It's a
Mallrats quote. It was the first thing that came to mind because of Tuesdays TV. My
Tivo is recorded for me Biggest Losers: Family Edition, nice water side challenge.
I watched a lot of TV this week. I do have to say the highlight was the Office and the runner-up had to be project Runway. The Office finally showed Jim proposing to Pam. Pam is away at school and Michael hasn't had sex in a while.
Project Runway almost had
Kenley on the outs. She even got wise with the judges but she is still aces in my book and I am waiting patiently for our first date. I do have to say it was a little humiliating seeing Suede booted while dressed as a punk rocker.
David Blaine was on the TV this week and I do have mixed feelings about the magic. He did some cool stuff like this trick on a kids palm with 3
x's and moved them to under a quarter. He also did a trick where someone would flick a cut into a deck of cards to their selection. I did
hve mixed feelings about him doing Fraud because it looked like he used a stooge. He also did a form of Easy Money. The dart through a card was neat but almost easy to figure out.
Weekend news. I went to San Diego for
Toorcon this weekend. I got a ride with
Skout on Friday afternoon and we headed to Union Station. Union Station had some stupid event going on. Who goes to an event at a train station? They had no overnight parking for us it seemed. We looked and looked and couldn't find anything. We ended up driving to some shady lot for $3 and the guy didn't speak English. We figured it has to be
ok, we had places to be.
We bought business class tickets for the train and I can say it was a good decision. Lots of room and electrical outlets. We even got a
goodie basket filled with all sorts of crackers and chips. We drank the whole way down and got down to San Diego about 11:00pm. We checked into the
Omni and headed to the bar in
McCormack's and
Schmicks. We got a couple drinks and then headed out to the bars to catch up with some of our friends. We drank until they booted us out and then we headed up to Aaron's room and drank some more until we got complaints from the hotel management.
I got back to the conference to catch Ben
Feinstein talking about Loaded Dice: SSH Key Exchange & the
OpenSSL PRNG Vuln. It was good and in depth enough to keep my attention. I tried watching Bruno G
Oliveira & Jake
Appelbaum: Knowing and Enjoying the Cold Boot Attack but it seemed that Bruno had stuff to say but didn't get a chance to.
I took a break and hung out with some friends. When I was ready I went in to see
Sergey Bratus, Cory Cornelius, Daniel
Peebles, & Axel Hansen talk about Active Fingerprinting of 802.11
APs. It was an interesting concept but it seemed using 802.1x networks does pretty much the same thing in the client. I left that talk to run into Joseph McCray's talk on Advanced
SQL Injection and he was an awesome speaker. Probably because I found out he is a teacher of the same type of stuff. I do have to see if I can get his slides because it was hard to read them from where I was sitting.
I headed back to the hotel after that and waited for
Skout and Eliot and then we headed to dinner with a bunch of people to Dicks. I like Dicks now and then but I hate the fake rudeness and the stupid hat shit. Anyway, food was so-so and the beer was better.
Skout needed shoes because if we were to attend the
toorcon party at Sin, he needed to ditch the flip flops. We found a place for that and we were set for the night.
We walked the 10 or so block up to Sin and when we got there Heidi and
Luiz were outside the club. They said that by the time we got up there they kicked Keith off of the turntables after only 20 minutes. Heidi also mentioned how she went to go get a beer for Keith and the lady said it was $5. Heidi said that she had a drink ticket and show it to the bartender who then answered back, I meant $6.50. So we didn't want to be at Sin. We ended up going to the J Bar (J6Bar) on top of Hotel
Solamar. It was
ok but felt like it was trying to be like the Standard in Los Angeles. The drinks were pricey. We were going to leave and then
Luiz had a friend meet him named David. He looked familiar and after a while we realized we knew each other. He used to work at Aruba Networks when I worked at Google and we had dealt with each other before. It was fun chatting with each other and then all out of the blue, he just started being a dick towards me. I don't know what his deal was and others around me noticed it too. I let it roll off my back because I was having a good time but I tell you this, karma travels, especially in the IT business, I won't publish his full name here but thanks for being a dick.
