1st post of 2008

Resolution #1 - Post more on The Connection!!!

Halfway through vacation...

...and I still am not current on the blogs. Oh well...

Check out my new Myspace Page at:

www.myspace.com/johness1

three more days...

...and work will be done for the year! 12 days off...12 days to work on websites and the like!

Built using Vue Esprit...the background for my "other" blog...Read By Moonlight!






VueEsprit is a great application for building landscapes and the like. It has so many options, and you can make some really beautiful pictures from it. More examples coming soon!

Less than three weeks of work left...

...I can't wait!!!

Saw "The Mist" on Thursday. Good movie, but the ending...more on my review, which should be up on Snortyville by the middle of next week!

Still trying to get out to see "Beowulf". I really think the era of CGI movies will be here in the next couple of years. 3D may take a little longer, but its definitely on its way. We're not quite to the Holodeck yet, but we are making progress.

I'm never going to keep up with this blog am I???

Been a while (of course) since I updated the Connection. But there's a lot going on, so its been tough to come back to it. But, I think things are setting down finally, so we'll see what we can do.

First off, I've started a brand new blog called "Read By Moonlight". It talks about my experience reading a genre called "Paranormal Romance". You might think, why are you wasting time reading that? Well, for one thing, the books are fun reads, which in these times are hard to come by, and secondly, I'm (hopefully) going to provide a sort of different perspective on some of these books than you'll typically find on the Internet. We'll see how it turns out.

But right now, for all you new vi users out there...have you ever wondered how to get rid of the ^M characters in a DOS file that you're reading on a Linux system? Well, how about this

:s/(ctrl)V(ctrl)M//g

I can't remember if you're supposed to put a % in front of the s or not, but try it out!

20 Pages a Day...

...or Bust!

I've started reading "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini. It's pretty interesting so far, so I think it's going to be a good read. Go take a look at The Impatient Reader. If you haven't had the time to read it, but still want to know what all the fuss is about, go ahead and follow along...just think in 18 more days, you'll know all you need to know about it!

More movie news...evidently Paramount is wanting to remake "Dune"! Why I don't know...I would think twice was enough. Anyway, it just goes to show that Hollywood is completely bereft of good, original ideas these days.

I've hit level 17 of Portal on the Orange Box. In the next day or so, I'll start a guide towards getting through the game, and maybe even some secret locations as well!

Another post...finally!!!

This regular posting thing has to become a habit soon!

Anyway, exciting things are percolating at both Snortyville and the Impatient Reader. Just in time for Halloween...Snortyville will soon be featuring the Vampire Hunter Map. Find out where to hunt down your favorite creature of the night...the guys and gals in these books sure know their business. And on the Impatient Reader...a new feature called "20 Pages a Day"...where I'll start a book and do 20 pages a day until I'm done...complete with a synopsis of each day's reading! That should be interesting for all you people who would like to know what a book's about, but don't have time or the inclination to read it yourself!

Now onto other things. This week, the Orange Box was released. Now, I've played through about a third of Half-Life 2, just a little of Episode 1, and none of the others. So I'm looking forward to starting off on Half-Life 2 and just playing till I get to the end of Episode 2. That should be fun.

I see Esquire has crowned the new "Sexiest Woman Alive". Last year, their choice was Scarlett Johannson. Not a bad choice, but I've never liked her all that much in anything she's been in. Well, except maybe "Eight Legged Freaks"! Bet you didn't know she was in that, did you? Well, the new "Sexiest Woman Alive" is now revealed on the Esquire web site. Now doubt she feels just as weird about it as Mel Gibson, JFK Jr., and all the others that have had the title thrust upon them. For a funny take on the "title" of sexiest man alive, go here.

Blender magazine has come up with a list of the worst 40 lyricists of all time. I found their list pretty amusing. Some of the choices I have to agree with (Paul Stanley of KISS), while others are not quite as easy to justify (Queensryche). But I thought their top choice was just about right. Go see who it is here.

