Justin Cox's Mindless Chatter » internet

From English to Japanese and Back Again… and Again

Justin — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 02:21:23 +0000

Stick with me here.

I went to this site and inserted this tweet:

I’ve learned many things having this hole in my back, one of which is that showering at night is more relaxing then doing so in the morning.

I hit find equilibrium and that’s when the magic happened. What’s equilibrium, you ask? Equilibrium is achieved when the English text is translated into Japanese and then back into English without any of the words changing.

Enjoy a few gems complete with wittyless commentary:

I have behind me a lot, but this hole is a learned one, for a shower to relax more at night and morning.

I do have a lot behind me, but I usually don’t tweet about that. The hole, however, is a learned one. In the short month it’s been hanging out on my back, the hole has picked up a complete Masters of Economics. Impressive, I know.

I’m more relaxed, a lot of showers in the evening and the morning has a hole in the back of this research.

I’m not really sure where the research came into play, but I am much more relaxed after doing some. Or it. I’m not really sure what the proper pronoun is there. Taking a lot of shower in the evening and the morning tends to do that to you. Regardless, I’ve got a whole in the back of this research I need to attend to. Or is it too? I think I need to take another shower.

After 21 translation steps, equilibrium was found.

I have a hole in the back of this study, the number of showers in the evening, this morning, is to relax.

Apparently, the hole in my back has completed it’s Doctoral Thesis and determined that after taking many showers in the evening, the purpose of this morning is to relax. Or something like that. I really have no idea. All I do know is translating things back in forth makes for some really hilarious results and something worth putting here. So, yeah. There you go.

Thanks to Oh My Seven for the link.

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Why the New Facebook Doesn’t Suck at All

Justin — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 13:16:14 +0000

Back in August I explained why the then new Facebook sucked. The layout was a horrible change for the sake of change. There were no functional improvements made nor did there seem to be any regard for quality design. That was then.

This week Facebook began rolling out another new layout to it’s various users and I finally joined the party yesterday. My initial reaction was a simple one, Facebook want’s to be Twitter. The new newsfeed looks eerily similar to Twitter’s simple design. Replace Facebook’s new “What’s on your mind?” with Twitter’s “What are you doing?” and you might not be able to tell them apart. This isn’t by any means a bad thing. Twitter’s design is simple and easy to follow, so copying it for Facebook’s purposes makes sense.

Facebook actually does Twitter one better by threading comments (Twitter would call them replies) inline. This connects conversations and makes stalking your friends — because that’s really what Facebook’s purpose is — much easier. What’s odd, though, is Facebook’s implementation of wall posts. Instead of having some sort of threaded conversation, like the comments, wall posts are indicated by a little triangle pointing at who the post was directed towards. Giving commented posts and wall posts vastly differing designs seems odd and they don’t seem to mesh well together. Perhaps over time that aspect of the design will flush out.

The other thing Facebook significantly changed in this round of redesigns is their sidebar. What used to be a massive hodgepodge of separated boxes containing all sorts of information is now a more streamlined version of itself. Why the first “story” in the list is larger than the rest seems a bit strange, but the rest of the layout is nice. You can quickly see what groups people are joining, notes they are writing, etc. Note the empty space between the first and second story is due to my ad-blocking script. Normally that space would be filled with some annoying add asking you whether you like it or not — as if any advertisements are liked. But I digress.

The final major change this time around isn’t really aesthetic, though it effects the aesthetics of the site. It’s the filters and the privacy options. Finally the Friend List feature comes in handy. Not only can Friend Lists be used to control what information certain groups of people are allowed to see on your profile, they can now be used to easily control what information you see on your news feed. Since clicking on these Friend List filters produces a hard url rather than a dynamic page, you can change your Facebook bookmark to one such filter to control what you see when visiting the site. It’s a great way to control what information you see. Granted, if you visit someone’s profile, or picture, or anything else on the site and then return to the homepage filters will be rest to the general News Feed one.

Another way to control what information you see in the feed are the little “x” boxes that show up next to each post while the mouse hovers over them. This is a great new feature. Click the x and you’ll never see updates in the news feed from that person again. It’s a thing of beauty really. Gone are the odd sliders that didn’t seem to really effect the feed at all and, frankly, this is a much better option.

Last August Facebook redesigned for the sake of redesigning. This time around they actually redesigned for the sake of functionality. Based on Twitter comments and Facebook status people aren’t currently too fond of this new transition though perhaps it’s just the initial shock of the change. This update seems to be smartly implemented and, in a time when Facebook seemed to be getting a lot of bad press, this is actually a good move on their part.

