TechgnosisWeb Prime

Doctor’s Office…

Originally uploaded by Katsushiro.

Long day… and this was my view for about six hours of it. Got out of the doctor’s office after 11 PM, and I have another appointment in a couple of weeks.
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Okay, so I owe you guys a real blog post. It’s coming, don’t worry. In the meantime, I distract you all with this:


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Technorati Tags: distract

****START ALERT****

Orange juice rocks the motherfuckin’ house!!!!

That is all.

****END ALERT****

Over the past month, or so, I’ve been working on a Super Double S33kr1t project for a friend of mine. Without going into too many details, it’s a web-based management application for a new business he’s starting up. We decided to make it web-based so that he could connect to it from anywhere and see how his business is doing. However, since the application will also be used locally at the business, I wanted to approximate the speed and responsiveness of a local app. So I’ve finally dipped my feet into AJAX, also known by the much less sexy name XMLHTTPRequest.

Ajax stands for ‘Asynchronous Javascript and XML‘, or something along those lines. Point is, up until last week or so, before I started working on the actual application coding, I knew nothing about it other than that it existed, and that everyone was all worked up over it for some reason. Don’t get me wrong, I thought AJAX was pretty darn nifty: it allows parts of a webpage to be manipulated and comunicate with a database without having to reload the entire page for every little change, which enables a lot of really cool effects and the ability to write web apps that can be just about as responsive as one running locally. But I wasn’t exactly chomping at the bit to master it, either. The vast majority of my coding these days is in Visual Basic (and that’s VB6, not VB.NET, even) for maintaining old legacy apps for our clients. And when I do any web coding, it’s almost invariably in ASP rather than PHP (although AJAX can be used easily in each one). But, still, not environments that really lend themselves well to experimenting with new things.

Then this new project dropped into my lap, and I decided to take a chance on it and see if this AJAX stuff is all it’s cracked up to be. I didn’t actually get to the web programming until this past week; up until this point I was mostly doing database work. The application keeps track of a fairly large number of interrelated variables, with a lot of things tied together in ways that aren’t always obvious. We’re not talking about an app to organize your CD collection here. Therefore, figuring out how to properly structure the data into different tables, how and where to tie tables into one another, and documenting what I was doing so I wouldn’t be completely lost later when I started crafting up the SQL statements for reports and lists, is very, very important. I’ve learned from experience that a properly structured database at the begginging can save you, literally, weeks of coding effort later on, especially if any changes are requested to the application. Adding or substracting even a single field from a badly designed database can mean having to go through the entire project codebase later on to make sure everything still works. To top it all off, I’ve been working on this app only during my spae time, which, as you may have gathered from my last post, is at a premium these days. So, it took me several weeks and a couple of grudging ‘back-to-the-drawing-board’ moments, but I finally got a workable database in place early last week. Now it’s time for some AJAX.

I suppose that deciding to learn a new programming technique by using it in a huge application may not be the smartest move I’ve ever done, but, luckily, I already knew a lot of the basics behind the core AJAX concept: instead of passing variables and receiving responses and reloading the entire page to display those reponses, I pass the variables over to the little AJAX object, it passes them on to the main script, receives the reponse, and updates just the parts of the page that need updating, without having to reload the whole damn thing. Nifty. Unfortunately, I’d become a bit rusty in my javascript skills, which led to a few false starts and stupid mistakes at first. However, I think I’m getting the hang of it now, and I already have a couple of the main program screens working at about 70% capacity. I’ve also been trying a few things I didn’t think we’re possible in web-based apps before, and I’m liking what I’m seeing.

The application itself if about 10-15% done, overall, but I really expect that number to go up rapidly now that I’ve gotten the hang of this. Plus, the fact that new code ideas keep popping up, means that I’m more willing to spend more of my leisure time on this than I was before, which should also accelerate the final development of the app. And, as a side-bonus, once I’m done with this, I can proudly put on my resume that I am proficient in AJAX coding, and will even have an app I can point at to prove it.
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Technorati Tags: project, web-based, management, business, AJAX, Javascript, XML, VB6, PHP, database, SQL

