The Baroque Cycle...finally finished.

After about six months, I've completed my tour of re-reading Cryptonomicon (which I consider a prequel to the Baroque Cycle) and my first readings of the Baroque Cycle novels (Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World).

These are all really great books and I recommend them to everyone. It certainly doesn't take six months to read them, I mean, don't be thrown by the time I spent on them. I spent that much time because I buy almost all my books (I love collecting and building towards a library) and I want to get my money's worth out of them, so I read a short amount every day at night to relax. Also, the books are filled with minutiae of all sorts which it's really easy (and sometimes preferable) to skip over. I mean, I had no trouble with all the science trivia, but when the novels move into, oh, the trivia of silver mining and the relative strengths of currencies in a given era, my eyes glazed over a bit.

Anyway, all in all, Stephenson is a magnificent writer, and these books are a huge departure from, say, Snow Crash, so don't go in expecting THAT. After all, these are science fiction books that take place in the past (and no, that does not mean time travel).

I've since moved onto a book by Chris Moriarty entitled Spin State -- it has a recent sequel, Spin Control, which I will most definitely be buying. I'm struck by its similarity to Richard K. Morgan's style, although it is by no means derivative. I thoroughly enjoy both authors and would not hesitate to tell you to go read them.

And that it's for my literary comments this evening.

Another nasty little trojan -- directprt.dll

Found another nasty little trojan. Directprt.dll. Trojan "Goldun", as NAV identifies it. NAV couldn't do anything to it, so I booted in safe mode and ran NAV plus a few other anti-spyware anti-virus tools. Pretty sure I got rid of it.

Good news from the West...

Got an email back from DF. All is well out there, he's hopefully going to be in a short-distance relationship soon (with the same girl *bonk*), he has two weeks left to go (roughly) until he's out of school with a degree in...I actually don't know EXACTLY what, but it's centered around film and video editing.

With K-Rhyme getting his PhD in the history of the study of the history of film studies (or something like that, what are you smokin', K-Rhyme?), and SC doing trailers for Kurdish TV, that makes three people I've gone to school with ending up working with film and video. Good luck to all of them.

Ah yes, also, DF read my myspace rant, and actually apologized to me for having a myspace account, so I have to point out, this is not about ALL the people I know on myspace. DF is fine on myspace, like the ideal vision of my myspace user, he has a small account, easy-to-read webpage...the rant is just about some of the people my age and the fact that they're focused on building this huge friends lists and etc. So don't think I hate you if you use myspace and I know you. I probably like you if I know you and you're on there. Probably. :-)

And me? Spent an hour today jumping a car and then it went dead again in the dark in the wrong position and I'm leaving the damn thing until tomorrow.

Over and out.

Sometimes Dick Morris really nails a point

I was just reading Dick Morris' column over at his Vote.com site and I have to quote something from it, something I think is very true:

Isolationism, a largely ignored theme in our politics, is growing rapidly in the wake of the sacrifices we are making in Iraq. It is this feeling of wanting the rest of the world to go away, not any leftward drift, that is animating the drop in President Bush’s approval ratings as the war drags on.

On April 7-9, USA Today asked a national sample of voters if the United States “should mind its own business internationally and let other countries get along as best they can on their own.” Almost half of all Americans, 46 percent, agreed with the statement, while 51 percent differed. These results are almost the same as the pre-Sept. 11 polling of January 2000, when Americans broke 46-50 on the same question.

In the interim, of course, came Sept. 11, when the nation found out why foreign affairs were vital to domestic peace. In the aftermath of the attack, only one-third of Americans thought we should “mind our own business.”

He concludes:

Woe to the politician, like Bush, who arouses the genie, and woe to his party that tries to win in its wake.

It's too damn true. People have already forgotten what it felt like on September 11, 2001, to realize we were actually under attack from somebody. We panicked and rallied around our leaders and Bush's ratings soared. Now it's 5 years later and we're back to sipping our mocha lattes and feeling smug and secure about ourselves. My dear Lord, why should we try to stop insane people from killing us? They obviously can't do it anymore! They've had five years!

I'd like to remind people it was a good 8 years between the first plot to take down the WTC and the successful execution of said plan.

It also reminds me of, okay, here I go again plugging South Park -- burying your head in the damn sand.

Wake up, people. It ain't a pretty world, but we have to deal with it. And when I say that, I'm not just talking about Iraq, but about pre-emptive strikes on Iran. Maybe the US isn't the good guy of the world. But we're about the closest thing to it that the world has got. And we're obligated to try to make it a better place. Especially when it IS going to affect us, no matter how much sand you bury your head under.

