I've got Vertigo, and I love it

Over the last 5 years I've become an avid comic book reader. What inspired it, I'm not sure, but I'd gone from a passing interest in X-Men (I mean, how cool is Wolverine), to religiously attending local comic book conventions. I generally stick to the stuff I pick up from the conventions, which consists of mostly local and independent artists.

However, over time, people have recommended, or I have stumbled upon, a few mainstream titles. Here's a list of some of the best:

• Transmetropolitan
• Fables
• Preacher
• Y: The Last Man
• Lucifer
• Sandman

For those who haven't already guessed, the running theme here is: they are all Veritgo titles. Vertigo is the more adult imprint of DC Comics. Instead of caped super heroes, you've got a lot of men and women, gods and creatures, many whom you might root for at one time and then hate at others. Characters that feel real, or at least more real than Superman.

If you're an adult who is looking to get into comics, I'd suggest picking up almost any title from Vertigo and giving it a read.

Blue man says "Keyboards are gross!"

One of my coworkers took misophobia to the logical conclusion the other day. Rubber gloves are the perfect way to avoid the dirty, germy oils, dead skin flakes, food bits, and other unsavory menaces of the keyboard. Isn't he just adorable?
His wife must be so proud.

MicroCon 2007

This Sunday I went to the Minnesota State Fair grounds to enjoy a nice time at MicroCon, a small, yearly, spring comic book convention. As always, it was a great time to talk with artists and see what's going on in their lives, and their art.

I always make a point to talk with some of my favorite artists at the conventions. These guys (and girl) are not only great artists and story tellers, but they are excellent people as well. Very rarely do I feel like being a fanboy about something, but it's just so exciting to me to be able to talk with a section of the usually inaccessible people who bring me a lot of joy. Here's a list of my favorite comic book artists who frequent Minnesota cons:

Sam Hiti (also check out Fist-A-Cuffs)
Zach Miller
Becky Grutzik & Matt Wendt
Zander Cannon, Kevin Cannon & Shad Petosky

If you've got any interest in comics (or art, for that matter), and haven't been to a comic book convention before, stop by the next con this fall. It's good way to go out and experience new art and ideas.

Remembering our history through samples

Although some people believe that a piece of art is to be experienced on its own, I feel so much art is enhanced by understanding where it came from. Music has a very long history, and although much of it is inspired by other works and genres, a good portion of modern music is created with the help of sampling other works.

When done properly, this practice takes prior art and creates something new that goes beyond the original. A new work of art that brings older works into a new light. However, ignorance and carelessness can devalue an original work. Much as when forgetting a nation's history can devalue its current state of affairs.

In an effort to make others aware of where their music comes from, I've decided to share some interesting examples of a real history in samples.

Many people have heard the song "Doin' Time" by the group Sublime. Few have any of the music's origins. In the early 1930's George Gershwin wrote the music to the opera Porgy and Bess. In the opera there is a song entitled "Summertime." That piece was later arranged by Herbie Mann and recorded in 1961 during live performance at the Village Gate. This particular recording happened to be instrumental. Years later, Sublime sampled that recording and used their own lyrics. However, they pay homage to the original lyrics and begin with "Summertime and the livin's easy," which is how the original begins.

What is amazing about sampling is that it need not be limited to the original source to be sampled. If we begin with the groovy and rather repetitious song "Take Me To The Mardi Gras" as performed by Bob James (it was originally written by Paul Simon), we see the funky bell and drum groove that comprises most of the song appear in a number of hip hop tracks. One of the performers to sample this song is Run-DMC in their song "Peter Piper." Their DJ, Jam Master Jay, cut up the original on his turntables. Although well known by hip hop fans, "Peter Piper" has been generally forgotten by the public. A few years ago Missy Elliot released a song entitled "Work It." This song could be easily added to the list of songs that sampled "Take Me To The Mardi Gras," however, if one listens more closely one would notice that she didn't sample Bob James, but rather sampled some of the cuts that Jam Master Jay created for "Peter Piper."

