linux command line spider
Ever find yourself in the position where you have a page full of thumbnails that link to larger pictures, and you want to download the whole set in one go, but the directory is 403? Don't want to waste your time trying to download (and manage) annoying GUI-based spiders? Have a handy shell account laying around? Try this on for size:

wget -r -l 2 http://your.url.com/path/to/webpage/or/dir

of course you still might have some junk to clean up, but the most trivial of directory traversal will rectify that.

Enjoy!

- posted by frank crist @ 3:43 PM 0 comments

 
More BlogSpot Issues
So, BlogSpot lost MORE of my data. This is the SECOND time in a MONTH. I am beginning to become QUITE ANNOYED.

Yesterday, I took about an hour to update the description of my blog. I figured, I've had it up here for a while, been posting at least once a day on average, so I should give a better description of it. I thought about it, composed it, saved it, published it, and verified that it all worked.

I come in today and what do I find? It has reverted to the original text. GREAT. It has since been deleted so you can't see it.

If I lose just ONE MORE piece of ANYTHING, I'm switching to somewhere else.

>:( !!!

previous BlogSpot problem
- posted by frank crist @ 1:56 PM 0 comments

 
Bond, James Bond, what do your elf eyes see?
So, it's official: Orlando Bloom is the new James Bond.

A little young for "shaken not stirred?" We thought so too, but apparantly this new James Bond will be ala Young Indiana Jones, where Bloom lives the life of Bond in his wild college days at Oxford.

Where, oh where, are they going to get enough material for this to justify becoming a part of the franchise? According to the books I've read (all of them) and the movies I've seen (all of them), James Bond was a jock and party animal during his term at university.

So, Broccoli et al., here are some possible plots for Young James Bond:
* Ernesto Blofeld hides a laser in a keg, beer-larity ensues
* Scaramanga steals Bond's girlfriend's golden classpin
* The early life of Nick Nack, a victim of midget bowling, leads to his life of crime
* Bond's early studies in orthodontia, and the hideous mistake known as Jaws
* A cunnilingus contest with Korean Judo student Kim Jong Woo goes freakishly wrong, turning him into the henchman known as Oddjob
- posted by frank crist @ 1:28 PM 0 comments

 
Bush calls Castro an endorser of child prostitution; Castro calls Bush a drunk
This article has been my greatest source of amusement this morning.

Essentially, Bush had charged in a speech that Castro endorses child prostitution to help bolster Cuba's failing economy. Here is what he says: "The dictator welcomes sex tourism. Here's how he bragged about the industry. This is his quote -- 'Cuba has the cleanest and most educated prostitutes in the world' and 'sex tourism is a vital source of hard currency."

Well, in fact, that was not his quote. Apparantly, Bush was misquoting a 1992 interview with Castro in a Dartmouth undergraduate newspaper that was more to the tune of this exact quote: "There are prostitutes, but prostitution is not allowed in our country. There are no women forced to sell themselves to a man, to a foreigner, to a tourist."

Quite different, no? Castro, obviously outraged, used live television last night--the 51st anniversary of the opening attack of the Cuban Revolution--to dismiss the charges and levy his own against Bush. From the MSNBC article:

The answer, said Castro, comes from inside the mind of the president —the subtitle to a book by psychoanalyst Dr. Justin Frank, called “Bush on the Couch.”

Castro quoted Frank, who delves into Bush’s professed bout with alcoholism and argues that his history of untreated alcohol abuse could impair his judgment.

Bush, charged Castro, could be having a difficult time “distinguishing between relevant and inconsequential information.”

Zing!
- posted by frank crist @ 12:03 PM 0 comments

 
Fedora Linux install part two
Here is part two of the long-awaited Fedora linux installation guide:

Throw the CDs out and download Gentoo. RTFM and relax. Nuff sed.
- posted by frank crist @ 3:59 PM 0 comments

 
Audio Books via Telltale Weekly
BoingBoing has been running excellent coverage about Telltale Weekly, a source for audio recordings of books in the public domain or CC'd. They accept small payments--between .75 and 3.00 per recording--via paypal.

