Joe Levi: All that 'blog are not lost...

Recently Completed Projects

2006-06-16T10:20:00.000-06:00

I like to highlight some of the projects that I've recently completed, partly to serve as somewaht of a real-time portfolio and partly to help the subsequent pages with search engine relevance (cross-linking "magic"). So, without further delay, here are some of my recently completed projects:

Diet Cola + Mentos = Amazing!!

2006-06-12T19:16:00.000-06:00

Every wondered what would happen if you popped a Mento into your mouth then took a swig of diet cola? Don't try it! Here's what could happen! And here's what could happen with 101 2-liter bottles, over 500 Mentos, and WAY too much time on their hands!

Stealth Ring Tone

2006-06-12T15:32:00.000-06:00

You’ve heard about the new “stealth ring tone” that the kiddies are using on their cell phones to get calls and text messages without their teachers hearing it?

With a modern enough cell phone, the ring tone is so high-pitched that “grown up” ears supposedly can’t hear it. The older our ears get, the more loss of hearing we have in the upper- and lower-most segments of the audible spectrum.

Here’s the tone [20060610_RINGTONE.mp3], can you hear it?

The Great Immigration Debate

2006-06-07T17:30:00.000-06:00

Via forgetfoo.com... I enjoy a good satire, and sometimes the funniest (and most pointed) satirical comedy is in the form of Political Satire. For those of you who haven't had your morning caffine yet, Political Satire usually is in the form of cartoons in the Sunday paper on the op/ed page; they quickly illustrate the adsurdity and/or hypocracy of a point, but do so in a very funny manner... You read, you laugh, you stop and think "hey, that's the way it really is! That's not funny at all!" With that in mind, here's a political satire that illustrates the Great Immigration Debate... no, not the one that's ongoing presently, the one from 1621. Watch, enjoy...

What's the worst that could happen?

Hammer Control

2006-05-22T07:23:00.000-06:00

According to a KSL News Report a Massachusetts man is in police custody accused of beating his son and wife to death with a hammer. It's examples like this that make me weep! Why would a man in such an emotional state have access to a hammer? Studies have shown that homes with a hammer present are MUCH more likely to have "hammer related injuries" (including deaths) than homes without hammers! How many children must be injured or killed before we call for tighter hammer control? I suggest we impose MANDATORY background checks and a 3-day "cooling off" period before anyone can purchase a hammer. From what I understand, this was a relatively heavy hammer, what should be dubbed an "assault hammer." Why would anyone need anything more than a rubber mallet? Only construction professionals should be allowed to purchase and use assault hammers, and even then they should be registered and kept locked in a padded case whenever not in use. Additionally, a national "hammer impact database" should be kept of the unique "impact finger-print" that each hammer makes so that we can track each hammer to its owner. Only through tighter hammer control measures such as these can we prevent greusome events like this one!!

"Modern Y.M.C.A." or "The Ruin of a Perfectly good Song"?

2006-05-19T18:32:00.000-06:00

I really dig Haiducci's version of Dragostea Din Tei, and even the O-Zone version (O-Zone is a Bulgarian Boy Band) isn't half bad... Even the "Numa Numa Kid" version isn't bad... but this?! Okay, it's in Spanish, that's cool... but, well... see for yourself.

Plan to Destory America

2006-05-19T07:01:00.000-06:00

I HAVE A PLAN TO DESTROY AMERICA
RICHARD D. LAMM

I HAVE A SECRET PLAN TO DESTROY AMERICA. IF YOU BELIEVE, AS MANY DO, THAT AMERICA IS TOO SMUG, TOO WHITE BREAD, TOO SELF-SATISFIED, TOO RICH, LETS DESTROY AMERICA. IT IS NOT THAT HARD TO DO. HISTORY SHOWS THAT NATIONS ARE MORE FRAGILE THAN THEIR CITIZENS THINK. NO NATION IN HISTORY HAS SURVIVED THE RAVAGES OF TIME. ARNOLD TOYNBEE OBSERVED THAT ALL GREAT CIVILIZATIONS RISE AND THEY ALL FALL, AND THAT "AN AUTOPSY OF HISTORY WOULD SHOW THAT ALL GREAT NATIONS COMMIT SUICIDE." HERE IS MY PLAN:

I. WE MUST FIRST MAKE AMERICA A BILINGUAL-BICULTURAL COUNTRY. HISTORY SHOWS, IN MY OPINION, THAT NO NATION CAN SURVIVE THE TENSION, CONFLICT, AND ANTAGONISM OF TWO COMPETING LANGUAGES AND CULTURES. IT IS A BLESSING FOR AN INDIVIDUAL TO BE BILINGUAL; IT IS A CURSE FOR A SOCIETY TO BE BILINGUAL. ONE SCHOLAR, SEYMOUR MARTIN LIPSET, PUT IT THIS WAY:

THE HISTORIES OF BILINGUAL AND BICULTURAL SOCIETIES THAT DO NOT ASSIMILATE ARE HISTORIES OF TURMOIL, TENSION, AND TRAGEDY. CANADA, BELGIUM, MALAYSIA, LEBANON-ALL FACE CRISES OF NATIONAL EXISTENCE IN WHICH MINORITIES PRESS FOR AUTONOMY, IF NOT INDEPENDENCE. PAKISTAN AND CYPRUS HAVE DIVIDED. NIGERIA SUPPRESSED AN ETHNIC REBELLION. FRANCE FACES DIFFICULTIES WITH ITS BASQUES, BRETONS, AND CORSICANS.

