The Wayne Infect

"One that's made entirely out of syrup!"

2007-09-10T20:29:28Z

I just wanted to say-- quickly, because I have to go-- that Mountain Dew's Halo 3-branded Game Fuel flavor tastes like the bottom of a melted Slurpee. You know, the mixed one that you make with 2 or 3 flavors. I'm not criticizing it.* If you like that sort of thing, drink up.

*This is a lie.

Is it me...

2007-06-13T17:05:48Z

... or were pizza-kit and cookie-dough fundraiser companies created solely to try the boundaries of "dough" wordplay?

Why Microsoft Surface Won't Happen

2007-05-30T08:30:03Z

Microsoft announced its new multi-touch table Surface interface, today. At first, I was pretty excited about it. I mean, what could be cooler than having a computing device at your fingertips? So what if my arms get tired, I'm in Minority Report! But, while browsing the Microsoft Surface homepage, it occurred to me somewhere between the restaurant menu-selection buttons whizzing by with dessert images plus star ratings and the two cellphones demonstrating their comparison features when both set on the Surface that this product that I had seen the same ads before. Not for the Surface, but for a myriad of nameless, faceless virtual products in AT&T's "You Will" campaign 13 years ago. Here's a YouTube clip of a handful of the commercials:

The background music, pacing, phrasing, smiling... it all reeks of Blade Runner world optimism.

It's not that I don't think the product will ever... ahem, surface: I'm sure it will, in some form. I mean that Surface won't "happen" just like the Segway never "happened," and why I can't renew my driver's license from an ATM like AT&T promised. Obviously, it's much easier to be a naysayer than to do the work, but right now, Microsoft is counting on public places like hotels, restaurants, etc... to snatch these things up. I just don't see enough already cost-conscious, internet-saavy hotel customers being willing to pay the premium rates for a hotel that sinks its money into a gadget that will, no doubt, be just a novelty for the guests. The same goes for a restaurants and their often tight profit margins. Not to mention the inevitable time-hogging such a device would create, defeating any useful purpose it may have had to begin with.

Of course, a device such as this could succeed with time, and that must be what Microsoft is betting on. Perhaps a transition into the way-too-expensive hardware/software combination is a way to protect its target market from the patent-infringing Linux developers. Can't GPL that!

Evil Dead the Musical?

2006-10-21T16:47:58Z

So, I guess there's a musical for Evil Dead.

My Stop Motion Experiment

2006-09-26T03:30:55Z



"My Stop Motion Experiment" on Google Video
Although it's really just a novelty, now, at the time, I thought this was the coolest thing in the world: recording my action figures in my bedroom with a video camera to emulate stop motion animation. I later found out that a lot more people do this than I had originally thought, and a lot better. Since I'm in an Google Video uploading frenzie, though, I thought I'd share it with you.

Don't Read This Post

2006-08-23T01:51:22Z

In the unlikely event that you haven't been made aware of the news, Weird Al's next album "Straight Outta Lynwood" will be arriving September 26th. And you probably already knew that he released a single that will not be on the album called "You're Pitiful" (parodying "You're Beautiful"). And you should have also heard by now that he also released the first single from the new album is a marked departure from the tried-and-true formula of launching with a parody. It's called "Don't Download This Song," which is a bowl-me-over original that you just have to hear. And to top it all off, the music video for "Don't Download This Song" will be appearing on Yahoo! Premieres Tuesday, August 22, @ 10:00 PM PST. (song links above are hosted by me)

WeirdAl.com seems to be taking a pretty substantial hit due to the increased traffic count from the song, and I'm thinking that this song was a smart internet release for publicity's sake with the YouTube/Google Video generation's insatiable thirst for new media. In addition, the not-so-successful Weird Al Show was released on DVD, for the die-hard Al fans. You've got a lot to look forward to, true believers!

NewEgg Firefox Quick Search Bookmarklet

2006-04-21T00:53:38Z

If you use Firefox, you may have discovered that you can use and create quick searches (also called smart keywords) for pretty much any website you want, provided they support GET queries. Common quick searches include Google and IMDB. This works by simply typing a chosen keyword (set in the bookmark's properties) into a blank address bar, followed by your search query (i.e. "imdb Sean Connery") would fill Sean%20Connery where %s appears in the quick search URL. (%20 is the escape sequence for a space in a URL) More info about how to work with quick searches is available at lifehacker.com.

