Blog Updates...

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Chekwolf: Its finally back!

Checkwolf is a crimefighting organization, a group of talented vigilantes who have come together to battle corruption in their own way.

About 2 years ago, I got hooked on an audiobook podcast called "Checkwolf," depicting a modern-day rogue crime fighting group. I was very attentive and followed the series almost religiously. So, of course, when month after month went by without an update, it was pretty upsetting. So, being the curious person I am, I wrote the author, Remy Gibson, an email asking him what was up. He told me that he wanted to re-record all the episodes in a higher quality format. So, recently, he emailed me back and told me that he had successfully put his audiobook on podiobooks.com under a creative commons license. So, once more, I can look forward to listening to the intrepid adventures of my favorite fictional crime-fighting league.
Check out the Checkwolf Website
or go to the Checkwolf Podiobooks page.


Thanks, Remy!

Instant Action Beta!

I was recently accepted into the Instant Action beta and I must say, it's quite amazing. It is a website that, with the help of a group of programmers, has made four up-and-running 3D games that play directly in your browser. Right now, the only four games are simple puzzle games or 3rd person vehicle shooters such as "Marble Blast" or "Think Tanks," both of which have been released and have been played for a year or so prior to the website's release. The website also has a cool "Party" feature, letting you play with a group of people. You can even change party games on the fly and chat with friends in-game.

Right now, the only way to play is to sign up for the Beta or be invited by someone in the Private Beta. However, being a member of the private beta, I can invite people.

If you send me an email, I will be more than happy to send you an invite, although I'm not sure how many I can send.

Lol?

No, I prefer "Haha"

Personally, I try to stray away from using terms such as "lol,""imho," and "w00t" because I think it makes it look like I have a typing deficiency or am missing several fingers and refuse to type that many words. I had a very interesting conversation with a close friend of mine that I thought was rather insightful... take a look.

me: lol
ugh... i try to stop myself from doing that
"lol"

my friend: it's hard
you'd think the new gen of computer geeks would have come up with something better

me: rofl, ^^, and :D have become more popular :D

my friend: rofl?

me: rolling on floor laughing
that one took a while for me :D

my friend: oh my god...really?

me: really

my friend: and ^^?

me: as in ^.^
like a smiley face

my friend: i feel old

me: whats funny is that this gen of computer nerds has split in 2: the ones that like to talk think and the ones that brutally play computer games
while "^.^" would be acceptable in a chat room,
it wouldn't fly in a videogame chat box
same with w00t, but the other way around

my friend: shudder

me: its scary, if you think about it

my friend: i don't like it

me: me neither
i enjoy words

my friend: i spell out every word in text messages, too

me: amen
unless I'm getting near my 160 character limit

my friend: ha - right

me: and it took me a full 3 years to learn that w00t meant "We owned the other team" because it is never used in that context.

my friend: wait - that's what it stands for?

me: exactly

my friend: oh my

me: "haha. halo 8 is coming out this week"
"w00t"

my friend: maybe i shouldn't go down this rabbit hole

me: haha
trust me, words are way better.

my friend: uh… rofl?

Google + Phone = Amazing

Great news... you can send me voicemails or comments with your phone. Just click the "Call Me" button and enter your phone number and name. I used a new feature from Google called "GrandCentral." It assigned me a new number (which I'm not about to post), and then showed me a huge amount of features I had access to. I can record incoming calls, view my call inbox online, and a whole myriad of other things. So please, give me a call. I can't promise I'll pick up, but you can always leave me a voice message. Right now, GrandCentral is in private beta, but if you leave me a message, I'd be happy to send you an invite (unless, of course, I run out).

In addition, on the right hand side of my blog, there is a link to a new page I mentioned a few days ago: As part of a few updates I'm making to my blog, I made an external site to manage all of my external... stuff. I started with a page with the soul purpose of displaying my Youtube videos. A permanent link to it is http://trichiliad.googlepages.com/youtubevideos.

