Blizzahd of '05

Wow. I wasn't in the country for the blizzard of 78, but I've heard all the stories from family and neighbors. I'll tell you what though, there was a HELL of a lot of snow here a couple of days ago. I just saw a story on the local news about a guy who attacked somebody on Beacon Hill over a parking space. I can't imagine what kind of bloodshed there was in ol' East Boston because of "throwing snow on my property" or "messing up my pile" or the most traditional "I'm reserving these five spaces". See the "space wars" post for more...

There isn't a place to put it all. Out here there is a constant pile of snow 3 feet high along all the roads and sidewalks. Some of the drifts the morning of the blizzard were higher than I was (I speak of my height, of course). I must admit, though, it wasn't devastating around here, particularly since the snow was somewhat light and easy to move, at least that morning. It just kept snowing and snowing and snowing. Fluffy, but ample. It was the drifts that had the biggest effect. The Cape, on the other hand, got absolutely slammed.

Then there are those people who for one reason or another just don't know how to deal with snow. When I stepped out Sunday morning, there was this guy with his hazards on blocking the entrance to my complex. It was obvious he was very stuck. I recruited a neighbor and we went over to help. It turned out this guy was Brazilian, new to the country, and driving an extremely light car, complete with balded tires. Great. After an hour, we got him back out onto the road, and into one of the few plowed lots nearby. Since the blizzard was raging strong, I got a good amount of snow stuck to every hair on my face....and I had the great idea of trying to grow a full beard...

Looks like we'll have 7-10 more inches tonight, though it's negligible relative to Sunday. Eh, I have my space...

P2P Scapegoating

This is ridiculous. "A bill introduced in California's Legislature last week has raised the possibility of jail time for developers of file-swapping software who don't stop trades of copyrighted movies and songs online." Why not...we as Americans have already established a pattern of blaming and going after whoever we can when it comes to losing money. In regards to a manufacturer's culpability for illegal use of their product, however, another standard has already been established.

Do we go after the makers of VCRs because their technology can be used to duplicate protected television programming? How about computer companies who include CD and DVD burners that can be used to dub songs and movies? How long have we been taping things on the radio, making mix tapes, and passing these tapes out to our friends? It's one thing if somebody is, say, running a dub-house, trying to turn a profit on copyrighted material; it's another if we want a friend to listen to music with us.

So, sure, the bill doesn't try to hold the makers of file-swapping software responsible for illegal use of thier product. It rather tries to make them financially responsible for potential losses because they don't apparently prevent it from happenning. Hmmmm. Uh, yeah, there's a clear difference there....

They go so far as to claim that the only use for file-swapping software is to trade copyrighted files illegally, and that's what makes this case different than the others. The fact is, we need file sharing software. As our usage, even reliance, on communcating with each other through various technologies increases, so too should the efficiency with which to do so. This leads to the development of things like recieving email on a cellphone, text messaging, instant messaging, voice and video chat...the point is we pass information on to each other all the time, whether it's your voice, a paragraph, a picture, or a song, and we need to be able to do it efficiently. Swapping copyrighted material is NOT why this software was made.

If people choose to use something as a means to illegal ends, why should the inventor feel the repercussions?

The Day After Tomorrow

I finally got around to watching "The Day After Tomorrow", the newest member of one of my favorite genres of movie: The Disaster Movie. This one had it all, and though panned by many critics, I think it may be the best Disaster movie yet.

This flic comes from the makers of "Independance Day", which in my opinion indirectly helped start the Disaster movie renaissance almost 10 years ago, packed full of computer-aided graphics/destruction and a classic scene where we saw the White House obliterated by a massive alien death beam. Technically not a Disaster movie, the film did make one thing clear: people like to see things get blown up in a big way.

That year another movie came out that set the bar for modern natural disaster movies: "Twister". Yeah, this is a movie I'd watch more than a few times, but, like so many other Disaster movies, it focuses only on one type or another. By the end of "The Day After Tomorrow", I'd seen not only the best simulated tornado sequence ever but also a brief but potent lightning storm, a couple of deadly hailstorms with bowling ball size hailstones, rapture-worthy hurricanes and blizzards, a mammoth tidal wave of water that sweeps into and wipes out the entire East Coast, and an unprecedented movie natural disaster: the fast moving, invisible wall of "insta-freeze" conditions, where the temperature drops down to 150 below zero in an impossibly short amount of time, ultimately freezing just about everything north of the . We're talking about stepping outside and being frozen solid within seconds, mammoth stylee. I swear I even saw a quick earthquake in there at one point too.

