Adam's Blog

This is my first stab at a basic Lost theory. I've had some other ideas before (such as the Jughead bomb being buried beneath the Swan, the code is there to exhaust the radiation, the concrete it insolation), but I think this one, though far-fetched today, has some basic ideas that could explain a lot. I think Locke is dead. He died back in LA, and his body was transported back to the island. Due to the "unique electromagnetic properties" of the island, his consciousness is able to manifest as "real" on the island, but make no mistake: he's dead, and can never leave. So is Christian. It was fortunate that his body was taken to the island, because there, he has re-manifested. So is Juliet. She can't leave. Ben wouldn't let her leave for years. She naively believes she's being held prisoner, but ultimately, she cannot leave the island, because outside of the island, she is dead. How did she die? I'm not sure, but one possibility is that she was poisoned. She did drink something before the Mittlos Bioscience team - the 'Others' - took her to the island. They explained it made the journey easier, but it...

Someone is going to sue Apple in the not-too-distant future for their inconsistent and subjective App Store approval process. I think they violate many anti-competitive practices. It's crazy to think that Apple has gone this long selectively allowing certain apps, all the while only defining guidelines for inclusion nebulously, and only considering applications after the work is done. Furthermore, rejections are often without any explanation whatsoever. Someone, sometime, is going to sue. And they should. Apple is best of breed in most markets they have their toes, but they are really starting to behave pretty badly.

I was Bar Mitzvahed on December 3, 1988. That day, I received a slew of gifts, as any young Jewish man becoming a Bar Mitzvah does. One of the gifts I received was a Seiko "World Clock" from the Webber family. I remember using it almost immediately, so either December 4 or December 5 of 1988 is when I gave the clock its first breath of life. The clock came with generic batteries. They were a brand called "National Hi-Top." I can't say I'd ever heard of them — before or since — however, I used them anyway. This clock became my "main" clock right away. I used it beginning at age 13 for school. Its distinctive alarm chime - "Beep beep beep beep! Beep beep beep beep! Beep beep beep beep! New York: six forty-eight, AM!" would repeat ad nauseum until I dragged myself out of bed to turn it off. Nonetheless, the World Clock worked for me through the remainder of junior high, all of high school, and all of college without flinching. Sometime around the end of college I started to realize that the batteries in the clock had lasted a pretty long time. In fact, the...

The word "Emo" has been overused for many years now, and , in fact, in many circles, has become a pejorative term for a goth-lite teenager with eyeliner, or some equally unattractive image. Long ago, in the mid 1990s, it emerged as shorthand for "emotional hardcore." When the term "emo" was first coined, this type music was much less mainstream, the bands were not universally accepted or treated as commercially viable yet, and the listeners were a small, more tight-knit group. The bands were generally referred to as "pop punk" or "punk hardcore," delivering a slight edge over standard punk, and in most cases, a dose of melody through the distortion. From this scene, many bands grew, most notably in my mind: Gorilla Biscuits, Fugazi, Quicksand, Sunny Day Real Estate, and many others. Also a defining moment in emo history was the release of the commercial flop "Pinkerton," Weezer's 1995 masterpiece, which is now often considered the band's best release. Although once very popular in this scene, one band that is largely forgotten is "Sense Field." From California, former members of Reason to Believe got together and created several demos before releasing the eponymous Sense Field. 1994 welcomed the beautiful...

Suddenly, I find myself kind of addicted to Twitter. Unlike a website, RSS, or even Facebook, it really caters to the ADD side of me in an amazing way. However, Twitter can be a little confusing at first, so this is a very basic primer for the uninitiated. Read on for much more.

According to Web 2.0 friendly site Stimator, sethadam1.com is beach front property. According to Stimator, sethadam1.com is worth $2,146,840. Of course, the only people who might actually find it worth more than a few twenties is a spammer, since I'm rich in search engine placements and backlinks. Still, nice to be loved. Why Stimator put so much effort into designing an awesome interface and then decided to leave a major grammatical problem in their badge is beyond me.

Although I posted yesterday how to add your latest tweet to Wordpress without a plugin, I made several changes to the script before I posted it to make it more "generic" and re-usable. Since I've changed it quite a bit, I decided to repost it. This new script also autolinks @usernames and #hash tags. Directions are this easy: set the path of $tw_File with a static, writable file. Set $tw_userid to your Twitter user id. Done. Download sethadam1.com "get latest tweet" php snippet.

I decided to add my latest "tweet" from Twitter to the sidebar of my Wordpress blog. Rather than use yet another plugin that adds yet another hook - and there are many that do this with lots of code, I decided to use a homegrown solution, dependant only on PHP4+ and cURL (most webhosts already have cURL compiled in, if not, you should request it). Adding the following to any of the files in your Wordpress theme will print out your current Twitter status and cache the results so you don't hammer their system. First, snag your Twitter user id. Then, open up your theme file. I put mine in sidebar.php found in /wp-content/themes/<THEMENAME>/. Use the below code. If you want the output wrapped in a list, you would need to put <ul> and <li> tags around this code. Carefully set your variables. The cache file should be writable. Note that you can use a decimal value for $tw_BlankAfter and $tw_Minutes if necessary. That's it. Due to what must be a bug in Wordpress, please ignore the closing "</text></created_at>" at the end of this post. It's trying be smart and "fix" broken tags, but the code is right. NOTE (2/20/09):...

I've decided to give Twitter a go again. It seems to move pretty quickly and satiate my ADD by filling in the gaps in my Facebook live feed. If you and I know each other, give me a shout @sethadam1.

Why do people still have their McCain/Palin stickers on their cars? Is it to protest Obama? Is it to assure us that they are proud republicans? Is it in protest to this administration, which has barely had 30 days in power? I don't get it. All it reminds us of, in my humble opinion, is that you supported the loser that most people didn't want in power. In other words, most people think you're wrong. Incidentally, I would be saying the same thing if things went the other way.