Ugh!!!

Will I ever post regularly? It seems not. But anyway, stay tuned for more updates to the Snortymedia section of Snortyville this week, plus an exciting way to find all those Vampire Hunter novels that seem to be coming out the woodwork these days? You know, Anita Blake and stuff like that. You're gonna love it, I'm sure. Anyway, seen on the net lately...

Some great blogs on alternate history. If I can ever get going, that's something I've got in mind to start here soon. But there's a couple I liked:

http://althistory.blogspot.com/
http://www.kymaerica.com/index.php

There are some great movie games taking place on Rotten Tomatoes

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/vine/forumdisplay.php?f=4

More later!!!

If there was a way...

...to just post automatically from whatever I'm thinking at the end of the day, I would do that. Alas, there isn't, so I have to come here every month or so and be embarrassed that I haven't been posting more often. Anyway...about to go on the first trip for the new company here...to Georgia of all places! In summer! At least it will be on the beach. Pictures to come if I manage to go out and get a camera today.

Football season is coming up. I've pretty much given up on the Raiders making any sort of progress this year. They haven't even signed the #1 pick yet, and the Hall of Fame game is what...today? I guess there's still hope for Arizona.

Figured out how to get an RSS feed working from Snortyville. Time to work on that. And more awk scripts and the like to come...I promise! At least I promise as much as I promise I'll post more on this blog more!

Last Post in May...holy cow!

The new job has been pretty intense, so haven't had much chance to post. But, a few things going on: My Vista machine will not turn on...I think its the power supply so its off to CompUSA tomorrow for a new one. At least, I think its the power supply...more testing required. Also, went to see Transformers this week...just an awesome movie (at least if you don't think about it TOO much). Definitely will require a repeat viewing just to catch everything. Trying to read "Warped Passages", its a tough read, not as easy as Brian Greene by any stretch. Finally, am getting into a new band, Nightwish. Their music is metal but with a very operatic and keyboard driven sound. Their singer, Tarja (sp?) had recently been tossed out of the band, so I'm coming in just as they get a new singer. But what I've heard of them already makes me want to go and get more of their music. On other subjects:

Live Earth: Saw only one performance today worth watching and that was Metallica playing "Sad But True". KT Tunstall looked nice in her performance in London. Oh, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers played a good set. Other than that, a total waste of carbon!

Hot Actor: Shia Lebeouf...is there anything this kid can't do at this point? First he's in Disturbia, a hit movie in a genre that is quickly circling the drain. Then, he's in Transformers, probably one of the biggest hits of the summer. And then, he's going to be in the next Indiana Jones movie. Talk about being at the right place at the right time!

IPhone: Who cares? Does anyone really need a $500.00 phone? You could get an iPod AND a great phone for that price, and you wouldn't have to worry about being without both of them if one breaks.

ok...now I've seen everything...

In a store today I saw the latest issue of Fangoria (the horror magazine). Not normally something I'd pick up and read, but I saw something on the contents page that intrigued me, so I went to look and...yes...there is a movie out there about killer sheep, and they're coming to your town! And I have the trailer to prove it!!!

http://www.blacksheep-themovie.com/

Some violent content in the trailer (sheep killing people...if you must know). Description to follow on Snortymedia!

Memorial Day 2007

I can think of no better description of what this day is meant for than to read the story below(http://opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110010133). Here's part of the story, go to the site to read the rest...

The men in World War II always knew, although news coverage was sometimes scant, that they were in some sense performing for the people at home. The audience dwindled during Korea. By the Vietnam War, the journalists were omnipresent, but the men were performing primarily for each other. One story that expresses this isolation and comradeship involves a SEAL team ambushed on a beach after an aborted mission near North Vietnam's Cua Viet river base.
After a five-hour gunfight, Cmdr. Tom Norris, already a legend thanks to his part in a harrowing rescue mission for a downed pilot (later dramatized in the film BAT-21), stayed behind to provide covering fire while the three others headed to rendezvous with the boat sent to extract them. At the water's edge, one of the men, Mike Thornton, looked back and saw Tom Norris get hit. As the enemy moved in, he ran back through heavy fire and killed two North Vietnamese standing over Norris's body. He lifted the officer, barely alive with a shattered skull, and carried him to the water and then swam out to sea where they were picked up two hours later.
The two men have been inseparable in the 30 years since.