Do you agree that the new Facebook doesn’t suck at all? Or do you feel like I’m completely coming out of left field? Let me know in the comments.

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Jinni: The Movie Genome Project

Justin — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 01:00:58 +0000

Ok this is really cool. There’s a new website/service in closed (see private) beta that claims to be to movies what Pandora is to music. For those completely unaware, Pandora is the awesome music service that creates personalized internet radio stations based on a particular song or artiest. It uses the “music genome project” to analyze similarities and then provide content the listener would like. Enter Jinni. It’s the same idea except for movies.

Jinni uses the “movie genome” to categorize movies based on plots, moods, styles, genres… pretty much everything you can think off. You can take a few tests to determine what your movie watching preferences are — I scored high on Hero, Individualist and Alternate Realist. You can also rate movies, much in the way that Netflix rates movies, to better help recommendations. But the real magic is in the search engine.

Jinni in action.

If you’re looking for an indie postapocalyptic, enter that into the search field. If you’re more into a female super hero flick, try that. Or maybe a contemporary foreign thriller with subtitles is up your alley? The point is, if you can dream it up you can search it and find something to suit your taste.

Since Jinni is still in beta, it’s not a perfect system. There are still a number of movies missing, or missing classifications and tags. It’s an ambitious task, to categorize all the movies and TV shows out there, but if it gets pulled off this system will be awesome. Easily finding movies based on taste or mood is a lot better then asking the guy at Blockbuster what he recommends. Even better, each movie page provides links to Amazon, Blockbuster, Netflix and Movielink so you can get the movie. The only thing missing would be an iTunes buy now link.

Jinni is a pretty cool concept that will hopefully turn into a pretty cool service. If you want to get in on the beta, I’ve got 10 invites available. First come, first served. Just leave a comment and it’ll be sent to the email address you use.

Here’s to sweet recommendations!

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People I Wish Were on Twitter

Justin — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 16:21:16 +0000

As you may know, I’m a fan of Twitter, the social micro-blogging site. I follow a lot of people who I know and a lot more whom I don’t. Of the people I don’t know, I follow them for various reasons. Some are funny, some are bloggers, some are programers, some are reporters and some are even full fledged celebrities. Despite the number of people I currently follow, there are some people who aren’t on Twitter that I think should be. Without further ado, here they are:

What do you get when you search 'Twitter' on Google Images? iJustine.

David Crowder
David Crowder, of David Crowder*Band fame, is a very funny and poignant writer. His book, Praise Habit, was a very fun and insightful read. His witty humor would fit well into my Twitter feed.
Kevin Smith
~~Silent Bob~~ Kevin Smith is one of the funniest writer/directors working in the business. With such fine specimens as Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and Chasing Amy, how could 140 character quips not be good?
Sir Richard Branson
What could one of the worlds most eccentric billionaires and smartest businessmen say in 140 characters or less? I don’t really know but I’m sure it’d be interesting.
Yogi Bera
Come on, how could this not be a good thing?
Conan O’Brien
I’ve always liked Conan and thought that his show is the funniest of all the late night TV, but after seeing him on Inside the Actors Studio I’ve decided that Conan is basically a genius. 140 character quips from him would be pretty much awesome.
Zach Braff
The guy is a great writer (see Garden State) a fan of really great music (see Garden State soundtrack or any episode of Scrubs) and probably pretty funny. A Zach Braff Twitter stream would probably be pretty cool.

As a bonus, here’s someone who actually is on Twitter but hasn’t said anything: Joel McHale. Host of The Soup. Need I say more? Granted, this might not really be him, but according to LeVar Burton, it is. He really needs to say something now and then.

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Change the World… with Facebook?

Justin — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 03:22:14 +0000

I was on Facebook earlier and this ad caught my eye:

Don’t get me wrong, the “change the world” bit is catchy, but just how exactly is working for Facebook going to do anything other than make it easier for people to know every waking detail of each others lives?

You might be saying “but that Greenbook application is saving the planet!” It sounds nice, but I still can’t believe that installing some lame application will save a forrest. But that’s just me.

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31st Annual Justies – 2008 Year in Review

Justin — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 23:31:11 +0000

As we come to the end of another glorious year we’re given an opportunity to look back from whence we came. The best way of doing so, as evidenced by the countless TV shows and posts across the internet, is through a year in review. Like everything else around here, things are handled a little bit differently. So, without further whoop-de-do (it sounds better, go with it), I present the 31st Annual Justies.

Best Olympic Moment Not Involving Michael Phelps

The Olympics were two of the greatest weeks of 2008 and there were dozens of amazing moments ranging from the incredible Opening Ceremonies to the unforgettable I Love Beijing theme song. There were so many great moments this year it’s hard to choose just one that stands out. Ok, that’s a lie. There’s one moment that was far better than any other and is, quite frankly, the greatest moment in aquatic sports history. The Justie for the Best Olympic Moment Not Involving Michael Phelps goes to Jason Lezak’s amazing comeback in the 4×100 relay which won the USA a gold and created one hell of a story. There has never been a comeback quite like that nor has there been an instance of shear determination. Way to go Lezak, way to go.

Greatest Thing on TV

All in all, it’s been a pretty crappy year for TV. The Writers Strike cut a lot of seasons short and seemed to affect the quality of TV for this season as well. So the pool to draw from here is obviously pretty slim. But there were some stand outs. The Office and 30 Rock have been stellar and new shows Fringe and Life on Mars have been entertaining. But one show has been better than the rest, so the Justie for Greatest Thing on TV goes to Chuck. Chuck is consistently entertaining and just quirky enough to be endearing but it was “Chuck Verses Tom Sawyer” that pulled it in. Twin Galaxies, arcade games and Rush? Can’t get much better than that.

Best Unintentional Use of Keywords to Drive in Search Engine Traffic

People search for funny things on the internet. Some people spend tons of money and time trying to figure out the best combination of Julianne Hough, Will Smith, Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, Tom Cruise, the Jonas Brothers and Wil Wheaton to get their search engine ranking high enough for people to notice. Around here I do things a little different. I write things and then see how people find them. If a Miley Cyrus mention gets slipped in, well, so be it. It was earlier this year while perusing my site logs that I came across this category’s winner. The Justie for Best Unintentional Use of Keywords to Drive in Search Engine Traffic goes to this post about Chinese food and Kevin Smith’s Zack and Miri Make a Porno. I’ll let you figure out what people were searching for.

Crappiest Thing to Happen to Someone Other Than Me

A lot of crappy things happened in 2008 including hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, fires and a new Rambo movie. I jumped off a cliff and blacked out in the water, but I’m exempt from this category for obvious reasons. No, there was one crappy thing that unfortunately deserves this Justie; the Crappiest Thing to Happen to Someone Other Than Me Justie goes to the economy. Sure, I’m affected indirectly, but whatever. The economy pretty much sucked this year and have put hundreds of thousands out of work. Unfortunately it looks like it may get worse before it gets better but one thing is for certain, it will get better. Here’s to hoping that the economy earns the 2009 Justie for the Greatest Thing to Happen to Someone Other Than Me.

Most Addicting Social Media Outlet

Hello my name is Justin and I’m a social media addict. This year there were plenty of social media sites begging to earn an addiction: Facebook, Shelfari, Strands, and Last.fm just to name a few. But there was one that stood out far above the rest — possibly combined. The Justie for the Most Addicting Social Media Outlet goes to Twitter. I wasn’t the only one addicted either. Not only did twitt rank as one of the years ‘buzzwords’, but now CNN even takes comments — and in some cases breaking news — from Twitter.

Strangest Nuance in a City I’ve Traveled To

This one is a tough one to call. I’ve been a number of places this year including Seattle, The Bahamas, New Orleans, Key West, North Carolina, Georgia and Utah. In those various places I’ve seen a fair share of strange things, like the odd traffic lights on the highway in Seattle, but by far the Strangest Nuance in a City I’ve Traveled To goes to Utah. Why Utah? Their numbering of streets is absolutely ridiculous. Everything is laid out in a grid, which makes sense, but that grid is far too large. For instance, we had to turn from S 700 E onto E 10600 S. Does that make any sense? Then, thrown into the middle of that was State St which does make sense. I don’t get it. Way to earn that Justie, Utah.

Coolest Thing of the Year

Despite all the crappy things that happened, 2008 had it’s share of some pretty cool things. Myron Rolle won a Rhodes Scholarship and I read Snow Crash, both pretty cool. The Dark Knight made a ton of money while the Devil Rays won the American League without any. Tiger Woods had the comeback of his career and Bill Gates ended his. All of these things are pretty cool, but only one can win the Award. The 2008 Justie for the Coolest Thing of the Year goes to The Olympics.

It was going to be pretty hard to beat the summer games. They began with the coolest Opening Ceremony ever performed (no video links available, stupid NBC) and included some unforgettable moments, a lot of which occurred in the pool. Michael Phelps won a record setting 8 gold medals, which will probably never happen again. Countless records were broken, smaller countries shined and for a few weeks in August the world actually came together and enjoyed each others company. You can’t really get much cooler than that.

All the Justies have been handed out and I’ve got nothing left for 2008. The ball will soon drop and bring in 2009. Let’s see what happens.

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An Epic Day for Linkage

Justin — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:03:28 +0000

It’s an epic day in linkage; there are just too many things out on that world wide web worth showing off today. Instead of putting them all individually in the until now secret quickies category, I’m giving them a full fledged post. So, behold, great things from around the intertubes:

@BarackObama, @GregGrunberg: We’re totally in a comic together!
It all started a few days ago when Greg Grunberg of Heroes and Alias fame started following Wil Wheaton. Greg then mentioned he thought Wil would be great on Heroes. Wil, of course, was happy but tried to maintain ties to reality. Today, the plot thickened when Barack Obama got involved — kind of. Thanks to Wil Wheaton for most of the links.

Clive Barker’s The Thief of Always Graphic Novel Comes to the iPhone
When I was younger Clive Barker’s The Thief of Always was practically my favorite book. I can remember doing at least two book reports on it and purchasing at least two copies of it (one was either lent to a friend or lost outright). I probably read the book a half a dozen times. The Geeks of Doom article talks about an iPhone optimized version of the Thief of Always graphic novel adaptation. This, of course, lead me to Amazon and the knowledge that there actually is a graphic novel adaptation of the book! If you haven’t read the book, you must do so, now.

prop 8 – the musical
The last awesome link of the day brings us once again to Wil Wheaton’s website. He posted the video, found below, of Funny or Die’s latest creation, Prop 8 – The Musical. The video stars just about everyone you can think of and is a hilarious take on the Proposition 8 battle raging in California. Had we known gay marriage could save the economy, maybe the vote would have gone a different way. Want to know more? Check it out:

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The Internet Overdose Song

Justin — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 04:32:57 +0000

It’s possible to have a little too much of the internet these days. Seems like there’s constantly a new social site to join, blog to read, person to connect to, and, well, you get the point. I came across this (embedded below) the other day and, well it kind of strikes a chord. I mean, I do use 1Password to keep track of the some 30 different web passwords I use. I do use less than 140 characters for an awful lot of communication and, well, I do remember when I was trying to manage two or three different emails at once and thought myself rather 1337. Yeah, that’s right. Anyway, this song is pretty funny. Enjoy.

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Literal Music Videos, How I Love You

Justin — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:25:36 +0000

Like any warm blooded human being, I have a special place in my heart for great music from the 80’s. Big hair, power ballads, one hit wonders, it’s all great. Lately that wonderful music has been making a comeback online thanks to an influx of literal music videos. The first one I saw was a few days ago over at Wil Wheaton’s site where he featured a sweet rendition of A-Ha’s Take on Me — which, if you know anything, is basically the most groundbreaking music video of all time. Then today, I came across a nice take on Tears for Fears’ Head Over Heals over at Geekologie. What a cool form of digital expression. I’ve included both videos below for your weekend enjoyment.

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Like Free Stuff?

Justin — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:48:15 +0000

I have talked about Strands before and was even the Pick of the Day awhile back. In case you still don’t know what Strands is, it’s a life stream social networking site that way sweeter than FreindFeed and looks better too. Basically it takes all your web accounts (Twitter, last.fm, Facebook, YouTube, flickr, etc, etc) and puts them all in one convenient place. The people behind Strands are great and the content that is delivered there is always interesting.

If it sounds like I’m attempting to sell the site, it’s because I am. Right now they’re running a nice little membership drive. Since it’s still in closed beta, you have to be invited to join. And this month, everyone that joins is eligible to win a sweet price for them and a friend. Prizes include a MacBook Air, iPod Touch, and a Flip camera. Peek your interest yet? If you want down on this sweet Strands action, I’ve still got a handful of invites left and it’s yours if you want it. Leave a comment below or hit me up on the contact form and I’ll get send one your way. Once you join, make sure you follow me!

(Full details and rules can be found here.)

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