Boy Versus Computer

Boy Versus Computer http://www.boyversuscomputer.com/index.xml The continuing struggle of the Boy versus his Computer. en-us 0 Welcome back! Did you miss me? Probably not. That's okay, though! It's been more than nine months since I wrote anything here. In that time, my traffic has dropped to nearly zero. It's great! The new site is also virtually impossible to index. That means I probably won't get many visitors as a result of search engines. Whatever! The new page extensively uses AJAX and client-side scripting. The up-side: if you have a problem with that, you probably aren't seeing this anyway! Win! I may import the archive at some point, but I'm wishy-washy about it; sometimes it's better to just make a clean break. Also, no more comments. I may bring them back sometime, but right now I'm not feeling it. I guess that's enough for now. Email address up top if you want to send me a note. http://www.boyversuscomputer.com/411.html Sun, 03 Aug 2008 10:41:03 -0500 Think About Your Troubles If a picture is worth a thousand words, then what do you suppose video is worth? <div class="video"><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/aOTcjNCz-e4"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/aOTcjNCz-e4" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> </div> http://www.boyversuscomputer.com/412.html Mon, 04 Aug 2008 09:16:30 -0500 I Love the Whole World In my continuing efforts to make video of songs that I talk to my sister about, I did this one. The song is so short, though, I decided to lace it with banal commentary. Whee! <div class="video"><object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/puT_ZYHT2b4"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/puT_ZYHT2b4" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object></div> http://www.boyversuscomputer.com/413.html Wed, 06 Aug 2008 01:50:01 -0500 If Aliens Invade < You know why the games work for me so well? > no < You don't? > no? < lol < It's the small-scale, intense, collaborative teamwork. > good lord, that's what I hate about it > lol < LOL > HERDING CATS < It's why grinding xp in ffxi was cool... it was all about honing five or six people's abilities and maximizing efficiency. < Well, yeah, if the individual people aren't into it, it's herding cats... the best experiences are when everyone in the group is into it and putting in max effort. > oooh, you'd do great in a think tank < Where do I sign up? > I'm calling you if aliens invade < LOL http://www.boyversuscomputer.com/414.html Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:37:40 -0500 Just Like Heaven A pretty common song. Brightness on the video is really low. Audio levels are totally wacky. Some minor mistakes in the play. Couple of flat spots in the vocals. Overall, not too bad an effort for the wee hours of the morning using a piece of software that I don't have much experience with. <div class="video"><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9rIqvQ5_Ges&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9rIqvQ5_Ges&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></div> http://www.boyversuscomputer.com/415.html Wed, 13 Aug 2008 08:54:53 -0500 The Final Brassiere I should have turned off the air conditioner while recording (that's the hiss in the background), but I didn't think I'd be saving the take. Unfortunately (fortunately?), I liked the take, so I saved it, hiss and all. <div class="video"><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZNt4eWc8sF4&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZNt4eWc8sF4&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></div> http://www.boyversuscomputer.com/416.html Thu, 14 Aug 2008 09:33:42 -0500 Everything About You (sort of) Sort of a cover of a song by Ugly Kid Joe that was very popular when I was a kid. Sort of. <div class="video"><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/smQybm7COgI&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/smQybm7COgI&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></div> http://www.boyversuscomputer.com/417.html Thu, 21 Aug 2008 01:18:24 -0500 Discovering Tim Minchin Yesterday, just yesterday, I ran across material featuring one Tim Minchin. The man is incredibly talented. He qualifies as a comedic musician as far as I can tell, but his genius isn't only in his humor. His music is very well done, too. I got my taste of his material through YouTube, but I'm sure his stuff can be found elsewhere. Very much worth giving a look. http://www.boyversuscomputer.com/418.html Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:12:48 -0500 Ease of Use Funny. I redesigned my