Sometimes a song goes above and beyond a simple sample or loop. MC Hammer took the instrumental version of Rick James' "Super Freak" and laid his own lyrics over it. When I was a child my mom swore up and down that she'd heard "U Can't Touch This" years before, but couldn't place it. It wasn't until I was older that I heard "Super Freak" and realized that she wasn't crazy, she'd heard Rick James do his thing long before MC Hammer was rapping.

Knowing the history of the music I listen to not only gives me an appreciation for the original artists, but it adds new value to the new songs I hear as well as broadening my knowledge of music. So go ahead, enjoy that new song, but remember it has a history too. Perhaps one more intricate than you'd imagine.

Dead and Life.

She died yesterday. My family has all gathered in Ohio. What's weird is that it has been so much more about life than about death. The only parts that hurt are when people wax nostolgic about her life. But the stories are fascinating.

In some ways I can't wait to leave, but in others I'm so happy to be here. The whole situation has made me appreciate my extended family in subtle, but significant ways. I can't find the words right now to explain, but I know it's there.

Death and dying.

To note, I grew up without any grandparents. They had all died before I was born. Since then, very few people I've known have died. Those that have were old and their deaths did not come as much of a surprise. None of them I was close with. The one exception, well, I wouldn't have wished him dead, but let's say we didn't agree on much.

Recently, my father's cousin died. I hadn't seen her much, but the little I did left a positive, lasting impression on me. She was a fun lady, and relatively young to boot. But she had a bout with cancer and died shortly after the diagnosis. I've never known anyone who died from cancer. The near daily e-mail reports would come in. First she wasn't feeling well, then she started losing touch with reality. Then she was in a coma. It all happened so fast I thought she would pull out of it and regain her health somehow. But, instead, her living will dictated she not be given nutrients in this scenario. So she lasted a few days before her body finally gave out.

I understand now how families will wait and wait and wait on pulling the plug, just hoping that their relative will somehow wake up and pull through. I keep thinking, what if they'd given her more of a chance? Would she have ever come back?

Around the same time this was happening, we got reports from my own cousin that her mother's health was failing. We'd known for a while that this woman let her diabetes go for years, and was suffering from some of the consequences. It's hard to feel sorry for her when she was the only one stopping herself from getting help. However, this wasn't the only thing she'd been letting go.

It seems that she has been hiding breast cancer for 8 years. We're still trying to get our heads around that. On top of that, she'd never gone to see a doctor after her heart surgery years ago. Her heart was is poor condition since she did nothing to keep it healthy. So now we have 3 things killing her all at once. All either preventable, or reducible by her own means. It's very hard to feel bad for her.

On the other hand, she's my only aunt. She's been a stubborn woman that I've always had a bit of respect for. She never took crap from anybody, and she had a good eye for people. Sure, she's not always been the best person herself, or to herself, but as a close relative, it's been pretty easy to look past that. Now that woman is nearly gone from this world. She's been in a downward spiral for the last few weeks. Sure, there have been some bursts of vigor, but all in all it's been leading to one thing.

She's not dead yet, and if her past is any prediction, she probably won't die for a while. I can only hope she continues to be the stubborn old lady I've always known. Though I'd like to yell at her for being as stupid about her health as she has been, I really just want to hug her one last time. I want her to meet my girlfriend and give me some approval. I want her to be around for her grandkids so they can grow up knowing who their grandmother was.

It's all been hard on me, and I can't help but cry a little when I think about it. I guess this is part of the inevitable road one walks down in the path of life. Some day I will have to see my own parents go, and I can't bear to think about it. I hope by then I will have children of my own, who will have had a chance to meet their grandparents and learn about them firsthand. I hope we all feel like they had led long, fulfilling lives.

To my mom and my dad and my sister, I love you all.

