20 posts tagged “wa”
Well, now that I have an iPhone I've been receiving a ton of questions about what I think of the phone. After playing with it for four days, I feel pretty confident I can answer most of the inquiries that have been posed to me.
For those who don't want the novel length explanations, I'm really digging it. The EDGE network issue isn't one for me because my service area doesn't have 3G access anyway. Plus the wireless more than makes up for it. I'm in a Google town, so there are wireless access points all over the place to cater to their employees.
I've received questions concerning Safari and why there have been so many sites optimized for the iPhone in particular. The question goes, "Does this mean that the Safari browser included doesn't follow current Web Standards?" The iPhone optimized sites are sites where they are taking advantage of your ability to touch the screen, so they are generally optimized for the 320 x 356 screen. This often means larger buttons and links, because you can actually click them, as opposed to tabbing over to one on a non-touch screen phone. They also tend to include all of the bells and whistles of todays modern internet, like pretty AJAX goodness, and because some the sites don't meet normal web standards themselves the iPhone became one more incentive for them to get off their asses and bring their site up to current standards.
In my experience I have not experienced any website incompatibility issues. There is the Flash issue, but I understand why they are going with H.264 Quicktime over the currently more prevalent Flash. It is a superior compression technology that takes up less space with less loss of quality, which of course will mean a better media experience and faster download for us EDGEsters. Also, now that Adobe has announced that they will include H.264 compatibility with their Flash it should render the whole situation moot in a short while.
The keyboard has worked nicely for me. I can even see myself doing some two thumb typing in the near future. I don't GPS because I am quite capable of knowing where I am on a map, so Google Maps works fine.
The iPod rocks. I am a tad annoyed with having to get the headphone adapter. I expect that eventually third parties will start making plenty of quality headphones with adapters for iPhone included as part their package. I've never been a big fan of earbuds going back to the Walkman day. I must confess though, that phone operation button on the earbuds, is pretty darn cool.
The SMS is great. I love how they included the iChat comic word bubble and colors that they chose for monitoring conversations. I like that you can quickly scroll up the screen through an ongoing conversation. My Gmail works nicely with the phone. I look forward to using their Calendar app in the future with Google Calendar. I also suspect they ran out of time for Notes. It works fine, but I can see where they might want to polish it with added features. I also like that email deletions on my iPhone are not destructive to the same messages in my Gmail server account. So if there is a problem, I can always go back to my Gmail server archive.
It has also been a great conversation piece. I received a text message while at the bank and I got quite a few inquiries and more than a couple "may I see it for a second" types of communication once they saw that it was an iPhone.
I can also freely agree that it will not be THE phone for everyone. Then again, no phone on the market is. It really comes down to how the phone vibes with your lifestyle. I find that it suits mine perfectly. I love that with your two year commitment, they've pledged that you will be receiving constant improvements in features and bug fixes, which is not something they always do so frequently at the other mobile OS companies like Microsoft and Palm.
Made from Stainless steel and black rubber, it doesn't get much geekier than this.
Today I composed and posted the first entry in my character blog for Wa Saril.
Unfortunately I don't yet own a Nintendo Wii, but when I do get my hands on one, I will already have my Mii avatar worked out, which I created via this really neat Online Mii Editor.
11 Artists that have not been tapped to record/perform a James Bond Theme that I think should have been:
Artists were chosen based on consistency, quality, suitability to the James Bond sound and ethos, and by virtue of not being a citizen of the United States.
After all, why shouldn't they use a British Secret Service agent to show off music that doesn't originate from the USA?
1) Annie Lennox
2) Depeche Mode
3) The Cure
4) Sting
5) Peter Gabriel
6) Bjork
7) The Who
8) David Bowie
9) George Michael
10) Elton John
11) Gary Numan
By Opening Theme Song:
1) The John Barry Orchestra - "The James Bond Theme" (Dr. No)
2) Shirley Bassey - "Goldfinger" (Goldfinger)
3) Paul McCartney and the Wings - "Live and Let Die" (Live and Let Die)
4) Carly Simon - "Nobody Does It Better" (The Spy Who Loved Me)
5) Duran Duran - "A View to a Kill" (A View to a Kill)
6) Tom Jones -"Thunderball" (Thunderball)
7) Nancy Sinatra - "You Only Live Twice" (You Only Live Twice)
8) Shirley Bassey - "Diamonds Are Forever" (Diamonds Are Forever)
9) aha - "The Living Daylights" (The Living Daylights)
10) The Man With The Golden Gun (The Man With The Golden Gun)
11) Rita Coolidge - "All Time High" (Octopussy)
12) Matt Monro - "From Russia With Love" (From Russia With Love)
13) Sheena Easton - "For Your Eyes Only" (For Your Eyes Only)
14) Tina Turner - "Goldeneye" (Goldeneye)
15) John Barry Orchestra - "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (On Her Majesty's Secret Service)
16) Shirley Bassey - "Moonraker" (Moonraker)
17) Gladys Knight - "Licence to Kill" (Licence to Kill)
18) Garbage - "The World is Not Enough" (The World is Not Enough)
19) Sheryl Crow - "Tomorrow Never Dies" (Tomorrow Never Dies)
20) Madonna- "Die Another Day" (Die Another Day)
21) Chris Cornell - "You Know My Name" (Casino Royale)
My rankings of the James Bond films.