II. I WOULD THEN INVENT "MULTICULTURALISM" AND ENCOURAGE IMMIGRANTS TO MAINTAIN THEIR OWN CULTURE. I WOULD MAKE IT AN ARTICLE OF BELIEF THAT ALL CULTURES ARE EQUAL: THAT THERE ARE NO CULTURAL DIFFERENCES THAT ARE IMPORTANT. I WOULD DECLARE IT AN ARTICLE OF FAITH THAT THE BLACK AND HISPANIC DROPOUT RATE IS ONLY DUE TO PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION BY THE MAJORITY. EVERY OTHER EXPLANATION IS OUT-OF-BOUNDS.

III. WE CAN MAKE THE UNITED STATES A "HISPANIC QUEBEC" WITHOUT MUCH EFFORT. THE KEY IS TO CELEBRATE DIVERSITY RATHER THAN UNITY. AS BENJAMIN SCHWARZ SAID IN THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY RECENTLY:

...THE APPARENT SUCCESS OF OUR OWN MULTIETHNIC AND MULTICULTURAL EXPERIMENT MIGHT HAVE BEEN ACHIEVED NOT BY TOLERANCE BUT BY HEGEMONY. WITHOUT THE DOMINANCE THAT ONCE DICTATED ETHNOCENTRICALLY, AND WHAT IT MEANT TO BE AN AMERICAN, WE ARE LEFT WITH ONLY TOLERANCE AND PLURALISM TO HOLD US TOGETHER.

I WOULD ENCOURAGE ALL IMMIGRANTS TO KEEP THEIR OWN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE. I WOULD REPLACE THE MELTING POT METAPHOR WITH A SALAD BOWL METAPHOR. IT IS IMPORTANT TO INSURE THAT WE HAVE VARIOUS CULTURAL SUB-GROUPS LIVING IN AMERICA REINFORCING THEIR DIFFERENCES RATHER THAN AMERICANS, EMPHASIZING THEIR SIMILARITIES.

IV. HAVING DONE ALL THIS, I WOULD MAKE OUR FASTEST GROWING DEMOGRAPHIC GROUP THE LEAST EDUCATED - I WOULD ADD A SECOND UNDERCLASS, UNASSIMILATED, UNDEREDUCATED, AND ANTAGONISTIC TO OUR POPULATION. I WOULD HAVE THIS SECOND UNDERCLASS HAVE A 50% DROP OUT RATE FROM SCHOOL.

V. I WOULD THEN GET THE BIG FOUNDATIONS AND BIG BUSINESS TO GIVE THESE EFFORTS LOTS OF MONEY. I WOULD INVEST IN ETHNIC IDENTITY, AND I WOULD ESTABLISH THE CULT OF VICTIMOLOGY. I WOULD GET ALL MINORITIES TO THINK THEIR LACK OF SUCCESS WAS ALL THE FAULT OF THE MAJORITY - I WOULD START A GRIEVANCE INDUSTRY BLAMING ALL MINORITY FAILURE ON THE MAJORITY POPULATION.

VI. I WOULD ESTABLISH DUAL CITIZENSHIP AND PROMOTE DIVIDED LOYALTIES. I WOULD "CELEBRATE DIVERSITY." "DIVERSITY" IS A WONDERFULLY SEDUCTIVE WORD. IT STRESSES DIFFERENCES RATHER THAN COMMONALITIES. DIVERSE PEOPLE WORLDWIDE ARE MOSTLY ENGAGED IN HATING EACH OTHER-THAT IS, WHEN THEY ARE NOT KILLING EACH OTHER. A DIVERSE," PEACEFUL, OR STABLE SOCIETY IS AGAINST MOST HISTORICAL PRECEDENT. PEOPLE UNDERVALUE THE UNITY IT TAKES TO KEEP A NATION TOGETHER, AND WE CAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS MYOPIA. LOOK AT THE ANCIENT GREEKS. DORF'S WORLD HISTORY TELLS US:

THE GREEKS BELIEVED THAT THEY BELONGED TO THE SAME RACE; THEY POSSESSED A COMMON LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE; AND THEY WORSHIPED THE SAME GODS. ALL GREECE TOOK PART IN THE OLYMPIC GAMES IN HONOR OF ZEUS AND ALL GREEKS VENERATED THE SHRINE OF APOLLO AT DELPHI. A COMMON ENEMY PERSIA THREATENED THEIR LIBERTY. YET, ALL OF THESE BONDS TOGETHER WERE NOT STRONG ENOUGH TO OVERCOME TWO FACTORS . . . (LOCAL PATRIOTISM AND GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS THAT NURTURED POLITICAL DIVISIONS . . .)