Cleaning out my brain

There's nothing more calming and rejuvenating to me than cleaning. It's a weird therapy. There's no meditating. No thinking about your problems. No Talking. Just you and your cleaning implement of choice (or necessity). Taking a damp cloth to all my shiny metal bits (faucets and mirrors) and polishing them up is my favorite part. That, or vacuuming lint off of the floor and watching the rug go from a spotted mess to a freshly groomed fully patch.

Sure, it seems pretty domestic and feminine, but in the privacy of your own home there's probably no one there to tell you you're a nancy. Unless, you know, you invite people over and dress in a French maid outfit. You know who you are.

Despite all of the therapeutic benefits I still find myself loathing to begin cleaning. I'll never understand this.

Hacking the boat.

It has recently come to my attention that a certain university near me is lacking a bit of security on their public machines. All public machines use a single local admin account. Among other things, this means that for every student that doesn't clean up their mess, the next student on the computer can see everything they left behind.

What's interesting: no one seems to notice.

Having come from a university known for its school of computer science, I'm pretty aware of what can happen if an insecure system is left in the open. To combat some of the issues, my school forced all users to log into the public computers with their personal credentials. This meant that if you did something bad and didn't completely cover your tracks, they could easily see who it was who made the attack (unless you were smart enough to use someone else's account, but we'll ignore that scenario).

The insecure school in question isn't filled with geeks who get off on hacking into their buddies' computers. It's not filled with people who actively think about computers at all (unless you count mySpace, and facebook). So the question is this: do I bother bringing it up? They have some big vulnerabilities on the inside of their network, but there's no real threat.

The geek in me wants to do some grey-hat hacking and offer up the results to the administration, but the humanist in me doesn't want them to fix it if it isn't broken. Oh blogosphere, what should I do?

In the world of media it seems no one enjoys their content.

If you know me, you know that I love music and own a rather large CD collection. I also have a much smaller collection of DVDs. If one looks at the plethora of piñatas portable media players on the market right now one would assume that by-golly, people everywhere must own lots of content as well. However, if one looks closely, one will notice it is nearly impossible to find a PMP with a hard drive of over 30GB. In fact, it's significantly more common to find only a 20GB HDD.

Personally, I have over 30GB in just music, and a few more with the few DVDs I've ripped. My theory is that people either don't have much content, or they choose not to enjoy it. If I'm wrong, then I think more companies besides Archos would be producing large-screen media players with 60GB+ HDDs.

So people, what is it? Do you not own any music or video, or do you buy a PMP to just not watch all of it? Or maybe we're all getting snubbed here. Maybe we would be happier with 80GB HDD PMPs. I know when I see a beautiful, sleek, feature-full player with good reviews I want to buy one, but not when it only comes in 20GB.

A word on licensing...

Recently, I purchased a Microsoft Windows XP Professional Additional License Pack from some guy on eBay. Many things are sold on eBay, including lots of software. Thinking to myself, "hey this is a good price, and I already own installation media," I bought the pack. Now, using a perfectly good Windows XP Professional OEM installation media that I received with an OEM license I attempted to install Windows XP Pro on a second box. Instead of the two products playing nicely together I was informed that I had an invalid license key.

Here's something odd, there is no difference whatsoever between a full version of Windows XP Pro and a full version of Windows XP Pro OEM. There are no features missing or edited. The only difference is the EULA. One would think that it would be easy to attach a license key to a EULA and be done with it. But no, it seems that Microsoft needed to slightly modify the installation routine for each type of exactly the same Windows XP Pro such that only an OEM CD will work with an OEM key. This goes for volume licenses as well.

Would it not have been less expensive for Microsoft to just stamp out 1 version of the software and have the user agree to a different EULA depending on the license key they typed in? So now I'm stuck. I have a Windows XP Pro CD and a Windows XP Pro license, but I am unable to use them.

