notsunil.com

BRILLIANTISM: I'M GOING TO EXPLAIN THIS EPISODE OF FRINGE

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:34:55 -0700

BRILLIANTISM: I'M GOING TO EXPLAIN THIS EPISODE OF FRINGE:

While Lost shuffled towards the coffin in its own cluttered attic, Fringe remodeled the high rise of its own intent. You can’t envy Lost’s endgame responsibilities; the show had to light as many peace pipes possible. Lost allowed for Fringe, but that doesn’t make it fair to compare the finales, or…

While I actually really, really, enjoyed the LOST finale, I definitely agree that FRINGE is awesome. I actually was enjoying FRINGE more than LOST in this last season. Finale-wise you are right; you can’t compare them. LOST was emotional and ended really well in my opinion. However it was the character interactions is what made it great, not necessarily the plot.

With FRINGE, it was just amazingly good Sci-Fi. The ideas they have are just plain cool. I too hope they focus more on the main storyline and less on the “monster of the week.” However even those work for me just because of John Noble. That guy can act. His portrayals of Walter and Walternate are so good that it’s really easy to think of them as two separate people.

Also I’m disappointed that Nimoy decided to retire from acting. It was really great to see him doing sci-fi again.

Great write-up.

What do they say?

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 16:42:38 -0700

That’s the comeback the corn industry has to the bad reputation High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) has (You know what they say). It’s always really bugged me the way the commercial makes the detractor some uneducated person and then the smart person sets him straight.

How about this Princeton study then?

When rats are drinking high-fructose corn syrup at levels well below those in soda pop, they’re becoming obese — every single one, across the board. Even when rats are fed a high-fat diet, you don’t see this; they don’t all gain extra weight.

I myself am proof of this. I wasn’t an overweight kid in India, but when I came to America I drank a lot of soda as a kid. It was like water to me and as a result, I started becoming overweight over the years. I wasn’t eating all that terribly and no more than friends of mine, but I was gaining weight easily. About 7-8 months ago, I completely cut out soda and also kept an eye out for anything else that had HFCS in it. Well… there are A LOT of things that have HFCS in them. I read labels and if I saw HFCS listed as an ingredient, I moved on.

Today, I’m roughly 20 lbs lighter without really exercising at all. Granted I also changed other aspects of my diet, but cutting out HFCS made a big difference. I don’t miss soda at all. The last time I tried it, it just tasted overly sweet. That’s another thing; our sense of taste has been dulled over the years to require more and more sweetener (salt too!). Having cut overly sweet drinks, I can now taste more subtleties in foods.

I’ve slowly seen HFCS removed from products over the years, but until we get rid of corn subsidies, we’re not going to see a complete overturn of the food industry. We’ve got health on the mind this week and this one change would change the health of so many people for the better.

Begun, the phone war, has.

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:09:31 -0800

Steve Jobs has been fairly vocal lately about what he thinks of Google. He’s been quoted as saying that Google’s “Don’t be evil” company policy is BS and that Google is out to destroy the iPhone. Now I can’t confirm or deny that Google is evil, but I can say one thing about Google wanting to destroy the iPhone… Duh? Google is a competitor and up until a few days ago, a fairly civil one. I don’t think that it was coincidence that Google announced multi-touch for their apps on Android (only the Nexus One for now) the day that Jobs called their policy BS. Of course Jobs’ remark was made after Google CEO Eric Schmidt made this comment about the iPad “You might want to tell me the difference between a large phone and a tablet.” So the once partners (Eric Schmidt used to be on Apple’s board) and then friendly rivals are now just plain rivals.

This can only be good for consumers. Google has got a fire lit under them now and will be cranking out the Android updates as fast as they can. Meanwhile maybe Apple will find the magic that is supposed to be in the iPad. Of course they can’t just forget about the iPhone. And on that front they have introduced even more rules into the app store. Developers can now, no longer make reference to Android (like if their app won the Android Developer Challenge) in their app descriptions or apps themselves. They have digitally thrown down the gauntlet.

I’m also interested to see what Microsoft comes up with in their mobile devision. They knocked it out of the the park with the Zune HD so a phone based on that would be pretty incredible. Microsoft became complacent and content with their place in the mobile world until Apple came and unleashed the iPhone. Apple is in danger of doing just what Microsoft did; that is, stagnate and assume that you will always be the leader.

