ericgooch.com http://www.ericgooch.com/ Rants, raves, and stuff. en Copyright 2007 Sat, 12 Aug 2006 14:26:54 -0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss L.A. Zoo Photos I've been really busy at work, but managed to head over to the L.A. zoo a few weeks ago to test out a new lens for my Canon 20D. It's the Sigma 50-500 tele zoom, and it's quite a beast.

I'm really happy with it so far. Despite it's size and weight, it lets me zoom in on things that I simply couldn't have shot before with such tight framing. When I move back to the country next month, I plan on doing a lot more nature photography, so I wanted to get a long lens for animal shots and telephoto scenics.

The photos have been posted at my art site cybergooch.com.

Click here for a direct link.

 

 

]]> http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/08/la_zoo_photos.html http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/08/la_zoo_photos.html Sat, 12 Aug 2006 14:26:54 -0800 V for Vendetta I'd only heard a little about this film before I saw it. I finally got around to seeing it the other night, and liked it a lot. For me, it's one of those movies that you keep thinking about...it keeps insinuating itself into your thoughts.

I think that's a good way to judge a film. Did you forget about it as soon as the credits were rolling, or does it make you think? It's certainly had mixed reviews, I'm thinking that it's one of those movies that you either love or hate. There are certainly a lot of uncomfortable parallels to what's going on in our country today.

 

Check it out if you haven't had a chance to yet.

 

 

V for Vendetta
 

 

]]> http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/08/v_for_vendetta.html http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/08/v_for_vendetta.html Fri, 11 Aug 2006 22:41:37 -0800 2 Months and Counting I only have two months left in my sentence lovely stay in Los Angeles.

I have been living away from my family for 2 years and 3 months, and in two months I move back home to Spring Creek NV. While I love my job at Insomniac Games, I am really getting tired of living in the city. I am crazy busy at work, so the next two months will fly by pretty fast.

I am soooo looking forward to getting away from the traffic, the airport noise, the trains, the congestion, the police helicopters, the smog and being shoe-horned in next to my neighbors. My *real* house in Spring Creek is a 4 bedroom on 4 acres, with a two car garage and a full basement, and my mortgage is less than what I'm paying here in Burbank for a crappy 1 bedroom apartment that's over a garage, and has a dumpster by the front door with lovely odors wafting up. 

Get me outta here. 

]]> http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/07/2_months_and_counting.html http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/07/2_months_and_counting.html Sat, 22 Jul 2006 20:17:33 -0800 Cancelling AOL Awesome. Over at Insignificant Thoughts, a brave man actually cancelled his AOL account. It wasn't easy, thanks to slimy corporate anti-cancellation policies.

He recorded the whole thing. Great fun.

insignificant thoughts � Blog Archive � Cancelling AOL

]]> http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/06/cancelling_aol.html http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/06/cancelling_aol.html Thu, 22 Jun 2006 17:49:14 -0800 On a plane, even.
In fact, it's a bit strange when I think about it just how much time I do spend on computers. I spend all day on them from about 8:30 in the morning till 6pm, unless we're in crunch mode at work, which means I may be there till midnight or later.

Even if I do get home at a normal time, one of the first things I do when I walk through the door is sit down at the computer. It's how I spend my evenings as well. I cancelled my cable TV, because there was just too much crap that I didn't want to watch. I can't stand "Reality TV", or sitcoms or most of the mindless drivel that I kept running into. I do like the Discovery channel and the History channel, but not $50.00 a month worth.

The only thing I use my TV for is console games and rented movies.

So in the evenings, I work on my own artwork, as opposed to the art I create at my job. Since I'm either working with 3D graphics, Photoshop, or digital photos, everything I do as far as my own artwork is on the computer as well. It's a fun time in history to be doing all of this, because it's changing so fast. I keep wondering what computers will be like in 10-20 years from now. I watched and worked with the earliest home computers at a point when graphics were pretty much impossible, and in the course of only about 15 to 20 years we're creating photo-realistic 3D computer graphics that in some cases can't even be spotted as anything other than reality.

What a wild ride!

]]> http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/06/on_a_plane_even.html http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/06/on_a_plane_even.html Tue, 20 Jun 2006 15:32:22 -0800 Road Trip!
Ok, I gotta say this is the coolest thing in the world.

As I write this I am flying down the highway, a passenger on a trip from Elko, NV to Minden, NV to attend the wedding of Regina and her future husband. It's about a 5 1/2 hour drive, and these road trips used to make me fairly crazy. Currently we're about 20 miles West of Lovelock, and while there's plenty of scenery, there's not a tremendous amount of variation to said scenery. What's a geek to do?

Enter laptop goodness. I have been meaning to get a laptop for probably 6 or 7 years now, but never took the plunge. When I was recently looking to replace my cell phone, I was checking out smart phones, PDA's, and general communication gadgets, and my wife said "you've been talking about getting a laptop for years…why don't you just get one?"

