gifLOL

EPIC REDDIT THREAD ALERT

"Hey Ask Reddit, what's your favorite .gif?"

Mine is really a c-c-combo:

Help! Need help naming a track (v2.1): DK & Santogold & TEPR Update!

I forgot that I followed up on this request for help and found the answer...

Santogold - Say Aha, remixed by TEPR

I believe TEPR's site (LOL MYSPACE) is here:

http://www.myspace.com/tepr

Sooo, here's the mix I was looking for:

Sing With The Band f/ VINNY!

Sing With The Band does Live Band Karaoke every thursday night at Chicago City Limits

Thinly Veiled Excuse of Drink and Game for Make Benefit Glorious Operating System of Windows 7! (The Presentation, The Pictures)

The pictures... the presentation...

Prepare yourself, oye... :)
*NOTE
These videos are available in HD on youtube, so click on 'em to go to youtube, or just watch and laugh here.




So we started out with some music, we oooh'd and aww'd over a new Windows 7 laptop one of the guests brought in. We moved on to some Rock Band 2, and some Skype conferencing with another party in North Carolina.

We ate some pizza, drank a bit, fooled aruond, and started the presentation, which... I gave you above.

After we moved onto a Bomberman Live contest that ended in me giving away the Party Pack copy of Windows 7 Ultimate!

Second place got the poster. :)

Full Flickr Photoset here:

Halloween 2009!!!

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What I've Bought Lately: UPS

I've needed some better surge protectors / uninterruptible power supply, and I saw a special for a 1285VA UPS, so, I grabbed two!

I bought a Cyberpower CP1285AVRLCD UPS
I got 2 for $200 total from Buy.com. (Now they're available on Amazon for $108 each)


I'm using one for my television / stereo / gaming equipment, and one for my computer equipment in the other room.

What I've Bought Lately: Video Card

Well, I hosted that Windows 7 Party and had my computer hooked up to my television (Toshiba 40RV525U 40" LCD) and realized if I wanted HD Audio I had to use three minijack/headphone to rca converters and send them to my receiver... I don't have an optical audio out (toslink) or a coaxial audio out port on my motherboard (ECS G31T-M, purchased for free at a Fry's B&M store) so... I needed to remedy that.

My video card, an XFX GeForce 8600GT worked well, but didn't have any native hdmi out, just two dual-link DVI which are great and work with DVI-HDMI converters, but... do not output audio.

So I looked for the best card I could get for under $100 that did not take up two slots. nVidia didn't have anything to offer with these requirements, however AMD/ATi did, I found a HIS Radeon HD 4670 that fit the bill.
It may take up two slots, but it's "second slot" is to the LEFT, not to the right, and I had space to the left!

So, that's what I've bought lately

Thinly Veiled Excuse of Drink and Game for Make Benefit Glorious Operating System of Windows 7!

Just to clarify:

My Windows 7 Party, "Thinly Veiled Excuse of Drink and Game for Make Benefit Glorious Operating System of Windows 7!" is happening tonight. So, get a hold of me and join us there!

Windows 7 Whoppers! Hmmm..... mmmmm....

I think I know where we're getting dinner tonight at the Windows 7 party. :)

Linus Torvalds Gives Windows 7 a Big Thumbs Up!

heh heh heh

So I'm holding a Windows 7 Launch Party of my own!

Happening tonight, check it out!
http://houseparty.com/party/176744

Toshiba 40RV525U: Awesome, when it works...

We have a Toshiba 40RV525U flat panel television that's nine months old. For six of these months it's had some issues. We had it repaired a few months ago, it still has the same issue.

I'm keeping track of it all here, just so if someone needs to refer to evidence, they can.



Also:

Are we proud of our country yet?

I posted a new diary on the Daily Kos titled: "Are we proud of our country yet?", it was prompted by this picture:

These are just "stream of consciousness" thoughts that came up in the middle of an instant messaging conversation. So, if you're going to read then yell at me, at least read the whole thing then yell at me. :)

Thanks.

IMMA INDOCTRINATIN YOUR CHILDREN

... because if there's one thing Obama loves, it's indoctrinating children.

1 vs 100, Live Show, Avatar Video!

Hehe, so ... Chris from 1 vs 100, (The live host) asked us to submit video of people doing the dance that the avatar does, so...

HERE IT IS!

