An article over at Slashdot mentions the news that Apple, Mozilla, and Opera have requested the adoption of HTML 5, a successor to HTML 4 and XHTML, both of which are aging. The draft spec for HTML 5 is courtesy of the WHATWG, a group that formed for the very specific purpose of creating a successor to what we use today. It seems that the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has been wasting time working on an incompatible replacement to HTML and XHTML, a decision that I feel is destined to fail (backwards compatibility is a definite requirement in moving the web forward).

Adopting HTML 5 is a great idea (HTML does need cleaning up), but unless Microsoft climbs aboard, we might as well start building the HTML 5 coffin. As much as people dislike hearing it, the fact is that Microsoft owns this kind of thing. If it doesn't get into Internet Explorer, you might as well forget it. And I doubt that IE will migrate to something like this anytime soon. I mean, they just fixed their CSS box-model bugs! How many years did we wait for that? And after all that time, the rendering engine is still broken.

Perhaps Firefox will continue to take share from IE, giving the 'little' guys like Mozilla a voice in what direction to take the web. I've certainly got my fingers crossed.

I've recently been listening to some music by The Mamas & The Papas, and it got me thinking. Cass Elliot, one of "The Mamas," was rather heavy-set to say the least. Would a person like this make it in today's music scene? I'm inclined to say "no" since so much of music today is visual. As I see it, Cass just doesn't have "the look" to compete in today's market.

She's not alone. Roy Orbison is another candidate in my list of performers least likely to make it. Anyone who's listened to any of Roy's work can't deny that he has an incredible voice. But he's certainly nothing to look at. He would most likely be overlooked if he started today. Who knows how much great music we're missing out on because the artists aren't the Ken's and Barbie's that producers want them to be?

Several weeks ago, I purchased Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime, a role-playing game for the Nintendo DS. Though I have yet to finish it, I feel like I have a good enough grasp to give a short review.

I've never played any of the Dragon Quest games, but the protagonist in Rocket Slime is apparently one of the characters from that series. The story line should be familiar to every gamer in the world: an evil group invades a peaceful land, captures its inhabitants, and only the brave hero can save the day and restore order. Although formulaic, the story does have some charm. The writing is witty; puns are scattered all over the place.

There are two phases to game play: dungeon crawls and tank battles. The dungeon crawls are reminiscent of the classic Zelda games: top-down affairs where you run around battling bad guys and collecting items. Tank battles are somewhat different. Each team (yours and a member of the evil Plob) has a tank with a certain amount of hit points. Both tanks have two cannons, one which shoots straight out and one that shoots in an arc. Ammunition randomly spawns at a number of spots in your tank, and you must ferry it to the cannons to be shot at the enemy. The early battles are fairly easy, but the later ones (where I'm at now in the game) are very difficult. As such, this part of the game can get a bit frustrating. Every item you find throughout the game can be used as ammunition, and each one deals a differing amount of damage. The amount of strategy to be used in the tank battles is more than meets the eye; I have yet to master this part of the game. As the game progresses, you can even direct up to three other slimes in the tank battles, assigning them to various roles.

I can only think of two down sides to the game. First, the action gets a little repetitive, especially in regards to the tank battles. Second, the music isn't nearly as varied as it should be, nor is it as catchy as the music in similar games (such as Zelda).

I could expand further on Rocket Slime, but there are plenty of other sites out there that have done that already. Overall I'd definitely recommend this game to all Nintendo DS owners. My final rating: B+

An article posted yesterday at Slashdot mentioned a new way to break 104-bit (aka 128-bit) WEP keys in less than 1 minute. What's more, this new method requires capturing less than 10% of the packets required by the previous best method. This kind of discovery should hopefully help people move to more secure schemes, like WPA.

My family and I still use WEP around our house, but we're thinking about changing to WPA instead. One benefit of where we live is that our neighbors houses are fairly far away from ours. So, if anyone is using our access point, they are likely to be sitting out in our front yard, something we are likely to notice pretty quickly.

I have upgraded this website to WordPress 2.0.10, so let me know if anything is broken.