We left the J Bar and ended up at Rock Bottom. They charged us a $5 but it was so late and we didn't feel like hunting down another bar and dragging all of our friends. There was many of the
toorcon attendees here and we had a blast. After the bar we ended up seeing many drunks as well as our own drunks but we soldiered on and ended back in Aaron's room drinking the last of his beer.
Sunday morning I got up to catch the first talks of the day. I saw
Luiz "
effffn" Eduardo give a talk "a 30,000 feet look at
wi-
fi, the freezing spot". It was informative, pretty textbook. I then stayed for Marc
Bevandand Breaking UNIX crypt() on the PlayStation 3. It was technical and very much into the match. I would have gotten more out of it if I even had a
Playstation 3. It was good though. I got lunch and felt lazy. I went back for Dan Griffin with his talk on Hacking
SharePoint. It was
ok, but I felt there was just some questionable facts. One thing he talked about was spotting
Sharepoint on a network via port scanning. It was because 80 would have
NTLM authentication and possibly another high '
psuedo random' port would also have
NTLM, you would assume it was
sharepoint. In
essance there are a lot or ports that might use
NTLM for other web services. The talk was really quick too, like 15 minutes.
After
Sharepoint I saw Dan Hubbard do a talk titled: P0
wn the Cloud. The good, the bad, and the
pugly of Cloud Computing. I use clouds for a bunch of stuff and this seemed like a introduction on cloud computing than something engineered. It would have been nicer to show password cracking or other applications that used the cloud with their specs. It would have been nice to see discovered
anomolies like in the network or shared
ip space. After, we caught Joshua
Brashars' "Owning telephone entry systems (aka why you shouldn't sleep so well)" It was pretty entertaining and had some good content a good talk. I will have to look more into my own entry system. Stephan
Chenette did a talk on Ultimate Script
De obfuscation: Browser Hooking versus simulation and it was good, I still use
Firebig for most of my debugging and I am not sure if I personally found too much in the talk for me. The last talk I saw was Luis
Miras & Zane Lackey with Mobile Phone Messaging Anti-Forensics and it was great. It had what I think a talk should have: problem, solution, counter-measure. It was great and wanted me to look into more information of the same.
The closing remarks were good and
Skout got mentioned for winning the no-starch book contest. He also bid $200 over his $100 single bid, for
toorcon seminars next year, a $900 value and he won. Nick Farr gave up his Seattle
Toorcon Challenge Coin. That went for $600 in the auction. They played a
toorcon X montage, it was funny to see a
picture of me in it. We left the convention center, walked with everyone for food but me a
Skout had train plans and couldn't
guarantee that we would make the train if we ate with the gang. We ate at McCormick &
Schmick's and it was good. We caught the train with
plenty of time and it was a relaxing trip.
When we got back into Los Angeles and walked out of Union Station, we wondered if
Skout's car was still there in the lot with the guy who didn't speak
English. We wondered if the lot would be locked up and how we would get home. Lucky for us, we got to the lot and it was the only car in the lot with the gate wide open. There were no people and the car was
perfectly fine. We got away with $3 for 3 days close to Union Station. It was a
unclimatic but good ending to the trip.
Friday I ended up getting home and heading out to Magicopolis. I was stopping in to see if anything was going on. I caught up with Erik Tait at the bar. I sat for a beer and I shared a couple of effects with him. Nothing was going on there so I decided to head over to Ye Old Kings Head. I was looking for my acquaintance DC because I saw him earlier and he told me he was moving back to NY.
I got to the bar at 8 or 8:30 PM and I didn't see anyone I knew. I had my magic supplies but it was really loud to do any magic. I didn't think it would have been interpreted in a good way. I did a trick or two to the bouncer I know but that was it. By the time I caught up with DC, it was around last call. I was intoxicated by then. DC lives in the same building as me and we ended up continuing the party but I tapped out pretty quickly.
