The Craft of War: BLIND

A very cool World of Warcraft Machinima (proving that Rogues are definitely overpowered):

The Craft of War: BLIND from percula on Vimeo.

I like the part at the end with the Onyxia reveal. I hope he makes more videos.

[vimeo]

Dead Snow (movie trailer)

Here's the pitch: "It's Evil Dead, but in the snow, with Nazi zombies and Swedish girls." "Greenlight!"

Zero Punctuation: Dead Space review

Yahtzee gives Dead Space the patented Zero Punctuation treatment. (NSFW, of course)

MTV Music Video Collection Online

Yet another reason to never leave the house again. MTV has put their music video collection (yes, they actually used to play music videos, weird, I know) online.

Everything from 80s cheese:

Poison |MTV Music

To the only band that matters:

The Clash |MTV Music

Obama supporter? You can't park here!

This classy guy doesn't want you to park at his parking lot if you've got an Obama sticker on your car.

http://crooksandliars.com/logan-murphy/youre-obama-supporter-you-cant-park-h

Here's a photo from the 'good old days' just for him:



Wonder why he's not wearing his hood and robe? Maybe it's still at the cleaners after the last cross burning?

Blizzcon 2008 Dance Contest

Joystiq posted a video of the dance contest from Blizzcon 2008 (and a bunch of photos of the costume contest.)



Joystiq

Hey look! Mt. Rainier came out to play today

Mt. Rainier
Originally uploaded by ronbo.

Stock-Injection Plan for Implementing Bailout

I was listening to This American Life on NPR and while they were explaining the bailout and the economic perfect storm the lead to the meltdown, they mentioned a couple of different ways the bailout could be implemented. The Paulson plan is that the US Government basically buys all the garbage securities from the companies that made the bad loans.

With the Paulson plan, the taxpayer ends up owning toxic assets of questionable value. If the mortgages bundled into these securities default, then the taxpayer is on the hook.

Alternatively, under the Stock-Injection Plan implementation, the Government would end up owning part of the company, similar to what happened with the AIG bailout:

Instead of just taking toxic assets off of banks' books, the U.S. government would directly inject capital into ailing firms. In return, the government — and taxpayers — would get an ownership share in the firms equal to the amount of their investment. "The taxpayers, the government become stockholders and owners of the banks," Davidson says.

How is that better? First of all, it's simply easier, because it avoids trying to find the right price for mortgage-backed securities whose value is impossible to pin down at the moment, Davidson explains. If you give $10 billion to a bank, you get a $10 billion share.

Even better, the stock owned by the US Government (and us citizens) would be preferred stock, meaning we'd be first in line to be repaid.

Not suprisingly, the biggest opponents to that implementation are the banks themselves. They saw what happened at AIG:

When the government took over insurance giant AIG, it essentially bought a huge share of the bank's shares and zeroed them out. All the shareholders lost billions of dollars and the chief executive of AIG was fired to boot.

Astonishingly, the text allowing for the Stock-Injection version of bailout implementation made it into the law that GWB signed, so it's up to the Treasury Secretary which way to go when dealing with a failing bank.

I really just want to know why the only place I hear them discussing this is on NPR?

Link to NPR story (and podcast): [NPR.org]

Keith Olbermann on Palin's attacks linking Obama to terrorism

Hypocrisy! Yay!



After the last eight years, our country deserves so much better than this.

SNL vs the Real Sarah Palin

Funny clip from CNN showing Tina Fey's Sarah Palin parody on Saturday Night Live vs. the real Sarah Palin interview w/Catie Couric:

Team Fortress 2 Machinima

Haven't played in a while, but this machinima makes me want to fire it up again.

Gogolrush
by slyaie

Peter Schiff calling the meltdown

Way back in 2006, while everyone was predicting a great outlook for 2007 and the housing market, Peter Schiff was on FOX's Bulls and Bears calling the meltdown and basically getting bullied and shouted down by the arrogant pinhead cast:



Why would anyone listen to anything else those guys say?

Flash foward and the same pinheads are saying that the bailout is our only way out of this mess. Meanwhile on Bloomberg, Schiff opines that it's going to do more damage in the long run:

Bejeweled Addon for World of Warcraft

I don't understand the depths of evil that must exist in a mind that decides to put one of the most addictive games ever INTO another of the most addictive games ever. Who does that?

