Midweek Video: Dude Runner

All I can say is that is some excellent editing work. I especially love the fact that M. Emmet Walsh was in both Blade Runner and some of the Coen Brothers early work, so it does sort of tie the whole thing together.

Some of the best editing I've ever seen on one of these.

Tags: m emmet walsh, the dude, the big lebowski, blade runner, nihilists, mashup, coen brothers, ridley scott, replicants, science fiction

An Active Convergence Zone

There was lightning and heavy rain in central Puget Sound tonight due to a strong Puget Sound convergence zone--the radar says it all (see image, yellow is heavy rain).

I watched the zone late this afternoon at the UW. Dark ominous clouds moved in from the north and a particularly dark line--associated with a shift from southerly to northerly winds--approached. Beyond the shift pouring rain was evident. Take a look at the dramatic passage at the UW (image)--large wind shift, a plummeting of the temperature, a jump in pressure as the line reached the instruments. And over a third of an inch of rain.
The high-resolution computer model (the WRF model) ran at the UW earlier in the day predicted the convergence zone formation (see image). Not perfect, but an indication of how far we have come in the last ten years or so. Certainly, meteorologists have bragging rights over their economist friends.

Warner Music and YouTube come to Terms

A few months back, I wrote a post admonishing Warner Music for their draconian stance when it came to the work of their artists on Youtube.

Well, Warner Music and Google have now come to financial terms and Warner Music seems poised to return to the site in full force, joining the other major labels as content providers. In exchange, Warner Music gets the majority of the ad revenue generated by clips of their content.

Now, I don't know what this means for the future of mashup works like Mad Max with Ace of Spades for instance, but I hope that if Warner Music are able to say that those clips contain their intellectual property and thus, they get paid their agreed upon ad revenues, that this kind of work will not only survive but thrive under this agreement (after all, this whole thing seems to be all about money, so if they are getting paid, then we should all be happy).

What I am really afraid of however is that a) Warner is going to be very protective of their IP and b) the other media companies might want to get the same agreement WMG has if they don't already, and may use their power as copyright holders to get it, to the detriment of the end user.

So while I welcome that library of songs back into the fold, I am still looking out for some of the ripples this agreement may have started.

Tags: youtube, warner music, universal, mad max, ace of spades, motorhead, mashups, intellectual property

The front made it in late this afternoon and early evening as shown by the infrared satellite photo above. Winds really increased this afternoon as the front approached as winds reached 20-25 mph in places. If you look carefully, you will see the mottled cloud pattern over the ocean...those are the classic postfrontal instability showers produced by cooler air aloft over warmer water. You will notice an area of enhanced showers out there...that is associated with an upper level trough (see map for 500 mb, the lines give the height of this pressure above sea level). So expect showers and sunbreaks tomorrow.

The latest radar image shows the frontal precipitation on the east side of the sound and an area of enhanced showers from Sequim to Whidbey Island...this is from a convergence zone to lee of the Olympics...since winds are now from the SW aloft. All convergence zones are not over Puget Sound! It all depends on the wind direction.

Chris Anderson: CouchDB: Relaxing Offline JavaScript

Last week I hosted Chris Anderson for a Google tech talk on CouchDB as part of the Web E^xponents speaker series. Chris is an Apache CouchDB committer. He is co-author of the forthcoming O'Reilly book CouchDB: The Definitive Guide and a director of couch.io.

Making web applications work offline is a hot topic. Google Gears blazed the trail, and Web Storage is part of HTML5. CouchDB is a NoSQL alternative that makes it easy for web apps to run offline. This is important because even as bandwidth grows, latency is still an issue for a significant number of users, and outages or zero-bars can and do happen. CouchDB makes this a non-issue by running your application close to the user, on their device or in their browser. Chris calls this "ground computing" - a refreshing counterpoint to the oft-used "cloud computing" label. Hear more from Chris in his video and slides.



Check out other videos in the Web Exponents speaker series:

• John Resig: Drop-in JavaScript Performance
• Doug Crockford: JavaScript: The Good Parts
• Steve Souders: Life's Too Short, Write Fast Code (part 2)
• Rob Campbell: Debugging and Testing the Web with Firebug
  
• Nicholas C. Zakas: Speed Up Your JavaScript
  
• PPK: The Open Web Goes Mobile
• Aza Raskin: Conversational Computing (Ubiquity & Jetpack)
  

By Steve Souders, Performance Evangelist

Sunday Video: Carl Sagan meets Auto Tune

The age of Auto Tune videos has been upon us for quite some time, but I never really wanted to to acknowledge it.

Of course, when I think about Auto Tune videos, I think of Semaj who has taken a shine to them as of late, and he has picked some real nuggets out of that stream.

However, when I saw this one, well, I had to post it. When you put Carl Sagan through that process, well, you end up with something that is just so winning.

After all, Carl Sagan is trippy as it is, but with Auto Tune, well, he just becomes almost Dude-like.

Tags: carl sagan, auto tune, stephen hawking, cosmos, semaj, his eminence, the dude

Nice Weekend and then Downhill a bit

I returned on Friday from a workshop in Boulder, Colorado on developing the next generation weather prediction system. Such a system would be essentially probabilistic in nature---rather than giving a single answer as we do today. It really doesn't make sense to say the high temp at Seattle in seven days will be 67F--there is substantial uncertainty in the answer and that uncertainty depends on the situation. My field is developing the technologies to provide uncertainty information--including probabilities of much more than precipitation. This is a major revolution in the way we do business. But is the population ready for this? Will they accept and use it?