Allright, who’s going to buy me tickets to L.A. for late February? Because the Kids in the Hall are getting back together for 3 nights of shows in L.A., Feb. 23, 24, and 25. The Steve Allen Theatre where they’ll be performing is a tiny place, seating only around 110, so it should be freakin’ amazing.. and only 330 lucky folks will get to see it. Tickets are going to be just $20, too. Damn. They’re not doing any actual advertising, either it’s all word of mouth, but now that it’s out on the blog-o-sphere, I’m sure they’ll sell out 5 minutes after they go up for sale. Man, what I wouldn’t give to go to that…
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Technorati Tags: Kids in the Hall

Now this is a really interesting thing: hanzo:web, a ‘social webarchiving service‘. What it is, is a mix between a site to store your Bookmarks (’Favorites’, to you stubborn and spyware-ridden Internet Explorer users) so they’re accessible from any computer, and the Internet Archive, keeping a full archived copy of the bookmarked site available, so that if the original site goes down or is changed, you can see exactly what it looked like when you bookmarked it.

That’s pretty handy, I gotta say. Especially for folk like me, who day in and day out trawl technical blogs, which sometimes have a nasty tendency of being there one day, and being down the next when their maintaner gets bored with them. However, I can see it working handily for the pr0n-hounds among you: surfing for pr0n and you find something nice, you can use hanzo:web to not only bookmark the site, but cache a full copy of it in case the site goes away, as many pr0n sites do. From their website:

Reliable access
Hanzo servers continually crawl the web as directed by you, archiving your chosen sites and providing free access to the archives forever. Even if you cancel your account, the archive content will remain, as will your access to it.
Respect for content
All archived pages, links and sites are stored exactly as they appeared on the web. Pictures, objects, links and flash are all retained as they are, preserved as originally conceived.
Durability
Hanzo stores all archived content and user metadata in open web archive standards-based formats.

I just got my beta login today, and I’ll be playing around with it, see what I think. There’s a few different service levels, from the free one which allows you to archive around 100MB per month, to more advanced ones that allow you to archive from 1 to 10 GB per month. And the cool thing is that even if you discontinue the service, the sites you’ve archived remain archived pretty much forever, so they’re never lost, no matter what. Lots of promise here.
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Technorati Tags: hanzo:web, social, webarchiving, Internet Archive

So, over on Spiffy Japan, yet another member site of the ever-growing and nigh-unstoppable Techgnosisweb Blog Empire, has been spreading the word about Chuckmania. So now it’s my turn to share a little of the Chuck-love, with this video I found of the man himself, Chuck “Holy Fucking Shit It’s Chuck” Norris, reacting to the recent furor over his unbridled majesty:

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Technorati Tags: Spiffy Japan, Techgnosisweb, Chuckmania, Chuck, Norris

That’s right. Pherotones. Celphone ringtones that supposedly make you irresistible to the opposite sex. Right. Well, if nothing else, I’ve gotta give them credit for having the balls to put up a bunch of cheesy celphone ringtones and slap crap like “One day, science will understand Pherotones and their awesome power to attract the opposite sex.” around them..

My favorite Pherotone? The Wizard’s Sleeve, of course:

The Wizard’s Sleeve
Just because you are a fourth-level cleric-warrior-elf with a bag of gold, four soul daggers, and a magic fire emerald doesn’t mean you can’t also be lucky with the ladies. This Pherotone is more powerful than a 25-year-old Dungeon Master. So drop that book, turn in your 20-sided die, untuck your t-shirt and start casting your own spells for a change.

Update: But wait, there’s more! The good.. err.. doctor?… err.. Dr. Myra Vanderhood has her own surprisingly convincing blog where she details her experiences with Pherotones. If nothing else, it’s a hoot to read. I’m thinking of maybe downloading that Wizard’s Sleeve one, slapping it on the ol’ Katsuphone, and using it around the office. If I catch the secretary making googly-eyes at me, I’ll be as surprised as anyone.

Update yet again!: There’s also a Wikipedia article up on these things, but, of course, it’s currently being disputed. Go look at it and have a chuckle before it inevitably gets taken down.
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Technorati Tags: Pherotones, Celphone, ringtones, sex

So, we’re about 2/3 of the way into January, and I only get into making some resolutions now. I think that shows you a bit of how hectic 2006 has been, but it’s, overall, a good kind of hectic.

