Links of the Whatever

One of these days I will figure out what direction I want this blog to go in but for now it remains focused on whatever thing that grabs my interest on any particular day. I seem to give good rants on forums, maybe just copy and paste those here :D.

RIP Nate Nielson, Lego Builder Extraordinaire
If you like Legos, especially ships, then the link above is worth checking out. It is the Flickr stream of "nnenn" who sadly died a few weeks ago in a car accident. Over the years he created hundreds of Lego crafts that are so good; it makes you wish that Lego might contact his family to create a line from his creative efforts. (via Gizmodo)

GM's Phony Loan Repayment
You know that commercial from GM where they brag that they paid off their government loans, with interest, five years ahead of schedule? Turns out they are lying. In reality they paid back $6.7 billion of the $52 billion they were loaned. What they claimed to pay back was one of several loans and to do that they used money from one loan to pay off another. Basically what they are doing is the equivalent of you bragging that you are debt free because you used one credit card to pay off another credit card. I guess this is Detroit math at work.

Supreme Court Stuck in 1960s Tech Wise
Considering the new frontier of the law will be based on technology and the internet, it’s particularly disturbing that the US Supreme Court has no meaningful knowledge of current technology. "Chief Justice John Roberts asked what the difference was “between email and a pager?"" I wish I was kidding. Yet these are the people that will decide what is legal or not with digital information. Giant corporations probably did back flips when they heard this.

4 Chords...36 Songs
Amusing bit from Australian comedy team Axis of Awesome as they point out that 4 chords are the fundamental underlying sound of 36 pop songs, many of them familiar hits.



Everybody Draw Mohammed Day
As the recent South Park episode proved, despite two wars and constant threats of killing Muslims, Americans' are still very afraid of them. This extends for showing a "respect" for their messiah that isn't shown for any other religion in the world. One interpretation of Islam law (of which there are thousands) is that Mohammad should never be seen, be it on TV, movies, or in a drawing. South Park theoretically violated this when the story supposedly put Mohammed into a bear costume (yeah apparently proxy use also violates their "law"). This lead to a radical Islamic group to threaten the lives of South Park creators. This caused Comedy Central to bleep the word Mohammed. The outrage over that led to the suggestion of Draw Mohammed Day. As the drawing shows, thanks to the radical Islamics rather wide interpretation drawing anything under the sun and calling it "Mohammed" violates their law, might as well have fun with it. It seems like a good idea to me as there is quite simply nothing anyone, even non-radical Islamics, can do that will satisfy the radicals (except all die of course) then there is no point in playing their game. If doomed to fail and get attacked anyway, might as say screw it and treat them with the same respect (or lack of) that is shown to other religions.

Warner Bros. Signs 20-Film IMAX Deal
I hope you are not tired of IMAX films especially the ones that are really just bigger versions of their regular film counterparts as WB has agreed to release such upcoming titles as Harry Potter 7 Part 1 and 2, The Hobbit Part 1 and 2, Happy Feet, Batman 3, Superman, and more for the screens. I want to be excited but I doubt that most filmmakers will take advantage of the format due to the cost and the reality that it doesn't really convert in any meaningful way to home movie release so hard to convince the studio to foot the bill for the expensive 70mm cameras.

Links of the day

Volcano Shaped Mall - It turns out that malls don't have to be ugly square shaped buildings that blight the landscape but something more creative and aesthetically pleasing. Click the link for a gallery of images for the Volcano Buono Mall in Italy whose design was inspired by the nearby Mt. Vesuvius.

Judge Rejects Merrill Settlement - Federal Judge Rakoff voice a $33 million settlement between Bank of America and Securities and Exchange Commission over the disclosure of bonuses to shareholders while at the same time it was asking for bailout money. “The S.E.C. gets to claim that it is exposing wrongdoing on the part of the Bank of America in a high-profile merger,” he wrote, and “the Bank’s management gets to claim that they have been coerced into an onerous settlement by overzealous regulators.” I couldn't agree more. All the BoA execs care about is protecting their personal fortunes (and to hell with everyone else's) and the department is just focused on political points rather than justice. Good call.

