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April 30, 2007
More mainstream news about DDR and physical education
I love it when news about the fitness benefits of beat games like DDR hits the mainstream. In this case the The New York Times :
P.E. Classes Turn to Video Game That Works Legs
Posted by binhqx at 4:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 29, 2007
Fun night at Mojito's
Wii ♥ Mojito's had a good night. Lots of people combing by and having fun.
So sunday nights at Mojito's just get better and better every week. On this night there was more then just Wii Sports. We had the opportunity to watch mature adults partake in a juvenile alcohol consumption competition. Best of all we got to watch them suffer the consequences of their recklessness.
Some times the best lesson must be learned the hard way. Then they must be followed up with hard reminders.
Pictures where taken. If they are posted I will have to link to them. Illustrate why one does not pick a drinking competition with a former marine drill sergeant.
Posted by binhqx at 11:51 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 28, 2007
epoxy, the game!
Here is a great game you can play on a weekend afternoon with nothing better to do. Mix up a big batch of five minute epoxy, then run around the house gluing everything that needs fixing before it hardens up. It is a race to see who is faster, you or thermosetting polymers. Just be careful to not adhesive your fingers together.
Posted by binhqx at 2:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 27, 2007
Out shooting a movie
Yomiko asked me to help create her movie. The film is for her final project. All I know is I will be playing a narcissist.
I think the part was written for me. Luckily I do not have any lines to remember so this should be a breeze.
update:
We has so much fun shooting this. The only problem we encountered during the shoot is Yomiko brought too much food. She did not want to bring any home so we had to stuff out selves at the end of the shoot.
That is a pretty good problem to have.
Posted by binhqx at 6:24 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
April 26, 2007
Spring Time Colors
I was thinking about colors and textures of the spring time. Trees and flora engorged with chlorophyll shining in the high sun. So I was playing around in photoshop looking for that color and texture.
Posted by binhqx at 4:06 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
What is it about the The Simpsons?
So I was thinking about The Simpsons and how it compares to other TV sitcoms of the late 80's. How has this simple animated show manage to survive for 18 seasons?
These are the options: The viewing audience has not changed very much in the late 18 years; The Simpsons has continued to change with the audience season after season; or bits of both options have occurred.
Posted by binhqx at 2:02 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
April 25, 2007
Energy, the fundement problem with antigravity and hyperdrive
So I was reading this article about a paper that proposed a method for creating hyperdrive and antigravity. It suggested that at higher dimensions (beyond the four we know), the electromagnetic and gravitational force can be inter-converted. This leads to all kinds of speculation about building antigravity devices and hyperdrives.
However, there is still a rather annoying Law of Conservation of Energy. That dictates that energy can not be created from nothing, it must come from somewhere. For example if we made a antigravity device and rode it 100 feet up into the sky. If the device failed at that point and gravity once again resumed its normal duties, we would fall to the ground. Where would the energy of the fall come from? Obviously the antigravity device would require the power input equal the gravitational potential energy gained by the device and rider.
So how much power would it take to travel to space using antigravity? The same amount of power produced by the space capable rocket engine (minus differences in efficacy).
The same goes for hyperdrive travel. It my reduce the amount of time a trip takes, but not the amount of energy required.
Posted by binhqx at 3:44 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 24, 2007
What is Sun Tzu Energy Drink?
There is this energy drink called Sun Tzu (yes, as in the Art of War), It tastes really good and contains enough caffein to to wake the dead. After one drink I am bussing around the room like a humming bird.
However I can not find ant information about it. There is a website for the drink here. All it talks about is the teaching of General Sun Tzu. Nothing about what is in the drink. Specifically, what is in it.
We can not even find cans of the stuff at any local stores. Luckily Mojito's has Sun Tzu on tap. If you ask them very nicely, they can make a extra strong Sun Tzu by adding extra syrup. Cap is a big fan of these.
So if anyone knows where one can by cans of Sun Tzu in the southern NH area, let us know.
