Stop the killing

You mean that Video games make people violent? I could have sworn that is was rock music or violent movies.

I propose the Internet is it's own separate nation

I have been kinda following Brazil's subpoena of Google. This kind of stuff gives me the willies as I have always felt that the internet is this happy little state of anarchy that moves of its own will and volition. Now with governments such as China, Brazil, and the United States pushing their grubby little hands all over my beautiful schminternet, I am afraid. Wouldn't it be better that the data is governed by an oversight nation of Internetia? Or that it is governed by the U.N.? Or any country that wants to push on a company? Google's data is owned by Google (and the users I think, but I do doubt that). If there is a Google Brazil, then their might be legal access to this regardless of soil. But if Google Brazil is separate from Google, then there is none.

I can now see the day when Russia sues bloglines for many times that I constantly insult their nation. Sigh.

This sounds like a great money saver... maybe

So you want multiple monitors; one for web browsing, one for coding or other work, and one for entertainment (music, video, etc). But having a computer to support all that and the cost of monitors is outrageous. Well it looks like Sharp has created something to to get rid of at least the monitor cost.

I really like this idea if the cost is less than that of 3 monitors. Plus would save on power using only one backlight!

Scrum et al.

Just finished watching this presentation on the Scrum agile framework for software development and wondered what it would be been like on my work at Whirlpool many moons ago? And I am not just talking about using from a software standpoint. What about using it to build appliances? Maybe it isn't a month, but it could be 2 months and then you have to show a "sellable" product. Sigh.

Google Tech Talks September 5, 2006 Ken Schwaber co-developed the Agile process, Scrum. He is a founder of the Agile Alliance and Scrum Alliance, and signatory to the Agile Manifesto. Ken has been a software developer for over thirty years. He is an active advocate and evangelist for Agile processes. ABSTRACT Scrum is an amazingly simple process that causes many, many changes when it is implemented. This seminar presents the basic framework of Scrum and some of the implementation issues associated with it.

Uggh. Sick.

Well back being ill. It had been quite a while which makes it a little bit better. The worse part is that Miranda is sick too and maybe even Michelle. Looks like sinus infections for everyone!

Wanted to post about the Lions loss. Just like the old Lions that defensively got tired cause the offense can't give them a break. Sad really. I hope they can find that fire or timing to make it through 4 quarters.

Also, many don't know of my deep hatred for Sony. I haven't had good luck with their products or customer service (going back) and haven't bought many Sony products because of that (PS2 included). But this video of a game on the PS3 has me drooling. White Knight

Almost could watch baseball again...

Interesting article on Disruptive Innovation on the baseball diamond.

Haven't posted pics in a while

Miranda is happy and healthy!

Lions: What I saw last weekend

I had thought about replying to Andy in the comments, but decided this was best served in it's own post. I didn't see the same old team. I saw a different team but only a couple games will tell. Did they make mistakes? Yes. Was their offense next to useless? Nope, it was useless. But they played 4 quarters of football and played with some fire that I haven't seen in quite some time.

So do I have something to look forward to this season? I am not sure, but that games should be alot better than last year if they keep up this desire to actually win games.

YEAH!

How to improve Lion's fans morale...

Not sure if drinking before noon would make me feel better, but calling for some heads might.

Do you know any good science fiction?

goodscifi
Since I am avid Amazon.com purchaser, a couple of folks I know have created a "goodscifi" book club. If you know of a particular book that is good science fiction (NOT fantasy) feel free to use Amazon's tagging feature (on a product's detail page, press 'tt' (t twice) and it will allow you to tag the item). Basically my theory is that since the death of R.A.H. there has been a huge void in the positive humanity science fiction, feel free to prove me wrong.

Detroit Lions predictions

Well, I have been putting this off for too long and now they are going to be playing their first game of the season tomorrow. After catching highlights of the Lions in the offseason (it counts if it is a highlight for the other team with the Lions in it, right?) and also listening to the analysts and coaches, I think I can come to a pretty good conclusion of a 6-10 season.

vs Seattle	Loss
at Chicago	Loss
vs Green Bay	Win
at St. Louis	Loss
at Minnesota	Win
vs Buffalo	Win
at NY Jets	Win
Bye	Bye
vs Atlanta	Loss
vs San Francisco	Win
at Arizona	Loss
vs Miami	Loss
at New England	Loss
vs Minnesota	Win
at Green Bay	Loss
vs Chicago	Loss
at Dallas	Loss

Of course injuries happen and this is just a prediction from a fan that hasn't had the even lovin' hope beaten completely out of him... Just painful. I thought about putting up scores, but that just didn't seem right. To many points against and not enough for. I hope they prove me wrong, I just don't see it happening this year.