They're also looking for contributors, and I sent off an email to offer my services. Their contributor guidelines is currently undergoing an overhaul, so not much info on the site. I'm curious to see how much they pay the performers.

The pieces that I'm considering are: "The Dancing Men," a Sherlock Holmes mystery, "The Communist Manifesto," by you-know-who, and possibly some FDR or Thomas Jefferson speeches. I like reading things that are full of either ominous portends (e.g. Marx) or political vigor.

At some point, I may offer up my own stuff to be read. I have a few pieces that work quite well as performance, but I think I would like to contribute a few historical pieces before satisfying my own authorly ego.

Anyways, go visit them and spend a buck on a book.
- posted by frank crist @ 3:58 PM 2 comments

 
Nuclear Energy: The Children's Guide
Doing a little research today about nulclear energy, it's advancements, and improvements, when I discovered a burgeoning youth movement regarding nuclear energy.  It all began with a visit to the NEI's colorful Science Club, drawn there by the crayola-esque font.  Inside I learned that, as a student there are a variety of science projects to choose from, as well as flash animations telling me what to think about nuclear energy.

At the Yucca Mountain Youth Zone (you know, Yucca Mountain?), you can solve puzzles (which look strikingly like some sort of explosion while disassembled), or play games involving collision physics (as if this isn't the foundation of every flash game anyways).

How Stuff Works is even in on the fun, but my favorite has got to be straight from the DOE who, on an unrelated topic, debunk that pesky myth about the Hindenburg (no, not the one that says it was flown by and filled with Nazis).
- posted by frank crist @ 10:04 AM 0 comments

 
Earth As Art
The USGS has the Earth As Art gallery--a collection of beautiful satellite imagery from Landsat 7, ASTER, and others. You simply click on a continent and choose an image to be taken to a hi-res version. Disappointingly, there is only one image of my favorite continent.
- posted by frank crist @ 9:44 AM 0 comments

 
ImagiNations
ImagiNations is some sort of world-building game, seemingly with some emphasis on time investure rather than military might or something. I don't know. I haven't had the time to explore it yet, but I didn't want to lose it amidst the surf. I'll update some other time.


- posted by frank crist @ 9:57 PM 0 comments

 
SpongeBong Hemppants
Continuing with the Spongebob thread--

SpongeBong Hemppants episode 1

SpongeBong Hemppants episode 2

SpongeBong Hemppants episode 3
- posted by frank crist @ 9:34 PM 0 comments

 
The Church of SpongeBob Squarepants
The Church of SpongeBob Squarepants

It's true, and it's the most refreshing religion since Discordianism.

Look, this is more than a joke--it's a way of life. Go read the tenets and tell me that they don't make an excellent ethos for everyday life?

FROM THE BOOK OF OPPOSITE DAY:
You can surprise the hell out of someone by throwing a birthday party for them when it isn't their birthday.

FROM THE BOOK OF WORMY:
Insect faces are frightening when elarged.

FROM THE BOOK OF PATTY HYPE:
People ultimately go to a restaurant for the food.

[via a lead on fark]
- posted by frank crist @ 9:25 PM 0 comments

 
Inu Yasha
Inu Yasha is an anime show that Adult Swim has picked up and plays every night at 11:30 (right after the love of my life, ATHF). Typically I really hate anime, but Inu Yasha has totally been doing it for me.

The reason I hate anime is that often I find the animation to use tons of cheap cell tricks. They draw one character, then slide him slowly sideways, with a bunch of straight lines in the background indicating that this character has assumed some mystical or improbably velocity upon attack. Plus, when a character shows surprise, it's usually just a big, open mouth, with a single bead of sweat slowly running down the left cheek. I find this type of animation to just kind of be cheap.

