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It was a good weekend, as weekends go.
There was a girl, this weekend past. The sort of girl who didn’t care what I made or how, encouraged me to toss aside a silly dress shirt in favor of old comfy cotton; a girl with eyes that sparkle in passing streetlamps, a giggle I can’t resist, or perhaps simply don’t want to. We share stories, grinning as we learn of each other.
I kissed her for the first time in Powell’s, against a long row of approving poets, and she tasted of Fall; all autumn spice and sweet crushed leaves. She kissed me against the car, bags falling from my hands to our laughter as their contents became unimportant.
We watched movies, and I stole glances at her, taking in the soft curve of her neck, the break of her hair against her shoulders, the way her slightly crooked smiles bloom across her face. Raven hair makes my fingertips itch to run through it as we kiss, to draw her in. She knows I am no trouble, despite my claims, and she curls into my arms.
Yet, she spooks easily, and there is little time before she returns to her native country. I hope we will have the chance to know each other, to learn the other’s nature, to give things a chance to grow as they will’t.
It lies in the hand of Dame Fortune now, and she has ever favored me with her riches…. we’ll see.
It’s been unlocked for a while now, but it’s free, software, and reliable now.
It’s now possible to unlock your phone without registration, put 3rd party applications on it as you like, and then drop an arbitrary SIM into the phone.
(Humorously enough, hosted on Google docs.) The dev. wiki, the anySIM app, Hackint0sh, and all the others that contributed to this effort; thanks. http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dhq2b8r7_17gvw9s3
Now, where’s my SIP stack? 
Happy hack(ed)!
-N. Noctis.
Want to free yourself from unwanted pressure and worry? Want to never have the spectre of expectation hanging over your head? Done.
… you’re still here. No, really, I mean it. The secret to dealing with the pressures and demands of the world is not to. They don’t exist.
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Look, the big secret is that there is no such thing as external pressure. If ten thousand people all walked up to you today, and each and every one said “You should be an underwater basket weaver, and a good one at that!”, it’s meaningless. Unless, of course, you make the mistake of choosing to listen to them. Countless people lament the “pressures on an (insert group or type) in today’s society to (do stuff).” I suggest you laugh at these folks at the earliest possible opportunity. Not only have they chosen to absorb external influence, but they’ve taken it in a negative light.
Let’s take an arbitrary commerical as an example of an external pressure from ‘today’s society’. Now, (assuming I am male, and not rich, young and good looking) I can take this one of three ways (which is eminiently my choice):
(Negative): I don’t see what the big deal is; are they saying I’d have to have a BMW to get any women (at least, that wouldn’t fling their underthings at the next man by)? And not only be in shape, but have cat-quick driving reflexes to boot! I’ll never get there with my current job; that sort of thing’s only something the rich can have…I’ll never be that good that young; it’ll take me forever to even come close. I’m not even close to that good! I’ve never had a woman fling her underthings at me, and likely never will…I’m doomed to work a dead-end job for a soulless corporation and never see the profits of my work. Why couldn’t I have been born rich? I’m so depressed, I think I’ll call in sick, never mind going out… (and on)
(Positive): Ah. So, if I’m fit, trim and young, onw a BMW and have cat-quick reflexes, I can have women fling their underthings at me, too? I ought to get off my ass and hit the gym (I’m not getting younger, after all)! To say nothing of the fact that I need to burn it up at work to afford that….maybe I should finally get around to starting that side project/quitting to go work for a startup. Hm. He has a killer suit, too. I’ll need one of those, and maybe some driving gloves, too. Oh, wait, he’s in Italy? So, I need to buy a BMW, get in shape, slap on some classy threads, and drive through the ‘hot babe’ district of Italy. I can do that. What am I waiting for? Let’s go!
(Alt: (Positive, egotistical): I’m as good as, if not better than him, and my car is nicer; women should fling their underthings at me! Let’s go driving!)
(Irrelevant): Heh. He’ll be sleeping on the couch for life.
You decide which flavor you favor. In the end, the collected sayings, criticisms, assumptions, and expectations of you matter only in as much as you care about them.
-N. Noctis.
Ah, grammar, that little thing that separates men from beasts. Of late, it seems that I’ve been called upon to edit, reform, and otherwise coerce others’ jot into proper flowing prose with ever increasing frequency. It is crucial to possess this skill in the modern world, for no sharper blade hath rapier than pen, no more foundational pitch of woo than wit, no weightier and more common use the tongue than speech. There is almost no occasion where one would not wish to seem more erudite, or quicker of phrase, and it is this want that drives native and foreign speakers alike to those of nimble poesie.
The trick to this golden knowledge, siren song of dame and bird alike? What stygnian bath can grant man command of masses, fearlessness of stage and forum? I’ll say this but once, and in the barest of whispers, so pay close heed.
Reading!
Soak up the stuff of stories grand and epic, the writ of ages, the only true immortality left modern human. Spare not time for the mean, low scraps of writers who’ve abandoned their Art, but fill thine eyes with tales of passion and strife, of chaos and worlds gone mad, men drunk on power and those bereft of it. Wade into the globe-striding, the timeless and the true. Learn to revel in thy native tongue, or that of another, and gain command beyond the capacity of any course or compendium of rules.
Fair warning, though; you’ll never quite be the same. But then, what is life without the spice of change?
