May 29 2004

Review: The Day After Tomorrow

Category: General, Reviews — Jeremy C. Wright @ 1:06 pm

I went to see The Day After Tomorrow with Ryan and a bunch of other friends (this is looking to turn into a semi-regular thing, which could be really fun). What could be even more fun is the bloggers’ (myself and Ryan) collective reviews.

Ryan has already posted an audio and regular review (busy boy).

Much like Van Helsing, this movie needs to be set in context. This is an “end of the world” movie. It stands alongside other such movies as The Core and Armaggedon (thankfully, the cast doesn’t go around singing cheesy love songs in this movie!). So, before you do anything, think back to how bad (and yet entertaining) these types of movies generally are. You don’t go to see dialog, you don’t go to see plot points…

In fact, an End of the World movie is really just one thing: a story with great special effects.

And, really, that’s what TDAT is. A decent story with spectacular special effects. The dialog has weak points, the story has at least 1 needless ’suspense builder’ and there are several times where you have to suspend disbelief (maybe even consciously). But, as a story it is a decent story.

Some of the visuals will kill you in different ways. Some are incredibly scary, others are incredibly touching and others might just shake you.

As a story / visuals movie, I’d easily recommend this. If you can’t go to a movie with very bad dialog in choice places, or where the plot is slightly disbelievable at a few places, grab this on DVD if only for the story.

But, if you do want to experience this movie in all it’s glory, you could do much worse in the theatre this season than TDAT. It didn’t meet my expectations, but everyone who walked out of the theatre walked out laughing and talking and jibing. Not a bad way to end a movie.

May 28 2004

Anti-Bush Game

Category: General — Jeremy C. Wright @ 4:32 pm

This is blatantly anti-Bush, hence the name: The Anti-Bush Game.

I’m not endorsing it, and there is some sexual content in this (not nudity or anything); and I’m not saying it’s accurate.

It is well done though, and it does get it’s message a cross. I can’t say if the figures in the game are accurate, but it’s certainly a good reminder (if you’re so inclined).

Plus, I completed it, so you have to try too ;-)

May 28 2004

IT Manager v2

Category: IT Thoughts — Jeremy C. Wright @ 2:25 pm

Intel has released an upgrade to their free online “IT Manager Simulation” game.

It does include upgrades to the interface, to the options (specifically for hiring staff, which is a very welcome addition) and to hardware (most notably Itanium 2 servers).

However, the gameplay still plateau’s at a certain number of PC’s and earnings.

Welcome adjustments, but for those of us who basically plateau’d in the last version it’s the same old thing (though there are more problems, so you will need at LEAST 2 staff, instead of only needing 1 before).

May 28 2004

Blog Comment Notifications System

Category: Blogging — Jeremy C. Wright @ 12:12 pm

Tejas Patel mulls over ways to keep track of your comments:

1) As you said, blogs should have notify function in them, yes might be helpful, but think of negatives too, how many people would provide their right email address on the blogs? I know aboutmyself, I never do, although I would have my right blog link :) ( I fear SPAM). Then think of the network bandwith it will utilise, there will be tremendous amount of email jumping all over the internet. After a while, I am sure you will yourself be tired of this option, as you start visiting 1000 blogs a day and respond to 300-400 of the posts in it. I don’t think that you want to get notified for 300Post X 5 replies each post times in your email!

2) I know now most of the smart bloggers use services like Technorati & Feedster to track their blogs, so if you think that you have anything susbstantial to add to the post on a blog, link to that post on your blog and comment on your blog, as I am doing it now, this will have two benefits, the moment you comment on it, it will be tracked by the other blog and a link would be created there showing that you have replied and also you will have more people visiting your blog. Check your referrers from time to time and follow the links.

(the original conversation started here, at Michael’s blog)

Which got me thinking on two levels. First, the blogger level.

Blogger

The question isn’t “is there any way to notify a user of new posts?” as that’s easy: email, as Tejas mentioned.

So, the question becomes “is there an easy way to keep up to date with comments individuals have posted on a blog?”. While one way (that I’m using right now) is to add comments to your feed, this gets pretty boring, pretty damn fast. People don’t necessarily (again, necessarily) want to read every comment. They only want to read when people respond to comments they have made.

Step 2, then, is to create a set of custom feeds based on a criteria. Email might work, which would make the URL for the feed something like www.ensight.org/feeds.aspx?email=mine@mine.com, which would produce a list of comments the individual had posted.

One way to do it, but it doesn’t actually provide the value we are looking for.

We actually need to almost do the opposite: update the feed list when someone posts something to a blog post you commented on… after you commented.

The logic isn’t too bad:

1. Get list of posts by [criteria]
2. Reference original posts from #1
3. Count number of comments to #2
4. If the number is greater than 1 (ie: skip logic if you can); check for position of comment from #1 in #3
5. If there are more comments beyond #4 in #3, update feed

I haven’t written it yet, mainly because it would be difficult in MovableType. Definitely motivates me to move to WordPress, as I’m sure I could whip this together in PHP in a few hours (I know, others could do it in an hour, but given me a break, okay?).

