Like most people I know this morning I found myself out in the freezing cold before the break of dawn, queuing outside an Optus store. I think events like this are a rarity in life, and should be savoured where possible. There is something almost magical about a group of people being united by their shared passion, braving chilly temperatures and unnatural waking hours to indulge themselves. It felt good being surrounded by my consumerist peers. Other people who had abandoned common sense and joined my cult of choice.

The People Of Steve.

I consider myself lucky to come home with my iPhone of choice; many of my peers were less fortunate. I've been obsessing over the little device all day, and I find myself filled with child-like awe at every unexpected trick and unimagined ability that my iPhone exhibits. On paper, for those that pours over technical specifications, the iPhone is nothing special. Others have pointed out it's many flaws, criticised it for its failings, and decreed it to be over hyped. But like all Apple products there is something intangible about it's beauty, and the little things that you can never quantify are what turns your typical Apple product from a technological gadget into an experience.

It's hard to describe the thrill of typing in a restaurant name into your phone, having it displayed on a map and with a single press having the phone dial the restaurant for you. Or pausing a movie on your Mac, then walking away with your iPhone and being able to resume your movie from where you left off. I've had a hundred of these little moments of joy today, and none of them could be constructed in table format, displayed as graphs or measured by benchmarks.

The icing on the the cake that is my day was learning of the existence of Max Payne: The Movie. I still get chills thinking about that game, and despite the presence of Mark Wahlberg the trailer fills me with a sense of gleeful dread.

This could easily be the best sport ever created.



" . .[We] discovered that miniatures painting is a lot like a knitting circle for geeks. We stayed for over four hours, chatting and dabbing away with tiny brushes, exhanging tips and making approving noises at each others' efforts." - sim_james

Went and saw TZU rock out Karova last Thursday night. While the turnout was disappointing the boys still put on an great show.

Things have been a little too full on lately. I actually got to have some downtime playing 'Enchanted Arms' on the PS3 on the weekend, which felt quite decadent. I figure when four hours of gaming feels like a luxury there is something really out of whack with my priorities. I'm hoping to spend this week kicking back and doing as little as possible in an attempt to regain some kind of balance, and take things from there.

I just finished watching the first part of the fourth season finale of Doctor Who. Let's just say it's going to be a long week while I wait for the second part.

George Carlin is dead. It's always sad to lose someone who has contributed so much intelligent culture to the world.

I was going to post a link to my favourite clip, but it really is hard to pick a single routine that would do his memory justice. So go search for yourself and spend a moment reveling in the rare collision of comedy and reason that was manifest in George Carlin.

If you've never heard of him before then you should definitely check out the 'Seven words you can never say on television'. Sure it's old, but sadly we haven't really progressed that far since.

I've seen a few good movies lately.

Die Hard 4.0 - I actually enjoyed this film. Some of the action was over the top, but Mac guy playing a super hacker plus well directed action is a perfect recipe for a mindless yet enjoyable film. In fact I was really quite impressed by how much over the top action they managed to fit into a film that was essentially about nerds. Add Kevin Smith as the ultimate hax0r and I can even overlook the fact that they were storing the entire collection of financial data for US companies on a portable hard drive.

Iron Man - This is what superhero movies should be like. Robert Downey Jr. provides an incredible performance, proving why kids should say no to drugs.

The Hulk - Enjoyable, but not at Iron Man levels. Still Edward Norton is the consummate professional that he always is, and the action is fun. Worth it if only for the brief appearance of Robert Downey Jr. (see above) and the allusions to Samuel L. Jackson's inclusion as Nick Fury in the new mythos Marvel is building.

The Happening - Everyone hated this movie. I can understand why, but it's not really that bad. Sure the plot is weak and overtly yet ineffectively preachy, and Mark Wahlberg still can't act. This movie was saved by M. Night Shyamalan's truly unique directing style. If you're a fan you'll enjoy the film, although you can definitely wait until it comes out on DVD.

