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Topics - Thad

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 [6] 7
101
Real Life / God Damned Cats
« on: July 02, 2008, 10:07:01 AM »
Last night I decided to empirically test the question of whether I sleep better in a room that is 85 degrees, or with the door open so the cats can come in and bother me.

It turns out it's the 85-degree one.

Anyone know how I can keep my door open and keep the cats out of my room?  I'm not crazy about the whole shock collar idea, and when I put any kind of anti-cat scent in my doorway, it just results in their taking flying leaps over it.

102
Gaming Discussion / Mega Man 9
« on: June 14, 2008, 10:13:48 AM »
Parish notes that Capcom has allegedly registered Mega Man 9 with Australia's ratings board.

Could be bullshit, could be true.  We'll see.

8 was pretty good.  Those evil fucking "jump, jump, slide, slide" levels notwithstanding.

103
Thaddeus Boyd's Panel of Death / Due process
« on: June 12, 2008, 10:40:25 AM »
Times Online: Supreme Court ruling cripples Guantanamo trials:

Quote
In its third rebuke of the Bush Administration's treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, the court ruled that the 270 foreign terror suspects have the right under the US Constitution to challenge their detention in civilian courts on the American mainland.

Good for Kennedy.  I think it's a stretch to describe him as the swing justice, but he has been on the issue of due process for prisoners in Gitmo.

(Also, recommending Gitmo from the other night's Daily Show as the thread icon.)

Quote
The court's four conservative justices dissented. Antonin Scalia said America "is at war with radical Islamists" and that the decision "will make the war harder on us. It will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed".

You know what else does that?

INVADING A COUNTRY THAT POSES NO THREAT TO YOU.

Quote
Mr Bush, speaking from Rome, said he did not agree with the decision and would consider new legislation to overcome it.

It's always amazing to watch him completely deny reality here.  BOTH of the men who could be President by January are saying they'll close Gitmo.

Quote
"I strongly agree with those who dissented," he said. "Their dissent was based on serious concerns about US national security."

"Also, seventy-five percent of them were appointed by someone named Bush."

104
Assorted Creations / Radio dramas
« on: June 10, 2008, 01:16:21 PM »
There's been talk of recording radio dramas in the past.  McDohl put together a slightly horrifying KateStory script, Stiv suggested adapting Gonterman's book, and a comment on GP has led me to consider how awesome it would be to adapt the Jack Thompson bar trial.

Again, I'm likely to be pretty busy in the immediate future, and we've got plenty of other projects that have been proposed, but it'd be cool to make a thing like that someday.

105
Thaddeus Boyd's Panel of Death / Election 2008
« on: June 05, 2008, 12:18:19 AM »
SF Gate: Obama's gamble in debating McCain

Gist: McCain has challenged Obama to unmoderated town hall debates; Obama has accepted.  This plays to McCain's strengths in that he seems to be the better off-the-cuff speaker (while Obama is unquestionably the better scripted speaker), but plays to Obama's advantage because every time the two of them stand side-by-side is to his benefit.

LA Times: Obama vs. McCain, by the map

A general rundown of the states and demographics in play.  Ties into what we've been talking about lately in the Oh! Bama thread, but much more general and less subject to the unreliability of current polling.

Bottom line, I'm afraid, is the same boring canard I've been saying all this time: a hell of a lot can happen between now and November.

:popcorn:

106
Thaddeus Boyd's Panel of Death / The Environment
« on: June 02, 2008, 07:26:40 PM »
NYT: Senate Opens Debate on Politically Risky Bill Addressing Global Warming

Highlight:

Quote
Opponents argue that the bill would direct the largest changes in the American economy since the 1930s and should not be rushed through without painstaking debate.

I wish they'd give names and quotes.  Because seriously.  "Oh no!  It'll be an economic change like the one we had in the 1930's!"  Really?  REALLY?  I know it's chic for modern Republicans to dismiss the New Deal, but I think they may be overplaying their hands.

Anyhow.  Obviously something has to be done about our energy situation, and at first blush this seems like a decent start.

Obviously any kind of environmental standards will have some impact on the economy, but letting the oil companies set the price to four dollars a gallon while their execs swim in their Scrooge McDuck money bins has a pretty fucking big impact on the economy too.  The suggestion of tariffs on goods from nations that don't meet our standards has the benefit of helping keep US jobs, and of giving companies like Mexico and China incentive to modernize.  I don't know any details on the bill beyond what I've read in that article, but as I say, it seems like a decent start.