(lol) (taken with my new Canon PowerShot SD960IS, and yes I am crazy about it)

...and now for more from your capitalist shill:

I'll be brief:

I'm selling, via eBay, two Blackberry Curve 8320 phones. They're fully unlocked, in near-mint condition, are fully tested, come with all the original accessories (and one of them has an extra battery and silicon case), and come with a pitch man... me!

• Auction with original accessories
  
• Auction with extra battery, silicon case

While eBay auctions aren't new, the "pitch man" aspect seems to be.

Frank suggested I do a bit of video. Half a year ago I had a Sidekick 2 with a broken screen, but I wanted to eBay it for parts so we filmed a couple minute video showing it working, making phone calls, but unable to display anything on the screen.

That never went anywhere.

However, I wanted to film myself showing whatever product I was selling working. Frank suggested I take it the next step and do something a little more comprehensive. So we started with these eBay auctions, and we'll move on to something more involved later, but here's the online video (also embedded in HD in those auctions... check 'em out!):

Family Portraits: See? Even I occasionally look good!

Frank Rodriguez put some portraits up of Nikki, Nathan, and myself.

I take a ton of pictures but it's rare that I consider myself... erm... "good looking" in one. (Yes yes I'm hard on myself, relax!) So I'm posting them here for your (and my) viewing enjoyment! Click the pictures for the link to the full res source.

Chicago Portraits

Chicago Children Photography

I've asked if we can take some portraits, and some outside staged pictures like we did a couple years ago, once we do that I'll make sure to put those up!

* Note, if you're interested in having a portrait taken, head over to his site at Portrait Photography Chicago and drop him a line!

Imported Spirits from 1971

Nikki's parents found some old liquor at their house. This, is that liquor!

Chicago, Photography, Nathan!

** Shameless Plug **

Frank Rodriguez has posted a couple of very neat pictures, of myself, Nikki, and Nathan at his portrait/blog. Check 'em out!

http://www.portraits-chicago.com/chicago-children-photography/
All Nathan, all the time.

http://www.portraits-chicago.com/chicago-portraits/
It's a picture of Nikki and myself, just ... well, being together!

Lenovo's System Update Tool: DEPRECATED

Source: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-72207.html

Forum Discussion: http://forums.lenovo.com/lnv/board/message?board.id=Special_Interest_Utilities&message.id=4434&query.id=8940#M4434

Disclaimer: No, this is not an Internet Retardation Day (tm) Joke. I wouldn't do that to you.

Last night around 4PM I was running updates using the ThinkVantage System Update utility. I've always considered this utility part of the IBM/Lenovo advantage. This is the #1 reason I prefer Lenovo laptops to Dell laptops (those manufacturers being the only ones my company uses) and it makes life SO MUCH EASIER, both on laptops not updated in years, or in installing a fresh Windows install from scratch.


... and now it's gone.

Lenovo is changing the way customers obtain updates for their PCs and Servers.

For our PC customers, automatic updates via ThinkVantage System Update (TVSU) are being discontinued. Customers can continue to download updates by accessing the Lenovo support site at Lenovo Support & downloads. Lenovo is pursuing alternative solutions for system updates and future offerings will be communicated through the new Lenovo Message Center Plus.

Thanks Lenovo... you turned me from a -huge- cheerleader of your hardware into... well, someone pissed off at you. True: No other laptop manufacturer really offers a comprehensive update utility that would download and batch install everything within a couple reboots, INCLUDING bios updates. (Asus's utility is a joke, I am typing this on an Asus laptop right now.)

Fuck you Lenovo... fuck you. You don't give us something awesome, then take it away and expect us to like it.

Help! Need help naming a track (v2): DK

*** UPDATE ***

DracoTheTyrant has come through yet again (Actually, his Shazam app on the iPhone did). He found the one of the vocal track's sources:

Santogold - Say Aha

Don't ask me what's going on in that video.

Anyhoo, there's another vocal track mixed in there, and I don't know what the backbeat is from. Keep up the good work peeps!

So this time I'm listening to Solid Steel.

(NINJATUNE FTW)

I hear another track that I don't recognize. So I'm clipping it from the mix again for you to hear, and hopefully, name!

Download it here (Click the Ninja)

Continuing our series on child sexual education...

Thank you to the Portand News and FARK.com for this gem:

Abstinence Clowns!