page to make it more enjoyable for me to update. Even to the point of creating a nifty little updater so that it is a very, very easy task to make a new entry. But do I update? No. It's lame, I know, but I'm kind of taken with the song "Brighter Than Sunshine" by Aqualung (no relation to the Jethro Tull song, I'm afraid). It's unlikely the song would have even come to my attention had it not been <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew3L-bPE3OE">covered by Julia Nunes</a>. I think I like her version better. http://www.boyversuscomputer.com/419.html Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:46:03 -0600 Big Brother > so yeh, my internet is still out at home > i was having severe withdrawals last night > i ended up going to bed on the couch at like 9pm > spent the previous hour on the phone with some chick that had me unplugging the modem and the reset button like 10 times with a bunch of waiting in between > TV was out too > this week can not end fast enough < So you can spend more time at home without Internet or TV? > both should be getting fixed today between noon and 2pm > this week has been annoying pretty much every day > nah, it's something to do with alignment of planets or something > nothing i can directly affect through violence or wit < Have you installed your camera so B can stare at you, yet? > i have a camera on my macbook > why is that some thing now > we need webcams on all the time to make sure we aren't whackin it on company time < They'll probably have a page on the support site where customers can see devs working, and there'll be a button under each one that looks like a whip. Clicking on the whip will alert B to come and crack the whip. > kinda like subservient chicken only more entertaining < Hey, not all of us work in darkened offices with the door closed... just saying. > i have parties in here > i need a disco ball < oonta oonta oonta oonta /glowsticks > and a boombox that plays "you spin me round (like a record)" and "lovin you" back to back, all day long http://www.boyversuscomputer.com/420.html Fri, 19 Dec 2008 11:52:09 -0600 Are there flowers for that? < Speaking of cold... C is handling her company's yearly toy drive. This morning she had to go to the facility and found a dead homeless person at the door. > oh no > oh no > is she ok? < Freaky, huh? > traumatic < Yeah, I talked to her on the phone and she seemed fine. Just surprised. > she's awfully resilient < All kinds of weirdness happens to her/her work. One day she called me because a client very nearly electrocuted himself trying to steal copper wire outside their facility... copper wire attached to the facility... copper wire carrying live current. < She's found a homeless person sleeping under her car before. > are you buying her mace for the holidays? < If they're already dead, I don't think mace is going to do much good. Maybe she needs *a* mace. > .... same argument > to whack them and make hiding the body easier? < Well, I was thinking, if she needed to defend herself from dead people, then mace probably wasn't going to be effective. < Fear mah chaotic and haphazard mixing of tenses! > neither would "a" mace < lol > you should get her flowers on the way home > I'm sure they make a "sorry you stumbled over a corpse" bouquet > I keep coming back to shotgun < Yeah, but that requires a permit. > ranged weapons are the only thing for zombies > uuuuuuugh > I think the "sorry you checked for a pulse on a dead guy" bouquet is mostly gardenias and freesia http://www.boyversuscomputer.com/421.html Mon, 22 Dec 2008 12:18:08 -0600 Arachnophobia > there's a black widow in my toolbox > I'm decently creeped out < Sweet! > I don't know what to do about it < Is it un-crushable? > I don't really want to kill it but.... black widow < Preferrably one that gives me at least 3 feet of breathing room. > it's set up a nice web in a bunch of clustered tools > I'm not sure I can kill it without fire < Er... Arachnophobia, even. > Goodman roooooocks! < Fire could work. Do you have some Aquanet and a lighter? > I could buy some > seems very cruel though > and I am worried it would sense the fire and scamper through the holes in the porch < Some creatures must die that we live. Or have access to (hopefully) non-flammable tools. > heh > and the next time I go to use a tool, I think it's dead and then I go *owie* and then I go *cough*die* < You're not a feeble old person or a young child, so you're not likely to die. < And it's neurotoxin, so it won't rot your flesh... though it could send you into convulsions. > your science is scary to me < You could obtain your tools via tongs? < Haha... I