Author Archives: Chris

About Chris

Chris is an IT/IS management professional with over a decade of experience in IT, IS, Network Engineering, and Telecommunications integration. Chris specializes in web server deployment and information management. This includes CMS, CRM, and dynamic content deployment. Chris also manages a full service Video Head End with over 200 digital TV channels. Chris also has five years of project management, knowledge management, and engineering design experience. He specializes in both the Agile and Scrum project management methodology. He also has a background in computer forensics and information security including federal or state compliance audits (such as SOX).

Next DF Pirate Radio – 1/12/10

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Times Square in NYC back in 2006 - We don't plan on having this many people around for our version of the event.

Times Square in NYC back in 2006 - Needless to say, we don't plan on having this many people around for our version of the event. Four people is about all my house can hold before breathing becomes a problem.

We’ve finally got around to scheduling the recording of “digitalflood Pirate Radio Vol. 6 Episode 2”. That recording will take place this evening and production will follow shortly thereafter. Expect the show to be released the evening of Tuesday January 12, 2010. This will be our New Year’s 2010 show and we’ll be doing our annual “Top Ten Worst Songs/Artists” for the year of 2009. It’s always a blast (check the previous New Year’s show from 2006 to get an idea on how this works). MC Mary @ The Disco! will be on; as will Chrissy. Wait until you hear who got picked this year. You may want to listen with a puke bucket nearby– just in case.

I think I finally figured out the logistics of how we’re going to run “The 2010 digitalflood Metal Challenge” as far as voting goes. I’ll probably use the polls feature on df.com and break down each race by sub-genre. The sub-genre winners will go on to to battle each other in another poll and so on. Ultimately the whole thing will accumulate in one winner. It’s going to absolutely rock so I hope you’ll be sure to vote. We’re still taking applications for judges, so if you want in on picking the candidates be sure to drop me a line ASAP. You can do so either using the comments of df.com or though any one of the many social networks we are on. Once all the candidates are in that is it– the line up is picked and voting begins. We’re going to ideally kick off the contest no later than 2/1/10 so time is of the essence if you want to add your choices to the list as they say.

Finally, we’re still taking guests for DF Pirate Radio Volume 6 and I’ve added a new way we can record the whole deal. I’ve setup a Skype account (djdigitalflood) and plan on using that for guests all too lazy to venture out. I’m also going to be experimenting with remote on site shows recorded with my Zen IV MP3 player, which has built in recording features. Stay tuned as we’ll be announcing where we’ll be recording (hint: somebody is about to turn twenty one years old who is pretty frequent on our show… yeah… that one). This will bring a whole new twist to Pirate Radio. Another surprise from df.com and one I know you’ll enjoy.

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2010 DF.com Metal Challenge- Preview

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Skinny Puppy - "Too Dark Park"

Skinny Puppy - "Too Dark Park"

Want to see an exclusive preview of my list? You got it brother man!

* 25 Ta Life – Strength Through Unity: The Spirt Remains (1997) Hardcore
* AC/DC – High Voltage (1976) – Classic
* A Perfect Circle – Mer De Norms (1999) – Goth
* Alice In Chains – Dirt (1992) – Alt. Metal
* Candiria – 300% Density (2001) – Hard Core
* Clutch – The Elephant Riders (1998) – Alt. Metal
* Deftones  – Adrenaline (1994) – Nu Metal
* Faith No More – The Real Thing (1989) – Alt. Metal
* Filter – Short Bus (1995) Industrial
* Garbage – Garbage (1995) Industrial Goth
* Godflesh – Songs of Love & Hate (1996) Industrial
* Guns N’ Roses – Chinese Democracy (2008) Hair Metal
* Helmet – Meantime (1992) Alt. Metal
* KMFDM – Symbols (aka Windings) (1997) Industrial
* Korn – Korn (1994) Nu Metal
* Lamb of God – Ashes of the Wake (2004) Metal Revival
* Linkin Park – Meteora (2003) Nu Metal
* Live – Throwing Copper (1994) Alt. Metal
* Living Color – Vivid (1998) Nu Metal
* Marilyn Manson – Antichrist Superstar (1996) Industrial Goth
* Megadeth – Youthinasia (1994) Classic Metal
* Ministry – Rio Grande Blood (2006) Industrial
* Nine Inch Nails – The Downard Spiral (1994) Industrial
* Nirvana – In Utero (1994) Alt. Metal
* Nothingface – Pacifier (1997) Industrial
* Pearl Jam – Verses (1994) Alt. Metal
* Pig – Sinsation (1995) Industrial
* Rage Against The Machine – RATM (1992) Alt. Metal
* Rammstein – Sehnsucht (1997) Industrial
* Sister Machine Gun – Burn (1995) Industrial
* Skinny Puppy – Too Dark Park (1990) Industrial
* Slipknot – Volume Three (2004) Nu Metal/Industrial
* Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness (1995) Alt. Metal
* Snapcase – Progression Through Unlearning (1997) Hardcore
* Soundgarden – Badmotorfinger (1996) Alt. Metal
* The Mars Volta – Francis The Mute (2005) Metal Revival
* Toadies – Rubberneck (1995) Alt. Metal
* Tool – Undertow (1993) Alt. Metal
* Videodrone – Videodrone (1999) Industrial
* Vision of Disorder – From Bliss to Devastation (2001) Hardcore
* Weezer – Weezer (1994) Alt. Metal