Mythbusters Return October 7th - Took long enough but finally new episodes of one of my most favorite shows on TV starts. The new season will test multiple myths. For example will a fired bullet vs. a dropped bullet, which will hit first (I would think momentum would give the fired bullet the lead but at terminal velocity both would fall at the same rate after). Does a muddy car get better mileage then clean one? (I guess aerodynamics question, I am going with no). What is the strength of duct tape? Also will a car explode when going over a cliff and hitting the ground like see in the movies all the time? (I am betting no). Overall, sounds like lots of boom and entertainment.

Wii Price Drop September 27th? - A leaked Toy R Us add suggests that the Wii could get a price cut to $200. Preliminarily it appears to be a Toys R Us only sale but considering the price drop on the PS3 and Xbox combined with the Wii's diminishing sales it seems likely to be a permanent price in the near future.

New Rules: Democrats Need to Grow a Pair - Bill Maher tore Obama and the Democrats a new one for their continued wussiness (he uses harsher words). Like me, he is a bit sick and tired of the Democrats constantly caving to Republican pressure and listening to the vocal minority. They are in the majority, with the majority often supporting their agenda (in this case 70% for healthcare reform), yet they constantly act like the underdogs that have to cave to every little thing the Republicans want. For once, they need to grow a spine, some balls, and tell the GOP were to shove it and quick pretending that they want to work together. They do not want to. Thanks to the Bush era, "compromise" is a four letter word so there is no point in continuing the one sided debate and inevitable ends with a GOP victory (in this case defined as a gutted and useless healthcare bill).

Links of the Day

Journalists Freed - Two journalists have finally been freed from North Korea thanks to a visit from former President Bill Clinton. The journalists were jailed for essentially planning on writing stories that were not flattering to the country. Of course, Fox News thinks they should have served their 10 years for doing their jobs (makes you wonder what their own journalists are feeling about that right about now). Overall a good day and a sign that Bill Clinton still has the mojo that Bush will never have.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

MegaMan Game History - Click the link for a large picture diagram that shows all the Mega Man games created for the storied franchise and all its iterations across pretty much every gaming platform since the NES. Personally I miss the original Mega Man games.

Starcraft II Delayed - To probably the surprise of no one, the game has been delay. The plan now is for a first quarter 2010 release but I suspect that April to May is the more likely date.

Paula Abdul Quits American Idol - The link breaks down the likely reasons why but really everyone knew her days were numbered when that fourth judge was added as insurance in case one of them bailed. The cause comes down to money, she wanted a few million more (not clear if per episode or season) and Fox said no. Time will tell if this will impact ratings but I suspect they will not show more than a minor hiccup.

Windows 7 Review and Features - Long story short, Vista sucks, get this version instead which is what Vista was supposed to be. If you buy any machine make sure it has the free Win 7 upgrade. I haven't used it but have noticed that essentially everyone that panned Vista is universal in their agreement that 7 is a good buy.

Links of the Day

Abercrombie & Fitch Sued for Discrimination - In a sign that maybe more attention should be paid to hiring intelligent people over those fitting the "image" the company is looking for, Abercrombie is being sued for firing a women with a prosthetic arm. Apparently a store manager hired her and relaxed the dress policy for her. Corporate apparently sent someone to verify she followed company policy, which she technically wasn't so forced her to remove the cardigan she wears. Seeing the prosthetic arm, they forced her to work in the backroom (rather than just make an exception). Now she is seeking 25000 pounds ($41k) in damages. If this occurred in the states the damages being requested would be measured in millions. Either way, a few people deserve the bonehead award for not choosing the simple solution.