I hate Ted Kennedy with a passion...

Good God. Okay. I watch The Daily Show. It's liberal, but it's not that bad. But tonight was awful. They trot out Ted Kennedy (who you don't get to see walk out like other guests, most likely so you can't really see how ENORMOUSLY fat he is), and Jon Stewart falls all over himself fawning over Kennedy. No witty repartee, no jokes, no nothing, just about ten minutes of pure Kennedy ass-kissing. Like Stewart has any clue what it's like to be a) middle class, b) live in Massachussetts, or c) be middle-class living in Massachussetts with Kennedy as your Senator.

The only conservative Stewart (and the rest of the libs) fawn over like that is John McCain, and McCain still thinks he can bank on the press loving him to get him into the White House. He'll be in for a bit of a shock once he actually starts running -- the press will finally realize he's pretty much a conservative and start crapping all over him.

But man -- I tried to listen to Kennedy talk for two minutes, and my heart-rate went up so fast I had to fast-forward so I didn't destroy the TV in a fit of rage.

I bet he has a myspace.com account.

I hate myspace.com with a passion...

Yeah, you heard me. I fucking hate that site. If you can actually call it a site -- rather, more a collection of the largest number of freaks who seem to be PERVERSELY INSISTENT ON MAKING THE WORST AND MOST SENSUALLY (IN THE SENSE-SENSE) OFFENSIVE WEBSITES POSSIBLE.

I have a lurker account on there, where I go to see how many people I used to know are getting sucked into the myspace black hole of stupidity.

Some uppity whore was on "The Showbiz Show", a Tila Tequila, who is apparently the myspace.com user with the most friends (no I won't actually link to myspace, dammit, the post would actually smell from wherever you read it)...this gets her a spot on a TV show? And, true to form, she was a bubbling idiot. "Myspace is, like, um, high school!" she quipped.

Yes. And high school is stupid. Yes, I partied all the time in high school, took huge bong hits, drank more beer than conceivable, mixed it with whiskey, still pulled good grades, got laid, and into a good school, but high school is OVER you 30-ish people on myspace! Over, I said! Over! Get the hell off that site!

I can understand a geeky 16 year old who wants friends logging on there. I cannot tolerate the people I know, in or near their 30s, who are still...apparently looking for friends who think we're all still in high school. Or attention. Or something else that involves bondage. Hey, try this -- START A DAMN BLOG! And one that has text you can READ on it that isn't covered by pictures of "Morrisey" or some shit like that. And no, I don't give a rat's ass if I misspelled his name.

God, I hate that site.

I live again...

After a bit of battling and changing their data source, 3Media has finally put me back online. Praise be to Xenu, etc.

Send good vibes to 3Media Web...

My hostee, 3Media Web Solutions, just upgraded to new servers. Now, if you know anything about servers, you know that this is a process which a) seems really easy and b) is actually the ninth circle of hell. The CEO, my contact over there, has been up for about four nights straight trying to resolve umpteen problems with the server -- all the while keeping his clients' websites up and running. Which, amazingly enough, he has done. The sites haven't gone down while he's tried desperately to restore needed backups which won't restore and implement workarounds and...okay, look, if you're an IT guy or gal, you know about this nightmare. He and his crew are doing a bang-up professional job of it, though. But if you have some extra good vibes, send them over there, where there are a few guys taking five minute catnaps on keyboards covered with drool. They do a great job and they deserve a little rest and I'm not just saying this because they pay me (but that doesn't hurt, you know).

Peace out.

"Wisdom tooth rotting"

Okay. My webalizer is down for a little while, but before it went, I was noting that the top search phrase that hit this site was "wisdom tooth rotting" -- as I have a wisdom tooth that has a chip that has fallen out of it and haven't done anything about it, and wrote that I feared it would rot.

So let me say this: IF YOUR WISDOM TEETH ARE ROTTING OUT FROM UNDER YOU, GO TO A FUCKING DENTIST. This should be simple. It's more complex with me because I have EXTREMELY sparse dental coverage -- I *think* extractions are covered but I'm not sure -- and so a mere visit to the kindly dentist would set me back several hundreds of dollars. So far the tooth has not fallen apart, but no doubt it will fall apart at some point and I'll be wishing I had spent the money earlier as I scream in agony.

To repeat, then: wisdom tooth rotting = go to the damn dentist (if you can). If you have problems, like me, I understand, but also remember my teeth are NOT "rotting". Rotting implies steady decay and a nasty smell. I just lost a chip off mine.

