I present

I present to you... the Jobs-o-lantern, instructions courtesy of The Joy of Tech! Also, just to be clear here, I carved this pumpkin from the template on JOT. It's currently sitting on my balcony, but it's a little dark so you might not be able to see it on a drive by.









A few more pics on flickr

My ears hurt!

Exploring the big wide world of nerdcore, I came across a site that has horrible audio clips from video games. I first heard the newscaster voicing from l33t g33k b3at.

I love cheesy voice over from video games.

"Fair use not applicable"

Today I saw on boing boing that a investigative journal has a warning on it's website that apparently "fair use is not applicable". Originally this was from a Harvard law blogger. So in the spirit of the internet and letting people know when they are in the wrong, I send this email:

Hi guys,

I noted that your website is incorrectly displaying the following notice:

"All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed by anyone without the express written permission of the publisher. This article is copyright protected and Fair Use is not applicable."

When in fact, the law provides for fair use without your permission. For your edification perhaps you might like to peruse:

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/

While it is your right to state what you did, it doesn't make it the law, nor would it help in the face of overwhelming precedent in this matter.

Regards,
-ryan

So we'll see what happens. I'll post any reply they send.

Party Time?

So I went to my friend's 40th birthday party at a downtown bar. Cool venue, they had their own room just for the party.

Weirdly though, I spent about half of the time talking with the person who ended up having the most in common with me. Yep, that's right, a 15 year old girl. The conversation started innocently enough by me telling a friend I played more WOW than actual work in the last 3 weeks of my previous job. She was sitting right near, and her ears perked up on the magical "WOW" phrase. A long conversation about technology, wapanese, nerdcore and video games ensured. Unfortunately for her, she currently doesn't have a computer to play WOW on, plus she is spending her bucks on comics instead of WOW.

So now I am listening to "WOW" by the Futuristic Sex Robotz. And it is the sweetest song I have heard in a while. Ok the other ones are pretty awesome too, but this one right now really resonated with me.

On the way to work I was watching some TED Talks on my video iPod. Specifically I watched the David Pogue dancing-singing-show, and Larry Brilliant's talk. Very inspiring talks - the advancement of personal tech and the eradication of smallpox. I'm hope Brilliant gets to do some awesome things as director of Google.org.

Indicating Apparatus

As it turns out, I discovered I need an Indicating Apparatus. It turns out, many things in my life is not being indicated by an appropriately inscrutible apparatus. Luckly for me, a device was invented for this exact purpose. I was alerted via boing boing.

Unfortunately it is not available... yet!

Lack of updates

Lack of updates are due to WOWing and my new job.

Of course I also went to Vancouver last weekend. No blog updating while hanging out and chillin'. The good things were Saturday afternoon in the West End and picking up drinks at Delany's and chasing seagulls at the beach.

Sunday was rainy and shopping.

And now it's wednesday. On the plus side I'm now level 49.

WOW Item Catalog

So this week I got some pretty sweet items for my Level 48 Rogue. Here is an inventory listing of the cool stuff I got:

Rune of the Guard Captain Binds when picked up Trinket Equip : +20 Attack Power. Equip : Improves your chance to hit by 1%. Sells for 1 Gold 62 Silver 83 Copper to vendors Item Level 51 Source: Quest Braden Live (1.12.1)

Carrot on a Stick Binds when picked up Trinket Equip : Increases mount speed by 3%. Sells for 71 Silver 62 Copper to vendors Item Level 50 Source: Quest Bodhi Live (1.12.1)

Masons Fraternity Ring Binds when picked up Finger +13 Agility +5 Stamina Sells for 70 Silver 92 Copper to vendors Item Level 47 Source: Quest xander1 Live (1.12.1)

Woven Ivy Necklace Binds when picked up Neck +6 Strength +9 Agility +10 Stamina Sells for 2 Gold 11 Silver 41 Copper to vendors Item Level 51 Source: Quest Braden Live (1.12.1)

Blazewind Breastplate Binds when picked up Chest Leather 148 Armor +3 Strength +23 Agility +5 Stamina Durability 85 / 85 Sells for 1 Gold 69 Silver 38 Copper to vendors Item Level 57 Source: Quest Sheepsheep Live (1.12.1)

Links of Oct 12

Some links to remember before I close my massive firefox session:

• GTD Gmail
• WOW Flash Map
• 10 Mac apps
• Lotus Notes, the Asbestos of Enterprise
• livehttpheaders

First Week

First week is half way through. Since I was well expected and I had a project, I had a computer and desk in an office with 3 others already set up for me. Bonus, my mentor is sitting here, along with the techlead of the project I am on.

