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We still have two more episodes of Chuck with Kristin Kreuk.
How many brunettes must we endure? Every season Chuck dates a brunette (S1, Lou; S2, wossername; S3, whatever), and every season they break up. This is the very definition of insanity.
Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:33:16 GMT
You never cease to amaze me.
I only found that because I was totally looking up...uh...Hang Seng reactions to the Prius thing. Yeah, that sounds legitimate.
Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:30:12 GMT
Sun, 07 Feb 2010 04:47:13 GMT
Before going any further, you have to know what Rampancy is. That article is the best definition, but in essence it's when an AI kind of evolves from an artificial intelligence into a self-aware being. The term originates from the Marathon games, but HALO adopted it for its own.
Here's my hypothesis: I think, from a purely meta-fictional standpoint...not character development, but the underlying editorialness that governs fictional universes...Barbara "Oracle" Gordon has reached the mythical Metastability phase of rampancy. Here's an abbreviated time-line of what I think happened:
1. The Killing Joke is when Alan Moore and his editors took a snapshot of Barbara Gordon, and let her run, not in parallel, but under different conditions than others. Conditions that wouldn't let her state revert backwards, before the injury.
2. During subsequent comics and retcons, she went through the first stage of rampancy: melancholy. This time is covered in various stories that show her being depressed right after her paralysis.
3. After melancholy, during her time with the Suicide Squad, she went through the second stage: anger. Anger is demonstrated just by her general attitude at the time, when she took on a slightly harder edge, trained to use a gun, etc.
4. After anger, during the mid-to-late 90's she went through the final stage: jealousy. Most of this was directed toward Huntress, jealousy over her sleeping with Dick and wearing the Batgirl costume during No Man's Land.
5. The final stage, and current state, is metastability. Metastability would explain why she continues to eschew technological repairs to her spine, as the character (an object within the DCU system, not so much the character as a person) has reached a level of stability that few other characters have ever reached. As of this time, Barbara's stability as a character in the longest running major change of any character in the DCU, a record which I believe was previously held by Barry Allen's death.
This is just a hypothesis. I could have just spent too much time listening to The Cole Protocols this weekend.
Sun, 07 Feb 2010 02:51:15 GMT
I'd like to see the Leverage team take down Power Girl.
The story is that some family member of the guy who killed in issue #5 approaches the team for help. "Jimmy, he wasn't no saint. He dealt a weed and X, I won't lie to you. But what they did, brushing his murder under the rug like it was nothing, that ain't right. Did you know, Mr. Ford, that Atom guy, they got him to save the Joker from some kind of tumor. The Joker. But they act like Jimmy never existed."
Then there's the setup, where Hardison gives the rundown on Starrware. Startup company, bleeding capital, ties to the JSA, etc. Then Eliot asks, "I don't know. How do you take down a Kryptonian?" To which Nate replies, "The same way we take down all these guys, take away their power. Okay, team, let's go steal the sun."
I haven't worked out all the details, but the endgame is that Hardison reprograms the portable sun Starrware was working on in, ah, issue #6 (I think) to emit red solar radiation, and they depower Kara long enough to get her to confess to helping the Space Girls Gone Wild get off Scott free.
Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:17:37 GMT
Just so we're clear:
A scene where a four year old joking calls her brother "retard" is not fit for human eyes.
Yet mocking a comic series by calling it "Gay for Justice" is perfectly acceptable.
Is it just me, or is that...what do you call it...a double standard?
Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:58:24 GMT
Doctor Developer collapsed to the floor. He heard Prometheus walking, circling him, no doubt out of arms' length.
The past sixty seconds had been an experience in the limits of how much pain one body could feel. There was no doubt in Doctor Developer's mind that Prometheus could have snapped his neck in the first five seconds of their combat. There was never any doubt in his mind that Prometheus wouldn't.
"Six thousand combatants in here," Prometheus tapped his helmet, "And even without this I could kick your ass. What made you think you could ever take me in a fight? That's so stupid, man."
Doctor Developer coughed and forced himself up onto his hands and knees. He shook his head. "Never thought I could beat you in a fight," he said. He coughed again, smiling as he finished. He lifted one hand off the floor, and leaned back on his knees. "Figured I could lure you into a trap, though."
