Thursday, October 15, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Star Trek: Worst five or best five villains... you decide
Sadly, Khan died a few days ago. Not the weak warrior from the Steppes of Mongolia, born in the 12th century, creator of the largest contiguous empire in history. No, he was a wimp compared to the real Khan. Khan Noonien Singh, born in the 60s and enhanced during the Eugenics Wars of the 1990s. Reawakened in 2267 and exiled to make a new life on a dust bowl of a planet. He was "The Villain". So much so, that when Star Trek moved from TV to movies, the creators couldn't wait to bring him back. The greatest villan of film ever? Maybe, but was he the greatest villain of Star Trek? Here is my top 5 best of the worst villains Star Trek ever created.
5. Kevin Uxbridge, the Douwd. An unassuming name for an alien that wanted to be left alone, refused to fight, and then wiped out 50 billion Husnock with a single thought.
4. Gul Dukat. Crazy, loathsome, and completely without remorse. He launches a one man war against the Klingon Empire.
3. Tie:
Nomad. Cleaning planets is his game, eliminating carbon life forms is just taking out the trash.
Doomsday machine. Eats planets for dinner and starships for dessert.
2. Borg. All of them, Borg Queen, Borg Picard, Borg whoever. Except for 7 of 9 of course.
1. Khan. "From Hell's heart, I stab at thee. For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee".
Ricardo Montalban brought a villian to life that had no equal. He was vicious and caring, warrior and poet, insane and thoughtful. No other Star Trek villian has been as complete in all aspects of their character.
I was disappointed to see his tribute in USA Today say that he would be remembered for the man in the white suit on Fantasy Island. I think his greatest role was Khan Noonien Singh. As evil as they come, but smooth enough to sell corinthian leather to a Ceti eel.
5. Kevin Uxbridge, the Douwd. An unassuming name for an alien that wanted to be left alone, refused to fight, and then wiped out 50 billion Husnock with a single thought.
4. Gul Dukat. Crazy, loathsome, and completely without remorse. He launches a one man war against the Klingon Empire.
3. Tie:
Nomad. Cleaning planets is his game, eliminating carbon life forms is just taking out the trash.
Doomsday machine. Eats planets for dinner and starships for dessert.
2. Borg. All of them, Borg Queen, Borg Picard, Borg whoever. Except for 7 of 9 of course.
1. Khan. "From Hell's heart, I stab at thee. For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee".
Ricardo Montalban brought a villian to life that had no equal. He was vicious and caring, warrior and poet, insane and thoughtful. No other Star Trek villian has been as complete in all aspects of their character.
I was disappointed to see his tribute in USA Today say that he would be remembered for the man in the white suit on Fantasy Island. I think his greatest role was Khan Noonien Singh. As evil as they come, but smooth enough to sell corinthian leather to a Ceti eel.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Twitter Jitter, the next medical emergency
Twitter jitter.... Uh oh,, the next carpal tunnel syndrome scare.
Recently a friend of mine tweeted that he was suffering from twitter jitter. Unfortunately, since Twitter only allows 140 characters, he could not elaborate. I responded, twitter of course, with friendly concern, but no more tweetails (details) were forthcoming. So, that left me to wonder the worst. Twitter jitter, could it be:
a) physical withdrawal from twitter. Similar to the irregular random movements of the body indicating addiction or the shakes. This kind of jitter could be the worst because uncontrollable body shakes would make it impossible to tweet via mobile or pc. Qwerty keyboards are not built for people with the jitters. Going cold turkey where twitter is concerned is asking for trouble.
b) visual withdrawal concerning twitter. This type of jitter indicates an inability to view anything. Everything appears to be moving in the fashion of an old circa 1950s tv. Also classified by the irregular random movement of a crt or lcd screen image. Now, it was Friday evening at 6 pm when I saw this tweet from my friend, so it is possible that liquid libations may have contributed to the twitter jitter.
c) a sense of panic or extreme nervousness. This could be due to the constant fail whale of twitter. Or it could be due to a constantly shifting cell phone signal making it hard to receive and transmit tweets. Or it could just be due to an attempt to try to reduce my thoughts to 140 characters. That would make anyone nervous and anxious. Watching that character countdown to 0 is worse than waiting on the doctor to read my test results while I am sitting there watching him shake his head while reading.
While I don't want to pre-dispose you to a choice, my favorite is #3. Being a twitter user, I have found a great sense of nervousness occurs waiting for that next tweet from a virtual friend. When the dead silence of twitter indicates no activity, how can that be possible?!!! I mean how can none of my friends be doing anything worth tweeting?!
Regardless of which definition explains my friend's twitter jitter, none of these conditions sounds good. Sounds like another medical emergency is on the horizon, and it's name is twitter jitter. Yikes, we r n gr8 trubl.