This becomes a difficulty when the website is expecting a different URL format for the GET query, like NewEgg. NewEgg expects the GET query to be separated by plus signs (+) instead of %20. Using the standard quick search results in a failure and an error page. Since Firefox does not allow custom space replacement, a work around had to be made. I decided to try my hand at a bookmarklet quick search. You can drag this bookmarklet into your bookmarks (usually, your "Quick Searches" bookmark folder) and assign it a keyword by right-clicking on it and entering whatever you want (mine's "ne").

Get the NewEgg Quick Search (sorry, LiveJournal blocks bookmarklets, visit my page to get this bookmarklet, though)

You can make use of the NewEgg Quick Search bookmarklet by either:

... clearing the address bar, typing in the keyword you choose, a space then your desired product search
... selecting a portion of a website that you want to search for, then clicking the NewEgg Quick Search
... just clicking the bookmarklet and typing your product search into the prompt that appears

You can also substitute clicking for entering the keyword into the address bar in the last two steps, if you want. This is not tested in other browsers, so it may or may not work, I don't know.

I hope you get some use out of this bookmarklet. Let me know if you have any ideas for other stubborn quick searches.

OMG, I'm m1k3 w4LL4c3, LOL!!!

2006-01-20T14:40:21Z

1337 gamer, Jonathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel will be making an appearance on 60 Minutes this Sunday, pimping his new mouse, no doubt.

"Look back 50 years from now….There had to be someone at the turn of the century that played baseball. There had to be a Babe Ruth, a Ty Cobb. There has to be a Jonathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel." -- Wendel’s marketing agent, Mark Walden

Apple iWeb's Nonsemantic Markup

2006-01-13T19:37:33Z

One of the web design blogs I subscribe to reviewed the code output of Apple's new iWeb product. I thought it was interesting how much it's a FrontPage redeux, but read midway through the comments and all of the Apple fanboys start popping up proclaiming semantic markup idiotic and Apple the most wonderful company to grace this earth with their products. Amazingly, they miss the point that every new web editor released to the market that shuns semantic HTML actually hurts the future of the web, even if it's a product for "normal people."

I guess I don't see why a web editor has to lower markup quality and increase file sizes in order to lower the barrier to entry for budding web publishers. I thought creativity was wrought by limitations. I guess it's just disappointing that people who know what semantics mean are completely willing to discard it in favor of ease of use.

Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or doing it better. - John Updike

Goodbye Houston (Go 'Stros?)

2005-10-21T18:17:47Z

Well, I've been in Houston for about 4 weeks now, and I'm finally leaving. My company sent me down to do tech support for our emergency employees and what started out as 2-3 weeks went to 4. I was on-call all day and night, every day and night since I got here. I didn't have to take many calls during business hours, as the normal help desk took most of those and the people I support were out handling claims. I tried to fill in with whatever needed doing. Nights got very busy, though.

I'm not complaining at all, as it gave me a chance to get out from behind my desk and meet more people. It's been a lot of fun, but I think that I would never want to live in Houston. The Hilton was nice, but anything outside of the neighborhood was trashy.

And the traffic is delightful! Houston traffic is just like DC, traffic, I think. It's weirder than DC, in that the parts backing up are on 6 lane highways. I decided that what Houston needs is a commuter rail system of some sort. And soap. Lots of soap.

I got to take a look at some Rita damage out in Silsbee and Beaumont, as well. It's just weird to see towering trees completely broken in half. I wish I could say that I took a lot of pictures, but I was just too busy to take many. And the few that I took aren't anything special, so I'll spare you.

I'm flying back toward Grand Rapids in about an hour, so I've got some time to burn at the airport. I'll have a weekend free (starting now), a week of laptop setup and configuration in GR, then flying down to Lakeland, FL to help with Wilma for a bit. (I'm guessing less than a week)

IE hasLayout Bug Explanation

2005-09-06T18:16:29Z

Microsoft has put out a pretty good (and enjoyably self-implicative) reference on a lot of the bugs/quirks that IE6 suffers from currently. They mention their collaborators in their blog post as well as at the bottom of the guide. I'm relieved to see this continuing trend of community involvement from the IE devs, but my cynicism forces me to remain cautious.