Doctor Developer held up his right hand, letting his coat sleeve fall down his arm to reveal he was holding Prometheus' Ghost Zone key. Prometheus lunged toward Doctor Developer, but it was too late, he stumbled across empty floor where his opponent previously knelt.
"Son of a bitch!" Prometheus screamed.
"Hello?" a voice spoke. Prometheus head snapped up. It was Doctor Developer. "If you're hearing this, Prometheus, is means I just teleported away with your key. It also means the explosives planted all around this building have just been primed. You have thirty seconds before this building collapses on top of you."
The floor beneath Prometheus began to rumble.
"Maybe less," Doctor Developer's voice admitted before the recording cut off. I refuse to respect any villain who thinks you can restrain an Amazon by pinning them to a plasma screen. That's just sad, man.
Thu, 04 Feb 2010 04:46:15 GMT
Iron Man 2 Game, blah blah blah, That was the major point hammered home by Brink, that this is "a unique story in the movie universe." This isn't an adaptation of Iron Man 2 the movie. The story is co-written by comic scribe Matt Fraction, who teamed up with a group of writers from SEGA. Brink said this worked out great, with Fraction keeping them in touch with who Tony Stark is. "Matt Fraction was one of the easiest writers to work with," Brink said, "he really knows Iron Man and helped us capture the character."
The gameplay changed considerably from the first game to this sequel, also with the goal of making the player feel more like Iron Man. Flight, hovering, shooting, and melee have all been redone entirely. Hovering is now automatic, shooting has a great auto-lock that is enabled and disable with a single click. Flight is tuned to a person-sized object and the way they would manuever, rather than flying like an extremely small plane. I'm confused here. How could an Iron Man game stay true to the Iron Man that Matt Fraction "really knows" when the later version makes handling the armor easier? Didn't we learn from "Most Wanted" that subsequent, more advanced armors are harder to fly because they have fewer automated systems then older, more primitive models. I mean, this article seems to imply that the developers learned from the first game and then used that to make the next game easier for players to handle. That's just not the Tony Stark way. I'm beginning to question everything I know now.
Wed, 03 Feb 2010 23:01:14 GMT
HipHop: What you need to know is the best post I've seen that explains how HipHop for PHP works. But here's the money shot for the post: Once compiled, HipHop provides its own web server (a CLI interface is also available). It does not use (or require) Apache or any other server. Of course, this doesn’t preclude you from running one or more HipHop projects against separate ports on the same machine and then use Apache (or Squid, or any other server) to reverse proxy to them. Read that again and let it sink in for a second. HipHop, essentially, compiles PHP programs down to their own web serving programs. You can now write web daemons in pure PHP. This means PHP just stepped up and said, "Hey, I can make use of multi-core processors too." You can now develop message-passing systems in PHP that will scale, unless I'm way off base, like Erlang programs. I dare say, the game just changed for PHP. EDIT: Others disagree.
Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:22:30 GMT
(Ganked from SquidLord.)
I finally got the FutureNews app to compile to Linux, so running it for long periods of time is a lot easier. According to the uptime pings being sent back, it looks like the system stays up for about five years without a reboot. That's kind of cool. I'm looking forward to a FutureNews appliance one day, that'll have a very tight kernel and run indefinitely. Or maybe some kind of parallel, 4-D network, where news gets aggregated backwards, so you're not capped by the run time of your app, start-to-finish. Oh, well.
Anyway, I found this interesting tidbit from around 2015. Seems like there's some good news, bad news, good news, and strangely morbid news. The good news is, by 2015 we have a national health care plan and everyone has insurance. The bad news, much like our neighbors to the north, while the system chugs along, it still encourages those who can afford it to vacation in places where you can still get private medical care.
The other good news is that the Haiti relief efforts paid off, it's a thriving vacation spot for the wealthy. The strangely morbid news is that tourism is only it's second largest industry; Haiti's largest industry seems to be organ exports.
I think I'm going to stop playing with the FutureNews app.
Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:44:50 GMT
New DC Animated Series: Young Justice League
With a new decade comes new nostalgia. I'm not worried. Peter David will probably write for it, Dwayne MacDuffie will be the story editor, they'll call Superboy "Conner," and I won't give a damn.
Frankly, I'm looking forward to Generator Rex more than anything. It actually looks like a cartoonified version of Enginehead.
Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:01:30 GMT
Putting aside my headache for a minute, I'd like to touch on tonight's Chuck for a minute.
Hi, Chuck Creators. How are you doing? Enjoying the soup? It's a family recipe. Campbell's family. Haha, yes.
SERIOUSLY, GUYS? Seriously? Chuck's drinking. What. The. Bleeding. Hell?
Really, that's all I have to say. You boys enjoy your soup, and I'll take care of the bill.
Tue, 02 Feb 2010 02:30:06 GMT
This just came through my email box.
I have no doubt that if this ever makes it to court, Judge Patel will rule that in her day people went to theaters to watch movies, both ways in the snow and they liked it that way, so just why do these kids with their Ipads and Zoons need to steal movies off the Tuberweb can't they just go to a theater to watch their Youtube clips, and get off her lawn?
Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:34:02 GMT
"We're originally from a place called The Mountain of Judgment," Doug explained. Jennifer seemed to be paying attention to his attempt to give his, Software Pirate, and Pragmatician's origin story, but Cameron seemed to be paying more attention to a control console. Doug knew this because it was Jennifer's eyes that lit upon mentioning their home.
"You're Hairies?" she asked. Her whole face lit up. "Wow, I thought you guys were a myth...no offense. It's just, even in my circles, Cadmus is hush-hush." Doug knew what her circles were. As Jennifer Blaire she was one of the foremost authorities on the history of super-human activities, and as Lady Lawful she was part of said super-human activity. "This is an honor."
Software Pirate was quick to accept this honor. He gave a deep bow from across the room. "It is an honor to be honored." Pragmatician thumped Software Pirate's shoulder as he stood back up.
"I don't mean to be rude," Jennifer continued, "but what brought you guys out into the world." She chuckled nervously. "Don't get me wrong, after last night, I'm really glad you're here. But..."
Doug interrupted, "Don't Hairies hide away from the world. Aren't we waiting for mankind to, uh, mellow out or such? Most of us are, yes, but some of us," he pointed to his friends, "think we should lend a hand. Not many, as you can see, but some."
Pragmatician, who Jennifer knew by the name Ross, stepped into the conversation, "We are on a self-imposed exile, each for our own reasons. The others who think our actions are," he suppressed a shudder, "uncool, and while they did not actively forbid us, they made it known ours was not a popular choice." Ross's cool tone implied more than his words did, but his message was received.
"Is Mistah Mekanique a Hairy?" Jennifer asked.
"No," Doug answered, "We're not entirely sure what his deal is. His tech is Hairy-like, but there are enough differences that we're pretty sure his supplier is someone. Our best guess is an off-world supplier. It wouldn't be the first time."
"Or sadly the last," Ross said.
You know, I didn't read much of Final Crisis or Death of the New Gods or whatever, but I think it's a shame that the Hairies don't get more play in the DCU. (Or maybe a blessing, depending on my mood. Right now it's a shame.) I mean, you could slot a Hairy onto any team and have a tech dude with a built-in backstory. Forget summontheweb.com, can you imagine the kind of good the Hairies could do with their own darknet. Now there's a way to integrate Silver Age Kirby Crack with modern day network theory, let the Hairies be the brains behind something like Freecycle.com or Freenet, teaching and enabling people to share and streamline their lives.
Man, I'd break my DC boycott if they started publishing a Hairies book with a decent writer.
Seriously, it's a society made up mostly of super-smart guys with beards who practice Freelove and similar concepts. The Mountain of Judgement is like San Francisco on wheels. It's pure yaoi waiting to happen people. PURE YAOI!
Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:19:37 GMT
This thread makes me sad.
So, it's totally cool that Oracle's in a wheelchair, because in the real world people are in wheelchairs, but a scene that shows Valeria Richards calling Franklin a "retard" in jest is socially irresponsible, because even though that happens in the real world it's wrong. I'm not trying to justify the scene, but I'm SORELY tired of the hypocritical way the "real world" card gets played in comic books.
THIS WHEELCHAIR DOESN'T STAND FOR FRANCE!
Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:03:01 GMT
I think I've finally reached the point where my value of hating the DCU is so great that it actually flipped over to zero. In the past couple of months, I've wanted to post some rambling tirade, but as soon as I start putting ideas together for the post, I just stop and think, "Well, whatever." Then I close the window.