Our tax dollars at work under the Bush Administration! Thank you Derek Dye!

• Via Daily Kos
• Via AmplifyYourVoice.org

Also... Family Guy did it first! (Thanks to Steve Chaos for the link)

Bicentennial Man

Back in 1999 I watched a movie called Bicentennial Man. I remember enjoying it quite a bit, but I was also surprised to find out it was based on a novel by Isaac Asimov called The Positronic Man.

Before this movie, I'd read some of Isaac Asimov's short stories. I still retain a good memory of them, they were fun to read and there were so many, but at the time I was big on Star Trek, so my whole Sci:Fi world was dominated by that singular continuing story.

Well, by the time 1999 came around I'd grown up a bit. I turned 18, got ready to head out into the working world (For about half a year), endured the buildup to Star Wars Episode I and the ensuing disappointment, and had been ready to expand my horizons. So I looked it up and found it was part of the "Robots" series of books by Isaac Asimov.

I had previously read the entire "Foundation" series of books, while my friend Greg read the "Robots" series, but I never dedicated the time to reading it. But this movie surprised the hell out of me, in a good way.

I mention it now because I rented it via Netflix and watched it for the first time with Nikki. She loved it, and I remembered how much this movie really moved me, now and back then. It also reminded me of a Re:sound episode I listened to via podcast just a few weeks ago, Resound #44: The Fake Docs Show.

I believe the second story in starts talking about the near future, where robots begin to replace parents in Australia as caretakers due to a negative backlash against parents and parenting's negative affects on business and productivity. "Robbies" were beginning to raise children. The whole story was very freaky, it sounded just professional enough to be believable (which was the point of the whole Re:sound episode) and just scary enough to really set off my internal shudder mechanisms.

Listen to this Re:sound podcast, then watch Bicentennial Man. There are quite a few parallel questions regarding the role of robots and technology in today's society. Will we all end up like this?

Reality 1440x900 by ~pyxelated on deviantART

Anyway, the whole point was to relay that I was blown away (again) by Bicentennial Man, and that it's aged well and is still apropos to today, and our near future.

That is all. :)

Casper Van Dien: You Are My Hero!

Oh... Wow...

Via Ain't it Cool News;

Childhelp.org (for the prevention and treatment of child abuse) decided to launch a new anti child abuse campaign using Casper Van Dien of "Starship Troopers" fame.

They announce it with the following press release:

Actor Casper Van Dien suits up as “Johnny Rico”
to tackle child abuse in series of PSAs for Childhelp

Starship Troopers star urges people to join him in fighting back against child abuse

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (January 28, 2009) – Johnny Rico, lead character in the hit movie Starship Troopers, is suiting up once again to fight back against the evils of the galaxy. Hollywood actor Casper Van Dien has reprised the combat savvy character for Childhelp to talk about fighting a different war – the war against child abuse. Two new public service announcements (PSAs) were filmed for Childhelp, one of the leading organizations dedicated to the prevention and treatment of child abuse, and recently made their debut online.

The PSAs were put together by an all star team including Academy Award winning visual effects directors Robert Skotak and Dennis Skotak, with the assistance of their brother Jeffrey Skotak who is now also working in visual effects. Robert and Dennis Skotak won Oscars for their visual effects work in the movies Terminator 2, Aliens and The Abyss. The filming was done by John Murlowski, who filmed Starship Troopers 3, and the editing by Kevin VanHook, who has worked on many blockbusters including I, Robot and Daredevil.

“Everyone jumped at the chance to come together and support such a great cause,” said Casper Van Dien. “Four children die every day in this country because of child abuse and neglect, and we all need to do whatever we can to help children in need.”

The PSAs can be viewed on the Childhelp website at http://www.childhelp.org/troopers/video

About Childhelp

In 2009, Childhelp commemorates 50 years of bringing the light of hope and healing into the lives of countless children. CEO and Co-Founder Sara O’Meara and President and Co-Founder Yvonne Fedderson started Childhelp in 1959 , establishing it as a leading national non-profit organization dedicated to helping victims of child abuse and neglect and at-risk children. Childhelp’s approach focuses on advocacy, prevention, treatment and community outreach.

The Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline, 1-800-4-A-CHILD®, operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and receives calls from throughout the United States, Canada, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Guam. Childhelp’s programs and services also include residential treatment services; children’s advocacy centers; therapeutic foster care; group homes and child abuse prevention, education and training. Childhelp also created the Childhelp National Day of Hope®, held each April during National Child Abuse Prevention Month, that mobilizes people across America to join the fight against child abuse.