IF WE CAN PUT THE EMPHASIS ON THE "PLURIBUS," INSTEAD OF THE "UNUM," WE CAN BALKANIZE AMERICA AS SURELY AS KOSOVO.

VII. THEN I WOULD PLACE ALL THESE SUBJECTS OFF LIMITS - MAKE IT TABOO TO TALK ABOUT. I WOULD FIND A WORD SIMILAR TO "HERETIC" IN THE 16TH CENTURY - THAT STOPPED DISCUSSION AND PARALYZED THINKING. WORDS LIKE "RACIST", "XENOPHOBE" THAT HALTS ARGUMENT AND CONVERSATION.

HAVING MADE AMERICA A BILINGUAL-BICULTURAL COUNTRY, HAVING ESTABLISHED MULTICULTURALISM, HAVING THE LARGE FOUNDATIONS FUND THE DOCTRINE OF "VICTIMOLOGY", I WOULD NEXT MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO ENFORCE OUR IMMIGRATION LAWS. I WOULD DEVELOP A MANTRA - "THAT BECAUSE IMMIGRATION HAS BEEN GOOD FOR AMERICA, IT MUST ALWAYS BE GOOD." I WOULD MAKE EVERY INDIVIDUAL IMMIGRANT SYMPATRIC AND IGNORE THE CUMULATIVE IMPACT.

VIII. LASTLY, I WOULD CENSOR VICTOR [DAVIS HANSON'S] BOOK MEXIFORNIA — THIS BOOK IS DANGEROUS — IT EXPOSES MY PLAN TO DESTROY AMERICA. SO PLEASE, PLEASE — IF YOU FEEL THAT AMERICA DESERVES TO BE DESTROYED — PLEASE, PLEASE — DON'T BUY THIS BOOK! THIS GUY IS ON TO MY PLAN.

"THE SMART WAY TO KEEP PEOPLE PASSIVE AND OBEDIENT IS TO STRICTLY LIMIT THE SPECTRUM OF ACCEPTABLE OPINION, BUT ALLOW VERY LIVELY DEBATE WITHIN THAT SPECTRUM." — NOAM CHOMSKY, AMERICAN LINGUIST AND US MEDIA AND FOREIGN POLICY CRITIC.

CyberTerrorism Drives Security Firm Out of Business

2006-05-17T08:00:00.000-06:00

Via NeoWin.net... We all hate Spam. One man hated spam so much that he started a company (Blue Security) to fight it. The manner in which he did it was brilliantly simple: simply ask the spammers to stop spamming his clients. Okay, so it's not quite that simple. Since those requests usually go unheeded (or even unread) he took a novel approach, instead of the having only client being spammed ask not to be spammed anymore, he had all of his clients ask that spammer not to be spammed... at the same time... all 522,000 of them. This slowed down the spammer's internet access and servers so much that it served as a DoS attack against them, preventing them from spending further spam. Consider this the internet equivalent of "fighting fire with fire." Funny thing: it actually worked. Spammers sat up and took notice and some even complied with the requests to stop spamming the clients. Then the bad news: a spammer fought back, launching a huge DDos attack against this guy and his little Silicon Valley company. Using tens of thousands of hijacked computers, the spammer flooded him with so much internet traffic that it blocked legitimate visitors from going to even going to the site. It gets worse -- the spammer then sent an ominous message: cease all operations or Blue Security customers will soon find themselves targeted with virus-filled attacks. With this attack and threat, that (in my opinion) elevated this spammer from a nuisance to a Cyber Terrorist effecting interstate commerce. The really bad news: the retaliation worked too -- Blue Security today waved a virtual white flag and surrendered; the company shut down. This sends the wrong message to cyber criminals: if your threat is big enough, and you appear to have the tools to make good on it (like a zombie bot-net at your disposal) -- you win. What we should probably do is something more dramatic: have security firms (such Blue Security, Norton, etc.) from a covert joint strike force -- a crack commando unit surving as soldiers of fortune, as it were -- to "apprehend" and "detain" these cyber-terrorists and "pursuade" them to cease and desist their criminal activities. After all, we have a problem, no one else can help, and if we can find them, maybe they can hire... The A-Team!