Now, I’ve got a few things I’ve learned in the past year, that I want to act upon, so I can move forward with my life. And as cheesy as New Year’s Resolutions tend to be, I sort of figure that putting them out there in a public way might be a decent way to help me stick to them. Heck, maybe I can do some sort of public checklist on the sidebar somewhere to track the progress, and cross them off as I meet each one… there’s few things more satisfying than crossing things off a list. Well, until I can do something like that, here’s my current list. Please, feel free to comment, add support, and suggest other things I might want to add there.

• Get at least two more Microsoft certifications this year. I don’t know where the future will take me, but, never having finished college, my tech certs are all I can count on to carry me through to wherever I may go. Need to keep getting those.
• Get weight back down to under 200. Not for looks (as no one can argue that I am one hot piece of ass), but for health. Yeah, I know that at 5′8″-ish my ideal weight is far below 200, but I’m currently pushing 240, and that can’t be good. So, getting back below 200 will be a good step forward. Also, my blood pressure and cholesterol are, thankfully, currently within normal parameters, but I’d like to keep them that way. Besides, if I ever hope to achieve my stated goal of Immortality, I’d better start taking better care of myself, no?
• Podcast at least once a month. For myself, if nothing else. It forces me to be slightly creative, it’s good stress relief (and, trust me, I need stress relief often with this job), and I really do love doing it. This is part of a general ‘find more me time’ resolution, really.
• Spend more quality time with my girlfriend. We do live together, so we do spend lots of regular old time together, but we don’t spend enough quality time together. Find things to do together, spend time, appreciate one another, and all that jazz. And, no, playing World of Warcraft together doesn’t count. Well… sometimes it counts.
• Take better care of my health. I’ve already started on this, since my last doctor’s visit was on the 10th, and I have another one on the 30th to deal with my ongoing thyroid issues (which are probably related to the weight gain and lack of energy). But in addition to that, I have to be more conscientious about taking my vitamins, cut down a bit on the fried foods, and do some basic working out, whether it be doing DDR (and keeping track of my DDR progress), or running, or whatever.
• Write, goddamit. Either here on the blog, or separately, or continue with Massively Multiplayer, but write. Stop just listening to shows like I Should be Writing and The Secrets, and just do it. Who cares if it’s crap? Your next stuff will be better.
• Slap my finances back into shape. Originally, this was going to be ‘Get out of debt.’, but with my girlfriend going back to school and the related expenses, that’s unlikely. However, I have two major debts that I’ve been slowly paying off for years, and I did the math and I’m 99.9% certain I can pay off both those debts this year, which will free up around $350 a month for me. And an extra $350 a month would make a huge difference in my life. Also, with the recent change in my work environment and status, I’m going to try to push towards earning more, and that involves being even more disciplined in my work (the irony of writing this sentence on my blog while I’m at a client’s office during work hours is not lost on me).
• Drink less soda, drink more.. other stuff. Tea, maybe? I really have to find ways to wean myself off of soda. It’s not the caffeine, it’s the carbonation. The thought of passing a kidney stone is not a pleasant one. Anybody got suggestions on stuff that I could drink more of that’s not soda (and, no, beer doesn’t count. Sure, it’s not soda, but a health drink it ain’t.) And finally…
• Spend a little less time in front of the computer. Yeah, I’m not asking for a miracle here, but, really, sometimes I just sit there in front of the computer clicking on web page links for no reason at all. Find something else to do: read a book, play a game (bonus points if it’s not a video game, extra bonus points if it’s a board game with other people, and finish the bottle if it’s one of those excellent german board games with other people), go and take a drive, whatever. It’ll be good for me.

Allright, I think that about covers it. Comments? Bring ‘em on.:)
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David Wellington rocks my world. He writes excellent, gory, supernatural zombie novels, and he puts them online, bit by bit, in serialized form. His zombie trilogy, Monster Island, Monster Nation, and Monster Planet, are each one more excellent than the last, and the first one, Monster Island, is now being published in print form as well.