Riviera Break

2005-03-02T01:32:35Z

My wife and I are heading to the Mayan Riviera this Saturday, and I can't wait to take time off from work. Things have been so busy for me. Last time we vacationed I felt so relaxed that I literally didn't have to do anything unless I wanted to do it. This time Saturday, I'll be completely snow-free and warm in Mexico!

I know that a lot of people vacation in the Riviera Maya area, so I wondered if anybody had any must-do excursions that we should do, or any fun things in that part of Mexico. We already went snorkeling in a sinkhole, cave, and inlet on one excursion. We also went to see the Mayan ruins and rode ATVs through the jungle, so those are already done. Really, anything fun/interesting would be cool, not just pre-pay tourist excursions. Any suggestions? Otherwise, I'm just going to look forward to more shovelling.

Jobs are Overrated Anyway

2005-01-29T01:43:16Z

So, I found out yesterday that I didn't get that training job that I applied for at my work, because I basically don't have enough real-business experience using our system. The hiring supervisor informed me of that yesterday, and my current supervisor (who was also involved in the selection process) talked to me about it today. They were both saying good things about my sample presentation and sounded like I impressed them with it. But my supervisor had already told me before that he thinks I don't understand how much of the system relates to the business, because I started with this job doing software support and I'm learning inversely.

I see where he's coming from, and I agree, because I told the hiring supervisor that from the get go after he approached me about applying for the job. I told my current supervisor that I could pick up on those things pretty quickly, though, and he agreed with me. During my rejection ceremony, the (non-)hiring supervisor mentioned that I had "opened some people's eyes to my abilities and knowledge of the system," and that would be "nothing but good for me in the future." I didn't really know what he meant by that, but it obviously didn't help me in the immediate future.

Our small department had a meeting today regarding some restructuring that was going on, and my supervisor congratulated the other person (who also works for my current supervisor) on accepting the job. Then he mentioned that it was not an easy decision because I had also applied and did a really well on my sample presentation. So, he said that they might have me do some occasional training for the users. I mocked, "Wayne, we like what you did, but we want to keep you at the same pay grade."

I'm not bitter or sad about it, because I think that's obviously not where I'm supposed to be right now. But, I heard through our new guy, who's going through some claims training, that the training and development department is looking at adding another position for someone to sit with the claims people and answer any usability questions that they might have. In that light, it then made sense what the hiring supervisor had said about opening people's eyes. Are they looking into creating a position just for me? I guess that's cooler than getting the other job, except I wouldn't get to travel around the country.

Maybe it's a not going to happen. Maybe it's a rumor. It's just an honor to be nominated.

Forging Source as Never Before

2005-01-20T01:54:00Z

In my quest to legitimize my computer's applications, I ditched crackz, warez, and other unsavory terms in favor of purchasing the programs I really want or finding free alternatives to the programs that provided just as much functionality and nearly as much ease of use. Everyone who considers themselves an "advanced" computer user has heard of Linux or open source at least once. I have found that there are some really good free alternatives to commercial software, some even surpass their counterparts in important ways. Here's a small list of my favorite open source applications, in no particular order (okay, maybe organized by number of words). Let the crappy infomercial music begin!

Gaim - http://gaim.sourceforge.net

Probably the most popular open source application besides Mozilla Firefox (which I've mentioned before and I love), Gaim stays open on my desktop all day long, keeping me logged into AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo!, and Jabber all without missing a beat. I combine it with Gaim-encryption when I'm talking to friends who have it so I'm not just transmitting plain text secrets all over the internet. Once you say goodbye to the stupid advertisement popups and default news tickers (yeah, so what if you can disable them?) you'll never look back from Gaim.
Azureus - http://azureus.sourceforge.net

Tons of people everyday use BitTorrent to download large files, but if you're like me, you need a more organized interface for and better control of the torrents you have running. Azureus offers a lot of control, and the options that are important to me, like a plugin for displaying a web page of all my running torrents so I can start downloading new torrents from work. It also lets you throttle the global upload speed and individual torrents' upload speed; or you can pick which files you want to download out of multi-file torrents. Also running on my computer pretty much all the time.
FileZilla - http://filezilla.sourceforge.net

