Friday, March 05, 2004
I don't know what I was going to write about.
I had a nice long rant planned for today, seeing as how I didn't really put any effort into my last couple of postings. It was going to be a long tirade about drugs, what I thought of them, the silly war against them, and other such stuff. However, I don't really feel like it. Instead, I'd rather just type random stuff about things that are entertaining me at the moment, such as the wonders of spaghetti and chicken, or the new Jimmy Swift concert I downloaded. Apparantly there's a rather huge subculture of people who make recordings of live concerts (provided the bands let them) and share lossless recordings of them (as shn files...). I think this was pretty much started by the Grateful Dead, but it's spread to a lot of other bands, mainly the jam-bands in particular. The GD apparantly sold far more concert tickets than albums, and I can understand why. Given that most of the music they do is improvised and free-form, it would be really cool to have a gazillion CDs of their music, with each one slightly different. I'm guessing Jimmy Swift are cool with this as well, and since the concert I just got is of a shockingly good quality level, I'm quite happy. I also got a Queensryche album, but it isn't nearly as good, so I'm going to keep looking for their stuff. The single Eyes of a Stranger got me hooked, so I'm hunting for more, always hoping for the elusive Greatest Hits CD that's out there and is supposed to be quite excellent.
Silly thoughts about computers
I use a computer a lot. At work, at home, my life is rather endebted to these wonderful machines. One thing that's always got me however, is how anachronistic our keyboards are. Sure, they look new, and have tons of fancy internet and media buttons, but for the most part they all have that same 104-key layout. How many of those keys do you actually use? The letters and numbers, sure, and the punctuation as well. Control and Alt are nice to have, as are the formatting keys like Tab and Backspace. If you use spreadsheets and such, then it's nice to have a numpad, and the F-keys are just all-around useful, but there is one button that I have never ever used. The scroll lock key. What is this for? The only systems that still use the ever-scrolling terminal screens are *nix boxes, and I've never used the key on those, let alone our shiny graphical Windows boxes. I call for a redesign of the keyboard. One that takes into account the ergonomics and the new functionality needed in this age of supercomputing, and that is useful for ALL computing, rather than just gaming (been done). It would never sell of course, since people refuse change even if it's good for them, but it would be interesting to see what kind of concept keyboards the big design brains can come up with.
On a lesser note, my computers at work hate me. In fact, all the clocks do. No two show the same time, and none are correct. They always leave you with a sense of false hope that maybe, just maybe it's 10 minutes later than you thought it was and you're that much closer to going home. Then you turn the corner and find out that it's actually 20 minutes earlier and you're crushed, or at least until you go to the cafeteria and see the clock that always says 3:35:14, at which point you just give up and go get your coffee.
Cool things in the news
Volvo designed by women. Apparantly this car was designed "by women, for women". While this may or may not be true, it's at least half right. It was indeed designed by women. With that in mind, I really want one of these cars. Not only does it look roomy and really really cool, but it has Delorean-style doors!!!! Who would not want a car with gull-wing doors? Add to that the fact that it's designed to be nearly maintenance free, and it seems to be far more practical than most cars out there now, and you have a winner in my books. So you can't open up the hood. Who cares? Sure, it's nice to be able to open it up with all your mechanic friends and you can drink beer while staring at a running engine, but I won't lose any sleep if I can't. I don't particularily care how a car works so long as it gets me where I want to go, and with the gull-wing doors, this one does in style! Did I mention I like the doors?
Bling
Mario Brothers: The Epic in three parts (2) (3). This is easily one of the most bizarre flash-movies I have ever seen. It's a sprite animation about the original 8-bit Mario Bros., but it has some of the coolest mood music ever. I mean, you have King Koopa leading an army of Goombas, Bullet Bills, Koopas and Koopa Paratroopas against the Mushroom Kingdom set to the LotR remix of the Requiem for a Dream overture!! How cool is that? I really hope that there is more coming in this series, because it rules.
I must own of these. These as well.
Save money by buying an mp3 jukebox! Apparantly these micro-drives work great in digicams, and you can get it for half the price by buying a MuVo2. Don't believe the lies about the iPod Mini though. It doesn't really work.