Sex and the City - Yes I went and saw this film. And you know, I really enjoyed it. It managed to play up to fans of the show while making the story completely accessible to anyone who hasn't seen a single episode. Along the way they actually manage to make some very intelligent commentary on relationship dilemmas that have been done to death, and still pull a few heart strings. Worth it if only to see that Sarah Jessica Parker can actually act enough to invoke an emotional response, although I'm willing to give credit to the director for that one. While this does make saffireblue full of shame (she didn't see this film) I did cry at the appropriate parts.

There's some nice looking films coming out this year. We seemed to be in a lull over the last few years, so it's somewhat encouraging to know that Hollywood studios are still able to come up with the goods.

If you hate C++, and who doesn't these days, then you might be interested in this article. If you happen to love C++ I'd like to hear your rebuttal.

Coding in C++, especially a project developed by >5 people, really does feel like walking through a minefield.

I know about 50% of my posts lately have been YouTube clips. I like to think it's an indicator of how user-generated content is taking the place of produced products in my recreational time, but it probably has more to do with my need to procrastinate as week 13 of uni draws to a close. There is quite a bit of YouTube being played at our place lately, if only because we've been taking turns in trying to find the most wacky version of the 'numa numa' song.

I feel I should offer a warning for this clip. I don't necessarily endorse this artist, and there are certainly one or two lines in this song that could offend. This being said, I do endorse the spirit of this song, and other nerd related music. I hope you get at least one laugh out of it.

If you like to read Dilbert, but hate their bloated site interface, you may be interested in the following back door.

Is this common knowledge? Am I the last to know?

So Metallica are 'embracing the internet', and people are puzzling over why they're not being welcomed with open arms. There's debate over whether people are still bitter over Napster, if Metallica have lost their edge, or indeed whether they were good at any point in their career. But all of these arguments have missed the point, and I didn't think it was so elusive.

Lars Ulrich, and by extension Metallica, allowed himself to be a shill for the industry. He became the mouthpiece for 'The Man', which is so not Rock and Roll. He single-handedly destroyed any 'hardcore rock' cred the band ever had.

Oh, and suing people has never really worked as a business strategy^*. Suing your own fan base is doubly stupid, and even in the internet age this entire debacle has proven that people don't always have short attention spans.

* - It should be pointed out that this doesn't apply to suing businesses/corporations/etc.

Sometimes I wonder why I enjoy working in customer service. Then I find stories like this one, and it all comes flooding back.

Customer: “I bought a computer from you guys not 3 weeks ago, and my internet isn’t working.”
Me: “Well the computer itself seems to be operating perfectly…”
Customer: “It is NOT working perfectly. I cannot get on the internet. ”

[...]

Customer: “I suppose I should order some internet.”
Me: “…you haven’t even signed up for it yet!?”
Customer: “I wanted to do it on the internet.”

My one greatest fear is that I might become one of these people.

I hate needles.

This is important to know, since I've spent the last two days in bed with the flu. I'm doubly annoyed about this because I actually gave in and received the flu shot this year. So despite my natural instincts I gave in and received a the flu shot, it's not even winter yet and I have the flu.

Ugh.

I'm still not feeling 100%, but there are things that need to be done.

Perhaps it's all the physics I've been doing this week but I found this utterly hilarious.

I love Weezer, and their latest clip does nothing to change that.




Truly they have the 'Best Coke and Mentos Fountain Work in a Music Video' award in the bag!

Tonight saffireblue and I went along to the Kyokushin One Match Victorian Championships. To say it was a cultural experience would be an understatement . . I don't think I've ever been to a martial arts tournament with it's own bar before.

Before you think I'm going mad we went to watch a friend from work competing, who all bias aside (he did walk away Victorian Champion) easily outclassed everyone there despite receiving an almighty blow to the head. I was more intrigued by the Kyokushin as a style, which da_botanist describes as "I'm going to stand here and keep punching you as hard as I can". For the vast majority of the matches that indeed seemed to be the philosophy, and it wasn't until the final bouts that the karateka started displaying any kind of style at all.

