March 11, 2008
The war would pay for itself
Sad but true. *sigh*
Source: http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2008/03/10/tomo/
Filed by Tony at March 11th, 2008 under Other, Rant
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March 8, 2008
No love for us the PowerPC folks..
So yesterday Apple announced the SDK to develop apps for the iPhone/iPod Touch. After several months of jailbreaking/hacking your iPhone/iPod Touch, you will now be able to officially obtain apps to run on these devices in a legal manner.
Should your geek-intellectual level not be up to par, an SDK (short for Software Development Kit) its the tool given to programmers so they can develop applications/games for a given platform. Having an SDK means that you can whip out some apps, debug them, tweak them, publish them. In short, having an SDK its a good thing for any technology platform that wants to go places.
Curious and bored, I wanted to download this famous SDK thing to mainly just play with it. Hey that’s what us geeks do for fun..sometimes. Anyhow, so I went to developer.apple.com and I was ready to get a hold of this thing, when it hit me.Reading the system requirements on the page, the SDK only works on intel macs. But what about us PowerPC folks? We apparently aren’t getting any love anymore from Apple. Perhaps its just this initial release of the SDK, and they will be making a PowerPC/Universal Binary version? Truth be told, I really doubt it..
Oh well, I guess its time for me to start looking for a way to get rid of my old macs and get an intel Mac. It was only a matter of time, until us PowerPC users started to get the short end of the stick. That’s technology for you, danm you Moore’s law.
Filed by sebaz at March 8th, 2008 under Computers, Mac, Technology
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March 6, 2008
Dirty hotel room glasses
Amazing how many things get by without anyone noticing. But honestly, how great could a cleaning lady at holiday inn wash your glasses? Personally, I don’t expect ANYTHING in a hotel room to be fully sanitized. It’s just common sense. There are about 5 cleaning ladies and about 200 rooms to be cleaned in a day. Management is always on top of them to clean more rooms and to do it faster. There comes a point where you start to skip some steps to get things done faster.
It’s still no excuse for the lack of cleanliness. Management should hire more cleaning ladies or let them take more of their time to do their job properly. I always try to clean the toilet seat and also try to clean the shower floor at hotels and try to avoid being barefoot at all times. Thankfully, most hotels I’ve been to already implement the one-time plastic cups.
Filed by Tony at March 6th, 2008 under News, Other, Videos
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March 5, 2008
Your Internet At Stake: Net Neutrality
Being such a technology driven individual, it’s funny that I never really paid attention to net neutrality. I grew up at a time where the internet was, and still is, a leveled field for individuals and companies. Only on the internet could you create something that could become more popular than a million or billion dollar corporation. On the internet your voice is the equal to that of the President or the Pope. This can be easily taken for granted when it’s free and available to all, but that may not be the case for long.
Corporations such as AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, etc. are pocketing billions of dollars meant to improve our computer/fiber networks and instead have been trying to create a “filtered” internet for us. They plan to “filter” the internet to control what we have access to and limit our internet communication. This defies the very logic of the internet itself. This cannot happen!
Personally, I owe the internet a lot. I learned to play guitar from reading tabs and tutorials. I learned to program in C/C++/ASP/ASP.NET/PHP/JSCRIPT/SQL/REGEX/etc. and design websites and create graphics. I learned about music and cultures I didn’t even know existed. I learned how to fix and maintain computers and networks and databases. I learned how to properly manage my finances and invest. I learned all of this (and much more) from the internet. I’ve learned more from the internet, and continue to do so on a daily basis, then I ever did in school. The internet is the ultimate tool for the autodidactic individual such as myself.
I’m not a very political individual, but I do know and believe in what’s right and wrong. I know that trying convert the internet into something other than a completely free and level field for all is the worst thing that could happen.
Watch the video above, it clocks in at a bit over 10 minutes, but it’s worth it. You’ll learn how serious this issue is.
Filed by Tony at March 5th, 2008 under Internet, News, Rant
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March 3, 2008
New Nine Inch Nails CD! Ghosts I-IV
Today seems to have started on a good note! The weekend began a bit off as my girlfriend was a bit sick, but slowly it started to turn brighter. We had a setback with a house we we’re thinking of getting having a pending sale, but oh well, not meant to be. I got some reinvigoration to start working on some web projects I’ve been procrastinating on and I plan to start working out again today too. So a lot of good things.
