Thursday May 26, 2005 - 11:04AM EDT
Just so we are on the same page to begin with, Michael Jackson has had a very not normal childhood and life in general of which the effects of are apparent, evidenced by the fact that he is off his rocking horse.
The title implies nothing. It was just the first thing that popped into my head about Michael Jackson and this trial. I'm putting my money that he will be acquitted. Based on the news coverage of the trial the prosecution seems to have had a weak case to begin with. They put a lot behind Jackson's previous allegations, which he was never convicted of and of which the general public knew very little about the details except that someone accussed him of molestation. The litany of conflicting testimony is disturbing. Either there are people that like him so much they would say anything to get him acquitted or there are people that hate him so much that they would say anything to put him in jail. Both seem like real possibilites. Although the prosecution wants to call Jackson's previous allegations as evidence of a pattern of wrongdoing, their clients themselves have their own checkered history to contend with. The fact is that the whole case is very muddy and I think the jurors simply have to make a personal judgment call because this can't be decided on facts alone. Especially considering the actual charges. Nothing was presented to substantiate any of them either way. For every person that said it happened this way there was another that said the complete opposite. Who do you beleive? If the kid did get molested the family's various shenanigans over the years is going to be their downfall. Like the boy who cried wolf. The most powerful testimony was probably that of the three boys who said they were not violated when the prosecution said they were. Also the couple of celebrities that came in and testified to the lack of credibility of the accuser's family was key. Although the defense didn't get exactly what they wanted from those witnesses, they still managed to establish that the accuser's family has a history of dealing with celebrities in a less than honest fashion. Are those celebrities are that paranoid? Its pretty horrible how the kid's mother used the fact that her son had cancer for such sinister reasons. And previously made his brother lie about something else to get money from a department store. If you've ever known or dealt with people like that you know they can't be trusted on anything. Which is a damn shame when they finally tell the truth. This is just my personal opinion but I do think that the DA or whatever that guy's name is who has been pursuing Jackson since the original allegations way back when has some kind of personal vendetta against Jackson or some kind of emmotional attachment to the case.
As a side note I always thought that complete detachment from personal feelings when dealing in things like this was the ultamite sign of cunning and strength. To elaborate take for instance the story of the cop who can't get a murder case out of his head. It consumes the cop and becomes a personal crusade. He wants to see the murderer fry. He wants to flip the switch himself. But if the cop can simply bring the murderer to justice while eating a sandwich and commenting on its flavor and simply move on to the next case without any attachment to the previous, that is great power. Like Constantine when he is hunting demons, it is just a job, a matter of fact approach. I love that shit. Unfortunately that probably never happens in real life and is extremely difficult to accomplish. So you can't blame people. I'd like to detach myself from anything at will and reason that life is just a bunch of fluctuating quantum states.
I don't remeber what I was saying about the Jackson case. I thought I was out of rants for the week. Ah well, INNOCENT! (remember that episode of the simpsons where homer was accused of sexual harassment and he went on public access TV to tell his side of the story. He ended the broadcast by saying "INNOCENT" in this funny upbeat voice. That is the voice you are supposed to read the last "innocent" in this post like.)
Wednesday May 25, 2005 - 9:51PM EDT
Two companies that I have previous worked for no longer exist, they both went out of business.
Suprised? Not really - comments(7)
Wednesday May 25, 2005 - 4:18PM EDT
So what do I find out today but someone else is leaving the company. IN my short 4 weeks here two people have left the company. Do I just leave a trail of desctruction behind every company I work for. I guess it is more the nature of the industry I work in than anything else. But pretty much every job I have had I have witnessed people getting fired or resigning during my stay or shortly after I left. I don't hate this place really, maybe I get a little overzealous in my blog about things I don't like but it is a huge improvement over the last job I had and much better than most others. It being so close to my house is the best part. My main gripe is just not having things to do, which they are aware of and seem to be trying their best to have constructive things for me to do. Like today I actually had a decent amount of work to do for a change. Maybe when I made that joke about everybody hating this place it wasn't so off base.