We clear on this?

Kari Byron

Okay. I'm known to watch MythBusters. Yes, yes, I plead geekdom. I can't help but think how wonderful it would be to make my living...well, okay they're not ALWAYS blowing things up...but basically by blowing things up. I mean, usually something gets blown up. And that's cool. Right, Beavis?

I also have to confess an uber-crush on the Kari Byron, the enormously attractive redhead on the show (who never seems to wear a shirt that reaches all the way past her stomach). Having gone to school at U.C. Berkeley (and somehow remained a conservative lounge lizard), I can safely say that she's an amalgam of every cute and perky San Francisco chick I ever chased after. It helps that I dated like four redheads out there. And I don't even prefer redheads! I like brunettes, mostly, and then blondes, and blondes over brunettes if they...oh what the hell am I talking about, Angelina Jolie wins the pillowfights I have in my head with Marilyn Monroe. But a lot of times Kari Byron is standing around looking perky in a nightie.

No, I do not have screen captures, yes, I could get them, no, I won't, I'm not that far gone into fantasy (yet). Byron, I think, would prefer to be known for her art rather than her stint on MythBusters, so I'll just post a link to said art right here and no there are no pictures of her there either (just get off your ass and google her if you want to see her).

Worship mode off.

Strange days indeed...

It seems like lately every time I go to publish my blog, something goes wrong and I have to remove all my files and republish everything from scratch. This isn't so much difficult as it is extremely annoying.

If I figure out what the hell is going wrong I'll share it with you. :-)

Elucidation

Ahh. Earlier on, I was pondering why Comedy Central would air a depiction of Mohammed in a South Park episode called "Super Best Friends", when they wouldn't air a depiction of him in last week's episode ("Cartoon Wars II").

The answer is simple, blatantly obvious, hypocritical, and I missed it.

"Super Best Friends" aired before the 9/11 attacks.

Let's all revel in the hypocrisy of it.

A brand name triumph?

It's struck me recently how people have problems using verbs with their DVRs. Even me. I'll say, "I'm taping...no sorry, I'm DVRing...no, I mean, recording...oh what the hell..."

Now, what a LOT of people say is, "I'm TiVoing that show tonight." Even if they don't have TiVos. I bet if you go out there and compare the number of people who say they're "TiVoing" something, only a very few actually have TiVo.

Now, I find it fascinating that TiVo, which is by no means the dominant DVR system at the moment (mostly due to proprietary DVRs that cable and satellite companies use), is the active verb a lot of people use when referring to digitally recording something.

I know this is silly, but in that way, TiVo has triumphed. They get their name repeated over and over again by people who have never even seen a TiVo (and yes, folks, TiVos are different than other DVRs, mostly because of the "push" technology they use to recommend shows to you -- much the same way as Amazon.com uses "push" technology to recommend books to you).

So it's an idle thought. So I think too much. But it's kind of interesting. :-)

Battles with directpt.dll

Ah, fresh from the Trojan war front. A couple of days ago, my computer started acting up -- mostly Internet Explorer. I would load say, one page -- the front page of Wikipedia, for example -- and then try to look something up and I'd get blank white pages with the correct URL.

I ran NAV. I ran several spyware programs I have. They cleaned up over 397 files, but they didn't do squat about this. I began to think I'd need to reinstall Explorer all over again (what a bitch). I finally used a secure system manager thing on a freeware basis -- I can't remember the name, just look up "secure system manager" or something, or use a non-secure one and locate the file I'm about to tell you about -- and it told me that a "directpt.dll" file was using up a lot of resources and taking priority.

I did a quick search on "directpt.dll". Apparently it's part of a Trojan backdoor/haxdoor rootkit (for those who don't speak jive, that's "nasty virus-like thing that lets people control your computer from afar"). So I quarantined the bastard, deleted it, and behold, everything is back to normal...except all my icons now look generic.

To fix *this*, I just opened up display properties and resized the icons from small to large and then back again. This forces Windows to rebuild the desktop. This hung after a while, so I tried a hard boot to see if it was working at all and -- it completely fixed the problem.

Anyway...maybe this will help someone down the line.

South Park *apparently* censored again?

Whoops. Episode 1004 of South Park appears to have been censored. In "Cartoon Wars II", Kyle races to make sure an episode of "Family Guy" that features Mohammed giving someone a football helmet will air. The scene where he's (finally) supposed to appear is just black with the words, "Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Mohammed on their network."