By Film:
1) Goldfinger (1964)
2) Octopussy (1983)
3) You Only Live Twice (1967)
4) Live and Let Die (1973)
5) From Russia With Love (1963)
6) Dr. No (1962)
7) Thunderball (1965) / Never Say Never Again (1983)*
8) Casino Royale (2006)
9) Goldeneye (1995)
10) The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
11) For Your Eyes Only (1981)
12) Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
13) On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
14) The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
15) Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
16) A View to a Kill (1985)
17) The World is Not Enough (1999)
18) The Living Daylights (1987)
19) Licence to Kill (1989)
20) Moonraker (1979)
21) Die Another Day (2002)
*Never Say Never Again was not an "official Bond picture". Starring Sean Connery, it was also a remake of the fourth official film "Thunderball" that he starred in 1965.
As I mentioned in my post yesterday I have been listening to the This Week in Geek (TWiG) podcast. Episode #009 focused on everything James Bond.
Here is my list of the best actors in order to have portrayed James Bond in the official Bond films.
By Actor:
1) Sir Sean Connery
2) Sir Roger Moore
3) Daniel Craig
4) Pierce Brosnan
5) George Lazenby
6) Timothy Dalton
As the final moments of March 2007 pass from existence two things that have been on my mind:
1)
After banging my head against a Python programming wall for the better part of two hours this morning I finally gave up and turned my attention elsewhere. I thought about working on the NIN "Survivalism" remix but decided that I had not quite captured the muse on that front, so I finally settled for making revisions with my novel, THIRST.
I decided I might as well give those of you who endure my posts from day to day a glimpse into "THIRST".
(note, for those of you whose eyes glaze over at the mere mention of fiction, writing, or reading, I've posted a new Dead Poets Society track "Despair and Despondency".)
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A Chapter from THIRST by Wa
Cash’s extensive food supply consisted of a few instant noodled soup packages, a half-filled jug of orange juice, and a couple of browning bananas. He’d just added the water to a single serving of chicken flavored Cup O’Noodles and placed it inside his microwave when he heard a familiar rhythmic knock at his door. He closed the door and set the microwave for two and a half minutes. The rhythmic tapping resumed at his door. As he padded to the door, he pulled his long hair back from his eyes and secured it in a ponytail with a black rubber band. Doing so, revealed the rows of data input jacks that had been surgically implanted in his head. Four on each side, running down the space of where his temples should have been.
Through the peephole, it appeared that Shell was alone. Satisfied, he began the somewhat tedious process of releasing and unlocking the various locks he'd added on his door.
As he swung open the door he was greeted by the fuzzy and slight frame of a Golden Lab Retriever that sat impatiently at Shell’s feet. The excited dog's tail wagged uncontrollably from side to side and slammed absentmindedly into the thick soles of Shell’s Doc Martens. Cash scratched Gigi lightly behind the ear and said a few kind words to her. Gigi responded by panting appreciatively.
Gigi of course was quite familiar to him, she had been just one of many animals that resided at an animal shelter that Shell had reported on only a few months earlier. During the investigation, assisted by Cash, quite ably so if he said so himself, she was able to determine and reveal through her news reports that the veterinarian in practice was much more interested in using his admitted pet patients as test subjects for his narcotic visions and painful vivisection in order to test the usefulness of new pharmaceutical drugs that were scheduled to be tested by the Food and Drug Administration before they were released by a group of notable multinational corporations (none of whom by the way took any responsibility for his actions) upon the unsuspecting masses rather than the compassionate art of practicing healthful medicine. The vet had been imprisoned on charges of animal abuse and neglect, but unfortunately most of the innocent animals were in such poor health that they were past the point of recovery and had to have be put to down.
