Kurt's Thoughts

When last I wrote, I was still whipping up experimental batches of Killer Shrimp based on recipes gathered across the Internet.  This should serve as documentation of my 4th attempt which incorporated not only the changes from the various web sites that I’d examined but also the advice of my wife.

STILL… MISSING… UMAMI!
In the last batch, I was struggling with the fact that the tongue-wagging, center-of-one’s-palette, ‘savory’ taste of Killer Shrimp that compels one to eat & eat & eat mouthful after next of bread dipped in the red-orange broth was still sort of missing.  I concluded that it was possible that it was the process itself that created this flavor:  In other words only after creating a batch of the broth could one create a more perfect broth by using the initial batch as a base.

So indeed, I saved 2 cups of the original broth and added it during the beer phase of the cooking process with the intention of mellowing out the flavor and making it more well rounded.  I also cooked up the batch then let it set overnight to see if that helped, as this often makes many meals I have attain a better balanced, fulfilling taste.

THE ADDITION OF “MIREPOIX”
Additionally, my wife noticed that something needed to cut the flavor a little.  She thought of adding plain sugar at first but we decided to think about it. 

It then dawned on her that the addition of pre-softened onion & celery from Jaden Hair’s recipe sounded awfully close to just simply kickstarting the dish with something called “mirepoix”, a traditional flavor base for many French dishes.  Considering that Killer Shrimp’s origins were from New Orleans’ cajun/French quarter, it would make perfect sense that this recipe started with a complete “mirepoix” stock.

Being that the only thing missing was a carrot, I decided to simply just add it to the preparation.

THE BEER.  AND IT’S DEFINITELY BEER.
Just a note:  I’d written that I had some question as to whether or not the recipe required wine or beer, and in the end, I believe it really is beer.  My friend Steph concluded that the beer’s more robust flavor greatly contributed to Killer Shrimp’s unique gusto and I agree.

CONCLUSION
The end result was very good however I discovered something of a backlash from the pepper used.  Because I simmer the broth down so much, because I may have overchopped the spices, and because I added the previous batches broth to the mix, it came out overly hot and the pepper sadly detracted from the broth’s overall taste.

So if you make this, keep in mind that reducing the pepper may be necessary if you simmer down the recipe too far or use a starter broth.  Changes made to the recipe have been highlighted in bold font.

————

Killer Shrimp
(version .02)

INGREDIENTS:

• ½ small onion, diced
• 1 celery rib, diced
• 1 moderate sized carrot, diced
• 5 cloves Garlic, minced
• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter (was 1 cup butter)
• 2 quarts low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 tablespoon rosemary
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper (3/4 teaspoon if PREVIOUS batch of Killer Shrimp is available)
• 1 teaspoon celery seed
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seed
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (3/4 teaspoon if PREVIOUS batch of Killer Shrimp is available)
• 8oz clam juice (was 1 cup clam juice supposed to change to 2 cups but switched back to 8 oz)
• 3 tablespoons (3 oz) of tomato paste (was 1/2 (6 ounce) can tomato paste)
• 1 cup beer (ale)
• 1 ½ pounds shrimp, with tails
• 1 (1 pound) loaf French bread
• 2 cups of PREVIOUS batch of Killer Shrimp

DIRECTIONS:

1. Fry onion, celery, carrots, garlic in the butter until fragrant and soft in a large pot.
2. Take all the spices (rosemary, thyme, pepper, celery seed, fennel seed, pepper flakes) and cut/crush them enough that they remain whole but are broken to more easily release flavor.
3. Pour in broth, and mix in rosemary, thyme, pepper, celery seed, fennel seed, clam juice, pepper flakes, & tomato paste. Place cover on pot to maintain consistency.
4. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
5. Stir beer into the broth mixture as well as PREVIOUS batch of Killer Shrimp and continue to simmer and occasionally stir 2 hours.
6. Just before serving, stir in shrimp. Continue cooking 3 minutes, or until shrimp are opaque.
7. Serve with bread.

Back in college, there was this one game that had me captivated called “Another World”.  And it wasn’t just me – the resident dorm geek.  I honest to God had guys, girls, sports jocks, everything all watching this game trying to figure out how to solve it’s puzzles and find out “what happened to Lester”.  So much so that when some of us finished parts of the game, we’d have to summarize what had happened and leave it on a piece of paper on my dorm room door for people to read.

WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?
This game – to this day – is an utter masterpiece.  It’s controls were elegant & intuitive – left, right, up, down, action… THAT’S IT.  The puzzles were ingenious.  The story was epic… so much so that when I finished the game everyone watching behind me cried out, “OHHHHHHH MAN.  That’s all?!?  No more Another World?!?”  What was even more amazing was as a former software engineer, I marvel at how this game was built and designed especially in reflection of how games today are made.  The screenshot is a capture of one of the games first opening interactive sequences.  Max resolution back then was 800×600 & you HAVE to realize a few things:

• YEAR:  This was 1991.  The computer I ran this on was a 16mhz 80386 with 640k.
• SIZE:  The game was 1.28MB.  It fit on a single floppy disc.  I’ve got Word .DOC files that are bigger than this, much less a video game.
• FRAME RATE:  The game moved so smoothly – it was like a movie and with the cinematic cut scenes, it was kinda revolutionary.
• MUSIC:  The game had actual atmospheric audio & sound effects all throughout.  Even alien language.
• GAME LENGTH:  The amount of time it took to play through the game wasn’t huge but the puzzles were tough enough that it could take quite a while to complete a level.  It took me more than a a few months to play through off and on.
• ANIMATION:  Everything generated on the screen was VECTOR based.  This was a first – no one had ever constructed an adventure game made of vectors instead of raster objects & animations until Another World.

WHAT WAS “ANOTHER WORLD”?
Produced by Delphine Software, “Another World” was a revolutionary & innovative new game that was effectively a 2D scroller that depended exclusively on vector-based graphics for generating

The story is outlined in the Wikipedia entry but the net of it is a PhD researcher working with a cyclotron attempts to produce antimatter but in the course of events, a lightning strike results in a cataclysmic failure resulting in the mysterious teleportation of our hero to ‘another world’.  Rematerializing underwater, he swims to the top of the pool – lest he be eaten by an unseen tentacle laden creature at the base of the pool – and discovers… well… the world you see above in the photo.  Our hero in the photo has just gotten out of the pool in the picture and in the horizon, there is a “beast w/ red eyes” of sorts that he eventually has to deal with.

CAN I TRY IT?
Thankfully, they’ve put a trial version on the net for people to play… and if you like it, there’s a link to buy it for $8.99.

But what’s cool about the new version is:

1. WINDOWS – It’s no longer a DOS game but completely ported over to Windows.  What’s neat about this is the game now scales to either full screen or a windowed environment.  Also it’s no longer constrained to 640×480 but rather works at any resolution – remember:  The game is vector–based so it looks GREAT at any resolution and doesn’t pixelate like other raster-based titles.
2. ENHANCED VISUALS – Originally designed for 80386 computers and a 640k footprint, today’s computers have a bit more power and memory available to them.  So the creator, Eric Chahi made some modifications that improve the graphics for today’s PC’s while maintaining the same vector-based look & feel of the original.  The changes are very subtle like shadows, background detail, & lighting however very noticeable.

If you’re an old time gamer, you really can’t pass this up.  This is a CLASSIC DOS-based game that was amazing, especially for the size of the game. 1.28MB

• DOWNLOAD:  “Another World” Trial Game
  http://www.anotherworld.fr/download/AnotherWorld_Demo.exe
• DOWNLOAD:  “Another World” link to BUY the full game ($8.99)
  http://www.anotherworld.fr/anotherworld_uk/index.htm
• DOWNLOAD:  “Another World” for Windows Mobile 5/6 (Free – not compatible with resolutions greater than  320×240)
  http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=409521
• DISCUSSION:  “Another World” for Windows Mobile 5
  http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=2432836
• READ:  Review of “Another World” on SmartphoneMag:
  http://www.smartphonemag.com/cms/blog/9/legendary-game-another-world-flashback-released-windows-mobile-%E2%80%93-free-a-must

(For those who care, there was apparently also a port of “Flashback”, a sort of spiritual successor to “Another World” that personally, I never finished because it got boring.  Visually it wasn’t as captivating as “Another World” either. http://arisme.free.fr/CEports/)

Like I said before, my wife and I have been modifying the ‘Internet classic Killer Shrimp’ recipe in an effort to get a taste that is closer to the real thing.  One of the variations we attempted while narrowing down the correct formula involved extending & reengineering the cooking process.