Finding a free, full-featured FTP client for Windows can be tough, especially when you're picky about ease of use. That's why I was excited when I found FileZilla. It supports file-drag and drop, a handy site list, XML-stored settings and sites (so you can move them from one computer to another, or back them up before you reformat. The maker of FileZilla also makes an FTP server, which is adding more features all of the time and has the potential to become as easy to use as many commercial options like RaidenFTPd.
Ultr@VNC - http://ultravnc.sourceforge.net

VNC, for those who may not be aware, allows you to connect to another computer and remote control it like you were sitting at the monitor. Ever since I built my mom a computer, I can't be thankful enough for all VNCs. For the longest time, I was using either RealVNC or TightVNC, which were both adequate and decently featured. Until the other day, when I found Ultr@VNC on SourceForge, and I was shocked by how intuitive it was to use. It also provides a lot of neat features that other VNC clients don't have, like performing file transfers on the fly for the computer to which you're connected... that saves a lot of time! I think TightVNC has some way of doing file transfers, but it's not very easy to get to. Ultr@VNC also has an optional driver that you can install, which reduces CPU load on the host computer.
Synergy - http://synergy2.sourceforge.net

If you read my pre-Christmas snow post, you remember that I bought a second hand desk. In the picture I took of the desk, there's a laptop in between my two computer monitors. I received this old laptop with its docking station from work when they were getting rid of them all. It's way too clunky to use as an actual laptop, IMO. Plus, I don't have a wireless card, so I have to keep it docked anyway. I had tried to turn it into a Gentoo Linux box, but it was too slow to compile everything. I then changed it into an Ubuntu Linux box (which is a very newbie-friendly distribution, by the way, and stamped CDs are free, including shipping), but the old hard drive crashed in the laptop. It has most recently been converted to a Windows 2000 machine (it's Windows 98 out of the factory) and completely patched up. This is the best solution so far, because I offloaded my mIRC settings to that machine and am keeping it logged in all of the time.

I say all of that to say this: Synergy lets me slide my mouse from my dual monitors right onto my laptop and type away like I was plugged directly into the laptop! The fact that it was a breeze to set up makes it even more amazing, to me. What's even more awesome is that Synergy will work with any number of different operating systems on different machines. It can just start as a service in the background and everything else is seamless. Of course, you have to tell it where your monitors are in relation to one another. And since it sees my dual monitors as one screen, I had to push my laptop to the right of them both, which I find more intuitive now that I've done it. I've never used this laptop more often than I have since I installed Synergy, because it's so easy to use it. And if I want to play a full-screen game, just press Scroll Lock and your mouse is locked in whatever screen it's in at that moment until you press Scroll Lock again. Synergy will also syncronize your screen savers to start and end at the same time, if you want. That doesn't matter to me, though, since I don't use screen savers, really. By far, this is the neatest program I've found and I think it will keep getting better as it grows and expands. My friend and I were thinking how cool it would be to be able to drag a program window over to another computer if you wanted to make a different computer do the processing while you played a game on your main computer. There's a lot of potential for a program like this, but I think it's cool now!

Gravy and Biscuits

2005-01-16T08:08:19Z

Last time I talked about the nostromo Speedpad n52 that I received. Well, I took it back and bought the Saitek Gamer's Keyboard instead. I really like this keyboard, because the keys have good response, it's backlit, and it includes a programmable command pad that you can attach to it (which I haven't used, yet).

I also received the Plextor PX-716A DVD dual format/dual layer writer drive as a late Christmas present from my brother. I gotta tell you, I love it. I've burnt some of the shows I've been recording, if you will, to DVD and watched it on our set-top player. The writer comes with Roxio Easy CD/DVD Creator 7, but I had already purchased and installed Nero 6 last year and love it, so I see no reason to switch. The Nero suite also includes NeroVision Express 3, which lets you make very awesome menus (like animated buttons) with very little effort. It's about as close as you can get to Hollywood quality disc menus without paying exorbitant prices or riding a steep learning curve.

I mentioned before that I was applying for a different job at my work. I had the interview a few weeks ago then I made it to the second stage and gave a short 30 presentation (it's a training job) last Friday, the 7th. I was so nervous to give that presentation, because it was so unlike any speech/oral communications class in college. Instead of a grade, this is my life that I'm playing with. And I learned that higher stakes = bowel irritation. I won't hear about the results until sometime next week, I'm guessing. I'll let you know what happened as soon as I find out.

