Be Dangerous

…more signs…

TimesPicayuneStatesItem cutting printing to 3 days a week.
Detroit to shut off half of its streetlights.
Having seen Robocop, I’m not surprised about Detroit, but TPSI going down kinds stings.  McKenzies, Schwegmann’s, Katz&Besthoff – you will live forever in my memories.

Have we really come to this?

Confession: I seriously and without sarcasm used the phrase “the semantics of the metadata” the other day.  Eww.

(Hey, isn’t that Damascus off in the distance?
Aw crap, I didn’t want to go there.)

Just Sayin’, y’know?

sticky

my Verbose List of Essential WordPress Stuff

• (n)AMP server with ftp-server (theme/widget/updater works via ftp). FWIW, I use pure-ftp and pureAdmin. I like the flexible Virtual Users and use 1 user for each site/dir.
• WordPress itself. Currently using 3.3.something.
• A

How to make your site invisible to Google

…because why would you want anyone to go to your website, right?

<disclaimer: if you think I misuse some piece of
terminology or am just plain wrong, you still don’t
get the right to punch me in the jaw or anything.  >

Thoughts on 2012 Repub Primary process

The Very Poor? Sir, I care not for the Very Poor, for they have safety nets sufficient unto their kind – and if they break, do we not fix them?

Behold our works and take pride! Are the vomitoria not brimming, that the Very Poor can in their turn sup on the bounty of our Great Nation?

-Mitt Romney, 2012

G.O.P: What to do now?

 

Well, Mr./Mrs. Conservative American, Romney seems destined to win the Republican Primary process.  Many of us are unhappy with this result, and there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth on all quarters.

Let’s take a breath and calm down – what has Romney won? What have the other candidates lost?  Nothing other than the right to lose to Barack Obama in an election that will make history.

What to do now?

Well, is anything actually any different? At the outset of the primary process it was apparent that whoever was selected from the process would require a very strong house and senate to keep him in line.

If that means cheerleading a neo-Reagan to victory, great. If that means working to attain a Veto-proof Congress that stands against the “progressive” onslaught of a second Obama term, so be it.

That Veto-proof Congress needs to be the Next Big Thing in Tea-Party-ite circles. But it must not be the only Next Thing.

The Republican party is in a shambles, torn by divisions between the Theocrats, the Big Govt soft-socialists, and the still-actualizing Tea Party Conservative Revivalist movement.

Tachikoma arms

Arm comparison. Is Smooth or Flat shading better?

More work on the Tachikoma.

Mine is on the left, and has been selectively Smooth Shaded.

The finger parts were the toughest parts of this batch, though they might not look it.

Furthermore, the fingers are really very simplified compared to the opening sequence of the series.

Tachikoma Hand Reference

Also, the original model had a cylindrical drum-magazine that look weird and out of place – so I deleted it. I now see that there is in fact a magazine attached to the arm (though not much like that in the source model). That definitely has to be added. Total redo of the fingers will just have to wait till its time to start a second, much more detailed version.

Looks like the flat light grey texture will need to be upgraded to a shiny metal at some point as well.

Tachikoma progress

So far so good, I suppose:
I’ve been able to reduce the vertex-count by roughly half without sacrificing detail.
Biggest Problem so far:

• Boolean modifiers. Cutting a cylindrical hole into a mesh produces really nasty streaky junk around the edge of the boolean-cut, where blender makes many small faces.With Shading set to smooth, it looks uneven and puckered. (click the images for larger version, to see the problem more clearly.)

• Looks organically wrong. Or wrongly organic.	Flat shading. Totally angular, dude!	Smooth, with flat shading on the faces surrounding the cut-outs. Best I can get 😦