August 2007 Archives

[Moozik: The Expoxies - Synthesised]

Because I live in a cave I completely missed the announcement that Halloween has been remade by Mr Rob Zombie.

To be honest I'm in two minds about the remake. On the one hand, it will be interesting to see Rob's take on the story as I thought he did a good job with House of 1000 Corpses. On the other hand I'm secretly dreading it because John Carpenter's original is such a classic.

The last time one of John's classics got remade, it was an unwatchable trainwreck. So you can forgive me if I'm a little nervous about Rob's version.

[Moozik: My Bloody Valentine - Soon]

I've written my fair share of website scraping code over the years and if there's one thing that I've learned from that experience, scraping code is extremely fragile. Anytime the site you are scraping changes, your code will probably break in various subtle ways.

Because of that I was very interested in reading Tatsuhiko Miyagawa's Practical Web Scraping with Web::Scraper slides from his YAPC::Europe 2007 talk. Web::Scraper sounds awfully useful and I'll be trying it out.

[Moozik: Tears For Fears - Pale Shelter]

I just read the announcement that search.cpan.org now includes module ratings in the list of search results. Which is a really nice addition.

The CPAN really is Perl's killer app and I shudder to think how my job would be so much more difficult without it.

[Moozik: Soft Cell - Youth]

A while back I read a very interesting pilot's account of a near miss. The writeup is rather lengthy and goes into great detail but is well worth the read if you like that sort of thing. But that story is not the point of this entry. Buried in the story is one paragraph in particular that really caught my attention.

Everything on the exterior of the aircraft looked to be in good shape, if a little dirty and worn. I suppose most passengers would be surprised to see the amount of dirt, grime, grease, and hydraulic fluid on the underside of a typical airliner. It's not dangerous, but it is inevitable when the planes fly so much, and can come in for a wash only when it's time for a maintenance check at the hanger. Most planes have vents on the bottom from the hydraulic system, as well as drains from the sinks in the lavatories. Whenever a flight attendant pours out a pot of coffee into the sink before landing, that coffee goes out the vent, to eventually make a brown stain somewhere aft of the drain mast on the underside of the plane. The acid from that coffee is actually one of the leading causes of the stains, corrosion, and paint peeling on the aircraft fleets of the world.

So, the pouring of the coffee down the sink contributes to corrosion and paint peeling eh? Now, I'm going out on a limb here but I would imagine someone would mention that they might not want to keep doing that. Wait till the plane lands and, I dunno, pour the coffee away in some manner that doesn't involve it splattering along the underside of the plane. Like a real drain. On the ground.

[Moozik: Killing Joke - Love Like Blood]

I originally mentioned my confusion at the concept of guest blogging four years ago. I think most if not all of my original points are still valid today. Guest blogging along with "sorry I haven't posted in awhile" apologies are the two things about blogging that still make me go hmmmm.

One of the biggest guest blogging offenders just recently has been Andrew Sullivan. If you take a peek at his blog today you'll see all the subject lines suffixed with [name] to indicate that someone other than Andrew wrote the post. Obviously I'm not at all interested in what anyone other than Andrew has to say so I always skip over those guest posts and mutter under my breath.

Perhaps bloggers worry that readers will be annoyed and unsubscribe from their feed if there are no posts for a couple of days. But having someone other than the person I want to read post entries is almost the same thing isn't it? So no, that can't be the reason. Ok, maybe bloggers worry that they will lose eyeballs on their site if there are no posts for a couple of days. But if you don't read the entries via a RSS reader, you are compelled to visit the site yourself anyway right? So there would be no lack of eyeballs. So that can't be the reason either.

So what is the reason for wanting guest bloggers? I'm really starting to think it's just an overinflated sense of self-importance.

[Moozik: Pixies - Debaser]

Remember kids, this is why you should stay in school.

Words truly fail me so I'll let Mo Rocca take it from here.

It seems obvious that there was some sort of malfunction, short-circuiting. Did a jealous Aimee Teegarden mess with Miss South Carolina's fuse box? In retrospect it seems miraculous that Miss South Carolina's head didn't explode. (Some theorists hold that Miss South Carolina is a foreign terrorist plant, speaking code to signal sleeper cells. Nonsense. She's clearly a product of the American education system.)
YOUR CHALLENGE: Reorder Miss South Carolina's words into a coherent answer. You cannot use any words that don't appear in the text below and you can only use a word as many times as it appeared in her answer. (e.g., "believe" appears three times, so you cannot use it more than three times.) You may use any punctuation you'd like, since after all, Miss South Carolina didn't use any at all. You don't have to use every word, though if you do, it's a slam dunk.

