Comments on: Dexter the Credit Debt Badger

By: Roman V.

Roman V. — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 16:18:27 +0000

By: Roman V.

Roman V. — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 16:17:56 +0000

YouTube is better technologically, but the problem is really how browsers are designed to handle audio and video. Right now whenever they see a particular tag (in this case embed) they hand it off to some other program like Windows Media Player, Flash, RealPlayer, Quicktime, etc. The ideal however would be that the browser itself knows how to handle it.

This is in fact what was proposed with the new VIDEO and AUDIO tags. They would use the Theora codec for video and Vorbis codec for audio. Both are patent free, and unencumbered whatsoever so any browser and any media player anywhere can implement them and they would be universal. Mozilla (the folks behind Firefox) and Opera (the folks behind Opera) got behind this 100%, but the folks (read: “thugs”) at Apple and Nokia rejected it outright. There’s more info about this, along with properly cited references at the Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML_5#Ogg_controversy

If Mozilla and Opera, and the free software community got our way you could watch any video or listen to any piece of audio easily by being able to have the web browser render it.

By: Angelastic

Angelastic — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 10:10:57 +0000

Are you implying that YouTube is a better choice? It’s good for publicising stuff, but the quality is awful, and there doesn’t seem to be any way to get the sound and video back in synch once they get out of synch. At least RealPlayer movies can be made available for download (although I remember some episodes of Futurama which would crash my computer.) It’s not my format of choice but if the video can be downloaded then it’s better than YouTube. I’m not a fan of streaming.

By: Ann

Ann — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 07:30:15 +0000

@Roman Well, the vids are circa 2000 which prolly explains the horrid RealPlayer choice: we were so young and foolish back then in the pre-youtube days. I remember in college everyone sitting around, trying to watch episodes of the X-Files online in RealPlayer… actually, all I remember is: buffering… buffering… buffering…

Had to re-install an old version of RP just to get these to work.

By: Colleenky

Colleenky — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:23:55 +0000

Thanks, Roman and Erin. Even so, it’s one thing to play trumpet in the high school band and quite another to be an award-winning jazz trumpeter. Frak, these guys are talented.

By: Roman V.

Roman V. — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:06:01 +0000

remember it now* I think any text fields should look at what time it is, and based on what time it is a popup should appear that says “Are you sure you’ve had enough caffeine to do that?” Same goes for the sudo command in *nix.

By: Roman V.

Roman V. — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:59:46 +0000

@Erin Good call I remember it not he had to “bust out his old trumpet skills from band” or something along those lines.

By: Erin

Erin — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:34:34 +0000

Love the song.

@Roman V and @Colleenky I think Paul mentioned his trumpet playing in the podcast episode where they discussed “Me Make Fire,” but I could be wrong.

By: Jack F

Jack F — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:40:38 +0000

As a bankruptcy attorney, Dexter is one of my very best friends. Go Dexter Go!

By: Angelastic

Angelastic — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 09:39:15 +0000

Only when he’s been eating beans.

By: Roman V.

Roman V. — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 04:26:40 +0000

What I mean is, he’s a trumpet person in the sense of being like half trumpet half person, thought that would be interesting…

By: Roman V.

Roman V. — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 04:24:42 +0000

@Ann Those videos want RealPlayer. Realplayer? Ahh!!! The horror! The horror! That’s probably the single worst video format ever. EVER. It’s just utterly bad. It has no technical advantages over anything else, and there is no reason for it to be used anywhere at any time for any reason.

@Collensky I knew Paul played trumpet somehow… I mean I knew he was in marching band, and he just seems like a trumpet person. Err trumpet player.

By: Colleenky

Colleenky — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 03:32:47 +0000

Ann, what a great find! Too bad the video quality is so stinky.

Gregory “Storm” DiCostanzo grew up in Gaithersburg and comes from a family of performers. Storm’s career began in childhood and he continues to act, dance, sing, choreograph, and write his own compositions as well as scripts for TV, radio and film.

Paul Sabourin is the writer/arranger of DaVinci’s award-winning tune, Liposuction. A trumpeter, Sabourin has won various soloist awards for his jazz playing, and he has a master’s degree in Speech Communication from the University of Maryland.

Storm dances?! And Paul plays jazz trumpet?! Sweet!

By: Ann

Ann — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 02:00:08 +0000

Sadly I think Dexter and I are going to be buddies for a few months after this holiday season passes. oof.

@ Angelastic: thanks for the mp3, I now have 3 different versions of ‘Enormous Penis’ on my laptop and I’m not entirely sure how I feels about that. Thanks again. I think.

@Roman: yeah, I was johnny-come-lately to DVN too, however I recently stumbled upon these DVN videos while searching for some stuff on the Kennedy Center website of all places: Millennium Stage: DVN I can only get the first 2 vids to work but I would like to say: that’s a hell of a Brittany Spears impression, Paul. Terrifying, yet impressive.

By: Roman V.

Roman V. — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 00:22:00 +0000

Also did you seriously pronounce it “Meh-rio”? Was that a joke? Come on, it’s MAH-rio.

By: Percephene

Percephene — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 00:21:09 +0000

Snap Roman

By: Percephene

Percephene — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 00:20:42 +0000

I feel so dodgy downloading a file called “21 Enormous Penis.mp3″ but thanks Angelastic

By: Roman V.

Roman V. — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 00:17:45 +0000

@Angelastic Yeah ok, that’ll look great “Downloading Enormous Penis.mp3 Click here to start.”

By: Angelastic

Angelastic — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 23:45:19 +0000

Roman V: Me neither (I also hadn't heard of Moxy Früvous or K's Choice while they were still around, and was in the wrong country when The Cranberries were still together. I've only seen the decay products of most of my favourite bands live.) So, especially for you (and everyone on the forums, once I finish uploading the other stuff), here is a recording of Paul and Storm performing Enormous Penis in Nottingham. Love the song, by the way.

By: Percephene

Percephene — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 23:15:01 +0000

Unrelated to the badgerness, although I am excited to listen to it any second now, but I noticed one of the other minions was credited as having “pledged fealty to the Over-Lords of Awesome”
I’m wondering how this is done and whether the rest of us will have a change to swear similar oaths?

By: Roman V.

Roman V. — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 22:15:57 +0000

@Andy My vendetta is that I hadn’t heard of DVN when they were around. It’s only now after the fact, so I feel like I missed out on it in a serious manner.

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:42:54 +0000

@Roman V.: Or, Barring a DVN Reunion, the Barrytones could probably do justice to it.

That damn Badger has too much of a hold over me right now. But, on the other side, the plasma screen is SO NICE. And, it heats my entire house, so I don’t have to pay the heating bills!

Thanks, Dexter!

By: Roman V.

Roman V. — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 20:49:20 +0000

The credit debt badger badger badger badger? Sorry, old meme.

This sounds like it would make a good barbershop quartet a capella type. Something like DVN would do. Le sigh.