Mikko's Blog

Not A Game, Not A Game, Not A Game

2009-08-26T09:50:00.004-04:00

I just can't stop watching this. It's an Epic Iverson rant turned into an equally epic YouTube instant classic by DJ Steve Porter.

I know I'm supposed to be there. I know I'm supposed to lead by example. I know that, and I'm not shoving it aside like it don't mean anything. I know it's important. I honestly do. But we talkin' 'bout practice, man.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Day in the Life of the President

2009-01-27T16:29:00.002-05:00

So it has been one week since Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of United States of America, and folks, I couldn't be happier. That said, we all must understand that President Obama has his work cut out for him, but he is working long days to meet the many challenges the country is facing today.

Here's a good example of just another day at the Oval Office:

President To Face Down Monster Attack, Own Demons In Action-Packed Schedule

Godspeed Mr President. Godspeed.

Oh, Alaska

2008-11-11T16:42:00.002-05:00

So, finally some good news from Alaska. Looks like the missing Alaska ballots have been found. They won't paint the state blue by any means, but they do explain those rather unexpected election figures this year.

It has also been reported that Palin is actually considering running for president in 2012. Wow. Just, wow. Really?

If I were her, I would just capitalize on her 15 minutes of fame while it lasts. An offer of cool $2M has been offered for an adult movie appearance, plus there's even an extra $100K (and a snowmobile!) in there for the hubby. I say take it.

The Award Winning Dr Horrible Costume

2008-10-31T14:08:00.004-04:00

I can now claim my awesome Dr Horrible costume is "an award winning costume" because I placed third in the company costume competition. I was surprised so many people voted for me because not too many people knew of Dr Horrible. Here's the picture from the announcement email that went out to the internal mailing list:

The kooky character behind me is my co-worker Jamie in his traditional monster gear that is guaranteed to scare small children. In scientific terms, 80% of the time it works every time.

MTV - TV = mtvmusic.com

2008-10-29T10:38:00.002-04:00

Just a quick post here. In case you didn't hear yet, MTV is getting back into showing videos. Yes, really! No, not on TV, however, because that would cut into their precious air time dedicated to washed up has-beens starring in reality shows that have no connection to reality. Instead, there's now MTV Music, a web site MTV attempts to show every music video ever, give or take.

Check it out! You won't be let down. Or given up, for that matter.

Thriller Of The Griller

2008-09-02T21:04:00.004-04:00

Here's a first for this blog -- a food review. I feel I should warn you that if you happen to be a vegetarian or some sort of a health nut, this piece may end up reading like a horror story. On the other hand, if you happen to be a fellow carnivore you may find this review sounding more like an erotic story, food porn, if you will. Either way, consider yourself warned.

For dinner tonight I grilled something the local Kroger deli had labeled "Mexican Grillers". I have no idea what the background of this food item is, ethnically speaking or otherwise. I should note that we are talking Michigan, however. For Michiganders, anything Southwest of Indiana is virtually Mexican. So there's that to keep in mind.

Simply put, these "grillers" are chicken stuffed with ham and cheese and wrapped in bacon you throw on a grill until the chicken is cooked. I think my cholesterol went up a few points just by typing that, but let me tell you, they are DAMN tasty. The salty crispy bacon shell hides all the succulent chicken, ham, and cheese goodness. Mmmm-mmm! You cut into that bad boy and the flavors and aromas just pour out... Heaven!

They were not really expensive, either. I think we paid even $7 for two, and one is certainly enough to feed an adult when you serve it with a little corn and some roasted red skin taters.

Overall, I highly recommend.

Finland The Genetic Island

2008-08-15T14:01:00.002-04:00

I saw this interesting story published on The New York Times about a group of biologists who have constructed a genetic map of Europe showing the degree of relatedness between its various populations. It's interesting to visually see how much genetic overlap there is between various European nationalities -- with a notable exception of us Finns who just don't mix.

Check it out.