Service

The second way you could look at comments is from a service level. Like Technorati, only for comments. It would do virtually the same thing as the logic I outlined above, only as a service.

I have no idea how this would be trackable without bloggers participating, but maybe people smarter than I am could drop some ideas in.

Nothing is impossible, after all ;-)

May 27 2004

Picked Up Hats

Category: General — Jeremy C. Wright @ 5:33 pm

I finally picked up the hats I bought a while ago.

They look and sound fantastic. For those who are counting, here’s where I’m at with the kit:

Rack: Gibraltar 350C Rack (2 expansion side kits)
Hats: Manhattan Groove Hi-Hats
Snare: DW Collector’s Series Snare

Plus some various cheaper cymbals (mainly Zildjian Edge series).

Next on my list (in order):

- drums
- kick pedal
- better cymbals
- throne
- ‘gear’ (all the extra stuff which makes my kits fun and uniquely mine)

Good times :-D

May 27 2004

Maybe ResumeBlogs Do Work?

Category: From My Life — Jeremy C. Wright @ 1:32 pm

A few months ago I setup a fairly basic ResumeBlog. The goal? To see if anyone found it and if it led to anything.

Obviously at the time I intended to expand on it. Since I launched it, it’s had nearly 1000 visits. Not bad. But, nothing ever really came of it.

Well, yesterday I was personally contacted for a recruiter as a direct result of my ResumeBlog! The job was leading a software suite in the healthcare industry. While I didn’t feel I was a perfect fit, we’ve written back and forth a few times (hint: if you feel you are, email me your resume and I’ll happily forward it on).

This contact really was a kick in the butt for me: if I’m going to post my resume online, with a fairly decent Google PageRank, I need to put more information on it. This isn’t the short and sweet resume you send recruiters and HR. This should be a bloody compendium of my experience and knowledge (as should the resume button at the top of Ensight).

So, this weekend I’m going to button down a bit and get some more info on both.

May 27 2004

Apparently I’m Not Addicted!

Category: Blogging — Jeremy C. Wright @ 1:15 pm

Phew!

Yesterday I swore I wasn’t.

Today I have proof!

The Blogaholic Quiz. I only scored 64. This means:

64 points is in the 51 through 80 precent
You are a dedicated weblogger. You post frequently because you enjoy weblogging a lot, yet you still manage to have a social life. You’re the best kind of weblogger. Way to go!

I think the last question is the best ;-)

May 27 2004

I Am NOT An Addict!

Category: Blogging — Jeremy C. Wright @ 10:31 am

…

No, really, I swear, I am not like this!

[ thanks to Ryan for the confession ]

May 26 2004

Giving Myself a 10$ Gift Certificate

Category: IT Thoughts — Jeremy C. Wright @ 4:52 pm

Whoo hoo! I only made this offer 5 minutes ago, and I’ve already figured out how to stop spam!!!

Apparently, more than 80% of all spam originates in the US (holding my tongue here people).

The majority of spam originates in the US (80%); with Boca Raton, Florida serving 70% of that, making it the spam capital of the world.

So, really, the solution is simple!

NUKE BOCA RATON FLORIDA!!!!

I think I’ll buy a tube of male lipstick with my Amazon gift certificate ;-)

May 26 2004

Spam is Two Thirds? Is That IT?!

Category: IT Thoughts — Jeremy C. Wright @ 4:48 pm

Apparently spam now makes up 2/3 of all email. To that I say:

BRING IT ON!!!!

…

Uh, I mean:

Is that IT?!

Well over 90% of my email is spam. I get about 200 emails a day, and maybe (MAYBE) 20 of them are actually email that I want (and most of those are comment notifications, to be honest).

Granted, I don’t have any anti-spam stuff with my hosting account (which is pathetic); but still. Makes me almost want to ditch my current public email address.

I have another account which gets very little spam, but very VERY few people know about it, and I never use it to sign up for anything. Maybe it’s time to move to that one.

I used to use jwright@studiococo.com (an old domain); until the flood of spam became unbearable. I was literally receiving 2000-3000 spam messages a day. I’ve since stopped checking it, but every now and again I need to pull down emails (like if I’ve forgotten a password somewhere) from this account.

It amazes me that each time, the 50MB email box fills up in 3 days. It is now getting well in excess of 10,000 spam messages a day.

Ugh.

So, okay, don’t bring it on, k? Let’s just someone, somewhere deal with this bloody problem. CAN-SPAM (obviously) didn’t help. Anti-spam software hasn’t helped all that much (basically brings you back 6 months in terms of the amount of spam you receive, and requires maintenance). Jailing spammers hasn’t helped. Cutting off their resources hasn’t helped.

Something needs to be done and, no, I don’t want to get involved. Fix it. I’ll give you a 10$ Amazon gift certificate.

If that doesn’t get people motivated, I don’t know what will ;-)

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