While I was in Boulder it snowed! On Wednesday, there were snow flakes in the air, with temperatures dropping into the upper 30sF. Being over 5000 ft and open to the cold air to the north really helps.



This weekend will be moderate in temperature and very nice here in the NW. Look at the latest satellite image (above). You will notice some residual low clouds from a dissipating front that moved through this morning. But skies will clear and temps should rise into the mid and upper 60s for most of the west.

Tomorrow will be even nicer. High pressure (ridging) will develop aloft and its surface manifestation will be high pressure to our east (figure). You know what that implies...offshore flow and compressional warming as air descends the western slopes of the Cascades (see figure). Our friend the thermal trough will be back. So tomorrow will be sunny with many temps rising into the upper 60s and lower 70s.

Monday really won't be too bad. A week front will approach...but will not arrive until late in the day. Thus, most of Monday will be dry, but with increasing clouds and chance of showers very late in the day.

Tuesday should be cooler and showery...but really nothing to write home about.

So enjoy a very nice weekend....

Week 20: Pageant of the Transmundane

I usually preface these entries with a bit of weird news, but that whole Mackenzie Phillips as an adult having an incestuous affair her dad for a decade thing really defines transmundanity, so nothing else in the news really tops that.

This week's winning entry comes from the blog Hunting Lodge and features a series of anatomical images of various Japanese Supermonsters.

And since the winning entry this week has to do with interior view of a series of fictional characters, well, this oldie seems to be appropriate (and since I used a Homer Vs. Godzilla picture a few weeks ago, well, I didn't want to go to that well again so soon).



Congrats to the crew at the Hunting Lodge. Huzzah!



The rules of this little contest: Every week I will be selecting one blog post that I have seen from the vast reaches of the blogosphere to bestow with the Homer Simpson Transmundanity Award for being one of the freakiest(in a funny way) things I've seen or read during a 7 day period. It doesn't necessarily have to have been written during the week, I just had to have encountered it. That means that if you find something interesting and repost it like a movie or whatever, if I saw it at your blog first, you get the prize. Of course, creating your own content is also a very good way to win.

Now, if you see a post that you think is worthy of this illustrious prize, just drop me a line at campybeaver@gmail.com and we'll see if we can't get your suggestion up and award-ready while giving you some credit and a link to your own blog.

Tags: homer simpson, pageant of the transmundane, hunting lodge, godzilla, mackenzie phillips, john phillips, anatomy, japan

Paying to sit next to your children

Apparently, British Airways will now introduce a fee that allows you to specify your preferred seat on a flight in advance. This will be the only way you can be assured of sitting next to your family. Hmm. You know, normally when you set a price it is for something valuable. I have often fantasised about what might happen if I couldn't sit next to my children on a flight. Sure, they might be traumatised but still ...

Anyhow, guilt (particularly the costs on airline staff) has always kept those fantasies from becoming reality. But if the airlines are making it difficult with a charge, then surely all bets are off. Oh dear, I forgot to pay the fee. I guess you'll just have to take care of my child. Hard to imagine paying to stop that!

Friday Favorite: A Goonies Sequel? I'll believe it when I see it

Well, I was doing a little digging online about a potential sequel to The Goonies, and I remembered that I had written a post about that which is still relevant (for a few months anyway), and I thought it was worth revisiting.

--
There have been discussions about the whole Goonies gang getting back together to film a sequel to the iconic 1985 adventure movie for years, and speculation about the project has gotten some more fuel because Sean Astin has revealed that the sequel is an absolute certainty.

Of course, I'll believe it when I see it. And I am so sure that the project isn't getting off the ground that I am making this pledge to you, my readers.

If this movie is made before 2010, I will be forced to write nice and/or flattering things about the following:

The Four Horsewomen of the Cultural Apocalypse (Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, Nicole Ritchie and Paris Hilton)
Scientology
The FCC
Uwe Boll
Fox News
Bill O'Reilly
Ann Coulter
and 6-8 additional figures/organizations to be determined by you all.

I would consider that putting my money where my mouth is so to speak. (And I just may keep that whole Four Horsewomen concept for the future).



--

I am prepared to up the ante on this come the new year. Stay tuned to this blog in January 2010 to see what new challenge I come up with regarding this.

Tags: the goonies, sean astin, corey feldman, paris hilton, lindsay lohan, nicole ritchie, britney spears, fcc, scientology, uwe boll, fox news, bill o'reilly, ann coulter, democracy, four horsewomen, cultural apocalypse

Google Sites: Now with an API!

Today, we launched a new Google Data API for Google Sites. The API supports most of the functionality found in Google Sites, which includes the ability to:

• Retrieve, create, modify, and delete pages and content.
• Upload/download attachments.
• Review the revision history across a site.
• Display recent user activity.

To get started, see the full documentation, Java Developer's Guide, or dive into our code samples. We're also open-sourcing an import/export tool that uploads or creates a local back-up of an entire Google Site.

Visit us in our new developer forum if you have questions!

By Eric Bidelman, Google Sites API Team

Midweek Video: Top Gear and the Motorhome Race

I've been known to flick on Top Gear, the BBC automotive show, from time to time, and sometimes I end up seeing something stupefying.

This is one of those segments.

I guess that's what happens when you get a bunch of racers together and tell them to do something weird.

It was entertaining television to me.