Ann Arbor Movie Buzz

2008-07-29T10:05:00.010-04:00

Ann Arbor is abuzz with news, rumors, and celebrity sightings right now. Drew Barrymore has been spotted all over Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, and recently Us Magazine ran a story about how she was supposedly partying like a rock star in Ann Arbor while shooting a movie here. Now the city has blocked off the corner of 1st and Liberty for a few days for a movie shoot. My office is on 5th and Liberty, so we're talking just four blocks down. I have had two people personally claiming to have sighted Michael Cera (of Superbad and Juno fame) on scene Monday.

Initially everyone assumed this was for the Barrymore flick, but turns out the Michael Cera movie is a whole different movie. Confused? Me too. So let's see what we do know so far.

The Drew Barrymore movie is called "Whip It!". It's a roller derby movie starring Drew herself and Ellen Page. IMDB plot synopsis: "In Bodeen, Texas, an indie-rock loving misfit finds a way of dealing with her small-town misery after she discovers a roller derby league in nearby Austin."

The Michael Cera flick is called "Youth in Revolt". It also stars Justin Long ("Hi, I'm a Mac") and my personal favorite, "The" Steve Buschemi. The IMDB lists the plot synopsis like this: "While his trailer trash parents teeter on the edge of divorce, 14-year-old Nick sets his sights on dream girl Sheeni Saunders, hoping that she'll be the one to take away his virginity." The movie is based on a novel by C. D. Payne, also titled "Youth in Revolt".

Initially, it would seem that these two productions have nothing in common, but at least two connections can be seen. Drew Barrymore and Justin "The Mac Guy" Long just broke up after dating for about a year. In fact, it has been reported that Justin was supposed to have a role in Drew's "Whip It", but dropped out when they broke up.

The other interesting connection is the Juno connection. Ellen Page, who played Juno, is in "Whip It!" and Michael Cera, who played Juno's boyfriend, is in "Youth in Revolt".

Coincidences or conspiracies? You decide!

I'm The Reason Your Internets Suck

2008-07-21T12:26:00.002-04:00

You may have noticed sites like digg.com has become seemingly dedicated to lame top ten lists. Where did these top ten lists come from? Why are they so popular? Who is to blame? SPOILER ALERT: I am.

Top ten lists are an ad revenue goldmine for sites as they are a very easy way to create content that drives traffic to your ad driven site. You simply take something your target audience can't get enough of. For instance, guys love models in bikinis. You find pictures of 10 models in bikinis, which takes about 0.04s using images.google.com. You rank them based on your personal taste, sprinkle them across 10 pages visitors have to click through. On each page you fill all screen real estate not taken by a stolen copy of Liz Hurley in bikinis with as many ads as possible. Then you post the link to it on as many social networking sites as you can, and watch the web traffic go through the roof.

So who are these people who fall for these cheesy top ten lists day in and day out. What kind of an idiot does that? Well, for one, I do. And for as long as I, and people like me, keep visiting those pages, they will keep cropping up.

Yes, I'm a sheep. I know I'm being played like a finely tuned Stradivarius, but dammit, I have GOT to find out what this guys list of 10 Worst Movies Of All Time are, who the Hottest 10 R&B Divas Ever To Do Time are, and 10 Craziest Things You've Ever Seen Built Out Of Legos.

So there you have it. The top ten reasons one through ten for digg.com sucking these days are me and 9 other guys like me.

With A Girl, Man, With A Girl

2008-07-01T15:17:00.002-04:00

You must have heard Gavin DeGraw's song "I'm In Love With A Girl". It gets a lot of airtime on pop stations these days. I'm bringing it up because I wonder if I am the only one who feels Gavin is trying a little too hard to prove that he likes the ladies. You know what I mean? It's like he's trying to convince you that despite of what you may or may not have heard, he is totally into chicks.

Look, Gav. It's the new millennium, man. We're all just glad you're in love. Nobody cares if it's with a girl, or not. Whatevsies.

Yes, we heard you. You're in love with a girl. Got it. But it would be okay if you were totally in love with a person who might not be a girl. We'd be cool with that, too.

Fine, with a girl, yes. We believe you.

*eye roll*

Update: Gettin' Ink Done

2008-06-16T17:02:00.002-04:00

Here are the pictures I mentioned in the previous post. Try not let the sight of my hairy legs get you too hot and bothered!