Enjoy.

Thank You, Internet.

Thanks to the internet (and the diligent watch of a few friends), I found a whole bunch of web apps (and some downloadable programs) that make media, socializing, and a whole bunch of other things a lot easier. Check them out, and give me some feedback.

DoubleTwist
This is really easy; DoubleTwist lets you oranize all your media, sync it to your phone, PSP, or other mobile device, and even share it with your friends. What I like about it is that it integrates rather nicely into Facebook. Its also really simple to set up: it downloads in seconds, installs quickly, and works seamlessly.

SkyDrive Windows Live's latest feature, SkyDrive is an online storage/backup system. You can save up to 5 gigs of information, with a 50 mb filesize limit. You can also organize them into folders, choose to make some open to the public or private, and keep track of others whose SkyDrive you've accessed recently. Because its a Live feature, it works well with Live Spaces, Photos, and Friends. And best yet, its free.

OpenID Tired of making a new account for every website you want to access? With OpenID, you can easily sign in to almost any website with one account. There's an ever-growing list of websites that support OpenID, including Blogger, Attachr, and a whole list of OpenID Software, mainly for web developers.

Lifestrea.ms
Ever wonder about an easy way of keeping in touch with your world? With a new "breed" of internet tools called "Open Aggrigators," staying in touch with whats new in both the digital and real world becomes excruciatingly easy. But, instead of stopping there, it also involves you in the world: you can appear to different audiences, socialize, keep in touch with friends, or whatever else you'd like to do. You can choose who see's what as well... for instance, you can appear to one group as a professional programmer who makes a living designing inventive software. On the other hand, you can appear to a completely different group of people from a more social standpoint, such as a 20-something bachelor who enjoys walks on the beach. Right now, Lifestrea.ms is in beta, and you have to request it via email if you'd like it. They have a public demo page that you can visit here. Check it out... I hope I get accepted into the beta.

Web Updates

I am currently in the process of registering my blog with a website called http://www.freedomains.co.nr. They provide free "domains" for websites, so (hopefully) you will soon be able to access my blog at www.bichiliad.co.nr.

In addition, I want to create a website for all the content I want to remain stationary: for example, I want a page that has a player, hosting all my youtube videos. Since I can't really (easily) put this in my blog, it will be a lot easier to make a new website. Since someone already took bichiliad.googlepages.com (grr... I tried to make my title as unique as possible), I will be hosting all my extraneous pages under trichiliad.googlepages.com. Not to worry though: any page you will ever want to see on that site will have a link on my blog.

Hopefully, all this new updating will be smooth sailing, and I really hope its not as confusing once you see it.

Thoughts on the "Protect America Act"

No more wire tapping? Although the concept of wiretapping is a bit unnerving, at least it's "working." But without it? Wireless and cyber terrorism has become more and more dangerous over the past few years, and an inability to intercept potential threats is akin to not giving Britney Spears random drug tests: Who knows what could happen without them?

The Protect America Act expired on Febuary 16th.

New Youtube Video!

Finally, after a lot of talk, and not much to show for it, I finally shoved my latest video into one of Youtube's thousands of servers and, after waiting for a bit, got a result: my 2ND (well, it's technically my 3rd, but my 1st didn't really count) Youtube video ever.

The video is about setting up a system of software that will allow you to access all the music on one of your computers anywhere else (from any computer, iPhone, or iPod Touch that has internet) in the world. I really like using it: I'm no longer confined to a 16 gig memory limit :)

If you want to get embedded code for it, or if you want to watch it on youtube.com, you could just click here to view my video in all its youtube-ness. Check it out: I'll be watching my view count!

From Algebra to Art: Creating Mathmatical Masterpieces.

Mathematicians often rhapsodize about the austere elegance of a well-wrought proof. But math also has a simpler sort of beauty that is perhaps easier to appreciate: It can be used to create objects that are just plain pretty—and fascinating to boot.

