The Internets
/ e-commerce, miami, social-networking
20 July
2009
I received a confirmation of my online order from MyCubanStore.com today. Embedded within the email was a code snippet they asked that I post to my blog or social profile. This is the first time I’ve been sent some actual code to post. Here is the resulting snippet below…
I wonder what percentage of individuals have even a vague notion of what to do with HTML code or am I giving myself more credit than is due because there is a growing familiarity with HTML and related web technologies to the point where copy/pasting code to one’s personal website isn’t beyond common knowledge now?!?
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Me
/ photos
19 July
2009
I have created a new photo gallery at the following address:
+ http://picasaweb.google.com/rob.rubinoff/Summer2009
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Culture, Editorial
/ tv
17 July
2009
The ineptitude of the Sea Shepherds is comical except for the fact that they are putting real people in harms way – both their do-gooder trustafarian crew members as well as the Japanese sailors simply doing their jobs in one of the most inhospitable stretches of the sea imaginable. I wish I didn’t get so riled up by this rag tag of vegetarian peace-niks but I do. Maybe its because as an early college grad I too traveled the world in an attempt to change it for the better. I was an idealist and took on some powerful forces with American bravado. More likely however, its because I have experienced the raw power of the ocean during a transatlantic sailing voyage on a 44ft sloop and watching them mess around with people’s lives irks me.
Animal Planet has a good thing going because eventhough I ridicule and make snarky comments throughout the hour long show, I will be back for more next week.
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Me
/ advertising, work
17 July
2009
I’ve been at Mad Genius for about 15 months. We’re located in Ridgeland, Mississippi. We keep getting better. We keep learning. We keep growing. Its a pleasure to work with these people and I enjoy being able to contribute to something truly original for this market.
I’m excited about many of the things happening around me at present.
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Arts, Editorial
/ movies, reviews
15 July
2009
Have you ever noticed that Tommy Lee Jones tends to play Tommy Lee Jones in every movie he’s in? There is very little differentiation between characters in his roles. Nevertheless, he does a really good job at playing Tommy Lee Jones and in this film, he portrays a local Parish cop who stumbles upon a genuine who-done-it.
I think the book by the same title would be better than this film. I know that’s true for many book/movie translations, but this one strikes me as one that would benefit from a backstory and more detail. Truth be told the plot stumbles something fierce more than a few times during this film. There is this whole ghostly/Civil War/hallucination thing going on that never rightly gets the attention it deserves to make it understandable.
The reason I give it a 3+ rating is because of its setting, locations and being cast in backwater Louisiana towns. I have something of an affinity for that part of the world lately and I’ve been keen to learn everything I can about the strange ass culture that makes up the bayou.
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Culture, The Internets
/ advertising, meme
15 July
2009
After rocketing to success via the ever popular Sham Wow television product endorsement, and careening down to the depths of has-been after being assaulted by a prostitute, Vince is back and better than ever in his latest pitch gig – the Slap Chop.
The makers of this informercial and television commercial know they have a web sensation on their hands and specifically have crafted dialogue and diction to best tantalize this audience. One line in particular is just made for fun. After slicing and dicing his way through an array of vegetables and cold cuts, he tempts the viewer with a deadpan “You’re going to love my nuts!”
Not a moment too soon, there are already several parodies making the rounds on the interweb tubes.
+ Slap Chop
+ Slap Chop remix
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Me
14 July
2009
I am grateful to be alive. I am grateful I have loving and caring family. I am grateful I survived my shooting. I am grateful to be employable and employed. I am grateful to be sober today.
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The Internets
/ google, technology
10 July
2009
Google has been blurring the lines between what used to be two quite distinct spheres of computer operation – the desktop and the internet. Before Google, websites tended to deliver information. That was their main function. Before Google there were desktop programs. They harnessed local CPU power and computational capabilities to provide a wide variety of applications. Even if these individual programs were able to access information via the net, they did so being largely grounded to whatever underlying operating system they ran on.
Google started to shake things up w/ its GMail website/application. Here was a very powerful email program that included a number of features common to desktop applications, but still others that became possible because it was accessed via the browser. Other examples by Google include their Google Apps (docs, sites, etc), Picasa, and Google Earth. All of these in varying degrees presented powerful, platform independent applications accessed by large part through a browser.
With Google Desktop, and Google Gears, the lines were even more blurred between OS and Web. With Google Desktop, the company is able to provide a singular interface for accessing all sorts of information – be it living on your local computer or somewhere on some far off server.
There is a quickly growing niche of Netbooks, handhelds, Android phones and the like that Google believes would benefit from such a solution. I’ve held off on buying an uber-phone until Android matures a bit. I’d much rather have something open like Android versus the closed and elitist Apple variety. I am very excited to learn more about the Google Chrome OS.
UPDATE:
So as geeky as I sometimes think I am, I have found some much more succinct writeups on Google Chrome OS than the rambling bit above. For more info on Google OS I recommend reading:
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Arts, Editorial
/ movies, reviews
7 July
2009
It was 25 years ago this week that a cast of NYC nerdy misfits took America by storm – bringing such seminal phrases as “I am the Keymaster’ into the popular lexicon. The film combined such summer stalwarts as funny, geeky, irreverent, scary and a touch of sexy into a true family-friendly movie experience.
Caitlin Moran, a writer for The Times in the UK, posits that Ghostbusters be considered one of the greatest films of all time. Although her reason may border on the tangential and sometimes spurious, she gives it a good go. In the end, I’m left with a sense that there is some melancholy for the lack of critical attention that comedies receive. To win critical appeal in the movie business, it seems as though you need to be dramatic and serious. What’s wrong w/ silly? Dumb & Dumber, Turner & Hooch, Throw Mama From The Train, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels are just a few that are some of my favorite movies of all time. None of them received critical appeal.
So put yourself back in the summer of 1984. Other than the Olympics, can you name anything of significance that happened? I bet you can’t.
Everyone loved Ghostbusters. It was awesome. Zany kooks speeding around NYC in a converted hearse wearing coveralls and wielding portable nuclear ghost trapping devices strapped to their backs. Its still a great Saturday afternoon flic.
Greatest film of all time? Probably not. Worthy of critical mention as a movie that entertains millions and millions of viewers? Definitely.
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Rob lives and works in the town of Jackson, MS where he leads the interactive department at an awesome advertising and branding agency. Life is slower than most places in Mississippi, and Rob tends to like it that way. Some of his favorite life experiences include sailing across the Atlantic Ocean in a 44ft sloop, learning to speak Swahili while living along the lower slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, and zipping along the curviest of Mississippi country roads in his VW Rabbit.