Gettin' Ink Done

2008-06-09T16:01:00.005-04:00

As I'm sure you heard, my beloved Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup this year. This was not the first time this had happened, in fact it was the 11th. But for a couple of reasons, this journey was extra special for me. More on that in a bit, but first some news you may not have heard of. I decided to celebrate the 11th Stanley Cup victory by getting a tattoo. Yes, seriously. What, you can't picture me with a giant flaming skull inked across my moobs? Yeah, me either. This tattoo would be for me and for me only. It would be small and subtle, and rarely seen, yet I wanted to be able to share it in mixed company if I so chose. I'm afraid this meant getting the words "Congratulations to Detroit Red Wings, the Stanley Cup Champions of 2008" inked along my pork sword was a.) out of the question and b.) physically impossible due to lack of sufficient, shall we say, real estate.

So what I got was a very plain tick mark count with 11 little lines marking the 11 times the Stanley Cup has been brought to Detroit by the Red Wings in the history of the NHL. I hope to get to augment the tattoo with several more lines in years to come. The tattoo is placed on my inner shin on my left leg. Left leg, because that's the side my heart is on. Awww.

I know, I know. "Pics or it didn't happen." Nicole snapped some as I was being worked on, which only took about a minute. I'll post those here shortly.

If you're interested why this cup run was "special" for me, here goes. While this is not the first time the Cup of Lord Stanley has been hoisted by the Red Wings captain, a tradition created by one of the great Wings captains of the past, Ted Lindsay back in 1950, this victory marked the first time the captain hoisting the Cup was of European descent, ever. Furthermore, this was the very first Cup winning Red Wings team to include a Finnish born player, making this year's victory that much sweeter for me. And to top if all off, this all happened post-lockout with a salary cap in place.

Video: Makin' Music with John Mayer

2008-05-08T16:19:00.004-04:00

You may have always wondered, how does singer/songwriter John Mayer come up with songs like "Say (What You Need to Say)", "Waiting on the World to Change", "Gravity", etc. I sure have.

Fortunately for us fans, John teamed up with producer Judd Apatow (40-Year Old Virgin, Superbad, etc) and put together this inspirational piece about the creative process that goes into every song he lovingly crafts for our listening pleasure.

But be warned, audio for this video is not work safe as it contains strong language.

Official: I Dig The Wig '08

2008-02-12T20:36:00.002-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

YPSILANTI, MI -- February 12, 2008 -- An Ypsilanti resident known to his friends as Mikko with a last name considered unpronounceable by many, a relative unknown, has announced his endorsement of Ralph Wiggum for president in 2008.

Citing disappointment with the mainstream candidates, Mikko is declaring his support for Ralph Wiggum's presidential campaign. Mr. Wiggum's campaign material, including his platform outlining his position on hot button issues such as immigration, government spending, and foreign relations, is available on-line at www.digthewig08.com.

So I Had To Shoot Him Dead

2008-02-12T12:43:00.000-05:00

I know you have heard the song "Wake Up Call" by Maroon 5. A catchy tune, sure, but I'm especially amused by the part that goes:

Six foot tall
Came without a warning
So I had to shoot him dead

If you really think about it, it's only obvious that if a dude is both 6'0" or taller AND comes over without giving you the complimentary ringy-dingy first, I don't think you have any other choice than to pop a cap in his ass.

Hooray for being only 5'8"!

Big Geekin'

2008-01-20T12:42:00.000-05:00

I finally got around to fixing some nagging issues with both my own and Nicole's blogs. Most importantly, our Atom XML feeds now work. I also updated my blog links section, which had gotten disgustingly stale. I enabled post pages for my own blog, added permalink links, and enabled comments.

Finally, I am testing an experimental blog ping functionality for making Flog Blog (a Facebook blog application) automatically pick up updates. For the un-initiated, this is a mechanism that allows a blog to notify other sites about updated content. Most modern blog platforms, such as WordPress and Movable Type, support this functionality, but Blogger does not. To work around this limitation, I rigged together a PHP-based cron-triggered system that checks the timestamp of my atom.xml file every 15 minutes and pings Flog Blog when the file is updated. This post is the true test if this works when I post this.