So I called Microsoft. I asked them, what are my options? Instead of saying, here's where you can buy a media-only edition to compliment your license, they told me that the guy who sold me the license was a...PIRATE! It turns out that not just anyone can sell an additional license. Their representative told me it was clearly stated "all over" their web site that one MUST purchase an additional license via Microsoft directly. I have yet to see this "clearly" marked anywhere. Please, someone, find out where it says this and contact me.

My attempt at going legit with my Windows has been a disaster. I'm now looking at finding a good deal on a FULL RETAIL BOX of Windows XP Pro. In the end I get screwed because Microsoft can't just have a simple licensing structure and implementation.

I've heard that Windows Vista will be one media fits all versions... but I wonder if one media will now fit all licenses. Wouldn't that be nice?

Photos!

Come, enjoy my photos! Come see the wonderous sights I've seen! photos.halfbinary.net

The itch.

After many months I'm getting the itch again. No, it's not a medical condition.

I want to start building scale models again. There, I said it. My problem I'm having is this: I can't stand painting inside, but I have no good place to paint outside. I'm not willing to forego painting my models, because I know how great they look with paint, and how satisfying it is.


For now, the itch remains. Maybe I'll even scratch it one of these days.

Apple, putting the cock in cocky...

Well, today Apple had another announcement. All the Apple fanboys and a lot of us regular people got excited about what could be so great that Apple needed another mysterious conference. We watched and waited. And when it was over, we all sat there, stunned. But not because Apple actually brought out something amazing, but because they got a little too cocky for their own good.

Things that we were expecting:
-New video iPod
-Tablet Mac
-New Intel boxes

Things we got:
-New Intel box
-iPod boombox
-A leather sleeve


I will admit it, the new Mac Mini is hot. It's a pretty worthwhile thing to make an announcement about, but it doesn't nessecitate an event like this.

The iPod Hi-Fi is a huge boombox that puts your ipod up on top like a little phallis. Steve Jobs touted it as a replacement for your home stereo. He went as far as to say he's getting rid of his home stereo for this. Wait. It's a boombox. It's physically impossible to get good stereo separation from something with its speakers so close together, while keeping acoustic accuracy for differing room types. But he insists it's for audiophiles. Maybe as an expensive joke? Maybe he was tripping on acid during the presentation. We will never know, but we do know that he's wrong, and this silly system will not replace a good home stereo, and it's too big and heavy for real portability.

Apple's latest iPod acessory is $99. No, it's not anything electronic, it's a leather sleeve. Yes, it's $99 for a strip of nice, soft leather. Sure, it covers up your controls and really isn't terribly stylish, but someone thought it deserved a price tag much higher than any reasonable person would ever pay. There are many alternatives out there. Why would Jobs agree to sell this product? How could he have any self respect and go out there and say buy this?

Steve Jobs is cocky. He's always been cocky, but recently he's really gone into new territories of cockfulness. I mean, cockiness. Even the fanboys saw the Apple iThong they're selling and said, hey, this is too much. People are reporting Apple's stock fell immediately after the announcements. Oops.

News Flash: Microsoft Does Something, People Gripe!

Hey everybody, it seems that Microsoft has released the lineup for their new OS, Vista. We've got 8 "flavours." People everywhere are griping about how Microsoft is ripping people off and confusing customers with all of these different editions. So you know what I'm talking about, here's a rundown of the 8 editions:

The ones that most people will ignore:
1. Windows Starter 2007 - for developing nations, I'm not kidding.
2. Windows Vista Home Basic N - "N" edition is for Europe, doesn't have media player. Sales of XP N edition have proven that no one will buy this.
3. Windows Vista Business N - see above, but for businesses.

The ones businesses will want:
4. Windows Vista Business - Has usual array of configuration and permissions tools for businesses
5. Windows Vista Enterprise - Like business, but has fancy things like encryption and UNIX app compatibility.

