Giant Japanese Robot

Robocop 2 Quick Review

I have spent the last few years doing live tweets of B Movies, but there is a certain impermanence to them and I don’t think they are generating much of an audience. I started messing around with the same concept on Facebook and I will try to cross post my reviews here. If I have time I will come back and enhance w/ links and images.

Here is my magic commentary for Robocop 2.

• Robocop 2 is brutally painful.
• Reading about the original Robocop and Verhoeven’s intention to portray Murphy as Christ. Yes, he said that.
• I think I am going to skip Robocop 3. At least I have Robogeisha in my queue.
• The main villain in Robocop 2 is the same actor as the magician in Lord of Illusions which I love. He is completely wasted here, everything is completely wasted here. What a mess.
• BTW: The version of Robocop on Netflix streaming appears to be the full out of print cut with all of the scenes that were removed at the request of the MPAA. Robocop originally received an X rating for violence which seems silly now.
• Robocop 2 seems to have shopped for sets at “Abandoned Steel Mills ‘R’ Us.”
• This isn’t a Verhoeven film but the OCP security forces are dressed as Nazi SS. Classy and subtle. Verhoeven himself used this in the inferior and clunky Starship Troopers.
• At least the stop motion and puppetry guys did some good work.
• The weird blue tint they put on the Robocop suit is chipping off by the end of the movie.
• I think a guy in the crowd says “I gotta get Batman”
• Ok, that’s done. Now I can get on with the rest of my life. I do this for you people, so you don’t have to.

Compiling Node.js on Ubuntu 10.10

I need to remember to document my code adventures here. I am quickly becoming enamored of Node.js as a complement to Ruby on Rails. Going to play with a chat server this afternoon.

As soon as I tried to build from source I received a missing OpenSSL error.

I had to grab these:

• apt-get install libssl-dev
• apt-get install pkg-config

After that it was just:

• git clone https://github.com/joyent/node.git
• cd node
• export JOBS=2 # optional, sets number of parallel commands.
• ./configure —prefix=$HOME/node
• make
• make install
• export PATH=$HOME/node/bin:$PATH

Historical wildlife deaths

This list is by no means scientific and deals primarily with animals falling from the sky.

• I know it has often rained fishes….it once rained fish uninterruptedly for three days. Athenaeus 200AD
• Norfolk, England - small toads fell from the sky in such vast numbers that the local people were greatly inconvenienced. October 1683 Phenomena: A book of wonders
• Andes - 43 square English miles were covered with mud and fishes. June 1698. Annals of Philosophy (August 1823) Possibly the result of a volcanic eruption
• Haiti - A great quantity of black eggs fell on Port-au-Prince. May 5th 1786. A Naturalist’s Soujourn in Jamaica
• Lalain, France - …there began to fall on the ground all about a considerable number of toads, the size of hazelnuts… 1794 Monthly Weather Review May 1917
• Poitiers, France - ..which in a moment covered the ground, and which I recognized as little toads… June 23, 1809 Monthly Weather Review May 1917
• Argyllshire, Scotland - …three or four barrels of herring fry…scattered on mossy ground. 1817. The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, April-October 1826
• Argyllshire, Scotland - A shower of herring fell on a hill…The fish were large and of good quality. 1821 The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, April-October 1826
• Cambridge, Maryland - A ditch was found to contain hundred of fish from four to seven inches long. The nearest river was one mile away. 1828. The American Journal of Science and Arts July 1829
• Faridpur, India - A large number of fish fell from heaven. They were saul, sale, guzal, mirgal, and bodul. February 19th 1830. The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal December 1833
• Derby, England - …hundred of small fish and frogs fell…July 1841. The Anthenaeum July 17th 1841
• San Francisco - Benicia army station: troops on the drill ground were showered with blood and pieces of meat, apparently beef. July 20th 1851. San Francisco Herald July 24th 1851

Skipping ahead a bit and focusing on birds and other weirdness

• Baton Rouge, LA - An early morning deluge of dead birds fell from a clear sky…wild ducks, catbirds, woodpeckers and many birds of strange plumage. Nov 1896 Monthly Weather Review May 1917
• Shreveport, LA - Workers on a roof had to take shelter from a deluge of green peaches. July 12th 1961. Weird America p. 98
• California - tons of dead and injured Sooty Shearwaters (oceanic birds) fell on the coast of CA from Pleasure Point to Rio Del Mar….thousands of corpses…August 18th, 1961. Santa Cruz Sentinel August 18th 1961
• St. Mary’s City, Maryland - Hundreds of badly injured ducks - canvasbacks, red-heads and scaup…. January 1969. The Enterprise January 30th, 1969

I left out tons of accounts of fish, frogs, lizards, meat, blood, rocks and other wacky stuff since we are focused on animals and birds are of particular interest.

