Fitness Tools

Lifehacker did a post recently about some (tech) fitness tools anyone can use to get in shape. They had some tips / tools that I was already aware of or seemed obvious to me (such as listening to music, finding proper running shoes, and the nike+ system), but there were a couple of items I found particularly interesting.

First was an everyman's workout routine known as "shovelgloving". It only requires one piece of equipment, a sledgehammer wrapped in a sweatshirt. What's more manly than that?

The other is a tool called MapMyRun. It's powered by Google Maps and used for what else but mapping your runs. Other features include a calories burned calculator and even gps support if you upgrade to the pro version.

Other honorable mentions include a couch to 5k to marathon plan as well as a plan to go from 0 to 100 pushups in 6 weeks. Well with that I'm off to go find a sledgehammer, have fun with the tools.

Ever noticed how it's always runners who find dead bodies? -Pearl Izumi ad

Dr. Horrible

Pure Genius. I love it.

Thanks to Tycho over at Penny Arcade for sharing the joy that is Dr. Horrible.

A brief synopsis: A three part musical written by Joss Whedon about a C-list supervillain named Dr. Evil played by Neil Patrick Harris.

Supposedly it's coming down soon, so time is of the essence.




"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."
-Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

I'm out.

GTA IV revisted

Okay, my thoughts on GTA IV. I have to say that I am quite impressed with the story line and dialogue. This is the first time I've felt compelled to complete the entire story line of a game in the series, granted before GTA IV I had only played GTA III as well as Vice City.
There are a few control issues that become frustrating at times. Niko seems unable to take fewer than two or three steps at a time, not a huge issue until you decide to shoot up Liberty City using your combat sniper from the roof of an office building and need to creep up to the edge in order to peer over. I lost count of the number of times I was in the sandbox multiplayer with friends and after taking the time to get everyone loaded for bear then flying to a rooftop, half of us decided to go base jumping. It got frustrating. Fast.
Second, the auto targeting feels a bit clumsy at times, particularly late in the game when many of the firefights have niko facing a large number of enemies. In conjunction with this, the free aim feels clumsy as well, though it often serves as a better alternative to the autotargeting.
Overall I would have to say that this game was $60 well spent, and I would absolutely recommend that anyone interested in the genre pick it up if you haven't already.

Niko, buddy, you're gonna be alright.

Liberty City

I picked up GTA IV on the 13th. And I have to say, so far I'm quite impressed. As I am only about 20.5% through the game I'll save my reactions for a later date.

A new player in the world of OS

If you've ever thought, "I'd really like to switch to Linux but I don't know about it's security," this is for you. It would seem the NSA thought exactly the same thing. So they did what any tech oriented intelligence agency would, they developed their own Linux OS and then decided to distribute it for free. I don't know about you, but I think this puts the NSA at the top of my list of government agencies.

*Update 01/28/2009*

Looks like SELinux got moved here.

Tony Stark Is A Badass

So I'll start off by saying that I saw Iron Man this past Thursday. That's right, I saw a May 2 release movie on May 1. I just have that much pull with the local theatre. In all honesty though, the movie was awesome. Following, in no particular order, are several reasons for this:

First. Robert Downey Jr. does an excellent job portraying the womanizing, alcoholic, billionaire anti-hero of Tony Stark. Downey seems to have fed off his personal struggles when looking for inspiration for this role. This allows Downey to do so with such conviction I don't think I can see any other actor pulling off this role with the same degree of success.

Second. I think this article from Gizmodo says it best:

Verdict: 126 Minutes of Gadget Porn

Seriously. Stark has some f-ing sweet gadgets. Everything in his house is so futuristic, but simultaneously frustratingly tangible. Everything from the arc reactor that powers the suit, to the interactive hologram displays in Tony's basement workshop, to Jarvis, the AI that runs everything in Stark's house. It all makes me ask, "Why can't I have this stuff now?"

Third. The most obvious gadget from the movie, the Iron Man suit itself. One of my favorite aspects of this movie was watching the evolution of Stark's iron man suit, of which there are several iterations shown during the course of the film. The failed tests are often as spectacular as those which succeed. And who doesn't love the hot rod red / gold paint job.

Needless to say, I would totally go see this movie again. And I'll probably purchase it when released on DVD. Yup, that good. I think it's worth checking out for anyone who is a fan of the series, or who, like me, remembers watching the cartoon.

Those fans eager for a sequel after the not-so-subtle foreshadowing of the arrival of War Machine need not fear. Marvel has already announced it (in addition, it would seem, to films banking on several other high profile Marvel brands).

Edit: One last Gizmodo plug, a poll for anyone who has seen the movie.