code suggests it's an upper class club and you'd expect it's patrons to behave accordingly.

Unfortunately such is not the case. Below is something I found in the bathroom stall. Somebody had quite a bit of time on their hands to create this little gem. The bathrooms were done in decoupage with old magic posters, fairly classy. I'd hope for better from people but to be honest I've nearly lost my faith in the human race.

Yep, pretty classy indeed. :(

Alright, it has some problems...

2008-08-25T13:42:00.000-07:00

I'll admit it, the new Iphone is not all happiness and sunshine. It has some serious flaws that make it less than savory right now, but it's not as bad as some are making it out to be.

I've had some problems with it. One of the most frustrating is the 3G reception. Yes, I know you've heard many stories about this, read a ton of articles about how bad 3G is for this phone. However, just recently it has been discovered that it isn't the phone to blame, it's AT&T. Big surprise? I hope not, it's no secret that ATT has crappy data networks; even worse now that they have UMTS and GSM on 1 antenna. The CTO of ATT, John Donovan, came out recently to discuss the surmounting problems with their networks and just what it is they are doing to correct it. Essentially, all I saw was some technical jargon that made you feel impressed but overall I got the impression, "We make tons of money off of you and we really don't want to spend it on anything that would improve your service right now."
One of their top engineers admitted that they didn't have the experience to start troubleshooting potential problems and that they lacked the expensive equipment to help them in that capacity. Hmmmm? So ATT wants to assure us that they are doing something but refuses to give their engineers the tools they require to make sure that they achieve these lofty goals?

Even still, their admittance to a faulty network doesn't cover the frustration incurred when I'll be in the middle of a 5 bar phone call, only to have it drop to 0 and ruin the conversation, only to go immediately back to 5 bars. Okay, that's fine once, but having to call somebody back 6-7 times in a 5 minute conversation is just flat out unacceptable. Another of my complaints against the 3G is that the speed is nowhere near as fast as it has been claimed to be. If you can manage to stay on 3G long enough, you'll find that pages often open only a few seconds faster than on the much older EDGE technology (its been shown the safari 2.0 app loads things 1.5X faster than its predecessor did). Say you are bored in a car, or want to read some 20something guys crappy blog, if you surf in 3G prepare to have your battery drained faster than you can say, "Jump to Lightspeed." In about 1 hour, you'll be receiving the message for 20% battery life left, only to have the thing shut off a few minutes later. Very very convenient.
Another problem is that it has trouble acquiring or switching from Edge to 3G or vice versa. The most recent "quick fix" came from Apple and these geniuses suggested putting it into "Airplane Mode (turns off all connectivity to the phone)" and then back to normal mode. This will force the phone to find a network, but even that workaround takes a good 3-4 mintutes to work.

When your phone feels your worth enough to stay connected to a data network (which IS most of the time for EDGE), Safari may feel that it needs to sleep in just a touch longer and will randomly decide to boot you back to the home screen; more often than not losing whatever information you just looked up. This years Olympics was especially frustrating for me for multiple reasons, but some of the lesser ones were: NBC had crappy coverage and a poorly designed website to pair it with, and checking the medal count was infuriating since I either, couldn't surf the net because Safari didn't want to stay open or I couldn't connect to the network period.

Another big problem I have with it, is the updating, syncing, and restrictions placed on applications.

The updating is a big problem with mine. The last few times that I've attempted to update my applications from my phone, it has crashed mid update. Its a relatively small app that crashes my phone and makes it sit at the boot screen for a number of minutes, 9 at the most so far. The real kicker is that Apple once again came up with a brilliant work around....re-download all your apps and reinstall them. Wonderful, this is exactly how I wanted to spend my free time, re-downloading and re-configuring all my applications again. I had so much fun the first time, it's nothing to do it again.
You want to sync and backup your phone? Better hope that you have updated applications on both your desktop and your Iphone, otherwise, its going to be a very uneventful two hours. Yes, it could take that long. There isn't a choice where you can just sync, it wants to back up afterwards as well. That process has taken me up to 1 hour, the most recent one I performed only took 30 minutes. It's very safe to say that the process is by and far, way too long.
Restrictions come in two forms. The prohibiting of applications you may find useful. For example Netshare was very briefly on the App Store 2 times before it was pulled for good. This application allowed you to tether your phone to your laptop as a modem. It wasn't all that fast, but it still would allow you to use some websites that perhaps you would be unable to on your Iphone. It's seems trivial, but for some its super helpful.
This was pulled because ATT apparently had a fit about it and didn't want people using it to download torrents. In reality I think they just hated people using the unlimited data plan they paid for, for two devices instead of the one. After all, you can't regulate or charge the hell out of your customers when the phone is used this way.
The other form is before it can even get started. The SDK agreement has some fairly stringent rules put into place that take much of the fun and usefullness out of some of the more popular applications. Many of these rules have been put into place by the almighty Steve Jobs out of his incessant need to micromanage everything (why else would random people get personal emails from Steve saying that everything is going to be fine soon?).
The best example is that of Palringo, a very sleek chat application but it logs you out of everything as soon as you go back to the home screen. It would be nice if the thing could run in the background so my friends could respond. Sure, I could leave it open but then my battery will die a quick and horrible death.