Posted by binhqx at 11:46 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
April 23, 2007
The downside of learning to be socially sensitive
Part of my self training to become more sociable is learning to pickup on the non-verbal (behavioral) cues. These are the communications that we send to each other on a subconscious level via body language, vocal tone, conversational context, etc. By looking for these cues, one can bring the communication from the subconscious to the conscious.
For the most part it is great. I am improving my ability to "read between the lines" in conversation. And I am improving my ability to judge another's personality based on short interactions with them.
However, there is a down side. Once I see through a person's polite exterior, sometime I do not like what I find beneath. Or even worse, there is no personally beneath.
In another case, people attempt to hide internal tension under a facade. As I spend time with them, the tension will surface and I will empathize (feel their tension). There is nothing more uncomfortable then realizing that the people around you are walking on eggshells and trying to hide it.
Sometimes it is easier to say socially oblivious.
Posted by binhqx at 11:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 22, 2007
Weekend Highs and Lows
I had a full weekend this week, so I am going to just built point out highs in lows:
* High: Hanging out with the group that produced ADAPTATION for their post party. They picked Mojito's on Sunday night to have the party. So there was a lot of drinking and Wii playing. Tons of fun.
* Low: After the LOURDS show I tried to get to know some of the local music regulars. However that can by really cliquy group. So I was just getting stonewalled, could not start a conversation with any of them. I'l need to work harder to get them to warm up to me.
* High: LOURDS show. Enough said!
* High and Low: The show before the LOURDS show a band called Brown Hornets. During one song they needed a little audience participation. There was one song that needed more cowbell. I was more then happy to oblige. But I was having a good time with the cowbell I did not notice that I was giving myself a huge blister from the drum stick. But then again all great artist must make sacrifice.
Posted by binhqx at 10:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 21, 2007
LOURDS show at the DBH
Saturday night Cap and I went to the Dover Brick House (DBH) to see one of our favorite bands, the LOURDS. Their shows are always phenomenal and energetic. I am always impressed with Lourds Lane. She seams to have unending talent with her vocals and impressive array of stringed instruments. However it takes more then one person to make a successful band. With Sarah Vasil on drums, Gene Blank on guitar and Joey Sagarese on bass; LOURDS just rock a show.
If you have never heard LOURDS, check out these videos:
Astropop 2007
City Sessions
What really makes a good LOURDS show is the way the band interacts with the fans and audience. Cap and I learned long ago that the best place to experience these shows is right up in front with the craziest fans. We are so lucky to be in a place where the music fans are the craziest of all, Dover NH. Check out this clip from a blog entry by Joey:
You never think of Dover NH as being a hard core music place, but it is!
Posted by binhqx at 11:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 20, 2007
Star Trek the animated series
Today, Cap got Star Trek the animated series (TAS) . We sat down to watch it think it was going to be a campy, half baked version of the original series. To our surprise and delight it was not.
TAS was created by Gene Roddenberry, had the same writes as the original show, and cast by Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan and Majel Barrett. This is Star Trek! The only difference is it was animated instead of live action.
The stories have Roddenberry's style all over them. In some ways TAS had more flexibility then the original. In the first episode the crew explored a vast alien spaceship that would have simply been too expensive to produce in live action. TAS also brought much of the original humor with hilarious banter between Spock and McCoy.
Overall it is great. You just need to look beyond the 1970's style animation.
Posted by binhqx at 1:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 19, 2007
Bust-A-Move Bash! on the Wii
SB bought a copy of Bust-A-Move Bash! for the Wii. I was curious about the multiplayer that advertised eight player competition.
Puzzle Bobble is a old Taito game that mac users would recognize as Snood. The game has gone through many revisions, but the core gamely has not changed.
The multiplayer game is won by collecting gem bubbles from the play field or ones found in the the UFOs that float by. However I was disappointed by the lack of Puzzle Bobble strategy involved with the multiplayer. There is no incentive for the players to work for or against each-other. The best way to win is just to continuously fire your bubbles at the gems on screen.
