Of some note…

Blizzard announced today that Warcraft 3 has gone “Gold Master” and should be on store shelves July 3rd. The packages will retail for $55-$60 and contain versions for Windows 98/ME/200/XP and MacOS 9/X on the same discs.

This is only of interest to one or two of the people on my friends list, but will explain why we stop hearing from them next month. 🙂

Dang, I dropped the Library of Congress again

Researchers at IBM have developed technology which uses dents in thin plastic film to store information. It’s a bit like the punch cards of computing history, except the dents are 10 nanometers in width. (A nanometer is one-millionth of the width of a piece of paper-clip wire.)

The researchers estimate that with this technology in practical use, a common multifunction digital wristwatch could contain 15 gigabytes of data… that’s about 23 CDs, or 2 or 3 DVD movie discs.

“I’ve backed up the ship’s computer core in this small MDM memory chip!” Brion Fields, Space Rogues

The more things change…

This train of thought began as I watched Adobe Photoshop go through a complicated scripting sequence without any assistance from me… I began thinking of Rick Deckard’s wonderful photo-processing “Esper” machine. (Yes, I want one.)

So, I’m thinking about Blade Runner and the fact that, in an unscientific poll of science-fiction fans, I’m one of the few viewers who prefer the theatrical release to the director’s cut. (Voiceover, less uncertain ending, and all).

I’m not going to debate the merits of the two versions here, though it has occurred to me that it is the theatrical release that made Blade Runner one of the classics of SF film (and made it possible to produce a director’s cut release, before DVDs made such releases common).

However, the discussion of the versions made me think about how we revise things in our heads. I watched hours of the old Robotech series last weekend, but used the remote to skip over the dull, boring, or actually painful parts. (Yes, I’m referring to Minmei.) The Internet produced the “Phantom Edit” version of Star Wars Episode I – in many opinions, a superior film. Douglas Adams himself wrote multiple variants of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – all official, and all contradictory.

Then, while looking up information on Apple’s “Final Cut Pro”, I found this web page that compares such revisions to the Bible itself, where the Gospels contradict each other and concentrate on the parts that the individual writers found interesting. And I realized that people have been arguing about this for nearly two thousand years.

So, the next time I go to a con and find an earnest discussion of how Enterprise has re-written the established history of the Star Trek universe, I’ll be less likely to jump in with both feet. If we’ve been revising our most sacred texts to personal taste for this long, Kirk and Picard don’t have much of a chance. *grin*

Protected: *sigh*

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The Basics

My LiveJournal “interpreted”:

Nothing like getting ready to Lisa and Vond’s Leaving for a whirlpool jacuzzis to avoid unnaturally repetitive motion And Halloween costumes to post my Borg parts I probably can probably hover walked two of my car, I miss costuming pics of my hip. Walked a location. Nothing like I’m going still under Gene Roddenberry’s inflexible hand, told me? The copies I already have to catch up with what I’d like some of.

Soon, I’ll be an air conditioned, level track to the combined Books.

(Try it yourself at: http://www.antispin.net/~martine/cgi-bin/insanity.cgi?mikailborg – you’ll probably want to replace my username with yours)

lost…

Here is me getting ready to go to Lisa and Vond’s “Leaving for Japan” party.

Here is me remembering that I never got directions or a location. *D’oh!”

Well, I’m going to trust in blind faith and head toward the standard Haloween party locale. If you guys never see me tonight, you’ll know why.

According to the Mental Age test, I act like I’m 23.

I’m surprised, I usually tell people that I hover between 8 and 12.

Wardrobe

Tuesday night, while waiting for one of my co-workers to catch up with what I’d done, I looked over kittenchan‘s Project A-Kon costuming pics. Really nice work, but I’m a bit disappointed that I only recognized one or two of the anime characters. I’m so out of touch.

I’m also realizing that I miss costuming… I really don’t do it much any more, because of the time and expense, but I probably should, ’cause I love it. Nothing like getting to be an exhibitionist in another skin; free to act totally different for a little while because you aren’t you.

I’m sure a psychologist would have loads of fun with that. 🙂

Anyway, I did go ahead and post my 2000 and 2001 Halloween costumes to my Elfie site, as I’ve been meaning to for ages. (Yes, that includes the maid’s outfit.) If anyone has pics of some of my earlier con or H’ween outfits, please let me know… I can’t find my photo album at the moment, and I’d like to post more – especially the White Tiger Ranger, which I’m kinda proud of.

I do plan to make the party Saturday night, but since Rain will be out of town with my car, I may need a ride… meiran, how would you like some gas money? 😉

ouchie

First time we went to the gym, I walked a mile, felt fine, was pretty proud of myself.

Second time (today), I walked two miles to prove to myself I could. Now my feet hurt and I’m sore all over. However, the massaging foot bath I bought Rain helped with the first bit, and ibuprofen will knock out the second, so I’m still pretty proud of myself.

Gonna stay at two miles until I’m comfy with it, though. I can’t wait until I can do five comfortably.

Notes from a weekend

Rain and I finally joined a gym. I think that the benefits of the place, for me, are 1) an air-conditioned, level track to do laps on and 2) a whirlpool jacuzzis to relax in afterwards. I might look into some of the classes too, but thanks to my Borg parts I need to avoid unnaturally repetitive motion and shocks to my hip. So a lot of the exercise equipment is out, and I probably won’t be doing jump-rope or step aerobics. 🙂 That’s okay; the only things I’m really looking for right now are more stamina for walking / hiking and a smaller waistband.

Went ahead and got “Return to Castle Wolfenstein” this weekend. Pretty game… would probably look better if I had the processor and video card that the game lists as “minimum requirements”. That’s okay, proper frame-rate is for the weak and helpless *grin*

Got a lot done on a “Star Wars” opening for Sean and Leisa’s wedding video this weekend. I think they’ll plotz when they see it. Hopefully, I can finish it tonight so we can get back to the actual editing, though I’ve already captured all the footage to hard drive, so a major chunk is already done. Thank you, meiran, for forcing us to finally get that big HD. 🙂

I always expect my list of digital media (games, CDs, DVDs) I’m saving for to be huge… but this weekend I compiled my list of books I’ve been meaning to get. It’s ugly, over a hundred dollars, and that’s just for the top six books… the posthumous Douglas Adams, an illustrated book on gnomes that I loved as a kid, a book on Cold War espionage equipment, and more. Great Ghu, I love to read.

The earliest appointment I can make to get my car inspected is Wednesday at 4:00 pm. The good news is, I’ll be off work by that time. The bad news is, I hope I don’t get pulled over for a expired May sticker today or tomorrow…

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