Cloverfield

2008-01-17T15:34:00.000-05:00

So Nicole, being awesome, scored free tickets to Cloverfield sneak preview Wednesday night. In short, I really recommend you see it when it comes out Friday, if you can stomach it! No, seriously. This entire movie rocked my world and my sense of balance due to its Blair Witch Project style of shooting. If you got sick watching Blair Witch Project, you may want to skip this one. If that is not a worry for you, you have no excuse. See it.

The entire story is told from the perspective of a hand held camcorder being carried by a bunch of young people on the streets of Manhattan living through a catastrophic attack on New York. The movie occasionally cuts into the tape it is recording over, which provides flashbacks into the back story of the main characters. It's a clever trick and it works well. Due to it's perspective you don't just watch these people go through this ordeal, you are there with them. The movie is very intense, and when the action stopped for a moment, I could hear people laughing nervously in the audience, just trying to take it all in.

And that's all I'm gonna say about it.

ZFS Summary

2007-11-30T16:50:00.000-05:00

Here's something I wrote at work when asked to summarize ZFS for our internal use. In case you have never heard of ZFS, it is new technology from Sun and available for OS X Leopard that has geeks like me pretty excited. I enjoyed putting this together and decided to put it out there for you other nerdy types who might find it interesting.

What is the purpose of ZFS? While hard drives are getting bigger, they are not getting any more reliable. Hard drive failure is not a question of "if", but "when". You can only hope you outgrow your drive and phase it out before it fails. And even when things seem fine, the tiny magnetic bits on your disk may be slowly changing and corrupting your data. This is typically called "bit rot". ZFS aims to eliminate "bit rot" and enable you to recover from inevitable hardware failures.

What is ZFS, really? ZFS is both a filesystem and a set of software tools for storage management. A filesystem is the method by which information is stored on a storage medium. The advantage of ZFS over other filesystems is its scalability and reliability combined and it is relatively easy to manage. It aims to guarantee reliability with two methods. First, all writes are transactional, which means temporary hardware failure, such as loss of power, in a middle of a write operation won't cause data corruption. Second, ZFS offers end-to-end data integrity by maintaining a checksum for each block of information, which is verified when the block is read. It automatically corrects any "bit rot" it encounters. ZFS can also protect you from complete disk failures by offering RAID features. RAID, or redundant array of independent disks, is a way of storing the same data across multiple disks so that the array can sustain a loss of a disk without any loss of data.

Wait, there's more! ZFS also supports "striping" your data across multiple disks for increased performance. ZFS also provides many advanced RAID features like double-parity and global spares, which are methods of protecting your data from multiple hard drive failures. ZFS supports compression to make it possible to store more data on a filesystem than would be possible otherwise. It supports snapshots for rolling back filesystem changes, much like Time Machine in OS X. Unlike Time Machine, however, ZFS snapshots work at block level instead of file level. This means when, for example, you change your 300MB iMovie project only slightly with ZFS only the, say, 2MB that actually changed get saved, whereas Time Machine needs to make a whole new copy of the file every time it has changed.

NOW how much would you pay? ZFS is a included in Solaris 10 and is available for OS X for no additional charge, so you wouldn't. To boot, ZFS is much easier to learn and use than any other storage management system, including Linux LVM or Veritas VxFS.

In conclusion, ZFS is awesome.

Why The Big Pause?

2007-11-27T15:38:00.000-05:00

Here's a great joke I read.

A bear walks into a bar and says "I'd like a beer and . . . . a packet of peanuts." The barman says "Why the big pause?"

I'll pause here so you can laugh.

What, you don't get it? It's like the one with the horse that walks into a bar and the bartender says "Why the long face?" A read side splitter, that one. It even made Shrek 2.

Honestly, I'm just messing with you. You read the title and thought I was going to make excuses for not posting very often. Gotcha! I actually think having a blog is like being a member of Fight Club. Like the first rule of Fight Club is that you don't talk about Fight Club, the first rule of blogging is that you don't talk about blogging. Blogging about Fight Club, I think, is still okay, unless you are a member, of course.

