Turns out that Brick, NJ, hometown to several Crack Team agents, is the safest city in America. Mission Viejo, CA, not far from my current residence, is also in the top 5. While neither city is particularly exciting, the country’s most dangerous city, St. Louis, MO, is no fun factory, either. Compton is also on the most dangerous list, but at least it has better weather.
Firefox 2.0
You might not have caught it, but Firefox 2.0 has been released, and it has some cool new features. I’m really digging the built-in spell checker, which is pointing out typos as I write this post! You’ll have to download it manually, as “Check for updates” will not find it.
How not to raise your kids
Two movies I made showing my bad parenting.
It’s Obvious, Episode 3: Casablanca for Dummies
Yes, it’s high time to discuss that most-kept of secrets. There’s more in Casablanca that meets the eye. This is another chapter in the series of “It’s Obvious…” film articles that started with the following entries:
Episode 1. It’s Obvious, Narnia
In this entry, I will discuss the high possibility that the main character in that most respected of film classics, Casablanca, was quite gay. Yes you heard it right. The character played by that most admired of macho actors, Humphrey Bogart, was as gay as Hollywood could dare to write in the high-suspicion environment of post-World-War-II America. I personally am just “shocked, shocked” that this revelation was not caught, expounded, denounced or cherished in such outre documentaries like “Out of the Closet Hollywood.” Oh well, perhaps they can add a small segment to the DVD release and credit me, bladerunner at CrackTeam.org, for this insight.
Continue reading It’s Obvious, Episode 3: Casablanca for Dummies
Great Concert…..at your house!!
This is unusual for me; I never write about music. That is probably because all of the composers on my playlist have been dead for hundreds of years (Mozart is 250 this year, woo-hoo!) and my pop music tastes tend to be Beatles-bland. The less said about it, the better.
But some days ago I attended a cool concert at a friend’s house. The venue was intimate –45 people or less—and the artist was new to me. Bob Bennett is a well-known Christian guitar player, and his folksy ballads are what I remember about that evening gathering. The guitar was expertly and sweetly played (again, I don’t know enough music-related adjectives to give a good description) but the real draw were the vivid lyrics and sheer poetry of his work. Hmmm…. I have heard the phrase ‘dulcet tones’ used, but I don’t know if it applies to the vigorous work that Bob Bennett performed that night.
Also included:our evening is graced by an iconic film actor who just happens to play a mean guitar…..
Mindless Self Indulgence
Upon first hearing Mindless Self Indulgence (MSI), I immediately wanted to learn more about them. And when I had done so, I knew I had somehow failed. How could music this good have eluded me for 7 years? I realized it was time to stop telling people I was into industrial music, since clearly I couldn’t be without hearing of these guys.
They’re super-catchy industrial/electro/DJ/hip-hop brilliance. The lyrics are out there, kinda self-deprecating, ironic, tongue-in-cheek rambling. But I really dig the energetic vocals of frontman Little Jimmy Urine. Uh, yeah, that’s his stage name, only to be topped by other band member “Steve, Righ?” (sic). My only criticism is that they can be a bit repetitive, as there’s not a ton of variation between songs. Well, they’ve got their style and they’re sticking to it. And there’s plenty of remixes to go around, from some of the coolest industrial bands (Front 242, KMFDM, FLA, and many others).
They’re compared to… well, who cares? Thanks to the wonderous glory of YouTube, I shall regale you with hand picked videos, allowing you to judge for yourself. I’ve moved them to the “more” section, partly because they’re not safe for work (well, maybe if you have headphones), but mostly to make the page load faster (and not have your workplace think you’re visiting YouTube).
BTW, they’re touring on the east coast, including Asbury Park and Philly.
TV Warning
While watching 24 (season 5), I came up with a new TV warning:
Due to some graphic violence, this show will be completely awesome.
I only hope the networks don’t overuse it.
LCD Native Resolution and Games
I’ve been thinking of my next PC. It will be a beast all around, and totally more than I need, but on par with what I want. One of the components on this mythical system is the Dell 3007WFP, a 30″ LCD monitor.
Everyone knows bigger is better. Ok, yes, except for penis size (you heard Shannon Doherty in Mallrats, a good size means small). But for monitors, 30″ has to be better than 24″, right? Well, maybe.
The problem is something called “native resolution”. That’s tech talk for, “if you use a different resolution, it will look shitty”, at least in comparison. And you didn’t shell out all that money to look at something with subpar clarity. You can usually switch to a lower res in an even multiple. In other words, if the native resolution is 1280 x 1024, you can cut that to 640 x 512 and still have it look good. You’re now using four pixels to represent one, so it’s still a square.
You might be asking yourself, “Why would I want fewer pixels? We just established that more is better!” And if you live in the 2D world, you’re probably right. Watching movies, surfing the web, reading email – no big deal.
