It’s that thing you tell yourself only happens to other people…until it happens to you. Yup, on Friday my laptop hard drive crashed, and with it quite a bit: my vacation pictures, my freelance work for the past few months, the cure for cancer. Sigh.

Fortunately, the hard drive is covered under an extended warranty, so I’m getting a new hard drive in two weeks. Unfortunately, the data recovery (if it works) is setting me back $650. In the meanwhile, I’m on my PC (it got backed up as soon as I got on it) and keeping my eyes peeled on any available MacBooks to migrate to.

It’s amazing to see how independent one can be with the Internet. I lost my bank account pins as well as the username/logins for several accounts, but these loses are all remedied thanks to one or two main e-mail addresses. My bookmarks are on del.icio.us (although my collection of RSS Feeds aren’t), And all of my thesis work looks to be backed up.

Of course, anyone who knows me knows I’m going nuts without working. I don’t know how many more Madden games I can take…

It’s funny how all of these articles on Netflix throttling have really exposed what’s behind those movie delays in the mail. Suddenly, with grad school completed, there’s time again to watch movies! But along with that are those purposeful delays in shipping.
Oh well, onto what this post is about. My best rental of late was Lord of War. No U.S. studio willing to back a film that stars Nicholas Cage? That’s almost a formula for success in my book.

The other film I rented that has remained somewhat under the radar was The Shape of Things by Neil LaBute. I missed the play in NYC but finally caught this film (albeit three years late) and loved it. My wife was disgusted by it, but polarized opinions are to be expected with LaBute’s work.

Overall, I’m wondering if it’s just my tastes or if the indie film industry should attempt a coup. The music industry appears to be making a huge shift thanks to the online sales and communities like MySpace; maybe it’s time for the film industry to review its distribution methods. How about premiering films online for starters? Of course, big names would have to be tied onto such projects, but it doesn’t look like the theater business is really working anymore, and some alternative ideas wouldn’t hurt.

What’s inspires people to invest so much time in recreating things like this? Is 15KB of Internet fame what it’s all about? Brokeback Mountain via Legos, Classic NES games via Lego…Maybe I’m reading too much BoingBoing.

New York Magazine has a fascinating article on creating a successful formula at creating an A-list blog. Sadly, I’m never going to be on the short end of the power law distribution, but that’s just fine with me because I have no interest in going for mainstream gossip or modifying my posting style to a specific niche audience. Bit-101 used to segment his blog posts into a Flash and personal blog, but it looks like that died quick. I can’t really blame him, because it’d probably be pretty annoying. Well, if any bloggers that read this are shooting for being a millionaire, though, read this article and create your chance!

I started re-subscribing to Engadget (I don’t know why I stopped) and got caught up in the news for the Nintendo DS. A TV Tuner and a Web Browser, oh my! Upon seeing the article, I realized that Nintendo did go ahead and correct that industrial (yucko!) product design by releasing a more ergonomic case (who knows when America will see it, if we see it).

That got me looking for a press release on the new design, which somehow led me to this article on converting the Nintendo DS into a PDA.
There are always those nuts willing to rip apart technology and reuse it for their own purposes. I should know, as I went to a school where a guy carried a wireless Ma’ Bell rotary. Why doesn’t a video game company make that more accessible to the rest of the world? Embrace user customization! Publish documentation! This train of thought has been experimented with the “create your own character” in Madden, or the build your own dungeon of Warcraft, but I’m talking about the no holes barred, source code release. Id ultimately did this with Quake, and look at all the crazy mods out there.
Not profitable, you say? It could be, if utilized correctly. Manufacturers can develop, build, and sell the product, and then publish documentation on how to hack it. That alone would encourage a user base to build upon itself, and when innovations arise, Manufacturers can publish (and sell) a new build.

It’s optimistic, I know. But wouldn’t it be cool program your own iPod OS with the security that you’re getting documentation from the source?

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Originally uploaded by mandalatv.

A picture of my friends Robin and Chris at John’s Pizza in Midtown Manhattan after attending a Late Show taping. It’d have to be someone from hundreds of miles away (Robin) to get me to travel across the pond to finally see Letterman. I took this unflattering picture to see how my new phone would handle low lighting.

I feel like I went from zero to 160 technology-wise. All of the mobile development at ITP made me feel a bit long in the tooth, being that I’d never sent a text message until last month and had a very plain-jane phone. That changed today as I received my Nokia Series 60 6682 Smart Phone. The phone comes with an Opera Browser, a 1.3 megapixel camera, and Bluetooth.

I’m planning on experimenting with some Flash Lite 2.0 development and hope to add a feature on Beyond Second that allows for photo e-mail submissions. I’m proud to say that I posted this through Flickr+WordPress (cool feature!) and just registered with Dodgeball.com today. My phone number? I stuck with a 717 area code (Central PAers, there’s hope of me moving back yet!).

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Originally uploaded by mandalatv.

One of the first pictures taken with my new cell phone. We were in line for Letterman with a few friends from JPL.

I took some time off of my Harry Potter marathon to read Rushkoff‘s latest book, Get Back in the Box: Innovation from the Inside Out. I found it a little slow to start, probably because I’m familiar with the material after spending two semesters in Rushkoff’s classes (or because it wasn’t set at Hogwart’s).

Fortunately, the later chapters of the book flew by, and I hope this book dispells that all-too-common phrase used by advertisers and marketers (Oh, how sick I am of requests for another Subservient Chicken!). Apparently, more of them need to read this book, as it points out how looking at the competition almost always makes for unoriginal ideas, not to mention that those new ideas are now confined by the inspiration’s limitations.

Rushkoff also focuses on how play is more important than killing off the competition. I suppose this chapter was particularly funny to me because I know of two companies in Harrisburg that exemplify these different philosophies–one based on play and another on defeating the competition. While I’m still working on the perfect business formulat, I know that back home the players are still winning this game.

There’s just something about learning anatomy with actual cadavers. My amazement with the exhibition didn’t set in until the day after, but I would definitely recommend Bodies: The Exhibition at the South Street Seaport if you can make it (order tickets online and do a Web search for a 15 percent-off promo code). The cadavers are all people who’ve donated their bodies to science, and the bodies themselves are preserved using a polymer that replaces the water and fat. Of particular interest are the artery and vein systems that can be constructed (and separated) from the rest of the body through this process. The exhibition also does a good showing just how many ways to display a cross-section of a human body.

So what was the grossest thing I saw? It’s easily an example of an ovarian teratoma, which I’m not about to describe here.

I’m just glad I don’t have to dig my car out until I head to Harrisburg on Friday.