Neil Patrick Harris Hosts Emmy Awards - After hosting the TV Land Awards and Tony Awards to much acclaim (at least from the few that saw it and critics), the actor has signed on to host next year's Emmy Awards. As a fan who finds him hilarious on How I Met Your Mother, I find this very good news as he is the consummate host - funny when he is supposed to be and a guide when he isn't. Nor does it hurt that he is actually a fan of television and doesn't look down on it like many of these hosts of these awards shows seem to do.

Buffy vs. Edward Mashup - Amusing video that does a good job of showing the difference between Buffy and the first Twilight movie. One has a strong female protagonist and complicated story with a vampire (Buffy), the other has a weak willed women and wimp of a dude as the main thrust of the story. It’s a shame the current generation looks at Twilight as an example of anything other than bad storytelling and character creation.


Tron 2 Script Review - Click the link for a review from a diehard Tron fan of one of the drafts for the sequel to the movie that is supposedly going to be made. That rumor has been around for a while but nice to know a script actually exists. The short of it is it’s similar to the first movie (good guy must stop bad guy executive) with a bigger budget.

Links of the Day

Billy May, Pitchman, Dead at 50 - Sunday morning, famed pitchman and co-star of Discovery Channel's Pitchmen, was found dead by his wife. The autopsy report indicates he died due to heart failure, not a head injury as many news stories inferred. I watch his show and he seemed like a cool guy and pretty anyone that has stayed up late knows the face and loud happy voice. Condolences to his family. Image from here.

Oscar Rule Changes - Next year’s telecast of the Oscar's could have as high as 10 best movie nominees and zero best song due to rule changes. The song changes essentially requires the songs to be judged based on how they are used as a part of the movie rather then added as Oscar bait for the end credits. Considering how songs have been replaced with orchestration or older (cheaper) songs, it means that the possibilities are high that no one will get nominated.

Fall 2009 Premiere Dates - Click the link for a day by day breakdown for the premiere dates of the new fall season on the five major networks starting with the CW on September 8th.

Supreme Court rules in Favor of White Firefighters - In a surprise to no one, the Supreme Court rules 5-4 that white Connecticut firefighters were unfairly denied promotions. The promotions when it discovered that no minorities had passed the required exams. The Court said that it could not be proven that discrimination had occurred (nor was a case made on how the test was unfair to minorities). This is a rare recent case where I agree with the court. Tests shouldn't be re-written just to increase the odds of a certain group passing. While they should be written to be as neutral as possible, all should meet the same requirements.

Starcraft II Hands-On - It is starting to appear that Blizzard just might get the game out this year as Joystiq describes a hands-on session with the game and provides video. Probably the part I like best is a "spectator mode" that allows players to watch online matches and view stats, something that is difficult to do in the first game.

Links of the Day - Courts Edition

Obama Picks Sotomayor for Supreme Court - In an effort to seat the first Hispanic on the court, Obama picked Sonia Sotomayor has his candidate for the high court. As expected, the GOP objects to the choice saying she allows personal views to dictate her rulings, ironic considering Antonin Scalia does that all the time (see below). I don't know enough about her to know if this good pick but what little I have read suggests her only outstanding trait as a judge is she is a Hispanic as her rulings have not been particularly ground breaking or compelling. Before it’s all over, we will know more then we probably want to about the woman so hopefully that first impression is incorrect.

Supreme Court Reverse Michigan v Jackson - The court overturned the 86 ruling that authorities had to stop questioning defendants once they ask for a lawyer. Now police can pretty much tear into defendants as long as they want until a lawyer is actually on the scene. Scalia's argument for the ruling, "there is little if any chance that a defendant will be badgered into waiving his right to have counsel present during interrogation". Basically it’s the "trust me!" defense, the same used for the Patriot Act (which lead to warrantless wiretapping of Americans), questing defendants (which lead to a need for the Miranda rights), torture and so forth. It would be a rather long list if tried to named abuse of rules by authorities, bosses and pretty much anyone. Once again, Scalia allowed his personal views to dictate his rulings.

