Okay, first of all, the site was down for a couple of days because in all the madness of Kwanzaa, I forgot to pay the hosting company. Woops. Fixed now, obviously, but sorry about that.

Second …

See y'all in 2011, time to take some time, you know?

That’s right, my beloved putas. I’m off duty from my day job at MIMCO and my blogs as of today. I’ll be back at work on January 3rd. I’ve been trying to finish my novel (and code a mobile site for Stranger Comics and handle more Kwanzaa programming than you could possibly imagine and get presents for all the right people and sweet spirit singing I’m working more than I do when I’m really at work). On a good note, my youngest daughter turns one year old on New Year’s Eve and I got a sweet Bluetooth audio receiver and 2.1 speakers, which lets me jam from my MacBook Pro or from my phone when dancing around the living room. Awesome!

Anyhoo, I missed last week’s Commentary Track and I’m not doing one today. Stuff to do — I have one mix left to accomplish, and that’s gotta take priority. I’ll be back on deck for January 6th with a blog detailing the best and worst in comics from 2010. That should be fun, right?

In the mean time, enjoy this photo, from my Mornings with Fuss (when the kid wakes up and my wife says “get ‘er away from me” so she can sleep a little while longer) …

It begins

See ya in 2011, y’all!

Playing (Music): “Prisoner” by 311

Previously on The Conversation …

• A More Eco-Friendly Mafia
• Rape and the Incredible Hulk
• The 14th Amendment and a Hippie Libertarian
• Apple’s September Music Event
• “… you never worked for the mob …”
• Shotguns

What’s happening this time? On my way to some technical solutions, Jere and I chat about … well, you’ll see …

HT: Wait one second with that Iomega drive. “The first year of remote access is free – and it’s only $9.95 per year after. Custom domain names, such as www.yourfamilyname.com, are also available for additional charges. Remote access services are provided by TZO, the trusted name in Dynamic DNS Services.”
HT: I think I’m calling shenanigans on that
JK: blech.
HT: Pogoplug doesn’t try to tack on an extra fee. This is the same basic problem. That price point keeps sticking it to me one way or another …
JK: might check out this.
HT: I looked hard at the 2TB
HT: I was worried about heat
HT: I considered this but I was worried about a big heat-generating box in the closed closet of the baby’s room. Or worse, on the bookshelf.
JK: the other thing, is the airport extreme can share hard drives over the internet too
HT: … go on …
JK: well, it’s expensive though
JK: but theoretically, i could put a hard drive on my Airport Extreme and share over the internet
JK: I could even just put up a test drive for you to play with if you want
HT: “theoretically?”
JK: haven’t done it since I’ve got a small pipe
HT: Lemme walk through this, just so I understand.
JK: Apple Hard Drive Sharing
JK: says something about mobile me
HT: I’m out
JK: checking my config now
JK: yeah, i think i can do that without mobileme
JK: just share disk over wan
HT: So, lemme grok this, lemme walk through it for my own clarity.
HT: Take any USB2 HD, plug into airport extreme. Do some internet magic with just typing. Get in car. Drive to work. Type in address. Browse MP3s and video files on said USB2 HD at home. Is that right?
JK: yup
HT: No memberships, no other companies involved?
JK: let me see if I can prove it works
HT: Please do
HT: One port — I’d have to get a USB hub on that bad boy. Probably a powered one …
JK: brb
HT: K

Insert whole lot of technical babble and server madness trying to get it to work, but failing … look, you’d prefer I cut that part, it was boring even to us

