RADIFIED
News for August 2005

 

Radiation tri-blade symbol 31.august.2005 - Our thoughts & prayers are with those Gulf coasters hit by hurricane Katrina. Donations can be made via the Red Cross.

I sent emails to friends in the area, asking if they were okay. Haven't heard back from a single one. Not a good sign.


Radiation tri-blade symbol 28.august.2005 - Mr. Magoo, author of the hugely popular BitTorrent guide, has been quietly working on a Guide to Eliminating Spyware.

After several months of research and two more spent fine-tuning, it's finally ready for release to the public.

This might be a good place to reiterate my standing offer: if you have an area of expertise, and can write reasonably well, and want to publish a guide, I will host it, promote it, and give you 2/3rds of the revenue it generates. If I have time, I will even help worthsmith.

That's 2-for-you, 1-for-me. Plus, I pay the taxes on the earnings, which means you get to keep the lion's $hare, and Rad readers benefit from your efforts, and your digital karma will grow daily, and you'll become world famous, and chicks will find you irresistible. =)

Every time I mention this offer, I get mail asking if I think a certain topic will do well. My answer is always the same: you'll never know until you try.

For example, I didn't think NightOwl's Guide to Creating Bootable CD/DVDs would do that well. But I was wrong. There are also guides I wrote myself, which I thought would become very popular. But I was wrong there, too. So, like I said, you never really know what impact your feature will have until you try.

Writing a guide is not as easy as it might look. Many have begun, only to give up in frustration. But if you want to try, my offer stands. Usually, the niche-ier the better. And you have to be enthusiastic about the topic.


Radiation tri-blade symbol King Tut exhibit at the LACMA27.august.2005 - Saw the King Tut exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) yesterday.

Rather disappointing. First off, it was hotter than h3ll yesterday. Even tho we had rezers for 5PM, we had to wait in line forever (60-90 mins).

After years of hurry up-n-wait in the military, I hate waiting in line. Everybody was sweating, so folks were smelling ripe.

Don't get me wrong, there were some great pieces on display. My favorite items were called pectorals, which are intricately designed ornaments you wear on the chest, which rest over the shoulders.

I would love to don one of those pieces after taking a shower, and strut around the house with it on. My friends could come over on bow down. Fair maidens could feed me grapes while I watch the football game. =)

But the piece you see pictured to the right, which the piece they use as the *icon* for the exhibit, is NOT included in the exhibit. What a gyp! I'd rather have seen that one spectacular piece than everything else on display. That's the piece I paid $25 to see.

And they had many pieces there from people other than Tut himself.

If you figure $25/person ($30 on weekends), plus another $6 per audio tour player, they are raking in some serious broccoli. I mean, you wouldn't believe the crowds they are putting thru there. Big numbers. It's like a dang cattle drive. Stopped for a bite to eat afterwards and felt like ordering a bale of hay.

I did however get to drive a friend's new Mercedes E320 sedan up-n-back (non-diesel). What a machine. Germans really know how to engineer an automobile. Suh_moooth, especially blasting down the carpool lane. That was the best part of the trip.


Radiation tri-blade symbol 24.august.2005 - Saw the movie 40 Year Old Virgin last night. Caught it on the big screen at the Big Newport. Rotten Tomatoes rates it highly.

A guy sitting in the next aisle over laughed harder than anyone I've ever heard at any theater. Thought he would wet his pants. He was nearly as entertaining as the show itself.

I found the movie funny, but my sense of humor these past few months has taken a beating. Still, it felt good to laugh. There were a few scenes where I completely lost it. There's something therapeutic about laughter.

Easy to recommend for a laugh, but not really my type of flick. I'm in a much darker place right now.

Saw previews for Two for the Money, a film about the (US$200 Billion/year) world of sports betting. Stars a slick-looking Al Pacino. Now *that* looked interesting.

Also noticed a poster for upcoming film JarHead, from the Academy Award-winning director of American Beauty (another dark film by Sam Mendes). Based on the book of the same title.

JarHead is subtitled Welcome to the Suck. I stood motionless while reading that phrase, thinking: now there's something I can relate to.

They should however, have spelled it suk. Suck is a verb; it's what you do with a straw. The word they want is suk, the noun. Everybody knows what suk means. We all go thru periods when life becomes, uh, "unpleasant".

The remainder of today's entry is blogged here:> Welcome to the Suck (Suk)


Radiation tri-blade symbol 16.august.2005 - Sunday is the final episode of the HBO series: Six Feet Under, the show with an intriguing name, created by the guy who wrote American Beauty (Alan Ball).

Known for its edgy, non-linear, not-so-neat style, 6FU has characters that are smart, thoughtful, repressed & troubled: not unlike what you might find in real life. They each have their flaws.

Each show begins with a death, which ironically, reminds us how short & precious life is. There's nothing else like it on television. Everybody I know identifies with a different character.

I'm surprised they're calling it quits at the peak of popularity, but I admire that .. like a boxer who knows when it's time to walk away from the ring (another rarity).

If nothing else, 6FU is about the fact that everything ends. And so, after 5 years, here we are. The 75-minute series finale airs this Sunday at 9PM. Sad to see it go. Yet another loss to grieve.

One thing that *isn't* ending (thankfully) is Norton Ghost. We're hearing rumors of version 10 being released.

I wrote to the boyz at Symantec today and told them, if they send me a dozen copies, I'd distribute them to some of the fellas at the forums, who have much experience with Ghost, so they could get some (free) beta-testing for their new product. We'd be more than happy to put it thru its paces.

Just noticed today's topics (Six Feet Under + Ghost) can be viewed as pertaining to a common theme, if you use the non-technical definition of Ghost. Purely subconscious, I assure you.

I normally try to limit each day's entry to a single theme. Maybe I have.


Radiation tri-blade symbol 14.august.2005 - If you're a regular, you know about my buddy Battman, who left last October to tour the world. Today he sent word from INDIA, with six photos:

These photos are un-retouched, just as Battman took them: all 1024x768 resolution, 160-to-200-KB. They're too good to cut up in Photoshop. So if you're on dial-up, they might take a bit to download.

The remainder of today's entry is blogged here:> Battman send photos from India