Let me know what you think.

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The 2010 digitalflood Metal Challenge – Intro

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Venom Live at Hellfest - Does it all start here? Yeah. Don't argue.

Venom Live at Hellfest - Does it all start here? Yeah. Don't argue. We're right-- so there.

It all started this morning when Dan and DJ SlipK started with the simple question “What is the greatest true Metal album of all time?” It all escalated from there. An entire day spent in on and off conversation over many facets of the question. What is Metal? How do we break this down? Can we truly compare 1990 to 2010? Do we include the classic roots? J Diddy then chimed in and spoke about how classically Metal is defined as a musical genre and broken down into categories. How it’s broken down genre by genre. Leader by leader. I chimed in with some truly off beat includes and some ideas as to how we present the thing. DJ SlipK came up with a play list and it is all a blur from there.

So it begins– the 2010 digitalflood Metal Challenge. We will set out to define, analyze, and systematically define the best Metal album ever. This is obviously no easy task. No light decision. And no short gap to making it happen. This will require hours of dissertation and yes– you the viewer to help us decide. Because we’re going to put the whole damn thing on line. Poll by poll. Match by match. And it all burns down from there. It is time my friends– we shall pick the best Metal album ever.

The players thus far are as follows:

  • DJ digitalflood – All sorts of industrial, goth, and electro-metal leanings. Too much hard core loyalties burnt in from years of scene exposure.
  • DJ SlipK – Classic 80s metal leanings, new school Euro metal allegiance, and melodic metal yearnings. He’s into the true core Metal underground scene and maybe a metal snob; but he certainly isn’t going to include a Skid Row album on his list.
  • Dan – Classic hard core, punk, and old school metal leanings abound. He was metal before they had a name for it. If it wasn’t recorded on a cassette tape and baptized in the soul of all that is true metal– it just ain’t metal.
  • J Diddy – New school leanings, indie metal roots, and a passion for some true old school metal. He’s got electro metal leanings, but also holds true to his classic black metal roots. He is the living paradigm of metal that bridges the gap between new school and truly old school.

We may include more judges to “seed” the pool and choose who’s in or out, but those are who we got right now. Stayed tuned. This is about to get interesting.

Want in? Let me know!

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Random Thoughts

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Google Nexus One - Yeah it looks cool but can it brew me fresh beer?

Google Nexus One - Yeah it looks cool but can it brew me fresh beer?

Not much going on today on digitalflood.com. This is one of our rare “idle” days. As such, I figured I’d catch you up on some random things I’m following on the web that you may have missed in the “Around the Web” news feed on our site.

