Blog Within a Blog: My New Computer 3.2.1

Posted on July 3 2003 by Mickey
    UPS dropped off my video card this morning. So only two more steps to go before I can fire up my pimp rig.
    Once again though I can’t help wondering if ATX towers are such a standard why don’t manufacturers reconfigure their cards so they can slide in right-side-up?!
Posted in Gadgets, New Computer, Tech | Leave a comment

Behold Its Lengthy Golden Wonder!

Posted on July 3 2003 by Mickey
    Will history come to consider this moment in time as the Age of Freakishly Oversized Foods? First there was the Giant Cheeto, and now comes word of the World’s Longest French Fry, recently sold for two hundred dollars on eBay. The eBay auction page also features photos of the french fry and the man who discovered it. (I’ll probably be posting images from the auction page here, once eBay purges it.)
    Update: the auction is over and the page has been discontinued. So, as promised, here’s my screen grab of it for sake of posterity.
Posted in Food, Links, News | Leave a comment

Madly Eyeing Moons

Posted on July 2 2003 by Mickey
    Got this link from The Leaky Cauldron. Purportedly it’s about one scene in the new Harry Potter book, but mainly it’s a chance to read some really cool facts about the moons of Jupiter.
    “Some scientists think the ice on Europa hides the biggest ocean in the solar system–bigger than the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans combined. Could there be life in the waters of Europa? Microbes?”
    Or “At any given moment, dozens of [Io’s volcanoes] might be active, spewing the hottest lava in the solar system. The plumes rise 300 miles into space where it’s so cold that volcanic ash freezes before it falls back to the ground–sulfurous snow.”
    Now that’s magical.
    Incidentally, I’m really getting tired of reading stories about how the Harry Potter books are being banned. These fundamentalist Christian groups abhor anything remotely dealing with the occult and are quick to condemn everything from Ouija boards to newspaper horoscopes. It’s obvious they’ve never read the books or else they’d realize how harmless the stories are and how meaningless the so-called Satanic spells are. (Go on. Say “Accio broom!” and see if anything happens.) So there’s no point in giving their small-mindedness any more press just because they’re ignorantly lashing out at something that happens to be popular.
Posted in Books | 2 Comments

News Crawl

Posted on July 1 2003 by Mickey
    I just saw an interesting story on how researchers have determined people are remembering fewer details from CNN stories because they are being distracted by the “news ticker” crawl at the bottom of the TV screen.
    How do I know this? I saw it in the “news ticker” crawl during Tech Live on TechTV
Posted in TV | 1 Comment

RIAA’d Pt 2

Posted on July 1 2003 by Mickey
    Speaking of the evils of file sharing, here are a few MP3s up for grabs. A long while back I offered some MP3s I created for the guys at Super Evil Industries. I wrote another one last night and then whipped off a fourth one this morning [and then another one in the evening!]. Here are links for the whole set.
SEI 1
SEI 2
SEI 3
SEI 4
SEI 5
Posted in Music | 1 Comment

RIAA’d

Posted on July 1 2003 by Mickey
    That’s strange. I just got en e-mail from Cary Sherman, President of the RIAA, saying my whistling of songs from Chicago in the shower this morning constituted an unlawful performance, and I will be subject to a fine.   [9:48 AM]
    Update: Hmm…it happened again. Now the RIAA is saying that, on my way to work, I did not roll up my windows and plug my ears when I pulled up alongside a car blasting out Eminem tracks. This makes me guilty of stealing this guy’s music because I heard it without paying for it.
    Personally I think they’re carrying this a little too far.   [12:57 PM]
    Update: Now they’ve sent me word I should stop paraphrasing their e-mails in my blog entries.
Posted in Music | Leave a comment

Blog Within a Blog: My New Computer 3.2

Posted on June 30 2003 by Mickey
    Just got the e-mail from ATI saying my video card is being sent. This means I just have to find a monitor I like as well as officially buy my Pentium 4 processor, and then I’ll be done.
    I still want to get some SATA drives later, but at least with that other stuff I’ll be able to actually power up my badboy pimp rig!
Posted in Gadgets, New Computer, Tech | 2 Comments

Ups & Downs (aka “ooooOOOOoooo”)

Posted on June 30 2003 by Mickey
    Oh no! The big new attraction at Cedar Point might remain shut down, according to a Toledo Blade article last weekend. The roller coaster in question, Top Thrill Dragster, is billed as the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world. It reaches 120 MPH and tops 420 feet.
    The ride has been closed since June 20 and it’s unsure whether it will be fixed in time for the holiday weekend. “‘It’’s been down more than it’s been up,’ [spokeswoman Janice] Witherow conceded. ‘It’’s certainly been frustrating for all of us here at Cedar Point.’”
    P.S.: This could be an unfortunate black eye for them, but, personally, I stopped going on roller coaster years ago since I get such bad headaches. The last one I was on was Cedar Point’s Raptor, back in 1994.
    P.P.S.: I wonder if Janice Witherow is the same person I knew as Janice Lifke, some years ago. Ms Lifke was a great help when I produced a TV show on Cedar Point, as well as being an all-around really nice person. If so, “Hi, Janice!”
Posted in Links, Personal | Leave a comment

MAID MARIAN:   You speak treason!
ROBIN HOOD:   …Fluently.

Posted on June 30 2003 by Mickey
    Another DVD to buy in September.
    Warners Brothers hopes to equal the gorgeous Technicolor restoration of Singin\’ in the Rain when they release the classic Errol Flynn movie Adventures of Robin Hood on September 30. Warners will also be releasing two other special editions that day, the black & white classics Yankee Doodle Dandy and Treasure of Sierra Madre. The three films will be available separately or as a boxed set.
    According to Video Business: “Warner spent three years putting the films through its patent-pending Ultra-Resolution process to improve the picture quality, just as the studio did with last year’s release of Singin’ in the Rain. Each release will include the new segment Warner Bros. Night at the Movies, which seeks to recreate the original ’30s filmgoing experience with news reels, cartoons and trailers from the year of each film’s release. Film historian Leonard Maltin hosts the segments, sprinkling in film facts.
    “[…] The Adventures of Robin Hood will include a commentary by film historian Rudy Behlmer, a music-only track, the 65th anniversary documentary Welcome to Sherwood: The Story of the Adventures of Robin Hood, classic Looney Tunes cartoons [“Robin Hood Daffy̶ presumably], vintage Warner movie shorts, a featurette on Robin Hood adaptations through the ages, home movies from the set, outtakes and radio broadcasts.”
    Some of the extras (the commentary, the home movies, and the look at other adaptations) sound very much like those on The Criterion Collection laserdisc. The music-only track, of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s stellar score, should be very cool, depending on how good the source sounds. (A recent CD issue by Turner and Rhino was rather overmodulated.) Even so, the disc should be a must buy, if only to again see the dashing Errol Flynn alongside the beauteous Olivia de Havilland.
Posted in Movies | 2 Comments

It is Five:O’Clock Somewhere

Posted on June 29 2003 by Mickey
    Yes, we assume it’s five:o’clock somewhere, but now we can know for sure. Check this site of times around the world, so you can be as precise as possible with that next bar order.

Posted in Buffett, Links | Leave a comment