Tags: top gear, motorhome race, bbc, over the top, mythbusters approved

Gmail for Mobile HTML5 Series: CSS Transforms and Floaty Bars

On April 7th, Google launched a new version of Gmail for mobile for iPhone and Android-powered devices. We shared the behind-the-scenes story through this blog and decided to share more of what we've learned in a brief series of follow-up blog posts. This week, I'll talk about different ways to animate the floaty bar.

Even from the earliest brainstorming days for our new version of Gmail for iPhone and Android-powered devices, we knew we wanted to try something novel with menu actions: a context-sensitive, always-accessible UI element that follows conveniently as a user scrolls. Thus, the "floaty bar" was born! It took us a surprisingly long time, experimenting with different techniques and interactions, to converge on the design you see today. Let's look under the covers to see how the animation is achieved. You may be surprised to find that the logic is actually quite simple!


Screenshots of the floaty bar in action

In CSS:

.CSS_FLOATY_BAR {
 ...
 top: -50px;  /* start off the screen, so it slides in nicely */
 -webkit-transition: top 0.2s ease-out;
 ...
}

In JavaScript:

// Constructor for the floaty bar
gmail.FloatyBar = function() {
 this.menuDiv = document.createElement('div');
 this.menuDiv.className = CSS_FLOATY_BAR;
 ...
};

// Called when it's time for the floaty bar to move
gmail.FloatyBar.prototype.setTop = function() {
 this.menuDiv.style.top = window.scrollY + 'px';
};

// Called when the floaty bar menu is dismissed
gmail.FloatyBar.prototype.hideOffScreen = function() {
 this.menuDiv.style.top = '-50px';
};

gmail.floatyBar = new gmail.FloatyBar();

// Listen for scroll events on the top level window
window.onscroll = function() {
 ...
 gmail.floatyBar.setTop();
 ...
};

The essence here is that when the viewport scrolls, the floaty bar 'top' is set to the new viewport offset. The -webkit-transition rule specifies the animation parameters. (The 'top' property is to be animated, over 0.2s, using the ease-out timing function.) This is the animation behavior we had at launch, and it works just fine on Android and mobile Safari browsers.

However, there's actually a better way to achieve the same effect, and the improvement is particularly evident on mobile Safari. The trick is to use "CSS transforms". CSS transforms is a mechanism for applying different types of affine transformations to page elements, specified via CSS. We're going to use a simple one which is translateY. Here's the same logic, updated to use CSS transforms.

In CSS:

.CSS_FLOATY_BAR {
 ...
 top: -50px;  /* start off the screen, so it slides in nicely */
 -webkit-transition: -webkit-transform 0.2s ease-out;
 ...
}

In JavaScript:

// Called when it's time for the floaty bar to move
gmail.FloatyBar.prototype.setTop = function() {
 var translate = window.scrollY - (-50);
 this.menuDiv.style['-webkit-transform'] = 'translateY(' + translate + 'px)';
};

// Called when the floaty bar menu is dismissed
gmail.FloatyBar.prototype.hideOffScreen = function() {
 this.menuDiv.style['-webkit-transform'] = 'translateY(0px)';
};

Upon every scroll event, the floaty bar is translated vertically to the new viewport offset (modulo the offscreen offset which is important to the floaty bar's initial appearance). And, why exactly is this such an improvement? Even though the logic is equivalent, iPhone OS's implementation of CSS transforms is "performance enhanced", whilst our first iteration (animating the 'top' property) is performed by the OS in software. That's why the experience was unfortunately somewhat chunky at times, depending on the speed of the iPhone hardware.

You'll see smoother looking floaty bars coming very soon to an iPhone near you. This is just the first in a series of improvements we're planning for the mobile Gmail floaty bar. Watch for them in our iterative webapp, rolling out over the next couple of weeks and months!

By Joanne McKinley, Software Engineer, Google Mobile

Previous posts from Gmail for Mobile HTML5 Series:
HTML5 and Webkit pave the way for mobile web applications
Using AppCache to launch offline - Part 1
Using AppCache to launch offline - Part 2
Using AppCache to launch offline - Part 3
A Common API for Web Storage
Suggestions for better performance
Cache pattern for offline HTML5 web application
Using timers effectively
Autogrowing Textareas
Reducing Startup Latency

Another Pointless Sequel: Wild Hogs II

News has broken that a new Wild Hogs movie is in the works and it is taking the action across the Atlantic to Europe. As you can tell from the title of this entry, I think this is a mistake.

Sequels aren't necessarily a bad thing, but in my experience whenever a sequel takes place in Europe, bad things are about to befall the viewing public. Take for example another movie series which began life as your basic road comedy about a group of people who drive across country looking for adventure and find a series of misfortunes along the way. You may know it better as the movie National Lampoon's Vacation, which was gold. Then the producers decided to make a second movie, European Vacation, which was an epic failure comedically, one which Eric Idle couldn't even salvage. And the less said about Deuce Bigalow's ill-advised trip to Europe, the better.

So I thought it would be fun to look at the 4 main actors in this movie and think up better sequel opportunities for them as individuals, and ways this sequel news could actually be worse.

--

Martin Lawrence

Sequel I'd Rather See: Blue Streak 2. I've always liked Blue Streak, and the prospect of seeing Martin Lawrence playing the two kinds of roles that defined him as an actor (cops and criminals) in a single movie is an intriguing prospect. Of course, the main cast from the first movie wouldn't likely appear (though I could see Luke Wilson popping up again for a cameo).