So, what do you get when you cross Front 242's Headhunter with Gwen Stefani's Hollaback Girl?

[Moozik: Wumpscut - Ich Will Dich]

Like you do, I checked last night's powerball numbers just in case. Obviously I didn't win. The powerball organizers didn't get the memo that this week was my week, oh well.

As I was glancing at the recent winners list I noticed something interesting.

• Lucky South Carolina Winner Claims $400,000 Powerball Prize...
• North Carolina Man Wins $1 Million Cash With Power Play...
• South Carolina Man Wins Powerball Prize For The Second Time...
• North Carolina Man Wins $200,000 On Extra Powerball Ticket!

I guess residents of the Carolinas are just incredibly lucky. What are the odds of recent winners coming only from those two states?

[Moozik: Devo - Gates Of Steel]

As someone who grew up with the National Health Service in England, it still feels odd to have to pay any amount of money when visiting the Emergency Room (A&E or Casualty for readers from Blighty). Instead of leaving the Hospital after you are evaluated and treated, you are ushered into an office for some fun questions about your health insurance provider and have to fill out some paperwork.

After a rather comedic billing error which could be a blog post in itself, I got to see exactly how much a recent Emergency Room endeavor cost. Or I should say how much the Hospital billed the insurance company. Cutting a long story short, the Hospital padded the bill by 69%. The insurance company paid their "allowable amount" and instead of eating the remainder, the Hospital decided to bill us instead.

This was all finally cleared this morning with a Hospital billing technician saying "oops, you should not have received that" (you think?) but was a real eye opener to the games that are played in health care.

[Moozik: Gang Of Four - It's Her Factory]

I started my final University class this week. EN306B Business Communication. Rather unlike me, I decided to get all the homework done before the weekend. This meant that I was still writing my "The cost of communication is..." essay close to 11:00pm last night. Oh yes, riveting stuff. You must be jealous.

So, seven more weeks to go. And then I'm done. Well, until I decide that I really do want that Masters degree and go back to school again. Based on my current mood, I really can't see that happening anytime soon.

...sipping ur beverage.

[Moozik: The The - Uncertain Smile]

Steven Seagal thinks the FBI ruined his career.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Steven Seagal, whose action movies once were major box-office attractions, believes false allegations by FBI agents ruined his career, the Los Angeles Times reported on Friday.

Of course, another possibility is that his career faltered because the movies he made were steaming piles of something you could smell a mile off. Just an alternate theory you understand.

[Moozik: Pixies - Debaser]

I have a bad habit of taking photos and then never uploading them to Flickr. The other night I stumbled across some photos from our trip to San Fancisco last year.

A peek, as they say, can be taken here. I just batch uploaded them so they are probably of varying quality.

A couple of months back I started listening to Rammstein after hearing their cover version of Depeche Mode's Stripped. I usually find myself cringing whenever someone covers a song by a fave band of mine so I was quite pleasantly surprised.

Here's the live version filmed at Les Arenes de Nimes in 2005. Ollie crowd surfing with an inflatable dinghy is quite entertaining too.

[Moozik: DAF - Kebabtraume]

Impressively breaking my own rule of if it aint broke, don't fix it, I upgraded to Movable Type 4 tonight. After backing up my MT install dir and the backend database, I followed the upgrade instructions and as promised MT detected the new version, upgraded the database and I was all set.

I was completely bored with the old look of the site so decided to start from scratch with the MT 4 default templates until I'm familiar with the new template layout. The only problem with the default templates I've come across so far involved the individual entry archive not being mapped to a file which caused some initial problems for new posts & rebuilds until I fixed it.

So far I'm really liking the new MT UI. It is so different than previous versions and I must admit that for the first few minutes I was a little lost as to where everything lived. Now that I've played with it for a little bit I'm much happier. So, more to follow I'm sure, but for now, I'm happy with how the upgrade went overall.

[Moozik: Rosetta Stone - Pulled Apart By This]

Dan Froomkin's column on Karl Rove's resignation and subsequent legacy is well worth reading.

The political guru who made President Bush what he is today had hoped to leave behind a permanent Republican ruling majority. Instead, his tenure will stand as an example of how divisiveness and partisanship are not conducive to successful governance.

