All Your Base Are Belong To Us — The Kip Lange Homepage

Although my computer is, indeed, mostly full of games and porn — pr0n, if you wish — there are a bunch of utilities I can’t live without, and I want to plug three of them.

First is Registry Mechanic, from PC Tools, which fixes errors in your registry, compacts, and optimizes it. It honestly boosts system speed.

Second is Spyware Doctor, also from PC Tools, which is a great sort of combination of AdAware (which I also love) and a sort of anti-virus-but-geared-to-spyware tool. It’s caught major installations of Hackdoor.Backdoor and so on, that Norton AntiVirus has not.

Third is Perfectdisk, from Raxco, which is the best and most simple disk defragging tool I have used. Also possibly the most effective.

Thus ends my little advertising section. Hehe.

You know how Amazon recommends stuff for you based on what you buy? TiVo recommends shows? And so on? They do it using what’s called “push” technology, which doesn’t always pay off, but sometimes does.

For the moment, I’m entranced with http://www.ratingzone.com/, a free site I found that does push technology for a lot of different things. I was interested in playing with TV shows. After having to flip through about ten screens containing maybe three shows that I actually watched (nah, I ended up with 18 when I ended the first part) it began generating recommendations for me. And they’re not bad. You keep rating the recommendations and it recommends more and more at different rating levels…you get the idea.

But it’s actually starting to figure me out a little bit, I have to say. I didn’t have much faith in a free service. I will warn you that they demand your email at one point after saying they won’t, which will, of course, somewhere down the line end up in you receiving spam about enlarging your penis (you know it). So I’m not “recommending” it myself, but it’s fun to play with, if anyone wants to try it out.

Ever since I’ve started this blog, I’ve had the good luck to run into a lot of old friends. The blog has nothing to do with it, of course, just the timing, I suppose. The blog, by the way, has been getting a TON of hits since I mentioned Kari Byron’s shoot in FHM (see below, or archives), thus proving that Kari Byron rules Geekdom Lust with an iron fist.

Anyway, I did have to post one picture of an old friend up here, who still looks 17 to me, but who denies that vehemently on her part. She’s been an absolute dear in corresponding with the dreadfully boring Kipster. Anyway, I give you ST.

There’s much more at a bit of an out-dated site (I gather the project is over, but the bio is still correct, I think) she has, over at:

http://www.mystichighway.org/id2.html

Anyway, I’ve known this girl for a long time, I grew up with her, and, Ms. S, I apologize for posting your picture, but I want it on my blog for sentimental purposes. There are some other pictures on her site but I quite like this candid one.

Needless to say, Ms. T. and I are strictly friends; she’s several thousand miles away in Boulder, CO, with a steady boyfriend (who I will kill if he mistreats her, as I view this girl as a surrogate sister).

Now, as for others, I *need* your photos online first, and if you’re reading, Erin, I need a non-fuzzy picture of you. I contemplated putting you up, but those pictures do not do you justice. For anyone wondering, Ms. Erin H. and I were indeed an item and she’s quite beautiful — and I could prove that if she sent me better pictures.

Of course, she was blonde when she dated me, and now she’s gone back to brunette, which makes her, like, a whole separate girl, which is, to say the least, very intriguing, and I intend on exploring the theme.

And, of course, anyone who wants to send me NUDE pictures — that is, any attractive females who wish to do so, please, go right ahead.

Ah well. Anyway, all of this makes me very nostalgic.

I’m just reminding folks, after some problems Erin had posting a comment, that your comment will not show up until I come along and approve it. This is because I don’t want people spamming the comments section, or posting needlessly rude, stupid, or offensive material without me having a chance to laugh at it first in private. So your comment won’t show right away, but submit it just once, and I’ll publish it, most likely.

Recent email from Germany sent by SC deserves to be posted:

I sold myself to the weapons industry. I just finished doing an
image film for a trade show, animating an interface and pulling green
screens. It looks like a hyperactive commander & conquer, but with
better acting. It’s good to know that I can make damn good
propaganda. My favourite line? “Taurus: The precise answer to
asymmetric threats!” Gonna have to spend my time cleansing my soul.

Ah yes. Kip Lange: The precise answer to asymmetric pants.

Okay. I now hate Friendster with a passion.

I never thought I’d say this, but, for stalking purposes, the interface is simply much crappier than…yes, Myspace. I logged on there to try to track down an ex-girlfriend, one of my favorite ex-girlfriends, one I dated in NYC and had to leave because I went back to Berkeley. She subsequently got married (to a US Marine, I believe), moved to Florida, and had a kid, and then, I think, got divorced, although not in that order. I subsequently…uhm…okay so I haven’t been doing much for the past eight years or so.

But here’s the thing — there’s no way to CONTACT anyone on Friendster. It seems to refuse to let me email the person. I found ANOTHER person in her friend list who I think I know and whom I thought I could get to relay a message back to her, and I couldn’t figure out how in hell to mail her.

Right. So, Erin Hatchett, read my goddamn blog and post a comment so I can give you my email address (actually it’s in a little post further down directed at a German, if you want) and see what the hell you’ve been doing.

Army brat. 🙂

Let us review The Da Vinci Code saga. The book is a piece of thrillerish crap. Yes, I read it.

The movie, as the reviews continue to roll in, appears to be a solid HUNK of crap. No, I’m not going to see it.

And Tom Hanks’ head literally looks as if a piece of crap masquerading as hair has crawled up on it.

Ahhh…crap. How we love it.

With E3 on and the Playstation 3 specs officially announced, the gaming world has erupted into an impenetrable uproar of stupidity. I myself was bothered in the middle of writing a lengthy and rather important email by an IM from somebody who was worked up into a masturbatory froth over their XBox 360 because apparently it will be the first platform that Grand Theft Auto 4 will be released for. Yet a year ago he didn’t care which console the GTA games got released to first because they were “better on the XBox, anyway”.

The PS3 boards are smoking, charred rubbles of discussions that have been decimated by trolls and long flame wars and…speaking as a PS3 fan, everybody shut it. If you really want an amazing gaming platform, buy yourself a computer with a high-end video card and a USB controller. Me, I’m waiting for the PS3. Why? Because I like the Playstation. Just deal with it. Some of you people like the XBox. Fine. Get a 360. Just stop bitching at me that the PS3 is dead, cuz it just ain’t.

Of course, I have much more to say about this, but a full fanboy rant would ruin my chances of sleeping, so I’m hopping off. 🙂

New from Germany: Mr. R. has gotten married and…has taken his WIFE’S last name, making him Mr. S?

What?

I’m still waiting for an answer on that, Mr. S.

Does this have anything to do with Hasselhoff?

Anyway, Mr. S. is soon to be a proud parent (I’ve yet to learn whether it’s girl or boy, but I have a picture of the ultrasound), and I wish him well.

And I’m sure Hasselhoff wishes him well, too.

Well, Spin State by Chris Moriarty is all finished. A passably good book but a little forced at times. I’m happy to say that I’m 3/4s of the way through Richard Morgan’s Market Forces (winner of a Philip K. Dick award) and he seems to be losing a little of the forcedness in his writing.

I’m hoping Spin Control, Spin State’s sequel, evolves a little and flows a tad better.

Then again, like I’m really in a place to critique, what with all my novels overflowing the book racks at your local bookseller.

Maybe they still WILL, someday, if I get off my ass.