The Ultimate Showdown

This entry was originally published at My Slice of the Globe

It’s Friday, my work computer’s hard drive has crashed, and so it’s time for a little levity. A friend emailed this out earlier this week, I had never heard of the group before and the song is catchy as well as the flash animation to go with it. So Happy Friday (Be sure to use headphones if you are at work) :

The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny

Davinci Code Lawsuit Judgement Contains Secret Code

This entry was originally published at My Slice of the Globe

Apparently the judge who presided over the Dan Brown plagiarism trial decided to have a little fun in the wording of his judgement. The Judge decided to embed a secret code in it. An article concerning this can be found at :

CNN

If you would like to take a crack at decrypting the code embedded in the 71 page ruling, you may find it at :

Her Majesty’s Courts Service

Help take a stand against the RIAA madness

This entry was originally published at My Slice of the Globe

The EFF is putting together a petition to take to Congress that will hopefully help stem the RIAA lawsuit rampage. If you are interested in taking a look at the Petition and/or signing it, please go to :

https://www.eff.org/share/petition/

If you are concerned about having your name shown on the internet, just check the “Do not display on website” box and your name will not be shown online but still available in the actual printed copy to be delivered to congress.

BTW, if you are interested, the latest person to be sued by RIAA was a dead Grandmother:

The Register Article

Smithsonian sells U.S. History to Showtime

This entry was originally published at My Slice of the Globe

In an attempt to make money from its archives, the Smithsonian has signed an exclusive deal with Showtime Networks. This deals gives Showtime exclusive access to the Smithsonian film archives. All filmmakers wishing to use this “public domain” material must get the material through Showtime and create it through them or not use the material. The deal also restricts access to Smithsonian personnel for filmmakers. Yes this does look as bad as it sounds.

Read more here :

Washington Post

EFF

ABC News

Google : Calendar

This entry was originally published at My Slice of the Globe

Looks like Google launched their online calendar program this evening. Seems pretty spiffy. You can find it at :

http://calendar.google.com

Quick Feature Rundown :

Imports from:

• Microsoft Outlook


• Yahoo! Calendar


• Apple iCal

Notifications :

• Email


• Pop-up, if app is open


• SMS, text message

General :

• You can create multiple calendars


• You can share a calendar


• You can make a calendar private or public


• You can create invites (Evite competition, anyone?)

Will revisit in a few days after I have played with it some.

This entry was originally published at My Slice of the Globe

So while attempting to finish far cry last night apparently somehow my directx 9.0c installation got somewhat borked. It was failing to find d3dx9_26.dll (apparently looking around the files d3dx9_24.dll, d3dx9_25.dll, d3dx9_27.dll,d3dx9_28.dll also seem to disappear randomly). Doing a quick google search I found somebody who had the dll available to download but being a little wary of installing random but hopefully helpful DLLs and also figuring that there might be more than one missng file, I went to the source, Microsoft. I dutifully went and downloaded the directx installer but since I have already installed directx that didn’t seem to help as the installer didn’t do much of anything. Fishing around some more I found the easiest way to correct this mess is to go to the microsoft web site and look for the DirectX End User Runtimes, the full version, as the web installer wasn’t all that helpful. At this time you can find this at :

http://msdn.microsoft.com/directx/sdk/default.aspx

After installation your computer should be in a much happier DirectX place (at least until the next time the dlls mysteriously disappear) Hope this helps!

Edit : If you find this information useful. Please leave a comment, if it solved your issue.

50 Greatest Independant films

This entry was originally published at My Slice of the Globe

It’s the weekend and if you’re looking for a movie perhaps this list may help you setup your netflix queue, blockbuster visit, Tivo, or even next possible purchase. Empire online put together this list of the 50 greatest indie films, which I originally noticed sometime this week on digg.com. I’ve only seen a handful of these movies on the list but haven’t been disappointed in the ones I have seen. Movies on the list that I can very much vouch for :

• The Usual Suspects


• The Terminator


• Donnie Darko


• Lost In Translation


• El Mariachi


• Mad Max


• Evil Dead

Movies that I keep meaning to see :

• Being John Malkovich


• THX-1138


• The Blair Witch Project


• City Of God


• Reservoir Dogs

I’ve been told so many times that I should see Reservoir Dogs, that I’ve lost count. And yes I know I need to see it, and yes I know apparently it would be a movie I would be “totally in to”. The opportunity just hasn’t presented itself. And a warning on “Lost in Translation”, you have to be in the right mood to enjoy it.

See you at the Movies!

On a "Dark Miracle"

This entry was originally published at My Slice of the Globe

As seen on WilWheaton.net, Joshua Ellis, who is an independant journalist, went to the Trinity Test Site (the site of the first nuclear bomb test), this year to go take a look. The site is open to the public 2 days of every year. He describes what he saw in pictures and words, and has also given some historical context for it all. It is a good read and his article can be found here :

http://www.zenarchery.com/trinity/

Please go take a look and feel free to leave some feedback.

Davinci Code Lawsuit has no merit

This entry was originally published at My Slice of the Globe

A British court has thrown out the lawsuit against Dan Brown. Here is more info from the LA Times.

Zombie Scenario Survival Test

This entry was originally published at My Slice of the Globe

Time for another quiz. Are you ready? Here is my result :

Official Survivor Congratulations! You scored 78%!

Whether through ferocity or quickness, you made it out. You made the right choice most of the time, but you probably screwed up somewhere. Nobody’s perfect, at least you’re alive.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 68% on survivalpoints

Link: The Zombie Scenario Survivor Test written by ci8db4uok on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Phosphor : A FPS In your browser

This entry was originally published at My Slice of the Globe

As seen on HardOCP.com, ever want to play a first person shooter, in your browser. Well some one has coded up a 7MB shockwave execcutable and yes it does include multiplayer among other features. Take a look over at :

http://www.rasterwerks.com/game/phosphor/beta1.asp

Google : Romance

This entry was originally published at My Slice of the Globe

Just when you thought your contextual relationship needs were not being met, Google comes to the rescue :

http://www.google.com/romance/