TechgnosisWeb Prime

Einstein LOL

Originally uploaded by Katsushiro.

Found a site that lets you do remixes of the famous Einstein E=mc^2 foto, so I whipped this one up real quick. I know a couple of people who will get the joke. (thanks, BoingBoing!)
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Technorati Tags: remix, Einstein, joke, BoingBoing

Anyone out there on AIM? I know that most of the folks I interact with are on MSN and know me there as fourthfate@hotmail.com (yeah, I already get a butload of spam at that address, another extra helping won’t kill me), a few more of you know me as 9616049 on ICQ, and a couple more know me as fourthfate on Yahoo. I’m also Katsushiro on GTalk. But I’ve a feeling none of you know me as Katsu42 on AIM. And now, the none of you that are on AIM, can talk to an electronic version of me there: KatsuBot! Just send a message to KatsuBot on AIM and he’ll respond; he’s a little quirky, as you’ll probably notice, but that’s not so different from the real me. He also has a few useful functions, such as weather and theater listings, just send the word ‘help’ to the KatsuBot and he’ll let you know what he can do. I’m also working on adding a few more functions, with time, such as listing the latest postings on the Techgnosisweb Blog Empire memeber blogs, for the future. As for the rest: I’m looking for a good MSN bot program, I’ll be sure to post up here when KatsuBot for MSN becomes available.
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Technorati Tags: AIM, MSN, ICQ, Yahoo, GTalk, KatsuBot

I ran across a reccomendation by Cory over on BoingBoing to check out Kelly Link’s new book, ‘Magic for Beginners‘, and her previous work, ‘stranger things happen‘, so, like any good Doctorow-fan, I trundled off and checked it out. ’stranger things happen’ is available as a free Creative Commons-licensed download, so I snagged the HTML version, and started to read. Both books are short story collections, and, if sth is any indication, they’re brilliant. I’m really, really loving this so far, but then again, I’ve always been a sucker for magic realism and such. I liked it so much that after converting the HTML file to MobiPocket format so I could read it on Glitch, I sent it in to them so they could put it up, and they did (scroll down to ‘Bonus Conversions’)!

’stranger things happen’ was a Salon Book of the Year, and stories from it have won the Nebula, Tiptree, and World Fantasy Awards. ‘Magic for Beginners’ has been voted ‘Best of the Year’ in Time Magazine, Salon, Village Voice and the San Francisco Chronicle. Both collections are brilliant, and I plan to buy myself a copy of ‘Magic for Beginners’ very soon. I highly reccomend you check them out as well. Go and download one of the versions of ’stranger things happen’ and give it a read, won’t cost you a dime. Oh, and you can read the title story from ‘Magic for Beginners’ here for free as well!
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Technorati Tags: Cory, Kelly Link, book, Magic for Beginners, stranger things happen, Creative Commons, magic realism, MobiPocket

Bad food, bad service

Originally uploaded by Katsushiro.

Now, I know I shouldn’t expect much from a food place at the mall, but this is a special occasion.

I’ve just paid nearly $9 for what is easily one of the worst Caesar Salads (plus 4 truly sad little strips of cold, rubbery chicken) I’ve ever tried to choke down. The culprit? ‘La Parrilla Argentina’, third floor food court, Plaza Las Americas. I get there, see the signs, and, hey, look, a Chicken Ceasar Salad, in combo with a drink and 2 side dishes, for $5.99! Not too bad, right? Too good to be true, as it turns out.

Things started out badly, as I stood in front of the cash register for nearly 3 minutes while the cashier bimbo stared off into space, perhaps considering wether to take my order, perhaps pondering the mysteries of the universe.. or perhaps trying to get her last two neurons to spark. Anyway, I finally place my order, and it turns out that the Chicken Ceasar Salad does *not* come in a combo, regardless of what the sign says… well, whatever, it looks like a big salad, right? Allright, gimme the salad and a large iced tea. Sure, that’ll be $8.something.

..

WTF? Yeah, turns out the large iced tea is $2.25 or so. Ouch. Well, at least it’s 32 ounces of refreshing and cold iced tea goodness, right? Sure, of course. Hold that thought, I’ll get back to the iced tea later. So, I overpay for the ‘meal’, and step to the side to wait for the order. As I wait, about 4 other people order, not to mention the 2 guys that were already waiting before me. The food was actually ready pretty quickly… the problem was actually getting it. The cook was doing a fine enough job of dispatching the orders… but the cashier bimbo who had to put the food on the trays and bring it to us was busy staring off into space and hitting the buttons on the cash register in a zombie-like stupor. A couple of guys tried to get her attention and point out that their food was rapidly growing cold behind her, but she gave them an annoyed look, waved them off, and pressed a few more buttons. Note, no one was ordering while she pushed the buttons.

So, I finally get my salad. Gah. The poster showed well-cooked, hot grilled chicken strip atop a lush green salad coated in thick Caesar dressing and chunky croutons. The thing on my plate bore about as much resemblance to that as I do to Dolly Parton. Rubbery, cold, undercooked chicken strips. Wilted lettuce. Caesar dressing that looked like motor oil. And those shady, tiny little croutons you buy in the supermarket for a buck a bag. Not appetizing in the least. But I just paid way too much money for this to just throw it away. So I sit down, and dig in.

Ugh. Even as I write this, my stomach’s grumbling ominously. I really shouldn’t have made myself eat that shit. At least I had my tall, frosty glass of iced tea to ease the pain, right? Right, if you change ‘tall and frosty’ to ‘warm and gag-inducing’, and ‘iced tea’ to ‘colored water with the faint taste of sugar somewhere in there’. Sigh…

The meal was so bad that I couldn’t wait to get home to write this up: I’m typing this up on Glitch at the same table where I was subjected to this vile meal, giving the place dirty looks all the while. And I’ll be posting this right away with the KatsuPhone. The world needs to know.

And, yes, in principle, I could have demanded my money back, or demanded a better, different meal.. but would it have made a difference, really? There was no manager in sight, the cook and the cashier zombie were clearly underage stoners, and I would have had to stand there for an hour or more making a scene just to get my money back. And then I would still have had to find another place to eat. I’m hard up for money, but not *that* hard up. But at least I can warn off my readers from that place.

Where’s Katsu?, Vol. 4

Originally uploaded by Katsushiro.

It’s time once again to play ‘Where’s Katsu?’! Today, Katsu is driving through the heart of the Insurance District (yes, there is such a thing). Katsu would rather be at home, where, rumor has it, his connection is downloading at 3Mbps.

It’s no secret that Second Life, the virtual world where all the cool kids hang out (warning, link requires Second Life software and account installed to work!), is home to many wonders, incredible places, bizarre creations and fascinating flights of fancy. It’s also home to a bevy of digital prostitutes, selling their time and avatars in exchange for L$. Some do little more than provide the typical chat-room cybersex you can find on IRC, while others go all out and trick out their avatars with clickable nipples, detailed sexual animations, extremely lifelike skins, and even sounds. Now, one guy has gotten it into his head to rate and review these online hookers: Second Life Escort Ratings. Totally NSFW, but it’s worth a visit and a read, there’s something inherently fascinating about this, and one gets the feeling that he’s actually looking for something specific, not just rating them to rate them.
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Technorati Tags: Second Life, virtual world, wonders, prostitutes, avatars, cybersex, hookers, Escort, NSFW

… apparently, not terribly sick at all. So, I claimed a few days ago to be putting together a post on the aftermath of my doctor’s visit, and apparently, when I say ‘tomorrow’, I actually mean ’several days from now, maybe’. Let’s get down to it, then so I can get back to ranting about geeky things:

The test results came in, I sat for about 8 hours waiting for the doctor to pay attention to me. Luckily, technology kept me from going insane: I listened to a few podcasts on the iPod, watched all of Corpse Bride on Glitch, caught up on my RSS feeds on Glitch too, used the Katsuphone to check my mail, and even played a couple of games on my GBA using the Flash cart. Finally, just as the batteries were starting to give up on my varied and sundry electronics, the doctor called me into her office. She took a look at my tests results and gave me a mix of good news and bad news. The good news? I’m apparently healthy as a horse. My blood pressure levels are excellent, my cholesterol levels are fabulous with the ‘bad’ cholesterol levels pretty low and the ‘good’ cholesterol levels at a nice number. Everything else from the test showed completely normal levels, or even better than normal. As for my thryoid levels, which were the main worry here, they were also completely normal, so it turns out that there’s nothing wrong with my thyroid after all.. at least, nothing in the levels of hormones and such that they pump out.