I'm avoiding upgrading to WordPress 2.1, based on a single point raised by Matt Cutts in a recent blog post. The oh-so-handy "Preview" and "Edit" links on the write post page have been removed, which really stinks. There's apparently a plugin to put back what the developers have taken away, but that seems like such a hack. I've heard of a few other problems with 2.1 as well, so I'm going to spend more time on the 2.0.x branch for a while. Maybe 2.2 will fix some of these issues; I guess we'll see later this month.

A story over at Slashdot reminded me that the trailer for Grand Theft Auto IV was recently released. I took a look at it, and I have to say that I'm glad to see a substantial graphics improvement. I own all of the major GTA games (GTA III, GTA: San Andreas, and GTA: Vice City). All three games were great fun, but the game's graphics always seemed to be "dumbed down," no doubt to support the console systems they were ported to. Sandbox games like GTA have always appealed to me. Hopefully GTA IV will continue the fun and open-ended play while improving the look and feel. It's certainly a title I will keep my eye on.

I stumbled across a story today at Digg that blew my mind. Scientists have discovered a method for moving fluid using nothing but a beam of light (a laser, to be specific). The attached photo in the story demonstrates the effect in a soapy liquid mixture. Even though the picture was taken at 50 micro-meters, the resulting effect is quite astonishing.

One "feature" of Windows XP is the built-in support of what Microsoft likes to call "compressed folders." But nothing new was introduced here; the zip file format is all that's being used. When I first learned of this feature, I was fairly excited to see that Microsoft was actually trying to make life easier. No longer would I need a zip tool like WinZip to do my extractions. Instead, I would just use the features in Windows Explorer to do my compressing and uncompressing as needed.

That was an idealistic view if there ever was one, and I'm not too surprised to say that it was grossly mistaken. The zip support offered in Windows XP is utterly horrible. My work place is fairly strict about not having shareware applications installed on our personal workstations, so WinZip isn't an option for me. As a result, I'm relegated to using the native support offered by Windows. What I'd like to know is this: what the heck are they doing when unzipping a file? We package stuff up in zip files all the time around here (since we often have tons of source code files to deal with), and unextracting them through Windows literally takes 5 to 7 minutes. Literally! WinZip could chew through these files in less than 30 seconds (I know, because I've tried it at home). Is the Windows stuff just horribly inefficient? Are they doing more complex file system stuff than WinZip? Whatever it is, it makes file extraction very slow.

I use the Cygwin package all the time at work, and so I occasionally use their command line zip utility. It's way faster than what Windows provides, but it has the occasional problems with file ownership, which is why I use it sparingly. For instance, I've encountered the case where I extracted a zip file using the Cygwin tools, then tried to open a subsequent file for viewing. Windows then tells me that "I don't have the authority to open that file." I'm the freaking administrator of the machine! I should be able to do whatever I want, right?

If anyone has tips on how to improve things in the "compressed folder" world, I'd be glad to hear them.

Ever have the experience where something that you were sure was right turned out to be wrong? Last night, while browsing the web for some new jazz fusion albums, I happened to read the Mahavishnu Orchestra article over at Wikipedia (MO is one of my favorite jazz fusion groups). I have always assumed that Jean-Luc Ponty was the violin player in the classic line-up of the Mahavishnu Orchestra (the line-up that I prefer; the later incarnation of MO isn't nearly as good, in my opinion). This assumption led me to buy a number of Mr. Ponty's albums, all of which I thoroughly enjoy.

It turns out, however, that Jerry Goodman was the violinist in the original line-up! Jean-Luc was the violinist in the later line-up (ironically, the one that I dislike). All this time I've been mistakenly attributing the awesome musicianship in the group's first albums to Jean-Luc Ponty (that being said, Jean-Luc is an awesome musician). Needless to say, my mind was blown at how wrong I was. I'm really surprised that I have lived under this illusion for so long.

Several videos of the band are on YouTube, strangely enough (the original line-up was only together for a few years in the 1970s). The audio in the videos isn't the greatest, but it's definitely cool to see the guys in action (Billy Cobham on drums is phenomenal). Here are a few links for your enjoyment:

• You Know You Know
• One Word (one of my personal favorites)
• Resolution

I'm not much of a sports fan, and I know very little about sports in general. But one thing that I do know for certain is that the NCAA tournament is one of the biggest jokes in the entire universe. How can a team that performed as poorly as Duke did this season make it in, while a comparable NC State team, who knocked off number 2 and 3 seeds in the ACC tournament, be relegated to the NIT? The answer to that question has to be the word money, though I'm not quite sure of the particulars.

Regardless of all that, Duke lost in the first round. How awesome is that? And NC State won their first round game. Perhaps there is a little justice in the sports world after all...

One ill side effect of being a computer geek is a lack of physical exercise. My typing and mousing fingers are in great shape. Sadly, the rest of me has only gotten worse over time. In fact, I think I can safely say that I am in the worst shape of my life at the moment. The typical out-of-shape physical ailments seem to follow me around all the time: aches, pains, and a general lack of energy. Seeing that I can't improve this area by continuing to sit around, I've decided to (try and) do something about it.

Thankfully, my employer offers a nice deal (a small monetary bonus) to motivate physical activity. I signed up to participate this year, thinking that a little coin would provide that extra push I need to start exercising. How and where to exercise is my first major hurdle. I'd rather avoid a gym if I could, mainly because I don't want to (a) pay for a membership and (b) spend time driving to and from the place. I could avoid point (b) by using the gym at work, but I still have to pay. Buying a piece of exercise equipment for home would be cool, but I don't have the room at the moment, and most good exercise equipment isn't cheap.

So long story short: I've decided to start out by spending 30 minutes walking the paved trail around the gym here at work. I clearly won't be able to do this when it's raining, and it won't be the most comfortable when it gets hot, but it's at least a start. Some exercise is clearly better than none, right? Plus, the weather is just starting to get nice, so it'll be good to get a little fresh air. I also hope to walk over at Eno River State Park more often on the weekends, which should give me a substantially higher workout (since the trails are often quite hilly).

In what ways do you exercise? Got any tips for a newbie like myself?

An increasing number of links to photographs are making the front page of Digg, making an already weak collection of 'news' even weaker. There's a petition for adding a new photography section to the site, and that would certainly help keep these links off the front page. Most of the photographs that get linked to on Digg are nice, but none of them are front-page worthy.

On a photography related note, I will be making some upgrades soon to the photo album software I employ here at this website. Don't be surprised if the photo galleries are down for a while over the next few days. Some new features are coming, and I'm excited about them, so stay tuned for updates.

It appears that LucasFilm Entertainment is suing Digg Inc. over the use of the trademark "Digg." Strangely enough, LucasFilm claims that the Digg name infringes on their 1996 video game The Dig. LucasFilm has just lost all credibility; their glory days are truly over.

There's nothing that says "my career as a popular icon has hit rock bottom for good" more than shaving your head, getting a tattoo, and wearing a blond wig with gigantic, Cobra-style sunglasses. I've never had any respect for Britney Spears, so I'm really not moved by her latest cry for attention. What really makes me laugh, however, is the fact that semi-respectable people are saying that we shouldn't poke fun at Ms. Spears, since she's going through a "tough time" right now.

Get serious.

Everyone should be making fun of her non-stop. She has now entered the realm of Michael Jackson and Mike Tyson; everything she ever does from here on out will be a joke. I say that we get the most entertainment out of her while we can. Let the late night jokes commence!

It seems that Papa John's has "outsourced" the pizza ordering process. The past two times that I have called our local Papa John's establishment, I was connected with an operator at who knows where. She took my order like the local folks normally do, but she clearly submits the order via her computer ("let me key in your order here on my computer," she says). What clearly gives it away as a call center is the fact that the operator gives the actual address of the local establishment: "Do you want to pick up your pizza at [insert address here]?" The local folks never asked that in the past; it was simply "is this for pick-up or delivery?"

I'm not exactly sure why Papa John's would want to send the ordering process to a call center. Is it simply to hire fewer people? Was our local establishment doing such a poor job that the corporation stepped in to help?

Has anyone else seen this behavior when ordering pizza? I'm not sure if this is just something at our local establishment or if this is a wider spread change. Either way, it's very strange.

Mark Pilgrim just recently patched a long-standing bug in Firefox (the fix will appear in Firefox 3). Currently, there is no way a user can disable timed redirects through META refresh elements. This becomes a gigantic problem to blind users who utilize screen-reader software. By the time the screen reader starts reporting what's on screen, the page changes unexpectedly.

Beginning in Firefox 3, users will have the option of being warned when such refresh event takes place. A notification bar, just like the one used to alert the user of blocked pop-up ads, will appear when a META refresh takes place. The user will then be able to click a button to allow the event. Note that this new system will be disabled by default, meaning that everything will act as it does today in Firefox 2. Also note that JavaScript refreshes are not handled by this fix.

What I find most intriguing about this new system is that the notification bar appears just like an ALERT to assistive software. Mark has a blog post that goes into way more detail on the fix, so check it out if you're interested. It's really good to see Firefox making strides in this area. Yet one more reason that Firefox 3 will be super awesome.

The US Mint has once again released a dollar coin, although to seemingly mixed reviews. Will the dollar coins catch on? Though I don't care one way or the other, I'm inclined to say "No, they will not." Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea failed before, and these are likely to fail again (though exactly why is debatable). I always find it interesting, however, when people from the vending machine industry are interviewed on this topic. They always give this kind of response:

Reporter: So, what do you think of these new dollar coins? Vending Machine Guy: Eh, they'll never catch on. Reporter: Why do you think that is? Vending Machine Guy: Well, people never use them in these here machines, so we don't flip the switch inside to let them accept the dollar coins.

This kind of discussion appears every time dollar coins are launched (in fact, it appears in the story I linked to above). Do you see the idiocy of the vending machine guy's statement? They won't enable the mechanism to allow vending machines to accept dollar coins because people don't use the dollar coins. Maybe people don't use the coins because your stupid machines don't accept them! Are these people idiots or what?

I've been monitoring some of the upcoming games for this year, and here's what I've got my eye on:

Half-Life 2: Episode 2

Apparently Episode 2 has been delayed again. As frustrated as I'd like to be about that, I think I would rather Valve take their time and do things right than to rush it out the door (like so many games today). Episode 1 was phenomenal; just as good as Half-Life 2 itself (though it was surprisingly short). If they can keep the gaming quality bar set this high, I'll patiently wait for it.

The Elder Scrolls IV: The Shivering Isles

This expansion to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion looks incredibly awesome. I simply cannot wait for this to be released.

Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific

I haven't played a submarine sim since the days of Aces of the Deep, but I heard great things about Silent Hunter 3, and installment number 4 looks good enough to draw me back into the genre.

Crysis

This next-generation shooter from the folks that gave us Far Cry (a really great game, by the way) is truly a sight to behold (large image warning). I'm not certain that this game is scheduled for this year, but I can certainly hope. If it can bring back those oh-so-cool moments from Far Cry, I'm sold.

A few other things are on my radar, specifically for my Nintendo DS Lite. Hotel Dusk: Room 215 has been getting good reviews and looks like a truly unique adventure game. Some other similar games are in the pipeline, all of which I can't remember at the moment. Anyone else looking forward to anything particular this year? If I can ever get my hands on a Nintendo Wii, I'll have that much more to look forward to.

I enjoy my job at IBM, but I also enjoy coming home and putting work as far from my mind as possible. To do so, I tend to escape to other worlds. The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion is one of my particular favorites. There's something about becoming another person in another world that's refreshing. I can completely forget who I am for a while, and role play if you will. Another realm I'm starting to venture back to is the world of Prince Valiant. I've just begun rereading the comic strip from the very beginning, and I thoroughly enjoy becoming entangled in the intricate storyline.

What are some of your means of escapism? Surely I'm not the only person who enjoys getting away from it all...

We got hit with a "winter weather storm" here in North Carolina, and it was a colossal disappointment. A forecast 1 to 3 inches of snow (with a 1/4 inch of ice on top of that) turned out to be a light dusting, most of which melted in a few hours time. It seems like every state in the US has gotten tons of snow this winter; it even snowed in the Arizona desert! But does North Carolina get anything? Not around here. It's like we're cursed or something.