Shell had adopted the only canine who had survived. It seemed that Gigi had recovered quite nicely and was hardly the emaciated shadow of a dog-like creature that she had once been. It had been during those investigative reports that he and Shell had become acquainted with and fostered a good working friendship.
“Come on in.” Cash said. “Why is Gigi here? You know that my super will freak if she finds her here.”
Slung over one shoulder Shell carried a dark, well worn leather case. “Relax. I looked before I came up. Her light was off. Besides, you don’t actually think that she would check up on you at...”The microwave beeped in the background and she glanced over at it, ”5:23 in the morning...Do you?” Cash closed and locked the door behind her, but not before taking a quick glance up and down the hallway.
“I suppose not.” he admitted as he retrieved the steaming soup. He opened a drawer of flatware that varied in styles, none of them forming a complete set. From the piles of metal he gathered a shiny spoon that he thought was probably clean and peeled back the paper lid of the soup cup. “Would you like a glass of OJ?”
“Sure.” she said and made herself comfortable on his ratty couch. “You got any more of that soup around? I haven’t had anything since dinner last night.”
“Yeah, I think so. I haven’t got anything vegetarian or vegan though. Mind settling for something chicken or bovine flavored?” His words tumbled through a mouthful of noodles.
“Definitely Chicken.” she said. “I once tried that Vegan lifestyle but it wasn’t for me. Nor do I recommend Macrobiotic cooking if you haven’t yet experienced it. It will take your bowels on an adventure that makes Conrad's Heart of Darkness look a ride at Disneyland.”
“Ahhh..” he said, “point noted.”, and grabbed another serving of uncooked chicken cup o’ noodles and placed it in the microwave. “So what’s this job about? Protection again? Finding someone’s lost cat?” he opened the refrigerator, yanked out the half full jug of orange juice and poured them into to a pair of collectible 8 oz. mickey mouse glasses he found at a local secondhand store. The jug felt like there was only one swallow remaing inside the container, but he returned the container to the refrigerator anyhow. “If so, you might just consider hiring Gigi... she’s more affordable and probably wouldn’t mind some entertainment.”
“It’s nothing like that. This is serious stuff.” Shell said. “It’s about five hundred thousand dollars and murder.”
“Sorry, I’m not up for murdering today. It always ends up causing me nothing but headaches.” One glance at Shell and he could tell that his joke fell on deaf ears.
Shell sighed and thumbed through a faded Sandman graphic novel that had been left on the floor near her chair. “Actually, its not about killing anyone. Its about determining the identity and location of a murderer.” She paused and diverted her attention from the graphic novel to him for a moment.
“Very well then.” Cash handed the glass to Shell. “So what are the details?”
Shell closed the comic, and took a sip of her orange juice. “Last night my news director called me into her office. A body had been discovered earlier that night. She asked me to investigate and see if I could find an acceptable angle for the story.” The microwave beeped again. Shell stood, opened the microwave, retrieved her soup, and grabbed herself a fork, before returning to the couch.
“Acceptable angle?” Cash asked.
She took a quick sip of her drink. “Right, for our story.”
“And this is where the five hundred thousand comes in?”
“ Not yet. I’m getting to that.” she said. “ I returned to my office and began some background research of the area where the body was discovered. A few moments later my news director called me back into her office and informed me the story was now off. The station decided it was not interested in the story. It seems the police feel it was probable that the homicide was nothing more than a simple case of a prostitute killed by one of her johns. “Management seems to feel that the public is tired of seeing stories of violence about the city’s expendable underground community. Principally I can see where she is coming from. There isn’t much of a market for this kind of story unless it develops into a serial killer or mass murder scenario. It usually gets buried among more pressing news stories that have a wider impact on the public at large. Kind of twisted thinking if you ask me, but I don’t make the rules. “ Shell took a sip of her juice. “I decided to check it out, just to be sure. I called a contact of mine on the force and asked him to verify the statement. He declined to verify, but did suggest that the victim was missing squares of flesh from diifferent locations on their body. Like some kind of ritual murder or something. Now THAT to me doesn’t sound like an ordinary murder. ”
“Doesn’t, does it?” Cash said.
“I couldn’t milk any details out of him than that. I called the Stockard family, whose son discovered the body...”
“Where was the dump site?” Cash interrupted.