CREATING A BASE STOCK FOR KILLER SHRIMP
When cooking for a long period of time (6 hours), we noticed that the red pepper oils seems to completely get absorbed into the soup.  This does a couple things:  One, it makes the soup hotter than we’re used to, and two, the soups “upper layer” is in particular distinctively hotter relative to the rest of the soup.  This of course is what you generally end up eating more of initially.

And interesting thing happens however:  Once you’ve eaten off that higher layer of ‘spicier’ soup, the remaining soup is delicious.  It’s loaded with umami and has a savory, scrumptious flavor to it.   It’s a little thicker than I’m used to – almost like a gumbo or maybe a jambalaya sauce – but our next step is to use it as the base stock for the next batch of “Killer Shrimp”.

THE PROCESS… COULD IT BE THE MISSING INGREDIENT?
At the heart of all of this is something that I’m not sure has been taken into consideration by most “Killer Shrimp” cooks in pursuit of perfection and that is the process by which the people at Killer Shrimp used to make their broth.  This is what I think may be the missing ingredient that provides a savor that the basic ingredients don’t provide.

Remember that when Killer Shrimp’s employees would cook up a batch, it was highly unlikely they would ever “start a new pot”.  Instead, we believe they would:

1. Create & simmer down one pot for 4-6 hours.
2. Throw in a single serving of shrimp and cook it for a few minutes.
3. Gather all the shrimp and some of the broth, and serve it.
4. Continue this process to serve the majority of the pot.
5. Start another pot separately on another burner, possibly cooking & serving shrimp from it too.
6. Pour the second pot into the first pot to preserve the ‘shrimp stock’ and ‘residual ingredients’ from the original pot.
7. Continue to serve shrimp from pot.
8. Repeat cycle.

What I think this does is provide a richer, more sumptuous, “OMG-I-must-have-more” taste to the broth that would probably be difficult to produce through initial ingredients alone.

More on this later…

UPDATE (5/13/17):
Apparently, there’s a ton of people still hitting this post, despite it being written in 2010.

Folks, I am very aware that Killer Shrimp has reopened in the Marina.   Thank you but there’s no need to let me know…  I LIVE HERE.  🙂

For those not aware, Killer Shrimp closed back in the late 2000’s at it’s original location on Washington Blvd, was going to move to Chicago in the early 2010s, then opened a new location on the Marina several years later after what I was told was a change in the owner’s personal situation.

Y’all are reading the very first post of a very old set of seven posts about our quest to recreate the recipe.  Here’s the seventh & final post that was written back in June 2012:
https://kurtsthoughts.com/2012/06/30/in-search-of-the-recipe-for-marina-del-reys-killer-shrimp-part-7-our-recipe-finale-release-1-0/ 

————————
ORIGINAL POST (4/24/10):
A friend of mine from work, Stephanie Lemus, (who incidentally was one of the 100 people selected to compete in this year’s $1,000,000 Pillsbury Bake Off for her original recipe for Candied Bacon & Apple Canapes) forwarded me the recipe for what was supposed to be the broth from “Killer Shrimp”, a rather famous place to eat in Marina Del Rey that closed down a few years ago.

Many folks – particularly single folk – would go there and eat the one thing they sold:  Shrimp in a spicy cajun style broth.  They served it with your choice of french bread, rice, or noodles but that was all they served.  One dish, 3 ways.  And it was good enough to run a business on for at least a decade or so.

Sadly, Killer Shrimp is no more.  Reportedly there’s a place called Jack Shrimp in Newport Beach that has an identical recipe (supposedly a brother of the Killer Shrimp owner) but beyond that, there’s no where in LA to get this stuff… unless you make it yourself.

I’ve looked at the recipe Steph gave me and compared it to the comments & advice about similar recipes from several locations (references below) and came up with the aggregate you see below.  Basically, I used the ‘wisdom of crowds’ to come up with what I think is the closest thing to the original Killer Shrimp recipe.  For instance, it seems universally recognized by those that have tried this recipe that the chicken broth should be ‘low sodium’… that ‘thyme’ needs to be added… that red pepper flakes need to be added… that beer gets used instead of white wine (although I disagree on this point – being that the origination of this substitution seems to be a single comment made on one web site without any sort of corroboration)… that the amount of tomato paste should be reduced to 3 oz… etc. etc.

One very important thing we’ve learned is that there is no getting around the cooking time.  You absolutely must cook this for 3 hours or more even if you cut the spices.

Anyway – here it is so far.  Consider this a beta.  It’s not perfect yet.  My wife and I are still testing some things, specifically the usage of lemon, the trade off between using white wine or beer, adding sea salt, etc.:

Killer Shrimp
(version .01b)

INGREDIENTS:

• • • ½ small onion, diced
    • 1 celery rib, diced
    • 5 cloves Garlic, minced
    • ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter (was 1 cup butter)
    • 2 quarts low-sodium chicken broth (can be overly salty if not low-sodium)
    • 1 ½ tablespoon rosemary (was 2 tablespoons rosemary)
    • 2 teaspoons dried thyme
    • 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
    • 1 teaspoon celery seed
    • 1/2 teaspoon fennel seed
    • 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
    • 8oz clam juice (was 1 cup clam juice supposed to change to 2 cups but switched back to 8 oz)
    • 3 tablespoons (3 oz) of tomato paste (was 1/2 (6 ounce) can tomato paste)
    • 1 cup white wine (or beer)
    • 1 ½ pounds shrimp, with tails
    • Optional: Frank’s Red Hot Sauce
    • 1 (1 pound) loaf French bread

DIRECTIONS:

1. Fry onion, celery, garlic in the butter until fragrant and soft in a large pot.
2. Take all the spices (rosemary, thyme, pepper, celery seed, fennel seed, pepper flakes) and cut/crush them enough that they remain whole but are broken to more easily release flavor.
3. Pour in broth, and mix in rosemary, thyme, pepper, celery seed, fennel seed, clam juice, pepper flakes, & tomato paste. Place cover on pot to maintain consistency.
4. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
5. Stir beer into the broth mixture and continue to simmer and occasionally stir 2 hours.
6. Just before serving, stir in shrimp. Continue cooking 3 minutes, or until shrimp are opaque.
7. Serve with bread.

————

References:

1. http://quantumrelativity.calsci.com/Recipes/KillerShrimp.html
2. http://www.recipegoldmine.com/fishseaK/killer-shrimp.html
3. http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/540371
4. http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/Killer-Shrimp-Soup/Detail.aspx
5. http://steamykitchen.com/80-killer-cajun-shrimp.html
6. Comments from one posting:
   1. Too much butter. It should be 1 stick (1/2 cup) at the most and some people may find they would rather use less.
   2. The shrimp MUST have the whole skin on. The flavor that the shrimp peels adds to the mix is essential, yet indefinable.
   3. Double the amount of clam juice to 16 oz
   4. Reduce the Rosemary by 1/3 and double the amount of fennel, add 1 tsp dried thyme
   5. Reduce the tomato paste to 3 TBSP
   6. Add salt, preferably sea salt
   7. Add 1 tsp of red pepper flakes (or to taste)
   8. Add hot sauce to taste. Finally, there is a secret ingredient involved, which I am not prepared to divulge. But the above will get you close.

I’m not a terribly religious man, but I believe that people get a better, more accurate perspective of creation & grace when they observe the basics from animals, their innocence, and all their intentions or lack thereof.

http://www.godweb.org/allcreatures.htm

Excerpts from a Dog’s Diary

8:00 am – Dog food! My favorite thing!

9:30 am – A car ride! My favorite thing!

9:40 am – A walk in the park!  My favorite thing!

10:30 am – Got rubbed and petted!  My favorite thing!

12:00 pm – Lunch! My favorite thing!

  1:00 pm – Played in the yard! My favorite thing!

  3:00 pm – Wagged my tail! My favorite thing!

  5:00 pm – Milk Bones! My favorite thing!

  7:00 pm – Got to play ball! My favorite thing!

  8:00 pm – Wow! Watched TV with the people!  My favorite thing!

11:00 pm – Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!

Excerpts from a Cat’s Daily Diary

Day 983 of my captivity…

My captors  continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling  objects.  They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while  the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets.

Although I make my contempt for the  rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat  something in order to keep up my strength.

The  only thing that keeps me going is my dream of  escape.  In an attempt to disgust them, I once  again vomit on the carpet.

Today I decapitated a  mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet.   I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable  of.  However, they merely made condescending  comments about what a ‘good little hunter’ I am.   Bastards.

There was some sort of assembly of  their accomplices tonight.  I was placed in solitary  confinement for the duration of the event.  However, I could hear the noises and smell the  food.  I overheard that my confinement was due to  the power of ‘allergies.’ I must learn what this  means and how to use it to my advantage.