So in single player it s a puzzle strategy game, while in multiplayer it becomes a button smash.
Posted by binhqx at 2:23 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
April 18, 2007
ADAPTATION at UNH
On sunday I meet a cool group of UNH theater majors. They had a performance of ADAPTATION staring this week. So I decided to pop in on opening night and see it. Here is the description of performance from UNH's theatre and dance productions site:
In search of security? Let this comedic drama take you there. ADAPTATION, a parody about life, takes us from birth through death and dramatizes life’s madness and familiarities. Played in fast paced game show format, the contestant moves through the “seven ages of man” from “mewling infant” to “second childishness and mere oblivion” (AS YOU LIKE IT, William Shakespeare). Incident by incident, we recall, ponder, and think. Laughter comes easily because we realize that we are laughing at parallel moments and shortcomings from our own lives. This play, a must see, is written by Elaine May who is the widely acclaimed film writer of PRIMARY COLORS, THE BIRDCAGE, and HEAVEN CAN WAIT.The performance by the actors was exceptional. To stage a comedic parody of a game show requires maintaining a high energy level and comedic timing. During the show, the underlying message of ADAPTATION can be overlooked because of the hilarious onstage performance.
However, it is after the show that I started to see through the humor and parody to the powerful message underneath. ADAPTATION is the distilled content of the life of a baby boomer in the context of a 70's game show. Like if they made a game show from The Game of Life The goal of the game is the goal of that generation, to achieve "security for life" by landing on a "security for life" space on the game board.
Security for life is vague term that means not needing to worry about the future. It could be having a big enough retirement account so one would not have to endure working after retirement. Or security could mean having enough life insurance to make one's family comfortable after they have passed. Working toward "security for life" is all those steps one takes to get these things.
As the contestant proceeded through the game he would encounter decisions, obstacles and impasses. These would be things like not being accepted into the college of his choice or not getting the girl he wanted. At these time he would be forced to make a "social adaptation" such as changing life goals or setting with a different option. This is where the game ADAPTATION gets its name. One can not simply set a course for life and simply cruise through till the end. Along the way adaptations must be made to find that illusive goal of "security for life."
More then anything else, this performance gave me a better understanding of my parents. Their lives followed a well accepted path for their generation. Grow up, go to school, marry, start a career, make a few children (including me), and hunt for that thing that will insure the security of their lives and the lives of those they hold dearest.
At the end of the game, the contestant is in his late years and has the misfortune of getting a occluded coronary and having just enough time to speak his last words before death. His only regret is not finding that "security for life." He would have liked to have bought a house out in the country for his wife and have a couple high yield low risk stocks that he could pass on to his family. He asks his wife why he never achieved these things and she replied "You set goals to high."
The irony of the whole contest is that in the beginning of the game the show host told the audience that the contestant could chose any space on the board and labeled it the "security for life" spot. In essence, the contestant had "security for life" for the entire game, he just did not know it. This is shown because there was never a obstacle that he could not overcome with "social adaptation."
That is the message of ADAPTATION. Until death, we all have "security for life" via our ability to adapt to the environment around us. Unfortunately few people realize this and are forever searching for that one thing that will gave total security.
Posted by binhqx at 11:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 17, 2007
Guitar Hero II
I got a chance to try out Guitar Hero II. This game is really fun. My beat game of choice is DDR, but I can see how Guitar Hero II has become so popular.
It is played using a special guitar controller with five buttons on the frets. It is played by pushing the fret buttons and strum switch in time with the indicators on screen. The better you play, the better your timing is, and the higher score you achieve.
The learning difficulty is not bad for any one with video game level hand dexterity. I got to play twice over two days and I can now get through all of the songs on medium difficulty.
You must know that Guitar Hero will not help you play a real guitar. Nor will being a guitar player help you play Guitar Hero. It is funny to watch guitar player pick up the game for the first time and be completely frustrated with a higher difficulty.
