Whoever said, "There are two sides to every story", is an idiot.

At the Actel Engineering/Marketing Christmas party, our (supremely NOT nerdy) table was engulfed in a debate about which OS is the best...
While I generally don't take sides, comfortable in my own stoic cynical romantic indifference...ism, I had to put my foot down and take a side here...sort of...

Macro Hard On

Bill Gates is the man.

Our society is entirely too hung up on 'what should be' and entirely too disconnected from what is - and why.
I'm talking about Windows here. Huh? World outside of computers? Get out...
What's that you say? Microsoft steals ideas? Windows is a purely evil necessity, shoved down our throats?
Money-grubbing, monopolistic companies like Bill Gates' are everything that's wrong with the world?

As the Sector 9-welcoming concrete at John Muir College says,
"Consume Excrement".

It's easy to tear apart those in the lead.
Criticism is to be expected: the wider your base of users, the more common you are to hit untested cases and fall victim to those crying, "It doesn't have this...it doesn't do that..."
And yeah, I agree, far too many people know what a 'BSOD' is, but what about the rest of the candidates?
Can you deny that the front-runner obtained the lead in the same race as the competition?
The answer is "no".
Like my mom used to say..."Because."

Critics of Windows are by and large the population of nerds who open more command prompts than they do doors, check the temperature of their CPU more frequently than they check their scent, and sniff more packets than they have members of the opposite sex.
If this small elite dictated the industry, then yes - Windows would probably be better, if not run out of the market.
Yeah right, and Ubuntu would have ads on highway billboards...

But they don't. The truth is that economics usually parallels evolution, and most of these folks don't buy software to begin with, they torment it...er get it from turrets...er...torrents...so how are they going to sway how many arms the product has, or how well it can change its skin color to blend in to the tree it's resting on?

Those unheard from on forums - the loudest at the store - are the middle-aged aunts, anxious to catch a fresh whiff of social interaction via mybook or facespace, the lonely hot clerks eager to see if anyone replied to their harmonic match profile solicitations for a date, the secretary - contently ignorant of OpenOffice, pounding away at that Excel spreadsheet - and the teeny boppers, pimping their page with phone pics and the latest from lady rhigaga or lil' cent.
These folks have no need to push their hardware to the max, no goal of overclocking their CPU via FSB increments to squeeze every last cycle they can out of some silicon for obscure forum status and bragging rights.
They have no interest in disabling anything *Microsoft* from their startup processes and no reason to open their desktop case to run plastic tubes full of neon green coolant professing, "convection is a quieter and more efficient way to rid away heat from your CPU than fans."

Windows has a niche...and it's a good one:
The profitable one.

Unless you built your computer from scratch, your hard drive is likely shipped with an installation of Windows.
This fact alone is evidence that Windows is the best operating system offered. If it wasn't, the majority of our planet wouldn't boot up to a Windows flag.
That's how business works. Pissed off? Angry? Jealous? Why didn't you, or more accurately, why didn't those other companies do it? They were in the same race as good ol' Gates...

Recognize there is a reason that in all likelihood, you have a pair of jeans with a Levis tag, there is a Sony device in your line of sight, you've consumed a Coke or Pepsi in the last month, the image of a guitar is shaped like a Fender Strat or a Gibson Les Paul in your head, you brushed your teeth with Crest or Colgate this morning, and you own a computer running Windows.


Also, Macintosh turned something peaceful and happy into morbidity:

("Beach ball of death", courtesy of www.macmerc.com)


Return of the Mac

I own an Apple MacBook Pro. I have since they called these things "PowerBooks".
Mac OSX, while criticized as purely aesthetic and aloof to functionality, is awesome.
If you don't agree, then odds are you haven't used it for long enough, if at all.

Sure, Apple computers are much more expensive than other computers, even those with similar hardware specs.
But what good are those superb hardware specs if they aren't being utilized by the OS?
More specifically:
What's the point of having 4GB of RAM when your OS can't utilize it, requiring 2GB just to boot to your desktop in under a minute?
Why drop in a 10,000 rpm hard drive when your OS will ...monopolize..ech hem... on 60% of those revolutions just to index the files you have already written to the drive and forgot about?
Why install insanely powerful graphics cards when your favorite game can't even run because it tries to establish network connections deemed 'unsecure' by Mr. Gate$ and company?

So what if more - and more common - programs run on Windows.
Open those programs and click away as the OS asks you over and over, "Are you sure???" Do you really want to install it, because "Running this program may put your computer at risk!!!!!"

A Mac takes full advantage of those extra CPU cores you were suckered in to buying.
It knows how to efficiently handle every bit (haha) of RAM it is offered.
It recognizes any third party solid you can connect to it and knows what kind of file that is.

However, it will have those unfortunate drawbacks of "looking pretty" on the outside and "making the GUI nice" on the inside. You just have to deal with those shortcomings...


They mixed up the placement of the Ctrl and Alt key...but it's forgivable...I guess...

("Blue screen of breast - I mean death", courtesy of www.thenextweb.com)

Like Linus really likes Linux

Umm...I was going to say something about this OS...but I haven't had to use it much outside of work because...well...
I have a Mac.

So I guess they were right. There are only two sides to every story...I'm the idiot.


Listening to:
Felt 3: A Tribute to Rosie Perez
Murs and Slug (Atmosphere) as MC's? Nice.
Aesop Rock handling production...not bad...

Them Crooked Vultures
The guy from Queens of the Stone Age?
The guy from Nirvana and Foo Fighters?
The guy from Led Zeppelin?
...good...

The Fountain Score
Clint Mansell writing with Kronos Quartet + Mogwai performing?
...amazing...
Clint Mansell is a hero of mine.
Even after the commercial success of the Requiem For A Dream piece...
He is still indie-legit and deep like ocean.
Add in Mogwai? Forget about it...


Watching:
The Fountain
I am a romantic.
A romantic crybaby. Cry every time I watch this movie.
But like Josh says, "If you don't, it's because you have no soul."


Drinking:
Nothing!
I've been working on this compiler project non-stop.
No time for the happy fluids.
It is done though. And I'm due for a Friday SWD...

Caseeeeeey

This will conclude the series of interesting/funny/ridiculous (in that order) videos passed along to me by the posts' titles.

Casey has already posted it to his blog, so you can swerve over there to check out the awesomeness.

I was all set to write and record some medium disturbances this weekend when I saw Bangs' video and my self worth was demolished...like when a douche bag asks, "Am I a douche bag?" and then realizes that the very necessity of the question renders him so.

As James Spader says in one of my favorite movies:
"...I knew I had to stop writing. Because if this was talent, I had none..." (Anyone but pop get that?)

Aw fuck it, I can always aspire to that kind of greatness...

All of the images I was going to use for my video from freedesktopbackgrounds.com were already taken by Bangs...so I had to dig through and find a couple favorites (read "two") from my trip to Tokyo.



Yeah, the guitar part at the end is definitely tacked on and a lot of parts are re-used right now, but I liked that line so I put it in there anyway. Like I said, it's a process.
And also, the good news is that I still have a job so I don't have to worry about your stupid opinion.

If you're so inclined, see a screenshot of the track canvas.
The above link and screenshot were generated by TinyGrab, one of the many small but clever apps in a free software bundle from Mac Heist (thanks Tiberiu).

Preemptively defensive of the creative,
Scott. Under and in.

Tomeeee - Evolution At Work

I know, the last couple of posts have been videos you could have found on your own.
I've been really busy lately though. This one I just had to share...

It seems we haven't yet legislated away natural selection completely...



It's nice to see other countries embracing the fruits of a varied species - encouraging the marching down paths that may or may not (definitely not) propel humanity into the next phase of hard-skulled-kept-regular existence.

Give it some time though. Now that America is no longer content with ignoring the rest of the planet, the next bill through the house won't be a solution to an actual problem (or rather, a retraction of the problem), but instead, a law declaring smashing fruit with your noggin punishable by...be(rry)heading?

HA! HA! ha...ech hem...right....

Host:
"I think you are a hero for doing this. Fantastic!"

Translation:
"You're a fucking idiot! Everyone...Clap for this fucking idiot!
Holy shit man! I can't believe you just incurred brain damage to get on TV - and you failed your personal goal!
You deserve to die out, and we will let you.
[Smiling] But not without first welcoming the entertainment you provide.
Thanks for coming on the show.
Also - Happy Birthday Steve!"

Josheeee

I like neat stuff. Don't ignore all of the heavy issues surrounding you (politics, economical woes, suppression of free will, pigeon poop patterns, etc.), but don't forget to take time to smile at the endeavors of clever humans.

Narcitastic

I've received several complaints about the low frequency of new posts...
and I LOVE it! It's like my ego now eagerly awaits a happy ending...

But enough of that. I am a fountain of bull shit, but not all bull shit is worthy of posting to the world wide web. So give me a break, give me a break, break me off a piece of that...apple sauce (wait through the probable ad, and the crank it up...I couldn't find a good one from your tube).

So...one idea came to me while pondering a certain company's plan to save the planet by removing cutlery from the break room. It inspired me to recycle. Seriously.

I generally shave in the morning, before I shower. I am a girly man with an electric razor. You have to lean over the sink so that it catches all of your freshly cut follicles.

My amazing girlfriend uses soap that has sand or something in it. This helps you to smooth out and exfoliate your dermis.

Now, we all know the great impact soap like this has on our reserves of endangered dirt and sand.

I have devised a solution. Sure, I am only one person, but we can all do our part.

First, instead of shaving with your PJ's on, take off your shirt and step on up.


Lean back instead of over the sink when you shave so that the hair falls into your chest nest.



Now, like you probably already do, use your thick, flowing chest hair to lather up with soap.


Once soft and foamy, your soap should engulf the lose face shrapnel until they are one.

Abracadabra! Your soap will now exfoliate your skin. The poetry in the process is you can get a nice smoothly exfoliated face using what came from your face.

If there is a better way to close the loop, my name is L Ron Hubbard...which it is not.

Advice

Don't ever take a course from Dr. Tsau Young Lin. Ever.

Process

Recorded on Sunday. It's been a while. Whenever you go back to something like this, there is always a re-learning curve, which sucks.
You have to rewire everything: mics, instruments, speakers, midi devices...
You have to patch and reconfigure everything in the software: input/output buses, headphone routing, metronome output, levels, effects routing...
Then you have to troubleshoot for about 30 minutes of frustration because you can't get anything out of your keyboard because you have the midi channel set wrong on the hardware itself.
All of this is very effective at killing any bit of creativity you like to think you have.
But...if you press on, and try to leave as much as you can untouched for the next free Sunday, as well as take advantage of newer software templates and profiles that can be saved and recalled...you might have some time to record something.
I did. Three tracks. More process defining than an actual creative session...but I'm kind of digging the (umixed, unmastered) simplicity of the audio...it counters the complexity of the process.

fender to micro synth to boss dd-6 digital delay
microkorg
boss dr-670 drum machine

phuck farrell - I had this hat first.




Watching
The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
Futurama

Playing
Killzone 2

Drinking
One of Soid's berry ciders...ssshhh...

Listening to
NIN Ghosts I–IV