Recently a friend of mine tweeted that he was suffering from twitter jitter. Unfortunately, since Twitter only allows 140 characters, he could not elaborate. I responded, twitter of course, with friendly concern, but no more tweetails (details) were forthcoming. So, that left me to wonder the worst. Twitter jitter, could it be:
a) physical withdrawal from twitter. Similar to the irregular random movements of the body indicating addiction or the shakes. This kind of jitter could be the worst because uncontrollable body shakes would make it impossible to tweet via mobile or pc. Qwerty keyboards are not built for people with the jitters. Going cold turkey where twitter is concerned is asking for trouble.
b) visual withdrawal concerning twitter. This type of jitter indicates an inability to view anything. Everything appears to be moving in the fashion of an old circa 1950s tv. Also classified by the irregular random movement of a crt or lcd screen image. Now, it was Friday evening at 6 pm when I saw this tweet from my friend, so it is possible that liquid libations may have contributed to the twitter jitter.
c) a sense of panic or extreme nervousness. This could be due to the constant fail whale of twitter. Or it could be due to a constantly shifting cell phone signal making it hard to receive and transmit tweets. Or it could just be due to an attempt to try to reduce my thoughts to 140 characters. That would make anyone nervous and anxious. Watching that character countdown to 0 is worse than waiting on the doctor to read my test results while I am sitting there watching him shake his head while reading.
While I don't want to pre-dispose you to a choice, my favorite is #3. Being a twitter user, I have found a great sense of nervousness occurs waiting for that next tweet from a virtual friend. When the dead silence of twitter indicates no activity, how can that be possible?!!! I mean how can none of my friends be doing anything worth tweeting?!
Regardless of which definition explains my friend's twitter jitter, none of these conditions sounds good. Sounds like another medical emergency is on the horizon, and it's name is twitter jitter. Yikes, we r n gr8 trubl.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Album art... Google's next big thing? I wish!!!!
Yahoo recently announced that they are discontinuing their music service. I can switch to Rhapsody. Wow, no thanks. Yahoo is doing a great thing, offering refunds or DRM free versions of songs you purchased.
On the other hand (I have 2), this really upsets me because I used to use Music Match. Anybody else use that? I loved it. It had everything I wanted. Rip in multiple formats, burn quickly, and not a single album cover was missing. Then Yahoo had to go and buy MusicMatch, and killed it, and forced me to switch to Yahoo music player.
Yahoo can't find art for about half of my albums. And windows media player. About one-third of my albums have no art. Oh sure, I can go find the art and cut and paste it into the icon. But why do I have to do that? Is it some other form of piracy that the RIAA has deemed unacceptable use? Can't Microsoft hire some minimum wage (or less nowadays) summer intern looking for a cool job to go out and scan and find all the album art?
Google... Here is your next great tool with lots of potential for advertising revenue... Search and find and categorize and link all music album art since 1909. Or whenever the first album was sold commercially. Trivia: The first collection of records to be called an "album" was Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite
How hard can that be for the google terabillamillicentigoogol server farm? Heck, I'd even be willing to pay 10 cents per hit. 1000 albums, that is 100 bucks. Why not, I've already paid the music industry 3 times for just about every album I have.
How about an album art service for a useful web search app?
On the other hand (I have 2), this really upsets me because I used to use Music Match. Anybody else use that? I loved it. It had everything I wanted. Rip in multiple formats, burn quickly, and not a single album cover was missing. Then Yahoo had to go and buy MusicMatch, and killed it, and forced me to switch to Yahoo music player.
Yahoo can't find art for about half of my albums. And windows media player. About one-third of my albums have no art. Oh sure, I can go find the art and cut and paste it into the icon. But why do I have to do that? Is it some other form of piracy that the RIAA has deemed unacceptable use? Can't Microsoft hire some minimum wage (or less nowadays) summer intern looking for a cool job to go out and scan and find all the album art?
Google... Here is your next great tool with lots of potential for advertising revenue... Search and find and categorize and link all music album art since 1909. Or whenever the first album was sold commercially. Trivia: The first collection of records to be called an "album" was Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite
How hard can that be for the google terabillamillicentigoogol server farm? Heck, I'd even be willing to pay 10 cents per hit. 1000 albums, that is 100 bucks. Why not, I've already paid the music industry 3 times for just about every album I have.
How about an album art service for a useful web search app?
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Cable is so web 1.0. I am ready for web 2.0
I've just about had it with the cable company. I am paying over 10 bucks per month for "taxes, fees,...etc". I pay 9 dollars for digital service? Why do I have to pay for that? Will I still have to pay that after the digital transmission law becomes active? I pay 8 bucks for my 1 convertor box. Per month. ridiculous.
I have been looking at alternatives, and I am starting to wonder if I should just watch all of my TV via the web? It's like having a 1 day time-delayed DVR. Really, I have checked, and the 8 tv shows I watch are all available on the web for free. Well, I would have to watch the commercials, but watching it for free might be worth it. I have a nice computer that can connect to my nice tv.
I can only see 1 downside to this plan. No HBO, Showtime, etc. So, I would have to go to Netflix or Blockbuster to rent those 6 months later when they come out on DVD. Do I really need to see any of this stuff right away? I'd have to make sure I stay away from the water cooler at work. I don't want someone telling me what happened last night on Lost.... hmmmm. I gotta go. I need to sign up for netflix.
