neorants

The Death of MySpace

Neo — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:10:45 +0000

This article was written almost 2 years ago, and was pretty darn prophetic, if you ask me (which you didn’t). Sums up a lot of the problems I always had with MySpace, and why I can actually tolerate Facebook.

Insane Facial Animation Tech

Neo — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:18:36 +0000

Image Metrics has some pretty amazing facial animation tech on their hands. There’s another demo at the link. In case it’s not clear, the face on the woman in the video isn’t real, until they remove the overlay at 1:30.

Parents Let Kid Drop Out to Play Guitar Hero “Professionally”

Neo — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:28:51 +0000

This is just scary parenting. I don’t know what else to say. As a lifelong gamer, I can certainly appreciate the lure of playing video games over going to school, but if I’d ever told my parents I wanted to do this, they’d have (rightly) spanked me silly. From the article:

Mike and Hunter do not believe in one-size-fits-all parenting.

That is not to say that it was an easy decision for them to let Blake leave school last September. They would have preferred that he stay in high school with his brother. But he bugged them until they let him quit.

“We couldn’t take the complaining anymore,” says Hunter. “He always told me that he thought school was a waste of time.”

Wow. A kid who gets whatever he complains enough for. That’s one kid who’s destined for a rough time in life.

You are God Alone

Neo — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:33:09 +0000

This song has really been an inspiration to me lately. It helps remind me just how big God is, and how He doesn’t need my help to accomplish His will. He’s fully capable of doing that on His own. All he requires of me is a willing heart to obey and follow where He leads me. Not because He needs me, but because I need Him.

You are not a god created by human hands
You are not a god dependent on any mortal man
You are not a god in need of anything we can give
by Your plan, that’s just the way it is

You are God alone
from before time began
You were on Your throne
You are God alone
and right now
in the good times and bad
You are on Your throne
You are God alone

You’re the only God whose power none can contend
You’re the only God whose name and praise will never end
You’re the only God who’s worthy of everything we can give
You are God, and that’s just the way it is

You are God alone
from before time began
You were on Your throne
You are God alone
and right now
in the good times and bad
You are on Your throne
You are God alone

unchangeable
unshakable
unstoppable
that’s what You are

Reporter Hit By Cosmic Smackdown

Neo — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:06:55 +0000

LiveLeak.com - Female reporter hit by zorb ball

The balance of the universe is upset by reporters who attempt to act EXTREME. Thankfully, order is restored.

Dr. Horrible: An oral history

Neo — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:55:50 +0000

Entertainment Weekly’s writeup about the making of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (which, by the way, is worth picking up on iTunes if you missed it) is a really interesting read. It covers everything from the initial pitch to the actors all the way to the extras they want to pack into the DVD release, including panther noises:

We’re not sure that we can accomplish it, but we want to have languages: French, Spanish, Japanese translated back very badly into English, classical Latin, and panther noises. –Joss Whedon

Site update

Neo — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:38:24 +0000

So I got tired of the old layout, wanted something cleaner and… bluer. Switched from post categories to tags, as well, and implemented Gravatar support for comments. If you don’t have a gravatar account, check them out. A lot of blogs support them, they let you attach a little avatar like you might see on a web discussion forum to your e-mail address, and your comments at any blogs which support them will have the avatar attached. Pretty neat.

Zasalamel…

Neo — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:19:15 +0000

…owns Yodas.

That is all.

“More than 11″

Neo — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:28:52 +0000

Check out this slide show at Discovery Tech. Not just because it’s interesting, which it is, but because of this mind-boggling sentence on the last page:

Pearson conducted this experiment and some related studies on more than 11 participants.

So… 12 then? Usually, when I see some scientific study that says it’s been conducted on “more than” X participants, the number is in the hundreds or thousands. Or, you know, at least more than 11.

Amazing Australian Lyrebird Video

Neo — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:52:12 +0000

I had no idea they were such talented mimics. ;)