My Hilarious and Frustrating talk w/ XboxSupport

Conversation via Twitter that highlights the problem with modern customer support. Granted this is all over $10 and I can get a decent price through a retailer, but c’mon. In the 3-4 hours span this conversation took place I also emailed customer support, but they have yet to reply. They suggest that I try phone support but last time I did it took forever to talk to someone, and they refused to actually listen to me and instead stuck to the script like it was a long lost lover. My ears were bleeding by the end.

jcallina: @xboxsupport Hey folks, trying to buy a 12 mo for $39.99 through here. http://bit.ly/90mZY5 (expand) It fails and says to contact support.

XboxSupport: @jcallina what browser are you currently using? ^KN about 3 hours ago

jcallina: @xboxsupport Chrome about 3 hours ago

jcallina: @xboxsupport All other purchases work fine about 3 hours ago

jcallina: @xboxsupport Doesn’t work in firefox either about 3 hours ago

XboxSupport: @jcallina can you try the latest IE browser? ^KN about 3 hours ago

XboxSupport: @jcallina what about IE? ^KN about 3 hours ago

jcallina: @xboxsupport Sorry, used wrong account. Tried it with IE, FF and chrome. No go on all three. about 3 hours ago

XboxSupport: @jcallina are you currently on a promotional online Gold subscription? ^KN about 3 hours ago

jcallina: @xboxsupport I don’t beleive so. about 3 hours ago

jcallina: @xboxsupport Full error: “This action cannot be performed at this time. Please try again later. For more information, go to SUPPORTLINK” about 3 hours ago

XboxSupport: @jcallina because if you’re on a recent gold promo, you will not be eligible for another one in the meantime ^KN about 3 hours ago

jcallina: @xboxsupport This was advertised in my dash a couple of days ago, so I wouldn’t think so. about 3 hours ago

jcallina: @xboxsupport I can do this via retailer, but more convienient on your website. about 3 hours ago

XboxSupport: @jcallina can you try again in a couple hours and let us know how it goes ^KN

jcallina: @xboxsupport Its already been about two hours since I started trying. I don’t think this is going away. about 3 hours ago

XboxSupport: @jcallina perhaps try again in a couple hours and let us know how it goes ^KN about 3 hours ago

XboxSupport: @jcallina since it says action cannot be performed at this time and to try again later, please try again later, thanks ^KN about 3 hours ago

jcallina: @xboxsupport Ok, tried again. Hasn’t been working for almost 5 hours now. 26 minutes ago

XboxSupport: @jcallina can you DM us your gamertag? ^KN 23 minutes ago

XboxSupport: @jcallina Thanks, please stay tuned ^KN 18 minutes ago

XboxSupport: @jcallina you may want to contact phone support to verify your current subscription plan to see if its a Gold promo ^KN 16 minutes ago

jcallina: @xboxsupport Don’t really have time at the moment. Plus I am being offered that price on the website and my dash, so I will be expecting it 15 minutes ago

XboxSupport: @jcallina Well when you get a chance, phone support can verify with you on that. B/c a current gold promo could be giving you that error ^KN 13 minutes ago

jcallina: @xboxsupport Have you ever called phone support? It’s pretty brutal. I think I might rather pay the extra $10 ;) 11 minutes ago

XboxSupport: @jcallina Sorry for the troubles, but we’re not able to verify personal info. over Twitter due to privacy policies ^KN 8 minutes ago

jcallina: @xboxsupport Wow. This is some very seriously broken customer support. Nothing personal. Not your fault. 6 minutes ago

XboxSupport: @jcallina In most similar cases, if ur not able to apply for a recent Gold promo, it’s because ur ineligible due to a current/recent 1 ^KN 3 minutes ago

jcallina: @xboxsupport I shold not be offered the promo if I am inelligible. Esp. because I was not informed beforehand. less than a minute ago

XboxSupport: @jcallina you were offered on the dashboard? ^KN 4 minutes ago

jcallina: @xboxsupport Yes, I mentioned that earlier. 3 minutes ago

jcallina: @xboxsupport And on the website when I change my autorenew status 2 minutes ago

XboxSupport: @jcallina there should be a disclaimer in small prints that mentions about it ^KN

jcallina @XboxSupport Isn’t there always.

Let me tell you a story…

Jillian Michaels comes to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin’ and hollerin’ and screamin’ and sometimes Jillian Michaels go away… but sometimes she wouldn’t go away. Sometimes Jillian Michaels looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. And, you know, the thing about Jillian Michaels…. she’s got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll’s eyes. When she comes at ya, doesn’t seem to be living… until she bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then… ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin’.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

When I think about today it reminds me of how people treat immigrants. I think of the Irish 100 years ago and how the exact same arguments were leveraged against them. They are taking our jobs, schools, bringing disease, consuming our social services, they don’t assimilate our traditions, etc etc.

If certain people had their way the Irish would have been sent back home, the richness that they brought our country would not be here and I would not be here.

Today I am going to lift a glass of Guinness against hatred, against anger and for the things that we have in common as human beings. Happy St. Patrick’s Day.