Revolutionary Controller - comments(0)
Wednesday May 25, 2005 - 10:06AM EDT
The more I think about it the more I think that the new Nintendo Revolution controller won't have buttons but just a large color OLED or LED touch screen that will display a button or control configuration that each game can customize. I think it is more of a possibility than gyroscopic controls or six degrees of movement control.
Wednesday May 25, 2005 - 9:44AM EDT
The governor's office released a letter Daniels received from two transplant doctors who said the presence of a hepatitis B antibody in Johnson's system and his heavy body weight made him unsuitable as a donor. full article
I commented on an article about this earlier. Now they provide more information that makes it much clearer. What isn't clear though is why they never mentioned this before since the doctors obviously made the diagnosis a while ago. It is weird shit like this that make me think the illuminati are in cahoots with the greys and the reptilians
Wednesday May 25, 2005 - 1:47AM EDT
I think I am all blogged out for a while. I can't think of anything else to rant on for while. I think I am just tired of ranting, so I will take break. It just gives me headaches. I feel like garbage right now.
Wednesday May 25, 2005 - 12:25AM EDT
So I got my powerbook. I'm happy with it so far. I'm really tired.
Tuesday May 24, 2005 - 4:38PM EDT
The following excerpt is from an article talking about the man now heading the group to buy the Minesota Vikings.
Wilf, a lawyer who is chief operating officer of Garden Commercial Properties in New Jersey, is the son of Holocaust survivors. The family business is among the largest owners of shopping centers in North America. - full article
This is just a slight peeve of mine. Of all things about this person they mention that. I don't know what being the son of a holocaust survivor has to do with buying an NFL team. They didn't say that the former leader of the group trying to purchase the Vikings was the grandson of a slave (he was a black guy). They did make a special mention of him being black, which the guy totally wanted ignored. Although he would have been the first black owner who served as the face of an NFL organization. So while it is kind of annoying it isn't without some merit that it was mentioned. Consider those connecting materials to a person that imply something extra without specifing exactly. Like saying someone is a Christian and it impling they are good and can do no wrong. Or that so and so goes to church and... Some connections are more annoying than others. Holocaust survivors descendants being particularly annoying, I even get a little peeved at actual holocaust survivors, as if that was the worst thing to ever happen to people in recent history, you survived got dammit. Funny part is, that it is rarely that actual person highlighting the connections to themselves. I think, and I may be wrong, more times than not those people would rather not be associated with connecting material that has tenous connections to the main issue. It is the outside parties who point out these things. You can't fault the person who has the connection. You have to fault the observers with distorted views. People still got a long way to go. This is done all the time though.
Tuesday May 24, 2005 - 4:17PM EDT
Holy shit this job is boring. Only 3 more weeks give or take. I think I would make a good movie villian. I look like I have no regard for human life whatsoever. And one who will gruesomely pursue their will without thought of consequence. The recent movie Boogeyman was the worst movie I have ever seen. Everyone involved in it should be ashamed of themselves, especially the editor with the ridiculously loud sounds every 4 seconds. I like the word ludicrous, crap stash is also clutch I feel. I've turned to amusing myself with funny words for the rest of the day. This is turbo pathetic.
Ha ha, I just heard the funniest thing at work. They are looking for more temp people here because they had some people leave. So what company do I hear that they are in contact with but the staffing company I used to work for. Hilarious. What would be even funnier is if they submitted my resume for the position. Ha. We had a informal brief team meeting today. I had a bunch of funny thoughts during the meeting. Namely, while the meeting was taking place I was going over in my mind what I was going to write in my blog about the meeting. That is funny enough, besides I forget most of the thoughts anyway. Oh wait here is one. I just wanted to yell out to everyone, "so, you all hate working here right?" and then have everybody nod in approval and continue with the meeting as if nothing happened. As Mr. Remolino put it nicely when refering to work "2pm-5pm is a fucking marathon." That is not an exact quote but it was something along those lines. How does one make a quotation that is not exact? Is there special notation?
I was just staring at the finger smudges on my computer screen against a black background and they started to form 3D hands. Like mickey mouse hands in Fantasia.