Today I  was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one  of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was  walking. I must try this again tomorrow — but at the top of the stairs.

I am convinced that the  other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches.   The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly  released – and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded.

The bird  has got to be an informant.  I observe him communicating with the guards regularly.  I am  certain that he reports my every move.  My captors  have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated  cell, so he is safe.  For now.

Recently, there’s been a fair amount of talk around Sony’s Playstation MOVE controller as well as their vocal support of 3D technology.  

PRECISION MOTION CONTROL + AUGMENTED REALITY = “WII MOTION PLUS… with a LIGHT BULB & A CAMERA?”
Based on the demos being done, the MOVE appears to be basically a Wiimote with optical precision around the location of the controller along with the ability to  represent the player’s image in the virtual universe.

Effectively, the benefit of the MOVE controller is that the PS3 knows precisely where your controller is in relation to your body so it’s able to provide an in-game experience by not only allowing you to interact with a game based on the position of the MOVE controller, but also place your body in the game and put objects in your hand based on the controller’s position.  This is often referred to as “augmented reality”.

…I’m sorry but I don’t consider this to be “game-changing” or very innovative.  It’s like a Sony version of the Wii Motion Plus – all of which has been done by Nintendo, with the exception of the globe for more accurate positioning & the incorporation of the Eye toy, which again, is nothing more than a camera. 
And augmented reality is not something that’s taken the market by storm despite its existence for several years now.  It hasn’t grabbed the world’s attention because it’s not really that exciting beyond the initial demonstration.  Perhaps there are simply scenarios that I haven’t recognized yet that might be exciting… but I’ve seen no practical evidence that would change my mind either.

————–

3D TV + HDMI 1.4 + 3D GLASSES + 3D CONSOLE GAMES = “NOT PAYING FOR ANY OF THIS”
At CES2010 this year, it was revealed that Sony is making a huge investment in 3D technology, particularly with regard to games.  This technology does 4 things: 

1. RENDER TWO IMAGES:  Within a 3D video game, the console must render not one but two video image feeds of the same viewpoint then delivers them both simultaneously over the video port.  This likely requires twice as much GPU computational power to accomplish and twice as much video memory to generate.
2. 3D-ENABLED PORT:  Both images are delivered to the video display using a new standard known as HDMI 1.4 to display equipment.  Standard Component Video cabling is not enough, much less lesser connective technologies.
3. 3D TV or 3D INTERPRETIVE BOX REQUIRED:  The 3D image(s) must be delivered over HDMI 1.4 to something that can consume both video feeds for the left & right eyes.  This is predicted to be NEW TV displays, which you will see advertised as “3D TVs”.  Alternatively, one can buy a 3D ‘box’ which will consume the HDMI 1.4 3D feed and deliver them to an older non-3D capable TV.
4. GLASSES REQUIRED:  One must be wearing 3D glasses that separates the two images displayed and isolates each feed to each eye, in order to view this image in 3D.

This is the equipment necessary in order for conventional users to play 3D games.  Obviously it requires a fairly significant investment on the part of the consumer – having to buy special 3D enabled games & 3D enabled TVs/display boxes.  This is one of the reasons that consumer electronics vendors – LIKE SONY – are so giddy about the potential of 3D technology:  It requires people to buy new TVs and/or new technology and that means new revenue for those folks.

…I think it should be obvious that I think this is all a giant ‘head shaker’.  Anyone that’s seen the 3D technology on parade at CES over the past few years knows that it’s not much of a paradigm shift, met with a lot of ‘ho hum’ by traditional consumers at the shows.  The experience isn’t very immersive because it just isn’t very natural.  I could be completely wrong on all of this but 3D doesn’t specifically make games more interesting because while stuff ‘flies out at you’ while you play, nothing you the player does naturally affects this 3D experience.

I might see a first person image (like playing Halo or Killzone 2) in 3D however if I change my own personal position relative to the TV it doesn’t change the viewpoint of the image on the screen.  If I have to change my point of view using the thumbs on my GAME CONTROLLER… that’s just lame.  The 3D experience still translates as fake in my brain and registers as non-immersive.  Ask anyone that’s played “Avatar – the Video Game” in 3D.

For the record, I have no official knowledge of what the Xbox team is doing with Natal.  I have no communicated advance/inside information about Microsoft’s plans in the Entertainment & Devices space.  Now – that being said, this is what I personally believe is the secret killer app of Xbox 360’s Project Natal… and for whatever reason, few people in the media seem to have put two and two together about this stuff.  Maybe it’s all conjecture however…

UPDATE June 17th, 2010: 
WHOOPS!  Microsoft General Manager Wil Mozell confirmed what I called Project Natal’s Kinect’s Secret Killer App.

Wil Mozell, a Microsoft GM who oversees many of the companies designing Kinect’s important launch titles:
"Kinect isn’t going to replace the controllers that have worked for those types of games for the last decade—that’s not what we’re trying to do. Kinect will work alongside those controllers for hardcore games. For throwing a grenade, for vocal commands, for…"

"For head tracking??"

"Yes, head tracking! Exactly."

He gets a big smile. He wants to say more. Bound by Microsoft confidentiality agreements, he can’t.

[taken from Gizmodo’s article, “Xbox 360 Kinect Puts ‘Play’ Back in ‘Gameplay’”

————————–

THE KILLER APP IS…
Take a look at this video by Carnegie Mellon University PhD Researcher, Johnny Chung Lee.  Some of you may have seen this before because it’s frankly 2 years old and leverages a Windows laptop-controlled Nintendo Wii controller & sensor.

In case it wasn’t clear, the killer app is 3D experiences using head tracking – without headgear. There’s a few things to note about Johnny Chung Lee’s demonstration:

• NO SPECIAL TV… NO SPECIAL GLASSES
  No new equipment –like a 3D TV or HDMI 1.4 middlware – needs to be purchased in the way of A/V consumer electronics.  Today’s projection screen, LCS flat screens & plasma displays are all capable of providing this great 3D-like experience.  More importantly, no special 3D glasses need to be worn to get this experience.  This has vast implications because 3D glasses can cause eye fatigue in people that can wear them, and requires GOGGLES for people that wear eyeglasses, something that’s usually more expensive.
  
• VIEW BY HEAD POSITION… NOT BY GAME CONTROLLER
  No interaction is necessary with a game controller to obtain different views in 3D.  All that is necessary is for the game console to be able to tell the distance (Z-axis) and position (X & Y-axis) of the user’s head relative to the TV screen to provide a video image that is relative to these variables.  (i.e. provide a different “angle”)
  
• CONTROLLER AND HEAD TRACKING SIMULTANEOUS USAGE
  Just because your view/perspective in 3D is controlled by your head position, doesn’t mean you can’t ALSO use the controller to control your aim & movement as it normally does when gaming.  The ability for head tracking to change your relative position provides the ability to ‘duck & weave’ interactively making the 3D experience truly immersive.

So with that being said, here’s a few things to know.

1. JOHNNY CHUNG LEE WORKS FOR MICROSOFT
   Johnny Lee is the guy you saw in the video.  We hired him as a researcher for Microsoft Applied Sciences.  Excitingly, he’s been working for Microsoft for a while.  After the interface work he did with the Wii, I think he proved that he’s got a unique & valuable insight into how concepts like head tracking and other natural methods of interfacing with computers can be useful & possibly revolutionary.

   http://johnnylee.net/
   http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/default.aspx?id=103806

2. LEE IS WORKING ON XBOX 360’s PROJECT NATAL
   Not surprisingly, Johnny Chung Lee’s been working on Project Natal.  Anyone paying attention to his past work as well as his comments on his blog about the work he’s currently doing should be able to spot where Natal & his VR head tracking research have commonalities.  In the post below, he talks about the power of both the hardware & the software that underpins Natal.  Here’s a quick except of what he has to say:

   ”The 3D sensor itself is a pretty incredible piece of equipment providing detailed 3D information about the environment similar to very expensive laser range finding systems but at a tiny fraction of the cost. Depth cameras provide you with a point cloud of the surface of objects that is fairly insensitive to various lighting conditions allowing you to do things that are simply impossible with a normal camera.

   But once you have the 3D information, you then have to interpret that cloud of points as "people". This is where the researcher jaws stay dropped. The human tracking algorithms that the teams have developed are well ahead of the state of the art in computer vision in this domain. The sophistication and performance of the algorithms rival or exceed anything that I’ve seen in academic research, never mind a consumer product. At times, working on this project has felt like a miniature “Manhattan project” with developers and researchers from around the world coming together to make this happen.”
    
   http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10254466-56.html?tag=rtcol;pop
   http://procrastineering.blogspot.com/2009/06/project-natal.html
   http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/06/05/johnny-chung-lee-on-xbox-natal/

3. PROJECT NATAL ACCURATELY RECOGNIZES HEAD POSITION & DISTANCE IN REAL TIME
   First of all, let’s clear up a common misconception of the media:  "Project Natal” is NOTHING LIKE the Playstation Eye Toy.  The media continues to use them both in the same breath despite the fact that Eye toy doesn’t have half the technology within Natal.  Sure they’re both video cameras… but that’s where the similarity ENDS.

   One of the many core functions* of “Project Natal” is the ability to recognize objects – such as a player’s head – in real time, and do this using it’s own built-in CPU/processor.  It does not depend on the Xbox 360 for the computation of this information, allowing the primary CPU cores to be used for gaming software.  By providing this as user input, another form of gamer control is added in addition to the game controller.

   This has been demonstrated over and over again.  What makes this amazing is that Natal itself not just recognizes a person’s head, but does it is real time and can tell the relative position of your head relative to the TV.

   http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527426.800-microsofts-bodysensing-buttonbusting-controller.html
   http://archive.videogamesdaily.com/features/microsoft-natal-xbox-360-why-its-a-big-deal-p1.asp
   http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2010-01/exclusive-inside-microsofts-project-natal

I’ve just got on last thought to leave you with:

Imagine playing Halo: Reach.  A group of Elites & Brutes are guarding an area just around the corner.  You move your Spartan up to the corner and lean with your head to see around the corner.  You spot the enemies and fire off a few well placed shots using your controller right trigger before Elites start returning fire.  You lean back with your head to stay out of the line of sight and wait for the gunfire to die down… but now you can’t actually see what’s going on around the corner – just as you would in a real firefight.  You notice the ricochets have diminished so you again lean around the corner and throw a grenade using your left trigger and lean back.  Then to change things up, you tippy-toe over the wall to see a view of the enemy that they don’t expect and aren’t watching for.  You see that only one Brute remains.  This should be easy to clean up…

—————————————————-

* Project Natal is very much more than just a camera.  It has software & a CPU built into it that enables it to do a variety of things without the assistance of the Xbox console’s CPU.  It can judge distances between objects & the display, recognize speech for voice commands, distinguish between player’s faces, visually recognize player’s movements, identify people in the dark through infrared, interpret player gestures, etc.  For details around what Natal does outside of just “provide an image of the gamer”, take a look at these links:

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2009/jun/04/microsoft-project-natal-xbox
• http://kotaku.com/5442221/take-a-look-at-how-project-natal-actually-works
• http://www.gossipgamers.com/microsofts-explanation-video-on-how-project-natal-works/

This was a fascinating story and I’m really glad to have stumbled upon it.

• GUARDIAN:  Evony drops libel case against British blogger Bruce Everiss
  Lawsuit brought against outspoken games veteran is dropped as Evony witness evidence is queried
  http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/mar/31/evony-libel-case-bruce-everiss

Bruce Everiss, veteran game marketer and a gaming business blogger that I follow was being sued for libel by “the people that make Evony”.  Although, it’s not entirely clear who that is.  Y’see, the origins of Evony are allegedly very much in dispute, if you read through the Guardian’s article as well as Bruce’s own blog on the topic. 

But one thing seems certain to me (if you read & believe Bruce’s posts on Evony) and that is that the people that run Evony seem to believe that they’re above what I consider to be common sense ethics – the biggest of which include the legal protection of Intellectual Property rights.  But when you see their advertising – heavily laden with images of sex, breasts, and lewd photography, some of which allegedly originated from actual porn DVD covers – it seems pretty obvious to this reader that ‘ethics’ isn’t anything that Evony is particularly concerned about.

GAMING DRAMA SO THICK, YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP
This lawsuit against Bruce was going on for a fairly long time and made Bruceongames.com a “must-read-blog” for me.  Here’s a summary of the entire documented drama.  As you can see, each post is somewhat episodic.  It’s so detailed, I really think Bruce could write a book based on the tale and make a good penny, otherwise turning lemons into lemonade.

• 8/25/08 Making gold in China
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2008/08/25/making-gold-in-china/
• 7/10/09 Don’t play Evony
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/07/10/dont-play-evony/
• 7/15/09 More about Evony
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/07/15/more-about-evony/
• 7/16/09 Is Evony malware
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/07/16/is-evony-malware/
• 7/29/09 Evony advert ridiculed by PopCap
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/07/29/evony-advert-ridiculed-by-popcap/
• 7/31/09 Queen of Evony competition
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/07/31/queen-of-evony-competition/
• 8/25/09 Evony want to sue me for telling the truth
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/08/25/evony-want-to-sue-me-for-telling-the-truth/
• 8/26/09 Why use Warren McKeon Dickson to threaten me?
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/08/26/why-use-warren-mckeon-dickson-to-threaten-me/
• 9/14/09 Evony libel me
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/09/14/evony-libel-me/
• 9/14/09 Evony press release
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/09/14/evony-press-release/
• 9/14/09 Evony in big trouble
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/09/14/evony-in-big-trouble/
• 9/16/09 Eric Lam, UMGE, WoWMine and Evony
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/09/16/eric-lam-umge-wowmineand-evony/
• 9/16/09 Is Kingory just Evony under a different name?
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/09/16/is-kingory-just-evony-under-a-different-name/
• 9/22/09 The game mechanic and its subversion
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/09/22/the-game-mechanic-and-its-subversion/
• 9/28/09 Anti Semitism in Evony
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/09/28/anti-semitism-in-evony/
• 10/06/09 Who works for Evony?
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/10/06/who-works-for-evony/
• 10/12/09 A hidden danger of MMOs
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/10/12/a-hidden-danger-of-mmos/
• 10/13/09 How the internet is being censored
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/10/13/how-the-internet-is-being-censored/
• 10/19/09 Evony and Bruceongames
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/10/19/evony-and-bruceongames/
• 10/20/09 Help defeat Evony
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/10/20/help-defeat-evony/
• 10/21/09 Evony, the truth, Facebook group
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/10/21/evony-the-truth-facebook-group/
• 10/27/09 Eric Lam irony
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/10/27/eric-lam-irony/
• 11/09/09 Kingory and Kung Fu Panda
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/11/09/kingory-and-kung-fu-panda/
• 11/10/09 The Law Report, ABC radio, Australia. And Evony
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/11/10/the-law-report-and-evony/
• 11/10/09 Evony porn girls
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/11/10/evony-porn-girls/
• 11/13/09 Evony fighting fund – a big thank you
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/11/13/evony-fighting-fund-a-big-thank-you/
• 11/19/09 Kingory, Nap War, Evony, Empire Craft, Lords Online. What is going on?
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/11/19/kingory-nap-war-evony-empire-craft-lords-online-what-is-going-on/
• 11/22/09 321WAN, the company behind Evony?
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/11/22/321wan-the-company-behind-evony/
• 11/26/09 Evony. Very interesting Youtube video
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/11/26/evony-very-interesting-youtube-video/
• 11/28/09 Evony parody TV advertisement
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/11/28/evony-parody-tv-adverisement/
• 12/3/09 I am in court with Evony on 14 December
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/12/03/i-am-in-court-with-evony-on-14-december/
• 12/13/09 High drama in Evony LLC Vs Bruce Everiss
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2009/12/13/high-drama-in-evony-llc-vs-bruce-everiss/
• 1/13/10 Google hacked by Chinese
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/01/13/google-hacked-by-chinese/
• 2/11/10 Evony and the disappearing evidence #1
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/02/11/evony-and-the-disappearing-evidence-1/
• 2/17/10 Evony and the disappearing evidence #2
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/02/17/evony-and-the-disappearing-evidence-2/
• 2/19/10 The people behind Evony
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/02/19/the-people-behind-evony/
• 2/22/10 The Evony management team
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/02/22/the-evony-management-team/
• 2/22/10 Evony, the movie
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/02/22/evony-the-movie/
• 2/26/10 David Guo
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/02/26/david-guo/
• 3/2/10 More from David Guo’s solicitors
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/03/02/more-from-david-guos-solicitors/
• 3/4/10 Deep irony from David Guo
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/03/04/deep-irony-from-david-guo/
• 3/5/10 Where the Evony players are moving to
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/03/05/where-the-evony-players-are-moving-to/
• 3/5/10 David Guo’s solicitors get angry
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/03/05/david-guos-solicitors-get-angry/
• 3/5/10 More from David Guo’s angry solicitors
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/03/05/more-from-david-guos-angry-solicitors/
• 3/7/10 Evony, Marco F. Mereu and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/03/07/evony-marco-f-mereu-and-the-digital-millenium-copyright-act/
• 3/9/10 More pictures of Evony/UMGE in Guangzhou (reinstated)
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/03/09/more-pictures-of-evonyumge-in-guangzhou/
• 3/9/10 Comments about Evony by UMGE Ex-employee
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/03/09/comments-about-evony-by-umge-ex-employee/
• 3/10/10 Evony staff suppress the truth
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/03/10/evony-staff-suppress-the-truth/
• 3/11/10 How much do players spend on Evony?
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/03/11/how-much-do-players-spend-on-evony/
• 3/12/10 Why Evony are happy to ban their customers
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/03/12/why-evony-are-happy-to-ban-their-customers-2/
• 3/16/10 David Guo Vs Bruce Everiss
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/03/16/david-guo-vs-bruce-everiss/
• 3/20/10 Eric Lam speaks – from China
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/03/20/eric-lam-speaks-from-china/
• 3/23/10 David Guo, boss of Evony, and hacking
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/03/23/david-guo-boss-of-evony-and-hacking/
• 3/24/10 Where does the Evony money go?
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/03/24/where-does-the-evony-money-go/
• 3/25/10 Evony say the game employs 9 or less people worldwide!
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/03/25/evony-say-the-game-employs-9-or-less-people-worldwide/
• 3/26/10 A short history of Evony in China
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/03/26/a-short-history-of-evony-in-china/
• 3/27/10 Evony, Civony, UMGE. Lies, lies, lies
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/03/27/evony-civony-umge-lies-lies-lies/
• 3/31/10 Evony Vs Bruce Everiss. The result
  http://www.bruceongames.com/2010/03/31/evony-vs-bruce-everiss-the-result/

Bart Perkins wrote this opinion piece in Computerworld and it lit a fire amongst some very opinionated people in the IT industry:

• COMPUTERWORLD:  Opinion: Certifications Are No Longer Optional
  http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/347260/Certifications_Are_No_Longer_Optional

To quote the Microsoft Learning blog’s comments:

Bart’s column makes the case that the pendulum has swung back to where it was a decade or so back, when certification was pretty much a requirement for any technical job.  Only now, there’s a new wrinkle in the era of outsourcing: Perkins argues that if your job gets outsourced, your certifications might determine whether you get a chance to go with it.  Perkins also predicts that as today’s certified IT Pros become IT Managers, certification will become a more common requirement, even (and especially) for senior positions.

ANNNND HERE COME THE “CERTS-DON’T-MATTER” PARADE
One of the things I saw of course was the predictable “Certifications don’t matter” haters that come out of the woodwork every time the topic of certification value comes about.  To those individuals, I’ll simply say this.  I’ve been with Microsoft for 15 years & in IT 9 years prior to that.  More specifically, I’ve been involved with dozens of interview “loops” (as they call them) and to be blunt, if you don’t have the appropriate certification in the technology that you’re applying for here at Microsoft, my first instinct is that I’m not likely going to greenlight your resume to move on.

WHY CERTIFICATIONS MATTER:  “ATTITUDE”
Does a certification matter that much?  Frankly, from a technical standpoint NO.  What it tells me however is that above all else, the applicant has the right attitude.  Someone that’s gone through the process of taking a test – especially if they don’t need to – and passing it is someone that is interested in details, in this case, personal details about their professional appearance.  Someone that’s willing to do anything & everything to do a job right.  Someone that doesn’t have a chip on their shoulder about their skills.  Someone that doesn’t think they’re so much better than anyone else that they can cut corners.  Skills can be taught but attitude can rarely be adjusted permanently.

EXAMPLE:  I remember interviewing one guy.  He was from another business unit within Microsoft and he came in on his high horse with a loaded resume looking for job in our geography.  He was one of the first “you-should-be-thanking-me-for-interviewing-for-your-piddly-job” interviewees that I’d ever met – one of many during the past decade unfortunately due to the emergence of what has since been described to me as the “self-esteem” generation.  Anyway, when I saw the complete lack of certifications from any platform, Microsoft or otherwise, I had a feeling that my next question wasn’t going to be received well.  I asked him:

• “I noticed that you don’t have the certification in [TECHNOLOGY-BEING-INTERVIEWED-FOR].  Would you consider taking that exam and passing it as a prerequisite of your employment?”

His response was something along the lines of, “Well, I don’t really see the value in me doing that considering my experience but if Microsoft’s going to pay for the exam, yeah, I’ll take it.”  For those reading, that’s not the right answer.  The rest of his responses had a similar tone.

When I met with the other interviewers to provide our feedback about the candidates, let’s just say that his resume was filed appropriately.

WHY CERTIFICATIONS MATTER:  “BASELINE”
Say what you want about their necessity:  If you only have experience with a certifiable product in 2-3 organizations, I’m going to feel a lot more comfortable with you as a candidate if you have a certification in that technology.

Why?  Very simply put, I’ve worked in IT for 9 years previously and I know that every environment, once set, rarely changes much meaning that one’s skill set is usually confined to only one scenario/scope in which a given technology is used.  This is EXTREMELY limiting.

EXAMPLE:  I met one candidate and he’d been using one of our technologies for 5 years.  We joked that he had seen been through the good times and the bad with the product and based on the amount of time he’d spent on the technology as well as his clear memory of previous revisions, I went to far in my mind as to think for a moment that we might be looking at a possible fit.  And then I noticed his resume lacked the right certification.

So I started asking about his prior employer’s environment and he naturally could answer technical questions about that particular configuration.  But the moment we started talking about architectures different from that which he’d used at his previous employer, he just lost it.  Sputtering and complaining about how those were “non-enterprise” configurations without a lot of substantiating evidence, I soured on him quickly.  I made a point of telling him that our customers work in configurations that were downright unnatural at times and that the position required a lot of understanding and flexibility.  He practically shut down after that.

WHY CERTIFICATIONS MATTER:  “EFFORT”
”Effort” is not to be confused with “Attitude”.  This has to do with fundamental work ethic.  Someone that’s willing to go the extra mile.  Someone that is willing to do the basic fundamentals necessary for success.  Someone that’s not looking for a quick out, someone that’s willing to put their ego aside, and someone that’s willing to do the entry-level drudgery to be a team member & a part of the group.

EXAMPLE:  There was one guy that we hired, despite the fact that I (and another person) didn’t give him the “thumbs up” and he didn’t have any of the traditional certifications we’d expect of a candidate.  He was hired based on his knowledge of our competitor’s technology and he ended up, after a month of evaluation, being nowhere near technically qualified to work in the role he was hired into.  It was clearly a very big mistake on the part of the hiring manager.

A very unusual plan was put into place:  The hiring manager had several employees work with the new hire weekly to help him focus on what he needed to study & learn – very rapidly – in order to be successful.  The idea was that the gaps in his knowledge could be identified and he could, on his own, study and learn via hands-on work or books, or whatever… enough to provide value to the team in some capacity.  Now putting aside whether this was the right thing to do or not, several of our top engineers took time out of their schedules and worked with him to orient him in the right direction. 

To everyone’s surprise however, instead of working to prove his mettle, the hire didn’t do any studying, training, or research near as we could tell.  To make matters infinitely worse, he went to various internal conferences & meetings and effectively bashed his hiring manager and the people that were trying to get him up to speed.  He was asked to move along after only 4-6 months.

IT’S NOT BLACK & WHITE
I should say that certification’s importance isn’t black & white.  I’ve greenlighted people that lack them.  It however definitely becomes more or less important depending upon a variety of key factors:

• Relative to position commoditization
  Is the technology skill rare?  In these cases, a certification often isn’t required but it’s often damn well SUPER IMPRESSIVE.  Take Microsoft’s Unified Communications technologies… or Host Integration Server/BizTalk Server.  Or Performance Point Server 2007.   Or even Windows Server 2008 R2/Windows 7.  I don’t even know if half these products have certifications for them but if they do, and a candidate has the cert – that’s a sign of someone who really wants to work here.
• How long have they been out of work?
  Has the candidate been unemployed for a while?  If so, it would seem to me that this would be one of those things that they would have worked on between jobs.  If not, it’s certainly understandable that a candidate might have been so busy with a previous job that certification wasn’t high on their priority list.  It still doesn’t make them more viable a candidate when compared to someone that does have their cert, however one can overcome this with a thorough detail-filled discussion of how their experience supersedes their lack of certification.

IF YOU’RE NOT CERTIFIED, YOU’RE PROBABLY ALREADY BEHIND
Certifications do matter.  Ask anyone that’s had to sift through the resumes listed on MONSTER.COM.  And as the industry evolves, and as more and more individuals enter the workforce, they will continue to be important differentiators.  In some cases, mandatory.

And let those that lack the effort, the attitude, and the baseline skills to attain them, be forewarned:  Next to someone with a certification, you’re already behind your competition.

To the right, you see a photo of the Polycom CX300 Deskphone for Office Communicator.  It’s a fantastic phone.

Now some people in my organization – for a very long time – preached the elimination of deskphones in favor of “USB-connected headsets” or “small portable speakerphones”.  “Why do you need a deskphone?” they say.  “Just use a headset!”  This is of course much hooey and just plain makes me resentful. 

ATTENTION WORLD:  I WANT A FRICKIN’ DESKPHONE.

STOP TELLING ME TO CHANGE MY BEHAVIOR
I’ve been using a deskphone for more than 28 years.  I’m comfortable with it.  You don’t change a person’s behavior overnight & the audacity of those that think that they can force a “change of the rules” in the name of their purported paradigm shift on users is simply pure arrogance. 

There is little incentive for users to do something so weird as to use a firkcin’ headset day-to-day instead of a perfectly good deskphone when it’s perceived as an annoying change.  As an office worker, I get up a lot – for whatever reason be it to stretch my legs, get coffee, pick up a printout, visit coworkers, pick up lunch – and this means taking off & putting on my headset over and over again when I try to use it.  A UC-enabled deskphone for individuals like myself would be such a nice transition.

EVOLUTIONARY TRANSITIONS ARE IMPORTANT
More importantly, a salesperson doesn’t endear their product to users when they don’t provide them with a transitional/evolutionary bridge to your technology.  Cripes – Didn’t anyone learn that from the 32bit-to-64bit war between Itanium2 & AMDx64?  (For those that don’t know this drama, Intel arrogantly proclaimed the Itanium 64-bit chip line the next evolution in microcomputer processors but despite having superior performance and scalability to competing processors, didn’t provide customers with a seamless transition from the 32-bit Pentium line.  Old apps wouldn’t run as fast… or at ALL in some cases… and software had to be recompiled and tested to run on the new chips.  Meanwhile, AMD released the AMDx64 chips which provided 64-bit computing while providing virtually 100% compatibility with previous applications & OS’s.  Guess which won?)

I love my deskphone & I love my old CX200.  (The CX300’s predecessor) I’ve gone so far as to BUY extra CX200s for my coworkers to get them endeared to Unified Communications and it’s worked.  I hope some others follow suit and figure this out quickly because I’m getting tired of hearing about end users that hate the headsets they’ve been given.  The CX300 and it’s big brother the CX700 are the key to bridging people over to the world of superior Unified Communications.  Of this, I am certain.

For more information on the Polycom CX300 Deskphone for Office Communicator:

• CX300 Speakerphone Data Sheet
• Polycom® CX Family Brochure
• Polycom CX300 web site

Fantastic.  The University of Sports Criminals got stung on Southland the other night on TNT.

‘Southland’ Flips the Bird to USC (er, SULA)
By: Brian Lowry
Published: Tue, March 23, 2010, 11:03 PM

The latest episode of TNT’s "Southland" issued a fairly bracing indictment of USC, with a plot about a pampered and protected football star suspected in the murder of a student.

Although the school was called SULA, it was clearly meant to be USC. Hell, DirecTV even referred to the victim as "a USC student" in its onscreen description.

Beyond the image of a university odiously building a cocoon around one of its star athletes, the episode featured some barbed dialogue from the detective played by Regina King about the rich private school, "this beautiful campus in the middle of the ghetto." As a resident driving by, she said, it "might as well have been Buckingham Palace: You can look but you can’t go in."

Given that USC is under investigation for possible NCAA rules violations surrounding its football program, one could easily dismiss the hour as a "Law & Order"-style "ripped from the headlines with a twist" affair and not such a big deal. But given the school’s significant alumni presence in Hollywood and active outreach, about all you can say is, "Ouch."

Beyond that, it was another terrific episode, with more strong work from Ben McKenzie and Michael Cudlitz. "Southland" has also succeeded in making Los Angeles — in all its ethnic, socioeconomic and geographic variety — a major character in the show.

So well done. And I’m not just saying that because I’m a UCLA grad.

When I was a kid, I like my friends loved to read Mad Magazine.  I picked up a $1.50 mega-issue one day back in 1980 and to my delight there was an actual plastic record in it.  It was called a “flexi-disc” and was basically a thin piece of square black plastic that bent & warped very easily but could be placed on a 33rpm turntable and played like any other record.

The flexi-disc/record was entitled “Super Spectacular Day”.

1979’S MAD “MYSTERY” RECORD
What made this record special however was that depending on where the needle was when the song was playing, you could end up with COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ENDINGS to the song.  Seriously!  The song could playback one of EIGHT different endings depending on how the needle of the turntable went, which was actually only somewhat random, meaning that there were often endings that rarely if ever got played.

Y’see the “randomness” of the playback was determined by the needle hitting a groove in the record that wasn’t really a groove.  It was basically sheer, ungrooved area of the disc that allowed the needle to float randomly for a brief second and land on one of 8 grooves “end grooves” after rotating through the sheer area of the record once.  This provided a unique level of randomness to which “end groove” would be played back however there was definitely a predisposition as to which would be played back, simply because some grooves were easier to hit than others.

As a result, I would play that disc over and over and over and over and over just to try to hear all 8 endings.  Of course I never had the lyrics or anything so listening to the endings were quite a surprise whenever I managed to hear one that I hadn’t heard before.

2010:  THE INTERNET BRINGS BACK “SUPER SPECTACULAR DAY”
This all happened in the 6th grade for me.

For the past 30 years, I have had the song from this disc stuck in my head.  I’m not joking.  All throughout my life, I’ve had moments where this song has sprung up from my memory at the strangest of moments.  Usually during times of stress, boredom, work, or just plain “time-to-myself”.

• I can remember when I was a sophomore in high school, this song would creep into my brain during ultra stressful oral Spanish tests.
• I remember having this song pop into my head during a long walk from the Student Commons back to my dorm when I attended UCLA for my undergrad.
• I recall humming this song while moving furniture into my first new apartment after getting my first job out of college.
• And just a moment ago, I found myself humming the song while in the kitchen of my condo – 30 years later – now that I’m married and have a baby boy.

But the difference is, today, I have the Internet at my fingertips.  So on a complete shot in the dark, I decided to BING the search term, “MAD SUPER SPECTACULAR DAY”.

Lo and behold, there it was.  Back in 2006, someone published some photos of what that very magazine looked like along with a photo of what the flexi-disc looked like.  BTW:  If you look at the disc photo, you can see the back area in which the needle would play.  There is light “white” groove in the middle – that’s the sheer area that I was talking about that provided the random jump to one of 8 different endings.

ANNNNND… SOMEONE RECORDED THE MUSIC!
But to my surprise someone actually digitized all 8 tracks!  No one knows who it was that did it or where it was they got it from (I mean, who really saved that disc?  My disc, as I recall was in TERRIBLE shape, because I’d played it over and over and over again and the disc’s grooves had been overplayed after a while) but sure enough, there it was for download.

• • • DOWNLOAD:  Mad Magazine’s Super Spectacular Day (MP3 .ZIP)
      https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ao0Dfn8MQdoAs9RrCP4cWLIeTe6cYA?e=zF4pxi 
    • VIDEO:  The MAD Magazine Mystery Record
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myyc812X1_I

I’ve had some problems playing the MP3s back.  It seems like the same ending (#2) is played back for many of the recordings… that being said, 3 of them appear to be unique and that’s better than nothing.  However given the quality of the recordings, there’s very much a distinct possibility that the recordings came from someone at Mad itself.  If so, thank you so much Mad.  This is definitely a blast from the past for me.

REFERENCES:

• MAD Magazine “It’s A Super-Spectacular Day/ Mad Super Special Summer 1980” (MAD, 1979)
  http://scarstuff.blogspot.com/2006/04/mad-magazine-its-super-spectacular-day.html

To all of you who have grown up eating umeboshi when we were kids this is more than you wanted to know. If you never had umeboshi, read on…

Umeboshi is a salty, sour pickle that we often eat in a musubi or rice ball or, when we are sick, with okai or o-kayu (rice gruel).  In Japan , it is usually served with breakfast gohan or rice, with a cup  of tea. Food authority Robbie Swinterton compares eating an umeboshi to  the culinary equivalent of taking a cold shower. ‘The abrupt, searingly  tart, tangy, salty taste jolts the eyes open, shakes the stomach awake,  sandpapers off any staleness from the taste buds, and gets the day off to  an unforgettable start.’
We have always known umeboshi as a pickled plum but it is actually a  Japanese apricot, prunus or Armeniaca mume. If you examine the pit, it  resembles an apricot more than a plum. So how are umeboshi made, you ask.

From mid-June to mid-July, the rainy season in Japan , the fruit is soaked  in water to get rid of its bitter taste. Then it’s drained and wiped dry,  and sprayed with shochu, or Japanese distilled rice liquor. They are then  put in a container for pickling, mixed with salt and weighted down with a  heavy stone. Pressing the fruit down is a very important in the making of  umeboshi, which takes about six weeks. After that, perilla leaves (beefsteak) or shiso are washed, sprinkled with salt, all excess liquid  squeezed out, leaves broken apart and combined with the salted ume. The  heavy stone is again placed over the mixture, which is allowed to pickle  for another week. During a sunny day at the end of July, the fruit is  dried outside for three days and nights.

The center of umeboshi industry is in Ryujin village, in Wakayama   Prefecture , on the main island of Honshu . Their traditional method of  making umeboshi is a ‘lactic-acid fermentation’ process, one of the  oldest and safest ways of preserving food. Wakayama umeboshi is mellow  and not as salty as the typical umeboshi we know. Lactic-acid-forming  bacteria grows and creates an acidic environment, and emits carbon  dioxide that contributes to the favorable anaerobic condition and further  stimulates the growth of the good bacteria.  Salt, rice vinegar, and shiso leaves are added. After a year of aging, the remaining red liquid is bottled and sold as umeboshi vinegar.  This condiment is versatile for making dressing and is available locally  at the natural foods stores and some supermarkets.

The best, most prized and most expensive umeboshi is called the Kishu  ume from the Wakayama Prefecture . Aged 5 years, it has the thinnest skin,  the smallest seed and a soft, thick fruit. Eight large, individually  wrapped Kishu ume costs about $30. (Rather pricey but very good.)
The first umeboshi was found in China , where a dried smoked plum,  called ubai, was discovered in a tomb more than 1,000 years ago. It was  used to prevent fatigue, purify water, rid the body of toxins and cure  dysentery, typhoid and food poisoning. The first umeboshi appeared before  the Nara period in the years 710-794, and was first introduced as a  medicine.

During the samurai period, umeboshi flavored the samurai’s rice and  vegetables, and purified his water and food. It also helped samurai  suffering from battle fatigue.
About 200 years ago, the Japanese made a plum extract, or ‘bainiku  ekisu.’ They made this extract by slowly cooking sour green ume fruit to  obtain the most active ingredients in a highly concentrated form. The  resulting dark, sticky, thick liquid is mixed with hot water and honey  and drunk as a tonic. The dried form of this extract is formed into pills  and called ‘meitan.’ Because this extracting process contains no salt, it  is a treatment for high blood pressure.

Yet something else I found in my inbox that seemed somewhat meaningful to me being that Sheepa’s getting very old.  We approximate that he’s about 15 now.  I feed him joint medication everyday now and I’ve greatly loosened up what we allow him to eat… for example:  He now gets coldcuts to help the medicine go down.

He stumbles around quite a bit and finds it difficult to walk in the mornings just to go out.  I carry him a lot now just so that he can make it up and down the steps of the entryway to our condo.  Our dream of him walking with us during walks with our baby, Kyle, seems to be a short-lived one as he can’t really keep up.  So I’m thinking of converting Kyle’s infant stroller into a dog walker.

He can’t hear commands any more – his hearing is gone.  He can’t see very well because of the cloudiness in his eyes but he can still see movement and he still follows my basic sit, lie down, and go-this-way commands if he can see them.

Here’s a photo of him when he was a little younger –>

And here’s what I received in the mail.

A Pet’s Ten Commandments

1. My life is likely to last 10-15 years. Any separation from you is likely to be painful.
2. Give me time to understand what you want of me.
3. Place your trust in me. It is crucial for my well-being.
4. Don’t be angry with me for long and don’t lock me up as punishment. You have your work, your friends, your entertainment, but I have only you.
5. Talk to me. Even if I don’t understand your words, I do understand your voice when speaking to me.
6. Be aware that however you treat me, I will never forget it.
7. Before you hit me, before you strike me, remember that I could hurt you, and yet, I choose not to bite you.
8. Before you scold me for being lazy or uncooperative, ask yourself if something might be bothering me. Perhaps I’m not getting the right food, I have been in the sun too long, or my heart might be getting old or weak
9. Please take care of me when I grow old. You too, will grow old.
10. On the ultimate difficult journey, go with me please. Never say you can’t bear to watch Don’t make me face this alone. Everything is easier for me if you are there, because I love you so.

I was reading a post by Paul Thurrott, famed Windows expert, Editor-in-chief of WindowsITPro Magazine, and creator the Supersite for Windows.  It was one in which he drops the proverbial hammer on an irresponsible & Machiavellian journalist named Randall C. Kennedy for his heinously deceptive quotes, actions, and most of all, intentions.  Kennedy was recently shamed and admonished into unemployment (Translation:  FIRED) by his employer, IDG Media for impersonating a person of authority on technical matters under a pseudonym while also magically generating/producing false information about technology – Microsoft Windows in particular.

In the post, he writes about the many incidents in which he and Randall Kennedy came into conflict like that below:

“Kennedy himself emailed me some time ago to point me to his own BS data about Vista SP1, which I refuted to him personally, so he backed off.This criticism of Vista SP1 is still in Wikipedia, by the way, which says everything you need to know about what I think about that particular piece of c#$% too. (OK, I’ll spell it out. Wikipedia is everything that’s wrong with the Internet: People love it, and it makes them lazy. It’s the McDonalds of knowledge, good intentions with bad end results that, somehow, no one ever saw coming.)”

[taken from “Insane Blogger Fools Reporter – Gets Fired” – http://bit.ly/c9DKrB”]

“Good intentions with bad end results.”  Eloquently put, Paul.  I find it unbelievable that advocates of Wikipedia are completely willing to sidestep & ignore the falsehoods, inaccuracies, and in some instances outright LIES posted on the site, all in the name of community collaboration & contributional parity.  Didn’t these people learn anything from the fall of communism?

No one should EVER have to vigilantly scour a web site just to defend themselves from lies posted about them without accountability.  Want a longer more exhaustive rant?

• COMMENTARY: Who trusts Wikipedia anyway?
  http://kurtsh.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!DA410C7F7E038D!656.entry

I’ve gotten a lot of questions about America’s right to privacy considering my concerns over certain groups ability to collect information about myself without my knowledge.  I don’t portend to be a Constitutional scholar but I know what I’ve read by people that do know what their talking about legally and I’ve found that this summary seems to do the best job when trying to ‘net out’ what our country’s right to privacy means to citizens:

While the right to privacy is firmly rooted in the ethical tenets of the library profession, it is also an intrinsic American value, guaranteed by the United States Constitution. Although the Constitution does not explicitly reference the word "privacy," the Supreme Court has nonetheless inferred a right to privacy from various portions of the Bill of Rights and the common law.

The most obvious protection of privacy in the Bill of Rights is the Fourth Amendment, which protects individuals in their persons, homes, papers, and effects from "unreasonable searches and seizures" by the government. The First Amendment, which protects freedom of religion, speech, press, and assembly, also implicitly safeguards the right to privacy in the form of freedom of thought and intellect. As eloquently articulated by Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis in his famous dissent in Olmstead v. United States: "The makers of our Constitution undertook to secure conditions favorable to the pursuit of happiness . . . They sought to protect Americans in their beliefs, their thoughts, their emotions and their sensations. They conferred, as against the government, THE RIGHT TO BE LET ALONE – the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men."

The first Supreme Court decision to fully articulate the right to privacy was Griswold v. Connecticut, which held that the right to privacy included the right for married couples to use contraceptives. In Griswold, Justice Douglas, writing for the Court, famously explained that the guarantees in the Bill of Rights have "penumbras," or somewhat hazy, but obviously present, extensions, which must be read as creating "zones of privacy, such as the First Amendment right of association, the Third Amendment prohibition against quartering soldiers in a home, the Fourth Amendment right to be secure in one’s person, house, papers and effects, the Fifth Amendment right to not surrender anything to one’s detriment, and the Ninth Amendment right to not deny or disparage any right retained by the people."

In recent years, several federal courts have recognized the right to privacy in public libraries. Specifically, these courts found that the First Amendment protects the right to receive information in a publicly funded library. However, the professional code of librarians provides a much broader promise of privacy than is guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. Consequently, constitutional limitations on the right to privacy are often at odds with the librarianship principles of privacy and confidentiality.

(created by Leslie Harris & Associates of http://www.lharris.com in conjunction with American Library Association Office of Information Technology Policy staff http://www.ala.org/oitp. For more information as well as pointers to source references, refer to the original document at http://www.fontanalib.org/Privacy_Tutorial/constitutional%20origin%20of%20the%20right%20to%20privacy.htm.)

Other references:

• Right of Privacy in the Workplace in the Information Age – Lloyd Rich
  http://www.publaw.com/privacy.html
• Rights of Privacy:  An Overview – Ivan Hoffman, B.A., J.D.
  http://www.ivanhoffman.com/privacyrights.html
• The Right to Privacy:  Does the Constitution protect the right of privacy?  If so, what aspects of privacy receive protection?
  http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/rightofprivacy.html

Organization actively protecting your Right to Privacy:

• Electronic Privacy Information Center
  http://www.epic.org/
• Electronic Frontier Foundation
  http://www.eff.org/

Imagine a world where your every move is recorded…
Submitted for your approval:  Imagine waking up the in morning, strapping on a GPS the going to work in a taxi with all the details of your travels being recorded throughout the day.  Then upon arrival, you put on a video camera & a voice recorder and you have meetings with people, with every action recorded.  Then you start making phone calls using someone else’s phone, with all your phone calls, your conversations, duration, etc. being recorded.  Then you go down for lunch and buy everything using a credit card but you slide your credit card into a slot for every product your CONSIDER buying, not just the one’s you actually buy.  Then after work, you go to a bar and the bartender measures precisely how much you drink & what you drink and records it.

Now imagine all that information going a single personal profile that only 1 organization has… on YOU. 

What does this have to do with the Internet?
For the average person on the Internet, merrily going about their day, browsing the Internet is pretty much the electronic version of the experience I’ve described above.  When people surf the web – even when they’re home alone, and not at work – they’re completely unaware that their actions are being monitored by corporations that are exceptionally interested in who they are, what they do, how to find them again, and what sort of patterns they follow.  This information helps these corporations anticipate their next moves… extrapolates what people like them do en masse… categorizes them and places them into market segments…

…otherwise making you predictable.

Wait?  Is that so wrong?  What’s wrong with being predictable?
There’s a lot wrong with being predictable… or more appropriately, being ASSUMED to be predictable.  Here’s one example:  In TV today, Nielsen ratings are measured based viewership and on market groups.  If you are categorized at 18-35 viewer, your opinion is highly-coveted because it is believed by advertisers that the 18-35 market segment is easily influenced.  This segment of buyers have people who have not had their routines… their mannerisms… their day-to-day purchases “set in stone”.  They can be sold to.

Compare and contrast that with the 25-55 market segment in advertising.  This is a segment that are considered “older” and “set in their ways”.  Thus advertisers aren’t particularly interested in them unless they are selling products specifically for that older group.  As a result, the input or the say of the 25-55 market segment is not nearly as influential as that of the 18-35 market.

Being categorized is NOT to people’s benefit.  It dis-empowers individuals because being profiled means people make assumptions about you before you even get the chance to voice an opinion and be heard.  It closes doors and limits people’s opportunities.

Okay.  So I don’t want to be categorized.
If you’re under the impression that the only way people follow you on the Internet to “categorize” you is via “web site cookies”, you’re dead wrong.  Cookies are definitely a problem, but they’re just a small segment of the problem.  Companies that want to track you to market your presence to advertisers are constantly thinking of new and nefarious ways to identify you so they can watch your behavior and classify your profile.

The Electronic Freedom Foundation wrote a series of articles that go into great detail of how companies track you and what the concerns are.  They are VERY good reading I encourage everyone to go through them because it’s important that people understand how they are being followed every day by companies such as Google and used for their own gains.

New Cookie Technologies: Harder to See and Remove, Widely Used to Track You
Technical Analysis by Seth Schoen

Cookies are still a privacy problem for web users, many years after privacy advocates first raised concerns about their use to track web browsing. Today, cookies are one of the main mechanisms that advertising companies like Google use to track and profile users across sites and over time — often building up a single gigantic profile for years and years. Many EFF members respond to this threat by using their browsers’ cookie management features to limit which cookies they’ll accept or how long they’ll be retained.

But it turns out that the cookie situation is quite a bit trickier today, and sites that want to track users have new technical options that are hard for users to respond to. The traditional "cookie" is an HTTP cookie, invented by Lou Montulli and John Giannandrea at Netscape in 1994. But today many browsers implement a range of things with the same kind of cookie-like tracking behavior — mechanisms that are far less familiar, harder to notice, and often harder to control.

…

READ MORE AT:  http://bit.ly/dhwhxu

But it doesn’t stop there.  Sure tracking your identity is one part of the equation.  But how do they aggregate this information to create an overall profile of you?

How Online Tracking Companies Know Most of What You Do Online (and What Social Networks Are Doing to Help Them)
Technical Analysis by Peter Eckersley

3rd party advertising and tracking firms are ubiquitous on the modern web. When you visit a webpage, there’s a good chance that it contains tiny images or invisible JavaScript that exists for the sole purpose of tracking and recording your browsing habits. This sort of tracking is performed by many dozens of different firms. In this post, we’re going to look at how this tracking occurs, and how it is being combined with data from accounts on social networking sites to build extensive, identified profiles of your online activity.

How 3rd parties get to see what you do on the web.

Let’s start with an example of 3rd party tracking: when we went to CareerBuilder.com, which is the largest online jobs site in the United States, and searched for a job, CareerBuilder included JavaScript code from 10 (!) different tracking domains: Rubicon Project, AdSonar, Advertising.com, Tacoda.net (all three are divisions of AOL advertising), Quantcast, Pulse 360, Undertone, AdBureau (part of Microsoft Advertising), Traffic Marketplace, and DoubleClick (which is owned by Google). On other visits we’ve also seen CareerBuilder include tracking scripts and non-JavaScript web bugs from several other domains. There are pretty sound reasons to hope that when you search for a job online, that fact isn’t broadcast to dozens of companies you’ve never heard of — but that’s precisely what’s happening here.

…

READ MORE AT:  http://bit.ly/cMm6HG

Outside of 3rd party tracking, there’s an even more insidious manner in which you are being watched and it’s called “browser fingerprinting”.   Your browser presents information AUTOMATICALLY to web sites you visit and this information is a lot more extensive than you realize.  It’s so extensive that it’s often uniquely identifiable and traceable directly to your computer regardless of what cookies you block or what safeguards you’ve established.

Browser Versions Carry 10.5 Bits of Identifying Information on Average
Technical Analysis by Peter Eckersley

Whenever you visit a web page, your browser sends a "User Agent" header to the website saying precisely which operating system and web browser you are using. This information could help distinguish Internet users from one another because these versions differ, often considerably, from person to person. We recently ran an experiment to see to what extent this information could be used to track people (for instance, if someone deletes their browser cookies, would the User Agent, alone or in combination with some other detail, be unique enough to let a site recognize them and re-create their old cookie?).

Our experiment to date has shown that the browser User Agent string usually carries 5-15 bits of identifying information (about 10.5 bits on average). That means that on average, only one person in about 1,500 (2^10.5) will have the same User Agent as you. On its own, that isn’t enough to recreate cookies and track people perfectly, but in combination with another detail like geolocation to a particular ZIP code or having an uncommon browser plugin installed, the User Agent string becomes a real privacy problem.

User Agents: An Example of Browser Characteristics Doubling As Tracking Tools

When we analyze the privacy of web users, we usually focus on user accounts, cookies, and IP addresses, because those are the usual means by which a request to a web server can be associated with other requests and/or linked back to an individual human being, computer, or local network.

…

READ MORE AT:  http://bit.ly/bL4RYt

So awesome.  Credit to Holy Taco.

Stuff I’m gonna be hunting down at CES2010 this year:

• Brando’s USB 3.0-to-SATA adapter brings the speed to SATA drives without SATA adapters – $48
  http://bit.ly/7mNV0J
  
• ASUS ECleaner Robot Vacuum w/ remote control to compete with iRobot – $150
  http://bit.ly/5L2MsV
  
• LG’s pico 640×480 projector + Windows Mobile phone – $199
  http://bit.ly/5kAwdH
  
• Lancerlink pico proj features ARM processor, Windows CE
  http://bit.ly/4y9YQz