Demo Day and The Simpsons Movie

Guess what? I'm back! This won't be a standard post though, because it's too late for me to do one of those. I didn't think it would take 11 days for me to post again, but apparently I was wrong. Yes, I was actually working all those days, even in the evenings, and I used my spare time mostly to rest and work out. It all paid off though as today was my day to present to the organization include our VP. Check out the view from the meeting room:


The room was packed; people were even standing up. We had 10 intern presentations to get through in under 2 hours, and mine was third to last. I spent a good part of yesterday working on it, and practiced it this morning to the point of memorization. For those of you who don't know, my project was to add predictions to Amazon's logs for geographical location and then use that to visualize our traffic and revenues geographically with various dimensions and filters and such involved, including per capita and relative percentage views. So it was a huge amount of effort, and went right down to the level of state maps. I wish I could show you guys, but I'm 99% sure that I would get sued for that so I'm not going to. I had planned out the entire demo so that everything I showed has a use case on the side of marketing and advertising groups, and the crowd seemed to love it. I worked in as much humor as I could (my favorite was viewing trends in Women's Swimwear because I know nothing about women), and I got more laughs than any of the other interns did. It was scary and exciting all at once, then just a flood of relief when I was done. All the blood, sweat, and tears (literally) really paid off when I got to this point:


I won most creative solution! That's very exciting because that means that people higher than my manager were impressed with my work, which is a really humbling experience. Plus, the audience seemed really engaged with my demo, and fortunately I did not suffer demo-itis. Now that it's over I can take a breather and get back to playing guitar and such and prepare to see my girlfriend again very soon, which is even more exciting than all this.

Enough about that though, I also saw The Simpsons Movie tonight (UT intern event), and so I thought I'd go ahead and give my thoughts on that. I was quite impressed with it. I assumed it would because the show had taken a turn for the worst in recent years and making a movie seemed like they were just trying to exploit the series. The basic plot is that the pollution in Springfield has reached critical mass and Homer ends up foiling a clean-up effort, which leads the government to put a big bubble around Springfield and eventually destroy it. This is actually one of the few comedies nowadays where they don't put the best scenes in the trailer, so there's still plenty more to enjoy when you see the film. The humor is witty as in the old episodes, and almost never takes things too far, unlikely some of the more conventional comedies nowadays. The only drawback is that some of the characters are strange from how the series used to be (like Bart being sentimental all of a sudden), but that's not really a big deal. The animation is crisp and even better to look at than the series is, so no issues there. I highly recommend this film with a B+ just because I feel hesitant to give an A to a movie that had little substance an was more about jokes than anything else. There's nothing wrong with that, but an A movie it does not make. If you're a fan of the series, definitely run out and see this.

Being Geeky is Hot

I bet that grabbed your attention, didn't it?! Sorry to have missed last night's post, but I had to spend some quality time with someone very important to me, followed by doing NSC work until I started falling asleep while typing (some point around 4AM). So anyway, back to the attention grabber: it's not actually a concept that I came up with on my own, I'm pulling it from this list of reasons why being a geek makes you more attractive. I think one dimension of being a geek is definitely thinking less of yourself, even if you're really a lot cooler than people who you would consider "normal" or "cool" yourself. Being obsessed in more interesting things in life tends to give nerds less time to work on confidence and such than the A-list kids have, though they usually end up better off in the end anyway once they figure this out. It's like finding money in your couch: it's pretty cool. If I ever have to step away from that paradigm and give myself credit for something, it'd be #10 on that list. I'm a passionate person, and I just find that important in life. I surround myself with other passionate people because it makes me feel better about life and I usually have more respect for them. I definitely know somoone who fits #4, #5, and #10, and she's pretty hot.

The Pandora blog made a little post about that plan I mentioned recently to increase royalty fees for Internet radio that threatens it entirely. It's a good interview, but it's just really slow and so I don't blame people for not sitting down and watching it. The bottom line is that this thing is a huge deal for those of us who hope to grow their musical tastes via the Internet, and it makes music harder to find and enjoy without bleeding money.