How It Could Be Worse: Big Momma's House 3: Senior Citizens on Patrol

--

Tim Allen

Sequels I'd Rather See: Big Trouble or Galaxy Quest. Big Trouble was a movie based on a novel by Dave Barry that was very much in keeping with the Elmore Leonard tradition of comical crime picture, and I wouldn't mind seeing those characters together again, and Galaxy Quest is just pure awesome... and while I wouldn't want to see it sullied by a bad sequel. I get that, but again, there is always room for more story (though I think the fact that the actor who plays Tommy Webber, Daryl Mitchell, is now in a wheelchair might put a slight damper on things).

How it Could Be Worse: Too many to name, but I will mention three titles: Jungle 2 Jungle 2: Too Jungle, Too Furious, Zoom 2: The New Nightmare and Christmas with the Kranks 2: High Dosage

--

William H. Macy

Sequel I'd Rather See: Um, although he has been in a lot of movies, looking down his filmography reveals one movie that I could possibly see potential in sequel for, and that would be Mystery Men. I mean, I like Mystery Men, but when it is that hard to find something that might work as a sequel, it tells you that someone either picked very wisely or unwisely as an actor. I'll let you be the judge of which side he was on.

How it Could be Worse: Boogie Nights 2: Electric Little Bill

--

John Travolta

Sequel I would Rather See: None. Not even in a prequel to Pulp Fiction. And I stand by that.

How it Could Be Worse: Battlefield Earth II: Xenu Strikes Back or Look Who's Talking Four Me: The Power of Attorney Years


And can someone write a sequel to My Cousin Vinny or something so Marisa Tomei doesn't have to be in this movie either. Please... anyone?

Tags: john travolta, vacation, european vacation, deuce bigalow, william h macy, boogie nights, wild hogs, mystery men, pulp fiction, battlefield earth, big momma's house, blue streak, zoom, galaxy quest, big trouble, jungle 2 jungle, my cousin vinnie, tim allen, marisa tomei, look who's talking, xenu, christmas with the cranks

Announcing the Google Sidewiki API

Alongside the exciting release of Google Sidewiki today, we're also happy to announce the availability of the first version of the Google Sidewiki Data API. Google Sidewiki is a new feature of Google Toolbar (for Firefox and Internet Explorer) that lets everyone contribute helpful information next to any webpage. Our post over on the Google Blog goes into more detail and also has a video that shows Sidewiki in action. To start using it yourself, go to google.com/sidewiki and install Google Toolbar with Sidewiki.

On the developer side, we're releasing a Google Sidewiki Data API today that lets you work freely with the content that's created in Google Sidewiki. You can use it to retrieve all entries written about a particular webpage as well as all entries written by a given Sidewiki author.

So after you've played with Sidewiki in the browser, give it a whirl in your console too -- we have client libraries, documentation and code samples ready to go for you. We'll be excited to see what gadgets, projects and extensions you'll think of. A translation gadget that displays and translates Sidewiki entries on the fly? A Google App Engine-powered browser of all Sidewiki entries? Your own browser extension or Greasemonkey script?

The Google Sidewiki API is available in Google Code Labs and is read-only at the moment. We've set up a developer-oriented discussion group and issue tracker where you can discuss your experiences with the API and where we'd love to hear about your feedback and projects. Keep us posted!

By Roman Shuvaev, Google Sidewiki engineer

Big Daily Temperature Range and Foothills Heat

Today was hot, with many locations getting into the mid and upper 80s, and some foothills locations reaching into the 90s (see map of temps and winds at 5 PM). Why the foothills? The reason is we had fairly strong easterly flow today with downslope flow and compressional warming of the air descending the slopes. (see Seattle profiler winds and temps to see the easterly flow and warming aloft). North Bend is a favorite place for hot temps on such days because it is at the base of the Cascades and gets the maximum downslope heating. Hint: during the late fall it is sometimes MUCH warmer near North Bend and the foothills than anywhere else--good place for a hike or bike ride!

Last night there was good radiational cooling to space (since we had clear skies) and temperatures fell over most of the region...but near the foothills the temps really held up due to the downslope. See for yourself with the weather map at 7 AM. Over 70F in the foothills...but in the 50s and 40s elsewhere!
Another interesting aspect of temps today have been the large diurnal (daily) temperature range...something we frequently see in the fall under these conditions. With full sun and downslope offshore flow the temperatures can still get quite warm during the day, but the nights are getting much longer now (unfortunately for my tomatoes), and with clear skies there is good radiational cooling to space. Today, many locations were in the 40s this morning and skyrocketed to near 90F....nearly a 50F change over roughly six hours. That will crack some concrete! Don't believe me? Take a look at the temps at Shelton today (graph), where the temperature climbed from 41 to 89 over a few hours!
Tomorrow (Wed) will be slightly cooler and a marine push will occur tomorrow night....ending the heat wave. But no major weather in sight.

Video Introduction to HTML 5

Are you interested in HTML 5 and what's coming down the pipeline but haven't had time to read any articles yet? We've put together an educational Introduction to HTML 5 video that goes over many of the major aspects of this new standard, including:

• Web vector graphics with the Canvas tag and Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
• The Geolocation API
• HTML 5 Video
• The HTML 5 Database and Application Cache
• Web workers

In the video we also crack open the HTML 5 YouTube Video prototype to show you some of the new HTML 5 tags, such as nav, article, etc. It's chock full of demos and sample source code.