Caifornia Supreme Court Upholds Prop 8 - In a surprise to no one that knows even a little about the law, the court upheld that Prop 8 CA constitutional amendment to outlaw gay marriage. On the bright side the 18000 currently legally married remain legal. Considering a Supreme Courts job is to weigh in on the constitutionality of the law, a legally passed amendment by definition is constitutional. At this point the only way to reverse the decision (cause the Supreme Court isn't) would be for another constitutional amendment.

Beware CircuitCity.com - While the stores are defunct, the website will live on due to recent purchase by Systemmax. However, I don't recommend ever ordering anything from the site as their return policy is very rigid. For example, the site can refuse a refund or replace a product at any time. They also refuse to accept return on any Compag, IBM, HP, Toshiba, Epson and other computer vendors. Basically, you by something from them, whether it works or not, you’re stuck with it.

Mike Tyson's Daughter Dies - The once boxing king's four year old daughter died today accidently hanging herself on a treadmill cord at home last night. What makes it tragic beyond the death of a child for me is the Tyson was about to regain some of his fame with a new documentary and summer movie, now tarnished by this loss. Condolences to the family.

Heroes Recreates SNL's Jizz in My Pants - Using some creative editing from Heroes over the last few seasons, a new video for the amusing song from SNL.

Links of the Day - More Videos

Special Comment: Torture Accountability - A special comment I can agree with. Keith Olbermann makes the argument that for the sake of the country, Bush and his cronies must be held accountable for ignoring and violating the law. Obama wants to "move forward", essentially ignoring what Bush did. As Olbermann pointed out, every time we "move forward" be it slavery (Civil War), no war crimes after WWI (WWII), ignoring of trusts in 1900s (see bailout of today), McCarthyism (Watergate), and so on. Basically ignoring what happened means it simply gets repeated later. In this case, some future President will look at the Bush years as an example of how to push policy rather than a cautionary tale (like Nixon) on how to not conduct business. A lesson needs to be made of Bush and his friends, not just to heal today's wounds but to prevent future ones.


Starcraft II Battle Report - Terran vs. Zerg in a battle report from Blizzard that shows off game play. It is 20 minutes long but if you’re as interested in this game as I am, I find it a fun watch.


New Harry Potter 6 Trailer - Click the link for the latest trailer that shows awesome visuals and a much darker style then before.


Pirate Bay Four Found Guilty - It is official, the four founders of the Pirate Bay were found guilty of charges of being accessories to copyright infringement and ordered to spend a year in prison and pay about $3.5 million in damages. The site itself seems unaffected and the four said they would appeal.

DSI Stop Motion Disassembly - A cool video from TechRestore were they use stop motion to have a Nintendo DSi appear to take itself apart. I wouldn't mind seeing a "how they do that" video of the process.


Lego Battleship Yamato - Watch the below video that showcases the Lego Battleship Yamato. It is 22 feet long, took 6 years and 4 months to complete, 200k bricks and weighs 330 pounds. This sucker is constructed 1/40 scale. The video even shows how it was assembled and included a motorized gun. Simply amazing. Lego should consider buying it for one of their parks.

Links of the Day

Weekend Box Office - After last week’s bonzo box office thanks to Fast and Furious, this week was decent and more the norm for April. Hannah Montana debuted to a sadly impressive $34M showing that Disney Channel adaptations continue to be cash cows. Fast & Furious took a 59% dive to a still impressive $28.8M take. Monsters vs. Aliens is number 3 with $22.6M. Observe and Report launched with $11.1M proving that Seth Rogen is not yet a headliner. Good reviews from critics combined with bad reviews from crowds probably didn't help (friends’ opinions trumps "experts" anytime). Knowing is 5th with $6.7M. To the surprise of no one, Dragonball: Evolution absolutely tanked with a pathetic $4.7M take thanks to crappy trailers and bad reviews from pretty much everyone (audience and critics alike). No surprise since they took a property that should have been a blast to take to life action (think Matrix fights) and instead of keeping the fights they kept the crap (costumes, humor, design).