The only glaring natural disaters missing in this one were death by lava and death by asteroid, but hey, we can't have everything we want all the time. Interestingly, these two types of earthly devastation were the themes of 1997 and 1998, respectively, and a part of a Hollywood trend to release multiple movies with the same theme in the same year. We'll get to that in another post.



1997 saw a couple of volcano movies, one the aptly-named "Volcano", and the other "Dante's Peak". Neither was much to write home about. The Tomy Lee Jones/Anne Heche team up was a match made anywhere but in heaven, and Pierce Brosnan would do better sticking to british spy movies. Both had plots that were less than engaging and effects that were less than memorable...go ahead, try to name a scene from either. "The Day After Tomorrow" blows them both out of the water, or out of the crater, whatever...

In 1998 we saw a great tandem of Disaster movies, the star-studded, extinction-level, asteroid-obliterating duo of "Armageddon" and "Deep Impact". The former gets lots of props from people, and I'm no exception. It definitely ranks highly on the list of Disaster movies and once you get past Ben Affleck, you get a good 2.5 hours of entertainment. One thing "Armageddon" has that most Disaster movies don't is a good dose of comedy, and that's a big part of its appeal. As far as actual disaster footage, however, this movie doesn't have a whole hell of a lot of it. That's good in that substance is what makes it likeable, but bad in that it loses Disaster movie ranking points. Above all, you gotta love the idea of a Texas-sized piece of rock slamming into the planet, and a wiseass cast of characters ultimately saving the day. (Let's hear it for Mr. Pink and the Davie guy!)

"Deep Impact", on the other hand, was a great movie (part of my collection), but its plot had too much buildup and too little payoff. WAY too much Tea Leoni. This movie does win the prize for best tsunami in a movie, as a 50-foot tower of oceanic death came crashing into the east coast travelling faster than the speed of sound....yowsa. Too bad it's over in less than 4 minutes. I guess the producers were counting on Frodo and Yar to get the butts into the seats! You do have to give it up to Morgan Freeman as a cool, calm, and collected US President, though, and Bobby Duvall leading the ultra-heroic team of astronauts who ultimately save the world was worth it too.



"The Day After Tomorrow", based on pure disasteredness, is clearly the best natural disaster movie of all time. I even think the ending is the best. Instead of narrowly avoiding disaster or rebuilding thw white house, etc, this movie ends with the better part of North America buried under ice...and it seems it will stay that way for a while. What better way to set up a sequal than to end a movie with the remaining population of the United States being forced to move to and live in South and Central America? Here's a title" "The Dia After Manana - Montezuma's Revenge Was Nothing...".

Space Wars

In the midst of one of the worst natural disasters in modern history, it's interesting that people in various parts of Boston are getting so heated over Mayor Menino's decision to deal with the "space wars" once and for all. Even a city councilor challeged the Mayor...is it a surprise he's from South Boston, where the tendency is to hate all people NOT from Southie?

This is ridiculous. I have spent my entire life in Boston, mostly East Boston, and have always been one to save a sholveled space, mostly because if I didn't I'd be walking home from at least 6 blocks away.

The problem here isn't the morals of saving spaces, but rather the fact that it is legally unregulated. The penalty for not abiding by the system isn't a fine or anything, it's vandalism and violence. There is also no legal way of making sure people do not abuse the system either (as if the sytem isn't subjective in the first place!).

Last winter, I came home from work early as there was a snowstorm coming and I wanted to get a space on my block. When I arrived, I found this one family reserving 4 SPACES, all before a single flake had hit the ground. Since there was nowhere else to park, I promptly proceeded to move a cone, park in a space, then remove all the other space reservers to the sidewalk. I returned the following morning to find my car had been keyed from front to back, had 2 tires slashed, and a dent kicked into the door.

What was I supposed to do, petition my neighbors to be more neighborly? The fact of the matter is the way people in some parts of Boston deal with parking spaces before, during, or after snowstorms has gotten way out of hand. Menino is right to try to do something...I think its wrong to abide by the rules of criminals.

