Shouting Grounds

They captured pretty much all of the memorable scenes and it’s actually not bad.

Tags: Terminator2, budget

I Just downloaded this browser called Flock.  Remember how Jobe from Lawnmower Man looked after he OD’ed on data.  That was me looking at this browser.  So much information at once…too…intense…

Anyways, you can load it up with all of your social networking info, so that you have access to all of these sites at once.  It’s very “aware” of all of these sites and the normal tasks people take while on the web.  Taking links and adding them to a blog, or sending them to facebook, or even media is a snap.  As long as you can handle a little clutter (we are all used to it), you may find that this browser is exactly the end-all-be-all Internet tool it’s advertised as.

1.2 is available for download now, for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Tags: flock, browser, software, Mac OS X, OS X, Social Networking

I just saw this on CNN. We’ve lost a true visionary. Though the man, the material has died, the ideas and humor live on.

Amen, brother

I’d heard of CodeWeavers‘ “CrossOver Mac” before. I understood that it was an attempt to run Windows applications without installing windows. It was basically an actively supported OS X build of WINE that was tailor-made for running business applications like Office and Photoshop. It seemed promising, especially when word of games support was advertised. I installed the demo copy about a year ago and was mildly impressed. It installed Office 2003 fairly well and ran quickly, compared to emulators that were publicly available. I had already bought Parallels and since I was using my original copy of Windows XP with it, I didn’t feel that I needed a program like CrossOver Mac since my needs were being fulfilled.

On the games front, I believe I had tried to install a game or two using CrossOver mac, but I didn’t have much luck. The program gives you a list of supported applications to choose from, but you can also launch an unsupported installer if your app of choice isn’t on the list. Since it had just coalesced as a product, their supported applications were mainly productivity packages and fairly limited. Since this was the case, I forgot about it for a while.

I was searching the net yesterday and noticed that CodeWeavers had split their flagship program into two halves. CrossOver Mac would now be dedicated purely to productivity and CrossOver Games would cover the entertainment sides of things. Each program is to be separately updated and expanded based on customer demand. There’s even an application voting section where you can show your interest in particular applications and games. Should you have deep interest in having a program be supported (and deeper pockets) you can pledge funds toward its support. Not a bad idea.

What does a year of development get you in regards to CrossOver? Steam support. That’s right! CodeWeavers has added specific support for the Steam gaming platform! You can install it from a game disc, or pull the installer directly from the web. After I finally remembered my login information for steam, I had, within minutes, over ten games available (yes 90% of those games are variants of Half-Life, but still) for play. I only have a measly MacBook (pre Core2 Duo) with a built-in Intel 950 graphics chip, but I was able to play Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2 Deathmatch, Half-Life Source, and Ragdoll Kung-Fu without a problem. The framerate on Ragdoll Kung-fu was very playable. HL2 was ok, not great, still playable. I’ll have tweak my settings a bit. I’d assume that even if Half-Life 2 was natively built for OS X it wouldn’t play much faster with my little video card. This software is amazing!

Yes, WINE is free and UNIX based, but CodeWeavers are putting a badly needed support framework around the app that makes it much more accessible and functional. The built-in net-install of steam is a great touch. So many PC games are up on steam now, that it only makes sense to get that program under your developmental belt.

So far, I’m really impressed with this offering as it means that all the money I’ve spent on PC games might very well not be wasted. I’d be able play these games in the future on my platform of choice (even if my old PC dies on me through severe neglect). CodeWeavers even has a Linux version with the same perks as the Mac app.

CrossOver Games is $39.99 at the CodeWeavers’ website and is downloadable immediately upon purchase (as God intended).

I laughed. I cried. I pee’d my pants a little.

Hrmm… surprised by this one. I thought for sure he was a child molestor.

HOLY SHIT

KORG will finally come through on a product that I’ve searched for but have never been able to find from any vendor. Congratz Korg, bully!

There’s no information on pricing or when these things will be in my possession. (at least the keyboard, and maybe the drumpads, whoo hoo). Click image for original article.

Update!!

They should be out around christmas time at about 100 bones each!

And while we’re at it, Magic will like this and this.
and all will love this.

Have a blessed day.

Video removed due to the fact I started feeling bad about it, the more and more I watched it.

Okay this should make up for it:

Part I

Part II

Who the fuck is bumping our “fisting” search status? These stats are for the month of June. Summer’s in the air.