Some anime is quite good, don't get me wrong. Akira, anyone? Stuff like that sets the standard, and most made-for-television anime is just garbage.

Inu Yasha, on the other hand, is quite good. I find a real dearth of animation techniques being used. The fights are interesting, the character development is excellent, and I enjoy the story (yes, even though it's totally contrived by splitting the Shikon jewel into a thousand pieces and, oh, we have to get them back).

So, since Adult swim is taking its sweet ass time in showing the episodes, I thought I would advance the cause and download a couple.

Doing a little research on the episode list for Inu Yasha led me to this site, which shows that there are 148 episodes. Wow. There is no way that I'm going to have the patience to watch 148 Adult Swims to get all of my Inu Yasha. Also, with a little more research, I've found out that Inu Yasha has been going on since mid-2000 and has three movies. Investigating an anime tracker discovers that there are currently 157 episodes. Double damn.

So I downloaded, let's say, a couple, just to see of course, and I get them in this crazy file format, ".ogm". WTF. That's one of the big problems when downloading any type of media from the internet--there will always be twenty caveats to using it. .ogm. WTF do I do with this?

Luckily for us, there is a Lazy Man's Guide to Ogg Media (OGM Files).
- posted by frank crist @ 7:14 PM 0 comments

 
Cronkite's take
Although it's a few weeks old, Walter Cronkite has something to say about the way President Bush is handling the foreign relations portion of the country, something along the lines of, "Bush is trading essential liberty for temporary safety." Many quotes from our founding fathers abound.
- posted by frank crist @ 6:04 PM 0 comments

 
Harajuku
Looking for a permanent party in Japan? Try the Harajuku district in Tokyo. It's a brilliant show of costumed youth and young adults that seem quite influenced by the anime of their youth, mixed with a sort of darker side, very reminiscent of goth. See for yourself the fun cosutmes these kids work on. Latex, uniforms, and lots and lots of the color black.

Why do they do it? Believe it or not, the origins go back to the 1970's and the first waves of rock-and-roll to take Japan. (more here)

[via mefi]
- posted by frank crist @ 2:12 PM 0 comments

 
Lady Jane Grey
Everything you ever wanted to know about Lady Jane Grey, who, in 1553, occupied the throne of England for about nine days before she was re-usurped by Mary, King Henry VIII's Catholic daughter. Lady Jane Grey was put on the throne by King Edward in an attempt to keep the crown Protestant. It's another one of those "twisted, despotic succession lineage" things that you can read all about at the link. I could not even do it justice without a Master's Thesis in European History. July 19, 1553, was her last day as queen. She was executed on Feb 12, 1554, a political necessity for Queen Mary.
- posted by frank crist @ 2:04 PM 0 comments

 
virtualdub
I have recently been downloading^h^h^H^h backing up my dvd's, but sometimes I get a file that is too big to go onto a CD. I spent all day talking to my new media students trying to find out how I could shorten them--chop off the ending credits, or cut it in half if it's a really big file--only to learn that I had to use either Premier or After Effects (or something like that). That was a pity, because it's a well-known fact that I'm completely illiterate at using the Adobe interface (no, I can't even photoshop), even though I can create enterprise-scale databases, write gimp filters, and created the world's smallest database-driven WikiWiki clone in Perl. Not only am I without grace with regards to Adobe products, but when i did finally figure out how to do it, it took a really long time.

"There has got to be a better way," I thought, relying on my old buddy, Google, to help come up with one. It had to be fast, easy to use, and, most of all, free.

Meet Avery Lee, codec guru and Open Source advocate of virtualdub.org. Virtualdub is the answer to all of these problems. From the web page:

I basically started VirtualDub in college to do some quick capture-and-encoding that I wanted done; from there it's basically grown into a more general utility that can trim and clean up video before exporting to tape or processing with another program. I released it on the web and others found it useful, so I've been tinkering around with its code ever since. If you have the time, please download and enjoy.