BOSTON GLOBE ARTICLE

Holiday Gift Time fun

Ah, the holiday season. Busy, materialistic, but still loads of fun (once you get by the stress). Aside from the family shenanigans, we tried something new this year. Instead of the usual gift exchange, we showed up with a box full of DVDs and a file full of movie trivia. Went off without a hitch. Put a few drinks in people and they're game for almost anything, especially if it means taking home a prize.

Next year we should officially bump the event up to game show levels.

The Video Shoot

Where to begin? A while back I was talking with a certain limo driver friend of mine and he told me about some guy to whom he was boasting about his limo service. Apparently, some ridiculous offer was made (I think J was shitfaced at the time) where a limo was promised for a drastically reduced price. Needless to say the guy calls J the next day, and not only does he want to take J up on his offer, he wants to use the limo in a video shoot...a porn video.

So here's where I come in (maybe not in the way you think, hehehe). Because J had decided to do the job (for a more reasonable price) but was not exactly fully informed about the situation, he asked me if I wouldn't mind coming along. Or maybe he just thought I'd enjoy it. Whatever the case, I agreed to come along.

So out of the blue today I get a call at work around 4. It was J telling me that "tonight was the night" and he was to pick up the guy at 5:30. He also said he was en route to pick me up first, and "there were no ifs ands or buts about it". Nothing like short notice. "All I care about is gettin the money," he said, "everything else'll be fine."

After he got me, we went to pick up the guy, who was introduced to me as Khareem. J asked him if we needed to stop at an ATM, at which point Khareem informed him that "dude" had the money. Sorry J. We stopped at a packie for some, ah, alocoholic encouragement, then were off to pick up "some chick" (Khareem's words). She turned out to be a pretty attractive black woman, complete with stilettos and what appeared to be fishnet stockings (I could only see so much glancing at the side mirrors of the car). I turned to J and said , "Hope it's warm enough back there for her"...strictly out of concern for her well-being, of course.

And for a fleeting moment I thought I saw a kid get into the limo.

So then we were off, to where neither J nor I had any idea. Sitting shotgun, I took on the role of navigator and recieved short bursts of vague directions from Khareem as we drove aimlessly into the night. After a short while we found ourselves in Dorchester, and I commented to J in passing about how I used to work at a high school close by. Imagine my surprise when Khareem instructed us to pull into that very same school's parking lot, which I could already see was full of cars and people. I don't know whether J was oblivious to this or simply didn't hear the directions, but he blew right by the entrance. This was a minor relief to me, as I didn't really want to be part of a porno shoot on school grounds, never mind be recognized by someone I knew.

At this point I heard J muttering something about some a-hole behind him, then something about how he thought we were being followed. Great. Things were getting shady, and it wasn't because the sun went down.

"Aight, aight", Khareem mumbled, "I gotchu. I think there's anotha lot, ah, over there...nome sayin?". Amateur hour, anyone? We drove a couple blocks until Khareem reached over, tugged J on the shirt, and got him to pull off a crazy maneuver into some empty lot off the side of the road. We went in as far as we could go until we were in front of a padlocked chain link gate, only to realize that several cars were parking behind us, blocking us in. Before I had a chance to voice my reservations, J came out with "There have GOT to be easier ways to steal a limo". Whatever...what's the worst that could happen, right?

As the slamming shut of doors could be heard behind us, I checked out the side view mirror to see just who it was we were dealing with. Luckily, before J had a chance to gun the limo through the gate (you never know with him), I pointed out the small crowd of HOT CHICKS filing up to the car. Nice. J also seemed excited, though I'm not sure whether it was because of the chicks or becuase he was finally about to get the money. I just needed to get a "closer look".

I went back to greet our guests, and saw three alterna-teenish guys, apparently the crew, as well as four girls, who I assumed were the cast. Problem was, a few of them not only looked pretty but also looked pretty damn underage. To make matters worse, my earlier suspicions were confirmed when as I watching the girls pile into the limo I saw a kid no more than 11 or 12 hanging out inside. Wonderful. Might as well have stayed at the high school parking lot.

As the crew set up, one of them came over and introduced himself as James. This guy was definitely running the show, and looked the part of porno-producer to a tee. He asked about power supplies, and before I knew it I was back in the passenger seat leading a wire out the window. When all was said and done it was rigged such that I wasn't going anywhere. Argh.