Posted by binhqx at 4:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 16, 2007
Wii at Mojito's week 2 (monday)
Last Monday we had 0 people. This week we are up to 1. That is a 100% increase in new people. Progress!
Posted by binhqx at 9:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Virginia Tech Shootings
By now everyone knows of the events that transpired on April 16, 2007 at Virginia Tech.
I usually do not let tragic events like this get to me. However, this one has been eating away at me. Perhaps it is due to the location of the events. This was not a shooting in a war zone or criminal hot bed. It was not perpetrated by religious zealot or bizarre cultist. It was committed by a student at the heart of academia.
I am not a religious person, but I conceder locations of learning such as schools, colleges, university, etc. to be sacred ground. They are places where individuals go to increase their knowledge and understanding of the universe. I believe that this is the greatest pursuit one can have. When people are randomly murdered in these places it really upsets me
I feel grief for the students and instructors that fell victim. When they got up in the morning they where probably thinking about the days lectures and the looming deadlines for end of the semester projects. I can insure you that they where not thinking about fighting for their lives against a murderous gunman.
There is still so much about the mornings events that is still unknown. We need to hold off placing blame on "who" or "what" until the the entire narrative of event is completed. Until then all I have is sorrow for those who lost their lives so tragically.
Posted by binhqx at 3:44 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
April 15, 2007
Wii at Mojito's week 2
We has our second week of Wii &heart; Mojito's. In total we got about 10 people. I a very excited because we actually had a few people return to play. Some new people came by as well. The place was a bit quite, probably due to the weather. The mixture of snow and rain tends to keep every one sensible indoors.
The returning group was six friends that are all students in UNH's theater program. They are all busy working on end of the semester projects but found time to come out to see us. I was invited to see a performance of Adaptation later this week.
Sunday nights at Mojito's are the best.
Posted by binhqx at 10:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 14, 2007
Sory Guys, the internet racket is over
According to 2007 estimates, the internet is now predominately female. The old boys club is over. The internet provided a high degree of anonymity. But with this new statistic, there is a good chance that the guys you are believe you are talking to are actually female. We will have to find somewhere else to go do "guy" things.
Posted by binhqx at 11:38 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
April 13, 2007
Bachelor Cooking: BBQ Potato
The humble potato, natures meal ready to eat. Just drop one in the microwave for a few minutes and you have a dinner. However, that potato flavor just gets old after a while. So here is my recipe for a BBQ Potato.
Ingredients:
* One or more potatos
* Your favorite BBQ sauce
Direction:
Bake potato in microwave for 8 minutes. Take potato out of microwave. Careful, it will be very hot. You may need to toss it between your hands to transport it. Dump a pile of your BBQ sauce on it. Now you have a BBQ Potato, enjoy!
Okay, it is not one of my most creative recipes, but it gets the job done.
Posted by binhqx at 2:09 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 12, 2007
The mystery of the mailbox
Last night Cap and I where watching a video when we heard a car drive by and crash outside. It sounded like a small metal box hitting the street. Cap charged outside because the sound can from the area where his car was parked.
There was no damage to his car or SB's car that was parked next to it. However, there was a metal box out on the road. It was a mailbox. It is black with the number 43 stuck on it. It could not have com from our street because we are house number 43 and we never had a mail box (we have a mail slot next to the front door). Upon closer examination Cap found a small card in a clear pocket stuck to the inside wall. In the card is penciled "Rains Tesa"
I did a white pages lookup for any name of "Rains" or "Tesa" in the dover area but that turned up nothing. So I am at a loss as to what to do with a slightly dented mailbox.
Posted by binhqx at 2:02 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
April 11, 2007
iTunes Signature Maker
The iTunes Signature Maker looks at your iTunes playlist statistic and creates a signature of the music you listen to the most. The signature is a sort mix of your most played/highest rated songs. The idea is you should be able to figure out another persons taste in music based in their signature.
Here is my iTunes Signature based on my play list at work: binhqx's iTunes Signature.