Since the purchase was now officially wife-sanctioned, who was I to argue?

So here I am, in the passenger seat of a Nissan Sentra, hurtling along at a speed that shall remain unmentioned (the Wife likes to drive fast) and typing away. The best part is that the power converter plugged into the cigarette lighter means I'm not even using battery juice.

Road trips just got a whole lot better.

]]> http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/06/road_trip.html http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/06/road_trip.html Sat, 17 Jun 2006 19:47:49 -0800 Tropicana Suckage  

I noticed after recently taking a swig from a bottle of Tropicana Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice that it tasted nothing like grapefruit juice at all. It was like pink Kool-Aid. At first I thought it was a bad batch, because that happens to companies every once in a while.

Then a coworker pointed out that the ingredients were actually different, despite the main label still saying the same thing.

Here's a copy of my letter to Tropicana:

"I am fortunate enough to work at a company that brings in free beverages and snacks for the employees. I have long been a Tropicana Ruby Red Grapefruit drinker, but that's changed recently due to strange alterations you've made to the recipe. The strange part is that the UPC codes are the same on the "old" and "new" versions, but the ingredients are different! What are you guys doing? The new stuff tastes awful. Please let me know which version you're going to stick with, so I can advise our company as to whether or not we should continue with Tropicana product."

 And here's their reply:

"Eric:

We are sorry you disliked the new version of Tropicana Ruby Red Grapefruit 100% Juice Blend.

Because of the loss of much of Florida's grapefruit crop due to hurricanes in the past several years, we changed the formula.  With the new formula came new nutrition values. Please be assured that we will share your comments with our Marketing Group. Full value coupons to replace the product have been sent via the US Postal Service. They should arrive within 7-10 business days."

______________________________________

Priceless. So because there's a shortage of grapefruit juice, Tropicana decides to change the recipe and hope nobody notices. The label still says "100% Juice" followed by "Ruby Red Grapefruit." But in the fine print at the bottom, what used to say "Grapefruit Juice from Concentrate" now says "Flavored Juice Blend from Concentrate".

The first ingredient in the original juice was grapefruit juice from concentrate.

The first ingredient in the new juice? Filtered water. Since when is filtered water 100% juice?

 

Asshats. 

 

]]> http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/06/tropicana_suckage.html http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/06/tropicana_suckage.html Thu, 08 Jun 2006 10:36:31 -0800 Death of a Sidekick So I get back from a convention where I've been taking pictures, and grab my Sidekick II to make a call. I look at the screen, and get one of those awful, sinking feelings.

NOOOOOoooooooo......

 

Crack! 

My trusty Sidekick sports a large and nasty crack running right across the screen, rendering it pretty much useless. At first I'm doing that thing where you tell yourself that it's probably just temporary, maybe it got too hot...maybe it's an electronic abberation that will pass...maybe......no, I'm screwed.

So I go online and find other horror stories about cracked Sidekick screens, and one guy says that because the crack was on the inner screen, and there was no damage on the outside of the screen, that T-Mobile replaced his phone. Awesome! So I send an email to T-Mobile describing the same problem, and I get this back:

"Thank you for taking the time to contact T-Mobile. We understand the LCD is cracked on your Sidekick. We appreciate how this can be frustrating, and we will be more than happy to assist with your issue. We regret we cannot replace or repair phones with broken or cracked LCD screens. We suggest you upgrade to a new phone at this time."

I love the way they started off with "we will be more than happy to assist with your issue" and wrap it up by telling me to buy a new phone. Now if the T-Mobile reception I get here in Burbank had ever been anything other than a complete joke, I might have considered looking at other phones. But the crappy customer service, combined with the laughable signal quality caused me to cancel my account.

I'll go with another carrier and another phone.

Moral of the story? Before you buy a Sidekick (or any T-Mobile device for that matter)

1) check with everyone you know in your same home/work area and make sure they get good reception. The greatest gadget in the world is worthless if it's got crappy reception.

2) Buy a reinforced steel case for it, because the Sidekick screens crack easily. When I went to eBay to look for replacement screens, I saw these:

 Ouch!

Doh! 

Ack!

Ouch 

Doh! 

Ack 

Gaah! 

 Urk

Looks like there's a lot of them out there! 

]]> http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/06/death_of_a_sidekick.html http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/06/death_of_a_sidekick.html Sat, 03 Jun 2006 20:57:10 -0800 SpamBeaters!! I've got this great idea for a new TV series. It combines America's current infatuation with "Reality TV", and something we all despise…Spam. No, not the canned meat, the spam in your email.

Here's how it works: There are 3 "Teams". The first team is the hackers. Computer geniuses that can trace any source of any message that hits the internet. The hackers will of course be played by exotic looking blonde bimbos, because that apparently sells well. (And nobody wants to watch real hackers, because they're just guys sitting at a computer.)