After years of being lauded as a political genius, Rove nevertheless leaves his party in worse shape than he found it, with his boss profoundly discredited in the eyes of the American people.

When historians look back at Bush's squandered opportunity to unite the country and even the world behind a shared agenda after 9/11, part of the blame will go to Vice President Cheney and the decision to invade Iraq. But part will accrue to Rove for choosing to use national security as a wedge issue.

[Moozik: Deadsy - Commencement]

And another good TV series falls victim to TV execs pulling the plug way too early. This week, John From Cincinnati.

The wave has crashed for "John From Cincinnati." A day after its first-season finale, HBO on Monday canceled the dark surfing drama.

Labeled by critics as "strange," "weird" and "unlikable," "John" never clicked with viewers despite a strong marketing campaign and such well-known leads as Rebecca De Mornay and Bruce Greenwood.

Sure it was a little different but it certainly clicked with me. Shame they bailed on it.

[Moozik: Curve - Ten Little Girls]

• Foot pissed on by random bloke in Ikea bathroom? Check.

• Trousers and shirt stained by random woman wielding chocolate cake in Rainforest Cafe? Check.

• Toddler sent flying after running between my leg, crying eyes out, dad less than amused? Check.

• Cat not amused you've spent all day out of the house, pees on cupboard under sink right in front of your eyes? Check.

[Moozik: KMFDM - Revenge]

Bugger. So the new Cure album won't be coming out this year afterall.

The Cure's 14th studio record has been postponed for a second time and will not hit stores until next spring, the band's record company said on Thursday.

"The album got pushed to 2008, more like an April/May release. Robert is still recording," a Geffen Records spokeswoman said from New York, referring to the band's frontman Robert Smith.

Smith told Reuters in an interview late last year that he was struggling to come up with lyrics to some of the 33 new songs he and the band had recorded.

The new album was originally slated to be released in May this year, then was postponed until October.

[Moozik: The Stone Roses - Sally Cinnamon]

Wow, it was only last month that I mentioned Tony Wilson's struggle to pay for his cancer treatment.

LONDON - Tony Wilson, a music impresario credited with guiding a crop of bands from industrial England to the international stage, died Friday. He was 57.

Wilson promoted a host of influential musicians from his native city of Manchester in northern England, including Joy Division, New Order and the Happy Mondays.

He died from complications of kidney cancer, the city's Christie Hospital said.

[Moozik: Joy Division - No Love Lost]

I watched LA Galaxy vs DC United last night. Was interesting as it was David Beckham's first MLS game. He came on in the 72nd minute. To thunderous applause I might add. Crowd of 47,000 for a MLS game in America is quite good all told. It was interesting because while he didn't really do very much or get very many touches, the commentators were all Beckham all the time. They really, really do think he's a football god or something.

Quote of the night. "If you're on his team, how could you not be so pumped up and play better now that he's on the field?". Right, because obviously he's secreting some kind of super-football-genius pheromones that will turn anyone he runs near into an instant Pele or something. Dear US Football commentators, one man does not make a team.

[Moozik: Interpol - Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down]

Last year I was rather chuffed as I managed to lose 35 pounds. Sensible dieters know that the only true way to ensure weight loss is to make long term lifestyle changes. Otherwise the inevitable weight loss/gain roller coaster ensues.

It would appear I'm not a sensible dieter ;-)

Last weekend I stepped onto the scales, as you do, and realized that 15 of those lost pounds have mysteriously found their way back. Bugger. Time to rectify that.

[Moozik: Jane's Addiction - Whores]

I couldn't possibly nod my head in agreement anymore than I am right now. So, thanks Chris.

Resolved: ignore anyone who says "face it" when trying to convince someone of anything. As in, "Let's face it, everybody knows that furbles blorbicate way more than they nooble." Declaring a fact correct doesn't make it so.

Well said that man. Although to be fair, furbles do actually blorbicate more than they nooble.

[Moozik: PTP - Show Me Your Spine]

I remember when the game with the highest review rating was awarded the 'Game of the Month' title. I seem to recall every gaming magazine I've ever read since I started gaming back in the early 80s follow that simple, yet effective, formula. Well, Gamepro, in their infinite wisdom, have decided to abandon that formula and go with one that makes no sense whatsoever.