Leo Thorsness was also at the Hanoi Hilton. The Air Force pilot had taken on four MiGs trying to strafe his wingman who had parachuted out of his damaged aircraft; Mr. Thorsness destroyed two and drove off the other two. He was shot down himself soon after this engagement and found out by tap code that his name had been submitted for the Medal.
One of Mr. Thorsness's most vivid memories from seven years of imprisonment involved a fellow prisoner named Mike Christian, who one day found a grimy piece of cloth, perhaps a former handkerchief, during a visit to the nasty concrete tank where the POWs were occasionally allowed a quick sponge bath. Christian picked up the scrap of fabric and hid it.
Back in his cell he convinced prisoners to give him precious crumbs of soap so he could clean the cloth. He stole a small piece of roof tile which he laboriously ground into a powder, mixed with a bit of water and used to make horizontal stripes. He used one of the blue pills of unknown provenance the prisoners were given for all ailments to color a square in the upper left of the cloth. With a needle made from bamboo wood and thread unraveled from the cell's one blanket, Christian stitched little stars on the blue field.
"It took Mike a couple weeks to finish, working at night under his mosquito net so the guards couldn't see him," Mr. Thorsness told me. "Early one morning, he got up before the guards were active and held up the little flag, waving it as if in a breeze. We turned to him and saw it coming to attention and automatically saluted, some of us with tears running down our cheeks. Of course, the Vietnamese found it during a strip search, took Mike to the torture cell and beat him unmercifully. Sometime after midnight they pushed him into our cell, so bad off that even his voice was gone. But when he recovered in a couple weeks he immediately started looking for another piece of cloth."

Desperate Housewives finale

Wow!!! What a shocker that was! Supposedly, the actress was going to start a horse farm with (of all people ) Micheal Bolton, so they were getting away from Hollywood for awhile. But, my thinking is 1) Carlos is going to rescue her just in time and 2) it's Danielle, not Edie, that's hanging from the ceiling. But, I guess we'll just have to wait 4 months or so to find out!

I've got to get better about posting...

The new job is exercising brain cells I didn't know I had, so its been tough to post on a regular basis. I'm trying though! Really!

First, the news came out that yes, there is going to be a Starcraft 2. I was never that great at the first one, but I guess that news gets everyone pretty worked up. Not that it came as a great surprise though...it was either going to be Starcraft 2 or something Diablo related. I was wishing for Diablo, but oh well.

Getting on to other things, I saw Spiderman 3. If I can ever get around to it, I'll post a review on Snortyville soon. The other big movie is "Shrek the Third", but not sure I'll get around to that this week. Pirates of the Caribbean though next week.

The new Transformers trailer is out, and its pretty hot. I don't see any hint of a plot yet though. I guess when there's giant robots running around destroying stuff...how much of a plot do you really need?

And finally, finales for Desperate Housewives, Heroes and Lost this week...Postings on all three finales on Snortymedia, you'll see!

It's been about...

...six weeks since the last post. I've been working at a new job (its going great) and so its taken a little while for everything to get back to normal (or as normal as it gets). But, we won't take up anymore time with that.

Spider-man 3 in 3 days...word is its going to be the biggest Spidey ever. I can't help but feel sort of blah about it. I've never liked Spider-man all that much. It's an interesting character, but I just don't identify with him very much at all. Regardless, I'm predicting a $120,000,000 weekend, and depending on the crowds, I'll get out and get a review up on Snortyville this weekend as well.