Here's my druid, sitting out in group 6 for another M'uru attempt. (Note: Not usually a clicker, but I couldn't figure out how to hot key the 8x8 grid ;) )



Get the Official Bejeweled Addon for World of Warcraft here:
[Popcap.com]

Fallout 3 Interview (The Weapons)

Interview up on IGN w/the developers of Fallout 3 talking about the weapons in the game (including one that shoots railroad spikes).

Warhammer Online Beta closed

/cry

I had to say goodbye to all my little buddies as the Warhammer Online open beta closed early this morning.

I had a blast in the beta, trying out all the different races and careers, and am looking forward to starting all over again 'for real' on Tuesday (the headstart date for people that ordered the Standard edition.)

Here's a little video of my lowbie Squig Herder getting launched in a catapult up a mountain to fight some dwarves:



Can't wait until Tuesday!

Krispy Kreme bacon cheddar cheeseburgers

Krispy Kreme bacon cheddar cheeseburgers
Originally uploaded by ccaviness.

So wrong, and yet, so very right!

My DSL wants me to quit gaming!

Not sure what's up with CenturyTel around here, but for the past few days, every evening around 8-9pm my DSL takes a dump. This usually happens just about the time I'm sitting down to play some Warcraft, Call of Duty 4 or Team Fortress 2.

Here's the speedtest.net scores from yesterday:

12:26pm 2SEP2008 (Fine)



2:18pm 2SEP2008 (Fine)


5:44pm 2SEP2008 (Fine)


7:31pm 2SEP2008 (Fine)


7:51pm 2SEP2008 (Slipping...)


8:31pm 2SEP2008 (Slipping....)


9:39pm 2SEP2008 (Oh look, twenty minutes to Raid time, yay!)


10:15pm 2SEP2008 (Mid-raid after a few disconnects.)


Of course it's fine when I call during the day, so last night I finally got a hold of someone and jumped through all the hoops (dismantling my network, disconnecting my router, plugging directly into their modem, modem directly into its own phone jack, all other phones unplugged.)

Guess what? Still sucky DSL speed and the problem isn't on my end. I finally have an open ticket, but no ETA on a fix.

Wish me luck!

Warhammer Online Beta (and Amazon.com woes)

EA Mythic is offering some bonuses to people that pre-order Warhammer Online. Namely, you'll get access to the Beta beginning September 7th, you'll also get a three day head start on the live realms before general release. Also, depending on where you pre-order, you'll get a special in-game ring that gives a bonus in PvE enounters. There's also something called Rittenbach's Portable Camp, to "Rest your weary soul and heal your wounds between battles."

Since I figured I was going to try the game out anyway, I went for the pre-order. I read on some forums that Amazon would instantly put the head start and open beta codes in your digital locker as soon as you pre-ordered, and sure enough, that's exactly what happened, with one minor hitch.

Apparently, the open beta codes that Amazon is passing out are being recycled. I went to register my code so I could download the beta and it told me that the code I entered had already been used.

(read this next part in your best Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons voice) I immediatly logged onto the internets to express my dissatisfaction.

But, of course, several people already beat me to it.



It looks like this has been going on for a couple of days, based on forum posts and there seems to be no official response from Amazon yet, so I canceled my pre-order with them and pried my butt off the couch and actually left the house for a change.
GameStop had the pre-order bonus boxes stacked up right behind the counter so I put my $5 pre-order down and was in and out in under 5 minutes.

In the box:

• a 'rave card' with my open beta code and my live game head start and in-game bonus item code.
• Warhammer Online CCG Demo Deck.

Unlike the codes I got from Amazon, these worked for me when I entered them at EAMythic.com. I'm queued up to download the demo from FilePlanet and can't wait to try it all out on Sept. 7th.

My new Flip Ultra

My new Flip Ultracame today. Didn't get much chance to play with it other than to just fire it up and make sure it works. Took a video of my shamefully messy desk (reorganizing office, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.) and posted up on vimeo, youtube and 12seconds.tv to try them out. Youtube publishing is the only one of those included with the software on the Flip.


My Messy Desk from ronbo on Vimeo.