107
Thaddeus Boyd's Panel of Death / Torturama!
« on: May 20, 2008, 02:06:46 PM »
Reuters: White House ignored FBI concerns on prisoner abuse -probe

Quote
The FBI, alarmed by interrogation techniques such as the use of snarling dogs, sexual provocation and forced nudity, clashed with the Defense Department and CIA over their use, said the 370-page report, released on Tuesday by the Justice Department's inspector general.

[...]

"What it means is, the White House, the Defense Department, and the CIA were ignoring advice that was coming from people who were charged with enforcement of the law," Chris Anders, senior legislative council of the American Civil Liberties Union, said about the report.

Anders said the Justice Department report is the first to show a role by Rice, now secretary of state, in the prisoner-abuse issue.

I saw a Daily Show interview with President Carter awhile back where he said something along the lines of "How did we get into a situation where we're even DEBATING whether it's okay to use secret prisons and torture?"

It's abhorrent, and it's been clear since day one that it goes all the way to the top.  This is the very definition of "high crimes", and yet when Kucinich tried to put Cheney's impeachment on the table -- something polls show a majority of America now supports -- the other Democrats tripped all over each other telling him to shut up.

Any administration will be better than this one on the issue of torture, but I have been greatly disappointed in McCain for backing off on the subject.  Perhaps I still have a pre-9/11 mindset, but I do not see torture as an issue that it is appropriate to compromise on.

108
Media / Scrubs
« on: May 01, 2008, 06:59:02 PM »
...So Scrubs has managed to get funny again...in the THIRD-TO-LAST EPISODE.  There were probably as many laughs before the opening credits as in the rest of the season up to that point.  I'd say it should have ended two years ago, but then we wouldn't have gotten the musical episode, so I'll say it should have ended one year ago.

I hope it manages to tie up the remaining loose ends in a satisfying manner and, more importantly, to keep up the funny for two more weeks; asking for anything unpredictable is of course a little much, especially given that the remaining episodes are titled "My Princess" and "My Commitment".

109
Gaming Discussion / Bustin' Makes Me Feel Good
« on: May 01, 2008, 02:38:09 PM »
Ghostbusters news.

The summary:

Quote
I'm cautious in my Ghostbusters assessment because the story will be a central component, and I have no sense of it after this sort of demo. If this were a generic ghost-catching game, I'd already be won over by the excellent physics and setting. But this is a revered franchise.

110
Media / Coming Soon
« on: April 25, 2008, 12:58:11 AM »
Guillermo del Toro to direct The Hobbit.

Also: god damn Peter Jackson lost a lot of weight.

Also also: apparently there will be a FIFTH movie bridging the gap between Hobbit and LotR.  Not sure how I feel about that -- what happens in those years that isn't already implied in the FotR movie?  Granted, I haven't read through The History of The Lord of the Rings (I made it through the FIRST five posthumously-published Middle Earth books, but conked out somewhere after the fourth version of The Children of Hurin, which apparently is not enough as THERE IS ANOTHER VERSION COMING), but between the LotR appendices and Unfinished Tales I don't remember enough material in that timeframe to justify a whole movie.  I'd ask for anyone who's read The Treason of Isengard to chime in, but I'm guessing I'm the only person here who made it as far as The Lays of Beleriand.

If all the minutiae were cut out and it were boiled down to its essential elements, The Silmarillion could actually make a pretty damned amazing epic under the right writer and director.  But the odds of it coming out as something watchable compared to the odds of it being a huge clusterfuck are not good, which I assume is why Jackson and New Line are more comfortable with putting together a Hobbit sequel instead.

111
Thaddeus Boyd's Panel of Death / Computer security
« on: April 19, 2008, 09:39:14 PM »
So, okay.  Apparently some ISP's have started a practice of giving custom 404 pages with ads on them.  This probably sounds like a great idea to a business major.  For someone with a computer background, on the other hand, allowing actual data to be transferred to and from addresses that don't actually exist should probably sound like a bad idea.  (Every net admin who actually implemented this system is unworthy of the job title.)