J got back in with a clipboard in his hand and a smile on his face. "All paid up," he said, "now we wait." I told him about James and pointed out the wire, to which he could only respond, "Guess that means our man here (Khareem) is the talent!" As I started to ask him about the clipboard, which turned out to be a release for him to sign, I noticed a car pull up into the driveway of a house just past the fence. A middle-aged woman and a young boy got out, groceries in hand, and I swear the woman glanced over with a scowl. I couldn't help but wonder if she somehow knew what we were up to. She unloaded the rest of her car, then got back in and drove off. "Hope she doesn't come back for a while" J offered. I couldn't have agreed more.

While J was contemplating whether or not to use his real name and info on the realease, I had to point out a few things. "Number one - with all those lights they got in there, people can see right in. Number two - some of those girls look VERY underage. Number three - there's a little kid back there." No sooner had I finished than I heard a tap on the window. Cops?

No...just a hot blonde all bundled up in a fur-lined flesh colored jacket, asking us for, of all things, windex. Windex? I know it's generally all-purpose, but let's be reasonable...what is this, My Big Fat Greek Limo Orgy? "What...the money shot already?" J joked after she left. Ah, no. It's just not up to adult film standards of cleanliness back there, J.

Music started playing, and the limo started rocking. Here we go, I thought. The divider was up so we couldn't see what was going on, though J was trying his damndest to sneak a peek. Finally he just got out of the cab and stood outside. I waited until I heard the director say "cut", then quickly made my escape across the driver's side door. J must've seen my look of disapproval and said "There's nothing going on, they're just shooting the intro or something." I could see Khareem alone, back against the divider inside, lip-synching the lyrics to the song that was playing and boppin around. It was almost as if he were in a.......rap video!

"J, you sure this is a porn shoot?"
"Yeah...I mean..."
"Did anyone ever actually say the word 'porn' to you?"
"Yeah...well...no. No, I don't....you know, I don't think so."
"cuz this looks an awful lot like a music video shoot to me..."
"nooo"
"yeaaah"
"noooooooo"
"yes, man"

So, with a new perspective on the situation, we sat and watched Khareem and the gang go through a few more takes of the song, and though we went home with no stories of limo-laden debauchery, we did go home with a good laugh and an untarnished conscience.

OK...more like a not-as-tarnished conscience.

Want the song? Save this link target to your computer.

Giga-bullshyte

Weak.

I get this Lacie external firewire drive labelled as 160 GB, bring it home, and lo and behold it comes up as having only 149.01 GB available. What's the deal? Where'd the other 11GB go?

Well, after checking the Lacie site to see what the problem might be, I find some lame explaination about how manufacturers apparently use a different definition of GIGABYTE than computers do. makes a lot of sense, eh?

So in math world, giga- means 10^9, so a gigameter is 1,000,000,000 meters (like kilemeter means 1,000 meters). For computers everything is base-2, of course, and so the closest power of 2 to 1000 is 1024, or 2^30. Ordinarily, people don't ever need to do this conversion, as when one looks at the size of a file, drive, or folder the result is usually presented in the computer-defined format (i.e. you have 59.4 GB available). So while I thought I was buying 160 GB, or 171,798,691,840 bytes, I was really buying 149.01 GB, or 160,000,000,000 bytes.

Why then would the number on the box be calculated with a different number than what is actually important to the computer? Easy answer...people think they're getting more, and manufacturers are getting away with it. Sounds like false advertising to me...

Byte me.

Google TV

Right...depending on how they pull this off it could be good, or it could be really good (or I suppose it could suck too). I waited long enough for the ability to compile a music library in one place, now I want the same for movies. Granted, this is just a start in the right direction, but the ability to fuse TiVo, onDemand, and the net is something a long time coming. Why CAN'T I click somewhere and watch that episode of LOST I missed, or download all the old "Misfits of Science" episodes (all 4 of them). C'mon...let's get with the program here....this ain't the 1900's anymore...

Out with the old (means of communication)

Why am I not surprised? As technology improves so do people's style. I'm almost at the point of putting my buddyname on business cards, as it's become a pretty convenient way of getting in touch with me. My parents, my aunt, my colleagues...all are hip to instant messaging. I just can't believe I waited so long to start a blog.

F CELL PHONE COMPANIES...

Also, there's a product called Skype which apparently even lets you call people over the net....may be worth investigating.

Givin some Thanks

What a day.