While not everyone enjoys math, I think one would be a little bit more strained to find someone who would not enjoy the images created from it. Dynamic systems, or a simple rule used to describe how a point moves across a plane, can be used to create beautiful works of art such as the one seen at right, called "coral star". Michael Field, a mathematics professor at the University of Houston has developed a very simple, yet unique way to create art:

Field uses an equation that takes any point on a piece of paper and moves it to a different spot. Field repeats this process over and over again—around 5 billion times—and keeps track of how often each pixel-sized spot in the plane gets landed on. The more often a pixel gets hit, the deeper the shade Field colors it.

To view more of his art, as well as the art of several other "mathematical artists," click on the picture and read the full article. There are works from Robert Bosch, Robert Fathauer, and Andrew Pike, who use very different methods to create their art.

Why?

"KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A suicide bomber blew himself up in a large crowd gathered at a dog-fighting event just outside this city in southern Afghanistan, killing about 80 people and wounding more than 90 others in the country’s worst single bombing since 2001."

Hasn't there been enough violence already?

Sorry... things like this get to me.

The Foo Fighters at the Grammy's

As I talked about a few weeks ago, there was a competition to find a talented musician that would play with the Foo Fighters live at the Grammy Awards. Well, their concert was uploaded to Youtube on the 10th, and has since received over 17000 hits per day. During the concert, they announced the winner, who performed with the Foo Fighters in their song, "The Pretender." I was a little upset, though, that you could not hear the violinist who won, Ann Marie Calhoun, very well. Overall, however, it was a great performance. You can see the top 3 finalists, the 15 semifinalists, and all other little bits of information that you may have wondered about the competition. Congratulations to all the finalists and to Ann Marie.

Out of the Frying Pan...

"Echostorm writes with word that Windows Vista SP1, which began rolling out via Automatic Update, has left some users' machines unbootable."

*sigh* I was hoping for an easy fix that would make Vista a little bit more manageable... Apparently, numerous reports of computers looping between the "Configuring Updates" screen, the "shutting down" screen, and upon restarting your computer, the "Configuring Updates" screen again. This would get exceedingly frustrating especially since, so far, there has been no word from Microsoft on a fix for the bug. Apparently, there were hints of this problem in the service pack's beta, but it seems as though nothing has been done to fix the problem.

On a brighter note, as Microsoft hasn't released the updates to the general public, there may still be a fix before it gets sent to users like you via "Windows Update". The service pack waves a handful of updates at users, including faster copying times, full support for the latest 802.11 n wireless adapters, and faster update times. For a full list of updates, check their changelog. It makes one wonder if these differences will be noticeable, helpful, or enough to make Vista likable. For my sake, I hope they update their compatibility with nVidia graphics cards, because the ones right now make me want to cry.

"An end to Hollywood’s long and bitter writers’ strike appears all but assured, as the governing boards of the unions representing 12,000 movie and television writers on Sunday unanimously approved a tentative three-year deal with production companies."

As I sat today in a large comfy chair by a fire (its really cold today) I couldn't help wonder about what exactly is going on with the writer's strike. And, lo and behold, as I looked up at the TV, NBC was doing a special on it. Apparently, both sides of the argument were unsatisfied with the proposed 3 year contract, but, as several people quoted, that's what makes it such a good contract. Many writers as well as producers do not want to see the Grammy Awards pass by uneventfully: that would be very bad. In the end, I really hope that the strike comes to a close: I will be really upset if they start cutting back on LOST.

On another off-hand note, my latest vid is going a bit slowly... i have had preoccupations recently that have... stunted its production. However, as soon as I get the end credits finished, I just have to slap on some music and call it a day. I hope...

Digsby!

"IM, Email, and Social Networks in one easy to use application."