Modern Propaganda

2006-05-17T06:59:00.000-06:00

Those of you who know me know that I'm not the most politically correct person in the world... Looks like I'm not alone, and here are a few of the t-shirts, mouse-pads, pens, buttons, ribbons, and bumper stickers to prove it:

HUMOR: A New Hope -- Star Wars Kid style

2006-05-15T18:20:00.000-06:00

When it rains...

2006-05-15T17:15:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was Mother's Day.

The day before Natalie (my wife) had another encounter with a hard object hurled at her face by Porter (23 months), striking her in the nose.
Natalie is the primary music leader had another spat with the primary president -- both during primary and again after church at our home.
While having Sunday dinner at my parent's house Michael (6) was rough-housing with Natalie, grabbed her nose, and caused a nose bleed.
At bedtime that night I was juggling Jessica (5) finishing her cereal, Porter (just being generally crazy), and Michael who needed his pills. In the confusion Porter ended up taking Michael's anxiety medication. So, after a call to poison control, I rushed him to the emergency room and spent the night in Pediatrics with Porter hooked up to the heart monitor. Luckily, Porter is fine. I only missed a few hours of work, which I can make up later this week.
Natalie went to the doctor about her nose: it's broken. She's scheduling a "procedure" with a plastic surgeon for later this week.

I'm not complaining. We really are blessed and have so many things to be thankful for. And even with everything that's happened in the last 48 hours, it's funny (literally funny) to observe that when it rains, sometimes it really pours.

Dell Shanze Pleads Guilty

2006-05-10T15:00:00.000-06:00

Dell Shanze today pled guilty to a reduced charge of "speeding" (down from the original charge of wreckless driving), according to KSL [video].

Totally Awesome Computers: Out of Business

2006-05-09T07:23:00.000-06:00

UPDATED: 09 May 2006 Dell Schanze appeared in court yesterday for a pre-trial hearing. Jury selection for his expected 3-day trial begins today at 8:30 mountain time. [Video] Although he was his usual over-zealous self, he did make a few good points regarding the charges against him, and I've added a few of my own.

If he is convicted for drawing a firearm for self-defense when confronted by three angry men (one of whom was weilding a weapon), two messages are being sent: (1) it's okay to assault someone with a rock, and (2) it's not okay to defend oneself. This is contrary to current Utah Law. This charge should be dropped with predjudice, either that or the State of Utah is discouraging people from being law-abiding citizens and to take the law into their own hands.
The charge of making a false statement is due to differences in definitions: Alledgedly Dell stated he did not brandish a firearm during the altercation. According to Webster.com, brandish is defined as (1) to shake or wave (as a weapon) menacingly, or (2) to exhibit in an ostentatious or aggressive manner. Dell did neither of these, he reportedly drew his sidearm and held it by his leg. The legal definition of brandishing is "to display in a threatening manner," which this display was not. This charge should be dropped with predjudice.
The last charge, wreckless driving, should be no problem to prove with witness statements and Dell's driving record. His license to drive in the State of Utah should be revoked.

UPDATED: 18 April 2006 with a comment from Dell Schanze from and my reply (bottom of article).

I worked for Totally Awesome Computers for four years, from September 2001 to October 2005. I should preface this article with the statement that, although I don't agree with many of Dell Schanze's personal and business practices, that I respect him as an individual and am sorry to see his stores out of business. I don't want to "air dirty laundry" or offend anyone, simply to tell the story illustrating a chain of events and a corporate culture that led to the eventual (and perhaps inevitable) collapse of the company.

Why did Totally Awesome Computers shut it's doors? Personally, I feel the root cause was due to arrogance and shortsightedness. From a business perspective, I would deduce that the company simply was no longer pulling a profit. Things that led to the closure:

Pending Litigation

Carlton May discrimination lawsuit [originally $1.2M, settled for a rumored $250,000; not including personal legal expenses]
Sherrie Young sexual harrasment lawsuit [dismissed]
Carlton May breach of contract & defamation lawsuit [$1.2M, dropped]
Wreckless driving (class B Misdemeanor), Brandishing a firearm during a fight (class A Misdemeanor), Making a false statement (class B Misdemeanor) [pending trial]

Negative BBB Rating

A negative rating with the BBB
Refusal to work with the Better Business Bureau to resolve customer complaints
[ BBB | VAR Magazine Article | Salt Lake Magazine ]

Resignation of Top Management

District Managers
COO (and former CEO)

Questionable Business Practices

CC'ing private emails to the entire company to "make a point"
Cutting employee's pay by $2-3/hour
Expecting employees to work off the clock
Expecting employees to attend meetings and provide transportation without compensation to "optional" mandatory meetings
Devising a plan whereby employees could work more than 40 hours per week but not get paid overtime
Personal attacks on businesses/persons who did not agree with or go along with Mr. Schanze's views