  • Google announced its new Nexus One Smartphone/Mobile device – While arguably very cool with a 1GHz processor, WiFi, 3G, and motion detection/GPS capabilities right out of the box; I couldn’t help but shiver when I heard HTC was the underlying manufacturer of the hardware. With their horrid record of buggy hardware and strange crashes, I don’t know if having HTC is an advantage. I’d rather stick with my LG Envy3 Touch or the slower, but more stable Google Android (running Motorola hardware underneath). Just my personal opinion. You can get the low down on all the specs at this MaximumPC.com article.
  • The world is pretty obsessed with this whole would be terrorist kid – Yeah, I’m not happy to hear US officials ignored his Dad’s warning, but I also cannot even try to imagine how many of these would nut jobs the CIA and NATO collective intelligence forces are tracking who haven’t done anything yet. Seriously, there are going to be terrorists who get this far– that’s a fact. There’s like 100 million nut jobs out there with access to chemicals to make a simple bomb. The real story here is that he didn’t get too far. As soon as he lit himself on fire some Dutch guy kicked the crap out of him. And all you thought they did over there was smoke dope in wooden shoes, shame on you! 😉
  • We have a new world’s tallest building – The Burj Dubai in Dubai is over 1,200′ tall and dwarfs every man made structure on Earth and rivals even the greatest natural treasures in sheer size. The video in the link shows you what it’s like to be 1/2 mile in the air. Many people were outraged by the Burj Dubai because Dubai itself recently fell into utter financial turmoil and ridiculous projects like this are to blame according to those aforementioned critics. I (as a skyscraper fan) cannot help, but smile– regardless of where it is, the tower is engineering excellence at its best.
  • The Mets attempt to look like they’re building a team – Carlos Delgado is in Puerto Rico trying to rehabilitate his recently repaired knee, but that doesn’t keep GM Omar Minaya sleeping sound. How does he rectify that? He signs Jason Bay to fill the iffy left field spot that has been arguably open for three seasons and reliever Kelvim Escobar. Meanwhile the majority of the bullpen is still up in the air, but hey– if it was a sure thing it wouldn’t be another Amazing Mets season, now would it?
  • Want to unlock all your features in Windows 7 – Then as shown on this article all you have to do is make a folder on your hard drive (anywhere on the hard drive as oddly as it sounds) named: GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} That’s it– you’ll now have too many options in your Control Panel to configure and lots more you can break. Joy!
  • Thank you Gods of Horsepower – Yeah, the auto industry is a mess like every other industry right now, but nevertheless there are reasons to rejoice:

And that my friends is the world we live in… as well as the hands we give in to (thank you Mr. Phil Collins).

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Shoulder Surgery – 11 weeks in

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Upward Strength Training - Courtesy CommercialAppeal.com

Upward Strength Training - Courtesy CommercialAppeal.com

In my last post I recounted my continued progress towards being allowed to begin strength training some ten weeks away from Open Bankart Surgery on my right shoulder. This past week started off continuing those efforts and climaxed with my visit to my orthopedic surgeon yesterday afternoon (1/4/10). During that visit he checked both my upward and outward ranged. He was pleased I met both my goals (180 degrees inward and 30 degrees outward). With that, he lifted all previous limitations on my physical therapy with an updated prescription.

When I went to the my PT session later that day I was told we would begin strength training. I was told to drop the inward movement exercises (the pendulums and isometrics), as well as, the shoulder shrugs in favor of more intense exercise. With that we began with the normal massages. Since I could now (as of this week) lay on my stomach we also did a lot of back work on my right shoulder blade. The therapist was finally able to get to a spot along the inner ridge of my right shoulder blade that has been sore for sometime, but unable to be treated with full force. That of course changed with my ability to lay face down. We then had me lay flat on my back. I had to with both arms reach upward over my head holding a cane with both hands. This worked my upward motion and strength. We then stretched my arm upward to its limit. We then did upward and outward stretching. The therapist also ran me through a battery of outward motion stretches that literally pushed my arms to its limits. I then did the pulley with an outward motion. I then did scapular crunches against the wall with a towel between my shoulder blades. Finally I laid on my left side and did arm lifts away from body outward. I was pretty fatigued by the end of it, but not as sore as I thought I might be. I did not get either heat or ice. Again, we’re weaning me off those comforts.

I’ve been told the next six weeks will focus on additional outward flexibility and overall strengthening of my arm. I’m pretty excited to move forward onto new exercises and ultimately even closer to normality.

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