Edificial Intelligence

Misty, water-colored memories...

2006-12-08T22:39:00.000-06:00

Found this in the archives over at Wired :

Date: Wed 12/20/2000 2:22 PM
From: Jonathan Harber (jharber@fundsxpress.com)
To: newsfeedback@wired.com
Subject: Happy Holidays ... You're Fired

Regarding the subject story, I find it hard to believe anyone is surprised. ("Happy Holidays ... You're Fired," Dec. 18, 2000) Through 1998 and 1999, many 20-somethings with little experience, basic skills and self-important attitudes demanded super-inflated salaries (not to mention sports cars and other stuff) relative to their skills and experience.
Many dot-coms with no real business plans hired these often spoiled brats when they had lots of money and catered to their every whim thinking the money would last forever and it didn't. Now these youngsters will have to start low and work their way up just like everyone else. This is a direct result of wishing for castles in the air.
Successful businesses have followed plans that slowly and prudently build revenue streams for 200 years and will continue to do so by rewarding quality products and solid business plans rather than catering to a culture that supports the opposite. The dot-coms that have dried up have done so because they had weak plans, offices that were too fancy, perks that were too expensive, and compensation packages that were too greedy. This result was inevitable.

Ahhh...the memories.

Note to the unwashed masses: Fundsxpress is a company I used to work for (along with some other folks), back in my heady, code-slinging days of yore. Still, having been one of the ones with the inflated salaries (I declined on the sports car...I'm not greedy, dammit!), I really did like the irony of the above post considering that FX back in the heyday was neither slowly, nor prudently building revenue streams.

Goes, back to that old gamblers maxim, "If you've been at the table for twenty minutes and can't figure out who the patsy is, get out. You're the patsy."

Oslo Gay Animal Show...it's SUPER, thanks for ASKING!

2006-10-22T00:39:00.000-05:00

You know, I find it REALLY funny (but not surprising) that there has been opposition to the Oslo Gay Animal Exhibit. I mean, it sure does hurt the fundamentalist argument that homosexuality is a choice, not a genetic trait, when:

homosexuality has been observed among 1,500 species, and that in 500 of those it is well documented.

Still, you've got to give those true believers credit, to tenaciously cling to their views in the face of mounting evidence (pun intended...BA DUM BUM!) requires some strong faith...or rampant stupidity...or both.

Maybe they can just crawl under their bed with the flashlight, bedecked in their Armor of God PJs (thanks Matt!) and pray for the Rapture to come.

Carmen Electra and the Law of Attraction

2006-10-22T00:11:00.000-05:00

I was in CVS today buying some playing cards when I spied the latest copy of Us Weekly and started flipping thru it. This magazine is like a Hollywood train wreck in print form. After reading about the horrors of Tara Reid's botched plastic surgeries and the life lessons she learned, I spied this awesome quote from Carmen Electra, erstwhile "Strip Aerobics" instructor and physics hobbyist:

I'm really into quantum physics. Some of my friends are into it, some of them aren't, so I'm trying to get them excited about discovering all these interesting things about thoughts and the power of thoughts.

It gives me chills thinking about it. It's fun.

It's about time celebrities started endorsing active participation in science and encouraging the younger generation to get interested in learning. And while I imagine that Richard Feynman would've been a big fan of Carmen's ability to tone her body thru the high impact art of striptease, he might take exception to her implicit definition of quantum physics in the above quote.

Quantum physics is a seriously complex topic, one that I admittedly have a very weak grasp on. However, I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with the "power of thoughts." I would suggest Ms. Electra consider taking some courses at the local university to brush up on her understanding of physics. While I'm sure she will be bored by the rudimentary Newtonian physics models she will be forced to study in the beginning of her educational journey, she will get to study quantum models soon enough. And when she does advance to that point, she will have learned enough to realize just how stupid the above quote was.

Tags: carmen+electra quantum+physics skeptic woo+woo

The Following is NOT a Drill...

2006-10-11T21:02:00.000-05:00

After making a public promise to post more I find myself falling down on the job. The last post was made over a month ago. Sheesh! A lot of stuff has been going on here, work has been very busy, and I've had several guests in from out of town over the last few weeks that have kept me away from my little corner of the web.

This week my son and wife are out of town, leaving me to wonder how I stood the quiet of my apartment back in the days when I was single. Though the quiet was a little disconcerting at first, I have to admit there was a certain thrill I felt when I sat down and read for two hours straight on Monday with no interruptions or pressing matters.

I've decided that quiet time is definitely something that needs to be put into the schedule every once in awhile.

Logical Fallacies Explained

2006-09-10T12:16:00.000-05:00

I haven't found a better explanation of common logical fallacies than this one, therefore, this link is the best explanation EVAH! (Argument from Ignorance) (found via reddit)

Steve's collecting more attention

2006-09-09T22:55:00.000-05:00

Apparently, another person has started wondering about Steve Pavlina's grasp on reality. It'll be interesting to see where the "Is Steve Delusional?" blog goes as it develops.