So yes, there are some pretty serious flaws with the phone at the moment, and with each passing day the things I felt to be little issues are growing into large annoyances. Such irritation is beginning to drive me insane. Let's just hope that the firmware patch that Steve hinted at actually IS coming in September, the keyboard lag is going to make me throw my phone through the window.

So, that is that!

OTHER STUFF:

Somebody buy me this!

I have so many topics to write about, and the only time I seem to have to do it is at 3 in the morning. My writing suffers greatly when I am forced to write in this fashion. So, I apologize if it is not up to expectation.

See you all later.

Ah, it has been a while...

2008-08-21T03:15:00.001-07:00

Greetings friends,

It has been a while. Let's start off with the Blizzcon ticket fiasco.

BLIZZCON:

So Blizzcon is once again coming to the Anaheim Convention Center and as always, there is great anticipation. This year they gained more hall space and thus increased tickets 50%, making the total number of people that can be in attendance 12,000 people.

Tickets were to go on sale on August 11th at some point during the day. What follows is the chronicle of my journey to obtain these tickets.

August 10th:
The plan is simple, wait up until midnight and purchase the tickets. This is what I do.

August 11th:
Midnight comes and I'm refreshing the site, but it is to no avail. Around 3am I give up and decide to pass out for 2 hours.
5 AM, I awake and begin my F5 refresh extravaganza.
6 AM, tickets go on sale! "Hurray," I think. The first screen passes, I enter 5 tickets. The second screen comes up, I enter ALL the ticket information, and then...

Okay, no big deal. I hit F5 and then get to enter my Credit Card information. The next screen I get, "OOPS." Thus begins the F5 spam fest. For the next 3 hours I continue to run 4 browsers refreshing various steps of the checkout process.

Blizzard posters are saying that the store is experiencing "a very high level of traffic and to be patient."

Well, I continue on this for another few hours, when at approximately 9am my friend who works at Blizzard tells me that there is a ticket open on the issue and that it has something to do with people being unable to complete the checkout process.
Mind you at this point, Blizzard is saying that nobody has been able to complete the process save a few people.

We continue on with the spam fest numerous times, each time I get close to the final step where all I need to do is Confirm Checkout and then the tickets will be mine. Such was not to be, for Blizzard then decides to do maintenance on the store, and all I get to see is this...

Wonderful.......

This continues into the late hours of the evening, when finally they just say, "No more sales until business time tomorrow, we'll continue to make optimizations."

So, I'm thinking that means 8AM the next day. Of course, knowing Blizzard that could also mean any time from 12AM to 8AM. I then decide it best to sleep in 20-30 minute increments. Yeah, well finally at 12:10FRIGGINPM, the tickets finally come online.
I frantically enter my information and get to the end when...
"Something wrong with my credit card?"
After a few times of re-entering my CVC code, I decide it best to just use another card, which works on the first try (I'll find out why the first one wasn't working a little later).

After only 1 appearance of....

JOHNNY THE FAILURE MURLOC

I finally got my tickets!!! So, some 36 hour vigil I managed to do what I believed to be impossible. The best part was that the tickets were sold out in a matter of minutes. 12k tickets gone with what had to be only 4 hours the store was up.

It didn't really end there. The people that didn't get tickets cried and cried, threatened to sue Blizzard for stealing their time and by preventing them from purchasing tickets. I'm the first person to say that Blizzard really dropped the ball on being prepared, but to cry so much that you file reports with the California Attorney Generals office for business standards because you spent 2 hours trying to get tickets and were disappointed, you need a hobby or something better to occupy your time with. Clearly a video game is not a proper outlet for your angst.

You can read up on what is happening with that on the Warcraft forums, be warned though, there will be excessively juvenile conversations going on regarding the subject. Primarily because the ones that are still complaining are of low intellect....or are 12.

