Saturday, January 25, 2014

Who knew?


If I had no scruples, I would try to start an oppressive religion. It looks like a fun exercise in creativity and discipline.

Nice prank

I really like that guy's reaction, where he wipes his hand on the other guy. Very clever...

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Bleed out, suffocate, and die!

We take away the lives of animals like of cows and pigs daily. It is not appropriate to say only dolphin hunting is cruel.
- Yoshinobu Nisaka, the governor of Wakayama prefecture, where this 6 months nautic slaughter just got finished. The man's got a point. Then again with an argument like that, I could longitudinally saw a human baby in half and point my detractors to the fact that there are other cruel things happening in the world, so stop being so inappropriate and let me bathe in my innocent victim's fresh blood.

Monday, January 20, 2014

The horror of things with CJ Molesto

Well its been a rough 15 years.
Some say it was a very rough 1 year.
There has been so many events that appalled me during this time, I feel like with every other new reporting of dreadful calamities I get closer to a state of total stupefaction.
In other words I'm becoming more and more like the normal constituent of the overwhelming majority: a venerable vegetable.
What I'm trying to get at will be disclosed shortly after this brief unrelated Adolph Hitler quote:
'I fight for what I love. I love what I respect. And in order to respect something one needs to at least have a basic knowledge of it.'
Which leads me to ask : why arent there any other Hitlers in the world? I've never heard of anyone with that name.
I just got back from the movie Gasland part II (nothing to do with Hitler),
followed by a live skype discussion with its author, Josh Fox, who is fighting a long standing fight against the gas industry and who, incidentally, is a jew whose parents escaped the gas chambers and ... I'm not kidding! It's true.
While he (Mr. Fox, the jew) was describing to us the general state of forfeiture to the ruling sodomites in the motherland of de-evolution, I soon came to realize how things were not shocking me so much anymore, and worse yet, how I am starting to forget all the things that have shocked me in the past.

I want this post to be a legacy to the children I will never have.

I also want you to contribute to this post, through comments, which I will use to edit the present post in such a way: in the following lines I will start a short list of all the things that have scandalized me during the last 15 years, and I strongly suggest you take part in the exercise, as a mean to extract yourself from the deep stupor you have been macerating in, complacently accepting the horrors of this world as normalities.

1- 2008 to this day: the credit crisis. The bailout of banks. Banks profiting off the crisis through credit default swaps. Private organizations profiting off of the default of entire nations. 2013: banks using the housing market collapse they created to buy cheaper properties and devising a way to further excavate the misery of the nation.(Look up Blackstone, who's behind it)

2- 2010 BP spill  Josh Fox shows us an aerial view of the golf 75 days into the nautic catastrophy. Images none of the medias were allowed to show, for obvious appalling reasons.

3- 2013 : the obfuscation by the PQ of the eastern pipeline plan through intensive media coverage of the incessant bickering about the fucking stupid charter.

4- The non existent media coverage of the mi'kmaq fight in New Brunswick against Texas oil firms

5- the Citizens United case, the insanity of it all, the Superpacs, the continuing use of the word democracy by these nutcases, the unremittent exploitation of the masses by the ruling sodomites, the technological middle-ages we live in

6- The Patriot Act

7- Obama's extension of the Patriot Act

8- Obama's presidency and the shattering of all hopes.

9- The invasion of Iraq. Fallujah. Halliburton's profiting off the war, Dick Cheney, The never ending slaughters that followed

10- The Drones in afghanistan, the ongoing cowardly drone killings accepted by the zombie majority as legitimate

11- Anything Stephen Harper and his de-evoluted minions might say or do, including the scientific community muzzling, the censorship of anything related to environmental science, the destruction of dozens of public organizations (see previous end of 2013 post), the retarded unconditional support to Israel.

12- Israel.

13- the Koch brothers and how they're still alive

14- the non coverage of the tar sands and their consequences on ecosystems and communities.

15- The NSA

16- Militarization of Police.

17- Dissent becomes illegal in Montreal (2012)

18- A law is passed whereby you cannot mention that your food product is GMO-free. (WHERE? in the US only?)

19- Harper's abolishment of the gun registry

Hero of the month! Doug Stanhope

I just discovered this man, he has my respect.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

