Just set up server monitoring with host-alert.com to alert me when my server goes down..

We just had a video created for Web Lite Translation service and the results are stunning. The video was produced by Go2Video Productions. I was absolutely amazed at both the speed and quality of their work. We gave them a whole slough of information about our service and in only a couple of days they came up with a nice, succinct message that was appropriate for a one minute video. If I ever need a video created again I won’t hesitate to call Go2Video Productions.

You can see the video on the Web Lite Translation Corp. website.

I have just released a new tool for managing publications lists and embedding them in web pages. It manages publications in BibTeX format so it is especially useful for researchers already using bibtex to manage their publications.

You can see a sample of a publications list here.

Link: BibTeX Publications Management System.

I have used my PHPBB Usenet Bridge to set up an Automobile Forums Site that syndicates all of the main automobile forums on usenet.

I have been watching Hunter Season 1 over the past few days. I had forgotten just how corny that show was. Good quality 80’s corn.

It’s not the Republicans calling Obama a socialist that has my blood boiling. It is the fact that they believe that this is serious accusation that, if proven true, would be damning of Obama. If Obama were a socialist, it would mean he was an enemy of the state deserving prison time.

At least that’s what it sounds like when you listen to Fox News and other Republicans fear mongering about Obama’s supposed “socialism”. Listening to interviews with Republican supporters, I have heard the following misconception preached over and over again:

“They are worried that Barrack Obama will turn the United States into a socialist republic like Sweden, rather than the democracy that they have and currently cherish.”

Where do I begin?

1. Socialism is not the opposite of democracy. It isn’t even concerned with the same subject. Socialism refers to a collection of economic theories that advocate shared ownership and administration of resources, and the creation of an egalitarian regime (i.e. all men equal). Democracy is a form of government where the people hold the power, and there is a free electoral system. There exist socialist democracies. There also exist capitalist dictatorships. There is no connection between socialism and democracy.

2. If you read Obama’s policies, there is no way you can mistake them for socialism. I think that socialists would be quite insulted to be grouped together with a capitalist like Obama.

3. Sweden has a higher standard of living than the US.

I could probably go further.

But it is important for Americans to know how little they know about these topics. All this socialist talk boils down to Republicans trying to scare people with a word that they have been brainwashed to fear their entire lives.

I hope that the next generation of republicans will grow out of these ignorant beliefs.

I recently purchased the latest Indiana Jones DVD. As expected it contains a couple of documentaries about the making of the movie containing interviews with the cast and crew.

In watching the interviews I spotted two red flags that indicate where the cancer began to eat away at this movies chances to reach its potential.

1. George Lucas said that he wanted to change the genre from the 1930’s serials to the 1950’s alien sci-fi’s. He thought that this would be a nice parallel since the originals took place in the 30’s and this one takes place in the 50’s.

Perhaps the next movie can be a 1960’s musical a la Mary Poppins. This would be the perfect parallel since it will take place in the 1960’s.

2. Stephen Spielberg said that he didn’t want to do anything new with this film as it should be a blood relative of the original trilogy. He just wanted to make a nice movie for the fans to relive the originals.

This apparently flies in the face of what George Lucas was trying to do with the genre switch (and the friction was evident in the interviews), but more importantly it makes it sound like Spielberg handcuffed himself going into the flick. The thing that made the originals great were that they captivated the imagination of the viewer, and this is due, in large part, to the creative genius of Stephen Spielberg. So if he goes into the movie with the mindset that he doesn’t want to do anything new, he is necessarily leaving the creative genius that made the first films great in the storage locker.

I just finished watching the special features for the latest Indiana Jones movie. Apparently George Lucas wanted to call the movie “Indiana Jones and the Saucer Men”

This man is a marketing and literary genius!