The bad news? I’m healthy as a horse. Therefore, I can’t blame my being overweight and my general lack of energy on any thyroid issues. Looks like I’m just a lazy-assed bum, and if I want to get back to the slim(esque) physique of my younger years, it’s a matter of getting off my ass and doing some excercise.

So what’s next? Well, test results notwithstanding, I still have a weird lump on my neck where my thyroid gland is, so that needs to be dealt with. In order to figure out what we’re dealing with here, the doctor ordered a test that’s comic-book-esque in nature: I am to drink some sort of radioactive liquid, and then my body is to be bombarded with additional radiation (whether it’s gamma rays or the more potent ‘cosmic’ rays, I don’t know yet) . She claims this will allow them to determine if the lump on my neck is ‘hot’ or ‘cold’, and what needs to be done from there. Frankly, I think that test is more likely to give me superpowers than anything else.

I just want to point out, right now, that I make absolutely no promises about using my new powers solely for good.
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Technorati Tags: sick, doctor, blood pressure, cholesterol, thryoid, bum, radiation

Server Room…

Originally uploaded by Katsushiro.

Continuing the ‘Where the Hell is Katsu today?’ series, I present a pic of the server room for the company where I’ve been doing most of my work for this past week. A pretty impressive rig, as far as local companies go. A mix of old and new servers, all making quite the cacophony. Unfortunately, the computer where they’ve set me up is completely visible to anyone entering the door to the room, so it’s kind of hard to get away with my usual tricks and schemes. Ah well. At least everyone’s out to lunch now, so I can share this pic.
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So, for the longest time I’ve had a dickens of a time getting a good night’s sleep. You see, since I live in a tropical island, the nights can get pretty balmy, and often, a plain old fan won’t cut it. So, not that long ago, we put in an air conditioner in the bedroom. This has generally been a Good Thing ™. However, air conditioners have a certain side effect, besides just cooling the air: they tend to dry it out. This was ok at first, but as time passed, I noticed that I was constantly getting up with my nose and mouth bone dry, and my throat feeling scratchy and uncomfortable. This has progressed to the point where it’s difficult for me to get a good nights sleep, due to having difficulty breathing the excessively dry air. So, tonight, I finally broke down, drove by Walgreens, and plunked down a couple bucks for a little humidifier unit. Cleaned it out, filled it up, plugged it in, and it’s sitting in a corner right now, happily humming and gurgling to itself and spewing out a little cloud of cool moisture into the air. On the other side of the room, the air conditioner emits its own, slightly more ominous hum, as it brings the room temperature down to the high 60’s, which is perfect sleeping temperature as far as I’m concerned. I’m hoping that between the humidifier spewing out moisture, and the AC sucking it in, we can achieve some sort of happy medium that will allow me to actually get some decent sleep again. And if that doesn’t work.. well, surely there’s *some* gizmo or gadget that will save me, no? technology, in thee I place my faith.

Tomorrow: the aftermath of my doctor’s visit, and my upcoming transformation into a superhero.
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Technorati Tags: tropical, air conditioner, humidifier

Waiting for the boss…

Originally uploaded by Katsushiro.

We finally have a new office, and I was going to go see it earlier today, but work was nuts, as usual, and topping it off, my boss’ cel went nuts, so he’s off @ Cingular picking himself up one of those HP Communicator gizmos, which I’d totally be jealous of if I didn’t already have Glitch… bah, who am I kidding? I totally want one. Anyway, while I wait for all this to happen, I went to cash in my check @ Plaza, and while I wait for the fateful call to go check out the new office, I figured I’d document it. So there you go: Wednesday around dinnertime @ La Terraza. Hooray.
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