Exciting Developments at Work @ Virgin Moistness.com

Its nice to see someone else has just as much fun at work and we do.

*A little bit of an "inside joke." Whenever we discuss the website with the client, the client exclaims in this big excited voice that We Are Going To Win Awards! The client is just so excited that we have an Award-Winning Site on our hands! Unfortunately, the client has no taste at all and I've had to create the most horrendous layout in the whole of my fuckin' life for this man. The layout is never going to find itself in my portfolio. Ever.

The site may have won awards in 1983... if the award giving committee was all tripping on acid.

Read the whole post here.

New flash sig file

So I started using flash today. It's something I've wanted to play with for a bit. So I made a sig file for all the boards I post on. Dig the new flash sig. 1 r l33t.

HATCH COMMENTS ON COPYRIGHT ENFORCEMENT

So it looks like our good senator is backing down from his statement. Trust me you don't wanta mess with a group of teenagers that have nothing better to do that play around on the internet and mess up stuff in Utah. I still think he has no idea what he's saying and that someone gave him some money a sheet of paper and said read this. Now word has spread he's backing down on his comments. Humm I would of respected him more if he would of come out with a more tech answer and supported the use of file sharing and a look at the whole industry.

Washington – Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today issued the following statement:

“I am very concerned about Internet piracy of personal and copyrighted materials, and I want to find effective solutions to these problems.

“I made my comments at yesterday’s hearing because I think that industry is not doing enough to help us find effective ways to stop people from using computers to steal copyrighted, personal or sensitive materials. I do not favor extreme remedies – unless no moderate remedies can be found. I asked the interested industries to help us find those moderate remedies."

Full Committee Introductory Statement Text

O and maybe my letter did work.

I just heard a short story on NPR.org that you are supporting the use of a 3 strikes software utility that would disable a persons computer when you download files from a file sharing program.

I am total discussed at how you would bend over to the public media, and not see that the real future of a global village is the ability for people to share and exchange information.

In-fact I am allowed to make a copy of a tape recording, (remember the 70's 80's and 90's), distribute that to my friends. Well now that the common person has found a loop hole in that and is using the internet to distribute information, music, and data to a large group of "friends" you want to stop it. No where did I ever say I was trading illegal material, but its not the file sharing that is illegal, but some of the content, and that is where your real battle should.

So let me get this right now that a major loop hole does not help big business our government wants to stop it. Funny if the loop hole were in your favor you wouldn't be so quick to jump to a solution that is not illegal.

Orrin Hatch has no idea what he's talking about

The good senator of Utah has no idea what he is talking about, how to implement such an idea, or what file sharing really is. Yes people trade illegal music, but also file sharing is a great way to trade legal open source software and programs. My big complaint is how do you know what is being traded and that you are doing something illegal. Also what about that fact that I'm allowed to trade music files with my friends, and now that a large loop hole has popped up its illegal. Humm see here's our government going after the little guy, while big business can steal and cheat mass America out of billions and only get a slap on the writs.

Here's the full article for your reading pleasure.
The good senators web site, I suggest you go there and tell him what you think.

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Tuesday he favors developing new technology to remotely destroy the computers of people who illegally download music from the Internet.

The surprise remarks by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, during a hearing on copyright abuses represent a dramatic escalation in the frustrating battle by industry executives and lawmakers in Washington against illegal music downloads.

During a discussion on methods to frustrate computer users who illegally exchange music and movie files over the Internet, Hatch asked technology executives about ways to damage computers involved in such file trading. Legal experts have said any such attack would violate federal anti-hacking laws.

"I'm interested," Hatch interrupted. He said damaging someone's computer "may be the only way you can teach somebody about copyrights."

The senator, a composer who earned $18,000 last year in song writing royalties, acknowledged Congress would have to enact an exemption for copyright owners from liability for damaging computers. He endorsed technology that would twice warn a computer user about illegal online behavior, "then destroy their computer."

Exotic Cause of Death Test

I will leap from a tall building in my superman constume



How will you die? Take the Exotic Cause of Death Test

The Matrix vs. Monsters Inc.

I found this over at Missives Anonymous. Makes you think maybe they did steal the idea, but then if The Matrix is a copy of this idea, and Star Wars was a copy of that idea, then is or will there ever be original thought again?

Are they the same movie? (Listen and decide)

Human body power vs. Human scream power
Phone booths vs. Closet doors
Neo vs. Boo
Morpheus vs. Sully

It's something to think about. :)

Comic book heros unmasked - History channel feature

Propulsion Systems of the Future

During more than 40 years of spaceflight, a lot of things have changed. Today's Space Shuttle is a luxury ship compared to the Mercury capsules that carried the first American astronauts into space. Forty years ago, a lot of people might have had a hard time believing that Americans and Russians would be living together in space on one Space Station. Space probes have visited every planet except Pluto, and a mission there is currently being planned.

