August 23 2000

Damn, rats and other comments! F'ing bike broke yesterday, have to get a tow-truck to cart it off to the shop. Luckily, i've done most of the running around toronto shopping for Bman already. Still, its a bummer. <sigh>

Re-watched 'The Limey' the other night. That film is so good, its scary. The methods used for the dialog's, the unbelievable editing, acting, the whole thing, amazing. Great film.

Also watched 'Neon Genisis Evangelion'. Only cuz 'Lain' was compared to it. It was pretty good, but i've only seen 2 episodes, so i still don't really have a grip on the story.

Almost time to head off to the Playa.

August 21 2000

2600's reaction to the ruling in the DeCSS case. Worth reading.

Brian from Detroit Industrial Underground has a write-up of his time at DefCon. Pretty funny, i'd like to go some time, especially if, like him, i could get my employer to pony up for it... Hummm... How to sell this one to management...

August 20 2000

Shop till you drop... Well, not quite that bad, but i did get most of my Burningman shopping done yesterday. Just the pharmalogicals, Sunscreen, Lipbalm, stuff like that, and food, well, and some clothing too.

Just found out that NewDeal OS is a revamped version of the Geos OS. Pretty cool - i got it working great on my old 486/DX. It now has support for PPP and ethernet, web browser, email client, the whole thing. Nice.

Two great live music events comimg up - VNV Nation @ the Reverb on Sept. 29, and Godspeed You Black Emperor! @ The Bloor Cinema on the Oct. 5th.

August 18 2000

Ack! Illness strikes! But i'm getting better...

Wicked art film - Faktura. 1Mbps stream, so you really need DSL or cable or something fast to see this. And quicktime. Link -> Alastair.

August 16 2000

Oh man, more bad ecological news. Another reason to go Veggie. (it takes less resources to raise grain and veggies then meat animals)

Watched 2 more tapes of "Serial Experiment Lain" on Monday. This is a pretty great site with lots of info about Lain, and here is a panel discussion with the creators of it.

August 15 2000

God help our souls - a Klingon Programming Language.

D & D like it really is. (video, quicktime) link from Russ.

August 14 2000

Was at the book store yesterday and picked up 'The Nation'. Excellent reading - i used to have a subscription to it. May have to renew.
<rant> Now i remember why i discontinued my subscription. Its so much easier to just kind of 'melow' out, lose your radicalism. Stop reading papers that show news from a different perspective. Stop thinking as critically. Start compromising. Self censor what you say cuz people will just look at you like you are crazy if you actually say what you think. Well you know what? Fuck that. Really. Fuck this lie, fuck keeping quiet, who gives a damn what people look at me like. I make them, you, uncomfortable? Tough, deal. Man, you know, its like a guilt i've carried around inside, knowing that i've lost something, something important, but life is so much easier. The money is good, my relationships are good, people don't call me cynical, why make things difficult? Why? Why do i feel like a sell out?</rant>

August 13 2000

Ignition (the Bman fundraiser) went really well last night! Many great acts, money was raised, we all sweated alot. Notable moments - listening to DJ Spyda spin, the shebang crew throwin' it down, the sound guy steppin up to a young bboy, Melody Melody doing her solo, then performing with SuperHalo (specially on "I touch myself"). Good fun.

After ignition, i was tooling around on my 'cycle, and spied a group of 6 or so motorcycles ahead of me. Being the curious person that i am, i decided to follow them. Almost lost them on the DVP, but managed to see them exit onto Lawrence. Then we rode east, past Pharmacy, to a place called "Coffee, tea or ... me?", where there must have been... geezzz, 40 or 50 bikes in the parking lot. This is at, like, 1AM or something. I was to chicken shit to actually park, also the fact that all the bikes i could see were new super sport bikes, and i still need to replace an engine gasket on mine, made me just drive by (the reason i mention the engine gasket is cuz it leaks engine oil out onto the outer casing of the engine, to the bike looks all grimy. i'd be too embarrassed to pull up with a grimy bike, next to all these super sparkly new crotch rockets, at least, until i fix the gasket). However, i do plan to go back, post bike fix up, to check it out again, and see if it is a weekly thing...

August 11 2000

More cool traffic camera's - The Gardner and the 401.

BREAST FEST - a benefit concert for breast cancer support groups. From Jenn.

August 10 2000

Great site - AbandonWare. For games, app's, software that publishers no longer sell or support. The legality is perhaps a bit iffy, but its pretty nifty anyway! from an article on cNet.

Spent last night reading the briefs from the MPAA vs. 2600 case at the Openlaw site. Both the plaintiff and the defense have written very interesting pieces, and you can gain quite an insight into how Copyright, the DMCA and the First Amendment interact. <jos' bias> Also where the corporations seek to pervert the DMCA and use it to stifle speech and 'fair use' </jos' bias>

August 9 2000

Good article on WETA, the New Zeland company that is doing all the physical and digital effects for Lord of the Rings. link from AICN

August 8 2000

Funny bit from Bryan - "if architects had to work like web programmers"

Hey! Shebang! is going to be b-girlin' at Ignition on Saturday @ Holy Joe's (Queen St W at Bathurst). $6.

August 7 2000

Just watched the Pilot episode of "the West Wing". Got all 'damn, no new episodes till the fall', and started to look up stuff on the net. Found this good article, and of course the Mighty Big TV site, which i've talked about before.

Hey ya'll, SafehouseLive is up and running! Trapeze's big production is up for everyone to check out, so go, now, and enjoy... Make sure you have a fast internet connection (ADSL or Cable), you also need Flash and QuickTime.

August 5 2000

Hey all you non-car owners that need transportation occasionally - check out AutoShare. Sounds pretty good to me...

Hey, you all should get out to the Ontario Renaissance Faire!

Wicked ad for "Freedom" from ZeroKnowledge Systems. Ran in Business Week! cool. I remember reading about these folks quite a while ago, and hoped that they would be able to take off - they are also Canadian! They have all their white papers on-line too, which make pretty interesting reading. (link -> Doc. Searls Weblog)

Hey, i haven't ranted about Zope in a bit, so here you go - there is (finally) a book being published about Zope, and you can read most of it online right now - go check it out.

August 4 2000

Just got back from "Kung Fu Cult Master"! More crazy flying martial arts madness!

Saw a wicked meteor on the way back from the movie. Very bright, lasted all the way across the sky! Must have been quite a large chunk of rock!

Just archived July in "old news".

August 2 2000

Ignition - A Toronto Burning Man Fundraiser
Saturday August 12
Tickets are $6 or pay what you can.
Holy Joe's (Queen St W at Bathurst)
Doors open at 8PM and performances are from 10PM to 2AM.
Local bands, fire-eaters, performance artists and clowns!!!

This is so that we and other toronto/ontario folks heading down to Bman can send stuff in some trucks - we are raising money for more trucks! So, come check it out!

Well, we finally launched our new "corporate site" - check it out at "http://www.trapezemedia.com". A quote from Tonys site "It's got a nice circus-poster feel to it, and manages to be whimsical without being stupid. Interesting use of an animated character who sits in the corner of your browser, spouting random buzzwords".

Also, a cool product to make use of that 386/486 doorstop - NewDeal Office. Comes with a wordprocessor, web browser, email, IRC chat, and it all runs good on low-end computers. And cheap. Have downloaded a demo and will report back... (link -> Bryan)