All I Want for Christmas...

2004-12-28T00:44:34Z

OK, so I didn't get get anything that I put on that list I wrote last week. Which isn't to say that I should have. I have other lists, and I got things off of that, as well. I got FarCry and Half-Life 2, as far as games go, so my free time will be devoted to those for a while. Also, I had a Nostromo Speedpad n52 on my list from a while ago... I almost forgot about it, but Em gave me that, also. I hope that I use it more than I used the now-defunct Microsoft Strategic Commander that I bought a few years ago, back when I was playing the Age of Kings: The Conquerors Expansion regularly. 3 games and $60 later, back on the keyboard... something about specialized controllers just doesn't sit well with me. So far, the Speedpad has been harmless (except for a cramp... in my left arm for once), mostly because it's really just a small subsection of a keyboard, anyway. One thing I hate is how the tiny "space bar" doesn't seem to have a tactile click at the bottom of the key press. Another thing that bugs me is that the tiny orange thumb button does have a tactile click, which doesn't seem right for the type of mushy-feeling button that it looks and feels like. It's also inconvenient to have to put that much resistance against a button that high up with so little leverage. I'm trying to be positive about it, because I did ask for it.

I also received Elf, both Seinfeld DVD sets, and Curb Your Enthusiasm Season one DVD. I figured I would like Curb Your Enthusiasm because I was such a Seinfeld fan, but after two episodes, I see that they are two very different shows. It might take a while to suspend belief enough so that I can get into the story, but so far there's only been two moments when I laughed out loud. I hope it gets better, but I did ask for it.

What type of jerk complains about what he asked for? This kind.

Last Minute Gift Ideas? No Problem

2004-12-23T01:57:08Z

I can't count how many strangers are walking right up to me and asking, "Wayne, it's almost Christmas Eve and I have no idea what to get for you or someone like you... Help!" I'd be glad to. If you're shopping for a fresh-out-of-college twenty something who just got married but tries to live like a geek/gamer when he has the chance, you may or may not have come to the right place. Read on anyways, because you don't have anything else to do.

SnapMat computer desk chair mat
I just found this yesterday, and I think it's awesome. I should probably get a rolling desk chair, first, but who cares? Who wouldn't love to have hard wood that you can roll around on instead of one of those horrible plastic/rubber things? Plus, it's expandable so you can make it snake in any direction that you want (around corners and such). Worth a look.
$269.00 for full-sized SnapMat .:. http://www.snapmat.com
Logitech® Harmony® Remote 688
Nothing excites me more than unification of functions. But with most universal remote controls, some of the more complex functions have to be ommitted in order to make it more compatible. Not with the Harmony. As I understand it, all of the buttons can be programmed to your needs from the Internet for any model of any device.
$199.88 at Amazon.com .:. http://www.harmonyremote.com
LaCie Mobile Hard Drive, Design by F.A. Porsche 100GB
This little beauty holds plenty of MP3s and movies for easy transport, and I happen to think it looks great as well. Plus, it's bus powered, so there's no stupid AC adapters or power adapter bricks to lug around. Oh, and it works with either USB or FireWire.
$349.00 .:. http://www.lacie.com
Logitech® MX™1000 Laser Cordless Mouse
The mouse to end all mouses? Increased precision from arguably the best peripheral maker in the world. No more optical sensors like the days of old. The accuracy is very tight. It also works on glossy surfaces, which the optical mice never did get right. Oh, and it's wireless! My brief spin with Bluetooth never sold me on wireless mice, but the response time for the MX-1000 is supposedly excellent. I wouldn't know because I haven't tried it out, yet. If word of mouth is any indication, I think that you can't go wrong with this mouse.
$79.95 .:. http://www.logitech.com
PX-716A DVD±R/RW CD-R/RW internal E-IDE (ATAPI) drive from Plextor®
I've always wanted a DVD writer, and after the years of DVDs being released (since 1997) just now we're able to write dual-layer discs. If you're going to jump into the DVD writer market, you might as well do it with the most reliable and typically the fastest optical drive company on the market. You really don't have any reason to not get this drive.
$149.00 .:. http://www.plextor.com

That's all for now. I'll let you know if I get any thing from that list. :)

Don't They Teach You How to Draw Blood in Med School?

