2011 Feb 11, 4:15On the more web aspects and behind the scenes of Conan getting kicked off NBC and returning via TBS and the web. marketingtelevisionconanwebinternet
2010 Oct 13, 3:11"To celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Back To The Future, we've got never-before-seen footage of original star Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly. Plus Robert Zemeckis, Steven Spielberg and Bob Gale all
explaining why they replaced him with Michael J. Fox"backtothefuturebttfmovievideoeric-stoltz
2010 Sep 27, 3:08Adam Barth's URI API draft starts to appear in webkit: "One of the things Adam Barth is currently working on is an URL API. Citing it, the API can be used for constructing, parsing and resolving URLs
through scripting, easening up tasks like getting and setting parameters. Today the first part landed in WebKit, which added the “origin” property."webkitadam-barthuriurlapijavascriptdomhtmlhtml5browserwebbrowsertechnical
I've just got a new media center PC connected directly to my television with lots of HD space and so I'm ripping a bunch of my DVDs to the PC so I don't have to fuss with the physical media. I'm
ripping with DVD Rip, viewing the results in Windows 7's Windows Media Center after turning on the WMC DVD Library, and using a powershell script I wrote to copy over cover art and metadata.
My powershell script follows. To use it you must do the following:
Run Windows Media Center with the DVD in the drive and view the disc's metadata info.
Rip each DVD to its own subdirectory of a common directory.
The name of the subdirectory to which the DVD is ripped must have the same name as the DVD name in the metadata. An exception to this are characters that aren't allowed in Windows paths (e.g.
<, >, ?, *, etc)
Run the script and pass the path to the common directory containing the DVD rips as the first parameter.
Running WMC and viewing the DVD's metadata forces WMC to copy the metadata off the Internet and cache it locally. After playing with Fiddler and reading this blog post on WMC metadata I made the following script that copies metadata and cover art from the WMC cache to the corresponding
DVD rip directory.
2010 Aug 13, 11:46RESTful machine learning API from Google... "The Prediction API implements supervised learning algorithms as a RESTful web service to let you leverage patterns in your data, providing more relevant
information to your users. Run your predictions on Google's infrastructure and scale effortlessly as your data grows in size and complexity."restaigoogleprogramminganalysismachine-learningdevelopmenttechnical
2010 Jul 13, 6:27"Occasionally the Technical Community Network group sits down with some of Microsoft’s most influential technical employees to capture their stories. Instead of examining specific technologies, BTC
takes a closer look at the person, the career and what it takes to produce world-class software."microsoftmsdnpodcastchannel9c++programmingtechnicalvideo
An excellent movie I'd never heard of. An entertaining and humorous sci-fi indie romance comedy. It stars Emma Caulfield (who I recognize as Anya from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) who obsesses over
her timer, an implanted device that counts down to when she'll meet the love of her life. Thematically its similar to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind which similarly adds a scifi device to
society in order to examine the value of failed relationships on a persons life.
2010 Jun 29, 6:40A fan made Kings Quest sequel gets an official go-ahead: "After negotiations, the C&D [cease and desist] has been officially rescinded, and Phoenix Online has been granted a non-commercial
license to release The Silver Lining!"gamelegallawvideogamekings-questsierratechnical
Did I mention that I got married
two weeks ago today on May 29th? Its true! Our wedding was a kind of planning singularity -- all of my planning efforts would get sucked into that day and I couldn't make any plans past that date.
But the actual wedding itself was lovely and I didn't feel nearly as stressed out or nervous during the wedding as I did trying to plan for it. I've been gathering wedding photos on our wedding website photos page.
2010 May 10, 8:59Iggy Pop interviews Shepard Fairey, including his Obama HOPE poster and AP lawsuit:
"... but the American public is generally pretty superficial, so an image like that just allows them to project whatever limited idea they have onto it. Obviously, not everyone is like that—I
actually think there were a lot of people who were bummed by the image because they felt it was shallow propaganda."
"If I spend time conceiving and making a piece of art and somebody else sees that it has market value and replicates it in order to steal part of my market, then that’s not cool. But the way I make
art—the way a lot of people make art—is as an extension of language and communication, where references are incredibly important. It’s about making a work that is inspired by something preexisting
but changes it to have a new value and meaning that doesn’t in any way take away from the original—and, in fact, might provide the original with a second life or a new audience." artlegallawipshepard-faireyobeyinterview
2010 May 6, 7:22"Caja allows websites to safely embed DHTML web applications from third parties, and enables rich interaction between the embedding page and the embedded applications. It uses an object-capability
security model to allow for a wide range of flexible security policies, so that the containing page can effectively control the embedded applications' use of user data and to allow gadgets to prevent
interference between gadgets' UI elements."securitywebbrowserweb-sandboxcajagooglejavascripthtmltechnical
2010 Apr 21, 1:47So... There's Downfall a 2004 film about the final days of Hitler's life. Then folks take the most dramatic scene and parody it with new subtitles having Hitler yell about various things like his
cell phone or Burning Man. It becomes a meme and meta Downfall parodies show up with Hitler yelling about the Downfall parodies. Now the studio producing the film has sent DMCA takedown notices to
Youtube and many of the videos are disappearing. In response is a new Downfall parody in which Hitler issues DMCA notices to Youtube...censorshiphitlerhumorcopyrightdmcaefflegalyoutubevideofairusememewebinternettechnical
Sarah and I are just back from a successful wedding planning trip to California. We now have cake, food, officiant, makeup, and some other things. Planning weddings is tough. It was also, of
course, a pleasure to see my parents who made home made pasta -- yum!