As I've said before, the burden of proof is on the claimant, and so far all I've heard in response to my request for proof is the sound of crickets chirping in the distance.

American Education is Alive and Well!

2006-09-02T11:19:00.000-05:00

Me: "I'd like a gallon and a half of paint please."
Guy at the Register (GATR): "We don't sell half gallons; we only have gallon and quart cans of paint."
Me: "Okay give me a gallon and two quarts of paint."

Methinks someone should have paid a bit more attention to rudimentary fractions in math class as a child.

Tags: math humor consumerism

Subjective Universe

2006-08-27T21:24:00.000-05:00

Well, I got sick of the general lack of results that my silly objectivist worldview was getting me, so I took Steve's suggestion and started adopting a subjectivist mentality! The results have been outstanding! For instance, I saw this video on psipog.net and got all inspired to practice my psychic skills. I tried and tried and tried and nothing happened. Then I tried one last time and was able to produce this video:

Actually, that's not exactly how it happened. First, I saw the video and thought, "Gee, that looks an awful lot like a magic trick I learned in high school." Then I set up said magic trick and filmed it. And unlike the sample video I do it with the top of the glass in full view. Of course, psipog, the investigatory powerhouse that it is, states on the media page:

Everyone knows that videos and pictures can be faked - please do not go around saying how you think something was faked, there are literally hundreds of ways to fake the files below. With that said; they aren't fake. But draw your own conclusions.

Okay, so my conclusion? They're fakes. By the way, the music in the video is relevant to this post. First person to name the song in the comments section wins my love and respect. Matt's probably most likely to get it.

Tags: skeptic psychic+powers psipog bullshit

Rifftrax: Fifth Element and More!

2006-08-20T23:12:00.000-05:00

Mike Nelson has been busy over at rifftrax and has just released his take on The Fifth Element along with Star Trek V: The Undiscovered Country! Go download it now!

Tags: rifftrax fifth+element startrekv

The Church of Steve Pavlina

2006-08-20T19:48:00.000-05:00

Update: I've been conversing with Steve via email (my initiation, not his...I point that out because I don't want to give the impression that he is being critical of any of this article). He's decided to not submit himself to the JREF challenge (he points to this blog entry for his reasoning), but has provided some more background information on the college graduation. Apparently, he graduated from CSUN with his double major, and served as President of the Association of Shareware Professionals in 2000. I've informed him that any proof he (or anyone else) provides for the claims I bring up in this article will be posted. My goal here is to seek the truth in this matter. The article will stand as originally written with new evidence appearing in updates such as this.

One of the sites that I read quite frequently is lifehacker. I think it's a great site with lots of cool software, tips, and tricks that are great ways to maintain organization, simplify processes, and generally learn about interesting things. Lots of great DIY projects to suck up free time as well.

One of the core sites that they seem to refer back to again and again is Steve Pavlina's weblog. They've featured articles on how he works, how he gave up coffee, and how he gets up early, among others. Steve is a bit of a productivity, self-improvement guru, who has taken a whole host of self-help, feel-good, nonsense from a variety of sources, rolled it together, repackaged it, and made it his own.

Via lifehacker, I kept getting sucked into poking around Steve's website and finding myself amazed at the outrageous claims that he would make. He is, as lifehacker describes him, a "prolific productivity writer and entrepreneur." On his site he describes himself as "intensely growth oriented," and his website is subtitled as "Personal Development for Smart People".

The Mythology of Steve
Steve makes some pretty wild claims about his life, many that I find hard to believe. For instance, he claims, through the application of incredible focus and discipline, to have graduated from college with a double major in a mere three semesters! He claims to have taken 30+ hours a semester, worked a full-time job his last year, and served as the head of the local computing organization, while maintaining a 3.9 GPR and having adequate time to socialize, do errands and housekeeping duties as well. While all of this was going on he, "continued reading time management material and applying what [he] learned, but [he] also devised some original ideas."

He also talks about triaging course work and refusing to do assignments, not showing up to classes he thought were worthless, and a whole host of far-fetched ideas that sound great on the surface, but definitely don't seem applicable if you intend to get a 3.9+ GPR. He then goes on to give conflicting advice, like, "During one of these sacred time blocks, do nothing but the activity that's right in front of you," only to be followed by "the best way I know to keep up is to multitask whenever possible." He caveats this by saying that multitasking should not be used where it will "degrade performance," but it should be used on low level tasks. But then he goes on to talk about taking advantage of dead class time and working on other class assignments during boring lectures, and also instantly memorizing all material presented the first time through.

All of this advice on the surface, by itself, sounds like it should be plausible to implement. But it fails in the same way that most self-help fails; it's full of non-actionable platitudes. For instance, how do I go about determining which classes to blow off and which to attend, at the beginning of a semester when I know nothing about the teacher, their exam preferences, or even the skill level of the rest of the class (which determines the grade curve)? How do I instantly memorize new material the first time through so I don't have to read outside of class? These are just a few instances of a series of problems like this.

Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence
On the surface the list of accomplishments sounds impressive (the college thing being just one of them). However, there is no evidence of any of this being true. Steve claims to make about $9000/month from his website via ads, donations, and other services, and claims that it is not his only source of income. There is no proof of this other than his word. How about a scan of a few monthly Google Ad-Sense checks? Or a tax return for the web business if it's broken out into a separate company?

Even if he doesn't want to publish his income figures, how about backing up some of the other claims? A college transcript would be a good start, since that usually breaks down what semesters you took what courses. Even the name of his college where he got his degrees would be helpful. How about one of those "glowing letters of recommendations" he received from his professors, or even a copy of his "student of the year" award that he mentions? At this point, anything would be a good start.

Pavlina provides nothing other than his word, which becomes more and more suspect as you stroll through the site.

Multiple Sources of Income
One of the many sources of income that Pavlina taps into is his wife, Erin's, "intuitive reading services." For $45 you can email Erin up to three questions, along with a photo, and she will use her psychic abilities to answer them. My first question is, why do you need a photo? For $90 you can talk to Erin for 20-30 minutes over the phone and she will provide intuitive readings in which she can give you more in-depth information and allow you to ask follow-on questions. Her specialty is helping you see "where you're at on your life path and where your guides would like you to be going." Steve claims to have these abilities as well, but decided not to pursue it as a career himself. Something about spirit guides telling him it wasn't his destiny or something.

As is common with the self-help gurus, Steve and his wife have bought into and promote a wide variety of psychic nonsense, from intuitive readings, psychokinesis, astral projection, herbal remedies, qi gong, communication with the dead, lucid dreaming, and intention manifestation (if you think it, it will come).

The Death of Skepticism?
All of this nonsense has been getting more apparent on the personal productivity site that Steve runs. He details the results of a spirituality seminar he and his wife attended and then explains why his wife has started charging for her services. His recent articles "The Death of Skepticism" and "The Law of Attraction" are examples of more of this woo-wooism.

I was quite amazed by the "Death of Skepticism" post. Being an unabashed skeptic myself, and being a living being, I have to say, "reports of my death have been greatly exagerrated." Once I got over the shock of the title, I read through the article and was absolutely amazed at the shoddy thinking rampant throughout. I've dissected it below because I think it's a decent example of faulty logic.

Pavlina starts out by saying:

Skepticism is the mindset that says, “I’ll believe it when I see it… and even then I’ll still have doubts.”

This is a straw-man argument, essentially Pavlina redefines skepticism so that it will be easier to attack and argue against convincingly. In truth, skepticism is the belief that knowledge is obtained through observation, testing, and the gathering of empirical evidence (data points), and drawing conclusions from that evidence. You ignore things like what you see, hear, or feel, and pay attention to what you can measure and record. People tell stories, see false patterns, and hear strange noises and draw erroneous conclusions all the time.

The best example of how a skeptic operates I can give is one of Bayesian probability. If I flip a coin without letting you examine it and I flip heads, do you instantly think I have a two-headed coin? Probably not.

What if I flip 3 heads in a row? You're probably still not worried.

What about 25 heads in a row? Not impossible, but improbable enough that you'd want to examine the coin. Closely.

You would not, without examining the coin, publish an article about how the laws of probability are bunk, or the person tossing the coin is controlling the coin with his mind, or how the coin toss is affected by life affirmations! But that is essentially what Steve is doing when he talks about the effects of his lucid dreaming, his thought channeling, and all the other nonsense he goes on about.

He goes on...

The basic idea of skepticism is that you should doubt that for which you’ve seen little or no evidence. Apparently it’s cool to be a doubter these days. Plus it’s always easy to poke holes in someone else’s beliefs from the outside looking in.

Ahh...here Pavlina attacks the establishment and uses the Underdog Fallacy to gain sympathy. Those cold, unfeeling scientists with their instruments and test tubes can't possibly have the requisite positive spiritual energy alignment to see what I've seen. How can they comprehend the grandeur of the universe? By implying that it's cool to be a doubter (he provides no evidence of this one way or another), he is insinuating that the popular vote is not always the right vote. This is absolutely correct, but it's also not always the wrong vote, either. As a matter of fact, popularity has nothing to do with truth one way or the other.

The problem with most skeptics though is that they don’t take skepticism far enough. If you want to be a true skeptic, then you also need to be skeptical about skepticism.

Fair enough. Let's get skeptical about skepticism. What has skepticism given us? Well, for one it's allowed us to understand basic principles of physics, which has allowed us to put a man on the moon. It's allowed us to understand the underlying principles of genetics, and do pre-natal screens for diseases like Down's Syndrome, it's given us vaccines to cure diseases like smallpox, and drug cocktails that are helping people with AIDS and a whole host of other great things. Furthermore, it's given us a framework to determine if some of the traditional remedies like homeopathy, magnet therapy, psychic communion, feng shui, numerology, and chiropracty actually work. It's also helped us analyze newer types of psuedoscience like perpetual motion and alien abduction to see whether these things are true. We can look at the statistics behind psychic surgery and determine whether it's effective. Same thing with reflexology and magnet therapy. How about the power of prayer? Yup, we can measure that too.

