Why the N-Gage Sucks

Every once in a while I read something about how Nokia is trying to diversify and it invariably refers to the N-Gage and that project's failure. I can sum up the failure of the N-Gage in one sentence:

You can't expect to put something out that does half as much as the competition at twice the price and still be successful.

You'd have thought that their marketing people would have seen this from the start just like everyone who chose not to buy an N-Gage. I think sometimes business decisions have a momentum that can't be stopped by common sense.

Karoke Pop Star

I just saw Joss Stone's new Gap commercial where she sings 'Night Time is the Right Time'. Is it just me or is she just a professional karoke singer? I know she's hot but her only hit was the White Stripe cover of 'Fell In Love With a Girl' which baffeled me because the original couldn't have been on the radio more than a year before. I dunno, shouldn't you have to wait at least ten years before you can cover a song and still be credible?

Joss Stone

Guy Won't Return Custard Finger

You know, there are some real jerks in the world but we really need to revoke this guys citizenship.
Fight over finger found in custard
This guy found a finger in his custard and he wouldn't return it so they could reattach it because he wanted it as evidence for his lawsuit. He obviously wasn't that traumatized. People in this country need to stop treating incidents without real damages as hitting the lottery.

StopherSpace.com

Well you've read the blog, now visit the website:

www.stopherspace.com

I registered my own domain last week. It's kinda neat because this hosting company has a development plan that gives you an asp.net 2.0 site and access to a sql server and it's only $3/month with the first 3 months free. It's a pretty good deal. I couldn't find anything else for less than 18ish. Don't know how much work I'll do on the page. Mostly just using the space to learn asp.net. I paid an extra 17 bucks to register my domain. I have my own email now chris@stopherspace.com

Beware the AOL Instant Messenger Trojan

Well it's been a while since I've posted, but I saw something interesting today I wanted to write about. Whilst I was goofing off on my computer I received an IM from my cousin Kara with a link that said, "Check this out." Looks like a website. I notice she's idle so she's probably not using her computer. I click the link and it's some kind of executable called funnypics.com. I didn't run it but I saved it and scanned it but my free AVG anti virus didn't recognize it.
My other cousin said he got the same message from her and was immediately suspicious as well. I'm pretty sure it has to be a new Trojan that works through AOL's instant messenger. I'm sure we'll see this one on the news within a day or so. How long before this technique hits the other messengers. I told my other cousin this is the family IQ test.

A Maniac's Maniac

I meant to post this a while ago. It's a Reuter's story about a drunk guy who told all his friend's at the pub he'd cut off his own nuts if Wales beat England in soccer and then he did it.
Well, at Least He Won't Be Fathering More Fans...
Now I've been out drinking before, but you've hit the next level when it seems like a good idea to cut off your own balls. The closest thing to this I can think of is my friend Kenny's story about this friend of our's who got wrecked on a cruise and started punching himself in the nuts. That story alone made me nauseous.

West Wing 2

In my earlier post I had said how I predicted Jimmy Smits would be the winner of the West Wing Presidential Race because of the show's billing. I think the producers have responded to people like me because I was watching the West Wing Corn King episode I had missed and I had noticed that they've switched to an alphabetical billing which now includes Alan Alda and Martin Sheen is back at the end of the list and not Jimmy Smits. Are they trying to keep up some mystery or have they changed their mind. I'm with the former.

Nothing says 'love' like an iPod.

Nothing says 'love' like an iPod.

Sure you just paid 6-10k for the ring, but now you have to come up with a unique way to give it to her. I gotta say, this is pretty hot. The nerd in me immediately swoons at the thought of an iPod initiated life together. Then again, I am a romantic.

The New Robber Barons

If you're ever wondering why the stock market isn't doing as well as it used to and why your 401K statement is just losing money every month you have only to read articles like this one about Grasso in the NY Times.
A good part of the stock market's performance is tied to people's faith in it. The past few years have seen story after story of corporate abuse, mutual funds systematically fleecing small investors, and guys like this justifying the obscene salaries they give each other while they're serving on each other's boards. Is it a big surprise that people are skeptical?

"... Another Year Older and Deeper in Debt." =)

I was watching the news tonight and some psychiatrist did a study and apparently because of certain factors such as how far away the past holidays are and how people are usually in debt this time of year, today is statistically the most depressing day of the year. He's named it Blue Monday.

Coincidently, today is my birthday and while I admit turning 30 is a bit depressing, I don't appreciate someone saying that my birthday is the worst day of the year.

Blue Monday.

Could I have a DNA sample, please?