But most games create a 3D world, and that world is computationally intensive, and that intensity is resolution-dependent. The higher the resolution, the harder your graphics card has to work. A couple years ago I bought a Radeon X800 Pro graphics card, which was definitely high-end at the time ($400 retail [1]). I bought it to play World of Warcraft at high resolutions. The game played fine for a while, but eventually it would sputter and stall and crash. Maybe 15-20 minutes into it [2]. Then I upgraded damn near everything else, but it still crashed. Obviously, the good folks at Blizzard wouldn’t provide a resolution choice that was impossible to play with state of the art equipment. And if they did, well, their tech support people would tell you right away. “Lower your resolution! That setting is for hardware that hasn’t been invented yet!” Well, I never heard that, but maybe that kind of honesty only comes after you’ve fetched all their rocks. I finally broke down and lowered the resolution and some effects, and voila, it ran smoothly for hours. Same thing happened with Oblivion.
Oh, when I say high resolution, we’re talking 1280 x 1024, not 1600 x 1200. 1.3 megapixels. My card maxed out at about 1024 x 768, less than .8 megapixels.
In other words, nowhere near the 2650 x 1600 native resolution of the Dell 3007WFP. Simple math puts that at 4.24 megapixels, more than 5 times the max res. of the X800. The card is now 2 years old, understood, but it’s still not bottom of the barrel. Even so, let’s discount it. Let’s look at the awesomest card on the market, the GeForce 7900 GTX SLI. $470 on PriceGrabber.com. According to the VGA charts at Tom’s Hardware, that card only gets 20 FPS on the benchmark for Oblivion run at 1600×1200 with everything on, in an outdoor scene (very common in that game). I don’t know if that’s single or dual card setup, but they also say that an extra card only buys you a 30-40% boost. And remember, while 1600×1200 may sound high (and it is!), it’s less than half of 2650×1600! Assuming the complexity scales linearly with resolution [3], you’d need a card 3 times more powerful than the best card available. And probably a stronger CPU, too. And that’s on a game released months ago. What happens when you try to run future games, using DirectX 10? You’re probably stuck running in 1325×800, if that resolution is even offered by the game. Most likely, you’re in a crappy looking non-native resolution, just so you can get the game to run. What a waste!
Luckily, there aren’t any games driving me to build this beast, not even the upcoming Neverwinter Nights 2. Alas, the original plan of waiting for Diablo III is still in effect. I’ll have to find something else to waste stupid amounts of money on. Perhaps a bigger penis…
Update:
I thought I was wrong, but I was mistaken. I thought I might not be throwing enough money at the problem. Well, Tom’s Hardware’s $10,000 PC – with quad SLI (that’s four videocards bridged together) – gets less than 18 FPS on Oblivion outdoors. Granted, it does well on all their other game tests, but I don’t want to play those games! Check out Tom’s PC anyway, it’s an interesting read.
[1] Amusing story about that. Friend went to a major electronics store, let’s call them Pommes Frittes, or Fri’s for short. Wanted a Radeon 9600 with DVI for his pricey Apple LCD. It’s on sale for $130, but when he goes to buy it, it rings up as $400. He points out the price tag and the sale sign to the cashier, who agrees and charges him the marked price. He goes home. He opens the box. Inside: another box. This one says Radeon X800. It’s price tag says $400. Clearly, some shennanigans going on at Fri’s, probably a warehouse guy setting himself up for some extra take-home pay, which my friend inadvertently thwarts. But it’s win/win, as I buy it off him for $250. Huzzah!
[2] If you know the game, it also happened as soon as I took a gryphon ride.
[3] This is a really big assumption, but I have a hunch I’m being lenient.
Revenge on the Telemarketers
Here’s a very funny audio clip of comedian Tom Mabe freaking out a telemarketer.
TV in the Pipeline
Bionic Woman
The show is being redone by the producer/writer team that reinvented Battlestar Galactica. When I first heard about the changes to BSG, I had low expectations (Starbuck a woman???). But it turned out to be a great show. I have a feeling the same thing might happen here. Well, I don’t know if I’ll like it, but I expect to have low expectations after hearing the changes. A Variety article alluded to a reinvention so big, she might not even be a government super-agent. Just, like, a woman with a lot of shit to take care of. If so, not my cup o’ tea.
Bad Judge
Another judge show, but the first I might actually watch. At least once. Why? The judge will be Jon Lovitz, and he’ll be given free reign to preside over real cases. I’ve always liked his stuff – enjoyed his recent standup, liked his SNL characters, and loved The Critic. Let’s see how good he is unscripted.
Entourage: The Later Years
Ok, so that’s not the real name. Entourage creator Doug Ellin is working on a new show that’s supposed to answer the question, “What happens when the Entourage guys grow up?” Except it’s not in Socal, it’s in NY. And, oh yeah, he’s not an actor, he’s a Wall Street trader. The fact is, you don’t want to see a show about Vinnie Chase, day trader. But you wouldn’t mind watching the Wall Street version of Ari Gold – that would make a show.