Now I see that NIN has released a new album?!?! HOLY CRAP! This is almost like an early Christmas present! At the moment I’m being a bit cheap (trying to purchase a home) so I’m going to download the free first album, but I’m going to get the full album(s) once I’m finished being torn between the $5 download and the $10 “luxurious” double cd. On the one hand, I’ll probably NEVER play the CD’s, but on the other, just the fact that I have a physical copy and all the graphic design goodness of the booklet and whatnot makes me giddy. They have more expensive versions with a blu-ray disc (sounds good!) but $75 and up is just too much money in my opinion.
I’ll decide tonight and in the meantime I’ll think about which format to download the music on. 320kbps MP3… FLAC…. Apple Lossless…. Hmm.
Look forward to a personal opinion/review of the album. I’m predicting it will be great as most NIN music is.
Filed by Tony at March 3rd, 2008 under Music, News
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Super Mario Bros. in First Person
Wow! Super Mario Bros was made into a mod/level of the game Half-Life! The above video shows footage of the first and most popular level of the original game in first person. This video amazed me at the quality of the level and also made me laugh out loud because of the craziness of shooting and being attacked by the crabs.
Awesome little clip! 
Filed by Tony at March 3rd, 2008 under Funny, Games
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February 28, 2008
Bob Dylan Brief Analysis & Opinion
I’m still listening to Bob Dylan after having posted before that I wanted to learn more about his music. So far I have a couple of hours under my belt. I figured I had to check out Bob Dylan since one of my favorite songs, Mr. Jones by the Counting Crows mentions “I want to meet Bob Dylan” and the movie Anchor Man starring Will Ferrel starts with the quote “Bob Dylan once said ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’”. Granted these are not the best reasons to get into Bob Dylan, but it was enough of a catalyst for me to finally give Mr. Dylan a chance.
My initial response to his music was surprise. First from the amount of songs that other artists have covered in their own way. Here’s a small list from what I can recognize:
- All Along The Watchtower was covered by Jimi Hendrix
- Forever Young was covered by Rod Stewart
- Mr. Tambourine Man was covered by The Byrds
- Knockin’ on Heavens Door was covered by Guns N’ Roses
Mind you that these are just songs I recognize from a quick iTunes search. Lord knows how many more songs have been covered by other artists.
My second surprise was at the general lack of finishing the songs have. I had to make sure I didn’t have some odd version of a pre-recording or a live session. The quality is a bit rough. Dylan’s voice is raspy and seemingly untrained and the instruments, although well played, also display a sort of lack of quality recording. Having said that, all the songs are diamonds in the rough. To me Dylan’s ability to develop the “root” of the song is what makes him great. For examples let’s take two of the previously mentioned songs.
Mr. Tambourine Man (currently my favorite song thus far) in its original version is a carefree jingle of music, guitars, harmonica and not much more. But the “root” or “core” of the song was near perfect. The Byrds polished the song enough to make it an amazingly popular single.
Knockin’ on Heavens Door was a song I always liked from Guns N’ Roses and I was shocked to learn it was a Bob Dylan song. Hearing the original 2:30+ minute song illustrates how Guns N’ Roses had little to do to get a single from this one. Granted Slash’s solos and Axel’s screeching never hurts and made it unique.
The only song from the above list that was perhaps improved (in my opinion) is Forever Young. I can see the purity of the original and they beauty of it. But Dylans vocals on the “high” parts are kind of hard to ignore (but with every listen of the song it gets better, so I may think differently later on). The arrangement of the cover by Rod Stewart is incredibly well done. It fine-tuned the original gem into a super song. This further demonstrates Dylan’s ability to create such a great “root” of a song to allow for such diverse applications. Kudos to the producers of the covers as well.
While I wouldn’t consider Bob Dylan my favorite singer and/or songwriter, he’s definitely high up on my list now. You have to admire and respect what this man has been able to accomplish. If you haven’t given him a chance, I recommend you do. It never hurts to expand your musical horizon.
Filed by Tony at February 28th, 2008 under Music
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February 26, 2008
Central and South Florida Power Outage
Well, apparently I’m one of the few in the Miami area still with power and just as importantly, an internet connection. Not sure what is going on, there was talk of several thunderstorms in a different areas causing the outage. My cousin jokingly commented that this was eerily suspicious of some terrorist and/or cyber attack.
I was just on CNN and was looking at their “LIVE” feed over Miami. The camera pans left and right but they can’t seem to spot an area in distress. I understand the traffic lights may be out, but it’s not like it’s the movie Independence Day where chaos will ensue. Silly CNN.
Oh well, I figured I’d post about the moment.
Filed by Tony at February 26th, 2008 under News
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Mr. Pagliaro
This morning I woke up and couldn’t help but to remember 4th and 5th grade. During 4th and half of 5th grade I was in a special class, I believe it was called “ESE”. If you were in ESE, you were there because you were either a troublesome student or had some sort of issue. It was a very small classroom with about 15 kids, but it was the absolute best class I ever had. The reason for that was Mr. Pagliaro, our teacher.