Per The Reg, Earthlink's ad host allows for what they're calling Provider-in-the-Middle attacks (a variation on Man-in-the-Middle, in which a third party intercepts secure communications and tricks each side into believing he's the other).  In essence, if you type in "ww.microsoft.com", you get a 404 page that your browser believes is actually on a valid Microsoft subdomain.  Using an XSS vuln, someone can link to that phony subdomain and access your microsoft.com cookies and, I would imagine, set up phishing sites which pass a security cert check.

Earthlink's ad company has already closed the hole, but there are bound to be others like it.  This is an inherently bad idea; deliberately spoofing a website is, by its very nature, an invitation for phishing attacks.

Dan Kaminsky, the security researcher who found the hole, has also tied the issue back to net neutrality -- this is, after all, a concrete example of ISP's interfering with the content their users receive.

112
Media / TMNT
« on: April 11, 2008, 10:52:57 AM »
Apparently the new TMNT comic's ready to go.  $10 for a direct-order ink-and-paper version from ninjaturtles.com, and should be showing up free on wowio.com shortly.  (I'm waiting for my Wowio account to validate.  The whole identity verification thing seems so unnecessary.  But I guess it'll all be worth it to get my hands on high-quality comic books like XXXena: Warrior Pornstar.)

113
Media / Random TV Thoughts
« on: April 07, 2008, 09:46:06 PM »
...So I'm a few weeks behind, but I just caught the first episode of HBO's John Adams.  It starts off in the most obvious place: Adams's defense of the Redcoats following the Boston Massacre.  It establishes him right off the bat as a man whose loyalty is to the justice above all else, more than England and more than America, and who picks a side only when it becomes clear that the Crown has no respect for the rule of law.  And of course the notion of a lawyer willing to risk his reputation and career to defend the "enemy" strikes an immediate contrast with the craven politicians of today.  Indeed, the citizens of Boston are primarily presented as vicious rioters, responding to oppression with violence.

Other key players also named "Adams" are Abigail, John Quincy, and Samuel.  Abby in particular is given her due as a close advisor to her husband.  Nothing yet on her alleged affair with Sam; I assume they get to that later.

There's some dramatic license taken, obviously, but so far it's a pretty solid bit of drama that has most of the facts right.  The courtroom drama is well-executed too.  Giamatti is amazing in the titular role; obviously it's hard for some actors to make the transition from comedy to drama, but I can watch his performance and forget he played Andy Kaufman's sidekick.  (Tangent: why the hell haven't I seen American Splendor?  Queuing it up now.)

All in all, looking forward to more, and the advantage of being behind is that 4 more have already aired, so I don't have to wait.

114
Thaddeus Boyd's Panel of Death / News Sources
« on: April 01, 2008, 10:29:18 PM »
All right.  Have managed to stop reading Huffington Post, and am much happier for it but feel like I'm less up on the news.  (Sorta like when I quit reading Slashdot, but different subject matter.)  With Stewart and Colbert in reruns last week, I found myself wondering if there was really no news whatsoever besides Clinton lying about Bosnia, or if I was missing something.

So anyway.  Good sources of information.  Google News is a good start, of course, but skewed in favor of whatever the MSM are reporting.

So, all right.  Where do you guys get your news?

115
Real Life / My Shit's Broke
« on: March 31, 2008, 03:43:38 PM »
Woke up this morning to find the network down.  After confirming the router wasn't to blame, I checked the cable modem; no Cable light.

Rebooted it a few times, went to class, rebooted it again, called the cable company.  A very nice lady, who treated me like someone who knew what the hell he was talking about once I said "the router isn't getting an IP from the modem," told me she couldn't see the modem at all and they'd send out a tech tomorrow.

I talked to Brad a little later and he said the last two times this happened it turned out a heavy truck had managed to churn up the cable buried in the alley and break it.  So that would be awesome if that happened a third time.

Currently over at family's place because I have to read 35 pages of a paper to read before class tomorrow; figured I'd take a break and check in here after downloading the paper to my iPod.

Anyway.  Pure hilarity.

116
NYT/Nrama/uncivilsociety.org: federal judge restores a portion of the Superman rights to the Siegel family.

I am ambivalent about this.

While I am a strong advocate of creators' rights and it is absolutely tragic what a bum deal Siegel and Shuster got, I'm also a strong opponent of indefinite copyright extensions and think Superman should be in the public domain by now.  If this ruling holds on appeal, then it will stand as an excellent precedent, and a very important symbolic gesture acknowledging the decades of publishers taking advantage of artists, in many industries but perhaps in comics most of all.  But on the other hand, giving royalties to Siegel's heirs doesn't undo those wrongs, and it's absolutely ridiculous that there's still a copyright on Superman after 70 years.