-N. Noctis
Voiding your iPhone warranty for fun and profit (many thanks to the iPhone Dev Wiki and the Hackint0sh.org forums):
(Note: These methods will only unlock the iPhone such that it becomes a super iPDA; true SIM/3-rd party development/total file control hacks are still in development)
Activation via Jon Lech Johansen’s PAS (Phone Activation Server)
This method works by spoofing Apple’s activation server. It is unclear at this point if this method works in both the Windows XP and Windows Vista versions of iTunes, and no information in available on porting this method to OS X. Details here.
Instructions step by step:
1). Download UltraEdit-32, install it.
2). Download PhoneActivationServerV1.0, extract it to desktop or anywhere you want.
3). You might wanna backup the original iTunes.exe(located under C:\Program Files\iTunes) first.
4). Run UltraEdit-32, open file iTunes.exe, use Ctrl+G to go to address 2048912, then enter 33C0C3. Do the same for the rest two offsets: Go to address 257074 then enter 28 and go to 257013 then enter 33C9B1. Save the file and close UltraEdit-32.
5). Open Windows explorer and go to c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc. Open the “hosts” file in ULTRAEDIT and add the line
127.0.0.1 albert.apple.com
to it. This will redirect any DNS query of “albert.apple.com” to your local host. Save & exit.6). All you need to do is to run Phone Activation Server V1.0 first, leave it running and then run iTunes. Now when you plug in your iPhone it will activate automatically in about 60 seconds.
Happy hacking!
-N. Noctis.
“Genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration.”
You can have the most successful team in the world, the most brilliant minds as your peers, the shortest path laid, and still fail; falling short of some critical objective or out of poor approach. Not that all that is not of importance, or value, but it will not deliver the goal without persistance. Fundamentally, this is obvious, but oft ignored; so before you discount this post, consider this. Have you ever said: “I got tired of it and quit.”; “I couldn’t do that, I’m not good at it”; “Just give up; you’re not going to get there.” or, the far more subtle: “I don’t understand how it takes you so little effort to do that!”
It’s better than even odds that you’ve just experienced a failure of persistance. If you give the extra mile, often you’ll find that things do eventually yield. If I told you today that you could have that which you desired most, but you had to work at it, every hour of every day, for ten years, would you? How would you know when you were just one day shy? There are efforts and arguements that have spanned years, and eventually succeeded. Can you say with absolute certainty that the problem that faces you isn’t going to yield to one more nudge? Continually consider where you are, where you want to be, and how to get there. Remember this as you sit there, staring into a document you consider done, a position you consider unwinable, a plan that is beyond repair. Give that extra erg, and do so with panache; if they never see you break a sweat, they’ll flee future battles.
I am not saying that you should just plod mindlessly onward, nor that you should never consider your approach, but that you should always be moving. If you find that your current path is inefficient, try another. Whenever possible, improve yourself; a higher vantage point cures many ills. If blocked, go around; there are multiple solutions to any problem, and it is often the unconventional, unexpected, (even inappropriate) ones that work best.
Eventually, you’ll find that it is this last inch that is the hallmark of success. Behind every success story is at least one ‘that will never work’ or, ‘that can’t be done that way’, and usually both.
Should you think that I speak out of an alternate orifice, ask yourself why you are not ‘running the joint’. I’ll give you a hint; the answer has very little to do with anyone else, and nothing to do with them in the long run.
I knew him well; the person of no prior acting experience suddenly stuck in front of a few thousand people or a camera. Often, they freeze, or stutter; worse, if they’re in front of a camera, they’ll read the teleprompter and lose focus entirely. At best, you ruin the take; at worst, it’s live, and too late to recover. Remember, the best actors don’t seem to be acting; it’s as if they are their character.
If you do find yourself in such a situation, don’t panic, and do not suddenly develop a case of over-starched shorts. First, take a deep breath; realize that few mistakes you could make are catastrophic, and that recovery is far more important than perfection. Straighten up, but remain relaxed; be conscious of where the audience/camera is, and never close your body to them, unless absolutely necessary.
That said; be yourself. Odds are, unless you’re grabbed out of the audience and asked to perform, you’re either playing you, or some role similar enough that it should flow naturally from who you are. Ignore your audience. By this, I mean ignore a specific member, or the camera, just remain aware of their existence “somewhere, out there.” Do not play to part of the audience and neglect the rest. If you are being filmed, treat the camera/your focus as if another person, not something to be stared at fixedly.
Know your lines. Even if unscripted, have a strong idea of what you want to say in the course of the action. As soon as you know them solidly, forget them. “But wait! that makes absolutely no sense!”, you say. I do not mean to forget your intent, or the wording, but to forget that you know them. Each delivery should be fresh, as if you were speaking the lines for the first time, and as a natural response to a stimuli, rather than as if reading from a book. Even if trying to give of an air of calm preparedness, seeming scripted usually will not advance your goal.
Generally, seem passionate. What you say should matter to you; if it doesn’t, again, consider changing your lines. People instinctively resent disingenuous speakers, and rightly so; how can you persuade someone when you don’t even believe? If you are prevaricating, bend things effectively, so that they seem honest. Keep yourself in a strong character-appropriate posture, on film, return to a neutral posture often, as this makes the editor’s job much simpler.
So, present from the heart, present as if your audience matters, and present persuasively; make the audience want to believe you, and they will keep coming back for more.
-N. Noctis
Do you have the brains, or the looks? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Di-c4Ge1Dk)
And, if all else fails, resort to the:
-N. Noctis