So I'm reading this Times article on how the cops in this town are collecting DNA trying to solve some murder. I guess they'll know the killer when he refuses to give his sample. Way to go Columbo. I don't know. It just seems kinda rude to ask everyone. They say they're not going to save it and use it for other crimes but would you trust that. Do you think they have female fluffer police officers collecting the samples?

Who Will Take The West Wing

So I was watching my favorite show 'The West Wing' tonight and one of the main storylines this season is the presidential election between Jimmy Smits as a democrat and Alan Alda as a republican. At first I thought they might let Alda win because maybe it would open up some new stories and different points of view. They portray him as a smart, honest, moderate conservative so it wouldn't be a far right point of view.
Tonight, though, I noticed that Smits is in the credits while Alda is not. There was also a scene that had him having an intimate conversation with his wife. I'm pretty much convinced he's gonna win now. Between the character development and billing, they put his name at the end like they used to do with Martin Sheen, I think it's pretty clear who's going to win.
Of course, I could be always be wrong. =)
The Sport's Illustrated Swimsuit Model Search also premiered tonight. Finally, a reality show that drops all the pretenses and just concentrates on hot chicks in very small bikinis.

Drop That Laser Pointer!

I feel kinda bad for the laser pointer guy that got caught the other day. I understand he was being a moron and should be punished, but 25 years in jail and half a million dollars seems a tad excessive. I know the far right people are gonna say, "He deserves it. Cut off his arms and legs and kill his family. Lock him up and throw away the key." I just think if we punished everyone who screwed up in a moment of stupidity that harshy, a lot more of us would be in jail.
I also think the law is being misapplied. They know this guy isn't a terrorist yet they're charging him under the Patriot Act. You have to ask yourself, if they really feel this guy is a threat would they send another aircraft to search him out like they did. If a guy is shooting down planes with stinger missiles you don't send a helicoptor to hover around where he is. No, he's more of a distraction and an annoyance than a threat. We have other laws that cover that. He knew it was wrong but he obviously didn't think it through and didn't see it as a big deal. The fact that this happens hundreds of times a year attests to this. He wasn't trying to kill anyone. He was just playing with a laser pointer with his daughter.
They're talking about making laser pointers illegal now. They're already done it in Britian. At least it will get them out of the movie theaters. That gets really annoying. I don't think it's all of them, though. Just the real bright green lasers like the one he was using.

Bowling Helps the Terrorists Win

Remember those commercials that say when you use drugs 'you're helping the terrorists win.' Well, apparently you can add bowling to that list too.
Manhattan's bowling alley was sponsored by Arafat
I always thought it was a weak argument. It may be different with heroin and opium, but from what I understand most the pot in our country is home grown, I remeber this 48 Hours special where they said it was America's largest agricultural product bringing in underground revenue to the tune of 15 billion dollars, and coccaine comes from our friends south of the border.
I think if you really want to fight terrorism you should stop driving that SUV and save some oil. I for one will do my part by staying away from the evil of bowling.

Return of the C64

I saw this article in the NY Times the other day:
A Toy With a Story
It's about Jeri Ellsworth, a 30-year-old high school dropout and self-taught computer chip designer. She like reverse engineered the commodore 64 and put it all in a joystick with 30 games. It's doing pretty well.
Makes you think about education in this country. This woman is obvioulsy brilliant but for whatever reason wasn't the type of person who could sit in a chair and be lectured at for three hours a clip. I've done ok in school, but I'm a moron and I can't do what she did. Maybe they need different ways of teaching so they don't lose out on people like this.
If you look at some of the tech sites they go between discussing the C64 and what a 'hot chick' she is.=) I used to have a C64. Remeber using ,8,1 to access the disk drive? Might be fun to pick one of these things up.

Why Newark Sucks

I sent in the $35 ticket I got the other day when my car got towed. The do street cleanings on Wednesday and Thurday in Newark and you have to have your car moved by 8am. I woke up late and ran downstairs at quater to 9 but they had already towed my car.

Had to spend an hour tracking down what happened to my car. There are three car thieves towing companies working for Newark and two of them said they weren't towing because of the Veterans Day holiday. Finally found where they took it. Had to pay $135 to get my car back and they handed me a ticket. They covered my windows with some kind of crayon that took a razor blade to get off.
Later that day, when I looked at the ticket the chick at the towing company gave me I noticed it was backdated to the day before. It also had the wrong street and the wrong time. I even had a reciept from the towing company to prove it. Probably because the person writing the ticket wasn't supposed to be doing it on the Veteran's Day holiday when the Street Cleaner's weren't running.