Now, I love my big novels and books (I do have about 8 different and fairly massive fantasy novels in Glitch at any given point, and I’m currently re-reading Tad Williams’ kickass Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy), but I’ve grown fond of the serialized novel format, my own semi-abortive efforts in the area notwithstanding. There’s something about just having short bits of novel available that I can read in a few minutes, or, thanks to Glitch, that I can read entirely whenever I’ve got a couple of minutes wherever I may be, such as standing in line for lunch. Plus I do rather enjoy the anticipation of waiting for the next chapter after each cliffhanger-esque bit is done. Same thing with podiobooks (their site just got redesigned recently, and it looks great, go check it out!), chapters and relatively short bits of audiobooks that are delivered in serialized form, that I can listen to on my way to or from work. Good stuff.

So, anyway, back to David Wellington: he’s just started a new novel, called Thirteen Bullets. From zombies, we head on to vampire land, in grand style. I love the way David puts his own weird spin on his undead protagonists, with the zombies in his previous novels being fascinating and complex beings all their own, and he seems to be heading in the same direction with Thirteen Bullets. If you’re interested at all, right now is a great time to hop in, as he’s only 5 chapters in, so you can read the previous ones quickly, decide if you like it, and keep going as he keeps releasing the next ones. My reccomendation? Get an RSS reader and subscribe to the novel’s RSS feed, so you can get the chapters automatically delivered to you as soon as they come out, rather than having to check the site over and over to see if there’s been an update. I’ve got the feed in Egress over in Glitch, and it works great, I get to take it with me everywhere I go.
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Technorati Tags: David Wellington, zombie novels, serialized, trilogy, novels, podiobooks, Thirteen Bullets, vampire, RSS

So, I’ve been using Netflix for a few months now, and loving it. Incredible selection, relatively fast service (considering we’re on a tropical island), separate rental lists for the girlfriend and I, and no thrice-damned late fees. I may never set foot inside a Blockbuster’s again. However, not all is perfect: sometimes, I spend way too much time with a movie sitting atop the table, unwatched. No late fees is cool, but I’m paying a monthly fee for this! I need to get my money’s worth, and that means watching and returning movies on a reasonable timeframe.

Enter my current dillema: Buckaroo Banzai. This is one of those movies I’ve been meaning to see since damn near forever, but it’s also a prime example of why the girlfriend and I have separate rental queues; this isn’t exactly her idea of high cinema.

Banzai’s been sitting on the table next to the TV, unwatched, since early December. I keep meaning to watch it, but something always pops up, or I get distracted, or I’m just not in the mood to watch a movie at that moment. And so it remains unwatched, and unreturned, and the other movies and series in my queue are stuck there.

So I start thinking that it would be neat to be able to just take it with me and watch it at work on my lunch break, bit by bit, at my leisure. Unfortunately, I never did get around to puttig a DVD drive on my PC, so I didn’t think that was gonna happen. Then, I remembered the Mac: it has a DVD reader drive, right? One quick hunt online later, I’ve got a couple of free apps downloaded on the Mac that look like they’ll do the job: Handbrake and iSquint. Let’s rip.

Put the DVD in, kill DVD Player when it loads up, and bring up Handbrake. Wait for Handbrake to recognize the DVD… this takes longer than it should, but oh well. Once it’s all loaded up, I rip the movie to an AVI with MP3 audio. On my 1Ghz iMac with a measly 256 MB of RAM, this takes just about as long as the video itself, so about an hour and 42 minutes for Banzai. Once it’s done, I’ve got an ~850MB AVI file sitting on my desktop. Click it and it looks great: if I really wanted to, I could just archive a good chunk of my movies digitally like this and be quite happy with the quality. But we’re not done yet: that sucker’s way too big for little old Glitch. iSquint to the rescue. I was expecting more settings to it, but it’s only got two: iPod and TV. There are some advanced settings if you really want, but there’s not much to them. Luckily, iSight’s iPod settings work perfectly well on Glitch, at least if you use TCPMP to view the movie instead of the awful built-in media player. Re-encoding for Glitch takes about as long as the movie itself once more, so another hour and a half, but we end up with a ~200 MB MP4 file that fits snugly in Glitch’s SD memory card. I grab glitch, hit play, and it’s all good. A litle smaller than I’d like due to the Extreme Widescreen used in this movie, so there’s some larger-than-usual black bars on top and bottom, but perfectly watchable, nice and crisp.