Saturday I was hungover but hungry so I headed out to get me some Del Taco and I saw a site that made me smile. It was a bunch of high school girls holding a car wash off of Lincoln Blvd. It made me feel like a dirty old man but I don't get to see that kind of scene that often.
Saturday night I went out to Magicopolis. I texted Jimmy to see if he wanted to go but he bailed on me to play with his computer. I got to Magicopolis at 10:00pm and there was three comedians and one magician. The magician this week was not super. He ended up doing a Red Hot Mama and a coincidence card. He did a third trick but I don't remember what it was. The magic wasn't memorable. Eliot and one of his friends showed up and caught some of the show. After the show I headed to Ye Old Kings Head.
Sunday I had a very lazy morning and then I got to hang out with Alaina. She is in town visiting her parents. We ended up walking along the Promenade and also the Pier. It was a relaxing afternoon but a little painful from all the drinking. I better get my rest this week because the weekend is toorcon.
I am so happy I have my Tivo and my other recording devices in my house otherwise I would have missed all the fantastic TV adventures of television discovery.
First off, Weeds. Last week was great but I was not so happy about the finale of the shows season. Nancy is still alive and she is preggers. We all got to see her naked again and it was an ok treat but there was a montage of her speaking to Andy and it was quite boring. Either way, we have to wait a bunch of months until we find out whats going on.
I watched Fringe. Being a Lost and Cloverfield fan I thought I would like it. It started out neat but then made me bored. I started surfing the internet during the show. I predict it being cancelled. Sorry JJ, you didn't capture magic this time.
I got to see Biggest Loser: Families. I have not really watched it religiously in the past but I do have to say, the season premier dragged me in. I have already picked my favorites but in week one, the green team left and when they did the "where are they now", they look really good. Makes me want to grab Subway tonight.
America's got talent has the final ten contestants and tonight we get to see who advances to the top five spots. Currently the line up is Kaitlyn Maher, Joseph Hall, Eli Mattson, Queen Emily, The Wright Kids, Paul Salos, Nuttin But Stringz, Neal E. Boyd, Donald Braswell and Jessica Price. Who's going home tonight? I bet Donald, Jessica Price, The Wright Kids, Paul Salos and Queen Emily. Who wants my action?
Last night I almost missed Project Runway. It was a cool challenge and I feel bad for Kenley who made it easy to see her disappointment when she didn't win the challenge and cam in second place again. I still think she's cute as hell. Who got axed? Joe. He created a pin striped womans suit with jacket and skirt. It didn't look flattering on his model and was not anything special. Suede is not looking happy either. He might be the next to go. I am not taking any bets because I would like to see Kenley at Bryant Park, although it already happened. Does any one know who was there?
Next week is all new TV and it's going to give me a boner. We get the Office again. Wednesday brings us David Blaine's new special which should be good since he's enlisted the help of Daniel Garcia. The week after next, we get another season of Chuck. Its pretty cool stuff.
I haven't written anything since I have been bouncing around the City. It's because I have been doing so much stuff since I have been in town. Thursday I flew into JFK and I texted to
dodgeball that I was at JFK. Just before I got on the Airtrain, I go a call from Max. I informed him that I was heading into the city to check into my hotel and then we should meet up for dinner and then
Cage Match.
We ended up meeting at Jake's Saloon but it was overflowing because the first game of the football season. We went to catch a bit at The Dish in Chelsea which was more quiet and closer to the theater. While we were there we saw John Gemberling and Curtis Gwinn with the rest of Death By Roo Roo. They were going up against Dogbasket at Cage Match. After dinner, we headed to the show. Death by Roo Roo put on a great set and it was hysterical. They won but scores have not been posted yet.
Friday came and I went to work in Times Square. I haven't worked in Times Square since my glory days at MTV back in the late 90's. I was working on getting some Arbitron gear monitored. I went to
Datavision to pick up a USB-to-serial adapter and serial cable. I also wanted to pick up a new
EEEpc because I plan on RMA'ing my current EEEpc because the SD Slot was not working and the laptop would crash and bluescreen more often than it should. When I came back to the office, I tried getting the new laptop setup in time for the Port0 gathering at Molly's Pub but it was taking too long to dd the drive to a backup to transfer the image to the new computer. I packed both and left for Port0.