said tongs. < How great is that? < Tongs! < Now I'm not even sure that's a word any more. > tongs! > I don't know where to buy those < Do you people not cook out? > oh yeah! > we have some then < rofl > a friend advises to nuke it from orbit < It's the only way to be sure. > ROFL > you're awesome http://www.boyversuscomputer.com/422.html Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:27:54 -0500 In Dreams > so I had a dream last night where Godzilla and several of his alien friends were rampaging through the subdivision behind my house > they called in Ultraman to handle them, and they used my kitchen as a staging area > but Ultraman spent the entire time ranting about how he doesn't earn enough for fighting, and that he's a wage slave > and how we should all follow a communist philosophy of community payment > so while the monsters are destroying the houses, I had a fight with Ultraman about how those two arguments could not co-exist < rofl < And here my dreams were about trying to come up with a situation where binary and and or operations were not commutative. > okay so.... similar, then > in my dream, I remember being furious with ultraman because I wanted to take a shower and he wasn't doing his job < hahaha... I like that taking a shower was the priority... rather than Godzilla and friends demolishing the adjacent subdivision. > I was concerned they might somehow break the water lines, yes < Naturally. http://www.boyversuscomputer.com/423.html Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:19:30 -0600 Beautiful Garbage < OH! < Did you see Ninja Assassin?! I DID! IN. THE. THEATRE! > yes! < Awesome. > it had ninjas! and assassins! > and was AWFUL > I loved it < And it was beautiful. > it was like a blood waterfal cascading from heaven < "Your heart is special." /swoon > I love how a birth defect that shows up in maybe a hundred million people is a plot point in the movie TWICE < hahahaha > with those odds, ninjas will incorporate one of those Alien Nation knives into their arsenal < My friend J and I watched it together and giggled like little girls the whole time. > lol > we watched it with B's little brothers, who are both college-age > there was a point where the younger one quietly says "ah, now they're bringing in tanks. of course" < bwahahaha < Naturally! > by that point I was looking for unicorns anyhow > precisely http://www.boyversuscomputer.com/424.html Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:28:49 -0600 Fire and Dancing < If it makes you feel better, I've been tinkering with the same piece of code for three days and hate it. > set fire to it and dance > that's my new policy < Ordinarily, I try to write really beautiful constructs... things that other people with a bit of domain knowledge could glance at and attain a sense of visual harmony. < This piece of code is... ugly. < You ain't got no alibi style ugly. > art is art, regardless of medium > lol < Thankfully, I'm down to testing and debugging, then moving on, but I can't help feeling like I've just left a mess for someone else (probably me) to deal with in a month. < Or worse, six months. < "Who the hell thought of this mess?" "People who write code like this should be shot." etc. < Oh wait, I wrote it. < Shit. > lol > by then you have 6 more months of knowledge to apply > will work itself out < No, it's worse. By then I've slept 180-odd times. > I am freakin' pollyanna for everyone but myself today < Then have absolutely no idea what I was thinking. > HAH > yes < "Where does this variable come from?" "I don't see how this is being set." "There's no way this can work right." > fire + dancing = awesome http://www.boyversuscomputer.com/425.html Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:16:58 -0600 Asymmetry < Have you noticed the asymmetry in our relationship? > weird link tradeoffs? < You give me thugs and tramps. I give you Rube Goldberg. > if you haven't noticed, I'm really good for nothing but thuggin' and trampin' < Fair enough. http://www.boyversuscomputer.com/426.html Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:09:23 -0600 Unconditional Support > want to hear something absolutely horrible and disgusting? < Have we met? > I mean extremely horrible and disgusting > well.... hm > perhaps it's only extremely because it happened to me < I'm the guy that refused to tell his wife what 2girls1cup was so she was forced to watch it on her own. < She has not forgiven me for that. > you are a rat bastard, you know that > I lend her my unconditional support on that one http://www.boyversuscomputer.com/427.html Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:47:16 -0500