My problem was to split up or edit down a large file, and with virtualdub and the right guide, I can rock a house party at the drop of a hat.
- posted by frank crist @ 3:16 PM 0 comments

 
Bobby Fischer's Secret Jews
The Atlantic | December 2002 | Bobby Fischer's Pathetic Endgame | Chun: "Jews, secret Jews, or CIA rats who work for the Jews.' "

The Atlantic Monthly is reporting that Bobby Fischer has turned from reclusive chess master to a classic R&B DJ in Manila, Philippines, with certain distinct views upon various ethnic groups (The Jews are a "filthy, lying bastard people" bent on world domination through such insidious schemes as the Holocaust ("a money-making invention")), the US government ("brutal, evil dictatorship"), and, oh yes, world Jewry (AKA "Jews, secret Jews, or CIA rats who work for the Jews.")
- posted by frank crist @ 12:37 PM 0 comments

 
Educators Bed and Breakfast Travel Network
Educators Bed and Breakfast Travel Network. For people that want to travel around the US (or the world) and only pay $34 / night no matter what for B&B accomodations. Pretty awesome way to tour the world, IMHO.

[via mefi]
- posted by frank crist @ 3:32 PM 0 comments

 
Who are the Molesters in your Neighborhood?
The FBI has a list of state sex offender databases that are online. You can search your state and see if any sex offenders live in your zip.

A fascinating, yet frightening, way to spend an afternoon. For instance, my zip code, 60608, which covers my neighborhood in Chicago (Pilsen) and several others, has 176 registered sex offenders living in it (which, by my perusal of other neighborhoods, is a lot, and, no, you won't find me in there :p).

The obvious question that is raised here is: how does this meet the criteria of not being cruel or unusual punishment? In my state, I can simply look someone up and, if they're a sex offender, I can get their address, picture, etc. I can stalk the stalker (which is kind of ironic, but that's beside the point). I'm no constitutionalist here, a document that I believe has many flaws (18 & 21 anyone?), but isn't this like branding a giant red "A" onto their foreheads? It is my understanding that the most common repeat offenders commit crimes that are sexual in nature, but is branding them as a threat to all of their neighbors a solution, or is it an ineffective and gross violation of the Constitution? Are we trying to make society safer or simply more scared?
- posted by frank crist @ 2:48 PM 0 comments

 
Ear Bleed
So today I made a mix that literally made me burst with adrenaline-laced sweat. It's not the hardest music you've ever heard, nor is it some sort of esoterica list that you will be instantly impressed with. No, I'm going for pure effect here. Something about these songs--the bpm, the guitar chords, all played at dangerously high volume--just really does it for me.

The List that made me Sweat:
1. Mr. Self Destruct, NIN.
This song is a great start to "Downward Spiral," so I thought I'd use it to get this one started as well. The beginning, which is a set of samples of various noises that come from someone vomiting, presumably from heroin, draws you in, and then you get a very firm pounding. It sets the energy level for the mix, which is then sustained with:

2. Sex Type Thing, Stone Temple Pilots.
Yes, a highly-overplayed radio tune (and if my friend BilG is reading this, I can only imagine him vomiting on his own genitals, but fuck BilG), however it has a big meaty guitar thing going on there, and the tune moves quickly. The guitars are well balanced between restraint and bulldozing.

3. God Smack, Alice in Chains.
A perfect follow up from "Sex Type Thing." Once you get associated with the guitar riff, Layne Staley's vocals come on like the impending storm. The chorus brings a little more poppy sound to it, but the hard whammy chords always leave me bumping in my seat--near-metal bubblegum or no.

