Woke up to no electricity this morning due to the ice storm we had last night. No wifi, tv, or heat but my cellphone has plenty of juice.
I hear the metro is running so I guess I will need to try and go to work. Looks like Monday came 3 days late this week.

The clever hackers that brought a media center platform to the original Xbox are at it again. Last May the group announced they were porting the Xbox media center platform to Linux and needed some help from other Linux developers. Now they are putting out a call for OS X developers to help port the software to the Apple operating system.

The original XBMC project brought photos, music, and videos from the PC to the TV. While not the easiest to set-up, I found XBMC to be the most flexible media center software I have ever dealt with. Since September of 2005, I have been watching all of my downloadable content like podcasts and webisodes from the comfort of my couch. Using a hacked Xbox and my home network I could easily stream standard definition content to my TV. Remember, there wasn’t a big boon of HD content available back then like there is now, not that the old Xbox hardware could handle the demand of even 720P video.

So if you know a Mac geek that can do some C/C++ programming send them over to the XBMC guys. The more open-source media projects that are available to compete against Windows Media Center and Apple Tv/Front Row the better it will be for digital media as a whole. And this time around XBMC won’t need to be hacked together to get it working though a name change for the project might be necessary. Just imagine this thing running on an Apple Mini in your living room connected to an HDTV. Sweet!

Bet you have never seen a jelly donut rap before.

“…you step up and try to waste me, man you just got your ass wasted by a pastry…”

Download: http://www.illbilly.com/Videos/Jelly_D/Jelly_D.mov

Had lunch at Miss Saigon in Georgetown and ordered the Golden Crepe. This thing was delicious and filling.

Josh Bernoff wrote about how social applications will thrive during a recession. He noted advertising facts and figures from the 2001 recession to backup his claims, which all seem perfectly valid. But poor Josh seems to be missing the most important reason for social apps to keep on chugging. When massive layoffs hit companies needing to cut the fat for survival, ex-employees will be left with an abundance of time. And what can they fill that time with? Poking their friends virtually or starting a massive vampire/zombie war.

Now I don’t want to say social networks are a complete waste of time. They are kind of like a mullet: business in the front and party in the back. People will flock to social networks looking for job openings, utilizing connections, and otherwise use it for strictly business. But once the practicality runs dry they will turn to socializing and in turn pointless applications. This overload of free time is what will get social networks through the economic slump. As logical as it sounds for advertisers to keep pumping money into online advertising because it is more targeted providing a greater return on investment, social advertising is still an unproven experiment.

Targeting ads based on what people are searching for is safe. Sneaking a recommendation into a users news feed hoping they will share it with their friends, not so much.

With Super Tuesday right around the corner, what is an undecided web geek to do? Why break a decision down into technical specs, like any other decision they have ever had to make.

Robert Accettura did a little survey of the presidential-hopefuls websites and noted what technologies were used on the front and backend. If you were to vote solely on who is using the best web technologies, your best bet would be Barack Obama. His site is run on an open source operating system, uses a CSS based design, as well as HTTP compression. Hillary Clinton and half of the Republican candidates are running Microsoft IIS; surprise, surprise! This survey also showed how web standards has come a long way as all of the candidates but one (Mike Gravel) neglected using a table-based layout.

Does a well-built website architecture make for a great leader? Probably not. But if you are a web geek you will probably get a kick out of these stats, just like me. Check out Roberts page for the complete breakdown.

These don’t look like robots and I don’t think that women could fit in a box this small.

A concoction of my own creation. It is just like a typical hamburger only with a harder starch… and it could be a meal for breakfast.

Sigma dropped a doozy of a lens today. The 200-500mm f/2.8 super (dooper?) telephoto boasts being the first lens in the world to maintain such a large aperture throughout the entire zoom range. A dedicated lithium battery pack is required for focusing and zooming operation and an included accessory extender turns this lens into a 400-1000mm f/5.6. Sigma went with a military color palette instead of the typical black. But perhaps the most startling property of this lens is that it weighs 34 pounds! Talk about a back breaker.

Price? If you have to ask, you can’t afford it. I guess it wasn’t made for people like me who take photos of flag football and spiders in my bathroom. Oh well it’s not like I need another lens.

A couple of days ago I saw a story on Digg featuring the introduction to Lakai Fully Flared.

As you can see it is compelling even to the non-skateboarding crowd and it got me thinking about all of the skateboard videos I used to watch. As an aspiring skateboard editor for most of my high school days, I studied a lot of skateboard videos and below are some of the most memorable parts.

Invisible Skateboarding

This part from the Girl video YEAH RIGHT! has caught a lot of interest because of how well the effect was done. The skaters used pure green boards and the camera had to do two exact passes in order to cleanly composite the two shots together sans wooden planks with wheels.

Ali Boulala from Flip’s Sorry

They say Alli is drunk more often than he is sober. After watching the things he throws himself into without a second thought you would probably agree. You certainly would need to be thoroughly hammered to attempt the 25 stair ollie at the end of his part in Sorry!. Makes you wonder just how his feet are still attached to his legs.

Bails From Toy Machine’s Welcome To Hell

This video is a classic. It came out in 1996 which is when I started skateboarding and there hasn’t been a fall section since that even come closes to this montage of cringe-inducing bails.

Jeremy Klein and Heath Kirchart from Birdhouse’s The End

These guys come up with crazy ideas and then go out and do them. Case in point is the clip below featuring the two using large signs and gas pumps as obstacles, all to the tune of “Under Pressure” by Queen.

Danny Way’s Mega Ramp from The DC Video

Tony Hawk might be the most popular skateboarder due to landing the 900 at the 1999 summer X-Games but Danny Way is known for jumping ramps that look like they came straight out of a Tony Hawk Pro Skater videogame. On June 12th, 2003, this guy broke two records in one run: the longest distance jump at 75 feet and the highest air at 23.5 feet. Lucky for us the cameras were rolling.

Rodney Mullen From Plan B’s Second Hand Smoke

Rodney Mullen is considered one of the most influential freestyle skaters in the history of the sport. Way back in 1994 he was pushing the creativity of skateboarding to the limits by doing things with his board that no one imagined as well as proving it was physically possible. Just look at all of the tricks he is credited with inventing. His part in Plan B’s Second Hand Smoke is considered a major influence to up and coming pros who would carry skateboarding to where it is today.

Note: The first half is from Second Hand Smoke while the second half is from Plan B’s Virtual Reality.

So there you have it, some of the most memorable moments in skateboard videos according to me. Do you agree? Disagree? Sound off in the comments!