December 30, 2007
I can’t wait to see this movie. I’ve been following the websites and blogs about it for months. Hell… I even switched shifts at work so that I could be off on opening night. Since I’m so excited about seeing it… I have a feeling it will suck. That’s just how things normally go.
But man I’m hoping it doesn’t. It looks like it could be an original twist on an old story:
- Big monster
- The destruction of New York
- People running around screaming
- The shaky “I made this at home” cinematography
Ya know… if I was a big movie watcher… I’d never even think about visiting New York - let alone living there. How many times has that city been destroyed on the big screen? 5? 15? 100?
Hopefully The Big Apple’s destruction on 1-18-08 will be just as exciting as the others…
Posted in Personal, Video 
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December 22, 2007
I’m pretty sure that if you look up the word “slacker” in the dictionary, it will have a nice definition accompanied by a picture of me. Haha. Yes… it’s been a while since I posted anything here. But this isn’t the only place I’ve been slacking.
I’ve always said if you’re gonna do something, don’t half-ass it - do it all the way.
Such is the degree of my slacking. I partially blame my neglect on all fronts to my newest toy: a Tivo. How I ever lived without my new best friend is beyond me. Tivo knows exactly what I want and never stops delivering. We spend most evenings and mornings together. Weekends are usually spend catching up on everything Tivo has done for me that I wasn’t able to appreciate during the week.
Talk about your engrossing relationship. I’m such a Tivo whore. Haha.
But this morning I discovered a new button on the Tivo remote. It has two little vertical lines on it (like this ||). When I pushed that button, Tivo froze exactly where it was. At first I wasn’t sure what was going on. I thought I’d killed my friend. But when I pushed the button again, Tivo came back to life - just like that. I spent a good 10 minutes pushing the button over and over again: pause… resume… pause… resume…
And then I had an epiphany: Holy crap!! I can be friends with Tivo AND have time to do other things.
I’m going to check for one of these mysterious buttons at work on Monday. Keep your fingers crossed that the same principle applies there. You should probably start checking around for a pause button of your own. Maybe you can find one at work or home. Let me know if you stumble across one. If I haven’t found another one of my own I might need your advice on where to look.
It wasn’t until I’d pushed this magical button that I had time to sit down and look at all of the stuff I’ve neglected to do in the past couple of months or so. Not only did WordPress release a new version… they’d even released an update to the new version. A bunch of the plugins I use here had been updated. Oh yeah… and I hadn’t posted anything in over a month. Haha.
Well I can safely say that not only are we all up to date now, but you’re even reading a new post. No. Seriously. This one isn’t old. I’m writing it this very second.
I had a ton of updates and requests on Facebook that I hadn’t seen. I ended up ignoring and/or canceling most of them. But man… you’d think I’d been gone for a year. Seriously, my friends… how in the hell did ya’ll have enough time to do all that stuff on Facebook? Haha.
My text message inbox on my phone was 1 message away from being full. My email inbox was three pages long (and half of the messages weren’t even read). If you’ve ever heard my rant on inboxes, you’ll know how strange that is (The short version: Inboxes are NOT for storage, people!! Read new messages in your inbox and then delete them or move them to a folder. It’s INbox… not a STORAGEbox or a ALLOFMYMAILbox. /end rant).
My iTunes library had 1210 songs in it. But my iPod only had 849 songs on it. What?!? How in the…? You can’t be serious?! Oh but I am! Before you freak out like I did… don’t worry. Both now contain 1140 songs (I did some musical housekeeping).
Now you know why, for several weeks, I’ve felt like I was rocking back and forth all day long. It was my world spinning out of control without my knowledge. It was probably a good way to weaken some of my OCD walls. Haha. I can already feel the stabilizing effects of getting the world back in order.
I bet you didn’t even notice the turbulence, did ya? You probably had no clue that the entire fabric of space and time were about to unravel. Chaos was mere days from taking over. Do you have any idea what would have happened if inboxes went uncleaned and WordPress plugins were left unupdated? I shudder to think about the repercussions of a mismatched iTunes+iPod library.