I had made 1 post (I rarely feel the need to post on the forums) in response to a thread that was made after Blizzard decided to hold a lottery for an "extra" 3000 tickets. In about 1 nanosecond the mood on the forums went from angry vigilante mob to a mob of unconditional (perhaps erotically motivated) fanboys. All hailing Blizzard for being so honest and such.
I know for a fact that the same people that are blowing the Blizzard horn again, are the same people that are going to be the first to cry when they don't get a ticket from the lottery, they'll claim that the lottery method was unfair.
In the end, there is no possible way that one can assuage all the negative feelings that were generated from this event. People complain regardless; the best way to handle it is to issue the apology and then stop there, or better yet, NEVER admit fault. Just say sorry to the poor jackoffs that didn't get a ticket.

/endrant

More to come tomorrow. There is much to talk about.

Sarah Silverman at Comic Con 2008

2008-07-31T02:30:00.000-07:00

Alright, next to the amazing Kevin Smith panels. We fell into a Sarah Silverman panel that was equally hilarious. One of the most memorable moments was when Sarah explained to the crowd one of the more interesting moments she experienced in the writer's room.

The video is here. Its decent quality but still, HILARIOUS!!!

Also, here:

Well WTF is with Photobucket....?

2008-07-30T14:38:00.001-07:00

Right below this here post is a test from Flickr. It's there because I've decided to switch my online pictures storage from Photobucket to Flickr.

Photobucket apparently wants to renew my subscription for $40 a year. With that I get only 10Gb of space, and 63mb of BANDWIDTH!!! In addition, permissions are blanketed, I can't set specific permissions for albums or pictures.
With Flickr I get unlimited upload, storage, and bandwidth; as well as the ability to set my own permissions for photos. For $30 a year, its a significantly better deal than Photobucket.

The only problem that I'm faced with is moving all those pictures over to Flickr....oh wait, they have a super nice bulk uploader tool that allows me to queue other uploads. HAHA, this won't be a problem at all.

In the end both services have things that I liked, however, the things that I thought were cool on photobucket I just never used. For example, FTP uploads and the ability to set custom URLs for albums. It was pretty cool, but I think Flickr is much more service oriented. Photobucket seems to add in features that sound cool but are ultimately pointless. Which makes sense, seeing how they are run by FOX, when was the last time Rupert Murdoch used the computer for anything aside from.....come to think of it, I don't think he's ever used one.

Link to the Flickr is updated on the side panel, as well as here.

Flickr

2008-07-30T12:59:00.001-07:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Everything I've Procrastinated

2008-07-30T02:51:00.001-07:00

WOW!! I tell you, finding the time to write recently has been quite the challenge. I just returned from the gym and I'm going to now force myself to write everything that I've been taking notes on.

So, I guess you're in for a treat...otherwise, this is going to be absolute torture. However, fear not, for I will be including many fantastic pictures to look at; lest you be bored.

The Dark Knight Review:

I suppose film quality is just as good a place to start in this.

As I've mentioned before, I've had the pleasure of watching this movie on a few different formats. I've seen conventional 35mm, the Imax 64mm, and finally the amazing version on the internet. For those out there that believed there was no difference in quality and decided to save the money and go to the conventional film theaters, YOU GOT OWNED!

The quality was so notably different, that I felt the movie experience overall was more immersive. The colors were crisp to the point that they popped. Even in the characteristically dark scenes, the shadows were more pronounced which led to a better view of movement. One such example I can give is in the "prologue" scene (ARG players know what I'm talking about) when the final robber is about to be slammed by the bus, the eyes, in 35mm are dark, however, in the Imax version you can SEE the eyes as though you were standing in front of him.
It was definitely worth the extra going to see this movie in such a format.

Now onto the meat of this review.

Casting:
Alright, so Maggie Gyllenhaal looked a little old. Yes, I know her face has a jowled appearance. It still doesn't take away from the fact that she played a stellar Rachel Dawes. A character who is fiesty yet still reserve. She never has shyed away from her ultimate goal which is the protection of Gotham. Given the characters motivation, I don't believe she needed to be some stunning actress that would fufill the stereotypical hollywood roll of a "love interest;" it just would'nt match the feel of the movie.

