|
|||||||||||||||||
|
Twitter Updates:
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Last night I was able to get XGL running in Ubuntu. I am not an Ubuntu user. I ordered a free CD and installed it just to see what the fuss is about. I am a Mandriva user and quiet happy with Mandriva. I do enjoy Ubuntu's ease of use and can see how people migrating from Windows and/or Apple could use Ubuntu very easy.
Okay, back to XGL. I was able to get Ubuntu running using bits and pieces from various guides. Sadly, not one guide worked for me. I suspect because I have an older Nvidia card. With that said, it took about 20 to 30 minutes to get it working, and I took my time and was hesitant. I do not have it starting automatically. I use a small script to "turn it on". What does it do? Well, XGL makes things kind of wobbly and liquidy. You can turn your desktops around like it's a cube. Basically, it's kind of eye candy. However, I can see using the cube to explain multiple desktops to Windows and Apple users. The effects were pleasing to the eye and did make everything seem smooth. Does it slow the system down? No. In fact, some things seemed faster. I have no idea how. XGL runs on top of X instead of replacing it with something else. XGL does use OpenGL to do things and does things well. Like with all eye candy, XGL has been hyped beyond belief. But eventually it'll die down and real uses will start to pop up. If you want to see XGL in action, just go to YouTube.com and do a search for XGL. I mentioned before about multiple desktops and Windows and Apple users. In the next version/update to Apple's OS X, Apple users will now have multiple desktops. Apple, of course, is hyping this as if they invented multiple desktops. I wouldn't mind if they hyped it if they would just mention where they got the idea from. I don't want to single out Apple for "borrowing" idea when there is the great company known as Microsoft. They all need to take a lesson from the XMMS people who freely admit to making a Winamp for Linux. That would be Winamp 1 and 2, none of those crappy versions that have followed. Speaking of crappy, I'm having problems with iTunes. I have tried my best to use this software. I have to use it for various podcasts, both audio and video. When it comes to video, I can't watch video podcasts with iTunes. I have to go to the folder in which they are saved and view them with QuickTime. That way I can view them full screen if I want to. If I try to view the video in iTunes, iTunes gets slow and/or confused. Audio and iTunes. I can not stand the way iTunes tries to organize things. Actually, I wouldn't mind that if it just let me browse folders and select a folder to play. I do not like having to make a playlist just to listen to a bunch of mp3s. I would love to just have something like... well, the Winamp playlist thing. I can just drag mp3s and folders into that and things play just fine. Podcasts and the Music Store. These two things should not be together. In fact, I'd love for Apple to make a iPodcast piece of software so I wouldn't have to use iTunes and that Music Store. I do not buy mp3s from Apple. In fact, I do not buy mp3s. I buy CDs. Click CDs to read about them at Wikipedia.org for those who don't know what I'm talking about. So yeah, the iTunes Music Store and the podcast section needs to be separated for ease of use. Podcasts are only going to get bigger. Also, the iPodcast software that I hope Apple makes, needs to have bittorrent support. If you separate the podcasts from iTunes and the Music Store, you can have bittorrent with the podcasts and no bittorrent with the Music Store. While I'm speaking of separating things, I have used iTunes to view movie trailers. That's a horrible experience. Next... iTunes is butt ugly. I am sorry Mac people. The whole brushed metal thing was cool in 1999. It hasn't look good since. I know Apple wants you to look at iTunes and/or QuickTime and think immediately about Apple. Well, I do. I think about how bad it looks. It needs to give up it's skin and let the OS provide it's look. Yeah, that means letting it look like a Windows app. But I go to a lot of trouble making my Windows OS look non-Redmond, and I'm not the only one. At least give up that ugly brushed metal grey. Don't get me wrong. I love Apple. I wish I had an Apple computer so I could do better video editing. And I love what Apple and iTunes has done for podcasts. I just think it's time to look at their software, accept they have issues, and take things to the next level with new software, ideas, and a new look. Also, I'm finally writing the last few scenes of my screen play, "Meanwhile". I'm not sure when I'll be finished with it, but I'm at least writing the end to it. I still have little idea how the last few things are going to go. I'll find out when I get there (I hope). When it comes time to print it out, I'm sure something will go wrong with my printer, and the ink will come out brushed metal grey. Thursday, August 24, 2006
SPACE.com -- Pluto Demoted: No Longer a Planet in Highly Controversial Definition
Well, we're down to eight... sort of. Pluto is now a dwarf planet. There's another out there nick-named Zena that's also a dwarf planet. And the astroid in the astroid belt named Ceres is now a dwarf planet. I'll be honest, the term "dward planet" is new to me. But I guess this all makes sense in the long run. There are hundreds if not thousands of objects like Pluto out there. They all can't be planets. As for Pluto, it is sad in a way, but let's face facts; it's smaller than the moon and has a "Goofy" orbit. Not having Pluto considered a planet will make it simplier in the future to name things we find out there. Pluto: 1930 - 2006 Friday, August 18, 2006
Monday, August 14, 2006
Today and tomorrow is V-J Day. What? V-J Day is commemorated on August the 14th, but actually happened on the 15th. V. J. Day is the day Japan surrendered and ended WWII. It happened on the 15th at noon in Japan, but because of the time zone difference, it happened here on the 14th. So, today and tomorrow is V-J Day.