I’m giving myself a big pat on the back for saving the world from destruction.
Damn that little Tivo tramp. I see that big yellow pause button laying on the bed right now… calling me… begging me to unleash Pandora’s Box again. Now that things are right in the world again, Tivo has stepped up it’s sinful assault on my more baser instincts.
“Push me”, it keeps saying. “Come on… you know you want to. All the cool kids are pushing their resume buttons.” That voice… like a Siren… calling me back to my own destruction…
Posted in Personal 3 Comments »
November 18, 2007
Fans of television shows like CSI are no strangers to talk about DNA, genetics, and the use of “body matter” as a way to identify people. Science fiction fans have glimpsed into proposed futures were genetics is no longer restricted to labs and university studies. But for the average person walking the globe, deoxyribonucleic acid - DNA - isn’t something that often springs to mind.
That may be close to changing.
A new company called 23andMe is scheduled to launch tomorrow and promises to bring genetics right into our living rooms. How? By giving people the ability to submit DNA samples for analysis. 23andMe will then not only show you how your genes compare to those of your family and ancestors (assuming they also use the service), but it will also give you a glimpse into diseases, conditions, and abilities that your genetic material might predispose you to.
Heck… there are even social networking abilities that let you share your genetic profile with friends… and compare how you stack up against the people you know.
Ya know… on a nuclear level.
Duncan Riley at TechCrunch makes an accurate comparison in saying this company is reminiscent of the future portrayed in the movie Gattaca.
And while 23andMe isn’t yet to the point of transforming our world into the genetically perfect, bigoted Gattaca-verse, it is no doubt a preamble to the possibility of such a future. Of course there’s no guarantee that anything so radical will occur. But there’s a little thing about human nature that some folks seem to be forgetting:
When you put new technologies and abilities like this into the hands of the masses, someone will find a way to exploit it.
What would stop companies or organizations from requiring a 23andMe test as part of hiring practices? Or genetic profiles from becoming part of the dating process? Since the company is Internet-based, what would prevent me from sending in someone else’s genetic material for testing?
To top it all off, the company was founded by the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin. Google has officially invested almost $4 million into the company. It’s not technically a Google company, of course. But you can imagine the possibilities of the two joining forces:
- “Sure honey… we’ll let your search engine index our genetic profiles”
- Instead of just web, image, blog, and news searches, we’ll also have the ability to search genetic profiles
- “I Google’d your profile and I don’t think I want to waste my time getting involved with someone who’s predisposed to diabetes.”
- “This guy’s profile says he’s related to Hitler. I think we’ll pass and hire the other candidate.”
Ok… maybe I’m stretching it a bit. Or am I?
Is it time to start protesting and chasing the company with pitchforks and torches? Of course not. I imagine there are a lot of folks out there who would be interested in their genetic profiles. Hell… I’d be one of them. There are other companies who are no doubt doing the same thing. And at a grand a pop, the company’s service isn’t yet to the point of mass adoption… yet. But 23andMe’s plan is to just that - to make genetics “personal”. As with any new technology, it’s expensive now… but given time, I have no doubt we’ll see affordable genetic profiling sooner rather than later.
What do you think?
Is this kind of genetic information simply a natural progression of scientific discovery? Is it something that should be made available to anyone who wants it? Does the company’s connection to Google - whose mission is to index all of the world’s information - effect your view of 23andMe? Would you plunk down $1000 to get a genetic snapshot of yourself?
Does it bother you that such a service is less than 12 hours away from becoming a reality? I’m still on the fence myself. But I do know one thing:
This service will be abused. The company may think it has systems in place to prevent exploitation. But just you wait and see. There are smart, devious people out there who will find ways to take advantage of it.
I guess it’s time we start paying closer attention to where we leave our DNA laying around. Haha.
Posted in Human Nature, In the News, Technology No Comments »
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