Mishmasy Goodness

Some brief thoughts...

First off, the monkey's fist is the coolest knot ever. Its basic purpose is to make an end of rope heavy. One might say, "Hey! Now I can throw one end of a rope some distance without having to worry about it getting snagged or the like!" But why stop there? Go ahead; use it as a safety weapon. Going somewhere shady? Don't have any means of self-defense? Never fear! Monkey's fist is here. I wonder if they'd let it on planes...

Second off, while considering Spirited Away, a Miyazake film, the girl, Amanda, Ken, and I were thinking of witches and how they always have ingredients stemming from animals blood, hair, and various other parts. I wondered then how vegetarian or (gasp!) vegan witches might get along. Is there such a thing? Why has nobody ever made some comedic movie on the subject? Why don't I? Could I accomplish such a thing? We'll probably never know.

Anyway, my brain leaked, and that's what came out. I've now plugged the hole, though I'm sure it will work itself loose again.

Yahoo Movies

Yahoo put together a list of Yahoo Users Top Rated Sci-Fi Films. I'm going to jump right to the conclusion and state that the user base for this list, though they got some movies on the mark, are special-effect eye-candy whores that that don't have any sense of what a good movie is.

I'll jump right to the list, and my comments.


30. Serenity - I loved Serenity, but I haven't yet decided whether it warrants this. As a standalone movie, it probably doesn't. It needs the character development backing of the show.

29. X-Men 3 - Whatever. I'm not really sure I would qualify superhero movies as sci-fi movies, but I'll ignore that for now. The end of this movie bothered me severely. The bad guys have the most powerful being on the planet and she stands by watching. Bad story writing for my liking.

28. I Am Legend - Yeah, nobody's going to remember this in 10 years. It was good, but not exceptional, and also had some issues. Besides being a giant Ford commercial, how did she get her shiny new Ford vehicle onto Manhattan anyway when they blew up the bridges?

27. Donnie Darko - This is one of the ones they got right

26. X-Men United - Not spectacular. Besides, they also screwed up the entire Nightcrawler character. He's supposed to be swashbuckling and debonnaire. Special effects and weak story.

25. Deja Vu - Didn't see it

24. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Good, but again, not the best.

23. Ghostbusters - Another one they got right. I love it.

22. V for Vendetta - I agree that this movie is spectacular, but it's not sci-fi.

21. The Terminator - This is one of those definitive sci-fi flicks. Why isn't it higher in the list?

20. X-Men - Better than the other two, but DEFINITELY not better than Terminator, Ghostbusters, or (movie for movie) V for Vendetta. It's not one of the best sci-fi flicks ever.

19. Predator - Another one of the definitive sci-fi flicks. Again, why isn't it higher?

18. Superman - A superhero movie (so not strictly sci-fi in my mind), but a good movie.

17. Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith - Are you kidding? As if it wasn't just a bad movie, Hayden Christianson could be a worse actor than Keanu Reeves, and that's saying something!

16. Alien - One of the trio with Predator and Terminator. This just screams well-done, fantastic sci-fi

15. Spider-Man - Better than Alien, Predator, Terminator, and Ghostbusters!?!?! No. Everybody who voted this movie higher than those needs a movie education.

14. Jurassic Park - Again, not better than others I've mentioned, but I could see this belonging on the list.

13. Terminator 2 - Fantastic, but not as good as the original. Many original ideas in it, though.

12. The Incredibles - A great movie, but really! It doesn't belong on a sci-fi list at all.

11. Close Encounters of the Third Kind - I didn't like it, but I can appreciate it.

10. The Day the Earth Stood Still - Finally, now you're talking! Flying saucers definitely belong on this list! If the new one coming out ever beats this, though, I'll die inside.

9. E.T. - Yup, this is one of those that belongs here.

8. The Matrix - I suspected this would be here. Keanu Reeves can't act, though, and there are a bunch of movies on this list better than the Matrix.

7. Back to the Future - It should never be this high on this list. It probably shouldn't even be here. It's good, but it's not the best.

6. Aliens - Cinematically, Alien is better. But for entertainment value, Aliens is better. They're about equal for different reasons.

5. Return of the Jedi - It belongs on the list. All three of the original Star Wars flicks probably do.

4. Empire Strikes Back - Look, another one!

3. Transformers - NFW. Nothing Michael Bay belongs on this list. EVER!

2. Star Wars - Yup, it belongs

1. Iron Man - You have got to be kidding me! This! The best sci-fi movie of all time? Shoot me now.

So what'd they miss? A whole bunch of stuff. Most of the classic sci-fi stuff (1950s and 60s), like the original War of the Worlds, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, the Time Machine, The Thing from Another Planet, and Forbidden Planet. They also missed some newer classics like Blade Runner, The Thing, Planet of the Apes. And then, of course, how could you miss one of the most important science fiction films ever; Godzilla!

