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Roomba ! ! ! !

In my never-ending quest to find ways to do things that need to be done without actually having to do them (aka: delegation), I finally bought a Roomba. SWEET!

This is the Model 562, which is one of the newer versions — and I got it because it has several extras that may be nice, and they'd cost more if bought separately.

It says to let it charge overnight before using it, but I didn't — and it managed to get a whole room cleaned for finally dying. And yes, it actually worked! And yes, we followed it around and watched it like complete d0rks!

People that have Roombas speak of them like we TiVo users speak about our TiVos: once you use one, you can't image ever going back to the "old way." So, I'll set up this little sucker and give her a go for a few days before formulating a complete opinion — but what I've seen so far has impressed me (and she even got under the bloody dining room table (the bane of floor cleaning process))!

Now I just need to name her...

Posted at 4:12pm CDT | Permalink | Comments (8)

Thursday Stuff

We watched this week's episode of LIFE, and I found out that my little dirty boost guitar PCB (see the post below) does a lot more than I ever imagined: it's actually a wireless microphone and transmitter! Not only that, it does all that WITHOUT ANY COMPONENTS! I crown myself the new King of Electrical Engineering!

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I got a partial photo publication list, and it looks like some of my pics will be in Flare, ELLE, and Nylon magazines. I still can't post pics any yet, but they're scheduled to be in magazines released Q1 of 2009. I'll post more as I'm allowed to...

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Grub worms are attempting to take over my back yard, but seeing as how I'm a "higher mammal" (thanks, Ren), I will destroy them utterly, making them die twitching and writhing as trichlorfon throws their central nervous system into complete havoc.

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My No Depression contribution went through yesterday, and I started the process of reaping the benefits. Mary got my name put on the site last night, which is totally cool (and I got a plug in there for RAILhead Effects):

I also got the skinny on the free tickets and meet-and-greet with the band of my choice. Basically, I just have to pick who I'd like to see, make a call, and Kyla will get in touch with her contacts to make it happen. How freaking cool is that? Of course, she can't get me into massive stadium shows like Metallica of Rob Zombie, but she can easily pull off shows with the likes of Old Crow Medicine Show, Kathleen Edwards, Tift Merritt, and 99% of all the other bands I like.

I imagine we'll end up making a little mini-vacation of it, visiting some town just to hear the group play... maybe Seattle, maybe Nashville, maybe Toronto....

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There's nothing like needing to update 31 computers to Office 2007. That should make for a GREAT Saturday. Maybe I'll just put the disc image on the server and write down all the serial numbers, then do it all from home...

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Oh yeah — I took a new self-portrait while I'm sporting a beard:

Posted at 10:20am CDT | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Latest Ripoff: NBC’s LIFE TV Show

I'll start this post by saying I'm no stranger to having my work copied, modified and used, and just plain stolen. I began working in the graphics business in the early 90s, and for over 10 years, I was pretty much a household name in the Apple Mac Community — and running sites with over 20,000 hits per day just stacks the odds against you that someone, somewhere, is going to snag your stuff. So in the last decade and a half, I've had all manner of work "Used Without Permission," from web graphics, to fonts, to photos, to interface elements, etc., etc.

But last night was a first.

My wife and I are fans of the NBC show LIFE, and last night we were catching-up on last week's episode, "Everything...All The Time." If you don't watch the show, I'd recommend it. But anyway, at the very end of the show, Crews pulls over Jack Reese and they chit-chat for a sec. When Reese drives off, the camera zooms in on the back windshield of the car — all of this beginning around 42:08 in the episode (on a commercial free version). For 44 frames (or around 1.5 seconds), you see this:

When that briefly flashed on the screen, I had Karen rewind and pause the TiVo so I could get a good look. I knew that PCB trace pattern. Why? Because it was mine, dadgummit!

Since I keep records of everything I do (since I'm used to getting my stuff nabbed), I pulled up my old PCB drawings to confirm my suspicions (which really weren't suspicions, because I knew this was mine). Sure enough, it was the final trace image for my not-in-production, dirty boost effect, code named "Bustierre" (cool name, eh?) — I recognized the tell-tale "2:35pm" traces in the center. Upon further research, I found that I posted this image on my old blog back on August 14, 2007. On the same day, I posted an image of the etched PCB on my old blog as well as on my Flickr page. Here are my original images:

HOLY CRAP, eh? That's what I thought. Notice how the pad in the upper right corner is cut in half, just like mine. But really, any dummkopf can PLAINLY see this is EXACTLY my trace image. I mean, there's no ifs ands or buts about it — it's a total rip of my design. The only thing that was done is that the image was skewed and the traces were made thinner. But to do that, my original image was either taken from my blog or my Flickr page and manipulated. To make it even more obvious, I've superimposed my original image over the one from the show:

So there you have it: the latest Maury McCown Ripoff. I guess it's cool to know so many people like and use my stuff. Like when we were in New York last year, driving through downtown, and I saw 7 stores using my fonts for their signs — without permission, of course. I see a lot of my stuff all over the place, but the sad truth is, there's just not a whole lot you can do about it without spending all kinds of time and money chasing people around. CDs from major labels, DVD covers, pictures...all used and used for gain because I don't have a legal department. Oh well. Now you know why I no longer post my profit works here.

Some ripoffs, however, are so public and obvious, it's worth the effort. So if you're the putz from NBC that snagged my PCB image for LIFE, just send me the ID badge Damien Lewis' character, Charlie Crews, uses on the show — and I want it autographed. I'll call it even, then.

You have 30 days, beginning today.

You have been warned.

The draft is written, but let's not go there, eh?

Lastly, I want to remind the geniuses at NBC that what they had Crews put on Resse's car will do nothing — it's a blank and empty PCB. I guess we're supposed to think it's some kind of tracking device, but without components, it won't do jack. I'm also curious to see what happens to this "device" in future episodes, so let's be sure to see if they change it...

Posted at 8:28am CDT | Permalink | Comments (9)

New Music, and More

New Music Tuesday, and I'm on a spree of just buying stuff to try. Here's a run-down of today's purchases...

We shall see...

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I found the above artists using Pandora, by the way — a free "song discovery" service I've mentioned before, and highly recommend. If you have an iPhone or iPod that supports the iTunes App Store, you MUST get Pandora installed ASAP! My only gripe about the service is that you can only skip 6 songs per hour.

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I just found out that Ford Models will be using some of my edited images for 3 different magazine spreads. I really, REALLY wish I could post them here — but I can't. However, I'll let you know what magazines they will be in, in the very near future...

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I was bummed when No Depression magazine went out of print, but they've come back with a rapidly growing online presence. Half the music in my library is there because of the wealth of information, reviews, and articles in that magazine — and many of us are doing our part to assist with the online version of this awesome resource.

I recommend all music lovers check out the site and pick up some back issues, then make a contribution to help keeps things growing. There are 3 tiers that let you become a member of the No Depression family, called the Founders Circle: a Contributor, a Benefactor, or a Revelator. Your contribution will not only help expand the online offerings, it will also give you some goodies (CDs, shirts, artwork, etc.) — and you'll even get your name dropped on their Founders Circle web page.

I went full-tilt since I was (am) totally in love with the magazine, so my name will be at the top in the very near future. The coolest thing, though, is that I'll be getting 2 tickets with after-show access to a meet-and-greet with the artist of my choice at their concert. SWEET! I'll coordinate this with the No Depression staff in the coming weeks. I'll also get a painting of No Depression #33 (Lucinda Williams), which will be signed and numbered by Jon Langford. This will go great alongside my signed comic book artwork. =)

Pop over to the No Depression web site and check things out!

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Yesterday's Terminator episode was pretty dadgum awesome in my opinion — even with all the product placement. There's a chance this may be the last season, though, which would totally stink like a monkey's butt.

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We got our replacement refrigerator on Sunday, and I've never loved water and ice more. Ozarka is great and all, but dadgum, it's nice to have ICE and a 'fridge that doesn't smell like a dead rat.

Posted at 3:02pm CDT | Permalink | Comments (1)

Picture Demolition

I've gotten back onto my image demolition kick again, and it seems like the vast majority of clients are liking the "otherworldly" effects, too — even for portrait and posed shots. I still need to write-up my Faux Polaroid technique, but it's so good, I hate to just give it away! Since I'm still no fan of model releases, here are some other recent examples of image demo:

The first and last images use my most requested post processing methods, and they're also my favorite to apply since they're a mic of my Faux Polaroid and good ol' Cross-Processing techniques.

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Oh yeah — a lot of people don't know their iPhone can take screen shots of the active screen (hold the Home button while clicking the Power button). Here's a shot of my 3 main screens:

Posted at 1:44pm CDT | Permalink | Comments (1)

Miscellaneous Monday

I have new pet-peeve that's really, really getting on my nerves — and vying for the Number One position in my list: people that use speaker phones when the dadgum handset is right in front of their face.

HOLY CRAP. There's a person down the hall from me at work, and for some reason, he calls people, then leans over the phone and talks to them via the speaker. WHY OH WHY?!? Why must everyone else in the office have to hear your conversation? PICK UP THE HANDSET!

That said, I don't mind speaker phones in cars as much because it really is safer to not be bothering with a cell phone while steering.

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Speaking of stupid things humans do, this is another one that takes the cake: smoking at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Are you people for real? So you walk out the Hospital's main entrance, you're surrounded with people hooked-up to CVCs or IVs, people hooked-up to oxygen, people in poor general health — and you light-up a cigarette right next to them?! That clicking you hear is God's finger tapping the Smite Button, you know. Thankfully, we're usually inside when one of these buffoons lights-up — but the second someone does while we're out there, there's going to be a "situation."

Humans will never cease to make me feel sorry for us.

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Ike-Stink won over our refrigerator, so we bought a new one. :shakes fist in frustration:

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I wonder when our church will replace the "B" we lost in the hurricane. We've been " razospointe" for a couple of weeks now.

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Jenny Lewis' new album isn't as good as I hoped it would be. She should have dropped about 4 songs and released an EP instead — then she should have come to my house and put on a concert for everyone in town.

Posted at 4:02pm CDT | Permalink | Comments (2)

Wow…

Man, this week has flown. Updates soon...

Posted at 10:10pm CDT | Permalink | Comments (0)