The amazing Danny Gans

It was with an unexpectedly deep sadness that I read about the passing of one of Las Vegas’ most influential and talented entertainers – Danny Gans.

After several attempts to see his show, my wife and I caught Danny’s show just this past February.  It was truly amazing…  He was a master showman.  What impressed me the most was not his singing or impressions (which were truly phenomenal in their own right) but, rather it was that he was truly interested in giving the best show he could to every single audience.  He worked us continually – changing on the spot to what we responded to best.  He jumped around decades in his music trying to find what would resonate most for us, and it worked…

His show was great – REALLY great.

I was very touched during his tribute song to his family and his stories of all the support they gave him during the tough years of travel prior to hitting it big in Vegas.  I actually had seen him nearly 15 years prior in Worcester, MA at the old Colosseum.  He was funny then too, but I didn’t fully appreciate who he was at the time.  It wasn’t until many years later, seeing his picture on big board at the Mirage, that I put 2 and 2 together.

I was also very touched that he was so transparent with his faith.  From his direct testimony during the show to doing little things like pointing to the sky while singing lyrics like “Who can make the sun shine?” during Bojangles, there was no question that this man loved his God.

It is inevitable when something like this happens to start to wonder – how can God let this happen?  Why would He take a man that truly loves Him and leave behind a family that will forever be changed by the passing of a loving husband and committed father?

This is where our faith comes in…  We either believe Romans 8:28, or we don’t.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

It is hard in the face of such tragedy to remain faithful, but it is to for our betterment that we do so.  Rather than questioning God and his motives, we would do better to examine what would we have done without our faith during these tough times?  Faith in God and in Christ isn’t a free ride.  It isn’t all bubblegum, pink stars and dancing ponys.  But, if you remain committed to your relationship with Him you are guaranteed that whatever happens, God will eventually work it for your good.  In His time.  It likely won’t be evident until much later, but it will be evident.  Don’t think that means – EASY.  Many times in life, the RIGHT thing and the BEST thing isn’t easy at all.

I’ve used the analogy that our lives are like a fine tapestry in the process of being woven.  We see the tapestry from the back and typically have an ugly view of a myriad of knots and threads making up a nearly incomprehensible intersection of color and texture.  Yet, every once in a while God treats us to a view of the front, where a beautiful picture is being woven through our faith and obedience to the Weaver.  We just don’t have the full picture, and we either trust God in His ways, or we don’t.  I’m not saying that we can’t be sad or scared or upset – that is a very natural response.  Fortunately though, we don’t have to be.  We have also been promised the Peace of God, which transcends all understanding and that will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  I think that is my favorite verse of all time.  It means that we can face inexplicable hardship and still somehow through the Love of Christ, be at Peace.

I pray that Danny’s family can place their trust in God and can somehow find that Peace during what will likely be one of the toughest time of their lives.

For Danny, I pray that he hears the words that all Christians want to hear upon meeting their maker – “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

If passed into law, the legislation would deal very harshly with any form of file sharing, be it video or audio. Alleged offenders will first receive an e-mailed warning, followed by a registered letter, and lastly with a 3-12 month suspension of internet service. The law will also prevent users from switching ISP’s to avoid punishment, and even public hotspots will contain filters. Additionally, home users will be required to lock down home networks, and will be legally responsible for its security.

In return the French will start receiving DVD’s in a more timely fashion, and music DRM will be drastically scaled back.

Now, I haven’t downloaded copywrited stuff in quite some time – not since I had a DVR installed, found Hulu and got a Live account with my new XBOX.  But, in the past, I did a fair amount of downloading of “catch up” episodes for TV shows that I missed – something that I still consider a “gray” area of use.  Of course, by the book, it isn’t “gray” at all – its illegal.  In fact, I’m actually glad I don’t have to do it anymore.  Truthfully, for a show that I really enjoy, I’d much rather pay $2 an episode than wait 3 days for a crappy quality download only to find out that it is dubbed in German.

Still, this bill scares the crap out of me.  I can’t believe people would be willing to give up their freedom for early access to entertainment.  Still, in socialist France, maybe the people actually aren’t, but the politicians are… One of the few things that I like about Obama is how tech savvy he seems to be.  You almost have to have personally bought content and been frustrated with trying to actually use it where you want to really understand this stuff.  Out of Obama, Biden, McCain and Palin, I would have definitely picked the O-Man as the one most likely to have done so.  Still, given his politics, I’m not sure that this will help us any.