You see this month, they awarded the game of the month title to The Darkness. Ok, so far so good. I've got no problem with that. Let's look at the score it received - 3.75 out of 5.00. A little low for game of the month but ok, I'm still playing along. I flick through a few more pages and notice that Forza Motorsport 2 received 4.50 out of 5.00. The next page had Ninja Gaiden Sigma receiving 4.75 out of 5.00. As I continue flicking the pages I see that Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition received 4.75 out of 5.00, and Final Fantasy II received 4.00 out of 5.00.

Thinking the score for The Darkness must have been a misprint, I go back and re-read the game of the month announcement. No, it wasn't a misprint.

Sure in terms of pure numbers, The Darkness isn't the highest rated game this month, but it is, without a doubt, the most interesting, most disturbing, and most ambitious title in what was a surprisingly strong lineup.

Huh? The whole concept of the best game of the month has always been in terms of pure numbers. Call me Mr Picky but I'm not all that interested in whether a game is ambitious. I'm interested in whether it's any good. If the game is as good as you're telling me it is from that announcement, why did you give four games higher scores?

And while I'm picking on Gamepro magazine, I'll leave you with this little gem from the review of Ninja Gaiden Sigma.

It may sound strange but I'm glad I never played the original because Sigma is quite simply the best version of Ninja Gaiden.

Yes, it does sound strange because if you didn't play the original, how do you know this version is the best?

I don't think I'll be buying another copy of Gamepro anytime soon.

[Moozik: Ladytron - All The Way]

Senate Votes To Expand Warrantless Surveillance. (emphasis mine)

The Senate bowed to White House pressure last night and passed a Republican plan for overhauling the federal government's terrorist surveillance laws, approving changes that would temporarily give U.S. spy agencies expanded power to eavesdrop on foreign suspects without a court order.

The 60 to 28 vote, which was quickly denounced by civil rights and privacy advocates, came after Democrats in the House failed to win support for more modest changes that would have required closer court supervision of government surveillance. The legislation, which is expected to go before the House today, would expand the government's authority to intercept without a court order the phone calls and e-mails of people in the United States who are communicating with people overseas.

Lovely. Guess I'll be saying hello to the NSA whenever I speak to my family in England from now on. Although to be honest, this kind of thing has probably already been happening for quite some time.

[Moozik: Ladytron - Destroy Everything You Touch]

Number eight Nick Easter scored four of England's nine tries as an experimental side racked up a record score against a second-string Wales at Twickenham.

Oh yes. England 62-5 Wales. Grinning much? Me?

[Moozik: Orbital - Tunnel Vision]

We're in the future. I know this because I no longer have to take my items to a human in order to pay for them. It's a shame the future appears to be broken. At least the future presented to me by The Home Depot.

Over the course of last weekend I think I went to The Home Depot 3 times. Each time I used the self checkout. Each time I ended up swearing at the annoyingly friendly female voice that companies tend to use in their self checkout registers. Each time was a variation of a somewhat familiar theme.

Scan item. Place item in the bag in the bagging area. Try to scan next item. Voice says "Please place item in the bagging area". I already did and I'm trying to scan my next item. So obviously I say that out loud. You know, because in the future, the register understands you. Except in the broken Home Depot future. So I look helplessly at the human that monitors the self checkout registers in my best WTF face. So right there, the future is confirmed as broken because the self checkouts shouldn't need monitoring. She clears my register and I continue.

Scan next item and place in bag. Scan next item and place in bag. Blimey, it's actually working. Try to scan next item. "Please place item in the bagging area". But I already did, look, see, there it is. Again, I say out loud because in the future, the register can see you pointing. Take the item out of the bag in order to put it right back in. "Item removed from bagging area". WTF? If you knew it was in the bagging area, why did you ask me to place it in the bagging area?

I'm not entirely sure what the point of this post was except for the fact that I'm not liking this future much.

[Moozik: Fad Gadget - Salt Lake City Sunday]

It would appear you can now embed music videos on your blog courtesy of Last.fm.

You can now embed Last.fm video wherever you want on the web, watch the video fullscreen and scrobble it to your Last.fm profile.

So, all excited to try this out I wandered over there to find some videos for some of my fave bands. And found none whatsoever. Oh well. I suppose it's early days yet and I should give them a chance to add content. Also I wonder if all record companies/bands are on board.

Will be interesting to see what shows up over time. Hopefully the quality will be a little better than the grainy music videos on YouTube.