Thry making your own iTunes Signature here.
Posted by binhqx at 3:28 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 10, 2007
The most annoying ads in the internet
I have to say that the most annoying advertisements on the internet are those for dating sites.
Here is one from match.com: It's not okay to stare!
One from true.com: hello?
These sites managed to embed the most distracting thing posable into other peoples web sites. These level of intrusion is more repulsive then attractive. Dating sites need to think more about advertising the integrity of their services and less about tricking people in with unrealistic expectations.
Posted by binhqx at 1:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 9, 2007
Cadbury Creme Eggs conspiracy!
Contrary to what they want you to believe, Cadbury Creme Eggs have changed in size!
We have to get the word out!
Posted by binhqx at 4:25 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Wii Love Mojitos: day two
Day two did not turn out as well as day one. This was to be expected because no one comes to Mojitos on Monday nights. There is not much reason to unless you are into salsa dancing. We have yet to make any type of announcement. We have been holding off until we finish the myspace site. It is already coming together, you can see what we have finished here: myspace.com/wiilovemojitos.
So SB, Cap and I just played around ourselves and got the few others around to join in. Jack, one of the owners of Mojitos played a bit. So did the guy who does the monday night salsa dance instruction.
When we get all our promotional stuff squared away, we will really start pushing.
Posted by binhqx at 4:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 8, 2007
Wii Love Mojitos: First Night
Tonight we did the first night of Wii Love Mojitos. We setup Opa's Wii and just started playing. It did not take long to pull some new people over to give it a try.
Here are some photos of everyone playing:
With no external advertising, we probably got about dozen new people who have played little to no Wii before.
Everyone had a absolute blast. I have high hopes for our future Wii Love Mojitos nights. There will be a website up soon with tons of info about what is going on.
Posted by binhqx at 3:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 7, 2007
LaTour Attacked my Easter Rabbit
I got up this morning to find the the house completely engulfed with easter egg!
This could only be the work of the easter rabbit! Will your treachery ever stop!
Posted by binhqx at 1:15 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
April 6, 2007
A bit annoyed with my family to the north.
I doing some meticulous coding at work this afternoon when I got a IM from my sister. She said that I should drive up to Maine for the aaster weekend. However, I had not received any message that they where doing anything for the holiday, so I made Easter weekend plans with other people. Had my family told me that they where doing a event a few days in advance, I would be typing up in Maine right now.
Although, it was not the lack of communication that annoyed me. It was the fact that after explaining the situation I started getting IM that where intended to guilt me into dropping my plans and driving north.
There are two kinds of motivation that I respond to very poorly, threats and guilt. For future reference, attempting to motivate me using guilt will only strengthen my resolve to not do it.
Current mood: Annoyed at those I love the most.
Posted by binhqx at 10:27 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
April 5, 2007
Dancing metaphor
Last Saturday, I got SB out on the dance floor at Mojitos. He has never been club dancing before so he, like myself, had the moves of a beginner. I did not want to discourage him, so I pointed out the people around the edges of the dance floor who were just standing around. I said, "As bad as your dance may be, it is better then those who are standing still."
Retrospectively, this comment my apply to more then just dancing.
Posted by binhqx at 11:04 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
No power day.
The snow storm has kill the grid power to the office. So we are running on backup generator. This means that we must keep a close eye on the servers. There is a chance that a power drop from the generator will cause the servers to swish over to battery reserves and that will only last for a hour or two.
It is good to know that the power backup system we installed does work, it just needs to be monitored while active.
While on generator power we keep the main lights in the office shut off to conserve power. So I have to write software code by candle light, just like our ancestors did generations ago. :P
Posted by binhqx at 8:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 4, 2007
Funny animal pictures.
It has stated to snow heavily and there is not much going on around here. So I will just post some funny pictures of pets that I found on the interweb.
Posted by binhqx at 12:41 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 3, 2007
I'm in your Mojitos. Setting up your Wiis.
