Aberro Specus

So apparently the hosting service I use has been going downhill, a lot, the past year or so. I popped on to check how many posts behind I was (am) in the Blogenning to find my site down this morning. “This isn’t good,” I thought. I tried to access the admin site for my hosting service, nothing. I tried to access their main website, nothing. I tried to call them when I found their customer service number online… nothing. “Hmmmm…” I though, as I chatted with Brandon about it, “This isn’t good at all…”

Then suddenly my site comes back up (obviously). No explanation, no apology, no response from my hosting company. And apparently this has been going on for a while, for a variety of reasons and people.

So I’m thinking about switching my hosting service.

The obvious option is godaddy. They’re pretty much the most well known service around (that I can think of anyway) and their prices are good… only slightly more than I’m paying now I believe. What service do you all use? I’m looking for options here, because I have a few months left on my current subscription to this company, and I figure I’ll ride it out while I think about switching. I’m  looking for  pricing and options mostly, how many MySQL databases, bandwidth, etc. Please, leave comments :).

So that’s why my site has been down, if you were wondering, and that’s what’s been going on.

More postenings soon!

~Ian

As promised, here is the paper I just finished. It’s original research on reasons behind Body Modification, specifically dealing with Philosophy and Spirituality. To make it easy for people, I’m posting a link to a PDF of the text. An yes, I know there are typos.  As always, it’s licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

And of course, here’s the link!

Body Modification: Philosophy, Spirituality, Art, and the Human Body

~Ian

So I saw Beowulf tonight with Will. It met my expectations. The interesting part is though that I saw it in the “new” Digital 3d. Now, I have never seen a 3d movie before, but apparently the most common complaint about them is that one gets a headache, which the new 3d-ness is supposed to avoid. My only complain is that when text was on the screen, or something was moving very fast, my eyes unfocused. However this might have been due to the fact that we were sitting closer than most people do. Over all though I’d say it definitely made the movie better, watching it in 3d. Btw, if you don’t want your view of the movie to be biased before seeing it, don’t read this… also - spoilers.

The movie itself… was good. I haven’t read Beowulf in a long time, and I just started rereading it, but I like the way they portrayed both Beowulf and Hrothgar. There are a LOT of translations of Beowulf, and they all give a different spin on the characters. The movie portrayed them as I personally believe they should be. Men. Drunken bastards, who are just as much monsters as the demons they slay, in their own way. None of this “epic-her- who-can-do-no-wrong” crap. It was well done. Grendel was portrayed very well also, less evil, more… “animal.” I guess that would be the best way to describe it. He doesn’t kill people because he’s evil, he kills them because they are causing him pain (although possibly unknowingly). As far as the post-Grendel stuff (aka the important parts) I can’t remember the original all that well, so I’m going to hold off on comments until after I’ve re-read it (which I’m going to start doing on the way to work tomorrow).

The CG was excellent, I couldn’t have asked for it to be better. It was… “life” like, except for one or two scenes, where it was obviously fake (and I don’t mean “hey it’s a monster fake” I mean “hey, that looks computer generated” fake”). They did an excellent job with it. It was also definitely “filmed” with the 3d in mind. I’m not sure if the original intention was for it to be 3d or not, but some of the imagery would definitely be lost without it. They also captured the imagery I think of when thinking about Beowulf well, the landscape, Grendel and his mothers caverns, etc. It all fit well into my mental image. It’s also far less graphic than I was expecting. Sure theres blood, sure people are torn asunder, but it wasn’t gruesome. Definitely something you could take kids to I think. If you allow them to attend mature films (which you should, in my opinion). There was also some interesting religion symbolism, particularly in regards to Christianity (interpret as you will, I appreciated it, and got a good laugh out of one particular scene).

The voice-acting was excellent, the names I knew did the jobs I expected them too (actually, I was most impressed with Anthony Hopkins, and John Malkovich disappointed me slightly, he did not portray drunk well). Also, the actors I didn’t recognize did excellent jobs, particularly Robin Wright Penn and Charlotte Salt . Also, I didn’t know this before hand, but Neil Gaiman wrote the screenplay, which is just kind of cool. Anyway, I’m rambling. Go see it if you were interested, and if you weren’t… reconsider. It was an excellent movie. Also, if you have the choice, I would recommend seeing the 3d version, it definitely improved the experience.