Hacking is fun if you know what you're doing. I, of course, am stupid and never invested the time I should've when I was younger in those things. The best way to understand something, in my opinion, is to know how to break it. So, the best way to make your passwords secure, is to know the easiest ways in which one could figure yours out. That's definitely a worthwhile read, and will hopefully be an eye opener for some of you out there.

Microsoft came up with a clever little marketing thing asking if you would prefer a buttload of beer and an Xbox 360, or a PS3. I think they should've stacked it with Shiner Boch.

So this South African woman had quite the idea: an anti-rape device that is inserted into the vagina and does a lot of damage to anything that should find itself trying to, er, pass through. Yeah, so I agree with the concept, but that's really kind of scary, to be honest. It makes me keel over thinking about how this device works. As horrible as rape is, I don't think this is really going to a work, I think a tazer or mace is better.


I thought that this list of ways to pimp out your office was pretty awesome. While I don't think anyone who works anywhere but Google or a small startup could possibly execute most of these ideas, they're still awesome concepts.

So my browser crashed when I was writing the film part of this post, so I'm just going to talk about the box office again real quick. TMNT beat out 300 for top honors with just $25.5 million, only a few million more than its rated R rival. What's really notable is that Shooter tanked with a measly $14 million. Oh well, next weekend sees the addition of two movies that are sure to bring in wider audiences: Blades of Glory and Meet the Robinsons. Yahoo Movies actually has a new clip online for the former.

Ok, I'll share one more thing: AICN has a pretty good review of The Simpsons movie. It doesn't sound like exactly what we wanted, but it sounds better than what most of us expected out of it, so I may actually decide to see it in theaters now.

Now for some Monday Madness:

1. What kind of automobile do you drive?
2003 Hyundai XG 300
2. What kind of automobile do you WISH you drove?
I guess a Volvo S60 R. Of course I want to go back to the make that saved my life!
3. When is the last time you bought a vehicle (new or used)?
Last August (used)
4. What is your color of choice as far as vehicles go?
It really just depends on the car, to be honest. My car is maroon, which kind of sucks since that's the A&M school color, but it still looks good in it.
5. Do you regularly have your oil changed?
Yeah, my dad helps me with that.
6. How long do you generally keep a vehicle before thinking about buying a new one?
We'll find out =)
7. What kind of automobile will you buy next?
Not sure, but hopefully a lightly used Volvo.

Programmers and Coders

It sounds like people really liked my post on Friday, so I'm glad that I was able to turn my frustration into something fruitful! My whole weekend was kind of living in the shadow of sadness for some reason, can't pin it to one thing. I'm fine though; nothing I can't get over. I'm sorry that today's topic isn't quite so provocative, but I think it's a worthwhile thing to talk about (though I know I've touched on it once before a while back). While the line is very thing, there is a line between programmers and coders: programmers are the higher level engineers and the coders are, well, code monkeys. That's the more common usage of the term "coder" at least, though I typically say "software engineer" rather than programmer to make it denote that they do more design work. That post I linked is a slightly biased source since it is a guy in India (at least it seems so), but I think the trend he points out is pretty real: Indians (in India, that is) are being used pretty much as if they were assembly line workers for code, and they're tired of it. Naturally, it sounds like technological slavery, so of course they're not going to be satisfied because they can't have the ambition that we have here. Not only that, but Indian culture kicks someone else's butt again! Having a nice job title for their biodata is becoming a big thing, which is funny because it's totally true how you have to kind of sell yourself to get married. I don't know why Indian culture is still that way, I really don't. Do people really think that kind of stuff works? Personality is much bigger than your career choice. Anyway, what boggles my mind is that these guys don't try to startup companies of there own. Surely, there are VCs in other countries who see the potential for startups in India. Unless they're doing this and failing miserably? Anyway, back to the main topic: no one wants to become a coder (unless they lack ambition completely), so I wish the best to these guys in India.

It seemed like everyone read this post over the weekend from a guy who interned at Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo (or rather works at Yahoo now), and he just remarked at what their work environments are like. It sounds like all three are real winners, though I know people who have gone to places like Amazon and then Microsoft and then preferred Amazon. I have an Amazon next week, so I'm definitely hoping that it is a cool place to work at and that I do get an offer.

