Kurt's Thoughts

Omigod.  This is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time.  Seriously.

Prof. James Duane, former Criminal Defense Attorney, lectures his law school class on the topic of talking to the police and he has a Virginia Beach police detective present to "tell the other side of the story". 

Why is this interesting?  Well, this is very good advice if you’re ever falsely accused/fraudulently arrested at a casino for trumped up charges, according to LVBear’s blog.

It’s a really interesting listen.

A few days ago, Sandisk’s CEO Eli Harari blamed his company’s lack of progress around Solid State Drive performance on Windows Vista claiming:

"As soon as you get into Vista applications in notebook and desktop, you start running into very demanding applications because Vista is not optimized for flash memory solid-state disk… Unfortunately, [SSD] performance in the Vista environment falls short of what the market really needs and that is why we need to develop the next generation, which we’ll start sampling end of this year, early next year… We have very good internal controller technology, as you know… That said, I’d say that we are now behind because we did not fully understand, frankly, the limitations in the Vista environment."

http://www.betanews.com/article/
Windows_Vista_hurting_SSD_development_claims_SanDisk_CEO/1216749504

Fascinating, huh?  Apparently Betanews wasn’t content with Harari’s blanket statement about it being "all Windows Vista’s fault" so they started to dig further, inquiring what exactly are the "limitations" that he was talking about:

In a statement to BetaNews today, Richard Heyes, who heads up SanDisk’s SSD Business Unit, didn’t elaborate on the areas of optimization, although he did talk about SSD performance on "full-featured" operating systems such as Windows Vista vs. "simple" systems such as XP Starter Edition — and he predicted that operating systems in general will become more "SSD aware" in the future…

…In answer to a question about how Microsoft and Sandisk are addressing SSD issues, Heyes said the companies have been working together in that vein. "We are continuing our work with Microsoft to identify opportunities for optimizing SSDs for the Windows experience," he said…

…But Heyes did not answer a request from BetaNews to pinpoint the so-called "limitations" of Vista for SSD support, mentioned by Harari during Monday’s conference call.
Also today, BetaNews provided Microsoft with an opportunity to comment on the SSD issues raised by Harari and Heyes — asking Microsoft, too, for information about any plans around greater "SSD awareness" in either Vista or the forthcoming Windows 7. But by the end of the day, the company was still investigating the matter…

"We are still looking into this, and we will be back in touch whenever we have anything to share about it. Thank you for your patience," a Microsoft spokesperson told BetaNews.

http://www.betanews.com/article/
SanDisk_wont_specify_Vista_SSD_problems_but_is_working_with_Microsoft/1216851132

So in review:

1. SANDISK BACKPEDALLING
   Sandisk CEO Eli Harari made a bunch of unsubstantiated statements about Windows Vista, that their own PR mouthpieces seem unwilling to back up.
2. MICROSOFT DOESN’T KNOW WHAT HE’S TALKING ABOUT
   "We’re still looking into this"? Doesn’t this usually equate to, "We have no idea what this dude’s talking about"?
3. MICROSOFT’S FLASH MEMORY WEAR LEVELING ALGORITHM
   Windows Vista has a special Microsoft Research created algorithm that is used for flash I/O to distribute writes across the entire medium to minimize the "wear" of the memory over time and otherwise maximize the life of flash media by preventing the user from unintentionally writing to the same flash memory cells over and over again.  Note that flash memory cells can only be written to something like 50,000-100,000 times before burning out.  Imagine what would happen to the memory cells used for the file allocation table if the writes weren’t distributed across the entire medium.

I hope Betanews and other media outlets pursue an explanation of this statement of Sandisk CEO Eli Harari aggressively.  Even in the most positive light, this seems like a stupid statement to make publicly regardless of whether or not there’s any accuracy to it and he should be hung in the media for it just as Steve Ballmer or Steve Jobs or any major corporate CEO would for pissing all over another company for their troubles… much less a partner of theirs.

Personally, I would even go so far as to think there could possibly be an issue with operating systems IN GENERAL not recognizing the difference between SSD drives and mechanical magnetic material drives and thus not applying wear leveling, but from what I’ve seen, no such technology exists natively for Windows XP, MacOS, Linux, or any other operating system out there making his isolation of Windows Vista sound more like a weak evasion tactic used by a corporate mouthpiece that was shooting from the hip in front of a group of press badges.

But what do I know… I hated the storage technologies courses I took back at UCLA Engineering.

[Warning:  This is a completely reactionary post.  I’ve done very little research here so this is pure “in the moment” blogging.]

Who is this “Alison Haislip” girl on G4TV?  Where did she come from?  Yeah sure, she’s cute as a kitten but more importantly, she seems almost like a seasoned, talented co-host.  And she’s actually really entertaining to listen to… unlike some other female G4TV personalities.  How did she end up as frickin’ “The Feed” reporter and more importantly, just when can we anticipate sending Layla Kayleigh to the World Poker Tour once & for all?

In the event that someone from G4TV reads this:  (Hell, I actually have contacts at G4TV’s IT group… maybe I should just pick up the damned phone…)

Dear G4TV,

As an avid fan of your network, I regret to inform you that I stopped DVRecording AOTS and XPlay 6 months ago and I wonder if there are others that feel the same way. 

• XPlay spans gaming across multiple consoles and frankly wastes too much of my time with Nintendo DS & Playstation 3 content.  I don’t have time to watch a TV program about games that I have no intention of ever playing so despite my long running and sincere appreciation for the show going back to TechTV, I dropped the delete button on the “series recording/season pass” of XPlay.  Maybe you guys can do 3 individual 20 minute segments that would allow a person to record just their console’s content.(Still podcast you guys though!  Sessler’s Soapbox is the shiznit.)

