Author Archives: Paul

Wed Night – Big 4 Concert

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Megadeth

In case anyone is wondering where I spend Wed night (9/14), I was at the Big 4 thrash metal show at Yankee Stadium in NY City. I got tickets through a friend of a friend. The seats were so-so, but I have been spoiled lately by getting floor “seats” and ending up just back from the rail. (I was maybe 7-10 people back when I saw Megadeth last summer and only 3-4 and right in front of Lemmy when I saw Motorhead last March.) The show was great, though the organization of getting in was piss-poor. I did, however, see Eddie Trunk (hosts a NYC-based metal radio show) while waiting in line. (I was in line. I’m sure he had special backstage passes.)

Slayer

Anthrax opened the show. I’m not a huge fan in the sense that I don’t own/know a lot of their stuff, but it was great to see them for the first time especially as they’re a local band. I did recognize a few songs (Caught in a Mosh, Indians, and I am the Law). Megadeth put on a decent show, though I think they were better last summer. (Dave Mustaine said he shouldn’t even be playing as he was in the hospital on Monday for tests prior to neck surgery.) Slayer was up next and was great. Again, I’m not as familiar with they songs as Megadeth or Metallica. I did recognize War Ensemble, Dead Skin Mask, Hate Worldwide, and, of course, Raining Blood (one of the best opening licks in all of metal.) I was disappointed Jeff Hanneman was still not there (apparently sidelined by a spider bite), but the replacement (Gary Holt from Exodus, another thrash band) was still excellent.

Metallica

Metallica closed out the evening with a spectacular show. It had been a while since I’ve seen them live and I’m not a huge fan of their new stuff, but it was great to see them again. They played a ton of old stuff with only three post-Black album songs. The intro to One was really good with tons of pyro effects. The flames from the large effects behind the stage were hot enough to feel even up in the second tier. (They used these for another few songs.)

Finally, the night “ended” with members of all four bands (and apparently) Exodus coming out and playing Overkill (Motorhead cover) together. Watching four drummers all play at once was hilarious. After that song, Metallica stayed on stage for Battery and Seek & Destroy.

All in all, it was one of the best concerts I’ve been to. I would have loved to be on the floor, but even a bit away was good.

(PS, sorry for the so-so photos, but all I had was my phone.)

CS 601 – Fragment Linking

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Just a short post today. While reading through chapter 3 of the Felke-Morris book, I actually learned something new. While most of the chapter covered basic anchor items, it turns out that the name attribute for fragment linking has been deprecated. Instead the mechanism is to use <div id="foo"> (or any (block only?) element) and the reference it using <a href="#foo"> (as before). This is interesting considering the fact that name is still being used in the BU WordPress 3.1 installation. I’ll have to keep this in mind when writing new pages.

First Real CS 601 Post – Felke-Morris Chapter 1 Focus on Web Design

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First Real Post

The first blog assignment for class is to look at one of the sites referenced in the first chapter of Felke-Morris’ Basics of Web Design: HTML5 and CSS3 (LINK) and answer some questions about it. I decided to use the Creative Commons website. As an serious amateur photographer with (I’d link to think) above average knowledge of copyright issues, the idea of having a series of licenses that allows for sharing media without full release into the public domain. It also allows for more control than something like the GNU public license. (If you’re interested in this, I would suggest reading Siva Vaidhyanathan’s Copyrights & Copywrongs, though it may getting outdated as it was published in 2001.)

Anyway, to the topic at hand (web design). I’ll go through the questions as presented in the book:

  1. What is the purpose of the site? The main purpose of the site is to educate people about the concept of Creative Commons and the organization. (They also provide a mechanism to search for content.)
  2. Who is the intended audience? Basically everybody, but the focus in on media producers & users. However, this includes several groups such as artists, in one form or another, educators, scientists, and governments.
  3. Do you think that the site reaches its intended audience? Yes. The front page has links basic information presented prominently. It also has direct links on the main page to subpages for specific groups.
  4. Is the site useful to you? Yes. I actually have licensed my photos use CC license, and the site has provided detailed information on the different type of licenses. It also has a good description of the overall purpose of CC and why it’s important.
  5. List one interesting fact or issue that this site addresses. That both Al Jezeera and Nine Inch Nails have issued material under a CC license. This is actually important in that it shows it’s not just amateurs that are using CC licenses. Instead, real media creators are doing so as well.
  6. Would you encourage others to visit this site? Definitely. Issues of media ownership and use are very important to the future of information exchange.
  7. How could this site be improved? Personally, I find the very large summit "e;ad"e; distracting and takes away from the content. (On my smallish laptop screen, it cause the real information to be pushed off the bottom.)

Our New Grad

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As many of your know, Kyle graduated from pre-school yesterday. The school hosted a very cute ceremony. The class sang a bunch of songs, each led by 2-3 students, along with a few other things. Kyle got to lead the class in counting to 10 in German. He did an excellent job. They also called each child up and handed them each a diploma. Afterward, we had nice dinner at the Westfield Diner where Kyle got to have chocolate chip pancakes.

Patriots’ Day Turkey?

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I know I’m way behind in getting photos up. I’m working on going through a bunch, including those from my Aunt Lucy’s wedding a few weeks back. I hope to do some catching up this week. In the meantime, I had to share our special “Patriots’ Day” turkey. This was in the yard at my apartment in Boston. (Well … it started in the front and then moved around to the neighbor’s back yard.)