So now that we're done being skeptical about skepticism, let's turn the same critical eye on things Steve endorses. Studies on life affirmations and goal setting? Turns out the only study these gurus refer to over and over turns out to be a myth.

If the universe was truly influenced by my thoughts, but I believed it wasn’t, then I’d be using subjectivity to manifest objectivity. So I had to know – was the universe really objective, or was I manifesting the illusion of objectivity in a subjective universe?

Unfortunately, testing for subjectivity is an oxymoron. You can’t actually test for a subjective universe.

Actually, you can, and it's really easy to do. Simply take a survey of a large enough sample of people and have them make intentions, or pray, or consult psychic advisors and compare their results to people who don't do this stuff and measure their results against people striving for the same goals and not praying, etc. A simple test like a series of coin flips should be sufficient. You'll find what the rest of us have found, random chance is a much better predictor than any intentions you may have.

The whole idea of testing implies doubt, and doubt will corrupt the test if the universe really is subjective

By this logic, subjectivity would appear to be a waste of time anyway. If the universe is truly subjective, than all physical laws should be able to be repealed at a moment's notice provided the will directing them is strong enough. By this same extension, it should logically follow that the stronger subjective will would win in a contest of two subjective universe participants with diametrically opposed intentions. In short, if you and I flip a coin and I will it to be heads and you will it to be tails, the stronger will should prevail in a subjective universe. So if a subjective universe proponent goes up against an objective universe proponent in an experimental test, the one who has the most will should win. In short, subjectivites should be influencing the tests in their favor. The negative naysayers should be getting proved wrong time and again, because they're not intentionally manifesting anything. Even if they were, I've got to imagine the chi-wielding, feng shui focusing, psychic communing powerhouses of the world would be shutting them down. But they don't. Ever. No controlled study has ever been done that has found in favor of a subjective universe where intentions can be manifested through thought alone. So this means either the universe is objective, or it's subjective and all us objectivites are putting a perpetual aura of objectivism out there that's precluding all attempts of subjectivity anyway. Sorry to be harshing your mellow, Steve! But either way, for all intents and purposes the universe becomes objective!

Ultimately skepticism is rooted in fear. Fear of making a mistake. Fear of being gullible. Fear of living foolishly.

This is an appeal to sympathy. You don't want to live in fear, do you? Skepticism is full of fear. Don't believe in skepticism!

Actually, I find skepticism to be incredibly enlightening and fascinating. We have the capability to split atomic particles; we live in a universe where an incredibly complex strand of amino acids plays a major role in determining our height, weight, eye color, and even our daily emotions and responses, and replicates millions of times a day without error due to basic universal principles; where simple processes of natural selection and evolution have led to the rise of a wide diversity of life, from humans to wasps that make cockroaches into zombies.

I personally find this much more satisfying than the concept that putting my sofa in a different corner of my living room will align my spirit energy. Or the crazy notion that angels sit on my shoulder and whisper thoughts into my head.

I would think that if I believed in a subjective universe, and the universe was really objective, then my ability to function should decrease.

This statement is erroneous on so many levels. Putting the argument from incredulity aside, the most obvious problem is that it is drawing a false premise. If the universe is objective, and I believe in a subjective world-view, than I should make mistakes that should hinder my success. The last part of the sentence doesn't follow from the first. Logically, it's a non-sequitur. Being wrong does not denote failure to achieve goals implicitly, you could have a string of good luck, you could be doing things that are beneficial in both a subjective and objective universe. Certain things, like hard work, for example, can be beneficial in both instances. Also, people win in Vegas all the time. Most just don't have much luck making a career out of it.

Or you could do what most self-help gurus do and redefine failure as postponed success, and claim that the failure made you grow into some future success that will come down the pipe. For example, Tony Robbins gave relationship advice about how to maintain a committed relationship that was full of passion, love, and romance. Then, he got a divorce and claimed that now that he had gone through the pain of a divorce and the success of finding a new life partner he was truly ready to give people the final word on...how to create a really successful relationship full of passion, love, and romance. Same goes for Wayne Dyer. It's a classic case of heads I win, tails you lose.

Finally, your subjective worldview could cause you to make money in an objective world off people by convincing them to pay you for your brand of nonsense. But really, when you factor in all the self-help drivel that Steve is paying to read, all the seminars he attends dealing with angels, and psychic friends, and magical spirits, and the like, he IS coming out behind. That is lost income, lost time, and lost effort that could be put to more productive use elsewhere.

Steve then goes on to outline his "intelligent alternative to skepticism." Since he's done so well in redefining skepticism for his own uses earlier in the article, he continues doing so.