My first world white guy problem of the day

So I haven't really bought a computer game since the 90's. I remember that back then, I was never sure if the game would work with my computer. I always had to adjust the extended / expanded memory ratio by fucking around with autoexec.bat and config.sys files on a disquette using DOS. I still haven't seen the end of Gabriel Knight because of these shenanigans. I also recall deactivating the "turbo" on a 486 because Wing Commander space battles would play out at frenetic and unrealistic speeds. Obviously, times have changed so I felt pretty confident that I wouldn't have to put up with this kind of crap anymore. I have a decent standard and up to date computer. In this specific case, I couldn't download the "game" because it's Rocksmith 2014 which comes with a special USB cable for your guitar. I didn't want to wait so I went to a store and bought a copy early this afternoon to take advantage of the rest of the day to do some fancy guitar learnin'. While installing, I find out that I have to play the game through Steam which is new to me. I created an account and installed everything. I put in the correct product key and was ready to rock n' roll. But then, when trying to launch the game, I got this error "Failed to Contact Key Server". I looked in the forums and apparently, the most likely cause is that there aren't enough licenses available and I might have to wait several days (weeks?) before it'll work! What the fuck does that mean?! Am I to understand that the games that were physically manufactured didn't have equivalent licenses? What is the product code on the DVD then? Is that the key? What the hell is going on here? Did I buy a game or an ass raping? I don't have a monthly budget for ass rapings so maybe I made a mistake. That's when I realized that my memory management woes of old have been replaced by this Steaming pile of shit layer of license control. I know you guys love Valve and all that, but seriously, fuck...that...shit! I bought a non defective game to play on a fully functional computer and somehow, some asshole middleman managed to screw that up. To this day, I have never (legally) bought a game that worked on day one. My record goes unblemished. And it's not like I want Steam or anything. I'm not a gamer, I just want to play some guitar with my computer. Anyways, I contacted Steam support so we'll see.

This may be a religion I can get into

http://www.dudeism.com

It really ties existence together


also relevant:

http://imgur.com/a/ChE4W

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Google Graphs

Did you know that if you Google search a mathematical formula, Google will graph it for you?

 Try this one on for size: 

exp((-(((x-4)^2+(y-4)^2)^2))/999)+exp((-(((x+4)^2+(y+4)^2)^2))/999)+0.1*exp(-(((x+4)^2+(y+4)^2)^2))+0.1*exp(-(((x-4)^2+(y-4)^2)^2))

Football

Here is a fictious, yet realistic, description of communication before a snap in football. It certainly gives a more complex picture of what is going on. "Typically: 1 - The offensive coordinator calls the plays (some head coaches serve as their own OC's). If the OC is in the booth, he relays it down to the sideline because the radio communication to the QB is only allowed from the sideline. Usually the QB coach is the relay man. If the OC is down on the field, he speaks to the QB directly. 2 - Everyone wearing a headset talks and listens to each other. The HC is listening and comments (and calling plays if he serves as his own OC.) The other guys are chiming in with whatever they observe and are offering suggestions. Some guy in the booth is tasked with saying to the HC whether or not to challenge a play. All of this is open line (I believe) - so it's a perpetual conference call. 3a - Huddle talk. A play is called, and often some codes to switch to different plays. Also, the QB will say if (using Peyton Manning as an example) "Omaha!" means something or not. For example, the QB can say we'll run play X unless I say "eagle" in which case we'll run play Y. Omaha means the snap count is changed to two instead of one - beware of the hard count. 3b - LOS talk - the Center is calling out the blocking scheme. The QB is deciding, based on what he sees whether or not to go to Eagle, and whether or not Omaha will be invoked. The QB may signal a man to go in motion so he can see how the defense responds (if someone runs with him, it's man, if not, it's zone). If he has called "Eagle" then the teams knows to run the play designated Eagle. But the QB could call out "Raptor" which means nothing - he's just making sure that the defense can't figure out the code words, or he's seeing if the defense will change alignment. Even if he has called "eagle" he can then kill it and go back to the original play (usually "Kill! Kill! Kill!"). He can then go to his hard count, which is an attempt to draw the D offsides, but's it's also a chance to see how LB's and DB's move. Going through a scenario: QB calls Play X, Eagle Y, Omaha 4 (X and Y are usually very jargon-y, so we'll skip that for now) in the huddle. They come to the line. the Center informs the rest of the line, that the D is lined up in a base 3-4, which due to study sessions previously in the week, means the line will use Blocking scheme A for X or blocking scheme B for Y. Or the center could use a code word to switch up the blocking scheme if it wasn't covered in the study session. Furthermore adjusts can be made by identifying the "Mike" - the primary MLB. Hence "54 is the Mike! 54 is the Mike!" Meanwhile the QB decides whether the original play X or the Eagle play Y (and note, they could be other code words that mean specific plays - if the QB says "Hawk" every knows that Hawk is play Z). Let's say he wants to stick with play X, but he wants to know more about the defense. He calls his WR to go in motion, but then return to his original spot. The defender runs with the motion man. So it's likely man coverage, at least for that guy. Play X really only works against zone coverage, so he changes: "Eagle! Eagle! Eagle!" The QB pauses and see if the defense changes - they don't, so he calls Omaha which means we're going on the 4th hut. "Omaha! Omaha! HUUUUTTTTT!" No one jumps offside on defense, but two LB's show blitz. the QB decides they we're fooled by the count. So now he knows that it's man coverage with a two man blitz. Furthermore, he might notice that the identity of "Mike" has changed. So instead of continuing the count, he calls (and points) "51 is the Mike! 51 is the Mike!" The defense now has to decide if knowing that the offense knows it's a blitz will be too risky, in which case, they can start calling codes, too. They will have codes to switch to a different blitz, change back to base defense, or possibly anything. The d-signal caller now starts yelling (well, continues, as he, like the QB has been calling signals since he saw the O come to the line). Now the QB has to decide if the D has switched out of the scheme he thinks they're in, or if it was a bluff, and they're still gonna do it. So, he starts the count again. "Omaha! Omaha!" - turns the count back to 4. HUTT-HUTT!!!! Now the defense may jump again, and the QB will think he's got them in the man coverage, two LB blitz for real, and so he continues his count. HUTT-HUTT!!!! That's four HUTs so the ball is snapped, and the play has begun. 4 Pointing Covered earlier, but the QB often corrects the C's call of Mike (or in some cases has sole authority to decide on who the Mike is). Or if he thinks, based on what he thinks he knows, that, say the SS is on a blitz, he'll point it out, so his back will know who to look for on the blitz pickup (or the OL will change protection schemes to pick up the blitz themselves. 5 Defense signals. Imagine the whole process in reverse, without access to the snap count. the D signal called gets a call from the sideline (either relayed to him from the sideline, or called by the DC or HC from the sideline). They'll have one defense called, another to switch to on a code word. They will also have other code words to change to specific other schemes and of course Kill! as well. As the offense does it's things, the defensive signal caller tries to glean what he can about the play they've called. If the O-line is in three point stances, they may favor the run (or they may be pretending to run and then pass). If they are in a two point stance (standing up, it's the opposite. The offense alignment may tell the defense what types of plays it can run from that set, so the d-signal caller can remind his teammates either through codes or or through just yelling "watch for the draw!" (for example) directly. Then if the QB is switching things around or pretending to, the d-signal caller can switch things up or pretend to. 6 The Booth If the OC or DC is up there, he is communicating to the sideline the plays he wants. He is also communcating with his subordinate coaches and the HC other things that may be of value. If he's not up there, someone else will be, relaying his observations from the booth. They also have phone lines to speak to players directly on the sideline. There is another guy who, among his other responsibilities, will be to monitor the stadium replays and (I think) the telecast to see whether or not to challenge a play (or even directly because he has a better view). Someone else will be logging a bunch of things (plays called, penalties, observations about the opponents, play results, etc for analysis the following week. The shocking thing about all of this is they either 25 or 40 seconds to accomplish all of this shit. It's sort of ridiculous - it's like high speed poker and then high speed violence all at once."