Like just now, I built up this huge head of steam to post about how much it sucks that World's Finest reinforced the idea that Hiro Okamura was just a robot of Winslow Schott's, but the more I thought about it, the angrier I got, and I finally just...blip...didn't feel like posting.
It's weird. Kind of nice, but weird. (And, yes, I am posting, but this post is about how there's not a longer post about it with cursing.)
Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:02:20 GMT
And that's why Guardians of the Galaxy is the best comic book being put out my Marvel.
It's the work of a true tactical genius!
Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:23:49 GMT
Why are all the Justice Society of AMERICA actors played by CANADIANS?
Sun, 31 Jan 2010 04:41:47 GMT
Being a cyborg ain't for pussies. Let's just get that out of the way.
Yesterday at work, as I was going out to the lab, I head what sounded like a text book falling on the floor. I looked around, heard the sound again, but couldn't figure out what it was. Hours later, rolling down the hall, I heard it again. This time, I felt my seat sag. One frantic call home for a ride, the mom showed up, and helped me get in the van with no sudden moves.
"Let's see what it was," I said. "I don't have a screwdriver, do you?" she asked. I chuckled and pulled out my Swiss Army Knife. A short time later we discover that what I heard was not falling books, but the screws holding my chair sling shearing in half. I was one screw away from a bad physical comedy act, where some guy gets shoved into a trash can, only replace the trashcan with a wheelchair, and replace the guy with a walrus.
Now, I do have a backup wheelchair, kind of. I have a one of these that I use for showers. It's not lightweight, but it's maneuverable. Unfortunately, as we found out last night, it won't go through the door without folding up.
Thankfully, on the way home, the mom and I stopped by Marvin's, where she picked up replacement screws and two rolls of Gorilla Tape for me. According to Popular Mechanics, one strip of Gorilla Tape can hold 85lbs. I can now attest that several (20~30) turns of it around a couple of wheelchair supports will supplement that one last screw enough to get a walrus from a van onto his bed. So, with me in the house, we retired for the night.
This morning, though, we were back on the case. (I have to say, the following may have been my idea, but without Mama's implementation, it would never have been done in the short amount of time.) While I was waiting as the Gorilla Tape sling was being put together last night, I did a bit of calling. My Googling had turned up that auto enthusiasts have similar bolt shearing problems in old cars, so I discovered that one of out local auto parts stores had screw extractor drill bits. After a quick trip, we had the bits. It took about an hour, but of the five sheared bolts, Mama was able to remove four and the fifth broke up.
At this point, I would like to say, I am glad I started collecting and taking care of my tools last year. Having a drill, locking pliers, a spare Phillips head, and utility knife all came in handy today. With enough tools and parts, you can do anything.
We finally fixed the seat, added a couple strips/straps of Gorilla Tape for extra support, and it works. The seat it a bit more firm now than it has been, because of the tape beneath the sling. That may have to go, but I'm not sure I trust these new screws just yet.
Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:34:15 GMT
Dave Winer sez, "When netbooks first came out they flirted with all-solid-state storage. This meant a $600 unit only had 20GB of persistent storage. Made it almost totally unusable."
My second Eee is a refurbished 901 with 8GB on board flash storage and I have an old 1GB SD card plugged in to expand on that. It run Windows XP and currently has Komodo, Open Office, VideoLAN, Perl, IronPython, Ruby, AutoIt, and (unless I'm totally misremembering) Visual Studio Express 2009 Web Web Development installed on there, with room to spare. It cost me $200 refurbished last year.
My first Eee came with 4GB on board flash storage and I bought a 2GB SD card to supplement it. $330-ish new, with shipping.
I love that quote for the WTF-ness of it, because, to me, netbooks with actual, spinning drives have always struck me as luxury items, not practical features. It's like complaining that your cell phone doesn't have a phone jack in it. I'll take a 4GB flash drive over 120GB mechanical drive any day if we're talking netbooks.
Thu, 28 Jan 2010 22:16:36 GMT
Okay, I think I can re-purpose this project to do something like this page. Need to do shit here at work, so I'm not going to do it now, but it looks like I misunderstood/over-spec'd the initial concept.
Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:56:04 GMT
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