I was considering going and fighting the ticket. If they weren't supposed to be giving them that day they probably would have just said the sign didn't say that. If I went along the line that on the date they put on the ticket it would be perfectly legal to park my car where it was, they would have just said my car was on the other side of the street. It kinda stinks because I don't think my word should be any less valuable then theirs. After all, it's the police in Newark who sell drugs and the city who has to have the federal government monitor their elections. You would think that anything a cop in Newark says would be suspect. I'm not even sure the cops write those tickets in Newark. I got the impression the towing company does that too. Anyway, I missed the date to send it in by.
There's this site Parkingticket.com that will fight your ticket for free. They get half if they win. It's actually a legit service. Apparently if you actually fight a ticket you have a 75% chance of dismissal.
You work so hard just to make it until the end of the month. Something like this just kills you. I don't think you'd find a sane person who thinks $175 is fair for a street cleaning ticket. If the city of Newark needs money they should use the tax system, not this method of random muggings.

I need an IPod.

In a shameless plug for myself I would ask anyone who happens to stumble onto this page looking for Gin Blossom or Halo 2 pics to go here and sign up for free credit card or something.
http://www.freeiPods.com/?r=12135918

The deal is if you can get five people to sign up they send you a free IPod. My cousin Thomas got his last week so it's actually legit. Pretty neat.

It's actually pretty hard to get 5 people to sign up. People just lie to you and say they'll do it but they never do. I'll keep you updated if and when I actually get enough people.

Update: As I said, this is harder to do than it would seem. My own mother even lied to me this week. Looks like I may have to do without. =P

ilovebees.com Halo 2 sneakpeak.

I got to play Halo 2 in NYC last night. It was the finale of ilovebees.com. It was pretty fun although I don't know if it was worth the wait. The best part was watching people play from 4 location in the county on x-box live. It was fun to hear the crowd react to the game on the big screen. They gave away a lanyard and a DVD with the whole ilovebees.com internet radio play. I was kinda hoping to score a t-shirt but they didn't produce any. Didn't raffle any games off either. =( They also banned cameras and phones with cameras. Crazy huh? I did manage to snap a few before the theater gustapo put an end to it.

Moviescreen multiplayer goodness.

Before they got the online multilplayer game going the familiar X-Box live update screen made an appearance.

X-Box Live is updating =)

When I finally got to play I got my butt kicked. I'm so used to PC first person shooter controls that I found it impossible to move around in Halo 2. I got to play some halo 1 this weekend to get my skills back up to speed. Then the other guy got a hold of the plasma sword and it was all over but the shouting. That thing is just brutal. Two on two deathmach was kinda lame. You spend half your time trying to find each other on a giant level. The big screen matches were much cooler. They were doing 8 player games. You could hear the people talking from around the country. It was pretty sweet. Game comes out midnight monday. Cheers.

Another Italian Ties the Knot

I'm backdating this one because I'm a bit late in getting these off my phone and posted. Went to Vito's wedding a.k.a. The Queen of peace 1993 reunion. It was a good time. Great family. Good food and drink. Lot's of friends and fun. Cheers to the happy couple.

Vito and Cat

John terrorizing the bridesmaids with bubbles.

Meghan & Lucan

Jeff and English friend.

Gin Blossoms in NYC

Greetings trubelievers. My good friend from Blonde Justice has told me to stop putting "snarky comments" on other people's pages and post something of my own. So...

Last night I saw Gin Blossom at BB King's in NYC. The show was great. They've got some new tunes and hopefully will have a new album in a few months. I know these pictures are kinda sucky but what do you expect from a free cellphone?

I was hoping to get my cd autographed but the club wouldn't let them come out afterwards. Last time I saw them Robin Wilson spent like an hour saying hi and signing stuff. I didn't have my cd on me but I did get him to sign my Metro Card. =) Anyhow the stupid club was rushing everyone out because some big dj was having a show right after. I honestly don't get how a guy can get famous for playing records. Can't he just email what he was gong to play that night?

If you've ever have the chance to see your favorite band play at BB King's do it. It's really the best venue I've seen. You can get right up to the band so it's a zillion times better than at some stadium.


Robin Wilson

Jesse Valenzuela

Gin Blossoms in NYC 10.14.04

Gin Blossoms in NYC 10.14.04

Gin Blossoms in NYC 10.14.04

Scott Johnson

Jesse Valenzuela

Robin Wilson

Bill Leen

Gin Blossoms in NYC 10.14.04

Gin Blossoms in NYC 10.14.04

Gin Blossoms in NYC 10.14.04

Gin Blossoms in NYC 10.14.04