Tuesday May 24, 2005 - 10:50AM EDT
But what's the potential downside? Privacy watchers say that as biometric scanners become more widespread, it becomes possible for organizations--companies, the government--to create a detailed dossier of your physical movements as you pass from one scanner to the next. - full article
I fucking hate those vehement privacy watchers sometimes. In reference to the blurb above, don't they realize that doing that stuff is already possible. Maybe they do and the article's author is a pea-brained moron. I don't know, I am just hungry right now and want to not be at work. I don't have a problem with storing massive amounts of personal and would encourage data gathering and storage on everyone. I don't like having to carry keys, cash and credit cards everywhere. I guess I understand the whole privacy issue to an extent, but I swear that book 1984 has made generations of people overly paranoid concerning privacy. Besides it is a immense fallicy to think that we will lose any privacy with new technology. This is not a paranoid statement. But the CIA can pretty much get any information they want on you whenever they want. Not for sinister reasons, that is just what they do, gather information about everything. I don't get the fervor over national id cards that some countries have proposed. Honestly I don't see what the big deal is. So they will have a database of everyone in the country. They already do now, it just isn't as organized. Couple national id cards with voting reform that would be smart. I also don't like the idealogy of championing state autonomy in areas that should obviously be handled on a national level. Like voting for instance. Wait I already went over this, it is an ego thing and form of control. Which is ironic since decentralizing is a form of control and national standards would acutally allow more freedom.
And another thing. There is no need anymore to store personal information on the identification device. Credit cards don't need to store any data in that little magneetic strip except and id number that connects to a database that has your information. Makes sense, you have to be connected to make a payment anyway. I never understood why they put personal data on the cards magnetic strip anyway. That will change anyway with the introduction of RFID credit cards in the coming years. All the major card companies are swithing to it and I think the smaller easier to use cards(no signature required, which by the way is a piss poor verification system) they don't store any personal data just a number to connect to their network and get your info. Ideally you info should include a picture so that if people tried to use your card the clerk would simple compare who is using it to a picture provided by the credit card company over the network. That would make identity theft immmensely dificult. Which brings me to another point, why didn't Citibank's picture on card idea spread to all other credit card companies, seems like a really good way to prevent theft. National citizens database would make it much easier to prevent indentity theft because you could make it so that for one to get credit their information must be validated against the national database. And email notification would be sent to the person when credit was applied for. It would virtually eliminate ID theft among the petty small time crooks and leave it to the domain of really good computer systems crackers. Sure there will be growing pains and problems with setting up a system. But it would be superior to the crap stash we have today.
Tuesday May 24, 2005 - 10:22AM EDT
Looks like my powerbook is going to arrive a day ahead of schedule. The tracking says it is out for delivery today. One time I was tracking a package that said out for delivery but apparently it was on the truck but never made it that day. The status said something about not delivered because it wasn't scheduled and the delivery man ran out of time that day so it will be delivered tomorrow. Obviously it didn't say all that but the message conveyed the meaning quite welll in a few short words. I'm not being sarcastic it was a concise well put together status message that told you exactly what happened. Indiapolis is FedEx's international shipping hub. I think all international packages going somewhere in North America are routed through there.
The more I think about it the more I realize how awesome Harrison Ford was in the Star Wars movies. Same goes for Ewan McGregor. Interesting that both of their respective characters played in the lead supporting role.
There is this one person at work that I wish wasn't here. This person just seems too high strung for such a boring place. This person makes just makes me nervous. Nobody hates this person but I think they all wish this person wasn't here. No I am not talking about myself.
At 9:45am there was an attempted delivery of my powerbook. But obviously I am not there, so I have to go pick it up at the local FedEx facility later today. Damn.
Tuesday May 24, 2005 - 2:25AM EDT
While the media likes to portray the global warming debate as a tense two sided issue, I think the reality of the issue is different. I think only morons take sides in the global warming issue. The reality is that we do not have enough data to determine the future effects of global warming. Furthermore there is not nearly enough effort and money being put into figuring it out. I think I wrote about his before but a big hurdle in weather research is not having enough computing power and sample data.
That is all.
Monday May 23, 2005 - 10:40PM EDT
Respect Tony Little for appearing in a Geico commercial making fun of his own exurburance and enthusiansm for his excercise equipment. Hilarious.
