The Wall

So! I went to the Roger Waters show last night at the Rod Laver Arena. Awesome show, he played the Wall, and well, built the Wall. Nice special effects on their projections. What really flipped me out was his relating the story of the Wall to the modern social situation of the world (capitalism, modern war). The faces of war victims were projected on the wall. This leads me to the Wall itself. As the Wall was being constructed during the show, every brick must have been made from some phosphorous material. When each brick was placed, it was not immediately "active" with the projection. It took a few seconds for the brick to become fully illuminated. Really cool effect. Oh yeah, and there were indoor fireworks, awesome music, and of course Waters! -Matt

Kangaroot

So I went to the Healesville Animal Sanctuary in North East Victoria. This place is absolutely beautiful. It is not the stereotypical outback that many might imagine. It's in a small hometown, every-one-knows everyone else. You know, the bus driver knows all the passengers, and the kids take a tour-bus coach to school. Tons of wineries all around! It is just a nice forest-like area, with kangaroos, emu, koalas, etc. You get the idea. While I am vegan, and against animal captivity for shear pleasure (e.g. imprisonment), Healesville rescues some of the animals and the zoos here have breeding programs to combat the threat of endangerment. Anyways, I saw two kangaroos do it. Awesome. That is all. -Matt

LinuxJournal gets Chicken'd

Just a few months ago LinuxJournal published an article I had written regarding Linux vDSO system calls.  Anyways, after chatting with one of their employees, they have decided to put it on their front page.  What is exciting is that this information is free and easy to access.  Get yer' nerd on.

-Matt

Time Kills

Hey faithless readers!  I hope all has been jolly and well during the stroll down this new year.  Well, I have been pretty quiet, and have also been working on some paper stuff for my region memory research.  Anyways, I was perusing through the time-nuts mailing list and came across this great quote.  So, gather a nice warm mug of coffee, and enjoy this nugget of excitement I bestow upon you:


"Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils."
Hector Berlioz, before 1869

-Matt

Maker Faire

SoooOoOOoO.  Saturday, what did I do?  Well, I met up with one of my buddies and went to Maker Fare Melbourne.  This event, hosted by the Connected Community Hacker Space in Melbourne, was "sold out" even though tickets were free.  Going here was quite neat, as it was located at the Swinburne University of Technology, which means train time!  Quite sad were the large grey painted regions that lined the once, what I can only imagine as being lovely, graffiti-decorated train line.  See, Melbourne is kinda known for its awesome graffiti, and covering it up just looks depressing.  From what I was told, the government thought it would be good to shove-its graffiti heritage and make things look drab and all gray since the Queen was coming to town.  But that has nothing to do with the Fare.  That was way cool, and one of the coolest demos I saw was from Julien Oliver's LevelHead project,  which creates an augmented reality game based on human-interaction with QR-covered cubes, some OpenGL gluttony, and a camera.  Anyways, great event, and I gotta hand it to the CCHS team for putting together such a great event.

-Matt

Randy Blythe for 2012

Damn right that's what I said. The lead singer from the great metal band, Lamb of God (check out the bangin' vid below) is running for president. While I can't say that I have ever voted in a US election; I must say, I found probably one of the best candidates for 2012. I am really on with the whole Penn Jillette "a vote for the lesser of two evils is still a vote for evil" Well, Penn is my ideal candidate. But, I have been reading through Randy Blythe's bid for nomination.  Here is Randy's bid. Please excuse the harsh language. But Randy makes a darn good point(s).  So... here it is.  I might actually vote this year, if I decide to score a absentee ballot:  http://randonesia.tumblr.com/post/15251001685/i-want-to-be-the-big-cheese

And here is a video with Randy and Lamb of God kicking serious anus.

-Matt

NYE Predictions for 2012

In 2012 Colonel Sanders will surface and laugh at the fact that his death was all a mere joke.  Upon this event, he will soon be granted an honorary doctorate from a small southern university, where abouts he will be known as Dr. Sanders and sit as the  chair of ornithology focusing all of his efforts upon the study of flightless birds.

My second prediction is that an inverted microwave will finally be invented, allowing humanity to enjoy cold bananas in just a split second.  I must credit my father for mentioning the concept of an inverse microwave to me years ago.

-Matt