KissaBoo

The Presidential Match Game

A while ago I visited a site to determine my political affiliation and the results came back "Populist" - which I believe it comes back for everyone. So just a moment ago I tried Select Smart. Here are my results and feel free to post your own.

1. Kucinich, Rep. Dennis, OH - Democrat   (62%)
2. Bush, President George W. - Republican   (57%)
3. Edwards, Senator John, NC - Democrat   (55%)
3. Kerry, Senator John, MA - Democrat   (55%)
5. Dean, Gov. Howard, VT - Democrat   (42%)
6. Sharpton, Reverend Al - Democrat   (41%)
7. Lieberman, Senator Joe, CT - Democrat   (40%)
8. Clark, Retired General Wesley K., AR - Democrat   (39%)
9. Libertarian Candidate   (27%)
9. Phillips, Howard - Constitution   (27%) 

First off, I have to say that perhaps I weighted or answered some of my questions incorrectly because these results truly do not match my personal beliefs. Though I consider myself unaffiliated, I vote Libertarian when all things are equal and in these results the unknown Libertarian candidate is last on my list. I thought Bush would be rather high, but how Kucinich beat him out I can't fathom, alhough my impression of Kucinich to this point is limited to him being crazy. If you asked me to rank the Democrats I would have said Lieberman (who I most strongly disagree with concerning censorship and morality in Hollywood), Kerry (oddly weak miltary voting record for a veteran), Sharpton (not exactly a unifier), Edwards (he has done nothing - especially for North Carolina), Clark (inside info. that he is an idiot), Dean (has generated this myth of being the "Internet guy"), and finally Kucinich. These should be some fun months ahead.

Always 'Ring' Twice

There is an update about the inevitable sequel to 'The Ring' (the best movie of 2002, sorry Chicago) on SciFi - proposed release date of Nov. 10, though I wonder why they wouldn't have it in theaters before Halloween.

The Ring impressed me so much that I right afterwards had to watch Ringu and its first sequel, Rasen . If anyone is aware of English translation of Koji Suzuki's novels, let me know. Ringu was very good, but I think the people who claim it is better than The Ring are off base. Besides the better production quality (though admittedly the version of Ringu I saw was a divx DVD-rip), the portrayal of the heroine as independent and strong-minded made The Ring a more thrilling movie.
Rasen didn't really thrill me (more of the history of Samara is uncovered through the main characters, who are relatives of Ringu's protagonists), though I would imagine the American sequel would be based off of Ringu 2 - which I will not attempt to see until after Ring 2.
Thus there are 5 current films at the top of my must see when they come out list - The Ring 2, Spiderman 2, Star Wars 3, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and Kill Bill vol. 2. Wow, that's a pretty geeky list when you write it down like that - and all sequels or based on novels. I'll have to go out of my way to find a drama to look forward to.

Marching towards Utopia

A significant (if perhaps only symbolic) victory for consumers that care about the future of television, as found on PVRblog.

The Next Great Sport

While I love playing and watching all sports, the idea of specializing in one to maximize my enjoyment by playing at a higher level occurred to me years ago. Though I haven't put much time into making a decision (or doing anything athletic), instead of basketball, tennis, golf, ultimate, volleyball, or foosball, I may have to choose the next great sport which will be coming to America soon, Chess Boxing, thanks News of the Weird.

I haven't played chess consistently (or perhaps at all) since my freshman year of college - when I was debatably the best player on my hall (I was 0-1 against one person, but since they would never play me again I obviously maintain my title - like in boxing you have to face the number 1 challenger) and though I have always wanted to learn how to box, I have never stepped in the ring or trained. However, if this sport existed, perhaps I would be motivated to learn the actual names of chess maneuvers and set my jump rope to the right length.

Back in my school days, I dreamed of a sport that combined math competitions with pretty much any athletic endeavor. I was sure I could become the Michael Jordan of this sport, but alas I have never heard of such a thing. The closest I ever came to participating in such a competition was one outside where each team had to designate a person to run to different stations to collect questions and drop off answers. Unfortunately, I don't believe we won that event, though I think we won the overall competition.

Late Birthday Gift

My birthday was a week ago, and for those looking for late gifts (or gifts for next year or gifts for Groundhog's Day), here is this little device - LaCie - Bigger Disk. Considering that I'm already burning stuff like crazy off my 175 GB external hard drive, I could actually use this. Plus 1 TB is just SO COOL!!