Bad Press

Mr. Schanze's reckless driving and brandishing a weapon charges (video), which cost him business in the form of reduced revenue
Wreckless Driving ("There's a good pattern there of this guy driving like a bat out of hell." Draper police Sgt. Gerry Allred
Calling the Mayor of Provo "full of baloney" and trying to bribe him and city officials (article)
A crash while flying one of his powered paragliders which resulted in his back being broken, which cost him business at Totally Awesome Flying Sports (article)
Reportedly, holes stray bullets were found in the homes behind Totally Awesome Guns and range
Alleged disparaging remarks against homosexuals in an unaired commercial (audio)
A commercial which made fun of a fictional tribe of Native Americas (article), in subsequent emails between you and the Utah Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (that you CC'd to the entire company) where you called Native Americans simple minded and adulterers (and attempted joke at the name of the Bureau of "Indian Affairs")

Poor Employee Morale

Extreme and sudden pay cuts were not uncommon
Pay cuts and extreme reactions by Mr. Shanze resulted in degraded customer service levels
Mr. Schanze wrote an email to the company in which he said he had fired two employees from his Foothill store because they were "gay, Lutheran, and of slight Romanian decent"

Loss of Key Personnel

The death Heath Briggs (purchaser)
The resignation of the majority of seasoned employees (including the head of his Reseach and Development department, COO, and district managers) within a six month period

Government Issues

Rumored "full scale" IRS Audit
Rumored payroll investigation by the US Department of Labor because of overtime practices

Where should Totally Awesome's (TAC's) customer's go now?

If you have a TAC computer at one of the TAC stores that you're waiting to pick up, check the company's website for instructions on where and when.
If you have a TAC computer that you need serviced contact

PC Laptops: (877-596-7283)
Star West Computers in North Salt Lake: (801) 936-8000
Abcan Computer Solutions: (801-790-4190)

If you're in the market for buying a new computer (or parts to upgrade your old one), if you, a friend, or a family member can build or upgrade the computer, that would probably be best. If that's out of the question, consider a Dell, HP/Compaq, or Gateway computer for "standard users." For power users, such as myself, consider AlienWare or Falcon Northwest.
If you just want to share your experiences (good, bad, or indifferent), simply reply to this article (below).

Now that I've said that, to clear things up, Totally Awesome Computers used some of the best computer parts available (in my opinion). They stood behind then with hardware and service warranties that were untouched in the industry. They charged a fair profit for their merchandise. I own two Totally Awesome computers, my in-laws also own two, my dad owns one, and my brother's family owns one. I stand behind everything that I said while I worked for that company, and I still believe in their products. It's a shame that one person could have such an effect on the future of a company with such potential and the lives and well-being of so many customers, and employees and their families.

Windows Mobile 5 Requests

2006-05-08T07:59:00.000-06:00

I just replaced my HP iPaq 4155 with an ETEN G500 Pocket PC Phone Edition (I know, that's not what they're called anymore, but it's easier to understand than Windows Mobile 5 for Gnomes and Gypsies, or whatever the real name is). There are a few things Microsoft decided to kill from version 2003 to WM 5, and a lot of things they should have fixed that they didn't. That said, here's my list:

Ability to activate Reader.
Where did Ink Support in Pocket Word go? It was there in 2003, but gone in WM5.
S.P.O.T. integration with a Today Screen component to display the content.
Make a standard mini-USB port for sync and charge part of the hardware spec; get rid of proprietary connectors.
Tie in video phone capability to built-in phone application.
Build SIP functionality into built-in phone applications (i.e., Skype could run natively in the phone app, etc.).
Standardize "Wireless" control panels so bluetooth, GSM, GPS, Radio, WiFi, etc. are all on-off-able and configurable from one standard control panel.
Make the X button really close. The reason for having it minimize before was because the programs were already in RAM (as was the OS), and "closing" them didn't accomplish anything, since they were still installed in RAM (that was the theory anyway). Now that programs are installed to persistant storage, and must be loaded into RAM, just like on a PC, the old functionality of the close button is no longer appropriate.
Build in MS Voice Command so 3rd party apps aren't needed (of course, allow voice command to be "turned off" for those that want a different voice command application).
Mandate 3G Wireless with every Phone Edition.
Where text is in focus, enable the hardware volume control to be used as a jog-dial.