Still, despite it being something I would never have seen myself attending I did have an enjoyable evening, and by the end was hollering and hooting along with the crowd at every punch and kick that landed. You can take the boy out of the country . . .

So, I just discovered that Tom Peters and Ken Blanchard were roommates in College. If you have no idea who one or both of these people are, they're the only two people whose writing on business I respect¹. Tom Peters in particular is a modern day pragmatic philosopher.

I'm behind on my reading, due to uni keeping me busy and the stress from work causing me to withdraw to the more mind numbing activities of television watching (Ah, Scrubs - It heals the pain). This week both da_botanist and I have been doing little else besides throwing ourselves at the final physics assignment, which is now finally over and done with.

The end of the semester is close.

Books I've Read
Foundation and Empire - Issac Asimov
The Dip - Seth Godin
Here Comes Everybody - Clay Sharky

1 - Seth Godin is currently holding my respect as a writer, but I haven't read enough of his material to make a definite call yet.

He'd post this video on his LiveJournal.

This wine is good. It's sweet. It's fruity. Just like me. - soporificfrog

And later . . .

Seriously, I'm looking for guy love - soporificfrog

Trent Reznor has released another album called The Slip. It's free as long as you're willing to provide them with a valid e-mail address. Given the remarkably low volume of traffic I have received from NIN despite voluntarily giving them my address multiple times I think this is more than a fair trade. And as the page points out it's released under a Creative Commons license, 'all files are 100% DRM-free' and:



Does anyone still think this is a passing phase / marketing stunt?

I'll post impressions once the download has finished. As you can imagine I think the site is being hit rather hard.

Edit: I've heard enough to declare it awesome. If you didn't enjoy 'Ghosts I-IV' then this was probably what you were waiting for.

After being an Apple hater on their DRM, they partially redeemed themselves with the release of Java 1.6.

In celebration I went and bought an iMac.

I am truly a lost cause. The good news: new iMac!

Edit: In the interest of full disclosure I also bought:
* a Playstation 3
* a Canon ixus 70 camera for saffireblue
* Grand theft Auto IV (ps3)
* Folklore (PS3)
* Uncharted: Drakes Fortune (ps3)
* Time Crisis 4 (ps3)

I think I need to swear off visiting JB for awhile.

Tonight I saw a song on iTMS that I thought might be good, so I dilligently clicked on the buy button. After logging in I was presented with an EULA, which I agreed to without reading, and was then quite surprised to be greeted by a message thanking me for accepting the agreement, and to try my purchase again. When I clicked okay it took me back to the iTMS page.

On most systems I wouldn't bat an eye but I tend to expect more from Apple, however being a reasonable man I was willing to look the other way this time. So I searched for the song again and clicked the buy button, only to be greeted with the following:



Wait, what? You'll let me buy the song, but I can't actually listen to it? You want me to do what? Explain to me why I'm going to jump through your crazy DRM hoops instead of, say, downloading the song via torrent^*?

While I'm on the topic I'm also quite pissed off with the piracy ads at the start of movies. Now I understand the film industry is trying to raise awareness of the issue, and I've always thought of myself as a good consumer. Recently I bought the two Grindhouse movies, only to find that they both have an anti-piracy ad at the very start that I cannot fast forward or skip past. So every time I watch my legitimately purchased DVD, I am forced to watch an annoying message telling me how I should buy DVDs? This is meant to make me happy about buying your movie instead of downloading it?

Somebody explain to me how making the customers life more difficult is going to encourage them to continue buying your products, especially when there is an eaiser and free alternative. Surely companies/artists should be trying to value-add rather than make their purchasd copies inferior to free bootlegs.

* - Which I did, and the process was far easier.