Mr. Pagliaro was a well-posed man of about 60 years. It was because of him that I realized it was not only possible to be a “better” student, but also have a really good time being one. I ended up in ESE because I got into too many fights. I remember that I wasn’t the one who started the problem, but I sure wasn’t the one to let the problem go. In many cases I remember not starting any problems or fights, but I would always end up being blamed or accused of fighting. Being one of the bigger kids and having the “reputation” didn’t help much I suppose. So near the end of 3rd grade, the principle sat down with my mother and myself and said I would have to go into ESE for the next year. I was furious because that meant I couldn’t stay in the same class as the girl I liked at the time.
Being in 4th grade started out a little rough. This was the “troublesome” class after all. I had to deal with one or two kids that tried to make fun of me, but after some quick shoving around we were in good terms. I also had a lot of previous class mates that weren’t bad kids at all, really good kids actually. I guess they we’re a bit A.D.D. and they put them in the same class. Back then (early 90′s) there was little evaluation for any attention deficit disorders, you were either good or you were bad.
Enter Mr. Pagliaro. Through relevant and insightful and most importantly really fun lectures and assignments I was able to become a better student and become more of a “team player”. I’ve always been one to not have many friends. I rather have a handful of good friends than a room of acquaintances, but I’m not anti-social by any means. I started participating in more sports and group projects and learned a ton. This was the first time I actually looked forward to school (without it being related to a girl) and the first time I did homework consistently (although we always had time at the end of class to do the work). I became a better athlete when it came to sports. I was the classes best and one of the better (if not best) school touch-football player and I was able to increase my run from sluggish to equal of that of the fastest kid (which surprised me because I was much bigger). Mr. Pagliaro always told me I should pursue football or some sport but I never actually did until later on where I got into bodybuilding (but have since let it up, sadly). The reason I got better was because of Mr. Pagliaro’s religious daily “training” where we would spend 30-60 minutes a day (aside from the regular P.E.) just playing football or any sport. This made life at school MUCH better. I was able to focus much more and learn more because of it. Kudos to Mr. Pagliaro for having the guts to defy the system. I did so well in fact, that Mr. Pagliaro and the Principal both recommended I go back to a regular class for 5th grade, but I refused stating that I had a much better classroom experience as I was. They persisted but I held my ground, even though I could potentially go back to seeing the girl that I liked on an every day basis. That’s how good that class was.
Anyway, 5th grade begins and soon thereafter Mr. Pagliaro decided to retire. This broke my heart. Mr. Pagliaro had almost become a father figure to me, he understood me and actually figured me out when no one else could (he actually pulled me aside one day and told me). It was tough, but by doing that he taught me two valuable lessons. Expect the unexpected and shit happens. It was would be one of the many cases where something or someone I care about leaves or is taken away. Mr. Pagliaro’s retirement wasn’t the first case of this, but it certainly wouldn’t be the last. After Mr. P left, I was asked again by the Principal to go back to a regular 5th grade class and I took her offer. No classroom afterwards would ever be the same.
I owe Mr. Pagliaro a lot. More self-esteem, more confidence, more ability. I never had the opportunity to tell him in person but at a time where I was very confused, heading lower, and needed the most help Mr. Pagliaro was there to help make a better me. Whether he knew it or not, he made a world of difference in me. So to Mr. Pagliaro, if you’re somehow reading this I’m now 24-years-old and doing just fine. Hopefully one day we can meet again and I can tell you this face-to-face.
Filed by Tony at February 26th, 2008 under Other
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February 25, 2008
Bob Dylan or Adam Sandler?
Lately I’ve been trying to get into the music of Bob Dylan. While I always heard great things about the man, I never actually listened to one of his songs. I’ve actually heard a handful, but all through cover versions such as Mr. Tambourine Man (covered by the byrds) and Forever Young (covered by Rod Stewart). My first reaction was of shock when hearing his raspy “unfinished” tone of voice. However, after hearing a couple of songs I’ve come to realize it’s not really his voice that’s the key to his music but a combination of lyrics and musical arrangement (and perhaps timeliness of his creating the music itself).I’m still learning and listening to his music so I’ll give a more thorough opinion later.
In the meantime I was youtubing Mr. Tambourine Man and saw this video of the uncanny resemblance between Adam Sandler and Bob Dylan. Compare the two pictures above and you be the judge.
Filed by Tony at February 25th, 2008 under Funny, Music
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