It is not uncommon for it to be called V-P Day for Victory in the Pacific instead of Victory over Japan. In Japan, August the 15th is known as Shusen-kinenbi which means "Memorial day for the end of the war." My grandfather, Walter Hodges, served aboard the U. S. S. Sabik during WWII. He was on his way to Tokyo when Japan surrendered. Recently, and I do mean recently as in two weeks ago, my mother found a typed letter to him from James Forrestal, the Secretary of the Navy. Here's what it said:
I am aware of the irony of me posting the above letter about my grandfather fighting against Japan on my site, a site where I've tried to make it look Japanese influenced. While I never had one conversation with my grandfather about the war, I am sure he would not have liked the "Japanese influence" nor would he like me studying the Japanese language. It is hard to justify the two things or make sense of them in my head. On one hand, I am extremely proud of my grandfather for what he did and what he had to do to do it. He was not a young man when he was drafted. Many times he nearly died but luck and his stubbornness was with him when he needed them. And on the other hand, I have a grand interest in Japan, their culture, their people, and one day hope to visit and maybe even live there. It is no doubt that my interest in WWII in general comes from my grandfather or rather when I was a child hearing stories about what he did during the war. He died when I was very young. Not long after his death, I spent a great deal of my childhood building WWII model planes. I even took to heating needles to put bullet holes in the planes. It's obvious to anybody who knows me that I obsess about WWII video games, books, and movies. And every few months, I go looking online for memorabilia. Sadly, the money has never been in my pocket when I find an US paratrooper helmet on eBay. I imagine in time I'll eventually get one and hopefully a working M1 Garand that I can display along side my grandfather's Navy medals. He was awarded several. He never did get one for his part in the liberation of the Philippians. I have a letter from the government that say they own him one because they're currently out of stock. I guess that says a lot about our Armed Forces back then; there were so many heroes, they ran out of medals. I probably should write them about it and see if they ever got any more in. Thursday, August 10, 2006
ABC 33/40 E-WARN: Severe Thunderstorm Warning
From ABC 33/40 E-Warn: BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BIRMINGHAM HAS ISSUED A * SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR... * UNTIL 415 PM CDT * AT 337 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A * OTHER LOCATIONS IN THE WARNING INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO CURRY IF ON OR NEAR SMITH LAKE...GET OUT OF THE WATER AND MOVE INDOORS OR TO REPORT SEVERE WEATHER... LAT...LON 3400 8711 3400 8737 3373 8723 3388 8698 $$ 61 E-Warn is a free public service from the ABC 33/40 Weather Center To sign up for other ABC 33/40 E-Warn products, or to unsubscribe, go here: Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Mel Gibson made history this week for being the first person to ever get drunk and say or do something stupid. I wonder if it'll ever happen to another person. Just to be on the safe side, I'll spend some time latter polishing my casting stone.
I made history this week (in my own little world) for being the last person to fall down the back steps. Why the last person? Because as soon as I can I'm going to take a crow bar to the steps. I don't think fall is the correct word. There was a lot of bouncing involved as down I went. I'm okay, only bruised and stiff. I can walk in a straight line so I'm okay. jh2media is finishing up another video for website that's due to launch soon. As soon as it does, I'll post about it. The first video is about horseshoe crabs. The second one, the one we're finishing up, is about roadkill. It's given me an idea about a diet. It's called the Roadkill Diet. See, it's just photos you can keep in your wallet. When you feel like eating, snacking before dinner, you just pull out the photos and stare for sixty seconds. That snack feeling goes away. Work continues on the "Meanwhile" screenplay. I have no idea how long it'll be before it's finished. I hope soon. I can't wait to tweak and edit it and have a finished product to show people. I'm past the middle of it, and I don't expect it to take as long in the ending as it did in the beginning. I saw a commercial on TV for a phone that had MySpace Mobile on it. Yeah, MySpace Mobile. That sounds like something solid I want to invest in. When sudo-famous athletes in computer commercials, temporarily-trendy teched-up cell phones, buzz-dependent TV shows, and buzz-wanting movies started having MySpace links as part of their ad-campaign, then that should be the ding on the fifteen minute clock for MySpace. If YouTube can stay legally afloat they could replace MySpace. They maybe need to tweak out their personal profile page, add audio support so people can upload mp3s, and oh, the most important thing, make it easy to add an animated gif to a comment. That wouldn't be such a bad replacement. The YouTube website isn't a pain to look at and use. |
|||||||||||||||||
|
Buy my book.
