My First Annual Bi-Weekly Tweet Roundup*

My first annual posting of this bi-weekly* period's most exciting tweets by me, sorted in reverse-most-exciting (RME®) order:

The tweet of the link to this blog post:
Long: http://twitter.com/dilbrent/statuses/9415171215
Short: http://dilbrent.com/r/Tweet-Roundup-Tweet

Self-recursive tweet of the announcement of my URL shortening service:
Long: http://twitter.com/dilbrent/statuses/9223294945
Short: http://dilbrent.com/r/3

Tweet regarding my "favoriting" of the tweet about my blog update:
Long: http://twitter.com/dilbrent/statuses/9175354849
Short: http://dilbrent.com/r/Blog-Update-Tweet-Favoriting

Tweet announcing my blog update:
Long: http://twitter.com/dilbrent/statuses/9175138393
Short: http://dilbrent.com/r/Blog-Update-Tweet

* Some of you may have noticed a dichotomy regarding the words "annual" and "bi-weekly," possibly due to the fact that they mean incompatible things, like "up" and "down," or "solid parenting" and "Britney Spears."

Before you question whether I proofread my posts prior to posting (hint: I do not) I should explain that I expect to completely forget to do this again for at least a year. Which, let's be honest, is likely how long it will take for me to accumulate enough tweets of the amazing caliber demonstrated above to merit another tweet roundup.

On an unrelated note, look for a very exciting Google Buzz roundup in the near future. Rumor has it that it may reference some of the Tweets from this post.

URL Shortening and your personal security and you

As most of you who follow security chatter are aware, URL shortening services like bit.ly and tinyurl.com are somewhat frowned upon by the security community:
http://dilbrent.com/r/2 [wikipedia.org]

I won't bore you with the tedious details. I'll let the wikipedia article do that.

What's unusual is that despite the general public's universally near-instantaneous adherence to the advice of the security community, URL shorteners are actually gaining in popularity.

To thwart this growing threat I have written my own URL shortener that not only supports a tiny subset of the functionality of the "big name" shortening services, but still provides basically the same fundamental security flaws.

The difference is that, since I wrote it myself, if it suffers from link rot or torrential virus distribution, or is simply not even responding to basic requests, you can rest assured that these issues are safely being managed by me, rather than some faceless conglomerate that cares more about the bottom line than providing a sub-par service.

My tweet announcing my new URL shortener:
http://dilbrent.com/r/3 [twitter.com]

A link-back to this blog post:
http://dilbrent.com/r/unlike-the-big-name-services-the-dilbrent-url-shortening-service-supports-arbitrarily-long-link-urls/ [blogspot.com]

Notice in my previous example that the shortened URL can be as long as you like. Try getting that from bit.ly. I suspect that they will just laugh at you if you ask.

Anyway, to take advantage of this quantum leap forward in URL shortening, simply send me the URL you wish to shorten and the URL extension you would like, and I will let you know when it's up. Please allow 3-5 days for a response.

I have tweeted about updating my blog!

Thanks predominantly to the overwhelmingly positive response to my previous blog post, (thank-you Eric S) I became so emboldened as to decide to tweet about it, via the popular social messaging medium "Twitter."

Here's the tweet:
http://twitter.com/dilbrent/statuses/9175138393

And the meta-tweet (please forgive my vanity):
http://twitter.com/dilbrent/statuses/9175354849

Some of you may be thinking, "hey, it kinda seems like Brent's blog is mostly about Brent writing stuff in his blog, and any actual substance feels, well, somewhat stark or even nonexistent."

My reply: I love your in-your-face honesty, and the way you use colloquialisms like "kinda" and, quite frankly, your overuse of commas in quotations. I've heard your feedback, and I've internalized it. Look for more of this quality post in the future.

I have updated my blog!

Don't let the exclamation mark in the title fool you, this is not simply some sort of punctuation-based hype. I have truly made a change to this blog.

First of all, the splash page has changed completely:
http://www.brenttucker.com/

Second, I made this announcement (that you are reading right now) regarding the fact that the splash page has changed.

In other news, for those of you following my attempt to own the word "irony" the news is quite good. As of this date a Google search for my name (Brent) and the word "ironic" (ironic) now returns the top link to this blog.

The original story is here:
http://dilbrent.blogspot.com/2009/03/my-ironically-circular-irony.html

The Google search is here:
http://www.google.com/search?q=brent+ironic&num=1

Space Invaders - The Google Wave Gadget

So, because I don’t waste nearly enough time doing unprofitable-but-obsessive nerd stuff, and (thankfully) because my Mafia Wars OCD has finally run its course, I have written a Google Wave Gadget.

Not just any gadget, mind you, but in fact a Space Invaders Gadget (patent pending) that you can drop directly into any Google Wave, share with your many Wave friends, and compete for high scores.

That’s correct. I have somehow managed to tap the incredibly lucrative market that is the intersection of the billions of Google Wave users and those who can’t get enough mini Space Invaders implementations embedded (for some reason) in a communications medium.