A skeptic is concerned about the probabilities of success vs. failure in any endeavor. For example, before a skeptic starts his/her own business, lots of questions must be answered to alleviate fear and doubt. How well are other people doing in this industry? Do I have enough money? How will I support myself? What if it doesn’t work? Am I good enough? What are my chances of success?

My experience with skeptics is that they are less concerned with success or failure and more concerned with truth versus fantasy. Plenty of skeptics have businesses. Einstein wasn't particularly concerned with popularity, neither was Richard Feynman. As for business enterprises, Harry Houdini, James "The Amazing" Randi, and Penn & Teller have all had successful careers and would be what one could define as entrepreneurs by the classic definition. They weren't too concerned with failure when they started with no money, many times performing shows on the streets for a few dollars while they were establishing themselves.

An Open Challenge to Mr. Pavlina
It is quite possible that Mr. Pavlina and his wife are sincere in their beliefs that they have these amazing psychic gifts despite the fact that these types of phenomenon have never been manifested under controlled experimental conditions. Ever.

Another of Steve's main interests is the $1 Million Experiment. Essentially, you sign on for free and then use daily affirmations to, as Napoleon Hill would say, "think and grow rich." The end goal is for everyone who signs up to manifest their way to $1 million dollars, including Steve. Think of it as a combination of Stuart Smalley and Dave Chappelle; "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and, doggone it, I'M RICH BEEYOTCH!"

Well, I've got a great way for Pavlina to fulfill his $1 million manifestation, put the final nail in the coffin of skepticism, and prove these psychic gifts exist. The JREF Million Dollar Challenge! That's right Steve, for a measly couple of hours of your time, you and your wife can undertake a controlled experiment, with a previously agreed upon protocol, put your psychic abilities to the test and walk out with a cool million bucks for your trouble. Not bad, huh? Here's what you need to do to apply.

By the way, if Steve gets another chance to talk to Sylvia Browne again, he may want to ask her how she's coming along on getting ready to take the JREF Million Dollar Challenge. Then again, he may want to keep quiet since she might get to the prize money before he or his wife does. But I doubt it.

Tags: steve+pavlina self+help sham psuedoscience skepticism sylvia+browne

Criss Angel is totally Mindfreaked over this!

2006-08-18T00:46:00.000-05:00

This is the most awesome magic I have ever seen. Totally. via [JREF Forums]

Tags: magic illusion humor

Overheard in the Office

2006-08-15T00:15:00.000-05:00

To paraphrase Bill Cosby, "Adults say the darnedest things." via [del.icio.us]

Tags: humor quotes funny

Already Slackin'

2006-08-15T00:10:00.000-05:00

Less than a month after I promise to post more, I already start slacking. I have excuses in spades tho. Audrey and I both got food poisoning last week and were put out of commission for a day and a half. Then I had to get caught up at work before the end of the week which killed the rest of my free time.

Finally, Audrey's left out of town and Sean and I are home alone at the "bachelor-pad". Unfortunately, Sean's not at the age where he can appreciate our low-estrogen situation so he makes me spend most of my nights trying to put him to sleep. Normal activity shall resume mid-week (hopefully).

In the meantime check out the Daily Show take on Social Networking.

Tags: humor daily+show

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

2006-08-10T23:05:00.000-05:00

For those of you who have cable and get the FX channel, you should make it a point to watch It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. This show is the best parts of Seinfeld, Arrested Development, and Cheers all rolled into one...plus Danny DeVito.

Tags: humor comedy tv its+always+sunny+in+philadelphia

The Beauty of Capitalism

2006-08-06T11:54:00.000-05:00

As many of my friends can attest, I am an unabashed fan of all things quirky, offbeat, and off-message. In short, I am drawn to social train-wrecks of all sorts. In college, I would run home from class to watch Jerry Springer every day. I went to Nuevo Laredo to buy a glittery, silver-painted Buddha, because of course, nothing screams Mexican culture like a 2 ft. tall, ceramic Buddha in glitter paint. So when we were in Cancun and my sisters came back from the market and claimed that a large percentage of the tourist T-shirts had nothing to do with Mexico, Cancun, the beach, or tourism in general, I was intrigued.

Venturing down to the market, I laid eyes on what I would consider the penultimate achievement of capitalism and free markets.

The Front
The front of the shirt is innocuous enough, It reads, "Guess Who Just Got A New Daddy" and has a picture of a blond haired face in some sort of helmet/goggle combo. Could be that the man has become some sort of father-figure, and the back will have one of those Tequila Rage/Stupid Teen/Spring Break/ "Girls Gone Wild" type quips on the back. Only upon closer inspection do you realize that the man looks like a real bad caricature of George "Dubya" Bush. What does Dubya have to do with Spring Break, Cancun, or Mexico, you ask? Other than some questions about how he spent his youth, I have no idea. Let's turn the shirt over and find out.