My Messy Desk on 12seconds.tv

The waterproof caseand handlebar attachmentfor my motorcycle didn't arrive. The reason I bought the Flip was to have a cheaper camcorder I could use on my bikes or in other situations where I didn't want to drag along my MiniDV camcorder but wanted a little better quality than my cellphone or point & shoot would provide.

We'll see if I actually use it.

Edit: Added flickr. Forgot they are taking video now, too.

New Warhammer Online Trailer

The second trailer for Warhammer Online is up at Gametrailers.com:



Too sex-ay! I hope the game is half as cool.

New Star Wars: Force Unleashed trailer

and plenty of new gameplay vids, too:

http://www.gametrailers.com/game/3067.html

This fall is going to flatten my wallet.

The Dude Abides

The 10th Anniversary release of the The Big Lebowski is coming out next month and it features the best premium DVD packaging EVAR:



Must have, because that, and the rug, really set off the room.

XR650 Shakes off Winter

After a whole Winter sitting parked in the barn (hooked up to the Battery Tender) the XR was looking a little crusty around the edges. Didn't have it covered like the VFR.



A couple hours later (and much oiling/cleaning/fiddling) and I took it out for a little spin. Quick trip to top off the gas turned into a little trip to Longbranch Marina down at the tip of Key Center.

Speedway reconsiders ordinances that targeted motorcyclists

The town leaders of Speedway, Indiana have had a sudden attack of common sense (or public pressure) and decided not to enact a couple of ordinances targeting motorcyclists during the upcoming MotoGP race in September. [See: Speedway to Motorcyclists/MotoGP fans: "Give us your money and shut the hell up!"]

Speedway leaders plan to withdraw the ordinances Monday amid concerns the town was targeting bikers and not welcoming the new race at the track.

[WTHR: Speedway nixes plan for motorcycle rules]

Watching the Olympics Online

Since I dumped my satellite provider and only get Fox OTA, I didn't think I was going to get to see much of the Olympics this summer. I shouldn't have worried. Thanks to NBC's Olympics live streaming site: http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/index.html I've been able to watch what I want, when I want.

There's an enhanced version available that uses a Silverlight application running in the browser. You can choose up to 4 live streams to watch in the 'Control Room'






or pick from any of the 'As Shown on TV' to catch the stuff you've missed. Everything I've watched so far has been in beautiful HD.

Stats from Mithun Dahr's site say the streaming coverage will include:

• > 3500 hours of Content streamed Live.
• LIVE coverage of every minute of competition from 25 sports.
• More than 2.3 terabytes/second of traffic on the MSN Portal

If I can resist the urge to play Team Fortress 2 every time I fire up the Xbox 360, I'll check out the NBC Olympics on the Go on the Windows Media Center, just to see the HD goodness on my TV.

[via Veni, Vidi, Velcro]

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog at Comic-Con 2008

Best line: "If you're here, who's at home disappointing your parents?"

Reforged Killed Another Dragon

and I got a new pair of boots: [Thunderheart Treads]
(Yes, meaningless Warcraft babble to follow, non-WoWers are encouraged to move along.)

I also got the last two badges I needed for the Staff of the Forest Lord



(1110 AP increase in forms = yummy!)

Mstree is looking pretty pimp in 7 of 8 of Tier 6 armor [Thunderheart Harness]

The Tier 6 piece I'm missing [Thunderheart Waistguard] isn't a tanking upgrade over my Belt of Natural Power from SSC, but I'll still try to get it eventually just because I've never completed an entire armor set yet.

Entire Firefly series up on Hulu.com

Probably late to the party, but I just saw that all fourteen episodes of Firefly are up on Hulu.com

New Watchmen Character Posters

New character posters from the upcoming Watchmen movie:








[via Splash Page]

Speedway to Motorcyclists/MotoGP fans: "Give us your money and shut the hell up!"

Friken' hypocrites. The town of Speedway, home of the Indianapolis Speedway is hosting the first ever MotoGP event at the famous brickyard later this year.
They're more than happy with the money MotoGP/Motorcycle enthusiasts will be shelling out for tickets, tolls, hotels, food, drink, souvenirs, etc. but don't you dare have the audacity to show up on a motorcycle and 'rev' your engine.

http://tinyurl.com/6dq5qe

...The proposal is the first step toward making it illegal for motorcycle riders to rev their engines during race weeks.

