My regular laptop is very sick with a screwy video controller, and while I have the backup up and running, it’s kinda bare bones.
Apologies in advance if I’m not my usual prompt self in responding to email, comments or IMs.
See y’all in a few days when the replacement gets here. (Viva IBM Customer Service!)
Dad hates to throw stuff away.
He also hates to pay for stuff.
Alas, he likes to have the latest and greatest, to live on the bleeding edge of the technological age.
The result?
His home network now supports IP telephony, IP-based TV, and a WiFi LAN on a DSL line which still shares the phone jack with the traditional phone (for incoming calls on the old number). Since each feature was added independently, and all the hardware is either hand-me-downs or proprietary stuff from his ISP which does its best to prevent precisely this kind of wild daisy-chaining , the result has become the most incredible spaghetti network of IP history.
I just wish I had a picture of the nest of vipers under the desk where all these power cords congregate in an unholy orgy, deriving power from a single, overworked, 1950′s-era wall outlet…
Oh, and guess who he’s going to call when it fails or he tries to add yet another gadget? Don’t think he won’t! WiFi has issues with the thick stone walls of the family estate, so he’s thinking of using IP-over-Powerlines to avoid running ethernet cable, and to put one of those Video Decoders at the end of each IPoP connection to have TV in every room.
Poor wall outlet…
Of course, I’m already sniggering, thinking of what will happen when he tries to share files between a computer that’s connected with the switch over the powerline, with another safely inside the network managed by the router… Should be interesting.
Two generations of male stereotypes of the ideal woman… at least the ideal woman you wouldn’t take home to meet the parents.
I was going to say that one has more sensible clothes, but then, she’s so hampered by anatomy that despite her certified acrobatic talents on-screen, somehow I’m not sure which one suffers the most from male phantasies.
I started on Lara Croft because, well, it’s kind of a tradition to make at least one picture of her when you start in Computer Generated Images. She is the icon for the CGI generation, who spent hours putting her through her paces on various versions of Tomb Raider. She’s lost some of her luster since Angelina Jolie portrayed her in full-chested glory on the silver screen, but there was a whole sub-genre of CGI Lara porn or glamour shots for a while on the internet.
The Playboy Bunny was a natural complement, a way to accent this sexual side of Lara’s allure. I’m just old enough to remember when porn came on paper or video tape, and Playboy loomed large on that horizon. Now the Mansion is just a set for one episode of Sex and the City, a symbol of how crazy the West Coast seems to be from NYC.
“The things we do to women.” President Bartlet, West Wing.
Vicki here took six hours and a half to render (all night, basically), as opposed to just twenty minutes to pose, light, dress, and finnagle makeup and hair.
The lace top, the hair, and the freckles on her highly textured skin probably had something to do with that, but the real killer is the fake depth-of-field or lens blur… which also kills much of the original detail.
Ah, the irony.
Not that I have time to start another six hour marathon, I need this PC for work today!
It took a while, a steep learning curve, many tries but no toes were stepped in making this picture…
I bring you… a fully dressed and accessoried Dancing Doll!
In other news, work has yet to pick up, so I have a lot of makework admin stuff, fiddling with specs we finished writing weeks ago, and just generally sitting around waiting for the next trip to wherever. Looking forward to dance class tomorrow!
Y’all have a good weekend 
