:: theMediaman journal ::

:: Thursday, February 21, 2002 ::

"Remember Crystal Pepsi? Me neither..."

One of those great connections with GenX youth is the cola that was clear. Since the Internet has such a wealth of useless information, here's some of the things you can see:

The Legacy of Crystal Pepsi
Fan Page for the Clear Alternative to Cola
Search on eBay for Crystal Pepsi products
A page to get Crystal Pepsi back into production
Crystal Pepsi had the first computer-generated vinyl bus wrap

:: Stephen 11:52 AM [+] ::

...

Last night I was bored. I made a web site. Here it is. Please go see it.

Last night Simone was bored. She made chocolate chip cookies. I am happy now (despite a sick stomach).

:: Stephen 1:33 AM [+] ::

...

Suddenly inspired by a TV ad for the Canadian Air Force, I visited the Canadian Forces web site. Using the Career chooser it looks like I belong in the communications industry fixing stuff. The first was an Army job as a Signal Operator and the second is a Aerospace Telecommunications and Information Systems Technician - basically an Electrician rather than an Electrical Engineer.

They sound like interesting, if not challenging careers. Why I'm even considering this probably has to do with my fascination with the Forces for a number of years. I'd like to think that if I chose a different direction in life, that it would be with the Armed Forces... although as I've proven from paintball matches, I'm a total camper. My service on the field would probably be less than admirable. However, I've proven that my quick reflexes and hand-eye coordination have proven handy in flight sims, so why not reality?

However, my 8-bit Nintendo doesn't really simulate 7G forces very well - so I can't be ABSOLUTELY sure...

:: Stephen 3:52 PM [+] ::

...

Lindsay, a coworker of mine at Livewire, told me an interesting statistic about Nortel and the recent stock price crash.

"If you bought $1000 of Nortel stock last year and $1000 of beer, today the stocks would be worth less than the empties"

WOOHOO! I made the right choice!

:: Stephen 1:53 PM [+] ::

...

Jennifer Aniston may be leaving Friends in a "heartrendering episode" at the end of the season... whatever. Now on to me.

Saturday I went out with Simone and a few friends for a few games of pool. Four people played three games, and we played with different partners every game. I managed to be on the losing team for every game. After throwing my typical temper-tantrum, we made a Timmie's run and wound up watching Rat Race at someone's house. I can't remember his first name off the top of my head, but his last name was "Benmurgi". I asked if he was related to Ralph, and he confirmed that he was his cousin. At first I didn't believe him, but since his brother bared significant resemblance to the CBC personality, so I was forced to believe. In any case, he agreed with me that he's a strong personality and has a bright future with the CBC, but he keeps getting fed really crappy shows.

Last night, Simone and a few others went to see Rita and her Second City class perform. They were definitely new to the stage, and they apparently had no proper warm up before going on. However, it was really funny. These are clearly naturals in the medium of Improv. After we went to the Peel Pub with the troop. It's very, very entertaining to sit around and have a few pints with "flaming extroverts".

Now I've got a bit of a throat cold, there's nothing good to rent (except Ghost World, but it appeals to a very, very small group of people), and the Oscar nominations are tomorrow. In other words, "nothing interesting happened today".

:: Stephen 11:30 AM [+] ::

...

Morpheus - the file-sharing successor to Napster which lets you share MP3's as well as software, DVD movies and other stuff - has had a potential security hole published by BBC Online News. BBC Online made the hole sound a lot worse than it really was, but probably to help scare people away from downloading BBC produced artists' music.

Basically, all files that the user has chosen to share can be viewed through a web browser by typing in http://(users.IP.number):1214. Port 1214 is the one used by Morpheus. Usually this doesn't cause a problem since you're only supposed to share the directories on your computer that have music, videos, etc. that you want to share. However, a common practice is for truly dim users to share the entire C:/ drive, resulting in every file being readable.

Even though there is still no write access, there is lots of personal information that can be downloaded. Your email configuration files, for example, can be copied and cloned on another system. Your passwords can be decrypted and used. I hope you don't have your bank password written down anywhere on your computer!

A search that I did for WIN.INI (a configuration file that resides in your Windows directory) quickly brought up dozens of results. These are all people who are sharing their entire hard drive with the world. However, when I clicked on "Find all files from this user" it crashed my computer. A typical computer can have tens of thousands of files, and I sent a request to list them all. Odds are good that the computer crashed at the other end too.

The funny thing is that I found out about this Morpheus bug last week - before the scathing BBC report or their retraction. A Canadian documents how he got fustrated with the queuing process in Morpheus and decided to bypass the software altogether. It's a pretty funny little document. There is considerable pride in the fact that this was documented by a Canadian months before this security hole went public.

This is another reason why I'm pissed that the MPAA and RIAA keep crushing these software companies for writing software tools used by criminals to steal copyrighted information... odds are good that the software/service will fall apart on its own in time. Just look at how nothing is free on the Internet anymore. The Big Six media companies will not lose their multi-trillion profits because of a few blips on the hacking radar.

:: Stephen 10:25 AM [+] ::

...

Simple night - Paul and I hung out at my place, ate chicken fingers and fries and watched Driven. Normally when you hear that a movie is lame its usually because of a predictable script and poorly cast lead actor. Driven has that and more. Weak and predictable script, too many primary and secondary players, weak characters and lame dialogue...

...and the fun doesn't stop! No one character was interesting enough for me to care about, the computer graphics were poorly composted, and the camera action as erratic as that of a music video directed by a ten year old with Attention Deficit Disorder.

This isn't the worst movie that I've seen but I was relieved when it was finally over. I actually found myself hoping that the script would call for the end of the movie before the climatic race since the many principle characters had already learned their own individual "important lesson". The movie continued despite but I got through it.

The list of why I enjoyed it is short, but it exists nonetheless. While this is not the first film to be made in Toronto, it is one of the first major Hollywood productions where the plot takes place in Toronto - in this case, the Molson Indy. There's only about twenty minutes of the story that takes place here, but there are other key scenes of the movie that also have a Toronto backdrop (including the car chase down University Ave. that's supposed to look like downtown Chicago).

Final summary: Worth the view just to see Toronto scenes in the background (ironically, there are scenes in the "Toronto" part of the movie that aren't actually Toronto). However, if I needed a movie of this specific genre on a Saturday night, I would probably rent the Tom Cruise "Days Of Thunder". You won't be missing anything by waiting for this movie to hit cable TV during a "Guys Night In" on CityTV.

However, if you like spotting Toronto scenes in movies then wait for the DVD to hit the 7-day shelf, find a coupon for a free DVD rental from Rogers Video and pick it up. The obligatory extras are pretty lame unless you're an Indy Car (or a big Stallone) fan, but the still-frame pause and frame-by-frame advance should help you pick out the Toronto landmarks.

Paul and I finished up the night with a few episodes of Undergrads. He went home and I started trashing Driven on my website as though anyone might care - but if I save just one reader from spending six bucks to rent this movie then it will all be worthwhile (you can pay me back in Sleeman Dark).

:: Stephen 1:17 AM [+] ::

...

My brother, John, accuses me of having too much time on my hands...

...frankly, I believe that this site's author is probably worse off than I am.

:: Stephen 1:13 AM [+] ::

...