Rantings of a Nerd

I received this eMail today. This probably isn't new, but it is new to me:

===============================================
Dear Friend,

I am Barrister.Susan Long,an attorney at law.I am the Personal
Attorney to Mr. Andreas Schranner (of the blessed memory), a national of
Germany,who used to be a Crude Oil Explorer in Nigeria. Herein after shall be
referred to as my client.


On July 25 2000, my client Mr. Andreas schranner, his wife Maria, their daughter
Eich and
husband Christian and their two children perished in the air France
Concorde, new York bound flight;
Please Click here and find out what happened to the family
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm. Since then I have made
several enquires
to his embassy to locate any of my clients extended relatives, this has
proved rather unsuccessful.I have therefore contacted you to assist in
repatriating
the money and property left behind by my client before they get confisticated
or declared unserviceable by the bank in which his fund were deposited.

Particularly, the Bank where the deceased operated an account valued to
the tune of ($36 million US dollars) has issued me a notice to provide the
next of Kin or have the account revoked within the next ten official working
days.

Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives for over 2 years now
I solicit your consent to present you as the next of kin of the deceased so
that the proceeds of his account can be paid to you and then you and I can
share the money to a ratio of 6:4.

I have all the necessary legal document that can be used to back up any
claim we may make. All I require is your honest cooperation to enable
us see this deal through. I guarantee that this will be executed under a
legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law.

Best Regards.

Barrister.Susan Long
Telephone 234-803-3074101
Private email: skychambers@skychambers.cjb.net

=====================================

One just has to wonder at how much greed is required for this kind of scam to work. I am thinking more than a little.

With everything going on I am just not in a nerdy ranting mood. If you are interested in what could make me this demoralized go to my political blog for details and links to the news stories.

Fafblog! the whole worlds only source for Fafblog.

My brain hurts reading this... but it was worth it.

Yahoo! Sports - NHL - Thrashers deal Heatley to Senators for Hossa

We will miss you Danny, but we understand why you had to leave.

I hope you do well in the rest of your career, however I hope you are not a dominant player when you face the Thrashers.

Okay, this is me in really early adopter mode. If you know my Gmail account name and you have Gmail, you know my Google talk name. Knock yourself out.

Since I have no contacts in my Google talk I have no idea how well or how poorly it works.

BBC NEWS | Programmes | Click Online | Supercomputer's key to the brain

Is this really a good idea? I don't mean to be flip here, but really. Do we need to create something that will in all likelihood, just want to watch sports and drink beer? That is if we are trying to create a male brain. Perhaps it will want to go shopping and talk about it's feelings if it is female.

I think I know what they are trying to do, but it is not that hard to make a human brain. Give a mating pair of teenagers some time alone and no birth control and you have one on the way. Of course there is a problem with the home grown version, it has human rights.

So if you are able to create a working simulation of a human brain does it have human rights? If so you better work this out before you turn it on. You may not legally be able to turn it off if it turns out be be mentally retarded and you want to start over.

Imagine that legal injunction requiring a company to spend millions of dollars a years to keep a useless billion dollar computer system, "Alive.'

This is the stuff of science fiction, but it is close to becoming a science reality.

Okay, what can I say about this? Well a lot actually. I had never read the graphic novels. I did not see this in the theater for a variety of reasons, the top one being I hate going to the theater.

I wondered why so many big actors had signed up to be in this hyper-violent movie. Now I know. The stories were short but strong. The violence was appropriate and the nudity was not overly gratuitous.

The cinematography is highly stylized and the use of color is amazing. It allows the story to be told without getting overwhelmed.

The bad guys are bad, the heroes are far from perfect but the judgements are complete. The women are women and men act like men. No second guessing by anyone, unless you count Marv's pondering if his insanity is causing his to think all this or is it really happening.

It you are an adult, I do mean adult, and not easily offended this is worth seeing. I can only hope that more of Frank Millers work finds it's way to the big screen.