  I did start recording it occasionally however once the format changed… especially, whenever it contains Xbox 360 content being that I have sooooooo much respect for the talent & intellect of fellow UCLA Bruin alum Adam Sessler & dread Cal Bears alum Morgan Webb.
  

• Attack of the Show?  I’ve given up on Olivia Munn – I remember when she joined the cast as a stiff, unauthentic, teleprompter reader… but she’s just not gotten any better since that day and subsequently annoyed me beyond my tolerance for the show – especially when paired with Layla Kayleigh’s talentless oration of the day’s news – and this is despite my sincere and deep appreciation for G4TV’s high quality, ever improving production. (And there has been great improvement over the years.)

  What sucks at the most fundamental level is that she’s clearly not got gaming at her core, despite being the cohost of a show a good part of which is about gaming.  At least not in the same way that Kevin Pereira, Morgan Webb, and Adam Sessler do:  Instead she does a reoccurring bit about… uh… magazine articles?  And another about sex advice?  WTF is that?  If I wanted this, I’d go watch the Oxygen Network.  I’ve worn out the 30 second skip button just on Olivia’s segments alone.

  Then when she talks about games, she comes off as just a complete & utter phony.  You leave with the impression that if you showed her a PS controller and an Xbox controller, she couldn’t tell you which is which. 

  And she doesn’t at all seem emotionally passionate about… well… anything in the show in the same way that Blair Butler is about comics or Chris Gore is about movies or Zach Selwyn is about music… & debauchery.  God bless you, Blair, Chris, & Zach.

  And her personality isn’t nearly as infectious as Kristin Holt’s who’s just straight up got this All-American aura about her not to mention having an awesome vocals in Stranger Days to boot.  Meanwhile, I don’t what what the hell Chris Hardwick is supposed to be but he’s just funnier than sh-t and that makes up for a lot.

And then… Alison Haislip comes along.   WHOA.  Where the hell did she come from?  Animated, funny, beautiful, and just downright GENUINE.

Folks, this is the kind of stuff that makes me want to put AOTS back on the DVR “Series Record” list.  Please G4TV:  I love your network.  I really, really do.  Ninja Warrior… Jamie Kennedy Experiment… Championship Gaming Series… and ESPECIALLY THE E3 COVERAGE.

Give me a reason to record more of your shows.  Alison Haislip?  Definitely a good one. Slide her into Olivia’s spot, put Kristin Holt into Layla Kayleigh’s spot, give Olivia another role, and fix two casting risks you folks made so many years ago.

Sincerely,

Kurt

———————–

If you haven’t seen Alison in action, check this out:

You may have heard in the news that Senator Obama has promised his family they’ll get a new family dog after the November election.

The American Kennel Club jumped on this announcement with a list of possible “pure” breeds that the Obamas could buy from a pet store or breeder.

We’d like to propose something different to the senator and his family:

“With millions of homeless pets still being killed in shelters every year, please adopt your dog from a shelter or rescue group. Don’t buy from a pet store or breeder.”

It’s the same thing we say to people everywhere. So we’ve launched a new website – http://www.obamafamilydog.com – where you can sign a petition encouraging the senator to save a life by adopting a homeless pet. Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, left-wing, right-wing or any other wing, please sign the petition, and encourage all your friends and family to sign it, too.

———————

To: Sen. Obama and family

If Sen. Barack Obama becomes president, he’ll instantly be faced with decisions that will affect millions of Americans. Obama will also soon be making a decision that could affect millions of American dogs. It has been reported that once the election is over, win or lose, the Obamas will be looking for a new four-legged family member (much to his daughters’ delight).

We, the undersigned, urge the Obama family to rescue a homeless dog. Whether they choose to adopt a purebred or a mutt, this action would undoubtedly cause a ripple effect to the benefit of all homeless animals. In a country where millions of dogs are killed each year in shelters, adopting a dog that would not otherwise have a future is a winning choice. Taking a stand by choosing to save a life would set an example of the highest standard.

Sincerely,
<your name here>

———————

It’s a great opportunity to promote the cause of homeless pets everywhere.

So, please sign the petition and read the story.

LINK:
http://obamafamilydog.com/

<obligatory flame retardant header>
For the politically correct, please try to resist going off on a rant and instead marvel at the technology behind this project and imagine the potential for commercially available auto-recognition technology.  If you must, think about having a security video camera on the turret or maybe a theatre spotlight instead and most importantly, appreciate that the project is:
1. Microsoft Windows-based (XP to be precise)
2. Written in C# – I suspect using the Microsoft Robotics Studio
3. Consumer-ready using only an x86 laptop & a webcam and some robotics
</obligatory flame retardant header>

Now, for the rest of us that play paintball:   

OMG.  Commercially available auto-target recognition FTW. 

Imagine surprising some team by playing “Alamo” or “King of the Hill” with this puppy mounted on one side, intentionally letting the other team’s scout do reconnaissance on the “empty side” and let the confusion, chaos, and subsequent laughter & amazement begin.

• Some Guy went and Built a Sentry Gun
  http://kotaku.com/5024636/some-guy-went-and-built-a-sentry-gun
• Paintball Sentry – Official Web Site
  http://paintballsentry.com/

Truly “Unreal”.

Best.  Video.  Ever.