Team 2 is the surveillance team. They'll be driving around in a suspicious looking van trying not to look suspicious, wiretapping and spying on the spammers that have been identified by the pouting, sultry hackers. I know that wiretapping is illegal, but hey, if it's good enough for the president, it should be good enough for TV, right? The surveillance crew will be doing the usual cliché stakeout things, like eating donuts and coffee, and not shaving, and listening to their iPods to show how hip they are.

After team 2 has made a careful, positive I.D. on the spammers and has verified them in the act of said spamming, it's time to send in team 3…and now the fun starts.

Team 3 is a collection of football linebackers, bouncers, and disgruntled motorcycle gang members armed with baseball bats and sledgehammers. They kick in the door of the surprised spammer and proceed to beat them to within an inch of their lives. (They don't actually kill them, that would be wrong.)

Then they smash up all the computers, just for good measure.

The best part? We get to watch this happen to another spammer each week!! Talk about high ratings.

I hereby proclaim this as my idea, and if you make this series (FOX, I'm talkin' to you) I expect royalties and first film rights.

 

 

]]> http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/05/spambeaters.html http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/05/spambeaters.html Mon, 01 May 2006 17:43:07 -0800 The Post Office and I Aren't Getting Along Too Well.  

I find myself becoming more and more annoyed by the bi-weekly crap festival that our U.S. Postal Workers insist on cramming into my mailbox. You know what I'm talking about...the endless cheesy circulars, ads, pamphlets and  coupons.

I got back from being out of town for two weeks after the holidays, and discovered a single note in my mailbox, telling me that there had been too much mail to fit in the box, and I would have to go to the Post Office to pick it up. Oh boy...my favorite place. I stood there in line, with twenty other people, wondering why there were 6 windows but only one actually open. Finally my turn arrived.
 
When they brought my mail, imagine my delight when I saw that fully 80% of my mail, you know, the mail that wouldn't fit in my box, was crap that had been shoved into it by our own faithful Postal employess. I had a brilliant plan. 


]]> http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/04/the_post_office_and_i_arent_ge.html http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/04/the_post_office_and_i_arent_ge.html Tue, 11 Apr 2006 22:48:07 -0800 MMORPG thoughts Added a new entry in Electronic Gaming about some thoughts on what drives the MMORPG player.

 

Here.

]]> http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/04/mmorpg_thoughts.html http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/04/mmorpg_thoughts.html Mon, 10 Apr 2006 15:46:12 -0800 Cooking for some reason For some strange reason I've taken an interest in cooking. I know that doesn't fit in well with the whole computer/games/geek thing, but there you have it. A few week s ago I bought a bread machine, and was pretty impressed with how easy it is to make awesome bread. It's kind of like an E-Z-Bake oven for adults. You throw all the stuff in and press a button.

Today I made a loaf of banana/granola bread (which I am currently waiting on to finish baking.) I also made a big pot of black bean soup. I'm kind of a soup and bread guy.

What's happening to me? I feel like I'm turning into someone's mom.

]]> http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/03/cooking_for_some_reason.html http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/03/cooking_for_some_reason.html Sun, 26 Mar 2006 20:13:21 -0800 Pardon my Dust... Things are a little screwy right now, as I'm moving to another web hosting service. My previous webhost wasn't all that bad, but there was a maximum storage of 500 megs. That sounded like a lot a few years ago, but I was rapidly filling it up.

I've gone with BlueHost after checking out different places. They've got 10,000 megs storage, 250 gigs transfer, and you can host 6 domains on one account. Check them out if you're looking too.

]]> http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/03/pardon_my_dust.html http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/03/pardon_my_dust.html Wed, 15 Mar 2006 21:43:41 -0800 Movable Type moving along So I have to say that I'm pretty impressed with Movable Type so far. When you consider that I know nothing about databases or PHP it's pretty amazing that I got this working at all. I've started creating sub-blogs (is that a real term yet?) as you can see in the side panel. I could have just kept everything in one blog, but the annoying, organizational part of my brain didn't like that.

Next is finding a gallery solution that I'm happy with for posting my goofy photos. I'm still checking those out, but hope to have something going soon.

]]> http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/03/movable_type_moving_along.html http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/03/movable_type_moving_along.html Sun, 12 Mar 2006 20:08:56 -0800 Here we go... Well, after stumbling through the world of mySQL and pHp obscurity, (obscure to me anyway) it looks like I have succesfully installed Movable Type, and am ready to unleash upon the world my questionable blog entries, rants, and stupid pet photos.

Consider yourself warned.

]]> http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/03/here_we_go.html http://www.ericgooch.com/2006/03/here_we_go.html Sat, 11 Mar 2006 11:04:40 -0800