The rest of the cast was superb. My feelings in regards to Christian Bales portrayal of the caped crusader are nothing short of veneration. I believe that he brings the darker nature of Bruce Wayne to the screen and fufills a void that has been missing. Need I even mention George Clooney's "Bat Nipples," or Val Kilmer's Topgun speech to Robin, or even Michael Keetons Princeton Jackass Batman? Bale's is so much more real, tormented, and gritty. To me, which is exactly what Batman is. Not a character motivated by cool gadgets, but a character motivated by vengeance and obligation. A perfect pick indeed.

However, the show was stolen by THE MOST captivating character to hit the silver screen in years. The late Heath Ledger's portrayal of The Joker. Whatever praise I have to sing of this incredible character, cannot even begin to be put into words. What Ledger brought to this character, is a performance that I believe will go down as one of THE MOST iconic villian performances in cinematic history. This Joker is a vast departure from the likes of Jack Nicholson, which don't get me wrong, was a fine joker; just not what I always pictured the real Joker would be like.
Ledger brought out the sadism, the disturbed, the genius aspects of the Joker. If he doesn't get a posthumous Oscar for this role, I'll truly be surprised.

The movies construction itself is a work of fine art. Everything from the script to photography was like watching an artist at work. Chris Nolan did an amazing job with this film and I believe he deserves a great deal of credit.

Now looking beyond the incredible technical aspects of this movie, was a generous helping of thought provocing subject matter. The main parts of which focused on the characters/people themselves. To me, this seemed to be a very Gotham oriented movie. In which the a lot of the events were to help the people decide what it is the ideals of morality, integrity, and perception meant to them. As a viewer, you to were faced with these same moral postulations. Is Batman a vigilante or is he a necessary element that must be supported? Is the Joker truly an evil person, or does he inspire free thought? Does the Joker allow the opportunity for people to decide what is wrong, right, or easy? Many questions were brought up after the movie, and ultimately, you must answer them for yourself.
I personally found myself rooting for the Joker. Because of what he represents. I believe that his rebellion against the organized groups or "schemers" as he calls them, is really a motivation for the people to stand up to those in charge of making the decisions and taking back government for themselves. The evil in this world and in Gotham happens when people become apathetic and no longer stand up for what is right, but instead opt for what is easy. They'll always complain but will they act upon their convicitons? Of course, there is the more obvious side of the Joker, where he clearly has no interest in tangible wealth, but instead is more committed to showing the people of Gotham that no matter how upright somebody is, they have a price and can fall.
At anyrate, the moral facets are many and while intriguing, are best left for another time. Contact me directly if you'd like to chat about them.

In conclusion, the movie was incredible and is definitely welcomed after so many box office flops. I would highly recommend this movie to anyone regardless of how they feel about "comic book" movies.

A+

IPHONE NEWS:

Yep, as I've said, I have purchased one of those lovely little Iphone 3Gs.

IT IS AMAZING! To say the least. Once you learn how to navigate the nonsense that is the App store, many possibilities open up for it.
There are of course complications, that if you've been following it, are sure to have heard. Yes, it does crash, although not so much at the frequency some have reported. Yes, it doesn't have "cut and paste" features. Yes, the bluetooth capabilties are limited. Finally, Yes, it doesn't have voice dialing. The real shaft to some of these problems, voice dialing, is that there are applications that you can PURCHASE to obtain some of the features. Which of course, I find ridiculous, considering it is common practice to include these features with the phone.

However, in the news is rumor that the new Firmware 2.1 update will have Cut N Paste, considering that they have found some source code in the leaked beta release that hints at it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. In addition, they've added some fixes for some stability and crash fixes.

Am I still going to Jailbreak it? Hell yes, oh HELL yes! At this point, I want to wait for the 2.1 software to hit, have Winpwn get updated, and then Jailbreak the living hell out of the phone. There is nothing I want more than to have my chat applications run in the background (No thanks to Jobs and his great idea of what you can't do with the SDK).

All in all, I'm super happy to have waited in line for this phone. I was #30 in line for it at the South Coast Plaza Apple Store. It truly is an amzazing piece of technology and I've used it for even more situations than I previously anticipated. Which makes it even cooler.

I could talk for hours on how awesome and intuitive the interface is, and how it has amazing bluetooth device support, or how its pretty damn fast even on the Edge network. But my last phone was a crappy Razr that I've had for years, so I don't have much else to compare it to. So, lets wait another month and I'll write a real comprehensive review for the Iphone.

Comic Con:

WOW, I've been going to Comic Con for a number of years now and it never ceases to amaze me how much it grows each year. I'll save what I thought about it for tomorrow. Its almost 4am and I can't believe I sat here and got this much typed.

