I like podcasts; I like KCRW; I really like Morning Becomes Eclectic. So when I saw the title “Morning Becomes Eclectic now available as podcast” I was really excited. Then I read that it would only be selected segments only including unsigned artists. That is still cool,but so far from the full potential. Oh well, maybe the record companies will finally remove their heads from their asses at some point (or not).

I will just have to continue to listen to the show live via iTunes or get back to working out a good way to rip the streams directly.

43 Folders: Morning Becomes Eclectic now available as podcast

Hey all, I really am still here. The new work thing has sucked away both time and energy (not to mention we didn’t have internet access at the office for 3 months). But we have internet access at work (long story) and I wanted to post a quick bit. So here goes the movie talk

E and I decided that we had exhausted the selection of movies at the local rental-mart and were often going there, looking for a movie and leaving empty handed. So based on the positive reactions of bunches of people, we signed up for Netflix. Unlike Matt, I am not going to diligently list everything in my queue. (I find it cool that Matt does this, I just don’t have the patience or inclination.)

Unlike when we rented movies from the rent-o-joint, I am finding that E and I are watching far more movies. However we are both exploring movies that we want to see individually and haven’t really increased our joint movie watching much over the old way. This is nice in that we can get movies without worrying if the other will like them (or getting movies we know the other won’t like). This isn’t to say we don’t watch movies together, just we have a new avenue for watching stuff.

Although I won’t catalog all the movies I have gotten, I will mention a few notable ones. The first is Primer, a Sundance festical winner. It clearly demonstrates that one does not need to have a big budget, big set, and a huge number of actors to tell a great story. The story is quite intellectual and a bit convoluted, but quite gripping. I’m not going to try to give a synopsis as I don’t want to give anything away, just go watch it.

I am a big fan of the original Matrix movie (and the subsequent two to slightly lesser degrees only because they lost the element of surprise). My appreciation of the movies is due largely to the writing and direction by the Wachowski brothers (and Carrie-Anne Moss didn’t hurt either). People look at me funny when I make oohing noises about films and when they ask what, I talk about the camera angle, or a great piece of lighting; this is what comes of being raised by a producer. I was very interested to see their original work, Bound. It is very obvious that it was written/directed by the same guys who did the Matrix, the camera work, audio, and even the physical characteristics of the actors clearly show the Wachowski brother’s style. Their next movie, V for Vendetta looks to be good as well. I watched the trailer this morning (and I would like to mention that being able to watch a full screen HD 1920x1080 video is just amazing) and it looks like a wonderfully relevant movie today. Very dark and reminiscent of 1984. Can’t wait.

OK, that’s all for now. I’ll try to post again before another 2 months pass.

Update: Although I said above I would not list all the items in my Netflix Queue, I was looking at my queue I was thinking to myself that it would be cool if you could get an RSS feed of your queue. Then I looked at the bottom of the page and there it was. So I added a plugin to Wordpress that would allow me to put an RSS feed on the site, so now on the right side of this page, you can see the next five items in my queue. Enjoy!

So, the online New York Times is going to be offering a subscription service. (Press Release) I am sometimes dubious of charging for content on websites, but in this case I like the idea. They are going to be keeping most of their existing news content for free, but offer extra services (advance content, archives, etc.) as part of the fee service.

For many years I received the print edition but recently canceled it as I was reading everything online. I felt bad about doing this as I wanted to support the New York Times as I think they do very good work. However it wasn’t worth nearly $300 a year. So this new option offers me a service for a reasonable cost ($50/year) with nice added features and allows me to support what I believe is a quality institution. I think they have struck a good balance between serving the public good and running a business.

I for one will be signing up.

After the 3GI/RSA collapse happened a little over 3 years ago, I often said that my experience there had been the worst thing that could have happened to me from a work perspective. It was such an amazing work experience that nothing could ever live up to it. I hope that I now have an opportunity to prove myself wrong. Yesterday I turned in my resignation to the College of William and Mary. I have had the chance to work with a great group of people and it was a very hard decision for me to make, but I knew if I passed up this chance I would regret it.