By Brad Neuberg, Google Developer Programs

Lee Sargent and the Guest Post of Doom

After last week's marathon session of posting, I was both honored and relieved to discover that long time reader and super blogger and artist Lee Sargent of Quit Your Day Job fame had a guest post up his sleeve for me.

In fact, I think this is the first guest post I've ever had. I've written a few, but I've never had one.

Lee wrote an eloquent entry about what he looks for in a game (which he knew would be right up my alley), and it is like a walk down memory lane, even though I didn't go down the exact same path he did as a child.

Lee, I am forever in your debt my friend, and I thought you'd appreciate the title. It was probably better than referring to you as my favorite Eric Bana character ever.

--
When thinking about my favourite games I'm usually driven by two factors that your general game reviewer probably disregards for completely appropriate reasons given their goals. But as I maintain with any of these types of ranking exercises it's so much better to be personally subjective and so the following two factors play a large part for me:

* Nostalgia
* Social networking

Nostalgia is of course an incredibly powerful thing, especially in a marketing/retail environment. Nostalgia is what makes you generally interested in an A-Team film, despite the fact that upon detached and objective revisits to the A-Team television show you find yourself wondering how you ever could have found the show engaging on any level. Go on, watch an episode of the A-Team and tell me that it's a perfect show with great production value and logical well thought out plot lines and it's not just the 'idea' of the show that you remember and love.

Whilst not exactly the same but similar can be said for video games. As a very young man playing the very first Leisure Suit Larry command driven adventure game it was exciting because I could (mostly) beat the questionnaire that attempted to weed out people under 18, the game responded to commands driving a linear story and the game was generally pretty funny. I do want to point out that despite the adult nature of the game there was very little 'sexy' about it. I say that to qualify the next statement and to alleviate the growing impression that I'm some kind of video game smut addict. I recently sought out a copy of the original CGA (kids, you're just going to have to Wikipedia that one) and not the remade cartoon styled point and click monstrosity.

After several rounds of slowing the computer down enough so I could actually get the game to run like it wasn't an episode of The Flash (awww Dawson's Dad was a superhero) I managed to get into the game and enjoy it for about a minute. The graphics aren't great, the gameplay is not good and the command line is cumbersome and more than often frustrating. Of course the nostalgia gene still maintains in my head that Leisure Suit Larry is an awesome game that I do want to play again.

To sum up nostalgia, often instead of saying oh yeah I love that game, one probably should should just say oh yeah I remember that game.

The second criteria, social networking, fortunately has a much more tangible reason and legitimate worth behind it when ranking video games. Now before Facebook and Twitter showed up, the term social networking had a different connotation to it. It referred to your circle of friends, your relationships and the bonds formed between these. It doesn't take a social media expert to work out the natural progression into the Web 2.0 world and the weight the social networking aspect of games may weigh them more heavily.

So before online gaming, XBox Live and Wii networks really took off the only social networking in conjunction with gaming was to physically have someone else there with you playing the game in two or more player modes. This brings me to one of my favourite games, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle arcade game. Is the game visually stunning? Well no not really, it looks like the cartoon series which is good but it's a side scroller at the end of the day and so fairly limited in the stun factor. The game play and storyline rank about as well as the graphics but the strongest point is that quite simply it was a big bag of fun that I shared with my friends. We would huddle around the machine and drop much coinage in there as we battled our way through Manhattan, eagerly discussed tactics and made predictions about what the next level would hold.

I have similar experiences with Sonic the Hedgehog, however not being a two player game we would take turns beating each level whilst the others would formulate strategies to get that blue hedgehog across the line.

Years later I would battle side by side with my wife as we fought our way through hordes of orcs and trolls whilst we struggled to build up experience points and learn new moves in the PS2 versions of The Lord of the Rings Two Towers and Return of the King (two of my favourite games on the PS2 by far). We would go on to become X-Men or Avengers and finally members of the Justice League, combining three things that I love; comic books, video games and my wife (who is an excellent gamer - yet rarely uses her powers).

But it is these games that really stand out to me and feature at the top of my own list of games, not because they necessarily are brilliantly written or constructed but because I could share the experience with others and I think it is these games that stand the test of time.

Remember Pong is still awesome when you are playing with a friend!

--

Danke Schoen, Mr. Sargent.

Tags: lee sargent, guest post, eric bana, indiana jones, temple of doom, video games, nostalgia, xmen, avengers, justice league, lord of the rings, two towers, quit your day job, teenage mutant ninja turtles, wii, xbox, wikipedia, the flash, leisure suit larry, a-team

Introducing Google Chrome Frame

Today, we're releasing an early version of Google Chrome Frame, an open source plug-in that brings HTML5 and other open web technologies to Internet Explorer.

We're building Google Chrome Frame to help web developers deliver faster, richer applications like Google Wave. Recent JavaScript performance improvements and the emergence of HTML5 have enabled web applications to do things that could previously only be done by desktop software. One challenge developers face in using these new technologies is that they are not yet supported by Internet Explorer. Developers can't afford to ignore IE -- most people use some version of IE -- so they end up spending lots of time implementing work-arounds or limiting the functionality of their apps.

With Google Chrome Frame, developers can now take advantage of the latest open web technologies, even in Internet Explorer. From a faster Javascript engine,  to support for current web technologies like HTML5's offline capabilities and <canvas>, to modern CSS/Layout handling, Google Chrome Frame enables these features within IE with no additional coding or testing for different browser versions.

