Stay Classy, San Francisco

Here's some footage from the first episode of the new AMC series, The Walking Dead, where zombies attack someone trapped in a car.

Video link

Oh, wait...sorry. That's actually the fine, upstanding citizens of San Francisco "celebrating" the Giants victory over the Texas Rangers. By attacking someone trapped in a car.

Tell me yet again...why in the hell would anybody choose to live in San Francisco?

Oh, and this would not have happened in Arlington or Dallas. Guaranteed.

And Now For An Important Mess...

Lord knows I don't know much about web design - I am, after all, a coder primarily, and if we were left in charge, most web sites today would still be black text on a plain gray background.

But I do know that I don't like this:

This is a weather alert box on The Weather Channel's web site. If you can't read the text, it says "Severe Thunderstorm W....".

Now, there are two possible endings to this phrase: "Watch" or "Warning". And they mean two different things. One means that it could happen, one means that it is actually happening or is imminent. And you should take different action depending on which one it is.

Unfortunately, the way they chose to lay out this text makes it impossible to tell. Yeah, you could click through - in the grand scheme of things, not a big deal - but that's an extra step you have to take to view one of the more important pieces of information this web site actually provides. It's the difference between good design and adequate or poor design.

Of course, the cynic in me then realizes that having an extra mouse click means they get to serve up another set of banner ads. I've really got to work on that cynicism.

Welcome To The Fold, Google

Work + World Of Warcraft + Sleep = no blogging.

In other news, I see that the new GoogleTV is suffering from the same case of streamus-interruptus that my Playstation 3 contracted last year. Hulu, CBS, NBC, ABC - all are detecting access from the Google/Sony set-top box, and blocking it. It's still the case that the content providers are paranoid about the screen you are using - if you view via a computer monitor, that's OK, but using a digital TV, not so good.

So, another target market that the networks could have snapped up and served ads to will instead now be served by the ad-free market that is the world of BitTorrents and their variants. Congrats, guys - heckuva job!

Well, Steve Jobs managed to break the music labels eventually - maybe he can do the same to the video morons.

DVD Spending Tab II

My meager DVD purchasing this year gets a small bump, courtesy of the clearance shelf at Half-Price Books (yep, I'm cheap - but I hear it's a good movie):

Curse of the Golden Flower - $2.60

Yearly total: 3 movies, $12.59 total, $4.20/movie average

The Head Office Says Jump!

I guess the new marching orders are out. While watching C-SPAN's Cavalcade of Idiots, errr, Washington Journal this morning, the first phone segment was seeking comments on last night's primary elections. I expected most of the comments from the reliably left-leaning callers to somehow find a way to bash Sarah Palin despite the apparent strong-showing of one of her endorsees in Alaska.

Instead, three of the first few Democrat callers chose to go after Koch Industries, apparently seeking to paint its owners as attempting to subjugate democracy itself by daring to fund organizations that oppose the Obama agenda. The very nerve! I mean, it certainly isn't as though any super-rich industrialists on the left have ever sought to materially affect public policy through funding advocacy organizations. That's just the kind of thing devious right-wingers do.

So we got the usual set of calls to "unleash the dogs": demanding Congressional investigations (sorry, morons, Nancy's a little busy with other investigations at the moment), demanding boycotts (apparently if you dig down far enough, you find out that the Kochs are responsible for Dixie cups, so watch out!), and the now-standard Wikipedia defacing (check out the edit wars already under way).

So beware, you 50-to-60-percenters! Your betters are watching you!

Is It October Yet?

Because that's when Rock Band 3 comes out. I've just upgraded my drums with the three cymbal set, so they're now fully RB3-ready. And I'm all ready to shell out the bucks for the new keyboard instrument and the lesser of the two pro guitars. I've never played guitar before at all, so I'm really looking forward to seeing how the training mode works out.

The playlist is slowly starting to leak out. Here's what I'm seeing so far:

Songs I'm ready to play right now:
Dio – Rainbow in the Dark
Jane’s Addiction – Been Caught Stealing
Ozzy Osbourne – Crazy Train
The Doors – Break On Through
Whitesnake – Here I Go Again
Yes – Roundabout
B-52′s – Rock Lobster
Def Leppard – Foolin’
David Bowie – Space Oddity
Devo – Whip It
The Police – Don’t Stand So Close To Me
The Ramones – I Wanna Be Sedated
Steve Miller Band – Fly Like An Eagle
Primus – Jerry Was a Race Car Driver
Golden Earring – Radar Love
Elton John – Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting)
Deep Purple – Smoke on the Water
Dire Straits – Walk of Life

Songs that I won't mind when they show up:
Huey Lewis and the News – The Power of Love
Jimi Hendrix – Crosstown Traffic
Joan Jett – I Love Rock and Roll
Night Ranger – Sister Christian
Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody
Foreigner – Cold as Ice
Tears for Fears – Everybody Wants to Rule the World
War – Low Rider
The Beach Boys – Good Vibrations (Live)
Lynyrd Skynyrd – Free Bird
Blondie – Heart of Glass
The Who – I Can See For Miles
James Brown – I Got You (I Feel Good)
John Lennon – Imagine
INXS – Need You Tonight

Songs I'm going to assign one lighter to and hopefully will never see again:
Smash Mouth – Walkin’ on the Sun
Stone Temple Pilots – Plush
Warren Zevon – Werewolves Of London

Plus there's still a few more rumored songs, like 25 or 6 to 4, 20th Century Boy and some as yet unnamed Rush song, and a bunch of stuff I've never heard of (what are those pesky kids listening to these days? And get off my lawn!).

A Tale Of Two Non-Quarterbacks

1. Chris Simms arraigned on driving-while-impaired charges

I actually had no idea he was back in the league after being cut by yet another team. He says he was just misquoted but that he "can't get into the details". OK, Chrissy. Sure thing. Hee hee.

But I'm not bitter.

2. Mack Brown says that John Chiles will not be moved back to quarterback for Texas

Thank God. Yeah, Chiles is one of those "natural athlete" types, but man was he lousy at quarterback. He isn't much better at receiver, but anything's better than having him waste snaps behind center.