While my frieds are heading off to Dragoncon on September 2nd for a long weekend of gaming, costuming and general nerdom, I am taking the guy route. My main goal for that weekend is just to see Transporter 2.

I like the fact that they didn't waste any time on a title. Just Transporter 2, that says it all. Jason Statham, is the new action hero.

So while my friends are doing the expected nerd thing, I will just be sitting there watching the newest action flick at the theater.

Flying Spaghetti Monster - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Another Intelligent Design idea. Thanks Cory.

Disabled 7-year-old ejected from theater

Okay theater owners, this is free advice. Throwing a disabled kid our of a G rated movie filled with other kids is not the way to add value. You need to offer a theater experience for people with kids that are just learning their social skills, and those who can't learn them.

This only fuels the drive for DVD simultaneous release. These parents could have spent $20 and let their child watch at home.

A new BBQ chain opened a location near our house, Whitts BBQ. So while running errands last night we went through the drive thru and order some sandwiches. The young lady at the window had more than a few problems taking the order, and I am not sure to this point what exactly I paid, but while my bride was checking the food she noticed something, and declined to tell me while we were at the window.

Probably a wise move on her part. I have been known to go "redneck" from time to time and the trip to this Place has already met most of my worst nightmares. I will interject here that I hate going to a new place when they first open. I prefer to let others be the "first penguin."

I commented out loud while waiting on the girl to get back with our 3rd drink, "This is pretty much my worst nightmare." My loving bride responded with, "It gets worse. I will tell you when we pull off."

I thought she had spotted one of our local criminals working at the store or someone we would prefer not to see. Little did I know what horror was waiting.

We parked and my wife was laughing as she said, "They have slaw on them."

I felt like Anakin. I wanted to do the Franken Vader. I Resisted. I realized that if she had told me I would have handed the food back and asked for my money back.

I don't know about you, but I expected a pork sandwich to have pork on hit, and maybe some BBQ sauce. In North Carolina and Tennessee they have the habit of putting Slaw on the sandwiches.

I am not from there. I was raised in South Georgia. We use sauce. Slaw is something reserved as a side, maybe.

Thoughts rolled though my head. Perhaps I would spend Saturday with a sign walking back and forth as an informational picket. I considered running for state senate on a platform of requiring slaw warnings at BBQ restaurants.

Perhaps I will just take the easy way and not go there. The food was okay, but there is far better in the area. And they know where slaw belongs, not on a sandwich.

The Disney corporation, that company that makes the DVDs small children use to torture adults, has said that they think simultaneous release of new movies on DVD and in theaters is necessary.

Theater owners say this would spell the end of the theater. I think it would just be the end of the theater as we know it. You know that place you want to go but dread going.

You know you do this, you try and find the earliest time to see a new movie with the least amount of people in the theater. No one wants to be there when the place is packed.

No one wants to be there when the theater has even one toddler with no attention span, one teenage girl with shoes that have flashing lights, a group of people who can't stop talking.

I buy movies on DVD. I specifically plan on buying movies when I see them released in theaters. I do the calculus, how much do I want to see this movie vs. How much crap do I want to put up with.

All the negatives aside, what does going to the theater provide that watching on DVD does not? It is an event. You are there with other people to experience something. Unfortunately you are generally experiencing more negatives than positives.

Theater owners need to add value to the movie. A 3$ drink and $5 tub of popcorn is not a value in anyone's book. I love going to movies, but I hate being there. Do something to make it fun for me.

Invite people to dress up in costumes and get into the spirit of the event. Lead discussions about that movie when it is over. I don't know, it is late. There have to be some good people in the industry that can make the experience more interesting.

Maybe just have 21 and over theaters with no children; teen only theaters; theaters for children; theaters for those that can't shut up; clothing optional theaters. Why not? Offer babysitting onsite for parents. Offer a tracking service so parents know their teens can't sneak off and get in trouble. Obviously some of these ideas don't mix well, but the bottom line is to find a market or make one so people will have a reason to come. Even when the movie is release the same day on DVD.

In short, technology has overcome the barrier of showing movies. Theater owners, it is time for you to add some value or go out of business.

Exploring News & Features - Violent or erotic images cause momentary periods of emotion-induced blindness

This is fascinating.

I have to say thanks for a piece of science fiction written by someone who actually understand computers. They are not "black boxes" that magically spew forth results.

The detailed story of Princess Nell discovering the Turning machines inspired me to knock some dust off of one of my favorite books, "An Introduction to Formal Languages and Automata." by Peter Linz. This was the text used in one of my favorite classes in college.

The chapter on Turing machines looks completely different 15 years later. They are just as real, just as mysterious but still so interesting.

I was fascinated by Stephenson's Rod Logic binary computers created on a nanotech scale. I am sure some have written on this subject and if I just google it I will find a few links, but I prefer ignorance on the subjuct now as I mull the concept in my head.

It is nice to read things that spark the imagination rather than waste time or reinforce political ideas.

Warning... most of these use bad words...

Vin Diesel can hire ninjas to kill the assassins he hired to kill you. Then he can kill the ninjas with his bare hands. He already did this two years ago, you just never knew about it because he's that good.

I recently moved my treadmill to the garage and put a TV DVD player out there. I didn't bother with a cable hookup. I have found that 42 minutes is a nice length of a workout, and I have so much TV on DVD that I will not run out any time soon. I am sure the treadmill will wear out before I run out of shows.

To that end, I started watching Firefly again. I figured I had not seen it in a while and it would be a good way to start. I had forgotten just how goram good it was.

Joss said it best, it is not about making things people like, it is about making things people love.

If you have ever watched more than one episode, it is very likely that you love this show. People seem to either not get it or love it. Hatred is reserved for those who are just haters. Star Trek fanboys, you know who you are.

Firefly joins the massive list of shows cancelled by Fox. I guess I have to be happy that they at least gave it a shot. They were stupid to put it on Friday night at 8. That is a dead zone for television. That time slot has killed more television than any other.

Some of the things that make firefly so good are:
1) Chinese profanity. Go look it up. This is not nice stuff. They managed to run it right on by the television censors.

2) The characters are willing to kill, and do so without debate. To paraphrase Mal, "If someone is trying to kill you, you kill them first."

3) Some of the characters refuse to kill. Kaylee freezes when she is threatened. The shepherd says, "The bible is less clear about shooting knees."

4) The Goram Feds.

5) The main characters lost the war. Mal and Zoe were on the losing side. Stories are always about the winners. These guys lost big and are lucky to be alive.

6) Jayne. When Jayne says, "Just don't tell me what I done." Joss, you are a writer of the level I will never achieve but at least you have given me a target to aim for.

7) Serenity - She is an old ship held together with luck and lots of spare parts, but she works. That is all that matters.

8) "Two by Two hands of blue" - The real bad guys are beyond bad. They are evil incarnate. Killing the feds just because they talked to River.

9) "I'll be in my bunk." - That is good funny stuff.

10) Mrs. Reynolds - Who was apparently married to most men she knew. What a great villianess.

11) "They don't like it when you shoot at them. I figured that out all by myself." - That and just about everything else that comes out of Mal's mouth.

12) Mal kisses the crucifix at the opening of the 2 hour premier. Less than 1 hour later he tells the Shepherd that he doesn't want any praying at his table. Mal is complex, as Inara says, "So few men are."

13) Jayne's guns. They are a character unto themselves.

14) The Shepherd - His ID gets him emergency medical treatment on an alliance warship. The bounty hunter says, "That's no Shepherd." His thoughts about River were far from those of a religious man. This guy is some manner of complex character that hopefully will be explained in the movie.


Wow, I was only going to list a handful of things. I guess I better stop there. If you don't own Firefly on DVD, go buy it or at least go rent it and watch it again.

Go to Sondra K's site for the picture and the story behind the award.