And so that’s it. The Banzai DVD’s on it’s way back to Netflix, and I’m watching my movie comfortably during my downtimes wherever I may happen to be. I think I may have to do this more often. Note: yes, I know I could have skipped iSquint and probably encoded directly to Glitch-friendly format from Handbrake, but I’m not terribly well versed in MP4 encoding details, so I don’t know what bit-rate and other settings to use for good playback on a mobile device. iSquint takes care of that easily, and having to wait another hour and a half is nothing when you’ve got a Tauren Shaman to level up in WoW while you wait for the encoding to finish.
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Technorati Tags: Netflix, Blockbuster, Buckaroo Banzai, Mac, Handbrake, iSquint, rip, DVD, video, MP4

Late to the party, as usual, but this is easily the funniest thing to come out of SNL since.. well, since SNL was funny. And, no, still haven’t seen Narnia in the theaters.

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Technorati Tags: SNL, Narnia

Props to the Second Life guys and gals, they’ve made the closest thing to a real Snow Crash-esque metaverse we’re likely to see in a good long while. Proof? Besides things like virtual book signings (I’ll treasure my signed in-world copy of Cory’s book forever, or until a server wipe deletes it!), and rockin’ New Year’s parties, they’re being visited by some of the real luminaries of the Free Culture movement. Case in point: Lawrence Lessig, brilliant lawyer and author of such books as Code and other laws of cyberspace, and Free Culture, will be dropping by Second Life next Wednesday, January 18th. He’ll be interviewed and will sign virtual copies of Free Culture (I’m getting mine ASAP), should be really interesting. Lawrence is the man who helped advise the Second Life guys on making all the user-created content inside of Second Life belong to the users themselves, a first in online games.
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Technorati Tags: Second Life, Snow Crash, metaverse, Cory, Free Culture, Lawrence Lessig

Yeah, sorry about the extended absence. No, the WMF bug didn’t eat me or anything, but the late island holiday season did. Between high weirdness at work, needy family, doctor’s visits, and my rediscovery of WoW (Tauren Shamans FTW!!!11 Alliance r t3h pussies LOLROFL!!1), I really haven’t had the time, energy, or desire to blog, podcast, or anything else of the sort. My apologies.

However, things seem to be stabilizing @ work again, and seeing as that’s where I do the bulk of my blogging (yeah, you’d think I’d do, you know, work at work, but you’d be wrong), I figured I should at the very least pop in and say a quick hello so the (pretentious word alert!) blogosphere doesn’t completely forget about me. While we’re at it, I’m testing a Firefox extension I just installed, the Performancing Blog Extension, which installs a full blog-posting interface into your ‘fox that you can show or hide at will by just hitting F8. You configure it to connect to your blog automatically,and you can create new blog posts and edit old ones right within the browser without having to go to your blog and log in. It’s pretty sweet, has a simply WYSIWYG interface, html code view, and can even handle Technorati Tags, for those so inclined. So you can have your Firefox tabs and show and hide your blog post at will as you write it, without having to be going back and forth to your blog. I quite like it, and recommend it to my fellow blogger-types.
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Technorati Tags: WMF bug, holiday season, family, WoW, Performancing, Firefox

UPDATE: After receiving a metric buttload of grief from pretty much the entire interweb, Microsoft has finally released an official patch. Go here to download it, and be sure to uninstall the unofficial patch first if you installed it (Go to Control Panel>Add/Remove Programs and look for ‘Windows WMF Vulnerability Hotfix’).

Guys: I know you guys are, for the most part, not as geeky as I am, but hear me out on this one. There’s a pretty massive security hole that was just discovered in Windows, big enough that I’m not even gonna waste time bashing Windows or saying ’switch to Linux, n00b’. I’m just gonna explain what the problem is, and then, real quick, how you can fix it.

The vulnerability is being called “the WMF flaw“, it basically uses a hole in the code for how Windows processes ‘Windows MetaFile’ format files, which is a type of graphic file. Using this hole, an attacker can run and execute any random code he wants, bypassing all manners of security in your system, up to and including anti-virus and anti-spyware software. Simply blocking .wmf files doesn’t work: the attacker can rename the file with any extension he wants, such as .gif or .jpg, and include it as part of a normal webpage: once windows reads the headers of the file, it will try to handle it with the WMF engine, and you’re fucked. Using Firefox or Opera will NOT protect you either! Since the flaw is in the way Windows itself renders the images, not in the browser, using an alternate browser won’t help you in this case, therefore, browsing the web with any broswer on Windows is currently unsafe. There is currently NO patch for this bug from Microsoft, and we cannot expect one before January 10, or even as late as February 14th, depending on their patching schedule.