Oh yeah, and there was a trailer for Sweeney Todd which makes me want to see it even more than I did before.  It’s going to be bloody awesome.  And it’s a musical… which Johnny Depp, how can you go wrong.

~Ian

These past two weeks have been excellent ones for music. Foo Fighters, Dethklok (woot), Alter Bridge, Freezepop, and Radiohead to name a few.  Alter Bridge is kind of a new one for me, Brandon introduced me to them a little while ago, but this album definitely caught my interest.  For those who don’t know Alter Bridge is the musicians from Creed, minus the horror that is Scott Stapp.  Creed pretty much sucked, but the musicians were quite talented, and now with Alter Bridge they are getting a chance to shine. I’m over-all rather impressed with them, particularly Blackbird, their new, second album.

The new Foo Fighters I’ll honestly say I’m a little disappointed with. It could have been better. I’ve only listened to it twice now but over-all I’d say it could be improved, nothing in particular.  The Dethklok album (the aptly named Dethalbum) is of course excellent.  There are two new songs, and the rest are all slightly different (better orchestration, mainly). Over-all - Amazing.  I can’t wait for more, and so far Season 2 of Metalocalypse has kicked ass.

The album I really want to talk about is the new Radiohead - In Rainbows.  Now the album itself is good. I’ve honestly always prefered older Radiohead (OK Computer) to the new stuff, but they have evolved as a band, and it’s an amazing thing, albeit different. The new album is very mello… they seem to have drifted slightly away from the electronic and into lighter rock.  Definitely an album to buy.

Speaking of buying it… thats the other amazing thing about this album.  Radiohead released the album as a purely online download.  That’s pretty cool - there will be a physical CD that you can purchase as well, that gets shipped with a Vinyl copy of the album as well as some other fun toys, for around $80, but that doesn’t ship till December.  So - online download.  It gets better though - you choose how much to pay for it.  Thanks right.  Radiohead has continued their giant “fuck you” to the recording industry and not only released their own album, online, but have said “pay as much as you want for it” too.  No joke. The album is a donation price, which covers the production cost and bandwidth usage basically.  It really doesn’t get much better than that.  Oh wait… yes it does!  The entire album is DRM-free as well.  More and more people are realizing what complete and utter SHIT DRM is, and Radiohead is leading the way it seems with a DRM-free, low priced album.  If the name your own price wasn’t enough to convince me to actually spend money on this album, then the DRM-free-ness definitely does.  They have my admiration.

~Ian

I’ve had a strong case of wanderlust for the past couple days, and today I made a list of all the places I want to travel to, throughout my life, but asap if I can…

Japan, China, Tibet, Vietnam, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and other South-East Asian countries. New Zealand and Australia. Oregon, California, Washington, Alaska, an British Columbia, as well as other parts of the US I’ve never been too and Canada. Spain, Italy/Rome/Vatican City, Denmark, Netherlands, Finland, Germany (again), France (again), Hungary, Greece, other parts of Europe. The UK (Wales, Scotland, and England, but not N. Ireland), and Ireland (southern). Egypt and Israel. Brazil, Chile, and Argentina. And anywhere else life happens to take me…

I also want to hike the Appalachian trail, climb mountains in the Rockies or other large US mountain ranges, bike across the continental US, and spend a month or more living off the land in seclusion in some forest somewhere, surviving without “human” contact.

Additionally, I made a list of “skills” I feel I should learn: carpentry, trapping, fishing, hunting, glass blowing, woodland survival/first aid, rappelling, brewing/distilling, smoking meat, sewing, woodworking, cigar rolling, the voilin, and muay thai/judo.

I don’t know… they were interesting thoughts.