It’s going to be an interesting year and I personally can’t wait for the upcoming throw-down of innovation and technology.

________________________________________________________________

I actually wrote this about a week ago and now saw this infographic that sums it up pretty well.

If hypocrisy was distilled into a person...

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:32:00 -0800

… that person would be Sarah Palin.

She keeps doing the same thing over and over and they keep buying it. She’s not even subtle in her manipulation and she’s succeeding. I feel like I could very easily put folksy words along with hyperbole, fake outrage, and “easy fixes” to make a speech that would have the RNC following me to the ends of the earth… Hmmm… That’s not a bad idea. Let me start my speech.

“Hopey changey, Alaska, maverick, socialism, drill baby drill, war, lower taxes that will magically make our deficit disappear, fear, propaganda…”

Is it working? Are they behind me? You’re right; It’s not worth it.

Colbert says it best, as Colbert always does.

The Colbert Report

If I’ve learned one thing from Sarah Palin… it’s that Sarah Palin is always right and never does anything wrong of her own free will. People are just “out to get her” because she’s such a “radical thinker.” She’s a radical something, but I’m not sure “thinker” is the right word. Also, I’ve been using the word “satire” incorrectly this whole time! Who knew? Sarah Palin, that’s who.

Possible?

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:23:19 -0800

Maybe I will start posting regularly again. It could happen.

iReasons

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:13:00 -0800

If you have to think of a reason for it… you don’t need it. This is basically my feeling towards the… I’m just gonna call it the iTab. I’ve seen sites posting reasons why the iTab is actually really amazing and groundbreaking, but if you have to tell me why I need to have it and what I would use it for; then I just plain don’t need it.

The argument I’ve heard is that the iTab is the device that is in between a smart phone and a netbook. Alright… so what’s going to be in between the smart phone and the iTab? What do you mean we don’t need anything between those two devices? I didn’t think we needed something between a smartphone and a netbook either. Now if the iTab was actually revolutionary software-wise, then things would be different.

Want to see a revolutionary idea for a tablet from another company? An idea that actually looks amazing and useful; and not just a smart phone with a larger screen slapped on.

This little leaked video from Microsoft for the Courier is what I can get behind. I personally still wouldn’t have a use for it, but at the very least I could see productive people using it to make their job or life easier and more organized. The iTab is almost literally an iPhone with a larger screen. And like I said before… I don’t care how good an an screen keyboard is; it will never feel as good as something physical.

Let’s all just agree this was a bad idea and forget about it. It can join Nintendo’s Virtual Boy, Microsoft’s WebTV, in the big technology wasteland in the sky.

iPad...

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:59:09 -0800

Here’s my problem with this…. everything.

It’s is essentially a large iPod Touch/iPhone; meaning it still doesn’t multi-task and it still doesn’t have flash. The phone in my pocket multi-tasks and will soon have flash. Who out there wants a larger version of their phone? My phone (Nexus One) is more capable than an iPhone, but even I don’t want a larger version of it. At that size I want a full blown OS to play with. And who like typing on a screen? Be honest. Steve Jobs thinks netbooks don’t have a place, but that the iPad does. I think Steve Jobs is counting on hype to carry a mediocre product and bad idea (He might be right, but I hope intelligence prevails.).

I’ll be honest; I was somewhat excited at the prospect of a large touch screen device that Apple thought of. I didn’t know what purpose it would have, but I figured maybe Apple would create a purpose for it. What we got instead was a lazy idea. It is the Zack Morris iPhone. Why not put a full blown OSX on there? That would be far more compelling and drool worthy.

For $500 I can get the best netbook out there or a pretty nice small and low power laptop. All of which can do a whole lot more than this iPad.

I also really don’t like saying iPad.

Yes, Colbert! Yes!

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:52:28 -0800

Also. In case you haven’t seen this. It’s the index that should have been in Palin’s book. http://www.slate.com/id/2235917/

"Is this email really from the IRS?"

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:04:00 -0800

I get questions like this from people at my work quite often and I figured I would address and educate people about it so that you don’t fall for it.

Here is what the email looks like

Taxpayer ID: your_name-00000660988660US

Tax Type: INCOME TAX

Issue: Unreported/Underreported Income (Fraud Application)

Please review your tax statement on Internal Revenue Service (IRS) website (click on the link below):

Internal Revenue Service
review tax statement for taxpayer id: your_name-00000660988660US

Now the first thing people probably do is get a bit scared and maybe even wonder if it’s legitimate. The first thing to do when you get emails like this is think. Is the IRS really going to email you about this? No, they are going to mail you a physical letter about it informing you that you’re probably going to get audited.

Now if that doesn’t wipe your fears we can get some solid proof right here. If you hover your mouse over that link you should see what it goes to in the bottom of your browser somewhere. I have of course removed the link and put in a phrase, but I just want people to know where to look first of all.

Next up is the anatomy of a URL. Up at the top you should be seeing http://blog.notsunil.com/. That is because I own notsunil.com and that is what matters here. Actually what really matters here is reading URLS right to left. However, all we need to focus on is inbetween “http://” and the first ‘/’ after that. To the left of that first ‘/’ after “http://” is “.com” and if I were a goverment orginization, then I would have a “.gov”. Now you think you know where I’m going with this, but just wait. So no one can control the .gov or .org or .com part of their domain. That part is controlled by ICANN. What we can do is create a string of letters and numbers that may or may not form a word or phrase and put it in front of a .com and so forth. I purchased “notsunil” in the “.com” space and I can do so for others such as .biz and .net. I can’t however buy a “.gov” as that is reserved for goverement sites. Other countries of course have their own domain level. Japan has “.jp” so a “.com” in Japan is actually “.co.jp”, the UK has “.co.uk” and so on.

So I can’t choose anything for what comes after notsunil and before that 3rd ‘/’, but I control the notsunil.com domain which means I can make and put anything I want in front of notsunil. Such as this site which is blog.notsunil.com and my old WordPress site at tech.notsunil.com (which was orginally intended for these types of articles). So knowing this I can create www.irs.gov.notsunil.com and… well okay I hope no one would be fooled by that. But here is what the scammers do. They buy a domain name that is a random string like eaedejssad.org.uk (this is almost exactly the domain used for the IRS scam I was asked about today. I just added 2 letters). Now from this we can tell that this domain is supposedly in the uk, but other than that it’s just random letters. How is this useful? Well how about www.irs.gov.eaedejssad.org.uk Now that just might be enough to fool people who don’t know how domain levels work. Everything before that random string, including the www was created by them.

Here’s another trick that the information bar at the bottom of your browser is useful for. Say I put up a link or email a link to someone. I can have it say http://ww w.g oog le.com/ and that looks perfectly normal right? But hover over it and you can see that it is clearly not google.com. Sometimes it might look simmilar though. So maybe it would be gooogle.com and people would just glance over it. Now some blog services such as Tumblr, actually have measures in place to prevent someone from doing this little switcharoo. It will actually replace the url you have typed with the actual URL. As you can see, however, their measures are easily circumvented by anyone who knows even basic HTML. In fact the method I used would probably pass right by most filters designed to look for this kind of thing (those curious can view source and ctrl+f “lmgtfy” to see how I did it). And if I came up with it, you can be sure the scammers have too. The only sure way to know is to hover over the link and look down there to make sure it’s right.

Well I hope this has armed some of you with the knowledge to protect yourself. And when in doubt… http://lmgtfy.com/

Let's bring it back

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:35:00 -0800

I know I’ve been M.I.A. for a while…. that’s the military term not the singer. Let’s try and make up for some of that today.

Start of with a nice dose of Jon Stewart. Here he is doing a great parody of Glenn Beck for over 8 minutes.

I thought maybe you were cool deep down, McCain

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:06:00 -0700

I was wrong.

McCain is looking to block Net Neutrality with the “Internet Freedom Act.” Now this sounds an awful lot like Net Neutrality and I’m 100% sure it was designed to do just that and confuse people. What they really mean is freedom for the corporations to do whatever they want with the internet. Maybe Comcast will start a tier system. Basic internet for $60. Oh you want to watch videos? You’re going to need the expanded package that’s $100. Oh and you have to watch the video on our site because we don’t support Hulu. The only thing keeping Comcast and all the other ISP’s from doing just this, is the fear that it will end in net neutrality laws being passed. Now, if this “Internet Freedom (for corporate America) Act” is passed, then that fear is removed. Is McCain for the people or for Corporate America? Republicans keep talking about how they work for the people, but their actions time and time again prove otherwise.

Thankfully, Obama likes net neutrality and it is one of his higher priorites, so I’m not too worried. It’s still just such a slap in the face from McCain.

Edit:

I feel like I need to explain myself a bit more. The main argument in this “Internet Freedom Act” is that government shouldn’t be allowed to control the internet. Ummm… yes, they should. Much like the goverment controls our roadways they should be able to control the pipes that carry our internet traffic. What if GM built it’s own roads? And then only let it’s own cars use it or charged other people with other makes of cars money to use their roads? The fact is that goverment NEEDS to control certain things. If people are so anti-goverment, then stop using roads, going to national parks, borrowing from the library, and stop using the internet. The goverment… The U.S. government created the Internet. It’s all right here. One of the greatest invetions of our time came from a goverment program. But I digress.

If anyone can come up with a valid argument as to why corporations should control roadways, then yes, by all means lets close up the internet and let the corporations decide how we should use it.

Did it get cold?

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:30:00 -0700

Bill O’Reilly making sense?! Why couldn’t he have been this way the whole time? It’s been the case for a long time that, as John Stewart said, “They hate Obama more than they love America.” But right here in this clip Bill O actually makes the point (ON FOX NEWS!) that Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize, deserved or not, is a good thing for America.

Yes, he hasn’t accomplished anything major, but he has the will. He’s looking for the way and the world just showed that he (and the U.S.) has their support. Is it basically a “Thanks for not being G.W. Bush?” Maybe. Doesn’t change the fact that it’s good for America. Bill actually does a pretty good job of making the point… I know… I’m pinching myself too.

On another note. Yes, there has been a lack of updates. I hope to change that this week.

"As soon as we lose the moral basis, we cease to be religious. There is no such thing as religion..."

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:44:19 -0700

““As soon as we lose the moral basis, we cease to be religious. There is no such thing as religion over-riding morality. Man, for instance, cannot be untruthful, cruel or incontinent and claim to have God on his side.””

- Mohandas Gandhi

Glenn Beck

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:58:40 -0700

How does he still have a TV show? Oh right… he has an “audience.”

I kind of want to punch him. I can’t wait for the future when idiots like him will be less and less. Though I do know plenty of people in my generation who subscribe to his views. Honestly, can’t we all just get along? Oh right. No, we can’t.

South Park still has it right. If we get rid of race and religion we will still find something to fight over and divide us. Can’t we just have “American culture?” Why does it need to be white culture or black culture? Asian culture or hispanic culture? I’m from India, but I consider myself American. Something tells me Glenn Beck has a problem with that because I wasn’t born here.

You don't tell MUSE what to do.

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:41:00 -0700

You’d think tv stations would know by now that you don’t tell MUSE how to perform.

A long time ago they played live on a UK tv station called Radio 3 and the station asked that they not curse in their song. Matt was pretty insulted since he’s never cursed in any of his songs and so decided to replace an entire verse with the f word.

@ 1:34 if you don’t want to listen to the whole song… which is actually a really good song.

Now just yesterday they performed uprising on an Italian tv station and they were asked to lip sync their song instead of playing it live. Being an actual band that doesn’t lip sync, they were once again insulted, but this time they caved and did as they were asked…

Hilarious and awesome and so punk rock… Now if you don’t know MUSE… umm… get to know them. But basically they all switched places. Matt who normally is shredding guitar and vocals is now faking drums, Chris who normally is ripping up the bass is fake shredding guitar and keys, and Dom who normally is effortlessly laying down the beats, is slappin’ da bass and doing a really amazing job of lip synching to Matt’s vocals.

I love this band.

MUSE!!!

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 23:05:22 -0700

Been on vacation, but had to post this.

Here it is. The only reason I braved MTV was to watch the VMAs for MUSE’s performance. I ended up sitting through a lot, like Kanye continuing to be an egotistical waste of anything and everything. I really didn’t care about any of the actual awards, but to take away some one’s moment like that is so… what’s the word?.. Heartless. If you don’t know what I’m talking about I’m sure you will soon enough or head here and see the vid. Beyonce is a class act though and did her part to try and right the wrong.

Anyway… on to the MUSE!

Here we have their live U.S. TV debut with “Uprising”

Matt almost seems nervous at first, which is weird since they’ve played to sold out crowds at Wembly Stadium.

We get some bonus songs online though! I know they played a lot more at their mini gig in N.Y., but this is all we get for now. Both of these are from their new album.

The title track “Resistance”

And “United State of Eurasia”

That’s all we get for now… Just two days now and the actual album will be mine!

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:34:07 -0700

Haven’t talked politics in a while. Mostly because it’s so infuriating that I’ve stayed away. I really hate when people use the word socialism though. Do they really know what it is? Do they realize that we have plenty of socialist programs already in place? I know of at least one that the people against health care reform aren’t against. A little socialist program called The U.S. Military. I know you guys love that one and I do too. We need a military. Want more examples? How about jails, police, firemen, libraries? It’s just the tip. Think about all these government run programs that use your tax dollars. Why don’t I get mad that MY tax dollars were spent to put out the fire at some other person’s house? Isn’t that pretty much the same as me getting mad that MY tax dollars were used to get someone the medical care they needed? Of course the same people that are getting mad about the thought of their tax dollars being spent to save lives are the same people who have no problem and in fact supported the ending of lives in a needless war.

These same people that love the government run military are the same that say the government can’t run anything and so will not be able to run a public health care system. These people might need to look into a little something called the U.S. Postal Service. It is a model of efficiency. If you look here you can see that they are entirely self-sufficient. They don’t make a profit, the actually break even… or close enough. I think a deficit of $0.60 is close enough to even. I’m sure people have dropped more than that on the floors of various post offices.

So can we please drop this whole “We’re turning into socialists” nonsense. We have certain socialist programs and we should have at least one more. Capitalism will still thrive. If you seriously think we are on the road to becoming communist, please have your head examined. Communism is an extreme version of socialism… and we’re not even close to a socialist society! The only legitimate reason you should be scared about health care reform is if you run a health insurance company. But even then they will still have enough people who don’t want a public option and so will survive. Other than that, the idea of a future communist U.S.A is just… inconceivable.

The "Dinosaur Comics" of flash games.

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:41:07 -0700

The "Dinosaur Comics" of flash games.:

And for those who don’t know Dinosaur Comics… well here you go.

I welcome our new ball dribbling, pen spinning, cellphone catching, robot overlords.

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 07:00:00 -0700

I love when an article goes back and references The O.C. This article is talking about tv dads and,...

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:35:06 -0700

I love when an article goes back and references The O.C. This article is talking about tv dads and, rightfully so, Sandy Cohen is recognized.

From the article:

“It’s a tough choice with all the TV dads out there, but the real sleeper in the competition for best seems to be Sandy Cohen. Sure, the series had all the indicators of a complete chick-drama, but if you actually sat down to watch more than five minutes of it you were hooked for the duration, and for good reason. Sandy was cast as the perfect dad, there just wasn’t any way around it with the ridiculous amount of drama that scripts kept flinging his way throughout the show. One small moment of many came when his son Seth was down about a particularly unfunny friend ruining his jokes. Instead of the usual P.C. spiel that most parents feel obliged to give (don’t be so harsh, some people just aren’t as funny as you, blah, blah, blah), Sandy gave it to him straight. “Gentiles. I love your mother more than words, but not funny. Get yourself some funnier friends.” His method of brutal but jovial honesty always made for good advice.”

Now the article isn’t completely right. Seth wasn’t down about this new “friend” ruining his jokes. He was more down about the fact that the girl he liked thought this guy was funny. So basically there’s a new friend in the group who makes terrible, unsubtle, ”big” jokes that people seem to laugh at, but Seth doesn’t find funny. Neither does Sandy and actually comments to Seth in the kitchen “Boy that kid is not funny.” To which Seth gives a look that says ”Thank you!” Until that point Seth thought he just didn’t get it. He got the dialog right though. Sandy did in fact tell his son to get funnier friends.