Night all, and hey....FOLLOW my Twitter once and a while!

Random Thoughts:

I was going to post the picture of this guy on my blog, but then realized I didn't want to subject people to that. So instead here is a link to the always creepy, "zune guy" now known as "Creepy Ipod Touch guy that was formerly known as creepy Zune guy."

Comic Con is here!!!

2008-07-23T15:12:00.000-07:00

So here we are, we've made it to the bastion of all that is nerd.
Currently I'm sitting in line for the preview night, in hopes to get
great swag.
Here with me is The Female Wonder ( Jill) and The Moaning Man Baby
(AJ). My friend AJ made it all the way down here from Texas. It's good
to have him back even if it is for a short while.

ON THE DARK KNIGHT

We saw The Dark Knight in Imax last night. Having seen both versions
now the 64mm film is more visually immersive than the conventional
film. The lighting in each scene was intensified to the point where
the whites were almost angelic.

After seeing the movie a few times in the theater and another few
times on a version I downloaded I have to conclude that it is the
greatest film I have seen in a long while.

At anyrate, while I love typing on this wonderful piece of machinery I
have to save my review for yet another later date.

I'll keep you all posted on things that go down here on San Diego.

Sent from my iPhone 3G

Test

2008-07-20T03:18:00.000-07:00

Test again, some reason it wasn't uploading text when I sent it from my Iphone. So, I have identified the problem and will move on from there.

In addition I have about 1 billion things to write about, so the next post is going to be massive. I'll also be including my review of The Dark Knight, be forewarned, there will be SPOILERS!!! OHHH NOOOOEEEESSS!!!

Sent from my iPhone 3G

Yet another test

2008-07-12T13:16:00.001-07:00

This is another test

Test

2008-07-12T01:07:00.001-07:00

This is a test. This is only a test

Sent from my iPhone

Got my iphone 3g at 9am

2008-07-11T13:00:00.000-07:00

Wall E, Iphones, and BATMAN!!!

2008-07-01T00:20:00.000-07:00

Pixar has once again created another visual masterpiece. It must be a double standard that I have with the movie, but even though the first 30 minutes of the movie is without dialogue, I didn't even begin to think that it was something to worry about. I don't even believe I noticed, they did such an amazing job of conveying emotion through action and sound effects that I felt as though there WAS dialogue.

The story is compelling and expressed concern for humans attitudes towards, not only the planet but themselves as well. That our disposition for lethargy may ultimately lead to our downfall and the destruction of everything we hold dear. The moment we are more inclined to lay in a chair and play internet golf on a holo screen with friends, instead of go outside and fish or play golf, is the moment that we are putting ourselves in danger.

While there was an obvious message to be gleaned from the movie, one could easily ignore it entirely and focus on the amusing antics of WallE.

Overall, it was a cute film and an amazingly well put together film, and if you wished, contained a meaningful message.

On a side note:
While out at dinner after the movie. We got into a very interesting discussion in regards to the AI of WallE and the other various types of AI that were represented throughout movies and other media.
Two that made the case were Hal from Space Odyssey and Cortana from the Halo series. That while it may seem that some of these robots are "evil" in essence they are not. Through time, the information they have learned (human behavior especially) and their directives, they may be led to process information differently. Being machines they don't have the ability to ignore or to reason. They know what they have to do, and will do it by any means necessary.
Also, my friend Sean pointed out that an AI that has become self aware, for example as WallE did, any other machine that he came in contact with also seemed to gain a similar or growing sense of self awareness. As he calls it, "he's crazy in a good way, and makes other constructs he meets crazy by proxy."
The real problem is what way will they be "crazy?" Will they be crazy in a good way, like WallE. Or will they be crazy in a bad way? Really, a subject to be explored at a later date, since I feel my consciousness isn't able to keep up a rant of this great a philosophical magnitude. So let's move on shall we....