To start using Google Chrome Frame, all developers need to do is to add a single tag:

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="chrome=1">

When Google Chrome Frame detects this tag it switches automatically to using Google Chrome's speedy WebKit-based rendering engine. It's that easy. For users, installing Google Chrome Frame will allow them to seamlessly enjoy modern web apps at blazing speeds, through the familiar interface of the version of IE that they are currently using.

We believe that Google Chrome Frame makes life easier for web developers as well as users. While this is still an early version intended for developers, our team invites you to try out this for your site. You can start by reading our documentation. Please share your feedback in our discussion group and file any bugs you find through the Chromium issue tracker.



(Cross-posted on the Chromium Blog)

By Amit Joshi, Alex Russell and Mike Smith, Google Chrome Frame Team

Cut Rate Cultural Analysis: The Pina Colada Song

You know when there is something that has been floating around the pop cultural ether for a long time, but you hadn't really noticed it or paid it enough attention to make any statement about it, and then there is a moment where you see it for the first time for what it is.

I had one of those moments today. What was that particular thing that I had up to now almost completely ignored? Escape/The Pina Colada Song by Rupert Holmes. I could have gone the rest of my life without really hearing this song, but now that I have, I just have to talk about it.

I'm sorry.

So the situation as reported by the song is as follows. A dude is in a relationship that isn't bad or anything, just a little too comfortable, so while he is lying in bed next to his girl, he reads a very specific personal ad which lists a lot of qualities and activities he finds intriguing. He then writes a counter personal ad saying that he is looking for those things, and he is in a rush, so why don't they meet at a bar the next day. Said dude shows up, and who does the gal who placed the ad happen to be? The very same woman he was in the relationship with.

And Rupert Holmes makes it sound like that whole thing had a happy ending.

When he was looking at the ad, he sings "I didn't think about my lady. I know that sounds kind of mean" Well, no shit Sherlock. Maybe that is part of the reason your relationship was in the dumps to begin with.

And when his lady shows up at the bar later in the song he makes it sound like it was a non-confrontational "Oh, its you." You know that's not how that would have went down. I think there should have at least been an element of disappointment in her voice. But supposedly they just laughed about it, leading me to hope that this was indeed the beginning of a rather pleasant, no-fault break up.

Because, seriously, if they stayed together after that, well, the relationship would likely be a little less boring now that they have both caught each other in the act of emotional infidelity. They didn't know that the person they were going to meet was their partner until that moment, but yeah, they were both looking for someone else. And now they know that the other person is capable of that. So now their previously dull relationship has a nice new veneer of distrust in it.

And yes, since his lovely lady placed the first ad, well, she may have more to answer for in all this. I mean, if you read her ad, it doesn't paint a particularly flattering picture of his side of the relationship.

"If you like Piña Coladas, and getting caught in the rain
If you're not into yoga, if you have half a brain
If you'd like making love at midnight in the dunes on the Cape
Then I'm the love that you've looked for - write to me and escape"

So not only does she think he's stupid, but being in a relationship is so bad that she has to escape. His counter ad doesn't really say anything bad about his partner (although he does repeat the escape motif).

All in all, what I get from this song is basically their relationship needs a little outside help... maybe these fictional lovers will still be together into the Jerry Springer era so he can dish out his own brand of emotional healing.

Of course, looking back at my above ramblings may also be some indication as to why I am currently single.

Tags: pina colada song, escape, rupert holmes, infidelity, song, cut rate, jerry springer, relationship problems

Super-Ridge and Late September Heat Wave

Last week I was in California...dropping my son off at college and visiting Yosemite Park. It was hot down there...even reaching 90F in the Yosemite Valley, but that is nothing compared to what is going to happen during the next few days--both down there and up here in the NW.

Take a look at the temperatures of the past two weeks (see figure above). In general, the high temps have been at or above normal...and the minimum temperature much above normal. But real heat is about to turn on.

A huge, high-amplitude upper ridge is developing over the west coast (see forecast for Tuesday morning). This is really amazing...with unusually high pressure developing aloft and at low levels. Such a major ridge is associated with warm temps aloft and with offshore flow and added warming at low levels. Look at the computer forecast for Tuesday (see figure). Very, very warm temps in California, offshore and downslope flow over the Cascades, warming over our region. Notice the development of the "thermal" trough into western Oregon and Washington....the classic warm weather pattern.
Western Washington should surge into the mid-70s tomorrow and mid-80s on Wednesday and Thursday. Impressive for late September! And I have no plans to return to California where temperatures of purgatory will abound. A heat warning is up for the SF Bay Area where some interior locations will get well into the 100s. Yosemite Valley will be in the mid 90s.
And don't forget the Willamette Valley...where temperatures will climb into the 90s. The Willamette is often 5-10F warmer than the western Washington interior...frequently even warmer.

Sunday Video: Penn and Teller's Cigarette Trick

I admit that I really enjoy watching Penn and Teller's Bullshit, but what I enjoy even more is watching them do their day job, which is magic, especially when they make you a party to how the trick is performed.

They've had some elaborate stage show explanations with lots of big props, but I think this one, with its simplicity and relatively small number of moving parts is the best one they ever did.

And admittedly, the bass work is very moody too.

Tags: penn and teller, cigarette, videos

Week 19: Pageant of the Transmundane

George Takei and his partner will be the first gay contestants on The Newlywed Game. All I have to say to that is... awesome.

I've also decided to move these Transmundanity posts to Saturday morning/afternoon so that I have more time to do other blog related activities and to spread the posting out a little more.

Anyway, on with the show.

