Giant Size Astonishing X-Men #1

broderic on June 9, 2008

So have you finished off Josh Whedon’s run on Astonishing X-Men?

I’ve been reading X-Men comics since forever, since whenever I started reading them. I came along around the same time as Kitty Pryde. She was the young, newbie, learning her powers, learning her place in the world, and learning her place on the team. She may not have been the most powerful of X-Men, at times she was annoying, yet, she was scrappy and smart, and a computer geek, too. You had to give her her due just because she could battle the brood, evil mutants and all sorts of nasty characters and still remain standing. Lacking the cosmic level power doesn’t mean you can’t still kick ass.

So, she joins her place in the X-Men team and becomes integral to it. I loved that. It was the good glory years of reading X-Men. Colossus and her, Wolverine and Nightcrawler, Cyclops, Storm that was the X-Men.

Whedon blows that up and sends Kitty Pryde hurtling forever through space. I thought Whedon was all about the strong girl. Kitty Pryde would’ve been that girl, the Buffy if you will. Yet, she’s still hurtling through space. She saved the world. And got the thankless prize of hurtling through space.

We’ll miss you Kitty Pryde. I hope you return soon.

We’ll miss Joss Whedon’s take on the X-Men. I hope some other writers can continue with fine stories.

I’ll be waiting.

Quote of the Day [6.07.08]

broderic on June 7, 2008

“You may call me selfish if you will, conservative or reactionary, or use any other harsh adjective you see fit to apply, but an American I was born, an American I have remained all my life.”

Henry Cabot Lodge

Link of the Day [6.07.08]

broderic on June 7, 2008

With the proliferation of electronic devices, you may not know what to do with old, infrequently used components. It’s best to recycle them, but it’s tough to get to the dump to do so. Best Buy announced that they are doing electronics recycling at their stores. And there’s always a Best Buy around (there’s one down the road from me). You bring them your old computers, televisions and appliances and they will recycle it for you. It may cost a fee though, but it’s worth it for not having that junk clutter your house and clutter the dump.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080603-best-buy-test-drives-new-electronics-recycling-initiative.html

InternetExplorer 7 is ugly

broderic on June 6, 2008

At work, I upgraded to the latest Micrsoft browser for the tabbed browsing. I must say using it daily that it is the worst looking piece of software I am unfortunately using.

The tabs don’t look right. They’re flush against the content of the browser box. They don’t stand out enough to tell which tab you’re browsing.

What’s with the swap of the application menus and the location bar? Is that a Vista thing and is that pretty retarded?

What’s with that toolbar for home, print and rss field? It looks lonely out there like its waiting to be used in an Office toolbar.

Why are the back buttons round, but the refresh and stop buttons square?

What is wrong with the people in Redmond? Is this the best they can do?

The Union label

broderic on June 6, 2008

This is a post from around June 2005 which I never posted either because it is incomplete or I forgot. Or maybe I got bloggered and was unable to post but never came back to it. Anywhoo enjoy!

BoingBoing points out a Wired article about game coders wanting to support the voice actors in there quest for royalties from recording vocals for games only if they can get a slice of the profits too. I say fooey on them.

The main thing about the actors is that they have a union to back them up. They have the clout with many other unions to help them in on this. What does the game coder have?

Maybe if game coders would think about unionizing they may have some leverage to ask for royalties as well. But if they keep the “To each his own” philosophy then, screw ’em.

Now, I am not saying that they don’t deserve any royalties. As a programmer/software engineer myself I support getting paid. They do the most amazing work and don’t get credit for it. But what gets me is the libertarian like politics that pervade the software industry.