Just another WordPress site

A couple of months ago, I posted about KeepVid, a web site that allows you to download videos from popular sites like YouTube and iFilm.

Javu Moya has taken things a step further, creating a Firefox extension called VideoDownloader that makes this process a lot easier, requiring only a single click while you are watching the video rather than cutting and pasting the URL into KeepVid’s site. At the time of this post, over 60 video sites are supported. Very cool…

Stephen Colbert is my hero.

Last Saturday was the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, where the press and president usually lightheartedly lampoon one another. After the event, while most of the press concentrated on the amusing W impersonator who “translated” W’s thoughts, the real story of the evening was Stephen Colbert’s scathingly humorous monologue, which took W, his administration, and the press to task in the guise of his alter ego of the host of The Colbert Report. Peter Daou of The Huffington Post comments:

Standing at the podium only a few feet from President Bush, Colbert launched an all out assault on the policies of this Administration. It was remarkable, though painful at times, to watch. It may also have been the first time that anyone has been this blunt with this President.

Editor & Publisher reports that:

Those seated near Bush told E&P’s Joe Strupp, who was elsewhere in the room, that Bush had quickly turned from an amused guest to an obviously offended target as Colbert’s comments brought up his low approval ratings and problems in Iraq.

Several veterans of past dinners, who requested anonymity, said the presentation was more directed at attacking the president than in the past. Several said previous hosts, like Jay Leno, equally slammed both the White House and the press corps.
…
Strupp, in the crowd during the Colbert routine, had observed that quite a few sitting near him looked a little uncomfortable at times, perhaps feeling the material was a little too biting – or too much speaking “truthiness” (Colbert’s made-up word) to power.

Some of the articles I’ve linked to above have quoted the more interesting bits, but you really need to see this as a video. For a video of the entire event, a torrent is available here. It didn’t take long for people to update the videos of Colbert’s portion to YouTube: here is Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 (YouTube now limits the length of the clips you can upload). Daily Kos also has a complete transcript of Colbert’s monologue along with some more video links.

Update: Editor & Publisher followed up, reporting that:

Probably to no one’s surprise, Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central’s Daily Show, hailed the performance of his stablemate Stephen Colbert at Saturday night’s White House Correspondents dinner. Colbert’s lampooning of the president and the press has generated a good deal of praise and criticism.

The article goes on, and one quote in particular struck me as hilarious: “We’ve never been prouder of him, but HOLY SHIT,” Stewart said. 🙂

Also, I totally spaced and forgot to mention that Stephen Colbert was interviewed on 60 Minutes last Sunday; YouTube videos are available here.

Update 2: The Washington Post has a long article entitled The Colbert Blackout that delves into the lack of coverage and fallout over Colbert’s monologue.

Update 3: The New York Times, among most of the mainstream media in initially glossing over Colbert’s performance, now has an article entitled “After Press Dinner, the Blogosphere Is Alive With the Sound of Colbert Chatter” (article may require registration; sorry) that includes a half-hearted mea culpa.

Update 4: onegoodmove has a video from The Daily Show (embedded QuickTime video) in which Jon Stewart discussed the White House Correspondents Dinner, calling Colbert’s monologue “ballsalicious.” 🙂

Linkfilter posted about a cool Bill Murray Soundboard.

I will warn you that this band’s cover of The Final Countdown (YouTube video) might possibly be the worst cover version of a song that I’ve ever heard, including some of those American Idol debacles. I couldn’t make it through the whole thing…

Google Blog reports that Google has released Google SketchUp, a free version of SketchUp 3D modeling software. I downloaded it and tried it, and I must say that it’s very intuitive, much moreso than Pro/E, the software that I use at work. Of course, I’m comparing apples to oranges, as Pro/E caters to a entirely different professional community, but I was still impressed. Download it and try it out!

One of the neat things about this offering is that you can insert your creations right into Google Earth. Also, Google 3D Warehouse is “an online location where you can find and share 3D models,” and some of the models there are pretty damn cool. If you want to export your creations into more conventional CAD formats like DXF etc., you’ll unfortunately need to upgrade to SketchUp Pro, though…

Back in 2001, I had the opportunity to visit Davis-Monthan Air Force Base for a work trip. Better known as the “Boneyard,” Davis-Monthan is where thousands of U.S. military aircraft are mothballed, destroyed, and/or stored in the Arizona desert. It’s a very cool place, with aircraft dating back from the forties to almost the latest generation aircraft, and because I was there for work, I had the run of the place. Too bad my work colleagues weren’t as excited as I was to explore, so I didn’t get nearly as many photos as I would have liked. 🙁 I believe public tours are available, and the nearby Pima Air And Space Museum has hundreds of restored aircraft on display, but the Boneyard is way more impressive.

To see the pictures I took, check out my Davis-Monthan Boneyard photo gallery or visit the flickr photo set. The picture above is a very sad sight for me, especially considering that almost all F-14s are now decommissioned…

A recent John Dvorak PC Magazine column entitled The Great Microsoft Blunder has some interesting advice for Micro$oft:

All of Microsoft’s Internet-era public-relations and legal problems (in some way or another) stem from Internet Explorer. If you were to put together a comprehensive profit-and-loss statement for IE, there would be a zero in the profits column and billions in the losses column—billions.
…
So what can Microsoft do about its dilemma? First, it needs to face the fact that this entire preoccupation with the browser business is bad for the company and bad for the user. Microsoft should pull the browser out of the OS and discontinue all IE development immediately. It should then bless the Mozilla.org folks with a cash endowment and take an investment stake in Opera, to influence the future direction of browser technology from the outside in. Then, Microsoft can worry about security issues that are OS-only in nature, rather than problems compounded by Internet Explorer.

Of this I can assure you. People will not stop buying Microsoft Windows if there is no built-in browser. Opera and/or Firefox can be bundled with the OS as a courtesy, and all the defaults can lead to Microsoft.com if need be.

Of course we already know that this will never happen, since Microsoft is a creature of habit. So it will forever be plagued by its greatest blunder ever. Have fun, boys.

I think he’s right on the money, but he’s also right that Micro$oft will never totally abandon Internet Explorer…

California is joining Illinois in introducing a bill in the state legislature calling for the impeachment of W. The state legislatures are taking advantage of the fact that “The Jefferson Manual of rules for the U.S. House of Representatives makes clear that impeachment proceedings can be initiated by a state legislature submitting charges.”

I personally don’t think that Articles Of Impeachment against W (and Cheney?) will ever see the light of day in Congress, but if either of these states pass their bills, then the U.S. House Of Representatives may be forced to act. I’ll believe it when I see it, but it’s a step in the right direction…

Think you’re good at Tetris? Watch this YouTube video of a guy playing Tetris DS and you might change your mind. This guy is scary good…

Update: Looks like the YouTube user has removed the video. I think I managed to find one that works…

Blender’s list of the 50 Worst Things to Happen to Music is pretty damn good for the most part…