It started off with the usual feeling one wakes up with on a holiday. Reservation. Another year, another drama. I went down to meet my father, stopping off at a friend's to drop off an iPod, then driving past the old house. The old man and I went to have our Thankgiving dinner....at a Mexican restaurant in Chelsea. Nothing like a holiday enchilada...

After a short time shootin the shit with pop, going over how the RED SOX ARE WORLD SERIES CHAMPS, I took off and met up with another friend to watch Survivor (yeah, I'm geeky like that). Amanda and I took off to Al's after that, and proceeded to watch highlights of such classics as "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom". Ahhh...Short Round..not too many make me laugh like you do.

Afterwards we met up at ol' Parker's, for a round of board games and all the controversy that goes along with it. It was here that Ken, James and I devised a plan to hit up Best Buy and their day-after-Thanksgiving-6-to-12-crazy-sale. What we were thinking I'm still not sure, but we intended on staying up long enough to show up at 6 and spend some cash.

As we passed the Best Buy at around 4am, what did we see but hoards of people braving the cold to wait in line, assuring their chance to give away their money. Fools. We mucked around in the warmth of James' area for a couple hours, then went back, only to have naysayers tell us things like "If you're tryin to get into Best Buy, you better head to the highway cuz that's where the line is." Yeah, right..please. The three of us cruised in, circumventing any line there may have been, and headed strait for the home audio/video section. There was some kind of ticket distributed to those in line that acted as a reservation for some of the various deals being offered, a ticket we obviously didn't have. No problem. A smile, some informal words of encouragement, and we had 2 $17-DVD players each. Ha. It's gonna be a DVD-player christmas this year for everyone!

...or we'll just sell 'em out of the back of a car for $50 each...

Good for Gabe

Well, the player has left the World Champion Red Sox (I still love saying it). Say it Boomer, good ol' Gabe "Welcome Back" Kapler signed with the Yomuri Giants today, saying he wanted to be guaranteed playing time. Good for him. What better time to cash in on one's current stock then just after a World Series sweep, even if you're not a starter? I hope he does well.

I really think Sox fans liked Gabe, a lot even. He's a hard-nosed, Trot Nixon type...a Dirt Dog if you will. Standing up on the top step of the dugout when trouble is a'brewin against the Yankees never hurt one's popularity around here, either.

Good luck to you, Gabe...sorry you won't be around next year to get another World Series Champion ring with the rest of your old team.

WiFi Grids as an ISP in the US

What a great idea. If Taipei can come up with a plan to install a city-wide grid of WiFi APs and offer a service where one can get Internet access anywhere, why can't we? People would be all over it, and it wouldn't have to be in lieu of other high speed services, but probably in addition to them in many cases. How great would it be to take your laptop, cruise around anywhere in your city, and be online?

So what's the holdup? Obviously it's a costly venture, but there are plenty of companies who have the moola. Ultimately, I think a case where companies don't want to open the floodgates to something which could end up forcing them to change their direction and bunk a system they've poured so much into already. In the end it isn't really about what the consumer wants as much as it is about how these companies can maximize profit. Is that wrong? Probably not.

I remember being a kid and fantasizing about being able to have my entire music collection in one place, like my computer. Eventually the world caught up, plus or minus some legal issues. Maybe someday I'll be able to be online anywhere, anytime as well.

NBA Accidents Waiting to Happen

The NBA game cut short last night due to an all-out melee was nothing more than the inevitable result of packing the league full of amateurs. Many of these guys simply don't know how to handle bad situations with fans...they can't act professionally. Artest is nothing but trouble, and though the fan who threw beveage at him was in no way in the right, you just can't charge up into the stands to attack the (wrong) fan. What else was the crowd supposed to do at that point? As my buddy Al stated:

You can take the guy outta the ghetto, but you can't take the ghetto outta the guy.

The suspensions will be severe, and rightly so. I'm sure many of the fans involved will be charged with something as well, as there is tons of video documentation from the night's fracas. How are you going to come onto the court and challenge one of these guys to a fight? On the other side of the coin, some of the sucker punches thrown by the likes of Steven Jackson and Jermaine O'Neal won't go unnoticed nor unlitigated.

The only good thing to come out of last night's debacle in Detroit was the chance for the ESPNs of the world to dig up footage of some other classic rumbles. My personal favorite: Bruins at the Garden in 79, complete with a man being beaten with his own shoe. Reminds me of life back in Eastie...