In the 48 hours since the vulnerability has been discovered, spyware and virus spreaders have gone nuts. Just visiting a website with banner ads on it could infect you, as those banner ads are served, often, by third parties, so even on sites you know and trust, you could be infected. At least one spyware vendor has been confirmed to be using this exploit to install their crap, downloading a chunk of malware that, within 5 minutes, infects you machine with over 8 viruses, at least 10 different types of spyware, and makes it nearly impossible to surf the web or use the computer reliably.

What can you do to protect yourself? Well, don’t use the web would seem to be the only option, given Microsoft’s lack of response to this issue. There are some workarounds, but most of them require a fairly high level of technical knowhow and none of them work 100%. However, there is one option, if you’re willing to take something of a chance. An UNofficial patch has been released by the good folks at HexBlog that patches the hole and prevents this exploit from being utilized on your machine. Keep in mind, this patch is made by a third party, so you’re taking a risk. But the good folks at SANS have looked at the patch very, very closely and declared it safe, so that’s good enough for me. Would I recommend it? You’re taking a chance, but there’s an even bigger chance that your computer will be hijacked by all sorts of nasties before the week is over if you don’t patch, so, go for it. I installed it on my machines at home. I suggest you do the same, as I’ve already spent a good chunk of the holiday season cleaning cruft out of friend’s and family’s computers, and I have no desire to have to do so again.

Questions? Put ‘em in the comments, I’ll try to help you out.

Technorati Tags: security hole, WMF flaw, WMF, spyware, SANS

As usual, I’m late to the party, but I’m gonna go ahead and take the chance that at least a few of my readers haven’t heard about Dean Gray’s American Edit: it’s a mashup album, consisting or remixes of all of the songs from Greenday’s American Idiot album, mixed in with everything from Kanye West to U2 to Dr. Who. It’s a downright amazing piece of work, creating a whole new, brilliantly produced work from the parts of all the songs used. If anyone out there thinks that ‘mashups aren’t art’, you need to give American Edit a listen.

Of course, as with most mashups, American Edit is quite illegal, thanks to the draconian copyright laws that the music industry is so fond of. So, not long after Dean Gray put the album out, he got served with a heaping helping of Cease and Desist, and took the album down. And everyone who actually likes music recoiled in fear and horror, and last December 13, Gray Tuesday was held, both in protest and as a way to spread the album further. Sadly, my mind was elsewhere when this all happened, so I’m quite late to the party. But yesterday, I ran across a bittorrent of the album, and I hooked right onto it. It finished downloading last night, and I’ve been listening to it since.

Damn that’s good!

You may be wondering what all the fuss is about. I tell you: listen to this album. Can’t get it? Bittorrent is your friend, and so am I. I’ll burn a copy to any of my friends who asks, gladly, just ask on the comments, or email, Skype, or Gizmo me. Hell, I’ll likely be exposing everyone I can to this. It’s that good. Now, go listen, before I sic Flopsy after you.

Additional pimpage: Q-Unit (Queen vs. 50 Cent album, also freakin’ brilliant - the pictue of Fiddy as Freddie Mercury alone is worth the price of admission!), Creative Commons licensing would have made this all so simple.
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Technorati Tags: Dean Gray, American Edit, mashup, copyright, Gray Tuesday, bittorrent, Q-Unit, Creative Commons

Flopsy the Face-Fucking Bunny

Originally uploaded by Katsushiro.

This is Flopsy. Flopsy likes to fuck faces. You can see him here, face-fucking one of the other bunnies in his cage. In the 5 minutes I watched him, Flopsy methodically sought out the other bunnies in the cage, went right up to their faces, and proceeded to fuck them, at least 3 of them that I saw. This was not a case of mistaking the ass for the face, either. Several of the other bunnies were facing correctly when he approached them, for him to mount them from behind; Flopsy, however, actually took the trouble of circling around them and going right for their faces, humping furiously. I’d like to nominate Flopsy as the official representative of 2005, and I dare to hope that 2006 will not fuck me in the face.