2004-12-16T01:05:02Z

I've been working on drawing convincing blood in Paint Shop Pro. I basically want a fresh blood trickle running down a white background. I didn't really know where to start, but I knew that there'd be a lot of red. So, here's a sample of the methods I tried:

The left most one used a plain paintbrush stroke, which of course sucked. For the next one I laid the darkest colored stroke first, then drew recursive feathered selections within that, and tried to perform gradual fills within each selection, which worked better, but fills don't work well after the second one, because of the gradients you're filling. For the third one (the lone drop), I used the same feathered selection method, but instead set the background color to the desired shade and use the delete function to fill the entire feathered selection. That worked much better, but the blood looks too velevety, I think. I guess the difference between what I made and wet-looking blood is in the highlights, but I never took an art class. Suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Living the Journal

2004-12-11T00:12:42Z

Have you ever checked out all of the options LiveJournal gives you? I wasn't even aware you could do as much with this as you can. For startes, look at their About Livejournal page. It details many of their features, including their ability to include outside site RSS syndication into your Friends page! I guess if you have an RSS reader that you use already, that's fine, but I enjoy going to my (I think) slick-looking Friends Page every day and reading everybody's posts. So, adding my favorite RSS feeds will just make things that much easier.

Let it Snow! / Make it Stop!

2004-11-24T22:54:49Z

Today we received our first real blast of winter in Grand Rapids, with heavy amounts of snow sticking to everything. From what I've heard, people are already in the ditch driving home and it's not pretty. My ForecastFox (formerly WeatherFox) extension is telling me "Heavy Snow, 30°F. Feels like 19°F." Great, I can't wait to step outside...

On the plus side, I like snow (except to drive in and shovel). My boss also just walked by my cube before he left and said that I could knock off early if nobody was calling. And nobody's been calling, so i'm just about gone. Our assistant told me that I have 5 unused vacation days remaining that needs to be used up before the end of the year. So, I'm driving home to Maryland this Saturday and coming back Friday. Hopefully the roads will be clear by then. It would suck to bang up my new-used car.

Oh, by the way, I bought a car two weeks ago to replace my truck that I haven't had for several months, now. I guess I owe a car picture... here's from when I was test-driving it. It's a 2000 Maxima SE, manual transmission.

Since we're talking about good things, I finally got sick of working on my home computer from 2 nightstands and a plastic drawer system. So, I went out to a second-hand furniture store and picked up this real walnut executive desk for $110.

It's really spacious and make late-night gaming sessions a breeze. I also think it does wonders for my back, compared to setting a keyboard on my lap, like I've been doing since January.

Well, if sitcoms are any indication, I should be getting my car smashed or getting myself smashed and hitting some old lady/garage door/fire hydrant/telephone pole/girl on a bike on the way home. Wish me luck!

Update!
It snowed way more than it should have. Even after getting off of work 3 hours early, brushing off my car took about 15 minutes, and driving home (which usually takes 30 minutes) took 2 hours! Once I got home and ate, I had to shovel about a foot of snow from our walkway! Check it:

Roads and Cones

2004-11-20T00:07:53Z

On my way to work, I always cross the only part of a new expressway that's open. This Tuesday, the expressway opened up past where it used to stop (where I get off for work). If you live in Michigan, it goes without saying that you're going to see orange barrels everyday. There's no way around that. So, we've been putting up with the construction along the active part of M-6 for a while, now. I figured with M-6 now open, the work would pretty much stop. No such luck. My drive to work found one of the two lanes on M-6 to be coned off in both directions! Can't this stuff be worked out before the traffic is released into the wild? Road work managers are probably just as bad as video game managers with deadlines.

For a positive, a local radio station has been playing Christmas music since last week (so is Delilah, btw). I love Christmas music. I start playing it after Halloween. My brother and I went out a few years ago and bought just tons of Christmas albums at the store and ripped them onto my computer so I could make CDs of any Christmas song combination in a few minutes. So, I've had Christmas music pretty much on loop for a while now. I'm going to post a list of what I think would be different Christmas songs that someone might enjoy, so look for that.