The ones that real, actual consumers will care a about:
6. Windows Vista Home Basic - A trimmed down version for people who want the upgrade, but don't have lot of money or a fancy computer.
7. Windows Vista Home Premium - All the fancy bits that the majority of people who will care about upgrading will want, including media center and tablet functionality.
8. Windows Vista Ultimate - This is everything in one. It's got all the fancy bits from all the different editions we care about (though I'm unsure if the Enterprise parts will be there).

As you can see, there's only 3 editions that people will even bother to look at. Now, your average consumer doesn't bother actually upgrading their OS: they buy a new computer. I can see 90% of new computers being shipping with Home Premium, since it'll have the new Aero interface everyone is so excited about. Customers won't have to choose, it'll just be there. For those who want to upgrade, their choices really aren't any different than they are now. For some, they will actually have an easier time choosing.

To explain, here's what Microsoft currenty offers for people:

Windows XP Home
Windows XP Media Center Edition
Windows XP Tablet Edition
Windows XP Professional

Wait, is that FOUR?! So it is. And to make matters worse, if you desire the Media Center functionality, you would currently have to sacrifice the luxuries of Professional edition. Microsoft has combined MCE and Tablet into their Vista Home Premium edition, and if you want to add Pro features to it, you get Vista Ultimate.

So now consumers' decisions are clear: do they care about Media Center functionality or tablet functionality? If not, buy Home Basic. Do they care about having fancy permissions and remote entry to their computer? If not, buy Home Premium. If they want it all, just buy Ultimate.

Why is everyone griping?

Maybe I should "masturbate" more often...

It's been a long while since I last posted here, but you didn't miss out on anything. I could have told you all about how I worked a lot a couple of weeks ago, or how I had dinner out a few times, but really, no one wants to hear about that.

However, I'm hoping to add to this blog more frequently by discussing - or more likely yammering - about my views on what's going on in the world. ...at least the stuff that I find important.

Yeah, look out for more masturbatory ramblings on technology.

The legend himself...

Looks like Ron Jeremy is coming to town! Wait, what? He's here as part of the International Sex and So Much More Show. I'm tempted to go just to see him. I'll post more if I go.

Edit: I didn't end up going. Sorry guys.

Blogs are masturbatory.

Okay, I think I've figured out why I've never been able to hold on to a blog. I can't stand just yapping on about myself. I dunno how long this one will last. But I'll give it a try.

For all those people out there who think I should have one: pray for me!

The birthday celebration!

This weekend I gathered my best buddies around and had myself a fine birthday party. DW drove into town and joined us. Love that boy! He's such a dedicated friend.

The party was great. We played Pit. For thoes of you who don't know, Pit is a rather simple game that's about 6 billion years old. And by 6 billion I mean 100. Drinks were had and laughter was made. So was cake. And dinner. And dessert. Great foods, great friends. And people seemed to like my music selection as well.

Can't say it was the longest of parties, but it was fun while it lasted. I can't wait until my next excuse to host a party!

Late Hollow Weenie post...

I was Elvis Costello. Note the yellow-tinted glasses.

Cleaning party!

I just got done cleaning for the night. 2 of my dearest friends helped. Yes, that's right, I enslaved 2 of my closest friends. But they do get to enjoy their handiwork when I have my party.

I wish I could say I was really done cleaning. If I were a superhero my one weakness would be paper. I've got so many paystubs and bills and crap piling up and I've got no idea what to do with it all. I've either got to throw more of it away, or I've got to get me a much bigger filing cabinet.

But beyond all that crap I've got my modeling stuff. That's the real problem. For a while I was really, really into scale modeling. In my fervor I collected a lot of stuff. a lot of difficult to pack away and or throw away stuff. I've got half-used paint jars. I've got parts lying about; an unfinished model collecting dust. Parts strewn about, needing a plastic home. What concerns me is: will the urge come back? Will winter set upon the world again and I shall be drawn to my paints and glue? Or am I done? Should I sell my collection, and discard my half-used paints and thinners? I wish I knew for certain. I've got to move in less than a month and it needs to be dealt with. Help!