WTF? With no mention of automobiles making too much noise, this poorly written piece of 'legislation' makes it obvious the town fathers of Speedway are pretty much money-grubbing scum, willing to 'tolerate' motorcyclists, as long as your willing to spend some dough and not make any noise.

I'm no fan of open pipe bikes making a spectacle of themselves, but there are already dB regulations governing the noise ANY motor vehicle can make. How about enforcing them and not discriminating against motorcyclists with some arbitrarily worded, shoddy piece of legal discrimination.

Let them know how you feel before the August 11th vote:
http://www.townofspeedway.org/

Sword of Truth TV Series renamed "Legend of the Seeker"

The ABC series based on Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth books was originally going to be called "Wizard's First Rule" after the first book in the series, not sure why they changed it, but I think "Legend of the Seeker" might get it confused with other stories/series.

Trailer up at legendoftheseeker.com



Kahlan looks good, but Richard doesn't seem as big or imposing as I pictured from the books.

But hey, 'From the Producers of Hercules and Xena' and with Bruce Campbell in the cast it should at least be fun to watch.

Jules Winnfield - Hitman/Shepard of Men/Youth Hockey Coach

Gorbachov: The Music Video

GORBACHOV: THE MUSIC VIDEO - BIGGER AND RUSSIANER from Tom Stern on Vimeo.

WTF? Read the story here.

Rush playing "Tom Sawyer" on Rock Band

on Expert, of course. Backstage at their Colbert Report appearance.

You Suck at Photoshop #13

I love these Photoshop 'Lessons'

Dr. Horrible - get it while you can

I'm probably the last to hear about this, but just in case...
Fans of Joss Wheadon, Felicia Day, Nathan Fillion or Supervillan Musicals should hie thee to drhorrible.com before Midnight, July 20, 2008 and check out 'Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.'



Acts I and II are already posted, with III coming on the 19th. After the 20th, they'll be pulled and offered at a later date for sale along with extras/outakes, etc.
According to the Master Plan page, this was a project Wheadon started during the writer's strike as an exercise to show that there were other ways to put together 'professionalish' productions that didn't have to involve studios/networks, etc.
I think he just wanted another excuse to write more musical numbers. Either way, I'm glad the stars aligned.

EA confirms KOTOR MMO

Man, I don't know whether to be happy or horrified that the long-rumored Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic MMO has been confirmed.



I already spend way more time than I should playing Warcraft. Now I'll probably just never leave the house. Maybe I can get one of those hover chairs w/the view screen from WALL-E?

Fable 2 finished and shipping October 2008

From E3, Peter Molyneux announcing that Fable 2 is complete and will be coming out October 2008.



Lots more gameplay/walkthrough videos on Gametrailers.com

After the Warcraft Wrath expansion, this has got to be the game I'm most looking forward to this year, even more than Gears of War 2 or Call of Duty: World at War (or Resident Evil 5, or Too Human, or Left 4 Dead...)

New Dead Space Trailer from E3

Yikes! Why do I watch these things right before bedtime?

Engineer Isaac Clarke is sent to repair the Ishimura, an immense mining ship, but he arrives to find a living nightmare—the ship is a floating bloodbath, the crew unspeakably mutilated and infected by an ancient alien scourge.

If I read the link correctly, that clip was directed by the same guy that does those Saw movies. Can't wait for the game. I love those survival horror shooters.

Senate Sells out US Citizens and Passes FISA Amendments

Joining their sellout brothers and sisters in the House, the United States Senate passed the FISA amendments, giving the administration more tools to spy on Americans and granting immunity to the telecoms that participated in the last round of illegal spying.

EFF has a nice press release explaining just how badly we were sold out:

The U.S. Senate this afternoon passed the FISA Amendments Act, broadly expanding the president's warrantless surveillance authority and unconstitutionally granting retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that participated in the president's illegal domestic wiretapping program. The House of Representatives passed the same bill last month, and President Bush is expected to sign the legislation into law shortly.

Say what you want about Hilary, at least she didn't cave like a certain other presidential candidate.






and McCain apparently didn't think it was important enough to even vote on:


source [GovTrack]

"How's the vacation going, Ronbo?"

I fricken' hate HATE HATE car trouble. (Although, I'm sure we're saving gas now ;) )

Best Flickr Greeting EVAR!

It just rolls off the tongue, I think it's my new all-purpose greeting from now on ;)

What's better than The Princess Bride?

The Princess Bride with lightsabers, of course!



From The 10 Best Lightsaber Mash Ups
via [BoingBoing]

Dammit, Jim, I'm a doctor, not a bartender!

More sad news, Star Trek: The Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton is closing down this September due to low attendance.



I've never gone to the actual 'Experience', I think it was about $50 last time I was there, but I have spent many a shore leave in the no-cover Quark's Bar, drinking my share of 'drinks from the future...future...future...'(tm), and I may have bought a Borg sippy cup or two in the gift shop.



So, if you're itching to get your Trek on, best make plans to get there this summer.

What's going to happen to all the unemployed Klingons? You know it won't end well. "baQa'! There is no honor in this unemployment check, You pathetic mak'dar!"



From [Trekmovie]

Felmyst Down

Warning, geeky Warcraft-related post follows:

Reforged continues the assault on the Sunwell by downing Felmyst. I was unfortunately sitting out for this fight, so Mstree's not in the kill shot and I forgot note the loot that dropped (other than the druid boot token Kowchoo won ;) ).
My excitement came later in the night when we decided to go back to Black Temple and take down Illidan again, just for grins (thanks to another guild's ID, we didn't have to clear any other trash or bosses.)
Only one of our normal druid fireproof bear tanks was online, and two are needed, so I had to spend some of those badges I'd been saving for my new DPS staff and instead get some epic fire resist gear. For my 100 badges, I got the Inferno Hardened Boots, Chestguard, Gloves and Leggings. Together with some random FR pieces I already had, I was good to go.
Thankfully the fight was a one-shot. I don't ever want to be the guy that wipes a raid, and it's pretty easy to do that when tanking the Flames of Azzinoth in the Illidan encounter. Luckily I normally get to watch the fireproof bears do their thing up close and I got to watch as Navid learned the encounter a couple of weeks ago, so I was able to stumble my way through without noobing it up too badly.
So, long story short, I've already got my FR gear for the Eredar Twins fight, but now I need a few more badges before I can get the new weapon I've been saving up for.

Test of Email Blogger Posting

Sent from email to check out Blogger's Post by email feature. Including a picture and using the end statement to see how it works.

RIP Michael Turner

Sad news. One of my favorite comic book artists passed away this weekend. Michael Turner died of cancer at the age of 37. Tragic to think how many more fantastic covers/books he might have gone on to create.

I think he was best know for co-creating Witchblade and creating Fathom, but he also did so much work for both DC and Marvel that people that don't recognize his name would still probably be familiar with some of his work. In 2003 he founded his own company, Aspen Comics.

Comic Book Resources is reporting that anyone wishing to send their condolences to Michael Turner's family is encouraged to send them to:

Aspen MLT, Inc.
C/O Michael Turner
5855 Green Valley Circle, Suite 111
Culver City, CA, 90230

and anyone wishing to make a donation in Turner's name to his preferred charities can do so to either The American Cancer Society or the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Xbox Gamerscore Cheats reset to Zero

Major Nelson is reporting that they've caught a bunch of Gamerscore (the meta score for completing Xbox 360 games) cheaters and reset their Gamerscores to zero. Even better, they've put a note on their profiles labeling them as cheaters. I guess that StripClubDJ will be rerolling.



Of course the first thing I did when I read this was check my friends list to see if anyone had a new zero score, but apparently none of my friends are cheaters (or haven't been caught yet?)

Illidan Down - Game Over Insert Coin

I meant to post this a couple of weeks ago, but Reforged finally took down the final boss in World of Warcraft. Now we just have to kill him 50 or 60 more times to get everyone the loot they want off of him ;)

(Also, with today's 2.4 patch, he's not really the final boss anymore, but for a few fleeting days, we were actually done with Warcrack.)

The best thing about being a certified Illidan killer(tm) is the Blessed Medallion of Karabor that gives you another teleport back to Outlands.