Exciting things on Snortyville...the debut of Snortymedia! This is where I'll put all the news on movies, TV, and music that I find intriguing or interesting. First off...the next few days, a review of the "Heaven and Hell" tour that reunited Ronnie James Dio with the rest of Black Sabbath. A picture from the concert:

Yeah, not a very good picture, but come look at it at Snortyville and you'll see that one and others in their sort of full glory!


More info on Vista and some computer stuff, like how to turn all those videotapes into DVDs (not the store-bought ones, but the one's YOU'VE recorded over the years). So stay tuned...more to come!

Trying to keep up...

...with life and a blog is a full time job!

Spring has sprung here in the southwest, and that means allergies...big time allergies!

I've installed Windows Home Server Beta on a machine at home and...well I haven't figured out much to do with it yet. Maybe once I get a new hard drive in, I'll start backing up stuff to it, but right now its just in what I call "test mode". I've got to get a report out to microsoft though...wouldn't want them to miss IMPORTANT data!

Haven't had much of a chance to do much gamewise or with Sn0rtyville, but hopefully that will change soon. Have lots of plans for both.

Tomorrow...Battlestar + Dresden. Dresden is proving to be fun, but I'm way behind on Battlestar, and the season is getting close to the end.

Headed back!!!

Finally!!!

Looking forward to getting that Home Server beta up and running. When I tried to connect to the Microsoft website last time, it was down. Look for reports this weekend!

Picked for the Home Server Beta!!!

I got news today that I got picked for the Microsoft Home Server Beta program. As soon as I get back from my trip to the nation's capital, I'll put that on my home network and let you know how it works out.

The Vista machine is working well...I've got three 200GB drives in there and I haven't even begun to work on the programming tools I'm going to put on it. That comes soon!

New review of the Dresden Files coming up soon on Snortyville!

more supreme commander shots...

someone getting blown up!

a couple of assault units heading out to the target

For some reason, the interface showed up in these shots, it didn't in the first one that I took

well, that's annoying...

For the tutorial on the Supreme Commander demo...they make you download the videos from File Planet! Arrrrrrrrgh!!! That's just dumb. Here's a screenshot of the main unit in a skirmish I started playing:

Yeah, not much in it. Interestingly enough, it did not take a picture of the interface, only the playing area.

Another demo I've been playing with is the Tomb Raider: Legend demo. Here's a shot of the lovely Lara Croft:

More on both demos tomorrow at Snortyville.com. BTW, both being played on my Vista machine!

Sorry I haven't gotten back...

Guess I was a little bit off on that SuperBowl prediction, at least score-wise. But, the end result was the same. The commercials were lame, lame though. Only two or three funny ones that I could see.

Back on computing, the computer I've been using for about 4 years now seems to have died. I tried to do a reinstall of XP on it...no luck. It wouldn't even let me get past the initial screens. That, and the spontaneous reboots, make me think there's a memory problem on the box. I don't know if I'm patient enough to sort through it right now. I may just salvage the usable parts and recycle the rest. That means I have two motherboards, two Athlon chips and one Duron chip that are sitting and doing nothing. I can probably build a usable Linux box out of the pieces, but I'm not even sure that's worth it at this point. We'll see.

I've stuffed my new box with 600GB of drive space, that should keep it going for awhile. It's running like a champ so far, no problems. More Vista tips on snortyville.com soon!

Super Bowl Sunday Prediction

Colts 34 Bears 26.

The new Vista computer is working great so far. I've installed two games on it, Titan Quest and Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna. Titan Quest works out of the box, but Dungeon Siege gives you a warning that its not compatible. I set the compatibility to Windows XP Service Pack 2 and ran it anyway, and it works. It does appear to stutter just a little bit, but we'll see as I get further into the game if it makes any difference.

Vista installed...problems ensued and solved

more details tomorrow on Snortyville.com...its 117AM and I'm tired!!!

more snow! I think I'm sick of it, but I'm not sure.

No Vista yet...