To see some other people's lists, check this link: http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=48503

.MP3 versus .WMA

2006-05-01T19:57:00.000-06:00

I've always been an advocate of the Windows Media Audio format (.WMA). It's DRM capable (but not mandatory), it's a relatively lightweight compression algorithm (it's fast and doesn't suck up much battery life from your media player), and it sounds as good as .MP3 in half the size (so you can have twice as much audio on your player). Windows Media Audio has VBR and CBR subtypes (so you can encode at Constant Bit Rate of 64Kbps through the whole song, or Vary the Bit Rate through the song, so the more "intense" parts use up more bits per second than the "quiet" parts). WMA also has a "lossless" variety. What's the difference between "lossless" and "lossy" compression, you ask? Well, for example, most audio, video, and still image compression is "lossy," meaning, the more you compress the original, the more data you lose. That's not necessarily a bad thing until you get to VERY high compression ratios. Lossless compression is just that, it compresses the original bits down using a compression algorithm which is relatively complex, but none of the bits are lost. The downsides: file sizes are larger, and decompressing typically takes more compute cycles (which translates into lower battery life). So why would one choose lossless compression over lossy compression? For me the answer is simple. When I record my CDs to my Media Center PC, I want to be able to stream my music anywhere I am, or burn custom CDs, or put custom Playlists on a USB drive to play at work, etc., etc. I can always DOWNSAMPLE my original, lossless copy, and I'm not worried about battery life at home. The opposite is true as well, if you have a 64Kbps .MP3 and you want it to sound better (say 128, 192, or 320Kbps), the only way to do that is to re-rip the original, and who has time to find the original, re-rip, then sort out the "versioning" between the two songs ripped at different bitrates? So, along those lines I had an opportunity to re-rip my entire media collection, and I opted for .WMA Lossless. Bad idea. Yes, my collection plays fine through Orb (even when streamed to my Pocket PC Phone Edition over GPRS speeds of about 33.6Kbps). Yes, it burns to CDs just fine (CDA or HighMAT). Yes, it downsamples to a storage card MOST of the time. But, at home I also have an original XBOX with a Media Center Extender, so I can watch live and recorded TV from my Media Center PC (think TiVo without the monthly subscription), I can also listen to my entire music collection and play it back through the speakers in the living room. Well, I USED to be able to listen to my entire music collection and play it back through the speakers in the living room, right up until I re-ripped my collection using WMA Lossless. Now I can see all my music, but when I try to play anything, I'm met with an error message. Nice. I ripped another CD with .MP3 320Kbps compression, and (drumroll) it plays fine through the Media Center Extender. I ripped yet another with WMA Lossless: no go, same error. I considered Ogg Vorbis, but figured if my Microsoft Extender can't play a Microsoft file format, what use is it playing a new-comer format such as .OGG. So now I'm left with either re-ripping my entire collection, or converting my WMA Lossless files into MP3 320Kbps files. I opted for the latter. Presently I'm at 512 songs of 2,755. With failures. So, once I'm all done with the conversion, I'll have to go through the resulting log file, filter out the failures from the succeeds, then hunt down the CDs containing the failed songs, then re-rip them as .MP3 320's. When all is said and done, I'll then have to remove all the .WMA's from the nested library folderset, then wipe the profile's media library to remove the now absent WMA tracks (3 of them), then rebuild the profile's media library (3 of them) to populate with the MP3 tracks. :: sigh :: The moral to the story? Stick with the de-facto standard, even if other standards may have certain advantages, the biggest advantage is ubiquity.

24

2006-05-01T18:53:00.000-06:00

I'm an avid fan of the television series 24. Maybe too much so. Season 3 was airing, and I hadn't watched season 2 (I was introduced to the series late). I headed to my local BlockBuster Video store, and got the first disc, 4 episodes, just shy of 4 hours (not including extra features, but with the "extended scenes" turned on). My wife and I watched the first disc that night. All four hours. The next day I headed back and returned the movie, and got disc 2. Again that night we watched all four hours. Sleep deprived, the next day... well, you get the picture. This pattern continued until the last disc of the episodes: my local BlockBuster didn't have it. It was 30 minutes to closing time. I looked the manager in the eyes and said, "I have a wife at home, frantic to see how this thing is going to end. Pick up that phone and start calling every BlockBuster in the area. Use expanding concentric circles. I can't go home withou that disc!" In restrospect, I'm surprised they didn't call the police. Perhaps the manger was as into the series as we are. So, with another episode airing tonight, I thought I'd re-post this list all about Jack Bauer (edited somewhat for my audience):