Now, I know people will disagree with ever last (thanks K), but how could you put a comic book movie at the top of a sci-fi list? And how can you just ignore the origins of good science fiction? I'm disappointed in the users that got their movies onto this list. I'm happy with some of the people commenting, though.
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Semantic Mediawiki Problems

This morning I installed Semantic Mediawiki on a server for the first time and encountered a few problems with permissions. This is a very brief rundown on how I got it installed and how I fixed the problems I encountered...

First off, on installation, I had problems when clicking Initialise or upgrade tables button. To get around these problems, I used the database's root user to install Semantic mediawiki by changing the $wgDBuser and $wgDBpassword parameters in teh LocalSettings.php file.

After this, nothing worked. Whenever I tried to execute a semantic query, I got the following error:

...from within function "SMW::getCategoryTable". MySQL returned error "1142: DROP command denied to user ... for table 'smw_newcats' (localhost)".

The solution to this problem is to cd to $WIKIMEDIAROOT/extensions/SemanticMediaWiki/includes/storage and edit SMW_SQLStore.php to make the following modifications...

In function getCategoryTable (~line 1644 in my version):

• #$db->query('DROP TABLE smw_newcats', 'SMW::getCategoryTable');
• #$db->query('DROP TABLE smw_rescats', 'SMW::getCategoryTable');
• $db->query('DROP TEMPORARY TABLE smw_newcats', 'SMW::getCategoryTable');
• $db->query('DROP TEMPORARY TABLE smw_rescats', 'SMW::getCategoryTable');

In function getPropertyTable (~line 1706 in my version):

• #$db->query('DROP TABLE smw_new','SMW::getPropertyTable');
• #$db->query('DROP TABLE smw_res','SMW::getPropertyTable');
• $db->query('DROP TEMPORARY TABLE smw_new', 'SMW::getPropertyTable');
• $db->query('DROP TEMPORARY TABLE smw_res', 'SMW::getPropertyTable');

Save the changes, re-execute the query, and everything should be hunky dory.

Just One Word: Duh

I'm not really knocking this article. Rather, I'm knocking the fact that other people didn't realize this. "What do you mean? If we make cars weigh less, then they'll consume less fuel?" What a ludicrous thought (that was sarcasm for those that don't speak the language).

Maybe someday in the relatively near future, auto manufacturers will finally do what I want; make a car that still performs, but weighs significantly less. How do I get a job making these choices? Could I be the technology director for some auto manufacturer? I can already tell them where things are going and what would be beneficial for consumers, auto manufacturers, and the ecology.

Ultimately, all I want is a 200 hp car with good steering, good suspension, a low weight, and good gas mileage. For my purposes, I'll define good gas mileage as a combined average of over 30 mpg. They've come close already. The Acura RSX-S is 200 hp, and gets just slightly under. My RSX (base) is 160 hp, but gets about 31 mpg on average. The Civic Si also comes close. The Mini Cooper S doesn't quite have the horsepower, but weighs not much. The Lotus Elise is 190 hp and weighs only 1900 lbs, but doesn't quite get the gas mileage for some reason.

OK, I'm sorry if that last part was boring for the non-automobilicly inclined. The gist of it is, they've come close, but still haven't quite done it, though it shouldn't be hard. Oh, and they stopped making the RSX, which came really close. The Civic is about the only thing left that comes close.

Olympic Tech Envy

By now you realize I'm technologically inclined. I don't know why I am so fond of technology. It's not as though I'm one to like things just because other people do. If I did, then I'd be into things like reality television and the Motorola RAZR. I'm not. Granted, I own a RAZR, but I hate it. I purchased one not realizing its shortcomings. But I digress.

I have spent the weekend in tech envy. My family has the means to spend a bit. At least more than I do. My brother and my mom just bought iPhones. I got to play with them, and now I very desperately want one. I'm sitting here willing Dave to purchase his 3G iPhone quickly so that I can inherit (for a moderate fee) his old one. It's a phone and a PDA, but worlds better. It's fun.

I'm also sitting here watching the olympics on my parents' LCD HDTV. I don't really know why I want an LCD TV. It's not like I watch a lot of TV, I think. I mean I do, but we have a decent TV. This is a want that I can't explain.

One of the bigger pangs I've had this weekend, though, is due to my brother's car. He has a Subaru sTi. I didn't realize just how unbelievably awesome the car is until I drove it yesterday. It's a nice feeling, when pressing the accelerator, having your head pressed into the back of the driver's seat, hearing the turbo kick in, and just taking off. I realized afterward that it wasn't the tires that were squeaky, but rather my driving. The car's got enough torque to leave some of the tire rubber on the road surface. Now if only Subaru could figure out a way to get that going with better fuel economy, I'd be in business...

I also think I am too fond of the ellipse, but that's a thought to be explored at another time.

A Whole Lotta Somethin'

Amazingly, not a whole lot goes on for awhile, and then the cosmos just piles it on. Well, consider it piled. All sorts of wonders have happened recently...