UPDATE

Another stat listing…also discouraging

Whilst on the road for work this week, I decided to torture myself a little by watching John Rambo, or First Blood: Part II, or just Rambo if you like. Don’t bother.

First thought: Sly is grotesque. He’s already publicly admitted to using steroids and HGH, even recommending that older, living action figures like himself turn to horse meds to make themselves titans. Someone should nudge him and tell him he’s starting to look like Jabba the Hut.

Before (circa Rambo III) & After (now)

C’mon right? How does he not start to wonder if he made the right decision when he has to have his t-shirt’s tailored to have a 44″ collar? When he talks it looks like he’s got a mouth full of peanut butter!

Back to the movie, 3% decent, 97% dogshit. While I’m all about gruesome deaths, this movie was just comical. They had to have used Bryan Brown and Brian Dennehy to do the gore effects, as every single one jumped off the screen as obvious CG. The fucks didn’t even try to blend the CG into the scene to make it look realistic, making any CG look more like cell-shaded art ala Roger Rabbit.

The story was silly, some righteous missionaries try to teach the Burmese the missionary position and end up getting captured, having already been warned by Rambo (who’s still wallowing in Thailand, fishing for the locals) not to bother in Burma. Rambo leaps to action and kills everyone. Yawn.

The 3% good came in when they actually tried to tie into the magic of the first movie. One of the missionistas actually manages to get more than just a moan and a stare from Rambo with some questions, and tries to talk him into going home to AZ, USA, to visit his family finally (do they still think he’s in Nam?). Tacked onto the end, he’s actually done it and returned to America. Wearing the same giddup and carrying the same duffel from when Dennehy started the whole shit off with him in the 80’s. Walking Bruce Bixby-style to his home. Too bad they didn’t expand this 3% to offset the shit that made up the rest of the movie.

So,
Magic John Stone for Rambo:

For those not in the know, Oliver Stone is currently making a biopic about George Walker Bush, our current Commander-in-Chief, and 43rd President of the United States of America.

I can’t wait for this fucking movie to be released! Josh Brolin, playing the title lead, TOTALLY looks the part. I’ll post some pics below as well as the official movie poster which was released today! You can also check out the IMDB page here for a cast listing.

Movie Poster:

Pics:

Here’s some funny things to look at — photoshop projects gone bad! We like to look at this sort of stuff around my office; makes for a good laugh!

http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/

You may not be able to tell from the extremely brief story at CNN and other sites, but here’s the report from the office of the Investigator General of NASA regarding the coercive impact of “Political Appointees” on the direction and desemination of Global Climate Change (See Global Warming) research.

This details just a portion of the damage that a bunch of political hacks with no more specialized job experience than a trainee at Wendy’s can do to the country if things don’t change. The response to Katrina was a direct result of a poorly selected appointee who had just left a highly relevant position at the International Arabian Horse Association prior to being in charge of NATIONAL DISASTER RESPONSE AND RECOVERY DEPARTMENT. Can’t you see the tie-in there? Michael Brown was forced to resign from baiting horse humpers, so he would of course be perfect to look after our safety after an act of God.

That aside, what possible benefit would there be to prevent a study on global climate change for fuck’s sake? Not to diminish the subject matter, but what negative consequence to the Bush administration, or more specifically to these appointees would there be if an accurate and honest study was conducted? I can think of only two affects. One, if it was shown that the majority of this global shift in climate was man-made, this would probably lead to tougher environmental restrictions on big industry. All the republican hard-liners who deny that there is a link between our carbon emissions and the global climate, purely because it hurts their bottom line, and the bottom line of their financial backers would want to deep 6 any breath of this reality. Two, loyalists of the Bush administration policies which are obviously the product of point One, would prevent this information from coming solely because it refutes the words of their great leader. Since most of the jackassed appointees wouldn’t be able to support themselves without the helping hand of the powers that be, their very careers depend on lock-step allegiance to the cause.

Point two is the most troubling because it means a majority of the most powerful seats in our bureaucracy are filled by desperate yes-men without scruples or regard for anyone else, at least, anyone but those in the party. The party and their networking has got them a sweet deal. They get a good paycheck and a great resume after their time is up, and like the clock-watching employee who was brought into the company with the help of powerful friends, he/she’s hoping that the phone doesn’t ring. The moment it does you’ll probably have another Katrina, or maybe a war with Iran.

Editor’s Note:

Just so you know, the CNN article looked like this yesterday, when I started this post.