I have been looking at alternatives, and I am starting to wonder if I should just watch all of my TV via the web? It's like having a 1 day time-delayed DVR. Really, I have checked, and the 8 tv shows I watch are all available on the web for free. Well, I would have to watch the commercials, but watching it for free might be worth it. I have a nice computer that can connect to my nice tv.
I can only see 1 downside to this plan. No HBO, Showtime, etc. So, I would have to go to Netflix or Blockbuster to rent those 6 months later when they come out on DVD. Do I really need to see any of this stuff right away? I'd have to make sure I stay away from the water cooler at work. I don't want someone telling me what happened last night on Lost.... hmmmm. I gotta go. I need to sign up for netflix.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
The ultimate social app? (Part II)
A quick google search later, and I had found http://ping.fm . It is a great site that allows me to sum up my activity in 140 characters or less (that is usually easy to do) and ping.fm will post it to all of my social networks. Ahhhhhhh nirvana, until I realized I still have to read all these different sites to keep up with what my real and virtual friends are doing.
So, what we (and I mean the royal we) need is an app that will allow us to not only post, but also read all of those social comments by all of our friends. Wow, that sounds great doesn't it? What features do you think that kind of an app should have? Found out my list next time...
So, what we (and I mean the royal we) need is an app that will allow us to not only post, but also read all of those social comments by all of our friends. Wow, that sounds great doesn't it? What features do you think that kind of an app should have? Found out my list next time...
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
The ultimate social app?
I've started using a lot of social websites, first because I thought they might be useful for work, but now I realize they have limited work usage, but are fun and interesting ways to get other perspectives on everything. I started on twitter, then facebook, then myspace, and then plurk. There are lots of other sites: friendster, friendfeed, pownce, bebo, jaiku, ad infinitum. LinkedIn is the most business oriented, but I haven't done any business there. But, I'm sure that is my fault.
I'm not really interested in trying them all. Oh, I signed up for them, cause I could and no one had picked my favorite user name yet, so I thought I should reserve it for the future, just in case...
What I have noticed is that I can spend all of my free time tweeting and plurking and powncing and facing and ...well you get the idea. Not a very useful way to spend the small amount of free time I have.
I'm not really interested in trying them all. Oh, I signed up for them, cause I could and no one had picked my favorite user name yet, so I thought I should reserve it for the future, just in case...
What I have noticed is that I can spend all of my free time tweeting and plurking and powncing and facing and ...well you get the idea. Not a very useful way to spend the small amount of free time I have.
Ping em... ping em all !!!
Firefox has a cool trick called popout or fly out. I first saw it mentioned in regard to facebook. So, I'm trying out the ping.fm pop out to allow me to post from firefox sidebar.
Cool it works... :-) Not always the result you expect when technology is involved...
Ping.fm has a new code as of 7/31/08 beta code is pingscompany
Cool it works... :-) Not always the result you expect when technology is involved...
Ping.fm has a new code as of 7/31/08 beta code is pingscompany
Friday, June 20, 2008
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Here are the clues...
Well, I am here enjoying our vacation and here are the clues for you to guess. Start at the bottom and work your way back up:
Clue #6 - Once known as "Faded Glory, our B&B boasts Queen Anne
architecture and award-winning gardens.
Clue #5 Decimated financially by the Great Depression, like most American cities, this city responded atypically by committing to pay back every penny of its debt, clearing the slate in 1977.
Clue #4 Our destination city has two nicknames, the first of which it shares with four other Southern cities: the Paris of the South; and the other: the Land of the Sky.
Clue #3 The city of our destination is found in a county whose name has suffered in modern times (since 1820) by giving birth to the derisive term "bunk."
Clue #2 Originally inhabited by the Cherokee, this area played host to European explorers/settlers, led by Hernando DeSoto, finally serving as an open hunting ground until the 19th century.
Clue #1 Our destination is located in a state which: was admitted to the union in 1789; claims the dogwood as its flower; and considers the cardinal to be its bird.
Friday, August 24, 2007
The vacation has started!
Every year Lynn and I head out to a different destination for our anniversary. This year Lynn planned it and I was clueless (as usual). We have a tradition of alternating years for who plans and who is clueless. It is a way to surprise the other person. She has been sending me clues all week long. I'll post them so you can guess along with me. Here we go...
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
This is my first blog attempt from my phone via Jott
This is my first blog attempt from my phone via Jott. http://www.jott.com . I hope to use this all the time when I want to let everyone know something quickly. Now if I could just set up an rss feed on my website.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Ahhh technology
Google has sucked up another great technology.... Blogger... Hopefully they will make it better.
Friday, April 28, 2006
I am having problems publishing
I am having problems publishing my blog. Technology stinks. It creates this dependency and then fails you everytime. When did we decide that if it works 90% of the time that is ok?!
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
Day 1
Time to start blogging. I am so caught up in all this web stuff. One good thing about the tech bubble crash... it left the really cool ideas standing... Like this one. This is just going to be my time to free associate. Take it for what it costs you... nothing :-)
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