This week's winning entry comes from a blog called EngrishFunny and it spotlights a particularly weird business name in Asia, one which is clearly zombie-related in some way.

And since this week's winning entry is zombie related, well, this seems appropriate.



Congrats to the crew at EngrishFunny. Here is your badge.



The rules of this little contest: Every week I will be selecting one blog post that I have seen from the vast reaches of the blogosphere to bestow with the Homer Simpson Transmundanity Award for being one of the freakiest(in a funny way) things I've seen or read during a 7 day period. It doesn't necessarily have to have been written during the week, I just had to have encountered it. That means that if you find something interesting and repost it like a movie or whatever, if I saw it at your blog first, you get the prize. Of course, creating your own content is also a very good way to win.

Now, if you see a post that you think is worthy of this illustrious prize, just drop me a line at campybeaver@gmail.com and we'll see if we can't get your suggestion up and award-ready while giving you some credit and a link to your own blog.

Tags: homer simpson, pageant of the transmundane, engrishfunny, zombies, brains, george takei, newlywed game

The 25 Best Playstation 2 Games I've Ever Played: The Top 5

Well, it has been a long week putting this list together, but rewarding and as I enter the final stretch, I'd like to thank everyone who left comments this past week, as it has meant a lot to me. This was a lot more writing than I am used to doing for this blog (the list in its entirety is somewhere in the neighborhood of ten thousand words), but in the end, I think I produced something I am proud to attach my name to. While I thought this might be the start of a series of weeks like this, I think that I should only do this sort of thing on rare occasions. After all, I don't want to wear out my welcome on anyone's feed reader.

Anyway, these final entries on this list are the cream of the crop for me, the games that defined the Playstation 2. While some may not like all my choices, I have a feeling that they would still have to acknowledge that these five games at least belong on the list.

So what titles made it into this elite grouping? I guess you'll just have to read the rest of the list to find out.

5. SOCOM 3: US Navy Seals: The SOCOM series didn't initially thrill me because in many ways its single player campaign mode required a level of precision and dedication that I hadn't been willing to give it. You had to be perfect for an entire level, which meant that if you screwed up, you were dead. It was more realistic, sure, but it was much less fun. Though I guess I should have expected that kind of attention to detail in this third person tactical shooter series from Sony. But then along came SOCOM 3, which had a few alterations to the core gameplay model, such as a checkpoint system, the addition of vehicles and more customization for your gear, changes which finally allowed me to get into this series. This entry doesn't require you to meet exacting standards to succeed, and that makes it more accessible and easier to get into for casual players. The missions are varied and take place in some exotic locales like North Africa, South Asia and Poland, and it is interesting seeing how they develop in those theatres. It is also a game that rewards repeated playthroughs as you keep unlocking more and more gear and weaponry as you finish it on higher levels, and generally when you have more toys to play with, you tend to have more fun. But the thing that I haven't even mentioned yet is the online multiplayer. That was the thing that they sold this title on (this series was one of the things that sold online multiplayer for the PS2), and it certainly delivered. The fact that in the fourth installment of the game, the multiplayer aspect was designed so that players of both SOCOM 3 and 4 could play together tells you just how strong that dimension of the game is. I enjoyed this game so much, I was even tempted to buy a PSP just so I could see the single player campaign from another perspective through the connected title Fire Team Bravo, and for me to consider buying a console just to play a game, you know there is something special about it.



4. Burnout 3: Takedown: This was a great choice for my first experience with the Burnout franchise, as it happened to be the first one published by Electronic Arts, who bought the franchise from an ailing Acclaim, and it was a breath of fresh air. As I wrote in an earlier post, with Burnout 3 "Criterion did everything right to make this game the very definition of a white knuckled ride by not only creating a game with a great sense of speed through blurring and a menagerie of sound but by also tying dangerous behavior to going faster. You are encouraged to pass close to other cars, drift and drive on the wrong side of the road." This was a game that made me remember that racing was supposed to be fun, a lesson I had learned with Super Mario Kart, but after years of playing games that skewed more towards realism and such, I had forgotten the simple pleasures of just driving a car really fast without worrying about anything except finishing the race. Games are in some ways wish fulfillment, and I am sure everyone at one point or another in this heavily industrialized world would just like to drive with reckless abandon down the highways, byways and downtown areas of the places they live and work in. Or perhaps give a driver that cut them off some comeuppance by knocking them off the road. With Burnout 3: Takedown, you can live that dream. And those are just the main racing modes... there is also Crash Mode which is what it sounds like, a game mode that is just you crashing a vehicle and trying to create the costliest multi-vehicle accident you can. And again, while it has a lot of depth which will appeal to hardcore players, it is also accessible enough that even casual players can get into it, and it isn't even a bad game to watch other people play, given the visual flair and short race times. A title that redefined racing games.