You can get the installer or the gadget here:

http://www.compuglobalhypermeganet.biz/si/

Screen shots:

My Ironically Circular Irony

Earlier today I did a Google search on the words “Brent” and “ironic” with the assumption that my blog would be the first link, only to discover that my blog is the third link, with the first two being to archives of my blog at iterasi.net:
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=brent%20ironic

Archive of the Google search:


Perma-link to the archive of the Google search:
tiny: http://sqrl.it/?68afq
long: http://www.iterasi.net/openviewer.aspx?sqrlitid=mv6p13mfpkackhlo0hpanq

“So where’s the irony?” you may be asking. Well,
1) I work at iterasi, and I manage the iterasi.net website. We developed the technology that allows the archive to get a higher ranking than my original blog.
2) We periodically get take-down requests (which we always honor) from people who are displeased that our content is ranked higher than theirs (which I am), despite being a dated archive with attribution back to them.

I wondered how circular the references would get before Google would reprioritize my blog above the archive of my blog. So, I embedded two links to iterasi archives of the Google search and a link to the original Google search into this blog entry; like pointing a couple of mirrors at each other, creating an infinite recursion of references. Let's watch.

Extra references just for fun:

My personal website, that redirects to this blog:
http://www.brenttucker.com/

An archive of this blog entry:

tiny: http://sqrl.it/?f5axk
long: http://www.iterasi.net/openviewer.aspx?sqrlitid=7xemrmucok2cehqw1fkahg

PDF file of the post in case something falls apart somewhere:
http://www.brenttucker.com/MyIronicallyCircularIrony.pdf
archive: http://sqrl.it/?l19p9

My First 3D Self-Portrait

This is my first successful attempt at a 3D image of me. To see the 3D effect you need the promotional glasses popularized by Super Bowl XLIII (2/1/2009). If you threw yours away before watching a special 3D episode of “Chuck” then you made the right choice, but you won’t be able see any 3D in my picture. I watched that episode of “Chuck” with the glasses on. It was terrible. 3D did not help it at all.

If you are wondering where I am in this picture, I am standing in front of my wife’s 15 linear feet of hanger space in our closet. And that’s only half of it. Not pictured here: my 3 feet of space lodged in a corner behind the dresser. I have to move luggage to get to my suits, but I’m cool with it.

The significantly larger original is here:

http://www.brenttucker.com/Face3dLarge.jpg

Proofreading and sanity checks are overrated

Verizon FiOS, which I use as my ISP at home, has been a bit of a mixed bag for me. The speed is amazing, but reliability has been on the sketchy side. Verizon also did about $500 damage to my garage while installing the hardware, which they refuse to reimburse me for unless I give them my social security number since I apparently functioned as the “primary contractor” when I had it repaired. But that’s a different story.

Today my home network is completely offline; a problem Verizon acknowledges is on their side, and promise to repair by 6pm tonight. While awaiting the completion of the repairs I received an amusing email at work that I think sums up Verizon’s ability to identify with their customers, the first half of which is pictured here.

To sum up: The next time I can’t connect to the internet I should consult their website, which conveniently has a web page that will help me diagnose my problem, which I can’t access while not being on the internet.

East v. West. Two XKCDs in a row; I know. I'm lazy.

I instantly identified with this, although it took me a few minutes to realize why. (Easy answer follows the images)

Perma link: http://sqrl.it/?petvc
Original: http://xkcd.com/503/



Perma widget:


Why? "The East" and "The West" were named before anyone knew of the various continents in the actual Western hemisphere. Thanks Europe. That's just great.

The Observable Universe, From Top to Bottom

I found this comic amusing and impressive:
http://sqrl.it/?vfug4

For some reason I have a Facebook profile

Too many people were bugging me to get on Facebook, so I did. Yes, I got peer pressured. I am both strong and weak enough to admit that.

What ev. Here are various ways to get to it:
http://profile.to/dilbrent/
http://profile.to/brenttucker/
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1384374689

As long as I am selling out to the social grapharati, here is my LinkedIn public profile:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/brenttucker

And my pathetically unpopulated MySpace page:
http://www.myspace.com/dilbrent

FATS Chorus, plus wtf happened to Haim and Feldman? Remember them?

As most of you know, I write a lot of choral music; so much, in fact, that I have been awarded the fictional National Institute for the Preservation of Choral Music’s most prestigious award: the “Chory” which, previously, has inexplicably been held by such notables as Cory Haim and Corey Feldman, neither of whom ever show up at the annual reunion.

Anyway, that’s obviously not true. (Haim and Feldman come every year.) However, I did actually write a single piece of music arranged for chorus several years ago which I recently rediscovered on an old backup DVD, and is actually (in my massively un-humble opinion or “IMMUO”) quite listenable.

Here’s the catch: I’m not saying what the lyrics are, but if you understand them you will know that they are NSFW, or NS4W (or “Not Safe for Work” for those far less hip than I), but only if you work at the prudest prude shop on prude alley during prudefest, and are feeling a little prude when you play it.

