Author: Tommy

It's that time again, that time when I remind you (or tell you for the first time) about Folding@Home. What dat is?, you say.
Folding@Home is a distributed computing project managed by Stanford University, the client program runs on your computer (most major OS's supported) and uses your "spare" computing time to help calculate complex mathmateical formulas. When you're not using your computer at 100%, this client will throttle itslf to use the leftover computing power.

Protein sythesis is a predicable system in which proteins are made by folding upon itself, thereby changing it's shape, and thus it's funciton. Each protein serves some purpose and the shape of the protein determines that purpose. By using a complex mathematical formula, biologists can find out how proteins are made. The problem is that this math formula takes a great deal of computing power. By combining our computing efforts, the aggregate power produced is able to accomplish this feat very quickly and is much cheaper for Standford, and thus the medical community.
Why do I care? It's a great way to show off computing power, or show off team-assembled computing power. I am a member of the SAGoons team, in which my personal computations are also counted in the team overall score to demonstrate how many computations SomethingAwful members have contributed, and to see how your team stacks up against other teams.

More info can be found at folding.stanford.edu. Enter a unique username, and join the SAGoons (Team 150). It's fun to watch your own progress.

What is wrong with people? I just had a guy run into me yesterday because he was walking one direction and looking in another - around a corner! Unless you have some wallhack on, pay attention to where you're walking. I can't stand it when people are too concerned with what's going on "over there" than to be concerned with the possibility of someone being "over here". Especially when they say "Oh, I'm sorry, didn't see you there.". Of course you didn't see me here, you oblivious pile of crap! You had your head on crooked!

People need to pay attention or learn how to get out of the friggin way.

The same goes for drivers. People who are too concerned with some accident, or they're too busy waving to their friend that is too cheap to own a car so he's walking down the road when he obviously knows someone with a car, because they're slowing down to wave at him. Get off your cell phone if it's going to slow you down! There should be a law against impeding traffic. It's slow people that cause alot of accidents. People are too oblivious to have any notion that there is a world going on outside of their reality TV shows.
Pay attention to life!

With my hometown about to get pwn3d by Hurricane Rita, I was just thinking yesterday that R is getting close to the end of the alphabet that is used by the National Hurricane Center to name hurricanes and tropical storms. Over at LiveScience there is an article about what happens when we run out of hurricane names for a given season.

From the article I learned that the letters Q, U, X, Y, and Z are not used for selecting names, with no explanation of why. It is interesting to note that the most active storm season to date has produced 21 storms, which is exactly how many names are selected for use in a given season - and we're getting close to the threshhold.

Meanwhile, some are trying to make the tie between an active storm season and the hot weather. Some aren't buying it. Just yesterday AW had a football game and I can't remember the last time I felt that hot - it may have also been the fact that almost our entire team was playing both offense and defense, but I digress. Is it global warming? El Niño (which is spanish for 'the niño')? Or something more sinister?

update: Storm names still left on the list: Stan, Tammy, Vince, & Wilma.

This afternoon I updated the version of Xbox Media Center that was installed on my hacked Xbox. If you recall, I installed most everything using Slayer's AutoInstaller, which works great for getting you up and going quickly.
Xbox Media Center allows you to access all of your MP3 and WMA files on your Xbox HD as well as your Windows Network. You can also play music from iTunes and Shoutcast servers. Not only music is available on XBMC, you can also use it for slideshows (which I've done with our honeymoon pics) and for playing movies (DVDs and video files like .mpg, .avi and .wmv). The older version had all of these features, but one of the new features is the ability to change RSS feeds to receive the latest news headlines. Slashdot and Yahoo news headlines can be accessed like this.

The kicker for me was the ability to have Milkdrop for visualizations for the music. The default visualizations for MP3s and the like was your average run-of-the-mill blurred oscilliscopes and spectrum analyzers. Milkdrop adds a virtually limitless array of plugins to allow for any mix of visualization plugins. The new version also features an improved web-interface to control music/video playback on the Xbox. Couple all these new features with the Xbox remote control and the enhanced audio adapter to allow for Dolby/DTS output and you've got a setup that rivals most any homebrew home theater PC setup.

update: After installing XBMC I found a few additional scripts that are very handy. My favorites that I have installed are XMovieGuide, which shows movie times at area theaters; XRadar, shows local area weather radar; and the 'PBS Frontline script', to view the streaming video archives of the television show "Frontline" on the Xbox.

I was at the store the other day looking at all the various options on the standard men's shaving razor. There's a whole host of choices. You can get cheap single-blade safety razors for as little at $0.10 per razor, or you can go for razor refills as crazy as 2 for $5 - that's $2.50 per head. Whoa, what?! Yeah, you read that right, little strips of metal, in a plastic housing with a little piece of sponge and aloe for $2.50.
Granted, this might not be that much, but that's because you're used to paying whatever they charge for razors. I am constantly reminded of how ridiculous the price of razors is when I go to purchase more. Some beards/whiskers are finer than others, and I know some of you probably don't shave as often as I do. Well, let me tell you, my whiskers are thick and shaving with those razors, they only last 2 (maybe 3) times before they lose their edge.

So I decided to check out my other options. I looked at the unit price on the disposable razors. I saw the whole gamut, and setted on a Gillette pivot-head, double-bladed disposable razor that came out to about $0.50 per. I figured this would save money, it's essentially the same thing, but for a fraction of the cost. It's Gillette, and they know a thing or two about razors.
So I thought.
The stupid razor was like shaving with a knife. The handle felt like it was made of cork compared to my trusty Mach3 handle, and as for a close shave? Hardly. Gillette must offer these cheaper razors to those that needn't shave often, or have a thick beard, or to mock you when you try to save money. To make you come crawling back to the $2.50-a-pop blades. (And this was at Walmart pricing, mind you!) The cheaper razors just suck, and they are there only to shave peach fuzz and to make you wish you had spent more.

How much could it cost them in R&D, product design, and production/packaging costs to make a strip of metal in plastic? They're selling the whole thing for $0.50 in a bag right below the Mach3 blades - and almost every guy under the age of 40 is using the Mach3 - so that means there's more demand for the Mach3 blades. Why are they stiffing us on price?

And what's with the vibrating Mach3?! Why the crap would I want to buy that gimmick?! What a worthless product. I'm tired of all the commercials about how these shaving systems "microscopically lift and cut" the hairs for the "closest shave possible". They've been telling me it's the closest shave possible for years, and yet, they're still getting a closer shave. How is that possible?!? You just told me last year it was impossible to get a closer shave - and now you're telling me that you've defied the laws of physics and you're now ripping out my hair folicals?! Amazing.

And when does the blade-count stop? I remember turning 16 and Gillette somehow getting my name and sending me a free Mach2 razor. Sweet action, I'm in the club now. It had 2 blades, little rubber fins to "lift the hairs" for the "closest shave possible" (with only 2 blades, but if you add a 3rd? - oh, now that's completely different). Then, they pulled a fast one, they added a 3rd blade, which made the shave that much closer. This tripled the sound barrier, it was the Mach3. It has 3 blades! When do they go to Mach4, 5-, 6-, 8-, 20- blade razors? Soon, you'll be able to rip the epidermis off your face with one swipe for the absolute closest shave possible.

Gillette has gone out of control with their pricing and blade-count. I knew they lost their minds when I saw the battery-operated manual razor that vibrates your face. That's the marketing department telling the mechanical engineers how to do things. If they would just keep the blade-count where it is, and keep prices where they are, or lower them, everyone would be happy.

This is the rant section, and this is my rant.