Now, at first, I pretty much thought that this was a bit of self-propaganda; namely, South Park getting miffed over its "Trapped in the Closet" episode, plus the fact that the scene is followed by Bush, an unwed mother, and Jesus pooping on each other and the American flag (the idea being, look what we CAN show you, then look at what we CAN'T).

There's one problem. Comedy Central has aired a South Park that showed Mohammed WELL BEFORE THIS. In "Super Best Friends", Mohammed is right there, and nobody got held hostage at Comedy Central's offices.

So what is this? Just a reflection of heightened concern due to the Danish problem? Or is this maybe a sneaky way of portraying themselves as martyrs again, although this time under false pretenses? I'm inclined to believe that Matt and Trey did want a short picture of Mohammed, and that it is the change in times now, but I'm one skeptical son of a bitch and I wouldn't be surprised if it was a publicity stunt, perhaps with Comedy Central complicit because of the whole Scientology debacle ("You take a heeet for us now, Comedy Central!").

Anyway, it's worth debating.

Kiplange.com down for a short bit...and up again!

Well, just writing a quick note to let all you good folks note (all three of you) that you may have noticed kiplange.com was down for about four days, and my mail was also down for that period. The good folks at 3Media Web Solutions were performing a software upgrade, and it's now finished, so I am pleased to say that I am back and blogging away again. Did you miss me? :-)

Doctor Who

Alright. I have to admit it. I like the new Doctor Who. Yes, yes, I know it's kind of crappy, but I like it. They at least kept the spirit going much more than, say, the idiots who did Star Trek: Enterprise did with Star Trek (may that awful thing descend the bowels of the Earth and be seen no more).

Whew. That's a weight off my shoulders.

Civilization IV

I recently picked up a copy of Sid Meier's Civilization IV. I've always been a Civ addict -- you can find me after a week locked up in a dark room with only the light of the monitor illuminating my stubble-covered face, sweating in my boxers and mumbling, "I've got to fortify the northern rim!"

Anyway, for those who are wondering, yes, Civilization IV, the, um, fourth Civilization game, is a big step up from Civ 3. Although most of you are going to need a patch for it, as it considers my 2 GHz, 1024k RAM system "low-end". The 1.52 patch at the Civilization website fixes that. Anyway, the interface now looks more like a RTS (real-time strategy -- like Command & Conquer) than the old plain vanilla Civ interface. You can now zoom way in, zoom way out, the units are animated...and so on. It's a little bit clunky, though.

As for gameplay, it's mostly the same, although, mark this, I have not played the game for that long. New additions include religions and a much more complex political system. One feature they took away, which is unfortunate, is the ol' aerial view of the city, where you could view the wonders you had built in your city and get a general idea of how big it was.

On the whole, yes, the new Civilization is a big step up in looks, and is much more complex (like it NEEDED to be more complex, though). I have not tried online gaming yet, as most of the time if I play a game online without pwning the computer AI, I get destroyed by legions of pimply-faced teenagers, and that's not good for my UC Berkeley-educated ego.

Should you buy it? If you have the money and you love Civilization games, the answer is yes. Just make sure your computer can RUN the damn thing, first.

A Major Victory?

Hah! Good news. I have converted both of my parents into loyal watchers of both "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report". How? Relentless and subversive suggestion -- it's always the way to go.

The best part? We're all still die-hard conservatives. Muhahahahaha!

My personal goal? Elimination of all networks except Comedy Central, The SciFi Channel, and, yes, of course, Fox News.

"Trapped in the Closet", South Park Episode 912, AVI File (BitTorrent)

Okay, found a really good link to a BitTorrent stream for "Trapped in the Closet" -- South Park Episode 912, the one Tom Cruise doesn't want you to see. For information on BitTorrent and a client to download the file, follow this link.

To download "Trapped in the Closet", South Park Episode 912 -- the one Viacom will not re-air because Cruise has threatened to pull his publicity from Mission Impossible III if they do, follow this link right here (you need a BitTorrent client, see above).

Note: I am not hosting this file. The above is a link to a completely different site. In other words, if you want to yell at me about copyright infringement, don't waste your time. First off, I believe I've read over and over that Mssrs. Stone and Parker are not that worried about their episodes being available online, and I'm damn sure they don't mind if you're finally free to see "Trapped in the Closet" for the first or second time, since it has effectively been censored. Beyond that, as I have said, the file is not on this server. So go bother someone else if you have nothing better to do than gripe that the world is ending because of filesharing. ;-)

Again, the link to "Trapped in the Closet", AVI format.

Fuck you, Tommy Cruise.