Well, it’s time to celebrate the coming of the new year, and since it’s 5 minutes from midnight on the 31st as I write this.. let me step away from the keyboard and go kiss my woman for a bit…

Ahhh, back. Poured myself some coquito to chill with while the neanderthals outside are entranced by the magical exploding lights in the sky, shooting their boomsticks in the air and revving up their horseless carriages in what appears to be some sort of superstitious ritual intended to ward off evil spirits. I hate them all. And so, in this holiday spirit, let’s have a look back at the past year on the blog:

• January: Ahh, podcasting. Back before the Katsu Show degenerated into a rarely-updated cuss-fest, I was actually trying to keep some sort of tech show going. How naive.
• February: Sockbaby, Superman and an emo streak. Not one of my better months, having been overworked and going through some personal problems. Still, I survived. Hooray for me.
• March: Evo discovers this humble blog, I discover the joys of screen protectors for Glitch, Mr. T moves into my pocket (and my heart), and we say a fond farewell to the meanest critter I’ve ever had the displeasure of owning: I still miss you, Yuki.
• April: Work, taxes, aliens, and Earthcore. This was one of the better months, actually, and we first welcome Lord Absu to the ever-growing Techgnosisweb Blog Empire.
• May: This the month to be techy. Random gadgets, and an epic battle against a celphone provider as my boss finally gets me a company celphone. Additionally, Flickr and Textamerica battle it out for supremacy, and we welcome the Beautiful Monster into the family.
• June: Writing… problems with the woman I love, and getting by despite being overworked. A spate of skepticality, and random techie notes. Not the best month, but I survived again.
• July: Sidewindow, Konfabulator, Book signings in virtual worlds, Nethack, and my 500th post: geekiest month so far.
• August: Massively Multiplayer, I lust after a completely impractical watch, I pimp out my GBA, and Hulk Hogan helps us welcome the Flying Spaghetti Monster into our hearts. Overall, my birthday month was a good one.
• September: Katrina hits, Derek goes down, and I move into a new office, complete with squid god. I learn to make sushi, Spiffy Japan joins the family, and Advent Children rocks my tiny, self-centered world. Mixed month, overall, but I think more good than bad, on a personal level.
• October: A month of long-ass posts. Serenity comes out, and I am in awe. I watch some bad sci fi and fantasy, get hooked on Sudoku, and dream about what I’d liek to do to my car. I get pwned by a Jack Thompson impersonator, but my ‘Open Letter’ is so good that I don’t care. Sadly, we say goodbye to the beautiful Blue, who joins Yuki. I miss you, girl. We get geeky, we get skeptical, but above all, we learn that Liberty Cablevision sucks ass. Also, I get a Mac. Pretty eventful month, considering I didn’t do anything for Halloween.
• November: Starting to close up the year now… Evolution vs. ID hits us again, I ph34r my health plan, and your mind and eyes are both scarred by Ron Jeremy. Guitar Hero helps me rock out, even as I sell out to The Man and put Google Ads on the site (click on ‘em, you ungrateful louts!). I explain my atheism, and expose the contents of my bag to the world. Jan spends a year without blogging, and I conquer the Mac’s wireless quirks, with the help of Cthulhu and the Family Circus. Finally, we all learn a valuable lesson: the only reason anyone ever visits this site is ’cause they were looking for pcitures of kittens.
• December: And so we come to the present, where I geek out about eBooks, start putting Massively Multiplayer out as a podiobook, and celebrate Agnostica, with the help of Glitch’s new WiFi card. ID is dealt a blow, my squirrel experiences are shared with the world, and I actually go out to a party, including photographic proof that I actually have friends. Like, meat friends. Made of meat. Yummy, delicious meat.

And there you have it, folks. 2005, in a nutshell. Now, who’s with me in welcoming 2006 and hoping for even more random shit to blog about? Have a great New year’s Day, hope you all got home safe and your hangovers aren’t too horrible, and keep an eye on the site for 2006. I promise more stuff. Always, more stuff. (more…)

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