The Prophecy
29-Oct-04
Last night I successfully predicted the coming rain with my mildly arthritic knee. That is all.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Question
26-Oct-04
Why isn’t anyone talking about the $140 billion tax cut GW just signed into law? I don’t really watch network news, so I can’t be sure, but even Kerry doesn’t seem to be talking about it. I guess he’s too fired up about the 350 tons of explosives that went missing in Iraq. Explosives the IAEC warned them to keep secure before the war.
Oh yeah, watch the new Eminem video.
Also, Bill Clinton looks like shit.
[Listening to: Alone Again Or - Love - Christmas Comp Disc 1 (3:17)]
Popularity: 7% [?]
RIP John Peel
26-Oct-04
What can be said. John Peel was a huge influence on me and I hardly ever heard him. The man had some preternatural ability to pick up on a buzz before practically anyone. Case in point: He was playing the Modey Lemon before their first album even came out. This is just a small local example though. As a kid, “Peel Sessions” were to me some kind of mythic thing that only the greatest of bands could achieve. I did get to listen to his show once streaming radio became a reality, and he never failed to surprise. Rest in Peace, Mr. Peel. I’m sure there will never be another DJ quite like you.
Popularity: 7% [?]
The Ban Goes On
25-Oct-04
Well, it happened again.
I’ve been banned from Xbox Live. This time, I thought I was doing everything right. The Xenium deactivates itself when you launch the standard xbox bios from the TSOP, so I thought I was in the clear, as I was using a bios that completely disables live when I was running Xbox Media Center as my dash. Last week I heard some rumbling about Microsoft banning users based on not only their EEPROM but also their hard drive, or possibly due to weird saves that can’t possibly exist on an unhacked xbox (though I don’t see how this is possible, since save games can be passed between xboxes in a number of ways.
My xbox has a ‘recovered’ EEPROM and the same hard drive I was using when I was banned originally. I decided to bite the bullet and try to log in on Saturday morning and yes, I’ve been banned. Since I don’t use live all that much, I can’t say I’m too terribly upset about it, but it is a bit of a bummer.
Microsoft claims that they are increasing their bans due to a large number of users playing on Live with cheats or features enabled that should be impossible on an unbanned xbox. Some speculate that it is a response to the Halo 2 leak. Either way, you can’t blame Microsoft- they are trying to insure a quality service for people who are paying a decent amount of money. Look at what happened to SOCOM 1. It got to a point where no one was playing it because of all the cheating. Tons of modders are up in arms about how microsoft has gone too far. What the hell are these people smoking? They violated the Xbox Terms of Service they minute they opened up their xbox, then violated the terms of service when they went on live. By they I mean me too, of course. But I’m not really complaining, just bummed.
Update
Microsoft were kind enough to refund my year’s subscription money, no questions asked. No hard feelings guys? We cool? Sweet.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Google Desktop Search vs. Ignorance
19-Oct-04
Google has released a beta tool that allows a user to search through Outlook, AIM, IE and Text files on a pc. Sounds pretty cool, though I do wish they’d broaden their horizons a bit. Of course they’re looking to appeal to the lowest common denominator, so whatever.
Privacy advocates are unsurprisingly going ape-shit over the fact that Desktop Search is user-independant. That is to say, it searches the whole computer, and not just the user’s files. Hello? World? This is Windows. This is not Unix or Linux or OSX or whateverthefuck. Despite the advances they have made, Windows is still essentially built for the single user in mind. Users can essentially access anything on an NT based device by using the advanced search function. Securing individual users’ files is something that is not enabled by default. So why the fuss? Google is simply taking advantage of the inherent lack of security in Windows. They had a choice: restrict the search to just the user profile, or provide something useful and search the actual locations of where people (and shitty programs) store their data.
Nothing to see here people, move along.
Popularity: 5% [?]
On Baldness
18-Oct-04
Believe it or not, being bald is something I care very little about. Why am I writing about it then? Well, because time and again everyone else seems to try to either awkwardly tip-toe around it or accidentally bring it up or tell me I still look good or whatever.
The truth is, I have been losing hair since 11th grade. I remember the day I took off my football helmet and found a clump of hair stuck to the inside padding, glued there with a mess of hair spray and sweat. I have been 100% hair free in my life. For well over a year in fact, and I am still here.
Not having a lot of hair on my head really means very little, in fact I think I look quite dashing. The issue that strikes me the most is how it appears to be seen as some kind of handicap. My grandmother sadly telling me, so and so lost his hair at a young age too, then trying to comfort me by telling me it doesn’t look so bad. A woman at a party talking about an old picture of the guest of honor, quickly back-peddling after almost saying, “Its hard to believe he used to have a full head of hair.” My parents offering to buy me hair regrowth products!
If it weren’t for everyone apparently seeing my baldness as a problem, it really wouldn’t strike me as a problem, as I have been living with it for literally over 11 years.
I guess what I’m saying is: Move along. Theres nothing to see here. Yes I know I’m bald. Have a nice day.
Popularity: 7% [?]