JK: gotta use cifs to mount the network drive
JK: anyway, once you do that, should work
HT: I don’t understand what you just typed
JK: must do hyper ninja linux stuff on N900 to make it see a networked drive
HT: ooh
JK: now, for read only access to stuff, if you just wanted to *publish* your hard drive on the internet, you just need to run apache on a box at home, setup a directory to serve up, put some security on it, and port forward to it
HT: wait, what?
HT: I have to have a real computer running Apache, all the time?
JK: that’s the simplest thing to do if you just want read only
HT: That’s the *simplest* thing?
HT: *Hannibal goes back to pogoplug intellectually*
HT: Also, this made me furious
HT: right philosophy, no real roadmap
JK: anyway, yeah, that’s the *simplest* – run yourself some standard software, and don’t get complicated with different accounts on different services
HT: Okay, how about this: one machine. I’m willing to go up to (for argument’s sake) $300 in cost. I plug it in. I type some stuff into an interface that doesn’t require a command line. It shows up on the internet. I load stuff — even if it’s just at home, cabled up — to this machine, and that stuff appears on the internet. Does such a magical unicorn exist?
HT: Either it has a hard drive or I can connect hard drives to it
HT: No third parties, no wackiness. A pipe dream?
JK: well, you have to put a step in there for “computer geek comes over and configures it for me”
JK: but otherwise, sure
HT: That’s not what I want.
HT: I want to have maybe ten minutes between “open the box” and “browse files on my phone” without anybody else being involved.
JK: yeah, quickest way for that is to find some ISP that will let you upload all your shit to their servers
HT: I don’t want the machine to be outside of my house.
JK: well, your magical unicorn doesn’t exist
HT: *Hannibal bursts into tears*
HT: DAMN YOU, BEAUTIFUL UNICORN! WHY DO YOU DENY ME???
JK: but now I know what to get you for your birthday
HT: If you say “something I won’t use,” I’ll scream bloody murder.
HT: If you’re looking for a birthday plan, maybe you can solve an *older* tech problem I’ve been pondering.
HT: I have all the music I listen to regularly on a handheld device. N900, iPod, whatever. I’m used to the controls, I have my playlists, I like it.
HT: Is there something I can get to send a signal to a receiver — not put the files somewhere else — so I can hear the music from a stereo?
HT: or will this glorious unicorn deny me as well?
JK: I believe that’s called an Airport Express with Airtunes
JK: in fact, I do believe I have a spare Airport Express somewhere
HT: lemme read here …
HT: “AirTunes takes the music from the iTunes library on your computer”
HT: That’s not right
HT: “If you have an iPhone or iPod touch, you can use it to control your iTunes library from any room in your home.”
JK: well, iTunes on your iphone, iPod Touch, or iPad, or Mac, and *WHAM*, unicorn appears and plays to your stereo
HT: That’s not right at all.
HT: It says that a computer iTunes needs to be involved
HT: That’s completely wrong.
JK: well, so it’s a unicorn with a blemish or two, but still, magical unicorn!
HT: That’s a donkey with a paper towel spool taped to its head!
JK: but it’s a nice paper towel spool!
HT: I DON’T WANT A PAPER TOWEL SPOOL!
HT: *Hannibal bursts into tears*
JK:

Watching (Hulu): 30 Rock, “College”

Every week I do a column full of comic book reviews as I’ve done since March 2003 and currently published at Comic Book Resources. Then, after the reviews post, I try to come over to my blog and expand on the thoughts and ideas listed there. Sometimes it’s profound, sometimes it’s gibberish, but it’s always about comics … let’s see what we get this week!

What? This week’s reviews …

THE BEST LAID PLANS: Today, I was supposed to “take a day off” to attend to some family business. I grabbed my “special backpack” and expected to be bored spitless, able to type into my MacBook Pro along the banks of the LA River and in a Santa Monica courtroom. However, due to the fact that a divorce proceeding that took place partially in Tagalog was so fascinating and due to the fact that Fraulein Fussenfeiffer took a two and a half hour nap with me, not only did I not get this Commentary Track blog done early, I’m creeping on Friday even completing the copy.

Fan-tastic.

The management apologizes for any inconvenience. Let’s get to it.

DA-NA-DA-NA-DA-NA-DA-NA-DA-NA-DA-NA-DA-NA-DA-NA-CATMAN!!! I’d love to know how she did it. Gail Simone has made Thomas Blake (and through his extended bro-mance, Floyd Lawton) two of the most compelling characters in comics. Please don’t let that downplay the fascinating work she’s done with some of the other characters — Ragdoll is in a dead heat with Brittany on Glee for best non-sequiturs, the complicated affection between Scandal Savage and Bane is the fodder of literary gold (I’d almost love to see Simone — not some fan fiction wank — do a short prose story with just those two as protagonists), Black Alice’s petulance is being made to work and Jeanette is an unlikely powerhouse.

Seriously, I’d love to know how she does it. I’ve seen glimpses of it in Birds of Prey with Zinda and Helena, but she never seemed to get even a whiff of it in her work on Wonder Woman. Does she need scoundrels? I can’t tell. I like it better when she has them.