I got to Molly's where I got to see Max, Alaina, Akira, John, Vertigo and Bobcat. We ate and drank while catching up on each others lives. It was unfortunate that BillyGoto didn't show up. We hopped from bar to bar, ending the evening down in the Lower East Side. Bobcat and I were using his
OLPC to hack the bar's wifi network. The interface on the OLPC is weird. It also is weird opening the OLPC, took me and John some thinking. We ended the night at Odessa diner and I got in about 5:30am.
Yesterday I spent the day playing with the new computer. I finally got the old computer backed up and by 11:30pm I had the image on the new laptop. It was running well so I felt I needed to go out and venture to find people. I left the hotel around midnight and decided to head down to
McManus because Pat Baer was having a gettogether to celebrate his leaving his head tech position at UCB Theater. I saw a bunch of people in the back but I didn't see any empty seats, I was about to leave when suddenly
John Robert Wilson called my name out and stopped me at the door. We caught up while drinking at the bar. I sat with Adam, Bridget, Ben and Pat in the back. After a drink, everyone was heading out but I did get to see Justin Pernell, Eric Scott, Chuck Darble, Brian Berrebbi and Eugene.
I headed to Brooklyn to see my friends Ria and Harold at the
Boulevard Tavern. I got there about 2:00 am and I preceded to get my drink on. I talked business with Ria and we talked about the future of the bars. I talked about my wishes to be back in New York to open a new bar. I also talked politics and other stuff with Harold and this other guy PackRat. I closed the bar with Harold and Ria and they drove me to the L train. I walked up to 23rd Street, grabbed a McDonalds breakfast and I was in about 6am.
Today I am not doing a thing. I watched some TV. I see that after 525,600 minutes, 12 times, Rent is over tonight. Along with RENT, today was the last day for Astroland showing that New York doesn't care about amusement that doesn't take in casino like amounts of money. There are still amusements at Coney Island but it isn't the same. ABC's urging its viewers to conserve gas by staying indoors the week of Sept. 21 calling it "National Stay at Home Week.". Why don't they just move it up a week and combine it with September 11th, Idiots. Sweeps is upon us and I am excited for the Office and Chuck. We still have a ways to go to get new episodes of Lost. I wonder if I will see myself on Trivial Pursuit on Fox.
Don LaFontaine, voice of movie trailers, diesDon LaFontaine, the man who popularized the catch phrase "In a world where..." and lent his voice to thousands of movie trailers, has died. He was 68. LaFontaine died Monday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center from complications in the treatment of an ongoing illness, said Vanessa Gilbert, his agent.
LaFontaine made more than 5,000 trailers in his 33-year career while working for the top studios and television networks.
In a rare on-screen appearance in 2006, he parodied himself on a series of national television commercials for a car insurance company where he played himself telling a customer, "In a world where both of our cars were totally under water..."
In an interview last year, LaFontaine explained the strategy behind the phrase.
"We have to very rapidly establish the world we are transporting them to," he said of his viewers. "That's very easily done by saying, `In a world where ... violence rules.' `In a world where ... men are slaves and women are the conquerors.' You very rapidly set the scene."
LaFontaine insisted he never cared that no one knew his name or his face, though everyone knew his voice.
LaFontaine went on to work in the promo industry in the early 1960s. As an audio engineer, he produced radio spots for movies with producer Floyd Peterson.
When an announcer didn't show up for a recording session in 1965, LaFontaine voiced his first narration, a promo for the film, "Gunfighters of Casa Grande." The client, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, liked his performance.
LaFontaine remained active until recently, averaging seven to 10 voiceover sessions a day. He worked from a home studio his wife nicknamed "The Hole," where his fax machine delivered scripts.
LaFontaine is survived by his wife, the singer and actress Nita Whitaker, and three daughters.
His funeral arrangements were pending.