It’s called “The FATS Chorus” and the first person to tell me why I named it that gets an expired coupon for $5 off an appetizer at participating Chili’s restaurants. (Offer not valid in Alaska and Hawaii, and for some reason Idaho.)

Archive.org link:
http://www.archive.org/details/FatsChorus
MP3 file:
http://www.archive.org/download/FatsChorus/FATSChorus.mp3

Deus ex Machina: A Human Excised

As most of you almost certainly don’t know, I like to arrange music for fun and profit. Mostly fun. Profit would be better. Anyway, the attached audio is from a piano duet I put together about three years ago and just recently rediscovered the midi file for which after I thought I had accidentally deleted it in the great hard drive crash of aught-five. (Kids: save early and often.)

Some interesting notes about this piece (hehe, get it?): I didn’t play a single note of it. At the time I originally made this I was trying to create a song using nothing but my midi sequencer and various utilities designed for improvisation, accompaniment and basically just being lazy about the simple parts. The title is a reference to the fact that it is mostly computer generated, although I did have to put considerable time into post-processing, and I created the chord progression because it turns out that machines suck at that.

As a bonus I have also included the sheet music as a PDF file. If you have any interest in actually performing this with a friend, let me know and I will split the score into two separate pieces of sheet music; one for each piano. (Note to self: figure out how to do that.)

The audio file from Archive.org:
http://www.archive.org/details/DeusExMachina

The sheet music:
http://www.archive.org/download/DeusExMachina/DeusExMachinaByDilbrentgmail.com.pdf

Life imitating art, or vice-versa?

I am a big Wikipedia fan and an occasional contributor. It’s an amazing resource, but certainly subject to abuse. One of the more trivial but amusing abuses is the frequent overuse of the “In Popular Culture” sections for users to expound upon completely tangential topics, usually because they are a fan of some show, movie, music, etc. Today’s XKCD comic (7/7/08) mocks this by satirizing the pop-culture references of “wood.” I laughed when I read it.

What is truly hilarious about this, however, is that someone reproduced the joke in the actual “wood” article, essentially verbatim. Of course it was marked as vandalism and posts were temporarily disabled, but it lead to a highly ironic and amusing discussion in the Talk:Wood section about what exactly the point of the joke was supposed to be.

XKCD Comic: http://xkcd.com/446/

Wood article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood

Talk:Wood: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wood (you have to scroll down)

This just makes me laugh

Let's be clear: Sometimes I post stuff here so I won't forget where I found it so when I talk about it at lunch I am not like "uh, well, it was on this site I saw, uh, you know, with the rabbits, or something." When I post these things here I can say it's on "Brent's Ironic Blog" which is at, uh, well, I don't actually remember the URL right now, but if you just go to...






http://www.toothpastefordinner.com/040908/the-eating-spectrum.gif

This is not what I want

I just wanted to check compatibility with the new Server 2008 install. That's not an option apparently, but I can almost certainly upgrade my current operating system to, um, well, also my current operating system.

Now I am just pandering

My dog had two surgeries today, so maybe this is funnier to me than it actually should be, but I like how the context clues and the incredibly specific diagnosis play off each other...

Ironic self-referential post #1

It occurred to me that to maintain credibility as an ironic blogger I must, at some point, post something ironic. Then I looked up the word "ironic" which, it turns out, is more complex than you might have thought.

So let's go with pseudo-self-referential instead.

(http://www.marriedtothesea.com/mtts-archives/mttsarchive-nov07.php)

xkcd: Alice is the real problem

xkcd is hilarious, but it may not be for everyone. If you read a lot of crypto-related material, which seem to recycle the user names quite a bit by design (Alice, Bob, etc., actually there appear to be only four. :)) then this comic will hit home. Poor Eve, it really isn't her fault:

Bonus: http://www.xkcd.com/202/

Frist Psot

By now you have almost certainly heard the old axiom that (paraphrasing in improperly used quotes) “if you want to hide a needle you don’t hide it in a haystack, you hide it in a box of needles.”

That’s what the entire blog-o-sphere is. A gigantic box of needles; and the needle I need to find is trapped, buried in the box somewhere, completely overshadowed by the other needles. Every time I search for something I find about 500 blog posts about it, and swirling in the sucking eddy of crap through which I must dive is the one gem of information that solves my problem.

Newsflash to 99.9% of the bloggers in the world: No one cares what you think. Do you care what I think? No. You do not. Neither do I care what you think. And yet here we are writing a bunch of stuff, plugging the tubes of the Internets, sadly assuming that someone wants to read what we have to say.

But here I sit, responding to the siren call of just one more fad.

This blog will rarely be updated, and when it is it will almost certainly be some semi-coherent rant about something fad-like or stupid that I want to get off my chest. You can safely ignore it, and if you do not please note that you were warned.

Your friend,
-Brent