“Inside St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, or so I’m told.” Shell took a spoonful of soup and blew lightly on it.” It’s an old boarded up church on 17th & Montana, near the hospital. It’s been abandoned for years.”
Cash nodded. Many of the buildings located in old-town were boarded up and abandoned.
“Anyway, the Stockards said that after the police responded to the call-”
“Any idea when was law enforcement notified? ” Cash asked He rose from his seat and paced into the kitchen. Gigi followed, sniffing the ground in his wake.
“Around 8:00 p.m. last night. But listen, this is important. Right around 10:00 p.m. a man came by their home and asked them to contact him first if they had anymore information they could share. He left his card and didn’t even take the time to look at the crime scene. So I asked for the information on the card and all I got was this.” She dug into her pocket and produced a folded piece of paper, which she handed to Cash. He unfolded the paper.
James Pavilonis.
541.503.29.61.1745
Instead of seeing a universal resource locator for the persons com-unit, he was faced with what seemed to be a run of the mill phone number. “Just a straight land line number?” he said, surprised. “No vid?” Everyone had com-units these days, so it was unusual for anyone to pass out land line phone numbers. Phone numbers these days were usually only used by those who could not afford high speed connections, or people who didn't want to share their visual identities with the public. “Interesting... A private investigator?” Cash suggested.
“No.” Shell said.
“So, did you give Mr. Pavilonis a call?”
“I’m getting to that. I did call him and he refused to speak with me. I hung up and no more than a few minutes had passed before I received another call. The caller said he wished to remain anonymous, and although caller ID didn’t verify it, the voice was easy enough to recognize.”
“James Pavilonis, right?”
“Exactly. I don’t think he even bothered to use a voice filter.” she said and rolled her eyes. “He offered a reward of $500,000 to anyone with information that resulted in the apprehension of the murderer. He asked if the station could assist him by televising his offer. I responded in the affirmative, after all it was shaping up to be a great human interest story. Its not everyday that such a substantial reward is offered to find the identity of a murderer who’s been accused of killing what appears to be a prostitute. I went about acquiring the necessary personal information we would require in the event that we did televise the offer. It was at this point in our conversation that he clammed up, and resisted revealing any further personal information. Before I could interject, he said he’d have to get back to us, and hung up. I ran a check on his phone number over the net and I discovered that the call had been made from what the blogosphere reputed to be a brothel downtown. I couldn’t locate an address for the brothel. No surprise there right?”
They both traded knowing grins.
“Anyhow, the phone numbers certainly matched. I called him back and told him I knew who he was and could understand why he might be hesitant to speak with me, but without his cooperation in clarifying matters I would be forced to reveal his name to the police who were investigating the homicide.”
“After that I can imagine he wasn’t a very happy camper.” Cash said.
“That’s putting it mildly. He swore that he had nothing to do with the murder, and after some hemming and hawing he agreed to give me a couple of advance days to see what I could find out before he made the reward public. We have a three day head start.”
Cash traced the lip of his glass thoughtfully.“What did you have in mind, exactly?”
Shell shrugged. “I get another chance at the story, and you get the reward.”
“You don’t want any of the reward?” he asked, mildly surprised and disbelieving.
“Frankly, it would be unethical for me, as a journalist, to accept such a reward.”
“I
see.” Cash unconsciously caressed the tattoos on his left arm that
ran from his wrist to his forearm temporarily lost in thought while
considering the reward. He’d never earned that much money from any
of his prior gigs. Even during his days when he’d worked with
Okaiya his cut had never been more than four digits.
“If your director killed the story, how do you expect to get another shot at it?”
“I’m sure I could convince her to re-consider her decision if I can I find the human interest angle in the story...something that exceeds the whole ‘woe is the life of the lowly downtrodden masses angle’. Besides we are always look for a scoop on the competition. I just need something that doesn’t reek of shock and awe.”.
“Right.” he said and fruitlessly pondered how they might achieve that end. She seemed raring to go. Cash couldn’t remember a time he had ever seen her so imbued with unparalleled enthusiasm. “It would really help me if I could get a chance to see the crime scene. Then again, I’m not sure how we might get a good look at it since we're not associated with the police.”
“I can get us inside the crime scene if I bring you in as my cameraman, I’ll use my press credentials and we can pick up a camera on loan from the station. You know how to operate a station camera?” Shell asked.
“No. But I’m confident I can figure it out. If I’m not mistaken don’t they I.D. all of the press who enter the crime scene, including camera operators?”