One day, people will have the ability to have their own networks and crap like this won’t happen.  You already see it in big companies – very large WAN infrastructure that never actually touches the internet.  Some day that will spread to people, and you’ll have co-op networks that are completely private.  Its the only answer to crap like this and only technology keeps it from happening today.  I’ve personally knows folks who all live in the same apartment building that have wired their apartments together – not for the purpose of circumventing copyright law, but simply for the ability to share information and infrastructure more easily.  Why have four home servers when one shared one does the job for 1/4 the price?

Of course, in the current State-of-the-Tech-Union, you could only do that with people you implicitly trust.  One day technology will make that unnecessary – just as our current internet security technologies make it relatively safe to surf the net.  I think even the telecom companies would like that, as it removes them from having any liability whatsoever.  You’d still pay a monthly fee for your “line” – but it would likely be a simple direct link to the next person up the line, or something similar.  You may have private line aggregators that take a monthly fee from a number of people to allow for more bandwidth, etc.   Don’t get me wrong – this would likely be in addition to an Internet connection, but I think there is a pretty good chance of it happening at some point in the future.  It would take a ton of cash, a lot of technology and a critical mass of people, but its is indeed possible.  I’d call it a Private Public Network or PPN.

For those of you saying “impossible” – just remember that one dude, Linus Torvalds, started the unstoppable wave that became Linux.  Its amazing what can happen when fed-up people buck the status quo and go off and do something on their own.  Linus didn’t try to start a revolution, but his idea was so good that it happened anyway.  It may take years or even a decade or two (work on what became the Linux began in 1991), but it CAN happen.

Mark my words.

Forrest J Ackerman at his Ackermansion, 1990 - photo by Alan Light

Forrest J Ackerman, the sometime actor, literary agent, magazine editor and full-time bon vivant who discovered author Ray Bradbury and was widely credited with coining the term “sci-fi,” has died. He was 92.

Ackerman died Thursday of heart failure at his Los Angeles home, said Kevin Burns, head of Prometheus Entertainment and a trustee of Ackerman’s estate.

Although only marginally known to readers of mainstream literature, Ackerman was legendary in science-fiction circles as the founding editor of the pulp magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland. He was also the owner of a huge private collection of science-fiction movie and literary memorabilia that for years filled every nook and cranny of a hillside mansion overlooking Los Angeles.

“He became the Pied Piper, the spiritual leader, of everything science fiction, fantasy and horror,” Burns said Friday.

Every Saturday morning that he was home, Ackerman would open up the house to anyone who wanted to view his treasures. He sold some pieces and gave others away when he moved to a smaller house in 2002, but he continued to let people visit him every Saturday for as long as his health permitted.

From the AP via CBS News.

Sad news indeed.     I wish I had known that he welcomed interaction with the public .  It would have been a real thrill to meet him.  Godspeed Mr. Ackerman, Godspeed…

WD TV HD Media Player

Western Digital has introduced the WD TV HD Media Player, and it is a very interesting idea.  Essentially it allows you to turn any USB hard drive into an HD media player.  You store your HD content on a USB drive. Plug the drive into the WD TV and you can then easily play HD movies, digital music or still images on your TV in up to 1080p resolution.  Now, that IS easy.

It supports a ton of video formats: from .avi to .mov to XviD, DivX, H.264 and a bunch more.  Did I mention that it supports HDMI and 1080p?  I think I did!

When you compare this little device to buying or building your own media server, I think that it clearly comes out ahead in the areas of cost and simplicity.  You can get the item for as little as $119, and it may just be the answer to a lot of every day needs.

Back Panel

A couple of cons that I see.  First and foremost, it doesn’t support component video, only composite and HDMI, so connecting this to my 6 year old 65″ Mitsubishi Widescreen HD Television with an HD signal just isn’t going to happen.  It will however go on the newer plasmas screen that we have.  But, we use the Mits much more than the Plasma because of location.  I know, I know – I touted its HDMI support, and that IS awesome.  But HDMI along with component would be even better.

Second con: No network support.  It would be nice to be able to drop a USB drive onto this puppy and wirelessly be able to store files on the drive.  I think it would reduce the “sneakernet” aspect of the whole thing.  But, what can you expect for $100?  This would be a nice feature, but it would certainly bump the cost up.

Nice Browse Screen to View Available Media

I suppose when all is said and done, going with something like the QNAP 109 II or 209 II probably makes more sense if you already have a method of displaying digital files – i.e. a PS3 or xBox 360.  You’ll end up spending more money that way, but the benefits may be worth it.

