So long crew, nice being with you. RIP Captain 11.

I used to watch Captain 11 every day when I got home from school. I always wanted to open the treasure chest.
http://www.keloland.com/captain11/

Eventually cell companies will learn that they are just a dumb pipe for data, hopefully soon.

Years ago now I had a revelation when looking at my cell phone bill. I was paying $40 per month for 8 state roaming and around 1000 minutes, I had used a total of 140 minutes in the month the bill was for. Once my contract was up, I dropped that service and ported my number to a prepaid phone. Virgin Mobile had its downsides, but despite spotty coverage in SW MN (Sprint network) it was less than half of my old bill with the same usage.
Eventually I'd like to see the whole contract model disappear. You pay the same monthly fee whether or not you have a phone that is still subsidized. Right now T-Mobile offers plans that allow you to "bring your own phone" and actually pay LESS than the contract plans. The exact same situation I went through with Virgin Mobile.
http://mashable.com/2010/01/19/billshrink/
Hopefully devices like the Nokia N900 and Google's Nexus One can push the transition along.
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/01/kafka-nexus-one
T-Mobile doesn't provide any service in SD, so we're stuck for now. Maybe I'll get a Nexus One and use it without a SIM card. At least it would be a big leap from my Palm Zire 72.

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Just watched the MacGruber trailer. Could be the best recent SNL character movie.

http://iamrogue.com/macgruber/

Posted via email from coryk's posterous

Do not play first person tetris if you have problems with motion sickness

If you're brave, here's a link. I'm currently spinning a bit after trying the game for one level.
http://firstpersontetris.com/

Posted via email from coryk's posterous

I just dug out a tarball from the wayback machine. Here's a peek at Max's Tavern

freak@columbia:~$ telnet localhost 7100
Trying ::1...
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
          ************************************************************         
          *                      Welcome To                          *         
          *            #     #               ###                     *         
          *            ##   ##   ##   #    # ###  ####               *         
          *            # # # #  #  #   #  #   #  #                   *         
          *            #  #  # #    #   ##   #    ####               *         
          *            #     # ######   ##            #              *         
          *            #     # #    #  #  #      #    #              *         
          *            #     # #    # #    #      ####               *         
          *                                                          *         
          *       #######                                            *         
          *          #      ##   #    # ###### #####  #    #         *         
          *          #     #  #  #    # #      #    # ##   #         *         
          *          #    #    # #    # #####  #    # # #  #         *         
          *          #    ###### #    # #      #####  #  # #         *         
          *          #    #    #  #  #  #      #   #  #   ##         *         
          *          #    #    #   ##   ###### #    # #    #         *         
          *                       Version 3.0                        *         
          *                                                          *         
          *                 Be excellent to each other               *         
          ************************************************************
Give me a name: freak
Give me a password:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

New users: type ".help commands" for a list of commands.

Any questions or comments? Please email freak@dune.net

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Welcome Freak...

You were last logged in on Mon Jan 18 16:42:39 2010 from localhost.

Your level is: GOD

Room: bar

Welcome to Max's Tavern. This is the main Bar where everyone talks and
drinks. There is a stage off to one side where the house band "RPM10K"
plays every friday night. "Max's Brew", a small-batch microbrew, is
available from the friendly bartender. This place may not be someplace
special, but it's home. After all, we're just here to hang out and talk.

Exits are:  hallway

You are all alone here.

Access is fixed to PUBLIC and there are 0 messages on the board.
Current topic: It's my dick in a box!
.map
  +----------------------------------------------------------------------+  
  |                           ____                                       |  
  |                          | __ )  __ _ _ __                           |  
  |                          |  _ \ / _` | '__|                          |  
  |                          | |_) | (_| | |                             |  
  |                          |____/ \__,_|_|                             |  
  |                                                                      |  
  |                                                                      |  
  +-----------------------------+---   ---+-------------------+----------+  
  |       _   _   _   _         |         |                   |          |  
  |      / \ / \ / \ / \        |    H    |                   |  Closet  |
  |     ( P | o | o | l )       |    a                        |          |  
  |      \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/             l    ____                +---- -----+
  |       _   _   _   _              l    |w |  Stock Room    |          |
  |      / \ / \ / \ / \     ____    w    |o |                |          |
  |     ( r | o | o | m )    |m |    a    |m |                  Manager's|  
  |      \_/ \_/ \_/ \_/     |e |    y    |e |                   Office  |  
  |                          |n |         |n |                |          |  
  |                          |s            s |                |          |
  +-----------------------------+---------+-------------------+----------+
.news

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3/23/02 Max's Tavern 3.0 is born at maxstavern.dune.net 7100

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I just untarred it and ran the program. If I set up port forwarding I could probably even host the thing out to the net.
http://www.godaddy.com/domains/searchresults2.aspx?ci=16811

For now, it's just a bit of history for all of the talker nerds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talker

Posted via email from coryk's posterous

I am such a marching band nerd

I love it, in so many barely describable ways. Happy Friday!