I'm installing Win2K so that when I get it tomorrow, I will be able to do a clean install. Still undecided whether to go for Home Premium or Ultimate. I guess I'll make that decision tomorrow.

The second episode of the Dresden Files was much better than the first...I think the show is really coming into its own now. It's definitely on my keep watching list. The shows on that include

Must Watch:
The Dresden Files
Battlestar Galactica
Heroes
Lost (when it comes back)
The Office
Grey's Anatomy

On the back burner:
Afro Samurai
Dirt
Stargate Atlantis
Dr. Who

A glitch in the system...

I just read that you cannot do a clean install of Windows Vista using the upgrade disk by just putting in the previous version's CD, it HAS to be installed first...argggggh! I hate to do an install just to blow it away a day later. Oh well...I guess that's how it has to be. The second part of my Windows Vista experience is now up on Snortyville.com...go check it out.

Tonight, we'll see if "The Dresden Files" improves from last week...then again I read that they are showing the episodes out of order akin to what Fox did with Firefly...and we all know how that turned out!

Here's my 2008 Election Prediction

Giuliani/Romney - 52%
Clinton/Obama - 48%

Just one of a million early predictions out there.

On the computer front, I've put a new power supply in the case, now I'm trying to pry the backplate from the case because it's not going to work with the motherboard I have. Pictures soon.

Oh, one more prediction:

Saints over Chicago 24-18
Colts over Patriots 34-27

All the parts are in...

...and its a good thing, because the computer I'm planning to upgrade has been getting a number of XP "STOP" errors, and re-booting itself. So I think its telling me I've had enough of the bloated Windows XP installation that hasn't been re-installed in like 4 years and its time for something fresh. And that is what I intend to do with it this week. Follow the whole saga at Snortyville.com

In other news, I've started "Unreal 2: The Awakening" on the ole X-Box. So far, I'm not all that impressed, but then again I'm just on the first training level. A couple of things I will never get used to while playing games on consoles. The first is that you cannot just save anywhere...that is soooo annoying. The second is not using a mouse and a keyboard, especially on the first person shooters. I think only people under the age of ** can correctly coordinate one hand controlling the view and the other controlling the movement. But then again, maybe its just me.

Tomorrow night...Battlestar Galactica AND The Dresden Files. Better get to work on that Concordance!!! More later...

The upgrade has started...

See the details on Snortyville.com!!! Here's a picture of the chip, still in its box!!!

And here's the motherboard...an ECS KN1 Extreme!

Tomorrow I'll order the video card and the memory, as well as put the motherboard into the case.

Tired, Tired, Tired today...

I think I'm finally over my cold though...its about time!

My computer parts start coming in tomorrow! My first new computer in about a year and a half! Maybe I'll finally be able to run the XNA toolkit

CES news is coming out. The most exciting thing...the Windows home server. Although you can sort of do the same thing yourself, it takes a lot more effort and know-how. Check out the article on Ars Technica here...

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070108-8573.html

28 days until Vista...

computer parts in next week...

the motherboard and cpu are coming in next week. So now it will be time to pick out a video card and memory. Probably a 7600GT and a gigabyte of memory (since that's what will run Vista). Newegg is your friend...

Not only back to work...

...but sick as well...arrrrrrrrrgh!

I did buy a Athlon64 3700 and an ECS motherboard for a Vista project that will be covered in grueling detail on Snortyville.com. Look for it as soon as Vista comes out.

Tonight I was going to to an insta-review of the new show "Dirt" for Snortyville...but I'm too out of it to do much, so that will have to wait until tomorrow. Also looking forward to "Afro-Samurai" later in the week.

Ugh!!!

First day back to work...I guess I should be happy about that... :-

My video card in the computer that I installed the XNA toolkit on...no can do. It doesn't support DirectX 9 or Shader Model 1.1 (or higher). So that means I either move it to my other computer, or get a new video card (a cheap 6200 or something). So we'll see.

Motivation...motivation...