4. Scarecrow, Ministry.
Ministry has many songs that could be considered walls of guitar death, but I chose this song for it's near-dirge qualities. It brings the mix down a little right in the middle, but replaces the creativity of guitar work with the heavy drums that beat in your temple like a migraine, which is then immediately pepped back up by:

5. Death, Skinny Puppy.
From their "last" album, "The Process," which is definitely not their best album, but I thought it was their most honest album, where they really rock out instead of being pretentiously experimental (c.f. "Cleanse, Fold, Manipulate"). They really lay on the guitars in "Death," almost to the point of being a thrash metal song.

6. Innervision, System of a Down.
It was hard to pick the proper SOAD song to go into this mix, but "Innervision's" explosive beginning is what sold me on it. The chorus is destructively beautiful, and, jesus christ, the song is so well balanced I could weep sometimes. Today, however, is just sweat.

7. Spine of God, Monster Magnet.
What could do this song more justice than a brief quote:

So ride me, baby, in my bed of sweat and truth
and babble and groan words of praise and love
and fry like a pig
in the heart of the sun...

Pass the peyote, baby..

8. Stigmata, Ministry.
This is the live version, from "In Case you didn't feel like Showing up." We all know why it's here. One problem with the song, however, is that, it being a live version, I really wish I could chop the last thirty seconds of the audience cheering from the tail end of the song. Yeah, ok, I cheered for this song a few times, but I'm over it.

9. Sea of Sorrow, Alice in Chains.
Again, a way-overplayed radio song, but one I sing about every day. This song is about a woman, and I've found that by singing this song I find the appropriate type of women. Weird? Perhaps. But effective, and there are worse songs to have in your head all day. Besides, there is a lot of unrealized poetry here (granted that it's mixed in with a lot of rock-lyric-obviousness).

10. Zodiac Lung, Monster Magnet.
Get the impression that "Spine of God" is one of my all-time favorite albums? And the funny thing is that it wasn't a drug trip or anything that brought me to this incredible masterpiece of acid rock. I bought a car from a friend and he had the tape. That's it. You, on the other hand, should get some serious hallucinogens, a couple of sweaty pigs, and get your brains fucked out to this album. MM's stuff since has been, well, sub-par, but at least they recognize that they had a good thing once: several years ago, MM retoured the SOG album, which was then seven years old. I heard about the show the day after it happened and was madly depressed for weeks thereafter. Anyways, this song comes at the end to bring me down from the rush that brought me to this point. However it's a false low, because this song is as intense as any on the album. Therefore let me leave you with one last bit:


It's fuck ups like you that always seem to take it all
It's fuck ups like you that never seem to go away

- posted by frank crist @ 2:09 PM 0 comments

 
Problem with blogspot
Wow, I think I just found a problem with blogspot. I've been using their "blog this" IE toolbar button to blog stuff, but infrequently actually visiting my own blog, therefore when I get big obnoxious titles like the fark item below, sometimes I don't realize exactly what it's going to look like. So today I decide to visit my blog to add the next article (forthcoming) when I see how obviously obnoxious it is to have a long-ass title that is the same as the long-ass link below. Hmm, I thinks, I shall go edit that for bevity because, god knows, my 1.5 readers wouldn't want to be annoyed by such a thing. So I go into the blog management tool to discover that I cannot, in fact, edit that post. It's almost as though that post doesn't even exist. So I'm going to email the admins presently and see wtf.
- posted by frank crist @ 2:04 PM 0 comments

 
Creative Commons for Works of Fiction
The Creative Commons is a license that allows others to use and disseminate works (typically text) so long as credit is given to the original author. (Well, that's the shortened version, anyways, and a lot more variations than just that exist). This blog, for instance, is protected by the Creative Commons license.

To that end, it's always nice to see fiction writers release books to the Creative Commons license. Two authors have done just that recently. One is David R Perry, with his book, "Big Book of Forewards". It's a book full of fictitious forewards for books that don't seem to exist.

Another Creative Commons author is Mark Horne, who just released the novel, "My Tokyo Death Cult", a science-fiction novel, also freely downloadable.

[via boingboing]
- posted by frank crist @ 5:11 PM 0 comments