Two cool links in one day

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I have this ongoing fascination with data visualization tools that provide easily navigable visual ‘portals’ into complex data sets, especially as they apply to website navigation. Mostly the interest stems from work, where we face this issue on a macro level (how to organize access to a website that has over 30k pages broken into a huge number of ‘content areas’) and on a micro level as we have one project in particular where we’d really like to have a tool that offers students the ability to navigate complex biology subject matters easily. So, today I ran across Touchgraph, which is completely awesome. You’ll need a java enabled web browser to check it out.

The other reason I’ve been fascinated with these comes from reading Gibson and Sterling and the other cyberpunk authors and recognizing that basically they’re onto something when they describe near future computer interfaces, it’s just a question of what that something ends up looking like, and these tools I’ve been linking to are glimpses….or potential glimpses anyway 😉

Brotherhood of the Wolf

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I went to see Brotherhood of the Wolf this weekend. It’s well worth catching while it’s still in the theaters. It’s a horror/martial arts/period piece flick from, of all places, France. The plot’s based on a historical event, but just barely, and covers the appearance of a murderous supernatural beast in rural France and the efforts of the main characters to get rid of it. The action is truly superb and the cinematography is very cool, lots of swooping camera angles, slo-mo/fastforwad effects and really awesome morphs between scenes. The movie is also chock full of great costumes and sets. Be warned though – it’s subtitled and it clocks in at over 2 and a half hours. And about 30 minutes of this feels a bit….it could have stayed on the cutting room floor and the movie would have been just as good. But still, all in all, well worth your $7.

Between Lord of the Rings and this movie I am really wishing they would bring back the intermission. People need to pee and 2 and a half hours is too frigging long to sit in rapt attention.

More geek lust

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Check out these absolutely beautiful cases. My next geek project after I finish the still incomplete gaming rig is to buy one of these cases and turn it into a combination gaming rig/mp3 repository for my home entertainment system. They aren’t cheap at $500 for a half complete box but I can turn the thing into a finished PVR rig for well under a grand. This is where my tax return is going.

Welcome to my version of hell

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The landlords, after three years of prodding, finally agreed to do some work on the house. We got a host of improvements – new windows, they fixed the garage door and roof, replaced the house’s doors, fixed a number of things in the bathroom including the floor, and more. They also installed a smoke C02 emission detector. Almost every room now has a smoke detector in it and it’s a centralized system so that if one detector gets a whiff of smoke, they all start beeping. And this is no petite beeping either, this is make your ear hurt beeping, this is make the dog howl beeping, this is beeping that your deaf grandmother would hold her ears to hide from beeping. How do I know this?…….
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Don’t watch the mexican

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I don’t have anything particularly erudite to say about this flick, but I warn you in no uncertain terms, it’s an utter piece of crap. The movie has no redeeming qualities. Well, ok, wait, there is one redeeming quality – one of the annoying characters ends up being killed off. But it’s the least annoying character in a movie populated with very annoying characters so it’s small solace. Don’t rent it, don’t watch it on cable, don’t even watch it on regular tv. That’s my .02 cents.

Things not to do when you’re cooking

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Man, it’s not my week. Or month. Or something.

Yesterday I settled in to watch the NFL conference title games. In observance of customs established while I was in college, I proceeded to cook a big vat of spicy chili. Shortly after slicing the fresh jalapenos and dumping them into the pot, I felt the urge to….ahem… perform nasal passage explorations. Purely as a precationary measure, I assure you. And what I discovered is that jalapeno juice burns like a motherfucker!. I can’t emphasize that strongly enough. To make matters worse, burning nostrils cause one’s eyes to water. What do you think I did next? Thats right. And guess what? Contact lenses are jalapeno juice sponges. So yes, I confess. I am the world’s biggest loser. Though I’ve the good graces to laugh at myself. And share it with others. And the chili was very tasty, so in the end it was all worth it.

I’m a strange man….

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Ran across glutinous in something I was reading today and I realized that for no particular reason I can discern, the word amuses me. Immensely. Sigh….my siblings are going to end up having to have me comitted 😉

Score: new computer 1, dave 0

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My new machine won’t post. I’ve now spent about 8 hours on my own and 2 with a friend who came over to double check my efforts to make sure I’m not overlooking something, and the new machine won’t post. All signs seem to indicate that it’s the motherboard, though there’s a small possibility that its the cpu. This is major suckage, I have been carefully planning the construction of this machine for about 4 months. To have it all fall apart on the finish line is very frustrating. Plus Jesse has to wait for his new machine since I am still using my trusty abit BH6 for now. I’ve had pretty good luck with abit mainboards but based on this one and the trouble my friend Paul had with his new abit this may be my last one.