The Back
Flipping the shirt over, we discover that it is a picture of...I need to emphasize this so you can truly appreciate the awesomeness of it all...GEORGE BUSH IN MILITARY GARB GIVING SADDAM A SPANKING WHILE OSAMA LOOKS ON FORLORNLY FROM THE DISTANCE! Aside from the gratuitous asses depicted since both Saddam and Osama have their pants off, I have no idea what this has to do with Cancun. I especially like the hand prints on the rumps of the "bad guys" and the "stars of liberty pain" emanating from their posteriors. Just to let you know that "Dubya" is a tough, but fair, disciplinarian.

The Burning Question
What kind of person dreamt up this shirt? Was it a Mexican with a US-type streak of patriotism? What made them think there was a market for a shirt like this? Of course, I HAD to pick one up! I only wish I had it in time for 4th of July! What a conversation starter!

Imagine, me at an Independence Day BBQ talking to some random person about my shirt:
RANDOM PERSON: So, I see by your shirt that you support the war in Iraq?
ME: Actually, I support spanking as a form of international discipline.
RANDOM PERSON: Huh?
ME: I also support being a daddy! I think there's not enough love in this world. Want to see pictures of my son?

Ahh...good times, good times.

Tags: cancun tshirt funny

Rifftrax Review - No Spoilers

2006-07-28T23:38:00.000-05:00

The wife and I just got thru watching the first rifftrax episode, the send up of Road House, starring Patrick Swayze. Let me start off by summing it up in one word...Hilarious!

Mike Nelson is in top form with the new rifftrax offerings. I honestly think the Road House mp3 was funnier than most of the old MST3k episodes (not as funny as Manos, The Hands of Fate, or Mitchell, but few things are).

The Purchase
The purchase was extremely easy. I basically went to the rifftrax website, clicked on the Road House link in the bottom center of the page and then clicked on the "Buy Now" button where I was whisked to PayPal to complete the transaction. The download came as a zip compressed mp3 file, that I unpacked and loaded into iTunes. The zip package also came with a text file with some simple instructions and a chapter by chapter breakdown of the DVD time and what point in the mp3 file it corresponded to. From there it was on to the iPod and off to the living room for viewing.

The Setup
We watched the DVD on a basic TV and DVD player setup and played the rifftrax mp3 (rifftrack?) on my 10Gb iPod mounted on a Bose iPod Dock behind us. Like the website said, getting the volume levels normalized was pretty painless. We did have an issue syncing up the source and DVD because both my wife and I thought that we were supposed to hit play on the iPod after the MGM lion roared for the second time, but we were supposed to hit play after the first roar. Still, it was apparent fairly quickly so we wasted about thirty seconds rectifying the problem. The other problem we had was that we had misplaced the remote to the iPod docking station during our home renovations last month and have still not found it. So, while pausing the rifftrax and the DVD should have been a simple affair, we made it a little more complicated than it should have been. Even given this, it was still fairly easy.

The intro of the mp3 is designed to introduce you to the rifftrax format and get the timing right. In addition, throughout the movie a monotone, computerized voice character "Disembaudio" repeats occasional lines from the movie as they occur to let you know how far off from the movie track you are. While it's a little disconcerting at first, you get used to it fairly quickly. And to be fair, it's not like the acting in these movies is really all that great to begin with. In addition, Disembaudio provides a decent character for Mike to interact with, a la MST3k.

Because it's difficult for the audio to start exactly in the right spot, we found that the slight drift got more pronounced as you made your way thru the movie. Still, about an hour into the movie it was a simple matter of pausing the DVD for a second to let the mp3 catch up and then we were able to enjoy the rest of the film with no issues.

The Humor
As I mentioned above, Nelson is as funny as ever, if not funnier, in this format. The fact that the movie had some nudity and "salty" language was the perfect foil for his squeeky clean brand of humor. While the rifftrax is family friendly, with no cussing, the movie is definitely not, so you may have to make a decision on whether you want to watch this with the family on a movie by movie basis.

The humor is the same as MST3k, and he does the same running gags he did with previous movies, the types of jokes that build on earlier jokes and become more hilarious, not just in the context of the movie, but in the context of the commentary itself. Example, a lot of jokes centered around the absurdity of Dalton, Patrick Swayze's character, being a "famous" bouncer. So, whenever one of the other characters talks about him in the context of having heard some story of his colorful bouncer past, Nelson usually takes the opportunity to work in a joke about how bouncers are revered as heroes in the film universe, or how Swayze does ordinary things in a "bouncer-like" way.

Conclusion
I was surprised by how much my wife (who is not an MST3k fan...having not seen most of the episodes) liked the rifftrack. Her comment after finishing it was that we had to get the Fifth Element commentary when it came out. The website indicates that the $1.99 rate for the commentary is a beta price, indicating that it will be raised once the site gets a following. It's unclear what the final price for the commentaries will be, but I can definitely say that at $1.99 it's a steal. I'm looking forward to seeing how the service develops as it goes on. I really do think that technical issues of syncing the playback aside, this widens the possibilities of the MST3k format quite considerably.

