Month: April 2004

My coworkers and I are among the top erotic photo hunt players in New York City.

Erotic Photo Hunt is a game consisting of two nearly identical images of the cheesiest semi-nude “models” you can imagine set in “classy” backdrops where you must identify five differences in a ever-shortening time period.

We took the step of dividing up the team into specialties – hair, apparel, background, with secondary targets of footwear, breasts, pool balls.

The idea of canvassing the city (Manhattan only) and claiming high score spot domination has been discussed. As has attempting to find an expensibile angle for the $4,000 street cost of a Megatouch Force 2004 so we can practice during breaks at work.

UPDATE: I have added a wiki to track locations for EPH/Word Dojo as well as high scores. http://ephunt.pbwiki.com the password to edit is ‘coreyh’.

See Hollie’s review for her take.

So the skeptics ruled and only Hollie and I made it to the Marquee theater last night. Turns out the experience was great and all y’all were wrong to doubt the Tinkle.

The whole thing is actually run by PSNBC a “performance and development lab”. Essentially it is a workshop for comedians to hone their jokes and showcase their stuff to the NBC ‘suits’ in attendance. A constant distraction for us in the audience trying to sniff out the folks getting paid to be there.

The place was tiny tiny. Maybe seating for 23 people set up in comedy club style around small tables. Drinks were served without the nagging two drink minimum requirement. It even has the (ironic?) shimmery backdrop and solo microphone.

Greg Behrendt had around 40 minutes of generally “old dude who rocks” material – very funny and a good story teller. Nick Swardson did 20 odd minutes of random material, but thankfully all new, non-comedy central material. Demetri Martin starting it off with a guitar and drum machine backed 10 minutes. All very funny.

Apparently they do this every Tuesday and I’ll keep an eye on the lineups.

The CPU for the Xbox 2 is rumored to be designed to be a processor that can decode and execute instructions in Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL) while at the same time being able to run x86 code, to remain compatible with Xbox.

Of course this is only a rumor and we’ve heard a few bad ones already, but still. One of my early tasks at my current company was to give a presentation on .NET, where it came from, where its going etc. I had a slide that was all about one of the hidden benefits of .NET was that it untied Microsoft’s hands from x86. Relative old-timers know that NT itself was built on the idea of multi-cpu architecture support (MIPS, Alpha, PPC, x86) but the others just fell off due to competitive, not technical reasons.

Anyway, I’m not surprised at all that MS is looking to implement something along the lines of a lightweight .NET runtime for PPC or possibly even an MSIL specific silicon. Normally I would say that MSIL on silicon wouldn’t be something MS would consider due to upgrade concerns, but since this is an XBOX, almost by definition, a static platform – maybe.

The title refers to Suns perennial MAJC chip design announcements which like many Sun technologies never really succeeded in finding an audience.

[via Early Adopter]

I really really don’t like web ads. Fortunately I haven’t seen one in almost a year (almost). I use a program called Admuncher. It blocks all web ads including inline and popups.

A regular banner ad gets replaced by a simple [munched] text link.

It costs $25 but has saved me from viewing 162,555 ads and 1.269 Gigabytes of bandwidth.

It is fast, lightweight and stays out of the way. Recommended.

Get your kick on Iraq style.

For those who haven’t seen it, we helped Iraq select a new flag.

Although some Iraqi folks are none-too-pleased that it looks a lot like the israeli flag.

[via Gizmodo and Low Culture]

 

 

 

TheVillage Voice4th Annual
SIREN MUSIC FESTIVAL
at Coney Island
Saturday, July 17, 2004

Death Cab For Cutie, Blonde Redhead, Har Mar Superstar, TV On The Radio, Constantines, The Fiery Furnaces,
The Fever, The Ponys,
Your Enemies Friends
and many more scheduled to perform

I bought two tickets for this show.

Matthew Dear, Dykehouse, and Aeroc: An Evening with Ghostly International
Ann Arbor, Michigan label Ghostly International present an evening of live debut performances in New York. Matthew Dear’s steely minimal techno comes to life in a vocal performance, Dykehouse’s one-man shoegazer movement is fleshed out with a whole band and Geoff White’s guitar-led Aeroc project arrives in the US for the first time. “Valenti’s roster grows to include acts that defy its past even as critics attempt to close in on what Ghostly International is”. – Fader

There is a two drink or twelve dollar minimum per person.

Venue: Joe’s Pub 425 Lafayette Street (Between Astor Place and East 4th Street) New York NY 10003

XP Build list

1. XP Pro (SP2 or greater slipstreamed)
2. Configure networking + enable firewall
3. Install drivers – latest from web
4. [Optional] install iis – run iislockdown tool
5. UltraMon
6. CMD Prompt changes: Lucida Console 12pt; Layout: height=35; colors: screen text 0,240,0;
7. .NET framework 1.1 sp1
8. Intellipoint 4.1 (not 5.0)
9. Windows media 10
10. DirectX 9
11. Allwindowsupdates.com + configure automatic updates for auto install and reboot 
12. Diskeeper
13. E-trust antivirus
14. Admuncher[Corey’s review]
15. Google toolbar
16. IE Sync+ download favorites no longer supported
17. Latest flash plugin
18. Xp powertoys(tweakui + image resizer + command prompt here)
19. [Optional] Nortel VPN client
20. Winzip+command line interface
21. Winrar
22. ACDSee Classicfell out of favor
23. Office 2003 + OneNote + Visio + Project + Frontpage
24. Configure Outlook for Exchange 2003 w/ cached Exchange mode
25. Office updates 
26. Cloudmark SpamNetNow called SafetyBar
27. Newsgator+fetchlinks+ .text posting plugin
28. Plaxo2.0 – now with Calendar + task syncronization
29. Copernic orX1[Corey’s old review of X1] (I use X1 at this point, but Lookout remains a good option for those unwilling to spend $99)I am now using Copernic Desktop Search
30. Virtual PC 2004w/sp1- copy over standard XP, 2003, Linux test images
31. Winamp 5 +MAD input plugin+audioscrobbler plugin
32. MSN Messenger 6.2+Messenger Plus!  (be sure not to install Plus!’s spyware “sponsor“)
33. Adobe Acrobat Reader 6(don’t use Adobe download manager)
34. Blogjet(now will spell check)
35. ActiveSync
36. Quicktime, iTunes  – remove tray icon, uncheck all file associations. Configure iTunes for manual iPod sync
37. Optional RealPlayer (only if absolutely necessary)
38. Grabit+QuickPar+ Nvcrc + hjsplit
39. Beyond Compare 2– install mp3, jpg plugins
40. Adobe Photoshop + Album
41. MaxiVista
42. FavOrg
43. 3dMark + PCMark 2004
44. Adaware or try the new Microsoft Anti-Spyware beta
45. ISO buster
46. DivX codec only
47. OptionalPcAnywhere
48. OptionalNero 6
49. OptionalWindows Media Encoder
50. Optional SQL Server 2000 Client tools
51. Optional Visual Studio 2003 Enterprise Architects Edition
52. CDEX
53. Adobe Audition
54. Money2005
55. Winbolic Link  [Corey’s review]
56. Clippath

Some favorites from how not to write metaphors

• His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a tumble dryer.
• He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.
• McMurphy fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a paper bag filled with vegetable soup.
• The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.
• John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

 [via MetaFilter]