Back to Google: their radio advertising service, dMarc, isn't working out too well. The issue is that it's better tailored for bigger companies whereas radio advertising is used more by small, local businesses than anything else. Plus, radio stations aren't too crazy about the concept of bidding for commercial slots. I'm going to call this a flop unless something drastic happens (especially since the founders left), any disagreement?

In other radio news, it looks like the stage is set for XM and Sirius to merge, which I think is great news. Granted, it kind of creates a monopoly in satellite radio, unless they drastically increase prices or something, I don't think anyone would complain about the wide expansion in their radio plan. Plus, it's not like someone with better programming couldn't still come around and compete; I don't imagine that the barriers to entry are really that big.

As for as audio online, we all know that the legal kind is plagued with DRM. So how to explain the evils of DRM to someone who's not quite so educated/opinionated on the issue? This Wired editorial does a pretty good job of explaining prime examples of where DRM is evil. To me, the most irritating is the restriction of Internet access solely on irregular packet activity, which could be the transfer of totally legal content.

Does it pay to leave your computer on all day? Coding Horror had an article about it a long time ago, but I just didn't see it until now. It sounds like if you follow his tips (which I actually had already been doing), you can really cut down on your energy bill, so it's a totally worthwhile read.

The winner in the box office this weekend was Ghost Rider with over $44 million (I guess because it was an extended weekend for a lot of people), despite a fairly cold reception from critics. It's a shame because I was a fan of the comics and can't muster up the interest to see this one. Bridge to Terabithia, a film that many many more critics liked and seemed to be a pretty good fantasy movie for kids had to settle for second place with less than half the box office returns. Ouch. Oh, and Hannibal Rising had the biggest drop, 60% to go from #2 to #6, which reflects its horrible reviews.

We finally have a trailer for The Simpsons movie that doesn't suck, and it's actually rather funny. I like it. It kind of reaches back to the series' roots for comedic value, I just hope the plot doesn't suck.

A little while ago, there were rumblings that a prequel and a sequel may be produced for The Departed, but the writer has batted away such claims. He claims that there's not enough material for good sequels, and that he could get more working on a different crime movie. Fair enough; I was never in support of a sequel for the sake of more money anyway.

Lastly, here's the supposed final poster for Grind House:




Now for some Monday Madness (as if this Monday isn't crazy enough):

From sleeping mermaid:
If you could rewrite one pivotal moment in history, good or
bad, to make a change, which moment would that be AND what are some of
the consequences that you believe might come from that change?
Are you kidding me? It's Monday night, I'm not about to think back on history! Alright, well I guess maybe change the decision to go into Vietnam? We wouldn't have lost so many lives for nothing then. I really don't know, a question like this takes a lot of deep thought because changing any event in history could have drastic impacts on the rest of how history has played out since.

From beth:
What's the most unusual hobby you have? How did you get started with it?
I wouldn't say any of my hobbies are that unusual. I guess strangest would be Latin dancing given that I'm Indian, and I got started in the summer while at TI since a couple of my friends there knew how to salsa and it looked like a lot of fun when we checked out a salsa club one night.

From shelly:
Name one thing for each of the following: Favorite smell, texture, view, sound, taste.
Smell: a heater in the winter
Texture: the lines in our hands because our hands or so smooth but when you drag your nails over them you can can feel the ridges
View: high up in the RLM where you can see so much of Austin and the hill country
Sound: classical guitar
Taste: chocolate

Phones for a Few Bucks?

