Aug 28, 2011

Chephren Blake feat. Meighan Nealon - Year After

Just part of the reason DJ Doboy 26 Vocal Edition is one of the most perfect mixes ever...




Is that an EVO?




Victim of Webdings

"Of course, my favorite font is Papyrus because it makes me feel like an avatar of Amu-Ra!" - onion video

Mtn Biking in British Columbia

I couldn't seem to track down the exact track for Kranked Revolve:




biking video:






closest match:






related, interesting:




Aug 27, 2011

jquery.tuberiframe.js plugin

I keep getting requests for YouTube video players for which the start and end image are customizable.

I created jquery.tuberiframe-1.0.js, a hybrid tool using the YouTube api and jquery, lets you set an initial image, which the user must click to play the video, and an after image, to display when the video ends. Alternatively, you can skip either image.

Check out a demo depicting different scenarios here.

Update: jquery.tuberiframe-1.1.js has a loop feature. I added looping examples to the same demo location.

Aug 25, 2011

Eclipse Phase: Your mind is software

Cool video promoting Eclipse Phase.









Also speaking with the authors of the system, which uses the creative common licensing






Aug 20, 2011

Sting's Arch-Enemy

An American with a hobby of finding bottled messages... messages in bottles.

Aug 19, 2011

Ramp optical illusion

Sometime you need a change of perspective to see things right.

Leds in models

So I've been playing around with adding LEDs in models and lego kits... Ran across this guy today, who really takes LED lighting to the next level. I'm not there yet.

BTW have you had the tour of the falcon?

Aug 13, 2011

Israel IZ somewhere over the rainbow

Good song to relax to, simple and sweet.





Aug 12, 2011

Dash Berlin feat Emma Hewitt - Waiting

Best parts about trance: arpeggio synths, strings, and female vocals. Plus stormtroopers.






Aug 9, 2011

Moore/Harsdorf Recall Election

There was a local election today. I don't feel really great about it either way. No matter who wins the vote, Wisconsinites have lost.

If Harsdorf wins, the Republicans will see it as a repudiation of the objections to their anti-labor stance. They will return to Madison with more pro-wealthy, pro-bank, and anti-Wisconsin rhetoric. They'll strike down police and firefighter's rights to bargain. Isn't anyone else concerned that corporations are treated as having individual rights while actual citizens are stripped of their rights? They'll axe healthcare and parks, diminishing the quality of life so that a few rich cats can keep their wealth and escape with their (Swiss) accounts.

If Moore wins, the democrats will spend their entire effort fighting Walker on unions, having spending parties that bring money into the schools, unfortunately these will be spent on administrators, benefits, and everything else except the student body and its environs.

Meanwhile, the real focus of attention in this education/spending reform should be getting more use of this infrastructure. It requires bringing USA schools in line with the most advanced countries in the world. It requires increasing the school year, focusing on fundamentals instead of burning money on technology and infrastructure resources, paying for expert teaching staff that is seen as professionals on par with doctors and lawyers, then we can drive international trade.

I don't think either of these candidates care enough about the future to look at the real issues though.

Lastly, the fact that we have this recall election shows that we don't really have enough compromise in government to achieve beneficial results. It's operating more like a free-for-all giveaway, where the elected groups try to run out with as much stuff as they can before they take a recess. That's not government for the people.

Fall of the Soviet Union - Rerelease in the USA

In our Modern Russia class, we looked at the top ten reasons for the fall of the Soviet Union. It is sad to say every year the US government is trying to re-execute these event/policies.

What concerns me is that as a nation, the government continues to progress one-by-one down the list of reasons the Soviet Union collapsed, sometimes in double-step (two wars in asian instead of one). The war in Afghanistan in point: the Soviets spent 10 years in their own Vietnam type war. It demoralized their country, weakened their military reputation, and cost $ billions of rubles. Did we learn from their Vietnam? No, not even from our own Vietnam. Government continues to response to crises instead of proactive solutions. Reform is postponed until it is too little; too late.

The two-party process of selecting candidates continues producing whackadoodle contenders, while the media (left or right) is content to delve no more than 1-5cm into any story. Even NPR/MPR, which pride themselves on delving into the story, don't execute more effort than restating the diatribe fed to them by the spinner/spokespeople. Only a few journalists, like John Stewart compare what people have said recently to their past, factchecking, and learning from history what is meant when this happens, or how this is the same path followed previously in history and here's how that ended up. Every day they are happy to report whether the stocks are up or down but without even an industry-wide level of analysis expected from any almanac.

Regarding the whackadoodle Bachmans and Pawlentys: seriously Democrats, if you can't product anyone capable of contending with Michelle Bachmann, we need a new alternate Party to the Republicans. All you have to do is demonstrate intelligence without overconfidence (the Al Gore problem), and it should be easy enough. Show that no taxes while compelling in the short term actually means more debt and devaluation of your existing and future money. Someone should be able to come forward, pull out of countries we have no business staying in, and in exchange swap those never-ending expenditures with investments in infrastructure assets.

Today there was an airplane that flew around NY with a banner complaining about the S&P downgrade. If that single prop plane landed on the mall today without a shot or missle fired at it, it would suggested that our defense system is a sham. All the money, none of it on actual defense, is spent overseas as either offense or peacekeeping. This approach was demonstrated in 1987 by Mathias Rust. I don't want to have this happen here; I wish there were actually surface-to-air batteries ready to defend our cities. I just don't believe they exist. They weren't used in Sept. 2001, and I don't think they're there now either.

The plethora of foreign wars, doesn't benefit our military might, it demeans it. We have the best trained personnel, vehicles in the world, but all it takes it trying to fight guerilla warfare with mobs to bring our status to that same level

Aug 7, 2011

Award-winning artist?

Award-winning doesn't cut it as an adjective. Maybe they found a category with noone else in it that year. Please never call me award-winning.

Domestic terrorist drivers tailgate. Using the mass of their probably unstoppable vehicles they want to go as fast as they can until they reach the next vehicle in their path. If you're going to speed that's one thing, but endangering others through irresponsible behavior and less-than conceptual level understanding of physics. I'd like to see the speeding ticket fines be rates proportional to the kinetic energy of the vehicle, as that is the potential for damage the driver is creating.

Modern is a poor adjective to use in a publication title. Assuming your publication will stand the test of time, it's not going to be modern pretty soon. Then you'll have readers looking at your book in a garage sale, laughing to themselves, "Yep, modern deck construction".

Passing if you're not passing in the passing lane, you're failing.

Aug 3, 2011

Wave Plugin (jquery.wave.js) using jQuery

First stab at a jQuerywave plugin for creating a wave effect across your images.

You need two images, the original, and a brighter version of the same. Then with a few lines of javascript code, jQuery, and this plugin, you can have your own shimmering shiny wave effect.

Updates: Version 1.1 uses a 45 degree angle. Version 1.2 allows any arbitrary angle.


Aug 2, 2011

Displays evidence of spoiling for rumble

One of my favorite quips from Red Dwarf...





Aug 1, 2011

Fallacies

A good analysis and summary of fallacies.