Still, this little thing is easy to use and dirt cheap for the kind of functionality.  You be the judge!  Drop me a note in the comments below and let me know what you think!

————————-

File Formats Supported
Music – MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, AIF/AIFF, MKA
Graphics – JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG Video -MPEG1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4, Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H.264)
Playlist – PLS, M3U, WPL Subtitle -SRT (UTF-8)

Note:
- MPEG2/4, H.264, and WMV9 supports up to 1920×1080p 24fps, 1920×1080i 30fps, 1280×720p 60fps resolution.
- An audio receiver is required for surround sound output.
- AAC/Dolby Digital decodes in 2 channel output only.
- JPEG does not support CMYK or lossless.
- BMP supports uncompressed format only.
- TIF/TIFF supports single layer only.

The time is finally upon us!!  Don’t miss the start of the awesome Random! Cartoons!  They are set to air tomorrow, December 6th, 2008 at varying times on Nicktoons Network.

Flavio with his voice, Emmy Award winning actor Rob Paulsen. Rob is, without a doubt, one of the best voice actors of our time.

My brother Mike made an AWESOME Random! Cartoon called Flavio, but still no info on when that one will air.

Flavio is an Italian goat who works as a dishwasher in a Pizzaria but aspires to be much more than that. Someday he hopes to be a great inventor like his hero Leonardo DaVinci. No one says it better than Flavio himself, “One-a day, straight to th’ top!”

Anyway, rush over to see the listings and be sure to change the location for your TV provider so you get the right time and channel.  Its set for 1:30 Eastern, 10:30 Pacific according to what I can tell.

First up on Saturday are Solomon FIX; MooBeard the Cow Pirate; Two Witch Sisters followed by Sunday’s airing of The Finster Finster Show; Adventure Time; Mind the Kitty.

Its going to be an awesome show!

I’ll of course annouce it as soon as Flavio is going to air as well!

Not a big deal, but hey, that’s what I did last weekend.

Also, I’m in the process of adding MovieWidget to the Wordpress Plugin database for easy automatic update capabilities.  Then I’ll also be able to tell if anyone actually uses this thing!  :)

I’m Alive!

I was shocked and saddened at the news about Heath Ledger.  I knew very little about the real man, but I was a big fan of his work.  He always seemed like a very nice person on screen.  After talking with a gentleman that knew him first hand, I now know that it was an accurate representation.  He was described by this person as “Very kind… A brilliant artist.”

I pray that God grant Heath’s family and friends His Peace, which transcends all understanding, at this extremely tough time…

I wanted a quick way to randomly display titles from my DVD collection on my blog.  I use Movie Collector to manage the collection, so I exported some XML from the program and started parsing it up.  Eventually, this little widget was born.

I mostly wrote this for myself (in fact, it started out as just custom code in my theme) but I’ve been wanting to try my hand at writing a widget for a while, so I figured I would widgetize the code.  Once it was a widget, I decided that widgets are made to be shared and that I should make it available to anyone else who happens to use both Movie Collector and Wordpress.

You can get the plugin here.

I was a bit surprised at my outcome, but given that I just finished watching the entire Firefly series on DVD (while taking a break from watching all seasons of Deep Space 9 on DVD), I guess it makes sense.  Did I also mention that I’ve seen every episode of Farscape (in order) at least twice?

The only rating I take exception with is that Battlestar Galactica is listed so low – the quiz-meisters must mean the old show and not the new one.   Adama is much more of a rogue now than in the original series.

Anyway, I’ve let my geek hang out in public quite enough for one post. 

My Results:

You scored as Serenity (Firefly), You like to live your own way and don’t enjoy when anyone but a friend tries to tell you should do different. Now if only the Reavers would quit trying to skin you. Serenity (Firefly) 88% Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix) 81% Moya (Farscape) 81% Deep Space Nine (Star Trek) 81% Bebop (Cowboy Bebop) 81% Babylon 5 (Babylon 5) 75% SG-1 (Stargate) 69% Millennium Falcon (Star Wars) 63% Enterprise D (Star Trek) 63% Heart of Gold (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) 50% Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda) 50% Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica) 44% FBI’s X-Files Division (The X-Files) 25% Which sci-fi crew would you best fit in with? (pics) created with QuizFarm.com

I say “tough” without really meaning that. “Tough” was what those soldiers went through.

We need movies like this to remind us of the frailty of our situation and of the sacrifices that were made by people that we will never know. The movie’s last point was something along the lines of, “These men might have gone to war for their country, but they were fighting for their friends. They did it for their buddies. The guy behind them, and the one up ahead.”