Tags: rifftrax mst3k humor mp3 ecommerce roadhouse review

Qumana Test

2006-07-27T22:55:00.000-05:00

I'm trying out Qumana after seeing it mentioned on lifehacker as their "Download of the Day." It's run on OS X and Windows. I'm using it on WinXP and I have to admit that so far I'm impressed. It does subtle little things like automatically inserting the last link you copied to the clipboard when you click on the hyperlink button that makes blogging a whole lot easier.

The Drop Pad looks like a neat idea as well. I'll definitely have to try it out in the future.

Update: The WYSIWYG editor seems to be doing something wacky with my text alignment and margins. Not quite sure why it happened, but hopefully the changes I made to the HTML source in the "Source View" editor will fix it.

Tags: qumana blog editor app software winxp osx

Isn't this kind of the point?

2006-07-26T07:18:00.000-05:00

The Wall Street Journal points to a trend among a small minority of Netflix users who let movies sit on their shelves unwatched for months at a time without watching them.

Having been one of those people (Ran sat on my shelf for a full 3 months before I found a four hour block to sit down and watch the movie in one sitting), I've got to wonder what all the fuss is about. I mean, part of the point of Netflix is the "no late fee" aspect of the model that allows movies to gather dust with no ill effects.

The WSJ seems to want to imply that the emperor has no clothes. I think the robes he wears are just fine, personally. [via cote]

(btw, Road House just arrived yesterday and my wife insisted on watching it once thru without the rifftrax commentary first since she'd never seen it before. After viewing a movie which, in her own words, "exceeded all my expectations of terribleness," I think she may be looking more forward to the rifftrax commentary than I am. I'd forgotten how incredibly dancy all the fight scenes are. Swayze and the guy who plays "Jimmy" don't do spin kicks...they pirhouette!)

technorati tags: business, netflix, entertainment, movies

Ask A Ninja: "Ninja Love"

2006-07-25T20:24:00.000-05:00

You can guess what this is going to be like...but it's still funny all the way thru. I especially like the theme song and how ninjas make "quotation fingers"

"And I'll tell ya, I'm sorry ladies...but your hump and lovely lady lumps will always take a back seat to the glowing essence of the Tiger Princess Lady..."

technorati tags: ask+a+ninja, humor, youtube, video, funny

Rifftrax

2006-07-24T23:20:00.000-05:00

My "Super Best Friend" Matt clued me in to Rifftrax, a service put together by Mike Nelson, of MST3k fame that allows him to continue his lampooning commentary stylings in an online format. Basically, Mike's selling DRM-FREE mp3s of his audio commentary over various movies. You rent the appropriate DVD, and play the movie and the commentary simultaneously and get a few hours worth of entertainment. I haven't used the service yet, but I'm definitely intrigued. One of the biggest limitations of MST3k was that they were forced to use obscure films since they couldn't afford to buy the licenses for more mainstream cinema. While the low-budget films were certainly great fodder, and endlessly entertaining in their own right, I always wondered how the gang would handle more recent, bigger budget films. Hopefully, this will answer the question.

The other thing that I find amazing is that Nelson has used the internet to offer this entertainment over mainstream cinema (more value for customers) while still driving down costs of the entertainment model. Isn't technology grand?

"Roadhouse", the first movie they've provided commentary for, is next on my Netflix queue. They've got a preview clip up on the website and it's pretty damn funny. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to watch it and let you know the thoughts on the service.

technorati tags: rifftrax, mst3k, humor, mp3, mike+nelson

So, What's Been Goin' On?

2006-07-24T22:26:00.000-05:00

General Errata and a Change in Direction

I've been silent for a long time on this weblog, which is usually a sign that a lot is going on. Steve, over at Sciatica has even commented on my lack of posting. My son Sean is, of course, keeping me quite busy, but it's more than that. Work is ramping up as I get accustomed to my new role and responsibilities (which keep expanding). In addition, a number of side-projects have been keeping me occupied and out of commission for the last month or so since I graduated.

The family just got back from a week in Cancun. While we were away we got hardwood floors installed. This meant moving furniture out of the house the week before we left, and then spending the week afterwards moving it back. We took the opportunity to get rid of some old furniture and buy a new living room set. My wife and I also decided it was time to do away with our hip and fashionable, cinder-block and 2x4 deskset and get real office furniture. This has all been extremely fun and exciting but what I'm most proud of is something that has been going on behind the scenes...

Ed Gets a Consulting Gig

At the beginning of this year my sister left the corporate world and started her own gift company. It was an incredibly brave decision for her to make since she was a highly compensated investment banker with a stable job, as well as a few lucrative offers on the table at competitors and clients of hers to come work for them. She decided to chuck all of that and follow her heart and do something that she felt passionate about.