Reuters is reporting the head honcho of Google as claiming that cell phones should become free in the near future, when that's not exactly what he said. Still, at least they were on the right track in reporting it. He believes that phones should become heavily subsidized by way of on-phone adverts (texts and photos), which I have a couple of thoughts on. First of all, how can you make it feasible to transmit pictures to a phone? This satellite Internet crap is slow enough as it is. Second of all, if you're giving away phones that cost hundreds of bucks for even a few bucks, don't you have to show someone a good bit of advertising? Some sites online are bad enough, and I think there's a certain point at which people tire of advertising. With your phone, you want to be able to easily make phone calls, and I think people are willing to pay a premium for reliability and convenience associated with that. That's why the pay model (minus subscription-induced subsidies) works so well. No one would pay to use Google because that'd be annoying and pricey (I'd imagine), and obviously not everyone wants to pay for television (hence antenna-accessible networks) so advertising works there, but I've never heard of someone not getting a phone because it was a bit pricey because they consider it to last them a good while and be extremely useful. The three things you always leave the door with are wallet, keys, and phone, and if the first two don't have ads strapped to them then why should the third? Maybe Schmidt is right, maybe it is the future, but I just don't buy it quite yet.

Think Secret has discovered that the newly released Core 2 Duo laptops from Apple pack a secret feature: 802.11n draft 1.0 compatibility. No word on driver availability for this functionality in the near future, but the factor of 10 speed increase on this new standard would indeed be a delightful surprise to customers if it ends up being unlocked with the proper drivers and support, which isn't guaranteed by a longshot since it's just for a draft of the upcoming standard. I ran into this list of courses that nerds would have fun with, and I thought I'd plug it simply because I've taken a few of these (or heard good things) and they really are great choices for the nerd in you. Google Earth added a neat new feature: historical maps. They're not all that detailed, but fun stuff for World History enthusiasts, I'm sure. Photo editing enthusiasts will really love Pixer, which allows you to edit your pictures via the nifty Web 2.0 application. It's obviously not as feature-rich as something like Photoshop or even Paint .NET, but it's great for the quick things. Lastly, MTV has redone their site and I just wanted to point it out for the sake of what not to do when re-designing a site: moving backwards. I wonder if the designers were thinking that it would be a great idea to make the whole site Flash so that it'd be laggy as Hell, force you to watch videos from startup (and always have it off to the side, mind you, to kick your RAM in the butt), and then pop up an ad whenever you click a link.

In case you didn't catch The Simpsons trailer yesterday, don't worry because you didn't miss much. You can see it over here, but it gives us pretty much nothing. What's much more interesting is this extremely early review of Shrek the Third. The fact that it's good in such an early stage is definitely a good sign, though I'm skeptical as to whether they'll add in enough to make it as good as the first two as the reviewer suggests it's lacking since it's already storyboarded out. An early review of A Night at the Museum wasn't nearly as good though and claims that the movie was pretty disappointing and very much lacking in big laughs.

I thought I'd end here with a rather funny Post Secret postcard that most guys wouldn't own up to, but they know they're guilty of:



Now for some Monday Madness:

1. From ch'i:
If you could only read one blog every day- which one blog would be on your daily list?
Unfortunately, many of my faves have been on a sort of hiatus, so I'll go with Delicious Days (link on right sidebar).

2. From kat:
What do you do to de-stress from a hectic day?
Dance and/or sleep =P

3. From paxil princess:
What is your favorite piece of clothing to wear in the winter?
This nice brown, stretch merino sweater my sis-in-law-to-be got me from Banana Republic a couple of years ago.

4. From sherle:
Do you prefer discussing problems with a sibling, a parent, a significant other, a psychologist, or a total stranger?
None of the above: a close friend.

5. From trista:
How long have you been blogging?
I believe I started in December 2004.

6. From lisa e:
Which side of the bed?
Left side =P Thought I have a twin bed here in Austin.

7. From elton:
How often do you pig out when you eat?
Yay, they used one of my questions! Maybe once a week or so. It depends on the week, but it's usually on the weekend if I do.

8. From karen:
Do you watch the space shuttle launches?
Nope. Astronomy just isn't my bag.

9. From dawn:
What's your favorite leisure-time activity?
Other than sleeping? Probably dancing, I suppose, because it's so social.

10. From sherle:
When is the last time you said, 'I love you' and to whom?
What about hugs? Who is the last person you hugged?
Not sure. I probably said it to my friend Jennyfer in the past few days though. Maybe I said it to my mom yesterday? Last person I hugged was my friend Raquel at TLD practice last night.