Video Analysis 101

07.20.2002

Most people have seen the Mitsubishi Eclipse commercial featuring he song "Days Go By" by Dirty Vegas. (If you don't have Navigator 6.x, you can see it here). The song has gotten popular enough from the commercial that it's getting radio play and play on the video networks. I've even managed to get hooked on the video. It harkens back to my youthful heyday in the 80's, while also making me wonder "Whatever happened to Shabba Doo?" (you have to remember the dawn of breakdancing to even know where I'm coming from with that one). While surfing around and watching the video, I noticed something a little funny. There's 2 videos for the song.

The videos are the same except for cutscenes to the band. One version (which I managed to download, the main drawback being that it's 40 MB, or the ad-enhanced version is only 13 MB) has the band sitting at a table, watching the goings on of the video. The other available from the MTV website) has the band sitting at a light in.... a Mitsubishi Eclipse. It's all about product placement....

Permalink

Blocking of Invitrogen

07.19.2002

Powers that Be above me, at least as far as maintaining the webserver go, decided yesterday to block traffic from Invitrogen (also known since April 25th as "Those Bastards").

The drawback for me is that the my two biggest viewers fo the webcam, Jerry and Lori, will now be unable to view my sweet visage from work. No longer will they be able to tell just how bad my roots are showing. Am I there at my desk, waiting for the phone to ring? Have I conquered that nose-picking problem?

Oh, and they'll miss out on the Babe of the Day, too.

So, if you can read this and you're at Invitrogen, well, something screwy is going on!

Permalink

Driving Peeves

07.12.2002

Coming in this morning I was faced with the top two things that tick me off while driving.

Coming down 565, the speed limit is 70. For a change, most people were actually doing 70. Everything was fine until poeple spotted the HPD car parked on the side at the Hwy 20 exit (which is where they almost always sit - you an see them from a mile away). Immediatly, everyone starts slowing down. Pretty soon we're all going 60. So, driving pet peeve #1 - Don't step on the brakes just because you see a cop.

Getting closer to the Parkway exit, everybody started slowing down again. No cop this time, just slowing down for the exit. Now then, the speed limit on 565 drops to 65 here, and the ramp speed limit sign says 45 (even though I can safely do it at 60 in my top-heavy truck), but a half-mile before the exit traffic is slowing to 45 and 50. So what is my second driving pet peeve? Don't start slowing down 20 miles before you get there! Well, 20miles may be an exagerration, but you get the idea.

Permalink

Speed Traps

07.11.2002

Now that I'm in my old age, I tend to drive, well, I'll say "closer" to the speed limit at least, that I used to. Usually I'm with at least 5mph of the limit. As such, I'm not one to go slamming on my brakes every time I see a police car.

This morning seems to be one of those days that HPD is doing one of their "Slow Down or We'll Write You A Ticket" campaigns, or whatever they're calling it these days. This morning (6:45) on my way in, I saw 2 police cars, 1 running the radar and the other writing the tickets, at Hwy 20 and 565. They were strategically positioned on the off ramp, so tey were being more sneaky than normal. As I continued in, I saw 7, that's 7 people pulled over on the side getting their tickets. When I reached the Governors Drive exit, I saw 3 more police cars at the ready, with another one actually running the radar.

So this morning their were at least 12 cops whose sole purpose was to give out speeding tickets. I may be old fashioned, but wasn't their any real crimes that need to be solved?

Permalink

Napster Revisited

07.08.2002

Jerry introduced me to the latest file sharing utlity last week: xolox. There have been many Napster replacements, and most of them dissapear once they become popular enough to show up on corporate radar. The selection is pretty good, which is to say an ample number of people have installed the software. Most of the songs I could think of to search for showed up, at least the recent ones. So, if you're looking for a new file-sharing program/community, try this one out.

Permalink