I’d imagine that is very true. I could easily see myself simply wanting to crawl into the safest place I could find, curl up and pretend I was dead. Then when it was all over, get up and go home. The only thing that could push me forward was knowing that my brother was out there and needed my help. I couldn’t hide knowing that he needed me. I just couldn’t. Or, so I think now, warm and safe in my house.

I can’t imagine anything else that could push someone forward against horrible odds and almost certain death. Only the love of another person and the strength that camaraderie can provide.

Our soldiers do that for each other and they do that for us.

My daughter is only three years old. At this age, she really believes that her Papa can save her from anything. In fact, with her hand in mine, she will face the world without a single shred of fear crossing her mind. This is the same luxury that our soldiers have given to us – a true sense of security and peace that allows each and every one of us to wake in the morning and to go to sleep at night without ever having given a single thought to the possibility of being slaughtered by our enemies, simply because we are Americans.

After a movie like this one, or even after hearing a soldier’s story, I’m vividly reminded of those last lines in Saving Private Ryan where, with his last breath, Tom Hanks looks up at Matt Damon and says “Earn this James… Earn this.” He truly gave his life for another and he wanted it to count for something – something good.

I know it is not as direct as that, but I often wonder if I am earning the sacrifice of our soldiers, past and present. Is my life worthy of their suffering? Without those men and women I wouldn’t be – no, couldn’t be - a free man.

We owe them our lives – the lives of our sons and the lives of our daughters. Will I be able to raise my daughter to be worthy of that sacrifice? To the depths of my heart, I hope so.

The one thing I do know is this: our soldiers will protect us anyway.

And for that, I ask that God bless and protect them until they are safe at home with their sons and daughters as well.

This change concludes a total of almost 8 years at Mainsoft, my previous employer.  Leaving Mainsoft was a tough decision, as the people there are some of the brightest and hardest working folks I’ve ever known.  Their products are rock solid and fit a real need in the market.  I’m truly thankful for my time there.  Eight years is a long time though.  I was looking for something with less cross country travel and something that was more indigenous to my home city of Los Angeles.  Enter Artesia!

Artesia focuses on solutions for the digital media ecosystem, meaning primarily providing Digital Asset Management software for companies who work with digital files.  A mouth full, I know…  In a nutshell, Artesia helps companies with huge amounts of digital content (images, video, Photoshop files, InDesign files, etc…) store, index and categorize that content and then provide for easy searching and distribution of it throughout the enterprise and to their partners.

The usage spans across most industries and verticals.  Companies like Major League Baseball use Artesia as the repository and workflow manager for creating their “Condensed Games” on MLB.TV.  A company like Molson Coors uses Artesia to help them manage brand consistency.  Getty Images uses Artesia to underpin their entire editorial division.  Many uses, but a single architecture.  Very flexible, and very neat!

Headquartered out of Rockville, MD (just outside of D.C.), Artesia is the leading company in the Digital Asset Management space.  Their customer list is hugely impressive, and the people have a lot of vision.  Its exciting to move to a new space and start fresh.  Mainsoft will be a tough act to follow, but Artesia seems to be up to the task.

The consensus was they should give the franchise a rest, overwhelmingly. They’d been wringing it out for so long, the ideas were getting less fresh, they needed a period of time to rejuvenate. Everyone expects it to come back, but in 10 years, eight years, giving it time to clean house and let some new ideas be generated.

Indeed, this may not be a bad thing for the franchise, but what about for the fans? The real question is, with Trek out of the picture, Star Wars finshed and the Matrix over, where will SciFi go from here? Battlestar Galactica suddenly seems on center stage – and, it is arguably the best show on television right now. Well, next season, actually.

Topic:
FOXNews.com – Foxlife: Entertainment and Lifestyle News – Fox Features – Star Trek: The Lost Generation

The Ars article pretty quickly dismisses the possibility, throwing it in with a pile of other emergent social phenomena that simply rubbed mainstream society the wrong way.  It then goes on to discuss if gaming can be truly addictive, discusses how addition itself is a poor word in general and ultimately finds that gaming is more on the order of an eating disorder or compulsive gambling than it is with heroine.

Its an interesting article to be sure, and outside of that, you can weigh many good and bad points relating to video games, but I’d like to take a quick step back and revisit the original claim made by the station.

Personally, I think that this is the drug manufacturer calling the dealer evil.  The average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day, compared to roughly 7.5 hours spent gaming all week.  Over 98% of all American homes have a television, yet only 50% of American’s play video games.  Are you seeing a trend here?