Rap Video For Guys Like Me

2007-11-26T16:07:00.000-05:00

I don't dislike rap music, rap just doesn't "speak to me". See, unlike Snoop Dogg I in fact do not have "bitches in the living room gettin' it on" nor do I have a flashy Ben-Zee or a souped up Escalade. What I have is in my living room is pretty much what you probably have in yours -- some comfy furniture and a TV. And I drive a Honda. Hey, I love my car, so no complaints there. What I'm saying is that I'm just a regular everyday normal guy.

Jon Lajoie is also just a regular everyday normal guy. What mostly sets us apart is that I don't feel the need to express my averageness in a form of online video. But Jon does, and you know what, that's alright with me. In fact, his video really kind of speaks to me as a fellow regular everyday normal guy. He also calls me a mothaf***er repeatedly, but I'm willing to overlook that as an artistic choice.

However, before I urge you to check out his video I feel I must warn you. This video contains some adult language, so the audio is not safe for work, but with headphones on you'll be alright, unless your boss doesn't like you wasting your paid time on comedy videos for some reason. What is up his or her butt anyways. But if that is the case, watch your back or wait until you get home to watch this.

That said, please enjoy Jon Lajoie's "Regular Everyday Normal Guy Rap Song". I certainly did.

Unsent Email #1723

2007-08-15T16:30:00.000-04:00

As a part of my job, I often get asked for ideas or recommendations for a solution to a specific technical problem. Now, I am no consultant, but most of the time I am able to reach into my bag of tricks and pull out an occasional rabbit, or at least one of those fake flower bouquets that go poof as they spring into something that is now seemingly bigger than the entire bag I just pulled them out of. Ta dah!

But sometimes there just isn't a solution, and those kind of situations seem to get me frustrated for some reason. I like to think that it's because I was asked a stupid question, but I honestly think I just hate admitting my bag of tricks is empty. Consequently, I tend to type up a smartass reply before I come to my senses, erase it, and send a nice reply instead.

Here is one Star Trek inspired smartass reply that I decided to save before replacing with a nicer one. The original question was vaguely states along the lines of:

Can you recommend any special method for dealing with 200-300MB file uploads and downloads over the network?

Sorry, pal. There is no way to somehow cut corners and make such large data chunks get transmitted faster over the network. Hmm, unless.. Here's unsent my reply.

Absolutely. Reverse the polarity of the sender's Ethernet cable, uncouple the NICs Heisenberg compensators to allow for increased entropy to fully utilize the spectrum and thus bandwidth, while synchronously interplexing the send and receive terminals to stabilize the phased carrier wave during transmission.

I had fun coming up with that one. Probably too much fun. Dilithium Crystals, hit by Klingon Missiles, NO! I'm a doctor, not an actor. Not a milkman! What does that mean?

Gerry Bednob As Mooj Discusses Life

2007-08-10T09:45:00.000-04:00

Continuing our series "Movie Characters On Life, Love & Sex" I am proud to present a clip from 2005 comedy 40 Year Old Virgin. Steve Carell is the virgin, but the star of this clip is Gerry Bednob as his co-worker Mooj who takes it upon himself to set Andy (Steve Carell) straight on what life is about.

Please note that this cut of the clip did not make the theatrical release of the movie due to its content and language, although the longer cut seen here was later released on the unrated DVD version. Consider yourself warned.

Another Year Older

2007-07-20T22:03:00.000-04:00

So I made it to age 30. As Granpa (Abe) Simson famously once said:

I used to be with it, but then they changed what "it" was. Now, what I'm with isn't "it", and what's "it" seems weird and scary to me.

You youngins with your emo attitudes, myspaces, and faux mohawks, keep the hell off my lawn.

How War Is Sold To The Public

2007-07-13T16:15:00.000-04:00

Here's an interesting remark Hermann Göring, Hitler's second in command, made during the Nuremberg trials:

Voice or no voice, the people can alway be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is tell them that they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for a lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.

Worked like a charm for George W. Bush, and sadly will work again.

Will Ferrell As Ron Burgundy Explains Love

2007-07-12T11:16:00.000-04:00

If you never saw the 2004 comedy Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy starring Will Ferrell, don't worry, you didn't really miss much -- except for this brilliant little bit. And if you did see it, surely you've missed this clip. Either way, enjoy.