Notice that this young Corporal managed to show incredible restraint and kept the situation under control while under indirect fire from isurgents and being pelted with rocks and other debris.

This is why we have the best Army in the world. We have great young men who are honorable and able to think on their feet.

Just finished "Diamond Age" and found it to a quick light read full of sci-fi goodness. There is not better way to describe it.

The realities of the world created were overwhelming, and the science was spot on. It is nice to read work written by a person learned enough about his subject that this nerd is not having to bite my tongue.

The physics of some of his nanotech ideas is a little tough to fathom, but he was true to his own physics. What more can a reader ask?

I highly recommend this read. It is as good as "Snowcrash" while not requiring the devotion to the task like "Cryptonomicon."

I didn't think I would every see anything this stupid in person. But it happened. There I am, minding my own business waiting to pick up some pictures at the Wolf Camera in Snellville, GA off of 124. Note, I am being very specific. If anyone at Wolf Camera has any questions they are free to email me to ask.

Now back to the story...

An older woman is standing in line in front of me asking if she can have a copy made of an old picture. The woman behind the counter gets nervous and gets her boss. The apparent boss lady says it is a professional picture and they can't make a copy of it.

The poor woman points out that it is a picture of her relatives taken in 1934. The boss lady replies, that does not matter it would be a copyright violation if they made a copy of it.

Say it with me people... 71 years. 71 years. One more time, 71 years.

Is the photographer alive? Maybe. Is he intending to make a profit off of a reproduction of this woman's dead relatives if he is alive?

The boss lady was undeterred by any logic from the poor woman, simply repeating it would be a copyright violation if they did it.

Attention Wolf Camera, you are being replaced by technology we can keep at our homes. If the woman had a professional picture of a recent Super Bowl you might have a point. The photographers of the Super Bowl pay a lot of money for the right to photograph and sell photographs of it. Images of this woman's relatives are not a valuable commodity to anyone but her.

You need to retrain your staff to think before they speak. Spouting crap from a "3-ring binder" will only help your declining market share.

Well, that was fun. I have now seen a posted comment in my nerdware blog from a spammer trying to get me to go to a domain with alphabet soup behind the name. Umm... I am not that stupid. I hope I don't have to turn off anonymous posting of comments.

I don't plan on doing that so if a comment looks like spam don't click on it. I will wipe it when I get the chance.

What is the world coming to? Now I have spam in my blog.

MKaku.org | Articles | “What to Do If You Have a Proposal for the Unified Field Theory?”

What I really love about this is that Dr. Kaku spells out the requirements for the theory to work, but makes not requirements on the person submitting the theory.

The only qualification of the submitter here is that they can produce a working theory. He even goes on to prompt and point out the tests it must pass and gives some gentlurgingng as to how to get the referees to not dismiss it out of hand.

The background required to create a workable theory iformidablele, but the good Doctor makes no assumptions about the people that he is coaching.

Very refreshing.

MKaku.org | Articles | “What to Do If You Have a Proposal for the Unified Field Theory?”

I have no time to blog. I am working on my Unified Field Theory.

Give me a long weekend and 5 2 liter bottles of Diet Mountain Dew Code Red and I can have this thing knocked out.

Amazon.com: Books: Tarnished

I think I am going to add this one to my reading list. Next time I order from amazon I will pick this one up.

I heard he author on the Boortz show complaining that he accidentally released his book at the same time as the fair tax book. He called in to Boortz to complain and was so good humored about it that Boortz went to Amazon to look it up.

It does not seem like a bad book. I maybe toss him a 10 spot just for having the gumption to call in a use a little viral marketing.

Bloomberg.com: U.S.

How? Just how? Not how could they make the mistake. How can anyone trust them to do their accounting again?

James Randi Educational Foundation — An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural

Thanks, kenzoid for this reference. This thing is awesome. I am sure I will find something in there that I believe in. The dubunking will hurt, but it will be interesting.