Lots of Monkeys

PEPCO, in their quest to make my life a hell on earth marked by lack of sleep, has decided to schedule three power outages that affect my building. All occur this week. All occur at precisely the stroke of midnight.

So now I have to just figure out how I’m going to kill the time before I have to take the servers down. That part isn’t bad. It’s taking them up again at around 7 in the morning that’s going to be a pain in the proverbial butt.

As I sit here, I also watch the slow death of a loved one–my 19 inch monitor. It’s not an easy thing. Everything is starting to get fuzzy. The brightness has increased to the point where it is set to zero, and everything still looks washed out. The image continues to skew slightly to the left and up. Two weeks ago, it made one singular sound, an electronic pop that I have to say, did not make me feel very good at all. I was not looking forward to purchasing a new monitor, especially not after growing accustomed to the bright, clear image of a 19 inch CRT with a high refresh rate. My machine is close to three years old. Desperate, I checked the warranty info, and was shocked. In a rare moment of weakness, I actually purchased the three year warranty. Of which, I still have 160 days remaining. So, in fact, I may end up with a new monitor, or at least a refurbished one.

On the other hand, someone has a nice new apartment. Almost makes me want to live on my own, except that I’d have to move again. And we all know what joy that particular life event brings us.

I had some carrot cake, but it’s no substitute for the yeasty goodness of a hot donut.

Now I really do want a Krispy Kreme.

No, “want” is an understatement. I think it’s evolved into full blown need.

Anyway, have you been to their website?

Slashdot’s just full of good stuff on a daily basis. Today, it was filled with some tidbits that I take a particular interest in. Everything, via slashdot.

First is the fact that Wil Wright, creator of The Sims, has signed some sort of deal with FOX tv. First, reality tv, then tv based on video games that are, in fact, reality games. So, maybe, if Wil decides to create some sort of show based on The Sims, the masses would be watching virtual people with virtual lives based on a game that features virtual people with virtual lives. But seriously, Wil’s had some good ideas and he wants to change traditional ideas about entertainment. I’d like to see what he comes up with.

Secondly is the paper entitled, “Trusted Computing, Peer-to-Peer Distribution, and the Economics of Pirated Entertainment.” Mathematical formulae that describe the economics of piracy. A little heavy reading, but a little more objective than RIAA suxx0r5. Besides, it makes note of how it will be harder to stop P2P networks with the next generation of windows. Information, as the cliché goes, wants to be free.

I’d rather spend my money at Apple Music.

And finally, for everyone that has ever dated anyone else that has a blog. Part of me just says, “It’s the god damn internet, people are going to talk about what they want.” The other says, “Well, there’s that whole slander thing.” The other part just really wants a Krispy Kreme.

In Vegas.

When I was younger, my mother told me an interesting tidbit about the Philippines. Geckos, are everywhere. I did some research and found out that there are about a half dozen species that flourish in the Philippines. So there are a lot of them. So many, in fact, that sometimes, when she closed doors, she would slam them shut really fast. Not to keep them out, but more to keep them from coming back, ever.

Which, I guess, explains quite a bit about my mother. Sorta. If I ever visit my mother’s house in the Philippines, remind me not to look in the door frames.

Ever.

So. . . Uh, this is interesting.

Oh, the possibilities of wall climbing robots. Eventually, some guy, (and it will be the male of the species) is going to make some gloves and booties with this stuff. And then, well, I hope that the Carnegie Mellon researchers are willing to step up to the plate and handle the legal and ethical ramifications.

You might as well write that check to Sony now.

Today, Sony announced the PSX, which, by the way is not the PlayStation 3. No, that particular item is due around 2005. The PSX is some sort of home entertainment server which, in addition to regular PS2 gaming duties, should probably serve as some sort of Digital Video Recorder.

With a 120 GB hard drive, an ethernet port, USB 2.0 and Memory Stick support, the PSX is Sony’s attempt to jump on the “digital hub” bandwagon. The DVD recorder is interesting. I hate to see the intellectual property hoops that they had to jump through on that.

Being networkable has some interesting possibilities. The issue now is the price. It’s the PS2 the way it should have been.