MEANWHILE, ON OVERLAND … This week’s issue of G.I. Joe wasn’t the only thing to inspire lots of chatter around the Hasbro-based property at Comics Ink this week. It started with Quislet (who, despite my virtually constant derision of his height, hygiene, intelligence, competence and general right to exist is actually apparently one of LAUSD’s best teachers, honing English students at an inner city middle school into a surprisingly fascinating bunch of minds, Michelle Pfeiffer style), who picked up a Cobra messenger bag from Hot Topic that I simply must have (despite my wife saying messenger bags are “fruity” — DUDE, IT’S FREAKING COBRA! As long as I don’t dress like Dr. Mindbender or Crystal Ball or Croc Master …).

Anyway, Quislet (who will be called that until at least 2014 due to the judgement) regaled the crowd with tales of his class, such as this classic I would literally kill to see: he intrigued his class with an image of this pie chart in the classroom. This, somehow, inspired his class to join together over a weekend and watch the entire animated G.I. Joe series on DVD. Why is this awesome? Well, in class one day, a kid asked Quislet how to spell something. Quislet told him, the kid said “Now I know.”

Across the room, another kid said, without missing a beat, “and knowing is half the battle.”

Without missing anything, the entire room put down their pens, tossed back their heads and sang out, “G – I – JOOOOOOOE!!!!” The whole room kept working, without even acting like anything was weird. That’d be great to see, period.

Then, he told us how a student asked how Cobra made its money — they have their own brand of tank, not some refurbished and painted Russian model. Luckily, Wikipedia had the answer …

Much of Cobra’s early funding came from pyramid schemes and other semi-legitimate business plans initiated by Cobra Commander. A soap-selling pyramid scheme is what got Cobra Command started in Springfield, allowing a gradual and intense takeover.

In a very short time, Cobra evolved from a business into a paramilitary movement. Motivated by greed and power, the group soon expanded all over the country, operating in secret, engaging in terrorism to achieve their objectives. By the time the U.S. government recognized Cobra as a threat, the organization had already gained footholds as a powerful private army and terrorist organization around the world.

Many of its members (especially those in the elite Crimson Guard units) lead seemingly normal lives, supporting Cobra covertly. Cobra attracted members with the promise of fast financial rewards and power for those willing to be ruthless enough. It also offered a world of order and strength, with its ‘model community’ of Springfield being one example of the Cobra ideal.

The student looked at Quislet and said, “So what you’re telling me is that I should start a pyramid scheme.”

Befuddled, Quislet responded, “Uh … I don’t remember saying that …”

Finally, Quislet asked me to explain the origins of the Baroness Anastasia DeCobray. “Is she an actual Nazi, or what? The accent, the get up …”

“No, she’s actually Eastern European,” I replied. “She just had some Nazi-curious experiences in college, and that carried over.”

“Nazi-Curious” sent the room into guffaws, and I then asked Quislet, “Are you laughing just because that’s funny or because she also still turned you on a little, even though you thought she was a Nazi?”

Quislet admitted, “… yes, she did turn me on, which is even harder to deal with, given that I’m Jewish.”

This led to us messing with Tax Hitler, who had no idea that I was the likely source of a number of followers he never saw coming and for some reason can’t figure out that the text here is my actual blog. He’s also a school teacher. Fun fact.

Then of course we talked about how if Cobra Commander got his power and money by duping the ignorant and disaffected, wasn’t he essentially just Glenn Beck?

This wasn’t even a very complicated day at the shop, but it does explain why I didn’t get through, say, Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Uncanny X-Force. Sorry.

THINK ABOUT IT: Vril Dox for the win. I love that he’s able to punk the Guardians of the Universe. Suck on it, Oa.

IN OTHER NEWS: Watching Hercules’ comeback very closely.

Ditto Hawkeye and Mockingbird.

Don’t understand why Back in Quack had to happen.

Yes, still upset about Klaws of the Panther too.

I checked for Boom! Studios‘ digital initiatives this week. It’s close to ubiquity. Gotta see if I can get it on my N900, the current best in class mobile web browser.

TABU OUT: That’s the news kids. Sorry for the delay. Hasta.

Watching (Hulu): Chuck, “Chuck Versus the Cubic Z”