“With some creativity, I’m sure we can finesse the situation. I have a friend who may be able to remedy the press pass problem.” Shell reached for her briefcase, unclasped it, and retrieved a slender manila folder and wireless phone from inside. She flashed quickly through a list of stored numbers on her phone, selected one, and waited patiently for a connection to be established.
“Richard?” Shell said. How are you?” her voice and face lit up and naturally shifted into TV personality mode. A barely audible voice responded on the phone. “Me? Oh great....uh-huh....yes, I know it’s early, but I had to speak to you....No, I haven’t reconsidered your offer. Richard, we’re just friends...yes, I know. Its special circumstances... Look Richard... you owe me and I need a favor right now... I need a camera pass. Did I ask you all kinds of questions when you asked me for a favor? ... Exactly, yes, that’ll work just fine.”
Shell glanced at him. “Dwarf. Mid-thirties. Male. Long hair, brown in color, blue eyes. Be creative with the name. I’ll bring you his height and weight.” she listened intently, and then laughed. “So, do I get the pass or not?...Uh-huh...sure...8 a.m.? Okay. Bye. Bye.” Shell shook her head in disbelief as she put the phone away.
“Who was that?” Cash asked.
“Richard Roma. He’s the news director in charge of personnel at CTDN.”
“Well, what did he have to say?”
“He said that he could have your press pass finished and ready for us by 8 a.m. when their newsroom opens. I’ll need a head shot of you. Do you have one? If not we can always take one with my still camera.”
“I’ve got one I can give you.”
“ Great.” Shell finished off her orange juice and placed the glass in the kitchen sink.
“I was thinking,” Cash said. “it would be extremely helpful if we could get a copy of the police report. Do you have a means of acquiring such information?” Cash asked.
“I have a source I have used in the past, but I don’t think it would be wise to tap them this time.”
“Okay.” Cash said, and assumed that she had her reasons and they were probably pretty good ones. “I suppose we might be able to hire a code monkey to get us a copy of the police report.” he added, “Then again that may take a few days to arrange. Sometimes a report is not filed for weeks, occasionally months while they gather the preliminary reports.”
“I know.” Shell said with a polite smile.
“Right. Of course you do.” he said, and experienced a brief moment of awkwardness. “So we’ve got just over two hours to kill?”
“Yep.” Shell replied. “Any ideas until then?”
“I’m sure I can think of a couple. Being prepared is certainly a good one. Please excuse me.” he said, opened his closet door and disappeared inside. After a few moments Cash reappeared, clad in a heavy black longcoat that brushed the heels of his black, steel-toed boots. In one hand he clutched a large faded black and slightly frayed duffel bag, and in the other hand he carried an equally frayed guitar case.
“Here, would you mind carrying this?” Cash asked, and offered her the guitar case. She accepted it and under the heavy strain of whatever was inside dropped it unintentionally with a thud to the wooden floor.
“Jeez, this seems ridiculously heavy for a guitar. What’s in here?” Shell asked as she continued her struggle to lift the bag from the floor.
“Heavy metal.” Cash said and chuckled at his own joke.
“Oh, hilarious. “ she said bitterly. “Seriously, what is it?”
“Its an FN-HAR.”
“A what?” she asked.
“FN-HAR. An assault rifle. It’s a gun.”
“An assault rifle? What do we need one of those for?”
“Right now, we don’t. But, if we do, then I want it to be in the car, ready to go, instead of waiting at home in my closet.”
“A bit extreme don’t you think?” she asked.
“You’d be surprised how extreme this city can be.” Cash said.
“Alright.” Shell said and put her hands up. “ I surrender. You win.” She called Gigi who subsequently bounded down hall and obediently allowed Shell to clip her collar onto a leash.
Cash
was relieved there wouldn’t be any strife over the firearm, though
the tone of her voice certainly didn't sound as if the whole scenario
was alright with her, but he wasn’t going to mince words. If he’d
learned anything from his relationship with his ex-wife it was that
when women finally dropped a subject of discontent it was best to
leave it that way. Though he did find an odd sense of amusement
pondering just what her reaction might have been if he were to share
with her his anti-gun philosophy. Would it surprise her that he
abhorred the use of firearms as much as she obviously did? The
FN-HAR had been the product of an era in his life that had
unfortunately made it something of a required tool driven by
necessity and only necessity. Would she believe him if he told her
that he pined for the days when his only weapon would be a well inked
pen and a flash drive?
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