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I know Jay SecretCodeNamedBlogger loves Jack Chick. I also know that he loves H.P. Lovecraft and wrote numerous Metal Ballads to the fiction (and nonfiction) works of Lovecraft during his college days. Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the Cthulhu Tract, a loving dedication to Jack Chick and Lovecraft.

::unoriginal::

This latest effort is my largest and perhaps best-planned painting. “Untitled Masterpiece 3b,” as it’s affectionately referred to around the house, weighs in at 67x50cm. is the standard acrylic on wood. I don’t have much else to say about this other than the fact that it’s my most sincere attempt at creating something that’s supposed to be cute, lovable, and dark.

Enjoy.

T-Mobile released their G1 Android-running phone as promised yesterday. The G1 takes a few pop shots at the iPhone 3g and will be exclusively available through T-Mobile.

Here are some rough specs:
- Amazon mobile music store (press release) preloaded on the G1.
- Built in keyboard. Google Maps. Android Market, YouTube
- Launch on October 22nd
- No tethering option
- SIM-locked to T-Mobile
- Read Word, PDF, Excel files. No exchange compatibility, but 3rd parties could bring it.
- GMail is push, IMAP is pull
- No desktop application to sync
- Interface video
- Specs: 480×320 screen, 3.1MP camera, 5hrs talk time, 1GB MicroSD card preinstalled, GPS, accelerometer. Wi-Fi. 3G. Bluetooth.
- $179 with 2 year contract

Additionally, the phone has a minimal music playback system, though in theory someone could throw one on the “open” application store.

::More_Here::

Best thing I’ve seen in a looong time.

Chrome’s lack of mac support is a surprising gap in what’s thought to be the revitalization of the browser wars. Google’s open source browser was released over a week ago and their has been no word of a mac version. CodeWeavers, the pep-peps of the CrossOver suites, which bring game, utilities, and other programs from a supported operating system (windows) to an unsupported one (mac, linux). CodeWeavers describes their effort, CrossOver Chromium, simply as “a Mac and Linux port of the open source Chromium web browser. CrossOver Chromium is available for download from CodeWeavers, free of charge.” CrossOver Chromium is emulated via Wine.

I’ve done little more than fired up the program a few times, but the app runs as promised, bringing a chrome experience to the mac. Unfortunately, at this time said experience is filled with a chewy windows-UI center. Nevertheless, it is Chrome, it is on a mac, and it does give a feel for how the browser will hopefully one day work on my computer without emulation. Despite some of the ugly eye candy, such as that windows hour glass, unaliased and unsmoothed fonts, and some terrible load times, it beats drooling over a friend’s computer trying to cop a feel.

::Get it here::

After a big publicity blitz for the startup of the LHC, one of the experiments was attacked by hackers:

WIRED article

It’s my understanding that no (serious) harm was done. Still, it’s only “no harm” like someone breaking into your house and not taking anything. There isn’t much valuable to take from these experiments (no bomb blueprints). But one alluring feature is the shitload of computers with an unbelievable connection speed, great for making a zombie horde for a denial of service attack.

Couple shows about some amazing survival stories:

#1. Guy wakes up, smells something funny, has trouble breathing, notices all metal in his home is melting. Wife is almost dead. Train had crashed nearby and chlorine gas was leaking out. 911 and rescue services give conflicting and incorrect/dangerous advice, lie to him a couple times, inform his son he’ll be shot if he tries to save his folks. 8 hours later he and his wife get rescued, though several others in his family die. 2 parts, 20 min.

#2. Pilot is flying home (as civilian) in a plane when something goes wrong, he is called into the cockpit to assist. His actions lead to the first case in which anyone survives a complete loss of hydraulic systems, let alone an engine as well. Following the crash the black box info is entered into simulators… after 29 attempts in which every person on board dies they have to ask the recovering captain what the heck he did. 6 parts, 55 min. Errol Morris directs.

The media focus seems to be on Rourke, but it sounds like Mr. Aaronofsky (of Pi and Requiem… fame, Fountain infamy) has had something of a comeback with his film The Wrestler, which I would see as good news. I didn’t particularly doubt the possibility of other awesome movies, more the ability to get funding for them. This could help that. Either way Ebert and others are saying good things, and the Onion’s avclub helpfully points out that its Aaronofsky’s funniest film yet. Sweet.

Death Magnetic comes out tomorrow but you can hear the whole thing on their site.

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Blizzard posted their opening cinematic for the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. I still haven’t played WoW, thank god, but I love their cinematics, and this one’s cool even for them.

They also posted more artwork for DIII, and a “blizzcast” where they discuss the making of DIII with the game’s lead designer. I haven’t listened to this yet, but hearing the designer of Starcraft II discuss the game back in episode 3 was pretty cool so I look forward to this.