There's nothing funny about child abuse, which makes me wonder why they'd choose Casper Van Dien and the really bad (but popular!) Starship Troopers series to encourage us all to join the fight against child abuse. But hey, it's a laudable goal, and we're all really onboard anyway. So lets just sit back and enjoy the PSA series they're putting out.

Roll the film.

... and

... and now onto more vulgar topics:

*** UPDATE ***

The person in question regrets taking these pictures and requested I make them a little less public.

"Meh." I've done my job, but all in good fun. As much as this was -more than fair- retaliation for the "tool" comment, I'm happy to remove all references to names here, even fake ones. I even removed references to it in Facebook. So it shall live and die here, on this page.

Also, I WIN!

So a friend of mine, lets call them...

<charlie brown's mother talks here> decided to take my vaunted "pimp gorilla karaoke singer" picture (look left) and turn it into something so vile, so offensive that I couldn't let it go unanswered.































It's not like I haven't been called a tool before, ... or felt like a tool before... or was a tool before... Still, it's not an opening salvo I can let go unanswered. Therefore, I have lovingly crafted my response...

BEHOLD!

Help! Need help naming a track! (Scratch Perverts)

*** UPDATE ***

It's Chemical Brothers - Rize Up

Thanks to Facebook / Jon Lehuta for that one!





















I started listening to a mix that I'd downloaded from The Mixing Bowl a while ago by the Scratch Perverts. Specifically: Scratch Perverts Live @ Club Vie, Rotterdam (Republic of MTV) from 07/10/2006. However I can't seem to track down a track list and there's this absolutely dynamite tune in the middle.

So, I need help! Listen to this and please let me know if you've heard it before, or if you can name it? Thanks!

Nathan Quote #3:

We were trying to get Nathan to brush his teeth. He accompanied Nikki to the dentist's office today and received a new toothbrush so now he's all about that one. When we tried to get him to brush with his old Wall-E toothbrush, here's what he said:

That's the most ridiculous toothbrush in the world and I'm NOT using it!

(sigh)

Fark.com, my favorite site of all time (so far) was featured on Jeopardy!

Nathan singing with his preschool class

The camera work is my dad's. I couldn't be there so to my dad, thank you!

Web 2.0 v2: Flickr & Youtube

So now I have a Facebook Page, a Blogger Blog, Flickr Photostream and a Youtube Channel.

(lol)

Why?

Facebook's a great social networking and microblogging site, but content posted there isn't available to the outside world (family and luddites that don't want or care about Facebook) unless you sign up for an account.
Blogger is available to everyone and has passable photo and movie storage support, but doesn't allow deep-linking of those resources, and requires people sign up for a Google account to comment.
Flickr is fantastic for photos and allows for deep linking of resources, ok for short movie clips, has impressive group membership and relation features but doesn't act as a blog so it requires you use something else to link to it, unless you have people... sign up for a Yahoo account and subscribe to your photo stream.
Youtube is movies only, and while I cringe at its quality (even the "hd" streams are crappy), it's #1, fast, has a huge audience, allows embedding of resources, but has only rudimentary support for commenting and ... requires a Google account.
It all seems insane to have to manage three different sets of account credentials and manage four different, slightly overlapping, but extremely useful memberships to post everything online. It means lots of crossposting.

For example... This article is on Blogger (where anyone with a Google account can comment), but I'm going to post this article on Facebook (where people will undoubtetly comment). The previous article linked to my Flickr page. The next article I post will link to my Youtube page for Nathan related enjoyment.

... really?

Who has created alternatives...

There is the Apple solution through iWeb and MobileMe that has very tight integration with iLife and iWork apps, but this really only works seamlessly for Mac owners and doesn't include a good social networking resource.
There's OpenID which has support for LiveJournal, Wordpress, Typepad, or AOL accounts, letting you use one ID but still requires maintaining separate memberships for different resources.
Google's trying -really hard- right now (Youtube/Picasa Web Albums/Blogger), but doesn't have that social networking component. Picasa also happens to be a little expensive, but not unreasonably so.