Getting acclimatized to the setting of course will take a while. Organizational differences, new technology and a new commute will take a while to settle down. On the plus side, there is a strong educational orientation, with lots of documentation, tech talks, and friendly folks ready to help you out.

However my office is cold in the afternoons. East facing and all that. Brr.

Weekend Summary

So writing a weekend summary on Wednesday is a little silly, but whatever.

I'll start with last Thursday - my new manager arrived in Mountain View, and we went out to Francis Ford Coppola's restaurant. A nice Italian deal.

Friday - last tech talks of the day, then a Friday "TGIF" meeting.

That night, I went to San Francisco to meet J there with my friend. We had supper at Lori's Diner. Afterwards we met up with another friend at The View Lounge at SF Marriott. This place has large windows at the top of the hotel - 39 stories up, pretty much on market. Views of SF, the Bay Bridge and the Financial district. And also on that Friday (all of them?) was live Jazz music.

The night ended late, sleep at 2am. Which was unfortunate since the return flight to Seattle was at 12:30pm. Evening of World of Warcraft capped Saturday.

Sunday was excessively lazy. An evening game night, played some Settlers and also a card game called "Lunch Money." I'm not sure this is a great game since it is fairly complex to learn - there are lots of cards that can only be played at certain times, and figuring it all out takes a little while. Teaching new players is hard, they would probably feel they are losing because of the complexity. And the game isn't really open ended enough to enjoy playing time and time again. I would have to overall rate this game "not recommended". Which is unfortunate because the dark imagery on the cards is pretty cool.

Cap it off with late-night WOWing and that is how you fill up 4 days.

More T-Shirts

The last week has been t-shirt madness. The aforementioned post noted the Apple wear - which I am currently wearing 2 pieces of. Spiffy white embroidered logo tshirt and even spiffier black logo jacket.

Waiting for me at home was my Jinx order. I had the following things in it:

• Level ?? Humanoid T-Shirt
• Rogues - The original GANKstas
• Camp Tauragjo - Welcome to Kodo Country!
• Green Linen T-Shirt (Level 5 Required!)
• Your Skill in Reading

I also ordered / ninja'ed another cool tee.

This is some serious dorkery.

Late night on Wednesday

Yesterday I trekked to the Apple Company store. This is a really cool store, has many things you just cannot get anywhere else. Obviously they carry Apple hardware and software, but they also carry Apple swag. And it's really awesome and cool stuff. Here is what I got:

• "I Visited the mothership." tshirt
• White Apple logo tshirt
• White Apple logo ringer tshirt
• Black north-face Sport Apple Logo Jacket (VERY nice)
• Fancy Leather notebook
• Black Apple logo Mug
• Black and white Apple logo pens
• Black and white Apple logo badge holders
• Apple circlular mouse pad

Unfortunately the only cool tshirt they had available was the mothership one that I got (and am currently wearing). They also had other things, such as apple logo pencils, other clothes (including baby clothes) and various branded notebooks (paper kind).

This place is pretty cool, and as far as I know the only way to get these products is to walk in to the store in Cupertino.

Pictures may follow up later. Any votes for pictures?

Magnetic plug

I'm using my new Macbook Pro courtsey of my new employer. First off, this is a cool machine, it's back to the 1" form factor which is nice and thin. Secondly, the magnetic power plug is pretty cool and actually really fun to play with.

My week so far has been insane and crazy. Here is the executive summary:

• Saturday 4:30pm: Arrive in SJC (with J)
  
• Saturday 6:00pm: Leave temp apartment to go to SF.
• Saturday 8:00pm: Supper at north beach with friends.
• Saturday/Sunday 2:00am: Home and sleeping.
• Sunday 12:21pm: Catch caltrain to SF with J
• Sunday : Hanging out in SF, took the Cable car, saw Fisherman's Wharf, etc.
• Sunday 6:30pm: Supper again with same friends.
• Sunday 8:00pm: Catch return caltrain to Mountain View just in time.
• Sunday/Monday 2:00am: Finally sleep
• Monday 8:00am: Woke up barely
  
• Monday 9:00am: At work for all-day orientation.
• Monday evening: Supper with J and roommate in downtown Mountain View.
• Tuesday 8:30am: Woke up
  
• Tuesday 10:00am: At work, at introductory tech talk.
• Tuesday afternoon: Hung out at work, walked around, etc.
• Tuesday 7:00pm: Friend came by work, checked it out briefly, then left for SF.
• Tuesday 8:30pm: Had supper at chinese place. Not great, but not bad.
• Tuesday 11:00pm: Left SF for Mountain View
• Tuesday 11:59pm: Sleep, unusually early.

Now it's Wed at 11am, I'm sitting in another tech talk with all the other new hires. With plugs on desk for notebook power, and wireless life is good here.