This TV station is really saying – “Hey, don’t let your fat-ass bratty kids play too many video games!  Polluting their brains is OUR job!”

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I like TV and I like video games – you don’t have to read my blog for long to know that about me.  But it can be appalling the content that is available in both mediums – allowing your kids to be exposed to some of this stuff, when it is questionable if you should be exposed to it is simple lunacy.

But, I think we all know that.  A kid shouldn’t be playing a game like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in the first place – if you disagree, then you deserve how your children turn out.

My first point is more along the lines of what TV can put into the mind of a child.  There are very few cartoons out there where the parents are even somewhat helpful, let alone play the part of the heroes.  Usually, parents are the bumbling, can’t-be-trusted type that everything needs to be hidden from – be it a secret lab, or a failed test.  “Keep it away from Mom and Dad!”  The parents in many shows are downright stupid, with the kids being the ones who always have to set them straight.  “Thank goodness for that upstart 7 year old!  She’s so spunky!  HAHA!  Good stuff!”  No, not good stuff.  Fathers tend to fare the worst – they’re almost always stupid or angry or petty or square or…  You get the picture.

What does this do to our children?  It programs them for 4 hours every day that Mom and Dad don’t have the answers, aren’t worthy of their respect and certainly don’t require obedience.  Then they turn around and look at us and realize that the TV is probably right! We don’t have our crap together – 50% of us are divorced, of those that aren’t, large percentages are fighting, cheating or working too much.  Kids come from broken homes, have no father or no mother, or even worse, have 2 mommies or 2 daddies.  Even us Christians don’t fare well in these areas – we’re all messed up too!

Raising kids isn’t easy, especially in a two income family – but don’t blame anything or anyone else for how your children turn out.  To be sure, there are a few extenuating circumstances, but the overwhelming majority of disobedient, disrespectful and ill-adjusted children are directly because of a lack of interactive parenting not because of a presence of interactive gaming or crappy television.

While most people would agree with that statement, we still have the social trends to prove that they don’t act on it.  Why? Because it’s HARD work.  It’s longsuffering work.  And for many in society, there are no clear guidelines to follow.  We do what sounds good… Sorta.  Really, we do what feels good, which usually equates with what’s easiest and gives the least amount of friction.

Isn’t taking the “easy” way out practically synonymous with not doing the right thing?  Why then, do we parent that way?  I believe it is a lack of wisdom.

In the greatest book of wisdom ever gathered, Proverbs, there is a passage that has long caused uproar and consternation among many more “enlightened” parents – “spare the rod, spoil the child”, or more correctly:

He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him. (Proverbs, 13:24)

This is often misunderstood and used by weirdoes on both sides to prove completely dissimilar points, neither of which are correct.

In ancient times, a Hebrew man would keep a “rod” or a walking stick.  As he aged, he would carve memories and stories from his life into the wood, creating a repository of everything that he had lived that was worthy of regard.  In a sense, the rod was a container for his wisdom – that which his life had taught him. It would indeed also be used for more mundane things, as any walking stick or staff would be, discipline included.

The point is this – don’t beat your children indiscriminately, but discipline them with careful wisdom, love and understanding.

This doesn’t just mean corporal punishment, but giving them true discipline, in every sense of the word.  Discipline to do things like NOT watch 4 hours of disrespectful television every day.

So, how do we get the wisdom necessary to properly discipline our children?  I believe it starts with God.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. (Proverbs 9:10)

And he said to man,
       ‘The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.’ (Job 28:28)

This isn’t a fear that invokes cringing terror, but rather a spirit of awe, humility and dependence upon our creator.  We learn wisdom by acknowledging that God is who He is – GOD.  By accepting His divine authority and working to understand Him, we gain more wisdom.  Doesn’t this make sense?  The more we acknowledge and understand the creator of the universe, the more we understand how to interact with His creation?

Wisdom is then used to properly discipline our kids so that they aren’t the disobedient, disrespectful and ill-adjusted little children that we all can’t stand and are terrified of raising.

Am I saying I have this all figured out?  Heck no!  I’m learning every day, mess up often, and seek counsel from two different friends that I deeply trust, who have already raised their children in a Godly manner and who have the RESULTS that I would like to see with mine.

So, who is more to blame for the breakdown of juvenile society? The people that cram our children full of disobedient, violent, “kids always know better” images for 2 full months out of every year, or the people who make games that give you more points for screwing hookers and shooting police officers in the head for only half a month out of every year?

Obviously neither – it’s the parents.