The soul of the Williamsburg 3GI office was Kit Letchworth and Tom Barr. They got in touch with me a couple of weeks ago and invited me to join them for a presentation. They were looking for a group of developers to form the core of what will become the east coast office for PC Guardian Technologies. As far as I can tell I am employee number 3. Although I don’t technically start until May 1, I have already begun the recruiting effort to get people I think would be good fits for the organization. I’m having mixed success, but since I have never done this before, I’m relatively pleased. Between a few former 3GI folks and people I have met through my CS classes at W&M I think we will have a good start.

I get to play a similar role to what I did at 3GI; I will be doing software design and architecture as well as being the entire IT department. It is a role I really enjoy as it lets me play with lots of different things. At the beginning I expect the IT role will be dominating as we need to get an office up from scratch; everything from wiring to servers to computers for all the developers and test staff.

So, there you have it. The cat is out of the bag. And in the immortal words of Tom Barr: “This period of relative inactivity is coming to a close.”

Security no match for theater lovers

“Claire Sellick approached a woman in London’s tony theater district with a clipboard and a chance to win tickets to an upcoming show. All the woman had to do was answer a three-minute survey on locals’ theater-going habits. Or so she thought.

The first question was easy. ‘What’s your name?’ Next came questions about her attitude towards the theater, with more personal inquiries interjected now and then. For instance, the survey company needed the woman’s date of birth (to prove she was legally able to win the seats) and her mother’s maiden name (for later verification) and her address, of course, to mail the tickets if she won the drawing. What about a phone number? Her pet’s name? The name of the first school she attended?

At some point, the woman began connecting the dots. ‘I work for a bank and this information could be used to open a bank account.’

‘Yes,’ Sellick responded.

The event director for the Infosecurity Europe trade show recalled with incredulity what happened next. ‘She then proceeded to give me all her details!’”

ARRRGGGHHH!!!

I just got three new CDs, so I thought I’d post theme here among the other stuff. I’m listening to the Bloc Part EP right now. I heard the main track, Banquet, included in the free BitTorrent download that SXSW offered for all the artists performing this year. This download was free and included over 750 songs (2.6 GBs) from all variety of artists. Very cool.

The Thievery Corporation CD, Cosmic Game, was a given, I have loved all of their work since I first heard them in DC at the ACLU Members conference two years ago. I had heard a few tracks via KCRW and I wasn’t disappointed.

The last CD, Phantascope by Anubian Lights, I honestly don’t remember where I heard it. My guess would be KCRW, as that is where I hear almost all of the new and progressive stuff I do (not much in the way of that from VA stations).

So, there you have it. Let me know if you actually want to hear any of this stuff

OK, this post just cracked me up. I guess I’m in a weird (and posty) mood this evening. Could be the new music (see previous post). Hopefully posting this doesn’t violate some fucked up Virginia law. Probably does; good thing I have the VA ACLU on speed-dial.

The Stranger’s new formula for Personals

And just to clarify how I got to this article: The Urban Archipelago linked to The Stranger which linked to the above article.

I haven't been doing such a great job of posting what I've read lately, so here is a quick update.

Exploiting Software was a pretty good book that had quite a few odd coincidences with one of the authors (he is the CTO of the company some friends work for and in reading the foreword, I realized a guy I knew in college also worked for the company). The book was generally pretty good; it was definitely very technical and complete in it’s coverage of the topics. I felt it got a little bogged down in details near the center of the book, but it picked up by the end.

I'm about halfway through [Smart Mobs](/cgi-global/amazonbounce.pl?isbn=0738208612&assoc=gothmogstolkiena) and I am finding that the writing is a little inconsistent.  There will be sections that I just can't put down and others that are painful to make it through.  Aside from that though, the subject matter is quite interesting.  The way in which mobile computing is effecting the social structures over the last 10 years is amazing.  At this point at least, I'm glad I picked it up.

Apple has added what is arguably the worst music ever to the iTMS.

AsianMack Super Filter: Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner