Attack of the Show

For those who never really go into the "deep"(up into the 100's) cable channels, you may be missing one of the best shows on tv. Attack of the Show is a twice daily show (one is live, the other a repeat) that focuses on all types of digital media on G4 (channel 105 on Time Warner Cable). AOTS has two hosts, Kevin and Olivia, who are both great to watch.
The feature a bunch of different segments, each featuring a different idea or facet of tech culture. There is "The Loop," where they pick an issue to discuss (last night was the ipod vs Zune debate,) then have two influential parties debate back and forth with Kevin intermediating. There is "The Feed," where a co-host Laila gives quick tech new reports and other devlopments. "Around the Net" kicks off most episodes with the top 5 most watched videos circulating the web. All this actually sounds boring in print, but the show makes it very entertaining while still being informative. Believe me, if your interested in tech life and new little gadgets and other little things coming out, tune in and watch once in a while, usually times are 7 and 11 pm on g4 network.

Dave Matthews Band

For the third band profile, the Dave Matthews Band. I've been a fan since I heard my sister blasting them from the room next to mine. We used to have music fights, with one party raising their volume and the other reciprocating to a higher degree. This was the one band I never fought with and just let it play. Their style and just overall unique feeling from other music in modern times makes them stick out. There is plenty of modern bands I like, but this band is one of the only whose spirit you can just feel from their songs. After discovering that I only had one track from them on my ipod (a travesty) I downloaded their best of cd, "The Best of Whats Around." It actually happens to be a rather large band, so going into how each individual member joined could take a rather long time. Basically, Dave Matthews was a bartender in Virginia and a lawyer friend convinced him to make a three track demo. Everything snowballed from there.

There older stuff is much more mature and less pop-y sounding then their past 2 cds, even though some of the tracks off those are actually very good. The Space Between and Crash into me rank as two of my favorite songs off the top of my head. I have been waiting for their new cd, which seems to have been limbo forever. There is no real release date yet, but one track has been released on itunes for download titled "Eh eh" in late august. The track had the modern DMB pop sound to it which has made some people doubtful for the new album, that combined with their old producer departing ways with the band leave the bands future unsure.

Mental Addiction

This is a topic I have been thinking about for a little while. This not about drugs or other substances that induce a physical dependency, those are supported by scientific fact and cannot be disputed. I want to talk about other things that cause a non-scientifically mental dependency. The thought crossed my mind when I saw a special on Video game Addiction. I didn't think it could be serious. I have been a video game player since I started playing madden 94 with my brother. I play a generous amount, but have never really considered myself addicted. Watching this special, there were numerous video game rehab "clinics." they were basically building stripped of internet and television and of course games. I still couldn't believe they were calling this a real condition. This was until I watched the interviews and the follow-up stories about people that had finished the program. These people demonstrated classic signs of physical and mental dependency, all from a video game. I began thinking, could I be addicted,? when does it become more than just a hobby or a spare time killer. I still don't believe I have an addiction, I have been able to stop myself from playing for extended periods of time just to prove it to myself. Then the thought came, why am I depriving myself from something I enjoy just to prove a point that I already know isn't true. I also realized I had been using gaming to fill a void in time and interest I had. Replacing that time and mental focus with other objects or activities seem to stem off the urges to play. Is this what those "addicts" feel, only to a smaller degree. Maybe there is no biological effects, but looking at these people who cant stop themselves, they don't seem to have many things going on for them in their life. Very few had girlfriends, there was no extended talk of their friends, and I thought is this a result or a cause of their addiction. Years of doing the same things everyday creates an urge and set internal schedule for a person. Think of the activities you do everyday without a thought, they have become second nature and not doing would seem more unnatural than not performing them. Replacing gaming as an interest with reading and writing seemed to work fine for me. I didn't need someone to physically remove me from my environment to stop, maybe these people don't either. Just someone to step in and try to take an active part in their life and giving them other options to spend their time than in just wasting it away on a video games.

End of a Semester

Well there's only two more days of classes left in the semester, not counting finals days. While im excited I made it through relatively unscathed, I didn't do as well as I could. Then again, I've felt like that about ever semester of school I can remember. I accomplished one of the goals I set for myself, doing well enough to maintain my scholarship. I need to maintain a B average, and barring any epic collapses on my finals I think I have assured that. However I didn't accomplish my other goal of picking a major or a real goal for after college. Theres been a million ideas floating around my head about what to do, but I haven't been able to really sit down and get them out. Do I wanna be a radiologist like my aunt and uncle, a commodities trader like my brother, a lawyer like my sister or a doctor like my parents want me to be. Problem is I don't feel a real passion towards any of those. I really just wanna be me, but haven't quite figured out a way to make a living off that yet. I only have three real interests or passions, and those are music, film and video games. I've never been musically talented, going into film is risky, and video games is kinda hard to make a living off. I'm trying to do all this while working a ton of hours at my job, maintain my school work and try to have some semblance of a social life. Not to mention being forced to go see Rent as a part of my DNY class and trying to finish up all the work I have left is making things difficult. I really just feel as if I'm at a standstill right now. Nothing is really progressing, just staying static. Hopefully with this nice long break coming up I can get centered, but right now I'm just trying to keep my head above water.

Too Technical of an Age?

While making my daily trip through my usual websites, a link to ZDnet.com came up. For those that do not know ZDnet, they're a popular business/tech website. Most of their articles are not just about new inventions, but how it will effect the economy and etc. While I didn't get to read the article I clicked on, the main page brought me another interesting story, The Top 10 Tech Disasters of all time. Instead of just rehashing the list, Ill point out a few of my favorite ones.

#1 Bad Soviet software nearly starting WWIII. This is just incredible. A faulty reading in the soviets software registered that the US had just launched 5 missiles their way. The officer that picked it up had a bad feeling and checked the report. He found it was a misreading and prevented the Soviet's from retaliating unnecessarily.

#4 Airbus mishap. A rather recent story form 06, the new airbus being developed in Germany and France suffered a malfunction when the two halves were being attached. The Germans were using a older version on the same software than the French and led to the two halves being misaligned. This little mistake set the company back over a year and cost a ton of money.

#8 The rumors of exploding laptops from Dell had been running rampant in 06. Well some were true and it couldnt have happened at a worst time for one incident. Right in the middle of a Dell exhibition showing their new laptop line. So in front of a crowd of onlookers, mostly tech savvy buyers and writers, Dell confirmed their issue at their expense. (no this was not a publicity stunt, Dell just sucks)

Link to source article here

New Use for PS3s?

Sony's underachieving gaming console still line store's shelves, a reminder of their dismal sales numbers. Well a cyber security researcher from New Zealand, Nick Breese has found a new use for them, cracking passwords. Using ps3's very powerful processor, Breese has been able to brute force hack files in record time. Brute Force hacking relies on imputting every possible code untill the computer finally accepts one. These hacks rely on speed of the computer trying the hack, and using the ps3's processor seems to speed things up exponentially. "The gaming console is perfect for cracking passwords because the chips it uses are optimised to rapidly perform the calculations required to model 3-D environments. The computing techniques used to crack passwords are similar." says Breese. Being a security researcher, Breese's job isn't to crack passwords, but to find the methods people are using and provide protection from them. Breese hopes this presentation will spur new methods of protection to make sure companies have protection form this in the future.

Link to source article here

Maximum the Hormone

Im going to use a band I know very few people reading this blog have heard of for my second band profile, Maximum the Hormone.

Maximum the Hormone is a four member Japanese rock band.Their first album was released in 1998 with little success. Two years later the band split, with Suigi and Key leaving the band. The remaining members, Nawo and Daisuke recruited Ue-Chan at bass and Nawo's brother, Ryo for guiatar and melodic vocals.

Why I love this band? I cannot understand what they are saying in their songs (though from the translations and summaries I have read, the lyrics do not make logical sense in ant language), but their melodies and tones are amazing. What sets this band apart from other bands in my opinion? All their members contribute vocals. Each song has such vocal variation, then melodic variation to match the vocals, each song sounds so different from one another and never gets boring. Hearing the band go from hard metal sounds with Daisuke's screaming, to Ryo's melodic pop sounds to Nawo's soft feminine vocals in the same song really set this band apart from other bands for me. Heres a link to their song "Koi no Suito kuso merikan," its one of my favorites, which is very lucky since there has apparently been a purge of many of their videos from youtube. I do admit, they sound a bit better in studio than live. Their live stuff isnt bad, but I just feel their studio work is superior, but still nothing beats the feeling of live performances.