Mojitos runs a few video game type events throughout the week. So far ths has just been populer sports gamer tiltes like Madden or FIFA. SB, Cap and I are fans of the much more casual gamer sports games like Wii Sports.
So we took it upon ourselves to setup Wii games at Mojitoss. We talked to Opa about the idea and he allowed us to setup a Wii in Mojitos for the afternoon. Tuesday afternoons are quite times over there, but the response we got from the few patrons was encouraging. It worked just like the Wii ads, we set it up and showed a bit of game play then handed off the controller. Our game of choice was Wii Sports. Everyone who tried it just picked up the game play and had fun with it.
We will find out tomorrow if Mojitos will host some Wii events. Then it will be up to us to get players in the doors.
Posted by binhqx at 9:44 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 2, 2007
Handling of non-thread safe objects in OpenSERs Perl Module
I just started playing with Perl Module. I have found that OpenSER spawns a many threads to handle simultaneous requests. Therefor a new perl instance will be created for each thread. Additionally, the perl runtime does not know that it has been cloned. This can bee seen by comparing the process ID value in the perl runtime to the real thread. This can wreak havoc on objects that can only be accessed by their creator thread. The best example of this is the database handles from the DBI module.
Through testing, I have found that OpenSER will load and run the perl script defined by the perl module filename parameter. Afterward, a clone of the perl runtime will be made for each thread OpenSER spawns. So if the database handle is initialized during load time it will be inaccessible (throws a error) to the other threads.
To allow the threads to access the database, there are two obvious possibilities. The first method is to create a new database handle and connection each time a function that needs it is called. This would hurt performance because of the large number of setups and takedowns that would occur under heavy server load.
A better solution would be to only create one database connection for each thread. At the load time of the script, create a uninitialized variable to hold the database handle. Then when the function that uses the database handle is called, check to see if the handle has been initialized. If it has not been, do the initialization and continue. Next time this thread calls the function, it will find the database handle already set up and ready to go. Any other thread will need to initialize its own instance of the database handle.
my $database_handle = undef;
sub do_database_lookup {
# Load the sip message into $m
my $m = shift;
# If $database_handle has not been define, create a new handle.
if(!$database_handle){
$database_handle = init_db_connection();
}
my $sth = $database_handle->prepare("... database lookup blah, blah, blah...");
$sth->execute();
do_something_with_results($sth);
return 1;
}
In this case,$database_handle will not be initialized until the first time a thread calls do_database_lookup(). After that the same $database_handle can be used over and over by the same thread without reconnecting.
Tomorrow I need to look into handling dealing will a DB server that decides to disconnect after database handle has been setup.
Posted by binhqx at 5:01 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 1, 2007
New Season of Dr. Who
A new season of Dr. Who has stated airing in the UK. It will be a while before they start showing up in the US. However, a google search will turn up many bittorrents for the first show of the new season.
The Doctor and his new companion Martha.
Posted by binhqx at 6:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Wii Hunting.
1:00 AM
Tonight we are going out for early morning Wii hunting. Supposedly Walmart is getting a shipment in for Sunday morning. We are pulling a all nighter to make sure we get hour hands on a few of them.
Wish us luck!
2:00 AM
update: We all nailed down these five or six hour energy drink things. I guess we are going to see how well they work.
Cap: "Based on the taste, it has to work!"
3:12 AM
We are at Walmart now. The only others here are night stockers.
4:30 AM
There are other people here now so we are in line at the door. It s dark and cold out here.
5:12 AM
Devin kill the batteries in my camera so there will not be any more pics till I get home. The people at Walmart say that there are 7 available. We started the line so it is certain that we will get ours.
5:45 AM
More then seven people have showed up. We get to be the bearer of bad news for those who are late.
6:00 AM
Got our Wiis!
Devin: I am in your Walmart, buying your Wiis!
6:30 AM
Here are the Wii festively arranged by Devin.
A good nights work!
Posted by binhqx at 12:38 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack