I love it when someone takes the Machine Gun of Science to conventional wisdom and obliterates it beyond a doubt. Especially when this conventional wisdom is nothing more than pseudo science promoted by an industry whose sole purpose is to make more money than last year. Your feet are just one more casualty from that greedy plague.

“How is Corporate America fucking my life up now?” you might ask. Well, they’ve shackled all our feet in to shoes. It’s as simple as that. Shoes cause your arches to fall and an assortment of other issues like back and knee problems. Evolution crafted our bodies in to long distance running machines. We come equipped with shock absorption and mechanisms that recharge our muscles and conserve energy as we run. The grand irony on the front stage is that most of the running injuries we try to prevent, with more sophisticated running shoes, are caused by running shoes.

I realize this post has started out like so many unsubstantiated conspiracy theory rants. Before I go any farther, let me #BlameDrewsCancer for that. It’s insidious and makes us all crazy.

Now, the only way you will believe this is real and that I’m not ridiculous is if you read Born to Run by Christopher McDougall (or listen to it via audiobook like I did). It’s a new book, so you might have not heard of it yet. It’s the ultimate “You’re doing it wrong” message to runners and anyone interested in living healthily. It’s a multistage mega-firecracker with science at its core wrapped in many layers of epic running stories!

Alright, enough with the book review one-liners. The great thing about this book is that the evidence for all of this isn’t coming from a single source. More than one scientist and researcher (in different fields even) corroborate the conclusions. The author even talks to a Nike research scientist that arrived at the same conclusion. Ditch your running shoes.

It’s not a book written by a crazy hippie who wants everyone to get along and run al natural through the streets. The author’s only agenda is to find a way to keep running. All the people that show up in the book are people who love to run. After years of running, they are tired of the constant cycle of injuries.

Instead of trying to inaccurately repeat all the facts and statistics that are so well represented in this book, I will leave you with one delectable tidbit from the book. Arches. Specifically the ones on your feet.

What do we know about arches? If you don’t know much then read up on them real quick. To review, arches are damn strong. They are the reason the Roman Aqueducts and other famous structures have stuck around for 1k+ years. And guess what? We come equipped with living arches that can adapt to the ground! Ok so to take this to its natural conclusion. What’s the best way to weaken an arch? Support it from underneath. Stick a pylon in the middle of it. “Arch Support” is now a four letter word in my book.

I’d link you all blue in the face but if you search “running barefoot” you’ll be at the same place as me. Learning to walk again. Thankfully the revolution has already started and the barefoot Jedi Masters are out there. Waiting.

If you haven’t played Company of Heroes yet, get on Steam and pick up the gold pack. It’s not only an amazing and well balanced RTS, it’s WWII. So you know…3picz0r!

Only once you have acquired the glory that is Company of Heroes can you be a true cohcaine addict.

There is a patch coming out soon that has quite a few changes. Here is a review of a change being made to one of our favorite units. I didn’t edit this convo to make it easier to follow, as many people do. This is 2008, if you can’t follow an IM convo by now please proceed out your door and do some cartwheels on the nearest 6 lane street or freeway.

Crispy Lettuce: why did they boost the calliopes, seriously, goddamn
Cookie Monster: maybe the calliope will be a cost-free unit and comes standard with the base
Cookie Monster: next
Crispy Lettuce: haha
Crispy Lettuce: i think the only balance to make that fair would be to make the rockets propelled by an armored bicycle
Cookie Monster: and gets a 50 foot wide spinning saw blade attachment that spins around the unit chopping all infantry in half
Crispy Lettuce: and infantry can take it out
Crispy Lettuce: lol
Cookie Monster: haha, like a dude carryiong a rocket into the base on a bike?
Crispy Lettuce: then it can proclaim, over a loud speaker, “im the juggernaut, bitch!” as it spams enemy bases with rockets
Cookie Monster: lol
Cookie Monster: bitch, get off me, dont you know im the juggernaut baby
Crispy Lettuce: no like 6 guys pedaling a giant armored bycicle
Crispy Lettuce: all u have to do is roll a grenade underneath it and its down
Crispy Lettuce: 30% chance to tip over when turning as well
Crispy Lettuce: i think that would balance it out
Cookie Monster: and if destroyed, all rockets immediatly return to home base and do 500% damage
Crispy Lettuce: lmfao
Cookie Monster: man, sounds like a nice unit to me, I dont know about you
Crispy Lettuce: sounds like a secret SS unit to me, lol
Cookie Monster: taht tipping bonus is awesome, 70% chance that it WONT flip
Crispy Lettuce: haha
Cookie Monster: we should do a Mod
Cookie Monster: Company of Bikes
Cookie Monster: just an entire army of rediculous bike combat
Cookie Monster: and maybe some explosive farm animals
Cookie Monster: the KCH have heroic level weapon and critical stats
Cookie Monster: its like a 3 man squad of brit officers
Crispy Lettuce: lmfao
Crispy Lettuce: oh god, here comes a tandem! run!
Cookie Monster: haha
Cookie Monster: I’d like to see a 5 man Grenadier squad on a bike, maybe one dude pedaling while all the others are in some kind of acrobatic loop
Crispy Lettuce: yes
Crispy Lettuce: all the while tossing grenades about
Cookie Monster: forming a “machine gun ring”

I haven’t posted in a while but I am working on something. It has turned out to be kinda long. I’m probably going to split it up into multiple posts so its more attractive. I might not be able to finish it up until the weekend, I keep running out of time in the day, but I will post it soon.

A short distraction - check out Stars. The Lonman posted a list of indie bands he might see in the near future so I started to check some of them out. Stars was one of them. I dig ‘em. Do it.

I hope that one day I will be able to open a portal and drop a car on Fathed. For now, Portal is just a puzzle game that will take maybe two hours to beat. However, the song in the credits is awesome. I recommend it.

I’ll be recommending things all night. Stick around.

Next on the list is Radio Lab. It is basically a science radio show with incredible mixing and editing that makes for an interesting experience every time around. I think it’s fair to say they push the limits of just how effective an audio presentation can be. They’ve been producing shows for a couple of years now, so there is plenty of content waiting for you. I recommend starting with the episode on Musical Language to get a feel for their style.

I’ve been eStalking this group of people on Flickr recently. They have vowed to take a self portrait once a day for a year. Flickr is full of shitty photos, we all know this, but some people are doing some really cool stuff…every day. I find that very inspiring. (yes, you will have to wade through a lot of crap, but its worth it imo)

I’m not just peeping for the sake of peeping; I’m collecting ideas and seeing what others do to make it through 365 photos. I think I need another lens and some other gear to expand my options, but I’m currently planning on doing this next year.

If you aren’t familiar with Flickr, guess what? I RECOMMEND IT. If nothing else, sign up and upload 1 photo just to get the kind of experience all web apps should provide. They are slick with AJAX.

I promised I would report on the film festival and here I am. Overall, I’m glad I had a free VIP pass, lol! However, I would have paid for everything I saw on the last day. It was all sci-fi and it was all good, really good. A day like that makes the previous two worth it.

Instead of trying to describe films you’ll probably never see, I’ll just pimp Southland Tales. I didn’t link it yet because it needs a little preface.

After the film ended, I was just sitting there wondering “Where the fuck did that come from?!”…it was so bizarre in an awesome sort of way. The name Richard Kelly didn’t ring a bell at first. I know, I know, all you Donnie Darko fans are shaking your head in disgust at me right now. But yeah, it’s him. Once I figured that out, the film made a lot more sense, haha.

If you’re harboring any anger towards Kelly from Domino, get over it and give Southland Tales a chance when it hits theatres in a couple weeks. I’m definitely gonna go give it another spin.

And yes, that was the official site link. It sucks. Apparently, it’s been around in one form or another for about 3 years. I came across some random forum threads from ’04 in which people were trying to figure out some of the phrases and allusions given on the site. Kelly had a lot of trouble getting this to the big screen, here’s a little background on that from Wired.

Whatever you do, don’t watch the trailer on the official site. It’s tiny and crappy. Go pick one of these tasty HD ones from Apple. I’m not going to try and review or describe the film. I mean, how do you effectively describe Donnie Darko to someone? Same situation with this one.

Just go watch it and have fun

(Oh, did I mention the soundtrack was put together by Moby? Fuuuuuuccckkkk yeesssssssss!)

A friend was looking out for me today. I was handed a VIP pass to the International Horror & Sci-fi Film Festival. It was one of those things where I had been waiting for this event for so long I had completely forgotten about it. Thanks, Craig!

In an effort to pay it forward, I secured another pass for a buddy and possibly one more…we shall see. I could care less if every film I watch at the festival sucks, I’ll love the experience. I’m a sci-fi whore. Also, it helps ease the pain at the end of a shitty film when you suddenly remember you didn’t pay for it, lol. I’m hoping I’ll find at least one good film to serve as blogfodder. Stay tuned.

Speaking of which, I just finished watching Traffic. I always find it interesting to come back to a great film (after not having watched it for a couple years) and seeing what I resonate with each time.

The technique of cutting all the sound (except for the music) and letting the camera do the story telling on its own for moment is what hooked me this time around. It certainly isn’t unique to the film, but it’s used so well in Traffic. When done right, a film can build to a certain point, cut everything but the music and let you live in the moment. I dig it.

You’re probably thinking of shitty movies that abuse that technique right about now *COUtransformersGH*. It can definitely turn a scene from dramatic to cheesy in a split second. But just because some dipshit drives the same car as you doesn’t mean your car sucks

I was reading /. when a glorious light shone upon the world of music. I pass the light to you, music fans. Rejoice! Deezer lives!

Their debut database is only weighing in at 100k songs but it’s a great start. Listeners can choose any song from their database and listen to it as many times as they feel like. The full song. Not some shitty, super compressed, 30 second sample. The whole damn thing. You can create oodles of playlists as well. They also appear to be supporting the indie crowd, allowing user uploads and such.

I’m not an audiophile so I didn’t go looking for the stated bit rate, but it sounds like 128. I only noticed the compression when I cranked their player’s audio levels all the way up. It sounds pretty good if you keep their levels below 80%.

I think it’s fair to say this site is a Pandora killer. I think Pandora is an interesting project, but seriously, the people of the world just want to browse music hassle free. We don’t want crappy samples, commercials or an “intelligent” site that ends up playing nothing but Particle Man after two hours.

thx, France!

I watched Sunshine and The Simpsons Movie this weekend. Fear not, I shall warn of spoilers.

SWEET
I pretty much have nothing but child-like glee for The Simpsons Movie. From Ralph atop the FOX monolith before the film even starts, the “spider-pig song”, the goofy shit at the end in the credits and ALL the stuff in between, it was perfect.

The film itself is like a 90 minute walk through nearly two decades of TV shows at Warp speed. I found the mental associations I have with the show being recalled as I watched. One in particular being taking breaks from playing Civilization 2 with an old roomate of mine to watch reruns late at night.

I really do hope they make another film.

Enough happy fun time.

SOUR
I’ll say up front that I liked Sunshine. That could be because I’m a sucker for sci-fi, but most of the film was good. Danny Boyle talked about trying to do hard core sci-fi with this film, sort of a return to the Space Odessy 2001 feel. I think he pulled it off for the most part. Along with that, he admitted there were some bullshit things in the film, like the device that was going to fix the dying Sun and ridiculous a part at the end (which everyone has seen in the trailer) where the guy touches the Sun. I can deal with that.

I should have known.

(here come the spoilers)

SPACE ZOMBIE EATZ YO FACE!! NOM NOM NOM

Near the end of the film, the whole feel is shattered by the introduction of what is basically a space zombie. I’m recalling it all in my head while I type this and even I have trouble believing it.

I knew he had directed 28 Days Later (which as far as zombie movies go is awesome), but come on! Maybe he couldn’t resist? I dunno. It fucking ruined the end of the movie.

To make matters worse, once this monster shows up, he uses all the same blurred/twitchy/shaky camera moves from 28 Days Later. The film, up until this point, felt nothing like that. It was like someone cut a zombie movie into the middle of a really good sci-fi film.

Even with all that, I’d go watch it again in IMAX. The external visuals of the ship and the sun and all that are incredible. Well worth it on that level alone.

I just finished reading Competing on Analytics. It is the most painful literary experience I’ve had to date. The co-authors of this book have no business writing…anything…ever. Fire the editor too. However, amidst the shitty organization and delivery in this book, there are some interesting things to think about.

First, a quick overview so we’re all on the same page.

OVERVIEW
Competing on Analytics brings to light the differences between companies that use analytical data as supporting information to make business decisions and companies that allow analytical data to drive all of their operations. An analytically competitive company would do some of the following: use an algorithm that sifts through job applications to identify ideal matches for open positions, use algorithms to identify customer profiles that are most profitable, forecast market trends to define product demands and so on.

I’m going to split the rest up between business and consumer interests.

BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE
Everyone can probably think of at least one company that does something like this and most of them are the newer tech savvy companies like Google or Amazon. So why only the younger companies? Well that should be obvious, old people are scared of computers. Seriously, that’s what it comes down to. The old guard wants to trust their gut and the new kids know to the trust the numbers.

And of course, the new guys who rely on analytics to drive their business are the ones dominating their market segments. The book is riddled with examples of how various companies (like Netflix, Capital One, Google, etc) either converted or initially set out to use analytics to streamline their internal operations or target their marketing at more profitable customers.

We, the technologists, say “duh” to the idea of using analyzed data to make decisions, but apparently there are plenty of unbelievers out there. Those are the people I think this book is speaking to. They point out that executive sponsorship is required for a company to become an analytical competitor, so give this book to your boss (or your bosses boss, or his bosses boss boss boss)

The resounding message, supported by the author’s research, is that analytics can make a gigantic improvement in revenue, operational expenditures and really any area you apply analytics.

CONSUMER PERSPECTIVE
What are these companies doing with this new found efficiency and information that benefits their customers? Evil of course. Ok, not all of them. I’ll talk about the good guys and then rip on the evil fucks. And by good guys I mean companies using analytics to the benefit of their customers. They may be plenty evil in general (especially the first example), but this article is about analytics.

The good guys:
Wal-Mart is a master of product logistics. They can move product from the manufacture to the warehouse and on to the shelf better than anyone else. This is all accomplished with supply chain analytics and it drives their margin down, which is partially passed on to the consumer.

A person’s FICO score can screw them in the credit racket. Most companies take it for granted; if you have a low credit score, you are a high risk at defaulting on loans so you generally can’t get them. Capital One decided to create their own scoring system based on their own analyzed data. Now, consumers identified as financially responsible have a better chance at getting a credit card through them even if their FICO score is low. This also caused Capital One to experience explosive growth because they were able to identify a massive market of potential customers that no one else was tapping in to.

Now for the analytically evil:
Who loves Netflix?! Wooo! Ya, they’re evil. If you are a high volume customer (thus reducing their profit margin on your account) they put your orders in the slow lane for shipping. Their customer profile analytics are very nice, but that is a component that taints their whole system.

Amazon uses a similar customer profile system that determines what you might want to buy based on your purchase history and other fancy features. They don’t do this anymore, but their system had the same high volume customer penalty. If you purchased a lot of merchandise through them, you were actually seeing higher prices than people with a low volume history. That’s fucked up.

IN CONCLUSION
With command of vast data stores comes knowledge and with that knowledge comes power. And what does that lead to boys and girls? That’s right, the Dark Side. While intensive analytics can be awesome for businesses, it has a long ways to go until it ultimately starts benefiting the consumer. And yes, in the end, that’s all who matters

In San Clemente, there is a little bookstore crammed full of used books. Each year I’ve been out there, I’ve made it a point to find a book that I have heard good things about or an author I’m curious to try out. It seems fitting and enjoyable to me to read old, worn out, books by the sea.

This year I got a copy of A Wizard of Earthsea - the first book in the Earthsea series. If you like Fantasy, you’ve probably already read the entire series. So needless to say, it’s good.

Now, I’m not one to rag on artists when it comes to “influences”. Everyone barrows. But damn. If I was the author of this series, I would declare a holy war on Paolini. Yes, I just admitted that I read Eragon and Eldest before Earthsea. I’m sure thats a crime that someone is now hunting me for, but in my defense, I’m more of a sci-fi guy. I like Fantasy, but it’s not what commonly captures my imagination.

I’m a technologist so I love technology whether or not it’s real. That shouldn’t be a surprise