The girl has finally been introduced to the mechanical wonder that is the manual transmission. Yesterday, Sunday, was pretty close to perfect. I started learning Objective C in the morning, we got lunch with Ken and Amanda at Panera, and then Amanda started teaching said girl about driving a stick. The deal was that I wasn't allowed to be there, and I wasn't. Ken and I sat in Panera, pondering how we might be able to play Battleship between both of our laptops. Yes, Battleship. Having to laptops across from one another is the perfect environment for doing that, don't you think? "You sank my battleship! And my laptop doesn't respond well to water, damnit!"

So, the girl drove. She stalled. She jerked around a bit. But she's still alive, my car is in one piece, and she made it successfully from Ames to Ollie's, and parked very nicely on an end spot, for a grand total distance of roughly 1000 feet. I'm proud of her. More driving to come :-)

Then, today happened. I'm going to gloss over most of the details of today because it sucked. You don't need to hear me whine about crap that really, in the grand scheme of things, doesn't mean much of anything. So, we'll skip to the only humorous part, which happened post-frustration. A woman in my new office is having a baby. She's concerned because she doesn't know what to name him. The corollary to this story is that I work with a bunch of geek-type people. So, we quickly degraded to providing her ways to name her baby. I eventually came to seeding a random number generator with the due date, and then reducing the output to printable ascii. We then proceeded to do this. Would you like to name your child Biq? She didn't either. But I contend that the theory is sound...

Oh, there's one more thing. The Girl's new occupation should definitely be extension cord assassin. Some assassins use knives. Some use rifles or pistols. And apparently, some use lawnmowers. She has bladed yet another extension cord to death. I'm sure more cords will fall under the blade before she's finished mowing lawns.
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Our Amazing Solar System

Back to back interesting articles. This article is about energy. Specifically, it's about solar energy.

You see, a few problems exist with energy from water. First off, a water molecule is pretty hard to split, so it requires a bit of energy to be put into the system. Second, the yield is usually greatly less than the energy put into the system due to entropy. Enter the story, and a great deal of hope (at least for me).

A U.S. scientist has developed a new way of powering fuel cells that could make it practical for home owners to store solar energy and produce electricity to run lights and appliances at night.

A new catalyst produces the oxygen and hydrogen that fuel cells use to generate electricity, while using far less energy than current methods.

With this catalyst, users could rely on electricity produced by photovoltaic solar cells to power the process that produces the fuel, said the Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who developed the new material.

Here is another link with a little more of a description.

So, MIT researchers discovered a nearly 100% efficient way, using a catalyst, to split water and save the energy. Chalk up one to science! The other benefit is that the way to do it doesn't involve destroying the environment around it. It's environmentally friendly. And, it is a really really good way to store photovoltaic energy as a result.

So, for the big picture, photovoltaics yield energy. Super scientist guys add a cobalt phosphate catalyst to water, and use that photo-energy-rificness to put an electric charge across the water, splitting the water, and using Platinum to bond with the Hydrogen and store it, and the allowing the cobalt phosphate to bond with the Oxygen. Then, when the current is removed (i.e., the Sun goes down), the separated components recombine into water and release almost 100% of the energy used to create the separation.

Ultimately, this is a good way to store solar power during the day and release it at night. Rock on, Sun! And the über-awesomeness award to MIT for figuring this one out.

Shortie McShorts-a-lot

Your car’s planet-destroying A/C. No matter how guilty you feel about your carbon footprint, you don’t have to swelter on the highway to the beach. After doing tests at 65 miles per hour, the mileage experts at edmunds.com report that the aerodynamic drag from opening the windows cancels out any fuel savings from turning off the air-conditioner.

That's from this New York Times article. That's interesting. I have in the past wondered about this one. There is, however, something about the breeze on a cool Spring/Fall day that prevents me from keeping my windows up. Sometimes you just have to indulge in the simple pleasures in life.

Infectious Meme

I got this from Karina... Have fun doing it.

Here are the rules:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page of results, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

The Peanut Gallery Speaks

What began as a well-formed plan for a meal degraded quickly into a hasty, thrown-together piece of wonder I can only describe as ... tasty. Dinner was originally meant to be of rice, veggies, and fried. Also known as sushi (maki specifically) and tempura. By the time climbing ended, however, we feared we would waste away to nothing. So our well-laid plans of cooking a meal in following climbing quickly degraded to hastily rushing to the grocery store and absconding (post-cash) with the makings for peanut butter and jelly.

So, to the ingredients. "Not just peanut butter, jelly, and bread?" you ask. Of course not! So what else was there? Gnutella, bananas, fluff, and more bread; all on one sammich! Moo ha. Yum. Ice cream yet to come... Oh, and of course there was pineapple. This is a nice way to end infusion day.

The list of attendees: the girl, Amanda, Ken, and me of course.