Captain Rescued By Navy Snipers - It took a while but the US Navy was able to free the captain taken hostage by pirates by killing three of them with sniper hits. Richard Phillips was unharmed and doing well. Hopefully this is the beginning of a no nonsense approach with the pirates. At the end of the day their goal is wealth by taking it from others and like most criminals there wiliness to engage ends with risk to their lives. Kill enough of them and maybe they either stop or at the very least they learn to not mess with any ship waving a US flag.

Colbert: He Did It - After a campaign on his show The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert won a NASA poll to get a new room (module) at the US Space Station named after him. NASA delayed announcing what name they had decided upon but the AP is reporting that Astronaut Sunita Williams will be on the program Tuesday to announce that NASA has chosen "Colbert" as the official name.

Polar Bear Attacks Woman - At the Berlin Zoo on Friday, a woman was attacked by a polar bear and bitten several times. The caveat on this though is she chose to climb the fence and jumped into the bear's habitat during feeding time. Intruder plus hunger equals expected results. It is unknown what the woman was thinking.

Best Buy Reorgs - In an attempt to cut costs (mostly through demotions); the company has reconfigured the stores hierarchy to decrease the number of floor supervisors. On the plus side, the reorganization isn't expected to lead to layoffs. I would say there is a bad side but nor of a neutral side since I expect service to remain at its lackluster level and the continued incompetence in such areas as Geek Squad (where the staff is mostly salespeople not techs) to continue unabated.

Links of the Day

New iPod Shuffle - Apple has quietly released a new, smaller shuffle with more memory. It’s about half the size of the 2G shuffle with twice the memory (4gigs). It is sleek looking with a few caveats. One is price ($80, considering cost of memory should be $50 or less), and another is control is done via Apple's rob me white headphones which means a special (i.e., expensive just cause it’s Apple) dongle is required to use non-Apple headphones. I am going to take a pass. Click here for a video demo.

Obama To Reduce Earmarks - Whatever the party is, it remains the same - pork. Lots of it. While condemning it, they enjoy piling it on as the recent budget bill passed by congress proves (leftover bill from last year). Only 5 didn't, including John McCain, showing that at least some are capable of backing their words with action. Obama is going to sign the bill, but to mean a new call need to be made. One that Clinton and Bush asked for and one that Obama might actually be able to push through and that is the line-item veto. Let Congress pile on the pork...and then he can proceed to remove it.

Strange tax brackets - Now not sure reading the info at the link right but it appears that our progressive tax system tops out for anyone making $357,700 a year or more. So whether that person makes 400k or 400 million, the percent of tax owned doesn't change. That seems unfair to me and indicates that either two solutions are needed. One is create more tax brackets or my preferred method is come up with one percentage number that is applied to everyone's total income (wages, tips, stock, whatever) equally. The tax form shouldn't even be a page long. It should be a total of income, the tax percent number, the tax owed as a result and tax already paid. That's it. It should be so simple stupid that a 7 year old could do their parents taxes for a grade.

Another School Attack - At least 15 are dead after a 17 year decided to handle disliking his lot in life by killing as many children and teachers as possible before killing himself. Why these people simply don't quietly just end themselves without the hoopla I don't understand. It’s horrible and it makes you powerless. The drive for infamy that seems to drive many of these attacks should not be handed out and those that engage in it should have their name removed from the public record and forgotten as if they never existed. Give them a nickname but screw helping add to their "fame."

Bailout LexCorp! - For some humor, below is a video from Funny or Die with Jon Hamm as Lex Luther asking for federal bailout money as LexCorp is hurting from the various failed plans to buy/create land and kill Superman.

"Lex Luthor Bailout" with Jon Hamm - watch more funny videos

Office Depot Lies About Laptop Stock - As a consequence of spreadsheet management were idiots who only know how to read graphs define policy, managers and associates at Office Depot have resorted to lying to customers about stock to meet required metrics to keep their jobs. Basically the stores are measured on the amount of unneeded extended warrantees and tech support plans that they sell with their electronic equipment, especially laptops. Don't meet the metrics and jobs could be lost, something no one wants right now. The net result is a dance. If you are required to have every 3 out of 10 laptops to have a warrantee purchased, it’s in your best interest to stop selling laptops at a certain point until you meet or exceed that number. Based on corporate's own metrics, it’s actually to the advantage of a store to refuse to sell laptops that don't have additional crap purposed. After all, why sell 10 laptops without warrantees and possibly lose your job if you can simply wait and sell 10 with warrantees and get a commission and back pat for a job well done? Spreadsheets managers are doing America with their stupidity.

Links of the Day

Sportsmanship Isn't Dead Yet - Nice story about a team that through away to free throws so that a player, whose Mom died the day before, could play the game without penalty. They made the choice to earn their points rather than have them given to them for a reason, that while part of the rules, wasn't just. In a time of stats ruling all, both the team and the player that purposely missed the free throws deserves a salute as indicated by this letter.

Dow Hits Six Year Low - Sadly the recession is continuing to show signs that recovery is at least a year away as a new low was hit today, the lowest it has been since October 9th, 2002. The cause is basically a lack in confidence in the stimulus bill since most of the programs where stripped away in favor of tax cuts at the demands of the Republicans. Because you know, companies make all their decisions based on taxes, not revenue. Just like they continue to believe you, the average American, make spending decisions not based on job security but taxes. Their (very rich) bubble must be a wonderful place.

Chimp Cartoon Creates (Artificial) Anger - Al Sharpton, starved for attention, as jumped on the cartoon to the right as proof of racism at the New York Post. Why? I don't know, to my know Obama didn't write the stimulus bill, majority and minority leaders in Congress did. Calling them monkeys is accurate and fair. Also, this crap about not being able to insult the president as others will twist it into racism as to end too. The right silenced naysayers after 9/11 and it wasn't right. It is not right when the left does it too. Assuming the Sharpton interpretation is accurate, guess what, Obama is the President. He is made of sterner stuff and he doesn't need the likes of Sharpton to protect him.

Acid Eye for Acid Eye - Through an Iranian law that allows literally an "eye for an eye", Ameneh Bahrami has asked her attacker be blinded by acid just like he blinded her. Human rights activists and bloggers are outraged but so what. Part of the reason we have the crime problems we have is the fear is gone. The phrase "you will go to jail" has no fear for many people anymore. If told though that you risk having inflicted on you the same thing you inflict on someone else, I guarantee many would reconsider their actions. It’s one thing to blind somebody if the worst thing that can happen is some jail time, but it’s a whole new ballgame if suddenly that act can happen to you too. Can you imagine how things like domestic violence would go down if the husband received the same beat down as the wife? A guy that shoots someone in turn gets shot? Stab someone...better not get caught or you will get stabbed too. The teeth is gone from punishment and something like this means that I guarantee the next stalker in Iran would think very long and hard before doing the acid trick again after this punishment is carried out.

More Megapixels the Better? - Short answer is no. At the link is a long article explaining why but the short answer is if the lenses and capabilities are not built in the camera then the picture quality may not necessarily improve. It’s kind of why the bigger the camera the better it is as more bells and whistles to get those perfect shots. Even shorter answer, if you’re not a professional or hobbyist, 6 megapixels is all you need.

Early Watchman Review - Apparently the sneak peeks have started and an early review found the film to be so-so. Oddly their complaint was the movie followed the source material too closely preventing proper exploration of the characters. Also high camp factor was cited (probably because of Malin, who looks amazing but acting seems so-so). Click here for clips.

California Budget - A nice little summary talking about the problem that is facing California due to some of its laws that have placed huge limited on how the state can raise money and pass budget laws. Laws that allowed a single Republican to hold the state and its thousands of workers hostage.