~Ian

Wil Wheaton’s “Geek in Review” article over at SuicideGirls Wednesday made me very happy. To summarize, he rants a bit on the advancement of communication tech. and how we need to keep up or… “else,” really. He brings up some excellent points on new cell phones, and social networking sites like myspace, facebook, Digg, twitter, even youtube. How these sites have changed the way we communicate, and how that translates into advertising, politics, etc. He also mentions a site I hadn’t (shame on me) visited before, Talking Points Memo. It’s a great, great political news site. He also talks about Net Neutrality and DRM and the music industry (etc., etc.) and why half the people doesn’t know wtf they are doing and almost everyone else just needs to wake the fuck up and stop halting progress, with of course the minority who supports NN and knows what the bloody fucking hell is wrong with DRM, etc. He brings up some excellent points, and raises an issue or two I either wasn’t entirely aware of, or just didn’t know much about. Not much more I can really say on it honestly, check it out.

Wil Wheaton’s Geek in Review: Brave New World

~Ian

No, I’m not talking about “Geek Squad” or your run of the mill anime con goers who think they possess superhuman abilities to beat up bad guys and style their hair in gravity defying ways.

I am instead talking about a short, but poignant, article by Clive Thompson over at Wired :

“Bill Gates is an improbable humanitarian. He built a reputation as a nightmare boss at Microsoft, a totalitarian who screeched at employees he thought were stupid. He bludgeoned competitors with his illegal monopoly. And he’s a nerd’s nerd — someone who seems perennially uncomfortable around people and only at ease dealing with the intricacies of software code.

And that is precisely why he’s now saving the world.”

It’s an interesting concept and a worthwhile read.

Link

-B

And I quote:

“But online video and social networking sites also deserve some credit, says the report, for driving traffic and keeping users there in order to watch and communicate with each other. But wait, doesn’t social networking count as ‘communication?’ Well, yes, but not under OPA’s metric, which appears to only categorize e-mail as ‘communication.’ Instant messaging also counts as content, according to OPA, which could also help explain content’s explosive increase in popularity in recent years. “IM is a more efficient communications vehicle than e-mail,” reads the report.”

Link

- B

Just found this via a BoingBoing post. The folks over at Wired Threat Level blog have set up a page featuring a new Wikipedia search tool developed by Caltech graduate student Virgil Griffith. The essence of the tool is that you can exploit the fact that all of the anonymous posts made on Wikipedia log the IP adress they were made from, and reference these against the IPs owened by major corporations and government agencies. Threat Level is current taking submissions and ranking some of the greatest spin jobs done by companies and government organization on Wikipedia. See what Diebold has removed from the entry about Diebold! See what one Disney employee/DRM advocate has to say about DRM opponents (an be sure to notice how he removed all references to anti-DRM advocate Cory Doctorrow)!

For those of you keeping score, chalk a point in the “tech savvy student outwits blundering freedom-rapers” category.

Link: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/wikiwatch/

- B

Thats right, no intro, just busting out with the picture. THIS is badass. There’s no question about it. Purely acoustic amplification of your mp3’s, just by placing the earbuds into the specially designed holder for them on top. It reads the vibrations from the earbuds and translates them into “warm, rich and resonant sound.” This beauty uses horn acoustics to amp up the volume of your mp3 player (could use a cd player too) to about 55 decibles, or for those of you who just thought “thats nice, how the fuck loud is that?” about the max volume of internal laptop speakers. Main problem? You have to use earbuds, which some of us don’t own because they are fuck all uncomfortable.

Second problem, which isn’t really a problem, just a… oh that would suck… it’s made entirely out of ceramic. Now this is obviously because, well, ceramics read sound wonderfully. But… don’t put it anywhere it might fall easily…

Third problem:  This is probably only an issue for me, but. WHY WHITE, DEAR GOD WHY ALL WHITE. I hate entirely white things,  I find them to be rather ugly, so this… not doing it for me. However in the future they are going to release ones with different color glazes. Yay. They do actually have a different version of it out that does come in black, but it looks different and is rather ugly in my opinion.

Final problem: $875 CAD. ‘Nuff said.

Anyway for more info go check out the creators website here. Science & Sons. They also have a cool logo.

~Ian