While she spent a lot of time getting set up and filling out legal forms, she was also working hard with web designers on putting together an e-commerce site. At one point during the initial stages she had expressed frustration that she was spending so much time on the "nuts and bolts" of the company and so little time getting in front of customers. I suggested that she consider setting up a blog and using that as a way to initiate contact with people that would be interested in her business and services.

After consulting with her for a few hours here and there and showing her the value of sites like Technorati, delicious, and flickr, she set up an initial weblog on blogger. I gave her a couple of pointers and she just ran with it. As the whole experiment has evolved, I've been working with her on honing the online strategy and blogging and social networks have become a much bigger part of that. It's been a lot of fun watching her get the nuts and bolts of RSS, weblogs, social networks, and a whole host of other technologies. It's been equally fun watching friends and family react as they realize how she's running a business that has ramped up to profitability in under a year, has several clients queued up in the pipeline, and is selling products online before her website even goes live!

The Value Add

Needless to say she's become a believer in this whole phenomenon. She's attracted several regular readers to her site (WhirledEvents.com) and the personal site was so popular that she set up a separate blog on corporate gift giving. The sites have been a great way to prescreen clients, and have also served as a way for clients to get a feel for what to expect from her prior to ever meeting her. In addition, she's managed to reach people out of her local area that she would never have had the chance to meet otherwise. Finally, it's given her the opportunity to sell products on a limited basis online while her e-commerce site has been getting set up. In short, the blog has helped hone the business and vice versa. If you get a chance you should check out some of her articles on special occasion gifts to get some ideas for those special people in your lives.

That's It?

Well, not really. I've also been working on a couple of side projects that were neglected since I started school. I'll post more on those as they become more concrete. In the meantime, I intend to make a few changes around here...

A (Slight) Change in Direction

First, I expect the posts to get longer now that I have some time to actually search for content and post more stuff. Second, I think this blog is going to have more of a business focus. One of the things I've been mulling over a lot lately is the wide gap between management and the front-line employees, and making sure that every employee in the company is working to move the ship forward.

Having said all of that, I doubt that this place is going to be all work and no play, so even if you're not into "management speak" (or as one of Cote's buddies dubbed it, "econobonics"), you'll hopefully still find things around here that are worth reading.

At the very least, you can expect more baby pics :)

technorati tags: social+networks, blogging, whirledevents, ecommerce

QuickSilver/VoodooPad Integration At Last!

2006-06-08T22:29:00.000-05:00

For all you Mac users out there who use VoodooPad (highly recommended), Quicksilver finally has an official Voodoopad module to append/prepend/etc. to Voodoopad on the fly.

I have been dying for this for ages. Setup instructions can be found here

via [Damn You, Sir, You Have Killed Me]

Technorati Tags: voodoopad, quicksilver, osx

Skype for Mac Update

2006-05-12T01:09:00.000-05:00

Checking to see if the new Skype for Mac updates my web presence...if it does you should notice my online status on the right menu.

Update: WOOHOO! It works! If you haven't gotten it already (and you have a Mac) go get the update. Windows users already have all these features (of course). WinXP version can be found here.

Technorati Tags: skype, voip, mac, osx, apps

Coolest Quote Ever

2006-04-27T14:33:00.000-05:00

Metal-Maniac gets hit by a train and lives:

Maybe the metal gods above were smiling on me and they didn't want one of their true warriors to die on them. Otherwise, I'd be up there in the kingdom of steel.

via [Penn Jillette]

Technorati Tags: heavy+metal, metal+mania, train+wreck, humor

Knowing Your Customer

2006-04-09T00:16:00.000-05:00

We just received a junk mail advertisement to join Frog's Fitness. What's interesting about this advertisement is that it's on nice quality, heavy stock paper, multi-colored and attractive. It's flashy and talks about the exacting standards of the club and how it will exceed our every need for a fitness center in every way - "from services and amenities, to classes and equipment". Awesome! I'm actually looking to join a gym in the near future as I'll be graduating this semester and won't have access to the campus rec center anymore. I would be really interested in joining Frog's cuz this advertisement makes it sound super-keen.

The only problem is the gym locations are a bit of a commute for me.

You see, Frog's only has locations in Long Beach and San Diego. My wife works for a company headquartered in the San Diego area so I'm sure she's on some sort of employee mailing list that Frog's has paid to access. Living in Houston, Texas means that I'm not the customer that they're looking for. Now any rational person who thought for more than two seconds would realize this, but Frog's probably just had a list and sent out the mail on auto-pilot like all good companies do. Better yet, they hired a third-party to do it for them. It's advertising. That's how it's done.

The problem is, that model really sucks. They just wasted postage, printing costs, employee time, and a whole host of other expenses just to send me an advertisement that I have no chance of ever responding to in a positive way. Yet they claim that their gym will "exceed my every expectation" of customer service. Well, the primary expectation I have for a gym is convenience- and so far Frog's hasn't exceeded that one.

Technorati Tags: gym, fitness, marketing, advertising