Monday May 23, 2005 - 4:58PM EDT
I just have to laugh at some of these physicists and futurists who just have no idea. They are so close to technology that it is all they see. It limits them. Technology becomes their basis, not their own pure thought.
"The new PlayStation is 1 per cent as powerful as a human brain,” he said. “It is into supercomputer status compared to 10 years ago. PlayStation 5 will probably be as powerful as the human brain.” - full article
First of all, we haven't even come close to quantatively measuring the power and ability of the human brain. Time and time again we are still amazed by something humans are able to do, so to make that statement is ludicrous. I like his exploratory statements but I think whoever wrote the article is missing something. Not that he is crazy but that he is shortsighted in his approach. He is making statements of the future based on things that are still unknown or fully explored today. You just can't make such huge steps like that in thinking, you set yourself up for disaster. The playstation comment from above being a prime example. Kinda of fun to think about, but really, that idea of brain downloading is not even original, I've seen it so many times before, I am not sure why slashdot.org chose to link to the story.
Monday May 23, 2005 - 3:51PM EDT
Computer input devices need a big upgrade in the coming years if the next major steps in computing are to take place and be accepted by the masses. Voice control technology is not nearly good enough for everyday use yet. No matter how many companies want to tell you differently. Voice recognition technology overall blows. There are some exceptional examples out there but overall it sucks ass. If it didn't everyone would be using it. Screw that training the computer to recognize your voice garbage. You need it to recognize it anyone right away. I am hoping for the quick arrival of ultra-high res organic-led shortly. So that everyone can have large high resolution low power consumption screens. Along with that technology should come electronic paper that displays text that is indistinguisable from printed text.
I got a freaking headache, damn. It is hard to get excited about anything at work. It is just so freaking boring. MP3 player is trying to keep me from passing out from boredom. Its losing the fight. My teeth hurt, I need to see the orthodontist. I have this habit of either clenching my teeth or my fist really without even knowing it. I sometimes clench my teeth so hard at night that my whole head hurts when I wake up the next day. Same with my hands. I'll wake up and my hands will be in pain from clenching them all night. Ehh...
Monday May 23, 2005 - 10:52AM EDT
Looks like another stream of coinscienceness day. I need to improve my spelling and grammar in these posts. Nothing much to do yet at work. I think I am going to get something to do though. As soon as I find out my ultamite schedule I am going get my plane ticket to Venezuela. Probably will leave the last week of June. Listening to the MP3 player again. I fucked up and let both my rechargable batteries die so I am using my last alkaline right now. Shipped the speakers this morning. My powerbook left from the Philipines yesterday but no update on where it is today yet. I sort of shaved this morning. I just trimed the edges not to look so ragged. But I still look ragged and homeless.
Forgot my timesheet today. I'll have to swing back home at lunch and get one. There is the sound of what seems like a large air conditioning unit that persists all day at work. You don't even notice it until it stops a few times throughout the day. It is probably some kind of gamma radiation generator that is slowly killing us all. I was reading something recently on nuclear batteries. It is a battery that uses radiation to generate electricity. It would last for like 5 years. Imagine a cell phone battery that lasted for five years. I thought about radiation batteries in high school when we study radioactive half-life in chemestry class. There is one guy here at work that I like. It is not that I don't like everyone else, I am just indifferent to them. This guy seems like he would do much better in a more lively place. This is the same guy who came up with the really bad spare change joke. At least he was trying.
Sometimes I don't understand people with this odd excessive pride about really stupid things. Or people who always say someone is disprespecting them. I wish I could come up with some examples right now, but I can't think of anything. Conversely I also don't like people who bow to everything because of ridiculous tradition and standards. It usually ok in the case of small stupid things but then some people disregard any type of practicality for it. Damn I wish I had some examples. I can tell that I am not going to get this project done at work that I was hired for. Its on them for fucking around for a month and telling me it was going to take a month to complete. I may fuck around with my own time but I don't tolerate that bullshit from suck ass corporations. I just looked up the world record for jumping rope in a 25hr period. It is held by that king of world records Ashrita Furman. 130,000 skips in a 24hr period. That actually doesn't seem that difficult. Ha, yeah right. I should train and make an attempt.