Courtesy of @alyankovic on twitter.

Posted via email from coryk's posterous

CNR once defeated intergalactic invaders with nothing but a neckercheif. Happy Birthday #CNR

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What is really poised to knock America off our perch? Deintellectualization and fear mongering.

I'm a few months behind on my Wired magazines, but last night while doing laundry I read a great article.
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_waronscience
The piece outlines how celebrities like Jenny McCarthy have succeeded in getting parents to stop vaccinating their kids because they believe vaccines cause autism when the scientific evidence shows the opposite. I didn't just see it as a piece about the paranoia surrounding vaccine scares, but rather the fear mongering and lack of risk analysis that has done so much to this country over the last few years. Here are a few examples:
Airline Security: I've heard plenty of people prattling on about how the underwear bomber could have been caught at the airport. But the truth is, he wasn't successful because other passengers responded. In a post-911 world, no one on a plane is going to sit idly by. The reactionary thinking by TSA only assuages the fears of the weak-minded and gives travelers a false sense of security. But I'm still all about the full body scanners.
Global Warming: Just like vaccines, scientists have a consensus on this issue. Global warming exists, and we caused it. Those arguing against things like cap and trade legislation usually have money at stake in oil companies. There have been massive PR campaigns to convince people that there isn't a scientific consensus, but there is.
I found one quote very compelling from the Wired article:

The rejection of hard-won knowledge is by no means a new phenomenon. In 1905, French mathematician and scientist Henri Poincaré said that the willingness to embrace pseudo-science flourished because people “know how cruel the truth often is, and we wonder whether illusion is not more consoling.” Decades later, the astronomer Carl Sagan reached a similar conclusion: Science loses ground to pseudo-science because the latter seems to offer more comfort. “A great many of these belief systems address real human needs that are not being met by our society,” Sagan wrote of certain Americans’ embrace of reincarnation, channeling, and extraterrestrials. “There are unsatisfied medical needs, spiritual needs, and needs for communion with the rest of the human community.

Looking back over human history, rationality has been the anomaly. Being rational takes work, education, and a sober determination to avoid making hasty inferences, even when they appear to make perfect sense."

And when looking at the reader responses I found another great quote:

From Pieter, respondent #433 to the Wired story about vaccine panic: “About the poo-flinging you’re undoubtedly a victim of, there’s an African proverb: ‘When you throw a rock into the bush and hear a lot of noise, you’ve hit something.’

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/readers-respond-to-an-epidemic-of-fear-part-1/
In conclusion, sometimes we in the media need to be careful when we provide "balance" to a story in which the facts are clear. It's also necessary for consumers of the media to be critical and rational when examining evidence. While I was perusing my BS in Speech Communication I learned about Aristotelian fundamentals that have been around since before the rise of Rome. Every argument needs Ethos (credibility of the speaker and quoted experts), Logos (The evidence), and Pathos (an emotional appeal). If the story scares you, it's likely to include a lot of Pathos, without much of anything else. Americans need to learn how to be rational and critical instead of scared sheep.

Posted via email from coryk's posterous

Probably just another stupid action movie.

Posted via email from coryk's posterous

Back on the weight-loss bandwagon. Walking outside in negative temps while hungry is fun, right?

The weigh-in always takes place on Friday. I was down a total of 18lbs at last weigh-in, but that was the Friday before Christmas. So after two weeks of holiday food and not writing down my lack of self-control I fear for this week's mass measurement operation. Maybe I'll convince my lovely wife to play 18 holes of Tiger Woods '10 every night this week. That could burn a candy bar from last weekend.

Here's hoping I'm not up more than a couple lb's. I was averaging about -2lbs per week. I'm still on the same belt hole, so here's hoping I'm not up too much.

 

** This post brought to you by the motivation to post something with the lack of any compelling content. (And a growling stomach)

 

Posted via web from coryk's posterous