One thing that has changed very little, however, is the way rockets work. While different fuels have been used, and current rocket engines are more high-tech than their early predecessors, the basic concepts involved are basically the same. But, NASA researchers are currently working on a way to change that, as well.

You can read more of the article here.

Man going into space is really a dream of mine. I've mentioned it several times here I know. Can you image even being the people that think up this stuff and purpose these ideas. Now those people are on the cutting edge.

US standard railroad gauge

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches.
That's an exceedingly odd number.
Why was that gauge used?
Because that's the way they built them in England, and English expatriates built the US Railroads.
Why did the English build them like that?
Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.
Why did "they" use that gauge then?
Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.
Okay! Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing?
Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.
So who built those old rutted roads?
Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (and England) for their
legions. The roads have been used ever since.
And the ruts in the roads?
Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.
The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. And bureaucracies live forever.
So the next time you are handed a spec and told we have always done it that way and wonder what horse's ass came up with that, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war horses.

Now the twist to the story...
When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site.
The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds.
So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's most
advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a Horse's ass.
And you thought being a horse's ass wasn't important ??

Mind Media.com (right or left brain)?

Your Brain Usage Profile

Auditory : 56%
Visual : 43%
Left : 47%
Right : 52%

Forge, your hemispheric dominance is equally divided between left and right brain, while you show a moderate preference for auditory versus visual learning, signs of a balanced and flexible person.

Your balance gives you the enviable capacity to be verbal and literate while retaining a certain "flair" and individuality. You are logical and compliant but only to a degree. You are organized without being compulsive, goal-directed without being driven, and a "thinking" individual without being excessively so.

The one problem you might have is that your learning might not be as efficient as you would like. At times you will work from the specific to the general, while at other times you'll work from the general to the specific. Sometimes you will be logical in your approach while at other times random. Since you cannot always control the choice, you may experience frustrations not normally felt by persons with a more defined and directed learning style.

You may also minimally experience conflicts associated with auditory processing. You will be systematic and sequential in your processing of information, you will most often focus on a single dimension of the problem or material, and you will be more reflective, i.e., "taking the data in" as opposed to "devouring" it.

Overall, you should feel content with your life and yourself. You are, perhaps, a little too critical of yourself - and of others - while maintaining an "openness" which is redeeming. Indecisiveness is a problem and your creativity is not in keeping with your potential. Being a pragmatist, you downplay this aspect of yourself and focus on the more immediate, the more obvious and the more functional.

Do you use your left or right hemisphere more? Discover the role of left-brain/right-brain plays in your personality. Our popular Brainworks program is now a FREE online application. Now use it from any computer without a download!

Need a vacation?

Say you haven't been anywhere in a while? Need a vacation? Well how about a virtual sightseeing tour? I just stumbled on one of the best vrml sites ever. Just look at this picture, it just makes you want to sell it all, get a backpack, and travel the world. Well since I'm tied to my life here in Southern California, I'll just visit this site for a get away without all the planning, and travel headaches. So go visit http://www.panoramas.dk/, sit back and enjoy.

Sometimes the talking heads really get to me

So I was watching this "Headline News" channel and this talking head was interviewing the president of a new X-Box community sports gaming experience. I guess what you can do is kinda have like a newsgroup, but instead of trading conversation you all play in a league. A real kewl idea, say you and like 20 friends all get on and then you can track how you do vs. your friend. Well back to my rant.

So this super old bommer dude was asking how the thing works and said it was a little "tech heavy", "needing a PC and a web browser." WTF "tech heavy?" Tech heavy is having to download new drivers for you video card, update your sound card, and then you find out Doom won't load. You see before XP and Win2K you might have to fight with your new video game only to find out that your system is too slow to run that hot new game all your friends are playing. So to this over the hill bommer who thinks a PC and a web browser is "tech heavy", I say get the fork out of that news room of yours and try talking to the common man. Instead I guess its easier for you to sit there and be the voice of doom and gloom, so your 24 hr. news channel can get more ad revenue.

Here is the actually text I wrote,

"So I was watching your Headline News feature on Saturday morning, and you ran a story about the new games coming to X-Box and X-Box live. The interviewer commented that the package needed to play the game was "Tech Heavy", "needed a computer and a web browser".

OMG come on tech heavy would be having to configure graphics setting and download patches for different video cards, have a conflict with .dll's, or an incompatible sound card. I think your interviewer needs a "Tech Heavy" class before he enters the realm of tech, and video games, cuz a web browsers and a PC are as low tech as you can get.

In fact if I were the guy on the other end of that question I would be like wtf are you doing telling ppl my games are "Tech Heavy", you might of just cost me several hundred sales.

Come on CNN get with it .. and teach your talking heads about the world instead of letting them live in that bubble of the news room."