9 out of 10 monkeys believe they are not behind glass

I always enjoy some hacking here and there. Those who know my technical pursuits always shake their head and wonder just what I am smoking when I show off my latest little pursuit.

“Why did you make your Laptop squeal in pain whenever the lid is closed? That makes NO sense.”

“Yes it does. Wouldn’t you squeal if you were folded in half?” I reply.

Sidenote: “Hacker” is not a negative term. It is not an insult, it is not a term for a criminal, and it is not a bad thing to be. If you have ever taken something apart to see how it works, then you are a hacker. If you have ever added a functionality to something you use, then you are a hacker. Being a hacker is a GOOD thing. The media has turned it into just another scare word. Don’t buy it. My first real hack was long before I was a computer geek… and it doesn’t make me any less of a hacker now.

With a little guidance from the members at BlackberryForums.com, I downloaded the Blackberry Developer’s Kit (just a JAVA compiler and some base code), a tool from Plazmic that compiles themes and a Phillips SDK to create custom ringtones from MP3 files. Now with these three/four tools in hand, I am aiming to make my Blackberry sound and look like a Tricorder.

What?

You heard right. A tricorder. Yes I am a geek. I know that already, so you can keep your mocking laughter and pointing fingers to yourselves. But when you come to me with your gay cingular or verizon blackberry that just plays Bach when it rings, I will point and laugh at your pathetic little whiny ass for your total lack of creativity. Just FYI.

I poked around on the net, and I couldn’t really find anything that matched what I am shooting for. I found a site that had free Star Trek artwork for the buttons and such, and I know where to get the MP3s of the sounds, so I think I am set. Just some icon hacking and some layout and some creative sound assignments and boop, woop, deeeeee, deeeeee, deeeee, strange power fluctuations ahead, captain.

Ha, ha!

…can I please have your attention. I’ve just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story. I need all of you, to stop what you’re doing and listen.

… Cannonball!!!”

That was not in context with the following, but I felt a Ron Burgandy quote was required, since, after all, it is a Moan-day.

Oh yeah.  That’s nice.  My wife did not want to leave the island of Kauai.  Tears were involved.

No lie.

We had a lot of fun.  I uploaded a ton of pics to my Flickr stream (which are also avail here on my photo album page.)  I can’t wait to see how our SLR photos came out (not a digital SLR, sadly).

The Danskin Triathlon was on Sunday… and it was hot. I mean hot, hot, hot.

Did I mention it was hot? Thank goodness I was in the shade most of the day. But my wife wasn’t. Oh, no… she had to swim, bike and run. This was her first triathlon and she enjoyed it so much that she is already thinking about her next one. Yeah, you heard me right. She enjoyed it.

Personally, I think she’s nuts. Reminds me of that scene from Back to Future 3 when Doc is in the old west saloon and all the old timer drunks are listening to him rant about the future.

Doc: “And in the future, we don’t need horses. We have motorized carriages called automobiles.”
Saloon Old Timer: “If everybody’s got one of these auto-whatsits, does anybody walk or run anymore?”
Doc: “Of course we run. But for recreation. For fun.”
Saloon Old Timer: “Run for fun? What the hell kind of fun is that?”

And all the drunks laugh hysterically.

And so do I. So do I.

I am proud of her though. It took a slice of courage to take on a challenge like that. And she did spectacularly!

Another 4th come, another 4th gone.

Like most holidays, I think that the 4th is more for the kids than the adults. Sure some goons like getting all liquored up and acting like retarded kids with explosives, but for the most part, its the kids that get the most enjoyment out of seeing high explosives in close proximity.

Fireworks are mfunitions: “Explosives that put the fun in munitions!”

Ok… that was lame.

Seriously though, I can’t believe the year is already half over. Didn’t we just celebrate New Year’s?

Switching gears and staying on topic of explosive things. Two words for you: Network Neutrality.

Net Neutrality is basically a huge arguement that has escalated to Congress in recent months. The huge ISPs (AT&T, Verizon, Qwest, etc) are arguing that since they own all the physical connections that the internet runs on, they should be able to charge more to those companies and parties that use more bandwidth. This has huge reprecussions on every single person and company that uses the internet. Imagine. Since you use Google as your search engine, that means Google has to pay more for their service to be as fast as say, Microsoft’s. By allowing the ISPs to censor and prioritize traffic for specific services, then the net is no longer about commonality and flexibility, undermining the very foundations the net was designed on.

Today Google stepped up to the plate and offered a small threat to the ISPs supporting the end to Net Neutrality… a small thing called an Anti-Trust complaint. (Remember when Microsoft had to deal with it?) And all I have to say is right on! Google is obviously at the heart of the issue, and may be looking after its own interests, but think about where the net is headed. Think about where we were at 10 years ago and where we are today with the internet. Now imagine how life will be different in another 10 years in a connection based society. Many of those services that are always touted as the future, today, will forever be beyond the horizon if neutrality is lost. Now some argue that Net Neutrality is a facade, a misunderstood concept. They argue that it already exists and is already in place. ISPs are already doing it, and doing it for good reason. We pay for a quality of service and to connect to others with that qaulity level. But the issue is so much more than that.

In the end, the whole point of the net is about providing the same services for everyone for the same price. The internet is about interconnectivity. Net neutrality is about preserving those connections.

My wisdom teeth are out. All four of them are sitting on my counter in a little brown envelope. It is quite morbid to hold four of your teeth in the palm of your hand and see the dried blood in every little nook and crevice. Especially when there is bone matter on one of the larger teeth.

Now I know why my lower right jaw hurts more than the rest.

What is truly amazing is just how big the roots are. I mean I have seen xrays and the like of my mouth, but holding a full sized molar in your hand really makes you understand just how big they are. And I had four huge ones. Lucky for me, I actually had room in my mouth for them. All four had erupted successfully and only one had impaction against another tooth. No pain or anything. But three of the four had cavities, so was either get the three repaired and have more problems down the road, or get them all yanked and just deal with the one time experience.

No solid food for three days now. Makes you really hungerlust after crunchy foods. My wife had some chips today and I was staring longingly (like my dogs) at her plate. I finally had some turkey tonight and I was able to chew it without too much pain.

So weird week coming up. Holiday on a Tuesday and all, so everyone and their mom is taking tomorrow off. So work should be nice and slow. Play with my new DS lite that my wife got me as a late birthday gift and pity surgery present. The New Super Mario Brothers is one of the best Mario platformers I have played in a long while. Hard to put down!