IPHONE NEWS

Crying over how unfair the new data plan is for ATT? Think that you have it all bad? Then don't bother complaining to the Canadians. Apple signed a contract with Rogers Communications for exclusive rights to the Iphone in Canada.
So, our friends to the North will need to spend from $60/150 minutes/400MB of bandwidth/75 texts to $115/800 minutes/2GB of bandwidth/300 texts. OUCH! That's right, no unlimited data for $115?! The upside to all this is that they still get unlimited nights and weekends, and incoming text messages are free. ATT will charge you for incoming and outgoing text messages regardless (AIM is included in the text limit, wtf, I know).
In addition to the horrible data plan. An internal Rogers Communication memo was leaked, seemed their voice plans aren't the only thing that the Nazi's inspired.

the following is an excerpt from the memo:

ABSOLUTE NOs:
No Promotions/Contests
No Countdowns
No Posters out of the store
No Flyers
No Radio remotes
No Mailers
No Alteration of Store Hours
No Swag
No Tshirts with any reference to Apple or Iphone
No advertising until 13 weeks post launch
*end*

One thing that seems to have been confirmed is the "tethering" process that is going to take place at the store.
Your new Iphone will in essence be a very cool looking paper weight until you have it "unbricked" INSTORE via a new "Activation Only" version of Itunes.
I personally am surprised that Apple and ATT even came up with what seems to be an effective way to put a massive halt on the unlocking community. However, this does not mean that I condone any "exclusivity" contract that Apple signed with ATT. I personally would unlock and jailbreak the hell out of my Iphone. Between us, I'm still going to Jailbreak the new one, even if it only means downloading a meager offering of other apps available from third party groups.

IPHONE APPS:
Its been rumored for a while now. A veritable remote control for your Iphone/ITouch that can control your Itunes via your Wi-Fi Network. Confirmed now as being "Icontrol." Pretty awesome stuff, the most awesome is that its going to be available...get this...for FREE!
Also, a friend of mine was telling me about a program available via Apple Download that will automatically switch you from ATT network while out and about, to a VOIP while in range of a Wi-Fi network.

To conclude todays little Iphone rant....

BATMAN ARG (Viral Marketing)

As some may know, I got really heavy into the Viral Marketing campaign that a company called 42E has been running for Warner Brothers to promote The Dark Knight.
This is the most amazing and profound marketing campaign I've ever seen...for anything, period.
What this campaign did was place the players into the shoes of goons of The Joker and would solves clues, puzzles, even live scavenger hunts in which the people on the ground communicated to the people online to solve clues. The rewards to these games have been anywhere from new trailers, background videos, and exclusive glimpses of characters. Some have been receiving real life swag such as Batman Masks (made by citizens for batman), special phones which they receive messages from the Joker, copies of the Gotham times, etc. The goal is to tell the story of everything that has happened since the end of Batman Begins and lead it all into the opening of The Dark Knight.

Just today I was inducted into the group of people that have received swag from this group.
I received some stuff from Citizens for Batman, with a note from the leader saying that we should make our presence more known and should gear up for something MAJOR on July 8th.

Pretty awesome I must say.

So, I leave you with this. Its a working LEGO CROSSBOW!!!
According to the website, only 1,050 copies of the instruction book were made because of LEGO's rules against using their trademark in connection with guns.

June 27st, 2008 #1

2008-06-27T18:25:00.000-07:00

I found this while browsing Gizmodo. Its something that is purely amazing to say the least. I was almost positive that something like this would've been blown out of the sky by the Chinese Government.
I've been trying to find the industrial grade vats of Anti-Freeze that I'm certain they have scattered around the countryside, but alas, my efforts have ended in failure.

In Other News:
For those of you that are following the Dark Knight ARG, Gotham Cable News has been updated with some good stuff. Some of which somewhat explains that mysterious video we received as a prize from the Whysoserious.com/laughtillithurts game.

Gotham Cable News

And finally, before I head out....Check this Out!

The Comic Con Cometh!

2008-06-27T01:13:00.000-07:00

Yes it is very true. Once a year the largest convention of geeks, nerds, and cosplayers convene in San Diego. The Comic Con has become the greatest bastion of all things nerdy, and what a beautiful celebration it is.

As of this moment, there are still single day passes available. Thursday, Friday, and Sundays.
If you haven't been before, I strongly suggest going as it is an experience one will not forget.

Plus, its a great place to stock up on such amazing merchandise as this...

HELL YES!!!

Look forward to seeing you there!

As before mentioned I plan on getting an Iphone2 soon, and what I would like to do is to use that beautiful little bastard to help me mobile blog the entire Con. Reminds me...I need to look into the streaming video applications for it, it would be nice to show you guys some stuff in realtime from the Con.

Thats it for now, I'm really fatigued.

-RG

Oh great

2008-06-26T02:49:00.000-07:00

I've joined the ranks of the horrible blogging community.
A place where I can vent my frustrations and offer my (more than likely) uneducated opinion.

Essentially I'm gearing up for the release of the Iphone, in which I hope to document every waking moment of my life.......because........it is so very interesting.

HAHAHA, you suckers are in for a horrible time.