Who else, what else is out there? Everything's still walled off in its own proprietary feifdom, and until someone either comes up with a better solution (which would require massive amounts of programming and design work, community feedback, and PEOPLE to sign up / subscribe), it's going to continue like this.

I'm encountering similar issues between the XBOX360 and Wii camps right now. I have both, but some people have either / or.

Further immersing myself in Web 2.0: Flickr!

I finally decided to join Flickr!


(Here's the photostream)
There are some absolutely priceless pictures here... including this video:

Yeah... I need to work on that a bit.

But check it out! (I need to put about 15,000 pictures up there)

Tethering Blackberries on Mac via Bluetooth: AT&T

In the same vein as tethering to a Windows XP system, here are brief instructions for doing it on a Mac OS X 10.5 system!
(Thanks to amkls704 at howardforums.com and Eugene Dong for instructions)

Extract this file (blackberry-3g-cid1.zip) to:

/Macintosh HD/Library/Modem Scripts

(Secondary Download Source, requires registration

You have your Blackberry and Mac paired, we actually need to remove that pairing and begin from scratch. Remove the phone from your paired devices list on your Mac, and on your Blackberry, remove your laptop as a paired device.

Re-pair your Blackberry and laptop. (Run the “Setup Bluetooth Device” wizard)

Choose:

- Mobile Phone
- Blackberry 9000
- Hit Continue Again
- Check the box next to “Access the internet with your phone’s data connection”
- For the Phone Vendor: Choose Other and for the Phone Model: Choose Blackberry 3G CID1 (the script you put into the modem scripts folder)
- Launch Network Preferences, and click "Bluetooth" in the list.
- Select "Add Configuration" from the Configuration drop list. Name the configuration AT&T via Blackberry Bold (or something like that)

o Username: WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM
o Password: CINGULAR1
o Telephone Number: wap.cingular

- Check "Show modem status in menu bar"

That should do it! Click on “Connect Bluetooth” on the modem icon on the Mac, a connection timer should come up and let your mac in on the 3G goodness!

Tethering Blackberries via Bluetooth: AT&T

I figured I should start writing down some of the more obscure information I come across every day. I'm an aggregation machine that just happens to lose data every so often, so this is my backup strategy.I have a couple co-workers with the new Blackberry Bold (9000). Yes it works well, it's light, thin, flashy, etc... but what really makes this killer is that it supports 3G data, and a concurrent voice call. Verizon and Sprint have Blackberries that support 3G data, but not at the same time as a voice call. T-Mobile should "eventually", but they're still developing their 3G network. (I stick with them for the excellent customer service)

All instructions here are listed for Windows XP, but if you're using Vista, they still work... the places you have to look are just slightly different.

There are quite a few forum posts on how to tether Blackberries via bluetooth but none that get it right, and for the ones that get it right, none that refer directly to the Blackberry bold. So, let me state a couple items:

When attempting to tether the Blackberry Bold via bluetooth, do not:

• Use the AT&T Communication Manager software
• Add the tethering plan to your AT&T account (yet)
• Expect to be able to sync your Blackberry to your laptop via Bluetooth reliably
  

Please do:

• Find and install the latest Blackberry Desktop Manager software (v4.7 as of this post).
• Pair your phone with your computer via bluetooth after installing the desktop manager software
• Expect to sync your Blackberry via USB (or use an enterprise server).

After all that (install Blackberry Desktop Manager, pair phone and laptop via bluetooth), here's what to do:

You should have a new modem in your modem list called "Standard Modem over Bluetooth" or "Standard Bluetooth Modem". You also may have one that just says "Standard Modem" but when your phone is paired it will list the com port your phone is on for the com port of the standard modem. Identify this device.

Go into the device properties of that modem (Phone and Modem Options / Modems Tab) and click on the "Advanced" tab. Under extra initialization commands, enter this:

AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","wap.cingular"

Click OK a few times to save / close everything, then go to your Network Connections list and run the New Network Connection wizard.

Set it up as a dial-up connectoin, and when it asks for an ISP name tell it whatever you want, but when it asks for a phone number give it the following:

*99#

Save the new connection, create a shortcut on your desktop, and that's it, you should be able to dial-up!

Now if you want to do the "right thing" (tm), you'll call AT&T and have them add the tethering plan to your account. You can then use "isp.cingular" instead of "wap.cingular" which might be a little faster... or at least better if you ever need to call AT&T for help.

Otherwise that's it!