Jack Bauer once beat Super Mario Bros. 3 without touching the controller. He just stared at the TV until the game beat itself.
When Jack Bauer was a child, he made his mother finish his vegetables.
If you spell Jack Bauer in a Scrabble game, you win. Forever.
Jack Bauer won the Tour de France on a unicycle to prove to Lance Armstrong it wasn't a big deal. He thinks yellow wristbands are lame.
Superman wears Jack Bauer pyjamas.
If it tastes like chicken, looks like chicken, and feels like chicken, but Jack Bauer says its beef, then it's beef.
Osama bin Laden's recent proposal for truce is a direct result of him finding out that Jack Bauer is, in fact, still alive.
Jack Bauer is the leading cause of death in Middle Eastern men.
Jack Bauer’s calendar goes from March 31st to April 2nd, no one fools Jack Bauer.
Jack Bauer played Russian Roulette with a fully loaded gun and won.
Jack Bauer once ate an entire case of sleeping pills. He blinked, but they're not certain that it had any relation to the pills.
What color is Jack Bauer's blood? Trick question. Jack Bauer does not bleed.
Jack Bauer once won a game of Connect 4 in 3 moves.
You can lead a horse to water. Jack Bauer can make him drink.
Simon Says should be renamed to Jack Bauer Says because if Jack Bauer says something then you better do it.
When Google can't find something, it asks Jack Bauer for help.
When Jack Bauer watches a pot, it boils immediately.
Jack Bauer can get McDonald's breakfast after 10:30.
In kindergarten, Jack Bauer killed a terrorist for Show and Tell.
When the boogie man goes to sleep, he checks his closet for Jack Bauer.
Jack Bauer once killed a group of Samurai Warriors with only a ball point pen. This lead to the phrase "The pen is mightier than the sword."
People with amnesia still remember Jack Bauer.
Jack Bauer has been to Mars. That’s why there’s no life on Mars.
Superman's only weakness is Kryptonite. Jack Bauer laughs at Superman for having a weakness.
If Jack and MacGyver were locked in a room together, Jack would make a bomb out of MacGyver and get out.
Jack Bauer once killed so many terrorists that at one point, the #5 CIA Most Wanted fugitive was an 18-year-old teenager in Malaysia who downloaded the movie Dodgeball.
Guns dont kill people, Jack Bauer kills people.
If you send someone to kill Jack Bauer, the only thing you accomplish is supplying him a fresh set of weapons to kill you with.
ESPN rated Kobe Bryant for Vlade Divac as the second worst trade in history, after Jack Bauer for Behrooz Araz.
Jack Bauer makes onions cry.
If Jack was in a room with Stalin, Hitler and Nina and had two bullets, he would shoot Nina twice.
Jack Bauer and Superman once had an arm wrestling match; the loser had to wear their underwear on the outside.

CSS Reboot Day

2006-05-01T07:46:00.000-06:00

Happy CSS Reboot Day!! What? You didn't know about CSS Reboot Day? And you call yourself as web developer! According to the site, CSS Reboot Day is:

"... a community event for web professionals. May 1st, 2006 at 18:00 GMT Rebooters from all over the world will launch their web standards-based redesigns simultaneously, bringing traffic, interest and a little respect to their sites. There are no prizes or arbitrary winners, just great exposure and the knowledge that we all participated in something great."

Unfortunately I won't have my site ready for the May 01 event, but I am working on it. My first step was finding a new web host. I'm now using www.WebHost4Life.com, they offer not only ASP.Net 2.0, but Microsoft Sharepoint Services as well; a perfect match for what I'm doing at work. My second step was ramping up my skills to include ASP.Net 2.0. Although I do have some experience with ASP.Net 1.1 and "classic" ASP, I've always been on the "upkeep" side of things. I'd never built a full ASP.Net site from scratch. With my new job, I've built a couple (www.PerformanceDesign.com, www.MyLifePlay.com to name a few), but these have been ASP.Net 1.1 sites due to hosting restrictions and pre-existing web application constraints. I really want to dig into ASP.Net 2.0. My third step, and for me the most challenging, has been to redesign my site, but not like any normal redesign I've ever done before. Although this redesign will bring with it a new look-and-feel, it is more a structural redesign than anything. You see, with this version I will effectively be separating my content (XHTML) from my layout (CSS). That, after all, is the purest objective of XHTML and CSS; and I, after all, am a purist (much pun intended). So, I'm not going to say "stay tuned for the next version of the site" because, honestly, I don't know when I'll have it done. But I did want to put in a plug for the big CSS Reboot! While you're at it, take a look at some of these other CSS-centric websites:

And, if you have any sites like these, or want to recommend a good looking CSS-based site, please post!! I'm a sucker for good design.

HUMOR: Who's the Jedi on First Base?

2006-04-26T19:55:00.000-06:00

VIDEO: Texas Chainsaw Commercial

2006-04-25T07:44:00.000-06:00

HUMOR: Star Wars Kid Cameo

2006-04-17T07:00:00.000-06:00

What if the now infamous Star Wars Kid had had a cameo appearance in Episode IV: A New Hope?

