A Cajun-Asian View

Looks like Josh Whedon wasn't just sitting on his thumbs during the writers' strike:

1) Why, Joss? Why? Why now, why free, why us?

Once upon a time, all the writers in the forest got very mad with the Forest Kings and declared a work-stoppage. The forest creatures were all sad; the mushrooms did not dance, the elderberries gave no juice for the festival wines, and the Teamsters were kinda pissed. (They were very polite about it, though.) During this work-stoppage, many writers tried to form partnerships for outside funding to create new work that circumvented the Forest King system.

Frustrated with the lack of movement on that front, I finally decided to do something very ambitious, very exciting, very mid-life-crisisy. Aided only by everyone I had worked with, was related to or had ever met, I single-handedly created this unique little epic. A supervillain musical, of which, as we all know, there are far too few.

A List Apart has an article about using Subversion to help with collaboration, especially with contract workers. Though there are some superior version control systems mentioned in the comments, like git, mercurial, or bazaar, they don not have the client support that Subversion has as of now. I especially use the Subclipse plugin for Eclipse for my work and checking code in and out of Subversion is a quick right-click away.

More importantly, how much client support for Subversion there is makes it easier to get other developers on board using it1.

1. 1. Yes, most developers I work with try to do as little as possible on the command line...

Ron Domingue links to an article on Behance Magazine stating what should be the obvious in creative fields, but isn't to many people1:

We often assume that the number of hours spent at work are an indication of one’s effort, interest, and accomplishment. However, in reality, the greatest ideas and the execution of these ideas happen in spurts. The best ideas often do not require a lengthy conception, and the most productive days are seldom the longest. But still, managers instinctually measure employees with an eye on the clock. Working hours remain rigid, and morale suffers when the rules fail to support the ultimate goal: a productive creative workplace. What working conditions are ideal for maximum creativity and productivity?

1. 1. Especially bosses and clients...

"A line of proven crappy code is worth 10 lines of clean unproven code." - Bob at the Daily WTF.

Just something I need to keep in mind while working on my current project at the office.

When I saw the writeup on Slashdot, I had thought this $500 1.5 meter long network cable from Denon was some kind of April fools day joke. Apparently, I (and quite a few other people) are wrong in that, yes, this cable is actually for sale on Amazon, and it actually is $500.

But the real story are the reviews on Amazon. They are comedy gold, like this one:

Do want!

But no "This is our most desperate hour. Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi; you're my only hope." scene? Bah.

Still, it's only $2,900.00...

You can also get a webcam R2D2 for $400.00, instead...

Ever had one of those days where the last thing you want to do after working all day on a computer at the office is to go home, get on a computer, and type out a blog post?

I think I had that month...

But I doubt they'd go quite like this:

Okay, y'know the Adam West Batman TV show? Well, I dreamed that my roomies and I somehow found out that they'd tried to make a 'Justice League' spinoff, but only ever filmed the pilot, which never even aired. So we were scouring this enormous warehouse of unaired pilots for 60's TV shows, and finally found it! And all the actors were middle-aged and dumpy, and all the costumes were brightly-coloured and kinda stupid, and everybody was deadpanning, and it was great.

I had come across this video of a hip-hop and violin combination and thought it was good enough to merit some props. The guy on the violin is rather good, if a bit harsh on the violin. I'm not a huge fan of hip-hop, but it sounded good to my ears:

Unfortunately for him, though, I can't say he's exactly mind-blowing. Not when he had to compete with these four lovely and extremely talented ladies for that title in the world of music fusion:

The group is Bond, and the song they played there is "Duel". Probably the best sample of classical strings and pop music fusion that I've ever heard. If you want to see talent, you should see them cover "Korobushka":

It's not difficult to believe that there's an equivalent in other fields of music to Dragonforce, but thanks to the internet, I am able to witness it.

Well the New York Mets baseball team organization had a fan vote for a "sing-a-long" song to play in the 8th inning of every home game for the team's last season in Shea Stadium. Well, it looked like a few people on Digg had an idea as the vote included a "write-in" slot in addition to several already picked songs.

The result?

Seems like it was successful.

I wonder if the Mets organization is aware of the rickroll phenomenom?

UPDATE: Huh, looks like the original video was taken down by request of MLB. Got a different one up, but that might be taken down eventually too. In anycase, here's a video by someone recording at the game:

I'm not sure if the crowd is booing the song or not...