Blackmoor Vituperative

There’s a really good article by Peter Coffee in this week’s issue of eWeek. How do you do quality control when you are manufacturing something that’s as small as you can build something out of atoms?

I’m not in the mood for another convertible (yet), but if I was, this is what I would buy: the Pontiac Solstice. Not only is this the first car Pontiac has made in the last decade or two that I don’t consider butt-ugly, but it’s the sleekest, sexiest roadster I know of that’s available in the USA for under $50,000 (the MSRP for the Solstice is around $20,000). It’s a hell of a lot prettier than the Chrysler Crossfire, that’s for sure.

As I said, I’m not in the mood for a convertible again. Not yet, anyway. I’m currently very pleased with my 2003 Tiburon V6 GT (in black, naturally). I’ll probably drive that until it starts needing maintenance more than once every six months. If you’re looking for a Tiburon, I highly recommend Laurel Hyundai, in Laurel, Maryland. I got a great deal (around $3,000 less than I would have paid in Virginia Beach), they were very helpful, and they don’t stick ugly dealer stickers on the back of the car up there like they do here in Virginia.

The top 20 search queries which led Internet visitors to blackgate.net, sorted by the number of requests.

The one that surprises me is “chapter 5 helps appreciate dr frankenstein”. That’s just weird.

I found a great site which walks you step by step through setting up Fedora Core 3: Fedora Core 3 Installation Notes. This is the clearest, most complete walkthrough I have seen so far. Well done, Stanton Finley, whoever you are.

While I’m at it, here’s a very helpful how-to for setting up a Linux server on a home network to connect to your broadband provider’s SMTP server. Marvelous!

Hootie-hoo! I just received the MST3K Collection Volume 7 from Deep Discount DVD. There are some great episodes on this one:

• Hercules Unchained
• Hercules Against The Moon Men
• Prince Of Space
• The Killer Shrews

Of course, I have all of these on DVD already, thanks to the MST3K Digital Archive Project, but the quality on these Rhino DVDs is much higher. I’ll definitely keep buying the Rhino DVDs as long as they keep releasing them (and hopefully the next generation of DVD players will still play them!). Aside from the quality of the movies themselves, the packaging on these Rhino sets is just awesome. Whoever designs these things obviously has a lot of fun doing it, and I appreciate the effort.

Here’s a factoid for you: my Creative Zen Touch MP3 player has 40GB of storage. In the year 1956, that would equate to a stack of punch cards roughly 56 miles tall.

Windows patching: cheaper than open source?

Excerpt: “And if you believe that, Microsoft has a nice bridge in Brooklyn it would like to sell you.”

I am so sick of hearing people apologize for the glaring inconsistencies between Star Wars and the five sequels.

The bottom line is that Lucas either handles continuity poorly (like the ridiculously lame line that Yoda gives Obi-Wan about training to surpass death), or not at all (with examples too numerous to bother listing, starting with “I am your father” and ending with Bail Organa not memory wiping R2-D2). These aren’t small gaffes, either, like a glass going from empty to full to half-empty between jump cuts. These are the hallmarks of someone who shouldn’t be writing or directing at all.

It’s my opinion that Star Wars and its various derivative works like Revenge Of The Sith have been successful despite Lucas, not because of him. If it weren’t for Industrial Light & Magic, George Lucas would be considered no more than a second-rate Bert I. Gordon. What little credit Lucas merits is due to his involvement with the genesis of ILM and Pixar.

But hey, check this out: Star Wars Episode III: A Lost Hope.

Today was my first day on my new project: redesigning the system that the Virginia Marine Resource Commission uses to track and license commercial fishing and fishing equipment. Pretty darn cool, and good money (better than I got with SAIC). What’s more, I’m telecommuting: I only have to go into the office for meetings. The rest of the time, I am in my comfy leather manager’s chair, at my nice desk, using exactly the hardware and software that I need to do my job (and if you’ve been following my recent exploits, you know just how important that is to me). So I’m sitting here and wrapping up for the day, when I hear a tremendous racket from outside. I open the door and look outside, and what do I see? Hail. There are chunks of ice the size of dice raining down out of the sky. Ice. This is May 23 — it’ll be June in a week, and there are chunks of ice falling from the sky. Lots of the them!

Man, that’s just weird.

Okay, it quieted down outside, so I went outside to look again, and the ice is gone. Apparently it all melted in the time it took me to type this. Or was it ever there to begin with?

Coming June 3rd – Fantasmo Cult Explosion Episode 3: Invasion of the Giant Monsters!

While movie monsters have been around since the dawn of cinema, in the 1950’s giant movie monsters became a full-blown phenomenon that is still going strong today. These creature features included the Godzilla movies of Japan, the atomically spawned ants, spiders, and miscellaneous insects of the United States, and the stop-motion beasts created by Ray Harryhausen to name but a few. On Friday, June 3, at the Chesapeake Central Library, Team Fantasmo is bringing two shining examples of the genre back to the big screen for your viewing enjoyment! These two outstanding genre entries are:

7:30 p.m. – The Mighty Peking Man (1977) – An unbelievably bad (but the good kind of bad) Hong Kong rip-off of the terrible 70s American remake of King Kong. This one gives new meaning to the word spectacle!

9:00 p.m. – 20 Million Miles To Earth (1957) – A classic monster movie featuring the special effects work of the legendary Ray Harryhausen (Jason & the Argonauts, Clash of the Titans, etc.). Not to be missed on the big screen!

If you have the courage and the fortitude, we invite you to join us in watching as these beloved creatures lay waste to a variety of model cities and aircraft! See you on June 3rd!