I guess what I'm saying is, I want the courts to uphold this ruling, but I want the legislature to give us a copyright system that makes sense and make it a moot point.

117
Real Life / Weather
« on: March 25, 2008, 12:19:37 AM »
It's currently 79 in here.  At 1:15 AM.  In late March.

If it's like this again tomorrow, fuck this saving on the electricity bill shit, the AC's going on.  If Brad doesn't like it he can up my rent.

Really what I need is a way to leave my bedroom door open without letting the cats in.  Unfortunately, cats are not dogs, so that's not an easy prospect; putting a fucking screen door inside the house does not seem like a reasonable undertaking (though it's totally the sort of thing Brad would do).  Maybe I can find some bitter-smelling spray to coat the entrance with.

...Weather report says it's going to cool down a few degrees starting Thursday.

But if it's like this in March, I am not looking forward to July.

...On the plus side, March is the perfect time of year to have a bed next to a window.

And on the less-plus side, even once July rolls around, at least it's a window on the north side of the house, not the east or west.

...Another thing I'm going to need to remember is to start brewing my coffee at night and throwing it in the fridge.  It is getting too hot for hot beverages.

118
Assorted Creations / Let's dub something
« on: March 20, 2008, 11:11:09 PM »
Just happened across the old aborted Loonatics project thread on the old board.

As badly as that ended, I'd like to give the idea another shot.

Anybody have any suggestions for a bad piece of video we could rewrite and dub over?  Either in MST3K fashion where we riff on the original audio, or What's Up, Tiger Lily fashion where we replace it?

Suggesting we start with something in the 5-minute range.  Because then there is an outside chance we might finish it.

119
Media / Spectacular Spider-Man
« on: March 18, 2008, 12:56:07 PM »
...So, okay.  I hadn't been keeping tabs on the new Spidey cartoon, but I read an interview (part 1, part 2) with producer Greg Weisman on Nrama (which I have also not been keeping tabs on), and read enough to get excited about it and check out the first episode.

This cartoon is good.  Really good.  Within the span of the first minute, we see a shot of a gargoyle (oh yeah, Weisman is the creator of Gargoyles), and Spider-Man reminds the audience that his name is hyphenated.  Within minutes of that, we've got shots of Flint Marko, the Spider-Signal, and, no shit, the Enforcers.

That was pretty much the moment I knew I was going to love this thing.  It's one thing for somebody to SAY their favorite version of Spider-Man is the Lee-Ditko-Romita era -- it's sort of a given; it's not like Superman, Batman, or X-Men where there are a huge number of classic periods to pick from, it's more like Fantastic Four where there's only one right answer -- but to actually bust out with throwbacks like the Spider-Signal and the Enforcers is putting your money where your mouth is.

And everything about the first episode had that nostalgia about it, from the Ditko-style Spidey costume to Gwen and Harry to the Vulture, while simultaneously feeling like a breath of fresh air (I'm digging this version of Eddie Brock so far).  That's one of the things Weisman said in that interview that got my attention: "It's 2008, but it's also 1962."  Perfect -- first thing I thought of was Batman's expert juggling of 1939 and 1992.  Obviously this is tonally way different from Batman -- and thank God it is, because for God's sake Spider-Man's SUPPOSED to be lighthearted.  And his banter here is top-notch; that's something that was really lacking in the movies (with a few exceptions, like the "Here's your change!" when he slung the money bags at Doc Ock).

Anyway.  Haven't watched the second ep yet, but if it's half as good as the first, then I'm sold.

...I guess this post could have consisted entirely of "It's Spider-Man.  By the guy who did Gargoyles." and that would have said the same thing much more succinctly.  But it was good enough that I had to gush a little.  It's so cool to see Spider-Man done RIGHT for a change; I could write a book on why he's such an appealing character and yet has been so poorly used since the late 1960's.

So in summary: Watch this cartoon.  It's Spider-Man.  By the guy who did Gargoyles.

120
High-Context Discourse / Avatars
« on: March 16, 2008, 10:18:12 PM »
Hey Arc,

I am having trouble telling people apart.  If you are not having enough OCD fun assigning an icon to every single thread, could you perhaps resume your practice of assigning avatars to people who don't have them?  That way I can be spared the time it takes to read people's names!

Thank you.

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