TRAILER: Titanic 2 - Back to the Surface

2006-04-14T18:55:00.000-06:00

Of all the movies that could have a sequel, how could Titanic? After all, everybody died and the ship sank. This trailer proves different... coming this summer: TITANIC 2

The Broadband Divide

2006-04-12T07:32:00.000-06:00

Although I haven't tried GoogleTalk, l I have used MSN Messenger's similar feature, and Skype's proprietary VoIP. That said and as cool as it is, other than just talking between ourselves, no "computer based" voice solution passed the "wife test." Vonage, on the otherhand, provides a "magic box" that you plug into a broadband internet connection (like my Comcast Cable Internet), the other end then plugs into a phonejack in your house. Provided that you've unplugged the Qwest POTS (plain old telephony system) line from their box on the outside of your house, now ANY phone in the house can access your new VoIP line through the Vonage service. The service can operate (theoretically) on as little as 32Kbps, but I wouldn't try it on anything less than 128Kbps, and 384Kbps is even better. It's no so much that you HAVE to have the extra bandwidth for the telephony, rather, if you have a computer or two hooked up, one getting updates to the TV listings and streaming your Orb content, and the other one snagging email and hosting "Nick Jr." for the kids, your bandwidth gets gobbled fast. This can causes pops and garbles in your telephone call. Skype and GoogleTalk (AFAIK) both use proprietary (read: super-special, non-standard) codecs to accomplish their VoIP over non-broadband, aka dialup. This is a double-edged sword. Yes, it's cool in that you can have better-than-telephone conversations over the internet, but it's not an open-standard so intercommunication with other services and devices is limited. That's always struck me as odd: Why doesn't Vonage use "more advanced" codecs? They're using the old ones from years back. Sure, that's fine and dandy, but (presently) if you make a call from your Vonage line to another Vonage line, you're going directly over the internet, no standard phone lines needed (similar to Skype/GoogleTalk). If you call from your Vonage line to a "land line" (non-VoIP) then you're calling from your Vonage box to a Vonage box close to the call's destination, which then hands the call off to the local telco for the "last mile" and enables your high-tech phone to talk to the gazillions of Plain Old Telephone subscribers out there. So, in both cases you're going Vonage to Vonage, and cound, theoretically, use some of the newer (and even the proprietary) codecs out there to compress the call even more and free up bandwidth (not just their subscriber's bandwidth, but their own across the backbone as well). In any event, I look forward to the day when I can "ink" an instant message to my friend via ANY IM client, and he/she can respond with typed or spoken words. Someday, perhaps, the technology will improve such that I won't have to know what medium they are using, if I'm calling from my cell phone and they have a web-connected PDA and can't talk back right away, my voice could be converted to IM text, and their IM text reply converted into spoken works on my end. Someday... Postback: http://www.dnsgardner.com/mindofdarbus/?p=254

VIDEO: Dumping your Girlfriend

2006-04-11T21:56:00.000-06:00

There are less painful ways to dump your girlfriend.

MUSIC VIDEO: Tribute

2006-04-09T09:29:00.000-06:00

Here's one of my favorite music videos of all time. For my more sensitive viewers, this one would have an "Explicit Lyrics" tag on the jewel case.

TENACIOUS D LYRICS "Tribute" [Spoken] This is the greatest and best song in the world... Tribute. Long time ago me and my brother Kyle here, we was hitchhikin' down a long and lonesome road. All of a sudden, there shined a shiny demon... in the middle... of the road. And he said: [Sung] "Play the best song in the world, or I'll eat your soul." (soul) [Spoken] Well me and Kyle, we looked at each other, and we each said... "Okay." [Sung] And we played the first thing that came to our heads, Just so happened to be, The Best Song in the World, it was The Best Song in the World. Look into my eyes and it's easy to see One and one make two, two and one make three, It was destiny. Once every hundred-thousand years or so, When the sun doth shine and the moon doth glow And the grass doth grow... Needless to say, the beast was stunned. Whip-crack went his Whoopy tail, And the beast was done. He asked us: "(snort) Be you angels?" And we said, "Nay. We are but men." Rock! Ahhh, ahhh, ahhh-ah-ah, Ohhh, whoah, ah-whoah-oh! This is not The Greatest Song in the World, no. This is just a tribute. Couldn't remember The Greatest Song in the World, no, no. This is a tribute, oh, to The Greatest Song in the World, All right! It was The Greatest Song in the World, All right! It was the best muthaf@#%$n' song the greatest song in the world. [2-part skat] [Spoken] And the peculiar thing is this my friends: the song we sang on that fateful night it didn't actually sound anything like this song. [Sung] This is just a tribute! You gotta believe me! And I wish you were there! Just a matter of opinion. Ah, f*&k! Good God, God lovin', So surprised to find you can't stop it. [Skat] All right! All right!

VIDEO: PIT Maneuver

2006-04-08T10:57:00.000-06:00

Whenever an alleged perpitrator runs from police there's always a risk to innocent bystanders. To truncate high-speed chases police have devised what's called the PIT Maneuver — short for Precision Immobilization Technique. This maneuver places the front of the police cuizer at the rear and to either side of the suspect's vehicle. The officer then nudges his cruiser into the other vehicle which causes it to spin out, usually 180°, facing the oncoming police cruizer. I've seen plenty of these on tv, but I've never seen the running vehicle recover. Not a single time. That's what makes this clip from Oklahoma so completely incredible.