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Craw's list of random things.

https://www.humblebundle.com/?HIB10B - a bunch of really good games for cheap (like for about 6$ you can get all of these) and most of them are Mac/Linux compatible as well... if you're one of those people. Also, most of these, except maybe Strike Suit, run on the shittiest of netbooks/tablets.

A bunch of game of the year awards:
http://www.polygon.com/2013-game-of-the-year

My short list of games worth checking out that nobody seems to have heard about or care about and some of my favorites thrown in:

Super Hexagon (technically a 2012 game but pretty ridiculous)
Skulls of the Shogun
Antichamber
Baldur's Gate EE
XCOM Enemy Within
Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon (80's + insanity + developers who get it = brilliant albeit short game)
Fez (I played this last year on Xbox but the PC port is probably better)
Might and Magic Clash Of Heroes (also an older game but finally got ported to ios and Droid)
Civ V Brave New World - Finally fixes most of the issues with Civ V.
Papers Please (mostly because of how subversive this game can be)
Divekick (basically breaks down fighting games to its most basic components. There are no combos to master here, just 2 buttons and a whole lot of strategy and twitchiness, enough to really nail the fighting game meta without getting bogged down in the minutia of games like SF or MK)
KOF XIII and Skullgirls once they finally made it to steam - this is the flipside of the fighting game coin. There's a lot of minutia here and enough meat to dig into for years on end. These games were finally released on the PC where it turns out people like to play and where the connections are better overall.
cardhunter.com - card collection game and RPG all in one. Free to play, pretty fun
The Gods Will Be Watching (web based and free) - you and your team are marooned on a planet waiting to be rescued. You have to make hard choices and most of your team will either desert you or die. I don't think there's a way to win this game. Actually, also look up the Ludum Dare competition (which this game competed in). There's a ton of really good free stuff in there.
DayZ - a zombie game where the biggest threat is human nature.
Occulus Rift - I tried this at PAX. Pretty much the future of gaming.
Kickstarter - Because this basically funded most of m favorite things this year, including games.

Abandonventue

Adventures in Urban decay.

And sneaking into things that normal people don't usually see (like the top floors of the Eaton Center).

The Mother of All Demos, presented by Douglas Engelbart (1968)

Monday, January 13, 2014

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Monday, January 6, 2014

McGill has a blog debunking pseudo science.

http://blogs.mcgill.ca/oss/ Worth a read now and again.

Saturday, January 4, 2014