Monday May 23, 2005 - 2:28AM EDT
I really like that book. I don't read that often but I usually get in a few books a year. So, I am 24 today. Fuck, damn pathetic life I live. I won't go over why, it is pretty obvious anyway. Finished the intial layout for a site redesign for a site I am working on. Still need to create a few subpage layouts then do it up in CSS.
First ultamite game on Friday. Saw the movie Crash tonight. It was solid. Not a movie for everyone though. It was pretty basic and covered topics that have been touched many times. There was no real plot to speak of in the traditional sense but that worked as the movie was mainly meant to provoke thoughts through character interaction. In the end I don't think you are supposed to care about what actually happens but more about what the events in the movie represent.
I sold my speakers. Will ship them tomorrow. Have one more pair to get rid of. Powerbook should be here on Wednesday. Not sure what I am going to do at work this week. I had a bunch of things to say a few minutes ago but now I am blank. Still thinking about Nintendo Revolution. Want to go to the gym early tomorrow, but I don't know if I'll make it. Somtimes I'll stare at my hands and be amazed that I am controlling their movement. I really need a haircut and a shave, I am pretty ragged looking right now.
Sunday May 22, 2005 - 12:36PM EDT
I have this odd habit of reading things in reverse. I am not talking about sentences but stories or manuals. For some odd reason, many times I will start from the back and read each paragraph up the page instead of down the page. Sometimes I will even start from the last sentence in the paragraph and read the last sentence first and the first setence last. Not sure why I do it. I just do sometimes. Especially when I just want to skim something. Anyone else do this?
Sunday May 22, 2005 - 11:25AM EDT
There is a story about how Federal Express was started. The founder wrote a paper in college about routing packages through a central hub facility then sending out to the location. Not just directly sending it from point to point. The guy apparently got a C on the paper and his professor told him that it was ludicrous. Well if anyone has ever tracked a package through FedEx then you know all the weird places your package will go before getting to you. I think the idea behind central hubs is to track packages easier and it probably has something to do with how the current system of air freight works. I think the idea is instead of every FedEx drop off place having to figure out the destination of all the various packages they receive it is easier for those places to just ship those pacakges to a central hub that is specialized in sorting and figuring that stuff out. Those smaller satellite facilites can focus on a simpler task and it probably is cheaper that way. Then from the main hub packages are sent to the proper places. With each satelitte facility getting packages to deliver to a various places it is better to send them to a central location so that all the packages going to the same place can first be gathered in one place then sent off all in one trip. So now you understand why your FedEx packages go so many weird places before they get to you.
Sunday May 22, 2005 - 10:36AM EDT
I saw Star Wars and all I can say is eh. It was fun, but I have seen more enjoyable movies. Lord of the Rings being one. It is clear that writing is not Lucas's forte. I don't know why but the bad dialogue seemed to stand out more than in his other movies. When looking back on the original Star Wars I can see how awesome a job Harrison Ford did. In today's prequels Ewan McGregor clearly stands out from everyone else. I am not sure whether it is his lines or just him. But he seems to be the only one to make delivery of the dialogue seem good. Ian Macdrimd and Samuel L. Jackson come in 2nd and 3rd respectively. Samuel has some good scenes and some crappy ones but he does a decent job with what he is given. Everyone else on the other hand is just downright awful. Christiansen and Portman just can't seem to salvage anything from the bad dialogue. The dialogue just seems unatural and stilted. I haven't seen the other two in a while but I think they had much better diaglogue in them. Frankly the best actors in the movie are either computer generated or in costume. C3P0 is probably has the best delivery of anyone in the movie. You really can't say enough of McGregor though. In comparison to the other actors and based on the less than perfect dialogue he does an awesome job.
Lucas does special effects. This movie doesn't disappoint. Ultra-high production values as always and the seemlessly integrated effects are awesome. They make the movie fun, creating a complete rich world for the story to take place in. Plenty of action, some suspense (obviously not too much since we all no the eventual outcome of everything) and did I mention awesome special effects. This movie won't win any oscars for writing or acting but it is still a fun movie to watch. I wouldn't call it good, but I wouldn't say it is bad either. If it wasn't for the whole Star Wars phenomenon the movie as a standalone would never be as popular. It would be lauded for it grandness of special effects and that is it.