Maybe it is better for Harrington to be gone. Please just win, if not for me, do it for the kids

Amazon Unbox Review

Amazon Unbox Video Downloads is a new product category released by Amazon yesterday centered around providing downloadable media such as movies and television shows. At first I thought this idea was not terribly compelling. Why would I want to get a movie that I don't have a physical copy of? Plus there are so many limitations with the devices I can play it on. So first the basics:

Hardware Needs:

• Broadband
• Windows XP computer (Mediacenter edition fine too)
• Portable device that supports Windows Plays for Sure technology
• Free Hard Disk space > 10 gig

Pricing

• Movies are the same price as their physical versions
• TV shows are $1.99 an episode (reduced for full seasons)
• Anime TV shows are $3.99

My experience
Last night I decided that I would give this service a try. I first started the download and install of the Amazon client application. I think this step should be done right away as it took quite a while to complete (mostly because of the requirement of .NET 2.0). While that was going on (it took 20 minutes), I started browsing the selection on the site. I have to say that while they have a good start of a selection, it has a long, LONG way to go. I had decided that since they were offering a free TV episode download, I would pick up a show. Remembering that I had missed the last two episodes of CSI last season, I went to the CSI page, checked the ones I wanted and went through with the One-click payment (tm). Immediately the Amazon client app notified me it had started downloading. IN THE REVERSE CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER! Argh. I could have switched it, but I let it continue just to test it. About 2 minutes into the download, a popup on my desktop told me that I could start watching the show as it continued. I have to say that the quality was awesome of video. Clear, crisp, and the same as DVD. I did notice little drops in framerates every so often, but I attribute that to my PC. Of course my PC is a 2.6 ghz with an ATI 9000 video card and 1 gig of RAM... I do wish that I had a portable device just to test that portion of the software out... But overall I was impressed with the interaction between the Amazon store and the Amazon application.

Things I really like

• Don't have to keep the content on your computer (watch it, delete it, redownload if you want to watch again)
• Can keep content on 2 computers and 2 portable devices (share and share alike)
• If I move again, I don't have to pack up my 300 DVDs
• Video Quality

Things I don't like

• Ability to select storage drive! (I have two HDD, my main drive is only 30 gigs while my content drive is 200 gigs. It automatically used the 30 and won't let me change that.)
• Does this thing do Dolby 5.1 or DTS? I somehow doubt it. Will have to test later, but I am leaving a negative for now.
• Pricing is attrocious. Why should I pay the same for physical media when I know there are no packaging costs?
• 20 minutes to install the client?
• Can't burn to DVD
• Automatically downloading in the wrong order

Things I really want

• High Def Content!
• Support for iPod video
• More selection
• What do I do with my large library of DVDs? Can I get downloadable versions of it? Can I load my movies into the tool?

Summary
Overall, I am impressed. Things went smoothly. Purchase and download are frightfully easy. Mostly I am concerned with the negative aspects of the service in pricing, my need to select my content drive, and I am an audiophile and need my DTS/5.1. But if they can overcome those three, this would easily replace my content needs and I would gladly go away from DVD's or whatever is next. Down with blu-ray and hd-dvd.

American Traitor

Gov. Ryan get 9 years

Somehow the thought of the American populace paying for this man to sit in prison makes me sick. The fact that any elected official can lie, cheat, and steal from the constituency is attrocious. He and his kind are traitors. That simple. Of course that could be just the side effect of trying to centralize power at higher and higher levels which makes it difficult for laws and policy to truly reflect people in various regions.

Friends from college

First off. Happy Birthday Andy. Not sure if it is today or not, as my memory is not the greatest but either way hope your birthday was wonderful and spent entirely in your birthday suit.

In other notes, "Fluffy" Dave came out to Seattle to give a seminar so I spent some time showed a bit of the city but mostly chit-chatted and enjoyed some good company. It was totally awesome. As part of that, with my self-imposed exile from the midwest, I feel very disconnected from my Troupe siblings. It is good to see any of them and just think of the "good old times" (tm), at the same point see where things have taken then. There is something about improv though that forges a close family connection with those that work together. That level of trust and caring really makes for amazing improv and I have to say for a team of individuals as transient as students, I think MTU (and Sue) have created a "force of extraordinary magnitude."

As for the fluffy part of "Fluffy" Dave, that is from Amanda. When I was in troupe, there was only one Dave, because DC was after my time with the troupe.

Nintendo Wii

Ok, I guess I have always been a Nintendo fan and this 24 minute video of the Wii gameplay just further adds fuel to the fire.
IGN Look at Wii in Germany

Some form of football... ahhh.

So football is finally upon us. Yesterday, I watched a couple different college football games while at a cookout at some friends of ours. The games that I watched were not all the important. The fact that I was watching football games where the outcome of the game had serious meaning was important, at least to me.

Preseason professional games are ok, but the only thing on the line are some of the players' jobs. I prefer when you have the teams chances at post-season play threatened. You get to see (hopefully) some teamwork and the top flight players giving 100%, which you are unlikely to see in the preseason.

So while the guys were inside (on a gorgeous day) watching football, the girls were outside talking. Not sure what they were talking about, but Miranda was a great little girl. She is sitting up pretty good now. We have to put here there but she is starting to learn that sitting is the best position to play in.

I will write my Lions prediction post later this week, but wanted to write a brief paragraph about Charles Rogers (ex-Lions receiver, released yesterday). I was excited when the Lions drafted him in 2003. He had great hands, excellent quickness and was tall, about everything one could hope for in a receiver. I have since added one criteria to evaluating all players of the game: single-minded focus on excellence. I don't know Charles Rogers personally, but from afar he seems more interested in collecting a paycheck and smoking dope than playing a good game of football and that is sad. So Good Bye, Charles, I would've hoped for a couple memories.