A friend of mine commented that she kept 18 AIM screen names alone (what a ridiculous idea). I, on the other hand, have 2, comprising of a single AIM account and another Gmail account. What would be great, though, would be a program that managed all of your contacts and email accounts. I have been toying with Pidgin for a while, and although I like it, it has a way of being annoying (like flashing every time you get an email). However, recently, I found a program (through a friend, who may in fact soon be a guest contributer to this blog) that allows you to manage your email, instant messaging, and social network accounts from one window. Its called Digsby, and it promises to be a huge step forward on the simplicity scale. Unlike previous instant messengers, it allows you to customize its appearance greatly by giving you various style options. It incorporates your Facebook or Myspace account and gives you news updates or new messages. It is also less intrusive: when you get a new message, it pops up as a mini chat box in the corner of your screen, where you can reply directly to a chat before going back to whatever it is you were doing. I really like it, and I can't wait until the public beta is released so I can see how popular it becomes. It is currently in private beta, but if you would like to try it out, ArsTechnica is offering 5,000 free registration keys. It is on a first-come first-serve basis, so I'd hurry up and click here to read their review of Digsby and get your own activation key.

Pangaea Day

"Pangea Day taps the power of film to strengthen tolerance and compassion while uniting millions of people to build a better future."

I love the fact that recently, more than ever, there have been efforts to make the world come together a little bit more, such as the Davos Question I talked about a few days ago. In "Pangea Day," which is held around the world live on March 10th (see their website for more details), videos from around the world will be displayed. Their idea around this is simply "if you could share one video with everyone in the world, what would it be?"

There are high hopes that this video will ease racial tension around the world as well as help to draw people farther away closer together. The videos will be shown around the world, either at special "Pangea Day" screenings, at public theaters and parks, or at private, invitation-only screenings.

Videos can still be submitted. As they put it:

"We're looking for films that will make us laugh, cry, and gasp. They can be fiction, non-fiction, real-life, animation, or your own unique mixture. But they should hold our attention for every second. And above all, they should tell a story that someone else on the other side of the world will be able to relate to."

I personally can't wait to see all the amazing videos that will stream in and be shown on the 10th. If you read this and post a video, leave a comment and let me know. They also have a trailer which I think is pretty amazing. Check it out on youtube.

Happy pangea day.

People like this skip math in highschool.

Wow. I got this video in an email recently and was amazed at the amazing and complicated mathematic equations that this man could compute in his head. He was able to square 3 digit numbers before a pane of people armed with calculators could finish typing the numbers in. But what makes this presentation unique is that he uses words in place of numbers to help him keep his thoughts together. If he gets to a large number, he simply replaces it with a word. I find it funny how people like him work like computers. Or maybe computers work like people like him...

Worth chartering a space shuttle for...

"If you’re out there in deep space, you’ll want to be tuning in at 7 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, Feb. 4 (plus however long it takes electromagnetic radiation to reach you from Earth doing the 186,000-miles-a-second speed limit)."

To start off, I'd like to say "Happy Birthday, NASA." Now, on with the story... also regarding NASA's birthday. Being the 50th anniversary of NASA's first shuttle launch, NASA will be using their huge system of antennas to beam the song "Across the Universe" by the Beatles into deep space. The beam, heading in the general direction of the North Star, or Polaris, is also being used to commemorate the antenna system it's being sent from: The Deep Space Network was created 45 years ago. It is also the 2nd outgoing signal sent from Earth, the first being sent in 1974. And as the NYT says, "No reply, at least so far."

It makes one wonder if there is, in fact, life out there. Many say that the universe, being what it is, should have some sort of life out there. Others, namely scientists, don't think so: they have found countless planet, few of which have even the slightest chance of hosting some sort of life. Even more say that the universe isn't the infinite realm of nothingness that we've imagined it: apparently, it is doughnut-shaped. Regardless, we may find that in a few hundred thousand years, we get a response. Until then, we shall wait.

And my next Youtube video is almost finished... media fans and iPod fans alike will enjoy this one.