3. Resident Evil 4: I almost made a third rule for this list that would have made any game that had previously appeared on another console as an exclusive ineligible, but I just couldn't disqualify this game. The previous installments of this game series left me a little cold because their control schemes were rather unwieldy, so the move from the world of fixed cameras and tank controls to a third person shooter perspective was in my opinion just what this franchise needed. The game tells the further story of Leon Kennedy, one of the stars of Resident Evil 2, as he endeavors to save the President's daughter from the clutches of an evil cult in Spain. While the previous games in the series were very zombie-oriented, this time around, the majority of your foes are very much human though they are infected with a parasite that can control their actions. In a way, it sort of reminds me of the creatures in the movie The Faculty. The game has a great atmosphere, a well-crafted story with some really messed up scenes, intriguing bosses and an eclectic set of weapons. Now, I am also one of those people that doesn't get frightened by games, but there was one recurring creature late in the game that I have to admit was creepy. I ended up playing this game at the same time my sister was playing it on the Gamecube, so it was sort of like a shared experience for us, with me taking a little bit of a lead so I could help her out a little bit when she was getting stuck. Of course, when I got to the end of the game, there was some extra content to play through as well, namely a series of chapters devoted to Ada Wong called Separate Ways, which run parallel to the main storyline and gives you additional insight into the events you witnessed in the game. This was also made me do something very rare: I sat and played it through in an afternoon after I had completed it a few times and had a few of the special weapons. I never do that, but this was such a great game, I felt compelled to do it. And even though I knew everything that was going to happen, I still had a lot of fun.



2. Katamari Damacy: I have to admit that this is one of those games which I took a while for me to warm up to, because whenever I would see it on video game shows like X-Play, it just looked so silly to me, and I couldn't really see how it would be fun. But like I said, after I had actually played it (or more accurately, played a demo of its sequel We Love Katamari), I had to have it. I was fortunate that I just happened to come across a copy shortly after that, which was the first and only time I saw the game in the wild for about a year, so it was like it was my kismetic destiny to own it. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the opening for this game, because if you didn't know this was the actual opening for a game, it would have played for big laughs as a parody on a sketch comedy show or as part of a cartoon. If you are unfamiliar with these games, the basic premise is that the immense and flamboyant King of All Cosmos went on a bender, and ended up destroying the stars, and it is up to you, his tiny son, The Prince, to roll various items into a huge ball to remake those stars. It sounds weird if you've never played it, and like I said, I was a skeptic too, but this is just a joyous gaming experience and very intuitive once you understand the basic rules. For the most part, the world is a very bright, colorful and psychedelic place, full of both mundane and fairly strange items and living beings, just trying to get on with their lives. As a Westerner, I think it gave me a wondrous view into Japanese pop culture, because yes, there is a lot of weird stuff within the game, but for the most part, the things you roll up tend to be items which would be relatively uncommon over here, but more standard fare in Japan, especially in terms of food items. In a way, it is almost avant garde as a game without being pretentious because isn't exactly a puzzle game, it isn't an action title and there is no adventure, but it still manages to keep you captivated for hours. I mean, I can't really define by any of the traditional genre names. Of course, the fact that it basically began life as a student's thesis from a Namco-sponsored program in game design, may be part of the reason it is so untraditional (and it probably had one of the cheapest development budgets as well for a major commercial game on the PS2 at just under 1 million dollars US). This is one of those games that I can't believe made it to the North American market, but I am certainly glad it did.



1. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: I have a feeling that a few of you already figured out that this was going to be the #1 game on this list but rest assured, I did everything I could to try to talk myself out of putting it here. Yet in the end, this is the title that had to fill this spot. For one, it is literally the reason why I went out and got a PS2. I had resisted going to the next generation of gaming for about 5 years until that point, and it only took one afternoon of playing this title to convince me to give up on the noble dream of not going game crazy with a new console. As I've said in the past, this was exactly the kind of game I wanted as a child. Not the violence, amorality and such... more the sheer freedom to go where you want to go, and make your own decisions within a driving-based game. The story is captivating, the lead character is interesting, and the game features a cast that includes Samuel L. Jackson, James Woods, Peter Fonda and the late Christopher Penn amongst others, all of whom give movie worthy performances, and if you've read the rest of this list, you know I am big on narratives. But it was the sheer joy of exploring the huge environment and just seeing what I could do that made me a fan (when I first played it, the whole map was unlocked, so I could do a lot of driving around). In a weird way, this game encompasses a lot of the strengths that other entries on this list play to, although it may not do those particular things as well as those individual titles, but the sheer number of things it tries in concert is just astonishing. It allows you to drive really fast without risk of real negative consequences, it has flight combat, a licensed soundtrack that betters most of the Guitar Hero games, a lot of weapons, some role playing elements (because you get better at things the more you do them), the ability to climb and swim, so it is a little closer to being a platformer too and it has a wide variety of minigames, so no matter where you go, there is always something new to try, so even months after you thought you've seen everything, you might find something that you never even thought of doing. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is the very definition of sandbox play, and it can be different things to different players. There are some who play it like a third person shooter/beat em up, there are players like me who like to drive around and use the sandbox environment to do crazy stunts (I am partial to driving cars and bikes off the top of a mountain and seeing how many times you can get it to flip and rotate) and so many variations in between. It is a title that is just packed full of content, and that is the reason it is number 1. Any game that allows you to steal a jumbo jet out of an airport hangar, run a triathlon, go skydiving, play casino games, burglarize houses, engineer the intercity train, compete in road races and totally reinvent the look of lead character all over the course of a single play session, and you can come up with an entirely different list like that every time you play is really a game worth having and cherishing.



So I guess that is a wrap. I know that some may have some issues with my choices, so I would love to hear your opinions as well.

The Top 25 PS2 games I've Ever Played
Number 25-21
Number 20-16
Number 15-11
Number 10-6
The Top 5

Tags: playstation 2, top 25, ps2, katamari damacy, socom 3, us navy seals, multiplayer, grand theft auto, san andreas, resident evil 4, gamecube, leon kennedy, ada wong, namco, sandbox, burnout 3, takedown