From a Hole in the Sky 13 Stories of Horror, Madness, and Religion make up this dark-kudzu collection. A city run by angels with demanding burial rites. A white van jostling with clowns and warnings about sleep. A weeping pastor with a dead man in a boat. Homicide, Suicide, Jesus, and The Devil. To join a family, you're going to need some stitches. Kids today on their way to cut grass and play cowboys and injuns'. A hole in the ground where poor John Henry met a foul ending. And unholy birthing machines with a chosen one. All this and more. Where do bad things come from? They come FROM A HOLE IN THE SKY. The Alabama Weather Blog A blog of the current forecasts, watches, and warnings for the state of Alabama. The posts are automatically generated from E-forecast and E-warn e-mails from my local ABC Network Affiliate, ABC 33/40. The images are from the National Weather Service. The site will refresh itself every ten minutes. |
|||||||||||||||||
Archives
09/01/2003 - 10/01/2003 /
10/01/2003 - 11/01/2003 /
11/01/2003 - 12/01/2003 /
12/01/2003 - 01/01/2004 /
01/01/2004 - 02/01/2004 /
02/01/2004 - 03/01/2004 /
03/01/2004 - 04/01/2004 /
04/01/2004 - 05/01/2004 /
05/01/2004 - 06/01/2004 /
06/01/2004 - 07/01/2004 /
07/01/2004 - 08/01/2004 /
08/01/2004 - 09/01/2004 /
09/01/2004 - 10/01/2004 /
10/01/2004 - 11/01/2004 /
11/01/2004 - 12/01/2004 /
12/01/2004 - 01/01/2005 /
01/01/2005 - 02/01/2005 /
02/01/2005 - 03/01/2005 /
03/01/2005 - 04/01/2005 /
04/01/2005 - 05/01/2005 /
05/01/2005 - 06/01/2005 /
06/01/2005 - 07/01/2005 /
07/01/2005 - 08/01/2005 /
08/01/2005 - 09/01/2005 /
09/01/2005 - 10/01/2005 /
10/01/2005 - 11/01/2005 /
11/01/2005 - 12/01/2005 /
12/01/2005 - 01/01/2006 /
01/01/2006 - 02/01/2006 /
02/01/2006 - 03/01/2006 /
03/01/2006 - 04/01/2006 /
04/01/2006 - 05/01/2006 /
05/01/2006 - 06/01/2006 /
06/01/2006 - 07/01/2006 /
07/01/2006 - 08/01/2006 /
08/01/2006 - 09/01/2006 /
09/01/2006 - 10/01/2006 /
10/01/2006 - 11/01/2006 /
11/01/2006 - 12/01/2006 /
12/01/2006 - 01/01/2007 /
01/01/2007 - 02/01/2007 /
02/01/2007 - 03/01/2007 /
03/01/2007 - 04/01/2007 /
04/01/2007 - 05/01/2007 /
05/01/2007 - 06/01/2007 /
06/01/2007 - 07/01/2007 /
07/01/2007 - 08/01/2007 /
08/01/2007 - 09/01/2007 /
09/01/2007 - 10/01/2007 /
10/01/2007 - 11/01/2007 /
11/01/2007 - 12/01/2007 /
01/01/2008 - 02/01/2008 /
03/01/2008 - 04/01/2008 /
05/01/2008 - 06/01/2008 /
06/01/2008 - 07/01/2008 /
07/01/2008 - 08/01/2008 /
08/01/2008 - 09/01/2008 /
09/01/2008 - 10/01/2008 /
11/01/2008 - 12/01/2008 /
12/01/2008 - 01/01/2009 /
01/01/2009 - 02/01/2009 /
02/01/2009 - 03/01/2009 /
03/01/2009 - 04/01/2009 /
04/01/2009 - 05/01/2009 /
05/01/2009 - 06/01/2009 /
06/01/2009 - 07/01/2009 /
07/01/2009 - 08/01/2009 /
08/01/2009 - 09/01/2009 /
09/01/2009 - 10/01/2009 /
10/01/2009 - 11/01/2009 /
11/01/2009 - 12/01/2009 /
12/01/2009 - 01/01/2010 /
01/01/2010 - 02/01/2010 /
02/01/2010 - 03/01/2010 /
03/01/2010 - 04/01/2010 /
04/01/2010 - 05/01/2010 /
06/01/2010 - 07/01/2010 /
07/01/2010 - 08/01/2010 /
09/01/2010 - 10/01/2010 /
11/01/2010 - 12/01/2010 /
02/01/2011 - 03/01/2011 /
04/01/2011 - 05/01/2011 /
|