Students of the Law

I'm not sure if this story means that work students do for a grade should never be trusted or you should just never trust students of CSU - Stanislaus

Best 80s Quiz Ever!

This is fun and easier than you'd think. Curious? Check it out!

i used to work in a music store and i only got a 74.5
do it like the SATs, don't second guess yourself and post your score when you finish.

Becoming God's Machine

Tivo today made some announcements (1, 2, 3 courtesy of /.) that brings their DVR closer to truly being God's Machine, but there is one necessary feature that is still lacking.

Currently, there are at least 4 stories in the pipeline involving DVR?s, but I?ll put this one at the top of the list so I can have some thoughts down on a current story. One post / article that I have been working on for a while is what the perfect DVR entails and if it is possible today. There are several sites and people working on aspects of this idea, and one of the goals of this site is to mention that work here (you were probably wondering what the heck is the purpose of this site is ? another future post). These new announcements today by Tivo, while not unexpected, do keep them at the top of the leaderboard as I see it for a while to come.
The next DVR I buy or build will need to support High Definition broadcasts. While the momentum is still building for this technology, even the limited amount of programming currently available make this a needed feature. Once a person sees there is an option for significantly better picture and sound (especially with prices falling), how could they be satisfied with recording the standard stream? There no doubt will be some technical issues considering the status of the standard and the significant hard drive space needed to store theses programs, but it?s good to officially hear the announcement that HD Recording is coming to their machines, even if it is currently only for the DirecTV market.
Archiving is another necessary feature for my next PVR. DVD recording is the best option at the moment (CD-R?s are slightly cheaper at the expense of limited capacity, external hard drives are in some ways convenient, but expensive), but the limitations on Tivo are a little disheartening (and silly). It?s interesting that a company who makes a device that uses Linux will force consumers to use an application that will only run on Windows (Sonic?s myDVD). Assuming that these DVD's will be playable in DVD players, it would just be another step to then rip these DVD's on a PC and have a copy of the show. The tech savvy will not even have to take this step, but ripping DVD's has become so simple that only the moderately tech knowledgeable consumer could do this. If this makes the content companies happy, so be it.
The feature that I support is Video-On-Demand or Internet Archiving - something that old ReplayTV's do to some extent out of the box and is especially functional with new sites. Hopefully, the content companies would be pushing this system to open a new revenue stream, though there would be nothing preventing end consumers from constructing such a sharing system in a legal manner.
Also while satellite radio is a technology it is easy to get excited about, it is a good move for XM to continue to move out of the car and into the home - since one of my biggest concerns about this industry was becoming too much of a niche market by being too focused on automobiles.

The Sexiest Woman in the World (circa 1999)

While I don't think Rebecca Gayheart is [or was] the sexiest woman in the world (I know who is, but I'm not telling), Maxim did name her that in 1999. Here's a link - tell me if there is a better one, but Maxim apparently started their site index in 2000.

She made the news a couple of days ago when links to some topless pictures of her on a beach were posted on Volkomenkunt as reported on NY Post's Page 6 as mentioned on Salon.

Babelfish did a horrible job of translating the German website, so I have no idea what the name of the site means or what was said on it - thus don't blame me, of course. Sadly, Germans make better web sites than I do.

Why did I bother posting this story?

First, I find it humorous that this story was even reported in a newspaper in the first place (not that the Post is the most respected journal in the world). While it would be interesting to discuss the issues of image and privacy, I fear that is not what the gossip column was doing. Perhaps she should be arrested for public indecency in the same vain as the Nebraska coed.

Second, how and why does the Post mention Volkomenkunt? Though I can't decipher what is posted, I believe Volkomenkunt doesn't understand why it was mentioned either. Besides the question of how the writer came across this site, why bother mentioning it when all it does it link to another site? The only reason I can think of is that its a subtle attempt to connect to the photos with minimal legal entanglement. There are already several other sites on the web that have the pictures.

Third, while it is totally immature reaction for human beings to possess, if you are a celebrity in public and I have my camera, then there is a high probability that the urge to take your picture is going to win. I don't know why - they are just normal human beings, but their image has become part of our shared experience. Beware of the camera phone. (and admittedly the beach she was on was probably not "public", but less not split hairs)

Now I have no idea what Rebecca thinks about these photos and stories, but hopefully she doesn't care and doesn't understand what the big deal is. What a non-story this would be in another culture. If she is embarrassed by them, then the paparazzi has won.