Also, there's this randomness...

Who's been commenting in your journal?

1	seinjunkie	36 comments	34.62% of total
2	gozer2048	15 comments	14.42% of total
3	dailygrant	11 comments	10.58% of total
4	rcaster1138	9 comments	8.65% of total
5	marcus132	9 comments	8.65% of total
6	jenvargas	7 comments	6.73% of total
7	thapsychlone	4 comments	3.85% of total
8	tisok	4 comments	3.85% of total
9	losvce	3 comments	2.88% of total
10	slfcllednowhere	3 comments	2.88% of total
11	amanderbear	1 comments	0.96% of total
12	greatbiggary	1 comments	0.96% of total
13	graciestar	1 comments	0.96% of total

These statistics were generated using the LJ Stats Web Interface by mpnolan. Original idea from scrapdog's LJ Comment Stats Wizard.

Evil Deadman

2004-11-18T22:20:52Z

Slashdot is linking to a story on Bloody-Disgusting.com talking about an Evil Dead remake. Apparently, Sam Raimi is behind it, but will not direct this one. The director is still undecided. There's another thread discussing the remake on the Bloody-Disgusting site.

From The Gate's article:

Hopefully though Campbell will return as Ash, a great director will be found, and the whole Raimi gang will join in, including Raimi's brother, producer/actor Ted Raimi, who often appears as a supporting character in all of Sam Raimi's films.

There's also a bunch of Google News links to the story available.

Green Screen Got Screwed

2004-11-10T15:01:15Z

You might remember I reviewed three new shows this season that I liked a little while ago. One of them was Drew Carey's Green Screen Show. Well, sadly for the people who watched it, an article yesterday on thefutoncritic.com says that the WB is putting the show on hold for November sweeps. Sounds like the death knell for Green Screen to me.

Today, the once official page for Green Screen has mysteriously vanished and a message from a WB Green Screen forum moderator pretty much says it all:

Hi people.
The show, Drew Carey's Green Show has completed its run.
This board will be removed some time Friday night.

So, I'm guessing that means the show has no chance of returning whatsoever. However, Blue Collar TV and Reba are still not cancelled.

*sigh* Why can't improv stay on the air?

That's One Foxy Browser

2004-11-09T15:53:19Z

For the uninitiated, Mozilla Firefox has been the long-developed open source alternative to Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari. I remember when the gecko engine that it uses was first being written from scratch at Netscape many years ago. I downloaded it and it was very much in disarray, as you might expect from an alpha demo. Years went by, and Mozilla became it's own company disctinct from Netscape. The Mozilla browser suite continued to grow more bloated than was needed, adding a built-in email client, chat client, and web editor. Purists demanded a clean standalone browser, so the Phoenix arose from the proverbial ashes to fill the gap, for legal reasons was renamed to Firebird, and once again renamed to Firefox. Today, it finally reaches the long-awaited version 1.0. I've been using Firefox non-stop for over a year, now, and I love it. I never see a pop-up ad, no problem with randomly installed toolbars or bookmarks on my machine (like I have to deal with at work every day), and it's very efficient. You can open your pages up in new tabs across the top of the browser window, instead of having a dozen copies of the browser open in your taskbar. Firefox even has an RSS feed handler built in in the form of "live bookmarks." And if you ever want to add functionality to your browser, there are lots of user-created extensions available for download that can do everything from inserting bulletin board codes to update your LiveJournal to syncronize your bookmark list across multiple computers to download every file of a certain media type on a page to blocking advertisements to even acting as an FTP client. If you haven't yet given Firefox a look, you should try it today. At the very least, every web page author should add this to their browser testing arsenal.

You can download it for Windows directly from Mozilla's currently overloaded servers or you can probably get it faster by using the Official Firefox 1.0 torrent to spread out the bandwidth load across almost a thousand users.

Gzorpe Photo Update

2004-10-29T20:23:34Z

As I mentioned before, I did make those Kix®-based Gzorpe Goodies a couple days ago. When I brought them to work yesterday, they were all gone in an hour or so. I should have made a double batch. Before I left for work, I popped open the Rubbermaid® container and took a few enlarged-to-show-texture pictures, so you would know what they look like should you decide to make them for your Halloween party. Here's the best picture I got (click for larger version):