But enough about me, how was your day? ¶ 6:55 p.m.
I had a nice long rant planned for today, seeing as how I didn't really put any effort into my last couple of postings. It was going to be a long tirade about drugs, what I thought of them, the silly war against them, and other such stuff. However, I don't really feel like it. Instead, I'd rather just type random stuff about things that are entertaining me at the moment, such as the wonders of spaghetti and chicken, or the new Jimmy Swift concert I downloaded. Apparantly there's a rather huge subculture of people who make recordings of live concerts (provided the bands let them) and share lossless recordings of them (as shn files...). I think this was pretty much started by the Grateful Dead, but it's spread to a lot of other bands, mainly the jam-bands in particular. The GD apparantly sold far more concert tickets than albums, and I can understand why. Given that most of the music they do is improvised and free-form, it would be really cool to have a gazillion CDs of their music, with each one slightly different. I'm guessing Jimmy Swift are cool with this as well, and since the concert I just got is of a shockingly good quality level, I'm quite happy. I also got a Queensryche album, but it isn't nearly as good, so I'm going to keep looking for their stuff. The single Eyes of a Stranger got me hooked, so I'm hunting for more, always hoping for the elusive Greatest Hits CD that's out there and is supposed to be quite excellent.
Silly thoughts about computers
I use a computer a lot. At work, at home, my life is rather endebted to these wonderful machines. One thing that's always got me however, is how anachronistic our keyboards are. Sure, they look new, and have tons of fancy internet and media buttons, but for the most part they all have that same 104-key layout. How many of those keys do you actually use? The letters and numbers, sure, and the punctuation as well. Control and Alt are nice to have, as are the formatting keys like Tab and Backspace. If you use spreadsheets and such, then it's nice to have a numpad, and the F-keys are just all-around useful, but there is one button that I have never ever used. The scroll lock key. What is this for? The only systems that still use the ever-scrolling terminal screens are *nix boxes, and I've never used the key on those, let alone our shiny graphical Windows boxes. I call for a redesign of the keyboard. One that takes into account the ergonomics and the new functionality needed in this age of supercomputing, and that is useful for ALL computing, rather than just gaming (been done). It would never sell of course, since people refuse change even if it's good for them, but it would be interesting to see what kind of concept keyboards the big design brains can come up with.
On a lesser note, my computers at work hate me. In fact, all the clocks do. No two show the same time, and none are correct. They always leave you with a sense of false hope that maybe, just maybe it's 10 minutes later than you thought it was and you're that much closer to going home. Then you turn the corner and find out that it's actually 20 minutes earlier and you're crushed, or at least until you go to the cafeteria and see the clock that always says 3:35:14, at which point you just give up and go get your coffee.
Cool things in the news
Volvo designed by women. Apparantly this car was designed "by women, for women". While this may or may not be true, it's at least half right. It was indeed designed by women. With that in mind, I really want one of these cars. Not only does it look roomy and really really cool, but it has Delorean-style doors!!!! Who would not want a car with gull-wing doors? Add to that the fact that it's designed to be nearly maintenance free, and it seems to be far more practical than most cars out there now, and you have a winner in my books. So you can't open up the hood. Who cares? Sure, it's nice to be able to open it up with all your mechanic friends and you can drink beer while staring at a running engine, but I won't lose any sleep if I can't. I don't particularily care how a car works so long as it gets me where I want to go, and with the gull-wing doors, this one does in style! Did I mention I like the doors?
Bling
Mario Brothers: The Epic in three parts (2) (3). This is easily one of the most bizarre flash-movies I have ever seen. It's a sprite animation about the original 8-bit Mario Bros., but it has some of the coolest mood music ever. I mean, you have King Koopa leading an army of Goombas, Bullet Bills, Koopas and Koopa Paratroopas against the Mushroom Kingdom set to the LotR remix of the Requiem for a Dream overture!! How cool is that? I really hope that there is more coming in this series, because it rules.
I must own of these. These as well.
Save money by buying an mp3 jukebox! Apparantly these micro-drives work great in digicams, and you can get it for half the price by buying a MuVo2. Don't believe the lies about the iPod Mini though. It doesn't really work.
But enough about me, how was your day? ¶ 6:55 p.m.
